 CHAPTER XVIII. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, for ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Romans 8, 14 to 17. The people of whom Saint Paul speaks, in the verses before our eyes, are the richest people upon earth. It must needs be so. They are called heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. The inheritance of these people is the only inheritance really worth having. All others are unsatisfying and disappointing. They bring with them many cares. They cannot cure an aching heart, or lighten a heavy conscience. They cannot keep off family troubles. They cannot prevent sicknesses, bereavements, separations, and deaths. But there is no disappointment among the heirs of God. The inheritance I speak of is the only inheritance which can be kept forever. All others must be left in the hour of death, if they have not been taken away before. The owners of millions of pounds can carry nothing with them beyond the grave. But it is not so with the heirs of God. Their inheritance is eternal. The inheritance I speak of is the only inheritance which is within everybody's reach. Most men can never obtain riches and greatness, though they labor hard for them all their lives. But glory, honor, and eternal life are offered to every man freely, who is willing to accept them on God's terms. Whosoever will may be an heir of God and joint heir with Christ. If any reader of this paper wishes to have a portion of this inheritance, let him know that he must be a member of that one family on earth to which it belongs, and that is the family of all true Christians. You must become one of God's children on earth if you desire to have glory in heaven. I write this paper in order to persuade you to become a child of God this day, if you are not one already. I write it to persuade you to make sure work that you are one, if at present you have only a vague hope and nothing more. None but true Christians are the children of God. None but the children of God are heirs of God. Give me your attention while I try to unfold to you these things and to show the lessons contained in the verses which had this page. One, let me show the relation of all true Christians to God. They are sons of God. Two, let me show the special evidences of this relation. True Christians are led by the spirit. They have the spirit of adoption. They have the witness of the spirit. They suffer with Christ. Three, let me show the privileges of this relation. True Christians are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. One, first let me show the relation of all true Christians to God. They are God's sons. I know no higher and more comfortable word that could have been chosen. To be servants of God, to be subjects, soldiers, disciples, friends, all these are excellent titles. But to be the sons of God is a step higher still. What says the scripture? The servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth ever, John 835. To be son of the rich and noble in this world, to be son of the princes and kings of the earth, this is commonly reckoned a great temporal advantage and privilege. But to be a son of the king of kings and Lord of lords, to be a son of the high and holy one who inhabiteth eternity, this is something far higher. And yet this is the portion of every true Christian. The son of an earthly parent looks naturally to his father for affection, maintenance, provision, and education. There is a home always open to him. There is a love which, generally speaking, no bad conduct can completely extinguish. All these are things belonging even to the sonship of this world. Think then how great is the privilege of that poor sinner of mankind who can say of God, he is my father. But how can simple men like ourselves become sons of God? When do we enter into this glorious relationship? We are not the sons of God by nature. We were not born so when we came into the world. No man has a natural right to look to God as his father. It is a vile heresy to say that he has. Men are said to be born poets and painters, but men are never born sons of God. The epistle to the Ephesians tells us, ye were by nature children of wrath, even as others, Ephesians 2-3. The epistle of St. John says, The children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God. 1 John 3-10. The catechism of the Church of England wisely follows the doctrine of the Bible and teaches us to say, by nature we are born in sin and children of wrath. Yes, we are all rather children of the devil than children of God. Sin is indeed hereditary and runs in the family of Adam. Grace is anything but hereditary, and holy men have not, as a matter of course, holy sons. How then and when does this mighty change and translation come upon men? When and in what manner do sinners become the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty? 2 Corinthians 6-18. Men become sons of God in the day that the Spirit leads them to believe on Jesus Christ for salvation and not before. What says the epistle to the Galatians? You are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, Galatians 3-26. What says the first epistle to the Corinthians? Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, 1 Corinthians 1-30. What says the Gospel of John? As many as received Christ, to them gave he power or privilege to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, 1 John 1-12. Faith unites the sinner to the Son of God and makes him one of his members. Faith makes him one of those in whom the Father sees no spot and is well-pleased. Faith marries him to the beloved Son of God and entitles him to be reckoned among the sons. Faith gives him fellowship with the Father and the Son, 1 John 1-3. Faith grafts him into the Father's family and opens up to him a room in the Father's house. Faith gives him life instead of death and makes him instead of being a servant, a son. Show me a man that has this faith and whatever be his church or denomination, I say that he is a Son of God. This is one of those points we should never forget. You and I know nothing of a man's sonship until he believes. No doubt the sons of God are foreknown and chosen from all eternity and predestined to adoption. But remember, it is not till they are called in due time and believe, it is not till then that you and I can be certain they are sons. It is not till they repent and believe that the angels of God rejoice over them. The angels cannot read the book of God's election. They know not who are his hidden ones in the earth, Psalm 83-3. They rejoice over no man till he believes. But when they see some poor sinner repenting and believing, then there is joy among them. Joy that one more brand is plucked from the burning and one more son and heir born again to the Father in heaven. Luke 15.10. But once more I say, you and I know nothing certain about a man's sonship to God until he believes on Christ. I warn you to beware of the delusive notion that all men and women are alike children of God, whether they have faith in Christ or not. It is a wild theory which many are clinging to in these days but one which cannot be proved out of the word of God. It is a perilous dream with which many are trying to soothe themselves but one from which there will be a fearful waking up at the last day. That God in a certain sense is the universal father of all mankind. I do not pretend to deny. He is the great first cause of all things. He is the creator of all mankind and in him alone all men, whether Christians or heathens, live and move and have their being. All this is unquestionably true. In this sense, Paul told the Athenians, a poet of their own had truly said, we are his offspring. Acts 17, 28. But this sonship gives no man a title to heaven. The sonship which we have by creation is one which belongs to stones, trees, beasts or even to the devils as much as to us. Job 1.6. That God loves all mankind with a love of pity and compassion I do not deny. His tender mercies are over all his works. He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. All this I admit to the full. In this sense our Lord Jesus tells us, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. Psalm 145.9. 2 Peter 3.9. Ezekiel 18.32. John 3.16. But that God is a reconciled and pardoning father to any but the members of his Son Jesus Christ and that any are members of Jesus Christ who do not believe on him for salvation. This is a doctrine which I utterly deny. The holiness and justice of God are both against the doctrine. They make it impossible for sinful men to approach God accepting through the mediator. They tell us that God out of Christ is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12.29. The whole system of the New Testament is against the doctrine. That system teaches that no man can claim interest in Christ unless he will receive him as his mediator and believe on him as his savior. Where there is no faith in Christ it is a dangerous error to say that a man may take comfort in God as his father. God is a reconciled father to none but the members of Christ. It is unreasonable to talk of the view I am now upholding as narrow-minded and harsh. The gospel sets an open door before every man. Its promises are wide and full. Its invitations are earnest and tender. Its requirements are simple and clear. Only believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and whosoever thou art thou shall be saved. But to say that proud men who will not bow their necks to the easy yoke of Christ and worldly men who are determined to have their own way and their sins. To say that such men have a right to claim an interest in Christ and a right to call themselves sons of God is to say what can never be proved from Scripture. God offers to be their father but he does it on certain distinct terms. They must draw near to him through Christ. Christ offers to be their savior but in doing it he makes one simple requirement. They must commit their souls to him and give him their hearts. They refuse the terms and yet dare to call God their father. They scorn the requirement and yet dare to hope that Christ will save them. God is to be their father but on their own terms. Christ is to be their savior but on their own conditions. What can be more unreasonable? What can be more proud? What can be more unholy than such a doctrine as this? Let us beware of it for it is a common doctrine in these latter days. Let us beware of it for it is often spaciously put forward and sounds beautiful and charitable in the mouth of poets, novelists, sentimentalists and tender-hearted women. Let us beware of it unless we mean to throw aside our Bible altogether and set up ourselves to be wiser than God. Let us stand fast on the old scriptural ground. No sonship to God without Christ. No interest in Christ without faith. I would to God there was not so much cause for giving warnings of this kind. I have reason to think they need to be given clearly and unmistakably. There is a school of theology rising up in this day which appears to me most eminently calculated to promote infidelity to help the devil and to ruin souls. It comes to us like Joab to Amosah with the highest professions of charity, liberality and love. God is all mercy and love according to this theology. His holiness and justice are completely left out of sight. Hell is never spoken of in this theology. Its talk is all of heaven. Damnation is never mentioned. It is treated as an impossible thing. All men and women are to be saved. Faith and the work of the spirit are refined away into nothing at all. Everybody who believes anything has faith. Everybody who thinks anything has the spirit. Everybody is right. Nobody is wrong. Nobody is to blame for any action he may commit. It is the result of his position. It is the effect of circumstances. He is not accountable for his opinions any more than for the color of his skin. He must be what he is. The Bible is a very imperfect book. It is old-fashioned. It is obsolete. We may believe just as much of it as we please and no more. Of all this theology I warn men solemnly to beware. In spite of big swelling words about liberality and charity and broad views and new lights and freedom from bigotry and so forth, I do believe it to be a theology that leads to hell. A, facts are directly against the teachers of this theology. Let them visit Mesopotamia and see what desolation rains where Nineveh and Babylon once stood. Let them go to the shores of the Dead Sea and look down into its mysterious bitter waters. Let them travel in Palestine and ask what has turned that fertile country into a wilderness. Let them observe the wandering Jews scattered over the face of the world without a land of their own and yet never absorbed among other nations. And then let them tell us, if they dare, that God is so entirely a God of mercy and love that he never does and never will punish sin. B, the conscience of man is directly against these teachers. Let them go to the bedside of some dying child of the world and try to comfort him with their doctrines. Let them see if their vaunted theories will calm his gnawing, restless anxiety about the future and enable him to depart in peace. Let them show us if they can a few well authenticated cases of joy and happiness in death without Bible promises, without conversion and without that faith in the blood of Christ which old-fashioned theology enjoins. Alas! When men are leaving the world, conscience makes sad work of the new systems of these latter days. Conscience is not easily satisfied in a dying hour that there is no such thing as hell. C, every reasonable conception that we can form of a future state is directly against these teachers. Fancy a heaven which should contain all mankind. Fancy a heaven in which holy and unholy, pure and impure, good and bad would all be gathered together in one confused mass. What point of union would there be in such a company? What common bond of harmony and brotherhood? What common delight in a common service? What concord, what harmony, what peace? What oneness of spirit could exist? Surely the mind revolts from the idea of a heaven in which there would be no distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between Pharaoh and Moses, between Abraham and the sodomites, between Paul and Nero, between Peter and Judas Iscariot, between the man who dies in the act of murder or drunkenness, and men like Baxter, George Herbert, Wilberforce and McShane. Surely an eternity in such a miserably confused crowd would be worse than annihilation itself. Surely such a heaven would be no better than hell. D, the interests of all holiness and morality are directly against these teachers. If all men and women alike are God's children, whatever is the difference between them in their lives and all alike are going to heaven, however different they may be from one another here in the world, where is the use of laboring after holiness at all? What motive remains for living soberly, righteously and godly? What does it matter how men conduct themselves if all go to heaven and nobody goes to hell? Surely the heathen poets and philosophers of Greece and Rome could tell us something better and wiser than this. Surely a doctrine which is subversive of holiness and morality and takes away all motives to exertion carries on the face of it the stamp of its origin. It is of earth and not of heaven. It is of the devil and not of God. E, the Bible is against these teachers from first to last. Hundreds of texts might be quoted which are diametrically opposed to their theories. These texts must be rejected summarily if the Bible is to square with their views. There may be no reason why they should be rejected, but to suit the theology I speak of they must be thrown away. At this rate the authority of the whole Bible is soon at an end. And what do men give us in its place? Nothing, nothing at all. They rob us of the bread of life and do not give us in its stead so much as a stone. Once more I warn all into whose hands this volume may fall to beware of this theology. I charge you to hold fast the doctrine which I have been endeavoring to uphold in this paper. Remember what I have said and never let it go. No inheritance of glory without sonship to God. No sonship to God without an interest in Christ. No interest in Christ without your own personal faith. This is God's truth. Never forsake it. Who now among the readers of this paper desires to know whether he is a son of God? Ask yourself this question and ask it this day and ask it as in God's sight whether you have repented and believed. Ask yourself whether you are experimentally acquainted with Christ and united to him in heart. If not you may be very sure you are no son of God. You are not yet born again. You are yet in your sins. Your father in creation God may be, but your reconciled and pardoning father God is not. Yes, though church and world may agree to tell you to the contrary, though clergy and laity unite in flattering you, your sonship is worth little or nothing in the sight of God. Let God be true in every man a liar. Without faith in Christ you are no son of God. You are not born again. Who is there among the readers of this paper who desires to become a son of God? Let that person see and feel his sins and flee to Christ for salvation. And this day he shall be placed among the children. Only acknowledge thine iniquity and lay hold on the hand that Jesus holds out to thee this day. And sonship with all its privileges is thine own. Only confess thy sins and bring them unto Christ and God is faithful and just to forgive thee thy sins and cleanse thee from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1 9. This very day old things shall pass away and all things become new. This very day thou shalt be forgiven, pardoned, accepted in the beloved. Ephesians 1 6. This very day thou shalt have a new name given to thee in heaven. Thou didst take up this book a child of wrath. Thou shalt lie down tonight a child of God. Mark this if thy professed desire after sonship is sincere. If thou art truly weary of thy sins and hast really something more than a lazy wish to be free, there is real comfort for thee. It is all true. It is all written in Scripture, even as I have put it down. I dare not raise barriers between thee and God. This day I say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be a son and be saved. Who is there among the readers of this paper that is a son of God indeed? Rejoice, I say, and be exceeding glad of your privileges. Rejoice, for you have good cause to be thankful. Remember the words of the beloved apostle. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. First John 3 1. How wonderful that heaven should look down on earth, that the holy God should set his affections on sinful man and admit him into his family. What though the world does not understand you, what though the men of this world laugh at you and cast out your name as evil, let them laugh if they will. God is your Father. You have no need to be ashamed. The queen can create a nobleman. The bishops can ordain clergymen, but queens, lords and commons, bishops, priests and deacons all together cannot of their own power make one son of God or one of greater dignity than a son of God. The man that can call God his Father and Christ his elder brother, that man may be poor and lonely, yet he need never be ashamed. End of chapter 18, part one. Chapter 18 of Practical Religion. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Patty T. Practical Religion by J. C. Ryle. Chapter 18, Heirs of God, part two. Two, let me show in the second place the special evidences of the true Christian's relation to God. How shall a man make sure work of his own sonship? How shall he find out whether he is one that has come to Christ by faith and been born again? What are the marks and signs and tokens by which the sons of God may be known? This is a question which all who love eternal life ought to ask. This is a question to which the verses of scripture I am asking you to consider, like many others, supply and answer. One, the sons of God, for one thing, are all led by his spirit. What says the scripture which heads this paper? As many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God, Romans 8, 14. They are all under the leading and teaching of a power which is almighty, though unseen, even the power of the Holy Ghost. They no longer churn every man to his own way and walk every man in the light of his own eyes and follow every man his own natural heart's desire. The spirit leads them, the spirit guides them. There is a movement in their hearts, lives, and affections which they feel, though they may not be able to explain, and a movement which is always more or less in the same direction. They are led away from sin, away from self-righteousness, away from the world. This is the road by which the spirit leads God's children. Those whom God adopts, he teaches and trains. He shows them their own hearts. He makes them weary of their own ways. He makes them long for inward peace. They are led to Christ. They are led to the Bible. They are led to prayer. They are led to holiness. This is the beaten path along which the spirit makes them to travel. Those whom God adopts, he always sanctifies. He makes sin very bitter to them. He makes holiness very sweet. It is the spirit who leads them to Sinai and first shows them the law that their hearts may be broken. It is he who leads them to Calvary and shows them the cross that their hearts may be bound up and healed. It is he who leads them to Pisgah and gives them distinct views of the promised land that their hearts may be cheered. When they are taken into the wilderness and taught to see their own emptiness, it is the leading of the spirit. When they are carried up to Tabor or Hermann and lifted up with glimpses of the glory to come, it is the leading of the spirit. Each and all of God's sons is the subject of these leadings. Each and every one is willing in the day of the spirit's power and yields himself to it. And each and all is led by the right way to bring him to a city of habitation. Psalm 110.3.107.7. Settle this down in your heart and do not let it go. The sons of God are a people led by the spirit of God and always led more or less in the same way. Their experience will tally wonderfully when they compare notes in heaven. This is one mark of sonship. Two. Furthermore, all the sons of God have the feelings of adopted children towards their father in heaven. What says the scripture which heads this paper? He have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but he have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, father, Romans 8.15. The sons of God are delivered from that slavish fear of God, which sin begets in the natural heart. They are redeemed from that feeling of guilt which made Adam hide himself in the trees of the garden and Cain go out from the presence of the Lord. Genesis 3.8.4.16. They are no longer afraid of God's holiness and justice and majesty. They no longer feel as if there was a great gulf in barrier between themselves and God, and as if God was angry with them and must be angry with them because of their sins. From these chains and fetters of the soul, the sons of God are delivered. Their feelings towards God are now those of peace and confidence. They see Him as a Father reconciled in Christ Jesus. They look on Him as a God whose attributes are all satisfied by their great mediator and peacemaker, the Lord Jesus, as a God who is just and yet the justifier of everyone that believe it on Jesus. Romans 3.26. As a Father, they draw near to Him with boldness. As a Father, they can speak to Him with freedom. They have exchanged the spirit of bondage for that of liberty and the spirit of fear for that of love. They know that God is holy, but they are not afraid. They know that they are sinners, but they are not afraid. Though holy, they believe that God is completely reconciled. Though sinners, they believe they are clothed all over with Jesus Christ, such is the feeling of the sons of God. I allow that some of them have this feeling more vividly than others. Some of them carry about scraps and remnants of the old spirit of bondage to their dying day. Many of them have fits and paroxysms of the old man's complaint of fear returning upon them at intervals. But very few of the sons of God could be found who would not say, if cross-examined, that since they knew Christ, they have had very different feelings towards God from what they ever had before. They feel as if something like the old Roman form of adoption had taken place between themselves and their Father in heaven. They feel as if he had said to each one of them, will thou be my son? And as if their hearts had replied, I will. Let us try to grasp this also and hold it fast. The sons of God are a people who feel towards God in a way that the children of the world do not. They feel no more slavish fear towards him. They feel towards him as a reconciled parent. This, then, is another mark of sonship. Three, but again the sons of God have the witness of the Spirit in their consciences. What says the scripture which heads this paper? The Spirit itself bear witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God, Romans 8.16. The sons of God have got something within their hearts which tells them there is a relationship between themselves and God. They feel something which tells them that old things are passed away and all things become new. That guilt is gone, that peace is restored, that heaven's door is open and hell's door is shut. They have, in short, what the children of the world have not, a felt, positive, reasonable hope. They have what Paul calls the seal and earnest of the Spirit. Second Corinthians 1.22, Ephesians 1.13. I do not for a moment deny that this witness of the Spirit is exceedingly various in the extent to which the sons of God possess it. With some it is a loud, clear, ringing, distinct testimony of conscience. I am Christ's and Christ is mine. With others it is a little feeble, stammering whisper which the devil and the flesh often prevent being heard. Some of the children of God speed on their course towards heaven under the full sails of assurance. Others are tossed to and fro all their voyage and will scarce believe they have got faith. But take the least and lowest of the sons of God. Ask him if he will give up the little bit of religious hope which he has attained. Ask him if he will exchange his heart with all its doubts and conflicts, its fighting and fears. Ask him if he will exchange that heart for the heart of the downright worldly and careless man. Ask him if he would be content to turn round and throw down the things he has got hold of and go back to the world. Who can doubt what the answer would be? I cannot do that, he would reply. I do not know whether I have faith. I do not feel sure I have got grace, but I have got something within me I would not like to part with. And what is that something? I will tell you, it is the witness of the spirit. Let us try to understand this also. The sons of God have the witness of the spirit in their consciences. This is another mark of sonship. Four, one thing more let me add. All the sons of God take part in suffering with Christ. What says the scripture which heads this paper? If children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, Romans 8, 17. All the children of God have a cross to carry. They have trials, troubles and afflictions to go through for the gospel's sake. They have trials from the world, trials from the flesh and trials from the devil. They have trials of feeling from relations and friends, hard words, hard treatment and hard judgment. They have trials in the matter of character, slander, misrepresentation, mockery, insinuation of false motives. All these often rain thick upon them. They have trials in the matter of worldly interests. They have often to choose whether they will please man and lose glory or gain glory and offend man. They have trials from their own hearts. They have each generally their own thorn in the flesh, their own home devil, who is their worst foe. This is the experience of the sons of God. Some of them suffer more and some less. Some of them suffer in one way and some in another. God measures out their portions like a wise physician and cannot air. But never, I believe, was there one child of God who reached paradise without a cross. Suffering is the diet of the Lord's family, whom the Lord loveth he chaseneth. If he be without chastisement, then he are bastards and not sons. Through much tribulation, we must enter the kingdom of God. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Hebrews 12, 6 and 8, Acts 14, 22, 2 Timothy 3, 12. When Bishop Latimer was told by his landlord that he had never had a trouble, then said he, God cannot be here. Suffering is a part of the process by which the sons of God are sanctified. They are chasent to wean them from the world and make them partakers of God's holiness. The captain of their salvation was made perfect through suffering, and so are they, Hebrews 2, 10, 12, 10. There never yet was a great saint who had not either great afflictions or great corruptions. Well said, Philip Melanchthon, where there are no cares, there will generally be no prayers. Let us try to settle this down into our hearts also. The sons of God have all to bear a cross. A suffering savior generally has suffering disciples. The bridegroom was a man of sorrows. The bride must not be a woman of pleasures and unacquainted with grief. Blessed are they that mourn. Let us not murmur at the cross. This also is a sign of sonship. I warn men never to suppose that they are sons of God, except they have the scriptural marks of sonship. Beware of a sonship without evidences. Again I say, beware. When a man has no leading of the spirit to show me, no spirit of adoption to tell of, no witness of the spirit in his conscience, no cross in his experience, is this man a son of God? Whatever others may think, I dare not say so. His spot is not the spot of God's children, Deuteronomy 32.5. He is no heir of glory. Tell me not that you have been baptized and taught the catechism of the Church of England, and therefore must be a child of God. I tell you that the parish register is not the book of life. I tell you that to be styled a child of God and called regenerate in infancy by the faith and charity of the prayer book is one thing, but to be a child of God indeed, another thing altogether, go and read that catechism again. It is the death unto sin and the new birth unto righteousness which makes men children of grace. Except you know these by experience, you are no son of God. Tell me not that you are a member of Christ's church and so must be a son. I answer that the sons of the church are not necessarily the sons of God. Such sonship is not the sonship of the eighth of Romans. That is the sonship you must have if you are to be saved. And now I doubt not some reader of this paper will want to know if he may not be saved without the witness of the spirit. I answer, if you mean by the witness of the spirit, the full assurance of hope, you may be so saved without question. But if you want to know whether a man can be saved without any inward sense or knowledge or hope of salvation, I answer that ordinarily he cannot. I warn you plainly to cast away all indecision as to your state before God and to make your calling sure. Clear up your position and relationship. Do not think there is anything praiseworthy in always doubting. Leave that to the papists. Do not fancy it wise and humble to be ever living like the borderers of old time on the debatable ground. Assurance, said old Dodd, the Puritan, may be attained. And what have we been doing all our lives since we became Christians if we have not attained it? I doubt not some true Christians who read this paper will think their evidence of sonship is too small to be good and will write bitter things against themselves. Let me try to cheer them. Who gave you the feelings you possess? Who made you hate sin? Who made you love Christ? Who made you long and labor to be holy? Whence did these feelings come? Did they come from nature? There are no such products in the natural man's heart. Did they come from the devil? He would vain stifle such feelings altogether. Cheer up and take courage. Fear not, neither be cast down. Press forward and go on. There is hope for you after all. Strive, labor, seek, ask, knock, follow on. You shall yet see that you are sons of God. Three, let me show in the last place the privileges of the true Christians' relation to God. Nothing can be conceived more glorious than the prospects of the sons of God. The words of Scripture which had this paper contain a rich mind of good and comfortable things. If we are children, says Paul, we are heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ to be glorified together with him, Romans 8, 17. True Christians, then, are heirs. Something is prepared for them all which is yet to be revealed. They are heirs of God. To be heirs of the rich honor is something. How much more than is it to be son and heir of the king of kings? They are joint heirs with Christ. They shall share in his majesty and take part in his glory. They shall be glorified together with him. And this we must remember is for all the children. Abraham took care to provide for all his children and God takes care to provide for his. None of them are disinherited. None will be cast out. None will be cut off. Each shall stand in his lot and have a portion in the day when the Lord brings many sons to glory. Who can tell the full nature of the inheritance of the saints in light? Who can describe the glory which is yet to be revealed and given to the children of God? Words fail us. Language falls short. Mind cannot conceive fully and tongue cannot express perfectly. The things which are comprised in the glory yet to come upon the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. Oh, it is indeed a true saying of the apostle John. It does not yet appear what we shall be. First John 3.2. The very Bible itself only lifts a little of the veil which hangs over this subject. How could it do more? We could not thoroughly understand more if more had been told us. Our mental constitution is as yet too earthly. Our understanding is as yet too carnal to appreciate more if we had it. The Bible generally deals with the subject in negative terms and not in positive assertions. It describes what there will not be in the glorious inheritance. That thus we may get some faint idea of what there will be. It paints the absence of certain things in order that we may drink in a little the blessedness of the things present. It tells us that the inheritance is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeeth not away. It tells us that the crown of glory fadeeth not away. It tells us that the devil is to be bound, that there shall be no more night and no more curse, and that death shall be cast into the lake of fire, that all tears shall be wiped away, and that the inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick. And these are glorious things indeed. No corruption, no fading, no withering, no devil, no curse of sin, no sorrow, no tears, no sickness, no death. Surely the cup of the children of God will indeed run over. 1 Peter 1 4 5 4, Revelation 22, 21 25, 22 3, 21 14, 21 4, Isaiah 33, 24. But there are positive things told us about the glory yet to come upon the heirs of God, which ought not to be kept back. There are many sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comforts in their future inheritance, which all true Christians would do well to consider. There are cordials for fainting pilgrims in many words and expressions of scripture, which you and I ought to lay up against time of need. A, is knowledge pleasant to us now? Is the little that we know of God and Christ and the Bible precious to our souls? And do we long for more? We shall have it perfectly in glory. What says the scripture? Then shall I know, even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13 12, Blessed be God, there will be no more disagreements among believers, Episcopalians and Presbyterians, Calvinists and Arminians, millenarians and anti-millenarians, friends of establishments and friends of the voluntary system, advocates of infant baptism and advocates of adult baptism, all will at length see eye to eye. The former ignorance will have passed away. We shall marvel to find how childish and blind we have been. B, is holiness pleasant to us now? Is sin the burden and bitterness of our lives? Do we long for entire conformity to the image of God? We shall have it perfectly in glory. What says the scripture? Christ gave himself for the church, not only that he might sanctify it on earth, but also that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Ephesians 5 27. Oh, the blessedness of an eternal goodbye to sin. Oh, how little the best of us do at present. Oh, what unutterable corruption sticks like bird-lime to all our motives, all our thoughts, all our words, all our actions. Oh, how many of us, like Naptoli, are goodly in our words, but like Rubin, unstable in our works. Thank God all this shall be changed. Genesis 49 4 and 21. C, is rest pleasant to us now? Do we often feel faint though pursuing? Judges 8 4. Do we long for a world in which we need not to be always watching and warring? We shall have it perfectly in glory. What say at the scripture? There remaineth a rest for the people of God. Hebrews 4 9. The daily, hourly conflict with the world, the flesh and the devil shall at length be at an end. The enemy shall be bound. The warfare shall be over. The wicked shall at last cease from troubling. The weary shall at length be at rest. There shall be a great calm. D, is service pleasant to us now? Do we find it sweet to work for Christ and yet grown, being burdened by our feeble body? Is our spirit often willing but hampered and clogged by the poor weak flesh? Have our hearts burned within us when we have been allowed to give a cup of cold water for Christ's sake? And have we sighed to think what unprofitable servants we are? Let us take comfort. We shall be able to serve perfectly in glory and without weariness. What say at the scripture? They serve him day and night in his temple, Revelation 7, 15. E, is satisfaction pleasant to us now? Do we find the world empty? Do we long for the filling up of every void place and gap in our hearts? We shall have it perfectly in glory. We shall no longer have to mourn over cracks in all our earthen vessels and thorns in all our roses and bitter dregs in all our sweet cups. We shall no longer lament with Jonah over withered gourds. We shall no longer say with Solomon all his vanity and vexation of spirit. We shall no longer cry with aged David. I have seen an end of all perfection. What say at the scripture? I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness. Ecclesiastes 1, 14. Psalm 119, 96 and 17, 15. F, is communion with the saints pleasant to us now? Do we feel that we are never so happy as when we are with the excellent of the earth? Are we never so much at home as in their company? Psalm 16, 3. We shall have it perfectly in glory. What say at the scripture? The Son of Man shall send his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all they that offend and them which work iniquity. He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds. Matthew 13, 41 and 24, 31. Praised be God. We shall see all the saints of whom we have read in the Bible and in whose steps we have tried to walk. We shall see apostles, prophets, patriarchs, martyrs, reformers, missionaries and ministers of whom the world was not worthy. We shall see the faces of those we have known and loved in Christ on earth and over whose departure we shed bitter tears. We shall see them more bright and glorious than they ever were before. And best of all, we shall see them without hurry and anxiety and without feeling that we only meet to part again. In the coming glory there is no death, no parting, no farewell. Gee, is communion with Christ pleasant to us now? Do we find his name precious to us? Do we feel our hearts burn within us at the thought of his dying love? We shall have perfect communion with him in glory. We shall ever be with the Lord. First Thessalonians 4, 17. We shall be with him in paradise. Luke 23, 43. We shall see his face in the kingdom. These eyes of ours will behold those hands and feet which were pierced with nails and that head which was crowned with thorns. Where he is, there will the sons of God be. When he comes, they will come with him. When he sits down in his glory, they shall sit down by his side. Blessed prospect indeed, I am a dying man in a dying world, all before me is dark. The world to come is a harbor unknown, but Christ is there and that is enough. Surely if there is rest and peace in following him by faith on earth, there will be far more rest and peace when we see him face to face. If we have found it good to follow the pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness, we shall find it a thousand times better to sit down in our eternal inheritance with our Joshua in the promised land. If anyone among the readers of this paper is not yet among the sons and heirs, I do pity you with all my heart. How much you are missing? How little true comfort you are enjoying? There you are struggling on and toiling in the fire and wearying yourself for mere earthly ends, seeking rest and finding none, chasing shadows and never catching them, wondering why you are not happy and yet refusing to see the cause, hungry and thirsty and empty and yet blind to the plenty within your reach. Oh, that you were wise. Oh, that you would hear the voice of Jesus and learn of him. If you are one of those who are sons and heirs, you may well rejoice and be happy. You may well wait, like the boy patients in pilgrims' progress. Your best things are yet to come. You may well bear crosses without murmuring. Your light affliction is but for a moment. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which is to be revealed. When Christ our life appears, then you also shall appear with him in glory. Romans 8, 18, Colossians 3, 4. You may well not envy the transgressor and his prosperity. You are the truly rich. Well said a dying believer in my own parish. I am more rich than I ever was in my life. You may say, as Mephibosheth said to David, let the world take all. My king is coming again in peace. Second Samuel, 1930. You may say, as Alexander said, when he gave all his riches away and was asked what he kept for himself, I have hope. You may well not be cast down by sickness. The eternal part of you is safe and provided for whatever happens to your body. You may well look calmly on death. It opens a door between you and your inheritance. You may well not sorrow excessively over the things of the world, over partings and bereavements, over losses and crosses. The day of gathering is before you. Your treasure is beyond reach of harm. Heaven is becoming every year more full of those you love and earth more empty. Glory in your inheritance. It is all yours if you are a son of God. If we are children, then we are heirs. One, and now in concluding this paper, let me ask everyone who reads it. Whose child are you? Are you the child of nature or the child of grace? Are you the child of the devil or the child of God? You cannot be both at once. Which are you? Subtle the question without delay, for you must die at last either one or the other. Subtle it, for it can be settled and it is folly to leave it doubtful. Subtle it, for time is short. The world is getting old and you are fast drawing near to the judgment seat of Christ. Subtle it, for death is nigh, the Lord is at hand. And who can tell what a day might bring forth? Oh, that you would never rest until the question is settled. Oh, that you may never feel satisfied till you can say, I have been born again. I am a son of God. Two, if you are not a son and heir of God, let me entreat you to become one without delay. Would you be rich? There are unsearchable riches in Christ. Would you be noble? You shall be a king. Would you be happy? You shall have a peace which passeth understanding in which the world can never give and never take away. Oh, come out and take up the cross and follow Christ. Come out from among the thoughtless and worldly and hear the word of the Lord. I will receive you and will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters. Sayeth the Lord almighty. Second Corinthians 618. Three, if you are a son of God, I beseech you to walk worthy of your father's house. I charge you solemnly to honor him in your life and above all to honor him by implicit obedience to all his commands and hearty love to all his children, labor to travel through the world like a child of God and heir to glory. Let men be able to trace a family likeness between you and him that begat you. Live a heavenly life. Seek things that are above. Do not seem to be building your nest below. Behave like a man who seeks a city out of sight, whose citizenship is in heaven and who would be content with many hardships till he gets home. Labor to feel like a son of God in every condition in which you