was indeed a healed one.

Mark then, that those of you who desire to obtain the witness of the Spirit should come forward and confess your faith and tell what the Lord has done for you: then shall you receive the sealing witness of the Spirit with your spirit that you are indeed born of God. God help you tremblers who have at last touched my Master's hem to acknowledge it bravely before all and specially before himself.

Brethren, the wine which cometh out of these grapes is this: the slightest connection with Jesus will bless us. I desire to send you away with this one truth upon your minds. Whether you are a child of God or not a child of God, hear this weighty doctrine. This woman believed the matchless truth, that the least touch of Christ will cure. "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be made whole." Believe this, I pray you, each one for himself.

If you, dear child of God, feel very depressed this morning-coldhearted, dead, sluggish: if you touch but his clothes you shall become warm-hearted again. You shall get all your life and vigour and enthusiasm back again if you only draw near to your Lord. Do I hear you say "I seem so full of doubts, so depressed in spirits, so unhappy. I trust I am converted, but I cannot rejoice;" then, brother, get a fresh hold of your Lord, for if you touch but his clothes you shall be made whole of the plague of doubting. Only draw near to Jesus, your risen Lord, by a prayer, or a believing thought, and it is done. Be it ever so slight a touch you shall be made whole. Perhaps you say, "I feel so discouraged in my Christian work, and even feel as if I must give it up. I have seen no conversions lately, and therefore I cannot go about my work with the spirit I once had." Brother, you are falling into a spiritual lethargy, but if you do but touch your Lord again you shall be made whole. Did not the Lord Jesus heal you at the first? He can heal you still. He loses no virtue when he gives forth his power. If a master takes a scholar and fills him full of wisdom the master is just as wise afterwards as he was at first, and when our Lord grants us a fulness of grace he remains as full of grace as he was originally. Come to him, then, ye downcast saints. Come now. Come always. If any of you have backslidden; if you have become altogether wrong and out of sorts; if your spiritual digestion is bad; if your spiritual eyes are dim, so that you cannot see afar off; if your knees are weak and if your hands hang down, if your whole head is sick and your heart faint, yet still if you touch but your Lord's garments you shall be made whole. This wonderful medicine has boundless power to restore from relapses as well as to heal the first disease. I cannot help reminding you of the church at Laodicea, which was in so horrible a state that our Lord himself said he must spue it out of his mouth, and yet he added, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Communion is the cure for lukewarmness. When you have fallen so low that even Christ himself is sick of you-and it must be a very bad case when he becomes sick of a church-yet even then if you but sup with him and he with you all will be well. Only get into communion with him who has life in himself and your own life shall become full of vigour. Oh, dear children

of God, if you have fallen into an unhappy state, put in practice the example of the woman, and see whether Jesus is not still the same. A touch is a very simple matter, but do not, therefore, doubt its value.

As for you who fear that you are not his children, behold, I set before you an open door this morning, and I pray God that you may be enabled to enter into it. If you touch but the Redeemer's clothes you shall be made whole. Whatever the transgression, the iniquity, the sin, of which you have been guilty, come into contact with the bleeding Lamb and you shall be forgiven. You need not even so much as touch, for there is life in a look. A look will set up sufficient contact to bring salvation. "Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth." "They looked unto him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed." Do but look, do but get out of yourself to him somehow or other, and it is done. Though a glance will not carry a thread as thin as a spider's cobweb, yet it will establish a connection. The ray of light which comes from Jesus' wounds to your eye will be link enough and along it eternal salvation will come to you. Get to Christ, sinner, get to Christ at once. Have you come to him? Then you are saved. Confess your faith, and give Jesus honour. Love him with all your heart; and while angels are rejoicing over you, do you be glad also. Christ hath saved you, praise him for ever and ever. May the Lord add his blessing for Jesus' sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-Matthew ix. 9-31.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"-174, 415, 603.

"The Sunday School Teachers' Manual," by W. H. Groser, contains the following remarks upon Mr. SPURGEON'S

COMMENTING & COMMENTARIES.

"Mr. Spurgeon has rendered invaluable service to teachers and preachers by preparing a guide book to expository literature, under the title of "Commenting and Commentaries," and which may be had for half-a-crown. It is conspicuous for variety of information, fairness, and acumen. We heartily recommend this laborious and useful work."

THE CAUSE AND CURE OF WEARINESS IN SABBATHSCHOOL TEACHERS.

A Sermon

DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 8TH, 1877, BY
C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,

At a Convention of the Sunday-school Union.

"Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."-Galatians vi. 9.

THIS verse occurs in the Epistle to the Galatians, which so plainly sets forth the grand doctrine of justification by faith, and teaches us, most. plainly, that salvation is not of works, but of grace. As if to confound for ever those who say that the doctrine of free grace is unpractical, the apostle, before he closes his epistle, exhorts believers to labour, and in the verse before us gives us a sentence worthy to be printed in letters of gold and hung up for ever before the eyes of all Christian workers, "Be not weary in well doing." It is true, my brethren, that you are not to save yourselves by well doing. Your motive is not selfish, but because you are saved already you desire to manifest the power of gratitude, and to prove to all the world that those who receive a free salvation are the very men who most cheerfully labour to please God and to bring glory to his name. O ye who are debtors to infinite mercy, "Be not weary in

well doing."

The apostle, at the time he wrote our text, had in his mind's eye the well doing which by its alms does good unto all men, and also that kindness which leads hearers of the gospel to communicate in all good things unto him that teacheth. Truly it is easy to be weary in these matters. Almsgiving certainly is disheartening work. One is so continually being deceived that giving to the poor becomes a weary business. Impostors abound on all sides: this city of London swarms with impostors who would deceive Solomon himself. I do not wonder that men are driven to organize their charity, which frequently means bringing it to an end. The tendency is to excuse themselves because at some time or other they have been victimized. A cruel hardness is abroad No. 1,383.

which talks philosophy, and abjures almsgiving for fear of disturbing our delightful social economy. Almsgiving, if we are to believe some men, has become a crime, and the truly good man is he who never interferes with the work of the poor law. To these people it seems odd that our Lord should have commended anything so inconsistent with political economy as giving to the poor. According to the modern school we may expect those to be blessed who see people hungry and give them no meat, thirsty and give them no drink, sick and in prison and never visit them; because hungry people should go to the parish, and thirsty people to the pump. I trust, however, that the Christian spirit which is pitiful to the poor will never die out among us, and that, notwithstanding all the difficulties under which we may have to labour, we may not be weary in well doing, for despite all deceits and impositions, in due season we shall reap if we faint not.

I am sure I shall not be wrong in taking the text from its immediate connection and applying it to the work of Sabbath-schools: for, first of all, I am sure, brethren and sisters, that your work is well described in the text-it is well doing. Secondly, I am equally clear that you are liable to the evils mentioned here, which are common to all Christian service-weariness and faintness: and it is equally clear that the consolation and encouragement of the text may truthfully be enjoyed by you. "In due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

I. First, then, I know you will all agree with me that YOUR WORK

IS WELL DESCRIBED IN THE TEXT.

It may be set forth in so many words as well doing. You entered upon it because you felt it to be so, and you continue in it for the same reason. Another description of Christian work is implied in the promise of reaping your work is sowing. Take the two ideas of well doing and sowing, and they will both be found to be exceedingly well embodied in holy labour among the young.

Sunday-school work is well doing. How can it be otherwise, for it is an act of obedience? I trust you have entered upon it because you call Jesus your Master and Lord, and you wish to fulfil the great command, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." You find children to be creatures, fallen creatures, but still lovable little things, full of vigour, and life, and glee. You see them to be a component part of the race, and you conclude at once that your Master's command applies to them. You are not like the disciples who would put them back, for you have learned from their mistake, and you remember the words of their Master and yours, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." You know, too, that "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings he hath ordained strength because of the adversary;" so that you are sure that he included the little ones in the general commission when he said, "Preach the gospel to every creature." You are doubly sure that you are obeying his will because you have certain special precepts which relate to the little ones, such as "Feed my lambs," and "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he shall not depart from it." You know that it is our duty to preserve alive a testimony in the world, and therefore you are anxious to teach the word to your children that they may teach it to their children, that so, from generation to generation, the word of the Lord may be made known. Be the task pleasant

or irksome to you, it is not yours to hesitate but to obey. The love which has redeemed you also constrains you. You feel the touch of the sacred hand upon your shoulder, the hand which once was pierced, and you hear your Redeemer say, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you;" and because of that sending, you go forth to the little ones in obedience to his will. He who obeys is doing well, and in this sense your service among the little ones is well doing.

Well doing it is, again, because it brings glory to God. We must always continue to receive from God, who is the great fountain of goodness and blessing, but yet, in infinite condescension, he permits us to make him some return. As the dewdrop reflects the beam with which the great sun adorns it, so may we, in our measure, make the light of our great Father to sparkle before the eyes of men. Our lives may be as the rivers which run into the sea from whence they originally came. Whenever we attempt that which will clearly promote the divine glory, we are well doing. When we make known Jehovah's grace, when we work in accordance with his purposes of love, when we speak forth the truth which honours his beloved Son; whenever, indeed, the Holy Spirit through us bears witness to the eternal verities of the gospel, there is well doing towards God. We cannot increase his intrinsic glory, but through his Spirit we can make his glory to be more widely seen and among the choicest ways of doing this we give a high place to the teaching of children the fear of the Lord, in order that they may be a seed to serve him, and to rejoice in his salvation.

And who shall doubt that Sabbath-school work is well doing towards man? The highest form of charity is to teach our fellow-man the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thou mayest give bread to thy fellow, but when he has caten it is gone; if thou givest him the bread of life it abides with him for ever. Thou mayest give him bread in plenty, but in due time he will die as his fathers have done before him; but if thou givest him the bread of heaven, and he eat thereof, he shall live for ever. God has enabled thee to hand out to him immortal food, even Jesus, who is "that bread from heaven." What a blessing it is to a man if you are the instrument of changing his heart, and so of emancipating him from vice and making him free unto holiness? To lead a soul to Christ is to lead it to heaven. It is assuredly a noble part of benevolence to deliver the gospel to the sons of men; and, if possible, this benevolence is of a still higher kind when you deliver the truth of God to children, for as prevention is better than a cure, so is it better to prevent a life of vice than to rescue from it; and as the earlier a soul has light the shorter is its night of darkness, so the earlier in life salvation comes to the heart the better, and greater is the benediction. To receive the dew of grace while we are yet in the dew of youth is a double boon.

Brethren, your work is one of well-doing, of the most thorough and radical kind, for you strike at the very root of sin in the child by seeking his regeneration. You desire, by the grace of God, to win the heart for Christ at the beginning of life, and this is the best of blessings. I hope you are not among those who only hope to see your children converted when they are grown up, and feel satisfied to let them remain in their sins while they are children. I hope that you pray for the conversion of children as children, and are working to that end by