Morning “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2:4

 Rich were the blessings of this day if all of us were filled with the Holy

Ghost. The consequences of this sacred filling of the soul it would be

impossible to overestimate. Life, comfort, light, purity, power, peace; and many

other precious blessings are inseparable from the Spirit’s benign presence. As

sacred oil, he anoints the head of the believer, sets him apart to the

priesthood of saints, and gives him grace to execute his office aright. As the

only truly purifying water he cleanses us from the power of sin and sanctifies

us unto holiness, working in us to will and to do of the Lord’s good pleasure.

As the light, he manifested to us at first our lost estate, and now he reveals

the  Lord Jesus to us and in us, and guides us in the way of righteousness.

Enlightened by his pure celestial ray, we are no more darkness but light in the

Lord. As fire, he both purges us from dross, and sets our consecrated nature on

a blaze. He is the sacrificial flame by which we are enabled to offer our whole

souls as a living sacrifice unto God. As heavenly dew, he removes our barrenness

and fertilizes our lives. O that he would drop from above upon us at this early

hour! Such morning dew would be a sweet commencement for the day. As the dove,

with wings of peaceful love he broods over his Church and over the souls of

believers, and as a Comforter he dispels the cares and doubts which mar

 the peace of his beloved. He descends upon the chosen as upon the Lord in

Jordan, and bears witness to their sonship by working in them a filial spirit by

which they cry Abba, Father. As the wind, he brings the breath of life to men;

blowing where he listeth he performs the quickening operations by which the

spiritual creation is animated and sustained. Would to God, that we might feel

his presence this day and every day.

 

Evening “My Beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day

break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be thou like a roe or a

young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” Song of Solomon 2:16-17

 Surely if there be a happy verse in the Bible it is this–“My Beloved is mine,

and I am his.” So peaceful, so full of assurance, so overrunning with happiness

and contentment is it, that it might well have been written by the same hand

which penned the twenty-third Psalm. Yet though the prospect is exceeding fair

and lovely–earth cannot show its superior–it is not entirely a sunlit

landscape. There is a cloud in the sky which casts a shadow over the scene.

Listen, “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away.”

 There is a word, too, about the “mountains of Bether,” or, “the mountains of

division,” and to our love, anything like division is bitterness. Beloved, this

may be your present state of mind; you do not doubt your salvation; you know

that Christ is yours, but you are not feasting with him. You understand your

vital interest in him, so that you have no shadow of a doubt of your being his,

and of his being yours, but still his left hand is not under your head, nor doth

his right hand embrace you. A shade of sadness is cast over your heart, perhaps

by affliction, certainly by the temporary absence of your Lord, so even while

exclaiming, “I am his,” you are forced to take to your knees, and to

 pray, “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved.”

 “Where is he?” asks the soul. And the answer comes, “He feedeth among the

lilies.” If we would find Christ, we must get into communion with his people, we

must come to the ordinances with his saints. Oh, for an evening glimpse of him!

Oh, to sup with him tonight!