GOOD WORKS

A SERMON

Preached on Sunday Morning, August 14th, 1864

Volume 6 Number 295

Preached on Sunday Morning, August 14th, 1864

By Mister JAMES WELLS

AT THE SURREY TABERNACLE, Borough Road

Volume 6 Number 295

“Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says the Lord.” Haggai 1:8

THERE certainly is not one soul in heaven, nor one on earth, nor ever will be, to whom the Lord is at all indebted for their spiritual welfare. For such is the tendency about us all to spiritual laziness, in other words, to laziness in spiritual things, such is the tendency about us all to substitute the things of time for the things of eternity, the things that belong to the body for the things that make up the eternal welfare of the soul, that did not our welfare lie entirely with the Lord, we should soon fall from it all, and sin, in all its deceitful workings, would so harden and so blind us, that we should lose all feeling for the afflictions of Joseph, we should lose all feeling for the prosperity of Zion; and though it is written, “They shall prosper that love you,” yet we should cease to love Zion if the Lord himself did not in a great variety of ways stir us up, and so deal with us as to make us feel, at least at times, the emptiness of everything short of himself. It was out of the deeps of affliction, it was from the far-off land of captivity, it was from foreign climes, it was under heavy pressure, it was when they were surrounded with every privation, that the feeling burst forth, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; if I do not remember you, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.” But that was not when they were at Jerusalem, but when they were deprived of her feasts, when they were deprived of her sabbaths, her priests, and her privileges. Such, unhappily, is the constitution, through the fall of man, of us all, that we are in our senses pertaining to eternal things only as the Lord is pleased so to deal with us as to bring us into our right minds. It is, therefore, well for us that he waters the work every moment, and that he keeps it night and day. Hence, when the prophets here rose, and showed the people the way which God approved, the people said, “The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.” And yet they had built their own houses, and well-furnished them, and they were well supplied. And so the Lord answered, and said, “Is it time for you, O you, to dwell”, mark that, “in your plastered houses, and this house lie waste?” And again, he says, further on in the same chapter, “You run every man into his own house.” They could not walk to the Lord's house, but they ran to their own houses. And so, it really is. If there is any temporal advantage, run ready to break your neck after it; but if there is anything spiritual, why, we are as slow as possible. The Lord may well be called a God of patience, a God of longsuffering; the apostle Peter may well say, “Account that the longsuffering of the Lord is salvation.” I make not these few remarks in a way of reproof to any particular persons among us, but to us all, as a kind of confession for us all. I daily grieve over my laziness in eternal things; I daily grieve over my want of zeal, of devotion, of solemn concern to have more and more fellowship with the blessed God. Here, then, were the people in this low and careless state; by the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah they were stirred up.

Here is, first, the house to be built; here is, secondly, the pleasure which the Lord will take in it; and here is, third, the glory of the Lord; “I will be glorified.” And under this last part I shall just make a few remarks in relation to our own position.

