shall flow into it.” The Secularist may rise up and say, “Oh, why be converted to this fanatical religion? Look to the things of time.” The false priests may rouse themselves with all their anger to defy Christ, and endeavour to keep their slaves; but all their attempts to stop conversion will be like an idiot seeking to drive back a mighty stream with his puny hands. “All nations shall flow into it.” What an idea it is! Oh, take your stand today, like prophets of the Lord, and look into the future. Today the church appears like the dry bed of a torrent; here I stand, and I see a little water flowing in a secret and thread-like stream, among the stones. It is so little that I can scarcely detect it, but I take the telescope of prophecy, I look far onward, and I see a rolling mass of water, such as is sometimes seen in the rapid rivers of Africa; and there it is, coming with thundering sound. Wait for a few more years, and that torrent, like Kishon’s mighty river, sweeping all before it, shall fill this dry bed, and swell on, and on, and on, with tumultuous waves of joy, until it meets the ocean of Christ’s universal reign, and loses itself in God. Here you see, then, you have more than your imagination can grasp. This stupendous mountain, and all the nations of the earth — vast numbers with immense force — spontaneously coming up to the house of the living God.
17. Now, I shall close by a practical address, very brief, and I trust very earnest. Is it not a great subject for praise that the nations of the earth may flow to the hill of God and to his house? If I were to tell you that all the nations of Europe were climbing the sides of the Alps, you would ask me, “And what benefit do they gain by it? They must pass over the slippery fields of ice and they may lose their lives in the midst of the bottomless chasms that are overhung by the mighty precipices; they may suddenly be overwhelmed and buried in the all destroying avalanche, and should they reach the summit they must fall down exhausted. What is there that men should covet in those barren heights; rarefied air and cold would soon destroy them, should they attempt to live there.” Ah, but it is not so with God’s hill. There shall be no snow upon its summit, but the warmth and light of Jehovah’s love; there shall be no chasms in its side where souls may be destroyed, for there shall be a way, and a highway, (the unclean shall not pass over it) a way so easy that the wayfaring man shall not err in it.
18. Some of the mountains described in Scripture were such that if they were accessible no one would want to climb them. There were bounds set all around Sinai, but had there been no bounds who would have wished to climbed it? It was a mountain that burned with fire, and upon which there was a sound as of a trumpet waxing exceedingly loud and long. No, brethren, we are not come to a mountain like Sinai with its supernatural thunders; we are not come to a bare, bleak, barren hill too difficult to climb like the mountains of earth; but the hill of God, although it is a high hill, is a hill which the humble penitent on hands and knees may readily ascend. You are come to a mountain which is not forbidden to you; there are no bounds set about it to keep you off, but you are freely bidden and freely invited to come to it. And the God who invited you will give you grace to come. If he has given you the will to come, he will give you grace to climb the sides of the hill, until you shall reach its upper glories, and stand on its summit transported with delight. While I am talking about the nations that will flow to Christ, might we not weep to think that there are so many in this congregation that are not flowing to Christ but are going from him? Ah! soul; what are the splendours of the Millennium to you, if you are his enemy? For when he tramples his foes in his hot displeasure, your blood shall stain his garments, even as the garments of the winepressers are stained with the blood of the grape. Tremble, sinner, for the advent of Christ must be your destruction though it shall be the church’s joy and comfort. You say, “Come quickly.” Do you not know that to you the day of the Lord is darkness and not light, for that day burns as an oven, and those who are proud and do wickedly shall be as stubble, and the fire shall consume them with burning heat. Oh! you people who today hear the words of Jesus! you are now this day invited to come to the mountain of his church, on which stands his cross and his throne. You weary, heavy laden, sin-destroyed, sin-ruined souls, you who know and feel your need of Jesus, you who weep because of sin, you are bidden to come now to Christ’s cross, to look to him who shed his blood for the ungodly, and looking to him, you shall find peace and rest; so that when he comes with rainbow wreath, and robes of storm, you shall be able to see him, not with alarm and terror, but with joy and gladness; for you shall say, “Here he is, the man who died for me has come to claim me; he who bought me has come to receive me; my Judge is my Redeemer, and I will rejoice in him.” Oh! turn, you English heathens — turn to God! you inhabitants of London, some of you as vile as the inhabitants of Sodom; turn, turn to God! Oh Lord Jesus! by your grace turn every one of us to yourself! Bring in your elect; let your redeemed rejoice in you; and then let the fulness of the nations flow to you, and yours shall be the glory, for ever and ever.
{a} Dromedary: A light and fleet breed of the camel, specially reared and trained for riding. Usually of the Arabian or one-humped camel, but the Bactrian camel may also be improved into a dromedary. OED.
War! War! War!
No. 250-5:201. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, May 1, 1859, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
Fight the Lord’s battles. {1 Samuel 18:17}
1. We shall not take these words in their literal application, as coming from the lips of Saul, when he gave David his older daughter, Merab, for his wife; but shall accommodate the passage, and use it as an exhortation given to the church of Christ, and to every soldier of Jesus: “Fight the Lord’s battles.” If this exhortation is not found in the very same words, coming from the lips of Jesus, nevertheless the whole tenor of the Word of God is to the same effect — “Fight the Lord’s battles.”
2. At the present crisis, the minds of men are exceedingly agitated with fearful prospects of a terrible struggle. We know not where this matter may grow. The signs of the times are dark and fearful. We fear that the vials of God’s wrath are about to be poured out, and that the earth will be deluged with blood. As long as there remains a hope, let us pray for peace, no, even in the time of war let us still beseech the throne of God, crying, that he would “send us peace in our days.”
3. The war will be looked upon by different people with different feelings. The Italian will consider, all through the controversy, his own country; {a} the Sardinian will be looking continually to the progress or to the defeat of his own nation; while the German, having sympathy with his own race, will be continually anxious to understand the state of affairs. There is one power, however, which is not represented in the congress and which seems to be silent, because the ears of men are deaf to anything that it has to say. To that power all our sympathies will be given, and our hearts will follow it with interest; and all through the war, the one question that we shall ask, will be “How will that kingdom prosper?” You all know to which kingdom I refer — it is the kingdom of Jesus Christ upon earth; that little one which is even at this time growing, and which is to become a thousand, which is to break in pieces all the monarchies of earth, and to seat itself upon their ruins, proclaiming universal liberty and peace, under the banner of Jesus Christ. I am sure that we shall think far more of the interests of religion than of anything else, and our prayer will be, “Oh Lord, do what you will with the earthen pitchers of men’s monarchies, but let your kingdom come, and let your will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven!”
4. While, however, we shall anxiously watch the contest, it will be quite as well if we become involved in it ourselves. Not that this nation of England should touch it; God forbid. If tyrants fight, let them fight; let free men stand aloof. Why should England have anything to do with all the coming battles? As God has cut us off from Europe by a boisterous sea, so let us be kept apart from all the broils and turmoils into which tyrants and their slaves may fall. I speak now, after a spiritual manner, to the church of Christ. I say, “Let us become involved in the fray; let us have something to do.” We cannot be neutral; we never have been. Our host is always hostile to sin and
