Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
June 29
Morning
"Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring
with Him."—1 Thessalonians 4:14.
Let us not imagine that the
soul sleeps in insensibility. "Today shalt thou be with me in
paradise," is the whisper of Christ to every dying saint. They "sleep
in Jesus," but their souls are before the throne of God, praising Him day
and night in His temple, singing hallelujahs to Him who washed them from their
sins in His blood. The body sleeps in its lonely bed of earth, beneath the
coverlet of grass. But what is this sleep? The idea connected with sleep is "rest,"
and that is the thought which the Spirit of God would
convey to us. Sleep makes each night a Sabbath for the day. Sleep shuts fast
the door of the soul, and bids all intruders tarry for a while, that the life
within may enter its summer garden of ease. The toil-worn believer quietly
sleeps, as does the weary child when it slumbers on its mother's breast. Oh! happy they who die in the Lord; they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. Their quiet repose
shall never be broken until God shall rouse them to give them their full
reward. Guarded by angel watchers, curtained by eternal mysteries, they sleep on, the heritors of glory, till the fulness
of time shall bring the fulness of redemption. What
an awaking shall be theirs! They were laid in their last resting place, weary
and worn, but such they shall not rise. They went to their rest with the
furrowed brow, and the wasted features, but they wake up in beauty and glory. The
shrivelled seed, so destitute of form and comeliness,
rises from the dust a beauteous flower. The winter of
the grave gives way to the spring of redemption and the summer of glory.
Blessed is death, since it, through the divine power, disrobes us of this work-day garment, to clothe us with the wedding garment of
incorruption. Blessed are those who "sleep in Jesus."
Evening
"Howbeit, in the business of the ambassadors
of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was
done in the land, God left him, to try him, that He might know all that was in
his heart."—2 Chronicles 32:31.
Hezekiah was growing so
inwardly great, and priding himself so much upon the favour
of God, that self-righteousness crept in, and through his carnal security, the
grace of God was for a time, in its more active operations, withdrawn. Here is
quite enough to account with the Babylonians; for if the grace of God should
leave the best Christian, there is enough of sin in his heart to make him the
worst of transgressors. If left to yourselves, you who are warmest for Christ
would cool down like Laodicea into sickening lukewarmness:
you who are sound in the faith would be white with the leprosy of false
doctrine; you who now walk before the Lord in excellency and integrity would
reel to and fro, and stagger with a drunkenness of evil passion. Like the moon,
we borrow our light; bright as we are when grace shines on us, we are darkness
itself when the Sun of Righteousness withdraws Himself. Therefore let us cry
to God never to leave us. "Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from us!
Withdraw not from us Thine indwelling grace! Hast
Thou not said, 'I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any
hurt it, I will keep it night and day'? Lord, keep us everywhere. Keep us when
in the valley, that we murmur not against Thy humbling hand; keep us when on
the mountain, that we wax not giddy through being lifted up; keep us in youth,
when our passions are strong; keep us in old age, when becoming conceited of
our wisdom, we may therefore prove greater fools than the young and giddy; keep
us when we come to die, lest, at the very last, we should deny Thee! Keep us
living, keep us dying, keep us labouring, keep us
suffering, keep us fighting, keep us resting, keep us everywhere, for
everywhere we need Thee, O our God!"