93. God in the Covenant

A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, August 3, 1856, By Pastor C. H. Spurgeon, At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

I will be their God. (Jer 31:33)

1. What a glorious covenant the second covenant is! Well might it be called “a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” (Heb 8:6) It is so glorious that the very thought of it is enough to overwhelm the soul, when it discerns the amazing condescension and infinite love of God, in having framed a covenant for such unworthy creatures, for such glorious purposes, with such disinterested motives. It is better than the other covenant, the covenant of works, which was made with Adam; or that covenant which is said to have been made with Israel, on the day when they came out of Egypt. It is better, for it is founded upon a better principle. The old covenant was founded on the principle of merit; it was, “Serve God and you shall be rewarded for it; if you walk perfectly in the fear of the Lord, God will walk well towards you, and all the blessings of Mount Gerizim shall come upon you, and you shall be exceedingly blessed in this world, and the world which is to come.” But that covenant fell to the ground, because, although it was just that man should be rewarded for his good works, or punished for his evil ones, yet man being sure to sin, and since the fall infallibly tending towards iniquity, the covenant was not suitable for his happiness, nor could it promote his eternal welfare. But the new covenant, is not founded on works at all, it is a covenant of pure unmingled grace; you may read it from its first word to its last, and there is not a solitary syllable as to anything to be done by us. The whole covenant is a covenant, not so much between man and his Maker, as between Jehovah and man’s representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. The human side of the covenant has been already fulfilled by Jesus, and there remains nothing now but the covenant of giving, not the covenant of requirements. The whole covenant with regard to us, the people of God, now stands thus: “I will give this, I will bestow that; I will fulfil this promise; I will grant that favour.” But there is nothing for us to do; he will work all our works in us; and the very graces that are sometimes represented is being stipulations of the covenant, are promised to us. He gives us faith; he promises to give us the law in our inward parts, and to write it on our hearts. It is a glorious covenant, I say, because it is founded on simple mercy and unmixed grace; quite irrespective of creature doings, or anything that is to be performed by man: and hence this covenant surpasses the other in stability. Where there is anything of man, there is always a degree of mutability; where you have anything to do with creatures, there you have something to do with change; for creatures, and change, and uncertainty always go together. But since this new covenant has now nothing whatever to do with the creature, as far as the creature has to do anything, but only as far as he is to receive: the idea of change is utterly and entirely gone. It is God’s covenant, and therefore it is an unchanging covenant. If there is something which I am to do in the covenant, then the covenant is insecure; and although I may be as happy as Adam, I may yet become miserable as Satan. But if the covenant depends entirely on God’s work, then if my name is in that covenant, my soul is as secure as if I were now walking the golden streets; and if any blessing is in the covenant, I am as certain to receive that blessing as if I already grasped it in my hands; for the promise of God is sure to be followed by fulfilment; the promise never fails; it always brings with it the whole of that which it is intended to convey, and the moment I receive it by faith, I am sure of the blessing itself. Oh! how infinitely superior is this covenant to the other in its evident security! It is beyond the risk or hazard of the least bit of uncertainty.

2. But I have been thinking for the last two or three days, that the covenant of grace excels the other covenant most marvellously in the mighty blessings which it confers. What does the covenant of grace convey? I had thought this morning of preaching a sermon upon “The covenant of grace; what are the blessings it gives to God’s children?” But when I began to think of it, there was so much in the covenant, that if I had only read a catalogue of the great and glorious blessings, wrapped up within its folds, I should have needed to occupy nearly the whole of the day in making a few simple observations upon each of them. Consider the great things God has given in the covenant. He sums them up by saying he has given “all things.” He has given you eternal life in Christ Jesus; yes, he has given Christ Jesus to be yours; he has made Christ heir of all things, and he has made you joint-heir with him; and hence he has given you everything. Were I to sum up that mighty mass of unutterable treasure which God has conveyed to every elect soul by that glorious covenant, time would fail me. I therefore commence with one great blessing conveyed to us by the covenant, and then on other Sundays I will, by Divine permission, consider separately, one by one, various other things which the covenant conveys.

3. We commence then by the first thing, which is enough to startle us by its immense value; in fact, unless it had been written in God’s Word, we never could have dreamed that such a blessing could have been ours. God himself, by the covenant becomes the believer’s own portion and inheritance. “I will be their God.”

