7 DECEMBER (1873)
Consolation for the despairing
‘For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.’ Psalm 31:22
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 107:1–32
When David feared that he was cut off from God, he was wise enough to take to crying. He calls prayer crying, and it is a very significant word. Crying is the language of pain; pain cannot cumber itself with letters, syllables and words, and so it takes its own way and adopts a piercing mode of utterance, very telling and expressive. Crying yields great relief to suffering. Every one knows the benefit of having a hearty good cry: you cannot help calling it ‘a good cry’, for, though one would think crying could never be especially good, yet it affords a desirable relief. Red eyes often relieve breaking hearts. Madness has been prevented by the soul’s finding vent. Prayer is the surest and most blessed vent for the soul. In prayer the heart runs over as the eyelids do in crying.
To pray is just as simple a matter as to cry. Do not get down that book: bishops and other prayer-makers can write good prayers for people who have no particular trouble upon them, but when you really need to pray, no ready-made prayers will suit your case. You never heard of a form of common crying. I never recollect seeing in my life a form of crying for a bereaved woman, a form for a babe to cry when it is hungry, and another form for a child to cry when it is put to bed in the dark. No, forms are out of the question when we cry. Men, women and children, when in trouble, cry without a book; and so when a man really wants the Saviour, he does not require prayer-books. Never say, ‘I cannot pray!’ My dear friend, can you cry? You want to be saved; tell the Lord that. If you cannot say it in words, tell it with your tears, your groans, your sighs, your sobs. Prayer, like crying, is a natural utterance, and an utterance available on all occasions.
FOR MEDITATION: The great turning-point for the children of Israel enslaved in Egypt was when they cried to God for help (Exodus 2:23–25; 3:7–10). God loves to save those who in faith cry to him for help (Psalm 34:6, 17; Luke 18:7–8) and the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated this on many occasions (Matthew 9:27–29; 14:30–31; 15:22–23, 28; 20:29–34; Mark 9:23–25).
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 352.
Consolation for the despairing
‘For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.’ Psalm 31:22
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 107:1–32
When David feared that he was cut off from God, he was wise enough to take to crying. He calls prayer crying, and it is a very significant word. Crying is the language of pain; pain cannot cumber itself with letters, syllables and words, and so it takes its own way and adopts a piercing mode of utterance, very telling and expressive. Crying yields great relief to suffering. Every one knows the benefit of having a hearty good cry: you cannot help calling it ‘a good cry’, for, though one would think crying could never be especially good, yet it affords a desirable relief. Red eyes often relieve breaking hearts. Madness has been prevented by the soul’s finding vent. Prayer is the surest and most blessed vent for the soul. In prayer the heart runs over as the eyelids do in crying.
To pray is just as simple a matter as to cry. Do not get down that book: bishops and other prayer-makers can write good prayers for people who have no particular trouble upon them, but when you really need to pray, no ready-made prayers will suit your case. You never heard of a form of common crying. I never recollect seeing in my life a form of crying for a bereaved woman, a form for a babe to cry when it is hungry, and another form for a child to cry when it is put to bed in the dark. No, forms are out of the question when we cry. Men, women and children, when in trouble, cry without a book; and so when a man really wants the Saviour, he does not require prayer-books. Never say, ‘I cannot pray!’ My dear friend, can you cry? You want to be saved; tell the Lord that. If you cannot say it in words, tell it with your tears, your groans, your sighs, your sobs. Prayer, like crying, is a natural utterance, and an utterance available on all occasions.
FOR MEDITATION: The great turning-point for the children of Israel enslaved in Egypt was when they cried to God for help (Exodus 2:23–25; 3:7–10). God loves to save those who in faith cry to him for help (Psalm 34:6, 17; Luke 18:7–8) and the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated this on many occasions (Matthew 9:27–29; 14:30–31; 15:22–23, 28; 20:29–34; Mark 9:23–25).
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 352.
7 DECEMBER (1873)
Consolation for the despairing
‘For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.’ Psalm 31:22
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 107:1–32
When David feared that he was cut off from God, he was wise enough to take to crying. He calls prayer crying, and it is a very significant word. Crying is the language of pain; pain cannot cumber itself with letters, syllables and words, and so it takes its own way and adopts a piercing mode of utterance, very telling and expressive. Crying yields great relief to suffering. Every one knows the benefit of having a hearty good cry: you cannot help calling it ‘a good cry’, for, though one would think crying could never be especially good, yet it affords a desirable relief. Red eyes often relieve breaking hearts. Madness has been prevented by the soul’s finding vent. Prayer is the surest and most blessed vent for the soul. In prayer the heart runs over as the eyelids do in crying.
To pray is just as simple a matter as to cry. Do not get down that book: bishops and other prayer-makers can write good prayers for people who have no particular trouble upon them, but when you really need to pray, no ready-made prayers will suit your case. You never heard of a form of common crying. I never recollect seeing in my life a form of crying for a bereaved woman, a form for a babe to cry when it is hungry, and another form for a child to cry when it is put to bed in the dark. No, forms are out of the question when we cry. Men, women and children, when in trouble, cry without a book; and so when a man really wants the Saviour, he does not require prayer-books. Never say, ‘I cannot pray!’ My dear friend, can you cry? You want to be saved; tell the Lord that. If you cannot say it in words, tell it with your tears, your groans, your sighs, your sobs. Prayer, like crying, is a natural utterance, and an utterance available on all occasions.
FOR MEDITATION: The great turning-point for the children of Israel enslaved in Egypt was when they cried to God for help (Exodus 2:23–25; 3:7–10). God loves to save those who in faith cry to him for help (Psalm 34:6, 17; Luke 18:7–8) and the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated this on many occasions (Matthew 9:27–29; 14:30–31; 15:22–23, 28; 20:29–34; Mark 9:23–25).
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 352.
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