Gleanings among the Sheaves. C. H. Spurgeon
Читать онлайн книгу.I keep my heart full? How can my emotions be strong? How can I keep my desires burning and my zeal inflamed?" Christian! there is one text which will explain all this: "All my springs are in Thee," said David. If thou hast all thy springs in God, thy heart will be full enough. If thou goest to the foot of Calvary, there will thy heart be bathed in love and gratitude. If thou art often in the vale of retirement, talking with thy God, thy heart shall be full of calm resolve. If you goest with thy Master to the hill of Olivet, with Him to weep over Jerusalem, then will thy heart be full of love for never-dying souls. If thou art continually drawing thine impulse, thy life, the whole of thy being from the Holy Spirit, without whom thou canst do nothing, and if thou art living in close communion with Christ, there will be no fear of thy having a dry heart. He who lives without prayer—he who lives with little prayer—he who seldom reads the Word—he who seldom looks up to heaven for a fresh influence from on high—he will be the man whose heart will become dry and barren; but he who calls in secret on his God—who spends much time in holy retirement—who delights to meditate on the words of the Most High—whose soul is given up to Christ—who delights in His fulness, rejoices in his all-sufficiency, prays for his second coming, and delights in the thought of his glorious advent—such a man must have an overflowing heart; and as his heart is, such will his life be. It will be a full life; it will be a life that will speak from the sepulchre, and wake the echoes of the future. "Keep thine heart with all diligence," and entreat the Holy Spirit to keep it full; for otherwise, the issues of thy life will be feeble, shallow, and superficial; and thou mayest as well not have lived at all.
O for a heart thus full, and deep, and broad! Find the man that hath such a heart, and he is the man from whom living waters shall flow, to make the world glad with their refreshing streams.
Persevering Prayer.
Do not give up those prayers which God's Spirit has put in your hearts—for remember, the things you have asked for are worth waiting for. Besides, you are a beggar when you are in prayer; therefore you must not be a chooser as to the time when God shall hear you. If you had right ideas of yourself, you would say, "It is a wonder that He ever listens to me at all, so unworthy as I am. Does the Infinite indeed bow His ear to me? May I hope He will at last listen to me? Then I may well continue my prayers."
And recollect it is your only hope: there is no other Saviour. This or none—Christ's blood or else eternal wrath. And to whom shall you go, if you turn away from Him? None ever yet perished pleading for mercy; therefore keep on.
Besides, better men than you have had to wait. Kings, and patriarchs, and prophets have waited; therefore surely you can be content to sit in the King's antechamber a little while. It is an honor to sit as Mordecai did at the gate. Pray on—wait on!
"Ah!" says one, "that is just what I have been doing a long time." Yes, yes, there are different kinds of waiting. A man says, "I have been waiting:" but he has folded his arms and gone to sleep. You may wait in that way till you are lost. The waiting I mean is "getting all things ready"—the waiting of the poor sufferer for the physician, who cries out in pain, "Is the doctor coming?" I will be surety for my Master when I say that none such will be sent empty away. He will never break his promise. Try Him—try Him!
Humility.
What is humility of mind? Humility is to make a right estimate of one's self. It is no humility for a man to think less of himself than he ought, though it might rather puzzle him to do that. Some persons, when they know they can do a thing, tell you they cannot: but you surely would not call that humility? A man is asked to take part in some good work: "No," he says, "I have no ability;" yet, if you were to say so of him, he would be offended at you. It is not humility for a man to stand up and depreciate himself, and say he cannot do this, that, or the other, when he knows that it is untrue. If God gives a man a talent, do you think the man does not know it? If a man has ten talents, he has no right to be dishonest to his Maker, and to say, "Lord, thou hast only given me five." It is not humility to underrate your endowments: humility is to think of yourself, if you can, as God thinks of you. It is to feel that if we have talents, God has given them to us, and let it be seen that, like freight in a vessel, they tend to sink us low. The more we have, the lower we ought to lie. Humility is not to say, "I have not this gift;" but it is to say, "I have the gift, and I must use it for my Master's glory. I must never seek any honor for myself; for what have I that I have not received?" Humility is to feel that we have no power of ourselves, but that it all cometh from God. Humility is to lean on our Beloved, saying, "I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me." It is, in fact, to annihilate self, and to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ as All in All.
Look Upwards.
Christian! in all thy troubles, look unto God, and be saved. In all thy trials and afflictions, look unto Christ, and find deliverance. In all thine agony, in all thy repentance for thy guilt, look unto Christ, and find pardon. Remember to put thine eyes heavenward, and thine heart heavenward too. Bind round thyself a golden chain, and put one link of it in the staple in heaven. Look unto Christ; fear not. There is no stumbling when a man walks with his eyes up to Jesus. He that looks at Christ walks safely.
The Use of Trial.
Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of; they just turn up some of the ill weeds on to the surface.
Faith Necessary.
Whatsoever things are lovely, and pure, and of good report," try and gain them; but remember that all these things put together, without faith, do not please God. Virtues, without faith, are whitewashed sins. Unbelief nullifies everything. It is the fly in the ointment; it is the poison in the pot. Without faith—with all the virtues of purity, with all the benevolence of philanthropy, with all the kindness of disinterested sympathy, with all the talents of genius, with all the bravery of patriotism, and with all the decision of principle—you have no title to divine acceptance, for "without faith it is impossible to please God."
Faith fosters every virtue; unbelief withers every virtue in the bud. Thousands of prayers have been stopped by unbelief; many songs of praise, that would have swelled the chorus of the skies, have been stifled by unbelieving murmurs; many a noble enterprise conceived in the heart has been blighted ere it could come forth by unbelief. Faith is the Samsonian lock of the Christian: cut it off, and he can do nothing. Peter, while he had faith, walked on the waves of the sea. But presently there came a billow behind him, and he said, "That will sweep me away;" and then another before, and he cried out, "That will overwhelm me;" and he thought, "How could I be so presumptuous as to walk on the top of these waves?" And as soon as he doubted, he began to sink. Faith was Peter's life-buoy—it kept him up; but unbelief sent him down. The Christian's life may be said to be always "walking on the water," and every wave would