The Pastor’s Parting Blessing (sermon 988)

Musing on the benedictions that drop from the lips of a faithful man, and in anticipation of his own absence from the flock at the Tabernacle, Spurgeon turns to the words with which Paul closes his letter to the Romans: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." With an eye to the affection which underpins the apostolic blessing, he dives into the substance of the particular favour which he enjoins upon God's people, musing upon the grace which is in and through and with Christ, and some of the dimensions of it. This is the bulk of his treatment. More briefly he considers the people who receive the blessing, and how and why we so need the grace of our Lord. Finally, and very warmly, he surveys the sweet results to be anticipated when such a blessing rests upon the beloved of God. Throughout the sermon, and especially having given himself so largely to the first section, one has the sense of a full heart operating under holy constraint, much material and true pastoral affection forced from the heart through the narrow aperture of the preacher's mouth under pressure of time. It helps us to consider not just how we pray, and with what sense and desire, but also what we can anticipate when the servants of God call down the mercies of the Lord's on our needy heads.