NO. 169<\/b><\/p>\n
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, DECEMBER 27, 1857,<\/b><\/p>\n
BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,<\/i><\/p>\n
AT THE MUSIC HALL, ROYAL SURREY GARDENS.<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cWhat have I done?\u201d \u2014 Jeremiah 8:6.<\/i><\/p>\n
Perhaps no figure represents God in a more gracious light than those figures of speech, which represent him as stooping from his throne, and as coming down from heaven to attend to the wants and to behold the woes of mankind. We must have love for that God, who, when Sodom and Gomorrah were reeking with iniquity, would not destroy those cities, although he knew their guilt and their wickedness, until he had made an actual visitation to them and had sojourned for awhile in their streets. Methinks we cannot help pouring out our heart in affection to that God, of whom we are told that he inclines his ear from the highest glory, and puts it to the lip of the faintest that breathes out the true desire. How can we resist feeling that he is a God whom we must love, when we know that he regards everything that concerns us, numbers the very hairs of our heads, bids his angels protect our footsteps lest we dash our feet against stones, marks our path and ordereth our ways. But especially is this great truth brought near to man\u2019s heart, when we recollect how attentive God is, not merely to the temporal interests of his creatures, but to their spiritual concerns. God is represented in Scripture as waiting to be gracious, or, in the language of the parable, when his prodigals are yet a great way off he sees them; he runs and falls upon their neck and kisses them. He is so attentive to everything that is good, even In the poor sinner\u2019s heart, that to him there is music in a sigh, and beauty in a tear; and in this verse that I have just read, he represents himself as looking upon man\u2019s heart and listening \u2014 listening, if possibly he may hear something that is good. \u201cI hearkened and heard; I listened; I stood still, and I attended to them.\u201d And how amiable does God appear, when he is represented as turning aside, and as it were with grief in his heart, exclaiming \u201cI did<\/i> listen, I did<\/i> hearken, but they spake not aright; no man repented of his wickedness, saying, \u2019What shall I do?\u2019 \u201c Ah! my hearer, thou never hast a desire towards God which does not excite God\u2019s hope; thou dost never breathe a prayer towards heaven which he does not notice; and though thou hast very often uttered prayers which have been as the morning cloud and as the early dew that soon passeth away, yet all these things have moved Jehovah\u2019s bowels; for he has been hearkening to thy cry and noticing the breathing of thy soul, and though it all hath passed away, yet it did not pass away unnoticed, for he remembers it even now. And oh! thou that art this day seeking a Savior, remember, that Savior\u2019s eyes are on thy seeking soul to day. Thou art not looking after one who cannot see thee; thou art coming to thy Father, but thy Father sees thee even in the distance. It was but one tear that trickled down thy cheek, but thy Father noticed that as a hopeful sign; it was but one throb that went through thy heart just now during the singing of the hymn, but God, the Loving, noticed even that, and thought upon it as at least some omen that thou wast not yet quite hardened by sin nor yet given up by love and mercy.<\/p>\n
The text is \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d I shall just introduce that by a few words of affectionate persuasion<\/i>, urging all now present to ask that question: secondly, I shall give them a few words of assistance in trying to answer it<\/i>; and when I have so done, I shall finish by a few sentences of solemn admonition to those who have had to answer the question against themselves<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
I. <\/b>First, then, a few words of Earnest Persuasion, requesting everyone now present, and more especially every unconverted person, to ask this question of himself, and answer it solemnly: \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d<\/p>\n
Few men like to take the trouble to review their own lives; most men are so near bankruptcy that they are ashamed to look at their own books. The great mass of mankind are like the silly ostrich, which, when hard pressed by the hunters, buries its head in the sand and shuts its eyes and then thinks, because it does not see its pursuers, that therefore it is safe. The great mass of mankind, I repeat, are ashamed to review their own biographies. and if conscience and memory together could turn joint authors of a history of their lives throughout, they would buy a huge iron clasp and a padlock to it, and look the volume up, for they dare not read it. They know it to be a book full of lamentation and woe, which they dare not read, and still go on in their iniquities. I have therefore a hard task in endeavoring to persuade you one and all to take down that book, and be its pages few or many, be they white or be they black, I have some difficulty in getting you to read them through. But may the Holy Spirit persuade you now, so that you may answer this question, \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d For remember, my dear friend, that searching yourself can do you no hurt. No tradesman ever gets the poorer by looking to his books. he may find himself to be poorer than he thought