Evening, September 10
Go To Morning Reading
“Evening wolves.”
Habakkuk 1:8
While preparing the present volume, this particular expression recurred
to me so frequently, that in order to be rid of its constant importunity
I determined to give a page to it. The evening wolf, infuriated by
a day of hunger, was fiercer and more ravenous than he would have
been in the morning. May not the furious creature represent our doubts
and fears after a day of distraction of mind, losses in business,
and perhaps ungenerous tauntings from our fellow men? How our thoughts
howl in our ears, “Where is now thy God?” How voracious and greedy they are, swallowing up all suggestions
of comfort, and remaining as hungry as before. Great Shepherd, slay
these evening wolves, and bid thy sheep lie down in green pastures,
undisturbed by insatiable unbelief. How like are the fiends of hell
to evening wolves, for when the flock of Christ are in a cloudy and
dark day, and their sun seems going down, they hasten to tear and
to devour. They will scarcely attack the Christian in the daylight
of faith, but in the gloom of soul conflict they fall upon him. O
thou who hast laid down thy life for the sheep, preserve them from
the fangs of the wolf.
False teachers who craftily and industriously hunt for the precious
life, devouring men by their false-hoods, are as dangerous and detestable
as evening wolves. Darkness is their element, deceit is their character,
destruction is their end. We are most in danger from them when they
wear the sheep’s skin. Blessed is he who is kept from them, for thousands are made
the prey of grievous wolves that enter within the fold of the church.
What a wonder of grace it is when fierce persecutors are converted,
for then the wolf dwells with the lamb, and men of cruel ungovernable
dispositions become gentle and teachable. O Lord, convert many such:
for such we will pray tonight.