Hosea 7:11 A Silly Dove

NO. 2984
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 19TH, 1906,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
IN THE YEAR 1863.

“Ephraim was like a silly dove without heart.” — Hosea 7:11

THE race of Ephraim is not extinct. Men are to this very day very much like what they were in the days of the prophets. The same rebukes are still suitable, as well as the same comforts. As man has altered very little, if at all, in his outward bodily conformation, so has he not varied in the inner constitution; he is much the same today as he was in the time of Hosea. In this congregation, in the midst of the city of London, we have too large a company of those who are “like a silly dove without heart.”

To proceed at once with the text, I want you to notice four things: first; a saintly similitude; secondly, a secret distinction; thirdly, a severe description; and, lastly, a serious consideration.

I. Here we have A Saintly Similitude: Ephraim is like a dove!”

The people are not compared here to the eagle that soareth aloft, and acendeth its prey from afar, nor to the vulture which delights to gorge itself with carrion; they are not likened to any foul and unclean bird which was put aside under the law; but the very figure which is constantly chosen to set forth the beauty of holiness, to describe the believer, and to picture the whole Church, — nay, that very emblem by which we set forth him who is holiness itself, God the Holy Spirit, — that same comparison to a dove is here used to describe those who were without heart. “Ephraim is like a dove,” — it is a saintly similitude.

Let me remind you that, in all congregations, there are those who are like doves, but not Christ’s doves, who never build their nests in the clefts of the rock, in the bosom of the Savior. They are like doves; you can never tell them from genuine believers; and, like doves, they are perfectly harmless; they do no mischief to others in their lives. Track them, if you will, you will never find them in the alehouse; they sing not the song of the drunkard; no man ever lost anything in business by them. Men may have their pockets picked in the streets, but never by them. Persons may go staggering home under a wound, but that wound never comes from their hand, there is no uncleanness in their heart, and no slander on their tongue; they are amiable, admirable; we might almost hold them up for examples of propriety. Alas! alas! that we have only to look within to find that they are not what they seem.

Moreover, being like doves for harmlessness, they are also like them for loving good company. We find not the dove flying with a host of eagles, but it consorts with its own kind. Some of you are never happier than when you are either in the Tabernacle or else in some of the classes formed by various members of the congregation. You also find such a pleasant excitement in the prayer meeting that you are not absent from it except when you are prevented by business. You love being where God’s people go; their hymns are sweet to your ears, in their prayers you find some sort of comfort, and in the ministry of the Word you take delight. You fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows, and it is a joy to us to see you do it; and yet it may to that, although you know how to congregate like doves, you are simply “like a silly dove without heart.”

Moreover, these persons are still more like the dove, in that they have the same meekness apparently, as distinguishes the dove. They hear as God’s people hear, and sit as his people sit. They are not sceptics; they never object to the exposition of the doctrines to which they listen; they pick no holes in the preacher’s coat, — they have no particular fault to find either with the style or the matter of his discourse; they decorously frequent the house of God, and behave themselves in a seemly manner when there; nay, more than that, they do seem with meekness to receive the Word, though they do not receive it, as engrafted into their own hearts; they even receive it with joy when the seed is scattered on them, but having no root in themselves, the good seed comes to nothing. O my dear hearers, it is a great subject for thanksgiving that, so many of you are ready and willing to listen to the Word with deep and profound respect; but I do beseech you to remember that you may, in this, be like unto the dove, and yet, after all, you may be taken in the same net and destroyed with the same destruction as that which fell upon the Ephraimites, who were “like a silly love without heart.”

The dove, you know, is a cleanly feeder, and so we have many who get as far as that. They know the distinction between the precious and the vile; they will not feed on law, they can only live on grace; they have come to know the doctrines of the gospel, and they feed on them, — upon pure corn well winnowed. You have only to bring in a little free will, and straightway they know the chaff from the wheat, and refuse to receive it. They cast it away as refuse metal, which is of no value to them. But, while they have an orthodox head, they have a heterodox heart; while they know the truth, and feel it, yet still it is not the right kind of feeling; they have never so received it as to incorporate it into their very being; they have accepted it with the same sort of belief, and in somewhat the same manner, as Simon did in Samaria; but, after a while, when trouble and persecution shall come, and was too hot, they will turn aside.

But I have to add yet further here, that there are some of these persons who are like doves in another respect still more singular as a dove is molested by all sorts of birds of prey, so these persons do, for a time, share the lot which befalls the people of God. Why, there are some who, for the mere coming to the house of God, get nicknamed “saints.” They are not saints, but, they have to bear the scoffing which is given to saints; and I know some, who have turned out great sinners, who have, for a time, put, up with much scoffing and rebuke for the sake of Christ. When pointed at in the street, it has been part of the manliness of their character to acknowledge that they did frequent such a place of worship. Though their soul has never been stricken by the Divine Word, yet it has become so sweet in their ear, that they are willing to bear some degree of reproach for the sale of it. I should not like to be compelled to say precisely wherein the saint is to be distinguished by outward signs, for really the counterfeits nowadays are so much like the genuine, that it needs the wisdom of the infallible God himself to discern between the one and the other. We can have false faith, false repentance, false hope, and false good works. We have all sorts of things, — paint, varnish, tinsel, — and we may so grain that a skillful eye will scarcely know whether it is the genuine wood or the artist’s skill. There are many ways of preparing metals, and, sometimes, the alloy seems to have in it, for some purpose, qualities which the unalloyed metal lacks. O Lord, the great Searcher of hearts, do thou search us, lest we should have applied to us saintly names, and pass the saintly reputation and character, and hold saintly offices, and after all be cast away with the rubbish over the wall, and left to be consumed for ever and ever! But, enough on that point.

II. I have now to call your attention to A Secret Distinction: “Ephraim is like a dove without heart.”

This implies a lack of understanding. The dove knows but little, and experience scarcely teaches it anything. We may almost spread the snare in the flight of that bird, and yet it will fly to it, it is so silly. It does not seem to possess, at least to the outward eye, the wits and sense of some others of the feathered tribe. It has little or no understanding. And oh, how many there are who are, spiritually, like the dove; they have no real knowledge of the truth! They rest in the letter, and think that is enough. I solemnly believe that there are those who have not the shadow of an idea of the meaning of the words while they hear every Sabbath-day in a form of prayer. They repeat those prayers without any appreciation of the sense of them; they would probably not notice if the words were put in any other way. Doubtless they would get as much good out of them if they were thrown together in wild disorder, as they do out of the beautiful and magnificent array in which they are marshalled. Many, who come and hear the most simple truths, go away and say, “It is a riddle to us; we cannot understand how people can sit and listen to that.” Either they condemn the preacher’s words as trite or else as fanatical; they cannot understand them. You may fetch a clodhopper, and set before him the masterpiece of an eminent old painter, and tell him, “That picture is worth sixty thousand pounds.” He looks, opens his mouth, starts again, and says he can’t make anything of it; he can’t see where the money could go. He’d sooner have carts, and horses, and pigs, and cows, and sheep. Well, now, to some extent, we might almost sympathize with him; but the high-art critics despise the man at once for having no soul above his clod. And it is just the same in spiritual things. Exhibit the glories of the person of Christ, and the matchless wisdom of the plan of salvation, that man can see nothing in it. “it is, no doubt, a very good and very proper thing,” he will attend to it, and so on; and then he goes to church, and thinks he is pious, sits in his seat, and goes through the routine, and then supposes he is reconciled to God. Oh, how many such silly doves we have fluttering in and out of our places of worship! As a quaint old preacher said, there were scarcely seats enough for the saints on account of the number of simpletons that came to listen.

