Morning, March 1, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“I have drawn you with lovingkindness.” — Jeremiah 31:3

The thunder of the law and the terror of judgment are all used to bring us to Christ; but the final victory is realized by lovingkindness. The prodigal set out to his father’s house from a sense of need; but his father saw him a great way off, and ran to meet him; so that the last steps he took towards his father’s house were with the kiss still warm upon his cheek, and the welcome still ringing musically in his ears.

“Law and terrors do but harden

All the while they work alone;

But a sense of blood-bought pardon

Will dissolve a heart of stone.”

The Master came one night to the door, and knocked with the iron hand of the law; the door shook and trembled upon its hinges; but the man piled every piece of furniture which he could find against the door, for he said, “I will not admit the man.” The Master turned away, but eventually he came back, and with his own soft hand, using that part  where the nail had penetrated, he knocked again–oh, so softly and tenderly. This time the door did not shake, but, strange to say, it opened, and there upon his knees the once unwilling host was found rejoicing to receive his guest. “Come in, come in; you have knocked so that the depths of my being are moved for you. I could not think of your pierced hand leaving its mark of blood on my door, and of you going away houseless, your head covered in dew, and your locks with the mist of the night.’ I yield, I yield, your love has won my heart.” So in every case, loving kindness wins the day. What Moses with the tablets of stone could never do, Christ does with his pierced hand. Such is the doctrine of effective calling. Do I understand it experientially? Can I say, “He drew me, and I followed on, glad to confess the divine voice?” If so, may he continue to draw me, until at last I shall sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.