Charles Bridges
Ecclesiastes 11:1. Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
Surely the subject admits of a more extensive application. See how it furnishes to the minister of God a valuable rule and encouragement. The sower goes forth to sow the precious bread-corn – the bread of life (Mt 13:3; Mark 4:14). Much of his toil seems to be in vain. Much disappointment arises from the world – often it is more from the Church. The soil is uncongenial; the prospect of harvest is precarious. But “blessed are ye that sow beside all waters” (Is 32:20). The promise is sure: “Thou shalt find it after many days”. He looks around. He sees not his signs. It is as if his prayers would return into his own bosom (Ps 74:9; 35:13). But the promise is sure: “My word . . . shall not return unto Me void” (Is 55:10).
1Bridges (1794-1869) was an English minister. Here is an edited extract from his Exposition of Ecclesiastes. He had already illustrated the verse by pointing to the sowing the seed on the River Nile when the waters are going down, “leaving a loamy bed, in which the seed apparently lost is deposited and produces a most luxuriant harvest”. He has described this as “an encouraging, constraining motive for Christian bountifulness”; before continuing as in the body of this article.
It may be that some wanderer may have been brought back to the fold by the recollection of the minister’s teaching, even after his voice was silent in the grave. It may be that the seed has been sown again and again from one heart to another, and that some whom he had never known in the flesh may welcome Him at the presence of the Lord at His coming as his “glory and joy” (1 Th 2:19,20). “He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth may rejoice together”.
Thus also the after-influence of instruction. To present sight, it seems as if the seed cast upon the waters had perished. How scanty the present practical influence from the instruction of the young! But the promise is above all uncertainty. Thou shalt find it – not the corn, but the harvest. The scoffing world does not understand it. “To what purpose”, they cry, “is this waste” – of money, time and pains? But wait a while. God’s time is best: after many days. The season of confirmation – some moment of temptation, or the hour of affliction – one or other of these seasons stirs smothered conviction to life and reality. Go on then. Use the means. Generations unborn may reap the fruit (Gal 6:9).
Once more, mark the trials of the Christian life. Outward circumstances are discouraging, as if the seed cast upon the waters had perished upon the wide waste – hindrances from the world without and Satan within. But sow thy seed: whatever may be the discouragements. Though prayer seems as if it died on your lips, continue in it. If you hold on in the weary conflict, you shall find it. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shalt doubtless” – mark the word – “come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Ps 126:5,6).
The many days between seed-time and harvest are days of special anxiety, hoping for seeming impossibilities, believing paradoxes. But the promise is God’s own living truth, and it will be found not the less sure for the delay. And when waiting days have done their work, humbling us in entire dependence upon God, and ripening us for the harvest of blessing in due season, in God’s good time. “We shall reap, if we faint not”. “The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not tarry” (Gal 6:9; Hab 2:3).
Every sin is a base deprecating of God and this is enough to make the guilt of it infinite – because it is done against an infinite God, and therefore it deserves an infinite punishment. Now a finite creature cannot bear an infinite punishment; therefore God makes it infinite in regard of continuance. The creature cannot pay the whole debt at once; therefore he must be paying it for ever.
Matthew Mead
Sabbath Meditation1
Thomas Watson
Get upon the mount of meditation and there converse with God. Meditation is when the soul retires within itself, so that the heart may be raised up to divine affections, by a serious and solemn thinking upon God. It is a work fit for the morning of a Sabbath. Meditate on four things:
(1.) On the works of creation. This is expressed in the Fourth Commandment. “The Lord made heaven and earth, the sea . . . .” The creation is a looking glass, in which we see the wisdom and power of God gloriously represented. God produced this fair structure of the world without any pre-existent matter, and with a word. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made” (Ps 33:6). The disciples wondered that Christ could, with a word, calm the sea, but it was far more astounding to make the sea with a word (Mt 8: 26).
On the Sabbath let us meditate on the infinity of the Creator. Look up to the sky and see God’s wonders in the deep (Ps 107:24). Look into the earth, where we may behold the nature of minerals, the power of the loadstone, the usefulness of herbs, and the beauty of flowers. By meditating on these works of creation, we shall learn to admire God and praise Him. “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all” (Ps 104:24). By meditating on the works of creation, we shall learn to confide in God. He who can create can provide; He that could make us, when we were nothing, can raise us when we are low. “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Ps 124:8).
