Sermon 397 | Fire! Fire! Fire!

BEFORE we explain the metaphor of the text, it may be well for us to remark that we are not sufficiently grateful, I fear, for the preservation which God affords to us from fire. To be startled at the dead of night with the alarming cry, and to find one's self and children and goods in danger of being immediately consumed, must be no small trial. I have felt myself extreme gratitude to God that while both on the right hand and on the left the flames have raged, he has been pleased to spare to us this temple of our solemnities, this place where we delight to worship. And is it not meet that we should each and all render to him our hearty thanks for sparing our habitations preserving the roof under which we rest, enabling us to go out and to come in in perfect safety? Or, probably, I may be addressing some this morning who have had escaped from the very midst of the fires. Let such not only bless God for preservation in the past, but let them celebrate his goodness in plucking them as brands out of the burning. Let them be extremely grateful to God that while others this day are dying as a black heap of ashes who but yesterday were living men, we are still in the land of the dying unburned and unsinged. It was at least the trap of many of you, during the past week, and again last night, to witness a conflagration of awful grandeur, in which tongues of flame, mountains of fire, and pillars of smoke, made a spectacle to be gazed at with interest while it produced terrors and apprehensions that could awe the wildest mob into silence. With you and me it is a common mercy to be preserved day by day, and night by night from the devouring element. Yet when the dreadful catastrophe is within view—when those we know personally or by repute are sufferers—and when at the same time we look on with a sense of our own present security—then surely we ought to give more than a common expression of gratitude to God for mercies that at other times we are too apt to paste over unheeded as but the effects of a common Providence. Never was a truer sentence uttered than when one said, "These mercies are not valued until they are lost, and these preservations are not esteemed until they are withdrawn." Let us thank God while we have the mercies, lest he be provoked by our ingratitude and take forth his rod and scourge us. Then, indeed, might we cry out under the smart, and wish and desire that we had our mercies back again. Thus much I could not in my conscience withhold at a time when there are judgments around us enough to make us tremble, and mercies enough in the little circles of home to make us exceedingly grateful. Let us now take the text in its real signification. Of course the walking through the fire here is put for the severest form of trouble: You have, in the commencement of the verse, trouble described as passing through the water. This represents the overwhelming influence of trial in which the soul is sometimes so covered that it becomes like a man sinking in the waves. "When thou goest through the rivers,"—those mountain torrents which with terrific force are often sufficient to carry a man away. This expresses the force of trouble, the power with which it sometimes lifts a man from the foothold of his stability, and carries him before it. "When thou passest through the rivers they shall not overflow thee." But going through the fire expresses not so much the overwhelming character and the upsetting power of trouble as the actual consuming and destructive power of trouble and temptation. The metaphor is more vivid, not to, say more terrific, than that which is employed in the first sentence, and yet vivid and awful though it be, it is certainly not too strong a figure to be used as the emblem of the tribulations, temptations and afflictions, through which the Church and people of God have been called to pass. We may apprise the richness of the promise in proportion to the astonishing character of the metaphor, and we ought to value the privilege which it confers in the precise ratio of the dreadful character of the danger against which it preserves us. "When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee."

We shall talk of three things, this morning, as the Holy Ghost may enable us; first of all, a terrible pathway,—walking around the fire; secondly, an awful danger,—the danger of being burned and utterly consumed; and thirdly, a double insurance,—"Thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the fire kindle upon thee."

First, then, let us speak a little upon this TERRIBLE PATHWAY.

