Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/topics27/t29850

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29851
 December 16                                              Morning

 \\"Come unto me."\\
                                                  --Matthew 11:28

    The cry of the Christian religion is the gentle word, "Come."
 The Jewish law harshly said, "Go, take heed unto thy steps as to
 the path in which thou shalt walk. Break the commandments, and
 thou shalt perish; keep them, and thou shalt live." The law was
 a dispensation of terror, which drove men before it as with a
 scourge; the gospel draws with bands of love. Jesus is the good
 Shepherd going before his sheep, bidding them follow him, and
 ever leading them onwards with the sweet word, "Come." The law
 repels, the gospel attracts. The law shows the distance which
 there is between God and man; the gospel bridges that awful
 chasm, and brings the sinner across it.

    From the first moment of your spiritual life until you are
 ushered into glory, the language of Christ to you will be,
 "\\Come, come\\ unto me." As a mother puts out her finger to her
 little child and woos it to walk by saying, "\\Come\\," even so
 does Jesus. He will always be ahead of you, bidding you follow
 him as the soldier follows his captain. He will always go before
 you to pave your way, and clear your path, and you shall hear
 his animating voice calling you after him all through life;
 while in the solemn hour of death, his sweet words with which he
 shall usher you into the heavenly world shall be--"Come, ye
 blessed of my Father."

    Nay, further, this is not only Christ's cry to you, but, if
 you be a believer, this is your cry to Christ--"Come! come!"
 You will be longing for his second advent; you will be saying,
 "Come quickly, even so come Lord Jesus." You will be panting for
 nearer and closer communion with him. As his voice to you is
 "Come," your response to him will be, "Come, Lord, and abide
 with me. Come, and occupy alone the throne of my heart; reign
 there without a rival, and consecrate me entirely to thy
 service."

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29951
 # Jas 1:1 - 5:20 * Daily Bible Reading
29852
 December 17                                              Morning

 \\"I remember thee."\\
                                                   --Jeremiah 2:2

    Let us note that Christ delights to think upon his Church,
 and to look upon her beauty. As the bird returneth often to its
 nest, and as the wayfarer hastens to his home, so doth the mind
 continually pursue the object of its choice. We cannot look too
 often upon that face which we love; we desire always to have our
 precious things in our sight. It is even so with our Lord Jesus.
 From all eternity "His delights were with the sons of men"; his
 thoughts rolled onward to the time when his elect should be born
 into the world; he viewed them in the mirror of his
 foreknowledge. "In thy book," he says, "all my members were
 written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
 was none of them" (Ps. 139:16). When the world was set upon its
 pillars, he was there, and he set the bounds of the people
 according to the number of the children of Israel. Many a time
 before his incarnation, he descended to this lower earth in the
 similitude of a man; on the plains of Mamre (Gen. 18), by the
 brook of Jabbok (Gen. 32:24-30), beneath the walls of Jericho
 (Jos. 5:13), and in the fiery furnace of Babylon (Dan. 3:19,
 25), the Son of Man visited his people. Because his soul
 delighted in them, he could not rest away from them, for his
 heart longed after them. Never were they absent from his heart,
 for he had written their names upon his hands, and graven them
 upon his side. As the breastplate containing the names of the
 tribes of Israel was the most brilliant ornament worn by the
 high priest, so the names of Christ's elect were his most
 precious jewels, and glittered on his heart. We may often
 forget to meditate upon the perfections of our Lord, but he
 never ceases to remember us. Let us chide ourselves for past
 forgetfulness, and pray for grace ever to bear him in fondest
 remembrance. Lord, paint upon the eyeballs of my soul the image
 of thy Son.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29952
 # 1Pe 1:1 - 2:25 * Daily Bible Reading
29853
 December 18                                              Morning

 \\"Rend your heart, and not your garments."\\
                                                      --Joel 2:13

     Garment-rendering and other outward signs of religious
 emotion, are easily manifested and are \\frequently\\
 \\hypocritical\\; but to feel true repentance is far more
 difficult, and consequently far less common. Men will attend to
 the most multiplied and minute ceremonial regulations--for such
 things are \\pleasing to the flesh\\--but true religion is too
 humbling, too heart-searching, too thorough for the tastes of
 the carnal men; they prefer something more ostentatious, flimsy,
 and worldly. Outward observances are \\temporarily\\
 \\comfortable\\; eye and ear are pleased; self-conceit is fed,
 and self-righteousness is puffed up: but they are \\ultimately\\
 \\delusive\\, for in the article of death, and at the day of
 judgment, the soul needs something more substantial than
 ceremonies and rituals to lean upon. Apart from vital godliness
 all religion is utterly vain; offered without a sincere heart,
 every form of worship is a solemn sham and an impudent mockery
 of the majesty of heaven.

