Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
June 24
Morning
"A certain woman of the company lifted up her
voice, and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But He said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and
keep it."—Luke 11:27, 28.
It is fondly imagined by
some that it must have involved very special privileges to have
been the mother of our Lord, because they supposed that she had the
benefit of looking into His very heart in a way in which we cannot hope to do.
There may be an appearance of plausibility in the supposition, but not much. We
do not know that Mary knew more than others; what she did know she did well to
lay up in her heart; but she does not appear from anything we read in the
Evangelists to have been a better-instructed believer than any other of
Christ's disciples. All that she knew we also may discover. Do you wonder that
we should say so? Here is a text to prove it: "The secret of the Lord is
with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." Remember the
Master's words—"Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you
friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto
you." So blessedly does this Divine Revealer of secrets tell us His heart,
that He keepeth back nothing which is profitable to
us; His own assurance is, "If it were not so, I would have told you."
Doth He not this day manifest Himself unto us as He
doth not unto the world? It is even so; and therefore we will not ignorantly
cry out, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee," but we will
intelligently bless God that, having heard the Word and kept it, we have first
of all as true a communion with the Saviour as the
Virgin had, and in the second place as true an acquaintance with the secrets of
His heart as she can be supposed to have obtained. Happy soul to be thus
privileged!
Evening
"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and
said . . . Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy
gods."—Daniel 3:16, 18.
The narrative of the manly
courage and marvellous deliverance of the three holy
children, or rather champions, is well calculated to excite in the minds of
believers firmness and steadfastness in upholding the truth in the teeth of
tyranny and in the very jaws of death. Let young Christians especially learn
from their example, both in matters of faith in religion, and matters of
uprightness in business, never to sacrifice their consciences. Lose all rather
than lose your integrity, and when all else is gone, still hold fast a clear
conscience as the rarest jewel which can adorn the
bosom of a mortal. Be not guided by the will-o'-the-wisp of policy, but by the pole-star of divine authority. Follow the right at all
hazards. When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do
God the honour to trust Him when it comes to matters
of loss for the sake of principle. See whether He will be your debtor! See if
He doth not even in this life prove His word that "Godliness, with
contentment, is great gain," and that they who "seek first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness, shall have all these things added unto
them." Should it happen that, in the providence of God, you are a loser by
conscience, you shall find that if the Lord pays you not back in the silver of
earthly prosperity, He will discharge His promise in
the gold of spiritual joy. Remember that a man's life consisteth
not in the abundance of that which he possesseth. To
wear a guileless spirit, to have a heart void of offence, to have the favour and smile of God, is greater
riches than the mines of Ophir could yield, or the
traffic of Tyre could win. "Better is a dinner
of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and inward contention
therewith." An ounce of heart's-ease is worth a ton of gold.