4. And now we shall begin with this subject in this way. We shall show you first that this is a special blessing. God is the special possession of the elect, whose names are in the covenant. Secondly, for a moment or two we shall speak of this as being an exceedingly precious blessing, “I will be their God.” Thirdly, we shall dwell upon the security of this blessing, “I will be their God.” And fourthly we shall endeavour to stir you up to make good use of this blessing, so freely and liberally conveyed to you by the eternal covenant of grace; “I will be their God.”

5. Stop just one moment and think it over before we start. In the covenant of grace God himself conveys himself to you and becomes yours. Understand it: God—all that is meant by that word—eternity, infinity, omnipotence, omniscience, perfect justice, infallible rectitude, immutable love—all that is meant by God—Creator, Guardian, Preserver, Governor, Judge,—all that that great word “GOD” can mean, all of goodness and of love, all of bounty and of grace—all that, this covenant gives you, to be your absolute property as much as anything you can call your own: “I will be their God.” We say, pause over that thought. If I should not preach at all, there is enough in that, if opened up and applied by the all glorious Spirit, to excite your joy during the whole of this Sunday. “I will be their God.”

My God!—how cheerful is the sound!
  How pleasant to repeat!
Well may that heart with pleasure bound,
  Where God has fixed his seat.

6. I. How is GOD ESPECIALLY THE GOD OF HIS OWN CHILDREN? For God is the God of all men, of all creatures; he is the God of the worm, of the flying eagle, of the star, and of the cloud; he is God everywhere. How then is he more my God and your God than he is God of all created things? We answer, that in some things God is the God of all his creatures; but even there, there is a special relationship existing between himself and his chosen creatures, whom he has loved with an everlasting love. And in the next place, there are certain relationships in which God does not exist towards the rest of his creatures, but only towards his own children.

7. 1. First then, God is the God of all his creatures, seeing that he has the right to decree to do with them as he pleases. He is the Creator of us all: he is the potter, and has power over the clay, to make of the same lump, one vessel to honour and another to dishonour. However men may sin against God, he is still their God in that sense—that their destiny is immovably in his hand; that he can do with them exactly as he chooses; however they may resent his will, or spurn his good pleasure, yet he can make the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of that wrath he can restrain. He is the God of all creatures, absolutely so in the matter of predestination, seeing that he is their Creator, and has an absolute right to do with them as he wishes. But here again he has a special regard to his children, and he is their God even in that sense; for to them, while he exercises the same sovereignty, he exercises it in the way of grace and grace only. He makes them the vessels of mercy, who shall be to his honour for ever; he chooses them out of the ruins of the fall, and makes them heirs of everlasting life, while he allows the rest of the world to continue in sin, and to consummate their guilt by well deserved punishment, and thus, while his relationship is the same, as far as his sovereignty is concerned and his right of decree, there is something special in its loving aspect towards his people; and in that sense he is their God.

8. Again: he is the God of all his creatures, in the sense that he has a right to command obedience from all. He is the God of every man that was ever born on this earth, in the sense that they are bound to obey him. God can command the homage of all his creatures, because he is their Creator, Governor, and Preserver; and all men are, by the fact of their creation, so placed in subjection to him, that they cannot escape the obligation of submission to his laws. But even here there is something special in regard to the child of God. Though God is the ruler of all men, yet his rule is special towards his children; for he lays aside the sword of his rulership, and in his hand he grasps the rod for his child, not the sword of punitive vengeance. While he gives the world a law upon stone, he gives to his child a law in his heart. God is my governor and yours, but if you are unregenerate, he is your governor in a different sense from what he is mine. He has ten times as much claim to my obedience as he has to yours. Seeing that he has done more for me, I am bound to do more for him; seeing that he has loved me more, I am bound to love him more. But should I disobey, the vengeance on my head shall not fall as heavily as on yours, if you are outside of Christ, for that vengeance incurred by me has already fallen upon Christ, my substitute, and only the chastisement shall remain for me; so that there again you see where the relationship to all men is universal, there is something special in it in reference to God’s children.

