we will be fools; and if it be madness to stick to the old truth, just as Paul delivered it, in all its simplicity, without any refinement, or improvement, we mean to stick to it, even if we be pilloried as being incapable of progressing with the age, for we are persuaded that this "foolishness of preaching" is a divine ordinance, and that the cross of Christ which stumbles so many, and is ridiculed by so many more, is still the power of God and the wisdom of God. Yes, just the oldfashioned truth-if thou believest thou shalt be saved-that will we stick to, and may God send his blessing upon it according to his own eternal purpose. We do not expect this preaching to be popular, but we know that God will justify it ere long. Meanwhile, we are not staggered because "The truths we love a sightless world blasphemes Next to this, Paul used much prayer. The gospel alone will not be blessed; we must pray over our preaching. A great painter was asked what he mixed his colours with, and he replied he mixed them with brains. 'Twas well for a painter, but if anyone should ask a preacher what he mixes truth with, he ought to be able to answer-with prayer, much prayer. When a poor man was breaking granite by the roadside, he was down on his knees while he gave his blows, and a minister passing by said, "Ah, my friend, here you are at your hard work; your work is just like mine; you have to break stones, and so do I." Yes," said the man, "and if you manage to break stony hearts, you will have to do it as I do, go down on your knees." The man was right, no one can use the gospel hammer well except he is much on his knees, but the gospel hammer soon splits flinty hearts when a man knows how to pray. Prevail with God, and you will prevail with men. Fresh from the closet to the pulpit let us come, with the anointing oil of God's Spirit fresh upon us. 66 What we receive in secrecy we are cheerfully to dispense in public. Let us never venture to speak for God to men, until we have spoken for men to God. Yes, dear hearers, if you want a blessing on your Sundayschool teaching, or any other form of Christian labour, mix it up with fervent intercession. And then observe one other thing. Paul went to his work always with an intense sympathy for those he dealt with a sympathy which made him adapt himself to each case. If he talked to a Jew, he did not begin at once blurting out that he was the apostle of the Gentiles, but he said he was a Jew, as Jew he was. He raised no questions about nationalities or ceremonies. He wanted to tell the Jew of him of whom Isaiah said, “He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," in order that he might believe in Jesus and so be saved. If he met a Gentile, the apostle of the Gentiles never showed any of the squeamishness which might have been expected to cling to him on account of his Jewish education. He ate as the Gentile ate, and drank as he did, sat with him, and talked with him; was, as it were, a Gentile with him; never raising any question about circumcision or uncircumcision, but solely wishing to tell him of Christ, who came into the world to save both Jew and Gentile, and to make them one. If Paul met with a Scythian, he spoke to him in the Barbarian tongue, and not in classic Greek. If he met a Greek, he spoke to him as he did at the Areopagus, with language that was fitted for the polished Athenian. He was all things to all men, that he might by all means save some. So with you, Christian people: your one business in life is to lead men to believe in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and every other thing should be made subservient to this one object; if you can but get them saved, everything else will come right in due time. Mr. Hudson Taylor, a dear man of God, who has laboured much in Inland China, finds it helpful to dress as a Chinaman, and wear a pigtail. He always mingles with the people, and as far as possible lives as they do. This seems to me to be a truly wise policy. I can understand that we shall win upon a congregation of Chinese by becoming as Chinese as possible, and if this be the case we are bound to be Chinese to the Chinese to save the Chinese. It would not be amiss to become a Zulu to save the Zulus, though we must mind that we do it in another sense than Colenso did. If we can put ourselves on a level with those whose good we seek, we shall be more likely to effect our purpose than if we remain aliens and foreigners, and then talk of love and unity. To sink myself to save others is the idea of the apostle. To throw overboard all peculiarities, and yield a thousand indifferent points, in order to bring men to Jesus, is our wisdom if we would extend our Master's kingdom. Never may any whim or conventionality of ours keep a soul from considering the gospel,-that were horrible indeed. Better far to be personally inconvenienced by compliance with things indifferent, than to retard a sinner's coming by quarrelling about trifles. If Jesus Christ were here to-day, I am sure he would not put on any of those gaudy rags in which the Puseyite delights himself. I cannot imagine our Lord Jesus Christ dressed out in that style. Why, the apostle tells our women that they are to dress themselves modestly, and I do not think Christ would have his ministers set an example of tomfoolery: but yet even in dress something may be done on the principle of our text. When Jesus Christ was here, what dress did he wear? To put it in plain English, he wore a smock frock. He wore the common dress of his countrymen-a garment woven from the top throughout, without seam; and I think he would have his ministers wear that costume which is most like the dress which their hearers wear in common, and so even in dress associate with their hearers, and be one among them. He would have you teachers, if you want to save your children, talk to them like children, and make yourselves children if you can. You who want to get at young peoples' hearts must try to be young. You who wish to visit the sick must sympathise with them in their sickness. Get to speak as you would like to be spoken to if you were sick. Come down to those who cannot come up to you. You cannot pull people out of the water without stooping down and getting hold of them. If you have to deal with bad characters you must come down to them, not in their sin, but in their roughness and in their style of language, so as to get a hold of them. I pray God that we may learn the sacred art of soul-winning by adaptation. They called Mr. Whitefield's chapel at Moorfields "The Soul Trap." Whitefield was delighted, and said he hoped it always would be a soul trap. Oh that all our places of worship were soul traps, and every Christian a fisher of men, each one doing his best, as the fisherman does, by every art and artifice to catch those they fish for. Well may we use all means to win so great a prize as a spirit destined for eternal weal or woe. The diver plunges deep to find pearls, and we may accept any labour or hazard to win a soul. Rouse yourselves, my brethren, for this God-like work, and may the Lord bless you in it. I commend these wandering thoughts to your earnest attention. I pray the ungodly to bethink themselves of what their ruin will be except they come to Jesus and trust in him; and I ask believers to be doubly earnest from this time forth in labouring to save the souls of men, and may God send us such a blessing that we shall not have room to receive it. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-1 Corinthians i. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK "-972, 483, 365. LETTER FROM MR. SPURGEON. DEAR FRIENDS,—I had hoped to have prepared a new sermon for you this week, but instead thereof I have been altogether laid aside, and quite unable either to use brain to think or hand to write with. It must be right that I should thus be periodically rendered useless, but I wish I were fit to be trusted with the privilege of constant activity. Some tools are not well enough constructed to be kept in constant use; much of their time must be spent in being repaired. Please pray for me that in my case the reparations may be well done, and that I may be strengthened to accomplish better and greater service for my Master than ever before. This week's sermon is one touching the matter nearest my heart. Oh that it may be read with such practical attention as to lead to its being carried out! Soul winners are the great need of the times. We all do enough of talking and scheming, but living in the life of God and going forth in the divine power derived therefrom to pluck sinners from the burning are far too rare. Receive, dear friends, the warmest affection of Hotel de la Paix, Mentone, December 4, 1879. Your greatly suffering Pastor, C. H. SPURGEON. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROMISE. A $ermon DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE 29TH, 1879, CY AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "New things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them." Isaiah xlii. 9. GOD has often foretold things to come by the lips of his prophets. I need not give you even a single specimen of the multitudes of instances in which events which could not have been guessed at, which indeed were highly improbable and unlikely, were nevertheless foretold by the Spirit of God through the prophets, and actually came to pass. The Lord claims this as a proof of his Godhead; it is his special prerogative to possess omniscience, the knowledge of everything, and therefore prescience, or the knowledge of that which will happen in years to come. These are attributes of God alone, and often he challenges the idols to produce instances in which they have exercised foresight, and predicted things to come. They had their oracles, which were the mimicry of prophecy, but they continually failed, whereas Jehovah's word stood fast even in jots and tittles, and thus his eternal Godhead was proved. The imitation of this attribute by the magicians and prophets of the false gods proved that they saw this to be an exclusive attribute of deity, and their perpetual confusion in their attempts proved with equal clearness that their mock deities did not possess it. I think it most admirable, and it seems another instance of the foresight of the Holy Ghost, that the words of my text should stand where they do; for it may not be unknown to some of you that the modern critics, who always try, if they can, to tear the bowels out of every text, and are never satisfied until, like swine, they trample beneath their feet every cluster of Eshcol, have dared to ascribe one part of the Book of Isaiah to a second Isaiah, as they call him, who wrote after the times of Christ; because, you see, the prophecy so plainly describes our Lord Jesus Christ, that men who will not believe in God or in the inspiration of his holy book are driven to invent the notion that the prophecy was written after the event. Truly, it might as well have been written afterwards as before, for it is so accurate; but here, as if the Lord foresaw that there would come in the last days scoffers, he No. 1,508. bids his servant, in these express words, claim that he speaks things before they come to passBehold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them." It remains, therefore, for these sham Christian critics either to accept the fact that Isaiah's book contains actual prophecies, or else to reject it altogether. Their specious pretence of believing the book to be authentic while they deny its prophetic character is exposed by the words before us. It is not, however, about prophecy that I am going to speak at this time. I wish to bring forth a general principle-the principle that our gracious Lord usually gives a promise of that which he means to bestow. Before his favours come into our hands the sound of them falls upon our ears. Since God is full of mercy and grace, he has resolved to give great blessings to the sons of men, but he gives not without prudent arrangement, and therefore his wisdom fixes times for the bestowal of his gifts. A certain fulness of time of which he often speaks was necessary before the coming of Christ. Our Lord could not appear in human flesh until that appointed time had come; but while his wisdom bade him stay the fulfilment his love was so great that he must begin to speak of the grand covenant blessing. Before the Lord Jesus came, the Father was continually speaking of his coming. Or ever he had given him from his bosom to die, he so delighted in what he was going to do, and he took such pleasure in the result of his glorious gift, that he must speak about it, and so in countless promises he spake with the sons of men concerning the great deed of love. This seems to me a clear proof of how heartily he went about the great work of our redemption; because he dwelt so much upon the prospect of it that he revealed his thoughts in prophecy and promise. If you are going to do some kindness to a friend, and the time has not quite come for it, yet you cannot keep your purpose a secret. If you think it will minister to his comfort to receive a promise of it you are sure to give him some cheering hint or comforting intimation. The thought is pleasant to yourself, and you wish him to share your anticipation. You wish him to get a sight of the good thing before he gets a taste of it. Before he actually obtains the help itself you wish to see him cheered with the prospect, and so you turn his mind hopefully in the kindly direction. Love is so fond of its object that it is not content with blessing it by a solitary act; before the time comes for the actual blessing love casts forth a fragrance, as a forecast of the flower which is yet in the bloom and not fully opened. It is for this reason that the Lord antedates his mercy, and informs his people of things to come before they actually spring forth. Wisdom waits its time to fulfil, as we have said, but grace gives the promise beforehand that it may ease its own soul of the load of its beneficence, and give comfort to those who are to receive the blessing. Hence almost everything that God gives to his people is made a matter of promise. He not only means to bestow the favour, but he tells us he means to bestow it, and he has a practical purpose in this information. The philosophy of promise is my topic at this time. Why are covenant blessings the subject of promises? Why does not the Lord give us the blessing without previous intimation? It would |