Bowen's Daily Meditations

Let the Spirit have the control of all your movements. Do this thing, let alone that, adopt this habit, forsake that, speak this word, dismiss that, go, stay, as the Spirit shall choose. It is certainly a marvellous invention of God that the Spirit should come down from heaven, enter into these satanized constitutions of ours, and undertake to exhibit a divine life upon the earth through the instrumentality of anything so utterly intractable as these members, these hearts, these darkened...

You are always receiving; you are always needing. There is no position that you are called to occupy in which you will not find some expressions of divine goodness. There is no cup so bitter given you by your heavenly Father that has not in it some commingled good. In everything give thanks. In the pit of Joseph. In his prosperity. In his prison. In the belly of the fish. Upon Job's dunghill. Let John the Baptist in prison give thanks that he had received boldness to declare the truth. Let...

How everything in this world wears the appearance of a house the master of which is away, far, far away; as good as dead. Every one doeth that which is right in his own eyes, and goeth about as though he had himself inherited all authority. A few, indeed, proclaim in this chamber and in that, the remembered will of the master, and endeavor to turn back the tide of rebellion and of ungodliness. But the others listen not. They say, " Our Lord delayeth his coming, and there is not the slightest...

Every man looks upon himself as belonging to a small minority composed of the world's best men. If there were one enormous circle drawn, and another very small one, the former for the great transgressors and the latter for the comparatively innocent, all the world with one consent would seek to crowd into the smaller circle. And in this they would be acting quite conscientiously. They are accustomed in their self-estimates to overrate the good and underrate the evil. Again, they judge of...

We cross sea and land to visit the holy places. We exult to look upon the wretched city that bears the name of the place where Christ was condemned to death. We say, this stream he crossed, this mountain he stood upon, this valley he traversed, this shore he visited, in this town he was born, in this place he was brought up. Romanists, Greeks, Armenians, who know of no other holy places, jostle us and outstrip us. But the question, " Where is Christ to be found now?" is far more important...

You have false conceptions of some being, some one that has claims upon your cordial love and heartiest obedience; his claims you cannot recognize, his worth is utterly hidden from you, and your embittered mind will not allow you to behold him otherwise than as invested with dark and forbidding qualities. Knowing the force of your prejudice, he comes to you in the disguise of a mean man, and is hired by you as a servant. Gradually you marvel at the admirable characteristics of this servant....

Men have what they regard as life; and if you tell them that it is not life, they smile at your quaint way of viewing things, and at your figurative language. But, really, what men call life is but a momentary evasion of death. Death dogs you everywhere. He hath long since written his name upon you; and he suffers not a day to go by in which he does not extort a new confession from your mortal constitution, to the effect that you are his. All pain, all weariness, all loss, all decay,...

Excellency is to be estimated by adaptation. Viewed in himself, Christ is without a peer. With all beings before him, the Father chose Christ, saying, " This is my elect, in whom my soul delighteth." When God has pronounced, what need remains of deliberation? But happily for us, there is in Christ not only infinite excellency, but adaptation to our state and requirements.

As he is excellent, so is the knowledge of him excellent; for we possess him by knowing him. There is nothing in...

It seems to have been an important part of the divine plan that the people of God, from Adam onward to the actual advent of the Messiah, should be momentarily expecting that Messiah; the times and the seasons he dimly revealed, reserving them mainly for his own contemplation. And scarcely had the Saviour at length alighted on this earth than he began to direct the minds of the new people whom he was forming for himself, to his ulterior advent in glory. To wait for the Son of God from heaven,...

There is much evidence given anterior to faith; abundant evidence; far more than men care to gather up, concerning anything of worldly interest. Yet the greatest and most surprising testimonies are reserved for the satisfaction of believers. If unbelief has its necessities, faith has its privileges. Some would like to have, without any figure, a white stone thrown down to them from heaven, with their name upon it, beside the name of God - something that they can clutch in their hand. But...

Unto them that stand in awe of God and are conversant with the divine perfections, the Sun of righteousness makes haste to arise. There has been a fulfilling of this truth ever since the day of Pentecost. To one individual here, to an other there, it is given to behold his rising. Here is one that has been enabled to look upon Christ as the sacrifice for sin, to approach God through him, and to rejoice in the goodly prospects opening up before him. But soon he becomes conscious, of a great...

Hold fast what thou hast, because it is only for a little while that thou must hold it under the pressure of adverse circumstances; and hold it fast because everlasting victory and dominion and blessedness shall reward thy fidelity. So might a captain speak to a little band assaulted by a mighty host, when in the distance a relieving force is seen approaching; a nation's destiny depends upon their holding their own.

It is only for a little while, because the day of our salvation is...

Men are fully aware of many of the advantages of partnerships. They even form partnerships for the prosecution of some labors that would seem most likely to be well performed by a single individual; as for instance, the labors of authorship. But they are not aware that any gain would result from entering into partnership, with the promises of God as their capital, and the throne of grace as their place of business.

The encouragement of the text does not address itself merely to an...

The Jews were accustomed to regard themselves as a fountain of righteousness, the only one in the earth; their country an oasis made glad by these beneficent and hallowed waters, while all the rest of the world was a wilderness; and Jerusalem as the blessed spot where heaven and earth met together and held one another in a fond embrace. At no time were they more tenacious of these views than when the Son of God dwelt among them, drinking his daily cup of ignominy. His credentials showed that...