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SUBJECT: 22 MAT 11:28-30 The Meek and Lowly One
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The Meek and Lowly One
July 31st, 1859
by
C. H. SPURGEON
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in
heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my
burden is light."-- Mat_11:28-30.
The single sentence which I have selected for my text consists of these
words:--"I am meek and lowly in heart." These words might be taken to
have three distinct bearings upon the context. They may be regarded as
being the lesson to be taught: "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in
heart." One great lesson of the gospel is to teach us to be meek--to put
away our high and angry spirits, and to make us lowly in heart.
Peradventure, this is the meaning of the passage-- that it we will but
come to Christ's school, he will teach us the hardest of all lessons,--how
to be meek and lowly in heart. Again; other expositors might consider
this sentence to signify, that is the only Spirit in which a man can learn
of Jesus,-- the Spirit which is necessary if we would become Christ's
scholars. We can learn nothing, even of Christ himself, while we hold
our heads up with pride, or exalt ourselves with self-confidence. We
must be meek and lowly in heart, otherwise we are totally unfit to be
taught by Christ. Empty vessels may be filled; but vessels that are full
already can receive no more. The man who knows his own emptiness
can receive abundance of knowledge, and wisdom, and grace, from
Christ; but he who glories in himself is not in a fit condition to receive
anything from God. I have no doubt that both of these interpretations
are true, and might be borne out by the connection. It is the lesson of
Christ's school--it is the spirit of Christ's disciples. But I choose, rather,
this morning, to regard these words as being a commendation of the
Teacher himself. "Come unto me and learn; for I am meek and lowly in
heart." As much as to say, "I can teach, and you will not find it hard to
learn of me."
In fact, the subject of this morning's discourse is briefly this: the
gentle, lovely character of Christ should be a high and powerful inducement
to sinners to come to Christ. I intend so to use it: first of all, noticing
the two qualities which Christ here claims for himself. He is "meek;" and
then he is "lowly in heart;" and after we have observed these two things, I
shall come to push the conclusion home. Come unto him, all ye that are
labouring and are heavy laden; come unto him, and take his yoke upon you;
for he is meek and lowly in heart.
I. First, then, I am to consider THE FIRST QUALITY WHICH JESUS CHRIST
CLAIMS. He declares that he is "MEEK."
Christ is no egotist; he takes no praise to himself. If ever he utters a
word in self-commendation, it is not with that object; it is with another
design, namely that he may entice souls to come to him. Here, in order
to exhibit this meekness, I shall have to speak of him in several ways.
1. First, Christ is meek, as opposed to the ferocity of spirit manifested
by zealots and bigots. Take, for a prominent example of the opposite of
meekness, the false prophet Mahomet. The strength of his cause lies in
the fact, that he is not meek. He presents himself before those whom he
claims as disciples, and says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of
me, for I am neither meek, nor lowly in heart; I will have no patience
with you; there is my creed, or there is the scimitar-- death or
conversion, whichever you please." The moment the Ma- hometan
religion withdrew that very forcible argument of decapitation or
impalement, it stayed in its work of conversion, and never progressed;
for the very strength of the false prophet lays in the absence of any
meekness.
How opposite this is to Christ! Although he hath a right to demand man's
love and man's faith, yet he comes not into the world to demand it with fire
and sword. His might is under persuasion; his strength is quiet forbearance,
and patient endurance; his mightiest force is the sweet attraction of
compassion and love. He knoweth nothing of the ferocious hosts of Mahomet;
he bids none of us draw our sword to propagate the faith, but saith, "Put up
thy sword into its scabbard; they that take the sword shall perish by the
sword." "My kingdom is not of this world, else might my servants fight."
