THE
WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD
PREACHED
ON WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 2, 1851,
BY
THE REV. C.G. FINNEY,
Modernized by Cliff Collins
“Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20 : 26,27)
I am preaching from this scripture, as some of you are aware, at Dr. Campbell’s request. As much as I have labored as an Evangelist, and the many times I have been called to part with those amongst whom I have labored, I have never let myself preach from this passage. When the Doctor asked me to do so this evening, I told him that I didn’t feel as if I could; there are so many inspiring things in it about the Apostle; and I am also reluctant to preach on it, lest someone should suggest that I am, in some way, comparing myself with the Apostle Paul. Nothing is further from my purpose or desire. In speaking from this passage I ask:
WHAT IS INTENDED BY THE ASSERTION THAT THE APOSTLE
PAUL WAS INNOCENT OF THE BLOOD OF ALL MEN
This will be best explained by referring to what
Ezekiel says about the same subject. In
fact, he almost uses the same words in the third chapter of his prophecy. “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for
the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning
from Me: When I say to the wicked, ‘You
shall surely die’, and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked
from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his
iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness,
nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered
your soul.
Again, when a righteous man turns from his
righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he
shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and
his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I
will require at your hand.
Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the
righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he
took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.” (Ezekiel 3:17-21)
Here is the same principle that Paul mentions, and
it explains what he meant. In
scripture, the blood is said to be the life.
This language is figurative. The
life of the soul is called its blood.
To be innocent of the blood of men, then, is to be innocent of the
charge of unfaithfulness to their souls.
To be innocent of the blood of all men, in the sense in which the apostle
says he is, means that he is not to blame if they lose their souls: he has done
his duty to them: if their souls are lost they must answer for it, not
him. In discussing this passage in more
detail, I plan to cover the following three thoughts:
I. THE SOUL HAS INFINITE VALUE.
II. THE SOUL CAN’T BE LOST WITHOUT INFINITE GUILT
SOMEWHERE; BECAUSE INFINITE RESPONSIBILITY MUST BE INCURRED SOMEWHERE.
III. THE CONDITIONS WHERE ALL WHO HAVE THIS
RESPONSIBILITY ARE INNOCENT OF THE BLOOD OF A SOUL.
I. THE SOUL
HAS INFINATE VALUE
This theme is so vast that when an individual
meditates or dwells on it, he is completely overwhelmed. It is like the concept of eternity: the mind
seems to topple in the attempt to grasp it.
The mind becomes agitated and agonized trying to meditate on it. In the Bible, the soul is always represented
as having great value. You all know
that everything that is really valuable must belong to the soul; for nothing
can be valuable except when it is used as a means to promote the welfare and
well‑being of the soul: only those things that make up the well‑being
of our souls are valuable. Remove our
soul from the universe, and what is there left of any real value: Joy and
sorrow, pleasure and pain, all these belong to our soul. This is especially true for all intelligent
minds, that is for all moral agents.
You see, I am talking about the souls of moral agents. We only know a little about animals, and
therefore we can’t say much about them.
When we speak of the souls of men, we refer to some things that we believe
are immortal.
Now let me say, the first thought concerning the
value of the soul is this: it will exist for an eternity; it must live
forever! Once a soul has come into
being, it will exist forever! It will
grow older and older, and live onward and onward and onward as long as God
lives! Now think about that! I wish I could spend more time on this. But another consideration is that, from the
very nature of our mind, we must be either happy or miserable; and furthermore,
as long as our mind endures, its enjoyments or sufferings will be continually
and everlastingly increasing. This must
be true. This is the result of a
natural and necessary law. The means of
greater happiness or misery will increase with time. The mind will continually increase in knowledge, and, because of
this, the power of the mind and its capacity for enjoyment or misery will always
be growing. (Note: for more on this
topic, read “the Infinite Worth of the Soul”, a message Mr. Finney preached on
Dec 22, 1850)
Now, let us elaborate a little on the thought just
presented. After our soul is created,
it goes on enjoying or suffering forever and ever, and so our capacity for
enjoyment or suffering also increases over time; and our capacity at any time
in our future state will be full of either one set of feelings or the
other. Furthermore, it is easy to see
that the time must come when each of us will be either enjoying or suffering
more than would fill the thoughts and feelings of everybody alive today. If you could unite into one soul all the
knowledge and feelings that exists in the universe today, except God of course,
that soul would not be capable of experiencing the fullness of the joy or the
suffering that you will experience some time in the far distant future. Indeed such a soul would fall infinitely
short of experiencing the joy or sorrow that each one of you, at some point in
eternity, will be capable of experiencing.
Every individual in this house tonight, the youngest child or the
weakest mind, must live forever, even after the elements shall have been melted
by fire, and the universe has rolled together as a scroll and passed away with
a great noise.
Therefore, the time must come when each of you, no
matter what condition your soul is in tonight, will be able to look back on the
lengthened ages you will have lived, the vast number of ages that will have
faded away, and remember all your sorrows and your joys, and be able to say,
“Ah! I have enjoyed”, or suffered, as the case may be, “in my personal
experience, more than all of God’s creatures have ever suffered or enjoyed
before I was born”. And when you say
that, you will infinitely fall short of the truth. The time will come when the
youngest child in this congregation will be able to say, “I am older now than
any creature of God was when I was born.
In fact, if you were to add the ages up of all the people that had ever
lived up until the day I was born, I am not only older than but also more
experienced now than all of them were put together. Yes, and I have received more favors, mercy, and grace from God
now, than they all had received when I was born. And they all have been progressing and receiving additional
favors just like me. They are as far
ahead of me now as they were then, for God has not limited His favors to
me. The time will come when the last
admitted inhabitant of heaven will be able to say, I know more about God now
than they all knew when I first came here; I am older now than they all were
then added together. Even now, there is
so much more knowledge that my single cup of knowledge can hold, just the knowledge
that flows over the side of my cup would have filled all their cups back
then.” But what have you said even when
you have said this? “There is still an
eternity waiting for me!” You may roll
on the waves of the ocean in that direction forever, for there is neither shore
nor wall; neither height, nor depth, nor bottom. Infinity is on every side!
For eighteen hundred years Paul has been in heaven,
and with him are his spiritual children, those who were converted under his
ministry. At some period in eternity
the youngest child now alive, or ever will live, who gets to heaven, will be
able to say, I now know a thousand times more about God and heaven than Paul
did when he was on earth, or than all the church of God combined knew at that
time. ( But, my brothers and sisters,
this is only a very faint concept of eternity and the progress of the mind in a
future state.) Draw out this thought to
any possible or conceivable extent: let any calculation be made: let your mind
stretch itself to its limit, and what then?
Why, you have only just touched your foot on the threshold of
eternity. You are no closer to the end
than when you made your first step. The
joy of heaven is always and absolutely perfect: the soul will be continually
and forever rising and rising nearer to God, but there will never be any
approaching to a close in anything there, seeing that everything is absolutely
infinite!
Now, lets turn it over and look at the other
side. Think about an individual who
goes on sinning, and sinning, just as if hell didn’t exist! There was a first time when you consented to
sin, and there was the first pang of conscience in your little mind, and a tear
gathered in your little eye. Could
anybody have looked into your little heart, and beheld that twinge of your
little conscience, and seen that heavy sigh, could they have thought that you
would ever sin again? Ah! But, then you repeated that sin again and
again, and you have continued sinning until now! Just think then, for a moment, what will happen when that
individual goes into eternity! There,
every restraint will be taken away. The
pleasures of sin are cut off; and every good influence will pass away
forever. That person received all his
good gifts and good things before he died.
He abused God’s mercy, rejected God’s gospel, grieved God’s Spirit, all
in spite of the Spirit of grace, and went on in sin; and now, in eternity, he
is sinning with increasing vigor, rushing endlessly deeper into sin! Ah!
Think of the many sorrows, the many agonies, the many hours of remorse
that the sinner has to endure here on earth.
But then, in a future world, when conscience will do its duty perfectly,
when there is no diverting his attention from his true condition; when he
cannot shut his eyes to the truth; what will be his agony and remorse then? What will be his remorse when he feels that
his soul is lost, and lost forever? He
can’t repent of his sins then!
