Spurgeon: September AM
* 09/27/AM
"Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved
by the Lord!"
--Deuteronomy 33:29
He who affirms that Christianity makes men miserable, is
himself an utter stranger to it. It were strange indeed, if it
made us wretched, for see to what a position it exalts us ! It
makes us sons of God. Suppose you that God will give all the
happiness to His enemies, and reserve all the mourning for His
own family? Shall His foes have mirth and joy, and shall His
home-born children inherit sorrow and wretchedness? Shall the
sinner, who has no part in Christ, call himself rich in
happiness, and shall we go mourning as if we were penniless
beggars? No, we will rejoice in the Lord always, and glory in
our inheritance, for we "have not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear; but we have received the spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father." The rod of chastisement must rest
upon us in our measure, but it worketh for us the comfortable
fruits of righteousness; and therefore by the aid of the divine
Comforter, we, the "people saved of the Lord," will joy in the
God of our salvation. We are married unto Christ; and shall our
great Bridegroom permit His spouse to linger in constant grief?
Our hearts are knit unto Him: we are His members, and though for
awhile we may suffer as our Head once suffered, yet we are even
now blessed with heavenly blessings in Him. We have the earnest
of our inheritance in the comforts of the Spirit, which are
neither few nor small. Heritors of joy for ever, we have
foretastes of our portion. There are streaks of the light of joy
to herald our eternal sunrising. Our riches are beyond the sea;
our city with firm foundations lies on the other side the river;
gleams of glory from the spirit-world cheer our hearts, and urge
us onward. Truly is it said of us, "Happy art thou, O Israel;
who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord?"