they are not put into a Book of Martyrs. We have no Foxe to write their martyrology, they do not have the flesh contenting knowledge that they shall be publicly honoured; but they suffer alone and unheard of, still praying for those who laugh at them: bowing themselves before God on their knees in agony, not on account of the persecution, but in agony of soul for the persecutors themselves, that they may be saved. How many are there of such young men in workshops, employed in large establishments, who bend their knee at night by the bedside, in a large room where there are many scoffers. Some of us have known this in our youthful days, and have had to endure it; but Christ is precious to the silent sufferings of his people; these unhonoured martyrdoms prove that his church has not ceased to love him, nor to esteem him precious.
10. How many are there, too — how many thousands of unseen and unknown labourers for Christ, whose names cannot be here declared. They toil from morning until night all through the week, and Sunday should be a day of rest to them; but they work more on Sunday than on any other day. They are visiting the beds of the sick; their feet are weary, and nature says rest, but they go into the lowest dens and haunts of the city to speak to the ignorant, and endeavour to spread the name and honour of Jesus where it has not been known. There are many such who are working hard for Christ, though the church scarcely knows about it. And how many, too, are there who prove that they love Christ by the continual generosity of their offerings. Many are the poor people I have discovered, who have denied themselves of this and that, because they wished to serve Christ’s cause. And there are many, too — every now and then we discover them — in the middle ranks of society, who give a hundred times as much to the cause of Christ as many of the rich and wealthy; and if you knew what little trials they endure, to what straits they are driven in order to serve Christ, you would say, “The man who can, proves clearly that Christ is precious to him.” And note this, the reason why the church is not more laborious, not more generous in its gifts to the offerings of the Saviour, is just this, because the church of the day is not the church of Christ in its entirety. There is a church of Christ within it, but the visible church, as it stands before you, is not to be considered the church of Christ; we must pass it through the fire, and bring the third part through the flame; for this is the day when the dross is mingled with gold. How has the much fine gold become dim; how has the glory departed. Zion is under a cloud. But note, though you do not see it, there is a church, a hidden church; an unmoving centre amidst the growing mass of professors, there is a life within this outward fungus of a growing Christianity; there is a life that is within, and to that hidden host, that chosen company, Christ is precious — they are proving it every day by their patient sufferings, by their laborious efforts, by their constant offerings to the church of Christ. “Therefore to you who believe he is precious.”
11. I will tell you one thing that proves — proves beyond all doubt, that Christ is still precious to his people, and it is this: — send one of Christ’s people to hear the most noted preacher of the age, whoever that may be; he preaches a very learned sermon, very fine and magnificent, but there is not a word about Christ in that sermon. Suppose that to be the case, and the Christian man will go out and say, “I did not care a farthing for that man’s discourse.” Why? “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. I heard nothing about Christ.” Send that man on the Sunday morning to hear some hedge and ditch preacher, someone who cuts up the king’s English ever so badly, but who preaches Jesus Christ — you will see the tears rolling down that man’s face, and when he comes out he will say, “I do not like that man’s bad grammar; I do not like the many mistakes he has made, but oh! it has done my heart good, for he spoke about Christ.” That, after all, is the main thing for the Christian; he wants to hear about his Lord, and if he hears him magnified he will overlook a hundred faults. In fact, you will find that Christians are all agreed, that the best sermon is the one which is most full of Christ. They never like to hear a sermon unless there is something about Christ in it. A Welsh minister who was preaching last Sunday at the chapel of my dear brother, Jonathan George, was saying, that Christ was the sum and substance of the gospel, and he broke out into this story: — A young man had been preaching in the presence of a venerable divine, and after he was finished he went to the old minister, and said, “What do you think of my sermon?” “A very poor sermon indeed,” he said. “A poor sermon?” said the young man, “it took me a long time to study it.” “Indeed, no doubt about it.” “Why, did you not think my explanation of the text was a very good one?” “Oh yes,” said the old preacher, “very good indeed.” “Well, then, why do you say it is a poor sermon? Did you not think the metaphors were appropriate and the arguments conclusive?” “Yes, they were very good as far as that goes, but still it was a very poor sermon.” “Will you tell me why you think it was a poor sermon?” “Because,” he said, “there was no Christ in it.” “Well,” said the young man, “Christ was not in the text; we are not to be preaching Christ always, we must preach what is in the text.” So the old man said, “Do you not know young man that from every town, and every village, and every little hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London?” “Yes,” said the young man. “Ah!” said the old divine, “and so from every text in Scripture, there is a road to the metropolis of the Scriptures, that is Christ. And my dear brother, your business happens to be when you get to a text, to say, ‘Now what is the road to Christ?’ and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis — Christ. And,” he said, “I have never yet found a text that did not have a road to Christ in it, and if I ever do find one that does not have a road to Christ in it, I will make one; I will go over hedge and dale but I wish to get to my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savour of Christ in it.” Now since you say amen to that, and declare that what you want to hear is Jesus Christ, the text is proven — “Therefore to you who believe he is precious.”
12. But if you want to try this again and prove it, go and see some of our sick and dying friends; go and talk to them about the Reform Bill, {a} and they will look you in the face and say, “Oh, I am going from this time to eternity; it is a very small matter to me whether the Reform Bill will be passed or not.” You will not find them much interested in that matter. Well, then, sit down and talk to them about the weather, and how the crops are getting on — “Well, it is a good prospect for wheat this year.” They will say, “Ah, my harvest is ripening in glory.” Introduce the most interesting topic you can, and a believer, who is lying on the verge of eternity, will find nothing precious in it; but sit down by the bedside of this man and he may be very nearly gone, almost unconscious, and begin to talk about Jesus — mention that precious soul-reviving, soul-strengthening name Jesus, and you will see his eye glisten, and the blanched cheek will be flushed once more — “Ah,” he will say, “Precious Jesus, that is the name which calms my fears, and bids my sorrows cease.” You will see that you have given the man a strong tonic, and that his whole frame is braced up for the moment. Even when he dies, the thought of Jesus Christ and the prospect of seeing him shall make him living in the midst of death, strong in the midst of weakness, and fearless in the midst of trembling. And this proves, by the experience of God’s people, that with those who believe in him, Christ is and ever must be a precious Christ.
13. II. The second thing is, WHY IS CHRIST PRECIOUS TO THE BELIEVER? I observe — and I shall go over those points very briefly, though they would be worthy of a long, long sermon — Jesus Christ is precious to the believer, because he is intrinsically precious. But here let me take you through an exercise in grammar; here is an adjective, let us go through it. He is precious positively; he is more precious than anything comparatively ; he is most precious of all things, and most precious even if all things were rolled into one and put into competition with him; he is thus precious superlatively. Now, there are few things you can thus deal with. You say, a man is a good man, he is good positively, and you say he is a great deal better than many other people; he is good comparatively: but you can never truly say to any man that he is good superlatively, because there he would still be found short of perfection. But Christ is good positively, comparatively, and superlatively.
14. 1. Is he not good positively? Election is a good thing; to
