Part 48 (2/2)

And perhaps it is within the scope of our holy privilege to refresh the heart of our Lord. Perhaps we can give Him to drink of the well of our affections, and He will see of ”the travail of His soul and be satisfied.”

OCTOBER The Eighth

_G.o.d'S GLORIOUS PURPOSE_

”_I have created him for My glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him._”

--ISAIAH xliii. 1-7.

That is surely a superlative honour! ”I have created him for My glory.” I stood before one of Turner's paintings, and a man of fine judgment said to me, ”That is Turner's glory!” He meant that in that picture the genius and the power and the grace of Turner were most abundantly expressed. And it is the will of G.o.d that man should express His glory, and by his righteousness and goodness witness to the great Creator's power and love.

Amid all the wonders and sublimities of earth, and sky, and sea, man is to be the Almighty's ”glory.”

The contrast is pathetic when we turn from the Creator's purpose to our immediate life. There is so much that is shameful, crooked, and perverse.

There is little or nothing of ”glory.” But, blessed be G.o.d! the purpose abides, and the Creator's work goes on. In His redemptive grace He has made provision for marred work, for spoilt and perverted life. ”The crooked shall be made straight.” ”I will bring again that which is out of the way.” ”Where sin abounds grace doth much more abound.”

OCTOBER The Ninth

_THE LARGER WATERS_

1 THESSALONIANS iv. 13-18.

Death is not an end; it is only a new beginning. Death is not the master of the house; he is only the porter at the King's lodge, appointed to open the gate, and let in the King's guests into the realms of eternal day.

”And so shall we be ever with the Lord.”

And so the range of three score years and ten is not the limit of our life. Our life is not a land-locked lake enclosed within the sh.o.r.e-lines of seventy years. It is an arm of the sea, and where the sh.o.r.e-lines seem to meet in old age they open out into the infinite. And so we must build for those larger waters. We must lay our life plans on the scale of the infinite, not as though we were only pilgrims of time, but as children of eternity! We are immortal! How, then, shall we live to-day in prospect of the eternal morrow?

OCTOBER The Tenth

_OUR REFUGE AND STRENGTH_

PSALM xlvi.

”G.o.d is our refuge and strength.” And in the varied conflicts and perils of life we need both these resources. We need the ”refuge.” There are times when our mightiest warfare is to lie pa.s.sive, to shelter quietly in the strong defences of our G.o.d. Our finest strategy is sometimes to ”rest in the Lord and wait.” We can slay some of our enemies by leaving them alone. We can ”starve them out.” They can be weakened and beaten by sheer neglect. We feed their strength, and give them favoured chances, if we go out and face them actively, ”marching as to war.” The best way is to hide, and keep quiet; and ”G.o.d is our refuge.”

But we also need the ”strength.” This is positive equipment for active service. The defensive is changed to the offensive, and in the ”strength”

<script>