The Medical Missionary, vol. 13
August 1904
“The True Priesthood” The Medical Missionary 13, 8.
E. J. Waggoner
[Outline of sermon before graduating class. A.M.M. College. June 19. 1904]
For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord hosts. Malachi 2:7. MEDM August 1904, page 243.1
There has never been a people or a nation that did not have a priesthood; and there has never been any nation that has not at some period of its existence been priest-ridden. If it has not been at the beginning or during the whole of the period, then certainly at the close; and that fact was the cause of its downfall. MEDM August 1904, page 243.2
This is not to say that a priesthood is a perversion of right-that it is not in the order of God that there should be priesthood; but it is to say that this world has never yet seen the perfection of the priesthood. No people has yet been willing to accept God’s perfect plan of a priesthood. MEDM August 1904, page 243.3
When the children of Israel were led by God out of Egypt, they received from him a priesthood; but what they received from God was not what he proposed to give them. Israel as a people never rose to the measure of God’s plan for them; and no other people ever have. The Jewish people came at last to “overpass the deeds of the heathen” through their failure to comprehend and accept God’s plan for them as to the priesthood. As in every other nation, the priests regarded themselves as a class apart from the people, as the ruling class-the power behind the throne. It was indeed God’s purpose that the priests should not only be behind the throne, but upon the throne, but not as a class apart from the people. God would have had his people a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6), and this is still his purpose (1 Peter 2:9). This is what God is still waiting for. MEDM August 1904, page 243.4
The fact that there has always been a priestly class ruling over the people, has been the fault of the people themselves. God said: “A wonderful and a horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so.” (Jeremiah 5:30, 31.) There has never been a tyranny, a dominant priesthood, a papacy, that was not primarily the fault of the people. Why?-Because the people willingly renounced their privileges, and a few men seized upon them; and when any man grasps power or privilege that does not belong to him, he inevitably perverts and misuses both that and his own proper privilege. If the people had all been willing to occupy the high position that God wanted them to occupy, and had been willing to pay the price for it, in self-denial and devotion to God, it would have been utterly impossible for the priesthood to degenerate into a class existing for the purpose of ruling over the people and being supported by them; for all would have been priests, living to give, and ruling by love. MEDM August 1904, page 243.5
Christ, our great High Priest, is the model for the priesthood. His priesthood is that of Melchizedek. He is king and priest-king because priest, and priest because king. The two offices are properly inseparable. But God gives us the shepherd as his model of royalty. Jehovah, the King of the universe, is a Shepherd (Psalm 23:1); and the two greatest rulers that Israel ever had-the men specially chosen by God himself, and who most perfectly met his idea-Moses and David-were shepherds. Christ, “that great Shepherd of the sheep,” came forth from Bethlehem, the home of shepherds, to rule, that is, to feed, God’s people. Matthew 2:6, and margin. MEDM August 1904, page 244.1
We have referred to Melchizedek as the model. He was King of Righteousness and Prince of Peace, and therefore priest of the Most High God. That is all we know of him. In every nation the priesthood has been hereditary; but who can reckon his descent from Melchizedek? Everybody can. Nobody can dispute any person’s claim that he is descended from Melchizedek. He stands out as the representative of an individual priesthood. His nationality and descent are hidden, to show that he stands for every man of every age and nation. This is suggestive of the truth that every individual of right ought to be a veritable son of God, and of the truth revealed in Hebrews 5:5, 6, that every son is priest. “Christ glorified not himself to be made high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee. As He saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” Christ is a priest because a son; and as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God,” and therefore priests. MEDM August 1904, page 244.2
But every priest taken from among men is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices; and here again we find the model in Christ. He offered himself; and he is come in the flesh, in order that we also may present our bodies “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God”-spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. MEDM August 1904, page 244.3
