--2 CHRONICLES vi. 1-15.

And this was a purpose which the man was not permitted to realize. It was a temple built in the substance of dreams, but never established in wood and stone. And G.o.d took the shadowy structure and esteemed it as a perfected pile. The sacred intention was regarded as a finished work. The will to build a temple was regarded as a temple built. And hence I discern the preciousness of all hallowed purpose and desire, even though it never receive actual accomplishment. "Thou didst well, it was in thine heart."

And so the will to be, and the will to do, is acceptable sacrifice unto the Lord! "I wish I could be a missionary to the foreign field," but the duties of home forbid. But as a missionary she is accepted of our G.o.d, even though she never land on distant sh.o.r.e. Our purposes work, as well as the work itself. Desire is full of holy energy as well as fruition. The wish to do good is good itself; the very longing is a minister in the kingdom of our G.o.d. If, therefore, we are to be judged by our aspirations, there are mult.i.tudes of apparent failures who will one day be revealed as clothed in the radiance of spiritual victory.

DECEMBER The Ninth

_NATIONAL BLESSEDNESS_

"_Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound._"

--PSALM lx.x.xix. 1-18.

Blessed is the people who love the sound of the silver trumpet which calls to holy convocation! Blessed is the people who are sacredly impatient for the hour of holy communion! Blessed is the people "in whose heart are the highways to Zion." And in what shall their blessedness consist?

In illumination. "_They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance._" The favour of the Lord shall shine upon them when they walk through rough and troublous places. There shall always be a sunny patch where the soul is in communion with its Lord.

In exultation. "_In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day._" There is nothing like sunshine for making the spirits dance! Light is a great emanc.i.p.ator, a great breaker-up of frozen bondages. It thaws "the genial currents of the soul," and the stream of life sings in its progress.

In exaltation. "_In Thy righteousness shall they be exalted._" They will be lifted up above their enemies. In elevation they will find their safety. G.o.d lifts us above our pa.s.sions, above our cares, above our little fears and tempers, and we find our peace upon the heights.

DECEMBER The Tenth

_THE ONLY WISE BEGINNING_

"_The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom._"

--PSALM cxi.

If I want to do anything wisely I must begin with G.o.d. That is the very alphabet of the matter. Every other beginning is a perverse beginning, and it will end in sure disaster. "I am Alpha." Everything must take its rise in Him, or it will plunge from folly into folly, and culminate in confusion.

If I would be wise in my daily business I must begin all my affairs in G.o.d. My career itself must be chosen in His presence, and in the illumination of His most holy Spirit. And in the subsequent days nothing must be done that is not rooted and grounded in Him.

If I would be wise as a teacher I must begin with G.o.d. I must not merely call Him in to bless my lesson when my labour is done. The very beginnings of my thinkings must be in Him. Our Lord will not write an appendix to a volume about which He has never been consulted. "They who seek Me _early_ shall find Me." And so it is with the varied activities of our mult.i.tudinous life. If we would have them shine with quiet wisdom we must light them at the Sun of glory.

DECEMBER The Eleventh

_THE SPEECH OF THE INCARNATION_

"_He hath spoken to us in His Son._"

--HEBREWS i.

And that blessed Son spake my language. He came into my troubled conditions and expressed Himself out of my humble lot. My surroundings afforded Him a language in which He made known His good news. The carpenter's shop, the shepherd on the hill, the ladened vine, a wayside well, common bread, a friend's sickness, the desolation of a garden, the darkness of "the last things"--these all offered Him a mode of speech in which He unveiled to me the heart of G.o.d.

He came as the Son to make me a son. For I had made myself a slave, and called my bondage freedom. I wore my badge of servitude with unholy pride.

But when He came and spake to me, my lost inheritance dawned upon my wondering eyes, and I knew myself to be enslaved. But His was the glorious mission not only to awake but to emanc.i.p.ate, not only to unveil lost splendour but to recover it. He came to set us free, "and if the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed."

"This my son was lost and is found." Has that great word been spoken concerning me in the Father's home of light? "Lord, I would serve, and be a son. Dismiss me not, I pray."

DECEMBER The Twelfth

_RELATING EVERYTHING TO G.o.d_

"_Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of G.o.d._"

--1 CORINTHIANS x. 23-33.

And so all my days would const.i.tute a vast temple, and life would be a constant worship. This is surely the science and art of holy living--to relate everything to the Infinite. When I take my common meal and relate it to "the glory of G.o.d," the common meal becomes a sacramental feast.

When my labour is joined "unto the Lord," the sacred wedding turns my workshop into a church. When I link the country lane to the Saviour, I am walking in the Garden of Eden, and paradise is restored.

The fact of the matter is, we never see anything truly until we see it in the light of the glory of G.o.d. Set a dull duty in that light and it shines like a diamond. Set a bit of drudgery in that light and it becomes transfigured like the wing of a starling when the sunshine falls upon it.

Everything is seen amiss until we see it in the glory! And, therefore, it is my wisdom to set everything in that light, and to do all to the glory of G.o.d.

DECEMBER The Thirteenth

_THE HOLY AND THE PROFANE_

"_Put difference between the holy and the unholy._"

--LEVITICUS x. 1-10.

The peril of our day is that so many of these differences are growing faint. The holy merges into the unholy, and we can scarcely see the dividing line. Black merges into white through manifold shades of grey.

Falsehood slopes into truth through cunning expediences and white lies.

l.u.s.t merges into purity through conviviality and geniality and good-fellowship. So is one thing losing itself in another, and vivid moral distinctions are being obscured and effaced.

There is only one way to keep these native contrasts in vivid relief, and that is by living in the unsullied light of G.o.d's holy presence. "In Thy light shall we see light." Things are seen in their true colours only when we bring them before the great white throne. Fabrics seen in the gas-light reveal quite other shades when we bring them into the light of day. We must not make our distinctions in the gas-light of worldly standard and expediency; we must take them into His presence before whose radiance even the angels veil their faces, and we shall see things as they are, and we shall know "the difference between the holy and the profane."

DECEMBER The Fourteenth