Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
February 23
Morning
"I will
never leave thee."—Hebrews 13:5.
No promise is of private
interpretation. Whatever God has said to any one saint, He has said to all.
When He opens a well for one, it is that all may drink. When He openeth a granary-door to give out food, there may be some
one starving man who is the occasion of its being opened, but all hungry saints
may come and feed too. Whether He gave the word to Abraham or to Moses, matters not, O believer; He has given it to thee as
one of the covenanted seed. There is not a high blessing too lofty for thee, nor a wide mercy too extensive for thee. Lift up now thine eyes to the north and to the south, to the east and
to the west, for all this is thine. Climb to Pisgah's
top, and view the utmost limit of the divine promise, for the land is all thine own. There is not a brook of living water of which
thou mayst not drink. If the land floweth
with milk and honey, eat the honey and drink the milk, for both are thine. Be thou bold to believe, for He hath said, "I
will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."In
this promise, God gives to His people everything. "I will never
leave thee." Then no attribute of God can cease to be engaged for us. Is
He mighty? He will show Himself strong on the behalf of them that trust Him. Is
He love? Then with lovingkindness will He have mercy
upon us. Whatever attributes may compose the character
of Deity, every one of them to its fullest extent
shall be engaged on our side. To put everything in one, there is nothing you
can want, there is nothing you can ask for, there is nothing you can need in
time or in eternity, there is nothing living, nothing dying, there is nothing
in this world, nothing in the next world, there is nothing now, nothing at the
resurrection-morning, nothing in heaven which is not contained in this
text—"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
Evening
"Take up
the cross, and follow Me."—Mark 10:21.
You have not the making of
your own cross, although unbelief is a master carpenter at cross-making;
neither are you permitted to choose your own cross, although self-will would
fain be lord and master; but your cross is prepared and appointed for you by
divine love, and you are cheerfully to accept it; you are to take up the cross
as your chosen badge and burden, and not to stand cavilling
at it. This night Jesus bids you submit your shoulder to His easy yoke. Do not
kick at it in petulance, or trample on it in vain-glory,
or fall under it in despair, or run away from it in fear, but take it up like a
true follower of Jesus. Jesus was a cross-bearer; He leads the way in the path
of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better guide! And if He carried a
cross, what nobler burden would you desire? The Via Crucis
is the way of safety; fear not to tread its thorny paths.
Beloved, the cross is not
made of feathers, or lined with velvet, it is heavy and galling to disobedient
shoulders; but it is not an iron cross, though your fears have painted it with
iron colours, it is a wooden cross, and a man can
carry it, for the Man of sorrows tried the load. Take up your cross, and by the
power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love with it, that like
Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all the treasures of
Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it, and it will smell sweetly; remember that
it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought
of the coming weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of
trouble. The Lord help you to bow your spirit in submission to the divine will
ere you fall asleep this night, that waking with to-morrow's sun, you may go
forth to the day's cross with the holy and submissive spirit which becomes a
follower of the Crucified.