Thy Word
“Thy -word is a lamp to ray feet.” — Ps. cxiz. 105.
Man’s word disappoints — God’s word, never! “The Word of the Lord is tried.” It has been tried by the sinner; he neglected it and perished! It has been tried by the saint; he has believed it and been saved!
What a precious legacy of God to our world! The volume of nature, much as it teaches, is dumb on the question of a sinner’s acceptance. The Scriptures alone can solve the enigma, “How is God to deal with the guilty?” That question unanswered — in peace we could not live, in peace we dared not die! But glad tidings, oh! precious messenger from God, hast thou brought to a doomed earth — “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever belie veth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life!” Were there no more in this Divine communication than that one brief entry, the Bible would still be better to us than “thousands of gold and silver.”
But it is a vast magazine and emporium of heavenly wisdom — free to all — suited for all — intended for all — offered to all; — an* inexhaustible mine — the deeper you dig, the richer the ore. It has a word in season for rich and poor, young and old — for the wandering — the doubting — the sorrowing — the believing — the dying — the perishing! Reader! sit at the feet of Jesus in His Word, and with the docility of a little child, say, “Speak, Lord!” Approach it ever as if it met you with the living salutation,” I have a message from God for thee P’’ There are differences in every heart-chamber, but this key fits every door. Make it a faithful mirror, in which you see a reflection of yourself. The
more faithfully it is held up, the more will the sense of deficiency and defilement drive you to the atoning blood!
In all your difliculties, make it “the man of your counsel;” in all your perplexities, make it your interpreter and guide; in all your sorrows, make it your fountain of consolation; in all yom- temptations, make it your ultimate court of appeal. When venturing on debatable ground, let this deter thee — “What saith the Scripture?” When assailed, let this protect and defend thee — “It is written!”
Precious at all times, it is especially precious in “the dark and cloudy day.” We may do without our beacon by day; but where are we without it in the midnight tempestuous sea? “I should have perished,” says a sinking cast-away,” in mine affliction, but Thy
Word hath quickened me.”
•
“Oft as I lay me down to rest,
O may the reconciling Word
Sweetly compose my weary breast;
While on the bosom of my Lord
I sink in blissful dreams away,
And visions of eternal day l”
Be it mine to look forward to that blessed time, when the intervention of that Word, and all other means of grace, will terminate, for, in heaven “they need no candle!” Meanwhile, pillowing my head on the “Word of the eternal God, and with these glorious prospects in view —
“I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP; FOE THOU, LOSD, ONLY MAKEST MB DWELL IN SAFETY T