A little garden walked around, Chosen and made peculiar ground;
A little spot, enclosed by grace, Out of the world’s wild wilderness?
And when we have sung that song, have we not sung enough and may we not go home and thank God that we are within the consecrated enclosure?
That used to be the notion a great many years gone by. I hope that now, while we love to be enclosed, to be the garden of the Lord, and delight to invite him to come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits, and while we do seek the edification one another — and God forbid that we should ever think that to be a secondary thing — we yet feel that we are to be edified on purpose that we may be a spiritual house in which the living God may dwell, and from which the life and power may go forth. We now feel that we want to be fed in order that we may work; for, “If any man will not work, neither let him eat,” should be a spiritual as well as a moral rule. We feel that now we want to hold the truth on purpose that, with that truth, we may rescue those who are under the thraldom of error. Still, I would to God that our churches felt even now more deeply than they do that the main object of the existence of a church at all is its conversion of sinners. If that be taken for granted, it will give a tone to all church work. The
minister will preach with that view. Then the Sunday-school teachers will begin to teach with that view — not for teaching’s sake and instruction’s sake, though the teaching and the instruction are certainly very valuable, but with the design that the children’s souls should be there and then saved;
that, as children, they should be converted to God while yet they are in the classes. Then those that distributed tracts and preached in the streets and took cottage meetings would be looking always towards this — that sinners may be impressed, convicted, and converted, and they would aim at that. And even the mere temporal work of the church, such as the deacons may have to discharge, would still be done with an eye to that, and
although to seek the salvation of sinners may not seem to come under the serving of tables, yet let me tell you that there is a way of serving tables that will effectually prevent the conversion of sinners, as many a minister has known to his cost. And there is another way of attending to those temporalities of the church. They may be attended to in such a style that God himself deigns to make use even of them in the conversion of sinners.
We must have the whole strength of the church brought to this point. The church must be sharpened up like a wedge, to one thin edge, and then driven with all her force, as with a mighty beetle, till we split asunder the
timber that lies before us. She must have sinners saved somehow — anyhow. “If by any means we may save some,” must be the very motto of each Christian church.
How is it to be done? Well, brethren, you know — for you have been told so often; that divine power alone can convert a soul; that this business is quite out of our hands — that spiritual life can only be communicated by a miracle — a miracle wrought by the Holy Ghost — that to see and feel their ruin is not given to the ungodly except as a work of grace. We may throw the light on their eyeballs, but we cannot make them see. We may set a loving Christ before them, but we cannot place Christ in their hearts.
Unless God the Holy Ghost shall do it, it shall be altogether undone. What then? Why, then it is clear that we must abundantly and continually pray that the Holy Spirit may rest upon us. He will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. The Holy Spirit is never backward to work, but all the history of the church goes to show that, in seasons of the greatest operation of the Holy Spirit, there has generally preceded a time of mighty, intense, and earnest prayer.
Oh, then, to begin with, brethren and beloved, if we are to have souls saved we must pray: we must pray: we must pray. And prayer must be in all our homes. I trust that you do not live in the neglect of family prayer. How that ordinance ought to be maintained! It is the very strength of Protestantism, and the nurse of piety. Houses without family prayer cannot expect to see godly children. Where that is left out I little wonder if it should be said that the children of dissenters forsake the faith of their fathers. I think they never do so where that faith is riveted by morning and evening prayer. And on your knees alone, brother, there you must pray. But specially there should be the prayer of the church, as a church meeting for that object.
Invite the congregation to join. But still the special and set meeting for prayer should be studiously maintained. I regret when I hear of some of you that cannot have a lecture and a prayer meeting. Two services a week are too many for you — not for your minister always, but for your tried constitutions. You know, the bricklayers, and carpenters, and working people that come to the Tabernacle can very well manage two services.
