Daily Devotionals
Devotional: December 7th
" The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way." - Psalms 37:23.
A good man is one whose steps are ordered by the Lord. Having come to the conclusion that there is none good but God, he has sought such an alliance with God as secures to him the benefit of the divine goodness. A good man is one in whom you can behold the goodness of the Lord. To the world’s apprehension a good man is one who is able to order his steps aright, able of himself to know and to pursue the best path. This is a fundamental error; and religion can only begin with its overthrow.
God has a book in which is written the ideal history of every man; the biography as it would have been had the man’s steps been ordered by the Lord; and another in which is written the actual history of every man. The books are open side by side, and what a contrast do they present. " Oh that they had hearkened to my commandments! " saith the Lord; nor is it possible for any one to look upon these two records without taking up the lamentation. What a hallowed and beautiful path is traced in the one; what honorable conflicts and glorious victories; what nobleness of enterprise, what steadfastness under difficulties, what beneficence, what usefulness! What a sublime romance! What genuine heroism! What a utilization of the man’s faculties! What wealth of influence poured around! In comparison with this divine romance, behold the actual life portrayed in the other book. How mean! how contemptible! how disordered! What fearful confusion! What awful plunges into vanity! What wild pursuit of phantoms! What Herculean strife with windmills! What a waste of faculties! What blundering even in the matter of doing good! What shipwreck of unpiloted affections! What torment of unintelligible aspirations!
Suppose the book of your ideal biography should drop from heaven upon your path. You, with your worldly and gross heart, take it up and look into it; at first seeing a good deal about tribulation, privation, persecution, bonds, defamation, poverty, and tears, you are ready to throw it away. But stay, my friend; it is from heaven; see if there be not something precious coupled with these expressions. At one end of a sentence you find, " they that mourn," " poor in spirit," " they that are persecuted," "through much tribulation;" but what at the other end? "Joy," "blessedness," "kingdom of heaven." Remember the disordered steps of your past life. See how much misery you have experienced, even in the path of your own gratification. How unsatisfactory is the retrospect. Are you not willing to live the life that God has sketched for you? Take this book and live this life; and your biography will be a valuable contribution to the libraries of heaven. Angels will read it and find in it all the elements of beauty, nobleness, sublimity.
This, your ideal life, is written in the Gospel. May God help you to see it there, and to give it actuality in what remains of your mortal term.
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