Sermons

Men Without Heart, Sight, or Hearing

Charles Haddon Spurgeon January 8, 1882 Scripture: Deuteronomy 29:4 From: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Volume 28

Men Without Heart, Sight, or Hearing

 

“Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and cars to hear, unto this day.”— Deuteronomy xxix. 4.

 

FEELING, sight, hearing! What wonderful things these are. If we could exist without them what a wretched condition ours would be. The outer world would be unknown to us if the gates of the senses were shut, and the soul would be famished, like Samaria when it was straitly shut up, and there was no going in nor coming out. Take away from us the power of perception by touch, smell, taste, sight, and hearing, and it would be of small account to us that the world was beautiful, for to our consciousness there would scarcely be a world at all. All the colours of the rainbow, the warmth of the sun, the freshness of the breeze, the sweetness of honey, the charms of music, and even the terrors of tempest would cease; the soul would be shut up within the body as within a prison which bad neither doors nor windows. The dreariest dungeon of the Bastille would be liberty compared with such a state. Perhaps the mind might exist, but certainly it could not live: it would be a misuse of language to call it life. When any one of the senses is gone it involves great deprivation, and subjects the person enduring it to the pity of his fellows, but if all were absent what wretchedness must ensue. Loss of sight or hearing creates among us a large number of sufferers who deserve our sympathy, but what mourning would suffice for those, if there were indeed any such, who physically had neither heart to perceive, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear!

     Transfer your thoughts now from these external senses by which we become conscious of the external world to those spiritual senses by which we perceive the spiritual world, the kingdom of heaven, the Lord of that kingdom, and all the powers of the world to come. There is a heart which should be tender, by which we perceive the presence of God and feel his operations, and even behold the Lord himself, as it is written, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” There is a spiritual eye by which the things invisible are discerned, blessed are they to whom the Lord has given to see the things of his kingdom, which to the unrenewed remain hidden in parables. There is a spiritual ear by which we hear the gentle whispers of the Spirit, which frequently come to us internally, without the medium of sounds that can affect the ear. Blessed are those who have the ear which the Lord has purged, and cleansed, and opened, so that it listens to the divine call. But there is no blessedness in the case of men devoid of spiritual feeling, sight, and hearing. Theirs is a miserable plight. Just what the blind man, and the deaf man, and the man who is destitute of feeling would be in the outer world, that many men are as to the spiritual world. Alas, there are among us in this congregation this day, and all around us in myriads, poor souls of whom this text is true, “The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.”

     This is a very, very mournful case; but perhaps the most lamentable aspect of it is that the persons who are thus devoid of the spiritual senses by which they can converse with the best and highest world, are not conscious of their incapacity, or, if partially conscious of it, seem to be stupidly contented to remain as they are. The naturally blind mail would see if he could; what shall I say of those whose inability to see spiritually is wilful, and lies more in their will than anywhere else? The man who cannot hear the voice of his fellow would greatly rejoice if the gates of sound once opened to him; but there are none so deaf as those who will not hear, whose deafness is moral, whose inability to hear the voice of God lies in this fact, that they deliberately close their ears to the voice of holy exhortation. They are ready enough to listen to the siren songs of temptation, and they bend a willing ear to the subtle deceit of the serpent, but they will not regard the tender, loving wisdom of the good Shepherd. They are quick of hearing to evil, but deaf to good. This is the sad part of it: they are blind, and do not want to see; they are deaf, and do not wish to hear. Our poet says—

“How helpless guilty nature lies,
Unconscious of its load.”

