Evening and Morning
By Charles
Haddon Spurgeon
April 29
Morning
"Thou art my hope in the day of
evil."—Jeremiah 17:17.
The path of the Christian
is not always bright with sunshine; he has his seasons of darkness and of
storm. True, it is written in God's Word, "Her ways are ways of
pleasantness, and all her paths are peace;" and it is a great truth, that
religion is calculated to give a man happiness below as well as bliss above;
but experience tells us that if the course of the just be "As the shining
light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day,"
yet sometimes that light is eclipsed. At certain periods clouds cover
the believer's sun, and he walks in darkness and sees no light. There are many
who have rejoiced in the presence of God for a season; they have basked in the
sunshine in the earlier stages of their Christian career; they have walked
along the "green pastures" by the side of the "still
waters," but suddenly they find the glorious sky is clouded; instead of
the Land of Goshen they have to tread the sandy desert; in the place of sweet
waters, they find troubled streams, bitter to their taste, and they say,
"Surely, if I were a child of God, this would not happen." Oh! say not so, thou who art walking in darkness. The best of
God's saints must drink the wormwood; the dearest of His children must bear the
cross. No Christian has enjoyed perpetual prosperity; no believer can always
keep his harp from the willows. Perhaps the Lord allotted you at first a smooth
and unclouded path, because you were weak and timid. He tempered the wind to
the shorn lamb, but now that you are stronger in the spiritual life, you must
enter upon the riper and rougher experience of God's full-grown children. We
need winds and tempests to exercise our faith, to tear off the rotten bough of
self-dependence, and to root us more firmly in Christ. The day of evil reveals
to us the value of our glorious hope.
Evening
"The Lord taketh
pleasure in His people."—Psalm 149:4.
How comprehensive is the
love of Jesus! There is no part of His people's interests
which He does not consider, and there is nothing which concerns their
welfare which is not important to Him. Not merely does He think of you,
believer, as an immortal being, but as a mortal being too. Do not deny it or
doubt it: "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." "The
steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth
in His way" It were a sad thing for us if this mantle of love did not
cover all our concerns, for what mischief might be wrought to us in that part
of our business which did not come under our gracious Lord's inspection!
Believer, rest assured that the heart of Jesus cares about your meaner affairs.
The breadth of His tender love is such that you may resort to Him in all
matters; for in all your afflictions He is afflicted, and like as a father pitieth his children, so doth He pity you. The meanest
interests of all His saints are all borne upon the broad bosom of the Son of
God. Oh, what a heart is His, that doth not merely comprehend the persons of
His people, but comprehends also the diverse and innumerable concerns of all
those persons! Dost thou think, O Christian, that thou canst measure the love
of Christ? Think of what His love has brought thee—justification,
adoption, sanctification, eternal life! The riches of
His goodness are unsearchable; thou shalt never be able to tell them out or
even conceive them. Oh, the breadth of the love of Christ! Shall such a love as
this have half our hearts? Shall it have a cold love in return? Shall Jesus' marvellous lovingkindness and
tender care meet with but faint response and tardy acknowledgment? O my soul, tune thy harp to a glad song of thanksgiving! Go to thy rest
rejoicing, for thou art no desolate wanderer, but a beloved child, watched
over, cared for, supplied, and defended by thy Lord.