“He is not here"

Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon

The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  The following excerpt is from The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, volume 18, sermon number 1,081, "A visit to the tomb."

"Does not this truth, that Christ is not here, but is gone, fall upon our ears with a sweet force as it compels us to feel that this is the reason why our heart should not be here?" 

"He is not here:" then our heart should not be here. When this text, "He is not here," was first spoken, it meant that he was not in the grave. He was somewhere on earth then. But now he is not here at all.

Suppose you are very rich, and Satan whispers to you, "These are delightful gardens; this is a noble mansion, take thine ease:"—reply to him, "But he is not here; he is not here, he is risen; therefore I dare not put my heart where my Lord is not." Or, suppose thy family makes thee very happy, and as the little ones cluster around thee and sit around the fireside, thy heart is very glad; and though thou have not much of this world’s goods, yet thou hast enough, and thou hast a contented mind.

Well, if Satan should say to thee, "Be well content, and make thy rest here." Say to him, "No, he is not here; and I cannot feel that this is to be my abiding place. Only where Jesus is can my spirit rest." And have you lately started in life? Has the marriage day scarcely passed over? Are you just now beginning the merry days of youth, the sweet enchantment of this life’s purest joy?

Well, delight thyself therein, but still remember that he is not here, and therefore thou hast no right to say, "Soul, take thine ease!" Nowhere on earth is Christ, and therefore nowhere on earth may our heart build her nest. Nowhere,—no, not in the high places, or in the quiet resting places; not in the tents of Kedar, or between Solomon's curtains; not even at his sacramental table, nor yet amongst the means of grace, is Christ bodily, actually, present.

So we will take the sweetness of all, and the spiritual good there may be in all outward means; but still they shall all point us upward; they shall all draw us away. As the sun exhales the dew, and draws it upward towards heaven, so shall Christ magnetise and draw our hearts away, and our thoughts up, and our longings up, and our whole spirits up, towards himself!

"He is not here." Then why should I be here? Oh, get thee up, my soul; get thee up and let all thy sweetest incense go towards him who "is not here, for he is risen."

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