the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions
February 8—Morning—Romans 8:33-34
"Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea, rather, that is risen again; who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."—Romans 8:33-34.
See, my soul, what a blessed security thou hast. Here is God justifying; Christ dying; the Holy Ghost raising the sinner’s surety from the grave, as an evidence that the debt of sin is cancelled; and Jesus ever living to see the travail of his soul, and be satisfied in the redemption of his people. What, then, shall rob thee of thy comfort, while thou art triumphing in thy Jesus? Sin shall not; for Jesus hath put it away by the sacrifice of himself. The law cannot; for thy Jesus hath answered all its just demands. Divine justice cannot; for God himself justifieth. Death and hell cannot; for Jesus hath conquered both. In short, all that stood in thy way, the Son of God hath removed. And wilt thou not, my soul, triumph in the great salvation of thy Jesus? Surely the poor debtor may walk as boldly before the prison door, as the king in his palace, when his debts are paid. No bailiff can touch him; no mittimus again confine him. "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." Triumph then, my soul, in the liberty wherewith thy Jesus hath made thee free; only be sure that all thy triumphs are in him. Let him have all the glory, who hath wrought the whole redemption. Make thy Jesus all; for he hath done all for thee; and then sweetly repose thyself upon the person and work of thy beloved, Let the adversary accuse, or opposition arise from without or within, yet, saith an apostle, here is the answer:—"God justifieth; for Christ died." Oh, how precious it is, after all the storms, and winds, and boisterous tossings, of law and conscience, to enter into that harbour, which is, Jesus. "We which have believed," saith the apostle, "do enter into rest." He is indeed the rest, wherewith he causeth the weary to rest; and he is the refreshing.
February 8—Evening—Solomon 2:1
"I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys."—Song of Solomon 2:1.
Yes! dearest Lord Jesus, thou art all this, and infinitely more to my soul; more fragrant than both, and more precious than all the flowers of the field. Help me, this evening, to contemplate my Lord under those sweet similitudes. Do I not, and shall I not henceforth, in the red blushing beauty of the rose, behold thy human nature, which thou hast assumed for the redemption of thy people? Are not thy bloody sufferings, and thy red apparel, strikingly set forth by the image of the rose; as thy spotless purity is shewn under the loveliness of the white lily? Can the sweet-scented rose, even of Sharon, vie with the perfume of the incense of thy righteousness, to a poor sinner’s soul? Or can the beauty of the lily be as grateful to the eye, as the purity of Jesus to a mind conscious of its own pollution, and beholding itself complete in his salvation, who is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens?" But wherefore Sharon’s rose, and the valley’s lily, unless it be to speak thine infinite greatness in the excellency of Sharon, and thine infinite humbleness, in the lowest part of the earth, as the valley. And indeed, Lord, in thine own wonderful person, thou comprehendest all things, in the length, and breadth, and depth, and heighth! Thou art both "Alpha and Omega; the first and the last." And though Lord of all, thou didst condescend to become servant of all; be thou to me, my Lord, every thing that is precious and lovely, as the rose of Sharon, and as the lily of the valley. And Oh! give a sweet conformity to thyself, and thy loveliness. And though my sins be red as scarlet, do thou make them whiter than the snow; though they be as the crimson, do thou make them as the wool! Cause me to be washed in that fountain, which thou hast opened for sin and for uncleanness; and bring me to join that happy multitude, before thy throne, "who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb!"
