Morning"For,
lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not
the least grain fall upon the earth."
Amos 9:9 Every sifting comes by divine command and permission. Satan must ask leave before he can lay a finger upon Job. Nay,
more, in some sense our siftings are directly the work of heaven, for the text says, "I will sift the house of Israel."
Satan, like a drudge, may hold the sieve, hoping to destroy the corn; but the overruling hand of the Master is accomplishing
the purity of the grain by the very process which the enemy intended to be destructive. Precious, but much sifted corn of
the Lord's floor, be comforted by the blessed fact that the Lord directeth both flail and sieve to his own glory, and to thine
eternal profit. The Lord Jesus will surely use the fan which is in his hand, and will divide the precious from the vile.
All are not Israel that are of Israel; the heap on the barn floor is not clean provender, and hence the winnowing process
must be performed. In the sieve true weight alone has power. Husks and chaff being devoid of substance must fly before the
wind, and only solid corn will remain. Observe the complete safety of the Lord's wheat; even the least grain has a promise
of preservation. God himself sifts, and therefore it is stern and terrible work; he sifts them in all places, "among
all nations"; he sifts them in the most effectual manner, "like as corn is sifted in a sieve"; and yet for
all this, not the smallest, lightest, or most shrivelled grain, is permitted to fall to the ground. Every individual believer
is precious in the sight of the Lord, a shepherd would not lose one sheep, nor a jeweller one diamond, nor a mother one child,
nor a man one limb of his body, nor will the Lord lose one of his redeemed people. However little we may be, if we are the
Lord's, we may rejoice that we are preserved in Christ Jesus. Evening"Straightway they forsook their nets,
and followed him."
Mark 1:18 When they heard the call of Jesus, Simon and Andrew obeyed at once without demur. If we would always, punctually and
with resolute zeal, put in practice what we hear upon the spot, or at the first fit occasion, our attendance at the means
of grace, and our reading of good books, could not fail to enrich us spiritually. He will not lose his loaf who has taken
care at once to eat it, neither can he be deprived of the benefit of the doctrine who has already acted upon it. Most readers
and hearers become moved so far as to purpose to amend; but, alas! the proposal is a blossom which has not been knit, and
therefore no fruit comes of it; they wait, they waver, and then they forget, till, like the ponds in nights of frost, when
the sun shines by day, they are only thawed in time to be frozen again. That fatal to-morrow is blood-red with the murder
of fair resolutions; it is the slaughter-house of the innocents. We are very concerned that our little book of "Evening
Readings" should not be fruitless, and therefore we pray that readers may not be readers only, but doers, of the word.
The practice of truth is the most profitable reading of it. Should the reader be impressed with any duty while perusing these
pages, let him hasten to fulfil it before the holy glow has departed from his soul, and let him leave his nets, and all that
he has, sooner than be found rebellious to the Master's call. Do not give place to the devil by delay! Haste while opportunity
and quickening are in happy conjunction. Do not be caught in your own nets, but break the meshes of worldliness, and away
where glory calls you. Happy is the writer who shall meet with readers resolved to carry out his teachings: his harvest shall
be a hundredfold, and his Master shall have great honour. Would to God that such might be our reward upon these brief meditations
and hurried hints. Grant it, O Lord, unto thy servant! |