But, again, they were silly doves without heart, because, lacking an understanding heart, they also lacked a decided heart. Sometimes, however, the dove would be slandered if we should use her as a metaphor in this respect. Have you not seen the dove, when, from afar, with her quick eye, she has seen her cot, fly straight away, over miles of sea and land, straight to her beloved home? There, she could not be used as a metaphor of the ungodly; but of a child of Jesus, who thus flies to him over the wild waves of sin. But, perhaps, you have seen the dove as first she rises in the air, and then flies round and round. She deliberates in order to find out which is the right direction, and, when she has made up her mind, away she flies straight as an arrow to the goal. But, while she is fluttering about, she is an apt emblem of some men. They are undecided whether for God or Baal. They halt, to user Elijah’s figure, between two opinions. “How long halt ye between two opinions?” If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” On Sundays, they go to church; but, on Mondays, they put on their religious habits; the weather is too rough, or something else prevents them from going to the prayer-meeting. On Sunday, they say, —

“My willing soul would stay In such a frame as this, And sit and sing herself away To everlasting bliss;” — but, on Monday or Tuesday, the sound of the wheels in the street, and the noise of them that buy and sell, put the music of Jerusalem out of their cars, and they would fain go back to the world again. Ah, they are silly doves, without understanding and without decision!

Nay, there are some who may be said to have a sort of decision for a time; but they are like the dove, in that they are without resolution. The doves seeks to fly in one direction; somebody claps his hands, and she changes in a moment; or else he sprinkles a handful of barley on the ground, and, though she was flying yonder, she is over here again. How many persons there are of that kind, setting their faces to Zion, intending to join the church; perhaps they have seen the elders and the pastor, and been accepted; but, after a little time, they say, “Well, they did not know all about it; there are more frightful things than they dreamt of in it! “Like Pliable, they would go to heaven, but they get into the Slough of Despond, and there is queer stuff there that gets into the ears and mouth, and so they get out on the side nearest home, and tell Christian he may have the brave country all to himself, for they don’t like the miry places on the way. Or, it may be, that some odd companion comes up from the country, and he will treat them to some place of amusement: or, perhaps, it may be that there is a prospect of gain to be got in some branch of business that is not quite so honest as it might be. But does not the money count as well? Isn’t it as good to spend? Will not other men think it worth twenty shillings to the pound, however it may have been gained? These people, who seemed so true and warm-hearted, are like the silly dove without resolution, and fly away again to their old haunts, and become just what they used to be.

So likewise there are many, like a dove, without bold hearts. They never turn upon a persecutor. They never stood in the gap with Mr. Valiant-for-Truth, holding the sword in their hand; They cannot open their mouth to speak for Jesus, but they run away when they ought to stand out like a lion against their foes; they never give a reason for the hope that is in them. We have plenty of Baptist churches educating cowards by the score. They never come out before the whole church, — that would be too trying for their nerves. They are never expected to come out boldly on the Lord’s side. Too often, baptism is administered somewhere in a corner, when as few as possible are present; and, in that way, where we ought to have lion-like men, we breed those who hide their principles, and are ready to amalgamate with any sect of people so long as they can but bear the name of Christians. I would to God, dear friends, we had bolder men for our Lord and Master. Be as full of love as you can, but take care that you mix iron with your constitution. Silly are the doves that have no bold heart for God. The day will come when only the bold heart shall win, for the fearful and unbelieving are to have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.

Too many, also, there are like a silly dove, in that they have a powerless heart. If you visit a great manufactory where there is a large engine, you will notice that the amount of power used in the factory is proportionate to the capacity of the steam-engine. If that should work but feebly, then the wheels cannot revolve beyond a proportionate rate, and every part soon discovers that there is some lack of motive force. Now, man’s heart is the great steam-engine of his whole being; and if he has a heart that palpitates with swift strokes, it will put his whole nature in motion, and that man will be mighty for his Lord and Master; but if he has a little, insignificant heart that never did glow, and never did burn, and never did know anything about the warmth, and life, and heat, and power, and benediction of God’s love, then his will fritter away his time, knowing the right and doing the wrong, loving in some sort the thing that is beautiful, but still following that which is deformed, giving his name to God, and giving what little strength he has to the other side. Brethren, I would to God there were not so many in all our communities that have but a pigeon’s heart, or a dove’s heart, or no heart at all.

The root of the master lies here: those Ephraimites have not renewed hearts, and so they fail. Verily, verily, is it true to this hour, as in Jesu’s day, “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Many strive to see it in their own way; but, until the effectual grace of God comes down to turn their hearts from the great and extraordinary confidence which their proud flesh has in their own works, they never will see, they never can see, the kingdom of God. How many like Ephraim, then, have the heart altogether wrong because it is not renewed; therefore it has none of these qualifications which tend be more the man what he should be.

III. With great brevity, we notice, in the third place, A Severe Description: “Ephraim is like a silly dove.”

It is a fine word, that word “silly.” Hardly do I know another that is so eminently descriptive. There may be some sort of dignity in being a fool; but to be silly, — to attract no attention except ridicule, — is so utterly contemptible that I do not know how a more sarcastic epithet could be applied.

“Ephraim is like a silly dove without heart.” And why silly? Why, it is silly, of course, to profess to be a dove at all, unless a dove at heart, silly of you to enslave yourselves with the customs of a country of which you are not a citizen, — to bind yourselves with the rules of a family of which you are not a member. We find men, when they go to another country, if there is a description there, only too willing to plead their own nationality, in order to escape it; and yet we have persons who will serve in the Christian conscription, who give as God’s people give, and outwardly do what God’s people do, and yet they are not of the godly nation, but are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Do not this silly, — to take the irksome toil, and not to get the joy and the benefit of it? You are silly to go and work in the vineyard, though you have never eaten of the clusters, and never can unless your heart be right in the sight of God. Isn’t it silly, then, to profess to be a dove at all, and yet not to be a dove?

Isn’t it silly, again, to think you can pass muster when your heart is wrong, — to fancy that, if you go with the crowd, you shall enter heaven without being seen? Dost thou think to deceive Omniscience? Dost thou think infallible wisdom will not discern thee? Dost thou think to enter heaven while thy soul is estranged from God? Then, indeed, thou art worse than a fool; thou art “silly” to think such a thing. How canst thou thus hope to deceive thy God? What is more silly than to play fast and loose, in this way, — first, to sing the song of Zion, and then the song of lasciviousness! There is something dignified even in the devil himself; there is something awful about the grandeur of his wickedness, because he is consistent in it; but there is nothing of that consistency in you, because you are here and there, everywhere and nowhere; everything by turns, and nothing long.

Some of you are so silly as to hasten your own condemnation. You know that, to be without God, and without Christ, will ruin you, and yet you do that which keeps you from going to Christ; you hug the sins that prevent your laying hold on him, and still candle upon your knee the lusts which you know will shut the gates of heaven against you. Like Ephraim, you are silly enough to trust in that which will be your ruin. Some of you rest upon good works, or hope to be saved by good feelings. The two powers which had oppressed Ephraim, Egypt and Assyria, were still the powers in which he trusted. Do not you imitate his folly by trusting to that which will ruin you.

You are silly, again, because, when there is so much danger, you do not fly to the place of shelter. O silly dove, when the hawk is abroad, not to seek the cleft of the rock to hide itself! And how silly are some of you! Day after day, year after year, Satan is hawking after you; the great fowler is seeking your destruction; but the wounds of Christ are open to you, and the invitation of the gospel is freely given to you, and yet, so silly are you, that though you know better, you prefer the pleasures of the day to the joys of eternity. Yet I know not that you do prefer them, only somehow or other you are too silly to prove your preference, and go on, like a child that is playing on the hole of the cockatrice, making mirth over your damnation, too silly to make up your minds to choose either heaven or hell. I know there are some such, people in the house; would God that the arrow might find out the right persons; but, too often, these doves are so silly, in another respect, that they will not let the appeal of the gospel come home to thee. They say, “it cannot be for me, for I go to Mr. A’s or Mr. B’s class; it cannot be for me, for I go to the prayer-meeting, I contribute to the College, and every good work;” yet, all the while, it means just you who act upon your own whims, but not for God, who give God anything but your heart, who are ready to make a sacrifice of all, except that you refuse that which he asks of you, “My son, give me thine heart.” It was considered to be a sign of great calamity when the Roman augur slew a bullock, and found no heart, and it is the worst of all calamities when a man has no heart to give to God. “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me,” is one of the complaints against Israel of old, and one of the sins which made the prophets weep, and caused Jerusalem to be ploughed like a field.

IV. I close with just a few words upon the fourth point, and that is, A Serious Consideration.

There are one or two things I would say solemnly, softly, and hopefully. Oh, that they may stick in the memory and the conscience of many of you!

