Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
February 24
Morning
"I will
cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of
blessing."—Ezekiel 34:26.
Here is sovereign mercy—"I
will give them the shower in its season." Is it not sovereign, divine
mercy?—for who can say, "I will give them
showers," except God? There is only one voice which
can speak to the clouds, and bid them beget the rain. Who sendeth
down the rain upon the earth? Who scattereth the
showers upon the green herb? Do not I, the Lord? So grace is the gift of God,
and is not to be created by man. It is also needed grace. What would the
ground do without showers? You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but
what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing.
In vain you labour, until God the plenteous shower
bestows, and sends salvation down. Then, it is plenteous grace. "I
will send them showers." It does not say, "I will send them
drops," but "showers." So it is with grace. If God gives a
blessing, He usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough
to receive it. Plenteous grace! Ah! we want plenteous
grace to keep us humble, to make us prayerful, to make us holy; plenteous grace
to make us zealous, to preserve us through this life, and at last to land us in
heaven. We cannot do without saturating showers of grace. Again, it is seasonable
grace. "I will cause the shower to come down in his season."
What is thy season this morning? Is it the season of drought? Then that is the
season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then
that is the season for showers. "As thy days so shall thy strength
be." And here is a varied blessing. "I will give thee showers
of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will
send. All God's blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If He
gives converting grace, He will also give comforting grace. He will send
"showers of blessing." Look up to-day, O parched plant, and open thy
leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering.
Evening
"O Lord
of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy upon Jerusalem? .
. . And the Lord answered the angel . . . with good words and
comfortable words."—Zechariah 1:12,13.
What a sweet answer to an
anxious enquiry! This night let us rejoice in it. O Zion, there are good things
in store for thee; thy time of travail shall soon be over; thy children shall
be brought forth; thy captivity shall end. Bear patiently the rod for a season,
and under the darkness still trust in God, for His love burneth
towards thee. God loves the church with a love too deep for human imagination:
He loves her with all His infinite heart. Therefore let her sons be of good courage; she cannot be far from prosperity to
whom God speaketh "good words and comfortable
words." What these comfortable words are the prophet goes on to tell us:
"I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy." The
Lord loves His church so much that He cannot bear that she should go astray to
others; and when she has done so, He cannot endure that she should suffer too
much or too heavily. He will not have his enemies afflict her: He is displeased
with them because they increase her misery. When God seems most to leave His
church, His heart is warm towards her. History shows that whenever God uses a
rod to chasten His servants, He always breaks it afterwards, as if He loathed
the rod which gave his children pain. "Like as a
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." God hath not forgotten us
because He smites—His blows are no evidences of want of love. If this is
true of His church collectively, it is of necessity true also of each
individual member. You may fear that the Lord has passed you by, but it is
not so: He who counts the stars, and calls them by their names, is in no danger
of forgetting His own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were
the only creature He ever made, or the only saint He ever loved. Approach Him
and be at peace.