To-day the world is like a masquerade. High carnival is being held, and men wear their masques and dominoes, and strut about, and we think that man a king, and this a mighty prince, and this a haughty chief.
But the time is over for the masque; daylight dawns; strip off your garnishings; every one of you put on your ordinary garments. Who goes out to the unrobing room with greatest confidence? Why, the man who feels that his next dress will be a far more glorious vestment.
If any reader of this page seems to be what he is not, let him be wise enough to think of the spade, the shroud, and the silent dust. Let every one among us now put his soul into the crucible, and as we shall test ourselves in the silence of the dying hour, so let us judge ourselves now.—SPURGEON.