Plain pulpit talk

Front matter

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Contents

Childhood and ^OTHodD-^SHoaMAicsR Lii^e — Student Life— Schoolmaster Li^B — ^Wesleyan Methodist Life— Local. Preacher Life — Life AS a Newspaper Writer— London Life — Chartist Life — Chartist Prison J^ife— LH-erary and Lecturing Life.

** The * Memoir of Thomas Cooper,' author of the ' Purgatory of Suicides,' and once a famous Chartist leader, will-bring back to many minds strange associatiohs and half-forgotten days.^ Mr. Cooper, whose death was announced, and over whom long obituaries were written years ago, lives still to tell in this volume the story of his life. The book itself is an almost perfect illustration of a strange chapter of English history." — Daily News.

** As the unvarnished narrative of an extraordinary life this work is well worth reading.- It has. all the interest of a novel, and yet is more dramatic Its author had a story to tell ; he has told it simply and straightforwardly, and having thus adopted a natural) unaffected course, these pages are worth more for their verve and animation than they would otherwise have been for over-elaboration." — School Board Chronicle.

I. Contents

PAGE

I. THE HORRIBLE PIT.

**I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of tlv2 miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God : many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord." — Psalm xl. i, 2, 3. . . . . .1

IL THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.

** I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth : to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." — Romans i. 16. . . . .67

III. THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST.

** The unsearchable riches of Christ." — Eph. iii. 8. . . 100

IV. WAITING ON THE LORD.

"They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength : they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." — ISA. xl. 31. . . 147

V. PRAYING WITHOUT CEASING.

" Pray without ceasing." — i Thess. v. 17. . . .170

VL CHRIST'S PRAYER FOR HIS CHURCH.

" I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil." — ^John xvii. 15. . 196

VII. CHRISTIAN LIFE, DEATH, AND HEAVEN.

"To me to live is Christ ; and to die is gam." — Phil. i. 2I. . 232

PLAIN PULPIT TALK.

I.

[Preached to the colliers and miners of Northumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Glamorganshire : in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Huddersfield, Bristol, Norwich, and many other towns in England ; and in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paisley, and other towns of Scotland.]

" / waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouthy even praise unto our God : many shall see it, and fear, aud shall trust in the LordP — Psalm xL verses i, 2, 3.

'THHE most spiritual commentators are of opinion ■^ that this psalm and the two preceding psalms were composed by David, partly during his deep remorseful repentance, and partly under his grateful sense of forgiveness, for his great, black, double sin of adultery and murder. The title of the first of

2 Fortieth Psalm originally Two.

these three psalms — the thirty-eighth — is very significant : " A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance." To bring to remembrance! David would not have his sin forgotten. Although God had forgiven him, he never could forgive himself He places his vileness on record, that all God's saints, in the future, may be acquainted with it, and take it duly into their reckoning when they are forming an estimate of his character. And he gratefully places his sense of forgiveness on record also, that, while God's people shall take care not to plac^ David's character too 'high, they may learn to exalt the God of David for His wondrous mercy.

Scriptural scholars tell us that the psalm from which our text is taken has either undergone a dislocation in its passage down to us, during the 2,800 years which have elapsed since David composed it — or, that the psalm was, originally two, and that the second, somehow or other, has been placed before the first. They tell us that the first ten verses ought to come after the other part of the psalm. Commencing with the thirty-eighth psalm, we should read through the thirty-ninth ; and then, beginning with the eleventh verse of this fortieth psalm, we should read to the end of it, for David's full expression of his confession of sin, his repentance, and ' cry for God's mercy. The first ten~ verses of this

Why the Bible contains such things. 3

fortieth psalm should then be read, that we may learn David's grateful declaration of God's forgiveness of his great sin. This is the settled opinion of thoughtful scriptural scholars ; and the fact that the latter part of this fortieth psalm is really found afterwards, as a separate psalm, and is called the seventieth, shows that what is now the fortieth was noty originally, one psalm.

