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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Devotional: March 9th

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Morning Devotional

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. - 2 Corinthians 3:17.

LIBERTY has always been highly prized, and can never be prized too highly. Well, we have civil liberty as Britons and spiritual liberty as Christians,-a liberty “unsung by poets, and by senators unpraised.” Let us endeavour to exemplify our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus. It will be found to include five things: First, Our freedom from the exactions and impositions of men in religion. Now, observe, we say in religion, because we do not here refer to civil things. We are willing to abide always by our Saviour’s distinction:-“Render unto Cæsar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” Where religion is concerned, “The Lord is our King, the Lord is our lawgiver; and, if any require us to believe or do what he has not enjoined us to believe or do, we are to obey God rather than man. The Saviour says, “Call no man master upon earth; for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.” When will men distinguish between civil governments and Christianity? The one regards us as citizens, the other as Christians.

Secondly, This liberty includes a freedom from the tyranny of Sin and Satan. As saith the apostle, “What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”

Thirdly, It includes a freedom from the condemnation of the law. “The soul that sinneth shall die;” and, saith the apostle, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.” And “who has ever done this?” Who has ever continued, from the first hour of reason, in avoiding every thing the law forbids and in doing every thing the law commands? But whose curse is it? The curse of Almighty God: and who knoweth the power of his anger? And the execution of this power is certain, unless-unless what? unless a surety be found; and such a Surety has been found, who has come forward and said, “Deliver them from going down to the pit;” I will give myself a ransom; I will bear their sins in my own body on the tree; I will suffer, “the just for the unjust, to bring them to God.” “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” No; he has “redeemed them from the curse of the law, being made a curse for them.” Now, “therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Fourthly, It includes freedom of access unto God. “He is the greatest and best of Beings.” The effect of sin is to separate between us and God. When the angels sinned in heaven, they were immediately banished thence; when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, they were driven out of it; and for sinning, the Jews were expelled from the land flowing with milk and honey. So many instances of actual fact show us-every one of them-what is the effect of sin:-that it is to separate between us and God, and to keep us from God. But now, through Christ Jesus, who is the Mediator between us and God, “we have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” The believer has the liberty of approach unto God at all times, in every place, under all circumstances; they have full liberty to hold communion with him in the fields, by the way, in their ordinary business; they have full liberty to enter his house, to come to his table, to hang upon his arm, to recline upon his bosom, to call him their Lord and their God,-the strength of their heart and their portion forever.

Fifthly, It includes freedom to partake of and enjoy the good things or nature and providence. Unscriptural self-denial and self-imposed severity, with regard to abstinence from the blessings of providence, have never promoted the mortification of sin or sanctification of heart. Here is our charter: the Scripture hath said, “Every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”

Evening Devotional

Ebenezer. - 1 Samuel 7:12.

A ROMAN emperor has advised us to dispose of the three periods of time thus: the past to oblivion, the present to duty, and the future to Providence. To two of these admonitions we do well to take heed. Let us give the present to duty, “and whatsoever our hand findeth to do, let us do it with our might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither we are fast hastening.” Let us also give the future to Providence; casting all our care upon him, for he careth for us, being assured that, as the result of so doing, we shall possess the peace of God which passeth all understanding. But we dare not give the past to oblivion, for “God requireth that which is past;” and therefore we should remember and record it. We are too prone to forget the benefits we have received; but our time cannot be more profitably employed than in reviewing our past life. From such a review we may derive many valuable and instructive lessons.

This was God’s command to the Jews: “Thou shalt remember all the way the Lord thy God hath led thee.” Who is wise, and will observe these things, even he shall understand the lovingkindness of God. We should be frequently thus reviewing and recording the various scenes of life through which we may have passed. In so doing we shall be advancing our own humiliation, the glory of God, our gratitude to, and our own confidence in God, our own instruction, and the encouragement of others. There are stated seasons when this may be profitably done-on a birthday, or at the commencement of the new year, when passing on from one annual period to another. We should set up a pillar of grateful remembrance.

What have been our reviews of life? What praises have we rendered? Have they been according to the benefits done unto us? Some have by a succession of disappointments been brought low, but he has also helped them, and turned the shadow of death into the morning; others have been afflicted, and said, The graves were ready for me, but he sent his word and healed me; and I said, I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. And another has said, I have had to contend with corruptions within and temptations without, and yet “my foot has held his steps; his way have I kept, and not declined.” I have often been ready to halt, and even have sometimes said, I shall one day perish; but through thee “I have run through a troop, and by my God have leaped over a wall.” Therefore, as to the past, cannot we join issue with the grateful prophet, and say, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped me;” and connecting the past with the future, are we not warranted in saying with Newton-

“His love in time past forbids me to think

He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink,

Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review,

Confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through.”

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