Evening, November 17, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“He who splits logs may be endangered by them.” — Ecclesiastes 10:9

Oppressors may take advantage of poor and needy men as easily as they can split logs of wood, but they had better take care, for it is a dangerous business, and a splinter from a tree has often killed the woodman. Jesus is persecuted in every wounded saint, and he is mighty to avenge his beloved ones. Success in treading down the poor and needy is a thing to be trembled at: if there is no current danger to persecutors, there will be great danger to come.

To split wood is a common everyday business, and yet it has its dangers; so then, reader, there are dangers connected with your calling and daily life which it will be well for you to be aware of. We do not refer to hazards by flood and field, or by disease and sudden death, but to perils of a spiritual sort. Your occupation may be as humble as log splitting, and yet the devil can tempt you in it. You may be a domestic servant, a farm laborer, or a mechanic, and you may be greatly screened from temptations to the more serious vices, and yet some secret sin may do you damage. Those who dwell at home, and do not mingle with the rough world, may yet be endangered by their very seclusion. Nowhere is he safe who thinks himself so. Pride may enter a poor man’s heart; greediness may reign in an apartment dweller’s soul; impurity may venture into the quietest home; and anger, envy, and malice may insinuate themselves into the most rural dwelling. Even in speaking a few words to a server we may sin; a little purchase at a shop may be the first link in a chain of temptations; the mere glance out of a window may be the beginning of evil. O Lord, how exposed we are! How shall we be secured? To keep ourselves is work too hard for us: only you yourself can preserve us in such a world of evils. Spread your wings over us, and we, like little chicks, will cower down beneath you, and feel ourselves safe!