Moments on the Mount

There are two motives which have influenced us in the production of this little book. We have sought, on the one hand, to supply aids to devotion either for the use of the family or of the individual, and on the other, to furnish points of suggestion to the student who is a prospective preacher. Perhaps it may be thought that these two aims are incongruous, and it would be too much to hope that in both we have succeeded; yet devotion is not the absence of thought, and thought is not necessarily the absence of devotion. At all events, the presence in the mind of two so reactionary aims may have had the beneficial result of preserving these meditations either from the fault of too much abstractness or from the sin of too little depth.

G. M.

Manse, Innellan, 18S4-

It is only in the cool of the day that I can hear Thy footsteps, 0 my God. Thou art ever walking in the garden. Thy presence is abroad everywhere and always; but it is not everywhere nor always that I can hear Thee passing by. The burden and heat of the day are too strong for me. The struggles of life excite me, the ambitions of life perturb me, the glitter of life dazzles me; it is all thunder and earthquake and fire. But when I myself am still I catch Thy still small voice, and then I know that Thou art God. Thy peace can only speak to my peacefulness, Thy rest can only be audible to my calm; the harmony of Thy tread cannot be heard by the discord of my soul. Therefore, betimes I would be alone with Thee, away from the heat and the battle. I would feel the cool breath of Thy Spirit, that I may be refreshed once more for the strife. I would be fanned by the breezes of heaven, that I may resume the dusty road and the dolorous way. Not to avoid them do I come to Thee, but that I may be able more perfectly to bear them. Let me hear Thy voice in the garden in the cool of the day.

u And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.” — Job xlii. 10.

It is only in moments of unselfishness that I am free. The iron chain that binds me is the thought of myself and of my own calamities; if I could but be liberated from that, my captivity would be turned in an hour. If, under the shadow of the cloud, I could but remember that the shadow of the same cloud hovers over my brother-man, the vision of his shadow would destroy mine. In the moment of prayer for him my burden would fall from me. I would seek it, and lo! it would not be found; it would be as if it had not been. 0 Thou Divine Spirit of self-forgetfulness, Spirit of Christ, Spirit of the Cross, it is in Thee alone that I can find this freedom. Liberate me from myself, and instead of the iron chain, give me a chain of gold. It is not the chain that lowers me, it is the material of which it is made; it is not the sorrow that makes me a captive, it is the centring of the sorrow round my own life. Help me to take up the burdens of others. Help me to know what it is to have rest in bearing an additional yoke, Thy yoke, the yoke of humanity. Help me to feel what it is to have peace in carrying a new care, Thy care, the care of universal love. Help me to learn what it is to be transfigured in the prayer for others; to have the countenance shining as the light, and the raiment white and glistering.

My fetters shall be wiugs of sympathy whereby I shall pass into the heart of the world, and when I have reached the heart of the world the fetters shall fall; my captivity shall be turned back when I have prayed for my captive friends.

in.

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