the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions
July 20—Morning—Jeremiah 18:2
"Arise, and go down to the potter’s house; and there I will cause thee to hear my words."—Jeremiah 18:2.
Yes, Lord, with the first of the morning will I arise, and go down at thy command, where, by the secret and silent whispers of thy divine teaching, I may gather suitable instructions for interpreting all thy dispensations, both in providence and grace, towards me. Mark, my soul, the vessel marred in the hand of the potter. Alas, how hath our nature been marred since it came out of the hand of our Almighty Potter! Will the potter cast his vessel away? No, he will new make it. Oh thou glorious Lord! methinks I hear thy words in this, for thou hast not thrown us away, but hast new made us, and more blessedly made us in Christ Jesus. My soul, art thou indeed thus new made, a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the master’s use? Attend then to thy proper character, and never lose sight of it. Refer every act of mercy and favour in thy original creation, in thy new creation, when marred by sin, and in all the appointments and dispensations, both in nature, providence and grace, in which thou art placed, to the sovereign will and pleasure of Jehovah, thine Almighty Potter. All the different forms, and the different ends, for which the whole is appointed, result from his sovereignty, in which the richest display of wisdom and of love is shewn. "Shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?" Much less in any of the dispensations, either in providence or grace, shall any say, why dost thou use me thus? Precious Jesus, it is enough to be new made in thee; to be new formed in thy blessed likeness; to be taken into thy service; and to be made a meet vessel for the master’s use in thy family. Thy church is as a great and well-furnished house, where there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth. And if my Lord condescend to look on me, to use me, nay, to bring me into his house and family, that I may be always under his own gracious eye; how humble soever the place or lowly the station, to belong to Jesus is the supreme honour of all his saints. My soul, make frequent visits to the potter’s house, and never fail to go down there whenever any temptation from the enemy, or thine own heart, causeth thee to forget thy creatureship, and the wonders of a marred creature, being new made in Christ Jesus.
July 20—Evening—1 Corinthians 5:7
"Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us."—1 Corinthians 5:7.
Thou art not wearied, my soul, I hope, with the subject of thy last evening’s meditation; and if not, the subject itself of the passover is so abundantly interesting, that it furnisheth endless matter for the sweetest thought. Every thing in the Jewish passover was typical and figurative of Jesus; and therefore, that we might not err on so important a point, the Holy Ghost, by his servant the apostle, calls him by this very name; "Christ, our passover," and adds, "was sacrificed for us." A lamb of the first year, without blemish and without spot, was set apart, in the Jewish church, for the observance of this service; and Christ, the Lamb of God, who was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners," was set apart, in the Christian church, for the redemption of his people, from all eternity. The lamb was slain, in the Jewish church, and roasted with fire; and when Christ was slain on the cross, in the Christian church, the agonies of his soul were such as one sustaining the fire of wrath against sin: he was made both sin and a curse, that his people might be made "the righteousness of God in him." The lamb, in the Jewish passover, was to be roasted whole, and not a bone of him was to be broken; and one of the principal features of the Lamb of God, in the Christian passover, is, that we are to receive a whole Christ for salvation, whose bones, when on the cross, as if to prove the allusion of the type to him, by a divine providence, were not broken. The blood of the lamb, in the Jewish passover, was to be sprinkled on the lintels and posts of the houses of the Israelites, to preserve the inhabitants from destruction; and in the Christian passover, it is not the blood shed only, but the blood applied, by sprinkling on the sinner’s conscience, that delivers him from the wrath to come. Neither the bolts nor bars of the Israelites’ houses, no, nor all the prayers offered up within, became the least cause of their safety; but the blood on the door. So, in like manner, it is neither the prayers, nor repentance, no, nor faith, as an act of our own, that can preserve from destruction: it is "the blood of Christ alone, that "cleanseth from all sin." Oh! how blessed is it to see the great work of redemption thus shadowed forth in the scriptures from the beginning, and that the whole, and every part of the Jewish service referred to the Christian sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. "Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us." Oh! for grace to keep the feast at the Lord’s table, a feast upon that sacrifice, and to remember what the Holy Ghost saith:" Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us," Hebrews 9:11-12.
