The Spurgeon Series 1855 & 1856. Charles H. Spurgeon

and halt, and the woman with child, together.” So says the Scripture. Not one shall he left out; but he shall “send forth judgment to victory.” Victory! victory! victory! This is the lot of each Christian; he shall triumph through his dear Redeemer’s name.

      18. Now a word about this victory. I speak first to aged men and women. Dear brethren and sisters, you are often, I know, like the bruised reed. Coming events cast their shadows before them; and death casts the shadow of old age on you. You feel the grasshopper to be a burden; you feel full of weakness and decay; your frame can hardly hold together. Ah! you have here a special promise. “The bruised reed I will not break.” “I will strengthen you.” “When your heart and your flesh fails, I will be the strength of your heart and your portion for ever.”

      Even down to old age, all my people shall prove

      My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;

      And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,

      Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.

      Tottering on your staff, leaning, feeble, weak, and wan; do not fear the last hour; that last hour shall be your best; your last day shall be a consummation devoutly to be wished. Weak as you are, God will temper the trial to your weakness; he will make your pain less, if your strength is less; but you shall sing in heaven, “Victory! victory! victory!” There are some of us who could wish to change places with you, to be so near heaven — to be so near home. With all your infirmities, your grey hairs are a crown of glory to you; for you are near the end, as well as in the way of righteousness.

      19. A word for you middle aged men, battling in this life’s rough storm. You are often bruised reeds, your religion is so encumbered by your worldly callings, so covered up by the daily din of business, business, business, that you seem like smoking flax; it is as much as you can do to serve your God, and you cannot say that you are “fervent in spirit” as well as “diligent in business.” Man of business, toiling and striving in this world, he will not quench you when you are like smoking flax; he will not break you when you are like the bruised reed, but will deliver you from your troubles, you shall swim across the sea of life, and shall stand on the happy shore of heaven, and shall sing, “Victory” through him that loved you.

      20. You youths and maidens! I speak to you, and have a right to do so. You and I often know what the bruised reed is, when the hand of God blights our fair hopes. We are full of giddiness and waywardness; it is only the rod of affliction that can bring folly out of us, for we have much of it in us. Slippery paths are the paths of youths, and dangerous ways are the ways of the young, but God will not break or destroy us. Men, by their excessive caution, bid us never tread a step lest we fall; but God bids us go, and makes our feet like hind’s feet, that we may tread upon high places. Serve God in early days; give your hearts to him, and then he will never cast you out, but will nourish and cherish you.

      21. Let me not finish without saying a word to little children. You who have heard of Jesus, he says to you, “The bruised reed I will not break, the smoking flax I will not quench.” I believe there is many a little prattler, not six years old, who knows the Saviour. I never despise infantile piety; I love it. I have heard little children talk of mysteries that grey headed men did not know. Ah! little children who have been brought up in Sunday School, and love the Saviour’s name, if others say you are too bold, do not fear, love Christ still.

      Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,

      Still will look upon a child;

      Pity your simplicity,

      And allow you to come to him.

      He will not cast you away; for smoking flax he will not quench, and the bruised reed he will not break.

      {a} Amoeba: A single celled microscopic animal.

      {b} Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, KB (13 November 1761-16 January 1809) was a British soldier and General. He is best known for his military training reforms and for his death at the Battle of Corunna, in which he defeated a French army under Marshal Soult during the Peninsular War. See Explorer “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Moore_(British_Army_officer)”

      {c} General James Wolfe (2 January 1727-13 September 1759) was a British Army officer, known for his training reforms but remembered chiefly for his victory over the French in Canada and establishing British rule there. See Explorer “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wolfe”

      {d} Vici Latin for I have conquered.

      Christ Crucified

      No. 7,8-1:49. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, February 11, 1855, By C. H. Spurgeon, At Exeter Hall, Strand.

      But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks foolishness; but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. {1 Corinthians 1:23,24 }

      1. What contempt has God poured upon the wisdom of this world! How has he brought it to nothing, and made it appear as nothing. He has allowed it to work out its own conclusions, and prove its own folly. Men boasted that they were wise; they said that they could find out God to perfection; and in order that their folly might be refuted once and for ever, God gave them the opportunity of so doing. He said, “Worldly wisdom, I will try you. You say that you are mighty, that your intellect is vast and comprehensive, that your eye is keen, that you can unravel all secrets; now, behold, I try you: I give you one great problem to solve. Here is the universe; stars make its canopy, fields and flowers adorn it, and the floods roll over its surface; my name is written in it; the invisible things of God may be clearly seen in the things which are made. Philosophy, I give to you this problem — find me out. Here are my works — find me out. Discover in the wondrous world which I have made, the way to worship me acceptably. I give you space enough to do it — there is data enough. Behold the clouds, the earth, and the stars. I give you time enough; I will give you four thousand years and I will not interfere; but you shall do as you will with your own world. I will give you men in abundance, for I will make great minds and vast, whom you shall call lords of earth; you shall have orators, you shall have philosophers. Find me out, oh reason, find me out, oh wisdom; discover my nature, if you can: find me out to perfection, if you are able; and if you cannot, then shut your mouth for ever, and then I will teach you that the wisdom of God is wiser than the wisdom of man; yes that the foolishness of God is wiser than men.” And how did the reason of man work out the problem? How did wisdom perform her feat? Look upon the heathen nations; there you see the result of wisdom’s research. In the time of Jesus Christ, you might have beheld the earth covered with the slime of pollution — a Sodom on a large scale, corrupt, filthy, depraved, indulging in vices which we dare not mention, revelling in lusts too abominable even for our imagination to dwell upon for a moment. We find the men prostrating themselves before blocks of wood and stone, adoring ten thousand gods more vicious than themselves. We find, in fact, that reason wrote out her own depravity with a finger covered with blood and filth, and that she for ever cut herself off from all her glory, by the vile deeds she did. She would not worship God. She would not bow down to him who is “clearly seen,” but she worshipped any creature; the reptile that crawled, the crocodile, the viper, everything might be a god, but not, indeed, the God of Heaven. Vice might be made into a ceremony, the greatest crime might be exalted into a religion, but she did know nothing about true worship. Poor reason! poor wisdom! How are you fallen from heaven! Like Lucifer — you son of the morning — you are lost. You have written out your conclusion, but it is a conclusion of consummate folly. “After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.”

      2. Wisdom had had its time, and time enough; it had done its all, and that was little enough; it had made the world worse than it was before it stepped upon it, and now, God says, “Foolishness shall overcome wisdom; now ignorance, as you call it, shall sweep away your science; now, humble, child-like faith, shall crumble to the dust all the colossal systems your hands have piled.” He calls his army. Christ puts his trumpet to his mouth, and up come the warriors, clad in fisherman’s garb, with the brogue of the lake of Galilee —