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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Monday, January 21, 2008
MORNING:
"And so all Israel shall be saved."
-- Romans 11:26
Then Moses sang at the Red Sea, it was his joy to know that all Israel
were safe. Not a drop of spray fell from that solid wall until the last
of God's Israel had safely planted his foot on the other side the
flood. That done, immediately the floods dissolved into their proper
place again, but not till then. Part of that song was, "Thou in thy
mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed." In the last
time, when the elect shall sing the song of Moses, the servant of God,
and of the Lamb, it shall be the boast of Jesus, "Of all whom thou hast
given me, I have lost none." In heaven there shall not be a vacant
throne.
"For all the chosen race
Shall meet around the throne,
Shall bless the conduct of his grace,
And make his glories known."
As many as God hath chosen, as many as Christ hath redeemed, as many as
the Spirit hath called, as many as believe in Jesus, shall safely cross
the dividing sea. We are not all safely landed yet:
"Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now."
The vanguard of the army has already reached the shore. We are marching
through the depths; we are at this day following hard after our Leader
into the heart of the sea. Let us be of good cheer: the rear-guard
shall soon be where the vanguard already is; the last of the chosen
ones shall soon have crossed the sea, and then shall be heard the song
of triumph, when all are secure. But oh! if one were absent-oh! if one
of his chosen family should be cast away-it would make an everlasting
discord in the song of the redeemed, and cut the strings of the harps
of paradise, so that music could never be extorted from them.
EVENING:
"He was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said, thou
hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy
servant: and now shall I die for thirst?"
-- Judges 15:18
Samson was thirsty and ready to die. The difficulty was totally
different from any which the hero had met before. Merely to get thirst
assuaged is nothing like so great a matter as to be delivered from a
thousand Philistines! but when the thirst was upon him, Samson felt
that little present difficulty more weighty than the great past
difficulty out of which he had so specially been delivered. It is very
usual for God's people, when they have enjoyed a great deliverance, to
find a little trouble too much for them. Samson slays a thousand
Philistines, and piles them up in heaps, and then faints for a little
water! Jacob wrestles with God at Peniel, and overcomes Omnipotence
itself, and then goes "halting on his thigh!" Strange that there must
be a shrinking of the sinew whenever we win the day. As if the Lord
must teach us our littleness, our nothingness, in order to keep us
within bounds. Samson boasted right loudly when he said, "I have slain
a thousand men." His boastful throat soon grew hoarse with thirst, and
he betook himself to prayer. God has many ways of humbling his people.
Dear child of God, if after great mercy you are laid very low, your
case is not an unusual one. When David had mounted the throne of
Israel, he said, "I am this day weak, though anointed king." You must
expect to feel weakest when you are enjoying your greatest triumph. If
God has wrought for you great deliverances in the past, your present
difficulty is only like Samson's thirst, and the Lord will not let you
faint, nor suffer the daughter of the uncircumcised to triumph over
you. The road of sorrow is the road to heaven, but there are wells of
refreshing water all along the route. So, tried brother, cheer your
heart with Samson's words, and rest assured that God will deliver you
ere long.
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MORNING & EVENING from HEARTLIGHT /\/\
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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