Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
It may be very well to do this and that for good fellowship; but it will never do to lose the friendship of God in order to keep on good terms with men.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Prioritizing one's relationship with God is more important than maintaining good relationships with people at the expense of that connection.
This quote by Charles Spurgeon emphasizes the importance of divine friendship over human relationships. It suggests that while it's good to maintain harmony and fellowship with others, one should never compromise their spiritual connection or integrity to please people. True loyalty to God should take precedence over the transient approval of others, highlighting the depth and permanence of divine friendship as essential to one's moral and spiritual life.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a sermon to emphasize the importance of faith over societal acceptance.
More from Charles Spurgeon
All quotes →When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
Similar quotes
I think a compliment ought always to precede a complaint, where one is possible, because it softens resentment and insures for the complaint a courteous and gentle reception.
You can survive on your own; you can grow strong on your own; you can prevail on your own; but you cannot become human on your own.
One of the reasons we stay so alone in our lives is because we're ashamed to talk about the hard stuff. It's as simple as that. We're all in pain in different ways, and we don't get the help we need because we're too ashamed to talk about the pain.
For a host, above all, must be kind to his guests.
ah, you always go for the ones who don't really want you
Anxiety is love's greatest killer, because it is like the stranglehold of the drowning.