OUR MAGNIFICENT SAVIOR

NO. 3554

PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 8TH, 1917

DELIVERED BY C.H. SPURGEON

ON LORD’S-DAY EVENING, 28TH JANUARY, 1872.

“He shall see of the travail of his soul, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” — Isaiah 53:11.

Every word of the text is peculiarly full of meaning. There are passages of Scripture which are like the rooms of a royal palace, which may not have in them gold and silver, though there are precious things; but this text is the strong-room of the King’s house — the richest, rarest treasures are here. When we preach the doctrine of our text, we are preaching the very marrow of all theology — the very pith of the gospel — the essential oil of the good news which bringeth salvation. I shall not to night, therefore, have any time to give you illustrations, nor shall we have any time for anything like oratory; but simply to speak right on, in explaining the deep truths which lie before us. May God open our ear, and may every heart receive the truth which is able to save your souls; for I may truly say when preaching upon this text, “Incline your ear, and come me. Hear, and your soul shall live “; for we are upon the main business of your souls, and treating upon that which God sets forth as the only way of redemption for the sons of men.

There are two points in the text. You observe there are two persons. There is the Lord Christ, and there are the many. We will take these two persons in order, and you will perceive in a moment that these are both represented in a threefold character. And our first point will be the Lord Jesus in his threefold character; and the second will be the many in their threefold character. To begin, then, where all must begin: —

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I. Our Blessed Lord Himself In His Threefold Character.

You have him here in a threefold character. First, the servant -”my righteous servant”; secondly, the sin-bearer “he shall bear their iniquities “; thirdly, the justifier — ” he shall justify many.”

To begin, then — Christ, the servant — “my righteous servant.” Be astonished, O ye heavens! He that distributes crowns and thrones, and is “ God over all, blessed for ever,” designs to become a servant. He came into this world and “was made in fashion as a man; and, being found in fashion as a man, he became obedient” — obedient to his Father’s will, “obedient even unto death.”

Think of Christ for a few minutes, and you perceive that first he is a servant unto God. In a certain sense he became the servus servorum — the servant of servants — washing our feet and wiping them with a napkin; but now in the text he is represented as serving God. Whereas we were servants that ran away from our Master, Christ came to take our place, whereas we were disobedient servants, he came to fulfill our obedience for us — took our position of service, of which we had proved ourselves to be unworthy. He served his Father, and did his will. According to the verse which precedes the text, he served God not only with his body, but — with his soul — and yet again in the verse in which our text is found, “He shall see of the travail of his soul.” The service that Christ rendered to God was partly that of his body, for he suffered weariness in the diligent obedience to his Father’s will; but his mind went with it; every power and every passion of his nature was sweetly obedient to the divine will. The zeal which he had for God’s glory ate up not his body only, but his very soul. He served God, as alas! we do not as we should, with all his, heart, and soul, and strength.

And note he was an ardent servant, for the text speaks of the travail of his soul. Read it as the labor of his soul, as if he threw his soul so fully into it that his soul labored in the service of God; or read it, if you will, as travail, and you know the meaning of that word, which we will cover with a veil. The whole of his powers and faculties were full of pain that he might serve his God. He Offered in his service, and he served in his suffering, not only with all the power he had, but bowing the fullness of his strength into the service which he rendered unto God. In the text he is called a righteous servant, as if he had rendered an account unto God, and God had found it in every jot and tittle to be correct — a righteous servant, fulfilling all righteousness, carefully doing so — a righteous servant, without any need to add a word about some little slips or failings; for in him was no sin — no sin in his life, and no sin in himself. The prince of this world searched him, but he found nothing in him; he was without the slightest offense, “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” Christ, then, as a servant to God was an accepted servant. We know he was, for God himself calls him “ my righteous servant.” Now think — I will not enlarge further — think, beloved, of this. This is thy Lord, whom angels worship, become an obedient servant unto God for thy sake, and discharging his work so as to get the reward of “Well done, good and righteous servant! “ His merits are shine, believer; all that he has done is shine; thou art “accepted in the Beloved.” The Lord receives thee for Jesus, sake, and in Christ he is well pleased with thee. There is a sweet truth to begin with. Roll it under thy tongue as a dainty morsel. He is my righteous servant.