    HEART-RENDING is \\divinely wrought and solemnly felt\\. It
 is a secret grief which is \\personally experienced\\, not in
 mere form, but as a deep, soul-moving work of the Holy Spirit
 upon the inmost heart of each believer. It is not a matter to be
 merely talked of and believed in, but keenly and sensitively
 felt in every living child of the living God. It is \\powerfully\\
 \\humiliating\\, and completely sin-purging; but then it is
 \\sweetly preparative\\ for those gracious consolations which
 proud unhumbled spirits are unable to receive; and it is
 \\distinctly discriminating\\, for it belongs to the elect of
 God, and to them alone.

    The text commands us to rend our hearts, but they are
 naturally hard as marble: how, then, can this be done? We must
 take them to Calvary: a dying Saviour's voice rent the rocks
 once, and it is as powerful now. O blessed Spirit, let us hear
 the death-cries of Jesus, and our hearts shall be rent even as
 men rend their vestures in the day of lamentation.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29953
 # 1Pe 3:1 - 5:14 * Daily Bible Reading
29854
 December 19                                              Morning

 \\"The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof\\
 \\is of the Lord."\\
                                                 --Proverbs 16:33

    If the disposal of the lot is the Lord's whose is the
 arrangement of our whole life? If the simple casting of a lot
 is guided by him, how much more the events of our entire
 life--especially when we are told by our blessed Saviour: "The
 very hairs of your head are all numbered: not a sparrow falleth
 to the ground without your Father." It would bring a holy calm
 over your mind, dear friend, if you were always to remember
 this. It would so relieve your mind from anxiety, that you would
 be the better able to walk in patience, quiet, and cheerfulness
 as a Christian should. When a man is anxious he cannot pray with
 faith; when he is troubled about the world, he cannot serve his
 Master, his thoughts are serving himself. If you would "seek
 first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," all things
 would then be added unto you. You are meddling with Christ's
 business, and neglecting your own when you fret about your lot
 and circumstances. You have been trying "providing" work and
 forgetting that it is yours to obey. Be wise and attend to the
 obeying, and let Christ manage the providing. Come and survey
 your Father's storehouse, and ask whether he will let you starve
 while he has laid up so great an abundance in his garner? Look
 at his heart of mercy; see if that can ever prove unkind! Look
 at his inscrutable wisdom; see if that will ever be at fault.
 Above all, look up to Jesus Christ your Intercessor, and ask
 yourself, while he pleads, can your Father deal ungraciously
 with you? If he remembers even sparrows, will he forget one of
 the least of his poor children? "Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
 and he will sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to
 be moved."

            My soul, rest happy in thy low estate,
            Nor hope nor wish to be esteem'd or great;
            To take the impress of the Will Divine,
            Be that thy glory, and those riches thine.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29954
 # 2Pe 1:1 - 3:18 * Daily Bible Reading
29855
 December 20                                              Morning

 \\"Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love."\\
                                                  --Jeremiah 31:3

    Sometimes the Lord Jesus tells his Church his love thoughts.
 "He does not think it enough behind her back to tell it, but in
 her very presence he says, 'Thou art all fair, my love.' It is
 true, this is not his ordinary method; he is a wise lover, and
 knows when to keep back the intimation of love and when to let
 it out; but there are times when he will make no secret of it;
 times when he will put it beyond all dispute in the souls of his
 people" (R. Erskine's Sermons). The Holy Spirit is often
 pleased, in a most gracious manner, to witness with our spirits
 of the love of Jesus. He takes of the things of Christ and
 reveals them unto us. No voice is heard from the clouds, and no
 vision is seen in the night, but we have a testimony more sure
 than either of these. If an angel should fly from heaven and
 inform the saint personally of the Saviour's love to him, the
 evidence would not be one whit more satisfactory than that which
 is borne in the heart by the Holy Ghost. Ask those of the Lord's
 people who have lived the nearest to the gates of heaven, and
 they will tell you that they have had seasons when the love of
 Christ towards them has been a fact so clear and sure, that they
 could no more doubt it than they could question their own
 existence. Yes, beloved believer, you and I have had times of
 refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and then our faith has
 mounted to the topmost heights of assurance. We have had
 confidence to lean our heads upon the bosom of our Lord, and we
 have no more questioned our Master's affection to us than John
 did when in that blessed posture; nay, nor so much: for the dark
 question, "Lord, is it I that shall betray thee?" has been put
 far from us. He has kissed us with the kisses of his mouth, and
 killed our doubts by the closeness of his embrace. His love has
 been sweeter than wine to our souls.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29955
 # 1Jo 1:1 - 3:24 * Daily Bible Reading
29856
 December 21                                              Morning

