Morning
Christian,
take good care of thy faith; for recollect faith is the only way whereby
thou canst obtain blessings. If we want blessings from God, nothing can
fetch them down but faith. Prayer cannot draw down answers from God's
throne except it be the earnest prayer of the man who believes. Faith is
the angelic messenger between the soul and the Lord Jesus in glory. Let
that angel be withdrawn, we can neither send up prayer, nor receive the
answers. Faith is the telegraphic wire which links earth and heaven--on
which God's messages of love fly so fast, that before we call he answers,
and while we are yet speaking he hears us. But if that telegraphic wire of
faith be snapped, how can we receive the promise? Am I in trouble?--I can
obtain help for trouble by faith. Am I beaten about by the enemy?--my soul
on her dear Refuge leans by faith. But take faith away--in vain I call to
God. There is no road betwixt my soul and heaven. In the deepest wintertime
faith is a road on which the horses of prayer may travel--aye, and all the
better for the biting frost; but blockade the road, and how can we
communicate with the Great King? Faith links me with divinity. Faith
clothes me with the power of God. Faith engages on my side the omnipotence
of Jehovah. Faith ensures every attribute of God in my defence. It helps me
to defy the hosts of hell. It makes me march triumphant over the necks of
my enemies. But without faith how can I receive anything of the Lord? Let
not him that wavereth--who is like a wave of the Sea--expect that he will receive
anything of God! O, then, Christian, watch well thy faith; for with it thou
canst win all things, however poor thou art, but without it thou canst
obtain nothing. "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth."
Evening
"And
she did eat, and was sufficed, and left."
Ruth 2:14
Whenever
we are privileged to eat of the bread which Jesus gives, we are, like Ruth,
satisfied with the full and sweet repast. When Jesus is the host, no guest
goes empty from the table. Our head is satisfied with the precious truth
which Christ reveals; our heart is content with Jesus, as the altogether
lovely object of affection; our hope is satisfied, for whom have we in
heaven but Jesus? and our desire is satiated, for what can we wish for more
than "to know Christ and to be found in him?" Jesus fills our
conscience till it is at perfect peace; our judgment with persuasion of the
certainty of his teachings; our memory with recollections of what he has
done, and our imagination with the prospects of what he is yet to do. As
Ruth was "sufficed, and left," so is it with us. We have had deep
draughts; we have thought that we could take in all of Christ; but when we
have done our best we have had to leave a vast remainder. We have sat at
the table of the Lord's love, and said, "Nothing but the infinite can
ever satisfy me; I am such a great sinner that I must have infinite merit
to wash my sin away;" but we have had our sin removed, and found that
there was merit to spare; we have had our hunger relieved at the feast of
sacred love, and found that there was a redundance of spiritual meat
remaining. There are certain sweet things in the Word of God which we have
not enjoyed yet, and which we are obliged to leave for awhile; for we are
like the disciples to whom Jesus said, "I have yet many things to say
unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Yes, there are graces to which
we have not attained; places of fellowship nearer to Christ which we have
not reached; and heights of communion which our feet have not climbed. At
every banquet of love there are many baskets of fragments left. Let us
magnify the liberality of our glorious Boaz.
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