Evening, March 21

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"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 tonight. 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.