Evening, January 19
Go To Morning Reading
“Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the
Scriptures.”
Luke 24:45
He whom we viewed last evening as opening Scripture, we here perceive
opening the understanding. In the first work he has many fellow-labourers,
but in the second he stands alone; many can bring the Scriptures to
the mind, but the Lord alone can prepare the mind to receive the Scriptures.
Our Lord Jesus differs from all other teachers; they reach the ear,
but he instructs the heart; they deal with the outward letter, but
he imparts an inward taste for the truth, by which we perceive its
savour and spirit. The most unlearned of men become ripe scholars
in the school of grace when the Lord Jesus by his Holy Spirit unfolds
the mysteries of the kingdom to them, and grants the divine anointing
by which they are enabled to behold the invisible. Happy are we if
we have had our understandings cleared and strengthened by the Master!
How many men of profound learning are ignorant of eternal things!
They know the killing letter of revelation, but its killing spirit
they cannot discern; they have a veil upon their hearts which the
eyes of carnal reason cannot penetrate. Such was our case a little
time ago; we who now see were once utterly blind; truth was to us
as beauty in the dark, a thing unnoticed and neglected. Had it not
been for the love of Jesus we should have remained to this moment
in utter ignorance, for without his gracious opening of our understanding,
we could no more have attained to spiritual knowledge than an infant
can climb the Pyramids, or an ostrich fly up to the stars. Jesus’ College is the only one in which God’s truth can be really learned; other schools may teach us what is
to be believed, but Christ’s alone can show us how to believe it. Let us sit at the feet of Jesus,
and by earnest prayer call in his blessed aid that our dull wits may
grow brighter, and our feeble understandings may receive heavenly
things.