Those of you, my hearers, who have been long sitting in this Tabernacle, some of you ever since it was built, and before then in other places under our ministry, yet are just the same as you used to be, ought to recollect how sadly we look on those who are not saved. It is no rare thing to find the attendant of the sanctuary an unbeliever. It is a common thing to find the child of converted parents, the lad educated at the Sabbath-school, the man who has always had a seat in God’s house, still having no hope and without God in the world. Think of that! Be not deceived; the gospel will harden such people as you are. Speaking after the manner of men, (for, with God, all things are possible, and a sovereign God doeth as he wills,) it does seem less and less probable that you over should be called by grace after you have sat and listened to the Word so long. The voice that once startled you now soothes you; the manner that once attracted the eye, and sometimes seemed to touch the heart, fails to do either; and the very truth that once went over your heads like a crash of thunder has so little force in it now that you even sleep under the sound thereof. Think of that, you who are like a silly dove without heart.

Remember, too, that some of the vilest sinners that have ever lived have been manufactured out of this raw material. Some of the worst men were once, apparently, meek-hearted hearers of the Word, but they sat under the preaching of the gospel till they grew ripe enough to deny God and curse him. The unsanctified hearing of the gospel has sometimes produced more gigantic specimens of sin than the deaf ear of the adder. Beware, my hearer! I know that you will say with Hazael, “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?” Yes, there is dog and devil enough in you, unless you have been changed by grace, to do that thing and twenty other things that you have never dreamt of yet. Think what multitudes of souls in hell there are like you, — silly doves without heart. Many of the population of that place of wailing once heard the gospel, heard it with gladness, and appeared to receive it for a time; but they had no root, and so the impression withered away. They never had been called effectually by grace, and never had been renewed in heart, although they had all the outward semblance of holiness. They have gone! Even now, your soul may listen to their groans and moans, the least of all which would be, “Make your calling and election sure, and be not satisfied with the name to live while you are dead.”

Hosea 8:1-2 The Minister's Trumpet-Blast and Church-Member's Warning

NO. 2772
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, MARCH 30TH, 1902,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK,
ON A LORD’S-DAY EVENING, DURING THE WINTER OF 1869-1870.

“Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law. Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.”-Hosea 8:1, 2.

WE do not use instrumental music in the worship of God, because we consider that it would be a violation of the Simplicity of our worship. We think it far better to hear the voices of Christian men and women than all the sounds, which can be made by instruments. Yet I am sure there is no Christian here who would object to a minister who can play well upon an instrument; and, indeed, a minister is good for nothing if he does not know how, spiritually, to give forth instrumental music. A true minister of Christ should know how to blow the ram’s horn, so that the walls of Jericho may be made to tremble and fall; he should understand how to play the harp, so that, when any of you are disquieted, he may be to you as David was to Saul, and may drive away the evil spirit that troubles you. He should be able, too, to play upon the timbrel, and to lead you forth, sometimes, in the sacred song of joy and thanksgiving; he should be able to go forth like Miriam, and cry aloud to you, and ask you to follow him, while he says, “Sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.” His sermons should often seem to you to fulfill that exhortation of David, “Praise ye the Lord. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high-sounding cymbals.” The minister of the gospel should understand, also how to blow the silver trumpet, to proclaim that the year of jubilee is come, and that the ransomed debtors may once more receive their lost inheritance. And there is one instrument upon which he should be well skilled, and, which he should often use, namely, the trumpet. I do not mean the silver trumpet, but the war trumpet,-that clear, shrill-sounding instrument that gives the certain sound whereby men prepare themselves for the battle.

I have to use that trumpet to night; and, in explaining my text, I will speak of several, things that are here hinted at. First, there is a command to the gospel minister: “Set the trumpet to thy mouth;” there is, secondly, the particular reason for this command, in order that he may warn God’s people: “Because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law;” then, thirdly, there is another special reason appended, because God was about to execute judgment upon these sinners: “He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord.” In the second verse we find our fourth point,-the blessed result of the blowing of this trumpet: “Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.”

I. First, then, here is A Command To The Gospel Minister:

“Set the trumpet to thy mouth.” The Hebrew hath it, “Set the trumpet to the roof of thy mouth.” Set it to thy mouth; keep it there; do not put it up sometimes, and then take it down again; but have it always in readiness, so as to sound the note of alarm. Set it to, the roof of thy mouth; blow with all thy might, and let men hear that the alarm comes not merely from thy lips, but from within thy mouth,-from thy v’ry heart. With such earnestness shalt thou sound the trumpet of warning.

What is meant by the minister setting the trumpet to his mouth? I think just this. In the first place, that when the minister is dealing with the souls of men, the tone which he uses should be very decisive. He should not set some little Jew’s harp to his mouth, so that people hardly know whether he is making a noise or not; he should blow a trumpet, and produce a decisive sound, so that men may know what sin is reproved,-what virtue is commended. They should never have to ask themselves, “What does the minister mean? Does he really intend to condemn sin, or does he palliate it?” The declaration should be decisive, as the sound of the war trumpet is. When men hear that trumpet sounded in the East, they do not ask themselves, “Does that mean dancing? Is that the sound of them that make merry?” but they say at once, “That means war; we are sure it does. Let us prepare ourselves for the battle.” So should it be with the message of God’s servant. He has not to say, “If this,” or “if that;” but to set the trumpet of gospel warning to the roof of his month, and give out a note that none can mistake. For the text means not only a decisive sound, but a clear sound. Of all sounds, perhaps that of the trumpet is the clearest; so should it be with the message of Christ’s servant. It should not be indistinct, and full of hard words that cannot be understood; it should not be a piece of music, the tune of which is so difficult that no man can possibly follow it or even know what is meant by it; but it should be the one, two, three notes of “Awake! awake, ye sleepers! what mean ye?” or this yet more solemn note, “Awake, ye dead, and come to judgment.” “Prepare to meet thy God.” There should be something so Clear that, the moment the minister’s statement is heard, those who are willing to understand it should have no difficulty in knowing its meaning.

Again, in setting the trumpet to his mouth, the minister should not only give a decisive and clear testimony in all his ministrations, but it should also he a loud and startling testimony. You know some preachers who send their congregations to sleep; not only because of their monotonous style of address, but because their matter itself is sleepy. The people seem to say, “Well, if that is all the man has to talk about, we may as well be a sleep as awake.” Sometimes, they preach the doctrines, which teach men to sit still, and do nothing; and then they say, “Well, let us sit still, and do nothing; only, let us sleep by the way, and enjoy ourselves.” There are too many droning preachers that Satan employs to rock the cradle of immortal souls, while he is standing by waiting till the time shall come for him to carry them off. “You play,” says Satan to the minister, “and I will dance to them; and between the two of us, we will lead them to hell.” There will be a fearful amount of blood upon the skirts of a man whose ministry has startled nobody. When a trumpet is blown in a besieged city, there are many persons with weak nerves who are quite frightened and many children too, and many timid souls that are greatly alarmed; and someone might come to the trumpeter, and say, “Why sound thy clarion? Weak women are made to tremble.” “Yes,” says he, “but better that weak minds should be made to tremble than that stout-hearted ones should perish better these should be alarmed now than go quietly on until the enemy invests the city, and puts them all to the sword.” A startling time is often to come to the minister; he is not to be content to keep to ordinary subjects, and deal with them in an ordinary manner. He must go out with a “Thus saith the Lord,” and, like a new Elias, he must speak with fire from heaven hanging on his lips, and the thunders of God rolling around his brow. He will never fully discharge his office if he is always playing on the harp, with its soft dulcet notes; he must take down the war trumpet, and sound an alarm, that all men may be warned thereby.

I think I may add that, when the minister of Christ blows this trumpet aright, it is one that is pretty sure to be heard further than he himself is seen. Men do not always see a trumpeter when they hear the sound of his trumpet; and let the minister of Christ fearlessly proclaim his Master’s Word, and his line shall go out through all the earth. Let him be honest and faithful, and he need not fear that he shall lack hearers. That trumpet sound, it may be, shall he heard all over England,-across the Channel shall it be heard upon the Continent,-it shall go beyond the Alleghenies, and make the Rocky Mountains echo with the sound. Let him but preach the whole gospel, and set the trumpet to the roof of his mouth, and all the world shall hear; or, at least, if they hear it not, he shall have performed his duty; but many will hear it, for God will always find ears willing to listen to the sound that comes from an honest mouth.

