July 12

"Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."—Romans 5:20.

GRACE abounds to the chief of sinners. John Bunyan tells me that I ought to look diligently for a twofold treasure—the treasure of my first and my second experience of this grace of God, the blessing of the threshold and the blessing of the home.

There is my first experience. For do I not remember the word that laid hold on me, when I was sunk in sin and misery? Do I not recall my terror of conscience, and fear of death and hell; my tears and prayers also—yea, how I sighed under every hedge for mercy? Have I never a Hill Mizar of my own? Have I forgotten the close, the milk-house, the stable, the barn, and the like, where He did visit my soul? No, no; I will praise Him always for this first experience of His grace. Oh happy day, that fixed my choice on Christ, my Saviour and my God!

But there is my second experience too. If I have sinned against light, sinned after being brought home from the waste wilderness and the far country; if I have been tempted to blaspheme; if I am down in despair; if I think God is fighting against me; if heaven is hid from my eyes; and yet—and yet out of them all the Lord delivers me: here are new themes and motives for thanksgiving. As a child no less than as a sinner, within the Father's house as well as outside its walls, I have tasted and seen that God is gracious.

By the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ He leads me out of the land of sand and thorns into the land flowing with milk and honey. This new morning I recall and commemorate the plenitude of His mercy.