Morning “Delight thyself also in the Lord.”  Psalm 37:4

 The teaching of these words must seem very surprising to those who are strangers

to vital godliness, but to the sincere believer it is only the inculcation of a

recognized truth. The life of the believer is here described as a delight in

God, and we are thus certified of the great fact that true religion overflows

with happiness and joy. Ungodly persons and mere professors never look upon

religion as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or necessity, but never

pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it is either that they

may gain thereby, or else because they dare not do otherwise. The thought of

delight in religion is so strange to most men, that no two words in

 their language stand further apart than “holiness” and “delight.” But believers

who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are so blessedly united, that

the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate them. They who love God with all

their hearts, find that his ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are

peace. Such joys, such brimful delights, such overflowing blessednesses, do the

saints discover in their Lord, that so far from serving him from custom, they

would follow him though all the world cast out his name as evil. We fear not God

because of any compulsion; our faith is no fetter, our profession is no bondage,

we are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to duty. No,

 our piety is our pleasure, our hope is our happiness, our duty is our delight.

 Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower; as indivisible as

truth and certainty; they are, in fact, two precious jewels glittering side by

side in a setting of gold.

 “‘Tis when we taste thy love,

 Our joys divinely grow,

 Unspeakable like those above,

 And heaven begins below.”

 

Evening  “O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face … because we have sinned against

thee.”   Daniel 9:8

 A deep sense and clear sight of sin, its heinousness, and the punishment which

it deserves, should make us lie low before the throne. We have sinned as

Christians. Alas! that it should be so. Favoured as we have been, we have yet

been ungrateful: privileged beyond most, we have not brought forth fruit in

proportion. Who is there, although he may long have been engaged in the

Christian warfare, that will not blush when he looks back upon the past? As for

our days before we were regenerated, may they be forgiven and forgotten; but

since then, though we have not sinned as before, yet we have sinned against

light and against love–light which has really penetrated our minds, and love in

which  we have rejoiced. Oh, the atrocity of the sin of a pardoned soul! An unpardoned

sinner sins cheaply compared with the sin of one of God’s own elect ones, who

has had communion with Christ and leaned his head upon Jesus’ bosom. Look at

David! Many will talk of his sin, but I pray you look at his repentance, and

hear his broken bones, as each one of them moans out its dolorous confession!

Mark his tears, as they fall upon the ground, and the deep sighs with which he

accompanies the softened music of his harp! We have erred: let us, therefore,

seek the spirit of penitence. Look, again, at Peter! We speak much of Peter’s

denying his Master. Remember, it is written, “He wept bitterly.” Have we

 no denials of our Lord to be lamented with tears? Alas! these sins of ours,

before and after conversion, would consign us to the place of inextinguishable

fire if it were not for the sovereign mercy which has made us to differ,

snatching us like brands from the burning. My soul, bow down under a sense of

thy natural sinfulness, and worship thy God. Admire the grace which saves

thee–the mercy which spares thee–the love which pardons thee!