Maidenbower Baptist Church

It is easy to shame people over prayer; it is harder to stir people to prayer. Daniel's example as an old man in Babylon, a prime minister and a prophet, should help us. Despite his position, pressures, and privileges, he pondered his Bible and was stimulated to pray. Even then, he did not rush into the divine presence, but prepared himself, setting his face toward the Lord God, both body and soul primed for his approach to the throne of grace. Finally, he prayed, mingling adoration, supplication, and confession. Thus Daniel pondered, prepared, and prayed, and so might we.

This briefer sermon is 'intended for reading', which usually indicates a sick man writing or editing a previous address for distribution. Brevity here does not undermine simplicity, clarity, or pungency! The text is short: "My son, give me your heart." The sermon is straightforward, looking at the love which lies behind the request for wisdom, then at the wisdom which guides the loving request, and then a pressing application to be wise by attending to this wise admonition. Here the more practical elements of the sermon come to the fore, although—as we often see with Spurgeon—he usually sows fruitful seeds of thought along the way, quite apart from any more formal element of application. The last paragraph confirms our earlier expectations as well as informing our understanding: the sermon is an 'occasional address' (delivered on a specific occasion), in this case an appeal for funds for hospitals (when such were typically privately and charitably supported). Now we know not only when the address came, but we appreciate more fully why Spurgeon has been pressing for the heart—because once our heavenly Father has our heart, he has our hands, too, in cheerful dispensation of our good things. In addition, the final appeal is pleasingly quirky—before the plate is being passed round for the collection of money, Spurgeon passes around his own invisible plate, for the collection of hearts.

Solomon, the son of David, stood before the temple as it was filled with the glory of the Lord, and led Israel in blessing the Lord their God. His heart was full with the fact that the Lord God of Israel had "fulfilled with his hands what he spoke with his mouth" to his father David. We can follow this Solomon as he contemplates the promises that God made and the performances which followed, leading to the praises of the inheritor. At the same time, we must recognise that this is even more wonderfully true of the Son of David who has built a spiritual temple, and in whom God has wonderfully accomplished his covenant with David to a glorious degree.

The apostle Paul had a holy dread of the Philippians sliding away from the faith of Jesus Christ. Spurgeon says he does not doubt the victory, but neither would he have it lost. Being "in the Lord," these believers are in their right place, and Spurgeon explains what that means for the Philippians and for others who have entrusted themselves to Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they need to keep their right place. If they are in the Lord, then that is where they need to "stand fast," in faith, in life, in experience, in holiness, without wearying or warping or wandering. But it is all very well to exhort a saint to stand fast—how is he or she to do so? What motives enable and sustain such endurance in the faith? Spurgeon often challenges us in the light of particular encouragements, or encourages us in the light of particular challenges: here he does the latter, reminding us of our citizenship in heaven, our expectation of Christ's return and our transformation, and the resources at our disposal in this pilgrimage. So, with our eyes firmly fixed on Christ and the fulness that is in him, we press toward the prize, holding firmly to Christ and his truth, standing fast in the Lord.

In Christ is all the fulness of God, and grace for grace, and so all that a sinner needs for all of life is found in him. There is grace for living, there is grace for growing, there is grace for serving, there is grace for dying, and there will be grace for glory, too. Let no sinner despair, and let no saint doubt—in Christ is all that we need, by God's gracious design, for all our salvation.

From time to time Spurgeon preaches a sermon from multiple texts. Some of these are by way of development, some by way of contrast, some by way of confirmation and reiteration. This sermon belongs to that last category. The same phrase occurs in each text: "Lay hold on eternal life." Emphasising first the vital important of knowing and obtaining this life, and therefore the need for every man to lay hold upon it, the preacher then begins to plead and enforce the exhortation. We are to believe in it as it is presented in the Scriptures and impressed upon us by the Holy Spirit—it must be more than an idea to us. We must possess it, laying hold of it by putting our faith in Jesus Christ and working it out in all our actions. We must watch over it, for it is too easily shrivelled and undermined. We need to fulfil it, living here as those who have this life everlasting in our souls, with its realities conditioning our use of our time and strength. Then, we need to expect it—we must eagerly anticipate it as something that we enter fully before very long. How much do we consider eternal life? Perhaps even as Christians it tends to fade into the background. Spurgeon rescues it from neglect, and sets it before our eyes, front and centre, and very much within present grasp.

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