Human Inability

 A Sermon (No. 182)

   Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 7, 1858 by the

   REV. C.H. SPURGEON

   at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

   "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw

   him."--John 6:44.

   COMING to Christ" is a very common phrase in Holy Scripture. It is used

   to express those acts of the soul wherein, leaving at once our

   self-righteousness, and our sins, we fly unto the Lord Jesus Christ,

   and receive his righteousness to be our covering, and his blood to be

   our atonement. Coming to Christ, then, embraces in it repentance,

   self-negation, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it sums within

   itself all those things which are the necessary attendants of these

   great states of heart, such as the belief of the truth, earnestness of

   prayer to God, the submission of the soul to the precepts of God's

   gospel, and all those things which accompany the dawn of salvation in

   the soul. Coming to Christ is just the one essential thing for a

   sinner's salvation. He that cometh not to Christ, do what he may, or

   think what he may, is yet in "the gall of bitterness and in the bonds

   of iniquity." Coming to Christ is the very first effect of

   regeneration. No sooner is the soul quickened than it at once discovers

   its lost estate, is horrified thereat, looks out for a refuge, and

   believing Christ to be a suitable one, flies to him and reposes in him.

   Where there is not this coming to Christ, it is certain that there is

   as yet no quickening; where there is no quickening, the soul is dead in

   trespasses and sins, and being dead it cannot enter into the kingdom of

   heaven. We have before us now an announcement very startling, some say

   very obnoxious. Coming to Christ, though described by some people as

   being the very easiest thing in all the world, is in our text declared

   to be a thing utterly and entirely impossible to any man, unless the

   Father shall draw him to Christ. It shall be our business, then, to

   enlarge upon this declaration. We doubt not that it will always be

   offensive to carnal nature, but, nevertheless, the offending of human

   nature is sometimes the first step towards bringing it to bow itself

   before God. And if this be the effect of a painful process, we can

   forget the pain and rejoice in the glorious consequences.

   I shall endeavour this morning, first of all, to notice man's

   inability, wherein it consists. Secondly, the Father's drawings--what

   these are, and how they are exerted upon the soul. And then I shall

   conclude by noticing a sweet consolation which may be derived from this

   seemingly barren and terrible text.

   I. First, then, MAN'S INABILITY. The text says, "No man can come to me,

   except the Father which hath sent me draw him." Wherein does this

   inability lie?

   First, it does not lie in any physical defect. If in coming to Christ,

   moving the body or walking with the feet should be of any assistance,

   certainly man has all physical power to come to Christ in that sense. I

   remember to have heard a very foolish Antinomian declare, that he did

   not believe any man had the power to walk to the house of God unless

   the Father drew him. Now the man was plainly foolish, because he must

   have seen that as long as a man was alive and had legs, it was as easy

   for him to walk to the house of God as to the house of Satan. If coming

   to Christ includes the utterance of a prayer, man has no physical

   defect in that respect, if he be not dumb, he can say a prayer as

   easily as he can utter blasphemy. It is as easy for a man to sing one

   of the songs of Zion as to sing a profane and libidinous song. There is

   no lack of physical power in coming to Christ. All that can be wanted

   with regard to the bodily strength man most assuredly has, and any part

   of salvation which consists in that is totally and entirely in the

   power of man without any assistance from the Spirit of God. Nor, again,

   does this inability lie in any mental lack. I can believe this Bible to

   be true just as easily as I can believe any other book to be true. So

   far as believing on Christ is an act of the mind, I am just as able to

   believe on Christ as I am able to believe on anybody else. Let his

   statement be but true, it is idle to tell me I cannot believe it. I can

   believe the statement that Christ makes as well as I can believe the

   statement of any other person. There is no deficiency of faculty in the

   mind: it is as capable of appreciating as a mere mental act the guilt

   of sin, as it is of appreciating the guilt of assassination. It is just

   as possible for me to exercise the mental idea of seeking God, as it is

   to exercise the thought of ambition. I have all the mental strength and

   power that can possibly be needed, so far as mental power is needed in

   salvation at all. Nay, there is not any man so ignorant that he can

   plead a lack of intellect as an excuse for rejecting the gospel. The

   defect, then, does not lie either in the body, or, what we are bound to

   call, speaking theologically, the mind. It is not any lack or

   deficiency there, although it is the vitiation of the mind, the

   corruption or the ruin of it, which, after all, is the very essence of

   man's inability.

   Permit me to show you wherein this inability of man really does lie. It

   lies deep in his nature. Through the fall, and through our own sin, the

   nature of man has become so debased, and depraved, and corrupt, that it

   is impossible for him to come to Christ without the assistance of God

   the Holy Spirit. Now, in trying to exhibit how the nature of man thus

   renders him unable to come to Christ, you must allow me just to take

   this figure. You see a sheep; how willingly it feeds upon the herbage!

   You never knew a sheep sigh after carrion; it could not live on lion's

   food. Now bring me a wolf; and you ask me whether a wolf cannot eat

   grass, whether it cannot be just as docile and as domesticated as the

   sheep. I answer, no; because its nature is contrary thereunto. You say,

   "Well, it has ears and legs; can it not hear the shepherd's voice, and

   follow him whithersoever he leadeth it ?" I answer, certainly; there is

   no physical cause why it cannot do so, but its nature forbids, and

   therefore I say it cannot do so. Can it not be tamed? cannot its

   ferocity be removed? Probably it may so far be subdued that it may

   become apparently tame; but there will always be a marked distinction

   between it and the sheep, because there is a distinction in nature.

   Now, the reason why man cannot come to Christ, is not because he cannot

   come, so far as his body or his mere power of mind is concerned, but

   because his nature is so corrupt that he has neither the will nor the

   power to come to Christ unless drawn by the Spirit. But let me give you

   a better illustration. You see a mother with her babe in her arms. You

   put a knife into her hand, and tell her to stab that babe to the heart.

   She replies, and very truthfully, "I cannot." Now, so far as her bodily

   power is concerned, she can, if she pleases; there is the knife, and

   there is the child. The child cannot resist, and she has quite

   sufficient strength in her hand immediately to stab it to its heart.

   But she is quite correct when she says she cannot do it. As a mere act

   of the mind, it is quite possible she might think of such a thing as

   killing the child, and yet she says she cannot think of such a thing;

   and she does not say falsely, for her nature as a mother forbids her

   doing a thing from which her soul revolts. Simply because she is that

   child's parent she feels she cannot kill it. It is even so with a

   sinner. Coming to Christ is so obnoxious to human nature that,

   although, so far as physical and mental forces are concerned, (and

   these have but a very narrow sphere in salvation) men could come if

   they would: it is strictly correct to say that they cannot and will not

   unless the Father who hath sent Christ doth draw them. Let us enter a

   little more deeply into the subject, and try to show you wherein this

   inability of man consists, in its more minute particulars.

   I. First, it lies in the obstinacy of the human will. "Oh!" saith the

   Arminian, "men may be saved if they will." We reply, "My dear sir, we

   all believe that; but it is just the if they will that is the

   difficulty. We assert that no man will come to Christ unless he be

   drawn; nay, we do not assert it, but Christ himself declares it--"Ye

   will not come unto me that ye might have life;' and as long as that "ye

   will not come' stands on record in Holy Scripture, we shall not be

   brought to believe in any doctrine of the freedom of the human will."

   It is strange how people, when talking about free-will, talk of things

   which they do not at all understand. "Now," says one, "I believe men

   can be saved if they will." My dear sir, that is not the question at

   all. The question is, are men ever found naturally willing to submit to

   the humbling terms of the gospel of Christ? We declare, upon Scriptural

   authority, that the human will is so desperately set on mischief, so

   depraved, and so inclined to everything that is evil, and so

   disinclined to everything that is good, that without the powerful.

   supernatural, irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit, no human will

   ever be constrained towards Christ. You reply, that men sometimes are

   willing, without the help of the Holy Spirit. I answer--Did you ever

   meet with any person who was? Scores and hundreds, nay, thousands of

   Christians have I conversed with, of different opinions, young and old,

   but it has never been my lot to meet with one who could affirm that he

   came to Christ of himself, without being drawn. The universal

   confession of all true believers is this--"I know that unless Jesus

   Christ had sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, I

   would to this very hour have been wandering far from him, at a distance

   from him, and loving that distance well." With common consent, all

   believers affirm the truth, that men will not come to Christ till the

   Father who hath sent Christ doth draw them.

   2. Again, not only is the will obstinate, but the understanding is

   darkened. Of that we have abundant Scriptural proof. I am not now

   making mere assertions, but stating doctrines authoritatively taught in

   the Holy Scriptures, and known in the conscience of every Christian

   man--that the understanding of man is so dark, that hecannot by any

   means understand the things of God until his understanding has been

   opened. Man is by nature blind within. The cross of Christ, so laden

   with glories, and glittering with attractions, never attracts him,

   because he is blind and cannot see its beauties. Talk to him of the

   wonders of the creation, show to him the many-coloured arch that spans

   the sky, let him behold the glories of a landscape, he is well able to

   see all these things; but talk to him of the wonders of the covenant of

   grace, speak to him of the security of the believer in Christ, tell him

   of the beauties of the person of the Redeemer, he is quite deaf to all

   your description; you are as one that playeth a goodly tune, it is

   true; but he regards not, he is deaf, he has no comprehension. Or, to

   return to the verse which we so specially marked in our reading, "The

   natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are

   foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are

   spiritually discerned;" and inasmuch as he is a natural man, it is not

   in his power to discern the things of God. "Well," says one, "I think I

   have arrived at a very tolerable judgment in matters of theology; I

   think I understand almost every point." True, that you may do in the

   letter of it; but in the spirit of it, in the true reception thereof

   into the soul, and in the actual understanding of it, it is impossible

   for you to have attained, unless you have been drawn by the Spirit. For

   as long as that Scripture stands true, that carnal men cannot receive

   spiritual things, it must be true that you have not received them,

   unless you have been renewed and made a spiritual man in Christ Jesus.

   The will, then, and the understanding, are two great doors, both

   blocked up against our coming to Christ, and until these are opened by

   the sweet influences of the Divine Spirit, they must be for ever closed

   to anything like coming to Christ.

   3. Again, the affections, which constitute a very great part of man,

   are depraved. Man, as he is, before he receives the grace of God, loves

   anything and everything above spiritual things. If ye want proof of

   this, look around you. There needs no monument to the depravity of the

   human affections. Cast your eyes everywhere--there is not a street, nor

   a house, nay, nor a heart, which doth not bear upon it sad evidence of

   this dreadful truth. Why is it that men are not found on the Sabbath

   Day universally flocking to the house of God? Why are we not more

   constantly found reading our Bibles? How is it that prayer is a duty

   almost universally neglected? Why is it that Christ Jesus is so little

   beloved? Why are even his professed followers so cold in their

   affections to him? Whence arise these things? Assuredly, dear brethren,

   we can trace them to no other source than this, the corruption and

   vitiation of the affections. We love that which we ought to hate, and

   we hate that which we ought to love. It is but human nature, fallen

   human nature, that man should love this present life better than the

   life to come. It is but the effect of the fall, that man should love

   sin better than righteousness, and the ways of this world better than

   the ways of God. And again, we repeat it, until these affections be

   renewed, and turned into a fresh channel by the gracious drawings of

   the Father, it is not possible for any man to love the Lord Jesus

   Christ.

