Honesty to the Souls of Men – Charles Spurgeon

WE are told that men are drawn to Christ by love, and the statement is true; but, at the same time, “knowing the terror of the Lord,” we are to persuade men, and not to keep back the evil tidings. Even Christ with weeping eyes and tender heart does not hesitate to tell Jerusalem of its coming destruction, and I believe it is a token that Christ is in the church when those terrible things of his are not kept back to please the popular taste; when there is no trying to cut them down and moderate them, in order to make the wrath to come look less terrible than it is. It must be thundered out again and again, “Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.” It must be told the sinner that if he goes on in his iniquity, he shall be driven away from hope and salvation, “where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.” Christ is not present in an unfaithful church, and this is a point upon which some churches are apt to grow unfaithful. We must deliver the whole truth, even the dark side of it as well as that which smiles with mercy, and Christ is not present unless it be so. The sympathy of Jesus led him, as it should lead us, to be lovingly honest with the sons of men.