II. “Set the trumpet to thy mouth.”

That is the command to the gospel minister, and I mean to obey it while I deal with the second head, The Particular Reason Assigned For It. The reason why Hosea was to become a trumpeter at this particular time was this: the children of Israel had broken God’s covenant; they had gone astray, and transgressed his law; therefore God was angry with them, and was about to smite them with sore judgments. Before, however, he smote them, he warned them. God does not usually give a word and a blow, but he gives a word, and another word, and another word, and then yet another word, and, after all that, there comes the blow; he warns before he strikes. The axe of God, like the axe of the Roman dictator, is bound up in a bundle of rods; he smites with the rod first, and if that suffices not, then he draws out the axe, and smites with it, and its strokes are enough to destroy the soul.

Now, with regard to this church,-God, I think, has put it into my heart to speak to you about your transgressions and your sins. And, in this matter, the trumpeter includes himself; and while he addresses the church and congregation, he intends, thereby, not to exempt a single person, unless there be one, indeed, who can claim exemption. Well, my brethren, to begin with ourselves,-the members of this church,-is there not good reason that the minister should always have the trumpet to his mouth to warn us of our particular sins? God has blessed us very greatly as a people; we have lived in the sunshine of his countenance; he has been pleased to give us success in our labors beyond our most sanguine anticipations. Whatever way our brethren turn their hands, God seems to prosper them; -if not in their worldly business, yet certainly in their business for him. There is nothing, that I am aware of, which this church has undertaken but God has been pleased to give us success in it. But have we not, with all this blessing, very great sins to confess before God?

When I sit down and think of myself, I am, to my own self, a wonder and a marvel that God hath not cast me off; that he hath not said to me, “I will no more speak my Word through thee. T will leave thee to thyself; thou shalt be like Samson when his hair was gone.” And, oh! if he should say that to any of us, where should we be then? Brothers and sisters in the church, may not you, personally and collectively, cover your faces, and mourn, and weep, by reason of your own private and individual sins? Are you perfect? Are you quite clear of guilt? Are your garments; unspotted and unsullied? God forbid that you should say they are, for this were indeed to vaunt yourselves in pride. No, every man may weep apart, and his wife apart, and his children apart; for, with us, even with us, there are sins against the Lord our God. I sometimes fear lest, as a people, we should be tempted to pride; lest we should conceive that the success with which God favors us is owing to something in ourselves,-lest we should begin to say, “We are the men, and wisdom shall die with us.” We stand in a position in which God has made us eminent by his blessing; but let us take heed lest, by exalting ourselves, we become like Capernaum, once lifted to heaven, but afterwards brought down to hell. There have been many churches, which God has left because of their sin. Riding through the country, we can see every now and then a chapel, and when we enquire how the cause prospers, we are told that it is in the worst position possible. “But was it always so?” “No,” it is said; “there was once a servant of God there, and the people gathered round him, and they walked well for a time, and there were many conversions.” But, alas! They fell into sin, and God left them, and there is “Ichabod” written on every piece of mortar in the walls; if you could see it, there is the great “Tekel” of Belshazzar put upon the pulpit and upon the pew; pastor and people alike have been weighed in the balances, and they have been found wanting. Shall it be so with us as a church? Shall we be found wanting in the time of testing?

Shall I tell you-and here I speak without the slightest tone of severity,-one thing in which some of our friends are wanting? A conscientious regard to social prayer. There are some who are constant at the meetings for prayer, but I cannot conceal from myself the fact that there are many whose faces I never see there; or, if I see them once a year, it is indeed a treat. I doubt not but that their business is so urgent that they could not constantly attend; but then I know there are others, who do regularly attend, who have business that seems to me to be equally as urgent; and I think these absentees might come sometimes, at any rate. Now, if we begin by some of us neglecting the meetings for prayer, and if our neglect should increase, we shall then be on the high road to the loss of God’s favor, and to the prevention of all future prosperity.

Besides, may I not also say that there are some, I fear, in the church, who have lost their first love? It is remarkable to me that there are so few in this church who have turned out to be deceivers. Sorrowful are the meetings when we have to excommunicate here and there one; but out of so vast a number we have great reason to thank God that they are comparatively so few. But, oh! may there not be many among us who, if they cannot be made amenable to church discipline, are nevertheless rotten at the core? Have we not some that are like trees, fair on the outside, but inwardly their hearts are but fit to be tinder for the devil’s tinderbox? Have we not too many among us who are secretly living in sin, whose practice in trade would not bear strict investigation, but who, nevertheless, cannot be laid hold of, because there is no gross vice no open public, and flagrant sin? And, oh! brethren, if these things increase, if this leprosy breaks out in the garments, it will spread, and God will come to abhor his own inheritance, and will say of this church, “I will get me gone; I will abide here no longer; but I will find a people who shall be more faithful to my Word, who, shall live’ more true to the promises and vows which they have made.”

I will set the trumpet to my mouth to night, in behalf of every member of the church, and in behalf of myself also. O brothers and sisters, the time past should suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles! Let us seek grace, that we may be purged from all our former conversation in the days of our flesh, that we may come out from the world, that we may be more and more separate from it, that there may be a greater distinction between us and the ungodly sons of men, that we may prove to be what we profess to be,-Israelites indeed, in whom is no guile. O Christian Church, if thou shalt fall from thine integrity, thou wilt soon fall from thy prosperity! Suspend prayer, and thou wilt suspend success. Break down our hedges, let in the hypocrites,-or let them even come in by stealth,-and the wild boar out of the wood will soon waste this church. And where are the goodly clusters now? Where are now the grapes of Eshcol, and where are the winepresses gushing with new wine? Famine hath devastated the land; black death hath covered all the vineyards; and the vines lament, and they are burned up with fire. If God forsakes us,-and he will do so if we turn aside from him as a Church,-then this must be the result. The lamentation that I have taken up must be the lamentation of this church, unless God shall keep us true to him in prayer, and diligence, and holiness. God doth not cast away his people for ever, but he often casts away a separate church from its degree of usefulness; he doth not put out his lamps, but he does let them burn very Low indeed, so that there is scarcely anything but a smoking wick left. May it never be so with us!

Having set the trumpet to my mouth for the members of the church, I blow another blast of it to every one of you. Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the days of Jesus, there was found a’ Judas in the midst of his twelve apostles. “I have chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil.” Is there not reason to fear that, among the many hundreds in this church, there are to be found some who are like Judas? O traitor, if thou art still in the ranks, tremble to hear thy doom! O thou deceiver, the day is coming when judgment must begin at the house of God! Though chair is mingled with the wheat, the rushing, mighty wind is rising now; I hear it,-I hear it in the distance, and soon it will come, and winnow this church, and then, where wilt thou be? Where wilt thou be when Christ shall take his fan in his hand, and thoroughly purge his floor? Do not think, my dear friends, members of the church that you will be saved, if you are out of Christ, because you are members of the church. Remember what happened to Joab; he ran right into the tabernacle, and caught hold of the horns of the altar. Solomon said to Benaiah, “Fetch him forth.” And Benaiah said, “Come forth from thence;” and he said, “Nay, but I will die here.” And Benaiah told Solomon what he said, but did the king spare Joab because. he had his hands on the horns of the altar? No; he said, “Go and slay him there,” and Benaiah thrust his sword through him even while he had his hand upon God’s own altar. So will it be with you. You may put your lip to the communion cup, you may come and sit round this table; you may be a deacon, you may even enter this pulpit as a preacher; but, unless your heart is right with God, with your hand upon the horns of God’s altar you must be damned. From the pulpit you must go to the pit; you must descend from the table to commune at the feast of fiends; go from the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, to the general assembly and congregation of the lost in hell. I can blow my trumpet no louder than this to each one of you. Oh, hear it, hear it, hear it, church-members! Listen to it, and regard it now, and search and try yourselves, and see whether ye he in Christ or not.

