the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions
December 30—Morning—1 Samuel 7:12
"Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mispeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, hitherto hath the Lord helped us."—1 Samuel 7:12
Did Samuel do this? Was that servant of the Lord, who lived not to see Christ in the flesh, so full of faith in the coming Saviour, and in the experience of Jehovah’s faithfulness in what was past, that he set up his Ebenezer? Surely, my soul, thou wilt blush to be outdone by the prophet, when thou hast not only seen the day of the Son of man completed, but felt his power. Oh my soul, let thine Ebenezer be Jesus! Let the stone thou settest up, be indeed the Rock of Ages. Yes, my soul, set up Jesus indeed, in all places, at all times, upon all occasions. And Oh Lord, do thou by thy blessed Spirit set up thyself in my heart, and enthrone thyself there, and reign and rule there for ever. Surely, my soul, Jesus is thine every-day Ebenezer; for he not only hath hitherto helped, but lie doth help, and will help, and be himself thine help, thy God, thy Portion, thy Jesus, for evermore.
December 30—Evening—2 Corinthians 5:1
"A building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."—2 Corinthians 5:1.
My soul, after thy last evening’s meditation on the shortness and unsatisfying nature of life, let thy present thoughts be occupied in beholding, with steady faith, the great contrast to it: and see whether thy confidence be as strong, and well founded, as the apostle’s. His was not a mere hope only, but an assurance in Jesus. "We know, (saith he) that if this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Dost thou know this? Is Jesus thy foundation? Hath God thy Father built for thee? And doth the Holy Ghost set his almighty hand to the work, in sweetly witnessing to the writings, and sealing the deed, that it is thine? Oh! the blessedness to know this, to live already in the enjoyment of it; and while the pins of thy earthly tabernacle are daily loosening, and taking out, to be looking with full assurance of an entrance into this house "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens!"
