Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

September 5– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“Have you entered into the springs of the sea?”

—Job 38:16

Some things in nature must remain a mystery to the most intelligent and enterprising investigators. Human knowledge has limitations beyond which it cannot pass. Universal knowledge is for God alone. If this is so in the things which are seen and temporal, I can rest assured that it is even more so in spiritual and eternal matters.

Why, then, have I been torturing my brain with speculations as to destiny and will, fixed outcomes, and human responsibility? These deep and dark truths I am no more able to comprehend than to find out the depths which lie beneath and feed the oceans with water. Why am I so curious to know the reason of my Lord’s providences, the motive of his actions, the design of his visitations? Will I ever be able to hold the sun in my hand or the universe in my palm? Yet these are as a drop in a bucket compared with the Lord my God.

Let me not strive to understand the infinite but spend my strength in love. What I cannot gain by intellect, let me possess by affection, and let that be enough for me. I cannot penetrate the heart of the sea, but I can enjoy the healthful breezes which sweep over it, and I can sail over its blue waves empowered by the winds. If I could enter the springs of the sea, the feat would serve no useful purpose either to myself or to others; it would not save the sinking boat or give back the drowned mariner to his weeping wife and children. Solving deep mysteries does not benefit me without love, for the least love to God and the simplest act of obedience to him are better than the greatest knowledge.

My Lord, I leave the infinite to you. I pray that you put far from me any love for the tree of knowledge that takes me away from the tree of life. [M&E]