Evening, June 20, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.” — Mark 1:18

When they heard the call of Jesus, Simon and Andrew obeyed at once without protest. If we would always—promptly and with unwavering passion—put in practice what we hear upon the spot or at first possible occasion, our participation in the hearing of the word, other methods of grace, and our reading of good books could not fail to enrich us spiritually. He will not lose his food who has taken care at once to eat it, neither can he be deprived of the benefit of the doctrine when he has already acted upon it. Most readers and hearers become moved so far as to plan to make changes, but, alas, the proposal is a blossom which has not been pollinated, and therefore no fruit comes of it; they wait, they waver, and then they forget and freeze like the ponds in nights of frost; when the sun shines by day, they are only thawed in time to be frozen again. That fatal tomorrow is red with the blood of the murders of good resolutions; it is the slaughterhouse of the innocents. We are very concerned that our little book of “Evening Readings” would not be fruitless, and therefore we pray that readers may not be readers only, but doers of the word. The practice of truth is the most profitable reading of it. Should the reader be impressed with any task while reading carefully these pages, let him hasten to fulfil it before the holy heat has departed from his soul, and let him leave his nets—and all that he has—before he is found rebellious to the Master’s call. Do not give place to the devil by delay! Hasten while opportunity and enlivening are in happy union. Do not be caught in your own nets, but break the meshes of worldliness, and fly away where glory calls you. Happy is the writer who shall meet with readers resolved to carry out his teachings: his harvest shall be a hundredfold, and his Master shall have great honor. I wish to God that such might be our reward upon these brief meditations and hurried hints. Grant it, O Lord, to your servant!