July 9

Morning

Forget not all His benefits. — Ps 103:2

It is a delightful and profitable occupation to mark the hand of God in the lives of ancient saints, and to observe His goodness in delivering them, His mercy in pardoning them, and His faithfulness in keeping His covenant with them.

But would it not be even more interesting and profitable for us to mark the hand of God in our own lives? Ought we not to look upon our own history as being at least as full of God—as full of His goodness and of His truth, as much a proof of His faithfulness and veracity—as the lives of any of the saints who have gone before us? We do our Lord an injustice, when we suppose that He wrought all His mighty acts, and showed Himself strong for those in the earlier times but does not perform wonders or lay bare His arm for the saints who are now upon the earth.

Let us review our own lives. Surely in these, we may discover some happy incidents, refreshing to ourselves and glorifying to our God. Have you had no deliverances? Have you passed through no rivers, supported by the divine presence? Have you walked through no fires unharmed? Have you had no spiritual manifestations of Christ to your heart? Have you had no choice favors? The God who gave Solomon the desire of his heart—has He never listened to you and answered your requests? That God of lavish bounty of whom David sang, “Who satisfies your mouth with good things,” has He never satiated you with fatness? Have you never been made to lie down in green pastures? Have you never been led by the still waters?

Surely the goodness of God has been the same to us as to the saints of old. Let us, then, weave His mercies into a song. Let us take the pure gold of thankfulness, and the jewels of praise and make them into another crown for the head of Jesus. Let our souls give forth music as sweet and as exhilarating as came from David’s harp, while we praise the Lord—whose mercy endures forever!

Evening

And God divided the light from the darkness. — Gen 1:4

A believer has two principles at work within him. In his natural state, he was subject to one principle only, which was darkness; now light has entered, and the two principles disagree. Mark the apostle Paul’s words in the seventh chapter of Romans, “I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.” How has this state of things come to pass?

“The Lord divided the light from the darkness.” Darkness, by itself, is quiet and undisturbed but when the Lord sends in light, there is a conflict, for the one is in opposition to the other—a conflict which will never cease until the believer is altogether light in the Lord. If there is a division within the individual Christian, there is certain to be a division without. As soon as the Lord gives to any man light, he proceeds to separate himself from the darkness around; he secedes from a merely worldly religion of outward ceremonial, for nothing short of the gospel of Christ will now satisfy him; and he withdraws himself from worldly society and frivolous amusements.

He also seeks the company of the saints, for “we know we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” The light gathers to itself, and the darkness gathers to itself. What God has divided—let us never try to unite; but as Christ went outside the camp, bearing His reproach, so let us come out from the ungodly, and be a peculiar people. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners; and, as He was—so we are to be nonconformists to the world, dissenting from all sin, and distinguished from the rest of mankind by our likeness to our Master!