 \\"Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant."\\
                                                  --2 Samuel 23:5

    This covenant is \\divine in its origin\\. "HE hath made with
 me an everlasting covenant." Oh that great word HE! Stop, my
 soul. God, the everlasting Father, has positively made a
 covenant with thee; yes, that God who spake the world into
 existence by a word; he, stooping from his majesty, takes hold
 of thy hand and makes a covenant with thee. Is it not a deed,
 the stupendous condescension of which might ravish our hearts
 for ever if we could really understand it? "HE hath made with me
 a covenant." A king has not made a covenant with me--that were
 somewhat; but the Prince of the kings of the earth, Shaddai, the
 Lord All-sufficient, the Jehovah of ages, the everlasting
 Elohim, "He hath made with me an everlasting covenant." But
 notice, it is \\particular in its application\\. "Yet hath he
 made with ME an everlasting covenant." Here lies the sweetness
 of it to each believer. It is nought for me that he made peace
 for the world; I want to know whether he made peace for \\me\\!
 It is little that he hath made a covenant, I want to know
 whether he has made a covenant \\with me\\. Blessed is the
 assurance that he hath made a covenant with me! If God the Holy
 Ghost gives me assurance of this, then his salvation is mine,
 his heart is mine, he himself is mine--\\he is my God\\.

    This covenant is \\everlasting in its duration\\. An
 everlasting covenant means a covenant which had no beginning,
 and which shall never, never end. How sweet amidst all the
 uncertainties of life, to know that "the foundation of the Lord
 standeth sure," and to have God's own promise, "My covenant will
 I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."
 Like dying David, I will sing of this, even though my house be
 not so with God as my heart desireth.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29956
 # 1Jo 4:1 - 5:21 * Daily Bible Reading
29857
 December 22                                              Morning

 \\"I will strengthen thee."\\
                                                   --Isaiah 41:10

    God has a strong reserve with which to discharge this
 engagement; for he is able to do all things. Believer, till thou
 canst drain dry the ocean of omnipotence, till thou canst break
 into pieces the towering mountains of almighty strength, thou
 never needest to fear. Think not that the strength of man shall
 ever be able to overcome the power of God. Whilst the earth's
 huge pillars stand, thou hast enough reason to abide firm in thy
 faith. The same God who directs the earth in its orbit, who
 feeds the burning furnace of the sun, and trims the lamps of
 heaven, has promised to supply thee with daily strength. While
 he is able to uphold the universe, dream not that he will prove
 unable to fulfil his own promises. Remember what he did in the
 days of old, in the former generations. Remember how he spake
 and it was done; how he commanded, and it stood fast. Shall he
 that created the world grow weary? He hangeth the world upon
 nothing; shall he who doth this be unable to support his
 children? Shall he be unfaithful to his word for want of power?
 Who is it that restrains the tempest? Doth not he ride upon the
 wings of the wind, and make the clouds his chariots, and hold
 the ocean in the hollow of his hand? How can he fail thee? When
 he has put such a faithful promise as this on record, wilt thou
 for a moment indulge the thought that he has outpromised
 himself, and gone beyond his power to fulfil? Ah, no! Thou canst
 doubt no longer.

    O thou who art my God and my strength, I can believe that
 this promise shall be fulfilled, for the boundless reservoir of
 thy grace can never be exhausted, and the overflowing storehouse
 of thy strength can never be emptied by thy friends or rifled by
 thine enemies.

                "Now let the feeble all be strong,
                And make Jehovah's arm their song."

