|
|
|
S P U R G E O N By C H A R L E S H A D D O N S P U R G E O N. |
n some old castle there is a deep cellar, where there is a
vast amount of fixed air and gas, which would kill anybody who went down. What does
the guide say? "If you go down you will never come up alive." Who thinks
of going down? The very fact of the guide telling us what the consequences would
be, keeps us from it. Our friend puts away from us a cup of arsenic; he does not
want us to drink it, but he says, "If you drink it, it will kill you."
Does he suppose for a moment that we should drink it. No; he tells us the consequences,
and he is sure we will not do it. So God says, "My child, if you fall over this
precipice you will be dashed to pieces." What does the child do? He says, "Father,
keep me; hold thou me up, and I shall be safe." It leads the believer to greater
dependence on God, to a holy fear and caution, because he knows that if he were to
fall away he could not be renewed, and he stands far away from that great gulf, because
he know that if he were to fall into it there would be no salvation for him. If I
thought as the Arminian thinks, that I might fall away, and then return again, I
should pretty often fall away, for sinful flesh and blood would think it very nice
to fall away, and be a sinner, and go and see the play at the theatre, or get drunk,
and then come back to the Church, and be received again as a dear brother who had
fallen away for a little while. No doubt the minister would say, "Our brother
Charles is a little unstable at times." A little unstable! He does not know
anything about grace; for grace engenders a holy caution, because we feel that if
we were not preserved by Divine power we should perish. We tell our friend to put
oil in his lamp, that it may continue to burn! Does that imply that it will be allowed
to go out? No, God will give him oil to pour into the lamp continually. Like John
Bunyan's figure; there was a fire, and he saw a man pouring water upon it. "Now,"
says the Preacher, "don't you see that fire would go out, that water is calculated
to put it out, and if it does, it will never be lighted again;" but God does
not permit that! for there is a man behind the wall who is pouring oil on the fire;
and we have cause for gratitude in the fact, that if the oil were not put in by a
heavenly hand, we should inevitably be driven to destruction. Take care, then Christian,
for this is a caution.
-from Final Perseverance
A Sermon (No. 75) Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 23, 1856, by the REV. C.H.
SPURGEON At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark. "For it is impossible for those
who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers
of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world
to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."–Hebrews
6:4-6.
|
 |
|
|
