him to be God. If you do not think he is God; if you really think that the devil is God, then follow him; his pretended godhead shall be your plea, and you shall be consistent; but if God is God, if he made you, I demand that you serve him; if it is he who puts the breath into your nostrils, I demand that you obey him. If God is really worthy of worship, and you really think so, I demand that you either follow him, or else deny that he is God at all.” Now, professor, if you says that Christ’s gospel is the gospel, if you believe in the divinity of the gospel, and put your trust in Christ, I demand of you to follow the gospel, not merely because it will be to your advantage, but because the gospel is divine. If you make a profession of being a child of God, if you are a believer, and think and believe religion is the best, the service of God the most desirable, I do not come to plead with you because of any advantage you would get by being holy; it is on this I ground that I put it, that the Lord is God; and if he is God, it is your business to serve him. If his gospel is true, and you believe it to be true, it is your duty to carry it out. If you say Christ is not the Son of God, carry out your Jewish or your infidel convictions, and see whether it will end well. If you do not believe Christ to be the Son of God, if you are a Mohammedan, be consistent, carry out your Mohammedan convictions, and see whether it will end well. But, take heed, take heed! If however, you say God is God, and Christ the Saviour, and the gospel true; I demand of you, only on this account, that you carry it out. What a strong plea some would think the prophet might have had, if he had said, “God is your father’s God, therefore follow him!” But no, he did not come down to that; he said, “If God is God — I do not care whether he is your father’s God or not — follow him.” “Why do you go to chapel?” one says, “and not to church?” “Because my father and grandfather were dissenters.” Ask a churchman, very often, why he attends the establishment. “Well, our family were always brought up in it; that is why I go.” Now, I do think that the worst of all reasons for a particular religion, is that of our being brought up in it. I never could see that at all. I have attended the house of God with my father and my grandfather; but I thought, when I read the Scriptures that it was my business to judge for myself. I know that my father and my grandfather take little children in their arms, and put drops of water on their faces, and say they are baptized. I took up my Bible, and I could not see anything about babes being baptized. I picked up a little Greek; and I could not discover that the word “baptized” meant to sprinkle; so I said to myself, “Suppose they were good men, they may be wrong; and though I love and revere them, yet it is no reason why I should imitate them!” And they counted me right, when they knew of my honest conviction; and it was quite right for me to act according to my conviction; for I consider the baptism of an unconscious infant is just as foolish as the baptism of a ship or a bell; for there is as much Scripture for one as the other. And therefore I left them, and became what I am today, a Baptist minister, so called, but I hope a great deal more a Christian than a Baptist. It is seldom I mention it; I only do so by way of illustration here. Many a one will go to chapel, because his grandmother did. Well, she was a good old soul but I do not see that she ought to influence your judgment. “That does not signify,” says one, “I do not like to leave the church of my fathers.” No more do I; I would rather belong to the same denomination with my father; I would not wilfully differ from any of my friends, or leave their sect and denomination; but let God be above our parents; though our parents are at the very top of our hearts, and we love them and reverence them, and in all other matters pay them strict obedience, yet, with regard to religion, to our own Master we stand or fall, and we claim to have the right of judging for ourselves as men, and then we think it our duty, having judged, to carry out our convictions. Now I am not going to say, “If God is your mother’s God, serve him,” Though that would be a very good argument with some of you; but with you waverers, the only plea I use is, “If God is God, serve him”; if the gospel is right, believe it; if a religious life is right, carry it out; if not, give it up. I only base my argument on Elijah’s plea — “If God is God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.”
10. VI. And now I make my appeal to the hesitaters and waverers, with some questions, which I pray the Lord to apply. Now I will put this question to them: “How long do you hesitate?” I will tell them; you will hesitate between two opinions, all of you who are undecided, until God shall answer by fire. Fire was not what these poor people wanted that were assembled there. When Elijah says, that “The God that answers by fire let him be God,” I fancy I hear some of them saying, “No; the God who answers by water let him be God; we need rain badly enough.” “No,” said Elijah, “if rain should come, you would say that it was the common course of providence; and that would not make you decide.” I tell you, all the providences that befall you undecided ones will not make you decide. God may surround you with providences; he may surround you with frequent warnings from the deathbed of your companions; but providences will never make you decide. It is not the God of rain, but the God of fire that will do it. There are two ways in which you undecided ones will be make a decision by and by. You who are decided for God will lack no decision; you that are decided for Satan will lack no decision; you are on Satan’s side, and must dwell for ever in eternal burning. But these undecided ones need something to make them committed, and will have either one of the two things; they will either have the fire of God’s Spirit to make them decide, or else the fire of eternal judgment, and that will make them decide. I may preach to you, my hearers; and all the ministers in the world may preach to you who are wavering, but you will never decide for God through the force of your own will. None of you, if left to your natural judgment, to the use of your own reason, will ever decide for God. You may decide for him merely as an outward form, but not as an inward spiritual thing, which should possess your heart as a Christian, as a believer in the doctrine of effectual grace. I know that not one of you will ever decide for God’s gospel, unless God makes you decide; and I tell you that you must either be decided by the descent of the fire of his Spirit into your hearts now, or else in the day of judgment. Oh! which shall it be? Oh! that the prayer might be put up by the thousand lips that are here: “Lord, make me decide now by the fire of your Spirit; oh! let your Spirit descend into my heart, to burn up the bull, that I may be a whole burnt offering to God; to burn up the wood and the stones of my sin; to burn up the very dust of worldliness; ah, and to lick up the water of my impiety, which now lies in the trenches, and my cold indifference, that seeks to put out the sacrifice.”
Oh make this heart rejoice or ache! —
Decide this doubt for me;
And if it be not broken, break,
And heal it, if it be.
Oh sovereign grace, my heart subdue;
I would be led in triumph too;
A willing captive to my Lord,
To sing the triumphs of his word.
And it may be, that while I speak, the mighty fire, unseen by men, and unfelt by the vast majority of you, shall descend into some heart which has of old been dedicated to God by his divine election, which is now like an altar broken down, but which God, by his free grace, will this day build up. Oh! I pray that that influence may enter into some hearts, that there may be some go out of this place, saying —
’Tis done, the great transaction’s done,
I am my Lord’s, and he is mine;
He drew me, and I followed on
Glad to obey the voice divine.
Now rest my undivided heart, fixed on this stable centre rest. Oh! that many may say that! But remember, if it is not so, the day is coming — dies irae the day of wrath and anger, when you shall be judged by God; when the firmament shall be lit up with lightnings, when the earth shall roll with drunken terror, when the pillars of the universe shall shake, and God shall sit in the person of his Son, to judge the world in righteousness. You will not be undecided then, when, “Depart you cursed,” or “Come, you
