While the soul is cooped up in the body, it is obliged to think in clay, to think and act through a material medium. We are not capable in our present state, of an abstract thought about spiritual and eternal things; just as water from a distance can only reach us through a channel or pipe, so spiritual or eternal things can only reach our conceptions, through some material medium. Just as the light of the sun needs an atmospheric medium through which to travel to our globe, in a way suited to the organ of sight, so spiritual things need to be conveyed to us through a suitable medium. God, in order to teach us spiritual truths by earthly figures, chose a typical nation, and dealt with that nation in a typical way. The nation he chose spoke perhaps the most figurative language that has ever been uttered by the tongue of man. Hence, God's word, God's messages, through his prophets, are expressed to this people in the most metaphorical style. Here is a message containing a metaphor : "Their strength is to sit still." Israel in the hurried restlessness of the flesh, in perturbation of unbelief, alarmed at the ravages of the Assyrians, forsook the arm that rescued Israel from Egyptian thraldrom, and sent messages to Egypt, sought help of Egypt's king. The prophet was inspired to cry, "Woe to the rebellious children saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me, that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin; that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked of my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt; therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. " As if He should say, Israel ! my ransomed Israel ! have you forgotten that mighty arm of the Lord, that brought you from under Pharaoh's yoke, that snapped those fetters that you could never have broken ? Have you forgotten that mighty arm that divided the waves of the Red Sea ? Have you forgotten that unchanging Friend that guided you by the fiery cloudy pillar through the trackless waste of that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought; who fed thee forty years with angel's food, and gave drink from the flinty rock to the many thousands of Israel; who brought you into the good land and large, and whose gifts and callings are without repentance ? Strengthen thyself not in the strength of Pharaoh, which shall be your shame, but in that arm to which there is nothing too hard. Your true strength lies not in the busy activity of the flesh, but in the calm quiet of faith's recumbency upon my omnipotent arm, whose every word of grace is strong as that that built the skies,

"The voice that rolls the stars along Speaks all the promises"

Now in the history of, and in the sayings of God to the children of Israel, there is an under laying of spiritual instruction for the spiritual Israel. Beneath their literal history there runs a silver vein of spiritual teaching to the church of God, "the true circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." It is that spiritual meaning we want to get at tonight; it is this "vein for the silver, this place for the gold, where they fine it," we want to discover tonight; and that we may turn up some of its dust of gold -- may our eyes be up unto the Lord while we attempt to open up the following things:

First.	We should show you where it is unsafe to sit still
Second	Where it is safe to sit still and where it is to sit still
Third	That sitting still upon that safe spot is a source of strength. "I have cried concerning this, their strength is to sit still"

FIRST. Now I am to seek to show you where it is unsafe for a man to sit still; and greatly do I fear that many here will be described as sitting still in an unsafe spot.

1. It is unsafe for a man to sit still in his sins. For one that is in his sins, for one that has the guilt of his sins still upon his conscience, for one living after his flesh to sit still, to sit still in his blood guiltiness is, with a witness, to sit still in an unsafe spot; the man that sits still in his sins, sits still over a burning gulf, he sits still over the mouth of hell, he sits still at the edge of a precipice, where one single push of disease, one single touch of the hand of God, might hurl him over into the dark dismal gulf of everlasting woe; he sits still under a thunder cloud charged with the bolts of God's fury, "the wrath of God abideth on him;" he sits still with that awful cloud hanging over his head from which rolls in terrific sounds, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." O sinner ! thoughtless sinner ! sitting still in your sins you are sitting still under God's awful curse ! with God's drawn sword over your head. Have you made up your mind that you can dwell with everlasting burnings ? I am saying nothing about whether you have power to do otherwise than to sit still in your sins while you are dead in your trespasses. I am only pointing out to you your danger; because warning the wicked is God's awakening instrument. O you that are living in sin, be assured that you are sitting still under God's "shall die." "If ye live after the flesh ye shall die." You are sitting still under God's irrevocable threat, to "wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses."
   
