Spurgeon: July AM
* 07/11/AM
"After that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish,
strengthen, settle you."
--1 Peter 5:10
You have seen the arch of heaven as it spans the plain: glorious are its colours, and rare its hues. It is beautiful,
but, alas, it passes away, and lo, it is not. The fair colours
give way to the fleecy clouds, and the sky is no longer
brilliant with the tints of heaven. It is not established . How
can it be? A glorious show made up of transitory sun-beams and
passing rain-drops, how can it abide? The graces of the
Christian character must not resemble the rainbow in its
transitory beauty, but, on the contrary, must be stablished,
settled, abiding. Seek, O believer, that every good thing you
have may be an abiding thing. May your character not be a
writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! May
your faith be no "baseless fabric of a vision," but may it be
builded of material able to endure that awful fire which shall
consume the wood, hay, and stubble of the hypocrite. May you be
rooted and grounded in love. May your convictions be deep, your
love real, your desires earnest. May your whole life be so
settled and established, that all the blasts of hell, and all
the storms of earth shall never be able to remove you. But
notice how this blessing of being "stablished in the faith" is
gained. The apostle's words point us to suffering as the means
employed--" After that ye have suffered awhile ." It is of no
use to hope that we shall be well rooted if no rough winds pass
over us. Those old gnarlings on the root of the oak tree, and
those strange twistings of the branches, all tell of the many
storms that have swept over it, and they are also indicators of
the depth into which the roots have forced their way. So the
Christian is made strong, and firmly rooted by all the trials
and storms of life. Shrink not then from the tempestuous winds
of trial, but take comfort, believing that by their rough
discipline God is fulfilling this benediction to you.