Yet one more blast from my trumpet, and this is for those who are not members of the church, but who constantly attend upon the ministry of the gospel. O ungodly hearers, the day is coming when you shall have no man to warn you, when you shall have no one to invite you to come to Christ! Sabbath-days will not last forever; eternity is drawing near, and bears in its hand the stamp that must seal your doom. I remember a sermon of William Dawson’s on Death, the three heads of which were, “First, Death is following after us; secondly, he will certainly catch us; thirdly, we don’t know when.” That third head is a very solemn one,-we don’t know when; and what if it should be to-night? Hear the blast of my trumpet,-”Consider your ways;” “Prepare to meet thy God.” “Stand in awe’, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.” “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.” Sinner, while the lamp holds out to burn, turn thou to Christ, and live; else’ know thou that, when that lamp is quenched, God’s mercy will be quenched too for thee’, and thou wilt be cast away into the outer darkness, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Remember that ancient message, “He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon his own head.” If all that is said be of no avail to you, then shall he that blew the trumpet be clear, but on your own head shall be your doom for ever and ever.
I have to mourn because I cannot sound this trumpet, as I should. Oh, that I had a voice powerful enough to find its way into the poor, dead, stony hearts of sinners dead in trespasses and sins! It were easy work to preach if we preached to none’ but the living in Zion; but to have to talk to hard stones that will not break, and to speak to icebergs that will not melt, that is a work that requires large faith, and often depresses our spirit. Yet must we come back to it again, for the thought of eternity rises upon us; we see sinners plunging down to hell in one awful stream; we see the grave glutted with their corpses, and hell swollen with their blood; we mark how every night sucks in its prey, and how every day shuts its’ devouring jaws upon the helpless thousands of our race, and we cannot be still; especially when we have before us some who will go from these galleries and from these pews to help to feed the everlasting burnings. Did I say there would be some such? I mean, “Except they repent, they shall all likewise perish.” If we could but look any one man in the face, and know that he would be in torment within a year, oh, what pity we should feel for him! We could scarcely rest under such a burden. I am quite sure I should not sleep to-night,-I should lie tossing on my bed, crying to God for mercy on that poor man, and I would not stop a moment before I would go to’ him, and tell him the’ way of salvation. Ah! but there is not only one, but scores, perhaps hundreds, in this place of worship, who have no hope. They are prayerless men, those whose knees never bend in prayer before their Maker,-hard-hearted men, who have never trembled yet under conviction of sin, and who have never sought and never found Christ as their Savior. Ah! poor friends, poor friends, we may we’ll weep for you, and sigh for you, and all the more because you will not weep and will not sigh for yourselves. To be on the high road to he’ll, and yet to be trifling with eternal things;-to be on the brink of perdition, and yet to be jesting at religion; -to be nearing the everlasting burnings, and yet to be breaking the Sabbath-day, and treading the blood of Christ beneath your feet;-oh, this is mad work! Bedlam has not within its walls a man more insane-a more mad, manacled wretch-than the’ man who knows that the wrath of God abideth on him, and yet makes merry, and dances to the sound of his own funeral knell, who goes leaping to the gallows tree, and, chanting a song, bows his neck to the death-block and the gleaming axe. O Spirit of God, it is thine to wake the dead, and thine to change the heart! Do thou it, we pray thee; for all the blasts of our trumpet cannot do it unless thou dost take’ the work in hand.

III. Having gone through two parts of the text,-the command to the minister, and the reason found among his people,-I shall next ask your attention to the third point, The Reason Why Hosea Should, At That Time, Specially Set The Trumpet To His Mouth, Namely, That Judgment Was Impending Upon The People Of Israel: “He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord.”

Different expositors have given various interpretations of this verse, and applied it to the peculiar plague which was, at that time, about to fail upon the Israelitish people; some say it was one thing, and some another. I do not care to enter into these diverse interpretations; it is enough for me to believe that there is a visitation here threatened against the Church of God. What does it say? Look at the text again: “He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord.” But will the Lord let anything come against his own house? It cannot be so, surely. Ah! but it is so; and the emphatic name of God, Jehovah, is used, for you see the word Lord is in capitals: “He shall come as an eagle against the house of Jehovah.” If sin gets into God’s house, he will no more spare sin in his house than he will spare it in the devil’s house. God hates sin everywhere; and if sin gets into his own Church, he will flog it out. It is of no use at all for this traitor to go and hide himself in the house of God’s children; the Lord will drag him out to execution, even though he creep into our bedchambers. There shall be no sparing him; he may hide under the camels furniture, but every Rachel shall be made to stand up, and God will turn out our brazen images, and cast them away from us.

It seems, then, that a visitation is threatened against the Church of God,-against God’s own house. Notice the form of this visitation: “He shall come as an eagle.” Now, an eagle comes in two ways. First, it comes on a sudden. Poised high in the air, so far aloft that you cannot see it, it keeps its wings fluttering as birds of prey are wont to do, and with its sharp eyes, so powerful that, at that tremendous height, it can see the smallest fish in the water, it marks its prey, and on a sudden down it dashes, as if it had fallen from heaven like a meteor-stone, or like the lightning-flash. It is up there where we cannot see it, and suddenly it swoops down, and bears away its prey. Now, such is often God’s visitation upon his Church; he comes suddenly, like an eagle, and chastens his children.

Besides, here is an allusion to the strong flight of the eagle. When the eagle once stretches his wings to fly, who can stay his wings? He bears up against the wind; he buffets the storm; he cuts through it as a ship sails through the billows or a fish swims through the sea; on, on, like an arrow from the bow, he shoots to his desired stopping-place. So shall God’s judgments be to’ his Church; they shall come on his Church irresistibly, and there shall be no escape, there shall be no deliverance. The eagle shall come with such force that none shall stay his might.

How true this has been of the Church of Christ in many ages! As I have said before, God has never left his chosen people’; but he has often left separate churches, when those churches have become mixed with the world. Look at the Seven Churches of Asia. It would be an interesting and an instructive journey for any of us to make, to go to Sardis, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to the other spots where there once were the church’s to which John the’ Divine wrote a part of the Book of Revelation. We should see that some of them have no inhabitants whatever,-only the bittern and the owl, and the ruins of a long-past grandeur; in others, a few huts, and Bedonin Arabs pasturing their flocks, with, perhaps, not a dozen Christians to be found within a circuit of a dozen miles. God has taken the candlestick out of its place, and quenched the light in darkness. Just so is it with the Church of Rome. What prosperity there was there once! Paul had, doubtless, a large number who used to gather together in his hired room to listen to him; and if Peter ever went to Rome, and he may have done so, he would, doubtless, have gathered a goodly band around him. We have good evidence that there was a very large number of Christians there, for, in the catacombs under Rome, all along the corridors, many miles in length, there are inscriptions to the memory of Christians. You look on one and another, and there you see the name,-one man with an anchor to show his hope, or another with a dove; and on most of them are these words, “He rests in peace,” or “She rests in peace.” And there are thousands of these; the church in the catacombs must have numbered a great many members, and there they flourished, down there in the darkness of the earth, worshipping God by candlelight when the sun was shining above them, and his brightest rays could never reach them in those gloomy caverns. That church seems to have been a very eminent one; the inscriptions bear the proofs of the very highest and most spiritual forms of piety; and now, the mother of harlots sits upon her seven hills, and the ancient candlestick is taken out of its place.

Again, to give you another picture, which will, perhaps, strike you still more forcibly, look at Germany. In the days of Luther, it was the stronghold of the gospel. You know how Luther used to preach the Word, and What crowds gathered to hear that mighty thunderer, while in simple language he proclaimed the truth, and defied the Pope and the devil too! Things are improving now, I hope; but it might have been said, some years ago, “How are the mighty fallen!” The Lutheran churches had become nearly all Unitarian or Rationalist; they had forsaken the’ fountain of living waters; they forgot the Lord that bought them, and turned aside to damnable heresy. And why should it not be so here! Unless the Lord should continually preserve unto us a remnant, we should become like unto Sodom, and be made like unto Gomorrah. That descent may come in an instant; the eagle may even now be watching in the air, and his swoop may be without any warning. There may come sudden destruction, as pain upon a woman in travail, and we may not escape.

