the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Music For the Soul
FROM DAWN TO NOON
They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. - Daniel 12:3
The most radiant thing on earth is the character of a good man. The world calls men of genius and intellectual force its lights. The Divine estimate, which is the true one, confers the name on righteousness. This Divine purpose concerning us may be realized by us, the Alpha and the Omega of which, the one means which includes all other, is laid down by Jesus Christ Himself when He said, "Abide in Me, and I in you, so shall ye bring forth much fruit." Our path will brighten, not because of any radiance in ourselves, but in proportion as we draw nearer and nearer to the fountain of heavenly radiance. The planets that move round the sun, further away than we are on the earth, get less of its light and heat; and those that circle around it within the limits of our orbit, get proportionately more. The nearer we are to Him, the more shall we shine. The sun shines by its own light, drawn indeed from the shrinkage of its mass, so that it gives away its very life in warming and illuminating its subject-worlds. But we shine only by reflected light, and therefore the nearer we keep to Him the more shall we be radiant.
That keeping in touch with Jesus Christ is mainly to be secured by the direction of thought and love and trust to Him. If we follow close upon Him, we shall not walk in darkness. It is to be secured and maintained very largely by what I am afraid is much neglected by Christian people of all sorts nowadays, and that is the devotional use of the: Bibles. That is the food by which we grow. It is to be secured and maintained still more largely by that which I, again, am afraid is but very imperfectly attained to by Christian people now, and that is, the habit of prayer. It is to be secured and maintained, again, by the honest conforming of our lives, day by day, to the present amount of our knowledge of Him and of His will. Whosoever will make all his life the manifestation of his belief, and turn all his creed into principles of action, will grow both in the comprehensiveness and in the depths of his Christian character. "Ye are light in the Lord." Keep in Him, and you will become brighter and brighter. So shall we "go from strength to strength, till we appear before God in Zion."
'Music For The Soul' daily readings for a year from the writings of the Rev. Alexander Maclaren, D.D., selected and arranged by the Rev. Geo. Coates, published by A.C. Armstrong and Son, 51 East Tenth Street, (1897). The original text is in the Public Domain and this electronic version is free for anyone without cost or obligation. This a year long daily devotional was written by the Rev. Alexander Maclaren over 100 years ago. This Scottish pastor had a heart to follow Jesus and a love for souls.
