wrath beneath the sun; but still to us, in this gospel day, he is all love and tenderness; and when he bids us come to him, can we refuse to hear? So meek is the Mediator that he is love itself, incarnate love; so loving, that when he died his only crime was that he was "found guilty of excess of love"; can we be so cruel as to reject him? O brothers and sisters, do not refuse to listen to the voice of this Tender One by whom God speaketh to you.

Our Lord was like to Moses in meekness, and then to sum up all,— Moses was the Mediator for God with the people, and so is our blessed Lord. Moses came in God's name to set Israel free from Pharaoh's bondage, and he did it: Jesus came to set us free from a worse bondage still, and he has achieved our freedom. Moses led the people through the Red Sea, and Jesus has led us where all the hosts of hell were overthrown, and sin was drowned in his own most precious blood. Moses led the tribes through the wilderness, and Jesus leads us through the weary ways of this life to the rest which remaineth for the people of God. Moses spake to the people for God, and Jesus hath done the same. Moses spake to God for the people, and Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us. Moses proposed himself as a sacrifice when he said, "If not, blot my name out of the book of life"; but Jesus was an actual sacrifice, and was taken away from the land of the living for our sakes, being made a curse for us. Moses, in a certain sense, died for the people, for he could not enter into the land, but must needs close his eyes on Nebo. Those are touching words, "The Lord was angry with me for your sakes": words which in a diviner sense may be fitly applied to Jesus, for God was angry with him for our sakes. Right through to the very end our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, is a prophet like unto Moses, raised up from the midst of his brethren. O my hearers, hear ye him. Turn not your ear away from this Prophet of prophets, but hear and live. III. I close with that point, and if my words are very few let them be weighty. Let us think of THE AUTHORITY of our great Mediator, and let this be the practical lesson-Hear ye him. Men and brethren, if our hearts were right, the moment it was announced that God would speak to us through Jesus Christ there would be a rush to hear him. If sin had not maddened men they would listen eagerly to every word of God through such a Mediator as Jesus is; they would write each golden sentence on their tablets, they would hoard his word in their memories, they would wear it between their eyes, they would yield their hearts to it. Alas, it is not so; and the saddest thing of all is that some talk of Jesus for gain, and others hear of him as if his story were a mere tale or an old Jewish ballad of eighteen hundred years ago. Yet, remember, God speaks by Jesus still, and every word of his that is left on record is as solemnly alive to-day as when it first leaped from his blessed lips. beseech you remember Christ cometh not as an amateur, but he hath authority with him: this ambassador to men wears the authority of the King of kings. If ye despise him ye despise him that sent him: if ye turn away from him that speaketh from heaven ye turn away from the eternal God, and ye do despite to his love. Oh, do not so.

I

Note how my text puts it. It saith here, "Whosoever shall not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." My heart trembles while I repeat to you the words, "I will

require it of him." To-day God graciously requires it of some of you, and asks why you have not listened to Christ's voice. Why is this? You have not accepted his salvation. Why is this? You know all about Jesus, and you say it is true, but you have never believed in him : why is this? God requires it of you. Many years has he waited patiently, and he has sent his servant again and again to invite you. The men of Nineveh sought mercy in their day, and yet you have not repented. God requires it of you. Why is this? Give your Maker a reason for your rejection of his mercy if you can: fashion some sort of excuse, 0 ye rebellious one. Do you despise your God? Do you dare his wrath? Do you defy his anger? Are you so mad as this?

