Morning “Thou hast made summer and winter.” / Psalm 74:17
My soul begin this wintry month with thy God. The cold snows and the piercing
winds all remind thee that he keeps his covenant with day and night, and tend
to assure thee that he will also keep that glorious covenant which he has made
with thee in the person of Christ Jesus. He who is true to his Word in the
revolutions of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world, will not prove
unfaithful in his dealings with his own well-beloved Son.
Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be upon thee
just now it will be very painful to thee: but there is this comfort, namely,
that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds
of expectation: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes over the once verdant
meadows of our joy: he casteth forth his ice like morsels freezing the streams
of our delight. He does it all, he is the great Winter King, and rules in the
realms of frost, and therefore thou canst not murmur. Losses, crosses,
heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills, are of the Lord’s
sending, and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill noxious insects, and put
a bound to raging diseases; they break up the clods, and sweeten the soil. O
that such good results would always follow our winters of affliction!
How we prize the fire just now! how pleasant is its cheerful glow! Let us in
the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth and
comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw nigh to him, and in him find joy
and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments of his
promises, and go forth to labours which befit the season, for it were ill to
be as the sluggard who will not plough by reason of the cold; for he shall beg
in summer and have nothing.
Evening “O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful
works to the children of men.” / Psalm 107:8
If we complained less, and praised more, we should be happier, and God would
be more glorified. Let us daily praise God for common mercies–common as we
frequently call them, and yet so priceless, that when deprived of them we are
ready to perish. Let us bless God for the eyes with which we behold the sun,
for the health and strength to walk abroad, for the bread we eat, for the
raiment we wear. Let us praise him that we are not cast out among the
hopeless, or confined amongst the guilty; let us thank him for liberty, for
friends, for family associations and comforts; let us praise him, in fact, for
everything which we receive from his bounteous hand, for we deserve little,
and yet are most plenteously endowed. But, beloved, the sweetest and the
loudest note in our songs of praise should be of redeeming love. God’s
redeeming acts towards his chosen are forever the favourite themes of their
praise. If we know what redemption means, let us not withhold our sonnets of
thanksgiving. We have been redeemed from the power of our corruptions,
uplifted from the depth of sin in which we were naturally plunged. We have
been led to the cross of Christ–our shackles of guilt have been broken off;
we are no longer slaves, but children of the living God, and can antedate the
period when we shall be presented before the throne without spot or wrinkle or
any such thing. Even now by faith we wave the palm-branch and wrap ourselves
about with the fair linen which is to be our everlasting array, and shall we
not unceasingly give thanks to the Lord our Redeemer? Child of God, canst thou
be silent? Awake, awake, ye inheritors of glory, and lead your captivity
captive, as ye cry with David, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is
within me, bless his holy name.” Let the new month begin with new songs.
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