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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Saturday, December 1, 2007
MORNING:
"Thou hast made summer and winter."
-- Psalms 74:17
My soul begin this wintry month with thy God. The cold snows and the
piercing winds all remind thee that he keeps his covenant with day and
night, and tend to assure thee that he will also keep that glorious
covenant which he has made with thee in the person of Christ Jesus. He
who is true to his Word in the revolutions of the seasons of this poor
sin-polluted world, will not prove unfaithful in his dealings with his
own well-beloved Son.
Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be
upon thee just now it will be very painful to thee: but there is this
comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of
adversity to nip the buds of expectation: he scattereth the hoarfrost
like ashes over the once verdant meadows of our joy: he casteth forth
his ice like morsels freezing the streams of our delight. He does it
all, he is the great Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and
therefore thou canst not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness,
poverty, and a thousand other ills, are of the Lord's sending, and come
to us with wise design. Frosts kill noxious insects, and put a bound to
raging diseases; they break up the clods, and sweeten the soul. O that
such good results would always follow our winters of affliction!
How we prize the fire just now! how pleasant is its cheerful glow! Let
us in the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source of
warmth and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw nigh to him,
and in him find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in
the warm garments of his promises, and go forth to labours which befit
the season, for it were ill to be as the sluggard who will not plough
by reason of the cold; for he shall beg in summer and have nothing.
EVENING:
"O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for
his wonderful works to the children of men."
-- Psalms 107:8
If we complained less, and praised more, we should be happier, and God
would be more glorified. Let us daily praise God for common
mercies-common as we frequently call them, and yet so priceless, that
when deprived of them we are ready to perish. Let us bless God for the
eyes with which we behold the sun, for the health and strength to walk
abroad, for the bread we eat, for the raiment we wear. Let us praise
him that we are not cast out among the hopeless, or confined amongst
the guilty; let us thank him for liberty, for friends, for family
associations and comforts; let us praise him, in fact, for everything
which we receive from his bounteous hand, for we deserve little, and
yet are most plenteously endowed. But, beloved, the sweetest and the
loudest note in our songs of praise should be of redeeming love. God's
redeeming acts towards his chosen are for ever the favourite themes of
their praise. If we know what redemption means, let us not withhold our
sonnets of thanksgiving. We have been redeemed from the power of our
corruptions, uplifted from the depth of sin in which we were naturally
plunged. We have been led to the cross of Christ-our shackles of guilt
have been broken off; we are no longer slaves, but children of the
living God, and can antedate the period when we shall be presented
before the throne without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Even now
by faith we wave the palm-branch and wrap ourselves about with the fair
linen which is to be our everlasting array, and shall we not
unceasingly give thanks to the Lord our Redeemer? Child of God, canst
thou be silent? Awake, awake, ye inheritors of glory, and lead your
captivity captive, as ye cry with David, "Bless the Lord, O my soul:
and all that is within me, bless his holy name." Let the new month
begin with new songs.
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MORNING & EVENING from HEARTLIGHT /\/\
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
and preacher Charles Spurgeon. It's part of HEARTLIGHT Magazine,
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