Bowen's Daily Meditations

Great and mighty things had been shown unto Jeremiah. Great discoveries of the glory of God had been permitted him. He had walked with God on most intimate terms. He had experience of the power of God to render him as a brazen column in the midst of hostile Jerusalem, and to sustain him in his most trying ministry. God also had shown him the great and mighty things of his wrath that he intended to bring to pass upon Judea, and upon the nations round about. Yet Jeremiah was not to rest...

God taketh pleasure in them that fear him, and who manifest their fear to displease him by constantly and carefully pressing forward in that good path which he has opened up to them. When a man is pressing forward in the path of God, all heaven and earth rejoice, reflecting the joy of God. The sun shines not in vain for him; it lights him along the pathway of holiness. The earth is encouraged to run cheerfully her race of a thousand miles a minute.

The Bible lives with reference to...

If you ask me to show you a wise man, I will ask you to find for me a man who, morning, noon, and night, offereth to God this prayer. You find him, and you say to me, " Why, this is a poor man, a mean man, an ignorant man, an obscure man; I asked him some ordinary questions, and he could not answer them. In his hand was a book, and he told me frankly that having no wisdom of his own, he was obliged to make use of that book. And yet you tell me he is the wisest of men. His wisdom multiplied...

Among many that profess to be the people of God, we find one (scarcely one in a thousand) whose manner of life seems to express his conviction that the time is short, very short. He is like one who waking from slumber finds that his barque has drifted within the influence of currents that are hurrying her fast towards the rapids, fast to destruction, and perceives in a glance that whatever is to be done is to be done at once, and done with all might. The accumulated business of life, so long...

To whom is the invocation addressed? To Jesus or to the sinner? If we connect the words with those that go before, it appears to be the Saviour that is invoked: if with what comes after, the invitation is to the sinner; " Let him that is athirst, come." But we need not adopt either view to the exclusion of the other. For he who with all cordiality says, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," cannot be otherwise than greatly concerned to see his kingdom extended in the world. He will best show...

Some obtain their experience early, others later, but it seems that all who live long in this world must learn by experience the bitter truth that the elements of trouble are very numerous in this stage of man's existence. The youthful heart, taught of God to desire happiness, takes counsel of its imagination how to seek it, and delights itself with dreams of earthly bliss which must soon be dispelled. Very often it gets angry with God for not equaling the creations of its own imagination,...

We ought to be much affected by the condescension of God. He talks to us as to angels. What more could he say, in the way of commandment, to any being, than he here says to us? It is evident that he puts us in the first rank of his servants, he is willing to overlook the fact that we are moral cripples, spiritual lepers. He does not thrust us down into an inferior chamber and assign to us some base work, but he bids us do the work of Raphael; that is, to show forth the glory of God, in all...

God's commandment is good. The law of his will designates the only path in which it is good for men to walk. It cannot be that God's choice should be otherwise than best. But man has broken God's law, and discarded God's choice. He has left the path that infinite goodness appointed to him. The question now arises. How can it be good in God to forgive man for abandoning that path? Is it becoming to let man obtain such a stupendous victory, and proceeding by a forbidden path, possess himself...

" Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." There are two parties in this world; one consisting of the cross-bearers, the other consisting of the unconverted. In numbers the former are very few. If we sift the nations reputed Christian, correcting our own conceptions by the standard of Christ, the numbers will diminish faster than the army of Gideon. They are indeed a little flock. It may be that they do not exceed, even in this our day, one in a...

The tears of those that sow, flow from various causes. Here is one who has greatly hungered and thirsted after the communications of God's love; who mourns over his own heart of unbelief; over his inaptitude for the things of God; who has been fascinated by the conception of a divine life to be led on the earth, a life of conscious union with God attended by peace flowing like a river, and revealing itself by ardent love, cheerful labor, and large success. But the very conception of the...

Whether men honor him or not, God is forever infinitely honorable. His perfections remain the same. By virtue of his divine power and Godhead, he is exalted where no conception of a finite being can follow him, much less add anything to or take anything from his exaltedness. But when God condescended to call creation into existence, it was for the purpose of revealing himself unto his intelligent subjects, and setting up a throne in the heart of each of them.

In this world, men are in...

This language is appropriate to one who, having been led to supplicate God with respect to some matter that was very near his heart, has afterwards perhaps waited long and seen many things that appeared to be designed by Providence to extinguish faith and hope, but has persevered in expectation, and finally in some golden hour, never to be forgotten, has received the answer to his prayer, in most abundant measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

Thus was it perhaps...

When his Son was on the earth, clothing humanity with a perfection it had not known since it had forfeited paradise, the beautiful spectacle attracted the regard of God, and nothing would do but that he should send his voice down into the ranks of men exclaiming, " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."

When Christ was about to depart out of the world, he took steps to have this pleased regard of the Father continue towards those whom he was to leave behind, even to his...

There are some whose cry in the day of trouble God will not hear; those, namely, who, in the day of their prosperity, heard not the cry of the poor and stretched forth no helping hand to the afflicted, and thus gave good evidence that they had no ear for the voice of God. For in the guise of a poor man Christ stood at their door, time and again, knocking and asking for admittance; but they would not hear. In the day of their calamity, he will not hear their cry. To whom then is this promise...