Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
May 4
Morning
"Shall a
man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods."—Jeremiah 16:20.
One great
besetting sin of ancient Israel was idolatry, and the spiritual Israel are vexed with a tendency to the same folly. Remphan's star shines no longer, and the women weep no more
for Tammuz, but Mammon still intrudes his golden calf, and the shrines of pride
are not forsaken. Self in various forms struggles to subdue the chosen ones
under its dominion, and the flesh sets up its altars wherever it can find space
for them. Favourite children are often the cause of
much sin in believers; the Lord is grieved when He sees us doting upon them
above measure; they will live to be as great a curse to us as Absalom was to
David, or they will be taken from us to leave our homes desolate. If Christians
desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, let them dote on their
dear ones.
It is truly
said that "they are no gods," for the objects of our foolish love are
very doubtful blessings, the solace which they yield us now is dangerous, and
the help which they can give us in the hour of trouble is little indeed. Why,
then, are we so bewitched with vanities? We pity the poor heathen who adore a
god of stone, and yet worship a god of gold. Where is the vast superiority
between a god of flesh and one of wood? The principle, the sin, the folly is
the same in either case, only that in ours the crime is more aggravated because
we have more light, and sin in the face of it. The heathen bows to a false
deity, but the true God he has never known; we commit two evils, inasmuch as we
forsake the living God and turn unto idols. May the Lord purge us all from this
grievous iniquity!
"The dearest idol I have known,
Whate'er that idol be;
Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only
thee."
Evening
"Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible."—1 Peter 1:23.
Peter most earnestly
exhorted the scattered saints to love each other "with a pure heart
fervently" and he wisely fetched his argument, not from the law, from
nature, or from philosophy, but from that high and divine nature which God hath
implanted in His people. Just as some judicious tutor of princes might labour to beget and foster in them a kingly spirit and
dignified behaviour, finding arguments in their
position and descent, so, looking upon God's people as heirs of glory, princes
of the blood royal, descendants of the King of kings, earth's truest and oldest
aristocracy, Peter saith to them, "See that ye
love one another, because of your noble birth, being born of incorruptible
seed; because of your pedigree, being descended from God, the Creator of all
things; and because of your immortal destiny, for you shall never pass away,
though the glory of the flesh shall fade, and even its existence shall
cease." It would be well if, in the spirit of humility, we recognized the
true dignity of our regenerated nature, and lived up to it. What is a
Christian? If you compare him with a king, he adds priestly sanctity to royal
dignity. The king's royalty often lieth only in his
crown, but with a Christian it is infused into his inmost nature. He is as much
above his fellows through his new birth, as a man is above the beast that perisheth. Surely he ought to carry himself, in all his
dealings, as one who is not of the multitude, but chosen out of the world,
distinguished by sovereign grace, written among "the peculiar people"
and who therefore cannot grovel in the dust as others, nor live after the
manner of the world's citizens. Let the dignity of your nature, and the
brightness of your prospects, O believers in Christ, constrain you to cleave
unto holiness, and to avoid the very appearance of evil.