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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Thursday, June 26, 2008
MORNING:
"Art thou become like unto us?"
-- Isaiah 14:10
What must be the apostate professor's doom when his naked soul appears
before God? How will he bear that voice, "Depart, ye cursed; thou hast
rejected me, and I reject thee; thou hast played the harlot, and
departed from me: I also have banished thee for ever from my presence,
and will not have mercy upon thee." What will be this wretch's shame at
the last great day when, before assembled multitudes, the apostate
shall be unmasked? See the profane, and sinners who never professed
religion, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at
him. "There he is," says one, "will he preach the gospel in hell?"
"There he is," says another, "he rebuked me for cursing, and was a
hypocrite himself!" "Aha!" says another, "here comes a psalm-singing
Methodist-one who was always at his meeting; he is the man who boasted
of his being sure of everlasting life; and here he is!" No greater
eagerness will ever be seen among Satanic tormentors, than in that day
when devils drag the hypocrite's soul down to perdition. Bunyan
pictures this with massive but awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks
of the back-way to hell. Seven devils bound the wretch with nine cords,
and dragged him from the road to heaven, in which he had professed to
walk, and thrust him through the back-door into hell. Mind that
back-way to hell, professors! "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the
faith." Look well to your state; see whether you be in Christ or not.
It is the easiest thing in the world to give a lenient verdict when
oneself is to be tried; but O, be just and true here. Be just to all,
but be rigorous to yourself. Remember if it be not a rock on which you
build, when the house shall fall, great will be the fall of it. O may
the Lord give you sincerity, constancy, and firmness; and in no day,
however evil, may you be led to turn aside.
EVENING:
"Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust."
-- 2 Peter 1:4
Vanish for ever all thought of indulging the flesh if you would live in
the power of your risen Lord. It were ill that a man who is alive in
Christ should dwell in the corruption of sin. "Why seek ye the living
among the dead?" said the angel to Magdalene. Should the living dwell
in the sepulchre? Should divine life be immured in the charnel house of
fleshly lust? How can we partake of the cup of the Lord and yet drink
the cup of Belial? Surely, believer, from open lusts and sins you are
delivered: have you also escaped from the more secret and delusive
lime-twigs of the Satanic fowler? Have you come forth from the lust of
pride? Have you escaped from slothfulness? Have you clean escaped from
carnal security? Are you seeking day by day to live above worldliness,
the pride of life, and the ensnaring vice of avarice? Remember, it is
for this that you have been enriched with the treasures of God. If you
be indeed the chosen of God, and beloved by him, do not suffer all the
lavish treasure of grace to be wasted upon you. Follow after holiness;
it is the Christian's crown and glory. An unholy church! it is useless
to the world, and of no esteem among men. It is an abomination, hell's
laughter, heaven's abhorrence. The worst evils which have ever come
upon the world have been brought upon her by an unholy church. O
Christian, the vows of God are upon you. You are God's priest: act as
such. You are God's king: reign over your lusts. You are God's chosen:
do not associate with Belial. Heaven is your portion: live like a
heavenly spirit, so shall you prove that you have true faith in Jesus,
for there cannot be faith in the heart unless there be holiness in the
life.
"Lord, I desire to live as one
Who bears a blood-bought name,
As one who fears but grieving thee,
And knows no other shame."
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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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