   4. Yet once more--conscience, too, has been overpowered by the fall. I

   believe there is no more egregious mistake made by divines, than when

   they tell people that conscience is the vicegerent of God within the

   soul, and that it is one of those powers which retains its ancient

   dignity, and stands erect amidst the fall of its compeers. My brethren,

   when man fell in the garden, manhood fell entirely; there was not one

   single pillar in the temple of manhood that stood erect. It is true,

   conscience was not destroyed. The pillar was not shattered; it fell,

   and it fell in one piece, and there it lies along, the mightiest

   remnant of God's once perfect work in man. But that conscience is

   fallen, I am sure. Look at men. Who among them is the possessor of a

   "good conscience toward God," but the regenerated man? Do you imagine

   that if men's consciences always spoke loudly and clearly to them, they

   would live in the daily commission of acts, which are as opposed to the

   right as darkness to light? No, beloved; conscience can tell me that I

   am a sinner, but conscience cannot make me feel that I am one.

   Conscience may tell me that such-and-such a thing is wrong, but how

   wrong it is conscience itself does not know. Did any man s conscience,

   unenlightened by the Spirit, ever tell him that his sins deserved

   damnation? Or if conscience did do that, did it ever lead any man to

   feel an abhorrence of sin as sin? In fact, did conscience ever bring a

   man to such a self-renunciation, that he did totally abhor himself and

   all his works and come to Christ? No, conscience, although it is not

   dead, is ruined, its power is impaired, it hath not that clearness of

   eye and that strength of hand, and that thunder of voice, which it had

   before the fall; but hath ceased to a great degree, to exert its

   supremacy in the town of Mansoul. Then, beloved, it becomes necessary

   for this very reason, because conscience is depraved, that the Holy

   Spirit should step in, to show us our need of a Saviour, and draw us to

   the Lord Jesus Christ.

   "Still," says one, "as far as you have hitherto gone, it appears to me

   that you consider that the reason why men do not come to Christ is that

   they will not, rather than they cannot." True, most true. I believe the

   greatest reason of man's inability is the obstinacy of his will. That

   once overcome, I think the great stone is rolled away from the

   sepulchre, and the hardest part of the battle is already won. But allow

   me to go a little further. My text does not say,"No man will come," but

   it says, "No man can come." Now, many interpreters believe that the can

   here, is but a strong expression conveying no more meaning than the

   word will. I feel assured that this is not correct. There is in man,

   not only unwillingness to be saved, but there is a spiritual

   powerlessness to come to Christ; and this I will prove to every

   Christian at any rate. Beloved, I speak to you who have already been

   quickened by the divine grace, does not your experience teach you that

   there are times when you have a will to serve God, and yet have not the

   power? Have you not sometimes been obliged to say that you have wished

   to believe. but you have had to pray, Lord, help mine unbelief?"

   Because, although willing enough to receive God's testimony, your own

   carnal nature was too strong for you, and you felt you needed

   supernatural help. Are you able to go into your room at any hour you

   choose, and to fall upon your knees and say,"Now, it is my will that I

   should be very earnest in prayer, and that I should draw near unto God

   ?" I ask, do you find your power equal to your will? You could say,

   even at the bar of God himself, that you are sure you are not mistaken

   in your willingness; you are willing to be wrapt up in devotion, it is

   your will that your soul should not wander from a pure contemplation of

   the Lord Jesus Christ, but you find that you cannot do that, even when

   you are willing, without the help of the Spirit. Now, if the quickened

   child of God finds a spiritual inability, how much more the sinner who

   is dead in trespasses and sin? If even the advanced Christian, after

   thirty or forty years, finds himself sometimes willing and yet

   powerless--if such be his experience,--does it not seem more than

   likely that the poor sinner who has not yet believed, should find a

   need of strength as well as a want of will?

