Christ Every Day
The periodical piety that goes by the calendar, and only serves the Lord Jesus at set times and places is of very little value; it is only a perennial piety that posesses both peace and power. He is the only healthy Christian who runs his Christianity through all the routine of his everyday experiences. Some people keep their religion as they do their unbrellas for stormy weather, and hope to have it within easy reach if a dangerous sickness overtakes them. Others, and quite too many, reserve their piety for the Sabbath and the sanctuary, and on Monday they fold it up and lay it away with their Sunday clothes. A healthy, vigorous, cheerful working religion cannot be maintained on Sabbaths and songs and sacraments; every day has got 27 to be a “Lord’s day,” if we expect to make any real headway heavenward. I have observed that those who try to live by fits and frames and feeHngs are never very fruitful Christians.
In setting out for the journey of an opening year, let us highly resolve to make it a better year than any of its predecessors, and let us adopt as our brief motto Christ every day. Our loving Master emphasizes the adverb in that gracious assurance, “Lo! I am with you ahvays,” We think of Him as a Redeemer on communion Sundays; we think of Him as a Comforter when some terrible affliction befalls us; why not think of Him as a constant Companion? This is not a devout fancy, it is a delightful fact. And one benefit to us from having the continual companionship of Jesus this year, will be that every day will be a safe day. We need never miss the right road. We need never take a morally dangerous step. We never need be led astray. Our Divine Guide knows the whole pathway from the “City of Destruction” to the City of the 28 great King. Wherever Christ clearly directs us to walk, there we ought to go. It matters not that you and I cannot see the end from the beginning. Jesus sees; that is enough. He sent Paul on many a perilous path of duty, and when the boiling deep threatened to engulf him, the Master was beside him and said, “Fear not, Paul; thou must yet stand before Caesar.” The courage that quailed not in Nero’s judgment-hall is easily explained by the old hero’s declaration, “The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me.” What Christ did for Paul, He will do for you. Realize that Christ is in the truest and most actual spiritual sense close by you. Ask His direction; let Him lead you. I don’t believe that when we put self out of sight, and sincerely desire to do that, and only that which is for the honor of the Master, we ever go morally wrong. He that walketh with Jesus “walketh surely’’
My fellow believer, you may walk your daily life- journey through all this year in the delightful companionship of your Sa- 29 viour if you keep a clear conscience, and a praying heart and an obedient temper. Begin every morning with a cordial invitation to Him to grant you His presence. Think of Him all the while as close by you. The busy bustle of the counting-room has not hindered the fellowship with Christ of many a godly minded merchant who carried his religion into his business and dealt by the Golden Rule. I pity the minister into whose study the Master seldom enters. Many a farmer has communed with Jesus as he followed his plow until the acres had “the smell of a field that the Lord had blessed.” Hard toiling and often sorelyfried sister, don’t you suppose that your Master knows as well where you live as He knew the house of Mary and Martha at Bethany? You may have Christ every day if you wish. Just as surely as Christ met His disciples on that early morn by the strand of Galilee will He come to us. Just as surely now as then will those who love Him most be the quickest to recognize Him and the first to hasten to Him. He who 30 is the living Truth has never broken a promise, and He did not utter an idle mockery when He said, ‘’Lo! I am with you always.”
There is no journey of life but has its clouded days; and there will probably come to many of my readers days in which the eyes will be so blinded with tears that it will not be easy to see their way, or to spell out God’s promises. Days that have bright sun rises, followed by sudden thunder-claps and bursts of unexpected sorrows, are the ones that test our graces severely. Yet the law of spiritual eye-sight resembles the law of physical optics. When we come suddenly out of the daylight into a room even moderately darkened, we can discern nothing; but the pupil of our eye gradually enlarges until unseen objects become visible. Even so the eye of Faith has the blessed faculty of enlargening in the dark hour of affliction so that we can discern a hand of love behind the cup of sorrow, and the face of Jesus beaming out of the gloom. We catch the sweet accents, “Let not your heart 31 be troubled; ye believe in God. believe also in Me; I will not leave you comfortless.” It was in a room of intense bodily suffering that one of Christ’s veterans said, ‘’I have no bodily strength, yet I am strong. Jesus comes to me in the watches of the night and draws aside the curtain, and sa.ys, It is I, it is I, be not afraid.”
Oh perfect peace! Oh perfect rest!
No care or vain alarms;
Beneath our every cross we find
The Everlasting Arms.
Christ every day! If that be so, then ought His presence not only to give us constant courage, but shame us from sin, and spur us on to duty. There are many things that we would blush to do in the presence of a child; how much more under the eye of Him who is Infinite Purity. When in the hurry of the morning hour, we hasten oJf to business without a moment of prayer, Jesus witnesses the petty larceny that robs us as well as Him. Are we tempted during the day to a sharp bargain, or some more crooked transaction? “Business is business.” 32
Yes, but what will Christ say? When we utter the irritating word or ill-tempered thrust, one look from Him ought to shame us into silence. Here is some poor suffering creature appealing to our sympathy, and selfishness mutters that there is no end to such calls of charity. The compassionate Jesus who did not count the cost when He bought our redemption, says to us, ‘’Here is one of my poor children; give to him for My sake.” There will not be, all this next year, a struggling church that knocks at our heart, or a hungry sufferer that knocks at our door for relief; there is not a lone widow that begs a pittance to warm her shivering limbs, or a neglected child running in rags and recklessness to ruin, but ever the same voice whispers to us, ‘Tn as much as ye do it unto one of the least of these, ye do it unto Me.” That spotless, loving Jesus is by us every hour. Then how dare we play the coward, the sensualist, the cheat, or the wrong-doer to our fellow-man? A new year is upon us with new duties, new conflicts, new trials and new oppor- 33 tunities. Start on the journey with Jesus — to walk with Him, to work for Him, and to win souls to Him. A happy year will it be to those who through every path of trial, or up ever hill of difficulty or over every sunny height, march on in closest fellowship with the Master, and who determine that come what may, they will have Christ every day.