are apparently very hale and strong men are among the first to fall. Our friends who are continual invalids remain with us, some of them many months, and even many years after we have sorrowfully given them up. Consumption keeps many for long months lingering slowly into everlasting life, while strong, hearty persons are in an instant taken away. It is therefore no new thing for men to die suddenly. Not one man or woman here has a guarantee that he or she shall live till to-morrow. It is almost a misuse of language to talk about life insurance, for we cannot insure our lives; they must for ever remain uninsured as to their continuance here. If I could be a prophet this morning, and point out one and another and say, "That man will be dead before next Sunday," or "That woman will not live a week,” I should feel I had a very painful duty to discharge; but is it not wise for us to reflect that it may happen to any one of us? There are no reasons by which we can prove that we shall escape the mighty hunter for another day. We are ready enough to think of this for others, for all men think all men mortal but themselves; but practical wisdom would lead us to suggest to ourselves that we are mortal, and that perhaps the death-bolt which has just left the bow of God may be aimed at our hearts. The question is, "When thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do?" When on a sudden the curtains of our tent shall rend in twain, and the tent pole shall be snapped, and the body shall lie a desolate ruin, what shall we then do? I will tell you what some of us know that we shall do. We know that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. As poor, guilty sinners we have fled to Christ for refuge, and he is ours, and we know that he will surely keep what we have committed to him until that day: therefore are we not afraid of all that the spoilers can do. We are not afraid of thee, O Death, for thou art the porter that shall open the gates of immortality. And you, ye worms, we are not afraid of you; for though ye devour this body, yet ye shall not destroy it, for in our flesh shall we see God. O Grave, we are not dismayed at thy gloom, for what art thou but a refining pot, out of which this poor earthy body shall arise set free from all corruption. Time, we fear not thy trials! Eternity, we dread not thy terrors. Our soul shall dwell at ease, come what may. Glory be to the blessed name of the Lord Jesus we shall rise because he has risen, we shall live because he lives, and reign because he reigns. We are not afraid of the spoiler; but O, worldling, when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Rich man, your acres will be yours no longer; no park for you to roam over, no fine trees to boast of, nor ancestral halls in which to glorify yourselves. You will have nothing left you; no barns, no ripening harvests, no noble horses or fattened sheep: you must leave them all, and if these are your treasures, what will you do when God requires your soul of you? Then the largeness of the amount invested will only make it all the harder to die, and palaces and gardens will make the pang of separation yet more keen. You will find it a dreadful wrench to be torn away from that in which your heart so much delighted. "When thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do?" Thy money bags will not ease thy conscience: all the leases, and title deeds, and mortgages that thou canst heap upon thee will not warm thy dying heart into the life of hope. What wilt thou do? Alas, what wilt thou do? And you, ye worldlings, who have no wealth, but live for present pleasure, where then will be your wine cups and your dances? Where your draughts of mighty ale, your oaths and blasphemies? Where now your midnight revelry and wantonness? When ye shall appear before the Judge of all the earth, what will be left to you? When all these unhallowed pleasures are swept away, what remains? Yes, thou lover of pleasure, make merry and rejoice to-day, but "when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do?" With thy children about thee, rejoice in thy home and live at ease without God, but "when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do?" Despise religion if thou wilt, and count it all a dream invented to make men sour and wretched, but when thou art dying, and thy pulse is faint and failing, what wilt thou do? What canst thou do? Opportunities over, and space for repentance nearly run out,-what wilt thou do? The thought mayhap will seize you then, "Too late, too late! you cannot enter now." The voice which saith, "Behold the bridegroom cometh," will startle you in the midnight of your ignorance just as you are about to die, and then you will wring your hands in everlasting despair, because you did not in due time seek him who can save you from the wrath to come. Awaken, I beseech you, your sluggish hearts, and look forward to your latter end. I pray that I may leave one or two solemn thoughts upon the minds of the careless; better still, I pray God the Holy Spirit to lead them now to believe on the Lord Jesus to the saving of their souls. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-Psalm lxxi. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"-73 (Part III.), 74, 196. COMMENTING AND COMMENTARIES: "This is another of the series of lectures which Mr. Spurgeon has delivered to his students, and here offers to a wider audience, by whom it will no doubt be cordially welcomed. It has all the excellence which characterises the work of Mr. Spurgeon. The terse idiomatic English, the shrewd mother-wit, and the practical sagacity of Spurgeon are all here in force. For students the book will have great value. It will be to them a valuable guide to the literature of a great subject. But a true student will soon pass beyond the narrow bounds of the list of books given here. We should have said that the volume consists of a couple of lectures, one on commenting and another on commentaries. The hints on commenting are very suggestive. But the cream of the book is the list of commentaries, and the short, pithy criticisms given on each at the end of the volume. We cordially recommend the book to our readers, assuring them that they will find it full of instruction and amusement."-Edinburgh Daily Review. PASSMORE & ALABASTER, 4, Paternoster Buildings; and all Booksellers. NEVERTHELESS. HEREAFTER. A Sermon DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Jesus saith saith unto him, Thou hast said (or said so), nevertheless, I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."-Matthew xxvi. 64. OUR Lord, before his enemies, was silent in his own defence, but he faithfully warned and boldly avowed the truth. His was the silence of patience, not of indifference; of courage, not of cowardice. It is written that "before Pontius Pilate he witnessed a good confession," and that statement may also be well applied to his utterances before Caiaphas, for there he was not silent when it came to confession of necessary truth. If you will read the chapter now open before us, you will notice that the high priest adjured him, saying, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of God?" to which he replied at once, "Thou hast said it." He did not disown his Messiahship; he claimed to be the promised one, the messenger from heaven, Christ the anointed of the Most High. Neither did he for a moment disavow his personal deity: he acknowledged and confessed that he was the Son of God. How could he be silent when such a vital point as to his person was in question? He did not hold them in suspense, but openly declared his Godhead by saying, "I am;" for so are his words reported by one of the evangelists. He then proceeded to reveal the solemn fact that he would soon sit at the right hand of God, even the Father. In the words of our text he declared that those who were condemning him would see him glorified, and in due time would stand at his bar when he would come upon the clouds of heaven to judge the quick and dead according to our gospel. See, then, dear brethren, in a few words, the great truths of our holy religion clearly set forth by our Lord Jesus: he claimed to be the Christ of God, and the Son of God, and his brief statement by implication speaks of Jesus dead, buried, and risen, and now enthroned at the right hand of God in the power of the Father, and Jesus soon to come in his glorious second advent to judge the world in righteousness. Our Lord's confession was very full, and happy is he who heartily embraces it. Nos. 1,364-5. I intend to dwell upon three catch-words around which there gathers a world of encouraging and solemn thought. The first is “nevertheless," and the second is "hereafter;" what the third is you shall know hereafter, but not just now. I. "NEVERTHELESS," said Christ, "hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." This, then, is the string from which we must draw forth music. "Nevertheless," which being interpreted by being pulled in pieces, signifies that truth is never-the-less sure because of opposition. Nevertheless," not one atom the less is the truth certain to prevail, for all that you say or do against it. Jesus will surely sit at the right hand of power, and come in due season upon the clouds of heaven. Let us dwell for a little time upon this important fact, that truth is none the less certain because of the opposition of men and devils. Observe, first, that the Saviour's condition when he made use of that "nevertheless was no proof that he would not rise to power. There he stood, a poor, defenceless, emaciated man, newly led from the nightwatch in the garden and its bloody sweat. He was a spectacle of meek and lowly suffering, led by his captors like a lamb to the slaughter, with none to speak a word on his behalf. He was surrounded by those who hated him, and he was forsaken by his friends. Scribes, Pharisees, priests, were all thirsting for his heart's blood. A lamb in the midst of wolves is but a faint picture of Christ standing there before the Sanhedrim in patient silence. And yet, though his present condition seemed to contradict it, he who was the faithful and true witness spake truly when he testified, "Nevertheless, hereafter ye shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven. Despite my present shame and suffering, so it shall be." He gives himself that lowly, humble title of Son of man, as best indicating himself in his condition at that time. "Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." The humiliation of Christ did not in the least endanger his after glory. His sufferings, his shame, his death, did not render it any the less certain that he would climb to his throne. Nor did the cavillings of his opposers keep him for one instant from his place of honour. I wish you to remember this, for there is a great principle in it. There are many poor weakminded people who cannot take sides with a persecuted truth, nor accept anything but the most popular and fashionable form of religion. They dare not be with truth when men spit in its face, and buffet it, and pour contempt upon it; but it will be victorious none the less, although cowards desert it and falsehearted men oppose it. If it stand alone at the bar of the world, a culprit to be condemned, if it receive nothing but a universal hiss of human execration,-yet, if it be the truth, it may be condemned, but it will be justified; it may be buried, but it will rise; it may be rejected, but it will be glorified, even as it has happened to the Christ of God. Who would be ashamed of truth at any time when he knows the preciousness of it? Who will tremble because of present opposition when he foresees what will yet come of it? What a sublime spectacle-the man of sorrows standing before his cruel judges in all manner of weakness and poverty and contempt. at the same time heir of all things, and appointed, nevertheless, to sit at the right hand of power and to come in the clouds of heaven. Nor may we think only of his condition as a despised and rejected man; for he was, on his trial, charged with grievous wrong, and about to be condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities. The scribes learned in the law declared that he blasphemed and the priests, familiar with the ordinances of God, exclaimed, "Away with him; it is not meet that he should live." The high priest himself gave judgment that it was expedient for him to be put to death. It is a very serious thing, is it not, when all the ecclesiastical authorities are against you,-when they are unanimous in your condemnation? Yes, verily, and it may cause great searching of heart; for no peaceable man desires to be opposed to constituted authority, but would sooner have the good word of those who sit in Moses' seat. But this was not the last time in which the established ecclesiastical authorities were wrong, grievously wrong. They were condemning the innocent, and blaspheming the Lord from heaven. Nor, I say, was this the last time in which the mitre and the gown have been upon the side of cruel wrong: yet this did not un-Christ our Saviour or rob him of his deity or his throne. On the same principle human history brings before us abundance of instances in which, nevertheless, though scribes, priests, bishops, pontiffs, and popes condemned the truth, it was just as sure, and became as triumphant, as it had a right to do. There stands the one lone man, and there are all the great ones around him-men of authority and reputation, sanctity and pomp--and they unaminously deny that he can ever sit at the right hand of God: "But, nevertheless," saith he, "hereafter ye shall see the Son of man at the right hand of power." He spoke the truth: his declaration has been most gloriously fulfilled hitherto. Even thus over the neck of clergy, priests, pontiff's, popes, his triumphant chariot of salvation shall still roll, and the truth-the simple truth of his glorious gospel-shall, despite them all, win the day, and reign over the sons of men. Nor is this all. Our Lord at that time was surrounded by those who were in possession of earthly power. The priests had the ear of Pilate, and Pilate had the Roman legions at his back. Who could resist such a combination of force? Craft and authority form a dreadful league. One disciple drew a sword, but just at the time when our Lord stood before the Sanhedrim that one chivalrous warrior had denied him; so that all the physical force was on the other side. As a man he was helpless when he stood bound before the council. I am not speaking now of that almighty power which faith knows to have dwelt in him; but as to human power, he was weakness at its weakest. His cause seemed at the lowest ebb. He had none to stand up in his defence-nay, none to speak a word on his behalf; for," Who shall declare his generation?" And yet, for all that, and even because of it, he did rise to sit at the right hand of power, and he shall come in the clouds of heaven. So if it ever comes to pass, my brother, that thou shouldst be the lone advocate of a forgotten truth,-if thy Master should ever put thee in all thy weakness and infirmity in the midst of the mighty and the strong, do not thou fear or tremble; for the possession of power is but a trifle compared with the possession of truth, and he that has the right may |