it was, if it had not in itself intrinsic might? By whom was it spread? By mitred prelates, by learned doctors, by fierce warriors, by caliphs, by prophets? No; by fishermen, untaught, unlettered; not knowing how to preach or speak except as the Spirit gave them utterance. How did they spread it? By the bayonet, by their swords, by the keen metal of their blades? Did they drive their gospel into men at the point of the lance, and with the scimitar? {short sword} Say, did myriads rush to battle, as they did when they followed the crescent of Mohammed, and did they convert men by force, by law, by might? Ah! no. Nothing but their simple words, their unvarnished eloquence, their rough declamation, their unhewn oratory; these it was, which, by the blessing of God’s Spirit, carried the gospel around the world within a century after the death of its founder.
9. But what was this gospel which achieved so much? Was it a thing palatable to human nature? Did it offer a paradise of present happiness? Did it offer delight to the flesh and to the senses? Did it give charming prospects of wealth? Did it give licentious ideas to men? No, it was a gospel of most strict morality, it was a gospel with delights entirely spiritual — a gospel which abjured the flesh, which, unlike the coarse delusion of the Mormon Joe Smith, cut off every prospect from men of delighting themselves with the joys of lust. It was a gospel — holy, spotless, clean us the breath of heaven; it was pure as the wing of angels; not like what spread of old, in the days of Mohammed, a gospel of lust, and vice, and wickedness, but pure, and consequently not palatable to human nature. And yet it spread. Why? My friends, I think the only answer I can give you is, because it has in it the power of God.
10. But do you need another proof? How has it been maintained since then? The gospel has had no easy path. The good bark of the Church has had to plough her way through seas of blood, and those who have manned her have been bespattered with the bloody spray; yes, they have had to man her and keep her in motion, by laying down their lives to the death. See the bitter persecution of the Church of Christ, from the time of Nero to the days of Mary, and further on, through the days of Charles the Second, and of those kings of unhappy memory, who had not as yet learned how to spell “toleration.” From the dragoons of Claverhouse, right straight away to the gladiatorial shows of Rome, what a long series of persecutions has the gospel had! But, as the old divines used to say, “The blood of the martyrs” has been “the seed of the Church.” It has been, as the old herbalists had it, like the herb camomile, the more it is trodden on, the more it grows; and the more the Church has been ill treated, the more it has prospered. Behold the mountains where the Albigenses walk in their white garments; see the stakes of Smithfield, not yet forgotten; behold the fields among the towering hills, where brave bands kept themselves free from despotic tyranny. See the pilgrim fathers, driven by a government of persecution across the briny deep. See what vitality the gospel has. Plunge her under the wave, and she rises, the purer for her washing; thrust her in the fire, and she comes out the more bright for her burning; cut her asunder, and each piece shall make another church; behead her, and like the Hydra of old, she shall have a hundred heads for every one you cut away. She cannot die, she must live; for she has the power of God within her.
11. Do you need another proof? I give you a better one than the last. I do not wonder that the Church has outlived persecution, as much as I wonder she has outlived the unfaithfulness of her professed teachers. Never was the church so abused as the Church of Christ has been, all through her history; from the days of Diotrephes, who sought to have the preeminence, even to these latter times, we can read of proud arrogant prelates, and supercilious haughty lords over God’s inheritance. Bonners, Dunstans, and men of all sorts have come into her ranks, and done all they could to kill her; and with their lordly priestcraft they have tried to turn her aside. And what shall we say to that huge apostasy of Rome? A thousand miracles that ever the church outlived that! When her pretended head had become apostate, and all her bishops disciples of hell, and she had gone far away, wonder of wonders, that she should come out, in the days of the glorious reformation, and should still live. And, even now, when I see the supineness of many of my brethren in the ministry, when I see their utter and entire inefficiency for doing anything for God — when I see their waste of time, preaching now and then on the Sunday, instead of going to the highways and hedges, and preaching the gospel everywhere to the poor — when I see the lack of unction in the church itself, the lack of prayerfulness — when I see wars and fightings, factions and disunions — when I see hot blood and pride, even in the meeting of the saints, I say it is a thousand, thousand miracles, that the Church of God should be alive at all, after the unfaithfulness of her members, her ministers, and her bishops. She has the power of God within her, or else she would have been destroyed; for she has enough within her own loins to work her destruction.
12. “But,” one says, “you have not yet proven it is the power of God to my understanding.” Sir, I will give you another proof. There are not a few of you, who are now present, who would be ready, I know, if it were necessary, to rise in your seats, and bear me witness that I speak the truth. There are some who, not many months ago, were drunkards; some who were libertarians; men who were unfaithful to every vow which would keep man to truth, and right, and chastity, and honesty, and integrity. Yes, I repeat, I have some here who look back to a life of detestable sin. You tell me, some of you, that for thirty years even (there is one such present now) you never listened to a gospel ministry, nor ever entered the house of God at all, you despised the Sabbath, you spent it in all kinds of evil pleasures, you plunged headlong into sin and vice, and your only wonder is, that God has not cut you off long ago, as encumberers of the ground: and now you are here, as different as light from darkness. I know your characters and have watched you with a father’s love; for, child though I am, I am the spiritual father of some here, whose years exceed mine by four times the number; and I have seen those of you honest, who were thieves, and those of you sober who were drunkards. I have seen the wife’s glad eye sparkling with happiness; and many a woman has grasped me by the hand, shed her tears upon me, and said, “I bless God; I am a happy woman now; my husband is reclaimed, my house is blessed; our children are brought up in the fear of the Lord.” Not one or two, but scores of such are here. And, my friends, if these are not proofs that the gospel is the power of God, I say, there is no proof of anything to be had in the world, and everything must be conjecture. Yes, and there worships with you this day (and if there is a secularist here, my friend will pardon me for alluding to him for a moment) there is in the house of God this day one who was a leader in your ranks, one who despised God, and ran very far away from right. And here he is! It is his honour this day to own himself a Christian; and I hope, when this sermon is ended, to grasp him by the hand, for he has done a valiant deed; he has bravely burned his papers in the sight of all the people, and has turned to God with full purpose of heart. I could give you proofs enough, if proofs were needed, that the gospel has been to men the power of God and the wisdom of God. More proofs I could give, yes, thousands, one upon the other.
13. But we must notice the other points. Christ’s gospel is the wisdom of God. Look at the gospel itself and you will see it to be wisdom. The man who scoffs and sneers at the gospel, does so for no other reason except that he does not understand it. We have two of the richest books of theology extant that were written by professed infidels — by men that were so, I mean, before they wrote the books. You may have heard the story of Lord Lyttleton and West. I believe they determined to refute Christianity; one of them took up the subject of Paul’s conversion, and the other, the subject of the resurrection; they sat down, both of them, to write books, to ridicule those two events, and the effect was, that in studying the subject they, both of them, became Christians, and wrote books which are now bulwarks to the church they hoped to have overthrown. Every man who looks the gospel fairly in the face, and gives it the study it ought to have, will discover that it is no false gospel, but a gospel that is replete with wisdom, and full of the knowledge of Christ. If any man will cavil at the Bible, he must cavil. There are some men who can find no wisdom anywhere, except in their own heads. Such men, however, are no judges of wisdom. We would not pick a mouse to explain the phenomena of astronomy, nor would we appoint a man who is so foolish as to do nothing but cavil to understand the wisdom of the gospel. It requires that a man should at least be honest, and have some share of sense, or we cannot dispute with him at all. Christ’s gospel, to any man who believes
