Strangers & Aliens

1. they are men
2. most of us are unsound physically one way or another anyway
3. our work lays us open to spiritual attack
4. our position in the church lays us open to criticism
5. the sedentary habits of study work tend to have a negative physcial effect

6 times when we are most likely to suffer:

1. the hour of great success or completion of great project
2. before any great achievement
3. in the midst of unbroken labour (i.e. no rest)
4. one crushing stroke
5. a multiplication of small troubles
6. for no reason whatsoever (!)

All these are to be gloried in because they teach us "not by might nor by power but my Spirit, says the Lord." Spurgy's last paragraph is worth repeating in full:

Continue, with double earnestness, to serve your Lord when no visible result is before you. Any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light: faith’s rare wisdom enables us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy, since she places her hand in that of her Great Guide. Between this and Heaven there may be rougher weather yet, but it is all provided for by our covenant Head. In nothing let us be turned aside from the path which the divine call has urged us to pursue. Come fair or come foul, the pulpit is our watchtower, and the ministry our warfare; be it our, when we cannot see the face of our God, to “trust under the shadow of thy wings.”