Christian, Promptness of the – Charles Spurgeon

THERE have been some men in this world who have had little else to recommend them except that by which they have attracted their fellow men to yield them homage—like Napoleon Bonaparte, for instance, when he said to his soldiers at Austerlitz, “Soldiers, this battle must be a thunder-clap; we must hear no more of the foe.” And the men, filled with eagerness by his passionate energy, did his bidding, and made it such a thunder-clap that all Europe shook beneath the march of those men-at-arms. He had the power, somehow or other, of making men yield to him, as if they were all machines, impelled by the force of his personal will. They were not dragged into battle, but rushed with enthusiasm to the fight, longing to win glory or death. Now, the voice of God should be to the Christian a voice that speaks to all his soul, wakes up his dormant faculties, and stirs the enthusiasm of his noblest nature, so that his heart says, “I will indeed seek your face.” As the British sailor, when Nelson said to him, “Ready?” replied, “Ready, ay, ready,” and fired red-hot shot at the foe, so should our hearts respond to God, “Seek you my face.” “Lord, blessed be your name for telling me to do that, for you and I are of one mind here; you love me to seek your face, and I love to seek you; my heart responds—not my lip, not my body, dragged slavishly into the form of obedience—but my heart says, ‘Your face, Lord, will I seek.’