A reading of Anglican priest Robert Hawker’s (1753–1827) morning devotional writings from “The Poor Man’s Morning and Evening Portion” for January 19th.
The music for this reading is “Stellars Jay” by Chad Crouch and was adapted for length under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
“As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it; so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all’ Isaiah 65:8
It is blessed to trace our mercies to the fountainhead, and to find them all folded up from everlasting in Jesus. What was it that preserved our whole nature when blasted and withered by the fall? Was it not because Jesus, the promised seed, was in it? And what is it that preserves every individual among the children of God during the dark season of their unregeneracy, but the same precious cause? He that looks on (and who is this but Christ himself?) amidst all our perishing circumstances, by his powerful and all-prevailing intercession, commands the destroyer not to touch his people; for though in themselves loathsome, yet in Jesus they are fair and lovely. My soul, learn hence thy security. The whole cause for which thou wert preserved until called, and, when called, preserved through grace unto glory, both in conversion and in every after-act of God’s dealings with thee, all refers itself into this one source. Destroy it not, there is a blessing in thee, though not from thee; Jesus is in thee, as the new wine is found in the cluster!
