ASPIRE. “Who knows whether you are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Rise to the utmost possible height. Fulfill your calling to its loftiest degree. Not only do all that you are sure you can do, but aim at something which, as yet, is high up among the questions. Say to yourself, “Who knows?” That is what the ambitious man says when he aspires to be great. When Louis Napoleon was shut up in the fortress of Ham and everybody ridiculed his foolish attempts upon France, yet he said to himself, “Who knows? I am the nephew of my uncle, and may yet sit upon the imperial throne.” And he did before many years had passed. I have no desire to make any man ambitious after the poor thrones, honors and riches of this world, but I would gladly make you all ardently ambitious to honor God and bless men! Who knows? Does anybody know what God may do by you? Does anybody know what capacities slumber within your bosom? I suggest the enquiry and I will help you to an answer.

“Who knows whether you are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Nobody knows to the contrary. I cannot tell but what God may bless you to this entire nation. Nobody will dare to say that He cannot! I cannot tell but what God may bless you, my Friend, to that part of London in which you live, even though you may be deeply conscious of its great needs and of your own insufficiency. Who can tell what the Lord can or will do? Dear mother, who knows but what the Lord Jesus may bless you to all the members of your family, so that by your means all the little ones shall come to Him? Nobody has any right to speak to the contrary! Who knows but what God may bless you, dear teacher, to all your Sunday school class, so that you may meet them all in Heaven? Nobody can declare that it shall not be so, therefore strive after it. The watchword is, “ASPIRE.”

Further, nobody knows the limit of the possibilities that surround any man–should God please to use him. “Alas,” cries one, “I am soon at the end of my powers.” My dear Brother, if you begin calculating how much there is in you by nature and how much you can do of yourself, you may as well end the enquiry by hearing our Lord’s Words–“Without Me you can do nothing.” Though you are no better than a mere cipher, yet the Lord can make something of you. Set one before a cipher and it is 10, directly. Let two or three nothings combine to serve the Lord and, if the Lord Jesus heads them, these nothings become tens of thousands! Who knows what you can do? Shall the Church ever say, “Here is a problem we cannot solve?” Bite your lip through rather than have it thought that you doubt the power of the Almighty! All things are possible to Him that believes! You are able to take the land into possession, the Lord being your Helper. Go up against even these entrenched Canaanites, the walls of whose cities reach to Heaven, for you can drive them out!

You seem, in your own sight, to be as grasshoppers when compared with the sons of Anak. But the Lord on high is mighty and out of the weakest things He has ordained strength to His honor and glory! Young man, I trust you have given your heart to the Lord–what are you going to do? You have come into some property unexpectedly, or you are promoted in a house of business–what is the meaning of it? “Who knows whether you are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” My talented Brother, should you not take your share in battling with present evils? I believe that in dark times God is making lamps with which to remove the gloom. Martin Luther is sitting by his father’s hearth in the forest when the Pope is selling his wicked indulgences–Martin will soon come out and stop the crowing of the cock of the Romish Christ-denying Peter!

John Calvin is quietly studying when false doctrine is most rife and he will be heard of at Geneva! A young man is here this morning–I do not know whereabouts he is, but I pray the Lord to make this to be an ordination sermon to him–starting him on his life-work. I feel as if I were Samuel at Bethlehem, seeking for David, to anoint him with a horn of oil in the name of the Lord! Some beloved Brothers are here who have done a good deal and the Lord has blessed them, but their work is heavy and their hearts are weary. By the anointing which has given you the kingdom, I trust that you will not be weary in well-doing! Pluck up courage, for a grand future is before you! “Who knows whether you are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Be content to be a living sacrifice. Say with Esther, “If I perish, I perish. I am content to give myself up for such a cause. Come life, come death, I am all His! If I die in my Lord’s work, I die content.”

Further, “Who knows whether you are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” You do not, yourself, know. I speak experimentally, using myself as an instance in the work which God has enabled me to do. If it had been revealed to me that I should have enjoyed the opportunities which have fallen to my lot, I would never have believed it. If the Lord can use me, He can also use you! Only stand in a waiting posture, saying, “Here am I, send me!” and you shall see things which you dare not expect! If the curtain could be drawn and you could behold the future, you would exclaim, “Is Your servant born of angels that he should attempt such things as these?” I do not suppose Peter, James and John had any inkling of what the Lord was going to do by them when they left their boats and nets at His call. John dreamed that one day he might sit on an earthly throne and, his brother, James, on another. Though this was not to be, yet they have obtained a nobler heritage!

To each of us there is a share in the purposes of Heaven and this is a large enough kingdom! Who knows, Brother or Sister, whether you are put in your family to save your family? Who knows whether you are made to live in a back street to bless that street? Who knows whether you are set down in a forlorn district to raise up that district? Who knows whether you are put into that nation to save that nation? Yes, put into the world, in Christ’s name, to save the world? Aspire to great things for God!

Excerpts From “Esther’s Exaltation – or, Who Knows?” April 27, 1884. By C.H.Spurgeon.