Evening, February 1
Go To Morning Reading
“Thy love to me was wonderful.”
2 Samuel 1:26
Come, dear readers, let each one of us speak for himself of the wonderful
love, not of Jonathan, but of Jesus. We will not relate what we have
been told, but the things which we have tasted and handled-of the
love of Christ. Thy love to me, O Jesus, was wonderful when I was
a stranger wandering far from thee, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind. Thy love restrained me from committing the
sin which is unto death, and withheld me from self-destruction. Thy
love held back the axe when Justice said, “Cut it down! why cumbereth it the ground?” Thy love drew me into the wilderness, stripped me there, and made
me feel the guilt of my sin, and the burden of mine iniquity. Thy
love spake thus comfortably to me when, I was sore dismayed—“Come unto me, and I will give thee rest.” Oh, how matchless thy love when, in a moment, thou didst wash my
sins away, and make my polluted soul, which was crimson with the blood
of my nativity, and black with the grime of my transgressions, to
be white as the driven snow, and pure as the finest wool. How thou
didst commend thy love when thou didst whisper in my ears, “I am thine and thou art mine.” Kind were those accents when thou saidst, “The Father himself loveth you.” And sweet the moments, passing sweet, when thou declaredst to me
“the love of the Spirit.” Never shall my soul forget those chambers of fellowship where thou
has unveiled thyself to me. Had Moses his cleft in the rock, where
he saw the train, the back parts of his God? We, too, have had our
clefts in the rock, where we have seen the full splendours of the
Godhead in the person of Christ. Did David remember the tracks of
the wild goat, the land of Jordan and the Hermonites? We, too, can
remember spots to memory dear, equal to these in blessedness. Precious
Lord Jesus, give us a fresh draught of thy wondrous love to begin
the month with. Amen.