Grace in the Morning

"Come up in the morning . . . and present thyself unto me in the top of the mount" (Exod. 34:2).

The morning is the time fixed for my meeting the Lord. The very word morning is as a cluster of rich grapes. Let us crush them, and drink the sacred wine. In the morning! Then God means me to be at my best in strength and hope. I have not to climb in my weakness. In the night I have buried yesterday's fatigue, and in the morning take a new lease of energy. Blessed is the day whose morning is sanctified! Successful is the day whose first victory was won in prayer! Holy is the day whose dawn finds thee on the top of the mount!

My Father, I am coming. Nothing on the mean plain shall keep me away from the holy heights. At Thy bidding I come, so Thou wilt meet me. Morning on the mount! It will make me strong and glad all the rest of the day so well begun. --Joseph Parker.

My mother's habit was every day, immediately after breakfast, to withdraw for an hour to her own room, and to spend that hour in reading the Bible, in meditation and prayer. From that hour, as from a pure fountain, she drew the strength and sweetness which enabled her to fulfill all her duties, and to remain unruffled by the worries and pettinesses which are so often the trial of narrow neighborhoods. As I think of her life, and all it had to bear, I see the absolute triumph of Christian grace in the lovely ideal of a Christian lady. I never saw her temper disturbed; I never heard her speak one word of anger, of calumny, or of idle gossip; I never observed in her any sign of a single sentiment unbecoming to a soul which had drunk of the river of the water of life, and which had fed upon manna in the barren wilderness.--Farrar

RACE-HATRED

"For we also were sometimes foolish, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another."¡XTIT. iii. 3.

What a dark picture of the state of human nature and of human society! Whence comes such a sad condition of things, worse even than we see among animals? The answer is: "From Adam's Fall." Just think how Cain, the first child born on earth, born of man whom God had created, shed the blood of his brother Abel. Yes, the first child born on earth was the murderer of his own brother, and came under the power of the devil, who "was a murderer from the beginning." "God saw that the wicked¬ness of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." No wonder that He destroyed mankind by a flood. Yet soon after the flood there were signs that man was still under the power of sin.

No wonder that man's love of his own people, implanted in his heart by nature, soon changed to hatred of other peoples. Love of country became the fruitful source of race-hatred, war, and bloodshed. Note how, here in South Africa, God has placed the two races side by side, as in a school, to see if our Christianity will enable us to overcome race-hatred, and in the power of Christ's love, prove that "in the new creature there is neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free, but are all one in Christ Jesus."

What an opening there is for the Church of Christ and her ministers to preach and proclaim the love of God, and to prove its might to change race-hatred into brotherly love! God has abundant power to bring this to pass.

What a call to every Christian to pray for himself and his brethren, that we may not make the Word of God of none effect by our unbelief!

O God, make known to us Thy love in heavenly power, and let it take full possession of our lives!

The Dew of Heaven

"His heavens shall drop down dew"(Deuteronomy 33:28).

What the dew in the East is to the world of nature, that is the influence of the Spirit in the realm of grace. How greatly do I need it! Without the Spirit of God I am a dry and withered thing. I droop, I fade, I die. How sweetly does this dew refresh me! When once favored with it I feel happy, lively, vigorous, elevated. I want nothing more. The Holy Spirit brings me life and all that life requires. All else without the dew of the Spirit is less than nothing to me: I hear, I read, I pray, I sing, I go to the table of Communion, and I find no blessing there until the Holy Ghost visits me. But when He bedews me, every means of grace is sweet and profitable.

What a promise is this for me! "His heavens shall drop down dew." I shall be visited with grace. I shall not be left to my natural drought, or to the world's burning heat, or to the sirocco of satanic temptation. Oh, that l may at this very hour feel the gentle, silent, saturating dew of the LORD! Why should I not! He who has made me to live as the grass lives in the meadow will treat me as He treats the grass; He will refresh me from above. Grass cannot call for dew as I do. Surely, the LORD who visits the unpraying plant will answer to His pleading child.

Morning, September 13

¡§Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well, the rain also filleth the pools.¡¨(Psalm 84:6)

This teaches us that the comfort obtained by a one may often prove serviceable to another; just as wells would be used by the company who came after. We read some book full of consolation, which is like Jonathan's rod, dropping with honey. Ah! we think our brother has been here before us, and digged this well for us as well as for himself. Many a ¡§Night of Weeping,¡¨ ¡§Midnight Harmonies,¡¨ an ¡§Eternal Day,¡¨ ¡§A Crook in the Lot,¡¨ a ¡§Comfort for Mourners,¡¨ has been a well digged by a pilgrim for himself, but has proved quite as useful to others. Specially we notice this in the Psalms, such as that beginning, ¡§Why art thou cast down, O my soul?¡¨ Travellers have been delighted to see the footprint of man on a barren shore, and we love to see the waymarks of pilgrims while passing through the vale of tears.

The pilgrims dig the well, but, strange enough, it fills from the top instead of the bottom. We use the means, but the blessing does not spring from the means. We dig a well, but heaven fills it with rain. The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord. The means are connected with the end, but they do not of themselves produce it. See here the rain fills the pools, so that the wells become useful as reservoirs for the water; labour is not lost, but yet it does not supersede divine help.

Grace may well be compared to rain for its purity, for its refreshing and vivifying influence, for its coming alone from above, and for the sovereignty with which it is given or withheld. May our readers have showers of blessing, and may the wells they have digged be filled with water! Oh, what are means and ordinances without the smile of heaven! They are as clouds without rain, and pools without water. O God of love, open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing!

Evening, September 13

¡§This man receiveth sinners.¡¨(Luke 15:2)

Observe the condescension of this fact. This Man, who towers above all other men, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners¡Xthis Man receiveth sinners. This Man, who is no other than the eternal God, before whom angels veil their faces¡Xthis Man receiveth sinners. It needs an angel's tongue to describe such a mighty stoop of love. That any of us should be willing to seek after the lost is nothing wonderful¡X they are of our own race; but that he, the offended God, against whom the transgression has been committed, should take upon himself the form of a servant, and bear the sin of many, and should then be willing to receive the vilest of the vile, this is marvellous.

¡§This Man receiveth sinners¡¨; not, however, that they may remain sinners, but he receives them that he may pardon their sins, justify their persons, cleanse their hearts by his purifying word, preserve their souls by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and enable them to serve him, to show forth his praise, and to have communion with him. Into his heart's love he receives sinners, takes them from the dunghill, and wears them as jewels in his crown; plucks them as brands from the burning, and preserves them as costly monuments of his mercy. None are so precious in Jesus¡¦ sight as the sinners for whom he died. When Jesus receives sinners, he has not some out-of-doors reception place, no casual ward where he charitably entertains them as men do passing beggars, but he opens the golden gates of his royal heart, and receives the sinner right into himself¡Xyea, he admits the humble penitent into personal union and makes him a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. There was never such a reception as this! This fact is still most sure this evening, he is still receiving sinners: would to God sinners would receive him.