Evening Prayer January 1, 2025

Father in Heaven,
 
Holy are you, Lord God Almighty, for you alone are worthy of all glory, honor and praise.
 
There are times, so many times, when it seems as though we are surrounded by nothing but enemies. We are beset and opposed on every side, the air filled with laughter as they gloat over us, taunting us by saying there is no God to save us. Keep us, Lord, from faltering before these withering attacks. Grant us an extra measure of Your peace that passes all understanding. Let our enemies be confounded by our refusal to deny You, and to persevere in the face of all their attacks. Fill our hearts with Your Spirit that we may respond to their attacks with love, forgiveness, mercy, and compassion.
 
Hear our prayers, Lord, in the precious name of your Son, our Lord and Savior,
 
Amen

The Privilege of Worship

 

A Devotional Sermon by George H. Morrison
 
"As for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy." Psa_5:7
 
David was a man of many privileges bestowed on him in the goodness of his Lord. He had the privilege of the poetic heart and the privilege also of a royal estate. But in this text he singles out a privilege we may all share with him. It is the privilege of public worship. "As for me," he says, "I will go into thy house." The very thought of it was a delight to him. It made a secret music in his heart when the hour of public worship was approaching. For him the recurring summons to the sanctuary was not a call to be grudgingly obeyed. It was the happiest summons of his week.
 
This is perhaps the more remarkable in the light of the personality of David. His was one of those poetic natures for which the world is all aflame with God. We read in Revelation that in the other world there is no temple. There is no need of any sanctuary, for the whole expanse of heaven is a sanctuary. And there are natures in this present world so quick to see and feel that God is everywhere, that the whole universe for them is aglow with His presence. For them the great Creator is not far away. He is very near and He is always speaking. It is His voice that is calling in the sea and in the wind that bloweth where it listeth. The tiniest weed, the day-spring and the evening, the stars and the bird on the branch are but the manifold and changing shadows of that infinite perfection which is God. It is with such thoughts that the poet walks the world. It was with such thoughts that David walked the world. For him in every field there was an altar and a sacrifice in every breath of evening. And the wonderful thing is that with a heart like that, that saw God everywhere and worshipped Him, there should have been this overwhelming sense of the privilege of sanctuary worship. "Let others do what they like," is what he means, "as for me, I will go into thy house." There was something there that nothing else could give him, neither the lonely mountain nor the sea. And so at once, as reasonable men, we find ourselves confronted by this question—what was there in the worship of God's house that made it thus indispensable to David?
 
The Sense of Human Fellowship
 
Well, in the first place, in the house of God there was for David the sense of human fellowship. In the deepest yearnings of his heart, he felt in the sanctuary that he was not alone. It is a lonely thing to be a king, and David the psalmist was a king. He lived in a certain solitary grandeur which is ever the penalty of royal estate. And then for him there was another loneliness that pierces deeper than that of regal state—it was the loneliness of the poetic heart. To be a monarch is to be a solitary, and to be a poet is to be a solitary. The one is separated by his rank from men, and the other by his inspiration. And it is when one recalls that David was not only a monarch but a poet too that one begins to understand his loneliness. He craved for fellowship, as we all do, and for him it was very difficult to find. He had to deny himself those pleasant intimacies that are so heartening to the common man.
 
My brother, out of a loneliness like that can't you gather the exquisite delight with which the poet-king would turn his steps to the communion of the house of God? There he was no longer solitary. There he was a subject, not a king. There he was as a brother among brothers under the shadow of a Father-God. And every sacrifice upon the altar and every word of penitence and praise told of a fellowship that lay far deeper than everything that can sunder human lives.
 
Deeper than everything which separates is the need of pardon for the sinner. Deeper than every individual craving is the craving for fellowship with God. No wonder, then, that David loved the sanctuary. No wonder that with eager feet he sought it. No wonder that the hour of public prayer was the most cherished season of his week. Seeking that fellowship which every soul demands, no matter how richly gifted it may be, he said: "As for me, I will come into thy house."
 
Brethren, as with David, so with us, that is the privilege of public worship. In all the deepest regions of our being, it is the assurance of a real fellowship. In the market-place, men meet and mingle on the basis or a common interest in business. In the home, lives are united by all the tender ties of human love. But in the sanctuary, the ground of fellowship is the common need of our immortal spirit which knows its weakness and its need of pardon and cannot be satisfied with less than God.
 
When Christian was in the Valley of the Shadow, you remember, he heard the voice of Faithful on ahead. And it cheered him and comforted his heart to know that there was another in the Valley. And that is one thing the sanctuary does for us in a way that nothing else can ever do as we fight our battles, fall and rise again, and wrestle heavenward against storm and tide. It tells us there are others in the Valley. It gives us the happy certainty of comradeship. In common prayer we voice a common need, and in common praise a common aspiration. And within the house of God we come to feel that we are not alone, and to feel that is like a strain of music. Without that fellowship we should despair, for the pathway is infinitely hard. Without that fellowship, knowing our instability, we might falter and fall by the wayside. And then there falls on us the benediction of worship and we are wakened to the sense of brotherhood. Others have known the things that we have known, the failures and the struggles and the yearnings. Others as vile as we have been redeemed and became more than conquerors in Christ. Others, too, have been tempted to despair and have thought of the heavens as brass and yet have known that to depart from God was the avenue to death. My brother, it is such things that we learn in public worship in the house of God. No lonely meadow, no still and shady woods, no lonely mountainside can teach us that. And therefore from all the ministries of nature will the true seeker turn to the house of God, saying with the poet-king of Israel, "As for me, I shall come into thy house.'
 
