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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Saturday, February 16, 2008
MORNING:
"I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be
content."
-- Philippians 4:11
These words show us that contentment is not a natural propensity of
man. "Ill weeds grow apace." Covetousness, discontent, and murmuring
are as natural to man as thorns are to the soil. We need not sow
thistles and brambles; they come up naturally enough, because they are
indigenous to earth: and so, we need not teach men to complain; they
complain fast enough without any education. But the precious things of
the earth must be cultivated. If we would have wheat, we must plough
and sow; if we want flowers, there must be the garden, and all the
gardener's care. Now, contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and
if we would have it, it must be cultivated; it will not grow in us by
nature; it is the new nature alone that can produce it, and even then
we must be specially careful and watchful that we maintain and
cultivate the grace which God has sown in us. Paul says, "I have
learned ... to be content;" as much as to say, he did not know how at
one time. It cost him some pains to attain to the mystery of that great
truth. No doubt he sometimes thought he had learned, and then broke
down. And when at last he had attained unto it, and could say, "I have
learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," he was an
old, grey-headed man, upon the borders of the grave-a poor prisoner
shut up in Nero's dungeon at Rome. We might well be willing to endure
Paul's infirmities, and share the cold dungeon with him, if we too
might by any means attain unto his good degree. Do not indulge the
notion that you can be contented with learning, or learn without
discipline. It is not a power that may be exercised naturally, but a
science to be acquired gradually. We know this from experience.
Brother, hush that murmur, natural though it be, and continue a
diligent pupil in the College of Content.
EVENING:
"Thy good Spirit."
-- Nehemiah 9:20
Common, too common is the sin of forgetting the Holy Spirit. This is
folly and ingratitude. He deserves well at our hands, for he is good,
supremely good. As God, he is good essentially. He shares in the
threefold ascription of Holy, holy, holy, which ascends to the Triune
Jehovah. Unmixed purity and truth, and grace is he. He is good
benevolently, tenderly bearing with our waywardness, striving with our
rebellious wills; quickening us from our death in sin, and then
training us for the skies as a loving nurse fosters her child. How
generous, forgiving, and tender is this patient Spirit of God. He is
good operatively. All his works are good in the most eminent degree: he
suggests good thoughts, prompts good actions, reveals good truths,
applies good promises, assists in good attainments, and leads to good
results. There is no spiritual good in all the world of which he is not
the author and sustainer, and heaven itself will owe the perfect
character of its redeemed inhabitants to his work. He is good
officially; whether as Comforter, Instructor, Guide, Sanctifier,
Quickener, or Intercessor, he fulfils his office well, and each work is
fraught with the highest good to the church of God. They who yield to
his influences become good, they who obey his impulses do good, they
who live under his power receive good. Let us then act towards so good
a person according to the dictates of gratitude. Let us revere his
person, and adore him as God over all, blessed for ever; let us own his
power, and our need of him by waiting upon him in all our holy
enterprises; let us hourly seek his aid, and never grieve him; and let
us speak to his praise whenever occasion occurs. The church will never
prosper until more reverently it believes in the Holy Ghost. He is so
good and kind, that it is sad indeed that he should be grieved by
slights and negligences.
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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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