final perseverance

A Sermon (No. 75)

Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 23, 1856, by the

REV. C.H. SPURGEON

At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have

tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to

come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance;

seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to

an open shame."--Hebrews 6:4-6.

THERE are some spots in Europe which have been the scenes of frequent

warfare, as for instance, the kingdom of Belgium, which might be called

the battle field of Europe. War has raged over the whole of Europe, but

in some unhappy spots, battle after battle has been fought. So there is

scarce a passage of Scripture which has not been disputed between the

enemies of truth and the upholders of it; but this passage, with one or

two others, has been the special subject of attack. This is one of the

texts which have been trodden under the feet of controversy; and there

are opinions upon it as adverse as the poles, some asserting that it

means one thing, and some declaring that it means another. We think

that some of them approach somewhat near the truth; but others of them

desperately err from the mind of the Spirit. We come to this passage

ourselves with the intention to read it with the simplicity of a child,

and whatever we find therein to state it; and if it may not seem to

agree with something we have hitherto held, we are prepared to cast

away every doctrine of our own, rather than one passage of Scripture.

Looking at the scope of the whole passage, it appears to us that the

Apostle wished to push the disciples on. There is a tendency in the

human mind to stop short of the heavenly mark. As soon as ever we have

attained to the first principles of religion, have passed through

baptism, and understand the resurrection of the dead, there is a

tendency in us to sit still; to say, "I have passed from death unto

life; here I may take my stand and rest;" whereas, the Christian life

was intended not to be a sitting still, but a race, a perpetual motion.

The Apostle, therefore endeavours to urge the disciples forward, and

make them run with diligence the heavenly race, looking unto Jesus. He

tells them that it is not enough to have on a certain day, passed

through a glorious change--to have experienced at a certain time, a

wonderful operation of the Spirit; but he teaches them it is absolutely

necessary that they should have the Spirit all their lives--that they

should, as long as they live, be progressing in the truth of God. In

order to make them persevere, if possible, he shows them that if they

do not, they must, most certainly be lost; for there is no other

salvation but that which God has already bestowed on them, and if that

does not keep them, carry them forward, and present them spotless

before God, there cannot be any other. For it is impossible, he says,

if ye be once enlightened, and then fall away, that ye should ever be

renewed again unto repentance.

We shall, this morning, answer one or two questions. The first question

will be, Who are the people here spoken? Are they true Christians or

not? Secondly, What is meant by falling away? And thirdly, What is

intended, when it is asserted, that it is impossible to renew them to

repentance?

I. First, then, we answer the question, WHO ARE THE PEOPLE HERE SPOKEN

OF? If you read Dr. Gill, Dr. Owen, and almost all the eminent

Calvinistic writers, they all of them assert that these persons are not

Christians. They say, that enough is said here to represent a man who

is a Christian externally, but not enough to give the portrait of a

true believer. Now, it strikes me they would not have said this if they

had had some doctrine to uphold; for a child, reading this passage,

would say, that the persons intended by it must be Christians. If the

Holy Spirit intended to describe Christians, I do not see that he could

have used more explicit terms than there are here. How can a man be

said to be enlightened, and to taste of the heavenly gift, and to be

made partaker of the Holy Ghost, without being a child of God? With all

deference to these learned doctors, and I admire and love them all, I

humbly conceive that they allowed their judgments to be a little warped

when they said that; and I think I shall be able to show that none but

true believers are here described.

First, they are spoken of as having been once enlightened. This refers

to the enlightening influence of God's Spirit, poured into the soul at

the time of conviction, when man is enlightened with regard to his

spiritual state, shown how evil and bitter a thing it is to sin against

God, made to feel how utterly powerless he is to rise from the grave of

his corruption, and is further enlightened to see, that "by the deeds

of the law shall no flesh living be justified," and to behold Christ on

the cross, as the sinner's only hope. The first work of grace is to

enlighten the soul. By nature we are entirely dark; the Spirit, like a

lamp, sheds light into the dark heart, revealing its corruption,

displaying its sad state of destitution, and, in due time, revealing

also Jesus Christ, so that in his light we may see light. I cannot

consider a man truly enlightened unless he is a child of God. Does not

the term indicate a person taught of God? It is not the whole of

Christian experience; but is it not a part?

