Bowen's Daily Meditations

It will hardly be denied by any reflecting person that it is reasonable to suppose that there is for every human being a particular line of procedure which commends itself to God as the best, and every deviation from which is a deviation from that which is best. When we consider how admirably God has organized man, how richly he has endowed him, with what authority he has invested him, and with what appliances he has surrounded him; when we consider what an infinitude of wise and good...

The idea is, that his anger is fugitive, his favor perennial. The contrast is between the words moment and life. The contrast is sustained in what follows: " Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning," even in the morning of a day, whose sun shall never go down. Paul renews it in the words, " Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." As the ages of our prospective existence unfold to us, the misery...

Before you are conscious of any strength in your heart, while you feel yourself exceedingly weak and utterly incompetent, even then you are to be of good courage. It requires very little true courage to be bold when there is the consciousness of strength. The courage that is well-pleasing in the sight of God, is the courage of faith; the courage of David, whose sling and stone were nothing, but who trusted simply in God.

Nothing is more essential to the Christian than good courage. He...

Imagine a number of men whose hearts are filled with bitterness against their sovereign, and, in a certain chamber, are industriously laboring at the construction of an infernal machine, to be exploded on some approaching day when the sovereign is to pass that way. The heart of this sovereign, say, is kindness itself. He receives information of what these men are doing. Disguising himself he comes among them, and succeeds in convincing them that he is friendly, and will prove a valuable...

And is this so difficult? Does your heart find itself competent to everything, rather than this? Oh, what a reproach to you! In fact, it is impossible to conceive of any more severe condemnation than that which you pass upon yourself, and day by day reiterate, while you continue not to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You are asked to take his righteousness in preference to your own, his wisdom rather than your own; his influence at the throne of God rather than your own. You are asked to...

The path of faith and that of well-doing are not diverse from each other; they are one. A man that is in the path of well-doing, and for whose deeds there is ever and anon dropping from the lips of God the expression, " Well done!" is already saved in an important sense. He has regained the footing from whence the world by transgression fell. He has certainly a large installment of salvation. But, it is faith that brought him into this heavenward path, and that enables him to continue...

We receive tidings of a treaty of peace between two nations lately belligerent. Anon, we receive intimations of another war possible. Rumors of wars never fail to agitate profoundly the general bosom of mankind. But there is a rumor of another war infinitely more dire than any, between man and his Maker. It is long since this war has broken out; for thousands of years it has been raging; and we see no signs of its immediate cessation. Men perceive not that all their other miseries proceed...

There was a new and wondrous trial of mankind, when Christ dwelt on the earth. The world is always saying, "If we had been in Eden, we would not have brought ruin on ourselves." By the coming of Christ the earth was, as it were, made into a new Eden for the occasion, and men were tried over again. It was no longer the question, " Will they sin?" But, " Will they receive God manifest in the form of man? How will they treat the most glorious and admirable being in existence, infinitely...

Christ says this for the purpose, as it were, of inducing us to consent to his departure. Having come into the world and constituted himself our good Shepherd, and accustomed us to lean on him for everything, we are rather confounded at the suggestion that he is to go away again. Seeing this, he gives us this reassuring promise. Whatsoever we ask of the Father, he will give it. Well, suppose we ask for Christ. He will be given. Not with the limitations of an earthly body. " If thou hadst...

Christ's love takes us as it finds us; but it does not leave us so. If it did not make us better, it would not be Christ's love, but just common earth-love. There are two mighty chapters in the history of Christ's love. One relates to the means by which he brings us to himself, the other to the means by which he keeps us with himself. After we have been brought to him, a sublime work expands itself before him. We are to be made like unto himself. He will not rest until he has communicated...

These disciples were the representatives of the universal church. They stood in the place of all believers. We were all there by proxy. It must never be supposed that the beautiful words and condescending acts of Christ were just for Peter, John, James, and their companions. John is not the only beloved disciple who is encouraged to lean upon the bosom of his Lord. His love for the family of Bethany is not a singular love, with which other families have nothing to do. It is a specimen of his...

This is a valid argument with those that are concerned for the glory of God. It is addressed to those who are acquainted with this spring of action. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork; but in vain, till Christians in a far higher degree exhibit his glory by showing that Christ is the true vine, and that they who abide in him obtain the communications of a divine life, and produce heavenly fruits on earth. What the sun, moon, and stars, the hills and...

Christ makes his will, the hour of his departure having come. Silver and gold he has none. To the eye of the world it is a pauper going his way; and the wonder is that there should be any to attend him in his last hours. He has lived in the world and amassed nothing; not so much as to pay his funeral expenses. His life is a failure; he has had the usual advantages, yet, leaves the world as he entered it. You will find no parchments in his drawers; no stray pieces of gold in his coffers; it...

Jude wanted to know how the manifestation of Christ unto his people exclusively, was to be effected. Christ in reply, says, that the believer has something and God something to do; it does not concern the believer to know how God will do his part; all that concerns him is to know how he is to do his part. Let him then keep the words of Christ, and the manifestation will be brought about; the Godhead shall take up its abode with him; let him keep the words of Christ, and he will keep Christ...