This house to be built. Now wood only is mentioned in our text, but of course all the other materials are meant, as the next clause shows, “and build the house.” I shall therefore first describe how these materials were brought, as expressive of the way in which the Lord brings his people to himself; and then the peaceful way in which they were built, and the certainty of its completion. There is something very interesting in looking at the way in which the materials were brought, because we have in this a striking representation of the way in which the Lord brings sinners into the heavenly building. Now first, then, the wood, the tree in the forest of Lebanon was cut down. And I will endeavor to keep, if I can, to those views of the subject that shall be strongly analogous to spiritual things; not to stop short of what it does mean, nor to take the figurative language beyond that which is solemn and proper. First, then, there is the tree cut down. And is it not just so, that all of us by nature are lifted up in pride above God and godliness? The wicked through the pride of his heart will not seek God. And the man that is religious, if it be after the flesh, and if he is not lifted up above religion in the general sense of the term, he is lifted up above God's religion, and above God's way of saving a sinner; he is lifted up above the testimony of mercy, the mercy which is by the person and the wondrous work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now where the Lord intends mercy, he cuts the sinner down; “the haughtiness of man shall be brought low,” and the Lord alone shall in that day be exalted. Hence it is said of Jeremiah, that he was a prophet over the nations, to throw down, to root up, and to pull down, and to destroy. Let us then, it will do us no harm, look back at the time when we were ungodly, careless creatures, defying the Almighty, despising God and godliness; or if we were not doing that, we were led by delusion. Let us look back at the time when the arrow of conviction entered our souls, and we saw that there was something to know beyond that which natural conscience can teach us. Natural conscience can teach us that all sin is wrong, and that we ought to avoid it all, and to follow that which is right; but when the arrow of conviction enters the soul, then comes to light the real depravity of human nature; then you are brought to feel that when you are brought into connection with a holy God, standing in that relation you are totally depraved, that you possess not a particle of holiness that accords with the holiness of God, nor of righteousness that accords with the demands of God's justice, nor of integrity that accords with the integrity of the Most High. The consequence is, you hang your head down, your heart within you stoops, and you are cast down; and you feel that hell is the place for which you are fitted; both legally in a way of demerit, and constitutionally in a way of depravity; in this twofold sense you are fitted for destruction. All of us by nature are vessels of wrath, or, as the apostle says, children of wrath, fitted for destruction; first, I say, legally by way of demerit; every soul of man by sinning merits everlasting pain in that one legal sense of the word, so that it would be a matter of right for the Lord thus to banish us from his presence, and from the glory of his power. Also we are fitted for destruction constitutionally; that our nature being filthy and corrupt, our heart deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, we are hereby unfitted for the presence of a holy and a just God, so that in this sense also we are fitted only for hell, and for the lowest association into which the depravity of our nature when fully developed can bring us. Now what do you know of this conviction of which I am speaking? Do you feel yourself to be just such a character as I am now describing, and is this a matter of concern to you? Now, if you see yourself in this light, and see sin in this light, I am sure that your mouth is stopped from boasting; I am sure that all you can say of yourself before God will be, “Unclean! Unclean!” And it is unto such that the gospel is to be preached. Hence the Savior says, “The poor,” and that is the poor man spiritually so, “will have the gospel preached unto them.” This, then, is being cut down. Religion, as I stated in the chapter this morning, is a personal thing; and the experience of another cannot bring me to heaven; no, I must drink waters out of my own cistern.

