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Monday, January 4, 2016

J. C. Philpot


J. C. Philpot
(1802-1869)

Deeply soul-humbling,
richly Christ-exalting,
experimental teaching.
"My desire is to exalt the grace of God; to proclaim salvationalone through Jesus Christ; to declare the sinfulness, helplessness and  hopelessness of man in a state of nature; to describe the living experience of the children of God in their trials, temptations, sorrows, consolations and blessings."

 PEARLS FROM PHILPOT 

MORE PEARLS FROM PHILPOT 

PRIDE 

The Master's Bounty, and the Servant's Obedience 

The Mighty Watcher, and His Twofold Work 

The Fool—His Character, Affliction, and Deliverance 

Spiritual Times and Seasons 

Getting and Losing 

Balm in Gilead

The Wilderness Wanderer 

The Houseless Wanderer 

Life Given for a Prey 

Not Our Own—Bought with a Price 

Coming up from the Wilderness 

Spiritual Paradoxes 

Zion's Blessings 

The Spiritual Chase 

Heavenly Buying 

The Sweet Loathed and the Bitter Relished 

The Fruits and Marks of the Lord Being Our God 

The Knowledge of Good and Evil 

Light Affliction and Eternal Glory 

Israel's Departure and Return 

The Walk in the Fields and among the Vineyards 

Super-aboundings of Grace over the Aboundings of Sin 

Reconciliation and Salvation 

The Refuge For The Oppressed 

A Discriminating Ministry 

Living Complaints 

The Valley of Achor 

The Blessedness of Trusting in the Lord 

The Lost Sheep Restored 

The Good Shepherd and His Work 

The Only Safe Protection, and the Only Sure Refuge 

The Sin Sick Soul And The Great Physician 

The Sick Man's Prayer and the Sinner's Cry 

The History of an IDOL, its Rise, Reign and Progress 

The Threefold Overthrow of Self 

The Profane, Wicked Prince Overturned;  and the Rightful King Set Up 

Love in its Priceless Value and Unquenchable Strength 

The Day of Power 

The Word of God's Grace 

The Eagle and Her Young 

The Lost Sought and Saved 

The Straying Sheep and the Sin-bearing Shepherd 

The Unction of the Holy One 

The Abiding Comforter 

Heavenly Teaching 

Pleasant Plants and Desperate Sorrow 

Mans Devices and the Lord's Counsel 

The Sacrifice Bound to the Horns of the Altar 

Crucifixion with Christ 

The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax 

Trying the Spirits 

Pilgrims' Hunger and Pilgrims' Food 

The Love of the World and the Love of God 

The Gospel Seed-bed 

Power Given to the Faint 

The Cry of Jonah out of the Belly of Hell 

The Blessedness of Divine Chastening 

The Bitter Waters Sweetened 

The Valley of Baca 

The Afflicted Remnant and Their Confiding Trust 

Patience and Her Perfect Work 

Reconciliation by Death, and Salvation by Life 

Letter of resignation from the Church of England 

On the Law and the Gospel 

The Law of Moses 

The Saint's Path to Eternal Glory 

The Loss of All Things for Christ's Sake 

The Reproach Answered 

The Farewell 

The Solemn Appeal And Earnest Cry Of A Waiting Soul 

Alienation and Reconciliation 

Spiritual Convictions & Heavenly Affections 

Life Given for a Prey 

The Lord’s Merciful Look Upon His People 

Israel's Happiness 

The Wilderness and its Fruits 

Prevailing Pleas, or the Hope and Savior of Israel 

The Life of Christ Manifested in the Death of the Creature 

The Love of Christ in Giving Himself for the Church 

The Mountain Made a Plain 

The Triumphs of Mercy 

The Whole Armor of God 

A Spiritual Death and a Hidden Life 

Lawful Strife 

Heavenly Gifts to Victorious Saints 

Divine Enlargement and Spiritual Obedience 

A Supply for Every Need 

A Believer’s Dialogue with His Soul 

What Is It That Saves a Soul? 

The Soul's Growth in Grace 

Spiritual Delight, and Confiding Trust 

The Conqueror's Inheritance 

Abounding of Love in Knowledge and Experience 

The Savior of Israel 

The Subjection of All Things Under the Feet of Jesus 

The Trees of the Field, and Their Appointed Destiny 

The Possession and Dispossession of the Strong Man Armed 

A Compassionate High Priest and a Throne of Grace 

Confiding Trust and Patient Submission 

The Veil Taken Away 

Spiritual Fruit 

The Sieve and its Effects 

The Heavenly Birth and its Earthly Counterfeits 

The Secret of the Lord 

The Lord's Thoughts 

The Everliving Intercessor 

Moab at Ease from His Youth and Settled on His Lees 

The Inward Conflict Between the Flesh and the Spirit 

A Peculiar People 

The Only Safe Keeping 

The Furnace and its Fruits 

Treasures of Darkness 

The Falling Rain and the Budding Earth 

The Groaning Captive's Deliverance 

God the Great Teacher and Leader of His People 

The Fruit of the Lips 

Spiritual Sickness and Health 

Walking in the Spirit 

The Old Man Put Off, The New Man Put On

The Prayer of Jabez 

The Spiritual Conflict 

Obedience from the Heart

The Well and the Wall 

Blessings Imputed, and Mercies Imparted 

Acceptable Present to the Lord of Hosts 

The Battle Is the Lord's 

The Heir of Heaven Walking in Darkness, and the Heir of Hell Walking in Light 

The Better Things Which Accompany Salvation 

Genuine Discipleship 

Spiritual Poverty and Heavenly Riches 

Peace, Tribulation, Victory 

Following on to Know the Lord 

Signs Seen, and Not Seen 

The Breaker 

The Living Sacrifice Presented 

The Blowing of the Great Trumpet 

The Blowing of the Gospel Trumpet 

The Golden Chain of Tribulation and Love 

Gracious Attractions and Heavenly Banquetings 

The Thorn in the Flesh, or Strength Made Perfect in Weakness 

Prayer, and its Answer 

Prayer, and its Answer 

The Lord's Invitation to the Ends of the Earth 

The Things Which God has Prepared for Those Who Love Him 

Man's Misery and God's Mercy 

The Hope of the Cast-down Soul 

The Northern Iron and the Steel 

The Power and the Form 

Joy and Gladness for Mourning Souls 

The Word of Men and the Word of God 

The Death of the Flesh the Life of the Spirit 

The Rising Of The Day Star 

Growing up into Christ in All Things 

The Trial by Fire of Every Man's Work 

The Working of All Things Together for Good 

The Seed of Israel, Justified in Christ 

The Vine and its Branches 

Steps of Thankful Praise 

The Promise of God to His Afflicted Church 

The Eternal God the Refuge of His Saints 

A Confessing Sinner, and a Forgiving God 

The Valley Exalted, and the Mountain Laid Low 

The Destruction through Death of Him Who Had the Power of Death 

A Peculiar People 

Pastoral Counsels 

Zion's Waymarks 

The Narrow Way 

The Doctrine which Drops as the Rain, and the Speech which Distills as the Dew 

The Spirit of Power, of Love, and of a Sound Mind 

Deliverance from the Power of Darkness 

Spiritual Mysteries 

A Longing Soul in a Thirsty Land 

Grace Superabounding over the Aboundings of Sin 

The Fruits of Sin and the Fruits of Holiness 

Sin Condemned and Righteousness Fulfilled 

Waters Which do not Drown and Flames which do not Burn 

The Sentence of Death in Ourselves 

The Sons of God—Their Blessings and Their Privileges 

An Anxious Inquiry and a Gracious Response 

The Clean Water Sprinkled and the New Heart Given 

Heavenly Attraction and Spiritual Obedience 

The Exercise and Profit of Godliness 

Faith's Standing-Ground 

True Discipleship 

The Work of Faith, Patience of Hope, and Labor of Love 

The Wisdom of Men and the Power of God 

Filth and Blood Purged by the Spirit of Judgment and the Spirit of Burning

The Soul's Pursuit After God 

The Hope of the Hypocrite 

The Promises Inherited 

Four Links in the Chain of Grace 

Christ Jesus the Lord Received and Walked In 

Plenteous Redemption 

Wilderness Hunger and Heavenly Manna 

The Wine of Astonishment 

The Appeal and Prayer of a Waiting Soul 

Gospel Fruit the Test of Genuine Discipleship 

Abiding in Christ 

The Salted Sacrifice 

The Fiery Trial 

"Man's religion is to build up the creature.
God's religion is to throw the creature down in
the dust of self-abasement, and to glorify Christ."