In this unconsciousness lies the heart of the mischief. Helpless man is unconscious of his own helplessness. Because they say, “We see,” therefore their sin remaineth. If they were blind and knew it, it were another matter, and signs of hope would be visible; but to be blind and yet to boast of having superior sight, and to ridicule those who see, is the lamentable condition of not a few. They will not thank us for our pity, but much they need it. Eyes have they, but they see not, and yet they glory in their far-sightedness. Multitudes around us are in this plight. When the prophet says, “Bring forth the blind people that have eyes,” we can only wonder where we should put them all if they were willing to assemble in one place. My own spirit feels very heavy in having to preach upon this subject this morning, but I would do so with great tenderness of heart, lamenting while I blame. It seems to me that Moses felt very tenderly to the people whom he here addresses; he puts his meaning in the gentlest conceivable shape when he says, “The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.” He does not excuse, but yet he softly chides. He speaks not with the stern severity of Isaiah when he cried in the name of the Lord, “Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, bub understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.”

     What a sad thing it is that so many are rich in all things except the one thing needful. God has given them abundance of earthly possessions, but he hath not given them eyes to see his bounty, nor ears to hear his voice of love, nor a heart to perceive his presence in the mercies which they enjoy. Such see the harvest, but nob the Great Husbandman; they enjoy the fruitful seasons, but take no delight in the giver of the rain and the sender of the sunshine. What a sad condition to be in! Alas, poor rich man! He has so much and yet so little! And what a lamentable sight is the educated man of this world who is learned in all the lore of the ancients, and versed in all the science of the moderns; who has pried into the secret chambers of knowledge, and has observed the skill of the Eternal in the starry heavens and in microscopic life; and yet with all his attainments has no knowledge of his Maker, and will not accept the evidence of his presence. How sad that we should have to say to such, “Yes, you know all the facts, and yet cannot see beneath their surface; you allow prejudice to blind your eyes to the plain teaching of creation and Providence. You walk through the studio and admire the pictures, and deny the artist’s existence, whereas if you were candid you would believe in him from his works, and then go on to spell out his character from them. Alas, you have not a heart to perceive, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear unto this day.” Well spake the apostle when he said, “Not many great men after the flesh, not many learned are called.” Often those that know the most of the secular know the least of the sacred. Eyes that seem as if they could pierce through rocks, and read the mysteries of primeval night, turn out to be mere sightless eyeballs as to things divine. Yet they know it not, neither guess at their folly. How sad it is that there should be so many who are quick in reasoning, and ready in invention, who cannot see that the visible argues an invisible Creator, and that providential arrangements prove that a Great Father is over all. As Herbert says, they “walk with their staff to heaven,” they thread the stars like beads upon a string, harness the lightning, and weigh the starry orbs, and yet they have not found out their God, who is above, around, without, and within them. They are open-eyed to all things but unto him who filleth all in all. I fear I must apply to them the language of Paul, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”

     This morning I shall speak as I shall be helped by the Holy Spirit, first upon a very mournful fact; secondly, upon a yet more mournful reason for that fact; and thirdly, upon a mournful result, which comes out of that fact. May what is said be taken as a word of warning, and may God the Holy Ghost bless it to the conversion of everyone here present who remains as yet unrenewed. I say everyone, for there is not one among you whom I would knowingly exempt from my prayers.

     I. First, we shall think upon A MOURNFUL FACT. Here was a whole nation, with but very few exceptions, of whom their leader, who knew them best and loved them best, was obliged to say, “The Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive unto this day.” The mournful part of it was, that this was the nation that had been specially favoured of God above all others. God had not entered into covenant with Edom or with Moab; he had not sent the light of his truth to Egypt, or to Ethiopia, nor to any other of the nations of antiquity; but this comparatively little and insignificant people had been selected that to it might be committed the oracles of God. They were the one candlestick of the human race. They had light in their dwellings while all around there brooded a darkness which might be felt. By his name Jehovah the Lord was made known to them when he spake to Moses in the desert, and manifested himself to him in the burning bush. “He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.” He gave to this people revelation after revelation, containing guidance, rule, comfort, and instruction, even as it is written, “He hath not dealt so with any people.” Almost all the light then given was focussed upon Israel, and yet they had not eyes to see. “God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not for want of ears which can hear.” Is not this a dreadful thing? I can understand the other nations being blind and senseless, for they were in the dark, and “the times of their ignorance God winked at”; but for this nation, upon whom the sun of righteousness had risen, to choose darkness and abhor the light is a horrible thing. By the preciousness of the privilege the sin of its rejection was greatly enhanced. This is sad, sad to the uttermost degree of sadness; but is it not the case with some of you? Are there not among you those who have the clearest light, and yet choose the ways of darkness? My dear hearers, be honest with yourselves and answer. Born of godly parents, singled out to be carefully instructed in the things of God, attending a faithful ministry from your youth up, reading your Bible, and being thoroughly versed in its contents, and yet, after all, without godly feeling and gracious perception. I grieve that you should have such privileges, and yet remain strangers to salvation. Will it be so for ever? Shall it always be said of you, “The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day”?

     Note again, that not only were they a highly favoured people, but they had seen very wonderful acts performed by the Lord himself. Moses says, “Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land, the great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs and those great miracles.” Does it not seem deplorable that they could see God lifting his hand against Pharaoh with plague after plague, and yet not acknowledge him to be the only living and true God? Those plagues smote the gods of Egypt, how could Israel ever turn aside to worship such dishonoured deities? Each plague was aimed against some sacred object of Egyptian worship, and the marvel is that these defeated idols should be still reverenced by Israel. Truly, the Lord spoke with a loud voice from heaven, with a voice which even Pharaoh was compelled to hear; and yet his own people heard him not. They saw the plagues, and did not discern the glory of their God so as to remain faithful to him. And that Red Sea! Was not that marvel enough? How often have I wished that I could have been there to see the eager waters leap on Pharaoh and all his hosts! What joy to have heard the sound of the timbrel, and to have seen the twinkling feet of the maidens as they danced and chanted, “Sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea.” Could men stand there and see that, and yet not perceive that the gods of the heathen are idols, and that only Jehovah is the living and true God; and could they shake off the fear and dread of this mighty God from their souls, and turn to worship a golden calf which their own hands have made? Yes, such is the deplorable wickedness of man that if God were to work over again all the miracles of Egypt in the sight of those of you who are unbelievers you would not thereby be converted to his fear. You would be staggered by the wonder, but you would not be converted by the witness. Something else is wanted over and above all miracles or ever the blinded eye will care to see, or the hardened heart will begin to feel. You also have witnessed great deeds of grace in our midst, and yet you are not convinced. You even believe in all the miracles of Scripture, and in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, and yet you do not trust in him. Ah me, what can I say? What can I do but mourn over you?

     In addition to this, these people had passed through a very remarkable experience. They had been brought out of Egypt by miracle, and by the same power they had passed through the depths of the sea as on dry land. Moses thus describes their wilderness history. “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot. Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the Lord your God.” All these forty years they lived by miracles, and yet they neither feared, nor loved, nor trusted Jehovah their God who wrought all these signs among them. As a nation they did not receive the spiritual teachings which the Lord set before them. Bo you blame them? Look at home. Are they the only people who have thus offended? May I not be addressing some to-day whose experience has been singularly full of mercy and love? God has been strangely gracious to you, my friend. He has led you by a way that you knew not, and, if you could but see it, his hand has been conspicuously with you from the time when you left your father’s house unto this day. I know not to whom I may be speaking, but I am persuaded that there are some here whose career has been specially marked by the providence of God. Yours has been no common journey of life. You have been preserved in accident and restored from sickness. The stars in their courses have seemed to fight for you, and the stones of the field have leagued to defend you, and yet you do not observe the hand of the Lord in all this. The Lord has girded you though you have not known him; he has guided you, restrained you, delivered you, instructed you, even though you have not deigned to think of him. Yea, he has saved you from the consequences of your own folly, or you would long ere this have been a beggar, or a mass of sores, or a prisoner in the last dread dungeon. He has interposed to save you from your own folly; and here you are where mercy pleads, and grace holds out her silver sceptre. Alas, even to this day you have not a heart to perceive the longsuffering of God, nor eyes to see your obligations, nor ears to hear the wooings of his love; but you are going on still in rebellion against God. Shall it always be so? It is grievous that it has been thus so long; is there no turning? Is there no relenting? Must you die in your sins?

