October 1 - Morning"Pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved." — Song of Solomon 7:13
The spouse desires to give to Jesus all that she produces. Our heart has
"all manner of pleasant fruits," both "old and new," and they are laid up
for our Beloved. At this rich autumnal season of fruit, let us survey our
stores. We have new fruits. We desire to feel new life, new joy, new
gratitude; we wish to make new resolves and carry them out by new
labours; our heart blossoms with new prayers, and our soul is pledging
herself to new efforts. But we have some old fruits too.
There is our first
love: a choice fruit that! and Jesus delights in it. There is our first faith:
that simple faith by which, having nothing, we became possessors of all
things. There is our joy when first we knew the Lord: let us revive it. We
have our old remembrances of the promises. How faithful has God been!
In sickness, how softly did He make our bed! In deep waters, how
placidly did He buoy us up! In the flaming furnace, how graciously did He
deliver us. Old fruits, indeed! We have many of them, for His mercies have
been more than the hairs of our head. Old sins we must regret, but then we
have had repentances which He has given us, by which we have wept our
way to the cross, and learned the merit of His blood.
We have fruits, this
morning, both new and old; but here is the point — they are all laid up for
Jesus. Truly, those are the best and most acceptable services in which
Jesus is the solitary aim of the soul, and His glory, without any admixture
whatever, the end of all our efforts. Let our many fruits be laid up only for
our Beloved; let us display them when He is with us, and not hold them
up before the gaze of men. Jesus, we will turn the key in our garden door,
and none shall enter to rob Thee of one good fruit from the soil which
Thou hast watered with Thy bloody sweat. Our all shall be Thine, Thine
only, O Jesus, our Beloved! October 1 - Evening"He will give grace and glory." — Psalm 84:11
Bounteous is Jehovah in His nature; to give is His delight. His gifts are
beyond measure precious, and are as freely given as the light of the sun. He
gives grace to His elect because He wills it, to His redeemed because of His
covenant, to the called because of His promise, to believers because they
seek it, to sinners because they need it. He gives grace abundantly,
seasonably, constantly, readily, sovereignly; doubly enhancing the value of
the boon by the manner of its bestowal. Grace in all its forms He freely
renders to His people: comforting, preserving, sanctifying, directing,
instructing, assisting grace, He generously pours into their souls without
ceasing, and He always will do so, whatever may occur. Sickness may
befall, but the Lord will give grace; poverty may happen to us, but grace
will surely be afforded; death must cone but grace will light a candle at the
darkest hour. Reader, how blessed it is as years roll round, and the leaves
begin again to fall, to enjoy such an unfading promise as this, "The Lord
will give grace."
The little conjunction "and" in this verse is a diamond rivet binding the
present with the future: grace and glory always go together. God has
married them, and none can divorce them. The Lord will never deny a soul
glory to whom He has freely given to live upon His grace; indeed, glory is
nothing more than grace in its Sabbath dress, grace in full bloom, grace like
autumn fruit, mellow and perfected. How soon we may have glory none
can tell! It may be before this month of October has run out we shall see
the Holy City; but be the interval longer or shorter, we shall be glorified
ere long. Glory, the glory of heaven, the glory of eternity, the glory of
Jesus, the glory of the Father, the Lord will surely give to His chosen. Oh,
rare promise of a faithful God! Two golden links of one celestial chain: October 1 |