Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
June 19
Morning
"And they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost."—Acts 2:4.
Rich were the blessings of
this day if all of us were filled with the Holy Ghost. The consequences of this
sacred filling of the soul it would be impossible to overestimate. Life,
comfort, light, purity, power, peace; and many other
precious blessings are inseparable from the Spirit's benign presence. As sacred
oil, He anoints the head of the believer, sets him apart to the
priesthood of saints, and gives him grace to execute his office aright. As the
only truly purifying water He cleanses us from the power of sin and
sanctifies us unto holiness, working in us to will and to do of the Lord's good
pleasure. As the light, He manifested to us at first our lost estate,
and now He reveals the Lord Jesus to us and in us, and guides us in the way of
righteousness. Enlightened by His pure celestial ray, we are no more darkness
but light in the Lord. As fire, He both purges us from dross, and sets
our consecrated nature on a blaze. He is the sacrificial flame by which we are
enabled to offer our whole souls as a living sacrifice unto God. As heavenly dew,
He removes our barrenness and fertilizes our lives. O that He would drop from
above upon us at this early hour! Such morning dew would be a sweet
commencement for the day. As the dove, with wings of peaceful love He
broods over His Church and over the souls of believers, and as a Comforter He
dispels the cares and doubts which mar the peace of
His beloved. He descends upon the chosen as upon the Lord in Jordan, and bears
witness to their sonship by working in them a filial
spirit by which they cry Abba, Father. As the wind,
He brings the breath of life to men; blowing where He listeth
He performs the quickening operations by which the spiritual creation is
animated and sustained. Would to God, that we might feel His presence this day
and every day.
Evening
"My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the
shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be Thou like a roe or a young hart
upon the mountains of Bether."—Song of Solomon 2:16, 17.
Surely if there be a happy
verse in the Bible it is this—"My Beloved is mine, and I am
His." So peaceful, so full of assurance, so overrunning with happiness and
contentment is it, that it might well have been
written by the same hand which penned the twenty-third Psalm. Yet though the
prospect is exceeding fair and lovely—earth cannot show its
superior—it is not entirely a sunlit landscape. There is a cloud in the sky which casts a shadow over the scene. Listen, "Until
the day break, and the shadows flee away."
There is a word, too, about
the "mountains of Bether," or, "the
mountains of division," and to our love, anything like division is
bitterness. Beloved, this may be your present state of mind; you do not doubt
your salvation; you know that Christ is yours, but you are not feasting with
Him. You understand your vital interest in Him, so that you have no shadow of a
doubt of your being His, and of His being yours, but still His left hand is not
under your head, nor doth His right hand embrace you. A shade of sadness is
cast over your heart, perhaps by affliction, certainly by the temporary absence
of your Lord, so even while exclaiming, "I am His," you are forced to
take to your knees, and to pray, "Until the day break, and the shadows
flee away, turn, my Beloved."
"Where is He?"
asks the soul. And the answer comes, "He feedeth
among the lilies." If we would find Christ, we must get into communion
with His people, we must come to the ordinances with His saints. Oh, for an
evening glimpse of Him! Oh, to sup with Him to-night!