Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
September 5
Morning
"Woe is
me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the
tents of Kedar."—Psalm 120:5.
As a Christian you have to
live in the midst of an ungodly world, and it is of little use for you to cry
"Woe is me." Jesus did not pray O that you
should be taken out of the world, and what He did not pray for you need not
desire. Better far in the Lord's strength to meet the difficulty, and glorify
Him in it. The enemy is ever on the watch to detect inconsistency in your
conduct; be therefore very holy. Remember that the eyes of all are upon
you, and that more is expected from you than from other men. Strive to give no
occasion for blame. Let your goodness be the only fault they can discover in
you. Like Daniel, compel them to say of you, "We shall not find any
occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law
of his God." Seek to be useful as well as consistent. Perhaps you
think, "If I were in a more favourable position
I might serve the Lord's cause, but I cannot do any good where I am"; but
the worse the people are among whom you live, the more need have they of your
exertions; if they be crooked, the more necessity that you should set them
straight; and if they be perverse, the more need have you to turn their proud hearts
to the truth. Where should the physician be but where there are many sick?
Where is honour to be won by the soldier but in the
hottest fire of the battle? And when weary of the strife and sin that meets you
on every hand, consider that all the saints have endured the same trial. They
were not carried on beds of down to heaven, and you must not expect to travel
more easily than they. They had to hazard their lives unto the death in the
high places of the field, and you will not be crowned till you also have endured
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Therefore, "stand fast in the
faith, quit you like men, be strong."
Evening
"Hast
thou entered into the springs of the sea?"—Job 38:16.
Some things in nature must
remain a mystery to the most intelligent and enterprising investigators. Human
knowledge has bounds beyond which it cannot pass. Universal knowledge is for
God alone. If this be so in the things which are seen
and temporal, I may rest assured that it is even more so in matters spiritual
and eternal. Why, then, have I been torturing my brain with speculations as to
destiny and will, fixed fate, and human responsibility? These deep and dark
truths I am no more able to comprehend than to find out the depth
which coucheth beneath, from which old ocean
draws her watery stores. Why am I so curious to know the reason of my Lord's
providences, the motive of His actions, the design of His visitations? Shall I
ever be able to clasp the sun in my fist, and hold the universe in my palm? yet these are as a drop of a bucket compared with the Lord
my God. Let me not strive to understand the infinite, but spend my strength in
love. What I cannot gain by intellect I can possess by affection, and let that
suffice me. I cannot penetrate the heart of the sea, but I can enjoy the
healthful breezes which sweep over its bosom, and I
can sail over its blue waves with propitious winds. If I could enter the
springs of the sea, the feat would serve no useful purpose either to myself or
to others, it would not save the sinking bark, or give back the drowned mariner
to his weeping wife and children; neither would my solving deep mysteries avail
me a single whit, for the least love to God, and the simplest act of obedience
to Him, are better than the profoundest knowledge. My Lord, I leave the
infinite to Thee, and pray Thee to put far from me such a love for the tree of
knowledge as might keep me from the tree of life.