Lame Sheep
(1834-1892)
“Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.” — Hebrews 12:13.
There are some believers with strong
and vigorous faith. Soaring high, they can mount up with wings as eagles. Fleet
of foot, they can run, and not be weary; or, with steady progress, they can
walk, and not faint. But all are not so highly privileged. I suppose there is
seldom a family which has no sickly member. However hale and hearty most of the
sons and daughters may be, there is likely to be some weakly one amongst them.
So it certainly is in the spiritual household; and it will be, therefore, my
business just now to look after the weakly ones. I do trust that the word which
I shall be enabled to speak may lead their companions also to look after them,
and may God grant that, by these means, many troubled ones may be conducted
into peace and safety!
I. In God’s Flock, There Are
Always Some Lame Sheep.
Some of these people of God, who are
compared to lame sheep, seem to have been
so from their birth. Their lameness is in their constitution. Do you not
know some friends of yours who naturally incline to despondency? They always
look at the dark side of everything; and if there be no dark side at all, they
have a very fine imagination, so they very soon conjure up some difficulty or
trouble. They appear to have been born with a propensity to read black-letter
literature, and nothing else. Illuminated missals are not for them; they cannot
bear the fine colors, which delight our eyes; they like the dark points. If
they turn to the Bible, they seem naturally to fall upon the threatenings; or
if they read the promises, they shake their heads, and say, “Ah, these are not
for us!” They make heavy troubles out of the common cares of life and it is
only carrying out the same spirit which causes them to grieve and fret over the
whole course of their Christian pilgrimage. For them, the road is always
rugged, the pastures unsavoury, and the waters turbid. You will find such
unhappy souls in all our churches; people who seem from their very conformation
to be lame as to their faith, timorous, trembling, and full of doubts and
fears.
Besides, have you never noticed a constitutional tendency in some professors
to stumble, and get lame? If there is a slough, they will fall into it; if
there is a thicket, they will get entangled by it; if there is an error, they
will run into it. Good people we trust they are, and they do believe in Jesus;
but, somehow or other, they do not see things clearly. Men to them are like
walking trees. Such persons go off at a tangent if anybody makes noise enough
to attract their attention. “Lo, here!” and “lo, there!” are cries at the sound
of which they go off directly. Let some divine discover a novel doctrine, and
they are on the new track at once, never thinking where it will lead them. Let
a would-be philosopher suggest some fresh theory, which clashes with the Word
of God, and the things of the Spirit, and their eager appetite is whetted, and
they will leave the old fields of truth to wander in the barren wastes of
science falsely so-called. When you go to market, if you are a sensible person,
you do not turn aside from all the good wares and fair merchandise to waste
your time and your money over the quack vendor of nostrums that he advertises
with large pictures and loud talk. Your common sense directs you to seek
wholesome food and useful articles; but there are credulous people ready to be
caught with any bait. So, too, there is no lack of simpletons in all our
congregations, good, thoughtless people, lame and limping in all their walk,
troubled with skepticism, and plagued with curiosity. Unstable as water, they
shall not excel.
Can you not detect, too, some who are lame in point of character?
They seem to have been so from their very birth. There is a something about
their gait that is unsteady. As you look at them, you are ready to say, “Yes,
good people they may be but they are of a queer sort.” We hope they are
sincere, but they are like Mephibosheth, who was dropped by his nurse, and was
lame in both his feet. If they walk at all, it is a dreadful hobble. They do
their best, and we cannot condemn them, but there is an awkwardness about their
whole deportment. They are lame sheep at the best. With some, it is a cross
temper; with others, it is a general moroseness, which it does not seem as if
the grace of God itself would ever cure in them, or it may be a natural
indolence oppresses them; or it is quite possible that habitual impatience
harasses them. Now, the grace of God should eradicate these vices; it can and
will, if you yield to its influence, for the grace of God, which bringeth
salvation teacheth us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts. With some of
us, the conquest over such evil propensities has been already gained. Still,
there are among us those sheep that are lame in this particular respect; they
are, if I may so say, constitutionally unsound from their very first entrance
into the fold.
Moreover, they betray their lameness when there is anything you give them to do.
