Bowen's Daily Meditations

He will not modify his purposes to suit our unbelief. What madness to suppose that he will imitate us; and seeing that we make light of his faithfulness, make light of it himself. Let God be true, though every man a liar. God once declared his purpose of bringing a deluge upon the earth. Men would not believe the terrific word. The whole human race combined to rear up a wall of unbelief under the protection of which they thought themselves safe. On the one hand were all mankind with their "...

When he was on the earth, leading a life of sorrows and perfecting his acquaintance with grief, no man appeared to covet the privilege of suffering with him. John and James, indeed, before they had obtained a glimpse of the cross, were bold to say, " We are able to drink of thy cup, and to be baptized with thy baptism." Thomas also said, " Let us also go that we may die with him.' Peter said, " I will lay down my life for thy sake." So likewise said they all. Yet when the hour of his...

He died for all; a glorious truth repeated in every variety of language, and oftentimes with the utmost explicitness that language can admit of. By virtue of this unlimited atonement, salvation may be offered to all, the gospel to every creature, the water of life to whomsoever will; by virtue of this, men that believe not are condemned because they have not believed on the Son of God, and men are convinced of sin be cause of unbelief. It is this that gives its pathos to the language of...

In a few verses of this psalm, we have the elysium of God divinely sketched, and how do all the elysian scenes of poets fade in comparison with it. There is poetry and there is wisdom in the abstinence that controls the delineation. They that minutely depict the home of the blessed and seek to present us with a finished drawing of it, forget that whatever can be thus photographed is of necessity fallen from the region to which faith, hope, and whatsoever is heavenly in us, aspires. Give us a...

The blessedness of God will be the blessedness of his people. Their purity shall be without stain, their love without limit; wherefore their happiness shall know no bound. Their character will correspond to the character of God; wherefore their felicity will be the same as his. Men, as they are generally, could find no satisfaction in God's house, in the place where his glory has its highest revelation; nor is there anything attractive to them in the river of his pleasures. Satan has so...

Called unto the fellowship of Christ, seems to mean, called unto a community of interest and of destiny with Christ. One Spirit is to be common to the believer and Christ; to each there is one life of humiliation, one eternity of glory; to each the hatred of the world. Christ's peace and joy are the believer's; the same love of the Father is given to each; there is to each a resurrection and ascension. But he that is called to a part is called to the whole. If we suffer with him, we shall...

The parallelism shows us that his servants are those that trust in him. How can a man enter upon this service without trusting in him? To acknowledge this master is rebellion to the world. Thousands are ready to spring to their arms when they see us put away from our forehead and from our hand the sign of our submission to the powers of this world. A man that would serve God, has no longer sword or spear to trust in; riches or luck or cunning; rank or favor; the multitude or the prince; a...

The Bible does not mock the anguish-bitten soul by telling it that the Christian cannot experience unhappiness or disappointment; or by telling it that it has no business to be wretched. The followers of the righteous Jesus are told distinctly that there are afflictions for them; and that these afflictions are many. So in drawing up an inventory of what belongs to them, they may put down many afflictions. These are a part of their property.

We see that it is not a disreputable thing...

This word that we now encounter is moving with haste and earnestness among the haunts of men. Up one street, down another, knocking at this door and at that, stopping to address here a company of noble personages, there a gathering of the poor and mean, it wends its way with something angelic in its mien, on very much the same mission that engaged the thoughts and energies of our Lord when on the earth.

" Is any among you afflicted?" It speaks in a kindly accent, knowing that many of...

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit. - Psalm 34:18 NIV

Here again, the parallelism tells us something.

He is nigh to save. His presence is salvation. Their misery is not nearer to them than their deliverer. To their broken heart, the whole universe seems broken; to their desolate...

These parallelisms of Scripture seem sometimes very rude. This one, for instance, teaches us that the wicked are they who trust not in the Lord. Men know not what to make of this definition. As for the wicked, they say, we know well who they are; these men that are brought up at the sessions of the Civil Courts, and tried for felonies, murders, misdemeanors; and besides these, certain other persons who have given us annoyance without rendering themselves amenable to the law. Men that beat...

The guide of whom? Of those who feel that this world is a labyrinth, and that the secret of its mazes is known only to God, - that it is the camp of an enemy; and that unless the cloud of the presence of God encompass us about, we have no security, not for a moment, - that it is a field thoroughly undermined and honey-combed, with subterranean trains of gun powder in every direction, exploding every minute; and that unless He lead us, we perish. What is the proof of this? Is not this...

There are those who never need to use these words, because they have no experience of that which is deprecated. They know not what is meant by such language as this: " Cause thy face to shine upon me." This language implies a personal acquaintance with a personal God. It teaches that God is pleased to make communications of his grace to the soul of the believer, that are to him like the uplifting of a veil from the face of the one beloved and adored. We ought all of us to have far higher...

Our Lord calls special attention to the danger by a special admonition. Out of that little band that accompanied him, one made shipwreck on this rock. The whole life of Jesus was cast into a mould of uttermost hostility to it; and the effect was seen in the Pentecostal Church, where no man called anything his own. But we are fallen upon very different times; and neither the example nor the earnest warnings of Christ and his apostles, have power to keep down this spirit in the Church. If the...