If he had the Holy Spirit, he
would do both. For when God the Spirit is come
into a man, he teacheth him all things, and guideth him into
the way of all truth. A man can do all things through
Christ, strengthening him. But he can do nothing who is
without God. Hath not the Lord himself said,
Without me ye can do nothing? 1 Corinthians 2.14, John 14.16,
John 15.5, John 16.3, Philippians 4.13. Which was the richer man? The
rich man who had everything but God? Or the beggar who had nothing
but God? To the rich man, when on earth,
it would have seemed a foolishness to have said, the beggar with
God. But now, if he could come back
and speak to us, after having felt for 1800 years what it is
to be without God, how do you think he would answer the question? Deeper than the human heart can
fathom is the meaning of the words without God. Yet what it is to be without
God is a lesson that either in this world, as Lazarus did, or
in the next world, as the rich man did, every man must learn
and come to understand for himself. He who learns this here may bless
the Lord for it, for here no man need remain a moment without
God. Invitation follows invitation,
and promise promise to all who are hungering and thirst for
Him. Indeed, it is hard to conceive
of a more blessed state on earth than the state of that man or
woman who is able to cry from the heart, my soul is a thirst
for God. But he who never thirsts for
God here will thirst for Him before he has been dead a minute. He who never longs for a Savior
on earth will most surely feel his want of a Savior in hell. The rich man was contented without
God in the world, but as soon as he was in hell, he realized
his need and his first cry was, I thirst. A frightful place is
hell in which for the first time to learn the agony of thirst,
it is described in the Bible as the pit where there is no
water, Zechariah 9.11. Christ did not go to the angels
who fell from their first estate, but to earth, with his plan of
mercy. And he brought back the God of
mercy, not to devils, but to men. For Christ's sake, God will
give His Holy Spirit to any man on earth who asks Him. But Christ
has not brought back God to devils. There is no Holy Spirit to allay
man's cravings or satisfy his wants in hell. It is true God
is in hell, for God is everywhere. But it is God out of Christ. God taking vengeance on those
who live contented without him in this world. God, a consuming
fire. Psalm 139.8 He who would escape
the rich man's fate must beware of the rich man's sin. Contentment
without God. Chapter 4 The Poor Rich Man Alas
for the poor rich man, how many things he does now that he never
did on earth. Old things have passed away,
all things have become new. The purple, the fine linen, the
sumptuous affair are gone forever, and in their place there is torment,
want, prayer, and the last mentioned, not the least point recorded
for our learning, the eyes of the rich man have been opened
and he sees the kingdom of heaven. Oh, how terribly it must increase
the agony of the people in hell to see the kingdom of heaven.
The rich man lifts up his eyes, being in torment, and sees Abraham
far off and Lazarus in his bosom. Until he was in hell, the rich
man had never seen heaven, for he had lived and died without
being born again. And says the scripture, except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. It
is possible that while on earth he may have seen something of
the kingdom of hell, I believe most men who live in a Christian
country under certain dispensations of God's providence at some period
or other of their lives get more or less vividly a view of the
kingdom of hell. sickness, the death of a friend
or relative, a stirring sermon, a conversation with a faithful
Christian, these and many other things may bring a man to think
about eternity and ask himself the question, what is to become
of me when I die? In such cases, conscience often
gives the true answer, you will go to hell. The thought is horrible,
more horrible at the moment than the mind can bear and dear as
are his sins and great as will be the sacrifice, he determines
to give them all up and to live the rest of his days so that
when he dies he may escape hell. In the moment of such convictions
he sees this much of truth that it will profit a man nothing
if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul. But the heart
of man was never yet changed from the love of sin to the love
of God by a mere slavish fear of punishment And unless it undergoes
this change, man can never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. I do not say despise the fear
of hell. The devil never gave a man even
a slavish fear of God. And if you have any thought at
all about eternity, it is of God's mercy and may be to you
the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. Go to
Christ with it and believe what he tells you in his word. If
your fear brings you to him who has said, I will in no wise cast
out, men may call it slavish or by what name they will, but
it will be to you a blessed fear, a fear made instrumental by God
to the saving of your soul. that for all this such a view
of eternity may be, and too often is, only a carnal fear passing
away with the circumstances that gave it birth. A man may see
the kingdom of hell in this world and forget it, but let a man,
his eyes being opened by God's Spirit, once see the kingdom
of heaven, and he will never forget it. It may be obscured
from his view for a season, but if he once really sees it, he
will never permanently lose sight of it. Eye hath not seen, that
is the natural eye, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into
the heart of man, to conceive the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him. But to him who sees the kingdom
of heaven, these things have been revealed by the Spirit of
God, who in showing him the kingdom, hath also shown him the King,
given him a glimpse, not only of the pleasures that are at
God's right hand forevermore, but a discovery of God Himself. From that moment, the moment
that a man on earth really sees God, nothing less than God can
satisfy him. Henceforth he counts all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
his Lord. If at any time he does not, it
is because for the time he has lost sight of God. For the man
who sees the Lord, all way before him, will not be moved. The rich man lived and died without
God and never on earth saw the kingdom of heaven. But now in
hell his eyes have been opened to see. In torments he lifts
up his eyes and sees Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. Again I say how the sight, adding
mental agony to bodily, must have increased the torments of
the poor rich man. He now sees not only what must
forever be his portion, but what forever that portion might have
been, not only the misery to which he has brought himself,
but the glory, past knowledge from which he has excluded himself. How little unreal are those things
