W A Criswell gave the following illustration in his preaching and commentary on 1 & 2 Samuel. Probably all of us have dealt with jealousy. One missionary sees the success of another and has terrible thoughts about the other's ministry. Pastors feel envy when they see the prosperity of the other pulpit in town. Givers and businessmen deal with the same. I thought F B Meyer's testimony might bless and change us all. Read what Criswell wrote:

F. B. Meyer was a wonderful Baptist preacher in London and a gifted man and a great writer. I have many of his books, and he's never written a book that didn't bless my heart. Well, in his day, when F. B. Meyer was in the height of his glory, after a long ministry in London, there came to London a young fellow 19 years old, and his name was Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

And he just dropped out of the blue of the sky. That young fellow 19 years old came to London, and overnight, I mean overnight, he became a world-famous preacher. Nobody, no star in the sky ever did burst across the horizon like Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Not in the history of time and tide did ever a man appear like Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Just like that, at 19 years of age, he became a world-famous preacher. I have in my library a book, the first book of his sermons that were edited and presented in America, and the introduction says, "There has appeared a star in London, England that shines beyond any brilliance we've ever seen in God's sky."

And he says in that first introduction of his first book, he says, "We don't know whether it will be like a comet and it will soon burn out or whether it will continue to shine like a sun, but all we know is the star has appeared."

When Charles Spurgeon first began to preach in London, or now to go back to F. B. Meyer, this is what I read from F. B. Meyer.

F. B. Meyer said when the young fellow came and the crowds began to throng and the crowds began to jam into buildings and they couldn't get a building big enough to hear him preach, he said, "My heart was filled with that old green-eyed monster, jealousy and envy. Here I am preaching in London on a pulpit in my throne, and I've been here these years and years."

F. B. Meyer: "the throngs are going to hear Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that young man, and I was filled with envy and jealousy;” and F. B. Meyer said, "I got down on my knees, and I said, oh, Lord God, I can't be this way. Take it out of my heart. Take it out of my soul.

"And oh, God bless that young fellow, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that young fellow who's just come to our city, and may he have bigger crowds and may God bless him with greater power and may God give him greater fame and greater influence." And F. B. Meyer said, as I read it, F. B. Meyer says, "it wasn't long until every triumph of that young man I began to receive as though I had done it myself.

And I rejoiced in the throngs, and I rejoiced in his fame, and I rejoiced in his power and I rejoiced in God's favor upon him.” That is true and godly love. As Jonathan rejoiced and the king will be not Jonathan but David, but David.

An unselfish love—not I, but you, not for me but for you, not what I want but what you want, not what pleases me but what pleases you, and his soul was knit with David, and he loved him as he loved his own soul.