As long as we walk with God, as long as we are true to the faith, as long as we labor for the salvation of souls, so long we are secure. But as surely as sin is permitted to spread among us,-if the spirit of lukewarmness, of laxity of doctrine, of prayerlessness, should creep in here, it will be all over with us’. The Lord will say, “Let me go hence;” there will be heard, in this place, what was heard in the temple just before the time of its destruction by Titus. It is said that there was heard within the veil a rushing of wind, and the high priest who was officiating declared that he heard a voice say, “Arise, let us go hence.” That voice has been heard in many places. I could point to chapels where that voice must have been heard, houses of prayer where once there were crowds of hearers, but which are now covered with dust and cobwebs, where scarcely anybody cares to enter, and where those that enter are cold, and dead, and dull, and careless. Shall it ever be so with this church? God forbid! Thou God of Benjamin Reach, thy suffering servant; thou God of Gill, thy servant who declared the truth in all its fullness; thou God of the sainted Rippon, whom thou hast taken to thyself; thou who hast been the God of this church for, lo! these many years; thou who hast kept us beneath the shadow of thy wings, and brought us into a position of high privileges and responsibilities, be thou our God even until the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then for ever and ever!

IV. I think I need not say any more with regard to this great and solemn reason why the trumpet is to be blown. Let me, in closing, just dwell for a minute or ’two upon The Very Beautiful And Blessed Effect Of This Blast Of The Trumpet: “Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.”

In the Hebrew, this expression is very remarkable indeed it runs thus, “They shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee,-Israel.” I do not know whether you perceive the meaning of this expression; it is, perhaps, difficult for me to say it so as for you to perceive the pith of it. They say, “My God, we. know thee;” then, as if God did not know who they were, they say, “Israel.” “My God, we know thee,-Israel.” They mention their name, and plead it before him. Or else it may be, as another excellent translator says, that they thought perhaps the’ Lord would not remember them, but he would remember the man with whom he had made a covenant, namely, Jacob, Israel; for they say in the Hebrew, “My God, we know thee,-Israel.” Remember Israel; think thou of him who wrestled with thee, and became a prevailing prince.

We will be content, however, to take the passage as it stands. “Israel shall cry unto thee, My God, we know thee.” Can you sincerely utter that cry, brothers and sisters? If so, a blast of the trumpet will have had a blessed effect if you can say, “Lord, we know thee.” What do you know about him? There is one point, in his character I want you specially to remember. If you know God aright, you will know that he is a jealous God. That is one of the first things which he said when he spoke to his people in the wilderness, “I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God.” I do not know that we fully understand the meaning of that word “jealous.” You know what it means in common life,-how, if there be one who has a right to another’s love, if that person suspects that the other’s heart is given away, there is jealousy. Well, now, there is jealousy in God’s heart if his people give to others love that is due to him. And do you know when we are most jealous! It is an object of utter indifference to me who certain people may love, because I have no affection for them; but if there be one on whom my whole heart is set, if that person’s heart were given to someone else, I should feel jealousy. Now, God is not jealous of sinners; he is jealous of saints, of his own people, especially the people he loves best. I remember that an old divine says, “It is an awful thing to be one of God’s favorites,”-I have turned that over in my mind many times, and shuddered at the thought,-”for,” says he, “God does not deal with all his children on precisely the same’ rule. There are some of his people whom he makes more his favorite’s than others; he takes them out, and makes them his eminent servants, puts them in the first rank of the battle, and makes them very useful and very serviceable; he is more jealous of them than he is of any others. He is jealous of all his children, but especially of those children upon whom he has bestowed most of his favors.” You remember the story of the poor king of England. When there had been a rebellion against him, and he had put it down, he promised that he would give pardon to all who were concerned in it. He had brought to him the list, which contained the names of those whom he was to pardon. He read the name of his son Richard, and he wept;-”Is Richard a rebel?” He read the name of his son Henry, and he wept again;-”Is he a rebel?” But he had one favourite son, his son John and he saw in the midst of the paper the name of his son John as one whom he had to forgive; he forgave him, but it broke his heart, and he died. The more favor there is, the more jealousy there will be.

Hosea 8:7 What Shall the Harvest Be?

NO. 2632
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, JULY 23RD, 1899,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
ON LORD’S-DAY EVENING, MAY 14TH, 1882.

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” —Hosea 8:7.

Prudent men look before them to see the result of their actions. Their eyes look right on, beyond the present, to the future. They look before they leap. It is only the foolish man who goes blindly on, till at last he stumbles and has a desperate and probably fatal fall. Brethren, I hope that I am addressing those who have enough wit and. wisdom to look at the consequences of, what they are doing. This is how I wish to live,— not merely doing what may give me to-days temporary pleasure, but asking myself what will be the result of those actions by-and-by. How will they appear to me when I come to be old? What aspect will they wear when my eyes are failing me in death? What will be the result in that life after death,— that endless future which is so sure to come to me, let me live as I may? I say that I hope I am speaking to those who do look a little ahead, and are not, “like dumb driven cattle,” satisfied if there be grass enough within the reach of their mouths, but who look before them to see the consequences on the morrow, and especially on that last great day for which all other days were made,” the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” We are all sowing, brethren; we cannot help it. You, sisters, too, are sowing; perhaps but a little garden plot, or possibly a broader acreage in public life; but you are all sowing. And every day there is a sowing; no man goes forth in the morning without a seed-basket. What may be in it, is not so easily told. There may be nought in it but the wind; there may be darnel in it; there may be in it curses which shall grow up to plague himself and others; but it is certain that we do not move an inch along the furrows of life without scattering some kind of seed. He that does least is seeding his idleness; and, like the thistle that stands still, and offers its downy seed to be carried by every wandering wind, so does the sluggard; he does mischief by doing nothing.

As we are all sowing, the great question we have to consider is,” what will the harvest be’?” Every wise man will ask himself that question. I mar have sown very little in my small plot, or, I may have walked far, and scattered the seed broadcast over the wider field committed to my charge; but what have I sown, and what shall I reap? What sheaves shall I gather into the garner? Sheaves of fire that shall burn into my soul for ever, or sheaves of glory that I shall bring with rejoicing in the last great day? Brethren, if it be rightly examined, this matter of the harvest from our sowing will be found to be full of very rich encouragement to those who are seeking to serve God. If thou hast believed in Christ, and received eternal life by faith in him, and if now thou art trying to labor for him, thou art sowing blessed seed; and if it come not up to-day, or to-morrow, yet grace ensures a crop, and thou shalt have precious sheaves which thou shalt gather in one of these days. Therefore, be thou encouraged to labor on. The husbandman waits for the precious fruits of the earth through the long and dreary winter; through the chequered days of spring, through March winds and April showers, he waits, until at last the golden harvest rewards him for all his toil. Labour on, then, beloved, “steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” That which you sow, you shall also reap; your Lord has told you so. Therefore, be not dismayed by the long waiting; but—
Sow and faint not, Till the seed a harvest bear.

But, while this truth is full of encouragement to God’s people, it ought to be a very strong and powerful check to those who are living in sin. As you sow, you will have to reap. Those “wild oats” about which you laugh now, are easily sown, but they will make hard and sorrowful reaping. That act of iniquity, that indulgence in lust, that lie, that blasphemy, that revolt against God in string conscience and refusing to yield to Christ,— all these will produce a harvest in due season. It is easy to toss these pigeons up into the air, but they will all come home to roost. At night-fall, you shall see every one of them; and they will have grown greater than when you set them flying, and they will be bearers of messages of misery to the rash hand that sent them flying abroad. It is a dreadful thing to be so living that you would not wish the result of your actions to come home to you; and if any of you are so living, I pray God, the Holy Spirit, now to give me something to say which shall, like a strong hand, lay hold of your bridle, and compel you to stand. still, and race no longer in the downward course to hell.

My text naturally divides itself into two parts; and, at first sight, they do not seem to be very closely connected; but I think that I shall be able to show that they are. From the first part of the text, we may learn that some sowings will have a horrible harvest: “They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” Then the rest of the text will teach us that some sowings must end in failure. They are such poor windy things, that they shall never come to anything that is good. If a blade shall come up, yet “it hath no stalk.” And, if it should seem to come to a stalk, “the bud shall yield no meal.” It shall be like the devil’s meal,— all bran; there shall be no good flour in it. Or, if it should yield meal, “if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” The old proverb says, “There’s many a slip ’twixt the cup and the lip,” and these sowers find it to be so with their sowing. Strangers come in, and steal away the fruit out of the very mouth that hoped to be fed by it, so that no good result comes of the sowing as far as he is concerned.

