testimony does not lose certainty by the lapse of years. If what they witnessed was true when they witnessed it, it is true now. They saw the Lord Jesus alive after his resurrection, and that settles the question. If hundreds of persons saw the Lord Jesus after he was risen, then he did certainly rise. Hallelujah! Here is a stone to build upon which the Goths and Vandals of modern doubt cannot tear from its place. The resurrection is as certain as any fact recorded in history. Jesus of Nazareth, though he was killed, did rise from the dead, and we rejoice therein.

Let us put the resurrection of Christ to its proper uses. Let us believe in him as "able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Let us feel that our justification is certified by his resurrection, and our own resurrection is guaranteed by the self-same fact. We are safe in the hands of his living wisdom, his living power, his living love. Above all, let us look for our Lord's second coming; for he lives, and cannot for ever stay away from his people. He that brought again from the dead that great Shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the everlasting covenant will also cause him to appear as the chief Shepherd in the latter days. The heavens have received him for a while, but he must come to gather in his people and cause them to reign with him. "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

III. I have done when I have taken time to SUGGEST AN ENQUIRY. Let each hearer say, "What has the Prince of life to do with me ? Beloved, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he alive to you, and do you live by him; or are you dead in sin? Which is it? A man must be either dead or alive. There is no space between death and life. You are either dead in sin or alive unto righteousness; which are you? Everyone may tell, if he will make searching enquiry into his own state. A brother said to me this morning, "When you preach I generally find I have enough to do to mind my own business." May you all find it so! Mind your own business, and enquire, "Have I received divine life from Christ?" I will suppose the answer comes from one, "No, I am afraid I have not received it." Well, then, do you wish for it? Is there in your heart a desire to possess this new life? "The Prince of life" is to be found if you seek him. Scripture gives us this as one of the rules of the kingdom, "He that seeketh findeth." But mind that you make a thorough and sincere search. A farmer, by some means, lost a five-pound-note in his barn. It was of great importance to him that he should find it, for it was the most of what he possessed. So he said to himself, "I am certain that I lost this note in the barn; and as I must find it, I will turn over every straw in the barn rather than lose it. I will never leave off looking for it till I find it." After some days' search, as "for a needle in a bottle of hay," he spied out his precious bank-note among the straw, and came home greatly rejoicing. Sometime afterward, it pleased God to visit him with a deep sense of sin, and he said to his wife, "I wish I could believe in the Saviour; but, alas! I cannot find him." She wisely replied, "If you will look for him as you looked for that bank-note in the barn, you will find him." 'Well," said he, "that is what I will do"; and by grace his seeking of Jesus led to finding,

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and he was saved, and knew it. O brothers, turn over those trusses of memories of the Word which you heard long ago, and among them you may find the Saviour. O sisters, stir up the dust of what you learned in the Sunday-school, and you shall come upon your Lord before long. It is written, "Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

If Christ were dead and motionless, he would be hard to discover; but life cannot long be hidden. On the hillside yonder soldiers are waiting to come down upon our army, but our watchers cannot see them, because the men lie quiet behind rocks and trees. The moment the soldiers begin to move we shall discern them: a living and moving object our glasses will soon detect. O souls, the Lord Jesus is living and moving, and therefore he is visible to the naked eye of faith! Look for him, and then look to him. Because he is life, he cannot be hid. Oh, that you may behold him soon! "Oh," says one, "I do long to find eternal life!" Then, seek it in the right way. Follow only one track: Jesus is the one and only way to life. In the old times of slavery in the States, when men escaped from their masters, they did so by knowing that the north star would lead them to freedom, and by following that heavenly guide. They had to travel by night, for fear of being captured and taken back; and therefore they learned little of the geography of the country : they cared for nothing but the star. As they hastened through the woods, they did not study botany; as they flitted through towns and villages along the road, they learned nothing of politics or social reform: they knew one thing, and minded that one thing only: they kept on following the pole-star. Brother, there are hosts of things that you do not know at present, and many things that you will never know; but see that you know Jesus, who is the pole-star of salvation. Keep Christ in your eye. Follow the crucified and risen One. Trust him, rely upon him, follow him, receive the life of which he is the Prince, and it shall be well with your soul. May you live in Christ Jesus, and glorify him as "the Prince of life" for ever and ever! Amen.

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-Acts iii.; iv. 1—14.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK "-306, 430, 313.

A HOMILY FOR HUMBLE FOLKS.

A Sermon

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 27TH, 1890,

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,

On Lord's-day Morning, April 13th, 1890.

Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man."-Proverbs xxx. 2.

SOMETIMES it is necessary for a speaker to refer to himself, and he may feel it needful to do so in a way peculiar to the occasion. When Elihu addressed himself to Job and the three wise men, he commended himself to them, saying, "I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me"; but when Agur instructed his two disciples, Ithiel and Ucal, he spoke in the lowliest terms of himself, and declared that he was "more brutish than any man." Wisdom is justified of her children. Neither of these men was to blame for his opening words to his hearers. Elihu was a young man talking to elderly men of great note for learning: he saw that they had blundered terribly; he felt convinced that he had the right view of the matter under discussion, but he thought it discreet to introduce himself by modestly stating the reasons why he thought he should be patiently heard. Agur was probably a man of years and honour, and possibly his two young friends looked up to him more than was meet, and therefore his principal endeavour was to wean them from undue confidence in himself. He passed the gravest censure upon himself, that his hearers might not suffer their faith to stand in the wisdom of men. I can suppose that both Elihu and Agur were equally humble -the one so modest that he felt that he needed to commend himself to gain a hearing; and the other so lowly that he feared the hearing he should win would place his personal influence in too high a place.

