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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Tuesday, October 2, 2007
MORNING:
"The hope which is laid up for you in heaven."
-- Colossians 1:5
Our hope in Christ for the future is the mainspring and the mainstay of
our joy here. It will animate our hearts to think often of heaven, for
all that we can desire is promised there. Here we are weary and
toilworn, but yonder is the land of rest where the sweat of labour
shall no more bedew the worker's brow, and fatigue shall be for ever
banished. To those who are weary and spent, the word "rest" is full of
heaven. We are always in the field of battle; we are so tempted within,
and so molested by foes without, that we have little or no peace; but
in heaven we shall enjoy the victory, when the banner shall be waved
aloft in triumph, and the sword shall be sheathed, and we shall hear
our Captain say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." We have
suffered bereavement after bereavement, but we are going to the land of
the immortal where graves are unknown things. Here sin is a constant
grief to us, but there we shall be perfectly holy, for there shall by
no means enter into that kingdom anything which defileth. Hemlock
springs not up in the furrows of celestial fields. Oh! is it not joy,
that you are not to be in banishment for ever, that you are not to
dwell eternally in this wilderness, but shall soon inherit Canaan?
Nevertheless let it never be said of us, that we are dreaming about the
future and forgetting the present, let the future sanctify the present
to highest uses. Through the Spirit of God the hope of heaven is the
most potent force for the product of virtue; it is a fountain of joyous
effort, it is the corner stone of cheerful holiness. The man who has
this hope in him goes about his work with vigour, for the joy of the
Lord is his strength. He fights against temptation with ardour, for the
hope of the next world repels the fiery darts of the adversary. He can
labour without present reward, for he looks for a reward in the world
to come.
EVENING:
"A man greatly beloved."
-- Daniel 10:11
Child of God, do you hesitate to appropriate this title? Ah! has your
unbelief made you forget that you are greatly beloved too? Must you not
have been greatly beloved, to have been bought with the precious blood
of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot? When God
smote his only begotten Son for you, what was this but being greatly
beloved? You lived in sin, and rioted in it, must you not have been
greatly beloved for God to have borne so patiently with you? You were
called by grace and led to a Saviour, and made a child of God and an
heir of heaven. All this proves, does it not, a very great and
superabounding love? Since that time, whether your path has been rough
with troubles, or smooth with mercies, it has been full of proofs that
you are a man greatly beloved. If the Lord has chastened you, yet not
in anger; if he has made you poor, yet in grace you have been rich. The
more unworthy you feel yourself to be, the more evidence have you that
nothing but unspeakable love could have led the Lord Jesus to save such
a soul as yours. The more demerit you feel, the clearer is the display
of the abounding love of God in having chosen you, and called you, and
made you an heir of bliss. Now, if there be such love between God and
us let us live in the influence and sweetness of it, and use the
privilege of our position. Do not let us approach our Lord as though we
were strangers, or as though he were unwilling to hear us-for we are
greatly beloved by our loving Father. "He that spared not his own Son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely
give us all things?" Come boldly, O believer, for despite the
whisperings of Satan and the doubtings of thine own heart, thou art
greatly beloved. Meditate on the exceeding greatness and faithfulness
of divine love this evening, and so go to thy bed in peace.
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