are placed. Never forget you are on your father's ground so long as you are here on earth. Never forget that a father's hand sends all your mercies and crosses. Cast every care on him. Be happy and cheerful in him. Why indeed are thou ever sad if thou art the king's son? Why should men ever doubt when they look at you whether it is a pleasant thing to be one of God's children? Labor to behave towards others like a son of God. Be blameless and harmless in your day and generation. Be a peacemaker among all you know, Matthew 5.9. Seek for your children sonship to God above everything else. Seek for them an inheritance in heaven, whatever else you do for them. No man leaves his children so well provided for as he who leaves them sons and heirs of God. Persevere in your Christian calling if you are a son of God and press forward more and more. Be careful to lay aside every weight and the sin which most easily beset you. Keep your eyes steadily fixed on Jesus. Abide in him. Remember that without him you can do nothing and with him you can do all things. John 15.5, Philippians 4.13. Watch and pray daily. Be steadfast, unmovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord. Settle it down in your heart that not a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple shall lose its reward and that every year you are so much nearer home. Yet a little time and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Hebrews 10.37. Then shall be the glorious liberty and the full manifestation of the sons of God. Romans 8, 19 and 21. Then shall the world acknowledge that they were the truly wise. Then shall the sons of God at length come of age and be no longer heirs in expectancy but heirs in possession. Then shall they hear with exceeding joy those comfortable words, come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Matthew 25.34. Surely that day will make amends for all. End of chapter 18, part two. Chapter 19 of Practical Religion. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by E.J. Wiley, Sageen, Texas. Practical Religion by J. C. Rile, chapter 19. The great gathering. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him. Second Thessalonians 2.1. The text which heads this page contains an expression which deserves no common attention. That expression is our gathering together. Our gathering together, those three words touch a note which ought to find a response in every part of the world. Man is by nature a social being. He does not like to be alone. Though where you will on earth, people generally like meeting together and seeing one another's faces. It is the exception and not the rule to find children of Adam who do not like gathering together. For example, Christmas is peculiarly a time when English people gather together. It is the season when family meetings have become almost a national institution in town and in the country, among rich and among poor, from the palace to the workhouse. Christmas cheer and Christmas parties are proverbial things. It is the one time in the 12 month with many for seeing their friends at all. Sons snatch a few days from London business to run down and see their parents. Brothers get leave of absence from the desk to spend a week with their sisters. Friends accept long standing invitations and can try to pay a visit to their friends. Boys rush home from school and glory in the warmth and comfort of the old house. Business for a little space comes to a standstill. The weary wills of incessant labor seem almost to cease revolving for a few hours. In short from the Isle of Wight to Burwick on Tweed and from the land's end to the North Foreland, there is a general spirit of gathering together. Happy as the land where such a state of things exists, long may it last in England and never may it end. Poor and shallow is that philosophy which sneers at Christmas gatherings. Cold and hard is that religion which pretends to frown at them and denounce them as wicked. Family affection lies at the very roots of well ordered society. It is one of the few good things which have survived the fall and prevent men and women from being mere devils. It is a secret oil on the wheels of our social system which keeps the whole machine going and without which neither steam nor fire could avail. Anything which helps to keep up family affection and brotherly love is a positive good to a country. May the Christmas Day never arrive in England where there are no family meetings and no gatherings together. But earthly gatherings, after all, have something about them that is sad and sorrowful. The happiest parties sometimes contain uncongenial members. The merriest meetings are only for a very short time. Moreover, as years roll on, the hand of death makes painful gaps in the family circle. Even in the midst of Christmas merriment, we cannot help remembering those who have passed away. The longer we live, the more we feel to stand alone. The old faces will rise before the eyes of our minds and the old voices will sound in our ears even in the midst of holiday mirth and laughter. People do not talk much of such things, but there are few that do not feel them. We need not intrude our inmost thoughts on others, and especially when all around us are bright and happy. But there are not many, I suspect, who reach middle age who would not admit if they spoke the truth that there are sorrowful things inseparably mixed up with a Christmas party. In short, there is no unmixed pleasure about any earthly gathering. But is there no better gathering yet to come? Is there no bright prospect in our horizon of an assembly which shall far outshine the assemblies of Christmas and New Year, an assembly in which there shall be joy without sorrow and mirth without tears? I thank God that I can give a plain answer to these questions, and to give it is the simple object of this paper. I ask my readers to give me their attention for a few minutes, and I will soon show them what I mean. One, there is a gathering together of true Christians which is to come. What is it, and when shall it be? The gathering I speak of shall take place at the end of the world, in the day when Christ returns to earth the second time, as surely as he came the first time, so surely shall he come the second time. In the clouds of heaven he went away, and in the clouds of heaven he shall return. Invisibly in the body he went away, and visibly in the body he will return. And the very first thing that Christ will do will be to gather together his people. He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 2431. The manner of this gathering together is plainly revealed in Scripture. The dead saints shall all be raised, and the living saints shall all be changed. It is written, the sea shall give up the dead which are in it, and death and hell shall give up the dead that are in them. The dead in Christ shall rise first. Those which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye. At the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Revelation 2213. First Thessalonians 416, 17. First Corinthians 15, 51, and 52. And then, when every member of Christ is found, and not one left behind, when soul and body, those old companions, are once more reunited, then shall be the grand gathering together. The object of this gathering together is as clearly revealed in Scripture as its manner. It is partly for the final reward of Christ's people that their complete justification from all guilt may be declared to all creation, that they may receive the crown of glory, which fate is not away, and the kingdom prepared before the foundation of the world, that they may be admitted publicly into the joy of their Lord. It is partly for the safety of Christ's people that, like Noah in the ark and Lot and Zohar, they may be hid and covered before the storm of God's judgment comes down on the wicked, that when the last plagues are falling on the enemies of the Lord, they may be untouched as Rahab's family in the fall of Jericho, and unscathed as the three children in the midst of the fire. The saints have no cause to fear the day of gathering, however fearful the signs that may accompany it. Before the final crash of all things begins, they shall be hidden in the secret place of the most high. The grand gathering is for their safety and their reward. Fear not ye, shall the angel-reapers say, for ye seek Jesus which was crucified. Come, my people, shall their master say, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee, hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpassed. Matthew 28.5, Isaiah 26.20. A, this gathering will be a great one. All children of God who have ever lived from Abel the first saint down to the last born in the day that our Lord comes, all of every age and nation and church and people and tongue all shall be assembled together, not one shall be overlooked or forgotten. The weakest and theblest shall not be left behind. Now, when scattered, true Christians seem a little flock. Then, when gathered, they shall be found a multitude which no man can number. B, this gathering will be a wonderful one. The saints from distant lands who never saw each other in the flesh and could not understand each other's speech if they met shall all be brought together in one harmonious company. The dwellers in Australia shall find they are as near heaven and as soon there as the dwellers in England. The believers who died 5,000 years ago and whose bones are mere dust shall find their bodies raised and renewed as quickly as those who are alive when the trumpet sounds. Above all, miracles of grace will be revealed. We shall see some in heaven who we never expected would have been saved at all. The confusion of tongues shall at length be reversed and done away. The assembled multitude will cry with one heart and in one language what hath God wrought? Numbers 23, 23. C, this gathering shall be a humbling one. It shall make an end of bigotry and narrow-mindedness forever. The Christians of one denomination shall find themselves side by side with those of another denomination. If they would not tolerate them on earth, they will be obliged to tolerate them in heaven. Churchmen and dissenters who will neither pray together nor worship together now will discover to their shame that they must praise together hereafter to all eternity. The very people who will not receive us at their ordinances now and keep us back from their table will be obliged to acknowledge us before our master's face and to let us sit down by their side. Never will the world have seen such a complete overthrow of sectarianism, party spirit, unbrotherliness, religious jealousy and religious pride. At last, we shall all be completely clothed with humility, 1 Peter, verse five. This mighty, wonderful gathering together is the gathering which ought to be often in men's thoughts. It deserves consideration. It demands attention. The gatherings of other kinds are incessantly occupying our minds. Political gatherings, scientific gatherings, gatherings for pleasure, gatherings for gain, but the hour comes and will soon be here when gatherings of this kind will be completely forgotten. One thought alone will swallow up men's minds. That thought will be shall I be gathered with Christ's people into a place of safety and honor or be left behind to everlasting woe. Let us take care that