The Spurgeon Series 1855 & 1856. Charles H. Spurgeon

upon it, that it is all a phantasmagoria with me. I believe all the Bible says of a glorious future, but I cannot pretend to be a maker of charts for all time. Only this I gather as a positive fact, that the saints will one day reign on the earth. This truth appears to me clear enough, whatever may be the different views on the millennium. Now, the saints do not reign visibly; they are despised. They were driven, in old times, into dens and caves of the earth: but the time is coming when kings will be saints, and princes the called ones of God — when queens shall be the nursing mothers, and kings the nursing fathers of Christ’s church. The hour is coming when the saint, instead of being dishonoured, shall be honoured; and monarchs, once the foes of truth, shall become its friends. The saints shall reign. They shall have the majority; the kingdom of Christ shall have the upper hand; it shall not be cast down — this shall not be Satan’s world any longer — it shall again sing with all its sister stars, the never ceasing song of praise. Oh! I believe there is a day coming when Sunday bells shall sprinkle music over the plains of Africa — when the deep thick jungle of India shall see the saints of God going up to the sanctuary; and, I am assured that the teeming multitudes of China shall gather together in temples built for prayer, and, as you and I have done, shall sing, to the ever glorious Jehovah,

      Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

      Happy day! happy day! May it speedily come!

      26. Now, to close up, with one very practical inference. You are kings and priests to your God. Then how much ought kings to give to the collection this morning? Thus speak to yourselves. “I am a king; I will give as a king gives to a king.” Now note, no paltry subscriptions! We do not expect kings to put down their names for trifles. Then, again: you are a priest. Well, priest, do you mean to sacrifice? “Yes.” But you would not sacrifice a broken legged lamb, or a blemished bull, would you? Would you not select the best of the flock? Very right, then select the very best of the Queen’s coins, and offer, if you can, sheep with golden fleece. Excuse my pressing this subject. I want to get this chapel enlarged; so do you, we are all agreed about it; we are all rowing in one boat. I have set my mind on £50, and I must, and will, have it today, if possible. I hope you will not disappoint me. It is not my own cause, but my Master’s — at other times you have given liberally — I am not afraid of you — but hope to come forward, next Sunday morning, with the cheering announcement that the £50 is all raised, and then I think my spirit will be so elevated, that, by the help of God, I will venture to promise you one of the best sermons I am capable of delivering.

      The Christian reader will be pleased to learn, that after this appeal, the sum of £50 0s. 11 1/2d. was collected at the doors, towards defraying the expenses of the enlargement. Should any reader of the New Park Street Pulpit desire to contribute to this excellent object, any sum will be thankfully received by MR. WILLIAM OLNEY, Secretary, at the Chapel.

      {a} Ragged School: A free school for children of the poorest class. OED.

      The People’s Christ

      No. 11-1:77. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, February 25, 1855, By C. H. Spurgeon, At Exeter Hall, Strand.

      I have exalted one chosen from the people. {Psalms 89:19}

      1. Originally, I have no doubt, these words referred to David. He was chosen from the people. His lineage was respectable, but not illustrious; his family was holy, but not exalted: the names of Jesse, Obed, Boaz, and Ruth, awoke no royal memories, and stirred up no remembrances of ancient nobility or glorious pedigree. As for himself, his only occupation had been that of a shepherd boy, carrying lambs in his bosom, or gently leading the ewes great with young — a simple youth of a right royal soul, and undaunted courage, but yet a plebeian — one of the people. But this was no disqualification for the crown of Judah. In God’s eyes the extraction of the young hero was no barrier to his mounting the throne of the holy nation, nor shall the proudest admirer of descent and lineage dare to insinuate a word against the valour, wisdom, and the justice of the government of this monarch of the people.

      2. We do not believe that Israel or Judah ever had a better ruler than David; and we are bold to affirm that the reign of the man “chosen from the people” outshines in glory the reigns of high bred emperors, and princes with the blood of a score of kings running in their veins. Indeed, more, we will assert that the humility of his birth and education, so far from making him incompetent to rule rendered him, in a greater degree, more fit for his office, and able to discharge its mighty duties. He could legislate for the many, for he was one of them — he could rule the people, as the people should be ruled, for he was “bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh” — their friend, their brother, as well as their king.

      3. However, in this sermon we shall not speak of David, but of the Lord Jesus Christ; for David, as referred to in the text, is an eminent type of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, who was chosen from the people; and of whom his Father can say, “I have exalted one chosen from the people.”

      4. Before I enter into the illustration of this truth I wish to make one statement, so that all objections may be avoided as to the doctrine of my sermon. Our Saviour Jesus Christ, I say, was chosen from the people; but this merely respects his manhood. As “very God of very God” he was not chosen from the people; for there was no one except him. He was his Father’s only begotten Son, “begotten of the Father before all worlds.” He was God’s fellow, co-equal, and co-eternal; consequently when we speak of Jesus as being chosen from the people, we must speak of him as a man. We are, I conceive, too forgetful of the real manhood of our Redeemer, for a man he was to all intents and purposes, and I love to sing,

      A Man there was, a real Man

      Who once on Calvary died.

      He was not man and God amalgamated — the two natures suffered no confusion — he was very God, without the diminution of his essence or attributes; and he was equally, truly, and truly, man. It is as a man I speak of Jesus this morning; and it rejoices my heart when I can view the human side of that glorious miracle of incarnation, and can deal with Jesus Christ as my brother — inhabitant of the same mortality, wrestler with the same pains and ills, companion in the march of life, and, for a little while, a fellow sleeper in the cold chamber of death.

      5. There are three things spoken of in the text: first of all, Christ’s extraction — he was one of the people; secondly, his election — he was chosen from the people; and thirdly, Christ’s exaltation — he was exalted. You see I have chosen three words, all commencing with the letter E, to ease your memories that you may be able to remember them the better — extraction, election, exaltation.

      6. I. We will commence with our Saviour’s EXTRACTION. We have had many complaints this week, and for some weeks past, in the newspapers, concerning the families. We are governed — and, according to the firm belief of a great many of us, very badly governed, — by certain aristocratic families. We are not governed by men chosen from the people, as we ought to be; and this is a fundamental wrong in our government, — that our rulers, even when elected by us, can scarcely ever be elected from us. Families, where certainly there is not a monopoly of intelligence or prudence, seems to have a patent for promotion; while a man, a commoner, a tradesman, of however good sense, cannot rise to the government. I am no politician, and I am about to preach no political sermon; but I must express my sympathy with the people, and my joy that we, as Christians, are governed by “one chosen from the people.” Jesus Christ is the people’s man; he is the people’s friend — indeed, one of them. Though he sits high on his Father’s throne, he was “one chosen from the people.” Christ is not to be called the aristocrat’s Christ, he is not the noble’s Christ, he is not the king’s Christ; but he is “one chosen from the people.” It is this thought which cheers the hearts of the people, and ought to bind their souls in unity to Christ, and the holy religion of which he is the Author and Finisher. Let us now beat out this wedge of gold into leaf, and carefully inspect its truthfulness.

      7. Christ, by his very birth, was one of the people. True, he was born of a royal ancestry. Mary and Joseph were both of them descendants of a kingly race, but