Morning  “Base things of the world hath God chosen.” / 1 Corinthians 1:28

Walk the streets by moonlight, if you dare, and you will see sinners then.

Watch when the night is dark, and the wind is howling, and the picklock is

grating in the door, and you will see sinners then. Go to yon jail, and walk

through the wards, and mark the men with heavy over-hanging brows, men whom

you would not like to meet at night, and there are sinners there. Go to the

Reformatories, and note those who have betrayed a rampant juvenile depravity,

and you will see sinners there. Go across the seas to the place where a man

will gnaw a bone upon which is reeking human flesh, and there is a sinner

there. Go where you will, you need not ransack earth to find sinners, for they

are common enough; you may find them in every lane and street of every city,

and town, and village, and hamlet. It is for such that Jesus died. If you will

select me the grossest specimen of humanity, if he be but born of woman, I

will have hope of him yet, because Jesus Christ is come to seek and to save

sinners. Electing love has selected some of the worst to be made the best.

Pebbles of the brook grace turns into jewels for the crown-royal. Worthless

dross he transforms into pure gold. Redeeming love has set apart many of the

worst of mankind to be the reward of the Saviour’s passion. Effectual grace

calls forth many of the vilest of the vile to sit at the table of mercy, and

therefore let none despair.

Reader, by that love looking out of Jesus’ tearful eyes, by that love

streaming from those bleeding wounds, by that faithful love, that strong love,

that pure, disinterested, and abiding love; by the heart and by the bowels of

the Saviour’s compassion, we conjure you turn not away as though it were

nothing to you; but believe on him and you shall be saved. Trust your soul

with him and he will bring you to his Father’s right hand in glory

everlasting.

 

Evening  “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” / 1

Corinthians 9:22

Paul’s great object was not merely to instruct and to improve, but to save.

Anything short of this would have disappointed him; he would have men renewed

in heart, forgiven, sanctified, in fact, saved. Have our Christian labours

been aimed at anything below this great point? Then let us amend our ways, for

of what avail will it be at the last great day to have taught and moralized

men if they appear before God unsaved? Blood-red will our skirts be if through

life we have sought inferior objects, and forgotten that men needed to be

saved. Paul knew the ruin of man’s natural state, and did not try to educate

him, but to save him; he saw men sinking to hell, and did not talk of refining

them, but of saving from the wrath to come. To compass their salvation, he

gave himself up with untiring zeal to telling abroad the gospel, to warning

and beseeching men to be reconciled to God. His prayers were importunate and

his labours incessant. To save souls was his consuming passion, his ambition,

his calling. He became a servant to all men, toiling for his race, feeling a

woe within him if he preached not the gospel. He laid aside his preferences to

prevent prejudice; he submitted his will in things indifferent, and if men

would but receive the gospel, he raised no questions about forms or

ceremonies: the gospel was the one all-important business with him. If he

might save some he would be content. This was the crown for which he strove,

the sole and sufficient reward of all his labours and self-denials. Dear

reader, have you and I lived to win souls at this noble rate? Are we possessed

with the same all-absorbing desire? If not, why not? Jesus died for sinners,

cannot we live for them? Where is our tenderness? Where our love to Christ, if

we seek not his honour in the salvation of men? O that the Lord would saturate

us through and through with an undying zeal for the souls of men.