A Home Mission Sermon

Spurgeon argues that God keeps his people in this world for one reason — to do good to others and glorify him — and the ruling principle for that work is the text: do whatever your hand finds, meaning the work that is near and possible right now, not the grand scheme miles away or the imaginary ministry you would have if circumstances were different, and the moment you find it, do it promptly, wholeheartedly, and in God's strength, since procrastination robs Christ of today's service and listless half-heartedness is an insult to the One who gave everything. He enforces this with two great arguments: first, that death is nearer than we think and the grave ends all service — no second chances, no posthumous warnings, no deferred generosity — so that every hour of idleness or delay is an hour permanently lost; and second, that if we truly believe men are perishing in hell, our stillness is a moral absurdity, since no one who genuinely believed a neighbor was running toward a cliff would stand idly watching. He closes with three specific charges: parents must teach their own children while they still can, Sunday school teachers must give their whole hearts to their classes, and ministers must preach with urgency — and he holds up Whitfield's story as the model, a man who returned from death's door resolved not to go home until he could bring souls with him.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on June 26th, 1859.