November 1927
705
T h e
K i n g ' s
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lantic and Pacific—on and on—and running away over the sides of this too little vessel to fill other globe-gob lets with its largess of glory. T h e B oun t ifu l P rovidence O f G od When are there just enough leaves to cover the bare shoulders of winter, so that the Lord says, “If I had more leaves I would clothe that little bare corner, that small bleak crag; but my ivy ran out, my grass was in sufficient ; I might have spared one flower, but that would have been all I could have done” ? Why, he wastes more blossoms than arithmetic can count. As for the leaves, have you numbered them ? Have you had daylight enough to count the leaves upon one great oak? And what are these snowflakes under the tree? Shed blos soms ! He could have clothed another globe with them as large as the globe we live upon. When does God “break” in nature just enough? Whenever He has broken in personal providence just enough, it was not an indication of His want but a proof that He was educating and chastening our lives. He has not always entrusted us with the broken portions ; He has seen that now and again we could not be trusted with them, and therefore He has had to be His own treasurer. God has had to take care of His own prom ises ; the Lord hath not allowed all the angel promises to come and sing to us at once, but He has sent them one after another, each with his little song, enough to last out all the darkness of our fear. ■It was like Jesus Christ to give ten thousand times more than the people really needed. At the wedding feast they said there was no wine, and He gave them firkin after firkin of wine, a whole Niagara of the wine of the kingdom of heaven, that never made the judgment dark, or the knees tremble in weakness, or the mind play the tricks of the fool. He began well—“This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee.” There never was so much wine in the little town before. When does Jesus do just enough to save the sinner? He saves the sinner with an eternal salvation, with an everlasting redemption; His Cross is not able simply and only to lift the world a little; it can lift the world to heaven. T h e M eagerness O f O ur F a ith What a different meaning is th is! We began by seeing the disciples sweeping up the crumbs, gathering up the little pieces that had been left over, and putting them into baskets; whereas Jesus Christ did not call them to this kind of work; He said, “Gather up the broken por tions.” He took the bread and brake it, and there was ten thousand times more than the universe could eat; and He said,¿‘‘Take care of the broken portions, My finger prints are upon them; these may be unto you some day as my broken body.” Whatever Christ did He did sacramentally; He never uttered a word in any language without sanctifying that word, making it the gem of speech, the diamond of eloquence. What about your little economy now, your small texts and neat quotations, and your religious labels ? Why, all things are yours, if you will gather them up, and take care of them. God will not follow the spendthrift and put money into his pockets, but the Lord Says, “All things are yours, if you live ift faith, if you live in love, if you serve faithfully ;: call upon me, and I will answer.” We should have more—of everything—if we had more faith in God. “Ye cannot serve God and mam mon.” That is what you are trying to do. You fail, and the universe is glad of your defeat, W hat! Can
you steal something without God seeing you? It will rot in your tents. The Lord knew that the Israelites were a gang of thieves, and He gave them just enough; and here and there some pf* them thought He was not looking, and they took some away with them, and when they went to laugh over it next day it was pestilent, poi sonous; it had become as death in the house. You can not outwit God. You do not want the promises every day; there are whole weeks and months when you need no protnise at all, and you have nothing to do but toil and toil; but keep the promises near at hand; the day on which you will need them may come at any moment; then you will remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, “Gather up the broken portions, that noth ing be lost.” ’ T h e T reasured F ulness O f G od The Christian need not live from hand to mouth. How much of history have you gathered up? History should be prophecy. History is nothing if it end in itself; it only becomes representative of its divinely intended meaning when it lifts up a great light over the darkness of the future. Have you stored your history? ' Have you turned it into prophecy, poetry, idealism, faith? Or has God governed the world in vain for you? For you have heeded not the ever-moving and all-ruling hand. How much of your own experience have you treasured? What broken portion have you ready for use? Let David teach us again as he has often taught us; looking forward to the fray with Goliath of Gath, he said, “The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine.” That was gathering up the broken portions that remained, that nothing be lost. Some one had not to come to David and say, “Have you ever had any serious encounters with any difficulties in your life?” Woe to the soul that needs to be re minded of its own birthdays, its own conquests, its own days of coronation. Treasure God’s goodnes{ as seen in the past, and use it as an assurance of God’s goodness in the future. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think o f ; when He has done it, gather up the broken portions, that nothing be lost. You need to be converted every day, and to be taken back to the infant school every day; you soon fall from what little faith you have into the silent idiocy, so that you have to be taught again the first principles and the alphabetic elements of things, in stead of being rich with unsearchable riches. Lord, in crease our faith ! Oh that we had gathered up the broken portions! Then today we had been revelling in our her itage, we had been rich with unsearchable riches. So we are not called to save trifles, but to draw upon the treasured fulness of God. We are not called to a small economy, but to a tranquil and victorious faith. Christian Possessions The Love of God’s heart to comfort my soul ; The Word of God’s truth, my guide to the goal; The Blood of God’s Son to cleanse from all sin; The Grace of God’s Spirit to flood me within ; The Light o f God’s presence to shine on my way; The Joy o f God’s peace all around day by day; The Glance of God’s eye to scatter each foe; The Strength of God’s arm wherever I go.
IH -T . Baird.
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