"Received up into glory."

"Received up into glory."1 Timothy 3:16

We have seen our well-beloved Lord in the days of his flesh, humiliated and sore vexed; for he was "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." He whose brightness is as the morning, wore the sackcloth of sorrow as his daily dress: shame was his mantle, and reproach was his vesture. 

Yet now, inasmuch as he has triumphed over all the powers of darkness upon the bloody tree, our faith beholds our King returning with dyed garments from Edom, robed in the splendour of victory. 

How glorious must he have been in the eyes of seraphs, when a cloud received him out of mortal sight, and he ascended up to heaven! Now he wears the glory which he had with God or ever the earth was, and yet another glory above all--that which he has well earned in the fight against sin, death, and hell. 

As victor he wears the illustrious crown. 

Hark how the song swells high! It is a new and sweeter song: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, for he hath redeemed us unto God by his blood!" He wears the glory of an Intercessor who can never fail, of a Prince who can never be defeated, of a Conqueror who has vanquished every foe, of a Lord who has the heart's allegiance of every subject. 

Jesus wears all the glory which the pomp of heaven can bestow upon him, which ten thousand times ten thousand angels can minister to him. 

You cannot with your utmost stretch of imagination conceive his exceeding greatness; yet there will be a further revelation of it when he shall descend from heaven in great power, 

with all the holy angels--

"Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." 

Oh, the splendour of that glory! 

It will ravish his people's hearts. Nor is this the close, for eternity shall sound his praise, 

"Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever!" 

Reader, if you would joy in Christ's glory hereafter, he must be glorious in your sight now. Is he so?

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

"He humbled himself."

"He humbled himself."

Philippians 2:8

Jesus is the great teacher of lowliness of heart. 

We need daily to learn of him. See the Master taking a towel and washing his disciples' feet! 

Follower of Christ, wilt thou not humble thyself? See him as the Servant of servants, and surely thou canst not be proud! Is not this sentence the compendium of his biography,

"He humbled himself"? 

Was he not on earth always stripping off first one robe of honour and then another, till, naked, he was fastened to the cross, and there did he not empty out his inmost self, pouring out his life-blood, giving up for all of us, till they laid him penniless in a borrowed grave? 

How low was our dear Redeemer brought!

How then can we be proud? 

Stand at the foot of the cross, and count the purple drops by which you have been cleansed; see the thorn-crown; mark his scourged shoulders, still gushing with encrimsoned rills; see hands and feet given up to the rough iron, and his whole self to mockery and scorn; see the bitterness, and the pangs, and the throes of inward grief, showing themselves in his outward frame; hear the thrilling shriek, 

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 

And if you do not lie prostrate on the ground before that cross, you have never seen it: if you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus, you do not know him. You were so lost that nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God's only begotten. Think of that, and as Jesus stooped for you, bow yourself in lowliness at his feet. A sense of Christ's amazing love to us has a greater tendency to humble us than even a consciousness of our own guilt. 

May the Lord bring us in contemplation to Calvary, then our position will no longer be that of the pompous man of pride, but we shall take the humble place of one who loves much because much has been forgiven him. 

Pride cannot live beneath the cross. Let us sit there and learn our lesson, and then rise and carry it into practice.

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

"Good Master."

"Good Master."

Matthew 19:16

If the young man in the gospel used this title in speaking to our Lord, how much more fitly may I thus address him! He is indeed my Master in both senses, a ruling Master and a teaching Master. I delight to run upon his errands, and to sit at his feet. I am both his servant and his disciple, and count it my highest honour to own the double character. 


If he should ask me why I call him "good," I should have a ready answer. It is true that "there is none good but one, that is, God," but then he is God, and all the goodness of Deity shines forth in him. In my experience, I have found him good, so good, indeed, that all the good I have has come to me through him. He was good to me when I was dead in sin, for he raised me by his Spirit's power; he has been good to me in all my needs, trials, struggles, and sorrows. 


Never could there be a better Master, for his service is freedom, his rule is love: I wish I were one thousandth part as good a servant. When he teaches me as my Rabbi, he is unspeakably good, his doctrine is divine, his manner is condescending, his spirit is gentleness itself.


