Bowen's Daily Meditations

The Jews were accustomed to regard themselves as a fountain of righteousness, the only one in the earth; their country an oasis made glad by these beneficent and hallowed waters, while all the rest of the world was a wilderness; and Jerusalem as the blessed spot where heaven and earth met together and held one another in a fond embrace. At no time were they more tenacious of these views than when the Son of God dwelt among them, drinking his daily cup of ignominy. His credentials showed that...

Is there not reason to apprehend that we presume upon a great deal of mercy that is not really accorded? We know that the world takes for granted that God forgives it, and reserves all its anxiety for matters that seem to it invested with much more difficulty. But may it not be that we, who consider ourselves, on apparently good grounds, as God's real children, that we are daily presuming on God's forgiveness when that forgiveness is not really pronounced? We are not notified of forgiveness...

Think not that they who were personally concerned in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, were sinners above all the sinners of the world. Christ on the cross, the righteous Advocate, was able to find something extenuating in their conduct. " They know not what they do." Afterwards, when they saw what they had done, when the Spirit of Pentecost made him known as the Prince of life, many of them repented of their sin, and made haste to believe upon him. The measure of knowledge is an...

Most pitiable was the condition of the Israelites in Egypt. Pharaoh seemed to delight in eliciting the most incredible proofs of their subjection to his rod. There is ordinarily a limit beyond which masters dare not go in trifling with the lives and feelings of even the most abject slaves; but there seemed to be no limit to Pharaoh's power to oppress. The sacred sentiment of paternity he trampled on; and seemed to feel that the Israelites were the very impersonation of helplessness. But soon...

The world with all its wisdom has not yet reached the platform where this humble servant of God stood more than two thousand years ago. But indeed, others had stood there before him. Isaiah had stood there and heard the song of the seraphim. Moses had stood there nearly a thousand years before, and heard the asseveration of the divine majesty, " As I live, all the earth shall be filled with my glory." It is the fashion with many to despise the stand-point of the ancient Israelites;...

Thou art indeed the good shepherd; but we must acknowledge that there often appears in us something that looks very much like a denial of this truth. Believing thee to be the good shepherd, why are we sometimes so slow to follow thee? Why do we ever doubt that thy commandments are better than our own conceits? Why murmur at the ruggedness of thy path? Why look with wistful eyes at the pastures which thou forbiddest? We name thee the good shepherd; but is there not some hypocrisy in the joy...

Because the Lord is slow to anger, men suppose that they have nothing to apprehend from his anger. But, indeed, his anger is only the more terrible, because it is slow. He is slow to anger; this shows that his anger is something different from what we call anger. It is not an impulse; but moves with the utmost possible deliberation.

It would be of the greatest advantage to men if they would just take knowledge that the goodness of God expressed in the innumerable gifts of Providence...

Having had a taste of the power of these our enemies, we look disconsolately around, much desiring, but little hoping, that a deliverer may appear. We discover some, perhaps, who excel in virtue. But we see at once that they can never medicine us to that sweet peace which they themselves possess. They may instruct; but we need something more than instruction; there is that within us which laughs at instruction, human or divine. If some angels would only come and tarry with us for a season;...

As many as I love. Is this the voice which has just been giving expression to such intensity of holy disgust? "Well may we marvel at the modulations of which it is susceptible. Ah, if there had not been love somewhere in thy heart, thou wouldst not have threatened the Laodiceans with ignominious ejection, but wouldst have cast them forth without any words of condescending reproach. Thou sawest how that confusion and alarm were being borne by thy words to their hearts, and how they began to...

Temptation is not of God. What constitutes a thing tempting is something in the man or woman that looks upon it, namely, a disposition more or less active to transgress, and take what is forbidden. The fruit is suspended on the tree for an admirable purpose; namely that men may have an opportunity of evincing their fidelity towards God, and thus may obtain a crown of life. The same thing is to one man a temptation, to another a good gift of God, by means of which his walk of righteousness is...

There is a little flock who are acquainted with God; are so far acquainted with his essential perfections, and see so much of his glory in Christ, that God is not ashamed to be known as their God, and to have it understood among the angels of heaven that the members of this flock do know him. But viewing these as exceptional, innumerable conceptions of God possess the minds of men; to express it otherwise, innumerable gods of, widely different characters exist in the conceptions of men, and...

This is said with reference to the allegations of the men who stood around the cross of Christ. They affirmed that God evidently despised the sufferer, and so far from sympathizing with him in his affliction, abhorred him as a deceiver, and was glad to have men execute their indignation with unchastened severity. "It is beyond all question," said they, " that the Lord is against him. He has delivered him into our hands, notwithstanding all the reluctance of Pilate and the attachment of his...

What a wonderful consciousness was this for one that saw his life gliding rapidly away in an obscure corner of the world, among a despised class of persons, and knew that a cross was prepared for him at the capital. Knowing that the light of life is to go forth from him, from him alone, to all nations, peoples, and languages, how admirable is the quiet, unhasting humility that enables him to sit down among the poorest and meanest of earth, occupy himself with all their cares and solicitudes,...

This is a noble utterance, Habakkuk! Thou hast surely read the book of Job, and art echoing that great word of his - "Though the Lord slay me, yet will I trust in him." Thou believest that the love which God has towards us, rests upon some more solid evidence than the temporal benefits which he bestows upon us; upon evidence so satisfactory, so unimpeachable, that even if the greatly-prospered servant of God saw his flocks and herds rapidly perish, his merchandise carried off by robbers or...