No! But he
still goes on sinning! Sinner, if you
are numbered with the lost, the period in that awful eternity will arrive when
you will have sinned more than all the devils in hell have sinned up until
now! All the devils in the whole world
have not yet created such a source of misery, as you will experience sometime
in the distant future if you are lost!
Oh! All the devils, and all the
wicked men who have left our world to be their companions in woe, have not
together, committed as many sins as you will be able to claim as your own. The day must arrive when, to try to number
your sins, would be an inexpressible source of your deepest agony. Who can count them? Who can compute them? What but an infinite mind could look at them
without being so overcome as to wail out in the agonies of despair if the mind
was not infinitely holy?
You cannot truly believe in immortality, taking it
as a truth into your mind, and meditating on it from any point of view, without
feeling as if your nerves were on fire with such convictions as these. However, I must not dwell on this, or I
could keep you here all night. Next, I
will show:
II. THAT NO SOUL OF SUCH INFINITE VALUE CAN BE LOST
WITHOUT SOMEBODY INCURRING AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF RESPONSIBILITY AND GUILT.
God is, in a three-fold sense, the owner of every
one of these souls. First, He created
all of them. Second, He preserved all
of them, and third, He redeemed all of them by the precious blood of
Christ. They cost Him an infinite
price, and He will not see them lost without asking why. With a word, He gave existence to the
material universe. God can speak, and
by the energy of His own word, world rises upon world, and system upon system,
and by the same means He can populate them all; but He can’t redeem sinners
this way. Once a soul has sinned, they
become spiritually dead, and incur the penalty of God’s law; and to save them
from the impending destruction was a different work to that of creation, and
could not be performed simply by executing some decree. To redeem these souls
was a work that cost God an infinite price.
To authorize these laws by which the universe came into existence, was
comparatively easy, even though it required the power of a God. But to redeem you, sinner, to purchase you
back, to set you free from the penalty of God’s law; to make an atonement, that
God might be just and still save you, cost an infinite price! It cost God’s beloved and only Son! For more than thirty years, Jesus endured
intense suffering, labor, persecution, and misrepresentation for you, and
finally, your redemption cost Him His life.
Ah! Under the charge of
blasphemy, the Son of God must die for you and for me! God, for man, gave His son, His only son,
His well beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased. The Son of God must die!
What a sacrifice! It was
infinite!
Think brethren, of the immense self‑denial
that heaven was subjected to! Think of
that work which the glory of the Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
combined to carry on with the greatest self‑denial; and all this to save
the soul! What a testimony this is to
its value! Here, we learn God’s opinion
of the value of the soul. Think of the
self‑denial that the Father must have had that enabled Him to consent to
send His only and well beloved Son as a missionary to this world. What did the inhabitants of heaven think
about it? There must have been a
tremendous scene in heaven when the Son of the Eternal Father was sent off as a
missionary to save this dying world!
We talk about missionaries to the lost, and the
self‑denial that they must practice, and we hold meetings when it’s time
for them to travel to distant lands, so we can show our sympathy and mingle our
tears with theirs, sing hymns to God, and pray together and give them our
blessings, our prayers, and our gifts.
All this is highly proper; but what happened in heaven when it was announced
that the Son of God was going as a missionary to this world to save us rebels
by His blood? There must have been
tears of grief as well as tears of inexpressible joy at what was going to take
place, sympathy for the inhabitants of this world, astonishment at the love of
God, and wonder at what the Son of God was going to accomplish. The whole plan, when it was first announced
in heaven, must have filled every part of that world with unutterable joy and
sympathy. Oh, how many millions of
hearts were united in sympathy with this wonderful mission that the Son of God
had undertaken.
Now listen!
