(Susannah Spurgeon, "Words of Cheer and Comfort
and will heal him!" Isaiah 57:18
Here is one of the blessedly incomprehensible
paradoxes of GOD'S love and mercy, which
startles us by its excess of compassionate grace:
one would have thought that the next
sentence must be, "I will punish him,"
or at least, "I will rebuke him!"
But, instead of wrath--
here is pardon!
Pity makes room for love; and in the place
of bitterness, the LORD gives a blessing!
and will heal him!"
O wanderer, will not these tender words
cause you to return to your LORD?
O stony heart--
will you not break at so
loving a touch as this?
O cold and half-dead soul--
will not such a Divine
cordial revive you?
"I have seen his ways."
What "ways" has GOD seen in you?
Have they not been "wicked," "crooked,"
"perverse," "your own ways"--
"the ways of death?"
Have you not turned aside
from the path of life, and
refused to walk "in all HIS way," and
chosen "a stubborn way" for yourself?
Our heart must give a sad assent
to all these charges. As we bow
humbly before HIM, and say,
"You are acquainted with all my ways"--
we feel that such knowledge of us on
HIS part, intensifies our wonder and
gratitude at the loving compassion
with which He regards us!
When I was a little child, and had
been troublesome to my mother--
her reproof or punishment would often
be followed by my trembling question,
"Mother, don't you love me?"
And my mother's reply invariably was,
"Yes, I do love you; but I do not love
your naughty ways!" Poor mother!
Doubtless I tried her very much,
and this was the best that grieved
parental love could say. But our
heavenly FATHER has sweeter,
choicer words than these,
for HIS erring children.
And my mother's reply invariably was,
"Yes, I do love you; but I do not love
your naughty ways!" Poor mother!
Doubtless I tried her very much,
and this was the best that grieved
parental love could say. But our
heavenly FATHER has sweeter,
choicer words than these,
for HIS erring children.
HIS love is Divine, so HE says,
and will heal him!"
O sweet pitifulness of our GOD!
O inexplicable tenderness!
O love surpassing all earth's
loveliest affection!
Do not our hard hearts yield under
the power of such compassion as this?
GOD knows all our wickedness,
HE has seen all our waywardness;
yet HIS purpose towards us
is one of healing and pardon--
and not of anger and estrangement.
HE has seen all our waywardness;
yet HIS purpose towards us
is one of healing and pardon--
and not of anger and estrangement.
As I learn more of GOD,
I get so sick of my sin--
indwelling-sin, heart-sin, that
my soul welcomes this WORD
of the LORD, as a condemned
prisoner embraces a pardon, or as
a drowning man clutches the life-buoy
thrown out for his rescue.
To be healed of the disease which wastes
us, to be delivered from the deadness and
indifference which enchain us, to have
a perfect heart with the LORD our GOD,
and to walk before HIM in a perfect way--
this, I take it, is the blessed prospect
held out by this promise.
Who will claim its fulfillment
at once? Who will take our
gracious GOD at HIS WORD, and
believingly receive the priceless
blessing which HIS love offers?
I get so sick of my sin--
indwelling-sin, heart-sin, that
my soul welcomes this WORD
of the LORD, as a condemned
prisoner embraces a pardon, or as
a drowning man clutches the life-buoy
thrown out for his rescue.
To be healed of the disease which wastes
us, to be delivered from the deadness and
indifference which enchain us, to have
a perfect heart with the LORD our GOD,
and to walk before HIM in a perfect way--
this, I take it, is the blessed prospect
held out by this promise.
Who will claim its fulfillment
at once? Who will take our
gracious GOD at HIS WORD, and
believingly receive the priceless
blessing which HIS love offers?
O blessed LORD, YOUR forbearance
with us in the past, has been a miracle
of mercy! YOU have seen so much in
us which YOUR soul has abhorred--
and yet YOU come now with this gift
of healing in YOUR hands, which
means not only pardon--
but the power to be holy.
with us in the past, has been a miracle
of mercy! YOU have seen so much in
us which YOUR soul has abhorred--
and yet YOU come now with this gift
of healing in YOUR hands, which
means not only pardon--
but the power to be holy.
LORD, we lift up our
empty, beseeching hands--
to YOUR full ones. Our own
ways have led us farther and
farther from YOU; now let YOUR
forgiving, healing love draw us
so close to YOU, that we can
never again be among those
"who leave the paths of uprightness,
to walk in the ways of darkness."
empty, beseeching hands--
to YOUR full ones. Our own
ways have led us farther and
farther from YOU; now let YOUR
forgiving, healing love draw us
so close to YOU, that we can
never again be among those
"who leave the paths of uprightness,
to walk in the ways of darkness."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
GraceGems has just published Susannah Spurgeon's comforting 35 page booklet,
"Words of Cheer and Comfort for Sick and Sorrowful Souls!"
Susannah Spurgeon is as good a writer as her husband C.H. Spurgeon--
but more encouraging and solacing. GraceGems has published all four of her fine booklets:
"Words of Cheer and Comfort for Sick and Sorrowful Souls!"
Susannah Spurgeon is as good a writer as her husband C.H. Spurgeon--
but more encouraging and solacing. GraceGems has published all four of her fine booklets:
A Song of Sighs
Words of Cheer and Comfort for Sick and Sorrowful Souls!
A Basket of Summer Fruit
Free Grace and Dying Love!
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