But the text takes Christ in his second character and we must be brief on each — as the sin-bearer. “He shall bear their iniquity.” The most wonderful thing in all this book of wonders is this — that God should become man, and, then as man, should bear the sin of his people. We have heard sometimes foolish persons ask, “Where is the doctrine of substitution in Scripture?” to which I would answer, “ Where is it not?” Take it out of the Scriptures, and there is positively nothing left. It is the main and cardinal doctrine of revelation that Christ stood in the sinner’s place, and throughout this chapter it is the wonderful teaching over and over, and over and over again. “The chastisement of our peace was upon him.” “He was numbered with the transgressors.” “He bore the sin of many”; or, as in the text, “He shall bear their iniquity.” It does not say, “He shall bear the punishment of their iniquity”; that is true, and follows as a matter of course; but the iniquities of his people were in very truth laid upon him; and as in type upon the scapegoat the sins of Israel were laid, so in truth, and not in type, nor metaphor, nor figure, but in very deed and of a truth, the sins of God’s people were transferred from them and laid upon the head of Christ, the Son of God, who stood in their stead. Words cannot be more plain. “He shall bear their iniquities.” When did he bear their iniquities? I answer, in a certain sense he bore them from of old; for he was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world; but in actual fact he bore them through his painful life. Read these words: “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” That thirst, that hunger, those pangs he felt often throughout his life of weariness and woe — those were caused by sin being laid upon him. It was not possible that he should be perfectly happy while sin was upon him; it would have been impossible for him to have been unhappy had not sin been imputed to him.

He bore our sins, next, at the judgment-seat of Pilate and of Herod. I beg you to follow the words of the text, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living.” And why? “ For the transgression of my people was he stricken.” He was numbered with the tranagressors when he stood at Pilate’s bar. He was condemned to die a malefactor’s death; and on the Roman records there stood the name of Jesus of Nazareth, condemned to die because he had been accused of saying that there was another king, and that another kingdom was about to be set up. He was bearing our sins before Pilate’s bar.

But especially upon the tree; for there we have it, “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.” “He, his own self, bore our sins in his own body up to the tree,” and on the tree, always being a sin-bearer up to that moment when he said, “ It is finished “; for then he bore sin no longer. He cast it all away into his own sepulcher into the wilderness of forgetfulness did he hurl it; and now the sin of his people cannot be found. It has ceased to be. Christ has “finished transgression. He has made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness for his people.

Now let us pause here a little and think over this wondrous mystery. The way in which God is pleased to save us from our sin is by laying our sins on his own Son, and making him suffer for those sins as if those sins had been his own. Why, think you, did he choose such a method? Was is not thus? First, thus he satisfied his own justice. Why brethren, if we had lain in hell for ever, yet divine justice would not have been fully justified; for after thousands of years of suffering there would remain still an eternity of debt due to God’s justice, and the debt would not be paid. And let me say, if God had annihilated all the sinners that ever lived at one stroke, he would not have so honored his justice as he did when he took sin and laid it on his Son, and his Son bore divine wrath which was due to that sin; for now there has been rendered unto divine justice a full equivalent, a complete recompense for all the dishonor which it suffered; and I know of no other conceivable way by which such a recompense could have been rendered.

“He to the utmost farthing paid
Whate’er his people owed.”

He suffered what they should have suffered, and now God’s law stands in all its integrity. It has not dismissed the penalty. The penalty has been executed. The sword has awaked against the shepherd, although the stroke was due to the flock.

Moreover, God, in choosing Christ to suffer in our stead has been pleased to lay help upon one that is mighty, upon one that is mighty to save. O my soul, delight in the thought that Christ was my substitute! If I had been told that an angel had done his best to save me, I should feel unsafe. If I had been told that all the holy men in all the world had striven to save me, I should have felt insecure; but if the very Christ of God himself, the Eternal One, has deigned to bear my iniquities, why, then, should I fear? The mighty Savior, the Almighty Savior, can surely put away my sins. There is help laid upon one that is mighty.

