the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions
March 20—Morning—Isaiah 33:17
"Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty."—Isaiah 33:17.
Who, my soul, but Jesus could be intended by this sweet promise? And who is beautiful and lovely in thine eyes but him? There was no beauty in him while thou wert in a state of unrenewed nature, that thou shouldest desire him; neither can any man truly love him, until that a soul is made light in the Lord. Is Jesus then lovely to thee? Hast thou seen him? Dost thou now know him, love him, behold him, as altogether fair, and the chiefest among ten thousand? Then, surely, this promise hath been, and is continually fulfilled in thy experience. Hast thou so seen him, as to be in love with him, and to have all thine affections drawn forth towards him? Dost thou, my soul, so behold him as to admire him, and love him above all; and so to love him, as never to be satisfied without him? Moreover - hast thou seen this King in his beauty, in his fulness, riches, and suitableness to thee as a Saviour? Surely, blessed Jesus, there are not only glorious, precious excellencies in thee, and thine own divine person, which command the love and affection of every beholder, as thou art in thyself; but there is a beauty indeed in thee, considered as thou art held forth by our God and Father, in all thy suitableness to thy people. In thy beauty, blessed Lord, there is to be seen a fulness of grace, and truth, and righteousness, exactly corresponding to the wants of poor sinners-thy blood, to cleanse, thy grace to comfort, thy fulness to supply; in thee there is every thing we can want-life, light, joy, pardon, mercy, peace, happiness here, glory hereafter. And do I not see thee, thou King, in thy beauty indeed, when I behold thee as coming with all these for my supply? So that, under the enjoyment of the whole, I feel constrained to cry out, with one of old," I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my strength and my song; and he is become my salvation. "Neither is this all; for in beholding the King in his beauty, I behold him also in his love. Yes, blessed Lord, thou art indeed most beautiful and lovely; for thou hast so loved poor sinners, as to give thyself for them; and the conscious sense that our love to thee did not first begin, but thine to us was the first cause for exciting ours, and the shedding forth that love in our hearts, by thy blessed Spirit, first prompted our minds to look unto thee, makes thee lovely indeed. And now, Lord, every day’s view of thee increaseth that love, and brings home thy beauty more and more. The more frequent thou condescendest to visit my poor soul, the more beautiful dost thou appear. Every renewed manifestation, every view, every glimpse of Jesus, must tend to make my God and King more gracious and lovely to my soul, and add fresh fervour to my love. Come then, thou blessed, holy, lovely one, and ravish my spiritual senses with thy beauty, that I may daily get out of love with every thing of created excellency, and my whole soul be filled only with the love of Jesus; until, from seeing thee here below, through the medium of ordinances and grace, I come to look upon thee, and live for ever in thy presence, in the full beams of thy glory in thy throne above.
March 20—Evening—Genesis 35:5
"And they journeyed; and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob."—Genesis 35:5.
It was the evening before the last, that my soul was led to the contemplation of what is the everlasting security of a child of God, amidst all the corruption, within and without, which he carries about him in a body of sin and death. It will form a very pleasing subject, to a similar effect, to trace also a believer’s security from the world at large, in the natural enmity there is in every unawakened heart to a state of grace. And this precious scripture traces every child of God’s safety to the same source. The family of Jacob, the praying seed of Jacob, are still journeying; for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. The people of God are but few in number; yea, very few: the scripture saith, "And they are strangers in the land," Psalms 105:12. The very profession of the cross will always make them strangers; and as men whose manners and pursuits differ from the world, like Joshua and his people, "they are men wondered at." How are they kept from being run down, oppressed, subdued, and overcome? This text answers: "the terror of God was upon the cities round about them." Pause, and consider the blessed subject, my soul, and never lose sight of it. He that toucheth thee, toucheth the apple of Jesus eye. The reins of all government, both of men and kings, are in Christ’s hand; nothing can take place but by his appointment. Oh.! how blessed to live in the full persuasion of this most unquestionable truth. If a thorough sense of an interest in Jesus, and an union and oneness with Christ, were always uppermost in the heart, this filial fear in Jesus would drive out all creature fear, as the fire of the sun puts out the fire on the hearth. The prophet beautifully expresses this in one of his precepts to the church: "Say ye not, a confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, a confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid; but sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread, and he shall be for a sanctuary," Isaiah 8:12-14.
