My Victorian Year #30

This week I'll focus on sharing quotes from Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening. Since I've missed a few weeks in a row, this makes the most sense!

• Downcast and troubled Christian, come and glean today in the broad field of promise. Here are an abundance of precious promises, which exactly meet your needs. Take this one, “He will not break the bruised reed—nor quench the smoldering wick.” Does not that suit your case? A reed—helpless, insignificant, and weak; a bruised reed, out of which no music can come; weaker than weakness itself.
• Would you glean another ear? “Come unto Me all who labor and are heavy laden—and I will give you rest.” What soft words! Your heart is tender, and the Master knows it, and therefore He speaks so gently to you. Will you not obey Him, and come to Him even now?
• You may gather ten thousand such golden ears as these! “I have blotted out your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your transgressions.” Or this, “Though your sins be as scarlet—they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson—they shall be as wool.”
• Or this, “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come, and let him who is athirst come, and whoever will—let him take the water of life freely.”
• All the year round, every hour of every day, God is richly blessing us; both when we sleep and when we wake—His mercy waits upon us.
• Like a river, His loving-kindness is always flowing, with a fullness as inexhaustible as His own nature. Like the atmosphere which constantly surrounds the earth, and is always ready to support the life of man, the benevolence of God surrounds all His creatures; in it, as in their element, they live, and move, and have their being.
• Let our hearts be warmed; let our spirits remember, meditate, and think upon this goodness of the Lord. Then let us praise Him with our lips, and laud and magnify His name from whose bounty all this goodness flows.
• Our belief in God’s wisdom, supposes and necessitates that He has a settled purpose and plan in the work of salvation. What would creation have been—without His design?
• And shall God be present in creation, ruling over all, and not in grace? Shall the new creation have fickle free will to preside over it—when divine counsel rules the old creation?
• Look at Providence! We know that not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father. Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
• God weighs the mountains of our grief in scales, and the hills of our tribulation in balances. And shall there be a God in providence and not in grace?
• Let me learn from Ruth, the gleaner. As she went out to gather the ears of grain, so must I go forth into the fields of prayer, meditation, the ordinances, and hearing the Word—to gather spiritual food.
• The gleaner gathers her portion ear by ear; her gains are little by little—so must I be content to search for single truths, if there be no greater plenty of them. Every ear helps to make a bundle, and every gospel lesson assists in making us wise unto salvation.
• Quietly contemplate the Lamb as the light of heaven. Light in Scripture is the emblem of JOY. The joy of the saints in heaven is comprised in this—Jesus chose us, loved us, bought us, cleansed us, robed us, kept us, glorified us—we are here entirely through the Lord Jesus.
• Light is also the cause of BEAUTY. Nothing of beauty is left, when light is gone. Without light no radiance flashes from the sapphire, no peaceful ray proceeds from the pearl. In the same way—all the beauty of the saints above comes from Jesus.
• Light is also the emblem of KNOWLEDGE. In heaven our knowledge will be perfect—but the Lord Jesus Himself will be the fountain of it.
• Light also means MANIFESTATION. Light manifests. In this present world—it does not yet appear what we shall be. God’s people are a hidden people—but when Christ receives His people into heaven, He will touch them with the wand of His own love, and change them into the image of His manifested glory!
• Believers are constantly spoken of in the Scriptures, as being people who are enlightened and taught of the Lord.
• Knowledge strengthens LOVE, as well as faith. Knowledge opens the door—and then through that door we see our Savior!
• We cannot love a Christ whom we do not know, at least, in some degree. If we know but little of the excellences of Jesus—what He has done for us, and what He is doing now—we cannot love Him much. The more we know Him—the more we shall love Him!
• Knowledge also strengthens HOPE. How can we hope for a thing—if we do not know of its existence?
• Knowledge supplies us reasons for PATIENCE. How shall we have patience—unless we know something of the sympathy of Christ, and understand the good which is to come out of the correction which our heavenly Father sends us?
• There is not one single grace of the Christian which, under God, will not be fostered and brought to perfection by holy knowledge.
• “We know that all things work together for good—to those who love God.” The Christian does not merely hold this as a theory—but he knows it as a matter of fact.
• Sins creep from their lurking places when the darkness reigns; I must myself mount the watch-tower, and watch unto prayer.
• Believers love Jesus with a deeper affection than they dare to give to any other being.
• It is our daily lament that we cannot love enough. Would that our hearts were capable of holding more, and reaching further.
• Since the first hour in which goodness came into conflict with evil, it has never ceased to be true in spiritual experience, that Satan hinders us.
• He hinders us when we are first coming to Jesus Christ. Fierce conflicts we had with Satan when we first looked to the cross and lived. Now that we are saved, he endeavors to hinder the completeness of our holy character.
• Satan is sure to hinder us when we are earnest in prayer. He hinders our importunity, and weakens our faith in order that, if possible, we may miss the blessing. Nor is Satan less vigilant in obstructing Christian work.
• It is by His life—that we live. He is in us, the hope of glory, the spring of our actions, the central thought which moves every other thought. Christ is the sustenance of our life. What can the Christian feed upon—but Jesus’ flesh and blood? 
• Christ is the solace of our life. All our true joys come from Him; and in times of trouble, His presence is our consolation. There is nothing worth living for—but Him; and His loving-kindness is better than life!
• Christ is the object of our life.
• Christ is the exemplar of our life. Where there is the same life within, there will, there must be, to a great extent, the same developments without; and if we live in near fellowship with the Lord Jesus—we shall grow like Him.