The Lord also laid our sins upon Christ because it was Christ’s desire that it should be so. Do you remember how he said, “ I have a baptism to be baptized with “? It was the baptism of his sufferings. “ And how am I straitened till it be accomplished! And long before that he had said, “ Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God; yea, thy law is in my heart. “ And then he adds, “ Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me and he longed to come and in that body bear his people’s sins, and in that body prove that he had a love for them which many waters could not quench, and floods could not drown; for down into the deeps he would go with his beloved Church, and never come up again until he could bring her up with him, as he has done, to the praise of the glory of his grace. Therefore, you see, God is honored, his grace is honored, we ourselves are comforted, by have a mighty Savior, and Christ’s own longings are contented by having sin laid upon him.

Moreover, beloved, the forgiveness of sin, through laying it upon Christ, is made to show to all mankind and to all other created intelligences the tremendous evil of sin. Here were a people whom God desired to save, but he could not. His justice did, as it were, tie the hands of his mercy. Sin was so hateful to him that he could not blot it out and forget it. He must punish it, and I know not of any way by which he could have shown his abhorrence of sin so greatly as when he bruised his own Son. A man may show his indignation about a crime in many ways, but surely in none so much as when he sees that crime upon his son, and he says, “ No, I cannot reveal my love to you. While that crime is upon you, you must suffer for it,” and

“Heaven’s Eternal Darling bleeds.”

Because sin was laid on him, and the Father would not smile, he cried, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? A greater Abraham unsheathed his knife to slay a greater Isaac, and no angel intervened. The Savior died the death. These are words that we speak. Do we know their meaning? When you are racked with pain, you begin to guess the pain the Savior suffered; and, perhaps, when we are ourselves in the pains of death, we shall begin to have a little more fellowship with Jesus But all for our sakes the blessed Lord bore the wrath of God that God might show that sin, even when laid upon his Son by imputation, was so horrible to him that he would not let him escape. He must be bruised. “ It pleased the Father to bruise him; he hath put him to grief.”

And do not you think, beloved, that God chose this way of pardoning sin to show his great love as well as his great abhorrence of sin? Behold how he loves us!” What manner of love is this that God hath shown to us — that when we were yet enemies, he gave his Son to die for us?” There is one sweet reason that Jesus gives why he died for his people. You remember it. He loved his Church, and gave himself for it, that he might present it to himself without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.” There is no washing for his Church like the washing in his blood. Even if thou, believer, shouldst wash thy face, in thy tears, thou wouldst stain thy face in the washing; but, washed in the blood of Jesus, there remains no trace or speck of sin. Surely the very angels are not so comely as the Church is, now that Christ hath cleansed her. The heavens are not pure in his sight, and he charged his angels with folly; but the blood-washed Church is pure, and no folly is charged on her. Her righteousness, is the righteousness of her Creator, and her purity is the holiness of God himself.

Surely the Lord was pleased to adopt this way of pardon for one other reason that you and I might have strong consolation, and that, having strong consolation, we might also have strong reason for devoting ourselves to Christ’s service. There are those that think that pardon through atoning blood will make men live in sin. They little know what is in the heart of the redeemed, for, being bought with such a price, we would be perfect if we could. So much has been done for us that if we could do for Christ ten thousand times more than we have ever done, we should only rejoice to do it, cost what it may. You know when a man is under burden of sin, he cannot serve his God well, because he says, “I would serve him but my sins are so many”; but when his sins are laid on Christ then he says, “Now I can give all my strength to the glory of God. I have no sin to fret about now; it is laid on Jesus. There is nothing now to make me dread an angry God, for the anger of God is turned away, and in Jesus Christ I am a justified man.” This I might enlarge, but I must not. You see Christ as the sin-bearer, bearing our sins on the tree.

