Bowen's Daily Meditations

The time of my prosperity. In vain would I say unto my soul, " Soul, take thine ease, thou hast much goods laid up for many years." In vain I grasp the evidences of my wealth; look abroad upon my goodly mansions and large estates; reckon upon my wealth, and exult in the victory obtained over earthly vicissitudes. The victory is a mere cheat, a phantasm of my brain. The time of my prosperity is in the hand of God, He opens his hand, and all my possessions vanish into air.

The time of...

And yet you profess to be a fruit-bearer. The position you occupy implies that you have separated yourself from the fruitless trees of the world. You are in the vineyard of the Lord. You are called by his name. In assuming the designation of Christian, you have invited the Lord to come and seek fruit on your branches.

All things have been duly organized, in order that you may bring forth fruit. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Has there been...

This is the gospel. Christ is with God; therefore, there is forgiveness with God. " It is expedient for you that I go away," that I go to heaven. The only question is, "Is Christ there?" Then we shall assuredly find forgiveness there.

A proper understanding of this word " forgiveness" would fill the soul with a bliss, the like of which was never yet experienced upon this earth. It designates two immensities, - that of our sins, and that of the love of God in Christ. To fathom it we...

Happy are they who can use this language; - who have renounced the mad enterprise of fashioning themselves, and, ceasing to play presumptuously the part of potter, have come to the original Author of their being, that he may create them anew in righteousness and true holiness. Even Christians are sometimes long in understanding what part they are to play in the divine laboratory. The idea of the divine agency in the transformation of their souls, is shadowy; that of their own obligation,...

We have here a command. He that spake from Sinai, saying, " Thou shalt not covet," speaketh now from the cross, saying, " Rejoice.' He that finds Christ, finds this command. It is not a matter of choice with him whether he will be a rejoicing Christian, or a downcast Christian. He has no more right to neglect the fulfillment of this duty, than to forget his duty to his neighbor. In fact, this command is so inextricably interwoven with other obligations, that he who does not obey it, exposes...

Happy, because the correction is designed to bring him into paths of pleasantness and peace.

Because there is no unnecessary severity in it.

Because the disciplinary stroke is in the place of ten thousand strokes of divine vengeance for our sins.

Because the chastisement is not so much against us, as against our most cruel enemies - our sins.

Because we have abundant words of consolation.

Because the sacrifice of a broken heart, and of a contrite spirit,...

We are not to take the word righteous here in an impossible sense. "In many things we offend all," says James; and in the very verse we quote from, he says, " Confess your fault one to another." Otherwise understood, the promise would check prayer, instead of exciting it. The righteous man is the true Christian; one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and in whose life appears the fruit of the Spirit. But the expression is doubtless intended to discourage the man who, while he gives...

One of the last desires to which Christ gave utterance before leaving this world, was expressed in these words: " Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am." And these words " I am," have a meaning that is very vast, referring perhaps to his place in the affections of the Father, to his moral purity, and specially to the manifestation of his divine glory. " I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." When Peter saw his...

The sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, our willing substitute, were such a satisfaction for sin, such a reparation to the law of God, that it has become every way consistent with divine justice, wisdom, and truth, to accord mercy to sinners, and bless them without any other restriction than that which their own unwillingness and unbelief interpose. There is a fountain opened up for sin and for uncleanness; and whosoever will, may take of the water of life freely. " The well is...

Few believe this. Men know what pitifulness is. They know how a very pitiful parent will act towards a suffering child: how he will show himself tenderly solicitous to staunch its wounds and alleviate its sorrows. They do not view God as characterized by this sympathizing tenderness and pitifulness. They regard him as a physician, who, by long familiarity with suffering, is able to look upon it without emotion, and coldly to calculate what remedies are best.

If we choose to see God...

Because, first, there is no doubt about that coming. His first coming was the most wonderful, the most staggering to faith. That the Son of God should have been found in fashion as a man, without form or comeliness, with but rare coruscations of his glory, enduring the contradiction of sinners, and dying on the cross; this is a marvel that swallows up all marvels, and frees from all embarrassment the question of his second advent.

Because he will come in glory such as no heart of man...

If we want a sublime utterance, here is one. Let us give glory to that Blessed Spirit of grace, who thus sometimes teaches the lips of man wondrous things.

Though he slay me, - not simply, though he take away my life. Job would have had no reluctance to part with his life. It would have been an inexpressible relief to him to escape from the load of misery laid upon him. The expression, " Though he slay me," is the strongest possible, and startles us with an exhibition of peculiar...

That is to say, " let thy vocation be that of the seraphim, my soul, and enter on the life of heaven!"

Why should I praise him? Can my praise be of any advantage to him? No; nor that of all the heavenly hosts. It is infinite condescension in him to hearken unto the praises of his most exalted creatures.

Let me bless the Lord, because no function will be more rich in blessings to my soul than this. The admiring contemplation of his excellence is in reality the appropriation...

" Even in Sardis." How full of reproach this little word " even." The wonder was that any good should live in such a sea of iniquity as that. Even in Sardis! It will be well for us to act as though our residence were in Sardis; as though there were the greatest possible danger of our soiling our robes. The robes that are polluted are robes that were given spotless. You cannot pollute that which is intrinsically vile. The garments which so many Sardians had defiled, were such as they had in...