October 19 - Morning"Babes in Christ." — 1 Corinthians 3:1
Are you mourning, believer, because you are so weak in the divine life:
because your faith is so little, your love so feeble? Cheer up, for you have
cause for gratitude. Remember that in some things you are equal to the
greatest and most full-grown Christian. You are as much bought with
blood as he is. You are as much an adopted child of God as any other
believer. An infant is as truly a child of its parents as is the full-grown
man. You are as completely justified, for your justification is not a thing of
degrees: your little faith has made you clean every whit.
You have as much
right to the precious things of the covenant as the most advanced believers,
for your right to covenant mercies lies not in your growth, but in the
covenant itself; and your faith in Jesus is not the measure, but the token of
your inheritance in Him. You are as rich as the richest, if not in enjoyment,
yet in real possession. The smallest star that gleams is set in heaven; the
faintest ray of light has affinity with the great orb of day. In the family
register of glory the small and the great are written with the same pen. You
are as dear to your Father's heart as the greatest in the family. Jesus is
very tender over you.
You are like the smoking flax; a rougher spirit would
say, "put out that smoking flax, it fills the room with an offensive odour!"
but the smoking flax He will not quench. You are like a bruised reed; and
any less tender hand than that of the Chief Musician would tread upon
you or throw you away, but He will never break the bruised reed. Instead
of being downcast by reason of what you are, you should triumph in
Christ. Am I but little in Israel? Yet in Christ I am made to sit in heavenly
places. Am I poor in faith? Still in Jesus I am heir of all things. Though
"less than nothing I can boast, and vanity confess." yet, if the root of the
matter be in me I will rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the God of my
salvation. October 19 - Evening"God, my Maker, who giveth songs in the night." — Job 35:10
Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration
from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise
the God who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded argosy. It is
easy enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow
— the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring. It is
easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is skilful who
sings when there is not a ray of light to read by — who sings from his
heart. No man can make a song in the night of himself; he may attempt it,
but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired.
Let all
things go well, I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I go out of the
flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green
thing grows, and wherewith shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How
shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where no jewels are? Let but
this voice be clear, and this body full of health, and I can sing God's praise:
silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of languishing, and how shall I
then chant God's high praises, unless He Himself give me the song? No, it
is not in man's power to sing when all is adverse, unless an altar-coal shall
touch his lip.
It was a divine song, which Habakkuk sang, when in the
night he said, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit
be in the vines; the labour 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." Then, since our Maker gives songs in the night, let us wait
upon Him for the music. O Thou chief musician, let us not remain songless
because affliction is upon us, but tune Thou our lips to the melody of
thanksgiving. October 19 |