Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
December 16
Morning
"Come
unto me."—Matthew 11:28.
The cry of the Christian
religion is the gentle word, "Come." The Jewish law harshly said,
"Go, take heed unto thy steps as to the path in which thou shalt walk.
Break the commandments, and thou shalt perish; keep them, and thou shalt
live." The law was a dispensation of terror, which drove men before it as
with a scourge; the gospel draws with bands of love. Jesus is the good Shepherd
going before His sheep, bidding them follow Him, and ever leading them onwards
with the sweet word, "Come." The law repels, the gospel attracts. The
law shows the distance which there is between God and man; the gospel bridges
that awful chasm, and brings the sinner across it.
From the first moment of
your spiritual life until you are ushered into glory, the language of Christ to
you will be, "Come, come unto me." As
a mother puts out her finger to her little child and woos it to walk by saying,
"Come," even so does Jesus. He will always be ahead of you,
bidding you follow Him as the soldier follows his captain. He will always go
before you to pave your way, and clear your path, and you shall hear His
animating voice calling you after Him all through life; while in the solemn
hour of death, His sweet words with which He shall usher you into the heavenly
world shall be—"Come, ye blessed of my Father."
Nay, further, this is not
only Christ's cry to you, but, if you be a believer,
this is your cry to Christ—"Come! come!"
You will be longing for His second advent; you will be saying, "Come
quickly, even so come Lord Jesus." You will be panting for nearer and
closer communion with Him. As His voice to you is "Come," your
response to Him will be, "Come, Lord, and abide with me. Come, and occupy
alone the throne of my heart; reign there without a rival, and consecrate me
entirely to Thy service."
Evening
"Yea,
thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest
not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not
opened."—Isaiah 48:8.
It is painful to remember
that, in a certain degree, this accusation may be laid at the door of believers,
who too often are in a measure spiritually insensible. We may well
bewail ourselves that we do not hear the voice of God as we ought,
"Yea, thou heardest not." There are gentle
motions of the Holy Spirit in the soul which are unheeded by us: there are
whisperings of divine command and of heavenly love which are alike unobserved
by our leaden intellects. Alas! we have been carelessly
ignorant—"Yea, thou knewest not."
There are matters within which we ought to have seen, corruptions which have
made headway unnoticed; sweet affections which are being blighted like flowers
in the frost, untended by us; glimpses of the divine face which might be
perceived if we did not wall up the windows of our soul. But we "have not
known." As we think of it we are humbled in the deepest self-abasement.
How must we adore the grace of God as we learn from the context that all this
folly and ignorance, on our part, was foreknown by God, and,
notwithstanding that foreknowledge, He yet has been pleased to deal with us in
a way of mercy! Admire the marvellous sovereign grace
which could have chosen us in the sight of all this! Wonder at the price that
was paid for us when Christ knew what we should be! He who hung upon the cross
foresaw us as unbelieving, backsliding, cold of heart, indifferent, careless,
lax in prayer, and yet He said, "I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of
Israel, thy Saviour . . . Since thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give
men for thee, and people for thy life"! O redemption, how wondrously
resplendent dost thou shine when we think how black we are! O Holy Spirit, give
us henceforth the hearing ear, the understanding heart!