"But why does the Bible contain such strange records } " say some people. " Ay, why does it contain such queer things— such revolting things } " cry some people, who would fain have us believe that their hearts are as delicate as their ears — " why are there these shocking narratives of adultery and murder in the book ? "

I wish those who urge such objections would

' always be honest enough to acknowledge that the

Bible records God's condemnation of such deeds,

while it records the deeds themselves. " The thing

that David had done displeased the Lord " — are the emphatic last words in the eleventh chapter of the Second Book of Samuel, where David's black double crime is narrated.

But, " why does the Bible contain such things } " For several reasons ; -and clear and sound reasons, too.

Fivsty because the Bible is a true book. What does the Bible profess to be } The earliest history

4 All History a Record of Sin.

of man, and of human nature. But it would not be a true book, -if it hid a part of Man's character. What is Man ? A sinner. Does not every history

t

in the world proclaim the lamentable fact } Take up any human history — a history of Greece, or of Rome, or of France, or of England — and what will you find related in it, from the beginning to the end } Violence, hatred, cruelty, ambition, craft, malice, murder, war, bloodshed, conquest, robbery, tyranny, slavery — I need not go on. It is sin — sin — sin — all the way through. There is, now and then, a deed of patriotism, or honour, or generosity, or bravery ; but the great record is sin. The record of noble deeds is scanty ; and even for them the historian does not always find a noble motive — ^while the broad record of evil burns on every page ! How, then, could the Bible be a true book, professing as it does to give the earliest history of Man, if it only gave us a part of the real picture of Man's character } — if it hid Man's vileness } — if it represented him as a purer and better being than he really is }

Secondly, the Bible contains open records of human sin — even of the sins of good men — because the Bible is meant to be a gtiide for Man. But it would mislead, rather than guide, men, if it did not proclaim, unmistakably, that 'God is displeased with sin when good men fall into it, as well as when bad men habi-

God will not have $in Hidden. 5

tually commit it. Bad men^ would scoff at the omission, and deride the justice of God. And, instead of guiding and encouraging the believer, it might throw him into despair. "How is this?" some good man might exclaim when, in his weakness and imperfection, he had, temporarily, got wrong, — " how is this ? I find no record of the sins of good men, here. It would seem, then, that God's saints never sin after they are once brought to Him, and receive His forgiving love — for their sins are never mentioned, here. Then, I must have been a hypocrite all along — or, otherwise, I have been practising self-deceit. I never

have been a child of God ; and how can I trust myself

I

in the future ? I must give religion up— for there is no hope for me!" Let us be thankful that the Bible contains a record of David's sin, as well as of David's piety. Let not the record encourage us to commit sin ; but let it encourage us to come to God for pardon when we feel we have sinned.

Thirdly^ — and above all, — the Bible contains such things because God will not have sin hidden, Man's perpetual tendency is to hide sin : the tendency displayed itself with the first human pair, in Paradise. And it displays itself nowhere more strongly, now, than in the Christian Church — more especially when the transgressor is a rich man. ** Did you hear of Mr. So-and-so being found the worse for strong drink?"

6 Evil of Hiding Rich MerCs Sins.

whispers one member of the church to another. " Hush !" says the other, " don't talk about it ! Re- ' member how much he has given to the cause. Don't say a word about it. It will only set the world atalking, and bring religion into di3grace.'*

There would not be so much tenderness shown towards the transgressor if he were a poor man. Scarcely a member of the church but would be indignant Avith the beggarly rascal, and would express amazement at the fellow's impudence in having offered himself for membership with them. But the case is very different, in their eyes, when it is the case of so very respectable a man as Mr. So-and-so. And the rich man is suffered to go on in his sin — every member of the church whispering about it, but no one daring to say a word to the rich man himself about it. They fear he will take offence, if they mention it to him. He perceives that no one dares to reprehend him ; and so he grows bolder in his sin. He was sly in the practice of it, at first ; but he does not care to conceal it, now. And, soon, everybody sees it — even in the open street. The rich man's sin is a stench in the nostrils of the world ; and the church blushes and trembles about it-^and, though the church rises now, through mere shame, to put the rich sinner out of its pale, such damage and disgrace have been done to religion that the ruin is not repaired for years.

