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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Devotional: October 25th

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Morning Devotional

The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy. - Proverbs 14:10.

IN nothing are we more likely to be mistaken than as to the joys and sorrows of our fellow-creatures. Now, as to human sorrows, “the heart knoweth his own bitterness.” We see persons whose cup runneth over, in the midst of abundance; yet they are the victims of uneasiness, and grief seems to feed upon their very vitals. And this may have been caused by some reproach under which they lie, and from which they cannot free themselves; or from some desire they cannot realize; or unrequited affection, or kindness which meets with no return.

Some sufferers seem almost forbidden by their connections and conditions in life to make known the cause of their distress. Some are ashamed to make known the occasion of their griefs. Ahab falls sick, and takes to his bed: he is ashamed to own the reason, but it turns out that, although he is a king, he is pining for the piece of garden-ground belonging to Naboth. Haman goes home and cannot eat, and, after enumerating all his possessions, says, “All this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.” In how many instances are the sufferings of our fellow-creatures imaginary, though they appear real enough to those who endure them.

How much have Cowper, Howard, and others suffered! The “thorn in the flesh” may not be visible to us, because of the depth of its incision, but the pain it produces is not the less poignant: these are real sufferers, though the cause is not apparent to others. There are those who appear in company with a smile on their face, yet who retire to weep. Yes, these are real mourners. And let those who are the benefactors of our race remember this, and visit the widow and the fatherless in their affliction. But those who feel they cannot make known their sorrows to the dearest relation upon earth can retire and pour out their tears before God:-

“He’ll hear them in the painful hour,

And help them bear the heavy load.”

Then, again, with regard to human joy: how little do we know of this! When the eye is thrown over society, one seems at a loss to conjecture what it is that delights some people. There are some persons who turn the Scriptures into ridicule, who wonder that their fellow-creatures can be happy in conditions and circumstances which would render them miserable. Thus it is that “miser” signifies a miserable man, and applies to one who possesses much, but who uses and enjoys nothing; and it is impossible for us to see what pleasure such a creature can feel in counting over his silver and gold, or what gratification he can take in his sordid hoardings.

There is the joy of the luxurious man, and of the sensualist: with these may we never intermeddle, but become acquainted with that joy which is the glory of a man.

Evening Devotional

Reckon ye yourselves to he dead indeed unto sin. - Romans 6:11.

THIS supposes nothing less than that Christians avoid sin, but it implies much more. A man from a fear of loss or from a hope of advantage, or from a reference to his reputation, may be urged and induced to avoid what he loves, and there are many who are ready to wish it were lawful to indulge themselves with impunity in a course of open profanity and profligacy, in the violation of the Sabbath, and in the omission of public worship and the means of grace. And the Lord looketh at the heart and will give them credit for all this.

Lot’s wife left Sodom, but she was loath to leave it, she was not “dead” to it; her heart was in it still. This led her to look back, and “she became a pillar of salt.” If all those were to become pillars of salt who profess to forsake the world while yet they hanker after it, we should hardly be able to move about. What spectacles would the house of God produce! Some would be petrified as they came up the aisle; others would be left petrifaction’s in their pews. And all hearts are transparent in the view of God.

But Christians not only profess to leave the world, they do leave it. “They are dead indeed unto sin” as soon as they are dead to the nature of it, and not merely to any particular instance of it: The Christian’s aversion to sin is natural (not as to the old nature, but as to the new nature), and all natural aversions and antipathies operate universally. It is not to some particular vice to which he may have no constitutional propensity, or to which he may have little temptation in his outward calling and circumstances; no, but he prays, “Deliver me from all my transgressions,” “save me from all mine iniquities.” “What have I to do any more with idols?” This is the way, and, indeed, the only effectual way, to preserve us from all sin; other provisions will be sure to fail when the power of temptation combines with opportunity, secrecy, and inclination.

It is this that serves to secure the believer so effectually under it, and that distinguishes him from other men. He would not live in sin if he might. The Christian does not feel sin to be his pleasure, and therefore he does not deem the opportunity to indulge in it his privilege. If it were lawful to say to a mother, “Why, you may take your child and throw it out of the window,” she would not do it, she could not do it. And why could she not do it? Has she not strength to open the window? Has she not strength in her arms to throw it out? Oh, but it would violate every feeling of her nature, it would be impossible. So the Apostle says that the Christian “doth not commit sin,” that is, as others do, and as they once did, for “his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” And Dr. Watts says,

“Immortal principles forbid

The sons of God to sin.”

There were some that brought forward a charge against the Apostle for preaching a doctrine which implied a tendency, or a permission at least, to live in sin. And how does he treat it? Why, with abhorrence: “How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein?” Dead to it by profession, by obligation, and by inclination. As no creature can live out of its own element long without compulsion, so is it impossible for the Christian, now that he is regenerated by the Holy Ghost, to live in sin, or to love it. But negative holiness is not sufficient; it is not enough that the Christian “put off the old man,” with his deeds; he must “put on the new man;” and while he must live “soberly, and righteously, and godly,” not only walk not “after the flesh,” but walk “after the Spirit.”

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