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    The Clue of the Maze
    The Clue of the Maze
    The Clue of the Maze
    Ebook87 pages59 minutes

    The Clue of the Maze

    By C. H. Spurgeon

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    Doubt dims and chills the day. A fog is over all things, and men move about like Egypt’s ancients when they felt the darkness. Oh that this mist would lift! The best we can hope is that the present gloom may pass away right speedily, and that the cloud may leave a dew behind, to nourish a more intelligent and unquestioning faith.


    In this clammy scepticism no race but the puniest can be nurtured. Men who are greatly good are hill-born, and love the fresh air of the mountains of truth.


    The paragraphs of this little book are not supposed to be an argument. It was not my aim to convince an opponent, but to assist a friend. How I have personally threaded the labyrinth of life thus far, may be of helpful interest to some other soul which just now is in a maze. I hope that by these pages some true heart may be assisted to “fight his doubts and gather strength.” Let no man’s heart fail him, for the prevalent scepticisms are but “spectres of the mind.” Face them, and they fly.


    A great poet let fall the expression, “honest doubt.” How greedily it was clutched at! Modern unbelief is so short of the quality that it seized the label, and, in season and out of season, it has advertised itself as honest doubt. It was in dire need of a character.


    Feeble as our voice may be, we lift it on behalf of


    Honest Faith.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCrossReach Publications
    Release dateSep 2, 2021
    The Clue of the Maze
    Author

    C. H. Spurgeon

    CHARLES H. SPURGEON (1834-1892) was known as England's most prominent preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. He preached his first sermon at the age of 16, and by 22, he was the most popular preacher of his day, habitually addressing congregations of six to ten thousand. In addition, he was active in philanthropic work and evangelism. Spurgeon is the author of numerous books, including All of Grace, Finding Peace in Life's Storms, The Anointed Life, and Praying Successfully.

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      Book preview

      The Clue of the Maze - C. H. Spurgeon

      Let us live

      The most important part of human life is not its end, but its beginning. Our death-day is the child of the past; but our opening years are the sires of the future. At the last hour men summon to their bedside a solemnity of thought which arrives too late for any practical result. The hush, and awe, and far-away look, so frequent in departing moments, should have come much sooner. Commend us to the example of the Hebrew King, who fasted, and wore sackcloth, while the child was yet alive. Wisely did he foresee the uselessness of lamenting when the scene should close. Can I bring him back again? was one of the most sensible of questions.

      It may be a serious business to take the cold iron from the anvil; it seems to us far sadder to be standing still, and seeing the hot bar grow chill. Brother, at my side, whoever you may be, let us strike!

      How shall we live?

      With what hammer shall we strike? Ay, there’s the rub. Not that it is any question to me personally; but desiring to be a true brother to you, my reader, I put it so; and for your sake, and in fellowship with you, I look around the work-shop. Here are hammers, light, bright, many! See the trade-mark,—Warranted brand-new. The old smith over yonder says he knows nothing of them. They were left here by a new firm, who are always inventing fine things. Leastwise, says he, they call themselves a new firm, but I believe they might better be called ‘the long firm’: they trade under new names, but they are old rogues. The smith swings aloft, with brawny arm, a hammer which makes the sparks fly and the iron yield:—"There, says he, the old hammer suits me best." You see, good friend, he is only a blacksmith, and knows no better. Some people are unreasonably fond of old things. Are these mental Tories any more foolish than those who are fascinated by novelties? We think not.

      The old hammer in our forge is Faith in God.

      Faith has wrought Wonders

      Faith is a great worker. The men of strong convictions fashion the world upon their anvils. Confidence girds a man’s loins, and nerves him to the putting forth of all his energy. In the eleventh chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews, Paul brings forth a bead-roll of faith’s heroes, and erects an Arc de Triomphe to their memory. The names stand out in capitals of light, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham; and the sculptured scenes are such as these,—subdued kingdoms,—stopped the mouths of lions,—quenched the violence of fire. If the panegyrist of faith comes to a pause it is not because matter fails him; but he exclaims, What shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of David also, and Samuel, and of the Prophets.

      What has Doubt achieved?

      How is it that no such trophy has ever been raised to the honour of unbelief? Will the poet of infidelity and the historian of scepticism yet appear? If so, what will be their record? Working righteousness and obtaining promises are rather out of the line of doubt, and it is not likely to endure much suffering to obtain a better resurrection, for it sneers at the mention of such a thing: the eulogist of doubt would have to content himself with lower achievements. But what would they be? What hospitals or orphanages has doubt erected? What missions to cannibal tribes has infidelity sustained? What fallen women or profligate men has scepticism reclaimed and new-created?

      "Sing, muse! If such a theme, so dark, so wrong,

      May find a muse to grace it with a song."

      The Milton of this subject may well turn out to be like him whom Gray describes in his Elegy as mute, inglorious. By their fruits ye shal know them. What are the precious outcomings of modern thought, which is the alias for new-fashioned unbelief? We hear the shouts of the craftsmen as they repeat their cry, Great is Diana of the Ephesians! But where are the holy and happy results of the advanced criticism which is so busily undermining the foundations of faith?

      Doubt is sterile

      The fact is that doubt is negative, destructive, sterile. It constrains no man to nobler things, and begets in the human mind no hopes or aspirations. It is by no means a principle upon which to base life’s fabric; for whatever force it has is subversive, and not constructive. A principle which tends to nothing but universal smash is not one to which an ordinary man may contentedly commit the ruling of his life. What if some religious notions be mere fancy, impractical, and imaginary? It is no great thing after all to be good at breaking up the bric-à-brac of the house. However much the coldly-wise may

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