Out of the Deep | Page 2

people--it
goes on month after month, year after year. By secret trials, chastenings,
which none but they and God can understand, the Lord is cleansing
them from their secret faults, and making them to understand wisdom
secretly; burning out of them the chaff of self-will, and self- conceit,
and vanity, and leaving only the pure gold of righteousness. How many
sweet and holy souls, who look cheerful enough before the eyes of man,
yet have their secret sorrows. They carry their cross unseen all day long,
and lie down to sleep on it at night; and they will carry it perhaps for
years and years, and to their graves, and to the throne of Christ before
they lay it down; and none but they and Christ will ever know what it
was; what was the secret chastisement which God sent to make that
soul better which seemed to us already too good for earth. So does the
Lord watch His people, and tries them with fire, as the refiner of silver
sits by his furnaces watching the melted metal till he knows that it is
purged from all its dross by seeing the image of his own face reflected
on it.
Town and Country Sermons.
By sufferings was Christ made perfect; and what was the best path for
Jesus Christ is surely good enough for us, even though it be a rough
and thorny one. Let us lie still beneath God's hand; for though His hand
be heavy upon us, it is strong and safe beneath us too; and none can
pluck us out of His hand, for in Him we live and move and have our
being. He waits for us year after year, with patience which cannot tire;
therefore, let us wait awhile for Him. With Him is plenteous
redemption, and therefore redemption enough for us and for those
likewise whom we love. And though we go down into hell with David,
with David we shall find God there (Ps. cxxxix. 8; Ps. xvi. 10), and find
that He does not leave our souls in hell, nor suffer His holy ones to see

corruption. Yes, have faith in God. Nothing in thee which He has made
shall see corruption; for it is a thought of God's, and no thought of His
can perish. Nothing shall be purged out of thee, but thy disease; nothing
shall be burnt out of thee but thy dross; and that in thee of which God
said in the beginning, "Let us make man in our own image," shall be
saved and live to all eternity. Yes, have faith in God, and cry to Him
out of the deep, "Though Thou slay me, yet will I love Thee, for Thou
lovedst me in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world."
Sermons--Good News of God.
Oh, sad hearts and suffering! Anxious and weary ones! Look to the
cross of Christ. There hung your King! The King of sorrowing souls,
and more, the King of Sorrows. Ay, pain and grief, tyranny and
desertion, death and hell--He has faced them one and all, and tried their
strength, and taught them His, and conquered them right royally. And
since He hung upon that torturing cross, sorrow is divine, godlike, as
joy itself. All that man's fallen nature dreads and despises, God
honoured on the cross, and took unto Himself, and blest and
consecrated for ever. And now blessed are the poor, if they are poor in
heart as well as purse; for Jesus was poor, and theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are the hungry, if they hunger for righteousness as well
as food; for Jesus hungered, and they shall be filled. Blessed are those
who mourn, if they mourn not only for their sorrows, but for their sins;
for Jesus mourned for our sins, and on the cross He was made sin for us,
who knew no sin; and they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who
are ashamed of themselves, and hate themselves, and humble
themselves before God, for on the cross Jesus humbled Himself; and
they shall be exalted. Blessed are the forsaken and despised; did not all
men forsake Jesus in His hour of need? And why not thee, too, thou
poor deserted one? Shall the disciple be above his Master? No. Every
one that is perfect must be as his Master.
National Sermons.
Never let us get into the common trick of calling unbelief Resignation;
of asking, and then because we have not faith to believe, putting in a
"Thy will be done" at the end. Let us make God's will our will, and so

say, "Thy will be done." There is a false as well as a true and holy
resignation. When the sorrow is come or coming, or necessary
apparently for