Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
January 26
Morning
"Your
heavenly Father."—Matthew 6:26.
GodŐs people are doubly His
children, they are His offspring by creation, and they are His sons by adoption
in Christ. Hence they are privileged to call Him, "Our Father which art in
heaven." Father! Oh, what precious word is that.
Here is authority: "If I be a Father, where is mine honour?" If ye be sons, where
is your obedience? Here is affection mingled with authority; an authority which does not provoke rebellion; an obedience
demanded which is most cheerfully rendered—which would not be withheld
even if it might. The obedience which God's children yield to
Him must be loving obedience. Do not go about the service of God
as slaves to their taskmaster's toil, but run in the way of His commands
because it is your Father's way. Yield your bodies as instruments of
righteousness, because righteousness is your Father's will, and His will
should be the will of His child. Father!—Here is a kingly attribute
so sweetly veiled in love, that the King's crown is forgotten in the King's
face, and His sceptre becomes, not a rod of iron, but
a silver sceptre of mercy—the sceptre indeed seems to be forgotten in the tender hand of
Him who wields it. Father!—Here is honour and love. How great is a Father's love to his
children! That which friendship cannot do, and mere benevolence will not
attempt, a father's heart and hand must do for his sons. They are his
offspring, he must bless them; they are his children, he must show himself
strong in their defence. If an earthly father watches
over his children with unceasing love and care, how much more does our heavenly
Father? Abba, Father! He who can say this, hath
uttered better music than cherubim or seraphim can reach. There is heaven in
the depth of that word—Father! There is all I can ask; all my necessities
can demand; all my wishes can desire. I have all in all to all eternity when I
can say, "Father."
Evening
"All
they that heard it wondered at those things."—Luke 2:18.
We must not cease to wonder
at the great marvels of our God. It would be very difficult to draw a line
between holy wonder and real worship; for when the soul is overwhelmed
with the majesty of God's glory, though it may not express itself in song, or
even utter its voice with bowed head in humble prayer, yet it silently adores.
Our incarnate God is to be worshipped as "the Wonderful." That God
should consider His fallen creature, man, and instead of sweeping him away with
the besom of destruction, should Himself undertake to
be man's Redeemer, and to pay his ransom price, is, indeed marvellous!
But to each believer redemption is most marvellous as
he views it in relation to himself. It is a miracle of grace indeed, that Jesus
should forsake the thrones and royalties above, to suffer ignominiously below for
you. Let your soul lose itself in wonder, for wonder is in this way a very
practical emotion. Holy wonder will lead you to grateful worship and heartfelt
thanksgiving. It will cause within you godly watchfulness; you will
be afraid to sin against such a love as this. Feeling the presence of the
mighty God in the gift of His dear Son, you will put off your shoes from off
your feet, because the place whereon you stand is holy ground. You will be
moved at the same time to glorious hope. If Jesus has done such marvellous things on your behalf, you will feel that heaven
itself is not too great for your expectation. Who can be astonished at
anything, when he has once been astonished at the manger and the cross? What is
there wonderful left after one has seen the Saviour?
Dear reader, it may be that from the quietness and solitariness of your life,
you are scarcely able to imitate the shepherds of Bethlehem, who told what they
had seen and heard, but you can, at least, fill up the circle of the
worshippers before the throne, by wondering at what God has done.