But did Agur really mean all he said? I cannot doubt it. Forcible expressions are not always to be understood in their strictest sense;. yet I have no doubt Agur meant to describe himself as he felt himself to be, apart from the grace of God. Or better, and more likely, he felt thus brutish and foolish after he had been enlightened by the Spirit of God. One mark of a man's true wisdom is his knowledge of his ignorance. Have you never noticed how the clean heart No. 2,140.

always mourns its uncleanness, and the wise man always laments his folly? It needs holiness to detect our own unholiness, and it needs wisdom to discover our own folly. When a man talks of his own cleanness, his very lips are foul with pride; and when a man boasts of his wisdom, he proclaims his folly with trumpet sound. Because God had taught Agur much, he felt that he knew but little.

Especially I think the truth of our text relates to one particular line of things. This man was a naturalist. We have nothing of his save this chapter, but his allusions to natural history all through it are exceedingly abundant. He was an instructed scientist; but he felt that he could not by searching find out God, nor fashion an idea of him from his own thoughts. When he heard of the great discoveries of those who judged themselves to be superior persons, he disowned such wisdom as theirs. Other men with their great understanding might be fishing up pearls of truth from the sea; as for himself, he knew nothing but that which he found in God's Word. He had none of that boasted understanding which climbed the heavens, bound the winds, and swathed the sea, and so found out the sacred name; he was content with revelation, and felt that "every word of God is pure." Not in any earthly school learned he the knowledge of the Holy: all that he knew he had been taught by God's Book. He had in thought climbed to heaven and come down again: he had listened to the speech of winds, and waves, and mountains; but he protested that in all this he had not discovered God's name nor his Son's name by his own understanding. All his light had come through the Lord's own Word; and he shrewdly gave this caution to those who thought themselves supremely wise, above what is written: "Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." Philosophy had failed him, and revelation was his sole confidence. As for himself, he did not claim that degree of perception and profundity which enabled him to think out God; but he went to God himself and learned from him at first hand, through his revealed wisdom. This I take to be his meaning; but I shall not use the text in that way this morning.

Here was a man, who, whatever he really was, held himself in his own opinion and judgment to be an inferior person; and yet, nevertheless, was a firm believer in his God. He was not only a firm believer, but he was an earnest student of the sacred oracles. All the more because of his ignorance, he pressed on to learn more and more of God. Nor was this all, he was a willing worker; for he spoke prophetically in the name of the Lord. Nor do we even end here; for from this short writing, it is clear that he was a joyful truster in God. Brutish as he judged himself to be, he rose into supreme content at every thought of God. Those four points I am going to handle at this time, as the Lord may help me by his Holy Spirit.

I. The first is this-A SENSE OF INFERIORITY MUST NOT KEEP US BACK FROM FAITH IN GOD. I will suppose that some one here is saying, "Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man": our text brings before us a wise man, who said this of himself, and yet had firm faith in God. If we have to say what Agur said, let us also trust as Agur did. If only wise men

might put their trust in God, what would become of nine out of ten of us?

I hope there is nobody here so foolish as to say, "I could trust in God if I were a man of mark." Ah, sirs! to be a man of mark is no help in the matter of faith. I hope no one is so silly as to say, “If I were possessed of great riches I could then come to Jesus." "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" Nor may you say, "If I had great gifts I could trust in the Lord Christ." Talents involve responsibility, but they do not help towards salvation. Gifts may even drag a man down only grace can lift him up. The gifted man may be so full of pride that he may never submit himself to the free grace gospel of our Lord Jesus.

I shall deal with more sensible objections than these. There are some who seem as if they could not trust Christ and believe in God, because they cannot go with other men in their heights; and there are others, strange to say, who have the same difficulty because they cannot follow others into their depths.

I will have a word, first, with those who say, "We cannot hope to be saved, because we cannot reach the heights of other men." You have marked the holy conduct of certain godly men, and, setting your own imperfections side by side with their excellences, you have not only been humbled, but greatly discouraged. You have concluded that you could be saved if you were like these gracious men; but that, since you fall so far short of their noble character, you must be lost. You have seen them in sickness, and marked their patience and joy, and their acquiescence in the divine will, and you have been greatly humbled, which was well; but you have also fallen into unbelief, which was not well. Since you cannot play the man under fire as these champions do, you fear that you may not hope for eternal life.

Moreover, you have listened to their prayers; you have been edified, you have been aroused, and you have also been driven to tremble. Seeing Jacob in his wrestlings at Jabbok, you have cried, "Would God I could wrestle like that man; but, as I cannot, woe is me!" You have noticed Daniel go to his chamber and cry unto his God three times a day, and then you have remembered your own forgetfulness and wandering thoughts in the matter of prayer, and you have concluded that you could have no hope of speeding at his throne of grace.

Other aspects of the piety of believers have also discouraged you. To see how they walk with God, how their speech is perfumed with love to Jesus, how their manner of life is above that of the world-all this has made you fear that you could never enter into their heritage. These gracious men seem so far above you, that you cry, "Surely I am more brutish than any man."

You have noticed, also, their usefulness-how many souls they have brought to Christ; how God has helped them to guide the bewildered, and to instruct the ignorant; and then you have felt that it was natural that such men should have confidence towards God; but as for yourself, what is the use of you? You have felt good for nothing in the presence of persons privileged to do so much for God and

men,