Morning, March 17
Go To Evening Reading
“Remember the poor.”
Galatians 2:10
Why does God allow so many of his children to be poor? He could make
them all rich if he pleased; he could lay bags of gold at their doors;
he could send them a large annual income; or he could scatter round
their houses abundance of provisions, as once he made the quails lie
in heaps round the camp of Israel, and rained bread out of heaven
to feed them. There is no necessity that they should be poor, except
that he sees it to be best. “The cattle upon a thousand hills are his”—he could supply them; he could make the richest, the greatest, and
the mightiest bring all their power and riches to the feet of his
children, for the hearts of all men are in his control. But he does
not choose to do so; he allows them to suffer want, he allows them
to pine in penury and obscurity. Why is this? There are many reasons:
one is, to give us, who are favoured with enough, an opportunity of showing our love to Jesus . We show our love to Christ when we sing of him and when we pray
to him; but if there were no sons of need in the world we should lose
the sweet privilege of evidencing our love, by ministering in alms-giving
to his poorer brethren; he has ordained that thus we should prove
that our love standeth not in word only, but in deed and in truth.
If we truly love Christ, we shall care for those who are loved by
him. Those who are dear to him will be dear to us. Let us then look
upon it not as a duty but as a privilege to relieve the poor of the
Lord’s flock—remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me.” Surely this assurance is sweet enough, and this motive strong enough
to lead us to help others with a willing hand and a loving heart—recollecting that all we do for his people is graciously accepted
by Christ as done to himself.