Morning “I am the Lord, I change not.” / Malachi 3:6

It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom

change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow

mutability can make no furrows. All things else have changed–all things are

changing. The sun itself grows dim with age; the world is waxing old; the

folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the heavens and earth must

soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a garment; but

there is One who only hath immortality, of whose years there is no end, and in

whose person there is no change. The delight which the mariner feels, when,

after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid

shore, is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this

troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth–“I am the

Lord, I change not.”

The stability which the anchor gives the ship when it has at last obtained a

hold-fast, is like that which the Christian’s hope affords him when it fixes

itself upon this glorious truth. With God “is no variableness, neither shadow

of turning.” Whatever his attributes were of old, they are now; his power, his

wisdom, his justice, his truth, are alike unchanged. He has ever been the

refuge of his people, their stronghold in the day of trouble, and he is their

sure Helper still. He is unchanged in his love. He has loved his people with

“an everlasting love”; he loves them now as much as ever he did, and when all

earthly things shall have melted in the last conflagration, his love will

still wear the dew of its youth. Precious is the assurance that he changes

not! The wheel of providence revolves, but its axle is eternal love.

“Death and change are busy ever,

Man decays, and ages move;

But his mercy waneth never;

God is wisdom, God is love.”

 

Evening “Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.” /

Psalm 119:53

My soul, feelest thou this holy shuddering at the sins of others? for

otherwise thou lackest inward holiness. David’s cheeks were wet with rivers of

waters because of prevailing unholiness, Jeremiah desired eyes like fountains

that he might lament the iniquities of Israel, and Lot was vexed with the

conversation of the men of Sodom. Those upon whom the mark was set in

Ezekiel’s vision, were those who sighed and cried for the abominations of

Jerusalem. It cannot but grieve gracious souls to see what pains men take to

go to hell. They know the evil of sin experimentally, and they are alarmed to

see others flying like moths into its blaze. Sin makes the righteous shudder,

because it violates a holy law, which it is to every man’s highest interest to

keep; it pulls down the pillars of the commonwealth. Sin in others horrifies a

believer, because it puts him in mind of the baseness of his own heart: when

he sees a transgressor he cries with the saint mentioned by Bernard, “He fell

today, and I may fall to-morrow.” Sin to a believer is horrible, because it

crucified the Saviour; he sees in every iniquity the nails and spear. How can

a saved soul behold that cursed kill-Christ sin without abhorrence? Say, my

heart, dost thou sensibly join in all this? It is an awful thing to insult God

to His face. The good God deserves better treatment, the great God claims it,

the just God will have it, or repay His adversary to his face. An awakened

heart trembles at the audacity of sin, and stands alarmed at the contemplation

of its punishment. How monstrous a thing is rebellion! How direful a doom is

prepared for the ungodly! My soul, never laugh at sin’s fooleries, lest thou

come to smile at sin itself. It is thine enemy, and thy Lord’s enemy. View it

with detestation, for so only canst thou evidence the possession of holiness,

without which no man can see the Lord.