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John Newton's Letters

John Newton's Letters 
1725-1807
"I aim to speak plain truths to a plain people! May it please the God of all grace, to accompany my feeble endeavors to promote the knowledge of His truth! If my letters are owned to comfort the afflicted, to quicken the careless, to confirm the wavering — I will rejoice." 
"Heart-anatomy is my favorite science. I mean, the study of the human heart, with its workings and counter-workings, as it is differently affected in the different seasons of prosperity, adversity, conviction, temptation, sickness, and the approach of death. I aim to speak plain truths to plain people!" John Newton 
"In few writers are Christian doctrine, experience andpractice more happily balanced than John Newton. Few write with more simplicity, piety or power." Charles Spurgeon
 "What thousands have derived repeated profit and pleasure from the perusal of these utterances of the heart! Nor ever will they cease to be found means of grace while God has a church on earth!" William Jay
"My grand point in preaching is to break the hard heart, and to heal the broken one." John Newton
 

"These letters are, according to the various circumstances of his correspondents — designed to guide and direct, to comfort, or, if need be, with all tenderness to reprove, while they often become the ardent effusions of Christian love towards those who formed the inner circle of his friends. They are full of wisdom and piety, rich in kindly feeling, written in easy flowing language, with many happy turns of expression, and often made striking by their simple yet ingenious illustrations." Josiah Bull, Author of "John Newton; an Autobiography and Narrative"

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A Rough Night at Sandown


Archibald G. Brown, November 6, 1892, East London Tabernacle


"Hitherto shall you come but no further — and here shall your proud waves be stayed!" Job 38:11

The night was a wild one on the southern shore of the Isle of Wight. Throughout the day the wind had been blowing with increasing strength; and, as evening came on, the sea rose mightily, so that when the darkness settled down there was a fair storm blowing. The moon struggled through the tattered clouds, for the lightning-flash was flying fast, and looked, with all its ragged edges, as if it had been suddenly torn from the black canopy of Heaven by the giant hand of the storm. The fitful moonbeams fell upon a wild, tumbling, roaring, waste of waters. It was near high tide.
We came out in front of our house and stood in the balcony watching the seething mass of water. It was a fine sight. The waves curled and broke upon the sea wall. Hurled back, they only returned to meet the next advancing wave, and then in a wild embrace the two together thundered on, and so over and over again.
Far away were to be seen, in the moonlight, line after line of advancing billows. They looked like chargers rushing on against that wall, and each one seemed to hiss to its fellow, 'I will back you up!' Endless reinforcements seemed to be coming towards the shore. There was but a roadway between us and the deep, and it sounded almost like presumption to say, 'Well, it is time to go to bed now.' What? Go to rest with destruction so near? Talk about calmly sleeping when, within a few yards, there is power enough to sweep everything away? Yet we said, 'Better go to rest now', for, taking out our watch and looking at the hour, we saw that it was high tide. 'It will not come any further', we remarked.
No sooner had we uttered these words, than they started this train of thought: What perfect faith in the law of nature does this sentence set forth. I dare to stand within a few yards of a roaring sea like this, and calmly suggest that it is time to go to rest, because it has reached its highest point and there will be nothing more to see. What faith in the law of the tide! Yes, behind those crested waves there was a power mightier than the storm, unseen — but wondrously real. Driven by those winds, the waves, like mad chargers, may leap and rush — but there is an unseen hand holding them, and saying, 'Thus far. No further. It is high tide. It is time to go back.'
The sea cannot go beyond the line of decree. The Lord has said, 'Here shall your proud waves be stayed.' No sooner had we said, 'It cannot come any further; it is time for the tide to turn', than it flashed through our mind, 'But suppose that it should forget to turn. It is all very well to talk like this and be so calm — but suppose that it should not turn, and that for the next six hours, instead of receding, it should still advance. Where would you be, and where your abode, and where all your loved ones?' But then we remembered, 'But this law is as certain in its action, as the rising and setting of the sun.'
The others went to rest — but I remained for some time gazing out upon that wild surging sea. I know not how long I stood — but, as I gazed upon it, it preached to me; and, as I looked at it, it seemed to assume different forms.
I want it now to preach to you, as I tell you as far as I can what I saw in that raging sea trying to get beyond the barrier that God had set, and yet finding that the eternal word is true, 'Thus far, no further!' God has a 'Here' at which the wildest waves must stop.
As I looked I saw, first, Hell's forces restrained.
Then the scene changed, and I beheld temptations limited.
And then a cough upstairs reminded our heart of sorrows measured.
And then, lastly, as I looked out, I saw apostasy arrested.
Let me try to give you these different lessons of a stormy night.
 