     In addition to all this sight and experience the Israelites had received remarkable instruction. In the wilderness the Lord taught them by Moses and Aaron. The tabernacle was pitched in their midst, according to the pattern which Moses had seen on the mount, and there a worship was instituted, every part of which was singularly rich in instruction, as we all know to this day. There was not a lamb slaughtered, nor a lamp kindled, nor a handful of incense burned on the altar, nor a curtain folded up, nor a silver socket set in its place without some moral and spiritual significance. Had they desired to learn it, they might have discovered in the tabernacle in the wilderness great store of teachings as to those things which make for the peace and salvation of men: but they had no heart to perceive, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear; and so the whole apparatus of teaching was lost upon them. Ah, dear hearers, you may enjoy the most lucid instruction, you may have line upon line, precept upon precept, you may read God’s Book itself, and you may observe the experience of Christians, and you may have all their love and affection to help you to understand the things of God; and yet for all that you may remain without spiritual perception. All the external processes of holy teaching may spend themselves in vain upon you for forty, or fifty, or sixty, or even seventy years, and you may remain still blind and unfeeling. You may know the letter of doctrine, and yet never perceive its meaning; you may see the logical nature and certainty of a sacred truth, and yet never see its bearings upon yourself. Does your present condition prove this assertion? Are ye also without understanding? Are ye still untaught in the things of God? O that the Holy Spirit may now create in you a new heart, and bestow both spiritual eyes and ears upon you.

     One thing else is worth notice, that these people had been associated with remarkable characters. They were not all blinded, there were a few among them who were gracious, and so were made to perceive. Caleb and Joshua were there, and Aaron and Miriam; but chiefly there was Moses, grandest of men, true father of the nation. It was something to have lived in a camp where you could speak with such a man as Moses, who had seen God face to face, so that upon his brow there rested the glow of Deity when he came down from the mount. You, too, my friends, have met with those whose conversation has been in heaven, and whose lives are bright with communion with the Lord. If we do not see and will not see where another sees so clearly, we stand condemned. A man who counts himself highly intelligent stands with me upon the hill and looks abroad upon a fair landscape, over which hangs a wonderful sky bedecked with fleecy clouds, while at our feet blooms a wealth of lovely flowers; he tells me that in all this he sees no evidence of God. Is he not blind? As for me, I feel myself surrounded by the all-embracing Deity, and bis presence is the greatest fact of my consciousness:—

“God hath a presence, and that ye may see
In the fold of the flower, the leaf of the tree;
In the sun of the noon-day, the star of the night;
In the storm-cloud of darkness, the rainbow of light;
In the waves of the ocean, the furrows of land;
In the mountains of granite, the atom of sand;
Turn where ye may, from the sky to the sod,
Where can ye gaze that ye see not a God?”

Now, either I am a liar or else my neighbour is sadly dull of perception; and as I know that I speak the truth I know also that he is blind. If Moses saw, he by that fact left the rest of the people without excuse. That they would not perceive was exceedingly provoking to the Lord, for among them God was manifest in the most remarkable manner. The Lord came from Sinai and the Holy One from Paran, from the top of the smoking mount he spake with voice of trumpet and with sound of thunder: the earth shook and trembled beneath his feet. The Lord was among them conspicuously in the flaming pillar by night and in the shadowing cloud by day. Israel saw the glory of her God, she could not help seeing it; and yet the people refused to behold him, and asked, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Moses said of them, “They are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” Even to the very end of forty years of patient instruction they remained without the true knowledge of God. Ah me! This is sad, most sad; but I fear that in this congregation we have a number who are in like case. Years have not brought them grace, nor has a lifetime yielded them wisdom. They have seen God’s wonders of grace upon their friends and relatives, they have also tasted of the Lord’s goodness in their own lives, and they have heard his voice in the preaching of the gospel, for Jesus Christ has been set forth evidently crucified among them, and yet they have not seen the Lord, and do not hear him even unto this day. This is no new thing, but it is none the less a grief of heart to those of us who fear the Lord and feel a love for souls. Brethren, remember that these Jews in subsequent generations had great prophets among them, and what was the success of their labour? Did they not cry, “Who hath believed our report?” At length they saw the Son of God among them, and how did he speed? Jesus himself, with all his miracles of grace and words of love, came unto his own people and they received him not, but cried, “Crucify him, crucify him.” How true it is that nothing can bless men till almighty grace renews them. If one should rise from the dead men would not repent unless they were renewed. There is no miracle that God can do, there is no marvel that omnipotence itself can perform, which can make men see who have no spiritual eyes. Nothing can make men feel so long as their hearts remain hardened against the Most High. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Verily is it written with truth, “Ye must be gift of grace. Our misery is our own work, but our salvation is of the Lord.

