Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
July 5
Morning
"Called to be saints."—Romans 1:7.
We are very apt to regard
the apostolic saints as if they were "saints" in a more especial
manner than the other children of God. All are "saints" whom God has
called by His grace, and sanctified by His Spirit; but we are apt to look upon
the apostles as extraordinary beings, scarcely subject to the same
weaknesses and temptations as ourselves. Yet in so doing we are forgetful of
this truth, that the nearer a man lives to God the more intensely has he to mourn
over his own evil heart; and the more his Master honours
him in His service, the more also doth the evil of the flesh vex and tease him
day by day. The fact is, if we had seen the apostle Paul, we should have
thought him remarkably like the rest of the chosen family: and if we had talked
with him, we should have said, "We find that his experience and ours are
much the same. He is more faithful, more holy, and more deeply taught than we
are, but he has the selfsame trials to endure. Nay, in some respects he is more
sorely tried than ourselves." Do not, then, look upon the ancient saints
as being exempt either from infirmities or sins; and do not regard them with
that mystic reverence which will almost make us idolators.
Their holiness is attainable even by us. We are "called to be saints"
by that same voice which constrained them to their
high vocation. It is a Christian's duty to force his way into the inner circle
of saintship; and if these saints were superior to us
in their attainments, as they certainly were, let us follow them; let us
emulate their ardour and holiness. We have the same
light that they had, the same grace is accessible to us, and why should we rest
satisfied until we have equalled them in heavenly
character? They lived with Jesus, they lived for Jesus, therefore they grew like Jesus. Let us live by the
same Spirit as they did, "looking unto Jesus," and our saintship will soon be apparent.
Evening
"Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the
Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."—Isaiah 26:4.
Seeing that we have such a
God to trust to, let us rest upon Him with all our weight; let us resolutely
drive out all unbelief, and endeavour to get rid of
doubts and fears, which so much mar our comfort; since there is no excuse for
fear where God is the foundation of our trust. A loving parent would be sorely
grieved if his child could not trust him; and how ungenerous, how unkind is our
conduct when we put so little confidence in our heavenly Father who has never
failed us, and who never will. It were well if doubting were banished from the
household of God; but it is to be feared that old Unbelief is as nimble
nowadays as when the psalmist asked, "Is His mercy clean gone for ever?
Will He be favourable no more?" David had not
made any very lengthy trial of the mighty sword of the giant Goliath, and yet
he said, "There is none like it." He had tried it once in the hour of
his youthful victory, and it had proved itself to be of the right metal, and
therefore he praised it ever afterwards; even so should we speak well of our
God, there is none like unto Him in the heaven above or the earth beneath;
"To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One." There is no rock like unto
the rock of Jacob, our enemies themselves being judges. So far from suffering
doubts to live in our hearts, we will take the whole detestable crew, as Elijah
did the prophets of Baal, and slay them over the brook; and for a stream to
kill them at, we will select the sacred torrent which wells forth from our Saviour's wounded side. We have been in many trials, but we
have never yet been cast where we could not find in our God all that we needed.
Let us then be encouraged to trust in the Lord for ever, assured that His ever
lasting strength will be, as it has been, our succour
and stay.