Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
November 24
Morning
"The
glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams."—Isaiah 33:21.
Broad rivers and streams
produce fertility, and abundance in the land. Places near broad rivers are
remarkable for the variety of their plants and their plentiful harvests. God is
all this to His Church. Having God she has abundance. What can she ask
for that He will not give her? What want can she mention which He will not
supply? "In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a
feast of fat things." Want ye the bread of life?
It drops like manna from the sky. Want ye refreshing streams? The rock follows
you, and that Rock is Christ. If you suffer any want it is your own fault; if
you are straitened you are not straitened in Him, but in your own bowels. Broad
rivers and streams also point to commerce. Our glorious Lord is to us a
place of heavenly merchandize. Through our Redeemer we have commerce with the
past; the wealth of Calvary, the treasures of the covenant, the riches of the
ancient days of election, the stores of eternity, all come to us down the broad
stream of our gracious Lord. We have commerce, too, with the future. What
galleys, laden to the water's edge, come to us from the millennium! What
visions we have of the days of heaven upon earth! Through our glorious Lord we
have commerce with angels; communion with the bright spirits washed in blood,
who sing before the throne; nay, better still, we have fellowship with the
Infinite One. Broad rivers and streams are specially intended to set forth the
idea of security. Rivers were of old a defence.
Oh! beloved, what a defence
is God to His Church! The devil cannot cross this broad river of God. How he
wishes he could turn the current, but fear not, for God abideth
immutably the same. Satan may worry, but he cannot destroy us; no galley with
oars shall invade our river, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
Evening
"Yet a
little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so
shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and
thy want as an armed man."—Proverbs 24:33, 34.
The worst of sluggards only
ask for a little slumber; they would be indignant if they were accused of
thorough idleness. A little folding of the hands to sleep is all they crave,
and they have a crowd of reasons to show that this indulgence is a very proper
one. Yet by these littles the day ebbs out, and the
time for labour is all gone, and the field is grown
over with thorns. It is by little procrastinations that men ruin their souls.
They have no intention to delay for years—a few months will bring the
more convenient season—to-morrow if you will, they will attend to serious
things; but the present hour is so occupied and altogether so unsuitable, that
they beg to be excused. Like sands from an hour-glass,
time passes, life is wasted by driblets, and seasons of grace lost by little
slumbers. Oh, to be wise, to catch the flying hour, to use the moments on the
wing! May the Lord teach us this sacred wisdom, for otherwise a poverty of the
worst sort awaits us, eternal poverty which shall want even a drop of water,
and beg for it in vain. Like a traveller steadily
pursuing his journey, poverty overtakes the slothful, and ruin overthrows the
undecided: each hour brings the dreaded pursuer nearer; he pauses not by the
way, for he is on his master's business and must not tarry. As an armed man
enters with authority and power, so shall want come to the idle, and death to
the impenitent, and there will be no escape. O that men were wise be-times, and
would seek diligently unto the Lord Jesus, or ere the solemn day shall dawn
when it will be too late to plough and to sow, too late to repent and believe.
In harvest, it is vain to lament that the seed time
was neglected. As yet, faith and holy decision are timely. May we obtain them
this night.