to him now, which once seemed so dreamy and unsubstantial. God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit,
the devil and his angels, are now too convincingly proved to
be real persons. Heaven and hell, real places. And oh, who can describe the
agony with which he realizes to himself that while there once
was a time when he might have sought and found God and then
made meat to be a partaker of an inheritance with the saints,
he is now not only doomed to spend eternity with the devil,
but forever shut out from the kingdom of heaven. But not only
does the rich man see what he never saw on earth, but his very
first act in hell is to do what he never did on earth. No sooner
was he in that place of torment than he began to pray. He cried and said, Father Abraham,
have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his
finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. What a lesson have we here. May
you to whom God now sends it, profit by it. Do you obey the
commandment in all things by prayer and supplication to make
your request? known unto God? Do you feel your
need as one born into the world without God, of seeking and finding
God? Are you really desirous to get
your needs supplied? Does God know you are desirous? Because He constantly hears you
in your secret chamber, begging and praying Him to give you His
Holy Spirit. which is only another way of
saying, give me thyself. Are you, in short, a man of prayer? Do you believe it has ever been
witnessed of you in heaven as it was of Paul? Behold, he prayeth. If not, be quite sure that when
you die, you will go where the rich man went, and that the first
thing you will do when you get there will be to pray. Before the rich man was in hell
five minutes, he began to pray. Our Savior records it as his
first act. He lifted up his eyes and saw. And the moment he saw, he cried,
saying, This will always be the case the moment a man for the
first time sees the kingdom of heaven. Whether that first time
be in heaven or in hell makes no difference. The moment a man
sees the kingdom of heaven he is certain to begin to pray. The reason is this. He sees a
satisfying portion and his heart thirsts after it. If this happens
in this world, his prayer will be heard, and for Christ's sake,
and by Christ, his hungering and thirsting will be satisfied. But if it occurs in hell, the
prayer will be too late, for man's need can only be satisfied
by Christ, and there is no Christ in hell. This cry for water was
the first real prayer the rich man had ever uttered. He might
have said his prayers, as people call it, night and morning, when
on earth, but now he was no longer merely saying prayers, but praying. The words of his lips were the
genuine desires of his heart. He really and truly wanted that
for which he professed to ask. Had he so prayed on earth, God
would have given him rivers of living water. But he had not
so prayed. Indeed, he could not, for on
earth he felt no need of what he wanted in hell. It is possible,
I say again, that he might regularly have said his prayers, but the
rich man never prayed until he lifted up his eyes in torments. He had nothing to pray for till
then. On earth he had everything except
God, and on earth he felt no need of God. There can be no
real prayer when there is no sense of need. that the vast
distinction between saying prayers and praying was more pressed
home upon congregations by their ministers and on the world generally
by godly teachers and other Christians. How comparatively small compared
with those who content themselves with what they term saying their
prayers is the number of those who really pray. Many have said
their prayers from their earliest childhood who have never prayed. Many have for years knelt night
and morning at the family altar and joined Sabbath after Sabbath
in professed worship who have never prayed. Many, both in public
and in private, have put themselves daily from their youth upwards
in the attitude of prayer and uttered from the mouth words
of prayer whose so-called prayers have not only not been prayer,
but blasphemy. Saying prayers without praying
is blasphemy. God has said, the Lord will not
hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Yet I believe
that no greater breach of the third commandment ascends from
earth into the ears of God than that which too often ascends
from the closet and from family circles, excepting only that
which ascends on the Sabbath day from the public assemblies
of God's professing worshipers. Who can deny that multitudes
of people who have been baptized into the name of Christ and who
would, if you doubted their Christianity, think you yourself were no Christian,
go up to their different churches on the Sabbath day for no other
reason than that it is the custom. grow up expecting to be no better
for going up, and totally forgetful that if they are not the better,
they must be the worse. Multitudes of such have forgotten,
and multitudes of such, perhaps, have never known that the scripture
hath said, If the word of God is not unto those who hear it
a savour of life unto life, it is a savour of death unto death. Yet do not a vast proportion
of professing worshippers go up without any realization that
they are going up to here for life or death? Are they solemnized? by the recollection or indeed
do many of them even recollect at all that when they pray they
are speaking to God and God hears them and that when they hear
his word read or preached God is speaking to them and expects
them to attend and obey. Do they not rather go up utterly
unsolemnized and enter God's house of prayer and put themselves
in the attitude of prayer with a heart altogether prayer-less? In a prayerless spirit, men go
up to God's house of prayer. In a prayerless spirit, they
put themselves in the attitude of prayer. And thus, in a prayerless
spirit, invoke God's special attention. For the attitude of
prayer is in itself a prayer, and says as plainly as words
could speak it, O God, let thine eye rest upon me. And God's eye
does rest on all who put themselves in the attitude of prayer, from
the moment he bows his head to say his prayers, to the moment
in which he leaves the place of worship. God's eye is never
off the professing worshiper, and his ear is open, attending
to what he says. And what does the eye of God
too often see, and his ear too often hear? He sees people professedly
engaged in his worship, not only forgetful, but so absolutely
destitute of the fear of God, that they pour forth from their
lips a series of supplications for things for which their hearts
feel no need. for things for which they have
no desire for things for which though they profess to ask they
would rather be without for things which God has offered them again
and again and which they have again and again rejected can
there be greater blasphemy Let me say a little more about this.
If uttered, for instance, without desire and without a sense of
need, what can more blasphemously break the Third Commandment than
the prayers offered up by members of the Church of England when
using our liturgy on the Lord's Day? And remember that although
I have mentioned the prayers of the Church of England, because
I have there got the very letter of the words used that the prayers
of all the evangelical churches are the same in substance, expressing
the same wants and professing to seek the same blessings as
the petitions used in the English service. That service begins
by calling on the worshippers to fall upon their knees and
confess their sins. Whether they kneel or not, they
put themselves in the attitude of prayer, and thus having invoked
his attention, they begin to speak to God. Almighty and most
merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from Thy ways. We
have offended against Thy holy laws. We have last undone what
we should have done, and done what we ought not to have done. There is no help in us. Have mercy upon us miserable
offenders Spare thou them which confess their faults Restore
thou them which are penitent This is part of the confession,
seeing what we see and knowing what we know. Can we, with the
greatest stretch of charity, believe that the generality of
the worshippers feel the reality of what they utter? That they
are miserable sinners, that they need to be spared, need to be
restored, and are truly penitent? Whether they feel it or not,
however, they go on to pray. Grant, O most merciful Father,
for Christ's sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous,
and sober life, to the glory of Thy holy name. Now I would
ask any man who is willing to take one atom of thought about
the matter, whether a person feeling neither sorrow for past
sin, nor intention for the future of trying to live a godly righteous
and sober life to the glory of God can commit a more faithful
act of blasphemy than to call upon God to listen to him while
he utters the words of this confession and prayer? Then follows the
Lord's prayer, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. These petitions are poured
into the ears of God from every mouth in the congregation, yet
how many prove by their everyday life that they desire God's name
to be hallowed. How many would truly welcome
Him if, in answer to their prayer, Christ's kingdom really was to
come. How many would remain to live
and reign with Him if only those were left whose hearts as well
as whose lips had prayed, Thy will be done on earth as it is
in heaven. These things will all yet be. God's name will be hallowed.
His kingdom will come and His will will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. But when they are, many who have
professed to pray for them on earth will begin to pray to the
rocks to cover them and the hills to hide them and in the end as
the poor rich man did for a drop of water to cool their tongues. I might go on in this same strain
through the whole service of the Church of England as also
through the usual extemporary petitions of all the evangelical
congregations, but I will not press the subject further. I
have said sufficient, I hope, to make my reader think. My desire
is to get all to remember that when a person puts himself in
the attitude of prayer, he immediately and by his own act and deed invites
the special attention of God. His position is then a very solemn
one and surely he should be careful what he says. especially should
he be careful not to mock God by professing to ask for what
he knows he does not want. To utter a string of petitions
in which the heart takes no interest is, I again repeat, blasphemy
and not prayer. And they who are guilty of such
a sin do the devil service while they provoke. and dishonor God. Chapter 5 HE PRAYS The prayer of the rich man, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip
the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, was no prayer
of the kind I have spoken of in the last chapter. The rich
man was in earnest. He felt in need. of what he asked
for, and he desired to get it. Oh, how earnestly he desired! Never in his lifetime had he
so longed for anything. Perhaps as he lifted up his eyes,
now no longer blinded by a veil of flesh, he saw the pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb. that living water which Jesus
gave to the woman of Samaria and to so many others when he
was on the earth that water of which if a man drank he shall
never thirst I think he did I think, too, that he saw, though that
river could never flow down to hell, yet that through the Lamb,
out of whose throne it issued, it had flowed down to earth. Nay, more, had not only flowed
down to earth, but had actually been flowing past him all the
time that he was on earth. He had never heeded it. Still,
for all that, day after day, month after month, year after
year, he now knew that this pure river of water of life had been
within his reach. He remembers, too, that many
a time a voice had called him, saying, Come ye to the waters. Whosoever will, let him come
and take of the waters of life freely. At the time he had paid
no attention to the call, the water was flowing by him. But he had purple and fine linen,
and sumptuous fare every day. And while surrounded by the rich
viands of earthly luxury, what need had he of living water?
Never did he believe that the day could come when, for a drop
of that water, he would have given a million times over all
that he ever had. But that day had come, and he
believes it now. Yay. He knows it. And oh, how it increases his
torment to remember that there was a time when he had only to
stoop down and drink. Without money and without price,
he might have drunk abundantly of that water then, and if he
had but drunk, he never would have died. The spirit of life
was in the waters, and death, temporal, would have been the
passage to life, eternal. But the opportunity when he had
it was lost, and he must now forever endure his agony in the
pit, where there is no water. Zechariah 9, 11. Oh, my brother! If you have not done it before,
drink now of this water. In other words, I beseech you,
give yourself no rest until you have sought and found God. Again,
I tell you, you have not God by nature, and I will add that
you may have been baptized and a regular attendant for years
at the Lord's table, and yet still be without God. Let there be no uncertainty about
the matter with you, for he that has not God is unsaved. With what earnestness and authority
did the Apostle Paul preach this doctrine and exhort the Corinthians
to examine themselves whether they had God. Examine yourselves,
he says, whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you? Accept ye be reprobates? 2 Corinthians 13 5 Now the meaning of this scripture
is solemn, very plain, and easily understood. There can be no mistake
about it. It places all the world in two
divisions, and so cuts the ground from under the feet of every
other. In it, the Holy Ghost tells us
there are but two classes, those in whom Christ is and those who
are reprobates. This is not the devil's teaching
and is most offensive to his people. The devil deserves to
make at least one other class, those who have no reason to think
they have Christ and yet think they have no reason to call themselves
raprobates. And into this third and most
unscriptural class, Satan has drawn multitudes. The great masses
of professing Christendom are neither murderers, nor adulterers,
nor drunkards, nor Sabbath breakers. They are not as a body outwardly
profane or immoral. On the contrary, I believe that
the greater portion of men are quietly laboring to get their
own living and are doing their duty tolerably as between man
and man in the position of life in which God has placed them. But yet, multitudes of these
men have not, and know they have not Christ. They would acknowledge
it if you ask them, but in the same voice, they would deny that
they were reprobates, that is, only fit, like worthless dross,
for that is the meaning of the word, to be cast out of God's
sight forever. and yet God says Jesus Christ
is in you except he be reprobates who then is the teacher that
says a man can come short of having Christ and not be reprobate
it is Satan dear reader it is Satan and though a man may be
as amiable as moral and as lovable as nature can make him if he
has not God Or as the apostle says, if Christ is not in him,
he is in the devil's division. And as reprobate silver is cast
out by the refiner, so if he dies as he is, will God cast
him out. To my mind, there is more likelihood
of the conversion of publicans and prodigals than of a class
which, while it describes itself as not so good as it ought to
be, places its hope of finding mercy on not being so bad as
it might be. a class no member of which would
dare to say he had got God, yet would dare to say he was not
bad enough to be cast into hell. He therefore, who is not prepared
to deny that the Bible is the Word of God, must acknowledge
that the statement, Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates,
closes every door of hope against the man who has not got God. He that hath not the Son hath
not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Once more then
I urge you examine yourself as to whether you have God. Eternity
is before you. Sooner or later you know that
you must enter on it and you may be called to enter on it
at any moment. If you can run the risk of such
a call before you have a good scriptural reason to believe
that you have sought and found God, how great over you must
be Satan's power. contentment without God was the
sin of the rich man he chose the world and the things of the
world for his portion on earth and you can do exactly what the
rich man did if you please But will it answer? Did it answer
for him? For that sin he has been for
upwards of eighteen hundred years, lifting up his eyes in torment,
vainly praying for water to cool his tongue. For that sin, amidst
a multitude of other agonies, his irrevocable doom has become
thirst. thirst for that which God once
offered him, yea, even besought him to accept, but for which
he must now in the midst of unceasing torments pray, and forever pray
in vain. Will you then, as God's word
has declared the rich man's apportion, to be prepared for everyone who
dies without Christ and reprobate, refuse to examine yourself as
to whether you have got God? But perhaps you know without
examination that you have not. If this is so, it is by God's
mercy that you are reading what you are. And you are exactly
the sort of person into whose hands I wished my book to fall. You have not got God. You acknowledge that you have
not, and you are contented. contented with the good things,
or in seeking after the good things of this life, although
you are without God. Who gives you the power to be
thus contented without God? Think! You know your contentment
is not the peace of God, then whose contentment, whose peace
must it be? Think! I say again, think! Is it not an awful power to possess,
to be able to rest satisfied with the devil's contentment
and contented without God? Will you, can you, if you know
you are without God, continue thus contented? What is it that
you are getting in exchange for God? Whatever it is, is no doubt
pleasant enough now, but what can it do for you in the hour
of your soul's need? That hour looks far off, perhaps,
but it may come sooner than you expect. At all events, it is
coming. Ethos sold his birthright for
one morsel of meat, and you think he was a madman, yet Are you
not guilty of far greater madness if you sell your soul for the
pleasures of sin and take what the devil in the world can give
you in exchange for God? I feel much pressed in spirit
while writing on this part of my subject. May God, the Holy
Ghost, for Jesus Christ's sake, bless it to all who read it. But I was myself once contented
without God. My whole idea of happiness then
consisted in spending my time agreeably. It was a pleasant
day to me on which amusement after amusement prevented it
from hanging heavily on my hands. But suddenly during the days
of discontentment and in the midst of forgetfulness of God,
I was taken ill, so ill that I thought I was going to die.
I then learned something of what it was to be without God. Where was my contentment then? What could those things which
up to that moment had been my joy and peace do for me then? What should I have cared for
the whole world if it had been offered to me then? I had no
want then, but one, and that was God. Oh, how willingly then
would I have suffered the loss of all things, and as the Apostle
says, had counted them but dung, if I could only have one Christ. My life itself would have been
as nothing, if by laying down my life I could have got God. I was without God. and felt it, and everything was
valueless except him. For seven months I sought him,
but I could not find him. Nature could not have stood much
more, and my friends began to fear for my reason. but man's
extremity is God's opportunity and at last I had scriptural
warrant for believing that though he never would have been found
of me if I had not first been found of him that for Christ's
sake he had forgiven my sins had given me his spirit and that
I had got God Still, do believe me when I tell you that all I
have ever known or imagined of agony never came up to the agony
of the seven months in which I believed and felt myself to
be without God. Conceive what are the sufferings
of those who are without God and feel it forever and ever. Now what happened to me may happen
to you. You may be taken ill and what
happened to me may not happen to you. You may be taken ill
and not feel your want of God. Long before you die you may have
rejected God once too often and he may have sworn in his wrath
that you shall never enter into his wrath. In that case, perhaps
even your deathbed may be without terror. You may give directions
about your funeral, take leave of your family with calmness,
and then die quietly and in apparent peace. You may never feel your
need of God until you are in hell. But should this be so,
good would it have been for you if you had never been born. Who
among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us
shall dwell with everlasting burnings? This is God's own question
by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah. And the devouring fire and the
everlasting burning must be the portion of all who die without
God. To be without God is death. To
be without God and feel it is a devouring fire and will be
an everlasting burning unless it be quenched in the waters
of life. This death man does not and cannot
feel naturally simply because he is dead. He must be spiritually
quickened before he can feel spiritual things. But sooner
or later every man will be spiritually quickened. This death sooner
or later God has determined that every man shall feel. I believe
that this is the death the rich man felt in hell when he cried
for water. I believe it is the death our
precious Savior felt when forsaken of his Father. He cried, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was without God in the
world and felt it. I believe this is the death.
