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Shepherd Psalm-Frederick Brotherton Meyer · Commentary on The Book of Genesis

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  Speaker 1: Preface of the Shepherd's Palm. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read
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  Speaker 1: by Marianne The Shepherd's Palm by F. B. Meyer. Dedication
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  Speaker 1: to D. L. Moody, with love and thankfulness for the
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  Speaker 1: inspiration of his life and words from the far away
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  Speaker 1: days of my first pastorate at York to weeks of
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  Speaker 1: happy fellowship in Northfield Conventions. The King of Love, my shepherd, is,
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  Speaker 1: whose goodness faileth never I nothing like if I am
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  Speaker 1: his and he is mine. Forever, where streams of living
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  Speaker 1: water flow my ransom soul he leadeth, and where the
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  Speaker 1: verdant pastures grow with food celestial feedeth. Perverse and foolish,
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  Speaker 1: oft I strayed, but yet in love he sought me,
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  Speaker 1: and on his shoulder gently laid and home rejoicing brought me.
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  Speaker 1: In death's dark veil, I fear no ill. With thee
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  Speaker 1: dear Lord beside me, thy rod and staff, my comfort
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  Speaker 1: still thy cross before to guide me, Thou spreadst a
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  Speaker 1: table in my sight. Thy unction grace bestoweth, And oh
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  Speaker 1: what transport of delight from Thy pure chalice floweth, and
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  Speaker 1: so through all the length of days, thy goodness faileth. Never,
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  Speaker 1: good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise within thy house forever.
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  Speaker 1: Henry W. Baker, Preface to the Northfield Edition. In issuing
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  Speaker 1: this new and beautiful edition of The Shepherd Psalm, my
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  Speaker 1: publishers ask me to write a few additional prefatory words.
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  Speaker 1: I do so with the greater pleasure as its issue
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  Speaker 1: affords me the opportunity of greeting my many readers across
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  Speaker 1: the Atlantic. Among the happiest reminiscences of my life are
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  Speaker 1: the visits already paid to America. Among the pleasantest anticipations
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  Speaker 1: the hope of again ministering to God's children there. And
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  Speaker 1: it is good to know that in whatever country we
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  Speaker 1: are found, under whatever sky, we are through faith in
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  Speaker 1: the Divine Savior, members of the same body sheep, in
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  Speaker 1: the same flock, children of the one Home. In this sense,
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  Speaker 1: already there is no more sea. This little treatise has
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  Speaker 1: been specially used of God to comfort and help multitudes, largely,
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  Speaker 1: as I believe, because it lays so much stress on
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  Speaker 1: what the Living Savior is prepared to be to those
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  Speaker 1: who know his voice and follow him. There is too
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  Speaker 1: great a tendency among us to introspection, the minute scrutiny
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  Speaker 1: of motive and emotion, the effort at self mortification and
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  Speaker 1: self adjustment. In this there is great peril and much discouragement.
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  Speaker 1: It is happier and better far to look away from
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  Speaker 1: ourselves to Him on whom, as the divinely constituted shepherd,
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  Speaker 1: the entire responsibility rests of bringing the weakest and most
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  Speaker 1: airing of the flock, through the perils of this mortal life,
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  Speaker 1: to the land where there is neither drought, nor thirst
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  Speaker 1: nor overshadowed. Gorge F. B. Meyer, Christ Church, Westminster Bridge Road, London,
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  Speaker 1: October first, eighteen ninety five preface. To see a masterpiece
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  Speaker 1: of painting on the walls of an art gallery while
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  Speaker 1: a throng of conventional sightseers is pressing past, is a
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  Speaker 1: very different matter to seeing it quietly on the walls
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  Speaker 1: of some stately mansion, where there is time to sit
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  Speaker 1: down and drink in the artist's thought, or catch the
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  Speaker 1: different lights of early morning, of noon, or of the
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  Speaker 1: fading day. Perhaps the enjoyment is the more complete when
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  Speaker 1: some devoted lover of the work stands beside telling the
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  Speaker 1: story of its daily effect upon his mind, and indicating
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  Speaker 1: subtle beauties which had escaped the first superficial gaze. It
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  Speaker 1: is with some such intention that this book is sent forth,
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  Speaker 1: that in the quiet of the sick chamber or of
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  Speaker 1: the prayer closet, attention may be again concentrated on this
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  Speaker 1: inimitable psalm, that the familiar words may be considered in
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  Speaker 1: the light of growing Christian experience, and that perchance some
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  Speaker 1: unnoticed beauty may be suggested by one who seldom comes
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  Speaker 1: to it without discerning some fresh reason. To thank the
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  Speaker 1: Spirit of Inspiration that he ever led the sweet minstrel
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  Speaker 1: of scripture to indict The Shepherd's Psalm f. B. Meyer
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  Speaker 1: and a preface Chapter one of the Shepherd's Psalm by F. B. Meyer.
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  Speaker 1: The Slipperbox recording is the public domain read by Marianne
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  Speaker 1: the psalm of Psalms. The Lord is my Shepherd. I
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  Speaker 1: shall not want He maketh me to lie down in
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  Speaker 1: green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He
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  Speaker 1: restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
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  Speaker 1: righteousness for his name's sake. YEA, though I walk through
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  Speaker 1: the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear
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  Speaker 1: no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and
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  Speaker 1: thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before
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  Speaker 1: me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my
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  Speaker 1: head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and
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  Speaker 1: mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
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  Speaker 1: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
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  Speaker 1: This psalm has sometimes been called the Psalm of the Crook.
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  Speaker 1: It lies between the Psalm of the Cross and the
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  Speaker 1: Psalm of the Crown. If the twenty second tells of
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  Speaker 1: the good shepherd who died, and the twenty fourth tells
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  Speaker 1: of the chief shepherd who is coming again, the twenty
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  Speaker 1: third tells of the great shepherd, who keeps his flock
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  Speaker 1: with unerring sagacity, and untiring devotion. No hireling is he.
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  Speaker 1: He asks no wage, he takes no reward, he counts
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  Speaker 1: not the cost. The sheep are his own. And in
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  Speaker 1: these sweet words we learn what he is toward them
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  Speaker 1: to day, in all his shepherd tenderness and love. Some
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  Speaker 1: have spoken of this psalm as a creed. I have
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  Speaker 1: it on good authority that one thinker at least wearied
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  Speaker 1: with the perplexing questions that agitate so many hearts and
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  Speaker 1: brains in this strange questioning age, and pressed to give
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  Speaker 1: some positive affirmation of his creed, began reciting these words
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  Speaker 1: with solemn pathos of voice and kindling rapture of eye,
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  Speaker 1: And when he had finished the whole psalm, he added,
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  Speaker 1: that is my creed I need, I desire no other.
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  Speaker 1: I learned it from my mother's lips. I have repeated
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  Speaker 1: it every morning when I awoke for the last twenty years.
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  Speaker 1: Yet I do not half understand it. I am only
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  Speaker 1: beginning now to spell out its infinite meaning, and death
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  Speaker 1: will come on me with the task unfinished. But by
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  Speaker 1: the grace of Jesus, I will hold on by this
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  Speaker 1: psalm as my creed, and will strive to believe it
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  Speaker 1: and to live it, for I know that it will
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  Speaker 1: lead me to the cross, it will guide me to glory. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: the testimony is true. And as one looking into some
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  Speaker 1: priceless gem may see fountains of color welling upward from
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  Speaker 1: its steps, so as we shall gaze into these verses,
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  Speaker 1: simple as childhood's rhymes, but deep as an archangel's anthem,
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  Speaker 1: we shall see in them the Gospel in miniature, the
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  Speaker 1: grace of God reflected as the sun in a dewdrop,
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  Speaker 1: and things which I hath not seen, nor ear heard,
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  Speaker 1: nor the heart of man conceived. Read into these words
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  Speaker 1: the meaning of the Gospels, and you have an unrivaled
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  Speaker 1: creed to which all Christians may unhesitatingly assent. Others have
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  Speaker 1: spoken of it as a minstrel. Before me lies a
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  Speaker 1: page that describes it in some such terms as these,
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  Speaker 1: that it is a pilgrim minstrel commissioned of God to
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  Speaker 1: travel up and down through the world, singing so sweet
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  Speaker 1: a strain that none who hear it can remember whatsoever
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  Speaker 1: sorrow has been rending and tearing at the heart. This
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  Speaker 1: too is true. This psalm speaks in language that the
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  Speaker 1: universal heart of man can comprehend. It exercises a spell
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  Speaker 1: that can charm away the griefs that bid a bold
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  Speaker 1: defiance to philosophy and mirth. It has remanded to their
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  Speaker 1: dungeon more felon thoughts, more black doubts, more thieving sorrows
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  Speaker 1: than there are sands on the sea shore. It has
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  Speaker 1: comforted the noble host of the poor, courage to the
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  Speaker 1: army of the disappointed. It has poured balm and consolation
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  Speaker 1: into the heart of the sick. It has visited the
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  Speaker 1: prisoner and broken his chains, and like Peter's Angel, has
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  Speaker 1: led him forth in imagination and sung him back to
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  Speaker 1: his home again. It has made the dying Christian slave
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  Speaker 1: freer than his master, and consoled those whom dying he
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  Speaker 1: left behind, mourning, not so much that he was gone,
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  Speaker 1: as because they were left. Nor is its work done.
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  Speaker 1: It will go singing on through all the generations of time,
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  Speaker 1: and it will not fold its wings till the last
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  Speaker 1: pilgrim is safe and time ended. Then it shall fly
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  Speaker 1: back to the bosom of God, whence it issued and
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  Speaker 1: sound on, mingled with all those harmonies of celestial joy
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  Speaker 1: which make Heaven musical forever. But it may also be
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  Speaker 1: compared to the holy of holies of old, the inner
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  Speaker 1: shrine of that splendid Temple, which rose noiseless as some
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  Speaker 1: tall palm at the bidding of Solomon. However eager or
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  Speaker 1: noisy might be the tide of human life that throbbed
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  Speaker 1: and surged through the narrow streets of the Holy City,
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  Speaker 1: or even pulsed in the temple courts, yet there was
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  Speaker 1: always one quiet and undisturbed enclosure, where angel guardians stretched
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  Speaker 1: out their wings in calm repose over the ark of God.
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  Speaker 1: There at least was rest. And if the priestly occupants
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  Speaker 1: had only been allowed to tarry in that secret place
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  Speaker 1: of the most High, surely they had forgotten the fret
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  Speaker 1: and rush of life under the spell of that unutterable repose.
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  Speaker 1: Dusty haste and restless anxiety. Must off their garments and
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  Speaker 1: shoes ere they could enter there, And all this is
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  Speaker 1: the psalm before us. It is an oasis in the desert.
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  Speaker 1: It is a bower on a hill of arduous climbing.
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  Speaker 1: It is a grotto in a scorching noon. It is
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  Speaker 1: a sequestered arbor for calm and heavenly meditation. It is
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  Speaker 1: one of the most holy places in the Temple of Scripture.
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  Speaker 1: Come hither, weary ones, restless ones, heavy laden ones, sit
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  Speaker 1: down in this cool and calm resort, while the music
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  Speaker 1: of its rhythm charms away the thoughts that break your peace.
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  Speaker 1: How safe and blessed are you to whom the Lord
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  Speaker 1: is Shepherd? Put down this volume and repeat again, in
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  Speaker 1: holy reverie the well known words to the end, and
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  Speaker 1: see if they do not build themselves into a refuge
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  Speaker 1: on which the storms may break in vain. There's no
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  Speaker 1: question as to who wrote it. David's autograph is on
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  Speaker 1: every verse. But when and where did it first utter
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  Speaker 1: itself upon the ear of man? Was it sung first
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  Speaker 1: amid the hills of Bethlehem, as the sheep were grazing
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  Speaker 1: over the wolds, dotting them like chalk stones, Or was
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  Speaker 1: it poured first upon the ear of the moody king,
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  Speaker 1: whose furrowed brow made so great a contrast to the
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  Speaker 1: fresh and lovely face of the shepherd, lad who was
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  Speaker 1: withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look at.
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  Speaker 1: It may have been, but there is a strength, a maturity,
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  Speaker 1: a depth, which are not wholly compatible with tender youth,
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  Speaker 1: and seem rather to betoken the touch of the man,
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  Speaker 1: who had learned good by knowing evil, and who, amid
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  Speaker 1: the many varied experiences of human life, had fully tested
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  Speaker 1: the shepherd graces of the Lord of whom he sings.
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  Speaker 1: These words were shirley first sung by one who had
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  Speaker 1: suffered deeply, who had tasted many a bitter cup, who
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  Speaker 1: had been compelled to thread his way through many a labyrinth,
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  Speaker 1: and beneath many an overhanging, low browed rock. We are
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  Speaker 1: told in Persians story of a vizaar who dedicated one
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  Speaker 1: apartment in his palace to the memory of earlier days
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  Speaker 1: ere royal caprice had lifted him from lowliness to honor. There,
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  Speaker 1: in a tiny room with bare floors, was the simple
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  Speaker 1: equipment of shepherd life, the crook, the wallet, the coarse dress,
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  Speaker 1: the water crews. And there he spent a part of
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  Speaker 1: each day remembering what he had been, as an antidote
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  Speaker 1: to those temptations which beset men in the dazzling light
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  Speaker 1: of royal or popular favor. So David the King did
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  Speaker 1: not forget David the shepherd boy. There was a chamber
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  Speaker 1: in his heart whether he was wont to retire, to
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  Speaker 1: meditate and pray, And there it was that he composed
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  Speaker 1: this psalm, in which the mature experience of his manhood
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  Speaker 1: blends with the vivid memory of a boyhood spent among
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  Speaker 1: the sheep. This we only say further, as we close
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  Speaker 1: this meditation, that as this psalm hath virtue which streams
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  Speaker 1: to heal those who touch, so it is true that
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  Speaker 1: its power lies in dwelling so little upon man and
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  Speaker 1: so much on God. See how every verse tells us
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  Speaker 1: what he is doing. This is the true policy of life.
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  Speaker 1: Unbelief puts circumstances between itself and Christ so as not
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  Speaker 1: to see Him, as the disciples did through the mist,
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  Speaker 1: and they cried out for fear. Faith puts Christ between
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  Speaker 1: itself and the circumstances, so that it cannot see them
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  Speaker 1: for the glory of that light. Unbelief fixes its gaze
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  Speaker 1: on men and things, and likelihoods and possibilities and circumstances.
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  Speaker 1: Faith will not concern herself with these. She refuses to
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  Speaker 1: spend her time and waste her strength in considering them.
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  Speaker 1: Her eye is fixed steadfastly on her Lord, and she
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  Speaker 1: is persuaded that he is well able to supply all
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  Speaker 1: her need and carry her through all difficulties and straits.
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  Speaker 1: Oh trembling heart, look away and look up. Your sorrows
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  Speaker 1: have been multiplied. Indeed, by looking at difficulties and second causes.
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  Speaker 1: Now cease from all this talk no more about the
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  Speaker 1: walled cities and giants, about the rugged paths and dark valleys,
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  Speaker 1: about lions and robbers. But think of the love, the might,
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  Speaker 1: and the wisdom of the shepherd, Love that spared not
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  Speaker 1: its blood might that made the world's wisdom, that named
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  Speaker 1: the stars. Your salvation does not depend on what you are,
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  Speaker 1: but on what He is. For every look itself. Take
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  Speaker 1: ten looks at Christ. Cease using the first pronoun and
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  Speaker 1: substitute it for the third. Tell us no more of
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  Speaker 1: your tears, your failures, or your sins. But tell us, oh,
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  Speaker 1: tell us, of the all sufficiency of Jesus, and how
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  Speaker 1: your needs have been the foil of his deliverances. Sing
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  Speaker 1: again the old song of how all wants are swallowed
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  Speaker 1: up in the shepherd love of God. And emphasize each
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  Speaker 1: he as you say again the Psalm of childhood and
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  Speaker 1: of age. End of Chapter one, Chapter two of the
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  Speaker 1: Shepherd's Psalm by F. B. Meyer. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Read by Marianne the Shepherd Lord,
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  Speaker 1: the Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want. Three
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  Speaker 1: thousand years have passed away since the sweet Singer of
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  Speaker 1: Israel first sang this psalm about the shepherd care of God,
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  Speaker 1: thirty centuries. It is a long time, and in that
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  Speaker 1: vast abyss all the material relics of his life, however
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  Speaker 1: carefully treasured, have moldered into dust. The harp from the
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  Speaker 1: strings of which his fingers swept celestial melody. The tattered
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  Speaker 1: banner which he was wont to uplift in the name
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord. The well worn book of the Law,
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  Speaker 1: which was his meditation day and night. The huge sword
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  Speaker 1: with which he slew the giant, the palace chamber, from
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  Speaker 1: which his spirit passed away to join the harpers harping
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  Speaker 1: with their harps. All these lie deep amid the debris
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  Speaker 1: of the ages. But this psalm, though old as the
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  Speaker 1: time when Homer sang or Solon gave his laws, and
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  Speaker 1: though trodden by the myriads of men in every succeeding age,
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  Speaker 1: is as fresh to day as though it were just
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  Speaker 1: composed precious words. They are the first taught to our children,
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  Speaker 1: and perhaps the Holy Child himself first learned to repeat
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  Speaker 1: them in the old Hebrew tongue, beside his mother's knee
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  Speaker 1: and Nazareth. And they are among the last that we
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  Speaker 1: whisper in the ear of our beloved ones, standing in
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  Speaker 1: twilight between the darkening day of earth and the breaking
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  Speaker 1: day of heaven. The sufferer in the sick chamber, the
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  Speaker 1: martyr at the stake, the soldier on his sentry duty,
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  Speaker 1: the traveler amid many perils, the Covent, the Huguenot, the Vadoir,
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  Speaker 1: These and a multitude which no man can number, have
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  Speaker 1: found in these words a lullaby for fear and inspiration
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  Speaker 1: to new life and hope. The Lord is my shepherd.
