Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon
The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following excerpt is from the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, volume 23, sermon number 1,377, "Taking hold upon God."
"There is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee."
Isaiah 64:7
"We have in these days a race of time servers and word spinners to succeed the real men."
I do not know that the condition of
the church of God at the present time is quite so bad as that which is
here described. It would be wrong to boast of our condition, but it would be
worse to despair of it. It would not be honest to apply the words of our
text to the church of the present day.
Blessed be God, we could not say,
“There is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to
take hold of thee,” for there are many who plead day and night for the
prosperity of Zion. Yet in a measure we are somewhat in the same plight as that
which is described by the prophet, and there is much to mourn over.
Prayer
languishes in many churches, power in intercession is by no means a
common attainment, and meetings for prayer are, as a rule, thinly attended,
and not much thought of. Sin abounds, empty profession is common,
hypocrisy is plentiful, and the life of God in the soul is but little esteemed.
Notice carefully that according to
our text the prophet traces much of the evil which he deplored to the lack
of prayer. After he has compared their righteousnesses to filthy rags he
adds, “there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to
take hold of thee.”
When there is a degeneracy of public manners, you
may be sure that there has also occurred a serious decline of
secret devotion. When the outward service of the church begins to flag and her
holiness declines, you may be sure that her communion with God has been
sadly suspended. Devotion to God will be found to be the basis of
holiness and the buttress of integrity.
If you backslide in secret before God, you
will soon err in public before men. You may judge yourselves, my dear
hearers, as to your spiritual state by the condition of your hearts in the
matter of prayer. How are you at the mercy seat? for that is what you really
are.
Are the consolations of God small with you? That is a minor matter;
look deeper,—Is there not a restraining of prayer before the living God? Do
you find yourself weak in the presence of
temptation? That is important; but
search below the surface, and you will find that you have grown lax in
supplication, and have failed to keep up continual communion with God.
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