Morning, February 23 Go To Evening Reading
“I will never leave thee.”
—Hebrews 13:5
No promise is of private interpretation. Whatever God has said to any saint, he has spoken to all. When he opens a well for one, all may drink. When he openeth a granary-door to give out food, there may be someone starving Man who is the occasion of its being opened, but all hungry saints may come and feed too. Whether he gave the word to Abraham or to Moses, matters not, O believer; he has given it to thee as one of the covenanted seed. There is not a high blessing too lofty for thee, nor vast mercy too extensive for thee. Lift up thine eyes to the north and south, to the east and west, for all this is thine. Climb to Pisgah’s top, and view the utmost limit of the divine promise, for the land is all thine own. There is not a brook of the living water of which thou mayst not drink. If the land floweth with milk and honey, eat the honey and drink the milk, for both are thine. Be thou bold to believe, for he hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” In this promise, God gives to his people everything. “I will never leave thee.” Then no attribute of God can cease to be engaged for us. Is he mighty? He will show himself strong on behalf of those who trust him. Is he love? Then with lovingkindness, will he have mercy upon us. Whatever attributes may compose the character of Deity, every one of them to its fullest extent shall be engaged on our side. To put everything in one, there is nothing you can want, there is nothing you can ask for, there is nothing you can need in time or in eternity, there is nothing living, nothing dying, there is nothing in this world, nothing in the next world, there is nothing new, nothing at the resurrection-morning, nothing in heaven which is not contained in this text—“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
Go To Morning Reading Evening, February 23
“Take up the cross, and follow me.”
—Mark 10:21
You have not the making of your own cross, although unbelief is a master carpenter at cross-making; neither are you permitted to choose your own cross, although self-will would fain be Lord and master; but your cross is prepared and appointed for you by divine love, and you are cheerful to accept it; you are to take up the cross as your chosen badge and burden, and not to stand caviling at it. This night Jesus bids you submit your shoulder to his easy yoke. Do not kick at it in petulance, or trample on it in vain-glory, or fall under it in despair, or run away from it in fear, but take it up as a faithful follower of Jesus. Jesus was a cross-bearer; he led the way in the path of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better guide! And if he carried a cross, what nobler burden would you like? The Via Crucis is the way of safety; fear not to tread its thorny paths.
Beloved, the cross is not made of feathers or lined with velvet, it is heavy and galling to disobedient shoulders, but it is not an iron cross, though your fears have painted it with iron colors, it is a wooden cross, and a man can carry it, for the Man of sorrows tried the load. Take up your cross, and by the power of the Spirit of God, you will soon be so in love with it, that like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it, and it will smell sweet; remember that it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming weight of glory will significantly lighten the present heaviness of trouble. The Lord help you bow your spirit in submission to the divine will ere you fall asleep this night, that waking with to-morrow’s sun, you may go forth to the day’s cross with the holy and submissive spirit which becomes a follower of the Crucified.
Spurgeon, C. H. Morning and Evening: Daily Readings. London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896. Print.
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