October 24 - Morning"The trees of the Lord are full of sap." — Psalm 104:16
Without sap the tree cannot flourish or even exist. Vitality is essential to a
Christian. There must be life — a vital principle infused into us by God
the Holy Ghost, or we cannot be trees of the Lord. The mere name of
being a Christian is but a dead thing, we must be filled with the spirit of
divine life. This life is mysterious. We do not understand the circulation of
the sap, by what force it rises, and by what power it descends again.
So the life within us is a sacred mystery. Regeneration is wrought by the
Holy Ghost entering into man and becoming man's life; and this divine life
in a believer afterwards feeds upon the flesh and blood of Christ and is
thus sustained by divine food, but whence it cometh and whither it goeth
who shall explain to us? What a secret thing the sap is! The roots go
searching through the soil with their little spongioles, but we cannot see
them suck out the various gases, or transmute the mineral into the
vegetable; this work is done down in the dark. Our root is Christ Jesus,
and our life is hid in Him; this is the secret of the Lord. The radix of the
Christian life is as secret as the life itself. How permanently active is the
sap in the cedar!
In the Christian the divine life is always full of energy —
not always in fruit-bearing, but in inward operations. The believer's
graces, are not every one of them in constant motion? but his life never
ceases to palpitate within. He is not always working for God, but his heart
is always living upon Him. As the sap manifests itself in producing the
foliage and fruit of the tree, so with a truly healthy Christian, his grace is
externally manifested in his walk and conversation. If you talk with him,
he cannot help speaking about Jesus. If you notice his actions you will see
that he has been with Jesus. He has so much sap within, that it must fill
his conduct and conversation with life. October 24 - Evening"He began to wash the disciples' feet." — John 13:5
The Lord Jesus loves His people so much, that every day He is still doing
for them much that is analogous to washing their soiled feet. Their poorest
actions He accepts; their deepest sorrow He feels; their slenderest wish He
hears, and their every transgression He forgives. He is still their servant as
well as their Friend and Master. He not only performs majestic deeds for
them, as wearing the mitre on His brow, and the precious jewels glittering
on His breastplate, and standing up to plead for them, but humbly,
patiently, He yet goes about among His people with the basin and the
towel. He does this when He puts away from us day by day our constant
infirmities and sins.
Last night, when you bowed the knee, you mournfully
confessed that much of your conduct was not worthy of your profession;
and even tonight, you must mourn afresh that you have fallen again into
the selfsame folly and sin from which special grace delivered you long ago;
and yet Jesus will have great patience with you; He will hear your
confession of sin; He will say, "I will, be thou clean"; He will again apply
the blood of sprinkling, and speak peace to your conscience, and remove
every spot.
It is a great act of eternal love when Christ once for all
absolves the sinner, and puts him into the family of God; but what
condescending patience there is when the Saviour with much long-suffering
bears the oft recurring follies of His wayward disciple; day by day, and
hour by hour, washing away the multiplied transgressions of His erring but
yet beloved child! To dry up a flood of rebellion is something marvellous,
but to endure the constant dropping of repeated offences — to bear with a
perpetual trying of patience, this is divine indeed! While we find comfort
and peace in our Lord's daily cleansing, its legitimate influence upon us
will be to increase our watchfulness, and quicken our desire for holiness. Is
it so? October 24 |