Nay, Mahomet is not the only instance we can bring; but even good men are
subject to the like mistakes. They imagine that religion is to be spread by
terror and thunder. Look at John himself, the most lovely of all the
disciples: he would call fire from heaven on a village of Samaritans,
because they rejected Christ. Hark to his hot enquiry,--"Wilt thou that we
command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" Christ's disciples
were to him something like the sons of Zeruiah to David; or when
Shimei mocked David, the sons of Zeruiah said, "Why should this dead
dog curse my lord the king? let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his
head." But David meekly said, "What have I to do with you, ye sons of
Zeruiah? "--and put them aside. He had something of the spirit of his
Master; he knew that his honour was not then to be defended by sword
or spear. O blessed Jesus! thou hast no fury in thy spirit; when men
rejected thee thou didst not draw the sword to smite, but, on the
contrary, thou didst yield thine eyes to weeping. Behold your Saviour,
disciples, and see whether he was not meek. He had long preached in
Jerusalem without effect, and at last he knew that they were ready to
put him to death; but what saith he, as, standing on the top of the hill,
he beheld the city that had rejected his gospel?
Did he invoke a curse upon it? Did he suffer one word of anger to leap from
his burning heart? Ah! no; there were flames, but they were those of love;
there were scalding drops, but they were those of grief. He beheld the city,
and wept over it, and said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I
have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not." And for a further proof of the
absence of all uncharitableness, observe that, even when they drove the
nails into his blessed hands, yet he had no curse to breathe upon them,
but his dying exclamation was, "Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do." O sinners! see what a Christ it is that we bid you
serve. No angry bigot, no fierce warrior, claiming your unwilling faith:
he is a tender Jesus. Your rejection of him has made his bowels yearn
over you; and though you abhor his gospel, he has pleaded for you,
saying, "Let him alone yet another year, till I dig about him;
peradventure he may yet bring forth fruit." What a patient master is he!
Oh! will you not serve him!
2. But the idea is not brought out fully, unless we take another sense.
There is a sternness which cannot be condemned. A Christian man will
often feel him self called to bear most solemn and stern witness against
the error of his times, But Christ's mission, although it certainly did
testify against the sin of his times, yet had a far greater reference to the
salvation of the souls of men. To show the idea that I have in my own
mind, which I have not yet brought out, I must picture Elijah. What a
man was he! His mission was to be the bold unflinching advocate of the
right, and to bear a constant testimony against the wickedness of his
age. And how boldly did he speak! Look at him: how grand the picture!
Can you not conceive him on that memorable day, when he met Ahab,
and Ahab said, "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" Do you mark
that mighty answer which Elijah gave him, while the king trembles at
his words. Or, better still, can you picture the scene when Elijah said,
"Take you two bullocks, ye priests, and build an altar, and see this day,
whether God be God or Baal be God." Do you see him as he mocks the
worshippers of Baal, and with a biting irony says to them, "Cry aloud,
for he is a god." And do you see him in the last grand scene, when the
fire has come down from heaven, and consumed the sacrifice, and
licked up the water, and burned the altar? Do you hear him cry, "Take
the prophets of Baal; let not one escape?" Can you see him in his might
hewing them in pieces by the brook, and making their flesh a feast for
the fowls of heaven? Now, you cannot picture Christ in the same
position He had the stern qualities of Elijah, but he kept them, as it
were, behind, hike sleeping thunder, that must not as yet waken and lift
up its voice. There were some rumblings of time tempest, it is true,
when he spoke so sternly to the Sadducees, and Scribes, and Pharisees;
those woes were like murmurings of a distant storm, but it was a distant
storm; whereas, Elijah lived in the midst of the whirlwind itself, and
was no still small voice, but was as the very fire of God, and hike the
chariot in which he mounted to heaven-- fit chariot for such a fiery
man! Christ here stands in marked contrast. Picture him in somewhat a
like position to Elijah with Ahab. There is Jesus left alone with an
adulterus woman. She has been taken in the very fact. Her accusers are
present, ready to bear witness against her.
By a simple sentence he emptied the room of every witness; convicted by
their conscience they all retire. And now what does Christ say? The woman
might have lifted her eyes, and have looked at him, and said, "Hast thou
found me O mine enemy? "--for she might have regarded Christ as the enemy of
so base a sin as that which she had committed against her marriage bed.