I. First, we have HELL'S FORCES RESTRAINED. Now, I know that Satan in his personality, Satan in his craft, Satan in his power, Satan in his wrath — is very far from being a reality even to a great many professing Christians. I know that the spirit-world is all too little thought of, and the world that we can see, is to us ten thousand times more real than the world which we cannot see; though, in my heart of hearts, I believe that there is a spirit-world, not thousands of miles away — but all round about us, and as real as the world of men and women which we see. We pass in and out among spirits, good and bad. They are round about us on every hand.
But that foaming sea spoke to me, not of the gentle ministry of the unfallen angels — but of the awful, damning ministry of Satan and his followers. I said just now that Satan is all too little of a reality with most of us, and yet, mark you, if the Bible is true, Satan is the most dreadful reality conceivable! I ask you to listen for a moment to words in which this truth is better put than I can express it on the spur of the moment: 'The question of Satan's personality is one relating to the credibility of the Scriptures. The existence of the devil is so clearly taught in the Bible, so necessary a part of the revealed word, so legible on its very face, and so thoroughly interwoven with all its utterances — that to doubt it is to doubt the authenticity of the Bible itself. The entire system of revelation stands or falls with the personality of Satan, not that he is essential to truth — but that the very verity of the record concerning him is essential to God's honor and our hope. This fact has worked itself out in history.'
Let me say for a moment, in parenthesis, mark and see whether this next sentence is not true of today: 'In all ages of the church, unbelief in this doctrine has been marked by a corresponding unbelief in the Scriptures. The man who can reject a doctrine so fully revealed as this, will find no difficulty in rejecting all if it ever suits him to do so.'
So long as we accept this Bible as a revelation from God, we are bound to accept this solemn, mysterious truth — 'that there is a being of fearful might and power who is wicked, always wicked, totally wicked, incurably wicked; a being who is an absolute stranger to all love, all pity, all goodness; a being who is the embodiment of all malignity, the concentration of all wrong, the essence of all vice; a being who has no one bright spot in his black character; a being who, if he could, would quench every sun that shines, extinguish every star that twinkles, blight every flower that blooms, and turn every song that rises from consecrated lips into a lewd lascivious song; a being who, if he could, would turn Heaven itself into Hell. He is one whose heart is hate, whose mind is revenge, and whose life is an eternal damnation.'
And this bizarre, inscrutable awful being, we are told, is the master of uncounted legions who serve their captain with an unswerving fidelity such as an earthly monarch never knows. At his beck and call are spirits that are lying, seducing, unclean, and murderous; and these forces of Hell never cease to surge and roll on God's fair earth. Without pause or hindrance, Hell seeks to swamp, damage, and damn the works of God. I say not that the storm is always equally high. It is not so. I believe that there are times when Hell's power is greater than at others. Beyond all question it was so when the Son of Man walked this earth. Oh, how the ocean boiled then! It seemed as if the word had gone forth through all the hosts of perdition, 'Fight neither with small nor great but with the King only.' None of us can ever tell what Christ passed through in personal combat with Satan.
Now, mark, if you are going to make a semi-joke of the devil, if you are going to speak of Satan as simply a name for something that is impersonal, you are doing an awful wrong to your Lord. If you can only prove your point, you prove too much, for you prove that Christ himself was a dupe. I find the Savior, when he stood foot to foot in the wilderness, saying distinctly, 'Get you hence, Satan.' I never find our Lord explaining away demoniacal possession as it is fashionable to do now. Jesus came to reveal truth. Jesus came to clear the world of superstition. If the poor creatures whom he healed simply had epilepsy or fits, our Lord knew it; and yet he never uttered a word to clear away the common superstition. Indeed, he endorsed the superstition of the day, for he said, 'Come out of him, you unclean spirit.' We say with all reverence that in such a case our Lord added the weight of his personal testimony to a popular fallacy. But he knew, and he saw demon power working on every hand. When he is arrested in the garden, what does he say? Not only, 'The hour is come' — but he adds, 'and the power of darkness.' The tide of Hell reached its highest point at Calvary; and, as I gazed from the balcony upon the boiling waters beneath, I seemed to see the scene.
Behold Jesus there upon that tree. How do the billows beat upon that breast! How do they roar upon him! He is enveloped. He is drenched with the spray. We hear in the darkness, 'My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?' and my heart asks, 'Will the tide never turn?' and I think I hear a voice saying, 'The tide has reached its highest point. It can go no further now.' He lies there dead in the tomb. But look you. On the third morning he comes forth in resurrection beauty. Ah, Satan, how are you defeated! God said by that tomb, 'Thus far, no further.' He said at that tomb, 'Here shall your proud waves be stayed.' Having no personal Christ on earth to contend with, Satan now devotes all his power to Christ's people, and he is seeking ever to swamp the church. Christ said, 'Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.' Jesus knew very well that the gates of Hell would ever be belching forth their animosity and power against the church. At your leisure read the 6th chapter of the Ephesians. The Holy Spirit there says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood — but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world of rulers of this darkness, and against wicked spirits in high places. O brethren and sisters, round about each one of us there is a roaring tide of hellish hatred. There is enough to make each one ask, 'Can I ever be kept? Must I not be swept away by this irresistible flood?'
Thank God that there is a 'Thus far', for, listen: Christ said to Peter, 'Satan has desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat — but I have prayed for you.' O you blessed living Christ, we look to you. Fling back the advancing tide, and, by your power, the very weakest saint shall be more than a match for Hell. Come, dear soul, though you may be belted with Hell's power, there is a'Thus far and no further.' A mightier power than the mighty one, holds back the tide of Hell. 'Here shall your proud waves be stayed!'
 
