司布真每日靈修(夜) Evening by Evening
十二月七日
經文: 向甚麼樣的人，我就作甚麼樣的人。無論如何，總要救些人。（哥林多前書九：22）
保羅的目標不僅是教導人，使人進步，更是要救人。達不到這目標就會讓他失望。他要人從心中更新、被赦免、得成聖，並且得救。我們工作的目標是否比這偉大的目標為低？在這末世的時代，向人教以道德，當他們在上帝面前時，發現他們並末得救，如此作有什麼好處？保羅知道人天性之敗壞，所以他並不企圖教育他們，反要去救他們。他見世人沈淪走向地獄，但他並不想要煉淨他們，而是要救他們脫離那即將來臨的忿怒。為了教他們得到救恩，不辭辛勞地傳揚福音，警告人，懇求人要與上帝和好。他的禱告和努力從未間斷。救靈魂是他心中燃燒的烈火、是他的雄心、也是他的呼召。他成為所有人的僕人，為他本族的人勞苦。若有人接受福音，他也不會特別強調形式或禮儀；對他而言，福音是最重要的。只要能救一些人，他的心就滿足了。這是他勞苦為要得著之冠冕，是他所有辛勞與捨己唯一能滿足他的獎賞。你我活著是否以搶救靈魂作為崇高的目標？我們是否也有同樣全心貫注的願望？耶穌為罪人死亡，我們豈不應為罪人而活？我們若不在人類的拯救上尋求基督的榮耀，怎能說我們愛祂呢？求主教那為得人靈魂而永不熄滅的烈火燃燒在我們�面。
Evening, December 7
Scripture: "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."(1 Corinthians 9:22)
Paul's great object was not merely to instruct and to improve, but to save. Anything short of this would have disappointed him; he would have men renewed in heart, forgiven, sanctified, in fact, saved. Have our Christian labours been aimed at anything below this great point? Then let us amend our ways, for of what avail will it be at the last great day to have taught and moralized men if they appear before God unsaved? Blood-red will our skirts be if through life we have sought inferior objects, and forgotten that men needed to be saved. Paul knew the ruin of man's natural state, and did not try to educate him, but to save him; he saw men sinking to hell, and did not talk of refining them, but of saving from the wrath to come. To compass their salvation, he gave himself up with untiring zeal to telling abroad the gospel, to warning and beseeching men to be reconciled to God. His prayers were importunate and his labours incessant. To save souls was his consuming passion, his ambition, his calling. He became a servant to all men, toiling for his race, feeling a woe within him if he preached not the gospel. He laid aside his preferences to prevent prejudice; he submitted his will in things indifferent, and if men would but receive the gospel, he raised no questions about forms or ceremonies: the gospel was the one all-important business with him. If he might save some he would be content. This was the crown for which he strove, the sole and sufficient reward of all his labours and self-denials. Dear reader, have you and I lived to win souls at this noble rate? Are we possessed with the same all-absorbing desire? If not, why not? Jesus died for sinners, cannot we live for them? Where is our tenderness? Where our love to Christ, if we seek not his honour in the salvation of men? O that the Lord would saturate us through and through with an undying zeal for the souls of men.
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