Morning “They weave the spider’s web.” / Isaiah 59:5

See the spider’s web, and behold in it a most suggestive picture of the

hypocrite’s religion. It is meant to catch his prey: the spider fattens

himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are easily

entrapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the more judicious

cannot always escape. Philip baptized Simon Magus, whose guileful declaration

of faith was so soon exploded by the stern rebuke of Peter. Custom,

reputation, praise, advancement, and other flies, are the small game which

hypocrites take in their nets. A spider’s web is a marvel of skill: look at it

and admire the cunning hunter’s wiles. Is not a deceiver’s religion equally

wonderful? How does he make so barefaced a lie appear to be a truth? How can

he make his tinsel answer so well the purpose of gold? A spider’s web comes

all from the creature’s own bowels. The bee gathers her wax from flowers, the

spider sucks no flowers, and yet she spins out her material to any length.

Even so hypocrites find their trust and hope within themselves; their anchor

was forged on their own anvil, and their cable twisted by their own hands.

They lay their own foundation, and hew out the pillars of their own house,

disdaining to be debtors to the sovereign grace of God. But a spider’s web is

very frail. It is curiously wrought, but not enduringly manufactured. It is no

match for the servant’s broom, or the traveller’s staff. The hypocrite needs

no battery of Armstrongs to blow his hope to pieces, a mere puff of wind will

do it. Hypocritical cobwebs will soon come down when the besom of destruction

begins its purifying work. Which reminds us of one more thought, viz., that

such cobwebs are not to be endured in the Lord’s house: he will see to it that

they and those who spin them shall be destroyed forever. O my soul, be thou

resting on something better than a spider’s web. Be the Lord Jesus thine

eternal hiding-place.

 

Evening “All things are possible to him that believeth.” / Mark 9:23

Many professed Christians are always doubting and fearing, and they forlornly

think that this is the necessary state of believers. This is a mistake, for

“all things are possible to him that believeth”; and it is possible for us to

mount into a state in which a doubt or a fear shall be but as a bird of

passage flitting across the soul, but never lingering there. When you read of

the high and sweet communions enjoyed by favoured saints, you sigh and murmur

in the chamber of your heart, “Alas! these are not for me.” O climber, if thou

hast but faith, thou shalt yet stand upon the sunny pinnacle of the temple,

for “all things are possible to him that believeth.” You hear of exploits

which holy men have done for Jesus; what they have enjoyed of him; how much

they have been like him; how they have been able to endure great persecutions

for his sake; and you say, “Ah! as for me, I am but a worm; I can never attain

to this.” But there is nothing which one saint was, that you may not be. There

is no elevation of grace, no attainment of spirituality, no clearness of

assurance, no post of duty, which is not open to you if you have but the power

to believe. Lay aside your sackcloth and ashes, and rise to the dignity of

your true position; you are little in Israel because you will be so, not

because there is any necessity for it. It is not meet that thou shouldst

grovel in the dust, O child of a King. Ascend! The golden throne of assurance

is waiting for you! The crown of communion with Jesus is ready to bedeck your

brow. Wrap yourself in scarlet and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day;

for if thou believest, thou mayst eat the fat of kidneys of wheat; thy land

shall flow with milk and honey, and thy soul shall be satisfied as with marrow

and fatness. Gather golden sheaves of grace, for they await thee in the fields

of faith. “All things are possible to him that believeth.”