giving. Oh! let us be thankful for the blessings we have, and then we shall attain grace to win the promise we have not. There is a young man up there who had a little light yesterday; he had been in the darkness before; thank God for the first gleam, young man, and you shall have the full daylight soon. There is a young woman there who has been bowed down with a great weight of sin, but her conscience is somewhat at peace; she hopes she has a little faith in the Lord. Oh! bless God for that little faith, and thou shalt find it grow; but if thou wilt not thank him, it may be for many a day thou shalt walk in darkness, and see no light till thou shalt come to value God's mercies at their proper rate. 7. And lastly, and not to keep you longer, if you would have your faith stirred up, look at the examples of all who in olden times, and in our own times, by faith have obtained the promise. Sinner, look thou at the many now in heaven who had no more to trust to than thou hast-the naked promise of God. God says to them as he does to thee, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." They trusted Christ and they are saved. Do thou the same and thou shalt find him true. "I ask them whence their victory came, They with united breath, Ascribe their conquests to the Lamb, And you! saints of God, look to your noble ancestors. What a pedigree is yours! Through what a host of martyrs, confessors, prophets, and apostles has our blood descended, and all these bear their testimony that not one good thing hath failed of all that the Lord God hath promised. Among them all there is no exception; not one of them will impugn the veracity of God. They tried him on the rack, in the gloomy dungeon, and at the stake. They tried him in the Roman amphitheatre, when their bones were cracking between the jaws of lions. They tried him in Nero's garden, when the pitch smeared on them was flaming up, an awful sacrifice to God. They tried him when then they lay in mouldy dungeons rotting, or burning with fever. They tried him in the tracks of the wild goats, when they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, destitute, afflicted, tormented. They tried him in the bitterness of life, and in the agonies of death, and they all say to you-"Trust in the Lord; believe in him, so shall he bring it to pass, and you shall attain the promise. Falter not, hesitate not: waver not, but with the unstaggering faith of Abraham, say, 'He that hath promised is able also to perform,' and thou shalt see it with thine eyes and thou shalt eat thereof. Thou shalt have his presence and blessing in this world, and in the world to come life everlasting." God help us so to do for Jesu's sake. Amen. A SERMON FOR SPRING. A Sermon DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 23RD, 1862, BY REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away." Solomon's Song, ii. 10--13. THE things which are seen are types of the things which are not seen. The works of creation are pictures to the children of God of the secret mysteries of grace. God's truths are the apples of gold, and the visible creatures are the baskets of silver. The very seasons of the year find their parallel in the little world of man within. We have our winter -dreary howling winter,-when the north wind of the law rusheth forth against us, when every hope is nipped, when all the seeds of joy lie buried beneath the dark clods of despair, when our soul is fast fettered like a river bound with ice, without waves of joy, or flowings of thanksgiving. Thanks be unto God, the soft south wind breathes upon our soul, and at once the waters of desire are set free, the spring of love cometh on, flowers of hope appear in our hearts, the trees of faith put forth their young shoots, the time of the singing of birds cometh in our hearts, and we have joy and peace in believing through the Lord Jesus Christ. That happy springtide is followed in the believer by a rich summer, when his graces, like fragrant flowers, are in full bloom, loading the air with perfume; and fruits of the Spirit like citrons and pomegranates swell into their full proportion in the genial warmth of the Sun of Righteousness. Then cometh the believer's autumn, when his fruits grow ripe, and his fields are ready for the harvest; the time has come when his Lord shall gather together his "pleasant fruits," and store them in heaven; the feast of ingathering is at hand-the time when the year shall begin anew, an unchanging year, like the years of the right hand of the Most High in heaven. Now, beloved, each particular season has its duty. The husbandman finds that there is a time to plough, a time to sow, a time to reap; there is a season for vintage, and a period for the pruning of the vine; there is a month for the planting of herbs, and for the ingathering of seeds. To everything there is a time and a purpose, and every season has its special labour. It seems from the text, that whenever it is springtide in our hearts, then Christ's voice may be heard saying, "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away." Whenever we have been delivered from a dreary winter of temptation or affliction, or tribulation,-whenever the fair spring of hope cometh upon us, and our joys begin to multiply, then we should hear the Master bidding us seek after something higher and better, and we should go forth in his strength to love him more, and serve him more diligently than aforetime. This I take to be the truth taught in the text, and it shall be the subject of this morning's discourse; and to any with whom the time of the singing of birds is come, in whom the flowers appear to any such I hope the Master may speak till their souls shall say, "My beloved spake, and said unto me, rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." I shall have to use the general principle in illustration of four or five different cases. I. First, with regard to THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. In looking upon her history, with half an eye you can plainly perceive that she has had her ebbs and flows. Often it seemed as if her tide retired; ungodliness, heresy, error, prevailed: but she has had her flood tide when once again the glorious waves have rolled in, covering with their triumphant righteousness the sands of ignorance and evil. The history of Christ's Church is a varied year of many seasons. She has had her high and noble processions of victory; she has had her sorrowful congregations of mourners during times of disaster and apparent defeat. Commencing with the life of Christ, what a smiling spring it was for the world when the Holy Spirit was poured out in Pentecost. Then might the saints sing with sweet accord "The Jewish wintry state is gone, The mists are fled, the spring comes on; The winter was over and past-that long season in which the Jewish state lay dead, when the frosts of Phariseeism had bound up all spiritual life. The rain was over and gone, the black clouds of wrath had emptied themselves upon the Saviour's head; thunder and tempest and storm, all dark and terrible things were gone for ever. The flowers appeared on the