Great Number of David* s Foes. 7

If the rich sinner had been warned, at first, he might have been saved from his sin ;" and the church might have been saved from disgrace. And how should he » have been warned ? Sternly ? Oh, no ! Who am I that I am to take upon me to warn an erring brother sternly ? I must remember that I am a poor wandering sinner, myself; and I must warn him tenderly and affectionately, and yet faithfully. He must be warned if I would save him, and do what God would have me do. For God will not have sin go without reproof, neither will He have it hidden.

David thought to hide his sin, by the murder of Uriah, and by marrying Bathsheba, but God would not.have it so. The adultery was out, and the murder was out, too. His enemies — for he had many among the old adherents of Saul, who had never forgiven him for becoming a king, although Samuel had anointed him at God's command — his old enemies had got hold of the black secret ; and they were spreading the report of it busily, and trying to stir up disastrous mischief against him. And David had to bear it in silence. He dare not defend himself He dare not say " Silence, with your treasons ! I'll not permit this freedom of your rude tongues. I am a king, and you shall not make free with my character ! " He dare not put them down with a high hand.

Mark how all this bitter experience of David comes

8 David^s Silence^ from Shame.

out in the thirty-eighth psalm, where he is describing his agonising shame and repentance : " O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath : neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. For Thine arrows stick fast in me, and Thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh because of Thine anger ; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over my head : as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me .... I am troubled ; I am bowed down greatly ; I go mourning all the day long .... I am feeble and sore broken .... My heart panteth, my strength faileth me .... My lovers and

-my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off. They also that seek after my life lay snares for me : and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits (or, contrive plots) all the day long. But /, as a deaf man, heard not ; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs " (no words of self-defence).

David's consciousness of sin, and his shame under

• it, were so torturously great, that he dare not defend himself. And well it was he did not try. It was, indeed, a gracious act, on God's part, that He did not give David up ; and that the Holy Spirit still strove with David, and brought his sin home to him, so that

His instant Owning of his Sin. 9

the horror of remorse seized David's soul, and deep repentance agonized him. So gracious arc all God's dealings towards them who have once really loved and served Him ! If they fall, He does not desert them. He still follows them in tenderness and pity, and strives to restore them to Himself.

Without doubt David had gone through agonies of remorse and repentance, and was deeply humbled before God, when the prophet Nathan was sent to charge him with his sin. For, when Nathan thunders the paralysing words in his ear, " Thou art the man ! " — ^^ I have siftned against the- Lord!" is the instant confession of David. There is not even a momentary attempt to palliate his sin, or to deny or conceal his crime.

David's repentance was repentance indeed. And one cannot help thinking that he was pondering a resolution to make open confession of it before Israel, and purposing to ask all Israel to mourn with him ; and then to offer up- a series of sacrifices and burnt-offerings such as had never before been offered for human sin. But he was informed by Nathan, and convinced by the Holy Spirit, that no burnt-offering or sacrifice could really atone for his sin — but only the Great Atoning One, who was prefigured in all the sacrifices and offerings of old. Read the verses following the text : — lo GocPs Revelations to David.

" Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies " — that is to say, Blessed is the man who through pride or haughtiness has not concealed his sin. " Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward : they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee ; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered" — God's revelations to him, (even while he is in agony for his sin,) of the Divine goodness and intent to deliver him, amaze his penitent and grateful soul. He cannot express them ! " Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire ; mine ears hast Thou opened " — boredy as it stands in the Hebrew. That is to say. Thou hast made a revelation to me out of the merely natural order : what I could not receive, or know, by mere natural perception. Thou hast revealed .to me by Thy Holy Spirit, respecting the way that Thou wilt save me : and how Thou canst save me, and pardon even such sin as mirie, consistently with Thy justice : how thou canst "be just, and the justifier of him that believeth : " — " burnt .offering and sin offering hast Thou not required : Then said I — " Lo, I come ! in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God : yea Thy law is within my heart ! "

