Devotional: Love Him

[I have enjoyed the Morning and Evening devotionals of the late 1800’s Particular Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, but find them a bit archaic in presentation. So I have re-written them in more modern fashion for modern ears, in some cases even modifying them.

I found him whom my soul loves: I held him, and would not let him go. (Song of Songs 3:4)

Does Christ receive us when we come to him, notwithstanding all our past sinfulness? Does he never chide us for having tried all other refuges first? And is there none on earth like him? Is he the best of all the good, the fairest of all the fair? Oh, then let us praise him! Daughters of Jerusalem, extol him with timbrel and harp! Down with your idols, up with the Lord Jesus. Now let the standards of pomp and pride be trampled underfoot, but let the cross of Jesus, which the world frowns and scoffs at, be lifted on high. O for a throne of ivory for our King Solomon! Let him be set on high forever, and let my soul sit at his footstool, and kiss his feet, and wash them with my tears.

Oh, how precious is Christ! How can it be that I have thought so little of him? How is it I can go abroad for joy or comfort when he is so full, so rich, so satisfying. Fellow believer, make a covenant with your heart that you will never depart from him, and ask your Lord to ratify it. Bid him set you as a signet upon his finger, and as a bracelet upon his arm. Ask him to bind you about him, as the bride decks herself with ornaments, and as the bridegroom puts on his jewels. I would live in Christ’s heart; in the clefts of that rock my soul would eternally abide. The sparrow has made a house, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young, even your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God; and so too would I make my nest, my home, in you, and never from you may the soul of your turtle dove go forth again, but may I nestle close to you, O Jesus, my true and only rest.

“When my precious Lord I find, All my ardent passions glow; Him with cords of love I bind, Hold and will not let him go.”