Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
August 1
Morning
"Let me
now go to the field, and glean ears of corn."—Ruth 2:2.
Downcast and troubled
Christian, come and glean to-day in the broad field of
promise. Here are abundance of precious promises,
which exactly meet thy wants. Take this one: "He will not break the
bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax." Doth not that suit thy case? A
reed, helpless, insignificant, and weak, a bruised reed, out of which no music
can come; weaker than weakness itself; a reed, and that reed bruised, yet, He
will not break thee; but on the contrary, will restore and strengthen thee.
Thou art like the smoking flax: no light, no warmth, can come from thee; but He
will not quench thee; He will blow with His sweet breath of mercy till He fans
thee to a flame. Wouldst thou glean another ear? "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." What soft words! Thy heart is
tender, and the Master knows it, and therefore He speaketh
so gently to thee. Wilt thou not obey Him, and come to Him even now? Take
another ear of corn: "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, I will help thee, saith the Lord and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel." How canst thou fear with such a wonderful assurance as this? Thou
mayest gather ten thousand such golden ears as these!
"I have blotted out thy sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud thy
transgressions." Or this, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool." Or this, "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come, and let him that
is athirst come, and whosoever will let him take the water of life
freely." Our Master's field is very rich; behold the handfuls. See, there
they lie before thee, poor timid believer! Gather them up, make them thine own, for Jesus bids thee take them. Be not afraid, only believe! Grasp
these sweet promises, thresh them out by meditation and feed on them with joy.
Evening
"Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness."—Psalm 65:11.
All the year round, every
hour of every day, God is richly blessing us; both when we
sleep and when we wake His mercy waits upon us. The sun may leave us a
legacy of darkness, but our God never ceases to shine upon His children with
beams of love. Like a river, His lovingkindness is
always flowing, with a fulness inexhaustible as His
own nature. Like the atmosphere which constantly
surrounds the earth, and is always ready to support the life of man, the
benevolence of God surrounds all His creatures; in it, as in their element,
they live, and move, and have their being. Yet as the sun on summer days
gladdens us with beams more warm and bright than at other times, and as rivers
are at certain seasons swollen by the rain, and as the atmosphere itself is
sometimes fraught with more fresh, more bracing, or more balmy influences than
heretofore, so is it with the mercy of God; it hath its golden hours; its days
of overflow, when the Lord magnifieth His grace
before the sons of men. Amongst the blessings of the nether springs, the
joyous days of harvest are a special season of excessive favour. It is the glory of autumn that the ripe gifts of
providence are then abundantly bestowed; it is the mellow season of
realization, whereas all before was but hope and expectation. Great is the joy
of harvest. Happy are the reapers who fill their arms with the liberality of
heaven. The Psalmist tells us that the harvest is the crowning of the year.
Surely these crowning mercies call for crowning thanksgiving! Let us render it
by the inward emotions of gratitude. Let our hearts be warmed; let our
spirits remember, meditate, and think upon this goodness of the Lord. Then let
us praise Him with our lips, and laud and magnify His name from whose
bounty all this goodness flows. Let us glorify God by yielding our gifts
to His cause. A practical proof of our gratitude is a special thank-offering to
the Lord of the harvest.