Kept and Watered

“I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” Isa. xxvii. 17

17 HEN God fences a soul out of the world in order to till it, and make it bear fruit to Himself, He does not leave it to go back into a waiste. He keeps it.

A vineyard will engross the whole of a man’s time — perhaps the time of many men. The nourishing of the soil, the pruning of the branches, the syringing of the leaves, the thining of the grapes, the support of the heavy clusters — all demand constant and assiduous care. There is a tend- “T Mill Keep,” 21

ency in all cultivated things to go back to their original type.

However it may be made to agree with the modern ideas of development and evolution, it is nevertheless a fact that the fairest results of human skill are not in themselves permanent; but tend ever backward to the rudest and simplest forms of their species — the apple tree to the crab, the vine of Sorek to the wild vine of the hills. Therefore the keeper of the vineyard is ever engaged in going to and fro on the narrow paths, fighting every tendency towards deterioration with unwavering patience. He keeps his vineyard. And when the harvest of the fruit is near, he is more than ever watchful against the little foxes on the one hand, and the pillaging Bedouin on the other.

With similar care, but much more watchful tenderness, our God is ever watching over us. With eager eyes He marks the slightest sign of deterioration — -a hardening conscience; a deadening spirituality; a waning love. Any symptom of this sort fills Him with — if I may use the words — keen anxiety; and His gentle but skilful hand is at once at work to arrest the evil, restore the soul and force it onward to new accessions of that Divine life which is our only true bliss and rest.

Let us not carry the responsibility of our nurture. It is too much for us. Better far is it to devolve the care of our keeping on our faithful Creator, who has made, and who will bear and keep; who is more eager for our sanctification than we can be; and who, with unslumbering care, keeps His purchased possession.

But notice, the verse says, “I will keep it night and day.” How priceless is that assurance! The present tense is sweet, but sweeter still the “1be is Hble,” 23

future. By night, ill dreams may hover near, with their befouling touch, like vampire bats with their silent wing but deadly bite; but — “I will keep.” By day, evil spirits may haunt the steps, determined, if possible, to entangle in wiles, or bear down by force; but — “I will keep.” Without, there may be incessant persecution and opposition; but — “/ will keep” Within, there may be the constant tendency to deteriorate; but — “I will keep” Under dark skies and bright ones; in all times of prosperity and adversity, of weal or woe; in the hour of death and in the day of judgment —

“I WILL KEEP.”

Many of God’s saints are troubled with the dread of failing away, and of never reaching the Golden city on which they have set their hearts. They forget that He has promised to keep; to preserve from all evil; to environ with His protection; to escort to glory; to bring them safe home! Did they only realize the full meaning of these precious words, they would take their harps from the willows, and sing some s’.ch psalm as that which the pilgrims sang amid the dangers of their ascent to the holy city and temple, of the keeping power of God (Psa. cxxi.); and they would burst out with that glorious assurance of the great Apostle, who had put God to the test as few men have had the opportunity of doing; “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Tim.i: i).

He is able to keep, therefore He will keep. You may have inherited a nature whose whole bent is toward evil; but He is able to keep, and He will keep! It is impossible to believe for one moment that He would entrust to any of us a disposition which could not be tamed and trained by Him. You may have encouraged your evil tendencies by repeated indulgence, so that the track is well-trodden towards sin; but He is able to keep, and He will keep! He can make the Niagara leap backward; the unbroken flow of the river cease; and the ocean-waves congeal and cleave. You may have, in the clear call of duty, to spend your days in a place where everything is against godliness and righteousness of life, and the air is tainted with impurity and blasphemy; but even there He is able to keep, and He will keep! No fortifications, however weak; no panic-stricken heart, however fearful; no misgivings, however weary — can invalidate the power of Him who patrols the words to keep His property, lest any hurt it night or day.

It is beyond all question that He will not suffer Himself to be deprived of the results of His blood-shedding.

He has expended too much on us to be defrauded now. He is too deeply involved to dare to seek to extricate Himself. He is like some millionaire, largely implicated in some financial speculation, which is not perfectly safe; and who is therefore compelled to go on putting in more and more capital, until the corner is turned, and the whole investment placed beyond the risk of loss. For His honor’s sake, for His blood’s sake, for His Son’s sake, He is bound to keep.

But His keeping power is not exercised apart from us, or in spite of its. It is coincident with our faith. The Bible is full of promises, which in many cases are evidently unfulfilled, not because of any failure on God’s part, but because we will not turn the golden key of Faith in the wards of Promise. Christ Himself, however willing, cannot do mighty works where “j£>er£ /iDoment,” 27

there is unbelief. It is not even enough to pray for God’s keeping power; we must claim it. I was much helped the other day by a young man saying. “I used to pray to God to keep me, and I was not kept; I now claim His keeping each morning, and thank Him for it, and I have learned the secret of victory.”

Yes, it is a true distinction. There may be much prayer without the faith that claims. But where there is the presence of such faith, small as a grain of mustard-seed, slight as the trace of ozone in the air, it carries with it an open sesame to all God’s treasures, and notably to all the tenderness and sufficiency of His keeping power.

Let us bind his promise on our hearts as we descend each day into the arena of life, dreading the onset of men as wild beasts, and despairing of remaining steadfast or unmoved. Let us do more, and claim that God, by His Holy Spirit, should do as He has said. Let us march to victory with a veritable battle-shout, “Jesus Saves!” Let us anticipate every battle with the chant of thanksgiving on our lips (2 Chron. xx:2i.) “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.” We shall not be kept from temptation, but in it. We shall not be delivered from the presence of evil tendencies within, but we shall be rendered dead to them. We shall still need to confess ourselves sinners requiring daily intercession and cleansing; but we shall be kept from conscious sin up to the limit of our light; we shall be kept in ever deeper avenues and departments of our nature; we who were once kept from the outward act shall be kept from the inward disposition and intention; we shall be kept from the uprising of desire as well as from its manifestation in fact.

But there is one promise more — “I will water it every moment.” In the scorching Oriental heat the vineyard needs incessant watering, else the vines fail. And our spirits are equally dependent on the refreshment which only God’s tender love can afford. The heat of temptation and of sore discipline is so oppressive, that we must faint beneath either one or the other, expect for the alleviating succor which our faithful God is constantly administering.

Every moment — literally, every time the eye twinkles — God is watering us. We have become so accustomed to it, that we hardly realize how much we owe to it. Sometimes by the gentle distillation of dew, that gathers almost imperceptibly on our spirits, and we hardly know whence or how it has

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come. Sometimes by the touch of a moistening sponge, applied by the very hand of God. Sometimes by a shower of grace. By a text suggested to our memory; a holy thought; the look, or act, or word of some companion; a paragraph in a paper; a sentence in a book — God waters us, and we become fresh and green, where the leaf showed signs of becoming shriveled and sere.

How blessed is life like this! In such hands — watched and guarded by such care — nurtured with such tenderness! May the result in each of us be — not the disappointment of wild grapes, but — the abundant clusters that will make glad the great Husbandman of our souls.

We are safe because of His invisible protection; as in our childhood’s days the penny was safe at the bottom of the basin, the water of which was charged with electricity, an unseen influence that was mighty to resist all approach. We are refreshed by a tenderness which does not use a cataract when a summer shower will suffice for the tender grass on the mown lawns. “Thy gentleness has made me great.”