Now the third aspect under which he appears is this — he is seen in the text as a justifier. “ By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.” Christ is himself just, and yet the justifier. Jesus Christ needed not to have wrought out a righteousness; he needed not to have become man; he needed not to have been obedient to the Father. “ God over all, blessed for ever.” He has, therefore, a righteousness to give away — one which he does not need for himself. This is the root and bottom of it — he has a righteousness which he does not need for himself; and he, therefore, gives it to us, and becomes the Lord our righteousness. And every soul to whom Jesus gives his righteousness is righteous at once. This is God’s way of making men righteous, not by their own deeds, but by the deeds of Jesus. He imputes to us what Christ has done. He takes the righteousness of the Lord Christ and gives it to the sinner, blots out the sinner’s sin, and makes the sinner righteous in a moment before his sight. The text says he shall do this to many — not to all; for, alas! tens of thousands die condemned; but to many. Blessed word is that! Why not to me? If it is God’s decree that Christ shall justify many, why should not I be one among them? And if he will justify all who know him — (by his knowledge shall he justify them) — O my soul, study Christ! Endeavour to be his disciple; sit at his feet; learn of him; know him; for then he will justify thee, and make thee just in the sight of God. Remember, beloved, that this is the reward that Christ has for his death. “He shall see of the travail of his soul. “ How? Why, “by his knowledge shall he justify many.” It is Christ’s delight to take a sinner and to make him just. This is the spoil which he divides with the strong. Because he poured out his soul unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors, and bare the sin of many, he makes men just; and this is his sure reward — he asks no better — he that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly is saved by that belief. This is Christ’s glory, Christ’s delight, the fullness of Christ’s satisfaction — that he justifies many. Oh! that he might get that satisfaction in this house to-night-that many poor condemned souls might know him, and be made just by him. Then would his heart leap for joy. The joy that was set before him when he died would then come to him.

I have thus briefly set forward Christ in his threefold capacity — a servant, a sin-bearer, and a justifier. Now, with brevity, we are to look at: —

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II. The Many In Their Threefold Character.

And in the text we see them, first, as needing justification; secondly, as receiving knowledge; and, thirdly, as justified. Now we begin, to-night, this second head where God began with us. We see the many needing justification. Christ would not have come to justify the just; they do not want it. The whole have no need of a physician. Suppose a man is brought up before a court of justice. He is justified, or reckoned to be just, if he is proved not guilty. But we, before the court of God, are all guilty; therefore, justification cannot come in that way to us. Our only hope of justification lies in this — God says, “That man’s sins I laid upon Christ. I punished Christ for that man. He is not guilty. Christ was obedient in that man’s behalf. Christ’s obedience is that man’s obedience. He is just in Christ’s righteousness. I take him not as what he is, as what his sponsor is, even Christ; what his surety is, what his substitute is.” As, for instance, in the old ballotting days, when men had to go to war, if the number was called out, and a substitute was provided, the person providing the substitute was said by the law to discharge his duty to his country. I believe that some time ago in the Northern States a person who had found a substitute to go to fight in the South heard after a while that his substitute was dead. On a second drawing being made, this man was drawn, but he said, “ No; I am dead. Number and so went to the war, and is dead. That is me. My substitute is dead.” So when God’s justice galls to me, a sinner, I do not answer to it. Why? Christ answered on my behalf long ago, and died for me. I am dead with Christ. “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” There is no legal charge that can be brought, because Christ has stood in my stead, been punished in my stead, been reckoned as if he were me; and now this day I am reckoned as if I were in Christ’s stead, even as he was reckoned to be in my-stead. You see where we begin, then. We begin needing justification; for we have, first of all, the sin of our first parents. “All we like sheep have gone astray.” We have, next, our own sins. “We have turned every one to his own way. “We have many sins of omission and of commission, “The Lord bath laid on him our iniquities; whether they are iniquities of excess or of shortcoming, they are both laid upon Jesus Christ’s head. We were guilty; we were so guilty, that by ourselves considered we were under condemnation. “ He that believeth not is condemned already,” and if we had remained as we were, we were heirs of wrath, even as others. And our sin deserved the same punishment as others. O ye that are guilty, hear to-night what good news there is in this for you. Christ came to justify the ungodly. The Redeemer died for those who have no righteousness of their own. “Scarcely for a righteous man will one die; peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly. “ Christ came to bring a righteousness to those who have none-to save the sinful, the vile, the hell-deserving; he came to give them his righteousness, and to take upon himself their sins. Oh! the wonders of divine grace! that whereas we want justification, we are the very people he came to justify.

