Spurgeon: May PM
* 05/06/PM
"All the days of my appointed time will I wait."
--Job 14:14
A little stay on earth will make heaven more heavenly .
Nothing makes rest so sweet as toil; nothing renders security so
pleasant as exposure to alarms. The bitter quassia cups of earth
will give a relish to the new wine which sparkles in the golden
bowls of glory. Our battered armour and scarred countenances
will render more illustrious our victory above, when we are
welcomed to the seats of those who have overcome the world. We
should not have full fellowship with Christ if we did not for
awhile sojourn below, for He was baptized with a baptism of
suffering among men, and we must be baptized with the same if we
would share his kingdom. Fellowship with Christ is so honourable
that the sorest sorrow is a light price by which to procure it.
Another reason for our lingering here is for the good of
others . We would not wish to enter heaven till our work is
done, and it may be that we are yet ordained to minister light
to souls benighted in the wilderness of sin. Our prolonged stay
here is doubtless for God's glory . A tried saint, like a
well-cut diamond, glitters much in the King's crown. Nothing
reflects so much honour on a workman as a protracted and severe
trial of his work, and its triumphant endurance of the ordeal
without giving way in any part. We are God's workmanship, in
whom He will be glorified by our afflictions. It is for the
honour of Jesus that we endure the trial of our faith with
sacred joy. Let each man surrender his own longings to the
glory of Jesus, and feel, "If my lying in the dust would elevate
my Lord by so much as an inch, let me still lie among the pots
of earth. If to live on earth for ever would make my Lord more
glorious, it should be my heaven to be shut out of heaven." Our
time is fixed and settled by eternal decree. Let us not be
anxious about it, but wait with patience till the gates of pearl
shall open.