Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
September 30
Morning
"Sing
forth the honour of His name, make His praise
glorious."—Psalm 66:2.
It is not left
to our own option whether we shall praise God or not. Praise is God's most
righteous due, and every Christian, as the recipient of His grace, is bound to
praise God from day to day. It is true we have no authoritative rubric for
daily praise; we have no commandment prescribing certain hours of song and
thanksgiving: but the law written upon the heart teaches us that it is right to
praise God; and the unwritten mandate comes to us with as much force as if it
had been recorded on the tables of stone, or handed to us from the top of
thundering Sinai. Yes, it is the Christian's duty to praise God. It is
not only a pleasurable exercise, but it is the absolute obligation of his life.
Think not ye who are always mourning, that ye are guiltless in this respect, or
imagine that ye can discharge your duty to your God without songs of praise.
You are bound by the bonds of His love to bless His name so long as you live,
and His praise should continually be in your mouth, for you are blessed, in
order that you may bless Him; "this people have I formed for myself, they
shall show forth my praise"; and if you do not praise God, you are not
bringing forth the fruit which He, as the Divine Husbandman, has a right to
expect at your hands. Let not your harp then hang upon the willows, but take it
down, and strive, with a grateful heart, to bring forth its loudest music.
Arise and chant His praise. With every morning's dawn, lift up your notes of
thanksgiving, and let every setting sun be followed with your song. Girdle the
earth with your praises; surround it with an atmosphere of melody, and God
Himself will hearken from heaven and accept your music.
"E'en so I love Thee, and will love,
And in Thy
praise will sing,
Because Thou
art my loving God,
And my
redeeming King."
Evening
"A
living dog is better than a dead lion."—Ecclesiastes 9:4.
Life is a precious thing,
and in its humblest form it is superior to death. This truth is eminently
certain in spiritual things. It is better to be the least in the kingdom of
heaven than the greatest out of it. The lowest degree of grace is superior to
the noblest development of unregenerate nature. Where the Holy Ghost implants
divine life in the soul, there is a precious deposit which none of the refinements
of education can equal. The thief on the cross excels Caesar on his throne;
Lazarus among the dogs is better than Cicero among the senators; and the most
unlettered Christian is in the sight of God superior to Plato. Life is the
badge of nobility in the realm of spiritual things, and men without it are only
coarser or finer specimens of the same lifeless material, needing to be
quickened, for they are dead in trespasses and sins.
A living, loving, gospel
sermon, however unlearned in matter and uncouth in style, is better than the
finest discourse devoid of unction and power. A living dog keeps better watch
than a dead lion, and is of more service to his master; and so the poorest
spiritual preacher is infinitely to be preferred to the exquisite orator who
has no wisdom but that of words, no energy but that of sound. The like holds
good of our prayers and other religious exercises; if we are quickened in them
by the Holy Spirit, they are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, though we
may think them to be worthless things; while our grand performances in which
our hearts were absent, like dead lions, are mere carrion in the sight of the
living God. O for living groans, living sighs, living despondencies, rather
than lifeless songs and dead calms. Better anything than death. The snarlings of the dog of hell will at least keep us awake,
but dead faith and dead profession, what greater curses can a man have? Quicken us, quicken us, O Lord!