Morning    “The ill favoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven wellfavoured and fat

kine.”     Genesis 41:4

 Pharaoh’s dream has too often been my waking experience. My days of sloth have

ruinously destroyed all that I had achieved in times of zealous industry; my

seasons of coldness have frozen all the genial glow of my periods of fervency

and enthusiasm; and my fits of worldliness have thrown me back from my advances

in the divine life. I had need to beware of lean prayers, lean praises, lean

duties, and lean experiences, for these will eat up the fat of my comfort and

peace. If I neglect prayer for never so short a time, I lose all the

spirituality to which I had attained; if I draw no fresh supplies from heaven,

the old corn in my granary is soon consumed by the famine which rages in my

soul.

 When the caterpillars of indifference, the cankerworms of worldliness, and the

palmerworms of self-indulgence, lay my heart completely desolate, and make my

soul to languish, all my former fruitfulness and growth in grace avails me

nothing whatever. How anxious should I be to have no lean-fleshed days, no

ill-favoured hours! If every day I journeyed towards the goal of my desires I

should soon reach it, but backsliding leaves me still far off from the prize of

my high calling, and robs me of the advances which I had so laboriously made.

The only way in which all my days can be as the “fat kine,” is to feed them in

the right meadow, to spend them with the Lord, in His service, in His

 company, in His fear, and in His way. Why should not every year be richer than

the past, in love, and usefulness, and joy?–I am nearer the celestial hills, I

have had more experience of my Lord, and should be more like Him. O Lord, keep

far from me the curse of leanness of soul; let me not have to cry, “My leanness,

my leanness, woe unto me!” but may I be well-fed and nourished in thy house,

that I may praise thy name.

 

Evening    “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.”    2 Timothy 2:12

 We must not imagine that we are suffering for Christ, and with Christ, if we are

not in Christ. Beloved friend, are you trusting to Jesus only? If not, whatever

you may have to mourn over on earth, you are not “suffering with Christ,” and

have no hope of reigning with him in heaven. Neither are we to conclude that all

a Christian’s sufferings are sufferings with Christ, for it is essential that he

be called by God to suffer. If we are rash and imprudent, and run into positions

for which neither providence nor grace has fitted us, we ought to question

whether we are not rather sinning than communing with Jesus. If we let passion

take the place of judgment, and self-will reign instead of

 Scriptural authority, we shall fight the Lord’s battles with the devil’s

weapons, and if we cut our own fingers we must not be surprised. Again, in

troubles which come upon us as the result of sin, we must not dream that we are

suffering with Christ. When Miriam spoke evil of Moses, and the leprosy polluted

her, she was not suffering for God. Moreover, suffering which God accepts must

have God’s glory as its end. If I suffer that I may earn a name, or win

applause, I shall get no other reward than that of the Pharisee. It is requisite

also that love to Jesus, and love to his elect, be ever the mainspring of all

our patience. We must manifest the Spirit of Christ in meekness, gentleness,

 and forgiveness. Let us search and see if we truly suffer with Jesus. And if we

do thus suffer, what is our “light affliction” compared with reigning with him?

Oh it is so blessed to be in the furnace with Christ, and such an honour to

stand in the pillory with him, that if there were no future reward, we might

count ourselves happy in present honour; but when the recompense is so eternal,

so infinitely more than we had any right to expect, shall we not take up the

cross with alacrity, and go on our way rejoicing?