Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
June 10
Morning
"We live unto the Lord."—Romans 14:8.
If God had
willed it, each of us might have entered heaven at the moment of conversion. It
was not absolutely necessary for our preparation for immortality that we should
tarry here. It is possible for a man to be taken to heaven, and to be found
meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light, though he has
but just believed in Jesus. It is true that our sanctification is a long and
continued process, and we shall not be perfected till we lay aside our bodies
and enter within the veil; but nevertheless, had the Lord so willed it, He
might have changed us from imperfection to perfection, and have taken us to
heaven at once. Why then are we here? Would God keep His children out of
paradise a single moment longer than was necessary? Why is the army of the
living God still on the battle-field when one charge
might give them the victory? Why are His children still wandering hither and
thither through a maze, when a solitary word from His lips would bring them
into the centre of their hopes in heaven? The answer
is—they are here that they may "live unto the Lord," and
may bring others to know His love. We remain on earth as sowers to scatter good
seed; as ploughmen to break up the fallow ground; as heralds publishing
salvation. We are here as the "salt of the earth," to be a blessing
to the world. We are here to glorify Christ in our daily life. We are here as
workers for Him, and as "workers together with Him." Let us see that
our life answereth its end. Let us live earnest,
useful, holy lives, to "the praise of the glory of His grace."
Meanwhile we long to be with Him, and daily sing—
"My heart
is with Him on His throne,
And ill can
brook delay;
Each moment
listening for the voice,
'Rise up, and come
away.'"
Evening
"They are they which testify of Me."—John 5:39.
Jesus Christ is the Alpha
and Omega of the Bible. He is the constant theme of its sacred pages; from
first to last they testify of Him. At the creation we at once discern Him as
one of the sacred Trinity; we catch a glimpse of Him in the promise of the
woman's seed; we see Him typified in the ark of Noah; we walk with Abraham, as
He sees Messiah's day; we dwell in the tents of Isaac and Jacob, feeding upon
the gracious promise; we hear the venerable Israel talking of Shiloh; and in
the numerous types of the law, we find the Redeemer abundantly foreshadowed.
Prophets and kings, priests and preachers, all look one way—they all
stand as the cherubs did over the ark, desiring to look within, and to read the
mystery of God's great propitiation. Still more manifestly in the New Testament
we find our Lord the one pervading subject. It is not an ingot here and there,
or dust of gold thinly scattered, but here you stand upon a solid floor of
gold; for the whole substance of the New Testament is Jesus crucified, and even
its closing sentence is bejewelled with the
Redeemer's name. We should always read Scripture in this light; we should
consider the word to be as a mirror into which Christ looks down from heaven;
and then we, looking into it, see His face reflected as in a
glass—darkly, it is true, but still in such a way as to be a blessed
preparation for seeing Him as we shall see Him face to face. This volume
contains Jesus Christ's letters to us, perfumed by His love. These pages are
the garments of our King, and they all smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia.
Scripture is the royal chariot in which Jesus rides, and it is paved with love
for the daughters of Jerusalem. The Scriptures are the swaddling bands of the
holy child Jesus; unroll them and you find your Saviour. The quintessence of the word of God is Christ.