September 1927
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D a i l y M e d i t a t i o n s f o r t h e Y ear B y Wi l f red M. Hopk ins HbEHbHEKidbdbipg;^[jciQpq?^nc-c?^Q^c^^ff^q?'?^q?'?5a;555g5a5g5Ba5ESa5Z5aSB5BHSE5g5H5a5g5g5H5B5E5Z5g5H5aSaSH5g5g5E5SSS5E5B5H5Z5H5Z5S5a5E5g5gSB5gB S eptember 4. “This same Jesus.” —Acts 1 :11. S eptember 6. “Thé valley of Achor for a door of hope.” —Hosea 2:15.
WE are so apt to imagine that our Lord has altered-since His ascension into heaven. There is such an infinity of distance between the stall of Bethlehem or the carpenter’s shop at Naz areth, and the sapphire throne above; between the lonely stranger, “Captive,: beaten, bound, reviled,” and the King of kings and the Lord of lords, surrounded by the angel choir, that we forget that He is t h e “same Jesus” still— as tender, as gracious as loving, as pitiful, as accessible, as in the days when He trod the shore>'of .the Galilean sea or climbed the slopes of Olivet. Yet so it is. If then He bade the heavy laden come to Him for rest, He will welcome them still. If then He was ready with words of forgiveness for the sinful and the fallen, His willingness to pardon does not fail. If He wept crver the woes of humanity in the days of His earthly sojourn, His sympathy is not diminished, His pity is not less, today. If He was able to deliver and bless, He is as ever “unto the uttermost able to save.” Nor is He less disposed to speak that word than in the days of yore. If His heart yearned in those days over men and women, having loved them, He loves them to the end. If all might: approach Him during His earthly ministry, His exaltation forms no barrier to keep us from His feet." He is the same JESUS, the same “salvation of JAH” as ever; and that salvation is at the disposal of every weary, sinful, saddened soul. ring . . . end shoes. Luke 15 .22. THERE is something amazing in the Divine method of for giving sinners. It is so warm, so free, so boundless. Our Father does not dole out cold, halfhearted, grudging pardons, as we are inclined to do. The prodigal is not allowed to take his place as a servant, he is not even placed upon probation; at once he is lifted to the position of a son—an honored member of the family to which he belongs. He is not put to shame, either in his own estimation or in the eyes of those by whom he is surrounded; he is treated as the Father’s child, restored at once to his self respect and to the respect of all within the parental home. No mere human composition this. The mind of uninspired man could never have conceived such a reception; it is foreign to all the instincts of our fallen heart. So much so that some have murmured at the picture and asked if it was one of equity. The answer is No, a thousand times no; it is not equity, it is LOVE! Love beyond all human conception; a love, possible only to the great heart of God. We do our Father wrong when we persist in dwelling upon our past unfaithfulness; in thinking of our selves as still criminals, admitted into the Divine favor only upon sufferance. He" has cast our sins behind His back, He has flung them into the depths of the sea, He will remember them no more forever. He has clothed us with the robe, the ring, the shoes. Let us accept the position which His love has bestowed upon us; let us lift up our heads with joy, and only remember our past transgressions that we may commit them no more forever. “His touch has still its ancient power, No word from Him can fruitless fall.” S eptember 5. “The best robe . . . cl
“Achor” signifies “trouble,” and the Valley of Achor was the place of death ; no more unlikely spot could be imagined as a door of hope. Yet how many a man has lived “having no hope’ either in this world or the next until he has been brought into the Achor valley of trouble, and heard the voice of God speaking to him in the midst of the desolation and the pain. How many another has watched his earthly expectations fade in the same valley, and turning his eyes heavenward in his despair, has seen the open portal of “a better hope” than those which he had lost? It is through the place of death that we enter into our most blessed experiences. It is emphatically true that heaven lies on the other side the grave. When we die to self that we may become alive to God, then it is that we are near the gateway of that joy which is “unspeakable and full of glory.” When we die to earth, ,in that hour we first catch a glimpse of the celestial effulgence streaming through the gates of pearl. Men would fam walk always upon the sunny heights ; they forget that real hap piness is to be found in the valley of humiliation; they desire to live upon the peaks of earth’s vivacity: amid their fellow mert; they fail to realize that the truest life begins in the Valley of Achor, alone with God. We need never fear the shadows of the raviné if He leads us there. Achan perished iiLthe Valley of Achor, but we live under a gentler dispensation, and since Christ passed through the place of trouble and death it has been trans formed into a door of hope. THAT is, He shall neither nod nor sleep. The sentinel may slumber at his post on the battle field, the steersman may nod over the helm during the tempest, the watching mother may be overcome with drowsiness as she sits by the bedside of her sick child, the very angels’ wings ,may droop; but we have an unslumbering Keeper Who is ever awake and alert. There can be no surprises to God. No enemy can steal unseen through the darkness to overwhelm our souls. No assault can be made unmarked upon our safety or our peace. Moreover we have an Almighty Keeper; it is He “Who made heaven and earth.” No concourse of foes, however numerous or however strong, can overpower Him Who is the Guardian of His chosen ones. From the open onslaught by day and from the covert attack in the darkness He is able to deliver those who put their trust in Him. Nor need we fear any vacillation in the protection; He changes not, He tires not, He fails not; “He shall preserve our going out and our coming in from this time henceforth, and even for evermore.” He shall be with us “all the days. What peace, what rest, what safety, await the man or woman who takes the LORD for his or her keeper 1 How foolish are we to rely upon other protectors; how much more foolish to take Him for our Guardian and yet to give way to idle and needless fears. S eptember 7. “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” ;>*,:A-Psa. 121 :4.
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