297. The Swelling of Jordan

The Swelling of Jordan

Jer_12:5 : ’93If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?’94

Jeremiah had become impatient with his troubles. God says, ’93If you cannot stand these small trials and persecutions, what are you going to do when the greater trials and persecutions come? If you have been running a race with footmen and they have beaten you, what chance is there that you will outrun horses?’94 And then the figure is changed. You know in April and May the Jordan overflows its banks, and the waters rush violently on, sweeping everything before them. And God says to the prophet, ’93If you are overcome with smaller trials and vexations, which have assaulted you, what will you do when the trials and annoyances and persecutions of life come in a freshet?’94 ’93If in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?’94

I propose, in a very practical way to ask’97if it be such a difficult thing to get along without the religion of Jesus Christ when things are comparatively smooth, what will we do without Christ amid the overpowering disasters that may come upon us? If troubles, slow as footmen, surpass us, what will we do when they take the feet of horses? and if now in our lifetime we are beaten back and submerged of sorrows because we have not the religion of Jesus to comfort us, what will we do when we stand in death, and we feel all around about us ’93the swelling of Jordan’94?

You have some things you believe in common with myself. You believe that there is a God. There is not an atheist among us. I do not believe there ever was a real atheist in all the world. Napoleon was on a ship’92s deck bound for Egypt. It was a bright starry night, and as he paced the deck, thinking of the great affairs of the Empire and of battle, he heard two men on the deck in conversation about God; one saying there was a God, and the other saying there was none. Napoleon stopped and looked up at the starry heavens, and then he turned to these men in conversation and said, ’93Gentlemen, I heard one of you say there is no God; if there is no God, will you please to tell me who made all that?’94 Ay, if you had not been persuaded of it before, you are persuaded of it now; for the shining heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows his handiwork. But you believe more than that; you believe that there was a Jesus; you believe that there was a Cross; you believe that you have an immortal soul; you believe that it must be regenerated by the spirit of God, or you can never dwell in bliss eternal. I think a great many of you will say that you believe it is important to have the religion of Jesus Christ every day of our life, to smooth our tempers and purify our minds, and hold us imperturbable amid annoyance and in all the vexations of life. You and I have seen so many men trampled down by misfortunes because they had no faith in Jesus, and you say to yourself, ’93If they were so easily overcome by the trials of life, what will it be when greater misfortunes comes upon them’97heartbreaking calamities, tremendous griefs?’94 If we have no God to comfort us when our fortune goes, and we look upon the graves of our children, and our houses are desolate, what will become of us? What a sad thing it is to see men all unhelped of God going out to fight giants of trouble; no closet of prayer in which to retreat, no promise of mercy to soothe the soul, no rock of refuge where they may hide from the blast! Oh, when the swift coursers of trouble are brought up, champing and panting for the race, and the reins are thrown upon their necks, and the lathered flanks at every spring feel the stroke of the lash, what can we do on foot with them? How can we compete with them? If, having run with the footmen, they wearied us, how can we contend with horses?

We have all yielded to temptation. We have been surprised afterward that so small an inducement could have decoyed us from the right. How insignificant a temptation has sometimes captured our soul! And if that is so, what will it be when we come to stand in the presence of such temptation as prostrated a David and a Moses and a Peter and some of the mightiest men in all God’92s kingdom? Now we are honest; but suppose we were placed in some path of life, as many of God’92s children have been, where all the forces of earth and hell combine to capture the soul? Without Jesus we would go down under it. If already we have been beaten by insignificant footmen, we would be distanced ten thousand leagues by the horses. I do not like to hear a man say, ’93I could not commit such sin as that. I cannot understand how a man could be carried away like that.’94 You do not know what you could do if the grace of God lets you. You know what John Bradford said when he saw a man staggering along the street, thoroughly embruted in his habits. He said, ’93There goes John Bradford but for the grace of God.’94 I can say when I see one utterly fallen, ’93There goes De Witt Talmage but for the grace of God.’94 If we have been delivered from temptation it is because the strong arm of the Lord Almighty has been about us, and not because we were any better than they.

It is a great folly to borrow trouble. If we can meet the misfortunes of today, we will be able to meet the troubles of to-morrow; but suppose now if through a lack of the religion of Jesus we are overthrown by small sorrows, does not our common sense teach us that we cannot stand up against great ones? If we cannot carry a pound, can we carry a thousand pounds? If we are discomfited coming into battle against one regiment, a brigade will cut us to pieces. If we are unfit to cope with one small trial, will we not be overcome by greater ones? If the footmen are too much for us, will not the odds be more fearful when we contend with horses?

