“Many there who cannot see these truths (the doctrines of God’s
sovereignty), who yet are in a state truly pleasing to God; yea many at whose
feet the best of us may be glad to be found in heaven. It is a great evil, when
these doctrines are made a ground of separation one from another, and when the
advocates of different systems anathematize each other…
In reference to truths which are involved in so much obscurity as those
which relate to the sovereignty of God mutual kindness and concession are far
better than vehement argumentation and uncharitable discussion.”
Charles Simeon
The most fundamental trial that Simeon had – and that we all have – was
himself.
He had a somewhat harsh and self-assertive air about him.
Simeon came to know himself and his sin very deeply.
He described his maturing in the ministry as growing downward.
Sometimes Simeon felt utterly alone at the University of Cambridge where
he lived.
The students held him in derision for his Biblical preaching and his
uncompromising stand as an evangelical.
But harder to bear than the insults of the students was the ostracism
and coldness of his peers in the University.
His parishioners did not want Simeon as their vicar.
For twelve years the church was so resistant to his leadership that they
would not let him preach Sunday evenings but hired and assistant to keep him
out.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say
all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great
is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who
were before you.”
Matthew 5:11-12
According to Charles Simeon, his invariable rule was “to endeavor to
give to every portion of the Word of God its full and proper force, without
considering what scheme it favours, or whose system it is likely to advance...
My endeavor is to bring out of Scripture what is there, and not to
thrust in what I think might be there. I have a great jealousy on this head;
never to speak more or less than I believe to be the mind of the Spirit in the
passage I am expounding.”
Charles Simeon
After twenty-five years of ministry, Charles Simeon’s health failed
suddenly.
His voice gave way so that preaching was very difficult and at times he
could only speak in a whisper.
He himself said, that after a sermon he would feel “more like on dead
than alive”.
This broken condition lasted for 13 years, till he was sixty years old.
In all this time Simeon pressed on in his work.
He had promised himself a very active life up to age sixty, and then a
Sabbath evening.
When he was sixty years old he says he was “almost as perceptibly
revived in strength as the woman was after she had touched the hem of our
Lord’s garment”.
According to him, he could hear is Master saying:
“I laid you aside, because you entertained with satisfaction the thought
of resting from your labour; but that now you have arrived at the very period
when you had promised yourself that satisfaction, and have determined instead
to spend your strength for me to the latest hour of your life, I have doubled,
trebled, quadrupled your strength, that you may execute your desire on a more
extended plan”.
Charles Simeon
So at sixty years of age, Simeon renewed his commitment to his pulpit
and the mission of the church and preached vigorously for 17 more years, until
two months before his death.
This post is part of Thursday Devotionals series. Right now it is going through the life, work and faith of Charles Simeon.
