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WHY DO WE FORGET CHRIST?
From Spurgeon's sermon, "The Remembrance of Christ"
We forget Christ, because regenerate persons as we really are,
still corruption and death remain even in the regenerate.
We forget him because we carry about with us
the old Adam of sin and death.
If we were purely new-born creatures, we would
never forget the name of him whom we love.
If we were entirely regenerated beings,
we should sit down and meditate on all our Savior did and
suffered; all he is; all he has gloriously promised to perform;
and never would our roving affections stray;
but centered, nailed, fixed eternally to one object,
we should continually contemplate the death and
sufferings of our Lord.
But alas! we have a worm in the heart, a pest-house,
a charnel-house within, lusts, vile imaginations,
and strong evil passions, which, like wells of poisonous water,
send out continually streams of impurity.
I have a heart, which God knows, I wish I could
wring from my body and hurl to an infinite distance!
I have a soul which is a cage of unclean birds,
a den of loathsome creatures,
where dragons haunt and owls do congregate,
where every evil beast of ill-omen dwells;
a heart too vile to have a parallel-
"deceitful above all things and desperately wicked."
This is the reason why I am forgetful of Christ.
I find that a little crawling worm of the earth has more effect
upon my soul than the glorious Christ in heaven--
A handful of golden earth,
a puff of fame,
a shout of applause,
a thriving business,
my house,
my home,
will affect me more than all the glories of the upper world;
yes, more than the beatific vision itself:
simply because earth is near, and heaven is far away.
Happy day, when I shall be borne aloft on angels' wings to
dwell for ever near my Lord, to bask in the sunshine of his smile,
and to be lost in the ineffable radiance of his lovely countenance.
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