Morning “Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar.” /
Psalm 120:5

As a Christian you have to live in the midst of an ungodly world, and it is of
little use for you to cry “Woe is me.” Jesus did not pray that you should be
taken out of the world, and what he did not pray for, you need not desire.
Better far in the Lord’s strength to meet the difficulty, and glorify him in
it. The enemy is ever on the watch to detect inconsistency in your conduct; be
therefore very holy. Remember that the eyes of all are upon you, and that more
is expected from you than from other men. Strive to give no occasion for
blame. Let your goodness be the only fault they can discover in you. Like
Daniel, compel them to say of you, “We shall not find any occasion against
this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.”
Seek to be useful as well as consistent. Perhaps you think, “If I were in a
more favourable position I might serve the Lord’s cause, but I cannot do any
good where I am”; but the worse the people are among whom you live, the more
need have they of your exertions; if they be crooked, the more necessity that
you should set them straight; and if they be perverse, the more need have you
to turn their proud hearts to the truth. Where should the physician be but
where there are many sick? Where is honour to be won by the soldier but in the
hottest fire of the battle? And when weary of the strife and sin that meets
you on every hand, consider that all the saints have endured the same trial.
They were not carried on beds of down to heaven, and you must not expect to
travel more easily than they. They had to hazard their lives unto the death in
the high places of the field, and you will not be crowned till you also have
endured hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Therefore, “stand fast in
the faith, quit you like men, be strong.”

Evening “Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?” / Job 38:16

Some things in nature must remain a mystery to the most intelligent and
enterprising investigators. Human knowledge has bounds beyond which it cannot
pass. Universal knowledge is for God alone. If this be so in the things which
are seen and temporal, I may rest assured that it is even more so in matters
spiritual and eternal. Why, then, have I been torturing my brain with
speculations as to destiny and will, fixed fate, and human responsibility?
These deep and dark truths I am no more able to comprehend than to find out
the depth which coucheth beneath, from which old ocean draws her watery
stores. Why am I so curious to know the reason of my Lord’s providences, the
motive of his actions, the design of his visitations? Shall I ever be able to
clasp the sun in my fist, and hold the universe in my palm? yet these are as a
drop of a bucket compared with the Lord my God. Let me not strive to
understand the infinite, but spend my strength in love. What I cannot gain by
intellect I can possess by affection, and let that suffice me. I cannot
penetrate the heart of the sea, but I can enjoy the healthful breezes which
sweep over its bosom, and I can sail over its blue waves with propitious
winds. If I could enter the springs of the sea, the feat would serve no useful
purpose either to myself or to others, it would not save the sinking bark, or
give back the drowned mariner to his weeping wife and children; neither would
my solving deep mysteries avail me a single whit, for the least love to God,
and the simplest act of obedience to him, are better than the profoundest
knowledge. My Lord, I leave the infinite to thee, and pray thee to put far
from me such a love for the tree of knowledge as might keep me from the tree
of life.