Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1564
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, October 24, 1880
“Lord, all my desire is before You; and my groaning is not hid from You.” Psalm 38:9.
IT is our earnest desire that all who are in Christ may be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. I would earnestly wish to see such spiritual life among us that every man had reached the very height of holy manhood and was in possession of the utmost possible degree of spiritual vigor. It is a great calamity when there is a very large proportion of sick folks in any Christian community, for these must draw off the care and strength of the Church from aggressive movements. How favored would we be if it could be said of us as of Israel when they came out of Egypt, “There was not one feeble person in all their tribes.” Oh that the day would come when the Word of God shall be fulfilled which says—“He that is feeble among them shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the Angel of the Lord before them.”
Let no man suppose that there is a necessity that he should always be weak in faith, always walk under a cloud, or that he should forever be a Mr. Feeble-Mind or Mr. Ready-to-Halt. Miracles of Grace are for saints as well as sinners! Feeble minds can be strengthened and crutches thrown away. We ought to grow out of the feebleness of our spiritual childhood. We should cry to God for Grace that we may get up “into the hill country” of holy confidence and there, like Mary, sing, “My soul does magnify the Lord.” Oh that we might all attain to assurance, yes, to the full assurance of understanding, so that we should know why we are thus assured and so become rooted, grounded and settled in the faith—for then nothing would, by any means, remove us from the Truth of God or even move us in the Truth. May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus.
I would to God that you might each realize that promise of the 25th Psalm, “What man is he that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way that He shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease and his seed shall inherit the earth.” At the same time, we are most painfully conscious that all of God’s people are not in a vigorous condition and we know that there is a large mixture in every Church of those who are sickly, desponding and faint. These we are bound to care for. Common humanity demands it, our sacred office binds us to it and the example of the good Shepherd constrains us. We must feed the lambs. We must “lift up the hands that hang down and confirm the feeble knees.” The voice of God is heard in our heart saying, “Comfort you, comfort you My people,” which voice we dare not disregard!
Indeed, the sympathies awakened within us by a similar experience prompt us to be forward in compassion for the weak and the tried. Therefore, at this time I would seek out the weary and wounded and feeble—not with a view of trying to multiply their number—but with the hope of diminishing their number by cheering them till they grow out of their low condition. We would not pamper weakness till we seem to offer a premium to unbelief, but yet we would feed the feeble in the king’s meadows till they become strong in the Lord! I shall now look after those who cannot get beyond desires and groans and let none blame me for this service. If the shepherd spends much of his time among the weakly sheep—if he gathers the lambs with his arms and carries them in his bosom—if he seems, even, to neglect the stronger sheep because they do not so urgently call for his care, no one should, therefore, infer that he delights in feebleness.
Far from it! He is trying to remove it by his tenderness! You do not blame the humane for caring for the sick. If great efforts are put forth to build or endow a hospital, you do not say, “Sickness is a desirable thing, for all this money is spent upon comforting and helping those who feel it.” Your feelings are quite the contrary—though these sick folk become the object of care, it is not as a reward to them—but an act of compassion towards them. Let none, therefore, say that the preacher encourages a low state of Divine Grace—he encourages it no more than the physician encourages disease when he tries, by his care and skill, to heal the sick! Whatever your judgments may be, I always mean to look after the downcast and the struggling! Nor shall the babes be forgotten of my soul while I am able to be a nursing father to them.
In a large family where there are little children there must always be arrangements for their feeding. Spoon victuals and milk must always be in the house, for if the cupboard contained nothing but meat and biscuits, the tender ones would starve. If it should ever come to pass that a ministry consisted entirely of the higher doctrines and the deeper experiences, it would leave many unsupplied and it certainly would not be like the ministry of Christ which had in it as much of simplicity as of mystery! A true steward cares for all the household and provides milk for babies as well as meat for men. If he forgets anything, he had better forget the meat than the milk, for though babies could not live on strong meat, men can live upon pure milk. To tell the truth, I have known the strong men come into such a condition at times that the milk for babies was all that they could take.