The sacramental host of God's elect has never had an easy road along which to journey. I see the fields on fire, the prairie is in a blaze, the very heavens are like a furnace, and the clouds seem rather to be made of fire than water. Across that prairie lies the pathway to heaven, beneath that blazing sky the whole Church of God must make its perpetual journey. It started at the first in fire, and its very glory at the last shall take place in the midst of the fiery passing away of all things. When first there was a Church of God on earth, in the person of Abel it was persecuted, Cain lifted up his cruel club to slay his brother; and when the children of Seth were the representatives of God's chosen, they were without doubt the subject of the jeer and gibe of the descendants of Cain. Noah, the preacher of righteousness endured during his one hundred and twenty years, the hardness of heart and carelessness of an unthinking world; he and his family, who were the remnant of the Church in the latter part of those days, were constantly exposed to the laughter and persecution of men. When God had destroyed the earth with water, and the whole race of man was contained within the ark, you would think that then, certainly, the Church within the ark would be secure from molestation. But no, we find him ready to detect the failings of his parents, and no doubt a ringleader of everything that was vile and vicious, just as we have reason to hope that some of his brethren adhered to the most true God. From that day forward, whether you read through the life of Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, it still standeth true, "He that is born after the flesh persecuteth him that is born after the Spirit." Whether we refer you to the history of Israel by the side of the brick-kilns of Egypt, or to the host of God constantly beset by the marauders of the Amalekites, you find it still to be true that through much tribulation the people of God must wade their way to Canaan. And if you look further on in history, between David and Saul, between Hezekiah and Sennacherib, between the faithful followers of God after the captivity who would rebuild the temple, and Sanballat the Horonite; between the Maccabees and Antiochus Epiphanes, there must always be preserved a deadly feud, to let it be seen that the world must hate God's people, and must harass them and seek to hunt them out, while they, on the other hand, must steadily pursue their onward march through the midst of billows of fire till they come at last to their eternal rest. Find me the abode of the Church of God and I can smell the furnace not far off. Show me the follower of the God of Abraham and I shall soon find the host of enemies ready for the attack. Up till the days of the Saviour the kingdom of heaven suffered violence, not only from its friends who would take it, but from those enemies who world assault it. From the blood of Abel down to the blood of Zecharias the son of Barachias, the pathway of the Church hath been a blood-besprinkled time. Since that day, what tongue can tell the sufferings of the people of God? Since Christ became martyr as well as Redeemer, has there been a season in which God's people have not somewhere or other been made to feel that they are not of the world, and that the world does not love them because they are not of the world? In apostolic times, Stephen expires beneath a shower of stones, James is killed with a sword, certain others of the saints are vexed; believers are scattered abroad. The Roman lion takes up the fight, Herod delights in the gore of the Christians, and smears the confessors of that holy faith with pitch and sets them in his gardens that they might be literally, as they were spiritually, the lights of the world. Let the catacombs of Rome witness to their sorrowful lives and let the Capitol witness to their terrible deaths. Let the old dungeons, some of which still remain, testify to the places where they wore out their dreary lives, and let the blood-stained Campus Martius still show where they cheerfully surrendered those lives for Christ. Oh! if the lands could speak, if the Earth could vomit forth her blood what stories could still be told of the way they were slain. Some of them were tortured, others sawn asunder, some stoned, and others burnt to death; though of them the world was not worthy. All the Roman Emperors, with but few exceptions, were persecutors; and the Christian emperors were as bad as the Pagan, for the Christian emperors were not Christians, nor were they members, as I believe, of a Christian Church. The Christian Church, and especially that Church of which we are still members, which has never defiled its garments, but which, never having had any alliance with the Church of Rome, has never needed to be reformed,—that Church under its different names, Paulitians, Novations, Albigenses, Lollards, Wyckliffites, Anabaptists, Baptists, has always suffered. It matters not what state, what Church, may have been dominant, whether it has been Christian or anti-Christian, the pure Church of Christ has always been the victim of persecution, and though she has persecuted never, but has always maintained inviolate, disunion from the state, and an utter hatred of all laws which would bind the conscience of man, yet has she been especially destitute, afflicted, tormented, and if she hath to-day a little breathing time, perhaps it is rather owing to the timidity which has made us keep back our sentiments, than to any charity towards ourselves. Find the Church of Christ wherever you will, and you shall find her scorned and despised of man. Find her in Scotland, and her Covenanters have to hide themselves in the midst of the mountain, and read the Word of God by the lightning flash, to escape from the dragoons of Claverhouse. Find her in England and where was she? Not in the cathedrals of her cities, but in the dungeons of her rural towns like Bedford with John Bunyan; not among the great and noble who were the persecutors, but among the poor and conscientious who were the persecuted. "If you want to find the drunkards and sinners of the worst dye," said one of our preachers at or before Cromwell's time, "you can find them in Church and state, but if you wish to find the men who are holy and who serve God, you must look into the felon's dungeons for them, for that is where they have been cast by the powers that be." Everywhere from the first day until now, it is not respectable to be a follower of Christ. If we follow Christ fully and faithfully before God, it is not equitable and praiseworthy before men. To take up his cross and to perform the ceremonies which he ordains, man hates. To adhere to truths which never were and never can be palatable to the carnal mind of man, is, and ever has been to excite animosity. The pathway of the Church, then, has been one of fire and flame. As it has been so with the Church, we may suspect there is some reason for it, and that reason has to be found in the great fact that the Church is in an enemy's country. She is not among her friends, she is a pilgrim and a stranger upon the earth. She is a bird that has lost her place, and all the birds round about her are against her, because she is a speckled one and belongs not to the common flock. If we were of the world, the world would love its own, but "because," said Christ, "ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." "We know," said he, "it hated me before it hated you." True Christians are aliens, foreigners, men that speak another speech, men who are actuated by different motives, men who live for different ends, who are governed by different maxima from the rest of the men of this world, therefore it is that their pathway must be one of trial and opposition. All things the Christian teaches are so dead against the pleasures of the worldling and his gain, that it is no wonder he opposes us. Men hate the gospel because the gospel does not like them. That Church is never true to her Christ, nor true to herself which does not draw upon herself the hatred of ungodly men, by a faithful testimony against their sins.