But instead thereof Jesus said, "Doth no man condemn thee? Neither do
I condemn thee; go and sin no more." Oh, how different from the
sternness or Elijah! Sinners! if I had to preach Elijah as your Saviour I
should feel that I had a hard task, for you might throw it in my teeth--
"Shall we come to Elijah? He will call fire from heaven on us, as he did
upon the captains and their fifties. Shall we come to Elijah? Surely he
will slay us, for we have been like the prophets of Baal?" Nay, sinners;
but I bid you come to Christ. Come to him, who, although he hated sin
more than Elijah could do, yet nevertheless, loved the sinner--who,
though he would not share iniquity, yet spares the transgressors, and
has no words but those of love and mercy, and peace and comfort, for
those of you who will now come and put your trust in him.
I must put in a word here by way of caveat. I am very far from
imputing, for a single moment, any blame to Elijah. He was quite right.
None but Elijah could have fulfilled the mission which his Master gave
him. He needed to be all he was, and certainly not less stern; but Elijah
was not sent to be a Saviour; he was quite unfit for that. He was sent to
administer a stern rebuke. He was God's iron tongue of threatening, not
God's silver tongue of mercy. Now, Jesus is the silver tongue of grace.
Sinners! hear the sweet bells ringing, as Jesus now invites you to come
unto him. "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden;' for I
am not stern, I am not harsh, I am no fire- killing Elijah; I am the meek,
tender, lowly-hearted Jesus."
3. Christ is meek in heart. To exhibit this quality in another light, call
to your minds Moses. Moses was the meekest of men; and yet Christ far
excels Moses in his meekness. Around Moses there seems to be a hedge, a ring
of fire. The character of Moses is like Mount Sinai; it hath bounds set
about it, so that one cannot draw near unto him. Moses was not an
approachable person, he was quiet and meek, and tender, but there was a
sacred majesty about the King in Jeshurun that hedged his path, so that we
cannot imagine the people making themselves familiar with him. Whoever read
of Moses sitting down upon a well, and talking to a harlot like the woman of
Samaria? Whoever heard a story of a Magdalene washing the feet of Moses? Can
ye conceive Moses eating bread with a sinner, or passing under a sycamore
tree, and calling Zaccheus, the thievish publican, and bidding him come
down? There is a kind of stately majesty in Moses, no mere affectation of
standing alone, but a loneliness of superior worth. Men looked up to him as
to some cloud-capped mountain, and despaired of being able to enter into
the lofty circle, within which they might have communed with him.
Moses always had in spirit what he once had in visible token; he had a
glory about his brow, and before he could converse with men he must
wear a veil, for they could not bear to look upon the face of Moses. But
how different is Jesus! He is a man among men; wherever he goes no
one is afraid to speak to him. You scarcely meet with any one who
dares not approach him. There is a poor woman, it is true, who hath the
flux, and she fears to come near him, because she is ceremonially
unclean; but even she can come behind him in the press, and touch the
hem of his garment, and virtue goeth Out of him. Nobody was afraid of
Jesus.
The mothers brought their little babes to him: whoever heard of
their doing that to Moses? Did ever babe get a blessing of Moses? But
Jesus was all meekness--the approachable man, feasting with the
wedding guests, sitting down with sinners, conversing with the unholy
and the unclean, touching the leper, and making himself at home with
all men. Sinners! this is the one we invite you to--this homely man,
Christ. Not to Moses, for you might say, "He hath horns of light, and
how shall I draw near to his majesty ! He is bright perfection--the very
lightnings of Sinai rest upon his brow." But sinners, ye cannot say that
of Christ. He is as holy as Moses--as great, and far greater, but he is still
so homely that ye may come to him. Little children, ye may put your
trust in him. Ye may say your little prayer,
"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
Look on me, a little Child;
Pity my simplicity,
Suffer me to come to thee."
He will not cast you away, or think you have intruded on him. Ye
harlots, ye drunkards, ye feasters, ye wedding guests, ye may all come;
"This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." He is "meek and
lowly in heart." That gives, I think, a still fuller and broader sense to the
term, "meek."
