Daily Devotionals

Bowen's Daily Meditations

Devotional: January 17th

"We have not a high-priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." - Hebrews 4:15.

"We have not a high-priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses," would be more literal, but would not be more beautiful. The statement is in the negative, and seems to summon us for a moment to consider what our condition would be, if we had a high-priest incapable of sympathizing with us. We may also view it as conveying a reproach to those who act towards Christ as though he were such a high priest. They do so when the keen sense of their infirmities hinders their confidence in him, and their joy in his promises.

God hath suffered you to discover your weakness for the very reason that you might be drawn to Christ, the source of strength; and to discover your own unloveliness, that you might know the loveliness of Christ. God is teaching you your need of sympathy and aid; and yet in that very hour you hide yourself from the fountain-head of sympathy and succor. Is it not enough that you should lose the notion of your own goodness, - but must you strip Christ of his goodness and glory? For what would Christ be without sympathy, without compassion for the erring? If he were what you would make him out to be, would the ten thousand times ten thousand say with a loud voice, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing?" Do you wish to extinguish this chorus?

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