the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Our Daily Homily - Volume 1
Exodus 12:8—With bitter herbs.
The Paschal feast is the emblem of the Christian life. The Blood is ever speaking to God for us; though we see it not, God sees it, and hears its prevalent plea. We in the meanwhile are called upon to feed in faith daily, hourly, on the flesh of the Son of Man, according to his own command. In all Christian life, even in its hours of greatest rapture, there must be a touch of the bitter herb.
We can never forget the cost of our redemption.—Even in heaven, in the full realization of its bliss, whenever we catch sight of the print of the nails in his hand, we shall remember the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and passion, and eat the feast with the flavor of the bitter herb. How much more on earth, where we are so constantly requiring the efficacy of his precious death!
There will always be the memory of our sinner-ship.—We cannot forget our unworthiness and sin. He has forgiven; but we cannot forget. Ah, those years of rebellion and perverseness before we yielded to Him; and those years of self-will and pride since we knew his love! They will sometimes come back to us and give us to eat of the bitter herb.
Moreover, there must be the constant crucifixion of the self-life.—We can only properly feed on Jesus, the Lamb of God, when we are animated by the spirit of self-surrender and humiliation, of death to the world and to the will of the flesh, which were the characteristics of his cross. Deep down in our hearts, the drinking of his cup and being baptized with his baptism, will be the touch of the bitter herbs in the feast. But "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."
