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Music For the Soul
Devotional: September 4th

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OUR NARROW VISION OF CHRIST

Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? - Mark 8:18

In Christ there are infinite depths to be experienced and to become acquainted with; and if we know Him at all as we ought to do, our knowledge of Him will be growing day by day. But how many of us stand at the same spot that we did when we first said that we were Christians?

We are like the Indians that live in rich gold countries, that could only gather the ore that happened to lie upon the surface or could be washed out of the sands of the river; but in this great Christ there are depths of gold, great reefs and veins of it, that will enrich us all if we dig - and we shall not get it unless we do.

He is the boundless ocean. We have contented ourselves with coasting along the shore and making timid excursions from one headland to another; let us strike out into the middle deep and see all the wonders that are there. This great Christ is like the infinite sky with its unresolved nebulae. We have but looked with our poor dim eyes; let us take the telescope that will reveal to us suns blazing where now we only see darkness.

If we have any true knowledge of Jesus Christ at all, it ought to be growing every day. And why does it not? Why does it not? You know a man because you are much with him. As the old proverb says, " If you want to know anybody, you must summer and winter with them "; and if you want to know Jesus Christ, there must be a great deal more meditative thoughtfulness and honest study of His life and work than any of us have ever put forth. We know people, too, by sympathy and by love and by keeping near them. Keep near your Master, Christian men! Oh, it is a wonder and a shame and a sin for us professing Christians that, having tasted the sweetness of His love, we should come down so low as to long for the garbage of earth. Who is fool enough to prefer vinegar to wine, bitter herbs to grapes, dross to gold? Who is there that, having consorted with the King, would gladly herd with ragged rebels? And yet that is what we do. We love one another, the world, people round about us. We labour in the effort to make acquaintances, to surround ourselves with friends, and to fill our hearts from these many fountains. All right and well! But let us seek to know Christ more, and to know Him most chiefly in this, that He is for us the manifest God and the Saviour of the world.

Some of us may have seen a weighty acknowledgment from a distinguished biologist, lately deceased, which strikes me as relevant to this thought. Listen to his confession: " I know from experience the intellectual distractions of scientific research, philosophical speculation, and artistic pleasures, but am also well aware that even when all are taken together, and well sweetened to taste, in respect of consequent reputation, means, social position, etc., the whole concoction is but as high confectionery to a starving man. ... It has been my lot to know not a few of the foremost men of our generation, and I have always observed that this is profoundly true." That is the testimony of a man that had tried the highest, least material forms of such a trust. And I know that there is an "amen! " to it in every heart, and I lift up opposite to all such experiences the grand summary of Christian experience: " We which have believed do enter into rest."

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