The Message From the Past
 
In the second place, within the house of God there was for David the message of the past. There was the memorial of all that God had been in His unfailing shepherding of Israel. In the life of David, as in the lives of all of us, there were seasons when he was hard pressed—seasons when the sky was dark and lowering and all the sunshine seemed to have departed. And who does not know how in such times as these the light of the countenance of God is quenched as though He had quite forgotten to be gracious. Such tragic hours were in the lot of David. There seemed for him to be no justice anywhere. Slander was rife and treachery was busy; hatred was malignant and victorious. And in such hours as these it seemed to David, who was a man of like passions with ourselves, as if the covenant of heaven were broken and his movements unseen by his God. What David needed in such hours as these was a larger message than his life could give him. He needed a reassurance of his God drawn from the wonderful story of the past. And not on the battlefields of Israel's history but in the sanctuary of Israel's faith was that sweet reassurance to be found. There in the house of God stood the ark that had been borne through all the wanderings of the wilderness. There was the mercy-seat where God had dwelt under the sheltering wings of golden cherubim. There was the pot of manna from the desert that had fed the hungry in their hour of need. There was the rod of Aaron that had budded. "As for me, I will come into thy house." David went to revive his courage by the past. When times were tragic, when faith was hard to keep, he went to learn the ways of God again. And so, refreshed and strengthened with that view of all that the living God had been to Israel, courage returned and dying hope revived, and David was made equal to his day. No man knew better than that poet-king the healing and help of the ministry of nature. But in hours like these when faith was tested, it was not to meadow or mountain that he turned; it was to the sanctuary, to the house of God, to the shrine and witness of an unfailing covenant—"As for me, I will come into thy house."
 
The Comfort of the Communion
 
And so it is with you and me as we turn our steps on the Lord's day to the sanctuary. We come to gain for our uncertain hearts the large, grand assurance of the past. As we listen there to the reading of those Scriptures that have been the stay of countless generations, as we lift our voices in those ancient hymns that were sung by thousands who are now in glory, are we not lifted above our cloudy present, where the divine purpose is so hard to see, into a region that is full of God? We have no ark, no golden cherubim, no budding rod, no gathered manna. But we have something that is far more eloquent of what the Lord has been throughout the ages. We have the broken bread and we have the wine in the memorial Supper of our Savior which unites us with every faithful heart that ever trusted in His grace. All that is given us in the sanctuary, and given us nowhere else than in the sanctuary—that sight and sense of all that God has been in the large and roomy spaces of the ages. And so we are kept from the blackness of despair and from thinking that God has forgotten to be gracious when, in our separate and individual lives, we look for Him and our eyes are dim. Blessed be God for the ministry of nature and for all the peace and healing of His hand. Blessed be God for the heather on the hill and the music of the stream in the valley. But when the way is dark and faith is difficult and prayer seems empty, we need another ministry than that. We need the testimony of the ages then. We need the ministry of the long past. We need to know that God has kept His promises from generation unto generation. And such is the testimony that like a flowing tide is borne in upon our darkened souls when with the poet of Israel we say, "As for me, I will come into thy house."
 
The Mercy of God
 
Third and last, within the house of God there was for David the blessed sense of mercy. "As for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy." Will you observe it is mercy—in the singular. It is not mercies—in the plural. The mercy of God is not many different things; the singer knew that mercy is all one. And yet to him that attribute of mercy was of such various and changing feature that the only way in which he could describe it was to compare it to a multitude. In a great crowd there is one common life. It is one life that animates the whole. Yet in a crowd, how that common life expresses itself in a thousand different ways. And so for David there were a thousand tokens that the Lord God was merciful and gracious, and yet he knew that the mercy was all one.
 
Ah, how utterly David needed mercy. Without mercy there was no hope for him. He, the poet and king of Israel—what a guilty sinner he had been! My brother and sister, it was in search of mercy, mercy to pardon his sin unto the uttermost, that he cried out of a broken heart, "As for me, I will come into thy house." He had searched for mercy in creation and it had baffled him to find it there. He had looked to the stars for it and to the firmament, only to learn the littleness of man. And then in agony, and with that sense of guilt which was wrought by the Holy Spirit on his heart, he had turned to the house of God and found it there. Mercy—it was the message of the ark, for above the ark there was the mercy-seat. Mercy—it was the message of the manna, for it had been given to a rebellious people. And every sacrifice upon the altar, and every offering accepted there, spoke of the Lord God merciful and gracious. That was what David needed above everything, and that was what only the sanctuary gave him. No forest depth, no everlasting mountains, gave him the peace of reconciliation. And that was why David with his poet's heart, alive to all the music of the universe, turned to the sanctuary and cried, "As for me, I will come into thy house."
 
My friend, as with David so with us: of all our needs, our deepest need is mercy—mercy to pardon, mercy to receive, mercy while we live and when we die. Without a mercy infinite and boundless, there is no hope for any mortal man. Without a mercy glorious and flee, there is nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment. And I do not know of anywhere within this universe where there sounds out the silver bell of mercy save in that ministry of reconciliation which is the message of the house of God. I turn to nature and I don't find it. I search for it in vain among the hills. I hear it not in the song of any brook nor in the organ-music of the sea. But the moment I enter into the house of God, clear as a trumpet, soft as the breath of evening, I hear of a mercy that is high as heaven and deeper far than the abyss of sin. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Christ hath died, the just for the unjust. He is able to save unto the uttermost. My brother and sister, whatever else we need, that is the deepest need of every one of us, for without that mercy none of us can live, and without it none of us can die in peace. Cherish, then, all that is bright and beautiful in the world around you and in the sky above you. Walk with an open ear, as David did, for every accent of the great Creator. And then like David, poet-king and sinner, feeling your need of the everlasting mercy, say to your soul afresh this Lord's day, "As for me, I will come into thy house."
 
 

Matthew 1:5

 

Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,
Matthew 1:5 Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
 
And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;
Matthew 1:5 King James Bible (KJV)
 
Salmon the father of Boaz (by Rahab), Boaz the father of Obed (by Ruth), Obed the father of Jesse,
Matthew 1:5 New English Translation (NET)
 
Salmon
Salmon is a significant figure in the genealogy of Jesus, representing the continuity of God's promise through generations. His name, derived from the Hebrew "שַׂלְמוֹן" (Salmon), means "garment" or "clothing," symbolizing covering and protection. Salmon's inclusion in the genealogy highlights the divine orchestration of history, as he is traditionally believed to have been one of the spies sent by Joshua to Jericho, thus connecting him to the account of Rahab.
 
was the father of Boaz by Rahab
This phrase underscores the remarkable inclusion of Rahab, a Gentile and former prostitute, in the lineage of Christ. Rahab's story, found in Joshua 2, is one of redemption and faith. Her marriage to Salmon and their son Boaz exemplify God's grace and the breaking of cultural and social barriers. The Greek word "ἐκ" (ek) used here indicates origin, emphasizing that Boaz's lineage is directly through Rahab, showcasing God's ability to use unexpected people for His purposes.
 
Boaz
Boaz, whose name means "strength" in Hebrew, is a pivotal figure in the Book of Ruth. He is a kinsman-redeemer, a concept rooted in the Hebrew word "גָּאַל" (ga'al), meaning to redeem or act as a kinsman. Boaz's actions towards Ruth reflect Christ's redemptive work for humanity. His character is marked by integrity, compassion, and obedience to God's law, making him a type of Christ in the Old Testament.
 
the father of Obed by Ruth
Ruth, a Moabite woman, is another Gentile included in Jesus' genealogy, highlighting the universal scope of God's salvation plan. Her account is one of loyalty and faithfulness, as seen in the Book of Ruth. The Hebrew name "עֹבֵד" (Obed) means "servant" or "worshiper," indicating a life dedicated to God. Ruth's inclusion demonstrates God's providence and the breaking of ethnic boundaries, as she becomes the great-grandmother of King David.
 
Obed
Obed's role in the genealogy is crucial as he links the accounts of Boaz and Ruth to the lineage of David. His name, meaning "servant," reflects the biblical theme of servanthood as a path to greatness, a principle that Jesus Himself would later embody. Obed's life is a testament to God's faithfulness in fulfilling His promises through ordinary people.
 
the father of Jesse
Jesse, the father of King David, represents the culmination of God's promise to establish a royal lineage through which the Messiah would come. The Hebrew name "יִשַׁי" (Yishai) means "gift" or "God exists," signifying the divine gift of leadership and kingship bestowed upon his family. Jesse's mention in the genealogy points to the Davidic covenant and the anticipation of a future King who would reign eternally.
 
Berean Study Bible
 
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Rahab: She is notable because she was a Canaanite prostitute from Jericho who helped the Israelite spies (Joshua 2). Her inclusion in Jesus' genealogy is significant because it shows that God's plan includes Gentiles (non-Jews) and those from unexpected backgrounds, demonstrating His grace and inclusion.
 
Ruth: She was from Moab, making her another Gentile in the lineage of Jesus. Ruth's story is one of loyalty and faith, as she decided to follow her mother-in-law Naomi back to Israel after the death of her husband, eventually marrying Boaz. Her story is told in the Book of Ruth, highlighting themes of kindness, redemption, and God's providence.
 
This verse underscores several theological points:
 
Inclusivity: The presence of Rahab and Ruth shows that God's salvation extends beyond the Jewish people to all nations.
 
Redemption: Both women have pasts or origins that might be considered unconventional or even scandalous by some standards, yet they are part of God's redemptive plan, suggesting that anyone can be part of God's family through faith.
 
Genealogy and Legitimacy: By including these women, Matthew establishes Jesus's lineage not just through the male line but also acknowledges the roles of these significant women, thereby reinforcing Jesus's credentials as the Messiah from the line of David.
 
This verse, therefore, serves not only as a genealogical record but also as a theological statement about God's inclusiveness and the unexpected ways in which He works out His purposes.
 
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One thought that doesn’t seem to garner a lot of attention in so many commentaries is the thought that these women are specifically pointed out as preparation for the role that Mary, Jesus’ mother would be playing. The roles played by these women in Israel’s history was unusual and, in many cases, potentially questionable according to the Law and societal morals, things that could have been an issue in Mary’s situation. As with so many situations in Scripture, we are being given fairly clear indications that we mustn’t be too hasty in jumping to conclusions with everything that happens. There is often much more going on that we know nothing about.
 
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And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab,.... That Salmon begat Boaz, is affirmed in Rut_4:21 but it is not there said, nor any where else in the Old Testament, as here, that he begat him of Rahab, that is, of Rahab the harlot. This the Evangelist had from tradition, or from the Jewish records. That the Messiah was to spring from Boaz is asserted by the Jewish writers (s); and they also own that Rahab was married to a prince in Israel, which some say (t) was Joshua: they pretend that she was ten years of age when the Israelites came out of Egypt; that she played the harlot all the forty years they were in the wilderness, and was married to Joshua upon the destruction of Jericho. To excuse this marriage with a Canaanitish woman, they tell us, she was not of the seven nations with whom marriage was forbid; and moreover, that she became a proselyte when the spies were received by her: they own that some very great persons of their nation sprung from her, as Jeremiah, Maaseiah, Hanameel, Shallum, Baruch, Ezekiel, Neriah, Seraiah, and Huldah the prophetess. The truth of the matter is, she became the wife of Salmon, or Salma, as he is called, 1Ch_2:11. And in the Targum on Rut_4:20 is said to be of Bethlehem; he was the son of Nahshon or Naasson, a famous prince in Judah, and the head and captain of the tribe, Num_1:7 Num_7:12. And from Rahab sprung the Messiah, another instance of a Gentile in the genealogy of Christ; and a third follows.
 
