Spurgeon: August PM
* 08/05/PM
"Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?"
--Numbers 32:6
Kindred has its obligations. The Reubenites and Gadites would
have been unbrotherly if they had claimed the land which had
been conquered, and had left the rest of the people to fight for
their portions alone. We have received much by means of the
efforts and sufferings of the saints in years gone by, and if we
do not make some return to the church of Christ by giving her
our best energies, we are unworthy to be enrolled in her ranks.
Others are combating the errors of the age manfully, or
excavating perishing ones from amid the ruins of the fall, and
if we fold our hands in idleness we had need be warned, lest the
curse of Meroz fall upon us. The Master of the vineyard saith,
"Why stand ye here all the day idle?" What is the idler's
excuse? Personal service of Jesus becomes all the more the duty
of all because it is cheerfully and abundantly rendered by some.
The toils of devoted missionaries and fervent ministers shame us
if we sit still in indolence. Shrinking from trial is the
temptation of those who are at ease in Zion: they would fain
escape the cross and yet wear the crown; to them the question
for this evening's meditation is very applicable. If the most
precious are tried in the fire, are we to escape the crucible?
If the diamond must be vexed upon the wheel, are we to be made
perfect without suffering? Who hath commanded the wind to cease
from blowing because our bark is on the deep? Why and wherefore
should we be treated better than our Lord? The firstborn felt
the rod, and why not the younger brethren? It is a cowardly
pride which would choose a downy pillow and a silken couch for a
soldier of the cross. Wiser far is he who, being first resigned
to the divine will, groweth by the energy of grace to be pleased
with it, and so learns to gather lilies at the cross foot, and,
like Samson, to find honey in the lion.