Bowen's Daily Meditations

A mighty angel stands in heaven upon a height at the foot of which you dwell unconsciously; and he bears aloft in his hands a stone, mountainous in size, which he is prepared to hurl upon you. But another mighty one says: Stay; for he repents, and will now bring forth fruits in evidence thereof. Then the company of the just made perfect, bend their eager gaze upon you to discern this evidence; and the stone descends not, though it hangs above you. Well may you therefore give heed to this...

If these words were appropriate at the time when they were spoken, then can we hardly conceive of a situation in which the people of God may be placed, in which these words would be inappropriate. If at that time the disciples were not to be troubled, then tell me, pray, what is the hour, what the emergency, when it is fitting that their hearts should be troubled?

Says one, " My child is dead; my beloved one. For years my predominant solicitude had been to make all things work...

Some one may say: " He will never allow the righteous to fall away; but what right have I to regard myself as righteous? Of what avail is this promise to me?

Well, it is of none, if thou art not righteous. In that case, the wrath of God abideth on thee; there are no promises for thee. But are there no promises for such as hunger and thirst after righteousness? Yes, for they are righteous. The Publican went down to his house, justified rather than the Pharisee. To look unto the...

The meek are they who have consented to receive the knowledge of themselves. Self-detection has led to self-spoliation. Their wardrobe has turned out to be a pirate's chest. The more richly they went arrayed, the more they exposed their own dishonor. They gladly now sink down to their proper level, and find no place too low for them. Perhaps they occasionally shrink back from some deeper humiliation. But the Spirit of God and his providence convince them, and they take that step too. They...

Mine! All mine! All the revelation of thee in the Bible is the revelation of my God. Thy wisdom is all for me. So is thy power. So is thy goodness. So is thy truth, thy purity, thy justice; thy time is for me, thy eternity for me ', thy works' for me. Thou sittest on the throne of the universe for me; pervadest all space for me; arrangest all thy plans for me.

Many millions of millions of miles away, but a star to thine eyes, is a sun huge in mass, dazzling in splendor, weighty in...

" Let there be an understanding between us. Let us talk over the points of difference between us, and see if we cannot come to a settlement. If you have any fault to find with me, state it. If I am not what you would have me be, put your objection into words. Be explicit. You alienate yourself from me, shun my paths, avoid all approaches to communion with me, shut up my word, look coldly on my people, and if you can possibly get anything else to think of, no matter how contemptible it be,...

Who is this beloved of the Lord? It is one who believes in the love that God has toward him. We have not to bring about the love of God towards us; but to recognize that love. Peter had a great idea of his own love to Christ; " though all men forsake thee, yet will I not forsake thee;" but John was content to speak of himself as the beloved of the Lord. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us. His love to us is as our faith in his love, and in our own unworthiness. "...

The context informs us what that prayer is in which we ought not to allow ourselves to faint. The prayer is that God would be pleased to judge between his people and the world. The world denies the claim of the righteous to be considered the children of God. The one great need of the Church is, that God should bear testimony unto the word of his grace, and rebuke the nations with a voice they, can but hear, saying, ' Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm." The Lord Jesus taught...

He will, thou prophet of the living God! More happy art thou in this thy strong and well-warranted persuasion than if a tiara of the most effulgent diamonds were set upon thy brow, to light up the chamber of thy darkness. Didst thou always know this? Couldest thou from the beginning look thus serenely along the paths of life, conscious that betide whatever might, thou shouldst enjoy the manifested presence of thy God?

Perhaps not. Perhaps there was a period in thy life when thou hadst...

Is it at all unreasonable to suppose that the contemplation of God will yield us greater more precious results than the consideration of anything or of everything in this world that he has made? You are wrapt up in the study of mineralogy, or botany, or conchology; and have no time to spare for the cultivation of your acquaintance with God. The sight of a little shell has wonderful power to awaken all your faculties: and you have no rest till you have ascertained its characteristics, traced...

Poor man, says the world. But no, says the believer; he is to be pitied who boasts of any other portion than this. If the Lord be not thy portion, will any portion that thou hast continue? Let it be power like that of Napoleon, wisdom like that of Socrates; fame like that of Bacon, imagination like that of Scott, wealth like that of the Bourbons; let it be beauty, or valor, or wit, or industry; let it be troops of friends, or one most loving heart; let it be what it may, it is a contemptible...

This modest text is supported by a bolder and more eloquent one in Isaiah. " Men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him." Those that waited for the Messiah, and at length beheld him, found the promise of these texts verified in their experience.

But we have not in this dispensation bid farewell to the attitude of waiting. The great and precious things bestowed upon us, do not hinder...

God hath said, " Thou shalt not kill," But thou hast done more than this. Imagine thyself in the presence of some pure and spotless inhabitant of heaven, clad in perfections that enable him to ' smile at any difficulty however gigantic, and resplendent with the glory of God. Imagine thyself as sailing him in his purity, wisdom, love, power, and glory; and stripping him of all his perfections one after another, and finally precipitating him to earth, a poor depraved sensual rebel. Cease now...

For the devices of man only increase my malady. The utmost they can do is to conceal a plague spot here and a plague spot there; but concealment is not abatement. What is my pride the better for all their prescriptions? What have they done for my self-will? For my unbelief, slothfulness, irritability, prayerlessness, impulsiveness? I come to thee, Lord. He that created me, and whose creation I have spent my days in marring, can alone restore to me his image, and make me to walk in the health...