God has committed to each of you one of these immortal souls -- your
soul; and He has made provision for its eternal life although it was doomed to
die, and He has commanded each one of us to take care of our soul. He asks you, “What will you give in exchange
for your soul”? “What shall it profit a
man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” (Matt 16:26) In every way, God expresses His own idea of the infinite value of
the soul. He has charged every man to
make it his first business to secure his soul from eternal death. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness;" (Matt 6:33) and He promises that those who do this will
lose nothing by it. “And all other things
shall be added unto you.” Everything
else that you need shall be thrown in, if you will only be careful not to lose
your soul! “Seek first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness.” This charge
is given to every man! This solemn
charge is given to every woman! “I have
entrusted you with an immortal soul. Be
careful that you don’t lose it! I
infinitely prize it. I have given my
Son to die for it. I love it with an everlasting
love! But I cannot save it without your
cooperation. I must have your
consent. I must have your heart. I must have your sympathy. Take care that you do not lose it; but it is
impossible, under these circumstances, for Me to save it without your
consent. Take care that you seek its
salvation! Let this be your first, your
great, and your perpetual concern: the saving of your soul. Oh, take care of your soul!”
It is not only an infinite gift that an individual
has received in having charge over his own soul; but all those receiving the
gift have a charge given to them concerning the souls around them. Ministers, especially, have received this
charge.
“Son of man”, says God, to every one of them.
“Listen to what I say. I have made you
a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and
give them warning from Me: When I say
to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die’, and you give him no warning, nor speak
to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man
shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not
turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his
iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.”
God has given a solemn charge to the church
concerning this, and of course this applies to each individual member of the
church, not only concerning his own soul; but to watch, take care, remember,
pray for, warn, exhort, and labor for the souls of those around him. Christian parents, teachers, brothers,
sisters, and all kinds of Christians are to take care of their own souls, and
also the souls of those around them.
“What I say to one, I say to all.
Watch!"
God has also laid a charge on all men to love their
neighbors as themselves, to care for the souls of their neighbors as they would
for their own souls. Every wicked man
is required to love God, to love the soul of his neighbor, and to love his own
soul; and not to neglect his own soul nor the souls of those under his
influence.
III. THE CONDITIONS ON WHICH ALL WHO HAVE THIS
RESPONSIBILITY CAN BE CLEAR OF THE BLOOD OF THE SOUL.
It is perfectly clear that we can’t be clear of the
blood of souls unless we have done what we wisely and properly could do to
prevent their being lost.
Of course, if we live in sin, we are guilty of our own
blood; and if we do not do our duty to others, we are not clear of their
blood. It may be useful to call
attention, for a moment, to the different kinds of duty that comes from, and
attaches to, the various relationships that we have with one another. Ministers, for example, are public teachers,
and since they must be “instant in season and out of season”; (2 Timothy 4:2)
they must preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. They must sacrifice themselves on the altar
and not be afraid to declare the whole counsel of God. They must not keep back anything that is
profitable to their hearers. They must
select such truths that they think are the most important to share, and
faithfully declare them, and zealously seek to apply them to the hearts and
consciences of those to whom they minister.
Furthermore, they must live in such a way that they demonstrate that, in
their own hearts, they believe what they preach. They must not think that they will be innocent of the blood of
souls simply because they publish the truth with their lips; they must also
preach the truth in their temper and life.
They must be true and serious teachers in everything. Church officers, deacons, and others, also
should consider their responsibility:
Let them remember that their responsibility is great; and that they can
be innocent of the blood of souls only by living the way they ought to live in
every relationship that they sustain.
Next, let’s look at parents. See what tremendous responsibilities they have. Think about it! They exert a greater influence over their children than the whole
outside world, and as a natural result, they will do more for or against the
souls of their children than anybody else in the world. They begin the work of life or death, as far
as their influence is concerned. They
also carry it on and ripen it; and if their children are lost, it is because
they have neglected to do their duty.
Their hands will be red to their elbows with their children's
blood! Think of that! See that mother’s hand. What!
Has she been murdering her children?
What is she doing? She does not
live for, pray for, for labors for the salvation of her children! Oh, mother!
What are you doing?
There isn’t time to descend into all the
relationships of life, and show how responsibility attaches itself to all of
them; but let what I have said be examples.
