Importance of Small Things in Religion by C. H. Spurgeon

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A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, April 8, 1860, By Pastor C. H. Spurgeon, At Exeter Hall, Strand.

The Lord our God broke out against us because we did not consult him about the proper order. (1Ch 15:13)

1. Let me explain the events of which a summary is to be found in 2Sa 6 1Ch 13 1Ch 15. The ark of the covenant was a kind of chest made of shittim wood, and lined within and without with gold. Within this ark were preserved the tables of stone, which were received from heaven by Moses when he was upon the mount. In it also lay the golden pot that had the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded. Upon the lid of it cherubic figures of angels were represented; and between the wings of the cherubim, when the ark was at rest, there was seen that miraculously bright light, called the Shekinah, which was the token of the presence of the Most High God. The lid of the ark, as you will remember was called the mercy seat. The whole ark was one of the most sacred things in the symbolic worship of the Jews; because if they understood it correctly, it was to them the expression of God’s dwelling with them, for where that ark was, God specially rested. Its lid being called the mercy seat, was the representation of Jesus Christ who is our ark—the ark of the covenant in which God lived among men, and he is our mercy seat by whom we have access to our Father, God. You will remember that after this ark was made in the wilderness, it was carefully kept in the secret place of the tabernacle, into which no man ever entered, except the high priest once in the year; and, then, not without blood. With his censor smoking, he made a thick cloud of incense, and then sprinkling the blood upon the mercy seat, he ventured near to it—but not without blood. That ark when it was removed was covered over, so that no human eye should ever see it; and it was carried by golden staves upon the shoulders of the Levites. It was by the presence of this ark that Jordan was driven back, and an easy passage was made for the children of Israel, when they entered into Canaan. The ark was in an evil day captured by the Philistines. But when they took it away into their country, wherever the ark went, it struck the Philistines with pestilence, until they were compelled to bring it back, for they cried, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it does not kill us and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city, the hand of God was very heavy there.” Placing the terrible captive upon a new cart, they left the oxen to bear it as they pleased, and by divine providence the ark was carried to Bethshemesh. The men of Bethshemesh struck with an evil curiosity, lifted up the lid and looked in it, and there many thousands of them fell down dead for the impious presumption. The ark was then removed to Kirjathjearim, and taken into the house of Abinadab, where it was preserved until the days of David, who desired to bring it up to the tabernacle which he had erected for it on the top of Mount Zion. The messengers hastened through all the land carrying the royal message, “Come up, oh tribes of Israel, and oh sons of Judah, gather yourselves together, and bring up the ark of the covenant of your God with music and with joy.” They came from every city, from the remotest ends of Judea, and from the borders of Egypt. But forgetful of the divine law, they took up the ark and put it on a new cart or chariot which they had made for it. They thought, doubtless, it was too heavy for the priests to carry so many miles; or else, forgetful altogether of the divine law, they imitated the example of the Philistines. It is an evil hour for the people of God, when they set up their own judgment, and fail to yield implicit obedience to divine law. The ark is dragged by the oxen; but since there are no roads in the East, but only here and there a cart rut, the cart shakes, and the ark totters. Just when they come to the threshingfloor of Chidon, there is a particularly boggy place in the road, and the cart is almost upset; the ark is about to fall in the mire, so Uzzah thinks, and he puts out his hand, touches the ark to stop it, is torn in pieces, and falls down a mangled corpse. The procession stops. They begin to weep; they cast dust into the air; the king himself is angry, angry with his God. He thinks he is dealing harshly with them; and the ark is taken into Obededom’s house, and all their joy is suspended.

2. You have before you now the picture. I shall want you to look at it, first, in detail, to bring out certain truths which I think it teaches to us; and then, I shall want you to regard the picture as a whole, to run your eye along the whole length of the canvas, and see the fulness of its meaning.

