Category: 《静夜亮光》

九月八日 [mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/09/0908.mp3″]
经文: 祂向我们这信的人所显的能力，是何等浩大，就是照祂在基督身上所运行的大能大力，使祂从死里复活。（以弗所书一：19～20）

有人以为悔改是藉人的自由意志就能达到，因他性情之改善就能产生。我们当如何说呢？我们若能见到死人靠他们自己的力量从坟墓中复活过来，那么我们就能期望不敬虔的罪人能因他们的自由意志转向基督。这不是圣经的教导，我们也不能从圣经中读到这样的话。所有赐生命的大能都是从圣灵而来。所有士兵和所有大祭司都无法将基督的身体留在墓穴中。死亡本身不能捆绑耶稣。同样不可抗拒的大能也显明在信徒身上，使他复活的生命有新的样式。没有任何罪孽、腐败、阴间的恶魔、或世上的罪人能停止上帝恩典的手去使人悔改。使基督从死里复活的能力是荣耀的。它反映了上帝的尊荣，使邪恶之众丧胆。因此，每一罪人悔改都要归大荣耀于上帝。这复活的能力也是永恒的大能。“基督既从死里复活，就不再死，死也不再作祂的主了。”（罗六：9）因此，我们这些从死里复活的人，不再返回死亡的工作或返回我们过去的腐败，却要活在上帝里面。“因为你们已经死了，你们的生命与基督一同藏在上帝里面。”（西三：3）“叫我们一举一动有新生的样式，像基督藉着父的荣耀，从死里复活一样。”（罗六：4）使我们的头复活的能力，也照样运行在肢体的生命中。能与基督一同复活过来，是何等大的福气啊！
 

Evening, September 8
Scripture: “The exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead.”(Ephesians 1:19, 20)

In the resurrection of Christ, as in our salvation, there was put forth nothing short of a divine power. What shall we say of those who think that conversion is wrought by the free will of man, and is due to his own betterness of disposition? When we shall see the dead rise from the grave by their own power, then may we expect to see ungodly sinners of their own free will turning to Christ. It is not the word preached, nor the word read in itself; all quickening power proceeds from the Holy Ghost. This power was irresistible. All the soldiers and the high priests could not keep the body of Christ in the tomb; Death himself could not hold Jesus in his bonds: even thus irresistible is the power put forth in the believer when he is raised to newness of life. No sin, no corruption, no devils in hell nor sinners upon earth, can stay the hand of God’s grace when it intends to convert a man. If God omnipotently says, “Thou shalt,” man shall not say, “I will not.” Observe that the power which raised Christ from the dead was glorious. It reflected honour upon God and wrought dismay in the hosts of evil. So there is great glory to God in the conversion of every sinner. It was everlasting power. “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.” So we, being raised from the dead, go not back to our dead works nor to our old corruptions, but we live unto God. “Because he lives we live also.” “For we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God.” “Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Lastly, in the text mark the union of the new life to Jesus. The same power which raised the Head works life in the members. What a blessing to be quickened together with Christ!

九月七日 [mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/09/0907.mp3″]
经文: 海上有忧愁，不得平静。（耶利米书四十九：23）

我们不知道此刻在海上会有什么令人担忧的事情。我们安坐在自己的家中，在远处的大海上，现在可能正有一风暴残酷地袭击船只，要毁灭一些人的生命。请听在甲板上死亡的咆哮！当波涛好像破城槌般击打着船只，请看船身是如何战栗！可怜的、湿透的、疲乏的人啊，上帝能助你！我的祈祷上达于海洋陆地之主，祂将平静风浪，领你进入久盼的避风港！在祈祷以外，我应作更多的事。我应该为那些经常冒险的壮汉作些有益的事。那狂暴的海洋经常吞噬水手，海上死亡的忧愁在寡妇孤儿的哀泣中回荡着。许多母亲和妻子的眼中所流的是海洋的咸泪。毫无恻隐之心的巨浪啊，你已吞噬了妇人的爱和家庭的支柱。当海交出其中的死人，从地底深处复活的人是不计其数的！海上的忧愁将持续至那个时刻。好像对着地土的忧患表同情，海洋永远拍击着无际的海岸，像海鸟般悲鸣。她以烦躁空洞之响声轰隆着，以喧嚣之不满谵语着，以凶暴之怒气颠簸着，或与成万喃喃细语的卵石争闹着。这不是我们安息之处，汹涌澎湃的巨浪也如此告诉我们。有一地是没有海洋的，我们的脸坚定地朝向那地。我们要往主告诉我们的地方去。到那时，我们将忧伤交托给主，祂是那位行走在海面上的主。祂为自己的百姓在海洋深处开出一条路来。
 