   But, again, there is another argument. If the sinner has strength to

   come to Christ, I should like to know how we are to understand those

   continual descriptions of the sinner's state which we meet with in

   God's holy Word? Now, a sinner is said to be dead in trespasses and

   sins. Will you affirm that death implies nothing more than the absence

   of a will? Surely a corpse is quite as unable as unwilling. Or again,

   do not all men see that there is a distinction between will and power:

   might not that corpse be sufficiently quickened to get a will, and yet

   be so powerless that it could not lift as much as its hand or foot?

   Have we never seen cases in which persons have been just sufficiently

   re-animated to give evidence of life, and have yet been so near death

   that they could not have performed the slightest action? Is there not a

   clear difference between the giving or the will and the giving of

   power? It is quite certain, however, that where the will is given, the

   power will follow. Make a man willing, and he shall be made powerful;

   for when God gives the will, he does not tantalize man by giving him to

   wish for that which he is unable to do; nevertheless he makes such a

   division between the will and the power, that it shall be seen that

   both things are quite distinct gifts of the Lord God.

   Then I must ask one more question: if all that were needed to make a

   man willing, do you not at once degrade the Holy Spirit? Are we not in

   the habit of giving all the glory of salvation wrought in us to God the

   Spirit? But now, if all that God the Spirit does for me is to make me

   willing to do these things for myself, am I not in a great measure a

   sharer with the Holy Spirit in the glory? and may I not boldly stand up

   and say, "It is true the Spirit gave me the will to do it, but still I

   did it myself, and therein will I glory; for if I did these things

   myself without assistance from on high, I will not cast my crown at his

   feet; it is my own crown, I earned it, and I will keep it." Inasmuch as

   the Holy Spirit is evermore in Scripture set forth as the person who

   worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure, we hold it to

   be a legitimate inference that he must do something more for us than

   the mere making of us willing, and that therefore there must be another

   thing besides want of will in a sinner--there must be absolute and

   actual want of power.

   Now, before I leave this statement, let me address myself to you for a

   moment. I am often charged with preaching doctrines that may do a great

   deal of hurt. Well, I shall not deny the charge, for I am not careful

   to answer in this matter. I have my witnesses here present to prove

   that the things which I have preached have done a great deal of hurt,

   but they have not done hurt either to morality or to God's Church; the

   hurt has been on the side of Satan. There are not ones or twos but many

   hundreds who this morning rejoice that they have been brought near to

   God; from having been profane Sabbath-breakers, drunkards, or worldly

   persons, they have been brought to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ;

   and if this be any hurt may God of his infinite mercy send us a

   thousand times as much. But further, what truth is there in the world

   which will not hurt a man who chooses to make hurt of it? You who

   preach general redemption, are very fond of proclaiming the great truth

   of God's mercy to the last moment. But how dare you preach that? Many

   people make hurt of it by putting off the day of grace, and thinking

   that the last hour may do as well as the first. Why, if we never

   preached anything which man could misuse, and abuse, we must hold our

   tongues for ever. Still says one, "Well then, if I cannot save myself,

   and cannot come to Christ, I must sit still and do nothing." If men do

   say so, on their own heads shall be their doom. We have very plainly

   told you that there are many things you can do. To be found continually

   in the house of God is in your power; to study the Word of God with

   diligence is in your power; to renounce your outward sin, to forsake

   the vices in which you indulge, to make your life honest, sober, and

   righteous, is in your power. For this you need no help from the Holy

   Spirit; all this you can do yourself; but to come to Christ truly is

   not in your power, until you are renewed by the Holy Ghost. But mark

   you, your want of power is no excuse, seeing that you have no desire to

   come, and are living in wilful rebellion against God. Your want of

   power lies mainly in the obstinacy of nature. Suppose a liar says that

   it is not in his power to speak the truth, that he has been a liar so

   long, that he cannot leave it off; is that an excuse for him? Suppose a

   man who has long indulged in lust should tell you that he finds his

   lusts have so girt about him like a great iron net that he cannot get

   rid of them, would you take that as an excuse? Truly it is none at all.