3. I. First, then, we shall take THE PICTURE IN ITS DETAIL.

4. 1. The first observation I make upon it is this, that God’s judgment of sin must differ exceedingly from ours. Who among us when be has read this narrative has not thought that Uzzah was treated harshly? What! was he not moved with a proper motive? He could not bear the idea that the ark should fall into the mire, and therefore he put out his hand. Why, to our mode of thinking, it seemed to be only a small offence, and the motive so excellent that it might almost be justified. I am sure there is a disposition in us to excuse Uzzah, and to think that this judgment which came upon him was not deserved. Let me remark here, that I am not sure Uzzah suffered any eternal punishment as the result of it. Perhaps, he was a gracious man; and God, may strike even his own children with death as a chastisement, and yet their souls may he saved eternally. We have nothing to look at except what God did with him in this world. He struck him dead in this world for touching the ark. Truly, my brethren, the Lord does not see as man sees. We cannot readily perceive the evil, but there was sin or else he would not have punished it. He is too good, too just to strike any man more severely than he deserves. God never exaggerates our sins. He looks at them as they are. And what do you think, my hearers, if the mere sin of touching the ark brought death upon the man, what would our sins have brought on us if God had “laid justice to the line and righteousness to the plummet?” Why, all of us have done ten thousand times worse than Uzzah. Indeed, some of you are living in the commission of sin to this very day. You have never repented of your sins, but you love your evil ways; and, though warned many times, (not like Uzzah, who was taken away with a stroke,) though warned many times, you still persevere in your iniquities. Oh, must not God’s patience be pressed down under your sins? Must he not have become as Amos has it, like a cart that is full of sheaves, its axles are ready to break? and then you sink and sink for ever into the pit of eternal wrath. It seems strange that Adam’s taking the fruit should be the ruin of the entire world; that the mere violation of a sacred tree should bring death into the world, with all its train of woe. But this arises from the fact that we do not know how black a thing sin is. The least sin is so great an evil, so excessively black an abomination, that God would be just if he struck us all to hell the moment we had thought an idle thought, or had uttered a single wrong word. Sin is an immeasurable evil. Man cannot weigh it. It is a gulf without a bottom. It is a desperate evil, the desperateness of which we shall never know, unless, as God forbid, we should ever come to feel its terror in the pit of hell.

5. I think this lesson lies upon the very surface of the narrative, that we do not know how bad a thing sin is, for if the mere act of touching the ark brought death on Uzzah, what a desperate evil sin must be!

6. 2. But, again, we learn, in the second place, from this narrative—that all changes from the written revelation of God are wrong. There has sprung up in the Church of Christ an idea that there are many things taught in the Bible which are not essential; that we may alter them just a little to suit our convenience: that provided we are right in the fundamentals, the other things are of no concern and of no value whatever. Now, look at our picture, and let your mistake for ever be driven away. It did seem to the people of Israel only a very indifferent matter whether the ark was carried on men’s shoulders, or whether it was transported by a cart. Why, they said, “It cannot matter. It is true God has told us that it is to be borne by the Levites, but what does that matter as long as it is carried? It will be all right. We will do the thing, and if we alter the mode, it will not matter very much.” Yes, but it did matter, for it was through this alteration which they made in God’s law that the ark first began to shake, and to totter, and then Uzzah was tempted to put forth his hand and touch it. So that the death of Uzzah was the punishment upon the whole people for having neglected to observe the minute laws of God in every particular. My brethren, when Moses built the tabernacle, he was not left to build it after his own whim and taste. Every clasp and every loop, every board and every fillet, everything was marked down in the divine plan, and Moses must build everything according to the pattern which he had seen in the Mount. Now, this is the pattern for a Christian—this book of God which lies before me. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is our only rule of practice. And you think, do you, that you may alter some few things, that you may change them to suit the climate, or to indulge your own ideas of taste or convenience? You fancy, that doctrine for instance, is not of such sublime importance—that if a man does but preach the fundamentals, he may preach any other things he likes, and yet all will be well—that ceremonies, that Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, for instance, are to be cut, and hacked and fashioned, to suit modern fancies, and that they are not to be retained in their integrity according to apostolic rule and precedent? But know this, that the slightest violation of the divine law will bring judgments upon the Church, and has brought judgments, and is even to this day withholding God’s hand from blessing us. For within a few years we might see all the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, if we would only carry God’s ark as God wished to have it carried, instead of marring the gospel by human inventions, and leaving the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