II. The scene changed, and, as I looked out on the sea, I beheld TEMPTATIONS LIMITED. This is a branch of our previous head, and yet it is quite distinct from it. The first is the objective fact — and this is the subjective experience. Satan may set the waves rolling — but there would be very little weight in them apart from the aid of my own sinful nature. If there were only an outside Hell, there would be but little danger. There is, alas! an inside nature that is corrupt. I daresay that I shall be speaking to some who will not understand much of what I am saying. For years there may be little more than the ordinary swellings of temptation. I think that, generally speaking, the young convert knows but little of the wild scene which I want to portray. He knows something of being tried by the ordinary temptations of daily life — but nothing else.
But there will come the day when the wind blows from the right quarter to make a heavy sea. Everything depends upon the quarter from which the gale comes. The wind may be blowing ever so strongly from the west — but you will have it calm in the bay of Sandown. That which sends the thundering billows on the shore at Black Gang will raise no sea at Sandown. So every one of us has his right — or rather wrong — quarter; and here may be the reason why some have never yet known any awful temptation; that which fills a brother's soul with a boiling ocean of spiritual agony, does not affect you.
But wait. There will be a time when the wind will be dead on shore for you. Some particular temptation will awake you to the fact that you have within you a capacity for sinning of which you never dreamed. I think that it was Martin Luther who said that no man could be a good preacher without having had much temptation. Oh, what degrees of temptation there are! I can say before God, that I think I have known more temptation this one year than I have known in any five that have gone by.
Did you ever know, man, what it is not only for the wind to be in the right quarter — but to have a high spring tide at the same time? What a sea runs then! You can look out and see not only one billow — but another billow behind it, and another behind that, and another behind that — temptations physical, temptations mental, temptations social — one rolling after another.

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Jannes and Jambres

Archibald G. Brown, East London Tabernacle
 

"Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth — men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected!" 2 Timothy 3:8

