thechristiansreport

C. H. Spurgeon

Excerpted from the sermon:  God’s Hidden Ones

Perhaps there are some hidden ones who come into our places of worship and have no one to speak to them. I do not think that many such persons come to the Tabernacle—I hope there never will be.

There is a Brother who was a member, here, and who will be a member, again. He has gone to live in the suburbs and he attends a very respectable place of worship. They are very good people but, you know, our friends in the suburbs are so much more respectable than we are and they know it, too! And there, in the outer ring of London, it is perfectly amazing what great people they are—you would not believe it. When they come into the City to business, they are nothing very particular, but as soon as they get out to the suburbs, they are wonderful people! This Brother says, “I have been in and out of the chapel for months and nobody ever speaks to me.” The fact is, I expect, that he keeps a grocer’s shop and some of these people deal with him, so they do not know him on Sunday, of course, because he is only a grocer! I hope that you will never get such abominable notions into your heads!

This wretched caste that divides us up into little sets, reminds me of the Hindus. Keep it up in the world if you are foolish enough to do so, but do not bring the evil into the Church of Christ! Here, at any rate, we are Brothers and Sisters. Let us feel that we are one in Christ and put away  from us all that stiffness which would make us keep our petty nobodies to ourselves!

If there is a man who is a really great man, I always notice that he is the most condescending [to put aside one’s dignity or superiority voluntarily and assume equality with one regarded as inferior]and gentle man that there is. But it is your nobody who always makes himself appear somebody!

Now, dear Friend, if you have come in and out of this place and you have not been noticed by anybody, I pray you to begin to notice somebody, yourself! And if you have come in and out of any place of worship and nobody has spoken to you, remember that the Lord has His hidden ones and you may be one of them. It may be that quite from inadvertence, not from unkindness, you have not been spoken to, so begin to break the ice, yourself, by speaking to someone else and may God bless you so that you may, in that sense, be no more a hidden one!