the Third Week after Easter
Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
I said of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, What doeth it? - Ecclesiastes 2:2.
THE Christian’s joys are superior to the enjoyments of the men of the world. What are the joys the worldling feels,- what are they all but vanity and vexation of spirit? In the midst of their sufficiency they are in straits. We read of the “pleasures of sin:” these “are but for a season;” and as they are soon over, so they leave nothing but stains and stings behind. We read of the joy of the hypocrite, which is but for a moment. Some are said to rejoice in a thing of naught; for all that cometh is vanity: when they have succeeded in their enterprises, every thing within them still urges them to inquire, “Who will show us any good.” If they say they are happy, the experience of the Christian contradicts this; for he has walked in their way long enough to know that there is no peace to the wicked. If they seem to be happy in company, let them be separated from their companions and their dissipation, and left to think and to reflect, and where are their joys now?
But as for the Christians, they have meat to eat the worldling knows not of; they have a joy which strangers intermeddle not with; they rejoice in the possession of grace, and in the hope of the glory that is to be revealed. We have seen what the joy of the Christian can do. What doth the worldling’s joy? Doth it afford him any thing like satisfaction? Does it bear up his mind under the trials of life? Does it raise him above the dread of death and eternity? Is it not all a fleeting show, a shadowy good, and the offspring of ignorance? Are not the men of the world afraid to let one ray of divine truth fall upon their joy? Would not one serious thought of God-of eternity-strike it dead on the spot? Alas! do not the men of the world, who are seeking happiness in the pleasures, possessions, and distinctions of earth, find that even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of their mirth is heaviness,-and honours, and riches, and power, are but to them as so many toys or flowers thrown into the vehicle that is conveying the condemned criminal to the place of execution?
For “the wicked are like the troubled sea, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.” “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”
I will hear what God the Lord will speak. - Psalms 85:8.
IN general a Christian wishes to know the Divine pleasure concerning him. Hence the prayer of Saul of Tarsus when he was converted, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” and the resolution of the Psalmist here is to the same intent, “I will hear what God the Lord will speak,” in his providence, in his word, concerning me. How do I appear in his eyes? “It is a light thing to be judged of man’s judgment; he that judgeth me is the Lord.” What does he think of me? What does he say concerning me? As Job says, “I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.” Not only in reference to the path of providence and duty, but also in answer to prayer.
A good man will not be satisfied with the mere performance of the duty, but will look after the result of it. He is unwilling to depart without a reply, and is anxious to know whether the answer will be repulsive or favourable. How little importance do many attach to prayer, and how regardless they are of God’s answer to it! What should we think of a husbandman who, after having sown the seed, would never walk forth to look after it; to see “first the blade; then the ear; then the full corn in the ear;” should we not deem this indifference culpable? Or what should we think of a person who, if he knocked at our door, would not wait or even look back to see if the door were opened? Should we not consider this a mere insult? And is it not thus with regard to many of our prayers? Do we not in effect mock God when we call his attention to our wants and miseries, when at the same time we do not regard his voice or his influences?
Moses said, “The Lord heard me at that time also;” and it shows us how he remarked, in looking back upon his history, places and seasons where God heard his supplication. And if we also observe these things, we shall not fail to discover that this is the way to have our gratitude excited and our confidence strengthened. Let us, therefore, ascertain how God has answered us in such and such instances, and what he is now saying in answer to our requests; and then we shall also say with the Psalmist, “I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications; because he hath inclined his ear unto me: therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.”