   If a drunkard has become so foully a drunkard, that he finds it

   impossible to pass a public--house without stepping in, do you

   therefore excuse him? No, because his inability to reform, lies in his

   nature, which he has no desire to restrain or conquer. The thing that

   is done, and the thing that causes the thing that is done, being both

   from the root of sin, are two evils which cannot excuse each other,

   What though the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his

   spots? It is because you have learned to do evil that you cannot now

   learn to do well; and instead, therefore, of letting you sit down to

   excuse yourselves, let me put a thunderbolt beneath the seat of your

   sloth, that you may be startled by it and aroused. Remember, that to

   sit still is to be damned to all eternity. Oh! that God the Holy Spirit

   might make use of this truth in a very different manner! Before I have

   done I trust I shall be enabled to show you how it is that this truth,

   which apparently condemns men and shuts them out, is, after all, the

   great truth, which has been blessed to the conversion of men.

   II. Our second point is THE FATHER'S DRAWINGS. "No man can come to me,

   except the Father which hath sent me draw him." How then does the

   Father draw men? Arminian divines generally say that God draws men by

   the preaching of the gospel. Very true; the preaching of the gospel is

   the instrument of drawing men, but there must be some thing more than

   this. Let me ask to whom did Christ address these words? Why, to the

   people of Capernaum, where he had often preached, where he had uttered

   mournfully and plaintively the woes of the law and the invitations of

   the gospel. In that city he had done many mighty works and worked many

   miracles. In fact, such teaching and such miraculous attestation had he

   given to them, that he declared that Tyre and Sidon would have repented

   long ago in sack-cloth and ashes, if they had been blessed with such

   privileges. Now, if the preaching of Christ himself did not avail to

   the enabling these men to come to Christ, it cannot be possible that

   all that was intended by the drawing of the Father was simply

   preaching. No, brethren, you must note again, he does not say no man

   can come except the minister draw him, but except the Father draw him.

   Now there is such a thing as being drawn by the gospel, and drawn by

   the minister, without being drawn by God. Clearly, it is a divine

   drawing that is meant, a drawing by the Most High God--the First Person

   of the most glorious Trinity sending out the Third Person, the Holy

   Spirit, to induce men to come to Christ. Another person turns round and

   says with a sneer, "Then do you think that Christ drags men to himself,

   seeing that they are unwilling!" I remember meeting once with a man who

   said to me, Sir, you preach that Christ takes people by the hair of

   their heads and drags them to himself" I asked him whether he could

   refer to the date of the sermon wherein I preached that extraordinary

   doctrine, for if he could, I should be very much obliged. However, he

   could not. But said I, while Christ does not drag people to himself by

   the hair of their heads, I believe that, he draws them by the heart

   quite as powerfully as your caricature would suggest. Mark that in the

   Father's drawing there is no compulsion whatever; Christ never

   compelled any man to come to him against his will. If a man be

   unwilling to be saved, Christ does not save him against his will. How,

   then, does the Holy Spirit draw him? Why, by making him willing. It is

   true he does not use "moral suasion;" he knows a nearer method of

   reaching the heart. He goes to the secret fountain of the heart, and he

   knows how, by some mysterious operation, to turn the will in an

   opposite direction, so that, as Ralph Erskine paradoxically puts it,

   the man is saved "with full consent against his will;" that is, against

   his old will he is saved. But he is saved with full consent, for he is

   made willing in the day of God's power. Do not imagine that any man

   will go to heaven kicking and struggling all the way against the hand

   that draws him. Do not conceive that any man will be plunged in the

   bath of a Saviour's blood while he is striving to run away from the

   Saviour. Oh, no. It is quite true that first of all man is unwilling to

   be saved. When the Holy Spirit hath put his influence into the heart,

   the text is fulfilled--"draw me and I will run after thee." We follow

   on while he draws us, glad to obey the voice which once we had

   despised. But the gist of the matter lies in the turning of the will.

