Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
June 22
Morning
"He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He
shall bear the glory."—Zechariah 6:13.
Christ Himself
is the builder of His spiritual temple, and He has built it on the mountains of
His unchangeable affection, His omnipotent grace, and His infallible
truthfulness. But as it was in Solomon's temple, so in this;
the materials need making ready. There are the "Cedars of Lebanon,"
but they are not framed for the building; they are not cut down, and shaped,
and made into those planks of cedar, whose odoriferous beauty shall make glad
the courts of the Lord's house in Paradise. There are also the rough stones
still in the quarry, they must be hewn thence, and squared. All this is
Christ's own work. Each individual believer is being prepared, and polished,
and made ready for his place in the temple; but Christ's own hand performs the
preparation-work. Afflictions cannot sanctify, excepting as they
are used by Him to this end. Our prayers and efforts cannot make us
ready for heaven, apart from the hand of Jesus, who fashioneth
our hearts aright.
As in the
building of Solomon's temple, "there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any
tool of iron, heard in the house," because all was brought perfectly ready
for the exact spot it was to occupy—so is it with the temple which Jesus
builds; the making ready is all done on earth. When we reach heaven, there will
be no sanctifying us there, no squaring us with affliction, no planing us with suffering. No, we must be made meet
here—all that Christ will do beforehand; and when He has done it,
we shall be ferried by a loving hand across the stream of death, and brought to
the heavenly Jerusalem, to abide as eternal pillars in the temple of our Lord.
"Beneath His eye and care,
The edifice shall rise,
Majestic, strong, and fair,
And shine
above the skies."
Evening
"That those things which cannot be shaken may
remain."—Hebrews 12:27.
We have many things in our
possession at the present moment which can be shaken, and it ill becomes a
Christian man to set much store by them, for there is nothing stable beneath
these rolling skies; change is written upon all things. Yet, we have certain
"things which cannot be shaken," and I invite you this evening
to think of them, that if the things which can be shaken should all be taken
away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken, which
will remain. Whatever your losses have been, or may be, you enjoy present
salvation. You are standing at the foot of His cross, trusting alone in the
merit of Jesus' precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets can
interfere with your salvation in Him; no breaking of banks, no failures and
bankruptcies can touch that. Then you are a child of God this evening.
God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob you of that.
Although by losses brought to poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, "He
is my Father still. In my Father's house are many mansions; therefore will I
not be troubled." You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love
of Jesus Christ. He who is God and Man loves you with all the strength of
His affectionate nature—nothing can affect that. The fig tree may not
blossom, and the flocks may cease from the field, it matters not to the man who
can sing, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." Our best portion and
richest heritage we cannot lose. Whatever troubles come, let us play the man;
let us show that we are not such little children as to be cast down by what may
happen in this poor fleeting state of time. Our country is Immanuel's land, our
hope is above the sky, and therefore, calm as the summer's ocean; we will see
the wreck of everything earthborn, and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.