This is part two of the thoughts of Spurgeon based on Thomas Manton’s thoughts on the 119th psalm.
Manton:
We do not judge of men’s complexions by the colour they have when they sit before the fire.
Spurgeon:
See how people weep under a moving sermon! Think not, therefore, that their hearts are changed, for even marble drips in certain weathers. A man fresh from a revival meeting may look like a zealous Christian; but see him when he goes to conduct his business at market. As a face rendered red by the fire soon loses all its ruddiness, so do numbers lose all their “godliness” when they quit the society of the godly.
Manton:
We should as carefully avoid errors as vices; a blind eye is worse than a lame foot; yea, a blind eye may cause a lame foot, for he that has not light is apt to stumble.
Spurgeon:
Very few seem to think so, but there is solemn truth in the statement. Men fancy that their minds are their own, and that they may do what they will with them – thinking and believing just as their conceit suggests with consequences. But doctrinal laxity leads to moral licence. Falsehoods of belief are fitly followed by superstitions in ritual, for those who slay the doctrines are not ashamed to mangle the ordinances. O, Lord … Do not allow me to be blind to thy truth, lest I stumble in my daily life, and become scandalous as well as heretical.
Manton:
A gardener knoweth what roots are in the ground long before they appear.
Spurgeon:
Look over the garden in winter, and you will not know that there is any preparation for spring; but the gardener sees in his mind’s eye – here a circle of golden cups, and there a cluster of snow-white beauties. His eye knows where the daffodils and the anemones lie asleep, waiting to rise in all their loveliness; and he has learned the secret of the primroses and the violets, who wait in ambush till the first warm breath of spring shall bid them reveal themselves. Even thus the Lord knows his hidden ones long before the day of their manifesting. He sees his church before its ministers see it, and declares concerning heathen Corinth, “I have much people in this city.”
Manton:
When a sentinel is set upon watch, he must not come off without the commander’s leave, and till he is discharged by authority.
Spurgeon:
The instance of the sentinel in Pompeii, whose skeleton was found erect at the city gate, when all but he had fled, need not be repeated in words; but it should be copied by each one of us in his life. If the earth should reel, it is the Christian’s to keep his place. If set to preach the gospel, let us maintain the truth, though philosophy should thin the number of our comrades till we remain alone. If commanded to teach a few little children, let us be as faithful to our trust as if we had been set to lead a legion of angels. “Whatsoever he saith unto thee, do it,” was Mary’s advice in her day, and the spirit of that should abide with all Christians to the end of time.