the Fourth Week after Easter
Click here to join the effort!
Daily Devotionals
The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions
February 21—Morning—Solomon 3:3
"Saw ye him whom my soul loveth."—Song of Solomon 3:3.
Is Jesus still the object of my soul’s warmest affection; the subject of all my thoughts, all my discourse, all my inquiry? Oh, yes, my soul; whom else, in heaven or in earth, wilt thou seek after but him? Tell me, ye ministers of Jesus, ye watchmen upon the walls of Zion—"Saw ye him Whom my soul loveth?" Ye followers of the Lamb, can ye shew me where Jesus feedeth his flock at noon? Or rather, ye in the upper regions, where the Son of God manifesteth himself in the full glories of his Person; "ye spirits of just men made perfect," ye who have known, while sojourning here below, what feeling of the soul that is, which, in the absence of Jesus, is longing for his appearance. Ye angels of light also—ye who see him without an intervening medium—tell him, I beseech you, how my soul panteth for his visits: tell him, that a poor pensioner, well known to my Lord, is waiting this morning alms: nay, tell him that I am sick of love, longing for a renewed view of his person,—his pardoning love,—the renewals of his grace. Jesus knoweth it all before you tell him, and he will send his gifts and mercies—nay, he will come himself; for he hath assured me of this. He hath said, "If a man love me, my Father will love him, and we will come and make our abode with him." Behold my soul, thy Jesus is come! I hear his well-known voice: he saith, "I am come into my garden." Now will I hold him, and not let him go, and pray him not to be as a wayfaring man that turneth in to tarry for a night, but abide with me until the breaking of the everlasting day.
February 21—Evening—1 Corinthians 9:21
"Being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ."—I Cor. ix, 21.
Sit down my soul, this evening, and ponder over this blessed distinction which the apostle makes between the lawless conduct of those, who, from a mere conviction of the truth in the head, but who never felt the influences of it in their heart, hold the truth in unrighteousness; and those who, while conscious of being under the law to Christ, are not without law to God. To thee, my soul, who hast been brought under the condemnation of God’s holy law, and hast been enabled, through sovereign grace, to take refuge in the person, blood, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ; to thee, justification by faith, so far from relaxing thine obedience to the law of God, has proved the best of all motives to the practice of it. Thou knowest thyself to be bought with a price; and therefore, as the Lord’s property, both by his purchase, and thy voluntary surrender, it is thy desire above all things, "to glorify God in thy body and in thy spirit, which are his." It is thy glory, thy delight, thy joy, that thy God and Father hath accepted a righteousness for thee in Jesus, thy Surety; and to him, and him only, the Lord hath respect for thy acceptation. But while thou art taught, and thy heart delights in the soul-reviving truth, that thou art never to seek justification by the deeds of the law; thy heart delights also, that thou art "not without law to God, but under the law to Christ." For though the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made thee free from the law of sin and death; yet while through the law, thou art dead to the law, the blessedness of it is, that thou mightest live unto Christ. And it is by the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelling in thee, that the deeds of the body are mortified, and the soul lives. Sweet consideration, my soul, to cherish, and ever to keep in view. Thou art not working for life, but from life. Not seeking to be justified by the deeds of the law; but from Christ’s justification, daily shewing forth that "thou art not without law to God, but under the law to Christ."
