thon gettest glory from every flickering blade of grass or frond of fern, and every flitting insect and creeping worm mean thy praise; there is nought but what glorifieth thee, from leviathan to a minnow. Yet all nature put together fails to reveal all thy glorious attributes. The divine faithfulness, and justice, and truth are scarcely manifest in nature though traces of them may be seen; but in the face of Jesus, who is the express image of the Father, God is glorified to the full. In the death of Christ, above all things, God is glorified, for there all the attributes of God are seen. There was the power which sustained Christ beneath his more than Herculean task; the love which surrendered the darling of its bosom that he might die instead of traitors; the justice which would not, could not forgive sin without satisfaction; the truth which had threatened to punish, and did punish; which had promised to give a Saviour, and did give him; the faithfulness to the covenant which kept that covenant at such a dread expense; the wisdom which planned the marvellous way of salvation by a substitute: nay, let me put it all together, the wholeness, the holiness of God, yea all his attributes are seen, each one equally magnified in the death of Jesus Christ. He is glorious, and the triune God is glorified in him.

And now, beloved, God is glorified in the death of Christ by the love of all those whom Jesus saves, by the sacred awe and filial fear of all whom Jesus brings to the Father's feet, by the ardent, patient devotion of all who are consecrated in heart, and feel the sacred flame of love to Christ setting their souls on a blaze. Up there in heaven, where the whiterobed never cease to sing, and here below where martyrs were burned for love of God, where confessors defied all adversaries to spread abroad the glory of his name, where humble Christians suffer in patience, or labour on with diligence, or walk in holiness, the Father's name is glorified through the passion of the Christ of God.

We had many things to say, but time fails us; and therefore we close with these three observations, which we want to leave upon your minds. The first is this. Christ's motive should be ours. When you ask a blessing from God, ask it that you may glorify God by it. Do you pine to to have your health back again? Be sure that you want to spend it for him. Do you desire temporal advancement? Desire it that you may promote his glory. Do you even long for growth in grace? Ask it only that you may glorify him. If there be aught that you dare wish and pray for, put it so: "Father, bless thy child, that thy child may, in return, bless thee and serve thee." Those are clean prayers which have such a motive, all others have the taint of self about them. God help you to do everything to his glory, to speak to his glory, to live to his glory, to die to his glory, and then you shall rise again and live for ever to his glory. Happy, happy is the man whose lot this shall be. Let this be the constraint which masters you, even that which moved your Lord.

Next, Christ's theology should be ours. What is that? Why, first that he is to be glorified, and secondly that the Father is to be glorified. Error sometimes blows one way and sometimes another. Years gone by the difficulty was to bring men to glorify the Lord Jesus; they would worship God, but not the Christ of God; and so there came the great Arian fight, and afterwards Socinian controversies, for they would not

glorify Christ. Oh, you who have been saved by him, I am not afraid of you on that point; but nowadays there appears to be in some minds a forgetfulness of the Father. Christ is loved, for he died, but many seem to look upon the Father as having no share in the wondrous work of redemption; whereas, beloved, they are one in our salvation. Father, Son, and Spirit agree in one in our redemption, and it would be fatal indeed for us to set one person of the divine Trinity above the other two. Let all men honour the Son even as they honour the Father; and honour the Father even as they honour the Son. It would be traitorous to Christ's inmost wish if we were to glorify the Son and fail to reverence and love the Father.

Lastly, let every believer here see his security. Is it not a most wonderful guarantee of the safety of every one for whom Christ died, that the glory of Christ and the glory of the Father-I may add the glory of the blessed Spirit-are all equally concerned in the salvation of the believing soul? Dare I say it? It would be a blot upon the everlasting glory if one believing soul were ever lost. Then were God's truth no longer sure, his faithfulness no longer firm, his love no more immutable. His power might be doubted: his changeableness would be proved. But, beloved, it cannot be. Christ will not lose a sheep of his flock, nor will the Comforter lose a spirit in which he has once began to indwell. Rest ye then in this. Abide ye without doubt or fear in Christ; for the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but the covenant of his love shall not be removed from you, saith the Lord that hath mercy on you.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, dear hearers, and these divine privileges shall be yours; and as I prayed just now, so pray I yet again, that these things may belong to every soul in this house without exception, through faith in Christ Jesus, by the work of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-John xvii.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK "-416, 412, 233.

