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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING http://www.heartlight.org/
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Thursday, April 9, 2009
MORNING:
"And there followed him a great company of people, and of
women, which also bewailed and lamented him."
-- Luke 23:27
Amid the rabble rout which hounded the Redeemer to his doom, there were
some gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in wailing and
lamentations-fit music to accompany that march of woe. When my soul
can, in imagination, see the Saviour bearing his cross to Calvary, she
joins the godly women and weeps with them; for, indeed, there is true
cause for grief-cause lying deeper than those mourning women thought.
They bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love bleeding,
meekness about to die; but my heart has a deeper and more bitter cause
to mourn. My sins were the scourges which lacerated those blessed
shoulders, and crowned with thorn those bleeding brows: my sins cried
"Crucify him! crucify him!" and laid the cross upon his gracious
shoulders. His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one
eternity: but my having been his murderer, is more, infinitely more,
grief than one poor fountain of tears can express.
Why those women loved and wept it were not hard to guess: but they
could not have had greater reasons for love and grief than my heart
has. Nain's widow saw her son restored-but I myself have been raised to
newness of life. Peter's wife's mother was cured of the fever-but I of
the greater plague of sin. Out of Magdalene seven devils were cast-but
a whole legion out of me. Mary and Martha were favoured with visits-but
he dwells with me. His mother bare his body-but he is formed in me the
hope of glory. In nothing behind the holy women in debt, let me not be
behind them in gratitude or sorrow.
"Love and grief my heart dividing,
With my tears his feet I'll lave-
Constant still in heart abiding,
Weep for him who died to save."
EVENING:
"thy gentleness hath made me great."
-- Psalms 18:35
The words are capable of being translated, "thy goodness hath made me
great." David gratefully ascribed all his greatness not to his own
goodness, but the goodness of God. "Thy providence," is another
reading; and providence is nothing more than goodness in action.
Goodness is the bud of which providence is the flower, or goodness is
the seed of which providence is the harvest. Some render it, "thy
help," which is but another word for providence; providence being the
firm ally of the saints, aiding them in the service of their Lord. Or
again, "thy humility hath made me great." "Thy condescension" may,
perhaps, serve as a comprehensive reading, combining the ideas
mentioned, including that of humility. It is God's making himself
little which is the cause of our being made great. We are so little,
that if God should manifest his greatness without condescension, we
should be trampled under his feet; but God, who must stoop to view the
skies, and bow to see what angels do, turns his eye yet lower, and
looks to the lowly and contrite, and makes them great. There are yet
other readings, as for instance, the Septuagint, which reads, "thy
discipline"-thy fatherly correction-"hath made me great;" while the
Chaldee paraphrase reads, "thy word hath increased me." Still the idea
is the same. David ascribes all his own greatness to the condescending
goodness of his Father in heaven. May this sentiment be echoed in our
hearts this evening while we cast our crowns at Jesus' feet, and cry,
"thy gentleness hath made me great." How marvellous has been our
experience of God's gentleness! How gentle have been his corrections!
How gentle his forbearance! How gentle his teachings! How gentle his
drawings! Meditate upon this theme, O believer. Let gratitude be
awakened; let humility be deepened; let love be quickened ere thou
fallest asleep to-night.
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