December 7 - Morning"Base things of the world hath God chosen." — 1 Corinthians 1:28
Walk the streets by moonlight, if you dare, and you will see sinners then.
Watch when the night is dark, and the wind is howling, and the picklock is
grating in the door, and you will see sinners then. Go to yon jail, and walk
through the wards, and mark the men with heavy over-hanging brows, men
whom you would not like to meet at night, and there are sinners there. Go
to the Reformatories, and note those who have betrayed a rampant juvenile
depravity, and you will see sinners there. Go across the seas to the place
where a man will gnaw a bone upon which is reeking human flesh, and
there is a sinner there.
Go where you will, you need not ransack earth to
find sinners, for they are common enough; you may find them in every
lane and street of every city, and town, and village, and hamlet. It is for
such that Jesus died. If you will select me the grossest specimen of
humanity, if he be but born of woman, I will have hope of him yet,
because Jesus Christ is come to seek and to save sinners. Electing love has
selected some of the worst to be made the best. Pebbles of the brook grace
turns into jewels for the crown-royal. Worthless dross He transforms into
pure gold. Redeeming love has set apart many of the worst of mankind to
be the reward of the Saviour's passion. Effectual grace calls forth many of
the vilest of the vile to sit at the table of mercy, and therefore let none
despair.
Reader, by that love looking out of Jesus' tearful eyes, by that love
streaming from those bleeding wounds, by that faithful love, that strong
love, that pure, disinterested, and abiding love; by the heart and by the
bowels of the Saviour's compassion, we conjure you turn not away as
though it were nothing to you; but believe on Him and you shall be saved.
Trust your soul with Him and He will bring you to His Father's right hand
in glory everlasting. December 7 - Evening"I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." — 1 Corinthians 9:22
Paul's great object was not merely to instruct and to improve, but to save.
Anything short of this would have disappointed him; he would have men
renewed in heart, forgiven, sanctified, in fact, saved. Have our Christian
labours been aimed at anything below this great point? Then let us amend
our ways, for of what avail will it be at the last great day to have taught
and moralized men if they appear before God unsaved? Blood-red will our
skirts be if through life we have sought inferior objects, and forgotten that
men needed to be saved.
Paul knew the ruin of man's natural state, and did
not try to educate him, but to save him; he saw men sinking to hell, and did
not talk of refining them, but of saving from the wrath to come. To
compass their salvation, he gave himself up with untiring zeal to telling
abroad the gospel, to warning and beseeching men to be reconciled to God.
His prayers were importunate and his labours incessant. To save souls
was his consuming passion, his ambition, his calling. He became a servant
to all men, toiling for his race, feeling a woe within him if he preached not
the gospel.
He laid aside his preferences to prevent prejudice; he submitted
his will in things indifferent, and if men would but receive the gospel, he
raised no questions about forms or ceremonies: the gospel was the one
all-important business with him. If he might save some he would be
content. This was the crown for which he strove, the sole and sufficient
reward of all his labours and self-denials. Dear reader, have you and I lived
to win souls at this noble rate? Are we possessed with the same
all-absorbing desire? If not, why not? Jesus died for sinners, cannot we live
for them? Where is our tenderness? Where our love to Christ, if we seek
not His honour in the salvation of men? O that the Lord would saturate us
through and through with an undying zeal for the souls of men. December 7 |