Evening, March 31
Go To Morning Reading
“And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for
her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped
upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air
to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.”
2 Samuel 21:10
If the love of a woman to her slain sons could make her prolong her
mournful vigil for so long a period, shall we weary of considering
the sufferings of our blessed Lord? She drove away the birds of prey,
and shall not we chase from our meditations those worldly and sinful
thoughts which defile both our minds and the sacred themes upon which
we are occupied? Away, ye birds of evil wing! Leave ye the sacrifice
alone! She bore the heats of summer, the night dews and the rains,
unsheltered and alone. Sleep was chased from her weeping eyes: her
heart was too full for slumber. Behold how she loved her children!
Shall Rizpah thus endure, and shall we start at the first little inconvenience
or trial? Are we such cowards that we cannot bear to suffer with our
Lord? She chased away even the wild beasts, with courage unusual in
her sex, and will not we be ready to encounter every foe for Jesus’ sake? These her children were slain by other hands than hers, and
yet she wept and watched: what ought we to do who have by our sins
crucified our Lord? Our obligations are boundless, our love should
be fervent and our repentance thorough. To watch with Jesus should
be our business, to protect his honour our occupation, to abide by
his cross our solace. Those ghastly corpses might well have affrighted
Rizpah, especially by night, but in our Lord, at whose cross-foot
we are sitting, there is nothing revolting, but everything attractive.
Never was living beauty so enchanting as a dying Saviour. Jesus, we
will watch with thee yet awhile, and do thou graciously unveil thyself
to us; then shall we not sit beneath sackcloth, but in a royal pavilion.