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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING http://www.heartlight.org/
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Thursday, August 7, 2008
MORNING:
"The upright love thee"
-- Song of Solomon 1:4
Believers love Jesus with a deeper affection then they dare to give to
any other being. They would sooner lose father and mother then part
with Christ. They hold all earthly comforts with a loose hand, but they
carry him fast locked in their bosoms. They voluntarily deny themselves
for his sake, but they are not to be driven to deny him. It is scant
love which the fire of persecution can dry up; the true believer's love
is a deeper stream than this. Men have laboured to divide the faithful
from their Master, but their attempts have been fruitless in every age.
Neither crowns of honour, now frowns of anger, have untied this more
than Gordian knot. This is no every-day attachment which the world's
power may at length dissolve. Neither man nor devil have found a key
which opens this lock. Never has the craft of Satan been more at fault
than when he has exercised it in seeking to rend in sunder this union
of two divinely welded hearts. It is written, and nothing can blot out
the sentence, "The upright love thee." The intensity of the love of the
upright, however, is not so much to be judged by what it appears as by
what the upright long for. It is our daily lament that we cannot love
enough. Would that our hearts were capable of holding more, and
reaching further. Like Samuel Rutherford, we sigh and cry, "Oh, for as
much love as would go round about the earth, and over heaven-yea, the
heaven of heavens, and ten thousand worlds-that I might let all out
upon fair, fair, only fair Christ." Alas! our longest reach is but a
span of love, and our affection is but as a drop of a bucket compared
with his deserts. Measure our love by our intentions, and it is high
indeed; 'tis thus, we trust, our Lord doth judge of it. Oh, that we
could give all the love in all hearts in one great mass, a gathering
together of all loves to him who is altogether lovely!
EVENING:
"Satan hindered us."
-- 1 Thessalonians 2:18
Since the first hour in which goodness came into conflict with evil, it
has never ceased to be true in spiritual experience, that Satan hinders
us. From all points of the compass, all along the line of battle, in
the vanguard and in the rear, at the dawn of day and in the midnight
hour, Satan hinders us. If we toil in the field, he seeks to break the
ploughshare; if we build the wall, he labours to cast down the stones;
if we would serve God in suffering or in conflict-everywhere Satan
hinders us. He hinders us when we are first coming to Jesus Christ.
Fierce conflicts we had with Satan when we first looked to the cross
and lived. Now that we are saved, he endeavours to hinder the
completeness of our personal character. You may be congratulating
yourself, "I have hitherto walked consistently; no man can challenge my
integrity." Beware of boasting, for your virtue will yet be tried;
Satan will direct his engines against that very virtue for which you
are the most famous. If you have been hitherto a firm believer, your
faith will ere long be attacked; if you have been meek as Moses, expect
to be tempted to speak unadvisedly with your lips. The birds will peck
at your ripest fruit, and the wild boar will dash his tusks at your
choicest vines. Satan is sure to hinder us when we are earnest in
prayer. He checks our importunity, and weakens our faith in order that,
if possible, we may miss the blessing. Nor is Satan less vigilant in
obstructing Christian effort. There was never a revival of religion
without a revival of his opposition. As soon as Ezra and Nehemiah begin
to labour, Sanballat and Tobiah are stirred up to hinder them. What
then? We are not alarmed because Satan hindereth us, for it is a proof
that we are on the Lord's side, and are doing the Lord's work, and in
his strength we shall win the victory, and triumph over our adversary.
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