Bowen's Daily Meditations

Perhaps throughout the wide domains of God, there is hardly any sight more remarkable than that presented by the little flock of believers who, in this world of iniquity and of misery where Satan's seat is, regard the Lord as their King and are kept by him through faith unto salvation. Their existence is a marvel; their peace and joy another; their triumphs another. They are without a visible Leader, and have no visible Comforter; yet they pursue their way and have an invincible hope....

The context sheds all the light that we need upon this passage, explaining both the nature of the diligence that we are to use, and the object to be obtained by it. "If ye do these things, ye shall never fall." The things are mentioned before: " Giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance, etc. The words " shall never fall" have an immediate reference to the words " to make sure." Let no one bring in here his theory of election to...

The true life of the soul is in union with God. The souls of men are dead, because they are separated from God. Each man walketh apart, liveth unto himself, cleaveth to the earth; he calls it solitude when his fellow-men are not there. The word of God is life-giving. We have not to go to a distant planet for the bread of life. "Without any movement of ours, it has already been introduced into this world. We have not to pay for the liberty to appropriate it. All the price required has been...

If God withholds from us the tokens of his love, an explanation may almost always be found in the fact that we had made light of them in some way or another. God gives his love unto us that he may draw us by its sweet influences to renounce evil and to embrace good. If we receive the expressions of his loving-kindness and manifest no corresponding readiness to forsake sin, then it becomes needful that we should take lessons in the value and virtue of his love, through the privation of it....

This stony heart is not what is commonly understood by a hard heart, an unfeeling heart. A person of a gentle tender yielding disposition may yet have what God regards as a stony heart. A heart insensible to the word of God is what is here spoken of The commands, the promises, the invitations all fail to make an impression upon one with such a heart; he refuses to see his sin, his helplessness, his danger, his need, the holiness, the grace, the love of God. The mighty and countless motives...

The instability of many of the things with which we have to do in this world, only tends to make the believer appreciate the more, by contrast, the immutability of his God. The Lord of all sits upon his throne, and before him the universe passes like a panorama. He is unchangeable in character as well as in sovereignty. As we follow the indications of geology into the dim chambers of what seems to be a past eternity, it is a comfort to think there was then the same God that we now know;...

A sublime expression of sovereignty; but let none therefore say, " We must remain as we are until he puts his Spirit within us." For God observes a process in this as in his other works; and in every step of this process he requires the co-operation of man. He shows an individual that he is without the Spirit of God; that he is spiritually dead; excites in him desires after life and blessedness; shows him what he is not to trust in; what he is to trust in; teaches him to pray; answers his...

From the context, the meaning is evident. He casts off his people from certain experiences of his love of which they have shown themselves unworthy, until they are humbled and penitent, fervent and believing. God does not arbitrarily resume his benefits. There is ever an adequate reason, and if we search the records of our experience, we shall find it. We should very carefully note what it was in our conduct, what remissness or sluggishness or waywardness or worldliness, that caused the...

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,...