Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
August 22
Morning
"I
charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him,
that I am sick of love."—Song of Solomon 5:8.
Such is the language of the
believer panting after present fellowship with Jesus, he is sick for his
Lord. Gracious souls are never perfectly at ease except they are in a state
of nearness to Christ; for when they are away from Him they lose their peace.
The nearer to Him, the nearer to the perfect calm of heaven; the nearer to Him,
the fuller the heart is, not only of peace, but of life, and vigour, and joy, for these all depend on constant
intercourse with Jesus. What the sun is to the day, what the moon is to the
night, what the dew is to the flower, such is Jesus Christ to us. What bread is
to the hungry, clothing to the naked, the shadow of a great rock to the
traveller in a weary land, such is Jesus Christ to us; and, therefore, if we
are not consciously one with Him, little marvel if our spirit cries in the
words of the Song, "I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find
my beloved, tell Him that I am sick of love." This earnest longing
after Jesus has a blessing attending it: "Blessed are they that do
hunger and thirst after righteousness"; and therefore, supremely blessed
are they who thirst after the Righteous One. Blessed is that hunger, since it
comes from God: if I may not have the full-blown blessedness of being filled, I
would seek the same blessedness in its sweet bud-pining
in emptiness and eagerness till I am filled with Christ. If I may not feed on
Jesus, it shall be next door to heaven to hunger and thirst after Him. There is
a hallowedness about that hunger, since it sparkles
among the beatitudes of our Lord. But the blessing involves a promise.
Such hungry ones "shall be filled" with what they are desiring. If Christ thus causes us to long after
Himself, He will certainly satisfy those longings; and when He does come to us,
as come He will, oh, how sweet it will be!
Evening
"The
unsearchable riches of Christ."—Ephesians 3:8.
My Master has riches beyond
the count of arithmetic, the measurement of reason, the dream of imagination,
or the eloquence of words. They are unsearchable! You may look, and
study, and weigh, but Jesus is a greater Saviour than
you think Him to be when your thoughts are at the greatest. My Lord is more
ready to pardon than you to sin, more able to forgive than you to transgress.
My Master is more willing to supply your wants than you are to confess them.
Never tolerate low thoughts of my Lord Jesus. When you put the crown on His
head, you will only crown Him with silver when He deserves gold. My Master
has riches of happiness to bestow upon you now. He can make you to lie down
in green pastures, and lead you beside still waters. There is no music like the
music of His pipe, when He is the Shepherd and you are the sheep, and you lie
down at His feet. There is no love like His, neither
earth nor heaven can match it. To know Christ and to be found in Him—oh! this is life, this is joy, this is marrow and fatness, wine
on the lees well refined. My Master does not treat His servants churlishly; He
gives to them as a king giveth to a king; He gives
them two heavens—a heaven below in serving Him here, and a heaven above
in delighting in Him for ever. His unsearchable
riches will be best known in eternity. He will give you on the way to
heaven all you need; your place of defence shall be
the munitions of rocks, your bread shall be given you, and your waters shall be
sure; but it is there, THERE, where you shall hear the song of them that
triumph, the shout of them that feast, and shall have a face-to-face view of
the glorious and beloved One. The unsearchable riches of Christ! This is the
tune for the minstrels of earth, and the song for the harpers of heaven. Lord,
teach us more and more of Jesus, and we will tell out
the good news to others.