I N the village of Gravelotte I sat in a peasant's house, in a chair in the corner of a window. The peasant's wife informed me that in that same chair and place, the Emperor Napoleon sat the day after he left Metz, on his way to Chalons, after he had heard that the German forces were rather nearer than he expected. For a whole afternoon he sat there and spoke not a word, but smoked his cigars and drank the black coffee which the peasant's wife could give him, and I know the question which was uppermost in his mind, and that was, What must I do?
Opposite this, in another small house, I entered the apartment in which King William, Bismarck, Von Moltke, and others sat, some days after, and planned that awful day's work at the quarries of Gravelotte, and the question in the King's mind was, What must I do?
How often in your own history have you asked this question! Did you ever meet a man who has not asked it? If you could get into the inner secrets of all you meet in the street, you would find the great majority are asking this question, What must I do? High and low, grave and gay, lazy and industrious, good and bad, ask this question, What must I do?
The boy at school, anxious to get to the top of his class, and obtain the prize, often asks it; and when he leaves school to push his way, that is his great question.
The ship's captain in the lashing storm, with the waves threatening to engulf him, and his canvas flying in tatters, has this question often before his mind.
The doctor, baffled by the disease in his patient, puts his hand on the pulse, gathers up all possible information, and after a little meditation, resolutely says, What must I do?
The lawyer, anxious to bring his client successfully through, is often pondering the best arguments, obtaining fresh facts and witnesses, in answer to this question.
The merchant has his bills to meet, and you see him going hither and thither with hurried steps the day before, and the question he asks himself is, What must I do?
The engineer has been commissioned to lay a telegraph through the ocean, to send a canal through the desert, to bore a tunnel through the mountain; and day by day, night after night, he asks himself the question, What must I do?
The beggar, not knowing where to get his next meal; the king on the throne; the poorest peasant; the prime minister, all in their spheres, are, day after day, asking the same question.
Shall we look at the drunkard, after he has pawned the clothes of his wife and children, ruined his body, careless of his soul, without a copper, and turned out by the drink-seller?
He is revolving this question, What must I do?
So with the man of pleasure, the greedy man, the covetous man, with his lust or his gain, What must I do to have more?
Look at that young lady, having reached what many people think the highest point of blessing, “plenty of money, and nothing to do." She dresses, goes to parties, undresses, dresses, and so on. As she stands miserable at the looking-glass, there is one question in her mind, and perhaps only one, and it is, What must I do?
Vanquished and victor, emperor and beggar, ruler and peasant, all mankind ask the question. Is it not a question peculiar to man? Does it not hint that he is dissatisfied with present attainments, and is pushing onward to something in the future? No animal improves by failure except man. The swallow's nest in Noah's ark was just as good as the one in the eaves of our house. Man's longing after something better in the future finds expression in this question, What must I do?
We are most taken up with what concerns ourselves. It is not what must my friends do, my brother do, my neighbor do? but, What must I do?
This question grows in intensity in direct proportion to the amount of work to be done, and to the anxiety of the doer that it should be rightly done.
Now, my friend, in the deepest love to your higher interests, I come to a question which should interest you above all questions. You will exist forever either in heaven or hell.
It matters not though you do not believe it, for it is true.
Where will you exist forever after you have thine with this world? You and I deserve to go to hell, for we have committed one sin.
Let us now ask
WHAT OUGHT I TO DO?
in order that I, a sinner, may get to heaven?
SIN has to be put away. What a statement! And we are sinners, who love sin, and cannot, by nature, help loving it, and we have to do with a holy: God.
SINS have to be pardoned, and we have committed them. We are the offending, and not the offended, party, and we have to do with a just God.
PEACE has to be made, and we have no power or place in the making of it. We have to do with an all-powerful, all-truthful God.
A way has to be made into God's presence, righteously hid from sinful man by the sword of His justice, by the veil that shrouds His glory.