7. I am not going this morning to enter into particulars, but just to lay down the general fact, that whatever God has commanded is important, and that I have no right whatever to alter anything—no, not the least thing, but to take the word just as it stands, just as God has revealed it to me, to be my rule of faith and practice. Indeed, but there are some of you who never read your Bibles. You have a second hand religion which you have borrowed from other people; you do not come to this Book to drink at the fountain head. Your grandmother thought so and so, and you think the same; your great grandfather went to church or to chapel, and that is your reason for going; but you have not come to God’s Word to submit your judgment to it. The reason why there are so many sects nowadays is just this. If we all come immediately to the Bible, we should come far nearer together than we are now. It is not likely we should all see eye to eye. You cannot make a dozen watches all tick to the same time, much less make a dozen men all think the same thoughts. But, still, if we should all bow our thoughts to that one written Word, and would own no authority but the Bible, the Church could not be divided, could not be cut in pieces as she now is. We come together when we come to the Word of God. But I am always told when I talk about these things, “Well, but they are not essential.” Who told you they were not? “Now,” one says, “we will admit that the baptism of infants is not in the Bible, but it is not an essential thing; we may practise it, and no harm will come of it.” No, sirs; you have no right to alter a word of God’s command; you have no right to turn aside in any respect, or in any manner. God’s doctrines are to be preached as God delivers them, and his ordinances are to be practised after his own mode and law. Woe the day when God’s ark is put upon the chariot and transported by oxen, instead of being carried upon the shoulders of men, who read God’s Word, and take it as it stands, and then carry out what God commands them, and will not be led by the sleeve or by the nose by any man or set of men.

8. Do not forget this lesson brethren, for it is of the greatest importance to the Church.

9. 3. Now, there is a third thing; and that is, that whenever the practices of Christians differ from Scripture they are sure to incur inconvenience. When the ark was carried on the shoulders of men, it did not matter whether it went uphill or downhill, rugged road or smooth, there was the ark carried in state like the litter of a king. But once put it on the cart—although they thought it would look better—then it went jolting here and jolting there, and threatening constantly to tumble into the mire. Whenever we alter one word of Scripture, we shall get ourselves into trouble. We may not see it at first, but we surely shall find it out by and by. A minister, for instance, thinks, “Well, now, I must not preach all the doctrines of the Gospel, it would not suit my people; there is a great deacon sitting in the green pew in the corner, there is the squire of the parish, he would not like it if I were to be too severe on him.” Ah, my friend, alter one word, and you have fallen into a snare, you have entered a labyrinth, and God help you to find your way out again, for you will never be able to get through it alone. Stand by God’s Word and you stand safely. Alter one dot of the i, one cross of the t, and you are nowhere at all; you are in an enemy’s country, and you cannot defend yourself. When we have the Scripture to back us up we defy the world; but when we have nothing but our own whims, or the work of some great preacher, or the decree of a council, or the tradition the Fathers, we are lost; we are trying to weave a rope of sand, we are building a house of cards, that must totter to the ground. The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible is the religion of Christ’s Church. And until we come back to that the Church will have to suffer. She will not carry the ark up to the hill of Zion; she will not see his kingdom come, or his will done in earth as it is in heaven, until she has finished with those bulls and that new cart, and goes back to the New Testament plan of keeping consistently to the truth as it is in Jesus, and contending earnestly for the faith.