   How that is done no flesh knoweth; it is one of those mysteries that is

   clearly perceived as a fact, but the cause of which no tongue can tell,

   and no heart can guess. The apparent way, however, in which the Holy

   Spirit operates, we can tell you. The first thing the Holy Spirit does

   when he comes into a man's heart is this: he finds him with a very good

   opinion of himself: and there is nothing which prevents a man coming to

   Christ like a good opinion of himself. Why, says man, "I don't want to

   come to Christ. I have as good a righteousness as anybody can desire. I

   feel I can walk into heaven on my own rights." The Holy Spirit lays

   bare his heart, lets him see the loathsome cancer that is there eating

   away his life, uncovers to him all the blackness and defilement of that

   sink of hell, the human heart, and then the man stands aghast. "I never

   thought I was like this. Oh! those sins I thought were little, have

   swelled out to an immense stature. What I thought was a mole-hill has

   grown into a mountain; it was but the hyssop on the wall before, but

   now it has become a cedar of Lebanon. Oh," saith the man within

   himself, "I will try and reform; I will do good deeds enough to wash

   these black deeds out." Then comes the Holy Spirit and shows him that

   he cannot do this, takes away all his fancied power and strength, so

   that the man falls down on his knees in agony, and cries, "Oh! once I

   thought I could save myself by my good works, but now I find that

   "Could my tears for ever flow,

   Could my zeal no respite know,

   All for sin could not atone,

   Thou must save and thou alone.'"

   Then the heart sinks, and the man is ready to despair. And saith he, "I

   never can be saved. Nothing can save me." Then, comes the Holy Spirit

   and shows the sinner the cross of Christ, gives him eyes anointed with

   heavenly eye-salve, and says, "Look to yonder cross. that Man died to

   save sinners; you feel that you are a sinner; he died to save you." And

   he enables the heart to believe, and to come to Christ. And when it

   comes to Christ, by this sweet drawing of the Spirit, it finds "a peace

   with God which passeth all understanding, which keeps his heart and

   mind through Jesus Christ our Lord." Now, you will plainly perceive

   that all this may be done without any compulsion. Man is as much drawn

   willingly, as if he were not drawn at all; and he comes to Christ with

   full consent, with as full a consent as if no secret influence had ever

   been exercised in his heart. But that influence must be exercised, or

   else there never has been and there never will be, any man who either

   can or will come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

   III. And, now, we gather up our ends, and conclude by trying to make a

   practical application of the doctrine; and we trust a comfortable one.

