Bowen's Daily Meditations

Let us look at these persons whose desires are to be fulfilled. They are worthy to be looked at; for there is not their like upon the earth. The desires of other men are their torments, the keenest elements of their misery; taking them up to all high mountains only to cast them deeper down. Other men find their desires, however comely and angelic they may at first appear, however they may descend to them upon a rainbow as from heaven, at last to be demons, domiciled in their soul to make it...

In the battle of this world, the Christian is seen without a shield. And just where he is, is the thickest of the fight. The adversary hurls his best forces against that spot, evidently supposing that there is only this impediment between him and victory. It is wonderful then that the Christian should pass scathless through this shower of fiery darts. Those that are in the secret know that - while apparently unprotected - he is in reality defended by an invisible shield. While he abides in...

That we might not fall into the hands of the living God, Christ was delivered into the hands of sinful men. He stood before an earthly tribunal where Injustice sat in state, in order that we might escape the dread tribunal where infinite Justice sits. He was delivered up by sinful men to sinful men. Yet he was delivered up by a righteous God, with his own glad consent, to all the sufferings that man could inflict. He that was delivered up, was the only sinless being that ever walked this...

An incontestable truth, one would say. "Who will dare to deny that God speaks things which are right? That were at once the height of folly and of guilt.

Is it so? Then do all men dwell upon the heights of folly and of guilt. They have built for themselves permanent habitations there. There are innumerable things that men declare to be right; they do them and repent not at the remembrance of them; they commend them in others; yet these things are diametrically opposite to the things...

We need not feel so bitterly towards affliction, since we are indebted to it for the knowledge of this most wonderful fact, that our divine Friend enters into our sorrow with all his heart, and perfectly identifies himself with us in our tribulation.

Sympathy is really a more valuable proof of love, sometimes, than the hindrance of the calamity would have been. Every king can scatter handfuls of gold and save many from want; but where is the king whose eye melts, whose heart overflows,...

Alps on Alps arise, as the believer presses forward in his course. He beholds a summit, and exclaims, " My God will meet me there, and there will gainsayers be confounded." But when he reaches it, he receives not the expected testimony, and unbelievers make a mock of his disappointed hopes. He would be troubled; but in the absence of the external testimony, he receives an inward sweet assurance of the love and faithfulness of God, and in the very hour of his disappointment, his face shines...

Here we have an admirable expression of Christian confidence. It is pure confidence in God, viewed as the source not only of one's own strength, but of all strength, so that there remains nothing in the world worthy to excite alarm. " The Lord is my helper," saith the believer. " I am not counting upon some future alliance with him; but speak from a deep and satisfying experience of his presence and faithfulness. I have been shorn of all my former conceit of strength; and have hearkened to...

Wisdom is the last thing of the need of which men become sensible. Worldly wisdom indeed they desire to have in larger measure; but it is the rarest thing in the world to see a man who is deeply sensible of his need of that wisdom which God gives in answer to prayer. This only shows how amazingly unwise men are. It is because they have not this wisdom at all, that they are conscious of no need. Yet, would they but know it, this wisdom would give them virtually all that they so impetuously...

This promise was addressed in the first instance to Joshua; not because he was Joshua, but because he was a believer; and it is valid for every believer.

The believer is to be content with such things as he has. "Behold Lazarus at the gate of the rich man, his body full of sores, without food, shelter, friends. Is he to be content with such things as he has? He has nothing."' Yes, he has some thing. Let us try to take an inventory of it. He has a Father in heaven, upon the throne of...

That call upon him not because they think it a decorous thing, not as an act of homage merely, but because they need what he alone can give, and believe that he will give it to them, if they ask wisely and in faith.

They call upon him in truth, who make nothing of themselves, everything of Christ. They call upon him in truth, who overlook none of his attributes, but view him as his word reveals him. " If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall...

O happy Psalmist, who canst use this language? Not only is God thy rock; he is thine only rock. On him dost thou build thy confidence. He is thy only refuge, thy only safe guard.

How grievously do they insult God who rely in part upon him, in part on something else; and who with the utmost emphasis of their souls deprecate being left alone with God, shut up to him alone. They would fain eke out the insufficiency of their wealth by his riches of mercy; the inadequacy of their wisdom,...

Seek to sound the depths of the meaning of this word, draw near. Examine the supplications of a thousand suppliants, and they will show these suppliants scattered at a thousand different distances from God, but almost all at a great distance, and out of the whole perhaps only one dose to the throne of grace.

There is much to hinder this drawing near. There is the inherited habit of unbelieving prayer. The supineness of the soul. Worldly care. Worldly joy. Inappreciation of the...

Indicated in the last verse of the preceding chapter, these glorious prospects are displayed before God's spiritual Israel. They that reject Christ reject all the good fore spoken by the prophets, and the wrath of God abideth upon them. All things belong to them who belong to Christ. Christians are taught to contemplate not merely their own individual blessedness and perfection; but the unspeakable blessedness and unconceived glory of that condition upon which the whole Church of the living...

The wicked are sometimes seen flourishing as a green bay tree. Their cup of worldly prosperity runneth over. To the spectator their days appear to flow by in pleasantness and peace. They conform to the world's code of morals, and their praises are on the tongues of all. They fare sumptuously every day and fancy that they are to sit down at the banquet of everlasting life. Peace and prosperity are within their gates, if we may believe appearances. But we refer to believe God. He knoweth all...