December 23 - Morning"Friend, go up higher." — Luke 14:10
When first the life of grace begins in the soul, we do indeed draw near to
God, but it is with great fear and trembling. The soul conscious of guilt,
and humbled thereby, is overawed with the solemnity of its position; it is
cast to the earth by a sense of the grandeur of Jehovah, in whose presence
it stands. With unfeigned bashfulness it takes the lowest room.
But, in after life, as the Christian grows in grace, although he will never
forget the solemnity of his position, and will never lose that holy awe
which must encompass a gracious man when he is in the presence of the
God who can create or can destroy; yet his fear has all its terror taken out
of it; it becomes a holy reverence, and no more an overshadowing dread.
He is called up higher, to greater access to God in Christ Jesus. Then the
man of God, walking amid the splendours of Deity, and veiling his face like
the glorious cherubim, with those twin wings, the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ, will, reverent and bowed in spirit, approach the throne;
and seeing there a God of love, of goodness, and of mercy, he will realize
rather the covenant character of God than His absolute Deity. He will see
in God rather His goodness than His greatness, and more of His love than
of His majesty.
Then will the soul, bowing still as humbly as aforetime,
enjoy a more sacred liberty of intercession; for while prostrate before the
glory of the Infinite God, it will be sustained by the refreshing
consciousness of being in the presence of boundless mercy and infinite
love, and by the realization of acceptance "in the Beloved." Thus the
believer is bidden to come up higher, and is enabled to exercise the privilege
of rejoicing in God, and drawing near to Him in holy confidence, saying,
"Abba, Father."
"So may we go from strength to strength, December 23 - Evening"The night also is Thine." — Psalm 74:16
Yes, Lord, Thou dost not abdicate Thy throne when the sun goeth down,
nor dost Thou leave the world all through these long wintry nights to be
the prey of evil; Thine eyes watch us as the stars, and Thine arms
surround us as the zodiac belts the sky. The dews of kindly sleep and all
the influences of the moon are in Thy hand, and the alarms and solemnities
of night are equally with Thee. This is very sweet to me when watching
through the midnight hours, or tossing to and fro in anguish. There are
precious fruits put forth by the moon as well as by the sun: may my Lord
make me to be a favoured partaker in them.
The night of affliction is as much under the arrangement and control of the
Lord of Love as the bright summer days when all is bliss. Jesus is in the
tempest. His love wraps the night about itself as a mantle, but to the eye
of faith the sable robe is scarce a disguise. From the first watch of the night
even unto the break of day the eternal Watcher observes His saints, and
overrules the shades and dews of midnight for His people's highest good.
We believe in no rival deities of good and evil contending for the mastery,
but we hear the voice of Jehovah saying, "I create light and I create
darkness; I, the Lord, do all these things."
Gloomy seasons of religious indifference and social sin are not exempted
from the divine purpose. When the altars of truth are defiled, and the ways
of God forsaken, the Lord's servants weep with bitter sorrow, but they
may not despair, for the darkest eras are governed by the Lord, and shall
come to their end at His bidding. What may seem defeat to us may be
victory to Him.
"Though enwrapt in gloomy night, December 23 |