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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Devotional: May 18th

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Morning Devotional

Look to yourselves. - 2 John 1:8.

REASON and Scripture combine to enforce upon us self-attention; and therefore we may observe, First, That we may and ought to look upon our own things as to the soul. To see that it be pardoned and renewed, that we have a title to heaven, a meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light, that we are fed with the bread of life and clothed with the garments of salvation. Here, indeed, our care should be supreme.

Secondly, We may and ought to look on our own things as to our bodily health; to maintain a rational care of it in the use of proper means: for health is a most invaluable blessing; it is the salt that seasons and the honey that sweetens every other enjoyment. It is to be valued, not only on the ground of enjoyment, (for what would affluence be without health?) but also on the score of usefulness. How many of the duties of life and religion must be either improperly discharged or entirely abandoned, if the poor frame be disordered, and if, like Job, it be made to possess “months of vanity”! The apostle therefore tells us that life is a part of the Christian’s treasure. “Life,” says he, “is yours,” and the saints on earth possess one privilege above the saints in heaven; they who are glorified have lost all their opportunities of doing good; they cannot exercise candour towards those who differ from them, they cannot forgive injuries, they cannot relieve distress, they cannot instruct the ignorant, they cannot convert the vicious. “The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known thy truth.”

Thirdly, We are required to be regardful of our reputation. “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.” The man who makes free with his reputation not only sacrifices his comfort but his usefulness. Character is credit; it gives weight to a man’s counsel and advice; and, as professors of religion, we should never give place to the maxim, “Oh, I care not what people say of me.” We ought to care what people say of us: our religion is involved in it; the way of truth may be evil spoken of; the worthy name by which we are called may be blasphemed; we may prove stumbling-blocks to the weak and distress the strong; we may discourage the hearts and weaken the hands of God’s ministers. A Christian is like a female: he is not only to maintain purity, but delicacy; like her, so is he; to be suspected is almost as bad as to be convicted; and in both of them carelessness is a crime. Hence, says the apostle, “Avoid the appearance of evil.” Neither may we be careless as to the welfare, of our families. In regard to this, it may be enough to repeat the language of the apostle:-“He that provideth not for his own, and specially those of his own house, hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”

We therefore only remark, further, that in their secular concerns Christians may look upon their own things. They are, indeed, required to abide with God in their callings; but the God in whom they abide will never make them unprincipled, and imprudent, and foolish, and slothful in their worldly matters. “Mind thy business,” says Franklin, “and thy business will mind thee.” The apostle, in addressing the Romans, calls upon them to be “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,” and yet, says he, “not slothful in business.” Paul would have a tradesman a morning-man; he would have him punctual, regular, obliging, active, intelligent. Why should the children of this world be wiser in their generation than the children of light? “If a Christian man,” says Newton, “be a tradesman, I would have him be the cleverest tradesman in the nation. Yea,” says he, “if he be only a blacker of shoes, I would have him to be the best in the whole parish.”

Evening Devotional

The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men. - Titus 2:11.

BY this the Apostle intends particularly to intimate that none are excluded from the benefits which the gospel reveals, and that none are exempt from its appointments. All men are included in the benefits the gospel reveals. We never in the Scriptures read any such language as this: If this person seek him he will be found by him; but if that person seek him he will reject him. So far from that, the language of the gospel is, “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely;” “Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;” Go forth, and “as many as you find, both good and bad, bid to the wedding.”

In proclamations of grace among men there are always some exceptions; for instance, the ringleaders are excluded: their pardon would endanger the safety of the community. But “God’s thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor God’s ways as our ways.” We have, therefore, in the Scriptures some of the chief of sinners, the vilest of the vile, called on purpose to be patterns: not to induce people to continue in their sins, but to seek after salvation from them; and the Apostle, after mentioning the wickedness of his former course of life, says, “Nevertheless I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe in him to life everlasting.” And as none are excluded from its benefits, so none are exempted from its appointments.

It reaches to all men. It commands sovereigns and judges, as well as subjects and criminals. It says, “Be wise now, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth.” It says, “Blessed are all they that put their trust in the Lord.” None are beneath its notice. It enters into all the directions of actual life. If men are single, it prescribes their choice; if they are connected, it regulates their condition; if they are masters, it tells them of a “master in heaven;” if they are servants, it enjoins them to “adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things;” if wives, it enjoins that they reverence their husbands; if husbands, it commands them to love their wives; if children, to be obedient to their parents; and parents to train up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and thus we see how “the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men.”

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