Evening, December 13
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Isaiah 54:12
"I will make thy windows of agates."
Isaiah 54:12
The church is most instructively symbolized by a building erected by
heavenly power, and designed by divine skill. Such a spiritual house
must not be dark, for the Israelites had light in their dwellings;
there must therefore be windows to let the light in and to allow the
inhabitants to gaze abroad. These windows are precious as agates: the
ways in which the church beholds her Lord and heaven, and spiritual
truth in general, are to be had in the highest esteem. Agates are not
the most transparent of gems, they are but semi-pellucid at the best:
"Our knowledge of that life is small,
Our eye of faith is dim."
Faith is one of these precious agate windows, but alas! it is often so
misty and beclouded, that we see but darkly, and mistake much that we
do see. Yet if we cannot gaze through windows of diamonds and know even
as we are known, it is a glorious thing to behold the altogether lovely
One, even though the glass be hazy as the agate. Experience is another
of these dim but precious windows, yielding to us a subdued religious
light, in which we see the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows, through
our own afflictions. Our weak eyes could not endure windows of
transparent glass to let in the Master's glory, but when they are
dimmed with weeping, the beams of the Sun of Righteousness are
tempered, and shine through the windows of agate with a soft radiance
inexpressibly soothing to tempted souls. Sanctification, as it conforms
us to our Lord, is another agate window. Only as we become heavenly can
we comprehend heavenly things. The pure in heart see a pure God. Those
who are like Jesus see him as he is. Because we are so little like him,
the window is but agate; because we are somewhat like him, it is agate.
We thank God for what we have, and long for more. When shall we see God
and Jesus, and heaven and truth, face to face?