New Park Street Pulpit · Sermon No. 63
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, January 27, 1856, New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
“Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?”—Isaiah 60:8.
TThe ancient church, in the foresight of her mighty increase in these latter days lifts up her hands in astonishment, and having been so used to see the Lord’s grace confined to a small nation, she exclaims in amazement, “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” We, beloved, are in a somewhat similar position. It has pleased our Father to add to our numbers so greatly beyond all precedent in modern times, that I doubt not that many of our aged members, who remember days of yore, when God was pleased to bless them very greatly, and then think of days of sadness and weariness, when they were diminished and brought low, are this morning lifting up their hands, and saying, as they think of the present prosperity of our church, “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” I am sure whenever I appoint an evening for seeing the converts I am amazed; I can only stand up afterwards, clap my hands, and go home and weep for very joy, to think that the word of our God is so running and multiplying and abundantly increasing; and as post after post I receive letters from different parts of this country, from one person here, and another there, not in England only, but in Scotland, and even across the sea—in Ireland, and you know, in the Crimea also—I have been overwhelmed with amazement, and have been obliged to cry out, “Who hath begotten me these?” “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?”
The church, when she uttered these words, appears to have been the subject of three kinds of feeling. First, wonder: secondly, pleasure: thirdly, anxiety. These three feelings you have felt; you are not strangers to them; and you will understand, while I speak to you as the children of God, how it is that we can feel at the same time, wonder, pleasure, and yet anxiety.
I. First, the church of old, and our church now, appears to have been the subject of WONDER when she saw so many come to know the Lord. “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” Take the first sentence of the text first: “Who are these that fly as a cloud?”
The church wondered, first of all, at the number of her converts. They did “fly as a cloud.” Not here and there a convert—not now and then one—not converts like solitary bitterns of the desert; but they “did fly as a cloud.” Not a convert now and then, like a meteor, a thing we see but seldom, which flashes across the sky, rejoices the darkness, and then is gone; not now and then a convert, as a rara avis,—a spiritual prodigy. “But who are these?” saith she, “who fly as a cloud?” She wonders at their number. But, my brethren, why should we be astonished? Did not the apostle Peter become the instrument of converting three thousand under one sermon? And have we not heard of Whitfield, that while ten thousand listened to him, it has been known that two thousand at a time have felt the power of God manifested in their hearts? And why should we wonder if hundreds were brought to God now? “Is his arm shortened, that he cannot save? Is his ear heavy, that he cannot hear?” Have we not cried unto the God of Jacob; and is anything impossible to him? Remember how he “cut Rahab and wounded the dragon.” Think of his prodigies by the Red Sea, and the miracles he worked in the field of Zoan. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Oh! thou distrustful church, dost thou marvel because thy Lord giveth thee many children? Is it not written—“More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,” saith the Lord. I tell thee, the Lord will show thee greater things than these. The increase we have had shall yet be exceeded, if God wills it. Nothing is impossible with him. He who converts one, could as easily convert a hundred; and he who redeems a hundred, could save a thousand by the self-same power. Is not the blood of Jesus sufficient? Is not the Holy Ghost powerful enough? and is not the mighty Three-one God “able to do for us exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or think?” Yet, so it is; so little are our expectations, and so unprepared are we for God’s mercies, that when he pours out a blessing upon us, so that we have not room enough to receive it, we begin shutting up the windows altogether, and think, “Surely it cannot come from God, because there is so much of it.” Why, that is the very reason why we should believe it to be. If there were few conversions, then we might tremble, and fear lest they might be man’s; but when there are so many none but a God can accomplish it. When one or two are brought to join a church, we may shake for fear and examine them with caution; but when they fly like a cloud, we can only say, “Great art thou, O God, marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.” Doubtless, brethren, until larger views of God’s power and increased faith shall diminish the wonder, we shall always stand in amazement, and say, “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?”