   
2. It is unsafe for a man to sit still in his own righteousness. The man that is sitting still in self-righteousness is sitting still in as unsafe a place as the man who is sitting still in his sins. For a man to sit still, trusting in his own righteousness ! why it is just as unsafe as for a criminal to sit still under the sentence of death, trusting in having gathered together a few straws or webs of his dungeon and weaving them together, hanging them about his neck, and thinking when the executioner comes he has nothing to do but to point to his ornaments to save him from death. O Pharisee, thine is a miserable delusion, thou art sitting still or seeking to lie upon "a bed too short to stretch thyself upon, and under a covering too narrow to wrap thyself in." The man who is sitting still in his own righteousness is sitting still owing an immense sum to a creditor who will have full payment, or he must never see the outside of his prison, content with the wretched hope that he has one farthing per thousand, with which he vainly hopes to discharge his debt. Wretched self-deception: his supposed farthing is a false coin; and even were it a true coin, how sad the deception that makes him think that sorry mite will discharge the huge, the just, the unabateable debt of "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself." For a man then to be sitting still in his own righteousness, is to be sitting still in a most unsafe place; he is sitting still where justice frowns upon him, and where the law curses him; and he is sitting still where, were his eyes open, he would see nothing under him, and nothing over him but God's anger, nothing behind him but a lost and closed Eden, and nothing before him but "depart ye cursed into everlasting fire."
   
   
3. Again, for a man to be sitting still upon notions, upon sound doctrines, is to be sitting still in an unsafe place. We would be glad for everybody to hold sound doctrines, correct notions in religion. I have not the least objection to persons having their heads stored with sound doctrine, but he that sleeps upon sound doctrine, he that sits still, pluming and pleasing himself as if he were any the more secure for knowing in his head truths that have never reached his heart, is sitting still in an unsafe place.

Satan is a sound theologian, he has too well read the Bible to be an Arminian. Satan knows the doctrines of grace, but Satan is doomed despite his knowledge; there is no lost one in hell but believes in the doctrines of grace; it is only upon earth that men are duped into the belief that their own filthy rags will do for a covering in "the day that shall burn as an oven." Satan preaches such doctrines to men on earth that would not pass current in hell. I am glad you believe the doctrines of grace; you cannot cling too firmly to the "five points," but to think you are any the more safe for your head knowledge is as if a man said, because he knows very well he must be hanged or pardoned by the sovereign, -- knows which way condemnation comes, and knows which way deliverance comes, -- he might sit still in his cell, he shall never be hanged, he is too knowing for that, he need not be seeking forgiveness. O wretched, O miserable cheat and delusion, "The kingdom of God is not in word but in power." Thus we might, if time would allow, go from one refuge of lies to another, and seek to be the means, in the hand of the blessed Spirit, of hunting persons out of these false hiding places, -- "I will send for many hunters and they shall hunt you." When the Lord intends to save a person he will hunt him out of his sins, out of his own righteousness, out of his trust in head knowledge, out of his natural religion, out of his shallow evidences put in the place of "repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ," out of every refuge but Jesus, the one only refuge that will serve the soul for death and eternity. There, and only there, it is indeed safe to sit still. Thus I would cry, with emphasis, to all careless, graceless souls, to all out of the ark, Christ, -- that wherever you are sitting still, you are sitting still in an unsafe place, you are sitting still where living and dying, hell is your portion. In the days of Noah, there was but one place in which it was safe to sit still -- the ark. In that terrible night when the destroying angel passed over the land of Egypt, whether men sat still in the palace or the cottage, in poverty or wealth, in misery or mirth, they sat still where the pestilential sword must reach the first-born, excepting they sat still behind the blood; and so indeed wherever a sinner sits, wherever a sinner hides his head, whatever a sinner makes his couch, whatever he sits upon, if he is never brought to sit down in the place I am going to describe, he sits still in an unsafe place.

SECOND. I come now to try and show you where it is safe to sit still, and what it is to sit still.

There is a place where it is safe, where it is blessed and glorious to sit still, where it is a sinner's strength to sit still. There is a glorious place where it is indeed safe and blessed for a sinner to sit still, for the Saviour and his great salvation are there. There is a place of safety for the sick soul to sit still in, for the Physician is there, the remedy, Gilead's all-healing balm is there. There is a place where it is safe for the polluted to sit still; for at that blessed place

There is a place where it is safe for the curse-earning sinner to sit still, for there is the shadow of the once smitten rock, who has, for every poor sinner that hides in its glorious clefts, borne the dread, the avenging ire, and plucked him burning from the fire. O, there is a place where it is safe indeed; and where alone it is safe for the sinner to sit still. Sitting still there he has a safe basis beneath him, -- the foundation that God has laid in Zion. Sitting still there he has a safe shield around him. His "place of defence is the munition of rocks." Sitting still there he has a glorious covert over him -- the blood and obedience of Jesus. O, it is only safe for a sinner to sit still where the law's claim is met, -- where the law's curse is borne, -- where justice is satisfied, -- where an end is made of sin, -- where reconciliation is made for transgression, and where everlasting righteousness is brought in. It can only be safe for a sinner to sit still where grace, with its benevolent arm can reach him, and justice can stand with sheathed sword and smiling brow. It can only be safe for a sinner to sit still where "mercy and truth have met together; where righteousness and peace have kissed each other." And where is that glorious spot ? That spot is Calvary's summit; that spot is that sacred hill once capped with supernatural darkness, -- once wrapt in that dread cloud that was but a faint emblem of the infinitely more awful cloud of divine vengeance that was emptying its fiery contents upon the devoted head of the Son of God in human flesh. It is that blessed spot that, though once the dread darkness of infinite wrath enwrapped it, is now lighted up with the glorious light of that sentence of sentences, that word of words, that volumes in a phrase, that glorious golden gospel saying --"IT IS FINISHED." That is the spot, and the only spot, where it can be safe for a sinner to sit still. If you have never yet found that spot, if you never yet "fled for refuge" under the drawings of the Father, and the leading of the blessed Spirit, to a dear Redeemer, you never yet reached the spot where it is safe to sit still. O, that is the place, the blood-sprinkled place, where the fine linen, clean and white clothes, the returned prodigal. That is the place where the rich and open fountain makes the crimson sinner white as snow. That is the place where the sinner may repent, and sing, rejoice, and be ashamed; -- where it is truly safe to sit still. O, have you been led there ? Is Calvary the bleeding, glorious cross, a spot to which your soul has ever been drawn for salvation ?

But let me show you what it is to sit still at Calvary. Sitting still in any spot seems to imply that an individual has come to the place he has desired to reach. See a toiling, struggling, burdened man casting many a longing eye around him, anxious to find a spot upon which he may sit with safety. A seat is offered him, he tries it, he is convinced it is unsafe; he rises, and cries, "I dare not sit here, this is no safe place for me." Again he toils along his weary way, with his load upon his back, but another syren voice invites him to some flowery bank, and cries "sit still." Again he discovers he is still unsafe, and cries, "I dare not sit still." Again and again, and again he is tempted to sit here and there, and tries this and that seat, but finds no spot where he dares to sit still. At length you see him reach one incomparable spot. You see his eye beaming through tears of joy, and he exclaims, "Now I have found the spot I long have sought; now I have reached the place, the only place of safety for me." He casts himself down, loses his load, and exhibits nought but signs of content. What does his sitting down say ? It says, -- this is just what I wanted, just what I have been seeking. Here, here my heart is contented to stay. Need I explain this ? Are there not persons here who have "plowed with my heifer," and whose own experience expounds my riddle ? You remember when a load of sin was on your conscience; you remember when justice threatened your souls with eternal destruction; you remember when you tried to sit down in reformation, in tears, in good resolutions, in desires, in notions, in evidences as a substitute for Calvary, in all kinds of false resting places, and again, and again, and again you were obliged to rise and depart, for there was not your rest. At length you fled by faith to the wounded side, to the loving bosom of a crucified Christ, -- to the only safe shelter, the dear Redeemer's Cross; and when you once reached that sacred spot you could with true contentment say:

Now you could say,

Now you could venture on Jesus, "venture wholly, and let no other trust intrude."

Again, sitting still is a resting posture; an individual who after long fatigue is at length seated down, his weary limbs are become eased, his palpitating heart is quieted; he is taking rest. So when once a sinner reaches Calvary by precious faith, and can cast himself down under the droppings of atoning blood, under the shelter of Immanuel's righteousness, he truly rests from his labors. He has nothing to do for salvation. The fulfilled law has no further claim upon him. "It is finished." The obedience is finished; he has nothing to do with regard to atoning for his sins, "It is finished;" Christ has full atonement made. He has nothing to do to satisfy divine justice, no nothing. "It is finished." The blazing sword is quenched in the blood of the God-man.

"We that believe do enter into rest." "He that hath entered into his rest hath ceased from his own works."

Again, for one to sit still, he must cast his whole weight upon the spot he is sitting upon; a man that only half allows his weight to rest upon his seat could not be said to be sitting still; a man must cast his whole weight upon a seat to sit still. And so the soul that truly believes in Christ, venturing wholly, his whole weight is on Jesus; not half upon Christ and half upon his own efforts, half upon the finished work of Jesus, and half upon something he has to do; no, he is throwing himself wholly down upon Jesus; he is sitting still, alone upon the finished work of Jesus.

I may add, sitting still shows satisfaction. "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste." I must only stay to ask you each have you ever reached the place of sitting still ? I would not say a word to discourage a seeking soul, I would say everything to encourage him to seek on. But I want you to see clearly that though you are convinced of sin, and hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and panting to be found in Jesus, you are not at the place for sitting still. O plead the promises, seek grace to obey the gospel invitation to Jesus, but tarry not in all the plain, escape for thy life, rest not until you have reached Calvary. But I trust I am speaking to some who have reached that blessed spot, where the sword of justice is sheathed, where the law's claims are met, its curse borne, God honored, and the sinner saved. If you have reached that blessed spot, the spot where God and man can safely and sweetly meet in Jesus, you have indeed reached the place where it is safe to sit still. You know by sweet experience what it is to sing

O blessed spot to sit upon. This is the spot where I may lay all my weight for eternity, upon a crucified Christ. It is truly safe and glorious to sit still here; but

THIRDLY. I am to show you that sitting still upon this safe spot is a source of strength. I have cried concerning this "Your strength is to sit still."

This place of sitting still is the place of strength for activity. True, this is a paradox to all but those who have sat still. What ! say you, a man sit still and be active at the same moment, sit still and serve at the same time ? truly he can; indeed, there is nobody so ready for service, nobody so strong to serve the Lord as he who most thoroughly sits still. This place of sitting still is the place from which a man starts in the service of the Lord, with true Gospel zeal. This is the spot from whence a man starts, with a freed heart, in God's service; getting his strength from Him from whom he receives his righteousness. "In the Lord have I righteousness and strength," where we find our refuge, thence we gain our strength. As soon as a man comes to the place where he has nothing to do for salvation, that is the place where he begins to do from gratitude; when he has nothing to do legally, then he begins to do evangelically; where it is finished with regard to legal work, there it is commenced with regard to Gospel work. Look at Isaiah as a proof of this; when the prophet had had his mouth closed before the Holy, Holy, Holy One, and cried "Woe is me for I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips," and those unclean lips experienced the purging touch of altar-fire, when the forgiving love of God in Christ was felt, what was the effect ? Did he say "now I have nothing to do, my substitute has engaged to do all, I need do nothing;" he might indeed say I have nothing to do towards saving my soul; but when the voice from heaven cried "who will go for us," the pardoned prophet exclaimed "here am I, send me," Luther said, and said what surely everyone who knows the truth will join him in saying, "If the turning of a straw would save my soul I would not move it, oh ! no, I would not be a traitor to Jesus, I would not take His work out of His hands." I can say with safety, it is my joy, I need do nothing in point of salvation. IT IS FINISHED. Isaiah learned experimentally that "his strength was to sit still." Sitting down upon God's forgiving love, sitting down upon the atoning work of the Messiah, he got strength to go forth in the service of the Lord. Look again, at the Ethiopian eunuch, there was a man that was roused from his false resting places; he, perhaps, had been trying to sit still in having become a convert to the Jewish religion, but conviction entered his conscience, and so roused him that he could not, on duties and Jewish privileges, sit still; for though he had been up to Jerusalem to perform a religous duty, it is clear he could not sit still. Travelling along, anxious to know where was the safe spot for his anxious soul to rest upon, he was pondering Isaiah the prophet, when Philip joined him, and began at the Scripture the enuch was reading, "He was led as a lamb to the slaughter," &c., and preached unto him Jesus, as if he should say to the restless eunuch, who had been seeking to work out a righteousness of his own, "here is a resting place for thy weary soul; cast thyself down by faith on Him, that 'was led as a lamb to the slaughter,' '" pointing him to Calvary, to the blood-sprinkled spot of ground beneath the sacred tree, the place where mercy and truth met together; he would exclaim, look here burdened eunuch, this is the spot, and this alone, where it is safe for a sinner to sit still; "venture on Him, venture wholly, let no other trust intrude." God blessed the message, the eunuch was enabled, by faith, to sit still; he ceased his legal work, and soon saw his heart was untied for evangelical work. "They came to a certain water, and the eunuch cried, see here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized ?" sitting still gave him strength for service. Look again, at Zaccheus, how sitting still set him working; the true resting place, the Saviour, came to his house. We don't know how long he had been anxious about his soul, how long he might have been disturbed from his carnal ease; we don't know how long he might have been trying various false resting places, but we know at length "salvation came

to his house;" came to his heart; and Zaccheus was, by precious faith, enabled to sit still, to cast himself down on the work that Jesus was to finish. This sitting still was his strength to be liberal and honest, -- "behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him four-fold." Sitting still strengthened him to serve.

If you want to find the most zealous servants of Jesus, find those who know most of what it is graciously and spiritually to sit still upon the atoning work of the Saviour. The place of sitting still is where the branch abides in the vine; therefore must be the place of strength to bear fruit.

The place of sitting still is the place of strength for suffering as well as service. Indeed, I know something of the truth of this. In the year 1856, it appeared to me as though I were on the brink of the grave, in suffering of body; yet, through God's great goodness and grace, that was to me a precious period of sitting still, -- that was a time when I could say with a melted heart,

Could I murmur ? could I fret ? could I rebel ? Oh, no, sitting still gave me submission. Sitting still makes a soul clay in the hands of the potter. Sitting still made the apostles "depart from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name." It was sitting still that enabled Paul and Silas in the dead of the night, down in one of the low dungeons of a Philippian prison, notwithstanding their scourged backs, and their cramped feet in the stocks; to sing the high praises of God; why they so sat still by precious faith in the atoning work of Jesus that they could not keep silence, they must pour forth in the midnight hour songs of praises to the sovereign grace that rescued them from woe, to the bleeding Saviour that had cleansed and clothed them. Sitting still has enabled martyrs to shout in the flames, clapping burning hands together, exclaiming "none but Jesus, none but Jesus." Sitting still has helped many a bereaved husband to look down with composure into the grave that has been about to bury from his sight "the desire of his eyes." Sitting still has soothed many an aching heart; and oh, I would hope that some poor believers at this time of scarcity of employment in the North, may have been enabled to sit still at Calvary. Oh, that is the spot, if you can get to Calvary; in the midst of penury you can sing

I am sure the Christian finds out that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth"; you may be in affluence and be miserable, because you are far from Christ: you may be deep in adversity and count yourself a happy man, because you are near to Christ: because you are where your strength is, -- you are sitting still.

Sitting still, too, is just the thing to strengthen a believer for worship. O every branch of worship can be sweetly performed when a soul can sit still, there it is he can confess his sin with godly sorrow, is ready for supplication as "a debtor to mercy alone, while of covenant mercy he sings;" his heart exclaims, "Lord, keep me near Thee, help me to shine as a light in the world, make me as the salt in the earth." He that is sitting still is in a posture for praise. The 103rd Psalm fits the man who is sitting still, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy Name."

"I have cried concerning this -- their strength is to sit still." Oh look then, you busy, bustling religionists, fluttering and flying hither and thither, doing this and that, to furnish for yourselves a resting place for joy and peace in life, and salvation in death and eternity. Depend upon it you will never know real peace and strength except you are taught to cease to do, and to sit still on the complete work of Jesus. Indeed, I may say to every one of you, if you have never sought and found a crucified Christ, have never fled for refuge to the Lamb of God, you have never found the place for sitting still. But if you are the feeblest believer, who through God's grace has escaped for your life to the cross of a crucified Saviour, to Jesus' blood and righteousness, my heart's desire for you is that God will help you to sit still. Satan will seek to disturb you, the world will seek to disturb you; sin and self-will seek to disturb you from your resting-place, but God help you to sit still, to hang upon the nail fastened in a sure place, to throw your feeble arms around the all-supporting tree -- Calvary's blessed Cross -- to pillow the head of your hopes upon the bosom that bled for guilty sinners. For sure I am this place of safety is the place of strength for service and suffering, and worship in spirit and truth, "that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies may serve him without fear, rejoicing before him all the days of our life. Their strength is to sit still."

Amen