"Jannes and Jambres — whoever are they?" This is a question I can imagine being asked by many, if not most present. Their names only occur in this verse, and nothing is made known about them here except the fact that they were a trouble and obstacle to Moses. All the incidents usually dwelt upon by the biographer are lacking. Nothing is recorded of their birth, appearance, manner of life or time of death. From the fact that they resisted Moses, we know fifteen hundred years must have rolled over their unknown graves. During all this time their names never once appear in inspired history, until they are used in our text as solemn warnings to the professors of Paul's time.
But who were they? Jewish records, and all commentators agree in saying, they were the chief of the sorcerers employed by Pharaoh. They were the men who sought to counteract the influence of the miracles of Moses by apparently doing the same things.
Kindly turn with me to the seventh chapter of Exodus and the eleventh verse, and you will read the history of that opposition, which centuries after illustrated an apostle's appeal. Moses had just commanded Aaron to cast his rod upon the ground, and that rod has just been changed into a serpent, when "Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; now the magicians of Egypt also did in like manner with their enchantments, for every man cast down his rod, and they became serpents."
Here now was a difficulty, and for a moment Moses must have felt baffled. In the estimation of the beholders, he was nothing more than the magician. The miracle on which perhaps he had greatly depended to give weight to his words had lost all its power. True, he might know that there was reality on his side, and only trickery on theirs — but then how about Pharaoh and his court? What effect would the seeming miracle of Jannes and Jambres have on their mind? It could have but one. It would harden them in their sin and take all point and power from the words of Moses.
They doubtless argued "What is Moses more than our own wise men, if he can perform a miracle to get Israel out of Egypt — they can perform a similar one to keep them in the land; so what is there to choose between them?" Thus God's handiwork was brought into discredit by man's imitation. The real suffered through the sham. The truth lost its power by the lie. The appearance neutralized the influence of the reality.
Now perhaps some of you are already saying, "But what has this to do with Paul's argument? Jannes and Jambres had rotted in their graves ages before he mentioned their names." True — but a new race of them was to rise. Paul, looking into the future, saw the church meeting the same form of opposition as Moses. History was to repeat itself; so he warns of the coming danger.
You and I, dear friends, are living "in the last days" that he speaks about in the first verse of this chapter. The days of Jannes and Jambres — so the subject should have special interest to us. Certainly if the Holy Spirit thought it worthwhile to hold up the opposition of these men as typical of the opposition the truth is to meet in our times, the study of their character is worthy our most careful thought.
I will ask you to notice —
First, the nature of the opposition offered by Jannes and Jambres.
Secondly, its influence.
Thirdly, its end.
May the Lord help us in preaching on a subject which has long weighed upon my mind. It is a subject more important than pleasant, and one which we believe to be specially adapted to the present state of our churches. Many Jannes and Jambres abound just now.
　
I. First then, Let us notice the nature of the opposition offered by these men to Moses. It was exceedingly subtle, and had so little show of opposition about it, that onlookers might have been slow to believe they had anything but feelings of respect towards Moses. To them it would seem little more than a trial of skill between Jewish and Egyptian magicians. Here was the power and the danger of the resistance. You do not find that they tried to make light of the miracles of Moses, or call into question their genuineness, or anything of the sort. No, they simply copied him as far as possible, and tried by imitations to depreciate the value of the real. They so surrounded the true diamond with cut glass copies that in the eye of an undiscerning public, it was difficult to tell the difference.
This is the kind of resistance the church has to struggle against in the present day. The old, rough, brutal, physical opposition has passed away.
The Inquisition with its horrid tortures, and Smithfield with its blazing victims — are things of the past. It would be folly on the part of Satan to try and use such weapons now. Their date is over and he knows it. With changing times, he always changes his tactics. Like a skillful angler, he suits the fly on his hook to the season of the year. Variety, if not pleasing, is profitable to him in this respect.
His first effort against Christianity was to stamp it out, just as his first effort was to slay Moses. All kinds of means were employed. Edicts, prohibitions, fines, imprisonments, individual torturings, and general massacres. These things suited a certain age. We are now — or at least are supposed to be — more refined, polite and tolerant. The idea of hanging or burning a man for his views, whatever they might be, would be universally discounted, except perhaps by some of the followers of Rome, the members of which church have always shown a great partiality for the burning faggot as an argument for their faith. The times having thus changed, Satan has accommodated himself to them, and instead of seeking to stamp Christians out, he now goes on an entirely different tack. Having failed to do away with Christians, he now seeks to make the whole world Christian after his sort. Stamping out the genuine having proved another failure — he now seeks to swamp them with imitations of his own manufacture.
The church in the world — but not of the world, having outlived all and every attack — is now threatened with a new danger. Satan means to have a Christian world — one at least in name and profession. As he cannot altogether do away with the testimony of a Moses, he will antidote it by raising up a number like Jannes and Jambres, who will so closely imitate him that the world will cry "they are alike, their pretensions are equally good, it is six of one and half a dozen of the other."