9. Again: God has a universal power over all his creatures in the character of a Judge. He will “judge the world in righteousness and his people with equity.” He will judge all men with equity it is true; but, as if his people were not of the world, it is added afterwards, “his people with equity.” God is the God of all creatures, we repeat, in the sense that he is their Judge; he will summon them all before his bar, and condemn or acquit them all, but even there, there is something peculiar with regard to his children, for to them the condemnation sentence shall never come, but only the acquittal. While he is Judge of all, he is especially their judge; because he is the Judge whom they love to reverence, the Judge whom they long to approach, because they know his lips will confirm that which their hearts have already felt—the sentence of their full acquittal through the merits of their glorious Saviour. Our loving God is the Judge who shall acquit our souls, and in that respect we can say he is our God. So, then, whether as Sovereign, or as Governor enforcing law, or as Judge punishing sin; although God is in some sense the God of all men, yet in this matter there is something special towards his people, so that they can say, “He is our God, even in those relationships.”

10. 2. But now, beloved, there are points to which the rest of God’s creatures cannot come; and here the great pith of the matter lies; here the very soul of this glorious promise dwells. God is our God in a sense, with which the unregenerate, the unconverted, the unholy, can have no acquaintance, in which they have no share whatever. We have just considered other points with regard to what God is to man generally; let us now consider what he is to us, as he is to no other.

11. First then, God is my God, seeing that he is the God of my election. If I am his child, then he has loved me from before all worlds, and his infinite mind has been exercised with plans for my salvation. If he is my God, he has seen me when I have wandered far from him, and when I have rebelled, his mind has determined when I shall be arrested—when I shall be turned from the error of my ways. He has been providing for me the means of grace, he has applied those means of grace in due time, but his everlasting purpose has been the basis and the foundation of it all; and thus he is my God, as he is the God of no one else besides his own children. My glorious gracious God in eternal election; for he thought of me and chose me from before the foundation of the world, that I should be without blame before him in love. Looking back, then, I see election’s God, and election’s God is my God if I am in election. But if I do not fear God, neither regard him, then he is another man’s God and not mine. If I have no claim and participation in election, then I am compelled to look upon him as being in that sense the God of a great body of men whom he has chosen, but not my God. If I can look back and see my name written down in the Lamb’s book of life, then indeed he is my God in election.

12. Furthermore, the Christian can call God his God, from the fact of his justification. A sinner can call God—God, but he must always put in an adjective, and speak of God as an angry God, an incensed God, or an offended God. But the Christian can say, “my God,” without putting in any adjective except it is a sweet one to extol him with; for now we who were at one time afar off are made near by the blood of Christ; we who were enemies to God by wicked works are his friends; and looking up to him, we can say, “my God,” for he is my friend, and I am his friend. Enoch could say, “my God,” for he walked with him. Adam could not say, “my God,” when he hid himself beneath the trees of the garden. So that while I, a sinner, run from God, I cannot call him mine; but when I have peace with God, and am brought near to him, then indeed he is my God and my friend.

13. Again: he is the believer’s God by adoption, and in that the sinner has no part. I have heard people represent God as the Father of the whole universe. It surprises me that any reader of the Bible should talk so. Paul once quoted a heathen poet, who said that we are his offspring; and it is true in some sense that we are, as having been created by him. But in the high sense in which the term “childhood” is used in the Scripture to express the holy relationship of a regenerate child towards his Father, in that sense no one can say, “Our Father,” but those who have the “Abba Father” printed on their hearts by the Spirit of adoption. Well, by this Spirit of adoption, God becomes my God, as he is not the God of others. The Christian has a special claim to God, because God is his Father, as he is not the Father of anyone else except his brethren. Aye, beloved, these three things are quite enough to show you, that God is in a special sense the God of his own people; but I must leave that to your own thoughts, which will suggest twenty different ways in which God is especially the God of his own children, more than he is of the rest of his creatures. “God,” say the wicked, but “my God,” say God’s children. If then God is so specially your God, let your clothing be according to your feeding. Be clothed with the sun; put on the Lord Jesus. The king’s daughter is (and so let all the king’s sons be) all glorious within; let their clothing be of wrought gold. Be clothed with humility, put on love, hearts of compassion, gentleness, meekness; put on the garments of salvation. Let your company and conduct be according to your clothing. Live among the excellent, among the generation of the just; get up to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, to that innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of the just men made perfect. Live in the courts of the great King, behold his face, wait at his throne, bear his name, show forth his virtues, set forth his praises, advance his honour, uphold his interest; let vile people and vile ways be condemned in your eyes: be of more noble spirits than to be companions with them. Do not regard their societies, nor their scorns, their flatteries or their frowns; do not rejoice with their joys, do not fear their fear, do not worry about their cares, do not feed on their dainties; get up from among them, to your country, your city, where no unclean thing can enter or annoy. Live by faith, in the power of the Spirit, in the beauty of holiness, in the hope of the Gospel, in the joy of your God, in the magnificence, and yet the humility of the children of the great King.

