GROVE CHAPEL PULPIT. FIFTY-TWO SERMONS BY THOMAS BRADBURY, Minister of Grove Chapel, Camberwell. As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak.”— PREFACE. "Now to grace as debtors we, 10 sang the old Devonport dockyard labourer, and so do I. To think that Grove Chapel Pulpit has reached the close of the second year's issue, fills my heart with adoring gratitude, and my mind with wonder, love, and praise. Why should I wonder? I will tell you. These sermons were not preached or printed for the world's benefit, improvement, or favour, the author knowing full well, from Divinely-inspired records and personal experience, that the truths they contain will meet with the cordial hatred of both pious and profane. This is the sure and certain lot of the preaching which is by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. The Surety of the covenant, in rendering an account of His faithful service to Him that appointed Him, declared that such was the case. See John xvii. 14: "I have given them Thy Word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." Notice also how He counsels and comforts His disciples under the world's hatred and persecution of them : "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also (John xv. 18-20). The world will not have the Father's Christ to reign over it in His glorious sovereignty of grace. It is too wise to bend to the dictates of His wisdom, too clever to submit to His guidance, and too righteous to need His salvation. The persons for whom these sermons are issued are neither wise, clever, nor righteous in their own esteem, but who look alone to JEHOVAH-JESUS, the only wise God, for wisdom, strength, and righteousness. In weakness, fear, and much trembling, and with an awful sense of unworthiness, these messages have been delivered; but an ample reward has been experienced by the preacher in the fact that they were received with eagerness by many weaklings of the chosen flock, many who fear to presume, many who tremble at God's Word, many who have come hungering and thirsting spiritually, and who have been filled with the good things of His kingdom. The preacher is no sectarian, and yet he is willing to spend and be spent for the good of the sect concerning which the Jews said to Paul, “We know that every where it is spoken against" (Acts xxviii. 22). These he commends to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build them up and give them an inheritance among all them that are sanctified (Acts xx. 32). As I said in the Preface to the First Volume, so say I now: "In these discourses I have nothing to offer, and no invitation to make. It is mine to preach Christ as I know and feel Him to be precious to my own soul, and to the souls of His eternally-loved and dearly-bought people, begging of the Holy Ghost to do His own work" in the application of JEHOVAH'S covenant truth to the hearts of many. Here I would express myself for the spiritual readers of these pages in the language of the now glorified Joseph Irons: "Dear Lord, Thy Spirit send Like a refreshing show'r; On Thee our waiting souls depend O may the seed now sown Sink deep in every heart; Be water'd hourly from Thy throne, O, hear our songs and cries; And let Thy sacred Word Shake the dry bones, bid sinners rise And joy to saints afford." In sending forth this Volume to the scattered flock, I commit it to the gracious care of Israel's covenant God who has said, "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isaiah lv. 10, 11). THOMAS BRADBURY. Grove Chapel, Camberwell. |