Morning, February 29
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Jeremiah 31:3
"With lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
Jeremiah 31:3
The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment are all used to
bring us to Christ; but the final victory is effected by
lovingkindness. The prodigal set out to his father's house from a sense
of need; but his father saw him a great way off, and ran to meet him;
so that the last steps he took towards his father's house were with the
kiss still warm upon his cheek, and the welcome still musical in his
ears.
"Law and terrors do but harden
All the while they work alone;
But a sense of blood-bought pardon
Will dissolve a heart of stone."
The Master came one night to the door, and knocked with the iron hand
of the law; the door shook and trembled upon its hinges; but the man
piled every piece of furniture which he could find against the door,
for he said, "I will not admit the man." The Master turned away, but
by-and-bye he came back, and with his own soft hand, using most that
part where the nail had penetrated, he knocked again--oh, so softly and
tenderly. This time the door did not shake, but, strange to say, it
opened, and there upon his knees the once unwilling host was found
rejoicing to receive his guest. "Come in, come in; thou hast so knocked
that my bowels are moved for thee. I could not think of thy pierced
hand leaving its blood-mark on my door, and of thy going away
houseless, Thy head filled with dew, and thy locks with the drops of
the night.' I yield, I yield, thy love has won my heart." So in every
case: lovingkindness wins the day. What Moses with the tablets of stone
could never do, Christ does with his pierced hand. Such is the doctrine
of effectual calling. Do I understand it experimentally? Can I say, "He
drew me, and I followed on, glad to confess the voice divine?" If so,
may he continue to draw me, till at last I shall sit down at the
marriage supper of the Lamb.