he was, but it is not the looking to the books that hath hurt him; he hath hurt himself by some ill trading before. Better, my friend, for you to know the past whilst there is yet time for repairing it, than that you should go blindfolded, hoping to enter the gates of Paradise and find out your mistake when alas! it is too late, because the door is shut. There is nothing to be lost by taking stock; you cannot be any the worse for a little self examination. This of itself shall be one strong argument to induce you to do it; but remember you may be a great deal the better; for suppose your affairs are all right with God, why then you may make good cheer and comfort yourself, for he that is right with his God has no cause to be sad. But ah! remember there are many probabilities that you are wrong. There are so many in this world that are deceived, that there are many chances that you are deceived too. You may have a name to live and yet be dead; you may be like John Bunyan\u2019s tree, of which he said \u201c \u2019twas fair to look upon and green outside, but the inside of it was rotten enough to be tinder for the devil\u2019s tinder box.\u201d You may this day thus stand before yourself and fellow creatures well whitewashed, and exceeding fair, but you may be like that Pharisee of whom Christ said, \u201cThou art a whited sepulcher, for inwardly thou art full of rottenness and dead men\u2019s bones.\u201d Now, man, however thou mayest wish to be self-deceived, for my own part I feel that I would a thousand times rather know my own state really than have the most pleasing conceptions about it and find myself deceived. Many a time have I solemnly prayed that prayer, \u201cLord, help me to know the worst of my own case; if I be still an apostate from thee, without God and without Christ, at least let me be honest to myself and know what I am.\u201d Remember, my friend, that the time you have for self-examination is, after all, very short. Soon thou wilt know the great secret. I perhaps may not say words rough enough to rend off the mask which thou now hast upon thee, but there is one called Death who will stand no compliment. You may masquerade it out to-day in the dress of the saint, but death will soon strip you, and you must stand before the judgment seat after death has discovered you in all your nakedness, be that naked innocence or naked guilt. Remember, too, though you may deceive yourself, you will not deceive your God. You may have light weights, and the beam of the scale in which you weigh yourself may not be honest, and may not therefore tell the truth; but when God shall try you he will make no allowances; when the everlasting Jehovah grasps the balances of justice and puts his law into one scale, ah, sinner, how wilt thou tremble when he shall put thee into the other; for unless Christ be thy Christ thou wilt be found light weight \u2014 thou wilt be weighed in the balances and found wanting, and be cast away for ever.<\/p>\n
Oh! what words shall I adopt to induce every one of you now to search yourselves! I know the various excuses that some of you will make. Some of you will plead that you are members of churches, and that, therefore, all is right with you. Perhaps you look across from the gallery, and you say to me, \u201cSpurgeon, your hands baptized me but this year into the Lord Jesus, and you have often passed to me the sacramental bread and wine.\u201d Ah, my hearer, I know that and I have baptized, I fear, many of you that the Lord hath never baptized, and some of you have been received into the church-fellowship on earth who were never received by God. If Jesus Christ had one hypocrite in his twelve, how many hypocrites must I have here in nearly twelve hundred? Ah! my hearers, in this age it is a very easy thing to make a profession of religion: many churches receive candidates into their fellowship without examination at all; I have had such come to me, and I have told them, \u201cI must treat you just the same as if you came from the world,\u201d because they said, \u201cI never saw the minister, I wrote a note to the Church, and they took me in,\u201d Verily, in this age of profession, a man may make the highest profession in the world, and yet be at last found with damned apostates. Do not put off the question for that; and do not say, \u201cI am too busy to attend to my spiritual concerns; there is time enough yet.\u201d Many have said that, and before their \u201ctime enough\u201d has come, they have found themselves where time shall be no more. Oh! thou that sayest thou hast time enough, how little dost thou know how near death is to thee. There are some present that will not see New Year\u2019s Day; there is every probability that a very large number will never see another year. Oh, may the Lord our God prepare us each for death and for judgment, and bless this morning\u2019s exhortation to our preparation, by leading us to ask the question \u2014 \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
II. <\/b>Now, then, I am to help you to answer the question \u2014 \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d<\/p>\n
