People of the Holy Bible - 3. Aeneas - A Man at Lydda, Sick of the Palsy

Extract

People of the Holy Bible
3. Aeneas — A Man at Lydda, Sick of the Palsy
C. H. Spurgeon

“And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. And there he found a certain man named Aeneas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy. And Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately. And all that dwelt in Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord” Acts 9:32-35.
I may not hope that I shall see you all again, and so, as I have the opportunity of only preaching one sermon to you, I must make it as full as I can of essence of gospel, from beginning to end. We have heard of a chaplain who preached in a jail, who selected a subject which he divided into two heads. The first part was the sinner’s disease; this he took for his topic on one Sabbath, and closed the sermon by saying that he should preach upon the sinner ’s remedy upon the following Sunday. Now, there were several of the prisoners hanged on the Monday, according to the custom of the bad old times, so that they did not hear that part of the discourse which it was most necessary for them to hear. It would have been well to have told out the great news of salvation at once to men so near their end, and I think that in every sermon, if the preacher confines himself to one subject, and leaves out essential gospel truth, under the notion that he will preach salvation by Jesus another day, he is very unwise, for some of his congregation may be dead and gone — alas, some of them lost — before he will have the opportunity of coming to the grand and all -important point, namely, the way of salvation. We will not fall into that evil to – night. We will try to shoot at the very centre of our target, and preach the plan of salvation as completely as we can; and may God grant that his blessing may rest on it, the Holy Spirit working with it.

I shall only preach this one sermon to some of you: you will, therefore, have the greater patience with me, as I shall not inflict myself upon you again: but, if we are to have only one
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