Sermons in Candles
By C.H. Spurgeon
(part 5)
Let me set before you an admirable illustration, which is not one of my own, but comes from the great Master of assemblies. Here is a candle, and, of course we have
brought it with a view to its giving light; but the absurd action that I am bent upon is to cover it up with a bushel. It would be a very ridiculous thing to be at the pains of providing a lighted candle and then to hide it under a bushel. Yet I do to make the folly apparent to you all. I notice that you laugh, and well you may. You may use a bushel and use a candle; but by putting the candle under the bushel, you use neither of them, but mis-use both. I am sure none of you would be guilty of such an absurd act.
And can it be that even a single person here would be so profane as to believe that the All-wise God would do that which we all condemn as folly? And yet, when those of you who profess to have grace in your hearts claim that you are placed where you can do no good, you virtually charge the Lord with lighting a candle and putting it under a bushel. Yonder is my respected brother … hear what he has to say; “My dear Mr. Spurgeon, you cannot expect me to be doing any work in the church, for my daily labour leaves me no time for anything else. I am willing, but quite unable to do a hand's turn for my Lord.” Yes, yes, I see … God has lighted you, and then has put you where your light is condemned to be unseen. God has given you the light of His grace, and then deliberately placed a great golden bushel over you! Do you feel sure that is so? Is there not a still, small voice that whispers there is something wrong?
In the next similitude you have a simpler reminder of the imperfections to which men are liable. A candle needs snuffers.
And men need chastisements; for they are both of them subject to infirmities. In the Temple of Solomon there were snuffers and snuff dishes; but they were all of gold. God's rebukes are in love, and so should our's be: holy rebukes in the spirit of love are snuffers of gold. Never use any others, and use even these with discretion, lest you put out the flame which it is your aim to improve. Never reprove in anger. Do not deal with a small fault as if it were a great crime. If you see a fly on your boy's forehead, don't try to kill it with a sledge-hammer, or you may kill the boy also. Do the needful but very difficult work of reproof with the kindest and wisest style,
so that the good that you aim at may be attained.
Here is a very important looking candle. You may expect great things from such a portly illuminator. Look at the size of it. But when I light it, the illuminating power is very small. We have here the maximum of tallow and the minimum of light. The fact is that only a little of the fat just near the centre ever gets melted. Partial consecration is a very doubtful thing; and yet, how much we have of it! What is needed is grace “more abundant” to fuse the whole man, and make every part and parcel of him subservient to God's great design of light-giving. I was present at a meeting where a truly solid and instructive speaker succeeded in mesmerising us all, so that in another half a minute we should all have been asleep. His talk was as good as gold, and as heavy. He was followed by a gentlemen who was “all there” – what there was of him. He was so energetic that he broke a chair, and made us all draw in our feet, for fear he should come down on our corns. How the folks woke up! He was like the second candle in our woodcut – the cobbler's candle with two wicks. His blaze was very large in proportion to the material which sustained it.
Master Bunyan gives us a word of thought in the doggerel rhyme with which I end this lesson.
Man's like a candle in a candlestick,
Made up of tallow and a little wick;
And as the candle is, before 'tis lighted,
Just so be they who are in sin benighted.
Nor can a man with grace his soul inspire,
More than can candles set themselves on fire.
Candles receive their light from what they are not,
Men, grace from Him, for whom at first they care not.