No error mingles with his instruction--pure is the golden truth which he brings forth, and all his teachings lead to goodness, sanctifying as well as edifying the disciple. Angels find him a good Master and delight to pay their homage at his footstool. The ancient saints proved him to be a good Master, and each of them rejoiced to sing, "I am thy servant, O Lord!" My own humble testimony must certainly be to the same effect. 


I will bear this witness before my friends and neighbours, for possibly they may be led by my testimony to seek my Lord Jesus as their Master. O that they would do so! They would never repent so wise a deed. If they would but take his easy yoke, they would find themselves in so royal a service that they would enlist in it forever.

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

"He will make her wilderness like Eden."

"He will make her wilderness like Eden."

Isaiah 51:3

Methinks, I see in vision a howling wilderness, a great and terrible desert, like to the Sahara. 

I perceive nothing in it to relieve the eye, all around I am wearied with a vision of hot and arid sand, strewn with ten thousand bleaching skeletons of wretched men who have expired in anguish, having lost their way in the pitiless waste. 

What an appalling sight! How horrible! a sea of sand without a bound, and without an oasis, a cheerless graveyard for a race forlorn! But behold and wonder! Upon a sudden, upspringing from the scorching sand I see a plant of renown; and as it grows it buds, the bud expands--it is a rose, and at its side a lily bows its modest head; and, miracle of miracles! as the fragrance of those flowers is diffused the wilderness is transformed into a fruitful field, and all around it blossoms exceedingly, the glory of Lebanon is given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. 

Call it not Sahara, call it Paradise. Speak not of it any longer as the valley of deathshade, for where the skeletons lay bleaching in the sun, behold a resurrection is proclaimed, and up spring the dead, a mighty army, full of life immortal. 

Jesus is that plant of renown, and his presence makes all things new. Nor is the wonder less in each individual's salvation. Yonder I behold you, dear reader, cast out, an infant, unswathed, unwashed, defiled with your own blood, left to be food for beasts of prey. 

But lo, a jewel has been thrown into your bosom by a divine hand, and for its sake you have been pitied and tended by divine providence, you are washed and cleansed from your defilement, you are adopted into heaven's family, the fair seal of love is upon your forehead, and the ring of faithfulness is on your hand--you are now a prince unto God, though once an orphan, cast away. 

O prize exceedingly the matchless power and grace which changes deserts into gardens, and makes the barren heart to sing for joy.

GOD'S GIFT FOR THE BELIEVERS !!!

Revelation 21: 2-4

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, 

coming down out of heaven from God, 

prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for 

her husband. 

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 

“Look! God’s 

dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. 

They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. 

There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

God, the Master, comes in power !!!

Isaiah 40:11 (The Message)

    Climb a high mountain, Zion.

   You're the preacher of good news.

Raise your voice. Make it good and loud, Jerusalem.

   You're the preacher of good news.

   Speak loud and clear. Don't be timid!

Tell the cities of Judah,

   "Look! Your God!"

Look at him! God, the Master, comes in power,

   ready to go into action.

He is going to pay back his enemies

   and reward those who have loved him.

Like a shepherd, he will care for his flock,

   gathering the lambs in his arms,

Hugging them as he carries them,

   leading the nursing ewes to good pasture.

"Who healeth all thy diseases."

"Who healeth all thy diseases."

Psalm 103:3

Humbling as is the statement, yet the fact is certain, 

that we are all more or less suffering 

under the disease of sin. 

What a comfort to know that we have a great Physician who is both able and willing to heal us! 

Let us think of him awhile tonight. His cures are very speedy--there is life in a look at him; his cures are radical--he strikes at the centre of the disease; and hence, his cures are sure and certain. 

He never fails, and the disease never returns. 

There is no relapse where Christ heals; no fear that his patients should be merely patched up for a season, he makes new men of them: a new heart also does he give them, and a right spirit does he put within them. 

He is well skilled in all diseases. Physicians generally have some speciality. Although they may know a little about almost all our pains and ills, there is usually one disease which they have studied above all others; but Jesus Christ is thoroughly acquainted with the whole of human nature. He is as much at home with one sinner as with another, and never yet did he meet with an out-of-the-way case that was difficult to him. 

He has had extraordinary complications of strange diseases to deal with, but he has known exactly with one glance of his eye how to treat the patient. He is the only universal doctor; and the medicine he gives is the only true catholicon, healing in every instance. Whatever our spiritual malady may be, we should apply at once to this Divine Physician. There is no brokenness of heart which Jesus cannot bind up. "His blood cleanseth from all sin."

 We have but to think of the myriads who have been delivered from all sorts of diseases through the power and virtue of his touch, and we shall joyfully put ourselves in his hands. 

We trust him, and sin dies; we love him, and grace lives; we wait for him and grace is strengthened; we see him as he is, and grace is perfected forever.

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

''Abba, Father.''

Romans 8:15-16 (NIV).

 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry,''Abba, Father.'' The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children....... 

Thoughts on This Verse... 

Ab-ba. Listen to a baby and you will hear these basic early sounds. Incredibly, Jesus showed us, and the Spirit enables us, to speak to God with these syllables of familiarity, trust, vulnerability, dependency, and intimacy. The Spirit is our guarantee that we don't have to be afraid of God, but that we can approach him as our loving and tender Father who always listens to our hearts and seeks to bless our lives. 

"That henceforth we should not serve sin."

"That henceforth we should not serve sin."

Romans 6:6

Christian, what hast thou to do with sin? 

Hath it not cost thee enough already? 

Burnt child, wilt thou play with the fire? 

What! when thou hast already been between the jaws of the lion, wilt thou step a second time into his den? 

Hast thou not had enough of the old serpent? 

Did he not poison all thy veins once, and wilt thou play upon the hole of the asp, and put thy hand upon the cockatrice's den a second time? Oh, be not so mad! so foolish! Did sin ever yield thee real pleasure? Didst thou find solid satisfaction in it? If so, go back to thine old drudgery, and wear the chain again, if it delight thee. 

But inasmuch as sin did never give thee what it promised to bestow, but deluded thee with lies, be not a second time snared by the old fowler--be free, and let the remembrance of thy ancient bondage forbid thee to enter the net again! It is contrary to the designs of eternal love, which all have an eye to thy purity and holiness; therefore run not counter to the purposes of thy Lord.

 Another thought should restrain thee from sin. Christians can never sin cheaply; they pay a heavy price for iniquity. Transgression destroys peace of mind, obscures fellowship with Jesus, hinders prayer, brings darkness over the soul; therefore be not the serf and bondman of sin. 

There is yet a higher argument: each time you "serve sin" you have "Crucified the Lord afresh, and put him to an open shame." Can you bear that thought? Oh! if you have fallen into any special sin during this day, it may be my Master has sent this admonition this evening, to bring you back before you have backslidden very far.

 Turn thee to Jesus anew; he has not forgotten his love to thee; his grace is still the same. 

With weeping and repentance, come thou to his footstool, and thou shalt be once more received into his heart; thou shalt be set upon a rock again, and thy goings shall be established.

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY !!!

Memorial Day Comments

Are we doing all we can for Jesus and the gospel?

"Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho."

Joshua 6:26

Since he was cursed who rebuilt Jericho, much more the man who labours to restore Popery among us. 

In our fathers' days the gigantic walls of Popery fell by the power of their faith, the perseverance of their efforts, and the blast of their gospel trumpets; and now there are some who would rebuild that accursed system upon its old foundation. 

O Lord, be pleased to thwart their unrighteous endeavours, and pull down every stone which they build. It should be a serious business with us to be thoroughly purged of every error which may have a tendency to foster the spirit of Popery, and when we have made a clean sweep at home we should seek in every way to oppose its all too rapid spread abroad in the church and in the world. 

This last can be done in secret by fervent prayer, and in public by decided testimony. We must warn with judicious boldness those who are inclined towards the errors of Rome; we must instruct the young in gospel truth, and tell them of the black doings of Popery in the olden times. We must aid in spreading the light more thoroughly through the land, for priests, like owls, hate daylight. 

Are we doing all we can for Jesus and the gospel? 

If not, our negligence plays into the hands of the priestcraft. 

What are we doing to spread the Bible, which is the Pope's bane and poison? Are we casting abroad good, sound gospel writings? Luther once said, 

"The devil hates goose quills" 

and, doubtless, he has good reason, for ready writers, by the Holy Spirit's blessing, have done his kingdom much damage. If the thousands who will read this short word today will do all they can to hinder the rebuilding of this accursed Jericho, the Lord's glory shall speed among the sons of men. 

Reader, what can you do? 

What will you do?

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."