The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

doing his Father’s business still! His Father’s business makes him plead day and night for Sion; the same business shall make him come as the Judge of quick and dead, to divide the sheep from the goats; the same business shall make him gather together in one, all people who dwell on the face of the earth! Oh, glory to you, Jesus; you have done it! You have done your Father’s business well.

      13. II. Thus, I have given you the example. Now, let me exhort you to IMITATE IT.

      14. Tell me, if you can why the religion of Christ is so very slow in spreading. Mohammed, an imposter stood up in the streets to preach. He was hooted, stones were thrown at him. Within the month, he had disciples. A few more years, and he had a host behind him. Not a century had rolled away, before a thousand scimitars flashed from their scabbards at the bidding of the caliphs. His religion overran nations like wildfire, and devoured kingdoms. But why? The followers of the prophet were entirely devoted to his cause. When that Moslem of old spurred his horse into the sea, to ride across the straits of Gibraltar, and then reined him up, and said, “I would cross if God willed it!” there was something in it that told us why his religion was so strong. Ah! those warriors of that time were ready to die for their religion; and therefore it spread. Can you tell me why Christianity spread so much in primitive times? It was because holy men “did not count their lives dear to them,” but were willing to “suffer the loss of all things” for Christ’s sake. Paul traverses many countries; Peter ranges through many nations; Philip and the other evangelists go through various countries, testifying the word of God. Sirs, I will tell you why our faith in these days spreads so little. Pardon me — it is because the professors of it do not believe it! Believe it! Yes; they believe it in the head, not in the heart. We have not enough of true devotedness to the cause, or else God would bless Sion with a far greater increase, I am fully persuaded. How few there are that have given themselves fully up to their religion! They take their religion, like my friend over there has taken that little farm of his. He has a farm of a thousand acres, but he thinks he could increase his means, perhaps, by taking a little farm of a hundred acres or so a little way off; and he gives that to his agent and does not take much trouble about it himself. It is not very likely he will have very fine farming there, because he leaves it to someone else. Just so with religion. Your great farm is your shop, your great aim is your worldly business. You like to keep religion as a snug investment at very small interest indeed, which you intend to draw out when you get near death; but you do not want to live on it just now. You have enough profit from your own daily business, and you do not want religion for every day life. Sirs, the reason why your religion does not spread is because it has not gotten root enough in your hearts. How few there are of us who are ready to devote ourselves wholly, bodily, and spiritually to the cause of the gospel of Christ! And if you should attempt to do so, how many opponents would you meet with! Go into the church meeting, and be a little earnest; what will they say? Why, they will treat you just as David’s brother did, when David spoke about fighting Goliath. “Oh,” he said, “because of the pride and the naughtiness of your heart, to see the battle you are come.” “Now, stand aside; do not think you can do anything; away with you!” And if you are in earnest, especially in the ministry, it is just the same. Your brethren pray every Sunday — “Lord, send more labourers into the vineyard!” And if God should send them, they wish them safely out of their corner of it, at any rate. They may go anywhere else, but they must not come anywhere near them, for it might affect their congregation, it might stir them up a little; and people might think they did not labour quite earnestly enough. “Stand aside!” they say. But brethren, do not mind about that. If you cannot bear to be huffed and snuffed, there is little good in you. If you cannot bear snuffing, depend upon it you cannot be well lit yet. Dare to go on against all the prudence of men, and you will find them pat you on the shoulder by and by and call you “dear brother.” Every man is helped to get up, when he is as high as he can be. If you are down, “keep him down,” is the cry; but if you are getting up, you will never get help until you have done it yourself; and then men will give you their help when you do not require it. However, your war cry must be, “Do you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?”

      15. Again, even the best of your friends, if you are truly zealous for God, will come to you and say — and very kindly too — “Now, you must take a little more care of your constitution. Now, do not be doing so much; do not, I beseech you!” Or if you are giving money away — “Now you must be a little more prudent; take more care of your family. Really, you must not do so.” Or if you are earnest in prayer, they will say — “There is no need of such enthusiasm as this: you know you can be religious, and not too religious; you can be moderately so.” And so you find both friends and enemies striving to hinder your consecration to Christ. Now, I like what old Rowland Hill said, when someone told him that he was “moderately religious.” “Well then, you are irreligious; for a man that is moderately honest is a rogue for certain; and so the man that is moderately religious is irreligious.” If religion is worth anything it is worth everything; if it is anything it is everything. Religion cannot go halves with anything else, it must be all. We must, if we are thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Christ, imitate Christ in this — the giving up of all to God; so that we can sincerely say,

      And if I might make some reserve,

      And duty did not call,

      I love my God with zeal so great,

      That I could give him all.

      I shall never forget the circumstance, when after I thought I had made a full consecration to Christ, a slanderous report against my character came to my ears, and my heart was broken in agony because I would have to lose that, in preaching Christ’s gospel. I fell on my knees, and said, “Master, I will not keep back even my character for you. If I must lose that too, then let it go; it is the dearest thing I have; but it shall go, if, like my Master, they shall say I have a devil and am mad; or, like him I am a drunken man and a winebibber. It is gone, if I may only say — ‘I have endured the loss of all things; and I do count them only dross that I may win Christ!’ ” And you, Christian, will never get on well in serving God, until you have given all to him. What you keep back will canker and rust. If you reserve the least portion of your time, your property, or your talents, and do not give all to Christ, you will find there will be a sore, a gangrene in it; for Christ will bless you in all when you give all to him; but what you keep from him, he will curse, and blight, and ruin. He will have all of us, the whole of us, all we possess, or else he never will be satisfied.

      16. And now let me answer one or two objections, and I shall still stir you up, who make a profession of religion, to give up all you have to Christ. You say, “Sir, I cannot do it; I am not in the right profession.” Well, sir, you spoke truly when you said that; for if there is a profession that will not allow us to give all to Christ, it is not a right profession, and we ought not to follow it at all. “But,” you say, “how can I do it?” Well, what are you? I do not care what you are; I assert it is possible for you to do all things in the name of God, and so to give glory to Christ. Do not think you need to be a minister to dedicate yourself to Christ. Many a man has disgraced the pulpit, and many a man has sanctified an anvil; many a man has dishonoured the cushion upon which he preached, and many a man has consecrated the plough with which he has turned the soil. We ought in all our business, as well as in our sacred acts, to do all for Christ. Let me illustrate this. A merchant in America had devoted a large part of his money for the maintenance of the cause of Christ; and one said to him, “What a sacrifice you make every year.” He said, “Not so. I have a clerk: suppose I give that clerk fifty pounds to pay a schoolmaster, and when he goes to the schoolmaster, he should say, ‘Here is your salary; what a sacrifice it is to me to give you that!’ Why, the schoolmaster would say, ‘Sir, it is not yours; it is no sacrifice at all to you.’ ” So said this good man, “I gave up all when I came to God; I became his steward, and no longer head of the firm. I made God the head of the firm, and I became the steward. And now when I distribute my wealth, I only distribute it as his alms giver; and it is no sacrifice at all.” If we talk of sacrifices we make a mistake. Ought not that to be the spirit of our religion? It should be made a sacrifice at first, and then afterwards there should be a voluntary offering of all. “I keep my shop open,” said one, “and earn money