Morning, October 21, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“For the love of Christ controls us.” — 2 Corinthians 5:14

How much do you owe my Lord? Has he ever done anything for you? Has he forgiven your sins? Has he covered you with a robe of righteousness? Has he set your feet upon a rock? Has he established your paths? Has he prepared heaven for you? Has he prepared you for heaven? Has he written your name in his book of life? Has he given you countless blessings? Has he laid up for you a wealth of mercies, which eye has not seen nor ear heard?

Then do something for Jesus worthy of his love. Do not give merely a wordy offering to a dying Redeemer. How will you feel when your Master comes, if you have to confess that you did nothing for him, but kept your love shut up, like a stagnant pool, neither flowing forth to his poor or to his work. The jury is out on such love as that! What do men think of a love which never shows itself in action? Why, they say, “Open rebuke is better than secret love.” Who will accept a love so weak that it does not motivate you to a single deed of self-denial, of generosity, of heroism, or zeal! Think how he has loved you, and given himself for you! Do you know the power of that love? Then let it be like a rushing mighty wind to your soul to sweep out the clouds of your worldliness, and clear away the mists of sin. “For Christ’s sake” let this be the tongue of fire that shall sit upon you: “for Christ’s sake” let this be the divine rhapsody, the heavenly wind to bear you aloft from earth, the divine spirit that shall make you bold as lions and swift as eagles in your Lord’s service. Love should give wings to the feet of service, and strength to the arms of labor. Fixed on God with a faithfulness that is not to be shaken, with resolve to honor him with a determination that is not to be turned aside, and pressing on with an ardor never to be wearied, let us manifest the limits of love to Jesus. May the divine lodestone draw us heavenward towards itself.