Morning   “The hope which is laid up for you in heaven.” / Colossians 1:5

Our hope in Christ for the future is the mainspring and the mainstay of our
joy here. It will animate our hearts to think often of heaven, for all that we
can desire is promised there. Here we are weary and toilworn, but yonder is
the land of rest where the sweat of labour shall no more bedew the worker’s
brow, and fatigue shall be forever banished. To those who are weary and spent,
the word “rest” is full of heaven. We are always in the field of battle; we
are so tempted within, and so molested by foes without, that we have little or
no peace; but in heaven we shall enjoy the victory, when the banner shall be
waved aloft in triumph, and the sword shall be sheathed, and we shall hear our
Captain say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We have suffered
bereavement after bereavement, but we are going to the land of the immortal
where graves are unknown things. Here sin is a constant grief to us, but there
we shall be perfectly holy, for there shall by no means enter into that
kingdom anything which defileth. Hemlock springs not up in the furrows of
celestial fields. Oh! is it not joy, that you are not to be in banishment
forever, that you are not to dwell eternally in this wilderness, but shall
soon inherit Canaan? Nevertheless let it never be said of us, that we are
dreaming about the future and forgetting the present, let the future sanctify
the present to highest uses. Through the Spirit of God the hope of heaven is
the most potent force for the product of virtue; it is a fountain of joyous
effort, it is the corner stone of cheerful holiness. The man who has this hope
in him goes about his work with vigour, for the joy of the Lord is his
strength. He fights against temptation with ardour, for the hope of the next
world repels the fiery darts of the adversary. He can labour without present
reward, for he looks for a reward in the world to come.

Evening “A man greatly beloved.” / Daniel 10:11

Child of God, do you hesitate to appropriate this title? Ah! has your unbelief
made you forget that you are greatly beloved too? Must you not have been
greatly beloved, to have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, as of
a lamb without blemish and without spot? When God smote his only begotten Son
for you, what was this but being greatly beloved? You lived in sin, and rioted
in it, must you not have been greatly beloved for God to have borne so
patiently with you? You were called by grace and led to a Saviour, and made a
child of God and an heir of heaven. All this proves, does it not, a very great
and superabounding love? Since that time, whether your path has been rough
with troubles, or smooth with mercies, it has been full of proofs that you are
a man greatly beloved. If the Lord has chastened you, yet not in anger; if he
has made you poor, yet in grace you have been rich. The more unworthy you feel
yourself to be, the more evidence have you that nothing but unspeakable love
could have led the Lord Jesus to save such a soul as yours. The more demerit
you feel, the clearer is the display of the abounding love of God in having
chosen you, and called you, and made you an heir of bliss. Now, if there be
such love between God and us let us live in the influence and sweetness of it,
and use the privilege of our position. Do not let us approach our Lord as
though we were strangers, or as though he were unwilling to hear us–for we
are greatly beloved by our loving Father. “He that spared not his own Son, but
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all
things?” Come boldly, O believer, for despite the whisperings of Satan and the
doubtings of thine own heart, thou art greatly beloved. Meditate on the
exceeding greatness and faithfulness of divine love this evening, and so go to
thy bed in peace.