THY LOVING KINDNESS IS BEFORE MINE EYES.

 
 
DECEMBER 21.
 

Thy loving kindness is before mine eyes.
Psalm 26:3

 
GOD’S loving kindness has been variously and
  wondrously displayed, in nature, providence, and grace.
 
It appears in a thousand forms, and
  it should be constantly before our eyes.
 
Nothing so likely to humble us,
  to consecrate us, and
  to fill us with joy and peace,
    as God's wondrous loving kindness.
 
We are too apt to place some trouble,
  or some vexation,
  or some object of envy,
  before our eyes, and
    the effects are sad -- very sad.
 
Let us this day place God's loving kindness before our eyes,
  as it appears in his precious gifts,
  sweet assurances, magnificent promises, and
    the glorious prospects set before us.
 
It is his loving kindness which pardons our sins,
  revives our souls,
  renews us in the spirit of our minds, and
  gives us fresh and delightful views of the Lord Jesus,
    of his finished salvation, end of his blissful heaven.
 
God's loving kindness
  is free, therefore we may enjoy it;
  it is great, therefore we may be satisfied with it;
    it is immutable, therefore we may rejoice in it.
 
Let us fix the eyes this day on God as a God of love,
  on the displays of his kindness to us before time,
    in time, and when time shall be no more.
 

Often I feel my sinful heart,

Prone from my Jesus to depart;

But though I have him oft forgot,

His loving kindness changes not.

 
James Smith 1849