Evening, August 4
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Haggai 2:17
"I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the
labours of your hands."
Haggai 2:17
How destructive is the hail to the standing crops, beating out the
precious grain upon the ground! How grateful ought we to be when the
corn is spared so terrible a ruin! Let us offer unto the Lord
thanksgiving. Even more to be dreaded are those mysterious
destroyers--smut, bunt, rust, and mildew. These turn the ear into a
mass of soot, or render it putrid, or dry up the grain, and all in a
manner so beyond all human control that the farmer is compelled to cry,
"This is the finger of God." Innumerable minute fungi cause the
mischief, and were it not for the goodness of God, the rider on the
black horse would soon scatter famine over the land. Infinite mercy
spares the food of men, but in view of the active agents which are
ready to destroy the harvest, right wisely are we taught to pray, "Give
us this day our daily bread." The curse is abroad; we have constant
need of the blessing. When blight and mildew come they are
chastisements from heaven, and men must learn to bear the rod, and him
that hath appointed it.
Spiritually, mildew is no uncommon evil. When our work is most
promising this blight appears. We hoped for many conversions, and lo! a
general apathy, an abounding worldliness, or a cruel hardness of heart!
There may be no open sin in those for whom we are labouring, but there
is a deficiency of sincerity and decision sadly disappointing our
desires. We learn from this our dependence upon the Lord, and the need
of prayer that no blight may fall upon our work. Spiritual pride or
sloth will soon bring upon us the dreadful evil, and only the Lord of
the harvest can remove it. Mildew may even attack our own hearts, and
shrivel our prayers and religious exercises. May it please the great
Husbandman to avert so serious a calamity. Shine, blessed Sun of
Righteousness, and drive the blights away.