4. But yet, to push the term a little further. Christ on earth was a king;
but there as nothing about him of the exclusive pomp of kings, which
excludes the common people from their society. Look at the Eastern
king Ahasuerus, sitting on his throne. He is considered by his people as
a superior being. None may come in unto the king, unless he is called
for. Should he venture to pass the circle, the guards will slay him,
unless the king stretches out the golden sceptre. Even Esther, his
beloved wife, is afraid to draw near, and must put her life in her hand, if
she comes into the presence of the king uncalled. Christ is a king; but
where his pomp? Where the Janitor that keeps his door, and thrusts
away the poor? Where the soldiers that ride on either side of his chariot
to screen the monarch from the gaze of poverty? See thy King, O Sion!
He comes, he comes in royal pomp! Behold, Judah, behold thy King
cometh! But how cometh he? "Meek and lowly, riding upon an ass, and
upon a colt, the foal of an ass." And who are his attendants? See, the
young children, boys and girls! They cry, "Hosannah! Hosannah!
Hosannah!" And who are they that wait upon him? His poor disciples.
They pull the branches from the trees; they cast their garments in the
street, and there he rideth on-- Judah's royal King. His courtiers are the
poor; his pomp is that tribute which grateful hearts delight to offer. O
sinners, will you not come to Christ? There is nothing in him to keep
you back. You need not say, like Esther did of old," I will go in unto
the king, if I perish I perish. Come, and welcome! Come, and welcome!
Christ is more ready to receive you than you are to come to him. Come
to the King! "What is thy petition, and what is thy request? It shall be
done unto thee." If thou stayest away, it is not because he shuts the
door, it is because thou wilt not come. Come, filthy, naked, ragged,
poor, lost, ruined, come, just as thou art. Here he stands, like a fountain
freely opened for all comers. "Whosoever will, let him come and take
of the waters of life freely."
5. I will give you but one more picture to set forth the meekness of
Christ, and I think I shall not have completed the story without it. The
absence of all selfishness from the character of Christ, makes one
ingredient of this precious quality of his meekness. You remember the
history of Jonah. Jonah is sent to prophecy against Nineveh; but he is
selfish. He will not go for he shall get no honour by it. He does not
want to go so long a journey for so small a price. He will not go. He
will take a ship and go to Tarshish. He is thrown out into the sea,
swallowed by a fish, and vomited by it upon dry land. He goes away to
Nineveh, and not wanting courage, he goes through its streets, crying,
"Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." That one man's
earnest cry moves the city from one end to the other. The king
proclaims a first; the people mourn in sackcloth and confess their sins.
God sends them tidings of mercy, and they are spared. But what will
Jonah do? Oh, tell it not, ye heavens; let none hear it--that ever a
prophet of God could do the like! He sits himself down, and he is angry
with God. And why his anger? Because, says he, "God has not
destroyed that city." If God had destroyed the city he would have
shouted over the ruins, because his reputation would have been safe;
but now that the city is saved, and his own reputation for a prophet
tarnished, he must needs sit down in anger. But Christ is the very
reverse of this. Sinners! Christ does thunder at you sometimes, but it is
always that he may bring you to repentance. He does take Jonah's cry,
and utter it far more mightily than Jonah could; he does warn you that
there is a fire that never can be quenched, and a worm that dieth not;
but if you turn to him, will he sit down and be angry? Oh! no; methinks
I see him. There you come poor prodigals; your father falls upon your
neck and kisses you, and you are accepted, and a feast is made. Here
comes the elder brother, Jesus. What does he say? Is he angry because
you are saved? Ah! no! "My Father," saith he, "my younger brother
have all come home, and I love them; they shall share my honours; they
shall sit upon my throne; they shall share my heaven." "Where I am,
there they shall be also." I will take them into union with myself, and as
they have wasted their inheritance, all that I have shall be their's for
ever. Oh! come home, prodigal, there is no angry brother and no angry
father. Come back, come back, my brother, my wandering brother, I
invite thee; for Jesus is rejoiced to receive thee. Do you not see, then,
that the meekness of Christ is a sweet and blessed reason why we
should come to him?