You may apply it to Sunday school teachers, missionaries, brothers,
sisters, young converts, and older Christians, because they all have their own special
responsibilities. No one, who does not
do his duty, can be guiltless of the blood of souls. No matter what their duty may be, if they do not labor faithfully
for the salvation of the souls of men, as God gives him opportunities, and in
the spirit and with the power that God offers to clothe him with, they will be
held responsible.
Of course, missionaries are expected to warn,
exhort, and rebuke with all long‑suffering and doctrine.
But after discussing these three important
thoughts, I must now make several closing remarks.
First, we cannot underestimate the value of having
a clear conscience concerning this great commission. Now, for example, what an infinite consolation it must be to God
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to know that nothing, that could have been
wisely and benevolently done for the salvation of men, was omitted. That everything that could be done for our
salvation, by an infinite and enlightened benevolence, was done. Nothing was omitted; so that when God sees
the sufferings of the wicked throughout the whole universe, when He looks at
them, and listens to their terrible wailings, just think of the consolation He
will have in being able to say, “I am clear of their blood! I am clear!
I call the universe to witness that I am clear!”
Why, I believe this will be one of the great
purposes of the general judgment; that God, if I may use such an expression,
may clear up His character, and vindicate His conduct in the presence of the entire
universe; and bring all created intelligent beings to pronounce the sentence of
deserved damnation on the wicked. Right
now, we can’t pronounce judgment on God’s conduct because the law of our own
intelligent consciousness declares that He must be right, as far as He has
revealed Himself to us. But
listen! The time is coming when He will
reveal everything to us. Every
transaction of His government will be disclosed. At a time when suns and moons no longer rise and set; and days
and years, as we number them, no longer exist.
At a time when men will have stopped growing, and their eyes are still
not dim with age, for they will never die, they are immortal; then the time
will come to consider the whole matter.
God possesses the means, because His infinite mind has recorded all the
facts; and thus He will bring into perfect remembrance the transactions of the
entire universe from the beginning.
Then He will explain the reasons for His own conduct, and show the
purpose He had in His creation, and in all the providential arrangements of His
government. Then every mouth shall be
stopped, not one will be able to say a single word more of the impropriety of
anything that God has done. Then, the
whole world will stand guilty before God: everything that God has done will
receive the unanimous applause of the entire universe. They will declare that He is infinitely
blameless in everything, when He has placed everything in such a light that
there can be no doubt about His perfect wisdom and benevolence. Then He will know that they know, as He now
knows, and will eternally know, that He has done all that His infinite love,
power, and wisdom could do to save those immortal souls that He regarded as of
such infinite value.
Suppose Gods conscience condemns Him, that He knows
He has done something that His own infinite mind must pronounce wrong and
unbecoming for Him to do, who does not know that such a thought would fill His
infinite mind with sorrow and remorse throughout eternity, rolling onward and
onward and onward, through an endless life of increasing misery. Suppose, we
say, that God could accuse Himself of any error, or wrong, or oversight, or
anything that He should have attended to, or could have done wisely, but He did
not do for the salvation of souls. Why,
it would fill his own mind with a pang that would really make it an infinite
hell!
But there will be no such thing. Since God’s eternal conscience is clear,
satisfaction will fill His infinite mind.
When the universe looks on the millions and millions of spiritually
murdered souls, yes, more than you can count that shall stand revealed on
judgment day, the question will be asked, who has committed these murders? God says, I AM CLEAR! The Father says, I AM CLEAR! The Holy Ghost says, I AM CLEAR! Now then, the question must be asked, who is
responsible for their blood? Who has
been guilty of these deeds? What deeds
of death brought them here? What
dreadful things have been done? Who are
the guilty parties?
Paul said to those he preached to, that from their
own observation, that he was clear of their blood. Paul called on them again to make a record of the fact that he
could take it with him and use it at the solemn judgment, and confront them
with it before the throne of God; and thus prove, by their own testimony, that
he was innocent of their blood. What a
tremendous consolation this is for a faithful minister!
