My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year Part 27

ACTS xiii. 14-23.

Do I sufficiently remember the witness of history? Do I reverently listen to the "great voice behind me"? G.o.d has spoken in the speech of events.

"Day unto day" has uttered speech. There has been a witness in national life, sometimes quiet as a fragrance, and sometimes "loud as a vale when storms are gone." Is it all to me as though it had never been, or is it part of the store of counsel by which I shape and guide my life?

And do I sufficiently remember my own providences, "_all the way my G.o.d has led me_"? When a day is over, do I carry its helpful lamp into the morrow? Do I "learn wisdom" from experience? That is surely G.o.d's purpose in the days; one is to lead on to another in the creation of an ever brightening radiance, that so at eventide it may be light.

And do I sufficiently remember that I, too, am making history for my fellows who shall succeed me? What kind of a witness will it be? Grim and full of warning, like the pillar of salt, or winsome and full of heartiness, like some "sweet Ebenezer" built by life's way? Let me pray and labour that my days may so shine with grace that all who remember me shall adore the goodness of my Lord.

JUNE The Sixth

_LOVE'S EXPENDITURES_

1 JOHN iii. 11-18.

Hereby perceive we the love of G.o.d, because "_He laid down His life for us_." And the real test of any love is what it is prepared to "lay down."

How much is it ready to spend? How much will it bleed? There is much spurious love about. It lays nothing down; it only takes things up! It is self-seeking, using the speech and accents of love. It is a "work of the flesh," which has stolen the label of a "fruit of the Spirit." Love may always be known by its expenditures, its self-crucifixions, its Calvarys.

Love is always laying down its life for others. Its pathway is always a red road. You may track its goings by the red "marks of the Lord Jesus."

And this is the life, the love-life, which the Lord Jesus came to create among the children of men. It is His gracious purpose to form a spiritual fellowship in which every member will be lovingly concerned about his fellows' good. A real family of G.o.d would be one in which all the members bleed for each, and each for all.

How can we gain this disposition of love? "G.o.d is love." "We love because He first loved us." At the fountain of eternal love we too may become lovers, becoming "partakers of the divine nature," and filled with all "the fulness of G.o.d."

JUNE The Seventh

_MORAL SURGERY_

GALATIANS vi. 1-8.

This is a surgical operation in the realm of the soul. A man has been "_overtaken in a fault_," some evil pa.s.sion has pounced upon him, and he is broken. Some holy relationship has been snapped, and he is crippled in his moral and spiritual goings. Perhaps his affections have been broken, or his conscience, or his will. Or perhaps he has lost his glorious hope or the confidence of his faith. Here he is, a broken man, the victim of his own broken vows, lame and halt in the pilgrim-way! And some surgeon is needed to re-set the dislocation, and to make him whole again.

And who is to be the surgeon? "_Ye which are spiritual restore such a one._" The men who live under the control of G.o.d's Spirit are to be the surgeons for broken hearts and souls. When a man has fallen by reason of sin, the Christian is to be a Good Samaritan, seeking to restore the cripple to health and strength again. We are to kneel and minister to him, binding up his wounds, giving him the balm and cordial of oil and wine.

And what is to be the spirit of the surgeon? "The spirit of meekness." We are not to be supercilious, for the "touch" of pride is never the minister of healing. We are to heal as though some day we may need to be healed.

JUNE The Eighth

_THE NEW BIRTH_

JOHN iii. 1-21.

Here is the Life in contact with the icy legalism of the day. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and his piety was cold and mechanical. Religion had become a bloodless obedience to lifeless rules. Men cared more about being proper than about being holy. Modes were emphasized more than moods. An external pose was esteemed more highly than an internal disposition. The popular Saint lived on "the outsides of things."

Then came the Life. And what will He say to the externalist? "Ye must be born again." Nothing else could He have said. If the mechanical is to become the vital there is nothing for it but a new birth. To get from the outside into the inside of things, from the letter into the spirit, we need the miracle of renewal, the recreating ministry of grace.

And so it is to-day. The ritualistic is vitalized by the evangelistic. If the mechanical is to become the spontaneous, there is need of the "well of living water, springing up unto eternal life." When we are born again, ritual becomes helpful trellis for the spiritual flowers; the outward form becomes the helpmeet of redeeming grace.

JUNE The Ninth

_THE STORY OF A SORROWFUL SOUL_

PSALM iii.

This tearful little psalm tells me where a sorrowful soul found a place of help and consolation. He resorted to G.o.d.

"_Thou art a shield about me._" He got the Lord between him and his circ.u.mstances. There is nothing else subtle enough to interpose. Our hurtful circ.u.mstances are so invasive and so immediate that only G.o.d can come between us and them. But when G.o.d gets in between we are immune.

"Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear."

"_Thou art my glory._" And that is an honour that need never be stained.

My worldly glory can be besmirched. An evil man throws mud, and my poor reputation is gone. "There's always somebody ready to believe it!" But my glory with G.o.d, and in G.o.d--man's mud cannot touch that fair fame! Even Absalom cannot defile that resplendent robe.

"_Thou art the lifter-up of my head._" The flower is "looking up" again!

In the Lord's presence we recover our lost spirits. "He restoreth my soul." "And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me."

JUNE The Tenth

_PILLARS OF CLOUD AND FIRE_

"_The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud._"

--EXODUS xiii. 17--xiv. 4.

I need His leadership in the daytime. Sometimes the daylight is my foe. It tempts me into carelessness. I become the victim of distraction. The "garish day" can entice me into ways of trespa.s.s, and I am robbed of my spiritual health. Many a man has been faithful in the twilight and night who has lost himself in the sunshine. He went astray in his prosperity: success was his ruin. And so in the daytime I need the shadow of G.o.d's presence, the cooling, subduing, calming influence of a friendly cloud.

"_And by night in a pillar of fire._" And I need G.o.d's leadership in the night. Sometimes the night fills me with fears, and I am confused. The darkness chills me, sorrow and adversity make me cold, and I shiver along in uncertain going. But my G.o.d will lead me as a presence of fire. He will keep my heart warm even in the midnight, and He will guide me by the kindlings of His love. There shall be "nothing hid from the heat thereof."

And my bewildering fears shall flee away, and I will sing "songs in the night."