Bitter and Sweet! # 1

Bitter and Sweet # 1

Real religion is a personal thing. Every man's religion must be his own - produced in his own heart by the Spirit of God, and nourished by the word and prayer. In every man's religion, there is something distinguishing, and something only known to himself. To every believer the proverb may be applied, "Each heart knows its own bitterness - and no one else can fully share its joy" (Proverbs 14:10).

Every Christian has some HIDDEN SORROW. "Each heart knows its own bitterness" - his secret bitterness. It may vary at different times, and under different circumstances - but still there it is.

At one time it may be sorrow for sin, some besetting sin, or the sins of the past life, brought and placed in review before his mind, by the Holy Spirit. Sin is a root of bitterness, and is sure to bear bitter fruit.

At another time it may be reflection on the past life, so many mercies abused, so many duties neglected, so many opportunities for usefulness lost - such reflections awaken bitter sorrow.

Or it may be secret and terrible thoughts, which agitate and torment the soul. They are at times the most filthy, base, degrading, and abominable! They spring up, work within, and torment us when on our knees in prayer, when reading God's Word, and when attending upon the ordinances of the gospel. The more sacred and solemn the employment - the more powerful and horrible they are. We dare not utter them, or speak of them to anyone, for we imagine that ours is a singular case, and that they indicate desperate wickedness.

Then there are violent temptations, secret and powerful solicitations to evil. Sometimes to curse God. Sometimes to blaspheme Christ. Sometimes to speak against the Holy Spirit. Sometimes to indulge the lusts of the flesh. O the violent, terrible, and frightful temptations, from which the Lord's people often suffer! They cause bitterness of heart with a witness.

Then at times the Lord hides His face, we have no enjoyment of His presence in the closet, in His worship, or in any of our means of grace. There is no liberty in prayer, nor answers to prayer. At times no heart to pray, for the soul is so discouraged that it thinks that it is of no use for it to pray. There is a painful sense of need, a searching after the Lord, a sighing and sorrowing for the presence of the Lord; but He hides His face, and we are troubled.

Then there is indwelling sin - the deep and powerful corruption of our nature, which works and mixes itself with all that we do, and spoils all that we attempt to perform. This evil is present with us - always and everywhere present! It strives with everything good, and opposes everything gracious - so that we cannot do the things that we would. It mixes with our prayers and praises, and works when we endeavor to meditate on God's Word, or hear the gospel to profit! It often makes us cry out, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death!"

Sometimes a bitter word spoken, either by ourselves or others, will cause much heart sorrow. It fixes in the memory, revolves in the mind, and proves a mental rack on which the soul is tortured.

Besides all these sinful things - almost every believer has some secret source of bitterness in the family. Others have secret causes of sorrow in business, in the church of God, or in their social relations; but every heart has emphatically - its own bitterness. What bitter thoughts are generated, what bitter feelings are produced, and what bitter regrets are felt - by many of Zion's pilgrims in the secrets of the soul.

But it is not all bitter, there are also HIDDEN JOYS.

~James Smith~

(continued with # 2)