Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 577
Delivered on Sunday Morning, June 26, 1864, by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
Hebrews 13:13.
MODERN professors have discovered a very easy way of religion. There is a method by which a man may attain to great reputation as a Christian and yet avoid all the trials of the Believer’s estate. He may go through the world finding his path as smoothly turfed as the flesh could desire. Blessed with the smiles of friendly formalists and with the admiration of the ungodly, he may pass from his first entrance into the Church to his grave without experiencing so much as a single shower to dampen his happiness. The sun may smile sweetly upon him all the way, the birds may sing—not a raven may dare to croak, not a single owl may hoot—his road to glory and immortality shall be all that ease could wish!
Let him adopt the modern theory of universal love. Let him believe that a lie is a truth and that whether it is a lie or a truth is of no consequence at all. Let him be complacent towards every man, and with a smooth and oily tongue chime in with every other man’s principles, having none of his own worth mentioning. Let him trim his sails whenever the wind changes. Let him in all things do in Rome as Rome does. Let him yield at all times to the current and float gently with the stream and he shall come to the haven—though I fear not the desired one—he shall come to some sort of haven at last, without any storm or tempest by the way.
But a daring thought comes across one’s mind. Is this the kind of religion which we read of in the Bible? Is this the way in which Scriptural saints went to Heaven? It would be a very pleasant thing if we could please men and please God, too—if we could make the best of both worlds and have the sweets of this and of the next also! But a warning cry arises from the pages of Holy Scripture, for the Word of God talks very differently from this. It talks about a straight and narrow way and about few that find it. It speaks of persecution, suffering, reproach, contending even unto blood, and striving against sin! It talks about wrestling and fighting, struggling and witnessing. I hear the Savior say not, “I send you forth as sheep into the midst of green pastures,” but, “as sheep in the midst of wolves.”
I hear him prophesy that we should be hated of all men for His name’s sake. Truly these things are enough to startle those good easy souls who go so delicately onward! Surely they may at once enquire, “Can it be that this smooth-faced godliness—this very delightful way of getting to Heaven—is the right one?” Is it not all a delusion? Are we not buoyed up with a false hope, if that hope is never assailed by trouble and persecution? All is not gold that glitters—may not the glittering religion of the many be, after all, only a pretense and a sham?
O you lovers of carnal ease, woe unto you! Inasmuch as you take not up the Cross, you shall never win the crown! The disciples of Christ must expect to follow their Master not merely in obedience to His doctrines, but also in the reproach which gathers about His Cross. I do not find Christ carried on flowery beds of ease to His Throne. I do not find Him applauded with universal acclamations! On the contrary, wherever He goes He is a protestor against things established by human wisdom. And in return, the things established vow His destruction and are not satisfied until at last they gloat their cruel eyes with His martyrdom upon the Cross.
Jesus Christ has no life of pleasure and of ease! He is despised and rejected of men—a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief! And let us rest assured that if we bear faithfully our testimony we shall discover that the servant is not above his Master, nor the disciple above his Lord—if they have called the Master of the house “Beelzebub,” much more shall they call them of His household by titles as ignominious and shameful. We must expect, if the Christian soldier is really a soldier and not a mere pretender to the art of war, that he will have to fight until he joins the Host triumphant. If the Church is properly imaged by a ship, she must expect to have storms. And every man on board her must look to bear his share.
From the first day, when Cain and Abel divided the first family into two camps, even until now, the flesh lusts against the Spirit. The evil contends with the good and the good wrestles with the evil. Wherever the true and the good have pitched their tents, there the enemy have gathered to attack them. Righteousness courts no peace or truce with sin—our peaceful Savior came not to form an alliance so unhallowed. Hear His own words—“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”