we are not left behind. Two, why is this gathering together of true Christians a thing to be desired? Let us try to get an answer to that question. Saint Paul evidently thought that the gathering at the last day was a cheering object which Christians ought to keep before their eyes. He classes it with that second coming of our Lord, which he says elsewhere believers love and long for. He exalts it in the distant horizon as one of those good things to come which should animate the faith of every pilgrim in the narrow way. Not only, he seems to say, will each servant of God have rest and a kingdom and a crown, he will have besides a happy gathering together. Now, where's the peculiar blessedness of this gathering? Why is it a theme that we ought to look forward to with joy and expect with pleasure? Let us see. One, for one thing, the gathering together of all true Christians will be a state of things totally unlike their present condition. To be scattered and not gathered seems the rule of man's existence now. Of all the millions who are annually born into the world, how few continue together till they die. Children who draw their first breath under the same roof and play by the same fireside are sure to be separated as they grow up and to draw their last breath far distant from one another. The same law applies to the people of God. They are spread abroad like salt, one in one place and one in another and never allowed to continue alongside by side. It is doubtless good for the world that it is so. A town would be a very dark place at night if all lighted candles were crowded together into one room. But good as it is for the world, it is no small trial to believers. Many a day they feel desolate and alone. Many a day they long for a little more communion with their brethren and a little more companionship with those who love the Lord. Well, they may look forward with hope and comfort. The hour is coming when they shall have no lack of companions, let them lift up their heads and rejoice. There will be a gathering together by and by. Two, for another thing, the gathering together of all true Christians will be an assembly entirely of one mind. There are no such assemblies now. Mixture, hypocrisy and false profession creep in everywhere. Wherever there is wheat, there are sure to be tares. Wherever there are good fish, there are sure to be bad. Wherever there are wise virgins, there are sure to be foolish. There is no such thing as a perfect church now. There is a Judas Ascariot at every communion table and a Demas in every apostolate company. And wherever the sons of God come together, Satan is sure to appear among them, Job 1-6. But all this shall come to an end one day. Our Lord shall at length present to the Father a perfect church, having neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing. Ephesians, verse 27. How glorious such a church will be to meet with a half dozen believers. Together now is a rare event in a Christian's year, and one that cheers him like a sun-shiny day in winter, it makes him feel his heart burn within him, as the disciples felt on the way to emails. But how much more joyful will it be to meet a multitude that no man can number, to find to that all we meet are at last of one opinion and one judgment, and see eye to eye, to discover all our miserable controversies are buried forever, and that Calvinists no longer hate Armenians, nor Armenians Calvinists, churchmen no longer quarrel with his centers, nor dissenters with churchmen, to join a company of Christians in which there is neither jarring, squabbling, nor discord. Every man's graces fully developed, and every man's besetting sins dropped off like beech leaves in spring. All this will be happiness indeed. No wonder that St. Paul bids us look forward. Three, for another thing, the gathering together of true Christians will be a meeting of which none shall be absent. The weakest lamb should not be left behind in the wilderness. The youngest babe that ever drew breath should not be overlooked or forgotten. We shall once more see our beloved friends and relatives who fell asleep in Christ and left us in sorrow and tears, better, brighter, more beautiful, more pleasant than ever we found them on earth. We shall hold communion with all the saints of God who have fought the good fight before us, from the beginning of the world to the end. Patriarchs and prophets, apostles and fathers, martyrs and missionaries, reformers and Puritans, all the host of God's elect shall be there. If to read their words and works has been pleasant, how much better shall it be to see them? If to hear of them and be stirred by their example has been useful, how much more delightful to talk with them and ask them questions, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and hear how they kept the faith without any Bible, to converse with Moses and Samuel and David and Isaiah and Daniel and hear how they could believe in a Christ yet to come, to converse with Peter and Paul and Lazarus and Mary and Martha and listen to their wondrous tale of what their master did for them. All this will be sweet indeed. No wonder that St. Paul bids us look forward. Four, in the last place, the gathering of all true Christians shall be a meeting without a parting. There are no such meetings now. We seem to live in an endless hurry and can hardly sit down and take breath before we are off again. Goodbye, treads on the heels of how do you do? The cares of this world, the necessary duties of life, the demands of our families, the work of our various stations and callings, all these things appear to eat up our days and to make it impossible to have long, quiet times of communion with God's people. But blessed be God, it shall not always be so. The hour cometh and shall soon be here when goodbye and farewell shall be words that are late aside and buried forever. When we meet in a world where the former things have passed away, where there is no more sin and no more sorrow, no more poverty and no more money, no more work of body or work of brains, no more need of anxiety for families, no more sickness, no more pain, no more old age, no more death, no more change. When we meet in that endless state of being, calm and restful and unhurried, who can tell what the blessedness of the change will be? I cannot wonder that St. Paul bids us look up and look forward. I lay these things before all who read this paper and ask their serious attention to them. If I know anything of a Christian's experience, I'm sure they contain food for reflection. This, at least I say confidently, the man who sees nothing much in the second coming of Christ and the public gathering of Christ's people, nothing happy, nothing joyful, nothing pleasant, nothing desirable, such a man may well doubt whether he himself is a true Christian and has got any grace at all. One, I ask you a plain question. Do not turn away from it and refuse to look it in the face. Shall you be gathered by the angels into God's home when the Lord returns or shall you be left behind? One thing at any rate is very certain. There will only be two parties of mankind at the last great day, those who are on the right hand of Christ and those who are on the left, those who are counted righteous and those who are wicked, those who are safe in the ark and those who are outside, those who are gathered like wheat into God's barn and those who are left behind like tears to be burned. Now, what will your portion be? Perhaps you do not know yet. You cannot say. You are not sure. You hope the best. You trust it will be all right at last, but you won't undertake to give an opinion. Well, I only hope you will never rest till you do know. The Bible will tell you plainly who they are that will be gathered. Your own heart, if you deal honestly, will tell you whether you're one of the number. Rest not, rest not till you know. How men can stand the partings and separations of this life if they have no hope of anything better, how they can bear to say goodbye to sons and daughters and launch them on the troublesome ways of this world if they have no expectation of a safe gathering in Christ at last. How they can part with beloved members of their families and let them journey forth to the other side of the globe, not knowing if they shall ever meet happily in this life or a life to come. How all this can be completely baffles my understanding. I can only suppose that the many never think, never consider, never look forward. Once let a man begin to think and he will never be satisfied till he has found Christ and is safe. Two, I offer you a plain means of testing your own soul's condition. If you want to know your own chance of being gathered into God's home, ask yourself what kind of gatherings you like best here upon the earth. Ask yourself whether you really love the assembling together of God's people. How could that man enjoy the meeting of true Christians in heaven who takes no pleasure in meeting true Christians on earth? How can that heart which is wholly set on balls and races and feasts and amusements and worldly assemblies and thinks earthly worship, awareness, how can such a heart be in tune for the company of saints and saints alone? The thing is impossible. It cannot be. Never, never let it be forgotten that our tastes on earth are a sure evidence of the state of our hearts. And the state of our hearts here is a sure indication of our position hereafter. Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. He that hopes to be gathered with saints in heaven while he only loves the gathering of sinners on earth is deceiving himself. If he lives and dies in that state of mind he will find at last that he had better never have been born. Three, if you are a true Christian I exhort you to be often looking forward. Your good things are yet to come. Your redemption draweth nigh. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Yet a little time and he whom you love and believe on will come and will not tarry. When he comes he will bring his dead saints with him and change his living ones. Look forward. There is a gathering together yet to come. The morning after a shipwreck is a sorrowful time. The joy of half-drowned survivors who have safely reached the land is often sadly marred by the recollection of shipmates who have sunk to rise no more. There will be no such sorrow when believers gather together round the throne of the Lamb. Not one of the ship's company shall be found absent. Some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship. All will get safe to shore at last. Acts 2744. The great waters and raging waves shall swallow none of God's elect. When the sun rises they shall be seen all safe and gathered together. Even the day after a great victory is a sorrowful time. The triumphant feelings of the conquerors are often mingled with bitter regrets for those who fell in action and died on the field. The list of killed, wounded and missing breaks many a heart, fills many a home with mourning and brings many a gray head sorrowing to the grave. The great Duke of Wellington often said, there was but one thing worse than a victory and that was a defeat. But thanks be to God there will be no such sorrow in heaven. The soldiers of the great captain of our salvation shall all answer to their names at last. The muster role shall be as complete after the battle as it was before. Not one believer shall be missing in the great gathering together. Does Christmas, for instance, bring with it sorrowful feelings and painful associations? Do tears rise unbidden in your eyes when you mark the empty places around the fireside? Do grave thoughts come sweeping over your mind, even in the midst of your children's mirth, when you recollect the dear old faces and much-loved voices of some that sleep in the churchyard? Well, look up and look forward. The time is short. The world is growing old. The coming of the Lord Dwarth and I. There is yet to be a meeting without parting and a gathering without separation. Those believers whom you laid in the grave with many tears are in good keeping. You will yet see them again with joy. Look up, I say, once more. They hold by faith on the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and are gathering together unto him. Believe it, think of it, rest on it. It is all true. Do you feel lonely and desolate as every December comes round? Do you find few to pray with, few to praise with, few to open your heart to, few to exchange experiences with? Do you learn increasingly that heaven is becoming every year more full and earth more empty? Well, it is an old story. You are only drinking a cup which myriads have drunk before. Look up and look forward. The lonely time will soon be passed and over. You will have company enough by and by. When you wake up after your Lord's likeness, you shall be satisfied, Psalm 1715. Yet a little while and you shall see a congregation that shall never break up and a Sabbath that shall never end. The coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him shall make amends for all. End of chapter 19. Chapter 20 of Practical Religion, part one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Michael Wolfe. Practical Religion by J. C. Ryle. Chapter 20, part one. The Great Separation. Whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Matthew 3, verse 12. The verse of Scripture which is now before our eyes contains words which were spoken by John the Baptist. They are a prophecy about our Lord Jesus Christ and a prophecy which has not yet been fulfilled. They are a prophecy which we shall all see fulfilled one day and God alone knows how soon. I invite every reader of this paper to consider seriously the great truths which this verse contains. I invite you to give me your attention while I unfold them and set them before you in order. Who knows but this text may prove a word in season to your soul. Who knows but this text may help to make this day the happiest day in your life. One, let me show in the first place the two great classes into which mankind may be divided. There are only two classes of people in the world on the sight of God and both are mentioned in the text which begins this paper. There are those who are called the wheat and there are those who are called the chaff. Viewed with the eye of man the earth contains many different sorts of inhabitants. Viewed with the eye of God it only contains two. Man's eye looks at the outward appearance. This is all he thinks of. The eye of God looks at the heart. This is the only part of which he takes any account. And tried by the state of their hearts there are but two classes into which people can be divided. Either they are wheat or they are chaff. Who are the wheat in the world? This is a point which demands special consideration. The wheat means all men and women who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. All who are led by the Holy Spirit. All who have felt themselves sinners and fled for refuge to the salvation offered in the gospel. All who love the Lord Jesus and live to the Lord Jesus and serve the Lord Jesus. All who have taken Christ for their only confidence and the Bible for their only guide and regard sin as their deadliest enemy and look to heaven as their only home. All such of every church, name, nation, people and tongue, of every rank, station, condition and degree, all such are God's wheat. Show me people of this kind anywhere and I know what they are. I know not that they and I may agree in all particulars but I see in them the handiwork of the King of Kings and I ask no more. I know not whence they came and where they found the religion but I know where they are going and that is enough for me. They are the children of my Father in heaven. They are part of his wheat. All such though sinful and vile and unworthy in their own eyes are the precious part of mankind. They are the sons and daughters of God the Father. They are the delight of God the Son. They are the habitation of God the Spirit. The Father beholds no iniquity in them. They are the members of his dear son's mystical body. In him he sees them and is well pleased. The Lord Jesus discerns in them the fruit of his own travail and work upon the cross and is well satisfied. The Holy Ghost regards them as spiritual temples which he himself has reared and rejoices over them. In a word they are the wheat of the earth. Who are the chaff in the world? This again is a point which demands special attention. The chaff means all men and women who have no saving faith in Christ and no sanctification of the Spirit whosoever they may be. Some of them perhaps are infidels and some are formal Christians. Some are sneering Sadducees and some self-righteous Pharisees. Some of them make a point of keeping up a kind of Sunday religion and others are utterly careless of everything except their own pleasure and the world. But all alike, who have the two great marks already mentioned no faith and no sanctification all such a chaff. From pain and Voltaire to the dead churchmen who can think of nothing but outward ceremonies. From Julian and Porphyry to the unconverted admirer of sermons in the present day. All, all are standing in one rank before God. All, all are chaff. They bring no glory to God the Father. They honour not the Son and so do not honour the Father that sent him. John 5, verse 23. They neglect that mighty salvation which countless millions of angels admire. They disobey that word which was graciously written for their learning. They listen not to the voice of him who condescended to leave heaven and die for their sins. They pay no tribute of service and affection to him who gave them life and breath and all things. And therefore God takes no pleasure in them. He pities them, but he reckons them no better than chaff. Yes, you may have rare intellectual gifts and high mental attainments. You may sway kingdoms by your counsel, move millions by your pen or keep crowds and breathless attention by your tongue. But if you have never submitted yourself to the yoke of Christ and never honoured his gospel by heartfelt reception of it, you are nothing in his sight. Natural gifts without grace are like a row of ciphers without a unit before them. They look big, but they are of no value. The meanest insect that crawls is a nobler being than you are. It fills its place and creation and glorifies its maker with all its power and you do not. You do not honour God with heart and will and intellect and members which are all his. You invert his order and arrangement and live as if time was of more importance than eternity and body better than soul. You yet neglect God's greatest gift, his owning karnat sun. You are cold about that subject which fills all heaven with hallelujahs. And so long as this is the case you belong to the worthless part of mankind, you are the chaff of the earth. Let this thought be graven deeply in the mind of every reader of this paper or whatever else he forgets. Remember there are only two sorts of people in the world. There are wheat and there are chaff. There are many nations in Europe. Each differs from the rest. Each has its own language, its own laws, its own peculiar customs. But God's eye divides Europe into two great parties, the wheat and the chaff. There are many classes in England. There are peers and commoners, farmers and shopkeepers, masters and servants, rich and poor. But God's eye only takes account of two orders, the wheat and the chaff. There are many in various minds in every congregation that meets for religious worship. There are some who attend for a mere form and some who really desire to meet Christ. Some who come there to please others and some who come to please God. Some who bring their hearts with them and are not soon tired. And some who leave their hearts behind them and reckon the whole service weary work. But the eye of the Lord Jesus only sees two divisions in the congregation, the wheat and the chaff. There were millions of visitors to the great exhibition of 1851. From Europe, Asia, Africa and America, from North and South and East and West, crowds came together to see what skill and industry could do. Children of our first father Adam's family who had never even seen each other before, once met face to face under one roof. But the eye of the Lord only saw two companies thronging that large palace of glass, the wheat and the chaff. I know well the world dislikes this way of dividing professing Christians. The world tries hard to fancy there are three sorts of people and not two. To be very good and very strict does not suit the world. They cannot, will not be saints. To have no religion at all does not suit the world. It would not be respectable. Thank God they will say we are not so bad as that. But to have religion enough to be saved and yet not go into extremes, to be sufficiently good and yet not be peculiar, to have a quiet, easygoing moderate kind of Christianity and go comfortably to heaven after all, this is the world's favorite idea. There is a third class, a safe middle class, the world fancies and in this middle class the majority of men persuade themselves they will be found. I denounced this notion of a middle class as an immense and soul ruining delusion. I warn you strongly not to be carried away by it. It is as vain an invention as the Pope's purgatory. It is a refuge of lies, a castle in the air, a Russian ice palace, a vast unreality, an empty dream. The middle class is a class of Christians no are spoken of in the Bible. There were two classes in a day of Noah's flood, those who were inside the ark and those who were without. Two in the parable of the gospel net, those who were called the good fish and those who were called the bad. Two in the parable of the ten virgins, those who are described as wise and those who are described as foolish. Two in the account of the judgment day, the sheep and the goats. Two sides of the throne, the right hand and the left. Two abodes when the last sentence has been passed, heaven and hell. And just so, there are only two classes in the visible church on earth. Those who are in the state of nature and those who are in the state of grace. Those who are in the narrow way and those who are in the broad. Those who are faith and those who have not faith. Those who have been converted and those who have not been converted. Those who are with Christ and those who are against him. Those who gather with him and those who scatter abroad. Those who are wheat and those who are chaff. Into these two classes the whole professing church of Christ may be divided. Beside these two classes there is none. See now what cause there is for self-inquiry. Are you among the wheat or among the chaff? Neutrality is impossible. Either you are in one class or in the other. Which is it of the two? You attend church perhaps. You go to the Lord's table. You like good people. You can distinguish between good preaching and bad. You think papery falls and oppose it warmly. You think Protestantism true and support it cordially. You subscribe to religious societies. You attend religious meetings. You sometimes read religious books. It is well. It is very well. It is good. It is all very good. It is more than can be said of many. But still, this is not a straightforward answer to my question. Are you wheat or are you chaff? Have you been born again? Are you a new creature? Have you put off the old man and put on the new? Have you ever felt your sins and repented of them? Are you looking simply to Christ for pardon and life eternal? Do you love Christ? Do you serve Christ? Do you loathe heart sins and fight against them? Do you long for perfect holiness and follow hard after it? Have you come out from the world? Do you delight in the Bible? Do you wrestle in prayer? Do you love Christ's people? Do you try to do good to the world? Are you vile in your own eyes and willing to take the lowest place? Are you a Christian in business and on weekdays and by your own fireside? Oh, think, think, think on these things. And then perhaps you'll be better able to tell the state of your soul. I beseech you not to turn away from my question, however unpleasant it may be. Answer it though it may prick your conscience and cut you to the heart. Answer it though it may prove you in the wrong and expose your fearful danger. Rest not, rest not till you know how it is between you and God. Better a thousand times find out that you are in an evil case and repent per times than live on in uncertainty and be lost eternally. Two, let me show in the second place the time when the two great classes of mankind shall be separated. The text at the beginning of this paper foretells a separation. It says that Christ shall one day do to his professing church what the farmer does to his corn. He shall winnow and sift it. He shall thoroughly purge his floor. And then the wheat and the chap shall be divided. There is no separation yet. Good and bad are now all mingled together in the visible church of Christ. Believers and unbelievers, converted and unconverted, holy and unholy, all are to be found now among those who call themselves Christians. They sit side by side in our assemblies. They kneel side by side in our pews. They listen side by side to our sermons. They sometimes come up side by side to the Lord's table and receive the same bread and wine from our hands. But it shall not always be so. Christ shall come the second time with his fan in his hand. He shall purge his church even as he purify the temple. And then the wheat and the chap shall be separated and each shall go to its own place. A. Before Christ comes, separation is impossible. It is not in man's power to affect it. There lives not the minister on earth who can read the hearts of everyone in his congregation. About some he may speak decidedly. He cannot about all. Who have oil in their lamps and who have not? Who have grace as well as profession? And who have profession only and no grace? Who are children of God and who of the devil? All these are questions which in many cases we cannot accurately decide. The winnowing fan is not put into our hands. Grace is sometimes so weak and feeble that it looks like nature. Nature is sometimes so plausible and well-dressed that it looks like grace. I believe we should many of us have said that Judas was as good as any of the apostles and yet he proved a traitor. I believe we should have said that Peter was a reprobate when he denied his Lord and yet he repented immediately and rose again. We are but fallible men. We know in part and we prophesy in part. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 9. We scarcely understand our own hearts. It is no great wonder if we cannot read the hearts of others. But it will not always be so. There is one coming who never airs in judgment and is perfect in knowledge. Jesus shall purge his floor. Jesus shall sift the chaff from the wheat. I wait for this. Till then I will lean to the side of charity in my judgments. I would rather tolerate much chaff in the church than cast out one grain of wheat. He shall soon come who has his fan in his hand and then the certainty about every one shall be known. B. Before Christ comes it is useless to expect to see a perfect church. There cannot be such a thing. The wheat and the chaff and the present state of things will always be found together. I pity those who leave one church and join another because of a few faults and unsound members. I pity them because they are fostering ideas which can never be realized. I pity them because they are seeking that which cannot be found. I see chaff everywhere. I see imperfections and infirmities of some kind in every community, not earth. I believe there are few tables of the Lord if any where all the communicants are converted. I often see loud-talking professors exalted as saints. I often see holy and contrite believers set down as having no grace at all. I am satisfied if men are too scrupulous. They may go fluttering about like Noah's dove all their days and never find rest. Does any reader of this paper desire a perfect church? You must wait for the day of Christ's appearing. Then and not till then you will see a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Ephesians 5.27 Then and not till then the floor will be purged. C. Before Christ comes it is vain to look for the conversion of the world. How can it be if he is to find wheat and chaff side by side on the day of his second coming? I believe some Christians expect that missions will fill the earth with the knowledge of Christ and that little by little sin will disappear and a state of perfect holiness gradually glide in. I cannot see with their eyes. I think they are mistaking God's purposes and sowing for themselves bitter disappointment. I expect nothing of the kind. I see nothing in the Bible or in the world around me to make me expect it. I have never heard of a single congregation entirely converted to God in England or Scotland or of anything like it. And why am I to look for a different result from the preaching of the gospel and other lands? I only expect to see a few raised up as witnesses to Christ in every nation, some in one place and some in another. Then I expect the Lord Jesus will come in glory with his fan in his hand and when he has purged his floor and not till then his kingdom will begin. No separation and no perfection till Christ comes. This is my creed. I am not moved when the infidel asks me why all the world is not converted if Christianity is really true. I answer it was never promised that it would be so in the present order of things. The Bible tells me that believers will always be few that corruptions and divisions and heresies will always abound and that when my Lord returns to earth he will find plenty of chaff. No perfection till Christ comes. I am not disturbed when men say make all the people good Christians at home before you send missionaries to the heathen abroad. I answer if I am to wait for that, I may wait forever. When we have done all at home the church will still be a mixed body. It will contain some wheat and much chaff. But Christ will come again. Sooner or later there shall be a separation of the visible church into two companies and fearful shall that separation be. The wheat shall make up one company the chaff shall make up another. The one company will be all godly the other company will be all ungodly. Each shall be by themselves and a great gulf between that none can pass. Blessed indeed shall the righteous be in that day they shall shine like stars no longer obscured with clouds they shall be beautiful as the lily no longer choked with thorns. Canticle chapter 2 verse 2 wretched indeed will the ungodly be how corrupt will corruption be when left without one grain of salt to season it how dark will darkness be when left without one spark of light ah it is not enough to respect and admire the Lord's people you must belong to them or you will one day be parted from them forever there will be no chaff in heaven many many other families where one will be taken and another left Luke chapter 17 verse 34 who is there now among the readers of this paper that loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity if I know anything of the heart of a Christian your greatest trials are in the company of worldly people your greatest joys in the company of the saints yes there are many weary days when your spirit feels broken and crushed by the earthly tone of all around you days when you could cry with David woe is me that I dwell in Misec and I have my habitation in the tents of Kedar Psalm 120 verse 5 in yet there are hours when your soul is so refreshed and revived by meeting some of God's dear children that it seems like heaven on earth do I not speak to your heart? are not these things true? see then how you should long for the time and Christ shall come again see how you should pray daily that the Lord Jesus would hasten his kingdom and say to him come quickly Lord Jesus Revelation chapter 22 verse 20 then and not till then shall be a pure unmixed communion then and not till then the saints shall all be together and shall go out from one another's presence no more wait a little wait a little scorn and contempt will soon be over laughter and ridicules shall soon have an end slander and misrepresentation will soon cease your Saviour shall come and plead your cause and then as Moses said to Korah the Lord will show who are his Numbers chapter 16 verse 5 footnote this is certain when the elect are all converted then Christ will come to judgment as he that rose a boat stays till all the passengers are taken into his boat and then he rose away so Christ stays till all the elect are gathered in and then he will hasten away to judgment Thomas Watson 1660 end of footnote who was there among the readers of this paper that Moses' heart is not right in the sight of God see how you should fear and tremble at the thought of Christ's appearing Alas indeed for the man that lives and dies with nothing better than a cloak of religion in the day when Christ shall purge his floor you will be shown up and exposed in your true colours you may deceive ministers and friends and neighbours but you cannot deceive Christ the paint and varnish of a heartless Christianity will never stand the fire of that day the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed you will find that the eye which saw Achan and Gehazi has read your secrets and searched out your hidden things you will hear that awful word friend how came as thou in hither not having a wedding garment Matthew chapter 22 verse 12 oh tremble at the thought of the day of sifting and separation surely hypocrisy is a most losing game surely it never answers to act apart surely it never answers like Ananias and Sapphira to pretend to give God something and yet to keep back your heart it all fails at last your joys but for a moment your hopes are no better than a dream oh tremble, tremble tremble and repent end of chapter 20 part 1