九月十二日

耶和華是忌邪（或忌妒）施報的神。（鴻1：2）

信徒啊！你的神非常忌妒你愛別的。他曾揀選了你嗎？他不能容忍你揀選別的。他曾用自己的血買了你嗎？他不能讓你想你是自己的人，或者想你是屬這世界的。他以極大的愛愛你，甚至他在天堂上少不了你；他寧可自己死，也不願你滅亡，幷且他不能容忍任何東西居間于你心中的愛和他自己當中。

他非常忌妒你信靠別的。他不能讓你依靠血肉的膀臂。活水的泉源既然爲你暢流不息，他是不能讓你到破裂不能存水的池子喝水的。我們投靠他，他就歡喜；但若我們投靠別的，依靠自己的智慧，或是朋友的智慧——當我們依靠自己的工作時，他就不喜悅，幷且也必管教我們，好使我們歸向他。

他也非常忌妒我們與別的爲友。你和任何人的談話都不當超過和耶穌的談話。要單單住在他裏面，這才是真的愛；但與世爲友，尋求屬世的安慰和快樂，或是與同道交往而不與他相處，便使忌妒的神難過。他切望我們住在他裏面，常與他相交；我們有許多苦難原來都是他叫我們的心離開世人、與他永遠親近的方法。

願這種忌妒使我們常親近基督，幷作我們的安慰，因爲他既這樣愛我們，幷關心我們的愛，那麽他是不會容許什麽傷害我們的，他必保護我們脫離一切仇敵。願神賜恩叫我們的心今天完全而且純潔地獻給我們親愛的主，爲了神的忌妒，而閉眼不看這世界一切迷惑人的東西，因爲我們的眼還要看到尊貴、至榮耀的主！

September 12

"God is jealous." -- Nahum 1:2

Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did He choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did He buy you with His own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that He would not stop in heaven without you; He would sooner die than you should perish, and He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and Himself. He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you. When we lean upon Him, He is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend--worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, He is displeased, and will chasten us that He may bring us to Himself. He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in Him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with Him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord. He would fain have us abide in Him, and enjoy constant fellowship with Himself; and many of the trials which He sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature, and fixing them more closely upon Himself. Let this jealousy which would keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us, for if He loves us so much as to care thus about our love we may be sure that He will suffer nothing to harm us, and will protect us from all our enemies. Oh that we may have grace this day to keep our hearts in sacred chastity for our Beloved alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!