385. Saturday after Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity.
Psalm 119, 97-105. O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Thou, through thy commandments, hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients; because I keep thy precepts. I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
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Is the word of God so dear to you also? Is it your greatest treasure and your highest delight? Stop and think of it! Is the word of God sweeter to your taste than all things else? Is it more precious to you than gold? Alas, many read newspapers, while their Bible is covered with dust! They have time enough for balls and banquets; but they often are too busy to go to church, and when they do go it is not for the purpose of hearing what the Lord has to say to them. They do not know that they slight and despise the most sacred thing which God has given us. They do not know that they walk in darkness; for the darkness has made them blind. — However, if you have tasted of the heavenly gift, and been made partaker of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good work of God, and the powers of the world to come; you then love the word, and would not lose it for anything in the world. “God’s own word, the Holy Bible, is our only source of light; / all our life would be without it nothing but a hideous night. / For this book on all its pages shews the Father’s tender love / in the Son who died to save us, lead us to our home above.” Yet I am sure that you wish to love the word of God better than you do; and here are two means by which you shall accomplish this result: 1) Meditate on the word of God all the day. When you are not obliged to occupy your thoughts with the work imposed on you by your worldly vocation, let them busy themselves with the word of God; and though you must think on other things, do not forget that God is present, — even as when good children play in the presence of their parents. I have known young people who always carried a copy of the New Testament, and employed every vacant hour in reading it; and I have known men who never tired of searching the scriptures; — and their faces had something of the glory of Tabor. Read thoughtfully and in regular order, and compare the different passages; and make use also of the assistance which the Spirit offers you in the works of pious commentators. Now, do not say that you have neither the inclination nor the opportunity to do this. You have begun to love the word of God, have you not? Do not, then, sin by neglecting this love; but cultivate it, and overcome your natural resistance and sloth by means of the word. 2) Walk faithfully in the light of the word, hate every false way, and keep the Lord’s precepts. Act in all things according to the word; make no step but in the light which this word gives. Undertake nothing without having inquired, if it have the sanction of God’s word, and be pleasing to the Lord. Do without any hesitation that which he says; but never do that which he hates. Then shall you see your sin, and become needy and hungry, and come to love the gospel of mercy. — Our Bible lesson opens to us this double door into the sanctuary of the word. Come, enter, and behold the glory of the Lord, and drink of his well of gladness! — Grant us this great favor, merciful God! Enlighten us by thy Spirit, help us to study thy word in a devout spirit, and make it our holy desire to live according to thy precepts. Amen.*
How shall the young secure their hearts,
And guard their lives from sin?
Thy word the choicest rules imparts
To keep the conscience clean.
’Tis like the sun, a heavenly light,
That guides us all the day;
And through the dangers of the night
A lamp to lead our way.
[TLH 286 (listen here); or ELH 176 (listen here)]
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.