Morning
The
time when Christians begin to sing in the ways of the Lord is when they
first lose their burden at the foot of the Cross. Not even the songs of
the angels seem so sweet as the first song of rapture which gushes from
the inmost soul of the forgiven child of God. You know how John Bunyan
describes it. He says when poor Pilgrim lost his burden at the Cross, he
gave three great leaps, and went on his way singing--
"Blest Cross! blest Sepulchre! blest rather be
The Man that there was put to shame for me!"
Believer,
do you recollect the day when your fetters fell off? Do you remember
the place when Jesus met you, and said, "I have loved thee with an
everlasting love; I have blotted out as a cloud thy transgressions, and
as a thick cloud thy sins; they shall not be mentioned against thee any
more forever." Oh! what a sweet season is that when Jesus takes away the
pain of sin. When the Lord first pardoned my sin, I was so joyous that I
could scarce refrain from dancing. I thought on my road home from the
house where I had been set at liberty, that I must tell the stones in
the street the story of my deliverance. So full was my soul of joy, that
I wanted to tell every snow-flake that was falling from heaven of the
wondrous love of Jesus, who had blotted out the sins of one of the chief
of rebels. But it is not only at the commencement of the Christian life
that believers have reason for song; as long as they live they discover
cause to sing in the ways of the Lord, and their experience of his
constant lovingkindness leads them to say, "I will bless the Lord at all
times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth." See to it,
brother, that thou magnifiest the Lord this day.
"Long as we tread this desert land,
New mercies shall new songs demand."
Evening
Come,
dear readers, let each one of us speak for himself of the wonderful
love, not of Jonathan, but of Jesus. We will not relate what we have
been told, but the things which we have tasted and handled-of the love
of Christ. Thy love to me, O Jesus, was wonderful when I was a stranger
wandering far from thee, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind. Thy love restrained me from committing the sin which is unto
death, and withheld me from self-destruction. Thy love held back the axe
when Justice said, "Cut it down! why cumbereth it the ground?" Thy love
drew me into the wilderness, stripped me there, and made me feel the
guilt of my sin, and the burden of mine iniquity. Thy love spake thus
comfortably to me when, I was sore dismayed--"Come unto me, and I will
give thee rest." Oh, how matchless thy love when, in a moment, thou
didst wash my sins away, and make my polluted soul, which was crimson
with the blood of my nativity, and black with the grime of my
transgressions, to be white as the driven snow, and pure as the finest
wool. How thou didst commend thy love when thou didst whisper in my
ears, "I am thine and thou art mine." Kind were those accents when thou
saidst, "The Father himself loveth you." And sweet the moments, passing
sweet, when thou declaredst to me "the love of the Spirit." Never shall
my soul forget those chambers of fellowship where thou has unveiled
thyself to me. Had Moses his cleft in the rock, where he saw the train,
the back parts of his God? We, too, have had our clefts in the rock,
where we have seen the full splendours of the Godhead in the person of
Christ. Did David remember the tracks of the wild goat, the land of
Jordan and the Hermonites? We, too, can remember spots to memory dear,
equal to these in blessedness. Precious Lord Jesus, give us a fresh
draught of thy wondrous love to begin the month with. Amen.
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