Christian, true Christian, I have little to say to thee this morning. I will not multiply words, but leave the enquiry with thine own conscience. What hast thou done? I hear thee reply, \u201cI have done nothing to save myself, for that was done for me in the eternal covenant, from before the foundation of the world. I have done nothing to make a righteousness for myself, for Christ said, \u2019It is finished;\u2019 I have done nothing to procure heaven by my merits, for all that Jesus did for me before I was born.\u201d But say, brother, what hast thou done for him who died to save thy wretched soul? What hast thou done for his church? What hast thou done for the salvation of the world? What hast thou done to promote thine own spiritual growth in grace? Ah! I might hit some of you that are true Christians very hard here; but I will leave you with your God. God will chastise his own children. I will, however, put a pointed question. Are there not many Christians now present who cannot recollect that they have been the means of the salvation of one soul during this year. Come, now; turn back: Have you any reason to believe that directly or indirectly you have been made the means this year of the salvation of a soul? I will go further. There are some of you who are old Christians, and I will ask you this question: Have you any reason to believe that ever since you were converted you have ever been the means of the salvation of a soul? It was reckoned in the past, in the times of the patriarchs, to be a disgrace to a woman that she had no children; but what disgrace it is to a Christian to have no spiritual children \u2014 to have none born unto God by his instrumentality! And yet there are some of you here that have been spiritually barren, and have never brought one convert to Christ; you have not one star in your crown of glory, and must wear a starless crown in heaven. Oh! I think I see the joy and gladness with which a good child of God looked upon me last week, when we had heard some one who had been converted to God by her instrumentality. I took her by the hand and said, \u201cWell, now, you have reason to thank God.\u201d \u201cYes, sir,\u201d she said, \u201cI feel a happy and an honored woman now. I have never, that I know of before been the means of bringing a soul to Christ.\u201d And the good woman looked so happy the tears were in her eyes for gladness. How many have you brought during this year? Come, Christian, what have you done? Alas! alas! you have not been barren fig-trees, but still your fruit is such that it cannot be seen. You may be alive unto God; but how many of you have been very unprofitable, and exceedingly unfruitful? And do not think that while I thus deal hardly with you I would escape myself. No, I ask myself the question, \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d And when I think of the zeal of Whitfield, and of the earnestness of many of those great evangelists of former times, I stand here astounded at myself, and I ask myself the question, \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d And I can only answer it with some confusion of face. How often have I preached to you, my hearers, the Word of God, and yet how seldom have I wept over you as a pastor should! How often ought I to have warned you of the wrath to come, when I have forgotten to be so earnest as I might have been. I fear lest the blood of souls should lie at my door, when I shall come to be judged of my God at last. I beseech you, pray for your minister in this thing, that he may be forgiven, if there has ever been a lack of earnestness and energy, and prayerfulness, and pray that during the next year I may always preach as though I ne\u2019er might preach again,<\/p>\n
\u201cA dying man to dying men.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
I heard the moralist whilst I was questioning the Christian, say, \u201cWhat have I done? Sir, I have done all I ought to have done. You may, as a Gospeller, stand there and talk to me about sins; but I tell you Sir, I have done all that was my duty; I have always attended my church or chapel regularly every Sunday as ever a man or woman could; I have always read prayers in the family, and I always say prayers before I go to bed and when I get up in the morning. I don\u2019t know that I owe anybody anything, or that I have been unkind to anybody; I give a fair shave to the poor, and I think if good works have any merit I certainly have done a great deal.\u201d Quite right, my friend, very right indeed, if good works have any merit; but then it is very unfortunate that they have not any; for our good works, if we do them to save ourselves by them, are no better than our sins. You might as well hope to go to heaven by cursing and swearing, as by the merits of your own good works; for although good works are infinitely preferable to cursing and swearing in a moral point of view, yet there is no more merit in one than there is in the other, though there is less sin in one than in the other. Will you please to remember then, that all you have been doing all these years, is good for nothing ? \u201cWell, but, Sir, I have trusted in Christ.\u201d Now, stop! Let me ask you a question. Do you mean to say, that you have trusted partly in Christ and partly in your own good works? \u201cYes, sir.\u201d Well, then, let me tell you, the Lord Jesus Christ will never be a make-weight; you must take Christ wholly, or else no Christ at all, for Christ will never go shaves with you in the work of salvation. So, I repeat, all you have ever done is good for nothing. You have been building a card house, and the tempest will blow it down; you have been building a house upon the sand, and when the rains descend and the floods come, the last vestige of it will be swept away for ever. Hear ye the word of the Lord! \u201cBy the works of the law shall no flesh living be justified.\u201d \u201cCursed is every one that continueth not in all<\/i> things that are written in the book of the law to do them,\u201d and in as much as you have not continued in all things that are written in the law you are transgressors of the law, and you are under the curse, and all that the law has to say to you is, \u201cCursed, cursed, cursed! Your morality is of no help to you whatever, as to eternal things.\u201d<\/p>\n