It must be a dreadful thing, on the other hand, for
an unfaithful minister to meet his people on judgment day! Indeed, it is a dreadful thing for such a
minister to leave a people among whom he has been laboring. Suppose you leave them with conscious misgivings,
or direct accusations, you have been an unfaithful minister. You may have been seeking your own
popularity for your conscience may perhaps accuse you of laboring for filthy
money, you have been lazy, or you have cringed before false and harmful
feelings. In short, you have
misrepresented God and His gospel, and have concealed the truth lest it should
offend others. Suppose your conscience
tells you, “You have sought to create a reputation for yourself; you have not
labored for the conversion of souls”!
Ah! You will soon have to die,
and those you have ministered to will also depart into eternity. Are you prepared to meet those souls at the
solemn judgment? You will have to meet
them face-to-face. What a meeting that
will be! Yes, we will meet again; we
will meet at the judgment seat of God, and see God face to face.
What will be the purpose of our meeting at that
awful judgment seat? Why, for God to
tell the universe that He has done everything that He wisely could do for the
salvation of your souls; and for you to give an account of the way that you
have received or rejected His offers of mercy!
Now we are all going on, and will shortly appear before the great white
throne, where the Judge will sit in terrible majesty, with the heavens and the
earth, all fleeing from His presence.
Then the books will be opened.
Yes, and all the dead shall be judged out of those books; and the sea
shall give up its dead. I never was at
sea but these words have come with solemn emphasis to my mind, and I expect
that in a few days, when I am on the mighty waters, they will come back to me
again. “The sea shall give up the dead
that is in it, and death and hell shall give up the dead that is in them.” (Rev 20:13)
Ah! That will be a solemn time
for ministers, for hearers, for parents, for children, for old and young. Yes, it will be a solemn time for all, for
saints and sinners both. Ah! We must each give an account of ourselves to
God. This is a tremendous responsibility!
I was a pastor for eighteen years, and I have
labored a great deal as an Evangelist.
Hundreds, in fact thousands, therefore, who have sat under my ministry
have gone before me into the eternal world.
I will follow them, and a great many others will follow me; and the day
will come when we will all congregate together. What then? I know that it
is one thing to talk, and another thing to walk right up totally exposed before
God, and receive His judgment in the matter.
Every secret will then be brought into the light, the deepest intentions
of my mind will be brought out and exhibited; every motive of my heart, and
every sermon that I have preached, will be closely scanned and scrutinized. The truth on everything that I have said will
be brought up, and the whole universe will hear it. Ah, that will be a solemn time for me, for listen! Scores of thousands in America and in Great
Britain, will either have to face me down or I them. Think of that! I am not
going to say all that Paul said.
It must be an awful thing for congregations to meet
their ministers; those who have had pastors, or heard only occasional
preaching. Brethren, think of it. I have often thought that of all the relationships
existing in this world, the relationship between the pastor and his
congregation is the most solemn; for God will surely ask why that person’s soul
was lost. God must place the
responsibility where it belongs; and it will be a solemn time for the pastor if
he is to blame. No soul will be lost
without God asking, “Who is responsible for this deed? Who has shed this blood? Who has filled the world of hell with
mourning, lamentation, and woe?” The
cry will resound, loud and withering, “WHO HAS DONE IT”? As I have said, the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost will say, “we have not done it”.
The faithful throughout the ages will say, “We have not done it”. Who then has been guilty of this dreadful
and accursed deed? I will tell you who!
First, the sinner has done it to himself! Secondly, unfaithful ministers have done it;
unfaithful deacons, elders, and leading members in the church have done
it. Unfaithful parents have done
it. Unfaithful children have done
it. Unfaithful brothers and sisters
have done it. Unfaithful Sunday school
teachers have done it. In short, all
unfaithful men have done it. They are
red with the blood of souls. You may
know that they have been guilty of murder, because the blood of their victims
is on their garments.
Cast your eyes on them and behold; they are red
from head to foot with the blood of men!
Everyone can see that they have done it. Every man is covered with his neighbor’s blood. See that man! His hands are covered in the blood of his own soul, the souls of
his children, or of his flock, and all those to whom he has been
unfaithful. Oh, brethren, I say again,
just think about it! See that murderer
standing over his victim, his weapons reeking in blood; he is caught in the
very act of murder; he cannot deny it, for blood is on him.
