My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year Part 32

And I, too, am to seek a corresponding lowliness of mind in order that I, too, may be of service to my weak and needy brother. It is for me to empty myself of the pride of strength, the brutal aggressiveness of success, the sometimes unfeeling obtrusiveness of health; I must empty myself, and "get down" by the side of weakness and infirmity, and in gentle fellowship humbly proffer my help.

And if the mind is to be in me "which was also in Christ Jesus," it is needful for me to commune with Him "without ceasing." His gentleness can make me great.

JULY The Fifth

_THE DISCIPLESHIP THAT TELLS_

"_He that followeth Me._"

--JOHN viii. 12-20.

Yes, but I must make sure that I follow Him in Spirit and in truth. It is so easy to be self-deceived. I may follow a pleasant emotion, while all the time a bit of grim cross-bearing is being ignored. I may be satisfied to be "out on the ocean sailing," singing of "a home beyond the tide,"

while all the time there is a piece of perilous salvage work to be done beneath the waves. To "follow Jesus" is to face the hostility of scribes and Pharisees, to offer restoring friendship to publicans and sinners, to pray in blood-shedding in Gethsemane, to brave the derision of the brutal mob, and to be "ready" for the appalling happenings on Calvary! Therefore, following is not a light picnic; it is a possible martyrdom!

But if I set my face "to go," the Lord Himself will visit me with "_the light of life_." And the resource shall not be broken and spasmodic: it shall be mine without ceasing. "Be thou faithful ... and I will give thee ... life." That life will flow into my soul, just as the oxygenating air flows down to the diver who is faithfully busy recovering wreckage from the wealth-strewn bed of the mighty sea. Let me be faithful, and every moment the Lord will crown me with His own vitalizing life!

JULY The Sixth

_LIFE AS A VOICE_

JOHN i. 19-34.

This man humbly desires to be "_a voice_." He has no ambition to receive popular homage. He does not covet the power of the lordly purple. He does not crave to be a great person; he only wants to be a great voice! He wants to articulate the thought and purpose of G.o.d. He is quite content to be hidden, like a bird in a thick bush, if only his song may be heard.

And in order that he may be a voice he retires into the silent solitudes of the desert. He will listen before he speaks. Come thou, my soul, into his secret! The air is clamorous with speech behind which there has been no hearing. Men speak, and in their words there is no pulse of the Infinite. In their consolations there is no balm. In their reproaches there is no sword. Their words are empty vessels, full of sound! Let my voice be hushed until I have heard the voice of the Highest. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

And when he spake, it was in clear and definite testimony, "Behold the Lamb of G.o.d!" The "voice" succeeded, for men began to look away from the herald to the herald's Lord. In forgetting John they found the King. They pa.s.sed the _signpost_, and arrived at _home_!

JULY The Seventh

_IN THE GOLDEN AGE_

ISAIAH xl. 1-10.

And so these things are to happen when the Lord has come to His own, and His decrees are honoured in our midst.

Certain _inequalities_ are to be ended. Valleys are to be exalted, and mountains are to be made low. There is to be a levelling! Men are to be equal in freedom and opportunity.

Certain _crookednesses_ are to be ended. They are to be "made straight."

Society has become warped with the heat of l.u.s.t, and the fierce fever of compet.i.tion, and the hot, devouring fires of greed. When the Lord is enthroned the fires will be put out, the heat will pa.s.s, and the twisted fellowships will be rectified.

Certain _roughnesses_ are to be ended. Cla.s.s works against cla.s.s with jagged edge, like the teeth of a saw. They tear and rend one another, and the family of G.o.d is always bleeding. These "rough places" are to be "made plain." We are to "work in to one another," smoothly, congenially, in a frictionless peace.

And this Lord is coming, coming every day, and "His arm shall rule for Him." "Say unto the cities of Judah--Behold your G.o.d!"

JULY The Eighth

_WHAT MANNER OF MAN?_

MATTHEW xi. 7-15.

There are some men who are only as _desert reeds_! They move to the breath of the desert wind. They bend before it, no matter in what way it may be blowing. They never resist the wind. They never become "hiding places from the wind," stemming a popular drift. They are the victims of pa.s.sing opinions, and are swayed by the current pa.s.sions.

And some men are "_clothed in soft raiment_"! They shrink from the rough fustian, the labourer's cotton smock, the leather suit of George Fox. They are ultra-"finicky." They are afraid of the mire. They touch the sorrows of the world with a timid finger, not with the kindly, healing grasp of a surgeon.

And other men are "_prophets_"! They have a secret fellowship with the Infinite. When we listen to them it is like putting one's ear to the seash.e.l.l: we catch the sound of the ocean roll. "The voice of the Great Eternal dwells in their mighty tones."

And others are "_children of the Kingdom_." They are greater than the old prophets, because the mystic voice has become a Presence, and they have "seen the Lord." The veil has been rent, and they "walk in the light" as "children of light."

JULY The Ninth

_SCHOLARS IN CHRIST'S SCHOOL_

"_He taught His disciples._"

--MARK ix. 30-37.

And my Lord will teach me. He will lead me into "the deep things" of G.o.d.

There is only one school for this sort of learning, and an old saint called it the Academy of Love, and it meets in Gethsemane and Calvary, and the Lord Himself is the teacher, and there is room in the school for thee and me.

But the disciples were not in the mood for learning. They were not ambitious for heavenly knowledge, but for carnal prizes, not for wisdom, but for place. "They disputed one with another who was the greatest." And that spirit is always fatal to advancement in the school of Christ. Our petty ambitions close the door and windows of our souls, and the heavenly light can find no entrance. We turn Gethsemane into "a place of strife,"

and we carry our clamour even to Calvary itself. From this, and all other sinful folly, good Lord, redeem us!

They who would be great scholars in this school must become "as little children." Through the child-like spirit we attain unto G.o.d-like wisdom.

By humility is honour and life.

JULY The Tenth