Isaac

“And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide” — Gen. xxiv. 63.

What a contrast there is between the life of Abraham and the life of Isaac! The one is all storm, the other is all calm. In the life of Abraham we stand on the shore of a mighty sea, whose bosom is ever ruffled, whose waves are ever rolling; in the life of Isaac we stand by the rippling of a gentle stream, where there are no storms to ruffle and no waves to roll. Abraham is the man of action, and he is increasingly the man of action; his work grows more pressing as lie grows old. But Isaac, even from manhood’s dawn, is the man of meditation. His is one of those introverted lives of which there is little to tell. There is little to tell, not because the life is uneventful, but because the events are not seen; they lie not on the surface of history, they are transacted in the depths of the heart. Think not that Isaac’s calm was the calm of inanity; it was the calm of conquered storm. Canst thou forget that if his was a placid manhood, it was because his had been a tempestuous youth. Some men get their cross in middle life, amid the burden and heat of the day; Isaac got his cross in the morning. The fiery trial which one day comes to all of us, came to him on the threshold of life’s door, and at the very moment when the bow of promise was seen in the sky, the blackness of darkness threatened to extinguish it for ever. Was not the rest of his later years well earned? Was it not fitting that he who at morning’s dawn had climbed the sacrificial heights of Moriah, should be permitted, even in the blaze of noonday, to have something of the evening calm?

My soul, God has a time for thee to work and a time for thee to meditate. Would it not be well for thee to come up betimes into the secret place and rest awhile? The burden and heat of the day are hard to bear, and impossible to bear without the strength of the Spirit. Thinkest thou that the meditation of Isaac is a disqualifying for the work of Abraham? nay, it is a preparation for that work. Thou art called to go down into the valley, to lift the burdens of the laden, and to help the toil of the labouring. Would it not be well for thee to go up first into the mount of meditation, and get transfigured there? Would it not help thy coming work in the valley, if thou wert first to ascend into the elevation of aspiring prayer, where thou wouldst catch something of the radiance of thy Lord, and receive something of His glistening glory Thy radiance on the mountain would not impede thy work in the valley; it would inspire it, it would strengthen it, it would ennoble it. Thou wouldst carry down with thee such a glittering of the transfiguration light, that the men at the foot of the mountain would take knowledge that thou haclst been with Jesus. There would go out from thee a marvellous virtue, a miraculous power, a supernatural energy, which everywhere would arrest and transform. Thou wouldst be animated by a new enthusiasm, impelled by a new force, driven on irresistibly by the impulse of light within. Arise, then, into thy mountain, 0 my soul. Take the wings of the morning, and ascend to meet thy Lord in the air. Enter for one blessed hour into the secret of His pavilion, and He will send thee a flash of light that will keep thee all the day. Thy work for man shall be glorious when thou hast meditated on the mount of God.