June 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 Ye a r By W ilf r e d M . H o p k in s
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see in them an “exceeding weight of glory.” True, they bring their responsibilities and their limitations: if I am not my own, I am not at liberty to do always as I please. If I am not my own, then all I have should be at the disposal of my Owner. But high above these disabilities blazes the effulgence of the thought that since Christ has bought me with a price—and that such a 'price—I shall be the peculiar object of His care. “Not with corruptible things” did He purchase me, but with His own precious blood. How valuable, then, I must have been in His sight! Nor does He tire of His purchases, as. a child wearies of a toy: precious in His',eyes when He paid the price, I am precious still. Surely then
J une 8. “The husbandman waiteth for the' precious fruit." — las. 5:7. CHRISTIAN workers often forget that they are husband men, and that “the kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed into the ground.” No sane sower tears his hair because he does not reap a harvest from the seed on the same day that he scatters it, or even on the next. Yet how many a preacher and teacher worries himself because he sees no immediate result from his labors. Sirs! the Word of God is seed, and seed does not usually spring up and bring forth fruit in an hour, or even in a night. We have a right to expect a harvest as the outcome of our sowing, but we must learn to have patience and wait for it. “One koweth,” we are told, “and another reapeth.” There appears to be, in the spiritual economy, an order of sowers and an order of reapers. Occasionally, but not often, the offices, are combined in one personality; usually we believe they are distinct.. Of course, the reaper has the pleasanter task, and the more popular as far as the world and the Church are concerned; but their honor and their reward shall be equal in the day of the Harvest Home. Meanwhile do not let us distress ourselves if we do not see results. Our one responsibility is to take caire that we sow “good^Seed f ;we need never fear, that it has been sown in vain—it shall accomplish' the Master’s purpose, if it fails in ours. The Divine .“Well done” does not depend upon sheaves, but upon steadfastness. ii? J une 9. “Sleep on now . . . rise up!"—Mark 14:41, 42. WHAT a paradox! To tell men to sleep on and to rise up, both as it were in one breath! Yet how striking the lesson, when once the key to the conflicting commands has been,found. Saint Paul had learned it, evidently, for he say's.:, “Forgetting the things that are behind, I press: forward.” The disciples had had the opportunity of watching with their Lord in His hour of agony, but they had missed it because their eyes were heavy with slumber. It was' .gone for ever. Agitation and self-reproach were useless; as far as that was. concerned, they might just as well “sleep on and take their rest.” , But another opportunity awaited them; they were to “rise up” therefore to meet it. “It is no use crying over spilled milk.” ; Perpetual regrets over the “might have been,” or even the “ought to have done” only hinder us from performing the newer duties of today. Let the dead past bury its dead, while the living present claims us for its own. True penitence for past failure is best proved, not by tears, nor by lamentation, but by swift obedience in the present. This we believe to be the secret of spiritual growth:
“He will keep what thus He sought, . Safely guard the dearly bought, Cherish that which He did choose,: . Always love and never lose.”
What stores of safety and of peace lie hid in the fact of Christ’s possession-of His people. Let us draw upon these riches in our hours of peril and of fear. “I am thine, O Lord! therefore I shall be preserved and blessed whatever may betide.!’ ?
J u n e 11. “Be ye not the bondslaves of men.’Wfl Cpr. 7:23.
THIS does not mean that we are not to work for men, or that we are not to minister to them. It does not even suggest that we are not, in certain circumstances, to obey their lawful commands. Anarchy finds no support in the teaching of the Oracles of God. What it does mean is this, that we are to recog nize and remember that we' have but one re§l Master and that Master is Christ. “Ye are. bought with a price, therefore be ye not the bondslaves of men.” If the bidding of the human employer or superior conflicts with that o.f our real Master, then loyalty to Him “Whose we are, and Whom we serve” de mands disobedience, at all and any cost. If men by their influ ence would seduce us from our allegiance to Him Who bought us with a price, we must refuse to be brought under their spell. Moreover we are not to allow our regard for human praise, or the fear of our neighbors, to lead us a hair’s breadth from the path of conscious rectitude ; if we do, we at once are in bondage to men. It should be enough, for us that we are approved by Christ. This is hot a matter of expediency, but of common honesty. We are not our own, and we have no right to place ourselves at the disposal of another to His- disadvantage.
J une 12. “Is it not a little one?" — Gen. 19:20. “SPEAK not of trifles light as air, Or froth of ocean’s pride; For things on which no thought we spare The mightiest forces hide.”
“We hold it truth with him who sings To one clear harp, in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping stones Of their dead selves to.higher things.” R 9 J une 10. “Ye are bought with a price."—1 Cor. 6:20.
It is the greatest mistake to despise “little things,” Only a very small mind, or a very thoughtless one, falls into this error. For little things are sometimes laden with the greatest possible con sequence. “The thundering avalanche crushes, loosened by only a breath; And ‘only a colorless drop’ may be laden with sudden death.”
THEREFORE, “Ye. are not your own.” Perversity per sists in reading /slavery into these declarations; faith and love
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