December 13 - Morning"Salt without prescribing how much." — Ezra 7:22
Salt was used in every offering made by fire unto the Lord, and from its
preserving and purifying properties it was the grateful emblem of divine
grace in the soul. It is worthy of our attentive regard that, when Artaxerxes
gave salt to Ezra the priest, he set no limit to the quantity, and we may be
quite certain that when the King of kings distributes grace among His royal
priesthood, the supply is not cut short by Him. Often are we straitened in
ourselves, but never in the Lord. He who chooses to gather much manna
will find that he may have as much as he desires.
There is no such famine
in Jerusalem that the citizens should eat their bread by weight and drink
their water by measure. Some things in the economy of grace are measured;
for instance our vinegar and gall are given us with such exactness that we
never have a single drop too much, but of the salt of grace no stint is made,
"Ask what thou wilt and it shall be given unto thee." Parents need to lock
up the fruit cupboard, and the sweet jars, but there is no need to keep the
salt-box under lock and key, for few children will eat too greedily from
that. A man may have too much money, or too much honour, but he
cannot have too much grace.
When Jeshurun waxed fat in the flesh, he
kicked against God, but there is no fear of a man's becoming too full of
grace: a plethora of grace is impossible. More wealth brings more care, but
more grace brings more joy. Increased wisdom is increased sorrow, but
abundance of the Spirit is fulness of joy. Believer, go to the throne for a
large supply of heavenly salt. It will season thine afflictions, which are
unsavoury without salt; it will preserve thy heart which corrupts if salt be
absent, and it will kill thy sins even as salt kills reptiles. Thou needest
much; seek much, and have much. December 13 - Evening"I will make thy windows of agates." — Isaiah 54:12
The church is most instructively symbolized by a building erected by
heavenly power, and designed by divine skill. Such a spiritual house must
not be dark, for the Israelites had light in their dwellings; there must
therefore be windows to let the light in and to allow the inhabitants to gaze
abroad. These windows are precious as agates: the ways in which the
church beholds her Lord and heaven, and spiritual truth in general, are to be
had in the highest esteem. Agates are not the most transparent of gems,
they are but semi-pellucid at the best:
"Our knowledge of that life is small, Faith is one of these precious agate windows, but alas! it is often so misty
and beclouded, that we see but darkly, and mistake much that we do see.
Yet if we cannot gaze through windows of diamonds and know even as we
are known, it is a glorious thing to behold the altogether lovely One, even
though the glass be hazy as the agate. Experience is another of these dim
but precious windows, yielding to us a subdued religious light, in which we
see the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows, through our own afflictions. Our
weak eyes could not endure windows of transparent glass to let in the
Master's glory, but when they are dimmed with weeping, the beams of the
Sun of Righteousness are tempered, and shine through the windows of
agate with a soft radiance inexpressibly soothing to tempted souls.
Sanctification, as it conforms us to our Lord, is another agate window.
Only as we become heavenly can we comprehend heavenly things. The
pure in heart see a pure God. Those who are like Jesus see Him as He is.
Because we are so little like Him, the window is but agate; because we are
somewhat like Him, it is agate. We thank God for what we have, and long
for more. When shall we see God and Jesus, and heaven and truth, face to
face? December 13 |