The Colportage Society conducted by Mr. Spurgeon supports 82 men in needy districts, and does a great work in selling Bibles and healthy literature. Owing to the depression of trade and the falling off of subscriptions this branch of holy service is at this moment in a difficult position, and will soon be in urgent need unless the Lord should move some of his stewards to help. It seems needful to give this intimation, that friends may know that there is a channel for their gifts, and a reason for bringing them forth; but Mr. Spurgeon feels confident that by some means or other the present necessity for the Lord's work will be graciously supplied, and furnish fresh occasion for gratitude and increased faith.

THE ROYAL PREROGATIVE.

* Sermon

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal."-Deuteronomy xxxii. 39.

THERE is but one God: Jehovah is his name--the "I AM." That one God will not endure a rival. Why should he? He made all things, and sustains all things. Should a creature that his own hands have made be set up in rivalry with him? If it be a great man like Nebuchadnezzar, if he saith, "Behold this great Babylon which I have builded," God will send him to grass among the bullocks, and make him to know that no man is great in the sight of God. What a provocation it must be to God to see men bowing down before idols fashioned by their own hands! What a degradation to man that he should worship gold, or silver, or wood, or stone; but what a grievous dishonour to the great God of all! And it seems to me to be the worst of all dishonours when God sees the image of his own dear Son made into an idol, and the representation of the cross on which redemption was made lifted on high that before it. men may prostrate themselves in worship. This must touch his sacred soul, and vex him even to the uttermost, for God is God alone, and beside him there is none else; his glory will he not give to another, neither his praise to graven images. In the text before us the great ego is seen. The Lord says, " I, even I." That ego is so great that it fills all places and, therefore, there can be no room for another. "I, even I, am God, and there is no god with me." "Besides me," saith he in another place, "there is none else." Oh, to have such lofty thoughts of God that we can have no consideration for anything that would rob him of the glory which is so exclusively his own. Fain would we burn with a holy jealousy which abhors the idea of a rival god, and casts the name of Baal out of its mouth with utter loathing.

In the text the Lord claims the sovereign prerogative of life and death. He says, "I kill, and I make alive." It is he from whom we first of all receive our being. His hand kindles the torch of life, and from him comes the quenching of the flame. No angel's arm could save us from the grave; nor could a myriad of angels confine us there when once again he shall bid us rise. God killeth and God maketh alive.

Royal personages have usually been very jealous of the prerogative of life and death, but our great God hath it without bound or limit. He reigns supreme. "I kill," says he, "and I make alive."

From the connection in which the text stands it is clear that the Lord alludes to the making of nations, or to the destroying of nations. It was God that made Israel to be a people; it was God that cast out Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites from being nations before him: it was God that raised up Chaldea, and Babylon, and then strengthened Persia to break Babylon in pieces, and Greece to destroy Persia, and Rome with iron foot to break down Greece; and when the time had come it was he who spoke to the city of the seven hills, and she, too, lost her royal power. Kingdoms and thrones belong unto the Lord, and the shields of the mighty are lifted on high or laid in the dust as he willeth. Though they regard it not, there is a King of kings and Lord of lords ; and when the long page of history shall be unrolled, and men shall be able to see the end from the beginning with enlightened eye, they shall know that, all through, the disregarded and neglected God, the unseen and even unthought of God, was still reigning evermore. Across the page of earth's long record shall be written in right royal hand, "I kill, and I make alive." In providence God is absolute, the blessed and only Potentate whose sovereign will knows no dispute.