Having enlightened us, as the text says, the next thing that God grants

to us is a taste of the heavenly gift, by which we understand, the

heavenly gift of salvation, including the pardon of sin, justification

by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, regeneration by the Holy

Ghost, and all those gifts and graces, which in the earlier dawn of

spiritual life convey salvation. All true believers have tasted of the

heavenly gift. It is not enough for a man to be enlightened; the light

may glare upon his eyeballs, and yet he may die; he must taste, as well

as see that the Lord is good. It is not enough to see that I am

corrupt; I must taste that Christ is able to remove my corruption. It

is not enough for me to know that he is the only Saviour; I must taste

of his flesh and of his blood, and have a vital union with him. We do

think that when a man has been enlightened and has had an experience of

grace, he is a Christian; and whatever those great divines might hold,

we cannot think that the Holy Spirit would describe an unregenerate man

as having been enlightened, and as having tasted of the heavenly gift.

No, my brethren, if I have tasted of the heavenly gift, then that

heavenly gift is mine; if I have had ever so short an experience of my

Saviour's love, I am one of his; if he has brought me into the green

pastures, and made me taste of the still waters and the tender grass, I

need not fear as to whether I am really a child of God.

Then the Apostle gives a further description, a higher state of grace:

sanctification by participation of the Holy Ghost. It is a peculiar

privilege to believers, after their first tasting of the heavenly gift,

to be made partakers of the Holy Ghost. He is an indwelling Spirit; he

dwells in the hearts, and souls, and minds of men; he makes this mortal

flesh his home; he makes our soul his palace, and there he rests; and

we do assert (and we think, on the authority of Scripture), that no man

can be a partaker of the Holy Ghost, and yet be unregenerate. Where the

Holy Ghost dwells there must be life; and if I have participation with

the Holy Ghost, and fellowship with him, then I may rest assured that

my salvation has been purchased by the blood of the Saviour. Thou

need'st not fear, beloved; if thou has the Holy Ghost, thou hast that

which ensures thy salvation; if thou, by an inward communion, canst

participate in his Spirit, and if by a perpetual indwelling the Holy

Ghost rests in thee, thou art not only a Christian, but thou hast

arrived at some maturity in and by grace. Thou hast gone beyond mere

enlightenment: thou hast passed from the bare taste--thou hast attained

to a positive feast, and a partaking of the Holy Ghost.

Lest there should be any mistake, however, about the persons being

children of God, the Apostle goes to a further stage of grace. They

"have tasted the good word of God." Now, I will venture to say there

are some good Christian people here who have tasted the heavenly gift,

who have never "tasted the good word of God." I mean by that, that they

are really converted, have tasted the heavenly gift, but have not grown

so strong in grace as to know the sweetness, the richness, and fatness

of the very word that saves them. They have been saved by the word, but

they have not come yet to realize, and love, and feed upon the word as

many others have. It is one thing for God to work a work of grace in

the soul, it is quite another thing for God to show us that work; it is

one thing for the word to work in us--it is another thing for us really

and habitually to relish, and taste, and rejoice in that word. Some of

my hearers are true Christians; but they have not got to that stage

wherein they can love election, and suck it down as a sweet morsel,

wherein they can take the great doctrines of grace, and feed upon them.

But these people had. They had tasted the good word of God, as well as

received the good gift: they had attained to such a state, that they

had loved the word, had tasted, and feasted upon it. It was the man of

their right hand; they had counted it sweeter than honey--ay, sweeter

than the droppings of the honeycomb. They had "tasted the good word of

God." I say again, if these people be not believers--who are?

And they had gone further still. They had attained the summit of piety.

They had received "the powers of the world to come." Not miraculous

gifts, which are denied us in these days, but all those powers with

which the Holy Ghost endows a Christian. And what are they? Why, there

is the power of faith, which commands even the heavens themselves to

rain, and they rain, or stops the bottles of heaven, that they rain

not. There is the power of prayer, which puts a ladder between earth

and heaven, and bids angels walk up and down, to convey our wants to

God, and bring down blessings from above. There is the power with which

God girds his servant when he speaks by inspiration, which enables him

to instruct others, and lead them to Jesus; and whatever other power

there may be--the power of holding communion with God, or the power of

patient waiting for the Son of Man--they were possessed by these

individuals. They were not simply children, but they were men; they

were not merely alive, but they were endued with power; they were men,

whose muscles were firmly set, whose bones were strong; they had become

giants in grace, and had received not only the light, but the power

also of the world to come. These, we say, whatever may be the meaning

of the text, must have been, beyond a doubt, none other than true and

real Christians.

II. And now we answer the second question, WHAT IS MEANT BY FALLING

AWAY?

We must remind our friends, that there is a vast distinction between

falling away and falling. It is nowhere said in Scripture, that if a

man fall he cannot be renewed; on the contrary, "the righteous falleth

seven times, but he riseth up again;" and however many times the child

of God doth fall, the Lord still holdeth the righteous; yea, when our

bones are broken, he bindeth up our bones again, and setteth us once

more upon a rock. He saith, "Return, ye backsliding children of men;

for I am married unto you;" and if the Christian do backslide ever so

far, still Almighty mercy cries, "Return, return, return, and seek an

injured Father's heart." He still calls his children back again.

Falling is not falling away. Let me explain the difference; for a man

who falls may behave just like a man who falls away; and yet there is a

great distinction between the two. I can use no better illustration

than the distinction between fainting and dying. There lies a young

creature; she can scarcely breathe; she cannot herself, lift up her

hand, and if lifted up by any one else, it falls. She is cold and

stiff; she is faint, but not dead. There is another one, just as cold

and stiff as she is, but there is this difference--she is dead. The

Christian may faint, and may fall down in a faint too, and some may

pick him up, and say he is dead; but he is not. If he fall, God will

lift him up again; but if he fall away, God himself cannot save him.

For it is impossible, if the righteous fall away, "to renew them again

unto repentance."

Moreover, to fall away is not to commit sin. under a temporary surprise

and temptation. Abraham goes to Egypt; he is afraid that his wife will

be taken away from him, and he says, "She is my sister." That was a sin

under a temporary surprise--a sin, of which, by-and-by, he repented,

and God forgave him. Now that is falling; but it is not falling away.

Even Noah might commit a sin, which has degraded his memory even till

now, and shall disgrace it to the latest time; but doubtless, Noah

repented, and was saved by sovereign grace. Noah fell, but Noah did not

fall away. A Christian may go astray once, and speedily return again;

and though it is a sad, and woeful, and evil thing to be surprised into

a sin, yet there is a great difference between this and the sin which

would be occasioned by a total falling away from grace.

Nor can a man who commits a sin, which is not exactly a surprise, be

said to fall away. I believe that some Christian men--(God forbid that

we should say much of it!--let us cover the nakedness of our brother

with a cloak.) but I do believe that there are some Christians who, for

a period of time, have wandered into sin, and yet have not positively

fallen away. There is that black case of David--a case which has

puzzled thousands. Certainly for some months, David lived without

making a public confession of his sin, but, doubtless, he had achings

of heart, for grace had not ceased its work: there was a spark among

the ashes that Nathan stirred up, which showed that David was not dead,

or else the match which the prophet applied would not have caught light

so readily. And so, beloved, you may have wandered into sin for a time,

and gone far from God; and yet you are not the character here

described, concerning whom it is said, that it is impossible you should

be saved; but, wanderer though you be, you are your father's son still,

and mercy cries, "Repent, repent; return unto your first husband, for

then it was better with you than it is now. Return, O wanderer,

return."

Again, falling away is not even a giving up of profession. Some will

say, "Now there is So-and-so; he used to make a profession of

Christianity, and now he denies it, and what is worse, he dares to

curse and swear, and says that he never knew Christ at all. Surely he

must be fallen away." My friend, he has fallen, fallen fearfully, and

fallen woefully; but I remember a case in Scripture of a man who denied

his Lord and Master before his own face. You remember his name; he is

an old friend of yours--our friend Simon Peter! he denied him with

oaths and curses, and said, "I say unto thee that I know not the man."

And yet Jesus looked on Simon. He had fallen, but he had not fallen

away; for, only two or three days after that, there was Peter at the

tomb of his Master, running there to meet his Lord, to be one of the

first to find him risen. Beloved, you may even have denied Christ by

open profession, and yet if you repent there is mercy for you. Christ

has not cast you away, you shall repent yet. You have not fallen away.