It hath fared well with the Church when she hath been persecuted, and her pathway hath been through fire. Her feet are shod with iron and brass. She ought not to tread on paths strewed with flowers; it is her proper place to suffer. Christ redeemed the world with agonies, and the Church must teach the world by the example of her anguish. First of all, the blood of Christ was shed meritoriously, and afterwards the blood of his Church is shed testimonially, to will the world by suffering. When you hear of the massacre of Christians in Madagascar, weep for their death, but do not be utterly cast down. This is a good work. This is the way the Church grows. There is no loss in the army of Christ when the best preachers fall and the mightiest evangelists are put to death. They are not lost, the blood is well shed and gloriously well spent. It is buying victory. It is procuring crowns for Jesus Christ. It is after all accomplishing higher results by dying than could have been effected by doing. It is under the heaviest fire of artillery that the loyal, the brave, and the true do the most daring feats of prowess. When one hero falls, from his ashes other heroes arise. The post of danger is the post of honor, therefore fresh aspirants will be found ready to lead the brigade. Moreover, my friends, if the path of fire be always a path of terror, it is often a path of progress. Melancholy as it is to mark the ruins of a conflagration, while the dying embers smoulder, how often you must have observed more majestic edifices raised to replace the structures that have been consumed! Thus fearful disasters are made to stimulate industry and nourish enterprise.

No doubt the sufferings of the Church, and the fact that she has to pass through the fire, must be ascribed to the great truth that thus her God is glorified.

Brethren, you and I do not glorify God much; for we have very little to suffer. The blood red crown of martyrdom is such an object of ambition, or it should be, to the believer that he might almost regret that it is not in his power to coin it. We! what do we suffer? Somebody slanders our character. What is that? Somebody abuses us in the newspaper, what is that? We are accused of one crime and another. What can it signify to a man who knows his conscience is right in the sight of God? What does he care if all the babbling tongues of all the liars in earth and hell should be let loose against him; he can bear all that and endure it quietly. It is nothing. When I read the stories of the Book of Martyrs, and note how our great reformers fought for Christ, and manfully won the victory, I blush for ourselves. Why, brethren, we live in such silken times that glory is scarce possible to us. We have much to do, but we have nothing to suffer. We cannot prove our love to Christ as they did. They indeed were a highly honored people who were permitted to glorify Christ even in the very fires. Look at it in this light, and the light afflictions you have to endure, will seem to be as nothing at all, when you think of the weight of glory which they shall bring to your Lord and to yourself. But as history confirms the statement that the Church of Christ must walk through the fire, so does the history of each individual Christian teach him that he must walk through the fire too.

The path of sorrow and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.