Indeed, I think they would like a service every night in the week. They most of them have to earn their livings, but you, ladies and gentlemen, that live a little way out of town, are too tired with your day’s work, which, I hear, consists of going at ten in the morning and coming home at five. It is so very wearisome that you cannot be expected to have a lecture and a
prayer meeting. I am sorry for your sickness, and I trust that you may speedily recover, for there can be no real blessing, depend upon it, where the prayer-meeting is put into a secondary position. I feel certain of it, that the prayer-meeting must be maintained in its strength; and if so be some brethren must not preach when they are asked to pray; some brethren must not always say the same thing; some brethren must not be so long; some brethren must not be so cold and so slow. Oh, for real prayer-meetings in which they do pray! I believe that the people are sure to come to them when there is life kept up in the prayer-meeting. May God grant that this point may be attended to rightly and earnestly, and that you may see that though it may be the work of the Spirit of God to convert sinners, you must pray to him that the conversion may be done.
Well, then, if you again ask, “What are we to do?” I reply that, after you have prayed, you are now committed to the work. If a man prays God to give a harvest, he must go and plough and sow. If a man prays God, “O Lord, speed my business tomorrow,” he must take down the shutters, must he not? Yes, and he must have his wits about him on the other side of the counter, to try and do as much business as he can, for if he just sits on the top of the counter, cross-legged, and tells the customers that he does not want them, we shall not believe in his prayer, shall we? And yet, I think, I have known some people do very much that way. They pray God to save sinners, but they never lift hand or foot to do anything in it. No, they are rather inclined to think that there must be too many sinners saved; and if they heard that there were five hundred persons converted under a sermon, they would say, “Ah, dear me! Yes, I suppose they were Methodists, weren’t they?” They would be sure to set it down to that, and then they would begin to say that there were a great many who professed to be converted, but who never were, the truth being that such people do not believe in many persons being converted. If there are two or three — oh, that is very likely the Lord’s hand. If there is anything little done, that is the Lord. Hear that! But if there are five hundred, then it cannot be the Lord.
They do not expect him to do any great things. They worship a little God.
Brethren, the magnitude of a thing rather commends it to me, and I seem to feel, “Surely the Lord is in this place,” when I hear of multitudes being converted to Christ, for that seems to be after the Lord’s own order, who doeth great marvels in the midst of the sons of men.
Now, if sinners are to be converted through us, let us use, at any rate:, all our common sense. Some people have not much common sense, but let
them use the little they have, and it will strike them at once, and if there is anything about the place of worship that prevents people coming in — if anything there is about the order of service, or the time of service, or the method of service, which is likely to prevent attention, or likely to cause discomfort, — if the pews are all straight up in the back, so that a poor soul sits doing penance, and cannot listen — all such little things, which after all, are great things, should be seen at once. I used to think that surely it did not matter what shape the place was, or anything of the kind, but now I am of opinion that a person is more likely to be converted if he can breathe than he is if he is being stifled, and that a person is more likely to be converted if he can attend than he is if everybody drops an umbrella down as so many have done tonight. Down goes an umbrella, perhaps, in the middle of a sentence, or somebody comes up the aisle in a pair of pattens, as they do in the country villages, and the attention is taken off. I would give the gospel a fair chance, I think; and I should like some Christian people, who are worshipping in that nasty little dingy old hole, down in a corner, which nobody can see or find, to ask whether they are going to work about God’s business with anything like the common sense with which they go about their own work? I will tell you what some are like. They are like the nigger who went to hear a sermon, and he heard that we ought to give God a tenth. So Zachary said that then he would enclose ten acres of land, and he would give the Lord one acre, and he would sow the Lord some potatoes, maize, and so on. So Zachy did; but after he had done it he did not seem. to feel very contented with it; and you must know that the rascal never hoed the Lord’s potatoes, and he never saw the Lord’s maize at all; and so, when anybody rode by they wondered, to see nine parts of the field very carefully kept in order and the other part with nothing at all done on it. “That is the Lord’s part,” said Zachy, Well now there are many people like that; all their business is done with great skill and forethought. They throw their soul into it; but this little business about the little chapel that they attend — the business of taking care of God’s minister and God’s work — ah, that is the Lord’s potatoes, and Zachy does not hoe them. I want you to hoe the lord’s potatoes. I want God’s work to be done with all your thoughtfulness and care, for if not, I am persuaded we cannot expect that sinners will be converted to God. If sinners are to be converted, then the next thing is that we must mind the conditions under which the Holy Spirit is generally found to work. What are they?
