In 1891 the last year of his
(Spurgeon’s) life, there was another sermon from the book of Daniel, this time
on the resolution of Daniel’s three companions who were thrown into the furnace
for their refusal to submit to Nebuchadnezzar. In the first division of the
sermon he lists the kind of excuses the three men might have used to justify a
compliance which might have used to justify a compliance which would have kept
them out of the furnace. They might have said, ‘We can do more good by living,’
dying would ‘cut short our opportunities for usefulness.’ Upon which Spurgeon
enlarges:
“Ah, my dear brethren! There are many
that are deceived by this method of reasoning. They remain where their
conscience tells them they ought not to be, because, they say, they are more
useful than they would be if they went “without the camp”. This is doing evil
that good may come, and can never be tolerated by an enlightened conscience. If
an act of sin would increase my usefulness tenfold, I have no right to do it;
and if an act of righteousness would appear likely to destroy all my apparent
usefulness, I am yet to do it. It is yours and mine to do the right though the
heavens fall, and follow the command of Christ whatever the consequences may
be. “That is strong meat,” do you say? Be strong men, then, and feed thereon…
For right is right, since God is God,
And right the day must win;
To doubt would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin.
Excerpt from The Forgotten Spurgeon - by Iain Murray