And Booz begat Obed of Ruth; who was a Moabitess. It is a notion that generally obtains among the Jews (u), that she was the daughter of Eglon, grandson of Balak, king of Moab; and it is often taken notice of by them (w), that the king Messiah should descend from her; and also other persons of note, as David, Hezekiah, Josiah, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, and Daniel; wherefore the mentioning of her in this genealogy, cannot be said by them to be impertinent.
 
And Obed begat Jesse. Jesse is thought to be, not the immediate son of Obed, but to be of the fourth generation from him; though no others are mentioned between them in Ruth, any more than here. A Jewish writer observes (x), that
 
"the wise men of the Gentiles say, that there were other generations between them; perhaps, says he, they have taken this from the wise men of Israel, and so it is thought.''
 
Now notwithstanding this, Jesse may be said to be begotten by Obed, as Hezekiah's posterity, who were carried captive into Babylon, are said to be begotten by him, Isa_39:7 though they were a remove of several generations from him. However, Jesse is rightly put among the progenitors of Christ, since the Messiah was to be a rod of his stem, and the branch of his roots, and is called the root of Jesse, Isa_11:1 which words are interpreted of the Messiah, by many of the Jewish writers (y); and to this day the Jews pray for him in their synagogues under the name of בן ישי, "the son of Jesse" (z).
 
(s) Zohar in Gen. fol. 105. 4. Gloss in T. Bab. Maccot. fol. 23. 2. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 49. 2. Zoher in Gen. fol. 63. 3. (t) T. Bab. Megilia, fol. 14. 2. Juchasin, fol. 10. 1. Shalshelet Hakabala, fol. 7. 2. Abarb. Kimchi & Laniado in Josh. 6. 25. & Moses Kotsensis Mitzvot Torah, pr. neg. 112. (u) Targ. in Ruth. i. 4. T. Bab. Sanhedrim, fol. 105. 2. Horayot, fol. 10. 2. Nazir. fol 23. 2. Sota, fol. 47. 1. Zohar in Deut. fol. 109. 2. Shalshelet Hakabala fol. 8. 1. (w) Targ. in Ruth iii. 15. T. Bab. Sanhedrim, fol. 93. 7. Midrash Ruth, fol. 34. 4. Zohar in Gen, fol. 72. 1. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 20. 4. & 123. 4. & 132. 4. (x) Juchasin, fol. 10. 2. (y) Targum, Aben Ezra & Kimchi in loc. & Zohar in Exod. fol. 71. 1. (z) Seder Tephillot, fol. 278. 1. & 285. 2. Ed. Basil, T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 29. 1.
 
John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible
 
 

The Church Of Christ

 

A Sermon by C.H. Spurgeon
 
“And I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing and I will cause the shower to come down in his season. There shall be showers of blessing.”
Ezekiel 34:26
 
The chapter (Ezekiel 34) that I read at the commencement of the service is a prophetical one. I understand it’s meaning to refer to the relation not to the condition of the Jews during the captivity and their subsequent happiness when they should return to their land, but to a state into which they should fall after they had been restored to their country under Nehemiah and Ezra and in which state they still continue to the present day. The Prophet tells us that the shepherds then, instead of feeding the flock, fed themselves. They trod the grass, instead of allowing the sheep to eat it and they fouled the waters with their feet.
 
This is an exact description of the state of Judea after the captivity. For then there arose the Scribes and Pharisees who took the key of knowledge and would not enter themselves nor allow others to enter. They laid heavy burdens on men’s shoulders and would not touch them with one of their fingers. They made religion to consist entirely in sacrifices and ceremonies and imposed such a burden on the people that they cried out, “What a weariness it is!” That same evil has continued with the poor Jews to the present day. Should you read the nonsense of the Talmud and the Gemara and see the burdens they laid upon them, you would say, “Verily, they have idle shepherds.”
 
They give the sheep no food. They trouble them with fanciful superstitions and silly views and instead of telling them that the Messiah is already come, they delude them with the idea that there is a Messiah yet to come who shall restore Judea and raise it to its glory. The Lord pronounces a curse upon these Pharisees and Rabbis. These who “thrust with side and with shoulder,” those evil shepherds who will not suffer the sheep to lie down, neither will feed them with good pasture. But after having described this state, he prophecies better times for the poor Jew. The day is coming when the careless shepherds shall be as nothing.
 
Then the power of the Rabbis shall cease. Then the traditions of the Mishna and the Talmud shall be cast aside. The hour is approaching when the tribes shall go up to their own country, when Judea, so long a howling wilderness, shall once more blossom like the rose. Then, if the temple itself is not restored, yet on Zion’s hill shall be raised some Christian building where the chants of solemn praise shall be heard, as of old the Psalms of David were sung in the Tabernacle. Not long shall it be before they shall come–shall come from distant lands, wherever they rest or roam.
 
And she who has been the off-scouring of all things, whose name has been a proverb and a byword, shall become the glory of all lands. Dejected Zion shall raise her head, shaking herself from dust, darkness and the dead. Then shall the Lord feed His people and make them and the places round about His hill a blessing. I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough of it. But certainly, if there is anything promised in the Bible it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual restoration of the children of Israel. “There they shall go up. They shall come with weeping unto Zion and with supplications unto Jerusalem.”
 