Well, you shall find, brethren, that the Holy Spirit does not bless that church where holiness is not regarded. Our grand old forefathers were very sound on this point — of very stern morals and holiness; but I am afraid that there is a good deal of laxity in some of our churches; and (take my word for it for the moment, but observe afterwards for yourselves) those churches which begin to relax — those churches in which the members commonly go to the amusements of the world, if there be such churches, are churches in which there cannot be conversions. There will be unholy members, but if they are tolerated, if sin is winked at because a man is a leading man., if the church lowers its standard of obedience to the divine will, the preacher may preach his heart out, but he cannot expect
conversions. Achan is in the camp. The goodly Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold — the accursed things — are hidden away in the tent, and ye may march to battle, O ye sons of Israel, but ye Shall come back
defeated while this is the case. Oh! purge your churches then diligently. Ye officers of the church, do your duty in this respect, for the Lord will not go forth with your armies as long as unholiness is with you. We find that the Spirit of God works also where there is unity. That mild and gentle dove forsakes the troubled waters of strife, and he is found where men love each other with a pure heart fervently. It is no use for you to go in for the conversion of sinners when you hold such a church-meeting as you held last week. I do not know whom this may refer to, but I dare say it does refer to somebody here. Some of our church-meetings—in remote parts of the country let us say — would be a disgrace to the Hottentots. I speak very mildly when I say that. I do not believe that the devil would hold such a church-meeting as I have known of. Do you look astonished at my saying that. I never heard, of the devils quarrelling yet at all. Whenever the
synagogue of Satan meets, it meets with wonderful unanimity. His kingdom is not divided against itself, and hence it has wondrous power:
and we had better learn from the Philistines a little. Let us sharpen our axe and our coulter on their grindstone, and learn even from the devil that if we are to have power at all we must be one. Get together, brethren. If I may address any members of churches that have little variances — if your family has inherited a little, difference from another family, and your cousin was offended with somebody else’s cousin, go and shake hands and end all that.
If you are going to serve the Lord you must love each other first. It does not look as if there was any relation between this matter and the
conversion of sinners, but there is a very close one, for God will not bless disunited churches. And then, again, we find that God blesses churches
where the members are all alive. Dear, dear me! There are some churches that have become part living and part dead. Some members are very earnest, others of them are very not earnest. Some of them are
consecrated; others are, if not altogether unconsecrated, yet apparently so as to any outward acts. I believe the Lord blesses a church when all round them begin to consecrate themselves, their time, their talents, their money to the Lord. I have often received help for various causes, in this place, from persons whom I never thought to have had so much money; but they have devoted so much of their takings in some way to the cause of God, and brought it in a lump sum, which even astonished themselves. And I have thought to myself, “There is not only the good which this money may do, but it is an indication of the apostolic spirit still in the church, when men and women, both rich and poor, are willing to lay their goods at the feet of God’s servants, that they may be used for his cause.” When a church gets into that condition we shall soon have sinners converted. A consecrated church means a converted congregation before long.
But to my point still more clearly. If we wish sinners to be converted, what must be done? Well, ministers are to preach sermons that are likely to convert sinners; and there are plenty of sermons that could not convert sinners any more than snowballs could heat ovens. I have heard such, and I have read such. I would not be converted by such sermons if I were the sinner. Nay, I could not be. I should feel that the man was showing himself off magnificently; but what there is to convert a sinner in mere rhetoric and oratory I know not. Brethren, we must give up our grand style: more, we must give up our deep thoughts. We must often give up our wonderful openings up of marvellous mysteries; and we must go to these sinners, and have them saved somehow; and we must talk to them about such
commonplace things as sin, and death, and judgment, and hell, and heaven, and Christ, and his blood. Yes, the blood. We must have that, and out with it, and disgust the hypocrites till they go their way; for they that are
disgusted with the blood of Jesus Christ are not of the sort that are ever likely to find salvation, and certainly they have not yet received it. We must hammer away at these: we must keep to these commonplace things, and make every sermon at least to have some part of it in which we distinctly aim at the conversion of sinners. Well, then, after that we must get them to be converted. Ministers should take frequent opportunities of allowing people to come and see them. They should desire to see them, and expect to see them. Why, I know of some chapels where a person under concern