Spurgeon: March PM
* 03/02/PM
"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this
grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ."
--Ephesians 3:8
The apostle Paul felt it a great privilege to be allowed to
preach the gospel. He did not look upon his calling as a
drudgery, but he entered upon it with intense delight. Yet while
Paul was thus thankful for his office, his success in it
greatly humbled him. The fuller a vessel becomes, the deeper it
sinks in the water. Idlers may indulge a fond conceit of their
abilities, because they are untried; but the earnest worker soon
learns his own weakness. If you seek humility, try hard work ;
if you would know your nothingness, attempt some great thing for
Jesus. If you would feel how utterly powerless you are apart
from the living God, attempt especially the great work of
proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ, and you will
know, as you never knew before, what a weak unworthy thing you
are. Although the apostle thus knew and confessed his weakness,
he was never perplexed as to the subject of his ministry. From
his first sermon to his last, Paul preached Christ, and nothing
but Christ. He lifted up the cross, and extolled the Son of God
who bled thereon. Follow his example in all your personal
efforts to spread the glad tidings of salvation, and let "Christ
and Him crucified" be your ever recurring theme. The Christian
should be like those lovely spring flowers which, when the sun
is shining, open their golden cups, as if saying, "Fill us with
thy beams!" but when the sun is hidden behind a cloud, they
close their cups and droop their heads. So should the Christian
feel the sweet influence of Jesus; Jesus must be his sun, and he
must be the flower which yields itself to the Sun of
Righteousness. Oh! to speak of Christ alone, this is the subject
which is both "seed for the sower, and bread for the eater."
This is the live coal for the lip of the speaker, and the
master-key to the heart of the hearer.