May that happy day soon come! For when the Jews are restored, then the fullness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in. And as soon as they return, then Jesus will come upon Mount Zion to reign with His ancients gloriously and the halcyon days of the Millennium shall then dawn. We shall then know every man to be a brother and a friend. Christ shall rule with universal sway.
 
This, then, is the meaning of the text–that God would make Jerusalem and the places round about His hill a blessing. I shall not, however, use it so this morning–I shall use it in a more confined sense–or, perhaps, in a more enlarged sense–as it applies to the Church of Jesus Christ and to this particular church with which you and I stand connected. “I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing. And I will cause the shower to come down in his season. There shall be showers of blessing.”
 
There are two things here spoken of. First, Christ’s church is to be a blessing. Secondly, Christ’s church is to be blessed. These two things you will find in the different sentences of the text.
 
First, CHRIST’S CHURCH IS TO BE A BLESSING. “I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing.” The object of God in choosing a people before all worlds was not only to save that people, but through them to confer essential benefits upon the whole human race. When He chose Abraham He did not elect him simply to be God’s friend and the recipient of peculiar privileges. But He chose him to make him, as it were, the conservator of Truth. He was to be the ark in which the Truth should be hid. He was to be the keeper of the Covenant in behalf of the whole world.
And when God chooses any men by His sovereign electing grace and makes them Christ’s, He does it not only for their own sake, that they may be saved, but for the world’s sake. For know you not that, “you are the light of the world”?–“A city set upon a hill which cannot be hid”? “You are the salt of the earth.” And when God makes you salt, it is not only that you may have salt in yourselves but that like salt you may preserve the whole mass. If He makes you leaven it is that like the little leaven you may leaven the whole lump. Salvation is not a selfish thing. God does not give it for us to keep to ourselves, but that we may thereby be made the means of blessing to others.
 
And the great day shall declare that there is not a man living on the surface of the earth but has received a blessing in some way or other through God’s gift of the Gospel. The very keeping of the wicked in life and granting of the reprieve was purchased with the death of Jesus. Through His sufferings and death the temporal blessings which both we and they enjoy are bestowed on us. The Gospel was sent that it might first bless those that embrace it and then expand, so as to make them a blessing to the whole human race.
 
In thus speaking of the Church as a blessing, we shall notice three things. First, here is Divinity–“I will make them a blessing.” Secondly, here is personality of religion–“I will make them a blessing.” And, thirdly, here is the development of religion–“and the places round about My hill.”
 
First, with regard to this blessing which God will cause His Church to be, here is Divinity. It is God the everlasting Jehovah speaking–He says, “I will make them a "blessing.” None of us can bless others unless God has first blessed us. We need Divine workmanship. “I will make them a blessing by helping them and by constraining them.” God makes His people a blessing by helping them. What can we do without God’s help? I stand and preach to thousands, or it may be hundreds. What have I done, unless a greater than man has been in the pulpit with me?
 
I work in the Sabbath-Schools–what can I do, unless the Master is there, teaching the children with me? We want God’s aid in every position. And once give us that assistance, there is no telling with how little labor we may become a blessing, Ah, a few words sometimes will be more of a blessing than a whole sermon. You take some little prattler on your knee–and some few words that you say to him he remembers and makes use of in after years. I knew a gray-headed old man who was in the habit of doing this. He once took a boy to a certain tree and said, “Now, John, you kneel down at that tree and I will kneel down with you.”
 
He knelt down and prayed and asked God to convert him and save his soul. “Now,” said he, “perhaps you will come to this tree again and if you are not converted you will remember that I asked under this tree that God would save your soul.” That young man went away and forgot the old man’s prayer. But it chanced as God would have it that he walked down that field again and saw a tree. It seemed as if the old man’s name was cut in the bark. He recollected what he prayed for, but the prayer was not fulfilled. But he dared not pass the tree without kneeling down to pray himself–and there was his spiritual birthplace. The simplest observation of the Christian shall be made a blessing, if God helps him. “His leaf also shall not wither”–the simplest word he speaks shall be treasured up. And whatsoever he does shall prosper.
 
But there is constraint here. “I will make them a blessing.” I will give them to be a blessing. I will constrain them to be a blessing. I can say myself that I never did anything which was a blessing to my fellow-creatures without feeling compelled to do it. I thought of going to a Sabbath-School to teach. On a certain day, someone called–asked me–begged me–prayed me to take his class. I could not refuse to go. And there I was held hand and foot by the superintendent and was compelled to go on. I was asked to address the children. I thought I could not, but no one else was there to do it, so I stood up and stammered out a few words.
 
And I recollect the first occasion on which I attempted to preach to the people–I am sure I had no wish to do it–but there was no one else in the place. And should the congregation go away without a single word of warning or address? How could I suffer it? I felt forced to address them. And so it has been with whatever I have laid my hand to. I have always felt a kind of impulse which I could not resist, but, moreover felt placed by Providence in such a position that I had no wish to avoid the duty and if I had desired it, could not have helped myself.
 
And so it is with God’s people. As they go through their lives, wherever they have been made a blessing, they will find that God seems to have thrust them into the vineyard. Such-and-such a man was once rich. What good was he in the world? He did but loll in his carriage. He did but little good and was of little service to his fellow creatures. Says God, “I will make him a blessing”–so He strips away his riches and brings him into low circumstances. He is then brought into association with the poor and his superior education and intellect make him a blessing to them. God makes him a blessing.
 
Another man was naturally very timid. He would not pray at the prayer meeting, he would hardly like to join the church. Soon he gets into a position in which he cannot help himself. “I will make him a blessing.” And as sure as ever you are a servant of God, He will make you a blessing. He will have none of His gold in the lump. He will hammer it out and make it a blessing. I verily believe there are some in my congregation to whom God has given power to preach His name. They do not know it, perhaps, but God will make it known by-and-by. I would have every man look and see whether God is making him do a certain thing.
 