But look at the unfaithful minister on judgment
day. He comes in to his trial, but he
cannot look up. Those who sat under his
ministry have spotted him, and they say to each other “Look! There is our
minister. Do you remember his pretty
tastes, his dazzling oratory, his graceful ramblings, and his captivating
flatteries? Can you remember his pretty
sermons, and recall how afraid he was to mention hell, or even let you know
that there was such a place? Do you
remember how he fancied up his message to please the congregation, how opposed
he was to this thing and that thing because it was not respectable, and how he
was against all reform or progress in religion? Do you remember all that?
Well, that was our minister; see him looking down. Shhh!
He is speaking. What does he
say? What does he say? See the eye of the judge looking through and
through that unfaithful minister, that man who pretended to preach the gospel,
and dealt deceitfully with souls. How
much guilt must there be on him! What
an awful thing that must be! How
dreadful is his position.
There have been times in my own life when I have
seriously searched my heart concerning this, lest I should preach myself
instead of the gospel. Thousands of
times, when I have pressed myself close to God, I have feared lest the blood of
souls was on me. When I have heard that
this man and that man is now gone, who had sat under my ministry, I have often
asked myself, “Have I done my duty to that man? Was I faithful? Or was I
lazy and unfaithful? Was I afraid to
declare the whole counsel of God? I
have often thought about this also and I say, not boastfully as you know, that,
as far as I know myself, I have never held back what I thought the people
needed to know the most. I have never
held back anything that I believed the people needed to be told because I was
either afraid of them on the one hand or for any other motive on the
other. I never had the courage to hold
back the truth. When people have
sometimes said, how dare you preach this thing or that, I have told them that I
did not have the courage to disobey God, and stand at the solemn judgment with
the blood of souls on my hands. Indeed
I have no such courage! Whom should I
fear, God or man? How much faith must a
man have if he can’t walk right up and tell the sinner the truth about God to
his face. And if he can’t do this, how
can he walk right up the face of God and then give an account of himself to the
great searcher of hearts! He, who is
more afraid of men than of God, must be an infidel.
I have already indicated that, in the judgment,
sinners will find themselves without excuse. As in the case of Ezekiel, their blood will
be on their own head; but that is not all: it is also true that there may be moral
guilt in not doing our duty, in not warning, praying, and laboring for our
neighbors as we should. I also spoke
about faithless ministers who meet their congregations on judgment day, and the
disposition they will have to curse him.
I have sometimes wondered if their strong feelings of hate will find a
vent; if there will be an audible expression of them. For example, I wonder if, on judgment day, those whom the
unfaithful minister has misled will be allowed to voice their feelings of indignation
that burn within them; whether they will be allowed to curse him. They will be wicked enough and have reason
enough, but will they be allowed to curse him?
They have more reason to curse him, perhaps, than the whole world
besides. More reason to say, “O you cursed and wicked man, you toyed with
my soul. Didn’t I look up to you as my
religious teacher; didn’t I yield myself to your guidance; and didn’t you
deceive me with lies, and kept from me the truth, by which I might have been
saved and everything would have been fine?”
Such feelings will exist; but will the Judge allow them to audibly
express their feelings? If so, is it
too hard to believe that they will hiss, and groan, and curse, while they weep
and gnash their teeth? No doubt, the
same thing will also be true of parents.
But let me turn over this picture, and look at the
other side. What a meeting it will be
when all the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and the prophets, Elijah,
Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and all the minor prophets, and all the
apostles, and faithful ministers down through the ages, shall assemble in
heaven! I have often thought about that
wonderful reunion that took place when the Savior was on earth. The most wonderful event occurred. Do you remember the time when Christ took
Peter, James, and John with Him up into a mountain and was transfigured before
them, and there appeared Moses and Elijah the two great representatives of the
old dispensation. There was Moses, by whom came the law; and Elijah, who represented
the whole race of prophets, in conference with the head of the church
triumphant, about the death that He would accomplish at Jerusalem. What a scene of wonder that was! We are told that the glory was so intense
that the apostles were overcome, and Peter said, “It is good for us to be here;
let us build three tabernacles, one for You, one for Moses, and one for
Elijah.” They were so near heaven, so
filled with awe and delight that they didn’t know what they were talking about.