Through much tribulation we must inherit the kingdom. Think it no strange thing when the fiery trial shall happen to you. If you have the common afflictions of the world do not wonder. You must have them. The same thing happeneth both to the evil and to the good. You lose in business, you have reverses and disappointments, do not stagger at these in the way to heaven. You must have these, they are necessary to your spiritual health. Worse than that, you have strange temptations, you are placed in a position where you are constantly exposed to sin. It must be so. This too, is the pathway of God's people, you must have these fiery temptations, that you, being tried in the fire, may come forth as "gold seven times purified." You have mental anxieties. Neither let these seem a wonder to you. They fall to the lot of all the saints of the Most High. Moreover, you will have to endure the attacks of Satan, you must go through the valley of the shadow of death, and fight with Apollyon as Christian did, you are not to be exempted from the hardness of Christian warfare. If you will mount the hill, you must climb; if you are to win the crown, you must win it by sheer might. Think not this a strange thing. And if in doing good you meet with difficulties, let not that stagger you. It is but right and natural. I tell you again, if there be any pathway in which there be not fire, tremble, but if your lot be hard, thank God for it. If your sufferings be great, bless the Lord for them, and if the difficulties in your pathway be many, surmount them by faith, but let them not cast you down. Be of good courage, and wait on the Lord, setting this constantly in your minds that he has not promised to keep you from trouble, but to preserve you in it. It is not written, "I will save thee from the fire," but "I will save thee in the fire," not "I will quench the coals," but "they shall not burn thee," not "I will put out the furnace," but "the flames shall not kindle upon thee." Write it down and expect it to come true, that in this world thou shalt have tribulation. Only follow thy glorious leader, be it through flood or flame.

We will now turn to our second point—there is AN AWFUL DANGER.

The promise of the text is based on a prophecy that follows it. As I glance my eye down the chapter, I see that it tells us how God taught his people by terrible things in the past; and how he hath terrible lessons to teach them in the future. If the judgment of Egypt, and of Ethiopia, and Seba, are behind us, we have startling destinies that rise up to view before us. There is a people to be gathered in, and we are to be the agents in gathering them. Fear not, saith the Lord, though thou walkest through the fire in fulfilling my mission. God speaks to the north, "Give up;" and to the south, "Keep not back. Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth." But the manner of Egypt is repeated again. The monarch said, "I will not let them go." Jealousy is stirred. The fire burns: the coals thereof have a vehement flame. And they that come forth from the bondage of this world must walk through the fire, even as those that came forth from Egypt had to pass through water. The fire of prophecy is no poetic fiction, it is real fire. It will burn. If it doth not burn the believer, it is not for want of energy, it is because some supernatural restraint is laid on it, or some supernatural protection vouchsafed to the saint. My brethren, the Church has had very painful experience that persecution is a fire which does burn. How many ministers of Christ, when the day of tribulation came, forsook their flocks and fled. When King Edward the Sixth was on the throne, there were many who professed to be Protestants and preached justification by faith. When Mary returned the vicar of Bray was but a specimen of a great class, his principles being to keep his living. When again Elizabeth was upon the throne, there were plenty who found it to be profitable to profess the reformed faith. But when acts of conformity were passed afterwards by which those who had hitherto used a Christian freedom in the Church of England, were driven out, there were some who said they did not love prelacy but hated it, while others who had heretofore professed the old Puritanical doctrines, finding that their livings were to be lost thereby, held fast to this world, and let the things of the next world shift for themselves. Too many have forsaken the Church as Demas forsook Paul. Their piety would not stand the fire, they could walk with Christ in silvery slippers, but they could not go barefoot; they had no objection whatever to accompany him to his throne, but they had some slight difficulties about going with him to his cross; they would not mind bearing the weight of his glory, but the weight of the cross of tribulation was much too great for their constitutions. Persecution is a fire which does burn.

Again: I see iniquity raging on every side. Its flames are fanned by every wind of fashion. And fresh victims are being constantly drawn in. It spreads to every class. Not the palace nor the hovel are safe. Not the lofty piles that are raised for merchandise, nor the graceful edifice that is constructed for worship. Iniquity, whose contagion is fearful as fire, spreads and preys upon all things that are homely and comely, things useful and things sacred are not exempt. We must walk through the fire. We who are God's witnesses must stand in its very midst, to pour the streams of living water upon the burning fuel, and if not able to quench it, at least we must strive to prevent its spread. There are young men whose youthful lusts, inflammable as they are, have not yet ignited. They are in imminent danger. "Fire! fire!" we may well cry. We may give the alarm this morning to you, young man who are in the midst of ribald companions. I may cry "fire!" to you who are compelled to live in a house where you are perpetual tempted to evil, I may cry, "fire!" to you who are marked each day, and have to bear the sneer of the ungodly—"fire!" to you who are losing your property and suffering in the flesh, for many have perished thereby. Oh! may God grant you never may! I see today before my mind's eye the blackened skeletons of hundreds of fair professions. Multitudes—multitudes have perished in the valley of temptation who once, to all human judgment, had bid fair for heaven and made a show in the flesh! How many, too, have fallen under the attacks of Satan! This is a fire that does burn. Many a man has said, "I will be a pilgrim;" but he has met Apollyon on the road and he has turned back. Many a man has put on the harness, but he has given up the battle soon,—put his hand to the plough and looked back. There are more pillars of salt than one. If Lot's wife were a solitary specimen, it were well, but there have been tens of thousands who, like her, have looked back to the plains of Sodom, and like her, as they are in their spirit, have stood for ever what they were,—lost souls. We ought not to look upon our dangers with contempt. They are dangers, they are trials, we ought to look upon our temptations as fires. Oh, they are fires! If you think they are not fires you are mistaken. If you enter then, in your own strength, saying "Oh I could bear them," you will find that they are real fires, which, with forked tongues, shall lick up your blood, consume it in an instant, if you have not some better guard than your own creature power.

I will not tarry longer here, because I want to get to the pith and marrow of the promise. "Though thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." Here is a DOUBLE INSURANCE.

Dr. Alexander, an eminent and most admirable American commentator says there appears to be some mistake in the translation here, because he thinks the two sentences are an anti-climax. "Thou shalt not be burned;" and then follows, "neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." It strikes me, however, that in the second clause we have the higher gradation of a climax. "Thou shalt not be burned," to the destruction of thy life, nor even scorched to give thee the most superficial injury, for "the flames shall not kindle upon thee." Just as when the three holy children came out of the fiery furnace; it is said, "upon their bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed; neither were their coats changed, nor had the smell of fire passed on them. "So the text seems to me to teach that the Christian Church under all its trials has not been consumed, but more than that—it has not lost anything by its trials. The Lord's Church has never been destroyed yet by her persecutors and her trials. They have thought they crushed her, but she lives still. They had imagined that they had taken away her life, but she sprang up more vigorous than before. I suppose there is not a nation out of which Christ's Church has ever been utterly driven. Even Spain, which seemed at last to have accomplished it by the most persevering barbarities, finds still a few believers to be a thorn in the side of her bigotry; and as for our own denomination, in the very country, where by the most frightful massacres, it was believed that the sect of Anabaptists had been utterly extinguished, our good and esteemed brother Mr. Oncken has been the means of reviving it, so that throughout all Germany, and in parts of Denmark, and Prussia, and Poland, and even Russia itself, we have sprung up into a new, vigorous, and even wonderful existence. And in Sweden where, under Lutheran government, the most persecuting edicts had been passed against us, we have been astonished to find within ten years three hundred churches suddenly spring up, for the truth has in it a living seed which is not to be destroyed.