II. The second virtue which Christ claims for himself, is LOWLINESS OF
HEART.
When I looked this passage out in the original, I half wondered how it
was that Christ found such a sweet word for the expression of his
meaning; for the Greeks, do not know much about humility, and they
have not a very good word to set forth this idea of lowliness of heart. I
find that if this passage stood in another connection, the word might
even be interpreted "degraded, debased," for the Greeks thought that if
a man was humble, he degraded himself--that if he stooped, he debased
himself right out. "Well," says Christ, "if you think so, so be it, and he
takes the word. The word means, "near the ground." So is Christ's heart.
We cannot be so low that he will not stoop to reach us. I would just set
out the lowliness of Christ's heart in this way. Christ is "lowly in heart;"
that is, he is willing to receive the poorest sinner in the world. The
pharisee thought that the keeper of the gate of heaven would admit only
the rich, and not the poor. Mark Christ's teaching. There were two came
to the gate once upon a time; one was clothed in purple and fine linen,
and fared sumptuously every day; he knocked, and thought that full
sure he must enter; but "in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments."
There came another, borne on angel's wings. It was a beggar, whose
many sores the dogs had licked and he had not so much as to knock at
the gate, for the angel's carried him straight away into the very centre of
paradise, and laid him in Abraham's bosom. Jesus Christ is willing to
receive beggars into his bosom. Kings, you know, condescend, when
they permit even the rich to be presented to them, and the kissing of a
monarch's hand is something very wonderful indeed, but to have the
kisses of his lips who is the King of kings, is no uncommon thing for
men that are shivering in rags, or that are sick upon miserable beds, in
dingy attics. Christ is "lowly in heart;" he goes with what men call the
vulgar herd; he hath nothing of affected royalty about him--he hath a
nobler royalty than that, the royalty that is too proud to think anything
of a stoop, that can only measure itself by its own intrinsic excellence,
and not by its official standing. He receiveth the lowest, the meanest,
the vilest, for he is "lowly in heart." If I have among my congregation
some of the poorest of the poor, let them come away to Christ, and let
them not imagine that their poverty need keep them back. I am always
delighted when I see a number of women here from the neighbouring
workhouse. I bless God that there are some in the workhouse that are
willing to come; and though they have sometimes been put to a little
inconvenience by so doing, yet I have known them sooner give up their
dinner than give up coming to hear the Word. God bless the workhouse
women, and may they be led to Christ, for be is meek and lowly in heart, and
will not reject them. I must confess also, I like to see a smock frock here
and there in the midst of the congregation. Oh! what a mercy, that in the
palace of the Great King there shall be found these workmen, these blouses,
They shall be made partakers of the kingdom of God. He makes no difference
between prince and pauper; he takes men to heaven just as readily from the
workhouse, as from the palace.
Further, this lowliness of heart in Christ leads him to receive the most
ignorant as well as the learned to himself. I know that sometimes poor
ignorant people get a notion in their heads that they cannot be saved,
because they cannot read and do not know much. I have sometimes,
especially in country villages, received this answer, when I have been
asking anything about personal religion. "Well, you know, sir, I never
had any learning." Oh! but, ye unlearned, is this a reason why ye should
stay away from him who is lowly in heart? It was said of an old Greek
philosopher, that he wrote over his door, "None but the learned may
enter here." But Christ, on the contrary, writes over his door, "He that is
simple let him turn in hither." There are many great men with long
handles to their names who know little of the gospel, while some of the
poor unlettered ones spell out the whole secret, and become perfect
masters in divinity. If they had degrees who deserve them, diplomas
should often be transferred, and given to those who hold the plough
handle or work at the carpenter's bench; for there is often more divinity
in the little finger of a ploughman than there is in the whole body of
some of our modern divines. "Don't they understand divinity?" you say.