If they as Sunday-school teachers, they cannot walk regularly or keep step with
their fellows; or they fail to help the young scholar on. Ask them to visit in
any district, the steps they take are marked by indiscretion. Appoint them to
preach at any of your stations, their speech is not straightforward; they go
over the plainest ground of gospel statement with a lack of consistency, like
the walk of a man whose legs are not equal. Whatever they attempt, they do it
just as a lame man would go on an errand. They are slow in their movements, and
slovenly in their performances. Aptly are they compared to lame sheep. Well,
you know such people. I wonder whether you are one yourself; at least, there
are some such about, lame from their birth.
Other sheep of Christ’s flock are halt and lame because they have been ill
fed. Bad food is the cause of a thousand disorders. Many a sickly man,
instead of being dosed with drugs, needs to be nourished with wholesome meat.
Had he something better to feed upon, he might conquer his diseases. Sheep
cannot thrive well on bad food. It is true that many really good Christians
have been badly fed. The preaching they have heard has, perhaps, been altogether
false doctrine. The poor souls have sat and listened to moral essays, maudlin
sentiments, or manifold subtleties that could not nourish their faith, or
invigorate their spiritual constitution. If they sometimes suspected that it
was not all right, they did not like to desert the place they had long been
wont to attend, or to forsake the minister they had long been wont to hear.
They are afraid of being thought too critical, so they have gone on with ill
fare to the prejudice of their health and strength, their comfort and
usefulness. It is more than probable that poisonous doctrine has got into their
constitution, and done them real mischief, hence they are lame. In hundreds,
not to say thousands, of cases that I know, Christians are lame through a kind
of hazy teaching, in which, if there is not anything positively bad, there is
nothing positively good. I have read the remark that, if you were to hear
thirteen lectures on geology from any decent lecturer, you would probably get a
pretty clear idea of his system, but that you might hear thirteen hundred
sermons from many a minister without knowing what he believes. There is a
systematic habit, nowadays, of keeping back the positive doctrines, and the
essential truths of the gospel; or of referring to them so vaguely that the
sound of words gives no clue to the sense. The whole atmosphere is so full of
fog that people cannot see where they are. The preacher would appear to be
profoundly deep; but he is not clear. He stirs the mud, and makes himself and
his subject alike obscure. Or, perhaps, he is so superficial that he does not
touch upon those truths which lie at the foundation of the blessed hope of
eternal life. Those that sit under such a ministry need not wonder how it is
that they do not grow in grace.
Ay, and how much ministry there is
that has nothing but chaff in it! What else can we say of those exquisite
preparations for the pulpit in which cuttings from the reviewers, cullings from
the poets, and choice scraps from Scripture writers are woven together with a
fine overture to begin, and a flowing peroration to finish? What can we say of
it but chaff, chaff, without a grain of pure wheat from first to last? I should
like to chain eloquence down to a post; there let it be bound for ever in the
land of forgetfulness, never again let it lift its brazen face in this world.
Aiming at oratory, cultivating rhetoric, the gospel, which eschews the words of
man’s wisdom, and demands great plainness of speech, has been disparaged and
displaced. We shall not get back a strong race of Christians till we get back
such a sturdy band of outspoken men as dare their reputation, if not their
lives, upon the unvarnished testimony they give to the truth they know, the
truth as it is in Jesus, the truth as it burns in their own hearts, and fires
their tongues, the truth as it commends itself to every man’s conscience in the
sight of God. But, undoubtedly, there are thousands of Christians at this good
hour, who are lamed for life through unqualified, unhallowed teaching. God save
us from its hateful witcheries, and its baneful influences! If we are called to
preach, let us preach; but let us know what we have to say, and let us say it
as though we meant it, or for ever hold our tongues. There are some preachers,
who seem to speak as if they meant to say nothing, and they succeed to their
heart’s content, if that is their intention; nothing comes of it. The children
of God, trained under their auspices, do not know whether God has an elect
people or not, whether the saints will persevere, or whether they will fall
away, and perish, they do not know whether Christ redeemed everybody, or
somebody. They have no clear notion whatsoever of the things which make for
their peace. May we be preserved from all willful ignorance and woeful
infatuation! May God supply us constantly with strong meat, and sound health to
digest it!
Full many of the Lord’s sheep are
lame because they have been worried.