And when once he feels the impulse, let him by no means ever check it. I am somewhat of a believer in the doctrine of the Quakers as to the impulses of the Spirit and I fear lest I should check one of them. If a thought crosses my mind, “Go to such a person’s house,” I always like to do it, because I do not know but what it may be from the Spirit. I understand this verse to mean something like that. “I will make them a blessing. I will force them to do good. If I cannot make a sweet scent come from them in any other way, I will pound them in the mortar of affliction.
 
“If they have seed and the seed cannot be scattered in any other way, I will send a rough wind to blow the downy seed everywhere.” “I will make them a blessing.” If you have never been made a blessing to anyone, depend upon it you are not a child of God. For Jehovah says, “I will make them a blessing.”
 
But notice, next, the personality of the blessing. “I will make them a blessing.” “I will make each member of the Church a blessing.” Many people come up to the house of prayer where the church assembles and you say, “Well, what are you doing at such-and-such a place where you attend?” “Well, we are doing so-and so.” “How do you spell we?” “It is a plain monosyllable,” say you. Yes, but do you put I in “we?” “No.” There are a great many people who could easily spell “we” without an I in it, for though they say, “We have been doing so-and-so,” they do not say, “How much have I done? Did I do anything in it? Yes. This chapel has been enlarged. What did I subscribe? Two pence!”
 
Of course it is done. Those who paid the money have done it. “We preach the Gospel.” Do we, indeed? Yes, we sit in our pew and listen a little and do not pray for a blessing. “We have got such a large Sunday-School.” Did you ever teach in it? “We have got a very good working-society.” Did you ever go to work in it? That is not the way to spell “we.” It is “I will make them a blessing.” When Jerusalem was built every man began nearest his own house. That is where you must begin to build, or to do something. Do not let us tell a lie about it. If we do not have some share in the building, if we neither handle the trowel nor the spear, let us not talk about our Church. For the text says, “I will make them a blessing,” every one of them.
 
“But, Sir, what can I do? I am nothing but a father at home. I am so full of business, I can only see my children a little.” But in your business, do you ever have any servants? “No–I am a servant myself.” You have fellow-servants? “No, I work alone.” Do you work alone, then and live alone, like a monk in a cell? I don’t believe that. But you have fellowservants at work, cannot you say a word to their conscience? “I don’t like to intrude religion into business.” Quite right, too, so say I. When I am at business, let it be business. When you are at religion, let it be religion. But do you ever have an opportunity? Why you cannot go into an omnibus, or a railway carriage, but what you can say something for Jesus Christ.
 
I have found it so and I don’t believe I am different from other people. Cannot do anything? Cannot you put a tract in your hat and drop it where you go? Cannot you speak a word to a child? Where does this man come from that cannot do anything? There is a spider on the wall. He takes hold on kings' palaces and spins his web to rid the world of noxious flies. There is a nettle in the corner of the churchyard. The physician tells me it has its virtues. There is a tiny star in the sky. That is noted in the chart and the mariner looks at it. There is an insect under water. It builds a rock. God made all these things for something!
 
But here is a man that God made and gave him nothing at all to do! I do not believe it. God never makes useless things. He has no superfluous workmanship. I care not what you are. You have something to do. And oh, may God show you what it is and then make you do it, by the wondrous compulsion of His Providence and His grace.
 
But we have to notice, in the third place, the development of Gospel blessing. “I will make them a blessing,” but it does not end there–“And the places round about My hill.” Religion is an expansive thing. When it begins in the heart, at first it is like a tiny grain of mustard seed. But it gradually increases and becomes a great tree, so that the birds of the air lodge in its branches. A man cannot be religious to himself. “No man lives to himself and no man dies to himself.” You have heard, a score of times, that if you do but drop a pebble in a brook it causes a small ring at first, then another outside of that and then another, and another, till the influence of the pebble is perceptible over the entire bosom of the water.
 
So it is when God makes His people a blessing. “I will make a minister a blessing to one or two. I will then make him a blessing to a hundred. I will then make him a blessing to thousands. And then I will make those thousands a blessing. I will make each one individually a blessing–and when I have done that I will make all the places round about a blessing. I will make them a blessing.” I hope we shall never be satisfied, as members of Park Street, until we are a blessing not only to ourselves but to all the places round about our hill. What are the places round about our hill? I think they are first, our agencies, secondly, our neighborhood and thirdly, the churches adjacent to us.
 
First, there are our agencies. There is our Sabbath-School–how near that is to our hill? I speak a great deal about this, because I want it to be brought into notice. I intend to preach a practical sermon this morning, to move some of you to come and teach in the Sabbath-School, for there we require some suitable men to “come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” Therefore I mention the Sabbath-School as a place very near to the hill. It ought to be just at the very foot of it. Yes, it ought to be so near the hill that very many may pass from it to the Church.
 
Then there is our Visiting and Christian Instruction Society which we have for the visiting of this neighborhood. I trust that has been made a blessing. God has sent among us a man who labors zealously and earnestly in visiting the sick. I have, as the superintendent of my beloved Brother the missionary, a regular account of his labors. His report has most highly gratified me and I am able to bear testimony to the fact that he is very efficiently laboring around us. I want that society to have all your sympathy and strength. I consider him as a Joshua, with whom you are to go forth by hundreds to those who live in the neighborhood.
 
