Browse by Genre

Yet all this troubling is in love. He sounds his trumpet to awake the sleepers. He comes to us in grace as he came to Jerusalem. Why should we be troubled? We need not, if we be willing to receive Him and to worship Him. He does not wish to terrify or to repel. His desire is to attract: to get entrance for Himself into our hearts. Of course, if the world be there, and you are unwilling to part with it, his coming will trouble you, his knock will alarm you. If your idols refuse to be displaced, if another king reigns within and is resolved to keep his throne, the coming of Messiah must be the cause of unmingled trouble. It cannot be otherwise; for He demands your whole man complete and without reserve. But if, through grace, you are weary of your present occupants, and would fain be dispossessed of the world and Satan, then here is the Christ, the Son of God,—He wants to come into your city, your house, your heart. Give Him free welcome and glad entrance. Let Him come in and sup with you. Let his grace constrain you to willing obedience. He is thy Lord, worship thou Him.

The Christ has come! The angels announced Him, the shepherds sought Him, the wise men worshipped Him. Unto us a child is born! O glad tidings of great joy! Tidings not meant to terrify or overwhelm, but to gladden and to comfort. And we can add to this, the Christ has died! Nay, He has risen! Ah! this is not sorrow, this is joy. It is the silver trumpet sounding out love,—the love of God; not the iron trumpet, breathing vengeance in its blast. O men of earth, sons of Adam, hear the proclamation. Seek his face and live. Deal with Him in simple trust; He waits to deal with you in free and boundless love.

It seems strange to say, and yet it is true, that Christ comes to trouble us,—“Be troubled ye careless ones.” Woe to those who have never been troubled by Him; into whose hearts or consciences He has never looked with his solemn eye, as in that day when He troubled Jerusalem. Elijah of old was counted the troubler of Israel, so is Christ the troubler of the world. He will not let men alone. He is ever and anon announcing himself, coming into the midst of them, now here and now there, and troubling them. He came to Corinth, and it was troubled. He came to Thessalonica, to Philippi, to Derbe, to Lystra, and they were “troubled.” He did not come with fire, or sword, or sweeping judgment, yet they were “troubled.” Wherever He comes, He troubles. He came to Germany in the 16th century, to Switzerland, to Scotland, to England, and they were troubled. He comes to a town, a city, a village, or a family, and they are “troubled.” He comes to a soul lying asleep or dead, and it is “troubled.” What is at the bottom of all the persecutions of various ages? It is Christ troubling the world. If He would let it alone, it would let Him alone. What means the outcry, and alarm, and misrepresentation, and anger, in days of revival? It is Christ troubling the world. What means the resistance to a fully preached gospel? It is Christ troubling the world. A fettered gospel, a circuitous gospel, a conditional gospel,—a gospel that does not truly represent Christ,—troubles no man; for in such cases it is another Christ that is announced, and not the Christ, the King of the Jews, that troubled Jerusalem. But a large, free, happy, unconditional gospel, that fully represents Jesus and his grace, Jesus and his completeness, does trouble men. It troubles all to whom it comes, in some measure. Some it troubles and then converts; some it only troubles. But its announcement does, more or less, for all who hear it, what it did for Jerusalem in the days of Herod,—it troubles. The world’s only hope is to be “troubled” by Christ. If He let it alone, all is over. Christ’s errand just now is to trouble men,—to awaken them,—to call them to repentance. And the more fully He is preached, the more are men troubled. Has a preached Christ ever troubled you? Has the thought of his coming near you troubled you more? And have you found that the only quieter of such alarms is receiving Him as King and Saviour?

Teach us this evening how to speak Thy word, guide our thoughts, preserve us from saying anything that might be a stumbling-block to any. May the simplicity of motive mark all that we say, and may the word of the Lord shine even through the imperfect medium of the human utterance and vindicate its own divine power and sufficiency, whatever becomes of the vase in which it is carried. We pray for one another; we beseech Thee that Thou wouldst be near us according to our different circumstances and needs. If there are any amongst us who are in sorrow or trouble, any from whom Thou hast taken away earthly treasures, any who have been brought near to the gates of death, any who may be laden with anxiety, or perplexity, or cares, and surely there are many such among us, we beseech Thee that Thou wouldst help us to cast our burdens upon the Lord, Who bears our burdens, and Who gives us strength to bear them, and to live in the possession of that peace that passes understanding, because we have ceased to be anxious about ourselves, and anxiety has been swallowed up in faith.