Mocking is no Great Hardship

"To be laughed at is no great hardship to me. I can delight in scoffs and jeers; caricatures, lampoons, and slanders are my glory. But that you should turn from your own mercy, this is my sorrow. Spit on me, but oh, repent! Laugh at me, but oh, believe in my Master! Make my body as the dirt of the streets, if you will, but damn not your own souls! Oh, do not despise your own mercies. Put not away from you the gospel of Christ. . . . I charge you, as I shall face you at the judgment bar of the Lord Jesus in the day of judgment -- I charge you, by your own immortal welfare, lay these things to heart."

C. H. Spurgeon, 10 January 1858

(HT: Ray Ortlund)