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Himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee.
— Heb. 13:5
WHEN one of the old patriarchs had committed a great sin, and had unbelievingly twitched his hand out of God's hand, and gone away down into Egypt to help himself, instead of trusting to God, he was commanded, on his return to Palestine, to go to the place where he dwelt at the first, and begin again at that point where he began when he first entered the land; which, being translated, is just this: the only way to keep our spirits vital and quick is by having recourse, again and again, to the same power which first imparted life to them, and that is done by the same means, the means of simple reliance upon Christ, in the consciousness of our own deep need, and believingly waiting upon him for the repeated communication of the gifts which we, alas, have so often misimproved. Negligence is enough to slay. Doing nothing is the sure way to quench the Holy Spirit.
And, on the other hand, keeping close to Him is the sure way to secure that He will never leave us. You can choke a lamp with oil, but you cannot have in your hearts too much of that Divine grace. And you get all that you need if you choose to go and ask it from him. Remember the old story about Elisha and the poor woman. The cruse of oil began to run. She brought all the vessels that she could rake together, big and little, pots and cups, of all shapes and sizes, and set them, one after the other, under the jet of oil. They were all filled ; and when she brought no more vessels, the oil stayed. If you do not take your empty hearts to God, and say, " Here, Lord ! fill this cup, too ; poor as it is, fill it with thine own gracious influences," be very sure that no such influences will come to you. But if you do go, be as sure of this, that so long as you hold out your emptiness to Him, He will flood it with His fulness, and the light that seemed to be sputtering to its death will flame up again. He will not quench the smoking wick, if only we carry it to Him ; but as the priests in the Temple walked all through the night to trim the golden lamps, so He who walks amidst the seven candlesticks will see to each.
" Looking unto Jesus" is the secret triumph over the fascinations of the world. And if we habitually so look, then the sweetness that we shall experience will destroy all the seducing power of lesser and earthly sweetness, and the blessing, the light of the sun will dim and all but extinguish the deceitful gleams that tempt us into the swamps where we shall be drowned. Turn away, then, from these things ; cleave to Jesus Christ ; and though in ourselves we may be as weak as a humming-bird before a snake, or a rabbit before a tiger. He will give us strength, and the light of His face shining down upon us will fix our eyes and make us insensible to the fascinations of the sorcerers. So we shall not need to dread the question, "Who hath bewitched you?" but ourselves challenge the utmost might of the fascinators with the triumphant question, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? "
Help us, O Lord ! we beseech Thee, to live near Thee. Turn away our eyes from beholding vanity, and enable us to set the Lord always before us, that we be not moved.
from, "Music For The Soul"
by, Alexander MacLaren
