Daily Devotionals

Devotional: November 15th

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." - Psalms 25:14.

Of the fear here so honorably spoken of, suffice it now to say that it is not by any means a sentiment that repels from God, but on the contrary one that draws to God. They that fear the Lord, in the honorable and Scriptural sense, are they who are powerfully affected by the promise here given. To the great majority of men, alas, to many who assume the name of Christians, the promise here recorded possesses no charm. Their spirits are no way stirred within them by the prospect of being made the confidants of God. They shall not be his confidants. This singularly exalted condition is, for them to whom is the promise, like a day-star arising in the heart, - like a cynosure drawing them patiently, perseveringly, earnestly on in the pathway of obedience, faith and love. Abraham was the friend of God; and God approved himself a friend indeed; he would, not hide from him the thing which was hidden from all the rest of the world. Moses too was the friend of God, and brought into surprising intimacy; the secret of the Lord was with him. " Henceforth," said Christ to the apostles, " I call you not servants but friends; for all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you."

And doubtless there are those now upon the earth who recline as it were upon the bosom of their Lord and drink in his most secret communications, unintelligible to others. They partake of hidden manna. " To him that overcometh, Christ giveth a white stone, and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it."

But, in Christ is not the veil done away, so that we all with open face behold the glory of the Lord? Yes, but we do not all behold all glory. The degrees of glory are in number in finite. Great is the mystery of godliness; and veil after veil must be removed before we shall see him as he is. Perhaps there is nothing we all so much need to learn as this, that there is something beyond, of which our past experience is not able to give us any conception. The mystery that lies before us we are not conscious of: we are conscious of what we know, not of what we do not know. It is a great thing to be brought to see the veiled glory before us in our path; to get the conception of an attainable intimacy that is much beyond anything we have known.

Men may pervert; Satan may counterfeit; but the word of God remains in its integrity for the children of God. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. Not in the way of some new revelation, extra-scriptural; but by opening their eyes to behold wonderful things in the word of God; things that ordinary eye hath not seen, ear not heard, heart not conceived.

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