Do you not know what dark places there are? Walk down a street a little to the right. See the shops open on a Sunday. Some, thank God, that used to open them, now come and worship with us. We shall have more yet. For “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,” and why should not we have it? My Brethren, as you visit the sick, or distribute tracts from door to door, make this your prayer–that this society, being one of the places round about our hill, may be made a blessing! Let me not forget any agency connected with this Church. There are several more which are places round about our hill–and the Lord has just put it into my heart to fashion other societies, which shall be made a blessing to this hill–and in a little while you shall hear of them.
 
We have several Brothers in this congregation to whom God has given a mouth of utterance. These are about to form themselves into a society for proclaiming the Word of God. Where God has so blessed His church and made us to be so noted and named among the people why should we not keep on? We have been brought up to a great pitch of fervency and love. Now is the time for doing something. While the iron is hot, why not strike and fashion it? I believe we have the materials not only for making a church here that shall be the glory of the Baptist churches in London, but for making churches everywhere throughout the metropolis.
 
And we have more schemes on hand, which matured by sober judgment and backed by prudence, shall yet make this metropolis more honored than it has been by the sound of the pure Gospel and the proclamation of the pure Word of God. May God make all our agencies–the places round about our hill–a blessing.
 
But next, there is the neighborhood. I am paralyzed, sometimes when I think that we are of so little service to the neighborhood, though this is a green oasis in the midst of a great spiritual desert. Just at the back of us we could find you hundreds of Roman Catholics and men of the very worst character. And it is sad to think that we cannot make this place a blessing to them. It is made a great blessing to you, my Hearers. But you do not come from this district. You come from anywhere and nowhere some of you, I suppose. People say, “There is something doing in that chapel. Look at the crowd. But we cannot get in!”
 
This one thing I ask–never come here to gratify your curiosity. You that are members of other congregations, just consider it your duty to stay at home. There are many stray sheep about. I would rather have them than you. Keep to your own place. I do not want to rob other ministers. Do not come here from charity. We are much obliged to you for your kindly intentions. But we would rather have your seat than your company if you are members of other churches. We want sinners to come–sinners of every sort. But do not let us have that sort of men whose ears are everlastingly itching for some new preacher–who are saying, “I want something else, I want something else.” Oh, I beseech you, for God’s sake, be of some good.
 
And if you are running about from one place to another, you can never expect to be. Do you know what is said of rolling stones? Ah, you have heard of that. They “gather no moss.” Now, don’t be rolling stones but keep at home. God help to make us a blessing to the neighborhood! I long to see something done for the people around here. We must open our arms to them. We must go out into the open air to them. We must and will preach God’s Gospel to them. Let, then, the people around listen to the word of the Gospel. And may it be said, “That place is the cathedral of Southwark!” So it is now. Out of it goes a blessing–God is pouring out a blessing upon it.
 
What else do we mean by the places round about our hill? We mean the churches adjacent. I cannot but rejoice in the prosperity of many churches around us. But as our beloved Brother, Mr. Sherman, said last Thursday morning, “It is not invidious to say that there are very few churches that are in a prosperous state but that taking the churches at large, they are in a deplorable condition. It is only here and there,” said he, “that God is pouring out His Spirit. But most of the churches are lying like barges at Black Friars Bridge when the tide is down–right in the mud–and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men cannot pull them off, till the tide comes and sets them afloat.”
 
Who can tell, then, what good may be done by this Church? If there is a light in this candlestick, let others come and light their candles by it. If there is a flame here, let the flame spread until all the neighboring churches shall be lit up with the glory. Then indeed, shall we be made the rejoicing of the earth–for there is never a revival in one spot, but it shall affect others. Who shall tell, then, where it shall end?
 
“Fly abroad, you mighty Gospel.
Win and conquer, never cease”
 
And it never will cease, when God once makes the places round about His hill a blessing.
 
II. The second point is, that God’s people are not only to be a blessing but THEY ARE TO BE BLESSED. For read the second part of the verse. “And I will cause the shower to come down in his season. There shall be showers of blessing.” It is somewhat singular, as a prediction of the showers of blessings we hope to receive here, that God sent us showers on the first day of opening. If I were a believer in omens, I should pray that as it rained the first day so may it rain every day since. When it stops may the chapel be shut up. For we only want it open so long as showers of grace continue to descend.
 
First, here is sovereign mercy. Listen to these words; “I will give them the shower in its season.” Is it not sovereign, Divine mercy, for who can say, “I will give them showers,” except God? Can the false prophet who walks among the benighted Hottentots? He says he is a rain-maker and can give them showers. But can he do it? Is there an imperial monarch, or the most learned man on earth, who can say, “I will give them the showers in their season?” No. There is only one. There is only one hand in which all the channels of the mighty ocean above the firmament are contained. There is only one voice that can speak to the clouds and bid them beget the rain.
 
“Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoary frost of Heaven, who has gendered it?” Who sends down the rain upon the earth? Who scatters the showers upon the green herb? Do not I, the Lord?“ Who else could do it? Is not rain in God’s power? And who could send it except Him? We know that Catholics pretend that they can get grace without getting it from God directly. For they believe that God puts all His grace into the pope and then that runs down into smaller pipes, called cardinals and bishops, through which it runs into the priests. And by turning the tap with a shilling you can get as much grace as you like.
 
But it is not so with God’s grace. He says, “I will give them showers.” Grace is the gift of God and is not to be created by man. Notice next, it is needed grace. “I will give them showers.” What would the ground do without showers? You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without the rain? Ah, you may prepare your barn and sharpen your sickles. But your sickles will be rusted before you have any wheat, unless there are showers. They are needed. So is the Divine blessing–“In vain Apollos sows the seed,And Paul may plant in vain."In vain you come here, in vain you labor, in vain you give your money–
 
“Till God the plenteous shower bestows,
And sends salvation down.”
 
