Bowen's Daily Meditations

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...

Is there not reason to apprehend that we presume upon a great deal of mercy that is not really accorded? We know that the world takes for granted that God forgives it, and reserves all its anxiety for matters that seem to it invested with much more difficulty. But may it not be that we, who consider ourselves, on apparently good grounds, as God's real children, that we are daily presuming on God's forgiveness when that forgiveness is not really pronounced? We are not notified of forgiveness...

Think not that they who were personally concerned in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, were sinners above all the sinners of the world. Christ on the cross, the righteous Advocate, was able to find something extenuating in their conduct. " They know not what they do." Afterwards, when they saw what they had done, when the Spirit of Pentecost made him known as the Prince of life, many of them repented of their sin, and made haste to believe upon him. The measure of knowledge is an...

Most pitiable was the condition of the Israelites in Egypt. Pharaoh seemed to delight in eliciting the most incredible proofs of their subjection to his rod. There is ordinarily a limit beyond which masters dare not go in trifling with the lives and feelings of even the most abject slaves; but there seemed to be no limit to Pharaoh's power to oppress. The sacred sentiment of paternity he trampled on; and seemed to feel that the Israelites were the very impersonation of helplessness. But soon...