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put Himself in a listening attitude to hear every word they said. God not only heard the talk, but it was so pleasing to Him that He wrote it in a book, which He calls " the book of remembrance," kept before Him for them that fear the Lord. These are the men whom God calls " a peculiar treasure."
Notice the gracious recognition of true piety. It is not lost, but is always recognized in its surrounding obscurity. Here in this chapter which contains the text we find a prophetic rebuke launched against the rebellious sacrilege and infidelity of the people. The general feeling and conduct of the time tended to obscure the grace of piety, to introduce an element of revolt which was antagonistic to it. Amidst this eclipse and conflict we find a Divine alacrity in noting, and a quick complacency in presenting, the main features of fidelity and truth. God had His hidden ones, and He knew and marked them, knew where to find them, to call up His reserves, even though they did not form any con- spicuous band amidst the Babel of unbelief. Although the social aspect of the time showed the world at variance with God's truth, there were still some who held it precious, and would not let it go. They failed to find sympathy from the world, but they kept together and they " spake one with another." The great world took no notice of them, but the Lord heard their loyal interchange, and blessed them. They never gathered — this people of the Lord — they never gathered in their little groups to think upon His name but He took mark of them. The spoken prayer and the silent prayer were registered by Him. The sympathetic link forged between the Lord and them that feared Him trembled with every mark of their fidelity and moved with no uncertain pulse within their heart. It is always so. The Christian can never be deserted or alone, but will always be Divinely supported. If the child has recognized the Father's house as his home, and has gone back to it after never so ungrateful a departure, the welcome never falters, the rejoicing never flags, the fatted calf and the best robe are ever ready, because the dead is alive again and the lost is found. No matter what social humour, no matter what whims of fashion may obscure His meaning from the world, amidst all conflict the movement of the soul is recognized, the children of God who fear His name shall find a book of remembrance in which their names are written, they shall find
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the Divine Listener with them when they speak one with another, and "they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels."
3. They are precious to Him. That is the idea especially involved here. God will delight in acknowledging them as His peculiar treasure, in whom His soul delights. As those rich in jewels have a peculiar pleasure in exposing them to the inspection of admiring friends, so God will delight in displaying His treasure before friends and foes. Before an assembled universe He will testify to His peculiar pleasure in those who were His faithful witnesses on earth — those who pro- fessed Him in the face of all the opposition, obloquy, and shame they encountered from a godless world. God will now show His delight in them by planting them as stars for ever and ever in the firmament of glory, in holding them forth as a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty in His right hand, and in rejoicing over them with joy and singing.
What is it that makes a thing precious ?
(1) The sense of ownership. — God has formed and fashioned us for Himself. For Him we were created, and this frame in which our spirit is enshrined testifies in all its lines of adapta- tions and uses, in all its marvellous anatomy, to the God that created it. We have given ourselves to other lords that have had dominion over us. Every one has gone his own way, all astray from the protection and the control of Him whom we were formed to confess. God tells us that it shall not always be so ; that there is coming a time when He will claim His own, and that edict which was sounded in the day of our birth shall be echoed in the day of our redemption. The purpose of our creation shall be vindicated. We were not formed simply to eat and drink and sleep. God never made these bodies for the mere uses of this world, or for the enjoyment of temporary and fleeting pleasures. He has put the signet of infinity upon them. They are fashioned and formed for immortal joys and immortal living. When in the resurrection they shall be refashioned according to His own body and His own will, it shall then be manifest to whom we belong. Now, sometimes, when we look in the mirror, it would seem an awful reflection upon God to call ourselves His. For there are
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lines of sin sculptured in our faces ; there are shades of shame that creep over our features. " It shall not be so," saith the Lord. " They shall be Mine, and be known in their adaptation for the life to which they have been called."