Evening, December 25
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Job 1:5
"And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that
Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and
offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job
said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their
hearts. Thus did Job continually."
Job 1:5
What the patriarch did early in the morning, after the family
festivities, it will be well for the believer to do for himself ere he
rests tonight. Amid the cheerfulness of household gatherings it is easy
to slide into sinful levities, and to forget our avowed character as
Christians. It ought not to be so, but so it is, that our days of
feasting are very seldom days of sanctified enjoyment, but too
frequently degenerate into unhallowed mirth. There is a way of joy as
pure and sanctifying as though one bathed in the rivers of Eden: holy
gratitude should be quite as purifying an element as grief. Alas! for
our poor hearts, that facts prove that the house of mourning is better
than the house of feasting. Come, believer, in what have you sinned
today? Have you been forgetful of your high calling? Have you been even
as others in idle words and loose speeches? Then confess the sin, and
fly to the sacrifice. The sacrifice sanctifies. The precious blood of
the Lamb slain removes the guilt, and purges away the defilement of our
sins of ignorance and carelessness. This is the best ending of a
Christmas-day--to wash anew in the cleansing fountain. Believer, come
to this sacrifice continually; if it be so good tonight, it is good
every night. To live at the altar is the privilege of the royal
priesthood; to them sin, great as it is, is nevertheless no cause for
despair, since they draw near yet again to the sin-atoning victim, and
their conscience is purged from dead works.
Gladly I close this festive day,
Grasping the altar's hallow'd horn;
My slips and faults are washed away,
The Lamb has all my trespass borne.