down and says, “I cannot be saved, I must perish.” But God commands the soldiers to take this castle too, shouting, “Salvation is of the Lord”; though it is not of man, it is of God; “he is able to save, even to the uttermost,” though you cannot save yourself. This sword, you see, cuts two ways; it cuts pride down and then it cleaves the skull of despair. If any man he says can save himself, it cut his pride in half at once; and if another man he says cannot be saved, it dashes his despair to the earth; for it affirms that he can be saved, seeing, “Salvation is of the Lord.” That is the effect this doctrine has upon the sinner: may it have that effect on you!
17. But what influence has it upon the saint? Why, it is the keystone of all divinity. I will defy you to be heterodox if you believe this truth. You must be sound in the faith if you have learned to spell this sentence — “Salvation is of the Lord”; and if you feel it in your soul you will not be proud; you cannot be; you will cast everything at his feet, confessing that you have done nothing, except what he has helped you to do, and therefore the glory must be where the salvation is. If you believe this you will not be distrustful. You will say, “My salvation does not depend on my faith, but on the Lord; my keeping does not depend on myself, but on God who keeps me; my being brought to heaven rests not now in my own hands, but in the hands of God; you will, when doubts and fears prevail, fold your arms, look upwards, and say,
And now my eye of faith is dim,
I trust in Jesus, sink or swim.”
If you can keep this in your mind you may always be joyful. He can have no cause for trouble who knows and feels that his salvation is of God. Come on, legions of hell; come on, demons of the pit!
He that has helped me bears me through,
And makes me more than conqueror too.
Salvation rests not on this poor arm, or else would I despair, but on the arm of that Omnipotent — that arm upon which the pillars of the heavens lean. “Whom should I fear? The Lord is my strength and my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
18. And this may by grace, nerve you to work for God. If you had to save your neighbours you might sit down and do nothing; but since “Salvation is of the Lord,” go on and prosper. Go and preach the gospel; go and tell the gospel everywhere. Tell it in your house, tell it in the street, tell it in every land and every nation; for it is not of yourself, it is “of the Lord.” Why do not our friends go to Ireland to preach the gospel? Ireland is a disgrace to the Protestant church. Why do they not go and preach there? A year or so ago a number of our brave ministers went over there to preach; they did right bravely; they went there, and they came back again, and that is about the sum total of the glorious expedition against Popery. But why come back again? Because they were stoned, good easy men! Do they not think that the gospel ever will spread without a few stones? But they would have been killed! Brave martyrs they! Let them be enrolled in the red chronicle. Did the martyrs of old, did the apostles, shrink from going to any country because they would have been killed? No, they were ready to die; and if half a dozen ministers had been killed in Ireland, it would have been the finest thing in the world for liberty in future; for after that the people dare not have touched us; the strong arm of the law would have put them down; we might have gone through every village of Ireland afterwards, and been at peace; the constabulary would soon have put an end to such infamous murder; it would have awakened the Protestantism of England to claim the liberty which is our right there as we give it elsewhere. We shall never see any great change until we have some men in our ranks who are willing to be martyrs. That deep ditch can never be crossed until the bodies of a few of us shall fill it up; and after that it will be easy work to preach the gospel there. Our brethren should go there once more. They can leave their white scarves at home, and the white feather too, and go forth with a brave heart and a bold spirit; and if the people mock and scoff, let them mock and scoff on. George Whitfield said, when he preached on Kennington Common, {b} where they threw dead cats and rotten eggs at him, “This is only the manure of Methodism, the best thing in the world to make it grow; continue to throw as fast as you please.” And when a stone cut him on the forehead, he seemed to preach the better for a little blood letting. Oh for such a man to dare the mob, and then the mob would not need to be dared. Let us go there, remembering that “Salvation is of the Lord,” and let us in every place and at every time preach God’s Word, believing that God’s Word is more than a match for man’s sin, and God will yet be master over all the earth.
19. My voice fails me again, and my thoughts too. I was weary this morning, when I came into this pulpit, and I am weary now. Sometimes I am joyous and glad, and feel in the pulpit as if I could preach for ever; at other times I feel glad to close; but yet with such a text I wish that I could have finished up with all the might that mortal lip could summon. Oh! to let men know this, that their salvation is of God! Swearer, do not swear against him in whose hand your breath is! Despiser, do not despise him who can save you or destroy you. And you hypocrite, do not seek to deceive him from whom salvation comes, and who therefore knows right well whether your salvation has come from him.
20. IV. And now in concluding let me just tell you WHAT IS THE OBVERSE OF THIS TRUTH. Salvation is of God: then damnation is of man. If any of you are damned, you will have no one to blame but yourselves; if any of you perish, the blame will not lie at God’s door; if you are lost and cast away, you will have to bear all the blame and all the tortures of conscience yourself; you will lie for ever in perdition, and reflect, “I have destroyed myself; I have made a suicide of my soul; I have been my own destroyer; I can lay no blame on God.” Remember, if saved, you must be saved by God alone, though if lost you have lost yourselves. “Turn, turn, why will you die oh house of Israel.” With my last faltering sentence I bid you stop and think. Ah! my hearers, my hearers! it is an awful thing to preach to such a mass as this. But the other Sunday, as I came down stairs, I was struck with a memorable sentence, uttered by one who stood there. He said, “There are eight thousand people this morning without excuse in the day of judgment.” I would like to preach so that this always might be said; and if I cannot, oh may God have mercy on me, for his name’s sake! But now remember! You have souls; those souls will be damned, or saved. Which will it be? Damned they must be for ever, unless God shall save you, unless Christ shall have mercy upon you, there is no hope for you. Down on your knees! Cry to God for mercy. Now lift up your heart in prayer to God. May now be the very time when you shall be saved. Or ever the next drop of blood shall run through your veins, may you find peace! Remember, that peace is to be had now. If you feel now your need of it, it is to be had now. And how? For the mere asking for it. “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find.”
But if your ears refuse
The language of his grace,
Your hearts grow hard, like stubborn Jews,
That unbelieving race,
The Lord with vengeance drest,
Shall lift his hand and swear,
You that despise my promis’d rest
Shall have no portion there.
Oh that you may not be despisers, lest you “wonder and perish!” May you now flee to Christ, and be accepted in the beloved. It is my last best prayer. May the Lord hear it! Amen.
{a} Carisbrooke Castle is a historic moat-and-bailey castle located in the village of Carisbrooke, near Newport, Isle of Wight. Charles I was imprisoned at the castle in the months prior to his trial. See Explorer “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carisbrooke_Castle”
{b} Kennington Common was one of the earliest London cricket venues and is
