Evening, May 3, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“A very present help.” — Psalm 46:1

Covenant blessings are not meant only to be looked at, but to be seized. Even our Lord Jesus is given to us for our present use. Believer, you do not make use of Christ as you ought to do. When you are in trouble, why not tell him all your grief? Does he not have a sympathetic heart, and can he not comfort and relieve you? No, you are going about to all your friends, except your best Friend, and telling your tale everywhere except to your Lord. Are you burdened with this day’s sins? Here is a fountain filled with blood: use it, believer, use it. Has a sense of guilt returned to you? The pardoning grace of Jesus may be demonstrated again and again. Come to him at once for cleansing. Do you despise your weakness? He is your strength; why not lean on him? Do you feel naked? Come here, soul; put on the robe of Jesus’ righteousness. Do not stand just looking at it, but wear it. Strip off your own righteousness, and your own fears too: put on the fair white linen, for it was meant to wear. Do you feel yourself sick? Pull the night bell of prayer, and call up the Beloved Physician! He will give the restorative medicine that will revive you. You are poor, but remember you have “a kinsman, a man of great wealth.” What! Will you not go to him, and ask him to give you of his abundance, when he has given you this promise, that you shall be a joint heir with him, and has made all that he is and all that he has, to be yours? There is nothing Christ dislikes more than for his people to make a show thing of him, and not to use him. He loves to be employed by us. The more burdens we put on his shoulders, the more precious he will be to us.

“Let us be simple with him, then,

Not backward, stiff, or cold,

As though our Bethlehem could be

What Sinai was of old.”