And the next part in dealing with these trees after they were cut down was to cast them into the sea, and to bring them in floats to Joppa; somewhere about fifty or sixty miles by sea, perhaps a little more than that. Now how expressive this is of the Lord's dealings with a sinner. Here is the sinner cut down, and instead of the Lord taking him all at once out of that, though he does sometimes quickly after real conviction, as was the case with Saul of Tarsus, and as was the case on the day of Pentecost; but then these are exceptions; as a general rule he allows that soul to go into deep waters, and it is tossed about, doing business in great waters; mounting, as it were, unto the heavens, going down into the depths, staggering to and fro like a drunkard; are at their wits' end: where they will be tossed to before it is over they know not. I look back to the time when I experienced this tossing to and fro; I knew not where I should be tossed to by-and-bye, amidst rebellions, and doubts, and fears; and all the world would I have given if I could then have been annihilated, because I had nothing before me but the sea of perdition, and had nothing above me but the wrath of God, and had nothing behind me but my hosts of sins, and had nothing within me but my depravity; there I was, tossed about. Now, then, they were brought in floats to Joppa; so that these materials were brought safely. And is not this just the way the Lord brings a sinner? There he is, tossed about by the waves; but he is taken care of. And they were not taken very far from the coast; they were tossed about as long as was proper. And then the next thing was, that they were landed at Joppa. Now the word Joppa signifies, according to Cruden, beauty and comeliness. I say nothing about the interesting circumstances that we have recorded concerning Joppa, such as Dorcas being raised from the dead, and Peter's vision, and various other circumstances; I pass by these, and look merely at the word. Now the word Joppa signifies beauty and comeliness, and there they were landed. How expressive this is! Here is a sinner tossed about; presently the dear Savior appears in his beauty; he is the end of the law he is the end of trouble. That is the landing-place, for “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin;” his righteousness justifies from all things. I see that that beauty would land me in the land of promise; would land me in the love of God, in contrast to his wrath; in the holiness, righteousness, and mercy of Christ, in the work of Christ. If, therefore, you would get away from your troubles, it must be by the beauty and comeliness of Christ; and the beauty and comeliness of Christ lie in the perfection of his work; and here is the declaration, “You are complete in him.” Those are the paths that the Lord leads his people in. Well, you would think, it will do now. No, there is something more to do yet; they are not fitted for the building yet; they want some chipping, and planeing, and hammering, and squaring, even now, after they are landed. How true this is in spiritual fact! Here a sinner who receives and loves Jesus Christ, is delivered from the sea of God's wrath, landed, and feels a solid standing, a solid hope. Ah, he says, I love Jesus Christ, I am saved by Jesus Christ, I am accepted in Jesus Christ, I have life in Jesus Christ, and God is my Father in Jesus Christ; and I am all well in Christ, and stand well there. There he rejoices. What more squaring does he want? Presently in comes, “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God.” Oh dear! he says, election; cannot understand that; what does that mean? So then, before you are put into the building you must be squared to it. That is where, I think, some ministers who profess to hold election, they receive people into churches before they are properly squared. Now they ought not to be received into the building before they are put right. All your objection to election must be chopped off; the axe must go to work, or the hammer must go to work, or .some iron tool must go to work, until you are squared to it, until your enmity to it is gone, and you are led to acknowledge the truth, of the Savior's words, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” By-and-bye you begin to be enlightened; one knotty part after another is knocked away; you are made square with election. I see now that election is nothing but God's eternal grasp of my soul; that God, by an act of choice, took hold of my soul, to let it go out of his hands again no more for ever; the Savior took hold of my soul, to let my soul go no more for ever; that he took hold of me by virtue of the Father having taken hold of me; for “both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Therefore, if God the Father took hold of them in the way he has, Christ did the same. Hence “no man shall pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.” And thus, you will give him the honor and glory of election, while you yourself will get the benefit of it. Now let us go on again. Cannot receive you into the church yet, must not come into the building yet. Then comes a covenant ordered in all things and sure. Say you, Whatever is that? never understood that. Why, that is God's testamentary will; God having willed Jesus Christ for the sinner and having by him willed an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away. God's covenant is that he has willed us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself; and that this covenant is a sworn covenant, and herein is the immutability of God, that he is immutable, that he will never leave you nor forsake you. Now you must be squared to this as well, to his eternal covenant, or his sworn counsel, or the immutability of his counsel, whichever view you take of it, or rather take all three. Thus, you become squared for mercy's building, fit for mercy's building. You are cut down, cast into the sea of trouble, landed by faith in Jesus Christ, conformed to the framework of the building; so that when you are in you will not stick out and spoil the symmetry of the whole; but you will square with the rest of the materials; all will be symmetrical, and orderly, and beautiful. And is it not so? It is true it was my lot to understand doctrine, to know something of the building in its framework, before I realized mercy; but that is not the case with all. Now if you just look at the 7th verse of the 6th chapter of the First Book of Kings, you will find that “there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building;” so that everything was carried on peaceably, and comfortably, and quietly; all the materials would fall into their places without a hammer, without an axe, without any iron tool. What does it mean? Why, that in Christ Jesus there is no chopping about there, there is no hammering there, there is no iron tool there; all is tranquil, all is peaceful. Here is God the Father fully approves of me, has not the shadow of a syllable to say against me, everything for me; here is Jesus Christ making me all that is beautiful; here is the Holy Spirit revealing the eternal certainty of my welfare. Here am I, while on the one hand I have not a good work to boast of, on the other hand, I have not a sin to answer for. The legal workings of conscience may lay sin upon our shoulders, but we have no business to take it; the world may lay sin upon our shoulders, but we have no business to take it; and our brethren may sometimes lay sin upon our shoulders and lay it upon their own, but we have no business to take it. Jesus Christ has answered for the whole. No axe, no hammer, no iron tool. Take the iron to mean force, no force used; fall into their place, and as happy and comfortable as possible. The law demands no more, justice demands no more, God demands no more. Does not this sweetly accord with the Savior's words when he says, “These things have I spoken unto you,” I have thus cut you down, subjected you to these trials, and have thus dealt with you; “These things have I spoken unto you;” and now in me you are tranquil and comfortable, in me you have peace. “In the world you shall have tribulation,” it is true; but never mind that, get over that; “be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” If we had tribulation in Christ, what kind of tribulation could it be? There is no room for tribulation there. Your life there can never die; your holiness there can never be tarnished; your righteousness there can never be blemished; your safety there can never be shaken; your right there can never be invalidated; you are placed there by God himself, and who then can take you away? Only think of it, not a sin to answer for; that is a happy man, is he not? Yes, That is the way we live in peace. Well, but is it not said, “Everyone shall give an account of himself”? Christ has given an account of me; he gave an account of me as a sinner; I shall not have to give an account of myself as a sinner, but I shall have to give an account of myself as a believer, and my account will be that he has loved us, washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests to God. We were bondmen in the land of Egypt, and you did bring us out of that land, and you have brought us into this good land, and you have given us these good things, and now we shall bring of the fruits which you have given us, and we shall rejoice to serve the Lord our God. I shall be glad when I am called to give my account, because it is a good one. Jesus Christ gave in the bad one and settled it with his precious blood; his church shall give in a good account; it is impossible for them to give in otherwise than a good account. The best way you can give a good account of yourself is to give a good account of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you love his appearing, and receive his testimony, and stand out for his truth, then you give a good account of yourself. I do not feel, somehow, that I can leave this part without another word. No hammer. I am not to be touched as I stand in Christ. Get some pretty hard knocks as I stand in myself, and in the church, and in the world, but as I stand in him not touched. And no axe. Many people would chop my head off if they could, but they cannot chop my covenant head off, no, cannot touch me there. No iron tools. Plenty would tyrannize over us if they could, but they cannot tyrannize over us there; there is no iron tool there, no, no. The smith blows the coals in the fire and brings forth his iron instrument for his iron work; but “behold, I have created the water to destroy. No weapon formed against you shall prosper; every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, says the Lord.” I was going to say, If this be true, which it is, who would not believe in Christ, who would not walk in Christ, who would not wish to die in Christ, and to stand in Christ to all eternity? There is no violence heard there; there is no wasting there, no destruction there. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,” for this new earth, in which this temple stands, this temple not made with human hands, this new earth, shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, and that as the waters cover the sea.