Every awakened sinner feels when he cries for pardon and the Holy
Spirit before he believes in Jesus. When he believes his thirst
is quenched, he gets God. God is in him from that moment,
a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Let no
man say he does not know whether or not he has got God. Any man may answer this question
for himself who will only take the trouble to read his Bible
with prayer for the teaching of the Holy Spirit. If he is
not sufficiently anxious about the matter to read his Bible
and pray for teaching, he may be perfectly sure that he has
not got God. The Bible says, if any man is
in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. All things have become new. If on self-examination you have
reason to believe that your thoughts, desires, tastes, pursuits, and
habits have undergone a transformation so that your affections are now
set on things above and not on things on the earth, You have
scriptural warrant for considering yourself a new creature. If not,
what warrant have you for believing you have got God? The Bible says,
they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections
and lusts. Now I do not tell you that in
order to examine whether you have got God, you are to examine
whether or not you have any sinful lusts and affections. The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eye and the pride of life will remain. and make themselves
felt in the best of men until their warfare is accomplished
and death swallowed up in victory. But do you fight against these
lusts? Examine yourself, for on this
depends the evidence whether or not you have got God. If you are not crucifying the
flesh with its affections and lusts, What warrant have you
for believing you have got God? The Bible says, We, that is Christians,
thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead,
and that he died for all, that they which live should not live
henceforth unto themselves, but unto him which died for them
and rose again. 14 and 15. Now says St. Paul, this is the universal judgment
of Christians, that they should not live unto themselves, but
unto Him who died for them. and it cannot require as much
self-examination to ascertain whether or not this is your judgment. Your life, your daily conduct
is the answer both to yourself and others. You call yourself
a Christian, if any doubted your Christianity, you would think
he was uncharitable. But do you live unto yourself
or unto him who you say died for you and rose again? If you
are living simply for self, if your thoughts, words, and works
have their primary reference not to Christ's glory, but to
your own well-doing in the world, what warrant have you for believing
that you have got God? To be brief, have you the Spirit
of Christ? The Spirit of Christ led him
when he was on the earth to trust in the Lord and go about doing
good. Have you this Spirit, the Spirit
of Christ? If you have not the Spirit of
Christ, you must certainly have not got God. On the other hand,
if the things natural to the old man have so passed from you
that the affections and desires of your heart are more set on
heavenly than on earthly things, if you are crucifying the flesh
and habitually living not unto yourself but unto him who died
for sinners, you are doing what no man ever did or ever could
do. by nature. Your frames, feelings,
doubts, thoughts, fears may be what they may, but you may be
sure, and you dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ if you are not sure,
that He who hath wrought for you this selfsame thing is God,
who also hath given unto you the earnest of His Spirit. The
temperance and dispositions of your mind are not what they were
by nature. It is true that the flesh still
lusteth against the spirit, but it is a grief to you, for you
have become heavenly minded. Though with Paul you cry out,
O wretched man that I am, with Paul also you can say, I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. With the mind, I myself
serve the law of God. Be of good cheer, dear brother,
fight on and fear not. The spirit that is in you is
God's spirit. Witnessing with your spirit,
that you have got God. Chapter 6, God the only hearer
of prayer. Father Abraham sent Lazarus that
he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. Such was the earnest heartfelt
prayer of the poor rich man, but his heartfelt earnestness
could avail him nothing. His prayer was too late. But there was another reason
also, even if it had not been too late, why this prayer was
put up by the rich man could never have been answered. Such
a prayer would have availed him no more if offered up on earth
than it did when offered up in hell. It was not only too late,
but it was addressed to a person who had no power to answer prayer. The man was in want, and his
need was a need that in this world God not only promiseth,
but delighteth to supply. The scriptures abound with invitations
to the poor and needy lacking water. To them, the Spirit and
the Bride say, Come. And to them, they who have accepted
the invitation for themselves, are commanded to say, Come. To them are addressed the words,
Let him that is the first, come. And whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. But the same God who, without
exception, gives to every thirsty soul these most gracious invitations,
tells them also to whom they must come for water. Not to saints
or angels or the spirits of just men made perfect, but to the
Lord Jesus Christ, to Him of whom, under the teaching of God's
Spirit, The Samaritan woman asked water. To him who in the temple
stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. To him who hath said, Whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life. The rich man went to Abraham
and asked him for water, and had he asked him for it when
he was on the earth, Abraham would have been as unable to
give it him as he was when he asked him for it in hell. This prayer addressed to Abraham
is the only instance in scripture of prayer being made to a saint. And though it bore no fruit in
heaven, it has, like many other of the productions of hell, borne
much on earth. Prayers to saints have become
common now, and the rich man has had many disciples. But as God has declared himself
the only hearer and answerer of prayer, and made a way, even
though Jesus Christ his son, by which sinners, even the chief,
can go direct to him, judge how such prayers must grieve and
insult God. When man sinned, and God in consequence
left him, There is no way remaining open by which God and man could
meet. Man's sin had separated, and
apparently forever, between God and man. No created intelligence,
either in heaven or hell, could imagine any way by which it could
be possible for these two, God and man, to be brought together
in peace. There seemed a great gulf between
