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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Sunday, December 30, 2007
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:
"Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter
end?"
-- 2 Samuel 2:26
If, O my reader! thou art merely a professor, and not a possessor of
the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the following lines are a true ketch
of thine end.
You are a respectable attendant at a place of worship; you go because
others go, not because your heart is right with God. This is your
beginning. I will suppose that for the next twenty or thirty years you
will be spared to go on as you do now, professing religion by an
outward attendance upon the means of grace, but having no heart in the
matter. Tread softly, for I must show you the deathbed of such a one as
yourself. Let us gaze upon him gently. A clammy sweat is on his brow,
and he wakes up crying, "O God, it is hard to die. Did you send for my
minister?" "Yes, he is coming." The minister comes. "Sir, I fear that I
am dying!" "Have you any hope?" "I cannot say that I have. I fear to
stand before my God; oh! pray for me." The prayer is offered for him
with sincere earnestness, and the way of salvation is for the
ten-thousandth time put before him, but before he has grasped the rope,
I see him sink. I may put my finger upon those cold eyelids, for they
will never see anything here again. But where is the man, and where are
the man's true eyes? It is written, "In hell he lifted up his eyes,
being in torment." Ah! why did he not lift up his eyes before? Because
he was so accustomed to hear the gospel that his soul slept under it.
Alas! if you should lift up your eyes there, how bitter will be your
wailings. Let the Saviour's own words reveal the woe: "Father Abraham,
send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool
my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." There is a frightful
meaning in those words. May you never have to spell it out by the red
light of Jehovah's wrath!
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
and preacher Charles Spurgeon. It's part of HEARTLIGHT Magazine,
the leading Christian living e-zine on the Web. Visit HEARTLIGHT
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