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Charles Spurgeon

Look to Christ

Look to Christ

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The story goes that Charles Spurgeon was converted upon hearing a sermon on the text from Isaiah 45:22, “Look unto me, and be ye saved.” This endures as the potently simple Gospel of salvation: Look to Christ.

Here in this child’s infancy, before he’s even able to fix his eyes firmly on anything, we are turning his eyes to Christ in applying these covenantal waters. As these parents raise him, they’re commanded to continually point his eyes to Christ. As the body, we’re admonished to encourage him to fix his eyes on Christ. All of this so that, someday, when his children & grandchildren close his eyes in death, his whole life will have been one of looking to Christ. So, what we are saying in this baptism is what he must hear and do each day of his life: look to Christ, and be ye saved.

So welcome covenant child to Jesus Christ…

The Fire & Fury of the Living God

The Fire & Fury of the Living God

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Introduction 

The prophetic ministry is not an extra-curricular activity of some believers. Rather, preaching is a part of our corporate worship. We affirm that in the reading and explanation of God’s Word, we are hearing God speak to us. But man would rather reach for the volume knob of his distractions. But God will be heard, and if these are the echoes of His ways, what will you do when He thunders?

The Text

1 The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. 2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. 3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. 4 I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;  . . . 

Zephaniah 1:1-18

Summary of the Text

Zephaniah begins with a personal lineage, which appears to intimate that he’s related to the royal family; there’s also an important mention of polar opposite kings of Judah: godly Josiah and his wicked father Amon. This locates when this prophecy was given––~626BC (v1). Then commences the announcement of God’s coming wrath, which is described in all-encompassing terms; reminiscent of God’s global judgement in Noah’s day (cf. Gen. 6:7) (vv2-3). Judah and Jerusalem are brought into the crosshairs, and we begin to see why God is readying to unleash His holy wrath on the whole world: worship of Baal and the heavenly host persists (Manasseh’s influence), mixed in with a fair helping of swearing by both the Lord and Malcham, and plenty of apathetic apostasy (vv 4-6).

The Jews should lay their hand on their mouth if they think to object to this sweeping judgement, because the oft foretold “day of the Lord” was now imminent (v7). God Himself has prepared a sacrificial meal and invited His guests. The twist here is that Judah will be the sacrifice, and it would seem that the summoned guests are the nations (Cf. Jer. 10:25) which God has brought to “devour” Judah (v7b). 

Certain groups are held up as epitomizing the offenses which God is coming to punish: the royal family who have arrayed themselves in “strange apparel” (v8) (Cf. 2 Ki. 10:22, Isa. 3:18), and those who “leap/rush over the threshold” in order to obtain plunder for their masters’ house (v9) (Cf. 1 Sam. 5:5). Think Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham. Lest the commoners think they are somehow so insignificant as to escape the Lord’s notice, Zephaniah describes the cries and howls which will issue across Jerusalem when this ruination comes (vv10-11). 

God will be thorough in His search for evildoers, and there won’t be a crevice in which to hide; those who had been dismissive of former prophetic warnings won’t be able to be dismissive anymore (v12). Judah will be wholly plundered, and all the deuteronomic blessings whisked away (v13).

Zephaniah echoes and summarizes earlier prophets’ warnings of “the day of the Lord.” It is near. It is terrible. It is an inescapable reality (vv14-16). As one economist once shrewdly pointed out: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” This judgement will be devastating, and neither their silver nor gold will deliver them. The fierce fire of the Lord’s jealousy is upon them and He is thundering down upon them to expel them from the land, and wish them, “good riddance (vv17-18).”

The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin

One of the most damning effects of sin is that we call evil good, and good evil. Sin is so wicked because not only do we trespass in the commission of the sinful act, but we sin by telling ourselves that the sin is necessary, even right. Not only do we sin, we redefine our sin. We buttress ourselves against what our guilty consciences witness against us.

Zephaniah presents us a vivid picture in response to man’s temptation to paper over his sin. God is coming, candle in hand, searching every nook and cranny of Jerusalem to find those who had grown indifferent to the Lord’s claim over that Holy City. God is shown here as hunting down and searching out those who have said in their hearts, “God isn’t going to do good or evil.” But as the Psalmist taught us, only the fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

The Gospel Arc

Zephaniah’s opening salvo leaves no wiggle room for the  warm fuzzies of our modern evangelical nannies, which all too often rush in and comfort us with “There, there…God is love.” Some scholars bemoan how derivative this book is, because it borrows imagery from more gifted prophets like Amos and Isaiah. But we should see in Zephaniah a lovely succinctness––a prophetic bluntness––made to startle the complacent. His main objective is to disturb the complacent with a simple but vibrant warning. 

In some Christian circles it has become increasingly en vogue to avoid the bad news of the Gospel. They think presenting Jesus as merely an example of tolerance, love, and kindness is all the Church is called to. Good as those virtues are, they are not the ground of our salvation. Kindness is only good if defined biblically. Otherwise it becomes like a child who feeds the new puppy too much dog food simply because neither the child nor the puppy know how to stop. 

But, the Gospel, faithfully preached, must first make the unrepentant sinner miserable. That is the Gospel arc we see here in this short prophetic book: a shocking rebuke, a call to repentance, and then, and only then, the assurance of mercy to those who turn to the Lord.

In our age of self-esteem, this is avoided at all cost, even in many pulpits. Nevertheless, the prophetic denouncement of sins big and small, sins of the royalty and sins of the commoners, corporate sins and individual sins, and the just wrath that awaits such sins is meant to incite sinners to ask “What must I do to be saved?”

What Must I Do?

Trying to carve out God’s love as if it can stand apart from His justice is denying His immutability. It assumes that God’s love cannot be so fierce as to burn with the heat of a thousand suns when wickedness is allowed to flourish. God will not be pitted against Himself.

Instead of blushing at the severity of the prophet’s voice, or bubble-wrapping the bad news of the Good News we need to wince. The prophetic Word insists, “Don’t ignore the warnings. Don’t minimize them. Don’t scoff at them.” When God warns, the thing you must do is ask, “Is there anything else? Show it all to me!” Don’t look for refuge in comparison shopping your sin compared to other more grievous sins.

Some may want to balk at Zephaniah’s hyperbole. Isn’t he overdoing it? But often a pastor needs to wave his hands and say in simple terms, “Stop it.” Spurgeon once commented on the severe nature of Zephaniah’s prophetic book, “I bless the Bible for being severe with my unbelief.” Do you want God to “go easy” on evil? Do you really want a God who yawns at wickedness? Do you really want God to let the vilest men never be brought to justice?

The Lord’s City

Remember that this city which is at the epicenter of God’s global judgement, was His city. Judah had broken God’s law, neglected it, mixed it with idolatry, spurned it, and were indifferent to the covenant of their King. Now the King warns, by his messenger, that He’s coming to bring justice down.

So the question is, have you hidden sin way down deep, thinking God won’t care, God won’t notice, nobody was hurt? God has a claim on you. He will search it out. He will bring it out. He will expose it, and that is a grace. But remember, the only place to flee from the wrath of the Living God is in the Living God.

There are two perspectives on when these prophecies were given. Was it before Josiah’s reforms, or after? My position is that it is after, mainly because of the reference to the “remnant of Baal” in verse 4. That being the case, how much more damning is it that they made a good start, but compromised so quickly, got distracted so easily, and in the midst of a wonderful revival many among them tried to preserve just a sliver of their idolatry?

We have made a good start at reformation here in Moscow. But let us not grow weary, lest our reformation being corrupted by compromise become a greater weight of condemnation. Are you trying to dress in strange apparel? Are you upright in business or are you rushing over the threshold to plunder the poor? Are you operating under the assumption that when judgement comes you can hide from the Lord in some remote corner of the Idaho woods? The only place to turn, the only place to flee is Jesus, the true King. The only King who became sin for us, so that all of God’s righteous wrath might be poured out upon Him instead of you. The only King who can truly and fully reform His people. So do not undertake a merely carnal reformation. That’s just French revolution in slow motion. We want a reformation which only the Spirit of God can bring. We want a revival which is sparked by the holy fire of God.

Right Side of History

Right Side of History

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Eww, Dad-ishness

A common motto of the progressive left––whether arguing for homosexual marriage, state-funded transgender surgeries, dismemberment of a child in utero, or state-run health care––is that their opponents are on the “wrong side of history.” 

This sentiment plays well with society on the whole. After all, who wants to be seen with a flip-phone, wearing crocs, or sporting a bucket hat. Ew, to being backwards. Ew, to dad-ishness. Our age craves being savvy. You have to be to keep up with the leaps and bounds technology has made over the last decades.

With all the technological invasion––er––innovation, we also conclude that our morality needs tinkering with as well. If ever there was a crime to the modern mind, it is the crime of being a backwards bumpkin. The virtue of the age is being up-to-date with all the current sentiment.

The God of Our Age

This reveals that our god is not the Living God of the Bible, but the god demos. Mankind is our god. Thus, the whims of this god dictate our morals, our values, our sentiments, and our cultural mores. When “the people” are in charge, sentiments come into and out of fashion like Fourth of July fireworks. Up they go, boom they go, into oblivion they go. 

We have no underlying foundation underneath us, and so we are gullible for every new sentiment that demos demands that we go along with. In this year’s Miss Universe pageant, one contestant was a man, claiming to represent all women; he has the testicular fortitude to do this because he’s (well a man) and he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to look like a woman. If you can afford it, then anyone can be a woman. Then demos demands you applaud him as he feigns his femininity down the catwalk.

In another episode of the madness which demos has brought upon us, “parents” can decide to not assign their child a gender, and we are to shed a tear at the preciousness of their forward thinking. A young boy is dressed in drag, dances for a bunch of men, who throw dollar bills and catcall, and we’re told to be tolerant.

If you raise objections to these unsavory episodes in our cultural evolution to a utopia of brotherhood…er, I mean sisterhood, cause #TheFutureIsFemale…and peace and inclusivity, you are tsk-tsk-ed for not being on the right side of history. But this brings up an interesting question: how do we know whether we are reading history correctly?

Reading History Rightly

C.S. Lewis raised this question in his essay Historicism. In essence, as Christians we believe that God is the author of all history, and thus all history has meaning. The problem is when we assume we can interpret that history correctly. Lewis states, “I do not dispute that History is a story written by the finger of God. But have we the text?”Lewis, C. S.. Christian Reflections (p. 130). HarperOne. Kindle Edition. It is the pinnacle of our arrogance that we think we’ve got the bird’s eye view of the story that we are in. We have one line in this great story, and we think we have the insight to understand the whole novel.

Lewis points out that while we think that history has preserved for us “important” figures, he gives the illustration of Genghis Khan, how are we sure that Khan is actually an important actor in the story God is telling. Perhaps the main character in that scene is one of his many victims and the patience they showed in the midst of their suffering. We don’t know how to read history very well (we actually don’t know how to read many things very well, but I digress).

Claiming to be on the right side of history, is claiming that the gods have spoken. Since demos is the god of our age (thank you, Karl Marx) we should not be surprised at the use which is made of turning “current-ness” into a dividing line between the righteous and unrighteous, the woke and the broke, the open-minded and the bigots. We decided to splurge on our lusts, and any restraint on our desires will anger the god. Demos demands that we read history according to his authority, and he says selling baby parts to heat our hospitals is a-ok. So get with the times.

Not Our Story to Tell

However, history isn’t the story of mankind. It is the story of God becoming a man, in order to redeem mankind. All mankind was entirely on the wrong side of everything: history, art, science, and racial/gender studies of the 17th century. Every religion has sought to make history mean something. But this means we also have the mystical insight of the gods; which is why we have sought to become as God.

A story is precisely the sort of thing that cannot be understood till you have heard the whole of it .Lewis, C. S.. Christian Reflections (p. 132). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

But if God became a man, we would know something about the story God is telling. It is a story of creation, fall, redemption, judgement, and ultimately a resurrection. Christ was born, died, rose again, and this is––as Spurgeon once put it––the hinge of history. All other events must be in reference to that great event. 

The secularist appeal to being on the “right side of history” is really just a recapitulation of the serpent’s lie in Eden. It is an appeal to think we can tell and interpret our own story. To us this is not given. We can’t even recount every last detail of the last ten minutes (let alone what it means); so who are you, oh man, to think you can interpret the trajectory of all of human history? Never be bullied into thinking you must think like the crowd, simply out of fear of being on the wrong side of history. Rather, fear being on the wrong side of the Son of Man when he comes to separate the sheep and the goats (Cf. Mt. 25).

I recently published a collection of my essays. It is available in Kindle & Paperback over at Amazon:

Book Review: “Lectures to My Students” by Charles Spurgeon

Book Review: “Lectures to My Students” by Charles Spurgeon

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Lectures to My StudentsLectures to My Students by Charles Haddon Spurgeon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve found that anything from the pen of Charles Spurgeon is like my favorite armchair; it is homely, comforting, familiar, reliable, not overly cozy, but after a spell in it…always refreshed & rested. He has the ability to be poignant, humorous, sensible, reverent, simple, practical, devotional, profound, lucid, jovial, biblical, and faithful with an almost unrivaled balance in all these areas.

Lectures to My Students is a book I’ve visited numerous times, and pogo-sticked around in for the last several years; however, I recently did a fresh breeze through again of its entirety, and it was just fabulous. These lectures to pastoral students (a category I currently fall into) are vital insights for men pursuing and in the pastoral ministry. He highlights the common folly’s and temptations and the need to resist them. He offers practical, no-nonsense advice on a preacher’s lifestyle, presentation, mindset, and approach. He never takes himself or his listeners too seriously, but this never detracts from the grave seriousness of the topic of preaching the word of God. He is hilarious, but never in a flippant way. He is pithy in his insights. He is tweet-able, 200 years before social media was in existence.

The first collection of lectures focuses on a minister’s personal life and holiness; it is vital to never undertake to be a minister unless you are both inwardly called of God and outwardly called of God by the church. He confronts despair and depression in the ministers life, in my favorite chapter (The Minister’s Fainting Fits). The second collection deals with preparation and study. The third on deliver and illustration. All of it is good ol’ fashioned sense. Very practical. Very helpful.

MORE BOOK REVIEWS

A Collection of Quotes

SEEKING LOST SOULS
Sportsmen must not stop at home and wait for the birds to come and be shot at, neither must fishermen throw their nets inside their boats and hope to take many fist. Traders go to the markets, they follow their customers and go out after business if it will not come to them; and so must we. Some of our brethren are prosing on and on, to empty pews and musty hassocks, while they might be conferring lasting benefit upon hundreds by quitting the old walls for awhile, and seeking living stones for Jesus.
ARGUERS WHEN STREET PREACHING 
Certain characters, if they and that preaching is going on, will interrupt by hook or by crook. They go on purpose, and if answered Once and again they still persevere. One constant rule is to be always courteous and good tempered, for if you become cross or angry it is all over with you. Another rule is to keep to your subject, and never be drawn into side issues. Preach Christ or nothing: don’t dispute or discuss except with your eye on the cross. If driven off for a moment always be on the watch to get back to your sole topic. Tell them the old, old story, and if they will not hear that, move on. Yet be adroit, and take them with guile.
Seek the one object by many roads. A little mother-wit is often the best resource and will work wonders with a crowd. Bonhommie is the next best thing to grace on such occasions. A brother of my acquaintance silenced a violent Romanist by offering him his stand and requesting him to preach.
ON EARNESTNESS
Hear how Whitefield preached, and never dare to be lethargic again. Winter says of him that “sometimes he exceedingly wept, and was frequently so overcome, that for a few seconds you would suspect he never would recover; and when he did, nature required some little time to compose herself. I hardly ever knew him go through a sermon without weeping more or less. His voice was often interrupted by his affections; and I have heard him say in tile pulpit,’ You blame me for weeping; but how can I help it, when you will not weep for yourselves, although your own immortal souls are on the verge of destruction, and, for aught I know, you are, hearing your last sermon, and may never more have an opportunity to have Christ, offered to you?” Earnestness in the pulpit must be real. It is not to be mimicked. We have seen it counterfeited, but every person with a grain of sense .could detect the imposition. To stamp the foot, to smite the desk, to perspire, to shout, to bawl, to quote the pathetic portions of other people’s sermons, or to pour out voluntary tears from a watery eye will never make up for true agony of soul and real tenderness of spirit. The best piece of acting is but acting; those who only look at appearances may be pleased by it, bat lovers of reality will be disgusted. What presumption! — what hypocrisy it is by skillful management of the voice to mimic the passion which is the genuine work of the Holy Ghost. Let mere actors beware, lest they be found sinning against the Holy Spirit by their theatrical performances. We must be earnest in the pulpit because we are earnest everywhere; we must blaze in our discourses because we are continually on fire. Zeal which is stored up to be let off only on grand occasions is a gas which will one day destroy its proprietor. Nothing but truth may appear in the house of the Lord; all affectation is strange fire, and excites the indignation of the God of truth. Be earnest, and you will seem to be earnest. A burning heart will soon find for itself a flaming tongue.
ON CHEERFULNESS VS. FRIVOLITY
Cheerfulness is one thing, and frivolity is another; he is a wise man who by a serious happiness of conversation steers between the dark rocks of moroseness, and the quicksands of levity.
ON REFUSING DISTRACTING ILLUSTRATIONS
It may be well to note that illustrations should not be too prominent or, to pursue our figure, they should not be painted windows, attracting attention to themselves rather than letting in the clear light of day. I am not pronouncing any judgment upon windows adorned with “glass of various colours which shine like meadows decked in the flowers of spring”; I am looking only to my illustration. Our figures are meant not so much to be seen as to be seen through. If you take the hearer’s mind away from the subject by exciting his admiration of your own skill in imagery, you are doing evil rather than good. I saw in one of our exhibitions a portrait of a king; but the artist had surrounded his majesty with a bower of flowers so exquisitely painted that everyone’s eye was taken away from the royal figure. All the resources of the painter’s art had been lavished upon the accessories, and the result was that the portrait, which should have been all in all, had fallen into a secondary place. This was surely an error in portrait-painting, even though it might be a success in art. We have to set forth Christ before the people, “evidently crucified among them,” and the loveliest emblem or the most charming image which calls the mind away from our divine subject is to be conscientiously foresworn. Jesus must be all in all: His gospel must be the beginning and end of all our discoursing; parable and poesy must be under His feet, and eloquence must wait upon Him as His servant. Never by any possibility must the minister’s speech become a rival to his subject; that were to dishonour Christ, and not to glorify Him. Hence the caution that the illustrations be not too conspicuous.

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Spurgeon on God’s Preservation

Spurgeon on God’s Preservation

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Psalm 66:9 – Which holdeth our soul in life. At any time the preservation of life, and especially the soul’s nQZcA7PRTyuduZPSZQ88_wanderlustlife, is a great reason for gratitude but much more when we are called to undergo extreme trials, which of themselves would crush our being. Blessed be God, who, having put our souls into possession of life, has been pleased to preserve that heaven given life from the destroying power of the enemy. And suffereth not our feet to be moved. This is another and precious boon. If God has enabled us not only to keep our life, but our position, we are bound to give him double praise. Living and standing is the saint’s condition through divine grace. Immortal and immoveable are those whom God preserves. Satan is put to shame, for instead of being able to slay the saints, as he hoped, he is not even able to trip them up. God is able to make the weakest to stand fast, and he will do so.

Spurgeon’s full commentary on Psalm 66 can be found here.

Also, don’t miss my new eBook, The Gospel of the Psalms.

Click here to head to my online store!
Click here to head to my online store!

 

Like Dad Jokes, Only Better

Like Dad Jokes, Only Better

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I am currently reading through “The Treasury of David“ by CH Spurgeon (yes all 7 volumes, yes I’m not doing much else), for one of my Greyfriars Hall classes. It is all really wonderful, and only as Spurgeon can do wonderful. Psalm 25 grabbed my attention and so I thought I would share some of the excerpts. It was one of those sections of a book where you just keep highlighting and don’t know when to stop, sort of like your dad gets when he starts telling lame jokes when your friends are around! Like that. Only better…

I couldn't help myself...I am a dad after all!
I couldn’t help myself…I am a dad after all!

Anyhow…enjoy:

  • [David’s] sorrows remind him of his sins, and his sorrow for sin drives him to his God.
  • Why should not all the wit and ingenuity of man be sanctified to noblest ends by being laid upon the altar of God?
  • It is but a mockery to uplift the hands and the eyes unless we also bring our souls into our devotions. True prayer may be described as the soul rising from earth to have fellowship with heaven; it is taking a journey upon Jacob’s ladder, leaving our cares and fears at the foot, and meeting with a covenant God at the top. Very often the soul cannot rise, she has lost her wings, and is heavy and earth bound; more like a burrowing mole than a soaring eagle. At such dull seasons we must not give over prayer, but must, by God’s assistance, exert all our powers to lift up our hearts. Let faith be the lever and grace be the arm, and the dead lump will yet be stirred. But what a lift it has sometimes proved! With all our tugging and straining we have been utterly defeated, until the heavenly loadstone of our Saviour’s love has displayed its omnipotent attractions, and then our hearts have gone up to our Beloved like mounting flames of fire.
  • Faith is the cable which binds our boat to the shore, and by pulling at it we draw ourselves to the land; faith unites us to God, and then draws us near to him.
  • We must see to it that our faith is sound and strong, for otherwise prayer cannot prevail with God.
  • We ought to be grateful for occasional griefs if they preserve us from chronic hardheartedness.
  • [Men] sin because they will sin, not because it is either profitable or reasonable to do so.
  • It were well for many professors if instead of following their own devices, and cutting out new paths of thought for themselves, they would enquire for the good old ways of God’s own truth, and beseech the Holy Ghost to give them sanctified understandings and teachable spirits.
  • We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously he once waited for us.
  • The world winks at the sins of younger men, and yet they are none so little after all; the bones of our youthful feastings at Satan’s table will stick painfully in our throats when we are old men. He who presumes upon his youth is poisoning his old age.
  • A painful sense of any one sin provokes the believer to repentance for the whole mass of his iniquities.
  • God is good to those that be good.
  • Gracious souls, by faith resting upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus, keep the covenant of the Lord, and, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit, they walk in his testimonies; these will find all things working together for their good, but to the sinner there is no such promise. Keepers of the covenant shall be kept by the covenant; those who follow the Lord’s commandments shall find the Lord’s mercy following them.

Note: Read more of my blog posts about or quoting Charles Spurgeon, which thing I am wont to do, as the King James might say it!

What Spurgeon Thought About a Solar Eclipse

What Spurgeon Thought About a Solar Eclipse

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Spurgeon, that great preacher of the 1800’s, had a lovely sermon that I came across several years back and Solar eclipsewas reminded of while I watched the lovely celestial spectacle last night of the “Super Blood Moon”.  These sorts of things ought to instruct us in realizing that there are lessons to be learned and sermons to be preached in every pebble and every galaxy. It all testifies to Christ and ought to remind us of His great goodness and glory! So, enjoy this short excerpt from Spurgeon, where he discusses an upcoming solar eclipse during his lifetime! The full sermon can be read here.

Without a doubt, if there be sermons in stones, there must be a great sermon in the sun; and if there be books in the running brooks, no doubt there is many a huge volume to be found in a sun suffering eclipse. All things teach us, if we have but a mind to learn. There is nothing which we can see, or hear, or feel, which may not be the channels of great instruction to us. Let us see whether this may not lead us this morning into a train of thought which may, under God’s blessing, be something far better to us than the seeing of an eclipse. […] all things that God has created, whether they be light or whether they be dark, have a sermon for us, no doubt there are some sermons to be found in this.

I have got a sermon or two more to preach to you from the eclipse. To-morrow, Christians, if you will just remember what I am about to say you will learn a useful lesson. What is that which will hide the sun from us to-morrow? It is the ungrateful moon. She has borrowed all her light from the sun month after month; she would be a black blot, if the sun did not shine upon her, and now see all the return she makes is, she goes impudently before his face and prevents his light from shining upon us. Do you know anything at all like that in your own history? Have you not a great many comforts which you enjoy upon earth that are just like the moon? They borrow all their light from the sun. They would be no comforts to you unless God shone in them and they reflected back the light from his countenance.

What is your husband, your wife; what are your children, your friends, your house, your home? What are all these but moons that borrow their light from the sun? Oh how ungrateful it is when we let our comforts get before our God; no wonder that we get an eclipse when we put these things that God gave to be our comforts into God’s own throne and make them our idols. Oh! if our children take half of our hearts, if our friends take away our souls from Jesus, if like it was with Solomon, the wife leads the heart astray, if our goods, our house, our lands become the object of our life, if we set our affections upon them instead of setting them upon the things above, no wonder that there is an eclipse. Oh ungrateful heart that allows these moons of comfort to hide the sun.

Ben Zornes