10. 4. Furthermore, another thing lies upon the surface of this passage; namely, that one innovation upon sacred writ leads to another. A little error leads to a great one. No one ever intended that Uzzah should touch that ark. They never dreamed that when they lifted it up and put it on the cart that it would lead to poor Uzzah’s death and that he would commit the sin of violating the ark, or else surely they would have kept to the scriptural plan. So there are some of you my dear brethren in Christ who are not quite right in your views of Scripture. Well, perhaps you think the same of me. We will speak of someone else, then. There is a man in the world, whose views are not quite consistent with Scripture. He says, “Well, it does not matter; it is a little thing, a very little thing.” Yes but that little wrong thing leads to a great wrong thing. The sinner’s path is downhill, and when you take one step in violation of Scripture precept, your next step is not only easy, but seems even to be forced upon you. Doubt election, you will soon doubt perseverance, and you may soon come to deny redemption. Where did the errors of the church of Rome come from? Were they all born in a day? No, they came by slow degrees. It happened thus:—I will trace only one error, against which as a denomination we always bear our protest, and I only take that as a sample of the whole. Among the early Christians, it was the practice to baptize those who believed in Christ Jesus, by immersing them in the water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Well, the first wrong doctrine that arisen, was the idea that perhaps there was some efficacy in the water. Next it followed that when a man was dying who had never been baptized he would perhaps profess faith in Christ, and ask that he might be baptized; but since he was dying they could not lift him from his bed, they therefore adopted sprinkling as being an easier method by which they might satisfy the conscience by the application of water. That done, there was only a step to the taking of little children into the church—children, unconscious infants, who were received as being members of Christ’s body; and thus infant sprinkling was adopted. The error came in by slow degrees—not all at once. It would have been too glaring for the church to receive, if it had shown its head at one time with all its horns upon it. But it entered slowly and gradually, until it came to be inducted into the church. I do not know an error which causes the damnation of more souls than that at the present time. There are thousands of people who firmly believe that they shall go to heaven because they were sprinkled in infancy, have been confirmed, and have taken the Sacrament. Sacramental efficacy and baptismal regeneration, all spring from the first error of infant baptism. Had they kept to the Scripture, had the church always required faith before baptism, that error could not have arose. It must have died before the light of the truth, it could not have breathed, it could not have had a foothold in the Christian church. But one error must lead to another—you never need doubt that. If you tamper with one truth of Scripture, he who tempts you to meddle with one, will tempt you to tamper with another; and there will be no end to it, until, at last, you will want a new Bible, a new Testament, and a new God. There is no telling where you will end up when you have begun. I am speaking very pointedly and very plainly this morning, on a subject which very seldom comes in my way. But I must be clear in my language when I do speak about it, for I do not often make allusions to this truth. Judge me as I judge others. You tell me, if I make one step in error, you do not know how far I may go. I believe you. Believe me also when I say the same. Let us both go to Scripture, let us stand only by this. I like your Prayer Book well enough, but not as well as my Bible. I respect your Church decrees, but not as I venerate this Book. I believe what your minister says, so far as it is consistent with this Book. Believe me so far, but not one inch further. Abandon me when I have abandoned my Master. Think no more of any man you hear, when he goes from the Scripture, and when he errs, than you would think of Satan himself; except this, pity him for his errors, but do not pin your faith on his sleeve. Scripture, Scripture only, is the model doctrine, the model practice, the model experience of a Christian; and whatever is more than this comes from evil.