The next point is the certainty of this building being completed. “Who are you, O great mountain” great mountain of sin, of error, of adversity, of Popery, or of anything else, “who are you? Before Zerubbabel”, meaning of course, spiritually, Christ Jesus, “you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shouting's.” The headstone being brought forthwith shouting shows that although the progress of this building will last for thousands of years, though it has been thousands of years m progress, yet during all that time the Lord has found out no defect in the plan of it. He devised the plan, and knew how much it would cost, and there will not be some defects by-and-bye found out in the plan, and say, it costs more than I thought for, and Jesus Christ must die again. No, the Lord knew how much it would cost. There is no defect in the plan; he himself is the architect and builder, and inhabitant too, and the keeper of the house too, and the strength of it too. And he has not altered his plan; it has gone on just as he intended it should do.

The top stone being brought home with shouting's, then, shows not only the certainty of its completion, but the fact that the Lord has the same delight in his people at the end. as he had at the beginning. His love, his delight, his mercy, all hold out. And then notice the theme of that shouting at the last; that is beautiful too. “Crying, Grace, grace unto it.” If Abel were the first material laid upon the foundation laid in Zion, Abel was saved by faith, and he knew that it was by faith, that it might be by grace, to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed. So that grace holds out to the last, grace reigning through righteousness unto eternal life. Now then, this building, what is it for? Why, it is in Christ Jesus, said the apostle, for the highest purposes that you can imagine; cannot imagine any purpose so high; there is none so high; the loftiness of the purpose stands unrivalled. “For a habitation of God through the Spirit.” The great God, that fills immensity and surveys innumerable worlds, our globe a mere grain of sand in comparison of some of the orbs that travel in incomprehensible space, yet this God dwells nowhere in his love with so much delight as he does in this living building, the church of the living God. There is his glory, there is his delight, surpassing all others; fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore.

