December 1 - Morning"Thou hast made summer and winter." — Psalm 74:17
My soul begin this wintry month with thy God. The cold snows and the
piercing winds all remind thee that He keeps His covenant with day and
night, and tend to assure thee that He will also keep that glorious covenant
which He has made with thee in the person of Christ Jesus. He who is true
to His Word in the revolutions of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted
world, will not prove unfaithful in His dealings with His own well-beloved
Son.
Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be upon
thee just now it will be very painful to thee: but there is this comfort,
namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to
nip the buds of expectation: He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes over the
once verdant meadows of our joy: He casteth forth His ice like morsels
freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all, He is the great Winter
King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore thou canst not murmur.
Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills, are
of the Lord's sending, and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill noxious
insects, and put a bound to raging diseases; they break up the clods, and
sweeten the soul. O that such good results would always follow our
winters of affliction!
How we prize the fire just now! how pleasant is its cheerful glow! Let us
in the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth
and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw nigh to Him, and in Him
find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in the warm
garments of His promises, and go forth to labours which befit the season,
for it were ill to be as the sluggard who will not plough by reason of the
cold; for he shall beg in summer and have nothing. December 1 - Evening"O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men." — Psalm 107:8
If we complained less, and praised more, we should be happier, and God
would be more glorified. Let us daily praise God for common mercies —
common as we frequently call them, and yet so priceless, that when
deprived of them we are ready to perish. Let us bless God for the eyes
with which we behold the sun, for the health and strength to walk abroad,
for the bread we eat, for the raiment we wear. Let us praise Him that we
are not cast out among the hopeless, or confined amongst the guilty; let us
thank Him for liberty, for friends, for family associations and comforts; let
us praise Him, in fact, for everything which we receive from His bounteous
hand, for we deserve little, and yet are most plenteously endowed.
But, beloved, the sweetest and the loudest note in our songs of
praise should be of redeeming love. God's redeeming acts towards His
chosen are for ever the favourite themes of their praise. If we know what
redemption means, let us not withhold our sonnets of thanksgiving. We
have been redeemed from the power of our corruptions, uplifted from the
depth of sin in which we were naturally plunged. We have been led to the
cross of Christ — our shackles of guilt have been broken off; we are no
longer slaves, but children of the living God, and can antedate the period
when we shall be presented before the throne without spot or wrinkle or
any such thing.
Even now by faith we wave the palm-branch and wrap
ourselves about with the fair linen which is to be our everlasting array, and
shall we not unceasingly give thanks to the Lord our Redeemer? Child of
God, canst thou be silent? Awake, awake, ye heritors of glory, and lead
your captivity captive, as ye cry with David, "Bless the Lord, O my soul:
and all that is within me, bless His holy name." Let the new month begin
with new songs. December 1 |