In our esteem, the joys of earth are little better than husks for swine compared with Jesus the heavenly Manna; I would rather have one mouthful of Christ’s Love, and a sip of His fellowship than a whole world full of carnal delights! What is the chaff to the wheat? What is the sparkling paste to the true diamond? What is a dream to the glorious reality? What is time’s mirth in its best trim compared to our Lord Jesus in His most despised estate? If you know anything of the inner life, you will, all of you, confess that our highest, purest, and most enduring joys must be the fruit of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God! No spring yields such sweet water as that Well of God which was dug with the soldier’s spear.
– Charles Spurgeon –