Yes, in the letter of it; but as to the spirit and life of it, D.D. often
means DOUBLY DESTITUTE.
The lowliness of Christ may be clearly seen in yet another point of
view. He is not only willing to receive the poor, and to receive the
ignorant, but he is also ever ready to receive men, despite the vileness
of their characters. Some teachers can stoop, and freely too, to both
poor and ignorant; but they cannot stoop to the wicked. I think we have
all felt a difficulty here. "However poor a man may be, or however little
he knows," you say, "I don't mind talking with him, and trying to do
him good; but I cannot talk with a man who is a rogue or a vagabond,
or with a woman who has lost her character." I know you cannot; there
are a great many things Christ did which we cannot do. We, who are the
servants of Christ, have attempted to draw a line where duty has its
bound. Like the domestic servant in some lordly mansion who stoops
not to menial employment. We are above our work. We are so fastidious, that
we cannot go after the chief of sinners, and the vilest of the vile. Not so,
Christ. "He receiveth sinners and eateth with them."
He, in the days of his flesh, became familiar with the outcasts. He
sought them out that he might save them; he entered their homes; he
found his way into the slums. like some diligent officer of the police, he
was willing to lodge where they lodged, eat at their table, and associate
with their class to find them out. His mission was to seek as well as to
save. Oh, see him stand, with arms wide open! Will that thief, who is
justly executed for his crimes, be recognized by him? Yes, he will.
There, with his arms outstretched, he hangs; the thief flies as it were to
his bosom, and Jesus gives him a most blessed embrace. "To-day shalt
thou be with me in Paradise." Christ has received the thief with open
heart and open arms too. And there is Mary. Do you see her? She is
washing the feet of Jesus. Why, she is a bad character, one of the worst
women on the town. What will Christ say? Say? Why, hear how he
speaks to Simon, the pious, reputable Pharisee. Saith he, after putting
the parable concerning the two debtors, "which of them shall love him
most?"--and then he explains that this woman hath had much forgiven,
and therefore she loves him much. "Thy sins, which are many, are all
forgiven," saith he, and she goes her way in peace. There are many men
you and I would not demean ourselves to notice, that Christ will take to
heaven at last; for he is "lowly in heart." He takes the base, the vilest,
the scum, the offscouring, the filth, the garbage of the world, and out of
such stuff and matter as that, he buildeth up a holy temple, and
gathereth to himself trophies for his honour and praise.
And further, while I speak of the lowliness of Christ's heart, I must
remark another thing. Perhaps one is saying here, "Oh! sir, it is not
what I have been, as to my conduct, that keeps me back from Christ; but I
feel that what I am as to my nature restrains me; I am such a dolt, I shall
never learn in his school I am such a hard-hearted one, he will never melt
me, and if he does save me, I shall never be worth his having. Yes, but
Christ is "lowly in heart." There are some great goldsmiths that of course
can only think of preparing and polishing the choicest diamonds; but Jesus
Christ polishes a common pebble, and makes a jewel of it. Goldmsiths make
their precious treasures out of precious materials; Christ makes his
precious things out of dross. He begins always with bad material. The palace
of our king is not made of cedar wood, as Solomon's, or if it be made of
wood, certainly he has chosen the knottiest trees and the knottiest planks
wherewith to build his habitation. He has taken those to he his scholars who
were the greatest dunces; so amazing is the lowliness of Christ's heart. He
sits down on the form with us to teach us the A,B,C, of repentance, and if
we are slow to learn it he begins again, and takes us through our
alphabet, and if we forget it he will often teach us our letters over again;
for though he is able to teach the angels, yet he condescends to instruct
babes, and as we go step by step in heavenly literature, Christ is not
above teaching the elements. He teaches not only in the University, and
the Grammar-school, where high attainments are valued, but he teaches
in the day-school, where the elements and first principles are to be
instilled. It is he who teaches the sinner, what sinner means in deep
conviction, and what faith means in holy assurance. It is not only he
who takes us to Pisgah, and bids us view the promised land, but it is he
also who takes us to Calvary, and makes us learn that simplest of all
things, the sacred writing of the cross. He, if I may use such a phrase,
will not only teach us how to write them highly ornamental writing of
the Eden Paradise, the richly gilded, illuminated letters of communion
and fellowship, but he teaches us how to make the pot-hooks amid
hangers of repentance and faith. he begins at the beginning; for he is
"meek and lowly in heart." Come, then, ye dolts, ye fools; come ye
sinners, ye vile ones; come, ye dullest of all scholars, ye poor, ye
illiterate, ye who are rejected and despised of men; come to him who
was rejected and despised as well as you. Come and welcome! Christ
bids you come!