earth; three thousand in one day blossomed forth, baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Fair promises created for beauty and delight sprang up and with their blest fulfilment clothed the earth in a royal garment of many colours. The time of the singing birds was come, for they praised God day and night, eating their bread with joy and singleness of heart. The voice of the turtle was heard, for the Spirit-that hallowed dove from heaven-descended with tongues of fire upon the apostles, and the Gospel was preached in every land. Then had earth one of her joyous Sabbaths; the fig tree put forth her green figs; in every land there were some converts; the dwellers in Mesopotamia, Medes, Parthians, Elamites-some of all-had been converted to God, and the tender grapes of new born piety and zeal gave forth a sweet smell before God. Then it was that Christ spake in words which made the heart of his Church to burn like coals of juniper: "My Fellow-friende, my Beautiful, The bride arose, charmed by the heavenly voice of her spouse, she girt on her beautiful garments and for some hundred years or more, she did come away; she came away from her narrowness of spirit, and she preached to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ: she came away from her attachment to the State, and she dared to confess that Christ's kingdom was not of this world: she came away from her earthly hopes and comforts, for "they counted not their lives dear unto them that they might win Christ and be found in him:" she came away from all ease and rest of body, for they laboured more and more abundantly, making themselves sacrifices for Christ. Her apostles landed on every shore; her confessors were found among people of every tongue; her martyrs kindled a light in the midst of lands afflicted with the midnight of heathen darkness. No place trodden by foot of man was left unvisited by the heralds of God, the heroic sons of the Church. "Go ye forth into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," was ringing in their ears like a clarion sounding the war charge, and they obeyed it like soldiers who had been men of war from their youth. Those were brave days of old when with a word the saints of God could overcome a thousand foes, that word the faithful promise of a gracious God. Alas, alas, that season passed away, the Church grew dull and sleepy; she left her Lord, she turned aside, she leaned upon an arm of flesh, courting the endowments of earthly kingdoms, then there came a long and dreary winter, the dark ages of the world, the darker ages of the Church. At last the time of love returned, when God again visited his people and raised up for them new apostles, new martyrs, new confessors. Switzerland and France, and Germany, and Bohemia, and the Low Countries, and England and Scotland had all their men of God, who spoke with tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The time of Luther and Calvin, and Melancthon, and of Knox was come-heaven's sunny days when once again the frost. should give way to approaching summer. Then it was that men could say once again, "The winter is passed," priestcraft has lost its power, the rain is over and gone; false doctrines shall no more be as tempests to the Church; the flowers appear on the earth-little Churches; plants of God's right hand planting, are springing up everywhere. The time of the singing of birds was come; Luther's hymns were sung by ploughmen in every field; the Psalms translated were scattered among all people-carried on the wings of angels, and the Church sang aloud unto God, her strength, and entered into his courts with the voice of thanksgiving, in such sort as she had not hoped for during her long and weary winter's night. In every cottage and under every roof tree, from the peasant's hut to the prince's palace, the singing of birds was come. Then peace came to the people and joy in the Lord, for the voice of the turtle was heard delighting hill and valley, grove and field, with the love-notes of gospel grace. Then fruits of righteousness were brought forth, the Church was "an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits," camphire with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices; and a sweet savour of faith and love went up to heaven, and God rejoiced therein. Then the Master sweetly cried "Rise up, my love, my fair one; come away, Soar on the wings of thy victorious faith But she did not hear the voice, or she heard it but partially. Satan and his wiles prevailed; the little foxes spoiled the vines and devoured the tender grapes. Corruption, like a strong man armed, held the spouse, and she came not forth at her beloved's call. In England she would not come away; she hugged the arm of flesh; she laid hold upon the protection of the State; she would not venture upon the bare promise of her Lord. O that she had left dignities and endowments and laws to worldly corporations, and had rested on her Husband's love alone. Alas for our divisions at this time, what are they but the bitter result of the departure of our fathers from the chastity of simple dependance such as Jesus' loves? In other lands she confined herself too much within her own limits, sent forth few missionaries, laboured not for the conversion of the outcasts of Israel; she would not come away, and so the reformation never took place. It commenced but it ceased, and the Churches, many of them, remain to this day half reformed, in a transition state, somewhere between truth and error, like the Lutheran Church and the Established Church of England at the present day-too good to be rejected, too evil to be wholly received, having such a savour of godliness therein that they are Christ's, but having such a mixture of Popery therein that their garments are not clean. Oh! would to God that the Church could then have heard her Master's voice, "Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away." And now, brethren, in these days we have had another season of refreshing. God has been pleased to pour out his Spirit_upon men again. Perhaps the late revivals have almost rivalled Pentecostcertainly in the number of souls ingathered, they may bear rigid comparison with that feast of firstfruits. I suppose that in the north of Ireland, in Wales, in America, and in many parts of our own country, there have been wrought more conversions than took place at the descent of the Holy Spirit. The Lord's people are alive and in earnest, and all our agencies are quickened with new energy. The time of the singing of birds is come, though there are some harsh croaking ravens still left. The flowers do appear on the earth though much unmelted snow still covers the pastures. Thank God, the winter is over and passed to a great extent, though there are some pulpits and churches as frost-bound as ever. We thank God that the rain is over and gone, though there are still some who laugh at the people of God and would destroy all true doctrine. We live in happier days than those which have passed. We may speak of these times as the good old times wherein time is older than ever it was, and, I think, better |