Sheep often get worried by a dog, and so they get lamed. It may be that I am
addressing some poor child of God who has been beset and frightfully tormented
by Satan, the accuser of the brethren. Oh, what trouble and what terror he can
inflict upon us! He can suggest the most infernal insinuations. He can inject
into our minds such blasphemous thoughts as make us stagger and reel; he can
make us breathe, as it were, the very atmosphere of the infernal lake. Those
who have passed through this bitter experience will know how they carry the
marks of a conflict with Satan upon them, after they have once been assailed by
him; wounds and scars that they will bear upon them to their grave. He is such
a cruel adversary that, even when we overcome him, our strength is impaired by
the battle. The fatigues and perils of our pilgrimage are light in comparison
with our temptations. We had better go a thousand miles, over hedge and ditch,
than have to stand foot to foot with that dread adversary of souls for an hour.
Full many a child of God has been lamed in that fray. Others, too, have been
harassed by persecutors. Many a poor woman has lost her cheerful spirits
through a harsh, ungodly husband, who has excited her fears, or vexed her with
sneers; and not a few dear young children have been broken down for life
through the hard treatment they have had, for conscience’ sake, to endure at
home. True, there may be instances in which sufferers of this sort out of
weakness have been made strong; but, for the most part, when from day to day,
from hour to hour, one is insulted and assaulted, the trial is heavier than any
ordinary fortitude can bear, insomuch that those who have encountered it have
gone halting like lame sheep all their days.
Some precious saints I have known
have grown lame through a rough and weary
way, just as sheep can be lamed if they are driven too fast, or too far, or
over too stony a ground. To what an excess of trouble some children of God have
been exposed! The Lord has graciously helped them through all their
adversities. Still, the trouble they have had to endure has told upon their
hearts. They seem as if they never could quite recover from the sudden shock,
or the protracted anxiety that has once impaired their strength, wrinkled their
face, and dried up their moisture. If they had more grace, no doubt they would
recover their health, and renew their youth; but there are some gentle spirits
which, when once crushed, are unable to rally, therefore they remain lame.
Perhaps more still are lamed through the rough road of controversy.
If you are a child of God, and you know your bearings, keep always as much as
ever you can out of the jingle-jangle of controversy. Little good ever comes of
your subtle disputations, but they do gender much strife. Do you tell me that
we are told to “prove all things”? Yes, so we are; and it is well to give heed
to the admonition; but we are told also to “hold fast that which is good,” and
we must not forget the latter half of the precept. Some people seem to think
that, in order to prove all things, they have to analyze and define every
particular and every particle with scrupulous nicety. To prove the quality of
the meat that is brought to your table, there is no occasion for you to eat the
whole joint. A small sample will enable you to pronounce a sound opinion. Apply
the same rule to books, and it will save you a world of trouble. They may dish
up old dogmas, or they may throw off new theories; they may contain the
reveries of the thoughtful, or the ramblings of the idler; they may be
conceived with a purpose, or composed for a price. In any case, you must have a
voracious appetite if you would read them all through. But it is quite
unnecessary. Take the paper-knife, and just cut open a page in the center. One
tasting will generally suffice for a fair testing. You can see, within a
little, what tack their authors take. If they accord not with the Word of God,
away with them! You have proved them quite enough. You will get little reward
for your pains if you worry your poor mind to solve afresh the points which are
settled among us. We have believed and rejoiced in the truth these many years.
Yes, believed on conclusive evidence where we once stood in doubt; rejoiced
with joy unspeakable where we once looked with dreary misgiving. What more can
you require? But many have been lamed through choosing rough places, and
adventuring among thorns and briers, and leaving the beaten tracks without
experience enough to avoid injury to themselves, or skill enough to clear a
path in which others may safely follow.
Full many of the Lord’s sheep have
become lame through negligence,
faintness, and the gradual declension of spiritual health. They have
backslidden; they have been remiss in prayer, omitted reading the Word, and
forsaken communion with God, so it is no marvel that their walk betrays their
weakness. A bad cold is the parent of many ailments. Beware of catching a chill
in religion. Lameness is not unfrequently the result of a fall. A broken bone,
or a compound fracture, or a serious dislocation of the joints, is not easily
healed. Those who have such injuries can tell you how helpless it makes them,
how long it is before they can walk without crutches, and how often a change of
weather will remind them, by ache and twinge, that cures leave scars behind.
Certainly it is so with any man who has fallen into gross sin after making a
profession of faith in Christ. However fully he may be restored by divine
grace, he will feel its effects as long as he lives.
II. There are, and I suppose we
may expect there always will be, lame ones in God’s flock; so I proceed to show
that The Rest Of The Flock Should Seek Their Healing: Make straight paths for
your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather
be healed.”
