JANUARY The Thirteenth

_THE MIRACLE IN A DRY PLACE_

PSALM cvii. 33-43.

"He turneth ... the dry ground into water-springs." This is one of the miracles of grace. The good Lord makes a dry experience the fountain of blessing. I pa.s.s into an apparently waste place and I find riches of consolation. Even in "the valley of the shadow" I come upon "green pastures" and "still waters." I find flowers in the ruts of the hardest roads if I am in "the way of G.o.d's commandments." G.o.d's providence is the pioneer of every faithful pilgrim. "His blessed feet have gone before."

What I shall need is already foreseen, and foresight with the Lord means forethought and provision. Every hour gives the loyal disciples surprises of grace.

Let me therefore not fear when the path of duty turns into the wilderness.

The wilderness is as habitable with G.o.d as the crowded city, and in His fellowship my bread and water are sure. The Lord has strange manna for the children of disappointment, and He makes water to "gush forth from the rock." Duty can lead me nowhere without Him, and His provision is abundant both in "the thirsty desert and the dewy mead." There will be a spring at the foot of every hill, and I shall find "lilies of peace" in the lonely valley of humiliation.

JANUARY The Fourteenth

_FORGETTING G.o.d_

DEUTERONOMY viii. 11-20.

"Beware ... lest when thou hast eaten and art full ... thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy G.o.d." I was in a little cottage near Warwick. I said to the good man who lived in it, "Can you see the castle?" and he replied, "We can see it best in the winter when the leaves are off the trees. In the summer time it is apt to be hid!" The summer bounty hid the castle; the winter barrenness revealed it! And so it is in life. In the season of fulness we are p.r.o.ne to be blind to "the house of many mansions," and we forget the Master of the house, the Lord our G.o.d.

Our material wealth hides our eternal treasure.

What, then, shall we do in the days of our prosperity, when all our trees are in full leaf? We must pray that material things may never become opaque, that they may be always transparent, so that through the seen we may behold the unseen. This is a gift of the Spirit, and it may be ours.

He will anoint our eyes with the eye-salve of grace, and everything will become to us a symbol of something better, so that even in the midst of material plenty our hearts will be with our treasure in heaven. Everything will be to us "as it were transparent gla.s.s."

JANUARY The Fifteenth

_THE MINISTRY OF PRAISE_

PSALM cxv.

"The Lord hath been mindful of us: He will bless us." In that joyful a.s.surance there is both retrospect and prospect. There is the trodden pathway of Providence, and there is the star of hope! The eyes are steadied and refreshed in sacred memories, and then they gaze into the future with serene and happy confidence. And so the Ebenezer of the soul becomes both a thanksgiving and a reconsecration.

Now perhaps our hopes are thin because our praises are scanty. Perhaps our expectations are clouded because our memories are dim. There is nothing so quickens hope as a journey among the mercies of our yesterdays. The heart lays aside its fears amid the acc.u.mulated blessings of our G.o.d. Worries pa.s.s away like cloudlets in the warmth of a summer's morning. And the recollections of G.o.d's goodness always make summer even in the wintriest day.

Now I see why the New Testament is so urgent in the matter of praise.

Without praise many other virtues and graces cannot be born. Without praise they have no breath of life. Praise quickens a radiant company of heavenly presences, and among them is the shining spirit of hope.

JANUARY The Sixteenth

_THE DISTINCTION OF BEING RECOGNIZED_

JOHN x. 1-18.

The Good Shepherd knows His sheep, and knows them by name. And that is what I am tempted to forget. I think of myself as one of an innumerable mult.i.tude, no one of whom receives personal attention. "My way is overlooked by my G.o.d." But here is the evangel--the Saviour would miss me, even me!

At a great orchestral rehearsal, which Sir Michael Costa was conducting, the man who played the piccolo stayed his fingers for a moment, thinking that his trifling contribution would never be missed. At once Sir Michael raised his hand, and said: "Stop! Where's the piccolo?" He missed the individual note. And my Lord needs the note of my life to make the music of His Kingdom, and if the note be absent He will miss it, and the glorious music will be broken and incomplete.

There is a common vice of self-conceit, but there is also a common vice of excessive self-depreciation. "My Lord can do nothing with me!" Yes, my Lord knows thee and needs thee! And by the power of His grace thou canst accomplish wonders!

JANUARY The Seventeenth

_SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT_

"_My sheep hear My voice!_"

--JOHN x. 19-30.

This is spiritual discernment. We may test our growth in grace by our expertness in detecting the voice of our Lord. It is the skill of the saint to catch "the still small voice" amid all the selfish clamours of the day, and amid the far more subtle callings of the heart. It needs a good ear to catch the voice of the Lord in our sorrows. I think it requires a better ear to discern the voice amid our joys! The twilight helps me to be serious; the noonday glare tends to make me heedless.

"_And they follow Me!_" Discernment is succeeded by obedience. That is the one condition of becoming a saint--to follow the immediate call of the Lord. And it is the one condition of becoming an expert listener. Every time I hear the voice, and follow, I sharpen my sense of hearing, and the next time the voice will sound more clear.

"_And I give unto them eternal life._" Yes, life is found in the ways of a listening obedience. Every faculty and function will be vitalized when I follow the Lord of life and glory. "In Christ shall all be made alive."

My Saviour, graciously give me the listening ear! Give me the obedient heart.

JANUARY the Eighteenth

_FALSE SHEPHERDS_

EZEKIEL x.x.xiv. 1-10.

This word of the Lord puts before me the unlovely lineaments of the false shepherds.

They are self-seeking. They "_feed themselves_," but they "_feed not the flock_." They take up religion for what they can make out of it! It is a carnal ambition, not a holy service. It is used for getting, not for giving, for self-glorification and not for self-sacrifice. It is selfishness masquerading as holiness, the thief in the garb of the shepherd.

And, therefore, the false shepherds are devoid of sympathy. "_The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick._"

Selfishness always tends to benumbment. Humaneness is fostered by sacrifice. Our sympathetic chords are kept refined by chivalrous deeds.

Drop the deeds and all our refinements begin to coa.r.s.en, and we make no response to our brother's cries of need and pain.

And because there is no sympathy there is no quest. "_My sheep wandered ... and none did seek after them._" How can we seek them if we have never missed them, if we have no sense that they are lost? Our Lord came in travail of soul to "seek that which was lost." And I must share His travail if I would share in the search.