My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year Part 17

"_I am He that liveth._" What a marvellous transformation it worked upon Dr. Dale, when one day, in his study, it flashed upon him, as never before, that Jesus Christ is alive! "Christ is alive!" he repeated again and again, until the clarion music filled all the rooms in his soul.

"Christ is alive!"

"_And was dead._" Yes, the Lord has gone right through that dark place.

There are footprints, and they are the footprints of the Conqueror, all along the road. "Christ leads me through no darker room than He went through before."

"_And, behold, I am alive for ever more._" "Jesus has conquered death and all its powers." Never more will it sit on a transient throne. Its power is broken, its "sting" has lost its poison, there isn't a boast left in its apparently omnivorous mouth! "Where's thy victory, O grave?" And here is the gospel for me--"Because I live ye shall live also."

APRIL The Tenth

_RESURRECTION-LIGHT_

"_If we believe that Jesus died and rose again...._"

--1 THESSALONIANS iv. 13-18.

That is the eastern light which fills the valley of time with wonderful beams of glory. It is the great dawn in which we find the promise of our own day. Everything wears a new face in the light of our Lord's resurrection. I once watched the dawn on the East Coast of England. Before there was a grey streak in the sky everything was held in grimmest gloom.

The toil of the two fis.h.i.+ng-boats seemed very sombre. The sleeping houses on the sh.o.r.e looked the abodes of death. Then came grey light, and then the sun, and everything was transfigured! Every window in every cottage caught the reflected glory, and the fis.h.i.+ng-boats glittered in morning radiance.

And everything is transfigured in the Risen Christ. Everything is lit up when "the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings." Life is lit up, and so is death, and so are sorrow and daily labour and human friends.h.i.+ps! Everything catches the gleam and is changed. "We are no longer of the night, but of the day." "Walk as children of light." "Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall s.h.i.+ne upon thee."

APRIL The Eleventh

_THROUGH DEATH TO LIFE_

ROMANS v. 1-11.

The Lord went through death to make a path to life. He descended into shame and suffering, and appalling desolation in order that He might "open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers." And the way is now open!

Therefore, "_let us have peace with G.o.d_." Let us reverently and willingly tread the heavenly road, and seek the King's presence, and gratefully accept "the everlasting covenant." Let us go, as once rebel soldiers, and let us surrender our arms, and at His bidding take them again, to fight in His service.

And let us "_glory in tribulation_." If we are in the King's road, at peace with the King, every stormy circ.u.mstance will be made to do us service. Yes, all our troubles will be compelled to minister to us, to robe us, and to adorn us, and to make us more like the sons and daughters of a royal house. "Out of the eater will come forth meat, and out of the strong will come forth sweetness."

And, therefore, let us "_joy in G.o.d_." Don't let us be "the King's own,"

and yet march in the sulks! Let us march to the music of grateful song and praise.

"Children of the heavenly King, As ye journey, sweetly sing."

APRIL The Twelfth

_THE LAMB ON THE THRONE_

"_In the midst of the throne stood a Lamb as it had been slain!_"

--REVELATION v. 6-14.

How strange and unexpected is the figure! A lamb--the supreme type of gentleness! A throne, the supreme symbol of power! And the one is in the very midst of the other. The sacrificial has become the sovereign: the Cross is the princ.i.p.al part of the throne. "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me."

Yes, this sovereign sacrificial Lord is to receive universal homage and wors.h.i.+p. "_Every creature which is in heaven and on the earth_" is to pay tribute at His feet. And this, not by a terrible coercion, but by a gracious constraint. We are not to be driven, we are to be drawn; we are to move by love--compulsion: the Lamb in G.o.d is to win the wills of men.

And I, too, may take my harp and make melodious praise before my King. And I, too, may fill the "golden vials" with my grateful intercession, and heaven shall be the sweeter for the odour of my prayers. And I, too, may sound my loud "Amen," the note of gladsome resignation to the sovereign will of G.o.d. Yes, even now I may be one of "the mult.i.tude whom no man can number," who, in a new song, ascribe all worthiness to "the Lamb that was slain."

APRIL The Thirteenth

_PURE GOLD_

"_Thou shalt overlay it with pure gold....

And there I will meet with thee._"

--EXODUS xxv. 10-22.

I must put my best into my preparations, and then the Lord will honour my work. My part is to be of "pure gold" if my G.o.d is to dwell within it. I must not satisfy myself with cheap flimsy and then a.s.sume that the Lord will be satisfied with it. He demands my very best as a condition of His enriching Presence.

My prayers must be of "pure gold" if He is to meet me there. There must be nothing vulgar about them, nothing shoddy, nothing hastily constructed, nothing thrown up anyhow. They must be chaste and sincere, and overlaid with pure gold.

My home must be of "pure gold" if He is to meet me there. No unclean pa.s.sion must dwell there, no carnal appet.i.te, no defiling conversation, no immoderateness in eating and drinking. How can the Lord sit down at such a table, or make One at such a fireside?

Let me present to Him pure gold. Let me offer Him nothing cheap. Let me ever make the ark of my best, and the Lord will meet me there.

APRIL The Fourteenth

_RELIGION AS MERE MAGIC_

"_And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout._"

--1 SAMUEL iv. 1-11.

They were making more of the ark than of the Lord. Their religion was degenerating into superst.i.tion. I become superst.i.tious whenever the means of wors.h.i.+p are permitted to eclipse the Object of wors.h.i.+p. I then possess a magic instrument, and I forget the holy Lord.

It can be so with prayer. I may use prayer as a magic minister to protect me from invasive ills. I do not pray because I desire fellows.h.i.+p with the Father, but because I should not feel safe without it. The ark is more than the Lord.

It can be so with a crucifix. A crucifix may become a mere talisman, and so supplant the Lord. I may wear the thing and have no fellows.h.i.+p with the Person. And so may it be with the Lord's Supper. I may come to regard it as a magic feast, which makes me immune from punishment, but not immune from sin. It may be a minister of safety, but not of holiness.

So let mine eyes be ever unto the Lord! Let me not be satisfied with the ark, but let me seek Him whose name is holy and whose nature is love.