" Lo, I come ! " — Who comes ? Who is this that

David looks to the Atoning One. 1 1

speaks in the voice of revelation to David ? We must expect to find sudden, abrupt and bold personifications in these ancient Oriental poems — the Psalms. Turn to the tenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and you will learn from the later-inspired writer what the ancient one means : " For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, He saith, " Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared me : in burnt offerings, and sacrifices for sin. Thou hast had no pleasure : then said I " Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it is written of me, — to do Thy will, O God. Above, when He said, '* Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin. Thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein," which are offered by the law : then said He, " Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God : He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.'* So then David was restored to the Divine favour by looking to the great Atoning One — looking beyond all burnt offerings of animals, and resting his guilty but penitent soul, in faith, on the promised Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, who was to offer up Himself, as the real atonement for sin, in the fulness of time. And when God pardons David's

1 2 Cavernous Pits of the Holy Land.

"^soul, and fills it with' humble and holy joy, David likens his case to that of one who has been in an horrible pit, and in the miry clay, and has been delivered therefrom.

Observe, my friends, that David is not speaking of what we,, in this country, understand by a pit — such as a coal-pit, into which you descend> immediately and perpendicularly, from^the earth's surface, by a rope, or chain, or by some other mechanical means and contrivance. David never saw a coal-pit, and, perhaps, never heard of 6ne, in his whole life. There are no coals in the Holy Land : the geological formation — as, I doubt not, some of you know — is not what is called "carboniferous," but mountain limestone; David is thinking of the "pits" with which he was -but too well acquainted : the cavernous pits, or immense recesses in the rocks, whither, he had often been compelled to flee for refuge from his enemies.

The " haks in the rocks " — " caves of the earth " — "clefts of the rocks" — as they^ are called in our translation of the Bible — abound in Palestine. You often read of them in the Old Testament. Thus, in the sixth chapter of the* Book of Judges, you read — " And because of the Midianitesj the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves and strongholds.'* These dens and

Immense Size of these Fits. 13

caves were so large, you perceive, that they formed refuge-places against a huge invading army : an army "that came as grasshoppers for multitude." Again, in the thirteenth chapter of the First Book of Samuel, we learn that they took refuge from another invading army : that of their old enemies, the Philistines — "people as the sand which is on the sea-shore, in multitude." "When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (for the people were distressed) then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in highplaces, and in pits."

This was not only the custom in those very ancient times — ^well on to 3,000 years ago — but even so late as in the time of the Crusades — 700 years ago. When Baldwin the First, one of the Crusader-kings of Jerusalem, presented himself before Ascalon, to besiege it, the town and the villages around were deserted : the inhabitants with their families, and also with their flocks, had retired into the huge subterranean cav^s of the country.

Shaw, our old English traveller in Palestine, says that on each side Jaffa — the ancient Joppa — on the sea-coast, there is a range of mountains and precipices, where are found the " dens, holes, and caves," "mentioned in Scripture, and so often the retreats of the distressed Israelites. And Pococke, another old

1 4 How David spared Saul in the Pit.

English traveller in the Holy Land, says he saw a large cave in which 30,000 men were said to have once taken refuge.

Even when they were not refugees from their human enemies, the Israelites made use of these caves sometimes to shelter themselves from the heat, — also to sleep, when weary, — and sometimes to shelter their sheep. In the twenty-fourth chapter of the First Book of Samuel, there is an ej^citing narrative. It relates how, when David had fled to the strongholds of the wilderness of Engedi, that " Saul took 3,000 men .... and went to seek David and his men .... and he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave, and Saul went in to cover his feet," — (that is, to sleep : the feet when wearied and over-heated with waUking on rocky ground — exposed as the feet of the Eastern people were, of old — grow cold when you lie down to rest : so they were covered — for you cannot sleep with cold feet) — " and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave." So spacious it was, that David and his men could not be seen in the dark, " in the sides of the cave,'* — although David saw Saul in the light, at the mouth of the cave. You will remember

I

how the narrative proceeds : David cuts off the skirt of Saul's garment a/id lets him sleep out hie sleep and go out, instead of killing him ; and then David

Dangers and Horrors of these Pits. 1 5

follows him, shouts from the side of the mountain and holds up the skirt of the robe, to show Saul that his life had been in David's hands.