The day will come when he will require it of you in a much more violent sense than he does to-day; when you shall have passed beyond the region of mercy he will say, "I called you and you refused, why is this? I did not speak to you in thunder. I spoke to you with the gentle voice of the Only Begotten who bled and died for men: why did you not hear him? Every Sabbath day my servant tried to repeat the language of his Master to you: why did you refuse it? You are cast into hell, but why did not you accept the pardon which would have delivered you from it?" You were too busy. Too busy to remember your God? What could you have been busy about that was worth a thought as compared with him? You were too fond of pleasure. And do you dare insult your God by saying that trifling amusements which were not worth the mentioning could stand in comparison with his love and his good pleasure? Oh, how you deserve his wrath. I pray you consider what this meaneth, "I will require it of him." You who still harden your hearts, and refuse my Master, go away with this ringing in your ears, "I will require it of him! I will require it of him." "When he lieth dying alone in that sick chamber I will require it of him: when he hath taken the last plunge, and left this world, and finds himself in eternity, I will require it of him and when the thunder wakes the dead, and the great Prophet like unto Moses shall sit on the great white throne to judge the quick and the dead, I will require it of him, I will require it of him."

My Master will require of me how I have preached to you, and I sincerely wish it were in my power to put these things in better form, and plead with you more earnestly; but, after all, what can I do? If you have no care for your own souls, how can I help it? If you will rush upon eternal woe, if you will despise the altogether lovely One through whom God speaks to you, if you will live day after day carelessly and wantonly, throwing away your souls, oh, then mine eyes shall weep in secret places you; but what more can I do but leave you to God? At the last I shall be compelled to say "Amen" to the verdict which condemns you for ever. God grant that such a reluctant task may not fall to my lot in reference to any one of you, but may you now hear and obey the Lord Jesus, and find eternal salvation at once, for his dear name's sake. Amen.

for

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-Deuteronomy v.; xviii. 15-22.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"-240, 229, 21.

MORE AND MORE, OR LESS AND LESS.

A Sermon

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 10TH, 1879, BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”— Matthew xiii. 12.

Two great general principles are conspicuous in the gospel. The first is that God giveth of his grace to the empty-"He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away." The second principle is that where God has given a measure of grace it is his wont to give more "He giveth more grace." There is no stint with the Lord of love, and no limit to the abundance of the grace which those who come to him may receive. He giveth grace to those who have none, and more grace to those whom he has already favoured. These two principles do not contradict each other, but help to make each other complete. In their proper order they exhibit both sides of one truth, and give us instruction as to the Lord's dealings with two different stages of spiritual condition. Each principle has its own range. Are you as yet unsaved? Then the principle which you have to do with is this, that God will fill the empty and feed the hungry. You have to go to him with nothing of your own except your needs, and ask for everything at his hands. Your wisdom is to hasten to the Saviour just as you are, tarrying not to gather a price which you may carry in your hand, but coming empty handed to the generous Lord. In all your sinfulness you must look to him for pardon; in all your nakedness you must fly to him for clothing; in all your weakness you must cry to him for strength; yea, in all your death you are to look to him for life, even as he hath said, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." Take care that you are quite clear upon this point, for unless your eye be single here your whole soul will be full of darkness. Grace is for the undeserving, the guilty, the needy; otherwise it would be no more grace. The gospel is not the law, and therefore it does not demand a holy character as a condition of receiving its blessings, but it comes to sinners as they are, casts on them an eye of pity, forgives their sins, and makes them new creatures and holy creatures. In dealing with the sinner God acts on the principle of undeserved love No. 1,488.

and unmerited favour. Trembling sinner, you have to go to him with your empty bucket that he may fill it out of the deep well of his overflowing love.

When a man has received grace, or when he professes to have done so, he comes under the second principle. He must take care that he has indeed and of a truth received that which God in the gospel presents to him; for if he does not at the very beginning receive really and truly the true grace of God he will begin with falsehood and end in shame. He must see to it that he has the beginnings of grace, or he cannot have their increase. If there be a mistake as to the actual receipt of Christ into the heart there may be an appearance of having Christ, and this appearance may last for a while, but as there is really nothing commenced there will be no addition thereto. While I am like the unsown soil I am simply to receive the seed when it is scattered; but after the scattering of the seed, if I think I have received it, I must see to it that I am not deceived, I must watch that the word really does lodge in the furrows of my soul, for unless that be the case, beyond all question, so far from obtaining growth in grace, I shall by-and-by lose what I think I have, and I shall be openly proved to be barren and unfruitful. If I have received the light of heaven into my soul, however small its beginnings, the Lord will add a gracious increase, and as I follow on to know him I shall be as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. If I am a mere pretender I shall fade away, but if I am a sincere believer I shall become brighter and brighter. This last principle I shall endeavour to use at this time for our warning and instruction. May the Holy Ghost greatly bless it to our hearts, so that those who profess to be the people of God may make sure that their profession is founded on the truth; and may those who are mere hearers of the gospel be disturbed in their consciences and aroused from the sleep of death.

I. First, we shall study this principle AS IT IS ILLUSTRATED IN THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER. You will not fail to observe that this saying of our Lord occurs in three evangelists in connection with the parable of the sower. Besides our text, you will find it in Mark iv. 24, and there it is at the close of the parable of the sower; you will meet with it again in Luke viii. 18, still in connection with the same parable. The principle must be very important, or else our Lord would not have taken care to have it recorded by three evangelists; and he must have intended that we should read it in the light of the parable, or he would not have connected it therewith.

That parable was spoken in reference to the hearing of the word, and it is concerning the word of God, and its blessings, that he says, "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” To know the mind of the Spirit it is always wise to view a passage in its connection; this we do with the writings of men if we wish to understand them, and reason itself teaches us to do likewise with the word of God. Let us consider our text in its original connection. Each evangelist has given a shade of difference to his record.

In Matthew, whence we take our text, the words stand in connection with the hearing of the word,-not any mode of hearing, but hearing itself. Read the ninth verse: "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

There are some who hear not, for "their ears are dull of hearing"; and there are others of whom it is written, "Blessed are your ears, for they hear." Beloved, we must take care that we truly hear what we hear, for if we do not, we shall soon lose all power to hear; but if we hear the truth attentively and heartily we shall be privileged to hear it yet more fully, and to make larger profit by listening to it, even as our Lord saith: "He answered and said unto them, It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance."

Our Saviour's first picture in the parable of the sower is that of the seed falling upon the wayside or the hard road. There was much traffic through the field, a footpath which was trodden hard by many feet ran from one end to the other, and a handful of seed fell upon it. So the gospel falls upon men who are occupied with obstinacies, prejudices, pursuits, ambitions, cares, and these make so much traffic through their minds that they are hardened towards the gospel, and it never reaches the inner man, but lies upon the hard surface, a rejected thing. When they hear it they do hear it, and that is all: as the saying is, "it goes in at one ear and out at the other." The truth never enters the man. They would not like to absent themselves from religious services altogether, and yet they do much the same thing, for only their bodies are there, their hearts are far away, engaged with very different themes. They bring to the preacher ears which are sealed up, and eyes which are curtained against the light. They see, but do not perceive; they hear, but do not understand. What is the sure result of this mimic hearing? The Saviour in the parable represents the birds of the air as taking away the seed which fell upon the roadside and devouring it, and he tells us by way of explanation that Satan comes and takes away the word, lest in any after time it should obtain an entrance into the heart. Thus is the text fulfilled: "Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath." How many of our hearers are of this kind! They lose what they have because in very truth they never had it. Their attendance at worship is coming and going, coming and going, and nothing more. Like a dog in and out of the fair, they have no business to do when they go to the house of God. They are no more the better by their going and coming than the door which swingeth on its hinges, and turneth in and turneth out, and then rests in its place. Such persons, like the wayside, do not receive anything; and, receiving nothing, they continue to receive nothing; nay, they even go from bad to worse, for, though they received nothing at first, they at least seemed to do so, and in due course even that seeming disappears. They become less likely to profit by the gospel, and more and more hardened against it, while those who really do hear and drink in the truth become capable of hearing and understanding more, more mysteries are opened up to them, deeper truths are revealed, and they perceive a greater sweetness and a diviner power in the word of God. Those who do not receive the word lose what little notional knowledge of the word they once possessed. Though it may be the same preacher and the same preaching of the selfsame doctrines, yet the results are very different: to those who have a part and a lot in the matter the paths of the