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  Speaker 1: I shall not want the Lord. It is printed in
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  Speaker 1: small capital letters, and wherever that is the case, we
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  Speaker 1: know that it stands for the mystic word Jehovah. And
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  Speaker 1: so much in awe did the Jews stand of that
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  Speaker 1: awful name, that they substituted for it some lesser word
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  Speaker 1: for God. Whenever it occurred in their public reading of scripture.
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  Speaker 1: Only once a year was it pronounced, and that on
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  Speaker 1: the Great Day of Atonement by the High Priest in
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  Speaker 1: the most holy place. Jehovah means the living One, the
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  Speaker 1: self existent being. The I am, He who was, and
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  Speaker 1: is and is to come, who inhabiteth eternity, who hath
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  Speaker 1: life in himself. All other life, from the a fit
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  Speaker 1: on the rose leaf to the archangel before the throne,
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  Speaker 1: is dependent and derived. All others are fires, which he
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  Speaker 1: supplies with fuel. He alone is self sustained. This mighty
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  Speaker 1: being is our shepherd. Lift up your heart to him
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  Speaker 1: in lowly adoration, and say, give ear, o Shepherd of Israel,
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  Speaker 1: thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, Thou that dwellest
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  Speaker 1: between the Cherubim shine forth. But as we travel in
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  Speaker 1: thought down the ages, we meet a gentle, weary man
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  Speaker 1: on whom the shadow of coming sorrow hangs starkly. He
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  Speaker 1: is speaking with it a few miles of the spot
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  Speaker 1: where these words had first been uttered some twelve hundred
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  Speaker 1: years before. Is it treason? Is it blasphemy? Is it
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  Speaker 1: the raving of lunacy? No, With all the marks of
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  Speaker 1: self possession and sober truth, he takes up these very words, and,
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  Speaker 1: applying them to himself, he says, I am the good Shepherd.
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  Speaker 1: Combine these two, the august word for the everlasting God
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  Speaker 1: and the tender word for the Savior, and we have
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  Speaker 1: a worthy title for our Lord, Jehovah Jesus. Let us
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  Speaker 1: read it into our psalm and say, with a new
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  Speaker 1: appreciation of its meaning, Jehovah Jesus is my shepherd. What
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  Speaker 1: need can we have which may not be met by
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  Speaker 1: this twofold nature? As Jehovah he has all the power,
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  Speaker 1: As Jesus all the sympathy. As Jehovah, he sustains all worlds.
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  Speaker 1: As Jesus. He ever liveth to make intercession. As Jehovah,
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  Speaker 1: he is sovereign Lord of all. As Jesus, he still
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  Speaker 1: treads the pathways of this world by our side, whispering
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  Speaker 1: sweetly and softly in our ears. Fear not, little flock shepherd.
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  Speaker 1: That precious word for God was uttered first by Jacob
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  Speaker 1: himself wants a shepherd as he lay a dying in
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  Speaker 1: his hieroglyphed chamber, and with the long thoughts of old age,
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  Speaker 1: went back to the imagery of his early life, speaking
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  Speaker 1: of God as having shepherded him all his life long.
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  Speaker 1: All through the Bible, the Golden Thread runs until in
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  Speaker 1: its closing pages we read of the lamb who leads
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: his flock to the river of the water of life.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: The Eastern shepherd occupied quite a unique position toward his flock,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: and a friendship sprang up between him and the dumb
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: creatures of his care, to which there is no counterpart
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: among ourselves. Let us think ourselves into that relationship. In
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the early morning, he would lead his flock from their
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: fold to the pasture lands. All day he must closely
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: watch lest harms should come to them, from prowling beasts
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: of prey or robber hordes. To the still waters, he
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: must lead them that they may drink where no current
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: shall frighten or endanger them. And at night he must
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: conduct them back to the security of the fold. At
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: a certain season of the year, he must lead them
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: yet farther afield, far away from his own home and
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: the haunts of men, where he will live among them,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: scorched by the heat at noon and drenched by the
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: dews at night. Should one of the lambs be unable
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: to keep pace with the rest of the flock, he
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: must carry it in his bosom. Should one of his
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: flock go astray, he must search for it until he
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: finds it, tracking it by the tufts of wool left
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: in the briars and thorns. Should danger assail, he must
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: be prepared to risk his life. Shepherds in the east
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: look like warriors, armed for fight, the guns slung over
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: the shoulder, pistols at the belt, and club in hand.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Living on such terms, the shepherd and his flock are
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: almost friends. They know him and answer to their names.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Some always follow close behind him, as his especial favorites.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Sure of his love, he can do almost anything he
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: wills with any of them, going freely in and out
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: among them without exciting the fight a symptom of alarm.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Now all this is true of our Lord Jesus, that
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: great shepherd of the sheep. He has a shepherd's heart
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: beating with pure and generous love, that counted not his
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: life blood to dear price to pay down as our ransom.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: He has a shepherd's eye that takes in the whole
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: flock and misses not even the poor sheep wandering away
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: on the mountain's cold. He has a shepherd's faithfulness, which
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: will never fail, nor forsake, nor leave us comfortless, nor
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: flee when he sees the wolf coming. He has a
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: shepherd's strength, so that he is well able to deliver
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: us from the jaw of the lion or the paw
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: of the bear. He has a shepherd's tenderness. No lamb
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: so tiny that he will not carry it. No saints
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: so weak that he will not gently lead, No soul
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: so faint that he will not give it rest. He
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: pities as a father, he comforts as a mother. His
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: gentleness makes great He covers us with his feathers, soft
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: and warm and downy, and under his wings do we
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: trust Ah, he has done more all we like sheep,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: have gone astray. We have turned every one to his
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: own way. Punishment and disaster were imminent, but Jesus, from
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: his throne in eternity, saw the danger and was filled
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: with compassion for the multitudes who were as sheep, not
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: having a shepherd. Therefore, because he was the shepherd, he
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: offered to give his own life as the substitute, and
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: God laid on him the iniquity of us. All then
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: was heard the terrible summons. Awake, O sword against my shepherd,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: and against the man that is my fellow. Saith the
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Lord of hosts, Smite the shepherd. He laid down his
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: life for the sheep, and thus redeemed the flock by
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: the blood of the everlasting Covenant. Praise him, Praise him. My,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: what a difference comes in with that little word. My
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the child is dead, said one of the farm servants,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: who had carried the sick boy to his mother. My
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: child is dead, said the mother. The estate is well
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: known to me. I have trodden every mile of it
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: from childhood, So speaks the gray haired bailiff. This is
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: my estate, thus speaks the heir. So in religion, the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: difference between knowledge and appropriation is simply infinite. It makes
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: all the difference between being saved or lost. Whether you
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: say Jesus is a savior or Jesus has saved me,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: whether you say the Lord is a shepherd or the
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Even if,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: like Thomas, you could see the Savior in the clear
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: light of reality and have every doubt removed and his
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: hands offered to your touch. Yet it would avail you
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: but little unless you could appropriate him by saying, my
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Lord and my God. Jesus waits to be appropriated. He
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: is not content to be a shepherd, a good shepherd,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: the shepherd of the Holy Angels, the shepherd and Bishop
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: of countless redeemed ones. His travail over You will not
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: be satisfied till you put your hand on him and say,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: my shepherd. And you may do that if you will.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: There's nothing to hinder you. Do not tarry to inquire
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: if you are one of his sheep. Look away from
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: yourself to him, and see if he be not well
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: qualified to be your shepherd. And the first cry of
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: mine on your part will be a certain indication that
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: you are included in that flock which he is leading
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: through many a tangled break to the one fold of heaven.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, I
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: shall not want a media all the sorrow and want
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: of the world, the Lord's sheep are well supplied. The
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: cry of the worldling is contained in the weary confession
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I perish with hunger, But the boast of the Saint
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: wrings through the glad assurance. My God shall supply all
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: his hired servants have bred enough to spare, and how
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: much more his own. The young lions do lack and
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: want any good thing. Your experiences may seem to contradict
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: that glad announcement. But perhaps you have not by faith
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: sought and appropriated the supplies which have been placed ready
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: to your hand, or you have not majeor request known
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: unto God with prayer and supplication, or your hour of
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: need has not yet fully come, or you have misunderstood
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: your real need and are asking for something which would
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: do you harm in one of these directions. You must
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: seek the reason of the apparent disparity between these glad,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: triumphant words and your own experience. For it is true forevermore,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: that there is no want to them that fear him.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: He is able to make all grace abound, and He
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: does make all grace abound. To Him be the glory
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: forever and ever. Oh, bind this bright assurance to your heart.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: And whatever perils may menace and threaten you, whatever wants
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: may assail, go forward, stepping out into the dark, encouraging
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: your heart by this sweet refrain. The Lord is my shepherd.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I shall not want. End of Chapter two, Chapter three
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: of the Shepherd's Psalm by F. B. Meyer. This LibriVox
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Read by Marianne. Pastures
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: of tender grass and waters of rest. He maketh me
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: the still waters. In this sweet pastoral symphony, the first
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: verse gives the air when it tells us that there
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: is no want to the man who lives under the
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: shepherd care of God. In the succeeding verses, the harmony
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: is worked out and the music in all its completeness
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: is rendered effectively. The first want, which according to this verse,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: he who belongs to Christ shall never know, is the
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: want of rest. This verse breathes the very spirit of rest,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: as is even more apparent in a more literal rendering
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: of the words it may be rendered. Thus he makes
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: me to lie down in pastures of tender grass. He
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: leadeth me beside the waters of rest. What a delightful
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: scene is thus conjured up before our fancy. It is
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: the scorching hour of an eastern noon, the air stifling
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: with fever heat, and all the landscape is baking in
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the awful glare. The very stones upon the hills burn
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the feet that touch them. At such a time. Woe
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: be to the flock without a shepherd, and to the
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: shepherd who cannot find the blue shade of some great rock,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: the shelter of some bushy dell, or the rich and
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: luscious pasturage of some lowland vale. But there is no
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: such failure here. See where the pellucid stream is rolling
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: its tide through the level plain higher upward in its bed.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: When it was starting on its course, it foamed and
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: fretted over its rocky channel, leaped from ledge to ledge
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: chafed against its restraining banks, and dashed itself into a
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: mass of froth and foam. No sheep would have drank
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: of it then, for the flocks will never drink of
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: turbid or ruffled streams. But now it sweeps quietly onward,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: as if it were asleep. There is hardly a ribble
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: on its face. Every flower and tree and sedge, as
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: well as the overhanging banks, is clearly mirrored on its surface,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: and every stone in its bed may be clearly seen
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: on its banks. The pasture is always green and luxuriant,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: carpeted in spring by a thousand flowers. The very air
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: is cool by its refreshing presence, and the ear is
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: charmed by the music of its pearling waters. No drought
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: can come where that river flows, and the flock, satisfied
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: by browsing on the tender grass, lie down, satisfied and
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: at rest. We all need rest. There must be pauses
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and parentheses in all our lives. The hand cannot ever
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: be plying its toils. The brain cannot always be elaborating
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: trains of thought. The faculties and senses cannot always be
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: on the strain to work without rest, is like overwinding
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: a watch, the main spring snaps and the machinery stands still.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: There must be a pause, frequently interposed in life's busy rush,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: where we can can recuperate exhausted nerves and lowered vitality.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: There is more permanence than many think in the commandment
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: which bids us to rest one day in seven. But
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: there is no part of our nature that cries more
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: urgently for rest than our spiritual life. The spirit of man,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: like the dove, cannot always be wandering with unresting wing.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: It must alight. We cannot ever be traveling up the
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: rugged mountain pass of difficulty, or traversing the burning marl
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: of discontent. We must be able to lie down in
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: green pastures, or to pass gently along the waters of rest.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Their three things needed, air, sheep or human spirits can
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: rest one a consciousness of safety. The growl of a lion,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: the bark of a dog, the presence of a little
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: child will be quite sufficient to spoil the rest of
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: a flock of sheep, and to drive them trembling and
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: timid into an affrighted group. And how can we rest
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: so long as we feel ourselves liable to the attack
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: of the roaring lion of the pit, who can rest
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: so long as eternal destinies lie uncertainly in the balance.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Against all this, our shepherd Jesus has provided. He has
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: himself met the great adversary of our souls, and has
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: forever broken his power. We can never forget that fearful
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: conflict between the two, the malice of the one, the
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: strong cryings and tears, the anguish and bloody sweat of
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: the other. It was not a time when we could
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: throw the balance of our weight into one scale or
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the other. We were rather the prize for which the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: battle was fought through the long and weary hours. On
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: the one hand stood cruel hate and bloodthirsty destruction. On
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: the other was mercy, yearning to deliver, although at the
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: cost of bitter agony and wounds, of which the scars
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: shall remain forever. In the end, the good shepherd gave
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: his life for the sheep, no hireling coward. He his
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: was all at stake. The flock was his own, given
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: him by his father, and he laid down his life
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: for it. But in that death he slew our enemy.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: As two antlered champions of the woods have sometimes been
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: discovered side by side in death, because the one, in
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: his own death throes, had struck the other with a
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: mortal wound. But God brought again from the dead our
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: blood of the everlasting Covenant, and now he lives to
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: guarantee our safety. He has suffered all that there is
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: to suffer. He has mastered all the opposition that there
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: is to encounter. He has secured us everlasting deliverance from
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: the slaughter knife, from the demands of the divine law,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: and from the consequences of our own sins. Who is
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: that is risen again. And now o timid soul be
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: at rest. The blood read brand which is upon thee
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: is a sure token that thou art safe. He cannot
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: have done so much for thee to lose. Thee. Now,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: in all moments of peril or dread, softly murmur his name, Jesus, Jesus,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: and he will at once comfort thee by his presence
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: and by his voice, which all the sheep know. And
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: this shall be his assurance. My sheep shall never perish,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: The Lord is thy keeper. We know that whosoever is
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: begotten of God sineth not, But he that was begotten
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: of God keepeth him, and the evil one toucheth him not.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: First John chapter five, verse eighteen, revised version two. Sufficiency
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: of food. A hungry sheep will not lie down. Main
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: force will fail in making it do so. But the shepherd,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: who can provide it with plenty of good pasturage will
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: soon bring the most restless animal to lie contentedly among
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the fragrant herbage. While birds may settle on its wooly
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: back and bees murmured drowsily around, we can never rest
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: so long as the hunger of the spirit is unappeased
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: and its thirst unslaked. Strange that men are so slow
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: to realize this, Yet the whole drift of human life
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: seems impelled by the aching void within. Conscious of their hunger,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: men try to satisfy it with the husks that swine eat,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: But they try in vain, and there is no answer
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: to the unrest of the inward man until the voice
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: of Jesus is heard, saying, he that cometh to Me
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: never thirst. Oh to eat of the flesh of the
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Son of Man, and to drink his blood in hours
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: of devout reverie, in moments of rapt and intimate communion.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: This is life, This is eternal satisfaction. Here are pasture lands, indeed,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: and the rivers of His pleasures. The Word of God
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: may fitly be compared to green past There is nourishment
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: there for all hungry hearts, enough and despair. Nor do
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: these pastures ever become barren or seer. They are as
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: green and fresh to day as when they were first
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: issued by the Holy Spirit. Though multitudes of commentators have
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: considered them, and myriads of Christians have studied and conned them,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: they cannot be pondered by a loving and obedient heart
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: without yielding nutriment and strength. There are many spiritual realities
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: corresponding to the waters of rest. What is the Lord's
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: day but a water of rest? Or the hour of worship,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: or the long period of illness or convalescence, or the
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: summer holiday, or the long halcyon period of spiritual prosperity.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: When it would almost seem as though Satan had forgotten
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: to tempt. At such times, it is sweet to know
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: that he who anon led to war or work, is
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: now leading to rest, and, in some cases, in the
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: midst of life's rush and pleasure, he beckons us aside
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: to rest with him awhile that we may have leisure
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: to eat. He causes our hearts to keep sabbath and
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: be at peace. He makes us drink of the brook
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: by the way, and at noon we rest with his
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: flock in the blue shade of the rock in the
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: weary land. Three obedience to the shepherd's lead. The tenderest
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: shepherd cannot bring a flock of sheep to rest unless
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: they follow him. If they lag far behind him, if
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: they go astray from him, if they take their own
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: several ways, then, however good the shepherd's intentions, they cannot
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: but be thwarted and frustrated. My sheep, said Christ. Hear
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: This test of following the shepherd's lead is most important.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: It is by no means wonderful that we lose our
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: rest when we run hither and thither following the devices
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: and desires of our own evil hearts. We substitute our
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: plans for his. We insist on our schemes and stratagems.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: We crowd our days with much of our own in
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: addition to something of his. We do not look up
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: often enough to see which way he is going and
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: what he would have us to do, And so our
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: rest is broken and lost. We must follow the Lamb
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: whithersoever he goeth. If we would be led to the
