Chapter Five

Chapter 5.
Two Characteristic Illustrations

During the early days of January, Mr. Spurgeon wrote the following short pieces. He was always on the alert for illustrations of spiritual truth; and these last paragraphs, one of them referring to Christian experience, and the other to Christian practice, may well be pondered now that the hand that wrote them is palsied in death. The second should especially remind us that the Institutions, formerly under the care of Mr. Spurgeon, and which will be carried on as heretofore, are still in need of generous support. Let every mercy prompt an offering from thankful hearts. The handwriting of both articles is as distinct as anything the beloved author ever penned; and those who read them will at once perceive that his mental eye was not dim, nor his spiritual force abated, when he wrote as follows:—

New Year's Day, 1892

"At Menton, the first day of the year was as one of the days of heaven upon the earth. Almost cloudless and windless, beneath the bluest of skies, the day was warm and bright with the glorious sun. Did we draw the inference that, all the world over, New Year's Day was like summer? Did we disbelieve the paragraphs in the daily journals which told another tale of other lands? We were not so foolish.

"A certain brother has an exceedingly rapturous experience, full of confidence, communion, and conquest. Does he, therefore, conclude that all true Christian experience

From Harper's Magazine.—Copyright, 1883, by Harper & Brothers. View of Menton, from the Boulevard Victoria. must necessarily be of this delightful order? Does he cast a doubt upon the sincerity of others, whose spiritual weather is clouded, and even darkened with storms? Let us trust that he will not be so uncharitable, so unjust.

"But if a friend, from a land of fogs and frosts, should insinuate that our report of the New Year at Menton was fanciful and fictitious, because he had experienced far different weather, would he not be very ungenerous? So the brother of sombre spirit and troubled experience is not acting as he should do when he judges the cheerful as being frivolous, condemns the rapturous as excitable, and looks upon the confident as presumptuous. He has no right to set up his painful experience as the standard by which to discern the people of God; neither is he justified in denying the possibility of unbroken peace because he has never long enjoyed it.

"We may not judge others by ourselves. We may not infer general facts from individual cases. We must take into consideration a thousand things, and many of these we do not know: wherefore, let us not judge, that we be not judged."—C. H. S.

Provocatives of Generosity

"The mail from India brings news of the narrow escape from death of the ruler of the State of Morvi, on the 18th November, 1891. It is said that his Highness was at his stables on the evening of that day, and found his grooms searching for a snake that had been seen half-an-hour before. The pursuit was, however, given up, and the Prince drove out as usual. On the way, he suddenly felt a warm sensation on his chest. He had put on an overcoat; and as he unbuttoned it, a black, venomous cobra fell to the ground in a heavy coil, and glided away. His Highness drove back at once to the palace, and distributed a sum of Rs. 500 among the poor, and gave feasts the following morning.

"We, too, have seen a deadlier serpent drop at our feet; but have we been as practical in our gratitude as this Indian Prince? The deadly thing was coiled about our heart, and only by a miracle of grace have we been delivered from its venomous tooth: have we shown our thankfulness to Christ Jesus our Lord by helping his poor people with our substance? Have we made feasts for his saints by the utterance of the Lord's goodness?

"Every time we have a providential escape, or a gracious rescue from temptation, let us think of the Rajah of Morvi, and make haste to celebrate the happy event by bountiful liberality. If such were the case, one could see a new reason for the existence of black cobras, and other dangers: they would become provocatives of generosity."—C. H. S.