Evening and Morning
By Charles
Haddon Spurgeon
April 9
Morning
"And there followed Him a great company of
people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him."—Luke 23:27.
Amid the rabble
rout which hounded the Redeemer to His doom, there
were some gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in wailing and
lamentations—fit music to accompany that march of woe. When my soul can,
in imagination, see the Saviour bearing His cross to
Calvary, she joins the godly women and weeps with them; for, indeed, there is
true cause for grief—cause lying deeper than those mourning women
thought. They bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love
bleeding, meekness about to die; but my heart has a deeper and more bitter
cause to mourn. My sins were the scourges which
lacerated those blessed shoulders, and crowned with thorn those bleeding brows:
my sins cried "Crucify Him! crucify Him!"
and laid the cross upon His gracious shoulders. His being led forth to die is
sorrow enough for one eternity: but my having been His murderer, is more,
infinitely more, grief than one poor fountain of tears can express.
Why
those women loved and wept it were not hard to guess: but they could not have
had greater reasons for love and grief than my heart has. Nain's widow saw her
son restored—but I myself have been raised to newness of life. Peter's
wife's mother was cured of the fever—but I of the greater plague of sin.
Out of Magdalene seven devils were cast—but a whole legion out of me.
Mary and Martha were favoured with visits—but
He dwells with me. His mother bare His body—but He is formed in me the
hope of glory. In nothing behind the holy women in debt, let me not be behind
them in gratitude or sorrow.
"Love and grief my heart dividing,
With my tears His feet I'll lave—
Constant still in heart abiding,
Weep for Him
who died to save."
Evening
"Thy gentleness hath made me
great."—Psalm 18:35.
The words are capable of
being translated, "Thy goodness hath made me great." David
gratefully ascribed all his greatness not to his own goodness, but the goodness
of God. "Thy providence," is another reading; and providence
is nothing more than goodness in action. Goodness is the bud of which
providence is the flower, or goodness is the seed of which providence is the
harvest. Some render it, "Thy help," which is but another word
for providence; providence being the firm ally of the
saints, aiding them in the service of their Lord. Or again, "Thy humility
hath made me great." "Thy condescension" may, perhaps,
serve as a comprehensive reading, combining the ideas mentioned, including that
of humility. It is God's making Himself little which
is the cause of our being made great. We are so little, that if God should
manifest His greatness without condescension, we should be trampled under His
feet; but God, who must stoop to view the skies, and bow to see what angels do,
turns His eye yet lower, and looks to the lowly and contrite, and makes them
great. There are yet other readings, as for instance, the Septuagint, which
reads, "Thy discipline"—Thy fatherly
correction—"hath made me great;" while the Chaldee
paraphrase reads, "Thy word hath increased me." Still the idea is the
same. David ascribes all his own greatness to the condescending goodness of his
Father in heaven. May this sentiment be echoed in our hearts this evening while
we cast our crowns at Jesus' feet, and cry, "Thy gentleness hath made me
great." How marvellous has been our experience
of God's gentleness! How gentle have been His corrections! How gentle His
forbearance! How gentle His teachings! How gentle His drawings! Meditate upon
this theme, O believer. Let gratitude be awakened; let humility be deepened;
let love be quickened ere thou fallest asleep to-night.