PSALM XXV. 14 9
^ I have known more than one Highland saint who never had any intellectual training. They had had little schooling, they never were at college, and their libraries were of the scantiest kind. Yet in every true sense of the word they were men of culture ; their language was choice and their thoughts large and just; and they had singular power in complicated questions of seizing on the things that really mattered. What was the secret of that mental clarity ? — " If any man willeth to do his will." To God they had prayed — in Christ's name they had wrestled — they had clung to the right and beaten down the wrong ; until at last that life of deep obedience — that faithfulness to God in what was least — all unexpectedly had reached their intellect, and made it a sphere of mastery and joy.^
Just to ask Him what to do
All the day, And to make you quick and true
To obey. Just to know the needed grace
He bestoweth, Every bar of time and place
Overfioweth. Just to take thy orders straight
From the Master's own command. Blessed day ! when thus we wait Always at our Sovereign's hand.^
5. Obedience is rendered easy by sympathy and an open mind. The man who is full of himself, bent on his own will, seeking his own ends, is not in a frame of mind to have the secret of the Lord revealed to him : probably he does not want it, or wish to have it revealed to him. It is a check upon him. He does not want the key to the Kingdom of Heaven, because he has no wish whatever to enter into it. To enter into the Kingdom of God is to do the will of God, and to try to love it, and the will of God is human duty — what is due from us to God as poor, weak, ignorant creatures at the best; coming we know not whence, going we know not whither ; seeing but a little way into things ; living by faith, by trust in the power over us, trust in the good about us, trust in the good in other people ; and what is due from us to
^ G. H. Morrison, The Wings of the Morning, 19. * F. R. Haversral.
lo THE SECRET OF THE LORD
others, for we are related to each other as brethren, because we are all related to God as the Father over all.
^ " See how that noble fellow Collingwood leads the fleet into action ! " exclaimed Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar, as he looked on the ship of his second bearing down upon the French line under a press of sail. " Ah ! what would Nelson give to be here ! " exclaimed Admiral Collingwood at the same moment. It seemed as if the two heroic men were animated by one spirit ; as if by completeness of sympathy they knew each other's thoughts. And have we not all seen something like this in our own ex- perience ? Have we not known persons so congenial in thought and feeling that scenes in nature lighted up their faces with the same delight, or cast over them the shadows of though tfulness and awe ; sights of distress and tales of sorrow drew forth from them kindred tears of compassion ; a noble poem or an eloquent oration awakened in their bosoms the same pure and generous emotions ? And such, too, is the power of sympathy between ,man and God. Just as a man tells his secret only to his friends, knowing that it would often be unsafe, and at other times impossible, to tell it to others ; and just as they, knowing his great aim and motive, can make more of a nod or look or word than others can of a lengthened statement ; so God reveals, as He did to Abraham His friend in the matter of Sodom's destruction, the depth of His mind and will to them who fear Him, and who by fearing Him have been made like Him ; and they, loving in general as God loves, and hating in general as God hates, enter as others cannot into the meaning and spirit of God's declarations.^
11.
Charactek.
1. God unveils His character by entering into friendly relations with man. It is always a sign of deepening friendship when people Ijegin to open their inner rooms to us. To be made the depositary of a rare secret is to be sealed as a friend. When any one tells us a secret joy, it is a mark of intimacy ; when any one unveils to us a secret grief, it is a proof of the closest fellowship. When we are taken from tlie suburbs of a man's being to the centre, it is a proof of an enriching communion. " No longer do I call you servants ; but I have called you friends ; for all things ' J. B. Johnston, The Ministry of Reconciliation, 335.
PSALM XXV. 14 • II
that I heard from my Father I have made known unto you." Is there not something tenderly suggestive in the word which tells us that " when they were alone, he expounded unto them " ? When He had His familiar friends to Himself, He told them His secrets and showed them His covenant.