home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- 29850
- next 29815
- 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
- next 29901
-