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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Sunday, March 16, 2008
MORNING:
"I am a stranger with thee."
-- Psalms 39:12
Yes, O Lord, with thee, but not to thee. All my natural alienation from
thee, thy grace has effectually removed; and now, in fellowship with
thyself, I walk through this sinful world as a pilgrim in a foreign
country. Thou art a stranger in thine own world. Man forgets thee,
dishonours thee, sets up new laws and alien customs, and knows thee
not. When thy dear Son came unto his own, his own received him not. He
was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him
not. Never was foreigner so speckled a bird among the denizens of any
land as thy beloved Son among his mother's brethren. It is no marvel,
then, if I who live the life of Jesus, should be unknown and a stranger
here below. Lord, I would not be a citizen where Jesus was an alien.
His pierced hand has loosened the cords which once bound my soul to
earth, and now I find myself a stranger in the land. My speech seems to
these Babylonians among whom I dwell an outlandish tongue, my manners
are singular, and my actions are strange. A Tartar would be more at
home in Cheapside than I could ever be in the haunts of sinners. But
here is the sweetness of my lot: I am a stranger with thee. Thou art my
fellow-sufferer, my fellow-pilgrim. Oh, what joy to wander in such
blessed society! My heart burns within me by the way when thou dost
speak to me, and though I be a sojourner, I am far more blest than
those who sit on thrones, and far more at home than those who dwell in
their ceiled houses.
"To me remains nor place, nor time:
My country is in every clime;
I can be calm and free from care
On any shore, since God is there.
While place we seek, or place we shun,
The soul finds happiness in none:
But with a God to guide our way,
'Tis equal joy to go or stay."
EVENING:
"Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins."
-- Psalms 19:13
Such was the prayer of the "man after God's own heart." Did holy David
need to pray thus? How needful, then, must such a prayer be for us
babes in grace! It is as if he said, "Keep me back, or I shall rush
headlong over the precipice of sin." Our evil nature, like an
ill-tempered horse, is apt to run away. May the grace of God put the
bridle upon it, and hold it in, that it rush not into mischief. What
might not the best of us do if it were not for the checks which the
Lord sets upon us both in providence and in grace! The psalmist's
prayer is directed against the worst form of sin-that which is done
with deliberation and wilfulness. Even the holiest need to be "kept
back" from the vilest transgressions. It is a solemn thing to find the
apostle Paul warning saints against the most loathsome sins. "Mortify
therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and
covetousness, which is idolatry." What! do saints want warning against
such sins as these? Yes, they do. The whitest robes, unless their
purity be preserved by divine grace, will be defiled by the blackest
spots. Experienced Christian, boast not in your experience; you will
trip yet if you look away from him who is able to keep you from
falling. Ye whose love is fervent, whose faith is constant, whose hopes
are bright, say not, "We shall never sin," but rather cry, "Lead us not
into temptation." There is enough tinder in the heart of the best of
men to light a fire that shall burn to the lowest hell, unless God
shall quench the sparks as they fall. Who would have dreamed that
righteous Lot could be found drunken, and committing uncleanness?
Hazael said, "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?" and
we are very apt to use the same self-righteous question. May infinite
wisdom cure us of the madness of self-confidence.
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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