EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE. JANUARY, 1884. 'COMMIT THY WAY.' 'COMMIT thy way unto the Lord,' says the Psalmist; and what more appropriate motto can we select for the New Year? Counsel such as this is in itself a kind of revelation. It reveals us to ourselves! Is my way such that I can commit it to the Lord? Let me look within; let me consider what is life's tone and temper, and whither it leads! Can I conscientiously now kneel down in the quiet Olivet of prayer and commit it unto God? Certainly it will be the most needful thing to do if I am at peace with God. For 'my way' is not always the best way; it is affected by taste and temper, and by a superficial judgment. The ways of God are higher than my ways. We are inclined to think of such words as these on occasions of great heroisms, or special adventures, times of travel and voyage, when some element of danger is mixed with duty. Such hours as when Pastor Robinson committed the pilgrims in the May-flower to the care of God. But a true Christian prays always. Under the old Jewish law sacrifice was not continually offered by the priest, but the fire on the altar was ever burning, and never went out; even so the flame of spiritual fervency must be always burning, so that when the tongue is silent the soul may obey the Apostolic injunction Pray without ceasing.' This is a counsel, then, that we need for what we call the small as well as the great. The trifle that we smile at may be the pivot on which a destiny may turn. The little white fleecy cloud may herald the most perilous storm. The most trivial turn in the road may lead us to the slopes of the valley of death, for we know not what a day or an hour may bring forth. Committing our Way to God means Meditation before Ambrose says, 'Meditation is the eye wherewith we see God, and prayer is the wing wherewith we flee to Him.' Meditation is prayer in preparation. It is the very soul of prayer, as Erskine says. We make surely some study of ourselves; our tendencies, temptations, friendships, pursuits, habits. It must be so if we are to pray sincerely and spiritually. Prayer is not an accidental expression that comes suddenly to the mind. It is the soul's desire-the soul's recognition of special need. Remember, there is an inner way of life as well as an outward one. And how can we commit that way to God unless we pray? And to pray aright we must have been alone with ourselves before we are alone with God. To get the heart right, that is everything. Dear John Bunyan said, 'In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.' Meditate. Because all inward revelations do not come suddenly to us. The heart is deceitful. The estimate is flattering. Very naturally we do not like to believe evil concerning ourselves. But if religion is to be something more than a theology that we believe-if it is to be Christ in us-if the Holy Spirit does not dwell with evil, impurity and vanity-if there are so many idols to be cast out, then we must search within, make inquisition, be acquainted with ourselves, and then our prayers will be full of truth. The Great Father will see how sincere we are. We shall not ask, for blessings that we have not felt the full need and value of. We shall pray with the spirit and the understanding; we shall meditate upon our way, and then commit it to God-not without remembering Him in Whom God is always well pleased, for 'all our prayers are but ciphers till Christ's intercession be added.' Committing our Way to God means Consciousness of Ignorance ourselves. We say to God, 'Thou and Thou only knowest the true path of life. Our ignorance is at times very humbling to us. We want to know all, and in reality we know so little. For think what a trifle may affect you or yours, any day, any hour. There may be the floating seed of disease. There may be the sharp and sudden precipice in moral life. There may be the friendship of Ahitophel to ruin Absolom. There may be but a moment, in which, could you see it, the path deviates, and the blight is felt which withers all the flowers, or the dew will fall which refreshes all our graces. We never know! Think of the histories here enfolded still in the bud; think of the false fortunetellers of life that sit by the wayside and tempt us to false steps! It would be very solemn to live if we might not commit our way to God. Perhaps it is because the matter is so easy, and the invite so universal that we slight it as we do. If only set hours in human history were appointed for prayer, how eagerly they would be looked forward to, like some grand phenomena in nature, which only occurred at times-all eyes are directed to it. But God is ever in the pavilion of His grace-human need is so vast, so constant, so urgent, that He invites us at all times to draw nigh unto Him, for as Quarles says, 'Heaven's never deaf but when man's heart is dark,' Consider, then, what one wrong step may mean; and consider, also, what one right step may mean it may be the path to noble service, to restful years, to a peaceful closing of the eyes when the long day's work is done. But one wrong step may 'darken all our future with the past.' Nor is human ignorance of the life-way a matter that will be remedied to-day or to-morrow, We may make advances in some fields of meditation and inquiry-we may find unknown agents which shall mitigate disease, or give us more mastery over nature; but we shall never 'know' in this sphere which is here called 'our way.' Vision will never be so keen as to pierce the future, or to know enemies from friends, or to comprehend where and when our own nature would give way. 