十月十六日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/10/1016.mp3″]
经文: 在祢那里有生命的源头。（诗篇三十六：9）
在我们的属灵经历中曾经有过这样的情况：人的忠告、同情或宗教都不能安慰或帮助我们。为什么施恩的上帝容许这些情形发生呢？恐怕是因为我们常常不活在祂里面，因此，祂容许挪去我们赖以为生的各样事物，好吸引我们到祂自己跟前。能活在水源是蒙福的。我们若获得充足供应，得到了满足，就会像夏甲和以实玛利一样进入旷野；但是当一切都涸竭，没有任何事物能帮助我们时，我们就知道“上帝看顾我”（创十六：13）。我们都像浪子，渴望得到猪食的豆荚而忘记了父家的充裕。记住，我们甚至能从宗教的形式中得到豆荚。那些都是蒙福的东西，但是若取代了上帝的地位，便毫无价值。任何能使我们远离上帝的事物都是偶像。饥荒可以使我们更努力去寻求主。基督徒最佳的光景就是完全并且直接地依赖上帝的恩典：“似乎一无所有，却是样样都有”（林后六：10）。不要以为我们能有这样的地位乃是因为我们的成圣、我们的谦卑、或我们的感情，切勿存这样的思想。我们得救完全只因基督为我们付出完全的赎价，我们在祂里面得以完全。我们无法依靠自己，只有在耶稣的救赎功迹之内安息，才能充满信心，站在稳固的根基上。亲爱的，我们若被带至干渴之地，就必定会迫切地转向生命的源头。
Evening, October 16
Scripture: “With thee is the fountain of life.”(Psalm 36:9)
There are times in our spiritual experience when human counsel or sympathy, or religious ordinances, fail to comfort or help us. Why does our gracious God permit this? Perhaps it is because we have been living too much without him, and he therefore takes away everything upon which we have been in the habit of depending, that he may drive us to himself. It is a blessed thing to live at the fountain head. While our skin- bottles are full, we are content, like Hagar and Ishmael, to go into the wilderness; but when those are dry, nothing will serve us but “Thou God seest me.” We are like the prodigal, we love the swine-troughs and forget our Father’s house. Remember, we can make swine-troughs and husks even out of the forms of religion; they are blessed things, but we may put them in God’s place, and then they are of no value. Anything becomes an idol when it keeps us away from God: even the brazen serpent is to be despised as “Nehushtan,” if we worship it instead of God. The prodigal was never safer than when he was driven to his father’s bosom, because he could find sustenance nowhere else. Our Lord favours us with a famine in the land that it may make us seek after himself the more. The best position for a Christian is living wholly and directly on God’s grace－still abiding where he stood at first－“Having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” Let us never for a moment think that our standing is in our sanctification, our mortification, our graces, or our feelings, but know that because Christ offered a full atonement, therefore we are saved; for we are complete in him. Having nothing of our own to trust to, but resting upon the merits of Jesus－his passion and holy life furnish us with the only sure ground of confidence. Beloved, when we are brought to a thirsting condition, we are sure to turn to the fountain of life with eagerness.