Pero he dicho que la Iglesia no sólo no pierde su existencia, sino que no pierde nada en absoluto. La Iglesia nunca ha perdido su número. Las persecuciones la han aventado y ahuyentado la paja; pero ni un grano de trigo ha sido quitado del montón. Es más, ni siquiera en la comunión visible la Iglesia ha disminuido por la persecución. Ella es como Israel en Egipto; cuanto más afligidos eran, más se multiplicaban. ¿Fue ejecutado hoy un obispo? Diez jóvenes se presentaron a la mañana siguiente ante el supervisor romano y se ofrecieron a morir, habiendo sido esa misma noche bautizados por el obispo muerto, habiendo hecho su confesión de fe para poder ocupar su puesto. "Ocupo la vacante en la Iglesia y luego muero como él". ¿Fue una mujer estrangulada o torturada públicamente? Veinte mujeres aparecieron al día siguiente y anhelaban sufrir como ella sufría, para poder honrar a Cristo. ¿Quemó la Iglesia de Roma en tiempos más modernos a uno de nuestros gloriosos reformadores, Juan Hus, pero Martín Lutero no se presentó como si las cenizas de Hus hubieran engendrado a Lutero? Cuando Wycliffe falleció, ¿no ayudaron los mismos pies del perseguido Wycliffe a difundir sus doctrinas, y no se encontraron cientos de jóvenes que en cada ciudad comercial de Inglaterra leyeron las Escrituras de los lolardos y proclamaron la fe de los lolardos? Y confíen en ello, así será siempre. Dale un mal nombre a un perro y lo colgarás, dale un mal nombre a un cristiano y lo honrarás. Basta con darle a cualquier cristiano algún mal nombre y en poco tiempo una denominación cristiana adoptará ese nombre y se convertirá en un título de honor. Cuando George Fox fue llamado "Cuáquero" era un nombre extraño, uno para reírse, pero aquellos hombres de Dios que lo siguieron, también se llamaron a sí mismos Cuáqueros y por eso perdió su reproche. Llamaron "metodistas" a los seguidores de Whitfield y Wesley, tomaron el título de metodistas y se convirtió en una designación respetuosa. Cuando muchos de nuestros antepasados ​​bautistas, perseguidos en Inglaterra, fueron a América en busca de refugio, imaginaron que entre los puritanos tendrían un descanso perfecto, pero la libertad de conciencia puritana significaba: "El derecho y la libertad de pensar como ellos, pero ninguna tolerancia hacia aquellos que diferían". Los puritanos de Nueva Inglaterra, tan pronto como un bautista aparecía entre ellos, lo perseguían con tan pocos escrúpulos como los episcopales a los puritanos. Tan pronto como hubo un Bautista allí, fue perseguido y llevado ante sus propios hermanos cristianos. Tenga en cuenta que fue condenado a multa, prisión, confiscación y destierro ante los mismos hombres que habían sufrido persecución. ¿Y cuál fue el efecto de esto? El efecto ha sido que en Estados Unidos, donde fuimos perseguidos, somos el grupo más grande de cristianos. Donde el fuego ardía con más furia, allí se enseñaba la buena y antigua doctrina calvinista, y el Bautista se convirtió en el Bautista más decididamente que en cualquier otro lugar, con la mayor pureza y la menor escoria. Tampoco hemos perdido nunca la firmeza de nuestro dominio sobre la doctrina fundamental, por la cual nuestros antepasados ​​mancharon con sangre el estanque bautismal, por todas las pruebas y persecuciones que nos han impuesto, y que nunca perderemos.

Sobre toda la Iglesia, al final, no habrá ni siquiera olor a fuego. La veo salir del horno. La veo avanzar colina arriba hacia su gloria final con su Señor y Maestro, y los ángeles miran sus vestiduras; no están hechos jirones. Es más, los colmillos de sus enemigos no han podido hacer ni un solo desgarro en él. Se acercan a ella, miran sus rizos flotantes, y no están crujientes de calor: miran sus mismos pies, y aunque ha pisado las brasas, no están ampollados, y sus ojos no se han secado por la furia de la llama siete veces calentada. Los fuegos la han hecho más hermosa, más bella, más gloriosa, pero no ha sido herida ni puede ser herida. Diríjase, entonces, al cristiano individual y recuerde que la promesa permanece firme y firme para cada creyente. Cristiano, si eres verdaderamente hijo de Dios, tus pruebas no pueden destruirte y, lo que es mejor aún, nada puedes perder con ellas. Puede que parezca que hoy perdiste, pero cuando llegue el momento de saldar la cuenta, no resultarás perdedor ni un centavo por todas las tentaciones del mundo, de todos los ataques de Satanás que has soportado. Es más, serás maravillosamente el ganador. Tus pruebas, habiendo trabajado la paciencia y la experiencia, te harán rico. Tus tentaciones te han enseñado tu debilidad y te han mostrado dónde reside tu fuerza y ​​te harán fuerte.