14. II. Now, for a moment, let us consider THE EXCEEDING PRECIOUSNESS OF HIS GREAT MERCY, “I will be their God.” I conceive that God, himself, could say no more than that. I do not think if the Infinite were to stretch his powers, and magnify his grace by some stupendous promise which could outdo every other, I do not believe that it could exceed in glory this promise, “I will be their God.” Oh! Christian, only consider what it is to have God to be your own; consider what it is, compared with anything else.

Jacob’s portion is the Lord;
What can Jacob more require?
What can heaven more afford—
Or a creature more desire?

15. Compare this portion with the lot of your fellowmen! Some of them have their portion in the field, they are rich and increased in goods, and their yellow harvests are even now ripening in the sun; but what are harvests compared with your God, the God of harvests? Or, what are granaries compared with him who is your husbandman, and feeds you with the bread of heaven? Some have their portion in the city; their wealth is superabundant, and in constant streams it flows to them, until they become a very reservoir of gold; but what is gold compared with your God? You could not live on it; your spiritual life could not be sustained by it. Apply it to your aching head, and would it afford you any ease? Put it on a troubled conscience, and could your gold allay its pangs? Put it on your desponding heart, and see if it could stop a solitary groan, or give you one grief the less? But you have God, and in him you have more than gold or riches ever could buy, more than heaps of brilliant ore could ever purchase for you. Some have their portion in this world, in that which most men love, applause and fame; but ask yourself, is not your God more to you than that? What, if a thousand trumpets should blow your praise, and if a myriad clarions should be loud with your applause; what would it all be to you if you had lost your God? Would this allay the turmoils of a soul ill at ease with itself? Would this prepare you to pass the Jordan, and to wade those stormy waves which before long must be forded by every man, when he is called from this world to lands unknown? Would a puff of wind serve you then, or the clapping of the hands of your fellow creatures bless you on your deathbed? No, there are griefs here with which men cannot intermeddle, and there are griefs to come with which men cannot interfere to alleviate the pangs, and pains, and agonies, and dying strife. But when you have this—“I will be your God”—you have as much as all other men can have put together; for this is all they have, and more. How little ought we to estimate the treasures of this world compared with God, when we consider that God frequently gives the most riches to the worst of his creatures! As Luther said, “God gives food to his children, and husks to his swine,” and who are the swine that get the husks? It is not often that God’s people get the riches of this world, and that only proves that riches are of little worth, otherwise God would give them to us. Abraham gave the sons of Keturah a portion and sent them away; let me be Isaac and have my Father, and the world may take all the rest. Oh! Christian, ask for nothing in this world, except that you may live on this, and that you may die on this, “I will be their God.” This exceeds all the world besides.

16. But compare this with what you require, Christian. What do you require? Is there not here all that you do require? To make you happy you needed something that shall satisfy you; and come now, I ask you, is not this enough? Will not this fill your pitcher to its very brim, aye, until it runs over? If you can put this promise inside your cup, will you not be forced to say, with David, “My cup runs over; I have more than heart can wish?” When this is fulfilled, “I am your God,” let your cup be ever so empty of earthly things, suppose you have not one solitary drop of creature joy, yet is not this enough to fill it until your unsteady hand cannot hold the cup by reason of its fulness? I ask you if you are not complete when God is yours. Do you need anything except God? If you think you do, it would be well for you still to be in need, for all you want except God, is only to gratify your lust. Oh! Christian, is not this enough to satisfy you if all else should fail?

17. But you want more than quiet satisfaction, you desire, sometimes rapturous delight. Come, soul, is there not enough here to delight you? Put this promise to your lips; did you ever drink wine half as sweet as this, “I will be their God?” Did ever harp or viol sound half so sweetly as this, “I will be their God?” Not all the music from sweet instruments, or drawn from living strings, could ever give such melody as this sweet promise, “I will be their God.” Oh! here is a very sea of bliss, a very ocean of delight; come, bathe your spirit in it; you may swim, aye, to eternity, and never find a shore; you may dive to the very infinite and never find the bottom, “I will be their God.” Oh! if this does not make your eyes sparkle, if this does not make your foot dance for joy, and your heart beat fast with bliss, then assuredly your soul is not in a healthy state.

