April 26, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Blessed is he that watcheth." — Revelation 16:15 · KJV

"We die daily," said the apostle. This was the life of the early Christians; they went everywhere with their lives in their hands. We are not, in this day, called to pass through the same fearful persecutions; if we were, the Lord would give us grace to bear the test. But the tests of Christian life at the present moment, though outwardly not so terrible, are yet more likely to overcome us than even those of the fiery age. We have to bear the sneer of the world — that is little; its flatteries, its soft words, its oily speeches, its fawning, its hypocrisy, are far worse. Our danger is that we grow rich and become proud, that we give ourselves up to the fashions of this present evil world, and lose our faith. Or, if wealth is not the trial, worldly care is quite as mischievous. If we cannot be torn in pieces by the roaring lion, we may be hugged to death by the bear; the devil little cares which it is, so long as he destroys our love to Christ and our confidence in Him. I fear the Christian church is far more likely to lose her integrity in these soft and silken days than in those rougher times. We must be awake now, for we cross enchanted ground, and are very likely to fall asleep to our own undoing, unless our faith in Jesus is a reality and our love to Jesus a vehement flame. Many, in these days of easy profession, are likely to prove tares and not wheat — hypocrites with fair masks on their faces, but not the true-born children of the living God. Christian, do not think these are times in which you can dispense with watchfulness or holy ardor; you need these things more than ever. May God the eternal Spirit display His omnipotence in you, that you may be able to say, in these softer trials as well as in the rougher, "We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."