293
August 1943
special foe. Let us seek to follow His guiding that we may be of those who “ sing in the ways of the Lord.” ENDUEMENT f o r s e r v ic e The school of the prophets had be come too small to accommodate the students who were flocking to the feet of Israel’s great master-teacher, Elisha. A new site; had been decided upon, and the building committee had ar ranged plans for the erection of a m o r e commodious structure. The labor was co-operative, and e a g e r hands were w o r k i n g enthusias tically at the cutting and hewing of timber. As one vigorous young man swung his ake, the head suddenly flew off and dropped into the water. To him it was a sore loss. But the student had learned the gracious sym pathy of the great heart of Elisha, and the matter was at once reported to him. The master listened to his tale, went with him to the place of loss, and made it possible for him to regain the missing axehead. The axehead here indicates the en- duement for service. Just as the finest handle is of no use without the steel head, so the most polished and capable individual is of no value apart from the divine anointing. His ministry ¡for God without the Holy Spirit is no more
soon dies. Just as the lark that sings as it soars loses its song as it drops to the earth, so as soon as the Christian whose heart is made to dwell in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, drops to the earth-life of self, the music dies out of .his heart. That falling away may be due hot to willful sin. That departure from the ways of the Lord Where alone the song is possible, may be by some wrong decision whereby life has taken a wrong turning. Or perhaps the getting out of the way may have been by care lessness and drift. Yet let such who know they are not in the ways of the Lord take heart in that High Priest, our divine Lord, whose glory it is that He has compassion “ on them that are. out of the way” (Heb. 5:2). From that compassion of His, He ministers “ grace sufficient” for the conditions that we have brought upon ourselves until, by His overruling hand, He brings us back into the ways of the Lord and again we are enabled to “ drink of the brook in the way.” True, we must never confuse ma terial prosperity with evidence of be ing in the ways of the Lord. It was in an hour of darkest distress at Philippi that Paul and Silas, though in the ways of the Lord, were bound fast in the inner prison, bleeding from
miliar law of Bible interpretation, w ill show us the underlying character of the matter mentioned. To sing this' song we must be of those who, being in Christ, have become a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The Christian experience is the imparting of a new life, being born again by the Word of God (1 Pet. 1:23). The song is the expression of life, even as on a spring morning the lark, bursting with its joy of life, rises trill ing on the air. When we enter on the realization that by the imparting of this new life we are the sons of God, then we sing for very joy of heart, as did that first creation. Till we have this life we can never sing the song. “This life is in hi3 Son” (1 John 5:11). It is by union with Him that this life is maintained and strengthened. A ll songful living will be contingent on that union with “Christ who is our life.” It is also a song of triumph. Such is the song of Moses, in Exodus 15, the song of a delivered people. Before we can sing the sohg, we need not only the imparting and maintaining of the new" life; we need also deliverance from old foes. Thus Moses sings, “Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed,” and then rejoices that “thou hast guid ed them in thy strength unto thy
effective than would be the attempt to hew down a tree with only an axe handle. The axehead may be lost in service. Often some spiritual carelessness, a failure to watch unto prayer or to feed upon the Word, a ceasing to abide in Christ, or an unnoticed inroad of the world or the flesh, w ill loosen it. The worker may be for a time unconscious of his loss. Samson, at first after the shearing of his locks, “wist not that the Lord was departed from him.” But sooner or later the realization sweeps over the heart with crushing force. There is, however, a sure way of recovery. It is to go with the Master to the place of our failure, and there open the heart in repentance, and con fession. “The iron did swim.” Heavenly grace is ever miraculous. To the broken and contrite heart the divine power and love are manifested.—The Alli ance Weekly.
Roman rods; yet they sang praises to God in that midnight hour of suffer ing and shame. It is not for naught that we a re ,told that as they thus sang “the prisoners heard them” (Acts 16:25). Such, surely, is the charm of the song of the Lord that doubtless there were in that little church at Philippi some who had been led home to God through that song of the Lord in an hour of adversity. Truly, “He giveth songs in the night.” Little, perhaps, do we realize the value and worth of the life that sings in the ways of the Lord, be those ways through sunny hours or mid night gloom. Let us beware lest we be so busy examining the theory and determining the laws of music that we forget the song. Let us see to it that we have the new life that alone can sing the new song. Let us be in union with that conquering Lord who hath triumphed gloriously over our
holy habitation” (Ex. 15:13). David’s song likewise celebrates that He who has brought him up out of the horrible pit has also set his feet upon a rock and ordered his goings. (Psa. 40). David knew not only that he need ed that deliverance, but that it had to be followed by God’s strength estab lishing him. . . . God/who has de livered us from the guilt of sin has triumphed over sin for us, and the measure in which we appropriate this victory is the measure in which we, too, shall be singing the song of the Lord. A soul living under the sense of defeat has no song. It is also the song of the guided. “They shall sirtg in the ways of the Lord.” It is only in the ways of the Lord that this song can be sung. “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” cried Israel exiled by sin. When the child of God departs from the way of the Lord, the song
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