Evening, November 17
Go To Morning Reading
“He that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.”
Ecclesiastes 10:9
Oppressors may get their will of poor and needy men as easily as they
can split logs of wood, but they had better mind, for it is a dangerous
business, and a splinter from a tree has often killed the woodman.
Jesus is persecuted in every injured saint, and he is mighty to avenge
his beloved ones. Success in treading down the poor and needy is a
thing to be trembled at: if there be no danger to persecutors here
there will be great danger hereafter.
To cleave wood is a common every-day business, and yet it has its dangers ; so then, reader, there are dangers connected with your calling and
daily life which it will be well for you to be aware of. We refer
not to hazards by flood and field, or by disease and sudden death,
but to perils of a spiritual sort. Your occupation may be as humble
as log splitting, and yet the devil can tempt you in it. You may be
a domestic servant, a farm labourer, or a mechanic, and you may be
greatly screened from temptations to the grosser vices, and yet some
secret sin may do you damage. Those who dwell at home, and mingle
not with the rough world, may yet be endangered by their very seclusion.
Nowhere is he safe who thinks himself so. Pride may enter a poor man’s heart; avarice may reign in a cottager’s bosom; uncleanness may venture into the quietest home; and anger,
and envy, and malice may insinuate themselves into the most rural
abode. Even in speaking a few words to a servant we may sin; a little
purchase at a shop may be the first link in a chain of temptations;
the mere looking out of a window may be the beginning of evil. O Lord,
how exposed we are! How shall we be secured! To keep ourselves is
work too hard for us: only thou thyself art able to preserve us in
such a world of evils. Spread thy wings over us, and we, like little
chickens, will cower down beneath thee, and feel ourselves safe!