Morning  “Pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.” /
Song of Solomon 7:13

The spouse desires to give to Jesus all that she produces. Our heart has “all
manner of pleasant fruits,” both “old and new,” and they are laid up for our
Beloved. At this rich autumnal season of fruit, let us survey our stores. We
have new fruits. We desire to feel new life, new joy, new gratitude; we wish
to make new resolves and carry them out by new labours; our heart blossoms
with new prayers, and our soul is pledging herself to new efforts. But we have
some old fruits too. There is our first love: a choice fruit that! and Jesus
delights in it. There is our first faith: that simple faith by which, having
nothing, we became possessors of all things. There is our joy when first we
knew the Lord: let us revive it. We have our old remembrances of the promises.
How faithful has God been! In sickness, how softly did he make our bed! In
deep waters, how placidly did he buoy us up! In the flaming furnace, how
graciously did he deliver us. Old fruits, indeed! We have many of them, for
his mercies have been more than the hairs of our head. Old sins we must
regret, but then we have had repentances which he has given us, by which we
have wept our way to the cross, and learned the merit of his blood. We have
fruits, this morning, both new and old; but here is the point–they are all
laid up for Jesus. Truly, those are the best and most acceptable services in
which Jesus is the solitary aim of the soul, and his glory, without any
admixture whatever, the end of all our efforts. Let our many fruits be laid up
only for our Beloved; let us display them when he is with us, and not hold
them up before the gaze of men. Jesus, we will turn the key in our garden
door, and none shall enter to rob thee of one good fruit from the soil which
thou hast watered with thy bloody sweat. Our all shall be thine, thine only, O
Jesus, our Beloved!

Evening  “He will give grace and glory.” / Psalm 84:11

Bounteous is Jehovah in his nature; to give is his delight. His gifts are
beyond measure precious, and are as freely given as the light of the sun. He
gives grace to his elect because he wills it, to his redeemed because of his
covenant, to the called because of his promise, to believers because they seek
it, to sinners because they need it. He gives grace abundantly, seasonably,
constantly, readily, sovereignly; doubly enhancing the value of the boon by
the manner of its bestowal. Grace in all its forms he freely renders to his
people: comforting, preserving, sanctifying, directing, instructing, assisting
grace, he generously pours into their souls without ceasing, and he always
will do so, whatever may occur. Sickness may befall, but the Lord will give
grace; poverty may happen to us, but grace will surely be afforded; death must
come but grace will light a candle at the darkest hour. Reader, how blessed it
is as years roll round, and the leaves begin again to fall, to enjoy such an
unfading promise as this, “The Lord will give grace.”

The little conjunction “and” in this verse is a diamond rivet binding the
present with the future: grace and glory always go together. God has married
them, and none can divorce them. The Lord will never deny a soul glory to whom
he has freely given to live upon his grace; indeed, glory is nothing more than
grace in its Sabbath dress, grace in full bloom, grace like autumn fruit,
mellow and perfected. How soon we may have glory none can tell! It may be
before this month of October has run out we shall see the Holy City; but be
the interval longer or shorter, we shall be glorified ere long. Glory, the
glory of heaven, the glory of eternity, the glory of Jesus, the glory of the
Father, the Lord will surely give to his chosen. Oh, rare promise of a
faithful God!

Two golden links of one celestial chain:

Who owneth grace shall surely glory gain.