The Spurgeon Series 1855 & 1856. Charles H. Spurgeon

long war — a fight needing the power of all these muscles, and this strong heart; a contest which shall need all our strength, if we are to be triumphant; and if we do come off more than conquerors, it shall be said of us, as Hart said of Jesus Christ: “He had strength enough and none to spare”; a battle at which the stoutest heart might quail; a fight at which the bravest might shake, if he did not remember that the Lord is on his side, and therefore, whom shall he fear? He is the strength of his life; of whom shall he be afraid? This fight with the world is not one of brute force, or physical might; if it were, we might soon win it; but it is all the more dangerous from the fact that it is a strife of mind, a contest of heart, a struggle of the spirit, a strife of the soul. When we overcome the world in one fashion, we have not half done our work; for the world is a Proteus, {a} changing its shape continually; like the chameleon, it has all the colours of the rainbow; and when you have worsted the world in one shape, it will attack you in another. Until you die, you will always have fresh appearances of the world to wrestle with. Let me just mention some of the forms in which the Christian overcomes the world.

      5. 1. He overcomes the world when it sets up itself as a legislator, wishing to teach him customs. You know the world has its old massive law book of customs, and he who does not choose to go according to the fashion of the world, is under the ban of society. Most of you do just as everyone else does, and that is enough for you. If you see So-and-So do a dishonest thing in business, it is sufficient for you that everyone does it. If you see that the majority of mankind have certain habits, you succumb, you yield. You think, I suppose, that to march to hell in crowds, will help to diminish the fierce heat of the burning of the bottomless pit, instead of remembering that the more faggots the fiercer will be the flame. Men usually swim with the stream like a dead fish; it is only the living fish that goes against it. It is only the Christian who despises customs, who does not care for conventionalisms, who only asks himself the question, “Is it right or is it wrong? If it is right, I will be singular. If there is not another man in this world who will do it, I will do it; should a universal hiss go up to heaven, I will do it still; should the very stones of earth fly up and stone me to death I will do it still; though they bind me to the stake, yet I must do it; I will be singularly right; if the multitude will not follow me, I will go without them; I will be glad if they will all go and do right as well, but if not, I will despise their customs; I do not care what others do; I shall not be weighed by other men; to my own Master I stand or fall. Thus I conquer and overcome the customs of the world.” Fair world! she dresses herself in ermine, she puts on the robes of a judge, and she solemnly tells you, “Man, you are wrong. Look at your fellows; see what they do. Behold my laws, for hundreds of years have not men done so? Who are you, to set yourself up against me?” And she pulls out her worm eaten law book, and turning over the musty pages, says, “See, here is an act passed in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and here is another law enacted in the days of Pharaoh. These must be right, because antiquity has enrolled them among her standard authorities. Do you mean to set yourself up and stand against the opinions of the multitude?” Yes, we do; we take the law book of the world, and we burn it, as the Ephesians did their magic scrolls; we take her deeds, and make them into waste paper; we rend her proclamation from the walls; we do not care what others do; custom to us is a cobweb; we count it folly to be singular; but when to be singular is to be right, we count it the proudest wisdom; we overcome the world; we trample on her customs; we walk as a distinct people, a separate race, a chosen generation, a peculiar people. The Christian behaves in his dealings not as the laughing infidel insinuates, when he sneeringly describes Mawworm, {b} as saying, “Boy, have you sanded the sugar?” “Yes, sir.” “Have you put the sloe leaves in the tea?” “Yes, sir.” “Have you put red lead in the pepper?” “Yes, sir.” “Then come to prayers.” Christians do not do so; they say, “We know better; we cannot conform to the customs of the world. If we pray, we will also act, or else we are hypocrites, confounded hypocrites. If we go to the house of God, and profess to love him, we love him everywhere; we take our religion with us into the shop, behind the counter, into our offices; we must have it everywhere, or else God knows it is not religion at all.” You must stand up, then, against the customs of mankind. Albeit, this may be a three million peopled city, you are to come out and be separate, if you would overcome the world.

      6. 2. We rebel against the world’s customs. And if we do so, what is the conduct of our enemy? She changes her approach. “That man is a heretic; that man is a fanatic; he is a cant, he is a hypocrite,” says the world directly. She grasps her sword, she puts frowns upon her brow, she scowls like a demon, she girds tempests around about her, and she says, “The man dares defy my government; he will not do as others do. Now I will persecute him. Slander! come from the depths of hell and hiss at him. Envy! sharpen up your tooth and bite him.” She fetches up all false things, and she persecutes the man. If she can, she does it with the hand, if not, by the tongue. She afflicts him wherever he is. She tries to ruin him in business; or, if he stands forth as the champion of the truth why then she laughs, and mocks, and scorns. She leaves no stone unturned by which she may injure him. What is then the behaviour of the Lord’s warrior, when he sees the world take up arms against him, and when he sees all earth, like an army, coming to chase him, and utterly destroy him? Does he yield? Does he yield? Does he bend? Does he cringe? Oh, no! Like Luther, he writes “Cedo nulli ” on his banner — “I yield to none”; and he goes to war against the world, if the world goes to war against him.

      Let earth be all in arms abroad,

      He dwells in perfect peace.

      Ah! some of you, if you had a word spoken against you, would at once give up what religion you have; but the true born child of God cares little for man’s opinion. “Ah,” he says, “let my bread fail me, let me be doomed to wander penniless the wide world over; yes, let me die: each drop of blood within these veins belongs to Christ, and I am ready to shed it for his name’s sake.” He counts all things but loss, that he may win Christ — that he may be found in him; and when the world’s thunders roar, he smiles at the uproar, while he hums his pleasant tune: —

      Jerusalem my happy home,

      Name ever dear to me;

      When shall my labours have an end,

      In joy, and peace, and thee?

      When her sword comes out, he looks at it. “Ah,” he says, “just as the lightning leaps from its thunder lair, splits the clouds, and frightens the stars, but is powerless against the rock covered mountaineer, who smiles at its grandeur, so now the world cannot hurt me, for in the time of trouble my Father hides me in his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle does he hide me, and set me up upon a rock.” Thus, again, we conquer the world, by not caring for its frowns.

      7. 3. “Well,” says the world, “I will try another way,” and this believe me, is the most dangerous of all. A smiling world is worse than a frowning one. She says, “I cannot strike the man low with my repeated blows, I will take off my mailed glove, and showing him a fair white hand, I’ll bid him kiss it. I will tell him I love him: I will flatter him, I will speak good words to him.” John Bunyan well describes this Madam Bubble: she has a winning way with her; she drops a smile at the end of each of her sentences; she talks much of fair things, and tries to win and woo. Oh, believe me, Christians are not so much in danger when they are persecuted as when they are admired. When we stand upon the pinnacle of popularity, we may well tremble and fear. When we are hissed at, and hooted, then we do not have any cause to be alarmed; when we are dandled on the lap of fortune, and nursed upon the knees of the people; when all men speak well of us then woe is to us. It is not in the cold wintry wind that I take off my coat of righteousness, and throw it away; when the sun comes, when the weather is warm, and the air balmy, then I unguardedly strip off my robes, and become naked. Good God! how many a man has been made naked by the love of this world! The world has flattered and applauded him; he has drunk the flattery; it was an intoxicating draught; he has staggered, he has reeled, he has sinned, he has lost his reputation; and as a comet that before flashed across the sky, does wander far into space, and is lost in darkness, so does he; great as he was, he falls; mighty as he was, he wanders, and is lost. But the true child of God is never so; he is as safe when the world smiles, as when it frowns; he cares as little