   "Well," says one, "if what this man preaches be true, what is to become

   of my religion? for do you know I have been a long while trying, and I

   do not like to hear you say a man cannot save himself. I believe he

   can, and I mean to persevere; but if I am to believe what you say, I

   must give it all up and begin again." My dear friends, it will be a

   very happy thing if you do. Do not think that I shall be at all alarmed

   if you do so. Remember, what you are doing is building your house upon

   the sand, and it is but an act of charity if I can shake it a little

   for you. Let me assure you, in God's name, if your religion has no

   better foundation than your own strength, it will not stand you at the

   bar of God. Nothing will last to eternity, but that which came from

   eternity. Unless the everlasting God has done a good work in your

   heart, all you may have done must be unravelled at the last day of

   account. It is all in vain for you to be a church-goer or chapel-goer,

   a good keeper of the Sabbath, an observer of your prayers: it is all in

   vain for you to be honest to your neighbours and reputable in your

   conversation; if you hope to be saved by these things, it is all in

   vain for you to trust in them. Go on; be as honest as you like, keep

   the Sabbath perpetually, be as holy as you can. I would not dissuade

   you from these things. God forbid; grow in them, but oh, do not trust

   in them, for if you rely upon these things you will find they will fail

   you when most you need them. And if there be anything else that you

   have found yourself able to do unassisted by divine grace, the sooner

   you can get rid of the hope that has been engendered by it the better

   for you, for it is a foul delusion to rely upon anything that flesh can

   do. A spiritual heaven must be inhabited by spiritual men, and

   preparation for it must be wrought by the Spirit of God. "Well," cries

   another, "I have been sitting under a ministry where I have been told

   that I could, at my own option, repent and believe, and the consequence

   is that I have been putting it off from day to day. I thought I could

   come one day as well as another; that I had only to say, "Lord, have

   mercy upon me,' and believe, and then I should be saved. Now you have

   taken all this hope away for me, sir; I feel amazement and horror

   taking hold upon me." Again, I say, "My dear friend, I am very glad of

   it. This was the effect which I hoped to produce. I pray that you may

   feel this a great deal more. When you have no hope of saving yourself,

   I shall have hope that God has begun to save you. As soon as you say

   "Oh, I cannot come to Christ. Lord, draw me, help me,' I shall rejoice

   over you. He who has got a will, though he has not power, has grace

   begun in his heart, and God will not leave him until the work is

   finished." But, careless sinner, learn that thy salvation now hangs in

   God's hand. Oh, remember thou art entirely in the hand of God. Thou

   hast sinned against him, and if he wills to damn thee, damned thou art.

   Thou canst not resist his will nor thwart his purpose. Thou hast

   deserved his wrath, and if he chooses to pour the full shower of that

   wrath upon thy head, thou canst do nothing to avert it. If, on the

   other hand, he chooses to save thee, he is able to save thee to the

   very uttermost. But thou liest as much in his hand as the summer's moth

   beneath thine own finger. He is the God whom thou art grieving every

   day. Doth it not make thee tremble to think that thy eternal destiny

   now hangs upon the will of him whom thou hast angered and incensed?

   Dost not this make thy knees knock together, and thy blood curdle? If

   it does so I rejoice, inasmuch as this may be the first effect of the

   Spirit's drawing in thy soul. Oh, tremble to think that the God whom

   thou hast angered, is the God upon whom thy salvation or thy

   condemnation entirely depends. Tremble and "kiss the Son lest he be

   angry and ye perish from the way while his wrath is kindled but a

   little,"

   Now, the comfortable reflection is this:--Some of you this morning are

   conscious that you are coming to Christ. Have you not begun to weep the

   penitential tear? Did not your closet witness your prayerful

   preparation for the hearing of the Word of God? And during the service

   of this morning, has not your heart said within you, "Lord, save me, or

   I perish, for save myself I cannot?" And could you not now stand up in

   your seat, and sing,

   "Oh, sovereign grace my heart subdue;

   I would be led in triumph, too,

   A willing captive of my Lord,

   To sing the triumph of his Word"?

   And have I not myself heard you say in your heart--"Jesus, Jesus, my

   whole trust Is in thee: I know that no righteousness of my own can save

   me, but only thou, O Christ--sink or swim, I cast myself on thee?" Oh,

   my brother, thou art drawn by the Father, for thou couldst not have

   come unless he had drawn thee. Sweet thought! And if he has drawn thee,

   dost thou know what is the delightful inference? Let me repeat one

   text, and may that comfort thee: "The Lord hath appeared of old unto

   me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with

   lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Yes, my poor weeping brother,

   inasmuch as thou art now coming to Christ, God has drawn thee; and

   inasmuch as he has drawn thee, it is a proof that he has loved thee

   from before the foundation of the world. Let thy heart leap within

   thee, thou art one of his. Thy name was written on the Saviour's hands

   when they were nailed to the accursed tree. Thy name glitters on the

   breast-plate of the great High Priest to-day; ay, and it was there

   before the day-star knew its place, or planets ran their round. Rejoice

   in the Lord ye that have come to Christ, and shout for joy all ye that

   have been drawn of the Father. For this is your proof, your solemn

   testimony, that you from among men have been chosen in eternal

   election, and that you shall be kept by the power of God, through

   faith, unto the salvation which is ready to be revealed.