Encouraging Encounters with God's Word

Gems from Spurgeon:

"I can say myself that I never did anything which was a blessing to my fellow creatures without feeling compelled to do it. I thought of going to a Sabbath-school to teach. On a certain day, someone called—asked me—begged me—prayed me to take his class, I could not refuse to go, and there I was held hand and foot by the superintendent, and was compelled to go on.

"I was asked to address the children. I thought I could not, but no one else was there to do it, so I stood up and stammered out a few words. And I recollect the first occasion on which I attempted to preach to the people—I am sure I had no wish to do it—but there was no one else in the place and the congregation must go away without a single word of warning or address? How could I suffer it? I felt forced to address them.

"And so it has been with whatever I have laid my hand to. I have always felt a kind of impulse which I could not resist, but moreover, felt placed by Providence in such a position that I had no wish to avoid the duty, and if I had desired it, could not have helped myself. And so it is with God’s people. If they go through their lives, wherever they have been made a blessing, they will find that God seems to have thrust them into the vineyard."