heart and soul." I should have hoped to preach a hundred times better than I have ever done. If it had been put to any one of you, do you not think you would have said, "I will serve him with my whole being. Redeemed by his blood, pressed to his bosom as a dear, returning child, clothed in the best robe, with a ring on my finger and shoes on my feet, I will live to my Father's praise, ay, live with such intensity that even apostles and martyrs shall not excel me." You have not done so, my friend, but the text calls you and me to do it, and suggests to us a gratitude which shall manifest itself in effort, and glow in every action of our daily life. Again, my text has another teaching. It is a reminder of responsibilities. God has made a great difference between you and others in many respects, and given you a great many blessings; and forget not that where much is given much will be required. If you have ten talents, have you brought in the tenfold interest? If you possess five talents, have you brought in the fivefold return? It is to be deeply regretted that some of those who have the most ability to do good are doing the least. There are men with large wealth who do not give half as much as many with straitened means. I know persons of great attainments in spiritual knowledge who do not teach one half so much as newly converted lads and girls, who occupy their posts in the school right earnestly, and teach what little they know. I regret to say it, that those who could fight best are often the last to go to battle, and those who could plough best most often leave the ploughshare to rust, while feebler hands are worn to the bone. Brother, I will not deny that you have much knowledge, nor question that you have much experience, nor debate with you your right to be our superior; but if you be so, be so good as to excel us in consecration, in self-denial, in earnestness, and in holiness. In estimating our personal character, let us not so much calculate what we could be, as what we are. Let us not so much consider what we might be if we would, but what we really are doing for the Lord, for that is the matter of most importance. You may be a well of water, but you will get no credit for it at the last; the reward comes for the cup of cold water that was given to a disciple in the name of a disciple. You may be a great bale of cloth, but you will get no honourable mention for it at the last great day; the commendation will be to those of whom the Lord shall say, "I was naked, and ye clothed me." You may have a fat larder and a fine buttery, but the honour shall only come to you at the last if it can be said, "I was an hungered and ye gave me meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me drink, sick and in prison, and ye visited me." God grant we all may think of our responsibilities, so that you who could take long strides may not be satisfied to walk like little children; that you who could do a giant's work may not be satisfied with attempting that which might be creditable enough in a dwarf, but is not at all worthy of your greater powers. Learn another lesson. The truth before us is a suggestion of great tenderness in dealing with others! Allow me for a minute to press that consideration upon you. "Who maketh thee to differ?" Who but a gracious God has renewed your heart? Yet you met the other day with a man fast bound with bad habits, and you said, "Nothing can be done with such a wreck of man. I will not waste words upon him." Another day you heard of an effort made in the back slums among the lowest of the low, and you said, "I do not think much can come of it." Now, my dear friend, "Who maketh thee to differ? What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" It would be better to drink into the spirit of holy John Bradford, whose window looked upon the road to the gallows at Tyburn, and as from day to day he saw poor condemned prisoners carried in the cart to die, he was wont to say, "There goes John Bradford but for the grace of God." If you feel so, let me ask you why cannot the grace of God cause others to fear God as well as yourself? Cannot the grace of God make other sinners to believe in Jesus as you do? I have never despaired of the salvation of any man since the Lord saved me. I know no heart that God cannot win if he could conquer mine. If you believe in your heart the precious doctrines of grace, you cannot be hopeless of any, but you must be ready to hope for those in whom there is nothing to encourage expectation. We ought never to look for desert in others, since the Lord did not look for desert in us. If Jesus loved us when there was no reason in us for that love, we ought just as freely to love our fellow men. The last lesson is not for the Christian. It is for any of you here who wish you were saved. The text is an encouragement for seekers. You have begun another year, and you are yet unsaved? But still you do desire, if it be possible, to become children of God. Now, do you know an eminent Christian? "Yes," say you, "I do." Perhaps it is your revered grandmother, or it may be some earnest Christian minister. You greatly admire those people, do you not? Now remember that there is nothing good in them but what they have received from God. The Lord can give the like grace to you, and you can receive even as they have received. Do you believe that? It is true whether you believe it or not. The Lord in his abundant mercy can give to you what he has given to the best of his saints, whoever you may be. "Then what have I to do?" says one. What you have to do is, according to the text, to be a receiver. That is all-and that is the easiest thing in the world. Anybody here can be a receiver. When you go past the offering box for the College, perhaps some of you cannot be givers, however much you may wish to be; but if I were to put a man at the door with a shilling or a guinea for each one, anybody could receive it if he chose. Reception is a faculty which belongs to us however low we may sink. When a person is covered with rags, covered with filth, covered with disease, he can still become a receiver; and even if he cannot stretch out his hand, he can find ways and means for receiving. Receiving implies neither strength, nor merit, nor wisdom. It requires no power, no faculty, no virtue, no anything; the power to be a receiver dwells with the weakest of the weak and the worst of the worst. The emptier you are, the more room there is for reception; the blacker you are, the more room to receive washing; the fouler you are, the more reason to receive cleansing ; the more sick and near to death, the more room to receive healing. Wilt thou have the blessing which God in Christ Jesus is ready to give? If thou wilt be saved hearken to the voice of God and live! If you are willing to accept his Son Jesus Christ as thy Saviour, and from this time forth put thine whole trust in him, thou shalt be saved. May he of his grace lead thee now to become a receiver, for it is written, "As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God; even to them that believe on his name.' Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-Romans iii. 9-27. Ephesians ii. 1-13. HYMNS FROM OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"-219, 235, 247. First Series. Price 2s. 6d. LECTURES то MY STUDENTS: A Selection from Addresses delivered to the Students of the Pastors' College, Metropolitan Tabernacle, by C. H. SPURGEON. COMMENTING AND COMMENTARIES: Second Series Price 2s. 6d. LECTURES то MY STUDENTS: A Selection from Addresses delivered to the Students of the Pastors' College, Metropolitan Tabernacle, by C. H. SPURGEON. "The next best thing to having a good library is to be able to know what book affords special guidance on a particular subject, and where and how to get it. This desideratum Mr. Spurgeon's second volume (Commenting and Commentaries) supplies, and three half-crowns could not be better expended than in getting these three books, so making a good start for a Working Christian's Library at the commencement of the new year."-The Young Men's Magazine. PASSMORE & ALABASTER, 4, Paternoster Buildings; and all Booksellers. SPEAK FOR YOURSELF. A CHALLENGE! A Sermon DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "He is of age; ask him he shall speak for himself.”—John ix. 21 THOSE of you, dear friends, who were present this morning will remember that our subject was "Jesus Christ himself."* We dwelt upon his blessed person. Our faith is fixed on him; our affections are drawn to him; our hopes all bend toward him. Though everything he said or did is precious, yet Jesus himself stands first in our estimation. To know him, to believe him, to love him, is the very essence of our Christianity. To-night we change our theme. There is a "himself" in our text this evening a "himself" 'tis true of a much humbler order. How stand we each one for himself? Our individuality and the personal responsibilities which fall upon ourselves in reference to Christ must not be lost sight of. If, for instance, a spiritual miracle has been wrought upon us, if we are obliged to confess-nay, if we are delighted to confess-that he has opened our eyes, then we are bound, especially those of us who are of ripe understanding, who may be said to be of full age, we are bound to bear our own personal testimony to him. The allegation and the appeal may alike apply to each one of us, " He is of age; ask him : he shall speak for himself." Jesus Christ himself bore our sins, as we heard this morning. He gave himself for us, he served us, not by proxy, but by personal consecration; not by alms doled out pitifully, but by his life surrendered as a sacrifice to God cheerfully. Has he thus commended his love to us, what less can we do in return than bear our own brave, bold, personal testimony for him? What a parallel there is between this man's case and our own. He had suffered from a grievous, personal evil. He was born blind. So we were born in sin. Sin has cast its blindness over our faculties from our very birth. We shall never forget the midnight of our nature. We could not see even the beauties of Christ himself, though resplendent as the sun at noonday, so blind were we. This man was personally delivered from his ailment, and so have we been delivered, I trust. I know many here who can say that, whereas they were blind, now they see. You have received, as the blind man did, a personal blessing, being endowed with sight. The blemish that blighted your life has been healed. It is not that somebody sees for you, and tells you what he sees, but you see for yourself. It is not merely imputed to you that you see, because you have been told what somebody else saw. Now you have no proxy in the matter, no sponsor in the business. You yourself are conscious that a work of grace has been wrought upon you, whereas you were blind now you see, and you know it. The blind man was cured through personal obedience to Christ's command. He heard a special call addressed to him-" Go, wash in the pool." He went, and came seeing. And many here present have heard the voice which says, " Believe and live," and it has come to you, not as a general exhortation, but as a special direction. You have believed and you do live. You have washed, and you have come seeing. Well now, all this is personal, therefore your Lord and Master has a right to expect a personal testimony from you of his power to save. You are of age. When any ask you, I trust you will speak for yourself. Speak up, and speak out for your Master without hesitancy or fear. I. THERE ARE TIMES WHEN SAVED MEN ARE POSITIVELY COMPELLED TO SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. They must of necessity bear their personal witness. What else can they do when friends desert them? Father and mother were quite willing to own this young man-that he was their sonquite willing to bear their witness that he was born blind, but they would not go any farther. They could have gone farther if they liked, but they were afraid of that sentence of excommunication which the Jews had already agreed upon: that if any man did confess that Jesus was the Christ he should be put out of the synagogue. So, feeling very little compunction in declining to take any responsibility themselves, for they had great and probably well-founded confidence in their son's power to take care of himself, they did, as it were, abandon him. They threw upon him the stress and onus of giving a plain answer, which would have incurred such obloquy. They backed out of it. They had no wish whatever to become the subjects of persecution because their blind son had been blessed with sight. The young man who had been blind must therefore do battle himself for the good Lord who had bestowed so great a benefit on him. "Ask him," said his parents, "he will speak for himself." There are times with many young people when their parents, if they do not frown upon their religion, at least turn the cold shoulder to them, and show no sympathy with their faith or their feelings. Some of us are rejoiced when our sons are converted. We are not ashamed to stand by them and to defend them and to protect them whatever may come of it. But there are fathers and mothers who themselves have no liking for the things of God, and so their children, if they are converted, have a hard time of it. I have known even some who profess to be disciples of Christ hold back very suspiciously, and leave others to champion the Master's cause when it has come to a hard push. In a |