九月十二日
经文: 「耶和华是忌邪施报的上帝。」（拿鸿书一：2）
信徒啊！你的神非常忌妒你爱别的。祂曾拣选了你吗？祂不能容忍你拣选别的。祂曾用自己的血买了你吗？祂不能让你想你是自己的人，或者想你是属这世界的。祂以极大的爱爱你，甚至祂在天堂上少不了你；祂宁可自己死，也不愿你灭亡，并且祂不能容忍任何东西居间于你心中的爱和祂自己当中。
祂非常忌妒你信靠别的。祂不能让你依靠血肉的膀臂。活水的泉源既然为你畅流不息，祂是不能让你到破裂不能存水的池子喝水的。我们投靠祂，祂就欢喜；但若我们投靠别的，依靠自己的智慧，或是朋友的智慧——当我们依靠自己的工作时，祂就不喜悦，并且也必管教我们，好使我们归向祂。
祂也非常忌妒我们与别的为友。你和任何人的谈话都不当超过和耶稣的谈话。要单单住在祂里面，这才是真的爱；但与世为友、寻求属世的安慰和快乐，或是与同道交往而不与祂相处，便使忌妒的神难过。祂切望我们住在祂里面，常与祂相交；我们有许多苦难原来都是祂叫我们的心离开世人、与祂永远亲近的方法。
愿这种忌妒使我们常亲近基督，并作我们的安慰，因为祂既这样爱我们，并关心我们的爱，那么祂是不会容许什么伤害我们的，祂必保护我们脱离一切仇敌。愿神赐恩叫我们的心今天完全而且纯洁地献给我们亲爱的主，为了神的忌妒而闭眼不看这世界一切迷惑人的东西，因为我们的眼还要看到尊贵、至荣耀的主！
Morning, September 12
Scripture: “God is jealous.”(Nahum 1:2)
Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did he choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did he buy you with his own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that he would not stop in heaven without you; he would sooner die than you should perish, and he cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and himself. He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you. When we lean upon him, he is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend—worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, he is displeased, and will chasten us that he may bring us to himself. He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord. He would fain have us abide in him, and enjoy constant fellowship with himself; and many of the trials which he sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature, and fixing them more closely upon himself. Let this jealousy which would keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us, for if he loves us so much as to care thus about our love we may be sure that he will suffer nothing to harm us, and will protect us from all our enemies. Oh that we may have grace this day to keep our hearts in sacred chastity for our Beloved alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!
