Tuesday April 16, 2024

Acts 2:17
Your young men shall see visions.

Those who do not serve God at home are of no use anywhere. It is all very well to talk about what you would do if you could speak to the Hindus. Nonsense! What do you do when you are in the streets of Whitechapel? You will be of no use whatever in Calcutta, unless you are of use in Poplar or Bermondsey. The human mind is the same everywhere. Its sins may take another form, but there are just the same difficulties in one place as in another. It is all very well for you to turn into a sort of Don Quixote in imagination and dream of what you would do, if you went out upon a spiritual campaign as a heavenly knight-errant, tilting against windmills; just try your hand at the conversion of that young man who sits next to you in the pew. See what you can do for Jesus Christ in the shop. See whether you can serve your Master in that little Bible class of which you are a member. Rest assured that no missionary ardor really burns within that man who does not love the souls of those who live in the same house and dwell in the same neighborhood. Give me that man for a missionary of whom it is said that, when he took a lodging in a house, all the other inhabitants were brought to God within six months; or one who was a son whose father was unconverted, but who gave the Lord no rest until he saw his parent saved; or one who was a tradesman who, while he was pushing his business earnestly, always found time to be an evangelist. That is the man who will maintain missionary fervor alive at home, and that is the man who will help to promote missionary effort abroad.

C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 1) (Day One Publications, 1998)
Scripture for opening text taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.