God's Hidden Ones

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

1 Kings 19:18

Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him.

"A gardener knoweth what roots are in the ground long before they appear, and what flowers they will produce." Look over the garden in winter, and you will not know that there is any preparation for spring; but the gardener sees in his mind's eye — here a circle of golden cups, as if set out for a royal banquet, and there a cluster of snow-white beauties, drooping with excess of modest purity. His eye knows where the daffodils and anemones lie asleep, waiting to rise in all their loveliness; and he has learned the secret of the primroses and the violets, who wait in ambush till the first warm breath of spring shall bid them reveal themselves. Even thus doth the Lord know His hidden ones long before the day of their manifestation with Him. He sees His Church before His ministers see it, and declares concerning heathen Corinth. "I have much people in this city."

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