them, to all finite wisdom as impassable on earth, as is now
the great gulf that is fixed between hell and heaven. Had things remained as they became
when man sinned, there could have been no place found for
repentance. For even assuming that man had
felt sorry for his sin and desirous of asking pardon, the sorrow
and the desire could never have been made known to God. For man
could not have got to God to tell him of his penitence. The way to God, or as it is typified
in scripture, the way into the holiest, was barred by man's
sin, and however much he might have desired it, there was no
way by which man could get to God. I believe it is in reference
to this fact that the Holy Spirit uses the wonderful language of
Isaiah 59, 16, And the Lord saw it, and it displeased
Him that there was no judgment. And He saw that there was no
man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore
His arm brought salvation unto Him, and His righteousness, it
sustained Him. To God belonged mercies and forgiveness,
though we had rebelled against Him, and He was not willing that
any should perish. But how could a way be made by
which man could present his prayer to God, and by which God could
grant it when it was presented? God's own arm brought salvation
unto man, rather than leave us without an intercessor, or rather
than that there should be no place where God and man could
meet. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son to take our nature upon Him. God
was manifest in the flesh, and as man endured the death which
sin had entailed on man. Not merely the death of the body,
but the death of the soul, for his soul was made an offering
for sin. Not merely the death of the body,
but the being forsaken of God. As God left Adam before sin,
so He left Christ. But the moment Christ was without
God, He felt it. And immediately, as I have said
before, the cry burst from Him, I thirst. I know we are told
that Christ uttered this cry that the Scriptures might be
fulfilled, but does anyone suppose that it had reference to the
thirst of the body only? Ah, no! The great thirst of the
Savior was His thirst after God. To be without God is the penalty
of sin, but when we are without Him, to feel it and to thirst
for Him, is the work of the Holy Spirit. Never did the cry, I
thirst, go up from earth to God. Or in other words, never did
man on earth feel his want of God and cry for him without getting
God. Christ went to the cross laden
with sin. Sins it is true, not his own,
but his people's. Still by these sins he who did
no sin was made sin. In God's sight, God saw sin on
Christ, visited him with its penalty, and forsook him. The agonizing cry that burst
from the lips of Jesus, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? revealed how in the very moment
of his desertion the sorrows of death confessed him about,
the pains of hell gathered upon him. The man Christ Jesus was
without God. He who had heretofore been with
him always had left him. And as the heart panteth for
the water brought, so thirsteth his soul for the living God. He longed, as every man does
who is without God and feels it, to follow after God until
he found Him and brought Him back to him. And what did he
do? Did he cry to Abraham to intercede
for him, or to Moses, who so often interceded when on earth
for Israel? Did he ask Daniel, a man greatly
beloved, to go to God and entreat him to come back? No, if he had,
Abraham, Moses, and Daniel would have known nothing of the prayer
addressed to them. For the saints of God are neither
omnipresent nor omniscient. And even had they, their Holy
Spirits would have been grieved that a man should have addressed
to them what he should only have addressed to God. But the man
Christ Jesus in his hour of need prayed to neither advocate nor
mediator. He was forsaken of God for the
sin that God saw on him. And in the moment that he was
forsaken, he felt it and was a thirst for God. But in the
same moment of his need, from the head and hands and feet of
Jesus began to flow blood. It was that blood without the
shedding of which there could have been no remission. But it
was that blood which the scriptures declare cleanseth from all sin. When God saw that blood, He saw
no more sin on Christ, for that blood had made a full and sufficient
sacrifice, satisfaction, and oblation. The sin on Him was
all gone, washed all away in His own blood. In the extremist
hour of his need, the man Christ Jesus sought neither mediator
nor advocate with God. Yet it is certain that he who
was made sin for us, and for sin forsaken of God, sought and
found a way to God, and prevailed to bring God back to him. How did he do this? The Holy
Spirit by the mouth of Paul answers the question by his own blood. By his own blood he entered in
once into the holy place. Hebrews 9, 12. Glory be to God
on high, on earth peace, goodwill towards men. In Christ we see
how God the Father devised a plan which by the Spirit of God, God
the Son worked out, by which a man laden with sin could get
rid of sin, find a way into the presence of that very God who
had left him on account of sin and prevail with him to return
to him. When the blood of Christ was
shed for sinners, the veil of the temple was rent in twain. And now, says the Holy Ghost
in another place, Hebrews 10, 19 and 20, we have boldness to
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. When this way
was opened, Christ's work was completed on earth. And when
his work was completed, his people were complete in him. He had
finished the work that his father had given him to do. And as he
cried, it is finished, he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. He was laid in the tomb, the
third day he rose again, and at the appointed time ascended
up where he was before. As the everlasting doors were
lifted up, that the King of Glory might come in, what were the
first words addressed to Christ by God the Father? Sit thou at
my right hand. Sit thou at my right hand, until
I make thine enemies thy footstool. But also sit there at my right
hand as the man of my right hand, the man that is my fellow, the
son of man, who is also the Son of God, the advocate with the
Father, the one mediator between God and man. Oh, how the heart
of Paul burned with holy faith and joy as he contemplated his
acceptance with God through the finished work and advocacy of
this mediator. It is God that justifieth, he
exclaims. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Christ is at the right
hand of God. He has ascended up on high, leading
captivity captive, and hath received gifts for men. Yea, even for
the rebellious also, that the Lord their God may dwell among
them. Psalm 68, 18. He is at the right
hand of God, having received of the Father the promise of
the Holy Ghost. Acts 2, 33. In virtue of his exaltation to
