Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
May 24
Morning
"Blessed
be God, which hath nor turned away my prayer."—Psalm 66:20.
In looking back upon the
character of our prayers, if we do it honestly, we shall be filled with wonder
that God has ever answered them. There may be some who think their prayers
worthy of acceptance—as the Pharisee did; but the true Christian, in a
more enlightened retrospect, weeps over his prayers, and if he could retrace
his steps he would desire to pray more earnestly. Remember, Christian, how cold
thy prayers have been. When in thy closet thou shouldst
have wrestled as Jacob did; but instead thereof, thy petitions have been faint
and few—far removed from that humble, believing, persevering faith, which
cries, "I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me." Yet, wonderful
to say, God has heard these cold prayers of thine,
and not only heard, but answered them. Reflect also, how infrequent have
been thy prayers, unless thou hast been in trouble, and then thou hast gone
often to the mercy-seat: but when deliverance has
come, where has been thy constant supplication? Yet, notwithstanding thou hast
ceased to pray as once thou didst, God has not ceased to bless. When thou hast
neglected the mercy-seat, God has not deserted it, but
the bright light of the Shekinah has always been visible between the wings of
the cherubim. Oh! it is marvellous
that the Lord should regard those intermittent spasms of importunity which come
and go with our necessities. What a God is He thus to hear the prayers of those
who come to Him when they have pressing wants, but neglect Him when they have
received a mercy; who approach Him when they are forced to come, but who almost
forget to address Him when mercies are plentiful and sorrows are few. Let His
gracious kindness in hearing such prayers touch our hearts, so that we may henceforth
be found "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit."
Evening
"Only
let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of
Christ."—Philippians 1:27.
The word
"conversation" does not merely mean our talk and converse with one
another, but the whole course of our life and behaviour
in the world. The Greek word signifies the actions and the privileges of
citizenship: and thus we are commanded to let our actions, as citizens of the
New Jerusalem, be such as becometh the gospel of
Christ. What sort of conversation is this? In the first place, the gospel is
very simple. So Christians should be simple and plain in their habits.
There should be about our manner, our speech, our dress, our
whole behaviour, that simplicity which is the very
soul of beauty. The gospel is pre-eminently true, it is gold without
dross; and the Christian's life will be lustreless
and valueless without the jewel of truth. The gospel is a very fearless
gospel, it boldly proclaims the truth, whether men like it or not: we must
be equally faithful and unflinching. But the gospel is also very gentle.
Mark this spirit in its Founder: "a bruised reed He will not break."
Some professors are sharper than a thorn-hedge; such men are not like Jesus.
Let us seek to win others by the gentleness of our words and acts. The gospel
is very loving. It is the message of the God of love to a lost and
fallen race. Christ's last command to His disciples was, "Love one
another." O for more real, hearty union and love to all the saints; for
more tender compassion towards the souls of the worst and vilest of men! We
must not forget that the gospel of Christ is holy. It never excuses sin:
it pardons it, but only through an atonement. If our
life is to resemble the gospel, we must shun, not merely the grosser vices, but
everything that would hinder our perfect conformity to Christ. For His sake,
for our own sakes, and for the sakes of others, we must strive day by day to
let our conversation be more in accordance with His gospel.