Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: August 31st

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. - 1 Peter 4:12.

AS if the apostle had said, in an enemy’s country opposition is to be looked for; in a vale of tears, weeping is to be reckoned upon. “Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward;” and Christians are born again to trouble, for “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” To how many accidents and diseases, disappointments and mortifications, are we liable! In what part are we not vulnerable! Our possessions render us capable of losses, and our enjoyments of sorrow!

All through life our affections feed our afflictions. And we suffer much more, on the whole, from friends than from foes. Our roses grow on thorns, and our honey wears a sting! And we need not wonder at this with regard to Christians, when we consider how necessary these exercises are for their spiritual and eternal welfare. Does not the vine, if it bear fruit, require pruning, “that it may bring forth more fruit”? Does not the ground require ploughing to prepare it for the reception of the seed? And do not the materials for the temple require hewing before they are fixed in their places? As said a good man one day, “Sir, I see that God cannot trust me either with health or wealth, and therefore keeps me sick and poor.” “The prosperity of fools destroys them.” And the prosperity of good men often injures them.

There is nothing, therefore, to be viewed as peculiar in our trials; there is nothing in them but what is common to men. Our brethren before us in the world were all afflicted in the same way. Perhaps we think that some believers are exempted from afflictions, and we are ready almost to envy them, for, while some afflictions are visible enough, others are more invisible. Yes, said a good woman one” day, when a person was mentioning to her her advantages,-“Ah,” said she, “you see my sails, but you do not see my ballast.” Whatever advantages any of us have, we must have proportionable ballast. “The heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger intermeddleth not with its joys.” In some way or other the language of the Scripture must be fulfilled. “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what so is he whom the Father chasteneth not?”

He that cometh unto God must believe that he is. - Hebrews 11:6.

IT is very desirable and absolutely necessary to be fully and correctly informed concerning God. Our consolation and our duty equally require that we should know who and what he is, what his connection with us, and what are his purposes towards us; for our apprehensions of God are in the quality of first principles; and if the first principles be erroneous, all the consequences deducible from them will partake of the error.

The standard of all perfection must be his nature; the rule of all worship and obedience must be his will; the source of all happiness must be his favour and friendship. But where is this all-important knowledge to be obtained? Pythagoras was a heathen philosopher; he believed in the transmigration of souls; he possessed great talents and learning and reputation; and it is reported of him that when he was asked, “What is God?” he required two days to consider it; at the expiration of which he required four days; at the expiration of which he required eight days; and so continued to enlarge the period of reflection; and at length confessed that the more he considered, the more he was at a loss to determine.

We take up the same question this morning; but we are going to address it, not to a heathen philosopher, but to a fisherman of Galilee, John-“What is God?” “God is love.” But here another question immediately arises: “How came this fisherman of Galilee to be possessed of this knowledge, and to be prepared to answer this question so satisfactorily and so readily?” “Because he was a partaker of revealed religion, was one of those to whom were committed the oracles of God; one of those who knew the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make us wise unto salvation.” “For the world by wisdom knew not God.” Men soon learned indeed to construct ships, build houses, and to handle the harp and the organ, long before the Flood; and ages afterwards we find Assyria, Greece, and Rome successively improving upon each other; in the arts and sciences they excelled. And if we would see a fine piece of statuary now, we must fetch it from the ruins of past ages.

But as to the knowledge the heathens had of the things of God, we have not only the testimony of the Apostle, but we have their own history and writings to convince us that “professing themselves to be wise they became fools,” they were “vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” And there is not a peasant in this country who possesses the Bible, however unlearned he may be, but knows more of God and of his gracious purposes towards mankind than all the sages of antiquity. Yes-

“’Tis God’s own sovereign power and love

That crowns the gospel with success,

And makes the babes in knowledge learn

The heights, and breadths, and lengths of grace.

“But all this glory lies concealed

From men of prudence and of might,

The prince of darkness blinds their eyes

And their own pride resists the light.”