the mediatorial throne, God the Son has received from God the
Father the gift of God the Spirit, and this gift he has received
for men, yea, even for the rebellious. He who is without God and feels
it on earth can now go to the great God and our Savior Jesus
Christ and get his need supplied. But the great God and our Savior
Jesus Christ brought back God to man and made this way by which
man could go to God at the cost of his own blood. Acts 20 Think then, after the cross and
passion, the death and burial, the glorious resurrection and
ascension, and the exultation to the mediatorial throne purchased
at such a price, how insulting it must be both to the Father
and to the Son, and how grieving to God's Holy Spirit when men
seek other mediators and pray to other advocates and intercessors. I am the way, the truth, and
the life, says Jesus. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Some will say, however, we do
not go to the Father through other advocates and mediators,
but to the Son, asking such as James and Peter or the beloved
disciple or the Blessed Virgin Mother to propitiate Him in our
favor. First, I would ask such, do you
think that anything or anybody could make Christ more willing
to receive and save you than He is? Has He not purchased the
power with His own blood? And then I would tell you that
Christ and His Father are one and that the only way to the
Father is the only way to the Son. A man can no more approach
Christ, except by the blood of Christ, than he can approach
his father. It was for the joy set before
him, says St. Paul, that Christ endured the
cross and despised the shame. And part of the joy set before
him was that as the one advocate between God and man, he might
forever sit down at the right hand of God, able to save to
the uttermost all who come to God by him. To deprive him of
this joy was the one great object of Satan during all Christ's
life on earth, and that he may hinder it yet, as far as he can,
is his object still. Hence his introduction of other
ways to God, or other advocates and other mediators. Again then
I remind you that the rich man's prayer is the only instance in
the scripture of prayer being made to a saint. Never forget
where it had its origin. Prayers to saints had their origin
with the devil and his angels were first offered by a lost
soul in his agony and came up direct from hell. CHAPTER 7 EARNEST, HEARTFELT,
TOO LATE PRAYER But not only was the prayer of the rich man
addressed to the wrong person, it was also too late. addressed
to Abraham or to any but God himself through Jesus Christ,
it never could have availed anything. But there was a day when the
way by which the man Christ Jesus went himself to God was open
to the rich man. And had he in that day, by the
blood of Christ, gone in the name of Christ, and asked God
for mercy, God would have listened to his prayer. Had he felt his
need on earth as he felt it in hell, and cried to God on earth
as he cried to Abraham in hell, God would have given him Christ,
and Christ would have given him God. Oh, what eager, longing,
earnest, heartfelt prayers are the prayers that are offered
up in hell? With what strong crying and tears,
and in what sole agony are they uttered? How truly do the lips
that pull them forth feel their need, and how anxious are they
to get their prayers answered? Answered they can never be, however. The prayers and the sense of
need are both alike, unavailing. They are too late. Terrible is the thought of praying
a too late prayer and blessed forever be our most merciful
God who has confined this terrible thing to hell. To this truth
give all the scriptures witness that while in hell there is no
place for hope. On earth there is no place for
despair. on earth or in hell the need
of the unsaved is the same and that need God has typified in
scripture by a need of water there can be no hope in hell
because there is no water in hell Zechariah 9 11 but to every
thirsting soul on earth thus saith the Lord When the poor
and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth
for first, I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel,
will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. Isaiah 41, 17 and 18. When Jesus spake of living water,
as he taught in the temple, Saint John tells us that he meant the
Holy Spirit. And God's promise in the Old
Testament of water to the thirsty is the same as Christ's promise
under the Gospel dispensation, that His Heavenly Father will
give His Holy Spirit to all who ask Him. In the moment that a
man asks on earth, His need is all supplied, for God cannot
deny Himself. And he who really asks, receives. And he who receives the Holy
Spirit, receives Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. His body becomes
the temple of the living God. He is born of the Spirit. He has got God. All this is necessary for salvation
and all this can be done for a sinner on earth, but in hell
there is no such thing as this. Dear reader, whoever you are,
if you have not yet repented, believed the gospel, and received
the Holy Ghost, I beseech you on the one hand not to despair
and on the other not to trifle with God. Now is your accepted
time. Now is your day of salvation. In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ I now offer you water, water that Christ called living
water. Water in receiving which you
receive God, for the gift of this water is the gift of God. Water that shall be in you, a
well of water springing up unto eternal life, and of which, if
you drink, you shall live forever. Water flowing forth from the
rock that was smitten, and that rock was Christ. What say you? Will you accept this water now? Remember your need is the very
same as the rich man's. If anybody could offer him water,
what do you think could keep him from it? Then what keeps
you? This. He feels his need, and
you do not. Once he was like you. Once the
warning to prepare to meet his God and flee from the wrath to
come fell as idly on his ear as perhaps it does now on yours. But this was because he knew
not God, and neither understood nor believed in his revealed
word. But now when he cries for water
to cool his tongue, he understands and believes both in God and
his word. And oh, how closely would he
follow any deliverer that could give him water, but there is
no deliverer in hell. He cries and cries and cries,
and yet there is none. and he must cry and will continue
to cry through the ages of eternity and through the ages of eternity
there will be no deliverer these thoughts are too frightful to
dwell upon yet are they truths clearly taught us in the word
of God and now clearly felt and known to be truths by the wretched
rich men reflect upon them I beseech you and pause before you refuse
water now again I tell you your need is the very same as his
