“Our soul’s grandest object” by Charles Spurgeon

“O Lord our God, we do beseech Thee look upon the faint hearted and such as are swooning through affliction. Bring again from Bashan, yea bring up Thy people from the depths of the sea. Take away our mourning and give us music: remove our sackcloth and give us beauty.

Take away our sighs and fill our mouths with songs; and let this be a radiant day of gladness, and a time of feasting from the Bridegroom’s own hand; and may our own spirits rejoice in Him, with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

At this time also, great Father, wilt Thou visit this church with Thy great favour; and as Thou hast abounded toward us these many years in blessing, so give us now some new token, some fresh visitation for good. Lord Thou hast not always given summer weather to the field of nature, but spring comes on and summer returns. Oh give us summer weather as a church.

May there be a great revival of religion in all the members, and especially in the minds of such as are growing cold or indifferent to holy things. Wherever there is any laxity of life, any slight holding of precious truth; wherever the world is creeping in with its corroding influences; wherever there is anything of sin, which our eye sees not, but which Thine eye detects, be pleased to put it away. Fill the whole church with unity, with love, with life, with power.

We thank Thee, for the many that are coming in among us fresh from the world. God be thanked for new converts; may they be like fresh blood in the veins of the church, keeping her alive and keeping her active; and may the spirit of the Lord come down upon pastors, and elders and deacons; Sunday School teachers and workers and sufferers; and let the whole church be quickened.

Yea, and not this church only, but all the little hills of Zion, do Thou water with showers from on high. Let the country churches receive a blessed visitation. Let all the churches in foreign lands also be visited by the self-same Comforter; and may there come to Thy church in these dark and dreary days, bright shining after the rain. May the time of the singing of birds come, and the voice of the turtle be heard in our land!

And oh, whilst Thou art doing this, look on sinners! Oh look on sinners! When Thou blessest Thy people, Thou dost make them blessings. When the church is vigorous, when the people praise Thee, then shall the earth yield her increase, then shall all the nations praise Thee too; for the joy of Zion is the joy of the whole earth. When the Lord maketh glad His people then He maketh the earth sit still and rest, or even if it rages, yet still there is a time of salvation, a time of the ingathering of the hidden ones, and Christ’s name is glorious.

But Lord there is a great tumult in the world just now: we pray Thee overrule it for Thy glory. Grant that the best ends of progress, of truth and righteousness may be subserved; and may it be seen still, that the Lord reigneth. Even though the people should riot and rebel against the truth, yet do Thou advance Thy cause; even by disaster and defeat, if so it must be, or by success and prosperity.

Let Thy kingdom come, good Lord; let Thy kingdom come and let Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and our hearts shall sing with the angel choir, and be glad with all the ransomed before the throne, because God is glorified. This is our soul’s grandest object, that Jesus’ name be lifted high, and His throne be set up among the people, to the praise of the glory of His grace.

And now unto the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, be glory, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”

–Charles H. Spurgeon, The Pastor in Prayer (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 118-20. This is an excerpt from a prayer that Spurgeon offered on March 28, 1880, prior to preaching a sermon from Colossians 3:1-2.