The Spurgeon Series 1859 & 1860. Charles H. Spurgeon
with the enemy’s weapons, even if you can. If you think you can crush him by his own mode of warfare, do not do it. It was all very well for David to cut off Goliath’s head with his own sword; but it would not have done for him to try that, until he had first of all split his head open with a stone. Try to get a stone out of the brook of truth, and throw it with the sling of faith, but have nothing to do with Goliath’s sword; you will cut your fingers with it, and get no honour.
25. Regulation IV. — NO FEAR, TREMBLING, OR COWARDICE!
26. “The children of Ephraim, being armed, turned their backs in the day of battle”; but Christ wants no cowards. Do not fear. Remember, if any man is ashamed of Christ in this generation, Christ will be ashamed of him in the day when he comes in the glory of his Father and all his holy angels. “I say to you, do not fear him who can kill the body, but after that has no more that he can do; but fear him who is able to cast both body and soul into hell; I say to you, fear him.”
27. Regulation V. — NO SLUMBERING, REST, EASE, OR SURRENDER!
28. Be always at it, all at it, constantly at it, with all your might be at it. No rest. Your resting time is to come, in the grave. Be always fighting the enemy. Ask every day for grace to win a victory, and each night do not sleep unless you can feel that you have done something in the cause of Christ — have helped to carry the standard a little further into the midst of the enemy’s ranks. Oh! if we only attended to these regulations how much might be done! But because we forget them, the cause of Christ is retarded and the victory is slow.
29. And now, before I send you away, I would call out Christ’s soldiers, and drill them for a minute or two. I see sometimes the captains marching their soldiers to and fro, and you may laugh and say they are doing nothing; but note, all that manoeuvring, that forming into squares, and so forth, has its practical effect when they come into the field of battle. Allow me, then, to put the Christian through his exercises.
30. The first posture the Christian ought to take, and in which he ought to be very well practised, is this. DOWN UPON BOTH KNEES, HANDS UP, AND EYES UP TO HEAVEN! There is no posture like that. It is called the posture of prayer. When Christ’s church has been beaten every other way, it has at last taken to its knees, and then the whole army of the enemy has fled before us, for on its knees Christ’s church is more than conqueror. The praying legion is a legion of heroes. He who understands this posture has learned the first part of the heavenly drill.
31. The next posture is: FEET FAST, HANDS STILL, AND EYES UP! A hard posture that, though it looks very easy. “Stand still and see the salvation of God.” I have known many men who could practise the first position who could not practise the second. Perhaps that was the hardest thing that the children of Israel ever did. When they had the sea before them and Pharaoh behind them, they were commanded to stand still. But if you must learn to stand still when you are provoked, to be silent when you are mocked, to wait under adverse providences, and still believe that in the darkest hour the sun is not dead, but will shine again. May we all learn to wait patiently for Christ’s coming.
32. Another posture is this: QUICK MARCH, CONTINUALLY GOING ONWARD! Ah! there are some Christians who are constantly sleeping on their guns; but they do not understand the posture of going onward. Quick march! Many Christians seem to be better skilled in the goose step of lifting up one foot after another and putting them down in the same place, rather than going onwards. Oh! I wish we all knew how to progress — to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Never think you are doing anything unless you are going forward — have more love, more hope, more joy, and are extending your sphere of usefulness. Soldiers of Christ, Quick march! “Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward.” Do not let them go back; do not let them stand still. Go on, on, on, soldiers of Christ! Go forward!
33. Another posture is one that is very hard to learn indeed. It is what no soldier, I think, was ever told to do by his captain, except the soldier of Christ: EYES SHUT, AND EARS SHUT, AND HEART SHUT! Do this when you go through Vanity Fair. Eyes shut, so as not to look upon temptation; ears shut, so as not to regard either the praise or the scoffs of the world; and heart shut against evil, with the great stone of precept. “Your Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Roll a stone at the door of your heart, that sin may not come out of it. That is a hard posture; but you will never fight the battles of the Lord until you know how to maintain that.
34. And then there is another posture: FEET FIRM, SWORD IN HAND, EYES OPEN; LOOKING AT YOUR ENEMY, WATCHING EVERY MOVE THAT HE MAKES, AND WATCHING TOO FOR YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO ATTACK HIM WITH YOUR SWORD IN HAND! That posture you must maintain every day. Guard against the arrows of the enemy; hold up your shield, and be ready to charge him and give him a deadly wound. I need not explain that. You who have to do with business, you who are in the ministry, you who are serving God as deacons and elders, you know how often you have to ward off the arrow and look carefully at your enemy, and meet him sword in hand, ready to rush in whenever your time shall come. Let no opportunity — let no occasion pass by. Wound your enemy whenever you can; kill sin, kill error, and destroy bitterness, as often as you have opportunity so to do.
35. There is one other posture, which is a very pleasant one for the child of God to assume and I would have you remember it today. HANDS WIDE OPEN, AND HEART WIDE OPEN, WHEN YOU ARE HELPING YOUR BRETHREN; a hand ready to give whatever the church needs, and an eye ready to look up for help when you cannot give help with your hand, and ready to guide the hand whenever help is needed; and a heart open to hear the plight of another’s need, to “rejoice with those who do rejoice and weep with those who weep.”
36. Above all, the best posture for Christ’s church, is that of PATIENT WAITING FOR THE ADVENT OF CHRIST, a looking forward for his glorious appearance, who must come and will not tarry, but who will get the victory for himself.
37. Now, if you will go to your houses, and if divine grace shall help you to put yourselves through this form of drill, you will be mighty in the day of battle to put down the enemy.
38. And now allow the word of exhortation, very brief, but hot and earnest. Oh Christian men and women, the more you think of it the more you will be ashamed or yourselves, and of the present church, that we do so little for Christ. Some eighteen hundred years ago, there were a handful of men and women in an upper room; and that handful of men and women were so devoted to their Master and so true to his cause, that within a hundred years they had overrun every nation of the habitable globe; yes, within fifty years they had preached the gospel in every land. And now look at this great host gathered here today. Probably there are no less than two or three thousand members of Christian churches, besides this mixed multitude; and now what will you do in fifty years’ time? What does the church do in any year of its existence? Why, hardly anything at all. I sometimes wonder how long God will allow the church to be cooped up in England. I fear that we shall never see the world converted, until this country is invaded. If it should ever happen that our hearths and homes should be invaded, and that we should be scattered, north, south, east and west, all through the world, it will be the grandest thing that ever happened for the church of Christ. I would go down on my knees and pray night and day that it may not happen for the nation’s sake; but nevertheless I sometimes think that the greatest disaster that can ever occur to our nation, will be the only way in which Christ’s church will be spread. Look at it. Here you have your churches in almost every street, and despite the destitution of London, it is not destitute if you compare it with the nations of the world. Oh, ought we not as ministers of Christ to pour out in legions? and ought not our people to go everywhere in the habitable world, in ones, and twos, and threes, preaching the gospel? But would you have us leave wife, and house, and children? I would not have you do it; but if you would do it then would Christ’s power be seen, and then would the might of the church return to it once again. They were men without purse or scrip that went everywhere preaching the word, and God was with them, and the world heard them and was converted. Now we cannot go if we are not sent, and perhaps it is only reasonable that flesh and blood should not ask for more; but still if the