I turn to another character. He says, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t trust in my morality nor in anything else; I say,<\/p>\n
\u2019Begone, dull care, I pray thee begone from me.\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
I have nothing to do with talking about eternity, as you would have me. But, sir, I am not a bad fellow after all. It is a very little that I ever do amiss; now and then a peccadillo, just a little folly, but neither my country, nor my friends nor my own conscience, can say anything against me. True, I am none of your saints; I don\u2019t profess to be too strict I may go a little too far sometimes, but it is only a little, and I dare say we shall be able to set all matters straight before the end comes.\u201d Well, friend, but I wish you had asked yourself the question, \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d \u2014 it strikes me that if each of you would just take off that film, that films your heart and your life over, you might see a grievous leprosy lurking behind what you have done. \u201cWell, for the matter of that\u201d says one, \u201cperhaps I may have taken a glass or two too much sometimes.\u201d Stop a bit! What is the name of that? Stutter as much as you like! Out with it! What is the name of it? \u201cWhy, it is just a little mirth, sir.\u201d Stop: let us have the right name of it. What do you call it in any one else? \u201cDrunkeness, I suppose.\u201d Says another, \u201cI have been a little loose in my talk sometimes.\u201d What is that? \u201cIt has been just a merry spree.\u201d Yes, but please to call it what it ought to be called \u2014 lascivious conversation. Write that down. \u201cOh! no, sir; things are looking serious.\u201d Yes, they are indeed; but they do not look any more serious than they really are. Sometimes you have been out on the Sabbath day, haven\u2019t you? \u201cOh! yes; but that has been only now and then \u2014 just sometimes.\u201d Yes, but let us put it down what it is, and we will see what the list comes to. Sabbath-breaking! \u201cStop,\u201d you say, \u201cI have gone no further sir, certainly I have gone no further.\u201d I suppose in your conversation, sometime; during your life, you have quoted texts of Scripture to make jokes of them haven\u2019t you? And sometimes you have cried out, when you have been a little surprised, \u201cLord have mercy upon me!\u201d and such things. I don\u2019t venture to say you swear: though there is a Christian way of swearing that some people get into, and they think it is not quite swearing, but what it is besides nobody knows, and so we will put it down as swearing \u2014 cursing and swearing. \u201cOh! sir, it was only when somebody trod on my toes, or I was angry.\u201d Never mind, put it down by its right name: we shall get a pretty good list against you by-and-bye. I suppose that in trade you never adulterate your articles. \u201cWell that is a matter of business in which you ought not to interfere.\u201d Well, it so happens I am going to interfere \u2014 and if you please, we will call it by its right name \u2014 stealing. We will put that down. I suppose you have never been hard with a debtor, have you? You have never at any time wished that you were richer, and sometimes half wished that your opposite neighbor would lose part of his custom, so that you might have it? Well, we will call it by its right name: that is \u201ccovetousness, which is idolatry.\u201d Now, the list seems to be getting black indeed. Besides that, how have you spent all this year; and though you have pretended sometimes to say prayers, have you ever really prayed? No, you have not. Well, then there is prayerlessness to put down. You have sometimes read the Bible, you have sometimes listened to the ministry; but have you not, after all, let all these things pass away? Then I want to know whether that is not despising God, and whether we must not put it down under that name. Truly, we need go but very little further; for the list already when summed up is most fearful, and few of us can escape from sins so great as these, if our conscience be but a little awake.<\/p>\n
But there is one man here who has grown very careless and indifferent to every point of morality. and he says, \u201cAh! young man, I could tell you what I have done during the year.\u201d Stop, sir, I don\u2019t particularly wish to know just now; you may as well tell it to yourself when you get home. There are young people here: it would not do them much good to know what you have done perhaps. You are no better than you should be, some people say; which means, you are so bad they would not like to say what you are. Do you suppose in all this congregation we have no debauched men \u2014 none that indulge in the vilest sin and lust? Why, God\u2019s angel seems even now to be flying through our midst, and touching the conscience of some, to let them know in what iniquities they have indulged during the year. I pray God that my just simply alluding to them may be the means of startling your conscience. Ah! ye may hide your sins; the coverlet of darkness may be your shelter; you may think they shall never be discovered; but remember, every sin that you have done shall be read before the sun, and men and angels shall hear it in the day of final account. Ah! my hearer, be thou moral or be thou dissolute, I beseech thee, answer this question solemnly to-day: \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d It would be as well if you took a piece of paper when you went home, and just wrote down what you have done from last January to December; and if some of you do not get frightened at it I must say you have got pretty strong nerves, and are not likely to be frightened at much yet.<\/p>\n
