Morning   “Friend, go up higher.” / Luke 14:10

When first the life of grace begins in the soul, we do indeed draw near to

God, but it is with great fear and trembling. The soul conscious of guilt, and

humbled thereby, is overawed with the solemnity of its position; it is cast to

the earth by a sense of the grandeur of Jehovah, in whose presence it stands.

With unfeigned bashfulness it takes the lowest room.

But, in after life, as the Christian grows in grace, although he will never

forget the solemnity of his position, and will never lose that holy awe which

must encompass a gracious man when he is in the presence of the God who can

create or can destroy; yet his fear has all its terror taken out of it; it

becomes a holy reverence, and no more an overshadowing dread. He is called up

higher, to greater access to God in Christ Jesus. Then the man of God, walking

amid the splendours of Deity, and veiling his face like the glorious cherubim,

with those twin wings, the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, will,

reverent and bowed in spirit, approach the throne; and seeing there a God of

love, of goodness, and of mercy, he will realize rather the covenant character

of God than his absolute Deity. He will see in God rather his goodness than

his greatness, and more of his love than of his majesty. Then will the soul,

bowing still as humbly as aforetime, enjoy a more sacred liberty of

intercession; for while prostrate before the glory of the Infinite God, it

will be sustained by the refreshing consciousness of being in the presence of

boundless mercy and infinite love, and by the realization of acceptance “in

the Beloved.” Thus the believer is bidden to come up higher, and is enabled to

exercise the privilege of rejoicing in God, and drawing near to him in holy

confidence, saying, “Abba, Father.”

“So may we go from strength to strength,

And daily grow in grace,

Till in thine image raised at length,

We see thee face to face.”

 

Evening   “The night also is thine.” / Psalm 74:16

Yes, Lord, thou dost not abdicate thy throne when the sun goeth down, nor dost

thou leave the world all through these long wintry nights to be the prey of

evil; thine eyes watch us as the stars, and thine arms surround us as the

zodiac belts the sky. The dews of kindly sleep and all the influences of the

moon are in thy hand, and the alarms and solemnities of night are equally with

thee. This is very sweet to me when watching through the midnight hours, or

tossing to and fro in anguish. There are precious fruits put forth by the moon

as well as by the sun: may my Lord make me to be a favoured partaker in them.

 

The night of affliction is as much under the arrangement and control of the

Lord of Love as the bright summer days when all is bliss. Jesus is in the

tempest. His love wraps the night about itself as a mantle, but to the eye of

faith the sable robe is scarce a disguise. From the first watch of the night

even unto the break of day the eternal Watcher observes his saints, and

overrules the shades and dews of midnight for his people’s highest good. We

believe in no rival deities of good and evil contending for the mastery, but

we hear the voice of Jehovah saying, “I create light and I create darkness; I,

the Lord, do all these things.”

Gloomy seasons of religious indifference and social sin are not exempted from

the divine purpose. When the altars of truth are defiled, and the ways of God

forsaken, the Lord’s servants weep with bitter sorrow, but they may not

despair, for the darkest eras are governed by the Lord, and shall come to

their end at his bidding. What may seem defeat to us may be victory to him.

“Though enwrapt in gloomy night,

We perceive no ray of light;

Since the Lord himself is here,

‘Tis not meet that we should fear.”