I thank God that some of his dear children have been delivered. How was it that Paul could say, ’93Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, yet possessing all things’94? And David, the Psalmist, soars up into the rock of God’92s strength and becomes thoroughly composed amid all his sorrows, saying, ’93God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, though the mountains be cast into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountain shake with the swelling thereof.’94

But my text suggests something in advance of anything I have said. We must all quit this life. However sound our health may be, it must break down; however good our title may be to houses, land, and estates, we must eventually surrender them. We will hear a voice bidding us away from all these places. We will have to start on a pilgrimage from which we can never come back. We will have seen for the last time the evening star and watched the last summer cloud and felt the breath of the spring wind for the last time. Hands of loved ones may be stretched out to hold us back, but they cannot’97go we must. About all other exits and changes we may trifle, but not about this. Stupendous moment of life-quitting. Oh, when the great tides of eternity arise about us, and fill the soul and surround it, and sweep it out toward rapture or woe, ah! that will be ’93the swelling of Jordan’94!

I know people sometimes talk very merrily about the departure from this life. I am sorry to hear it. But men do make fun of the passage from one world to another. Byron joked a great deal about it, but when it came he shivered with horror. Many an infidel has scoffed at the idea of fearing a future world, but lying upon his pillow in the last hour, his teeth have chattered with terror. I saw, in Westminster Abbey, an epitaph a poet ordered to be put upon his tomb:

Life is a jest,

And all things show it;

I thought so once,

But now I know it

I thought how inapt that, in a place of sepulture, men should try their witticisms. A great German having rejected Christ, in his last moment, said, ’93Give me light, give me light!’94 We may be smart with our witticisms about the last hour, but when it comes, and the tides are rising and the surf is beating and the winds are howling, we will each one, find for himself that it is ’93the swelling of Jordan.’94 Our natural courage will not hold out then. However familiar we may have been with scenes of dissolution, however much we may have screwed our courage up, we want something more than natural resources. When the northeast wind blows off from the sea of death, it will put out all earthly lights. The lamp God-lighted is the only lamp that can stand in that blast. The weakest arm holding that shall not be confounded; the strongest one rejecting that shall stumble and die. When the Jordan rises in its wrath, the first dash of its wave will swamp them forever.

We feel how sad it is for a man to attempt this life without religion. We see what a doleful thing it is for a man to go down into the misfortunes of life without Christian solace; but if that be so, how much more terrible when that man comes face to face with the solemnities of the last hour! Oh, if in the bright sunshine of health and prosperity a man felt the need of something better, how will he feel when the shadows of the last hour gather above his pillow! If in the warmth of worldly prosperity he was sometimes dismayed, how will he feel when the last chill creeps over him? If while things were comparatively smooth he was disquieted, what will he do in the agonies of dissolution? ’93If in the land of peace, in which he trusted, they wearied him, what will he do amid the swelling of Jordan?’94

I rejoice to know that so many of God’92s children have gone through that pass without a shudder? Some one said to a dying Christian, ’93Is it not hard for you to get out of this world?’94 ’93Oh, no,’94 he says, ’93it is easy dying, it is blessed dying, it is glorious dying!’94 and then he pointed to a clock on the wall, and he said, ’93The last two hours in which I have been dying I have had more joy than all the years of my life.’94 I have seen them, and so have you, go out of this life without a tear on their cheek! There was weeping all around the room, but no weeping in the bed; the cheeks were dry. They were not thrown down into darkness, they were lifted up. We saw the tides rising around them and the swelling of the wave It washed them off from the cares and toils of life; it washed them on toward the beach of heaven. They waved to us a farewell kiss as they stood on deck, and floated down further and further, wafted by gales from heaven, until they were lost to our sight’97mortality having become immortality’97

Life’92s duty done, as sinks the clay,

Light from its load the spirit flies;

While heaven and earth combine to say,

How blest the righteous when he dies!

What high consolation to you that your departed friends were not submerged in the swelling of Jordan! The Israelites were just as thoroughly alive on the western banks of the Jordan as they had been on the eastern banks of the Jordan; and our departed Christian friends have only crossed over’97not sick, not dead, not exhausted, not extinguished, not blotted out, but crossed over; their sins, their physical and mental disquiet, all left clear this side; an eternally flowing, impassable obstacle between them and all human and satanic pursuit. I shake hands of congratulation with all the bereaved in the consideration that our departed Christian friends are safe!

Why was there, years ago, so much joy in certain circles in New York when people heard from their friends who were on board the City of Brussels? It was thought that vessel had gone to the bottom of the sea; and when the friends on this side heard that the steamer had arrived safely in Liverpool, had we not the right to congratulate the people in New York that their friends had got safely across? And is it not right that I congratulate you that your departed friends are safe on the shore of heaven? Would you have them back again? Would you have those old parents back again? You know how hard it was sometimes for them to get their breath in the stifling atmosphere of the summer; would you have them back for next summer? Did they not use their brain long enough? Would you have your children back again? Would you have them take the risk of temptations which throng every human pathway? Would you have them cross the Jordan three times’97in addition to crossing it already, cross it again to greet you now, and then cross back afterward? Certainly you would not want to keep them forever out of heaven. If they had lived forty or fifty years longer, would they have been safe?

