二月十日
经文: 我涂抹了你的过犯，像厚云消散。我涂抹了你的罪恶，如薄云灭没。你当归向我，因我救赎了你。（以赛亚书四十四：22）
请仔细观察此处之比较：我们的罪恶像云。云有多种不同的形状和阴影，我们的过犯也是如此。云遮蔽阳光，使得在它以下土地阴暗。同样，我们的罪恶遮蔽，使我们不能看见耶和华脸上的荣光，教我们坐在死荫之处。我们的罪恶像云，是属地的事，从我们本性的幽暗之处生出来。日积明累，直到有一天它们就如暴风豪雨般地威胁我们。但是我们的罪又不像云层，不能带来凉爽舒畅的阵雨，反倒以激烈的洪水来淹没我们，使我们饱受威胁。罪的乌云啊，当你驻足停留时，我们的心灵如何能有晴朗的天气？让我们现在来思想上帝的怜悯行动──涂抹。上帝亲自在此情景中出现了，不是彰显祂的愤怒，而是启示祂的恩典。祂要永远除去这个祸害，不是将云吹至别处，乃是将它吹散不复存在。十字架的伟大功迹是从人的身上永远除去他的过犯。让我们服从恩典的命令：“回转归向祂”。为什么蒙赦之罪人要与上帝保持距离？倘若我们的罪皆蒙赦除，不要让害怕拦阻我们，反要大胆地亲近我们的主。让堕落者哀悼吧，我们却不可继续如此。让我们竭力与主亲密相交，并在圣灵的能力中，奋力回转。
Evening, February 10
Scripture: “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.”(Isaiah 44:22)
Attentively observe THE INSTRUCTIVE SIMILITUDE : our sins are like a cloud. As clouds are of many shapes and shades, so are our transgressions. As clouds obscure the light of the sun, and darken the landscape beneath, so do our sins hide from us the light of Jehovah's face, and cause us to sit in the shadow of death. They are earth-born things, and rise from the miry places of our nature; and when so collected that their measure is full, they threaten us with storm and tempest. Alas! that, unlike clouds, our sins yield us no genial showers, but rather threaten to deluge us with a fiery flood of destruction. O ye black clouds of sin, how can it be fair weather with our souls while ye remain?
Let our joyful eye dwell upon THE NOTABLE ACT of divine mercy－“blotting out.” God himself appears upon the scene, and in divine benignity, instead of manifesting his anger, reveals his grace: he at once and for ever effectually removes the mischief, not by blowing away the cloud, but by blotting it out from existence once for all. Against the justified man no sin remains, the great transaction of the cross has eternally removed his transgressions from him. On Calvary's summit the great deed, by which the sin of all the chosen was for ever put away, was completely and effectually performed.
Practically let us obey THE GRACIOUS COMMAND , “return unto me.” Why should pardoned sinners live at a distance from their God? If we have been forgiven all our sins, let no legal fear withhold us from the boldest access to our Lord. Let backslidings be bemoaned, but let us not persevere in them. To the greatest possible nearness of communion with the Lord, let us, in the power of the Holy Spirit, strive mightily to return. O Lord, this night restore us!