Evening, September 7
Scripture: “There is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.”(Jeremiah 49:23)

Little know we what sorrow may be upon the sea at this moment. We are safe in our quiet chamber, but far away on the salt sea the hurricane may be cruelly seeking for the lives of men. Hear how the death fiends howl among the cordage; how every timber starts as the waves beat like battering rams upon the vessel! God help you, poor drenched and wearied ones! My prayer goes up to the great Lord of sea and land, that he will make the storm a calm, and bring you to your desired haven! Nor ought I to offer prayer alone, I should try to benefit those hardy men who risk their lives so constantly. Have I ever done anything for them? What can I do? How often does the boisterous sea swallow up the mariner! Thousands of corpses lie where pearls lie deep. There is death-sorrow on the sea, which is echoed in the long wail of widows and orphans. The salt of the sea is in many eyes of mothers and wives. Remorseless billows, ye have devoured the love of women, and the stay of households. What a resurrection shall there be from the caverns of the deep when the sea gives up her dead! Till then there will be sorrow on the sea. As if in sympathy with the woes of earth, the sea is for ever fretting along a thousand shores, wailing with a sorrowful cry like her own birds, booming with a hollow crash of unrest, raving with uproarious discontent, chafing with hoarse wrath, or jangling with the voices of ten thousand murmuring pebbles. The roar of the sea may be joyous to a rejoicing spirit, but to the son of sorrow the wide, wide ocean is even more forlorn than the wide, wide world. This is not our rest, and the restless billows tell us so. There is a land where there is no more sea－our faces are steadfastly set towards it; we are going to the place of which the Lord hath spoken. Till then, we cast our sorrows on the Lord who trod the sea of old, and who maketh a way for his people through the depths thereof.

九月六日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/09/0906.mp3″]
经文: 但你们若被圣灵引导，就不在律法以下。（加拉太书五：18）

一个人若从律法的观点来看他自己的品格和地位，结果必然会使他绝望。倘若我们按照律法受审，没有一个人是公义的。能知道我们是活在恩典的国度之下而非律法之下，是何等的福气啊！问题不再是：“在律法之前，我是否完全？”而是，“在基督耶稣之内，我是否完全？”那是两件截然不同的事。我们不需要问：“我是否自然地无罪了？”反当问。“我是否已在为罪人和为污秽的人所开启之泉中洗净了？”问题不在于：“我自己是否能取悦于上帝？”而是：“我是否蒙主接纳？”基督徒从西乃山顶正视祂的失败，因而对他的救恩生出警觉。若能藉加略山之亮光来明白他的身分更是上乘。他说：“我的信心中有不信，因此这信心不能救我。”倘若他所重视的是信心的对象而非他的信心，那么，他会说：“祂永不失败，所以我是平安稳妥的。”他对所盼望的事叹息道：“唉，因为焦虑眼前的事，使我的盼望受损模糊了。我怎能被上帝接纳？”他若考虑盼望的基础，就必见上帝的应许是确实的。无论我们的疑虑是什么，上帝的应许永不改变。靠圣灵引导进入福音的自由比带着律法的销链更为自由。以基督是如何来审判你自己，而不以你自己是如何来审判。撒旦总是藉着提醒你的罪过和不完全来搅扰你的平安。唯有靠着信心紧握福音来面对祂的控告，你才不致被捆绑之轭缚住。
 

Evening, September 6
Scripture: “If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.”(Galatians 5:18)

We who looks at his own character and position from a legal point of view, will not only despair when he comes to the end of his reckoning, but if he be a wise man he will despair at the beginning; for if we are to be judged on the footing of the law, there shall no flesh living be justified. How blessed to know that we dwell in the domains of grace and not of law! When thinking of my state before God the question is not, “Am I perfect in myself before the law?” but, “Am I perfect in Christ Jesus?” That is a very different matter. We need not enquire, “Am I without sin naturally?” but, “Have I been washed in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness?” It is not “Am I in myself well pleasing to God?” but it is “Am I accepted in the Beloved?” The Christian views his evidences from the top of Sinai, and grows alarmed concerning his salvation; it were better far if he read his title by the light of Calvary. “Why,” saith he, “my faith has unbelief in it, it is not able to save me.” Suppose he had considered the object of his faith instead of his faith, then he would have said, “There is no failure in him, and therefore I am safe.” He sighs over his hope: “Ah! my hope is marred and dimmed by an anxious carefulness about present things; how can I be accepted?” Had he regarded the ground of his hope, he would have seen that the promise of God standeth sure, and that whatever our doubts may be, the oath and promise never fail. Ah! believer, it is safer always for you to be led of the Spirit into gospel liberty than to wear legal fetters. Judge yourself at what Christ is rather than at what you are. Satan will try to mar your peace by reminding you of your sinfulness and imperfections: you can only meet his accusations by faithfully adhering to the gospel and refusing to wear the yoke of bondage.

九月五日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/09/0905.mp3″]
经文: 你曾进到海源么？（约伯记三十八：16）

对于最有学问和最富想像力的研究学者而言，自然界的某些事物仍然非常奥秘。宇宙的知识是单单属上帝的。倘若能见的、暂时的事物是如此，那么，属灵的、永恒的事物更当如此。那么，为何我要折磨自己的头脑去思想那些只能凭臆测之事物呢？例如我们的目的地、意志、已定之命运、和人类之责任？我不可能领悟这些深奥的、不易了解的真理，如同我无法找出海洋源头的深度。为何我对上帝供应之理由和祂作为之动机如此好奇，欲知其究竟？我是否能将太阳握在拳中、将宇宙持在掌中？然而，这些星球与主我们的上帝相比，只不过水桶中的一滴水而已。但愿我不再努力挣扎要明白这些无限的事，反将自己的精力化为爱。我靠聪明智慧不能获得的，可以通过爱去拥有。但那样能使我满足。我不能穿透海洋，进入它的心脏，但是我能享受那吹过它胸怀的健康海风，也能航行于它的蓝色波浪之上。即使我能进到海源，这一伟大的功绩于我或于他人并无益处，既不能拯救将沉之船，亦不能将已淹死的水手还给他哭泣的妻子和孩子。我所寻得的深处之奥秘不能证明什么。对上帝微小的爱，对祂最简单的顺服行动，比最显赫的知识更好。主啊，无限是属祢的，求祢保守我远离对智慧树的爱，免得诱惑我远离了生命树。
 

Evening, September 5
Scripture: “Hast thou 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 bounds beyond which it cannot pass. Universal knowledge is for God alone. If this be so in the things which are seen and temporal, I may rest assured that it is even more so in matters spiritual and eternal. Why, then, have I been torturing my brain with speculations as to destiny and will, fixed fate, and human responsibility? These deep and dark truths I am no more able to comprehend than to find out the depth which coucheth beneath, from which old ocean draws her watery stores. Why am I so curious to know the reason of my Lord’s providences, the motive of his actions, the design of his visitations? Shall I ever be able to clasp the sun in my fist, and hold the universe in my palm? yet these are as a drop of 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 I can possess by affection, and let that suffice me. I cannot penetrate the heart of the sea, but I can enjoy the healthful breezes which sweep over its bosom, and I can sail over its blue waves with propitious 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 bark, or give back the drowned mariner to his weeping wife and children; neither would my solving deep mysteries avail me a single whit, for the least love to God, and the simplest act of obedience to him, are better than the profoundest knowledge. My Lord, I leave the infinite to thee, and pray thee to put far from me such a love for the tree of knowledge as might keep me from the tree of life.

九月四日 [mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/09/0904.mp3″]
经文: 要用公道天平、公道法码、公道升斗、公道秤。（利未记十九：36）

法码、天平、和量器之使用应当要按照公道的标准。这一点，基督徒当然不需要再被人提醒了。即使全世界的人都摒弃了诚实，它仍将存于信徒的心中。当然，尚有其它衡量道德和属灵事物的天平，这些也常常需要受检验。衡量我们自己性格的天平和衡量他人的是否一样精确？我们是否会将自己几两的良善改变成几磅，而将别人成担的杰出表现改为几斗？用来量度我们的试炼困难之天平是否按标准校正了？保罗不知道比我们多受了多少苦难，但是只称他的苦难是至轻的（参阅林后四：17）。然而，我们常以为我们所受的是极重的痛苦，一定是法码出了问题！那些衡量我们信仰教义的天平，是否公正？恩典的教义应该与神话中的诫令有相同的重量。不幸的是，对许多基督徒而言，总有一边的重量不等。对真理有正确的衡量是重要的。那些用以估量我们的义务职责之量器似乎都太轻了。当一个富有的人奉献给上帝的并不比一个穷困的人所奉献为多时，我们能说那是“公道升斗、公道秤”吗？当传道人处于半饥饿状态，那是诚实的交易吗？穷人被藐视、富人受奉承，那是公道的天平吗？但愿我们都能找出不公道的天平、法码和量器，并且加以毁灭。
 