11. 5. Having now dwelt upon these points, I will take one more, and then I will quit looking at the picture in detail. It strikes me that on the very surface of this passage there is a refutation of a very common error, that if we do a thing from a right motive God accepts it, even though it is a wrong thing. The common error of the time is this, “Well,” one says, “I have no doubt that if a man is a good Mohammedan, and does what he thinks to be true, then he will go to heaven.” “Ah,” says another, “and if he is a good Roman Catholic, and if he does what he thinks to be true then he is safe.” “Indeed,” says another, “we must not judge one another harshly; no doubt those who bow before Juggernaut,¹ if they live up to what they think is true then they will be saved.” Do you take in the devil worshippers and the snake worshippers too? You must let them all in. You have opened your door wide enough to let them all come in. And the Thugs² who are going around India cutting men’s throats—they do it as a matter of principle, it is a part of their religion, they consider it to be right—do you think they will go to heaven because they have done what they thought is right? “No,” one says, “I will not go to that length.” Yes, but if the principle is right in one case it is right in the other. A principle will go the whole way, it will stretch in any direction, and be as applicable to one as to another. But it is all deception and falsehood. God has revealed to us the one true religion, and other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid. We are responsible to God for our faith; we are bound to believe what he tells us to believe; and our judgment is as much bound to submit to God’s law as any other power of our being. When we come before God, it will be no excuse for us to say “My Lord, I did wrong, but I thought I was doing right.” “Yes, but I gave you my law, but you did not read it; or, if you read it, you read it so carelessly that you did not understand it, and then you did wrong, and you tell me you did it with a right motive. Indeed, but it is of no avail whatever.” Just as in Uzzah’s case, did it not seem the most right thing in the world to put out his hand to prevent the ark from slipping off? Who could blame the man? But God had commanded that no unpriestly hand should ever touch it, and inasmuch as he did touch it, though it was with a right motive, yet Uzzah must die. God will have his laws kept. Besides, my dear brethren, I am not sure about the rightness of your motives after all. The State has issued a proclamation, it is engraven, according to the old Roman fashion, in brass. A man goes up with his file, and he begins working away upon the brass; erases here, and amends there. He says, “I did that with a right motive; I did not think the law a good one, I thought it was too old fashioned for these times, and so I thought I would alter it a little, and make it better for the people.” Ah, how many have there been who have said, “The old Puritan principles are too rough for these times; we will alter them, we will tone them down a little.” What are you doing, sir? Who are you who dares to touch a single letter of God’s Book which God has hedged around with thunder in that tremendous sentence, in which he has written, “Whoever shall add to these things, God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and whoever shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city.” It becomes an awful thing when we come to think of it, for men not to form a right and proper judgment about God’s Word; for man to leave a single point in it untouched, a single mandate unstudied, lest we should lead others astray, while we ourselves are acting in disobedience to God. The fact is, there is one way to heaven, and there are not fifty ways; there is one gate to heaven, and there are not even two gates. Christ is the way. Trusting in Jesus is the path to Paradise. He who does not believe in Jesus must be damned. The religion of Christ is intolerant; not that it ever touches man in his flesh and blood, even if he rejects it; but it does not allow of a second method of salvation. It demands your full obedience, your child-like faith, or else it threatens you with the direst penalty, if you refuse to yield to it. That idea of free thinking, and the like, and the right of man to think as he likes, has no basis in Scripture. We are bound to believe what God tells us; as he tells it to us; bound not to alter a single word, but to take the Bible as it is, or else deny it, and take the consequence.

12. All this seems to me to lay in the picture which we have before us of the death of Uzzah.

13. II. But leaving these points, which I thought to be very necessary for the warning of all Christians—for judging with charity, we cannot believe that the errors which prevail among us, can have sprung up from attention to the Word—they must have sprung up from the idea, that the little things of Christ were of no importance whatever. I now come to the second point, which is to LOOK AT THE PICTURE AS A WHOLE. Here I have two pictures; one for the people of God, the other for the ungodly. I shall dwell only briefly upon the first, and at length on the second.