18. But then you want something more than present delights, something concerning which you may exercise hope; and what more do you ever hope to get than the fulfilment of this great promise, “I will be their God?” Oh! hope, you are a great handed thing; you lay hold of mighty things, which even faith does not have the power to grasp; but though however large your hand may be, this fills it, so that you can carry nothing else. I protest, before God, I have not a hope beyond this promise. “Oh,” you say, “you have a hope of heaven.” Aye, I have a hope of heaven, but this is heaven—“I will be their God.” What is heaven, except to be with God, to dwell with him, to realise that God is mine, and I am his? I see I have not a hope beyond that; there is not a promise beyond that; for all promises are couched in this, all hopes are included in this, “I will be their God.” This is the masterpiece of all promises; it is the top stone of all the great and precious things, which God has provided for his children, “I will be their God.” If we could really grasp it, if it could be applied to our soul and we could understand it, we might clap our hands and say, “Oh! the glory, oh! the glory, oh! the glory of that promise!” it makes a heaven below, and it must make a heaven above, for nothing else will be needed but that, “I will be their God.”

19. III. Now, for a moment, dwell on the CERTAINTY OF THIS PROMISE; it does not say, “I may be their God;” but “I will be their God.” Nor does the text say, “Perhaps I shall be their God;” no, it says, “I will be their God.” There is a sinner who says he will not have God for his God. He will have God to be his preserver, to take care of him, and keep him from accidents. He does not object to having God to feed him, to give him his bread, and water, and clothing, nor does he mind making God somewhat of a show thing, that he may take out on Sunday, and bow before it, but he will not have God for his God; he will not take him to be his all. He makes his belly his God, gold his God, the world his God. How then is this promise to be fulfilled? There is one of God’s chosen people there; he does not know that he is chosen yet, and he says he will not have God; how then is the promise to be carried out. “Oh!” say some, “if the man will not have God, then, of course, God cannot have him;” and we have heard it preached, and we read it frequently that salvation entirely depends upon man’s will—that if man stands out and resists God’s Holy Spirit, the creature can be the conqueror of the Creator, and finite power can overcome the Infinite. Frequently I take up a book and I read “Oh! sinner, be willing, for unless you are, God cannot save you;” and sometimes we are asked, “How is it that such a one is not saved?” And the answer is “He is not willing to be; God strove with him, but he would not be saved.” Aye but suppose he had striven with him, as he did with those who are saved, would he have been saved then? “No, he would have resisted.” No, we answer, it is not in man’s will, it is not of the will of the flesh, nor of blood, but of the power of God; and we never can entertain such an absurd idea as, that man can conquer Omnipotence, that the might of man is greater than the might of God. We believe, indeed, that certain usual influences of the Holy Spirit may be overcome; we believe that there are general operations of the Spirit in many men’s hearts which are resisted and rejected, but the effectual working of the Holy Ghost with the determination to save, could not be resisted, unless you suppose God could be overcome by his creatures, and the purpose of Deity be frustrated by the will of man, which would to suppose something akin to blasphemy. Beloved, God has power to fulfil the promise, “I will be their God.” “Oh!” the sinner cries, “I will not have you for a God.” “Will you not?” he says, and he gives him over to the hand of Moses; Moses takes him a little and applies the club of the law, drags him to Sinai, where the mountain totters over his head, the lightnings flash, and thunders bellow, and then the sinner cries? “Oh God, save me!” “Ah! I thought you would not have me for a God?” “Oh Lord, you shall be my God,” says the poor trembling sinner, “I have put away my ornaments from me; oh Lord, what will you do to me? Save me! I will give myself to you. Oh! take me!” “Aye,” says the Lord, “I knew it, I said that I will be their God; and I have made you willing in the day of my power.” “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

