CHARLES SPURGEON — SERMON NOTES



67.

THE first position is "I passed from them." We must go beyond the fellowship of the best of men, and commune with him whom our soul loveth. Our love must lead to action: "Isought him." Those who love Jesus seek his presence with an agony of desire.

After this seeking, we read at first, "I found him not." Sad, but needful disappointment. But this lasts not for ever; we soon come into the region of our text, where everything is bright with sunlight. Three flashes of delight follow each other: "I found him"; "I held him"; "I brought him." May these be our joyous experience! To that end let us muse upon them and pray the Holy Spirit to help us.

I. "I FOUND HIM": or, love in fellowship.

1. I was inquiring for him.
2. I had got beyond all men and means, and could not be contest with any but himself.
3. I beheld his person. He drew near in his Word and ordinances. I perceived him by the Spirit. Faith saw him clearly.
4. I was assured of his presence. My heart felt peculiar influences operating upon it. It was a time of love.
5. I knew him to be mine. There were no doubts and fears. He was "my Beloved," and I was all his own.
6. I was filled with content. I looked for no one else, for in finding him I had found my all for earth and heaven.

Do we know what this blessed finding means?

If not, let us never rest till we do.

II. "I HELD HIM": or, love in possession.

1. By my heart's resolve, determining never to lose him again.
2. By my tearful pleas, entreating him not to mane me wretched by withdrawing I pleaded —

3. By making him my all in all. He stays where he is prized, and I set him on a high throne in my spirit.
4. By renouncing all other loves, sins, idols, etc. He is jealous, and I kept myself altogether for him.
5. By a simple faith: for he is pleased with trust; and dwells where he is rested in.
6. By his own power. "I would not let him go," because I held him by his promise, and by the power which it gave me.

If you have Jesus, hold him.

He is willing to be constrained. See how often, in his life on earth, "they constrained him," and he yielded to their will.

III. "I BROUGHT HIM": or, love in communication.

The love of Jesus creates in our hearts love to our fellow-believers for their Redeemer's sake.

The church of God is our mother: the holy assembly is her chamber, where we were born unto God, and nurtured in his fear. We are to labor to promote communion with Christ among those who are our brethren, taking Jesus with us whensoever we go up to the gatherings of the faithful.

This we should do—

1. By our own spirit: communing with Jesus before we go to public worship, and going there with him in our company.


2. By our words: we should so speak as to set forth Jesus, and promote fellowship with him. Alas, how many speak controversially, or without savor, or with carnal oratory wherein is no room for the Beloved! Oh, for a crucified style of speech!

3. By our prayers we should bring him into the assembly; ay, bring him into society where hitherto he has been unknown. The world also was once our mother. Oh, that we could introduce the Lord Jesus into her chambers, that he might reign and rule there! "Thy Kingdom come." By loving violence we will constrain him to come with us in his presence and power.

See what the church needs! — Christ in her midst.
See how he is likely to come! — he must be brought.
See what must first be done! — he must be held.
See who alone can do this! — those who have found him.
Yet see, also, who may find him! — all who love him, and seek him.

Are we among the number?

Further Suggestions

Hold him by not offending him. First, by sloth. When the soul turns sleepy or careless, Christ goes away. Secondly, by idols. You cannot hold two objects. Thirdly, by being unwilling to be sanctified. Fourthly, by an unholy house. "I brought him into my mother's house." Remember to take Christ home with you, and let him rule in your house. If you walk with Christ abroad but never take him home, you will soon part company for ever. — McCheyne

"I found him", I, a man, found the Lord of Glory; I, a slave to sin, found the great Deliverer; I, the child of darkness, found the Light of life; I, the uttermost of the lost, found my Savior and my God; I, widowed and desolate, found my Friend, my Beloved, my Husband. Go and do likewise, sons and daughters of Zion, and he will be found: of you; for "then shall ye find when ye search with all your heart."

But we have another mother, and other brethren, in the human family from which we are sprung. The Church has the first, not the only claim on our affections; the perishing world has its right to a large share of our pity and our prayers. Comparatively, it is not hard for us to bring Jesus into the Church, which is his mother's house as well as ours. But the world hates Christ, has nothing in common with him, is aware that he rightfully claims the dominion, is sensitively jealous of the claim, and lives with its doors barred against him night and day. No criminal keeps so vigilant a watch against the officers of justice, no lonely widow makes her gates so fast against the midnight robber, no miser spurns so haughtily the beggar from his door, as the unrenewed heart keeps watch and ward against the entrance of Jesus, and scornfully sends him away when he asks for a lodging in the soul. To introduce him, therefore, into this home of our mother is a work demanding effort, watchfulness, patience. There is much to provoke him to turn away; we must plead with him, hold him, and not let him go; and with our mother's children we must also plead with "the soft tongue that breaketh the bone;' for they are offended with us as well as with him. So sought and prevailed the Bride of the Lamb, till she brought her own Beloved into the midst of her mother's children, by whom she had been herself so hardly entreated, requiting evil with good. Have you attempted this? Are you engaged in the effort now? If not, rise and commence such a work of faith and labor of love on behalf of the lost. — A. Moody Stuart

CHARLES HADDEN SPURGEON

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