Desde tu primer problema hasta que el último enemigo sea destruido, no perderás ni una fracción, ni una jota o una tilde, por nada ni por todo lo que Dios en su providencia, o el mundo en su furia, o Satanás en su astucia, puedan alguna vez imponerte. Sobre ti no habrá pasado el olor del fuego. No seréis quemados, ni vuestras calzas, ni vuestros sombreros, sino que, como los hombres de los que leísteis en Daniel, seréis enteramente preservados intactos de la llama.

Terminaré ahora, habiendo dicho la verdad general haciendo algunas aplicaciones particulares de esta preciosa promesa. Hay aquí un hermano que durante los últimos tres o cuatro meses ha tenido oleada tras oleada de aflicción: todo va en su contra. Es un comerciante recto, honesto e infatigable; sin embargo, haga lo que quiera, su sustancia se consume como la nieve ante el sol. Parece que por cada barco suyo el viento sopla en dirección contraria, y donde otros lo harán por la aventura, él lo pierde todo.

Ve que cada día asisten nuevos heterosexuales, Y se pregunta cuándo terminará la escena.

Cuando le hablé de caminar a través del fuego hace un momento, él dijo: "¡Ah! Eso es lo que he estado haciendo, he estado caminando a través de él estos meses, hasta Dios y sólo mi alma sabe lo caliente que está el horno". Hermano, ¿podrías llevarte a casa mi mensaje de texto esta mañana? Quizás Dios te envió aquí no para el sermón, sino para el texto. Quizás usted vino aquí hoy, sin ser un asistente habitual, con el propósito de que este texto pudiera consolarlo. "Cuando pases por el fuego, no te quemarás". Cuando todos tus problemas hayan terminado, todavía te quedarán y, lo que es más, "ni la llama se encenderá sobre ti". Cuando llegue el momento de liquidación, usted no será el perdedor. Aunque pienses que has perdido sustancia, cuando leas las Escrituras descubrirás que sólo pierdes sombras. Tus bienes siempre estuvieron seguros, guardados bajo la custodia de Cristo en el Cielo. Descubrirás en el número que estas pruebas tuyas fueron lo mejor que te pudo pasar. Llegará el día en que dirás con David: "Cantaré de juicio y de misericordia". "Antes que fuera afligido me descarriaba, pero ahora he guardado tu palabra". O tal vez haya alguna joven aquí, y el caso que estoy a punto de pintar es muy común, por desgracia, demasiado común en esta ciudad. Amas al Salvador, hermana mía, pero eres muy pobre y tienes que ganarte la vida con el medio más triste de todos. Cuando sale el sol por la mañana te ve con esa aguja en la mano,

Coser de una vez con doble hilo Un sudario además de una camisa.

y durante todo el día apenas tienes tiempo para descansar para las comidas, y en algún momento, cuando los dedos estén desgastados y los ojos pesados, tendrás necesidad de abstenerte de dormir porque la miseria es tan pequeña que apenas puedes vivir de ella. Conocemos a cientos de personas de esa clase que siempre constriñen nuestra lástima, porque trabajan duro por tan poco salario. Quizás tu madre esté muerta y tu padre no se preocupa por ti. Es un borracho y tal vez lamentarías encontrarte con él en la calle. No tienes ayuda ni amigos. No te importa decírselo a nadie, no te gustaría tomar nada si la caridad te lo ofrece; lo sientes lo más difícil es ser tentado como eres. Te parece que en el camino hay camino abierto a la abundancia y, en cierta medida, al deleite. Pero habéis dicho: "No, no", y habéis aborrecido la tentación, y habéis resistido; y he sabido cómo año tras año algunos de vosotros habéis luchado contra la tentación, y seguido luchando, cuando a veces estabais casi muertos de hambre; pero no haríais este gran mal contra Dios.

