Morning, August 27

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"How long will it be ere they believe me?"

  Numbers 14:11

   Strive with all diligence to keep out that monster unbelief. It so
   dishonours Christ, that he will withdraw his visible presence if we
   insult him by indulging it. It is true it is a weed, the seeds of which
   we can never entirely extract from the soil, but we must aim at its
   root with zeal and perseverance. Among hateful things it is the most to
   be abhorred. Its injurious nature is so venomous that he that
   exerciseth it and he upon whom it is exercised are both hurt thereby.
   In thy case, O believer! it is most wicked, for the mercies of thy Lord
   in the past, increase thy guilt in doubting him now. When thou dost
   distrust the Lord Jesus, he may well cry out, "Behold I am pressed
   under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves." This is
   crowning his head with thorns of the sharpest kind. It is very cruel
   for a well-beloved wife to mistrust a kind and faithful husband. The
   sin is needless, foolish, and unwarranted. Jesus has never given the
   slightest ground for suspicion, and it is hard to be doubted by those
   to whom our conduct is uniformly affectionate and true. Jesus is the
   Son of the Highest, and has unbounded wealth; it is shameful to doubt
   Omnipotence and distrust all-sufficiency. The cattle on a thousand
   hills will suffice for our most hungry feeding, and the granaries of
   heaven are not likely to be emptied by our eating. If Christ were only
   a cistern, we might soon exhaust his fulness, but who can drain a
   fountain? Myriads of spirits have drawn their supplies from him, and
   not one of them has murmured at the scantiness of his resources. Away,
   then, with this lying traitor unbelief, for his only errand is to cut
   the bonds of communion and make us mourn an absent Saviour. Bunyan
   tells us that unbelief has "as many lives as a cat:" if so, let us kill
   one life now, and continue the work till the whole nine are gone. Down
   with thee, thou traitor, my heart abhors thee.