A reading of Anglican priest Robert Hawker’s (1753–1827) morning devotional writings from “The Poor Man’s Morning and Evening Portion.”
The music for this reading is “Belted Kingfisher” by Chad Crouch and was adapted for length under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
“The prisoner of Jesus Christ.”— Ephes. 3:1.
My soul! art thou a prisoner of Jesus Christ? See to it, if so, that, like the Apostle, thou art bound with Jesus’s chains for the hope of Israel. They are golden chains. When Paul and Silas were fast bound in the prison, the consciousness of this made them sing for joy. Men have their prisons and God hath his. But here lies the vast difference; no bars or grates, among the closest prisons of men, can shut God out from comforting his prisoners; and, on the contrary, nothing can come in to afflict Jesus’s prisoners, when he keeps them by the sovereignty of his grace, and love, and power. Blessed Lord! look upon thy poor prisoner; and come in, dear Lord! with thy wonderful condescension, and do as thou hast said: sup with him, and cause him to sup with thee.
