“Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations .”—Psalm 90:1.
I N his gripping tale , “ The Haunted Man,” Charles Dickens tells of a chemist who was tor tured by unhappy memories. As he sat one night before the fire, troubled by the past, a phantom made its appearance and told the man that he could relieve him of his distress if he would permit the mysterious visitor to take from him the power of memory. The unhappy chemist closed immediately with the offer and suddenly became a man who could remember nothing, either good or bad. But so great was his misery that he besought the phan tom to restore his memory to him. It was done. The tale comes to a close with the prayer, “ Lord, keep my memory green!” This is a splendid prayer for the New Year. The New Year is memory time, as well as a season for earnest resolutions. The changing years make us conscious o f time’s plodding and persistent passing. We pause and gaze back wist fully at the path we’ve been traveling ere we ven ture hesitatingly into the unknown future. Of this experience Mary Brainert wrote: “ I see not a step before me As I tread on another year; But the past is still in God’s keeping— The future His mercy shall clear.” As gay Christmas fades and persistent January fills the picture, in our sudden realization of time’s inexorableness we are retrospective, introspective, and the prospect of the New Year challenges. Meditation is inevitable and memory becomes a treasure house where life’s precious experiences are stored. The older we grow, the richer should be our memories. Sad indeed are those who can conjure up little out o f life’s experiences to warm their aging hearts. But memory being a treasure house we must constantly deposit life’s rich experiences there if we would draw from it in time o f need, as when the chill winds of tragic world situations assail. Memories of past mercies and God’s pro tection provide a refuge for the troubled soul.
I. G od ’ s B ook I s a M emory A lbum . The Bible has much to say about memory, pre senting it as an instrument o f God’s grace and favor, as well as an instrument of torture both here and hereafter. “ The memory of the just is blessed,” said the wise Solomon (Prov. 10:7). David saturated his psalms with memories, saying, “ I remember thee upon my bed, and medi tate on thee in the night watches, because thou hast been my help” (Psalms 63:6). In the plain tive soul-cry o f the 77th Psalm, Israel’s sweet sing er recounts his sorrows and vents his complaints. Then memory rushes to his rescue: “ I will remem ber the years at the right hand of the most high. I will remember the works of the Lord . . . remem ber the wonders of old.” Moses was an old man when he wrote the 90th Psalm, that beautiful meditation on the goodness of God in the land of the living. Looking back over the long years, the patriarch declared: “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all genera tions. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” The trials and troubles of Moses were both many and mountainous; but in his old age he could banish them because he had discovered the solemn peace o f God’s eternal purposes. II. M emories T hat B urn . Solomon admonished the youth of his day and our own when he said: “Remember now thy Cre ator in the days o f thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them” (Ecc. 12:1). He realized that men create their own past; and youth day by day creates the memories that will bless or burn in the years to come. Present activi ties are the stuff o f which memories are made. Young people who give themselves to profligacy rarely realize that the echo of the years behind
THE KING'S BUSINESS
14
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs