Evening, June 1

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"He will make her wilderness like Eden."

  Isaiah 51:3

   Methinks, I see in vision a howling wilderness, a great and terrible
   desert, like to the Sahara. I perceive nothing in it to relieve the
   eye, all around I am wearied with a vision of hot and arid sand, strewn
   with ten thousand bleaching skeletons of wretched men who have expired
   in anguish, having lost their way in the pitiless waste. What an
   appalling sight! How horrible! a sea of sand without a bound, and
   without an oasis, a cheerless graveyard for a race forlorn! But behold
   and wonder! Upon a sudden, upspringing from the scorching sand I see a
   plant of renown; and as it grows it buds, the bud expands--it is a
   rose, and at its side a lily bows its modest head; and, miracle of
   miracles! as the fragrance of those flowers is diffused the wilderness
   is transformed into a fruitful field, and all around it blossoms
   exceedingly, the glory of Lebanon is given unto it, the excellency of
   Carmel and Sharon. Call it not Sahara, call it Paradise. Speak not of
   it any longer as the valley of deathshade, for where the skeletons lay
   bleaching in the sun, behold a resurrection is proclaimed, and up
   spring the dead, a mighty army, full of life immortal. Jesus is that
   plant of renown, and his presence makes all things new. Nor is the
   wonder less in each individual's salvation. Yonder I behold you, dear
   reader, cast out, an infant, unswathed, unwashed, defiled with your own
   blood, left to be food for beasts of prey. But lo, a jewel has been
   thrown into your bosom by a divine hand, and for its sake you have been
   pitied and tended by divine providence, you are washed and cleansed
   from your defilement, you are adopted into heaven's family, the fair
   seal of love is upon your forehead, and the ring of faithfulness is on
   your hand--you are now a prince unto God, though once an orphan, cast
   away. O prize exceedingly the matchless power and grace which changes
   deserts into gardens, and makes the barren heart to sing for joy.