Morning, December 1
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“Thou hast made summer and winter.”
Psalm 74:17
My soul begin this wintry month with thy God. The cold snows and the
piercing winds all remind thee that he keeps his covenant with day
and night, and tend to assure thee that he will also keep that glorious
covenant which he has made with thee in the person of Christ Jesus.
He who is true to his Word in the revolutions of the seasons of this
poor sin-polluted world, will not prove unfaithful in his dealings
with his own well-beloved Son.
Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it
be upon thee just now it will be very painful to thee: but there is
this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds
of expectation: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes over the once
verdant meadows of our joy: he casteth forth his ice like morsels
freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all, he is the great
Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore thou
canst not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and
a thousand other ills, are of the Lord’s sending, and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill noxious insects,
and put a bound to raging diseases; they break up the clods, and sweeten
the soil. O that such good results would always follow our winters
of affliction!
How we prize the fire just now! how pleasant is its cheerful glow!
Let us in the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source
of warmth and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw nigh to
him, and in him find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves
in the warm garments of his promises, and go forth to labours which
befit the season, for it were ill to be as the sluggard who will not
plough by reason of the cold; for he shall beg in summer and have
nothing.