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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Thursday, November 1, 2007
MORNING:
"The church in thy house."
-- Philemon 2
Is there a Church in this house? Are parents, children, friends,
servants, all members of it? or are some still unconverted? Let us
pause here and let the question go round-Am I a member of the Church in
this house? How would father's heart leap for joy, and mother's eyes
fill with holy tears if from the eldest to the youngest all were saved!
Let us pray for this great mercy until the Lord shall grant it to us.
Probably it had been the dearest object of Philemon's desires to have
all his household saved; but it was not at first granted him in its
fulness. He had a wicked servant, Onesimus, who, having wronged him,
ran away from his service. His master's prayers followed him, and at
last, as God would have it, Onesimus was led to hear Paul preach; his
heart was touched, and he returned to Philemon, not only to be a
faithful servant, but a brother beloved, adding another member to the
Church in Philemon's house. Is there an unconverted servant or child
absent this morning? Make special supplication that such may, on their
return to their home, gladden all hearts with good news of what grace
has done! Is there one present? Let him partake in the same earnest
entreaty.
If there be such a Church in our house, let us order it well, and let
all act as in the sight of God. Let us move in the common affairs of
life with studied holiness, diligence, kindness, and integrity. More is
expected of a Church than of an ordinary household; family worship
must, in such a case, be more devout and hearty; internal love must be
more warm and unbroken, and external conduct must be more sanctified
and Christlike. We need not fear that the smallness of our number will
put us out of the list of Churches, for the Holy Spirit has here
enrolled a family-church in the inspired book of remembrance. As a
Church let us now draw nigh to the great head of the one Church
universal, and let us beseech him to give us grace to shine before men
to the glory of his name.
EVENING:
"And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away: so
shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
-- Matthew 24:39
Universal was the doom, neither rich nor poor escaped: the learned and
the illiterate, the admired and the abhorred, the religious and the
profane, the old and the young, all sank in one common ruin. Some had
doubtless ridiculed the patriarch-where now their merry jests? Others
had threatened him for his zeal which they counted madness-where now
their boastings and hard speeches? The critic who judged the old man's
work is drowned in the same sea which covers his sneering companions.
Those who spoke patronizingly of the good man's fidelity to his
convictions, but shared not in them, have sunk to rise no more, and the
workers who for pay helped to build the wondrous ark, are all lost
also. The flood swept them all away, and made no single exception. Even
so, out of Christ, final destruction is sure to every man of woman
born; no rank, possession, or character, shall suffice to save a single
soul who has not believed in the Lord Jesus. My soul, behold this
wide-spread judgment and tremble at it.
How marvellous the general apathy! they were all eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, till the awful morning dawned. There
was not one wise man upon earth out of the ark. Folly duped the whole
race, folly as to self-preservation-the most foolish of all follies.
Folly in doubting the most true God-the most malignant of fooleries.
Strange, my soul, is it not? All men are negligent of their souls till
grace gives them reason, then they leave their madness and act like
rational beings, but not till then.
All, blessed be God, were safe in the ark, no ruin entered there. From
the huge elephant down to the tiny mouse all were safe. The timid hare
was equally secure with the courageous lion, the helpless cony as safe
as the laborious ox. All are safe in Jesus. My soul, art thou in him?
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