September 2—Morning Devotion
“The Lord, the God of Hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.”—Amos 5:146
My soul, pause over this precious scripture, and ask thyself, is it indeed confirmed to thy experience? And do remark how the promise of the old testament scripture is confirmed in the new. Jesus assured the same, when he said, “If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our abode with him.” Pause, my soul, again, and see whether both testaments concurring in the same, and the Holy Ghost ever abiding with the Lord’s people, to confirm his word in the heart; are not these promises thine, and art thou not everlastingly enjoying them? Precious Jesus, morning by morning would I besiege thy mercy-seat, to put thee in mind of this promise, which in this blessedness, comprehends every other. If the Lord, the God of Hosts, be with me; if the Father graciously come; if the Son himself come, both to make their abode, not as a wayfaring man that turneth in to tarry for a night, but to make their abode; and if the Holy Ghost abide with me for ever—Oh the blessedness of such a state, the glory of such company! Lord, I pray, be it unto me according to thy word.
Robert Hawker (1753-1827) was an Anglican (High-Calvinist) preacher who served as Vicar of Charles Church, Plymouth. John Hazelton wrote of him:
“The prominent features…in Robert Hawker's testimony…was the Person of Christ….Dr. Hawker delighted to speak of his Lord as "My most glorious Christ.” What anxious heart but finds at times in the perusal of the doctor's writings a measure of relief, a softening, and a mellowing? an almost imperceptible yet secret and constraining power in leading out of self and off from the misery and bondage of the flesh into a contemplation of the Person and preciousness of Christ as "the chiefest among ten thousand and the altogether lovely." Christ and Him crucified was emphatically the burden of his song and the keynote of his ministry. He preached his last sermon in Charles Church on March 18th, 1827, and on April 6th he died, after being six years curate and forty-three years vicar of the parish. On the last day of his life he repeated a part of Ephesians 1, from the 6th to the 12th verses, and as he proceeded he enlarged on the verses, but dwelt more fully on these words: "To the praise of His glory Who first trusted in Christ." He paused and asked, "Who first trusted in Christ?" And then made this answer: "It was God the Father Who first trusted in Christ."
Robert Hawker on the Biblical Covenants (Complete)
Robert Hawker's Poor Man's Morning Portions
