C.H. Spurgeon

Here is a candle which is in a lantern of a tolerably respectable sort; at least, it was respectable long ago, and you might not now have noticed its forlorn condition if it had not been for the candle within. So soon as you place a light within, the imperfections of the lantern are shown up; and it is the same with human characters.

Many a man would have seemed a decent sort of fellow if he had not professed to be a Christian; but his open profession of religion fixed many eyes upon him, and his imperfections were at once observed by all observers. He who unites with a church and takes upon himself the name of Christ claims a higher character than others; and if he is not true to his profession, his inconsistency is marked, and very justly so. How often do we see that an unconverted man may steal a horse, but a Christian must not even look over the hedge at it! That which is winked at in a man of the world is a grave fault in a Christian. Prominent persons are looked at through microscopes. The more light you have the more will your faults be shown up and observed. We have heard of a wonderful preacher of whom they said that he preached so well and lived so badly that when he was in the pulpit, they thought he ought never to come out of it; but when he was out of the pulpit they changed their minds, and sorrowfully concluded that he ought never to go into it again.

Butchers, it seems, were once accustomed to do their work with a candle fastened upon their foreheads thus – There is an old story of one who had lost his candle and travelled all around his premises searching for it by its own light! The parable is this: a person full of doubts and fears about his personal condition before God is searching for grace within, by the light of that very grace for which he is looking. He is fearfully anxious because he can see no trace of gracious anxiety in his mind. He feels sad because he cannot feel sad. He repents because he cannot repent. He has the candle on his forehead and is seeing by the light of it, and yet he is searching for that very light, without which he could not search at all.

Here is a sputtering candle. – (I can give a specimen of it in actual fact, but I do not know how to sketch the sputter on paper). You can light the thing, but it seems to spit at you, and crackle as if in a bad temper. We once had among us a good brother, who would always give and give generously too; but he took the money out in grumbling. He thought there were too many appeals; he thought that the thing ought to be provided for in another way; he thought – in fact he seemed to be full of discontented thoughts; but he always ended up by saying “There’s my share of it.” Our sputtering candle has now got over his weakness, for he has burned out his damp bit; and whenever you or I come to a cantankerous half hour, may we get through it as fast as possible. Go into your growlery and get it over: better still, go into the secret place and get it under.

Here is a common lantern. The wind may blow, but the candle is safe within. The groom can cross the stableyard in a shower of rain or in a fall of snow when his light is thus safe-guarded. On board ship also, the lantern is of utmost use; for even a gale of wind will not blow out the candle which is secure in a good lantern.

And surely God will preserve His own Gospel though Popes and monks, men of “modern thought”, and theoretical scientists blow at its candle with all the fury of fiends. Burn on, O sacred Light, that by thee men may be guided to the haven of rest!

The Providence of God is the great protector of our life and usefulness, and under the Divine care we are perfectly safe from every danger.

“Plagues and deaths around me fly;
Till He please I cannot die:
Not a single shaft can hit,
Till the God of love see fit.”

From The Wicket Gate Magazine, published in the UK, used with permission.