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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
MORNING:
"Thy Redeemer."
-- Isaiah 54:5
Jesus, the Redeemer, is altogether ours and ours for ever. All the
offices of Christ are held on our behalf. He is king for us, priest for
us, and prophet for us. Whenever we read a new title of the Redeemer,
let us appropriate him as ours under that name as much as under any
other. The shepherd's staff, the father's rod, the captain's sword, the
priest's mitre, the prince's sceptre, the prophet's mantle, all are
ours. Jesus hath no dignity which he will not employ for our
exaltation, and no prerogative which he will not exercise for our
defence. His fulness of Godhead is our unfailing, inexhaustible
treasure-house.
His manhood also, which he took upon him for us, is ours in all its
perfection. To us our gracious Lord communicates the spotless virtue of
a stainless character; to us he gives the meritorious efficacy of a
devoted life; on us he bestows the reward procured by obedient
submission and incessant service. He makes the unsullied garment of his
life our covering beauty; the glittering virtues of his character our
ornaments and jewels; and the superhuman meekness of his death our
boast and glory. He bequeaths us his manger, from which to learn how
God came down to man; and his Cross to teach us how man may go up to
God. All his thoughts, emotions, actions, utterances, miracles, and
intercessions, were for us. He trod the road of sorrow on our behalf,
and hath made over to us as his heavenly legacy the full results of all
the labours of his life. He is now as much ours as heretofore; and he
blushes not to acknowledge himself "our Lord Jesus Christ," though he
is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of
lords. Christ everywhere and every way is our Christ, for ever and ever
most richly to enjoy. O my soul, by the power of the Holy Spirit! call
him this morning, "thy Redeemer."
EVENING:
"I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse."
-- Song of Solomon 5:1
The heart of the believer is Christ's garden. He bought it with his
precious blood, and he enters it and claims it as his own. A garden
implies separation. It is not the open common; it is not a wilderness;
it is walled around, or hedged in. Would that we could see the wall of
separation between the church and the world made broader and stronger.
It makes one sad to hear Christians saying, "Well, there is no harm in
this; there is no harm in that," thus getting as near to the world as
possible. Grace is at a low ebb in that soul which can even raise the
question of how far it may go in worldly conformity. A garden is a
place of beauty, it far surpasses the wild uncultivated lands. The
genuine Christian must seek to be more excellent in his life than the
best moralist, because Christ's garden ought to produce the best
flowers in all the world. Even the best is poor compared with Christ's
deservings; let us not put him off with withering and dwarf plants. The
rarest, richest, choicest lilies and roses ought to bloom in the place
which Jesus calls his own. The garden is a place of growth. The saints
are not to remain undeveloped, always mere buds and blossoms. We should
grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. Growth should be rapid where Jesus is the Husbandman, and the
Holy Spirit the dew from above. A garden is a place of retirement. So
the Lord Jesus Christ would have us reserve our souls as a place in
which he can manifest himself, as he doth not unto the world. O that
Christians were more retired, that they kept their hearts more closely
shut up for Christ! We often worry and trouble ourselves, like Martha,
with much serving, so that we have not the room for Christ that Mary
had, and do not sit at his feet as we should. The Lord grant the sweet
showers of his grace to water his garden this day.
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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