Twenty-second Day

Twenty-second Day.

WAITING ON GOD: 3ts Certaints of Messing.

^'Thou slialt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me.'—Is A. xlix. 23.

'Blessed are all they that wait for Him.'—Is A. xxx. 18.

WHAT promises! How God seeks to draw us to waiting on Him by the most positive assurance that it never can be in vain: 'They shall not be ashamed that wait for Me.' How strange that, though we should so often have experienced it, we are yet so slow of learning that this blessed waiting must and can be as the very breath of our life, a continuous resting in God's presence and His love, an unceasing yielding of ourselves for Him to perfect His work in us. Let us once again listen and meditate, until our heart says with new conviction: 'Blessed are they that wait for Him!' In our sixth day's lesson we found in the prayer of Psalm xxv.: 'Let none that wait on Thee be ashamed.' The very prayer shows how we fear lest it might be. Let us listen to God's answer, until every fear is banished, and we «end back to heaven the words God speaks, Yea, Lord, we believe what Thou sayest: 'All they that wait for Me shall not be ashamed.' 'Blessed are all they that wait for Him.'

The context of each of these two passages points us to times when God's Church was in great straits, and to human eye there were no possibilities of deliverance. But God interposes with His word of promise, and pledges His Almighty Power for the deliverance of His people. And it is as the God who has Himself undertaken the work of their redemption that He invites them to wait on Him, and assures them that disappointment is impossible. We, too, are living in days in which there is much in the state of the Church, with its profession and its formalism, that is indescribably sad. Amid all we praise God for, there is, alas, much to mourn over! Were it not for God's promises we might well despair. But in His promises the Living God has given, and bound Himself to us. He calls us to wait on Him. He assureth us we shall not be put to shame. Oh that our hearts might learn to wait before Him, until He Himself reveals to us what His promises mean, and in the promises reveals Himself in His hidden glory I We shall be irresistibly drawn to wait on Him alone. God increase the company of those who say, 'Our soul waiteth for the Lord: He is our Help and our Shield.'

This waiting upon God on behalf of His Church and people will depend greatly upon the place that waiting on Him has taken in our personal life. The mind may often have beautiful visions of what God has promised to do, and the lips may speak of them in stirring words, but these are not really the measure of our faith or power. No; it is what we really know of God in our personal experience, conquering the enemies within, reigning and ruling, revealing Himself in His Holiness and Power in our inmost being,—it is this will be the real measure of the spiritual blessing we expect from Him, and bring to our fellowmen. It is as we know how blessed the waiting on God has become to our own souls, that we shall confidently hope in the blessing to come on the Church around us, and the key-word of all our expectations will be, He hath said:'All they that wait on Me shall not be ashamed.' From what He hath done in us, we ■hall trust Him to do mighty things around us. 'Blessed are all they that wait for Him.' Yes, blessed even now in the waiting. The promised blessings, for ourselves, or for others, may tarry; the unutterable blessedness of knowing and having Him who hath promised, the Divine Blesser, the Living Fountain of the coming blessings, is even now ours. Do let this truth get full possession of your souls, that waiting on God is itself the highest privilege of the creature, the highest blessedness of His redeemed child. Even as the sunshine enters with its light and warmth, with its beauty and blessing, into every little blade of grass that rises upward out of the cold earth, so the Everlasting God meets, in the greatness and the tenderness of His love, each waiting child, to shine in his heart 'the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' Bead these words again, until your heart learns to know what God waits to do to you. Who can measure the difference between the great sun and that little blade of grass 1 and yet the grass has all of the sun it can need or hold. Do believe that in waiting on God, His greatness and your littleness suit and meet each other most wonderfully. Just bow in emptiness and poverty and utter impotence, in humility and meekness, and surrender to His will before His great glory, and be still. As you wait on Him, God draws nigh. He will reveal Himself as the God who will fulfil mightily His every promise. And let your heart ever again take up the song: 'Blessed are all they that wait for Him.'

'My soid, wait thou only upon Ood/'