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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING http://www.heartlight.org/
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Friday, August 8, 2008
MORNING:
"They weave the spider's web."
-- Isaiah 59:5
See the spider's web, and behold in it a most suggestive picture of the
hypocrite's religion. It is meant to catch his prey: the spider fattens
himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are
easily entrapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the
more judicious cannot always escape. Philip baptized Simon Magus, whose
guileful declaration of faith was so soon exploded by the stern rebuke
of Peter. Custom, reputation, praise, advancement, and other flies, are
the small game which hypocrites take in their nets. A spider's web is a
marvel of skill: look at it and admire the cunning hunter's wiles. Is
not a deceiver's religion equally wonderful? How does he make so
barefaced a lie appear to be a truth? How can he make his tinsel answer
so well the purpose of gold? A spider's web comes all from the
creature's own bowels. The bee gathers her wax from flowers, the spider
sucks no flowers, and yet she spins out her material to any length.
Even so hypocrites find their trust and hope within themselves; their
anchor was forged on their own anvil, and their cable twisted by their
own hands. They lay their own foundation, and hew out the pillars of
their own house, disdaining to be debtors to the sovereign grace of
God. But a spider's web is very frail. It is curiously wrought, but not
enduringly manufactured. It is no match for the servant's broom, or the
traveller's staff. The hypocrite needs no battery of Armstrongs to blow
his hope to pieces, a mere puff of wind will do it. Hypocritical
cobwebs will soon come down when the besom of destruction begins its
purifying work. Which reminds us of one more thought, viz., that such
cobwebs are not to be endured in the Lord's house: he will see to it
that they and those who spin them shall be destroyed for ever. O my
soul, be thou resting on something better than a spider's web. Be the
Lord Jesus thine eternal hiding-place.
EVENING:
"All things are possible to him that believeth."
-- Mark 9:23
Many professed Christians are always doubting and fearing, and they
forlornly think that this is the necessary state of believers. This is
a mistake, for "all things are possible to him that believeth"; and it
is possible for us to mount into a state in which a doubt or a fear
shall be but as a bird of passage flitting across the soul, but never
lingering there. When you read of the high and sweet communions enjoyed
by favoured saints, you sigh and murmur in the chamber of your heart,
"Alas! these are not for me." O climber, if thou hast but faith, thou
shalt yet stand upon the sunny pinnacle of the temple, for "all things
are possible to him that believeth." You hear of exploits which holy
men have done for Jesus; what they have enjoyed of him; how much they
have been like him; how they have been able to endure great
persecutions for his sake; and you say, "Ah! as for me, I am but a
worm; I can never attain to this." But there is nothing which one saint
was, that you may not be. There is no elevation of grace, no attainment
of spirituality, no clearness of assurance, no post of duty, which is
not open to you if you have but the power to believe. Lay aside your
sackcloth and ashes, and rise to the dignity of your true position; you
are little in Israel because you will be so, not because there is any
necessity for it. It is not meet that thou shouldst grovel in the dust,
O child of a King. Ascend! The golden throne of assurance is waiting
for you! The crown of communion with Jesus is ready to bedeck your
brow. Wrap yourself in scarlet and fine linen, and fare sumptuously
every day; for if thou believest, thou mayst eat the fat of kidneys of
wheat; thy land shall flow with milk and honey, and thy soul shall be
satisfied as with marrow and fatness. Gather golden sheaves of grace,
for they await thee in the fields of faith. "All things are possible to
him that believeth."
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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