Satan's last and greatest plan of resistance has been to throw over the world the cloak of a hollow profession, and as far as possible — to fill the pulpit with a Jannes, and the pew with a Jambres. In the place of living, breathing Christians, he is giving us Christians on canvas, and the church is half-smothered with the shams crowded into her.
That this is the true teaching of the text I have no doubt, and I am convinced that this is the kind of resistance Paul meant Jannes and Jambres to illustrate, for if you turn to the fifth verse of this chapter, you will find their characters sketched in very few words: "having a form of godliness — but denying the power." Yes, that is it — formal and powerless. Like Moses in his actions — but devoid of the God-given might by which he performed them.
Let us now enter more into detail. We have seen that the resistance was one of imitation rather than obstruction — and that this is the kind of resistance we may expect to meet. Let us now notice in what particulars the imitation may resemble the real — the empty form appear to be the genuine power.
Observe first that a Jannes or Jambres can do many of the same things as a true Moses; and in the judgment of worldly onlookers, they can do them just as well. Aaron's rod is turned into a serpent! Amazement takes hold of the spectators, until one of the sorcerers with a look of perfect self-assurance casts his rod down, and lo, it becomes a serpent. Others follow his example, until coiling and twisting at Pharaoh's feet, are plenty of proofs that, at least in this respect, the magicians can do the same as Moses.
There need be no great wonderment on our part as to how they accomplished their feat. The Egyptians were masters in the are of conjuring — and as great marvels are done by sleight of hand in our own day. The thing was this, they did it — or what is the same as far as their resistance to Moses was concerned — they appeared to do it. Granting that Pharaoh and his court knew it to be but a clever trick on their part, the opposition was the same, for how was Moses to prove that his was anything better? His rod, or more strictly speaking, Aaron's rod, became, as far as sight could guarantee anything, a serpent. So did the rods of Jannes and Jambres. That was enough for Pharaoh.
Another wonder is done by the rod of Moses and Aaron. It strikes the river and lo, the channel is filled with blood instead of water. Blood — blood — nothing but blood — the whole river stank with blood. Surely now the Egyptians will believe there is power in Jehovah's messengers. They might have, if it had not been for Jannes and Jambres. They turn, or at least they seem to turn, some water into blood, perhaps a small vessel full. Never mind the quantity. "Water into blood is the same thing whether in a large or small measure," say the Egyptians, "so our magicians are a match for God's Moses."
But again Aaron's rod works a miracle. From rivers, streams, pools, swamps, ponds, there comes an army of frogs. The land is full of them. Indoors as well as outdoors, there they are. They leap into the beds, they croak in the ovens, they defile the kneading troughs. Horrible! But Jannes and Jambres are equal to the occasion. They seem to manufacture frogs with perfect ease, although they have no power to remove them. Thus three times the testimony of Moses was lessened, if not neutralized, by men without God doing apparently just what he did with his God. He had to contend with "the form without the power."
So it is now. It is difficult to say what a Jannes or a Jambres cannot do. Can a true child of God, one who has "the power" within him, preach? So can the man who only has the form. O sirs, it is a sad truth to tell — but if every Jannes and Jambres were turned out of the pulpit this morning, there would be many congregations without any preacher — and a good thing for them too.
Preach! Yes, that they can; sentences as smooth and rounded as beach pebbles, and with as much life, roll over their lips. Preach! Yes, in studied language with flowing measure that makes many a poor stammering Moses envy their ability. Preach, yes, with plenty of "form" and almost perfect delivery, while a congregation that knows and cares nothing about the "power" applauds the eloquence.
Being a preacher is not an infallible proof of being a saved man. He may simply be a conjurer in the pulpit, resisting the truth he professes to love.
Can a true child of God teach in the Sunday school? Yes, and so can Jannes and Jambres. It is a shame to our schools that so little care is taken to keep them out of the classes. One is almost tempted to think that children's souls are of so little value that they may be experimented on. But the worst of it is that Jannes can look so much like Moses, and "the form" can so well imitate "the power" that it is difficult not to be deceived sometimes. If children had no souls, and if the work of Sunday School teaching was not conversion, then the Jannes would often make the best teacher.
These magicians are always clever, their profession requires them to be so.
Can a true child of God take a tract-district and visit the sick? So can either Jannes or Jambres. They can visit as punctually, arrange their districts as methodically, and perhaps draw up a far better report of their work. They can pour into the ear of the sick man all the well-worn bedside platitudes, and to the eye of the public, if not to the eye of God, they do as much good as the Moses who is slow of speech, and only has "the power," and do it in a neater style and in better "form."
Time would fail to tell of all the different things they can do and are doing. They can take the chair at public meetings, and express their unbounded interest in the object that has convened the gathering, with a quiet self-delight that makes the meek Moses in the body of the hall, who is really devoted to the work, feel humbled to think how far he falls below their standard.


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