Spurgeon Meditations

 

Pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.

Son 0 13

The spouse desires to give to Jesus all that she produces. Our heart has "all manner of pleasant fruits both old and new and they are laid up for our Beloved. At this richautumnal season of fruit, let us survey our stores. We havenew fruits. We desire to feel new life, new joy, newgratitude; we wish to make new resolves and carry them out bynew labours; our heart blossoms with new prayers, and our soulis pledging herself to new efforts. But we have some oldfruits too. There is our first love: a choice fruit that! andJesus delights in it. There is our first faith: that simplefaith by which, having nothing, we became possessors of allthings. There is our joy when first we knew the Lord: let usrevive it. We have our old remembrances of the promises. Howfaithful has God been! In sickness, how softly did He make ourbed! In deep waters, how placidly did He buoy us up! In theflaming furnace, how graciously did He deliver us. Old fruits,indeed! We have many of them, for His mercies have been morethan the hairs of our head. Old sins we must regret, but then wehave had repentances which He has given us, by which we havewept our way to the cross, and learned the merit of His blood.We have fruits, this morning, both new and old; but here is thepoint--they are all laid up for Jesus. Truly, those are thebest and most acceptable services in which Jesus is the solitaryaim of the soul, and His glory, without any admixture whatever,the end of all our efforts. Let our many fruits be laid up onlyfor our Beloved; let us display them when He is with us, and nothold them up before the gaze of men. Jesus, we will turn the keyin our garden door, and none shall enter to rob Thee of one goodfruit from the soil which Thou hast watered with Thy bloodysweat. Our all shall be Thine, Thine only, O Jesus, our Beloved!% 10/02/AM The hope which is laid up for you in heaven." --Colossians 1:5 Our hope in Christ for the future is the mainspring and the mainstay of our joy here. It will animate our hearts to think often of heaven for all that we can desire is promised there. Here we are weary and toilworn but yonder is the land of rest where the sweat of labour shall no more bedew the worker's brow and fatigue shall be for ever banished. To those who are weary and spent the word "rest" is full of heaven. We are always in the field of battle; we are so tempted within and so molested by foes without that we have little or no peace; but in heaven we shall enjoy the victory when the banner shall be waved aloft in triumph and the sword shall be sheathed and we shall hear our Captain say Well done, good and faithful servant. We have suffered bereavement after bereavement but we are going to the land of the immortal where graves are unknown things. Here sin is a constant grief to us but there we shall be perfectly holy for there shall by no means enter into that kingdom anything which defileth. Hemlock springs not up in the furrows of celestial fields. Oh! is it not joy that you are not to be in banishment for ever that you are not to dwell eternally in this wilderness but shall soon inherit Canaan? Nevertheless let it never be said of us that we are dreaming about the future and forgetting the present let the future sanctify the present to highest uses. Through the Spirit of God the hope of heaven is the most potent force for the product of virtue; it is a fountain of joyous effort it is the corner stone of cheerful holiness. The man who has this hope in him goes about his work with vigour for the joy of the Lord is his strength. He fights against temptation with ardour for the hope of the next world repels the fiery darts of the adversary. He can labour without present reward for he looks for a reward in the world to come.


First page | Prev | Next | Last page |