Some Christian people seem to be so
inconsiderate, and unsympathizing, that they treat all the lame of the flock
with harshness. You may be strong and vigorous in your physical constitution,
strangers to nervousness and depression of spirits. Be thankful, then, but do
not be presumptuous. Despise not those who suffer from infirmities that have never
come upon you. Your turn may come ere long. You are yet in the body, and exempt
from no ailment to which your fellow-creatures are prone. I have known
hectoring spirits whose contumely it was hard to quiet, so did they jeer at the
weaklings; and, presently, their own complaints have been hard to pacify, so
they did moan over their own grievances. The more arrogant they have been, when
all was well with them the more crestfallen and desponding have they been in
the gloom, when things have gone ill with them. Those often who crow most croak
worst. There is a passage in the thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel which I
should recommend every strong, rough man to read and diligently consider: “Thus
saith the Lord God unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat
cattle and between the lean cattle. Because ye have thrust with side and with
shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered
them abroad; therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey;
and I will judge between cattle and cattle.” Jehovah is our Shepherd, and he is
very tender of his little lambs and his weak sheep: and if we are not tender of
them, too, we shall soon be made to smart for our hard-heartedness. It
sometimes happens that those persons, who have seldom or never had an illness
in their lives, feel little sympathy for those who have to bear much pain and
sickness. Others, who have never suffered from poverty themselves, will
sometimes shut up their bowels of compassion against those who are in
necessitous circumstances. Or if they dole out a charity, they will too often
spoil a good deed with a harsh word. “Ye that are strong ought to bear the
infirmities of the weak;” and if that is too much to expect of you, the least
that I can ask is that you will bear with them. I do beseech you, by the
gentleness of Christ, that ye tread lightly in the sick chamber, and speak
softly to such as are crushed by adversity. There are diseases that provoke
irritability. Peevishness, or despondency, may be a symptom of the particular
ailment that prostrates one’s energies, and enervates one’s entire being. Do
not be censorious; that would be cruel. Let those of you who are blessed with
health, and walk in the sunshine, be considerate of your brethren and sisters
who are blighted with a malady they cannot shake off, or enveloped in a cloud
that darkens all their prospects. Do learn to make another’s case thine own. Be
kind. Let every tone of your voice, every gesture of your limbs, every look of
your face, show the kindness of your heart. God will surely requite it. He
watches his children in the furnace. If you grieve them in their trouble, he
will vex you in his sore displeasure. And there are spiritual ailments which,
like bodily ones, require tender care and gentle treatment. Do not aggravate
the sorrows of those who are harassed with doubts, tempted with evils, and
distracted with anxious cares. Their tale may appear simple enough to you, but
it is very serious to them. What troubles them might not give you an instant’s
concern. Pass it not over, therefore, as nonsense. Your Lord and Master knew
how to condescend to men of low estate; and his condescension was always pure,
never arrogant. He is far more gentle than the tenderest among us. Oh, how
desirable to learn his way!
Do you ask then, what he says we are
to do for these lame ones?
Evidently, we ought to comfort them. “Lift up the hands which hang down, and
the feeble knees.” Cheer the heart when the limbs are weak. Tell the doubting
that God is faithful. Tell those that feel the burden of sin that it was for
sinners Christ died. Tell the backsliders that God never does cast away his
people. Tell the desponding that the Lord delighteth in mercy. Tell the
distracted that the Lord doth devise means to bring back his banished. Covet
the character of Barnabas. He was a son of consolation. Study the sacred art of
speaking a word in season. Apprentice yourself to the Comforter. Acquaint
yourself with the sacred art of comforting the sad. Let your own troubles and
trials qualify you to sympathize and succor. You will be of great value in the
Church of God if you acquire the art of compassion, and are able to help those
that are bowed down.
