Rain and Warmth

There is, saith a good man, as much difference between a sermon in the pulpit and printed in a book, as between milk in the warm breast and in the sucking bottle. Yet the convenience of it is very great. Good books are the baskets that preserve excellent lessons that they be not lost . . . Sermons are like showers of rain, wet for the present. Books are like snow-banks, lie longer upon the earth, and keep it warm in winter.

~ Simeon Ash & Joseph Church on Richard Sibbes, Volume 4, p. 394

Like the earth, we need rain in Springtime and warmth in winters. We need truth stored up for ages, and truth applied to the moment we are in. We need the warmth and life-giving vitality of God’s heart in preaching as well as in reading. We need the renewing force of our affections stirred by the God who loved us first. May we learn to enjoy both good preaching and good reading!

Reading a book can often feel like trying to make a fire start in your soul. And sermons can feel like cold artifacts of the distance past. The devil wants to be the cruel god of your soul – keeping us from warmth in winters, and rain in Springs. Without either, our souls will languish. The good preacher can both warm and wet, as can the best of books. Yet, without God, they will fade from our hearts. Do not forget Him, heart of mine, in your studies! Do not forget Him, soul, when clothing yourself for winters ahead!

God can bring life without good rain, and He can preserve life without much warmth. Even so, let us search for warmth in winter, and rain in summer. Let us ask God; He will not deny us good things that His heart has stored up for us (1 John 5)!