he foresaw you would be a preacher; nor you because he knew you would be a tract distributor; nor you because he knew that you would be an indefatigable Sunday-school teacher; he loved you although he knew that you would be as you are to-day, ungrateful and unkind to him; cold in your soul, worldly in your spirit. You can to-day, rehearse experimentally, our last Sabbath's text, "I was as a beast before thee: Nevertheless I am continually with thee."

There was, then, no motive of future service why this child should be blessed, or why God should save man. I do not know-I want to say what I cannot say this morning; I want to exhibit to you man, standing as a criminal at the bar, guilty, proved to be guilty even to his very face, yet proudly saying that he is not guilty. A traitor at heart, a base rebel, an ungrateful wretch! I want you to think of him as one upon whom pity seems as if it would be thrown away, not an object for mercy, one of whom the universe cries, "Away with him, away with him, it is not fit that he should live," and then, I want to show you God in the sovereignty of his grace, saying, "I will spare that traitor; he deserves to die, but I will spare him; I have no motive for it, except such as is in my own will. There is nothing in him, no reason in him why I should spare him, but I will spare him; I will prove that I am king for ever and ever, and the God and Lord of mercy."

The only answer that we can give to the question, "Why then, does God spare this outcast infant?" is this, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." How is Jehovah exalted in our midst this morning! My spirit trembles while it labours to exalt the Lord alone. The Lord is King for ever and ever, hallelujah! Bow your heads, both saints and sinners, and adore him as King of kings and Lord of lords. Ask not questions, for he giveth no account of his matters. Quarrel not with his dominion, for his answer is to thee, "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" Impeach not his justice, or his justice you shall feel in smiting you. Entreat his mercy, but entreat it as those that have no claim upon him. Ask him for it as knowing that if he gives it to you he has a right to give it or to withhold it if he will. Sinners, behold yourselves this morning, in the hand of an angry God. There you lie before God, like a moth beneath your own fingers. It is as he wills, to save or to destroy you. Are ye at ease? Will ye mock him? Will ye boast and glorify yourselves? Rather, as creatures that are now absolutely under his control, and deservedly subject to his rod, bow your heads and cry, "God be merciful to us, sinners! Thou canst save, do it for thine own will and glory's sake, that thy mercy may be magnified and thy sovereignty may be clearly seen.'

We have found no motive in the creature, and therefore, we refrain from further search, believing that the fountain and wellspring of mercy is in God himself. Into his reasons we cannot search, lest like Job, we should hear the rebuke of the Lord, "Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in search of the depth?"

III. But now, we turn to consider THE MANDATE OF HIS MERCY. "I said unto thee, Live."

First, I want you to notice that this fiat of God is majestic. “I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live." Darkness was upon the face of the earth, and thus the Almighty spoke, "Let there be light!" And light was. Sublime because simple; without any oratorical embellishments, magnificently stern; God speaks, and it is done. So, in our text, we perceive a sinner with nothing in him but sin, expecting nothing but wrath; but the majestic One passes by; he is making a tour of his dominions, splendidly arrayed, with ten thousand times ten thousand angels at his beck and call. He looks, and there lies an infant, loathsome, in its blood, he stops, and he pronounces the word, the royal word "Live." There speaks a God. Who but he could venture thus to deal with life and dispense it with a single syllable? 'Tis majestic, 'tis divine! And mark you, brethren, though the word preached by us may be very rough and rugged, as we confess it is, though we know but little of the graces of oratory, yet when God speaks by a minister, there is nothing more divine under heaven, nor in heaven, than the gospel. When the Lord speaks, even though it be by the unlettered and the ignorant, when through the gospel he saith, "Live," to a sinner, not even the angels who bow before the throne ever heard a diviner sound. Thus saith the Lord, thou dead sinner, "Live!"

Again, this fiat is manifold as well as majestic. When He saith, "Live," it includeth many things. Here is judicial life. The sinner is ready to be condemned and executed; his neck is on the block, and the axe is gleaming in the sunlight, but the mighty One saith, "Liv." and he riseth pardoned and absolved. The execution is not only stayed, that were but respite; the crime is forgiven, the man is to live for aye! It is, moreover, spiritual life. The man knew nought of God, his eyes could not see Christ, his ears could not hear his voice; Jehovah said, "Live," and spiritual life was given, and we were quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Moreover, it includes glory-life, which is the perfection of spiritual life. "I said unto thee, Live;" and that word rolls on through all the years of life till death comes, and in the midst of the shadows of death, the Lord's voice is still heard, "I say unto thee, Live!" In the morning of the resurrection it is that selfsame voice which is echoed by the archangel, "Live," and as the spirits rise to heaven to be blest for ever in the glory of their God, it is in the power of this same voice, "I say unto thee, Live."

Note again, that it is an irresistible voice. When God says to a sinner, "Live," all the devils in hell cannot keep him in the grave. If the Lord should say to a blasphemer here to-day, "Live," that blasphemer must become a saint. Saul of Tarsus is on the road to Damascus to arrest the saints of the living God. A strong hand might seize the bridle of his charger and throw him to the ground; but Saul is not to be stopped like this; he will rise from the ground the same Saul, to go to Damascus as blood-thirsty as ever. But see what divine grace can do! A voice from heaven and a light above the brightness of the sun, and Saul is crying out, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Within three

days he is baptized; he becomes a preacher; and Saul that was called Paul becomes a leader in the hosts of the Most High. My Master can do the like to-day. Mighty to save is he.

"Tell what his arm hath done,

What spoils from death he won,
Praise his dear name alone.
Worthy the Lamb."

We remark again, that it is all-sufficient. "Live," dost thou say, great God? Why, the man is dead! There is life-not in him, but in the voice that bids him live. "Live," dost thou say? "By this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days!" There is power-not in his corruption, but in the voice that crieth, "Come forth!" When we preach to sinners and tell them to believe in Christ, do not fancy it is because we think they have any power. No, but because when in God's name we say, "Believe," the power is in the mandate as it comes from our lip, uttered by the Most High. If a minister be not filled with God's Spirit, then is his ministry an empty dream; but if a minister be, as I conceive him to be, a man who speaks in God's name, and for the time being, is the very mouth of God to men's soul's, then there is power in the gospel as it is preached, attended with the demonstration of the Spirit, to do for the sinner what he can by no means do for himself. I cry to-day in my Master's name "Thus saith the Lord, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye shall live." Trust my Master bleeding on the tree, and ye shall be delivered. Rest ye on the merit of his blood and of his glorious righteousness; trust ye in the power of his intercession before the throne, and despite your lost estate, you shall be this morning saved for ever and ever.

We close when we shall have repeated ourselves once more by saying, this mandate was a mandate of free grace. I want to lay that down again, and again, and again, that there was nothing in this infant, nothing but loathsomeness, nothing therefore, to merit esteem; nothing in the infant but inability, nothing therefore, by which it could help itself; nothing in it but infancy, nothing therefore, by which it could plead for itself, and yet grace said, "Live"-freely, without any bribe, without any entreaty, said, "Live;" and so when sinners are saved, it is only and solely because God will do it, to magnify his free, unpurchased, unsought grace. Surely this is a subject which will suit some here, though it will not please others. Proud Pharisees will turn on their heels. "That is very high Calvinistic doctrine," saith one. My dear friends, I do not care what it is; I know it is written in the Word of God. Í preach very often sermons which get me the title of Arminian, and just as often I am charged with Hyperism. I am simply one who seeks honestly to tell you what he believes to be in Scripture, and what he believes to be true, and therefore, whether it be high or low is nothing to me. Is it true? I know the proud Pharisee will say, "No." "Why," saith he, "there must be some merit in what we do? Surely we do something. Perseverance in well-doing, and so on, surely this will effect much?" You are under the law and not under grace. You have not yet learned the A B C of the gospel, you want to be a saint by the merit

