Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotions
For the evening of March 21stby Charles H. Spurgeon
"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the
bands of Orion?"
--Job 38:31
If inclined to boast of our abilities, the grandeur of nature
may soon show us how puny we are. We cannot move the least of
all the twinkling stars, or quench so much as one of the beams
of the morning. We speak of power, but the heavens laugh us to
scorn. When the Pleiades shine forth in spring with vernal joy
we cannot restrain their influences, and when Orion reigns
aloft, and the year is bound in winter's fetters, we cannot
relax the icy bands. The seasons revolve according to the divine
appointment, neither can the whole race of men effect a change
therein. Lord, what is man?
In the spiritual, as in the natural world, man's power is
limited on all hands. When the Holy Spirit sheds abroad His
delights in the soul, none can disturb; all the cunning and
malice of men are ineffectual to stay the genial quickening
power of the Comforter. When He deigns to visit a church and
revive it, the most inveterate enemies cannot resist the good
work; they may ridicule it, but they can no more restrain it
than they can push back the spring when the Pleiades rule the
hour. God wills it, and so it must be. On the other hand, if
the Lord in sovereignty, or in justice, bind up a man so that he
is in soul bondage, who can give him liberty? He alone can
remove the winter of spiritual death from an individual or a
people. He looses the bands of Orion, and none but He. What a
blessing it is that He can do it. O that He would perform the
wonder to-night. Lord, end my winter, and let my spring begin.
I cannot with all my longings raise my soul out of her death and
dulness, but all things are possible with Thee. I need celestial
influences, the clear shinings of Thy love, the beams of Thy
grace, the light of Thy countenance, these are the Pleiades to
me. I suffer much from sin and temptation, these are my wintry
signs, my terrible Orion. Lord, work wonders in me, and for me.
Amen.
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