Morning, October 12
Go To Evening Reading
“I will meditate in thy precepts.”
Psalm 119:15
There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence
is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more
alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on his Word
spiritual strength for labour in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them . Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: if we would have
wine from it, we must bruise it; we must press and squeeze it many
times. The bruiser’s feet must come down joyfully upon the bunches, or else the juice
will not flow; and they must well tread the grapes, or else much of
the precious liquid will be wasted. So we must, by meditation, tread
the clusters of truth, if we would get the wine of consolation therefrom.
Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into the mouth,
but the process which really supplies the muscle, and the nerve, and
the sinew, and the bone, is the process of digestion. It is by digestion
that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life. Our
souls are not nourished merely by listening awhile to this, and then
to that, and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading,
marking, and learning, all require inwardly digesting to complete
their usefulness, and the inward digesting of the truth lies for the
most part in meditating upon it. Why is it that some Christians, although
they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life?
Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate
on God’s Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would
have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather
it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the
water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From
such folly deliver us, O Lord, and be this our resolve this morning,
“I will meditate in thy precepts.”