Morning    “Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”   1 Thessalonians 4:14

 Let us not imagine that the soul sleeps in insensibility. “Today shalt thou be

with me in paradise,” is the whisper of Christ to every dying saint. They “sleep

in Jesus,” but their souls are before the throne of God, praising him day and

night in his temple, singing hallelujahs to him who washed them from their sins

in his blood. The body sleeps in its lonely bed of earth, beneath the coverlet

of grass. But what is this sleep? The idea connected with sleep is “rest,” and

that is the thought which the Spirit of God would convey to us. Sleep makes each

night a Sabbath for the day. Sleep shuts fast the door of the soul, and bids all

intruders tarry for a while, that the life within may enter

 its summer garden of ease. The toil-worn believer quietly sleeps, as does the

weary child when it slumbers on its mother’s breast. Oh! happy they who die in

the Lord; they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. Their

quiet repose shall never be broken until God shall rouse them to give them their

full reward. Guarded by angel watchers, curtained by eternal mysteries, they

sleep on, the inheritors of glory, till the fulness of time shall bring the

fulness of redemption. What an awaking shall be theirs! They were laid in their

last resting place, weary and worn, but such they shall not rise. They went to

their rest with the furrowed brow, and the wasted features, but they

 wake up in beauty and glory. The shrivelled seed, so destitute of form and

comeliness, rises from the dust a beauteous flower. The winter of the grave

gives way to the spring of redemption and the summer of glory. Blessed is death,

since it, through the divine power, disrobes us of this work-day garment, to

clothe us with the wedding garment of incorruption. Blessed are those who “sleep

in Jesus.”

 

Evening “Howbeit, in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent

unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to

try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.” 2 Chronicles 32:31

 Hezekiah was growing so inwardly great, and priding himself so much upon the

favour of God, that self-righteousness crept in, and through his carnal

security, the grace of God was for a time, in its more active operations,

withdrawn. Here is quite enough to account with the Babylonians; for if the

grace of God should leave the best Christian, there is enough of sin in his

heart to make him the worst of transgressors. If left to yourselves, you who are

warmest for Christ would cool down like Laodicea into sickening lukewarmness:

you who are sound in the faith would be white with the leprosy of false

doctrine; you who now walk before the Lord in excellency and integrity would

reel to and fro,  and stagger with a drunkenness of evil passion. Like the moon, we borrow our

light; bright as we are when grace shines on us, we are darkness itself when the

Sun of Righteousness withdraws himself. Therefore let us cry to God never to

leave us. “Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from us! Withdraw not from us thine

indwelling grace! Hast thou not said, I the Lord do keep it; I will water it

every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day’? Lord, keep us

everywhere. Keep us when in the valley, that we murmur not against thy humbling

hand; keep us when on the mountain, that we wax not giddy through being lifted

up; keep us in youth, when our passions are strong; keep us in old age,

 when becoming conceited of our wisdom, we may therefore prove greater fools

than the young and giddy; keep us when we come to die, lest, at the very last,

we should deny thee! Keep us living, keep us dying, keep us labouring, keep us

suffering, keep us fighting, keep us resting, keep us everywhere, for everywhere

we need thee, O our God!”