If you had, I might not preach to you; for it is impossible for those

who have fallen away to be renewed again unto repentance.

But some one says, "What is falling away?" Well, there never has been a

case of it yet, and therefore I cannot describe it from observation;

but I will tell you what I suppose it is. To fall away, would be for

the Holy Spirit entirely to go out of a man--for his grace entirely to

cease; not to lie dormant, but to cease to be--for God, who has begun a

good work, to leave off doing it entirely--to take his hand completely

and entirely away, and say, "There, man! I have half saved thee; now I

will damn thee." That is what falling away is. It is not to sin

temporarily. A child may sin against his father, and still be alive;

but falling away is like cutting the child's head off clean. Not

falling merely, for then our Father could pick us up, but being dashed

down a precipice, where we are lost for ever. Falling away would

involved God's grace changing its living nature. God's immutability

becoming variable, God's faithfulness becoming changeable, and God,

himself being undeified; for all these things falling away would

necessitate.

III. But if a child of God could fall away, and grace could cease in a

man's heart--now comes the third question--Paul says, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE

FOR HIM TO BE RENEWED. What did the Apostle mean? One eminent

commentator says, he meant that it would be very hard. It would be very

hard, indeed, for a man who fell away, to be saved. But we reply, "My

dear friend, it does not say anything about its being very hard; it

says it is impossible, and we say that it would be utterly impossible,

if such a case as is supposed were to happen; impossible for man, and

also impossible for God; for God hath purposed that he never will grant

a second salvation to save those whom the first salvation hath failed

to deliver. Methinks, however, I hear some one say, "It seems to me

that it is possible for some such to fall away," because it says, "It

is impossible, if they shall fall away, to renew them again into

repentance." Well, my friend, I will grant you your theory for a

moment. You are a good Christian this morning; let us apply it to

yourself, and see how you will like it. You have believed in Christ,

and committed your soul to God, and you think, that in some unlucky

hour you may fall entirely away. Mark you, if you come to me and tell

me that you have fallen away, how would you like me to say to you, "My

friend, you are as much damned as the devil in hell! for it is

impossible to renew you to repentance?" "Oh! no, sir," you would say,

"I will repent again and join the Church." That is just the Arminian

theory all over; but it is not in God's Scripture. If you once fall

away, you are as damned as any man who suffereth in the gulf for ever.

And yet we have heard a man talk about people being converted three,

four, and five times, and regenerated over and over again. I remember a

good man (I suppose he was) pointing to a man who was walking along the

street, and saying, "That man has been born again three times, to my

certain knowledge." I could mention the name of the individual, but I

refrain from doing so. "And I believe he will fall again," said he, "he

is so much addicted to drinking, that I do not believe the grace of God

will do anything for him, unless he becomes a teetotaller." Now, such

men cannot read the Bible; because in case their members do positively

fall away, here it is stated, as a positive fact, that it is impossible

to renew them again unto repentance. But I ask my Arminian friend, does

he not believe that as long as there is life there is hope? "Yes," he

says:

"While the lamp holds out to burn,

The vilest sinner may return."

Well, that is not very consistent, to say this in the very next breath

to that with which you tell us that there are some people who fall

away, and consequently fall into such a condition, that they cannot be

saved. I want to know how you make these two things fit each other; I

want you to make these two doctrines agree; and until some enterprising

individual will bring the north pole, and set it on the top of the

south, I cannot tell how you will accomplish it. The fact is you are

quite right in saying, "While there is life there is hope;" but you are

wrong in saying that any individual ever did fall into such a

condition, that it was impossible for him to be saved.

We come now to do two things: first, to prove the doctrine, that if a

Christian fall away, he cannot be saved; and, secondly, to improve the

doctrine, or to show its use,

I. Then I am going to prove the doctrine, that if a Christian fall

away--not fall, for you understand how I have explained that; but if a

Christian cease to be a child of God, and if grace die out in his

heart--he is then beyond the possibility of salvation, and it is

impossible for him ever to be renewed. Let me show you why. First, it

is utterly impossible, if you consider the work which has already

broken down. When men have built bridges across streams, if they have

been built of the strongest material and in the most excellent manner,

and yet the foundation has been found so bad that none will stand, what

do they say? Why, "We have already tried the best which engineering or

architecture has taught us; the best has already failed; we know

nothing that can exceed what has been tried; and we do therefore feel,

that there remains no possibility of ever bridging that stream, or ever

running a line of railroad across this bog, or this morass, for we have

already tried what is acknowledged to be the best scheme." As the

apostle says, "These people have been once enlightened; they have had

once the influence of the Holy Spirit, revealing to them their sin:

what now remains to be tried. They have been once convinced--is there

anything superior to conviction?" Does the Bible promise that the poor

sinner shall have anything over and above the conviction of his sin to

make him sensible of it? Is there anything more powerful than the sword

of the Spirit? That has not pierced the man's heart; is there anything

else which will do it? Here is a man who has been under the hammer of

God's law; but that has not broken his heart; can you find anything

stronger? The lamp of God's spirit has already lit up the caverns of

his soul: if that be not sufficient, where will you borrow another? Ask

the sun, has he a lamp more bright than the illumination of the Spirit!

Ask the stars, have they a light more brilliant than the light of the

Holy Ghost? Creation answers no. If that fails, then there is nothing

else. These people, moreover, had tasted the heavenly gift; and though

they had been pardoned and justified, yet pardon through Christ and

justification were not enough (on this supposition) to save them. How

else can they be saved? God has cast them away; after he has failed in

saving them by these, what else can deliver them? Already they have

tasted of the heavenly gift: is there a greater mercy for them? Is

there a brighter dress than the robe of Christ's righteousness? Is

there a more efficacious bath than that "fountain filled with blood?"

No. All the earth echoes, "No." If the one has failed, what else does

there remain?

These persons, too, have been partakers of the Holy Ghost; if that

fail, what more can we give them? If, my hearer, the Holy Ghost dwells

in your soul, and that Holy Ghost does not sanctify you and keep you to

the end, what else can be tried? Ask the blasphemer whether he knows a

being, or dares to suppose a being superior to the Holy Spirit! Is

there a being greater than Omnipotence? Is there a might greater than

that which dwells in the believer's new-born heart? And if already the

Holy Spirit hath failed, O, heavens! tell us where we can fight aught

that can excel his might? If that be ineffectual, what next is to be

essayed? These people, too, had "tasted the good Word of Life;" they

had loved the doctrines of grace; those doctrines had entered into

their souls, and they had fed upon them. What new doctrines shall be

preached to them? Prophet of ages! where whilt thou find another system

of divinity? Who shall we have? Shall we raise up Moses from the tomb?

shall we fetch up all the ancient seers, and bid them prophecy? If,

then, there is only one doctrine that is true, and if these people have

fallen away after receiving that, how can they be saved?

Again, these people, according to the text, have had "the powers of the

world to come." They have had power to conquer sin--power in faith,

power in prayer, power of communion; with what greater power shall they

be endowed? This has already failed; what next can be done? O ye

angels! answer, what next! What other means remain? What else can

avail, if already the great things of salvation have been defeated?

What else shall now be attempted? He hath been once saved; but yet it

is supposed that he is lost. How, then, can he now be saved? Is there a

supplementary salvation? is there something that shall overtop Christ,

and be a Christ where Jesus is defeated.

And then the apostle says, that the greatness of their sin which they

would incur, if they did fall away, would put them beyond the bounds of

mercy. Christ died, and by his death he made an atonement for his own

murderers; he made an atonement for those sins which crucified him

once; but do we read that Christ will ever die for those who crucify

him twice? But the Apostle tells us that if believers do fall away,

they will "crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open

shame." Where, then, would be an atonement for that? He has died for

me; What! though the sins of all the world were on my shoulders, still

they only crucified him once, and that one crucifixion has taken all

those sins away; but if I crucified him again, where would I find

pardon? Could heavens, could earth, could Christ himself, with bowels

full of love, point me to another Christ, show to me a second Calvary,

give me a second Gethsemane? Ah! no! the very guilt itself would put us

beyond the pale of hope, if we were to fall away?

Again, beloved, think what it would necessitate to save such a man.

Christ has died for him once, yet he has fallen away and is lost; the

Spirit has regenerated him once, and that regenerating work has been of

no use. God has given him a new heart (I am only speaking, of course,

on the supposition of the Apostle), he has put his law in that heart,

yet he has departed from him, contrary to the promise that he should

not; he has made him "like a shining light," but he did not "shine more

and more unto the perfect day," he shone only unto blackness. What

next? There must be a second incarnation, a second Calvary, a second

Holy Ghost, a second regeneration, a second justification, although the

first was finished and complete--in fact, I know not what. It would

necessitate the upsetting of the whole kingdom of nature and grace, and

it would, indeed, be a world turned upside down, if after the gracious

Saviour failed, he were to attempt the work again.

If you read the 7th verse, you will see that the Apostle calls nature

in to his assistance. He says, "The earth which drinketh in the rain

that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom

it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth

thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is

to be burned." Look! there is a field; the rain comes on it, and it

brings forth good fruit. Well, then, there is God's blessing on it. But

there is according to your supposition, another field, on which the

same rain descends, which the same dew moistens; it has been ploughed

and harrowed, as well as the other, and the husbandman has exercised

all his craft upon it, and yet it is not fertile. Well, if the rain of

heaven did not fertilize it, what next? Already all the arts of

agriculture have been tried, every implement has been worn out on its

surface, and yet it has been of no avail. What next? There remains

nothing but that it shall be burnt and cursed--given up like the desert

of Sahara, and resigned to destruction. So, my hearer, could it be

possible that grace could work in thee, and then not affect thy

salvation--that the influence of Divine grace could come down, like

rain from heaven, and yet return unto God void, there could not be any

hope for thee, for thou wouldst be "nigh unto cursing," and thine end

would be "to be burned."

There is one idea which has occurred to us. It has struck us as a

singular thing, that our friends should hold that men can be converted,

made into new creatures, then fall away and be converted again. I am an

old creature by nature; God creates me into a new thing, he makes me a

new creature. I cannot go back into an old creature, for I cannot be

uncreated. But yet, supposing that new creatureship of mine is not good

enough to carry me to heaven. What is to come after that? Must there be

something above a new creature--a new creature. Really, my friends, we

have got into the country of Dreamland; but we were forced to follow

our opponents into that region of absurdity, for we do not know how

else to deal with them.

And one thought more. There is nothing in Scripture which teaches us

that there is any salvation, save the one salvation of Jesus

Christ--nothing that tells us of any other power, super-excellent and

surpassing the power of the Holy Spirit. These things have already been

tried on the man, and yet, according to the supposition, they have

failed, for he has fallen away. Now, God has never revealed a

supplementary salvation for men on whom one salvation has had no

effect; and until we are pointed to one scripture which declares this,

we will still maintain that the doctrine of the text is this: that if

grace be ineffectual, if grace does not keep a man, then there is

nothing left but that he must be damned. And what is that but to say,

only going a little round about, that grace will do it? So that these

words, instead of miltating against the Calvinistic doctrine of final

perseverance, form one of the finest proofs of it that could be

afforded.

And now, lastly, we come to improve this doctrine. If Christians can

fall away, and cease to be Christians, they cannot be renewed again to

repentance. "But," says one, "You say they cannot fall away." What is

the use of putting this "if" in, like a bugbear to frighten children,

or like a ghost that can have no existence? My learned friend, "Who art

thou that repliest against God?" If God has put it in, he has put it in

for wise reasons and for excellent purposes. Let me show you why.

First, O Christian, it is put in to keep thee from falling away. God

preserves his children from falling away; but he keeps them by the use

of means; and one of these is, the terrors of the law, showing them

what would happen if they were to fall away. There is a deep precipice:

what is the best way to keep any one from going down there? Why, to

tell him that if he did he would inevitably be dashed to pieces. In

some old castle there is a deep cellar, where there is a vast amount of

fixed air and gas, which would kill anybody who went down. What does

the guide say? "If you go down you will never come up alive." Who

thinks of going down? The very fact of the guide telling us what the

consequences would be, keeps us from it. Our friend puts away from us a

cup of arsenic; he does not want us to drink it, but he says, "If you

drink it, it will kill you." Does he suppose for a moment that we

should drink it. No; he tells us the consequences, and he is sure we

will not do it. So God says, "My child, if you fall over this precipice

you will be dashed to pieces." What does the child do? He says,

"Father, keep me; hold thou me up, and I shall be safe." It leads the

believer to greater dependence on God, to a holy fear and caution,

because he knows that if he were to fall away he could not be renewed,

and he stands far away from that great gulf, because he know that if he

were to fall into it there would be no salvation for him. If I thought

as the Arminian thinks, that I might fall away, and then return again,

I should pretty often fall away, for sinful flesh and blood would think

it very nice to fall away, and be a sinner, and go and see the play at

the theatre, or get drunk, and then come back to the Church, and be

received again as a dear brother who had fallen away for a little

while. No doubt the minister would say, "Our brother Charles is a

little unstable at times." A little unstable! He does not know anything

about grace; for grace engenders a holy caution, because we feel that

if we were not preserved by Divine power we should perish. We tell our

friend to put oil in his lamp, that it may continue to burn! Does that

imply that it will be allowed to go out? No, God will give him oil to

pour into the lamp continually. Like John Bunyan's figure; there was a

fire, and he saw a man pouring water upon it. "Now," says the Preacher,

"don't you see that fire would go out, that water is calculated to put

it out, and if it does, it will never be lighted again;" but God does

not permit that! for there is a man behind the wall who is pouring oil

on the fire; and we have cause for gratitude in the fact, that if the

oil were not put in by a heavenly hand, we should inevitably be driven

to destruction. Take care, then Christian, for this is a caution.

2. It is to excite our gratitude. Suppose you say to your little boy,

"Don't you know Tommy, if I were not to give you your dinner and your

supper you would die? There is nobody else to give Tommy dinner and

supper." What then? The child does not think that you are not going to

give him his dinner and supper; he knows you will, and he is grateful

to you for them. The chemist tells us, that if there were no oxygen

mixed with the air, animals would die. Do you suppose that there will

be no oxygen, and therefore we shall die? No, he only teaches you the

great wisdom of God, in having mixed the gases in their proper

proportions. Says one of the old astronomers, "There is great wisdom in

God, that he has put the sun exactly at a right distance--not so far

away that we should be frozen to death, and not so near that we should

be scorched." He says, "If the sun were a million miles nearer to us we

should be scorched to death." Does the man suppose that the sun will be

a million miles nearer, and, therefore, we shall be scorched to death?

He says, "If the sun were a million miles farther off we should be

frozen to death." Does he mean that the sun will be a million miles

farther off, and therefore we shall be frozen to death? Not at all. Yet

it is quite a rational way of speaking, to show us how grateful we

should be to God. So says the Apostle. Christian! if thou shouldst fall

away, thou couldst never be renewed unto repentance. Thank thy Lord,

then, that he keeps thee.

"See a stone that hangs in air; see a spark in ocean live;

Kept alive with death so near; I to God the glory give."

There is a cup of sin which would damn thy soul, O Christian. Oh! what

grace is that which holds thy arm, and will not let thee drink it?

There thou art, at this hour, like the bird-catcher of St. Kilda, thou

art being drawn to heaven by a single rope; if that hand which holds

thee let thee go, if that rope which grasps thee do but break, thou art

dashed on the rocks of damnation. Lift up thine heart to God, then, and

bless him that his arm is not wearied, and is never shortened that it

cannot save. Lord Kenmure, when he was dying, said to Rutherford. "Man!

my name is written on Christ's hand, and I see it! that is bold talk,

man, but I see it!" Then, if that be the case, his hand must be severed

from his body before my name can be taken from him; and if it be

engraven on his heart, his heart must be rent out before they can rend

my name out.

Hold on, then, and trust believer! thou hast "an anchor of the soul,

both sure and steadfast, which entereth within the veil." The winds are

bellowing, the tempests howling; should the cable slip, or thine anchor

break, thou art lost. See those rocks, on which myriads are driving,

and thou art wrecked there if grace leave thee; see those depths, in

which the skeletons of sailors sleep, and thou art there, if that

anchor fail thee. It would be impossible to moor thee again, if once

that anchor broke; for other anchor there is none, other salvation

there can be none, and if that one fail thee, it is impossible that

thou ever shouldst be saved. Therefore thank God that thou hast an

anchor that cannot fail, and then loudly sing--

"How can I sink with such a prop,

As my eternal God,

Who bears the earth's huge pillars up?

And spreads the heavens abroad?"

How can I die, when Jesus lives,

Who rose and left the dead?

Pardon and grace my soul receives,

From my exalted head."