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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Thursday, December 27, 2007
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:
"And the LORD shall guide thee continually."
-- Isaiah 58:11
"The Lord shall guide thee." Not an angel, but JEHOVAH shall guide
thee. He said he would not go through the wilderness before his people,
an angel should go before them to lead them in the way; but Moses said,
"If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." Christian, God
has not left you in your earthly pilgrimage to an angel's guidance: he
himself leads the van. You may not see the cloudy, fiery pillar, but
Jehovah will never forsake you. Notice the word shall-"The Lord shall
guide thee." How certain this makes it! How sure it is that God will
not forsake us! His precious "shalls" and "wills" are better than men's
oaths. "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Then observe the
adverb continually. We are not merely to be guided sometimes, but we
are to have a perpetual monitor; not occasionally to be left to our own
understanding, and so to wander, but we are continually to hear the
guiding voice of the Great Shepherd; and if we follow close at his
heels, we shall not err, but be led by a right way to a city to dwell
in. If you have to change your position in life; if you have to
emigrate to distant shores; if it should happen that you are cast into
poverty, or uplifted suddenly into a more responsible position than the
one you now occupy; if you are thrown among strangers, or cast among
foes, yet tremble not, for "the Lord shall guide thee continually."
There are no dilemmas out of which you shall not be delivered if you
live near to God, and your heart be kept warm with holy love. He goes
not amiss who goes in the company of God. Like Enoch, walk with God,
and you cannot mistake your road. You have infallible wisdom to direct
you, immutable love to comfort you, and eternal power to defend you.
"Jehovah"-mark the word-"Jehovah shall guide thee continually."
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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