“Exalt her, and she shall promote thee.” She will lead me in the paths of progress. Every day she will lead me to new conquests, and in constantly enriching character I shall move towards life’s appointed goal. Holiness is the only success worth having. Other successes are like lamps whose trembling flames are blown out in the first gusty, stormy night. “But the path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more even unto perfect day.”
“She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace.” Yes, and her adornments are always beautiful. No beauty ever steals into the human face comparable with the delicate presence of spirituality. It makes plain features lovely, and transfigures them with “the glory of the Lord.”
AUGUST The Thirtieth
HOW TO DELIGHT IN THE WORD
Psalm cxix. 97-104.
MAN may measure his growth in grace by his growing delight in the speech of the Lord. When His words are unwelcome in my ears, when they are an intrusion which mars my pleasures, it is clear I am still in the far country of revolt. But if His words make “music in my ears,” if the Lord’s conversation is the very marrow of the feast, then I have entered into the circle of His intimate friends. When His words taste sweet, even with a bare board, I am “in heavenly places with Christ.”
And how can I attain unto this spiritual delight? Well, first of all I must make “His testimonies my meditations.” Our doctors tell us that the only way to taste the real savour of food is to masticate it well. Bolted food never unlocks its essences. And meditation is just mental mastication. To “turn the word over” in my mind will help to disburden its treasure.