     III. I conclude by noticing what was THE MOURNFUL RESULT of these people being so highly favoured and privileged, and yet not seeing nor discerning their God. The result was, first, that they missed a happy portion. I can hardly imagine how happy the children of Israel might have been. They left Egypt with a high hand and an outstretched arm, their ears were hung with jewels, and their purses were filled with riches, while around them manna dropped from heaven, and cool streams flowed at their side. They might have made a quick march to the promised land, and at once entered their rest, for their God who had sent the hornet before them would soon have driven out their adversaries. “How should one have chased a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.” In the land of promise they would have dwelt securely, and God would have given them rest. Then would the heavens have heard the earth, and the earth would have yielded such harvests that one year in seven they would have had no need either to sow or reap, but would have spent their whole time in praising God; and then a jubilee would have come every seventh seven, in which with high-sounding cymbals they would magnify the Most High. They would have known no invading enemy, and felt neither blast, nor blight, nor mildew; in fact, they would have been the happiest nation under heaven: “He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.” They flung all this on one side: they would not have God, and so they could not have prosperity. They walked contrary to him, and he walked contrary to them; they would not obey him, and therefore his anger smoked against them.

     Think, moreover, what a glorious destiny they threw aside. Had they been equal to the occasion, by God’s grace they might have been a nation of kings and priests, they might have been the Lord’s missionaries to all lands, the light-bearers to all peoples. Every arrangement was made to enable them to live a godly, holy, joyous, sanctified life. They ate angels’ food, and they might have lived angels’ lives, acting as heralds, to tell out to others what wonders God had wrought for them. Alas, they could not see the moral grandeur of so high a calling, and they thought more of eating flesh than of honouring the Lord and teaching his law. I would like to say to some of you that God has been setting before you an open door, and yet you have not perceived him, nor loved him. He would make saints of you and you are content to be money-grubbers. You have judged yourselves unworthy of the prize which he has set before you. You do not know what a happy lot you have declined. So lately you were a young man,— you are getting to middle life now,— and you do not know what golden opportunities you have wasted. As Cleopatra melted pearls and swallowed them at a draught, so have you drunk down the possibilities of glory as if they were common things. What might not God have done with some of you if your hearts had been given to him years ago. By this time you might have achieved a lifework, glorious to God, honourable to yourself, and happy to your friends. The stuff is in you which might have been moulded into a minister, a missionary, a soul-winner, and you might have been among the happiest and best of men. Nor does the waste end with yourself, you are causing damage to many others. Your children are growing up to follow your follies, wasting their lives as you have squandered yours! Oh, had you yielded to Jesus years ago your song might have been your honour and comfort, and your daughters your joy and delight. You have flung away such opportunities as could not be bought for gold. Thus saith the Lord, “Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.” Happy are God’s people, but wretched are they who being placed where they could see God’s hand yet will not see it, where they could hear God’s voice yet will not hear it, but refuse the kingdom of heaven which hath come so near unto them.

     Another result was that while they missed so high a position, they went on sinning. As they did not learn the lesson God was teaching them, namely, that he was God, and that to serve him was their joy and their prosperity, they went from one evil to another, provoking the Lord to jealousy. From repining and murmuring they went on to rebelling. “Let us make a captain,” said they, “and let us return into Egypt.” From being idolatrous they became lascivious, and fell into the sin of uncleanness with the women of Moab. Often they were actual idolaters, and always they were unstable of heart. So they went from one sin to another because they had not a heart to perceive, nor ears to hear their God.