I. The first part of our text teaches us that some sowings will, Produce A Horrible Harvest.

Some have a horrible harvest even in this world; as, for example, the sowing of oppression, which leads to revolt and revenge. I do not know a better instance of this than France affords. Some two hundred years ago, or even less than that, the owners of the land in that country treated the peasantry worse than they treated their cattle. Poor and almost naked men might have been seen dragging the plough over the soil themselves, because they were reduced to such poverty, by excessive rents, that they could. not afford to keep animals to do the hard work. Kings, and princes, and the great ones of the land cared for nothing but their own pleasures, and those pleasures were often of the most vicious kind. Read the firsts chapters of Carlyle’s French Revolution, and see in what a state France was; yet, for a time, everything seemed to go on favourably for the oppressors. If the peasantry revolted, they were put down with an iron hand. The righty rulers thought that their empire would never come to an end; and as for the Grand Monarch himself,— was there ever such another mortal as he thought himself to be, and as his courtiers spoke of him? Might not his kingdom last for ever,— at least, in the hands of his successors? Yet, one after another, those kings and nobles sowed the wind, and, at the end of the last century, they reaped. the whirlwind. Having themselves defied all law and justice, they had taught the people to do the same; and when the masses once rose in rebellion, and got the upper hand, you know how they worked the terrible guillotine, and how the streets, not only of Paris, but of many another city and town, were deluged with blood, and the oppressors were made to realize that their cruelty and oppression had come home to them at last. It is always so, sooner or later, according to the rule of God’s righteous government. Men may stretch the cord for a long while, but at length it snaps, and woe be to those that are holding it when it gives way! The people may be, for a time, trodden down beneath the tyrant’s hoof; but, in the long run, the tyrant gets the worst of it. France has more than once furnished an awful instance of the retribution that comes upon those who do not regard the dignity of man, and who treat him as if he were merely a beast, or something worse; they have sown the wind, and they have reaped the whirlwind.

Now take another view of the picture presented by our text. We have lately had, over in Ireland, a terrible proof that the justification of outrage leads on to murder. Certain persons say, “We never meant to urge our countrymen to commit the crime of murder, and we are shocked at the Phoenix Park tragedy. We wash our hands in innocency, for we are clear of guilt in this matter. We denounce it, we have no part in it; we abhor it.” So they say; but what led up to that awful deed of blood? When men have used expressions in which they have not condemned, but have almost justified outrage and murder in other cases, what could come of it but that their disciples should go a little beyond what their masters may have intended? You cannot scatter fire, and then when, at last, the city burns, say, “Oh, we never meant it to spread like that! We only intended to burn down that cottage, or that wretched shanty; but we never thought of burning down the city. We are as innocent of the crime as newborn babes; we never meant to do anything of the kind.” Yes; but you cannot say to fire, “Thus far shalt thou go, and no further;” and in like manner, if you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind. There is a whole province of Holland protected from the sea by a dyke, and there is a man who wants to let in a little water to the other side for a certain purpose; he says he is only going to let a little stream run through, so he takes his pickaxe, and he worlds away till he has made a passage through the dyke, and then, of course, the whole dyke is swept away, and the province gets drowned. The foolish fellow says, “God forbid that I should have the blame of this catastrophe! I never meant to do anything of the sort.” Of course, he did not; he intended something far less than that, but his action naturally produced the result that followed, and therefore, he is rightly regarded as responsible for it. Beware, I pray you, of trifling with the eternal principles of justice, and of right and wrong. Beware of ever sanctioning what you consider to be only a little evil; for, if you do, the greater evil is sure to follow at its heels. It is like the boy that the burglar takes and pushes through a little window, that he may open the door, and let in those who commit robbery and murder. So, if any of us begin to advocate principles which sap and undermine the foundations of law and order, we cannot tell to what mischief our talk will lead; it is well for us always to be careful not to sow the wind, lest we should, by-and-by, reap the whirlwind.

Passing from those great instances which prove the rule, I want you next to notice that there are many persons who fall into this same fault. Take, for instance, the teacher of error. He is, perhaps, in other respects, an excellent minister, but he is unsound on one important point. Just so; and, before long, his unsoundness on one point will lead to unsoundness all round. It is like a single speck of decay in fruit; it is very apt to cause the whole to go rotten. Have you never heard the story, which was told by Augustine, concerning a young man who had been, at one time, a professed believer in God, but who had given up all trust in him? It occurred to him, when he was very much tried by the buzzing and biting of flies, that God could not have created such troublesome little creatures. They were such a nuisance to him that he concluded that the devil had made them; and, having once gone the length of believing that the devil made flies, he thought it highly probable that Satan created some other nuisances, and be went on till at last he came actually to believe that the devil made everything, and he did not believe in God at all. “Ah!” remarks Augustine, as he relates the story, “he that erreth about a fly soon erreth about all things.” Look at the progress of Romanism in our own country. When the most of us were boys, we used to hear our fathers talking of a Mr. Pusey and of baptismal regeneration; and it was thought then to be a wonderful thing if a man wore a cross down his back; all England was stirred about the matter, and everybody was horrified; but look at the so-called “priests” now; they have gone all the length of Rome. “Where?” you ask. Well, where are they not? They seem to be everywhere now, swarming over the land; and they have brought back rank Popery into what used to be called “the Protestant Church of England.” How has that come to pass? Well, first of all, there was a little of it tolerated, and then a little more of it was wanted, and. gradually more was sucked. down until now I believe that many of the Ritualists would be prepared to receive the Pope and. all his cardinals, red hats and all. I really cannot see why they should not; for, if they did, they could scarcely be more Popish than they are already. Only go a little way in the course of error, and it is like sliding down an inclined plane; there is no knowing where you will stop. Go to the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and throw a stone down from that height. You say that you only mean to throw it a yard. Ah! but it will never rest until it gets to the ground, and perhaps it will kill someone before it reaches the earth. So, when once you start in the way of error, there is no possibility of stopping unless divine grace shall interpose to save you from the consequences of the first false step. You sow the wind, and you reap the whirlwind. A little error leads to more, and that to still more, until the very idea of God is given up. I therefore love to meet a man who is stiffbacked in his orthodoxy; and, in this age of laxness and looseness, I am prepared to clap my hands even when I see a little bigotry. I like a man to believe something, to stick to it, to know that it is true, and not to be ashamed to avow it in the teeth of his fellow-men, let them oppose as they will; for there must be something true, and, oh! that God’s gracious Spirit may teach us what it is; and when we once know it, may we hold it fast, come life or come death; for if we do not, we shall sow the wind, and resp the whirlwind.

Here is another instance of the same truth,— an ill example at home. I will confine it to that one point, though it is of general application. You probably know a man who is very lax in the management of his family. He professes to be a Christian himself, perhaps; but his sons and daughters are allowed to plunge into every frivolity and every vanity ; ay, and they may even go into open sin, and all that they will hear will be some gentle word like that which fell from the lips of soft-hearted. Eli when he de but hint that his sons were not doing well when they were doing much that was terribly ill. The man even hears that such-and-such a vice has been committed by his son, yet he scarcely upbraids him; he is so easy-tempered. that he says nothing, though he sorrows within his own heart. Peradventure, his own exapmple and the example of his wife are not such as could be desired. Family prayer is neglected, and holy living is not known in the house. He gets prematurely old, his son has died very soon,— he has drunk himself to death, or destroyed himself by vice. His daughters, too, are uuhappy in their marriages. The whole family has virtually gone to ruin as to any connection with the Christian Church. What shall I say of the old gentleman? He will not say it himself, but I must say it for him; he sowed the wind, and he has reaped the whirlwind. The father’s character is usually seen in his sons. It has been said that ministers’ sons often turn out badly; if it is so,and I am not sure that it is,— it must be because the ministers have not kept their own vineyards, for the rule still holds good, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Generally, though not always, if he does depart from it, it is because there has been some fatal neglect in his training; and there are some Christian parents who are acting thus. They are so indulgent, not only to their children, but to themselves also, that they do not like to give themselves the trouble that ought to be taken in all such cases. They are sowing the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind.

