Daily Devotionals

The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions

Devotional: October 19th

October 19—Morning—Isaiah 65:20

"There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old, but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. "—Isaiah 65:20.

My soul, contemplate this morning the auspicious and blessed effects brought into the circumstances of mankind by the gospel. Not only shall there be new heavens, and a new earth, but new hearts, new minds, new dispositions to enjoy them. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and all things are become new." And among the many blessed changes that shall take place in consequence of Jesus’s salvation, all untimely deaths are done away. Indeed, there can be no such thing as an untimely death to those who are in Christ: for a voice from heaven pronounces all blessed that die in the Lord. A child new born, if born also in Christ, an ’infant. of a day, if a gracious day, is as ripe for glory as if an hundred years had passed over him. Indeed, he is an hundred years old in Jesus. Sweet thought! what a blessedness, dearest Jesus, hath thy great salvation introduced into the circumstances of thy people. But what an awful thought—the life of an unawakened, unregenerated sinner, though protracted to an hundred years, is lengthened only to misery. As he came into the world, so he goes through it, and so he goes out of it—an unrenewed sinner. Oh distinguishing grace! Oh great salvation!

October 19—Evening—Psalms 47:4

"He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved. Selah."—Psalms 47:4.

My soul, to whom, but to the all-lovely and all-loving Jesus, couldest thou have thought this blessed verse referred, even had this little word Selah not been placed at the end, by way of marking the emphasis of the Holy Ghost? Who couldest thou have considered suitable to have chosen the inheritance of his people, but he who is the Lord of his people, and himself their inheritance and their portion for ever? It was God thy Father that chose him to be the excellency of Jacob, when he gave him for a covenant to the people; and when to the infinite mind of Jehovah, this One glorious Person, in the holiness and purity of his nature, came up before him here, on him the Lord placed his choice. And had all his people been present; had it been possible for the whole of the chosen of Zion to have been consulted in the choice, would not every soul have fixed its longing eyes upon him, and from the millions of tongues resounding his blessed and blissful name from every heart, the universal voice would have been heard in the delightful words of this scripture: "He shall choose our inheritance for us; the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved!" Hail! thou dear and blessed Lord! thou art indeed our inheritance, and our portion for ever! And hail, thou glorious, gracious, and almighty Father! thy choice, and thy gift, and thine appointment, gives and confirms, sweetens and sanctifies the eternal and unspeakable mercy. And hail, thou holy and blessed Spirit! do thou cause my poor soul to live by grace here, and in glory, to all eternity, upon this excellency of Jacob, whom Jehovah loved!