But I notice the second part. “I will take pleasure in it.” Now the thought naturally arises, If the Lord take pleasure therein, it is sure to prosper. I do not know that. It depends upon whose hands it is in. It does not follow because the Lord takes pleasure in a thing that that thing must prosper; it depends upon whose hands it is in. The Lord took pleasure in what he created, Adam and Eve, the state of things they were in; but when sin came in, paradise got into bad hands, and though the Lord had pleasure in what he had created, it did not prosper; it was in bad hands. And the kingdom of Israel, the Lord took pleasure in the welfare of that kingdom; but it got into the hands of Saul, did not prosper; and into the hands of after evil kings, and it did not prosper. The Lord had no pleasure in the calamities of the Jews. “I have no pleasure, says the Lord, in the death of the wicked, that he should die; but rather that he should turn from his wickedness, and live. Turn you, turn you, O house of Israel; why will you die?” Turning, or reformation, was all that dispensation called for as a dispensation in itself considered. But when I hear men, calling themselves gospel ministers, say to sinners, already spiritually dead, “Why will you die?” and say to these sinners, “Turn you, turn you; turn or burn;” ah, my hearer! turning is of no use; there must be something more than turning here, when we come to spiritual things. There must be quickening, there must be regeneration, there must be the resurrection of the soul. “You must be born again.” Thousands turn to religion and become professors; but then they substitute reformation for regeneration, their own efforts for the operation of the Spirit, stop short of God's truth, and so deceive their own souls. The Lord had no pleasure in the death or calamities of the Jews; rather that they should obey him and go on prosperously. He did not undertake to make them obey him, as he does his own people. So, then, when a thing prospers, it depends upon whose hands it gets into. Now the Lord was determined not to trust the building in bad hands; he was determined to put the matter into good hands, a builder who he knew would not break down, either for want of capital, or skill, or interest, or attention, or anything else; he therefore put the matter into the hands of his own Son. “And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands.” “Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” So, you see it depends upon whose hands it gets into. We have in prospect a new chapel; our prospering will depend, you say, upon the blessing of the Lord. Very true; but that is not all the truth. Such is God's order of things it will depend also in a great measure upon the character of the people so employed. If our ends be right, our motives right, and our souls decided for God, then we are the right people, and the good pleasure of the Lord will then prosper in our hands. “I will take pleasure in it.” For except the Lord build the house, except it be done by his leading, his teaching, and his providence, they labor in vain that build it. But I had intended to enlarge upon this pleasure the Lord takes. How beautifully David was versed in this truth that the Lord takes pleasure in his people, in his Zion; so far so that he vowed unto the Lord, even unto the God of Jacob, “Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house.” What a difference! Here the people ran to their own houses first; but David says, “I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.” It is true he there refers to the ark, because that was a symbol of God's presence and dwelling, and that was to be put, and was put, into the temple of the Lord afterwards. “We will go into his tabernacles; we will worship at his footstool.” And on the following words any real lover of the gospel may preach as many sermons, almost, as he likes: “Arise, O Lord, into your rest; you, and the ark of your strength.” This ark is the symbol of God's everlasting covenant, and that covenant is the covenant of his strength. He has put forth such strength nowhere as he has done in carrying out the purposes of this eternal covenant; his own almighty arm brought salvation. “Enter into your rest.” Take note, “You, and the ark.” Not the covenant without you, nor you without the covenant; must have the two together. View God as a legislator; view God as a sin-avenger; view God in his judicial character, sending hailstones, brimstone, and fire, cutting up nation after nation, and you tremble at the sight. But retire from all that, and view him in the everlasting covenant, view him in the mediation of Christ, view him in such a scripture as this, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David;” view him there, there you triumph, saying with the apostle, “Thanks be to God, that always caused us”, not to tremble, but “to triumph in Christ.” But I must pass by many things here, to my great regret. Now the Lord promised David, that if his children kept the covenant and the testimony, he should give them, “Your children shall sit upon your throne for evermore.” But the twenty kings that followed David, from Solomon down to Zedekiah, they all failed, more or less. Now what shall we do? Ah! presently comes David's greater Son, presently comes David's nobler Son, presently comes David's Lord, the bright and morning star. He keeps the covenant, he keeps the testimony, reigns over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom and government there shall be no end. Here, then, the Lord taketh pleasure in this Zion; first, because he loved it. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the old covenant dwellings of Jacob; and he takes pleasure in it because he has chosen it, and because he makes his people happy in it. Just hear the words, “I will clothe her priests with salvation; I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread,” bread there meaning provisions of all sorts. Well, then, if you are satisfied, you are satisfied. How easily Adam and Eve were made dissatisfied with the first paradise! how easily the Jews were made dissatisfied with the manna, and with the promised land, and in a great many, other respects! But oh, my hearer, mercy of mercies! I linger upon it a moment because it is so important, mercy of mercies! wonder of wonders! grace of graces! all (and some of us have known the Lord now for many years) all we have ever met with has never yet been able to make us dissatisfied with Jesus Christ, or with God's truth. “O Naphtali, what more can you desire? satisfied with favor, and full of the blessing of the Lord.” The Lord, then, thus takes pleasure in Zion. And her priests shall be clothed with salvation. Zion's ministers are distinguished by that mark, that they are to be clothed with salvation, wrapped up in salvation, preaching to others the salvation by which they themselves are saved. Here it is Christ shall flourish; here it is his enemies shall be clothed with shame. The Lord, therefore, takes loving pleasure, sovereign pleasure, satisfying and eternal pleasure, in this building. “I will take pleasure in it.” The Lord's pleasure is in his people, and the pleasure prospered in the Savior's hands.

Lastly, “I will be glorified, says the Lord.” Now this refers to the services of the Lord's people. “I will be glorified.” Everything that is contrary to the holy gospel of God, to the righteous and pure gospel of God, is dishonoring God. If what I am now saying be true, ought we not all to confess, with the apostle James, that “in many things,” not in a few things, but “in many things we all offend;” we cannot, therefore, boast of glorifying him in perfection. What shall we do? oh, what shall we do? Here is the answer. Jesus Christ never thought a thought, never said a word, never did a thing, that was derogatory to God; everything he did was glorifying to God, Then let me believe in him, let me hide myself in him, let me confess, with the apostle, that in many things I offend, that in many things we all offend; we desire to have grace to glorify him in our feeble way, but to glorify him in perfection none but Christ could do; and to glorify him in perfection by our services we never can until we are stripped of mortality, mortality swallowed up of life, and we then like Jesus; then shall we serve him in perfection, but not before. Nevertheless, the Lord does not reject our humble services because mingled with so many drawbacks, so many faults, and so many infirmities, for the Lord made men priests who had infirmity; and as he made men priests who had infirmity, he has made men Christians who have infirmity. Let us, therefore, each esteem others better than ourselves. “If any man say he has no sin, he deceives himself, and the truth is not in him.” Nevertheless, the Lord will be glorified.

You are entering upon the erection of a new Chapel, the largest in all Christendom where the real truth of God will be. My text says, “Go up.” You will have some uphill work, you know; you have been travelling uphill for twelve months; you have got a long way up; I stand amazed at what you have done. So, then, expect the uphill work. But then how very pleasant it is when you get to the top of the hill.

“Though round the brow” (of this hill), the rolling clouds are spread;”

when you get to the top,

“Eternal sunshine settles on your head.”

Let us then go on; it is better to go up hill the right way than downhill the wrong way. Some shall have a little uphill work; nevertheless, we are a good part of the way up, and we hope to reach entirely to the top.

But, say some, I do not think we shall get on so well in the new chapel as we have here; this is a dear old place; we shall not get on so comfortably. You hold your tongue while I read on. “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, says the Lord of Hosts.” What do you want more than that? The silver is his, and the gold is his, and the glory of the latter house is to be greater than the glory of the former. Therefore, we have nothing to do, if the Lord is pleased to make a way, which he has done hitherto, but to go forward.