True Hope and The Word of God

Here is a man who hopes to get to heaven because he has such blessed feelings. Oh, dear, dear, dear, dear! How many times should I be without any hope of getting to heaven if I had to go by my feelings, for they are just as wretched as wretchedness can be! Here is another man, who thinks he is going to heaven because he has a sound creed, but the more I read the Bible, the more find that I do not know everything, and that there is something more to be learnt; and so, if my knowing everything, and having a perfectly sound creed, must save me, I shall be lost. There are some who are hoping to go to heaven because of this, and some because of that; but, as for you and me, dear friends, we had better end all fancies, and resolve, by God’s grace, that we will go there because “this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” So, casting everything else away, we lay hold of the covenant, come what may.

Spurgeon

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I was sitting, one day, in the New Forest, under a beech tree. I like to look at the beech, and study it, as I do many other trees, for very tree has its own peculiarities and habits, its special ways of twisting its boughs, and growing its bark, and opening its leaves, and so forth. As I looked up at that beech, and admired the wisdom of God in making it, I saw a squirrel running round and round the trunk, and up the branches, and I thought to myself, “Ah! this beech tree is a great deal more to you than it is to me, for it is your home, your living, your all.” Its big branches were the main streets of his city, and its little boughs were the lanes; somewhere in that tree he had his house, and the beech mast was his daily food, he lived on it. Well, now, the way to deal with God’s Word is not merely to contemplate it, or to study it, as a student does; but to live on it as that squirrel lives on his beech tree. Let it be to you, spiritually, your house, your home, your food, your medicine, your clothing, the one essential element of your soul's life and growth.

Spurgeon