Now I specially address myself to the unconverted man, and I would help him to answer this question in another point of view. \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d Ah! man, thou that livest in sin thou that art a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God, what hast thou done? Dost thou not know that one sin is enough to damn a soul for ever? Hast thou never read in Holy Scripture that cursed is he that sins but once? How damned then, art thou by the myriad sins of this one year! Recall, I beseech thee, the sins of thy youth and thy former transgressions up till now; and if one sin would ruin thee for ever, how ruined art thou now! Why man, one wave of sin may swamp thee. What will these oceans of thy guilt do? One witness against thee will be enough to condemn thee: behold the crowds of follies and of crimes now gathered round the judgment sea that have gone before thee into judgment. How wilt thou escape from their testimonies, when God shall call thee to his bar? What hast thou done? Come, man, answer this question. There are many consequences involved in thy sin, and in order to answer this question rightly thou must reply to every consequence, what hast thou done to thine own soul? Why, thou hast destroyed it; thou hast done thy best to ruin it for ever, For thine own poor soul thou hast been digging dungeons; thou hast been piling faggots; thou hast been forging chains of iron \u2014 faggots with which to burn it, and fetters with which to bind it for ever.<\/p>\n
Remember, thy sins are like sowing for a harvest. What a harvest is that which thou hast sown for thy poor soul! Thou hast sown the wind, thou shalt reap the whirlwind; thou hast sown iniquity, thou shalt reap damnation. But what hast thou done against the gospel? Remember, how many times this year thou hast heard it preached. Why since thy birth there have been waggon loads of sermons wasted on thee. Thy parents prayed for thee in thy youth, thy friends instructed thee till thou didst come to manhood. Since then how many a tear has been wept by the minister for thee! How many an earnest appeal has been shot into thine heart! But thou hast rent out the arrow. Ministers have been concerned to save thee, and thou hast never been concerned about thyself. What hast thou done against Christ? Remember, Christ has been a good Christ to sinners here; but as there is nothing that burns so well as that soft substance oil, so there is nothing that will be so furious as that gentle-hearted Savior, when he comes to be your Judge. Fiercer than a lion on his prey is rejected love. Despise Christ on the cross, and it will be a terrible thing to be judged by Christ on his throne.<\/p>\n
But again: what have you done for your children this year? Oh! there be some here present that have been doing all they could to ruin their children\u2019s souls. \u2019Tis solemn what responsibility rests upon a father; and what shall be said of a drunken father? \u2014 the father that sets his children an example of drunkenness. Swearer, what have you done for your family? Haven\u2019t you too been twisting the rope for their eternal destruction? Will they not be sure to do as you do? Mother you have several children, but this year you have never prayed for one of them never put your arms round their necks as they kneeled at their little chair at night and said, \u201cOur Father;\u201d you have never told them of Jesus that loved children and once became a child like them. Ah, then, you too have neglected your children. I remember a mother who was converted to God in her old age, and she said to me \u2014 and I shall never forget the woman\u2019s grief \u2014 \u201cGod has forgiven me, but I shall never forgive myself. For, sir,\u201d she said, \u201cI have nourished and brought up children, but I have done it without any respect to religion.\u201d And then she burst into tears, and said, \u201cI have been a cruel mother, sir; I have been a wretch!\u201d \u201cWhy,\u201d said I, \u201cmy good woman, you have brought your children up.\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d said she, \u201cmy husband died when they were young, and left me with six of them, and these hands have earned their bread and found them clothes, no one,\u201d she said, \u201ccan accuse me of being unkind to them in anything but this; but this is the worst of all, I have been a cruel mother to them, for while I fed their bodies I neglected their souls.\u201d But some have gone further than this. Ah, young man, you have not only done your best this year to damn yourself, but you have done your best to damn others! Remember, last January when you took that young man into the tavern for the first time, and laughed at all his boyish scruples as you called them, and told him to drink away as you did. Remember, when in the darkness of night you first led astray one young man whose principles were virtuous, and who had not known lust unless you had revealed it to him. you said at the time, \u201cCome with me, I\u2019ll show you London life, I\u2019ll let you see pleasure!