20. IV. Now, lastly, I said we would conclude, by URGING YOU TO MAKE USE OF GOD, if he is yours. It is strange that spiritual blessings are our only possessions that we do not use. We get a great spiritual blessing, and then we let it rust unused for many a day. There is the mercy seat, for instance. Ah, my friends, if you had the cash box as full of riches as that mercy seat is, you would go often to it; as often as your necessities require. But you do not go to the mercy seat half as often as you need to go. Most precious things God has given to us, but we never overuse them. The truth is, they cannot be overused; we cannot wear a promise threadbare; we can never burn out the incense of grace; we can never use up the infinite treasures of God’s lovingkindness. But if the blessings God gives us are not used, perhaps God is the least used of all. Though he is our God, we apply ourselves less to him, than to any of his creatures, or any of his mercies, which he bestows upon us. Look at the poor heathen; they use their gods, though they are not gods. They put up a piece of wood or stone and call it God; and how they use it! They need rain: the people assemble and ask for rain, in the firm but foolish hope that their god can give it. There is a battle, and their god is lifted up; he is brought out from the house, where he usually dwells, that he may go before them, and lead them on to victory. But how seldom do we ask counsel at the hands of the Lord! How often do we go about our business without asking his guidance! In our troubles how constantly do we strive to bear our burdens, instead of casting them upon the Lord, that he may sustain us! And this is not because we may not, for the Lord seems to say, “I am yours, soul, come and make use of me as you will; you may freely come to my store, and the more often the better the welcome.” Have you not a God lying by you with no purpose; do not let your God be as other gods, serving only for a show: having a God in name only. Since he allows you, having such a friend, use him daily. My God shall supply all your needs: never lack while you have a God, never fear or faint while you have a God; go to your treasure and take whatever you need; there is bread, and clothes, and health, and life, and all that you need. Oh Christian, learn the divine skill to make God all things, to make bread of your God, and water, and health, and friends, and ease; he can supply you with all these; or what is better, he can be instead of all these, your food, your clothing, your friend, your very life. All this he has said to you in this one word, “I am your God;” and here upon you may say, as a heaven born saint once did, “I have no husband, and yet I am no widow, my Maker is my husband. I have no father or friend, and yet I am neither fatherless nor friendless; my God is both my father and my friend. I have no child, but is not he better to me than ten children? I have no house, but yet I have a home, I have made the Most High my habitation. I am left alone, but yet I am not alone, my God is good company for me; with him I can walk, with him I can take sweet counsel, find sweet repose; at my lying down, at my rising up, while I am in the house, or as I walk by the way, my God is always with me; with him I travel, I dwell, I lodge, I live, and shall live for ever.” Oh! child of God, let me urge you to make use of your God. Make use of him in prayer; I beseech you, go to him often, because he is your God. If he were another man’s God, you might weary him; but he is your God. If he were my God and not yours, you would have no right to approach him, but he is your God; he has signed himself over to you, if we may use such an expression, (and we think we may) he has become the positive property of all his children, so that all he has and all he is, is theirs. Oh child, will you let your treasury lie idle, when you need it? Go; go and draw from it by prayer.

To him in every trouble flee,
  Your best, your only friend.

Run to him, tell him all your needs. Use him constantly by faith, at all times. Oh! I beseech you, if some dark providence has come over you, use your God as a sun, for he is a sun. If some strong enemy has come out against you, use your God for a shield, for he is a shield to protect you. If you have lost your way in the mazes of life, use him as a guide, for the great Jehovah will direct you. If you are in storms, use him for the God who stills the raging of the sea, and says to the waves “Be still.” If you are a poor thing, not knowing which way to turn, use him for a shepherd, for the Lord is your Shepherd, and you shall not be in want. Whatever you are, wherever you are, remember God is just what you need, and he is just where you need him. I beseech you, then, make use of your God; do not forget him in your trouble, but flee to him in the midst of your distresses, and cry,

When all created streams are dried
  Your fulness is the same;
May I with this be satisfied,
  And glory in your name!

No good in creatures can be found
  But may be found in thee;
I must have all things, and abound,
  While God is God to me.

21. Lastly, Christian, let me urge you again to use God to be your delight this day. It you have trial, or if you are free from it, I beseech you make God your delight; go from this house of prayer and be happy this day in the Lord. Remember it is a commandment, “Rejoice in the Lord, always, and again I say, rejoice.” Do not be content to be moderately happy; seek to soar to the heights of bliss and to enjoy a heaven below, get near to God, and you will get near to heaven. It is not as it is with the sun here, the higher you go the colder you find it, because on the mountain there is nothing to reflect the rays of the sun; but with God, the nearer you go to him the brighter he will shine upon you, and when there are no other creatures to reflect his goodness, his light will be all the brighter. Go to God continually, importunately, confidently; “delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall bring it to pass;” “commit your way to the Lord,” and he shall “guide you by his counsel, and afterwards receive you to glory.”

22. Here is the first thing of the covenant; the second is like to it. We will consider that another Sunday. And now may God dismiss you with his blessing. Amen.