BibleWare/BibWare.bin/bibstudy/morneven.exe/ME11.PM

Text File | 1993-09-05 | 61KB | 1,125 lines

* 11/01/PM

"And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away: so
shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
                                                 --Matthew 24:39

   Universal was the doom, neither rich nor poor escaped: the
learned and the illiterate, the admired and the abhorred, the
religious and the profane, the old and the young, all sank in
one common ruin. Some had doubtless ridiculed the patriarch--
where now their merry jests? Others had threatened him for his
zeal which they counted madness--where now their boastings and
hard speeches? The critic who judged the old man's work is
drowned in the same sea which covers his sneering companions.
Those who spoke patronizingly of the good man's fidelity to his
convictions, but shared not in them, have sunk to rise no more,
and the workers who for pay helped to build the wondrous ark,
are all lost also. The flood swept them _all_ away, and made no
single exception. Even so, out of Christ, final destruction is
sure to every man of woman born; no rank, possession, or
character, shall suffice to save a single soul who has not
believed in the Lord Jesus. My soul, behold this wide-spread
judgment and tremble at it.

   How marvellous the general apathy! they were all eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till the awful
morning dawned. There was not one wise man upon earth out of the
ark. Folly duped the whole race, folly as to self-preservation--
the most foolish of all follies. Folly in doubting the most true
God--the most malignant of fooleries. Strange, my soul, is it
not? All men are negligent of their souls till grace gives them
reason, then they leave their madness and act like rational
beings, but not till then.

   _All_, blessed be God, were safe in the ark, no ruin entered
there. From the huge elephant down to the tiny mouse all were
safe. The timid hare was equally secure with the courageous
lion, the helpless cony as safe as the laborious ox. All are
safe in Jesus. My soul, art thou in Him?

* 11/02/PM

"Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that
forsake Thy law."
                                                  --Psalm 119:53

   My soul, feelest thou this holy shuddering at the sins of
others? for otherwise thou lackest inward holiness. David's
cheeks were wet with rivers of waters because of prevailing
unholiness; Jeremiah desired eyes like fountains that he might
lament the iniquities of Israel, and Lot was vexed with the
conversation of the men of Sodom. Those upon whom the mark was
set in Ezekiel's vision, were those who sighed and cried for the
abominations of Jerusalem. It cannot but grieve gracious souls
to see what pains men take to go to hell. They know the evil of
sin experimentally, and they are alarmed to see others flying
like moths into its blaze. Sin makes the righteous shudder,
because it violates a holy law, which it is to every man's
highest interest to keep; it pulls down the pillars of the
commonwealth. Sin in others horrifies a believer, because it
puts him in mind of the baseness of his own heart: when he sees
a transgressor he cries with the saint mentioned by Bernard, "He
fell to-day, and I may fall to-morrow." Sin to a believer is
horrible, because it crucified the Saviour; he sees in every
iniquity the nails and spear. How can a saved soul behold that
cursed kill-Christ sin without abhorrence? Say, my heart, dost
thou sensibly join in all this? It is an awful thing to insult
God to His face. The good God deserves better treatment, the
great God claims it, the just God will have it, or repay His
adversary to his face. An awakened heart trembles at the
audacity of sin, and stands alarmed at the contemplation of its
punishment. How monstrous a thing is rebellion! How direful a
doom is prepared for the ungodly! My soul, never laugh at sin's
fooleries, lest thou come to smile at sin itself. It is thine
enemy, and thy Lord's enemy--view it with detestation, for so
only canst thou evidence the possession of holiness, without
which no man can see the Lord.

* 11/03/PM

"Their prayer came up to His holy dwelling place, even unto
heaven."
                                            --2 Chronicles 30:27

   Prayer is the never-failing resort of the Christian in any
case, in every plight. When you cannot use your sword you may
take to the weapon of all-prayer. Your powder may be damp, your
bow-string may be relaxed, but the weapon of all-prayer need
never be out of order. Leviathan laughs at the javelin, but he
trembles at prayer. Sword and spear need furbishing, but prayer
never rusts, and when we think it most blunt it cuts the best.
Prayer is an open door which none can shut. Devils may surround
you on all sides, but the way upward is always open, and as long
as that road is unobstructed, you will not fall into the enemy's
hand. We can never be taken by blockade, escalade, mine, or
storm, so long as heavenly succours can come down to us by
Jacob's ladder to relieve us in the time of our necessities.
Prayer is never out of season: in summer and in winter its
merchandize is precious. Prayer gains audience with heaven in
the dead of night, in the midst of business, in the heat of
noonday, in the shades of evening. In every condition, whether
of poverty, or sickness, or obscurity, or slander, or doubt,
your covenant God will welcome your prayer and answer it from
His holy place. Nor is prayer ever _futile_. True prayer is
evermore true power. You may not always get what you ask, but
you shall always have your real wants supplied. When God does
not answer His children according to the letter, He does so
according to the spirit. If thou askest for coarse meal, wilt
thou be angered because He gives thee the finest flour? If thou
seekest bodily health, shouldst thou complain if instead thereof
He makes thy sickness turn to the healing of spiritual maladies?
Is it not better to have the cross sanctified than removed? This
evening, my soul, forget not to offer thy petition and request,
for the Lord is ready to grant thee thy desires.

* 11/04/PM

"In Thy light shall we see light."
                                                    --Psalm 36:9

   No lips can tell the love of Christ to the heart till Jesus
Himself shall speak within. Descriptions all fall flat and tame
unless the Holy Ghost fills them with life and power; till our
Immanuel reveals Himself within, the soul sees Him not. If you
would see the sun, would you gather together the common means of
illumination, and seek in that way to behold the orb of day? No,
the wise man knoweth that the sun must reveal itself, and only
by its own blaze can that mighty lamp be seen. It is so with
Christ. "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona:" said He to Peter,
"for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee." Purify
flesh and blood by any educational process you may select,
elevate mental faculties to the highest degree of intellectual
power, yet none of these can reveal Christ. The Spirit of God
must come with power, and overshadow the man with His wings, and
then in that mystic holy of holies the Lord Jesus must display
Himself to the sanctified eye, as He doth not unto the purblind
sons of men. Christ must be His own mirror. The great mass of
this blear-eyed world can see nothing of the ineffable glories
of Immanuel. He stands before them without form or comeliness, a
root out of a dry ground, rejected by the vain and despised by
the proud. Only where the Spirit has touched the eye with
eye-salve, quickened the heart with divine life, and educated
the soul to a heavenly taste, only there is He understood. "To
you that believe He is precious"; to you He is the chief
corner-stone, the Rock of your salvation, your all in all; but
to others He is "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence."
Happy are those to whom our Lord manifests Himself, for His
promise to such is that He will _make His abode with them_. O
Jesus, our Lord, our heart is open, come in, and go out no more
for ever. Show Thyself to us now! Favour us