October 30—Morning Devotion
“Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.”—Deuteronomy 33:25
What a thought that is which the word of God furnisheth, in the view of everlasting engagements, that a suitable strength is laid up for every emergency. God’s love hath provided adequate supplies to the wants of all his people. What strength of enemies shall be equal to the everlasting strength of God? What shall drain the resources of everlasting love? What shall dry up the streams which flow from an everlasting fountain? Jesus therefore will proportion the back of his people to the burden. His grace shall be sufficient for all: it shall be sufficient for you, it shall be sufficient for me, for every one, for all. Sweet thought! Oh for grace to keep it always in remembrance!
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
