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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Sunday, September 30, 2007
MORNING:
"Sing forth the honour of his name, make his praise glorious."
-- Psalms 66:2
It is not left to our own option whether we shall praise God or not.
Praise is God's most righteous due, and every Christian, as the
recipient of his grace, is bound to praise God from day to day. It is
true we have no authoritative rubric for daily praise; we have no
commandment prescribing certain hours of song and thanksgiving: but the
law written upon the heart teaches us that it is right to praise God;
and the unwritten mandate comes to us with as much force as if it had
been recorded on the tables of stone, or handed to us from the top of
thundering Sinai. Yes, it is the Christian's duty to praise God. It is
not only a pleasurable exercise, but it is the absolute obligation of
his life. Think not ye who are always mourning, that ye are guiltless
in this respect, or imagine that ye can discharge your duty to your God
without songs of praise. You are bound by the bonds of his love to
bless his name so long as you live, and his praise should continually
be in your mouth, for you are blessed, in order that you may bless him;
"this people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my
praise"; and if you do not praise God, you are not bringing forth the
fruit which he, as the Divine Husbandman, has a right to expect at your
hands. Let not your harp then hang upon the willows, but take it down,
and strive, with a grateful heart, to bring forth its loudest music.
Arise and chant his praise. With every morning's dawn, lift up your
notes of thanksgiving, and let every setting sun be followed with your
song. Girdle the earth with your praises; surround it with an
atmosphere of melody, and God himself will hearken from heaven and
accept your music.
"E'en so I love thee, and will love,
And in thy praise will sing,
Because thou art my loving God,
And my redeeming King."
EVENING:
"A living dog is better than a dead lion."
-- Ecclesiastes 9:4
Life is a precious thing, and in its humblest form it is superior to
death. This truth is eminently certain in spiritual things. It is
better to be the least in the kingdom of heaven than the greatest out
of it. The lowest degree of grace is superior to the noblest
development of unregenerate nature. Where the Holy Ghost implants
divine life in the soul, there is a precious deposit which none of the
refinements of education can equal. The thief on the cross excels
Caesar on his throne; Lazarus among the dogs is better than Cicero
among the senators; and the most unlettered Christian is in the sight
of God superior to Plato. Life is the badge of nobility in the realm of
spiritual things, and men without it are only coarser or finer
specimens of the same lifeless material, needing to be quickened, for
they are dead in trespasses and sins.
A living, loving, gospel sermon, however unlearned in matter and
uncouth in style, is better than the finest discourse devoid of unction
and power. A living dog keeps better watch than a dead lion, and is of
more service to his master; and so the poorest spiritual preacher is
infinitely to be preferred to the exquisite orator who has no wisdom
but that of words, no energy but that of sound. The like holds good of
our prayers and other religious exercises; if we are quickened in them
by the Holy Spirit, they are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ,
though we may think them to be worthless things; while our grand
performances in which our hearts were absent, like dead lions, are mere
carrion in the sight of the living God. O for living groans, living
sighs, living despondencies, rather than lifeless songs and dead calms.
Better anything than death. The snarlings of the dog of hell will at
least keep us awake, but dead faith and dead profession, what greater
curses can a man have? Quicken us, quicken us, O Lord!
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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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