十二月十三日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/12/1213.mp3″]
经文: 我要用红宝石建造你的楼台。（以赛亚书五十四：12现代中文译本）（楼台：英译为Windows (KJV), Pinnacles (RSV), Battlements (NIV)。
教会被象征为以上帝的手艺设计、以祂的大能建造之建筑物。建筑物必须有楼台（或作窗户）使光湶可以透入，同时也使里面的人可以观察外界。这些楼台如红宝石般珍贵。教会应当以最高的敬意来看祂的主、天国、以及属灵真理。信心是其中的珍贵红宝石楼台，但却常常是模糊朦胧的，以致我们只能看见黑暗与错误。即使我们无法透过晶莹的窗户凝视并认识基督，像祂认识我们这般，然而只要能透过模糊朦胧之红宝石窗户瞻仰可爱的基督，也仍是荣耀的事。经历是另一座暗淡却宝贵的楼台，泄进一道柔弱的信仰之光，在那光中我们见到忧伤之子因我们的罪而受之苦难。我们软弱的双目不能承受透明玻璃窗所射入的主的荣光。但是当眼睛因流泪而变暗淡时，公义之太阳的光透过红宝石的窗户变为柔和的光辉，对于受试炼的心灵是一种无法形容的安慰。圣洁，是另一种红宝石的楼台。圣洁教我们改变，以至有主的形像。唯有我们属天，才能明白属天的事物。清心的人才能得到清洁的上帝。那些像耶稣的人才能见到祂的本像。
Evening, December 13
Scripture: “I will make thy windows of agates.”(Isaiah 54:12)
The church is most instructively symbolized by a building erected by heavenly power, and designed by divine skill. Such a spiritual house must not be dark, for the Israelites had light in their dwellings; there must therefore be windows to let the light in and to allow the inhabitants to gaze abroad. These windows are precious as agates: the ways in which the church beholds her Lord and heaven, and spiritual truth in general, are to be had in the highest esteem. Agates are not the most transparent of gems, they are but semi-pellucid at the best:
“Our knowledge of that life is small,
Our eye of faith is dim.”
Faith is one of these precious agate windows, but alas! it is often so misty and beclouded, that we see but darkly, and mistake much that we do see. Yet if we cannot gaze through windows of diamonds and know even as we are known, it is a glorious thing to behold the altogether lovely One, even though the glass be hazy as the agate. Experience is another of these dim but precious windows, yielding to us a subdued religious light, in which we see the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows, through our own afflictions. Our weak eyes could not endure windows of transparent glass to let in the Master’s glory, but when they are dimmed with weeping, the beams of the Sun of Righteousness are tempered, and shine through the windows of agate with a soft radiance inexpressibly soothing to tempted souls. Sanctification, as it conforms us to our Lord, is another agate window. Only as we become heavenly can we comprehend heavenly things. The pure in heart see a pure God. Those who are like Jesus see him as he is. Because we are so little like him, the window is but agate; because we are somewhat like him, it is agate. We thank God for what we have, and long for more. When shall we see God and Jesus, and heaven and truth, face to face?
