Morning, August 18

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"Strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house."

  Jeremiah 51:51

   In this account the faces of the Lord's people were covered with shame,
   for it was a terrible thing that men should intrude into the Holy Place
   reserved for the priests alone. Everywhere about us we see like cause
   for sorrow. How many ungodly men are now educating with the view of
   entering into the ministry! What a crying sin is that solemn lie by
   which our whole population is nominally comprehended in a National
   Church! How fearful it is that ordinances should be pressed upon the
   unconverted, and that among the more enlightened churches of our land
   there should be such laxity of discipline. If the thousands who will
   read this portion shall all take this matter before the Lord Jesus this
   day, he will interfere and avert the evil which else will come upon his
   Church. To adulterate the Church is to pollute a well, to pour water
   upon fire, to sow a fertile field with stones. May we all have grace to
   maintain in our own proper way the purity of the Church, as being an
   assembly of believers, and not a nation, an unsaved community of
   unconverted men.

   Our zeal must, however, begin at home. Let us examine ourselves as to
   our right to eat at the Lord's table. Let us see to it that we have on
   our wedding garment, lest we ourselves be intruders in the Lord's
   sanctuaries. Many are called, but few are chosen; the way is narrow,
   and the gate is strait. O for grace to come to Jesus aright, with the
   faith of God's elect. He who smote Uzzah for touching the ark is very
   jealous of his two ordinances; as a true believer I may approach them
   freely, as an alien I must not touch them lest I die. Heart searching
   is the duty of all who are baptized or come to the Lord's table.
   "Search me, O God, and know my way, try me and know my heart."