Let me give another illustration of the truth of the text, with reference to persons who fall into evil habits. At first, those evil habits are under restraint. They admit that they drink, but they say that they cannot be called “drunkards.” They may, now and then, take more than is good for them; but, still, it is not very often. That is the beginning of the evil; but, by-and-by, where are they? They have sown the wind, and they reap the whirlwind. Did you never hear the story of the Persian prince, who dreamed that he was drinking from a cup, and a fly came and tried to sip from it? He drove it away; but, as he kept on drinking from his cup, it came back again, and it had grown as large as a bird. He drove the creature away, but it returned as large as an eagle,— the largest kind of bird. He tried to chase that away, but it soon came back in the form of a man, who grinned at him most horribly. He strove to get that man away, but soon he was back in the form of a giant, who trod on him, and crushed him to death. That is just the picture of the growth of an evil habit; at first, you say, “Is it not a little one?” But it grows, and increases, till it becomes unconquerable. That parable illustrates our text; if you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind. You cannot live in sin, you cannot do wrong of any kind, or in any form, but it will come back to you, not merely as wind, as you sowed it, but as a whirlwind, as a horrible tempest, as a rushing tornado, carrying everything before it.

I will not tarry to give more illustrations of this solemn truth, because I want to leave a few minutes for the consideration of the second part of the subject. Only I pray that God may write on the memory and heart of any of you who are living as you should not live, the great fact that, as surely as you so live, “That which a man soweth, that shall he also reap;” and he will reap even worse than he sows, for if he sows the wind, he will reap the whirlwind.

II. Now let us turn to the second part of the subject, which is, that some Sowings Must End In Failure.

There are some people who do not think that they are doing any hurt, yet they are living an aimless life. Go to them, and ask what they are sowing? “Nothing,” they answer. They say that they are doing no hurt to anybody, for they are not doing anything at all; but is not that kind of life an injury to themselves, and to others also? If you have no aim in life, no high ambition, no object, no noble purpose, does anything ever come of it? People talk of what they call chance, but I never found any chance of a man’s getting to be holy without intending to be so. I never yet heard of a man doing any great good in the world if he did not mean to do it. I never heard of a man glorifying God by accident, nor of anyone getting to heaven as it were by the throw of the dice,somehow finding himself there, but not knowing how it all happened. No; if you lead an aimless life, what will come of it will be just what the text says: “It hath no stalk” There will be no up-growing from it; and even if there should be some kind of stalk to the seed that you have sown, yet, when it springs up, “the be shall yield no meal.” It cannot be any comfort to you, even if things should go pretty well without your intending that they should, for the comfort, after all, lies in the motive and in the intention; and even if your life should somehow turn out to be better than that of other aimless persons, though you never intended it to be so, “if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” If you meant it to be nothing, it will be nothing.

I daresay that I am speaking to a large number of people who do not know what they are living for. You have come into the world, and here you are; and, in due time, you will go out of it; but that is all that can be said of you. You are doing nothing; you have no noble end in view, no glorious purpose to accomplish, no sublime aspiration to realize. Then take it for granted that, if all you sow is the wind; you will reap nothing but wind; only it will come to you in a fiercer form,— as a whirlwind, for God will say to you, “I made thee for my glory; I sent thee into the world with a purpose; I entrusted. thee with talents; I made thee a steward of my goods, and now thou art accused, unto me of having wasted my goods. Give an account of thy stewardship.” What will you say then? Alas! in that day, the trifler, the idler, the mere butterfly in the garden of the world, will find things going hard. indeed. with him. God save you all from lealing an aimless life!

But there are some who are sowing the wind in another form; they are leading a selfish life. Selfis the beginning and the end of their life. They open a shop simply to make money. They live at home to be comfortable. Perhaps they enlarge themselves a little by talking the wife and the children into the circle of self; still, that is all; they have no care for God, no love for Christ, no wish to help the poor, no thought about eternity. That is a life of sowing the wind, and it will end, sooner or later, in reaping the whirlwind, for no man lives unto himself without earning for himself a fearful reward. Selfishness is often like the serpent that stings itself to death. It is not possible, within the compass of a man’s own soul, that he should satisfy the cravings and desires of that soul. When he loves God, and loves his neighbor,— he is really most of all blessing himself, for then is he living to true purpose. But when self is everything to a man, he confines his soul within the charnel-house of his own ribs, and his spirit dies within him, and becomes like a stone. In the case of the man who lives only for self, it may be said of his life, in the words of the text, “It hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal.” He gathers riches, but has no happiness or contentment in them; he is like Solomon, who, with all his possessions, had to cry, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” Or if he gets to be rich, and seems to enjoy himself a little, he suddenly dies, and strangers swallow up his estate. All that is left of him is a massive tomb, and the notice in the newspapers that he died worth so many thousands of pounds,— which is not true, for he never was really worth a farthing all his life; he was a worthless man, whose only value consisted in the money he possessed. O my dear hearers, I do implore you, with all my soul, not to live unto yourselves! If you desire the highest, grandest selfishness that can ever be attained, I charge you, throw selfishness away, remembering our Savior’s words, “He that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it.” He who casts his life away for the sake of Christ, and for love of the truth, shall be the man who shall really save his life, and find true joy and blessedness; but for anyone to live for self, is to sow the wind, and to reap the whirlwind.

So, once again, will it be ifa man lives a self-rihhteous life. A selfrighteous man is generally very great at sowing; — so many prayers,—so many almsgivings,— so many sermons,— so many ceremonies. Yes, wind, wind, wind: he is sowing wind; but what will come of it all? This very good religious man — I forget whether his name is Goodenough, or Too-good, but I believe the families are cousins; — is, in his own opinion, so very excellent that he does all he ought to do, and perhaps a little more. Yet he is only sowing the wind; and what will he reap from it? Well, if God is very gracious to him, he will soon reap the whirlwind, for he will find, to his confusion, that all his righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and they shall be like the sere leaves of the forest borne away by the wind. I pray that he may, in this sense, reap the whirlwind very soon; for, if not, he will do so in the next world, when all his pretended good works and all his formal observances of external religion will be nothing but so much whirlwind. to blow in his face, and to fan the flames of hell for ever. O dear friends, shun self-righteousness, and trust alone to the righteousness of Christ! May the Spirit of God lead you to wash in the atoning blood, and then cover you with the spotless righteousness of Jesus Christ! Thus, it will be well with your soul; but all self-righteousness shall end in delusion and confusion for ever and ever. May God grant that none of us may, in this sense, sow the wind!

The text is pre-eminently true of every man who leads a deceitful life. Oh, have I the misery of speaking to one who makes a profession of religion, and who wishes to be thought to be a Christian, and yet who is not really so? It is hard for a true believer to maintain a Christian character, but it is very much harder to keep up that character when there is nothing at the back of it. Oh, how desperately does the man who is a hypocrite have to labor! He has to patch up here, and patch up there,— daub with untempered mortar here, and whitewash there, and he never has any peace. But, all the while, he is only sowing the wind. There is nothing real in his religion; and what will come of it when that hypocrisy is discovered, when he stands revealed before the bar of God? Will his hypocritical religion do him any good ? No; “it hath no stalk” even now; it cannot yield him even present comfort. If there be a “bud” that looks a little like self-respect, it “shall yield no meal.” I have already quoted the old proverb, “The devil’s meal is all bran,” and I may add that the hypocrite’s meal is all bran. There is nothing substantial in it. And even if he should seem to die in the odour of sanctity, yet the stranger shall come in, and devour his supposed religiousness, for somebody shall tell the truth about him, and so his fine reputation shall be utterly blasted.

Now, brothers and sisters, I have come to the end of this discourse; and what should be the practical result of it but that, if we have been sowing anything that we ought not to sow, we should pray God to come and plough it all up. Lord, drive the plough straight through every life that is not according to thy Word! Oh, to have all the evil obliterated,— every seed of sin crushed. and destroyed! Would God that it might be so with all of us!

What next? Well, let us then go — oh, may the Divine Spirit lead us! — to Jesus Christ, and ask him to give us the good seed. Let us have our hands washed from the evil in which we formerly delighted; and he alone can cleanse us. Then let us take the clean good wheat which he will give us out of his own granary, and