*BLESSED IS HE THAT WATCHETH*

*    By Charles H. Spurgeon*

*     Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth,*
*     and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked,*
*     and they see his shame.          /-   -   Revelation 16:15/*

*         'We die daily,' said the apostle.  This was the life of the
early Christians;*
*    they went everywhere with their lives in their hands. We are not in
this day*
*    called to pass through the same fearful persecutions: if we were,
the Lord*
*    would give us grace to bear the test; but the tests of Christian
life, at the*
*    present moment, though outwardly not so terrible, are yet more
likely to*
*    overcome us than even those of the fiery age.*

*         We have to bear the sneer of the world--that is little; its
blandishments,*
*    its soft words, its oily speeches, its fawning, its hypocrisy, are
far worse.*

*         Our danger is lest we grow rich and become proud, lest we give
ourselves*
*    up to the fashions of this present evil world, and lose our faith.
Or if wealth*
*    be not the trial, worldly care is quite as mischievous.  If we
cannot be torn in*
*    pieces by the roaring lion, if we may be hugged to death by the
bear, the devil*
*    little cares which it is, so long as he destroys our love to
Christ, and our*
*    confidence in Him.*

*        I fear me that the Christian church is far more likely to lose
her integrity in*
*    these soft and silken days than in those rougher times.  We must be
awake now,*
*    for we traverse the enchanted ground, and are most likely to fall
asleep to our*
*    own undoing, unless our faith in Jesus be a reality, and our love
to Jesus a*
*    vehement flame.  Many in these days of easy profession are likely
to prove*
*    tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with fair masks on their faces,
but not the*
*    true-born children of the living God.*

*         Christian, do not think that these are times in which you can
dispense with*
*    watchfulness or with holy ardour; you need these things more than
ever, and*
*    may God the eternal Spirit display His omnipotence in you, that you
may be*
*    able to say, in all these softer things, as well as in the
rougher,/ 'We are more/*
*/    than conquerors through Him that loved us.'/*

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*    Yours in Christ,*
*    Paul N. F.