Moreover, is not this the reason why the saints of God are on earth at all? Why does he not send an express chariot to take them at once to heaven? There is no necessity for saints being on earth that I know of, except for the good of their fellow-men. Sanctification might be completed in a moment; as for all the rest, it is already done. God “hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” Why stay we, here, then, at all, but that we may be salt in the midst of putrefaction, — light, in the midst of darkness, — life in the midst of death? The Church is the world’s hope. As Christ is the hope of the Church, so the Church is the hope of the world. The saints become, under Christ, the world’s saviours. Then we must not marvel, being here for this very purpose, if Christ does throw us, like a handful of salt, just where the putrefaction is the worst; or if he should cast us, as he hath often done with his saints aforetime, where our influence is most needed.
CH Spurgeon
Website: https://www.biblia.work/sermons/the-church-the-worlds-hope/