Morning   “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”   Revelation 22:17

 Jesus says, “take freely.” He wants no payment or preparation. He seeks no

recommendation from our virtuous emotions. If you have no good feelings, if you

be but willing, you are invited; therefore come! You have no belief and no

repentance,–come to him, and he will give them to you. Come just as you are,

and take “Freely,” without money and without price. He gives himself to needy

ones. The drinking fountains at the corners of our streets are valuable

institutions; and we can hardly imagine any one so foolish as to feel for his

purse, when he stands before one of them, and to cry, “I cannot drink because I

have not five pounds in my pocket.” However poor the man is, there is the

fountain,  and just as he is he may drink of it. Thirsty passengers, as they go by,

whether they are dressed in fustian or in broadcloth, do not look for any

warrant for drinking; its being there is their warrant for taking its water

freely. The liberality of some good friends has put the refreshing crystal there

and we take it, and ask no questions. Perhaps the only persons who need go

thirsty through the street where there is a drinking fountain, are the fine

ladies and gentlemen who are in their carriages. They are very thirsty, but

cannot think of being so vulgar as to get out to drink. It would demean them,

they think, to drink at a common drinking fountain: so they ride by with parched

lips.  Oh, how many there are who are rich in their own good works and cannot

therefore come to Christ! “I will not be saved,” they say, “in the same way as

the harlot or the swearer.” What! go to heaven in the same way as a chimney

sweep. Is there no pathway to glory but the path which led the thief there? I

will not be saved that way. Such proud boasters must remain without the living

water; but, “Whosoever will, let him TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY.”

 

Evening   “Remove far from me vanity and lies.”    Proverbs 30:8   

“O my God, be not far from me.”   Psalm 38:21

 Here we have two great lessons–what to deprecate and what to supplicate. The

happiest state of a Christian is the holiest state. As there is the most heat

nearest to the sun, so there is the most happiness nearest to Christ. No

Christian enjoys comfort when his eyes are fixed on vanity–he finds no

satisfaction unless his soul is quickened in the ways of God. The world may win

happiness elsewhere, but he cannot. I do not blame ungodly men for rushing to

their pleasures. Why should I? Let them have their fill. That is all they have

to enjoy. A converted wife who despaired of her husband was always very kind to

him, for she said, “I fear that this is the only world in which he will be

happy,  and therefore I have made up my mind to make him as happy as I can in it.”

Christians must seek their delights in a higher sphere than the insipid

frivolities or sinful enjoyments of the world. Vain pursuits are dangerous to

renewed souls. We have heard of a philosopher who, while he looked up to the

stars, fell into a pit; but how deeply do they fall who look down. Their fall is

fatal. No Christian is safe when his soul is slothful, and his God is far from

him. Every Christian is always safe as to the great matter of his standing in

Christ, but he is not safe as regards his experience in holiness, and communion

with Jesus in this life. Satan does not often attack a Christian who is living

 near to God. It is when the Christian departs from his God, becomes spiritually

starved, and endeavours to feed on vanities, that the devil discovers his

vantage hour. He may sometimes stand foot to foot with the child of God who is

active in his Master’s service, but the battle is generally short: he who slips

as he goes down into the Valley of Humiliation, every time he takes a false step

invites Apollyon to assail him. O for grace to walk humbly with our God!