the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions
February 4—Morning—Lamentations 1:16
"The Comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me."—Lamentations 1:16.
Whence is it, my soul, that those distressing thoughts arise? Pause, and inquire. Is the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, indeed withdrawn, when Jesus, thy Jesus, sweetly and graciously promised that he should abide for ever? This cannot be. Is the righteousness of Jesus less; or hath his blood to atone and cleanse, lost its efficacy? Oh no! Jesus’ righteousness, and Jesus’ all-atoning propitiation, like the almighty Author of both, must be eternally and everlastingly the same; "yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Hath God thy Father forgotten to be gracious? Oh no! God thy Father proclaimed from heaven that he is well pleased for his dear Son’s righteousness’ sake; and never, never, shall a word gone out of the Lord’s mouth be altered. From whence then, my soul, is thy leanness, thy fears, and despondency? Canst thou not discover? Oh yes! It is all in thyself, and thy unbelieving frame; thou art looking to thyself, and not to all-precious Jesus! Thou wantest to feel some new frame of thy own; some melting of heart, or the like; and if thou couldest be gratified in this, then thou wouldest go to Jesus with confidence, and then plead as thou thinkest, Jesus’ name, and blood, and righteousness for acceptance. And doth the want of these feelings keep thee back? Oh, fie! my soul, is this thy love, thy kindness to thy friend? Can any thing be more plain, than that thou art making a part saviour of thy feelings, and not a whole Saviour of thy Jesus? No wonder thou criest out, "the Comforter is far from me;" for the Holy Ghost will teach thee, that all comfort is only in Jesus. And mark this, my soul, for all future occasions. - If thou wilt seek comfort in any thing out of Jesus, though it be in the sweetest frames, as thou mayest think of thine, Jesus, in mercy and love, will put thy comforts out of thy reach. Oh then, come to Jesus, poor and needy, with or without frames. Make him all, and in all; and be will be thy joy, thy comfort, and thy portion for ever!
February 4—Evening—Luke 3:23
"And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age."—Luke 3:23.
How marvellous in all things are the ways of God to us! Was Jesus indeed in the world, and the world made by him, and the world knew him not? And did he remain hid away, and unknown for the first thirty years of his life? Did the Son of God come on earth to do away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and yet enter not upon the full purpose of his mission until so large a portion of his life upon earth had passed away? Oh! wonder-working God! how true it is, that thy ways are not our ways, nor thy thoughts our thoughts! Yet, my soul, though thy Jesus did not engage in his public ministry, in the more open display of it by his miracles and preaching, yet surely those thirty years were of vast importance on the score of redemption. No doubt Jesus spent them in obedience to his Father’s law, manifesting a life of holiness and purity, suited and corresponding to the immaculate perfection of his nature, "who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." Convinced as I am, my honoured Lord, that the body which thy Father gave thee, and the human nature which thou didst assume for the purpose of salvation, was not produced in the ordinary method of generation, but by the miraculous influence of the Holy Ghost, so am I equally convinced that during the whole of thy life, from the manger to the cross, every act, and word, and thought of thine, manifested that thou wast holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. And shall I not also believe, that these thirty years were of some sweet, though to us secret importance, in thy covenant engagements as our surety? Can I suppose, that the thirty years of my Redeemer’s life, before his being publicly made known to Israel, were spent in doing nothing with relation to the great work which he came purposely to do? Did not those seasons minister also to the cancelling the sin of his people, taking away the curse by bearing it, and by dying for it; and may we not suppose that God the Father had an eye to every minute act in the life of his dear Son, whom he had called to the work of salvation; and given as a covenant to his people, to be their head and mediator; their law-fulfiler and sin offering? Precious Lord! silent as the scriptures are on this great portion of thy life, yet is not their silence a call upon thy people to meditate on the subject? Give me grace, then, my honoured Lord, to be often contemplating the infinite condescension of Jesus in this part, as well as in others, in which thou must have endured such a contradiction of sinners against thyself." And let not this be the smallest improvement of this sweet and interesting view of my Lord, that when I call to mind how thy holy soul must have felt, during the thirty years, from the open displays of sin, in the blasphemies and daring defiances of God, the reproaches of the ungodly, and the torrent of evil all around; yet nothing stopped the gracious purposes of thine heart, in executing the errand on which thy whole mind was bent, "in dying, the just for the unjust, to bring sinners unto God!"