14. Brethren in Jesus, despite our mistakes—and we are mistaken in some things, God forgive us—despite our mistakes, we are one in Jesus. Yet, though one in Christ Jesus, we should not think our errors to be unimportant, but each of us should be on his knees seek divine teaching, so that we may be purged from every false way, and that we may be led in the way of divine obedience, even to the end. I am sure my brethren in Jesus, that the one object of your life, as I can say it is the object of mine, is the bringing about the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We want to bring up the ark from its obscurity, into the place of glory. Every time we bend our knee, there is one prayer we never can forget:—“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Now, for eighteen hundred and sixty years, the church of Christ has been seeking to bring the kingdom of Christ on earth. Has it come? has it come? Yes blessed be God it has in its measure. Here in this land, and across the Atlantic, and in other nations, there are found many who love and serve our Master. But have we had full fruit for the eighteen hundred and sixty years of labour? I do not think so. Two hundred years after the death of Christ, I think I may say, the religion of Jesus was almost as powerful in numbers upon the face of the earth, as it is now. And all the time between—God forbid that I should say it has been wasted—has, nevertheless, been a period of going back, rather than advancing—of retreat, rather than rushing victory. How, how is this to be accounted for? Was there not that in the religion of Christ, which would push its enemies to the very ends of the earth? Only let Paul stand up in Rome, and though after awhile, his head is severed from his body, yet the very empire of the seven hills is made to totter while he speaks. Let others of the Apostles pass the pillars of Hercules, and come to Britain, and the Druid loses his power; those who bow before bloody gods that delight in human sacrifice renounce their idolatries, and churches are founded throughout England, Ireland and Scotland. They have only to enter a country, and that country yields. It is true the martyrs bleed, and the apostles die, and the confessors are burned, but the truth lives and conquers and overcomes. Within two or three centuries, the name of Jesus is better known than that of any man, and his religion has greater power than any other on the face of the earth. And here we are, now, sending out our missionaries everywhere, and what is the success? Thank God for what it is: it is an excellent reward for all our labour, and far more than we deserve. But there is not the power in our missionaries that there was in the apostles. Our victories of the church have not been like the victories of the olden times. Why is this? My theory to account for it is this, in the first place, the absence of the Holy Spirit in a great measure from us. But if you come to the root of it to know the reason, my fuller other answer is this:—the church has forsaken her original purity, and, therefore, she has lost her power. If once we had done away with everything erroneous, if by the unanimous will of the entire body of Christ, every evil ceremony, every ceremony not ordained by Scripture were lopped off and done away with; if every doctrine was rejected which is not sustained by Holy Writ; if this church were pure and clean, her path would be onward, triumphant, victorious. She would set her feet on Brahma, and crush Vishnu beneath her feet. She would say to the moon of Mohammed, “Set for ever!” She would dash from his throne the Pope; she would tear up false religions by the roots; she would sit as empress of the earth, and Christ, her husband, would reign with her, and the tabernacles of God would be among men. But we are not pure; we are not clean; we cannot bring up the ark of God. Blessed be God, it still abides in Obededom’s house. True religion is to be found in the hearts of God’s people, and in some churches the truth is still preserved; but until the whole church shall come forth clear as the moon, fair as the sun, she will never be terrible as an army with banners.

15. This may seem to you to be of little consequence, but it really is a matter of life and death. I would plead with every Christian—think it over, my dear brother. When some of us preach Calvinism, and some Arminianism, we cannot both be right; it is of no use trying to think we can be—“Yes,” and “no,” cannot both be true. When some of us hold a Christian free of all authority except Christ; and others hold a state church; we cannot both be right. We may be both right in the grand things, but we cannot be right in everything, one or the other must be wrong. When some sprinkle the infant, and others baptize the believer, we cannot both be right; it is idle for us to think so. Christ has not made a nondescript religion, that will hold all sorts of people in it, and yet all shall be alike obedient. Truth does not vacillate like the pendulum which swings backwards and forwards. It is not like the comet, which is here, there, and everywhere. One must be right, the other wrong. It is not for me to pronounce who is right, or who is wrong. I am not infallible. It is for me to judge by Scripture, as in the sight of God, for myself. I beg you to do the same. Do not think any error to be an unimportant one; but try the spirits, prove whether these things are so. I am quite sure that the best way to promote union is to promote truth. It will not do for us to be all united together by yielding to one another’s mistakes. We are to be united heartily; I hope we are. We are to love each other in Christ; but we are not to be so united that we are not able to see each other’s faults, and especially not able to see our own. No, purge the house of God, and then grand and blessed times shall dawn on us.

