My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year Part 36

1 JOHN v. 1-13.

And so by belief _I find life_. I do not obtain the vitalizing air through controversy, or clamour, or idle lamentation, but by opening the window!

Faith opens the door and window of the soul to the Son of G.o.d. It can be done without tears, it can be done without sensationalism. "If any man will open the door, I will come in." "And he that hath the Son hath the life."

And by belief _I gain my victories_. "Who is he that overcometh ... but he that believeth?" It is not by flashing armour that we beat the devil, but by an invincible life. On these battlefields a mystic breath does more destruction than all our fine and costly expedients. To believe is to obtain the winning spirit, and every battle brings its trophies to our feet.

And by belief _I gain a.s.surance_. "He that believeth ... hath the witness in him." So many Christians fight in doubt and indecision, and their uncertainty impairs their strength and skill. It is the man who can quietly say "I know" who is terrible in battle and who drives his foes in confusion from the field.

JULY The Twenty-eighth

_ALL THINGS NEW!_

2 CORINTHIANS v. 14-21.

Here is a new constraint! "The love of Christ constraineth me." The love of Christ _carries me along like a crowd_. I am taken up in its mighty movement and swept along the appointed road! Or it _arrests me_, and makes me its willing prisoner. It lays a strong hand upon me, and I have no option but to go. A gracious "necessity is laid upon me." _I must!_

And here is a new world. "_Old things are pa.s.sed away._" The man who is the prisoner of the Lord's love will find himself in new and wonderful scenery. Everything will wear a new face--G.o.d, man, self, the garden, the sky, the sea! We shall look at all things through love-eyes, and it is amazing in what new light a great love will set familiar things!

Commonplaces become beautiful when looked at through the lens of Christian love. When we "walk in love" our eyes are anointed with "the eye-salve" of grace.

And here is a new service. "We are amba.s.sadors ... for Christ." When we see our Lord through love-eyes, and then our brother, we shall yearn to serve our brother in Christ. We shall intensely long to tell the love-story of the Lord our Saviour. What we have seen, with confidence we tell.

JULY The Twenty-ninth

_NAMES AND NATURES_

ROMANS viii. 1-10.

Men will recognize my Christianity by the sign of the Spirit of Christ.

And they will accept no other witness. I saw a plant-pot the other day, full of soil, bearing no flower, but flaunting a stick on which was printed the word "Mignonette." "Thou hast a name to live and art dead."

The world will take no notice of our labels and our badges: it is only arrested by the flower and the perfume. "If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His."

And in the Spirit of Christ I shall best deal with "_the things of the flesh_." There are some things which are best overcome by neglecting them.

To give them attention is to give them nourishment. Withdraw the attention, and they sicken and die. And so I must seek the fellowship of the Spirit. That friendship will destroy the other. "Ye cannot serve G.o.d and Mammon." If I am in communion with the Holy One the other will pine away, and cease to trouble me.

Lord, make my spirit a kinsman of Thine! Let the intimacy be ever deeper and dearer. "Draw me nearer, blessed Lord," until in nearness to Thee I find my peace, my joy, and my crown.

JULY The Thirtieth

_SIN AS POISON_

NUMBERS xxi. 4-9.

And this is the familiar teaching, that sin is a serpent. It possesses a deadly poison. We may give it pleasant names, but we are only ornamenting death. A chemist might put a poison into a chaste and elegant flask, but he has in no wise changed its nature. And when we name sin by philosophic euphemisms, and by less exacting terminologies--such as "cleverness,"

"smartness," or "fault," or "misfortune," we are only changing the flask, and the diabolical essence remains the same.

And, then, sin is a serpent because it is so subtle. It creeps into my presence almost before I know it. Its approaches are so insidious, its expedients so full of guile. "Therefore, I say unto all, Watch!"

But in Christ the old serpent is dead! Christ "became sin," and in Him sin was crucified. The thing that bit is bitten, and its nefarious power destroyed. But out of Christ the serpent is still busy and malicious, claiming what he presumes to call his own.

Let me, then, dwell in Christ, where sin "has no more dominion."

"Whosoever believeth shall not perish but have life."

JULY The Thirty-first

_THE CLEAN FLAME OF LOVE_

1 JOHN iv. 4-14.

This aged apostle cannot get away from the counsels of love. All his mental movements circle about this "greatest thing in the world." Once he would "call down fire upon men"; now the only fire he knows is the pure and genial flame of love. Beautiful is it when our fires become cleaner as we get older, when temper changes to compa.s.sion, when malice becomes goodwill, when an ill-controlled conflagration becomes a homely fireside.

And all the love we acquire we must get from the altars of G.o.d. "We love because He first loved us." We can find it nowhere else. "Love is of G.o.d."

Why, then, not seek it in the right place? Why seek for palms in arctic regions, or for icebergs in the tropics? G.o.d is the country of love, and in His deep mines there are riches "unsearchable."

And the gracious law of life is this, that every acquisition of love increases our powers of discernment. "He that loveth knoweth...!" It is as though every jewel we find gives us an extra lens for the discovery of finer jewels still. And thus the love-life is a continual surprise, and the surprise will be eternal, for the object of the wonder is the infinite love of G.o.d.

AUGUST The First

_G.o.d AS OUR ALLY!_

ROMANS viii. 31-39.

"If G.o.d is for us!" But we must make sure of that. Is G.o.d on the field, taking sides with us? Have we been so busy with our preparations, so concerned with many things, and everybody, that we have forgotten our greatest possible Ally? Is He on the field, and on which side! My soul, go on thy knees, and settle this in secret. That purpose of thine! That choice of thine! That work of thine! Is it hallowed with thy Lord's approval and seal?

And "if G.o.d is for us, who can be against us?" Nothing else counts. It is ever a foolish and futile thing to count the heads in the opposing ranks.

"G.o.d is always on the side of the big battalions!" It is a black lie of the devil! We need not fear the big battalions if only we are securely in the right. We are not to count heads, but to weigh and estimate causes.

Which of the causes provides a tent for the Lord of Hosts? Where has the truth its waving flag? Stand near that flag, my soul, and thou wilt be near thy Lord! And nothing shall separate thee from His love, and leave thee weak and isolated on the field. Thou shalt be "more than conqueror"

in Him who loves thee, and will love thee for evermore.