Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: August 9th

I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. - Psalms 71:16.

AND this will be the support and song of the believer in his dying moments. It is an awful thing to die, not only to bid farewell to hills and vales, and weeping friends, but to enter upon a new and untried state of existence, and to enter into the presence of a pure and holy God.

Christians will then have a greater sense of their unworthiness and guilt than ever they had in all their lives. They may be more affected by the review of life than ever, with a consciousness of the nearness of death, and eternity at their elbow. Perhaps, too, the enemy may thrust sore at them, and, as Cyrus gathered together all the forces of Asia in his last action with Alexander, so the devil may come down upon them, because he knows that his time is short! And how are they to meet him? What are they to say then? They have to “make mention of his righteousness, and his only.” What said Marshal? “I cannot say that I have so lived as that I am not afraid to die, but I can say that I have so learned Christ as that I am not afraid to die.”

The excellent Howe said, “I am looking for eternal life, not as a profitable servant, but as a pardoned sinner, and I go into eternity as one who has sought and found mercy.” What said the amiable Goodman, who had been so much in bondage through fear of death? “Is this that which has inspired me with so much terror? Is this dying? Oh, how precious does the righteousness of Christ now appear! He cannot love me better than he does, and I think I cannot love him more than I do.” So said another eminent divine, “I can now smile upon death, because I feel that God is smiling upon me.”

After eulogizing Onesiphorus, the apostle says, “The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.” Will he need mercy, then, at the last? Yes, and more than ever at the last. Where is the Christian who can think of that day without falling on his knees, saying, “O Lord, if thou shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord!” Mr. Cecil, not long before his death, said, “I frequently think of my last remove; and all my comfort is, when I must give up my account, my Saviour will appear, and he will answer for me.” Yes, he will answer for the Christian then:-“Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” All joy to the believer, he can speak tremblingly, but he can speak with confidence; yes:-

“Since the dear hour that brought me to his foot

And cut up all my follies by the root,

I never trusted in an arm but thine,

Nor hoped but in thy righteousness divine.”

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. - Exodus 3:1.

THERE is hardly an instance to be found recorded in Scripture, in which God appeared in the way of distinction and privilege to any who were not engaged at the time in some useful employment. Satan visits people when they are idle; God comes to them when they are employed. Matthew was called while sitting at the receipt of custom, and James and John while mending their nets. The woman of Samaria found the Saviour while drawing water. The angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds while they were watching over their flocks by night. And Moses was here extraordinarily indulged when he was tending the charge of his father-in-law. Though learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians- though very delicately brought up in a palace as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he does not think the employment beneath him. “I keep sheep-a man of my breeding, and education, and talent!” He says nothing like this.

Humility is a noble virtue; it enables us to accommodate ourselves to the will of Providence, and teaches us how to be abased as well as how to abound. There are many who know what it is to be abased as well as to abound; but they do not know how. Their minds do not come into harmony with their situations. They are humbled, but not humble; they would rather break than bend. How much more respectable is a trade or a profession, than idleness? What are hands given for? Are they to be folded, and to do nothing? The Jews have a proverb, that if a man brings up his son without business, he teaches him to be a thief.

Saul of Tarsus had a university education, yet he was taught the craft of tent-making; and we see in a particular emergency of what advantage it was to him. To this day no man can be the Sultan of Turkey unless he understands some mechanical business. Adam and Eve were placed in Paradise, not only to enjoy, but “to keep it.” Moses was neither degraded by this employment, nor miserable inconsequence of it.

There is no drudgery in the world which is not far preferable to the situation of men who have nothing to do. Oh, it is easily imagined that these were the happiest days of Moses’s life. There, by the side his innocent charge, he had time for reflection. There he could enjoy his poetical musings; for he was a poet of no mean order, if we may judge by the Divine songs which he composed. There he wrote the book of Genesis, and sang how the earth rose out of chaos; and there, probably, he wrote the book of Job, with its numberless beauties.