Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1925
“And they brought young children to Him, that He should touch them: and His disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased and said to them, Suffer the little children to come to Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter in it. And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them and blessed them.” Mark 10:13-16.
IT must be a very great sin, indeed, to hinder anybody from coming to Christ. He is the only way of salvation from the wrath of God. He is salvation from the terrible judgment that is due to sin—who would dare to keep the perishing from that way? To alter the signposts on the way to the City of Refuge, or to dig a trench across the road would have been an inhuman act, deserving the sternest condemnation. He who holds back a soul from Jesus is the servant of Satan and is doing the most diabolical of all the devil’s work! We are all agreed about this.
I wonder, my dear Friends, whether any of us are quite innocent in this respect? May we not have hindered others from repentance and faith? It is a sad suspicion, but I am afraid that many of us have done so.
Certainly you who have never believed in Jesus, yourselves, have, sadly, done much to prevent others believing. The force of example, whether for good or bad, is very powerful and especially is it so with parents upon their children, superiors upon their underlings and teachers upon their pupils. Perhaps, Father, if you had been an earnest Christian, your son would not have been ungodly. Possibly, dear Mother, if you had been decided for the Savior, the girls would have been Christians, too. We have to speak and judge after the manner of men but, assuredly, example is a great fashioner of character. We can, none of us, tell, if we go down to Hell, how many we shall draw with us, for we are bound to thousands by invisible bands. Here’s the respect which makes a wide calamity out of the ruin of a single soul. Over the tomb of each sinner may be read this epitaph, “this men perished not alone in his iniquity.” “None of us lives to himself and no man dies to himself.”
If we could fling our souls away as solitary stones out of the sling, this were woe enough, but since we are all threaded beads upon the string of common life, where one goes, many go with him. The plague of sin will not confine itself to one man’s house—it sallies forth from every door and window—and slays its victims all around so that “one sinner destroys much good.” May I put this question to those of you who have never repented of your sins, nor sought the Savior’s face? Have you calculated what baneful influences are streaming from your lives upon the souls of your children, your wives, your brothers, your friends? Jesus says, “He that is not with Me, is against Me, and He that gathers not with Me, scatters abroad.” How many have you scattered abroad like wandering sheep? How many have you induced to remain careless and godless since they see you doing the same? These are solemn reflections for those who mean no harm and yet are doing it.
Do not some persons go further than their example and hinder others from coming to Christ by discouraging speeches? They dishearten those who are hoping for better things. Working men are to be found who never see any tenderness towards holy things in a fellow employee but what they hasten, at once, to wound his heart. If they suspect a comrade of endeavoring to escape from drunkenness, they ridicule him—and if he goes further and exhibits faith towards God—they make him the football of their contempt! It must entail a fearful responsibility upon a man for him to make himself the opposer of all good in his companions. Why are so many eager to undertake this responsibility? It is a sorrowful thing that certain men will let others alone and even be friendly with them, should they drink, swear and commit
lewdness—and yet, as soon as they have serious thoughts of religion, they attack them bitterly! Half a fault in a Christian is made the theme of the most ungenerous comment—but actual crimes will be excused in an irreligious person! Why should men wish to prevent their fellow beings from being saved? Friend, if you choose to ruin your own soul, why should you try to ruin others? Why play the dog in the manger? If you will not have religion for yourself, why not let others have it? It can be no gain to you either in this world, or in the world to come, to stand with a club at the gates of life to drive back all who would enter!
Again, certain would-be wise people hinder souls from coming to Christ by cunningly insinuating doubts about the Revelation of the Divine Word. They have heard from an infidel lecturer, or from some “modern thought” preacher, a dangerous piece of error and they no sooner find a young mind inclined to serious things than they, at once, repeat this pretty lie! By their captious questions, they stagger young minds. By their evil teaching they dry up the springs of repentance and paralyze the strength of faith. Fierce as Pharaoh, they would throw all new-born faith into the river of doubt. Cruel as the Prince of Darkness, they would quench every newly-kindled candle of hope. They are more diligent to destroy the faith than others are to spread it! What an accumulation of guilt must be resting upon the mind of the man who breathes out doubt as other men breathe air! Neither God, nor Christ, nor Heaven, nor Hell can escape the foul steam of his infidelity. See how he blasts the souls on whom he breathes!