Bowen's Daily Meditations

There was thick darkness no doubt in the den where Daniel lay; in the dungeon where Paul and Silas sat; and in the living prison where Jonah was confined. There is no light so beautiful, so precious as that which ariseth to make glad the countenance of the righteous as he gropes in darkness. He says, " It is well for me that I have had experience of the darkness that I might be enraptured with the light." Before the light ariseth, there must be a victory of faith in his soul. He must...

He has pronounced his own condemnation. Christ is the test of all men and of all things. Every man that hears of Christ, discovers the outline of his character, gets a vision of his voluntary suffering, and death, and glorious resurrection, and unchanging love, and yet believes not on him, every such man declares himself to be unworthy of everlasting life. There is no affinity between him and Christ, and it is easily calculated, therefore, what are his true affinities. There is no need for...

On the day when these words were spoken, had it been announced in Rome that there was one then speaking whose words would never pass away, some would have said, " It must be the Emperor, his words will outlive all." Others would have fixed upon a certain historian; others upon an orator; others upon a poet. But no one would have conceived that a despised Galilean seated upon a hill opposite Jerusalem, and conversing with his disciples, was speaking 'words that would outlive all others. The...

This is a truth quite distinct from that of the omniscience of God. That God should be omniscient is one thing; that his omniscience should be for me, is another thing. Yes, it is a sublime proposition that omniscience and omnipotence should enter into everlasting alliance with the weakness and blindness of a creature. The righteous ones here spoken of are they that fling away their own righteousness as dross, and make themselves very insignificant. It is not because they are wise that...

It is possible that by the peace of God is here meant the friendship, the amity of God. To get anything like a conception of the peace of God, it is needful to know the barrier of enmity once existing between you and God. We may view the barrier which you erected around yourself to hinder God from approaching you, to exclude his messengers, his word, the voice of his providence, his law, his summons to judgment, every remembrancer of him. Or, we may contemplate the tremendous rampart, higher...

Set him apart by making him godly; teaching him to set his affections upon things above; to hunger and thirst after righteousness; to count all things worthless in comparison with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ; to meditate day and night in God's word; to cultivate a prayerful habit of mind; to delight in the society of the people of God; and to hold all personal interests of trivial moment in comparison with the interests of the Gospel, the extension of Christ's kingdom, the...

Ever bestowed, never exhausted. The vessel that contains it is one that can never be emptied. God himself is a vessel of mercy to communicate mercy to me; and I am a vessel of mercy to receive that mercy. To say that God will keep mercy is to say that God will keep himself. There is mercy in him and I am its object. Mercy first makes me an appropriate object for itself, and ever after keeps me so. I can say to my soul, " Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: laid up too in a...

Yes Lord, the fact of thy death is an inextinguishable fact. Nothing is more impossible, more inconceivable, than that the prints of the nails should be effaced from thy hand, the memory of thy agony from thy heart or from thy Father's heart, the chants of angels and redeemed ones die out and leave no echo in heaven. The story of the cross has indeed in-woven itself with all existences; the whole universe has bathed in it and got a richer life. Thy death is the expression of divine love to...

The Jews who gnashed with their teeth on Stephen, hurried him forth without the walls of Jerusalem, and stoned him to death with a fury like that with which they had crucified his master and forerunner, would have been confounded to learn that the stoned Stephen was after all not dead, but sleeping a heavenly and exquisite sleep. They will see him when he awakes; when he comes forth again, his spirit from the chambers of the skies, his dust from the chambers of earth when Stephen, with his...

In great cities we find monumental arches, columns, obelisks and tablets, telling of victories won by man over man; but death writes his name loftily on all these, saying, " Man's victories are my victories." But the monumental trophies of death are found in all cities great and small, in all places, in fact. Death lords it everywhere and over all. Scarcely has humanity begun to put on nobility or virtue in any quarter, before death appears and sweeps away the excellent object, terrifying...

When the adversary heard, by the waters of Jordan, a voice from heaven exclaiming, " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," he started like one who suddenly discovers a hostile army in the heart of his dominions. Fast he followed him on whom the Lord had lain help, followed him to the wilderness, and rained upon him those missiles by which he had conquered in ten thousand battles. He said to himself no doubt, " Adam was the Son of God and...

Voluntarily, heartily following thy banners; volunteering to yield their substance, to forsake their hearths, to fight the good fight of faith. In that day there will be no constraint or distraint; no legal enactments to maintain a ministry; no political alliance, no dependence on the state. The willingness of Christ's people will afford all the scope that is requisite for the manifestation of Christ's power. Then shall be heard a loud voice exclaiming, " Now is come salvation, and strength,...

Not that we shall be exempt from loss disappointment, sickness, human unkindness, embarrassment, vexation, insult, defamation, humiliation; not that we shall have in this world all the displays of providential favor on which we may have calculated; these are not the things promised; the promise that he hath promised us is eternal life. God may have dealt strangely with thee, my soul; but say frankly, has he at all dealt with thee in a way to hinder the fulfillment of the promise made thee?...

If this world should resolve to send an embassy to the most high God, whom would it choose? Well, the princes of this world would be represented; the brother of some Czar, or the nephew of some Emperor would go for them. The bishops and high clergy would be represented by some legate of ample wealth. The literary world would send some Goethe, or Confucius, or Plato. The merchants would send a Rothschild. The artists would find a Raphael. There would be an ermined judge and a decorated...