the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions
September 30—Morning—Exodus 12:14
"And this day shall be unto you for a memorial."—Exodus 12:14.
It is blessed to end the month, and end every day, as we would wish and desire to end life, blessing and praising God in Christ; rising from the table of divine bounties, and thanking the great Master of the feast. Pause, my soul, and see whether, in the past month, such hath been thine experience of sovereign grace and unmerited mercies, that thou canst now set up thine Ebenezer, and mark this day for a memorial. What visits hath Jesus made to thee, my soul; and how hath thine heart been drawn out after him? Hath the Father, as well as the Son, come and made his abode with thee? Hath the Holy Ghost, the glorious inhabitant in the souls and bodies of his people, manifested his continued presence to thee? This day is indeed a memorial, if, in summing up the wonderful account of divine manifestations of divine love in providence and grace, during the month now nearly closed, and the years already passed, thou canst mark down the blessed enumeration. And will not my Lord, while the day is not passed, and yet remains to be added to the month, will he not make it memorable by some renewed favour? Oh, for some new visits from Father, Son, and Spirit—this morning, this day, and ail the day! As long as I live I would have my soul going forth in exercises of faith and love upon the person of Emanuel, that I may carefully mark down the numberless instances of it. Here, I would say, Jesus visited me; here it was he met me, here he shewed me his loves, and made the place and day ever memorable by his grace.
September 30—Evening—John 9:4
"I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work."—John 9:4.
Pause, my soul, over this sweet scripture, and these sweet words of thy Lord! Look at Jesus, even thy Jesus, who, in the service of Mediator, as God’s servant, had work to do in his day, as thou hast in thine. And Oh! what a day was his! Every portion of it filled with good! Now, my soul, the night of this present day is come; and the night of the whole day of thy life upon earth will shortly follow; it may come this very night; for nearly as the month is ended, thy life may end before it: and though death come not this very night, it cannot be far off, and may be near indeed. How then stands thy great account? Take down thy memorandums, as merchants do their ledger at certain seasons, to ascertain their stock; and review thine experience. Hath Jesus filled up every page? Hast thou the several items of his grace, and love, and bounty? Canst thou tell of Him that sent thee into the world, as he saith his Father sent him? John 17:18. Canst thou call to mind, from the first Bethel visit of his love, to the present hour, how he hath borne thee, and carried thee as on eagle’s wings? And though it would tire the arm of an angel to write down the vast account of his mercy and grace, and though in thy poor forgetful heart, thousands, and ten thousands of instances have passed away, like traces on the water, and thou canst remember them no more; yet in looking back upon the whole, canst thou say, "Jesus is mine, and I am his?" Oh! the unspeakable felicity of thy summing up months, and days, and years, when the night cometh that no man can work. Precious Lord Jesus! thou hast indeed done all for me, and wrought all in me; thou hast made, and thou dost bear. It is thou that formed me from the womb, and now hast made me in thyself: thou hast redeemed me, and washed me from my sins in thy blood; borne with me in all my unworthiness, and carried me in all my sorrows! Into thy gracious hands, Lord, I desire to fall this night, and every night, and in the night of death; under the blessed assurance, that" when my heart shall faint, and my strength shall fail, thou wilt be the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." Amen.
