Morning    “Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods.”    Jeremiah 16:20

One great besetting sin of ancient Israel was idolatry, and the spiritual Israel

are vexed with a tendency to the same folly. Remphan’s star shines no longer,

and the women weep no more for Tammuz, but Mammon still intrudes his golden

calf, and the shrines of pride are not forsaken. Self in various forms struggles

to subdue the chosen ones under its dominion, and the flesh sets up its altars

wherever it can find space for them. Favourite children are often the cause of

much sin in believers; the Lord is grieved when he sees us doting upon them

above measure; they will live to be as great a curse to us as Absalom was to

David, or they will be taken from us to leave our homes desolate. If

Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, let them

dote on their dear ones.

It is truly said that “they are no gods,” for the objects of our foolish love

are very doubtful blessings, the solace which they yield us now is dangerous,

and the help which they can give us in the hour of trouble is little indeed.

Why, then, are we so bewitched with vanities? We pity the poor heathen who adore

a god of stone, and yet worship a god of gold. Where is the vast superiority

between a god of flesh and one of wood? The principle, the sin, the folly is the

same in either case, only that in ours the crime is more aggravated because we

have more light, and sin in the face of it. The heathen bows to a false deity,

but the true God he has never known; we commit two evils, inasmuch as

we forsake the living God and turn unto idols. May the Lord purge us all from

this grievous iniquity!

“The dearest idol I have known,

Whate’er that idol be;

Help me to tear it from thy throne,

And worship only thee.”

 

Evening    “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.”   1 Peter 1:23

Peter most earnestly exhorted the scattered saints to love each other “with a

pure heart fervently” and he wisely fetched his argument, not from the law, from

nature, or from philosophy, but from that high and divine nature which God hath

implanted in his people. Just as some judicious tutor of princes might labour to

beget and foster in them a kingly spirit and dignified behaviour, finding

arguments in their position and descent, so, looking upon God’s people as heirs

of glory, princes of the blood royal, descendants of the King of kings, earth’s

truest and oldest aristocracy, Peter saith to them, “See that ye love one

another, because of your noble birth, being born of incorruptible seed;

because of your pedigree, being descended from God, the Creator of all things;

and because of your immortal destiny, for you shall never pass away, though the

glory of the flesh shall fade, and even its existence shall cease.” It would be

well if, in the spirit of humility, we recognized the true dignity of our

regenerated nature, and lived up to it. What is a Christian? If you compare him

with a king, he adds priestly sanctity to royal dignity. The king’s royalty

often lieth only in his crown, but with a Christian it is infused into his

inmost nature. He is as much above his fellows through his new birth, as a man

is above the beast that perisheth. Surely he ought to carry himself, in all

his dealings, as one who is not of the multitude, but chosen out of the world,

distinguished by sovereign grace, written among “the peculiar people” and who

therefore cannot grovel in the dust as others, nor live after the manner of the

world’s citizens. Let the dignity of your nature, and the brightness of your

prospects, O believers in Christ, constrain you to cleave unto holiness, and to

avoid the very appearance of evil.