August 24, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution." — Exodus 22:6 · KJV

But what restitution can he make who scatters the firebrands of error, or the coals of lust, and sets men's souls ablaze with the fire of hell? The guilt is beyond estimate, and the result cannot be undone. If such an offender is forgiven, what grief it will cost him to look back, since he cannot undo the mischief he has done! An evil example may kindle a flame that years of amended character cannot quench. To burn the food of man is bad enough; how much worse to destroy the soul! It may do us good to reflect how far we may have been guilty in the past, and to ask whether even now there is anything in us that tends to harm the souls of our relatives, friends, or neighbors. The fire of strife is a terrible evil when it breaks out in a Christian church. Where converts were multiplying and God was glorified, jealousy and envy do the devil's work most effectually; where the golden grain was being gathered in, to reward the toil of the great Boaz, the fire of enmity comes in and leaves little but smoke and a heap of blackness. Woe to those by whom offenses come! May they never come through us; for though we cannot make restitution, we shall certainly be the chief sufferers if we are the chief offenders. Those who feed the fire deserve just blame, but he who first kindles it is most to blame. Discord usually takes first hold on the thorns; it is nursed among the hypocrites and false professors in the church, and then away it goes among the righteous, fanned by the winds of hell, and no one knows where it may end. O You Lord and giver of peace, make us peacemakers, and never let us aid the men of strife, or even unintentionally cause the least division among Your people.