December 25, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually." — Job 1:5 · KJV

What the patriarch did early in the morning, after the family festivities, it will be well for the believer to do for himself before he rests tonight. Amid the cheerfulness of household gatherings, it is easy to slide into sinful levities, and to forget our avowed character as Christians. It ought not to be so, but so it is, that our days of feasting are very seldom days of sanctified enjoyment, and too often degenerate into unhallowed mirth. There is a way of joy as pure and sanctifying as though one bathed in the rivers of Eden; holy gratitude should be quite as purifying an element as grief. Alas for our poor hearts, that the facts prove the house of mourning to be better than the house of feasting! Come, believer, in what have you sinned today? Have you been forgetful of your high calling? Have you been even as others, in idle words and loose speeches? Then confess the sin, and fly to the sacrifice. The sacrifice sanctifies; the precious blood of the Lamb slain removes the guilt and purges away the defilement of our sins of ignorance and carelessness. This is the best ending of a Christmas day — to wash anew in the cleansing fountain. Believer, come to this sacrifice continually; if it is so good tonight, it is good every night. To live at the altar is the privilege of the royal priesthood; to them sin, great as it is, is nevertheless no cause for despair, since they draw near yet again to the sin-atoning victim, and their conscience is purged from dead works. Gladly I close this festive day, grasping the altar's hallowed horn; my slips and faults are washed away, for the Lamb has all my trespass borne.