Pause and weep, not for the freed from pain,

But that the sigh of love would pull them back again.

I ask a question, there seems to come back the answer in the heavenly echo. ’93What, will you never be sick again?’94 ’93Never’97sick’97again.’94 ’93What, will you never be tired again?’94 ’93Never’97tired’97again.’94 ’93What, will you never weep again?’94 ’93Never’97weep’97again.’94 ’93What, will you never die again?’94 ’93Never’97die’97again.’94 Oh, ye army of departed kindred, we hail you from bank to bank! Wait for us when the Jordan of death shall part for us. Come down and meet us half-way between the willowed banks of earth and the palm-groves of heaven.

On Jordan’92s stormy banks I stand,

And cast a wistful eye

To Canaan’92s fair and happy land,

Where my possessions lie.

But there is one step still in advance suggested by this subject. If this religion of Christ is so important in life and so important in the last hours of life, how much more important it will be in the great eternity! I need not argue it. There is something within your soul that says now, while I speak, ’93I am immortal; the stars shall die, but I am immortal.’94 You feel that your existence on earth is only a small piece of your being. It is only a mile to the grave, but it is ten thousand miles beyond. The slab of the tomb is only the milestone on which we read of infinite distance yet to be traveled. The world itself will grow old and die. The stars of our night will burn down in their sockets and expire. The sun, like a spark struck from an anvil, will flash and go out. The winds will utter their last whisper, and ocean heave its last groan; but you and I will live forever! Gigantic’97immortal. Mighty to suffer or enjoy. Mighty to love or hate. Mighty to soar or to sink. Then, what will be to us the store, the shop, the office, the applause of the world, the scorn of our enemies, the things that lifted us up, and the things that pressed us down? What to John Wesley are all the mobs that howled after him? What to Voltaire are all the nations that applauded him? What to Paul now the dungeons that chilled him? What to Latimer now the flames that consumed him? All those who through the grace of Christ reach that land will never be disturbed. None to dispute their throne, they shall reign forever and ever. But alas! for those who have made no preparation for the future. When the sharp-shod hoofs of eternal disaster come up panting and swift to go over them, how will they contend with horses? And when the waves of their wretchedness rise up, white and foamy, under the swooping of eternal storms, oh, what will they do ’93amid the swelling of Jordan’94?

If I could come into your heart this morning, I would see that many of you had vowed to be the Lord’92s. I know not what sickness it was, or what trial that caused you to do it; but I verily believe there is not one of you who has not sometime vowed to be the Lord’92s. It might have been at the time when your child lay sick, that you said, ’93O Lord, if thou wilt let this child get well, I will be a Christian.’94 Or it might have been in some business trouble, when you have said, ’93O Lord, if thou wilt let me keep my property, I will be a Christian.’94 You kept your property, your child got well, the peril passed. Are you a Christian? We say, ’93O Lord, do so, and I will do so.’94 The darkness passes, the peril goes away. We are as we were before, or worse; for oh, how often I have seen men start for the kingdom of God, come up to within arm’92s reach of it, and then go back farther from God than they ever were before.

There was a steamer on one of the Western lakes heavily laden with passengers, and there was a little child who stood on the side of the taffrail, leaning over and watching the water, when she lost her balance and dropped into the waves. The lake was very rough. The mother cried, ’93Save my child! Save my child!’94 There seemed none disposed to leap into the water. There was a Newfoundland dog on deck. He looked up in his master’92s face, as if for orders. His master said, ’93Tray, overboard, catch ’91em!’94 The dog sprang into the water, caught the child by the garments, and swam back to the steamer. The child was picked up by loving hands, the dog was lifted on deck, and the mother, ere she fainted away, in utter thanksgiving to that dog, threw her arms around its neck and kissed it; but the dog shook himself off from her embrace, and went and laid down as though he had accomplished nothing. Shall a mother be grateful to a dog that saves her child, and be ungrateful to the Son of God who, from the heights of heaven, plunged into the depths of darkness and suffering and woe that he might lift us up out of our sin and place us on the Rock of Ages?

Oh, the height, the depth, the length, the infinity, the horror of our ingratitude! Do not treat Jesus like that any more. Do not thrust him back from your soul. He has been the best Friend you ever had. You will want him after a while. When the world is going away from your grasp, and all the earthly lights that shine on your soul are going out, and the friends that stand around you can do you no good, and you feel your feet slipping from beneath you’97oh, then you will want him’97the loving Jesus, the sympathetic Jesus, the pardoning Jesus’97to stand close to you, and hold you up ’93amid the swelling of Jordan’94!

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage