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DAILY MEDITATIONS 
 
 BY THE y 
 
 Ret. GEORGE BOWEIST, 
 
 AMERICAN MISSIONARY, BOMBAY, INDIA. 
 
 " Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth.' 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 PRESBYTERIAN PUBLICATION COMMITTEE, 
 
 1334 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 NEW YORK : A. D, F. RANDOLPH, 770 BROADWAY. 
 
-:e..<t3i-^!^5^l^^5i*w^j)c i- 
 
 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 
 
 WM. L. HILDEBURN, Treasurer, 
 
 in trust for the 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN PUBLICATION COMMITTEE, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Cotirt for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Greatly though the Church of this clay, amid all its 
 activities, lacks deep heart experience of religion, yet 
 there are many who hunger and thirst after righteous- 
 ness, who desire a fuller work of the Spirit in their 
 souls. Conscious of poverty of soul, they long for 
 manna from heaven. To such, this volume will prove 
 a grateful gift. It is not without good reason added to 
 the number of the books that claim the attention and 
 the time of the Christian. The reader will here find 
 deep, precious and suggestive thoughts made vivid by a 
 glowing imagination and striking inferences. If de- 
 siring a higher Christian life, and willing to meditate 
 and pray, he will be edified by the fruits of a profound 
 study of God's word and of a rich experience of the 
 workings of the Spirit. His faith Avill be strengthened 
 by contact with the Author's faith, and his zeal be kin- 
 dled by his passionate jealousy for the glory of God. 
 
4 EDITOR S PHEFACE. 
 
 Of the work, an eminent New York pastor* says, " It 
 is a book of rare merit, marked by deep piety, insight 
 into the Scriptures, original genius and uncompromising, 
 directness. I know of no book of its class equal to it." 
 
 The Author, the Rev. George Bowen, formerly of 
 New York, has been for eighteen years a missionary in 
 India. He issued a Volume of Meditations at Bom- 
 bay, where there is a considerable English community. 
 This volume was brought to the notice of the Commit- 
 tee by the Rev. William Wallace Atterbury, and by 
 him, at the request of the Committee, revised, new pa- 
 pers by Mr. Bowen being inserted in the place of some 
 that seemed of less merit. The volume has been stereo- 
 typed, and is now given to the Christian public. Let 
 the reader, as he reads, pause to meditate, and ask the 
 blessing of the Spirit upon the truth. 
 
 J. W. D. 
 
 * Rev. William R. Williams, D. D. ; and in this judgment the Rev. 
 Thomas H. Skinner, D. D., than whom no one is more competent to judge 
 of a spiritual work, concurs. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 January 1. — "And as thy days, so shall thy strength be. — Deuteron- 
 omy xxxiii. 25. 
 
 Tliis probably means tbat time, instead of diminishing the 
 strength and crippling the energies of the people of God, shall 
 be commissioned to convey unto them increase of spiritual 
 strength, and to render them day by day, month by month, 
 year by year, more vigorous and more victorious in the conflict 
 with sin, more energetic in faith, more sublime in patience 
 and fortitude, more meek and lowly of heart, more fervent in 
 admiration of Christ, more self-denying and devoted in his 
 service, more generous, more pitiful, more useful. 
 
 In this view they are delightful words to greet us on the 
 threshold of a new year ; and we accept them as a sweet and 
 blessed omen. Bring us strength, ye coming days, strength 
 to glorify our Master, to resist evil, to accomplish good, to 
 hasten heavenward ; and ye shall be most welcome. 
 
 Note. — We aim in these remarks rather to indicate the lines of thought, 
 and to make ready the materials of meditation, than to explore the galle- 
 ries of wealth that underlie our texts. The reader will, we trust, bear in 
 mind his share of responsibility. 
 
 7 
 
O DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 January 2.—" I am the Lord thy God which teaeheth thee to profit."— 
 Isaiah xlviii. 17. 
 
 Sometimes tlie soul gets angry with tlie instruction and 
 says, " I will not believe that this is from the Lord my God. 
 The Lord my God is one that loveth me and taketh pleasure 
 in granting the desires of my heart. But this providence is 
 rude and withering; my hopes are blasted, my expectations 
 mocked, my trust belied. What could mine enemy do to me, 
 more severe, more crushing, than this that has ccme upon me ? 
 And shall I be told that it is the Lord my God teaching me 
 to profit r 
 
 " Yes, it is the Lord thy God. As many as I love, I rebuke 
 and chasten. Thine enemy would never have done to thee 
 what I am doing. Thine enemy might indeed afflict ; but not 
 for thy profit. It might be difficult to distinguish between a 
 wound inflicted by an assassin, and an incision made by a sur- 
 geon ; but the results would soon show the world-wide difference 
 between the two acts. It was needful that I should bring upon 
 thee the very thing most intensely deprecated by thee. There 
 was no need of sending trials for which thou wert prepared, 
 and which had no power to disguise me from thee at all. 
 Thou wouldest have greeted them laughingly, and said, I 
 know that the Lord my God is coming to me in these. 
 Therefore I have taken a thicker shroud ; but still, if thou 
 wilt hearken, the well-known voice will come to thee out of 
 the midst thereof, saying, 'I am the Lord thy God that 
 teaeheth thee to profit.' ^' 
 
 " But do I need to be still taught my dependence, my sin- 
 fulness, my misery ; the sole righteousness of Christ ; the sov- 
 ereignty of God ; the vanity of the world ? Have I failed to 
 profit by past instructions? Is all my past experience in 
 vain V 
 
 " Not in vain. It is because of the evidence of a good work 
 in thee, that I am led to discipline thee thus and to seek thy 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 9 
 
 perfection. Thy words show that thou hast yet some lessons to 
 learn. Thou art not yet altogether willing that I should be in 
 all things sovereign, and thy will be made everywhere to suc- 
 cimib to mine." 
 
 " But, gracious Lord, how can one who has tasted of thy 
 loving-kindness and been enraptured by thy smile, receive 
 without deep anguish of heart the strokes of thy displeasure ? 
 Thou hast given me the very sensibility by virtue of which I 
 now suffer. Is it better to be callous ? Better to be without 
 expectations, aspirations ?" 
 
 " The trial of your faith is more precious than of gold that 
 perisheth. Thoughts arise in your mind because the furnace 
 is seven times heated ; but will you not consider that I am 
 seven fold more gloriously manifest to you, and eventually by 
 your 
 
 January 3. — " My strength is made perfect in weakness." — 2 Corinthi- 
 ans xii. 9. 
 
 The Christian must be weak that he may be strong ; weak 
 in the deprivation of those things which the world connects 
 with the idea of strength ; deficient in the strength that men 
 seek and extol ; emptied of all thoughts of his own indepen- 
 dent and personal power; stripped of his own righteousness 
 and wisdom ; sensible of the mighty power of the enemy ; a 
 mere ruin and a wreck, apart from Christ. Then there is in- 
 deed a preparation for strength. A foundation is laid upon 
 which Christ will build. Room is made for the wisdom and 
 power and sufficiency of Christ. The Christian decreases, 
 that he may, in another and blessed sense, increase. He is 
 made perfect in weakness that he may be made perfect in true 
 strength. Look at Peter with his miserable sword in the gar- 
 den of Gethsemane ; look at him again on the day of Pente- 
 cost. 
 
10 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 January 4. — " Lord, increase our faith." — Luke xvii. 5. 
 
 This was one of the wisest apostolic utterances. The world 
 is unconscious of its unbelief. It thinks that the reason why 
 it has not more faith, is that there is no more evidence given to 
 it. But no accumulation of evidence would remove the diffi- 
 culty. A change within, a couching of the moral vision; this 
 is that which is necessary. 
 
 The Lord answers this prayer, not in general by giving new 
 evidence, but by inclining us to view and appreciate the evi- 
 dence before our minds. By leading us to weigh his promises 
 in the scales of faith against the proffers of the world. By 
 making us to see that faith is the essential condition of blessed- 
 ness. By showing us that we get no good by unbelief, but 
 mere confusion and wretchedness : — that faith is the perception 
 of truth, and leads us, not to a castle upon the earth, (which 
 might be burnt up,) not to a castle in the air, (which vanisheth 
 away,) but to a glorious mansion which hath foundations unre- 
 movable, battlements insurmountable, amplitude immeasurable, 
 light inextinguishable, glory inconceivable, and happiness in- 
 violable. 
 
 January 5. — "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that 
 believeth," — Mark ix. 23. 
 
 "If thou canst do any thing," said the man, "have mercy 
 upon us and help us." The question is not, says Christ, what 
 I can do; but what tJiou canst believe. All things are possible 
 to me; but this will help thee little. Have faith, and then all 
 things will be possible to thee. My power is given to faith; 
 and fills every channel that faith provides. 
 
 Christ has all power in heaven and in earth ; and he is with 
 his servants, even unto the end of the world : but something 
 beside these facts is necessary that Christ's mighty power may 
 be manifested among men. It is still true that faith deter- 
 mines the exhibitions of his power ; he could not do many 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 11 
 
 miglity works in Nazaretli because of tlieir unbelief; and it is 
 doubtless because of the Churcb's unbelief that he doeth so 
 few mighty works in this our day. 
 
 Compare the power that accompanied the Christian Church 
 in her first evangelistic, steps with what we behold now. See 
 how she clothed herself with thousands in the city of the cru- 
 cifiers, day by day ; how these thousands had all things in 
 common and were filled with love and joy; how a Saul was 
 converted ; an Ananias and Sapphira hurled lifeless back from 
 the church they wished to desecrate ; how Peter came to Lyd- 
 da and Saron, and straightway all that dwelt in Lydda and 
 Saron turned to the Lord ; how he came to Joppa, and imme- 
 diately many believed ; how Philip went to Samaria and the 
 people with one accord gave heed unto his preaching. Ask 
 the world if it sees any such unequivocal displays of Christ's 
 power in these days ; it will reply to you thus : — We see noth- 
 ing like it ; we see that the Church is moving forwards with 
 the general impulse of the age ; participating in and profiting 
 by the many facilities of these latter times ; the press aids her, 
 but it aids infidelity and everything else. So too with the provi- 
 dential movements of the day ; what they do for her they do 
 for her in common with numberless other systems ; and she has 
 so far accommodated herself to the spirit of the times we live 
 in, that men can join her communion without sustaining any 
 particular worldly loss or inconvenience. If we may believe 
 what is written, from the days of Abraham to the days of the 
 apostles, divine power was exerted in behalf of the Church in 
 ways that were quite distinctive, and so as to give testimony 
 concerning the people of God apart from other people : and 
 this would seem to be the only kind of testimony available for 
 the object in view. 
 
 Well, the Lord's arm is not shortened that it cannot save. 
 He is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. But our fliith 
 is feeble. We cannot suppose that he is any more loth to an- 
 
12 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 swer tlie prayer of faith, any more loth to be revealed in con- 
 nection with his people than he was in former times. The 
 spirit of Egypt Was not drowned in the Red Sea, but appeared 
 afterwards in the camp of the Israelites to the grievous detri- 
 ment of the chosen people : and the Church is by no means 
 emancipated from the spirit of the dark ages. 
 
 January 6.—" The Lord God is a sun."— Psalm Ixxxiv. 11. 
 
 The sun is a glorious emblem of God, in his relation to all 
 who know him and trust in him. It seems to exist only to 
 dispense. Its beams know no intermission. They are inter- 
 cepted but never withheld. We need only that we should be 
 turned towards them, and that there should be no veil before 
 our eyes, no clouds in our atmosphere. They enlighten, they 
 warm, they vivify, they gladden. Their profusion is amazing 
 One hundred millions of square miles of these beams descend 
 each moment on the earth and vanish in the same moment to 
 make way for another similar supply. The sun opens to us 
 the door of the imiverse, so to speak, and reveals creation. 
 Without it we could neither have the knowledge or the benefit 
 of anything that is. 
 
 All this is gloriously suggestive of the God of all grace. 
 Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we are brought into the path 
 of his beams. Our understandings are enlightened, our hearts 
 are warmed, our spirits are gladdened. We begin to get the 
 good of God's creation. We are in ' marvellous light.' And 
 as the natural sun visits all things, yet gives itself wholly to 
 each, makes the whole earth prolific for the benefit of each, the 
 heavens and earth beautiful for the joy of each, so does God 
 grant to each of his children an infinite fulness of love, and 
 gives himself with all his perfections, in wondrous union to 
 each beloved one. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 13 
 
 January 7. — "In all thy ways acknowledge him; and he shall direct 
 tliy patts." — Proverbs iii. 6. 
 
 Acknowledge him as thy guide, thine only, thy necessary 
 guide. Refuse to stir a step without him, as the blind man 
 that stops the moment he misses his guide. Without him thou 
 art in utter darkness, and thy next step may be into a pit. He 
 has made thee thus dependent. It is not enough that the sun 
 shines for thee, the earth upholds thee, and all God's works 
 wait upon thee ; all these finite ministers cannot guarantee thee 
 one safe step. God has ordained it. He created thee to be 
 guided by himself, and unless thou canst call into existence 
 another God like him for thyself, thou hast, without him, no 
 guarantee in any of thy paths. Therefore acknowledge him as 
 thy -guide. 
 
 In all thy ways. In thy worship. In thy study of his 
 word. In thy intercourse with his people. In thy traffic 
 with the world. In thy business and in thy recreation. At thy 
 meals. In thy correspondence. In thy reading. In thy 
 dress. What ! in these petty matters ? Yes ! in all thy ways. 
 Thinkest thou that God will have no word for thee on such 
 topics ? Be undeceived. Thou shalt find a revelation of the 
 will of God for every one of thy paths. There is no need for 
 thee ever to let go his hand. Not a single hair in thy head 
 receives its aliment without him. Why then should a single 
 step be taken without him ? Think, and you shall see that 
 the fate of millions may be involved in the least step that you 
 may be called to take. 
 
 January 8. — " I give unto them eternal life." — John x. 28. 
 
 Consider the speaker, the giver. Who is this shepherd ? It 
 is the Lord of Glory. All things were made not only by him, 
 but for him. .It is for all to yield the tribute of all they pos- 
 sess to him, and ever to ascribe unto him all glory and honor 
 2 
 
14 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 and wisdom and power. But lo ! this Lord of all quits his 
 throne, takes a shepherd's crook, and comes forth with a gift. 
 
 Consider then on wJiom the gift is hestoioecL As you as- 
 cended high to learn the dignity of the giver, so must you de- 
 scend beyond expression deep to know the unworthiness of the 
 beneficiaries. They are distinguished in creation by this mark, 
 that they resolved, whatever angels in heaven or saints on earth 
 might do, they would yield no tribute to the Lord of Hosts, 
 no, not so much as a shoe latchet, and would arrogate to them- 
 selves glory, honor, wisdom and power. Hell yawned for them, 
 exulting. But the injured Prince came nigh to them, veiling 
 his glory that he might not irritate, donning the habiliments 
 of a humble and a friendly shepherd. 
 
 Consider the gift — eternal life. Not common life. Even 
 common life is better than all material things. But a celestial 
 life. Nay, a divine life. His own life. He breathed into 
 them his own infinite spirit, and immediately they began to 
 walk heavenward, in faith, love, joy, humility, peace, hope, 
 dignity, and unspeakable blessedness. This life permeated all 
 their being, reached their eyes, their lips, their hands, their 
 feet, and made them what the seraphim in heaven are, ser- 
 vants of the most high God. Eternal life ! Mighty mountains 
 shall crumble beneath their feet, — they will ascend to higher ; 
 earth shall dissolve beneath them, — they will step into the 
 heavens ; the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, — 
 they will mount up to the heaven of heavens ; the stupendous 
 cycles of the universe will revolve, — they will live on, crowned 
 with garlands of never-fading youth, purity, wisdom, and de- 
 light. 
 
 January 9.— "My God shall supply all your need."— Philippians iv. 19. 
 
 He knows your need. It seems to you that no one can 
 know it, it is so vast. He knows it better than you do your- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 15 
 
 self. He does not confound you with others, saying, I know 
 what man needs ; but he knows you, yourself^ and is acquainted 
 with all the necessities of your individual being, as though 
 every thought, every desire, that had ever trembled in your 
 heart had spent itself in his own infinite mind. It has done 
 so ! The multitude of your own aspirations are not present to 
 you, are lost to you, but he has caught them all in his own 
 vessel, and will see to it that all are duly fulfilled. He knows 
 your need ; your bodily and your social need, your intellectual 
 need, your spiritual need. Your need to-day, your need yes- 
 terday, and your need to-morrow. 
 
 And he knows it that he may supply it. Ask and receive. 
 Your most urgent need he satisfies at once. Your most press- 
 ing need is to be free from vain desires, and to know how to 
 prefer the best gifts. He does not make your need less, but 
 he refines it from its grossness, and then he satisfies it. 
 
 " My God;' the God of Paul, will do it. Think how he 
 supplied the need of Paul on earth ; — how he has supplied it 
 since in heaven ; — how he will ever supply it ; and let all un- 
 belief and anxiety vanish from your minds. 
 
 January 10. — "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me." — 
 John vi. 37. 
 
 Note — The gift : — the vilest thing in the universe, — a sin- 
 ner's soul. 
 
 The Griver :— God the Father. 
 
 To whom given ? — to his equal Son. 
 
 Why such a gift? First, because all else belonged to 
 Christ. Second, its very vileness afforded the largest scope 
 for divine love to manifest itself. Third, it shall be fashioned 
 into incomparable excellence. 
 
 In coming to Christ, there need be no trembling. We are 
 not the principals in the matter. We are but a third party. 
 
16 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 The Lord of Hosts is bestowing upon tlie Prince of Peace a 
 birtli-day present. Woe unto us, if we start aside and seek to 
 interfere witli that divine bounty. Let Christ have what the 
 Father has selected for him. The Spirit that leads you to Je- 
 sus, cries out to Jesus, " the Father gives you this." Then is 
 there joy in heaven. 
 
 January 11. — "In time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion." — 
 Psalm xxvii. 5. 
 
 There is a time of trouble. It comes once and again. 
 Murmur not against it. Say not, let mercy appear in the ex- 
 emption from trouble. Mercy requires that there should be 
 tribulation. There are some gems in your breastplate that 
 only give forth their lustre when trouble comes nigh to you. 
 
 Your heart is agitated at its approach. It comes perhaps 
 in such an unexpected guise. It appears so irresistible ; you 
 seem so helpless. You have what has long been thought by 
 you a trusty blade, but it is now shivered in your hand. If 
 there be faith as a grain of mustard seed, let it now manifest 
 itself. Your enemies are now ready to swallow you up. You 
 are in the centre of a plain ; they are between you and the 
 mountains. Remember Grod. Make mention of his promise. 
 Behold ! a curtain descends from heaven, and becomes around 
 you a royal tent. Instead of danger you have safety ; and 
 trouble is succeeded by surpassing peace. You are in the pa- 
 vilion of God, and your enemies go round and round; they 
 cannot find you ; you are hidden. Faith, submission, long-suf- 
 fering, humility, these gems sparkled in your breastplate; 
 wherefore now peace, triumph, joy and love light up the pa- 
 vilion for you. 
 
 Januauy 12. — "Wait on the Lord : be of good courage." — Ps. xxvii. 14. 
 Tell him your story; unfold to him your case; expect deliv- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 17 
 
 eraiice tlirougli liim alone; -be satisfied to receive it as it shall 
 please him to give it and in the time that seems best to him. 
 By prayer and faith on your part and promise on his, there is 
 an alliance signed, sealed, and ratified. Your enemies see you 
 alone, and dream not that the Almighty is your ally, and that 
 they are rushing upon the thick bosses of his shield. See 
 him that is to them invisible, and be of good courage. 
 
 Wait on him with an explicit statement. 
 
 Wait on him in continuous prayer. 
 
 Wait on him in the study of his word. 
 
 Wait on him in trust ; in penitence ; and in obedience. 
 
 Wait on him in the society of his people. 
 
 And he of good courage. He only has properly anything to 
 do with courage, who waits on the Lord. To be bold without 
 the favor of Grod, to be brave where we have no warrant for 
 intrepidity, to be fearless where there is nothing but our own 
 prowess, wisdom or luck to aid us, is simply to play the fool. 
 A man must either have Omnipotence with him or against 
 him. What matters it if he is able to cut his way through an 
 army, if he wait not on G od ? A tile from a roof may crush 
 him. The wrath of Grod abideth on him. His deeds are done 
 on the border of a precipice which he sees not. His foot shall 
 slide in due time. 
 
 January 13. — "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be 
 saved." — Matthew xxiv. 13. 
 
 These words were evidently intended to produce the impres- 
 sion (1) that there are difiiculties in the way of salvation, be- 
 sides those at the entrance of that way ; (2) that these difficul- 
 ties may be o-vercome; but only (3) by him who contemplates 
 them, appreciates them, prepares for them, and confronts them. 
 The doctrine of " the perseverance of the saints" teaches that 
 every one who is united to Christ by a living faith, will, by 
 
 2 * 
 
18 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 virtue of tliat faitli, endure unto the end — will resist and van- 
 quish the various assaults that shall be made upon him. 
 
 When the fierce struggle that sometimes precedes the first 
 act of true faith in Christ is over, and the new disciple rejoices 
 in the discovery of God's wondrous grace, it is difiicult for him 
 to apprehend, in its full extent, the- necessity of future strife. 
 When, by divine aid, the soul has climbed to some elevated 
 region of which it had never before dreamed, and finds itself 
 amidst flowers and fruits that had no existence in its former 
 world, it rejoices at the translation, and is disposed to look 
 upon that as the place in which to pitch its tabernacle and 
 abide all its days. It is given it there to sojourn for a while; 
 but soon a voice bids it come up higher. It starts to obey the 
 summons ; but finds, perhaps, the same formidable enemies that 
 had been encountered below, arrayed to hinder its further as- 
 cension. It shrinks and says. There is no need ; it is good to 
 be here ; God's grace and a true faith brought me hither, and 
 here it is certainly safe to abide. But, presently, the rainbow 
 of peace, joy and hope, the symbol of God's covenant with the 
 soul, lifts itself from that region and removes to the higher 
 and fairer place whither the soul is summoned. The soul of 
 the true believer then rouses itself to battle with its foes, and 
 takes no rest until it finds it in the higher region. This is 
 still more heaven-like ; but it is not heaven j and soon it is ne- 
 cessary to ascend to a higher plateau. " I am saved,'' says the 
 soul, a thousand times ; but the voice from heaven says, " He 
 that enclureth to the end shall be saved." 
 
 He that endureth shall be saved ; and he that findeth salva- 
 tion, shall endure. 
 
 Endurance is salvation ; salvation is endurance. 
 
 While faith endures, the soul endures. 
 
 The end here spoken of is that limit beyond which the ene- 
 mies of the soul are not allowed to pass. Within that limit 
 they may sometimes hide themselves, but it is only that they 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 19 
 
 may surprise tlie more by tlieir next assault. Even tliougli 
 we should see tlie prince of those enemies buried and sealed in 
 the bottomless pit for a thousand years, it is not good to break 
 up our camp. Blessed are you when you hear a voice saying 
 unto you, " It is finished; come to the marriage supper of the 
 Lamb." 
 
 January 14. — "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do." — 
 John xiv. 13. 
 
 This promise is introduced by a declaration that there is 
 nothing but the want of faith to hinder Christ's disciples from 
 doing works as great as those that Christ himself performed 
 when on the earth ; greater works even. 
 
 " Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. Ye 
 shall do those works nominally, but I really. Understand that 
 I do not deprive the earth of any of my power by my depar- 
 ture. I go to sit upon my Father's throne, that I may do 
 greater works on earth than I have done. The leper that did 
 not find me, when I was on the earth, need not despond ; the 
 blind and the lame that are just beginning to hear of me, need 
 not despair, when they hear of my crucifixion ; the unclean 
 spirits have no occasion to rejoice, nor the god of this world to 
 Qxult. The vine is present where its branches are present. I 
 formerly stretched out one hand and blessed one locality, one 
 company ; but henceforth, on my Father's throne seated, I will 
 hear the prayer of faith ascending from a thousand places, and 
 by the hands of my disciples in all those places, I will do 
 mighty works. They ask and I do. The mightiest religions 
 that the world has ever seen, shall thus be overthrown. Pi- 
 late, the petty servant of the Emperor of Kome, may give me 
 to an ignominious death ; but my pierced hand shall only be 
 clothed with the greater might, and shall bring the Pagan 
 Emperor himself from his throne to my feet. My servants 
 will ask it and I will do it." 
 
20 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 January 15. — " There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them 
 which are iu Christ Jesus." — Romans viii. 1. 
 
 To them which are in Christ Jesus. Think it not a strange 
 expression. It is well chosen. Faith in Christ, union to 
 Christ, and similar expressions, mean much more than can 
 easily be comprehended. The expression " them which are in 
 Christ" is added, that we may not too soon think we under- 
 stand the others. In Christ, as Noah was in the ark. With- 
 out, the besom of condemnation swept the universal face of 
 things; but there was no condemnation to him who had fled 
 for refuge to that sanctuary. In the ark with Noah was all 
 that had life, and all that could nourish life. Abundance of 
 blessing within, desolation without. How terrible a venture 
 would it have been to go forth of that ark. There is now no 
 deluge to them that are in the ark ; no condemnation to them 
 that are in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Estimate then these words : — Condemnation. — In Christ. — 
 JSfo condemnation. 
 
 Think not that " no condemnation" is a merely negative 
 thing. The revoking of a sentence of condemnation, even in 
 the case of an earthly prisoner, gives him to enjoy the bless- 
 ings that descend in such profusion in the beams of the sun, 
 spring up in the abundant crops and the manifold fruits, blow 
 in the breeze, and murmur in the stream ; restores him to the 
 society of many loved ones, and affords him the opportunity 
 of rising to wealth and distinction. And the words " no con- 
 demnation," in the case of the spiritual captive, removes the 
 veil that hindered him from meeting the reconciled face of Him 
 whose name is Love. The words not only liberate him, but 
 liberate ten thousand ministers of God, celestial and terrestrial, 
 who spring forth to wait upon him, and will never leave him 
 till they have brought him, victorious, radiant, pure and 
 blessed, to the company of Gabriel, and of Michael, and of all 
 the saints in light. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 21 
 
 JANtTAnY 16. — '^ There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people u{ 
 God." — Hebrews iv. 9. 
 
 This portion of Scripture is an exposition of the ninety-fiftli 
 Psalm. The word rendered " rest'' in this verse, is different 
 from the v/ord so rendered in many other verses of the con- 
 text. It does not, however, signify anything different : it is 
 intended to elucidate. There is in it a reference to the Sab- 
 bath, and it indicates a Sabbatic rest — a gi*eat and glorious 
 rest of which the Sabbath is an emblem. And Paul exhorts 
 the Hebrew Christians to labor to enter into th'kt rest. To 
 labor now, that they may rest hereafter. 
 
 The following are elements in that future rest : — Deliver- 
 ance from our own vain, unhallowed imaginations ; from self- 
 confidence and the spirit of self-aggrandizement; from un- 
 worthy conceptions of Grod ; from the vacillations of our love 
 to Christ ; from worldly desires ; from liability to fall ; from 
 misunderstandings with our brethren ', in a word, from all the 
 remnants of a carnal mind : — deliverance from indisposition to 
 the service of God, and incompetency for the same ; from the 
 assaults of Satan ; from the companionship of sinners ; from a 
 sin-injured body. 
 
 Take not your rest too soon, else you will never enter into 
 your real rest. It is not here, on this plank, amid the billows; 
 but yonder on that shore. 
 
 Jantjary 17. — " "We have not a high-priest which cannot be touched 
 with the feeling of our infirmities." — Hebrews iv. 15. 
 
 " "We have not a high-priest incapable of sympathizing 
 with our weaknesses," would be more literal, but would not be 
 more beautiful. The statement is in the negative, and seems 
 to summon us for a moment to consider what our condition 
 would be, if we had a high-priest incapable of sympathizing 
 with us. We may also view it as conveying a reproach to 
 
22 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 those wlio act towards Christ as though he were such a high- 
 priest. They do so when the keen sense of their infirmities 
 hinders their confidence in him, and their joy in his promises. 
 Grod hath sufiered you to discover your weakness for the 
 very reason that you might be drawn to Christ, the source of 
 strength; and to discover your own unloveliness, that you 
 might know the loveliness of Christ. Grod is teaching you 
 your need of sympathy and aid; and yet in that very hour 
 you hide yourself from the fountain-head of sympathy and suc- 
 cor. Is it flot enough that you should lose the jiotion of your 
 own goodness, — but must you strip Christ of his goodness and 
 glory ? For what would Christ be without sympathy, without 
 compassion for the erring ? If he were what you would make 
 him out to be, would the ten thousand times ten thousand say 
 with a loud voice, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to re- 
 ceive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, 
 and glory, and blessing ?" Do you wish to extinguish this 
 chorus ? 
 
 January 18. — " They that know thy name will put their trust in thee." 
 — Psalm ix. 10. 
 
 Christ, in the prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of 
 John, says : " I have manifested thy name unto the men that 
 thou gavest me." And again: "I have declared unto them 
 thy name, and will declare it." The manifestation of God's 
 name is the manifestation of God. They that know his name 
 know him, and they put their trust in him. Knowledge and 
 faith are in inseparable alliance. Unbelief and ignorance go 
 too-ether. 
 
 Do you grieve over your want of faith ? Grieve over your 
 want of knowledge. Look unto Emmanuel, God manifest in 
 the flesh. Remember his kindness towards the sons of men, 
 his sacrifices of glory, felicity, power, rest, reputation, liberty, 
 health and life ; remember what he has been to you individu- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 23 
 
 ally; look at him througli kis promises, invitation and pre- 
 dictions, and trust in him. 
 
 When any one withholds his confidence from you, you say, 
 " He does not know me." The implication of the text is, that 
 there is everything attractive about the character of God. It 
 is impossible to know him without being drawn to repose all 
 confidence in him, and to commit all our interests to him. To 
 know him is to know in him one who is willing to employ in- 
 finite wisdom, knowledge, power, and wealth in the utmost 
 possible promotion of our interests. To know him is to know 
 that without him we are nothing — as dead men in respect to 
 all true excellence. 
 
 January 19. — " If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 
 Jesus Christ, the righteous." — 1 John ii. 1. 
 
 " I write unto you," says John, " that ye sin not." Such 
 was his aim in writing this epistle, and such was his aim in 
 writing the words of our text. The statement that we have an 
 advocate with the Father, is intended to keep us from sinning. 
 Any man that uses it merely as an opiate to his conscience, 
 and to procure him peace in sinning, diverts it from its legiti- 
 mate use. 
 
 But when a Christian has been overtaken in a fault, what 
 shall he do ? Let him remember that for him, the unrighteous 
 one, there is an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. Fear 
 not the javelin of divine wrath. It must come through Christ 
 before it can reach you. Nay, it has already reached him. 
 The marks of the wounds appear in his glorified body. Your 
 in, mounting up to the throne of God, does not get there be- 
 fore Christ, your advocate. It is a great thing when an 
 advocate can get up in court and say, The trespass of my cli- 
 ent has been already atoned for ', the full penalty has been in- 
 flicted; and nothing now can be imputed to him. Christ's 
 advocacy not only obtains for us justification, but also the 
 
24 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 Spirit of God, wlio, with tlie blood of Christ, cleanseth us 
 from all sin. 
 
 We are richer in heaven than we are on earth. We have 
 Christ the righteous, our advocate, — mine, — ^yours, — in heaven; 
 on the earth we have nothing that we can justly call our own. 
 We are here in a wayfaring place ; what we see is but the fur- 
 niture of an inn ; it does not belong to us, save for a moment- 
 ary use. But we have unsearchable riches in the country to 
 which we go. When any one says, " What have you ?" May 
 you be able to answer, " I have an advocate with the Father — 
 the richest of friends in the most important of all places." 
 
 January 20. — "Ask, and it shall be given you." — Luke xi. 9. 
 
 This is a very defective world. Every body says so. We 
 have here only the rudiments of things. There is beauty and 
 there is blessing ; but only in fragments. A great deal has 
 been done to make man's condition agreeable; and a great 
 deal left undone. There is health ; but it does not endure. 
 Strength ; but it is evanescent. Rain in its season ; but not 
 invariable. Fruits; but they sometimes fail. Friends; but 
 they are called away. Comforts; but we are liable to lose 
 them. Wealth ; but it takes wings. Objects of interest; but 
 they lose their novelty. Incompleteness is the great character- 
 istic of this world. There is no hope without disappointments ; 
 no acquisition without loss; no joy without interruption; no 
 day without night. The consequence is, that we hear endless 
 murmuring and complaining; much of it referring to God, 
 who has given such scintillations of his goodness, only to make- 
 the general darkness more oppressive ; such specimens of his 
 power to bless, while he has left the world in such an unfin- 
 ished condition, left such large unblest gaps in life. 
 
 " Ask, and it shall be given you," is the reply of Grod. " I 
 lia,ve given you half; the other half is in my hand. You build 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 25 
 
 a house, and one stone is wanting to complete it ; you search 
 everywhere, and are angry because you find it not. It is with 
 me; I have kept it purposely, that your house may not be 
 built without me. You build a ship -, but the rudder is not 
 forthcoming. I have kept it, that you may ask and receive, 
 and discover that the whole is my gift. You find a book, but 
 there is a chapter wanting, without which all is unintelligible. 
 One blessing I have kept back, that you might know who gave 
 the rest, and seek him." But man prefers to blame God for 
 the privation, rather than to seek God for its removal. Let 
 man know, then, that he is responsible for what is defective in 
 his condition. 
 
 Ask in the right quarter, and it shall be given you. There 
 is much asking. Men will ask of those, even, whom they de- 
 spise. They spend their lives in asking; even the proudest, 
 even an emperor, does so. But they are intensely loth to ask 
 of God. 
 
 Ask in the right way. If you were asking a man to give 
 you a cup of water, you would ask in the way that would 
 please him. Let God prescribe how we shall ask him. 
 
 Ask for the most essential gifts first. Men on a wreck 
 should ask for a sail, not for an embroidered garment. 
 
 Ask for regulated tastes and desires. This one gift will cut 
 oft' at once a thousand occasions of murmuring. 
 
 Ask with importunity. Ask in faith. 
 
 January 21.—" Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God."— Eph. iv. 30. 
 
 I will suppose that you have travelled in a strange country 
 with a congenial companion. You were careful to do and say 
 nothing that would mar the pleasure of your intercourse. 
 There were many pleasant objects to look at, but your experi- 
 ence taught you that any unpleasantness between your com- 
 panion and yourself would quite do away with the attractions 
 3 
 
26 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 of the tilings around j^ou. So you were careful not to grieve 
 him. 
 
 The Spirit of God is your companion. Most exalted of all 
 beings, he abides with you on the footing of a friend, to teaeh, 
 persuade, purify, and bless. He is particular indeed ; but it is 
 for your good. He interferes with you at times ; — not to make 
 a display of his authority, but for your preservation. He re- 
 strains you at the entrance of some dark pit; it is because a 
 wolf has made its lair there. He stops you as you are step- 
 ping into a boat; it is because a whirlwind is rushing to meet 
 it. He hurries you away from some elevated spot; It is be- 
 cause the mountain is heaving, and a volcano is about to burst 
 forth. Dispute not with him; grieve him not. He does 
 nothing to grieve you. 
 
 Grrieve him not by forgetting his presence ; by forgetting the 
 sufferings of Christ; by neglecting prayer; by slighting the 
 word ; by going into temptation ; by reading irreligious or idle 
 books ; by waste of time ; by disregarding the miseries of your 
 fellow-men ; by apologies for sin ; by leaning to your own un- 
 derstanding. 
 
 You know how difficult it is to put things exactly on their 
 former basis, when you have had some misunderstanding with 
 your friend. If you have insulted him, and he has forgiven 
 you, it is not easy to look him in the face just as you formerly 
 did. It is sad to have brought to light the possibility of a 
 falling out. If the thing has occurred repeatedly, the memory 
 of it will sadden and straiten your intercourse. Then grieve 
 not the Spirit of Grod. Sooner let the sick passenger insult 
 the generous oarsman who is struggling to save him from the 
 breakers. Sooner let the captive quarrel with the benevo- 
 lent stranger who is laying down a fortune for his ransom. 
 Sooner let Hagar revile the angel who points her to a fountain 
 where she and her son may drink and live. Oh, grieve not 
 the Holy Spirit of God ! 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 27 
 
 January 22. — " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is 
 stayed on thee." — Isaiatt" xxvi. 3. 
 
 Bring your mind to God ; bring it to him daily and hourly, 
 and daily and hourly he will fill it with its true treasure. 
 
 All nature exists in vain where there is no peace in the 
 mind. Wherefore are the skies blue, and the earth green, and 
 the mountains sublime, and the rivers joyful, if there be not 
 peace at heart ? The flowers have no perfume, the birds no 
 song, the voice of man no charm, where the mind which they 
 were created to please is without susceptibility to their bene- 
 fits. Bring me not the fruits of the earth, nor precious stones, 
 nor thousands of gold and silver, nor the votive offerings of a 
 nation. Bring me peace, restore my disorganized mind. Till 
 then, I have ears, but they hear no music; eyes, but they see 
 no beauty; an understanding, but it grasps not truth ; feet, but 
 they move with no alacrity. 
 
 Ah ! it is only he that made your mind, that can restore it. 
 He has the only bow that can draw music from this violin. He 
 has made the mind for peace ; and he has made peace for the 
 mind, 'perfect peace. Perfect, as contrasted with any peace 
 that the world can give. Perfect, because it is a holy peace; 
 sin has nothing to do with it. Perfect, because enduring. 
 Perfect, as being Christ's own peace. " My peace I give unto 
 you," — the peace of God. 
 
 The mind of man must be stayed on something greater than 
 itself. It must be stayed upon the great mind of God. A 
 house can better do without a foundation ; a monument with- 
 out a pedestal ; an infant without the parents' arm. 
 
 " Thou wilt keep him." These words express the covenant 
 of Grod ; and faith in that covenant. 
 
 Jantjauy 23. — " I will heal their backsliding." — Ilosea xix. 4. 
 
 God docs this-(l) by letting them taste some of the bitter 
 
28 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 fruits of their backsliding. Dreadful shadows gather round 
 their path. Anguish invades their souls. They discover the 
 frightful desolation of a path where God is not. (2) He 
 brings to their recollection the happy state from whence they 
 fell; the blessedness of having the Good Shepherd to lead 
 them, and to keep them. (3) He directs them to the promi- 
 ses, and so to the open arms of Christ. (4) He fills them 
 with an intense abhorrence of their backsliding, by the cross 
 of Christ. (5) He puts it into their heart to cleave unto him ; 
 to be wary and watchful ; to renounce all self-dependance, and 
 evermore to press forward in the divine life, hungering and 
 thirsting. 
 
 To express it briefly, he heals them now as he healed them 
 first, by the cross of Christ, by the unspeakable love of the 
 crucified One. Mere conviction does not heal. Mere atten- 
 tion to religion does not. Mere promises of amendment do 
 not. Neither does forgetfulness of declension. No palliatives 
 are of avail here. 
 
 January 24. — " Sin shall not have dominion over 3'^ou." — Rom. vi. 14. 
 
 A most important declaration to him who has fled over the 
 borders, and taken refuge in the kingdom of God. For sin is 
 now hateful to him, and the idea of being made again to bow 
 under its sceptre, intolerable. He is now in a novel region. 
 Before, even all his days, sin had dominion over him, an undi- 
 vided sway. He found out the cruelty of that dominion, and, 
 trusting in a divine promise, dared to flee. He is now made 
 aware that all the powers of darkness are irritated greatly, and 
 are fierce in pursuit. They cry in his ear, that his flight has 
 been in vain, and that he will soon be brought again under the 
 dominion of sin And at times also, it seems as though he 
 were being dragged again to the dread dark region ; that he 
 will not be able to continue in God's marvellous light. Then 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 29 
 
 lie hears the delightful declaration that sin shall not have 
 dominion over him; an assurance that gives him amazing 
 strength, and enables him to slay more enemies than Samson 
 did. Made partaker of the divine nature by this exceeding 
 great and precious promise, he bids his foes observe that he is 
 no longer the weak and helpless captive whom they once knew. 
 They are amazed to see how their once-deadly darts are now 
 turned aside by his shield ; how their weapons are shivered 
 against his breast-plate ; and how the sword in his hand com- 
 pels them to flee. " What ! this slave a warrior ? this captive 
 a free man ? this creature of our will, a defier of our sove- 
 reignty ? — a scorner of us and our millions ?" Even so. The 
 prince of this world is cast out from a region where Christ and 
 the followers of Christ have found a footing ; a region whose 
 limits must expand, till the god of this world has fought his 
 last battle and sunk to his appropriate locality. 
 
 January 25. — "And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto 
 the end, to him will I give power over the nations." — Revelation ii. 26. 
 
 One of the resolutions made by that eminently devoted and 
 successful combatant for Christ, President Edwards, was to 
 the following effect : " Resolved, so to live and strive as I 
 would do if I knew that only one man of this generation were 
 to be saved, and I were fully determined to be that man." 
 
 This seems to be much the same spirit that breathed in the 
 words of Paul : " Know ye not that they which run in a race 
 run all, but one receiveth the prize ? So run, that ye may 
 obtain. I therefore so run ; so fight I." The principle of em- 
 ulation is abundantly appealed to in the Bible ; but there is no 
 selfishness in the emulation that is evoked by its magnificent 
 promises. The Christian is assured that his gain, so far from 
 being the loss of others, will be their gain also ; and the greater 
 his gain, the more will his path be strown with blessings for 
 3 * 
 
30 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 others. What he is called to overcome is self; he is to wage 
 war with this hydra-headed monster, this protean enemy who 
 is no sooner defeated under one form than he appears under 
 another ; and the promises of God are all that they need to be 
 in order that the soldier of Christ may have the utmost possi- 
 ble incitements and encouragements in the prosecution of this 
 strife. 
 
 The prize that animates the conquering Christian to under- 
 take new conquests, is in kind like that which animated our 
 Lord himself, namely, the power to bless a sin-cursed world. 
 The highest attainments to be made by any servant of Christ 
 here below, are to be made under the constraining influence 
 of an intense desire to glorify Christ in the salvation of men. 
 It is as we have this spirit, that we have the spirit of Christ. 
 We are to be stimulated in our hungering and thirsting after 
 righteousness, not only by the weariness of our own unright- 
 eousness, but by the thought of the unrighteousness of others ; 
 not only by the desire for peace and joy and conscious purity, 
 but by an ardent and sustained aspiration to do our utmost 
 (Christ's utmost in us) for the recovery of a fallen world. 
 
 There are two errors that follow even the few Christians 
 that go furthest in the divine life. One is this : — They are 
 very eager to bring men to Christ, but neglect to obtain for 
 themselves experience of a higher and more thorough work of 
 sanctification. That love of Christ which they know, they abun- 
 dantly proclaim, and are rewarded in so doing ; but there are 
 depths in Christ's love which they are neglecting to explore. 
 In exploring these it would not follow that some of their use- 
 fulness would be sacrificed. The contrary would be the result. 
 
 The second error is that of those who give themselves too 
 exclusively to the cultivation of the interior life. They ar- 
 dently desire personal holiness. Their soul is a watered gar- 
 den ; and they propose, when all the plants shall be fruitful 
 and beauteous, to open the gates that others may come in and 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 31 
 
 participate in their treasures'; but in the meantime they almost 
 forget the world without. They are in danger of falling under 
 the power of an insidious form of spiritual selfishness. In 
 the Lord Jesus, see the most uninterrupted communion with 
 Grod, and the most unrestrained communion with^men. He 
 was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners, at the 
 same time that he was going about doing good. To be like 
 him, is the highest of all prizes. We seek to be holy as he is 
 holy, that we may be useful as he was. 
 
 January 26. — Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath 
 begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." — 
 Philippians i. 6. 
 
 He is not as one who begins to build without having counted 
 the cost. Not as a sculptor who begins to execute a work 
 without having ascertained the impracticable nature of his ma- 
 terial. These are the shameful mistakes of men. God is not 
 a workman that will need to be ashamed. He has called to- 
 gether a goodly company of the nobility of heaven to look on, 
 while he brings a holy creature out of your unholy nature. 
 Will he lay down his implements and say, " I miscalculated ?" 
 
 They that know that a good work has been begun in them, are 
 entitled to entertain an unwavering confidence that it will pro- 
 ceed until the day of Christ, when the believer shall be pre- 
 sented unblemished, spotless, perfect, before the throne. It 
 proceeds until that day. It is not begun, relinquished, begun 
 again, and again relinquished, but is performed until the day 
 of Christ. So you have not to go to the past to know if a 
 good work has been begun ; it exists within you now. The 
 work goes on. God is busied with you, and in you, while you 
 live. From your first perception of Christ crucified, to your 
 presentation before the Lord of glory, you are wrought upon 
 by the creative power of God. 
 
32 - DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 •January 27. — "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he 
 fall.-"— 1 Corinthians x. 12. 
 
 By standing is here meant standing in the favor of God. 
 This is the position of the believer. It is right for a man to 
 think that he stands, if there he sufficient reasons for him so 
 to think. It is not in itself a fault to entertain the idea that 
 we stand. We are not told to renounce that opinion. "We 
 may entertain it even with the greatest confidence, the most 
 unwavering assurance. The words of the text suppose indeed 
 that the party spoken of does stand ', for it is only one that 
 standeth that needs an admonition to beware of falling. He 
 that is down needs fear no fall. He has not recovered from 
 the great lapse ; and he need not fear to lose that which he 
 has never gained. The admonition he needs is, " to stand." 
 " Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." There 
 are very many who regard themselves as standing, without any 
 evidence whatever, to authorize this opinion. The words of 
 the apostle do not seem to relate to them. This idea seeems 
 rather to be, " Let him that thinketh he standeth, make mani- 
 fest that his opinion is well-founded, by taking heed lest he 
 full." The true believer, one that truly standeth, is one that 
 takes such heed. The mere pretender to faith is one that 
 tliinks it quite unnecessary to take heed; for he says, '^ I 
 stand." 
 
 The true 'believer takes heed, by considering, and ever re- 
 membering, the number and strength of the powers that are 
 bent on making him flill. He understands that a hostile force 
 is out against him ; and is bringing incredible craft, industry, 
 and might to bear upon one point — his overthrow. lie is 
 aware that his enemy can assume all sorts of disguises ; and 
 can approach him as a minstrel, playing seraphic airs upon the 
 harp, and singing the Psalms of David. He knows, too, that 
 these foes have the enormous power that resides in invisibility, 
 and can launch their fiery darts at him with hands unseen. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS, 33 
 
 He lias not merely learnt this from God's word ; but also from 
 experience. 
 
 He takes heed, by remembering his own weakness. He 
 knows that the most feeble missile in the world, the most con- 
 temptible temptation, can make him totter. 
 
 He takes heed, by availing himself of the strength of God 
 in Christ Jesus. Daily and hourly he seeks wisdom, strength, 
 and holiness from the Captain of his salvation. He takes 
 heed, by following this Captain, whithersoever he leads, even 
 though it were into the most dangerous-looking places, for the 
 path traced by his Leader and Commander is the only path of 
 salvation. 
 
 January 28. — "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall 
 ye also appear with him in glory." — Colossians iii, 4. 
 
 " In thy favor is life." When Adam sinned, he lost the 
 favor of God, and thus he died. This is the worst of all 
 deaths; for all other deaths are just the expression of God's 
 disfavor. Ask one of the lost in hell when he died, and he 
 will rightly tell you that it was when he lost the divine favor. 
 When a man comes to Christ, he finds what Adam lost and 
 what Adam doubtless regained, — the favor of God, life in the 
 highest sense ; for all the other things called life are but the 
 expressions of this favor. 
 
 Christ is our life. He has brought us into the region of 
 life, the region of God's everlasting smiles. He has put life 
 within us — namely, the hatred of sin, the love of the Holy 
 One, the knowledge of self. He has given us the Spirit that 
 dwells in himself, and in the angels. He has reconciled us to 
 the will of God. This is the beginning. But in himself exists 
 an infinite remainder yet uncommunicated. He is called our 
 life, not merely because he became to us the source of life, but 
 
34 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 because we live only by virtue of our union to him. Apart 
 from bim we liave no existence ; we are in tbe abyss. 
 
 We read much of the future manifestation of the Son of 
 G od ; we also read of the manifestation of the sons of God. 
 Our text declares that these two are identical. His and our 
 manifestation in glory shall be consentaneous. And believers 
 are taught to look forward to both these events or to this two- 
 fold event. This is the special scope of their aspirations. 
 And not of theirs only, but the whole creation groaneth and 
 travaileth, waiting for this, which will be its redemption from 
 the indignities and burden of sin. 
 
 January 29. — "Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear 
 him, upon them that hope in his mercy." — Psalm xxxiii. 18. 
 
 There is a hope that cannot exist without fear, and a fear 
 that should not be dissevered from hope. There is a fear 
 that is obnoxious to perfect love ; that is, a fear that has tor- 
 ment in it ; it must be cast out, and sent to its own place — the 
 bosom of the evil one. But the fear we speak of, angels would 
 not be without for worlds ; and saints cannot be without it. 
 You may call it a loving solicitude to have Christ abiding in 
 the heart by faith ; to do our heavenly Father's will, without 
 deviation or diminution. This fear is its own guarantee, that 
 the things feared will not come to pass. Like one that pos- 
 sesses some potent spell by which every conceivable danger 
 may be obviated, he has just so much fear of evil as hinders 
 him from forgetting the spell ; while the conscious possession 
 of the spell fills him with joy in the sense of all-sufficient 
 strength, and with a hopeful, confident anticipation of final 
 everlasting victory. 
 
 The eye of the Lord is upon such. They hope in his mercy 
 because they are already, and are hourly, the recipients of his 
 mercy. They know that his eye beams with loving-kindness, 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 35 
 
 and it is a foretaste of heaven to know that his eye is upon 
 them. Their works are done for his eye. Their conduct ap- 
 pears strange to men; and men ask, ""Who is the spectator for 
 whom these strange actions are performed ?" They go boldly 
 forth, lambs among wolves, because the Good Shepherd has his 
 eye upon them. He guides them with his eye. When they 
 discover that they are quitting the path of his approving 
 glance, they hasten back. 
 
 They meet the eye of the Lord in prayer, and in praise. 
 
 They meet it in the study of his word. 
 
 They meet it in the exercise of faith. 
 
 They meet it in their labors for the good of men. 
 
 They meet it when men frown and rage. 
 
 In the calm and in the storm ', at noon day and in the dead 
 of night ; in sickness and bereavements ; in health and deliver- 
 ances. The eye of the Lord was upon the disciples when they 
 were toiling in rowing ; when they were sad, dispirited, be- 
 wildered on the lake of Gennesareth. They should have 
 known that it was, but did not discover it till afterwards. Let 
 us beware lest our little faith hinder us from seeing the eye of 
 the Lord, when things seem contrary and wearisome. 
 
 January 30. — " Ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Al- 
 mighty." — 2 Corinthians vi. 18. 
 
 This is the portion of those that come out from the world 
 and are separated. Adam was called the son of God ; for God 
 breathed his own Spirit into him, and created him in his own 
 image. The sons of God shouted for joy at the dawn of mun- 
 dane things, and most of all, when they saw their new brother, 
 the inhabitant of Eden. In order that we might recover the 
 knowledge of what is meant by the expression, " Son of God," 
 Jesus Christ came into the world. The Father speaking from 
 
36 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 heaven, bade us look on liim and recognize the type of what 
 we were called to be. 
 
 The great things in sonship are identity of nature and iden- 
 tity of interests. Along with the identity of nature there is 
 subordination ; which is for the purpose of giving scope to the 
 Father's love and capacity to bless. The Father recognizes the 
 interests of the son as his, and looks upon all J?.is property, his 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge, his resources created and 
 uncreated, with reference to the blessing and glorifying of his 
 sons and daughters. To acknowledge a son is to acknowledge 
 an heir. The Father's house is the house of the son and of 
 the daughter : they may go in without knocking ; the man- 
 sions are prepared for them. 
 
 The world does not know you, sons and daughters of Grod. 
 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and the world knows 
 of no other birth than this : but ye. are born of God. Un- 
 known and invisible to others, your Father is the Lord of the 
 universe. Daily you ask and receive ; you are in constant in- 
 tercourse with him ; you sleep not without his blessing ; you 
 act not without his counsel 3 you suffer not without his con- 
 solation. 
 
 We know not what we shall be, for we know not yet what 
 Christ is. We know in part. Christ came to teach one half 
 of the lesson ; he will come again to teach the other half. We 
 shall see him as he is, and not as he was, when on the earth in 
 a state of humiliation. Then will our exile be ended ; the 
 righteous shall shine forth in the kingdom of their Father. 
 
 January 31. — " Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain 
 thee/'— Psalm Iv. 22. 
 
 Who is there that hath not a burden ? — who that stands in 
 no need of relief? 
 
 The burden of ignorance weighs heavy on one man. He 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 37 
 
 finds himself so lamentably in the dark with regard to many 
 most important things. The burden of responsibility weighs 
 heavy on another. The burden of some secret frailty, some 
 unconquerable weakness oppresses another. The burden of 
 doubt is crushing to this sin-tormented soul. The burden of 
 mortality, the fear of death, is more than another can bear. 
 The burden of levity and thoughtlessness is heavier to some 
 than is generally supposed. To one and all the command is, 
 " Cast thy burden upon the Lord." 
 
 Many go staggering under the burdens of life, cursing God 
 as they stagger along. What do they wish ? That God 
 should give Satan authority to remove their burdens ? or, make 
 Satan's yoke easy and his burden light ? No ; God reserves it 
 as his own distinctive privilege to lighten the burdens of mor- 
 tals, " Come unto me,'' says Christ, " and ye shall find 
 rest." 
 
 How is a man to cast his burden upon the Lord ? By faith 
 in the Lord's promise. He must stop groaning, and helieve. 
 He must go to his task in prayer, expecting that an unseen 
 hand will take hold of the wheel simultaneously with his own, 
 and lift it out of the mire. If he has to speak, he must lay 
 hold of the promise and look for a mouth and wisdom that 
 none shall be able to gainsay or resist. We are not to suppose 
 any burden too small to take to God. If we think it small, 
 and seek no help, it will grow in bulk till we are crushed be- 
 neath it. 
 
 He will not remove your burden so that you shall have 
 nothing to do, no more need of him ; but he will sustain you — 
 he will administer support, so that men shall wonder to see you 
 walking with such alacrity, to hear you singing so blithely with 
 a great burden upon you. Then will you tell them of the sus- 
 taining hand. 
 
 Cast, then, thy burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain 
 thee. 
 
 4 
 
38 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 February 1. — " "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." — Psalm 
 Ivi. 3. 
 
 David was not a man unsusceptible of fear ; nor was he 
 ashamed to confess that he could fear. Often he makes the 
 confession. In this he was braver than many. But David 
 stood firm, when a thousand brave men would have fled. Few 
 shepherds would have stood by their sheep, on the approach of 
 a bear ; fewer, on the approach of a lion ; but David, the strip- 
 ling, did this : he met the bear and conquered it ; he fought 
 the lion and destroyed it. Afterward he met him before whom 
 the whole Israelitish army cowered and quailed. There were 
 doubtless in that army the usual proportion of brave and gal- 
 lant captains, and dauntless soldiers. David was a timid youth, 
 in comparison with them. He had no self-confidence, no con- 
 tempt of danger. He knew his own weakness. But he had 
 one glorious resource. He had a mighty friend in Grod, and 
 Grod was with him ; with him when he met the bear and the 
 lion; with him when he met Goliath. 
 
 Faith is true courage. It is the courage of discretion ; the 
 courage of man rather than that of the beast. Some go in 
 battle like the war-horse, crying, "Aha, aha;" and with no 
 other courage than that of the war-horse. They glory in their 
 shame. Their courage is contempt of God. They disclaim 
 his aid. Their own right arm is their divinity, a divinity 
 that may be brought into dust by a few grains of powder. 
 Thousands of the world's heroes have taken hell by storm ; 
 carved their way through mighty obstacles and amid acclama- 
 tions, to a citadel where they found Satan enthroned, and a pas- 
 sage to the bottomless abyss. Courage, without God, is a de- 
 fiance of the Omnipotent one, and an invocation of his wrath. 
 Paul, like David, speaks of himself as often in fear and tremb- 
 ling. He discourses largely of his own weakness. But like 
 David he strengthened himself in the strength of God, and 
 came ofi" more than conqueror. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 39 
 
 The resolution expressed in tlie words of tlie text is equally 
 a resolution to walk in tlie ways of God's appointment. They 
 that seek forbidden paths will find nothing for their fiiith to 
 take hold of 
 
 FEBnuARy 2, — " The Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his 
 inheritance." — Deuteronomy xxxii. 9. 
 
 Canaan was divided among the ancient people of God. Each 
 tribe had its portion. The question might have been asked, 
 What portion has the Lord reserved for himself? The answer 
 would have been, " The people of God are his portion. They 
 are his peculiar possession in the earth. They are his habita- 
 tion. Not merely the first fruits, not merely the Sabbaths, not 
 merely the firstling of the flock : — all is his. The people are 
 his ; their allegiance, their service belong to him.'' 
 
 So it was then, so it is now. God has never ceased to have 
 a people in the world from the beginning to the present time. 
 They stand in covenant relations to him. In vain will you 
 give him anything else. Flocks, gold, silver, church-edifices — 
 he takes them to the one side, and waits for thee to give fh?/- 
 self, thy heart, thine understanding, thy body ; this give ; this 
 is the only portion he will accept. Give thyself to him, and 
 he will give himself to thee. Give thy heart to him ; he will 
 purify it from all its defilements, and abide therein. Give thy 
 understanding, and he will open all its windows and pour the 
 true light of day into all its chambers. Give thy body, and 
 he will make it like unto Christ's glorious body. 
 
 Satan is the god of this world. But the Lord has a portion 
 in it. There is the beginning of his kingdom in it. Fear 
 not, little flock ! you are given to the Lord ; and it is your 
 Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom, A few feet 
 of ground have been the beginning of more than one mighty 
 empire. 
 
40 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 Februarys. — ''Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain 
 that are ready to die; for I have not found thy works perfect before 
 God." — Revelation iii. 2. 
 
 Tlie cliiircli of Sardis, as a whole, miglit be spoken of as 
 dead. The ordinances of religion were indeed maintained and 
 attended ; the word read ; prayer offered ; the communion par- 
 taken. In the estimation of many of the members, the church 
 was anything but dead ; but their conception of a living church 
 was different from Christ's ; and he pronounced it dead : dead, 
 as a church. Yet was not vital godliness altogether extinct ; 
 some believers there were ; and their position was one of great 
 responsibility and danger. The standard of practical piety in 
 the mind of each one, is modified by the standard that prevails 
 in the church. It is immensely difficult to hold fast to our 
 conception of the piety that becomes a Christian, when very 
 inferior conceptions are almost universal around us. So, too, 
 when a higher standard than ours is prominently exhibited 
 around us. But let every one that loves the Lord Jesus 
 Christ consider that the failures of others, as well as the graces 
 of others, powerfully urge us to redouble our zeal. If the ship 
 is buffeted by some violent tempest, and many of the hands re- 
 fuse to exert themselves for the salvation of the vessel, it is 
 only the more incumbent upon the few faithful found to put 
 forth their best energies. If few love the Saviour, there is 
 more need that I should love him to the utmost of my capa- 
 city. The Spirit of God would certainly have me draw this 
 argument from the supineness, the unfaithfulness, the worldli- 
 ness of other Christians. It is bad enough that a dead Chris- 
 tianity should exert its baneful influence upon the world ; why 
 should the few earnest Christians allow it to plunder them of 
 half of their earnestness ? Christ must have his tribute. If 
 others out and out refuse to pay it, or pay it in part only, let 
 me the more zealously pay it in the full measure, pressed down 
 and running over. Upon the countenance of one we love, we 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 41 
 
 trace easily the slightest indication of weakness ; and if we 
 love tlie cliiircli which Christ has purchased with his blood, we 
 shall not fail to notice every unfavorable symptom that ap- 
 pears. Without commissioning our thoughts to travel all the 
 way to Sardis, we may enquire how it is with us and with the 
 church to which we belong ? Are there any indications of de- 
 cay ? Does the word of God take eiFeet ? Does the work of 
 God advance ? Are souls quickened ? Is there joy in God ? 
 Is faith in Christ radiant in the countenances and beautiful in 
 the conduct of our company ? Or is there an air of languor, 
 of indifference, of lifelessness visible ? Are the prayer-meet- 
 ino;s neo-lected ? Sacrifices discontinued ? Reliorious conver- 
 sation omitted ? Excuses welcomed ? Burdens deprecated ? 
 
 February 4, — * lie will keep the feet of his saints." — 1 Samuel ii. 9. 
 
 We have here the perseverance of the saints. 
 
 God will keep the foot of those who walk in his paths. 
 They are saints, inasmuch as the Holy Spirit dwelleth in them, 
 as they are born of God, walk by faith, renounce the idea of 
 their natural holiness, and hunger and thirst after righteous- 
 ness. Their feet he will keep. He will not keep the feet of 
 those who simply seek to be kept from eternal perdition ; but 
 of those who wish to be kept from all steps that accord not 
 with the glory of God. He will keep the feet of those who 
 commit all their steps unto his keeping. 
 
 He will keep them from frequenting the society of the 
 wicked. From approaching the precipice of temptation. 
 From that prosperity which bringeth a snare. From circum- 
 stances that are likely to be adverse to their piety and useful- 
 ness. From the burden of care, and from the excessive prcs-- 
 sure of responsibility. From erroneous doctrines. From vain 
 speculations. From supineness and a blind confidence. From 
 
 4 *- 
 
42 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 the fear of death. From a serious misinterpretation of his 
 providences. 
 
 He will not keep them from trials, privations, bereavements, 
 worldly losses, perplexing combinations, inward conflicts, the 
 tongue of slander and the misjudgment of friends. But he 
 will keep them under these, and bring them off more than 
 conquerors. 
 
 He will keep them by the promises. By the command- 
 ments. By the example of Christ. By that of other saints, 
 departed or contemporary. By good words, printed or spoken. 
 By the preaching of the gospel. By the Sabbath and by 
 prayer-meetings. By giving them the love of private prayer. 
 By leading them to self-examination. 
 
 Sometimes, when a broad sea stretches before them, they are 
 ready to say, " We are safer where we are." But the enemy 
 presses upon them, and they have to go forward. Then a path 
 is opened for them through the depths of the sea, and their 
 feet are kept. Sometimes a mighty ocean expands before 
 them, and beyond that the hov^ding wilderness of an unknown 
 world ; behind them fires are kindled ; a side path invites them 
 to ease, opulence and honor : but the promise to keep their 
 feet is valid only in that path which crosses the billows of the 
 ocean, and lands them on a savage coast; and they follow it, 
 singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. 
 
 February 5. — "If thou seek him he will be found of thee." — 1 Chron- 
 icles xxviii. 9. 
 
 Observe, there is an if in the case. The prize exhibited is 
 obtainable on a condition. There is a glorious certainty; but 
 it exists only in a particular path. 
 
 If f/iow seek him. The words stop with thee. It does not 
 glance by thee to another. The question is not, " What shall 
 this man do?" — "Are there many that be saved?" But, "Wilt 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 43 
 
 tJiou seek liim V Unless tllou canst distinctly prove that he 
 has been found of thee, this word will not let thee go. Its er- 
 rand from heaven is to thee, and it must take back a report 
 from thee. 
 
 If thou seek him. Not enquire about him, read about him, 
 hear about him, desire him; but seek him. Seek him in his 
 word, — with exj^ectation, — with faith, — with prayer, — with 
 obedience, — with perseverance ; in his providences ; in his peo- 
 ple ; in the new operations of your own heart ; in the monitions 
 of the Spirit. 
 
 If you seek Him. The chiefest among ten thousands. The 
 Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the valley. God manifest in 
 the flesh. The fountain of life. Even Him whose command- 
 ments you have broken ; whose curse you deserve; whom an- 
 gels adore ; who upholdeth all things ; who is unsought, a con- 
 suming fire ', but who is, when sought, a Grod of love. 
 
 He will be found of thee. He will not send his angel to 
 console thee. He will not refer you to some created mediator ; 
 nor to his works, his benefits. He, the infinite One, in whom 
 arc all conceivable and inconceivable treasures of blessing, he 
 will be found of thee. 
 
 He icill he found of thee. He is willing to be found. If he 
 is not in the fore-ground of your possessions, it is simply that 
 your desire for him may be expressed in search. He will be 
 found, certainly. The thing is beyond all doubt ; for yoa seek 
 him. Let this assurance sustain you under present disappoint- 
 ment and privation. 
 
 Of thee. Yes, even of thee. Why not? The greatest 
 saints that ever lived were as mean in origin, as poor in re- 
 sources, as obnoxious to wrath, as plagued with an evil heart, 
 as unbelieving as thou art. All thy opprobrious characteristics 
 do not equipoise this one new and blessed peculiarity that thou 
 Bcekest him. 
 
44 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 February 6. — " Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace." — 
 Job xxii. 21. 
 
 Scarcely with anything can man be properly said to be ac- 
 quainted. He is painfully alive to the fact of his limited com- 
 prehension of even the least department of the works of God ; 
 yet has no trouble at heart on the score of his want of ac- 
 quaintance with the Lord of the universe. " Grod, I know," 
 says one ; " leave me alone with regard to any account of him. 
 See, I am very busy in the study of these caterpillars ; your 
 talk of Grod hinders me from getting some valuable know- 
 ledge.'' " Why is this Sabbath coming perpetually in," says 
 another, " to hinder me from pursuing my experiments in 
 Natural Philosophy ? With Grod I am acquainted ; but I have 
 many discoveries to make in electro-magnetism." 
 
 We have here a positive command. We think it very kind 
 of some great man, to encourage us to make his acquaintance. 
 The greatest of all beings, the fountain of all excellence, en- 
 courages us, commands us even, to become acquainted with 
 him. Shall we go to heaven to become acquainted with him ? 
 No, he comes to us. He stands at the door and knocks. He 
 has hidden so much of his glory as would have awed and in- 
 timidated us. He has taken the form of a man that this ac- 
 quaintanceship might be easily effected. He was acquainted 
 with grief, that h,e might become acquainted with him and 
 with peace. Acquaintance is not perfected in an instant. It 
 may be carried, in some happy hour, to a wonderful extent. 
 But it is essentially a thing of cultivation. 
 
 There is a false peace based on misconceptions of God. The 
 beginning of a true acquaintance breaks up this and perhaps 
 fills the soul with terrors. But shrink not ] go on ; acquaint 
 thyself with him; press into his palace; take no heed of 
 seraphic guards whose swords turn every way ; seek the private 
 apartments of the king, and hesitate not to sit down in his 
 banquet-chamber. Converse with thy Maker; confide all 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 45 
 
 things to him ; make those gaiards your own ; that palace your 
 house; that majesty your defence; the blessedness of that di- 
 vine atmosphere your portion ; and from the sublime position 
 to which the Prince of peace has brought you, look down with 
 serene compassion on a world where the peace of God has been 
 offered and rejected, daily, for thousands of years; and where 
 strife, torment and confusion must reign till men are willing to 
 acquaint themselves with God. 
 
 FEBnuARY 7. — "And round about the throne were four and twenty 
 seats: and upon the seats were four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in 
 white raiment ; and they had on their heads crowns of gold." — Revela- 
 tion iv. 4. 
 
 Our translators have shown an unnecessary timidity, in sub- 
 stituting the word " seats'^ for " thrones." The original is : 
 " And round about the throne, thrones twenty and four." " I 
 am glorified in them," said Christ. Their glory does not de- 
 tract from his glory, any more than his from the Father's ; but 
 their glory is his glory. Christ is enthroned over again and 
 crowned over again, in every redeemed one who is brought up 
 out of the horrible pit and miry clay of sin, and advanced to 
 a stupendous height of felicity and glory. " On his head were 
 many crowns." How many ? As many as there are sinners 
 redeemed through his blood. 
 
 "Who are these four and twenty presbyters whose thrones 
 compass the throne of God and of the Lamb ? They them- 
 selves tell us in their new song given in the next chapter : 
 " Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, 
 out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation." 
 They represent the entire host of the redeemed as it shall be 
 after the day of full evangelization. The redeemed were to 
 be brought immediately to the throne of God ; they were to 
 sit upon the very thrones that constituted a part of God's 
 
46 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 throne ; and further, tlie representation, while looking forward 
 to the day of complete triumph, is intended to take in all the 
 generations of believers ever living on the earth, and to be 
 good for the days of incompleteness. Twenty-four are selected 
 for the whole, perhaps, because there were twenty-four courses 
 of priests; and under the present dispensation, all believers 
 are priests and kings, (v. 10.) We are risen with Christ. 
 We sit with him in heavenly places. We are come unto the 
 city of the living Grod. In John's vision we are actually per- 
 mitted to see ourselves in heaven. Looking at the throne of 
 God and of the Lamb, we find ourselves there ; the glory of 
 the place would, it appears, be incomplete, without the re- 
 deemed and the glory which Christ has purchased for them. 
 We ourselves become to ourselves objects of faith. Believe 
 in Grod, believe also in me, said Christ ; and we do so ; we be- 
 lieve in him unseen, believe in him upon the throne ; and we 
 are to believe in ourselves now in heaven with Christ ; as we 
 believe in his glory, so we should believe in our own. Satan 
 arrayed before the eyes of our Lord the kingdoms of this 
 world and the glory of them, and said, All these will I give 
 thee. But the Spirit of God gives us a vision of the throne 
 of God, and of thrones prepared for the redeemed in the very 
 midst of the inhabitants of heaven, and says, " All these the 
 Lord giveth thee." 
 
 It must be that Christians are marvellously without faith, 
 seeing that the honors and the dignities of this world have so 
 much attraction in their eyes, so much power to sway their 
 movements. What manner of men should we be in all holy 
 conversation and godliness ? He that is last of all and servant 
 of all, the same shall be chief in the kingdom of heaven. If 
 we die with him, we shall reign with him. Our life is to be a 
 protest, the strongest we can make it, against that love of the 
 world, that delight in the world's pleasures and treasures and 
 dignities, that stand between the souls of men and salvation. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 47 
 
 " As tliou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also 
 may be one in us." The inconceivably intimate union of the 
 believer with God, is set forth in two ways. Christ says, we 
 shall come unto him and make our abode with him; God 
 dweUcth in us. The other way is by a representation of God 
 enthroned in heaven, and believers on thrones encompassing 
 that throne. The question is. What is the heaven of your 
 heart ? Is self on the central throne, or, is God there ? 
 
 February 8. — "God resisteth the proud." — 1 Pet. v. 5. 
 
 Pride is robbery. It is the robbery of that which is most 
 precious and sacred in the universe, namely, the glory of God. 
 To the Maker of the universe belongs all the glory of the uni- 
 verse. Pride takes its stand over against God and defies him. 
 It claims for itself the tribute that belongs to God ; and would 
 have all eyes directed to itself, all knees bent before itself. 
 God must resist pride : resist it when angels sin ] when men 
 build a tower of Babel ; when men say of the voice of Herod, 
 '' it is the voice of a God." He must resist it for the sake of 
 truth ; for the vindication of himself; for the safety of his 
 Church ; for the well-being of the universe ; for the satisfaction 
 of angels ; for the chastisement of the wicked. 
 
 But do you know who are the proud ? Do not err. You 
 think of them as a particular class, of whom you occasionally 
 meet one, and who are generally disliked by men. But these 
 are simply those whose pride manifests itself offensively to 
 mankind. Men are all proud, even the universal family of 
 man ; and those only are escaping from the stigma who have 
 deeply repented of sin, renounced all confidence in their own 
 goodness, avouched themselves bankrupts in the sight of God 
 and man, received the whole testimony of the Scripture, be- 
 lieved in the Lord Jesus Christ, and through him approached 
 the throne of grace. 
 
48 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 God resists the proud, by awakening in their breast a mon- 
 itor to remind them of their sin, weakness and ignorance ; by 
 letting them pursue the course they proudly chose for them- 
 selves, and taste the bitter fruits thereof; by the example of 
 Christ's sublime humility; by the unhappiness and morbid 
 sensitiveness that wait on pride; by his providences which 
 leave them shorn of the things they glory in ; sometimes even 
 by the insults of men. 
 
 You are resisted in your prayers and know not the reason. 
 The difficulty is that there are enormous pits of unworthiness 
 within you, over which pride has cast its mantle. Seek to 
 know these, to hate them, and to have them filled with re- 
 generating grace, and you will no more be thwarted in your 
 prayers. 
 
 You are resisted in your attempts to do good, and wonder 
 greatly at this. But you have not a single eye. You are 
 ready to take honor to yourself. Humble yourself and become 
 a simple steward, a conveyancer of God's mercies. 
 
 February 9. — " I am the resurrection and the life." — John xi. 25. 
 
 The resurrection because the life. He is the life, in that by 
 him our souls live before God, and draw from the everlasting 
 fulness of divine grace, and are changed into the image of our 
 heavenly Father. He is the life that came into the world by 
 one gate, almost at the very moment when death entered it by 
 another. When Adam tasted the forbidden fruit, Death en- 
 tered in state and enthroned himself in the world, with his 
 royal train of terrors and miseries; but Life also entered in 
 the meek and quiet guise of the word concerning Christ ; and 
 has ever found some footing for itself from that time to the 
 present. 
 
 Your brother is dead, you say, and buried. " Look upon 
 me," says Christ, "and let your tears be dried; for I am the 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 49 
 
 life. If your brother had life, that life is in me ', m}- life is 
 the pledge of his. Because I live, he shall live also. By faith 
 perceive your brother clothed with the boundless wealth of the 
 life that is in me. The life of your brother can only be 
 reached through me." 
 
 " True, dear Lord, thou art the life ; and he whom we 
 mourn, as he believed on thee, must be in the realms of life 
 and bask in the smiles of the Blessed. But his body anchored 
 him among us ; and we now have him not. All of him that 
 was palpable and visible, all that the sun shone upon and the 
 wind breathed upon, our breathing, speaking, hearing brother, 
 our earthly companion, is a prey to death." 
 
 "I am the resurrection as well as the life. I am your com- 
 panion ; it is the privilege of believers to be present with me ; 
 your brother shall rise again. The incorruptible body of your 
 Saviour is a pledge of the redemption of the believer's body 
 .from corruption. He that believeth on me is baptized unto 
 the redemption of the body as well as of the soul. Faith 
 brings to me a lost and corrupt soul ; it brings me also a dead 
 and corrupt body, and receives in exchange an imperishable, 
 glorious body." 
 
 All that we have then to do with death, is to march through 
 his dominions after the captain of our salvation, and issue, 
 from the portal beyond, in body, soul, and spirit like him who 
 is at the right hand of the majesty on high. 
 
 February 10.—" Surely I know that it shall be well with them that 
 fear God." — Ecclesiastes viii. 12. 
 
 Observe here the character of those that are spoken of: 
 " they fear God." 
 
 Observe their condition^ present and prospective : "it shall 
 be well with them." 
 
 Notice the certainty of this : " surely I know." 
 
 5 
 
60 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 God is love. This word embraces all his perfections. But 
 let none suppose that he is therefore bound down to a single 
 line of manifestation. Light is one ; yet, says the prism, man- 
 ifold. The sternest acts of Providence unfold, in their own 
 particular way, the love of God. Again, all that God requires 
 of us, is love. But this love will manifest itself diversely, ac- 
 cording to the divine perfection contemplated. In view of his 
 holiness, we stand in awe ; of his sovereignty, we fear ', of his 
 faithfulness, we believe ; and in view of his kindness, we re- 
 joice. 
 
 It shall he loell loitli them. A quiet, modest word ; but full 
 of significance. The fear of God took Abraham to Mount 
 Moriah -, but it was well with him there. It was not the fear 
 of God that took Lot to Sodom ; it went not well with him 
 there. The fear of God took Daniel into the lion's den, and 
 the three Hebrews into the seven-times heated furnace ; they 
 feared him who had power to cast both soul and body into, 
 hell ', and it was well with them. The spirit of glory and of 
 God resteth as a dove, upon them that fear God ; invisible to 
 the world ; telling of the new Jerusalem that cometh down 
 from God out of heaven ! Who shall estimate the measure of 
 this word " well ?" Ask Lazarus to tell thee from the bosom 
 of Abraham, what it means ; — ask Paul j — ask the primeval 
 angels ; — ask God ! 
 
 I know surehj^ says the Preacher. There is no item of 
 knowledge based on more absolute certainty than this. If 
 God be God, then whatever else be certain or uncertain, this 
 one thing is imperatively true ; it must be well with him that 
 feareth God. This unquestionable axiom laughs all mere phil- 
 osophy to scorn, and condemns all that disdain the paths of 
 God. Are you willing to bid eternal farewell to this word 
 which shuts up in itself as in a mystic casket all the riches, all 
 the beauty, all the splendor, and all the bliss of God's vast 
 universe ? Oh ! what a bankrupt is he that lets go this word ! 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 51 
 
 February 11. — ** Fruitful in every good work." — Colossians i. 10. 
 
 The Almighty Maker of all demands no more of anything 
 he has made than he has made it capable of yielding, a..- .ugh 
 when each tree yields its appropriate fruits. The plants of 
 righteousness have pre-eminence above all the trees of the 
 field ; for on their boughs, they bear, wonderful to relate, many 
 varieties of fruits. There is one Spirit ; but his fruit is love, 
 joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
 ness, temperance. How beautiful when the trees planted in 
 the courts of God, exhibit, each of them, all these varieties of 
 celestial fruits. Does a man say, I am fruitful in one good 
 work, I have fulfilled my legitimate function ? I reply : You 
 know not your calling, neither the grace of Grod'; you are 
 called to be one of those peculiar trees that are to be trans- 
 planted to paradise ; be fruitful, therefore, in every good work. 
 Who is he that speaketh against good works ? Such an one 
 , speaketh against God. Good works are the works that God 
 approves. To disapprove of what God approves, is something 
 that should be left to Satan and his angels. It is impossible 
 to take a step in the path-way of life, but by a good work. A 
 man must do what God would have him do, or he will make 
 very little progress in that path to heaven. The first thing, of 
 course, is to renounce all trust in one's own righteousness, and 
 look to Christ as one's sole wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, 
 and redemption. We are created anew in Christ Jesus unto 
 good works. 
 
 Fruitful in every good worh. Not but that a man may ])e 
 specially fitted for a particular service. We are not bidden to 
 fritter away our powers in vain efforts to do a multitude of 
 things. But opportunities of diverse character come to every 
 man. It is of great importance to be on the look out for these. 
 The devotee of gain is wonderfully keen for the recognition of 
 opportunities ; and grasps with all his energies at each suc- 
 cessive hope that darts across his path. The Christian is a 
 
52 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 merchant of a peculiar kind ; his whole aim is to enrich others. 
 Golden opportunities in his estimation are such as enable him 
 to do good. He cultivates a habit of looking upon every man 
 as one to whom good is to be done. The day is whitest in his 
 calendar in which he has been enabled to communicate most. 
 Let us look around us and see if we cannot be fruitful in some 
 good works that our hands have not yet known. The glory of 
 a tree is to be fruitful. 
 
 jc'ebruary 12. — " He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool." — Prov- 
 erbs xxviii. 26. 
 
 Self-confidence, self-reliance, pride of character, sense -of 
 power, consciousness of strength, self-possession, — ^these make 
 a man great in the eyes of the world, and a fool in the sight 
 of God. For strength is in the consciousness of weakness, not 
 in the consciousness of strength. Wisdom is in the conscious- 
 ness of ignorance ; and true confidence is in the utter mistrust 
 of self. Man by himself is a fragment. He is the sport of 
 circumstances, — the foot-ball of time. Yea, though he have 
 imperial power and subdue the world, if his trust be in him- 
 self, it is in a reed shaken with the wind. Man is complete only 
 in God, only in Christ. Let the tree laugh at the soil and 
 glory in its bared roots; the folly were not so great as that of 
 him who trusteth in his ov/n heart. 
 
 Trust not in your own heart. For he that does so, trusts in 
 the heart of a fool. You have been deceived by it a thousand 
 times. You know it to be incorrigibly given to falsehood. It 
 is in the pay of Satan, and would lure you in a flowery path go- 
 ing to destruction. Self-trust is the abandonment of God. To 
 go forth in the consciousness of yom- own strength, wisdom, or 
 virtue, is to go forth as Goliath ; but what is your stupendous 
 Bword, what 3'our brazen armor, in comparison with the stone 
 of the brook in the hand of faith ? " You have heard a great 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 53 
 
 deal of faitli, and cannot understand it." Know that it is just 
 the opposite of your self-trust. It is the genuine source of 
 strength and victory ; you have but the counterfeit. 
 
 February 13. — " He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." — 
 Psalm cxxx. 8. 
 
 So says the Psalmist. A thousand years after, the angel 
 who appeared to Mary takes up the refrain, saying, " He shall 
 save his people from their sins." Peter in due time learns this 
 admirable song, and thus modulates it in the hearing of the 
 Jews : — '• Unto you first, God, having raised up his son Jesus, 
 sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from 
 his iniquities." Paul suffers not the strain to die. but gives it 
 the following utterance : — " Christ gave himself for us that he 
 might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a 
 peculiar people, zealous of good works." 
 
 By his death he reconciles the Godhead to us. By his Gos- 
 pel he reconciles us to God. He redeems us from all iniqui- 
 ties, finally, by his Spirit and sanctifying word. This result is 
 accomplished by inspiring enmity between our souls and our 
 iniquities. We discover these to be so many folds of an ana- 
 conda about our soul. We are made to hate them with a per- 
 fect hatred,-! — also to know our own impotence, — then to know 
 our strength in Him, — then to burst these successive chains, 
 and walk emancipated in spirit. In general, we may under- 
 stand that there is no actual deliverance from any sin, until 
 the odiousness of that sin has been seen. The odiousness of 
 it is often first seen when we come into actual conflict with it ; 
 but most seen when we contemplate the opposite perfection in 
 the lovely character of Christ. 
 
 February 14. — ''If it were not so, I wouUl have told you." — John 
 xiv. 2. 
 
 There is somethhig exceedingly gracious and affecting about 
 5 «' 
 
54 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 this declaration. It is the language of pure friendship and 
 open-hearted confidence. " If things had been darker than 
 they are, if your difficulties greater, if your future less glori- 
 ous, be sure that I would have told joii. Did I ever seek to 
 disguise the difficulties that would throng your path, if you 
 became my followers ? Did I speak in a whisper of the cross 
 that you would have to bear ? Did I keep you ignorant of an 
 opposing world, oppressive governors, persecuting monarchs? 
 Did I not speak emphatically of scourgings, stonings, impris- 
 onings ?" 
 
 " Again, did I ever keep back anything from you that was 
 really needful for your encouragement and your guidance ? I 
 have told joii all things that were calculated to contribute to 
 your fortitude and to your joy. I know well that the idea will 
 creep some time into your mind, (for what idea is so wild that 
 it finds no access to the mind of man, even of the man whom 
 Grod hath taught,) the idea will present itself to you that the 
 revelation made by me is not all that it should be. Curiosity, 
 for instance, may desire to know very much about the many 
 mansions in my Father's house ; but be assured, if that more 
 detailed information had been truly desirable for you, I would 
 have communicated it. Infinite wisdom and infinite love have 
 not only prompted the words that I have given you, but my 
 silence also. I might have expatiated much upon my Father's 
 house of glory ; but it would have hindered you from paying 
 due attention to the way that leadeth to that house. Enough 
 for you to know that I am there, with the glory which I had 
 before the world was ; that ten thousand times ten thousand 
 sons of Grod walk there in purity and majesty j and that there 
 are vacancies in their ranks which it is understood that you 
 are to fill. What is of chief exigency is that you should 
 know well the spot on which you are putting down your 
 foot, and be perfectly instructed in the way of righteousness." 
 
 Ileader, are you satisfied with the revelation that God has 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 been pleased to give you ? Dare not to doubt tliis word of 
 Christ, that if it had been hcst for you he would have told you 
 more. Shall man hand God a table of contents, and ask the 
 Almighty to make a revelation thereto accordant ? 
 
 FEBnuARY 15. — "I glory in my infirmities." — 2 Corinthians xii. 9. 
 
 With gladness and with exultation Paul contemplated the 
 fact that Grod had made him what he was, a very dependent 
 creature, in himself altogether incomplete, and in unceasing 
 need of the presence and blessing of God. 
 
 Imagine a flower able to shine by phosphorescent rays, dim 
 and dying at the best ; and saying to the glorious sun in the 
 heavens, "Depart from me, I have no need of thee; trouble 
 not thyself to move through my skies ; I am my own sun." 
 What fatuity were this. It is the glory of the flower that it 
 has so magnificent a bridegroom, rising day by day to run his 
 course of love through the skies. Let the flower rejoice and 
 be glad that it has no power of its own over the earth, over 
 the air, over the least of its own internal vessels; and that 
 without the sun it can do nothing. Let it be tenacious unto 
 death of its dependence. And let Paul, enlightened by the 
 Spirit of God, exult in a condition that keeps him in perpetual 
 and heavenly alliance with the King of kings. Let him glory 
 in his poverty that binds him to the treasury of heaven ; in 
 his isolation that procures him a legion of angels to camp 
 about him ; in his ignorance that demands the teachings of 
 the Omniscient; and in his moral helplessness that requires 
 Christ to abide in his heart by faith 
 
 FEBRrARY 16. — "Give i;s help from trouble, for vain is the help of 
 man." — Psalm Ix. 11. 
 
 There was a poor woman that spent all her living upon phy- 
 
56 ^ DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 sicians. She went everywhere soliciting the help of man, and 
 experimenting upon the capacities of earth. Finally she de- 
 spaired. The shades of night were gathering around her; 
 she cried unto God, saying, perhaps, " give us help from trouble, 
 for vain is the help of man ;" then speedily came the Prince 
 of Life, and the mere sweep of his garment imparted what 
 had been so long and vainly sought from man. 
 
 Altogether the bitterest element of trouble is the foolish ex- 
 pectation of man's help, of the world's consolation. Has man 
 then no power to succor his fellow-man ? Does the Bible wish 
 to make us misanthropists ? Is the voice of human friendship 
 the voice of a syren ? And shall we treat with suspicion and 
 contempt the sympathizing ones who hasten to us at the report 
 of our trouble ? Not so. If God notices the cup of cold wa- 
 ter, it cannot be that we should slight it. Christ would have 
 the sweet odor of the act performed by Mary, in the house of 
 Simon the leper, diffused through all the world. Far be it 
 from us to repel the kindnesses of any. 
 
 Yet consider ; — Christ was pleased with Mary's tribute ; but 
 the sorrows of his soul were not stanched by it. He knew 
 what was in the heart of Judas; he knew what Peter was 
 ready to become ; he had troubles that human solaces were 
 vain to remove. When Peter was in prison, there were thou- 
 sands that loved him and would have made all sacrifices to 
 liberate him ; but all they could do was to go to God in his 
 behalf. Where, in all the world, is the man that has not had 
 experience of troubles that the help of man was powerless to 
 remove? No one can remove them effectually and perma- 
 nently, but that Divine being who bore our sins in his own 
 human body on the tree ; no one but he who is able to remove 
 our unbelief, our selfishness, our wrong desires, our inordinate 
 affections. 
 
 Lord, give thou us help from trouble, for vain is the help 
 of man. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 57 
 
 February 17. — " Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, -which have 
 not defiled their garments ; and they shall walk with me in white ; for 
 they are worthy." — Revelation iii. 4. 
 
 " Even in Sardis." How full of reproach this little word 
 " even." The wonder was that any good should live in such a 
 sea of iniquity as that. Even in Sardis ! It will be well for 
 us to act as though our residence were in Sardis ] as though 
 there were the greatest possible danger of our soiling our robes. 
 The robes that are polluted are robes that were given spotless. 
 You cannot pollute that which is intrinsically vile. The gar- 
 ments which so many Sardians had defiled, were such as they 
 had in connection with their Christian profession. When a 
 man receives the truth, and embraces Christ, and identifies 
 himself with the people of Grod, he is, in the eyes of rejoicing 
 angels above and saints below, clothed with a new nature. His 
 old nature is laid oif as a garment ; and his faith in Christ is 
 a pledge to us that he will live under the influences of new 
 principles, with new aims, habits, feelings. 
 
 " A few that have not defiled their robes." They have been 
 distinguished by great reverence for the Master's words. They 
 have diligently sought to know and do his whole will. They 
 have mistrusted their own hearts. Have rightly estimated the 
 power of the enemy. Have been unceasing in prayer. Have 
 sought diligently to grow in grace. Sometimes, they have for- 
 gotten to watch, and have committed some trespass. Then 
 Satan sought to take away their confidence, and rear the image 
 of the sin formidably between them and God. Doubts and 
 fears beset them ; they began to question if they ever could 
 be proof against temptation. Their garments were almost de- 
 filed. But no, the grace of God came to their rescue. Others 
 were betrayed into wrong-doing, and then were assured by 
 Christian friends that that was not wrong-doing ; there was 
 great danger that they would take up this lower view of what 
 Christ demanded ; great danger that their robes should be de- 
 
58 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 filed; but the gracious Spirit enabled them to cling to their 
 best convictions, their truer standard, and they were safe. 
 There came once a period of coldness; cares of the world, 
 pursuit of wealth, alliances with irreligious persons; these 
 choked the word ; this thing went on too long ; their garments 
 threatened to become defiled ; but they happily awoke to a sense 
 of their perilous state, and with great earnestness, they turned 
 again to the animating beams of the Sun of Righteousness. 
 
 They who thus maintain their garments unspotted from the 
 world, shall walk with Christ in white. Their white garments 
 shall become in whiteness and lustre such as no fuller on earth 
 could produce. They will walk in the very lustre of Christ ; 
 his glory shall be upon them ; they shall be made like unto 
 him. 
 
 " For they are worthy." They have identified themselves 
 with the only true worth, even Christ. So long as we wrap 
 ourselves in our own native worth, though it should be some- 
 thing resplendent in the eyes of all our fellows, we are not 
 worthy to walk with Christ in white. Young and noble aspi- 
 rant after an admirable and worth-revealing life, know that if 
 your utmost dreams should come true, and earth's most distin- 
 guished chaplet of worth should become yours, yet would not 
 that constitute you worthy of companionship with Christ on 
 hish Observe, the aiorified ones all unite in the son 2; of tes- 
 timony, " Thou alone art worthy to receive glory, and honor, 
 and power and blessing." They renounce the worth of which 
 they once dreamed, and lose themselves in the contemplation 
 of the infinite and all-absorbing worth of the Eedeemer-God. 
 And all his worth becomes theirs. All things become theirs ; 
 for his heart is theirs. 
 
DAILY xMEDITATIONS. 59 
 
 Ffbkuary 18. — ''Bless the Lord, O.my souL" — Psalm ciii. 22. 
 
 That is to say, " let thy vocation be that of the seraphim, 
 my soul, and enter on the life of heaven !" 
 
 Why should I praise him ? Can my praise be of any ad- 
 vantage to him ? No ; nor that of all the heavenly hosts. It 
 is infinite condescension in him to hearken unto the praises of 
 his most exalted creatures. 
 
 Let me bless the Lord, because no function will be more 
 rich in blessings to my soul than this. The admiring con- 
 templation of his excellence is in reality the aj^propriation 
 thereof The heart cannot delight in God, without becoming 
 like God. 
 
 Let me do it, because it is the peculiar privilege of man on 
 this earth to bless the Lord. When he would find any to join 
 him in this, he has to ascend the skies. 
 
 Let me do it, because the earth is fully furnished with the 
 materials of praise. The sands, the seas, the flowers, the in- 
 sects; animals, birds, fields, mountains, rivers, trees, clouds, 
 sun, moon, stars, — all wait for me to translate their attributes 
 and distinctions into praise. But, above all, the new creation. 
 
 Let me do it, because of him, through him, and to him, are 
 all the things that pertain to my existence, health, comfort, 
 knowledge, dignity, safety, progress, power and usefulness. A 
 thousand of his ministers in earth, sea, and sky, are concerned 
 in the production and preparation of every mouthful that I 
 eat. The breath that I am commanded and enabled to modu- 
 late in praise, neither comes nor goes without a most surprising 
 exhibition of the condescension, kindness, wisdom, power, and 
 presence of him whom I am to praise. Is it not dastardly to 
 be receiving benefits, without even mentioning the name, or 
 describing the goodness of the giver ? 
 
 Let candidates for heaven bless the Lord. There is no 
 place there for such as have not learned this art. 
 
 How shall I praise him ? Not with fine words. No poetic 
 
60 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 • talent is here necessary. Any language that expresses heart- 
 felt admiration will be accepted. 
 
 Praise him so far as you know him; and he will make 
 known to you more of his glory. 
 
 February 19. — " Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." — Job 
 xiii. 15. 
 
 If we want a sublime utterance, here is one. Let us give 
 glory to that Blessed Spirit of grace, who thus sometimes 
 teaches the lips of man wondrous things. 
 
 Though he slay me, — not simply, though he take away my 
 life. Job would have had no reluctance to part with his life. 
 It would have been an inexpressible relief to him to escape 
 from the load of misery laid upon him. The expression, 
 " Though he slay me," is the strongest possible, and startles us 
 with an exhibition of peculiar horrors. Though God should 
 come against me, and destroy me with marks of signal wrath ; 
 though death should visit nic as the king of terrors, and though 
 my departure from this world should be in harmony with and 
 as a mighty climax to my present agony ', yet will I trust in 
 him. I believe his word, rather than the aspect of his provi- 
 dences. The fire that fell from heaven and destroyed my 
 flocks, is not able to destroy the promise on which I rest. A 
 great wind from the wilderness smote the house where all my 
 loved ones dwelt, and at one swoop removed all in which I 
 delighted on earth ; yet the word of God endureth forever. I 
 have a ground of confidence that cannot be shaken by ele- 
 mental wrath. Though the floods should lift themselves 
 against me, and every billow proclaim that God is my enemy; 
 though streams of liquid fire should advance, declaring that 
 God's ancient love is extinguished ; though the earth beneath 
 should shake, and the heaven above be black; though all 
 things should seem commissioned to preach unto me the un- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 61 
 
 quenchable wrath of God ; yet will I trust in his unalterable 
 word. 
 
 The perfection of faith is to cling to the word of God, when 
 all his works, and all his ways, seem to proclaim the very oppo- 
 site of that word. Isaac no doubt had confidence in his 
 fatlier ; and when he saw him with the knife in his uplifted 
 hand, ready to slay him, still he trusted in him ; nor would he 
 have fled to any other earthly refuge. " He that believeth in 
 me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." It was a terrible 
 trial of the faith of Lazarus and his sisters, when they heark- 
 ened, hearkened, hearkened for footsteps of Jesus, and after all, 
 those of death came first ; but we may hope that the dying one 
 passed away with something like the words of Job upon his 
 lips. 
 
 February 20. — " Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the 
 Lord." — James v. 7. 
 
 Because, first, there is no doubt about that coming. His 
 first coming was the most wonderful, the most staggering to 
 faith. That the Son of God should have been found in fashion 
 as a man, without form or comeliness, with but rare coruscations 
 of his glory, enduring the contradiction of sinners, and dying 
 on the cross ; this is a marvel that swallows up all marvels, and 
 frees from all embarrassment the question of his second ad- 
 vent. 
 
 Because he will come in glory such as no heart of man ever 
 conceived, shedding an infinite lustre upon the least jot and 
 tittle of his slighted Gospel, and embracing in his own match- 
 less radiance and felicity, those who now accept the legacy of 
 his promises, and walk in the path of his humiliation. 
 
 Because we shall be for ever with the Lord. The day of his 
 
 coronation and of ours is a day on which the sun shall never 
 
 go down. 
 
 Because he cometh ; he cometh ! The bell of his providence 
 6 
 
62 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 is sounding ever and anon, telling that another prophecy is 
 fullfilled, another hour of this our day of expectation elapsed, 
 another footfall of his glorious approach accomplished. 
 
 Be patient, therefore. Yet think not that by this we aro 
 bidden to wait supinely, and with our attention given to other 
 things. But rather as they that watch for the morning, let us 
 hasten unto the day of the Lord. 
 
 February 21. — " The Lord is very pitifuL" — James v. 11. 
 
 Few believe this. Men know what pitifulness is. They 
 know how a very pitiful parent will act towards a suffering 
 child J how he will show himself tenderly solicitous to staunch 
 its wounds and alleviate its sorrows. They do not view God as 
 characterized by this sjiupathizing tenderness and pitifulness. 
 They regard him as a physician, who, by long familiarity with 
 suffering, is able to look upon it without emotion, and coldly to 
 calculate what remedies are best. 
 
 If we choose to see God thus, we shall perhaps find him 
 thus ; for according to our faith is he manifested. Neverthe- 
 less, he is what the prophets and apostles declare, — very pitifal. 
 There is in him no indifference to human suffering. He does 
 not willingly afflict, nor grieve the children of men; nay, " in 
 all their affliction he was afflicted.'^ The tears shed by Christ 
 are a part of the manifestation of God to man. 
 
 Tell me, pray, tcJio taught the mother her pitifulness? who 
 introduced that wondrous feeling of kindness into her heart ? 
 Who constituted her in so admirable a way, that, though in all 
 other relations she might be selfishness itself, yet in this she is 
 compelled, as by the instinct of her own -good, to hang in pa- 
 tience, in pity, and in love, over the cradle of her little one ? 
 Who hath made her maternal ear of such sensitiveness, that 
 the faintest cry of her babe shall smite piercingly upon it ? 
 Behold her ! she is wholly dedicated, — her ear, eye, tongue, 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 63 
 
 her hands, her feet, her body and soul, her wealth, her all, — 
 to a conflict with the sorrow of her infant, to the accomplish- 
 ment of its utmost welfare. Through this glass, then, gaze 
 upon the perfections of thy God. The pitifulness in the 
 mother's heart bespeaks a greater pitifulness in the heart of 
 him who made her thus. He that made her lips so that gen- 
 tle and heart-affecting accents might fall from them, is one 
 that knoweth exquisitely how to caress, to solace, and to bless. 
 Where however, is the infant whose sorrows are all overtaken 
 by the solicitude of the parent ? But the believer has no ex- 
 perience of suffering, great or slight, common or peculiar, for 
 which there is not some special and some gentle word of Grod, 
 with a medicinal virtue only limited by his want of faith. 
 
 February 22. — " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from 
 all sin." — John i. 7. 
 
 The sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, our will- 
 ing substitute, were such a satisfaction for sin, such a repara- 
 tion to the law of God, that it has become every way consistent 
 with divine justice, wisdom, and truth, to accord mercy to sin- 
 ners, and bless them without any other restriction than that 
 which their own unwillingness and unbelief interpose. There 
 is a fountain opened up for sin and for uncleanness; and 
 whosoever will, may take of the water of life freely. " The 
 well is deep, and thou hast nothing to draw with,'^ said the 
 Samaritan woman to Christ. One might be embarrassed at a 
 well or fountain, to know how to avail himself of the waters; 
 but if he saw another draw water and drink, he could profit by 
 his example. On the cross, we see Christ dying, the just for 
 the unjust; and perhaps may wonder how the unjust are to 
 profit thereby, until we see the thief on the cross put out his 
 hand and drink of that fountain, and obtain life for evermore. 
 
64 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 Then our difficulty is removed ; we see tliat we have just to 
 believe, and be cleansed from all our iniquities. 
 
 We may plead the merits of this blood as an indemnification 
 for all our sins ; so that we may ask and receive from the same 
 all-willing hand that blesses the angels. And this blood has 
 not only the power to conciliate God ; it has power over hearts. 
 Not only in the way of inspiring us with faith in God's forgiv- 
 ing grace, but also with hatred of the sins that caused the 
 death of Christ. And we never truly receive pardon for sin 
 without receiving power over sin. He that has a true hope in 
 Christ, purifieth himself even as Christ is pure. Faith in him 
 is vital union to him ; and as the branch cannot but partake 
 of the qualities of the vine, so we must partake of his quali- 
 ties, or confess ourselves unbelievers. The increase of faith is 
 the increase of all the fruits of rio-hteousness. 
 
 February 23. — " So shall we ever be with the Lord." — 1 Thessalonians 
 iv. 17. 
 
 One of the last desires to which Christ gave utterance be- 
 fore leaving this world, was expressed in these words : " Father, 
 I will that they whom thou hast given me, be with me where 
 I am." And these words " I am," have a meaning that is 
 very vast, referring perhaps to his place in the affections of 
 the Father, to his moral purity, and specially to the manifesta- 
 tion of his divine glory. " I will come again and receive you 
 unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." When 
 Peter saw his Lord transfigured, he wished the blissful hour to 
 endure forever. But the time had not yet come for him to be 
 forever with his glorified Redeemer. It was needful that he 
 himself should fight the good fight of fiiith, and come off con- 
 queror — be made like unto Christ spiritually, and at last in 
 eternal glory. 
 
 " Lo, I am with you always," says Christ, " even to the end 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. Q5 
 
 of tlie world." Till then, he is with us the object of faith; 
 afterwards the blessed object of sight. " Ye believe in God 
 the Father, whom ye see not; believe also in me, spiritually 
 present with you." They that are most affected by the glori- 
 ous anticipation of perpetual residence with Christ in glor}^, 
 are most assiduous in the endeavor to discern his presence 
 here, and walk with him on the earth. He has promised to 
 manifest himself to us in this our pilgrimage ; and in vain we 
 look for that future beatification with him, if we have not 
 these promised manifestations. To be ever with the Lord, is 
 to be never with our sins, never with the tempter, never with 
 sorrow ; ever with love, ever with wisdom, ever with power, 
 ever with glory, and ever with rapture ; ever with the Lord ; 
 ever with all that love the Lord. 
 
 February 24. — '* The eflfectual fervent praj'er of a righteous man 
 availeth much." — James v. 16. 
 
 We are not to take the word righteous here in an impossible 
 sense. "In many things we offend all," says James; and in 
 the very verse we quote from, he says, " Confess your fault* 
 one to another." Otherwise understood, the promise would 
 check prayer, instead of exciting it. The righteous man is 
 the true Christian ; one who hungers and thirsts after right- 
 eousness, and in whose life appears the fruit of the Spirit. 
 But the expression is doubtless intended to discourage the 
 man who, while he gives himself to prayer, regards iniquity in 
 his heart. 
 
 The Greek consists of five words. One of these we trans- 
 late " of a righteous man." Another, " the effectual fervent." 
 The word so rendered, means literally " inwrought," and seems 
 to refer to the energetic operation of the Spirit upon the heart. 
 Our word " fervent" is a very expressive word, and does not 
 
QQ DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 much lag behind the original. " Fervent prayer of the right- 
 eous can much." 
 
 " We ask, and receive not." It is not surprising. The 
 promise is not to prayer, but to true prayer, fervent prayer, 
 prayer with the whole heart in it ; with concentration of de- 
 sire, singleness of aim, warmth of affection, strength of pur- 
 pose, absolute grasp of the promise, and invincible perseve- 
 rance. Consider Abraham, Jacob, Elijah. Your prayers are 
 not fervent. You pray, and the response from a throne of 
 grace is, " The fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much." 
 The records of that throne will furnish a satisfactory account 
 of the fortunes of every prayer. 
 
 " Can much." The Bible generally disparages human abil- 
 ity. It pours contempt upon the might of princes It some- 
 times laughs to scorn the great armies and proud navies of the 
 nations. Yet it points out a way by which man may clothe 
 himself with strength ; with "much" strength How much ? 
 This modest word stretches into infinity, and discloses omnipo- 
 tence within it. God giveth power to his witnesses, his fervent 
 petitioners, to shut heaven, to smite the earth, to turn waters to 
 blood. — (Rev. X. 6.) Through Christ strengthening me, I can 
 do all things. 
 
 February 25. — "Happy is the man whom God correcteth." — Job v. 
 
 ir. 
 
 Happy, because the correction is designed to bring him into 
 paths of pleasantness and peace. 
 
 Because there is no unnecessary severity in it. 
 
 Because the disciplinary stroke is in the place of ten thou- 
 sand strokes of divine vengeance for our sins. 
 
 Because the chastisement is not so much against us, as 
 against our most cruel enemies — our sins. 
 
 Because we have abundant words of consolation. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 67 
 
 Because tlie sacrifice of a broken heart, and of a contrite 
 spirit, God despisetli not. 
 
 Because there is at such seasons an influx of most precious 
 knowledge. 
 
 Because whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. 
 
 Because all the good have had experience of this 
 
 Because Christ has said, " The cup which my Father hath 
 given me, shall I not drink it ?" 
 
 Because our lisht affliction is but for a moment. 
 
 February 26. — "Kejoice evermore." — 1 Thessalonians v. 16. 
 
 We have here a command. He that spake from Sinai, say- 
 ing, " Thou shalt not covet," speaketh now from the cross, 
 saying, " Rejoice.'^ He that finds Christ, finds this command. 
 It is not a matter of choice with him whether he will be a re- 
 joicing Christian, or a downcast Christian. He has no more 
 right to neglect the fulfillment of this duty, than to forget his 
 duty to his neighbor. In fact, this command is so inextricably 
 interwoven with other obligations, that he who does not obey 
 it, exposes at once his deficiency in the matter of faith towards 
 Christ, gratitude towards Grod, love towards his fellow-men, and 
 hope of future bliss. 
 
 But can tears be dried, the wounds of the heart healed, the 
 face irradiated with smiles, by a simple command ? Were it 
 not more reasonable to bid the leopard change his spots, the 
 Ethiopian his complexion ? God has not been pleased to dis- 
 cover to us a tree whose leaves will blanch the skin ; but he 
 has been pleased to open up a fountain for the removal of 
 human woes. To command a person to rejoice, without at the 
 same time presenting a sufficient consolation for his sorrows, is 
 but to mock his grief. But he that bids us rejoice, shows us 
 what to do with our griefs. If we will let him, he will take 
 up each several grief, and cast it into the crucible of his word. 
 
68 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 The command to rejoice, is a command — to contemplate God 
 and his affections; especially as manifested in Christ; in his 
 relations to us individually — to feed upon the promises — to 
 study Grod's will ; and, paradoxical though it may seem, to be 
 not much occupied with the matter of our personal happiness, 
 but rather with that of others. " It is more blessed to give, 
 than to receive." (Read Isaiah Iviii.) 
 
 Rejoice evermore, because Christ is the same yesterday, to- 
 day, and for ever. The word of God abideth for ever. All 
 things work together for good to them that love Grod. 
 
 February 27. — " ^Ye are the clay, and thou our potter." — Isaiah Ixiv. 8. 
 
 Happy are they who can use this language ; — who have re- 
 nounced the mad enterprise of fashioning themselves, and, 
 ceasing to play presumptuously the part of potter, have come 
 to the original author of their being, that he may create them 
 anew in righteousness and true holiness. Even Christians are 
 sometimes long in understanding what part they are to play in 
 the divine laboratory. The idea of the divine agency in the 
 transformation of their souls, is shadowy ; that of their own 
 obligation, painfully distinct. Let them learn to use the lan- 
 guage of Israel of old. " Thou art the potter, and we are the 
 clay." There is no more sublime function of the Godhead, 
 none that more inapproachably exalts him above all created 
 efficiency, than the metamorphosis of unholy souls. It were a 
 less preposterous thing for us to undertake to create a globe 
 like this, and find a planetary path for it, than to dream of 
 substituting the similitude of angels for that of devils, in our 
 characters. It is not merely the love of God, but also his 
 power, that challenges the praises of the universe for the ac- 
 complished work of redemption (Rev. v. 13.) 
 
 " But, the clay has no volition of its own." True. But it is a 
 fact, whether it be a doctrine or not, and a fiiet that we ought 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. b9 
 
 not to be so long in learning as we mostly are, tliat our own 
 volitions utterly fail of themselves to effect the purification of 
 our natures. It is God that worketh to will and to do, of his 
 good pleasure. 
 
 " Thou art our potter.'^ What words of tender confidence 
 are these. What a representation of God. Our potter, — mine, 
 yours. He has taken up this as his vocation, — namely, the 
 redemption and glorification of your nature, and of mine. Be- 
 tween your soul and God there is a wonderful relation estab- 
 lished. All nature looks on in admiration, to see the Creator 
 at work upon the clay of your soul. The sculptor is not more 
 enchained to the marble he is employed in chiseling, nor the 
 gardener to the spot which he is converting into a garden. 
 
 February 28. — " There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be 
 feared." — Psalm cxxx. 4. 
 
 This is the gospel. Christ is with God ; therefore, there is 
 forgiveness with G-od. " It is expedient for you that I go 
 away," that I go to heaven. The only question is, Is Christ 
 there ? Then we shall assuredly find forgiveness there. 
 
 A proper understanding of this word " forgiveness" would 
 fill the soul with a bliss, the like of which was never yet ex- 
 perienced upon this earth. It designates two immensities, — 
 that of our sins, and that of the love of God in Christ. To 
 fathom it we must descend to the lowest depth of endless mis- 
 ery ; to know its height we must ascend to the throne which 
 the seraphim encompass. 
 
 This forgiveness, this smile of God, binds the soul to God 
 with a beautiful fear. Fear to lose one glance of love. Fear 
 to lose one word of kindness. Fear to be carried away from 
 the heaven of his presence, by an insidious current of worldli- 
 ness. Fear of slumber. Fear of error. Fear of not enough 
 pleasing him. 
 
70 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 Our duty, then, is to drink deep of God's forgiving love. 
 To be filled with it, is to be filled with purity, fervency, and 
 faith. Our sins have to hide their diminished heads, and slink- 
 away through crevices, when forgiveness, — when Christ enters 
 the soul. 
 
 February 29. — " Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this 
 fig-tree, and find none." — Luke xiii. 7. 
 
 And yet you profess to be a fruit-bearer. The position you 
 occupy implies that you have separated yourself from the fruit- 
 less trees of the world. You are in the vineyard of the Lord. 
 You are called by his name. In assuming the designation of 
 Christian, you have invited the Lord to come and seek fruit on 
 your branches. 
 
 All things have been duly organized, in order that you may 
 bring forth fruit. What could have been done more to my 
 vineyard, that I have not done in it ? Has there been any lack 
 of instruction as to the nature of the fruit required ? There 
 has been no lack. It has been shown you by precept, by ex- 
 ample, poetically, historically, in parables, and in unadorned 
 speech. Have inadequate motives been presented ? The Son 
 of God with arms outstretched upon the cross, pleading with 
 God for you, and with you for God — what an infinitude of 
 motives are comprehended in this spectacle ! Fruitlessness is 
 not merely wrong to others; it is self-injury, penury of the 
 soul ; and fruitfulness is the only true wealth we are capable 
 of knowing. The absence of fruit is the presence o£ pride, 
 vanity, selfishness, and all forms of unloveliness. Is there no 
 adequacy of motive here ? The whole earth is fruitful, in or- 
 der that you may be fruitful. Far, far away there is a planta- 
 tion, whose products are matured through many a day of 
 patient shining of the sun, that they ma}^, after the ministry 
 of innumerable hands, by numerous channels, reach you, and 
 furnish you with clothing. Other fields, beneath a more tropi- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 71 
 
 cal sky, some in one continent, some in another, yield the in- 
 gredients of your morning beverage. In the unfrequented 
 depths of vast forests, the powers of nature watch day and 
 night over the plant that is commissioned to furnish an anti- 
 dote for your fever. The whole world is put under daily con- 
 tribution for you, and hardly is the least of your thousand 
 wants unattended to, that every opportunity and every induce- 
 ment may be furnished you for the producing of fruit. Why 
 is that flower painted so exquisitely, and fashioned to be the 
 momentary utterance of enduring love, and then thrown in 
 your path by the Maker of it, but that you may render fruit ? 
 " Knowest thou not that the goodness of Grod leadeth thee to 
 repentance," and to all the fruits of the Spirit that follow on 
 repentance ? 
 
 The Lord of glory himself has come to you, and come 
 again, and again ; by his servants, his Spirit, his providence ; 
 as a still small voice in your heart, and perhaps as a whirlwind 
 among your possessions. Where found he you ? In sloth, in 
 revelry, in worldliness, in pride, in passion, — far, very far from 
 fruitfnlness. How wonderful that your probation was not then 
 and there cut short. What reason is there to hope that a pro- 
 longed probation will witness any better results ? 
 
 March 1. — '' My times are in thy hand." — Psalm xxxi. 15. 
 
 The time of my prosperity. In vain would I say unto my 
 soul, " Soul, take thine ease, thou hast much goods laid up for 
 many years." In vain I grasp the evidences of my wealth ; 
 look abroad upon my goodly mansions and large estates ; reckon 
 upon my wealth, and exult in the victory obtained over earthly 
 vicissitudes. The victory is a mere cheat, a phantasm of 
 my brain. The time of my prosperity is in the hand of Grod, 
 He opens his hand, and all my possessions vanish into air. 
 
 The time of my health. It is God that determines its con- 
 tinuance, even to the«irery hour. 
 
72 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 The time of ray mental capacity. I boast of the powers of 
 my mind ; but they abide with me only while God commands 
 them so to do. 
 
 The time of my adversity. Of sickness. Of manifold sore 
 trials. Of absence of loved ones. Of humiliation. Of con- 
 flict with sin. 
 
 The term of my mortal existence. Wherefore, let my eyes 
 be unto the hand of the Lord, as the eyes of a servant are 
 unto the hand of his master. 
 
 March 2. — "Thou Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee." — 
 Psalm ix. 10. 
 
 The promise of the Lord never to forsake the soul that trusts 
 in him, looks familiarly and kindly forth upon us, from many 
 a page of Scripture, old and new. But we have here an his- 
 torical statement to the effect that he has never forsaken them 
 that seek him. This is a bold averment. History is a very 
 large affair. Ten thousand volumes were but a small part of 
 its library. It is startled by the challenge contained in our 
 text; and takes down volume after volume, saying, " I will 
 easily, with my voluminous records, levy an army of many 
 thousand facts to confound this statement.'' Unbelief nods 
 assent, saying, " The statement needs modification : We have 
 often been forsaken of the Lord." 
 
 The promise is not that we shall always have a sensible man- 
 ifestation of the Lord. — That we shall always have a soul-glad- 
 dening consciousness of his presence. — That we shall always be 
 able to understand his dealings with us. — That we shall be kept 
 from disappointments, and from anguish of spirit. 
 
 The promise is not that we shall never be cast into a den of 
 lions ; — never into a fiery furnace, — never be a fugitive by the 
 brooks Cherith, or under the juniper tree — never be brought 
 before Nero. Look for the token that tl^ Lord hath not for- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 73 
 
 saken you, in the riglit place. Look for it in the den of lions, 
 and you will find it in the form of an angel. Look for it in 
 the' burning fiery furnace, and find it in the form of the Son 
 of God. Look at Elijah under the juniper tree. He seems 
 to have been surprised into a loss of faith, when he heard that 
 the queen had sworn to take his life; to have imagined that 
 the Lord had forsaken him; to have fled in dishonorable 
 alarm; and to have cast himself, way-worn and anguish - 
 stricken, under the juniper tree, with a feeling that it was 
 about as well to die, seeing that no degree of intimacy with the 
 Lord would secure a man from being forsaken of him. But it 
 was not the Lord that had forsaken him ; it was he that had 
 forsaken himself; and this he now discovered. Afterwards 
 the still small voice came, saying, " The Lord is in me, but 
 thou canst not hear me nor discern him, if thou hearken to the 
 voice of an angry queen ; it is the privilege of faith to hear 
 me even amid the thunders of God's most agitated providence." 
 
 March 3. — " The meek will he guide."' — Psalm xxv. 9 
 
 Be content to lose the idea of thine own importance ; cease 
 to be wrapped up in the contemplation of thine own claims and 
 rights. Be not counting on honors to be rendered thee, hour 
 by hour, from this man and from that. Give up the vain idea 
 that every hour owes thee an ample tribute of manifold bene- 
 fits. Shrink into non-importance, and take the position of a 
 simple servitor, whose business it is to do, to suff"er, and to give 
 thanks. 
 
 When you have become thus inconsiderable in your own re- 
 gard, and h|ive relinquished the honor which cometh from man, 
 and are cordially willing that the gifts that adorn this present 
 life should be withheld from you, and abundantly bestowed at 
 your right hand and at your left; then will you become con- 
 scious that another hand is locked in yours, a friendly hand, 
 7 
 
74 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 a gracious hand, a tender, considerate, careful hand ; a royal, 
 a heavenly, nay, without disguise, a divine hand. In surrend- 
 ering all self-importance you have become unspeakably import- 
 ant to the most exalted Being in the universe. You have 
 entered the very path trodden by the Lord Jesus Christ. In 
 that path you walk with God. 
 
 The secret of habitual meekness is the love of God habitu- 
 ally shed abroad in the heart. All pride, all avidity of worldly 
 good, all insubmission, imply a grossly inadequate idea of the 
 value of Christ's love. Thou canst disdain the riches that 
 take wings, in the consciousness of unseen wealth — untold, 
 imperishable. 
 
 Mabch 4. — " Except a man be born again, ho cannot see the kingdom of 
 God." — John iii. 3. 
 
 " Thou hast considered, Nicodemus, that except God were 
 with him, no man could work such miracles as I have wrought. 
 Thou hast considered, also, that one in whom such celestial 
 power resides, must have a great deal of knowledge respecting 
 the heavens, their marvels, their glories, their inhabitants. 
 Thou wouldst fain hear me speak of these things, and have me 
 enchant thy mind with a description of the amazing things 
 that are found in the paradise of God. I am indeed a teacher 
 come from God, nor is there besides me any one who, having 
 dwelt in the heavens, has descended to the earth. But art 
 thou truly in a condition to hear me tell of the characteristics 
 of heaven ? While I speak to thee of the purity of the an- 
 gels wilt thou not be longing to hear of their stature ? When 
 I tell thee of their love, wilt thou not desire to hear of their 
 ivory palaces ? When I speak of the songs of the redeemed, 
 will not thy thoughts be of golden rivers and gem-laden trees? 
 When I tell thee of the absence of sin and of temptation, wilt 
 thou not prefer to have the strain relieved by the description 
 of a heavenly banquet ? There is reason to believe that a 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 7^ 
 
 description of the kingdom of God, or, if sucli be in thy 
 thought, a description of the Messiah's kingdom, would con- 
 vey no definite ideas to thy mind, and greatly fail to interest 
 thee. Except a man he horn again^ he cannot see the king- 
 dom of God. He cannot appreciate the nature of it, or be 
 wrought upon by the descriptions of it. Before the eyes of 
 the blind, the picture were in vain held up. Believe the 
 earthly things I tell you; the things already revealed; the 
 things which relate to your present duty ; and then you will be 
 enabled to see in their true glory and beauty, the heavenly 
 things. You must be born again ; get a new mind, new views, 
 new affections, new tastes, new perceptions; and then you will 
 speedily discover the kingdom of heaven. This kingdom can- 
 not be seen from without. Men might lie all day beneath its 
 crystal walls and pearly gates, without the slightest conception 
 that there was anything near them of an extraordinary charac- 
 ter." 
 
 March 5. — " Blessed are they that mourn." — Matthew v. 4. 
 
 That mourn over their alienation from God. — Over their 
 past years of ungodliness. — Over the evil that they have 
 wrought in the world. — Over their neglected opportunities of 
 usefulness. — Over their moral unloveliness. — Over their insen- 
 sibility ; — their irresolution ; — their bad memory for sacred 
 things. — Over the unsatisfactory condition of the church. — The 
 sin and danger of those near and dear to them. — The oppres- 
 sion, unrighteousness and misery that desolate the whole earth. 
 
 They mourn over the fugitive loveliness that meets them in 
 their path. They hear the whole creation groaning in pain. 
 They mourn to see so many exquisite and magnificent works 
 of God, defiled and dishonored by sin. 
 
 But their mourning has its limits. It is lost in a sea of 
 blessing. Blessed are they that mourn. Happiness is linked 
 to their mourning. This beatitude comes from the lips of the 
 
76 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 Lord Jesus to kiss away their tears. They are blessed, be- 
 cause their mourning is an important preliminary of their de- 
 liverance from that which they mourn. Because they are in 
 sympathy with Christ. Because a thousand consolatory ex- 
 pressions of God's word come trooping to the chamber of their 
 sorrow. Because their heart is fructified thereby to yield the 
 flowers and fruits of joy. 
 
 Sometimes there is not the consciousness of the blessing. 
 At such times Grod puts our tears in his bottle. He does not 
 wipe them away ; but keeps them for future explanation, and 
 future vindication of his tenderness. We may slight our own 
 past sorrows ; but God slights them not. After a long silence 
 perhaps, he brings forth the vial of our former tears, and 
 shows what a wonderful memory Love has. He then clears 
 up the long mystery, and convinces us of the perfect kindness 
 of a dispensation that seemed so strange. 
 
 March 6. — "Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye 
 shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." — Matthew xviii. 3. 
 
 Many things are becoming in a child that are not in a man ; 
 and many things required in a man that are not looked for in 
 a child. The idea here, or one aspect of it, is that we should 
 be made over again ^ from the very beginning. 
 
 Simplicity, freedom from guile, candor, retiringness, afiec- 
 tionateness, trust ; these things are not uncommon among chil- 
 dren, and are important elements of a Christian's character. 
 Especially is the Christian required to entertain towards God, 
 the feelings that parents expect from their children ; and to 
 demean himself in the sight of God as children demean them- 
 selves in their intercourse with those over them. 
 
 Are you a little child in this sense, that you are willing to 
 learn all things de novo from God ? Are you willing to re- 
 ceive what counsel he gives ? To have all your conduct deter- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. ii 
 
 iiiiaed by him ? Your plans altered or dismissed by him ? 
 Your affections disposed of by him ? l^our property taken by 
 him ? Your sorrow cared for by him ? 
 
 Are you willing to live with an open heart to him, and con- 
 fidingly pour out all your experiences into his bosom ? To 
 have no secrets from him ? To confess everything and to con- 
 fers it at once ? 
 
 March 7. — "How sweet are thy words unto my taste !" — Psalm cxix. 
 103. 
 
 Even the words of a fellow-creature of earth, how inex- 
 pressibly sweet sometimes, how beyond all calculation precious I 
 All gold and silver would be despised in comparison with them. 
 Thej come freighted with something as dear as life, with love, 
 and the heart is enriched with them as though the breath of 
 God had come into it. But does not this rainbow of earthly 
 joy die gradually out ? Do not the enrapturing words sooner 
 or later become exsiccated in the memory, and may they not 
 meet with contemptuous treatment as remembrancers of a 
 worthless illusion ? Indeed they do ; indeed they may. 
 
 Xevertheless the heart may find its happiness, its true and 
 undying happiness, in icords. At this moment there is nothing 
 in the whole world so much to be desired as certain words. 
 Words of love. Words expressive of infinite love. Treasures, 
 pleasures, honors of earth, what are they? My unsatisfied 
 soul cries out. Give me words. Words whereby I ma}^ know 
 the love that God has towards me. Words declaring the un- 
 changeable attachment of the Saviour. Words purifying my 
 heart. Emboldening me in prayer. Exhibiting to me the 
 blissful future. Words that shall give life to my dead powers, 
 and change me from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the 
 Lord. 
 
 Nor does my soul cry out in vain. My palate hath a thou- 
 7« 
 
78 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 sand appetencies; nay, if they were counted, has far more 
 than a thousand capacities for distinct perceptions of flavor. 
 He who thus wondrously endowed the human palate, has made 
 to grow on ten thousand different trees, fruits with flavors ex- 
 actly responsive to all these distinctions of taste. He who has 
 so marvellously and lovingly shown his acquaintance with my 
 physical tastes, will he overlook the deeper wants of my soul, 
 and withhold those words of consolation and of blessing, with- 
 out which the world, with all its profusion of fruit, were a 
 mere wilderness ? He will not. He has given words whose 
 sweetness satisfies the soul. 
 
 What is necessary in order that we may find God's words 
 sweet unto our taste ? 
 
 A belief that they are in an absolute sense, God's words. 
 A belief that they are God's words to us, as individuals, — to 
 you, to me ; that we have forfeited all title to his favor, de- 
 serve his everlasting wrath ; that in his favor is life ; and to 
 hunger and thirst after righteousness. 
 
 March 8. — " Be ye kind one to another." — Ephesians iv. 32. 
 
 Not courteous merely; for courtesy is but one expression 
 of kindness. Not kind to this or that choice one, with whom 
 you have a facility of sympathy; but generally. Be ye kind; 
 there are few words in our language more endowed with mean- 
 ing than this. It has both a soul and a body. It signifies 
 both a state of the heart, and the manifestations of that state, 
 in acts, words, tones, looks. Some words look more to outward 
 acts; others more to inward equalities. We cannot say to 
 which this most looks. It has two hands so to speak, and 
 grasps both ideas refusing to let either go. This word claims 
 also the whole heart. Kindness is not a quality of one's na- 
 ture : but it is the aspect of one's nature. It is not something 
 
DAILY xMEDITATIONS. 79 
 
 to be introduced into our "cliaracter ; but our cliaracter is to 
 be baptized in it, penetrated with it. 
 
 How this command expresses the kindness of God ! He is 
 not satisfied with extending over you all the day long an azure 
 canopy of love, with making his sun run for your pleasure his 
 daily course through the skies ; with causing the breath of his 
 winds to visit you, his flowers to bloom for you, his fruits to 
 ripen, and ten thousand other ministries of his to wait upon 
 you; he is not satisfied with the proof of his kindness given 
 in the knowledge of Christ communicated to you; but he 
 gives a solemn charge concerning you to every human being 
 that comes near the throne of grace, — a charge to be kind to 
 you. And when they ask, how much is intended by this com- 
 mand, Grod refers them to the signal proof of his own kind- 
 ness, as the example that may guide them in their kindness to 
 you. 
 
 If you say, how can I be kind to those whose characters are 
 unamiable, and the look of whose soul is not inviting ? By 
 looking at Grod over their shoulder. Remember that you are 
 pleasing him in showing kindness to them. Your goodness 
 extendeth not to the sovereign of the skies ; you cannot be 
 kind to him ; but your love to him whom you have not seen 
 may fitly express itself, it must do so, in kindness to your 
 brother whom you have seen. 
 
 March 9. — " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." — 
 Matthew v. 8. 
 
 Man is without God. He walks in the mansion of the 
 King of kings, wondering who contrived it, and what has be- 
 come of its royal owner; sometimes even doubting if it ever 
 had a contriver, a proprietor. To his mind, God, if he is at 
 all, is an absentee. He examines the treasures around him^ 
 studies them, weighs them, grasps them, and speculates of the 
 
80 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 Creator as of one who may be or may not be. Generally, in- 
 deed, he speculates not at all. In his tonception, God is so 
 remoto that it is idle to waste time in searching for him. 
 
 Yet God is nigh and wonderfully manifest. To see him 
 we need not climb the empyrean, nor wing our way to a cen- 
 tral sun. Even upon this earth it is possible to behold, by vir- 
 tue of an uttered spell, one after one the successive walls of 
 the mystery of God melt away and disappear, until the Al- 
 mighty, unveiled and glorious, is seen where the seraphim saw 
 him when they sang, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, 
 the whole earth is full of thy glory.^' To them the whole 
 earth was full of the glory of God, and they would have veiled 
 their faces in love and adoration, even in the heart of Arabia 
 Deserta ; while, in the midst of the most beautiful and teeming 
 landscapes of the earth, man, unsanclified man, condescends to 
 occupy his mind with the baffling question, " Is there a 
 God?" 
 
 Some who have been taught from above tb desire greatly 
 the manifestations of God, and who wrestle earnestly, perhaps 
 passionately, in prayer, that their Lord would be pleased to 
 draw nigh unto them, and give them visions of his excellence, 
 would find it to their inexpressible advantage to cease from 
 the pursuit of extraordinary manifestations, and by faith and 
 purity of heart school themselves into the ability to dis- 
 cern a present God, and to abide in blissful intercourse with 
 him in whom they live and move and have their being. Let 
 them understand that what they need is not the accomplish- 
 ment of some change out of themselves — the bringing near of 
 something that is afar — but a purging of their mental vision, 
 the removal of a film that yet too much beclouds the eye of 
 their soul. There is a word with us, and it is as follows : — 
 " Lo ! I am with you always." To the unbeliever, a mere 
 word, and no more ; but to the initiated, a means of finding 
 forever, and in every place, the brightness of the divine glory. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 81 
 
 If any one be offering the petition of Moses, " I beseech 
 thee, shew me thy glory," let him hear the Saviour reply, 
 " Seek purity of heart, and thou wilt find me. Be like me, 
 and thou shalt look upon me. Cease to regard thyself; be 
 meek and lowly of heart ; let no guile be found in thy mouth ; 
 delight thyself in the Lord ; thus shall thy power of discerning 
 and enjoying me be day by day augmented." This word 
 " purity" invites us to linger. But when could one satisfy 
 himself with discourse upon it ? 
 
 March 10. — "Blessed are the peace-makers." — Matthew v. 9. 
 
 Christ is the Prince of peace. Peace on earth is the object 
 of the Messiah's mission, said the angels in their song. His 
 followers are accordingly sons of peace. They have peace with 
 God, and they are pacificators ; they follow peace with all men. 
 Their great object is to induce men to lay aside their hostili- 
 ties, and renounce their resentments. This is their vocation 
 in the world. They seek to extend the empire of their IMas- 
 ter ; but as that empire (and that alone) is peace, they seek no 
 other victory than that which consists in bringing them one 
 to another in holy concord. 
 
 Yet Christ said, I came not to bring peace, but a sword. 
 His word, launched into a family, comes often like a thunder- 
 bolt, riving and shattering the harmonies that had before ex- 
 isted. It is like fire, and like a hammer. 
 
 The word of Christ is stern in its opposition to all that is 
 incompatible with true peace. Peace with sin, is what it ever 
 must make war upon. If we are peace-makers, it is by means 
 of the gospel of peace. We seek to make men acquainted 
 with the cruel facts of their present captivity to sin, and alien- 
 ation from God ; to tell them of the peace of God which pass- 
 eth all understanding; to bring them into sweet accord with 
 the great author of their being ; to have them moulded by the 
 
bZ DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 Holy Spirit into ' a peace-loving disposition ; to enfranelilse 
 them from pride, selfishness, covetousness, mibelief, malice, un- 
 charitableness, moral weakness, and the other natural enemies 
 of peace. Some that are near and dear to them may turn 
 against them, and the manifestation of bitterness on the part 
 of these may seem to belie the claim of the gospel to be a 
 pacificator; but that manifestation only afibrds scope for an 
 exhibition of long-suffering, kindness, gentleness, and tender 
 interest — in a word, for the exhibition of a heaven-born peace, 
 
 A sea of opposition has ever raged around the good — some- 
 times more, sometimes less fiercely. But, like the coral islands 
 — whose serene unruffled lakes, stately palms, and quiet tene- 
 ments present a wonderful contrast with the reef-broken angry 
 ocean around — the elect of Grod, the friends of the gospel, 
 have peace with God, follow peace with all men, and exhibit 
 the fruits of righteousness, even when persecuted by the 
 world. 
 
 Commune with yourself touching this thing, and ask, " Am I 
 a peace-maker? Do I love well the things that make for 
 peace ? Does it grieve me to behold men unacquainted wdth 
 the Prince of Peace ? Do I make manifest in my own life 
 that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in 
 the Holy Ghost ? Do I understand and observe the precept 
 to speak evil of no man? When I hear of strife between 
 those who should be friends, does it grieve me as though I 
 heard of the breaking out of the cholera in their families ? 
 And, as the physician feels that he has a mission among the 
 sick, do I arise at the report of strife, and hasten on an em- 
 bassy of peace to the conflicting parties ? In a word, am I a 
 merchant with much balm of Gilead, seeking to dispose of it 
 among all, and to assuage the desolating enmities of the world ? 
 And is my constant prayer this, that God would teach me how 
 I may most thoroughly subserve the cause of peace in the 
 world?'' 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 83 
 
 March 11. — "Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." — 
 2 Timothy ii. 3. 
 
 If you are a disciple of Christ, you are a soldier of Christ. 
 If you are an expectant of salvation, you are a follower of the 
 captain of salvation. When it was proposed to you to become 
 his follower, it was distinctly intimated that you were to follow 
 him to a field of conflict. 
 
 Endure hardness — that is, endure things hard to he endured. 
 The army of Christ resembles not a Northern army rushing 
 down from its inhospitable home into the fertile plains and 
 genial climate of Italy, encountering a dispirited and ener- 
 vated race, and grasping with a facile hand the wealth and 
 honors of that region ; but resembles rather the little company 
 that gathered around David in the days of Saul's indignation, 
 and followed him from glen to glen, from rock to rock, sleeping 
 under the open skies or in caverns, snatching their scanty food 
 where they found it, every moment on the alert for their nu- 
 merous and powerful enemies, with the whole nation ready to 
 fall upon and crush them, and with nothing to look to but the 
 promise of God, the promise of a kingdom. We know that 
 it is our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom ; not 
 that we should dream that we have it now. We say therefore 
 with Elisha, "Is it a time to receive money, and to receive 
 garments, and olive-yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, 
 and man-servants', and maid-servants ?" Rather is it a time 
 to endure hardness. For the servant is not greater than his 
 Lord ; the soldier not greater than his general. 
 
 Therefore let us consecrate what we have to God ; cease 
 from seeking great things of earth for ourselves ; receive in 
 sweet submission the daily trials that will force their way into 
 the presence of the Christian, in whatever retired apartment 
 he may dwell ; and give ourselves heartily to the conflict with 
 our adversary, in whatsoever form he may approach us. What 
 things to some are hard, to others are not; our Commander 
 
84 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 places us in such a corps as is most likely to furnish us with 
 the probation that we need. You have to endure hardness, 
 not to seek it ; be sure, however, that the dread of it does not 
 keep you out of any path in which God would have you walk. 
 
 March 12. — " Light is sown for the righteous." — Psalm Ixvii. 11. 
 
 Almost all our sorrow is connected with darkness, with mis- 
 conceptions, with defective knowledge of the reasons that in- 
 fluence Grod in his dealings with us ; and light is fitly used as 
 a metaphor expressive of gladness and of a soul-satisfying man- 
 ifestation of God. 
 
 The scattered seed disappears in the ground that receives it. 
 He that is to eat its fruit does not see it fall, knows nothing 
 of it in its prolonged incarceration. Perhaps he is far away, 
 and millions stand between him and it. He is occupied with 
 his cares, great or minute ; yet all the while the unslumbering, 
 unhastening providence, of God watches over that ripening 
 plant, and conducts it to a state of faultless fruitfulness ; then 
 gathers itj conveys it, and presents it to him for whom it was 
 intended. 
 
 In like manner, does God hide long the blessing intended 
 for his servant that trusts in him ; and thus proves his servant 
 whether indeed he trusts in him. 
 
 This servant perhaps passed through a season of strange and 
 inexplicable experiences. A spirit of intense supplication was 
 poured upon him, without a single response to his fervent pe- 
 titions. His soul was consumed with desires, and those not 
 unhallowed; yet the heaven of brass and the earth of iron 
 seemed only to mock his longing. A strong and an enduring 
 faith enabled him to grasp the mightiest promises of God, and 
 vigorously to knock with them at heaven's gate; yet echo 
 seemed only to say, " What is faith ? what is a promise ?" He 
 was ready to conclude that all creation, even all earth, and all 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 85 
 
 heaven, had received an inviolable command from the Deity to 
 yield him no light — no, not a glimmer ; and that he was given 
 over a prisoner to everlasting night. He drank the cup his 
 Grod had given him ; got almost used to its daily bitterness ; 
 became familiar with the midnight of God's unanswering prov- 
 idence y wondered how God could reconcile it with his perfec- 
 tions to let prayer and sanctified desire go so long unanswered ; 
 but wondered without murmuring, and was willing that God 
 should have his own way, and vindicate as it pleased him, his 
 own reputation. Yet all the while that wondrous God, ap- 
 parently cruel, yet in reality beyond expression faithful, was 
 busied pouring out in superabundant fullness in some remote 
 undreamt-of spot, the supplicated blessing. Yes, God took in 
 his hand a seed the very day that servant cried to him ; and as 
 he continued in supplication, he continued enriching the se- 
 lected object, freighting the chartered vessel; a thousand of 
 his providential angels were commanded to wait upon it, and 
 bring it every excellent ornament, load it with most beautiful 
 fruit. Light was sown, light was reared, light was perfected. 
 Then, with no little joy on the part of the heavenly ones, who 
 had been in the secret, the unexpecting suppliant was brought 
 into the presence of the light, and with equal confusion, ad- 
 miration, and delight, saw that the Almighty had not despised 
 his affliction, nor disregarded his impassioned supplication. 
 
 Captives in Egypt, the Israelites cried unto God. They 
 cried vehemently, and long; yet, God came not. They had 
 boasted of their God to the Egyptians as the hearer of prayer ; 
 and the Egyptians waited with them to see whether he would 
 come ; but at last taunted them with the fruitlessness of their 
 prayers, and recommended them to call upon the idols of 
 Egypt. But all the while God was listening eagerly to their 
 cries, and daily hea^g up a depository of blessing in answer 
 to them. His selected seed was in the land of Midian. There 
 dwelt and wandered Moses, the shepherd. Ten thousand prayers 
 
86 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 for deliverance, offered up by the fixr-off captives, were an- 
 swered in ten thousand incidents and influences, all tending to 
 make this Moses one of the meekest of men, God-fearing, 
 nobly intellectual, sympathetic, believing. At length, we may 
 suppose, the Israelites had almost begun to think that God had 
 given no heed to their misery, and to their prayers. But Moses 
 appears; the light that had been sown dawned upon them; 
 and sounding the loud timbrel, they went forth celebrating the 
 faithfulness of God. 
 
 Even the Sun of Righteousness was first a seed in the si- 
 lence and solitude of Bethlehem, and remained long unmani- 
 fested in the obscurity of Nazareth. So Paul in Tarsus. It 
 was not till many a year after God had sown this light for the 
 church, that Barnabas went to Tarsus and brought him thence 
 to Antioch, where he was commended to the grace of God and 
 sent forth to be the means of dispelling much darkness in Asia 
 Minor, Greece, and Italy. 
 
 And is there light now sown somewhere, growing unto 
 Isaiah Ix ? 
 
 March 13. — " Serve the Lord with gladness," — Psalm c. 2. 
 
 It is our privilege to serve the Lord in all things. It is ours 
 to please the Lord in loosing the latchet of a shoe ; and to en- 
 joy the expression of this favor therein. The servant of God 
 is not serving at the same time another master ; he has not 
 been hired for occasional service ; he abides in the service of 
 his God, and cannot be about anything but his Master's busi- 
 ness; he eats, he drinks, he sleeps, he walks, he discourses, he 
 findeth recreation, all by way of serving God. For the will of 
 the Lord imposes at one time a task ; commands at another 
 time a recreation ; bids him listen in this hour to music, and 
 in that to speak the words of life ; places in his hand a news- 
 paper now, and after a while a pen ; guides his feet to the bed- 
 side of the sick, and to the hovels of the degraded ; leads him 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 87 
 
 to the banqueting chamber of the rich, and gives him words 
 for that place, and seats him at the humble board of the labor- 
 ing man, and teaches him words for that occasion ; bids him 
 bow the knee in prayer, and bids him also come forth from 
 prayer ; compels him to exhibit gravity, and again bids him be 
 all cheerfulness. The will of Grod concerning us is manifold. 
 Let us pray to be filled with the knowledge of his will in all 
 wisdom. 
 
 Serve the Lord with gladness. Can you bear to be waited 
 upon by a servant who goes moping and dejected to his every 
 task ? You would rather have no servant at all, than one who 
 evidently finds your service cheerless and irksome. 
 
 Serve him with gladness, for he is the best of beings. 
 
 For his commandments are not grievous. 
 
 For he is your Saviour, as well as Creator; your friend, as 
 well as Lord. 
 
 The angels, so much greater than yourself, know no reason 
 why they should not serve him with gladness. 
 
 In serving him, you serve yourself. 
 
 You make religion attractive. 
 
 You o'et a fitness for heaven. 
 
 March 14. — " He will regard the prayer of the destitute." — Psalm cii. 17. 
 
 A man that is destitute knows how to pray. He needs not 
 any instructor. His miseries indoctrinate him wonderfully in 
 the art of ofi"ering prayer. Let us know ourselves destitute, 
 that we may know how to pray; destitute of strength, of wis- 
 dom, of due influence, of true happiness, of proper faith, of 
 thorough consecration, of the knowledge of the Scriptures, of 
 righteousness. 
 
 These words introduce and stand in immediate connection 
 with a prophecy of glorious things to be witnessed in the lat- 
 ter times. We profess to be eager for the accomplishment of 
 
88 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 tliose marvellous tilings ; but are we offering the prayer of the 
 destitute ? On the contrary, is not the Church at large too 
 much like the church of Laodicea ? Will not a just interpre- 
 tation of many of its acts and ways, bring forth the words, '' I 
 am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing ?" 
 And do not its prayers meet with this reproachful answer — 
 " Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
 naked, and knowest it not. Thy temporal affluence implies 
 not spiritual affluence. Thy spiritual condition is inversely as 
 the worldly prosperity that has turned thy head. I counsel 
 thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire. Give all thy trashy 
 gold — trashy while it is with thee — give it to my poor ; and I 
 will give thee true gold — namely, a sense of thy misery and 
 meanness ; a longing for grace, purity, usefulness ; a love of 
 thy fellow-men ; and my love shed abroad in thy heart." 
 
 March 14. — " Bless the Lord, my souL" — Psalm ciii. 1. 
 
 Daily, habitually. Consider that thou hast every day an 
 engagement with Grod to praise him. He has certainly a 
 claim upon thee to consider and, in some measure, estimate 
 his benefits bestowed on thee. A generous soul cannot bear 
 to think that perhaps some one has bestowed on him some fa- 
 vor of which he is not aware. The thought of an unacknow- 
 ledged kindness would keep him awake at night. 
 
 The command to bless the Lord is a command to take up, 
 and not tread under foot, a shower of joys that have de- 
 scended upon the place where you stand. Some fruit comes 
 to you wrapped in many envelopes. You tear them off, throw 
 them away, eat the fruit, and think of something else. But 
 those envelopes were bank-notes of great value. Grod gives 
 you something; you say this is to be eaten, and you eat it; 
 but it was not merely given to be eaten ; it was given to re- 
 veal unto you something of the wisdom, power, love, and con- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 89 
 
 descension of God ; to spread out before you an illuminated 
 page of a book of heaven. I say again, the command to bless 
 God is a command to take up many joys that you have let 
 fiill. 
 
 March 15. — "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." — 
 Psalm cxi. 10. 
 
 It would be strange indeed if it were otherwise. If we be- 
 lieve in God the Creator of all, the Giver of every good gift, 
 and if we believe it to be his wish that men should acknow- 
 ledge his authority, and yield to his guidance, we cannot but 
 believe that he will bestow his best gifts, especially such a gift 
 as wisdom, on those only who defer to his authority, and aim 
 to please him. The supposition that this gift is as fairly be- 
 stowed upon the ungodly as upon any implies that God disre- 
 gards all moral distinctions, and has no tokens of his satisfac- 
 tion to bestow on those whose great concern is to honor him. 
 He undoubtedly bestows many gifts upon the wicked, for a 
 season, that he may lead them to repentance by the experi- 
 ence of his goodness. But his best gifts are given after, not 
 before, their repentance. 
 
 Can it then be said that the non-religious world is without 
 wisdom? Has it no Aristotle, no Socrates, no Tacitus, no 
 Goethe, no Gibbon ? Let us understand what wisdom is. It 
 is not any mere amount of knowledge that constitutes wisdom. 
 Appropriate knowledge is essential to wisdom. A man who 
 has not the knowledge appropriate to his position, who does 
 not know himself in his relation to God and to his fellow-men, 
 who is misinformed as to his duties, his dangers, his necessi- 
 ties, though he may have written innumerable works of a 
 most exalted character, yet is he to be set down as a man 
 without wisdom. What is it to you that your servant is ac- 
 quainted with mathematics, if he is ignorant of your will, and 
 of the way to do it ? The genius of a Voltaire, a Spinoza, a 
 
90 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 Carlyle, only makes their folly the more striking. As though 
 a man floating rapidly onwards to the Fails of Niagara, should 
 occupy himself in drawing a very admirable picture of the 
 scenery. Men who are exceedingly great in the world's esti- 
 mation have made the most signal blunders with regard to the 
 most important things ; and it is only because these things are 
 not considered important by the world, that the reputation of 
 these men remains. 
 
 If you have learned to estimate things in some measure as 
 God estimates them, to desire what he offers, to relinquish 
 what he forbids, and to recognize the duties that he has ap- 
 pointed you, you are in the path of wisdom, and the great 
 men we have been speaking about are flir behind you — far 
 from the narrow gate which you have entered. He only is 
 wise, who can call Christ the wisdom of God. 
 
 The fear of God is that deference to God which leads you 
 to subordinate your will to his : — makes you intent on pleasing 
 him ; penitent in view of past wilfulness • happy in his smile ; 
 transported by his love ; hopeful of his glory. 
 
 March 17. — "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him." — 
 Isaiah iii. 10. 
 
 Fear not, thou righteous man, thou lover of righteousness, 
 who hast taken Christ as thy righteousness, and whose sincere 
 desire is to walk even as he also walked, who hath made the 
 Lord thy refuge, and hath put thy trust in the shadow of his 
 wings, fear not ; we bring thee a message from God ; it shall 
 be well with thee. 
 
 Thy sins alarm thee. They say; " We have possessed thee 
 all thy days, and thy heart is our home. Thou hast always 
 served us, and every day of habit has bound thee by a new 
 chain to us. Of late thou hast been making fearful struggles ; 
 hast busied thyself day and night with God's word ; thrown 
 thyself into the society of the good ; repented of sin ; as- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 91 
 
 pired to heaven; and ha^. even exercised faitli in Clirist. 
 Yet here we are wlicre we always were ; swaying thee as of 
 old ; mocking tliy new and frantic endeavors. We are a part 
 of thy life ; is it not evident ? And the attempt to escape 
 from ns is as though thy arms should attempt to tear them- 
 selves from thy body. None can deliver thee from the body 
 of this death." 
 
 Thy sins shall not have dominion over thee ; it shall be well 
 with thee. Thy present experience is good for thee. It is 
 good for thee to know the extent of thy captivity, that thou 
 mayest know how great a deliverance is required ; and to know 
 the true character of thy captors, that thou mayest love him 
 who setteth thee free. It is because Christ is at the door that 
 there is this agitation and conflict within. It shall be well 
 with thee. 
 
 Unbelief says, " It might be well with thee, if thou hadst a 
 stronger faith. But what can Christ do for one that has scarce 
 any faith, and dares not grasp the promises ? No, it can never 
 be well with thee." We reply, It shall be well with thee. The 
 mightiest faith has an insignificant beginning. Thy faith shall 
 grow ; it grows while we speak. Take this word God sends 
 thee, and be strong in fliith. 
 
 Timidity says, " Who knows what fierce antagonists may 
 start up along this narrow path ? Though thou triumph over 
 the present evil, yet the future things may prove too much for 
 thee." Who maketh thee to triumph over the present evil ? 
 And is he not a match for the future evil ? The future difii- 
 culties shall only afford new occasions for the display of his 
 faithfulness and all-sufficiency. 
 
 The world says, " It shall not be well with thee. We have 
 traced the course of thousands who gave themselves up to the 
 pursuit of righteousness. They fared not well, but ill. They 
 were cut oft* by their ideas of duty from all our joys; and 
 during all the journey of life they vrere haunted by a sense 
 
92 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 of unfulfilled obligation, were vexed by an inward conflict, and 
 racked by fears of the future ; and all men were against them ; 
 gloom, gloom, gloom, was the sum of their experience." But 
 here the righteous man answers for himself, and says, " This 
 representation is false ; it is because a life of piety hath no 
 attractions for thee that thou dost so describe it. Thy boasted 
 joys are but blooming poisons, banquets spread by an enemy. 
 It is not well with thee, but with him that leaveth thee." 
 Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him ! 
 
 March 18, — " I will trust." — Isaiah xii. 2 
 
 Not m uncertain riches, not in my own sagacity, not in my 
 probity, not in my social position, not in the felicity of circum- 
 stances ; not in the friendship of the world, not even in the 
 favor of Christians ; not in the sacraments, not in my prayers, 
 nor in my repentance, nor in my obedience. 
 
 I will trust in Him that became man in order that he might 
 bear my sins in his own body on the tree. 
 
 I will trust in him, for he is the most trustworthy being in 
 the universe. Shall a child trust in its parent, a bride in the 
 bridegroom, a soldier in his general, a captive in his deliverer, 
 a patient in his physician, — shall men in all conditions abound 
 in trust towards their fellow-men, and shall I not trust in the 
 Almighty who hath shown himself all-gracious? Is there 
 more than one being existent, of whom it can be said that 
 heaven and eartl:^ shall pass away sooner than his least word ? 
 There is but one, and in him I will trust. 
 
 " Tcike^^^ says Satan ; " trii^t'^ says Grod. 
 
 " Almost nobody trusts," says my unbelieving neighbor. 
 For that very reason I will trust. Is it not an infamy that 
 the Lord of heaven and earth, the source of all blessedness, 
 should be untrusted ? You lie down to sleep trusting in your 
 breath that it will continue to come and go all night, although 
 
DAILr MEDITATIONS. , 93 
 
 a single interruption would be fatal; trusting in the beams 
 over your bead that they will not break ; in the wind that it 
 will not blow any inflammable thing into the vicinity of your 
 lamp ; in the atmosphere that it will not allow any pestilential 
 influences to come nigh your couch ; in ten thousand things 
 without life or sense ; and shall not I trust in him in whom T 
 live, and move, and have my being ? 
 
 I will trust, said Peter ; and the sea became as rock beneath 
 his feet. I will trust, said the Syro-Phoenician woman; 
 though the disciples said, send her away ; and her daughter 
 was healed. I will take, said Balaam ; and became rich for a 
 day, accursed forever. Let me live, said Jonah, and was cast 
 into the sea. I will trust, said he afterward, and all Nineveh 
 bowed at his word. I will trust, said Daniel, and was deliv- 
 ered. I will save my life, said Peter, and denied his Lord. I 
 will trust, said he afterward, and laid him down to sleep ; then 
 came the angel of the Lord, and brought him forth from 
 prison. What mean ye to weep and to break my heart ? said 
 Paul; I will trust. 
 
 March 19. — "A bruised reed shall he not break." — Matthew xii. 20. 
 
 In carrying out a great enterprise, individual sufl'ering is 
 very little regarded. Revolutions are not generally effected 
 without the immolation of many lives. Thousands, how many 
 thousands, of human reeds were first bruised, then broken, and 
 thrown to the winds of the Crimea, that Sebastopol might be 
 taken. And can it be that Christ, in going forth to the con- 
 quest of the whole world, will not suffer a bruised and bent 
 reed, ready of itself to snap asunder, will not suffer one such 
 to be broken ? In a revolution that is to affect the destinies 
 of so many millions to all eternity, is it possible that he will 
 be tenderly solicitous for the meanest and weakest individual 
 of his host ? It is possible, it is true. He has but to let it 
 alone, and it will break ; but he will not let it alone. How 
 
94 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 tlien ? AVill lie stay the marcli of tlie whole army out of 
 consideration for a poor, frail, tempted creature ? Will he for- 
 get the interests of the whole body in his strange concern for 
 such a one ? It is not necessary that he should do so. Were 
 his wisdom and power a little less than infinite, this might 
 be necessary. But the word infinite implies that he can at 
 once make all things work together for the good of each, and 
 for the good of all. 
 
 " He is all that you say," remarks some one; "but he is the 
 Captain of our salvation, and must be obeyed. He is our 
 Master, and he giveth to«each of us a work. No one can ask 
 that it should be otherwise. But I have a nature so detesta- 
 ble, so undone, so repugnant to everything "good, that with 
 ever so good a will to his service, the least commandment 
 crushes me, the slightest task convulses me." 
 
 The least command crushes you? What is the greatest 
 command ? It is that you should love him with all your 
 strength — not more than youcr strength — not more than your 
 powers. His burden is adapted to your force. He asks from 
 a sapling the strength of a sapling ; from a bruised reed the 
 strength of a bruised reed. " Say that I have no strength at 
 all." That is best. Ask of him, and he will give thee. 
 
 He will give thee first sympathy. He will show his pierced 
 hands and feet, tell of his sweat in the garden, and relate how 
 he was once himself bruised for your iniquities. He will give 
 you encouragement by showing you plants of righteousness 
 flourishing in the courts of his God, who once were bruised 
 reeds. — Peter, for instance, of whom Satan made sure once on 
 a time. He will give you a shield of faith — will succor you 
 in the time of temptation — will be your strength. 
 
 March 20. — " Come unto me." — Matthew xi. 28. 
 Here is an invitation. Some one invites you. Some one 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 95 
 
 has thrown open his doors to you. The words convey a privi- 
 lege — you have it now — the privilege of going to him. No 
 difficulties exist with him. If you have a will to go, you may 
 go. Ponder this fact, — whatever you do, wherever you go, 
 you are nevertheless among the invited. 
 
 He that invites you has cast many angels out of his presence 
 because they were not worthy. The seraphim, of such ex- 
 ceeding might and majesty, are overwhelmed at his glory. 
 His face shineth as the sun in its strength. John, that holy 
 evangelist, fell at his feet as one dead. Yet he invites you — 
 has a place for you — spreads a feast for you. 
 
 He died upon the cross that you might have this invitation. 
 And if you would know what that exceeding great cry was 
 with which he gave up the ghost, know that it was this, " Come 
 unto me ! It is jfinished ! thou mayest come !" 
 
 How many of his providences were simply echoes of this 
 cry. He bereft thee of dear friends ; deprived thee of health ; 
 stripped thee of wealth; baffled thee in thy schemes; de- 
 stroyed the world's illusions ; that thou mightest hear this in- 
 vitation, and come unto him. 
 
 Come then at once. Come in earnest. Come in faith. 
 
 March 21. — "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I con- 
 fess also before my Father which is in heaven." — Matthew x. 32. 
 
 What an extraordinary world is this that such a sentence 
 should ever have been uttered in it ! Consider what is implied 
 in these words. They manifestly imply that it is an opprobri- 
 ous thing in the estimation of mankind to give honor to him 
 who is the brightness of the Father's glory, and to acknow- 
 ledge any connection with him. They imply that it is neces- 
 sary to present the most powerful motives to the mind in order 
 to subdue the feeling of shame that would naturally arise in 
 the confession of Christ. Is not this a fallen world ? Is not 
 
96 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 the race of mankind an utterly depraved race ? Were it ne- 
 cessary to hold up powerful motives in order to induce a person 
 to confess Lis alliance with some aj'ch-villain, one could think 
 better of man. But the most magnificent rewards are pro- 
 posed, as an inducement to those who are acquainted with 
 Christ, to acknowledge their acquaintance ; to those who rely 
 on him for salvation, to confess him as their Saviour. 
 
 The world that pursued Christ unrelentingly, until it had 
 driven him forth, has ever since been doing its best to make 
 his followers silent concerning him. " Thou shalt not confess 
 the Lord Jesus Christ," is the first and great commandment 
 of the world, and if it can enly get this obeyed it will give a 
 dispensation from all other duties. It has tried fire and the 
 sword abundantly ; but in these latter days its tactics are more 
 subtle. It is all courtesy, and addressing the Christian, says : 
 — " There is a great deal that is admirable about Christianity, 
 and I blame myself very much that I have so neglected it. 
 x\llow me to be your scholar. I will sit at your feet, and learn 
 of you. In return I will be happy to teach you what I know. 
 We must go hand in hand along the journey of life.'' The 
 Christian is charmed by this amicable proposal, and falls into 
 the snare. The world learns something, just to lull the Church 
 asleep ; and the Church learns, alas ! much of the world. 
 
 March 22. — " Sin has reigned unto death." — Romans v. 21. 
 
 About the reign of sin there is no doubt. The tyrant, with 
 an astonishing refinement of tyranny, forbade you to believe 
 in his tyranny, and compelled you to go hither and thither 
 chanting his praises as though he were one of the most loving 
 of masters. How grossly you were deluded. A king is for 
 the protection of his subjects; but this monarch reigned unto 
 death. He was a deformed and revolting monster ; you were 
 cheated into the idea of his loveliness. He taught you to 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 97 
 
 boast of liberty, wliile lie loaded you more and more with 
 chains. You staggered beneath great burdens which you bore 
 to his treasury, while you were taught to believe that you were 
 enriching yourself. He showed you pictures of superb ban- 
 quets, and swore that you should sit down at such ; and all the 
 while he gave you but mouldy crusts to eat. He introduced 
 his courtiers to you as a troop of friends ; but gave them each 
 a whip to lash you. He gave you a poisoner to be your cup- 
 bearer ; a gaoler to be your guardian ; a headsman to be your 
 guide. An earthquake rocked your house; your bed was 
 poised on the verge of an abyss ; and a drawn sword was sus- 
 pended over your table. You supposed that there was a sun 
 there, but it was sackcloth ; and a moon, but it was blood. In 
 the garden was the upas tree, and in the field the hemlock. 
 The streets of that city of death were streets of tombs. Ye 
 shall not surely die, said all men, one to another ; but they 
 were all dead men while they spake. Sin reigned unto death, 
 and cheated all his subjects into the idea that they owed life 
 to him. 
 
 Happy for you that this is a thing of the past. Sin hath 
 reigned, but has now no more dominion over you. You have 
 been translated into another kingdom. 
 
 March 23. — "Led by the Spirit of God." — Romans viii. 14. 
 
 Led hy the Spirit of God. By the glorious being who led 
 Christ. Without him was nothing made that was made. 
 Without him the sceptre of the Godhead was never once ex- 
 tended. The highest archangel would not stir a step without 
 him. 
 
 The children of God, all who inherit eternal life, have this 
 infallible characteristic, they are led by the Spirit of God. 
 They are led by him to a sense of their sinfulness and short- 
 sightedness ; to an open recognition of the same ; to the throne 
 
 9 
 
98 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 of grace; to the use of the most prevailing arguments in 
 prayer; to the society of Christians, the assemblies of the 
 saints; away from temptation; through temptation; to the 
 dwellings of the poor and needy; to the resorts of the igno- 
 rant and erring. 
 
 Let some of them be asked, why are you scattered abroad 
 over the face of the earth, speaking diverse languages, address-- 
 ing heathens and errorists ? They may in their reply speak 
 of ships and carriages, wind and steam, money and skill. But 
 they must also say, " The Spirit of God led us hither." 
 
 There can be no safe guidance that is not perpetual. The 
 advantage of a year may be lost in an hour. If we act inde- 
 pendently of the Spirit in little things, we will look for him 
 in vain in great things. 
 
 His leading is not violent. He acts by our own convictions 
 and our own will. There is nothing degrading in this guid- 
 ance, but the highest possible exaltation. God who has given 
 us senses, understanding, free-will, memory, has given us some- 
 thing infinitely above them all, because they all by it enter into 
 their highest perfection — namely, the guidance of the Spirit. 
 Let the mariner say, " I need no wind, for I have a noble ship, 
 with ample suits of sails, an excellent crew, with charts and 
 compass." Let the commander of a steamer say, " I need no 
 steam, no fuel, for the engine is everything that could be de- 
 sired, and I have the most skillful engineers." But let the 
 child of God say, " I am led by the Spirit of God." 
 
 March 24. — "Joint heirs with Christ Jesus." — Komans viii. 17. 
 
 We read of Christ that he has been made much better than 
 the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent 
 name than they. God hath highly exalted him, and given him 
 a name that is above every name. God hath treated Christ as 
 though he were the only heir. All the universe looks on 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. \)\) 
 
 amazed, as lie ascendeth up above all principality and power, 
 and might, and dominion, above every name that is named ; 
 and tlien learns with greatly more amazement that he is a repre- 
 sentative heir ; that there is a vast number in union with him, 
 and that each of these is joint-heir with him, not for the dimi- 
 nution but for the enhancement of his glory. 
 
 An heir is one who passes from a state of privation to a 
 state of affluence. Christ was the poorest of men on this 
 earth, without where to lay his head, without reputation, with- 
 out a friend to speak for him when he was in the hands of 
 sinners, without so much respect as would hinder servants 
 from smiting him, and soldiers from blindfolding him in mock- 
 ery. Soon see him however in the place of highest exaltation. 
 And of his disciples he says, " the glory that thou hast given 
 me I have given them." All power in heaven and in earth is 
 given unto him ; and even in this believers have a community 
 with him; for "he that overcometh'' (he says) " and keepeth 
 my words unto the end, to him will I give power over the na- 
 tions, — even as I received of my Father." 
 
 We are co-heirs with him of the Father's love ; and of the 
 various expressions of the Father's love. For instance, the 
 peace of God, the Spirit of God, joy, strength, patience, use- 
 fulness, on the earth ; a building of God, a house not made 
 with hands, eternal, in the heavens; pleasures for evermore; 
 crowns of righteousness ; a body like unto his glorious body, 
 spiritual and incorruptible ; and the love of all the holy ones. 
 
 By virtue of the warrant given in this expression, wherever 
 in the universe you find anything of Christ's, you can say, 
 " this is mine." 
 
 March 25. — " The glory which shall be revealed in us." — Rom. viii. 18. 
 Ill US ; in me, in 3'Ou. Sin, not satisfied with the manifesta- 
 tion given of itself in the angels that left their first estate, not 
 satisfied with the dearadation into which it has caused the 
 
100 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 devils to sink, came to you and me, tliat it might obtain a 
 fuller exhibition. You and I dwelt in a world the soil of 
 which had been moistened with Christ's sweat of agony, with 
 the drops of Calvary, in a world where the Grospel of God's 
 amazing grace is preached to every creature. Sin said, " It is 
 one thing to make a creature ruin itself by sin ; it is another 
 thing to make a creature, so ruined, daily and hourly treat with 
 contempt the proffered love, the Calvary-bought grace of the 
 Lord of the universe." The very fabric of our minds tells 
 frightful tales of what sin has wrought within us. Had our 
 aim been to make ourselves so vile that the Spirit of Grod 
 should be utterly and eternally repelled, we could not have 
 gone further than we have done. Sin reveled in its victory 
 over us ; but this very victory only becomes the occasion of a 
 greater triumph on the part of grace ; and the glory of Grod is 
 to be revealed in us more illustriously than it ever has been 
 revealed in any order of beings. And we shall then be kept 
 from self-glorification by the thought that it was our excessive 
 sin which became the occasion of this excessive glory. " The 
 glory which thou hast given me, I have given them," said 
 Jesus. See Christ as Isaiah saw him, surrounded by the 
 Seraphim ; and as Peter and John, Moses and Elias saw him 
 on the mount of transfiguration ; and as the angels saw him 
 when he ascended up on high, leading captivity captive ; see 
 him as John saw him when he fell at his feet as one dead ; 
 see him as all shall see him when he cometh in the clouds of 
 heaven with great power and glory ; and consider that we shall 
 be like him. He is glorified in us. 
 
 No wonder that an angelic host encamps around the sleep- 
 ing-place of the believer. The believer is an emigrant from 
 the region of the shadow of death, bound to a country where 
 he is to be clothed with glory like that of the King of kings. 
 Christ is to be admired in us, honored in us, blessed in us, glorified 
 in us. It is in gifts to us, in dignity, honor, and splendor, enjoyed 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 101 
 
 by US, that God is to make ma^nifest to tlie universe hoT^' beyond 
 all estimation lie appreciates the merit of the death of Christ. 
 Help me, G od, in the presence of my brother or sister, of 
 thy son or daughter, to look with intense interest upon one 
 who is to walk hereafter in the lustre, beauty, and excellency 
 of Christ, to receive dominion over kings, to be clad in glory 
 that shall make the brightness of the firmament to pale. Let 
 me make haste to love those whom thou so lovest, to honor 
 those whom thou deia-nest so to honor. 
 
 March 2G. — "If ^Te confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive 
 us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." — 1 John i. 9. 
 
 Confession implies compunction. The mere statement of 
 one's fault is not confession. The fault may be aggravated by 
 a heartless mention of it. Some men are very tenacious of 
 their imaginary rectitude ; but others think it a pretty accom- 
 plishment to be able to speak of themselves as graceless char- 
 acters. Into the idea of true confession humiliation enters. 
 Confession should be particular. Individual sins must be seen 
 in their hatefulness before the word of forgiveness can come 
 in between them and our conscience. And be not surprised 
 If I add that forgiveness is particular. It is both 'general and 
 particular. " Son, thy sins be forgiven thee" does not relieve 
 the conscience from the necessity of afterwards looking at par- 
 ticular sins forgiven, appreciating their special features of ug- 
 liness, and finding relief in the details of divine forgiveness. 
 
 This shows us how much occasion there is for commerce 
 with God. Confession, prayer, gratitude, these three duties 
 give the soul an amount of business at the throne of grace 
 which it can never overtake. God in his overflowing gracious- 
 ness does not make us wait for a pretext to come to him ; he 
 does not suffer us to find any pretext for ever absenting our- 
 selves from hira, 
 9 * 
 
lOi^ DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 There can be no true confession of sin without the contem- 
 plation of Christ crucified. For, an appreciation of sin is 
 necessary to adequate confession, and this is not obtained save 
 at the cross. If a man has taken from 3'ou a thousand pounds, 
 and says, " Forgive me for having purloined a handful of sil- 
 ver from you;" or if he struck your child so that he died, 
 and says, " Forgive me for the injury I did j^our child;" such 
 confession will not suffice. He must first see his own deed 
 aright. And it is utterly impossible that any sin should be 
 seen in its proper flagrancy, until the Lamb of God is seen to 
 have been slain for it. 
 
 Confession, forgiveness, purity, these three things stand in 
 indubitable connection in the history of a saved soul. 
 
 It is a pity to quit this text, having only skimmed it. What 
 does the apostle mean, dear reader, by the words " faithful and 
 just?" Understand this, and you will be an Elijah, a Daniel, 
 a Moses. 
 
 March 27. — " Beloved, if God so loA-ed us, we ought also to love one 
 another." — 1 John iv. 11. 
 
 Two sublime arguments here present themselves. The first 
 is this : Grod hath so loved me ; therefore, beloved, I must 
 love you. The second is : God hath so loved i/ou ; therefore, 
 beloved, I must love you. 
 
 By virtue of the first argument, every expression of the 
 love of God toward me that I have ever received, lays aside 
 its smile, and assuming a beautiful air of authority, commands 
 me to love you. All the promises that ever flocked in laughing 
 troops or came singly and gently to my soul, though they 
 seemed to have but one aim, namely to convey to me ottar of 
 heaven's roses, vials of divine love, all now acknowledge that 
 they have another commission even to bind me and not let me 
 go unless I love whom they shall name. Far be it from me 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 103 
 
 to make any difficulty. Did. I so, this would be the same as 
 sending contemptuously back to God those radiant messengers. 
 To refuse to love is to reproach God with loving. It is to 
 make all the promises of God shrink back as I open his word, 
 and say to me, " Who is this ?" It is to make Christ frown 
 me from his cross. It is to make all the glorified ones say, 
 " He will never walk with us beside the river of the water of 
 life." But I must walk there; I must love you, beloved of 
 Christ ! and I must be diligent in accomplishing my appren- 
 ticeship in this matter. 
 
 Through the virtue of the second argument, I find myself 
 sovereignly attracted to you by all the precious tokens of his 
 love that God hath ever bestowed upon you. There is a voice 
 of thunder, so authoritative, but of course not intimidating, 
 a voice of gentle thunder in a single hair of your head, for it 
 has a long story to tell to my attentive ear, (with proof-texts 
 from the gospel) about the interest of God in you. 
 
 Leaving unwritten a long, long chapter, come we to the mani- 
 festations of God's amazing love to you in connection with 
 the regeneration of your nature. His preparatory goodness 
 in all the arrangements by which you were kept from being 
 carried away in the whirlwind of sin, and were brought under 
 various benign influences; his convincing you of sin; his 
 revelation of himself to you in Christ ; his minute attention 
 to your education in holiness ; his consolations in your time of 
 trouble ; his chidings in your day of error. Let me consider 
 these and love you. He made you to shed tears and then car- 
 ried them to heaven for his prize ; nor is there an account 
 wanting on high of your smiles ; while your prayers are pre- 
 sented odoriferous from golden vials before his throne. 
 
 All these matchless indications of love speak to me and say, 
 " Where is your love for the beloved of God ?" 
 
 If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 
 
10-1 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 March 28. — '"God is love, and he that dwellcth in love, dwelloth in 
 God, and God in him." — 1 John iv. 16. 
 
 Let us define. But who can define ? For the interpreta- 
 tion of this word, love^ is the interpretation of God. It is easy 
 to saj that love is a delight in the happiness of the loved. 
 But the mind will not rest satisfied with this definition ; it 
 again and again replies, that the meaning includes more. Love 
 cannot be defined, for it is itself a definition, the definition of 
 G od ; but it may be described in its operations and efi"ects. 
 
 The love that God has towards you, passes knowledge. The 
 whole universe is intended to express it. When he reared the 
 sublime mountains and clothed the plains in beauty, he said, 
 this is for my beloved. The course of his providence is com- 
 missioned to express it. Your own form is a revelation of his 
 love to you. Your endowments are other utterances of the same. 
 His word and all the marvels of redemption are a token of 
 love given to you over the head of angels. In its augmenting 
 utterances, the divine love stops not with the cross of Christ. 
 It comes tQ the believer and says, " Be thy heart emptied that 
 I may dwell therein, and render thine eyes, thy tongue, thy 
 hands, thy possessions, thy time, thy all, expressive of the love 
 that God bears to thy fellow-believer.'^ Every believer is thus 
 made to become another multiple of that love that is enthroned 
 on the throne of the universe. 
 
 There never was a door opened in heaven so wide as this 
 word. We learn from it the mystery of heaven. We see 
 what is the nature of its felicity. 
 
 Sin has armed all its host against love, and hath given a 
 commandment that if any man know where it be, he may 
 show it, that it may be taken. Fiery darts fall thick and fast 
 about him that gives it a home. The ugliness of man's na- 
 ture becomes gigantic, and, seizing a tremendous spear, says, 
 " Love, if thou darest." But here, as elsewhere, there is a 
 victory for faith. 
 
^ 
 
 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 105 
 
 To abide in love is to abide in the tbougbts of God's love, 
 in tbe memory and consciousness of Christ's love, in the sense 
 of one's own unwortliiness and in the renunciation of self, in 
 the rejection of selfish pleasure and advantage, and the study 
 of the true happiness of others, in intercession, in the Holy 
 Spirit, in the faith that discerns a present God and knows how 
 to discover the relations of every creature to God. Especially 
 is it to abide in the great thought that Christ tasted death for 
 every man, and that your life is to be an embodiment of the 
 gospel for every creature. And if you set about this heartily, 
 with entire consecration, it may please God to help you by a 
 wonderful device of his own. But this is a secret. 
 
 March 29. — ""When I said, my foot slippeth j thy mercy, Lord, held 
 me up." — Psalm xciv. 18. 
 
 Man walks in slippery places, saying, there is no danger. 
 Yet every rock has one declivity that descends, gently and im- 
 perceptibly at first, perhaps, but still descends to tire lake of 
 fire. And carefully examined, it reveals the names of thou- 
 sands and thousands who perished there, all saying, there is 
 no danger. And scarcely is there an hour of the day when, 
 to one who listens attentively, there comes not the wail of a 
 forlorn being whose feet have slipped, without any to hold him 
 up. 
 
 One of these rocks is popularity. Another is an ardent 
 love of literature. Another is a taste for art; be it music, 
 painting, or some other art. Another is a taste for business. 
 An enterprising spirit. A love of luxury. A passion for 
 money. Fondness for society. Venturesome reading, whether 
 of romances or of sceptical books. Love of excitement, fond- 
 ness for stimulants. Evil associations. Talkativeness. Im- 
 . pulsiveness. Wit. 
 
 These are slippery rocks. Some of these have been crossed 
 
106 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 in safety. But vast numbers liave perished on tliem. Some 
 have said, we will take heed to our steps that we slip not; 
 yet did they slip ; and not remembering the watchword, they 
 perished. 
 
 Happy are they who ever remember that the best paths of 
 this world are slippery enough, and keep near to God that he 
 may recover them the moment their feet begin to slide. These 
 persons are found breaking away now and again from their 
 avocation or recreation, because they perceive their foot to be 
 sliding, and crying to Grod are helped by his mercy. A child 
 walking among slippery rocks cries out to his parent, my foot 
 slippeth ; there is but a moment in which a helping hand can 
 reach him; yet it reaches his, for his father is just there. 
 And so, if we walk carefully, our Father's helping hand will 
 be stretched, out in the opportune moment. Jesus was nigh, 
 when Peter cried out, " Save, Lord, or I perish." 
 
 March 30. — "Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy 
 crown." — Eevelation iii. 11. 
 
 Hold fast the gift which divine grace hath already bestowed 
 on thee ; the loss of it were the loss of thy crown. 
 
 This exhortation is made necessary by such facts as these : — 
 There is a tendency in the mind to under-estimate the gifts 
 already in possession, and to forget how absolute is the connec- 
 tion between present grace and eventual glory; and there is 
 also a tendency to depreciate the power and subtlety of the 
 adversaries. 
 
 Conceive of a crown that guarantees to him who possesses 
 it life beyond the reach of interruption, health that can never 
 be invaded, purity unsulliable, wealth universal, dignity arch- 
 angelic, power unlimited, a vast dominion, the inalienable af- 
 fections and cordial services of millions of holy beings, joy 
 unspeakable and endless, and an unrestricted liberty to com- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. lOT 
 
 municate tlie most precious gifts. Conceive of sucli a crown, 
 conceive of it in thy hand, thyself walking amidst the robbers 
 of this world, and thou wilt understand the necessity of Ar- 
 gus-eyed watchfulness and unremitting endeavor in order to 
 reach the gate of the celestial palace without loss of that which 
 has been committed to thee. Perhaps the true glory of that 
 crown is yet somewhat latent ; its splendor in this atmosphere 
 of sin is not so great as that of many a tinsel crown that men 
 wear ; and to the unanointed eye of sense there is nothing 
 about it to tell of the amazing mysteries that are locked up in 
 it. But has not thine eye been anointed? Dost thou not 
 discern the sacred signature of Grod upon it ? And has not a 
 divine refiner and purifier of silver given thee demonstration 
 that all the regalia of earth's kings and emperors could not 
 purchase the tiniest jewel that sparkles in that crown which 
 the Lord hath given thee to wear in the day of his Son's es- 
 pousals and for ever more ? 
 
 Hold fast that which thou hast of love, faith, patience, 
 prayerfulness, humility, knowledge, courage, perseverance. It 
 may seem a light thing to give way to an erring momentary 
 impulse ; but understand that in that moment a bold, unscru- 
 pulous hand was stretched out to snatch away thy crown. 
 
 March 31. — "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of 
 life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." — Revelation ii. 7. 
 
 There is not only the one transcendent prize of everlasting 
 life held up to the assured hope of every believer ; but it 
 would seem that the Lord Jesus Christ (out of his treasury 
 bringing forth things new and old,) holds *out particular and 
 altogether wonderful rewards to those who throw themselves 
 into the thick of the conflict of life, and overcome where there 
 were peculiar difficulties in the way of their overcoming. The 
 records of the past bear their not unwilling testimony to this. 
 
108 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 They speak of Enoch and Elijah ; of Moses and Ezekiel ; of 
 Elisha and Daniel ; of Paul and John ; of Luther and White- 
 field. But we know that this earth is to be the scene of things 
 more glorious than have yet been witnessed; the kingdoms 
 of this world are to become the kingdom of our Lord and of 
 his Christ; and all his enemies, the last being death, are to 
 be made the footstool of the King of glory. Nor does it 
 please the Lord Jesus Christ to accomplish the sublime reduc- 
 tion of all things to himself, otherwise than by the instrumen- 
 tality of his servants ; for he says expressly, " The glory which 
 thou hast given me I have given them." It is by the branches 
 that the vine brings forth fruit and glorifies itself. And the 
 universal kingdom which the Son of man in the presence of 
 the Ancient of days is represented as receiving (Daniel vii. 
 14) is that kingdom which (in verses 18, 22, and 27) in lan- 
 gnage most explicit, the saints of the Most High are described 
 as taking and possessing for ever, even for ever and ever. 
 
 The paradise of God vanishes from our view in the first 
 chapter of the Bible, and returns to our astonished gaze in the 
 last, where the description of it is sul3tly and beautifully inter- 
 woven with that of the descending Jerusalem. The tree of 
 life was a tree of whose fruit had Adam eaten, he would have 
 lived forever ; and lest he should eat thereof he was expelled. 
 What is the life that he was not allowed to appropriate ? Not 
 surely the life of the soul, for nothing but want of faith could 
 separate him from this. No doubt it was corporeal immortal- 
 ity. Had he refrained from eating the fruit of the tree of 
 knowledge of good and evil, he would thereby have retained 
 the life of Grod in his soul ; and the tree of life seems to have 
 been appointed to 'supply an immortalizing aliment to his body, 
 by which it should be nourished with a life that nothing could 
 harm, a life corresponding in exaltedness with the life of the 
 spotless soul. This tree was a type of Christ in one of his as- 
 pects. He has brought life and immortality to light. He 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 109 
 
 that overcometli and entereth upon the full fruition of spiritual 
 life, shall eat of the tree of life, and live forever. We shall 
 not all die. 
 
 April 1. — " That he might bring us to God." — 1 Peter iii. 18. 
 
 Take this text as your interpreter, and join yourself to the 
 Lord Jesus, as he sets his face steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem. 
 With tears he gazes on the city. He endures the contradic- 
 tion of many sinners; — Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. 
 He partakes of the passover with Judas. Washes the feet of 
 his disciples. Gives the symbols of his broken body and shed 
 blood to a little company the hope of the world, the elect of 
 mankind, that were about to forsake him and flee. Look at 
 these things under the surprising light of this explanation, 
 that he might bring you to God. 
 
 See him in the garden of Gethsemane. Approach to within 
 a stone's throw of that awful place, and by the light of the pal- 
 lid moon, notice the agony, the sweat, as it were great drops of 
 blood, the face in the dust, the frequent cry of anguish to the 
 Father. Measure, if you can, the frightful depth of that abyss 
 into which the Prince of life, the Lord of glory, has been will- 
 ing to descend ; and as you measure, remember why all this 
 was — namely, that he might bring you to God. See this 
 Lamb of God led to the slaughter ; follow him step by step, 
 from tribunal to tribunal, to the cross ; ask why he opened not 
 his mouth to transfix all his enemies with a word ; the answer 
 is, that he might bring you to God. Are there not ten thou- 
 sand glorious things in the word of God, the true glory of 
 which only comes out when the light of this text is turned 
 upon them ? You see how far you were from God. Omnipo- 
 tence, not merely omnipotence, but self-immolating omnipo- 
 tence, had to embark in the enterprise of recovering you to 
 God ; while all the angels of heaven looked on with wonder 
 and semi-incredulity. 
 10 
 
110 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 Why are you brought to God ? That he may have a super- 
 lative opportunity of showing that God is love, by raising you 
 to the sublimest heights of purity and perfection. 
 
 April 2. — ''He giveth power to the faint." — Isaiah xl. 29. 
 
 The Bible, first and last, insists Jhat man shall give unto 
 God, all power, honor and glory^ and distinctly recognizes his 
 own dependence, ingloriousness and insignificance. Some fool- 
 ishly gather from this that God is against man, and is jealous 
 lest he should attain to too much dignity. But the very word 
 of God that makes such bitter warfare on the imagined 
 strength and goodness of man, shows us the Lord of the uni- 
 verse ready to bestow his treasures of strength, wisdom and 
 righteousness upon these very defeated and spoiled children of 
 earth, with a bounty that knows no limit. Man imagines that 
 unless he grasp with an unrelaxing hand his rags of righteous- 
 ness and his bruised reed which he calls a sceptre, he will be 
 utterly and forever a bankrupt. But he is now a bankrupt : 
 his treasures are counterfeit ', his power is that of a disordered 
 machine, whose wheels revolve for nothing; the fragmentary 
 thing must just be given back to God. Faint with his losses, 
 man then exclaims, " What have I V And the word of God 
 makes answer, " Thou hast power, wisdom, knowledge, salva- 
 tion, heaven." He giveth power to the faint. In him are 
 hid for thee all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. No, 
 the Bible is not the mere spoiler of humanity. It takes from 
 us the dream of things, that it may give angelic realities. It 
 comes to give, believing what it preaches, that it is more 
 blessed to give than to receive ; and when it removes aught 
 from man, it is simply that it may make room for its gifts. 
 
 Thou hast a friend therefore, thou fainting one. There is 
 power for thee. Dost thou like Esther faint in thy approaches 
 to the king ? See, he stretches out the sceptre of his grace 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. Ill 
 
 that tliou mayest confidently -draw nigli. Dost thou faint at 
 the thought of appropriating the merits of the Crucified One ? 
 Hearken, he speaks to another atrocious felon, of the same 
 deep dye with thyself, saying, " This day thou shalt be with 
 me in paradise !'' Dost thou faint under some vast responsi- 
 bility? Thou hast no responsibility that is not also Christ's; 
 for he is one with thee, and says, " Without me ye can do 
 nothing/^ Dost thou faint under a multitude of petty re- 
 sponsibilities ? He says, again, " Without me ye can do noth- 
 ing." Dost thou faint under a sense of thy spiritual feeble- 
 ness, and inaptitude of resolution ? Thou dost well to faint, 
 and to let Christ succor thee. Be faint, and take the power 
 that belongs to the faint. Let faith wait upon fainting. 
 
 April 3. — " He shall feed his flock like a shepherd." — Isaiah xl. 11. 
 
 W^ho is this that spends his time with a company of poor 
 despised sheep, seeking for them appropriate pastures, leading 
 them beside still waters, defending them from evil beasts with 
 his crook, carrying the lame ones in his bosom, studying all the 
 peculiarities in the condition of each ; apparently wrapped up 
 in them, with no wisdom, no power, no resources save such as 
 are needed for their welfare ? Why ! this is He that measured 
 the waters in the hollow of his hand, meted out heaven with 
 his span, and weighed the mountains in scales ; who taketh up 
 the isles as a very little thing; to whom the nations are 
 counted as less than nothing and vanity. This is the Omnipo- 
 tent one at whose fiat the universe sprang into existence, be- 
 fore whose great white throne the heaven and the earth shall 
 flee away, and find no place. 
 
 And who are the flock that so possess his regard ? 
 
 These are they that formerly refused to have a divine shep- 
 herd, and boasting in their own wisdom and power, surrend- 
 ered themselves to sin, that disguised wolf, and followed him 
 
112 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 to liis lair. But they were remembered by liim whom they 
 had scorned and insulted, and snatched from a frightful fate 
 by the good shepherd, who gave his life for them and took it 
 again that he might lead them into ever-verdant pastures. 
 
 Like a shcj)herd. A shepherd and his flock constitute a 
 unity; the one is not found without the other. The interests 
 of the flock are those of the shepherd. Their wisdom is in 
 him. They take no thought for the morrow ; he taketh it. 
 They are not anxious about nourishment or protection; he 
 watches for their welfare. He knows them ; knows their need, 
 their ignorance, their wandering : and they know him; know 
 his faithfulness and his all-sufiOiciency. 
 
 April 4. — " Blessed is the people that know the joj'-ful sound." — Psalm 
 Ixxxix. 15. 
 
 Blessed are they to whom the gospel is proclaimed ; that is, 
 a blessing is put within their reach. But especially, essentially 
 blessed are they who know it as glad tidings of great joy. 
 
 One land is blessed with great fruitfulness ; another with 
 great mineralogictil treasures ; another by its geographical situ- 
 ation, favorable for commerce. One nation has a liberal gov- 
 ernment; another an admirable system of education. One 
 country has numerous and excjuisite remains of ancient 
 art; another has carried the cultivation of modern art and 
 science to a high pitch ; while another has made the most mar- 
 vellous strides in manufactures. One region is blessed with 
 magnificent rivers; another glories in its sublime mountain 
 ranges. But neither of these nor all in combination suffice to 
 secure the happiness of a people, or to perpetuate the pros- 
 perity of a nation. Another chapter should be added to Vol- 
 ney's " Ruins of Empires," telling truly why those empires 
 passed away. The gospel has never yet prevailed in any nation. 
 Never yet has it been cordially received by more than a very small 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 113 
 
 minority of the people of a country. But in proportion as it lias 
 been received has a blessing from on high rested on the nations. 
 They who truly know the joyful sound, will endeavor to 
 communicate the knowledge of it to other hearts and lands. 
 Can you imagine a kind of music produced by invisible choris- 
 ters, inaudible to all save those who have been endowed with a 
 special sense for the perception and enjoyment of it ? These 
 walk in ecstacy, ever and anon, hearing the wondrous strains, 
 while the unperceiving multitude pursue the sordid tenor of 
 their way. Such strains are those of the Gospel, and they 
 that have faith are they who have received a faculty appro- 
 priate to the reception of them. The music of the words of 
 the Son of Grod is borne to them from the golden harps of the 
 invisible ones They open the word of God, and while their 
 unadept companion sees a dull, ineloquent page, the eye of the 
 believer pierces the cloud-like door of the letter and detects a vista 
 reaching to the New Jerusalem, with angels moving to and 
 fro ; exquisite melodies are wafted to his ear, and he rejoices 
 with joy unspeakable, tasting the powers of the world to come. 
 
 April 5. — '' They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." 
 —Isaiah xl. 31. 
 
 It is regarded as one of the saddest facts in our condition, 
 that the objects which interest and attract us, have no power 
 to perpetuate their own attractiveness ; and the mind obtain- 
 ing what it passionately sought, and by degrees getting accus- 
 tomed to its particular features of beauty, loses day by day 
 something of its own delight in them. Fascination can get no 
 victory that is not stolen from it again by time. And this is 
 said to be an mevitahle, Nemesis-like fact in our finite con- 
 dition. Transport must give way to an inferior sentiment. 
 Well for us, it is said, if, by a judicious and well-timed mode- 
 ration of our desires, we sink into contentment and are satis- 
 10 ^- 
 
114 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 fied witli tliat condition of tlie soul, while tlie extravagancy of 
 our former admiration sails awdj, like a painted bubble, to the 
 skies. 
 
 We do not believe that this is a divinely-appointed element 
 in our condition. An enemy hath done this. He wishes us 
 to be as gods, and to lead a life of independence, and this is the 
 paradise into which he brought us out of Eden. While we 
 are swayed by him, while sin mingles so largely with the fabric 
 of our earthly condition, while we are without Grod in the 
 world, and seek the things of the world without reference to 
 their connection with God, it is undoubtedly so. Beauty van- 
 ishes, and excellence by familiarity loses its power to captivate. 
 We are taken up by hope into some cloud heaven, and have 
 the choice perhaps of descending abruptly and disastrously, or 
 of gliding down to earth by an imperceptible declivity. 
 
 Is there no remedy? Must the imaginative, esthetic, aspir- 
 ing portion of our nature hasten to shrivel up, and leave us to 
 sober hopes, disciplined desires, and dwarfed expectations ? Not 
 so. What we need is an object whose excellence is ever fed, 
 ever augmented by supplies from an infinite source ; whose per- 
 fections seen are only introductory to other perfections to be 
 seen ; in the contemplation of whom our admiration can never 
 overtake the limit of the admirable, for there is no limit. We 
 need a divine object; and having this, we need not fear to 
 cry, " excelsior !" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
 all thy heart, and soul, and mind, is the first and great com- 
 mandment. Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall grant 
 thee the desires of thy heart. They that wait upon the Lord 
 shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as 
 eagles. 
 
 April 6.—'' Fight the good fight of faith."—! Timothy vi. 12. 
 There is a fight that is good ; a warfare that is eminently 
 laudable. It is lamentable to see how easily men err in decid- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 115 
 
 mg what is worthy, what is not worthy to enlist their noblest 
 energies. A question of unspeakable importance ; — for what 
 boots it that you undergo hardships, surmount difficulties, make 
 the most incredible sacrifices, exhibit the most brilliant valor, 
 or the most consummate skill, if the cause in which you have 
 embarked be one not worthy of your energies and sufferings ? 
 The same action is sublime when performed in its appropriate 
 path, and insignificant when thrown away upon an inadequate 
 cause. The tales of human heroism too often merely bid us 
 come and see how wonderfully man is endowed, and how un- 
 worthily he throws away those endowments. 
 
 What is that conflict of which we can say that from what- 
 ever point of view it is contemplated, it manifests itself to be 
 beyond impeachment, good ? The annals of mankind reveal 
 to us but one, the conflict of faith. 
 
 A life of faith is a life of victorious warfare. The unbe- 
 lievers around us are all led captive. They have no weapons 
 for this fight, and no heart for it; they wear the badges of 
 servitude, without shame or reluctance. We hear them say, 
 "Our business hath paramount claims upon us;" "There is 
 time in the future for religion ;" " Heaven cannot be under- 
 stood on earth f " We must enjoy ourselves while it is day, 
 for the night cometh;" "What harm is there in going to 
 scenes of festivity?" "It is enough that a man be sincere;'' 
 " There are strange things in the Bible ;" " It was once per- 
 haps suited to the condition of men." — These and a thousand 
 corresponding expressions drop from their lips and tell us too 
 plainly, alas ! that these poor persons have been smitten down 
 by the bludgeon of the adversary, carried off to be his helpless 
 slaves, and taught the language of his realm. 
 
 As we look over the map of the world, innumerable places 
 claim our notice as the scene of celebrated battles. And as 
 we look over the pages of Scripture we find these thickly dot- 
 ted with the indications of great spiritual battles fought there. 
 
IIG DAILY .MEDITATIONS. 
 
 We liglit upon the \Yord, '• One thing is needful;" and to our 
 mind's eye two hosts present themselves, one inferior in num- 
 ber to the other; one fighting the good fight of faith and 
 coming off victorious ; the other sustaining a shameful defeat. 
 " They that fear the Lord shall not want any good thing/' is a 
 citadel into which few have succeeded in entering ; the whole 
 plain around is strewed with the unbelieving dead. " Ask, 
 and it shall be given you," is surrounded by a trench, which 
 tens of thousands have attempted to pass, but have not been 
 able. But we see the flag of faith waving from its topmost 
 battlement. " Ye shall not enter," said the world, deploying 
 its legions; "but this (we reply) is the victory which over- 
 cometh the world, even our faith." 
 
 April 7. — " When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of 
 the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." — Isaiah lix. 19. 
 
 The position of the church in the world is like that of the 
 low countries. Its ground is all recovered ground; dykes 
 compass it about ; and against these the mighty ocean mutters, 
 dashes, rages, as its mood may be. The law of all waters is 
 opposed to its existence; Pacifies, Atlantics and Antarctics, 
 seem ever to be uttering a protest against it. Anon, they, or 
 their representative waters, arise in strength and precipitate 
 themselves upon it. A flood is always ready for the Church ; 
 at every moment she is threatened with a deluge that shall 
 sweep her away. Yet she unaccountably continues to exist. 
 She has no visible strength ; no appreciable resources ; and the 
 enemy is at a loss to understand how she is enabled to keep 
 her footing thus from generation to generation. 
 
 When the enemies of Judea invaded and overran that land 
 in the early days of its history, it pleased the Lord to raise up 
 by the mighty operation of his Spirit some bold deliverer, 
 around whose banner the people rallied, and by whose wisdom, 
 
DAILY MEDIIATIOXS. 117 
 
 courage and faith, the land was freed from the hostile flood. 
 So also are great periods of jeopardy and deliverance found in 
 the history of the Christian Church. In these latter times 
 the enemy has come into the Church like a silent and peace- 
 able flood, intending no harm ; and has crept very gently into 
 the valleys and stolen imperceptibly up the glens, and spread it- 
 self by amiable and conciliatory advances over the plains of the 
 Church's territory ; assuming to enrich and to bless, but really 
 involving all in one dead glassy mantle of brine. The Church 
 is led to believe that she has no enemies ; it is announced that 
 there are scarcely any assaults made upon the dykes ; but the 
 fact is that the enemy is within, and has undertaken to consti- 
 tute itself the Church. 
 
 How many and how diversified have been, of late, the doc- 
 trines inculcated in hostility to the fundamental principles of 
 Christianity, by persons holding positions in the Church, and 
 using the most approved language of piety. How complete is 
 the evidence that avarice, the idolatry of this age, is difi'used 
 through the length and breadth of the Church. How quietly 
 have we settled down into the idea that the standard of con- 
 duct given to the primitive disciples, and in each gospel em- 
 balmed in the undying words of Christ, is not a standard with 
 which we have anything practically to do. How much is it 
 considered a matter of course that the unlimited promises of 
 the New Testament should be treated as curiosities of litera- 
 ture, and not at all as the appropriate means designated by 
 God for perpetuating in the Church, Elijahs, Daniels and 
 Pauls. 
 
 And the greatest evil is that all our conceptions being cast 
 in the mould of a vitiated standard, we remain without the 
 power of perceiving how much our standard is vitiated. If 
 the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted ? Our 
 hope is with him who hath promised to lift up a standard in 
 the critical hour, and who will lift up on some conspicuous and 
 
118 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 inviolable summit, wliitlier the people may flee from the rising 
 deluge of iniquity, and find themselves safe beneath the banner 
 of Grod. If foremost men are needed, it is easy for the great 
 Head of the Church to raise them up. If the hearts of 
 princes are in his hand to turn them as he will, how much 
 more the hearts of those who are avowedly his own. He will 
 revive his work. In the midst of wrath he will remember 
 mercy. 
 
 April 8. — " Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord." — Jeremiah 
 xvii. 7. 
 
 We should greatly err if we understood this word " blessed'^ 
 as teaching that the man who trusteth in God will pursue a 
 path of tranquil enjoyment and exemption from sorrow. He 
 is blessed because he is enabled to pursue the path, the only 
 path, that leadeth unto everlasting life. Because the favor of 
 God is his. Because Christ forsaketh him never. Because 
 the Spirit of God dwells in him. Because he has grace to 
 seek the welfare of his fellow-men. And he is blessed because 
 of the peculiar nature of his sufl'erings. His tears are not as 
 others' tears. His agony is not the agony of impious men. 
 His despair even has a dignity and sacredness about it. 
 
 Jeremiah was a man that trusted in God. But it is evident 
 from the sublime bursts of misery occurring in his prophecies, 
 that he was permitted to sound the depths of human woe. It 
 was his faith in God that separated him from all his country- 
 men, deprived him of their sympathies, made him a stranger 
 to their joys, and compelled him to drink the cup of sorrow 
 which they should have drunk. He trusted in God, and 
 therefore he could not hide from them that God was about to 
 pour upon them the vials of destruction, and to surrender them 
 into the hands of a heathen king. They listened with amaze- 
 ment to words that seemed to them nothing less than blas- 
 phemy, and denounced him as the enemy of his country, a 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 119 
 
 traitor to the hallowed and God-defended interests of Judea. 
 When, in the freshness of youth, he received his prophet\pal 
 commission from the Lord, it was distinctly intimated to him 
 that " all should fight against him," the kings, the priests, the 
 people, the bad and the good, not excepting even the God- 
 fearing and devout. He was a man ever spoken against ; and 
 those that could agree upon no other topic, cordially harmon- 
 ized upon the one subject of the baseness and treachery of 
 Jeremiah. Other reputed prophets might be true or might be 
 false ; but that Jeremiah was a false prophet was something 
 not to be questioned. And it did not please the Lord to 
 give unto his servant that stern indifference that would have 
 lifted him above the reach of these cruel shafts. No, he left 
 him to the native sensitiveness and keen susceptibility to in- 
 jury that characterized him. His was a nature of exquisite 
 poetic sensibility -, and many a piercing cry of anguish escapes 
 him as he meets, remembers and broods upon the opprobrious 
 looks and words addressed to him. At times he loathes his 
 very existence, and abhors the day that gave him birth. 
 " Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of 
 strife and a man of contention to the whole earth." • 
 
 Is our faith in the goodness of God staggered by the dis- 
 covery of what he permitted this his chosen servant to suffer ? 
 Are we at a loss how to reconcile this inexorable rigor, with 
 the many declarations of the divine pitifulness ? Or, on the 
 other hand, do we decide that the prophet's faith must have 
 failed him in those hours of bitterness, and that a deeper- 
 reaching glance into the future would have saved his suscepti- 
 ble soul those fearful shocks? No, faith has no alliance with 
 stoicism. It does not make us ignore present things. Faith 
 goes beyond sense and shows us actualities that cannot other- 
 wise be discerned ; but it does not set aside sense, or separate 
 our soul from the body that is in the world. — And what be- 
 comes of the divine compassion ? Why, Jeremiah the sufferer, 
 
120 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 himself bears unequivocal testimony to the goodness of God. 
 It is he that teaches us to say, " Blessed is the man that trust- 
 eth in thee." 
 
 At long intervals Grod calls a Job, a Jeremiah to the expe- 
 rience of their aggravated sorrows: but he supports them; 
 and their triumphant faith animates the drooping faith of 
 thousands who are called to tread inferior paths of sorrow. 
 Honor to Jeremiah, who notwithstanding all his excruciation 
 of soul, hath left us this testimony, " Blessed is the man that 
 trusteth in thee !" What believer will refuse to take up the 
 refrain ? 
 
 April 9. — ''Ileal me, Lord, and I shall be healed." — Jeremiah 
 xvii. 14. 
 
 For the devices of man only increase my malady. The ut- 
 most they can do is to conceal a plague-spot here and a plague- 
 spot there ; but concealment is not abatement. What is my 
 pride the better for all their prescriptions ? What have they 
 done for my self-will ? For my unbelief, slothfulness, irrita- 
 bility, prayerlessness, impulsiveness ? I come to thee, Lord. 
 He that created me, and whose creation I have spent my days 
 in marring, can alone restore to me his image, and make me 
 to walk in the health of heaven. Heal my heart, my under- 
 standing, my memory, my desires, my imagination, my hopes, 
 my fears, my body, my speech, my looks, my acts. I am in a 
 condition that renders me the prey of suffering in every form. 
 All my faculties torment me. My words come back upon me, 
 and pierce me like daggers. My memory is continually fetch- 
 ing some coal of fire to me. My desires carry me into paths 
 where venomous serpents lie in wait. My imagination still 
 beguiles me with the idea that it is my royal friend, and taking 
 me by the hand to lead me to some canopied and luxurious 
 seat, presently lets it go and with derision sees me sink into 
 some black abyss. Hope sits enthroned as it were a delegated 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 121 
 
 angel; but a life-long and frightful experience leaves me un- 
 able to doubt the fact that a legion of tormenting spirits are 
 the ministers of this still-smiling enemy. Many endowments 
 of my nature — which, were I not a moral wreck, a spiritual 
 leper, would have each of them with its own particular key 
 given me the freedom of a heaven all its own — in this my 
 corrupt condition show themselves each provided with a key 
 to a place of torment all its own. So that the properties which 
 seemed to have most of glory and of paradise still hanging 
 about them, and which therefore inspired me with the most 
 un doubting reliance, are the very properties which have most 
 excoriated my soul and aggravated my malady. But heal thou 
 me and I shall be healed. Release me from my own perverted 
 will, my rash desires, my reckless imagination. If thou wilt 
 thou canst, and there is evidence of thy willingness. 
 
 April 10. — "Thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help." — 
 Hosea xiii. 9. 
 
 God hath said, " Thou shalt not kill," But thou hast done 
 more than this. Imagine thyself in the presence of some 
 pure and spotless inhabitant of heaven, clad in perfections 
 that enable him to ' smile at any difficulty however gigantic, 
 and resplendent with the glory of God. Imagine thyself as- 
 sailing him in his purity, wisdom, love, power, and glory ; and 
 stripping him of all his perfections one after another, and 
 finally precipitating him to earth, a poor depraved sensual 
 rebel. Cease now to imagine; and recognize the stern reality 
 of this description. Thou hast done it ; thou hast wrought 
 this destruction ; and upon whom * Upon thyself Thou hast 
 destroyed thyself But for thy sin, thou wouldst have been 
 that bright celestial being. 
 
 Raise thyself now anew to that pitch of purity and excel- 
 lence. Regain paradise. Reinstate thyself among those who 
 11 
 
122 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 walk in the light of the enthroned Creator. Get thyself en- 
 veloped with an atmosphere that knows no taint of sin. Cast 
 all thy sins into a bottomless abyss, and roll an everlasting 
 stone upon them ; and decorate thyself with the virtues of 
 Gabriel, the seraphic energies of Raphael ! Thou canst not 
 do it ; the very thought savors of madness. But it may be 
 done. From heaven thou didst bring down in frightful ruin 
 one of God's noblest works. The Son of God has come to 
 earth for the purpose of redeeming this ruined humanity, and 
 raising it to a higher, safer, more blessed pitch of dignity than 
 that from which it fell. " In me is thy help," saith the Lord. 
 
 April 11. — " The Lord is good unto them that wait for him." — Lamen- 
 tations iii. 25. 
 
 This modest text is supported by a bolder and more eloquent 
 one in Isaiah. " Men have not heard, nor perceived by the 
 ear, neither hath the eye seen, God, beside thee, what he 
 hath prepared for him that waiteth for him."* Those that 
 waited for the Messiah, and at length beheld him, found the 
 promise of these texts verified in their experience. 
 
 But we have not in this dispensation bid farewell to the at- 
 titude of waiting. The great and precious things bestowed 
 upon us, do not hinder our aspirations after more transcending 
 things to come. Faith wrestles. Faith also waits. Some 
 have faith to wrestle ; but not to wait. 
 
 This waiting implies an unconquerable conviction that the 
 manifestations of goodness which we have asked of God, he 
 will grant in some more fitting time than the present, and after 
 full proof of our faith. It is immensely difiicult for faith to 
 endure, if the season be protracted. For day after day comes 
 and goes, saying, as it goes, " You see the folly of your ex- 
 pectation. God has denied your request for some sufficient 
 reason. Your expectation is vain." The providence of God 
 * Isaiah Ixiv. 4. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 123 
 
 seems to use similar language, declaring with a thousand 
 voices, that your faith is erroneous and vain. By the law of 
 your nature you pass through multitudinous moods whose dif- 
 ferences of light and shade make things look very differently, 
 and if faith pass serenely through them all, it is a wonder of 
 wonders. But the exercise of faith tends also to perfect it ; 
 and the repeated, deliberate, prayerful, re-examination of the 
 foundation laid for your future edifice, leaves at length the soul 
 as firmly persuaded of the expected, as it is of the present. 
 Nor while it seeks the future is it impatient with the present, 
 but cheerfully intelligent of whatever there is of good around. 
 
 April 12. — "The Lord is my portion, saith my soul." — Lam, iii. 24. 
 
 Poor man, says the world. But no, says the believer; he is 
 to be pitied who boasts of any other portion than this. If the 
 Lord be not thy portion, will any portion that thou hast con- 
 tinue ? Let it be power like that of Napoleon, wisdom like 
 that of Socrates; fame like that of Bacon, imagination like 
 that of Scott, wealth like that of the Bourbons; let it be 
 beauty, or valor, or wit, or industry ; let it be troops of friends, 
 or one most loving heart; let it be what it may, it is a con- 
 temptible portion, if it be thine all. 
 
 He that becomes a follower of Christ, declares that the Lord 
 is his portion. He counts all but loss for the excellency of the 
 knowledge of him. And not onl}^ does his soul say it ; his 
 life, his daily life, must say it ; must testify that he has for- 
 saken all for Christ. How singular that, after all the glimpses 
 of his boundless wealth, and power, and majesty, granted by 
 Christ to the sons of men when on the earth, he should find so 
 few willing to take up with him for a portion. It was the 
 merest trifle for him to spread a table for five thousand men, 
 besides women and children ; with but a word he loaded seve- 
 ral boats full of large fishes ; he raised the dead ; all power in 
 
124 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 heaven and in earth was manifestly his. We see plainly that 
 all other portions must at last revert to him, and he will give 
 them to whom he will. But independently of all material 
 gifts, there is that in his character which makes him, him 
 alone, able to satisfy the soul throughout eternity. 
 
 April 13. — " Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord." — 
 Ilosea vi. 2. 
 
 Is it at all unreasonable to suppose that the contemplation 
 of God will yield us greater^ more precious results than the 
 consideration of anything or of everything in this world that 
 he has made ? You are wrapt up in the study of mineralogy, 
 or botany, or conchology; and have no time to spare for the 
 cultivation of your acquaintance with God. The sight of a 
 little shell has wonderful power to awaken all your faculties : 
 and you have no rest till you have ascertained its characteris- 
 tics, traced and counted the lines upon it, and determined its 
 specific relations ; but an invitation to come and contemplate 
 God leaves you listless and apathetic. You delight in archaeo- 
 logical researches, and with your whole soul embark in the 
 study of certain antiquities, -with a view to determine at what 
 period, and by whom they were produced ; yet are you never 
 for a moment tormented by the desire to increase your know- 
 ledge of God. You, my friend, have a great dread of being 
 found imperfectly acquainted with a certain literature, and 
 think nothing of devoting whole nights to the acquisition of 
 it ; but your conscience is visited by no painful sense of your 
 defective knowledge of him from whom is every good gift. 
 
 Once we too were thus. If a man had anything curious to 
 tell us concerning the most distant star that twinkles in the 
 firmament, we waited for his words with eagerness; but no 
 solicitude to improve our acquaintance with the Divine Dis- 
 poser of all, ever agitated our soul. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 125 
 
 But now we grasp at this assurance : "Then shall we know;" 
 and at the similar asseveration of Paul : " Then shall I know, 
 even as also I am known." And the joy with which we hail 
 this prospect is a clear evidence that we have passed out of the 
 region of our former ignorance, and that we know God. In- 
 difference and ignorance are here indissolubly linked, as also 
 are knowledge and thirst for knowledge. 
 
 Then shall we know, if we follow on to knoio the Lord. The 
 Lord has brought us into the pathway of the knowledge of 
 him, and bids us pursue that path through all its strange nie- 
 anderings until it opens out upon the plain where God's throne 
 is. Our life is a following on to know the Lord. We marvel 
 at some of the experiences through which we are called to 
 pass : but afterwards we see that they afforded us some new 
 knowledge of our Lord. Our path suddenly disappeared in 
 some hideous cavern where we seemed to hear the roaring of 
 wild beasts ; and we could not at all connive what benefit 
 would result from our entering ; but we entered ; and when 
 by a favoring passage we emerged from that obscurity and 
 danger, we felt that we had obtained some new and valuable 
 insight into the divine character. Again, our path shot right 
 down into the impenetrable darkness of some deep pit ] it was 
 some time before our eyes got accustomed to that darkness ; 
 then we discovered a little door, and soon found ourselves in a 
 gallery of hidden treasures, several of which we gathered and 
 still retain. Pursuing thus the knowledge of God we found 
 ourselves like Joseph in Egypt, alone in the midst of a nation 
 that knew not God ; and found that there was something here 
 to be learned concerning the divine perfections that could not 
 elsewhere be learned.* We have not then to wait for some 
 future brighter opportunity ; but by improvement of the pres- 
 ent are to build for ourselves a bridge to that future. 
 
 * Referring to India, Avhere these Meditations were written. — A. 
 11 * 
 
126 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 April 14. — "When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto 
 me." — Micah vii. 8. 
 
 He will, tliou propliet of the living God ! More happy art 
 thou in this thy strong and well-warranted persuasion than if 
 a tiara of the most effulgent diamonds were set upon thy brow, 
 to light up the chamber of thy darkness. Didst thou always 
 know this ? Couldst thou from the beginning look thus se- 
 renely along the paths of life, conscious that betide whatever 
 might, thou shouldst enjoy the manifested presence of thy 
 God? 
 
 Perhaps not. Perhaps there was a period in thy life when 
 thou hadst indeed a strong conviction of the incomparable de- 
 sirableness of such an assurance, and hadst a belief in its at- 
 tainableness, but couldst not possess thyself of the privilege. 
 Y/ithont this distinct perception of a present God, thy Saviour, 
 Friend, and Guide, life seemed an odious blank. For this thou 
 wert willing to sacrifice all things, and deem thyself an infinite 
 gainer by the exchange. But how enter this hidden life ? By 
 faith, was the answer. But how believe ? Oh how immense 
 this difl[iculty seemed to one accustomed to the death-state of 
 the soul, to unbelief, to the insane vision that perceives every- 
 thing save Him by whom all things subsist. But he that had 
 given thee so much faith as to perceive the all-surpassing bless- 
 edness of a life in which God is throughout consciously inter- 
 mingled, forsook thee not ; and soon enabled thee to open wide 
 the eye of faith, and behold Him gloriously nigh, overpower- 
 ingly manifest ; enabled thee to take into thy very soul his 
 indestructible promise to abide with thee as thy Helper, Lover, 
 and Satisfier, for ever. 
 
 When God gives faith, he gives the opportunity of proving 
 it. He loves the sweet expression of it in confidential words -, 
 loves still better the exhibition of it in indubitable acts. 
 '• Thou shalt sit in darkness," he says to his trusting servant. 
 But first he leads the believer along some flowery walk, and 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 127 
 
 accustoms him to a liigli measure of spiritual prosperity. 
 Then suddenly an unexpected tempest gathers about him, and 
 he finds himself in deepest, strangest night. Darkness is 
 come ; but it is difierent in some of its elements from what the 
 believer had contemplated in the day of his declared faith. 
 Yes, designedly diiferent. It was needful that his darkness 
 should be something never anticipated, in order that his faith 
 might have its full proof. The darkness seems to say, " God 
 is not in me, I am sent in wrath. Thy faith is presumption. 
 I am come to banish from thee the promises which thou hast 
 hitherto delighted in — to dispel the delusive idea of Glod thy 
 Comforter. Despair is the only thing that harmonizes with 
 me." The shadow thus speaks and frowns. But faith comes 
 nobly out of this conflict. It lets not go its talisman. It 
 seizes the word of God with a compulsory grasp. Immediately 
 the believer is compassed about with light, and looks with an 
 air of complacent triumph at the baffled shadow. 
 
 April 15. — " Men ought always to pray and not to faint." — Luke xviii. 1. 
 
 The context informs us what that prayer is in which we 
 ought not to allow ourselves to faint. The prayer is that God 
 would be pleased to judge between his people and the world. 
 The world denies the claim of the righteous to be considered 
 the children of God. The one great need of the Church is, 
 that God should bear testimony unto the v/ord of his grace, 
 and rebuke the nations with a voice they, can but hear, saying, 
 '• Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm." 
 The Lord Jesus taught us what to ask for, when he said to the 
 Father, " That the world may know that thou hast sent me and 
 hast loved my disciples as thou hast loved me." The revela- 
 tion of God in his relation to believers, by their sanctification, 
 by the perfection of his image in them, by the gifts and graces 
 of his Holy Spirit, by his providence, and by unprecedented 
 
128 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 methods reserved to be the special glory of the latter days — is 
 what we ask. Is this a thing to stop asking ? Does the sick 
 man give over seeking for health, because his sickness is pro- 
 tracted ? Or does the hungry man desist from his search for 
 food, when it is not soon found ? No, for he well knows that 
 if he fail of obtaining food, he fails of all. This benefit with- 
 drawn, all others are withdrawn. Well therefore may we 
 continue in prayer, for what we ask is indispensable. 
 
 This continuing in prayer is a singularly profitable exercise. 
 When we cry to God and receive no answer, and still continue 
 in supplication, not wavering, we find our minds running with 
 a surprising vigilance through the pages of Scripture, snatch- 
 ing up a word of help here and another there. We become 
 most rapidly intelligent of its precious contents. Our views 
 of Grod expand ; his character, his government, his purposes, 
 present themselves to us with a definiteness that they never 
 had before in our perceptions. Our knowledge of ourselves 
 in like manner advances in an equally accelerated ratio. And 
 all this tends to the increase of faith. The very discovery of 
 our own unworthmess tends, at such a time, to make us rest 
 more confidently on the righteous Advocate. We get a hun- 
 dred preparatory blessings, and then at last we get the blessing 
 sought. Meantime our conceptions of that blessing have been 
 greatly elevated. If at first it ranked in our estimation as a 
 thousand, it now ranks as millions. We have looked at it in 
 the future, and seen it undergo many transfigurations. We 
 were consoled in the hour of our disappointed faith, by seeing 
 the prize put on superior beauty, and show itself more worth 
 pursuing than we had previously believed. Imagine a vase 
 with your name upon it, fast by the throne of God. As you 
 prayed, your heavenly Father dropped ever and anon a gift 
 brighter than your best conception into that vessel. Mean- 
 while he sought among the hours of your future life for one in 
 which the bestowal of this accumulating wealth would be largest 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 129 
 
 in results; and marked that hour also on the vase. And while 
 you thought yourself poor, angels looked with admiration on 
 your treasure in heaven. 
 
 April 16. — " The beloved of the Lord." — Deuteronomy xxxiii. 12. 
 
 Who is this beloved of the Lord ? It is one who believes 
 n the love that God has toward him. We have not to bring 
 about the love of God towards us ; but to recognize that love. 
 Peter had a great idea of his own love to Christ; " though all 
 men forsake thee, yet will I not forsake thee ;" but John was 
 content to speak of himself as the beloved of the Lord. 
 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us. 
 His love to us is as our faith in his love, and in our own un worthi- 
 ness. " Daniel, greatly beloved," said the angel to that man 
 of God ; and oftentimes a similar declaration runs down to us 
 from the skies. Surely facts speak as loudly as words ; how 
 many facts can you at this moment point to, each and all de- 
 claring that you are the beloved of the Lord. 
 
 Do you still hesitate to class yourself as a third with Daniel 
 and John ? Tell me, is there any greater expression of the 
 love of God, than was given in the surrender of his Son to 
 Gethsemane, Gabbatha, and Calvary? Did Daniel or John 
 ever receive any more affecting love-token than this ? Be only 
 bold enough to know the love that was expressed when Christ 
 tasted death for you, and you may without hesitation sit down 
 beneath the same tree with Daniel and John, and expect them 
 to listen while you speak of the crucified one. 
 
 But ever remember that you cannot begin to estimate the 
 love of Calvary, till you have given up all notions of your own 
 goodness. It makes an immense difference in estimating God's 
 love, whether that love was bestowed on an utterly vile and re- 
 pulsive sinner, or upon an amiable being, adorned with many 
 graces, and naturally attractive. If you judge yourself to be 
 this last, then you can never know anything about the love set 
 
130 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 forth in the gospel ; and you will do well to avoid the society 
 of Daniel and John. Divine love wade them amiable and 
 attractive ; not found them so. 
 
 April 17. — " Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord."— 
 •Isaiah i. 18, 
 
 " Let there be an understanding between us. Let us talk 
 over the points of difference between us, and see if we cannot 
 come to a settlement. If you have any fault to find with me, 
 state it. If I am not what you would have me be, put your 
 objection into words. Be explicit. You alienate yourself 
 from me, shun my paths, avoid all approaches to communion 
 with me, shut up my word, look coldly on my people, and if 
 you can possibly get anything else to think of, no matter how 
 contemptible it be, you will not give a thought to me or to my 
 solicitations. Again I say, be exploit, be honest. I will not 
 object to any statement of your views, so that they be made in 
 a spirit of frankness, and with a willingness to be enlightened. 
 Come and let us reason together. Let/'us go by ourselves, 
 where there may be no curiosity of man to interfere with the 
 fullest intercommunication.'* 
 
 The Lord invites me to a conference with himself Why 
 should I not go ? Why should I not state to God himself my 
 difficulties. Is it right, is it honest, to be entertaining this 
 lukewarmness, this aversion, and not be willing to have the 
 grounds of it clearly defined ? my soul, come to an under- 
 standing with thy Grod. The main difiiculty with thee is a 
 consciousness that after all the guilt will be found with thee, 
 and not a particle of blame attach to God. But observe, my 
 soul, how admirably this difficulty is met by his generous pro- 
 posal. My sins are as s'carlet, but he hastens to say that they 
 shall be as white as snow. He meets me with a robe of justifi- 
 cation, and royally adorns me at the very threshold of his 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 131 
 
 house ; so that I need not to dread tlie humiliating contrast of 
 my rags with that resplendent audience-chamber. And if he 
 so hasten to justify me, the most unholy of beings, shall I not be 
 willing to justify him, the holiest and best? Yes, Lord, let 
 me reason with thee ; for where thou mightest condemn, there 
 thou dost vouchsafe the most surprising promises, the most 
 transporting tokens of love. 
 
 April 18. — "0 God, thou art my God." — Psalm Ixiii. 1. 
 
 Mine ! All mine ! All the revelation of thee in the Bible 
 is the revelation of my Grod. Thy wisdom is all for me. So 
 is thy power. So is thy goodness. So is thy truth, thy pu- 
 rity, thy justice ; thy time is for me, thy eternity for me ', thy 
 works' for me. Thou sittest on the throne of the universe for 
 me ; pervadest all space for me ; arrangest all thy plans for me. 
 
 Many millions of millionB of miles away, but a star to thine 
 eyes, is a sun huge in mass, dazzling in splendor, weighty in 
 attraction, beneficent in function. Around it, in orbit suc- 
 ceeding orbit, with velocities, densities, bulks, revolutions, 
 times, beautifully harmonized, are numerous planets, each 
 having its oceans and continents, its forests, its animals, its in- 
 telligent creation. Shall God take thought for thee, in that 
 distant gTOup of worlds ? Can he not let go the thought of 
 thee, as he enters that distant system and directs its sublime 
 movements ? No, he cannot let go the thought of thee. That 
 sun is commissioned not only to give light to those revolving 
 worlds, but ever, without a moment's intermission, to send 
 down to thee a ray of light expressive of his unforgetting love. 
 It hangs above thee by day, hindered by other light from 
 reaching thee ; but no sooner does night open a door for it, 
 than it rushes to the spot where thou art. All the night long 
 it is there ; thou hast but to look, and it meets thy glance. 
 What meets thy glance ? Yon distant sun, thousands of times 
 
132 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 the size of this earth. The ray that meets thy eye is all for 
 thee ; it is thine own particular token that the omnipresent 
 God, in whatsoever part of the universe he may be displaying 
 his perfections, cannot for an instant be unmindful of the rela- 
 tion existing between him and thee. 
 
 This in nature. How much more in grace. And we learn 
 these things first in grace. 
 
 April 19. — " The Lord lifteth up the meek." — Psalm cxlvii. 6. 
 
 The meek are they who have consented to receive .the 
 knowledge of themselves. Self-detection has led to self-spo- 
 liation. Their wardrobe has turned out to be a pirate's chest. 
 The more richly they went arrayed, the more they exposed 
 their own dishonor. They gladly now sink down to their 
 proper level, and find no place too low for them. Perhaps 
 they occasionally shrink back from some deeper humiliation. 
 But the Spirit of God and his providence convince them, and 
 they take that step too. They lose at length their reluctance, 
 and are content to be last of all and servant of all. 
 
 Oh ! how few, how rare, are those meek ones ! Am I one 
 of them, Lord ? Am I quite content to be overlooked in 
 the day when thou distributest honors on the earth ? Am I 
 willing to be despised by all, and made of no account ? Is my 
 chief ambition to be useful, eminently but not ostensibly use- 
 ful ? And if I get this spirit one day, does it abide with me ? 
 Do I not find myself coming into new circumstances where my 
 mean estate troubles me ? And through some insidious sug- 
 gestion does there arise impatience of God's depressing provi- 
 dence ? Thou that art meek and lowly of heart, teach me to 
 be meek, give me a meekness that shall pass through every 
 ordeal. 
 
 The meek shall be lifted up; they shall be exalted very 
 high. But in their utmost exaltation they will lose nothing 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 133 
 
 jf their meekness. In tlie highest or in the lowest situation, 
 they are at home, they are blessed. The idea of their own 
 merit has been ground out of them by the wheel of Grod's gov- 
 ernment ; and their whole being is pervaded and beatified by 
 God's love. 
 
 April 20. — "He shall never sufiFer the righteous to be moved." — Psalm 
 Iv. 22. 
 
 Some one may say : " He will never allow the righteous to 
 fall away ; but what right have I to regard myself as right- 
 eous ? Of what avail is this promise to me V 
 
 Well, it is of none, if thou art not righteous. In that case, 
 the wrath of God abideth on thee ; there are no promises for 
 thee. But are there no promises for such as hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness ? Yes, for they are righteous. The Pub- 
 lican went down to his house, justified rather than the Phari- 
 see. To look unto the righteousness of Christ, is the right- 
 eousness of sinful man. The measure in which a man re- 
 nounces the notion of his own righteousness, is generally the 
 measure according to which God estimates him as righteous. 
 Our text corresponds with the words : " My sheep shall never 
 perish, neither shall any be able to pluck them out of my 
 hand." 
 
 Others say : " We make no pretensions to piety, but we are 
 righteous, and none the less so that we have the boldness to 
 declare ourselves what we are." 
 
 Let us see. You daily receive at your board a poor creature 
 who, without your bounty, would be a miserable beggar, totter- 
 ing to an obscure grave. You spread for him an excellent 
 banquet, and that as often as he has appetite. Yet he never 
 takes the slightest notice of you, never joins in any laudations 
 of your name, turns the subject of conversation when you are 
 mentioned. You have authorized him to go daily to your 
 treasurer, and receive whatever he needs for his daily expenses, 
 32 
 
134 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 and even for his prospective expenditure ; yet he never admits 
 that he is indebted to you for the money, and is just as ready 
 to bestow it on your enemies as on your friends. He lives in 
 your house ; sleeps upon your couch 3 receives raiment from 
 your wardrobe ; is made glad by your wine ; regaled by the 
 perfume of your flowers ; entertained by your music ; conveyed 
 in your carriages; instructed by your teachers; aided by your 
 wisdom ; and upheld by your strength. Yet never is he found 
 rendering you any due respect, or troubling himself to know 
 what is your will. In a thousand things he violates your com- 
 mands. But in his transactions with his fellow-servants, he is 
 particular not to defraud them. Shoul he indeed learn from 
 thee what his duties to them are, he would discover that he 
 comes exceedingly short even in these. But be it so. He is 
 very careful to conduct himself in such a manner towards them 
 as to be regarded as an honest man. Ten thousand mercies 
 from thee leave him as indifferent to thy will and pleasure as 
 ever he was; yet the least benefit from his fellow awakens in 
 him gratitude and a desire to requite the favor. — Shall such a 
 man be counted righteous ? Does not the moral sense that 
 reveals itself in his communications with his fellow-men, serve 
 only the more signally to condemn him ? He, and such as he, 
 are unrighteous ; and the unrighteous shall not inherit the 
 kingdom of Grod. 
 
 April 21. — " Let not your heart be troubled." — John xiv. 1. 
 
 If these words were appropriate at the time when they were 
 spoken, then can we hardly conceive of a situation in which 
 the people of God may be placed, in which these words would 
 be inappropriate. If at that time the disciples were not to 
 be troubled, then tell me, pray, what is the hour, what the 
 emergency, when it is fitting that their hearts should be 
 troubled ? 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 135 
 
 Says one, " My cliild is dead; my beloved one. For years 
 mj predominant solicitude had been to make all things work 
 together for the beautifying of her life. All my plans, my 
 labors, my hopes, my prayers even, have had largely a reference 
 to her happiness. My present joys were in some degree con- 
 stituted by the thought of what she would be in days to come. 
 And now she is suddenly gone — in a whirlwind of suffering — 
 under circumstances the most heart-rending. The world is for 
 me emptied, in a single hour.'' 
 
 But one of those who sat at table with Jesus might thus 
 reply : " We were with the Messiah for whom we had left 
 father and mother, wife and children. We had staked all our 
 hopes upon him. By following him we had brought upon us 
 the enmity of mankind ; and by his departure we were to be 
 exposed to the full blast of that enmity. We had made up 
 our -minds that he was the Lord of Life, and that all dignities 
 of heaven or earth were in his gift, and that of the increase 
 of his dominion there should be no end, and that he would 
 presently prepare for us twelve thrones corresponding to the 
 twelve tribes of the children of Israel. And now we were 
 told, and that by himself, that he was to be taken away ; taken 
 violently away by the hands of sinners ; subjected to all man- 
 ner of outrages ; be, as it were, denounced from heaven, God 
 not interposing for his deliverance ; and to die a most igno- 
 minious and barbarous death. And yet we were bidden not 
 to let our hearts be troubled. The sun was to be as sackcloth, 
 and the moon as blood ; all the powers of heaven were to be 
 shaken ; yet we were to remain peaceful and serene." 
 
 One may say, " I could have met with equanimity all the 
 common woes of life; but my good name, which has never 
 been reproached, is now covered with opprobrium." The 
 apostles may answer : " This was what was about to happen to 
 us. We were to be universally regarded as the followers of a 
 manifest impostor, preachers of blasphemy, enemies of all 
 
136 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 righteousness; yet we were told not to let our hearts be 
 troubled." 
 
 Another speaks, and says : '' These things may be endured 
 by the grace of God. But where there is no manifestation of 
 God to the soul, when spiritual darkness has set in upon us, 
 can we be otherwise than troubled ?" The apostles answer : 
 "■What darkness was comparable to ours? When Christ was 
 crucified, it seemed that God was saying from heaven unto us, 
 ' I know you not.' Depart from me, ye cursed, was what his 
 providence appeared to say, in a language that all could under- 
 stand. Yet the Lord Jesus, knowing all things that should 
 happen, said unto us, let not your liearts, he trouhled." 
 
 April 22. — " Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance." — Mat- 
 thew iii. 8 
 
 A mighty angel stands in heaven upon a height at the foot 
 of which you dwell unconsciously ; and he bears aloft in his 
 hands a stone, mountainous in size, which he is prepared to 
 hurl upon you. But another mighty one says: Stay; for he 
 repents, and will now bring forth fruits in evidence thereof. 
 Then the company of the just made perfect, bend their eager 
 gaze upon you to discern this evidence ; and the stone descends 
 not, though it hangs above you. Well may you therefore give 
 heed to this admonition, and make haste to bring forth fruits. 
 
 A profession of religion is a solemn and open condemnation 
 of and shrinking from our past life. It is a profession of re- 
 pentance, of a changed mind relatively to sin and to unright- 
 eousness. Christ is exalted to give repentance. He saves men 
 from their sins by inspiring them with a hatred of their sins, 
 and by giving them a heart to pursue an opposite path. For 
 one that has made such a profession, to trifle with sin, to re- 
 new communications with his old sins, is a most dangerous 
 thing. When he indulges in a forbidden thing, he calls back 
 the ten thousand similar indulgences belonging to his past life. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 137 
 
 Seeing liim turn to Christ, these sins had begun to flee from 
 him discomfited ) but a single recommission arrests them, and 
 thej exclaim, "he yet belongs to us." The ten thousand 
 talents had been forgiven the steward Y\'ho professed repent- 
 ance ; but a single act that seemed to show his repentance un- 
 sound, brought the whole of the huge debt back upon him. 
 
 Oh, my heart, is there not here instruction for thee ? Is it 
 not well for thee to entertain the idea that repentance is an in- 
 dispensable barrier to keep thee from the tremendous claims of 
 thy past sins ? When a feeling of pride surges within thee, 
 remember that the allowing of it will be like a standard lifted 
 up for all thy old sins of pride, a fearful host, to rally round. 
 Thy old sins, all of them, with all their power to alarm, to con- 
 demn, to destroy, are buried for thee, deep and safe ; but the 
 stoue that covers them is sealed by the evidences of thy change 
 of heart; and if at any time, something like the old heart is 
 seen in thee, immediately the stone begins to heave, and the 
 buried sins cry out, " We are unjustly here. He bringeth not 
 forth fruits meet for repentance.'^ 
 
 April 23. — " Lord, lift tliou up upon us the light of thy countenance." 
 — Psalm iv. 6. 
 
 Grive us the tokens of thy favor, the expressions of thy grace, 
 the revelation of thy glory. Acknowledge us as thy sons 
 and daughters, privileged ones, having access to thine audience- 
 chamber, and permitted to behold the majesty and kindness 
 that to others are veiled. Let the light of thy loving glance 
 descend into our soul. A day is coming when thy glory shall 
 be flashed abroad through all the heavens, and when it shall 
 fall like one immense sheet of lightning upon the nations. But 
 what the world cannot now behold, let us behold. Though the 
 rising of the Sun of Righteousness, in fall-orbed glory, be not 
 yet, let at least the day-star arise in our hearts. 
 
 It is not in the hour of worldly prosperity that we are best 
 12* 
 
138 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 able to beliold the light of God's countenance in its most 
 transporting manifestations. The benefits that God bestows 
 equally upon the just and upon the unjust, upon his children 
 and his enemies, are not those that most favor our perception 
 of the light of God's countenance. The Spirit of glory and 
 of God resteth especially on those who are reproached for the 
 name of Christ. Stephen, when encompassed by his numerous 
 enemies, saw heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing at 
 the right hand of the glory of God. Sometimes the revelation 
 of the glory is vouchsafed in the midst of the trial ) (call to 
 mind several instances of this in the word of God ;) — some- 
 times to prepare the believer for fiery trials ; witness Isaiah, 
 Ezekiel; — sometimes after the enduring of the trials; witness 
 Job, Simeon, and others. 
 
 Is there not something held out to thee in this sentence, 
 that looms far higher than any conception that thou hast ven- 
 tured to form of the readiness of God to reveal himself to the 
 friends of Jesus, and of his power to enrapture the soul by a 
 glance that faith discerns ? If there be anything soul-glad- 
 dening in the light of a created countenance, what exalted 
 ideas may we not form of the incomparable delights that shall 
 descend into the soul when God, the Creator, the Redeemer, 
 the Sanctifier, fixes on us his unrestricted glance of love. 
 
 Let us utter this prayer with all intensity of desire and 
 strength of expectation. Let our life utter it. Men go down 
 into deep wells that they may see a star, a mere star; let us 
 not shrink from any position to which the angels of divine 
 providence may beckon us, and from which we are likely to 
 behold more gloriously the revelation of the countenance of 
 our God. 
 
 Ap^il 24. — "From him cometli my salvation." — Psalm Ixii. 1. 
 
 From wlwm ? From him whose commandments I have so 
 flagrantly violated, and whose authority I have set at nought. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 139 
 
 From him whose countless benefits I have clutched without 
 noticing the hand that bestowed them. From the thrice-holy 
 One at whose reproof the pillars of heaven tremble and are 
 astonished ; and by whose command the fallen angels are kept 
 under the chains of darkness. Perdition has overtaken myri- 
 ads of beings who went not so far in the contempt of God, as 
 I did ; yet salvation cometh to me from him. All his perfec- 
 tions, the stability of his government, the interests of his holy 
 universe, seem to require the outpouring of his fiercest wrath 
 upon my head; yet from him cometh my salvation. 
 
 From him it cometh. Every day, every hour, it cometh to 
 me ; by one agency, and by another ; now in this manner, now 
 in that. It cometh to me in his word; in the answers to 
 prayer ; in the examples of good men ; in reverses and humili- 
 ations ; and in the various providences that help me to see the 
 loathsomeness of sin. It comes to me in the Holy Spirit, and 
 in new views of the all-worthiness of Christ. And what has 
 not yet reached me is on its way to me. By faith I rejoice in 
 experiences to come; in deliverance from all sin and from all 
 corruption ; in perfection, moral, intellectual, and physical. 
 
 My salvation. I know more evil of myself, than I can posi- 
 tively know of another. When I take some of the pictures 
 of my past life, and thrust them into the purity of heaven, the 
 whole creation seems to suffer violence, to groan and shudder 
 at the unendurable contrast. Shall this bosom that has been 
 the seat of affections so dishonorable, be interpenetrated with 
 the very love of Grod, love to all that are the fitting objects of 
 love, love ineffable and immaculate ? 
 
 My salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ, my Saviour, came to 
 earth to make an atonement, proclaim his gospel, establish his 
 church, pour out his Spirit. This was the Alpha of my salva- 
 tion. I look for him now from heaven, in glory, to complete 
 in me his wondrous work, and present me faultless, transfigured, 
 angelic, before his Father's throne. This will be the Omega. 
 
140 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 April 25. — "Forget not all his benefits." — Psalm ciii. 2. 
 
 The meaning is, forget not any, remember all. The right 
 recollection of a benefit is all but equal to a new benefit. As 
 God is the same, as the expressions of his goodness are ex- 
 pressions of eternal goodness, the recollection of a past benefit 
 may well be cherished since it is in a certain sense not past 
 but present. Each token of love let down by God into my 
 life, projects itself forward indefinitely, and accompanies me 
 on an undying mission, to declare that God and I are friends 
 through the Lord Jesus Christ. The domain of faith extends 
 not only over the present and the future, but over the past also. 
 It is faith that keeps snatching the past kindnesses of God 
 from the sea of oblivion. 
 
 The gifts of God are not bestowed upon believers merely to 
 relieve a want, or to meet a capacity for enjoyment. They are 
 not merely bestowed for the good that is in them but to reveal 
 something in the disposition of the giver. They are epistles 
 telling of his love, wisdom, and power. Now it is evident that 
 a past benefit remembered, must be about as valid for this 
 blessed purpose as a present benefit. God is bound over to 
 goodness by his past charities, if faith remembers them. 
 
 How odious is it not to remember benefits. The rich man 
 whose treasures are greater than he can compute, should not 
 treat with disdain a trifling present, if it express the good will 
 of a poor man. Nevertheless the rich do often exhibit such 
 disdain, especially in the form of forgetfulness. Benefits from 
 those whose kindness we value, we presume not to forget. But 
 is God a being so low in the scale, that gifts from him are 
 grasped only for their own sake, and the giver immediately 
 forgotten ? Do you like that your own presents to another 
 should be forgotten ? No, not the least of them. It galls you 
 exceedingly if one out of ten benefits should pass from the 
 recollection of your beneficiary. 
 
 But how remember all these benefits ? Those of a sino;le 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 141 
 
 day exceed in number the liaks of the head. Weil, let there 
 be a readiness to remember them. Let faith look into the past 
 for them. Let them not be slighted. 
 
 We are not always able to see at the time the true meaning 
 of the benefit. The length and breadth of the divine good- 
 ness does not come out, until some time has elapsed, and we 
 are able to look back upon it from some vantage point m the 
 future. These past benefits are like books in our library that 
 we suppose we have read ; but we take them down some day, 
 and are astonished at the wonderful things, before unrecog- 
 nized, that present themselves to our improved perception. 
 
 April 26. — " The riches of his grace." — Ephesians i. 7. 
 
 Your idea of riches, does it run most naturally in this di- 
 rection ? Perhaps you are blessed (as men say) with worldly 
 goods. Your wealth enables you to surround yourself with 
 many beautiful and tasteful articles that some people might 
 call objects of luxury; to live in a certain style; to associate 
 with a certain class to which you think you belong in a peculiar 
 sense. But, these are not your only riches. You are enabled 
 to approach Grod by faith in Christ the mediator, morning and 
 evening, to cast your care on him, commit yourself to his 
 guidance, rejoice in his goodness, meditate in his word, and 
 occupy yourself with elevating thoughts of the inheritance 
 incorruptible reserved in heaven for you. Of these two por- 
 tions, the worldly and the heavenly, which is dearest to you ? 
 You answer : " The heavenly of course. The favor of God, 
 that is life. The love of Christ, this is true wealth. It 
 pleases God to adorn my earthly path, by the gift of so much 
 wealth as surrounds me and mine with things that a refined 
 taste must prize ; but my heart, while it accepts them with 
 thankfulness, cleaves not to them." 
 
 The answer appears unexceptionable ; perhaps is so. But 
 
142 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 is it not a conceivable thing that God has given you of the 
 riches of earth, to test the force of your attachment to the 
 heavenly treasure ? Are you not looking at things rather from 
 the modern point of view than from the apostolic and scrip- 
 tural? Examine yourself Would it be a very disastrous 
 thing to you to have to come down and associate with Chris- 
 tians of a humble order, as one of them ? Do you grasp your 
 worldly substance with much less tenacity than the heavenly ? 
 Do losses of the inferior kind seem to you every way inferior ? 
 Does Christian affection, at all times and under all circum- 
 stances, seem to you of greater price than the friendship of 
 the worldly members of that society to which you fancy you 
 inherently belong ? Oh, be honest ! 
 
 April 27. — "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart." — 
 Matthew xi. 29. 
 
 In telling us this of himself, our Lord does not profess to 
 tell us anything new, but simply to refer to a well-known fact. 
 Everything in his life declared that he was meek and lowly of 
 heart. Power, wisdom, generosity, love — these things were 
 not more largely revealed in his life, than were his meekness 
 and lowliness of heart. For instance, in the choice of a posi- 
 tion. He entered one of the lowest grades of society. He 
 had intercourse indeed with men of all ranks ; but he was al- 
 ways a man of the people. His intimate companions, his 
 brethren, those among whom was his home, were fishermen, 
 carpenters, tax-gatherers. The rich invited him to their tables 
 sometimes, but it was either by way of condescension or curios- 
 ity. Observe the reception given him by Simon the Pharisee. 
 Simon doubtless knew well the laws of courtesy, and punctually 
 conformed to them in his intercourse with people of his own 
 grade ; but when Jesus the Nazarene was his guest, he set 
 them aside ; he gave him no water for his feet, embraced him 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 143 
 
 not, and anointed not liis head with oil ; thinking it quite suf- 
 ficient that this GaHlean should have a place at his table. 
 Christ voluntarily assumed a position in social life, where he 
 would be looked down upon by men moving in the higher 
 spheres. He was the friend of publicans and sinners. 
 
 He chose to be a Nazarene, though the prejudice against 
 Nazareth was so strong that men familiarly said, " Can any 
 good thing come out of Nazareth ?" 
 
 He was not merely lowly in life, but lowly in heart. Some 
 rich men feel ill at ease in the society of men of inferior 
 grades ; they task themselves perhaps to be civil, kind, consid- 
 erate ; but they have a feeling that they are out of their ele- 
 ment, and they shrink back with much comfort to themselves 
 into their accustomed sphere. But Christ was consciously at 
 home among his poor and illiterate companions. Their habits 
 of thought, their mode of life, their topics of conversation, 
 were not something strange to him. The utmost cordially 
 characterized his manner, and stamped his lowliness as gen- 
 uine. 
 
 Learn of me; that is, be my disciples. The believer is one 
 who is learning of Christ to be meek and lowly of heart. 
 
 Does the notion of our own merit make it difficult for us to 
 walk in " all meekness and lowliness ?" Surely, our merit is 
 hardly to be put in comparison with that of Christ. It may 
 be, we are not so bad as some people; but Christ is the most 
 meritorious being in the universe. Shall we rate ourselves 
 above him ? In the assemblies of men, let us beware how we 
 take the higher place ; for though we may think ourselves bet- 
 ter than some that are there present, yet are we not better 
 than Christ ; and if we will but notice it, he takes the lower 
 place. If reproaches are offered us, let us consider that 
 greater reproaches are offered Christ, and he endures them. 
 
 Almost all men are complaining of the burden laid upon 
 them : they think that too much is imposed ; every man would 
 
144 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 have his own yoke lightened in some respect. Now what 
 makes the burden heavy is simply the unwilling spirit. Let 
 us get from Christ a cheerfully submissive spirit ; let us learn 
 from him not to quarrel with our appointed lot ; and, on the 
 instant, by virtue of this inward change, our burden loses a 
 vast deal of its weight. Christ had a burden that would have 
 sunk him to a most speedy grave, if it had not been for his 
 meekness and lowliness of heart. And if we are like him in 
 these characteristics, it will make comparatively little differ- 
 ence what the burden laid upon us is ; it will be found light. 
 
 Again, the oppressive thing to most men is that they have 
 to meet the responsibilities of life, alone. But Christ reveals 
 himself to believers as bearing the yoke of life with them ; 
 their true yoke-fellow. 
 
 Apkil 28. — " Draw nigh to God." — James iv. 8. 
 
 There are too many, even among those reputed Christians, 
 who seem never to have dtfawn nigh to Grod. They have a 
 certain reverence for him, and occupy themselves considerably 
 with the doing of his will. But they do not seem to have 
 ever entered into the holy of holies, and beheld the peculiar 
 manifestations of Grod. They remain at a certain distance, and 
 think it reverential perhaps so to do. But true reverence will 
 not allow us to slight any means of becoming fitted to glorify 
 Grod. By drawing nigh to Grod, we are brought under the 
 power of his perfections, and become subject to his most potent 
 influences. He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is 
 greater than the greatest of the ancient prophets ; and there is 
 no reason why we should not draw nigh as Abraham did when 
 he heard that Sodom was to be destroyed ; as Moses did when 
 he saw the burning bush ; and when he went up into the 
 mountain to be alone with the glory of Grod ; as Isaiah did in 
 the temple, and as Daniel and others did. The Son of Grod 
 ever offers to accompany us into the presence of the divine 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 145 
 
 majesty, and to sustain us in the interview; wherefore we need 
 not fear to go. 
 
 But how shall we draw nigh to God? AVhat is meant by 
 this ? 
 
 There is a great deal that is shadowy and dubious about the 
 communion that many have with God. They have no such 
 consciousness of having met and conversed with God, as they 
 have of their communications with men. There has been no 
 bright and animating manifestation of God to their souls. 
 They have not felt the power of his present majesty; nor 
 have his divine perfections taken hold upon them as by a spe- 
 cial revelation. They know that Grod is revealed in his word 
 as gracious and merciful towards the race of man ; but they 
 have not considered that it is the province of faith to single 
 out the believer, and bring him by himself into the presence 
 of his maker. He is to enter into peculiar and well-under- 
 stood relations to God. God is his God; he is the child of 
 God ; and there must be a conscious acquaintance and intimacy 
 quite distinct from the general goodness of God towards man- 
 kind. In order that we may draw nigh to God, we must be- 
 come utterly dissatisfied with the vague sort of communion 
 that so many are content with. We must resolve to be satisfied 
 with nothing less than the bright shining of the divine pres- 
 ence upon our individual soul. Vie must believe it attainable, 
 and resolve to attain it at whatsoever cost. 
 
 Having begun to seek it earnestly, we shall perhaps experi- 
 ence many disappointments. The word of God unfolds itself, 
 it is true, more richly to our souls than once it did ; and we 
 get juster conceptions of him. But the bright and soul-ele- 
 vating discovery of him himself, we do not obtain. The 
 more we seek, however, the more we perceive the importance 
 of what we seek ; and feel that life without this conscious 
 union of the soul with God, is insupportable. We take this 
 conviction as an encouragement from on high, to go on. As 
 13 
 
146 DAILY MEDITATION'S. 
 
 we continue striving* in prayer we are led to examine ourselves 
 earnestly to see if there is anything in our way of life that is 
 displeasing to God. We become very scrupulous ; very severe 
 with ourselves ; we cut off an indulgence here, and an indul- 
 gence there ; and wonder how we should have formerly been 
 so careless. Duties that we had not formerly dreamed of, now 
 discover themselves to us ; we find that we were before very 
 ill acquainted with the will of Grod. These discoveries per- 
 haps only make us the more unhappy. For we feel that we 
 need a strength such as we have not, in order to live the life 
 we are called to. More and more we see the absolute necessity 
 of drawing nigh to God and strengthening ourselves in the 
 consciousness of our indissoluble union with him in Christ. 
 Finally, in some hour long to be remembered, there falls down 
 as it were a great vail, and with joy unspeakable we behold the 
 light of God's countenance, are made glad by the assurance 
 deeply buried in the soul, that an Almighty friend accompa- 
 nies us along the journey of life. 
 
 April 29. — " Mercy sliall be built up forever." — Psalm Ixxxix. 2. 
 
 " Forty centuries look upon you," said Bonaparte to his sol- 
 diers, pointing to the pyramids. Compared with the ordinary 
 structures of man, these are immense, massive, enduring. Yet 
 all the monuments of men are built upon leased ground, and 
 with borrowed materials. They must vanish away. Another 
 monument is to be reared ; a monument to the mercy of God. 
 Nothing less than the entire length and breadth of the earth 
 will suffice for its foundation. Even the sea must be dried up 
 to make room for it. 
 
 Of course the paltry monuments of man must disappear 
 when the time comes for the completion of this magnificent 
 structure. It is already begun. The foundations have been 
 dug in some places. The chief corner-stone has been laid, and 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 147 
 
 SO have the first and the second tiers of stones connected with 
 the foundation. The stakes have been set up that indicate its 
 dimensions. Laborers are at work in many quarries. The 
 mountains are heaving. The bowels of the earth prepare to 
 surrender their stores. A fiat has gone forth, heeded by some, 
 by many not heard, declaring that everything in heaven and 
 on earth is to be held in readiness for any exigency connected 
 with this building. It is to be the most glorious edifice that 
 the universe ever beheld. The light of it is to flash upon the 
 most distant worlds, and give them a glory that they never had 
 before. The central sun will find itself eclipsed by the efi"ul- 
 gence streaming from this monument. The boldest concep- 
 tions of those who began the Tower of Babel, were utterly 
 childish in comparison with this structure that is to rear its 
 head far aloft above the highest mountains, far above the high- 
 est clouds, up, up among the stars, indeed far above all stars ; 
 nor will any finite admeasurement ever determine its height. 
 This monument contains the mansions of the elect. It is 
 the Palace of the Lamb. Its stones are living stones. Its 
 pillars bear the image of Christ in living, breathing charac- 
 ters. Around the gallery of its dome, is an inscription, whose 
 every letter is a host of redeemed beings, all together spelling 
 the sentence, " God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
 bcsotten Son." 
 
 April .30. — "All her paths are peace." — Proverbs iii. 17. 
 
 Can I trust thee, "Wisdom ? Dost thou tell the whole truth ? 
 If I embrace this bold guarantee of thine, and commit myself 
 to thy paths, is it certain that my course shall be one of unin- 
 terrupted and elevated peace ? 
 
 " Walk in my paths, and God will be at peace with thee ! 
 What an infinite gain is this! Where thou now art, the 
 wratli of God, the hostility of the Omnipotent impends over 
 
148 DAILY MEDITATIUXS. 
 
 tlice. ^Vere all the hosts of the universe arrayed against thee, 
 they would do thee the merest trifle of harm in comparison 
 with what the Aliuighty by a single sweep of his hand could 
 do thee. Destruction from him is not temporal, but eternal ; 
 not partial, but total. Were all the hosts of heaven, earth, 
 and hell against thee, they could not make one hair of thy 
 head perish, if Grod were on thy side. AYalk in my path, and 
 ho is on thy side.'' 
 
 It must be of course, Wisdom, an infinite gain to have the 
 Lord God on our side, and it seems to be certain that they who 
 walk in thy path have him at peace with them. Nevertheless, 
 I have heard, if I mistake not, that there are many afflictions 
 to the righteous. Is it not thy path that is called a narrow 
 path ? Is it not said that men must take up their cross to 
 walk therein ? What is it that I have read about " persecu- 
 tions, afflictions, reproaches, distresses?" Docs not thy path 
 go down sometimes into dungeons, and into dens of lions? Are 
 not fires sometimes kindled to burn those that walk therein ? 
 
 " Nevertheless, all my paths are peace. Were the things 
 you have mentioned, expressive of the wrath of God, they 
 would then militate against my declaration. But they who 
 walk in my path are taught by me what peace truly is. They 
 learn to find it in the sense of the favor of God, and in the 
 assurance that all who love God, must love them, sooner or 
 later. So with unvanquished peace, they bear their cross, 
 pursue the narrow path, descend into dungeons, and meet death 
 at the stake." 
 
 O Wisdom, pardon my tardy acquiescence. Some doubts 
 yet linger. Tears ran down the cheeks of holy men of old, 
 night and day, because of those who kept not God's law. Will 
 not our hearts bleed in thy paths, over the miseries of the un- 
 regenerate multitude ? Will not the consciousness of evil la 
 ourselves, war with our peace ? 
 
 '■ I say not that if you walk imperfecthj in my ways, you 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 149 
 
 shall have perfect peace. -I will not show you the evil of your 
 own heart, without showing you a fountain opened up for sin 
 and for uncleanness ; and I will not show you the miseries of the 
 world without pointing out the all-adequate grace of God. I 
 promise no immunity from tears in my earthly path ; but con- 
 solation from a sublime source, and revelations of a divine 
 sympathy which the believer will feel that it was better to have 
 had than not to have needed." 
 
 May 1. — " Save us, God of our salvation." — 1 Chronicles xvi. 35. 
 
 Thou art content to be known by this name, " God of our 
 salvation." Viewed in one light, the thing seems an infinite 
 wonder; in another light, no wonder. For in the accom- 
 plishment of our salvation, thy perfections come out in glorious 
 relief, and the whole creation finds itself unspeakably aided in 
 the work of making thee known. Let but one of the redeemed, 
 clothed in his full salvation, stand forth in the universe; and 
 it will matter little if the heaven and the earth flee away, and 
 return no more. For this redeemed sinner is such a monument 
 to the power, justice, wisdom, truth, and love of God, that no 
 finite being could ever master the entire revelation. 
 
 Thou hast devoted thyself, God of our salvation, thyself 
 and all thy resources, to the work of delivering us from all sin, 
 from all folly, from all reproach of ignorance, from all cor- 
 ruption, from all misery, and from all weakness. Thou hast 
 so identified thyself with this work which thou hast taken in 
 hand, that not to accomplish it would be the extinction of thy 
 glory. From thy throne thou must save us who have fled to 
 thee for refuge through thy Son; or thou must quit that 
 throne. Thou art already known throughout all worlds as the 
 God of our salvation ; and invitations to the marriage supppr 
 of the Lamb, have been carried into all parts of thy dominions. 
 
 Save us, therefore, save us speedily, save us perFectly, save 
 13 "^ 
 
150 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 US from all relapse into unbelief, and from all remains of un- 
 belief; save us from undue deference to the world; save us 
 from errors of understanding, and from cheats of the imagina- 
 tion; save us from an inadequate conception of the Gospel 
 standard ; from resting contented with our attainments ; save 
 us each day and hour from the particular hindrances of each 
 day and hour. Save us from letting go the hand that was 
 pierced for us. 
 
 May 2. — " The grass withereth, the flower faileth ; but the word of our 
 God shall stand forever." — Isaiah xl. 8. 
 
 The contrast really intended here is not between the word 
 of God and the grass of the field ; for there are many other 
 things to share with Scripture the honor of out-living the 
 flowers of earth. In one sense the Bible resembles the grass 
 of the field ; if by great efibrts the latter be rooted up and cast 
 into the fire, much time will not elapse before that same spot 
 is seen verdant again with a new growth. And many rulers 
 have sought to destroy the crop of Bibles sown in their do- 
 minions, but have spent their strength for nought. The con- 
 trast is really between man, his works and his glory, and the 
 word of God. Like grass, man shall wither ; like the flower, 
 his glory shall pass away ; but the word of our God endurcth 
 forever. 
 
 Even so, Isaiah ! The word of God uttered by thee has 
 come down to us- through twenty-five troubled centuries, se- 
 renely riding out the storms of every generation, and behold- 
 ing the wreck of many empires. Whilst thou wert writing 
 thine unnoticed page, stupendous monuments were being 
 erected here and there in the world ; but ruin has long since 
 overtaken these. During seventy generations the providence 
 of God has steadily corroborated thy statements, and shown 
 that the nations, before God, are nothing, less than nothing 
 and vanity. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 151 
 
 With what avidity would men drink in the intelligence that 
 a plant had been discovered whose fruit conferred immortality. 
 With what a frantic joy would they precipitate themselves to- 
 ward that stray plant of heaven found upon the earth. But 
 the word of Grod really possesses and really communicates im- 
 mortality. It endures forever, and he who embraces it by 
 faith, endures forever. It is the word of life ; and nothing 
 shall by any means harm them who have made it their own. 
 In the last day, when there shall be a terrific overthrow" of the 
 pomp, pride, and strength of man, the word of God, so oft- 
 rejected, so much despised upon the earth, will be seen upon 
 the throne of God, and all the friends of that word around 
 about the throne. Ye neologians and rationalists, and all who 
 have sought to draw the pen of unhallowed criticism through 
 this or that text, how will you stand confounded when you see 
 indestructible life and glory belonging to the word of God. 
 You will feel as though you had been detected in an attempt 
 to murder angels, beings possessing the life of heaven. 
 
 May 3. — " Be not dismayed, for I am thy God." — Isaiah xli. 10. 
 
 There are many things in this stage of existence that are 
 calculated to fright the souls of men. They are surrounded 
 by dangers. There is hardly anything, no matter how minute 
 and to all appearance contemptible, but may in some hour put 
 on strength enough to kill us. Many a little insect has taken 
 away the life of proud man. We do not know but that the 
 breath we are now breathing may convey some deadly disease 
 to our lungs. Our foot may slip ; a blood-vessel may burst ; 
 a stone may fall upon us ; we may get up in our sleep and fall 
 from a window ; a bone may stick in our throat. Men are 
 dying in all these ways. The people of God have other dan- 
 gers. They are walking in a narrow path. The God of this 
 world is bringing all his cunning and all his resources to bear 
 
lo2 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 upon them, in efforts for tlieir overthrow. Terrible is the open 
 wrath of their enemy ; not less formidable the blandishments 
 of his disguised agents. The consciousness of sinfulness is 
 paralyzing ; and the path of duty seems adapted only for one 
 a hundred times our superior in constancy, wisdom and power. 
 And can it be that there is one consideration which of 
 itself suffices to qualify a believer to look upon all the ills that 
 cluster thi,ck around his pathw.y, and enables him to go victo- 
 riously onward to the end? There is. God is thy God. 
 Thine, if thou hast believed upon his Son. His strength is 
 thine ; his wisdom thine ; his resources are thine ; his vigi- 
 lance is thine ; his omniscience thine. Not that thou becomest 
 omniscient or almighty, but these perfections of the Godhead 
 are available for thee to the full extent of thy necessities. If, 
 then, at any time thou art dismayed, this is the same as saying, 
 God is not equal to the difficulties that environ me. I need 
 more strength than he possesses, more wisdom, more knowledge. 
 I need another God besides him. Oh, utter nothing so dis- 
 honoring to the majesty of heaven as this. Beware, and never 
 be dismayed ! 
 
 May 4. — " I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, for my 
 own sake." — Isaiah xliii. 25. 
 
 This language, whether addressed to the partial Israel of 
 ancient times, or the universal Israel of our times, is appro- 
 priate only to one who has been awakened to a true perception 
 of his transgressions, and to an earnest, engrossing solicitude 
 for pardon. The eyes of such a one have been opened. In 
 every page of the word of God he finds some chapter of his 
 own past history coming up to view, and exhibiting itself to 
 him in an aspect never before witnessed. The commandments 
 seem to address him by name ; the denunciations seem winged 
 from the throne of God solely for him ; the promises shrink 
 back from him affrighted. There seem to be not one, but ten 
 
DAILY :meditatioa"S, 153 
 
 tliousand condemnations out against him. Where in all the 
 universe shall he find friends powerful enough and cordial 
 enough to come forward and so plead that these dread writs 
 shall be cancelled ? Alas ! what oratory will avail here ? 
 AVhat cunning excuses will induce the Almighty to overlook 
 the gui-lt of the sinner at the expense of his own infinite per- 
 fections ? The sinner may have once imagined that it was the 
 easiest thing to get clear ; but he now utterly contemns the help 
 of all created beings. No eloquence could lull the storm of 
 self-accusation within ; much less appease the righteous indig- 
 nation of Him who is greater than his heart. Ah yes ! there 
 is an eloquence that here availeth ; but it is that of no created 
 being. God manifest in the flesh speaketh from the cross, in 
 words of wondrous healing. " I, even I, whose commandments 
 thou hast transgressed, whose benefits thou hast forgotten, who 
 cast down the angels, sent the deluge, and overthrew Sodom, 
 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions." 
 
 For my oicn sake. The perfections of God which require 
 our destruction, in the absence of an atonement, require, now 
 that Christ has died and we have believed, our deliverance 
 from sin and misery, our elevation to glory, our everlasting 
 felicity. " The Father is glorified in the Son.'' Christ is glo- 
 rified in us. For his own sake, therefore, he will grant all that 
 we need. We ask him as it were to put on glory. We ask him 
 to enrich himself. We ask him to extend his kingdom, perfect 
 his dominion, put on new lustre in the eyes of the universe. 
 This is what we ask of him when we ask that our sins may be 
 blotted out. In bringing our vile selves to God, we bring 
 something infinitely precious. Angels could never be able to 
 make up any oflering comparable to this in value. What is 
 tlie oflfcring ? It is the opportunity of glorifying himself in 
 his Son and his Son in us. But if we pray unbelievingly, 
 we destroy the opportunity ; we cast away a pearl intended for 
 the diadem of God. 
 
15-i DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 May 5. — "Thou art mine," — Isaiali xliii. 1. 
 
 Once thou hadst other proprietors. Sin, self, death, mis- 
 ery — these formerly boasted that thou wert theirs. But the 
 price I have paid shuts their mouths forever. 
 
 Self is slowest of all to understand this. Thou hast dis- 
 tinctly and joyfully recognised the transfer of thyself to me; 
 and yet again and again have I seen thee acting as though it 
 were simply an agreeable fiction. Thou hast sometimes lav- 
 ished thine affections on objects with which thou hadst no- 
 thing properly to do. Thou hast given thyself to enterprises 
 which I had not commissioned thee to prosecute. Thou hast 
 refused to go at my bidding, when the sick waited for thee, 
 and the prisoner languished. Thou hast suffered the hungry 
 to go unfed, and the mourner uncomforted from thy door, 
 whither I had sent them^ saying, " He is mine ; he will help 
 thee, out of the resources which I have placed at his disposal." 
 In the day of tribulation, when it pleased thee to put forth my 
 hand upon that which is my own, didst thou not murmur, 
 didst thou not shrink offended from the rude encounter of my 
 providence ? What meaneth this ? Must my pleasure, after 
 all, give way to thy pleasure? The infinite price which I 
 have paid for thee, is it merely that self may sit upon a more 
 royal throne ? Nay, thou art mine, and I will put thee in 
 whatsoever chamber seems most expedient to me; the chamber 
 of sickness, of poverty, of humiliation, of defamation, of be- 
 reavement, of death. 
 
 Tliou art mine. Wherefore I give thee the Holy Spirit. 
 I have appointed thyself as his habitation on the earth. I 
 sanctify thee by the truth. I bestow upon thee mine own im- 
 age. I draw thy afi"ections to myself; and teach thee to love 
 the saints. I make thee meek and lowly. I make thee meet 
 for the inheritance of the saints in light. Why should I not ? 
 Since I have called thee mine, adopted thee, bestowed on thee 
 the family name, recognised thee as one of my nearest rela- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 155 
 
 tions, surely tliere is nothing- inappropriate in the gift to thee 
 of the most abundant influences of the Spirit. It would be 
 strange, if I should acknowledge thee as my own, and j^et 
 leave thee to walk in thy rags, to drag on a weary life, in spir- 
 itual emaciation. 
 
 Tliou art mine. Wherefore I cannot think of leaving thee 
 forever among sinners. A place is prepared for thee by Him 
 that died for thee. Thou must dwell in mansions that have 
 never known the contamination of sin. Angels must be thine 
 escort. Thou shalt go crowned with glory, honor and immor- 
 tality ; and shalt shine as the brightness of the firmament for- 
 ever and ever. And if any one ask, " AVho is this that walk- 
 eth in "feo much state, and is ra'diant with so much gladness ? — 
 let this answer suffice, " That he is mine. It is to my glory 
 that all that belongeth to me be glorious and blessed/' 
 
 May 6. — "And beginning to sink he cried, Lord, save me." — Matthew 
 xiv. 30. 
 
 I thought myself to be strong in faith, and rejoiced in thy 
 command to evince that strength. I thought I would show 
 how much stronger my faith than that of others ; and while 
 they abode quietly in their vessel, I would tread the waters 
 beneath my feet and hasten unto Jesus. I would put away 
 from me at least the reproach sometimes addressed to us disci- 
 ples of being weak in faith. But it was simple presumption. 
 Now that the waves lift up themselves around about me, say- 
 ing, " Jesus we know, but who art thou V and threaten me 
 with the full force of that majesty with which God has invested 
 them, I find my supposed faith vanishing. Death himself has 
 seized me by my feet, and is dragging me down to a horrible 
 abyss. 
 
 Lord, save me ! Higher than these waves arise the 
 thoughts of my past folly and sinfulness. A light seems to 
 
156 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 flash along the multitucriiious pages of i^ast history, bringing 
 into strongest relief the instances of wa}^wardness, passion, self- 
 will, neglect of instruction, pride and unbelief. I see myself 
 as I never saw myself; and I see that the light in which I 
 now stand revealed, is the very light in which my Lord has 
 long sought to exhibit me to myself. I only now am learn- 
 ing a lesson that has been held up before me a thousand 
 times. 
 
 Lord, save me, for I sink ! I acknowledge, I feel, my help- 
 lessness. Thou mightest, indeed, still keep thine eye fixed on 
 my past exhibition of independence towards God ; and instead 
 of my present cry, thou mightest justly hear former exclama- 
 tions, contemning salvation. Oh ! hear them not, remember 
 them not. In this tumult of the waves it seems as though 
 they were clamorous, those former utterances of an unbelieving 
 and ungodly heart ; clamorous more than ever to be heard in 
 this very moment ; and as though my poor present cry out of 
 the depth could not possibly make its way to thee. Neverthe- 
 less, save me. Save me from going down into the pit. 
 
 Thou wilt say unto me perhaps, " If I save thee in this 
 hour, what assurance have I that thy former mind will not re- 
 turn to thee ? If I pluck thee from this death, wilt thou not 
 soon be rushing again, in thy presumptuous self-confidence, 
 along the path of death ?" Well, Lord, thou must find the 
 assurance in thyself — in thy power not only to save me from 
 this horrible abyss, but from future dereliction, from a vain 
 heart, from unbelief and self-dependence. Save me from all. 
 
 May 7. — " Though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he heeame poor." — 
 2 Corinthians viii. 9. 
 
 Worlds, as countless as the sands of the sea-shore, were his, 
 and innumerable sovereignties lay low at his feet. Tell off the 
 sum of what he renounced, werld by world, host by host, and 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 157 
 
 a life would not suffice. Suppose the renunciation gradual, 
 and watch it from the throne of the universe. You would see 
 the suns of least magnitude, the heavens of greatest distance 
 vanishing one by one, very rapidly, from the face of the uni- 
 verse ; worlds of greater magnitude following them into night ; 
 great spaces would begin to appear on the outskirts of crea- 
 tion ; faster and faster the mighty dominions of God would flee 
 away from the sceptre of the Son of Grod ; at length he would 
 be left alone with our system ; finally, with our earth. He is 
 yet King of kings, and Lord of lords. But now he leaves the 
 throne of his glory; and infinitely descending, shines for an 
 instant among the archangelic dignities; is presently seen 
 among cherubim; then passes downward with an expiring 
 glory, through powers and principalities. Yanishing from 
 the heavens, he is seen on earth, not in the likeness of an an- 
 gel, but as a man. He traverses the exalted ranks of human- 
 ity, and refuses to tarry in them ; nor does renunciation begin 
 to find its limits, until he has found for himself an abiding 
 place as a Nazarene carpenter, the son of a carpenter. He 
 enters on his ministry, and has not where to lay his head ; re- 
 ceives with gratitude a cup of cold water ; is made of so little 
 reputation that he is accused of being in league with Satan, is 
 denounced as a blasphemer, and an enemy of religion. 
 
 Thus poor did he become. Wherefore ? For your sakes. 
 That his example might take hold upon your consciences, and 
 lead you to follow in this path of renunciation. He teaches 
 70U, like him, to lay aside glory, honor and power, wealth and 
 comfort. But what glory have you, the very dregs of creation, 
 to renounce ? The thing is this. In departing from God you 
 have made for yourselves a world of delusion, and constituted 
 yourselves lord of that world. You have put yourselves in 
 the place of God, as the lawgiver of yourselves; you have put 
 your honor in the place of God's, and desired to have the 
 whole creation enraptured with yourself, rather than God ; yet 
 14 
 
158 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 were urgent to have all things declare your glory, rather than 
 his. Renounce then, oh ! renounce this usurped dignity, and 
 the wealth that you have chosen to call yours. Follow the 
 example of Christ, and become poor. This is needful in order 
 that subsequently, through his poverty, you may be made rich. 
 You must be changed into his image at the foot of the ladder, 
 and then shall you ascend it with him, even the very ladder 
 by whose multitudinous steps he came from his sublime throne 
 to earth. 
 
 May 8. — "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." — Psalm 
 xxxiv. 6. 
 
 Who was this poor man ? Let us see if we can find out ; if 
 we can ascertain the characteristics of those poor people whom 
 God so honorably mentions in his word. 
 
 Mere penury of worldly goods is not a sufficient title. He 
 must be poor in spirit — poor contentedly. His must be a 
 spirit cheerfully acquiescent in the allotments of God — with 
 all that he is reputed to have, placed unreservedly at his dis- 
 posal 3 sensible that he is not even his own, but bought with a 
 price ; his abilities and opportunities, his time and influence, 
 his soul and body, his tongue and pen, solemnly deeded to 
 God. This poor man has no strength of his own. He is poor 
 even in virtue, very poor ; poor in wisdom. And so if you lis- 
 ten at his window, you will find him in the still hours, earn- 
 estly laboring in prayer that he may have given him strength, 
 virtue and wisdom. 
 
 Tins poor man cried^ and the Lord heard him. So the cry 
 of this poor man is in reality a key by which he can unlock 
 treasury after treasury of things beyond all price. 
 
 May 9. — "In thy presence is fullness of joy." — Psalm xvi. 11. 
 In the place where there is nothing to hinder the full per- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 159 
 
 ception of the glory of God, there is fullness of joy. The most 
 we can do in this world is to get a conception, faint at the 
 best, of beatific joy. As we perceive the presence of him who 
 once became manifest in our nature, loved us and washed us 
 from our sins in his own blood, we experience joy unspeakable; 
 but we cannot describe our experience as fullness of joy, with 
 out declaring that the company of the ungodly is as blessed as 
 that of angels ; the sense of imperfection as sweet as that of 
 perfection ; ignorance as good as consummate knowledge ; lia- 
 bility to temptation as enviable a state as that of inviolable 
 security. If we have here the presence of God, we have here 
 also the presence of a great deal that is inimical to the glory 
 of God. Creation groans beneath this, and day and night 
 crieth out, " How long, Lord, how long V It waits for the 
 manifestation of the sons of God, which will be the manifesta- 
 tion of God ; for the descent of the new Jerusalem, which will 
 be the advent of our expected Lord ; for the new heaven and 
 the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, even the Lord 
 of righteousness with his righteous ones. Then all that now 
 prohibits the full revelation of the Redeemer's glory, will have 
 been burnt up. 
 
 In that world of perfection to which we aspire, our eyes 
 shall not be able to light upon anything that is not filled with 
 all the fullness of God. All beings, all objects there, will be, 
 as it were, reservoirs charged with the perpetual fulfilling of 
 our joy ; and nothing can be withdrawn from the cistern of our 
 experience without the eagerly proiFered supplies of innumer- 
 able fountains. The desire of Christ, that his joy may be full- 
 filled in us, will there be realized. The bliss of God himself 
 will be drunk in by the infinite one whose name is Love, 
 through our experiences. Having the image of God, we shall 
 have his felicity. 
 
160 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 May 10. — " Boast not thyself of to-morrow." — Proverbs xxvii. 1. 
 
 How surprising the infatuation of man, in that while he 
 despises and abuses the gifts of God actually bestowed, he 
 makes sure of gifts to come. He makes havoc of to-day, as a 
 child makes havoc of some valuable book fallen within its 
 reach, and confidently expects that there shall be given to him 
 a morrow, and a long series of morrows. While he, on earth, 
 is busy with the transgression of Grod's commands, and with 
 casting contempt on the authority of God, God, in heaven, is 
 to be busy in prolonging the comfort, and giving all success to 
 the unsanctified purposes of this rebel. He calculates on the 
 subserviency of the elements, and even of the Lord of the 
 elements, to his paltry will. 
 
 Far be this from thee, man of God ! While God is giving 
 one inestimable boon, even the present with all its inherent 
 wealth, snatch not thou another from the throne of thy bene- 
 factor. The only preparation for the morrow, is the right use 
 of to-day. The stone in the hands of the builder must be put 
 in its place and fitted to receive another. The morrow comes 
 for nought, if to-day is not heeded. Neglect not the call that 
 comes to thee this day, the call to humble thyself on account 
 of many sins and follies, to break away from unprofitable ties, 
 to look upon the poor around thee, to speak unto thy impeni- 
 tent neighbor, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to set 
 thy love purely upon God; for such neglect is nothing else 
 than boasting thyself of to-morrow. 
 
 May 11. — " Lord, save us : we perish." — Matthew viii. 25. 
 The disciples, we may suppose, had embarked with the Lord 
 Jesus in that vessel, with a feeling of great confidence, and 
 with the anticipation of a delightful sail over the familiar wa- 
 ters of that lake. Upon that lake most of them had spent 
 the chief part of their time from childhood ; and under almost 
 no circumstances would they be likely to experience a feeling 
 
DAILY xMEDITATIOXS. 161 
 
 of fear. Now all things conspired to tr-anquilize their spirits. 
 Behold them, as the sun sinks over the hills beyond Capernaum, 
 and a gentle breeze wafts them over the placid waters; they 
 are grouped here and there upon the vessel, some communing 
 with the Lord Jesus of the works and ways of God, others 
 relating to the sailors and passengers the wonderful things that 
 Christ had performed. The sun sets ; night steals quietly on ; 
 the moon and the stars appear. The Lord Jesus, fatigued with 
 special labors, lies down and sleeps ; and perhaps the last words 
 that visit his ear are expressions of confidence uttered by his 
 disciples. His human soul sleeps, but not the Divine Spirit 
 that dwelt in him ; otherwise the orbs of heaven would have 
 stood still, nay, the heaven and the earth would have fled away, 
 and the sleep of death seized upon all created things. He 
 that keepeth Israel sleepeth not. Presently clouds, black 
 clouds, come rushing over the face of the sky, and a strange 
 sound is heard coming over the waters. The sailors start up 
 in surprise and anxiety. But the disciples are heard saying, 
 " There is no danger ; Christ is on board ; he must live, and 
 so we cannot die. He has power over the elements ; they can- 
 not hurt a hair of our head." The entire face of the sky is 
 now shrouded in darkness ; winds from various quarters rush 
 in quick succession down upon the waters ; these lift them- 
 selves up in mighty billows ; the vessel becomes unmanageable ; 
 each wave, as it tosses her on high, seems to say, " What doest 
 thou here, oh thou frail and paltry thing of man's handicraft, 
 in the presence of God's sublime agencies and ministers? 
 What is man but a rebel ? his life but a vapor ? his work but 
 vanity ? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the liv- 
 ing God ; and that hand is everywhere." Desolation and an- 
 guish take possession of the souls of those on board. The 
 mariners say, " Never did we behold anything like this ; no 
 boat can outlive this." " But Jesus is on board," timidly reply 
 the disciples. " Be he who he may," say some, " destruction 
 14 * 
 
162 DAILY :jeditatioxs. 
 
 hath taken hold of us, and there is no possible deliverance." 
 Others look at the disciples, saying to themselves, " If they 
 fear not, then there is yet hope." But alas ! they see them 
 soon give way to consternation. As the waters descend more 
 and more ponderously on the frail boat, their faith dies out. 
 They feel it expiring and say, " We have no faith, and there- 
 fore we perish," and immediately their faith expires. Then 
 they hasten to Jesus. " Carest thou not that we perish ?" 
 
 Oh ! strangely tempered disciples ! Afraid of the winds 
 and waves, and yet not afraid to address such a stigmatizing 
 word as this to the Lord Jesus ? And are all his past works 
 and suffering in vain ? Do you still doubt his care ? Jesus 
 awakes, and the only thing that he beholds is the unbelief of 
 his disciples ; his ear tells him not of the fury and rack of 
 the elements, but of the guilty fears of his Galilean friends. 
 And his first reproof is for them. He lets the storm rage on 
 unrebuked, until he has rebuked the agitation of their souls. 
 And now they perceive that a most precious opportunity of 
 signalizing their faith in Christ had been given, and given in 
 vain. The elements had been let loose that their faith might 
 gain a victory, and go on to perfection. The progress of or- 
 dinary months might have been made in an hour, had they 
 been watchful. When will they understand that this matter 
 of the education of faith is the most important thing going 
 on under the sun ? The school of faith is a school in which 
 we are advancing, lesson by lesson, to a condition where the 
 glory of God shall be perpetually revealed to the soul. 
 
 May 12; — " Althougli the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit 
 be ill the vines ; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield 
 no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no 
 herd in the stalls : yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of 
 my salvation." — Habakkuk iii. 17, 18. 
 
 This is a noble utterance, Ilabiikkuk ! Thou hast surely 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 163 
 
 read the book of Job, and art eclioing tbat great word of his 
 — " Tliougli the Lord slay me, yet will I trust in him." Thou 
 believest that the love which Grod has towards us, rests upon 
 some more solid evidence than the temporal benefits which he 
 bestows upon us ; upon evidence so satisfactory, so unimpeach- 
 able, that even if the greatly-prosjfered servant of God saw 
 his flocks and herds rapidly perish, his merchandize carried 
 off by robbers or consumed by fire, his houses and lands con- 
 fiscated by unjust power, his gold and silver fraudulently taken 
 from him, his friends alienated, his name beclouded, his person 
 imprisoned, his health impaired, his appetite vitiated, his sight 
 extinguished, his utterance impeded, he would still have occa- 
 sions of undying and fervent gratitude, motives for joy un- 
 speakable, a foundation for peace which passeth all under- 
 standing. 
 
 Thanks be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne for the 
 innumerable avenues by which the expressions of his goodness 
 come to us ; but oh, while we adore him for these, let us feel 
 that he has placed the great truth of his love toward us sin- 
 ners, once for all, upon an inviolable basis ; so that though the 
 day, as it passes, may or may not have particular tokens of 
 his goodness to impart, that goodness can in no wise be ques- 
 tioned. 
 
 It is most likely, Habakkuk, that God took thee at thy 
 word ; and in some surprising way gave thee an opportunity 
 of evincing thy singleness of heart toward him ; and that thou 
 now wearest some peculiar crown of honor and felicity in con- 
 sequence of that proof given. 
 
 May 13, — " I am the light of the world." — John viii. 12. 
 
 What a wonderful consciousness was this for one that saw 
 his life gliding rapidly away in an obscure corner of the world, 
 among a despised class of persons, and knew that a cross was 
 
164 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 prepared for him at the capital. Knowing that the light of 
 life is to go forth from him, from him alone, to all nations, 
 peoples, and languages, how admirable is the quiet, unhasting 
 humility that enables him to sit down among the poorest and 
 meanest of earth, occupy himself with all their cares and so- 
 licitudes, heal their diseasei, correct their errors, embrace their 
 infant children, partake of their humble meals, and listen in 
 their synagogues ! He knew that he was to be the sun of all 
 the world, bathe the continents in light, and create new heavens 
 and new earth for the more effectual manifestation of his un- 
 imagined glory. Yet he could converse in a strain of perfect 
 tranquility with the Samaritan woman at the well, and could 
 go about Jerusalem looking for the poor man whom the -Phar- 
 isees had put out of the synagogue. 
 
 This is something that should never be forgotten when we 
 read the Grospel ; and the wonder is that it does not more at- 
 tract the attention of men. The evidence of Christ's humility 
 and contentedness of spirit, rests upon the surest foundation ; 
 all his actions and his mode of life declare that he was at home 
 among the poor and needy of earth, and sought not great things 
 for himself; but there drop from his lips at times, expressions 
 that indicate the perfect and abiding consciousness that he is 
 to sit down upon the throne of this world, and fill it with the 
 effulgence beaming from his countenance. Before the high 
 priest and Pilate he was as a lamb led to the slaughter, and as 
 a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his 
 mouth ; and it was only with the greatest difficulty that they 
 could force him once to speak and to disclose the sublime con- 
 sciousness that was in him, by a reference to his future coming 
 in the clouds of heaven and in the glory of God, to take com- 
 plete possession of the world. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 165 
 
 May 14. — "He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the af- 
 flicted."— Psalm xxii. 24. 
 
 This is said with reference to the allegations of the men 
 who stood around the cross of Christ. They affirmed that 
 God evidently despised the sufferer, and so far from sympa- 
 thizing with him in his affliction, abhorred him as a deceiver, 
 and was glad to have men execute their indignation with un- 
 chastened severity. "It is beyond all question," said they, 
 " that the Lord is against him. He has delivered him into 
 our hands, notwithstanding all the reluctance of Pilate and 
 the attachment of his disciples ', and in every way is aiding 
 us to fill the cup of his anguish and to pour contempt upon 
 him. The Lord himself is smiting him ; and we are simply 
 falling in with the current of his providences." 
 
 Often, most often, the same language has been used by the 
 persecutors of Christ's people. They have averred that God 
 was delivering these into their hands to be tormented, impri- 
 soned, defamed, and burnt. God brought forth in due time 
 the evidence that he had not despised nor abhorred the afflic- 
 tion of that afflicted one. There was evidence abundant in 
 the character, the words, and works of Christ that God could 
 not be indifferent to his sufferings ; but a carnal world could 
 not see this evidence. By the resurrection of Jesus, the bap- 
 tism of the Apostles, the love of the Church, and the spread 
 of the Gospel, evidence of an imposing kind has been given 
 The experience of every sinner that believes on Christ, from 
 its beginning onward through eternity, teems with evidence 
 that the Father sympathized with the sufferer of Calvary. 
 Every instance of a fulfilled promise, repeats this evidence. 
 
 Mat 15. — "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity?'* — 
 Micah vii. 18. 
 
 There is a little flock who are acquainted with God ; are so 
 
166 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 far acquainted witli his essential perfections, and see so much 
 of his glory in Christ, that God is not ashamed to be known 
 as their God, and to have it understood among the angels of 
 heaven that the members of this flock do know him. But 
 viewing these as exceptional, innumerable conceptions of God 
 possess the minds of men ; to express it otherwise, innumera- 
 ble gods of, widely different characters exist in the conceptions 
 of men, and frown upon the only true God. " righteous 
 Father, the world hath not known thee," said Christ; but the 
 world angrily asserts that it knows him very well. Every 
 natural man has his deity, whom he prefers to the God of the 
 Bible ; and conversion is just consenting that the true God 
 shall be God, and the god of one's fancy be annihilated. Men 
 have the highest idea of their own faculty of bodying forth 
 the true God, and look with proud disdain upon what seem to 
 them the bungling attempts of Scripture. One boasts that 
 his God has made no decrees concerning the salvation of par- 
 ticular persons. Another that his God saves all that are bap- 
 tized. Another that his God finds much merit in man. The 
 God of another will actually save all. 
 
 But almost all these gods of men's devising, agree in one 
 respect. They make light of man's iniquity. They entertain 
 no sterner view of it than man himself, man the sinner, ordi- 
 narily entertains. Of course they are ready to forgive it; for 
 it is a light thing. 
 
 When, however, men begin to come to the knowledge of 
 the true God, then their iniquity rises from its tomb in all its 
 dread proportions, and the dread spectre lifts its head to the 
 skies, stretches out its hands to the East and to the West, 
 blots out creation from their view, and bids them come with it 
 to the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. Their for- 
 mer God is fled into everlasting night; and all their for- 
 mer conceptions of divine grace, though multiplied a million 
 times, would fiill short of that grace which they now see to be 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 167 
 
 required. Wtat shall they "do? Perish? No, says God; 
 look unto the cross, kno\7 my grace, and live. Then from an 
 amazed heart cometh the ejaculation, Who is a God like unto 
 thee, that pardoneth iniquity ? 
 
 May 16. — "Everj'good gift and every perfect gift is from above." — 
 James i. 17. 
 
 Temptation is not of God. What constitutes a thing tempt- 
 ing is something in the man or woman that looks upon it, 
 namely, a disposition more or less active to transgress, and take 
 what is forbidden. The fruit is suspended on the tree for an 
 admirable purpose ; namely that men may have an opportunity 
 of evincing their fidelity towards God, and thus may obtain a 
 crown of life. The same thing is to one man a temptation, to 
 another a good gift of God, by means of which his walk of 
 righteousness is made more steadfast and honorable. What- 
 ever cometh down from above is good, unexceptionably good ; 
 whatever evil thing exists, it has its origin elsewhere. Sin is 
 the devourer of the gifts of God, and the uncompromising 
 enemy of his beneficence. 
 
 It is not enough that God has created a thing. Has he 
 given it to you, to me, is the question. His gifts are perfect — 
 that is, all their tendencies are good. And if we find some of 
 the tendencies of certain things are not good, we may conclude 
 that this is not one of God's gifts to us. 
 
 But all gifts are useless, if we have not the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost. By this we are enabled rightly to judge of other 
 things called gifts, and to know which are really sent us from 
 above. Without this we know not the proper use of anything, 
 and are sure to appropriate heaven's bounties to inferior ends. 
 We are to covet earnestly the best gifts. We are often per- 
 mitted to make our choice among the collections of precious 
 things on exhibition around us. Now, the wise man will say, 
 
168 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 These are all very good, but tlie blessing connected with each 
 one depends upon the character of the chooser and the cir- 
 cumstances in which it is to be used ; I need to know which 
 among all these will be of highest profit to me ', and this by 
 my own wisdom I cannot know ; wherefore I ask God to tell 
 me which is the perfect gift designed for me. 
 
 Innumerable objects of luxury attract the attention even of 
 the Christian, in this day; and he is ready to say, " My Father 
 hath bestowed these ; let me take them in all gratitude." But 
 first ask thy Father, if these be the best, the perfect gifts ; if 
 thy circumstances and thy profession make these most de- 
 sirable. 
 
 May 17. — "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous there- 
 fore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock : if any n?an hear 
 my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with 
 him and he with me." — Eevelation iii. 19, 20. 
 
 As many as I love. Is this the voice which has just been 
 giving expression to such intensity of holy disgust? "Well 
 may we marvel at the modulations of which it is susceptible. 
 Ah, if there had not been love somewhere in thy heart, thou 
 wouldst not have threatened the Laodiceans with ignominious 
 ejection, but wouldst have cast them forth without any words of 
 condescending reproach. Thou sawest how that confusion and 
 alarm were being borne by thy words to their hearts, and how 
 they began to exclaim, " Whither shall we flee from his pres- 
 ence? Who shall stand before him? For the day of his 
 wrath is come." Thy words were mighty to tear down the 
 palace of delight in which they had enshrined themselves ; to 
 tear it down for some at least. Even among these Laodiceans 
 were some who had no idea of parting with Christ ; and who, 
 as soon as they saw that they had been building for themselves 
 an edifice that Christ approved not, looked upon it with detes- 
 tation, and loathed themselves for their inconsiderateness ; 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 169 
 
 tliey were appalled at the thought that Christ had perhaps 
 had enough of them and had cast them clean off forever. So 
 powerfully indeed was this view impressed upon them by the 
 discovery of their folly, that they were fast giving way to a 
 conviction that hope and they had parted company eternally. 
 But the Saviour draws them from the brink of despair with 
 the cords of love. " As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten ; 
 be zealous, therefore, and repent." 
 
 Knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men : The 
 love of Christ constraineth us. To those that are lukewarm, 
 both the language of stern rebuke and the language of encour- 
 agement are necessary. Without experience of his indigna- 
 tion, they will derive no profit from the exhibition of his love. 
 Too many churches, perhaps, derive no benefit from the 
 preaching of Christ's love ; from week to week, and from year 
 to year, they only sink deeper in their spiritual apathy. They 
 need to be brought acquainted with Christ's glance of fire, and 
 to get their own indignation against themselves kindled by his 
 indignation. There is nothing like the mingled indignation 
 and love of the Saviour, for inspiring the soul with a genuine 
 zeal to do his will. The indignation does not diminish the 
 love, for it is the indignation of love, of wounded love. And 
 when the heart has begun to burn with a steady zeal, then the 
 indignation may withdraw into the past, and be looked at by 
 memory, and the soul's uninterrupted experience be of love. 
 
 Well for us, if we allow ourselves to hear the chastening re- 
 buke of Christ contained in his word, and do not constrain him 
 to clothe it in afflictive providences. Let us beware how we 
 hide our conscience from the light of any portion of God's 
 truth. At the door of many how long does Jesus stand and 
 knock, while they hear not. They read, from time to time, 
 the very words which express his deep dissatisfaction with the 
 iniquity which they are regarding in their hearts ; read, hear, 
 but never discern the voice of Christ addressed to themselves. 
 
 15 
 
170 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 When in a rougher fashion he at length knocks at their door, 
 they become aware that such a forcible appeal has been made 
 necessary by their strange and long-protracted spiritual deaf- 
 ness. 
 
 It is the office of conscience to rebuke. It does this, not as 
 the enemy of the soul, but as the guardian of the soul's highest 
 interests. It has, however, participated in the general ruin of 
 our nature ; and seldom speaks as the sincere servant of truth. 
 But Christ is formed in us the hope of glory. Our conscience 
 puts on Christ. The great need of the Christian is, that 
 Christ and his conscience should be identified ; that the rebuke 
 of his conscience may ever be the rebuke of Christ. To this 
 end let him give utmost heed to such rebukes ; and by cords 
 of love enchain his whole nature to the new Christ-conscience 
 coming forth from the sepulchre of his dead nature. 
 
 May 18. — " He will subdue our iniquities." — Micah vii. 19. 
 
 Having had a taste of the power of these our enemies, we 
 look disconsolately around, much desiring, but little hoping, 
 that a deliverer may appear. We discover some, perhaps, who 
 excel in virtue. But we see at once that they can never med- 
 icine us to that sweet peace which they themselves possess. 
 They may instruct; but we need something more than instruc- 
 tion ; there is that within us which laughs at instruction, hu- 
 man or divine. If some angels would only come and tarry 
 with us for a season ; but alas ! they would stand for a moment 
 aghast, and then spread their swiftest wings for the regions 
 where Grod reigns. They may sustain the believer, so that he 
 dash not his foot against a stone, but they have no power ade- 
 quate for the creation of a believer out of an unbeliever. Cre- 
 ation ! — this is the word — to be taken to pieces, as it were ; re- 
 duced to nothingness, and then made to live, a new creature. 
 
 This is no mere speculation. The Creator consents to ere- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 171 
 
 He takes us to tlie cross, and lifting up his 
 hand to heaven, swears that if we consent to die there, we shall 
 surely live there, and our new life shall be the participated life 
 of Him who knew no sin. We shall rise in the image of God. 
 If we have boldness to be crucified with Christ, happy are we. 
 
 He subdues our iniquities, then, by making us despair of 
 ever subduing them ourselves. — By pointing out to us some 
 trophies of his power, some incorrigible Peters, some wrathful 
 Pauls, who have been emancipated by his act. — By convincing 
 us of his willingness to take our foes in hand. — By giving us a 
 conception of his marvelous love shown to sinners, in the sur- 
 render of his only-begotten. — By giving us, through faith, a 
 heavenly experience of that love. We feast upon it, and our 
 enemies are not. They are gone without a battle. 
 
 Why should there ever be anything more ? The enemies 
 flee far and fast : one, however, remains crouching in the dark, 
 unseen — mutability; and in due time the others return, hoping 
 that their friend may have an opportunity of re-admitting 
 them. Then there are sad conflicts; and we wonder if, after 
 all, our iniquities are to abide unsubdued. We learn eventu- 
 ally that before their absolute subjugation, it is in many re- 
 spects necessary that we should have an accurate acquaintance 
 with them, an utter detestation of them, a most watchful habit 
 of faith with respect to them. We learn, in fact, that the per- 
 petuity of salvation is connected with the perpetuity of faith. 
 It is merely because of the imperfection and slumber of faith 
 that they ever venture to re-appear. They know very well 
 that we have no more of Grod than we have of faith. 
 
 May 19. — " The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not 
 at all acquit the wicked." — Nahuiu i. 3. 
 
 Because the Lord is slow to anger, men suppose that they 
 have nothing to apprehend from his anger. But, indeed, his 
 
172 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 anger is only the more terrible, because it is slow. He is slow 
 to anger ; this sliows tliat his anger is something different from 
 what we call anger. It is not an impulse ; but moves with the 
 utmost possible deliberation. 
 
 It would be of the greatest advantage to men if they would 
 just take knowledge that the goodness of God expressed in 
 the innumerable gifts of Providence that strew their paths, is 
 not complacency, but suspended wrath. They lie down and 
 sleep ; in the morning they awake, give a careless thought to 
 the circumstance that Grod has watched over them, and go 
 their way. They embark in many enterprises, and meet with 
 success. Comforts, honors, advantages, pour in from many 
 quarters. Why ? The reason is, say they, that God is well 
 pleased with us. The question then arises, '^ Who is this God 
 that daily fetches out of his treasury things, new and old, to 
 bestow on hoary-headed sinners, whose life is dedicated to in- 
 iquity ? What are we to think of a God who pays the salaries 
 of the servants of Satan, and affords them facilities for doing 
 his infamous will ?" You know not God. He bestows upon 
 you providential kindnesses, because he would attract you to 
 his kingdom against which you are now in revolt ; because he 
 would have you hear the word of his grace, and escape the up- 
 lifted bolt of his vengeance. He prolongs the day of mercy, 
 because he knows there is for you a lake of unquenchable fire, 
 an eternity of woe. 
 
 It would be a fearful impeachment of the power of God, if 
 the sinner, abiding in transgression, should after all come off 
 victorious. Transgression is the assumption of power greater 
 than that of God. Weak and contemptible is that legislator 
 whose laws may be broken with impunity. Better a thousand 
 times that he should make no laws at all. The sinner now for 
 a while cajoles himself with the idea that he is greater than 
 God; that he can contemn the commandments of God. But 
 God is as great in power as he is in long-suffering; and tho 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 173 
 
 imagined victory of man ohly prepares the way for the sub- 
 limer victory of God. 
 
 May 20. — '' I am the good Bhepherd, and know my sheep." — John x. 14, 
 
 Thou art indeed the good shepherd ; but we must acknow- 
 ledge that there often appears in us something that looks very 
 much like a denial of this truth. Believing thee to be the 
 good shepherd, why are we sometimes so slow to follow thee ? 
 Why do we ever doubt that thy commandments are better 
 than our own conceits? Why murmur at the ruggedness of 
 thy path ? Why look with wistful eyes at the pastures which 
 thou forbiddest ? We name thee the good shepherd ; but is 
 there not some hypocrisy in the joy with which we do it? 
 The words are familiar to our lips ; but our lives bear an am- 
 biguous testimony. 
 
 If an enemy should overcome us, take away our armor in 
 which we trusted, and command us to follow him ; fear might 
 constrain us to do so ; but we should take every opportunity 
 of lagging behind ; we should follow afar off; we should be 
 ever glancing to the right hand and to the left in search of 
 some solace ; we should go as far as we dared in by-paths ; we 
 should look wistfully to the sunny fields of liberty in the dis- 
 tance ; we should go slowly when our enemy called ; we should 
 do sullenly what he commanded. Has Christ any such disci- 
 ples ? Will he trouble himself long with those who cleave to 
 him chiefly through fear ? These are the greatest reproach to 
 him. They stigmatize him fearfully. Whatever their mouth 
 may say, their conduct asserts him to be the bad shepherd. 
 
 Let me honor thee, Lord, and in all my ways proclaim 
 thee the good shepherd, by doing cheerfully all thy will, not 
 setting aside those precepts of the Gospel that have fallen into 
 disuse in the Church, but ever acting upon the conviction that 
 each jot and tittle of what thou hast uttered has a relation to 
 
 15* 
 
174 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 my well-being as intimate as the breath that visits my lungs 
 Whatever others may do, let me not pretend to know myself 
 better than thou knowest me ; by supposing that thou hast 
 verrated my capacity in the tasks thou hast assigned, or un- 
 errated my necessity in the good things thou hast bestowed, 
 or ignored my urgency when the answer to prayer is long de- 
 layed. 
 
 May 21. — "The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory 
 of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." — Habakkuk ii. 14. 
 
 The world with all its wisdom has not yet reached the plat- 
 form where this humble servant of God stood more than two 
 thousand years ago. But indeed, others had stood there before 
 him. Isaiah had stood there and heard the song of the ser- 
 aphim. Moses had stood there nearly a thousand years before, 
 and heard the asseveration of the divine majesty, " As I live, 
 all the earth shall be filled with my glory." It is the fashion 
 with many to despise the stand-point of the ancient Israelites ; 
 nevertheless, it was the stand-point from which a number of 
 them were permitted to see more of the future condition of 
 the nations of the earth than the most sagacious politician is 
 yet able to see. 
 
 What an idea of fulness does the contemplation of the sea 
 convey to us ! The basin of the sea is full. A very little 
 added would cause a multitude of isles to disappear. The 
 earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. All his works 
 show forth his glory ; and a long life might be spent in tracing 
 a little leaf through all the ramifications of its eloquent his- 
 tory. But the Grospel is being published ; and thousands of 
 tongues are telling in many, many languages, the length and 
 breadth, the depth and height of God's immeasurable love in 
 Christ. Still the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in 
 pain; and the ministers of the gospel perpetually exclaim, 
 " How long, Lord, how long ?" The voices of the old 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 175 
 
 prophets assure us that a race shall tread this earth in the 
 latter days, whose eye shall have been anointed with eye salve 
 to behold the full glory of God as it shines in the face of Jesus 
 Christ, and to perceive the word " Bethel" written upon the 
 face of universal nature. Every tree shall be to them a pillar 
 in the temple of God; and every stone shall have written on 
 it the ineffable name of God, The mountains shall bring 
 peace, and the little hills shall yield joyously their contribu- 
 tions to the world-wide righteousness. 
 
 In this view a great interest attaches to this earth of ours, 
 even to every particular locality of it. Concerning every place 
 that we may visit, we have the assurance that a time will come 
 when the redeemed shall walk there and hearken diligently to 
 its song of emancipation, to its praises of God and the Lamb. 
 We know, indeed, that sin and the works and memorials of 
 sin are to be burnt out of the earth. We know, also, that our 
 bodies shall sleep in dust and arise glorious. The resurrection 
 of Christ is not only the guarantee of our resurrection, but 
 of that of the material world which was made by him, and 
 for him. 
 
 May 22. — " The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty." — Zepha- 
 niah iii. 17. 
 
 jMost pitiable was the condition of the Israelites in Egypt. 
 Pharaoh seemed to delight in eliciting the most incredible 
 proofs of their subjection to his rod. There is ordinarily a 
 limit beyond which masters dare not go in trifling with the 
 lives and feelings of even the most abject slaves; but there 
 seemed to be no limit to Pharaoh's power to oppress. The 
 sacred sentiment of paternity he trampled on ; and seemed to 
 feel that the Israelites were the very impersonation of help- 
 lessness. But soon it appeared that the Lord was in the midst 
 of this despised people, mighty to save ; and with such exhi- 
 bitions of might and majesty as never had accompanied the 
 
176 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 movements of any other people, tliey went forth from the 
 presence of their oppressors. 
 
 The Church of Christ is an habitation of God through the 
 Spirit. Lo, I am with you always, said Jesus. We know how 
 mighty he was in the midst of his disciples. After a lapse of 
 many years he appeared to John, and told him to reveal him to 
 the churches as walking in the midst of the golden candle- 
 sticks. He is in the midst of us, mighty to save. Nothing 
 of his might has been lost to the Church. It was expedient 
 for us that he should go from earth in body, and be present 
 with us in spirit. We lost nothing by this arrangement. We 
 may therefore calculate on a manifestation of glory and of 
 power not by any means inferior to those that render lustrous 
 the pages of sacred history. Let us only be careful to put 
 far away all insignia of our own power and glory ; and what 
 may we not expect ! 
 
 But alas ! what do we expect ? Do we expect some sublime 
 revelations of might in the wa}^ of subduing our selfishness, 
 worldliness, passion, pride ? Are we looking for divine might 
 to disclose itself in connection with our efi'orts for the good of 
 men ? Are we rivalling Elijah in faith, Moses in meekness 
 and zeal. Job in patience, Paul in earnestness, John in spiritu- 
 ality ? Are we seeking to be holy as God is holy ? Why not, 
 if the Lord be in the midst of us, mighty to save. 
 
 May 23.— " They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they 
 shall mourn." — Zechariah xii. 10. 
 
 . Think not that they who were personally concerned in the 
 crucifixon of the Lord Jesus Christ, were sinners above all the 
 sinners of the world. Christ on the cross, the righteous Ad- 
 vocate, was able to find something extenuating in their con- 
 duct. " They know not what they do." Afterwards, when 
 they saw what they had done, when the Spirit of Pentecost 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 177 
 
 made him known as tlie Prince of life, many of them repented 
 of their sin, and made haste to believe upon him. The mea- 
 sure of knowledge is lui important element in determining the 
 measure of sin. The lucasure of the means of knowing, let us 
 say rather. There are thousands who ^re every day guilty of 
 conduct as odious in the sight of heaven as that of the parties 
 who nailed Christ to the cross, and thrust a spear into his side. 
 These indeed, were mere Roman soldiers, having no personal 
 animosity to Christ, whose language even they did not under- 
 stand ; the guilty parties of that scene did not themselves lift 
 a finger against Christ. And their guilt falls immeasurably 
 short, as we have said, of many who now live, read the Gospel, 
 speak about it, profess to look to Christ for salvation, and yet 
 utterly falsify his religion in their practice. When men at- 
 tributed his blessed works and words to satanic influence, the 
 heart of Christ was pierced ; but it is even more pierced when 
 men profess to be his disciples, and by continuance in sin teach 
 the world that Christ has no objection to sin. These are en- 
 gaged in crucifying the Son of God afresh. They crucify his 
 love with their contentions; his holiness with their profane 
 conduct 3 his justice with their unrighteousness ; his mercy with 
 their unmercifulness ; his truth with their deceit; his gene- 
 rosity with their selfishness. They crucify him by falsifying 
 him. Some pierce him by denying his divinity; some by 
 teaching that he will save all, whether they repent or not ; 
 some by withholding his Gospel from the multitude ; some by 
 exalting a mere ceremony to a glory above that of Christ; 
 some by substituting a crucifix for him ; some in one way, 
 some in another. All whose life, teaching, conversation, go to. 
 misrepresent or degrade Christ be they as numerous as they 
 may, as admired as you please, they are piercing Christ, and 
 they shall mourn. The thing which will fill Christ's meek 
 ones with inefi'able joy, will fill the hearts of these professors 
 with anguish that no tongue can describe. 
 
178 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 May 24. — " His mercy is on them that fear him." — Luke i. 50. 
 
 Is there not reason to apprehend that we presume upon a 
 great deal of mercy that is not really accorded ? We know 
 that the world takes for granted that God forgives it, and re- 
 serves all its anxiety f(5r matters that seem to it invested with 
 much more difficulty. But may it not be that we, who con- 
 sider ourselves, on apparently good grounds, as God's real chil- 
 dren, that we are daily presuming on God's forgiveness when 
 that forgiveness is not really pronounced ? We are not notified 
 of forgiveness by some special messenger ; but are taught by 
 the Spirit of God to find it in the word of God by a process 
 in which there is some scope for self to intermingle and vitiate 
 the result. It requires no little wisdom, but especially much 
 meekness, and self-mistrust, and love of the truth, and do- 
 cility, to ascertain unerringly, that forgiveness has been pro- 
 nounced. 
 
 God's mercy is on them that fear him. It is not intended 
 to make men think lightly of transgression; but greatly to 
 increase their estimate of God's authority, and their loathing 
 for the sin forgiven. Is it impossible to find in our practice 
 the evidence that we continue on good terms with the sin that 
 we presume God is day by day forgiving ? Are we aware that 
 this is a foul mockery of God, a caricature of his mercy ? 
 There is no true fear of God before our eyes, if to-day's sin 
 keeps ever following upon yesterday's forgiveness. 
 
 May 25. — " There shall be a fountain opened to the house of David 
 and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." — Zech- 
 ariah xiii. 1. 
 
 The Jews were accustomed to regard themselves as a foun- 
 tain of righteousness, the only one in the earth ; their country 
 an oasis made glad by these beneficent and hallowed waters, 
 while all the rest of the world was a wilderness; and Jerusa- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 179 
 
 lem as the blessed spot where heaven and earth met together 
 and held one another in a fond embrace. At no time Avere 
 thej more tenacious of these views than when the Son of God 
 dwelt among them, drinking his daily cnp of ignominy. His 
 credentials showed that he had come to earth for the salvation 
 of all nations. A word spoken against him, a hand lifted in 
 opposition to him, was therefore not only the most transcendent 
 outrage offered to the Deity, but the fearfulest crime against 
 all the dwellers upon the earth. Yet the Jews rejected him ; 
 this is saying little ; they put him to the most shameful and 
 most cruel death conceivable. 
 
 But that which filled up the measure of the iniquity of 
 man was used by infinite grace as a means for the most sur- 
 prising manifestation of itself The disciples were commanded 
 to begin at Jerusalem, in the proclamation of the Gospel. 
 Then did the Jews discover that their pre-eminence over 
 the nations was a pre-eminence of guilt; and having been 
 brought, many of them at least, into a posture of deep self- 
 condemnation and self-loathing, they discovered thS fountain 
 of divine grace, drank thereof, and washed their sins away in 
 itB purifying waters. It was then that Jerusalem attained to a 
 pre-eminence above the nations immeasurably more honorable 
 than any it had previously enjoyed; then, in that little season 
 which intervened between the first successes of the Gospel and 
 its publication in other places. Solomon with all the glory of 
 his court could not so ennoble Jerusalem, as the little com- 
 pany of believers did, who were all of one heart and of one 
 soul. 
 
 We faintly remember to have read in some book of imagina- 
 tion of a fountain having marvelous properties, and this 
 among the rest — that a few drops taken from it to any distant 
 place and there poured out, would immediately cause a similar 
 fountain there to spring up. Christ told the woman of Sa- 
 maria that the water that he would give her, would be in her 
 
180 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 a well of water, springing up to everlasting life. Whosoever 
 comes to him and drinks, not only finds his own thirst assuaged, 
 but discovers in himself a wealth of waters sufficient to slake 
 the thirst of numbers. Thus the fountain opened up to the 
 house of David and the people of Jerusalem in that little 
 company of believers, has been repeated and repeated, until 
 now there is hardly any place under the sun where this foun- 
 tain of divine grace is not accessible. How tame and puerile 
 the efforts of man's fancy in comparison with the actual pro- 
 ducts of Grod's beneficence ! " Thou art a God that doeth 
 wonders." In order to discourse of wonders, men suppose 
 themselves driven from the actual world into the world of 
 sheer imagination. But they forsake the world of wonders 
 when they forsake the world of truth. Be it that they con- 
 ceive a fountain most beautiful to behold ; the eye is not satis- 
 fied with seeing ) or, streaming with gold ; there are a thousand 
 ills of life that mock at gold; or, communicating health; health 
 is merely a deliverance from one class of sufferings. But a 
 fountain wliich sheds abroad the love of God in the heart; 
 which gives the best of light to the understanding ; elevates 
 the affections; banishes sin; gives everlasting life; and re- 
 veals a world worthy of that everlasting life : this is surely 
 beyond all comparison. The Wonderful Fountain. 
 
 May 26. — ''If two of you shall agree on eai-th as touching anything 
 that they shall ask, it shall be done for them." — Matthew xviii. 19. 
 
 Men are fully aware of many of the advantages of partner- 
 ships. They even form partnerships for the prosecution of 
 some labors that would seem most likely to be well performed 
 by a single individual ; as for instance, the labors of author- 
 ship. But they are not aware that any gain would result from 
 entering into partnership, with the promises of God as their 
 capital, and the throne of grace as their place of business. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 181 
 
 The encouragement of the text does not address itself merely 
 to an association formed of two persons; the context shows 
 that it does not. But our Lord teaches that association in 
 prayer is so exceedingly profitable, that even if two only should 
 embark in it, there would be grand results. Let three, four, 
 or a hundred and twenty, of one accord, of one mind, seek to 
 utilize the promises ; commensurate fruits shall appear in some 
 early day of Pentecost. The great thing is not the numbers, 
 but the agreement. The prayer of two whose souls are at- 
 tuned to exactly the same key, and who have learned to merge 
 their separate interests in one common interest, shall prevail 
 more than the prayer of tens of thousands, whose minds are 
 occupied, more or less, with lingering considerations of purely 
 personal good. 
 
 The Church in these latter times has grasped earnestly at 
 the advantages connected with association ; and the number of 
 its societies is beyond estimate. But it is comparatively over- 
 looked that association in prayer should take the lead of every 
 other association. Upon the plateau in front of the mercy- 
 seat, God, as it were, sees innumerable suppliants, each one, in 
 some sense or other, standing by himself; and hears innumer- 
 able petitions which only accidentally coalesce, for the most 
 part are quite different in sentiment and aim from one another, 
 and sometimes are strangely opposed to one another. Now 
 God would teach us that in prosecuting our associate enter- 
 prises, we must prosecute them with united prayer. 
 
 The prizes held out to believing prayer, are also prizes for 
 Christian concord of the most intimate kind. Oh, who can 
 tell what mighty, what magnificent freight of celestial treasure 
 will reach the shores of this world, when Christians bind them- 
 selves together with the utmost stringency, before the mercy- 
 seat ? surrendering all divided interests, and constituting them- 
 selves one firm ; feeling that all depends upon their absolute 
 agreement. Cannot every parent understand this ? Is it not 
 16 
 
182 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 his delight when a gift bestowed on one child is a gratification 
 to all ? Is it not a grief to him to observe that his children have 
 divided interest ? Ten thousand prayers are dismissed daily, 
 with this one word, " Love one another with pure hearts fer- 
 vently." 
 
 May 27. — "Behold I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, 
 that no man take thy crown." — Revelation iii. 11. 
 
 Hold fast what thou hast, because it is only for a little while 
 that thou must hold it under the pressure of adverse circum- 
 stances; and hold it fast because everlasting victory and do- 
 minion and blessedness shall reward thy fidelity. So might a 
 captain speak to a little band assaulted by a mighty host, when 
 in the distance a relieving force is seen approaching; a nation's 
 destiny depends upon their holding their own. 
 
 It is only for a little while, because the day of our salvation is 
 now nearer than we believed; a-nd because we have learned 
 to wait. Delays that once were agonizing now pass with much 
 less severity over our disciplined natures. We have learned 
 obedience by the things we have sufiered. 
 
 He, the plunderer, who goeth about seeking to despoil men 
 of the gifts that God has bestowed on them through Christ, 
 obtains his success chiefly by persuading men that in relin- 
 quishing or neglecting this and that spiritual gift, they are 
 doing nothing to jeopardize their crown. A man yields up 
 something of his energy, his watchfulness, his prayerfulness, 
 self-denial, humility or love, because he manages to persuade 
 himself that his title to glory, honor, and immortality, is safe 
 enough, independently of the vacillations of his spiritual life. 
 It is therefore for the Christian to keep carefully in mind, that 
 whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. The example 
 of Paul is admirable here. If any man might think that he 
 had got beyond the reach of being a castaway, it was Paul. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 183 
 
 Well, be had ; lie had assurance of his iiidestructible interest 
 iu Christ; but he never allowed himself to feel that he had 
 got beyond the need of keeping his body under, of running 
 not uncertainly, of fighting not as one that beateth the air, 
 lest he himself should be a castaway. His assurance was con- 
 nected with the witness of the Spirit within him, the Spirit 
 that led him habitually to count all things but loss that he 
 might win more and more of Christ, more and more of Christ's 
 likeness. 
 
 Christ will keep that which we have committed unto him ; 
 and we must keep that which he has committed unto us. None 
 shall pluck us out of his hand ; we are kept by the power of 
 God through faith unto salvation ; we are kept by the good 
 Shepherd, because we keep within the hearing of his voice 
 and follow him. 
 
 The consciousness of sin often causes men to relax their 
 hold of Christ's salvation. They have been overtaken by 
 temptation, have fallen into some snare, have yielded their 
 heart to some seductive vanit}^ ; and when they come to them- 
 selves, then confidence in Christ is fearfully shaken, and it will 
 be well if they let him not go altogether. Let them then hear 
 his voice saying, Hold fast what thou hast, that no man take 
 thy crown. Thy sin starts up with assumed indignation, pre- 
 tending to have a great zeal for God, and says, "Is it not 
 enough that thy path was sin till thou enteredst the gates of 
 the kingdom, but wilt thou within the very borders of the 
 kingdom, sow the dragon's teeth of sin ?" But fall not back ; 
 drag thy sin to Christ, and there accuse both it and thyself, 
 and call upon Christ to avenge himself on thy recreant nature 
 by sanctifying it and clothing it with the armor of righteous- 
 ness. 
 
 We can only hold fast what we have, by constantly using it. 
 If we have a measure of love, we must daily study the means 
 of manifesting it. It is easily recovered from yesterday but 
 
184 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 not from the day before. If we have joy, we must persevere 
 in rejoicing; every day must have its spiritual joy. Our 
 peace too, we must daily see to it that it is with us. So with 
 long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temper- 
 ance. Each day is to be considered a stage, and we must as- 
 certain regularly that none of our treasures have been left 
 behind. Christians are ready to think, until they have learned 
 the contrary, that their graces are safe when they are slumber- 
 ing ; but their slumber is fatal. Whatever we would retain 
 we must keep it near our consciousness ; our will, our memory, 
 our understanding, all must be conversant with it. 
 
 Look into the diary of such a man as Jonathan Edwards, 
 to know how he held fast to what he had, that no man should 
 take his crown. Look at these admirable resolutions, and at 
 the admirable obedience he rendered to them, and see how 
 high his estimate of every gracious communication from his 
 Lord, how strenuously he battled for the preservation of it. 
 
 May 28. — "Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness 
 arise." — Malachi iv. 2. 
 
 Unto them that stand in awe of God and are conversant 
 with the divine perfections, the Sun of righteousness makes 
 haste to arise. There has been a fulfilling of this truth ever 
 since the day of Pentecost. To one individual here, to an- 
 other there, it is given to behold his rising. Here is one that 
 has been enabled to look upon Christ as the sacrifice for sin, 
 to approach God through him, and to rejoice in the goodly 
 prospects opening up before him. But soon he becomes con- 
 scious, of a great and growing need. He is not satisfied with 
 what he has seen of Christ. The very word of God excites 
 in him conceptions of a walk with Christ, glorious, elevating, 
 soul-satisfying, beyond anything that he has experienced. It 
 seems to him that the world grows darker every day. He 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 185 
 
 once rejoiced in tlie day-star and in the dawn, and thonglit the 
 light amazing ; but now he is consumed with longings to be- 
 hold the bright manifestation of Christ to his soul; and it 
 seems as though midnight had come again. At length in some 
 happy hour, the scales fall from his eyes ; the word of God 
 becomes luminous like the very vestments of Christ transfig- 
 ured ; and instead of finding himself alone in the world, he 
 finds himself in intimate alliance with a Being whose glory 
 fills the heavens. The whole world is now to him enlightened. 
 His sun is arisen. All the works of nature are seen as they 
 never were before. In a particular language that others can- 
 not understand, the heavens declare to him the glory of God. 
 The sun that pursues its course through the skies is com- 
 missioned to remind him that God is love, and that God is 
 his. 
 
 He goes far in the strength of this joy. But at length he 
 discovers that Christ has laid the foundations of his new na- 
 ture very deep ; and that it is impossible for him to be conclu- 
 sively satisfied with any private joy. He is so made like unto 
 Christ that he cannot but look with longings as intense as he 
 ever knew, for that appearance of the Lord in his unlimited 
 glory, vrhich will be the signal of the complete redemption of 
 the Church, as well as of the creation that now groaneth and 
 travaileth in pain. 
 
 May 29. — "He that believetli on the Son of God, hath the witness in 
 himself." — 1 John v. 10. 
 
 There is much evidence given anterior to faith ; abundant 
 evidence ; far more than men care to gather up, concerning 
 anything of worldly interest. Yet the greatest and most sur- 
 prising testimonies are reserved for the satisfaction of be- 
 lievers. If unbelief has its necessities, faith has its privileges. 
 Some would like to have, without any figure, a white stone 
 thrown down to them from heaven, with their name upon it, 
 
186 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 beside the name of God — something that they can clutch in 
 their hand. But believers are content with a testimony more 
 appropriate to faith. 
 
 Christ promised his Spirit ; he promised himself; he prom- 
 ised the indAvelling of the Father in the heart of the believer, 
 who then has the witness in himself; even the faithful and 
 true witness, him that cannot lie, him that guideth into all 
 truth. 
 
 But how manifold is the testimony of this witness — even as 
 many as are his operations. The fruits of the Spirit are so 
 many expressions of this testimony. Consider the offices of 
 the Spirit as set forth by Christ to his disciples (John xiv.- 
 xvi.) The eighth chapter of Romans also describes this testi- 
 mony. The seventh shows the misery of being without it. 
 There is no witness in the world more worthy of all accepta- 
 tion. For who will venture to say that the spirit of man, with 
 the best aid of Satan, is able to counterfeit perfectly the sub- 
 limest and blessedest operations of the Godhead ? 
 
 May 30.—" The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with 
 his angels." — Matthew xvi. 27. 
 
 It seems to have been an important part of the divine plan 
 that the people of God, from Adam onward to the actual ad- 
 vent of the Messiah, should be momentarily expecting that 
 Messiah ; the times and the seasons he dimly revealed, reserv- 
 ing them mainly for his own contemplation. And scarcely 
 had the Saviour at length alighted on this earth than he began 
 to direct the minds of the new people whom he was forming 
 for himself, to his ulterior advent in glory. To wait for the 
 Son of God from heaven, is as much the proper attitude of 
 the Church of this dispensation, as of that of former dispensa- 
 tions. 
 
 When he came on his errand of humiliation, there was no 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 18T 
 
 element of humiliation wanting ; and when he eometli for the 
 exhibition of glory, we may be sure that there shall be no ele- 
 ment of glory wanting. For consider that he cometh in the 
 glory of his Father. The inconceivable glory of God in the 
 material universe, in the angelic hierarchies, in the heaven of 
 heavens, must all be placed upon the Redeemer, even as once 
 our sins were all laid upon him. Yes, he must come clothed 
 with the virtues of all beings, with all the righteousness that is, 
 with all the wisdom that is, with all the beauty that is, all the 
 power, all the excellence of all existences. The glory of the 
 sun will be changed to sackcloth, the brightness of the heaven 
 to darkness, not by any change in them, but by the superior 
 glory then introduced. This glory is to burst upon the world 
 in a day and in an hour, when men expect it not : hence the 
 need that Christians should expect it in every day and hour. 
 The gospel includes both advents. Christ as often spoke to 
 his disciples of his future coming in glory, as of his dying in 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 May 31. — '' I count all things but loss for the excellency of the know- 
 ledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord." — Philippians ill. 8. 
 
 Excellency is to be estimated by adaptation. Viewed in 
 himself, Christ is without a peer. With all beings before him, 
 the Father chose Christ, saying, " This is my elect, in whom 
 my soul delighteth." AVhen God has pronounced, what need 
 remains of deliberation ? But happily for us, there is in 
 Christ not only infinite excellency, but adaptation to our state 
 and requirements. 
 
 As he is excellent, so is the knowledge of him excellent; 
 for we possess him by knowing him. There is nothing in the 
 world that may not cheerfully be sacrificed in the effort to 
 know Christ. If there be reason to believe that we shall en- 
 joy better opportunities of knowing Christ in an inferior po- 
 sition, it is most becoming to descend into it. If wealth blocks 
 
188 DAILY xMEDITATIOXS. 
 
 up the avenues of our spiritual apprehension of Christ, it 
 must be removed. 
 
 We cannot know Christ, if we are without a will to obey 
 him. Since the path of duty is the path of this golden know- 
 ledge, let us go forward in it with delight. The peasant has 
 his few articles of furniture, some paltry pictures, a little patch 
 of ground, plain apparel, and perhaps thinks much of these 
 possessions ; but make him master of a palace, with galleries 
 and treasuries, and how lightly will he then esteem his former 
 goods. Thus with the Christian. 
 
 JcxE 1. — "I am the bread of life." — John vi. 35. 
 
 Men have what they regard as life ; and if you tell them 
 that it. is not life, they smile at your quaint way of viewing 
 things, and at your figurative language. But, really, what men 
 call life is but a momentary evasion of death. Death dogs 
 you everywhere. He hath long since written his name upon 
 you ; and he suffers not a day to go by in which he does not 
 extort a new confession from your mortal constitution, to the 
 effect that you are his. All pain, all weariness, all loss, all de- 
 cay, proclaims that you are a respited criminal. 
 
 jMen insist on regarding the existence they now possess as 
 natural, regular, and just what the universal system of things 
 requires. They cannot patiently hearken to the doctrine that 
 man is fallen, that his present estate is in consequence ab- 
 normal, out of joint. They call this life, deeming this to be 
 God's great gift, even his best; and are bewildered at the 
 statement that this is death, Grod's real gift of life having been 
 cast away. It is a great approach to emancipation for a soul 
 to discover that humanity is wrecked ; at sea in an open and 
 shattered boat ; defending itself from death for a little moment 
 by a drop of water and an ounce of bread ; ready to perish 
 whenever it shall please the mysterious monarch to step from 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 189 
 
 some billow into the boat. But when we have found that what 
 men call life is not life, a question of unspeakable interest 
 arises. Is there life for man ? Will God, indeed, let us re- 
 enter Eden, and put forth our hand and eat of the fruit of the 
 tree of life, and live forever ? When Christ, taking his stand 
 in the centre of the human family, proclaims, " I am the bread 
 of life," then Eden is come again, Eden with opened doors, 
 with no sword-waving cherubim, but with its tree of life in 
 full view, and within easy reach. The door that will be closed 
 against many in the last day, is no other than the door that 
 has stood open for them many a long year ; and the life from 
 which they with anguish will be forever divorced, is just the 
 life that is now offered to them day by day, and offered in vain. 
 If we would have a lively illustration of the meaning of 
 these words, we should give our attention to the few barley 
 loaves that were taken from the basket of that lad, multiplied 
 and distributed to the apostles; which kept multiplying as 
 they kept breaking and distributing it to the multitude ; which 
 kept on multiplying as the multitude kept breaking it and 
 handing it every man to his neighbor ; which abundantly met 
 the wants of five thousand men, besides women and children, 
 and would have met the wants of the whole world had it been 
 there ; which was so much greater for all its communications 
 that it required twelve baskets to hold it, after the banquet 
 was over. 
 
 June 2. — " God was in Christ." — 2 Corinthians t. 19. 
 
 You have false conceptions of some being, some one that has 
 claims upon your cordial Icfve and heartiest obedience; his 
 claims you cannot recognize, his worth is utterly hidden from 
 you, and your embittered mind will not allow you to behold 
 him otherwise than as invested with dark and forbidding qual- 
 ities. Knowing the force of your prejudice, he comes to you 
 in the disguise of a mean man, and is hired by you as a serv- 
 
190 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 ant. Gradually you marvel at the admirable characteristics 
 of this servant. He removes every stone from your path, and 
 does it without ostentation. He garlands your house about 
 with beautiful flowers. He spreads your table with food that 
 angels might eat. He entertains your children by endless de- 
 vices, and enriches their minds with the best instruction. He 
 is continually averting some danger, saving some life. In some 
 hour of special magnanimity on his part, you shout aloud your 
 admiration of his character, and call Heaven to witness that 
 you will ever love him and ever serve him. At that moment, 
 the disguise falls from him, and your injured lord stands be- 
 fore you. The master against whom you had revolted was in 
 that matchless servant. Your prejudices left him no alterna- 
 tive but thus to approach you, thus to propitiate you. What 
 now can you do but fall at his feet with a contrite heart, de- 
 ploring your former folly and wickedness, and consecrating 
 yourself unreservedly to the service of such a master. 
 
 Here is a province that professes to have a great attachment 
 to the sovereign, yet breaks all his laws without the slightest 
 compunction, affirming either that he had never made the laws, 
 or was indifferent about their execution. When any legate 
 landed on their shores, demanding tribute, they tore him in 
 pieces, affirming that he had come in his own name, and that 
 the sovereign required no tribute at their hands. Perhaps 
 they put a few lame and diseased animals that they knew not 
 what else to do with, on board the vessel, and sent it back to 
 the capital, while they boasted of their munificent fealty and 
 self-sacrificing devotedness. At length a stranger comes and 
 takes up his abode among them. His conduct is very different 
 from theirs, for it is blameless. He teaches and exemplifies 
 neighborly love; refuses to visit the places of amusement 
 which the sovereign had forbidden to be opened, to take any- 
 thing, do anything, speak anything, contrary to the laws. He 
 speaks of the king, and relates what he has seen at his court 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 191 
 
 and what he has not seen there. He assures the people that 
 if they will repent and unfeignedly submit to their monarch, 
 they shall meet with not only lenity, but boundless kindness ; 
 but if they remain obdurate, he will come and overwhelm 
 them with his wrath. The people, from the highest to the 
 lowest, hear all this with shouts of derision, unbelief, and an- 
 ger ; from day to day their anger becomes less and less con- 
 trollable ; at length they seize the stranger, determined to put 
 him to the most barbarous and shameful death. " At last,'' 
 they then say, " we shall free the earth from the presence of 
 this blasphemer, who can do nothing but asperse the honor of 
 our sovereign." They bring their instruments of torture and 
 proceed to inflict upon him the most fiendish torments. At 
 that moment his imperial cohorts arrive and snatch him from 
 their hands; his nobles re-invest him with the symbols of 
 power, and bow the knee before him ; and all the company of 
 the regicides stand appalled and utterly confounded. Their 
 sovereign was in that stranger -, and it was the character, the 
 words, the ways of their sovereign, that they had been so in- 
 tensely hating. "God was in Christ." 
 
 JuxE 3.— "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there 
 am I in the midst of them." — Matthew xviii. 20. 
 
 We cross sea and land to visit the holy places. We exult 
 to look upon the wretched city that bears the name of the 
 place where Christ was condemned to death. We say, this 
 stream he crossed, this mountain he stood upon, this valley he 
 traversed, this shore he visited, in this town he was born, in 
 this place he was brought up. Romanists, Greeks, Armenians, 
 who know of no other holy places, jostle us and outstrip us. 
 But the question, " Where is Christ to be found now ?" is far 
 more important than the question, where he once was. " The 
 world seeth me no more and thinketh of me in the past, but 
 
192 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 ye see me. The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this 
 mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father ; but when 
 true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in 
 truth." The little companies that come together in upper 
 chambers and bye places, in the name of Christ, remembering 
 his promises, seeking his presence, cherishing his spirit, hon- 
 oring his word — in these little companies Christ is to be found. 
 
 Is it possible that any one should be a lover of Christ and 
 not a lover of these assemblies ? That they should be a wea- 
 riness to the world, we can understand. But alas ! there are 
 thousands who profess to be his, who never dream of frequent- 
 ing these meetings of believers, held in honor of Christ, for 
 communion with Christ. These believers behold Christ in 
 one another. They speak his words; entertain his desires; 
 occupy themselves with his resolutions. He is present in their 
 characters, modelled upon his. He is present in the word 
 which they read, hearken to, believe. He is the subject of 
 their conversation. They dwell upon his life, sufferings, and 
 love. He is present by the Spirit, that takes of him and 
 shows unto them. They are convinced of sin, confess it, and 
 forsake it. They behold his glory, and rejoice greatly in him. 
 Such effects of Christ's words and glances often take place in 
 these meetings, as greatly surpass what took place when he 
 was visibly present with those twelve disciples of old. He is 
 present as a righteous advocate and intercessor. They are his 
 plenipotentiaries. He gives them their instructions, and clothes 
 them with power. 
 
 If Christ be in these assemblies, then are they the true cen- 
 tres from whence the mightiest influences flow abroad over the 
 world. Divine wisdom, truth, power and love, must be added 
 to the folly, weakness, ignorance, erringness, of the two or 
 three that meet in his name, in order that we may form a just 
 estimate of the moral value of these meetings. Some of the 
 grandest revolutions in society, have their origin here. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 193 
 
 June 4. — " Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I 
 am chief." — 1 Timothy i. 15. 
 
 Every man looks upon himself as belonging to a small mi- 
 nority composed of the world's best men. If there were one 
 enormous circle drawn, and another very small one, the former 
 for the great transgressors and the latter for the comparatively 
 innocent, all the world with one consent would seek to crowd 
 into the smaller circle. And in this they would be acting 
 quite conscientiously. They are accustomed in their self-esti- 
 mates to overrate the good and underrate the evil. Again, 
 they judge of themselves, not by their actual works, but by 
 their imaginations, aspirations, and unrealized capabilities. 
 Circumstances, they say to themselves, keep us down ; but we 
 feel that we are capable of rising to the loftiest heights of 
 moral power. Their bad qualities again are treated as acci- 
 dents, not properly belonging to them ; as barnacles cleave to 
 the bottom of a ship. Thus it was with Paul, till the law 
 came, and he found himself compelled to apply God's standard 
 of goodness to himself. Then he was filled with horror ; sin 
 revived and he died ; the former Paul whom he had known 
 and admired, and wanted all the world to admire, disappeared, 
 and in his place came Sin, revealing itself in all his nature, all 
 his habits, and, as it were, possessing him, from the crown of 
 his head to the sole of his feet. He now finds it impossible to 
 see so much sin in any other as he sees in himself; just as it 
 is impossible for the eye to see so much of things at a distance, 
 as of thing-s at hand. 
 
 This mighty and, as it seems, incredible change must pass 
 upon all men. Yes, all the proud, the boastful, the self-com- 
 placent, the moral; the souls that eulogize themselves for 
 heaven-born impulses and heaven-high aspirations; these all 
 must be brought to the condition into which the law brought 
 Paul. I say not that they will not be brought out of it. 
 17 
 
194 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 "When the wrath of the Lamb shall be revealed, who shall be 
 able to stand ? 
 
 June 5. — " Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, 
 shall find watching." — Luke xii. 37. 
 
 How everything in this world wears the appearance of a 
 house the master of which is away, far, far away ; as good as 
 dead. Every one doeth that which is right in his own eyes, 
 and goeth about as though he had himself inherited all author- 
 ity. A few, indeed, proclaim in this chamber and in that, the 
 remembered will of the master, and endeavor to turn back the 
 tide of rebellion and of ungodliness. But the others listen 
 not. They say, " Our Lord delayeth his coming, and there is 
 not the slightest likelihood that he will come in our days. He 
 hath stationed no guard to interfere with us ; we have liberty ; 
 let us avail ourselves of it." Carried away by the force of 
 their example, some from whom you would have expected 
 more fidelity, give over watching. But there is a little band 
 who keep watching, watching on, amid all the confusion and 
 iniquity around them. To a reflecting observer, it is quite 
 amazing to see how they go about all their appointed occupa- 
 tions, just as though the Lord were there, looking on; not 
 sparing themselves, not seeking their own, putting up with in- 
 sults and injuries, multiplying their labors; introducing im- 
 provements into their way of doing things, increasing in skill, 
 in patience, in success, as months and years roll on. What is 
 the secret spring of their conduct ? It is twofold. By faith 
 they know that their Lord sees them, even now, and is ac- 
 quainted with all their ways; and they know also that he 
 cometh, none can say how soon, to take unto him his great 
 power and reign. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 195 
 
 June 6. — "Pray without ce'asing. In everything give thanks." — 
 1 Thessalonians v. 17, 18. 
 
 You are always receiving ; you are always needing. There 
 is no position that you are called to occupy in which you will 
 not find some expressions of divine goodness. There is no 
 cup so hitter given you hy your heavenly Father that has not 
 in it some commingled good. Li everytlimg give thanks. In 
 the pit of Joseph. In his prosperity. In his prison. In the 
 belly of the fish. Upon Job's dunghill. Let John the Bap- 
 tist in prison give thanks that he had received boldness to 
 declare the truth. Let the scourg6d disciples rejoice that they 
 are counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. In every 
 trial you have this at least to give thanks for, that you are 
 tried ; for you might have been cast away as reprobate. The 
 very fact of trial shows a thought of goodness toward you on 
 the part of Grod. Observe what you are receiving, and give 
 thanks for it : be sensible also of what you need, and pray for 
 it. 
 
 Pray without ceasing, for — 
 
 The adversary is unceasingly on the alert. 
 
 The manna of grace does not keep. 
 
 Your nature is most volatile and mutable. 
 
 Prayer is the recognition of an unceasing fact, namely your 
 dependence on God. 
 
 June 7. — "Walk in the Spirit." — Gralatians v. 16. 
 
 Let the Spirit have the control of all your movements. Do 
 this thing, let alone that, adopt this habit, forsake that, speak 
 this word, dismiss that, go, stay, as the Spirit shall choose. It 
 is certainly a marvellous invention of God that the Spirit 
 should come down from heaven, enter into these satanized con- 
 stitutions of ours, and undertake to exhibit a divine life upon 
 the earth through the instrumentality of anything so utterly 
 
196 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 intractable as these members, these hearts, these darkened un- 
 derstandings. It seems like expecting that some mud-boat 
 shall mount into the skies, and wheel itself in beauty along 
 the clouds. 
 
 He that walketh in the Spirit, will be very shy of mere 
 impulses. He will cultivate a calm coUectedness of soul, will 
 keep himself in a listening attitude, that he may ever hear the 
 still small voice of the Spirit. How wonderful that this mighty 
 subjugation of his nature, should be brought about by the 
 agency of a faint whisper that the least commotion renders 
 inaudible ! "What all the physical forces of the world would 
 have failed to accomplish, is brought about by a gentle mys- 
 terious whisper in the depth of one's nature. The world sees 
 the surprising result, and is all bewildered at the absence of a 
 sensible motive power. 
 
 Junes. — "I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you." — 
 John xiv. 18. 
 
 More literally, I will not leave you orphans — bereaved of 
 ail that you hold most dear, most necessary — helpless in the 
 presence of many foes — friendless in the presence of many 
 trials — skilless in the presence of an immense task. The pa- 
 rents are the complement of the little child. It operates 
 through their wisdom and power and resources, to keep its 
 place in the world, and act its part. The Christian without 
 Christ, if such a thing can be conceived, is the most deplora- 
 bly helpless being in the world. For he has been awakened 
 from the delusion that possesses mankind, that they are com- 
 plete in themselves; he has seen the length and breadth of 
 the law of God; has discovered the bitter hostility of the 
 world to the righteous; and just in the measure that his sense 
 of need has been increased, he has seen the ability to help 
 him vanishing from the world and all created things, to con- 
 centrate itself in Christ. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 197 
 
 The nearest approach to such an orphan state of the Church 
 was in the period between Christ's death and the resurrection. 
 To the disciples at that time Christ was really dead ; his power, 
 wisdom, grace, were all dead; the promises were dead and 
 buried with him; all the advantages conferred by his teaching, 
 all the blessings derived from his presence, were crucified and 
 gone. These disciples had been taken up by the Saviour al- 
 most into heaven; and now by the unexpected death of their 
 leader and commander, they were let drop to a point of help- 
 lessness far below that of the rest of men. They shut the 
 doors for fear of the Jews who had crucified him, and who 
 might come at any moment and crucify them ; and they looked 
 upon the swords which Christ had told them to take, instead 
 of all the promises ; and a full conception of their misery 
 burst upon them. Hundreds of thousands of enemies on the 
 one hand; and they, a few inexpert fishermen with two or 
 three rusty swords on the other. Could anything be more ab- 
 surd than the idea of a conflict ? One little word of promise 
 had once invested them with power over all the power of the 
 enemy ; but all the promises were now buried with Christ, and 
 a great stone rolled upon them ; and they were left alone with 
 their wretched swords. But Christ fulfilled his word. Ho 
 left them not a prey to the wrath of man and the malice of 
 the adversary. He came unto them ; and with him came all 
 the promises. In fact, they themselves with him arose. 
 They breathed, they lived, when they again saw him breath- 
 ing, living. 
 
 If at any time a soul be brought into a state of orphanage, 
 and seem to itself separated from all grace and power and 
 hope; let it lay hold of this word. It may have been .fitting 
 that it should have a taste of the misery of being without 
 Christ, under a sense of the need of Christ; but a taste sufiices. 
 " I will come unto you," says Jesus. 
 17 «■ 
 
198 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 June 9. — "If a man love me he will keep my words; and my Fatlier 
 •will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him." 
 — John xiv. 23. 
 
 Jude wanted to know how the manifestation of Christ unto 
 his people exclusively, was to be effected. Christ in reply, 
 says, that the heliever has something and God something to do ; 
 it does not concern the believer to know how God will do his 
 part; all that concerns him is to know how he is to do his part. 
 Let him then keep the words of Christ, and the manifestation 
 will be brought about ; the Godhead shall take up its abode 
 with him ; let him keep the words of Christ, and he will keep 
 Christ with him; let the words of God abide with him, and 
 God will abide with him. 
 
 To know how to keep the words of Christ is the most im- 
 portant of all knowledge ; to keep them is the most importan-t 
 of all works. 
 
 The best of all teachers in this thing is love. Love of Christ 
 v/ill not allow us to make light of any word of Christ. It views 
 the memory as a consecrated room fitted up for the reception 
 of the words of its object. The words of a man embody his 
 character ; — imperfectly however ; — for who is without guile ? 
 The words of Christ give us Christ himself They tell me 
 what he loves; in other words^ what he wishes me to be; and 
 I must keep them perpetually that I may know what I should 
 perpetually be. I cannot keep the words of Christ and re- 
 move out of the path of Christ; or if they then abide with 
 me, it is to torture me, and I can have no peace, till I make 
 my way, wounded and wearied, back to the king's highway. 
 While I keep the words of Christ, I keep the tempter at a 
 distance; I thwart his endeavors as Christ himself thwarted 
 them. Let me keep the words of Christ, and the principles 
 of this world shall find no place in me. In keeping the words 
 of Christ, I keep the watchword by which I have access at all 
 times to the throne of God's heavenly grace. Let me keep 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 199 
 
 tliem then in affection, in • memory, nn faith, in obedience, in 
 prayer. 
 
 June 10. — " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." — John 
 xiv. 27. 
 
 Christ makes his will, the hour of his departure having 
 come. Silver and gold he has none. To the eye of the world 
 it is a pauper going his way ; and the wonder is that there 
 should be any to attend him in his last hours. He has lived 
 in the world and amassed nothing ; not so much as to pay his 
 funeral expenses. His life is a fiiilure ; he has had the usual 
 advantages, yet, leaves the world as he entered it. You will 
 find no parchments in his drawers; no stray pieces of gold in 
 his coffers ; it is a dead man dying ; for what but a dead man 
 is he that has no worldly property ? 
 
 This expresses the feeling, if not the reasoning, of many. 
 Yet why do men seek property ? Is it not from the want of 
 peace? Why do we behold the world rushing passionately 
 along ten thousand paths ? Because they find not peace. They 
 seek peace by appropriation, not by renunciation. Would not 
 even their own wisdom teach them to purchase peace, if an op- 
 portunity presented itself, by the surrender of a globe of gold ? 
 
 The peace that Christ leaves, is his own peace. Consider 
 his life. He endured the constant contradiction of sinners. 
 He was numbered with the transgressors. He was stigmatized 
 as devilish in origin, character, and purpose. Each returning 
 day brought him new trials, new sufferings. So that the peace 
 he leaves is consistent with many trials, many afflictions. These 
 in fact serve for the proof of it. 
 
 The legatees of Christ have peace of conscience. Myriads 
 of sins, each of which — in the day of the mind's awakening — 
 has the tormenting fiiculty of many devils, are bound as to this 
 power, and that forever. We have peace in the deliverance 
 from inordinate desires : — in the consciousness of God's favor : — 
 
200 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 in the assurance tliat all things concerning ns will be ordered 
 for the best : — in freedom from worldly cares : — in the cer- 
 tainty of Christ's victorious coming and everlasting reign. 
 
 June 11. — " Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." — 
 John xv. 8. 
 
 This is a valid argument with those that are concerned for 
 the glory of God. It is addressed to those who are acquainted 
 with this spring of action. The heavens declare the glory of 
 God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork ; but in vain, 
 till Christians in a far higher degree exhibit his glory by show- 
 ing that Christ is the true vine, and that they who abide in 
 him obtain the communications of a divine life, and produce 
 heavenly fruits on earth. What the sun, moon, and stars, the 
 hills and the floods, volcanoes and earthquakes, rainbows and 
 flowers, what the works of God in nature and in providence 
 have not succeeded in doing, it is yours under peculiar circum- 
 stances, and by the subordination of mightiest means, to at- 
 tempt. Innumerable spectators from the worlds on high, watch 
 with breathless interest the progress of this experiment. And 
 can it be that what the magnificent and all-resplendent orbs of 
 space have not accomplished, shall be brought about by the in- 
 strumentality of a little company of converted sinners ? That 
 you shall show forth the glory of God, and constrain the world 
 to take knowledge of his perfections ? 
 
 Christ is the vine, and you are the branches ; wherefore 
 your fruit is Christ's fruit. The world did not get rid of him 
 by killing him. He lives in you and produces fruit in you. 
 His meekness and lowliness are to find their exhibition through 
 you. His self-denial and love ; his zeal and faithfulness ; his 
 faith and prayerfulness ; his wisdom and patience; his forti- 
 tude, his impartiality, his purity, all his admirable character- 
 istics are to abide in the world, for you are in the world. Then 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 201 
 
 will the world find Itself baffled and confounded, when having 
 crucified Christ in Jerusalem, it finds him springing up again 
 not only in Jerusalem, but in Samaria, Joppa, Damascus, An- 
 tioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome, and in fact everywhere through- 
 out the world. 
 
 June 12. — "As the Father hath loved me, so have I you." — John xv. 9. 
 
 These disciples were the representatives of the universal 
 church. They stood in the place of all believers. We were 
 all there by proxy. It must never be supposed that the beau- 
 tiful words and condescending acts of Christ were just for 
 Peter, John, James, and their companions. John is not the 
 only beloved disciple who is encouraged to lean upon the bosom 
 of his Lord. His love for the family of Bethany is not a sin- 
 gular love, with which other families have nothing to do. It 
 is a specimen of his love rather, intended to make glad ten 
 thousand families. That loving, solicitous question, "Lovest 
 thou me V addressed to Peter, stops not with Peter, but makes 
 its whispered way to innumerable other professors, preserving 
 all its tenderness of intonation and fullness of expression. 
 
 The great thing is to have a persistent, unvanquishable faith 
 with regard to this, so as to be able to take our place at the 
 side of Christ, and accompany him through Galilee and Judea; 
 or, if you choose to express it so, to have him by us, in our 
 own place of residence, mingling his life with ours, questioning 
 us, upbraiding us, educating us for his own heaven of love. 
 And it is a happy thing for us that there is nothing about the 
 character of those first disciples to make us difiident in appro- 
 priating the gracious words addressed to them. There is no 
 halo of excellency about them to intimidate us. In fact, they 
 are just ourselves. Those things which, we are well av.'are, 
 constitute the most repugnant elements of our character, — 
 pride, unbelief, selfishness, passit i, carnality, envy, sloth, cow- 
 ardice, — these very things are found in them. They after- 
 
202 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 wards put on^ it is true, the armor of Hglit, and shed lustre 
 upon their sacred calling, but this was after Christ had given 
 all his proofs of love. 
 
 I have loved you ; and if you wish to know how much, why, 
 let us take the highest possible expression, even the love of the 
 infinite Father for his Son ; so have I loved you. Nothing 
 could exceed the preciousness of this statement ; no statement 
 was ever more corroborated by evidence. It is painful to think 
 of such a heavenly declaration being made in vain in the ear 
 of men ; for the honor of Christ, see that you receive it, be- 
 lieve it, live upon it. 
 
 June 13. — "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love." 
 — John xv. 10. 
 
 Christ's love takes us as it finds us; but it does not leave us 
 so. If it did not make us better, it would not be Christ's love, but 
 just common earth-love. There are two mighty chapters in the 
 history of Christ's love. One relates to the means by which he 
 brings us to himself, the other to the means by which he keeps 
 us with himself After we have been brought to him, a sub- 
 lime work expands itself before him. We are to be made like 
 unto himself. He will not rest until he has communicated 
 unto us his own perfections. These souls so loved are to be 
 made lovely. Christ would not be worthy of our continued 
 regard, if he left us to follow our own evil will ] and the whole 
 story of his love would turn out a mere legend, if he taught 
 us not to honor the commandments of God. But this reproach 
 cannot be brought against Christ. Keep ray commandments, 
 he says, and abide in my love. 
 
 This is a different language from that of Sinai. It is not 
 the language of authority, so much as of love. The speaker 
 and his friend are taking counsel together as to the best mode 
 of perpetuating the hallowed sentiment by which they are 
 bound. " I cannot support the idea," says the friend, " of any 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 203 
 
 interruption to this love. Tell me how it may be made im- 
 mortal, unchangeable." " I will tell you. Keep my com- 
 mandments. They shall be to you like an amulet, or mystic 
 ring ; so long- as it remains with you, I cannot leave you." 
 " Oh ! how delightful," exclaims the friend, " that there should 
 be commandments, expressive of thy will, and indicative of 
 the way of abiding in thy love. For it is the life of love, to 
 have something to do for its object, to have commandments to 
 keep. These commandments will keep us bound to one an- 
 other. For thou hast said, " Without me ye can do nothing." 
 So I am to do nothing alone. Thy commandments remove me 
 from thee ? No ! not for an instant ; they will but draw me more 
 and more closely to thee !" 
 
 June 14. — " Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the 
 Father in my name, he will give it you." — John xvi. 23. 
 
 Christ says this for the purpose, as it were, of inducing us 
 to consent to his departure. Having come into the world and 
 constituted himself our good Shepherd, and accustomed us to 
 lean on him for everything, we are rather confounded at the 
 suggestion that he is to go away again. Seeing this, he gives 
 us this reassuring promise. Whatsoever we ask of the Father, 
 he will give it. Well, suppose we ask for Christ. He will be 
 given. Not with the limitations of an earthly body. " If 
 thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." These re- 
 proaches are painful to the heart of Christ. It is expedient 
 that he go, that he may come again in spirit, in glorious omni- 
 presence, and be the shepherd of a flock feeding on ten thous- 
 and hills. 
 
 Will the Father, indeed, give us everything that we ask ? 
 Is thy name so potent in influence at the throne of grace, that 
 it is impossible for any gift to be withheld, if demanded in 
 that name ? It is not merely the half of his kingdom that the 
 Father must yield to us, if we ask ; tvhatsoever we ask we must 
 
204 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 receive. But in fact the gift lias already been made. " The 
 Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his 
 hands." When, therefore, we ask anything in thy name, we 
 ask for what has already been made over to thee. 
 
 But to whom is this promise made ? To the apostles and to 
 all who stand in the position that the apostles stood in. To 
 those who have apostolic work to do, and apply themselves to 
 it with apostolic consecration. With promises so vast, how 
 vast should have been the performance of the Church, how 
 rapid and signal her successes ! Every generation of believers 
 that has come into existence, read the Gospel of John, and 
 gone its way, must stand condemned in the presence of these 
 unapprehended promises. Are we grasping them ? Or even 
 looking them in the face ? Or feeling our way towards them ? 
 
 June 15. — "In the world ye sha ' have tribulation." — John xvi. 33. 
 
 There was a new and wondrous trial of mankind, when 
 Christ dwelt on the earth. The world is always saying, " If 
 we had been in Eden, we would not have brought ruin on our- 
 selves." By the coming of Christ the earth was, as it were, 
 made into a new Eden for the occasion, and men were tried 
 over again. It was no longer the question, " Will they sin ?" 
 But, " Will they receive Ood manifest in the form of man ? 
 How will they treat the most glorious and admirable being in 
 existence, infinitely humbling himself for their salvation?" 
 The trial was made as easy for them as it could be. The 
 Jews were specially prepared for his coming. They were edu- 
 cated to feel their need of an almighty Saviour. He came in 
 the most propitiating guise conceivable. Yet he was re- 
 jected, abhorred, killed. Let the world now forever be silent 
 about its love of goodness, its noble aspirations, its heavenward 
 tendencies. He that made the world, the fountain of all ex- 
 cellence, came into the world, into the elect and well-tutored 
 
DAILY MEDITATI02s'S. 205 
 
 part of it, yet encountered from first to last nothing but oppo- 
 sition ; and it was only by special efforts of divine power that 
 his life was prolonged sufficiently for him to make a complete 
 manifestation of the divine nature, and accomplish all that was 
 requisite for the salvation of men. 
 
 As it is settled that the world has no sympathy with true 
 goodness, so there can be no question what kind of reception 
 it will give to those who come in the name of Christ, bear- 
 ing the image of Christ. The world passes through many 
 phases, puts on many aspects ; but it has its own particular or- 
 bit, from which it never breaks away. Its changes are always 
 within certain well-defined limits. It is true to itself, true to 
 its. own rebellious will; and under no felicity of circumstances, 
 does it ever find itself sitting quietly and humbly on the steps 
 of God's throne. 
 
 Expect, therefore, that the lion and the tiger will give a 
 gentle and amicable reception to the lamb ; but do not expect 
 that the world will provide accommodation for those who 
 travel along the narrow path that leadeth unto everlasting 
 life ; or busy itself to take up the stones out of that path. 
 The world, indeed, has a great deal of wisdom, and has mani- 
 fested it in these latter days by carefully studying how to treat 
 the Church so as to make the Church as little a source of dis- 
 comfort as possible. Formerly it committed some blunders, by 
 proceeding against it with fire and sword; the fiiith, the joy, 
 the dying hymns of those whom it burnt at the stake kept 
 irritating the memory and making the ears to tingle, for a 
 long time. But now the world parries the testimony of the 
 Church by force of courtesy. It professes to be. occupying it- 
 self with the subject of religion, and to have almost made up 
 its mind to embrace Christianity ; begging meanwhile that it 
 may not be disturbed in its meditations. And then again, 
 alas ! it has got many unsuspected victories over the Church, 
 and its banner is flying from many a fortress where it should 
 18 
 
206 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 never have been planted. But lie that will live godly in 
 Christ Jesus, will find the world very decidedly opposed to 
 him. It will seek at first to bind him perhaps with ribands, 
 and not with iron chains ; but bind him it will, if it can. 
 
 June 16. — "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God." — Ro- 
 mans V. 1. 
 
 We receive tidings of a treaty of peace between two nations 
 lately belligerent. Anon, we receive intimations of another war 
 possible. Rumors of wars never fail to agitate profoundly the 
 general bosom of mankind. But there is a rumor of another 
 war infinitely more dire than any, between man and his Maker. 
 It is long since this war has broken out; for thousands of 
 years it has been raging ; and we see no signs of its immediate 
 cessation. Men perceive not that all their other miseries pro- 
 ceed from this feud ; they seem not aware that the cruelty of 
 all other wars, the agony of all other scourges, are just scintil- 
 lations from the battle-field where they and their Creator are 
 arrayed against one another. Let this feud be healed, and 
 there will be no need to entertain terror of this despot or of 
 that; to build barricades, or lavish treasures on forts and men- 
 of-war. Diplomacy is spending all its strength in vain, while 
 it merely occupies itself with the difi'erenccs between States. 
 Holy alliances may exercise the spirit of war in one direction, 
 but speedily it will reveal itself in another. There must be 
 peace between man and his Creator ; then, and then only, will 
 the nations understand one another, and perceive that they 
 have one common interest. 
 
 Blessed be God, we have a Peace-maker, who gave himself 
 that man might be reconciled to Grod. His coming was the 
 expression of God's amity. The flag of truce is held out to 
 the world. The friends of peace are running to and fro in the 
 earth, informing men that by simple faith in the Lord Jesus 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 207 
 
 Christ, tlieir accumulated sins shall be done away ; that they 
 shall be held justified, and shall have the peace of God which 
 passeth all understanding. 
 
 June 17. — "To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek 
 for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life." — Romans ii, 7. 
 
 The path of faith and that of well-doing are not diverse 
 from each other ', they are one. A man that is in the path of 
 well-doing, and for whose deeds there is ever and anon drop- 
 ping from the lips of God the expression, " Well done V is 
 already saved in an important sense. He has regained the 
 footing from whence the world by transgression fell. He has 
 certainly a large instalment of salvation. But, it is faith that 
 brought him into this heavenward path, and that enables him 
 to continue therein. It is faith that led him to renounce all 
 dependence upon his own miserable works, and to avail him- 
 self of the works of Christ to obtain acceptance with God, and 
 the freedom of that sacred path. It is faith that enables him 
 to see the incomparable superiority over everything that the 
 world can offer, of those grand prizes held up before him by 
 the Lord of all ; to see glory, honor, and immortality where 
 they really are, where they exclusively are for man, in the new 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 There are many who are seeking for glory, honor, and im- 
 mortality in very different paths from that of which we are 
 speaking. By the path of well-doing, we mean, in one word, 
 the path of God's will ; and all doing that is not strictly mo- 
 delled on this, we reject : though it might seem to be such do- 
 ing as would regenerate a continent, reclaim a Sahara, or ban- 
 ish the deadliest plagues. 
 
 Nothing in all the success that has waited upon Satan in 
 his management of the vrorld's affairs, is so saddening to con- 
 template, as the false direction he has been enabled to give to 
 
208 DAILY iMEDITATIONS. 
 
 the eutliusiasm of men. EnthiTsiasm is a beautiful and sacred 
 tiling, implanted in us that we might launch forth on sublime 
 enterprises of mercy to man and of glory to God. Enthusiasm 
 would make of a holy man a seraph. Men hardly know what 
 to do with this divine faculty. They thirst for glory, honor, 
 immortality, but limit their conceptions of these things to what 
 the world, the fallen, ruined, doomed world can give. As 
 though a criminal on his way to the place of execution, should 
 concern himself to obtain honor and glory from his fellow- 
 criminals. A world that rose up in utmost ferocity against 
 the only faultless, the only truly glorious being that ever trod 
 its soil, is not a world competent to decide where glory should 
 be sought, what deeds are truly honorable, what immortality 
 is worthy of man's utmost endeavor. It having rejected the 
 elect of heaven, the only man found heroic in the eyes of God, 
 we can turn away from its heroes, and think lightly of its 
 honorable ones. 
 
 June 18. — " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
 saved." — Acts xvi. 31. 
 
 And is this so difficult ? Does your heart find itself com- 
 petent to everything, rather than this ? Oh, what a reproach 
 to you ! In fact, it is impossible to conceive of any more se- 
 vere condemnation than that which you pass upon yourself, 
 and day by day reiterate, while you continue not to believe on 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. You are asked to take his righteous- 
 ness in preference to your own -, his wisdom rather than your 
 own; his influence at the throne of God rather than your own. 
 You are asked to become the servant of Christ, rather than 
 continue the servant of sin ; to be the friend of Christ, rather 
 than the friend of Satan ; and to receive the gift of the Holy 
 Spirit to free you from the control of unclean spirits. You 
 are asked to choose him whom the good have chosen ; him 
 whom all the angels, the most exalted of finite beings ; whom 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 209 
 
 God himself has ehoscn. You refuse ; and choose rather to 
 identify yourself with the multitude that crucified him. The 
 blackest catalogue of crimes cannot more truly condemn a 
 man, than the fact that you believe not on Jesus Christ 
 condemns you. Your character comes out dark, base, odious, 
 by this one fact. In vain you pretend to have love for your 
 fellow-men, while you declare, as you emphatically do, " Not 
 this man I" "Were a vessel freighted with provisions to ap- 
 proach an island whose inhabitants were dying with starva- 
 tion, what would you think of him who should refuse to co- 
 operate in bringing her to shore ? And what must be thouglit 
 of him who cannot believe on the Lord Jesus Christ ? You 
 may for the present be deemed respectable ; but a day is 
 coming when Christ will be known as the touchstone of mo- 
 rality, and all who are without affinity with him, will be known 
 as utterly reprobate. 
 
 JuxE 19. — "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." — Rom. v. 8. 
 
 Imagine a number of men whose hearts are filled with bit- 
 terness against their sovereign, and, in a certain chamber, are 
 industriously laboring at the construction of an infernal ma- 
 chine, to be exploded on some approaching day when the sove- 
 reign is to pass that way. The heart of this sovereign, say, is 
 kindness itself. He receives information of what these men 
 are doing. Disguising himself he comes among them, and 
 succeeds in convincing them that he is friendly, and will prove 
 a valuable confederate. They receive him into their band, 
 initiate him fully into their projects, and take his advice on 
 many points. lie soon obtains a great influence over them. 
 They are struck with the superiority of his character, the gene- 
 rosity that beams in all his words and acts. He labors assidu- 
 ously to do them good; relieves their wants; visits their 
 families that he may confer benefits upon them. His resources 
 18* 
 
210 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 appear boundless, but not greater than his beneficence. When 
 injured or insulted, he exhibits an astonishing patience ; and in 
 fine, by a purity and magnanimity such as they have never 
 witnessed, he succeeds in inspiring them with the utmost ad- 
 miration. And day by day he labors with them in perfecting 
 that machine that is to be levelled against himself. They 
 unanimously agree that he shall be their sovereign, when they 
 have killed the reigning one, and that he shall distribute among 
 them the offices of the State just as may seem good to him. At 
 length the day arrives ; and as the hour approaches, when the 
 king should pass that way, they wonder what has become of 
 their generous friend. Suddenly he appears among them; 
 throws off his disguise, and the sovereign stands revealed. " I 
 come," he says, " to save you from a great crime, and from a 
 fearful doom. You have already chosen me to be your sove- 
 reign, and sworn to submit with delight to all my commands. 
 I command that you shall come and dwell with me in my 
 palace. While you have been preparing this engine for my 
 destruction, I have been preparing sumptuous apartments for 
 your abode. I will associate with you as your friend, even as 
 I have done, and will do my best to fit you to fill the highest 
 offices of State." 
 
 Now, the thing that will most surprise these men, is the fact 
 that while they were sinners, while they were laboring for the 
 death of their sovereign, he in secret was earnestly laboring 
 for their highest good. And this is the thing that should most 
 surprise us when we come to Christ, namely, the fact that while 
 we were rearing higher the mountains of our iniquity, he was 
 engaged in carrying out a scheme of the most transcendant 
 mercy and kindness toward us. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 211 
 
 June 20. — "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart." — 
 Psalm xxxi. 24. 
 
 Before you are conscious of any strength in your heart, 
 while you feel yourself exceedingly weak and utterly incom- 
 petent, even then you are to be of good courage. It requires 
 very little true courage to be bold when there is the conscious- 
 ness of strength. The courage that is well-pleasirig in the 
 sight of G od, is the courage of faith ; the courage of David, 
 whose sling and stone were nothing, but who trusted simply in 
 God. 
 
 Nothing is more essential to the Christian than good cour- 
 age. He needs in the first place courage to go into the presence 
 of his sovereign, nothing daunted, however much humbled, by 
 the thought of his unworthiness, assured that all the virtue 
 of Christ is available for him. He needs courage to cancel the 
 various articles of the compact of sin between him and the 
 world ; to come out from it and be separate ; to be peculiar ; 
 to confess that he has transferred his allegiance to the crucified 
 and risen one. He needs courage to break with the god of 
 this world, and adopt the badge of the revolutionists who are 
 seeking his overthrow. He needs courage to speak to those 
 whom he loves, of their great need. He needs courage to 
 manifest the new and better nature that has been given him. 
 He needs it to advance in a path of duty where there is no 
 pioneer, with only a chart for the day, and no intimation of the 
 morrow's perils. 
 
 JuxK 21. — "His anger endureth but a moment; in his favor is life." — 
 Psalm XXX. 5. 
 
 The idea is, that his anger is fugitive, his favor perennial. 
 The contrast is between the words moment and life. The con- 
 trast is sustained in what follows : " Weeping may endure for 
 a night, but joy coraeth in the morning," even in the morning 
 of a day, whose sun shall never go down. Paul renews it in 
 
212 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 the words, " Our liglit affliction, wliicli is but for a moment, 
 worketli for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
 glory." As the ages of our prospective existence unfold to us, 
 the misery of our mortal span will be reduced by an easy 
 arithmetical progression, to something utterly infinitesimal. 
 Seventy years of suffering are not very much in an existence 
 that reaches to a thousand years ; far from much, when pro- 
 portioned to a period of ten thousand years; in a hundred 
 thousand years they are but as a drop to the bucket ; in mil- 
 lions of years as a drop to the ocean, a mere thought, a flash 
 of lightning; in eternity, what? 
 
 You venture to observe, perhaps, that man is so constituted 
 that the present is to him necessarily like a mountain bound- 
 ing his vision, and that he cannot be greatly affected by the 
 conception of unending plains stretching beyond. 
 
 To man's true constitution belongs faith, by means of which 
 he soars aloft and looks down upon his past, present, and fu- 
 ture. Observe, that the momentary anger bears a most im- 
 portant relation to the eternal favor. It is that you may be 
 led to press more eagerly towards this, and battle more bravely 
 with the enemies that would cut you off from it, that weeping 
 is given to you for a night. 
 
 In all God's anger to his people there is mercy. It is an 
 Unspeakable condescension in him to be angry. He might just 
 put forth his power and sweep you away into everlasting 
 misery. But no ! he deigns to express to you his displeasure. 
 Thus did he even to the Ninevites ; and they inferred that he 
 might, after all, pardon them. 
 
 JuxE 22.—" Teach me thy way, Lord."— Psalm xxvii. 11. 
 
 It will hardly be denied by any reflecting person that it is 
 reasonable to suppose that there is Tor every human being a 
 particular line of procedure which commends itself to God as 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 213 
 
 the best, and every deviation- from wliich is a deviation from 
 tliat wliich is best. When we consider how admirably God 
 has organized man, how richly he has endowed him, with what 
 authority he has invested him, and with what appliances he 
 has surrounded him ; when we consider what an infinitude of 
 wise and good thoughts God has bestowed in the preparation 
 of man for life ; can we believe that God has no particular will 
 in regard to the way in which that life should be spent ? We 
 should be greatly surprised if a man should expend an im- 
 mense sum of money in the building of a ship ; employ the 
 most skilful artificers in perfecting her with respect to a thou- 
 sand anticipated necessities 3 render her strong, beautiful, swift, 
 commodious ; and then launch her and leave her to float at 
 random over the waters, without any commander, without any 
 instructions. Yet this appears to be the idea that many in- 
 considerate persons entertain of human existence. They sup- 
 pose that man is left without a chart, without instruetions ; 
 and leave it to be inferred that God is the most inconsistent of 
 all beings. Ask them why they suppose so; if they have 
 searched for the will of God, and found none ; if they have 
 sincerely asked God for instructions, and obtained no answer ; 
 if they have been cordially willing to leave unto God the full 
 control of their earthly existence ; and they will be obliged to 
 reply that they have not. Not only have they not sought, they 
 have not been willing to see. 
 
 We know, however, that God has a will with regard to every 
 man, a will that takes note of every conceivable particular. We 
 know that he is disposed to make known this will, and dis- 
 posed also to teach us to do it. 
 
 He teaches us to do it by making us sensible of our incom- 
 petency to guide ourselves. One after another, signal mistakes 
 occur, to show us how absolutely we need a guide more intelli- 
 gent than ourselves. We get disgusted with our own ignorance 
 and short-sightedness. We are like a man who finds himself 
 
214 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 in the midst of a vast factory, crowded with the most compli- 
 cated and ponderous machinery, where mighty engines of death 
 threaten him on the right hand and on the left, before and 
 behind ; he makes a step in one direction, and receives a fright- 
 ful blow ; in another, and gets dreadfully lacerated ; then he 
 cries out in agony for some one to take him by the hand and 
 lead him. 
 
 He teaches us to do it by showing us the incompetency of 
 others to guide us. Some persons are conscious of their in- 
 aptitude, and look to others to show them what to do with life. 
 They turn to Plato or Socrates, to Seneca or Confucius, to 
 Carlyle or to La Rochefoucauld, to this novelist or to that. In 
 fact, there is hardly any one desirous of teaching but has some 
 scholars. But, alas ! they find no way that is in any degree 
 irreproachable. Life is with them a succession of bruises and 
 
 H^ teaches us to do his will, by letting us see it acted out in 
 the beautiful life of Christ. — By giving us to understand that 
 this will has reference, first and last, in great matters and small, 
 to our own best estate and most assured happiness. — By un- 
 folding to us the Scriptures. — By writing his word in our hearts. 
 — By teaching us to abide in Christ. — By giving the Spirit to 
 abide in us. 
 
 Juke 23. — " Whosoever believeth on him, shall not be ashamed." — Ro- 
 mans ix. 33. 
 
 After all, there is nothing that men detest so much as a 
 feeling of shame. We hear a great deal of calamities, be- 
 reavements, losses, sorrows, troubles, and numerous other syno- 
 nyms ; but all these are not near so odious to a man as a feel- 
 ing of shame. There is not any calamity that men have not 
 accepted in preference to a momentary feeling of shame. A 
 feeling of shame in the mind of a man v/ould make him insen- 
 sible to the loss of his father, or of an}^ other very dear friend; 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 215 
 
 to the loss of property ; nay, to" the loss of a kingdom. Thou- 
 sands have come up to the door which opens on the path that 
 goes to everlasting life, and have seen that they were in danger 
 of everlasting burnings, and have yet accepted of this danger 
 rather than encounter the brief shame of entering. 
 
 So potent a principle has not been implanted in us for noth- 
 ing. It was designed to be of unspeakable advantage to us. 
 And the Christian should seek that it may be as great an aid 
 as it has been a hindrance to him. True shame creates in us 
 a horror of ever^i^hing that may bring upon us the reproach 
 of an enlightened conscience, the scorn of the holy, the re- 
 nunciation of God. The soul has no more blessed guarantee, 
 under the grace of God, than the presence of true shame in 
 the heart. This will never for a moment allow us to blush for 
 what is not morally wrong, not a wilful transgression of the 
 will of God. This will suffer us to pay no tribute to the mere 
 conventionalities of life. This will keep us without guile; 
 enable us to walk without any cloak over our conduct ; and to 
 regard with perfect equanimity the world's misapprehension 
 of our conduct. 
 
 A day is coming when self-condemning shame, shame inex- 
 tinguishable, intolerable, soul-pervading, will take possession 
 of those who have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 And all the shame that they have ever shrunk from in the 
 journey of life, will retui'u multiplied ten thousand times, and 
 establish itself in their souls to go no more out for ever. Think 
 of this, ye proud ones, that daily avoid some path of duty from 
 some feeling of shame. You hold your heads erect among 
 ungodly men, but it is at a fearfiil cost. What you refuse to 
 experience is now but seed ; it will grow to a whirlwind. 
 
216 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 June 24. — " Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his 
 life." — Romans r. 10. 
 
 If we owe mucli to the death of Christ, we owe much more 
 to his life. It were little to give us the freedom of the uni- 
 verse, if in that universe we could not find Christ. It were 
 little to give us immortality, if there were no Sun of Right- 
 eousness to make that immortality glorious and beautiful. It 
 would be like discovering some unknown friend in his dying 
 hour ; we have hardly time to acquaint ourself with his amaz- 
 ing love, and to see the flash of his kindness illuminating our 
 life, before he is removed by death, and we are left to a deso- 
 lation greater than we had ever known before, because of the 
 moral beauty and the heart of love that had for a moment 
 revealed themselves. 
 
 The death of Christ was one exhibition of the love of 
 Christ; he lives that he may, forever and forever, give us 
 newer, still newer, still newer expressions of his unfailing 
 goodness. Being reconciled, there is no longer anything to 
 hinder the forthflowing of the divine beneficence toward us. 
 God is love ; and we belong to the number of those whose 
 whole business in life, in everlasting life, is to be making ad- 
 vances in the experience of God's love. But there will be 
 ever something special in the manner by which we have be- 
 come reconciled, to make us singularly dear to God and to 
 Christ. He hath graven our names upon the palms of his 
 hands. He was pierced for us. We were chosen in such a 
 furnace of affliction as had never been kindled by Babylonian 
 kings. He can never look upon us without the thought of 
 what he sufiered to bring us nigh unto God. 
 
 ' June 25. — " If God be for us, who can be against us ?" — Rom. viii. 31. 
 
 If God be for us, we are justified in making light of all our 
 enemies. Any injury that they can do us is of little account, 
 
DAILY MEDITATIO^'S. 217 
 
 while we have this all-powerful ally. This seems a mere tru- 
 ism ; but it is really the language of an uncommon faith. He 
 goes on to enumerate tribulation, persecution, distress, famine, 
 nakedness, peril, the sword. Now, these things involve tre- 
 mendous losses ; loss of honor, friends, domestic and social en- 
 joyments, wealth, liberty, security, and even food and clothing. 
 Before the thousandth part of these evils, the boldest hearts 
 have recoiled, the strongest have turned and fled. The assur- 
 ance that God would be with them had no more power to nerve 
 and comfort them, than if a shield made of cobwebs had been 
 presented to them. The language of Paul is the language 
 then of one whose faith has taught him to find ever}i:hing ex- 
 cellent, everything desirable in God. In vain the world arrays 
 its forces, puts on its terrors ; he knows the utter insignificance 
 of these compared with the treasures of might that dwell with 
 him, because God dwells with him. 
 
 When the Israelites came out of Egypt, the entire force of 
 Egypt was against them. The sea was against them. The 
 desert was against them. The Amalekites were against them. 
 All nations were against them. Their own inexperience, their 
 waywardness, their evil habits, — these were against them. But 
 God was with them. And they came off more than conquerors. 
 Thus it was with the apostles. The Jews were against them, 
 and so were the Gentiles. Stripes, bonds, and imprisonment 
 awaited them in every place. The power of the priesthood 
 was against them. All the powers of an empire, the mightiest 
 the world had ever seen, were against them. Yet they tri- 
 umphed. God was with them, and none but God. 
 
 Had the church a faith more apostolic, there would not be 
 seen, as there is, alas! too much, a disposition to snatch at 
 worldly aid, and to avail ourselves of worldly wisdom. We 
 need to know that he who is with us is mightier than they 
 that are in the world. Knew we this better, we would enter 
 19 
 
218 DAILY .MEDITATIONS. 
 
 many paths from which we now turn away ; address ourselves 
 to many tasks to which we now shut our eyes. 
 
 June 26. — " Quench not the Spirit." — 1 Thessalonians v. 19. 
 
 This is the utterance of the Spirit, and teaches, if language 
 can teach anything, that the influences of the Spirit may be 
 lost. His presence is as the existence of a heaven-born flame 
 in the heart, which needs to be carefully watched and guarded, 
 which, if its proper aliment be withheld, will die out. The 
 language of Scripture from beginning to end, is perfectly con- 
 sistent with itself, though the points that establish this con- 
 sistency are not thrust conspicuously forward. Scripture is 
 exceedingly bold, far more bold than our theological systems ; 
 and while it dwells on any truth, gives that truth all its ap- 
 propriate magnitude, its fullness of honor, without fearing that 
 some other truth may thus suffer loss. The sovereignty of God, 
 the dependence of man, the safety of the elect, the perseverance 
 of the saints, — these things are declared with the utmost posi- 
 tiveness ; the obligation of men to believe, to walk by faith, to 
 exercise all Christian affections, to grow in grace, to bring forth 
 fruit, to resist temptation, to work out their own salvation, — 
 these things also are stated in a most emphatic manner. To 
 deny the one class of truths is just as fatal as to deny the other. 
 The Spirit of God is omnipotent, the purposes of God are ab- 
 solute ; but if an individual obey not the guidance of the Spirit, 
 he will quench the Spirit. The man that discards the word 
 "if" from his theology, has no longer a Bible. If a man mock 
 the word of God, by saying that the Spirit may not be 
 quenched, there is reason to fear lest he have already quenched 
 the Spirit. ' 
 
 In order that you may not quench the Spirit, you must 
 make it a constant study to know what is the mind of the 
 Spirit. You must discriminate with the utmost care between 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 219 
 
 his suggestions and the suggestions of your own deceitful 
 heart. You will keep in constant recollection what are the 
 offices of the Spirit, as described by Christ in the gospel of 
 John. You will be on your guard against impulsive move- 
 ments, inconsiderate acts, rash words. You will abide in 
 prayer. Search the word. Confess Christ on all possible oc- 
 casions. Seek the society of his people. Shrink from con- 
 formity to the world, its vain fashions, unmeaning etiquette. 
 Be scrupulous in your reading. " What I say unto you, I say 
 unto all. Watch !" " Have oil in your lamps." '* Quench not 
 the Spirit." 
 
 June 27. — "Much more they which receive abundance of grace and of 
 the gift of righteousness, shi4I reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." — 
 Romans v. 17. 
 
 The object is to show that Christ has much more than re- 
 paired the ruin wrought by Adam, in the case of all those who 
 avail themselves of the salvation wrought out by him. Instead 
 of the one throne where Death sat and swayed the destinies 
 of man, there are now myriads, millions of thrones, on each of 
 which a believer is to sit and give the universe a visible de- 
 monstration of what Christ can bestow upon the soul that 
 comes to him. 
 
 First, he is to receive abundance of grace, and of the gift 
 of righteousness. It is impossible for him to receive this 
 without the renunciation of his own imagined goodness, 
 strength, and glory. He must be emptied of self; impover- 
 ished with respect to all that he has called wealth; ruined 
 with respect to all that he has called life, honor, and excel- 
 lence. He dies. He lives again. The full tide of God's 
 abounding grace finds itself now at liberty to flow into his 
 soul. He follows the highway of holiness. He has a white 
 stone with a strange inscription, in exchange for which he is 
 to receive a crown of far more than imperial dignity, at the 
 
220 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 treasury of liGc^ven. When asked if he is a king, lie, like his 
 Lord, replies, " Tliou sayest it;" and if you choose, you may 
 mock him as men did his Lord ; he cannot, however, but bear 
 witness to the truth. 
 
 Thus there are millions of kings, and each of them immea- 
 surably more exalted than any king of earth ever was. Do 
 3'Ou ask, over whom they are to reign ? Know that it does 
 not become the kings of Christ's appointment, to reign over 
 any but kings. All their subjects are kings. For they are 
 all subjects to each. This is one badge of their kingdom, that 
 they in honor prefer one another, and that each finds his hap- 
 piness in consecration to the good of others. 
 
 June 28. — " I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and 
 how thou canst not bear them that are evil." — Revelation ii. 2. 
 
 How many thousands are striving, by the sweat of their 
 brow, by sleepless nights, by sacrifices of health and wealth, by 
 bitter mental toil, by the unflagging consecration of all their 
 powers, to win the attention of men, and are striving in vain. 
 What disappointments pour daily upon them without inducing 
 them to seek another goal for their hopes. " The spurns that 
 patient merit of the unworthy takes," do not extinguish the 
 hope of winning from this unworthy world, sooner or later, 
 some slight acknowledgment of the powers now so unsuccess- 
 fully exerted. How many nobly-endowed spii'its live and labor 
 under the constraining influence of the hope, for the most part 
 delusive, that the world will one day say to them, '• I know 
 your works." To die unknown, is the one lake of fire which 
 they unresistingly seek to escape. Ask them if they will not 
 avail themselves of the consolation so certainly obtained by 
 those that seek it. the consolation of being known to Christ, 
 and they will laugh you to scorn. 
 
 On the other hand, the true people of Christ are stirred to 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 221 
 
 tlieir inmost deptlis by the belief that he, the Lord of glory, 
 kaows their works, their labor and their patience. Their 
 works are not appreciated by men ; they are spoken against as 
 evil doers ; they spend their strength for naught, so far as the 
 applause of men is concerned; but they are rewarded abun- 
 dantly in the thought that Jesus knows their works. The 
 words " labor" and " patience" seem to qualify the word 
 " works." What they do for Christ they do energetically, 
 with heart and strength, and they persevere in the doing of it, 
 no matter how many hinderances and chilling influences pre- 
 sent themselves. 
 
 Christ is jealous when he sees any servant of his, making 
 great account of the pj-aise of others, happy or troubled as he 
 obtains it or misses it, discontented when there is only the ap- 
 probation of Christ, and allowing the applause of Christians to 
 hide from him the dissatisfaction of Christ. Teach me, Lord, 
 cost what it may, to find the peace which passeth all under- 
 standing in the assurance of thy regard for the poor service 
 thou enablest me to render. Let me not be willing that the 
 incentives derived from prospects held out by this rebellious, 
 sinful world, should succeed in animating others to deeds of 
 greater devotion and consecration, than shall be elicited from 
 me by the anticipation of that gTceting which thou wilt extend 
 to him that overcomes, keeping thy works unto the end 
 
 June 29. — " Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.'' — 
 Psalm xxxii. 7. 
 
 If one want poetry, there is a whole poem in these few 
 words. Heaven, earth; time, eternity; saints, angels; the 
 redeemed soul ; its sins, passions, frailties, woes, miseries fleeing 
 in the distance; — such, and more, are the characters and the 
 scenery presented to our imagination, or to our faith, as we 
 gaze into this verse. Perhaps some reminiscence of what he 
 19 * 
 
222 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 had himself experienced in his earthly career, visited the mind 
 of David, and assisted him to form a bright conception of what 
 Grod would do for him hereafter. He may have recalled the 
 morning when his offer to go forth and meet Goliath, elicited 
 only shouts of derision; and the evening of the same day^ 
 when he was compassed about with songs of deliverance ut- 
 tered by the host of the Israelites, while the surviving Philis- 
 tines were fleeing overwhelmed with confusion, to their own 
 borders. 
 
 A person known to us once had a dream, which may help 
 to illustrate the text. He had been very recently brought to 
 the knowledge of Christ's saving truth. He dreamt that he 
 found himself in an open plain; when suddenly a terrible 
 being appeared, from whom he felt that he must escape, if he 
 would not forever perish. The only object that his eye could 
 discern was a small and rather mean-looking house. To this 
 he fled ; entered it ; and feeling that he was pursued, passed 
 through it, and through a yard, that was attached to it. Pres- 
 ently he found himself at the foot of a mighty precipice that 
 rose as perpendicularly as a wall, and towered above the skies. 
 The enemy was upon him. He felt that he must go up this 
 wall-like precipice, or be lost; so he attempted the ascent. 
 His hands were here of no use ; for there was nothing for 
 them to seize ; and he had to plant his feet, in defiance of all 
 laws of gravitation, horizontally against the wall. Yet ho was 
 actually enabled to mount up in this way. A prodigious effort 
 was needed at first; (yet, if there had been no invisible aid, 
 what could even a prodigious effort have accomplished under 
 such circumstances ?) but as he held on his way, and mounted 
 higher and higher, even into the skies, the task became less 
 difiicult; and though new heights, not anticipated, remained 
 to be climbed, yet he found a heart to climb them cheerfully 
 and hopefully. At length he reached the summit, and a vision, 
 glorious beyond description, burst upon his view. A multitude 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 223 
 
 of the heavenly host were there, scattered over the plain, and 
 crowded upon gentle hills that overlooked the scene; their 
 eyes were all on him ; and they all burst forth with songs of 
 deliverance on his account ; while a being glorious enough to 
 be the Lord of all this enraptured host, came to him who had 
 there arrived, and received him, as he fainted through the force 
 of unspeakable emotions, and bore him away not altogether 
 insensible, for the songs of the jubilant host still sounded in 
 his ears. 
 
 June 30. — "All are yours, and ye are Christ's." — 1 Corinthians iii. 2.3. 
 
 The way to possess unlimited treasure is to give yourself 
 away. How little the philosophers who sought by alchemy to 
 obtain the art of transmuting mean things to precious, — how 
 little did they dream that the art of acquiring worlds of wealth 
 had been long before divulged, and that it consisted simply in 
 giving one's self away to Christ. Men are victims of the 
 unhappy delusion that their own self is a nucleus, a beginning 
 of wealth, around which they must wrap acquisition after ac- 
 quisition, till they have greatly magnified themselves. In this 
 way, however, they are only heaping up riches for the last day, 
 only fattening themselves for the slaughter. Let a man give 
 himself, and all belonging to himself, to Christ ; foeling at the 
 same time that he is only giving what he had never any right 
 to withhold, what it were the most audacious usurpation to 
 think for a moment of withholding; let him rejoice to know 
 Christ as the Lord of all ; and in that very hour he will find 
 himself possessor of all. All things were made for Him, it is 
 said; that is, for Christ; and if for Christ, then for the be- 
 liever; for the two are joint-heirs. 
 
 All tilings are yours ; therefore all the arrangements of God 
 are yours. In none of the arrangements of Grod is your hap- 
 piness overlooked. The gold and silver of this world are found 
 
224 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 abundantly in the hands of others, not at all in yours ; — well, 
 this is one of those arrangements that contemplate your good. 
 Worldly wealth does not belong to those who seem to have it ; 
 but to those who get the good of it. There are a thousand 
 little conveniences of life which you could not enjoy ^ere not 
 other men rich enough to embark in enterprises. They them- 
 selves perhaps receive great damage from the wealth that they 
 hold during the brief term of life ; but your profit from it all 
 is guaranteed in heaven. All things are yours ; the prosperity 
 of others, your own adversity, sickness, humiliation, losses, the 
 elements, earth, heaven, time, eternity. 
 
 Your chief joy is, that you are Christ's; and you rejoice 
 that all things are yours, chiefly because they will serve to 
 make you a less unworthy possession to Christ. Holiness is 
 yours ; the image of God ; spiritual, moral, and physical per- 
 fection 3 a crown of glory that fadeth not away ; magnificent 
 and inconceivable destinies. Viewing yourself as the property 
 of Christ, you rejoice for his sake that this wondrous wealth 
 is to roll in upon you, and that the mean stone is to be con- 
 verted into a pearl of great price. 
 
 July 1. — "Take lieed, and beware of covetousness." — Luke xii. 15. 
 
 Our Lord calls special attention to the danger by a special 
 admonition. Out of that little band that accompanied him, 
 one made shipwreck on this rock. The whole life of Jesus 
 was cftst into a mould of uttermost hostility to it ; and the 
 effect was seen in the Pentecostal Church, where no man called 
 anything his own. But we are fallen upon very different 
 times ; and neither the example nor the earnest warnings of 
 Christ and his apostles, have power to keep down this spirit in 
 the Church. If the token of a pure Church is its freedom 
 from covetousness. then is the Church of our day corrupt in- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 225 
 
 deed. The parable spoken In -immediate connection with these 
 words, shows that our Lord understands by covetousness, the 
 laying up of much goods for many years, and rejoicing in that 
 provision. The man described in the parable did not, that we 
 are told, practise extortion or commit frauds in order to be 
 rich ; but being, in the providence of God, made rich beyond 
 all his present wants, chose rather to consider his own future 
 possible wants, and make provision for them, than to alleviate 
 the actual wants of the poor around about him. He was un- 
 willing to relinquish money that he did not now want, because 
 suAime might come when he would want it. 
 
 The Church has utterly discarded the idea that there is any- 
 thing in the word of God to hinder her from seeking any 
 amount of wealth. There are thousands and tens of thousands 
 of Christians, whose consciences would take alarm at once, at 
 the presence of sin in other forms, who are deterred by no 
 manner of scruple from embarking with all their heart in the 
 endeavor to accumulate wealth far beyond any actual and even 
 probable wants. " They pull down their barns and build 
 greater," without a single ominous reflection coming to remind 
 them of the poor, in whose barns there is nothing. 
 
 How shall a man beware of covetousness ? Let him learn 
 to look upon the things of others, to occupy himself more with 
 the greater wants of others than with his own lesser wants, to 
 know himself as simply a steward of the goods of God, and to 
 shrink far more from being written down in the estimation of 
 heaven " a fool," than in the estimation of earth. Had the 
 man in the parable pursued any other course than he did,5,men 
 would have said unto him, "thou fool;" but how infinitely 
 more dreadful to hear it from God. Let the Christian know 
 where his true wealth is ; and trust God with his future wants. 
 Has faith nothing to do with temporal matters ? Who can 
 say it that ever read the word of God ? 
 
226 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 July 2. — "Hide not thy face far from me." — Psalm xxvii. 9. 
 
 There are those who never need to use these words, because 
 they have no exjDerience of that which is deprecated. They 
 know not what is meant by such language as this : " Cause 
 thy face to shine upon me." This language implies a personal 
 acquaintance with a personal God. It teaches that Grod is 
 pleased to make communications of his grace to the soul of 
 the believer, that are to him like the uplifting of a veil from 
 the face of the one beloved and adored. We ought all of us 
 to have far higher conceptions than we have, of the power of 
 Grod to manifest himself by the agency of the Holy Spirit. 
 It is not to be questioned that in this dispensation we are able 
 to have more glorious and surprising revelations of the Deity 
 than were enjoyed under the previous dispensation. Isaiah 
 and Daniel, Abraham and Ezekid, envied us, and longed to be 
 in our place ', and we greatly dishonor the Spirit, if we sup- 
 pose that in this dispensation there is no provision made for 
 the occasional glorious manifestation of God unto the soul of 
 the believer. AYe are saved by hope, and our greatest bless- 
 edness is of course in the future ; but the best preparation for 
 this is in the recognition of the sublime privileges now bestowed. 
 Let it not be thought that we honor Christ more by overlook- 
 ing our present opportunities of knowing his glory, and wait- 
 ing for his appearing in the clouds of heaven. If we truly 
 love his appearing, we will seek now to sound the utmost 
 depths of the meaning of the promises contained in the four- 
 teenth chapter of the Gospel by John. 
 
 July 3. — "He will be our guide, even uuto deatli." — Psalm xlviii. 14. 
 
 The guide of whom ? Of those who feel that this world is 
 a labyrinth, and that the secret of its mazes is known only to 
 God, — that it is the camp of an enemy ; and that unless the 
 cloud of the presence of God encompass us about, we have no 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 227 
 
 security, not for a moment, — tliat it is a field thoroughly un- 
 dermined and honey-combed, with subterranean trains of gun- 
 powder in every direction, exploding every minute ; and that 
 unless He lead us, we perish. What is the proof of this ? 
 Is not this language mere rhapsody ? " It certainly is," say 
 men in general ; " the world we live in, is on the whole a safe 
 and comfortable world ; peace and safety wait upon our paths." 
 Not so, we reply ; we have the best warrant for our language. 
 The number of the dead and dying testifies to the danger. 
 You spread your table on the green sward ; you bring forth 
 generous wines; you sit down with your companions, and pass 
 the hour in great conviviality ; the birds sing pleasantly in the 
 neighboring grove ; the face of nature seems gladsome enough. 
 Nevertheless, the field where you are sitting, is the field of the 
 dead and dying. Are there many that be saved ? Not hith- 
 erto. The multitude still go in at the broad gate, and hasten 
 to destruction ; the few go in at the straight gate, and obtain 
 life. The things that seem to you to smile so friendlily upon 
 you are the mortal enemies of men; the splendid halls to 
 which you hasten have vaults beneath them, and in these 
 vaults myriads of lost souls wait in anguish the day of Judg- 
 ment. Man is so mortal, that almost anything is deadly to 
 him. "Were you in a battle where nine men out of every ten 
 sent against the enemy were swept rapidly away, you would 
 not say, " Peace and safety." 
 
 He is the guide of those who feel their need of an all-wise, 
 all-powerful, all-condescending guide, and who are willing to 
 yield their own preferences to his, their own ideas to his, in 
 traveling over the glaciers of life. This word is a lamp to 
 their feet, a light unto their path. He will hold their hand 
 till they reach the gate of death ; and passing through it, they 
 will see that it is the gate of paradise. Death confesses itself 
 vanquished, when it sees them walking on the battlements 
 clothed in white. 
 
228 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 July 4. — '' Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth 
 in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about." — Psalm xxxii. 10. 
 
 These parallelisms of Scripture seem sometimes very rude. 
 This one, for instance, teaches us that the wicked are they whe 
 trust not in the Lord. Men know not what to make of this 
 definition. As for the wicked, they say, we know well who 
 they are ; these men that are brought up at the sessions of the 
 Civil Courts, and tried for felonies, murders, misdemeanors; 
 and besides these, certain other persons who have given us an- 
 noyance without rendering themselves amenable to the law. 
 Men that beat slaves to death, women that destroy their in- 
 fants, children that expose their parents to the waves or to 
 wild animals, — these, too, are wicked. 
 
 But do you trust in God ? have you made the everlasting 
 Grod your refuge ? do you walk by faith ? do you condemn 
 yourself and recognize Christ as the source of all your good- 
 ness, wisdom, strength ? If not, then you need not go out of 
 yourself to find the wicked. " Thou art the man;" the very 
 man the Bible talks so much about, as needing to be born 
 again, being under condemnation, a child of wrath, led captive 
 by the god of this world. How deplorable is it that in reading 
 the descriptions of the wicked in the Bible, you should always 
 be thinking of another, rather than of yourself. For what we 
 are now pressing upon you, though it may seem rude, yet has 
 in it a well-head of exquisite consolation. For observe, it is a 
 very simple matter to pass out of the ranks of the wicked, to 
 escape their many sorrows, and to find yourself compassed 
 about by mercy, as by a legion of angels. You have only to 
 trust in the Lord ; to discover yourself ruined, and hasten to a 
 throne of grace ; to let faith rule in your heart ; to receive and 
 be governed by the Holy Spirit. The best of men that ever 
 lived, were once wicked like yourself, and only by faith in 
 God's goodness, through Christ, were they made to differ. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 229 
 
 July 5. — " The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and 
 saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." — Psalm xxxiv. 18. 
 
 Here again, tlie parallelism tells us something. He is nigh 
 to save. Jlis presence is salvation. Their misery is not 
 nearer to them than their deliverer. To their broken heart, 
 the whole universe seems broken ; to their desolate spirit, all 
 creation seems desolate. Crushed beneath a sense of unwor- 
 thiness, forlornness, helplessness, they dare not lift up their 
 eyes to heaven, and they know that it is useless to lift them to 
 anything less than heaven. Irremediable sorrow seems their 
 portion. But the Lord hasteneth to the place where they sit 
 solitary. He does not announce his coming by angelic pre- 
 cursors ; he does not descend on a bright cloud ; no visible 
 glory, no audible sound attests his presence. But the eye of 
 the broken-hearted sinner falls upon the eighteenth verse of 
 the thirty-fourth Psalm, and beholds there the intimation of 
 God's presence. The earthquake of the heart has opened a 
 way for faith ; and faith has opened a way for God. Formerly 
 this word would have seemed like an engaging falsehood, a po- 
 etical fiction ; nothing less than a hand of flame tracing the 
 announcement in letters of fire upon the wall would have in- 
 duced the recognition of such a truth. But faith lets God be 
 true ; and places him also among those whose words are to be 
 believed. And if the Lord is nigh, then is all good nigh. 
 When the Lord was with the first disciples, lacked they any- 
 thing ? All our lost treasures are found again in him. All 
 our bankrupt powers are found perfected in him. In his pre- 
 sence is fulness of joy. 
 
 July 6 — "Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray." — James v. 13. 
 
 This word that we now encounter is moving with haste and 
 earnestness among the haunts of men. Up one street, down 
 another, knocking at this door and at that, stopping to address 
 
 20 
 
230 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 here a company of noble personages, there a gathering of the 
 poor and mean, it wends its way with something angelic in its 
 mien, on very much the same mission that engaged the 
 thoughts and energies of our Lord when on the ear^h. 
 
 " Is any among you afflicted ?" It speaks in a kindly ac- 
 cent, knowing that many of these afflicted ones are unwilling 
 to disclose their inward grief. It speaks with earnestness, as 
 though it were conscious of possessing some medicament for 
 the woes of mankind. It does not merely say, " Art thou af- 
 flicted ? But are there afflicted ones among you ? Do you 
 know of any in the circle of your friends V 
 
 " I know of some," will be the jaatural response. " I have 
 been myself afflicted, and shall probably be so again. Some 
 of my friends are even now afflicted, and most welcome would 
 my visit be to them, if I could banish their affliction. But 
 how may this be ?" 
 
 Go and tell them to pray. 
 
 " But all men pray.'^ 
 
 On the contrary, scarce any pray. And here is the evil, 
 that almost all suppose they know what prayer is. As Naa- 
 man heard the command to wash in the Jordan, so they hear 
 the direction to pray. They are perfectly unable to under- 
 stand how prayer should be the means of delivering them from 
 sorrow. Many came in contact with the garment of Jesus as 
 they crowded around him, without receiving any benefit; 
 others, touching in faith, found in a moment what they had 
 sought for scores of years. Go to your afflicted friends and 
 tell them to pray ; to pray in faith ; by the prayer of faith to 
 draw near to God the fountain of all good; in the name of our 
 sympathizing High-priest ; and they shall receive the Holy 
 Ghost, who will disclose unto them the riches of the grace of 
 God imbedded in the promises ; will convince them of their 
 own unworthiness and take away pride, that inward cancer, 
 that great enemy of peace ; will remind them that whom God 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 231 
 
 loveth he cliasteneth ; will make them aware that they have 
 been strangely oblivious of an inheritance most magnificent and 
 soul-satisfying, fading not away ; will give them patience, sub- 
 mission, hope and love ; and compensate them a hundred-fold 
 for that o£ which they have been bereft. 
 
 July 7. — "Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord de- 
 livereth him out of them aU." — Psalm xxxiv. 19. 
 
 The Bible does not mock the anguish-bitten soul by telling 
 it that the Christian cannot experience unhappiness or disap- 
 pointment; or by telling it that it has no business to be 
 wretched. The followers of the righteous Jesus are told dis- 
 tinctly that there are afflictions for them ; and that these af- 
 flictions are many. So in drawing up an inventory of what 
 belongs to them, they may put down many afflictions. These 
 are a part of their property. 
 
 We see that it is not a disreputable thing to suffer. We 
 are in good company. 
 
 The righteous man is infinitely more blessed in his afflictions 
 than the unrighteous man is in his exemption. The den of 
 lions may be a better place than the royal couch. 
 
 The afflictions of the righteous are those that he encounters 
 in the attempt to walk righteously. Some come upon him 
 from his unsubmissive nature struggling against the new prin- 
 ciple that seeks to control it. Many from the wickedness of 
 men, who do their utmost that he may not continue in a path 
 that the}'- abhor. Many from the lukewarmness and want of 
 sympathy of his brethren. Some from the suggestions of the 
 adversary, seeking to undermine his faith. Others again from 
 the strange procedure of Grod, very different from what he had 
 erringly anticipated. He thought that God w^ould never let 
 him be cast into a pit or sold to Ishmaelites. He thought that 
 God would move with the speed of lightning to his rescue. 
 
232 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 He tliouglit that God would call to him out of the clouds, " I 
 have heard thy prayer," Some afflictions come upon him from 
 wounded affections. Some from the disappearance of loved 
 ones. Happy for us if we are ahle to feel in all our afflictions 
 that they are the afflictions of the righteous. Not brought 
 upon us by our own folly — by the neglect of divine guidance — 
 by the contravention of providence. 
 
 All the afflictions of the righteous open out into something 
 glorious. The prisoner is not merely delivered, but he finds 
 an angel waiting for him at the door. And with every deliv- 
 erance comes a specific blessing. One angel is named faith ; 
 another, love; another, joy; another, long-suffering ; another, 
 gentleness; another, goodness; another, meekness; another, 
 temperance ; another, peace. Each of these graces says, " We 
 have come out of great tribulation.'' 
 
 July 8. — "The Lord redeemetli the soul of his servants, and none of 
 them that trust in him shall be desolate." — Psalm xxxiv. 22. 
 
 The parallelism shows us that his servants are those that 
 trust in him. How can a man enter upon this service without 
 trusting in him ? To acknowledge this master is rebellion to 
 the world. Thousands are ready to spring to their arms when 
 they see us put away from our forehead and from our hand the 
 sign of our submission to the powers of this world. A man 
 that would serve God, has no longer sword or spear to trust 
 in ; riches or luck or cunning ; rank or favor ; the multitude 
 or the prince ; a fortress or a cavern ; learning or genius or 
 eloquence ; nothing in fact remains for him to trust in hut 
 God. The servant is not greater than his master ; he partakes 
 with his master the hostility of the world ; and he has naught 
 to look to but the promise of his master. Desolation seems 
 to stare him in the face ; but he is assured that none of them 
 that trust in the Lord shall be desolate. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 233 
 
 Desolation seemed to frown upon the Pilgrim fathers as they 
 forsook the shores of the old world and went forth to a land 
 which they knew to be not at all flowing with milk and honey, 
 rather indeed inhospitable, bleak and savage. Innumerable 
 dangers beset those infant colonies ; but they found the grace 
 of the Lord corresponding with the word of the Lord, In- 
 stead of being outlaws they became lawgivers; instead of 
 being vilified as opposers of the faith, they became celebrated 
 as expounders of the faith ; and the howling wilderness be- 
 came as the garden of the Lord around them. 
 
 But sometimes the most bitter experience of desolation is 
 in the crowded walks of men ; sometimes in the bosom of a 
 large family. Nothing is more desolating than to be closely 
 surrounded on every side by those who are called friends, kins- 
 folk, but who have no manner of sympathy with the ruling 
 sentiment of our heart. Often has one so situated longed for 
 the most lonely spot, and deeply felt that the solitary place 
 would be glad, beautiful, heavenlike, in comparison with his 
 situation. But often again has such a soul turned to God and 
 found it possible to obtain a triumph over its desolation. The 
 life of God perfected in that soul, has sent forth streams into 
 the uncongenial elements around, and so vindicated itself by 
 celestial love and patience that they too have been led to drink 
 and live. How blessed a thing was it that that soul could not 
 escape in the day of its weariness. 
 
 But those that do not trust in him shall be desolate. Per- 
 haps they came to the borders of Canaan, and it seemed to 
 them an uninviting land ; a sad and solitary existence seemed 
 to expand before them; they hesitated for awhile; then the 
 persuasions of their worldly friends prevailed; they went back 
 to the multitude. But will the multitude keep them from de- 
 solation ? Alas ! can anything be more desolate than the soul 
 that is without God. 
 
 An hour is coming when men, as they have preferred to be 
 21) " 
 
234 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 without God, so they shall be driven with everlasting destruc- 
 tion from the glory of his presence ; thenceforth will everlast- 
 ing and universal desolation encompass them about, such as 
 eye hath not seen nor heart conceived. 
 
 July 9. — " God is faithful, by whom we were called unto the fellowship 
 of his Son Jesns Christ our Lord." — 1 Corinthians i. 9. 
 
 Called unto the fellowship of Christ, seems to mean, called 
 unto a community of interest and of destiny with Christ. One 
 Spirit is to be common to the believer and Christ ; to each 
 there is one life of humiliation, one eternity of glory ; to each 
 the hatred of the world. Christ's peace and joy are the believ- 
 er's ; the same love of the Father is given to each ; there is to 
 each a resurrection and ascension. But he that is called to a 
 part is called to the whole. If we suffer with him, we shall 
 reign with him ; not otherwise. He is indeed the Captain of 
 our salvation ; and the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin 
 of the world. Though crucified with him, yet there were 
 sacrificial sorrows of his which we know not. 
 
 Of course it will be thought a sublime thing in the last day, 
 to sit down with Jesus on his throne, and participate a glory 
 that shall light up the universe. But only he shall sit there 
 who is now cordially associated with Christ in the midst of a 
 gainsaying and perverse generation. The marvel is that, with 
 the certainty of such an exalted destiny in reserve, there should 
 be so little readiness to pursue the path that leads to it. Is it 
 thought that God is not faithful, and that after enduring count- 
 less humiliations for the name of Christ, the reward will be 
 withheld ? But God is not only faithful, he is faithfulness it- 
 self; he must cease to be himself before he can be unfaithful. 
 Faithfulness in God is simply acting in accordance with his 
 own character, simply having his own way. In order to induce 
 a man to be faithful, we labor to make him go out of himself, 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 235 
 
 — control his own inclinations and tendencies ; it is almost like 
 asking a barque driven with the wind and tossed, to remain 
 motionless on the bosom of the agitated waters. But God is a 
 rock ; and a strange spectacle it would indeed be, if he should 
 vacillate and be thrown from his native steadfastness. He 
 knew our nature perfectly before he took that nature in hand 
 to redeem it. He cannot be taken by surprise at any develop- 
 ments in us. It was not because he believed us somewhat cor- 
 rupt, that he undertook our redemption ; he knew us to be 
 what we are only gradually discovering ourselves to be, utterly 
 corrupt. Heaven and earth then may pass away, but He will 
 remain fliithful to his own declared purpose, and present us to 
 the scrutiny of the universe, holy, unblemished, unblameable. 
 
 July 10. — They shall be abundantly satisfied "with the fatness of thy 
 house, and thou shalt make them drink of thy pleasures." — Psalm xxxvi. 8. 
 
 The blessedness of God will be the blessedness of his people. 
 Their purity shall be without stain, their love without limit; 
 wherefore their happiness shall know no bound. Their charac- 
 ter will correspond to the character of God ; wherefore their 
 felicity will be the same as his. Men, as they are generally, 
 could find no satisfaction in God's house, in the place where 
 his glory has its highest revelation ; nor is there anything at- 
 tractive to them in the river of his pleasures. Satan has so 
 vitiated their palate with the caustic of sin, that they have no 
 faculty of appreciating the banquet that is spread in heaven. 
 Even the Israelites preferred the leeks and onions of Egypt to 
 the manna from heaven. 
 
 Happy are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. 
 Give them the most excj[uisite viands that man can prepare, • 
 and their tears will fall as they eat; they long to arise and hie 
 them to some humble chamber where believers bow the knee 
 before their heavenly Father and ask for his reviving grace. 
 
236 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 * 
 
 They have tasted of a particular food, and their whole nature 
 has been brought under the enchantment of it ; they disdain 
 all that they formerly thought excellent ; and never can they 
 be satisfied till that heaven-born apj^etite brings them to the 
 mansion of their Father, and to that garden where the saints 
 walk in light and drink of the river of the pleasures of Grod. 
 
 The river of thy pleasures. " This is my beloved Son in 
 whom I am well pleased." Thus saith the Eternal Father. 
 What sayest thou ? "In these things I delight," saith the 
 Lord; "in loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness." 
 What sayest thou? "As a bridegroom rejoiceth over the 
 bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." " The Lord taketh 
 pleasure in them that fear him." Dost thou ? We must be 
 drinking even now of the river of the pleasures of God ] then 
 have we an assured hope that our thirst shall be fully slaked 
 in the beatific future. 
 
 July 11. — "With thee is the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see 
 light." — Psalm xxxvi. 9. 
 
 In a few verses of this psalm, we have the elysium of God 
 divinely sketched, and how do all the elysian scenes of poets 
 fade in comparison with it. There is poetry and there is wis- 
 dom in the abstinence that controls the delineation. They 
 that minutely depict the home of the blessed and seek to pre- 
 sent us with a finished drawing of it, forget that whatever can 
 be thus photographed is of necessity fallen from the region to 
 which faith, hope, and whatsoever is heavenly in us, aspires. 
 Give us a minute description of heaven and it is no more 
 heaven. For what we need to understand by heaven is a 
 .place or a condition such as eye hath not seen, ear hath not 
 heard, heart not conceived ; having so little in common with 
 earth that earthly language is no medium for the expression 
 of its marvels ; and whose distinguishing elements must just 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 237 
 
 be hinted ; negatiobs being more employed than affirmations. 
 Oh, how much reason have we to admire and rejoice in the re- 
 ticence of the sacred writers, or rather of the Spirit who dwelt 
 in them ! 
 
 Let us not fail also to admire the fact that everything which 
 is uttered concerning the place of God's glory, has reference to 
 us. "We are told of a fountain of life, because we long to be 
 fully possessed by the life of heaven, to be emancipated from 
 the body of this death, to drink our full of the redemption 
 that is in Christ Jesus. We are told of God's light, because 
 in that marvellous light we shall see light, and never more be 
 compelled to look on darkness. There is darkness within us ; 
 the light that we have is but light shining through the jiven 
 darkness; and there is darkness on our path; and darkness in 
 the mind and in the speech of every man we walk with ; and 
 a mighty pall of darkness stretches over the whole world. 
 There is darkness in the government of every land under the 
 sun, whether it be absolute, constitutional, or republican ; dark- 
 ness in all literature; darkness in the daily press; darkness in 
 all codes; darkness in the ministry. Almost everywhere, utter 
 darkness ; in the Church, mingled darkness and light, and the 
 promise of unmixt light. We now believe in God's light; 
 soon we shall see it. 
 
 July 12. — " He died for all, that they who live should not henceforth 
 live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again." — 
 2 Corinthians v. 15. 
 
 He died -for cdl; a glorious truth repeated in eveiy variety 
 of language, and oftentimes with the utmost explicitness that 
 language can admit of. By virtue of this unlimited atone- 
 ment, salvation may be offered to all, the gospel to every crea- 
 ture, the water of life to whomsoever will ; by virtue of this, 
 men that believe not are condemned because they have not be- 
 lieved on the Son of God, and men are convinced of sin be- 
 
238 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 cause of unbelief. It is tliis that gives its pathos to the lan- 
 guage of Christ. " How often would I have gathered thee, 
 and thou wouldest not. I would, thou wouldest not. Ye will 
 not come unto me that ye may have life." And to the lan- 
 guage of Paul : " Seeing that ye put away from yourselves 
 everlasting life." And to the language of wisdom : " Because 
 I have called and ye refused, therefore ye shall call and I will 
 not answer." 
 
 But though there be an unlimited atonement there is a lim- 
 ited redemption. He died for all, and the result is not, that 
 all live ; he died for all that tliey icho live should not live unto 
 themselves. He died for all in the sense that all may live if 
 they will ; he died for the elect in the sense that they will 
 actually will to live. Life is offered to all ; but all are not 
 allowed to reject it 
 
 And this is the life that they obtain, namely a willingness 
 to live unto Christ ; a purpose and a power to live according 
 to the mind of Christ. There is nothing that seems so much 
 like death to men as the subjugation of their own will to the 
 will of another. They know not that their own will is their 
 greatest enemy • enthroned within them for their present misery 
 and future destruction. The believer's happiness it is to dis- 
 cover that the will of Christ indicates the only path in which 
 he will find peace, purity, genuine liberty, dignity, immortality, 
 felicity. 
 
 July 13. — '' If we suffer, we shall also reign with him." — 2 Timothy ii. 12. 
 
 When he was on the earth, leading a life of sorrows and 
 perfecting his acquaintance with grief, no man appeared to 
 covet the privilege of suffering with him. John and James, 
 indeed, before they had obtained a glimpse of the cross, were 
 bold to say, " We are able to drink of thy cup, and to be bap- 
 tized with thy baptism." Thomas also said, " Let us also go 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 239 
 
 that we may die with him.'^ Peter said, " I will lay down my 
 life for thy sake." So likewise said they all. Yet when the 
 hour of his enemies came, and the power of darkness, he was 
 left to tread the wine-press alone. His disciples forsook him ; 
 or if they ventured to approach the place where he was a 
 prisoner, it was only to increase his suffering by the exhibition 
 of their unbelief and pusillanimity. 
 
 Imagine yourself there. You are in the secret. You know 
 that this is indeed the very king of the Jews, though they 
 mock him with a crown of thorns and with some faded and 
 tattered robe of state. You know that legions of angels are 
 waiting to receive his commands ; though these servants of 
 servants smite him and revile him. You know that there is 
 buried within that suffering body, glory sufficient to bathe all 
 the mountains of the earth in radiance, and suffuse the heavens 
 with splendor in the absence of the sun ; you know that there 
 is a joy set before him unspeakable, inconceivable, and that it 
 will be the sublimest of destinies to participate in that joy. 
 Well, what is the course you adopt ? It seems to you — does 
 it not ? — that you must hasten to his side ; nay, cast yourself 
 at his feet, and solicit the honor of suffering with him ; con- 
 fessing withal that, if you had the goodness of an archangel, 
 you would still be most unworthy of such a privilege. Christ 
 is not willing that you should be debarred this privilege. 
 He did not take his cross away to heaven with him. Ages 
 have not extinguished the opposition of the world to him. 
 Are you sure that you are really willing to perceive, to enter, 
 and to pursue the via dolorosa ? There does indeed seem 
 something most base in the refusal to join this king of glory 
 in the hour of his humiliation ; but is it very certain that you 
 are not this very day demonstrating your spiritual affinity to 
 those who cried out, " Not this man, but Barabbas ?V Have 
 you not turned aside from many a path, chiefly because you 
 caught a glimpse of something like calamity, and concluded 
 
240 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 that duty did not call you to enter it ? Does not the antici- 
 pated elements of loss, shame, or danger, assist you much too 
 readily in reaching your conclusions as to what is duty ? 
 
 Formerly, in the days of the Church's simplicity, Christians 
 ascertained their path by the plain sense of Scripture. But 
 now the Church has become exceedingly wise and prudent, 
 and discovers that the old paths are many of them quite un- 
 necessary. One is ashamed to differ from so many wise and 
 good men. And it is certainly a very foolish thing to run 
 after suffering. Yet is it a far more foolish thing to disregard 
 the monitions of the Spirit. It is the acme of folly to do 
 anything that may jeopard our hope of reigning with Christ, 
 in the day that the kings of the earth shall be crouching in 
 dens and caves. 
 
 July 14. — "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful j he cannot deny 
 himself."— 2 Timothy ii. 13. 
 
 He will not modify his purposes to suit our unbelief What 
 madness to suppose that he will imitate us ; and seeing that 
 we make light of his faithfulness, make light of it himself. 
 Let Grod be true, though every man a liar. Grod once declared 
 his purpose of bringing a deluge upon the earth. Men would 
 not believe the terrific word. The whole human race combined 
 to rear up a wall of unbelief under the protection of which 
 they thought themselves safe. On the one hand were all man- 
 kind with their " no f on the other, God with his " yes." 
 Unbelievers thought themselves safe in their vast numbers and 
 perfect concord \ but the word of God must be fulfilled whether 
 a single individual be the opposer, or a whole world. 
 
 The thought of the immense numbers that are without 
 Christ in the world, leads many to conclude that God will mo- 
 dify his declared purpose. Where there are so many to be 
 punished, it is unlikely that the penalty will be inflicted. Ac- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 241 
 
 cording to tliis reasoning, man has saved himself by getting 
 the whole human family to persevere in rebellion. God de- 
 lighteth in mercy; but he cannot cease to be a just and faith- 
 ful Grod. It is altogether too much to expect that he will 
 follow the example of man, and give up the attributes of faith- 
 fulness, truthfulness, and holiness, after man has denied them 
 to him. The question from the foundation of the world has 
 been, shall man accommodate himself to God, or shall God 
 accommodate himself to man ? The Bible says, " He that be- 
 lieveth not is condemned ; there is no saving name but that of 
 Christ 3 no man cometh unto the Father but by him :" and 
 it is not denied that the Bible says these things. But, it is 
 said, God must accommodate himself to the stubbornness of 
 man. Vain hope. He abideth faithful, though not a believer 
 were found in the earth. 
 
 Dost thou, Christian, render due honor to the inviolable 
 faithfulness of God ? I fear lest occasionally thou incline to 
 some forbidden path, hoping that God will not visit you with 
 the rod. How unkind in you to set up God's love to yon 
 against his love to his word ! Would you actually introduce 
 division and conflict among the very perfections of God? 
 Christ has never promised that he will become a sinner to 
 gratif}'" you. He will remain faithful ; truth driven from every 
 threshold of man, finds an everlasting asylum with him. 
 
 Happy are they who have on their side the adamantine 
 faithfulness of Christ, and build upon it all their hopes of 
 happiness. 
 
 July 15. — " The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The 
 Lord knoweth them that are his." — 2 Timothy ii. 19. 
 
 This is said with reference to some that appear unto men 
 to be the children of God, and afterwards fall away. Chris- 
 tians have no promise that they shall be kept from misconcep- 
 tions on this point ; and they are sometimes greatly shocked 
 
 21 
 
242 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 to find the court of Grod's house strewn with columns. God is 
 the architect of his temple, and is cognizant of his own plan j 
 he allows stones and pillars to be placed in the edifice which 
 he knows do not permanently belong to it; but for the 
 places they temporarily occupy there are other materials 
 known to him ; and no chasms, no imlovely vacancies shall 
 after all appear. Let this console us. The Lord knoweth 
 them that are his. These pseudo-Christians that figure for a 
 while upon the platform, and then pass away in the whirlwind 
 of sin, amid the triumphs of a scoffing world, were never 
 known to him for anything but what they really were. 
 
 The foundation laid by the Lord standeth sure, and amid 
 the shock of ages remains the same. The prophets and the 
 apostles are this foundation, the chief corner-stone being the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the Bible exhibits the re- 
 ligion that God requires of man. Every generation is made 
 to look upon this foundation, and is invited to build upon it. 
 It builds and builds ; but its work is perhaps not accordant 
 with the foundation laid ; and God quietly removes the super- 
 structure, and summons the next generation. It builds and 
 builds; and its work, too, is swept away. Finally we are 
 reached. We^ behold the foundation, and we apply ourselves 
 to the work of completing the house of God. Will God be 
 pleased with our performance ? Only if we adopt the apostolic 
 standard, and banish the futile thought of improving on the 
 plans of God. 
 
 July 16. — "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come 
 unto God by him." — Hebrews vii. 25. 
 
 The reason is assigned and it is unanswerable : — " He ever 
 liveth to make intercession for them." He lives forever, 
 clothed with all the power derived from his propitiatory death, 
 and animated by the same heart of love that led him to die ; 
 he lives in the very place where we most need him; he is 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 243 
 
 there perpetually in our "behalf. He was not more truly on 
 the earth for us than he is in heaven for us, and we may con- 
 fidently expect to be saved unto the uttermost. 
 • Once we had no access to God. There were no invitations 
 for us, no promises. He saved us from that fearful condition. 
 He has endowed us with liberty to draw nigh to God. He has 
 given us his Holy Spirit, — has shed abroad the love of God in 
 our hearts, — has changed our hearts ; overcome our sins ; and 
 bound us to himself by indissoluble bonds. But all this is 
 scarcely more than a beginning. We have received but an in- 
 stalment. He is able to do vastly more than he has done. He 
 is able to save us from all moral weakness, so that we may look 
 serenely and fearlessly on all temptations, on all dangers that 
 beset us. 
 
 Is there some infirmity in yourself, some difficulty out of 
 yourself, that seems like a barrier in the way of your progress ? 
 He is able to remove this. Have you been so often overcome 
 by the adversary, that you are ready to despair ? Take care, 
 and do not disparage the ability of him that is with you to 
 succor you. Does some duty seem tremendous and altogether 
 beyond your force ? He is able. Has he done so great things 
 for you that you are ashamed to ask him for more ? He re- 
 quires you to ask until you be saved to the uttermost. Do you 
 shrink from death ? Shrink not from the remaining salvation. 
 You must be saved from this present inglorious and inadequate 
 life ; from a Church sadly imperfect to a Church clothed in 
 spotless purity; from a mortal and corruptible existence to an 
 immortal incorruptible one. You must be brought to the an- 
 gels; to the seraphim; to the glorified Son of God; to the 
 throne where the river of the water of life takes its rise. 
 
 July 17. — "Be not weary in well-doing." — 2 Thessalonians iii. 13. 
 This is said to the well-doer. To one even who is no novice 
 
244 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 in well-doing ; but has been some time engaged in deeds of be- 
 neficence. You have begun well ; you have gone on well ; but 
 persevere. It may be that your kindness is not appreciated ; 
 that your self-denial for the sake of others is even ridiculed ; 
 that your motives are misrepresented; and that the more you 
 love, the less you are loved. But your well-doing is not well- 
 doing if it be gone about chiefly for the sake of man's appre- 
 ciation. He doeth well whose labors of love are amply rewarded 
 by the smile of God. There was a time when you were not 
 weary in seeking your own ease, pleasure, or advantage. 
 Should you labor longer or more cheerfully for that solitary 
 sinner, than for a world of unhappy ones around you ? 
 
 Consider that Christ was not weary in well-doing, though his 
 love was exhibited under the most adverse circumstances im- 
 aginable. Perhaps you may find on reflection that he has 
 been remarkably persevering in his efforts to do good to you. 
 Did you ever go to the door of some poor miserable degraded 
 being, and knock and knock; and when driven from the door 
 by a shower of reproaches, return at the flrst opportunity and 
 knock and knock ; and being again thrust back with your un- 
 desired gifts, still return and endeavor to gain admission ? 
 Hardly. But has there not been some such persistency as this 
 on the part of Christ, in his efforts to recover you from the 
 degradation of sin and the darkness of unbelief? Grod makes 
 his sun to rise and run his daily course through the skies that 
 yon may be lighted along the path of duty ; but how often does 
 that sun arise and pour his deluge of light around you, with- 
 out any other thoughts arising in your own mind than such as 
 relate to your own pleasure. The marvel is that God should 
 not be weary of doing good to such a one. When you are 
 ready to get weary of your paltry beneficences, think that jom 
 are suggesting to God that it is not worth while to continue 
 blessing the race to which you belong. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 245 
 
 July 18. — "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and 
 take up his cross and follow me." — Matthew xvi. 24. 
 
 One of the greatest triumplis ever obtained by Satan, was 
 •when he induced men, from motives utterly unscriptural, and 
 in connection with a system not Christian, to institute reKgious 
 orders consecrated to poverty and external humiliation. In 
 recoiling from this error, Protestantism has, it is to be feared, 
 recoiled from the truth of which it is a perversion. The doc- 
 trine illustrating the spirituality of Christianity, voluntary 
 sacrifice of position, wealth or ease, in order that the sincerity 
 and faith and contentedness and hope and love of the Chris- 
 tian may be appropriately exhibited, this doctrine, though it 
 may claim as large and broad a foundation for itself in the 
 word of Christ as any other one doctrine, is now treated as a 
 foolish fantasy, if not indeed as a heresy ; and he that main- 
 tains it and practises it must exhibit a good deal of wisdom in 
 other matters in order to be tolerated. There is no more sa- 
 cred obligation resting upon Christians, under the sun, than 
 the obligation to show forth the divine origin of Christianity 
 by the exhibition, in their lives, of those evidences that are 
 most calculated to affect mankind generally. G-od loves his 
 people •, he is no enemy to their comfort here ; but he loves 
 his truth and the removal of stumbling-blocks from the paths 
 that tend to Christ ; nor is it from harshness or indifference 
 that he says to any, " Sell all that thou hast, and give to the 
 poor, and follow me ;" for he well knoweth that he has power 
 to- bestow — with poverty and inferiority of position — -peace, 
 and gladness such as riches can never impart. " But," you 
 say, " what can a solitary individual do ? If he resolve to do 
 just what his Lord says, his course will be at once eccentric 
 and unprofitable. The example of one man is nothing." But 
 the question already considered recurs : Do the words of Christ 
 accommodate themselves to the unbelief of the Church ; and 
 21 * 
 
246 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 are all his requirements relaxed because Christians universally 
 shut their eyes to them ? 
 
 July 19. — "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure 
 to give you the kingdom." — Luko xii. 32. 
 
 In these words we read the future destinies of the world. 
 When an Alexander arises and hurries through the world, 
 snatching crowns on the right hand and on the left, and threat- 
 ening to take unto himself all sublunary power, the people of 
 Grod are told to fear not; the kingdom is for them, not him. 
 So too when a Julius Caesar grasps at the sceptre of universal 
 dominion. And when a Napoleon appears on the scene, they 
 calmly wait to see him and his kingdom vanish. For they 
 have looked with Daniel on the image that expressed before- 
 hand the vicissitudes of the world from the Babylonian do- 
 minion down to the time when dominion is given unto the Son 
 of man, and by him given to the people of the saints of the 
 Most High. The meek shall inherit the earth. Not only is 
 there for them an inheritance reserved in heaven ; but thrones 
 shall come down from heaven and be set upon the earth ; and 
 they shall sit thereon. " For we shall reign on the earth." 
 
 But who are these unmanifested kings and priests ? They 
 are now a little company of sheep ; a little flock ; mutely sub- 
 missive when led to the slaughter; willing to be inglorious, 
 poor, weak, despised, rejected; fitting themselves to be all that 
 is great and excellent and powerful, by their willingness to be 
 nothing. 
 
 July 20. — " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." — John 
 iii. 36. 
 
 And he only; for "he that believeth not the Son shall 
 not see life ; but the wrath of Grod abideth on him." Several 
 important matters loom upon us in this little statement. One 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 247 
 
 of the most unintelligible things, to the world, is the declara- 
 tion so constantly made in the Scriptures, that man is without 
 life. At the very beginning of human history, Satan intro- 
 duced, as a substitute for Grod's doctrine that man would die 
 in the day of his transgression, his own opposing doctrine that 
 man would not die. Adam believed Satan rather than God; 
 and it has been the same with Adam's descendants until the 
 present hour. Men refuse to believe that they are in any 
 proper sense dead ; that they need the breath of life to be 
 breathed into their soul. And refusing to believe this, they 
 give no heed to the offer of life made to them in the Grospel. 
 " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." " He 
 that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life — hath passed 
 from death unto life.'' Not knowing themselves dead through 
 transgression, they fail to live through faith. The death that 
 passed upon Adam was not a visible death ; and the life that 
 comes to the believer is not a visible life ; but the results of 
 both are in due time sufficiently visible. 
 
 You look upon the believer and upon yourself, and you say, 
 WTiat has he that I have not ? Wherein is he richer than I 
 am ? I have physical and mental powers equal, if not supe- 
 rior, to his. Is he eloquent? Not more than I. Can he 
 reason ? Not better than I. Is he well informed ? So am 
 I. Is he respected ? I am more so. Has he wealth ? I have 
 more. Is he generous ? Men speak far more of my gene- 
 rosity than of his. Is he moral ? I claim to be as much so. 
 He has a hope of heaven. And have I none ? 
 
 I will tell you what he has that you have not. He has the 
 knowledge that sin is death. He knows that, naturally, he, in 
 common with all mankind, is under condemnation ; is without 
 the favor of Grod ; is exposed to eternal wrath. While deeply 
 sensible of the great goodness of God in bestowing upon him 
 many admirable gifts, he knows that these gifts only increase 
 the odiousness of his sins. He loathes his sins ; his pride, 
 
248 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 selfisliness, irreligion, insincerity. He is aware that no mere 
 efforts of his own, with all the aid that he can obtain from 
 man, are adequate to restore his diseased, his dead nature. It 
 is life that he needs. And it is blasphemy to say that any 
 finite power can bestow this. He believes on the Son of God; 
 recognizing him to be morally and in respect to dignity, the 
 express image of the Father. He beholds G-od manifest in 
 the Son ; and all the acts and words of Christ reveal to him 
 the character of the omnipresent God. He sees his own sins 
 expiated at the cross ; and the broken body of Christ is the 
 legacy of life to him. The ascension of Christ is the guar- 
 antee of his own entire emancipation from sin, sorrow, frailty, 
 corruptibility. You have many things in common with him ; 
 but, unlike you, he glories only in the cross of . Christ. You 
 make many donations, and men praise you for them ; but he 
 performs actions that will be mentioned with approbation by 
 Christ at the last day, in words like this : " You have done it 
 unto me.'' In a word, he has faith in Christ ; and you have 
 not. Your faith is in yourself; and until you know yourself 
 to be without life, Christ can be of no advantage to you. 
 
 July 21. — " God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." — Galatians vi. 14. 
 
 Whatever constitutes, in our opinion, our chief ground of 
 distinction, that is the thing in which we glory. Like the 
 fabled jewel in the toad, so there is in almost every man, if we 
 may believe him, a very wonderful jewel. He finds it in him- 
 self; though with respect to others the whole thing is a fable. 
 But even if there were this diamond in a man's nature, the 
 presence of self-esteem would turn it to carbon again. To 
 pride yourself on any good is to lose that good. Virtue comes 
 to you, not that she may make you love yourself, but love Him 
 that sent her to you. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 249 
 
 There are those, indeed, who glory in something beside 
 themselves. A man glories in his ancestors. A child in its 
 father. Men are proud of their country. Soldiers glory in 
 their commander. A successful general inspires his soldiers 
 with the most intense enthusiasm, so that they are ready to 
 throw away their lives at the slightest expression of his will. 
 
 This enthusiasm, however, must be aided by a measure of 
 ignorance in order to endure. Passionate admiration has only 
 to come very near its object, to discover some fatal flaw. No 
 reputation of man is safe where there is abundant light. 
 And the great art of men is to veil their heroes. Sometimes, 
 however, the greatest enemies of the Bible find themselves 
 speaking the language of the Bible. 
 
 " Where shall the wearied eye repose 
 When gazing on the great. 
 Where neither guilty glory glows 
 Nor despicable hate ?" 
 
 Reading the history of humanity, Paul found but one page 
 on which his eye could rest, ever rest, with unmingled satis- 
 faction. It was not the page that records the conquests of 
 Alexander ; nor that which describes the eloquence of Demos- 
 thenes; nor that which treats of Thermopylae. He passed 
 dissatisfied from Homer to Eschylus, to Plato, to Socrates, to 
 Pythagoras, to Cato. The page on which humanity came out 
 faultlessly glorious, was that which told of the death of Him 
 who had come down from the highest heavens and assumed 
 humanity that he might expose the worthlessness of all that 
 man had gloried in and make such an atonement for the sins 
 of men as would heal the division then yawning like a great 
 gulf between God and man. At the cross he had first ob- 
 tained a correct view of himself and of all mankind ; an ac- 
 quaintance with God ; a knowledge of time and of eternity. 
 And that which taught him to renounce the idea of man's 
 
250 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 nobility, was that also wliicli disclosed tlie means of rising to 
 ike highest conceivable degree of nobility. It poured con- 
 tempt on princes ; but it raised men from the dunghill to array 
 them in robes of never-fading splendor^ to crown them with 
 everlasting joy. 
 
 July 22. — "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given 
 himself for us." — Ephesians v. 2. 
 
 That is to say, carry on the life which Christ lived. In 
 him love made its advent to the earth ; and the prayer re- 
 corded in the seventeenth chapter of John, shows plainly that 
 the idea of the Saviour was not that that divine love should 
 take its departure with him from the earth, but that it should 
 abide and have an inextinguishable life in his disciples, from 
 generation to generation, until he should come again. This, 
 then, is your v^ocation. To walk by faith, and to walk in love, 
 let these things be one in your experience. 
 
 What a sublime mission ! Grod on his throne in heaven is 
 love. Love is with him enthroned in heaven ; love, in you, 
 wanders over the earth. The whole universe is made for the 
 manifestation of his love ; and the universe, as much of it as 
 you will, exists for the manifestation of your love. It is the 
 law of all created essences; and let there only be in you divine 
 love enthroned, and the whole creation will answer your glance, 
 and say to you, " Here am I." It must wait upon you, for it 
 must wait upon love. You are the follower of Christ ; conse- 
 quently you live to love. 
 
 You are, however, surrounded by a world of unloving and 
 unlovely beings ; and how can you walk in love here ? Con- 
 sider that formerly you found no difi&culty in loving yourself; 
 in spite of all the repulsive things you knew about yourself, 
 you went on loving yourself, with an unwavering steadfastness. 
 Consider, again, that Christ sets you the example. Does it 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 251 
 
 become you to be more fastidious than he is ? Is the servant 
 greater than his Lord ? Do you presume to despise what he 
 regards ? Did he bring too much love down from heaven, and 
 must you send some of it back ? Consider, again, does it ap- 
 pear wrong that you should be loved ? Does a little satisfy 
 you ? Would you have your brethren make light of the com- 
 mand to love you ? Again, is there any better way of bring- 
 ing men to be lovely, than this very way of love ? Finally, Is 
 there any habit more enriching and gla'ddening to your own 
 . nature, than this sacred habit of love ? 
 
 You may well say that you have not attained, neither are 
 already perfect. Nothing less is solicited at your hands, than 
 that you should give Christ's mighty love an unlimited range 
 of your nature. 
 
 " I cannot tutor my affections," you say; " I cannot by any 
 word of command constrain my heart to love." Well, then, 
 try this way. Be filled with the knowledge of Christ's love to 
 you. Feed upon this food ; the table is spread, and there is 
 no stinted supply. Love to him will follow without difficulty. 
 Then, as he is in heaven and his people are on earth, love 
 him in them. In them he is near. 
 
 July 23. — " This is his commandment, that we should believe on the 
 name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another." — 1 John iii. 23. 
 
 We have here not two commandments, but one. Faith is 
 naught without love ; and love without faith is not the love 
 that is here commanded. "Love believeth all things;" and 
 faith " worketh by love," exhibits itself in love. Selfishness is 
 the grand impediment-of love; but faith is that which gets the 
 victory over selfishness, by showing a man his utter unworthi- 
 ness and the perfect folly of living unto himself Faith makes 
 us acquainted with the love of Christ, and in fact introduces it 
 into the soul ; and this love begets love. Faith enables us to 
 
252 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 contemplate the trutli that Christ and his people are one, and 
 that in loving them we are responding to his love. Faith 
 shows us what there is of Christ in them, and what they are 
 to be hereafter. We have seen the crowns, the royal robes, 
 the celestial dwelling-places now in course of preparation for 
 them. The Holy Spirit in us is the author of faith ; and he 
 will not tarry with us unless we love. If they have sins, faith 
 teaches us so to pray for them as to obtain their deliverance 
 therefrom. And faith also teaches us how to do good — not to 
 be always saying smooth things ; not to leave their faults un-. 
 heeded ; not to aim that they may be always comfortable in 
 mind. But as it teaches us that the leaving of Grod's will un- 
 done, or the doing of what he willeth not, is the greatest ca- 
 lamity for ourselves, so it teaches us that this is their greatest 
 calamity ; and it keeps us more intent upon their growth in 
 grace than upon their momentary pleasure, though even this 
 we cannot overlook unless there be a necessity. Christ did 
 not take it as a kindness when Peter said, " Far be it from 
 thee, Lord, to go up to Jerusalem, the city of thine enemies !" 
 Any one that attempts to love without faith will be sure to 
 make wretched work of it. For there will be no tendency in 
 his love to draw the object of it near to him who is the only 
 fountain of happiness, but rather to draw it more and more 
 away. A great deal that is called love is fatal and withering 
 toward the loved one. Pour the light of God's truth on what 
 are called romances, and what melancholy ghastly things do 
 they become. 
 
 July 24. — " He that covereth his sins shall not prosper." — Proverbs 
 xxviii. 13. 
 
 Almost all men are intent upon appearing better than they 
 really are. If a man cannot be what he ought to be, he at- 
 tempts at least to appear so. His days are spent in a frau- 
 dulent attempt to pass himself off as something better than he 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 253 
 
 is. The same amount of energy devoted to the purification of 
 his character, might result in something good. What watch- 
 fulness ! What circumspection ! What attention to circum- 
 stances ! What study of men's characters ! What persever- 
 ance ! What self-command ! Were these qualities and habits 
 devoted to the legitimate end of appearing well in the sight 
 of God, what magnificent results would be witnessed. These 
 are the very things that Grod requires of us : watchfulness, 
 carefulness, perseverance, self-control. Man shows that he is 
 capable of these things ; but he exercises them in seeking not 
 the essence, but a fiction ; not the favor of God, but that of 
 man.' 
 
 The habit is so inveterate that few are conscious of it. They 
 suppose they are acting naturally, and have no conception of 
 the measure of their insincerity. I speak not of the hypo- 
 crite, commonly so styled ; but of all. The man who says, " 1 
 thank God, I make no profession to be better than others ;" he. 
 too, is playing a role, though he cheats himself with the con- 
 trary idea. 
 
 Insincerity in religion, the endeavor to obtain and perpetu- 
 ate a reputation for piety, is something exceedingly ofi'ensive. 
 There is something monstrous about the idea of offering prayer 
 in such a way as to secure the commendation of man. 
 
 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper ; for while he 
 covers them he cannot possibly get rid of them ; and their pre- 
 sence will vitiate all prosperity. Let us endure the shame of 
 confessing them, that we may have the abiding glory of being 
 delivered from them. Let us act out our true characters, and 
 take our true place ; then we may expect to make progress of 
 the most desirable kind. If man deride, no matter ; we have 
 something that they have not. Our position is a more 
 promising one than theirs ; for truth is now on our side. 
 22 
 
254 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 July 25. — " They have washed their robes, and made them white in the 
 blood of the Lamb ; therefore are they before the throne of God." — Reve- 
 lation vii. 14, 15. 
 
 These robes are symbolical of their characters once defiled, 
 now made pure by virtue of the faith which they have exer- 
 cised in him who died on Calvary that he might redeem us 
 from all iniquity^ and purify us unto himself a peculiar people. 
 Observe here that their agency is spoken of. It was, indeed, 
 the blood of the Lamb that purged away the stains ', but they 
 had something to do ; they saw and loathed the impurity of 
 their garments, they approached the fountain, and washed 
 them white. Christ gave them the heart to do it. » 
 
 The saints in light have something to distinguish them from 
 all angels, all other holy beings. They are not pure, but pu- 
 rified. They were once impure, once steeped in sin and meet 
 only for the inheritance of the devil and his angels. That they 
 have become the companions of those who are before the 
 throne, will be a wonder ceaseless through all eternity. The dis- 
 tinction is of course not honorable to them ; but it is eminently 
 honorable to Christ; and they seek no honor but his. By rea- 
 son of their intimate alliance with him, they feel at home in 
 heaven as though they had never dwelt elsewhere. 
 
 They wash their robes on earth that they may stand before 
 the throne of Grod. Do you belong to their number ? Have 
 you knowledge of the blood of Christ ? Such knowledge as 
 tends to the purification of your character, to your emancipa- 
 tion from sin ? Not without your agency will this spiritual 
 transformation take place. Delay not; for how soon may "the 
 great day of his wrath" burst upon the world. 
 
 July 26. — "Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your 
 body and in your spirit, which are God's." — 1 Corinthians vi. 20. 
 
 Rights relating to property are carefully guarded by men. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 255 
 
 They greatly resent any unwarranted use of what belongs to 
 them. To touch their property is to touch them. The earth 
 is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. Man sold himself to 
 Satan and presumed to transfer the earth and the fulness 
 thereof to the arch-apostate, and God so far allowed the bar- 
 gain (for the punishment of man.) that Satan may be correctly 
 styled the god of this world. " He that committeth sin is the 
 servant of sin ;" this word is the charter of Satan's kingdom 
 upon earth. But into the slave-market of this world God hath 
 gone in the person of his Son, and paid the tremendous price 
 which authorizes him to take as many as he can find willing to 
 go, and create them anew in the image of the Son. They that 
 go, go willingly ; fully and deliberately recognizing God's ab- 
 solute property in them; and any subsequent alienation of 
 their powers to the will of another, is most base and inexcusa- 
 ble. 
 
 It is not therefore a fragment of you that has been pur- 
 chased ; but the whole. You would hardly presume to say 
 that the price was inadequate. Yet do you not seem to say 
 so ? How much of your time is the Lord's ? Do you dress, 
 feed, employ your body as unto the Lord ? Is your tongue, 
 3^our hand consecrated all to him ? Your memory, imagina- 
 tion, hope ? Your love and faith ? Your houses and lands ? 
 Your influence ? 
 
 JtJLT 27. — "Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, 
 and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." — Psalm 
 xlvi. 2. 
 
 The language of the highest faith is the language of the 
 highest courage. Men that are bold enough to seek the bub- 
 ble reputation even in the' cannon's mouth, and who fear not 
 that they shall ever know what fear is, may at any moment be 
 reduced to a condition of the most abject timidity by the reve- 
 
256 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 lation of tliat Grod whom they have scorned to make their re- 
 fuge and strength. 
 
 Fear is to be the everlasting portion of him who in this life 
 refuses to fear. Men exclude from their attention those truths 
 that are calculated to alarm them ; and resolve to retain their 
 self-confidence unbroken, at whatever cost. They wish to be 
 without fear ; and in many instances their wish is gratified ; 
 they pass through life, and pass away from it, without any 
 painful apprehension. But they have only been accumulating 
 an everlasting fund of terror and agony, and they inherit, on 
 the other side of the grave, with incalculable interest, what 
 they refused to receive on this side. They defended them- 
 selves against fear by the amulet of delusion j by some scheme 
 of future things which their own vain minds had elaborated; 
 but delusion is not allowed to cross the grave ; and there they 
 will find themselves bereft of their armor. " Fear hath torment.'' 
 Who can express this torment ? The terror-stricken soul expe- 
 riences not only the inflicted sorrow of the moment, but by an- 
 ticipation the dread interminable sufi'ering of all time to come. 
 
 How shall our souls be strong in the day when Christ shall 
 come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not 
 Grod, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? 
 There is another question more important ; and if it be rightly 
 answered, we can dismiss the first. What am I now fearing ? 
 The displeasure of man, or that of Grod ? The scorn of man 
 or that of Grod ? When the world says, " Enter not this 
 path," and Grod says, " Enter it;" when the world says, " Be 
 conformed to me," and God says, "Be not conformed;" when 
 the world says, " Speak not of Grod, of Christ, of sin, of eter- 
 nity;" and Grod says, "Speak of them;" whom do I obey? 
 If I fear not in my daily, hourly walk, the wrath and derision 
 of mankind, I shall be kept from fear in the great day of Grod's 
 wrath, and shall dwell in safety where I now dwell in safety, 
 beneath the shadow of his wings. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 257 
 
 July 28. — " God is my salvation and my glory." — Psalm Ixii. 7. 
 
 God is my Saviour ; and inasmucli as he saves me by bring- 
 ing me into blessed relations to himself, clothe-s me "with the 
 garment of his own unsullied righteousness, and jnakes me to 
 bear his image, I may well speak of him as my salvation. This, 
 like a thousand other passages of the Old Testament, teaches 
 the divinity of Christ, and it is a marvel how any one can say 
 that the evidences of this are chiefly confined to the New 
 Testament. Every passage in the Old Testament that exhibits 
 God as the Saviour of his people, is as true a testimony to the 
 divinity of Christ as anything in his own works and words. 
 The doctrine of Christ's divinity is dear to the believer, not 
 only because of the honor that thereby redounds to Christ, but 
 because all the honor of Christ thereby redounds to God. It 
 is not merely the exaltation of Christ, but the condescension 
 of God, that attracts him to the gospel. He does not merely 
 add divinity to him who sat upon the margin of the well at 
 Syehar, and who sailed upon the lake of Gennesareth ; he adds 
 humanity to the infinite God, in whom he lives, moves, and has 
 his being. 
 
 It is one thing to hold the doctrine of Christ's divinity, and 
 it is another to draw from the doctrine its fullness of blessing. 
 Have I been, ^o long time with you, and yet hast thou not 
 known me ? Many that are accustomed to read the gospel 
 have no idea of the power with which its statements would 
 come to their soul, if they would allow this doctrine to flash 
 its light upon the words. 
 
 They read for instance, Oh, ye of little faith, how long shall 
 I be with you, how long shall I suffer you ? Let them con- 
 sider these words as revealing the mind of him who is not far 
 from any one of us, the omniscient and immutable God; and 
 let them discover by means of them with what strong dissatis- 
 faction he who compasseth their path and their lying-down re- 
 gards their unbelief How long shall he be with us unknown 
 22 * 
 
258 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 and Tinperceived ; how long sliall the boundless and ever-present 
 riclies of liis grace be offered us in vain ? " He that hath seen 
 me hath seen the Father." Let us labor to connect the idea 
 of the Almighty, the Ever-living, Ever-present one, with the 
 words and acts of Christ. 
 
 July 29. — " Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall 
 lift you up." — James iv. 19. 
 
 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord ; that is, hum- 
 ble yourself truly ; for his eye is as a flame of fire ; and no 
 mere pretence of humility will pass current with him. He 
 does not ask you to conceal your pride from the observation of 
 men, but to mortify it. He does not ask you to be humble 
 merely in your addresses to him ; for he is ever with you. 
 
 In order to humble yourself, know yourself. Pride grows 
 in the atmosphere of falsehood. It is only by dint of lying 
 that a soul maintains its pride. Let God reveal you to your- 
 self. Perhaps the esteem in which you are held by man, in- 
 terposes a difficulty. You have a position in society. Men 
 look up to you. They treat you with no little deference. Re- 
 ceiving thus attention and respect all the day long, it becomes 
 difficult for you to entertain those depreciatory views of your- 
 self that God requires. But, do men honor you for what is 
 really commendable in you ; or, for things that are merely ad- 
 ventitious, and that are found in innumerable instances con- 
 nected with ungodliness? If they honor you for wealth, 
 influence, or even for talent, call to mind that there are thou- 
 sands of worthless men in the world that surpass you in these 
 respects. It is in direct violation of the command of God that 
 men give their admiration to these things. What they have 
 not learned, you should quickly learn, namely, to recognize 
 God as the giver of all good gifts, and to ascribe unto him 
 honor and glory. It is of more importance that you should be 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 259 
 
 humble, than that you should he wealthy and looked up to. 
 And you know what Christ hath told us to do, when cherished 
 things hinder us from obtaining something better. It is with 
 reference to the difficulties you now plead that Christ has said, 
 " How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the king- 
 dom of heaven." It is hard for them to humble themselves in 
 the sight of God; and without humility there is no entering 
 into the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 Perhaps you say, " No, I am not rich, but poor ; mean in 
 station ; unknown to the men of the world ; but God has be- 
 stowed his grace upon me and enabled me to walk in his paths ; 
 Christian brethren admire the work that God hath wrought 
 in me, and their commendation hinders me from being clothed 
 with humility." Hearken ! your attainments are of a very su- 
 perficial character, if humility, the knowledge of your own 
 profound un worthiness, be not a constant tenant of your breast. 
 Most imperfect and questionable is the fabric of your Christian 
 character, if it be not founded broadly and solidly in humility. 
 Just exactly therefore in the degree in which you are vain of 
 your attainments, you condemn your attainments. Say unto 
 pride, I have no need of thee until I have acquired self-know- 
 ledge and the deep conviction of my own utter unworthiness 
 and weakness, and until my soul has got thoroughly imbued 
 with the persuasion of its dependence on the grace of Christ 
 for all things. Let me first obtain that humility without which 
 every individual is but a loathsome leper in the universe of 
 God. Then, if thou please, come to me ; but thou shalt come 
 in vain. Thou wilt find no footing on the landing-place of my 
 soul. Thy proper place is with the wicked, the incorrigible, 
 the base, the carnal, the devilish. The wickedest being in exist- 
 ence is the proudest. A man's pride is ever commensurate 
 with his blindness and alienation from God. 
 
 Humble yourselveis in the sight of the Lord, and he shall 
 lift you up. 
 
2G0 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 July 30. — " To this man "will I look, even to him that is poor and of a 
 contrite spirit." — Isaiah Ixvi. 2. 
 
 What mighty efforts, and how many, to obtain the regard 
 of men : how rare the effort to obtain the regard of God ! 
 The admiring glance of God passes by the great and noble, 
 the wise and prudent, the wealthy, the powerful, all the illus- 
 trious that shine as stars in the firmament of this world, and 
 singles out some obscure person who is distinguished by no- 
 thing but a poor and contrite spirit, God looks to him and 
 God alone. The mere possession of humility leaves him with- 
 out the slightest power to attract the attention of men. If he 
 had but an arithmetical talent ; or an uncommon memory ; or 
 an unusual degree of muscular power ; could he but dance, run 
 far, walk quickly, eat much, drink much, fast much ; had he 
 any kind of ability almost, men would look to him ; but being 
 merely a humble man, of a contrite spirit, singular only in his 
 freedom from pride ; they do not look to him. God looks to 
 him. 
 
 God can do something with such a man as that. God is 
 love, and delighteth in mercy, and he is ever seeking whom 
 he can bless ; and when he finds a man of a poor and contrite 
 spirit, he has the opportunity of blessing. For such a one 
 will receive the gifts of God without being lifted up by them ; 
 he knows that all comes to him in the way of unmerited grace ; 
 and his heart will glow the more with gratitude and self-for- 
 getting affection, the more that God bestows upon him. He 
 is of course docile, teachable ; he will learn the ways of God 
 and will walk therein. Do not imagine that he is a poor- 
 spirited creature, trembling at the face of man. No, this con- 
 trite-hearted man, when he hath once tasted of the joy of 
 God's salvation, and taken knowledge of the eye of his God 
 and his Saviour fixed upon him, is thenceforth lion-hearted in 
 the presence of men. He is at the disposition of God, and is 
 whatever his heavenly JMaster wishes him to be. It is a light 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 261 
 
 thing for tlie Spirit of God to make of such a one a Luther, a 
 Knox, a Paul; to bestow upon him all human excellencies; 
 and give him power to thresh mountains, to revolutionize 
 kingdoms, to do any work soever that needeth to be done. 
 He is in the school of God, to be educated by God. He has 
 begun aright ; and eye hath not yet seen, ear hath not yet 
 heard, heart hath not yet conceived, what he will become in 
 the plastic hand of his divine Fashioner. 
 
 July 31. — "And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write : These 
 things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars ; 
 I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art 
 dead." — Revelation iii. 1. 
 
 The seven spirits and the seven stars have a relation to each 
 other. It is the divine Spirit that is spoken of thus ; and the 
 intention is not to lower our conception of his divinity, but to 
 exalt it. The Spirit is wholly wheresoever he is ; but his ma- 
 nifestations are modij&ed and affected by the exigencies of those 
 whom he blesses with his presence. The unity of the Spirit 
 shall be witnessed in its perfection, only when the different 
 denominations of Christians flow together. He that hath the 
 seven stars and knows their divers conditions, wants, trials, in- 
 firmities, and characteristics, hath the seven Spirits, and is 
 able to minister unto each church just what influence and ope- 
 ration of the Holy Spirit may be demanded. The number 
 " seven'^ seems suggested by the candelabrum of the tabernacle 
 with its seven lamps. In chapter iv. 5 we read of seven lamps 
 before the throne which are the seven Spirits of God. In v. 
 6, the Lamb's seven eyes are said to be the seven Spirits of 
 God sent forth into all the earth. As no one could attribute 
 seven eyes to Christ in any natural sense, so it would be wildly 
 absurd for any one to conceive of essential plurality in the 
 Spirit. It is by his divine perfections that Christ is present 
 in all the world ; and it is thus the Spirit of God is present. 
 
262 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 " I know tliy works that tliou hast a name that thou livest 
 and art dead." The expression " I know thy works" has been 
 hitherto used in a commendatory and encouraging sense. ^ It 
 was a matter of congTatulation to the four churches mentioned 
 in the preceding chapter, that the Lord was acquainted with 
 their works. But it was otherwise with the church of Sardis. 
 The works were such as to proclaim this church dead. The 
 gardener has no difficulty in discerning the eyidences that a 
 plant is dead. The persistent absence of friiit when fruit is 
 due, is sufficient to condemn the tree. 
 
 It is bad enough to be dead, but, oh, how perilous to be 
 dead with a name to live ! The life-giving influences that 
 would seek the merely dead, turn aside from that which pro- 
 fesses to have life. Salvation is running to and fro in the 
 earth, seeking the lost ; but when it comes near that which 
 professes to be in Christ, it is turned away by the declaration, 
 " I have no need." The more there is of this semblance, 
 (with no reality) the greater the danger. But this is not all. 
 The dead thing that has a name to live, is deadly ; it deals in 
 death; it assimilates all around to itself; it testifies powerfully 
 against vital religion by the exhibition of a lifeless religion. 
 If the light in you be darkness, how great that darkness ! 
 How mightily grew Sardis ! how large the place it occupies in 
 the ecclesiastical history of the last eighteen centuries ! how 
 baleful its influence upon the other churches, so that they had 
 almost to hide their diminished heads ; and how largely is it 
 represented at the present day upon the earth ! Men know 
 our name ; Christ knows our works. 
 
 August 1. — "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.'' 
 --Isaiah xlv. 22. 
 
 Thus early and thus distinctly do we find the gospel emanci- 
 pated, and the Spirit of God breaking away from his prison- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 263 
 
 house, from Judea, to utter a premonitory invitation in the 
 ears of distant nations, occupied with their idols. We should 
 never allow ourselves to suppose that when Grod was bestowing 
 so much labor of love upon the Jewish nation, that he was 
 then unmindful of the rest of mankind. God took nothing 
 away from the other nations of the earth, when he made the 
 Jewish people the object of peculiar care. Not one prophet 
 was taken away from the other families of the earth; not one 
 truth that had been bestowed upon mankind at large was sup- 
 pressed; and not one promise that made known Grod as the 
 hearer of all who call upon him in truth, was taken back. 
 
 The Jewish economy was an economy of special grace, with 
 reference to a glorious end embracing the destinies of all na- 
 tions. "When Grod chose Abraham, he over and over declared 
 that his thoughts were on something more than the seed of 
 Abraham. " In you shall all the nations of the earth be 
 blessed." And from first to last, all that Grod did to the Jew- 
 ish nation had reference to the hour when the Lord Jesus 
 should command his Gospel to be preached among all nations, 
 and when the completed volume of the grace of God, the Old 
 Testament and the New Testament should be tendered, with 
 all their revelations and all their promises, to every creature. 
 The very Jewish feasts had a world-wide significance. The 
 passover told of the Lamb that should take away the sin of the 
 world ; the feast of weeks told of the pentecostal publication 
 of the gospel in all tongues ; the feast of tabernacles tells of the 
 mighty ingathering that is to be. 
 
 August 2.— "Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth." 
 — Eevelation xvi. 15. 
 
 A thief comes only where he is not expected. His grfeat in- 
 terest is that people should be off their guard. Where there 
 is watchfulness, there is no opening for him. Our Lord comes 
 
264 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 as a thief upon the world, because the world has no expectation 
 of him. The world has no more thought of his coming than 
 it has of the coming of Socrates or Alexander. This is not, be 
 it understood, because Christ has done anything to keep the 
 world unaware of his coming. He has sent the fullest infor- 
 mation to every creature. He has given an open book to the 
 world in which is an ample account of his future coming. The 
 mode, the circumstances, and something too of the time, are 
 published beforehand. What makes his coming to be that of 
 the thief, is the blindness, the stupidity of men in all that re- 
 lates to religious matters. He shows them even the key by 
 which he will enter their house ; but nothing produces an im- 
 pression. 
 
 There are those who profess to be his servants, who also say, 
 '' Our Lord delay eth his coming.'' Their sense of responsi- 
 bility loses its keenness, and they are in great danger of being 
 found in an unprepared state. Blessed are they who say, The 
 time is short. We know not what the morrow may bring forth. 
 They sleep not without seeing that there is oil for their lamps. 
 
 August 3. — " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." — 
 Hebrews xiii. 8. 
 
 Amidst the mutations of character, the fluctuations of time, 
 and the vicissitudes of events, the soul longs for something that 
 does not and that cannot change, to which it may attach itself 
 and thus find compensation for all the mutabilities of which It 
 is compelled to have experience in this world. There needs 
 of course something else besides immutability in order to con- 
 stitute an object worthy of our earnest attention and heart-felt 
 confidence. We cannot desire immutability where there is 
 anything less than perfection. But where the highest possible 
 excellence resides, there unchangeableness becomes a thing 
 greatly to be desired. Above all when we stand in a certain 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 265 
 
 relation to this incomparable object; when the perfections of 
 this unchangeable one are made available for us; when his 
 power supplements our weakness ; his wisdom our, ignorance ; 
 when he in all his plenitude of perfection is our own particular 
 treasury from whence we may draw everlasting supplies. Then, 
 Oh, then, let change approach him not, but stand respectfully 
 beyond the circle drawn by his divine nature. 
 
 How vain were it to go everywhere preaching the gospel of 
 the grace of God, of God's grace incarnate in Christ, if Christ 
 were not the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Why should 
 we go telling men of what Christ said and did to the leper, of 
 his conversation with the woman of Samaria, of his instructions 
 to his disciples, his rebukes addressed to the Pharisees, his de- 
 meanor in the presence of his enemies, his emotion at the 
 grave of Lazarus, his kindness to sinners and publicans, his in- 
 vitations to the laboring and heavy-laden, his affliction and 
 agony in Gethsemane, his sufferance of indignities in the Prae- 
 torium, his prayer on the cross, and his words to the penitent 
 thief; why should we go about telling men these things, if it 
 were not that they occurred in the life of one who is the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and forever ? 
 
 Yes, this gospel is everlasting. It is not an ancient book ; 
 but the book of this generation. There is not the least trace 
 of decrepitude about it. It blooms with immortal youth. By 
 means of it Christ this very day approaches you, and reveals 
 feelings that he entertains for you, entertains for you now, will 
 ever entertain. An archangelic trump uttering in the skies 
 the words, " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy- 
 laden, and I will give you rest," would not be to us any more 
 reliable evidence of the present disposition of Him who sits 
 upon the throne, than these same words in the Gospel afford. 
 And it becomes us to be well aware of this as we peruse the 
 gospel history or dwell upon its statements. Would not some 
 find in their hand a new and wondrous gospel, radiant with a 
 
 2Z 
 
266 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 glory hitherto unsuspected, if they would begin to read it with 
 this great truth firmly enthroned in their convictions, that 
 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever ? 
 
 August 4. — '* Behold, I stand at the door and knock." — Rev. iii. 20. 
 
 In manifold ways, Christ reveals unto men that he is willing 
 and ready to enter into relations with them ; and to those who 
 have already some knowledge of him, he gives many a token 
 that he is ready to enter into more intimate and hallowed re- 
 lations with them. He does not wait, that men should seek 
 him ; he does not send word that he is waiting for them ; he 
 comes to them. He does not merely come : he stands and 
 knocks. 
 
 The door is for the purpose of excluding enemies, and those 
 whose visits are unwelcome ; and you quickly rise when you 
 hear the voice of a friend, and hasten to open the door that 
 there may be no barrier between him and you. Another per- 
 son might easily discover your feelings towards the one that 
 knocks, by the response you make. Your countenance, your 
 movements, all would show the feelings you entertain. Christ 
 stands and knocks, and men are not aware of it. They are so 
 busy hearkening to voices of earth, the world makes such a 
 sound in their ears, or the slumber of unbelief is so heavy, that 
 they hear not the Saviour's knock. Blessed are they who cul- 
 tivate the faculty of quickly detecting the foot-fall of Christ, 
 and start up as soon as they hear his knock. 
 
 He knocks by his providence, as when he takes away your 
 property, or your health, or your bosom friend ; when he places 
 you in new and trying circumstances with many and wide- 
 branching responsibilities ; when he takes you away from loved 
 scenes ; when some mighty display of his power in the natural 
 world, arrests your attention ; — by his servants, moving them 
 jLo address you in the language of exhortation or admonition ; 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 267 
 
 — by his word, with its gracious promises or tender upbraid- 
 ings ; — by a manifest work of grace in the heart of another. 
 
 I say unto you, hearken ; hearken diligently, turning away 
 from the vain babbling of the world ', and you shall hear the 
 knock of Christ. You shall never be without an intimation 
 from him, that he is nigh and ready to bless. Show hospitality 
 to him in the world and he will receive you into everlasting 
 habitations ; receive him into your heart and he will give you an 
 abundant entrance into the glorious mansions of his Father. How 
 wise was it in that poor woman to share her supper with 
 Elijah; famine was just then coming over the threshold to in- 
 stal himself at her board ', but was compelled to take an ever- 
 lasting flight. " If any man hear my voice, and open unto 
 me," says Christ, " I will come in and sup with him and he 
 with me ; I will come and make his earthly lot glad with my 
 presence, and he shall come and participate with me the glory 
 and felicity of the heavenly life." 
 
 August 5. — " The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me." — Psalm 
 cxxxviii. 8. 
 
 He will perfect my happiness. " My people shall be satisfied 
 with my goodness." He will perfect his own image in me. 
 He will make me perfect in wisdom ; perfect to know and to 
 do his will ; perfect to glorify the Redeemer ; perfect in beauty 
 and in strength. 
 
 The thought of humanity being again clothed with perfec- 
 tion is something altogether wonderful. It was a light thing 
 to call a world into existence out of nothing; but to take a 
 nature that had become earthly, sensual, devilish, and so re- 
 fashion it that it should be transparent to all the rays of the 
 Godhead, is what a mere finite conception would never have 
 shadowed forth 
 
 Man is engaged in perfecting himself From the very be- 
 
•268 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 ginning lie lias insisted upon it that all lie wanted was room 
 and time and liberty, and he would make of humanity some- 
 thing very admirable. He has had all the opportunities and 
 advantages he could desire. Sometimes, in some little corner 
 of the world, Grod has permitted him to clothe himself w^ith 
 literary and artistic glor}^ ; to surround himself with beautiful 
 statues and paintings ; and to rise to the heights of a sublime 
 eloquence. But Greece and Rome in their palmiest days, only 
 afforded new evidence of the depravity and spiritual blindness 
 of man, and what-^ie was, only came out the more opprobri- 
 ously by the intimations of what he might have been, and all 
 succeeding cycles have shown his expectation of self-wrought 
 perfection to be utterly delusive. In this our boasted day the 
 most frightful immorality in the most favored places under the 
 sun, shows anew the utter vanity of this most baseless hope. 
 And all this time there has been present with man a heaven- 
 descended system, pledging him perfection in the truest and 
 amplest sense of the word. What need we talk of the per- 
 fectibility of man ? It is impossible with man ; most possible 
 with Grod. There are in the midst of us men and women 
 whom Grod is engaged in carrying to perfection. Let us join 
 ourselves to their number. They are despised by the world ; 
 so was Christ. The world sees in them indeed what it could 
 not see in Christ ; much imperfection ; but it might see some- 
 thing else if it would; namely, a germinant. perfection. 
 
 It was because Christ was made perfect in suffering, that we 
 have this hope. In the day of sorrow and of calamity, do I 
 bear well in mind that God is perfecting that which concerneth 
 me? 
 
 August 6. — " He wliicli soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly." — 
 2 Corinthians ix. 6. 
 
 The farmer could not make a greater mistake, than to sup- 
 pose he would gain by not scattering his seed in the field. To 
 
^DAILY MEDITATIONS. 2G9 
 
 keep the seed is to deprive it of its value; to cut oneself off 
 from the blessing that might have been expected ', and to in- 
 flict the greatest wound upon the future. No, scatter it; throw 
 it away and let it go to naught, apparently, and be long lost, 
 if need be, and forgotten ; in its appointed time it will come 
 up loaded with treasures which it has gathered from the secret 
 places of the earth. Then will it appear that your wealth is 
 proportioned to your liberality. 
 
 There is to be a judgment according to works. By faith in 
 Christ we succeed to heaven ; but our works, evincing the 
 measure of our faith, will determine the place we are to occupy 
 in heaven, the degree of glory with which we are to be invested, 
 
 But what is meant by sowing ? Using the gifts of God ac- 
 cording to the will of God, and consequently in a way that 
 will produce the greatest amount of good to our fellow-men. 
 Much wisdom is needed in order to give aright ; but we are 
 responsible to have this wisdom. The man who receives gifts 
 from God, receives an appointment from God; namely, that 
 of donor ; and the wisdom to discharge the functions connected 
 with this appointment will surely not be withheld, if it be in- 
 genuously asked. We are to look upon the world as God looks 
 upon it, and then we shall know how to minister to our fellow- 
 men. 
 
 You are a believer, are you not ? You are expecting 
 heaven through the grace of Christ which you appropriate by 
 faith. But do not suppose, friend, that the faith by which 
 you shall be saved is one faith, and the faith that leads to gen- 
 erous acts is another faith. When I see you scattering seed, I 
 look at the very faith which is to bring about your salvation. 
 Your daily, hourly movements, call men to look upon that pre- 
 cious principle which is to open for you, if they be opened for 
 you, the gates of heaven. You are to live by faith ; to live 
 now by it, if you would live hereafter by it. 
 
 23 ^ 
 
270 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 August 7. — "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto 
 good works." — Ephesians ii. 10. 
 
 If we are created anew, we are created unto good works. 
 The world ought not to be angry with God for creating men 
 anew; for he is creating them for this among other things that 
 they may tread in the footsteps of 'their Divine Master and 
 abound in good works to their fellow-men. The world, how- 
 ever, is irritated at the proposition that men need a special 
 creation in order to become competent to bestow good gifts. 
 It professes to be able to point to men, who have spent for- 
 tune, time, health, in a whole-hearted endeavor to do good to 
 their fellow-men. 
 
 But consider that it is one thing to give a poor creature on 
 his way to the gallows, a cup of water, and another thing to 
 save him from the gallows. One thing to make the cell of a 
 criminal comfortable, and another thing to save him from 
 crime and put within his reach the means of attaining to ever- 
 lasting bliss. The world, obedient to the instincts that God 
 has implanted, often looks around to see what oasis it can cre- 
 ate in the desert of this world ) but alas ! the trees which it 
 plants yield no immortal fruit. 
 
 Until a poor creature has been brought to God, all that you 
 can do for him is of comparatively little moment. If your 
 benefits tend to this, even indirectly, well and good. You 
 may exercise your generosity in such a way as shall tend to 
 keep the man ignorant that there is a gospel, and that he 
 needs it absolutely. 
 
 August 8.— "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown 
 of life." — Revelation ii. 10. , 
 
 The meaning is not. Be thou faithful all thy days; but, 
 have thou that faithfulness which characterizes the martyr 
 disciple, leads him to count not his life dear unto himself, and 
 enables hira at any moment to lay it at down freely in the ser- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 271 
 
 vice of his Master. The expression does not refer to length 
 of service, but to entireness of consecration. Be thon unre- 
 bukably faithful in all possible situations and circumstances. 
 
 Christ requires of every disciple that he should have the 
 spirit of a martyr. At the very outset he informs those who 
 come unto him that they are to take up their cross and follow 
 him. And if at any time he should summon any number of 
 his followers, and send them upon a service where death is 
 certain, not one of them has any right to complain. It was 
 so written in the bond. They gave him from the very first 
 their early life, to receive from him a heavenly life. 
 
 We are to be faithful unto death, this day, and every day. 
 We are to live a life of entire consecration j crucified unto the 
 world and the world unto us. And if we have sufficient faith 
 to let him day by day, and in all things dispose of us, take what 
 he will, give what he will, send where he will, we need not 
 envy those w^ho literally sufi'ered martyrdom for his name's 
 sake. For us, too, there is laid up a crown of life. Not 
 merely do we obtain a true life in exchange for the false life 
 of this earth ; but a glorious life ; a life that shall be to us 
 more ennobling and exalting than all the crowns of earth. 
 
 August 9. — " These things have I written unto you, that ye may know 
 that ye have eternal life." — 1 John v. 1.3. 
 
 By life the Scripture means, true life, life in union to God, 
 in the image of God; life with bliss and purity. An eternity 
 under conditions like those that belong to the life of sinful 
 man, were utterly undesirable. True life includes everything 
 desirable, and the entire universe of God is just one of its per- 
 quisites. They that believe in Christ have Christ. They that 
 have Christ have life. They that have life, have it eternally. 
 They that have eternal life may know that they have it, and 
 "rejoice in the antepast even in this world. The Bible is given 
 
272 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 to furnish tliem with the means of knowing that they have it 
 If they find their names there, they shall certainly find them 
 in the Lamb's book of life. As many as are the children of 
 Grod, they are led by the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of 
 truth, and not only sanctifies them by the truth, but shows them 
 their own new image in the mirror of the truth. 
 
 August 10. — " He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not 
 the Son, hath not life." — 1 John v. 12. 
 
 Hast thou considered well, John the son of Zebedee, the 
 beloved disciple, what is implied in these words of thine? 
 These words fly in the face of all human philosophies, and 
 give a picture of the world such as all the world is sure to ab- 
 hor. They will laugh thee to scorn, with thy description of 
 mankind as being without life save as they find it in Christ. 
 For thy words, if they mean anything, declare that all the 
 world have become obnoxious to the everlasting wrath of God, 
 and are going down to perdition, no man having any goodness 
 upon which he can rely for salvation ; and that the favor of 
 God, even life everlasting, is on\j to be obtained by renuncia- 
 tion of one's own wisdom and virtue and strength, or rather 
 of the vain dream of these, and by a simple, whole-souled faith 
 in Christ who died for sinners. These words of thine contain 
 the very essence of the gospel, and exhibit it in stern, positive, 
 uncompromising language, such as men can by no means brook. 
 The gospel thus uttered irritates men beyond endurance ; and 
 makes them bring fagots and prepare the stake. At all events 
 they will think thee a poor, bigoted, self-blinded creature, with 
 thy horrid Calvinistic representation of mankind. 
 
 I know what I say — might John reply, — and what efi"ect it 
 is calculated to produce upon men. And yet I know that I 
 speak with love and with wisdom ; love and wisdom given from 
 on high. A great many beautiful gifts of God still lingei 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 278 
 
 around fallen humanity, and testify of that height from which 
 it has fallen ; these gifts men look upon as a pledge of salva-' 
 tion ; a fatal error and a strange one ; for they only enhance 
 the condemnation of those who, possessing them, nevertheless 
 abide not in the love and communion of God, but obey their 
 own vitiated will. I would fain have all men know of the 
 grace of God ; therefore I tell them of their utter graceless- 
 ness and absolute need of Christ. This despised word of mine 
 shall live. From this time onward through all generations, it 
 shall be without interruption precious to companies of believ- 
 ing men. Philosophies, religions, empires shall pass away, but 
 this word shall not pass away. He that hath the Son hath 
 life ; he that hath not the Son hath not life. 
 
 August 11. — " Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, 
 that are ready to die." — Revelation iii. 2. 
 
 Unhappily, it is when men most need to be watchful, when 
 the flame of heavenly grace is flickering in its socket, that 
 they are least disposed to be watchful. We find that as men 
 advance in holiness, make great attainments, ascend far up 
 above the region in which ordinary believers walk, that they 
 become watchful to an amazing degree. A habit of argus eyed 
 watchfulness is in fact, itself, the evidence of a great victory 
 over the enemy of the soul. When men have declined from 
 grace, and when the adversary has all but riveted his chains 
 again upon them, in the moment when, if ever, they need to 
 be watchful, just then they are least of all disposed to fear, to 
 strive, to watch. Happy for them if they hear in that critical 
 moment the sovereign voice of Christ, saying, " Be watchful 
 and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. 
 Arise, get oil for your lamps, before it be too late." 
 
 Imagine a great army, reduced through the heedlessness 
 and ciFeminacy of their general, to a mere handful of men ; 
 
27-1 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 their tents are pitched in an exposed place; the enemy in 
 great numbers look down from the cliffs above, and you fully 
 expect that in the next minute these overwhelming forces will 
 burst upon the poor, weak remnant and annihilate it. But 
 just then it discovers its danger, and its leader remembers in 
 that momentous juncture that he has with him a sword of di- 
 vine temper, a breast-plate that will quench all fiery darts, an 
 invisible legion of angels : he scales the heights, he calls upon 
 his Lord, his heavenly auxiliaries fight for him, and soon he 
 finds himself in a large place. Thenceforward, let him never 
 forget the ominous experience of that hour past ; and let him 
 tremble at the thought of every step that would take him down 
 into that valley of confusion, hard by the abyss of perdition. 
 
 August 12. — "In due season we shall reap if we faint not." — Gal. vi. 9. 
 
 When the sinner turns from the error of his way, submits 
 to God and gives himself to the service of Christ, he thinks 
 that he will never fail to enjoy the tokens of his Father's 
 favor. The change in himself is immense. He is now day 
 and night intent upon doing the will of Grod, whereas formerly 
 he recked not of it; he checks within himself a hundred 
 impulses that formerly had full sway. He naturally expects 
 that perpetual successes shall wait upon him in his efforts to do 
 good. And at first, for the maturing of his faith, Grod often 
 vouchsafes to him prompt and glad results. But he is soon 
 called to pursue a higher walk of faith, and find long intervals 
 between the seed-time and the harvest. 
 
 We shall reap. Others scatter in vain. Of all mankind, 
 only the people of Grod shall gather a harvest unto everlasting 
 life. They sow the seed that God gives them in the way ap- 
 pointed by him. They deny themselves for the good of others, 
 of property, ease, friends, health; and whatsoever they do, 
 they do for the glory of Christ. From men they oftentimes 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 275 
 
 reap ingratitude, enmity, defamation. But these tilings only 
 augment the splendor of their reward. 
 
 If ice faint not. This prepares us for a stern trial of faith, 
 for a long long period (at least so seeming,) in which we shall 
 be giving much and receiving naught. We spend our days, 
 our golden days, the most precious of all our possessions ; we 
 throw them as it were into a gulf, with all our energies, our 
 intellectual eflforts, our physical strength, the glow of our as- 
 pirations, the enthusiasm of our nature, our property of various 
 kinds ) and so far as there is anything to show for it all, we 
 may take up the refrain, " We have spent our strength for 
 naught and our labor in vain," But if we endure unto t]je 
 end, if we keep Christ's works unto the end, if we faint not, 
 we shall reap, and that, too, with a fullness surpassing our ut- 
 most conceptions. 
 
 In due season. What is the due season God can judge, bet- 
 ter than any other. It is not so distant that we should be 
 discouraged. It is sufficiently distant to afford an opportunity 
 for the full exhibition of our faith. 
 
 August 13. — " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." — Revela- 
 tion xiv. 13, 
 
 The additional words " from henceforth," give this passage 
 a specific and prophetical meaning. Neglecting these at pres- 
 ent, we may consider the great unquestionable truth that there 
 is for the Christian a blessedness in death. Not but that there 
 is something better than death. Death is one of the enemies 
 of Christ that must be put under his feet, and his saints shall 
 one day get the victory over it, and, undergoing a change at 
 his advent, live on eternally. In the meantime however, death 
 is constrained with other agencies to work together for good to 
 the people of God, Their faith deprives him of his terrors. 
 
 Three thousand souls an hour, fifty a minute, pass away from 
 
27G DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 earth. How few of these die in the Lord ! Think of this you 
 that know the Lord, and whom he has commissioned to make 
 him known. You are to meet -these souls again; and happy 
 will it be for you if you are able to show that you sought earn- 
 estly to obtain for your fellow-men this blessedness. 
 
 They are blessed, for they have great peace in the hour of 
 their dissolution. Their cheerful exit confirms the faith of 
 those that behold, and brings heaven near. It sometimes car- 
 ries conviction to the impenitent, and leads them to seek that 
 God who has such power to sustain and bless the souls of his 
 people. They pass away from a world of sin and temptation 
 and disappointment and vanity, to a world of light and purity. 
 They depart to be with Christ, — to dwell in the mansions which 
 he has prepared for them, — to associate with angels and with 
 saints in light, — to drink of the rivers of pleasure that are for- 
 ever at the right hand of God, — to obtain a crown of right- 
 eousness. 
 
 And if the king has summoned one of his own away from 
 your side, can you greatly grieve ? Does not the blessedness 
 of that departure greatly overbear your individual brief loss, 
 and flash down a glory upon your own desolation ? Do you 
 think much more of jouv own poor blessedness, thus inter- 
 rupted, than of the perfect beatitude into which the other has 
 entered? Would you make war upon this text? For the 
 dead that die in the Lord are blessed for this among other rea- 
 sons, that they leave behind them unspeakable consolations. 
 Yes, it teaches that the survivor, who had a property in the 
 one taken away, has not lost anything, but has seen his pro- 
 perty taken upon high, that it may be rendered immeasurably 
 more valuable and kept securely till the day of the restitution 
 of all things. We do not want our wealth with us, but in the 
 country to which we are going. " How great is thy goodness 
 which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee." And the 
 loved ones taken are a part of that treasured goodness. Let 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 277 
 
 Him then prepare a place for thee, in the way that seems best 
 to Him. Too large an earnest of the inheritance that is to 
 come, might check the vigor of our aspirations. The little 
 paradises of earth, very little worthy of the name, yet clothe 
 themselves with the superior power that belongs to present 
 things, and disrobe from our view the only true paradise above. 
 
 August 14. — " Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith 
 anJ patience inherit the promises." — Hebrews vi. 12. 
 
 Does not this word " slothful" accurately characterize the 
 habit of mind of most professors of religion ? While we be- 
 hold them diligently in the pursuit of worldly good, laboring 
 untiringly on in the acquisition of wealth ; while we see them 
 exercising circumspection, vigilance, forethought, sagacity in 
 their temporal vocation, and giving to it the best energies of 
 their nature, we see them indolent and sluggish in all that re- 
 lates to their heavenly calling. They read the newspapers 
 with a closeness of observation that nothing can escape; but 
 the Bible with a carelessness that leaves them just as ignorant 
 afterwards as they were before. When topics of the day are 
 discussed, their minds are easily kept on the stretch ; but in 
 religious meetings they are obliged to exert themselves not a 
 little to keep awake. Any excuse is sufficient to make them 
 dismiss or postpone a religious duty ; while in the other en- 
 gagements of life, they are sufficiently punctual. They are 
 minutely attentive to the state of their body, and take good 
 note of every ailment however insignificant ; but they are not 
 at all vigilant in the examination of their hearts and in the 
 avoidance of whatever is likely to be prejudicial to their spirit- 
 ual interests. On the whole they think it enough to give to 
 religion the mere fragments of their time and attention and 
 thought and energy. 
 
 Be not as they are. Be not slothful. Be slothful with rc- 
 24 
 
278 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 spect to all other things, rather than this. Let your greatest 
 energy be given to this. Not merely because it is becoming, 
 but because it is necessary. There would be a very serious 
 defect in the way of salvation, if it bestowed its priceless gifts 
 on slothful men. If you would inherit the promised kingdom, 
 you must model your life upon the lives of those whose faith 
 and patience are honorably mentioned in the eleventh chapter 
 of Hebrews. Be sure that nothing less is required of you 
 than was demanded of them. 
 
 August 15 — ''That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, ac- 
 ceptable unto Grod." — Romans xii. 1. 
 
 You are exempt from the necessity of bringing lambs and 
 heifers to the altar ; but the aim of the gospel is to lead you 
 to do what the law could not induce men to do, consecrate 
 your own body to the Lord, bringing it daily to the altar, and 
 devoting it to the execution as well as the enduring of his will. 
 You are ever ready to yield it unto death as Abraham was his 
 son ; but the angel of the Lord ever interposes and says, God 
 has some work for this body to do ; see to the doing of that 
 and come again. 
 
 It is of course only by the consecration of the soul that that 
 of the body can be accomplished. Grod's will must be cor- 
 dially embraced by the heart, before the feet or the hands or 
 the tongue will move to execute it. So intimate is the union 
 of soul and body that the consecration of the one involves that 
 of the other. Let no man suppose that his heart is really 
 given to the Lord, if the functions of his body be not em- 
 ployed in carrying out the revealed will of God. The Holy 
 Ghost does not nestle in the heart, shrouded from sight. He 
 is not living in us if he is not effluent from us. He is perpet- 
 ually forth-flowing by the tongue, the eyes, the hand, the feet, 
 the entire person. (John vii. 38.) 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS 279 
 
 August 16. — "Return, ye backsliding children, and 1 will heal your 
 backslidings." — Jeremiah iii. 22. 
 
 Abandon the idea that you must recover yourselves from 
 your backslidings and then approach God. Perhaps you think 
 that you could then approach him with some confidence. But 
 does God forget ? And will he look complacently upon your 
 mended piety? He will look with just as much disgust upon 
 the patched robe as upon the rent robe. But further j^ou ought 
 to know better than to entertain such an heretical notion as 
 that you are able to recover yourself from your backsliding. 
 Could you do that you would be the wonder of created beings. 
 To recover you is in fact the work of God's power in its high- 
 est flight. Do not suppose that your sin, the stigma of your 
 declension from grace, must get a little old, and then you will 
 have a face to appear before God. This delusive idea will take 
 you every day further and further away from God, and make 
 your case more and more hopeless. 
 
 No, with all the guilt of your backsliding full and fresh in 
 view, hasten to God. The only place in the universe where 
 sin can be disposed of, is the throne of God's grace. If you 
 throw it into any obscure pit and think you have done with it, 
 you make a signal mistake. . A legion of armed warriors will 
 one day come up out of that pit and fall upon you with unap- 
 peasable ire. God alone is able to heal your backslidings, and 
 he does it by leading you to dwell upon the character and work 
 of our sympathizing High Priest, who does not break the 
 bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, nor cast away as 
 worthless what seems to men irrevocably gone. 
 
 August 17. — "Delight thyself in the Lord; and he shall give thee the 
 desires of thine heart." — Psalm xxxvii. 4. 
 
 Turn not disdainfully away from these words of God, as 
 though they hnd no claim upon your attention. These words 
 
280 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 come to you, so to speak, upon your own invitation. For, 
 what have you done all your life long, but rush hither and 
 thither, into this path and into that, crying unceasingly, " How 
 shall I obtain the desires of my heart ?" Behold here an an- 
 swer to your life-long question. The explanation of all your 
 disappointments, the remedy of all your sorrows, is here. 
 Though there were on your table, waiting your perusal, nu- 
 merous missives, some with the royal seal, others communicating 
 news of enormous gains accruing to you, yet would it be wise 
 in you to leave them all unnoticed rather than this text. If 
 this be left to you, no matter though the wind carried them all 
 away. Nay, if you should escape from a burning house with 
 nothing but this word, you were richer than the richest of the 
 sons of earth. For what all other things faintly and stammer- 
 in gly promise to bestow, this positively promises. What is 
 anything good for, if it yield you not the desires of your heart ? 
 Do you take this to be one of those kind lies with which a 
 mother lulls her child to rest ? Or a flight of fancy with more 
 strength of expression than depth of meaning? Is every 
 foolish promise of the world to be believed before the delib- 
 erate promise of the most high God ? 
 
 In order that the desires of a man's heart should be gratified, 
 it is needful that they should be rectified. He must let him- 
 self be led into the path that leads to felicity. He must de- 
 light himself in the Lord. 
 
 " But," you reply, " this is mere mysticism, pietism. The 
 world is full of beautiful and attractive objects, made so by 
 God, and placed opposite to us, that we may look upon them 
 and rejoice in them. Why should not a man rejoice in his 
 own marvellous faculties, bestowed by his Creator? Why 
 should he not rejoice in human society and in all the amenities 
 that strew the path of life ? Why should he not rejoice in 
 art, in poetry, music, painting, in nature and in the representa- 
 tions of nature, in the characteristics of his time, the onward 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 281 
 
 feweep of humanity, in the immense variety of literature, in 
 the food • so abundantly provided him ? "What can there be 
 better than to delight in these ?" 
 
 Is thy heart satisfied with them ? Is discontent a stranger 
 to thy heart, and do murmurs remain far from thy lips ? Canst 
 thou say, I want no more ? 
 
 Couldst thou answer these questions in the affirmative, there 
 would still remain a difficulty. Thy beautiful things fade; 
 the objects of thy delight vanish away. The more attractive 
 a thing is, the more fatal will it prove to thy happiness. For 
 all that is in the world is merely here on exhibition. It ap- 
 pears, is admired, and is then withdrawn. 
 
 No, it is no mysticism, but the truest philosophy, the only 
 wisdom, to delight thyself in the Lord. Do this, not by de- 
 spising his works, but by discerning the connection between 
 them and him, and hearkening to the tale which they tell of 
 him. All beautiful and excellent things are sent to show you 
 the perfections of your Grod and to whisper to you of his love. 
 Delight yourself in him who gave his Son to die for you ; in 
 other words love the things that he loves, shun what he disap- 
 proves ; and it becomes as certain that your desires will be 
 gratified as that the desires of God will be fulfilled. 
 
 August 18. — "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and 
 he shall bring it to pass." — Psalm xxxvii. 5. 
 
 We shall find it impossible to commit our way unto the 
 Lord, unless it be a way that he approves. For it is only by 
 faith that a man can commit his way unto the Lord ; and if 
 there be the least suspicion in the heart, that the way be not a 
 good one, faith will refuse to have anything to do with it. As 
 well might you expect Achan to bring his wedge of gold and 
 Babylonish garment to Joshua and ask him to take care of 
 2-4 * 
 
282 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 them ; or a deserter to inquire of his general the way to the 
 enemy's camp. 
 
 Having found reason to believe that your chosen way is ap- 
 proved of heaven, let heaven have the entire direction of 
 whatever relates to it. Having resolved to go to Rome to 
 preach the gospel there, be content that God should bring 
 you there in chains, as a culprit, and keep you there as a 
 prisoner. 
 
 And this committing must be a continuous, not a single act. 
 You are to trust ever in His wisdom, goodness, and power — not 
 only in generals but in particulai's. And however extraordi- 
 nary may seem to be his guidance, however near to the preci- 
 pice he may take you, you are not to snatch the reins out of 
 his hand. '• Whatever is, is best," to him who, with an en- 
 lightened and genuine faith, has committed his way unto the 
 Lord, and to him alone. 
 
 Are we really willing to have all our ways submitted to God 
 for him to pronounce upon them ? Are there not some of our 
 ways which have become to us through long habit like a se- 
 cond nature, concerning which we have never really taken 
 counsel of God ? There is nothing about which a man needs 
 to be more scrutinizing than about his oldest ways, his most 
 confirmed habits and views. He is too apt to take for granted 
 the divine approbation of them. 
 
 Why are some Christians so anxious and fearful, in view of 
 some anticipated contingency ? Evidently because they have 
 not left the matter with him. They have taken it to him and 
 brought it away with them. 
 
 It may seem a prodigious faith to regard God on his throne 
 as studious of all that concerns us ; but such faith is really no 
 bolder than is the faith that God spared not his only begotten 
 Son. 
 
 Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust also in him ; and he 
 shall bring it to pass. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 283 
 
 August 19, — "We walk by faith, not by sight." — 2 Corinthians v. 7. 
 
 Every man's world is wliat his heart makes it to be. When 
 his heart changes, the world changes. When faith has come 
 in and renewed his heart, he thenceforth walks in a new 
 world. A new aspect comes over the face of all things. 
 Faith reveals to him new and most important truths concern- 
 ing everything, so that he can no longer take a step in just 
 the mood that he formerly did, nor look upon a single indivi- 
 dual as he once did. 
 
 Imagine a man on a beautiful island where there are a 
 thousand objects to allure the senses and gratify the mind. 
 He walks in groves, or reclines in bowers, or sits upon the 
 grassy bank of a stream, or wanders through the halls of a pa- 
 lace ; now with one gay company, now with another. Or if "^^ 
 he list he embarks in some serious enterprise, and seeks to give 
 his higher energies play. Until, one day, wandering alone to 
 the extremity of the island, he discovers to his amazement 
 that it is a floating island, and that a mighty current is bear- 
 ing it on with all its palaces and battlements and hanging gar- 
 dens and with all its companies of pleasure-loving people, bear- 
 ing it away, bearing it whither ? Ah, this now becomes the 
 most important of all questions ! As he returns, everything as- 
 sumes in his eyes an unwonted look. As he reaches the sum- 
 mit of a hill, or passes along the verge of a precipice, or looks 
 upon a waterfall, or sees a company of men, or hears music, or 
 notices a tradesman counting his gains, one thought possesses 
 his mindj these are all in motion, whither are they going? 
 Music is no longer music, wine no longer wine, health no 
 longer health to him. The discovery he has made puts an ex- 
 tinguisher upon all that he once called light, all that he once 
 called pleasure. At length, after many fruitless inquiries, he 
 meets with one who inhabits another little island connected for 
 the present with the larger one, and who tells him that the 
 island is sweeping on to a gulf of destruction and to an abyss 
 
284 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 of darkness ; and that at the last moment the little isle ten- 
 anted by those who have known their danger and taken refuge 
 there, will he detached and anchored forever in a blessed re- 
 gion. He believes. Henceforth how different will be all his 
 perceptions and all his conduct from what they once were. 
 
 August 20. — " Trust in the Lord and do good ; and verily shalt thou be 
 fed." — Psalm xxxvii. 3. 
 
 In many ways faith leads to beneficence. Faith discovers to 
 us the infinite mercy shown by God in providing a ransom for 
 us ; and the contemplation of this sacrifice prompts us to en- 
 gage in enterprises for the good of our fellow-men. It shows 
 us God delighting in the reciprocal love of his creatures one to 
 another, and seeking to make them mutually exponents of his 
 love. It reveals to us the Lord Jesus who pleased not himself, 
 and went about doing good ; and teaches us, that we are his 
 disciples only while we follow him. It keeps fresh in our me- 
 mory the promises; such as, " he that giveth to the poor, lend- 
 eth to the Lord ;" " inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
 the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." It 
 shows us that we have nothing which we can properly call our 
 own, since we are one and all stewards of God, and must here- 
 after give an account of our stewardship. And it enables us 
 to rest in full assurance upon the declarations of God and of 
 Christ, that we shall be fed, that no good thing shall be with- 
 held from us, that we are of more account than many sparrows. 
 
 We need faith in order to know how to do good. To be 
 charitable, we have not merely to overcome our own reluctance 
 to give, but we must learn from God how to relieve the wants 
 of men. It is not enough to stretch forth the hand ; it must 
 be stretched forth in wisdom, wisdom obtained by faith. Again, 
 if a man whose character is not what it should be, who does 
 not honor God. or the word of God. if such an one ena-a<res 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 285 
 
 from some motive or other in works of beneficence, there is 
 reason to believe that he will indirectly do more evil than he 
 will directly do good. For his kind acts will tend to propitiate 
 men with his defective religion, and will go far to make them 
 believe that the fear of God is not after all of very great im- 
 portance. 
 
 AtJGUST 21. — " To him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show 
 the salvation of God." — Psalm 1, 23. 
 
 It is perhaps needless to remark that the word conversation 
 is intended to include the entire conduct, — literally, the way. 
 The ordering of one's conversation, implies meditation and 
 study as to what one's conduct should be, in its various par- 
 ticulars ; a definite and well-understood standard ; a solemn and 
 sustained resolution to live according to that standard, by the 
 help of God. 
 
 Most men allow themselves to be wafted along by the cur- 
 rent of events ; their conduct is determined by circumstances 
 and casual influences rather than by their own forethought and 
 decision. And so, too, with Christians. Very many of these 
 simply rejoice that they are acted on by better influences than 
 once they were ; and do not realize their obligation to labor, 
 under the teaching of the Spirit of God, at the formation of a 
 new and holy nature. Many seem to imagine that the respon- 
 sibility rests with the Spirit of God, and that they are to be 
 perfected in holiness by some mysterious process, that may 
 just as well go on when they are asleep as at any other time. 
 But the Spirit of God does what he does in us through our 
 own agency and with our own consciousness. This is the prin- 
 cipal drift of the direction, " Work out your own salvation 
 with fear and trembling ] for it is God who [thus] worketh in 
 you to will and to do of his own good pleasure." 
 
 Perhaps no man that ever lived (if we except the apostles) 
 engaged more earnestly than Jonathan Edwards in the work 
 
286 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 of ordering his conversation aright. His diary reveals him to 
 us, a youth of nineteen or twenty, exercising the most intense 
 watchfulness over himself, and laying hold with the utmost 
 avidity of every flaw that appeared in his heart or life, in order 
 to bring his energies to bear upon it, frame a resolution adapted 
 to it, and cry to Grod for deliverance from it. All that fore- 
 cast, and preparation, and study, and determination, and prayer 
 could do to furnish him with armor in the hour of temptation, 
 he compelled them to do. Other men when they have once 
 fallen into temptation, succumb to it afterwards the more 
 easily ; but with him it was otherwise ; he availed himself of 
 the knowledge of sin once obtained, to defeat it on subsequent 
 occasions. Any one who will carefully read his memoirs, will 
 discover a striking illustration of the fact that Grod awakens 
 the utmost energy of the soul when he would accomplish the 
 deliverance of the soul. He fought the good fight of faith. 
 Others who have not come so prominently before us, may per- 
 haps have fought it still better. If so, we shall know them in 
 the day of judgment. 
 
 God will give unto those who order their conversation aright, 
 glorious and transporting views of the Saviour and of redemp- 
 tion throusrh him. 
 
 August 22. — " Call upon me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee, 
 and thou shalt glorify me." — Psalm 1. 15. 
 
 There are some whose cry in the day of trouble Grod will 
 not hear ; those, namely, who, in the day of their prosperity, 
 heard not the cry of the poor and stretched forth no helping 
 hand to the afflicted, and thus gave good evidence that they 
 had no ear for the voice of Grod. For in the guise of a poor 
 man Christ stood at their door, time and again, knocking and 
 asking for admittance ) but they would not hear. In the day 
 of their calamity, he will not hear their cry. To whom then 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 287 
 
 is this promise given ? To him who hath made the Lord his 
 refuge, and taken the divine will for his guide. 
 
 How naturally does friendship say, " Should you fall into 
 any difficulty, don't hesitate to call upon me ; I will do what I 
 can for you." Ah, but these earthly friends, they are not al- 
 ways as good as their promises. A man does not seem so in- 
 teresting to them when he is in trouble as when he is in pros- 
 perity J his defects come out more conspicuously. And even 
 when their affection remains unchanged, how poor is their 
 ability. 
 
 Grod does not say to us, " You shall not know trouble." But 
 he says, " Trouble shall come upon you in order that I may 
 have a peculiar opportunity of signalizing my love toward you, 
 and of exhibiting my power to sustain. And in order that 
 you may have a peculiar opportunity of showing your love to 
 me, your trust, your patience, your steadfastness. And in order 
 that the world may see the wonderful understanding between 
 God's people and himself." 
 
 I will deliver thee. Who can doubt it when he calls to mind 
 how this Deliverer endured, in G-ethsemane and on Calvary, 
 trouble such as never visited the soul of mere man, in order 
 to pluck us as a brand from the burning. If he delivered 
 when it cost his soul so much to deliver, how much more may 
 we confidently expect that he will be with us in our lesser 
 troubles, seeing that he is now rich in mercy. 
 
 August 23. — "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and 
 he delighteth in his way." — Psalm xxxvii. 23. 
 
 When his Son was on the earth, clothing humanity with a 
 perfection it had not known since it had forfeited paradise, the 
 beautiful spectacle attracted the regard of God, and nothing 
 would do but that he should send his voice down into the ranks 
 
288 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 of men exclaiming, " This is my beloved Son in whom I am 
 well pleased." 
 
 When Christ was about to depart out of the world, he took 
 steps to have this pleased regard of the Father continue to- 
 wards those whom he was to leave behind, even to his disciples 
 of all future time. He offered up the prayer, " That the love 
 wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them. 
 For I am no more in the world, but they are in the world ; 
 and I am glorified in them." The Father could not resist 
 these arguments. And so the Lord delighteth in the way of 
 the good man, of him whose steps are ordered by him, and 
 who follows in the footsteps of Christ. For he only is a good 
 man in the estimation of heaven, whose steps are ordered by 
 the Lord, who is led by the Spirit of God, to whom the word 
 of God is a lamp. 
 
 August 24. — "Blessed be God wlio hath not turned away my prayer, 
 nor his mercy from me." — Psalm Ixvi. 20, 
 
 This language is appropriate to one who, having been led to 
 supplicate God with respect to some matter that was very near 
 his heart, has afterwards perhaps waited long and seen many 
 things that appeared to be designed by Providence to extinguish 
 faith and hope, but has persevered in expectation, and finally in 
 some golden hour, never to be forgotten, has received the an- 
 swer to his prayer, in most abundant measure, pressed down, 
 shaken together, and running over. 
 
 Thus was it perhaps with the sisters of Lazarus, in the day 
 of his sore sickness. His sickness had at first no power to 
 affright them, for they knew the love of Jesus, and judged it 
 sufficient to communicate to him their need. They felt that 
 their prayer must be answered, their brother must be saved ; 
 the necessity for it lay very deep, even in the depths of Christ's 
 own character, who could not but be true unto himself But 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS S. 239 
 
 tlienceforward everything seemed to frown upon their expecta- 
 tion. Their brother sank rapidly; Jesus came not; there 
 came no message even. The hours as they vanished seemed to 
 say in louder and still louder tones, " Prayer avails nothing; 
 faith in Christ" is a delusion. And when Lazarus was buried, 
 did it not seem as though all the promises were buried with 
 him, the faithfulness of Christ shut up with him in the sepul- 
 chre ? But, the stone is at length rolled away, and Lazarus 
 comes forth ; best of all, comes forth into the light of noon- 
 day the imperishable faithfulness of Christ. Then with over- 
 flowing hearts they blessed Grod, who had not turned away their 
 prayer, nor his mercy from them. 
 
 Nothing is more important than that we should cherish a 
 habit of pouring forth our hearts in gratitude to God, in view 
 of his mercy shown in responses to our prayers. One end for 
 which he grants us our desires, is that we may express grati- 
 tude to him ; and it is therefcfre a piece of dishonesty in us to 
 neglect this. Gratitude is a most important aid to faith. It 
 serves to sink the memorials of benefits deep into the mind ; 
 and our faith, in the hour of prayer, takes great courage from 
 the contemplation of these. And then again, a thing may be 
 a good deal more than itself. In itself a mere trifle, yet 
 as an expression of God's mercy, and as a token that we have 
 a friend on the throne, it is of priceless value. If we take it 
 without gratitude, a mere trifle ; but if we consider well what 
 it betokens, and set our gratitude to work to gather from it a 
 treasure of divine love, this treasure shall not be wanting. 
 
 August 25. — "Be thou exalted, God, above the heavens, and thy 
 glory above all the earth." — Psalm cviii. 5. 
 
 Whether men honor him or not, God is forever infinitely 
 honorable. His perfections remain the same. By virtue of 
 his divine power and Godhead, he is exalted where no con- 
 
 25 
 
290 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 ception of a finite being can follow him, mucli less add any- 
 thing to or take anything from his exaltedness. But when 
 God condescended to call creation into existence, it was for the 
 purpose of revealing himself unto his intelligent subjects, and 
 setting up a throne in the heart of each of them. 
 
 In this world, men are in a state of revolt ; they have cast 
 down the throne of Grod in their heart, and denied their obli- 
 gation to glorify him. They are bent upon their own exaltation, 
 and conceive that they have enough to do to accomplish their 
 own glory, without attending to that of God. We have all 
 heard of the Calendar published in France within a few 
 years, in which all the days of the year were distributed among 
 three hundred and sixty-five great men, who in their several 
 days were to be worshipped by men, and this was to be the 
 only worship. But those who thus proclaim man to be the 
 only divine being known, are just a little more outspoken than 
 their fellow-men. For he who sees without sorrow and solici- 
 tude how God is slighted and forgotten in the world ; he who 
 protests not against the ungodly ways of men -, he who is not 
 intent upon knowing the perfections of God; earnestly and 
 assiduously studies not the word; knows not Christ as God 
 manifest in the flesh ; prays not, labors not, that God by his 
 Spirit may be enthroned in his own heart ; he is one of those 
 who are engaged in the bold and absurd attempt to dismiss 
 God and put man in his place. 
 
 Christians are a little company who say from the heart, as 
 they address God, " Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and 
 the glory," and who are consecrated to the great work of re- 
 storing to God, so far as in them lies, the glory that is due to 
 him. Understand then, Christian, thy vocation. Thou art 
 to live in such a way, that all thy actions, all thy deportment 
 shall give expression to the great truth that God is on the 
 throne of the universe, that He alone is worthy to have his 
 will done by all, that he is inefiably, incomparably glorious. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 291 
 
 And the blaspliemous extravagance of self-glorlj&cation to wliicli 
 man is carried at the present day, should only be an additional 
 stimulus to the Christian to exalt Grod by humble obedience, 
 by love to his brethren, by the prayer of faith, by self-denial 
 and watchfulness, by simplicity of life and of speech, by com- 
 municating the knowledge of Christ, and by wise, loving, and 
 faithful remonstrances with men, upon the greatness of their 
 error. 
 
 August 26. — " They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." — Psalm 
 exxvi. 5. 
 
 The tears of those that sow, flow from various causes. Here 
 is one who has greatly hungered and thirsted after the com- 
 munications of God's love ; who mourns over his own heart of 
 imbelief ; over his inaptitude for the things of God ; who has 
 been fascinated by the conception of a divine life to be led on 
 the earth, a life of conscious union with God attended by 
 peace flowing like a river, and revealing itself by ardent love, 
 cheerful labor, and large success. But the very conception of 
 the thing only makes his actual experience more inglorious 
 and more insupportable. Tears are his meat night and day. 
 In this state, how can it be expected that he should go forth 
 and exhort men to believe on Jesus ; or engage in the distribu- 
 tion of tracts setting forth the preciousness of Christ ? Never- 
 theless, he does it. With a heart breaking for the longing it 
 hath, he tells his fellow-man that religion is the one thing 
 needful ; and brushing away a tear, he assures them that the 
 only true happiness to be found on earth is to be found in 
 Christ. And in this there is no insincerity. For his deepest 
 conviction is this : that there is no joy worthy of the name 
 save that which Christ gives to his people. He does not 
 speak from present experience, but from faith. 
 
 Here is another who trusted on the Lord that He would 
 
292 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 bear testimony to the word of His grace; but many a long 
 year fulfils the ministry of this word without any such testi- 
 mony being borne. Another is keenly sensitive to the taunts 
 and reproaches of men, and the harvest of these is the only 
 harvest that he seems to gather. Consider Jeremiah among 
 the Jews, Brainerd among the Indians, and a thousand others. 
 Let it not be supposed, however, that the words of life come 
 with most power from an afflicted heart. It is often -well that 
 the heart should have had experience of affliction. But the 
 servant of Christ should not be content till the kingdom of 
 heaven, which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost, be fully come in his' heart. G od meeteth him that re- 
 joiceth and worketh righteousness; and the command to re- 
 joice in the Lord is a command that must be obeyed. Blessed 
 is he that mourneth : why ? because he shall be comforted. 
 This mourning must pass away, and then the blessedness will 
 appear in the consolation. 
 
 August 27. — " Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." — 1 Corinthians xv. 57. 
 
 " Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to 
 give you the kingdom." There are two parties in this world ; 
 one consisting of the cross-bearers, the other consisting of the 
 unconverted. In numbers the former are very few. ^ If we 
 sift the nations reputed Christian, correcting our own concep- 
 tions by the standard of Christ, the numbers will diminish 
 faster than the army of Gideon. They are indeed a little 
 flock. It may be that they do not exceed, even in this our 
 day, one in a hundred of the population of the globe. 
 
 They were once fewer than they now are; and we have thus 
 two wonders; one that they have succeeded in maintaining 
 their footing upon the shore of this world ; another that they 
 should have an inviolable promise to the effect that they will 
 
DxVILY MEDITATIONS. 293 
 
 actually obtain tlie victory and sit down upon the vacated 
 thrones of the earth. For there is no special prowess to com- 
 pensate for the paucity of their number ; there are no advan- 
 tages of rank; no superiority of discipline. The world thinks 
 itself able to crumple them up as a piece of paper. There is 
 no obvious reason why they should not be crushed at any mo- 
 ment. In fact the world has often trodden them under its 
 heel, and exclaimed with a sense of relief, " There, they are 
 gone;" but the next moment they were found springing up 
 again in some quarter. The world has gained ever so many 
 overwhelming victories over them; and is exceedingly pro- 
 voked to find that it is none the better for all its victories. 
 The Church unbrokenly lives on. 
 
 In fact what seem to the world to be its victories, are the 
 victories of the Church. For Christ's people are fighting the 
 fight of faith. They have no weapons of their own, but the 
 stars in their courses fight for them. When persecuted most, 
 they are most strong in faith ; and when they are strong in 
 faith, all things fight for them, even the heavens above and 
 the earth beneath. 
 
 August 28. — "Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive." — Psalm 
 Ixxxvi. 6. 
 
 God's commandment is good. The law of his will designates 
 the only path in which it is good for men to walk. It cannot 
 be that God's choice should be otherwise than best. But man 
 has broken God's law, and discarded God's choice. He has 
 left the path that infinite goodness appointed to him. The 
 question now arises. How can it be good in God to forgive man 
 for abandoning that path ? Is it becoming to let man obtain 
 such a stupendous victory, and proceeding by a forbidden path, 
 possess himself of the very good that God placed at the ter- 
 minus of the pnth of obedience ? Is the arrogance of man 
 
294 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 gross enough to aspire to such a success as this, and threw such 
 contempt as this upon the law of Grod ? 
 
 What then ? must man suffer ? Why not, rather than that 
 man should enter heaven with a torn law of God for his ban- 
 ner ? The welfare of the entire universe hangs by the ada- 
 mantine chain of God's authority ; let this be shattered, and 
 chaos is come again. 
 
 What otherwise could never have been, has been brought 
 about by the incarnation, obedience, and death of the Son of 
 God. God is now good even when he forgives. All his per- 
 fections rejoice over the accepted sinner. 
 
 God is ready to forgive. Let us act upon this unimpeacha- 
 ble truth. Have we not too often approached God as though 
 it would require an immense deal of persuasion to induce him 
 to forgive us ? If Christ be there, there is no reason why we 
 should not expect to obtain it most promptly and profusely ; 
 for there is something more accomplished by our forgiveness 
 than the mere mitigation of our inward torment ; there is the 
 honor bestowed upon Christ. This translates the matter to the 
 very court of heaven, and invests it with more than archan- 
 gelio dignity. God is ever ready to honor his Son ; he is 
 therefore ever ready to forgive those who have a true faith in 
 Christ. 
 
 AuGtrsT 29. — " Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, 
 do all to the glory of God." — 1 Corinthians x. 31. 
 
 We ought to be much affected by the condescension of God. 
 He talks to us as to angels. What more could he say, in the 
 way of commandment, to any being, than he here says to us ? 
 It is evident that he puts us in the first rank of his servants, 
 lie is willing to overlook the fact that we are moral cripples, 
 S|)iritual lepers. He does not thrust us down into an inferior 
 chamber and assiorn to us some base work, but he bids us do the 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 295 
 
 work of Raphael; that is, to show forth the glory of God, in 
 all our acts and movements, great and small. 
 
 He that assigns to us so comprehensive and exalted a 
 function, gives grace according to the largeness of his com- 
 mand. 
 
 The will of God does not relate to the great movements of 
 our life, passing over the lesser. He does not say, " Arise, go 
 to Joppa," and then leave us to go there in any way we please. 
 His will is to be the staple of our existence, and to go with us 
 from breath to breath along the entire journey of life. Christ 
 would not let go of the will of God to take up a piece of 
 bread, after his forty days' fast. The Christian cannot partake 
 of an abundant meal, if his " neighbor" stand hungering 
 there; or if some pressing duty be to be discharged. No 
 more in little matters than in great does he presume to live 
 unto himself 
 
 This command requires us to be ever looking unto God; 
 and is designed to establish a perpetual commerce between our 
 soul and him who loves us. People think this will hamper 
 them; whereas it is just the being invested with a divine life. 
 As well Might they complain of being compelled to wear an 
 emblem of royalty on the brow. 
 
 AuGUOT 30. — " Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive 
 me." — Psalm cxxxviii. 7. 
 
 Some obtain their experience early, others later, but it seems 
 that all who live long in this world must learn by experience 
 the bitter truth that the elements of trouble are very numerous 
 in this stage of man's existence. The youthful heart, taught 
 of God to desire happiness, takes counsel of its imagination 
 how to seek it, and delights itself with dreams of earthly bliss 
 which must soon be dispelled. Very often it gets angry with 
 God for not ec|ualing the creations of its own imagination, for 
 allowing his divine power to be surpassed by the poor concep- 
 
296 DAILY .AIEDITATIOXS. 
 
 tion of a mortal ; not considering that this is a world of trouble, 
 becaus'e it is a world of sin. These disappointments in too 
 many cases deaden the heart ; destroy its poetry, its enthusi- 
 asm, its sensibility. But they that go with all their hopes and 
 aspirations to God, and seek in him what the world cannot 
 give, their hearts shall live. Wonderful it is to see in the 
 Christian of threescore years, all the sensibility and enthusi- 
 asm, the freshness, and glow of youth. And yet it is no won- 
 der, for the paradise he looks at, is in the skies, and is every 
 day drawing nearer and becoming more glorious to the sight. 
 His feelings partake of the nature of the immortal realms 
 which he contemplates and seeks. 
 
 August .31. — "The Spirit and the bride say, Come, And let him that 
 heareth say, Come." — Revelation xxii. 7. 
 
 To whom is the invocation addressed ? To Jesus or to the 
 sinner ? If we connect the words with those that go before, 
 it appears to be the Saviour that is invoked : if with what 
 comes after, the invitation is to the sinner; " Let him that is 
 athirst, come." But we need not adopt either view t^ the ex- 
 clusion of the other. For he who with all cordiality says, 
 '• Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," cannot be otherwise than 
 greatly concerned to see his kingdom extended in the world. 
 He will best show his solicitude for the coming of Christ, by 
 laboring to induce men to come and take of the water of life. 
 
 " Let him that heareth say. Come." Thou hearest, thou 
 hast long heard the Gospel. Thou art ever found in thy place 
 in the congregation of the people of God, hearkening dili- 
 gently unto the words of life. In this and in that gathering 
 we meet thee, and thou art ever attentive to the exposition of 
 God's word. Thou art interested in the various religious topics 
 that are brought under discussion ; and everything that prom- 
 ises to render thee more spiritual, more believing, more joyful 
 
DAII^Y MEDITATIONS. 297 
 
 in Clirist is welcome to thee. But pardon me if I suggest 
 that there is such a thing as being religiously luxurious. Ee- 
 member what world thou art placed in. The question is not, 
 what kind of piety might be appropriate to some Elysian plain, 
 where all is odoriferous of heaven, and significant of triumph; 
 but it is this, what kind of piety is most suited to thee in thy 
 present condition ? Thou art in this world to utter the invita- 
 tions of Grod to fallen man. Thou hdit a ministry, and it is 
 to say the word " Come," in such tones as may be best adapted 
 to draw the attention of men to the proffered mercy of God. 
 Kejoice that in the benignant providence of God you are in 
 these latter days furnished with so many facilities for extending 
 the invitations of the Gospel to your fellow-men. He that 
 gives to Tract and Bible and Missionary Societies, that gives 
 in faith and simplicity and at some personal cost, he in his 
 measure is saying to his fellow-men, " Come." But surely 
 these agencies were not raised up by God in order that the 
 main body of Christians might get easily off from the ministry 
 of invitation assigned them. 
 
 Let every one who saith " Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," 
 see to it that his whole life be an enunciation of the Gospel, 
 his whole being transfused with the spirit of invitation ; and 
 that there be in his looks, words, acts, manners, way of life, 
 nothing but that which shall tend to make Christ attractive to 
 his fellow-men. 
 
 The Spirit and the bride say. Come. We are the bride of 
 Christ, and with us is the Spirit, if we earnestly and lovingly de- 
 sire the coming of Christ, wrestle with Christ to set up his 
 kingdom in the hearts of men, and with men to come to Christ. 
 Let the bride in this way make herself ready. 
 
298 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 September 1. — " Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, 
 and will not tarry." — Hebrews x. 37. 
 
 Among many tliat profess to be the people of Grod, we find 
 one (scarcely one in a thousand) whose manner of life seems 
 to express his conviction that the time is short, very short. 
 He is like one who waking from slumber finds that his barque 
 has drifted within the influence of currents that are hurrying 
 her fast towards the rapids, fast to destruction, and perceives 
 in a glance that whatever is to be done is to be done at once, 
 and done with all might. The accumulated business of life, 
 so long lost sight of, is to be despatched with all possible expe- 
 dition. The talents so long buried are to be dug up and got 
 into circulation at once, that there may be a respectable return 
 to exhibit when the Master comes, — who knows how soon ? En- 
 ergy, circumspection, perseverance, in fine the consecration of 
 all the powers, must compensate so far as may be for the im- 
 mense treasures of time that have been squandered. " He 
 Cometh, he cometh,'^ is the motto of such a one. Other men, 
 other Christians even, look on with astonishment, and fancy 
 that the man must be beside himself to labor so vehemently. 
 They bid him check his great zeal and mingle moderation with 
 his earnestness. But he replies, " One thing I do. The past 
 time of my life must suffice for apathy and self-indulgence. 
 The Master whose service I have too long neglected, cometh 
 quickly. He hath ordained me that I should bring forth 
 fruit, and I must make the most of the brief season that re- 
 mains." 
 
 A little while ! A great work ! The views of many Chris- 
 tians are very defective with respect to both of these facts. 
 " Our Lord delayeth his coming," seems to be the impression 
 on their minds. Their energies, their earnestness, their self- 
 denial, their consecration, are exhibited in efforts that have no 
 reference to the deliverance of their souls from baneful in- 
 fluences. The work of religion is one which is easily disposed 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 299 
 
 of, they imagine, in an occasional hour, in the leisure moments 
 which the greater business of life is generous enough to grant. 
 Is there not coming an hour when the sign of the Son of 
 Man having appeared in heaven, all mankind will become 
 aware that the sun of their probation is just about to sink for- 
 ever, the Sun of Righteousness just about to rise in glory un- 
 conceived ; and when the possessors of the Gospel who have 
 left undone their Master's bidding, will be filled with terror 
 and confusion at the thought of the immense work committed 
 to them, and to which they had hardly put their finger ; while 
 they that knew he would not tarry, shall lift up their head, 
 knowing that their redemption draweth nigh. Which of us 
 shall be able to stand ? 
 
 September 2. — "Lead us not into temptation." — Matthew vi. 13. 
 
 If you ask me to show you a wise man, I will ask you to 
 find for me a man who, morning, noon, and night, ofi'ereth to 
 Grod this prayer. You find him, and you say to me, " Why, 
 this is a poor man, a mean man, an ignorant man, an obscure 
 man ; I asked him some ordinary questions, and he could not 
 answer them. In his hand was a book, and he told me frankly 
 that having no wisdom of his own, he was obliged to make use 
 of that book. And yet you tell me he is the wisest of men. 
 His wisdom multiplied ten thousand times would not equal the 
 wisdom of some that are known to me." To this I rejoin : 
 Your wise man and mine are alike in one respect. They are 
 exposed to a common danger. They have an enemy whose 
 power enables him to laugh at all the wisdom of man, and 
 whose malignity will bring everlasting ruin upon those whom 
 he subjugates. Woe then to him who is foolish enough to 
 trust in any wisdom of his own. He is daily led into tempta- 
 tion without knowing it, and daily succumbs ; and day by day 
 the fetters of the enemy are more strongly riveted upon him. 
 
300 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 No man was ever so far advanced in the divine life, as not to 
 need to utter these words. In fact the holiest breathe this 
 petition with the most frequency. And if an angel should be 
 sent from heaven into the midst of us, it would be ever upon 
 his lips. 
 
 " This is a world of temptation, and it would be difficult so to 
 dispose of ourselves as never to encounter temptation." True : 
 and many advantages flow to the Christian from the fact that 
 he is exposed to temptation. His graces are thus strengthened. 
 His self-knowledge is increased. He relies more implicitly 
 upon the word of Grod. But the tempter knows how to com- 
 bine circumstances, and so to adapt his wiles to the spiritual 
 state of a man, as at times to bring an unexpected and powerful 
 temptation to bear upon him. With reference to such tempta- 
 tions as these the Christian offers up this prayer. God gives 
 a man the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit with re- 
 gard to ordinary temptations, those that he is already familiar 
 with ; and gives him a spirit of prayer with regard to others, 
 from which in answer to this prayer, he delivers him. There 
 is one way of dealing with present temptations, and another 
 way of dealing with those that are future. If, relying on our 
 strength of faith, we cease to be apprehensive of new and sub- 
 tle arrangements by which our affections may become en- 
 tangled, we are almost certain to sustain damage. 
 
 If after all it pleases God to bring the petitioner into temp- 
 tation, he is not brought into it as other men are. God will 
 indicate, in the trying hour, the way of escape. 
 
 September 3. — "If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure 
 in him." — Hebrews x. 38. 
 
 God taketh pleasure in them that fear him, and who mani- 
 fest their fear to displease him by constantly and carefully 
 pressing forward in that good path which he has opened up to 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 301 
 
 them. When a man is pressing forward in the path of God, 
 all heaven and earth rejoice, reflecting the joy of God. The 
 sun shines not in vain for him ; it lights him along the path- 
 way of holiness. The earth is encouraged to run cheerfully 
 her race of a thousand miles a minute. 
 
 The Bible lives with reference to such a soul. Its com- 
 mands, its promises, its invitations, all its words are clothed 
 with their proper majesty, and bring to bear the influences of 
 omnipotence upon this soul. . But it is sad when such a soul 
 in some evil day begins to slacken its energies ; sadder still 
 when it quite ceases to press forward ; but oh how melancholy 
 the spectacle when it actually begins to go back. The sun has 
 his mission, and he continues to shine; and the earth too 
 sweeps on in her orbit; the time has not come for the dis- 
 pleasure of God to enunciate itself; but it is none the less stern 
 and terrible for its present silence. 
 
 You have come and looked upon the suffering Son of God. 
 You have taken note of his dignity; of his humiliation; of his 
 purity ; of his death ; of his perfect ability and fitness to save. 
 You have looked into the lake which burneth with fire and 
 brimstone; you have beheld the tree of life in the midst of the 
 paradise of God ; you have seen a Lamb in the midst of the 
 throne as it had been slain; you have tasted of the manifold 
 banquet of the word of God, and have had experience of the 
 powers of the world to come ; and after all, you conclude to go 
 back. It appears now, that while you suffered yourself to be 
 drawn to Christ, to be drawn by the cords of the gospel far on 
 your way to him, there was all the time a forgotten cord at- 
 taching you to the world. Your chains seemed to be all sev- 
 ered by the mighty love of Christ ; but your former master 
 spun one of these chains to an invisible cord of immense ex- 
 tent, and you were not allowed to feel that there was any such 
 cord until you had accomplished a large part of your journey 
 to the kingdom of heaven. Your master watched his time ; 
 26 
 
302 DAILY 2IEDITATI0XS. 
 
 and at length availed himself of the hold he still had upon you, 
 and drew you backward. Many were astonished ; for they had 
 never perceived that very minute and long-drawn bond. "^ 
 
 September 4. — " Call unto me and I will answer thee, and show thee 
 great and mighty things which thou knowest not." — Jeremiah xxxiii. 3. 
 
 Grreat and mighty things had been shown unto Jeremiah. 
 Great discoveries of the glory of God had been permitted him. 
 He had walked with G-od on most intimate terms. He had 
 experience of the power of God to render him as a brazen 
 column in the midst of hostile Jerusalem, and to sustain him 
 in his most trying ministry. G^od also had shown him the 
 great and mighty things of his wrath that he intended to bring 
 to pass upon Judea, and upon- the nations round about. Yet 
 Jeremiah was not* to rest satisfied. His business was to obtain 
 the utmost measure of divine communication. He was now in 
 the court of the prison. ll« is told to pray for great things. 
 Another would have thought first of his own deliverance. But 
 the great and mighty things which it pleased the Lord to be- 
 stow and Jeremiah to receive, related to the deliverance of the 
 people of God from their future captivity, and the restoration 
 of God's goodness to them. 
 
 We may learn from this, not to rest satisfied with any com- 
 munications of God's grace that, we have received, but to 
 cherish a spirit of expectation and desire. The best evidence 
 that we value what we have received, is when it has enkindled 
 our aspirations for what is yet beyond. Eor^ou observe that 
 God requires to be asked for the great and mighty things of 
 his grace, before he bestows them. And if the path of duty 
 take you to the court of the prison, you may, like Jeremiah, 
 find communications such as were not made in the temple even. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 303 
 
 September 5. — "The Lord will not cast off forever." — Lam. iii. 31. 
 
 From the context, the meaning is evident. He casts off his 
 people from certain experiences of his love of which they have 
 shown themselves unworthy, until they are humbled and peni- 
 tent, fervent and believing. God does not arbitrarily resume 
 his benefits. There is ever an adequate reason, and if we 
 search the records of our experience, we shall find it. We 
 should very carefully note what it was in our conduct, what 
 remissness or sluggishness or waywardness or worldliness, 
 that caused the Spirit of Grod to cease from shedding abroad 
 the love of God in our heart ; and when we have been re- 
 stored, we should be careful not again to grieve him. Happy 
 are they to whom it is given to know that they are not finally 
 cast off. Their contrition, their humiliation, their ardent 
 longing of soul, are the best evidences that they are not. 
 
 September 6. — "And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you 
 to walk in my statutes."^ — Ezekiel xxsvi. 27. 
 
 A sublime expression of sovereignty; but let none therefore 
 say, " We must remain as we are until he puts his Spirit within 
 us." For God observes a process in this as in his other 
 works ] and in every step of this process he requires the co- 
 operation of man. He shows an individual that he is without 
 the Spirit of God ; that he is spiritually dead ; excites in him 
 desires after life and blessedness ; shows him what he is not to 
 trust in ; what he is to trust in ; teaches him to pray ; answers 
 his prayer ; and excites in him faith in the Lord Jesus. Then 
 only perhaps does an individual discover that he has been in- 
 fluenced throughout by the Holy Spirit. But he who refuses 
 to do anything until he is sensible of the Spirit's influences, 
 will never do anything in the way of working out his salvation. 
 
304 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 September 7. — "Thou, Lord, remainest forever; thy throne from 
 generation to generation." — Lamentations v. 19. 
 
 The instability of many of the things with which we have 
 to do in this world, only tends to make the believer appreciate 
 the more, by contrast, the immutability of his Grod. The 
 Lord of all sits upon his throne, and before him the universe 
 passes like a panorama. He is unchangeable in character as 
 well as in sovereignty. As we follow the indications of ge- 
 ology into the dim chambers of what seems to be a past eter- 
 nity, it is a comfort to think there was then the same God that 
 we now know ; presiding over the strange processes of those 
 tirnes with the same wisdom and power that now dwell in 
 him ; have the same boundless love that has been so marvel- 
 lously exhibited in our dispensation ; the very same Being in 
 fact who became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, spoke 
 graciously to man and made an atonement for the sins of men. 
 Too often the idea of immutability is connected in the minds 
 of men with that of insensibility. But this is an error. 
 There is but one immutable Being in the universe, and his 
 name is LOYE. 
 
 Clouds and darkness are around about the throne of Grod, so 
 that men see not that throne, and remain voluntarily ignorant 
 of its existence. The thrones of this world are alone visible to 
 them. To know what monarchies they stand in awe of, we 
 have only to ascertain from their conduct whose commands 
 they obey, whose will they execute. We find that they are 
 influenced by mandates that come not from the throne of God. 
 But all these inferior thrones and dominions vanish away. 
 How many have come and gone since the prophet wrote these 
 words. And as the others have passed away, so those that 
 now exist must disappear from earth. That government that 
 has in it the elements of perfect stability, man has not suc- 
 ceeded nor will succeed in devising;. 
 
 Thou, Lord, remainest forever : to whom then shall we 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 305 
 
 go, but to tliee ? Our immortal souls awakened by tby Spirit, 
 find themselves in the midst of a creation that crumbles at the 
 touch, and are filled "with consternation as they behold them- 
 selves cast upon the billows of a world that has no one element 
 of immortality to which they can ally themselves, nothing akin 
 to themselves to afibrd them a hope of companionship in the 
 day when all beside shall have dissolved. We flee to thee, 
 Lord, and find in thee a thousand times more than even the 
 permanency of present things would have yielded us. 
 
 What gives the unchangeableness of Grod such a value in 
 our eyes is that we may take refuge in him and be made like 
 unto him. When we shall have been made perfect in love, 
 we shall be able to look from the calm heights of an inviolate 
 safety, upon the elements of change and destruction. 
 
 September 8. — " I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and 
 I will give you a heart of flesh." — Ezekiel xxxvi. 26. 
 
 This stony heart is not what is commonly understood by a 
 hard heart, an unfeeling heart. A person of a gentle tender 
 yielding disposition may yet have what God regards as a stony 
 heart. A heart insensible to the word of God is what is here 
 spoken of The commands, the promises, the invitations all 
 fail to make an impression upon one with such a heart ; he 
 j-efuses to see his sin, his helplessness, his danger, his need, the 
 holiness, the grace, the love of God. The mighty and count- 
 less motives of the Bible are lost upon him. He perhaps 
 flatters himself that he has a great deal of sensibility. He 
 weeps at a tale of distress ; and the more fictitious it is, the 
 more he weeps. He perhaps is religious, in his own and others' 
 estimation. Israel, of whose stony heart the text primarily 
 speaks, was exceedingly devout and imagined itself blamelei>s 
 in all the ordinances of the Lord. 
 
 In the physical system of man the heart' sometimes ossifies. 
 26 * 
 
306 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 The most fearful and also the most shameful condition into 
 which a moral being can fall, the lowest depth that he can 
 reach, is that in which his heart becomes unable to distinguish 
 the voice of God. Around him are ten thousand utterances ; 
 an angel would be ravished with the harmony : all the day 
 long in one way or in another, God speaks ; but he hears not. 
 What an expanse of promise there is in this one word / 
 iciU give you a heart of flesh. You will sail over it long and 
 find no limits. All the fruit of the Spirit, all Christian graces 
 with all their manifestations, all triumphs of faith, are com- 
 prehended in it. . When this promise is verified, immediately 
 the entire word of God puts on its appropriate power. From 
 Genesis to Revelation, everything starts into life. In giving 
 us the heart of flesh, God gives us everything that he has 
 made. The heavens begin to tell us his glory, and the firma- 
 ment to show us his handiwork ; the lily addresses our faith 
 and the wind whispers of the Spirit; and we look upon all 
 things as made by Him and for him and for us who believe in 
 him. 
 
 September 9. — "In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a mo- 
 ment ; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee." — Isaiah 
 liv. 8. 
 
 If God withholds from us the tokens of his love, an ex- 
 planation may almost always be found in the fact that we had 
 made light of them in some way or another. God gives his 
 love unto us that he may draw us by its sweet influences to 
 renounce evil and to embrace good. If we receive the ex- 
 pressions of his loving-kindness and manifest no corresponding 
 readiness to forsake sin, then it becomes needful that we should 
 take lessons in the value and virtue of his love, through the 
 privation of it. 
 
 There is amazing condescension in this language. The Lord 
 as it were apologizes to his people. It is but a little wrath ; I 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 307 
 
 hid my face for a moment only ; I will make it up to you a 
 millionfold with everlasting kindness. 
 
 We can imagine a certain believer replying ; " Thou doest 
 all things well ; and after what thou hast already shown of 
 thy wisdom and love, thou canst well be trusted with the gov- 
 ernment of thy people. Still blame me not, if I urge that 
 thy wrath is something so fearful, so unendurable, that a little 
 of it, even a grain of mustard seed of it, is to our feelings 
 something altogether tremendous and mountainous. If thou 
 pour out thy wrath upon those that know thee not, they may 
 indeed pine for the loss of this and that temporal blessing, but 
 the thought of thy anger gives them not a moment's unhappi- 
 ness. But thy love is our life, nay, a thousand times more 
 than life ; it is that which raises life to an infinite value ; and 
 the loss of it reduces life to an infinite evil. Far be it ever 
 from thee. Lord, to give us to taste of thy unmixed wrath. 
 If it be needful that we should experience a little wrath, let 
 there be much love mixed with it. Let us not be bereft of 
 the promises. Let us see the light shining at the extremity 
 of the dark passage that we have to thread. Treat us not as 
 though we were so insensible to thy love that a large privation 
 of it could be easily borne. 
 
 The language of the text will have a difierent meaning to 
 different believers. Some have been permitted to experience 
 such marvellous discoveries of the grace of God, they have 
 been brought into such secrets of the divine favor, that the 
 privation which seems to them utterly insupportable, would 
 not aff"ect another in the least. 
 
 September 19. — "Hear, and your soul shall live." — Isaiah Iv. 3. 
 
 The true life of the soul is in union with God. The souls 
 of men are dead, because they are separated from God. Each 
 man walketh apart, liveth unto himself, cleaveth to the earth ; 
 
308 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 he calls it solitude when his fellow-men are not there. The* 
 word of God is life-giving. We have not to go to a distant 
 planet for the bread of life. "Without any movement of ours, 
 it has already been introduced into this world. We have not 
 to pay for the liberty to appropriate it. All the price required 
 has been already paid. We have only to hear. If we hear, 
 our souls shall live. If we hear not, then life and immortality 
 shall never be their portion. 
 
 Hear the word of life. All the days of your life, you have 
 heard it with your outward ear, but it has never made its way 
 to your inmost soul. The adversary that has such dominion 
 over you has lined the passage betwixt your outward ear and 
 your inmost soul with gins and traps, so that the word may 
 not travel in safety. We see hundreds of chariot loads of 
 precious truth go in at the portal of your ear ; but it is too 
 manifest that none of it reaches the place of power in your 
 mind. 
 
 Hear ! Enter into conflict with your adversary for the pos- 
 session of this truth. It is your life, therefore embrace it with 
 the instinct of self-preservation. Let everything else go, in 
 laying hold of this. There was a man who, after many years 
 of labor, was returning from California with a number of bags 
 of most fine gold. The steamer was wrecked, and finding 
 himself in the water with his bags, he let them all go that he 
 might seize an old plank that came floating along. He es- 
 caped with his life and without his bags. I am afraid that he 
 never was quite reconciled to the loss of his bags. Suppose, 
 however, that what seemed an old rotten plank, should turn 
 out to have an inscription on it, guiding him to a treasure a 
 thousand times greater than what he had cast away. In t\iv,t 
 case he never would give another thought to what he had re- 
 linquished, unless it were a thought of self-congratulation that 
 he had made such a wonderful exchange. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 809 
 
 September 11. — ""Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make 
 jour calling and election sure." — 2 Peter i. 10. 
 
 The context slieds all the light that we need upon this pas- 
 sage, explaining both the nature of the diligence that we are 
 to use, and the object to be obtained by it. "If ye do these 
 things, ye shall never fall." The things are mentioned be- 
 fore : " Giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue ; and to 
 virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance f &c. The 
 words " shall never fall" have an immediate reference to the 
 words " to make sure." Let no one bring in here his theory 
 of election to destroy the force of this passage. God has his 
 elect ones ) and he accomplishes his purposes with regard to 
 them by teaching them to take heed lest they fall, and to use 
 all diligence in making their calling and election sure. They 
 that despise these admonitions make it certain that they are 
 not elected. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that after an individual believes on 
 the Lord Jesus Christ he must wait a good while and make 
 great progress in holiness, before he can make his calling and 
 election sure. There is no reason why he should not have as- 
 surance of faith at the moment when he first looks to Christ 
 for salvation. He that thirsting comes to Christ and drinks, 
 may with absolute confidence conclude that his name is writ- 
 ten in the Lamb's book of life. But that which makes his 
 calling and election sure then, will not suffice to make it sure 
 in days that follow. There must be growth in grace ^ and 
 there must be expanding evidence. The soul must keep add- 
 ing to its spiritual stores ; must show that it has commerce 
 with the skies. It can no more derive assurance from past 
 experience than it can derive life from it. 
 
 In an important sense, salvation is neither a past thing nor 
 a future thing ; but strictly a present thing. If Christ is my 
 Saviour, then he is saving me to-day. If he is my Shepherd, 
 then he is leading me to-day. If he is my Lord, then he is 
 
310 ■ DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 ruling me to-day. To-day lie teaches me, warns me, encourages 
 me, blesses me, intercedes for me, brings me to God, destroys 
 tlie works of the devil. 
 
 September 12. — '^ The Lord hath comforted his people, and will have 
 mercy upon his afflicted." — Isaiah xlix. 13. 
 
 Perhaps throughout the wide domains of Grod, there is 
 hardly any sight more remarkable than that presented by the 
 little flock of believers who, in this world of iniquity and of 
 misery where Satan's seat is, regard the Lord as their King 
 and are kept by him through faith unto salvation. Their ex- 
 istence is a marvel; their peace and joy another; their tri- 
 umphs another. They are without a visible Leader, and have 
 no visible Comforter ; yet they pursue their way and have an 
 invincible hope. 
 
 The Lord comforts his people, ordinarily, not by changing 
 the course of his providence, not by crowning them with an 
 outward prosperity, but by opening their heart to attend unto 
 the precious declarations of his word. The Spirit is the Com- 
 forter, and he is the Spirit of truth. Christ prayed that the 
 cup might be taken away from him ; but afterward we hear 
 him saying, " The cup which my Father hath given me, shall 
 I not drink it ?" The Father answered his prayer by some 
 inward memorial of his goodness, and the cup just now so 
 dreadful is taken cheerfully and with unfaltering hand by the 
 Saviour. When the soul is in some deep distress it imagines 
 that nothing less than the removal of the very cause of the 
 distress will ever comfort it; but God prefers to show his 
 power to sustain and bless the soul in the midst of the trying 
 providence. He is glorified when the believer is delivered 
 from his gloom without being delivered from that which caused 
 the gloom. This finds itself vanquished when it seems to be 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 811 
 
 most triumphant; and is utterly at a loss to understand how 
 its instruments of torture should produce no longer any pain. 
 
 September 13. — "Make thy way straight before my face." — Psalm v. 8. 
 
 It is especially when a feeling has taken possession of the 
 mind that the Lord calls us to enter some new sphere, to en- 
 gage in sotne new labor for his glory, that we long for an ex- 
 plicit revelation of his will. It is to be feared that too many 
 grieve the Spirit of God by dismissing this conviction of duty 
 from their mind, when there cometh not some plain providen- 
 tial notice of what the Lord would have them to do. The 
 Lord still teaches by his word, and the way is this. He shows 
 us the greatness of the love of Christ, and constrains us by 
 this to desire to be more engaged for the glory of God. He 
 teaches us to observe our position, our aptitude and various 
 circumstances. He takes away from our mind all bias, the 
 great impediment to right judgment. And he gives us a quick 
 understanding to perceive the suggestions and monitions of 
 the Spirit. He gives us faith, and a willingness to go forward 
 without a preliminary sense of strength. 
 
 September 14. — " The Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be 
 confounded." — Isaiah 1. 7. 
 
 Help is needed to discharge duties that are too great for us, 
 to encounter dangers that are too severe for us, to face enemies 
 that are too powerful for us, to bear up under sore disappoint- 
 ments, under the loss of friends, of health, of fortune, to sus- 
 tain the consciousness of our deep demerit, and in fact it is 
 difficult to exhaust the catalogue of the ends for which we need 
 help. Yet there are very few who are visited with a sense of 
 any such need as this. The reason is that men generally take 
 no cognizance of their real duties, are not aware of their real 
 
312 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 enemies, avoid as far as they can the path of present danger, 
 and stultify themselves with ideas of their own goodness. The 
 man that does not attempt to climb the Alps has no need of a 
 guide ; the mariner who mystifies himself as to the condition 
 of his ship and denies his danger, rejects the oflPer of help. 
 
 We need help from Grod to know our helplessness. The 
 greatest of all our enemies is in the royal chamber of our in- 
 most being and rules us with a rod of iron, though it be bound 
 about with ivy leaves. We need help from God himself to 
 become aware of the true character of this enthroned enemy, 
 and to see the desolations he has wrought in our heritage. 
 Alas for them who know not their need of help. The triumph 
 of their foe is complete. They are led captive at his will, even 
 though we see them occupying the high places of the earth, 
 admired and followed by vast crowds. 
 
 It requires but little faith, comparatively, to use the lan- 
 guage of this text when there is a very inadequate idea of the 
 difficulties, dangers, impediments, humiliations that may be 
 found in one's path. If a believer entertains the idea that 
 the covenant relation in which he stands to the Lord, secures 
 him against any very severe stroke, he may then use this lan- 
 guage without knowing what he says. But he has a wrong 
 idea. The Lord sometimes appoints unto his people tasks of a 
 most formidable character, trials that seem studiously calcu- 
 lated to grind them to powder. If there be some contingency 
 that the believer deprecates with all the might of his soul, the 
 mere imagination of which is utterly dreadful to him, so that 
 he is ready to say, " I will cheerfully meet all other conceiva- 
 ble forms of trial rather than this," it is not impossible that the 
 Lord may see fit to single out this very trial for him. 
 
 The Lord wishes his people to feel that being allied to him, 
 they are allied to all strength and need fear no evil. But he 
 proceeds with unspeakable gentleness. He gives experience 
 of his power to sustain, in various ways. He gives a sense of 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 813 
 
 Lis own love, wisdom, and faithfulness that prepares the heart 
 to encounter the desolation which it speedily dreads. And by 
 the time that we come into the presence of the dreaded thing, 
 faith has so far forgot the victory, that we wonder at ourselves 
 for ever having felt such a shrinking from a trial so easily 
 borne. Then is the Lord glorified. 
 
 September 15. — "Let all those that put their trust in thee, rejoice."— 
 Psalm V. n. 
 
 " That put their trust in thee." Among all the people on 
 the face of the earth, these are the only ones that properly 
 speaking have anything to do with joy. 
 
 In thee — in the God of the Bible — the God of whom Moses 
 wrote, whom David feared, whom Elijah served, whom Isaiah 
 saw in the temple, whose angel succored Daniel, who was ma,- 
 nifest in Christ, and who for Christ's sake gave the Spirit to 
 the apostles and giveth it unto us. Some believe that they 
 can improve npon the character of God in the Bible. They 
 discover here a blemish, there another. They pity those who 
 insist upon looking to God just as he is revealed in his word. 
 Yet they call themselves Christians, and imagine that they are 
 trusting in God. But they who do not implicitly trust his 
 word cannot be said to trust in Him. 
 
 That put their trust in thee. They trust not in uncertain 
 riches, for happiness and security against the possible ills of 
 time, but in God. They show the trust they put in God, by 
 daring to be singular, to be unconformed to the ways of the 
 world, and boldly setting aside the decretals of society where 
 these tend to hinder the fullest exhibition of pure religion. 
 They trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for righteousness, sanctin- 
 cation, and complete redemption. They believe that every di- 
 vine commandment is good, is the expression of wisdom and 
 love, and they view disobedience as a fall from faith. They 
 27 
 
314 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 evince their faith in God, by surrendering themselves to the 
 direction of the Spirit of Grod, to be guided by him in all 
 things and in all times. A life of perfect faith would be a life 
 of perfect obedience. There is faith, however, before there is 
 perfect faith. The first lispings of faith are agreeable to Grod. 
 There is the promise of eventual perfection in them. 
 
 Let these rejoice. For by faith they have access to a do- 
 main that is altogether enchanting and soul-satisfying. The 
 promises of God are theirs, and winged by these they escape 
 from the dark and frowning things of earth, to scenes that are 
 radiant with all that is beautiful and heavenly. Other men 
 are chained to earth ; these sit in heavenly places. Other men 
 are chained to the present; these expatiate in a veritable fu- 
 ture, not illusory. Other men are chained to men ; these walk 
 with God. 
 
 SEPTESfBER 16. — "I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer." — 
 Isaiah xlix. 26. 
 
 What an inconceivable length and breadth, depth and height 
 has every such declaration as this ! The whole life-journey 
 of the Christian is a journey into the treasures that lie heaped 
 up in this sentence. In it, in fact, are all the treasures of 
 wisdom and knowledge. After a month of some peculiar ex- 
 perience, let the believer come and look into this verse, and 
 he will find what he never found before. In the avenue com- 
 manded by this verse, no two Christians are at exactly the 
 same place ; no two have gathered from it exactly the same 
 amount of blessing. 
 
 When the repentant sinner looks upon the cross of Jesus 
 Christ, he takes hold of the great, surprising truth, that the 
 Lord of the universe has entered into a specific covenant for 
 his redemption. He has found a friend, one pledged to go all 
 lengths in the matter of his deliverance from danger, sin and 
 sorrow, and looking upon the face of this friend seesjt resplen- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. ' 315 
 
 dent with an uncreated glory. His Saviour is seen by liim to 
 be no less a being than God. But his conceptions of God are 
 yet exceedingly imperfect. Daily he meditates in the word ; 
 follows the Lord Jesus through all the scenes of his earthly 
 ministry ; avails himself of all the apostolic expositions ; fa- 
 miliarizes himself with the visions of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel 
 and John. The character of God unfolds itself wonderfully 
 to his view ; and as it does so, the words " I the Lord am thy 
 Saviour and thy Redeemer" undergo many transfigurations, 
 pass from one glory to another. The whole universe waits 
 upon this little text, for all the hosts of heaven exist to make 
 known Him whose relation to the sinner is set forth in this 
 passage. 
 
 There are innumerable sorrows of life that cannot but take 
 to flight when faith waves this sentence over them. Why art 
 thou cast down, my brother ? Hast thou found reason to be- 
 lieve that this Saviour and Redeemer is not so great a person 
 as was once supposed ; and that you have committed your des- 
 tinies to a person who is very little more capable than yourself 
 of bringing you to bliss and purity and glory ? Your look 
 seems to intimate that you have made such a discovery. If 
 you really believe that He who has taken upon him to conduct 
 3'ou to paradise is a being of absolute power, infinite authority, 
 matchless wisdom, unfailing faithfulness, and inexhaustible 
 mercy, why art thou cast down ? In the presence of his in- 
 finite perfection, lift up your petty ills and see what they look 
 like. 
 
 September 17. — "I, even I, am he that comforteth you."— Isaiah 
 li. 12. 
 
 Your affliction is very great ; but there is a corresponding 
 
 greatness in your comforter. I that died on Calvary, that have 
 
 all power in heaven and in earth, who am from everlasting to 
 
 everlasting, I am he that comforteth you. I looked upon your 
 
316 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 sorrow long before you came into existence, and on every page 
 of my word that I caused to be written, I introduced some 
 word of comfort with reference to you. Turn over the leaves 
 of Scripture and see how much I have been occupied about 
 you in days of yore. With all wisdom and kindness I sought 
 out such expressions as were calculated to dissipate your grief. 
 In due time I became incarnate, and every loving thing that I 
 did, I commanded that the news of it should be conveyed to 
 you. I showed my pierced hands and feet to my disciples and 
 instructed them to tell the gospel of my grace to you. I have 
 comforted thousands and tens of thousands whose misery was 
 quite as invincible perhaps as thine. • Shall I at last fail with 
 thee ? Must I experience a new humiliation ? Must it be at 
 length proclaimed that thou hast lost something of superior 
 value to what I can bestow, of greater worth than myself? 
 
 There is one disadvantage, as it seems to men, connected with 
 these offices of mine. I can only comfort by means of the 
 truth. I have no illusions to offer. The world with its illu- 
 sions finds no difficulty in banishing this and that sorrow. But 
 it banishes them to an isle whither the individual himself must 
 soon come and find them stronsrer a thousand-fold than when 
 they left him. My solace is for to-day, to-morrow and forever. 
 This thou hast, that thou art not willing to take refuge from 
 thy sorrow in the world's illusions. Thou hast summoned me 
 and I am come. My name is Love. If there be excellence 
 anywhere in the universe, it has been bestowed by me. All 
 the glory and beauty and joy of the universe are mine; and a 
 thousand times more. 
 
 September 18. — " Is Ephraim my dear son ? Is he a pleasant child ? 
 For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still." — Jere- 
 miah xxxi. 20. 
 
 Written according to the analogy of the English language, 
 this would be, "Is not Ephraim my dear son? Is he not a 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 317 
 
 pleasant child ?" The sins of the itn tribes, represented by 
 Ephraim, had required of the Lord to withhold from them the 
 expressions of his kindness, and to give them into the hands of 
 their enemies that they might have a taste of the great differ- 
 ence between the service of an earthly master and that of 
 their heavenly master. But as a king whose son has trans- 
 gressed the laws of the land, and whom it has beeii found 
 necessary to send into exile, is still remembered as a son, and 
 will be recalled as soon as justice allows, to his father's pres- 
 ence, so God yearned over those whom he had been constrained 
 to banish for a season from his presence. 
 
 Believers are the sons of God in the midst of a perverse 
 generation. When they forget their high descent and live as 
 men that are yet in their sins, they bring a cloud over their 
 conscience through which the rays of the divine love faintly 
 penetrate. But when some sense of the bitterness of their 
 situation has taken hold upon them, and longings for commu- 
 nion with God are intermingled with fears lest they have for- 
 feited all hope of restoration, then they may hear the marvel- 
 lous expressions of our text. Paternity is a bond not easily 
 broken. What God hath wrought in you in former days, 
 ihough it be much of it fallen into unsightliness and ruin, is 
 yet a memorial of his grace that may be viewed as having an 
 attraction for Him. Yes, if you will give God an opportunity 
 of glorifying his Son by means of you, if Christ may yet be 
 lionored through you, there is no reason why you should doubt 
 tliat God will take pleasure in you, and regard you as a pleasant 
 
 September 19.— "All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of 
 our God." — Isaiah li. 10. 
 
 These words are remarkable as being the utterance of a 
 Hebrew prophet, in days when Gentiles were viewed as castr 
 
318 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 aways. What Christ long afterwards commanded is liere 
 prophesied. We now behold the beginning of the fulfilment. 
 The ends of the earth are becoming in some sense acquainted 
 with the wonderful ransom paid for sinners by the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 The universal preaching of the Gospel brings out first and 
 foremost the great truth of the universality of man's apostasy 
 and of his inherent opposition to the divine plan of salvation. 
 The Gospel triumphs nowhere without a struggle, without a 
 conflict. It has to endure the contradiction of sinners. But 
 the salvation of God is seen in every country when men and 
 women of that country embrace the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 But it seems to the benighted people perdition, not salvation ; 
 and its proclaimers are counted destroyers, not benefactors. 
 But there is power — and it is, in alliance with the Gospel, to 
 be revealed from heaven in due time, — to convince all these 
 ungodly men of their ungodly deeds, and make them sensible 
 of their absolute need of just such a salvation as that which 
 Christ ofi'ers. 
 
 Christ shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. 
 He shall see that for which his soul travailed in such inde- 
 scribable anguish in the garden of Gethsemane; the joy that 
 was set before him he shall experience, when his people shall 
 be one in him, even as he is one with the Father ) when the 
 New Jerusalem shall come down from God out of heaven, and 
 kings shall bring their honor and their glory into it ; when his 
 bride shall have been presented before the throne of his Father's 
 glory, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. He shall 
 see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, when all his 
 people have seen of the travail of their souls and are satisfied. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 319 
 
 September 20. — "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with 
 goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched 
 and miserable and poor and blind and naked." — Revelation iii. 17. 
 
 Take away the sense of need, and blessings are bestowed in 
 vain. They are no longer blessings. Food is of no avail to a 
 man whose appetite is satisfied. Blessed are they that hunger 
 and thirst after righteousness ', they shall be filled, but not in 
 any sense that shall leave them unacquainted with need. They 
 shall never hunger, as those who haT'e not the means of satis- 
 fying their hunger ; but only as those who have much goods 
 laid up for everhisting days in Christ. The spring of our 
 happiness is not in ourselves, but in Christ, and so it shall ever 
 be ; and the spiritual life that flows to us from him, meets and 
 must ever meet, a desire in us. Desire is not banished from 
 heaven ', it walks hand in hand with satisfaction. The branch 
 receives from the vine what the branch needs. Desire brings 
 us to the throne of grace and desire keeps us there. 
 
 A Christian without a sense of need; what an unhappy 
 spectacle ! The Laodicean church had need of nothing: "Was 
 it. that their cup was running over through the unmeasured 
 outpouring of the Holy Spirit ? Was the love of God so shed 
 abroad in their hearts that they had no room for more ? Not 
 so. Could you satisfy the personal need of the true follower 
 of Christ, he would immediately annex the need of his neigh- 
 bor ; and while there remained a single discoverable need in 
 all the world, he would refuse to know himself unneeding. 
 
 The abundance of grace bestowed upon the Christian, has 
 not the tendency to destroy his sense of need. Unto him that 
 hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundance, more 
 and more ; for the Spirit of God so gives as to make us value 
 his gifts and desire what he has yet to bestow. The sense of 
 fulness accompanies very low degrees of attainment. If de- 
 sire goes to sleep, it is because we loiter so much in the path 
 of life, or turn aside to bypaths. 
 
320 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 Worldly prosperity has ever been a great snare to tlie Cliurcli. 
 Account for it as we may, desire for spiritual blessings is very 
 mucli overborne by the acquisition of worldly wealth. A 
 Christian community has some advantages over others, in the 
 pursuit of wealth. Their personal expenditure is limited, in 
 some degree at least, by their professed principles. They are 
 the followers of one who made himself poor. They are in- 
 dustrious, provident, economical, self-subduing, guarded and 
 thoughtful. They gradually become wealthy. Their wealth 
 they look upon as the expression of God's favor. Pride, self- 
 confidence, worldliness, are pretty sure to follow. Where your 
 treasure is there will your heart be also. The place in their 
 regard occupied by their earthly riches, interferes decidedly 
 with the absorbing attractions that should belong to the things 
 which pertain to life and godliness. "Were there grace enough 
 to maintain unbroken the consecration of our all to Christ, , 
 then the flowing in of worldly substance would not be harmful ; 
 it would be understood that Christ is just availing himself of 
 our stewardship to pour abroad upon a needy worlcl, not merely 
 spiritual but temporal goods. But too commonly, this conse- 
 cration fails, when the amount of what is to be consecrated, 
 increases. As there never was a time, probably, when Chris- 
 tians had so large a share of the gold and silver of this world, 
 as they now have, we may well believe that the admonitions 
 contained in this epistle to the Laodiceans, deserve to be seri- 
 ously pondered at this day, and zealously acted upon. 
 
 September 21. — " He will not always chide, neither will he keep his 
 anger forever." — Psalm eiii. 9. 
 
 The believer walks as seeing him who is invisible, and re- 
 ceives ever3^thing from the hand of his heavenly Father. He 
 does not overlook the part that hp himself may have had in 
 bringing about a calamity ; nor the part that his fcUow-mcn 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 321 
 
 may have had in it ; nor the agency of evil spirits ; nor the 
 laws of nature, if so you choose to call them ; but after notic- 
 ing these causes his soul looks away to the Great Cause, to 
 Ilim who sitteth upon the throne of the universe and is not 
 unmindful of a fluttering sparrow. 
 
 God has not given a constitution to the universe that limits 
 in the least his power to deal, at any and every moment, with 
 each individual soul in the way that his blessed impulses may 
 suggest. How lamentably defective, how strangely erring are 
 those philosophies that imagine that the Almighty has tied up 
 his own hands, and only loosens them at some great intervals 
 to give the machinery of creation a new activity. Men in gen- 
 eral conceive of God as without present liberty to do anything 
 in the universe ; with far less faculty of spontaneous action 
 than they themselves possess. They may like or dislike, give 
 or withhold, but God must let the course of nature flow un- 
 brokenly on. But the Christian is not thus without God in 
 the world. Not only are all things of him, but all things are 
 through him and to him. He is not only at the beginning 
 and end of time, but present with all his works throughout 
 the entire course of time. 
 
 The Christian knows that there is a relation connecting hini 
 and God, and he sees and knows all things in this relation. 
 You might suppose, perhaps, that in the day of his affliction 
 it would be an aggravation of his grief to recognize God as the 
 author of it ; but I assure you that he is not at all willing to 
 exchange this conviction for the notion that his affliction came 
 undesigned. " Let me rather," he says, ^' feel that God is 
 chiding me, than that God is without care for me. Woe is 
 me, if I am cast adrift upon the ocean of circumstances. I 
 would not desire a heaven that circumstances could give mo. 
 The light and glory of this universe is gone, the dignity of ex- 
 istence is destroyed, the attraction of the future is no more, 
 when it becomes doubtful that God is in immediate relation 
 
OZZ DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 with every one of his creatures. I know that He is mine and 
 that I am His; and when He chides, I accept it as a gracious 
 token of his interest in me, and rejoice to think that it will 
 soon be succeeded by tokens of a heavenlier kind. If- he 
 chide, it is but for a small moment, the smallest possible mo- 
 ment that the necessities of my nature will admit of." 
 
 September 22, — "Ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned 
 unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." — 1 Peter ii. 25. 
 
 Drawing nigh to Peter, many years after the ascension of 
 his Lord, we find him reading; and looking over his shoulder, 
 see that he is occupied with our own good Isaiah, and that his 
 attention is directed to what we designate as the fifty-third 
 chapter and sixth verse: "All we like sheep have gone 
 astray." And when he takes up his pen to write to the 
 churches, how readily and naturally do the words glide from 
 him : " Ye were as sheep going astray." We need not sup- 
 pose that Peter, writing this, was unmindful of the sad facts 
 of his own early history, when he went astray denying the 
 Lord that was about to lay down his life for him. 
 
 The knowledge that the Christian has of the natures of men 
 is not so much insight as experience. Men resent the descrip- 
 tion he gives of the heart of man ; but they should consider 
 that he is relating what he has seen in his own heart, being 
 taught of God that heart answereth to heart. He is no mis- 
 anthropist, expressing his disgust at the treatment he has re- 
 ceived from man, but a philanthropist, telling the result of 
 certain experiments to which his own heart has been sub- 
 jected. 
 
 Men desire independence. They wish to be let alone. 
 They prefer to choose their own paths. They scorn the sug- 
 gestion that a shepherd is necessary to them. Yet there is 
 something occurring every parsing hour to show them their 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 323 
 
 need of a superior being to guide them ; one who can see the 
 end from the beginning ; who knows the qualities and tenden- 
 cies of all things ; who looks upon dangers and losses before 
 they arise and makes provision for them; who can tear in 
 pieces the lion and the bear ; can furnish a shelter from the 
 storm, a shadow from the heat. At every moment evil in some 
 form starts up, saying, " You are my prey ; you are wandering 
 in this world without God ; you have not this mark upon your 
 forehead." Nevertheless, men insist upon running the gaunt- 
 let of all the ills that line the pathway of life, until, all hacked 
 to pieces, they sink into their final place of unrest and misery. 
 Happy are they, alas how few, who perceive the forlornness of 
 a life without God, and allow themselves to be found of the 
 good Shepherd and brought back to his little flock and to its 
 y:lorious destinies ! 
 
 September 23. — "If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink." — 
 John vii. 37. 
 
 Who is this that stands in the midst of an assemblage of 
 mortals and makes proclamation in a loud and fearless voice, 
 that if any man, not merely in that assembly but throughout 
 the whole world, desire happiness, he should draw near and 
 obtain what he desires ? Who is this that offers to heal all 
 human woes and accomplish in behalf of the entire human fa- 
 mily, deliverance from the curse ? That speaks of himself as 
 a fountain of the water of life springing up in the centre of 
 the earth, and sending forth abundant streams to bless all na- 
 tions, tribes, and tongues ? That not merely undertakes the 
 highest functions of deity, but reveals the deity as present in 
 the very midst of the family of man, bringing to the doors and 
 hearts of men the most distinctive gifts of heaven ? He that 
 speaks must be either a madman or God manifest in the flesh. 
 
 Draw nigh to him and behold. He opens the eyes of the 
 blind ', but that is little. He heals all diseases ; that too. is 
 
324 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 little. He raises the dead ; even that is little. It is one thing 
 to recall men from the grave ; another thing to fill their souls 
 with imperishable joy. Behold him then on the cross. He 
 cries out, " I thirst." All the billows of the wrath of God 
 pass over him. You ask, " How can this sufi'erer heal the 
 woes of men ? This thirster quench the thirst of the world?" 
 Understand that those billows are of the wrath of God not 
 against him, but against you and your fellow-sinners; and that 
 he emerges from this deep baptism of anguish with a charter 
 of life for all that shall believe upon him. 
 
 In the vanity fair of this world you see over many a shop a 
 scroll bearing the words, " If any man thirst let him come 
 hither and drink." The servants of Satan exhibit a thousand 
 blandishments. What Christ alone can do, a thousand illusions 
 of life profess to do. All that they can do is really to destroy 
 the souls that trust in them. 
 
 The question for you is : Do you thirst ? Have you desires 
 ungratified? Aspirations after a higher, nobler existence; 
 after purity, heavenly wisdom, love, usefulness, communion 
 with the blessed, immortality and glory ? Come then to the 
 meek and lovely one, to him whose hand and feet were pierced. 
 His word is nigh thee. Embrace it with thy heart, then shalt 
 thou find him in thy heart ; and in finding ^him, thou findest 
 happiness and a crown of life. 
 
 September 24. — "All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and 
 great shall be the peace of thy children." — Isaiah liv. 13. 
 
 They that are Christ's are Abraham's seed, and we are 
 among the posterity whose privileges are here foreshadowed. 
 The people of God are those that are taught of God, and they 
 that are taught of God, have great peace. The throne of God 
 is the seat of a oreat teacher. The course of nature is a course 
 
 o 
 
 of instruction. The universe is one vast school. God writes 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 325 
 
 lessons for men on tlie firmament, on the sea, on the sands, on 
 the mountains, on the forests; yea on every leaf We tread 
 on problems ; tasks are set us in the air we breathe. If we 
 shut up all our senses and bury ourselves in the recesses of 
 our being, even there some question shall address us, some 
 lesson shall meet us. But sin makes men insensible to all this. 
 The firmament may declare the glory of God ; but they will 
 hear so much of the declaration as they list, and no more. 
 Their minds are drugged with sin so that the instructions of 
 creation and of providence are lost upon them. They are 
 without God in a world where everything proclaims his pres- 
 ence, his perfections and his glory. 
 
 But some are taught of the Lord. They are taught con- 
 cerning their own ignorance, their sinfulness, their danger. 
 They are shown their need of something that is not in nature, . 
 even an Almighty Saviour, an All-wise Sanctifier. They are 
 taught to behold all excellence in Christ., and to repose all con- 
 fidence in him. They bring all their knowledge to God — all 
 that they have been collecting since childhood — that he may 
 look it over and cast away what he will. They want no opin- 
 ions but the opinions of God ; no wisdom but that which is 
 from above. 
 
 Wonderful is the mystery of life. Creatures of clay, we 
 are as gods in our liberty of choice, in our conscious freedom, 
 and as devils in the abuse of that freedom. All the experi- 
 ments carried on for the last six thousand years show that there 
 is something fearfully amiss. One man uses his freedom in 
 one way, another in another way ; a thousand men in a thou- 
 sand difierent ways; but it is manifest with respect to all, that 
 tliey none of them hit upon a right theory and practice of 
 life. They are perpetually coming in conflict with the ma- 
 chinery of the universe, getting entangled and bruised in the 
 wheels of God's providence, and passing merely from one 
 phase of confusion to another. " Why are we endowed with 
 
 28 
 
326 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 this liberty," say they, " but that we may use it ? Why are 
 we made voluntary beings but that we may carry out our vo- 
 litions ? We are permitted to act as we like, why is it not 
 good to do so ?" 
 
 Here is their mistake, their great and fatal mistake. Their 
 liberty is given them in order that they may freely do the will 
 of God. It would be derogatory to the character of God to 
 make his intelligent creatures serve him by compulsion, by ir- 
 resistible force. He disdains to be served otherwise than by 
 choice and love. But the universe is so constituted that it is 
 impossible for men to find true peace or solid advantage while 
 tliey follow their own capricious wills. Everything repulses 
 man, lacerates him, torments him. The wonder is that he is 
 so slow to discover what is the true use to be made of his li- 
 berty. When at length he delights himself in the Lord, then 
 does the Lord grant him the desires of his heart. When ho 
 chooses to do God's will, then he becomes as God in several 
 most surprising respects. Apart from God, a worm ; united to 
 God, he is a temple of God, a throne of God. 
 
 September 25. — "To us belongeth confusion of face, because we have 
 sinned against thee." — Daniel ix. 8. 
 
 A great many of our confessions of sin fall trippingly from 
 the tongue, as though the commission and the acknowledgment 
 were all a mere matter of course. How little of self-reproach 
 there seems to be in it all ! How little shame, how little confu- 
 sion of face I A public exposure — the attention of men drawn 
 to one of the least of these sins — would fill us with unspeak- 
 able shame. Is God then nobody in comparison with man ? 
 Because God has forgiven us so readily, are we to make light 
 of the sins committed against him ? But in order that God 
 might forgive us the least of all these sins, it was necessary 
 that Christ should endure the contradiction of sinners, pass 
 through the agony of Gethsemane, and die upon the cross. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 327 
 
 Cliristians sometimes say, " Of what avail is it to be study- 
 ing our committed sins? Eather let us exercise faith.." 
 Faith is everything indeed; but faith will never attain its pro- 
 per proportions where there is no just idea of what it is that 
 God has forgiven us. How can we rightly know the goodness 
 of God, if we do not know the greatness of sin ? In fact this 
 is one of the exercises of faith, one of her most distinctive and 
 honorable triumphs ; the perception, namely, of what sin really 
 is. Some Christians imagine that they will lose their peace in 
 this way. Let them lose it, and get a better one. Do they 
 not know that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of truth, and that 
 he is given to guide us into all truth, that relating to ourselves 
 and that relating to God ? Contrition and faith are not ene- 
 mies; contrition and love, contrition and joy; all these in fact 
 belong together. 
 
 September 26. — *' Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's 
 sufferings." — 1 Peter iv. 13. 
 
 Had Peter done as he promised to do, and followed Christ 
 from Gethsemane, content to be bound with him, mocked with 
 him, scourged with him, condemned with him, and crucified 
 with him, what an incomparably exalted place would he have 
 had in our regard. Nothing but his own treacherous heart 
 hindered him from occupying this worthiest and sublimest of 
 places occupied by mere finite men. However, as his Lord 
 generously foretold, he followed him afterwards. He met the 
 ^ame hostility, the same bitterness and cruelty ; and we read 
 in the Acts that he rejoiced in being counted worthy to suficr 
 for the name of the Lord Jesus. Oh ! that we might ha^e 
 faith in the day of reproach and injury encountered in Christ's 
 service, to perceive him, even the Prince of the kings of the 
 earth, at our side, dividing with us the indignities that are 
 heaped upon us. Who would not call that a light affliction ? 
 Who would not rejoice ? 
 
328 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 September "27. — ''I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy like- 
 ness." — Psalm xvii. 15. 
 
 Christ prayed for liis people that they might be with him 
 where he was (" where I am") and behold his glory. Christ 
 is formed in us, the hope of glory ; glorious now as revealed 
 by faith, so that we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of 
 glory; but immeasurably more glorious upon the throne of the 
 heavenly majesty, entrancing the universe with the image of 
 the invisible Grod. 
 
 / shall he satujied : let a man look into his heart and see 
 how much is comprehended in this. He imagines almost that 
 his heart is a bottomless abyss, and that God might empty into 
 it all his treasures and fail to fill it. But his cup shall run 
 over. He shall be satisfied. And throughout a never-endino: 
 eternity he shall never more be cursed with unsatisfied desires. 
 
 September 28. — **I have seen his ways, and will heal him." — Isaiah 
 Ivii. 18. 
 
 The greater part of mankind pass through the earthly stage 
 of their existence without anything that can appropriately be 
 termed the knowledge of God. To others, however, it is given 
 in some most solemn moment to find themselves suddenly in 
 the presence of God and to be overwhelmed with the percep- 
 tion of his holiness, power, sovereignty, and omniscience. The 
 scales fall from their eyes, and they behold that sublime and 
 offended Majesty in whose august presence they, in willing 
 imconsciousness, have been for many a long year committing 
 their abominable transgressions. Then they exclaim with 
 amazement and profoundest humiliation : " Thou hast searched 
 me and known me; thou art acquainted with all my ways." 
 The relations of that hour are very partial, very imperfect; 
 were they otherwise it would be impossible to sustain them. 
 Man has become so naturalized in the domain of falsehood. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 329 
 
 that to strip him at once of all his falsehood would be to rend 
 his body and soul asunder and consign the immortal part of 
 him to everlasting despair. There is reason to believe thtit 
 such a day will dawn for the world at large ; a day when the 
 Lord shall be revealed in his glory, and every eye shall sec 
 him; and multitudes shall call upon the mountains to fall 
 upon them and hide them from the face of him that sitteth 
 upon the throne. But now we have as it were only adumbra- 
 tions of the judgment that is to come. 
 
 Is there not something very humiliating and condemning in 
 the thought that you are so bound up in falsehood, it has be- 
 come such a part of your life, that it is necessary to proceed 
 with great caution in removing from you the many folds of 
 it? — Yet even the partial revelations of that hour when God 
 enabled you to perceive him present in his holiness and majesty, 
 filled your soul with terror, and you could not at all compre- 
 hend how peace and joy could ever consist with the discoveries 
 then made. But perhaps this reflection then arose in your 
 mind : that if God had intended you to have experience of 
 his wrath alone, he would probably have still deferred the hour 
 of manifestation, until you had passed the bourne of hope, 
 the bourne of life. 
 
 " I have seen his ways, saith the Lord," and what terrible 
 sentence may we not look for, as a sequence to this announce- 
 ment ? But lo, the most gracious of all words issue from his 
 lips : " I will heal him." The knowledge which God has of 
 our corruption and deep depravity, soon becomes to us a ground 
 of confidence ; he knows what we need ; perfectly aware of 
 A'hat we are, he has undertaken to restore us, and he will cer- 
 tainly accomplish what he has taken in hand. 
 28 - 
 
330 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 September 29. — "For the iniquity of his covetou?ness was I ■nroth 
 and smote him; I hid me and was wroth; and he went on frowardly in 
 the way of his heart." — Isaiah Ivii. 17. • 
 
 Grod is love ; and we were called into being that in our 
 measure we might mai^ifest forth this truth, by loving one 
 another. But we are an apostate race ; and each one, so far 
 from seeking to be the servant of all, is bent upon serving 
 himself of all. Men are consecrated first and foremost to the 
 augmentation of their own gains. Ordinarily they understand 
 by covetousness some extraordinary development of the passion 
 for gain. But the question is not, what definition of it is 
 given in man's code, but what in God's code ? Now, God 
 stigmatizes as covetousness all desire for gain that checks the 
 exercise of faith in G od and love to man ; that is selfish in 
 origin and in tendency; that is hostile to a spirit of humble 
 contentment; that is inconsistent with perfect peace. 
 
 This age is intensely selfish, and yet finds it very difficult to 
 become sensible of its selfishness. There are so many noble 
 enterprises afoot ; so many asylums built ; so many colleges 
 and schools established ; missions for the heathen, home mis- 
 sions, city missions; patriotic funds, famine funds; in fine, 
 mention if you can an evil that has lifted up its head in any 
 part of the world, for which we have not made some benevo- 
 lent arrangement. I do not shut my eyes to these generous 
 schemes. It certainly looks as though the law of love were 
 written on the forehead of the times. I would do all honor 
 to the age, or rather to the Father of ages, the giver of every 
 good and perfect gift. But ascribe it not to malevolence or 
 envy, if I suggest that the age is simply giving of its abun- 
 dance. With the one hand it gives its thousand, but with the 
 other it grasps its tens of thousands. There is a spirit of 
 profound calculation that has too much to do with these gifts. 
 Almost all these noble benefiictions have had their origin with 
 the Church ; but how few members of the Church give even 
 
DAILY MEDITATI02sS. 331 
 
 tithes of all that they possess. Men thiuk themselves henev- 
 olent because they look at what they give ; God thinks them 
 covetous, because he sees what they withhold. 
 
 The question is : How does God deal with his people when 
 they become covetous ? You w^ill say, He chastises them and 
 makes them poor in spirit. Nay, this is not his way. Were 
 it such, then would his people wait for his providential correc- 
 tion and believe themselves justified in pressing forward in that 
 evil path, until he should meet them. AYith an infinitely pro- 
 founder wisdom God deals with them. He chastises them in- 
 deed, but it is by withdrawing himself And they perceive it 
 not. And now does their position become most dangerous. 
 For being freed from many remonstrances addressed them by 
 the Holy Spirit, they precipitate themselves faster and still 
 faster along their chosen career. They become more and more 
 worldly, more and more hardened. What shall hinder them 
 from crossing that path beyond which the Spirit of God will 
 never seek them ? 
 
 What w^e need then to learn is this : To be on our guard 
 against the earliest developments of this passion, and to hearken 
 diligently to the reproof of the Spirit of God w^hile his voice 
 is yet distinctly audible : for let the evil inclination get but a 
 little more strength and we shall make shipwreck of our faith. 
 
 September 30. — " There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." — 
 Isaiah Ivii. 21. 
 
 The wicked are sometimes seen flourishing as a green bay- 
 tree. Their cup of worldly prosperity runneth over. To the 
 spectator their days appear to flow by in pleasantness and peace. 
 They conform to the world's code of morals, and their praises 
 are on the tongues of all. They fare sumptuously every day 
 and fancy that they are to sit down at the banquet of everlast- 
 ing life. Peace and prosperity are within their gates, if we 
 ma} believe appearances. But we j^refer to believe God. He 
 
66Z DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 knowctli all hearts. He kno^ys what is worthy to be called 
 peace. 
 
 That certainly is not worthy to be called peace, which cannot 
 endure to face all truth. You look down deep into the heart 
 of the splendid sinner with whom all seems to go serenely, and 
 you see a stone sealed with many seals. You ask, what is un- 
 derneath that stone ? Hist ! breathe no such unwelcome in- 
 terrogations as this. There is a mystery about that stone and 
 all inquiry is disallowed, all mention of it forbidden. You are 
 waved disdainfully away from those m3^sterious penetralia. 
 There is One however who knoweth well the secrets of all 
 hearts, and who is willing to make known to you the mystery 
 of that stone and the chamber underneath. Hearken ! Be- 
 neath that stone are buried many things, implacably hostile to 
 the peace of that man. The law of his being is such that.it 
 is not possible to extrude them from the mind, to bury them 
 in the depths of the sea ; wherefore, as the only alternative 
 they are buried in the depths of his own mind. There are 
 the suppressed memories of innumerable sins, the blotted rec- 
 ords of many experiences, the disregarded warnings of con- 
 science. There, in that chamber are many forgotten passages 
 of Scripture, once heard, once for a moment or more revolved 
 in the mind; many words of Christ and his apostles. Many 
 fragments of sermons and counsels of pious friends are there. 
 Vows, prayers even are there. Nay, there are thunders there, 
 thunders of God's providence. Truth in her most tremendous 
 forms is there. There these all are buried, but not forever. 
 There is to be a resurrection, a terrible retribution. The man 
 has made for himself a hell within himself, and has covered it 
 over with a stone and bound dovrn the stone with a few i'rail 
 bands, and he calls this peace. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS'. 333 
 
 October 1. — ''The Lord shall be thiue everlasting light, and the days 
 of thy mourning shall be ended." — Isaiah Ix. 20, 
 
 Indicated in the last verse of the preceding chapter, these 
 glorious prospects are displayed before God's spiritual Israel. 
 They that reject Christ reject all the good forespoken by the 
 prophets, and the wrath of God abideth upon them. All 
 things belong to ihem who belong to Christ, Christians are 
 taught to contemplate not merely their own individual blessed- 
 ness and perfection ; but the unspeakable blessedness and un- 
 conceived glory of that condition upon which the whole Church 
 of the living God shall, as the bride of the Lord Jesus, as the 
 New Jerusalem come down from heaven, one day enter. They 
 are now the light of the world ; the Lord shall be their ever- 
 lasting light. There shall be no night there. And this mar- 
 vellous condition of things is immediately to succeed just such 
 a condition of things as that which now exists, when darkness 
 covers the earth, and gross darkness the people. 
 
 The Lord shall he thine everlasting light. He who by faith 
 embraces the XJhrist of the gospel, who kisses the Son in the 
 day of his humiliation when his visage is marred more than 
 any man's, shall then be enraptured by the sun-eclipsing glory 
 that shall burst from the countenance of Christ the King of 
 kings. Lord of lords, his Christ, forever his, with all his glory 
 his. 
 
 
 
 October 2. — " Let us draw near with a true heart." — Hebrews x, 22. 
 
 Seek to sound the depths of the meaning of this word, draio 
 near. Examine the supplications of a thousand suppliants, and 
 they will show these suppliants scattered at a thousand differ- 
 ent distances from God, but almost all at a great distance, and 
 out of the whole perhaps only one dose to the throne of 
 grace. 
 
 There is much to hinder this drawing near. There is the 
 inherited habit of unbelieving prayer. The supineness of the 
 
334 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 soul. \Yorldly care. Worldly joy. Inappreclation of tlie 
 possible blessing. Fear of discovering some unheeded respon- 
 sibilities. Want of realization of God's personality. And a 
 multitude of others. 
 
 There are to be combats all along the road. It is here we 
 must fight the good fight of faith. It is a noble victory when 
 we get near to God ; for it is a pledge of all other victories. 
 
 October 3. — "He only is my rocW — Psalm Ixii. 2. 
 
 0, happy Psalmist, who canst use this language ? Noi only 
 is God thy rock ; he is thine only rock. On him dost thou 
 build thy confidence. He is thy only refuge, thy only safe- 
 guard. 
 
 How grievously do they insult God who rely in part upon 
 him, in part on something else ; and who with the utmost em- 
 phasis of their souls deprecate being left alone with God, shut 
 up to him alone. They would fain eke out the insufficiency 
 of their wealth by his riches of mercy ; the inadequacy of 
 their wisdom, by his treasures of wisdom ; the imperfections 
 of their strength, by his power; their defective title to heaven, 
 by his readiness to save. The grace of the gospel they accept 
 as supplemental to their own goodness. Sometimes it happens 
 to such to be stripped of all their wealth, their wisdom, their 
 goodness ; and lo ! to the surprise of their Christian friends, 
 they are found to be the prey of an intense despair, ^hen is 
 it seen how very slight and contemptible a part they had as- 
 signed to God in the matter of their salvation. They are un- 
 utterably wretched, because God alone is left them. 
 
 Happy are they who begin by recognizing God as their only 
 rock. This rock is soon found to be marvellous in its proper- 
 ties. Beneath the footsteps of faith, springs of joy, peace, 
 wisdom, hope, love start up, creating first an oasis, then a pa- 
 radise; walls of every precious stone rise and enclose it; angels 
 encamp around about it. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 335 
 
 October 4. — " The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him in truth." — 
 Psalm cxlv. 18. 
 
 That call upon liim not because they think it a decorous 
 thing, not as an act of homage merely, but because they need 
 what he alone can give, and believe that he will give it to 
 them, if they ask wisely and in faith. 
 
 They call upon him in truth, who make nothing of them- 
 selves, everything of Christ. They call upon him in truth, 
 who overlook none of his attributes, but view him as his word 
 reveals him. " If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, 
 ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.'' 
 
 We bring God nigh to us by banishing falsehood from us, 
 by making room for the truth in our hearts. " If any man 
 love me he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, 
 and will come unto him and make his abode with him." 
 
 October 5. — "Be content with such things as ye have; for he hath said, 
 I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."^Hehrews xiii. 5. 
 
 This promise was addressed in the first instance to Joshua; 
 not because he was Joshua, but because he was a believer ; 
 and it is valid for every believer. 
 
 The believer is to be content with such things as he has. 
 "Behold Lazarus at the gate of the rich man, his body full of 
 sores, 'without food, shelter, friends. Is he to be content with 
 such things as he has ? He has nothing."' Yes, he has some- 
 thing. Let us try to take an inventory of it. He has a 
 Father in heaven, upon the throne of thrones, possessing all 
 Avoalth and exercising all power; forgetting him never and 
 making all the vicissitudes and severities of life conduce to 
 ]jis ultimate unspeakable good. He has a Saviour in heaven; 
 one that died for him and washed him from his sins in his own 
 blood ; his righteous Advocate ever interceding for him. He 
 has a Holy Spirit who has taken up his abode in that polluted 
 heart to make it angelic, spotless and perfect. The angels of 
 
336 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 heaven are his friends ) tliey celebrated the day of his con- 
 version with songs of transport ) they hold his crippled limbs 
 so that he does not fall ; and they are waiting to convey him 
 to paradise. All the saints in the light of heaven wait for 
 him that they may know him and love him. He has promises 
 more in nmiiber than it is possible to count, and each so pre- 
 cious that all the money in the world could not buy it. He 
 has an inheritance ten thousand times more magnificent than 
 the boasted patrimonies of earth. Everlasting life is his. 
 His diseased body shall be fashioned like unto Christ's glori- 
 ous body. To all his other treasures, he may well add this 
 treasure, contentment. 
 
 Why art thou cast down ? Perhaps thine earthly wealth 
 has taken to itself wings and flown. Perhaps some great man 
 has looked disdainfully upon thee. Perhaps some cherished 
 schegie has been frustrated. Thou hast met with ingratitude. 
 Some dear friend has fallen from thee. Some loved one has 
 died. Some disease has taken hold of thee. Well, these 
 things dispirit the children of this world ; for in losing these 
 they lose their all. But why should the loss of such things 
 affect thee ? The wealth that is lost, is nothing to that which 
 remains to thee. The great man who despises thee is a very 
 insignificant being in the presence of certain friends of thine. 
 If thou losest a friend of earth, thou hast thousands of glori- 
 ous ones who will never fail thee. Thou hast a throne pre- 
 pared for thee in a region where no sickness is, where death 
 never comes. Thou hast Christ with all his unsearchable 
 riches. Wilt thou yet mourn because of the crumbs that 
 have fallen from thy table ? 
 
 It is in vain we talk of the unsearchable riches of Christ, 
 if we greatly bewail the disasters of time. How shall the 
 world ever learn that Christ is to us precious, if we are not 
 content with such things as we have in the world, be they no 
 matter how few, how mean ? 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 337 
 
 October 6. — "If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God, that 
 giveth to all men liberally." — James 1. 5. 
 
 Wisdom is tlie last tiling of the need of wliieli men become 
 sensible. Worldly wisdom indeed tliey desire to have in larger 
 measure ; but it is the rarest thing in the world to see a man 
 who is deeply sensible of his need of that wisdom which God 
 gives in answer to prayer. This only shows how amazingly 
 unwise men are. It is because they have not this wisdom at 
 all, that they are conscious of no need. Yet, would they but 
 know it, this wisdom would give them virtually all that they 
 so impetuously seek in the world. They long for a power by 
 which they may rise superior to the ills of life. They long to 
 lift themselves on high above their enemies. They long to 
 possess themselves of all the good things of life. But as the 
 world is constituted, it is impossible for man by dint of getting 
 to satisfy this desire ; or by quaffing the cup of plea^re to 
 attain unto happiness ; or by clothing himself with authority 
 to escape all human enmity. Let God however breathe upon 
 his soul, let heavenly wisdom become the tenant of his heart, 
 and lo ! " the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" fall 
 harmless at his feet. 
 
 What causes most of the misery of men, is that their minds 
 are chafed and vexed by something in their condition. With 
 this repugnant something they enter into conflict thinking that 
 if they can only banish it, all will be well. Perhaps they do 
 not succeed. There it remains, frowning upon them ; and in 
 their souls abideth torment. Perhaps after many struggles, 
 they get rid of this repugnant thing; but scarcely have they 
 begun to congratulate themselves upon their victory, when lo, 
 on the opposite side, a new circumstance wearing the same 
 scowl, enters into the circle. Yes, this earth would get rid of 
 almost all her burden, and spring forward like an unyoked 
 Pegasus, if men would cease from battling with their external 
 condition, and seek from God wisdom; even wisdom to outweigh 
 29 
 
DAILY MEDITATIO^^S. 
 
 in the balances of heaven, the offers, illusions, dignities, com- 
 forts, discomforts, losses, trials, troubles of every day. 
 
 October 7. — " We may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will 
 not fear what man shall do unto me." — Hebrews xiii. 6. 
 
 Here we have an admirable expression of Christian confi- 
 dence. It is pure confidence in God, viewed as the source not 
 only of one's own strength, but of all strength, so that there 
 remains nothing in the world worthy to excite alarm. " The 
 Lord is my helper," saith the believer. " I am not counting 
 upon some future alliance with him; but speak from a deep and 
 satisfying experience of his presence and faithfulness. I have 
 been shorn of all my former conceit of strength ; and have 
 hearkened to the proposal of the Infinite One, a proposal to be 
 unto me strength, wisdom, righteousness. On the day that I 
 became bankrupt, I entered into the possession of all riches." 
 
 If the Lord be thy helper, and if all the power of man is 
 inferior to that which accompanies thee, then why dost thou 
 not do some great, some world-surprising thing ? Thou hast 
 no occasion to fear aught that man may attempt. To all the 
 waves of hostility thou art able to say, " Thus far shall ye 
 come and no farther." Ride now victoriously through the 
 earth and establish thy beneficent dominion throughout all 
 lands, giving men relief from the oppressions under which 
 they have languished for so many ages. A similar suggestion 
 was once made to the Lord Jesus Christ. Had he been will- 
 ing to set aside the will of God, and to put himself under the 
 guidance of that evil spirit of expediency that rules in the 
 counsels of the princes of this world, had he accommodated 
 himself to the expectations of the Jews and presented himself 
 as a temporal and political Messiah, all the kingdoms of the 
 world might have been his, but he would have been simply 
 the vicegerent of the God of this world. " God is my helper : 
 and I may avail myself of his power without limit." 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 339 
 
 But why does He help me ? Because I have yielded my- 
 self unto his guidance. He giveth his power to those only 
 who first accept of his wisdom. He giveth strength to those 
 who have renounced all ambitious and selfish views ; who have 
 committed themselves unto him to be taught, moulded and 
 used by him. 
 
 Nevertheless, when we call to mind that God delighteth in 
 mercy ; that the Lamb of G-od hath taken away the sin of the 
 world ; that the Triune God has a sublime enterprise on foot, 
 looking forward to the transference of all kingdoms unto his 
 Son; when we consider certain of the promises, as, for instance, 
 this, " Greater works than these shall ye do f and this, " He 
 that overcometh to him will I give power over the nations, 
 and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ;" when we remember 
 the words of Daniel, " The people of the saints of the most 
 High God shall take the kingdom and possess the greatness 
 of the kingdom under the whole heaven;" when we allow 
 these soul-enkindling declarations to come home to our con- 
 sciousness; does it not seem as though he, who in genuine 
 faith is able to speak of God as his helper, and to look disdain- 
 fully upon all that man can do against him, should go forth 
 clothed in a transcendent power and obtain some world-wide 
 display of the glory of his Lord ? 
 
 " When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find fliith on the 
 earth ?" 
 
 October 8. — " Hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is 
 shed abroad in our hearts." — Romans v. 5. 
 
 Alps on Alps arise, as the believer presses forward in his 
 course. He beholds a summit, and exclaims, " My God will 
 meet me there, and there will gainsayers be confounded." 
 But when he reaches it, he receives not the expected testi- 
 mony, and unbelievers make a mock of his disappointed hopes. 
 He would be troubled ; but in the absence of the external tes- 
 
340 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 timony, he receives an inward sweet assurance of tlie love and 
 faithfulness of God, and in tlie very hour of his disappoint- 
 ment, his face shines with a singular joy. Looking up he 
 sees a higher mount. Oh, he exclaims, it is there, not here, 
 that God should meet me. I rnust reach the higher summit. 
 He reaches it, and it proves to be a new summit of sorrow for 
 him. Again, a wave of heavenly bliss rolls over his heart, and 
 lie refuses to be confounded. A still higher peak catches his 
 aspiring eye. 
 
 Observe now, all his disappointments are real conquests. 
 Those inferior summits mark the way that he must necessarily 
 tread, in his course to the hill of transfiguration. In his great 
 hope he is not confounded, only in his lesser hopes that lay 
 hold of time, place, and circumstance. From every hill of 
 disappointment, he carries off a rich spoil. 
 
 October 9. — "In all their affliction he was afflicted." — Isaiah Ixiii. 8. 
 
 AVe need not feel so bitterly towards affliction, since we are 
 indebted to it for the knowledge of this most wonderful fact, 
 that our divine Friend enters into our sorrow with all his heart, 
 and perfectly identifies himself with us in our tribulation. 
 Sympathy is really a more valuable proof of love, sometimes, 
 than the hindrance of the calamity w^ould have been. Every 
 king can scatter handfuls of gold and save many from want ; 
 but where is the king whose eye melts, whose heart overflows, 
 in sympathy with the, sons and daughters of want ? Ah, we 
 liave to seek in heaven for such a king as this. " Saul, Saul," 
 he says, " why persecutest thou me .^ I have felt keenly the 
 reproaches thou hast uttered against my disciples ; the stripes 
 inflicted on them were to me the same as those that I endured 
 in the house of Pilate ; the drops of their blood were precious 
 to me as those that I myself let fall from my own thorn- 
 wounded head." 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 341 
 
 October 10. — "I, tbe Lord^ speak ri^liteousnc:ss. I declare things that 
 are right.'" — Isaiah xlv. 19. 
 
 An incontestable truth, one would say. "Who will dare to 
 deny that God speaks things which are right ? That were at 
 once the height of folly and of guilt. 
 
 Is it so ? Then do all men dwell upon the heights of folly 
 and of guilt. They have built for themselves permanent hab- 
 itations there. There are innumerable things that men declare 
 to be right ; they do them and repent not at the remembrance 
 of them ; they commend them in others ; yet these things are 
 diametrically opposite to the things that God sanctions. You 
 speak of a becoming pride; God says, "Blessed are the poor 
 in spirit." You say that men should not submit to injuries 
 and insults. He says, " Blessed are the meek." You think 
 it a light thing when men neglect religion ; God says, " One 
 thing is needful." When men pray much, you talk of cant 
 and hypocrisy; God says, "Pray without ceasing." In a word 
 go through the Bible ; compare its declarations with your own 
 expressed views; and if you still insist that God declares 
 things that are right, you must admit that you have hitherto 
 been in thought, word and practice, wrong, wrong, wrong I 
 
 October 11. — "Who was delivered for our offences, and raised again 
 for our justification." — Romans iv. 25. 
 
 That we might not fall into the hands of the living God, 
 Christ was delivered into the hands of sinful men. He stood 
 before an earthly tribunal where Injustice sat in state, in order 
 that we might escape the dread tribunal where infinite Justice 
 sits. He was delivered up by sinful men to sinful men. Yet 
 he was delivered up by a righteous God, with his own glad 
 consent, to all the sufferings that man could inflict. He that 
 was delivered up, was the only sinless being that ever walked 
 this earth ; was divine as well as human ; his sinlessness as a 
 29 « 
 
342 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 man made liim a meet sacrifice for the sins of men ; liis divine 
 nature gave infinite value to his sufi"crings, so that it became 
 right in view of thtm to offer all men deliverance from all the 
 woe that they are obnoxious to, by sin. 
 
 How amazing that there should be found in all the wide 
 world a single being reluctant to avail himself of the expia- 
 tion thus made for sin. The utmost eloquence of men, the 
 most terrible warnings in providence, the profoundest experi- 
 ence of the misery springing out of their league with sin, all 
 fail to obtain for this wondrous gospel of the grace of God, 
 entrance into the hearts of men. They say unto God, day by 
 day, hour by hour, " Thou holy God, impute unto us all our 
 offences. Let it be with us as though Christ had not died. 
 Let there be no Gethsemane or Calvary for us. We know that 
 we are not sinless beings and must forever drink without drain- 
 ing the cup Vv-hich threw him into an agony of unutterable 
 Buffering; that we are not invested with omnipotence, and 
 cannot rise from the grave victorious ; our Calvxiry conducts 
 us to endless torment. Nevertheless we wish to appear before 
 the tribunal of divine justice with all our sins upon our head. 
 Had we any other wish, we would express it by believing on 
 Christ." 
 
 As for thee, semi-believer, convinced of thy sins, sensible 
 of their enormity, longing for deliverance, assured that Christ 
 alone can give it, yet stopping there, spending thy days in 
 lamentation, imploring grace and yet neglecting to appropriate 
 it, why dost thou live as though Christ were still in the tomb? 
 The unbeliever lives as though Christ had not died; thou 
 livost as though he had not risen. Repent of this thy folly, and 
 hasten to bear before the world thine own special testimony to 
 the truth of Christ's resurrection, by a joyful trust in him 
 that ever liveth to make intercession. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 343 
 
 October 12. — '' Thou, Lord, art a shield for me." — Psalm iii. 3. 
 
 In the battle of this world, the Christian is seen without a 
 shield. And just where he is, is the thickest of the fight. 
 The adversary hurls his best forces against that spot, evidently 
 supposing that there is only this impediment between him and 
 victory. It is wonderful then that the Christian should pass 
 scathless through this shower of fiery darts. Those that are 
 in the secret know that — ^while apparently unprotected — he is 
 in reality defended by an invisible shield. While he abides 
 in faith, God encompasses him round about and nothing can 
 by any means harm him. 
 
 The Lord is a shield to him who has been taught what are 
 the true dangers, what the true enemies, that beset the path 
 of a man through this world — who knows and is not ashamed 
 to confess that the god of this world is a being of tremendous 
 power, with his servants in all high places, with the wisest and 
 greatest of men among his captives, with a plenitude of re- 
 sources, a knowledge of the heart, that a mere unaided mortal 
 can do nothing against. Formerly he was the subject of that 
 prince. Then at length he became sensible of the wrath of 
 (lod that Cometh upon the ungodly. " Whither shall I flee, 
 where shall I find a defence ?" became his cry of agony. The 
 sky v^as darkened with the arrows of the Almighty. Then 
 v/as revealed to him the cross of Christ. He saw that the Son 
 of God was himself his shield, receiving in his own person the 
 storm of wrath that should have come upon him. He has 
 now peace with God. But he becomes exposed to the fierce 
 assaults of the adversary. In the world he has tribulation. 
 Sin seeks to regain dominion over him. But Christ doth not 
 leave him nor forsake him. He is to him a sun and a shield ; 
 a sun to give him the light of life, and a shield to protect liini 
 in the path of life. 
 
 God is a shield to me, says the believer; to 7ne, all to my- 
 self The shield of my fellow- soldier will be of little avail to 
 
344 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 me. I need a shield that I can call my own. And God, with 
 all his perfections, all his grace, is mine as truly as though 
 he were mine alone. All his promises are mine as truly as 
 though no one else had any interest in them. All his provi- 
 dence is mine. There is a blessed and indissoluble cOiinexion 
 established by faith, between my weakness and his strength, 
 my danger and his protection, my ignorance and his guidance, 
 my sin and his righteousness, my world-wide necessities and 
 his world-wide sufficiency, my unlimited aspirations and his 
 endless glory. 
 
 October 13.— ''lie will fulfil the desire of them that fear him."— rsahn 
 cxlv. 19. 
 
 Let US look at these persons whose desires are to be fulfilled. 
 They are worthy to be looked at ; for there is not their like 
 upon the earth. The desires of other men are their torments, 
 the keenest elements of their misery ; taking them up to all 
 high mountains only to cast them deeper down. Other men 
 find their desires, however comely and angelic they may at 
 first appear, however they may descend to them upon a rain- 
 bow as from heaven, at last to be demons, domiciliated in 
 their soul to make it as much like a hell as may be. So that 
 they are ready to say, " Blessed is the man that desireth 
 nothing." 
 
 There are some whose bitter experiences make them to look 
 with wrath upon the heavens and the earth that God has 
 made. The language of their heart, sometimes that of their 
 lips, is this : " All this is very beautiful ; but in all this 
 beauty there is a profound and hateful snare. The sun 
 moving so majestically over our heads, and pouring such un- 
 ceasing floods of marvellous light around us, says, ' God is love, 
 'ind delighteth in mercy; he is not far away; he maketh j^our 
 wants his care ;' but the sun only lies as it thus speaks. Its 
 rising and setting, its magnificent panoramas in the western 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 345 
 
 skies at even tide, its exquisite arrangements of liglit ami 
 sliade in vallSys and in glens, its oare for ever}^ insignificant 
 seed, all say to me, ' hope on, hope ever,^ but it is all a cruel 
 beguilement. Every tree, every loaf of a tree, every pebble, 
 shell, blade of grass, ripple of a stream, everything keeps tell- 
 ing some tale of the power and beneficence of God, but it is a 
 lying tale. The whole universe is fitted up as it were for the 
 purpose of stimulating to the utmost our desires and aspira- 
 tions, and strengthening to the utmost our confidence that 
 they will be gratified; but it is one vast imposture. We are se- 
 duced to open the door of the heart to a troop of hopes which 
 soon go mad and lacerate our sensibilities in a way that no 
 language can express. God should have placed us in a world 
 of desolation and of gloom ; then we should not have been mad- 
 dened through the influence of lovely and delusive prospects. 
 We would have calculated on a miserable existence, and should 
 have found it." 
 
 Alas, my friend that you should speak thus. Do you really 
 believe that God finds satisfaction in tormenting you ; and that 
 he has made a world where hope is the arch-tormentor ? You 
 have set out with one fatal error, and have persisted in cher- 
 ishing it. All things declare the glory and the goodness of 
 God, and say, " Hope on, hope ever :" but to whom do they 
 say it ? To those who fear God ; wdio know him as their king; 
 who take his word as a lamp to their feet; who repent of sin, 
 believe on his Son and embrace his promises. All things shall 
 work together for good to them ; and after they are tried they 
 shall receive the promise, shall enter upon the fruition of their 
 highest hopes and wildest imaginings. To them the universe 
 speaks, and there is no delusion in its speech. But to you its 
 language is this : " Knowest thou not that the goodness of 
 God leadeth thee to repentance V It is all intended to lead 
 thee, a contrite and repentant sinner, to the feet of God. All 
 true, all heaven-descended hope begins at the cross of Chri.'>t. 
 
346 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 Seek ye JBrtit the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and 
 all these things shall be added unto you/^ 
 
 October 14. — " I will hear what God the Lord will speak." — Psalm 
 Ixxxv. 8. 
 
 Wilt thou indeed ? Art thou really purposed to ascertain 
 what revelation there is of thy Creator's will concerning thee? 
 After many a long year of fatal independence and destructive 
 self-government, has it at length dawned upon thy perception 
 that the Being who made thee, and who made all worlds, is, 
 after all, the Being most competent to decide what life thou 
 shouldst lead, most worthy to he trusted with the determination 
 of thy lot and the accomplishment of thy happiness ? After 
 having hearkened to every other speaker and followed the sug- 
 gestions of every benighted sinner, wilt thou at last hear what 
 Grod the Lord has to say ? Then let us rejoice over the auspi- 
 cious hour that has at length come to thee. There is no 
 greater moment in the whole of existence than that in which 
 a wayward sinner pauses in his career to hear what God the 
 Lord will say. 
 
 But note, that all this magnanimous determination of thine 
 will amount to nothing, just nothing, if there be not in thee a 
 willingness to hear all that the Lord will speak. If out of a 
 hundred words of God, thou fix upon one and resolve to honor 
 it, while the rest lie all dishonored, that word which thou 
 hearest will turn against thee, and in the last day bring on 
 thee additional condemnation. How many fancy that they are 
 hearkening to God's word, while all the time they are only 
 hearkening to their own hearts' lusts. Half a dozen pages 
 would contain all their Bible — theirs truly, not God's. 
 
 It is impossible to hear what God the Lord will speak, while 
 a thousand vain voices are allowed to have thy attention. There 
 is too much noise in thine own heart for thee to hear. Thou 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 347 
 
 art too much busied about tbiiie own will, to become acquainted 
 with tlie will of God. Tlie Lord will not lead thee by the 
 right hand, while another leads thee by the left. 
 
 October 15. — "Hehealeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their 
 wounds." — Psalm clxvii. 3. 
 
 Yet there are many that die of a broken heart. Some 
 beautiful dream vanishes after having lured them to embark 
 all their hopes and affections upon it- the phantom vessel dis- 
 appears and they are left a prey to the angry billows ; but 
 even then, would they but know it, there is deliverance for 
 them. Admit that all their hopes are blasted; God, whose 
 matchless title is this, " The God of hope," remains. All the 
 good you have dreamed of, and infinitely more, resides in him. 
 God is not dead ; why then should you die ? The Physician 
 of souls rejoices when some very shattered and woe-worn heart 
 of man is brought to him to be healed : he has then a peculiar 
 opportunity of showing what he can do. This Physician was 
 himself made perfect through sufferings; made perfect to de- 
 liver others from suffering. His heart was once melted within 
 him ; he was wounded for our transgressions. He knoweth 
 how to succor them that are tempted; to heal the broken- 
 hearted. 
 
 Have you lost some very precious object? He teaches you 
 that all truly precious things are precious to God, and are to be 
 counted as altogether safe with him when they disappear from 
 your sight. He then reveals to you something of his own 
 excellence, his own preciousness, so that you are soon found 
 rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory. He does 
 not make light of your affections, though they may have been 
 erring ; he makes no mock of your broken heart ; your sorrow 
 is sacred with him ; but he brings you into a path that leads 
 to a city where all the good are gathered together, and death 
 and pain have no admission. 
 
^48 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 October 16. — "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without 
 ■wavering." — Hebrews x. 23. 
 
 We have professed to believe that God gave his Son to bear 
 our sins in his own body on the tree ; that God has accepted 
 us in his Son ; that he is our heavenly Father, and Christ our 
 perpetual intercessor ; that not having spared his only begotten 
 Son, he will with him also freely give us all things ; that what- 
 ever we ask according to his will, we have the petitions that 
 we desired of him; that not one jot or tittle of his word can 
 pass awa}'-. Now the things we have thus professed to receive 
 lot us hold fast. Immense efforts are made to get them from 
 our grasp. Sometimes we are left alone for a season that we 
 may be lulled asleep ; but the design never sleeps in the pur- 
 pose of the adversary. Should a man walk through a crowded 
 city with rubies, diamonds and precious pearls sprinkled over 
 his garments, and expect that no attempt will be made to snatch 
 from him these treasures, his security will not be so much mis- 
 placed as that of the man who, walking through this world 
 vvith the promises of God conspicuous about him, fancies that 
 no endeavor will be made to lessen his store. It is not that 
 the promises are wanted; but it is wanted that men should 
 not believe upon them. When, therefore, you hear a whisper 
 to the effect that you have done w^ell in giving evidence of 
 yoax zeal and self-denial and independence of the world, and 
 that now you may without any danger relax a little in the 
 rigidness of your principles, remember that God abhors all 
 v^'avering and instability : hold fast the profession of your 
 faith. Know no change but that involved in progress. Hold 
 fast what you have, while j^ou add to it what you lack. 
 
 October 17. — "The chastisement of our peace Avas upon him." — Isaiah 
 liii. 5. 
 
 He rendered satisfaction to divine justice for the offences 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 349 
 
 committed by us, and exhausted tlie chastisement appointed to 
 us, so that we have reconciliation with God. His spotless 
 purity and the infinite dignity of his person immensely en- 
 hanced the value of his sufferings, so that without being the 
 same in kind and in duration as divine justice would have de- 
 manded, had we, the offenders, been the sufferers, they were 
 nevertheless abundantly ample as an atonement for the sins of 
 men. In fact the justice and holiness of God and the honor 
 of his law, are just as gloriously illustrated by the death of 
 Christ, as is the kindness of God to a fallen world. 
 
 Peace having been purchased for us at so tremendous a 
 price, the question remains, Have we peace ? We see how it 
 is to be obtained. Let us see in the death of Christ, the chas- 
 tisement due to us, in the cup which his Father gave him all 
 the wrath due to our iniquities ; and let us put on the robe of 
 Christ's immaculate righteousness given us at the cross. There 
 are some that make the cross of Christ an excuse for sinning ; 
 but they really know not that cross ; they contemplate not the 
 real Christ, nor have any knowledge of his real sufferings. 
 Forgiveness received there, actually there, not at an imaginary 
 Calvary, forgiveness received in company with a sense of what 
 was undergone by Christ, dissolves the power of sin in the 
 soul and renovates the heart. 
 
 October 18. — " It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might 
 learn thy statutes." — Psalm cxix. 71. 
 
 What would this world be without calamity! Men talk 
 about the mystery of present things. The mystery would be 
 infinitely greater, if there was no affliction. We should be 
 utterly at a loss to know what to make of the character of 
 God, if unmingled prosperity were the lot of man. This 
 world would then resemble a Hindoo heaven ; and it would be 
 necessary to suppose Hindoo gods presiding over it, in order 
 30 
 
350 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 to get rid of the monstrous anomaly of impenitent sinners oc- 
 cupying tlie seats of the blessed. 
 
 The Christian has reason to thank Grod that things have not 
 been accommodated to his wishes. When the mist of tears 
 was in his eyes, he looked into the word of God and saw mag- 
 nificent things. When Jonah came up from the depths of 
 ocean, he showed that he had learned the statutes of God. 
 One could not go too deep to get such knowledge as he ob- 
 tained. Nothing now could hinder him from going to Nine- 
 veh. It is just the same as though he had brought up from 
 the deep an army of twelve legions of the most formidable 
 troops. The word of God, grasped by faith, was all this to 
 him and more. He still, however, needed further affliction ; 
 for there were some statutes not yet learned. Some gourds 
 were to wither. He was to descend into a further vale of hu- 
 miliation. Even the profoundest affliction does not, perhaps, 
 teach us everything; a mistake we sometimes make. But 
 why should we compel God to use harsh measures with us ? 
 Why not sit at the feet of Jesus and learn quietly what we 
 need to learn ? 
 
 October 19. — ''Blessed is the man that endureth temptation." — 
 James i. 12. 
 
 Blessed is the man that endureth whatever ordeal the Lord 
 may see fit that he should be Subjected to, for the discovery 
 of his heart. These temptations are simply processes of ex- 
 amination ; they are opportunities which the Lord giveth us 
 of verifying our professions. 
 
 To men that boast of their inward goodness and strength, 
 Providence often seems to say, " You have thought yourself 
 obliged to speak of your own good qualities, because the vicis- 
 situdes of your life were not such as to bring out the evidence 
 of these qualities ; but I will now so order events that your 
 goodness shall have a perfect opportunity of revealing itself." 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 351 
 
 Men that praise themselves, ought never to find any fault when 
 disappointments and disasters befal them ; for if they indeed 
 possess that strength of mind and superiority of character of 
 which they boast, they will feel these trials little and their in- 
 ward excellence will be enabled to speak for itself. In their 
 case we too often see that pride cometh before a fall. Men 
 are continually clamoring — without being aware of it — for 
 some severer condition of life; they are continually chal- 
 lenging circumstances to assume a more forbidding and hostile 
 attitude ; they find themselves in an inadequate sphere ; they 
 are conscious of virtues that have never yet found expression ) 
 they urge God (by self-laudation) to put them into the fire 
 and see if they will not come forth as gold. 
 
 Now the Christian does not boast, but he makes a profes- 
 sion. He professes to have renounced the idea of his own 
 goodness, and to be as dependent on God for moral goodness 
 as for physical. God says, "It is well ; but men will not be- 
 lieve thee ; I will put thee in a situation calculated to elicit 
 the full evidence of this." The Lord perhaps raises him then 
 to considerable distinction ; all men praise him -, and it is inte- 
 resting to see the Christian preserving his humility and prayer- 
 fulness in the midst of this fiery trial. He professes to fear 
 God rather than man. Then men bring great rocks and say, 
 " Fear God, by all means ; all that we ask is that you should 
 give up an infinitesimal part of what you call the fear of God, 
 and do our will in one most insignificant particular ; otherwise 
 we will grind you to powder beneath these rocks." " Grind," 
 is his reply ; and we see that his profession was not in vain. 
 He professes to have a spirit of submission to all the appoint- 
 ments of the Lord. Then the Lord proceeds to deal with him 
 in a way that seems to him altogether strange and unaccount- 
 able and uncalled for ] the things that befall him seem to him 
 not to have been in the bond ] it strikes him that submission 
 is hardly the thing called for and that he does well to be an- 
 
SbZ DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 gry. But happily lie considers tliat the providence of God 
 has taken this provocative aspect for the very purpose of ena- 
 bling the spirit of submission in him to manifest itself more 
 unimpeachably ; and so he endures. 
 
 I wish to remember always, and especially at the time when 
 my will is suffering opposition, when a stone seems to be given 
 in reply to my request for bread, that the stone so given is 
 much better than bread; the opportunity of glorifying God by 
 yielding my will to his, is much more valuable than the good 
 then withheld. Blessed is not the man that is exempt from 
 trial ; but blessed is the man that endures it, maintaining to 
 the end his patience, zeal, hope, love and joy. 
 
 October 20. — " "When he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, 
 ■which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." — James i. 12. 
 
 This is a very evil world. It lieth in wickedness. The 
 Prince of evil reigns over it. No wonder the Christian longs 
 to take the wings of a dove and flee away and be at rest. But 
 it is well for him to bear in mind that in this very world, where 
 the enemies of God appear to have everything their own way, 
 there is wonderful scope given for the exhibition of love to 
 God. In some respects heaven cannot equal it. In heaven it 
 is not given unto love to declare itself by suffering. There 
 are no reproaches to be borne there; no humiliations to be 
 encountered; no injuries to be sustained. We see from the 
 example of the Lord Jesus Christ how that even divine love 
 itself is able to clothe itself with honor by means of suffering. 
 Our only chance of signalizing our love to Christ by long- 
 suffering, meekness and self-renunciation, is that which we now 
 enjoy. 
 
 We see here that they who endure temptation are they who 
 love God. We profess to love God more than self and all its 
 possessions. If the Lord lays upon us a tax of one per cent., 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 353 
 
 he gives us to that extent an opportunity of showing our 
 sincerity. If the tax amount to ten per cent., then the oppor- 
 tunity is so much greater ; if to fifty per cent., then it looks 
 as though the Lord had confidence in us. He takes us at our 
 word. He believes in our whole-hearted love. And if the 
 tax swallow up everything we have, and leave us utterly bank- 
 rupt of all worldly good, then let us consider that God has 
 only taken what we long ago recognized as his ; and let us call 
 to mind that there is a precious relation between the trial en- 
 dured and the crown of life. " When he is tried^ he shall re- 
 ceive the croicn of life!' 
 
 There are some whose piety is of so utterly defective a char- 
 acter that it is well understood beforehand that they cannot 
 endure trial. They can only maintain their position in the 
 church by the most tender and delicate treatment. How then 
 will they pass in safety through the terrors of the day of the 
 Lord ? He Cometh with a rod of iron ) and everything that 
 can be broken in pieces by that rod must be broken. The 
 bruised reed indeed he will not break ) he heals it and gives it 
 strength, and it becomes a rod in his hand. He bestows the 
 most tender and delicate treatment ) but it is by way of pre- 
 paration for the trial. And after the trial, the croivn of life. 
 
 October 21. — "He is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any 
 should perish, but that all should come to repentance." — 2 Peter iii. 9. 
 
 We read elsewhere of " God our Saviour, who will have all 
 men to be saved.^' The Gospel, promulgated for every crea- 
 ture, is the expression of this divine willingness that men 
 should come to repentance. " Knowest thou not," says Paul 
 to the hardened sinner, " that the goodness of God leadeth 
 thee to repentance ?" Thus we see that all the goodness so 
 profusely exhibited in the providence of God to men generally, 
 is an expression of God's will that they should turn away from 
 
 30 * 
 
354 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 their sins and seek his grace. Day by day, during many, many 
 years, he supplies the table of the impenitent man with palat- 
 able and suitable food ; clothes him and his with raiment ; fills 
 his granaries and his coffers ; and does it all not simply that 
 he may meet the temporal wants of this sinner, but that he 
 may touch his heart and lead him to turn penitently to his 
 God. The sun returns to the east day after day, not because 
 a law of nature requires it, but because the Grod of nature is 
 the God of grace, and would have all men come to repentance. 
 Many there are who reckon confidently upon a future display 
 of the mercy of God, who yet are utterly unobservant of the 
 mercy now shown. They seek the mercy of God in the wrong- 
 place, that is to say at the judgment seat; while they spend 
 their days in treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. 
 They utterly object to the doctrine of a hell, which they re- 
 pudiate as involving the sacrifice of God's perfections. Well, 
 if they like, there shall be no hell. God wishes not that there 
 should be any. He is ready to cancel, with respect to them,* 
 every denunciation of future punishment contained in the 
 Bible. He is ready to exceed, a thousand fold, all their con- 
 ceptions of divine goodness. He will not only destroy, for 
 them, the hell of unquenchable fire, but the inward hell whose 
 materials are heaped up within their own heart, the hell of sin, 
 which, if undestroyed, will nullify for them all the heavens of 
 creation. He will purify them from all unhallowed affections 
 and unlawful desires } give them the tastes and aptitudes of 
 heaven, the love of Christ, the hatred of sin ; and will then 
 give them to dwell in the place for which he has fitted them. 
 God is not willing that any should perish ; his unwillingness 
 is written upon the face of universal things ; but they who 
 come not to repentance, cannot but perish. In the day of the 
 flood, the door of the ark shall not be open ; if you insist upon 
 making God a liar, if you regard his prophesied wrath as a 
 fiction, you can surely reproach no one but yourself when you 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 355 
 
 find tliat he liath spoken truth. If you flatter yourself with 
 the idea that God will accommodate himself to your impious 
 unbelief, and falsify his own word to show that you were right 
 in viewing him as a liar, you do but evince the amazing and 
 persistent blindness of your nature. 
 
 October 22. — "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." — Job 
 xlii. 6. 
 
 It is difficult to conceive of higher testimony than that 
 which was borne to the character of Job. To be distin- 
 guished among a few, is as much honor as men generally dare 
 to aspire to. But the mere thought of being distinguished 
 above all men dwelling on the face of the earth, is enough to 
 intoxicate the soul of man. Now of Job, it was deliberately 
 stated, that there was not his like upon the earth, a perfect 
 and upright man, fearing God and eschewing evil. And by 
 whom was this testimony borne? By God himself, by the 
 Being that knew infallibly all men. And who can look upon 
 the character of Job without admiration ? His keen sensi- 
 bility to reproach, the agony caused by his dim intelligence of 
 what those providences signified, only served to bring out 
 more conspicuously his noble trust in God, his inextinguish- 
 able hopefulness. In the presence of his calumniators he held 
 fiist his integrity; without at all meaning to deny that he was 
 a fallible being dependent for all on the mercy of God, he yet 
 refused to admit their insinuations and allow that he had been 
 living the life of a hypocrite. But when God was revealed in 
 his glory, such a flood of light was poured upon his character, 
 that the least sin seemed too odious to contemplate, a burden 
 greater than his memory could bear. 
 
 As for thee, reader, tell me, hast thou ever been brought to 
 abhor thyself? A flush of indignation is thy response. The 
 very suggestion fills thee with disgust. pardon me, dear 
 
?j5G daily meditations. 
 
 reader ! It is evident that tliou art a mucli better man tlian 
 Job. He was — above all men that lived in bis day — a man 
 after God's own heart. But thou art greatly his superior. If 
 God looked down from heaven with so much satisfaction, when 
 Job inhabited this earth, if the divine words of commendation 
 were passed from angel to angel through all the celestial ranks ; 
 how must heaven be affected as it looks down upon thee ! If 
 tlie miseries of Job were appointed to thee, thou wouldst en- 
 dure them all with a patience and a piety surpassing those of 
 Job ! Else why dost thou declare that thou hast never known, 
 will never know, self-abhorrence ? 
 
 October 23. — ''Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he under- 
 standeth and knoweth me." — Jeremiah ix. 24. 
 
 This is an intellectual age. Of nothing do men boast more 
 than of their stupendous knowledge and sublime wisdom. 
 They play with worlds, the worlds of geology and astronomy. 
 But there are a great many competitors for fame ; and out of 
 thousands that seek to be glorified of men, scarce two or three 
 succeed in attaining an eminent place in the world's regard. 
 It is surprising that among the vast numbers doomed to disap- 
 pointment there should be so few led to inquire whether there 
 may not be honor to be obtained in some other quarter. 
 What think you — we would say to such a one — what think 
 you of gaining honor in the presence of the angels of heaven, 
 of clothing yourself with distinction among the sinless ones, 
 of obtaining an understanding that will qualify you to stand 
 close to the very throne of God ? 
 
 Imagine a temple of fame ; upon lofty seats are seen Plato, 
 Cicero, Goethe, Kant, Arago, Lamartine, Byron, Dante and 
 many others of the world's immortal ones ; an angel descends 
 from heaven with a chaplet of unfading glory; goes from one 
 to another of these applauded ones and finally leaves the tern- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 357 
 
 pie, cliaplet in hand ; at tlie foot of the steps he sees a poor 
 despised creature eating a crust of bread and softly murmur- 
 ing, with a heart full of joy, the name of the Crucified Friend 
 of man ; he greets him with the utmost respect and bestows on 
 him the chaplet. 
 
 October 24. — " The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away." — Job 
 i. 21. 
 
 But if he gave, why should he take away ? Why does he 
 resume what he has transferred to another ? But he has trans- 
 ferred nothing to another in such a sense that it has ceased to 
 be his own. The most exalted of created beings has nothing 
 whatever in this sense. The kingdom of God is a kingdom 
 where every inch of the soil belongs to the sovereign, where 
 all the property belongs to him, and where he is ever at perfect 
 liberty to dispose of everything as he will. And this arrange- 
 ment is not arbitrary, but gracious. He disposes of all things 
 with reference to the happiness of all. 
 
 Men insist upon being the sovereigns of what has been com- 
 mitted to them. They hold it for themselves and not for him. 
 Then when they lose it they gnash their teeth • they are with- 
 out consolation. What is worse than their loss, they see a ty- 
 rant upon the throne of the universe. As far as their own 
 misery is concerned, this tyranny is a real one. Viewing God 
 as a tyrant, and being ever in bitter conflict with his govern- 
 ment, it is the same to them, in respect to their wretchedness, 
 as though God were a tyrant. Therefore Christ says in the 
 parable : " Thou knewest that I was an austere man, gathering 
 where I had not strewed." Oh, what torment, what an ante- 
 past of future woe do men give unto themselves, when they 
 malign God in their thoughts ! 
 
 On the other hand, they who look upon all their possessions 
 as strictly speaking the possessions of God, and who cherish a 
 
358 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 perpetual readiness to yield everything at his command, sustain 
 no losses. They do not perhaps get broken into the habit of 
 parting company with loved and familiar things without a pang ; 
 but with the pang there is the consolation of knowing that 
 God has taken his own for some sufficient reason, and that a 
 God of boundless goodness still sits upon the throne of the 
 universe. 
 
 October 25. — "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed 
 upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." — 1 John iii. 1. 
 
 When by a divine rescript we are designated the sons of 
 God, a pledge is given that the following petition of Christ 
 shall be fulfilled in our behalf: " That the love wherewith thou 
 hast loved me may be in them." Christ is the Son of God ; 
 but we are to be exalted to his own height of glory and maj- 
 esty ; we are to sit with him upon his throne ; and it is to be 
 manifest to all the universe that we too are sons of God. He 
 has this pre-eminence over all, that he is what he is by virtue 
 of his own incomparable merit ; and we shall be what we shall 
 be by virtue of the same merit, not ours but his. When 
 Christ shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him 
 as he is. 
 
 There are so many mere honorary titles in this world, that 
 men are led to look upon the titles given in the word of God, 
 as also honorary. But this is a serious error. When God 
 gives titles, he bears testimony to the character of a man, 
 makes known the man's relation to Him, and gives an earnest 
 of what he intends to make of him. Christ gave Peter, in 
 the days of his instability, when he was like a wave, driven 
 with the wind and tossed, gave him even then the title of 
 Peter, or rock, foreshadowing what he intended to make of 
 him. 
 
 Beloved, we are now the sons of God, — called so and con- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 359 
 
 Btituted so. "We have consequently unlimited life, unlimited 
 wealth, unlimited privilege. Much has been bestowed, much 
 is yet to be bestowed. When God says to me, " Thou art my 
 son," he opens to me the door of an ascending stairway leading 
 up to his throne. By the grace of God the steps are there 
 before me and the liberty to ascend ; but every several step is 
 to be gained by an expanding faith, is to be conquered by the 
 grace of God in me. If I have feeble conceptions of what 
 God means bj calling me his son, I shall linger in the lower 
 steps ; if I have higher and more correct views I will run 
 boldly up the pathway of light. Let me believe that God has 
 gone as far as it is possible for God himself to go in the enun- 
 ciation of my privileges ; that he has told me to look upon 
 the seraphim and cherubim as no nearer to him than I myself 
 am or am to be ; that I have part and lot the most intimate in 
 all the glory, majesty, affluence, power and blessedness of God; 
 that my name is written along with his own over everything ; 
 that every being in the universe is commanded to love me 
 under pain of being accounted guilty of treason against the 
 Sovereign of the skies. I am a son of God, and therefore 
 the representative of the invisible God. The world indeed 
 knoweth us not, because it knew him not. But there is to be, 
 in an hour known to God, the manifestation of the sons of 
 God. 
 
 October 26. — " The Lord is good to alL" — Psalm cxlv. 9. 
 
 The Lord is good; — this is an independent proposition. 
 He is good to the good, to all the heavenly companies that do 
 his bidding, and rejoice in his government. That he should 
 be good to sinners of earth, habitually violating his precepts, 
 is a statement that goes far beyond the other. To a few of 
 them ? To thousands of them ? To all of them ? He has 
 so made mankind that it is impossible for the least of them 
 
360 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 to exist without countless specific acts of kindness shown by 
 God. Even corporeal life, what does it involve? Processes 
 of infinite number and variety. Was it an act of surprising 
 kindness on the part of Christ to give sight to the blind, and 
 is it nothing that God should this day continue to you this 
 wonderful faculty ? Is there any less wisdom, power or good- 
 ness displayed in the preservation of an organ than in the be- 
 stowing of it ? Physiology will tell you there is not. Look 
 then at your various faculties and members and susceptibilities 
 and tastes ; at your physical and mental endowments ; and un- 
 derstand that the multitude of God's thoughts towards you in 
 a single hour are so many that they could not be expressed in 
 the largest volume ever written. If you are afi'ected by this 
 consideration, then extend your gaze beyond yourself and see 
 the lines of relationship by which God has brought all things 
 to your door. In some far ofi" field you see grain growing, so 
 that in some future day that appetite of yours may be regaled. 
 And that grain is waited upon by universal nature. The very 
 stars have a commission to care for it. 
 
 God is thus good to all. AVere it not that he opened his 
 hand, the desire of no living creature would be satisfied. 
 Well, therefore, may the Psalmist say, " Let everything that 
 hath breath praise the Lord." Mankind, however, are far 
 from doing thus. Judging from the murmurs, loud com- 
 plaints, deep curses, reproaches, expressions of surprise, re- 
 pinings, sighs, groans, tears, looks of vexation and disappoint- 
 ment, from all the tokens of dissatisfaction that meet us on 
 every side, we can only conclude that men look upon God as 
 the very opposite of good to them. They have no mind for 
 the eulogy of God. " Let everything that hath breath praise 
 the Lord," says the Psalmist; but his exhortation is in vain. 
 The hearts of men may glow with admiration sometimes ; but 
 God is not the object. And nothing is gained by the aug- 
 mentation of benefits. Generally indeed the more marked the 
 
DAILY MEDITATION'S. 361 
 
 goodness of God to them, the less they are disposed to praise 
 him. What then is to be done ? Could the difficulty in their 
 heart be removed, could they be recovered from the dominion 
 of sin, then would they rejoice in him, and even the least 
 mercy would fill them with rapture. This is what God in his 
 goodness has done. He hath provided a Saviour, through 
 whom men may escape from that horrid heart of theirs which 
 swallows up the goodness of God like a mighty Maelstrom ; he 
 has commanded his gospel to be preached to every creature. 
 
 October 27. — "That where I am, there ye may be also." — John xiv. 3. 
 
 Lord, is this thy desire ? Didst thou take such a desire as 
 this to heaven with thee ? When thou wert parted from thy 
 disciples and a cloud was about to receive thee out of their 
 sight, were these sweet and love-expressing words still hover- 
 ing on thy lips ? When thou didst ascend up far above all 
 principality and power, and might and dominion, when the 
 hosts of heaven clustered gladly and adoringly around thee, 
 were thine eyes still fixed on us, and did the desire still pre- 
 dominate in thy heart, that where thou art, there we might be 
 also ? Did this desire still follow thee to the throne where 
 thou rulest heaven and earth ? Has it kept possession of thy 
 breast during all these ages? And now that thou art sur- 
 rounded by thy Daniels and Pauls, Elijahs and Johns, Abra- 
 hams and Peters, Luthers and Wesleys, Whitefields and Brain- 
 erds, is there this still wanting in the cup of thy blessedness, 
 namely, that we thy saints on earth should be with thee, where 
 thou art ? Then, 0, our loving Lord, help us to reciprocate 
 this desire, to set our afiections on high, to lay aside every 
 weight and run the race before us. Make us rapidly meet for 
 the inheritance of the saints in light. Walk with us in our 
 wilderness, that we may walk with thee in the place of thy 
 glory. 
 
362 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 October 28. — " I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou 
 shalt enlarge my heart." — Psalm cxix. 32. 
 
 God enlarges our heart by taking away from it the idea of 
 our own righteousness and of our own strength ; by taking 
 away from us hardness of heart and insensibiHty ; by deliver- 
 ing us from the oppressive fear of an oJGfended God ; by cast- 
 ing out a great deal of selfishness ; by breathing into us the 
 new life of faith in Christ, and making us buoyant with the 
 delightful assurance of God's uudeclining favor ; by the love 
 of God shed abroad in our hearts. 
 
 Then no wonder that we run the way of his commandments. 
 These are no longer grievous, for they are paired with prom- 
 ises ; and with every indication of duty there is an indication 
 of help. We run ; we have not now to be dragged. It is no 
 longer the place of task ; it is the place of pleasant commu- 
 nion and co-operation with him who has said, " Without me 
 ye can do nothing." The way of his commandments, is sim- 
 ply a way where love finds beautiful opportunities of express- 
 ing itself 
 
 But alas ! are there not many among us that need greatly 
 to have their hearts enlarged ? Their pace in the divine course 
 is not even a fast walk. What is it that chokes their hearts ? 
 Here is a brother, whose heart is choked, we have too much 
 reason to fear, by an all-absorbing and exclusive attachment to 
 " The Church f and who is not aware how unkind a part he 
 is acting toward that very branch of Christ's Church which 
 he thus ignorantly and injuriously idolizes. Here is a brother 
 whose heart is choked by a false charity which inclines him to 
 regard all men as pretty nearly safe, and not in need of his 
 self-denying efforts. How many have their hearts so occupied 
 by mercantile matters or political questions, that it is impossi- 
 ble for them to make haste in the doing of Christ's command- 
 ments. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 363 
 
 October 29. — "And rejoice in hope of the glory of God." — Romans 
 V. 2. 
 
 Happy the soul that is able to find its joy in the indulgence 
 of such a hope as this. Fallen man rejoices in hope of his 
 own glory; not of his own true glory, but of a false and 
 worldly glory, utterly disconnected with the glory of Grod. 
 That soul is already largely redeemed that has learned to iden- 
 tify its own interests with the glory of God. And this hope 
 shall be fulfilled ; nothing is more certain. The glory of God 
 must go forth triumphant one of these days, and conquer all 
 the detestable glory that men and devils have been bringing 
 like a pall of bedizened sackcloth over the face of universal 
 things. 
 
 The Christian is even now greatly conversant with the glory 
 of God ; but the more that he knows of it the more passion- 
 ately does he long for that moment when it shall be manifested 
 with all its appropriate sublimity ; when every eye shall see 
 it ; when the idolized ones of earth shall hide their heads in 
 caves and dens; when Christ shall be admired in his believers; 
 when they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, and their bodies 
 made like unto Christ's glorious body ; when the New Jerusa- 
 lem shall come down from God out of heaven, having " the 
 glory of God." 
 
 October 30. — " I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will 
 uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." — Isaiah xli. 10. 
 
 Even in the giving of promises, God has made manifest that 
 he giveth liberally and upbraideth not. The necessity of re- 
 iterating promises, is sometimes irksome to us ; we want people 
 to take us at our word. But God knows the stupendous 
 strength of unbelief in the heart of man. If a mountain of 
 granite is to be reduced to powder by successive strokes of an 
 instrument, there must be a vast number of strokes. If we 
 wish to form some conception of the nature of unbelief let 
 
364 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 US look at the miglity stores of promise accumulated with a 
 view to its overthrow. The guilt of it, who can tell ? God 
 says, " I will strengthen thee f yet we dare not go forward 
 without a weapon. He says, " I will help thee ;" yet we lie 
 down miserable if there be no provision in the house for the 
 morrow's wants. He says, "I will uphold thee;" yet we 
 shrink from taking up some responsibility pointed out to us by 
 him. " I will uphold thee," he says, " by the right hand of 
 my righteousness ; I pledge my own infinite ability that thou 
 shalt prevail ; I pledge my righteousness ; so that if I uphold 
 thee not, my righteousness remains to me no more : my justice 
 is forfeited ; I am become like the gods of the heathen, un- 
 holy, not to be relied on. Wilt thou make me such a one ?" 
 
 Oh, that Christians would consider how grossly they asperse 
 the character of God and misrepresent him to the world, by 
 failing to embrace and act upon these exceeding great and 
 precious promises. 
 
 October 31. — " I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." — Rom. i. 16. 
 
 This seems a very moderate declaration of attachment \ but 
 very few can go so far as this. The gospel of Christ is the 
 word that sets forth Christ. It is nothing apart from Christ. 
 As He is honorable, so is it ; as He is excellent, so is it. To 
 be ashamed of it, is to be ashamed of Him. 
 
 Are you ashamed to speak, look, and act in such a way as 
 to show your conviction that you and all men are lost sinners 
 until recovered by the grace of God ; and that you are depend- 
 ent upon this grace for all power to conquer sin, resist tempta- 
 tion, know the truth ? You flatter yourself that you are not 
 ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because when you are with 
 Christians, you laud Christ ; but on other occasions you keep 
 back the " one thing needful,'' and give unscriptural promi- 
 nence to the many things not vitally needful. Are you willing 
 
DxVILY MEDITATIONS. 365 
 
 to speak as Christ spoke ; to express the opinions expressed 
 by the Son of God ; to talk in promiscuous companies of the 
 necessity of cutting oflf a right hand, plucking out a right eye ; 
 to make mention of unquenchable fires, and a never-dying 
 worm ; to tell men that except they repent, they shall all like- 
 wise perish ; and to discourse of the mansions in the skies, and 
 the return of Christ to judge mankind ? If our conversation 
 is quite of another character, if reference to these things is 
 never or seldom made by us, is there not the strongest rea- 
 son to believe that we are ashamed of the gospel of Christ ? 
 In fact, the presence of gospel truth in very many societies 
 where Christians are frequently found, would be as startling as 
 the presence of Christ himself We are not even conscious of 
 the humiliating defeats that we, professors of the gospel, have 
 sustained. 
 
 November 1. — "Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous." — Psalm v. 12. 
 
 Having bestowed righteousness, thou wilt express thy plea- 
 sure in that righteousness. We should not need a revelation 
 from heaven to tell us this. It ought to be an unquestionable, 
 self-evident axiom, that God who has all gifts at his disposal, 
 will bestow his best, gifts upon those who please him most. 
 
 But there is none righteous, no, not one. Well, in the ab- 
 solute sense of the word, Christ is the only righteous one that 
 ever sojourned on this earth. He knew no sin. But they that 
 believe on him, their faith is counted to them for righteousness. 
 They receive of his fullness. Through him the unjust are 
 justified. Amd having been brought nigh to God, what is to 
 hinder that they should obtain deliverance from sin ? They 
 ask and receive. They are changed into the image of Christ, 
 God blesses them by bringing their wills into coincidence with 
 his own ; and then their ulterior blessedness becomes a thing 
 as inevitable as the eventual triumph of the will of God, 
 
 It is because a man has no goodness of his own on which to 
 31 « 
 
366 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 build any hope, that he is enabled so assuredly to anticipate 
 the very highest measure of blessedness of which it is possible 
 to conceive. For consider, the righteousness on which his 
 hopes are founded, is an infinite righteousness ; the merit of 
 all heavenly beings added together would make nothing ap- 
 proaching it. AVhile a man clings to the idea of his own 
 merit, he shrivels up his destiny into nothing 3 when he loses 
 that idea and knows nothing but the merit of Christ, crucified 
 for sinners, the Lord of all, his destiny expands into a roll like 
 that of the illimitable heavens, all written over with words of 
 beauty and of wealth. 
 
 " Thou^ Lord^ wilt hless the rigliteous." It does not becomo 
 a sovereign to bestow little favors. As Grod has shown forth 
 his eternal power and Godhead in creation, so in what he will 
 do for the righteous, he will take care that there be a magnifi- 
 cent and all-eclipsing display of his regard for righteousness. 
 
 What we need is, ever to believe that Grod ever remembers 
 -this purpose of his; and to say, in every situation of life, God 
 is blessing me, by preparing me for future blessing. While 
 Christ is preparing for me a place in heaven, he is preparing 
 me on earth for that place in heaven. There is, therefore, a 
 connection of the most intimate and necessary kind between 
 the disappointments, humiliations, losses, sorrows, afflictions 
 of the believer on earth, and the dignity, felicify, purity, 
 splendor, power, to be found by him at the right hand of 
 Christ. 
 
 November 2. — ''Unto you therefore -wliicli believe, he is precious." — 
 1 Peter ii. 7. 
 
 Before you, seated in the cavern of this world, the wizard 
 of this world causes to appear, one after another, scenes of 
 beauty, dissolving scenes that scarce have presented themselves 
 to your vision before they have gone, leaving you in darkness. 
 The wizard shows them to you that he may bind you to him- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 367 
 
 self forever. "All these things will I bestow upon you," he 
 says, " if you fall down and worship me." " The realities are 
 in my chambers," he says ; "I give them to whomsoever I 
 will." Infatuated man, madly pursuing these vanished vi- 
 sions, descends deeper and deeper into the region of death and 
 despair. Happy he, unutterably happy, if, ere it be too late, his 
 eyes be anointed with a celestial eye-salve and he discover that 
 all the glorious visions that ever darted across his path or il- 
 lumined his conceptions, when they dissolved as visions be- 
 came reconstituted as realities in Christ. Yes, this is the 
 wondrous knowledge that the believer obtains by faith. All 
 exquisite music died out in Christ, to live in him forever ; all 
 beautiful sunsets vanished not into night, but into the blessed 
 reality of Christ ; all lovely flowers faded to bloom perennially 
 in him ; the smile of youth, the look of love, the scintillation 
 of genius, the burst of eloquence, everything that lent a mo- 
 mentary radiance to life, has its apotheosis in Christ, is found 
 in him by the believer. 
 
 Christ is precious to me, because I believe that the beauty 
 and attractiveness of all admirable things owe their charm to 
 him, and yield their charm to him. They crossed my path 
 that they might speak to me of him. My enthusiasm stag- 
 gered like a drunken man in the pathway of this world, and 
 only knew its vocation when it discovered him. 
 
 When he cometh, the new Jerusalem cometh ; the paradise 
 of God cometh j the river of the water of life; saints; angels; 
 the new heaven ; the new earth; all beauty, all splendor, all 
 sanctity; the fruition of all right desires, the realization of all 
 lovely dreams ; love ; in a word all that is precious cometh ; nor 
 will it ever after be possible for me to conceive of a good not 
 found in the legion irradiated by his smile. 
 
3G8 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 November 3. — " Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God." — 
 Isaiah xl. 1. 
 
 And liow were the servants of God to comfort the people of 
 God ? By telling them of Christ. This became the burden 
 of Isaiah's prophecies, as recorded in the fortieth chapter and 
 onwards; and all the prophets his successors continued this 
 strain. This was the banquet that God saw fit to provide for 
 his ancient people. They demanded other comfort, and de- 
 manded in vain. AYhen Jesus himself appeared, they refused 
 to accept the comfort ; they saw no beauty in him that they 
 should desire him. They asked for one that should deliver 
 them from the Roman yoke; make them honorable and power- 
 ful above all nations; and spread a favoring mantle over all their 
 sins. They would none of God's comfort. But the banquet 
 which they scorned to honor with their presence, was not left 
 without guests ; the broken and contrite of all nations, the po- 
 verty-stricken, the sick, the blind, these came and partook ; 
 and lo ! they were comforted, they were made whole and 
 crowns of everlasting joy were seen upon their heads; while 
 the rejecters soon found themselves the poorest and unhappiest 
 in creation, deprived of the very shadows which they had pre- 
 fer^'ed to the substance. 
 
 We are to comfort God's people by presenting Christ to 
 them, and showing them their need of this very Messiah and 
 no other. And if they are unwilling to be comforted in this 
 Way, we are not at liberty to give them comfort in any other 
 way. Any other way is a way of delusion. 
 
 November 4. — "■ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days 
 of my life." — Psalm xxiii. 6. 
 
 When Love divine was about to follow Christ back to heaven, 
 he said, " Not so ; I am no more in the world, but these are in 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 369 
 
 the world." So this Love lias ever since tarried witli tlie people 
 of God. 
 
 The Christian knows that goodness and mercy shall go with 
 him all the days of his life, as two attendant angels. He 
 knows that they have followed him hitherto. But it is some- 
 times difficult for him to perceive that they are with him. 
 When Jeremiah was in that deep, dark dungeon, where there 
 was no water, but mire, it seemed as though goodness and 
 mercy had left him and gone to walk on the battlements of 
 Jerusalem. Men came to the border of that pestilential pit 
 and asked him mockingly where, those companions of his now 
 were. But Jeremiah's eyes getting accustomed to the darkness 
 soon discovered them there. They gave him some bread of 
 heaven to eat. Then when Jerusalem was taken, and the 
 proud enemies of the prophet were carried into captivity, Jer- 
 emiah remained in the land ) goodness and mercy followed him 
 all his days. Persecution is not so persevering as they are. 
 When Elijah was under the juniper-tree, goodness and mercy 
 awoke him and ministered unto him. " Why do you flee for 
 your life ?" they said ; " have we fled from thee ?" " I do 
 well to be angry," said Jonah, insulting these heavenly attend- 
 ants to their face. He said to goodness, " Thou art an impos- 
 tor, not goodness, but unkindness :" and to mercy, " Thou art 
 severity, thou hast no beauty, get thee gone." Did they follow 
 him still ? They sat down and said to him, " We will not go." 
 They might have spoken of the depths of the sea whither and 
 whence they had accompanied him ; but they spoke to him of 
 the much cattle that was in Nineveh, and of an immense num- 
 ber of innocent little children. 
 
 How often have I been ready to use the language of Jonah ; 
 how often frowned on these celestial ones, and motioned them 
 angrily away, because they would not take the form my fancy 
 painted : yet have they still followed me. Be astonished, 
 earth ! 
 
370 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 November 5. — "As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his 
 mercy toward them that fear him." — Psalm ciii. 11. 
 
 Perfect love castetli out fear ; but not the fear "here spoken 
 of. There is no torment in this fear. It is at home in com- 
 pany with the most unlimited confidence. The man that trusts 
 in God is the same as the man that fears God ; the two expres- 
 sions are convertible, and are over and over interchanged in 
 the word of God. Let the man that thinks he fears God, see 
 to it that he trusts in God : and let the man that thinks he 
 trusts in God, see to it that he fears God. 
 
 He fears God who has a high sense of the value of his 
 favor, and cannot bear that any cloud should come in for a 
 moment between his conscience and the smile of God. He 
 that is most assiduous in the endeavor to please God ; who is 
 most distressed at the thought of his displeasure ; he to whom 
 his commandments are not grievous ; who beholds with satis- 
 faction all the attributes of God ; he it is that fears God. You 
 observe that this fearer of God is in the enjoyment of God's 
 infinite mercy; so that the spring of his devotion is not the 
 apprehension of wrath. The love of God shed abroad in his 
 heart leads him to fear God. 
 
 How much David knew of the height of the heavens, what, 
 estimate he formed of the distance of the heavenly bodies, we 
 know not. Doubtless he viewed them as at distances more vast 
 than any that separate the different points of the earth's sur- 
 face. He would have heard with much surprise a statement 
 to the efiect that a journey of four hours performed at the rate 
 of the velocity of light, 200,000 miles a second, would take 
 us only to the outskirts of our system; a journey of three or 
 four years would take us to the first fixed stars ; a journey of 
 60,000 years would take us to the stars of a certain distant 
 nebula; and that we should even then be probably in the lower 
 parts of creation. What would have been the effect of such 
 a revelation as this, upon his mind ? His conceptions of the 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 371 
 
 power, wisdom, majesty, immensity of God, would have been 
 vastly augmented ; but think you that his conceptions of the 
 mercy of God would have not been elevated ? They would 
 have been elevated ; for the mercy of God is in the nature of 
 God ; grows as that grows upon us, expands as that expands 
 before us ; and when through Christ we have entered into 
 relation to it, every star becomes an exponent of it, every 
 insterstellar space a link in the endless chain that measures it. 
 
 November 6. — " As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he re- 
 moved our transgressions from us." — Psalm ciii. 12. 
 
 Among those who read the Bible, how small a proportion, 
 what an insignificant minority are the broken and contrite in 
 heart ! How rare a thing it is to see a man who is bowed down 
 beneath a sense of his sinfulness, and who finds it difficult to 
 conceive that there should ever be pardon for him ! How 
 small the number of such ! 
 
 Now see what honor God has put upon these few. A great 
 deal of his word seems to be intended just for them. God, so 
 to speak, passes by the crowds of those who are comfortable 
 in spirit and have an easy faith in the mercy of God, to come 
 to some poor faltering sinner and convince him of the freeness 
 and unmeasured fulness of divine mercy. You and I must 
 often see that the word of God is not troubling itself about 
 us, but about some deeply-convicted, hesitating, trembling soul. 
 
 November 7. — " Keep thy heart with all diligence." — Proverbs iv. 23. 
 
 Keep that which is good, in it ; that which is evil, out : 
 thoughts, feelings, purposes, imaginations, desires. Especially, 
 keep God's word in it. Quench not the Spirit. Cherish a 
 memory for what is good. Be as a gardener ; be as a banker. 
 
 For the mind is God's wonderful gift. 
 
372 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 As our tliouglits, so our words and acts. 
 
 As our thoughts, so our future life. 
 
 Be as the pilot. 
 
 Therniopylse. 
 
 Our peace easily destroyed by unwatchfulness. 
 
 God looks at the heart. 
 
 Has given us suitable objects to think about, — to love. 
 
 November 8. — " The water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well 
 of water springing up into everlasting life." — John iv. 14. 
 
 " Art thou able, Christ, to slake the thirst of my soul ? 
 Dost thou know what strength of desire there is in me ? Con- 
 sider what seas of goodness have, in the providence of Grod, 
 been poured upon me without in the least diminishing the 
 force of aspiration within me. Whatever is given, seems only 
 to stimulate my imagination and send it soaring a higher flight. 
 Thus it would appear that in the very nature of things I never 
 can know satisfaction. Give me everything that I can now 
 conceive of, and scarcely will I have looked upon it before my 
 conception has found its wings again ; and where my concep- 
 tion goes there also goes my desire. How then canst thou give 
 me water to quench the thirst of my soul ? Knowest thou 
 my. soul and her thirst ? Where hast thou that water ?" 
 
 He that formed thee knoweth thee. Thy conception cannot 
 exceed the conception of God ; must indeed, even in its wildest 
 flight, fall infinitely short of it. Thine is a conception of 
 desire ; his is a conception relating to the satisfaction of that 
 desire. Wonderful therefore as thou art in thy mental con- 
 stitution, gigantic as is the power of aspiration in thee, He 
 that made thee is infinitely more wonderful. It would indeed 
 have been the greatest mistake on his part, to make a creature 
 with a power of conception which he himself could not over- 
 take. He has made no such mistake as this. All his perfec- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 373 
 
 tions testify that lie is able to satisfy thee. Let it be therefore 
 firmly settled in your mind that there is no absolute and invin- 
 cible difficulty in the way of your blessedness. 
 
 There is a disordered thirst that nothing can assuage. The 
 torment remains, however often or abundantly you answer the 
 call of the patient for water. Oh, if you could give him some 
 water that would reach the seat of his disease, subdue his fever, 
 and recover him from that mad disordered thirst, you would 
 approve yourself the very physician that he needs. Now this 
 is what Christ does. He knows well that if he gave thee all 
 wealth, all luxury, all art, all renown, all success, all power, all 
 beautiful sights and sounds, yet would not these unbounded 
 largesses tend in the least to slake the thirst of thy soul for 
 happiness. But the water that he giveth thee, goes to thy 
 soul and cures the terrible disease that has made havoc of thy 
 life ; changes the character of thy desire ; causes to spring up 
 in thee emotions and affections corresponding to the wise and 
 loving thoughts of God -, and then satisfies these desires. 
 
 Has the water that Christ has given thee become, Chris- 
 tian, a well in thee ? Hast thou within thyself a well of pe- 
 rennial purity and bliss, of beautiful thoughts, delight in God, 
 willingness to do his will, peace, strength to resist temptation, 
 love to your fellow-men, anticipation of glory ? If there be in 
 thee this inexhaustible well of all that is desirable, then hast 
 thou enough not only for thyself, but for thy neighbors, for all 
 mankind in fact. Yes, if thou alone of all the family of man, 
 were in possession of such a well, from thee there might go 
 forth streams to make glad the entire face of earth, to satisfy 
 the entire wants of men. For this well in thee, is Christ in 
 thee. 
 
 November 9. — "A rewarder of them that diligently seek him." — He- 
 brews xi. 6. 
 
 It is a great moment in a man's life when he ascertains that 
 
374 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 he does not know God. The next step is to ascertain that one 
 ought to know God. After this a man may still go knocking 
 at many wrong doors ; but let us hope that he will at length 
 reach the right door, even the Bible, and conclusively set 
 himself to seek God therein. 
 
 If we want to know what it is to seek diligently, we need 
 no dictionary; we need only look aroun^ us; in every commu- 
 nity there are men who seem to have assigned themselves this 
 particular task of exhibiting in their own persons, what dili- 
 gence is. It is true they are not seeking God ; but having 
 seen with what consecration they seek their object, we shall be 
 at no loss to know what it is diligently to seek God. 
 
 Is it that the Lord conceals himself from us ? That he has 
 shut himself in from our gaze, like an oriental king, within 
 many enclosures ; and stationed cherubim with fiery swords at 
 every gate, to make it impossible for us to approach him? 
 Nay, not so. Whatever difficulties there are have not been 
 interposed by him, but by us. So far as God is concerned 
 there is a clear course before us. No man that ever lived in 
 the world enjoyed better opportunities of finding God than I 
 that write, or you that read this meditation. 
 
 He must be sous-ht with an undivided heart. He must be 
 
 o 
 
 the supreme object of search. To many he is but one object 
 of search out of many. They go out into the world seeking 
 various things, and bring home in their bag a hundred spoils 
 of earth, with one or two words of God at the bottom ; what 
 wonder if these words are stifled by the company they are 
 found in. In fact the words themselves flee away at the first 
 opportunity; they will not stay to breathe that fetid atmo- 
 sphere. A man that diligently seeks God, has renounced the 
 search of other things ; to this one port he hies him crowding 
 all canvass, watching all that favors, all that opposes; knowing 
 that the provision on board will suffice only so far as to that 
 port. To neglect the least gale that blows, to lose the least 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 375 
 
 current, to be overburdened witli cargo in the least degree, 
 may. involve the destruction of all. The commander of such 
 a vessel thinks of the port and of the means of reaching it, 
 while he eats, while he drinks, while he talks, while he sleeps 
 even ; his eye continually wanders from his chart to his com- 
 pass, thence to his sails, thence to the sky, thence to the sea, 
 thence to his men, thence to his chart again. 
 
 November 10. — "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." — Ge- 
 nesis xxxii. 26. 
 
 There is an erroneous idea of submission abroad in the 
 world. Quite likely, the error obtains in the Church to some 
 extent. There are many things in our condition here to 
 which we are simply called to submit. God has placed them, 
 and woe to him who would seek to displace them. But there 
 are other things which have been placed in our way expressly 
 that we might enter into conflict with them and overcome 
 them. There are difficulties placed in our path, to give us op- 
 portunities of evincing what faith, courage, perseverance, wis- 
 dom, energy, prayerfulness, devotedness are in us. God with- 
 holds some things from us, with a prohibition ; it is treason to 
 go on seeking them ; and he withholds other things, by way 
 of incitation ; that we may be stirred up to engage with all 
 faith and assiduity in the search for them; and that the con- 
 quest of them may be the reward of valiant and all-conquering 
 endeavor. 
 
 If we understand the Christian doctrine of submission, as 
 implying that we are to drag ourselves^feebly, faintly along 
 the pathway of life ; that there is to be no great forth-putting 
 of power in connection with us ; we understand it wrongl3\ 
 Because we are the servants of God, are we therefore to be 
 without energy, choice, decision, determination, perseverance ? 
 Is the voluntary part of our nature to be plucked up by the 
 
376 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 roots ? Is there nothing in the way of enterprise to challenge 
 the highest exercise of all our powers ? Surely there is. Be- 
 hold David, the Shepherd's boy. When he saw the bear and 
 afterwards the lion come near the flock, he did not say, " God 
 hath sent these, and it would be fool-hardy or sinful in me to 
 resist them," Perhaps he said, " God has sent these to prove 
 me, that I may show what courage and fidelity and faith are 
 in me,'' At all events he engaged them in the name of his 
 God and slew them. 
 
 When we ask and do not obtain, we are not always to sup- 
 pose that our suit is dismissed : sometimes we are simply chal- 
 lenged by the silence of God to be more urgent, more be- 
 lieving. The Syro-Phenician woman would have done wrong 
 had she gone away submissive, when Christ gave signs that 
 her prayer was not to be granted. By faith Jacob had power 
 with God and prevailed. Faith creates a new condition of 
 things, so that it becomes expedient for God to grant what 
 otherwise would have been withheld. He will say " No" to 
 less faith and " Yes" to more faith. All things are possible to 
 him that believeth. When we get nigh to God, let us make 
 the most of our advantage. Let us obtain great blessings not 
 only for ourselves, but for others. Let us view God as he is 
 revealed at the cross, and not care much for the apparent 
 frown of his providence, but contend with it and get the 
 better of it, by faith. 
 
 November 11. — "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise 
 of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." — 1 Timothy iv. 8. 
 
 The life that noio is. Covetousness reading this begins to 
 glow with delight; it exclaims, " This is the very thing I seek; 
 'the life that now is;' and of course 'that which is to come.' 
 Religion is a good thing after all ; I will give myself to it at 
 once." But the promise is not to thee, covetousness ; it is 
 to godliness. It is to the soul in which covetousness is dead ; 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 377 
 
 to the godly soul, whicli says, " One thing is needful ;" whose 
 affections are set on things above ; which looks upon the favor 
 of God as life, and upon worldliness as death. This promise 
 is to the follower of Christ who has taken up his cross and co- 
 venanted to abandon the paths of worldly pleasure. Yes; the 
 promise of the life that now is can only be made to him who 
 has learned to look upon life as a means of serving God, glori- 
 fying Christ, revealing the truth and working out salvation. 
 He that is absorbed in the life that now is, loses both this life 
 and that which is to come ; he that is godly, that lives unto 
 God, gains this life and that which is to come. Gains this 
 life, because his sorrow is worth, a hundred times over, the 
 joy of the ungodly; his life is not a prey to vanity; his days 
 are so many steps toward a blissful condition ; and God ap- 
 proves. Gains it, because all things work together for his 
 good; — gains it, because all the promises are his; he has 
 peace ; he has joy, love, humility, purity, and a hope that will 
 not fail him. 
 
 November 12. — "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them 
 that fear him, and delivereth them." — Psalm xxxiv. 7. 
 
 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but out of them 
 all the Lord delivereth them. If wordly men are competent 
 to effect the deliverance, the Lord accomplishes it by them. 
 If saints are needed, saints are employed. If the impedi- 
 ments cannot be removed in this way, if supernatural aid is 
 necessary, then the augels receive their commission. If an 
 army of these invincible ones are needed, they are sent, and 
 under the guidance of their leader they encamp around about 
 the imperilled believer. If the work to be performed is be- 
 yond the prowess of any created beings, the Omnipotent Spirit 
 hastens to put forth his irresistible energies in behalf of his 
 servant. 
 
 All our biographies are necessarily very imperfect. \^q 
 32* 
 
378 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 have not in tliis world the materials for writing them. The 
 most remarkable incidents have to be omitted, or just sha- 
 dowed forth, as the documents relating to the operations of 
 one's invisible attendants are not with us, but in the other 
 world. If only our eyes were opened, like those of the ser- 
 vant of Elisha, to behold these celestial auxiliaries with their 
 fiery chariots ! 
 
 November 13. — "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." — Jere- 
 miah xxxi. 3. 
 
 God considered that this life of ours is very short, very fu- 
 gitive, and that crowd it as he might with expressions of his 
 kindness, he never would be able to give anything like a suf- 
 ficient revelation of his love. So he resolved to take rtme 
 beforehand, a great deal of it, and fill all heaven and earth, 
 from the very beginning on continuously, with the manifesta- 
 tions of his love to the creature that was to live in this our 
 day, was to hover for a little about the middle of this century, 
 and then be gone. When by the recovering grace of Christ 
 we have been brought to take delight in the knowledge of the 
 love of God, we find that God was mindful of us, in the far 
 off days of a by-gone eternity; and myriads of years ago 
 placed in the depths of space suns, whose rays swift-travelling, 
 should reach our locality in our day, and assure us that he 
 thought of us when the morning stars first sang together. lie 
 thought of us; and scarce had the transgression of Adam 
 brought a curse upon the world in which we were to have ex 
 istence, when God hastened to announce that in the fulness of 
 time, his own Son should come into the world, and absorb in 
 his own person the manifold curse. If we labor in vain to find 
 the beginning of this love, much more shall we labor in vain 
 to learn the' future duration of it. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 379 
 
 November 14. — "I will put my law in their inward parts and write it 
 in their hearts." — Jeremiah xxxi. 33. 
 
 The law of God is written in our hearts, when it is the best 
 expression of our desires, the best description of our tastes 
 and affections, the best enunciation of our resolutions, the true 
 exponent of our faith, the most conspicuous thing in our mem- 
 ories. It is written in our hearts, when our words give utter- 
 ance to it in thousand fold modulation ; when our acts embody 
 it; when our influence is its influence. When Christ abides 
 in our heart by faith, then is the law written in our hearts. 
 When we are led by the Spirit of Grod. When we call our- 
 selves unprofitable servants and repudiate our own righteous- 
 ness. When the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by 
 the Holy Ghost given unto us. 
 
 November 15. — "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." — 
 Psalm XXV. 14. 
 
 Of the fear here so honorably spoken of, suffice it now to 
 say that it is not by any means a sentiment that repels from 
 God, but on the contrary one that draws to God. They that 
 fear the Lord, in the honorable and Scriptural sense, are they 
 who are powerfully affected by the promise here given. To 
 the great majority of men, alas, to many who assume the name 
 of Christians, the promise here recorded possesses no charm. 
 Their spirits are no way stirred within them by the prospect 
 of being made the confidants of God. They shall not be his 
 confidants. This singularly exalted condition is, for them to 
 whom is the promise, like a day-star arising in the heart, — like 
 a cynosure drawing them patiently, perseveringly, earnestly on 
 in the pathway of obedience, faith and love. Abraham was 
 the friend of God; and God approved himself a friend indeed; 
 he would, not hide from him the thing which was hidden from 
 all the rest of the world. Moses too was the friend of God, 
 
380 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 and broiiglit into surprising intimacy ; the secret of the Lord 
 was with him. " Henceforth," said Christ to the apostles, " I 
 call you not servants but friends; for all things whatsoever I 
 have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you." 
 
 And doubtless there are those now upon the earth who re- 
 cline as it were upon the bosom of their Lord and drink in 
 his most secret communications, unintelligible to others. They 
 partake of hidden manna. " To him that overcometh, Christ 
 giveth a white stone, and in the stone a new name written 
 vvhich no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it." 
 
 But, in Christ is not the veil done away, so that we all with 
 open face behold the glory of the Lord ? Yes, but we do not 
 all behold all glory. The degrees of glory are in number in- 
 finite. Great is the mystery of godliness ; and veil after veil 
 must be removed before we shall see him as he is. Perhaps 
 there is nothing we all so much need to learn as this, that there 
 is something beyond, of which our past experience is not able 
 to give us any conception. The mystery that lies before us we 
 are not conscious of: we are conscious of what we know, not 
 of what we do not know. It is a great thing to be brought to 
 see the veiled glory before us in our path; to get the concep- 
 tion of an attainable intimacy that is much beyond anything 
 we have known. 
 
 Men may pervert ; Satan may counterfeit ; but the word of 
 God remains in its integrity for the children of God. The 
 secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. Not in the 
 way of some new revelation, extra-scriptural; but by opening 
 their eyes to behold wonderful things in the word of God; 
 things that ordinary eye hath not seen, ear not heard, heart 
 not conceived. 
 
 November 16. — " Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy 
 blood." — Revelation v. 9. 
 
 Men of this world look with ineffable scorn upon the cus- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 381 
 
 toms, sentiments and language of those whose chief pleasure 
 is in celebrating the dying love of Christ, crucified for sinners. 
 They detest, they loathe the language of many of our hymns ; 
 for example, such lines as these : • 
 
 " Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood 
 Shall never lose its power, 
 Till all the ransomed church of God 
 Be saved, to sin no more." 
 
 Religion in some sober and decorous form, (they say) we 
 revere ; but this canting Methodism with its absurd vocabu- 
 lary, ringing the changes on such expressions as — Lamb, bleed- 
 ing Lamb, wounded side, dying love, fountain filled with blood, 
 lover of my soul, precious Redeemer, — this insane and drivel- 
 ing piety we cannot away with. They would flee away from a 
 prayer meeting, where these and similar expressions were ut- 
 tered in hymns or prayers. Suppose, as they fled from such a 
 place, the apostle John should meet them, seize them by the 
 hand and hurry them into a chamber of such stupendous di- 
 mensions that it was impossible for any finite eye to discover 
 either the walls or the ceiling ; bathed in an unearthly radi- 
 ancy; redolent with odors issuing from golden vials; inter- 
 penetrated with the seraphic melody of countless golden harps, 
 and the harmonious chants of myriads of voices; and should 
 bring to their notice that these beatified myriads were engaged 
 in adoring the same being whom those Christians were praising, 
 and addressing him, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, in 
 the very same — the identical language that they had found so 
 ofitensive in that first assembly. Would this sufl&ce to convince 
 them that the wrong taste, the fallacious judgment, the insanity 
 are on their part rather than on that of the psalm-singing 
 Christians ? 
 
382 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 November 17. — "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh 
 about, seeking whom he may devour." — 1 Peter v. 8. 
 
 The reference here would seem to be to the efforts made to 
 intimidate the followers o^ Christ, by penal enactments, san- 
 guinary edicts, or by popular violence. The early Christians 
 were summoned before magistrates and commanded to renounce 
 the faith they had embraced or had shown themselves ready to 
 embrace, by some unequivocal act of homage to a heathen di- 
 vinity or to the image of the emperor. Satan made himself 
 as terrible as possible, saying, " Cast away your confidence, or 
 I will tear you limb from limb." But it was not by resisting 
 him that men were devoured ; it was by succumbing to him. 
 They that were terrified by his roar, and driven from the ob- 
 noxious path, became his prey. Though we have no Roman 
 Emperors to launch against us withering edicts, yet the adver- 
 sary has not by any means ceased to go about as a roaring lion ; 
 he still deals in intimidation. Thousands are hindered from 
 coming out of the world by his monitory roar, which threatens 
 them with the wrath of the world if they have anything to 
 do with the life of faith. Sometimes the consciousness of sin 
 is made the means of producing alarm. The convinced sinner 
 is made to see his sins standing like so many genii of tremen- 
 dous stature and intolerable wrath along the pathway of re- 
 demption. The aim of the adversary, in these loud heart- 
 melting roars, is to drown the still small voice of the Spirit 
 of Grod, so that we may not hear the assurance of divine help 
 and infallible deliverance. The adversary roars now like a 
 lion ', but if we meet him, he becomes less and less a lion, and 
 eventually takes to ignominious flight; but the Spirit of God, 
 speaking like a dove, if we refuse to hearken to him, shall 
 finally be heard in a voice louder than ten thousand thunders, 
 shall come to us clothed in all the wrath of the Lamb ; and 
 who shall then be able to stand, what heart shall then endure? 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 383 
 
 November 18. — "Mark the perfect man and behold the upright; for 
 the end of that man is peace." — Psalm xxxvii. 37. 
 
 We are here called upon to observe the providential wisdom 
 and faithfulness of God, shown in his care of the good. "We 
 are not merely to glance at these good ones, but to keep our 
 eye upon them ; for though God's providence may, for a season, 
 appear to be adverse to them, yet at the end it will be found 
 that he has led them carefully by his all-righteous hand. Not 
 that they will die in affluence, in splendor, or in great worldly 
 honor ; but they shall exhibit their sure trust in God by a 
 tranquil and serene deportment, by a heavenly peace, by a 
 prayer breathed for their enemies in the very hour when they 
 are stoned to death. 
 
 But there are many who say, " Show us the perfect man ; 
 let us see the upright man ; we look for such in vain.'^ We 
 answer, The Judge of all the earth sees some whom he is wil- 
 ling thus to designate ; it is a reproach to you, if you know 
 them not. He says not, the perfect angel, but the perfect man; 
 in other words, the sinner, who has turned from the error of 
 his ways, and become, in most important respects, what God 
 would have him to be. The eye of God, wandering over the 
 outspread ranks of humanity, reposes at length upon one who 
 having recognized his deep-dyed guilt, his imminent danger, 
 and fled for refuge to the Redeemer, has consecrated himself 
 to God, identified himself with the cause and with the people 
 of God, and given himself to the study and pursuit of perfec- 
 tion. Such are living epistles, known and read of all men ; 
 by their lives religiously condemning, convincing, inviting, 
 persuading others. Their testimony, like that of the word of 
 God, is disliked and spoken against. 
 
 If indeed you have sincerely looked and looked in vain, then 
 be alarmed at the thought of the evil days upon which you 
 have fallen. For such men are the salt of the earth ; and 
 when they are withdrawn, swift destruction cometh. If there 
 
384 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 are none such, how much reason is there that you and I should 
 seek by the grace of God, to be such. 
 
 November 19. — "He that overcometh shall inherit all things." — Reve- 
 lation xxi. 7. 
 
 Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, says Christ, 
 Except a man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be my dis- 
 ciple. Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. 
 Give us this day our daily bread. We are crucified unto the 
 world and the world unto us. 
 
 Naturally, we grasp at all. We embrace with our hands all 
 that we possibly can, and embrace the rest with our desires. 
 What we are not able to inscribe with our name as possessor, 
 we inscribe with our name as candidate. Now, when we go 
 over to Christ, we have to detach ourselves from all this. We 
 renounce all. We bring the little of the world that we pos- 
 sess, and the remainder of the world that we longed after, and 
 lay all down at the feet of Christ. By faith we learn to be- 
 hold all excellence in him, and to find our world in him. When 
 perfected in this we inherit all things. 
 
 It is a dishonorable thing for the sons of God to be co-part- 
 ners with ungodly men ; and the ungodly possess this earth 
 and the thino-s that are therein ; the deo-radation of sin has 
 passed like a tremendous wave over the whole globe, and ren- 
 dered all unfit for the people of God. But a day cometh when 
 the wicked shall be driven hence ; when a new heaven and a 
 new earth shall appear ; then the saints shall inherit all things. 
 The idea of possession current in this base world, involves the 
 idea of privation for others. We only possess when others do 
 not possess. But in the world to come of which we speak, it 
 is very different. Nothing is so much deprecated there as ex- 
 clusive possession. A thing is there only possessed when all 
 possess it. It is the world of love, and nothing else is called 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 385 
 
 gain tliat involves privation for others. What makes this in- 
 heritance of all things so entrancing, is that many others in- 
 herit with us. Their joy, their glory, their wealth, are the 
 most important elements in our joy, glory and wealth. 
 
 November 20.—" The God of all comfort."— 2 CorintMans i. 3. 
 
 God is represented to us as the God of all patience and con- 
 solation, the God of peace, the God of hope, the God of grace, 
 the God of comfort, all expressions denoting his relations to 
 his people, and designed to reveal him to them as the all-suf- 
 ficient and inexhaustible fountain of peace, patience, and com- 
 fort. As often as the word comfort is mentioned, and how 
 often it is ! our thoughts should be spontaneously turned from 
 the petty, the misnamed comfort of earth, to the infinite Com- 
 forter. Do we know him as the God of all comfort ? 
 
 He brought his people out of Egypt; removed them from 
 the land of Goshen to the wilderness ; from their homes, their 
 hearths, their associations, their accustomed board, to a waste 
 and howling wilderness, where no fields waved with plenty, 
 where no fertilizing and gladdening streams were seen, where 
 the sun smote them by day, and wild beasts prowled by night. 
 Was he in this a God of comfort ? Many of them thought 
 not, they murmured against him. Yet their descendants 
 through all generations, regarded this act of God as an amaz- 
 ing proof of his love : as indeed it was. In the absence of 
 earthly comforts, the sufiiciency of God came out gloriously. 
 No people were ever more tenderly cared for than they were. 
 He led them with the gentleness of a good shepherd. He 
 would very soon have brought them into a land flowing with 
 milk and honey, had they sufiered him. 
 33 
 
386 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 November 21. — "The Lord taketh pleasure in his people." Psalm 
 cxlix. 4. 
 
 If this world should resolve to send an embassy to the most 
 high God, whom would it choose ? Well, the princes of this 
 world would be represented ; the brother of some Czar, or the 
 nephew of some Emperor would go for them. The bishops 
 and high clergy would be represented by some legate of ample 
 wealth. The literary world would send some Goethe, or Con- 
 fucius, or Plato. The merchants would send a Rothschild. 
 The artists would find a Raphael. There would be an ermined 
 judge and a decorated physician. The military would send a 
 Hannibal, the transcendentalists a Kant. All orders would be 
 represented. But if, as the servant of some one of this com- 
 pany, a meek and lowly Christian might obtain permission to 
 go, this one alone of all the company would be permitted to 
 enter the audience-chamber of God. He taketh pleasure in 
 such, not in the wise, the noble, the wealthy, the mitred. Like 
 him may we learn to take pleasure in such. 
 
 NoTEMBER 22. " This is the promise that he hath promised us, even 
 eternal life." 1 John ii. 25. 
 
 Not that we shall be exempt from loss^ disappointment, sick- 
 ness, human unkindness, embarrassment, vexation, insult, defa- 
 mation, humiliation ; not that we shall have in this world all 
 the displays of providential favor on which we may have cal- 
 culated; these are not the things promised; the promise 
 that he hath promised us is eternal life. God may have dealt 
 strangely with thee, my soul ; but say frankly, has he at all 
 dealt with thee in a way to hinder the fulfilment of the prom- 
 ise made thee ? 
 
 We are saved by hope. He that believeth hath eternal life; 
 he hath entered upon it; he is living a new life, one that 
 stretches out into eternity; but what he has experienced is 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 387 
 
 I 
 only the beginning of it. We know not yet what we shall 
 
 be ; as the infant little knows what is the life it possesses, what 
 its endowments, its susceptibilities, its privileges. 
 
 This promise of eternal life is the door opening out from 
 the gloom of this world into the ever-blooming paradise of 
 God. To the common ear of man it is an empty sound. Men 
 care nothing for eternal life, because they know nothing of 
 life. A man must have experience of life before he can hail 
 with rapture the promise that that life shall be eternally his. 
 What is life ? Life in God is life. A vital conscious union 
 of the soul with God through Christ; so that the individual 
 is transferred to God ; his body, his soul, his understanding, 
 his affections, his desires, his purposes, all under the direction 
 of God ; not in such a way as to diminish in the least his in- 
 dividuality, his voluntariness ; but to enhance it, refine it, per- 
 fect it ; this is life. Now with regard to the mere life of the 
 body, hardly any one has it in perfection ; death and decay 
 have set their marks on all. Of even the merely corporeal 
 life of paradise, we have but a faint shadow. Similarly, with 
 regard to those who have entered upon eternal life, spiritual 
 life is with them a matter of degree ; one has it in one degree, 
 one in another ; but who has it in perfection ? According to 
 the degree in which we possess it, does the simple promise of 
 eternal life seem to us a sufficient dowry; a talisman under 
 the influence of which deserts are no longer deserts to us, pri- 
 vations no longer privations. 
 
 Eternal life and all things essentially conducive to it ; such 
 is our portion. Sometimes Satan may creep into our imagina^ 
 tion and persuade us that some bright and beautiful phantom, 
 some lovely creation wrought out of the stuff that rainbows 
 are made of, is absolutely necessary to the web of our eternal 
 life, and then we cling to it with something of the tenacity of 
 our love to Christ ; Satan laughs, but we awake in spite of 
 him, and notwithstanding the scar at heart, soon satiate our- 
 
388 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 selves with that better portion, now better understood. God 
 builds the bridge by which we pass into the unclouded region 
 of eternal life, stone by stone, as we step by step advance; 
 every day he lays down the stone on which we are that day to 
 put our foot. Some beholding the far-stretching morass before 
 them and discerning no bridge, refuse to advance ; they wait 
 for Grod ; but God has put down a stone for them, and will 
 add no other until they have begun to walk. 
 
 November 23. — " Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." 
 Psalm ex. 3. 
 
 Voluntarily, heartily following thy banners ; volunteering to 
 yield their substance, to forsake their hearths, to fight the good 
 fight of faith. In that day there will be no constraint or dis- 
 traint; no legal enactments to maintain a ministry; no politi- 
 cal alliance, no dependance on the state. The willingness of 
 Christ's people will afford all the scope that is requisite for 
 the manifestation of Christ's power. Then shall be heard a 
 loud voice exclaiming, " Now is come salvation, and strength, 
 and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ." 
 The great dragon, that old serpent, is cast out, when there is 
 no longer aught intermediate between Christ and his people : 
 when his servants are willing to recognize him as their own 
 Master. 
 
 Oh, reader ! Brother or sister, hast thou anything of the 
 spirit that animated Isaiah in the hour when he said, " Here 
 am I, send me ?" How few there are that have wills like the 
 will of Christ. How difficult it is to find a workman for Christ 
 when the work is at all difficult. How long must we advertise 
 for a missionary to go out into the highways and hedges, that 
 he may constrain men to come in. But when the work is of a 
 less trying character, the emoluments greater, how many can- 
 didates we have. Oh, what an unwilling age it is, with all its 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 389 
 
 boasted piety. All tlie world's promises must be mingled witli 
 the promises of Christ, in order to induce Christians, what we 
 call Christians, to do some special work for Christ. Christ and 
 the king must go into partnership, then men will enlist under 
 the banners that are called by kingly courtesy the banners of 
 Christ. Oh, the dread blindness that has fallen upon us all. 
 When, oh, when shall there be found a willing people for 
 Christ ? Men that shall say with Paul, " I do this thing wil- 
 lingly," and give proof of what they say ? A Church volun- 
 tarily contributing, laboring, preaching, abstaining, and in a 
 word, accomplishing all the functions of a Church, uncon- 
 strained, and purely because Christ wills it ? 
 
 November 24. — "His truth shall be thy shield and buckler." — Psalm 
 xci. 4. 
 
 When the adversary heard, by the waters of Jordan, a voice 
 from heaven exclaiming, " This is my beloved Son in whom I 
 am well pleased," he started like one who suddenly discovers a 
 hostile army in the heart of his dominions. Fast he followed 
 him on whom the Lord had lain help, followed him to the wil- 
 derness, and rained upon him those missiles by which he had 
 conquered in ten thousand battles. He said to himself no 
 doubt, " Adam was the Son of Grod and bore the image of 
 God ; was I not victorious over him ? Who is this that Com- 
 eth down from God out of heaven ? and what is his armor ?" 
 His armor was simply the word of God. This was his shield 
 and buckler ; and all the fiery darts of the adversary were 
 hurled in vain. The shield by which Christ came victorious 
 out of his combats with the prince of the power of the air, 
 he took not away with him to heaven, but left for his people. 
 Satan gnashes his teeth when he sees it in the hand of some 
 puny stripling, a candidate for heaven; for it tells him of 
 maddening defeats sustained by him of old. Yes, thou little 
 
390 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 one, thou hast a buckler of amazing virtue ! If the shield of 
 Achilles was sung by Homer, who shall sing the praises of thy 
 shield ? 
 
 This shield has strange properties. It is only against the 
 adversaries of the Lord that it is of any avail. It is only a 
 follower of Christ that can lift it. It is only while one walks 
 in the appointed path that he can lift it ; let him turn to the 
 right hand or the left, and immediately it becomes heavy as 
 iron. What a sad spectacle to see a poor deluded being drag- 
 ging it after him with all his might. Instead of a shield it is 
 to him a fearful incumbrance. Not there, not there, my friend ! 
 Come to the king's highway j then will it be to you a shield 
 indeed ! 
 
 NoYEMBER 25, — " grave, where is thy victory ?" — 1 Corinthians 
 XV. 55. 
 
 In great cities we find monumental arches, columns, obelisks 
 and tablets, telling of victories won by man over man ; but 
 death writes his name loftily on all these, saying, " Man's vic- 
 tories are my victories." But the monumental trophies of 
 death are found in all cities great and small, in all places, in 
 fact. Death lords it everywhere and over all. Scarcely has 
 humanity begun to put on nobility or virtue in any quarter, 
 before death appears and sweeps away the excellent object, 
 terrifying the stricken admirers with the display of its pro- 
 digious power. 
 
 Yet we make bold to say, " Where is thy victory, O grave ? 
 Where, death, thy sting ?" We tell death to the face that 
 the captives whom he has apparently taken are not to be found 
 in his chambers. In fact we can point to them in mansions 
 where death has no admission. We can show the Son of God, 
 once dead on Calvary, standing at the right hand of the Maj- 
 esty on high. And with him the saints redeemed from the 
 earth, the noble, the beautiful, the virtuous, dwelling in habita- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 391 
 
 dons not made with hands, clothed in purity, exempt from 
 pain and sorrow, and not at all despondent because of their 
 mortal remains sleeping in dust. How art thou become a pic- 
 ture of confusion, death, standing there with a crumbling 
 bone in thy hand and looktng at a celestial being walking amid 
 the groves of the New Jerusalem, once connected with earthly 
 life by that bone, now wearing many crowns of perfection be- 
 stowed by him who died and rose again ! After having con- 
 quered all, behold, thou art thyself conquered, and a new in- 
 violable life given to those who once succumbed to thee. Be- 
 hold the keys of death and hades are in the hands of our Lord ; 
 and what wonder if hereafter thou shouldst be compelled to 
 restore even the dust of the once dead. Sweep as thou wilt 
 with thy scythe from pole to pole ; there is a sword impending 
 over thee. Thou thyself shalt die. What canst thou do to 
 him whose life is hid with Christ in God ? He will sit upon 
 a throne in the day when thou shalt be driven to darkness. 
 
 November 26. — " Them also who sleep in Jesus, -will God bring with 
 him." — 1 Thessalonians iv. 14. 
 
 The Jews who gnashed with their teeth on Stephen, hurried 
 him forth without the walls of Jerusalem, and stoned him to 
 death with a fury like that with which they had crucified his 
 master and forerunner, would have been confounded to learn 
 that the stoned Stephen was after all not dead, but sleeping a 
 heavenly and exquisite sleep. They will see him when he 
 awakes ; when he comes forth again, his spirit from the cham- 
 bers of the skies, his dust from the chambers of earth j when 
 Stephen, with his face shining indeed like that of an angel, 
 cometh with the thousands of saints and with the king of 
 saints. This sleep of the righteous is simply with reference 
 to this world ; they are disrobed for a season from this visible 
 scene ; they are in a slumber so that we cannot hold converse 
 
392 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 witli them. Their awakening has also reference to this earth ; 
 they are to come again with powers sublimely recruited. But 
 while asleep with reference to us, they are awake with refer- 
 ence to heaven. They are with the spirits of just men made 
 perfect. 
 
 The advent we look for is the advent of all the good. Yie 
 look back to them in history; we look forward to them in 
 prophecy. Their advent will be a baptism of fire for this 
 earth. Heaven will come with them. The throne of Grod 
 with them ; Christ with them. Shall we be there ? When 
 the Lamb's book of life is opened, shall our names be read 
 off? If we now live in Jesus, we shall sleep in Jesus, and 
 afterwards appear with him in glory. 
 
 November 27. — " I am he that liveth and was dead." — Revelation i. 18. 
 
 Yes Lord, the fact of thy death is an inextinguishable fact. 
 Nothing is more impossible, more inconceivable, than that the 
 prints of the nails should be effaced from thy hand, the mem- 
 ory of thy agony from thy heart or from thy Father's heart, 
 the chants of angels and redeemed ones die out and leave no 
 echo in heaven. The story of the cross has indeed inwoven 
 itself with all existences ; the whole universe has bathed in it 
 and got a richer life. Thy death is the expression of divine 
 love to me; and I have consequently a most profound interest, 
 in the memorials of that death. Thy cross does not merely 
 tell of God, but of me ; of Grod's love to me ; and when thou 
 sayest, " I am alive for evermore," that is the same as saying, 
 God's love for me liveth for evermore. God and I live together 
 in thee. The story of the cross is the story of me; it is my 
 name and my magnificent destinies that are inwoven with 
 all existences, mentioned in all chants of heaven. There is 
 not an angel of heaven that would venture to remain ignorant 
 of me. For, Christ tasted death for me. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 393 
 
 November 28. — "My mercy will I keep for him for evermore." — Psalm 
 Ixxxix. 28. 
 
 Ever bestowed, never exhausted. The vessel that contains 
 it is one that can never be eusptied. God himself is a vessel 
 of mercy to communicate mercy to me ; and I am a vessel of 
 mercy to receive that mercy. To say that God will keep mercy 
 is to say that God will keep himself. There is mercy in him • 
 and I am its object. Mercy first makes me an appropriate 
 object for itself, and ever after keeps me so. I can say to my 
 soul, " Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years : 
 laid up too in a granary safer than any granary of earth ; 
 enough for thy wants in time and in eternity ; eat, drink, and 
 take thine ease. Eat the food of angels ; drink the water of 
 life ; experience the true rest of the soul in Christ." 
 
 November 29. — " The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for him- 
 self."— Psalm iv. 3. 
 
 Set him apart by making him godly ; teaching him to set 
 his affections upon things above ; to hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness ; to count all things worthless in comparison with 
 the excellency of the knowledge of Christ; to meditate dny 
 and night in God's word ; to cultivate a prayerful habit of 
 mind ; to delight in the society of the people of God ; and to 
 hold all personal interests of trivial moment in comparison with 
 the interests of the Gospel, the extension of Christ's kingdom, 
 the salvation of souls. Take a worldly man in the midst of 
 worldly companions; with them seeking now pleasure, now 
 wealth, now renown; with them despising the Bible and the 
 men that reverence it. Let now an arrow from the quiver of 
 the Almighty, an arrow dipped in the blood of the Lamb, wing 
 its way to his heart. Suddenly a mighty revolution is wrought 
 in that heart. Kepentance creates a perfect anarchy, and faith 
 erects the throne of God ; he is now a new man, a godly man. 
 
394 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 He begins with joy to relate his new experiences to his com- 
 panions ; they listen with amazement ; draw off to a little dis- 
 tance to see if the fit will pass ; and when they find him a 
 veritable believer, an enthusiastic and incurable servant of 
 Christ, they flee far from him as though he were a leper. It 
 is not that he is alienated from them, that he takes no longer 
 an interest in them ; he takes, it is likely, a deeper interest in 
 them than ever he did before; but his new feelings, aims, 
 tastes are such as they cannot at all sympathize with. Thus 
 he is set apart. 
 
 But he is set apart for the Lord. For the Lord to bless. 
 To receive the manifestations of Grod. To understand the de- 
 signs of God. To be comforted by the promises of Grod. To 
 be the servant of God, his witness, his steward, his son. To 
 declare the Gospel. To be the depository of the Holy Spirit. 
 To suffer. To be poor in spirit. To search the word. To 
 run the race of glory. To come off conqueror. To inherit 
 all things. 
 
 Perhaps, reader, you are not thus set apart. You are at 
 home in the world, and the world is at home with you. You 
 are of it. There is nothing that jars in your intercourse with 
 it. And perhaps you know of some one that is set apart from 
 you and your world. You feel that there is a wall betwixt 
 him and you, a high impracticable wall. What he loves, you 
 cannot love ; what he beholds, you care not to behold ; what 
 he disdains, you value ; and what he flees from, you allow. 
 You know that he was not always thus ; and there is something 
 deep within you testifying that nothing less than a divine power 
 has wrought this change. Now if God hath set him apart 
 for himself, what is your condition ? He has been taken and 
 you have been left. He has been taken for God; you have 
 been left for Satan. He has been taken for mercy, you have 
 been left for wrath. The ark has received him, the deluge 
 awaits you. He has been sealed with the seal of God ; the 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 395 
 
 destroying angel will pass by him and speed to you on wliose 
 forehead is not seen the name of God. 
 
 November 30. — *' The peace of God which passeth all understanding." 
 — Philippians iv. 7. 
 
 It is possible that by the peace of God is here meant the 
 friendship, the amity of God. To get anything like a concep- 
 tion of the peace of God, it is needful to know the barrier of 
 enmity once existing between you and God. We may view 
 the barrier which you erected around yourself to hinder God 
 from approaching you, to exclude his messengers, his word, the 
 voice of his providence, his law, his summons to judgment, 
 every remembrancer of him. Or, we may contemplate the 
 tremendous rampart, higher than the highest heaven, deeper 
 than the lowest hell, built by the perfections of God 'around 
 liis inviolable majesty, forbidding every transgressor even to 
 look upon him ; of which not the combined force of all angels 
 within, or of all devils without, would ever have removed one 
 stone. But this mighty middle wall of partition, Christ, des- 
 ignated the Breaker, hath pierced with gateways, adorned with 
 gates of pearl ; and every several stone, once breathing defi- 
 ance, is now made transparent for the smile of God to come 
 through to you, and for the vision of your everlasting inherit- 
 ance to stream upon you. Truly such a peace as this abso- 
 lute peace between the most Holy One and you, a once rebel- 
 lious worm, passeth understanding. This amity is not a merely 
 negative thing, not merely the removal of wrath. This peace 
 of God is like music. Harmony is the perfection of sound, 
 not the absence of sound. The return to the soul of God, in 
 peace, leads at once to an ineifable discourse, a melodious com- 
 merce of the two spirits finite and infinite. And not only so ; 
 but this peace begets another peace (if it be another) between 
 the various souls thus reconciled to God. They are so brought 
 
396 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 together in harmony that a marvellons correspondence of love 
 spontaneously commences. Separated formerly by a multitude 
 of individual interests, they now love one another in fervor 
 and purity. There is a harmony in the dififerent powers and 
 appetites of the individual soul. There is peace within; peace 
 wdth God, peace with the people of God. This spiritual music 
 beginning at the throne of God and flowing through all godly 
 souls in heaven and in earth, and returning to the great source 
 again, is by the unreconciled unheard, unsuspected ; it passeth 
 understanding. 
 
 December 1. — " The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his 
 cars are open unto their prayers." — 1 Peter iii. 12. 
 
 This is a truth quite distinct from that of the omniscience 
 of God. That God should be omniscient is one thing ; that 
 his omniscience should be for me, is another thing. Yes, it is 
 a sublime proposition that omniscience and omnipotence should 
 enter into everlasting alliance with the weakness and blindness 
 of a creature. The righteous ones here spoken of are they 
 that fling away their own righteousness as dross, and make 
 themselves very insignificant. It is not because they are wise 
 that heavenly wisdom wings its way to them ; not because they 
 are good and strong that divine goodness and power are their 
 perpetual auxiliaries. You need not envy them the attention 
 they receive from the King of kings ; they would never have 
 been noticed by him if they had had any such righteousness 
 as you boast of. 
 
 How hard it is for you to see what is the true life divinely 
 appointed for man and hastily relinquished by him. Man's 
 perfection is something utterly difierent from what man con- 
 siders it to be. Man goes on building himself up in goodness. 
 He expects or aims to carry his edifice to the skies. A little 
 more and I shall be there, he says as often as he puts down 
 one new stone. He does not take note that the heavens are 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 397 
 
 rising above liim. Tliougli a thousand giants should undertake 
 to help with his tower, and should carry it to the height of a 
 mile, would he be any nearer the heavens ? Mount Blanc 
 would look down in pity and tell him of the moon a quarter 
 of a million of miles high. The moon would look down in 
 pity and tell him of the sun a hundred millions of miles high. 
 The sun would look down in pity and tell him of Saturn a 
 thousand millions away. And Saturn would say, " We are in 
 the lowest depths of the heavens. Ascend to us and your ele- 
 vation will be, in comparison with the starry heavens, as the 
 tiniest ant-hill in comparison with Chimborazo." For six 
 thousand years humanity has been possessed by this mad dream 
 of a perfection starting from earth and growing up into the 
 heavens. It is a forlorn error. No, the perfection of humanity 
 is in giving way to God. Cast down, cast down that paltry 
 edifice ; give up the notion of your own independent goodness ; 
 and make room for the goodness of Grod in you. Let God 
 work in you to will and to do of his good pleasure. And 
 think not that this self-renunciation is death ; it is the true 
 life ; the life of God in the soul is life indeed ; the energy of 
 God is energy indeed ; and the moral beauty of God is moral 
 beauty indeed. 
 
 December 2. — "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall 
 not pass away." — Matthew xxiv. 35. 
 
 On the day when these words were spoken, had it been an- 
 nounced in Rome that there was one then speaking whose 
 words would never pass away, some would have said, " It must 
 be the Emperor, his words will outlive all." Others would have 
 fixed upon a certain historian ; others upon an orator ; others 
 upon a poet. But no one would have conceived that a despised 
 Galilean seated upon a hill opposite Jerusalem, and conversing 
 with his disciples, was speaking 'words that would outlive all 
 others. The speaker died by the hands of men 3 he passed 
 34 
 
898 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 away from eartli ; but his words have been living in the world 
 with a most tremendous life from that day to this. They smote 
 Judaism; they went forth and assailed all religions of the 
 earth ; they returned and overthrew Jerusalem ; they wrestled 
 with Rome in her pride and overcame her ; the mightiest sys- 
 tems fled from before them ; they made the wilderness to blos- 
 som as the rose. After the lapse of eighteen centuries our 
 report is this, that every day eight thousand copies of the 
 Scriptures, the testimony of Jesus, are added to the many 
 millions already existing in hundreds of languages. 
 
 Especially, had the philosophers of Athens and of Rome 
 heard the words of which this immortality and universal vic- 
 tory were predicted, would they have deemed their fulfilment 
 incredible. That he should be crucified and his doctrine be 
 none the less promulgated ; that his disciples should be hated 
 of all men, yet should none the less spend their time and 
 strength in preaching his gosp^ ; that the Jews should be car- 
 ried captive into all lands ; and a multitude of other things 
 of equally improbable realization, were distinctly foretold by 
 him. 
 
 What a wonderful thing that we should be in the world 
 along with these all-conquering words. A legion of angels 
 would not effect such changes in the successive generations of 
 men, as these words of the Lord Jesus. We have something 
 that will outlive the heavens and the earth, and will judge us, 
 you and me, in the last day. 
 
 December 3. — " He that believetli not is condemned already.*' — John 
 iii. 18. 
 
 He has pronounced his own condemnation. Christ is the 
 test of all men and of all things. Every man that hears of 
 Christ, discovers the outline of his character, gets a vision of 
 his voluntary suff"ering, and death, and glorious resurrection, 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 399 
 
 and unchanging love, and yet believes not on him, every such 
 man declares himself to be unworthy of everlasting life. 
 There is no affinity between him and Christ, and it is easily 
 calculated, therefore, what are his true affinities. There is no 
 need for him to perpetrate any signal act of infamy in order 
 to bring down condemnation on himself. God has drawn nigh 
 to him in the person of the Son ; and, before the essential per- 
 fections of deity, this man has not bowed the knee. When 
 Christ appears in glory, of course every knee shall bow ; but 
 in the case of many this tardy homage will be no homage. It 
 is not because of his dazzling glory and irresistible sovereignty 
 that Grod claims to be honored and adored; but because of his 
 moral excellencies, because of the attributes that were revealed 
 upon the cross. 
 
 December 4. — "Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness." 
 — Psalm cxii. 4. 
 
 There was thick darkness no doubt in the den where Daniel 
 lay ; in the dungeon where Paul and Silas sat ; and in the liv- 
 ing prison where Jonah was confined. There is no light so 
 beautiful, so precious as that which ariseth to make glad the 
 countenance of the righteous as he gropes in darkness. He 
 says, " It is well for me that I have had experience of the 
 darkness that I might be enraptured with the light." Before 
 the light ariseth, there must be a victory of faith in his soul. 
 He must acquiesce in the darkness for the sake of him that 
 sent it. He must say, " This is the proper place, the proper 
 condition for me." He must wrap his calamity about him like 
 a cloak, because of him who hath sent it. Thus a day-star 
 arises in his heart ; after that the day breaks for him. If the 
 light that is in you be darkness how great is that darkness. 
 The Holy Grhost lighteth up a light within you, whose mild 
 radiance will go far to dissipate your surrounding darkness. 
 
400 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 If you muffle up this inner lantern, in vain will you wait for 
 light to arise externally upon your path. 
 
 December 5. — " They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
 firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever 
 and ever." — Daniel xii. 3. 
 
 If we could look into the books of immortality, and turn 
 ovjr its pages of the future, and trace the paths of light be- 
 longing to the names that are now ascendant in our skies, we 
 should see them to be of length unequal : one brilliant lumi- 
 nary of our day soon vanishing into night, and another passing 
 on, but sooner or later, like all the rest disappearing from the 
 heaven of fame. But when the lights of this world shall have 
 gone out, then will be seen coming up in indescribable splen- 
 dor and overwhelming glory, the names that have nothing now 
 connected with them but ignominy and obscurity. Then will 
 it be known who are the wise ; and men will marvel that they 
 should have ever remained ignorant a single moment of this 
 unquestionable truth, that they who turn many to righteous- 
 ness are wise above all others. 
 
 December 6. — " The Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not his saints." 
 Psalm xxxvii. 28. 
 
 The faithfulness of the Lord to his people is secured not 
 more by the fact that he delighteth in mercy than by the fact 
 that he loveth judgment. The propitiation made for sin is so 
 effectual that by it all the perfections of God become pledged 
 to promote the everlasting interests of those who believe. It 
 is God in the unlimited fulness of his nature, not a part of 
 God, that is made favorable to the sinner b}^ the blood of Jesus 
 The believer should understand that he is not taking refuge in 
 one perfection of God against another; but that it is God 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 401 
 
 Himself, witli all his attributes, tliat is reconciled to liim. Be- 
 fore lie was clothed with the righteousness of Christ, every 
 divine attribute was against him ; love as well as justice. And 
 after he is brought nigh through the blood of the Lamb, the 
 justice as well as love of God guarantees his safety and bless- 
 edness. 
 
 Consider and confess : dost thou not feel, speak and act, in 
 thy intercourse with God, as though there were but a partial 
 reconciliation, as though in Christ there had accrued to thee 
 but a small measure of the divine benignity? Does it not 
 seem to thee when thou wouldst appfopriate largely of the 
 grace of God, as though his justice interposed and said, 
 "Enough V Does not the holiness of God, in thy conception, 
 take out from every promise its largest benison and give thee 
 a husk ? If so, then there is a grievous wrong continually 
 done by thee to the Lamb that was slain, and to every perfec- 
 tion of God. Is God divided ? Did Christ die to obtain for 
 thee the crumbs that fall from his Father's table, and is it 
 necessary that another Christ should die to obtain for thee 
 permission to sit down as a guest, as a child ? 
 
 If there be in us a genuine faith in Christ, then is God 
 wholly ours. Christ himself has not a more infinite love to 
 expatiate in than the meanest believer hath. God is recon- 
 ciled to us, or he is not. If reconciled, then every promise is 
 ours in its utmost conceivable amplitude. We are as free to 
 take of the water of life as Paul was, or as John was. One 
 disciple is designated " the beloved" because he has a singular 
 faith. We must believe the love that God hath towards us, 
 and then we have the love. 
 
 There are many who wonder that they experience in such 
 feeble measure the power of divine truth to animate and ele- 
 vate and bless their souls. They marvel that they should daily 
 be in communion with him at whose right hand are pleasures 
 for evermore, with whom is the fountain of life, yet that they 
 34 * 
 
402 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 should be so unacquainted with the joy unspeakable that many 
 saints have experienced. But how could it be otherwise? 
 Unbelief nullifies God. Faith finds a living God. God gives 
 himself as faith gives itself Where there is but a little faith, 
 the tide of divine love is constrained to narrow itself down 
 accordingly. But God is there, even the same God whose 
 smile enraptures the seraphim. Christ has brought you to 
 him and to the infinite fulness of his nature. God is not in 
 your future ; he is in your present. Listen no longer to the 
 lie of unbelief, but understand that there is even now for you, 
 this day, this hour, the love wherewith the Father loved Christ. 
 You have not a hUf Christ; you have not a portion of God. 
 
 December 7. — " The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and 
 he delighteth in his way." — ^salm xxxvii. 23. 
 
 A good man is one whose steps are ordered by the Lord. 
 Having come to the conclusion that there is none good but 
 God, he has sought such an alliance with God as secures to 
 him the benefit of the divine goodness. A good man is one 
 in whom you can behold the goodness of the Lord. To the 
 world's apprehension a good man is one who is able to order 
 his steps aright, able of himself to know and to pursue the 
 best path. This is a fundamental error ; and religion can only 
 begin with its overthrow. 
 
 God has a book in which is written the ideal history of every 
 man ; the biography as it would have been had the man's steps 
 been ordered by the Lord ; and another in which is written 
 the actual history of every man. The books are open side by 
 side, and what a contrast do they present. " Oh that they had 
 hearkened to my commandments I" saith the Lord ; nor is it 
 possible for any one to look upon tliese two records without 
 taking up the lamentation. What a hallowed and beautiful 
 path is traced in the one ; what honorable conflicts and glorious 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 403 
 
 victories; what nobleness of enterprise, what steadfastness 
 under difficulties, what beneficence, what usefulness ! What a 
 sublime romance ! What genuine heroism ! What a utiliza- 
 tion of the man's faculties ! What wealth of influence poured 
 around ! In comparison with this divine romance, behold the 
 actual life portrayed in the other book. How mean ! how con- 
 temptible ! how disordered ! What fearful confusion ! What 
 awful plunges into vanity ! What wild pursuit of phantoms ! 
 What Herculean strife with windmills ! What a waste of 
 faculties ! What blundering even in the matter of doing good ! 
 What shipwreck of unpiloted affections kt"What torment of 
 unintelligible aspirations ! 
 
 Suppose the book of your ideal biography should drop from 
 heaven upon your path. You, with your worldly and gross 
 heart, take it up and look into it j at first seeing a good deal 
 about tribulation, privation, per^cution, bonds, defamation, 
 poverty, and tears, you are ready to throw it away. But stay, 
 my friend ; it is from heaven ; see if there be not something 
 precious coupled with these expressions. At one end of a 
 sentence you find, " they that mourn," " poor in spirit," " they 
 that are persecuted," "through much tribulation;" but what at 
 the other end? "Joy," "blessedness," "kingdom of heaven." 
 Remember the disordered steps of your past life. See how 
 much misery you have experienced, even in the path of your 
 own gratification. How unsatisfactory is the retrospect. Are 
 you not willing to live the life that God has sketched for you ? 
 Take this book and live this life ; and your biography will be 
 a valuable contribution to the libraries of heaven. Angels 
 v/ili read it and find in it all the elements of beauty, nobleness, 
 sublimity. 
 
 This your ideal life is written in the Gospel. May God help 
 you to see it there, and to give it actuality in what remains of 
 your mortal term. 
 
404 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 December 8. — "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and his 
 shildren shall have a place of refuge." — Proverbs xiv, 26. 
 
 The best tiling that a man can do for his children, is to fear 
 the Lord. Piety is not hereditary ; but there is a strong prob- 
 ability that the children of a truly God-fearing man, will be 
 converted and brought to make the Lord their refuge. Yet 
 how many there are who make the alleged interests of their 
 children a pretext for not giving themselves and all they have 
 unreservedly to the Lord. They would lay up treasure in 
 heaven, were it not that they must lay up for their children. 
 Their faith is sadly defective. The very efforts they are mak- 
 ing to secure a portion for their children in this life, tend to 
 hinder the transmission of an everlasting portion to them. 
 
 A parent cannot possibly do anything better for his child 
 than leave to him an example of simple and unworldly faith. 
 Like Noah, build for your children an ark of safety of gopher 
 wood, rather than a palace of brick and stone ; haply the Lord 
 may incline them to enter it. You cannot do better for your 
 children than to show them that there is something in your 
 heart more sacred than even the love of children ; and that is 
 the fear of the Lord. The example of faith is the best of 
 legacies. See to it that as far as your labors are concerned, 
 your children may have a place of refuge and the way to it be 
 unimpeded. 
 
 December 9. — " My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith 
 the Lord." — Jeremiah xxxi. 14. 
 
 The Lord's people are satisfied with his goodness, even in 
 this life, in such a sense that they willingly forsake all and 
 follow him. In the privation of all other things they are still 
 so satisfied with the love of their divine Saviour, that they 
 cast no regretful looks behind. Ah, but there are some, es- 
 teemed the people of God, who seem not to be satisfied with 
 the simple goodness of their heavenly Father : there is too 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 405 
 
 manifest a grasping after tlie riches and digniti-es of the earth. 
 Would that they and all might understand that if they only 
 sought to know more of the love of God, they would see it to 
 be satisfying. 
 
 We see how much wisdom was given to Paul when he was 
 led to pray that he and others might know more of the length 
 and breadth of the love of God, when he was enabled to count 
 all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. 
 Of course it is impossible to be satisfied with the goodness of 
 the Lord if we do not know that goodness. We must know 
 and believe the love that God hath towards us. When a cer- 
 tain man had found a treasure in a field, he went with joy and 
 sold all that he had and bought that field. The perception of 
 Christ's love to them individually, is vague and dim on the 
 part of many ; and no wonder therefore that they are tormented 
 with so many vain desires and imaginations. But this word 
 " satisfied" points to something that eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard, nor heart conceived. To be contented is a blessed and 
 beautiful condition of the soul; but do not suppose that it 
 implies the extinction of desire. Paul was a person of singu- 
 lar contentment, and of singular power of aspiration. But he 
 that has provided for our contentment will in due time crown 
 our highest aspirations. He has shown his power by overcom- 
 ing the mighty craving of our soul for worldly good ; and he 
 will show his power hereafter by transcending our highest con- 
 ception of happiness. But let contentment have her perfect 
 work. 
 
 December 10. — " Our Saviour Jesus Cbrist, who hath abolished death." — 
 2 Timothy i. 10. 
 
 When Adam sinned then was there the abolition of life. 
 The empire of death began. Death advanced by steps. There 
 was a process observed in the establishment of his kingdom. 
 
406 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 He needed subjects, and therefore lie did not cause the bodies 
 of Adam and Eve to crumble to dust at once. He showed 
 what he could do when Abel fell by the hand of his brother. 
 He made havoc of everything heavenly in the spiritual nature 
 of man ; brought out his instruments of torture to assail and 
 overthrow his physical glory ; and went forth conquering and 
 to conquer. But Christ, who is the Life, in due time sets up 
 his kingdom of life, abolishing death. What a glorious word 
 for the confusion of the great abolisher ! — he himself must be 
 abolished. 
 
 Death was once between me and Grod. The king of terrors 
 had pitched his throne in the very path, the only one, that led 
 to God. There was an eclipse of God unto my soul. But 
 Christ abolished death. The eclipse passed. The favor of 
 God, which is life, reached me through him who had died that 
 death might be crucified in him. Then contrition, hope, faith, 
 love, obedience, and other tokens of the new creation appeared 
 in me. The fear of death is abolished by him who hath pre- 
 pared a place for me. And even this body will not die, no, 
 not a hair of my head perish, if Christ refuse consent. The 
 world to which we aspire is not an undiscovered country from 
 whose bourne no tidings have been wafted back to us. We 
 are conversant with it. There are continents on this globe 
 about which we do not know so much as we do about that 
 world. We are acquainted with many of its inhabitants and 
 with the life they lead. We know their manners and customs, 
 their laws and principles, their employments, their government; 
 their tastes and distastes ; their desires, and their songs. 
 
 December 11. — "The cup wtich my Father hath given me, shall I not 
 drink it?" — John xviii. 11. 
 
 Art thou unwilling, believer, to drink the cup which thy 
 Father giveth thee ? It is a very different cup from that which 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 407 
 
 the Saviour consented to drink for thee. It is wreathed around 
 with the declaration, " All things shall work together for good 
 to them that love God." It comes to thee by the hand of 
 Jesus, the hand that was pierced for thee. In it' you behold 
 as in a transparency a crown of glory that fadeth not away, 
 purchased for you by the Saviour's righteousness. He that 
 spared not his own Son for you, who was so tender of you as 
 to suffer his Son to hang in your place, can you suspect him 
 of offering you a cup of poison ? What an unpardonable in- 
 * suit were this to offer to your heavenly Father ! Yet just such 
 insults are daily offered by those who reject the cup which their 
 Father presents them, and steal away to some other path that 
 they may not have to drink this cup. 
 
 To look upon an affliction as indicative of alienated feelings 
 on the part of God, is base indeed for those who profess to 
 believe the testimony of the cross. May not the Father and 
 the Saviour be trusted to govern us, to guide us, correct us, 
 bless us ? Shall we teach them what our interests demand ? 
 Teach him who is Love, what is the way of love ? Does the 
 mother not know what the child can bear ? You have been 
 asking for precious things ; for fruits of the Spirit ; for love, 
 joy, and peace; for knowledge, strength, and patience; for 
 victory and glory ; and the Lord presents you with a cup of 
 humiliation and sorrow. Instead of enriching you with new 
 hopes and joys he seems to come to you for the purpose of 
 crushing and annihilating the few that you have. Neverthe- 
 less, for the Father's sake, in Christ's name, take the cup. 
 Have you not agreed to surrender life's joys and treasures when 
 he that gave them demands them again ? "What is the mean- 
 ing of the faith you profess, but just this, that as you have let 
 God choose for you a Saviour and a way of life, so you are to 
 let him choose for you all your circumstances, all your experi- 
 ences. Take the cup and drink it. Lo ! one by one, the 
 precious things you were demanding, are found to have been 
 
408 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 in tlie cup, and to Lave been communicated by means of it. 
 So that the great and unendurable affliction from which you 
 shrank, is ascertained at last to be tlie greatest of all your 
 blessings, and to stand in the retrospect of your life a monu- 
 ment to the riches of divine grace, towering high above all 
 the other monuments of your path. 
 
 May we have wisdom to choose the very cup which the 
 Father chooseth for us. Balaam had not this ; and entreated 
 God to choose rather for him the cup which he, Balaam, de- 
 sired for himself. Seeing that Balaam had more confidence ' 
 in his own wisdom and discrimination than in God's, God at 
 length suffered Balaam to have the cup of his own choice; 
 and all know the melancholy results. And may there not be 
 around us Christians whose cup is of their own choice rather 
 than God's, who have taken the cup out of the left hand of 
 God, and are living lives of worldly ease and dignity and afflu- 
 ence, felicitating themselves that they are exempt from so many 
 bitternesses that once fell to the lot of Christians ; and all 
 because they had not wisdom to see a cup, preferred of God, 
 in his right hand ? The words " much tribulation" written 
 over the gate of an avenue, almost of themselves carry con- 
 viction to the minds of many Christians that such an avenue 
 is not the one that they are called to pursue. Are we of their 
 number ? Or of the number of those who have it profoundly 
 engraved in their conviction that the will of the Lord, what- 
 ever its aspect, is the one path of life, and that the greatest 
 of all calamities is when we get God to deal with us after our 
 own wisdom, and to lead us in the pathway of our own crude 
 desires ? 
 
 December 12. — " The Lord is thy keeper." — Psalm cxxi. 5. 
 
 Thou art willing to be kept by him. Thou knowest thine 
 own helplessness and ignorance ; the power and malignity of 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 409 
 
 tlie adversary; tlie sufficiency, love and faithfulness of tlie 
 Lord Jesus Christ ; the reality of the Spirit ; thou distinguish- 
 est his still, small voice 3 the word of God is a lamp to thy 
 feet 'j thou meditatest therein day and night ; thou hast the 
 shield of faith. Thou knowest the voice of thy keeper, and 
 knowest not the voice of strangers. In prosperity, in adver- 
 sity, and in the intervening lulls, thou dost equally seek the 
 guidance and help of the good Shepherd. He is now thy 
 keeper ; and therefore it is certain that in that day of unutter- 
 able wrath which is so fast hastening to break upon the earth, 
 he will keep thee in all serenity and security. 
 
 December 13. — " For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call 
 upon him." — Romans x. 12. 
 
 There is a beautiful conception of the character of Grod in- 
 volved in the use of the word "rich" in this connection. For 
 he is said to be rich not in respect of what he has, but of what 
 he bestows. Used of men the word indicates one to whom 
 much has accrued ; but it is used here of God to designate 
 one from whom infinite wealth of blessing accrues to the sons 
 of men. It is for us he is rich 3 his wealth is ours ; we have 
 a marvellous and inexhaustible treasury in him. God, in fact, 
 proposes to take sinful men and make each of them a treasury 
 full of the wealth of God. 
 
 He is rich unto all that call upon him. They call, and he 
 answers by communications of his wealth. There is of course 
 an agreement between God and them, as to what constitutes 
 wealth. They have been taken into the divine laboratory, and 
 have seen the various things called wealth in earth and in 
 heaven, seen them subjected to powerful tests and their true 
 nature revealed. What is called wealth among men has lost 
 its value ; for they have seen it tested by an infallible chem- 
 istry ; and especially has the knowledge of heaven's wealth 
 
 35 
 
410 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 made tliem look disparagingly upon it. They have seen and 
 appropriated the jasper of faith; the sapphire of love; the 
 chalcedony of joy; the emerald of hope; the sardonyx of 
 humility; the sardius of self-knowledge; the chrysolite of 
 sincerity; the beryl of holiness; the topaz of contentment; 
 the chrysoprasus of long-suffering; the jacinth of patience; 
 the amethyst of self-denial. To the eye of an angel they have 
 a breast-plate radiant with surpassing riches ; though to man 
 they may seem clothed in a wretched garb. 
 
 The same God is rich unto all. Oh, let us entertain no 
 contracted view of the fulness of blessing that dwelleth in our 
 reconciled God ! Let us neither exclude ourselves, nor others. 
 The God of Daniel, Paul, and John, that same God that was 
 found so rich by them is ours, is yours, is mine. And that 
 same God whom you approach, that same Saviour in whom you 
 delight, is your neighbor's. Oh, what a bond should this cre- 
 ate between you and him ! The same love that fills you with 
 such rapture is shed abroad in his heart ; the same visions of 
 a beatific hour to come are yours and his ; the same sacred 
 pierced hand that fills your cup each morning with the wine 
 and milk of divine grace, fills his cup. Consider this ; and 
 beware how you look coldly on him on whose eye of faith the 
 smile of Christ is ever breaking. 
 
 December 14. — "Blessed is he that considereth the poor." — Psalm 
 xli. 1. 
 
 In other words, blessed is he that blesseth. Happy is he 
 who makes it his chief concern to bestow happiness on others. 
 Rich is he who seeks to enrich. " Consider thyself," says the 
 world; "study the advancement of thy interests; for there is 
 none to do thee good if thou neglect thy own good. Will men 
 sell and buy for thee whilst thou art busied about the poor ? 
 Will they supply thy wardrobe if thou empty it for the poor ? 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 411 
 
 Will they send medicines to thee and a physician, when thou 
 forgettest thy health in solacing the miseries of others ? Con- 
 sider the poor, of course ; but take good care that considera- 
 tion for them do not swallow up or even encroach upon a due 
 consideration of thyself, thy children, thy near of kin," 
 
 In opposition to all this, our text, like many others in the 
 word of God, teaches us — if we suffer ourselves to be taught 
 so strange a truth, so hard a lesson, — that he best considers 
 himself who considers the poor rather than himself, and makes 
 it his chief business in the world to communicate good unto 
 his fellow-men. For the poor have a friend ; even God the 
 source of all good ; and there is no more direct way to the 
 heart of God than to alleviate the sufferings of our fellow-men, 
 to deny ourselves for the good of others. 
 
 Consider the poor ; give attention to them ; study their ne- 
 cessities; wisely consult as to the best mode of alleviating 
 them. Think not that attention is wasted when given to the 
 poor, even if some important commercial speculation has to 
 wait. What the word of God says in general, the providence 
 of God says in particular, " Consider the poor," says the former ; 
 " consider this poor man," says the latter. Indiscriminate charity 
 is not the thing here commended. The vocation of a Christian 
 is to be a benefactor ; and this being his vocation he is not to 
 grudge any pains that may be required in order to ascertain 
 who are the really needy, and what the most effectual way of 
 relieving them. 
 
 There are some necessities which men do not mention be- 
 cause they do not feel. They know not their spiritual desti- 
 tution J and they know not the bread of life which is profitable 
 for this world and for that which is to come. The Christian 
 is to consider the soul-penury of men, and tell them of the 
 banquet of life which Christ has spread for them. In this 
 view even the richest of our fellow-men are poor enough and 
 need that wc should consider them. Blessed is he that takes 
 
412 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 knowledge of the necessities of his fellow-men, and devotes 
 himself to their alleviation. God will tate knowledge of his 
 necessities, and will see to it that he want no good thing. 
 
 December 15. — " The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil." — Psalm 
 cxxi. 7. 
 
 This is an invitation to thee to give over the keeping of 
 thyself entirely into the Lord's hands. Let him be thy keeper 
 and he will keep thee from all evil. That no harm ever befals 
 the Christian, cannot be said. But while he follows that which 
 is good, no harm befals him. While he suffers the Lord to 
 guide him, he is preserved infallibly. 
 
 It is only by faith that we can appreciate the guidance of 
 the Lord as being everything that an enlightened love could 
 desire for us. When we have made ourselves over to the Lord 
 and to his guidance, often the very things are suffered to come 
 upon us which we would most certainly have characterized as 
 evil. We are prepared for trials ; but they come in a form 
 that we should have thought to be impossible. We had formed 
 some particular conception of the goodness of God ; settled it 
 in our minds that this goodness would prompt him to act in a 
 certain way towards us ; when lo, we find him acting in a quite 
 contrary way ; and it will go hard if the thought do not in- 
 continently arise, that God is without the goodness we had im- 
 puted to him, and that our faith has overshot the limits of the 
 reality. Oh, what a dishonoring thought ! As though we, 
 imbecile and infatuated worms, could invent a God superior to 
 the God that really exists. But God in due time, if we pursue 
 the way of faith, vindicates himself to us. Our minds are 
 disabused of their vain fancies. We get a loftier conception 
 of the goodness of God. A foundation is laid for experiences 
 of a far more blessed kind than those of which we were dis- 
 appointed. 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 413 
 
 Dp:cember 16. — "Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search 
 for me with all your heart." — Jeremiah xxix. 13. 
 
 A reference to the context will show that this declaration is 
 intended for those who are smarting under die chastisements 
 of God ; for those of his professing people who have brought 
 upon themselves by disobedience and worldliness, the rebuke 
 of the Most High. Out of the cloud there comes a voice 
 telling of the blue sky beyond and of the way in which it may 
 become visible. The blessings connected with the uplifted 
 light of God's countenance are not to be recovered by those 
 who have once enjoyed them, save by a whole-hearted, intense, 
 persevering, all-sacrificing search for them. 
 
 It has pleased God at various times in the history of his 
 Church, to bestow upon her some distinguishing tokens of his 
 regard. Legitimately these should have had no other effect 
 than to make her more humble, more self-mistrusting, more 
 zealous, more earnest in the pursuit of perfection. But often 
 a different result has been witnessed. She has plumed herself 
 upon these as constituting a glory of her own ; or she has 
 rested satisfied with these, so as not to long for something bet- 
 ter and more essential ; or she made light of them as though 
 there were nothing special about them. Then God has re- 
 voked the blessings, and left the Church to her denuded and 
 inglorious state. Thenceforward, God is in no haste to bestow 
 anew what has been so deliberately forfeited. 
 
 He is wonderful in the inflexibility with which he has car- 
 ried out .this principle. The distinct understanding of it would 
 be of immense benefit to the Church and to each member of 
 the Church. Search the annals of the Church. Bring tlie 
 Church as she now is into contrast with the Church as she 
 once was, and see how much she is without. Impute it not to 
 the sovereignty of God, to an arbitrary and unexplained exer- 
 cise of his royal will, that we languish now under many disa- 
 bilities. The privileges that have been witlidrawn were lost 
 35 * 
 
414 DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 
 
 through the gross and culpable negligence of the Church. 
 They are recoverable ; for the promises relating to them have 
 not been torn out of the Bible ; but they are only to be re- 
 covered by a whole-hearted, fervent, and indomitable travail 
 at the throne of grace, accompanied with a thorough consecra- 
 tion to his wdJl. " If the salt have lost its savor, wherewith 
 shall it be salted ?" is a text that might utterly discourage us j 
 but let us lay hold of this kind and loving assurance : " Ye 
 shall seek me, and find me. when ye shall search for me with 
 all your heart." 
 
 December 17. — "As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden 
 causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth ; so the Lord God 
 will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." 
 — Isaiah Ixi. 11. 
 
 Isaiah had a vision of the Lord upon his throne surrounded 
 by the seraphim ; and the seraphim seem to have had a vision 
 of the renewed earth, of what it shall be in the day when the 
 glory of Christ shall be everywhere perceived, and when there 
 shall be the manifestation of the sons of God. We are yet 
 but in the seed-time ; but it is interesting to observe that the 
 seed is carried to all shores and scattered among all nations, 
 and that everything is fast hastening to the hour when, at the 
 new creating voice of God, the kingdoms of the world shall 
 become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and when 
 righteousness and praise shall fill the face of the whole earth. 
 A nation shall be born in a day ; the whole earth shall bring 
 forth at once. 
 
 Were it not that men are accustomed to behold just such a 
 transformation, nothing would seem more idle or preposterous 
 than the expectation that beautiful and odoriferous and fruitful 
 trees and shrubs, should spring from the earth as a result of 
 the scattering of sundry seeds therein. How utterly unlikely 
 to the eye of sense, or to the imperfect vision of infantile 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 415 
 
 faith, does It appear that the preaching of the Gospel, the poor 
 and checkered attempts to make known God's despised word 
 of life, should ever eventuate in the imparadising of earth. 
 Of itself it will not. God gives it an opportunity to show 
 what it can itself do ; and the hours of this protracted oppor- 
 tunity, how heavy, how almost insupportable to him who longs 
 to behold the glory of God in the land of the living ! But 
 the coming of the Son of Man to inherit all nations, and ex- 
 tinguish all rule that is not of him, hath an absolute connec- 
 tion with the attempts of his people to preach the Gospel to 
 every creature. 
 
 December IS. — ''Whither the forerurmer is for i;s entered, even Jesus." 
 Hebrews vi. 20. 
 
 "We have an anchor of the soul, even hope; and that hope 
 is within the veil, where Jesus is. With Jesus the hope of 
 the believer hath soared from earth and made its home in the 
 heaven of heavens; and the presence of our hope there is the 
 pledge of our own future presence there. How flattering, de- 
 lusive, treacherous, is earthl}^ hope. What horrid wounds it 
 inflicts upon the heart that it pretends to bless. How it spreads 
 its imitation heaven* around, even where deadly miasmas ex- 
 hale. But when we escape the wiles of this enemy, and be- 
 come acquainted with the hope that beams upon us from the 
 loving eyes of him who is extended on the cross, then may we 
 be glad With exceeding joy. Here is a hope that nothing can- 
 injure. It died in Christ only to live forever in a region where 
 there is no death. Our hope ascended up with him and met 
 with him a welcome from the angels. We are already anchored 
 at the throne of God. 
 
 December 19. — "The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and 
 thy God thy glory." — Isaiah Ix. 19. 
 
 There comcth a time when the hidden relations now existing 
 
416 DAILY iMEDITATIONS. 
 
 between the Cliurch and her God, shall be altogether manifest; 
 ■when the tabernacle of God shall be with men ; when the 
 Church shall be clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible 
 as an army with banners. She will possess not solely an in- 
 ward glory in her purity and moral resemblance to her Re- 
 deemer, but the glory of God, even the heavenly glory that 
 dazzles the seraphim, shall invest her with an inconceivable 
 splendor. No longer in his humiliation and in discredited di- 
 vinity will Christ dwell in the midst of his little flock, as when 
 on the earth in his flesh. No longer discernible as now only 
 by the power of the Spirit and by the eye of faith, he will 
 then dwell among them in the glory which he had before the 
 world was ; nay, with an enhanced glory. They shall see his 
 face and his name shall be in their foreheads. The sun him- 
 self shall have no glory by reason of the glory that excelleth, 
 when mortality shall have been swallowed up in life, when 
 Christ shall be glorified in his saints and admired in every one 
 that believeth, when the righteous shall shine forth as the sun 
 in the kingdom of their Father. 
 
 December 20. — " I have set the Lord always before me." — Psalm xvL 8. 
 
 The habit of mind that is here indicated is very important, 
 very rare, and very hard to be attained. Every Christian no 
 doubt perceives, though more distinctly at certain times than 
 at others, how exceedingly desirable it is that he should have 
 a continual consciousness of the presence of the Lord, and 
 what a grievous loss he is sustaining all the time that his Spirit 
 forgets to realize that presence. And if he could attain unto 
 this sublime habit of the soul by any single impulse and con- 
 centrated efi'ort, he would put forth the needed violence and 
 take possession of this blessed kingdom. But habits are not 
 acquired in this way even when the Spirit of God is the 
 teacher. He is indeed a wondrous teacher, and is able to give 
 
DAILY MEDITATIOXS. 417 
 
 a rapid acceleration to all tlie movements of the soul ; and to 
 accomplish in weeks what would be wonderful in threescore 
 years or a thousand years. Therefore there need be no despair : 
 but let us distinctly understand the way in which he works, 
 in order that there may be co operation on our part and not 
 hindrance. 
 
 Let us have it fully impressed upon our minds that the life 
 to which the Lord is calling us, is not a life of occasional com- 
 munion, of interspersed prayer, of pious seasons, but a life of 
 unbroken communication with Grod, of never-interrupted co- 
 operation with Christ. " Without me ye can do nothing." 
 •' Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all to the glory of 
 God." " Abide in me." " Lo, I am with you always." Be- 
 sides so many declarations of the word, there is the continual 
 testimony of our experiendTe, the testimony of our many mis- 
 takes, and follies and embarrassments, assuring us that we can 
 of our own selves do nothiiig. For what we do without the 
 Lord we do disobediently ; and this single fact stamps it with 
 a certain measure of opprobrium, no matter how commendable 
 it might seem from other points of view. On the other hand 
 whatever we do with the Lord, has an everlasting value ; it 
 may be but the tying of a shoe-string, yet if it be done in 
 faith and in an enlightened dependence, as in the very pres- 
 ence of the Lord, it has a value that no vicissitudes of time 
 can ever destroy. The will of the Lord abideth forever; and 
 whatever is done with a right reference to that will, is celestial 
 in character, immortal in destiny. 
 
 Let us enthrone in our minds this great truth, that nothing 
 whatever is insignificant when a relation between it and God 
 is perceived. Life is profane because men choose that it shall 
 be so, by disconnecting it from God; not because God has 
 chosen that it be so. Christ lived a human life, and there 
 were every day thousands of trifling secularities in that life, 
 as you perhaps may designate them ; but all was exalted, all 
 
418 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 was sacred, according to the judgment of heaven. And he 
 that is filled with the fulness of Grod, he in whose heart Christ 
 abideth by faith, is careful all the day long lest any little thing 
 divorce him from his Lord. He sets the Lord always before 
 him ; he seeks to see ever the vision that Isaiah saw in the 
 temple. 
 
 December 21. — "I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing 
 upon thine offspring." — Isaiah xliv. 3. 
 
 " Let little children come unto me," said Christ, and says it 
 still. Grod delighteth in mercy ; and delights in the hearts of 
 little children because there is a greater readiness in them to 
 receive his mercy than in adults. There are fewer hindrances; 
 less to repel the Spirit of God ; less of the world. The world 
 is indeed there, and it develop* itself with an astonishing 
 rapidity -, oh, then, how great the responsibility of those who 
 have the direction of the young. How knowest thou, pa- 
 rent, but that the Lord has called thee to the knowledge of 
 the truth very specially for this end, that thou mightest lend 
 thyself to the Spirit of God in the matter of educating that 
 child for the courts of the New Jerusalem. 
 
 There is no need that any truth should be deposited in the 
 mind of the child before religious truth. In fact, truth is 
 mutilated when it is taken away from religion. The truths 
 of religion are difficult and mysterious to the man, because he 
 started in life and passed through infancy and childhood with- 
 out them. It is easier for a child to learn the momentous truth 
 that " of Him, through him, and to him are all things," than 
 it is for a person of mature years. How much unfaithfulness 
 must there be in parents and guardians, even in those whom 
 we esteem believers, when their children exhibit so little of 
 the Spirit's influences. The blessing of the Lord, as we learn 
 from other passages of Scripture, allies itself with the teach- 
 ings and efforts and prayers of parents. 
 
DAILY xMEDITATIONS. 419 
 
 With tlie influences of the parent there are soon commin- 
 gled a multitude of other influences ; wherefore it is of the 
 more urgency, that the tenderest years should be improved. 
 The enemy will quickly sow tares, if you do not pre-occupy 
 the soil with the seed of life. 
 
 December 22. — "Let all flesli bless his holy name forever." — Psalm 
 cxlv. 21. 
 
 There is such a revelation of the holiness of God in all 
 places of his dominion, that it is the manifest duty of all men 
 to look to him alone and to give thanks at the remembrance 
 of his holiness. For he is righteous in all his ways and holy 
 in all his works, and not merely in the work of man's redemp- 
 tion. There is no idolater who is not compassed about by the 
 tokens of the unity and holiness of God. God does not lay 
 aside any of his perfections when he works his wondrous will 
 in heathen lands. He is what he is, in every act that he does. 
 And every one is responsible for failing to discern his true 
 nature. 
 
 But it was especially perhaps in view of the Gospel of God's 
 infinite grace, to be proclaimed by every creature, that the 
 Psalmist calls upon the whole human family to bless the holy 
 name of God. Let all flesh bless the holy name of him who 
 so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that who- 
 soever believeth might live. But even this sufficeth not. Men 
 hear of this love unmoved. The Gospel is proclaimed, yet 
 the empire of the God of this world continues. There is more 
 in God's scheme of mercy to mankind. The Spirit shall be 
 poured upon all flesh ; then shall all bless his holy name for- 
 ever. 
 
 " Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be 
 done on earth as it is in heaven j" these are the petitions that 
 break instinctively from the lips of the believer. We see that 
 
420 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 the men of God, the prophets that lived so long before the 
 days of Christ, had already a missionary spirit, and offered up 
 prayers in behalf of missions while yet the middle wall of 
 partition stood strong and consolidated. 
 
 December 23. — "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous 
 man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord." — Isaiah Iv. 7. 
 
 The following reason is assigned, why he should forsake his 
 ways and thoughts : — " For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
 neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher 
 than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my 
 thoughts than your thoughts." Man will have it that his way, 
 his designs, his plans, his theory of life, are better than those 
 of Grod. Grod's scheme of human life is published everywhere 
 and brought before the notice of all ; but all disdain it ; they 
 do not consider it any improvement upon their own. The way 
 of righteousness, of self-denial, of faith, has no attraction for 
 them. 
 
 But really the way that Grod has marked out for man is in 
 every respect sublime and worthy of its author ; and if man 
 had walked therein he would have been angelic in dignity, 
 wisdom, power and happiness. The intention of God regard- 
 ing man includes his investiture with every grace and perfec- 
 tion. The thought of God is that man should set his affection 
 on things above ; take up his cross and follow Christ with all 
 love and loyalty ; and be, each one in his particular province, 
 a benefactor to mankind. Alongside of this most elevated yet 
 most suitable standard, how mean and grovelling appear the 
 actual ways of men, how base and earthly their thoughts. For 
 so many thousands of years they have gone floundering on in 
 the mad quest of happiness, obstinately seeking it where God 
 has told them they shall find nothing but misery. The wonder 
 is that God should invite them to return ; that instead of leav- 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 421 
 
 ing them to the fruits of tlieir own choice he should provide 
 for them a way whereby they may regain the highway of holi- 
 ness. 
 
 December 24. — "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." — Acts vii. 59. 
 
 Christ, on the cross, out of the deep gulf of woe into which, 
 by the sins of the world, he found himself sinking, cried out 
 in anguish, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" 
 and, receiving strength in his soul, he soon exclaimed with 
 expiring breath, " Father, into thy hands I commend my 
 spirit." He tasted death ; tasted far more of it than the be- 
 liever is called to do ; and knew the blessedness of having one 
 to look to in his expiring hour. Well knows he therefore how 
 precious it is to have an almighty friend in the darkness of 
 such an hour. The believer may look with unwavering confi- 
 dence, as always, so in his last earthly moments, to him who 
 knows so well what death is. 
 
 Imagine a company of men pursuing another, reviling him, 
 stoning him, and driving him towards a frightful cavern. 
 Amidst their imprecations he enters it ; and as a stone is rolled 
 upon the mouth of the cave, his enemies rejoice greatly in their 
 victory. You shudder as you think of the wretched lot of 
 that castaway. But know that in the very moment when that 
 stone was rolled upon the cavern's mouth, a marvellous trans- 
 formation took place. The cavern became a palace ; a multi- 
 tude of happy and radiant beings flocked around your perse- 
 cuted friend, and leading him up flights of noble stairways 
 conducted him to a throne and crowned him with a diadem. 
 The crowd without are congratulating themselves upon having 
 driven the object of their hatred into everlasting night and 
 solitude ; how surprised will they be hereafter, should the stone 
 and the rock flee away and the hated one be seen upon a throne 
 surrounded by a troop of exalted friends. 
 
 God is constructing paradise out of the rejected elements of 
 
422 DAILY MEDITATIONS 
 
 this world. Christ first ; then they that believe in him and 
 suffer with him. They are in the estimation of men, the 
 refuse of humanity. Not only when Stephen died, but on a 
 thousand occasions since, the rejoicings of men in the death 
 of the saints have been heard on the one side, and on the 
 other side the glad acclamations of the angelic host welcoming 
 them to glory, honor, and immortality. 
 
 December 25. — " Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given : and 
 his name shall be called Wonderful." — Isaiah ix. 6. 
 
 At the very outset, the mother of mankind was informed 
 that she was also to be the mother of some wondrous being 
 who would snatch the race from the condition incurred by sin. 
 Prophet after prophet arose, spoke of this future personage, 
 sighed for his advent and passed away. How astonished must 
 the Hebrew readers of Isaiah have been at the description 
 given by him of the coming man. A child, a son of man ; 
 given to us and of us ; yet so wonderful in his nature that you 
 may ascribe to him all the perfections of the godhead. Wo 
 know that God will not give his glory to another ; this child 
 of humanity is then no other than Grod himself, the mighty 
 Grod, the Father of Ages. 
 
 Here is something that never would have entered into ih.e 
 conception of any man, even the wisest or the boldest. But 
 supposing that men, having been led to look for such an in- 
 credible event as the birth of Grod in the line of fallen man, 
 had undertaken to surmise what would be his manner of life 
 on the earth, how different would all their fantasies have been 
 from the reality. They would have made the deity overshadow 
 the humanity, so that there would be no proper manifestation 
 of this. But the humanity of Christ remains in its integrity, 
 and there is a perfect revelation of the two natures without 
 the least encroachment of the One upon the other. And in 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 423 
 
 him we see how this hunicanity of ours may become wedded to 
 divinity so that the latter may be exhibited through the me- 
 dium of the former, and in ten thousand acts and words there 
 be an uncommingled operation both of God and of the crea- 
 ture. " That they also may be one in us, as thou Father art 
 in me, and I in thee/' 
 
 December 26. — " He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted." — 
 Isaiah Ixi. 1. 
 
 Happy is he whose heart is broken in such a sense that he 
 will no longer expect from earth what earth cannot give, and 
 who is in despair of all below the sky. Yes ; though he may 
 esteem himself the most wretched of beings, and though he 
 indeed have sorrows far more poignant than those of other 
 men. Other men do not discover their true misery, their true 
 bankruptcy, and do not so intensely feel their need of a special 
 provision sent from the throne of God. They are reconciled 
 to the sterilities of the world. But this one is broken-hearted 
 because he found as he imagined some heaven, in contrast with 
 which the wilderness condition of the world came out very 
 distinctly ; and when his oasis vanished he found himself un- 
 utterably and hopelessly ruined. So he thought: until he 
 heard a voice saying, " If any man thirst let him come unto 
 me and drink. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy- 
 laden, and I will give you rest." Why will ye die ? Is there 
 no balm in Gilead ? No physician of the soul ? No fountain 
 opened ? Christ's heart was broken, that yours might he bound 
 
 Tip- 
 
 December 27. — " He was numbered with the transgressors." — Isaiah 
 liii. 12. 
 
 That glorious being whom Isaiah saw upon a throne, high 
 and lifted up, surrounded by the enraptured seraphim, left his 
 throne at a time appointed and taking the form of man came 
 
424 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 into this every-day world of ours' and dwelt among. us. What 
 was his reception ? Did not every knee bow and every tongue 
 confess that he was Lord ? If he had come in power and in 
 majesty, with undeniable and irresistible glory, such a reception 
 perhaps would have awaited him. Men would have fallen be- 
 fore him and given him at least external homage. But this 
 was not what he sought. His moral attributes are his true 
 glory. It is in his truth, wisdom, goodness, purity, and con- 
 descension that he is distinguished from the gods of the hea- 
 then, rather than in omnipotence and omniscience. These are 
 not so much attributes of his character as of his position. He 
 would be served not because he is all-mighty, but because he 
 is good, holy, and condescending. Therefore he came into the 
 v/orld in a manner that permitted the fullest manifestation of 
 his character; and if his power and majesty were in some 
 measure veiled, it was in order that there might be a more 
 perfect revelation of his moral perfections. There was then 
 seen in the family of man one being in whom dwelt all the 
 fulness of the Godhead. 
 
 Tell us now, what was his reception ? He was numbered 
 among the transgressors. Instead of saying, "Here is a being 
 of wondrous excellence, angelic in purity, heavenly in nature;" 
 instead of saying even, " Here is a good man ;" men said un- 
 hesitatingly and unblushingly, " This is a bad man ; one with 
 whom we cannot associate; an impious being, violating the 
 most sacred laws ; blaspheming the most holy things ; profan- 
 ing the Sabbath ; consorting with the vile ; overthrowing the 
 faith of many ; a dangerous man, a transgressor of the deepest 
 dye, one that must be hunted from the bosom of society, one 
 that must be as soon as possible sent out of this world." Yes, 
 they decided that any other man, though he were a Barabbas, 
 might live ; on any other man the sun might shine, the wind 
 might blow, the ordinary bounties of heaven descend; but 
 upon this one, never ; the earth cannot bear the burden of 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 425 
 
 him. However contemptible an opinion a man may haye had 
 of himself, yet could he loudly and passionately cry, " Away 
 with this Jesus, crucify him, it is not fit that he should live 
 where I live !" 
 
 Thus the world was tried ; thus its bitter and inveterate 
 hostility to God was detected , thus did it become manifest 
 that Satan was the god of this world. And are things altered ? 
 No ! Those who rejected Christ had no special venom in their 
 hearts. They were average specimens of humanity. In what- 
 ever generation Christ's lowly advent might have taken place, 
 he would have been numbered among the transgressors. Those 
 that make the nearest approach to him in character, those that 
 live godly in Christ Jesus, they suffer persecution, they are 
 reckoned as flagrant transgressors. In fact every generation 
 has had the opportunity given, and has had it not in vain, to 
 show what it thought of Christ. Oh, what a fearful exhibition 
 of the corruption and blindness of man is given in the state- 
 ment that God came into the world, and was numbered with 
 the transgressors and put to a shameful death ! 
 
 December 28. — " So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth ; 
 it shall not return unto me void." — Isaiah Iv. 11. 
 
 A vast deal of rain falls upon the sea ; a great deal upon 
 the desert ; upon immense tracts of earth where there is no 
 cultivation ] it is in fact but a comparatively small part of the 
 snow and rain that yearly descend from the skies, that is made 
 instrumental in the fertilization of the earth. Yet who will 
 say that the rain and snow descend in vain ? In many regions 
 yet unvisited, the rain that periodically falls is an invitation to 
 man to go forth and fulfil his mission, to subdue the earth, to 
 co-operate with the providential processes of God in making 
 the wilderness to blossom as the rose, and to plant groves of 
 myrtle trees where briars and thorns now abound. If men 
 36 * 
 
426 DAILY MEDITATIOIn\S. 
 
 choose to congregate in immense numbers in the narrow con- 
 fines of cities, leaving the earth unsubdued and unreplenishcd, 
 at least G od will show that he is not wanting to the earth. 
 The res23onsibility of most of the desolations of earth, is with 
 man. 
 
 It is not to be denied that Grod's word is abundantly pro- 
 claimed without saving results. Out of a thousand hearers 
 one is affected ; and he that hears it once with the heart's 
 response, hears it with insensibility a thousand times. But 
 imagine an army sent forth with an assurance of victory; it 
 may be that thousands of javelins are hurled without result; 
 that there are many repulses from this and that fortification ; 
 many unsuccessful skirmishes ; but the expedition is at length 
 crowned with success^nd when it returns, returns victorious. 
 The multitude of unsuccessful endeavors preceding the final 
 triumph only served to display the prowess of the enemy and 
 the severity of the strife; and thus to enhance the value of 
 the victory. 
 
 God's word shall not return to him void. It shall accom- 
 plish that whereto he has sent it. For it is to be borne in 
 mind that there are mighty resources in the word of God, and 
 that it can at any time summon to its aid twelve legions of 
 angels. For instance amon^j the words of God are these : — 
 Ask of me and I will show thee great and mighty things which 
 thou hast not known. Omnipotence is with it. Let the faith 
 of those who have the word be only adequate, and it will clothe 
 itself with all the strength of God. Christ, who has all power 
 in heaven and earth, holds that power in behalf of his word 
 militant. The works that I do, shall the believer do; and 
 greater works : whatever he shall ask, I will do it. 
 
 In the mean time, we see how terrible is the power of tlie 
 adversary ; how strongly fortified in its sin is the world ; how 
 absolute the need of omnipotence to bring the kingdoms of 
 this world into subjection to Christ. We know not the word 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 427 
 
 we fight with ; we are ignorant of the resources placed at our 
 command; and our battling is languid and lifeless, like that 
 of soldiers who are waiting for their lord. 
 
 December 29. — " The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with 
 singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head." — Isaiah 
 li. 11. 
 
 Time and again the Lord brought back his ancient people 
 from captivity, even those that valued the liberty of returning; 
 and each time perhaps they thought it was the final redemption 
 of which the prophets had spoken such glorious things, and 
 were looking for crowns of everlasting joy. But in the times 
 preceding the first advent of the Messiah they discovered by 
 bitter experience that it was possible for them to be enslaved 
 even in their own land, in the midst of .Srusalem, in the courts 
 of the temple ; to be enslaved by efews, by high-priests ; and 
 to be as wretched in Zion as ever they had been in Babylon. 
 In the days of Christ how sadly were they oppressed. Not 
 by the Eomans; Christ scarcely made any allusion to them, 
 knowing that the Jews were sufi"ering from a far severer bond- 
 age. He made known to them the true Zion of refuge and 
 the true redemption, when he said " Come unto me all ye that 
 labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." 
 
 The redeemed of the Lord shall return, effectually redeemed 
 from all iniquity, triumphant over sin and misery, crowned with 
 glory, honor, and immortality. If you ask, when? I reply 
 that it shall be in the day when the New Jerusalem cometh 
 down from Grod out of heaven, and in the day when the mani- 
 festation of the sons of God taketh place. " Ye are not in dark- 
 ness that that day should overtake you as a thief." 
 
 December 30. — " Prepare to meet thy God." — Amos iv. 12. 
 For thou must meet him. The only uncertainty relates tc 
 
428 DAILY MEDITATIONS. 
 
 the time ; and even that uncertainty does not exist in the mind 
 of God. It is not more true that God is, than that thou shalt 
 stand before him. Thou art flurried and agitated at the thought 
 of going into the presence of some fellow-man clothed with 
 authority; and wilt thou make no preparation to meet thy 
 God ? The companion with whom thou wert feasting yester- 
 day, received his summons in the night. Inquiring for another 
 this morning thou wert informed of his recent departure. Al- 
 most every hour some one is called from thy neighborhood into 
 the presence of God, and thy turn will surely come. 
 
 Life is given that thou mayest prepare to meet thy God. 
 Thy path is crowded with monitors that seek to arouse thee to 
 a sense of the awful future so fast hastening. The winds whis- 
 per it ; the skies pr^aim it ; the earth mutters it ; the moun- 
 tains repeat it; all me, all change, all beauty, all joy, and all 
 Borrow breathe this admonition, " Prepare to meet thy God." 
 
 He is tJiT/ God. He made thee, gave thee all thy powers, 
 all thine opportunities, gave thee a work to do, and the means 
 of doing it. He will have a multitude of questions to ask 
 thee ; alas ! that I should say it, he will have a multitude of 
 charges to bring against thee. Thou hast heard his thunder in 
 the skies ; thinkest thou he is not able to clothe himself with 
 unendurable terrors, or thinkest thou he will forbear to do it ? 
 Thinkest thou that God will never make so much of thee, an 
 insignificant, ephemeral, helpless being, as to set thee up on 
 high before him, and deal with thee as an object for his wrath, 
 his vengeance, his fiery indignation ? The thought is utterly 
 delusive. Since God has made so much of thee as to fashion 
 and endow thee wonderfully, to create a world of beauty and 
 splendor for thy habitation, a sun to light thee by day, and 
 stars to shine for thee by night ; since he has treated thee as 
 a being of great consequence by giving his word to be thy 
 guide, and above all by giving his Son to die for thee, think 
 not that thou shalt escape his notice in the great day of a<> 
 
DAILY MEDITATIONS. 429 
 
 count. Thou hast made war upon the universe of God ; thou 
 hast sought to make him contemptible in the eyes of his crea- 
 tures by despising his commands and discarding his authority. 
 The interests of the entire universe demand that there be a 
 meeting between thee and God, and that it be distinctly set- 
 tled, who is in the right, God thy Creator and Governor, or 
 thou his rebellious creature. 
 
 December 31. — "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." — Revelation xxii. 20. 
 
 This prayer of the beloved disciple is his legacy to the 
 church. Being permitted to write the closing words of Scrip- 
 ture, he finds three little words which seem to him expressive 
 of more love to man, and to comprehend lilore of blessing and 
 advantage to the world than any numbeMF other words. The 
 prayer, " Come, Lord Jesus,'^ is th^i^pitome of all the prayers 
 that the behever is called upon'tq^ofier. It is a prayer for the 
 overthrow of Satan's kingdom ; for the extinction of sorrows, 
 the cessation of pain, the wiping away of tears ; for the de- 
 scent of the New Jerusalem ; for the sanctification and perfec- 
 tion of saints ; for the creating anew of all things ; in a word, 
 for the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth right- 
 eousness. 
 
 To be indifferent about the coming of Christ, is to be indif- 
 ferent about the most sacred interests of humanity. If the 
 apostles looked upon the advent of Christ as the hope of the 
 world, and knew of no greater benefit that they could bestow 
 upon mankind than to offer up this prayer in faith, we may 
 well adopt their sentiment and follow their example. Let this 
 prayer never die on our lips while we have breath : " Even so, 
 come, Lord Jesus, come quickly V 
 
 THE END. 
 
Date Due 
 
 
 
 
 
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