S U N D A Y   S N I P P E T S (tm) # 1 0 9               28 Sept '97

                        Gather Not my Soul
                        ------------------
An Encouraging Message to Believers from the Pen of Charles H. Spurgeon

Charles H. Spurgeon was a 19th-century preacher/writer of England.  His 
congregation grew to over 5,000 under his ministry, and his sermons were 
printed and circulated worldwide by the millions.

         "Gather not my soul with sinners."        - Psalm 26:9

   Fear made David pray thus, for something whispered, "Perhaps, after
all, thou mayst be gathered with the wicked." That fear, although marred
by unbelief, springs, in the main, from holy anxiety, arising from the
recollection of past sin. Even the pardoned man will enquire, "What if at
the end my sins should be remembered, and I should be left out of the
catalogue of the saved?" He recollects his present unfruitfulness--so
little grace, so little love, so little holiness, and looking forward to
the future, he considers his weakness and the many temptations which beset
him, and he fears that he may fall, and become a prey to the enemy. A
sense of sin and present evil, and his prevailing corruptions, compel him
to pray, in fear and trembling, "Gather not my soul with sinners." Reader,
if you have prayed this prayer, and if your character be rightly described
in the Psalm from which it is taken [the 26th Psalm], you need not be
afraid that you shall be gathered with sinners. Have you the two virtues
which David had--the outward walking in integrity, and the inward trusting
in the Lord? Are you resting upon Christ's sacrifice, and can you compass
the altar of God with humble hope? If so, rest assured, with the wicked
you never shall be gathered, for that calamity is impossible. The
gathering at the judgment is like to like. "Gather ye together first the
tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my
barn." If, then, thou art like God's people, thou shalt be with God's
people. You cannot be gathered with the wicked, for you are too dearly
bought. Redeemed by the blood of Christ, you are His for ever, and where
He is, there must His people be. You are loved too much to be cast away
with reprobates. Shall one dear to Christ perish? Impossible! Hell cannot
hold thee! Heaven claims thee! Trust in thy Surety and fear not!

                        - from Spurgeon's daily devotional book entitled,
                                     "Evening by Evening"  (Sept. 21)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sunday Snippets" is the trademark of G. MacKenzie Strickland.  May be 
freely redistributed  - forward to a friend or two.  The Sunday Snippets 
archive is at homepage:   http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ab531/Profile.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note to direct subscribers:  Sunday Snippets are e-mailed almost every
week.  If 3 weeks have passed without you receiving any Snippets, contact
me, as something must have gone wrong with your e-mail address on my list.





---------------------------------------------------------
file: /pub/resources/text/sunday.snippets: snip97-109.txt
.