October 21—Morning Devotion
“All are yours; and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”—1 Corinthians 3:22, 23
Oh what a rich inventory is here. All things, all blessings, all gifts, all grace, all mercy; all, all the the christian’s. And observe, my soul, on what it is suspended—”If ye are Christ’s.” And whose art thou, my soul, but his? Hath not the Father given thee to him? And hath not the Son of God bought thee with a price? Hast thou not made a voluntary surrender of thyself to Jesus, and given thyself to him in an everlasting covenant which cannot be broken? Oh yes, yes, all this is certain. Lord, grant me grace and faith in lively exercise, that I may now take to myself all the blessedness of it by anticipation; until I come to realize the whole in absolute enjoyment in glory. Christ is mine, and with him, heaven is mine. God the Father is mine, the Holy Ghost is mine, all covenant blessings are mine; ordinances, means of grace, the holy book of God, all are mine here, and will be my portion for evermore. Hallelujah.
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
