C. H. Spurgeon's Morning & Evening Devotional: 08/02/PM
Bible software
For a complete Bible study software package with over one million cross-references
combined, try SwordSearcher.
SwordSearcher has tens of thousands of topical and encyclopedic entries
all linked to scripture, fully searchable and indexed by both topic and
verse reference, and includes Spurgeon's Morning and Evening devotional.
Also, try Daily Bible and Prayer to keep track of your prayer list, do a daily devotional from C. H. Spurgeon's Faith Checkbook, and make Bible reading plans.
Back to Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotional index
"So she gleaned in the field until even."
--Ruth 2:17
Let me learn from Ruth, the gleaner. As she went out to gather the ears of corn, so must I go forth into the fields of prayer, meditation, the ordinances, and hearing the word to gather spiritual food. The gleaner gathers her portion ear by ear; her gains are little by little: so must I be content to search for single truths, if there be no greater plenty of them. Every ear helps to make a bundle, and every gospel lesson assists in making us wise unto salvation. The gleaner keeps her eyes open: if she stumbled among the stubble in a dream, she would have no load to carry home rejoicingly at eventide. I must be watchful in religious exercises lest they become unprofitable to me; I fear I have lost much already--O that I may rightly estimate my opportunities, and glean with greater diligence. The gleaner stoops for all she finds, and so must I. High spirits criticize and object, but lowly minds glean and receive benefit. A humble heart is a great help towards profitably hearing the gospel. The engrafted soul-saving word is not received except with meekness. A stiff back makes a bad gleaner; down, master pride, thou art a vile robber, not to be endured for a moment. What the gleaner gathers she holds: if she dropped one ear to find another, the result of her day's work would be but scant; she is as careful to retain as to obtain, and so at last her gains are great. How often do I forget all that I hear; the second truth pushes the first out of my head, and so my reading and hearing end in much ado about nothing! Do I feel duly the importance of storing up the truth? A hungry belly makes the gleaner wise; if there be no corn in her hand, there will be no bread on her table; she labours under the sense of necessity, and hence her tread is nimble and her grasp is firm; I have even a greater necessity, Lord, help me to feel it, that it may urge me onward to glean in fields which yield so plenteous a reward to diligence.
Entry taken from Morning and Evening, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892). Morning and Evening is available in print and is part of SwordSearcher Bible Software.
Next reading: 08/03/AM