(2.) On God’s holiness. “Holy and reverend is His name” (Ps 111:9). “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil” (Hab 1:13). God is essentially, originally and efficiently holy. All the holiness in men and angels is but a crystal stream that runs from this glorious fountain. God loves holiness because it is His own image. A king cannot but love to see his own image stamped on a coin. God counts holiness His glory and the most sparkling jewel of His crown. “Glorious in holiness” (Ex 15:11). Here is meditation fit for the beginning of a Sabbath. To contemplate this would work in us a frame of heart such as suits a holy God; it would make us reverence His name and hallow His day. While musing on the holiness of God’s nature, we shall begin to be transformed into His likeness.
(3.) On Christ’s love in redeeming sinners (Rev 1:5). Redemption exceeds creation; the one is a monument of God’s power, the other of His love. Here
1An extract, edited, from Watson’s The Ten Commandments. It comes from his exposition of the Fourth Commandment. He is particularly speaking to God’s people.
is fit work for a Sabbath. O the infinite, stupendous love of Christ in raising poor, fallen creatures from a state of guilt and damnation! That Christ who was God should die! That this glorious Sun of Righteousness should be in an eclipse! We can never admire enough this love; no, not in heaven. That Christ should die for sinners! Not sinful angels, but sinful men. That such clods of earth and sin should be made bright stars of glory! O the amazing love of Christ! That Christ should not only die for sinners, but die as a sinner! “He hath made Him to be sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21).
He who was one of the glorious persons of the Trinity “was numbered with the transgressors” (Is 53:12). Not that He had sin, but He was like a sinner, having our sins imputed to Him. Sin did not live in Him, but it was laid upon Him. Here was a hyperbole of love, enough to strike us with astonishment. That Christ should redeem us when He could not expect to gain anything, or to be advantaged at all by us! Men will not lay out their money upon a purchase unless it will turn to their profit; but what benefit could Christ expect in purchasing and redeeming us? We were in such a condition that we could neither deserve Christ’s love nor recompense it. We could not deserve it; for we were in our blood (Ezek 16:6). We had no spiritual beauty to tempt Him. Indeed, we were not only in our blood, but we were in arms against Him. “When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Rom 5:10).
When He was shedding His blood, we were spitting out poison. As we could not deserve it, neither could we recompense it. After He had died for us, we could not so much as love Him, till He made us love Him. We could give Him nothing in lieu of his love. “Who hath first given to Him?” (Rom 11:35). We were fallen into poverty. If we have any beauty, it is from Him, “It was perfect through My comeliness, which I had put upon thee” (Ezek 16:14). If we bring forth any good fruit, it is not of our own growth; it comes from Him, the true vine. “From Me is thy fruit found” (Hos 14:8). It was nothing but pure love for Christ to lay out His blood to redeem such as He could not expect to be really bettered by.
That Christ should die so willingly! “I lay down My life” (Jn 10:17). The Jews could not have taken it away if He had not laid it down. He could have called to His Father for legions of angels to be His guard; but what need for even that, when His own Godhead could have defended Himself from all assaults? He laid down His life. The Jews did not so much thirst for His death, as He thirsted for our redemption. “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (Lk 12:50). He called His sufferings a baptism; He was to be baptized and sprinkled with His own blood; and He thought the time long before He suffered. To show Christ’s willing-
ness to die, His sufferings are called an offering. “Through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ” (Heb 10:10). His death was a free-will offering.
That Christ should not grudge or think much of all His sufferings! Though He was scourged and crucified, He was well contented with what He had done and, if it were needful, He would do it again. “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (Is 53:11). As the mother who has had hard labour does not repent of her pangs when she sees a child brought forth, but is well contented; so Christ, though He had hard travail on the cross, does not think much of it; He is not troubled but thinks His sweat and blood well bestowed, because He sees the man-child of redemption brought forth into the world.
That Christ should make redemption effectual to some, and not to others! Here is surprising love. Though there is sufficient in His merits to save all, yet only some receive their saving virtue; all do not believe. “There are some of you that believe not” (Jn 6:64). Christ does not pray for all (Jn 17:9). Some refuse Him. This is “the stone which the builders refused” (Ps 118:22). Others deride Him (Lk 16:14). Others throw off His yoke. “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Lk 19:14). So all do not have the benefit of salvation by Him. Here appears the distinguishing love of Christ, that the virtue of His death should reach some and not others. “Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called” (1 Cor 1:26). That Christ should pass by many who are nobles and able, and that the lot of free grace should fall upon you; that He should sprinkle His blood on you; O the depth of the love of Christ! That Christ should love us with such a transcendent love! The Apostle calls it love “which passeth knowledge” (Eph 3:19).
That He should love us more than the angels. He loves them as His friends, but believers as His spouse. He loves them with the kind of love that God the Father bears to Him. “As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you” (John 15:9). O what a hyperbole of love does Christ show in redeeming us! That Christ’s love in our redemption should be everlasting! “Having loved His own . . . He loved them unto the end” (Jn 13:1). As Christ’s love is matchless, so it is endless. The flower of His love is sweet, and what makes it sweeter is that it never dies. His love is eternal (Jer 31:3). He will never divorce His elect spouse. The failings of His people cannot quite take off His love; they may eclipse it, but not wholly remove it; their failings may make Christ angry with them, but not hate them. Every failing does not break the marriage bond.
Christ’s love is not like the saint’s love. They sometimes have strong affections towards Him; at other times the fit is off and they find little or no love stirring in them. But it is not so with Christ’s love to them; it is a love
of eternity. When the sunshine of Christ’s electing love has once risen upon the soul, it never finally sets. Death may take away our life from us, but not Christ’s love. Behold here a rare subject for meditation on a Sabbath morning. Meditation on Christ’s wonderful love in redeeming us would work in us a Sabbath frame of heart.
It would melt us in tears, for our spiritual unkindness, that we should sin against so sweet a Saviour; that we should be no more affected with His love, but requite evil for good. The Athenians, notwithstanding all the good service Aristides had done them, banished him out of their city. We should be sad if we are like them and should banish Christ from our temple – that we should grieve Him with our pride, rash anger, unfruitfulness, animosities and strange factions. Have we none to abuse but our Friend? Have we nothing to kick against but the bowels of our Saviour? Did not Christ suffer enough upon the cross, but we must make Him suffer more? Do we give Him more gall and vinegar to drink?
If anything can dissolve the heart in sorrow, and melt the eyes to tears, it is unkindness offered to Christ. When Peter thought of Christ’s love to him, how He had made him an apostle, and revealed His bosom secrets to him, and taken him to the Mount of transfiguration, and yet that he should deny Him; it broke his heart with sorrow; “he went out and wept bitterly” (Mt 26:75). What a blessed thing it is to have the eyes dropping tears on a Sabbath! And nothing should sooner fetch tears than to meditate on Christ’s love to us and our unkindness to Him.
Meditating on a Lord’s Day morning on Christ’s love should kindle love in our hearts to Him. How can we look on His bleeding and dying for us, and our hearts not be warmed with love to Him? Love is the soul of religion, the purest affection. It is not rivers of oil, but sparks of love, that Christ values. And sure, as David said, “While I was musing the fire burned” (Ps 39:3), so, while we are musing of Christ’s love in redeeming us, the fire of our love will burn towards Him; then the Christian is in a blessed Sabbath-frame, when, like the seraphim, he is burning in love to Christ.
(4.) On the glory of heaven. Heaven is the extract and essence of happiness. It is called a kingdom (Mt 25:34). A kingdom for its riches and magnificence. It is set forth by precious stones and gates of pearl (Rev 21:19,21). There is all that is truly glorious; transparent light, perfect love, unstained honour, unmixed joy; and what crowns the joy of the celestial paradise is eternity. Suppose earthly kingdoms were more glorious than they are, their foundations of gold, their walls of pearl, their windows of sapphire; yet they are corruptible, but the kingdom of heaven is eternal; those rivers of pleasure run “for evermore” (Ps 16:11). What the essence of glory consists in, and
makes heaven to be heaven, is the immediate sight and fruition of the blessed God. “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness” (Ps 17:15). O think of the Jerusalem above!
This is proper for a Sabbath. The meditation of heaven would raise our hearts above the world. How would earthly things disappear and shrink into nothing if our minds were mounted above visible things, and we had a prospect of glory! How would the meditation of heaven make us heavenly in our Sabbath activities! It would enliven affection, would add wings to devotion, and cause us to be “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” (Rev 1:10). How vigorously does he serve God who has a crown of glory always in his eye!