And now note, in the second place, these people in their second stage. They are instructed; they are made to know. The text says, “ By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.” That is to say — (you may read it, as you have got it in our version, if you like; but you will understand it better if you read it — and it will be quite as correct-thus) — “by the knowledge of him shall my righteous servant justify many.” That is to say, when the soul knows Christ, knows him, believes him, learns him, trusts him, then it is justified. You see there are no doings in the case; there are no feelings in the matter. It is which is another word for believing; for we know him when we believe him; and we inevitably believe him when we truly and really know him. The heart understands Christ through hearing; and through hearing of him, it comes to believe him; and when the heart knows Christ and believes him, it is then justified. But suppose the text means this, “By his knowledge” — (that is, the knowledge which he gives) — “he justifies many.” That knowledge is contained in his word; it fell from his own lips; you have heard it to-night; we have preached it to you. It is not the knowledge Moses brought; it is the knowledge that Christ brought. “Whosoever believeth on him is not condemned.” May it be knowledge to your soul by his teaching it to your soul! By his Divine Spirit, he leeches to profit. But, dear hearer, do see this — the whole way of my getting the result of Christ’s sacrifice is by knowing and believing — not by doing. We are justified by faith, and not by the works of the law. “By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” “Grace and peace come by Jesus Christ,” and they come to us through believing or through knowing — by knowing him, by being made to know, through him, that we are justified.

And please to notice — the peculiar character in which Christ is known to the justified. They know him as God’s servant, and they know him as bearing their iniquities. Some persons think a great deal of Christ in his glory, and Of Christ in his second advent. God forbid that I should have you forget him in those characters, or in any other! But the soul-saving aspect of Christ is not his glory, nor his second advent, but Christ the servant, and Christ the sin-bearer. It is from the crow that the words come, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth. “I, if I be lifted up” — not on the throne, but on the cross — “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Let who will preach Christ exalted, “we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness, but unto us. who are saved, the wisdom of God and the power of God. “Do let me make this very clear, for, perhaps, some soul might get light to-night. Thou hast many sins upon thee, man. Thou canst never get them off by any doings of shine own. No obedience, or tears, or anything else which thou canst do, can make one spot of sin stir an inch. Thou art black as night, black as hell, and thou canst not make thyself white; but here it is — if thou wilt know Jesus, if thou wilt hear of Jesus, if thou wilt believe on him — believe what he teaches, if thou wilt believe that he is God’s sent servant, that he is the propitiation for sin, that he is the sin-bearer — and if thou wilt trust him with thy sin, and with thy soul, thou art saved. No spot of sin remains on thee; this moment thou art saved, for he shall justify; that is, make just, and that is an instantaneous work. A man may have been a condemned sinner five minutes ago, but the moment that he knows Christ, he is a justified soul. By that very knowledge, or, as I have said, by that faith, by that simple dependence on the Christ whom he has learned to know, the man is just, and he may go on his way rejoicing.

So I shall close with that third aspect of the many. It is said, “He shall justify them. “What a grand word it is! “He shall justify them.” He shall make them just. It is a forensic, legal term. He shall make them just before the court of God. Now notice in the text the sins mentioned were real. The bearing of sin by Christ was roar. Therefore, the justification in the text is real. You see that thief on the cross. What a wretch he is! He has been guilty of every crime. His sins are real. But he believes in Jesus, Jesus the dying Savior, and his sins are forgiven. Now hearken. That thief is a just man. “Why,” say you, “he has done no just action.” I grant you it; he would if he could; he is willing now to confess the Master, for he speaks a word of rebuke to the thief on the other side of the gross; but I do not say he is just because of that. He is just because of nothing that he has done, but ho is just because he believes in the dying Savior. And thou, poor sinner, though thou hast never done a good work in thy life, though thou deservest to be damned to all eternity, though thou host lived in everything that is vile, if thou cost this night trust thy soul to Jesus, and know him, Jesus justifies thee, and thou art really just.

