Spurgeon: September PM
* 09/30/PM
"A living dog is better than a dead lion."
--Ecclesiastes 9:4
Life is a precious thing, and in its humblest form it is
superior to death. This truth is eminently certain in spiritual
things. It is better to be the least in the kingdom of heaven
than the greatest out of it. The lowest degree of grace is
superior to the noblest development of unregenerate nature.
Where the Holy Ghost implants divine life in the soul, there is
a precious deposit which none of the refinements of education
can equal. The thief on the cross excels Caesar on his throne;
Lazarus among the dogs is better than Cicero among the senators;
and the most unlettered Christian is in the sight of God
superior to Plato. Life is the badge of nobility in the realm of
spiritual things, and men without it are only coarser or finer
specimens of the same lifeless material, needing to be
quickened, for they are dead in trespasses and sins.
A living, loving, gospel sermon, however unlearned in matter
and uncouth in style, is better than the finest discourse devoid
of unction and power. A living dog keeps better watch than a
dead lion, and is of more service to his master; and so the
poorest spiritual preacher is infinitely to be preferred to the
exquisite orator who has no wisdom but that of words, no energy
but that of sound. The like holds good of our prayers and other
religious exercises; if we are quickened in them by the Holy
Spirit, they are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, though
we may think them to be worthless things; while our grand
performances in which our hearts were absent, like dead lions,
are mere carrion in the sight of the living God. O for living
groans, living sighs, living despondencies, rather than lifeless
songs and dead calms. Better anything than death. The snarlings
of the dog of hell will at least keep us awake, but dead faith
and dead profession, what greater curses can a man have? Quicken
us, quicken us, O Lord!