16. And now; having finished with that subject, I turn to those of you who are not converted, but who are longing to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ preached. I think what I have already said to be important, but this last part of the service is all important. My dear hearer, I will suppose that in your heart there is an anxious desire to be saved, but you do not understand the plan of salvation: I grieve for you; for if you do not understand it, even though you seek Christ, you will make many mistakes, and you will suffer much inconvenience. It was a right thing in David to wish to bring up the ark, but perhaps he was ignorant of the way to bring it, and just see what inconvenience he had to suffer: the ark was jolted, the oxen shook it. Now if you are not clear about the plan of salvation, you will have many joltings, much shaking, many doubts, many fears. Let me ask and entreat you, then, to search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are what testify of Christ; and let me beg you to endeavour, by God’s help, always to keep in your mind a clear view of the fact, that you are to be saved, if saved at all, by trusting in Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ alone. The plan of salvation is, “Trust in Jesus.” Make mistakes about other things, you will suffer inconvenience; but make a mistake here, and it will be fatal to you. I think I hear some man saying, “Sir, I have longed to be saved, but I am still uneasy and troubled in my mind; I think if I were to do good works, and then to save myself by them, I might trust in Christ.” Stand back, Uzzah, stand back, you are about to touch the ark of God; beware, lest you should die while you are doing it: other mistakes will make you uneasy; that mistake will be fatal to you. Touch the atonement of Jesus Christ, and there is no salvation if you touch it with a legal hand, seeking to add to it your own self-righteousness.

None but Jesus, none but Jesus,
Can do helpless sinners good.

He needs no help from you; leave him to do it all; take him as he is, and go to him just as you are; do not seek to bring anything, but go as you are, and you will be saved. Seek to help Christ, and you cannot be saved. Until you have rejected that thought, you must remain in your sorrow, and in your death. No mixing with Jesus; he never came to be a make weight. Christ must be all, and you must be nothing at all. If you attempt to patch his perfect robe, that robe shall never cover your nakedness. It is studded with jewels; put one paste jewel of yours upon it, and it is not yours. You must have a whole Christ, and nothing but Christ. You know the old proverb, “Between the two stools he came to the ground.” When a man hopes to rely partly on Christ, and partly on himself, he will come to the ground with a vengeance. Rest on Jesus simply, and you are saved; rest on Christ and self, and you are like Uzzah, you have touched the ark, you have tried to mingle man’s works with God’s works, man’s merits with Christ’s merits; and tremble, lest the wrath of God should come forth against you, and destroy you.

17. But after all, my dear friends, you have no merits. Christ freely offers himself to you, if you will take him for nothing. You thought to buy him with your merits. Why you have no merits. Shall I tell you a little parable which shall show you your position. There was a rich man who had a generous heart, and at one time he resolved to give a large estate to a poor neighbour, so he sent for him, and said, “My friend, I am willing to give you a large estate for nothing.” The man felt grateful and returned home, but as he lay in his bed he thought, “I should like that estate, but I should not like to be beholden to anyone for it; I think I will pay for it.” So he set out the next morning with a heavy bag on his back, and when he came to the rich man’s door and the friend came out, he said, “Sir, I value your estate very highly; you promised to let me have it for nothing, but I do not want to be obliged to you, so I have brought a bag all full of gold to buy it with.” The rich man said, “I never offered to sell it to you; I said I would give it to you; but come, let us look at your bag of gold.” So the poor man opened wide the mouth of the sack; he blushed and stammered, and said, “Oh sir, do not be angry with me; now when I come to look at it; it is nothing but a bag of silver.” The friend said, “Look at it again.” He looked again and blushed, and cried, “Do not let my lord be angry, but I find it is nothing but a bag of copper.” “Look once more,” he said. He looked once more into it, and he fell down on his knees, and said, “Forgive me, forgive me; I find, sir, it is a bag of filth. You see I have brought you a bag of filth with which to buy your rich estate.” You know the meaning of that parable, do you not? You have brought to God what you thought were good works, golden works; look at them and you will see them pale before you, and you will say, “My Lord, they are not as good as I thought they were, they are only silver works after all.” Look at them again, and they will become dirty, brown, copper works. “Oh!” you say, “they are not worth more than a farthing now.” Look again, and you will see that your prayers, your tears, your good works, are nothing better than filth after all. They are only another form of sin, another shape of iniquity. Oh! sinner, take Christ as he is; take him now, just as you are. The gospel is just this—trust Christ and you are saved. Rely on what he did, and you are delivered. Just stop trusting in any ceremonies, in any doctrines, in any forms, in any works, but rely on Jesus and you are saved. “Well,” one says, “but if I go on in sin.” You cannot go on in sin after you have relied on Jesus; that will stop you, nothing else can; but faith will. “No,” says another, “but I have nothing in the world; no reason why I should be saved, I have no good thing.” Just so, I know you have not; but still you are told to trust Jesus whether you have any good thing or not. I think I hear someone say, “I must not trust Jesus, I have no right to do it.” But, my dear friend, you are commanded to do it. “God commands all men everywhere to repent.” This is the commandment, that you believe on Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Is not this the very gospel—“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved?” Now what God commands me to do I have a right to do; it cannot be wrong for me to do what God tells me to do. The minister, who tells a man he has his right found in his own sense of need, makes the sinner look at himself; but if he tells him, “Feel or not feel, God has commanded you to believe;” that makes the sinner turn to Christ and Christ only, this turns his eye from himself to the Saviour.