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: living fountains of waters which are fed from heavenly springs,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: oh sigh not for the rest of God, as if
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: it were impossible for thee. The good Shepherd waits to
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: make thee lie down, and to give thee to drink long,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: deep drafts of rest. Only trust him, hand over to
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: him all that breaks the stillness of thy spirit, though
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: it be but a gnat sting, and take from him
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: his own deep sweet rest. Claim that he should make
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: thee lie down by the arts of his gentle compulsion.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter three, Chapter four of The Shepherd Psalm
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: by F. B. Meyer. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: public domain Repamerianne, he restoreth my soul. These words are
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: among the most precious in this priceless psalm. They speak
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: to the experience of many children of God, who are
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: deeply conscious of the need of the restoring grace of
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: the Good Shepherd. If he were alone to be followed,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: and if his influences upon us were always instantly and
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: wholly obeyed, there would be no need of restoration. But
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: we are not always susceptible and obedient to the heavenly leadings.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: We easily relapse into states of lethargy and indifference, and
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: it is necessary that we should be restored. The most
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: fruitful source of spiritual declension is the neglect of the
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Word of God and of private devotion. Just so long
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: as the spirit of man keeps on terms of intimacy
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: with the loving spirit of God, while the Bible is
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: regularly and prayerfully studied, and the habit of retirement is maintained,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: there will be a regular growth in grace and in
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: the knowledge and love of God. If only the golden
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: pipes are kept free and unclogged, there will be an
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: uninterrupted flow of the golden oil to feed the flame
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: of a holy life. We know all this. Our hearts
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: have often tasted the sweet refreshment and holy encouragement which
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: are found in these quiet, blessed hours spent in the
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: most holy place. We know that there is nothing which
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: is more productive of all that makes life worth having
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: than communion with God. And yet this is the one
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: exercise which we are most prone to hurry or neglect.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: The chapters of the Word of God are skimmed as
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: a duty, as the surface of a mountain lake is
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: touched here and there by the breast of the wild fowl,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: while the morning or evening prayer is uttered so coldly
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: and perfunctory that it had all almost better have been unsaid.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Is it then to be wondered at that the energies
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: of the spiritual life decline, and sadly need the interposition
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: of some strong, wise hand to restore. Unconfessed Sin is
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: another cause of swift spiritual decline. If there be a
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: cause of disagreement, however trivial, among friends, they shrink from meeting,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: or if they meet, there is a coldness and restraint
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: which is the more evident and painful in the proportion
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: to the warmth and intimacy of their previous attachment. There
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: can be no more heart union till the cause of
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: the estrangement has been probed, and the wrong confessed, or
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: the misunderstanding explained, and The same principle obtains in the
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: relationship of the soul with God. When we sin, there
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: is generally a tendency to imitate Adam and Eve in
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: their concealment beneath the foliage of the garden. Before that
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: sad yielding is the temptation of devil. The happiest hour
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: in all the day was that in which, as the
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: evening breeze shed a delicious cool on the tropic heat,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: the voice of the Lord God was heard, summoning them
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: to commune with him. But that sin makes the thought
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: of fellowship unwelcome. Similarly, we have learned again and again
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: that unconfessed sin casts a dark shadow over our fellowship
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: with God and makes it irksome or perfunctory. Then we
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: begin to exchange the open heart for the averted one,
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: and put on the shy look and the formal phrase.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: And if this sin is not instantly confessed and put away,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: the little rift within the lute will widen until it
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: will make the music mute. Worldly society, with all its accessories,
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: is another fruitful source of spiritual decline. It is impossible
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: to spend much time amid the trifling talk, the inane
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: conversation the banter, the ridicule, the empty literature, the frivolous
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: pursuits of what is called society, without losing much of
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: the fine edge the holy temper of the soul. Man
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: cannot touch a butterfly's wing without rubbing away some of
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: the delicate down that covers it with microscopic feathers, And
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: we are equally unable to be constantly living in the
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: atmosphere of the slawns of this world without sacrificing that
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: indescribable delicacy and holiness of character, which is God's choicest gift.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: Of course, if the Lord Jesus sends us into the
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: world to work for him, he will keep us there,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: but we shall soon decline in spiritual health if we
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: choose to live there, just as the country maiden will
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: lose her bright, healthy color and show signs of consumption
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: if she always lives in the stifling atmosphere of the
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: overcrowded room and amid the unwholesome conditions of our city life.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Neglect of some known command will also pull down the
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: strongest spiritual health into the weakness of disease and decline.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: If only all the Christians who are now fencing with
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: some known command of Christ. Would dare to obey it,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: there would be one of the greatest revivals that we
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: have ever seen. You sometimes meet Christians who tell you
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: that they used to be deeply exercised on certain matters.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: What does that word exercise mean? Does it not mean
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: that Christ was testing them by a certain definite command,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: and that they were, in point of fact, resisting him,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: choosing their own way rather than his. And if this
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: exercise of soul had stayed, what is the cause save
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: this that the gracious Master has had the direct negative
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: so clearly given him that it is of no further
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: use for him to ply the disobedient spirit, and so
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: he has withdrawn from it. It may be saved so
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: as by fire, but it can never know his tenderest
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: love or be used by him for his loftiest ministry.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: There are many signs of the declension of the soul,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: its restlessness, its spirit of capitious complaining, its want of
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: interest in the concerns of Christ's kingdom, its inability to
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: testify for Christ or against sin, its unwillingness to admit
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: that it is any different to what it used to be,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: its wincing beneath contact with the Word of God faithfully preached,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: and with the experience of others who are living in
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: sole health and in happy fellowship with God. Just as
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: we have met with people afflicted with an insidious and
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: dangerous disease, who yet refuse to consider themselves so and
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: to fight against the desire of their friends to summon
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: medical aid. So one phase of spiritual decline is the
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: attempt to turn aside all suggestions of its presence, although
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: gnawing the vitals of the heart. Then follows the sad
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: admission exhorted as the years go on, that things are
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: not as they were, which is followed by the hopeless
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: conclusion that they cannot now be mended. How well it
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: is to turn to the restoring grace of the Savior.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: Nature is full of great restorative processes. Directly a rent
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: is made in her hillsides, she begins to festoon it
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: with grasses, ferns, and creepers. When a wound is caused
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: in our flesh and the red blood breaks through the
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: broken rampart as it passes, it begins to build up
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the breach, so that presently soundness takes the place of
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: the lacerated aperture. Even when a rent is caused in
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: our families by the death of some dear invalid whose
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: presence had given a new thoughtfulness to all the inmates,
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: and whose death makes a breach almost irreparable to the survivors,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: then time, with its healing influences, begins to repair the
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: yawning void. So spiritually, the blessed spirit of God is
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: ever brooding over human hearts to do his choice and
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: beloved work of reparation and restoration. When the sheep is
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: missing from the flock, he goes after the truant until
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: he finds it and restores it to its place among
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: the rest. When one piece is missing from the completed
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: circle of his crown, one jewel from his breastplate, he
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: rests not till it is replaced. When one child is
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: away in a far country, his own joy is at
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: an end till he is back. Oh, gentle, tender hearted,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: pitiful Savior, how eager thou art in pursuing these thy
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: chosen ministries to thy weak and unworthy children. Christ uses
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: many restorative ministries. Sometimes it is the word of a
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: friend or minister, or it may be a hymn breathing
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: the fragrance of a holy heart, and speaking of a
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: happier place. Or it may be a paragraph a sentence
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: in some biography or religious treatise, not unfreequently, it happens
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: in this wise. You are away in the country, walking
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: solitarily and moodily. When there is a burst of sunbeams
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: or of song notes from the break, or without any
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: natural cause, you are suddenly aware of the gentle thawing,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: all pervasive influence of the grace of God, which touches
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: the deepest springs of the heart and softens it and
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: leads it to contrition and prayer. Is not this experience
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: something like that resulting from the look which Jesus cast
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: at Peter, and which sent him out to weep bitterly,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: and was the first stage of his restoration. Let those
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: who want to understand the whole philosophy of restoration read
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: the marvelous story of the way in which the good
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Shepherd restored the soul of his erring apostle. We can
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: only enumerate the stages here. He prayed for him and
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: warned him from the midst of the rough crew that
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: did their will on him. He turned and looked upon
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: Peter not angrily nor harshly, but with the tenderest reproach.
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: He gave a special message to the angels that they
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: should bid the women summon Peter amid the Rest on
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: the resurrection morning, showing how constantly he had been in
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: the Saviour's heart all through his sorrows. He met him
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: alone on the world's first Easter Day and permitted him
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: to pour out the story of his sorrow, unrestrained by
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: the presence of any besides themselves. He gave him an
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: opportunity of thrice, attesting his love to wipe out the
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: memory of the thrice denial. And this is not more
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: than he will do for any of us. Oh, do
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: not wait for days or weeks to elapse. Ere you
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: apply to him for his restoring grace. But just as
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: you are and dare to trust him to do it now,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: while the throb of passion is still beating high and
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: the deed of shame is recent, look up to him
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: and claim forgiveness first, and in the same breath, ask
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: him to put you back immediately in the very place
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: which you occupied before you fell. And then, though as
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: yet no answering joy thrills your heart, you will be
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: able to exclaim in the assurance of faith, he restoreth
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: my soul. Yes, and for those who dare to claim it.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: There is another promise, still more reassuring, which tells us
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: that he will restore the years that the canker worm
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: has eaten, giving back to us opportunities and privileges which
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: we may seem to have forfeited forever. End of chapter four,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: Chapter five of The Shepherd's Psalm by F. B. Meyer.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: This liprivox recording is in the public domain, read by
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: Marianne the Shepherd's leading. He leadeth me in the path
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: of righteousness. For his namesake, he leadeth me. What a
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: wondrous link between those two personal pronouns. The chasm between
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: the Shepherd in glory and his poor sheep might seem
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: to be an infinite one, but it is bridged by
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: this one sweet tender word leadeth. As in the east,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: the shepherd always precedes the flock to discover the greenest
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: patches of grass and the least stony path. So does
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: Jesus ever keep in front of the soul that trusts
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: and loves him. And it is our art to allow
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: as small a space as possible to intervene between his
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: footsteps and our own. We must be willing to be led.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: There's so much natural impetuosity in us to shoot on
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: in front and prospect for ourselves. Is that not so?
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: And out of this restlessness there arises so much of
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: the fret and chafe and disappointment of life. We think
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: we can do so much better for ourselves than Christ
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: can do for us. We doubt whether there is not
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: something outside the limit of His wad will which it
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: might be worth our while to snatch at. We are
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: inclined to run before, or linger behind, or go off
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: to forage on the right and left. We take a
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: long time ere we learn that the place of usefulness
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: and blessedness is in following the lead of Jesus. We
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: are much more liable to imitate some scheme which our
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: judgment may have passed after a hurried hearing of its claims,
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: than to ask where Christ wants us to be and
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: whether he is leading. The one ambition of our being
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: should be to be sure that we are resolutely following
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: the shepherd, whithersoever he goeth according to his own assurance.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: and the sheep follow him. These words make a considerable
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: demand upon our faith. Of all, the apostles could see
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: him in front of them as he went up to Jerusalem,
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: and they followed him in fear. But that is impossible.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: Now we cannot see that gracious form treading Earth's dreary
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: pathways and casting its shadow upon the sands of time.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: We love him whom we have not seen. We follow
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: him whom we cannot behold. But though he be viewless
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: as the air, or as the attraction by which the
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: Sun conducts the worlds through space, yet his leadings are
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: distinctly discernible by the trusting, loving heart. We detect his
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: leadings in many ways, in the drift of his example,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: and in the direction of his advice contained in the Gospels,
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: in the council of a friend, the message of a sermon,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: the monition of a text flashed into our memories, as
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: well as in those inner promptings of his spirit, which
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: come we know not whence, and bear us we know
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: not whither. Sometimes the way opens before us quite marvelously
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: where it had seemed closed, as when a vessel threading
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: her way through a labyrinth of rock finds a space
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: of shining water, beckoning it from the jaws of reef
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: which threatened it. At other times a strange impulse seizes us, which,
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: after do thought and prayer, we are constrained to follow.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: This only would we insist upon. If you do not
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: know the way to go, wait till you are sensible
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: of the leadings of the good Shepherd. Your life is
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: wonderfully interesting to him. Every step of it is the
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: subject of his thought. It will be a sore mistake
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: and wrong for you to act without being sure of
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: what He wishes you to do. And if you are
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: not sure what that is, it is evident that the
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: time has not yet come for you to move. Stay
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: just where you are. If you dare to wait, you
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: will be clearly shown your path, and the revelation will
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: not come a moment too late. Oh, do not say
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: that you are so stupid that you can never know
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: His will. You are always dull of apprehension, and your
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: very nervousness to understand aright has sometime times made you
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: too flurried clearly to apprehend the simplest directions. But obtuseness
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: of the intellect matters little to Christ. He can deal
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: with that, and he will. If he cannot make you
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: understand in one way, he will in another. It is
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: the business of the shepherd to lead the willing sheep aright.
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: The only thing which obstructs his guidance is the obtuseness
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: of the heart and will. We are frequently too self
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: willed or too impetuous to await his time. In the
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: previous verse, the Psalmist declared that the shepherd led beside
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: still waters, and the inference might have been that when
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: the feet were cut, or the muscle strained by the
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: clamber up the rocky mountain track, or that when the
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: course lay amid deep damp glens, overshadowed by heavy forests
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: and overhanging rocks, that at such times the sheep was
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: following its own wild way, outside the tender guidance of
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: its lord. And so the Psalmist takes up the metaphor
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: again and tells us that there are other walks by
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: which the shepherd is leading us to our home, not
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: always beside the gentlest streamlet flow, but sometimes by the
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: foaming torrent, not always over the delicate grass, but sometimes
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: up the stony mountain track, not always in the sunshine,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: but sometimes through the valley of the shadow of death.
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: But whichever way it is, it is the right way,
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: and it is the way home. Christ's leadings are always
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: along paths of righteousness. And what are these bought right paths?
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: They are not only consistent with divine rectitude, but they
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: are justified by the review of the spirit, which in
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: after days, looking back on them from the eminence to
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: which they have led, it confesses that they were right paths.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: You hesitated this. You say that you cannot feel that
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: God's ways with you have been right. You are puzzled
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: by their mystery. You are almost driven to despair by
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: their mazy difficulties or their inexorable demands. Such feelings are
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: not to be marveled at, as you sob them out
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: in the ear of God. And he is very pitiful,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: for he knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. Only.
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: Do not judge God's ways while they are in progress.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: Wait till the plan is complete. Wait till the tapestry
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: is finished and you can see the other side where
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: the pattern will be worked out. Wait till the silver
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: paper is torn off the worsted work, and the blending
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: of the colors is disclosed. Wait till you have gone
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: out of the veil to the mountain brow. Wait till
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: in the light of eternity, God can call you aside
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: and reveal to you his purposes. Meanwhile, trust all his
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: paths drop fatness. All the paths of the Lord are
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: mercy and truth. If it is true that his path
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: is in the mighty waters, it is also true true
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: that he leads by a right way to the city
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: of habitation. Let us not judge God by an incomplete
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: or unfinished scheme. Let us have patience till the end
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: shall justify the path by which we came. In the
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: breaking dawn of eternity, we shall discover that God could
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: not have brought us by another route which would have
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: been as expeditious or as safe as the one by
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: which we have come. Would that we had the faith
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: to look up from every trying circumstance, from every freting worry,
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: from every annoyance and temptation, into the face of our guide,
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: and say it is the right way, Thou great Shepherd
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: of the sheep, Lead thou me on, Lead thou me on,
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: or more and fen or crag and torrent till the
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: night is gone. But we do not need to plead
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: with him for this. He is pledged to do it
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: for the sake of his own great name. He leadeth
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: Remember how eager Moses was for the honor of the
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: name of God. For many a saintly lip have the
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: words broken. What wilt thou do for thy great name?
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: The name denotes the honor and character of God. These
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: are implicated, These are at stake. The right leading of
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: the saint is guaranteed by their immutability. What is his
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: name wonderful? Then there is a claim on the marvelous
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: working of his power to overrule everything to our highest
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: good counselor. Then there is a claim upon his unerring
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: wisdom to work out a scheme which will fill heaven
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: with admiration the Mighty God. Then there is a claim
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: upon him to do nothing inconsistent with divine integrity and
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: glory the Everlasting Father. Then there is a claim on
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: him to deal no less tenderly than a father with
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: his child, the Prince of Peace. Then there is a
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: claim him in accordance with the sweetness and loveliness of
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: his heart the memories of his cross and the tenderness
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: of his benediction of peace. For his name's sake. What
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: a plea that to look right up from the heart
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: of man to the heart of Christ, sure that he
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: will not deny himself, or belie his character, or do
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: aught inconsistent with his tender love to those for whom
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: he died. Tell us thy name, o wondrous Shepherd, going
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: on before and leading us by way of gassemine and
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: cavalry to the garden of the eastern morn and the
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: sward of that ascension mount. And as we catch thine answer,
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: melodious with love, we will trust and not be afraid.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: We will follow thee whithersoever thou goest, and we will
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: believe that we shall find that no step of the
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: path was inconsistent with the leadings of a love wise
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: and strong and tender as the heart of God. End
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: of Chapter five, Chapter six of The Shepherd's Palm by F. B. Meyer.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: Mirian the Valley of Shadow, YEA, though I walk through
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: the valley of the shadow of Death, I will fear
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: no evil, for thou art with me in all scripture,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: there is no verse more familiar than this. No Bible
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: figure has made a more lasting or indelible impression. This
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: picture of the close of our lives, with a dark
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: valley at the end of their sunny pathway, was hung
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: up long ago in the halls of memory as we
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: first learned to lisp these venerable words, And though much
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: has happened since then, it holds its place and will
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: while the memory endures. In millions of cases, these have
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: been the last words uttered by dying saints, and it
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: is in the highest degree probable that they will be
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: gently uttered by many of those who read these words
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: as the spirit passes into the borderland into its ain country.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: Unless the Lord comes first, and we miss the passage
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: of the valley being caught up to meet him in
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: the air, methinks I see that valley now. The shepherd
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: is conducting his flock toward their fold, in luxuriant pastures
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: and in quiet, resting places. But suddenly the path turns
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: downward and begins to wind toward the ravine. Below. On
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: the one side is a precipice yawning in sheer descent
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: to the steep river bed where the water foams and roars,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: torn by jagged rocks. On the other side, the mountain
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: firs cast a somber shadow in the dampening twilight. The
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: path still plunges downward until it passes into a deep
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: and narrow gorge, overhung by the frowning battlements of rock,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: which almost touch overhead. While the trees join hands bow
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: in clasping bow. It would be dark there in the
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: most to linger there after sundown would be to court
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: the agou. All along its course are the lairs and
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: haunts of ravenous beasts. Such is the valley of the
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: Shadow of Death, through which the great Shepherd once went alone,
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: and by which he now conducts all his flock to
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: their home. The foremost ranks have long ago emerged into
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: the sunshine. Others are now passing through its dark shadows,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: and ere long we too may be beneath them. This
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: figure gives us some comforting thoughts about death. It is
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: not a state and enduring condition, or an abiding place.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: It is a passage, a transition, a valley through which
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: we walk. The valley may be darksome and lonely, and
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: infested with evil things, but we do not pitch our tent.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: There we pass through it to our rest in death.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: The spirit leaves the body and passes out, just as
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: an artisan will leave the workshop at the evening, shutting
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: blinds and doors as he passes out to his home
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: and leaves it deserted and still. But his voice is
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: to be heard in his home circle, as he makes
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: glad the wistful hearts that had waited for him, and
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: whose joy had been incomplete till he came. In Damascus,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: there is a long, dark, narrow lane ending in a tunnel.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: It has been there for ages. The traveler descends and
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: passes through, but on the other side he emerges into
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: the courtyard of an oriental palace, flashing with color and sunlight.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: This is a figure of a believer's death. Christ is
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: called the first born from the dead. Dying is being
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: borne out of the confinement and darkness of earth into
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: the glorious light and liberty of the heavenly life. It
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: is a physical act which affects the body, but does
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: not touch the faculties or acquirements of the individual. Absent
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: from the body, present with the Lord. No staying in
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: a state of unconsciousness, but an exodus, a passage, a
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: walking through a brief valley, Sunshine on this side, sunshine
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: on that, and just a moment a parentheses a ham
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: breadth of gloom. Death is the gate to life. Our
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: beloved are not dead. They are the living, who have
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: passed through death into the presence of the King. And
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: whensoever we stand beside our dear ones called to this
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: exodus of which the Apostle Peter speaks, we may address
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: them with words of comfort and hope. Go forth a
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: Christian soul from this world, in the name of God Almighty,
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: who created them, in the name of Jesus Christ, the
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: son of the Living God, who suffered for thee, in
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: the name of the Holy Ghost, who is poured out
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: for thee. Yet the valley is dark. The pain of
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: the body often depresses the spirit and overcasts it with
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: a gloom which is often erroneously attributed to spiritual causes.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: It is hard to part without sadness from those who
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: have been the beloved Frith fellow pilgrims of the March.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: There is moreover a sense of loneliness, for though it
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: is peopled with pilgrims, three thousand each hour, yet each
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: goes alone. Jamurai's soul, Nor are elements of darkness wanting
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: through the machinations of our direst foe, who delights, in
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: the moment of mortal weakness, to accumulate objects of dread
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: before our failing sight. At the best, it is a
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: solemn thing to die. The hardened desperado may meet his
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: end without a shudder. There are no bands in his death.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: His strength is firm, but in proportion to the nurture
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: of the spirit. In all refined and tender feeling. It
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: is impossible to quit the receding shore and make for
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: the sea darkling under the clouds of night without a
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: sense of seriousness and sobriety. The befitting pace is aptly
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: described as a walk. Yea though I walk. But at
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: the worst, death is only a shadow. It is the
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: valley of the shadow of death. Christ met the substance
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: we encounter, but the shadow, the monster is deprived of
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: teeth and claws. Arthsius has destroyed him who had the
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: power of death, that is the devil, and has delivered
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: subject to bondage. He has abolished death, and we who
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: belong to him may boldly cry o death, where is
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: thy sting? Ah? The wasp stung the good Shepherd to death,
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: and has left his sting fixed in that cross where
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: he died. The shadow is the exact counterpart of its substance,
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: but it is not in itself harmful. The shadow of
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: a dog cannot bite of a giant, cannot kill, of
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: death cannot destroy. The prophet says that death is a
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: veil cast over the face of all nations. But a
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: veil is harmless enough. Besides, you cannot have a shadow
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: unless there be a bright light shining somewhere. The shadow
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: is temporary, the light eternal. For God is light, and
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: in him there is no darkness at all. But this
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: imagery may stand for other experiences. Besides dying. We have
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: often to pass through dark valleys on our way home.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: The road to the heavenly Jerusalem lies through the valleys
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: of Bacca, where eyes wax red with weeping and tears
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: brim into pools. The Great Dreamer, in his description of
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: the Pilgrim's progress, places the passage of the valley of
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: the Shadow in the middle of his course, between the
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: House Beautiful and Vanity Fair. There lies such a description
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: of this valley as could only have been written by
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: one who had passed through its ravines. Now morning being come,
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: he looked back, not out of any desire to return,
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: but to see by the light of the day, what
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: hazards he had gone through in the dark. So he
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: saw more perfectly the ditch that was on the one hand,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: and the quag that was on the other. Also, how
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: narrow was the way which lay betwixt them both. Also
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: now he saw the hobgoblins and satires and dragons of
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: the pit, but all afar off, for after the break
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: of day they come not nigh. Yet they were discovered
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: to him according to that which is written. He discovereth
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: the shadow of death. We pass through many a valley
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: of shadow. Ere we reach the valley, and whenever we
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: feel our souls overcast, we should stay to consider if
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: there be a cause arising from our neglect or sin.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: If there be a moment's confession will bring us out
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: again into the light. But if there be none, so
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: far as we can tell, then let us be brave
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: to plod on. Every step has been measured out for us,
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: even as it has been trodden before us, and God
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: is testing us to see whether we can trust him
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: in the dark as well as in the light, and
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: whether we can be as true to Him when all
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: pleasurable emotions have faded off our hearts, as when we
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: walked with him in the light. There is a good
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: purpose in all these shadowed valleys. They test the quality
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: of the soul. They reveal our weak places. They unveil
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: the stars that peer down through the inner spaces of
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: rock and tree. They make us follow the Shepherd closely
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: lest we lose him. They teach us to value as
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: never before the rod and staff. Blessed are those that
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: do not see, but who yet believe, and who are
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: content to be stripped of all joy and comfort and ecstasy,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: if it be the Shepherd's will, so long as there
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: is left to them the sound of his voice and
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: the knowledge that he is near. Listen to the courageous
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: declaration of the saintly soul, boasting of its fearlessness. I
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: will fear no evil. There is no fear in love.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: Perfect love casteth out fear. Nothing else can do it.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: You may argue against fear, you may deride it, you
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: may try and shame it, But all will be in vain.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: If you would master it, you must expel it by
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: the trust which is born of love. A man comes
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: home faint and famished, his nature craves for food. But
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: as he enters into his house he learns that his child,
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: suddenly stricken with fever, is lying at the point of death.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: And in a moment he has forgotten his hunger in
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: the paroxysm of love and grief with which he bends
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: over the tiny, feverish form and hastens to moisten the
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: dry lips. Thus, the lower passions are subdued in the
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: soul by the higher. And so it happens that the
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: most timid spirit, which is conscious of the presence of
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: the good Shepherd, can sing as it passes onward through
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: the gloom, and its notes vibrate with the buoyancy of
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: a courage which cannot flinch or falter. YEA, though I
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: will fear no evil. God is our refuge and strength
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: a very present hell and trouble. Therefore will not we fear?
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: It is very well to say what time I am afraid,
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: I will trust in thee. But it is still better
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: to say, I will trust and be not afraid. Sorrow
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: and dying make Christ's presence real. Have you ever noticed
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: the change in the pronoun hitherto the Psalmist have spoken
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: of the Lord in the third person. But now, as
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: he moves down into the dark, he draws closer to
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: the divine leader and Guide, speaking of him in a
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: whisper and saying thou in the green pastures. It was
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: enough to speak of he, but now there is need
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: for the closer, tender address. When things are going well
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: with us, we may content ourselves with talking about the Lord,
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: But when the sky darkens, we hasten to deal with
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: him and talk to him directly. The child which had
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: been playing about the room will run to your knee
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: and cling closely to your bosom as soon as the
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: thunderclouds gather and the wind moans through the house. In
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: this way, death chambers become presents chambers. The darkness is
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: sometimes too dense for us to be able to see Christ,
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: but faith can always be sure that he is there,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: not because of the evidence of sense or feeling, but
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: because he has said, I will never leave Thee nor
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: forsake Thee. He cannot break his word, He has not
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: left us alone. He is looking down on us with
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: unabated tenderness. The depths may sever him from the apprehension
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: of our love, but neither death nor life, nor height
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: nor depth can separate us from the strong grasp of
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: his faithful and unchanging affection. Yea, the mountains may depart
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: and the hills be removed, but his kindness will not
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: depart from thee. Neither will the covenant of his peace
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: be removed. The darkness and the light are both alike
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: to thee, O Christ, who distread the dense darkness of
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: cassemine and cavalry alone, desolate and forsaken of thy father.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: But thou knowest the way, since thou hast trodden it.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: Thou art as near to us as when we can
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: see and feel THEE near. And thou wast lonely that
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: we might never be lonely. Thou wast forsaken, that we
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: might never be forsaken. Thou didst treed the wine press alone,
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: that each poor, timid child of Thine in all future
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: ages might be able to sing the words of undying comfort.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter six chapter seven of The Shepherd's Song
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: by F. B. Meyer. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: public domain. Read by Marianne comfort through the rod and staff,
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Whatever the
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: valley of the Shadow of Death may stand for in
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: our Christian experience, there is no doubt that the lonely Spirit,
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: in its passage through it stands in urgent need of comfort.
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: From the beginning to the end of Scripture, there is
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: no refrain more frequent or more consolatory than the thought
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: embodied in the words comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: saith your God. Indeed, it would almost appear as if
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: the eternal God had set to himself the task of
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: comforting his people, as a mother comforteth her first born.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: All true comfort emanates from God through the work of
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, whose comfort is especially mentioned in Acts
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: chapter nine, verse thirty one. And any one who would
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: experience God's comfort in all its tender helpfulness, let them
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: read perpetually in the Word of God, that through patience
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: and comfort of the scriptures they may have hope. Romans
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: chapter fifteen, verse four. It would sometimes appear, indeed, that
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: God puts us into special circumstances of difficulty and trial,
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: in order that He may make manifest to us the
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: infinite resources of his consolation, just as we need to
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: go out into the dark night in order to behold
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: the stars. But the great point brought out in these
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: words is that the Almighty God, our savior, comforts us
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: by his rod and his staff. How is it that
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: these two badges of the shepherd's office, which seem rather
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: to speak of discipline, can possibly bring comfort to tried believers.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: It is this point which we desire for a moment
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: to elucidate. And may we not hope that the God
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: of all comfort will reveal to us fresh sources of comfort,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: that we may be able to comfort others with the
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: comfort wherewith we ourselves have been comforted of God. What
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: is the shepherd's rod? It is surely the symbol of
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: his defending power. It is the scepter which he carries
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: as the supreme shepherd king. It is the weapon by
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: which he strikes down our adversaries, even though it be
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: heavy with chastisement for ourselves. In passing through some rocky
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: fastness or shadowed valley, where wild beasts have their lair
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: and hill robbers hide. In many a darkened cave. A
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: shepherd needs to be well armed with heavy club or
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: ponderous rod, that he may deal death, giving blows to
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: lion or bear, or stealthy thief, imperiling the safety of
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: one of his charge. And does this not suggest the
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: protecting grace of Christ, our Lord, who is ever on
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: the alert to ward off from us threatening ills, whether
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: they emanate from the Prince of the power of the air,
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: or from those malicious human foes to whose presence in
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: this life our psalmust so often alludes, and to have
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: their counterpart more or less in the lives of us all.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: Many who read these words spend all their lives under
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: the shadow of a great fear. They dread the outset
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: of temptation, before which they feel themselves as impotent as
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: the withered leaves of autumn before the gusty gale. They
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: fear that one day they will become the prey of
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: the lion, or fall into the hands of a soul.
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: Would that they might transfer the responsibility of keeping their
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: souls into the hands of their faithful redeemer, confident that
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: he will be about their path and their lying down,
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: so that they may dwell safely in the wilderness and
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: sleep in the woods. The breaker goes before the flock,
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: smiting down all opposition with irresistible might, and God himself
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: is at the rearward of the flock, defending it from
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: all attack from behind. O timid hearts, dreading every spiritual
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: and temporal evil, like children going down a dark lane
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: in dread, lest at every turn they should meet some
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: terrible ogre or object of dread, startled by the sigh
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: of every breeze and by the whitened bowl of every
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: hollow tree. Would that you could realize how absolutely Christ
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: assumes the care of all who trust him. The one
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: question is whether you have so completely handed over the
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: responsibility of your lives to Him as to make him
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: the sole custodian and safeguard of your being, both for
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: this world and the next. From the defending rod or
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: the club of the great Shepherd, we may derive abundant comfort,
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: because it is written, my sheep shall never perish, neither
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: shall any man or devil pluck them out of my hand.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: What is the staff? We would rather call it the
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: shepherd's crook, which is often bent or hooked at one end.
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: It is associated as inseparably with the shepherd, as the
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: goad is with the plowman. Beneath it, the sheep pass
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: one by one to be numbered or told by it.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: The shepherd restrains them from wandering, or hooks them out
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: of holes into which they may fall by it. Also
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: he corrects them when they are to obe In each
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: of these thoughts there is comfort for the tried children
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: of God. We are numbered among God's sheep as we
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: pass one by one beneath the touch of the shepherd's crook.
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: Our names may be unknown among the great and learned,
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: but they are written in heaven. Our dwelling places may
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: be lowly and ungarnished among the mansions and palaces of
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: the rich, but we have houses not made with hands
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: eternal in the heavens. Our sphere of ministry may be limited,
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: and our work in the trenches preparing for the foundations,
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: far away from the shoutings with which the topstone is
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: placed upon a finished pile in the sunny air, But
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: we shine as stars of the first magnitude in the
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: sight of God. We are accounted as the small dust
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: in the balance, as smoking flax or bruised reeds. But
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: in the eye of our heavenly Father. We are prized
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: as very precious jewels, entered into his inventory and destined
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: to shine in the regalia of his son, before the
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: gaze of all the worlds. Words were spoken once among
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: the exiles in Babylon, which we may fitly apply to
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: ourselves in this connection. Gathering at night by the waters
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: of Babylon, they hanged their harps upon the pliant branches
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: of the willows as they swept in the current of
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: the stream beneath, and they wept as they remembered the
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: ruins of their beloved Jerusalem. Then in their midst the
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: prophet voice was heard, bidding them lift up their eyes
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: on high and behold the starry hosts. Also they were
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: reminded that God called all these by names by the
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: greatness of his might. And then followed the magnificent apostrophe,
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: Why sayest thou, o Jacob, and speakest o Israel. My
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: passed over from my God. And to each weary heart
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: treading the dark valley of sorrow, I would speak comfort
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: in the self same words. The myriad of stars of
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: heaven seemed to make up one huge flock. There shepherd
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: is God, who is driving them through space, or who
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: watches them, as it were, resting on the heavenly slopes,
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: as a flock of sheep on the downs at night.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: And he has a name for each of them. Is
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: it therefore to be supposed that he will not be
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: as minute in his care of each one of us?
