As Spurgeon preached on the parable of the soils (Luke 8:4-15), this excerpt comes from his application concerning the third category of people -- those who hear the Word but the thorns come in and choke out the Word.
Spurgeon urges:
Ah! My
dear readers, I will not ask for you that God may lay you on a bed of
sickness, that he may strip you of all your wealth, and bring you to
beggary; but, oh, if he were to do it, and you were to save your souls,
it would be the best bargain you could ever make. If those mighty ones
who now complain that the thorns choke the seed could give up all their
riches and pleasures, if they that fare sumptuously every day could take
the place of Lazarus at the gate, it were a happy change for them if
their souls might be saved. A man may be honourable and rich, and yet go
to heaven; but it will be hard work, for "It is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of heaven." God does make some rich men enter the kingdom of
heaven, but hard is their struggle. Steady, young man, steady! Hurry not
to climb to wealth! It is a place where many heads are turned. Do not
ask God to make you popular; they that have popularity are wearied by
it. Cry with Agur—"Give me neither poverty nor riches." God give me to
tread the golden mean, and may I ever have in my heart that good seed,
which shall bring forth fruit a hundredfold to his own glory.
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