August 5, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?" — Numbers 32:6 · KJV

Kinship has its obligations. The Reubenites and Gadites would have been unbrotherly to claim the land already conquered and leave the rest of the people to fight for their portions alone. We have received much through the efforts and sufferings of the saints in years gone by, and if we make no return to the church of Christ by giving her our best energies, we are unworthy to be counted in her ranks. Others are manfully combating the errors of the age, or digging perishing souls out of the ruins of the fall; if we fold our hands in idleness, we had need be warned, lest the curse of Meroz fall on us. The Master of the vineyard says, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" What is the idler's excuse? Personal service of Jesus becomes all the more our duty because it is so cheerfully and abundantly rendered by others; the toils of devoted missionaries and fervent ministers shame us if we sit still in indolence. Shrinking from trial is the temptation of those at ease in Zion, who would escape the cross and yet wear the crown; to them this question is very fitting. If the most precious are tried in the fire, are we to escape the crucible? If the diamond must be cut upon the wheel, are we to be made perfect without suffering? Who has commanded the wind to stop blowing because our boat is on the deep? Why should we be treated better than our Lord? The firstborn felt the rod, and why not the younger brethren? It is a cowardly pride that would choose a soft pillow and a silken couch for a soldier of the cross. Far wiser is he who, first resigned to the divine will, grows by the power of grace to be pleased with it, and so learns to gather lilies at the foot of the cross and, like Samson, to find honey in the lion.