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Daily Devotionals
The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions
Devotional: April 15th

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April 15—Morning—Luke 23:46

"And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost."—Luke 23:46.

My soul, ponder well these last of the last seven words of thy God and Saviour which he uttered on the cross; for surely they are most sweet and precious, and highly interesting, both on thy Saviour’s account and thine own. And first remark, the manner in which the Lord Jesus thus breathed out his soul; not like a man spent and exhausted, after hanging so many hours on the cross, faint with loss of blood, and such agonies of soul as never one before endured; but it was with a loud voice, thereby proving what he had before declared—"No man taketh my life from me; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." Precious Jesus, how sweet this assurance to thy people. But wherefore cry with a loud voice? A whisper, nay, a thought of the soul only, if with an eye of communication to God the Father, would have been sufficient, if this had been all that was intended. Wherefore then did Jesus cry with a loud voice? Was it not that all in heaven, and all in hell might hear? Did not angels shout at the cry? Did not the spirits of just men made perfect among the faithful gone to glory in Jesus’s name, hear, and sing aloud? Did not all hell tremble when Jesus thus cried aloud, conscious that the keys of the grave, and death, and hell, were now put into his Almighty hand? Oh! precious, precious Jesus! was this among thy gracious designs for which, when thou wert retiring from the bloody field of battle, as a conqueror, thy loud voice shouted victory? And was there not another sweet and gracious design in this loud cry, Oh! thou blessed Jesus? Didst thou not intend thereby that poor sinners, unto the ends of the earth, might, by faith, hear and believe to the salvation of their souls? Didst thou not, dearest Lord! when bowing thy sacred head, as if to take a parting look of the disciple and the Marys, at the foot of the cross, and beholding them as the representatives of all the members of thy mystical body, didst cry with a loud voice, that all with them might behold thy triumphs, and rejoice in thee their glorious Head? Yes, Lamb of God! we adore thee in this glorious act; for we do accept it as it really is, the act of our one glorious head. In this solemn committing of thy spirit to the Father, we consider our spirits also as committed with thee, and by thee. (My soul! mark this down carefully in. the inmost tablet of thine heart.) In all this, blessed Jesus! thou wert, and art, our Head. Thou didst, to all intents and purposes, take every individual believer of thine as a part of thyself, and by this act didst commit, with thyself, the whole into thy Father’s hands, to be kept until the hour of their dropping their bodies, then to be united to thee for ever. Oh! precious Jesus! O precious mercy of our Jesus, how safe, how eternally safe, and secure, are all thy redeemed! Well might thine apostle say, "No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself; for in Jesus his people ever live, and in Jesus they securely die." Henceforth, dear Lord! let me know myself to be already committed with thee, and by thee, into the hands of my God and Father in Jesus, and when the hour cometh that the casket, in which that precious jewel, my soul, now dwells, is opened for the soul to take her departure, O then for faith in lively, active, earnest faith, to follow the example, and to adopt the very language of my God and Saviour; and to cry out—"Lord Jesus, into thy hands I commend my spirit; for thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, thou God of truth!"

April 15—Evening—Hebrews 10:11-12

"And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God."—Hebrews 10:11-12.

The morning portion was the finishing cry of Jesus on the cross. This, my soul, I hope thou didst, as it were, hear with the ear of faith: beholding with the eye of faith, the Lord of life and glory as retreating from the field of battle, having gotten himself the victory, and by that "one offering of himself, once offered, for ever perfected them that are sanctified. "Fold up then the blessed object for thy nightly pillow, as for thy morning meditation, and bring it forth continually for thine unceasing joy and peace in believing, that (as the Holy Ghost hath in this scripture, for thy present enjoyment, sweetly set it forth) when all the priests in their daily ministry could accomplish nothing, this man, this God-man, this thy Jesus, whose name is Wonderful, hath "by his one offering," for ever put away sin, and is" sat down on the right hand of God;" to see the purchase of his redemption, by price and by power, fully compensated to all his people. But here lie the blessed effects of thy Jesus’s redemption; and do thou mark it, and bring it forward constantly in thy pleadings for acceptance with the Father in the Beloved, that so rich, so precious, so inestimable and invaluable is the redemption of God’s dear Son, that it never can be fully compensated to his people. A whole eternity will not be sufficient to pay, nor can all the glories of heaven constitute a sufficient recompence; for after millions of ages are past, and millions of redemption blessings have been given in them, such is the infinite merit, and such is the infinite glory of the Son of God’s righteousness, and blood, and sacrifice, that there must still remain a surplus unpaid, a redundancy still unaccounted for. Jesus will have brought in such everlasting revenues of glory to Jehovah, by the redemption of sinners, and in the honour done to his justice, love, and wisdom, by accomplishing the work the Father gave him to do, as will never be fully recompensed; yea, the merit of his cross alone will, to all eternity, shine with such splendour as to fill heaven with songs of endless praise. The sons of God, we are told, shouted for joy, when beholding the six days works of creation. But the six hours which Jesus hung on the cross wrought a more glorious work of redemption to Jehovah’s praise, and will call up the unceasing adoration of angels and men to all eternity. What sayest thou, my soul, to this view of the wonderful subject? Let such be thy meditation day by day, and may thine eyes prevent the night watches to be fully occupied in it. Take thy stand at the foot of the cross; there by faith behold Him on whom the eye of Jehovah is unceasingly fixed: and when thou hast followed the Lamb from the. cross to the throne, where Jesus is now for ever sat down on the right hand of God, catch the notes of the hymn which the redeemed are now singing in glory before him, and in which, ere long, thou wilt assuredly join: "To him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb that was slain, be glory and honour for ever and ever. Amen."

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