\u201d That young man, when he first came to your shop, used to go to the house of God on Sunday, and seemed to bid fair for heaven \u2014 \u201cAh,\u201d you say, \u201cI have laughed religion out of Jackson, he doesn\u2019t go anywhere on a Sunday now except for a spree, and he is just as merry as any of us.\u201d Ah! sir, and you will have two hells when you are damned; you will have your own hell and his too, for he will look through the lurid flames upon you, and say, \u201cMayhap, I had never been here if you had not brought me here!\u201d And ah! seducer, what eyes will be those that will glare at you through hell\u2019s horror? \u2014 The eyes of one whom you led into iniquity! what double hells they will be to you as they glare on you like two stars, whose light is fury, and wither your blood for ever! Pause ye that have led others astray, and tremble now. I paused myself, and prayed to God when first I knew a Savior. that he would help me to lead those to Christ, that I had ever in any way led astray. And I remember George Whitfield says when he began to pray, his first prayer was that God would convert those with whom he used to play at cards and waste his Sundays. \u201cAnd blessed be God,\u201d he says, \u201cI got everyone of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
O my God, can I not detect in some face here astonishment and terror. Doth no man\u2019s knees knock together? Doth no man\u2019s heart quail within him because of his iniquity? Surely it cannot be so, else were your hearts turned to steel, and your bowels become as iron in the midst of you. Surely, if it be so, the words of God are most certainly true, wherein he saith in the seventh verse of this chapter \u2014 \u201cThe stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming, but my people know not the judgment of the Lord,\u201d and certainly that prophet was true who said, \u201cThe ox knoweth its owner, and the ass his master\u2019s crib, but my people doth not know, Israel doth not consider.\u201d Oh, are ye so brutish as to let the reflections of that guilt pass over you without causing astonishment and terror? Then, surely we who feel our guilt have need to bend our knees for you, and pray that God might yet bring you to know yourselves; for, living and dying as you are, hardened and without hope, your lot must be horrible in the extreme.<\/p>\n
How happy should I be if I might hope that the great mass of you could accompany me in this humble confession of our faith; may I speak as if I were speaking for each one of you? It shall be at your option, either to accept what I say, or to reject it; but, I trust, the great multitude of you will follow me. \u201cOh, Lord! I this morning confess that my sins are greater than I can bear; I have deserved thy hottest wrath, and thine infinite displeasure; and I hardly dare to hope that thou canst have mercy upon me, but inasmuch as thou didst give thy Son to die upon the cross for sinners, thou hast also said, \u2019Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth,\u2019 Lord I look to thee this morning, though I never looked before, yet I look now; though I have been a slave of sin to this moment, yet Lord accept me sinner though I be, through the blood and righteousness of thy Son, Jesus Christ. Oh Father, frown not on me, thou mayest well do so, but I plead that promise which says, \u2019Whosoever cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.\u2019 Lord, I come \u2014 <\/p>\n
\u2019Just as I am, without one plea,
But that thy blood was shed for me,
And that thou bid\u2019st me come to thee;
O Lamb of God, I come.\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
\u2019My faith doth lay its hand,
On that dear head of thine,
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin.\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Lord accept me, Lord pardon me, and take me as I am, from this time forth and for ever, to be thy servant whilst I live, to be thy redeemed when I die.\u201d Can you say that? Did not many a heart say it? Did I not hear many a lip in silence utter it? Be of good cheer, my brother, my sister, if that came from your heart, you are as safe as the angels of heaven, for you are a child of God, and you shall never perish.<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
III. <\/b>Now I have to address a few words of Affectionate Admonition, and then I have done. It is a very solemn thing to think how years roll away. I never spent a shorter year in my life than this one, and the older I grow the shorter the years get; and you, old men, I dare say, look back on your sixty and seventy years, and you say, \u201cAh young man, they will seem shorter soon.\u201d No doubt they will. \u201cSo teach us to number our days, O God, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.\u201d But is it not a solemn thing that there is another year nearly gone; and yet many of you are unsaved? You are just were you were last year. No, you are not, you are nearer death, and you are nearer hell, except you repent; and perhaps even what I have said this morning will have no effect upon you. You are not altogether hardened, for you have had many serious impressions. Scores of times you have wept under discourses and yet all has been in vain, for you are what you were. I beseech you answer this question, \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d for remember there will be a time when you will ask this question, but it will be too late. When is that \u2014 say you \u2014 on the death bed? No, it is not too late there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