Hermana mía, te pido que recibas el aliento de este texto para fortalecerte para las batallas futuras. Has estado atravesando los incendios. Pero todavía no os consumís, y bendigo a Dios, sobre vuestros vestidos no ha pasado el olor del fuego. Aguanta, hermana mía, aguanta, a través de todo el dolor que tienes, y de toda la amargura que es lo suficientemente pesada como para aplastar tu espíritu; Espera, porque tu Maestro te ve. Él te alentará y fortalecerá, y al final te traerá más que vencedor a través de todo. Esta mañana me dirijo también a algunas mentes jóvenes. Son jóvenes que aman a Cristo, y tan pronto como llegan a casa después de asistir a la casa de oración, la pregunta burlona que les hacen sus compañeros de trabajo es: "Me atrevería a decir que han estado en alguna casa de reuniones". ¡Cuán crueles son a veces los jóvenes mundanos con los jóvenes cristianos! Cruel, porque cuando hay una docena de mundanos y un solo cristiano, consideran honorable que la docena ataque a uno. Doce tipos grandes y altos a veces considerarán un buen juego pasar de mano en mano a un muchacho de quince años y burlarse de él y burlarse de él. Se dice que hay honor entre los ladrones, pero parece no haber ningún honor entre los mundanos cuando atrapan a un joven cristiano de esta manera. Bueno, joven, lo has soportado; has dicho: "Me callaré y no diré una palabra", "aunque tu corazón estaba caliente dentro de ti, y mientras meditabas el fuego ardía". Acordaos de lo que os he dicho muchas veces: el yunque no se rompe aunque sigan golpeándolo, pero rompe todos los martillos. ¿Haces lo mismo? Solo aguanta y estos fuegos no te consumirán. Si el fuego consumiera vuestra piedad, sólo probaría que no valía la pena tenerla. Si no podéis soportar algunas bromas y burlas, entonces no sois edificados juntos en esa morada de Dios que él ha hecho a prueba de fuego. Aguanta y al final descubrirás que esta dura suerte tuya, esta severa disciplina, te hizo mucho bien y te convirtió en un hombre mejor de lo que jamás habrías sido si te hubieran mecido en el regazo de la piedad y te hubieran mantenido alejado de la batalla. En años posteriores, su alto y eminente puesto de utilidad puede deberse, tal vez, a la severa y dura disciplina a la que fue sometido en su juventud. "Bueno le es al hombre llevar el yugo en su juventud. "O, tal vez, estoy hablando con alguien que ha encontrado oposición por parte de sus propios parientes impíos. Recuerde cómo dijo Jesús: "Fuego he venido a enviar a la tierra, ¿y qué haré si ya está encendido? Desde ahora estarán cinco en una casa divididos, dos contra tres y tres contra dos". Quizás tu padre te haya amenazado, o lo que es más amargo aún, tu marido te haya amenazado con descartarte. Ahora ciertamente estás caminando a través de los fuegos. Él despotrica contra tu piedad, se burla de todo lo que amas y hace todo lo posible con crueldad para romper tu corazón. Mi querida hermana en Cristo, no serás quemada por el fuego. Si la gracia está en tu corazón, el diablo no puede expulsarla, y mucho menos tu marido. Si el Señor te ha llamado por su gracia, todos los hombres de la tierra y todos los demonios del infierno pueden revertir el llamado, y al final descubrirás que no has sufrido ninguna pérdida; la llama no se ha encendido sobre ti. Pasarás por el fuego y bendecirás a Dios por ello. Desde un lecho de muerte, o al menos a través de las puertas del Paraíso, mirarás hacia atrás, hacia el oscuro sendero del camino, y dirás que estuvo bien, estuvo bien para mí tener que cargar esa cruz, y que ahora se me permite llevar esta corona. ¿Quién está del lado del Señor esta mañana de esta congregación? Mientras Jehová habla en lo alto con truenos, hablemos en la tierra con tono serio. ¿Quién está entre vosotros del lado del Señor? Ustedes que no lo son, estén advertidos. "Tofet fue ordenado desde la antigüedad. Él lo hizo profundo y grande. Su montón es fuego y mucha leña. El soplo del Señor, como un arroyo de azufre, lo enciende". Vosotros que estáis de su lado, alzad hoy vuestros estandartes. Él dice: "No temas, yo estoy contigo; cuando pases por el fuego, no te quemarás, ni la llama encenderá sobre ti". Que el Señor bendiga las palabras que hemos pronunciado. Aunque apresuradamente sugerido a nuestras mentes y débilmente entregado a vosotros, el Señor los bendiga por amor de Cristo.