And, what is more, thou art for ever just. Thou hast a justification that will never wear out, a righteousness that will outlast time itself. The tooth of decay shall never harm it, nor rust shall corrupt it, nor moth consume it. Thou art just, and just for ever. Do you understand me? I will make it plain, and put it in words that cannot be misunderstood. The soul that believes in Jesus is so justified that none can even lay anything to his charge. “Why,” says one, “the man has been a very guilty man, and lived a horrible life.” So had Paul. He had been a foaming persecutor, raging against God’s saints. But listen to Paul: “ Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Is not he afraid to say that? No, because he goes on to say, “It is God that justifieth.” Suppose the judge says in court, “That man is clear “; it if no use anybody getting up and saying, “Let me come into the witness-box; I have something against him.” You are out of court, sir. The judge says he is clear and that is enough. God says of the guiltiest soul, “I laid that man’s sins on Christ. I punished Christ for that man, and that man is clear.” And if God says you are clear, who shall lay anything to your charge? Listen again; a believer cannot be condemned. Do you doubt it? Paul shall speak again “ Who is he that condemneth? “ Why, Paul, you have done much that you deserve to be condemned for. Oh! but here it is. “It is Christ that died; yea, rather, that is risen again, who sitteth at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” He means this, “How can you condemn me? Christ was condemned for me. He died; he rose again. That proved that he himself was not condemned. He had paid the debt, else he had not been allowed to rise. He has gone into heaven to plead for me, and he will be the judge. And if he died for me, thinkest thou that he who alone can condemn will condemn those whom he died for? Will he cast away his own chosen — condemn a limb of his own body, and reject out of his own mouth the very soul to whom he said, “I have forgiven thee, and blotted out thy sin “? It cannot be. The believer, then, cannot be accused; he cannot be condemned, and consequently he cannot be punished. What shall he be punished for? “For his sins,” says one. He has not any; he has not any. They were laid on Christ. “He shall bear their iniquities.” Can a sin be in two places at once? If my sins are on Christ, they cannot be on me. If God has laid the weight of my guilt on Christ, and Christ bore it and made an end of it, then I am clear of it as though I never sinned. Glory be to God for such a gospel as thirsty think that a soul, condemned and lost by nature, should be made completely clean through the purging of the great atoning sacrifice of our dear Lord and Master. For, mark you, there is more than that, for when Christ justifies a man, he not only blots out his sin, but he is a just man, and the man is treated henceforth as if he were just. Now the just shall be rewarded; the just shall have the favor of God; the just shall enter heaven; and so shall you, poor guilty sinner. If you trust Christ, that righteousness of Christ becomes yours. I could preach all night upon such a subject, but I should weary you. I should not weary myself in thinking it over though, nor should you in meditating upon it. It is enough to make heaven ring again and again with melody. I am sure it is God’s gospel; for nobody could have invented it — a plan so just to God, so safe to man; and I am all the more sure it is God’s gospel because there are many that hate it. They cannot bear it. How should they? They are righteous in themselves, and hope to enter heaven by their own works. They go about to establish their own righteousness, but this is as it always has been. As it was in Paul’s day, so it is now; and this only confirms our confidence in the gospel that we preach. Believing this, I can go to my bed and fall asleep in peace, not caring whether I wake again or no this side heaven. Believing this, doubts and fears prevail not, for my soul flies to the atoning sacrifice again, and tells the devil that my sins are no longer mine, but Christ’s, or rather that they were imputed to him, and laid upon him, and that he was punished for them in my stead, and I am for Christ hath suffered for me. Believe this, dear heart; believe it. Thou host never heard a better gospel; thou host heard it better preached; but never better news came to thy ears than this; and until thou gettest to heaven thou wilt never hear music that can beat this — the music of a Savior’s wounds, and groans, and death, in a poor sinner’s stead. I know what you will do if you believe it. You will go home glad of heart, and the moment you get home you will say, “ I am a saved soul, for I have done with my former sins.

“’Now for the love I bear his name,
What was my gain I count my loss,
My former pride I call my shame,
And nail my glory to his cross.’”

Oh! you will have done with your old companions. The love of Christ will constrain you. Nothing cleanses the Augean stable of human nature, like a stream of love and blood made to run through it. When Christ’s sacrifice comes to a soul, it casts out sin and Satan, sets the man working at once, and none can work so vigorously those who feel that they owe all to the grace of God, who feel that they have nothing to do to save themselves; they, are saved. That work is all done for ever; and now out of gratitude they give their whole life, and soul, and strength, to spread abroad the gospel of Jesus now, and make God’s names famous, even to the end of time. God bless you, dear hearers. May this all be yours, for Christ’s sake. Amen.