Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
June 4
Morning
"The Lord shut him in."—Genesis 7:16.
Noah was shut in away from all the world by the hand of divine love. The door of
electing purpose interposes between us and the world which
lieth in the wicked one. We are not of the world even
as our Lord Jesus was not of the world. Into the sin, the gaiety, the pursuits
of the multitude we cannot enter; we cannot play in the streets of Vanity Fair
with the children of darkness, for our heavenly Father has shut us in. Noah was
shut in with his God. "Come thou into the ark," was the
Lord's invitation, by which He clearly showed that He Himself intended to dwell
in the ark with His servant and his family. Thus all
the chosen dwell in God and God in them. Happy people to be enclosed in the
same circle which contains God in the Trinity of His
persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. Let us never be inattentive to that gracious
call, "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors
about thee, and hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the
indignation be overpast." Noah was so shut in
that no evil could reach him. Floods did but lift him heavenward, and
winds did but waft him on his way. Outside of the ark all was ruin, but inside
all was rest and peace. Without Christ we perish, but in Christ Jesus there is
perfect safety. Noah was so shut in that he could not even desire to come
out, and those who are in Christ Jesus are in Him for
ever. They shall go no more out for ever, for
eternal faithfulness has shut them in, and infernal malice cannot drag them
out. The Prince of the house of David shutteth and no
man openeth; and when once in the last days as Master
of the house He shall rise up and shut the door, it will be in vain for mere
professors to knock, and cry Lord, Lord open unto us, for that same door which
shuts in the wise virgins will shut out the foolish for ever. Lord, shut me in
by Thy grace.
Evening
"He that loveth not knoweth not God."—1 John 4:8.
The distinguishing mark of
a Christian is his confidence in the love of Christ, and the yielding of his
affections to Christ in return. First, faith sets her seal upon the man by
enabling the soul to say with the apostle, "Christ loved me and gave
Himself for me." Then love gives the countersign, and stamps upon the heart
gratitude and love to Jesus in return. "We love Him because He first loved
us." In those grand old ages, which are the heroic period of the Christian
religion, this double mark was clearly to be seen in all believers in Jesus;
they were men who knew the love of Christ, and rested upon it as a man leaneth upon a staff whose trustiness he has tried. The
love which they felt towards the Lord was not a quiet emotion which they hid
within themselves in the secret chamber of their souls, and which they only spake of in their private assemblies when they met on the
first day of the week, and sang hymns in honour of
Christ Jesus the crucified, but it was a passion with them of such a vehement
and all-consuming energy, that it was visible in all their actions, spoke in
their common talk, and looked out of their eyes even in their commonest
glances. Love to Jesus was a flame which fed upon the
core and heart of their being; and, therefore, from its own force burned its
way into the outer man, and shone there. Zeal for the glory of King Jesus was
the seal and mark of all genuine Christians. Because of their dependence upon
Christ's love they dared much, and because of their love to Christ they did
much, and it is the same now. The children of God are ruled in their inmost
powers by love—the love of Christ constraineth
them; they rejoice that divine love is set upon them, they feel it shed abroad
in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto them, and then by force
of gratitude they love the Saviour with a pure heart,
fervently. My reader, do you love Him? Ere you sleep give an honest
answer to a weighty question!