AMONG LIONS – Charles Spurgeon
AMONG LIONS
“My soul is among lions.” Psalm 57:4.
Introduction: Grateful for Favorable Circumstances
Some of you cannot say this, and you ought to be very thankful that you are not obliged to do so. Happy are you young people who have godly parents and who dwell in Christian families. You ought to grow like the flowers in a conservatory, where killing frosts and biting blasts are unknown. You live under very favorable circumstances. Your soul, I might almost say, is among angels, for you dwell where God is worshipped, where family prayer is not forgotten, where you can have kindly guidance in the hour of difficulty and comfort in the time of trial. You dwell where angels come and go, and God, Himself, deigns to dwell! Happy should young people be in such circumstances! How grateful and holy you ought to be!
I want all who dwell where everything helps them, to remember the many gracious ones who dwell where everything hinders them. You who live near the Beautiful Gate of the temple must not forget the many who are sighing in the tents of Kedar. If your soul is not among lions, praise God for it—and then let your sympathies go out towards those who mournfully complain— “My soul with him that hates peace has long a dweller been. I am for peace, but when I speak, for battle they are keen.”
It is a Christian duty to “remember them that are in bonds as bound with them.” And whenever our own favored circumstances lead us to forget those who are persecuted and tried, our very mercies are working mischief in us. “We are all members, one of another.” If one member suffers, all the rest should suffer with him and, therefore, we will turn our thoughts towards our persecuted Brothers and Sisters tonight, that our united supplications may sustain them under their difficulties and, if the Lord is so pleased, may even deliver them.
I. When May a Christian Truly Say, “My Soul is Among Lions”?
Such is the case when, either from our being members of ungodly families, or from having to gain our livelihood among unconverted and graceless people, we are subjected to reproach and rebuke and to jest and jeer for Jesus Christ’s sake. Then we can say, “My soul is among lions.”
I know that many in this congregation are the only ones in their family whom God has called. I bless His name that He is often taking one of a household and a lone one of a family and bringing such to Jesus. Some quite un-Christian person who thinks not of God drops in here out of curiosity and God meets with him and he becomes the first of his kith and kin to say “I am the Lord’s.” Frequently, when converts come to cast in their lot with us, they will say, “I do not know one in all my family who makes any profession of godliness. They are all opposed to me.” In such a case, the soul is among lions, and it is very hard and trying to be in such a position.
Well may we pity a godly wife bound to an ungodly husband! Alas, full often she is married to a drunk whose opposition amounts to brutality. A tender, loving spirit that ought to have been cherished like a tender flower is bruised and trod underfoot—and made to suffer till her heart cries out in grief, “My soul is among lions!”
We little know what lifelong martyrdoms many pious women endure. Children also have to bear the same when they are singled out by Divine Grace from depraved and wicked families. Only the other day, there came under my notice one who loves the Lord. I thought that if she had been a daughter of mine, I should have rejoiced beyond all things in her sweet and gentle piety, but her parents said, “You must leave our house if you attend such-and-such a place of worship. We do not believe in these things and we cannot have you about us if you do.” I saw the grief which that state of things was causing and though I could not alter it, I mourned over it. Woe unto those who tyrannize over my Lord’s little ones!
Nobody knows what godly working men have to put up with from those among whom they labor. There are some shops where there is religious liberty, but frequently, the working men of this city are great tyrants in matters of religion. I tell them that to their faces—if a man will drink with them and swear with them, they will make him their companion—but when a man comes out to fear God, they make it very hard for him. And pray, dear Sir, has not a man as much right to pray as you have to swear? And has he not as much right to believe in God as you have to disbelieve? It is a wonderfully free country, this wonderfully free country! Almost as free as America in the olden times when every man was free to beat his own slave, for now the working man claims freedom to laugh and swear at every other working man who chooses to be sober and religious!
There are large factories all over London where a Christian man has to run the gauntlet of sneers from morning to night which never ought to come upon the face of honest men and which never would come if Britons were as fond of freedom as they profess to be! They declare that they never will be slaves, but they are slaves—slaves to their own ungodliness and drunkenness—the great mass of them! And only where Divine Grace comes in and snaps the chain do men become free at all. If one serious man sets his face steadfastly to serve God, the baser sort seem as if they must get him under their feet and treat him with every indignity that malice can devise.
It may be all in sport, but the victim does not think so. Do not tell me that persecution ceased when the last martyr burned! There are martyrs who have to burn by the slow fire of cruel mockery day after day. But I bless God that the old grit is still among us and that the old spirit still survives, so that men defy sneers and slander and hold on their way! I could tell stories which would both shock you and delight you of what is said and done by the common order of English working men against those who profess religion—and how courageously the righteous and the true bear it all and, in the long run, conquer, too—they oftentimes win their mates to confess the same faith!
II. Comfort for Those Among Lions
Now, it is to such that I am going to speak tonight. A little, at first, by way of comfort. And then a little by way of advice.
A. Fellowship with Christ
First, BY WAY OF COMFORT. You are among lions, my dear young friend, then you will have fellowship with your Lord and with His Church. Every Lord’s Day and every time we meet, this benediction is pronounced upon you, that you may enjoy the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Fellowship with the Holy Spirit brings you into fellowship with Jesus, and this involves your being conformed to His sufferings. Now, your Lord was among lions. The men of His day had not a good word to say of Him. They called the Master of the house, Beelzebub—they will never call you a worse name than that. They said that He was a drunk and a winebibber—possibly they may say much the same as that of you, and it will be equally false. You need not be ashamed to be pelted with the same dirt that was thrown at your Master! And if it should ever come to this, that you should be stripped of everything and false witnesses should rise up against you—and you should even be condemned as a felon and taken out to be executed—your lot will still not be worse than His.
Remember that you are the followers of a Crucified Lord and cannot expect to be the world’s darlings! If you are Christians, the Inspired description of the Christian life is the taking up of the cross! Do you expect to be dandled on the knees of that same ungodly world which hung your Master upon the Cross? No. You know that he who is the friend of this world is the enemy of God. This Truth of God is unchangeable.
B. Closer Fellowship with God
It is just as certain, today, as it was in years gone by that, “the evil hates the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him.” You may pick up a fashionable religion and get through the world with it very comfortably, but if you have the true faith, you will have to fight for it. If you are of the world, the world will love its own. But if you are not of the world because the Lord has chosen you out of the world, the world will hate you! When a villager goes up the little street, the dogs do not bark at him, for they know him well. But when a stranger rides along, they set up a howl. By this shall you know whether you are a citizen of the world or a pilgrim towards the better land.
Nor was your Master alone. Remember the long line of Prophets that went before Christ? Which of them was it that was received with honor? Did they not stone one and slay another with the sword? Did they not cut one in pieces with a saw and put others to death with stones? You know that the march of the faithful may be tracked by their blood. And after our Lord had gone to Heaven, how did the world treat the Church? In the streets of Rome and all large cities, the fierce cry was often heard, “Christians to the lions! Christians to the lions! Christians to the lions!”
C. Fellowship with Other Persecuted Christians
At the dead of night, men cry, “Fire!” when a house is blazing. A mob will cry, “Bread!” when they are starving. But the cry of old Rome that was dearest to the Roman heart and most expressive of their horrible enmity to goodness was, “Christians to the lions!” Of all the gallant shows the Roman Empire ever saw that excited the populace beyond all things else was to see a family—a man and his wife, perhaps, and a grown daughter and son and three or four children— all marched into the arena, the big door thrown open, and lions rushing out to spring upon them and tear them to pieces! What harm had the Christians done? They had forgiven their enemies! That was one of their great sins! They would not worship the gods of wood and stone. They would not blaspheme the name of Jesus whom they loved, for He had taught them to love one another and to love all mankind. For such things as this, men raised the cry, “Christians to the lions! Christians to the lions!”
III. A Few Words by Way of Advice
Now, a few words BY WAY OF ADVICE. Of course, this does not deal with all of you who are now present. I hope that many of you dwell among the godly. Still, there are some whose soul is among lions and to them I give this counsel.
A. Do Not Irritate the Lions
First, if you dwell among lions, do not irritate them. If I happened to be among lions, I would not tease them. I would take good care that if they were cruel and fierce I did not make them so. I have known some who I hope were Christians, who have acted very unwisely and have made matters worse for themselves. There is such a thing as ramming religion down people’s throats, or trying to do so. You can put on a very long face and try to scold people into religion. This will not do. Never yet was anybody bullied to Christ, and there never will be.
Some are very stern and make no allowances for other people—these may be good, but they are not wise. What is a rule to you and to me may not be a rule to everybody else. We said, the other Sunday, that we should not think of eating what we give to swine, but we do not, therefore, say, “These swine must not have their slop.” No, no! It is good enough for them. Let them have it. And as to worldly people and their amusements, let them have them, poor things. They have nothing else, let them have their mirth. I would not touch their joys, nor would you, for they would be no pleasure to you. But do not, as a new-born man, go and set yourself up as the standard of what the ordinary sinner, dead in sin, is to be!
B. Do Not Roar Yourself
Secondly, if your soul is among lions, do not roar yourself, for that is very easy to be done. We have known some who we hope were Christians, who have met railing with railing, hard words with hard words, bitter speeches with bitter speeches. The ungodly are lions, but you are not—do not try to meet them in their own line. You will never roar as well as they do! If you are a Christian, you have not the knack of roaring. Leave them to do it. Your way of meeting them is not by losing your temper and abusing your antagonists and so becoming a lion yourself—you must conquer them with gentleness, patience, kindness, and love!
C. Do Not Be Cowardly
I pray you, dear Brothers and Sisters who have to bear a good deal for Christ’s sake, do not get soured in spirit. There is a tendency in a martyr age to become obstinate and pugnacious. You must not be so. Love, love, love! And the more you are provoked, love the more! Overcome evil with good. I think it necessary to mention these cautions because I know many require them.
Again, if your soul is among lions, do not be cowardly. Have you never heard that a lion is afraid of a man if he looks him steadily in the face? I am not sure about that piece of natural history, but I am quite certain that it is true with regard to the ungodly world. If a man will bear himself calmly. If he will be unmoved, determined, resolute, and steadfast, he will overcome the adversary. “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” If you give way a little, you will have to give way a great deal. If you give the world an inch, you will have to give it a mile as sure as you are alive. If you will not yield an inch, no, nor yet a barleycorn, but stand steadfast, God will help you.
D. Take Your Lord with You
The world, after a while, says of any man, “It is of no use laughing at him—he does not mind it. It is of no use calling him hard names—he only smiles at you. It is useless to be his enemy, for he will not be yours. He will only be your friend.” Then the world whispers, “Well, after all, he is not so bad a fellow as we thought he was. We must let him have his own way.” There is a big human heart somewhere down in men if you can but get at it and, after a while, when truth and righteousness have suffered and been denounced, men turn round and are almost ready to carry on their shoulders with hosannas the same person whom, a little while before, they longed to crucify.
Do not be a coward! Do not be a coward! “Stand up! Stand up for Jesus! The fight will not be long. This day the noise of battle, the next the victor’s song.” Even if the fight were long, for such a Master as Jesus it were worth while to endure 10,000 years of scorn and, moreover, the reward at the end will repay us a thousand-fold!
If your soul is among lions, then do not go out among them alone. “Then whom shall I take with me?” asks one, “there is not a Christian in the shop.” Take your Lord with you! Be absolutely sure that you do that. Now, my dear friend, I know what they said yesterday and how they bantered you and you were tart and short with them because you were not in prayer in the morning as you ought to have been. If your mind had been more calm and gentle as the result of prayer, you would not have minded it one-half so much. Take your Master with you and whenever you have to speak, remember that He is standing at your side and try to say what you would like Him to hear.
And then, when you have made your defense, you will be able to say, “Good Master, I think I have not dishonored You, for I have spoken Your words.” Oh, live near to Christ if you live among lions! Those of you who endure opposition make the best Christians. Many that have been distinguished for Christ in later life have had to rough it a little at first. “It is good for a man that he bears the yoke in his youth.” If I could bring a garden-roller and roll the grass for you all the way from here to Heaven, do you think that I would do it? Certainly not! A rough place or two is good for you—it tries and strengthens pilgrim feet! A child will never become a man if he is carried about, all his life, like a baby.
F. Consider Leaving if Necessary
You must run alone. You must learn the arts of holy warfare or else you will not be fit to be a soldier of the Cross, a follower of the Lamb! May His good Spirit help you to keep in fellowship with Christ that He may guard and protect you from every temptation and persecution.
Further, let me say to you that if your soul is among lions and you feel very weak about it, you are permitted to pray the Lord to move you in His Providence to quieter quarters. A Christian man is not bound to endure persecution if he can help it—“When they persecute you in one city flee to another.” You are quite warranted in seeking another situation. There may be reasons why you should remain under the trial and, if so, take care that you do not overlook them.
G. Tame the Lions
Prudence may make you avoid persecution, but cowardice must not mingle with the prudence! That prayer which says, “Lead us not into temptation,” gives us, as it were, a permit to move from places where we are much tempted and sometimes it is the duty of the Christian to seek some other sphere of labor, if he possibly can, where he will not be so much tried.
One thought more—the braver thing is to ask for Grace to stay with the lions and tame them. “My soul is among lions.” Well, if the Lord makes you a lion tamer, that is the very place where you ought to be! In some of our districts in London, as soon as ever a man is converted he feels that he cannot live there any longer and this makes the district hopeless.
Conclusion
My dear friend, Mr. Orsman, working in Golden Lane, as it used to be, told me that his was an endless task because as soon as ever the people were converted they would say, “Would you have me live here any longer, in such a horrible place as this?” They naturally felt that as they had grown sober, decent, and respectable, they should move into a different locality and they did so—and the result is that the old spot does not improve. SometImes the Christian man should say, “No, God has made me strong in Grace and I will stop here and fight it out. These are lions, but I will tame them. I believe that God has put me here on purpose to bring my fellow workmen to the Savior and, by His Grace, I will do it.”
Now, if I were a lamp, I daresay that if I had my choice of where I should burn, I should choose to blaze away in a respectable street. I should like to scatter my light in front of the Tabernacle! But surely if I were a really sensible lamp I should say to myself—“If there are only a few lamps and all the streets have to be lit, there is more necessity to light up a back slum or a blind alley than to adorn a main street. Therefore let me shine in the dismal courts. In a lonely, dark place where murder may be done—there let me act as guardian of the night and detective of the villain.”
A wise lamp would say, “I came into the world to give light and I should like to give light where light is most needed. Hang me up in Mint Street, or in St. Giles’s, or away there by the back of Kent Street where I may be most useful.”
A Christian people, is there not sense about this advice? Is there not reason in it? Would not your Master have you go where you are most needed and should you not, therefore, if your soul is among lions, say, “Thank God it is so. These people are not going to conquer me, but I am going to conquer them”? What a beautiful spectacle was that which was exhibited by the Moravian Brethren in their grand times! They could not land on one of the West Indies to preach the Gospel to the Negroes, for the planters would not have anybody there but slaves. So two Brothers sold themselves for slaves and lived and died in bondage that they might teach the poor Negroes of Christ!
It is said that there was a place in Africa where persons were shut up whose limbs were rotting away through leprosy and other diseases. Two of these Brethren climbed up a wall and saw these poor creatures—some with no legs and others with no arms. They asked to be allowed to go in to win souls for Christ and the answer was, “If you enter you can never come out again because you would bring contagion. You go in there to die, to rot away as the lepers do.” These brave men went in and died that they might bring the lepers to Christ!
I hope that we have some drops of that grand Christian blood still in our veins! And if we have, we shall feel that we could go to the gates of Hell to win a sinner! You are not like your Master unless you would die to save men from Hell. You will bear jests and jeers and count them nothing if you can but win souls. So stop where you are, my stronger Brothers and Sisters—if your souls are among lions, tarry and tame the lions! It will be a grand thing for you to come, one day, to the Church meeting with two or three of your neighbors whom you have been the means of converting to Christ. I like to see a man march, if he can do it, with a tame lion on each side!
When a man has, by God’s Grace, brought some of those that were drunks and swearers to the feet of Jesus, oh, it is a grand triumph! It has been my business for many years to be a lion tamer and I delight in it! If there is any lion of the sort here, I wish the Master would tame him and make him lie down and crouch at His feet. There is the place for us poor sinners—at the feet of Christ. But do not be afraid of sinners, dear Friends, for how can you tame them if you tremble at them? Go forth to win them in the strength of the living God and you shall yet see the lion lie down with the lamb—and a little child shall lead them. Amen and amen!