with this single difference you are on earth and he is in hell
he must remain in need forever you can get yours supplied O
you, whoever you are, if you are still unsaved, may God bless
what I am writing to your salvation. Were it not that God's strength
is made perfect in man's weakness, who could even attempt to save
his fellow? For never does a Christian feel
more impotent than when, either by speaking or writing, he is
trying to make spiritual things touch and tell on unconverted
men. But, shall God's people therefore
cease to try? God forbid. The promise is, cast
thy bread upon the waters. The promise, thou shalt find
it. If nothing less will do, I pray
God that not only every unconverted man who reads this book, but
every unsaved person on earth may feel his want and need as
the rich man feels his in hell. I pray to God that the sorrows
of death may even now compass him, that the pains of hell may
immediately get hold upon him. Does this wish scandalize you? Do you call it uncharitable,
unscriptural, unchristian? If so, suspend your judgment
and let us consider together for a little the beginning of
the 116th Psalm. I love the Lord. because he hath heard my voice
and my supplications, because he hath inclined his ear unto
me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed
me, and the pains of hell gathered hold upon me. I found it trouble
and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord, O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. Now in these verses we have a
short but perfectly true history. They describe a case that really
happened. They relate the experience of
a man who is able to preface what he says by telling us that
he loves the Lord. I love the Lord, he says, and
he tells us why. I love the Lord because he hath
heard my voice and my supplications, because he hath inclined his
ear unto me. Therefore will I call upon him
as long as I live. The writer of this had evidently
been in some sore distress, and his distress had sent him with
prayers and supplications to God. It is evident, too, that
God had heard and answered his prayers, and that, in consequence,
his heart, so lately filled with anguish, was now filled with
gratitude and love. But what was the heart agony
that drove him to prayer? What was it that sent him with
strong cryings and tears to God? It was, he himself tells us,
the very same sorrows and pains that drove the rich man to cry
for water. The sorrows of death compassed
me about. The pains of hell got hold upon
me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I on the name of
the Lord. Now, he who tells us all this
was David, a man spoken of both in the Old and the New Testament
as a man after God's own heart. The Lord dearly loved David. If he had not, David would never
have been able to say, I love the Lord. We love him, says St. John, because he first loved
us. So that if any man loves the
Lord, He may be sure that the Lord loves him. But how did the Lord show his
love to David? By leaving him in the undisturbed
enjoyment of purple and fine linen and sumptuous affair every
day? No. But by doing what I said
just now I wished he would do to every unsaved man on earth. By allowing the sorrows of death
and the pains of hell to get hold of him. By sending him trouble
and sorrow. It was a sore dispensation that
came upon David. We learn something of its terribleness
from an expression in the 88th Psalm. While I suffer by terrors,
I am distracted. But was this terrible distractedness
really hurtful or a proof of want of love on the part of God
to David? No more, dear reader, than my
wish is unscriptural and unchristian that you, if unsaved, may at
once feel the want of the rich man. So far from want of love,
this dealing of God with David was the greatest mercy that he
could show him. It was the dealing of a wise
father with the child he loved. A dealing that, in its consequences,
brought back that child to God. Then, says David, then, when
the sorrows of death compassed me about, and the pains of hell
gathered upon me, then called I, upon the name of the Lord,
O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. Terrible as they were
in their experience, yet these sorrows of death and pains of
hell were amongst the greatest blessings that ever God gave
to David. Under a dispensation that the
heart loveth, a time of ease and idleness, David had sinned
against God. But now when the dispensation
is not joyous, but grievous, David remembers again the God
against whom he had sinned and goes back to him to save the
soul his own wickedness had so well nigh destroyed. It was good
for me, says David, that I was afflicted. Suppose David had
never been afflicted. Suppose in this life his time
of ease and idleness had never been interrupted. Suppose that,
like the rich man, David had lived and died without a thought
of death or hell, until the sorrows of a never-dying death and the
pains of a never-ending hell had compassed him about. I say,
suppose this. Had it been, do you think David
would be thanking and blessing God for it now? by the mercy
of God. It was not so. But do you think
David wishes that it had been? Do you think that now, as amidst
the multitude who came out of great tribulation, he stands
and tunes his harp to praise, that David praises and glorifies
with less loving adoration? Because when he was on earth,
God visited him with the sorrows of death and pains of hell, sorrows
and pains that sent him to his knees with the prayer, O Lord,
I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. No, my dear brother, no, and
neither will you, by and by. You will one day acknowledge,
whether you acknowledge it in heaven, earth, or hell, that
it is better to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Even on earth, God's
people are the happiest. They have bread to eat that the
world knows not of. Never did David feel such pleasure
in his life as he felt when he could say, I love the Lord. The most fitiable object on earth
is not the man whom the sorrows of death and pains of hell or
in other words the agonies of an awakened conscience are leading
to seek God but an unsaved soul at peace and God's greatest curse
out of hell is to allow an unsaved soul to be at peace If this curse
is on you, I beseech you, ask God to remove it. Unless it is
removed, you cannot be saved. For unless it is removed, you
will remain contented without God. Consider which is best,
to ask God now to send you the pain and trouble which shall
send you to him with David's petition, O Lord, I beseech thee,
deliver my soul, or to wait for the pain and trouble which must
sooner or later come upon you, and that will drive you to Abraham
with the rich man's too late prayer. Send Lazarus that he
may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue.