Daily Devotionals

Devotional: January 4th

OUR RELATION TO OUR LORD

To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him. - 1 Corinthians 8:6

Every act of our life sets forth some aspect of our Lord and of our relation to Him, from the moment when we open our eyes in the morning, - as those do who, having slept the sleep of sin, awake to righteousness, all through the busy day, when our work may speak to us of His that worketh continually, and our rest may prophesy to us of the "rest that remaineth for the people of God"; and our journeyings may tell of the journey of the soul of God, and our home may testify of the home which is above the skies, - up to the hour when night falls, and sleep, the image of Death, speaks to us of the last solemn moment, when we shall close the eyes of our body on earth, to open those of our soul on the realities of eternity; when we shall no more "see through a glass darkly, but face to face." All things, and all acts, and this whole wonderful universe, proclaim to us the Lord our Father, Christ our love, Christ our hope, our portion, and our joy! Oh, if you would know the meaning of the world, read Christ in it! If you would see the beauty of earth, take it for a prophet of something higher than itself! If you would pierce beneath the surface and know the sanctities that are all about us, remember that when He took bread and wine for a memorial of Him, He did not profane thereby, but consecrated thereby, all that He left out, and asserted the same power and the same prerogative, in lower degree, but as really and truly, for everything which the loving eye should look upon, for everything which the believing heart should apprehend! All is sacred. The world is the temple of God. Everywhere there are symbols and memorials of the living God.

Is it not something to have a principle which, whilst leaving events in all their power to tell upon us, yet prevents anything from degenerating into triviality, and prevents anything from pressing upon us with an overwhelming weight? Would it not be grand if we could so go through life as that all should be not one dead level, but one high plateau, as it were, on the mountain-top there, because all rested upon "Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus "? Ah! it is possible - not to our weak faith, perhaps; but the weakness of the faith is not inevitable. It is possible, though we be surrounded by many things that make it very hard. It is possible, and therefore it is duty. It is possible, and therefore the opposite is not merely a neglect, but is positive sin. Oh, to have my life equable like that, with one high, diffusive influence through it all, with one simple consecration placed upon it, that one motive, "The love of Christ constraineth us"! Why, it is like one of those applications of power you have often seen, when a huge hammer is lifted up, and comes down with a crash that breaks the granite in pieces, or may be allowed to fall so gently and so true that it touches, without cracking, a tiny nut beneath it. The one principle, mighty and crashing when it is wanted; and yet coming down with gentle, accurately-proportioned force on all life. Or, to take a higher illustration: it is like that mighty power that holds a planet in its orbit, in the wild weltering wastes of solitary space; and yet binds down the sand-grain and dust-mote to its place. Or, higher and truer still, the love of Christ that constraineth us makes us equable, calm, consistent, in shadowy but real copy of the everlasting tranquility of our Father in heaven.

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