But will you please give heed to the
special instruction? We are to make
straight paths because of lame people. You cannot heal the man’s had foot,
but you can pick all the stones out of the path that he has to pass over. You
cannot give him a new leg, but you can make the road as smooth as possible. Let
there be no unnecessary stumbling-blocks to cause him pain. Do you ask me how
you can observe this precept. If you have to preach the gospel, preach it
plainly. Poor sinners are dull enough of understanding; they can puzzle
themselves, without your puzzling them. Had you to feed a child, it would be
folly to put a quartern loaf down before it, and account your duty down. Nor
will it profit the mass of the people to preach the gospel to them in the
abstract, giving them a great lump of truth to digest as best they can. No; but
you should divide a child’s bread into small pieces, crumble it up, and then
pour the milk on it, that he may be able to feed on it. So must we cater for
God’s tried and troubled people. We must speak simply, use homely
illustrations, and quote precious promises. What though somebody may be
offended Well, let him take umbrage. We need not be particular to pacify any of
those critical people, and God forbid that we should offend any of his little
ones; for he is jealous of them. If one feeble soul gets a hold of the truth
through its being made plain to him, he will be grateful to you; nor is “God
unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love.”
Would you make straight paths? Then,
take care that your teaching is always
according to the Bible. Many lame people have been injured by a mixture of
heathenish philosophy and Christian doctrine. What is it that leads to the
spread of Popery in this country? Whence this dogma of baptismal regeneration?
Had every minister preached that believers only ought to be baptized, there
would have been no pretext for infant sprinkling, and certainly no baptismal
regeneration. If you go a little to the right, or a little to the left, and so
diverge from the high road, you do not know where it will take you. Have you
ever tried that in a Surrey lane? Perhaps you have been beguiled by some
pleasant-looking path to leave the main road, fully expecting to come back into
it again a little further on, not for a moment supposing that you had changed
your course altogether till you have found yourself two or three miles off the
place that you wanted to get to. It is better for you always to keep to the
Scriptures, friends; for if you go a little away from them, you do not know
where you may wander; and, in teaching others, you may lead them astray.
Errors, that seem slight and frivolous at first, become sad and serious in a
little while. A little deviation from the Word of God will presently lead to a
total dissent from its teaching. Heaven only knows how far you may go astray
when you once begin to turn your feet aside. Make straight paths for your feet,
then, because there are lame ones that otherwise will be turned out of the way.
And, in all our walk and
conversation, let us make straight paths to our feet as those who aim at holiness
of life. Unholy Christians are the plague of the church. They are spots in our
feasts of charity. Like hidden rocks, they are the terror of navigators. It is
hard to steer clear of them: and there is no telling what wrecks they may
cause. The inconsistencies of professors spread dismay among weak, desponding
believers. It is not merely the mischief you will do to yourself,
church-member, if you grow wanton and worldly, or the grief you will bring to
the stronger brethren; but it is the pain and peril to which you will expose
the young, the weak, the tender ones of the flock. That poor little girl in
yonder cottage will have your character thrown in her teeth; that poor
struggling woman, whose godless husband she has sought to reclaim, will be sure
to hear his cruel taunt, “Ah, there is one of your crew! That is how they
live.” The unclean life of anyone who happens to stand in an eminent place,
does damage which it is impossible for us to estimate. The jeer does not aright
only upon the transgressor him self, but upon the whole company of God’s people
with whom he was associated; they all have to bear the taunt, and feel the
smart. Many a lame one is thus staggered. Were he a strong Christian, of course
he would say to himself, “Well, there was a Judas among the apostles, and there
will be false professors among ourselves; so we must not pin our creed to any
creature in the world.” The less confidence he could repose in the disciples,
the more closely he would cleave to the Lord. But timid, trembling Christians
are put out of countenance, and out of heart, too, by the delinquencies of
those they were wont to look up to. They say, “If a Christian man acts like
this, can there be anything in Christianity worth seeking for, and living for,
after all “So the lame are put out of the way. Oh, do walk carefully! When you
try to teach others, do make your walk an example to those you wish to teach. I
would say this to myself especially. Let your life be so pure that it excites
no suspicion; let your conduct be so upright that it needs no explanation or
apology; let your character speak for itself, a light that shines, an example
that you need not be ashamed of yourself, and such as others may wish to
emulate. And beware, I pray you, of any secret sin, of any evil habits such as
you would only tolerate when screened from observation; for, as sure as you
live, if you are a child of God, it will come out one of these days, to your
shame. The openly profane may enjoy a measure of impunity, but the professed
follower of Christ never can play the hypocrite without provoking speedy
retribution. Ah, David thought he had smuggled up his sin with Bathsheba, did
he not? When he had compassed Uriah’s death, he seems to have imagined that
nobody would ever know anything about it. But how soon it was discovered, and
that, too, without its being divulged by anyone who connived at his guilt! The
Lord saw it, and he would not hide it. Never let a child of God think that his
Heavenly Father will overlook his wilful misdeeds. There is no special
providence to shield you from eating the fruit of your own ways. “Be sure your
sin will find you out.” “Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is
lame be turned out of the way.”