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: Will he not have a name for each of us?
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: Will he not number us when he tells the tale
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: of his sheep, even as he numbers the hairs of
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: our heads. This very morn he touched you with his
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: staff and counted you. You are the destined object of
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: his care. Is it likely then that he will suffer
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: you to perish or want any good thing? By the
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: shepherd's staff, we are also extricated from circumstances of peril
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: and disaster into which we may have fallen through our
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: own folly and sin. When Peter, through his unbelief, began
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: to sink in the waves, the Savior caught him and
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: supported him so that they walked together to the boat.
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: And this is only a sample case of our shepherd's
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: tender care. For very often sin not only grieves him,
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: but it plunges us into circumstances of misery and trouble
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: which threaten to overwhelm us. At such times, he is
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: not unmindful of his own As though we may seem
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: to have forfeited all claim to his care, yet he
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: is a very present help in time of trouble. He
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: does not permit us to reap as we have sown.
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: He averts the full penalty of our own mistakes and misdeeds.
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: He comes after us in the wilderness, not staying his
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: foot until he has discovered the pit into which we
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: have fallen, from which he does not fail to drag
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: us forth, placing us on his shoulders if we are
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: too weak to walk, and bringing us back satisfyed with
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: no other recompense than that we are safe. Thus saith
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: the Lord God. Behold I even I will both search
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: out his flock in the day that he is among
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: his sheep that are scattered. So will I seek out
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: my sheep and will deliver them out of all places
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. Oh,
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: the long suffering patience of Christ, who will not permit
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: us to be overwhelmed by the sorrows and penalties which
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: we may have incurred, but will reach out his crook
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: to drag us back from the death that we had courted.
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: By the staff, the shepherd also corrects his sheep. At first,
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: there seems but little comfort here. It is not pleasant
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: to any one of us to be corrected. The smart
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: stroke of the staff is painful. Yet there is consolation
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: in the reflection that God must care for us, or
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: he would not think it worth his while to expend
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: time and thought upon our chastisement. Who troubles to take
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: to the lapidary's wheel common flints and stones of the beach.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: The stone that is deeply cut, the diamond which is
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: careful polished, the metal which is plied with intense heat
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: for weeks and even months, must have proved themselves to
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: be of excellent worth. What gardener would spend time and
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: pains over a tree which, after repeated trial, had refused
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: to bear fruit. Is it not the bow which has
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: already borne luxuriant clusters, that receives the incessant attention of
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: the husbandman whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and scourgeth
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: every son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastening, God
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: dealeth with you as with sons, Welcome, then, o children
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: of God. Each stroke of the shepherd's staff get comfort
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: out of every smart by the thought, my shepherd must
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: love me tenderly, or he would never treat me thus,
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: And then turn the heart toward him an eager desire
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: to know the lesson he would teach, and to miss
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: nothing of the benefits which he intends. So we journey
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: slowly through the valley, learning any a lesson of comfort
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: which we hide in our hearts. We are almost content
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: to suffer because of the rich revenue of blessing which
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: accrues with us. As with the oyster, every wound becomes
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: the origin of a pearl. And there is this also
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: that our own experiences make us very tender towards the
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: failures and sorrows of others. And we are able to
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: join in the glad outburst of the apostle, who said,
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: blessed be God, even the father of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: the father of mercies and the God of all comfort,
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: be able to comfort them which are in any trouble
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. End of chapter seven,
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: Chapter eight of the Shepherds, all by F. B. Meyer.
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: The LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: Marianne the banquet Thou preparest a table before me in
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: the presence of mine enemies. At first, it seems difficult
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: to catch the exact sequence of the psalmist's thought as
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: he turns from the sheep coats to the festal board.
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: And yet the demands of the spiritual life so far
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: transcend all earthly analogies as to demand that more than
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: one metaphor should be employed, one supplying what the other lacks,
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: so that the true conception of our relationship to God
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: may be complete. Now, it is, of course very helpful
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: to think of one's self as a sheep, and of
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: Christ as the shepherd. But there can be no fellowship
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: between the dumb animals and their watchful keeper. The little
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: child that comes from the shepherd's shielding to meet its
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: father has more intimate fellowship with him, though it can
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: hardly articulate its words than the dumb creatures of his care.
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: The Psalmist therefore seems to say, I am more than
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: Jehovah's sheep, I am Jehovah's guest. It is a mark
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: of great intimacy to sit with a man at his
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: table in the east. It is essentially so. It is
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: not only a means of satisfying hunger, but of intimate
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: and affectionate love. Hence the aggravation of the Psalmist's sorrow,
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: as he says, he that breaketh bread with me, is
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: he that lifteth up his heel against me. Nor was
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: it possible for our Lord to give any more touching
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: proof of his love for his wayward follower than to
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: dip a sop and pass it to his hands. Here
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: then arises before us a rich theme for meditation. While
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: we compare life to a seat at God's banquet table,
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: eating the things which he has prepared, we sit at
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: the table of God's daily providence. Our heavenly Father has
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: a great family. He is waited with all the concerns
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: of the universe. All sensiate things depend upon his sustaining power.
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: Not a seraph cleaves the air, but what derives his
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: power of obedience from his sovereign Lord, and not a
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: mote of life afloats in the sunbeam flashing in the light.
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: But it is dependent upon the light and the life
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: of the central Sun, before whom angels veil their faces.
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: And yet, amid all the infinite variety of nature which
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: God is supplying constantly, he is surely most attentive to
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: the needs of those who, in an especial sense call
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: him our father. We are his pensioners. Nay better, we
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: are his children. All the stores of his divine provision
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: must fail before he can suffer us to want. He
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: may sometimes keep us waiting until his hour has struck,
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: But just as he will never be one moment too soon,
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: so he will not be a moment too late. He
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: will cause a widow woman to sustain us with the
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: barrel of meal, which, however often scraped, will yield a
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: fresh supply. He will rain bread from heaven so that
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: man may eat angel's food. He will multiply the slender
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: store of the boy's wallet, so that present need may
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: be met and stores accumulated for the future. On a
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: recent Sunday evening, a sick member of the congregation, debarred
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: from attending her customary place of worship, intrusted into the
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: hand of the minister a two shilling piece which he
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: was to hand to a poor widow known to them both.
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: It so happened that he encountered her slowly making her
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: way to the church, and at once handed to her
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: the coin. But he was hardly prepared for the immediate response.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: I did not think that he would have sent it
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: so soon. On further inquiry, he discovered that she had
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: placed her last coin that day in the collection, and
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: was entirely dependent upon such answer as her heavenly father
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: might send to her trustful prayer that he would provide
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: for her next meal. Evidently, she had been accustomed to
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: close dealings with God and had learned that his his
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: deliverance is timed to arrive when the morning breaks, the
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: morning of direst need, the hour when pride and self
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: sufficiency have expired, but when faith and hope stand expectant
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: at the portals of the soul, looking for the deliverance
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: which cannot be long delayed. I shall never forget the
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: story of an old man discovered sitting in one of
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: the seats of York Minster within a short period of
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: closing time, and who had been sitting there since the
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: early morning waiting. He had come to the city to
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: find his daughter, but having missed her, had found himself
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: without friends or food, and with his last coin spent.
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: Not knowing whither to turn, he had found his way
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: into the splendid minster and had sat there the livelong day, because,
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: as he said, he thought the likeliest place to find
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: his father's table was in his father's house. Need I
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: add that his need was fully satisfied. God's children seem
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: to think that they are no better off than the
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: men of the world, and according to their faith, so
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: is it done unto them if we do not exercise
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: faith and claim God's provisions, ought we to be surprised
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: when we do not receive them. If, on the other hand,
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: we would dare to put our finger upon his promises,
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: which bind him to meet his children's need, though the
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: young lions lack and suffer hunger, we should find that
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: our God would be equal to all our emergencies, and
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: that no one good thing would fail of all his promises.
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: When men indicate certain cases in which God's children have
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: pined to death, it is always wise to inquire whether
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: they were living in believing fellowship with him, and whether
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: they had claimed the fulfillment of his specific pledges. It
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: is very unbecoming, to say the least, that God's children
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: should be as fretful about their daily bread, supposing they
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: are using all lawful means to obtain it, as the
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: children of men. Was it not with a tone of
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: reproach that our Lord said, all these things do the
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: gentile seek? What could be more assuring than his own words,
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: backed by the experience of his own life. Your heavenly
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: father knoweth that ye need all these things. What would
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: you say if, when school time came tomorrow morning, your
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: little boy, before he started with unwilling feet to school,
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: entered your larder and busied himself in examining its contents,
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: with a special reference to your provision for dinner. Would
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: he not legitimately incur your displeasure? Would you not say,
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: be off to school and leave me to care while
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: you are gone. Would you not rebuke him for his
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: want of simple trust? Oh, that we might learn lessons
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: from our babes and believe that life is one long
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: residence in one of the mansions of our father's home,
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: and that the time can never come when the table
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: is quite bare, and when there is nothing for our need,
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: He may suffer you to hunger, because there are some
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: devils which will only go forth by prayer and fasting.
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: But sooner or later his angel will touch you, saying,
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: arise and eat. And on the desert floor you will
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: find spread by angel hands a banquet, though it be
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: nothing more than a cruise of water at your head,
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: and cakes baked on the hot stones of the wilderness
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: for your repast. God also prepares the table of spiritual refreshment.
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: Can we ever forget that episode among the most charming
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: incidents in the forty Days, in which as the weary
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: Fissures emerged with empty boats from a long, toilsome night,
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: they found a banquet spread for them by the tender
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: thoughtfulness of their Lord upon the strand of the lake.
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: As soon as they touched land, they saw a fire
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: of coals and fish lay thereon, and bread. And is
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: not this an emblem of our Lord's perpetual treatment of
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: his children. Tired, disappointed with fruitless toils, agitated by conflicting
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: hopes and fears, we often pulled to the shore trodden
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: by his blessed feet. Nor do we ever approach him
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: without finding that he has anticipated our spiritual requirements, and
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: that his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed.
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: Writing to the Corinthian Christians, the apostle Paul said that
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: inasmuch as Christ had been slain as our passover Lamb,
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: we must imitate the children of Israel, who, with closed
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: doors and girded loins and sandaled feet, stood around the
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: table eating of the flesh of the Lamb, whose blood
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: on the exterior of their houses demanded their deliverance. Christ,
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: our passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: the feast. The life of the Church between the First
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: and Second Advents is symbolized by the feast on that
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: memorable night. With joy in our voices and triumph in
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: our mien, we stand about the table where Christ's flesh
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: is the nourishment of all true hearts, straining our ear
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: for the first clarion notes, which will tell that the
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: time of our exodus has come. Christian people are very
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: much too thoughtless of the necessity of feeding off God's
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: table for the nourishment of spiritual life. There is plenty
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: of work being done, much attendance at conferences and special missions,
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: diligent reading of religious books, but there is a great
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: and fatal lack of the holy meditation upon the person,
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: the words and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: Will each reader of these lines stay here for a
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: moment and ask if he knows anything of the interior
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: life of meditation, which is ever deriving fresh sustenance from
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: a consideration of the Lord. It was only the other
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: day that I was rebuked by the habit of a
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: well known Roman Catholic bishop, of whom it is said
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: the first point of his rule was early rising, which
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: he faithfully practiced to the last day of his life,
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: and often recommended to others. He was the first on
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: foot at his palace, and again his prayers and meditation
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: between four and five o'clock in the morning, and never
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: spent less at them than an hour. He often did
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: this with his memoranda in his hand, so as to
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: recall past graces and thus rekindle the flame. Nor did
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: it seem as if any hour passed in his crowded
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: and stirring life without, by some direct act, refreshing his soul.
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: By communion with God. And in addition to this daily practice,
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: he set apart one or two weeks and every year,
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: that he might quietly meditate more patiently upon the great
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: mysteries of redemption. This is what he said, one must,
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: by constant meditation on the great mysteries of incarnation and
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: the redemption, plunge one's self more and more in the
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: love of God, which is the greatest grace of one's life.
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: I will occupy myself more and more with our Lord,
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: with his earthly and divine life, with his hidden, suffering
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: and glorious life. May my own be hidden in God,
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus. We may specially apply these words also
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: to the table of the Lord's supper. This is emphatically
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: a table which God has prepared, which not only perpetuates
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: the memory of the night in which our Lord was betrayed,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: but which enables us to raise our wandering thoughts and
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: fix them on Him where he is now seated. There
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: is no mystic change made in the bread or in
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: the wine. The bread remains bread and the wine wine
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: to the end of the simple feast. And yet at
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: the moment of partaking of these elements, the pious heart
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: does realize that by its faith and holy thought, a
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: distinct blessing is communicated to its invigoration and comfort. It
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: is well, of course, at that solemn moment to recall
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and passion, the
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: precious death and burial. But it is equally incumbent to
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: look through the azure depths and follow the Master through
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: their heart of folds, so as to feed upon his
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: resurrection life and to participate in the perpetual easter tide
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: of his existence. It is very helpful, where possible, to
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: communicate at least once a week, that we may clearly
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: learn to lift all life to the level of the
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: Lord's table, to be at every meal as at a sacrament,
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: and to use all the emblems of nature as means
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: of holy fellowship with him. How can we enough thank
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: God that in this sense also he has prepared a
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: table before us. There is much comfort in the three
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: words prepared for me, because it would seem to indicate
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: the anticipatory care of God. He does not allow us
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: to be taken by surprise. He does not let his
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: children ask for anything the need of which he has
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: not foreseen, just as he has prepared beforehand the good
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: works in which we are to walk. So he has
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: prepared beforehand the food by which his workers shall be nourished.
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: All our lives is lined by cairns, beneath which our
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: forerunner has placed the victuals which we shall require. Thou
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: preventest me with the blessings of thy goodness. The table
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: is spread before the hunger comes, The spring is bubbling
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: in the shade, before the mother and child sink fainting
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: on the sand. The Angel of the Lord's host has
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: not only taken possession of the hostile country, but has
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: provided of the old corn of the land. God provisions
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: his castles before they are besieged. Thou preparest a table
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: before me. That is a very significant addition. In the
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: presence of mine enemies. We surely are to understand by
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: it that all around us may stand our opponents, pledged
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: to do us harm, to cut off our supplies, to
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: starve us out. See that ring of hostile faces, darting
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: fierce glances and chafing to rush upon the beleaguered soul.
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: But they cannot cut off the supply that come hourly
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: from above. They cannot hinder the angel ministers who spread
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: the table and heap it up, and then form themselves
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: into an inner ring of defense. They may gnash their
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: teeth at the vanity and futility of their rage. But
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: when God elects to feed a soul fed, that soul
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: shall be, though all hell attempt to say it, Nay,
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: many a time in David's life he ate his food
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: in quietness and confidence, while Saul's hostile bands swept down
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: the valleys and searched the caves to find him. As
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: it was with David, so it has been often since, Yes, soul,
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: God bids thee feast, eat, oh beloved, yea eat and
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: drink abundantly. The king doth bring thee into his banqueting house,
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: and his banner over thee is love. Thou shalt eat
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: of the hidden manna and drink of the secret spring
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: which bubbles up in the beleaguered city, enabling it to
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: defy the encircling lines of its foes. Nor is the
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: time far distant when we shall sit with Christ in
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: his kingdom, And as the far traveled footsore brethren of
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: Joseph eight with the Prince who once lay in the pit,
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: so shall we sit down at the prepared table of
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: the marriage supper, and Christ will gird himself and come
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: forth to serve Us. And the festivities of an eternity,
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: which shall never know punery or want, shall obliterate the
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: memory of the sorrow of time. End of chapter eight,
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: Chapter nine of the Shepherd's Psalm by F. B. Meyer.
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Marianne,
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: Thou anointest my head with oil. This similitude is borrowed
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: from the usage of an Eastern feast, in which the
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: welcome of the host to his guests is expressed by
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: the precious unjuants with which he anoints them on their
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: entrance into his home. If they were as little welcome
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: as Jesus was in the house of Simon, this act
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: of courtesy would be omitted, and the failure would be
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: at once noticed and perhaps referred to as when the
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: Master recalled it, saying my head with oil, Thou didst
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: not anoint Love and respect could hardly manifest themselves more
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: tenderly than by the costliness of the materials which were
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: compounded to compose the oil to be lavishly poured upon
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: the head of the beloved guest. Murrh aloes and Cassia
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: would send the garments with fragrance for many days, and
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: would be a grateful memento of happy bygone hours. The
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: lavish anointing which Mary of Bethany shed on the head
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: of her lord must have refreshed him during the weary
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: hours that followed, as the delicious scent stole up to
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: him from his dress and reminded him of the affection
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: of one true heart. These unjuants, so grateful and refreshing
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: to the scorched flesh and heated brow, seem to have
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: been kept in cruises of alabaster, which were easily broken,
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: so that their contents might be poured forth in lavish prodigiality.
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: How little does love wreck of cost When once much
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: forgiveness has started to flow of much love. Then, in
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: the first rapturous moment of conscious acceptance, sinners will not
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: count it waste to express their tumultuous emotions in the
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: expenditure of the contents of precious phases, as well as
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: in tears and kisses and acts of tender thoughtfulness. Luke
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: chapter seven, verse thirty eight. When the Psalma says that
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: God himself anoints him with oil, does he not mean
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: us to infer that life is a feast in which
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: we are guests and God is host. And does he
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: not also mean to teach that God greets us in
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: love and welcome. He is not niggardly or churlish, but
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: glad to see us, glad and to make us happy,
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: conferring on us luxuries as well as necessaries, and taking
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: pains at great cost to himself, to show us that
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: He is well pleased to accept us and show us
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: grace in the beloved. There are many proofs of this
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: tender grace to mankind in general. There are gleams of
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: light in most human lives, in the love of tender friends,
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: or in congenial surroundings which speak God's welcome. To most
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: men entering on life, there is the counterpart of the
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: Eastern oil of welcome shed on the guests entering the
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: festal chamber. Each human life is greeted as it steps
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: across the mystic threshold from the unseen. There is at
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: least the mother's kiss, the elasticity of youth, the keen
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: sense of enjoyment in natural scenes, and the absence of
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: foreboding care, and the blessed God has so contrived and
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: adapted our nature to the world in which we live.
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: There is a very ecstasy in life, and an abundance
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: of natural joy and gladness. Save where man has by
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: his sin vitiated and marred the intentions of his creator.
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: How excellent is thy loving kindness, O God. Therefore the
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: children of men put their trust under the shadow of
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: of thy house. And thou shalt make them drink of
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: the river of thy pleasures, wine that maketh glad the
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: hearts of man oil to make his face shine. Likewise
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: of the fishes as much as they would. But though
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: this is true of men generally, yet there is an
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: especial anointing in which they can have no part. In
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: the Book of Exodus, chapter thirty, verses twenty three to
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: twenty five, we have a description of a special kind
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: of oil, an oil of holy ointment, which was to
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: be used to anoint the tabernacle and the ark, and
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: the holy vessels, and also to consecrate Airs and his
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: sons the priests. But there were two special provisions attached
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: to it. First, that it should not be imitated secondly,
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: that it should not be poured upon man's flesh. Each
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: of these restrictions is worthy of note. That it was
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: not to be imitated surely teaches that it sets forth
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: some special holy unjuent in the divine chemistry, which has
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: no counterpart in human experience. And when we further search
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: into the sacred text, we find that throughout scripture, oil
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: is the symbol of the blessed Holy Spirit. And we
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: are justified by many passages in reading this thought into
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: the glad exclamation of the psalmist Oh, that we might
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: realize more constantly that our gracious host, at whose table
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: we sit is constantly engaged in anointing us with the
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: oil of the Holy Spirit. These words with deepest significance,
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: might have been appropriated by our Blessed Lord unto the Son.
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: He said, God, even thy God hath anointed thee with
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And the Apostle
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: Peter in the House of Cornelius distinctly asserted such an
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: anointing to have been communicated by the Father to the Son.
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: with power, and with this the United voice of the persecuted,
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: but jubulant church accords when it rises around the person
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: of thy Holy Child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed. Yes,
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: and the Father did not give the spirit by measure,
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: but in unstinted abundance, the heavens were opened, as in
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: after days, the cruises of Alabaster were broken, and the
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: Holy Ghost descended Luke, chapter three, verse twenty two. There
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: never was a time when Jesus was not filled with
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost. But who can read the scriptures attentively
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: and thoughtfully without discovering that the anointing of the Lord
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: Jesus at the waters of Baptism endued his with special
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: ministerial qualifications. The spirit of the Lord is upon me,
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: because he hath anointed me. I cast out devils by
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: the spirit of God. Our Lord was anointed as priest.
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: Every priest must be anointed with the sacred oil Exodus
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 1: chapter twenty nine, verse twenty one. And our high priest,
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: though not after the order of Erin, must not be
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: without so sacred a designation to his office. And thus
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: the blessed Spirit descended and abode on him like the
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard,
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: even aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: his garments. We are but as the skirts of his
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: garments near his feet, where the pomegranates glisten amid the
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: tinkle of the golden bells. Exodus, chapter twenty eight, verse
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: thirty three. Yet may we not claim and expect that
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: as the skirts of his robes we shall receive the
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: sacred chrism. Our lord was anointed as king. Messiah means anointed.
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: We have found the Messiah, which is the anointed. And
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: in that magnificent Messianic psalm, in which, amid the rage
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: of his foes, the Almighty designates his son to be
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: the true king of men. It is distinctly sated. Yet
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: I have anointed my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: Is there not in these glowing words a resemblance to
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: the scene when into the midst of the merry making
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: of Adonijah and his fellow conspirators by the stone of Zohaleth,
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: which is by Enrogel, there broke a breathless messenger with
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: the tidings. Verily, our lord King David had made Solomon king,
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: and Zadok the priest and Nathan the Prophet have anointed
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: him king of Gihan, and they are come up from
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: thence rejoicing, so that the city rang again. Hallelujah for
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: the Lord God, omnipotent reigneth. The Man of Love is
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: God's anointed sovereign. And though we see not yet things
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: put under him, they shall be, and the world shall
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: come to respect the power of God's irrevocable decreedes. We
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: too are anointed priests and kings. Blood and oil were,
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: as we have seen, used in the act of consecration.
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: Our Lord, therefore, having purchased us and washed us in
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: his blood, hath anointed us to be kings and priests
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: unto God and His Father by the renewing of the
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly. Hast thou
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: experienced it, my reader? Or is this the bitter lack
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: of thy life? Ah? There is no favoritism or partiality
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: with our God. That anointing is Thine in the mind
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: and the intention of God. It is for thee to
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: seek it, to appropriate it, and to allow it to
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: be the one blessed consciousness of thy life, so that
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: thou mayest be able to adopt the apostle's unhesitating assurance.
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: He which established us with you in Christ and hath
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us and
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts. Let
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: us never attempt to perform the work of priests in
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: offering the sacrifice of praise or prayer of devotion without
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: having sought for and obtained a fresh anointing. And let
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: us be sure that it will be impossible for us
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: to exercise any kingly function, ruling over our inner nature,
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: or sitting in conscious royalty with Christ on his throne,
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: unless we are perpetually conscious of the anointing grace of
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: the blessed Holy Spirit. It is our privilege to be
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: anointed with fresh oil Psalm ninety two, Verse ten. Such
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: was the glad assurance of the man after God's own heart.
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: There is nothing stale in God's household economy. We do
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: not need to live on dried fruits because winter has
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: stripped the trees. The power and joy of other days
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: should be no subject for lingering regret, for our gracious
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: host is able and willing to do as much for
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: us and more also on each succeeding day of our
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: life as in any day of the past. Sign not
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: for the grace of a day that is fled as
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: if it will never come back. There are eternal stores
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: and reservoirs of golden oil in God's olive trees, which
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: shall pour down the golden pipes of faith, ministering nutriment
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: to the lamp of holy living, so that it shall
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: not flicker throughout the long night, but even grow in
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: brilliance and radiating glory. Zechariah chapter four, verse twelve, claim
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: each morning to be new anointed, and with fresh oil.
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: These anointings will make us glad. It is the oil
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: of gladness. How great is his goodness, and how great
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: is his beauty. Corn shall make the young men cheerful,
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: and new wine the maids oil to make the face shine.
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: Let Asher be blessed, and let him dip his foot
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: in oil. The need of the world is shining faces,
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: glad smiles, hopeful words, cheering toilers through the night, and
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: feet elastic with joy, as if bathed in its very fullness.
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: To be without these is to miss the seal of sunship,
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: which shall most surely authenticate it before the eyes of
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: all men. And to become a standing libel on the
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: Gospel of Christ. But if only we acquire them, as
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: we most certainly shall. When we are daily anointed by
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost, our fellows will be attracted by something
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: in our demeanor or looks which they cannot emulate or understand,
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: and they will ask us to tell them the secret
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: of a joy which the world cannot touch, because its
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: springs are hidden in a land where winter's frost is unknown.
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: These anointings will teach us as no human teacher could.
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: Ye need not that any man teach you, wrote the
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: beloved Disciple to his little children. But the same anointing
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: teacheth you of all things. Fret and impatience are often
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: connected with the attainment of earthly learnings from the lips
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: of human instructors, and often we miss the things we
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: would most like to know. But there is nothing like
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: this with our God. All his children are conscious that
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: when he teaches them, their peace is great. No one
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 1: instructs as he does, and when he undertakes the tuition
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 1: of the soul, there is no item in all the
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 1: sacred lore of heavenly divinity which is omitted. The effect
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: of these anointings will be abiding the anointing which ye
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: received of Him abideth in you, food which we have eaten,
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: abides in us, And when we are quite unconscious of
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: its presence, it is doing its work in building up
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: the fabric of our being. In some such way, it
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: must happen that the effect of a mighty spiritual blessing
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: does not pass away with the moment of its first
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: advent to the soul, but it abides and amid the
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 1: pressure of daylight, circumstance, and toil of engagement. When the
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: mind seems too set on its necessary work to have
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: leisure for upward springing, then the spirit will pursue his
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: chosen office of ministering grace and strength within. In other words,
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: we receive benefit from the anointing of the Holy Ghost
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: long after the immediate moment of receiving it. The fragrance
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: still clings about our garments, and molliflying softness still lingers
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: on our face. Let us never be satisfied with anything
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: less than that indefinable and sacred grace called unction. We
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: cannot analyze it or understand why it affects what learning
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: and eloquence fail to accomplish, but we detect it when
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: it is present, we miss it when it is absent.
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: With this, the slightest words strike home to the hearer's
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: hearts as the message of God. Without it, the most
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: eloquent sentences are like unfeathered arrows, which fall useless at
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: the archer's feet. Withhold what thou wilt o, God, But
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: give us the unction I e. The anointing of the
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. Thou annointest my head with oil. Lord, not
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: my head only, but also my hands and my feet.
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: End of chapter nine, Chapter ten of The Shepherd Psalm
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: by F. B. Meyer. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: Public domean red by Marianne. The overflowing cup, my cup
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: runneth over. Glad and festal moments come to the saddest
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: and most weary hearts at the close of a prolonged
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: strain of anxiety. When lying exhausted on the desert, sand
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: sleep casts its spell over the tired nature. Angels spread
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 1: the refreshing banquet, and the soul awakes beneath the celestial touch,
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: invigorated for new toils. We cannot always tell when such
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: experiences come. This is all we know. That the step
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: is more elastic. The heart swells with buoyant hope, songs
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: break from the lips, and the whole being thrills as
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: nature does on some lovely day of spring. When the
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: Lord turns again our captivity, the mouth is filled with
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: laughter and the tongue with singing. Than we say among
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: the heathen, the Lord has done great things for us,
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: whereof we are glad at such hours. Life seems to
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: us like a chalice mixed by the loving hand of God,
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 1: and overflowing with his mercy and loving kindness, and with tears,
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: struggling with smiles for mastery. As rain and sunbeams on
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: an April day. We lift the brimming cup to our
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: lips and cry, my cup runneth over. A similar experience
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: is unfolded in another psalm, which, like so many of
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: its character, touches the lowest depths and springs, as well
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: as the topmost heights of human experience. It begins with
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 1: the plaintive notes of trouble, the sorrows of death, and
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: the pains of hell, and with rash imputations upon the
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 1: truth of all men, that tells how in his need
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: the Psalmist called upon the name of the Lord. It
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 1: recounts the glorious deliverance there was wrought on his behalf,
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: And now as he reviews his lot, it seems like
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 1: a cup of salvation, charged with the prompt, gentle, and
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: sufficient deliverance wrought for him by the Almighty some one
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixteen Verses twelve and thirteen. We have nothing
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: to say now about the texture of life's cups. They
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: may be of gold or silver, or tin, or alabaster
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 1: or glass. There is an infinite variety in the raw
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: material of which our lives are made. We have to
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: deal only with ingredients which will taste as sweet from
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: the earthen mug as from the golden goblet. And after all,
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: the great differences that come to men's lives are much
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: more in their contents than in their outward sea. Cease
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: looking disconsolately at the outside of thy cup and platter,
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: but look thankfully on the contents, which may be sweeter
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: and richer for thee albeit that they are held in
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: a cup of common texture than are the contents of
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 1: other lives, which thou dost envy, not knowing how bitter
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: is the draft contained within. It becomes us to remember
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: that the cup of blessing of which we drink, was
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: once filled with a bitter curse. We read in Scripture
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: of the cup of trembling and of the cup of
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: God's wrath. And as we read the words, we know
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: that our lives might well have been filled with trembling
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: and with wrath as the just reward of our deeds.
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 1: Not that God is vindictive, or that he rejoices in
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: the death of the sinner, but that his holy nature
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: cannot but be roused into antagonism whenever he comes into
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: contact with evil and impurity. If we had been left
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: to drink the bitter results of our sin, it would
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: have been as when Moses ground the calf to powder
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: and strewed it upon the water, and made the people drink.
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: And if it be asked, how it is that we
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: have escaped so bitter an experience, the answers given in
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 1: his words, who has pleaded the cause of his people. Behold,
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling,
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: even the dregs of the cup of my fury. Thou
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 1: shalt no more drink it again. And when he took
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: it out of our hands, he poured its contents into
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 1: the cup mixed for himself, returning it to us, emptied
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 1: even to the dregs, nay better filled with the wine
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: of his love and life, while he drank our portion
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: of wrath and woe. Remember his own words in the garden.
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 1: When his agony had passed and the Ruffian band was
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 1: about to bind him, and Peter impetuously and characteristically drew
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: his sword. Then said Jesus unto Peter, put up thy
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 1: sword into the sheath the cup which my father hath
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: given me. Shall I not drink it? Consider the ingredients
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: of Christ's cup, the shame and spit, the pain and anguish,
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: the physical torture, and above all the bitterness of our
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 1: sins which were made to meet in him, the guilt
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 1: of our curse, which he voluntarily assumed, the equivalent of
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 1: our punishment which was imputed to him, if we may
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: so put it. The human race stood in one long line,
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: each with a cup of hemlock in his hand, and Christ,
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: passing along, took from each his cup and poured its
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: contents into the vast beaker which he carried, so that
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: on the cross he tasted death for every man. Thus
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: our lives brim with salvation, because his brimmed with condemnation.
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: Our cup is one of joy because his cup was
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: one of sorrow. Our cup is one of blessedness, because
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: his was one of god forsakenness. Oh that we might,
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: in our moments of gladness, imitate the blessed in heaven, who,
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 1: amidst their greatest joys, ever associate their happiness with the
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: death of Christ. Never forget the cost at which your
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: brightest moments have been made possible. Let us enumerate some
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: of the ingredients of our life cup. One good health
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: is one of the chief A man might have everything
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: calculated to promote human happiness, but if all were tinged
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: with the pain and weariness of constant illness, what joy
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: could he have. Our sad days when all surrounding objects
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: are draped in somber hues, are as often as not
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 1: due to bodily weakness, and the ecstasy of our glad
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: days when sunny light lies upon the lawn of life
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: is generally coincident with a sense of vigorous health. If
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 1: then your life cup seems sweet and refreshing to your taste,
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 1: you may calculate pretty suredly that good health is a
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 1: main ingredient. Though we can form no estimate of its
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: importance till it is withdrawn. Two. Then there are human
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: friendships and affections, the absence of which makes the greatest
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: prosperity a dreary desert, so that even the golden streets
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: blister and weary the feet as if they were arid sands,
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: but whose presence will gladden the meanest lot, so that
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: even a garden of herbs will gleam with the glow
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: of heaven. Three. There are also the comforts of home life,
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: to say nothing of the necessaries. What a rich add
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: mixture of these do most of us enjoy soft pillows,
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: carpeted floors, warm weather tight rooms. Likewise, furniture rich and plentiful,
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: and variety of food, sufficient and comely garments, attendants who
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: save us from harder and rougher toil. The stoic may
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: discipline himself to do without many of these things, and
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: may even try to convince us that life is easier
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: without than with them. But nevertheless, it is undeniable that
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: much of the enjoyment of our daily lives arises from
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: the presence of these amenities to which we have become
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 1: habituated by long custom and use. Four. There are also
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: of the joys of the mind. Each can draw up
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 1: from the crypt of the past, the treasure in which
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 1: lies the learning of the ancient and modern world. Each
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 1: can collect the thoughts of poets and philosophers flung upon
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: the strand of time, as drift weed on the beach,
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: torn by storms from ocean depths. Each can search out
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 1: and drink in the wonders and beauties of nature, from
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 1: the wild flowers of the forest glade, and those outlying
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: worlds of many moon spheres, and that great store of stars,
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: more thickly strown in yonder sky than the dust upon
• 2:06:33
  Speaker 1: the pale leaves of Auricula. Five. Now and again there
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: is a dash of extra sweetness poured into life's cup,
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: some special deliverance, some unlooked for interposition, some undeserved and
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: unusual benediction, sent apparently for no other object than to
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: satisfy God's passion for giving. And here I must renounce
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: my task. No human pencil can describe all the God
• 2:06:59
  Speaker 1: pours into the lot of our life. Many of the
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: constituents are too subtle for detection, Many are too divine
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: for comprehension, Many are too numerous for computation. Besides, no
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: life cup is mixed in quite the same proportions. Our
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: father carefully studies our constitution and then suits his preparation
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: to our needs. And since we are infinitely various in
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 1: our make, there is an infinite diversity in the drafts
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: which he sets before us on the table which he spreads.
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: But whatever blessing is in our cup, it is sure
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: to run over with him. The calf is always the
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 1: fatted calf, The robe is always the best robe. The
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: joy is unspeakable, the peace passeth understanding. The grace is
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: so abundant that the recipient has all sufficiency for all things,
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 1: and abounds in every good work. There is no grudging
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 1: in God's benevolence. He does not measure out his goodness
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: as the apothecary counts his drops and measures his DRAMs,
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 1: slowly and ex exactly, drop by drop. God's way is
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: always characterized by multitudinous and overflowing bounty, like that in nature,
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 1: which is so profuse with beauty and life, that every
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: drop of the ocean, and every square into the forest glade,
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: and every molecule of matter teems with marvels and defies
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: the research and investigation of man well may require with
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: the apostle, I have all and a bound. On the
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: shore of one of the vast fresh water lakes of
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: America stands a humble, log billed cabin occupied by a
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: family of settlers from the old Country. A little child,
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: which has been playing around all the morning and has
• 2:08:38
  Speaker 1: become tired and thirsty, goes within to ask its mother
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: for water, and the mother, taking a cup, goes with
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: it down to the white sands, on which the mimic
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: breakers dash with musical cadence, dips it in, and lifts it,
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: brimming and dripping with a stream of crystal drops to
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: her darling's lips. That is the way in which God
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: deals with us. He gives to all liberally and does
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: not upbraid. There is more in Him than we can
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: ever need, and He gives us more than we really
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: can use for ourselves. Let us see to it that
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 1: we so hold our cups as that their overflowings may
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: not run to waste, but may drop into other cups,
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 1: the cups of those who have not so much as
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: we have. Oh, that our paths might be like the
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 1: paths of God, which, when they drop fatness, drop upon
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: the parched pastures of the wilderness, so that the little
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 1: hills are girded about with joy and become at last
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: covered with flocks. They shout for joy, they also sing.
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: But it is especially in connection with spiritual blessings that
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: the cup most often seems to overflow. This has been
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 1: the experience of many eminent saints. In one of his
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: seasons of rapt communion, John Welch of Scotland cried, Oh Lord,
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: hold thy hand. It is enough. Thy servant is a
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 1: clay vessel and can contain no more. And John tells
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: us that once, when he was alone on a journey,
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: his thoughts began to swell and rise higher and higher,
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: till at last they became an overwhelming flood. Such was
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: the attitude of his mind, such the refreshing taste of
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: heavenly joys, and such the full assurance of his interest therein,
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: that he truly lost sight and sense of this world
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: and of the concerns thereof. Many years after he called
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 1: that day one of the days of Heaven, and professed
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: that he understood more of the life of Heaven by
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: it than by all the books he had ever read
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 1: or sermons he had ever heard about it certain it
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: was that our Lord Jesus meant us to have a
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 1: more abiding experience of such joys. He not only came
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: to give us life, but life more abundantly. He spake
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 1: unto us his inimitable words, that our joy might be full.
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 1: He meant our hearts to delight themselves with fatness and
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: to be satisfied with the favor of the Lord. His
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: ideal for us may be compared to those rocky basins
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: hollowed out by a perpetual fall of water and lined
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 1: by an infinite variety of exquisite vegetation, into which the
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: fullness of the river fed from perennial springs, is ever overflowing,
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 1: and from which the overflow is ever passing out in
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 1: a constant stream, to join the eddying currents, to fill
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: some lesser bowl beneath, or to play some part in
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: fertilizing the multitudinous flowers and plants which stretch out eager
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 1: roots to its nourishing tide. Let us not hoard what
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 1: we have got. Let us freely permit our cups to
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 1: run over. Far from us be the neggardliness of the
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 1: miser who dares not give because he fears he will
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: not get. Let us be prodigal and spend thrift of
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: our wealth, for we know that it is inexhaustible, being
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 1: supplied from our Father's hand. And one of the laws
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 1: of His kingdom is that we receive in the precise
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: proportion with which we give. One last word, be sure
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: to take the cup of salvation. There can be no
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: greater slight to a giver than to have his gifts neglected.
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: Yet how many cups God sets before us which we
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 1: refuse to taste. Some appear to think that God does
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 1: not mean them to be thoroughly happy, And if they
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 1: drink their cups of joy, it must be on the sly,
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: or with words of apology. Some drink only half, or
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: if they drink it all, they instill some bitter ingredient
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: of their own, lest the draft should be too delicious.
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: How often we forget that God has given us all
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 1: things richly to enjoy. And when we are sure that
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: He has given us aught, let us not shrink from
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: taking the cup from his hand. Sometimes we have not
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: because we are too blind to see or too slow
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 1: to take the cups which God is preparing for us.
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 1: And as we drink, let us be sure to call
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 1: upon the name of the Lord full Often, if we
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: dare to do so, we shall find that the bitter
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 1: medicine which frightens us has been suddenly changed into the
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: very wine of life. There is an old legend of
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: an ancient cup filled with poison and treachery play into
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 1: the king's hand. He signed the sign of the cross
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: and named the name of God, and it shivered at
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: his feet. So take the name of God as your test.
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: Name it over the cups which allure you. Ere you
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 1: raise them to your lips, be they friendships, schemes, plans, business.
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: That name will either show the adder that lurks in
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 1: their heart, as in the goblet of the old Egyptian feast,
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: or it will transmute common things to sacramental use, and
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: make ordinary cups like that which we use at the
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 1: table of our Lord. When over it had been spoken
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: these memorable words, this do in remembrance of me. End
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: of chapter ten, Chapter eleven of the Shepherd's Soalm by F. B. Meyer.
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: Marianne the celestial escort. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: me all the days of my life all the days.
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 1: What days may not come? Spring days when all the
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 1: world shall be full of glad life, frolicking in the fields,
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 1: caroling in the skies, bursting into leaf and flower at
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 1: our feet. Summer days in which the year shall have
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 1: reached its glorious prime, with golden light, and long drawn
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: out evenings and balmy nights. Autumn days when the fields
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: shall be filled with sheaves of corn, while busy hands
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 1: tear from the orchard boughs and trailing vines and towering
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 1: hop plants, the rich produce of the year. Winter days
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 1: in which the foot shall tread down the crackling leaves
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 1: that carpet the forest glade. Days of mist and rain
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: and somber light, when we gather round the bier of
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: the departed glory of the year and lay it in
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: the dust. We sometimes stand, as it were, on the
• 2:14:50
  Speaker 1: brow and overhanging hill, peering wonderingly into the valley at
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 1: our feet, and asking what kind of days lie there,
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 1: enveloped in the impenetrable mists, which only part as we advance.
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: What lies in the course of the years. Will the
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 1: days be golden lit by Heaven's warm sunny glow, Will
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 1: they be read letter not only in the usual sense
• 2:15:12
  Speaker 1: of the word, but because stained with the blood of
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 1: suffering and sacrifice, will they be drab, attired in somber tints,
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: dark and sad. Birth days, death days, marriage days, anniversaries
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: of a dead past which refuses to be forgotten, feast days,
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: fast days, saint days, because associated with some whom we
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: have known and loved as the very elect of God.
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: Only a few short hours, like the flash of a
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: revolving light, seem far out at sea, between two long
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 1: pauses of black darkness, or like a diamond set in ebony.
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: And yet how much of weal or woe, of bitter
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: memory or eager foreboding may be crowded into one brief
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: space of time, which we call a day. But there
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 1: never will come a day throughout all the future in
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 1: which we shall not have the two guardian angels Heaven,
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: the escorts and God sent messengers, Goodness and Mercy, who
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 1: have been told off and commissioned to attend the believer
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 1: during all the days of his earthly pilgrimage. When benumbed
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: with cold and bewildered with the mist which has suddenly
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: settled down upon his track, the traveler across the Highland
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 1: moor sinks down, exhausted on the drenched herbage. What an
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 1: infinite comfort it is, through momentary rent in the mist
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 1: to get a glimpse of the platted figure of a
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 1: shepherd close beside him, or to discover two servants from
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: the distant paternal home sent out to scour the hills
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 1: in search of the missing one, and to bring him
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 1: safely into its shelter and warmth. But it is in
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 1: some such way as this that the eye of the
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 1: believer may detect, in moments of weariness and solitude, the
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: presence of those twin angels of God, Goodness and mercy.
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 1: We have never seen angels like the two that came
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 1: to Sodom, nor even their effigies like the two angelic
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: forms which bent over the ark in the inner shrine
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: of the Holy Tent. But we can imagine their pure faces,
• 2:17:11
  Speaker 1: their ethereal forms, their gentle ways. But here is something
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 1: better than angel help, the personified attributes of God, his goodness,
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 1: his mercy, that is Himself, in all the tenderest manifestations
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 1: of His love and pity toward men, Goodness and mercy,
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 1: not goodness alone. For we are sinners needing forgiveness, not
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 1: mercy alone, for we need many things beside forgiveness, but
• 2:17:41
  Speaker 1: each with the other, linked goodness to supply every want, mercy,
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: to forgive every sin, goodness to provide mercy to pardon.
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 1: David often links these two together, as when he says,
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 1: the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting. What shall
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: we say of these blessed attributes? Take goodness. It is
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 1: laid up in vast reservoirs, in the nature of God,
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 1: prepared for the poor, the food of the hungry, the
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 1: lodge of the righteous, the crown of the year, the
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 1: very son of life. Oh taste and see that the
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 1: Lord is good. How great is his goodness, and how
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 1: great is his beauty? Take mercy. She is the daughter
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 1: of God His delight. He delighteth in mercy, his wealth.
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 1: He is rich in mercy, his throne. I will commune
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 1: with thee from off the mercy seat. Who shall count
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 1: the rays that sparkle from this jewel? Tender, plenteous, sure, everlasting.
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 1: Truly our Lord might say, your father is merciful, and
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 1: they shall follow In the east. The shepherd always goes
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 1: in front, and our good shepherd never puts us forth
• 2:18:54
  Speaker 1: to the work or warfare of any day, without going
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: before us, But his shepherd dogs bring up their We
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 1: have a rear guard against the attack of our treacherous foes.
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 1: We have two strong helpers to lift us from tear
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 1: to tear, of the pyramid of life, keeping us from
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 1: falling backward, whispering words of comfort and placing strong hands
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 1: under our arms, and circumstances of difficulty and stumbling in
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 1: that word follow. Is it possible that there is a
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: suggestion that we are going away from God, and that
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 1: He sends his goodness and mercy after us to call
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 1: us back. It may be so. If a prodigal leaves
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 1: a widowed mother for the sea, she never forgets him.
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 1: Her prayers and tears and loving thoughts follow him, and
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: to win him back, she sends out only the tenderest
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 1: yearnings of a heart almost crushed. Even so, with God
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 1: and his own they may wander from him, but he
• 2:19:47
  Speaker 1: follows them. He sets goodness and mercy on their track.
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it seems as if disaster on disaster, stroke on
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 1: stroke pursues them, But it is not really so. Things
• 2:19:59
  Speaker 1: are not always as they seem, and these are but
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 1: the disguises which goodness and mercy assume their outer garb,
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 1: protecting the delicate woolen garments which are prepared for the
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 1: weary head and tired limbs of the wearied, wandering, starved,
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: and ragged prodigal. He will not break off his kindness,
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 1: nor suffer his faithfulness to fail, nor forsake the works
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 1: of his hands. For his mercy endureth forever. You only
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 1: have to turn round or to swim backward, and you
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: will find yourself caught in the arms of God's goodness
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: and mercy, which are following you always. You may not
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 1: realize that they are near. You may feel lonely and
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 1: sad and desolate. It may be one of your bad days,
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 1: sunless and dreary, without a ray of comfort or a
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 1: flash of hope, surrounded by objects and forms of dread.
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 1: Yet there close by you, evident to God's angels, though
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 1: veiled from your faithless sight, stand the glorious, loving, pitying
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 1: forms of God's infinite goodness which cannot fail, and his
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 1: tender mercy. They will spread you a table in the desert,
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 1: as they did for Elijah. Or they will flash through
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 1: the storm and stand beside you bidding you fear not
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 1: as they did for Paul. Though unperceived by mortal sense,
• 2:21:16
  Speaker 1: faith sees them always near, a guide, a glory, a defense.
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 1: Then what can you have to fear? And in such
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 1: hopes there need be no element of doubt. Surely, says
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: the Psalmist. Why so sure? Because God is God, unchangeable
• 2:21:34
  Speaker 1: and everlasting. He cannot withdraw what he has once given.
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 1: If we believe not he abideth faithful, He cannot deny himself.
• 2:21:43
  Speaker 1: His gifts are without repentance. The giver of every good
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 1: and perfect gift is also the father of lights, with
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 1: whom can be no variation, neither shadow cast by turning.
• 2:21:54
  Speaker 1: And when once he has begun to follow us in
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 1: goodness and mercy, we may wander from his paths and
• 2:22:00
  Speaker 1: neglect his love, and do despise his spirit, ignore the
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 1: presence of his messengers, and bid them begone. And yet
• 2:22:07
  Speaker 1: they will not remove. They may follow at a greater distance,
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 1: but they will follow still, never satisfy till they have
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: won us back to himself. Surely, because God has never
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 1: failed in the past. Surely because it would not become
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 1: him to take in hand and not complete. Surely because
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 1: he has pledged himself by exceeding great and precious promises.
• 2:22:33
  Speaker 1: Surely because the united testimony of all his saints attests
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 1: that he never fails or forsakes. Surely because if He
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 1: has set his love on us in eternity, he is
• 2:22:43
  Speaker 1: not likely to forget us in time. So surely shall
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 1: never a day come in our earthly pilgrimage in which
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 1: God shall not be at our side in goodness and mercy.
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 1: Instead of surely, some commentators make it only only goodness
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 1: and mercy shall follow me, just as in the seventy
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 1: third Psalm they read God is good and only good,
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 1: nothing but good to Israel, even to such as are
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 1: of a clean heart. It may be so, and it
• 2:23:13
  Speaker 1: is certainly a fact that God's dealings with us are
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 1: never anything less than good and merciful. They may not
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 1: seem so, but it is sometimes a greater test of
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 1: love to withhold than to give, to deny, than to
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 1: consent to take away, than to crowd the bosom full
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 1: of overflowing benefits. Fearful and fainting hearts dreading the dark
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 1: way alone, take heart, gourge yourself with new courage, lift
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 1: up the hands which hang down, and confirm the feeble needs.
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 1: God knows how many days of life remain. He knows
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 1: their needs, their temptations, and their sorrows. And he pledges
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: himself that as the day, so shall be the strength,
• 2:23:54
  Speaker 1: that the day shall never come which shall be unblessed
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 1: with His goodness and mercy, and that he himself, in
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 1: the person of the Blessed Lord, will be with us
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 1: all the days, even unto the end of the age.
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 1: End of chapter eleven, Chapter twelve of The Shepherd Psalm
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: by F. B. Meyer. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 1: public domain, read by Mary Anne the House of the
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 1: Lord Forever. The passing of the years awakens in our
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 1: hearts the cry for permanence. Our nature is keyed not
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 1: to the temporal, but to the eternal. And as we
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 1: see the leaves falling before the autumn winds, or littering
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: the forest glade down which we walk in the short
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 1: winter days, as the changes of the natural world compel
• 2:24:43
  Speaker 1: us to remember the still greater ones which are ever
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 1: carrying us out of the familiar world of our past
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 1: into one as strange and undiscovered. As the new world
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: to which Columbus sailed there arises up within us a
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 1: passionate desire for a home which death can not invade,
• 2:25:01
  Speaker 1: friendships which time cannot impair, chaplets of never withering flowers,
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 1: and a condition of existence which is impervious to change.