"Let not conscience make you linger;
Nor of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness he requireth,
Is to feel your need of him:
This he gives you;
'Tis his Spirit's rising beam.
Come, poor sinners! come to a gentle Saviour! and you shall never regret
that you came to him.
III. Having thus spoken on the two marks of our Lord's character, I
propose to conclude, if God shall help me, by knocking home the nail,
by driving in the wedge, and pressing upon you a conclusion from
these arguments. The conclusion of the whole matter is this, since
Christ is "meek and lowly in heart," sinners come to him.
Come to him, then, first, whoever you may be, for he is "meek and
lowly in heart." When a man has done anything wrong, and wants a
help through his difficulty, if about to employ some counsel to plead
for him in a court of law, he might say, "Oh! don't engage Mr. So-and-
so for me; I hear he is a very hard-hearted man; I should not like to tell
him what I have done, and entrust my case in his hands. Send for Mr.
So-and-so; I have heard that he is very kind and gentle; let him come
and hear my case, and let him conduct the pleadings for me:" Sinner!
you are sinful, but Christ is very tender-hearted. Speed thy way to
Christ's private chamber,--your own closet of prayer. Tell him all you
have done; he will not upbraid you: confess all your sins; he will not
chide you. Tell him all your follies; he will not be angry with you.
Commit your case to him, and with a sweet smile he will say, "I have
cast thy sins behind my back; thou hast come to reason with me; I will
discover to thee a matter of faith which excels all reason,--" Though thy
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool; though they be red like
crimson, they shall be whiter than snow Come to Christ, then, sinful
ones, because he is "meek and lowly in heart," and he can bear with the
narrative of your offences. "But, sir, I am very timid, and I dare not go."
Ah, but however timid you may be, you need not be afraid of him. He
knows your timidity, and he will meet you with a smile, and say, "Fear
not. Be of good cheer. Tell me thy sin, put thy trust in me, and thou
shalt even yet rejoice to know my power to save. Come now," saith he,
"come to me at once. Linger no longer. I do not strive nor cry, nor
cause my voice to be hearth in the streets. A bruised reed I will not
break, the smoking flax I will not quench; but I will bring forth
judgment unto victory." Come then, ye timid ones to Christ for he is
meek and lowly in heart. "Oh," says one, "but I am despairing; I have
been so long under a sense of sin, I cannot go to Christ." Poor soul! he
is so meek and lowly, that, despairing though thou mayest be, take
courage now; though it be like a forlorn hope to thee, yet go to him.
Say, in the words of the hymn--
" I' ll to the gracious King approach,
Whose sceptre pardon gives;
Perhaps he may command my touch,
And then the suppliant lives.
I can but perish if I go;
I am resolved to try;
For if I stay away, I know
I must for ever die."
And you may add this comfortable reflection--
"But if I die with mercy sought,
When I the King have tried,
This were to die (delightful thought!)
As sinner never died."
Come to him, then, timid and despairing; for he is "meek and lowly in
heart." First, he bids thee confess. What a sweet confessor! Put thy lip
to his ear, and tell him all. He is "meek and lowly in heart." Fear not.
None of thy sins can move him to anger. If thou dost but confess them.
If thou keepest them in thy heart, they shall be like a slumbering
volcano; and a furnace of destruction thou shalt find even to the
uttermost by-and-bye. But confess thy sins; tell them all; he is meek
and lowly in heart." Happy confession! when we have such a confessor.
