十二月十八日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/12/1218.mp3″]
经文: 你要详细知道你羊群的景况。留心料理你的牛群。（箴言二十七：23）
每位聪明的商人都会定期核对他的帐，查验他的存货，并且检视他的事业是走上坡或走下坡。在天国中每一位智者都会说：“上帝啊，求祢鉴察我，知道我的心思。”（诗一三九：23）。他常会定出自我反省的时间，以察验他的心灵与上帝之间的关系是否正常。我们所敬拜的上帝是一位伟大的心思鉴察者。要常常详细探究你的属灵光景，免得你缺乏上帝所应许之安息。但愿年长的圣徒审察自己信心的基础，因为白发苍苍之下可能隐藏着罪恶的心灵。但愿年轻的基督徒不要忽视上帝的警告，因为蓬勃的朝气可能掺杂假冒为善的腐朽。要知道敌人不断地在麦田中撒播稗子。我并非要在你的思想中挑起疑惑和恐惧，只希望自我反省之强风能将这些消极情感吹散。我们要除灭的只是属肉体的安全感；我们要排除属肉体的信心，而非真正的信心；要毁灭假平安，而非真平安。基督所流之宝血不是要使你成为假冒为善的人，却要教真诚的心灵向祂发出颂赞之声。
Evening, December 18
Scripture: “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.”(Proverbs 27:23)
Every wise merchant will occasionally hold a stock-taking, when he will cast up his accounts, examine what he has on hand, and ascertain decisively whether his trade is prosperous or declining. Every man who is wise in the kingdom of heaven, will cry, “Search me, O God, and try me”; and he will frequently set apart special seasons for self-examination, to discover whether things are right between God and his soul. The God whom we worship is a great heart-searcher; and of old his servants knew him as “the Lord which searcheth the heart and trieth the reins of the children of men.” Let me stir you up in his name to make diligent search and solemn trial of your state, lest you come short of the promised rest. That which every wise man does, that which God himself does with us all, I exhort you to do with yourself this evening. Let the oldest saint look well to the fundamentals of his piety, for grey heads may cover black hearts: and let not the young professor despise the word of warning, for the greenness of youth may be joined to the rottenness of hypocrisy. Every now and then a cedar falls into our midst. The enemy still continues to sow tares among the wheat. It is not my aim to introduce doubts and fears into your mind; nay, verily, but I shall hope the rather that the rough wind of self-examination may help to drive them away. It is not security, but carnal security, which we would kill; not confidence, but fleshly confidence, which we would overthrow; not peace, but false peace, which we would destroy. By the precious blood of Christ, which was not shed to make you a hypocrite, but that sincere souls might show forth his praise, I beseech you, search and look, lest at the last it be said of you, “Mene, Mene, Tekel: thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”