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29957
 # 2Jo 1:1 - Jude 1:25 * Daily Bible Reading
29858
 December 23                                              Morning

 \\"Friend, go up higher."\\
                                                     --Luke 14:10

    When first the life of grace begins in the soul, we do indeed
 draw near to God, but it is with great fear and trembling. The
 soul conscious of guilt, and humbled thereby, is overawed with
 the solemnity of its position; it is cast to the earth by a
 sense of the grandeur of Jehovah, in whose presence it stands.
 With unfeigned bashfulness it takes the lowest room.

    But, in after life, as the Christian grows in grace, although
 he will never forget the solemnity of his position, and will
 never lose that holy awe which must encompass a gracious man
 when he is in the presence of the God who can create or can
 destroy; yet his fear has all its terror taken out of it; it
 becomes a holy reverence, and no more an overshadowing dread. He
 is called up higher, to greater access to God in Christ Jesus.
 Then the man of God, walking amid the splendours of Deity, and
 veiling his face like the glorious cherubim, with those twin
 wings, the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, will,
 reverent and bowed in spirit, approach the throne; and seeing
 there a God of love, of goodness, and of mercy, he will realize
 rather the covenant character of God than his absolute Deity. He
 will see in God rather his goodness than his greatness, and more
 of his love than of his majesty. Then will the soul, bowing
 still as humbly as aforetime, enjoy a more sacred liberty of
 intercession; for while prostrate before the glory of the
 Infinite God, it will be sustained by the refreshing
 consciousness of being in the presence of boundless mercy and
 infinite love, and by the realization of acceptance "in the
 Beloved." Thus the believer is bidden to come up higher, and is
 enabled to exercise the privilege of rejoicing in God, and
 drawing near to him in holy confidence, saying, "Abba, Father."

           "So may we go from strength to strength,
           And daily grow in grace,
           Till in thine image raised at length,
           We see thee face to face."

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29958
 # Re 1:1 - 2:29 * Daily Bible Reading
29859
 December 24                                              Morning

 \\"For your sakes he became poor."\\
                                              --2 Corinthians 8:9

    The Lord Jesus Christ was eternally \\rich\\, glorious, and
 exalted; but "though \\he was rich\\, yet for your sakes he
 became poor." As the rich saint cannot be true in his communion
 with his poor brethren unless of his substance he ministers to
 their necessities, so (the same rule holding with the head as
 between the members), it is impossible that our Divine Lord
 could have had fellowship with us unless he had imparted to us
 of his own abounding wealth, and had become poor to make us
 rich. Had he remained upon his throne of glory, and had we
 continued in the ruins of the fall without receiving his
 salvation, communion would have been impossible on both sides.
 Our position by the fall, apart from the covenant of grace, made
 it as impossible for fallen man to communicate with God as it is
 for Belial to be in concord with Christ. In order, therefore,
 that communion might be compassed, it was necessary that the
 rich kinsman should bestow his estate upon his poor relatives,
 that the righteous Saviour should give to his sinning brethren
 of his own perfection, and that we, the poor and guilty, should
 receive of his fulness grace for grace; that thus in giving and
 receiving, the One might descend from the heights, and the other
 ascend from the depths, and so be able to embrace each other in
 true and hearty fellowship. Poverty must be enriched by him in
 whom are infinite treasures before it can venture to commune;
 and guilt must lose itself in imputed and imparted righteousness
 ere the soul can walk in fellowship with purity. Jesus must
 clothe his people in his own garments, or he cannot admit them
 into his palace of glory; and he must wash them in his own
 blood, or else they will be too defiled for the embrace of his
 fellowship.

    O believer, herein is love! For \\your sake\\ the Lord Jesus
 "became poor" that he might lift you up into communion with
 himself.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29959
 # Re 3:1 - 5:14 * Daily Bible Reading
29860
 December 25                                              Morning

 \\"Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall\\
 \\call his name Immanuel."\\
                                                    --Isaiah 7:14

    Let us to-day go down to Bethlehem, and in company with
 wondering shepherds and adoring Magi, let us see him who was
 born King of the Jews, for we by faith can claim an interest in
 him, and can sing, "\\Unto us\\ a child is born, \\unto us\\ a
 son is given." Jesus is Jehovah incarnate, our Lord and our God,
 and yet our brother and friend; let us adore and admire. Let us
 notice at the very first glance \\his miraculous conception\\.
 It was a thing unheard of before, and unparalleled since, that a
 virgin should conceive and bear a Son. The first promise ran
 thus, "\\The seed of the woman\\," not the offspring of the man.
 Since venturous woman led the way in the sin which brought forth
 Paradise lost, she, and she alone, ushers in the Regainer of
 Paradise. Our Saviour, although truly man, was as to his human
 nature the Holy One of God. Let us reverently bow before the
 holy Child whose innocence restores to manhood its ancient
 glory; and let us pray that he may be formed in us, the hope of
 glory. Fail not to note \\his humble parentage\\. His mother has
 been described simply as "a virgin," not a princess, or
 prophetess, nor a matron of large estate. True the blood of
 kings ran in her veins; nor was her mind a weak and untaught
 one, for she could sing most sweetly a song of praise; but yet
 how humble her position, how poor the man to whom she stood
 affianced, and how miserable the accommodation afforded to the
 new-born King!

    \\Immanuel\\, God with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in our
 lifework, in our punishment, in our grave, and now with us, or
 rather we with him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph, and
 Second Advent splendour.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29960
 # Re 6:1 - 8:13 * Daily Bible Reading
29861
 December 26                                              Morning

 \\"The last Adam."\\
                                            --1 Corinthians 15:45

    Jesus is the federal head of his elect. As in Adam, every
 heir of flesh and blood has a personal interest, because he is
 the covenant head and representative of the race as considered
 under the law of works; so under the law of grace, every
 redeemed soul is one with the Lord from heaven, since he is the
 Second Adam, the Sponsor and Substitute of the elect in the new
 covenant of love. The apostle Paul declares that Levi was in
 the loins of Abraham when Melchizedek met him: it is a certain
 truth that the believer was in the loins of Jesus Christ, the
 Mediator, when in old eternity the covenant settlements of grace
 were decreed, ratified, and made sure for ever. Thus, whatever
 Christ hath done, he hath wrought for the whole body of his
 Church. We were crucified in him and buried with him (read Col.
 2:10-13), and to make it still more wonderful, we are risen with
 him and even ascended with him to the seats on high (Eph. 2:6).
 It is thus that the Church has fulfilled the law, and is
 "accepted \\in the beloved\\." It is thus that she is regarded
 with complacency by the just Jehovah, for he views her in Jesus,
 and does not look upon her as separate from her covenant head.
 As the Anointed Redeemer of Israel, Christ Jesus has nothing
 distinct from his Church, but all that he has he holds for her.
 Adam's righteousness was ours so long as he maintained it, and
 his sin was ours the moment that he committed it; and in the
 same manner, all that the Second Adam is or does, is ours as
 well as his, seeing that he is our representative. Here is the
 foundation of the covenant of grace. This gracious system of
 representation and substitution, which moved Justin Martyr to
 cry out, "O blessed change, O sweet permutation!" this is the
 very groundwork of the gospel of our salvation, and is to be
 received with strong faith and rapturous joy.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29961
 # Re 9:1 - 11:19 * Daily Bible Reading
29862
 December 27                                              Morning

 \\"Can the rush grow up without mire?"\\
                                                       --Job 8:11

    The rush is spongy and hollow, and even so is a hypocrite;
 there is no substance or stability in him. It is shaken to and
 fro in every wind just as formalists yield to every influence;
 for this reason the rush is not broken by the tempest, neither
 are hypocrites troubled with persecution. I would not willingly
 be a deceiver or be deceived; perhaps the text for this day may
 help me to try myself whether I be a hypocrite or no. The rush
 by nature lives in water, and owes its very existence to the
 mire and moisture wherein it has taken root; let the mire become
 dry, and the rush withers very quickly. Its greenness is
 absolutely dependent upon circumstances, a present abundance of
 water makes it flourish, and a drought destroys it at once. Is
 this my case? Do I only serve God when I am in good company, or
 when religion is profitable and respectable? Do I love the Lord
 only when temporal comforts are received from his hands? If so I
 am a base hypocrite, and like the withering rush, I shall perish
 when death deprives me of outward joys. But can I honestly
 assert that when bodily comforts have been few, and my
 surroundings have been rather adverse to grace than at all
 helpful to it, I have still held fast my integrity? then have I
 hope that there is genuine vital godliness in me. The rush
 cannot grow without mire, but plants of the Lord's right hand
 planting can and do flourish even in the year of drought. A
 godly man often grows best when his worldly circumstances decay.
 He who follows Christ for his bag is a Judas; they who follow
 for loaves and fishes are children of the devil; but they who
 attend him out of love to himself are his own beloved ones.
 Lord, let me find my life in \\thee\\, and not in the mire of
 this world's favour or gain.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29962
 # Re 12:1 - 13:18 * Daily Bible Reading
29863
 December 28                                              Morning

