1 Phillips Brooks.
MALACHI in. 16 491
All holy thoughts and all holy words belong not only to the present, but to the eternal future as well.
Never a holy thought has been lost in the history of the world, nor can be lost. Never a holy word has disappeared. They are all preserved. It is not the cleverness of an idea that gives it immortality, but its Divineness. There are clever things that will pass away with contempt, to the astonishment of the clever people who uttered them. It is not eloquence that can ensure immortality. It is holiness and purity and truth. And while many an outburst of eloquence from silver tongues shall pass away as empty sound into space, the broken, earnest words spoken by a poor illiterate Christian man to his Christian friend by the wayside will never die, for they are written in the book of remembrance.
2. What, then, does it mean to us to have our names and our words recorded in God's book of remembrance ? It means that an earnest, zealous, Christ-loving, Christ-serving life, and its works of patience and faith, are deemed by Heaven the things best worth recording, and best deserving to be kept in remembrance. In those higher courts they are not absorbed and excited with the things that we poor mortals go mad about, with the pomps and splendours and vanities of the human panorama, the stage shows, the garish lights, the kaleidoscopic changes; they are not mad with curiosity to watch the rise and fall of millionaires and great houses. Possibly they are not so profoundly interested as we are in the movements of kings and rulers, in the startling speeches of politicians, and in the prospects of political parties, and certainly not in the revelations of the criminal court, the scandals of high life, and the result of the latest football match. A young man in the city steadfastly resisting its temptations and keeping himself undefiled for Jesus' sake; a maiden bringing her life and laying it at the Master's feet, and vowing to love Him first and best ; a girl in the shop or factory adorning her Christian profession amidst unchristian workmates ; a business man holding his conscience and integrity amid all the shady doings and unveracities of the market and commercial life ; a woman bearing her cross, burden, thorn in the flesh, without complaining ; a man of any sort daring to be a Daniel in his
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convictions, and not ashamed to confess in any company that he is a servant of God and Jesus Christ ; and the faithful workers in every field who are sowing the seed, spreading the life, and working to extend Christ's redeeming purpose and Kingdom — these are the things which the heavenly penmen note down, not one of them is forgotten or overlooked, every one of them is treasured up against the all-rewarding day when He shall bring out His jewels.
Tj Writing in " a book of remembrance " recalls a custom of the Persians. We find in the sixth chapter of Esther that it was usual to enter in certain records the names of those who deserved well of the king, with a notice of their meritorious deeds, to the intent that they might be rewarded. It was thus that Mordecai was brought under the notice of King Ahasuerus in a sleepless night when he read the records of his kingdom for his amusement. In like manner the names and actions of the righteous, their sorrows and sufferings for righteousness' sake, are written in a book before God. "Put my tears into thy bottle," says the psalmist. " Are they not all in thy book ? " Their names were inscribed long before in " the book of life " ; and now all they say or do which is approved of the Master finds a place in " the book of remembrance." The word in season spoken to the weary, as well as the cup of cold water given for His sake to a disciple. Nay, their thoughts are there, too : " for them that thought upon his name." x
If love in its silence be greater, stronger Than million promises, sighs, or tears —
I will wait upon Him a little longer Who holdeth the balance of our years.
Little white clouds like angels flying,
Bring the spring with you across the sea —
Loving or losing, living or dying, Lord, remember, remember me !
1 0. D. Bell, The Name above Every Name, 92.
A Peculiar Treasure.
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Literature.
Bell (C. D.), The Name above Every Name, 85.
Comrie (A.), Memorial Sermons, 184.
Cross (J.), Knight- Banneret, 118.
Cuyler (T. L.), Wayside Springs, 47.
Foster (J.), Lectures, ii. 405.
Hutchison (G.), Sermons, 386.
Lee (W.), From Dust to Jewels, 1.
Macaskill (M.), A Highland Pulpit, 15.
Merson (D.), Words of Life, 289.
Moorhouse (H.), Ruth, the Moabitess, 153.
Parker (J.), Sermons (Cavendish Pulpit), No. 18.
Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, iv. 209.
Roberts (R.), My Jewels, 1.
Stalker (J.), The New Song, 131.
Talmage (T. de W.), Fifty Sermons, ii. 50.
Tuck well (W.), Nuggets from the Bible Mine, 232.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), New Ser., xii. (1876), No. 960.
British Weekly Pulpit, i. 193 (A. Mursell).
Churchman's Pulpit : Sermons to the Young, xvi. 371 (J. Edmond).