Evening, September 4
Scripture: “Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have.”(Leviticus 19:36)

Weights, and scales, and measures were to be all according to the standard of justice. Surely no Christian man will need to be reminded of this in his business, for if righteousness were banished from all the world beside, it should find a shelter in believing hearts. There are, however, other balances which weigh moral and spiritual things, and these often need examining. We will call in the officer to-night.
The balances in which we weigh our own and other men’s characters, are they quite accurate? Do we not turn our own ounces of goodness into pounds, and other persons’ bushels of excellence into pecks? See to weights and measures here, Christian. The scales in which we measure our trials and troubles, are they according to standard? Paul, who had more to suffer than we have, called his afflictions light, and yet we often consider ours to be heavy－surely something must be amiss with the weights! We must see to this matter, lest we get reported to the court above for unjust dealing. Those weights with which we measure our doctrinal belief, are they quite fair? The doctrines of grace should have the same weight with us as the precepts of the word, no more and no less; but it is to be feared that with many one scale or the other is unfairly weighted. It is a grand matter to give just measure in truth. Christian, be careful here. Those measures in which we estimate our obligations and responsibilities look rather small. When a rich man gives no more to the cause of God than the poor contribute, is that a just ephah and a just hin? When ministers are half starved, is that honest dealing? When the poor are despised, while ungodly rich men are held in admiration, is that a just balance? Reader, we might lengthen the list, but we prefer to leave it as your evening’s work to find out and destroy all unrighteous balances, weights, and measures.

九月三日 [mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/09/0903.mp3″]
经文: 耶和华试验义人。（诗篇十一：5）

所有事情的发生，全能的上帝都看在眼里，所有临到我们的试验，祂全知道。试验是通向一切祝福的门径。人可能在苦难的小河中淹死，也可能在成功的大海中没顶。试探和试炼潜伏在所有路径上。因为这个世界是在撒旦的统治之下，我们受到各种危险的包围。然而，从乌云降下的暴雨是经过上帝的同意，每一滴雨水落到地面以前，都有它的使命。临到我们的试验是为了证明并加强我们的信心。我们可以藉试验来说明上帝恩典的大能，来察验我们美德的真伪，并且增加我们的属灵力量。我们的主以自己无限的智慧和无比丰盛的爱，高估祂子民的信心，因而祂容许他们去经历试验以增强他们的信心。倘若你的信心不经过像火般的试验，你永不可能得到能支持你的宝贵信心。你像一棵树，倘若没有狂风摇动使你紧抓住恩典之约的宝贵真理，你永不能有强劲的根。属世的安逸是信心的大敌。它会使神圣勇气之关节松动，使圣洁胆量之饥腱折断。牵引汽球的线不剪断，气球就不能上升。试验就是对相信的灵魂之尖锐磨练。麦子若安睡在壳内，对人是无用的，必须经过碾压才能显出其价值。试验义人是有益的，因为能使他们在上帝里面成长得更丰富。
 

Evening, September 3
Scripture: “The Lord trieth the righteous.”(Psalm 11:5)

All events are under the control of Providence; consequently all the trials of our outward life are traceable at once to the great First Cause. Out of the golden gate of God’s ordinance the armies of trial march forth in array, clad in their iron armour, and armed with weapons of war. All providences are doors to trial. Even our mercies, like roses, have their thorns. Men may be drowned in seas of prosperity as well as in rivers of affliction. Our mountains are not too high, and our valleys are not too low for temptations: trials lurk on all roads. Everywhere, above and beneath, we are beset and surrounded with dangers. Yet no shower falls unpermitted from the threatening cloud; every drop has its order ere it hastens to the earth. The trials which come from God are sent to prove and strengthen our graces, and so at once to illustrate the power of divine grace, to test the genuineness of our virtues, and to add to their energy. Our Lord in his infinite wisdom and superabundant love, sets so high a value upon his people’s faith that he will not screen them from those trials by which faith is strengthened. You would never have possessed the precious faith which now supports you if the trial of your faith had not been like unto fire. You are a tree that never would have rooted so well if the wind had not rocked you to and fro, and made you take firm hold upon the precious truths of the covenant grace. Worldly ease is a great foe to faith; it loosens the joints of holy valour, and snaps the sinews of sacred courage. The balloon never rises until the cords are cut; affliction doth this sharp service for believing souls. While the wheat sleeps comfortably in the husk it is useless to man, it must be threshed out of its resting place before its value can be known. Thus it is well that Jehovah trieth the righteous, for it causeth them to grow rich towards God.