Again, he bids thee trust him; and canst thou not trust him? He is "meek
and lowly in heart." Sinner! put confidence in Christ. There never was
such a tender heart as his, never such a compassionate face. Look him
in the face, poor soul, as thou seest him dying on the tree, and say, is
not that a face that any man might trust! Look at him! Canst thou doubt
him? Wilt thou withhold thy cause from such a Redeemer as this? No,
Jesus! thou art so generous, so good, so kind Take thou my cause in
hand. Just as I am, I come to thee. Save me, I beseech thee, for I put my
trust in thee.
And then Jesus not only bids you confess and believe, but he bids you
afterwards serve him. And sure, sinners, this should be a reason why
you should do it. that he is so "meek and lowly in heart." It is said,
"Good masters make good servants." What good servants you and I
ought to be, for what a good Master we have! Never an ill word doth he
say to us. If sometimes he pointeth out anything we have done amiss, it
is only for our good. Not for his profit doth he chasten, but for ours.
Sinner! I ask thee not to serve the god of this world--that foul fiend who
shall destroy thee after all thy service. The devil is thy master now, and
ye have heard the wages he bestows. But come and serve Christ, the
meek and lowly one, who will give thee good cheer while thou art
serving him, and give thee a blessed reward when thy work is done.
And now, best of all, sinners! come to Christ. Come to him in all his
offices, for he is "meek and lowly in heart." Sinner! thou art sick--
Christ is a physician. If men have broken a bone, and they are about to
have a surgeon fetched, they say, "Oh! is he a feeling tender hearted
man?" For there is many an army surgeon that takes off a leg, and never
thinks of the pain he is giving. "Is he a kind man?" says the poor
sufferer, when he is about to be strapped down upon the table." Ah!
poor sufferer, Christ will heal thy broken bones, and he will do it with
downy fingers. Never was there so light a touch as this heavenly
surgeon has. "Tis pleasure even to he wounded by him, much more to
be healed, Oh! what balm is that he gives to the poor bleeding heart!
Fear not; there was never such a physician as this. If he give thee now
and then a bitter pill and a sour draught, yet he will give thee such
honied words and such sweet promises therewith, that thou shalt
swallow it all up without murmuring. Nay, if he be with thee, thou
canst even swallow up death in victory; and never know that thou hast
died because victory hath taken the bitter taste away.
Sinner! thou art not only sick, and therefore bidden to come to him, but
thou art moreover in debt, and he offers now to pay thy debts, and to
discharge them in full. Come, come to him, for he is not harsh. Some
men, when they do mean to let a debtor off, first have him in their
office, and give him as much as they can of the most severe rebukes;--"
You rogue, you! how dare you get in my debt, when you knew you
could not pay? You have brought a deal of trouble on yourself, you
have ruined your family," and so forth; and the good man gives him
some very sound admonition, and very right too; till at length he says,
"I'll let you off this time; come, now, I forgive you, and I hope you will
never do so again." But Christ is even better than this. "There is all your
debt," he says, "I have nailed it to the cross; sinner, I forgive thee all,"
and not one accusing word comes from his lips. Come, then, to him.
I fear I have spoilt my master in the painting; something like the artist
who had to depict some fair damsel, and he so misrepresented her
features, that she lost her reputation for beauty. I have sometimes feared
lest I should do the same, and so distort the face of Christ, and so fail of
giving the true likeness of his character that you would not love him.
Oh! could you see him! If he could stand here for one moment, and tell
you that he was meek and lowly in heart. Oh, methinks you would run
to him and say, "Jesus, we come Thou meek and lowly Messiah, be
thou our all!" Nay, you would not come; I am mistaken. If sovereign
grace draw you not under the sound of the gospel, neither would you be
converted though Christ should appear before you. But hear now the
message of that gospel--"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you
shall be saved; for he that believeth on him, and is baptized shall be
saved; he that believeth not, must be damned."
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