'I will be a providence to you,' says God. So we pray, 'Cause me to know the way wherein I ought to walk.' So with humility and self-surrender to the Wise Will, we say this is Wisdom's way. Committing our Way to God means conscious Obedience to Him. Dependence must end in obedience. As Owen says, 'He who prays as he ought will endeavour to live as he prays.' Prayer must be fulfilled in action. Very deeply our souls are stirred when we commune with God. The very consciousness that we are seeking Him Who spared not His only-begotten and well-beloved Son, gives tenderness to our trust-we feel that He will not withhold from us any good thing. But I am not what my emotions are. No man is. It has been well said, A man is a will, not a feeling.' We are all of us what our wills are. When the will decides, when we choose God's Christ, God's kingdom, God's righteousness, then the way we take is not our way, but His way. Blessed are the emotions if they stir us up to this; but failing this, they are fleeting warmth. They create tenderness, but not trust. If I commit,' therefore, my way' to God, it is evident that if I am sincere I shall avoid every vain and foolish way. For I shall be weaker, instead of stronger, when the emotion has passed, unless it leaves me doing what conscience and Christ tell me to do. Can there be a more miserable man on earth than he who knows the hypocrisy of his prayers, who is inwardly conscious of his wrong state, who knows that he is living without Go that he is at a great distance from the Saviour, and yet fee tremulous and sad about it all? He has not really returned to God. He has not realized aga the value of the Saviour's friendship; he cannot forsake the i dulgence of some secret sin; he cannot heartily forgive h brother; he cannot quite quit fellowships that are risking h immortal weal. The reverences of religion still touch him with awe, and th piety of the early child-home is still a memory in his manhood he despises men who have no religion. But his will is n obedient yet it cannot be said of him that he is a follower the Lamb. Let us not mistake this aspect of the subject-con mitting our way means conscious obedience unto God. Committing our Way to God means cheerful Acquiescence i His Will. Not merely endurance, nor passive submission, but cheerf acquiescent. This lights the smile on the sufferer's face; th gives sunlight to the gloomy Catacombs; this makes men an women able to press their crosses to their breasts with a smile Thy will be done is only one stage in experience; there is higher stage than that-'My meat and My drink is to do th will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.' When tl soul comes away from communion with God in this spirit, th ravens of anxiety and care forsake the garden of the hear Irreligion-say what men like-is the death of cheerfulnes The world may know how to provoke mirth; it may amuse wi its sallies of wit; it may excite with its sensuous joys; but a through the ages cheerfulness has been the child of faith, an has seldom forsaken the sufferer even in life's last hours. Sti as of old, it is supposed that religion is gloomy, and that silences the song-birds of the heart; and yet to those who lo beneath the surface, the words are true as ever,' Religion's wa are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.' Committing our Way to God means Committing the End Him. When and where belong to Him. Every way must have end, the longest as well as the shortest; and when the nigl shadows fall, it is blessed to leave the solemn evening to Hi Life has been quite other than most of us thought it, and probably will Death be. It would be a mean thing to wish commit the end, and not all that leads to it, to Him. To he for some death-bed repentance, and to feel happy if we co leave only the end to His mercy is unworthy. The end is to t blossom of the years, the ripe fruit of the long time-growth, the setting of a sun which has always been the brightness of the Lord about us. So to live as to feel sure that when the evening comes we shall have nothing to do but to die, this is the Christian's heritage. Nothing else to do, even if we have no time to kiss our beloved ones, or, Jacob-like, to give them our blessing. So to live that even if the lips cannot move, the life will speak. So to live that we shall not have to warn against our own example and influence. This, oh! this is a good man's desire. And then let the curtains be rent suddenly, or taken down gently; let the light go out in the sharp gust, or burn down in the socket silently and slowly; this surely is what we all wish to be able to say, 'Father, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.' Commit the beginning of this New Year, young friend-commit it now that a higher hand than your own may lead you. Commit it, friend and brother, in thy noonday health and strength; sister, in thy brightness of spirit and summer-day of beauty and strength. Commit it as you go abroad or stay at homeaway under foreign skies, or in the sweet rest of home, and commit the end. If length of days be yours, then well and good; the sun will linger long in the west, and familiar thoughts will have made you at home with the consciousness of Death; or if the little life be rounded off at noonday, you will be ready for another sun that never sets, for friendships that are never darkened by loss, or decay, or changes. Yes! Seek God upon thy way, And He will come to thee.'-Schiller. Commit it every morning, every evening, for you know not what momentous issues may be decided before to-morrow dawns; and then come what may, life or death, you will be able to say, 'Father, I have always lived with Thee in this world; Thou hast been my dwelling-place on earth, and in Heaven I find that in Thee alone have I my everlasting home.' Commit then thy way to God silently and devoutly; He who seeth in secret, and Who knows that thoughts of home-going are not very natural in bright spirits and healthful days, will subdue nature to grace, and fill all hours of life with the consciousness that to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' Soon, very soon, shadows will come upon the path of us all; for even a child feels the shadows sometimes, and we can pray for the little child 'Soul not yet from heaven beguiled, Soul not yet by earth defiled, Be, oh! to him be All we would have Thee!' |