Evening, May 6
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Job 14:14
"All the days of my appointed time will I wait."
Job 14:14
A little stay on earth will make heaven more heavenly. Nothing makes
rest so sweet as toil; nothing renders security so pleasant as exposure
to alarms. The bitter quassia cups of earth will give a relish to the
new wine which sparkles in the golden bowls of glory. Our battered
armour and scarred countenances will render more illustrious our
victory above, when we are welcomed to the seats of those who have
overcome the world. We should not have full fellowship with Christ if
we did not for awhile sojourn below, for he was baptized with a baptism
of suffering among men, and we must be baptized with the same if we
would share his kingdom. Fellowship with Christ is so honourable that
the sorest sorrow is a light price by which to procure it. Another
reason for our lingering here is for the good of others. We would not
wish to enter heaven till our work is done, and it may be that we are
yet ordained to minister light to souls benighted in the wilderness of
sin. Our prolonged stay here is doubtless for God's glory. A tried
saint, like a well-cut diamond, glitters much in the King's crown.
Nothing reflects so much honour on a workman as a protracted and severe
trial of his work, and its triumphant endurance of the ordeal without
giving way in any part. We are God's workmanship, in whom he will be
glorified by our afflictions. It is for the honour of Jesus that we
endure the trial of our faith with sacred joy. Let each man surrender
his own longings to the glory of Jesus, and feel, "If my lying in the
dust would elevate my Lord by so much as an inch, let me still lie
among the pots of earth. If to live on earth forever would make my Lord
more glorious, it should be my heaven to be shut out of heaven." Our
time is fixed and settled by eternal decree. Let us not be anxious
about it, but wait with patience till the gates of pearl shall open.