Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
October 28
Morning
"I have
chosen you out of the world."—John 15:19.
Here is
distinguishing grace and discriminating regard; for
some are made the special objects of divine affection. Do not be afraid to
dwell upon this high doctrine of election. When your mind is most heavy and
depressed, you will find it to be a bottle of richest cordial. Those who doubt
the doctrines of grace, or who cast them into the shade, miss the richest
clusters of Eshcol; they lose the wines on the lees
well refined, the fat things full of marrow. There is no balm in Gilead
comparable to it. If the honey in Jonathan's wood when but touched enlightened the
eyes, this is honey which will enlighten your heart to love and
learn the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Eat, and fear not a surfeit; live
upon this choice dainty, and fear not that it will be too delicate a diet. Meat
from the King's table will hurt none of His courtiers. Desire to have your mind
enlarged, that you may comprehend more and more the eternal, everlasting,
discriminating love of God. When you have mounted as high as election, tarry on
its sister mount, the covenant of grace. Covenant engagements are the munitions
of stupendous rock behind which we lie entrenched; covenant engagements with
the surety, Christ Jesus, are the quiet resting-places of trembling spirits.
"His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the raging flood;
When every earthly prop gives way,
This still is all my strength and stay."
If Jesus undertook to bring
me to glory, and if the Father promised that He would give me to the Son to be
a part of the infinite reward of the travail of His soul; then, my soul, till
God Himself shall be unfaithful, till Jesus shall cease to be the truth, thou
art safe. When David danced before the ark, he told Michal that election made
him do so. Come, my soul, exult before the God of grace and leap for joy of
heart.
Evening
"His
head is as the most fine gold, His locks are bushy, and black as a
raven."—Song of Solomon 5:11.
Comparisons all
fail to set forth the Lord Jesus, but the spouse uses the best within her
reach. By the head of Jesus we may understand His deity, "for the
head of Christ is God" and then the ingot of purest gold is the best
conceivable metaphor, but all too poor to describe one so precious, so pure, so
dear, so glorious. Jesus is not a grain of gold, but a
vast globe of it, a priceless mass of treasure such as earth and heaven cannot
excel. The creatures are mere iron and clay, they all shall perish like wood,
hay, and stubble, but the everliving Head of the
creation of God shall shine on for ever and ever. In
Him is no mixture, nor smallest taint of alloy. He is for
ever infinitely holy and altogether divine. The bushy locks
depict His manly vigour. There is nothing effeminate
in our Beloved. He is the manliest of men. Bold as a lion, laborious as an ox,
swift as an eagle. Every conceivable and inconceivable beauty is to be found in
Him, though once He was despised and rejected of men.
"His head the finest gold;
With secret sweet perfume,
His curled locks hang all as black
As any raven's plume."
The glory of His head is
not shorn away, He is eternally crowned with peerless
majesty. The black hair indicates youthful freshness, for Jesus has the
dew of His youth upon Him. Others grow languid with age, but He is for ever a Priest as was Melchisedek;
others come and go, but He abides as God upon His throne, world without end. We
will behold Him to-night and adore Him. Angels are
gazing upon Him—His redeemed must not turn away their eyes from Him.
Where else is there such a Beloved? O for an hour's fellowship with Him! Away, ye intruding cares! Jesus draws me, and I run after Him.