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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Monday, April 14, 2008
MORNING:
"All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the
lip, they shake the head."
-- Psalms 22:7
Mockery was a great ingredient in our Lord's woe. Judas mocked him in
the garden; the chief priests and scribes laughed him to scorn; Herod
set him at nought; the servants and the soldiers jeered at him, and
brutally insulted him; Pilate and his guards ridiculed his royalty; and
on the tree all sorts of horrid jests and hideous taunts were hurled at
him. Ridicule is always hard to bear, but when we are in intense pain
it is so heartless, so cruel, that it cuts us to the quick. Imagine the
Saviour crucified, racked with anguish far beyond all mortal guess, and
then picture that motley multitude, all wagging their heads or
thrusting out the lip in bitterest contempt of one poor suffering
victim! Surely there must have been something more in the crucified One
than they could see, or else such a great and mingled crowd would not
unanimously have honoured him with such contempt. Was it not evil
confessing, in the very moment of its greatest apparent triumph, that
after all it could do no more than mock at that victorious goodness
which was then reigning on the cross? O Jesus, "despised and rejected
of men," how couldst thou die for men who treated thee so ill? Herein
is love amazing, love divine, yea, love beyond degree. We, too, have
despised thee in the days of our unregeneracy, and even since our new
birth we have set the world on high in our hearts, and yet thou
bleedest to heal our wounds, and diest to give us life. O that we could
set thee on a glorious high throne in all men's hearts! We would ring
out thy praises over land and sea till men should as universally adore
as once they did unanimously reject.
"Thy creatures wrong thee, O thou sovereign Good!
Thou art not loved, because not understood:
This grieves me most, that vain pursuits beguile
Ungrateful men, regardless of thy smile."
EVENING:
"Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him."
-- Isaiah 3:10
It is well with the righteous ALWAYS. If it had said, "Say ye to the
righteous, that it is well with him in his prosperity," we must have
been thankful for so great a boon, for prosperity is an hour of peril,
and it is a gift from heaven to be secured from its snares: or if it
had been written, "It is well with him when under persecution," we must
have been thankful for so sustaining an assurance, for persecution is
hard to bear; but when no time is mentioned, all time is included.
God's "shalls" must be understood always in their largest sense. From
the beginning of the year to the end of the year, from the first
gathering of evening shadows until the day-star shines, in all
conditions and under all circumstances, it shall be well with the
righteous. It is so well with him that we could not imagine it to be
better, for he is well fed, he feeds upon the flesh and blood of Jesus;
he is well clothed, he wears the imputed righteousness of Christ; he is
well housed, he dwells in God; he is well married, his soul is knit in
bonds of marriage union to Christ; he is well provided for, for the
Lord is his Shepherd; he is well endowed, for heaven is his
inheritance. It is well with the righteous-well upon divine authority;
the mouth of God speaks the comforting assurance. O beloved, if God
declares that all is well, ten thousand devils may declare it to be
ill, but we laugh them all to scorn. Blessed be God for a faith which
enables us to believe God when the creatures contradict him. It is,
says the Word, at all times well with thee, thou righteous one; then,
beloved, if thou canst not see it, let God's word stand thee in stead
of sight; yea, believe it on divine authority more confidently than if
thine eyes and thy feelings told it to thee. Whom God blesses is blest
indeed, and what his lip declares is truth most sure and steadfast.
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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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