Morning, August 27
Go To Evening Reading
“How long will it be ere they believe me?”
Numbers 14:11
Strive with all diligence to keep out that monster unbelief . It so dishonours Christ, that he will withdraw his visible presence
if we insult him by indulging it. It is true it is a weed, the seeds
of which we can never entirely extract from the soil, but we must
aim at its root with zeal and perseverance. Among hateful things it
is the most to be abhorred. Its injurious nature is so venomous that
he that exerciseth it and he upon whom it is exercised are both hurt
thereby. In thy case, O believer! it is most wicked, for the mercies
of thy Lord in the past, increase thy guilt in doubting him now. When
thou dost distrust the Lord Jesus, he may well cry out, “Behold I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of
sheaves.” This is crowning his head with thorns of the sharpest kind. It is
very cruel for a well-beloved wife to mistrust a kind and faithful
husband. The sin is needless, foolish, and unwarranted. Jesus has
never given the slightest ground for suspicion, and it is hard to
be doubted by those to whom our conduct is uniformly affectionate
and true. Jesus is the Son of the Highest, and has unbounded wealth;
it is shameful to doubt Omnipotence and distrust all-sufficiency.
The cattle on a thousand hills will suffice for our most hungry feeding,
and the granaries of heaven are not likely to be emptied by our eating.
If Christ were only a cistern, we might soon exhaust his fulness,
but who can drain a fountain? Myriads of spirits have drawn their
supplies from him, and not one of them has murmured at the scantiness
of his resources. Away, then, with this lying traitor unbelief, for
his only errand is to cut the bonds of communion and make us mourn
an absent Saviour. Bunyan tells us that unbelief has “as many lives as a cat:” if so, let us kill one life now, and continue the work till the whole
nine are gone. Down with thee, thou traitor, my heart abhors thee.