But no man taketh to himself the honor and power. Whosoever will take power, loses it, even as he who seeks to save his life loses it. God gives us life including all gifts, in order that we in turn may give it. Whoever has had his eyes opened, is sent to open other blind eyes; and if the eyes that he opens can see better than he can, he is to rejoice at the success of his work. “He must increase, but I must decrease,” is the law of God’s kingdom. God often uses a very humble instrument to accomplish a great end. A small match may start a great blaze: the match goes out, and nobody thinks of it; and yet but for its momentary gleam the brilliant light would have been darkness. Whenever God gives a thing to one person, it is that that one may help somebody else to the same possession, or that somebody else may use him as a stepping stone to something higher. So, whenever God ordains a priest, it is that others may learn of him, and through him attain to knowledge even greater than his. The priest king is not set over others, but above them, that he may lift them up to his level, and help them to go even higher, if God has given them ability. MEDM August 1904, page 244.4
There is one feature which seems to me most important, and which is especially pertinent to-day to those to whom this day means more than any other day has ever meant. The priests of Israel were physicians by God’s own appointment. The priests were the sanitary inspectors, the teachers of hygiene, and the ones to whom pertained the treatment of disease. What was this but an indication that God’s design is that everyone should be his own physician, and should understand how to preserve his own health? Christ on earth was the greatest physician the world ever saw; and his words are medicine to-day as they were of old. (Psalm 107:20; Proverbs 4:20-22.) Christ made men whole, and to be whole is to have no defect. If the gospel stopped short with making men simply good, no matter how good, and did not include making them physically whole, it would be a total failure; for men would sink into the grave and that would be the end of them. The Gospel must necessarily embrace as its culmination, the making of man “every whit whole,”-giving him complete victory over death. MEDM August 1904, page 244.5
Therefore, the true messenger of the Lord of hosts-the true priest-has it as a part of his business to teach men not only how to live in this world, but how to live so that they may keep on living forever. You are here to-day a representative of the one school whose sole object in view is the training of the perfect priesthood-to send forth a class that shall do away with the idea of class, break the bands of ignorance, superstition, and tyranny, and establish the idea of sanctified, glorified humanity. You are to give to others what you have received, not merely that they may be personally benefited, but that they, each according to his capacity or receiving, may minister the same to others. MEDM August 1904, page 245.1
And now one question arises. It comes whenever we start any work: What shall we get?” The answer is,— MEDM August 1904, page 245.2
“Get leave to work
In this world — ‘tis the best you’ll get at all;
Get work! get work!
Be sure ‘tis better than what you work to get.”
MEDM August 1904, page 245.3
This is only the echo of the Scripture statement: “In all labor there is profit.” Those who have really worked, who have recognized their calling as workers together with God, have appreciated the fact that labor is its own reward. The man who measures his work by a money standard, has a very poor idea of its value, and of himself. Because labor is life, the man who truly works gives his own life; and life can not be valued with money. We hear of how much a man is worth; but the worth of a man is not what he gets, but what he gives. MEDM August 1904, page 245.4
We read in Exodus of the consecration of the priests. You can verify for yourselves the statement that the Hebrew of that word “consecrate” is to “fill the hand.” The priest was consecrated to his work: his hand was filled, that he might impart. The true priest’s hands are filled by God, whose hands are filled with good,-with light and life. MEDM August 1904, page 245.5
So to you there is no higher word than this: “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee;” and though darkness, because of the perversion of divine truth, may cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, yet upon you, that you may be the light of the world, and that the people who sit in darkness may see a great light, even as of old they saw it when Christ ministered life and healing,-upon you the Lord shall arise, and the glory of God, the light of life, shall be seen on thee; and people shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy risings. May God speed the good work! MEDM August 1904, page 245.6
“Daily Bread for Christian Workers” The Medical Missionary 13, 8.
E. J. Waggoner
Monday, August 1. The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. Psalm 20:1.
The Revised Version renders the Hebrew of this verse accurately thus: “The Lord answer thee in the day of trouble.” Often in the Bible we have the word “hear” in the place of “answer.” This is not really inaccurate; for with the Lord to hear prayer is to answer it; just as for us to hear his voice is to obey. Do not forget that this expression of desire that the Lord will hear us is God’s own word, and therefore a promise that he will. Especially noteworthy is the assurance that he will answer us in the day of trouble. Not only will God answer the prayers offered in tribulation, but prayers that in time of prosperity may have seemed unheeded by him will often in time of trouble be answered in a marvelous manner. MEDM August 1904, page 260.1
Tuesday, August 2. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Psalm 20:1. MEDM August 1904, page 260.2
Note the marginal reading, as well as the Revised Version, where in place of “defend thee” we have the stronger expression, “set thee up on high.” The Hebrew word is defined, “to set up on high, to exalt, to make powerful.” So the promise is not merely that we shall be protected from assaults, but that we shall be made powerful,-“endued with power from on high,”-and placed above our enemies. The name of the Lord will do this, for “the name of the Lord is a strong tower” Proverbs 18:10. MEDM August 1904, page 260.3
Wednesday, August 3. The Lord... send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion. Psalm 20 2. MEDM August 1904, page 260.4
Read this verse, and each succeeding verse in succession with all that precedes, and note how the promise accumulates. Here we have a corroboration of the statement that the Lord defends us not merely by enclosing us with a wall of defense, but by making us strong to carry on aggressive warfare against our enemies. Of course this is not our own strength, for “power belongeth unto God;” but he supports us, as the margin has it, so that his strength for us is the same as though it were inherent in us. God and human flesh unite to make the perfect man. All that we have comes from him, and all that he has is ours. MEDM August 1904, page 260.5
Thursday, August 4. The Lord... remember all thy offerings, and accept the burnt sacrifice. Psalm 20:3. MEDM August 1904, page 260.6
But you say, “I haven’t anything to offer him.” True, and that is just what the text contemplates; for here again the marginal reading gives the literal rendering of the Hebrew as “make fat” thy burnt sacrifice. The altar sanctifies the gift; that which is in itself worthless becomes valuable when given to God, which takes the waste, refuse matter that we cast upon the ground, and from it build beautiful flowers and nourishing food. So MEDM August 1904, page 260.7
“Fear not to enter his courts in the slenderness
Of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine;
Truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness,
These are the offerings to lay on his shrine.
“These, though we bring them in trembling and tearfulness,
He will accept for the Name that is dear.”
MEDM August 1904, page 260.8
Friday, August 5. The Lord ... grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel. Psalm 20:1. MEDM August 1904, page 260.9
Truly God is a most indulgent Father for nothing that his children ask him is denied. Even “the rebellious also” have their heart’s desire. Even in everlasting punishment people will get only what they have actually worked for. What a responsibility this places upon us! When God gives us, carte blanche, as it were, allowing us to have what we will, it becomes us to give great consideration to what we ask for. Far better is it for us to waive our privilege, and say, “Not what I will, but what thou wilt.” Then we shall fare infinitely better than if we insisted on choosing for ourselves, for God’s choice for us is “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” MEDM August 1904, page 260.10
Sabbath, August 6. We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners. Psalm 20:5. MEDM August 1904, page 261.1
For “rejoice,” the Revised Version has “triumph,” and gives us in the margin the alternative reading of “victory” for “salvation.” This suggests the truth that our triumph is not simply in the fact that God saves us, but is in the victory that he himself gains over his foes. His victory is ours; Christ, who conquered death, says “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Gesenius, in his lexicon, quotes the second part of this verse, and renders it, “In honor of our God we will set up banners.” Thus the element of selfishness is entirely removed. God is the one whose victory is most important; our interest and attention are wholly absorbed in him; and while we celebrate his fame, we ourselves are saved. MEDM August 1904, page 261.2
Sunday, August 7. The Lord fulfil all thy petitions. Psalm 20:5. MEDM August 1904, page 261.3
When Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, he said, “For that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice, it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.” Then how certain it must be that we can not ask for anything that God will not grant us, since the assurances to that effect are so many times multiplied. What great need there is of taking heed how and for what we ask. MEDM August 1904, page 261.4
Monday, August 8. Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. Psalm 20:6. MEDM August 1904, page 261.5
This is a matter of positive knowledge; there is no room for doubt that “the Lord saveth his anointed,” because he has already done it. When the heathen raged, and the people imagined extravagant things, and the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers took counsel together against Christ, plotting to destroy him, God set him upon his holy hill of Zion, “far above all principality and power.” Now remember that “ye have an unction from the Holy One” (John 2:20), and that therefore, as the anointed of Jehovah, your salvation is as sure as that of the Lord Jesus Christ. MEDM August 1904, page 261.6
Tuesday, August 9. The Lord will answer him [his anointed, whoever it may be] from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Psalm 20:6. MEDM August 1904, page 261.7
God is very practical in his answers: he answers with his strong right hand. With him, to hear is to answer, and to answer is to do. This is for God’s anointed-those who are consecrated, set apart, to him. In this connection we are reminded of the fact that the Hebrew of “consecrate” is to fill the hand. When God consecrates one as priest, he fills his hand. God’s hands are always filled with good things, and when he opens them he fills the hands of his anointed ones,-his children,-that they also may be ready to distribute. MEDM August 1904, page 261.8
Wednesday, August 10. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember [make mention of] the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen but we are risen, and stand upright. Psalm 20:7, 8. MEDM August 1904, page 261.9
Here we see contrasted the result of trusting in chariots and horses-the strength of nations-and of trusting in the name of the Lord. Those who trust in that which, because it is visible, appeals to them as the most practical means of help, suffer a double fall; while those who call on the name of the Lord are raised from where they had fallen. MEDM August 1904, page 261.10
“Take the name of Jesus ever
As a shield from every snare;
When temptations round you gather,
Breathe that holy name in prayer.”
MEDM August 1904, page 261.11
Thursday, August 11. Serve, Lord, let the king hear us when we call. Psalm 20:9. MEDM August 1904, page 261.12
Truly the Lord will hear us when we call, because he is listening. God is anxiously listening, not to hear the evil that we say, but to hear the slightest whisper of an appeal to him. In listening, he is compelled to hear many things that are wicked, but these are not what he is listening for. When we call to him, it is because he has first called to us; shall we not take heed that he hears only what he is listening for? MEDM August 1904, page 261.13
Friday, August 12. I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Psalm 116:1. MEDM August 1904, page 261.14
That is good reason for loving him; and that is reason for everybody to love him. Perhaps the reason why more do not love the Lord is that so few really believe that God hears prayer. They go through the form of prayer, it is true, but it is too often a mere form, without real expectation and positive certainty that God will hear them. To most people God seems so far away that there is room for much possibility that he may miss hearing many prayers. But he who knows from his wondrous working that God is near, can not doubt that he hears prayer, and must therefore love him. MEDM August 1904, page 261.15
Sabbath, August 13. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me. therefore I call upon him as long as I live. Psalm 116:2. MEDM August 1904, page 261.16
Many misunderstand the parable in Luke 18:1-8, imagining that the unjust judge represents God. But God is not unjust, and in the parable Christ says that God will “speedily” avenge those who cry day and night unto him. Someone asks, “What need is there of crying day and night to God, if he answers at once?” The answer is plain: When people find one who relieves their wants and supplies their need promptly and freely, they are very sure to apply to him again and again. This is just what the Lord desires; it is because he wants to have people call on him continually, that he gives so readily and so abundantly. MEDM August 1904, page 262.1
Sunday, August 14. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Psalm 116:3. MEDM August 1904, page 262.2
Nothing is too hard for the Lord. He delights in difficulties. He takes the utmost wrath of men and binds it about him as a garment, using it for the accomplishment of his designs. He brings forth light out of darkness, and strength out of weakness, and from the pains and the pit of death he brings forth life everlasting. So the fact that one is encompassed by the sorrows and pains of death is no evidence that God has left him, and no reason for ceasing to call on him. “If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” MEDM August 1904, page 262.3
Monday, August 15. Then called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Psalm 116:4. MEDM August 1904, page 262.4
This text is well illustrated in the case of Jonah. He was in the depths, and that because of his own perverseness; but “out of the belly of hell” he cried unto the Lord, and was speedily answered and delivered. Better still is it illustrated in the case of Him who carried in his own body the sins of the world, who cried unto Him that was able to save him from death, and was brought up from the grave, an example of what God desires to do for all men. MEDM August 1904, page 262.5
Tuesday, August 16. The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. Psalm 116:6. MEDM August 1904, page 262.6
Read this verse in connection with the preceding one. Many who would not dream of questioning God’s righteousness, do often doubt that he forgives and saves them; but the fact that God does this, is given as proof of his righteousness. “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It is “the simple” that God upholds; that is, those who are single in mind and heart, and not double minded. “A double minded man is not stable in all his ways,” because he trusts now in God, and now in himself: but man who trusts in God alone is firm as a rock. MEDM August 1904, page 262.7
Wednesday, August 17. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Psalm 116:7. MEDM August 1904, page 262.8
It would seem to be a most natural thing for men to return to and remain with the One who deals bountifully with them; yet they do not, because they do not recognize God in his gifts. God says, “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” So the professedly wise man has less knowledge than the dullest of brutes because he does not get acquainted with the One who daily feeds him. But since God continues his good works, that we may return and find rest, and in returning and rest find salvation. MEDM August 1904, page 262.9
Thursday, August 18. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. Psalm 116:8. MEDM August 1904, page 262.10
This is the bountiful way in which the Lord has dealt with us. But there are so many to whom this is but a theory or doctrine. They believe, as a matter of history, that God raised Christ from the dead, but they do not realize that God has saved their souls from death. Nevertheless, God has saved every living soul from death; whether or not they accept the salvation is another matter. The miracle of the resurrection is enacted every day in bringing thousands to birth, and in breathing the breath of life into millions more. Then “let everything that hath breath praise the Lord,” and in so doing find salvation. MEDM August 1904, page 262.11
Friday, August 10. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? Psalm 116:12. MEDM August 1904, page 262.12
There is not a soul on earth that does not with good reason ask this question for God is daily leading everybody to benefits that can not be measured. And if they can not be measured, they certainly can not be paid for. What shall we render for them? Nothing, except make such use of them that God can see that we appreciate them too much to squander them. We pay for the things that that are of little or no value; but the best possessions come to us as a free gift, because they are beyond price. MEDM August 1904, page 262.13
Sabbath, August 20. I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. Psalm 116:13. MEDM August 1904, page 263.1
Here is the answer to the question asked in verse 12, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” What shall we do? Take what he gives and ask for more. What a wonderful way of doing business; it is truly not after the manner of men. And when we have paid for what God has given us, by asking more, then what? Why, the new gift has laid us under double obligations, and so we must now take twice as much as before, and so on in geometrical progression. And to eternity there will be no diminution in the supply, because life and love multiply by giving. MEDM August 1904, page 263.2
“Immortal Love, forever full.
Forever flowing free,
Forever shared, forever whole,
A never-ebbing sea!”
MEDM August 1904, page 263.3
Sunday, August 21. Precious in the sight of Lord is the death of his saints. Psalm 116:15. MEDM August 1904, page 263.4
“Precious” comes from “price;” the precious metals are those that are most costly. The Hebrew word in this place means costly, and is so rendered in some versions. “Costly in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” The Lord’s saints are the instruments of his righteousness; and to lose one’s instrument, is always an expensive matter. When the harvest is plenteous, the laborers few, the husbandman can not afford to lose any of his workers. So every saint that dies in this time, when the work is to be cut short and closed up, is a distinct loss to God. Be sure that he himself will not lightly lay any of them aside. The service of God contains a promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. 1 Timothy 4:8. MEDM August 1904, page 263.5
Monday, August 22. O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. Psalm 116:16. MEDM August 1904, page 263.6
Who may say this?-Everybody who yields himself to the Lord, to be his servants; for “to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are.” (Romans 6:16.) Everyone, therefore, is free to determine his own standing. And then what?-He is a free man; for the Lord’s service is liberty. He is free from the bondage of the service of sin, because “no man can serve two masters.” When therefore Satan, the old taskmaster, comes about claiming us as his servants, and trying to drive us back into bondage, we are truly to declare to the Lord that we are his servants, to assert our liberty in him and to claim his protection; and we may be sure that the Lord will not neglect his own. MEDM August 1904, page 263.7
Tuesday, August 23. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. Psalm 121:1, margin. MEDM August 1904, page 263.8
The marginal reading is to be preferred; because our help comes from God, and not from the hills. “Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.” (Jeremiah 3:23.) The ancient heathen built their temples on the hills, but no help could come from them, because the gods that were in those temples had no power. They were on the hills: but God, whose temple was also on a hill, is above the hills. God, by the strength with which he is girded, sets the mountains fast (Psalm 65:6); but the mountains can not impart strength. MEDM August 1904, page 263.9
Wednesday, August 24. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:2. MEDM August 1904, page 263.10
Our need is too great and too pressing to allow us to be content with any secondary source of strength, if there were any such. We must draw from the original source of strength. The mountains and all things that God has made reveal his everlasting power and divinity, but they can not impart any of it. They can only declare the glory of God, directing us to their Maker and ours, as the one who has help to supply for all need. He is worthy of eternal thanks, because he “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” Ephesians 3:20. MEDM August 1904, page 263.11
Thursday, August 25. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. Psalm 121:3. MEDM August 1904, page 263.12
Who is it that will not suffer our foot to be moved?-It is God, who made “the everlasting hills,” setting them fast by his strength. In his strength we may be even more immovable than they: for the mountains shall be carried into the sea: but God says that though the mountains depart, and the hills be removed, His lovingkindness that holds us up shall not depart from us. When the mountains and the hills move out of their places, it will be good to be able to rest in the hand that can both set them fast and move them. MEDM August 1904, page 263.13
Friday, August 26. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Psalm 121:3, 4. MEDM August 1904, page 263.14
There are two words here, “slumber,” and “sleep.” The last one means to be asleep, while the first one means “to fall asleep from weariness or lassitude. The primary idea seems to be that of nodding.”-Gesenius. This God never does; “the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary,” (Isaiah 40:28) God does not nod over his work; his hands never relax through weariness, and allow what they are holding to drop. How wonderful! And because God wakes, we can sleep, and be sure of waking. MEDM August 1904, page 264.1
Sabbath, August 27. The Lord is thy keeper. Psalm 121:5. MEDM August 1904, page 264.2
Thy keeper, remember; not thy jailor. Have you ever thought what you should do if the Lord should fall asleep? Of course you would never do anything again. Have you ever thought how it is that you are kept alive during the night, and wakened from your unconscious condition in the morning? The sleeping man is dead in every respect except that he breathes. He lives, but he is certainly doing nothing then for his living. How is this breath of life continued to us, when we are awake, as well as when we are asleep?-By no other means than that by which the first breath was given to Adam. Everyone thinks of God as very near to Adam when he made him; but if God, whose hands have fashioned us as truly as they did Adam, were not as close to us as to the first man when he was made, we could not live a moment. “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” MEDM August 1904, page 264.3
Sunday, August 28. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. Psalm 121:5. MEDM August 1904, page 264.4
There is another wonder: “The Lord God is a sun,” and he is at the same time a shield from the sun (Psalm 84:11.) He is “a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29), and he is also “the fountain of living waters.” (Jeremiah 2:13.) This is beyond all comprehension; but the truth of it we may grasp and clearly perceive when we remember that all things come from him. The earth itself is the offspring of God, as truly as we are, who come from the earth. “In him were all things created, and in him all things consist.” So he is both sun and shade to us, indicating that in him we get everything in exactly the right proportion. Safely we may MEDM August 1904, page 264.5
“Sit down beneath his shadow,
And rest with great delight;
The faith that now beholds him
Is pledge of future sight.”
MEDM August 1904, page 264.6
Monday, August 29. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. Psalm 121:6. MEDM August 1904, page 264.7
Every Bible student involuntarily thinks of the description of “the seven last plagues” (Revelation 16) when the sun will have “power to scorch men with fire,” and is glad of this promise. God will then be a shade for his people. When the wicked are destroyed and the righteous dwell in everlasting burnings,” there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge.” (Isaiah 4:6.) But why not bring the application nearer. The Lord is the same now that he will ever be; then why should any of his servants now suffer from sunstroke? The Bible says that “the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.” Is he? See how this does not indicate a way of enduring the great heat of summer without discomfort. MEDM August 1904, page 264.8
Tuesday, August 30. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy soul. Psalm 121:7. MEDM August 1904, page 264.9
Blessed promise! Why should we limit it? We believe that he is able to keep us from all spiritual evil, and we must believe that he is just as able to preserve us from physical evils. But whatever God is able to do for his people, he has done (Isaiah 5:4.) His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life, as well as to godliness (2 Peter 1:3). If all good men had always trusted God as much for their life as they did for godliness, the history of the world would have been different. And a change must even yet take place, because every promise of God must be practically demonstrated among men before the end comes. MEDM August 1904, page 264.10
Wednesday, August 31. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. Psalm 121:8. MEDM August 1904, page 264.11
“What shall we say to these things. If God be for us, who can be again us. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall we not with him also freely give us all things. He can not do otherwise, because “in him all things consist.” Then let us accept all his gifts in the spirit in which he has given them and for the purpose for which he designed them, and life will nevermore be “a burden,” but a joy. MEDM August 1904, page 264.12