A reading of Anglican priest Robert Hawker’s (1753–1827) morning devotional writings from “The Poor Man’s Morning and Evening Portion” for January 23rd.
The music for this reading is “Double-crested Cormorant” by Chad Crouch and was adapted for length under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
“That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.”—Rom. 5:21.
Pause, my soul, and put forth thy fullest thoughts in the contemplation of those two united sources of thy felicity, marked in this verse: the Father’s eternal purpose, in the reign of grace; and the everlasting efficacy and infinite value of thy Jesus’s righteousness, to eternal life. None but God himself can know the fulness and extent of either. I am persuaded, that angels of light can never entertain adequate conceptions of either. The eternal purpose of God hath bounded the reign of sin ; it is but unto death. But those purposes give a further extent to the redemption from death and sin, by Jesus; for the glory of Christ’s person and the worth of his salvation, possess in both a vast overplus, a redundancy of merit, which brings the redeemed into favor and acceptance in Jesus, and with such a title to everlasting felicity, as eternity itself can never exhaust—no, nor fully recompense nor pay. Oh for grace to contemplate the love of the Father, and of the Son, by this standard; and the love of God the Holy Ghost, through whose gracious influence we enjoy both. Lord, I would be lost, I would be swallowed up, day by day, in the unceasing meditation! Dearest, blessed, precious Jesus! give me to think of nothing else, to speak of nothing else; but by faith to possess in anticipation, the joys of thy redeemed, until I come, through thee, and in thee, to the everlasting enjoyment of them in thy kingdom of glory.