 \\"The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith\\
 \\of the Son of God."\\
                                                 --Galatians 2:20

     When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our blood, he
 first of all said, "Live"; and this he did \\first\\, because
 life is one of the absolutely essential things in spiritual
 matters, and until it be bestowed we are incapable of partaking
 in the things of the kingdom. Now the life which grace confers
 upon the saints at the moment of their quickening is none other
 than the life of Christ, which, like the sap from the stem, runs
 into us, the branches, and establishes a living connection
 between our souls and Jesus. Faith is the grace which perceives
 this union, having proceeded from it as its firstfruit. It is
 the neck which joins the body of the Church to its all-glorious
 Head.

          "Oh Faith! thou bond of union with the Lord,
          Is not this office thine? and thy fit name,
          In the economy of gospel types,
          And symbols apposite--the Church's neck;
          Identifying her in will and work
          With him ascended?"

 Faith lays hold upon the Lord Jesus with a firm and determined
 grasp. She knows his excellence and worth, and no temptation can
 induce her to repose her trust elsewhere; and Christ Jesus is so
 delighted with this heavenly grace, that he never ceases to
 strengthen and sustain her by the loving embrace and
 all-sufficient support of his eternal arms. Here, then, is
 established a living, sensible, and delightful union which casts
 forth streams of love, confidence, sympathy, complacency, and
 joy, whereof both the bride and bridegroom love to drink. When
 the soul can evidently perceive this oneness between itself and
 Christ, the pulse may be felt as beating for both, and the one
 blood as flowing through the veins of each. Then is the heart as
 near heaven as it can be on earth, and is prepared for the
 enjoyment of the most sublime and spiritual kind of fellowship.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29963
 # Re 14:1 - 16:21 * Daily Bible Reading
29864
 December 29                                              Morning

 \\"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."\\
                                                  --1 Samuel 7:12

    The word "hitherto" seems like a hand pointing in the
 direction of the \\past\\. Twenty years or seventy, and yet,
 "hitherto the Lord hath helped!" Through poverty, through
 wealth, through sickness, through health, at home, abroad, on
 the land, on the sea, in honour, in dishonour, in perplexity, in
 joy, in trial, in triumph, in prayer, in temptation, "hitherto
 hath the Lord helped us!" We delight to look down a long avenue
 of trees. It is delightful to gaze from end to end of the long
 vista, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and
 its arches of leaves; even so look down the long aisles of your
 years, at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong
 pillars of lovingkindness and faithfulness which bear up your
 joys. Are there no birds in yonder branches singing? Surely
 there must be many, and they all sing of mercy received
 \\"hitherto."\\

    But the word also points \\forward\\. For when a man gets up
 to a certain mark and writes "hitherto," he is not yet at the
 end, there is still a distance to be traversed. More trials,
 more joys; more temptations, more triumphs; more prayers, more
 answers; more toils, more strength; more fights, more victories;
 and then come sickness, old age, disease, death. Is it over now?
 No! there is more yet-awakening in Jesus' likeness, thrones,
 harps, songs, psalms, white raiment, the face of Jesus, the
 society of saints, the glory of God, the fulness of eternity,
 the infinity of bliss. O be of good courage, believer, and with
 grateful confidence raise thy "Ebenezer," for--

             He who hath helped thee hitherto
             Will help thee all thy journey through.

 When read in heaven's light how glorious and marvellous a
 prospect will thy "hitherto" unfold to thy grateful eye!

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29964
 # Re 17:1 - 18:24 * Daily Bible Reading
29865
 December 30                                              Morning

 \\"Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof."\\
                                               --Ecclesiastes 7:8

    Look at David's Lord and Master; see his beginning. He was
 despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted
 with grief. Would you see the end? He sits at his Father's right
 hand, expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. "As he
 is, so are we also in this world." You must bear the cross, or
 you shall never wear the crown; you must wade through the mire,
 or you shall never walk the golden pavement. Cheer up, then,
 poor Christian. "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning
 thereof." See that creeping worm, how contemptible its
 appearance! It is the beginning of a thing. Mark that insect
 with gorgeous wings, playing in the sunbeams, sipping at the
 flower bells, full of happiness and life; that is the end
 thereof. That caterpillar is yourself, until you are wrapped up
 in the chrysalis of death; but when Christ shall appear you
 shall be like him, for you shall see him as he is. Be content to
 be like him, a worm and no man, that like him you may be
 satisfied when you wake up in his likeness. That rough-looking
 diamond is put upon the wheel of the lapidary. He cuts it on all
 sides. It loses much--much that seemed costly to itself. The
 king is crowned; the diadem is put upon the monarch's head with
 trumpet's joyful sound. A glittering ray flashes from that
 coronet, and it beams from that very diamond which was just now
 so sorely vexed by the lapidary. You may venture to compare
 yourself to such a diamond, for you are one of God's people; and
 this is the time of the cutting process. Let faith and patience
 have their perfect work, for in the day when the crown shall be
 set upon the head of the King, Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, one
 ray of glory shall stream from you. "They shall be mine," saith
 the Lord, "in the day when I make up my jewels." "Better is the
 end of a thing than the beginning thereof."

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29965
 # Re 19:1 - 20:15 * Daily Bible Reading
29866
 December 31                                              Morning

 \\"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and\\
 \\cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and\\
 \\drink."\\
                                                      --John 7:37

    \\Patience had her perfect work\\ in the Lord Jesus, and
 until the last day of the feast he pleaded with the Jews, even
 as on this last day of the year he pleads with us, and waits to
 be gracious to us. Admirable indeed is the longsuffering of the
 Saviour in bearing with some of us year after year,
 notwithstanding our provocations, rebellions, and resistance of
 his Holy Spirit. Wonder of wonders that we are still in the land
 of mercy!

    \\Pity expressed herself most plainly\\, for Jesus \\cried\\,
 which implies not only the loudness of his voice, but the
 tenderness of his tones. He entreats us to be reconciled. "We
 \\pray\\ you," says the Apostle, "as though God did \\beseech\\
 you by us." What earnest, pathetic terms are these! How deep
 must be the love which makes the Lord weep over sinners, and
 like a mother woo his children to his bosom! Surely at the call
 of such a cry our willing hearts will come.

    \\Provision is made most plenteously\\; all is provided that
 man can need to quench his soul's thirst. To his conscience the
 atonement brings peace; to his understanding the gospel brings
 the richest instruction; to his heart the person of Jesus is the
 noblest object of affection; to the whole man the truth as it is
 in Jesus supplies the purest nutriment. Thirst is terrible, but
 Jesus can remove it. Though the soul were utterly famished,
 Jesus could restore it.

    \\Proclamation is made most freely\\, that every thirsty one
 is welcome. No other distinction is made but that of thirst.
 Whether it be the thirst of avarice, ambition, pleasure,
 knowledge, or rest, he who suffers from it is invited. The
 thirst may be bad in itself, and be no sign of grace, but rather
 a mark of inordinate sin longing to be gratified with deeper
 draughts of lust; but it is not goodness in the creature which
 brings him the invitation, the Lord Jesus sends it freely, and
 without respect of persons.

    \\Personality is declared most fully\\. The sinner must come
 to Jesus, not to works, ordinances, or doctrines, but to a
 personal Redeemer, who his own self bare our sins in his own
 body on the tree. The bleeding, dying, rising Saviour, is the
 only star of hope to a sinner. Oh for grace to come now and
 drink, ere the sun sets upon the year's last day!

    No waiting or preparation is so much as hinted at. Drinking
 represents a reception for which no fitness is required. A fool,
 a thief, a harlot can drink; and so sinfulness of character is
 no bar to the invitation to believe in Jesus. We want no golden
 cup, no bejewelled chalice, in which to convey the water to the
 thirsty; the mouth of poverty is welcome to stoop down and quaff
 the flowing flood. Blistered, leprous, filthy lips may touch
 the stream of divine love; they cannot pollute it, but shall
 themselves be purified. Jesus is the fount of hope. Dear reader,
 hear the dear Redeemer's loving voice as he cries to each of us,

                       \\"IF ANY MAN THIRST,\\
                             \\LET HIM\\
                          \\COME UNTO ME\\
                           \\AND DRINK."\\

 Evening Reading .......................................... 29966
 # Re 21:1 - 22:21 * Daily Bible Reading
29867
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