Consecration, Partial – Charles Spurgeon

I NOTICED the other day, a remark which struck me. Speaking of a certain congregation, the writer said he believed there were a hundred persons in it who were worth not less than five thousand pounds a-year each, and then he mentioned the sum that was given for the maintenance of the work of God, and he added, “If any ordinary person who was not a Christian, went in there and heard them sing—

‘And if I might make some reserve,

And duty did not call,

I love my God with zeal so great,

That I would give him all,’—

he would say to himself, “I was at the theater on Saturday night, and saw a farce, but if I want a screaming one I must come here on a Sunday.” Indeed, I thought the remark to be sadly true. When I see how much there is of available strength both in worldly substance, in mental vigor, and in other forms in the church, which is never used, I dare hardly say that any church now upon earth really labors for Christ. A little of your spare strength is given to Jesus, and then you think you have done well. He is put off with odds and ends, the cheese parings and the potato peelings of the church. I ask you, does he get much more? What are the gifts of most? Do they give as much as would keep the lowest menial in their kitchens? It was not so in early times. Then men were Christians all over and altogether, and served Christ first, Christ last, Christ midst, and Christ without end; but now it is enough if we gloss over life with a little varnish of holy talk and pious profession. Would God these eyes might live to see a church that really labored, putting forth all its strength with all its might, using all the force in its possession for the propagation of the gospel of the Lord and the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom.