Evening by Evening

I went to an estate sale last summer in Nashville's Green Hills suburb, and since I was out of pocket as I usually am these days, I allowed myself only 25 dollars to spend. I came home three dollars under budget, having bought only a Dutch oven and a small antique book.

The book was "Evening by Evening" by the English Protestant preacher C.H. Spurgeon. There was an inscription inside the cover dated 1909, for that was the year this book was given as a gift to "Dear Janice".

The book has evening meditations for each day of the year, and these were meant to be read at the the evening fireside where the family would gather.

Spurgeon was a mesmerizing orator and writer, and his essays have the serene and sonorous dignity I associate with the King James Bible. Here is a sample-

"The hours of the declining sun are so many quiet valleys in the garden of time wherein man may find his Maker waiting to commune with him,even as of old the Lord God walked with Adam in Paradise in the cool of the day".

And here is Spurgeon on how we live our lives-

"To leap from day to day like a mad hunter scouring the fields, is an omen of being delivered over to destruction; but the solemn pause, the deliberate consideration- these are the means of grace and ensigns of an indwelling life".

What a treasure of a book-