of what you do, and you will be lost as sure as you are a man unless you look at things in a different light. But I know that the doctrine will be acceptable to those condemned ones here this morning, who have written their own sentence out, who say, "I must perish, I have nothing to bring thee, O Lord; I have not even a tender heart, I have not even such a sense of need as I want; Lord, I am empty, except that I am full of evil and full of sin, I have nothing that I could put before thine eye, except that which would excite thy wrath and thy disgust. Great God, if thou shouldest not save me I cannot blame thee; I lay hold of nothing in myself, but thou hast said, "He that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ, hath everlasting life." Lord, I venture to believe on him; thou wilt be true, thou wilt save even me." Soul, soul, thou mayest go out of this house light of heart and foot, for "thy sins, which are many, are forgiven thee." In God's name I pronounce the sentence of absolution on thee, if thou hast thus come to Christ, and trusted in the Lord Jesus. There is not a sentence left in God's Book against thee; thou art no more dead, but thou livest; no more accursed, but beloved; no more loathsome, but beautiful-covered with Christ's righteousness, and filled with the Spirit of the living God. What shall I say to you who are Christians, but this-do for the sake of this grace-show your gratitude, live more like your Master, and live more in God's service. Seek to spend and be spent in him. Nothing can make a man work for Christ like free grace; and those who believe the doctrine of free grace and yet are idle, must surely hold the truth in unrighteousness, for there is no principle so active, so impulsive as this.

"Loved of my God, for him again

With love intense I'd burn:

Chosen of thee ere time began,
I'd choose thee in return."

Never think that any solemn thought that

Finally, Christian, never give up any sinner. man is beyond salvation. I charge you by the God looketh for nothing in man, and saveth only according to the sweet counsels of his own will, bring every man you meet with before God in prayer, plead with every man, preach Christ to every man, tell every man that Christ can save, tell that sinner that whatever there may not be in him, Christ's power is still the same, that his arm is not shortened neither is his ear heavy; and spread ye the glad news that it is not of the will of man, nor blocd, nor birth, but by the power of the Spirit of God according to the will of the Most High. May the Lord add his blessing and do some of his mighty works this morning through Jesus Christ our Lord.

WHAT MEANEST THOU, O SLEEPER?

A Sermon

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 14TH, 1862, BY REV. C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper! arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not."-Jonah i. 5, 6.

Or all the men in the ship, Jonah was the person who ought most to have been awake; but nevertheless, he was not only asleep, but fast asleep; all the creaking of the cordage, the dashing of the waves, the howling of the winds, the straining of the timbers, and the shouting of the mariners, did not arouse him; he was fast locked in the arms of sleep. See here, in Jonah's heavy slumber, the effect of sin. No noxious drug can give such deadly sleep as sin. The body never knows so dread a sleep when under the influence of opiates, as the soul does when sin hath cast it into a slumber. If men could be awake to the evils, to the danger, to the desperate punishment of sin, sin were not half so deadly as it is; but when it puts its sweet cup of nightshade to the lip, that cup soon blinds the eye and "steeps the senses in forgetfulness," and man knoweth not what or where he is. Nor is sin the only cradle in which evil rocks the soul, the world too, casteth men into slumber. I do not know that Jonah ever slept so soundly anywhere as when he had gotten into the midst of busy mariners who were going to Tars hish. Ah, it is comparatively easy for us to keep awake in the midst of God's Church; 'tis easy for us to maintain our stedfastness and integrity when we meet with those who rejoice in His name; but the world is an enchanted ground, and happy is that Christian who is able to survive the deadening influence of business, the soporific influence which creeps over the minds of men whose merchandize increaseth, whose houses are filled with the riches of nations. What downy pillows doth the world sew to all armholes! What beds of ease she spreads for those whom she entraps.

See also, the slumbering effects of the flesh. It was to spare himself a little toil, it was to avoid personal dishonour that Jonah fled. Ah, flesh! when thou art yielded to, into what follies wilt thou not drive us, into what prostration of strength dost thou not hurl us? Pleasures and comforts, if sought as ends, are desperate drains upon the vigour of Nos. 469-70. Penny Pulpit, 3,746-47.