十二月二十五日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/12/1225.mp3″]
经文: 筵宴的日子过了，约伯打发人去叫他们自洁。他清早起来，按着他们众人的数目献燔祭。因为他说，恐怕我儿子犯了罪，心中弃掉上帝。约伯常常这样行。（约伯记一：5）
信徒今晚睡觉以前，应当为了自己，效法约伯献上清晨之祭。在家人的欢聚中，人很容易就坠入罪恶的轻率中，忘记自己作基督徒的品行。这本是不应该的。只是筵乐的日子极少能成为自洁欢乐的日子，反倒常常堕落为不洁之荒宴。纯净圣洁的欢乐如同沐浴在伊甸中的河流。圣洁的感恩应该像忧伤一般的纯净。不幸的是，悲哀常常比欢乐更容易促使灵命成长。信徒啊，你今日犯了什么罪吗？你是否忘记了上帝对你的呼召？你的言谈是否充满了无聊和放荡的话？承认你的罪，并且快快献祭吧！被杀羔羊的宝血能除罪污，洗净无知和疏忽之罪的污秽。圣诞节日的最佳结束方法就是在清洁之泉洗净自己，使自己焕然一新。信徒啊，每晚都当献上这祭。能活在祭坛前是尊贵祭司的特权。罪恶虽多，也不至使你绝望。你若亲近耶稣并承认自己的过犯，祢必将你良心中取死之工作洗净。
Evening, December 25
Scripture: “And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.”(Job 1:5)
What the patriarch did early in the morning, after the family festivities, it will be well for the believer to do for himself ere he rests tonight. Amid the cheerfulness of household gatherings it is easy to slide into sinful levities, and to forget our avowed character as Christians. It ought not to be so, but so it is, that our days of feasting are very seldom days of sanctified enjoyment, but too frequently degenerate into unhallowed mirth. There is a way of joy as pure and sanctifying as though one bathed in the rivers of Eden: holy gratitude should be quite as purifying an element as grief. Alas! for our poor hearts, that facts prove that the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting. Come, believer, in what have you sinned to-day? Have you been forgetful of your high calling? Have you been even as others in idle words and loose speeches? Then confess the sin, and fly to the sacrifice. The sacrifice sanctifies. The precious blood of the Lamb slain removes the guilt, and purges away the defilement of our sins of ignorance and carelessness. This is the best ending of a Christmas-day－to wash anew in the cleansing fountain. Believer, come to this sacrifice continually; if it be so good to-night, it is good every night. To live at the altar is the privilege of the royal priesthood; to them sin, great as it is, is nevertheless no cause for despair, since they draw near yet again to the sin-atoning victim, and their conscience is purged from dead works.
Gladly I close this festive day,
Grasping the altar’s hallow’d horn;
My slips and faults are washed away,
The Lamb has all my trespass borne.
