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Daily Devotionals
John Gossner's Treasury
Devotional: July 22nd

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If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Psalms 137:5-6. When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night-watches. Psalms 63:6.

What, ye children of Israel, ye could not in the strange land forget your Jerusalem, your temple, your outward sanctuary, which were but a shadow of the blessings that were to come? Jerusalem was your highest joy. Your heart clung to the place where the Lord of glory revealed Himself in clouds and in flames of fire. Ye would rather not live, nor think, nor talk, than forget Jerusalem, than not to be able to talk about it. So intensely can men love the outward sanctuary. And you, the children of the new covenant, who everywhere carry Jerusalem, your temple, your sanctuary, your ark of the covenant, the glory and the presence of ’the Lord, with you, you should cling less to it? You should be able to rejoice in anything else, to think of anything else in heaven or upon earth but of Him who dwells and moves in us, who is the heart of your heart and the life of your life? Should not He be your highest joy, your last thought in the evening and your first thought in the morning? Should our tongue be able to speak of anything else? Should it not cling to the roof of our mouth if it rather talk of anything but of Him? Should not our soul, our heart, our mind and all our faculties, cling to Him who hung upon the cross and poured Himself out as water for us? Should a Jew be able to love his glory in stone more than we Christians love the living God? Should the law, which only proclaimed condemnation and death, which only wrought punishment, have greater power over the hearts of the Jews than the Gospel which imparts life and salvation, which works peace, over the hearts of the Christians? Should Moses make a deeper impression than the Savior with His wounds and the unction of His Spirit? Arise, brethren, arise! Let us love Him, for He loved us first. The Jews in Babylon must shame us and arise against us in judgment if we do not love God with our whole soul, if we do not constantly and in a heartfelt manner think of Him who has loved us even when we were enemies, who in pure grace and love has drawn us unto Himself and who desires to be forever all to our souls.

Thou heavenly Brightness, Light divine!

O deep within my heart now shine.

And make Thee there an altar!

Fill me with strength and joy to be

Thy member, ever joined to Thee

In love that cannot falter;

Towards Thee longing

Doth possess me; turn and bless me;

For Thy gladness

Eye and heart here pine in sadness.

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