God's majesty has to be manifested, God's righteousness has to be vindicated, God's holiness conserved, God's truth maintained, God's law magnified, and we are unrighteous, unholy, untruthful transgressors.
Not only has every barrier to be broken down, a way made, and a title established, but an entirely new nature has to be provided for the sinner, a nature that loves what a sinner used to hate, and hates what a sinner used to love; a nature native to heaven. “Ye must be born again" (John 3:77Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:7)). JOH 3:77Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:7)
Self has to be set aside, denied, and mortified, and we by nature know nothing but self.
The world has to be overcome; and we were born in it, tare part of it, and we love it and its ways.
Satan has to be vanquished, and we are his servants, willing slaves, powerless beneath his allurements, weak against his wiles.
Flow can we, in sight of such work, ask the question, W hat shall I do? God's authority all the while is demanding that all this has to he done; and if the hardened conscience for a time forgets it, the demand is none the less imperative, the duty is none the less binding.
All this has to be done; and I am a sinner who does not love God; an enemy, who cannot suggest the terms of peace; guilty, and therefore deserving wrath, and condemned already; lost, and unable to find my way; without strength, and incapable of righting myself; DEAD (the climax of all), spiritually dead in trespasses and sins.
Let us now ask—
WHAT COULD I DO?
Could I not pray? The prayers of the wicked are an abomination to God. Could I not try to do better or repent? What does this mean from a dead man's lips?
But I am doing the best I can. The works of righteousness I try to perform in my own feeble, failing, faltering way. But God says that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isa. 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)); ISA 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)and this does not mean our bad deeds, but our good ones. All the righteous things I ever did, when looked at in the light of the work to be done, are filthy rags. Can I not hope? If you are unsaved you are without God; and if without God you are without hope in this world. (Eph. 2:1212That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (Ephesians 2:12).) EPH 2:1212That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (Ephesians 2:12) You may think you have hope, but it is a poor will-o'-the-wisp specter and death-sparkle, alluring you to the lake of fire, not the pole-star of God, set for the guidance of His pilgrim saints.
Let us now look at the glorious good news. Carefully look at all that has to be done; leave out no jot of it, for God says it must be done, and there is no getting past it. Look at our utter inability to do anything. Take, for example, but one of the must-be's. “Ye must be born again." Confess your entire helplessness. And then you are ready to hear God's own glorious news concerning this work.
Yes, God began it, and God ended it, and you and I have nothing to do but to trust in it, enter into the enjoyment of the fruits of what He has procured.
Look at these wonderful words. God says,
“Ye must be born again.”
God says, “The Son of Man must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." If we are to sum up shortly the immeasurable work to be done, we find that there are two pillars on which the whole rests.
Our SINS have to be pardoned; our SIN has to be put away. This, as it were, settles all that stands against us.
A NEW NATURE has to be given to us, as our first is utterly unfit to enter heaven.
All who believe the gospel are entitled to say, God laid our sins on Jesus (see Isa. 53
6). Christ “bore our sins in His own body on the tree "(1 Pet. 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)). 1PE 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)He" was delivered for our offenses" (Rom. 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)). ROM 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25) He "gave Himself for our sins" (Gal. 1:44Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: (Galatians 1:4)). GAL 1:44Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: (Galatians 1:4) God "made Him to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)). 2CO 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Does all this not satisfy you?
Is not this sufficient? Praise the Lord, it is.
God laid the whole case on Christ.
Christ bore it all and settled every question.
The Holy Ghost now proclaims it to every creature, and urges all to believe His testimony. Will you cease from your thoughts of, What must I do? and ask, What has God done? Must I not believe? Yes, and with many this seems to be the hardest of all works, a sort of toll that God demands to test our sincerity!
God has done all the work; but the striving, anxious inquirer thinks if he could only get up a tender heart, or a good feeling, or a little faith, that he would be then doing his part, paying the toll, and passing into the way of life. But God is the noblest of all givers.