“Neither shall any plague come near your dwelling…”
In the 1800’s the great English preacher C.H. Spurgeon had just begun his historic pastorate in London. The sermons of the young preacher had caused an immediate buzz and people began to flood into the soon too small building. God was moving. But then as if the devil rose up to stop this fresh move, the Cholera plague struck (this was infinitely worse than Coronavirus). World wide the horrible plague lasted 14 years, from 1846-1860, killing tens of thousands. Young Spurgeon soon found himself daily attending the sick and dying with almost daily funerals. The preacher soon grew exhausted, both mentally and physically. He records how he began to fancy himself feeling sick, alongside experiencing attacks of fear. But then something happened. In his own words he writes:
“I was returning mournfully home from a funeral, when, as God would have it, my curiosity led me to read a paper which was hung in a shoemaker’s window in the Great Dover Road. It did not look like a trade announcement, nor was it, for it bore, in a good bold handwriting, these words:
‘Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.’
He testifies that “The effect upon my heart was immediate. Faith appropriated the passage as her own. I felt secure, refreshed, girt with immortality. I went on with my visitation of the dying, in a calm and peaceful spirit; I felt no fear of evil, and I suffered no harm.”
Dear church, there is nothing new under the sun. God’s promises are as good today as they were for Charles Spurgeon! Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus, our heart in His love, and our faith in His promises. THIS TOO SHALL PASS!