A Meditation


IF a pilgrim has been shadowed

By a tree that I have nursed;

If a cup of clear, cold water

I have raised to lips athirst;

If I've planted one sweet flower

By an else too barren way;

If I've whispered in the midnight

One sweet word of day;

If in one poor, bleeding bosom,

I a woe-swept chord have stilled;

If a dark and restless spirit

I with hope of Heaven have filled|;

If I've made for life's hard battle

One faint heart grow warm and strong

Then, my God! I thank thee bless thee,

For the precious gift of song.



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MEDITATIONS.



THE Scriptures say, " God is love." Cannot

I say the same from experience? He

has promised to be a Father to the fatherless.

Have I not ever found him a tender

and compassionate Father? A present help

in every time of need? A comforter in trial's

darkest hour? Oh, to be like my

blessed Master! Oh, for purity of heart

to be freed from sin! And oh, for more

of that disinterested benevolence which

prompted my Saviour to endure what he

did for me! Holy Jesus! So pure! So

holy! Shall I ever be like him? He has

promised to make me so, if I walk in harmony

with his precepts.

My Saviour is soon to appear on the

great, white cloud, clad in his kingly robes.

Will he then say to me, Well done; enter

into the joy of thy Lord? As the golden

gates are swung back upon their glittering

hinges, will these weary feet pass in, and

find rest? Beautiful thought! This privilege

is mine. My Father has promised it;

and his promises have never yet failed. I

can trust him for this.

I want to see the King in his beauty. I

want to see the countless millions who will

then be redeemed by his precious blood,

and the bright angels who have ministered

to me in all my journeyings through this

dark world. Shall I see them and talk with

them face to face? Will this voice unite

with theirs in the heavenly halleluiahs, and

shouts of praise to God and the Lamb?

As angel fingers touch the harp strings,

shall mine, too, join in making melody to

God? Will this aching brow ever wear a

glittering crown, and these parched lips

partake of the pure water of life? This

heart that has many times been in rebellion

against high Heaven, can it be SO softened

and subdued by the grace of God as to harmonize

with Heaven itself? Shall I be

made immortal, and live and reign with

Christ? Blessed Redeemer! I'll live for

thee here, that I may live with thee by-and

by. My soul says, with the poet,

"Oh! that I could forever dwell

Delighted at the Saviour's feet!

Behold the form I love so well,

And all his tender words repeat.

"The world shut out from all my soul,

And Heaven brought in with all its bliss;

Oh! Is there aught from pole to pole

One moment to compare with this?

"This is the hidden life I prize

A life of penitential love;

When most my follies I despise,

And raise my highest thoughts above."




JANE E. TREMBLEY.




UNION WITH CHRIST.


  I AM the true vine, and my Father is

the husbandman. Every branch in me that

beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every

branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it,

that it may bring forth more fruit. Abide

in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot

bear fruit of itself, except it abide in

the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide

in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches."

John 15:1, 2, 4, 5.

How full of love and tenderness are these

words of our Saviour! Oh, the depth of

that love! It is breathed forth in nearly

every verse of this chapter.

Says Jesus, "I am the vine, ye are the

branches." Can it be possible that we are

as closely united with Christ as the branch

is with the vine? We see that the branch

grows right out of the vine, starting at first

from a little bud on the body of it. At

first, it is very small and tender; but, as it

receives the nourishing sap from the vine,

it gradually expands till, bursting its envelope,

it spreads forth its delicate leaves to

the light. These, catching the, genial rays

of the warm sun continue to grow till a little 

stem is formed which in process of time

 becomes a branch.

Now let us try an experiment. With pruning knife

in hand we will go out to the old grape vine,

 which never fails to be loaded from year to year

 with delicious fruit, and cut off several 

branches, letting them lie wherever they 

chance to fall.

After a few days, we will go and examine

them. Do you think we shall find

them fresh and vigorous? Oh! No. We

shall find them all withered and dead.

Their leaves that were once so green and

beautiful, are blackened and crisp; and

their fruit is shriveled and decaying. Alas

for the poor branch! It could not live

without the vine.

You will say that the branch is" a part of

the vine; that it grows out of the vine, and

cannot live unless fed and supported by it.

And so it is. Jesus says, "I am the vine, ye

are the branches." If Christ is the vine,

and we are the branches, how can we live

without abiding in Christ, any more than

the branch of the grape-vine can live when

severed from the vine? We cannot.

In the last part of the fifth verse and the

first part of the sixth, we read, "Without

Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not

in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is

withered."

But what is it to abide in Christ? Let

the first part of the tenth verse answer. "If

ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide

in my love." So you see the way is all

plain. If we keep the commandments because

we love God, he says that he will come

and take up his abode with us. Read John

14:23. What a sweet union it is, to have

Jesus come and take up his abode in our

hearts; He in us, and we in him.

How happy are they that abide in Christ,

nourished and strengthened every hour by

him, and ever dwelling in the sunlight of

his love. Who can afford to be “cut off" as

a branch, and be withered?

Let us, then, be diligent in searching our

hearts, that we may know that we are really

in Christ; that we are daily receiving

new life from him, and bearing fruit to the

glory of his name. Let us keep his 

commandments, and abide in his love, thus

growing up into Christ, "till we all come in

the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge

of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto

the measure of the stature of the fullness of

Christ." Eph. 4:13. 





G. F. RICHMOND.