Then, next, it is plenteous grace. “I will send them showers.” It does not say, “I will send them drops,” but “I will send them showers.” “It seldom rains but it pours.” So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, He usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough to receive it. Where are we going to hold God’s blessing that we have obtained already? I told the people on Thursday that God had promised us that if we brought the tithes into the storehouse He would send us such a blessing that we would not have room to hold it. We have tried it. And the promise has been fulfilled, as it always will be as long as we rely upon it. Plenteous grace!
 
Ah, we shall want plenteous grace, my Friends. Plenteous grace to keep us humble, plenteous grace to make us prayerful, plenteous grace to make us holy, plenteous grace to make us zealous, plenteous grace to make us truthful, plenteous grace to preserve us through this life and at last to land us in Heaven. We cannot do without showers of grace. How many are there here that have been dry in a shower of grace? Why, there is a shower of grace here. But how is it that it does not fall to some of the people?
 
It is because they put up the umbrella of their prejudice. And though they sit here, even as God’s people sit, even when it rains they have such a prejudice against God’s Word they do not want to hear it. They do not want to love it and it runs off their prejudices. Nevertheless, the showers are there–and we will thank God for them where they do fall.
 
Again, it is seasonable grace. “I will give them the shower in its season.” There is nothing like seasonable grace. There are fruits, you know, that are best in their season and they are not good at any other time. And there are graces that are good in their season but we do not always require them. A person vexes and irritates me. I want grace just at that moment to be patient. I have not got it and I get angry. Ten minutes after I am ever so patient. But I have not had grace in its season. The promise is, “I will give them the shower in its season.” Ah, poor waiting soul, what is your season this morning? Is it the season of drought? Then that is the seasons for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers.
 
What is your season this morning, business man? Lost money all the week, have you? Now is the season to ask for showers. It is nighttime. Now the dew falls. The dew does not fall in the day–it falls in the night. The night of affliction, trial and trouble. There stands the promise–only go and plead it. “I will give them the shower in its season.” We have one thought more and then we have done. Here is a varied blessing. “I will give you showers of blessing.” The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. The rain is all of one kind when it comes. But grace is not all of one kind, or it does not produce the same effect.
 
When God sends rain upon His Church, He “sends showers of blessing.” There are some ministers who think that if there is a shower on their church, God will send a shower of work. Yes, but if He does, He will send a shower of comfort. Others think that God will send a shower of Gospel Truth. Yes, but if He sends that, He will send a shower of Gospel holiness. For all God’s blessings go together. They are like the sweet sister graces that danced hand in hand. God sends showers of blessings.
 
If He gives comforting grace, He also gives converting grace. If He makes the trumpet blow for the bankrupt sinner, He will also make it sound a shout of joy for the sinner that is pardoned and forgiven. He will send “showers of blessing.”
 
Now, then, there is a promise in that Bible. We have tried to explain and enlarge upon it. What shall we do with it?–
 
“In that book there lies hidden
A pearl of price unknown.”
 
Well, we have examined this rich promise. We as a Church are looking at it. We are saying, “Is that ours?” I think most of the members will say, “It is, for God has poured out upon us showers of blessing in their season.” Well, then, if the promise is ours, the precept is ours as much as the promise. Ought we not to ask God to continue to make us a blessing? Some say I did so-and-so when I was a young man. But supposing you are fifty, you are not an old man now. Is there not something you can do? It is all very well to talk about what you have done. But what are you doing now?
 
I know what it is with some of you. You shined brightly once, but your candle has not been trimmed lately and so it does not shine so well. May God take away some of the worldly cares and trim the candles a little! You know there were scissors and scissors trays provided in the temple for all the candles, but no extinguishers. And if there should be a poor candle here this morning with a wick that has not given light for a long while, you will have no extinguisher from me–but I hope you will always have a trimming. I thought the first time when I came to the lamps this morning it would be to trim them. That has been the intention of my sermon–to trim you a little–to set you to work for Jesus Christ.
 
O Zion, shake yourself from the dust! O Christian, raise yourself from your slumbers! Warrior, put on your armor! Soldier, grasp your sword! The captain sounds the alarm of war! O sluggard, why do you sleep? O heir of Heaven, has not Jesus done so much for you that you should live to Him? O beloved Brethren, purchased with redeeming mercies, girt about with loving-kindness and with tenderness–
 
“Now for a shout of sacred joy,‘’
 
and after that to the battle! The little seed has grown to this–who knows what it shall be? Only let us together strive, without variance. Let us labor for Jesus. Never did men have so fair an opportunity, for the last hundred years, “There is a tide that, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”
 
Shall you take it at the flood? Over the bar, at the harbor’s mouth! O ship of Heaven, let your sails be out. Let not your canvass be furled. And the wind will blow us across the sea of difficulty that lies before us. Oh, that the latter day might have its dawning even in this despised habitation! O my God! from this place cause the first wave to spring which shall move another and then another, till the last great wave shall sweep over the sands of time and dash against the rocks of eternity, echoing as it falls, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!”

Morning Prayer January 1, 2025

Father in Heaven,
 
Holy are you, Lord God Almighty, for you alone are worthy of all glory, honor and praise.
 
Thank You for directing us and illuminating our minds to Your ways. Thank You for leading us in the way we should go in all the affairs of our lives. Thank You for the Witness within us that leads us. Thank You for opening our eyes to the enlightening of Your understanding. Thank You for Your wisdom that is at work within us. Thank You for Your love that is perfected in us. Thank You for the anointing of Your Holy Spirit that covers us.
 
Hear our prayers, Lord, in the precious name of your Son, our Lord and Savior,
 
Amen