Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you're not saved yourself, be sure of that!
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of compassion for others in one's own spiritual well-being.
Charles Spurgeon's quote articulates a profound philosophical view on salvation and empathy. It suggests that true personal salvation is intertwined with the desire for the well-being and salvation of others. If an individual does not care for the fate of others, it implies a lack of genuine connection to their own spiritual state, as a self-centered approach undermines the core principles of love and community that often accompany true salvation.
In practice
In a sermon about community service, one might use this quote to inspire action and compassion.
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.
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.
Principally I hate and detest that animal called man; although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth.
Religion can emerge in all forms of feeling: here wild anger, there the sweetest pain; here consuming hatred, there the childlike smile of serene humility.
But there were too many points at which the other self could invade the self he wanted to preserve, and there were too many forms of invasion: certain words, sounds, lights, actions his hands or feet performed, and if he did nothing at all, heard and saw nothing, the shouting of some triumphant inner voice that shocked him and cowed him.
We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.
Make account that thou hast done nothing, and then thou hast done all. For if, being sinners, when we account ourselves to be what we are, we become righteous, as indeed the Publican did; how much more, when being righteous we account ourselves to be sinners.
Those who shun the whimsy of things will experience rigor mortis before death.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.