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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
http://www.heartlight.org/
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Friday, July 11, 2008
MORNING:
"After that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect,
stablish, strengthen, settle you."
-- 1 Peter 5:10
You have seen the arch of heaven as it spans the plain: glorious are
its colours, and rare its hues. It is beautiful, but, alas, it passes
away, and lo, it is not. The fair colours give way to the fleecy
clouds, and the sky is no longer brilliant with the tints of heaven. It
is not established. How can it be? A glorious show made up of
transitory sun-beams and passing rain-drops, how can it abide? The
graces of the Christian character must not resemble the rainbow in its
transitory beauty, but, on the contrary, must be stablished, settled,
abiding. Seek, O believer, that every good thing you have may be an
abiding thing. May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but
an inscription upon the rock! May your faith be no "baseless fabric of
a vision," but may it be builded of material able to endure that awful
fire which shall consume the wood, hay, and stubble of the hypocrite.
May you be rooted and grounded in love. May your convictions be deep,
your love real, your desires earnest. May your whole life be so settled
and established, that all the blasts of hell, and all the storms of
earth shall never be able to remove you. But notice how this blessing
of being "stablished in the faith" is gained. The apostle's words point
us to suffering as the means employed-"After that ye have suffered
awhile." It is of no use to hope that we shall be well rooted if no
rough winds pass over us. Those old gnarlings on the root of the oak
tree, and those strange twistings of the branches, all tell of the many
storms that have swept over it, and they are also indicators of the
depth into which the roots have forced their way. So the Christian is
made strong, and firmly rooted by all the trials and storms of life.
Shrink not then from the tempestuous winds of trial, but take comfort,
believing that by their rough discipline God is fulfilling this
benediction to you.
EVENING:
"Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their
children, and their children another generation."
-- Joel 1:3
In this simple way, by God's grace, a living testimony for truth is
always to be kept alive in the land-the beloved of the Lord are to hand
down their witness for the gospel, and the covenant to their heirs, and
these again to their next descendants. This is our first duty, we are
to begin at the family hearth: he is a bad preacher who does not
commence his ministry at home. The heathen are to be sought by all
means, and the highways and hedges are to be searched, but home has a
prior claim, and woe unto those who reverse the order of the Lord's
arrangements. To teach our children is a personal duty; we cannot
delegate it to Sunday school teachers, or other friendly aids; these
can assist us, but cannot deliver us from the sacred obligation;
proxies and sponsors are wicked devices in this case: mothers and
fathers must, like Abraham, command their households in the fear of
God, and talk with their offspring concerning the wondrous works of the
Most High. Parental teaching is a natural duty-who so fit to look to
the child's well-being as those who are the authors of his actual
being? To neglect the instruction of our offspring is worse than
brutish. Family religion is necessary for the nation, for the family
itself, and for the church of God. By a thousand plots Popery is
covertly advancing in our land, and one of the most effectual means for
resisting its inroads is left almost neglected, namely, the instruction
of children in the faith. Would that parents would awaken to a sense of
the importance of this matter. It is a pleasant duty to talk of Jesus
to our sons and daughters, and the more so because it has often proved
to be an accepted work, for God has saved the children through the
parents' prayers and admonitions. May every house into which this
volume shall come honour the Lord and receive his smile.
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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,
the leading Christian living e-zine on the Web. Visit HEARTLIGHT
on the web for even more devotionals, plus music, articles and more
for your Christian walk!
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EDITOR: Phil Ware, phil@heartlight.org
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