18. To conclude, I will tell you a little anecdote which I have often told before; it brings to your mind more clearly than any other means, your right to believe in Christ. I am speaking to those who say, “I have no right to trust Christ.” But if Christ commands you to do it, and if moreover he tells you, “you are condemned already because you do not believe,” you certainly have a right to believe. Sitting one day in Court with a Judge, interesting myself with some trials that were going on, there a witness was required. I am not clear about his name, but I think it was Brown. So it was said from the Bench that Brown was wanted next. The usher down in the Court cried out “Brown!” Someone nearer the door cried, “Brown!” and I could hear them calling out in the street two or three times, “Brown! Brown! Brown!” The Court was very crowded. By and by there came in at the Court door with a great deal of difficulty, a little, ugly, mean looking creature. He came pushing and elbowing his way. There was a fine tall gentleman standing in the Court, looking on. He did not like to be pushed around, and he said in a very peremptory manner, “Who are you?” “Brown,” said the man, “I am Brown.” “Well,” but said the other, “Who is Brown?” “No one,” he said, “only I was told to come.” It was wonderful how everyone made way for Brown, because he was told to come. They just cleared a lane for him, and I do not suppose for my lord and duke they would have made room—they were so tightly packed: but Brown must come in anyway, because he was wanted. It did not matter how poor he looked, how ragged, how greasy, how dirty, Brown was wanted and he had a right to come. So now, God commands you to trust Christ. But you say, “There is a great big sin standing up.” And he says, “Who are you?” You say, “A poor sinner.” “And what is a poor sinner?” he says. “Nothing at all,” you say; “but Jesus Christ told me to trust in him. If he is wrong I leave the blame with him, I will not keep back from him.” He says, “Leap into my arms.” I am at the top of a burning house, he cries, “leap, and I will catch you.” Then down I go. Dashed to pieces, or saved; I have no other way of salvation—down I go into his arms. I am sinking, the floods are ready to swallow me up. Christ says, “Lay hold of that rope.” It looks like a frail rope, but I lay hold of it. Sink or swim I will not lay hold of anything else, but that and that alone, and I am safe. Do that, poor sinner, whoever you may be, if you have not entered a place of worship for the last six months, trust Christ now. Now, I beseech you, while the accepted hour is here, may God the Holy Spirit enable you to trust Christ; and, though you have come in here covered with sin, you may go out with your sin washed away, peace and joy in your heart, because the Spirit of God has sweetly led you to trust Jesus and you are saved.

19. May God now add his blessing, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.