• Christ has power to pardon, power to pardon you, and millions such as you are. A word will speak it. He has nothing more to do to win your pardon; all the atoning work is done. He can, in answer to your tears, forgive your sins today, and make you know it. He can breathe into your soul at this very moment—a peace with God which passes all understanding, which shall spring from perfect remission of your manifold iniquities.
• If sin is pardoned—is not that an everlasting consolation? Next, the Lord gives His people an abiding sense of acceptance in Christ.
• The Christian knows that God looks upon him as standing in union with Jesus. Union to the risen Lord is a consolation of the most abiding order; it is, in fact, everlasting.
• Let sickness prostrate us, have we not seen hundreds of believers as happy in the weakness of disease—as they would have been in the strength of hale and blooming health? Let death’s arrows pierce us to the heart, our comfort does not die—for have not our ears full often heard the songs of saints as they have rejoiced because the living love of God was shed abroad in their hearts in dying moments? Yes, a sense of acceptance in the Beloved is an everlasting consolation.
• Moreover, the Christian has a conviction of his security. God has promised to save those who trust in Christ—the Christian does trust in Christ, and he believes that God will be as good as His Word, and will save him. He feels that he is safe by virtue of his being bound up with the person and work of Jesus!
• Until there is a real anguish in the sinner’s conscience, there is no Christ for him; until the chastisement which he feels becomes grievous, he cannot see Jesus.
• Beloved, our God, who is as the sun to us, always shines—but we do not always see Him—clouds hide His face; but no matter what drops may be falling, or what clouds may be threatening, if He does but shine—there will be a rainbow at once.
• When we behold Jesus—our sins vanish, and our doubts and fears subside. When Jesus walks the waters of the sea, how profound the calm!
• It is not my remembering God—it is God’s remembering me which is the ground of my safety. It is not my laying hold of His covenant—but His covenant’s laying hold on me.
• Even the remembrance of the covenant is not left to our memories, for we might forget—but our Lord cannot forget the saints whom He has engraved on the palms of His hands.
• My looking to Jesus brings me joy and peace—but it is God’s looking to Jesus which secures my salvation and that of all His elect, since it is impossible for our God to look at Christ, our bleeding Surety, and then to be angry with us for sins already punished in Him.
• Cling to that cross which took your sin away; serve Him who served you. “I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
• Cheerful holiness is the most forcible of sermons—but the Lord must give it to you. Seek it this morning before you go into the world.
• If those who spend so many hours in idle company, light reading, and useless pastimes, could learn wisdom—they would find more profitable society and more interesting engagements in meditation than in the vanities which now have such charms for them.
• We would all know more, live nearer to God, and grow in grace—if we were more alone with God. Meditation chews the cud, and extracts the real nutriment from the mental food gathered elsewhere.
• Let a Christian begin to boast, “I can do all things,” without adding “through Christ who strengthens me,” and before long he will have to groan, “I can do nothing,” and bemoan himself in the dust. When we do anything for the Lord, and He is pleased to accept of our doings, let us lay our crown at His feet, and exclaim, “Not I—but the grace of God which was with me!”
• Meditate a little on this mercy of the Lord. It is tender mercy. With gentle, loving touch, He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds. He is as gracious in the manner of His mercy—as in the matter of it. It is great mercy. There is nothing little in God; His mercy is like Himself—it is infinite. You cannot measure it. His mercy is so great—that it forgives great sins to great sinners, after great lengths of time; and then gives great favors and great privileges, and raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God!
• It is undeserved mercy, as indeed all true mercy must be, for deserved mercy is only a misnomer for justice.
• It is rich mercy. Some things are great—but have little efficacy in them—but this mercy is a cordial to your drooping spirits; a golden ointment to your bleeding wounds; a heavenly bandage to your broken bones; a royal chariot for your weary feet; a bosom of love for your trembling heart!
• It is manifold mercy. As Bunyan says, “All the flowers in God’s garden are double.” There is no single mercy. You may think you have but one mercy—but you shall find it to be a whole cluster of mercies.
• It is abounding mercy. Millions have received it—yet far from its being exhausted; it is as fresh, as full, and as free as ever!
• It is unfailing mercy. It will never leave you. If saved by sovereign mercy—mercy will be with you in temptation—to keep you from yielding; with you in trouble—to prevent you from sinking; with you living—to be the light and life of your countenance; and with you dying—to be the joy of your soul when earthly comfort is ebbing fast!
• The God of providence has limited the time, manner, intensity and effects of all our sicknesses. Each throb is decreed, each sleepless hour predestinated, each relapse ordained, each depression of spirit foreknown, and each sanctifying result eternally purposed. Nothing great or small escapes the ordaining hand of Him who numbers the hairs of our head.
• Affliction does not come by chance—the weight of every stroke of the rod—is accurately measured. He who made no mistakes in balancing the clouds, and measuring out the heavens, commits no errors in measuring out the ingredients which compose the medicine of souls. We cannot suffer too much—nor be relieved too late!
• The knife of the heavenly Surgeon never cuts deeper than is absolutely necessary. “He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.”
• To adulterate the Church is to pollute a well, to pour water upon fire, to sow a fertile field with stones.
• We are here taught the great lesson, that to get—we must give; that to accumulate—we must scatter; that to make ourselves happy—we must make others happy; and that in order to become spiritually vigorous—we must seek the spiritual good of others. In watering others—we are ourselves watered. How?
• Our strength for labor is hidden even from ourselves—until we venture forth to fight the Lord’s battles, or to climb the mountains of difficulty. We do not know what tender sympathies we possess—until we try to dry the widow’s tears, and soothe the orphan’s grief.
• We often find in attempting to teach others—that we gain instruction for ourselves. Oh, what gracious lessons some of us have learned at sick beds! We went to teach the Scriptures, we came away blushing that we knew so little of them.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible