Reflections on a THUNDERSTORM by Augustus Toplady

When the lightning flashes, and when the thunder rolls, do we as it were hear the Almighty speak in the one and see a glimpse of His tremendous glory in the other! If when the clouds pour out water, when the air thunders, and the arrows of His lightning are sent abroad, it is natural for the guilty to tremble, for the just to pray, and for all to look up to Him whose voice is thus mighty in operation; where will the unbeliever, where will the habitual sinner appear, when the Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, a shout that shall unbar the gates of death, recal the scattered dust of all mankind, and wake that dust to life?

May we ever listen to the Almighty when He speaks in thunder, or looks in lightning, and call to mind that awful period when the final trump shall summon us to the bar! may every such season be improved to this beneficial purpose! And though thunder and other effects are under God, owing to natural causes and may be accounted for on natural principles; yet let us remember that natural causes are caused by the God of nature, and that the effects which they produce are in truth the effects of His all-active, all-governing providence. And this is the glorious God that maketh the thunder. Such a view of things will render the most obvious events lessons of the highest instruction, and means of spiritual improvement. Thus considered, thunder teaches, and lightning holds the lamp to knowledge: nature becomes subservient to grace, and the laws of material system direct to heaven. And should we not aspire to the friendship of that Being whose voice shakes the earth, and whose eyes are as a flame of fire? Should we not approach His footstool, humbled in the dust of repentance, and trusting in the propitiation of Him who hushed the infinitely more dreadful thunder of divine resentment, and, in His own blood, quenched the lightning of vindictive wrath? Possessed of interest in His availing merit, and conformed, as far as human infirmity will permit, to His blessed example, we need fear nothing. Though the earth was removed, and the hills carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof should rage and swell, and the mountains shake at the tempest of the same; yet safely anchored on the rock of redeeming merit, and lodged in the arms of God's everlasting love, we should be equally free both from danger and from dread. Let the inferior thunders grate upon the ear; let sublunary lightnings flash terror on the eye, so we are enabled to take shelter beneath the hiding place of a Redeemer's righteousness, and His Spirit, in gentlest accents, whispers comfort to the heart. Happy they who thus dwell beneath the defence of the Most High, who abide under the shadow of he Almighty, and to whom His faithfulness and truth are a shield and buckler!

The Works of Augustus Toplady, pp. 768-769

Reflecting Him

10 FEBRUARY

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. Psalm 19:2

 

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Romans 1:18-32

If we were as attentive as we ought to be, even one day and one night would suffice to show us the glory of God. But in addition, we see the sun and the moon perform daily revolutions; the sun by day appearing over our heads, and the moon succeeding in its turn. The sun ascends by degrees while at the same time coming closer to us. Later, it bends its course to depart from us by little and little. Variations in the length of days and nights are regulated by a law so uniform that they recur at the same point of time in every successive year. In this we have a brighter testimony of the glory of God.

With the highest reason, David declares that, although God should not speak a single word to men, yet the orderly and useful succession of days and nights eloquently proclaims the glory of God. So there is left to men no pretext for ignorance; for, since the days and nights perform for us so well and so carefully the office of teachers, we may acquire, if we are duly attentive, a sufficient amount of knowledge under their instruction.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: How often does the sunrise draw our thoughts toward God? What about the orderly progression of seasons? What do the sun, moon, and stars say about God? How can we remedy our common neglect of Him reflected in nature?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Ungodly Society

23 January

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 

Psalm 1:1

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Proverbs 1:8-19

The psalmist says it shall go well with God's devout servants whose constant endeavor is to progress in the study of His law. Most people derided the conduct of the saints as mere simplicity and regarded their labor as useless. So it was important that the righteous should be confirmed in the way of holiness. This is done, first, by considering the miserable condition of all men who are without the blessing of God. It is supported by the conviction that God favors no one but those who zealously devote themselves to the study of divine truth. Moreover, as corruption has always prevailed in the world to such a degree that the general direction of men's lives is nothing but a continual departure from the law of God, the psalmist admonishes believers to beware of being affected by the ungodliness of the multitude around them. Beginning with a declaration of his abhorrence of the wicked, the psalmist teaches us how impossible it is for anyone to meditate upon God's law without first withdrawing and separating himself from the society of the ungodly. This is surely a needful admonition, for we see how thoughtlessly men will throw themselves into the snares of Satan and how few there are who guard against the enticements of sin.

To be fully apprized of our danger, we must remember that the world is fraught with deadly corruption. The first step to living well is to renounce the company of the ungodly, otherwise their conduct is sure to infect us with its pollution.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: Calvin's comment that it is impossible to meditate upon God's law when surrounded by the ungodly is very applicable today. Cell phones, iPods, e-mail, and other technology can dominate our lives and surround us with ungodly influences. In our use of these technologies, are we taking care to avoid what the psalmist warns us against in Psalm 1:1?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

God's Provisions in Nature

2 January

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the foul of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Genesis 1:28.

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 8

God here confirms what He said before about dominion. Man was created wit the condition that he should subject the earth to himself; but now he is put in possession of his right, when he hears what has been given to him by the Lord. Moses expresses this more fully in the next verse when he says that God is granting to man the herbs and the fruits. It is of great importance that we touch nothing of God’s bounty but what we know he has permitted us to touch since we cannot enjoy anything with a good conscience unless we receive it as from the hand of God. Therefore Paul teaches us that in eating and drinking, we sin unless faith be present (Rom. 14:23).

We are instructed to seek from God alone whatever is necessary for us. In the very use of His gifts, we are to meditate on His goodness and paternal care. For God in effect says, “Behold, I have prepared for for you before you were formed. Acknowledge me, therefore, as your Father, who has diligently provided for you when you were not yet created. Moreover, my care for you has proceeded still further. It was your business to nurture the things provided for you, but I have taken even this charge  upon myself. Wherefore, though you are, in a sense, constituted the father of the earthly family, it is not for you to be over-anxious about the sustenance of animals.”

FOR MEDITATION: God has wondrously provided for our needs and given us dominion over the earth He created. It is not, therefore, a sin to use what God has given for our use. Nevertheless, our dominion is to be benevolent and wise; we are not to abuse or recklessly consume God’s good creation but to care for it as good stewards.

John Calvin

365 Days with Calvin (A Unique collection of 365 readings from the writings of John Calvin, selected and edited by Joel R. Beeke)

Light Out of Darkness

January 1

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis I:3-4

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Corinthians 4:3-6

It was proper that the light, by which the world was to be adorned with excellent beauty, should be created first. It was not by inconsideration or by accident that the light preceded the sun and the moon. We are prone to tie the power of God to those instruments which He employs. The sun and moon supply us with light. According to our notions, we so include their power to give light that if they were taken away from the world, it would seem impossible for any light to remain. But the Lord, by the very order of creation, holds the light, which He imparts to us without the sun and moon. Further, it is certain from the context that e created the light to be interchanged with darkness.

And God saw the light. Moses introduces God here as surveying His work that He might take pleasure in it. But Moses also does that to teach us that God has made nothing without reason and design. We ought not to understand these words as if God did not know that His work was good till it was finished. But the meaning of the passage is that the work, such as we now see it, was approved by God. Therefore nothing remains for us but to acquiesce in this judgment of God. This admonition is useful. For whereas man ought to apply all his senses to admiring contemplation of the works of God, we see what license he allows himself detracting from them.

FOR MEDITATION: God’s creative power should never cease to amaze us. He speaks and light immediately exists. We commonly take light for granted and attribute its presence entirely to the means by which God provides it. But we should rather see it as a blessing from our Father and, as Calvin says, apply all our senses in admiring contemplation of it.

Source:

365 Day with Calvin

A unique collection of 365 readings from the writings of John Calvin, selected and edited by Joel R. Beeke

Of the Sabbath and Lord's Day

THERE now remains but one thing more to be added to what has been said concerning daily meditation, namely, the meditation relating to that eminent day of God, first the seventh day of the week, now in the New Testament times changed to, and called the first day of the week, and the Lord's Day.

1. As to rise,nature, ends and advantages of the Sabbath in the Old Testament, and the Lord's Day in the New, it is the best day ever the world saw, or shall be seen on this side heaven.

2. It was and is that day wherein the infinite glories and excellences of a God have shined brighter and warmer on the spirits of men than in any other day beside- namely, His infinite wisdom, power, love, goodness, mercy, and riches of free grace.

3. The Sabbath, as some judge, hat its rise so early as in Paradise, or when man was in state of innocence: it must then be of very great antiquity, and a rarity of great worth. And,

4. Then it must be that only holy day which man in state of innocenc had- possibly , if he had stood, should ever have had afterward. 

5. After the first institution it had the most glorious and tremendous promulgation and sanction, such a delivery and ratification, as no other law (except those that were spoken at the same time) ever had, namely, by God's so wonderful and most astonishing appearance on Mount Sinai, in the sight of six hundred thousand persons. There it was one of the then words spoken by God's own mouth, by God first spoken in the ears of all that so prepared and awakened numerous multitude, and after in the mount was written with the finger of God, written on the first table of stone, before the six commandments of the second table. This commandment thus written was with the others reserved in the golden ark or chest, made purposely by Moses from God's command to keep the tables, and then by God's appointment was to be preserved in the glorious tabernacle made by Moses, and there it was to be with highest honor preferred to be kept in the holy of holies.

6. Though some yield it not, yet a vast majority judge the Sabbath had its change from the seventh to the first day of the week by the Lord of the Sabbath, Christ Himself, or at least by His apostles from His authority.

7. However it be changed, yet it is looked upon as grounded on that so amazing part of our redemption, Christ's glorious resurrection on the third day after His passion.

8. The Sabbath formerly was the Old Testament church's fixed time to behold as in a mirror the glory of God the Creator, His eternal Godhead, power, wisdom, goodness, and most glorious excellences, in the so admirable frame of heaven and earth, and the so various and curious pieces in it, all most exquisitely wrought and finished. It was the peculiar time for setting up the ladder of the creatures by contemplation to climb from earth to heaven with. But now changed into the first day of the week, it is the Christian church's time for beholding, as in a mirror, the glory more peculiarly of God the Redeemer- now not in humiliation, but in His appearing and begun exaltation in the His glorious resurrection from the dead, that His concerned people might joy with highest an most heavenly rejoicing, for this rising of the Sun of righteousness, to be under the warmest and most vivifying beams of His infinite love.

9. Let me meditate of this day, as the time afforded for largest spiritual advantages, no day being so eminent for me and my soul as this day.

10. Let me meditate of this day as that happy season wherein the ordinances of Christ do run in fuller, higher, and stronger current. More is offered me on this great soul-mart day than on other common market-days, other weekday opportunities; it is the day whereby in some respects I have far better ordinances, the public; in communion with Christ, in the midst, among those that are gathered together in His name. And then by public I have better advantages for the private, to perform them better. Private duties having a better time and better helps, I must thereby be minded of my better performance.

11. It is the eminent day of meeting with God in His upper walks of more solemn ordinances.

12. The day of days for our best speaking with our God, and of highest familiarity with Him.

13. It is the great time of our hearing from God, and having Him most eminently speak to us. There are no hearings from God like this day's hearings, no such voice, no such efficacy can be expected as on this day.

14. It is the day wherein God sits out, and is most to be seen- the great day of seeing God's goings in the sanctuary, seeing His power and His glory, Psalm 63:2. No such day for this as the Lord's own day.

15. A day of feeding more on the "feast of fat things full of marrow," Isaiah 25:6. Of being brought into the King's banqueting-house, having the banner of Christ's love spread more amply over us than at other times, it being the day wherein the highest flamings-up of His unspeakable love appeared, in that He not only died, but rose again from the dead, without which all His other labor and sufferings had been lost, and our souls been lost also.

16. It is a day dropped down from heaven, may serve to give a taste of the Sabbath and day kept there, and to set a copy for us here to write after, in our holy restings and actings, attended with heavenly refreshings. God that made all things, when He had finished His work, He then rested on the seventh day, and with His example of resting, gave the precept of sanctifying the seventh-day to the church of the New Testament, as some think, which therefore they say is called the Lord's day, Revelation 1:10, as the ordinance of the supper is called the Lord's supper, as instituted by Him.

17. It is the day of resting the body from labor, or respiting the mind from worldly thoughts and cares, and of refreshing the spirit with heavenly manna, which rains down now on this day more plentifully, and with water of life, that runs more abundantly in the pure channels of holy ordinances.

18. Meditated on it should be, as the season of the best reciprocations, mutual actings between earth and heaven, wherein the soul has the advantage of acting higher and more vigorously, to glorify and please God, and wherein God commands the blessing more, and affords assistances more usually than or any other days, as experience proves.

19. It is a time to come from sweeter and fuller communion with God in Christ (whose blessed day it is), to come with our faces shining and hearts flaming, made better to be on earth, fitter to live in heaven: and hereupon,

20. To leave upon the spirit a more eager longing fully to enjoy the Lord of the Sabbath, and have time turned wholly into eternity.

These or such-like meditations may be suitable and quickening for improving the great opportunity of this day of Christ, and we cannot think too much or too seriously for this great occasion.


Nathanael Ranew
Solitude Improved By Divine Meditation, pp. 80-83 

The Paper-Stainer and The Artist

Our author means that the maker of wall-papers gets over a great deal of ground as compared with the artist who is producing a masterly painting. Of rough daubing there is plenty to be had, and there is a great market for it; and yet, though thoroughly fine art is scarce, it is infinitely more precious than daubing. That religion which needs no care, and takes no trouble, is in great demand in the world; it is produced by the acre, and may be seen spread over the surface everywhere. Not so the religion of grace; it costs many a tear, and a world of anxious thought, and solemn heart-searching, and it is but slow work at the best; but then it is of great price, and is not only acceptable with God, but even men perceive that there is a something about it to which the common religious daubers never attain. If we let the boat drift with the stream, and leave our religion to random influences, without care or thought, what can we look for but slovenliness and worthlessness? If we would please God we must watch every stroke and touch upon the canvas of our lives, and we may not think that we can lay it on with a trowel and yet succeed. We ought to live as miniature-painters work, for they watch every line and tint. O for more careful work, more heart work! Otherwise we shall lose that which we have wrought.

Charles H. Spurgeon
Flowers From A Puritan's Garden, "The Paper-stainer and the Artist, pp. 46-47

Rules About Meditation

Every Christian is to awake with God in the morning: as David when he awoke was ever with God, Psalm 139:18, at his awaking times in the night, by thinking of God; so chiefly when he awoke last, when the night was past, with all the dangers of it, and the day dawned, then the morning-star of meditation arose in his heart. The first work in the morning is to awake with God, and the noble thinking faculty, which upon awaking will instantly awake and begin to stir,  begin to act: let it be awakened into this sweet way of self-entertainment by engaging of it in holy meditation. Look we that the heart be first of all seasoned, sweetened, and perfumed with heavenly thoughts.

Begin with serious reflections upon the great goodness and tender mercies of God in our preservations from Satan's malice and mischiefs; what affrightments, in noises and appearances, in violence and harms, would he exercise, if he were let loose upon us! What other harms from wicked men, usually taking the advantage of the dark and still night, when all are at rest, besides harms from accidental occasions that we are liable to! There is also the great mercy of beds to lie on, rest without tossings, ease without torments, sleep without holding our eyes in awaking, having our sleep sweet, awaking with refreshing, having our formerly weary bodies and decayed spirits revived and cheered, and we ourselves under a new adaptation and fitness for the succeeding day's occasions. There should be also a stand and abode of thoughts upon anything in the night which is more signal and remarkable, that comes down from heaven as a brighter beam of favor to take the eye with, that is let down as a more peculiar hand to take up our thoughts to heaven by, that is sent as a more special love-token, stamped with more legible characters of the care and kindness of a God toward us.

When the night's past mercies have had some due reflections and musings, had a down-weight of improvement endeavored for warming and enlarging the heart toward our good God; if then it conveniently may be, nothing to the contrary interposing and that justly may hinder, the next thing then for the way of our thoughts should be to look forward to the day coming on, and the spiritual concernments of it; or if it then cannot at the present be, yet so soon as we can to set to and engage in this so useful meditation.

The more particular rules we may use for this daily meditation, are these following:

1. Meditation of setting up the master mark, the glorifying of the most high God.

2. Next unto it, meditation of eternal happiness in the enjoying of God.

3. Meditating then after it of the sure and adequate means for attaining them both.

And these are therefore to be meditated upon:

Meditating on, 1. Jesus Christ, the only way to the Father by His work of redemption.

Meditating on, 2. The Holy Spirit, the great applier of Christ and His redemption.

Meditating on, 3. The holy ordinances of God, the usual ways of the Spirit's coming to apply Christ by.

Meditating on, 4. The word of God, chiefly the promises of the gospel: these on God's part.

Meditating 5. On our part, by our use of the ordinances, and the word and promises, and that faith and holiness whereby we come to union and communion with God, glorify Him, and obtain salvation; faith as the instrument of receiving Christ, and both faith and holiness, or the graces of Christ, as our principles of life and power, to live unto God, and growing up to perfection against all opposition.

1. The first thing according to the rule of best wisdom, which lays the surest foundation in any course, is first to take into most serious consideration the supreme and chief end, and to act a fresh setting up before us that master mark and scope of the most high God, and the glorifying of Him, to be continued as we can through the whole course of the day.

Meditation of this glorifying God, for pure, lively, and highest advancings of it-- this is the soul's best operation, and runs most parallel to the perfect work of heaven. Heaven's higher acting is contemplation of the most blessed God, for the most transcendent exaltings of His glory: the rule of Scripture is to do all to the glory of God, 1 Corinthians 10:31. And this rule must therefore have its place and power here; therefore this daily meditation must take it in and set it up. It must be everyone's wisdom to bottom or day meditation, with the still eyeing of and aiming at the glorifying of the most high God. To begin with the fresh thoughts, and also the warmest frame of spirit, for furthering the supreme end, the glory of God, and with it, as fit to be annexed unto it, that which is wrapped up with it: our own eternal happiness.

In a watch, and diverse artificial motions, the evenness and expediteness of the motion is from evener or unevener, stronger or weaker drawing of the spring, the first mover. Thus is it in godliness, a Christian's motions are answerable to his eyeings more or less of the main end. Christians complain of their daily dead-heartedness and unevenness; it much arises from the so little or listless lockings at the main mark. Paul looked earnestly, and he pressed hard. In archery, those who eye the mark most earnestly and steadily hit the oftenest and fullest.. The wisest Christian is the most earnest, equal eyer of the main end. There be many particulars in this head, which according to prudence and leisure may have their seasons of ponderings.

The variety will produce delight, and set an edge upon the spirit, apt to grow heavy and weary. They are such as these: as the considerations of the most high God in all His infinite glories and perfections: His all-sufficiency, in His knowledge, wisdom, holiness, righteousness, and the rest but chiefly in His so infinite and unchangeable love, and riches of free grace: the infinite obligations eternally lying upon us, for glorifying and exalting of Him: the infinite excellences and fullness of the second Person, and His infinite love, in undertaking with His Father to redeem lost sinners: and the infinite love of the third Person, the Holy Spirit, the applier of redemption. Some most serious meditation of God, and glorifying Him, to give down into the heart a glowing heat and liveliness for all the following day is still fit in some measure to be practiced.

The next should be some serious musing on that next end, our own salvation and eternal happiness, further to be wrought out, to be our day labor, by the opportunity of a new begun day, a day which will bring us nearer to the ocean of eternity.


Nathanael Ranew
Solitude Improved By Divine Meditation, pp. 61-64