Morning   “Salt without prescribing how much.” / Ezra 7:22

Salt was used in every offering made by fire unto the Lord, and from its

preserving and purifying properties it was the grateful emblem of divine grace

in the soul. It is worthy of our attentive regard that, when Artaxerxes gave

salt to Ezra the priest, he set no limit to the quantity, and we may be quite

certain that when the King of kings distributes grace among his royal

priesthood, the supply is not cut short by him. Often are we straitened in

ourselves, but never in the Lord. He who chooses to gather much manna will

find that he may have as much as he desires. There is no such famine in

Jerusalem that the citizens should eat their bread by weight and drink their

water by measure. Some things in the economy of grace are measured; for

instance our vinegar and gall are given us with such exactness that we never

have a single drop too much, but of the salt of grace no stint is made, “Ask

what thou wilt and it shall be given unto thee.” Parents need to lock up the

fruit cupboard, and the sweet jars, but there is no need to keep the salt-box

under lock and key, for few children will eat too greedily from that. A man

may have too much money, or too much honour, but he cannot have too much

grace. When Jeshurun waxed fat in the flesh, he kicked against God, but there

is no fear of a man’s becoming too full of grace: a plethora of grace is

impossible. More wealth brings more care, but more grace brings more joy.

Increased wisdom is increased sorrow, but abundance of the Spirit is fulness

of joy. Believer, go to the throne for a large supply of heavenly salt. It

will season thine afflictions, which are unsavoury without salt; it will

preserve thy heart which corrupts if salt be absent, and it will kill thy sins

even as salt kills reptiles. Thou needest much; seek much, and have much.

 

Evening   “I will make thy windows of agates.” / Isaiah 54:12

The church is most instructively symbolized by a building erected by heavenly

power, and designed by divine skill. Such a spiritual house must not be dark,

for the Israelites had light in their dwellings; there must therefore be

windows to let the light in and to allow the inhabitants to gaze abroad. These

windows are precious as agates: the ways in which the church beholds her Lord

and heaven, and spiritual truth in general, are to be had in the highest

esteem. Agates are not the most transparent of gems, they are but

semi-pellucid at the best:

“Our knowledge of that life is small,

Our eye of faith is dim.”

Faith is one of these precious agate windows, but alas! it is often so misty

and beclouded, that we see but darkly, and mistake much that we do see. Yet if

we cannot gaze through windows of diamonds and know even as we are known, it

is a glorious thing to behold the altogether lovely One, even though the glass

be hazy as the agate. Experience is another of these dim but precious windows,

yielding to us a subdued religious light, in which we see the sufferings of

the Man of Sorrows, through our own afflictions. Our weak eyes could not

endure windows of transparent glass to let in the Master’s glory, but when

they are dimmed with weeping, the beams of the Sun of Righteousness are

tempered, and shine through the windows of agate with a soft radiance

inexpressibly soothing to tempted souls. Sanctification, as it conforms us to

our Lord, is another agate window. Only as we become heavenly can we

comprehend heavenly things. The pure in heart see a pure God. Those who are

like Jesus see him as he is. Because we are so little like him, the window is

but agate; because we are somewhat like him, it is agate. We thank God for

what we have, and long for more. When shall we see God and Jesus, and heaven

and truth, face to face?