Bowen's Daily Meditations

God considered that this life of ours is very short, very fugitive, and that crowd it as he might with expressions of his kindness, he never would be able to give anything like a sufficient revelation of his love. So he resolved to take time beforehand, a great deal of it, and fill all heaven and earth, from the very beginning on continuously, with the manifestations of his love to the creature that was to live in this our day, was to hover for a little about the middle of this century, and...

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but out of them all the Lord delivereth them. If worldly men are competent to effect the deliverance, the Lord accomplishes it by them. If saints are needed, saints are employed. If the impediments cannot be removed in this way, if supernatural aid is necessary, then the angels receive their commission. If an army of these invincible ones are needed, they are sent, and under the guidance of their leader they encamp around about the imperiled...

The life that now is. Covetousness reading this begins to glow with delight; it exclaims, " This is the very thing I seek; 'the life that now is;' and of course 'that which is to come.' Religion is a good thing after all; I will give myself to it at once." But the promise is not to thee, covetousness; it is to godliness. It is to the soul in which covetousness is dead; to the godly soul, which says, " One thing is needful;" whose affections are set on things above; which looks upon the favor...

There is an erroneous idea of submission abroad in the world. Quite likely, the error obtains in the Church to some extent. There are many things in our condition here to which we are simply called to submit. God has placed them, and woe to him who would seek to displace them. But there are other things which have been placed in our way expressly that we might enter into conflict with them and overcome them. There are difficulties placed in our path, to give us opportunities of evincing what...

It is a great moment in a man's life when he ascertains that he does not know God. The next step is to ascertain that one ought to know God. After this a man may still go knocking at many wrong doors; but let us hope that he will at length reach the right door, even the Bible, and conclusively set himself to seek God therein.

If we want to know what it is to seek diligently, we need no dictionary; we need only look around us; in every community there are men who seem to have assigned...

" Art thou able, Christ, to slake the thirst of my soul? Dost thou know what strength of desire there is in me? Consider what seas of goodness have, in the providence of God, been poured upon me without in the least diminishing the force of aspiration within me. Whatever is given, seems only to stimulate my imagination and send it soaring a higher flight. Thus it would appear that in the very nature of things I never can know satisfaction. Give me everything that I can now conceive of, and...

Keep that which is good, in it; that which is evil, out: thoughts, feelings, purposes, imaginations, desires. Especially, keep God's word in it. Quench not the Spirit. Cherish a memory for what is good. Be as a gardener; be as a banker.

For the mind is God's wonderful gift.

As our thoughts, so our words and acts.

As our thoughts, so our future life.

Be as the pilot.

Thermopylae.

Our peace easily destroyed by unwatchfulness.

God looks at the...

Among those who read the Bible, how small a proportion, what an insignificant minority are the broken and contrite in heart! How rare a thing it is to see a man who is bowed down beneath a sense of his sinfulness, and who finds it difficult to conceive that there should ever be pardon for him! How small the number of such!

Now see what honor God has put upon these few. A great deal of his word seems to be intended just for them. God, so to speak, passes by the crowds of those who are...

Perfect love casteth out fear; but not the fear "here spoken of. There is no torment in this fear. It is at home in company with the most unlimited confidence. The man that trusts in God is the same as the man that fears God; the two expressions are convertible, and are over and over interchanged in the word of God. Let the man that thinks he fears God, see to it that he trusts in God: and let the man that thinks he trusts in God, see to it that he fears God.

He fears God who has a...

When Love divine was about to follow Christ back to heaven, he said, " Not so; I am no more in the world, but these are in the world." So this Love has ever since tarried with the people of God.

The Christian knows that goodness and mercy shall go with him all the days of his life, as two attendant angels. He knows that they have followed him hitherto. But it is some times difficult for him to perceive that they are with him. When Jeremiah was in that deep, dark dungeon, where there...

And how were the servants of God to comfort the people of God? By telling them of Christ. This became the burden of Isaiah's prophecies, as recorded in the fortieth chapter and onwards; and all the prophets his successors continued this strain. This was the banquet that God saw fit to provide for his ancient people. They demanded other comfort, and demanded in vain. When Jesus himself appeared, they refused to accept the comfort; they saw no beauty in him that they should desire him. They...

Before you, seated in the cavern of this world, the wizard of this world causes to appear, one after another, scenes of beauty, dissolving scenes that scarce have presented themselves to your vision before they have gone, leaving you in darkness. The wizard shows them to you that he may bind you to himself forever. "All these things will I bestow upon you," he says, " if you fall down and worship me." " The realities are in my chambers," he says; "I give them to whomsoever I will."...

Having bestowed righteousness, thou wilt express thy pleasure in that righteousness. We should not need a revelation from heaven to tell us this. It ought to be an unquestionable, self-evident axiom, that God who has all gifts at his disposal, will bestow his best, gifts upon those who please him most.

But there is none righteous, no, not one. Well, in the absolute sense of the word, Christ is the only righteous one that ever sojourned on this earth. He knew no sin. But they that...

This seems a very moderate declaration of attachment but very few can go so far as this. The gospel of Christ is the word that sets forth Christ. It is nothing apart from Christ. As He is honorable, so is it; as He is excellent, so is it. To be ashamed of it, is to be ashamed of Him.

Are you ashamed to speak, look, and act in such a way as to show your conviction that you and all men are lost sinners until recovered by the grace of God; and that you are dependent upon this grace for...