The cavernous pits, be it understood, were often very dangerous. A person that went into one and lay down to sleep might oversleep himself, and awaking in darkness — for twilight is very short in the tropics — might lose himself, in his alarm. " Pit of noises " — ^** roaring pit " — " pit of sounding calamity " — " pit of tumultuous desolation " — are some of the different translations which have been given to the Hebrew words rendered " horrible pit," in our authorised translation. There is an allusion to the cataracts of water which resound in these subterraneous regions so terribly, that you can scarcely hear your own voice, if you try to shout aloud, in your terror. " Miry clay " is an allusion to the bogs, or quagmires, which abound in these frightful recesses,. miles under- , ground. No sunlight, of course, is ever beheld. All is horrible darkness, except \vhen the false, flickering light — the vaporous " Will-o*-the-wisp " — is beheld over the bog, or " miry clay."

These cavernous pits are also the haunts of wild animals. The lion is no longer seen in Judea — (though the Old Testament shows that lions were numerous in old times) — for he is observed to disappear in all countries where fire-arms are heard. But"

1 6 The Spiritual ^^ Horrible Pit.^^

the '* Nimmer " and the , " Faed " — ^that is to say, the leopard and the panther are there; and these, with the wolf, the hyaena, and the jackal, haunt these caverns by day, and prowl forth at night. Foul serpents, and other crawling creatures also tenant these pits. And when the prophet Isaiah describes their tenants, he is made, in our translation, to talk of " the moles and the bats ;" but moles should be musk-rats — foul, offensive creatures which abound in these caverns ; and so do the bats, by thousands.

Now this —

Horrible Pit represents, in David's mind, the condition of the sinful soul. Every unregenerate man and woman in this chapel — ay, and every backslider, too — is in this " horrible pit " and " miry clay.^' And, if there be such a character in this place — but, God forbid that there should ! — as a hypocrite — one who is making a profession of holiness, yet is really devoted to sin — one who comes under the description given by Robert PoUok, in " The Course of Time " —

" The man that stole the livery of heaven To serve the devil in " —

he is also in this " horrible pit."

The great majority of those who get into this pit, get into it in childhood. There is but one entrance to it for its human dwellers .; — and that is

The Passage down into the Pit. 1 7

Indulgence Passage. The craving of the unregenerate heart is for indulgence : indulgence of the appetites and sbnses and desires. Self-will marks our unregenerate nature. " The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be." Every child demonstrates this, so soon as the perception of good and evil dawns on the reason. And tlie worst of it is, that too many parents drag their children down 'Indulgence Passage, into the pit, almost before the young creature's nioral sense has fully dawned. Revenge, pride, self-will, are taught to very young children, by some parents, in the most foolish — nay, I should say, in the most guilty way. And Jiow offended they are, if you tell them ot it ! You cannot, indeed, tread on people's toes so soon, as by telling them that they mismanage their children ; and that their first duty is to teach a child to bridle its own self-will, not to indulge it.

The great majority of mankind remain in this pit many years after childhood ; and some live all their mortal lives in it, c^nd perish in it. Some get farther and farther into the pit, and deeper and deeper into its miry clay and pollution : for it is a huge pit, and has many ramifications or corners — corners that branch off in different directions — corners where different kinds of sin are committed. And there are also passages from one corner to another — passages which

1 8 The Moral Darkness of the Pit.

conduct the sinner from sin to deeper sin ; and from darkness and danger to blacker darkness aiid greater danger.

And the worst of it vis that the greater the danger and darkness the sinner gets into, the less he is alarmed. His sin hardens him, till he denies the pit to be either dark or dangerous. Such is the foul, hardening nature of sin. It is with man's conscience, or spiritual eye, as it is with the outward, or bodily eye. You know how the iris, or coloured rim round the pupil, or eye-sight, contracts when we enter a stronger