The Loaded Wagon

Spurgeon opens with the double image of the harvest wagon — first as a picture of how God has loaded every person and England itself with mercy upon mercy, sheaf upon sheaf of blessing — and then turns it with a sharp "Alas" into its opposite: while God has loaded us with benefits, we have loaded him with sin, until he cries out under the weight of human wickedness, and Spurgeon spends the first half of the sermon establishing why sin truly burdens God: it despoils his creation, destroys the happiness of his creatures, attacks every one of his attributes, amounts to defiance of his power, is high treason against his throne, and at heart desires God's non-existence. He then distinguishes degrees of grievousness — sexual sin, oppression of the poor, idolatry, blasphemy all provoke him particularly — and piles up aggravating circumstances: the length of time a sinner has persisted, the obstinacy that presses on through sickness, bereavement, and poverty, and above all the ingratitude of sinning against extraordinary privilege, before marveling that despite all this God still bears the load without the axle snapping, comparing his patience to a man knocked down, rolled in a ditch, and spat upon who still pays his attacker's debt. He closes with a thundering exposition of the cross as the only resolution: the same pressed-down, laden cart image applied now to Christ, who bore sheaf upon sheaf of his people's sin through Gethsemane, the pillar, and Calvary until forsaken by God himself, so that every hearer who trusts him may go free — and warning every Christless soul that the alternative is the other translation of the text: the same loaded wagon will press them down into eternal ruin, leaving furrows as deep as Hell, unless they fly to Christ this very morning.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on August 24, 1862.