But it will be too late to ask, \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d when the breath has gone out of your body. Just suppose the monument as it used to be, before they caged it round. Suppose a man going up the winding staircase to the top, with a full determination to destroy himself. He has got on the outside of the railings. Can you imagine him for a moment saying, \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d just after he has taken his leap. Why, methinks some spirit in the air might whisper, \u201cDone? you have done what you can never undo. You are lost \u2014 lost \u2014 lost!\u201d Now, remember that you that have not Christ, are to-day going up that spiral staircase; perhaps to-morrow you will be standing in the article of death upon the pallisading, and when death has gotten you, and you are just leaping from that monument of life down to the gulf of despair, that question will be full of horror to you. \u201cWhat have you done?\u201d But the answer for it will not be profitable, but full of terror Methinks, I see a spirit launched upon the sea of eternity I hear it say \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d It is plunged in flaming waves, and cries, \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d It sees before it a long eternity; but it asks the question again, \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d The dread answer comes: \u201cThou hast earned all this for thyself. Thou knewest thy duty, but thou didst it not, Thou wast warned, but thou didst despise the warning.\u201d Ah! hear the doleful soliloquy of such a spirit. The last great day is come; the flaming throne is set, and the great book is opened. I hear the leaves as with terrible rustle they are turned over. I see men motioned to the right or to the left, according to the result of that great book. And what have I done? I know that to me sin will be destruction for I have never sought a Savior. What is that? The Judge has fixed his eye on me. Now it is on me turned. Will he say, \u201cDepart ye cursed,\u201d unto me? Oh! let me be crushed for ever rather than bear that sight. There is no noise, but the finger is lifted, and I am dragged out of the crowd, and singly I stand before the Judge. He turns to my page, and before he reads it my heart quakes within me. \u201cBe it so,\u201d says he, \u201cit has never been blotted with my blood. You despised my calls; you laughed at my people; you would have none of my mercy; you said that you would take the wages of unrighteousness. You shall have them, the wages of sin is death.\u201d Ah! me, and is he about to say, \u201cDepart, ye cursed?\u201d Yes, with a voice louder than a thousand thunders, he says, \u201cDepart, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.\u201d Ah! it is all true now. I laughed at the minister because he preached about hell; and here am I in hell myself, Ah! I used to wonder why he wanted to frighten us so. Ah! I would to God he had frightened me more, if he might but have frightened me out of this place. But now here am I lost, and there is no escape. I am in darkness so dark, there is not a ray of light can ever reach me. I am shut up so close, that not one of the bolts and bars can ever be removed. I am damned for ever. Ah! that is a dreary soliloquy. I cannot tell it to you. Oh! if you were there yourselves, if you could only know what they feel, and see what they endure, then would you wonder that I am not more earnest in preaching the Gospel, and you would marvel, not that I wish to make you weep, but that I did not weep far more myself and preach more solemnly. Ah! my hearers as the Lord my God liveth, before whom I stand, I shall one day stand acknowleged by your conscience as having been a true witness unto you this morning; for there is not one of you here to-day but will be without excuse if you perish. You have been warned, I have warned you as earnestly as I can. I have no more powers to spend, no more arts to try, no more persuasion that I can use. I can only conclude by saying, I beseech you, fly to Jesus. I entreat you, as immortal spirits that are bound for endless weal or woe, fly ye to Christ; seek for mercy at his hands; trust in him and be saved; and at your peril reject my solemn warning. Remember ye may reject it, but ye reject not me, but him that sent me. Ye may despise it, but ye despise not me, but a greater than Moses, even Jesus Christ the Lord; and when ye come before his bar. piercing will be his language, and terrible his words, when he condemns you for ever, for ever, for ever, without hope, for ever, for ever, for ever. May God deliver us from that, for Jesus\u2019 sake Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NO. 169 A SERMON DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, DECEMBER 27, 1857, BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE MUSIC HALL, ROYAL SURREY GARDENS. \u201cWhat have I done?\u201d \u2014 Jeremiah 8:6. Perhaps no figure represents God in a more gracious light than those figures of speech, which represent him as stooping from his throne, and … Continue reading “\u201cWHAT HAVE I DONE?\u201d”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}