the Third Week after Easter
Daily Devotionals
The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions
May 19—Morning—2 Samuel 6:17
" Is this thy kindness to thy friend?"—2 Samuel 6:17.
My soul, borrow the words of Absalom to Hushai, and make application of them this morning to thyself, as if Jesus, the best of all friends, were thus reasoning with thee. In how many ways hath Jesus manifested his love to thee. Think of his unparalleled love in the various ways by which he hath shewn it. He engaged as thy Surety before that thou knewest any need of one. He took thy nature to fulfil all those engagements. He loved thee so as to die for thee. He loved thee so as to shed his blood for thee. He loved thee so as to wash thee from thy sins in his blood. He loveth thee now, so as to appear in the presence of God for thee. He loveth thee so as to be continually supplying thee with all grace, to visit thee, to smile upon thee, to sanctify to thee all his appointments for thy good; and will never give over until he hath brought thee where he is, to behold his glory, and to partake of it. And hast thou not recompensed this love, this mercy, in a thousand, and ten thousand instances, with ingratitude, with indifference, with forgetfulness, with disobedience? "Is this thy kindness to thy friend?" Precious Jesus! I do remember my faults this day. Oh gracious Lord! grant me from henceforth to live wholly to thee; to be continually eyeing thee, walking with thee, cleaving to thee, hanging upon thee, and to remember thee and thy love more than wine. Yes, thou dearest Redeemer! I would pray for grace to set thee always before me, to record in my heart thy mercies, and to set up in my heart thy person, to follow thee whithersoever thou goest, to watch the steps of Jesus, to pursue thee in all the haunts of thy paths, at thy table, at thine ordinances, in thy words in thine house of prayer, in thy providences, in thy promises: every where, and in all things, where Jesus is, there may my soul be; that, having nothing to give my Lord to recompense his bounty, I may at least by his grace follow him, to bless him, and to manifest that all I am, and all I have, is his. My soul, see to it, that this is at least thy kindness to thy friend.
May 19—Evening—Numbers 14:20-21
"And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word. But as truly as 1 live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord."—Numbers 14:20-21.
My soul! ponder over this solemn scripture, and observe how truly awful Jehovah is, even in his mercies. Well may it be said to the people of God, "rejoice with trembling." This was a memorable moment in the history of Israel, when the spies returned from searching the promised land. The evil report which the greater number brought back, in denying God’s faithfulness, is most solemnly recorded; and the falling carcases in the wilderness, most awfully set forth the divine judgment. And what is unbelief now but the same, aggravated, if possible, to a ten thousand times greater degree of guilt, in denying and disbelieving the record which God hath given of his Son? The apostle saith, "it is making God a liar," 1 John 5:10. and John the Baptist confirms the same; and adds a dreadful event, which must inevitably follow: "He that believeth not, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth upon him," John 3:36. And do observe, my soul, how Jehovah engageth to manifest and fulfil his glory. He confirms it with the most solemn asseveration: "As truly as I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shah be filled with the glory of the Lord." And what is the glory of the Lord, but God manifested in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? Here all the glory of Jehovah centers. In Jesus all is proclaimed; and in the dispensation of the fulness of times, the one great object of all things in the kingdom of nature, providence, grace, and glory, is" to gather together in one all things in Christ." What sayest thou, my soul, to these things? Art thou now gathered to Christ, to whom, as to the glorious Shiloh, the gathering of the people shall be? Is he that is the Father’s glory, thy glory: is the Father’s beloved, thy beloved; the Father’s chosen, thy chosen? Surely, if so, it must undeniably follow, that God is already glorified in thy view, and in thine heart; if the glory of the Lord Jehovah, which is to fill the earth, hath, in the person of his dear Son filled thy soul and affections, and is formed in thine heart" the hope of glory." Oh! for increasing evidences of this love of God, and glory of the Lord, to be shed abroad in my heart, "to give me the light and knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ!"