At this time, however, I purpose to carry this great truth away from the realm of providence into the kingdom of grace; and we shall confine ourselves to that second sentence-"I wound, and I heal." On this word we shall make three observations, the first being that none but the Lord can wound or heal; secondly, that the Lord can wound and heal; and, thirdly, that the Lord does wound and heal,-three thoughts which are closely connected, and yet are marked by instructive shades of difference. I. First, NONE BUT THE LORD CAN WOUND OR HEAL. To begin at the beginning-the Lord alone can spiritually wound. When we have to deal with human hearts our first effort has to be to wound them. Naturally, man thinks himself whole-hearted, and in sound health, but he is not so. The great object of the gospel ministry, at first, is to convince men of sin, to humble them before God: in fact, to wound them, to cut them to the heart. But no man can wound without the Lord. I speak without any measure to my utterance, no preacher can truly wound the human heart. He may speak very honestly and plainly; he may speak with deep pathos and true affection; he may wield at times the thunders of God, and anon the soft and gentle bands of love may be in his hand; but in no way can the preacher get at the heart of men unless his Master be with him. Charm thou never so wisely, O wise man, the adder is deaf, and it is in vain that thou usest thine enchantments. As well convince the wild winds, or convert the wayward waves, as hope to touch the human heart till God makes bare his arm. It is the Holy Spirit's work to convince of sin, and until he putteth forth his power the preacher may preach himself dumb with weariness and blind with weeping, but no result can possibly follow. And what is true of preachers is true of all the teachers in the Sunday-school, of all the earnest folk that go about to speak personally to men, ay, and of the most tender mother and the most earnest father. There is no wounding the child's heart; there is no breaking it down into contrition by the tenderest

arguments or the wisest counsels. You will come back and say as we have done, "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"

Yes, dear friends, and the most solemn truths which in themselves have a natural tendency to wound the heart, nevertheless cannot do it apart from the work of God himself. There is the sword, and in itself it is sharp and cutting, but no man can handle it. The eternal arm must be revealed, or the hide of behemoth will not feel the weapon. A sword will cut through a coat of mail if a Coeur-de-Lion hath the wielding of it; but not in a child's hand will it wound to killing. God must take the Scripture in his hand and use it to the dividing of joints and marrow, or sinners will escape its power. Terrible truths there are in the Bible which ought to make men shake, but they hear them, they deny them, they even laugh at them, and continue in sin. Sweet truths there are which ought to make a rock shed tears, but you may tell of Gethsemane's bloody sweat and the five dear wounds of him who was found guilty of excess of love, and yet men will hear it and go their way, each man to his farm and to his merchandise, and forget it all. I grant you the truths are powerful, but not until the mighty God applies them to the heart and conscience.

And in addition to truth, providence itself may come and work upon the heart of men, but cause no wounding of the right sort. I have seen the ungodly brought to destitution and poverty by their extravagances, and brought to sickness and death's door by their lusts, and yet they have not been wounded. They have seen the result of sin, they have even felt it in the marrow of their bones, and yet the dogs have gone back to their vomit. They have still clung to their idols and held to their abominations. The burnt child dreads the fire, but the burnt sinner thrusts his hand into the flame again. We have seen men so sick that they have trembled at the thought of death, and it has been supposed from what they said that they were really impressed, and if they were restored to health would lead another life: but, alas, we have seen them restored to health and sinning worse than before. The wicked break his bands asunder, they cast his cords from them. All the terrors of providencebereavements, losses, sicknesses-all have failed with the unregenerate. Their adamantine heart has turned the edge of the plough which sought to break it up. Men have wearied all the agencies of grace and providence, but yet they have not been wounded: their heart is stout as that of leviathan, "yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone." None can effectually wound the heart but God alone.

Now, the same thing is true about the healing: none but the Lord can heal. Of course that is true with regard to those who were never wounded. Nobody can heal such persons. I have known some preachers try to do that, though it has always seemed to me to be poor work to try to heal men who have never been wounded, to preach mercy to persons who think that they have no sin, to preach grace to men who dream that they have merits of their own. Christ did not so; he said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The whole have no need of a physician, but those that are sick." There is no healing, then, for those who are not wounded; and equally there is no healing those who are wounded, except God lay his hand to their sore. Have you ever met