Now just think for a moment how it will be in the
age to come. Moses, for example, has
been dead for thousands of years, and has long since become surrounded by a
multitude who have found their way to heaven through his direct instruction, or
by means of his writings which have been handed down from generation to
generation; and all the saints will no doubt know Moses when they get there, of
whom they have heard so much, as well as of the
patriarch Abraham, and of the apostles and prophets. And when the newly arrived saint gets a little time, after gazing
at the wonders and glories of the place, he will look around for these ancient
worthies, and perhaps shake their hand, and weep tears of gratitude and joy on
their necks.
Whitfield, who once stood in the same pulpit I am
standing in right now, and the multitudes who heard his voice sitting in the
pews you are now sitting in, will meet in heaven. Think of that! How many thousands are gone that once saw and
heard him; and they now find themselves again united in that blessed
world. They are still rational and
intelligent, and able to mingle their hearts and their joys. And the time will come when the whole church
of God, pastors and people, will be gathered home to glory. O, how fast they are going. Why, since I have been in London I have
heard of the departure of the Rev. Dr. Pye Smith, together with this man and
that man, names with which I have been familiar even in America. And so we are all following them; fathers,
mothers, ministers, brothers, sisters, all are going. How many from this
congregation have taken their flight since I was here the last time! Just look around. Many times, I have heard it said, they are gone, they are gone! We shall all be gone shortly; very
soon. But what a glorious thought that
when we meet in that world of light and joy, the heavenly Jerusalem, it will be
to part no more at all. Those of us who
will have our robes, and washed them white in the blood of the Lamb, we shall
meet to say farewell or adieu no more.
When I read to you at the beginning of this service
the 20th chapter of Acts, from which this passage is taken, I omitted
the last three verses, which I will read now:
“And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them
all. Then they all wept freely, and
fell on Paul's neck and kissed him,
sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they would see
his face no more. And they accompanied
him to the ship.” What a beautiful
parting: how deeply inspiring. But I
must not keep you any longer. I have
only to say this before I sit down; and to be sure I would do it with all
humility, may I ask you who have listened to me since I have been in London, as
a matter of justice to record tonight this fact that, according to my ability,
I have dealt faithfully with your souls.
I challenge you now to record this fact, for I am sure that you bear
this testimony in your own consciences, will you keep it in mind at the solemn
judgment, that, to the best of my ability, I have kept nothing back that you needed
to know. I do not say this
boastfully: God will judge between us.
But some, I fear, I must leave in their sins
anyway. Remember, I will meet even you
again. Let me ask you, have you begun
the great work of preparing for God’s judgment. Have you begun yet? You
have heard the most solemn appeals and warnings; let me ask you once more, will
you think? Will you act? Beloved, will you rid me of all
responsibility by saying, yes, yes, if I perish, it is not your fault, you have
done your work faithfully, you have not daubed with un-tempered mortar, and I
want that fact recorded in the solemn judgment that you are clear.
But I not only want to be able to feel the
conviction of this in my own conscience, but that my record should be on
high. I know it is vain for me to seek
to justify myself, unless it is recorded in heaven that I have dealt faithfully
with you. I trust I have. I probably won’t see any of you again, until
we meet in the judgment; and oh, what a meeting that will be!
It is not my custom to preach farewell sermons, but when I have done my work, I tear myself away, and leave the great Judge to seal up the record that shall be opened at the last day. Now all I have to say is this. The last page connected with my ministry, and your hearing in this place, is now to be folded and put away amongst the files of eternity to be exhibited when you and I shall stand before God in perfect light, with no excuses, no false pleas, we shall all be naked, honest, and open there.
And now, sinner, may I beg of God to search my own heart and prepare me for that scene and to prepare you for it too. May I be allowed this once to call heaven and earth to record on your souls, that in my weakness, and as far as I have had ability, I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, the gospel and the law, the rule of life, and opened, as far as I have been able, the gate of mercy, and shown you the heart of Jesus. Will you accept it? I must not add another word.