     Hence they frequently suffered. A plague broke out at one time, and a burning at another; at one time they were visited with fever, and anon the earth opened beneath them; one day the Amalekites smote them, another day fiery serpents leaped up from the sand, and they died by thousands, being poisoned by their bites. They suffered much and often, and in all their trials they did but reap what they had sown, A man does not know what he is doing when he sins. We tell our naughty children that we have rods in pickle for them; and this is assuredly the case with the great Father, who hath chastisement laid up for the people who wilfully revolt from him. He brings forth sorrow and wrath for those who harden their hearts and continue in their iniquities. Ah, my hearers, how many of you are this clay reaping what your own hands have sown.

     At last this evil ended terribly. The Lord lifted his hand to heaven, and swore that the rebellious generation should not enter into his rest, and they began to die by wholesale till Moses cried, “We are consumed by that thine came anger out, and by thy, wrath are we troubled.” Not one of the men that came out of Egypt, save only Joshua and Caleb, reached one of the men promised land. Whenever they pitched their tents at eventide the first thing was to celebrate the funerals of the day. The tribes marched on, and on the march they stumbled into their graves, till the whole of that peninsula in which they had to wander up and down for forty years became one vast cemetery, wherein the thousands of Israel were all buried. Who slew all these? Not by the sword of the enemy nor by the arrow of the foe were they destroyed; but sin laid them in heaps as in the day of battle. They could not enter in because of their unbelief. The land that flowed with milk and honey lay smiling in the calm sunlight, on the other side of Jordan, but they could not enter in because they had no heart to perceive, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear the Lord and his word. And this is the main misery of your condition, O ye careless ones, that you will not be able to enter into God’s rest either here or hereafter. This is the misery of it to me, that I must set Christ before some of you and you will never have him; that I must extol his atoning blood, but you will refuse to be washed in it; that I must go on declaring my Lord’s message as long as this tongue can move, and bidding you believe in Jesus Christ and find eternal life, but still of some of you I shall have always to say, “The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.”

     Alas, your eyes will be opened one day, in another sense. “The rich man seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” Who was that? That was a Jew of the kind I have described, who had everything in this life, being clothed in purple, and faring sumptuously every day, but he had no heart to perceive nor eyes to see. “In hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.” Oh, my hearers, hell’s torments will open your eyes. Will you wait till then? O ye ungodly ones, you will think then. I pray God you may have sense enough to think now, while thinking will be of use to you. If there be a heaven, seek it; if there be a hell, escape it; if there be a God, love him; if there be a Christ, trust him; if there be sin, seek to be washed from it; if there be pardon, rest not till you have it. Oh do not mock your Saviour! Do not make game of eternal realities! Be in earnest about this, and in earnest at once. If you must play the fool, trifle with something less precious than your souls. Procure toys less expensive than your own immortal destinies. Oh, that God would bless this word to you careless ones, that you may feel at once that you do not feel as you should, and begin to cry to God to give you feeling; that you may see that you do not see, and begin to cry, “Lord, open my eyes;” that you may hear this morning a voice which shall make you feel that you do not hear as you ought to hear, and therefore must ne’er cry to God to give you hearing. Remember that spiritual life is from God only. It is his gift, and it is not bestowed according to merit, but is given by pure grace to the unworthy. Seek it, and you shall have it, for so it is written, “He that asketh receiveth, he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Will your ears again refuse the language of his grace? Will you still go to your farm and to your merchandise, to your labour and to your amusement, and reject the voice that calls you to glory and immortality? Will you trample upon the bleeding love of Jesus? Oh, then, what shall I do, and to whom shall I turn? I must go back to my Master, mourning with Isaiah, “Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Lord, reveal thine arm, and then they will believe the report. Amen and Amen.

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