The Spurgeon Series 1859 & 1860. Charles H. Spurgeon

wind from the bare side of Salmon shall they fly away; and we, the church militant, trampling over them, shall greet our Lord, shouting, “Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigns.” Thus then, I have explained the first part of the text.

      13. II. The second part of the text we have to consider, is this sentence — “AND ALL NATIONS SHALL FLOW INTO IT.” Here is a figure, perhaps not so sublime, but quite as beautiful as the first. Still endeavour to retain in your minds the picture of this stupendous mountain, reaching above the clouds, seen by all mankind, in either hemisphere, a wonder of nature which could not be accomplished by the ordinary rules of nature, but which divine wisdom will be able to perform. Well, wonder of wonders, you see all the nations of the earth converging to this great mountain, as to a common centre. Once in the year all the people of Israel were accustomed to go to the little hill of Zion; and now, once for and all, you see, not Israel, but all the nations of the earth coming to this great hill of Zion, to worship the Most High God. The white sails are on the Atlantic, and the ships are flying before the wind, even as the bird flies through the sky. What are they carrying? What is their noble cargo? Lo! they come from afar, bringing the sons and daughters of Zion from the ends of the earth. See over there the camel and the dromedary, {a} the great caravan passing over the pathless desert? What are these and what is their costly freight? Lo they are bringing the daughters of God, and the sons of Zion up to the Most High God, to worship him. From all parts of the earth you see them coming — from the freezing cold and from the burning heat, from the far off islands of the sea, and from the barren sands they come; they come, all converging towards the great centre of their high and holy worship. This we are not to understand of course, literally, but as a figure of the great spiritual fact that all the souls of men shall tend to Christ, and to union with his church.

      14. Again, please carefully to observe the figure. It does not say they shall come to it, but they shall “flow to it.” Understand the metaphor. It implies first their number. Now when our churches are increased, converts drop into the churches; drop after drop the pool is filled. But in those days they shall flow into it; now it is only the pouring out of water from the bucket; then it shall be as the rolling of the cataract from the hillside, it shall flow into it. Now our converts, however numerous, are comparatively few, but then a nation shall be born in a day. The people shall renounce their gods at once. Whole nations shall suddenly by an irresistible impulse flow into the church, not one by one, but in one vast mass. The power of God shall be seen in bringing whole nations into the church of God. You have seen the river flowing onward to the sea, with its banks all swollen, bearing its enormous contribution to the boundless ocean. So shall it is in the last days; each nation shall be like a river, rolling towards the foot of this great mountain, the church of the living God. Happy, happy, happy day, when India and China with their teeming myriads, and all the nations of the earth, with their multitude of languages, shall flow into the mountain of God!

      15. But the text conveys the idea not only of numbers, but of — (I know the exact word, but then I do not like to use it, for fear some should not know the meaning of it, it means that the nations of the earth shall come willingly to it) — spontaneity. That was the word I wanted to use; but why should we use big words, when we might find little ones. They are to come willingly to Christ; not to be driven, not to be pumped up, not to be forced to it, but to be brought up by the word of the Lord, to pay him willing homage; they are to flow into it. Just as the river naturally flows downhill by no other force than what is its nature, so shall the grace of God be so mightily given to the sons of men, that no acts of parliament, no state churches, no armies will be used to make a forced conversion. “The nations shall flow into it.” By themselves, made willing in the day of God’s power, they shall flow into it. Whenever the church of God is increased by unwilling converts it loses strength; whenever men join the church because of oppression, which would drive them to make a profession of religion, they do not flow, the church is weakened, and not strengthened, but in those days the converts shall be voluntarily won — shall come in willingly by divine grace; they shall flow into it.

      16. But yet again, this represents the power of the work of conversion. They “shall flow into it.” Imagine an idiot endeavouring to stop the river Thames. He gets a boat for himself, and there he stands, endeavouring to push back the stream. He objects to it flowing towards the sea, and with his hands he tries to push it back. Would you not soon hear laughter along the banks? Ah, fool, to attempt to stop the stream! Now, the word “flow,” here conveys just that idea. “The nations shall flow into it.” The Secularist may rise up and say, “Oh, why be converted to this fanatical religion? Look to the things of time.” The false priests may rouse themselves with all their anger to defy Christ, and endeavour to keep their slaves; but all their attempts to stop conversion will be like an idiot seeking to drive back a mighty stream with his puny hands. “All nations shall flow into it.” What an idea it is! Oh, take your stand today, like prophets of the Lord, and look into the future. Today the church appears like the dry bed of a torrent; here I stand, and I see a little water flowing in a secret and thread-like stream, among the stones. It is so little that I can scarcely detect it, but I take the telescope of prophecy, I look far onward, and I see a rolling mass of water, such as is sometimes seen in the rapid rivers of Africa; and there it is, coming with thundering sound. Wait for a few more years, and that torrent, like Kishon’s mighty river, sweeping all before it, shall fill this dry bed, and swell on, and on, and on, with tumultuous waves of joy, until it meets the ocean of Christ’s universal reign, and loses itself in God. Here you see, then, you have more than your imagination can grasp. This stupendous mountain, and all the nations of the earth — vast numbers with immense force — spontaneously coming up to the house of the living God.

      17. Now, I shall close by a practical address, very brief, and I trust very earnest. Is it not a great subject for praise that the nations of the earth may flow to the hill of God and to his house? If I were to tell you that all the nations of Europe were climbing the sides of the Alps, you would ask me, “And what benefit do they gain by it? They must pass over the slippery fields of ice and they may lose their lives in the midst of the bottomless chasms that are overhung by the mighty precipices; they may suddenly be overwhelmed and buried in the all destroying avalanche, and should they reach the summit they must fall down exhausted. What is there that men should covet in those barren heights; rarefied air and cold would soon destroy them, should they attempt to live there.” Ah, but it is not so with God’s hill. There shall be no snow upon its summit, but the warmth and light of Jehovah’s love; there shall be no chasms in its side where souls may be destroyed, for there shall be a way, and a highway, (the unclean shall not pass over it) a way so easy that the wayfaring man shall not err in it.

      18. Some of the mountains described in Scripture were such that if they were accessible no one would want to climb them. There were bounds set all around Sinai, but had there been no bounds who would have wished to climbed it? It was a mountain that burned with fire, and upon which there was a sound as of a trumpet waxing exceedingly loud and long. No, brethren, we are not come to a mountain like Sinai with its supernatural thunders; we are not come to a bare, bleak, barren hill too difficult to climb like the mountains of earth; but the hill of God, although it is a high hill, is a hill which the humble penitent on hands and knees may readily ascend. You are come to a mountain which is not forbidden to you; there are no bounds set about it to keep you off, but you are freely bidden and freely invited to come to it. And the God who invited you will give you grace to come. If he has given you the will to come, he will give you grace to climb the sides of the hill, until you shall reach its upper glories, and stand on its summit transported with delight. While I am talking about the nations that will flow to Christ, might we not weep to think that there are so many in this congregation that are not flowing to Christ but are going from him? Ah! soul; what are the splendours of the Millennium to you, if you are his enemy? For when he tramples his foes in his hot displeasure, your blood shall stain his garments, even as the garments of the winepressers are stained with the blood of the grape. Tremble, sinner, for the advent of Christ must be your destruction though it shall be the church’s joy and comfort. You say, “Come quickly.” Do you not know that to you the day of the Lord is darkness and not light, for that day burns as an oven, and those who are proud and do wickedly shall be