Morning   “So shall we ever be with the Lord.” / 1 Thessalonians 4:17

Even the sweetest visits from Christ, how short they are–and how transitory!

One moment our eyes see him, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of

glory, but again a little time and we do not see him, for our beloved

withdraws himself from us; like a roe or a young hart he leaps over the

mountains of division; he is gone to the land of spices, and feeds no more

among the lilies.

“If today he deigns to bless us

With a sense of pardoned sin,

He to-morrow may distress us,

Make us feel the plague within.”

Oh, how sweet the prospect of the time when we shall not behold him at a

distance, but see him face to face: when he shall not be as a wayfaring man

tarrying but for a night, but shall eternally enfold us in the bosom of his

glory. We shall not see him for a little season, but

“Millions of years our wondering eyes,

Shall o’er our Saviour’s beauties rove;

And myriad ages we’ll adore,

The wonders of his love.”

In heaven there shall be no interruptions from care or sin; no weeping shall

dim our eyes; no earthly business shall distract our happy thoughts; we shall

have nothing to hinder us from gazing forever on the Sun of Righteousness with

unwearied eyes. Oh, if it be so sweet to see him now and then, how sweet to

gaze on that blessed face for aye, and never have a cloud rolling between, and

never have to turn one’s eyes away to look on a world of weariness and woe!

Blest day, when wilt thou dawn? Rise, O unsetting sun! The joys of sense may

leave us as soon as they will, for this shall make glorious amends. If to die

is but to enter into uninterrupted communion with Jesus, then death is indeed

gain, and the black drop is swallowed up in a sea of victory.

 

Evening   “Whose heart the Lord opened.” / Acts 16:14

In Lydia’s conversion there are many points of interest. It was brought about

by providential circumstances. She was a seller of purple, of the city of

Thyatira, but just at the right time for hearing Paul we find her at Philippi;

providence, which is the handmaid of grace, led her to the right spot. Again,

grace was preparing her soul for the blessing–grace preparing for grace. She

did not know the Saviour, but as a Jewess, she knew many truths which were

excellent stepping-stones to a knowledge of Jesus. Her conversion took place

in the use of the means. On the Sabbath she went when prayer was wont to be

made, and there prayer was heard. Never neglect the means of grace; God may

bless us when we are not in his house, but we have the greater reason to hope

that he will when we are in communion with his saints. Observe the words,

“Whose heart the Lord opened.” She did not open her own heart. Her prayers did

not do it; Paul did not do it. The Lord himself must open the heart, to

receive the things which make for our peace. He alone can put the key into the

hole of the door and open it, and get admittance for himself. He is the

heart’s master as he is the heart’s maker. The first outward evidence of the

opened heart was obedience. As soon as Lydia had believed in Jesus, she was

baptized. It is a sweet sign of a humble and broken heart, when the child of

God is willing to obey a command which is not essential to his salvation,

which is not forced upon him by a selfish fear of condemnation, but is a

simple act of obedience and of communion with his Master. The next evidence

was love, manifesting itself in acts of grateful kindness to the apostles.

Love to the saints has ever been a mark of the true convert. Those who do

nothing for Christ or his church, give but sorry evidence of an “opened”

heart. Lord, evermore give me an opened heart.