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 1: This permanence for which we wait seems promised in the
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 1: words with which the shepherd Minstrel closes the Psalm, which
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 1: are simple as the words home and mother, and quite
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: full of meaning. The course of the Psalm is as
• 2:25:25
  Speaker 1: full of change as life itself. Every sentence is a
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 1: word picture painting in strong and vivid outlines some new
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 1: scene in our earthly pilgrimage. But here the troubled stream,
• 2:25:36
  Speaker 1: broken over many a stone driven to and fro in
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 1: many sinuous bed seems to fall into the great depth
• 2:25:43
  Speaker 1: of the ocean eternity, the music of whose waves as
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 1: they break on the shores of time, is always in
• 2:25:50
  Speaker 1: the same sweet monotone forever. No doubt, the changes of
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 1: our mortal life are all needed to fit us for
• 2:25:58
  Speaker 1: the changeless Time is the necessary vestibule or robing room
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 1: for eternity. Earth is the training house for the real
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 1: life which awaits us. When the last lesson is learned
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 1: and the school bell rings But all that this is,
• 2:26:14
  Speaker 1: and has been, and shall be, is just completing our character,
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 1: adding finishing touches to our symmetry, and all shall be
• 2:26:22
  Speaker 1: forgotten as a dream of the night, when once we
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 1: have entered into that eternity which is permanent in the
• 2:26:29
  Speaker 1: sense of never taking from us any of our true
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: possessions except to complete them, or in the same way
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 1: that the seed is taken away, when from it is
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 1: developed a higher and ever higher growth. But better than
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 1: the thought of permanence is the thought that heaven is
• 2:26:45
  Speaker 1: a home. It is the house of the Lord, which
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 1: is the nearest approach possible in the Old Testament to
• 2:26:51
  Speaker 1: the words of Jesus in my father's house or many mansions.
• 2:26:56
  Speaker 1: What magic power there is in that word home. It
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: will draw the wanderer from the ends of the earth.
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 1: It will nerve sailor and soldier and explorer to heroic endurance.
• 2:27:08
  Speaker 1: It will melt with its dear memories the hardened criminal.
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 1: It will bring a film of tears over the eyes
• 2:27:14
  Speaker 1: of the man of the world. What will not a
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 1: charwoman do or bear if only she can keep her
• 2:27:19
  Speaker 1: little home together, be it ever so humble. There's no
• 2:27:23
  Speaker 1: place like home, and what is our great Christmas festival
• 2:27:27
  Speaker 1: but the festival of home Homes which have sprung into
• 2:27:31
  Speaker 1: existence at the summons of one who was homeless fitly
• 2:27:34
  Speaker 1: celebrate their anniversary on his natal day. And what is
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 1: it that makes the idea of home so fond? Not
• 2:27:42
  Speaker 1: the mere locality, or the bricks and mortar, the gardens
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 1: or childhood used to hide, the furniture which is associated
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 1: with tender memories, any of which the sight of it
• 2:27:52
  Speaker 1: will immediately adduce. No, it is not these that make home.
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 1: These without the beloved forms which used to occupy them,
• 2:28:00
  Speaker 1: would be a solitude in which the survivor would find
• 2:28:02
  Speaker 1: it impossible to remain. We find our home where father, mother,
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 1: brothers and sisters, the wife and children are, where the
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 1: presence of the stranger throws no shadow over the unrestrained
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 1: play of family life. Now let us turn our thoughts
• 2:28:19
  Speaker 1: to that heaven of which we know comparatively little, except
• 2:28:22
  Speaker 1: that our good shepherd is gone thither. And see what
• 2:28:25
  Speaker 1: light is thrown upon it by the comparison instituted here
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 1: between it and home. It is surely home in the
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 1: sense of its happy social life. We shall be as
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 1: free in the presence of God, as children are in
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 1: the presence of the Father and Mother whom they tenderly love.
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 1: We shall know each other as well and converse with
• 2:28:43
  Speaker 1: each other as freely as we have done with the
• 2:28:46
  Speaker 1: merry throng of bright young heart, with whom we have
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 1: sauntered in the woodlands gathering wild flowers, or have gathered
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 1: around the blazing fire when the Yule log crackled and
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 1: the Christmas glee was at its height. Think of the
• 2:28:59
  Speaker 1: large family of noble children of all ages, from the
• 2:29:02
  Speaker 1: little child of six up to the young man just
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 1: beginning his professional or city life in the great metropolis,
• 2:29:08
  Speaker 1: all gathering to spend a time together in the ancestral hall,
• 2:29:12
  Speaker 1: standing amid its far reaching grounds. And you will have
• 2:29:15
  Speaker 1: some faint conception of what the home going will be
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 1: when amid the welcoming shouts and songs of angel harps,
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 1: the last child reaches the father's house, and the whole
• 2:29:26
  Speaker 1: family in heaven and Earth is gathered in the Father's
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: house forever and forever, never again to part, never again
• 2:29:33
  Speaker 1: to go out, never again to break up the long,
• 2:29:36
  Speaker 1: happy and glorious home festival. These words may be read
• 2:29:40
  Speaker 1: by lonely ones in all parts of the world over
• 2:29:43
  Speaker 1: whom there steals at times a strange homesickness. Oh for
• 2:29:47
  Speaker 1: the touch of a vanished hand and the sound of
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 1: the voice that is still. Oh to be little children again,
• 2:29:55
  Speaker 1: and to have others providing for our comfort and joy,
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: instead of having to defend for our and to be
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 1: the source of all to others, And mingling with such
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 1: natural back yearnings. There may be the tears of recent bereavement,
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 1: the thought of graves so new that the flowers have
• 2:30:11
  Speaker 1: not had time to root themselves in the fresh soil. Come.
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 1: It will not do for us to indulge thoughts like these.
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 1: They unfit us. For the stern realities of life. They
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 1: unnerve us. Let us not dwell on them. If the
• 2:30:26
  Speaker 1: paradise of the past is lost, so that an angel
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 1: stands with drawn sword forbidding our return, there is another,
• 2:30:34
  Speaker 1: and a better paradise before us, at whose gates, beckoning
• 2:30:38
  Speaker 1: angels stand, the paradise of our father's home. Let us
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 1: not think of separation, but of reunion. In olden days,
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 1: the crews of outgoing vessels, till they reached the line,
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 1: used to toast friends behind, But as soon as they had
• 2:30:54
  Speaker 1: passed it, they began to toast friends before. Let us
• 2:30:58
  Speaker 1: set our thoughts on the friends before us, who, thank
• 2:31:01
  Speaker 1: God are those whom we have loved long since and
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 1: lost Awhile blessed are the homesick, for they shall reach home.
• 2:31:11
  Speaker 1: There is great certainty in these words. The Psalmist has
• 2:31:14
  Speaker 1: no doubt that he will be there. Yet he has
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 1: been a wandering sheep. His record, by no means stainless.
• 2:31:21
  Speaker 1: His temper rather that of a man of war and blood,
• 2:31:24
  Speaker 1: than that of peace and gentleness and love, which would
• 2:31:27
  Speaker 1: befit the meek denizen of heaven. How should he come there?
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 1: And what made him so sure? He doubtless felt that
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: the good shepherd could not be there, while the sheep
• 2:31:37
  Speaker 1: was bleeding piteously without Where I am there, ye shall
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 1: be also. And we have a yet more sure word
• 2:31:45
  Speaker 1: of promise, to which we may joyfully take heed, as
• 2:31:48
  Speaker 1: to a light which shines in a dark place. Because
• 2:31:52
  Speaker 1: we have trusted Christ and are one with Him, because
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: we have received into our hearts the germ of eternal life,
• 2:31:59
  Speaker 1: which carries with it heaven in embryo. Because we have
• 2:32:02
  Speaker 1: the earnest of our inheritance already in the presence and
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 1: witness of the Holy Ghost, because God's promise and oath
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 1: assure us of our eternal blessedness, two things which make
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 1: disappointment impossible. For all these reasons and others, the humblest,
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 1: most timid, and weakest believer that reads these lines may
• 2:32:21
  Speaker 1: dare affirm I will dwell in the House of the
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 1: Lord forever. There seems to have been a sense in
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 1: which David enjoyed heaven before he got there. To him,
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 1: the Lord's house was not simply a thing of the future,
• 2:32:35
  Speaker 1: but a possibility for the present. In another psalm, he
• 2:32:39
  Speaker 1: talks of dwelling in the secret place of the Most High,
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 1: and in yet another he employs the noble words, one
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 1: thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 1: seek after? That I may dwell in the house of
• 2:32:50
  Speaker 1: the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 1: the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
• 2:32:57
  Speaker 1: The French version of doctor Segond is so beautiful that
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 1: I am compelled to quote it also Jos de Monde
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 1: des alieternelle unchos cogetasire a den gevondre abite tutmaville don
• 2:33:11
  Speaker 1: le mieison de re tournand poor containplai la magnificence de
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 1: rille turnelle pour admire sentemplin. But this man was full
• 2:33:22
  Speaker 1: of royal business. He could not literally dwell in the
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 1: sacred courts for which he pined more than heart ever
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 1: panted for water books or doves for their coats. Yet
• 2:33:33
  Speaker 1: can we doubt that his fervent prayer was answered, and
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 1: that the fixed purpose of his heart reached its ideal.
• 2:33:39
  Speaker 1: There was no doubt a sense in which, whether at
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 1: home or in the palace of Mount Zion, were always
• 2:33:45
  Speaker 1: away in the desolate waste beyond Jordan, he did dwell
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 1: in the house of the Lord, beholding his beauty and
• 2:33:52
  Speaker 1: inquiring his will. What is the house of God but
• 2:33:55
  Speaker 1: the presence of God, habitually recognized by the loving and
• 2:33:59
  Speaker 1: believing spirit, all encompassing, all enveloping, all preserving, like the
• 2:34:04
  Speaker 1: genial atmosphere of spring. Why should we not also begin
• 2:34:08
  Speaker 1: to live in the House of God in this hallowed
• 2:34:11
  Speaker 1: and blessed sense. Our heaven may thus date not from
• 2:34:15
  Speaker 1: the moment in which we first enter the gates of
• 2:34:17
  Speaker 1: the city, but from that in which we first wash
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 1: our robes and make them white in the blood of
• 2:34:22
  Speaker 1: the Lamb. Always and everywhere we may find our dwelling
• 2:34:26
  Speaker 1: place in God, who has been the home and refuge
• 2:34:29
  Speaker 1: and abiding place of his people in all generations. Always
• 2:34:33
  Speaker 1: in everywhere we may retreat into Him from the windy
• 2:34:36
  Speaker 1: storm and tempest. Always in everywhere we may make His
• 2:34:40
  Speaker 1: nature not only our fortress and strong tower, but our oratory,
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 1: our temple. May the Holy Spirit make real to each
• 2:34:48
  Speaker 1: of us this possibility of living in the House of
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 1: the Lord, hourly and daily, where all tears are wiped
• 2:34:54
  Speaker 1: as soon as shed, where their cares cannot invade, and
• 2:34:58
  Speaker 1: where the good shepherd leads his flock into green pastures
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 1: so that they cannot hunger, and besides still waters so
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 1: that they cannot thirst, and in cool deep glens, so
• 2:35:08
  Speaker 1: that the sun cannot smite by day, nor the moon
• 2:35:11
  Speaker 1: by night. Heaven. Before we reach Heaven, let us see
• 2:35:16
  Speaker 1: to it that we live on this heavenly level. There
• 2:35:19
  Speaker 1: are many possible levels on which we may elect to
• 2:35:21
  Speaker 1: live that, for instance, of the church to which we belong,
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 1: or the Christian society in which we mix the conventional
• 2:35:29
  Speaker 1: level of doing what others do and being content with
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 1: an average mediocrity. This, however, ill becomes those who follow
• 2:35:37
  Speaker 1: on to apprehend that for which Jesus Christ once apprehended them.
• 2:35:42
  Speaker 1: But there are two other levels, which especially claim our thought,
• 2:35:45
  Speaker 1: and between which we must make our choice. There is
• 2:35:48
  Speaker 1: the level of our standing in Jesus Christ, and the
• 2:35:51
  Speaker 1: level of our experience or emotional life. According to the first,
• 2:35:55
  Speaker 1: we have already passed through death to the resurrection and
• 2:35:58
  Speaker 1: ascension side, and are our already seated in the golden
• 2:36:01
  Speaker 1: light which beats around the throne of Jesus. According to
• 2:36:04
  Speaker 1: the other, which fluctuates with every atmospheric or physical change,
• 2:36:09
  Speaker 1: we are now lifted on the crest of the billow
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 1: into the sunny air, and anon flung, weary and broken
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 1: on the sand from which the waves have ebbed, leaving
• 2:36:18
  Speaker 1: us beyond their reach. The one is a level on
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 1: which God means us to live. The other is that
• 2:36:24
  Speaker 1: which we have selected for ourselves, and a sorry change.
• 2:36:28
  Speaker 1: It is what wonder that we are so disappointed and disheartened.
• 2:36:33
  Speaker 1: We have put the bitter for the sweet, the temporal
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 1: for the eternal, the fluctuating and transient, for God's unmoved
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 1: and unmovable foundation, which as changeless as his love. It
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 1: is a serious question for each one to ask what
• 2:36:48
  Speaker 1: is the level of my life? Is it mine or
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 1: my neighbor's or gods? Am I living as a risen
• 2:36:55
  Speaker 1: and ascended one behind whom is sin and death, while
• 2:36:59
  Speaker 1: above is the ung created light of eternity. Alas, so
• 2:37:03
  Speaker 1: many of us are leveling our appreciation of our standing
• 2:37:06
  Speaker 1: down to the lowness of our experience, instead of seeking
• 2:37:09
  Speaker 1: to level our experience and practice up to the height
• 2:37:12
  Speaker 1: of our standing in Jesus. Now, Faith, when improper exercise,
• 2:37:16
  Speaker 1: does two things. First, it reckons that a position belongs
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 1: to it which we do not feel, but which it
• 2:37:23
  Speaker 1: dares to claim on the warrant of God's word. Second,
• 2:37:27
  Speaker 1: it lays hold of the power of God to make
• 2:37:29
  Speaker 1: that position a reality. In daily and hourly experience, we
• 2:37:34
  Speaker 1: do not always feel that we are where the burning
• 2:37:37
  Speaker 1: words of the Apostle declare us to be. In Romans
• 2:37:40
  Speaker 1: chapter six, Ephesians chapter two, and Colossians chapter three, he
• 2:37:44
  Speaker 1: affirms that we are risen and enthroned, regnant with Jesus,
• 2:37:49
  Speaker 1: while His foes and hours are beneath our feet. The
• 2:37:52
  Speaker 1: faith lays hold of these clear teachings of the Word
• 2:37:55
  Speaker 1: of God and dares to call feeling a liar while
• 2:37:58
  Speaker 1: it holds God's word as truth yea, and faith goes
• 2:38:03
  Speaker 1: further constantly it lays hold on the almighty power of God,
• 2:38:07
  Speaker 1: the power that raised Jesus from the grave of Joseph
• 2:38:10
  Speaker 1: to set him at the right hand of the Majesty
• 2:38:12
  Speaker 1: in the heavens. And in the might of that power,
• 2:38:15
  Speaker 1: it walks across the unstable wave and climbs the steps
• 2:38:18
  Speaker 1: of air, and holds its own its position as on
• 2:38:22
  Speaker 1: the throne, against all the assaults of hell. It is
• 2:38:26
  Speaker 1: impossible to live the ascension or heavenly life, which is
• 2:38:29
  Speaker 1: certainly ours, without ascension and divine power. But that is
• 2:38:34
  Speaker 1: within the reach of an appropriating faith. Ephesians, Chapter one,
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 1: verse nineteen. It is very needful for us to invoke
• 2:38:41
  Speaker 1: the aid of the Holy Spirit to maintain us. Ever,
• 2:38:44
  Speaker 1: in this attitude of surrender and faith, drawing down into
• 2:38:48
  Speaker 1: our lives God's constant grace. Here is the spirit of memory,
• 2:38:53
  Speaker 1: who preserves us in a continual state of recollection, and
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 1: who prompts us at the hour of temptation, bringing all
• 2:38:59
  Speaker 1: things to our remembers. And if only we live thus,
• 2:39:02
  Speaker 1: life will pass on happily and usefully. Its stay will
• 2:39:06
  Speaker 1: shape itself into a psalm like that which David the
• 2:39:09
  Speaker 1: Shepherd King sang centuries ago. It may begin with the
• 2:39:14
  Speaker 1: tale of the shepherd's care for a lost and truant sheep,
• 2:39:17
  Speaker 1: but it will not stay ever on that level. It
• 2:39:20
  Speaker 1: will mount and soar and sing near Heaven's Gate. It
• 2:39:24
  Speaker 1: will spend its days on the level of those shining
• 2:39:26
  Speaker 1: table lands where God himself is sun. And it will
• 2:39:29
  Speaker 1: finally pass into that holy and glorious home circle, each
• 2:39:33
  Speaker 1: inhabitant of which may affirm, without the least shadow of
• 2:39:36
  Speaker 1: presumption or of fear, I will dwell in the House
• 2:39:40
  Speaker 1: of the Lord forever. End of Chapter twelve and end
• 2:39:45
  Speaker 1: of The Shepherd's Palm by F. B. Meyer