Once more let me admonish you. Do
not be negligent when your Lord is so vigilant. Do not even be careless when
you see him so cautious. The Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the
sheep, evidently cares for the lame ones. The charge he gives is a proof of the
concern he feels. He bids us to be considerate of them, because he himself
takes a warm interest in their welfare.
III. What Now Shall I Say To You
Who Feel Your Own Weakness And Infirmity?
You lame ones who cannot walk
without limping, I know how you complain. “Ah!” say you? “I am no credit to Christianity.
Though, in all sincerity, I do believe in Jesus, yet, alas, I can scarcely
think I am one of his true disciples, called, and chosen, and faithful! I fear
that, after all, he will disown me. Ah, beloved, that he never will! If you
really are trusting to him, and hanging upon him, or even-touching the hem of
his garment, he cannot and he will not leave or forsake you. True, it would be
likely enough if his ways were like our ways, and it will cause him no little
care to get you safely home. When Mr. Greatheart went with Miss Much-afraid and
Mr. Feeble-mind on the road to the Celestial City, he had his hands full. He
says of poor Mr. Feeble-mind, that, when he came to the lions he said, “Oh, the
lions will have me!” And he was afraid of the giants, and afraid of everything
on the road. It caused Greatheart much trouble to get him on the road. It is so
with you. Well, you must know that you are very troublesome and hard to manage.
But, then, our Lord Jesus is very patient; he does not mind taking trouble. He
has laid down his life for you, and he is prepared to exercise all his divine
power and wisdom to bring you home to his Father’s house. If he were to desert
you, there would be no eye to pity, no hand to lead you; but there is no fear
of his changing the purpose of his heart. Having loved his own, he loveth them
to the end. I have heard say I do not know how true it is, that, when one of
her family is a little weak-headed, the mother is sure to love that one best,
and show it the most attention. Her tenderest thoughts will always turn towards
her helpless babe, and her keenest anxieties will hover over the child who is
ill. She may forget, for a while, the strong and the hale; but those who need
her succor most are quite certain to be never out of her mind. Be of good
cheer, then. “As one whom his mother comforteth,” so will the Lord comfort you.
“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear
him.”
Thou mayest say, “The Lord is my
Shepherd, I shall not want.” Thou mayest gratefully sing, “He shall gather the
lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those
that are with young.” In the divine economy, the more care you require, the
more care you shall have. Besides, you know somewhat of our blessed Redeemer’s
covenant engagements. Did our Lord Jesus Christ fail to bring his weak ones
home, it would be much to his dishonor. “Those that thou gavest me I have
kept,” he says, “and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the
Scripture might be fulfilled. So Satan only had his own. How the wolf would
howl over one sheep branded with the Savior’s name were he to fall a prey to
his teeth! What malignant hilarity and derision there would be among the
infernal spirits if the good Shepherd failed to bring home one lost sheep whom
he had rescued! The joy among the angels of God, they would say, was premature.
The Son of man, they would say, had sought, found, but failed to save the lost.
Then the weaker the victim, the keener would the satire be. Ribald lips might
shout forth the taunt, “He saved the healthy; the halt he could not save.” It
would thus be more discredit to Christ to lose a weak one than a strong one, or
for one lame sheep to be lost than if some of the healthier of them should perish;
but there is no danger of such a calamity. The oversight of the Shepherd
secures the safety of all the flock. They are all numbered, and each one in
particular is known to him. Our Lord is a shepherd who loves his sheep so well
that, were one of them taken and held between the jaws of a lion, he would run
to the rescue, and rend the lion as David did of old. He would slay the lion
and the bear to get his poor little one saved from the teeth of the devourer.
You shall not die, but live. “Oh!” say you, “but I cannot preserve myself.” No,
you cannot; and in your weakness lies your great strength. Jesus Christ will be
sure to cover you with his power, so that, when you are utterly defenceless,
you shall be most efficiently defended. “Ah!” says another, “I have had a weary
life of it hitherto.” Yes, but you have brighter days to come. Some of God’s
children, after living in the joyous sunlight all their lives, as they draw
near the closing scene, have felt much darkness and depression of spirits. This
in no degree imperils their security; they will wake up all right in the
morning. But, then, others of God’s children have passed most of their days
under a cloud, till the gloom seemed to settle on their visage, and obscure
even the radiance of their hope; and yet, when the hour of their departure was
at hand, the mists and fogs have all dispersed, light has streamed into their
souls, and their sweet peace and sacred joy have been like an overflowing tide.
The very ones that went limping and mourning, while they were on their
pilgrimage, have played the man, and displayed the faith of Christians most
wondrously when the trial that they dreaded all their life long overtook them.
Just as Ready-to-halt left his crutches behind, they have begun to sing and
rejoice when they were departing. Like clear shining after rain, like a
brilliant sunset after a stormy day, at eventide it was light with them; and,
methinks, it will be so with many of you.
There are some flowers that must be
grown in the shade. I believe God made and adapted them to flourish most in
umbrageous spots Some ferns never thrive so well as in some little corner of
the brook where the damp continually washes them. Perhaps you are one of those
flowers or ferns, planted in a soil that suits your growth. Tell, if it be so,
murmur not at your lot. The gloom that hovers over you may help the peace of
your heart. I have known women, pure and pious, for whom the sunny scenes of
life have had no charms; but their bright faces, their beaming eyes, and their
benevolent hearts have shone with a beautiful brilliance as they have flitted
about like angels in the chambers of the sick the wards of the hospital, or
among the couches of the wounded and the dying. Consider him who was the Man of
sorrows, but whose spirit was not crushed. In the midst of dire distress, he
said to his disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid.” And, beloved, do not be unmindful of the comfort you may derive under
any affliction, when you trace it to the will of God. If you suffer as an
evil-doer, if it is your own fault, the scourge that chastens you will invite
no pity, and the conscience that reproaches you will aggravate your pain. If,
on the other hand, you can trace the hand of the Lord in a cross or a calamity,
your course is clear directly. It would be folly to repine; your wisdom is to
resign yourself entirely to his will. Bear it patiently, and God will reward
you plenteously. Your prayer shall come up before him acceptably, and the
answer shall come down speedily, when you would rather glorify the Lord than
gratify yourself.
It is not for me to say what
particular purpose there may be in the personal afflictions that any of the
sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father are called to bear; but I cannot help
observing that the peaceable fruits of righteousness, which these tried ones
put forth, are very sweet and luscious. Let me appeal to your own selves. Have
you not often proved the truth of those words of the psalmist, “Thou hast known
my soul in adversities.” And is it not so, that the notice which the Lord has
taken of you, and the care he has exercised over you, have made you love him
more tenderly than you ever did before? You could say, with David, “Thy right
hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.” Oh, what prayer
you have poured out when his chastening was upon you! Such prayer is sweet to
the Lord Jesus Christ. I marvel not that he lets you suffer so much when your
suffering yields such rich perfume. Well, dear friends, when we get so choice a
compensation now, what shall we receive hereafter? Surely, in the ages to come,
the lowliest of worshippers shall sing the loudest,
With
shouts of sovereign grace.”
Their soprano notes shall rise above
the angels’ harps, and the full tide of human voices, with a distinctness like
this, “MY soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit doth rejoice in God my
Savior.” The personal tribute of extraordinary love and gratitude shall thrill
out its solo, and then blend with the general chorus.
And now, to close, let us read our
text again. “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
and make straight paths for your feet,
lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.“
Do see to it that ye are not negligent of this ministry of love. Remember how
high a reputation Job got in his day for the care he bestowed on those who were
frail and infirm. Eliphaz the Temanite said of him, “Behold, thou hast
instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have
upholder him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble hands.”
And do not forget the reproof which the Lord gave to the shepherds of Israel:
“The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was
sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought
again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost.”
Above all, consider the example of our Lord Jesus. His eye was always quick to
spy out the lame, the blind, the halt; and his hand was always stretched out
immediately for their relief. “He went about doing good, and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” And if you and I, beloved,
walk with God, and God be with us, our godliness will show itself in the pity
we feel, and the kindness we show to the feeble and the faulty, the
cross-grained and the crippled.
The Lord bless these counsels to the
strong, and these cordials to the weak; and may we all come to that blessed
land where “the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell
therein shall be forgiven their iniquity”! Amen.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "Spurgeon Collection" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 314
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986