January 21

Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. - Haggai 1:5.

THE religion of the Bible is a reasonable service; nothing can be more widely different from groundless belief, or opposed to the enthusiasm of ignorant impulses, a heated imagination, or excited unintelligible feelings. It commences with “the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, so that we may see what is the hope of our calling;” and all its subsequent processes are carried on through the medium of a mind renewed by the Spirit of God. “Whatever is connected with love to God and obedience to his revealed will is the result of intention, and is influenced by corresponding motive. The Holy Spirit’s influences do not operate in us like the cures of a charm, of whose efficiency no account can be given. A Christian is able to give a reason of the hope that is in him. We are not forced into religion as are the motions of a machine, insensible of its workings and results; nor as the varied operations of the functions of our physical being are carried on in our bodies, which act independently of the mind and will. We are not only subjects of religious influences, but also instruments in producing them in others. What is done in us is done by us. Therefore, says the apostle, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his own good pleasure.”

We are here taught that, while God is the Author of all good, and our progress in goodness is from him, yet he does not carry us along in the way everlasting, but enables us to walk. He works in us, but it is that we may will and do. We are not only impressed, but employed. Faith and repentance are gifts of God; yet we believe and repent, and not God.. Thus we see that all true religion arises from consideration. Therefore, God, complaining of the Jews, says, “My people do not consider.” Therefore, David says, “I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.”

The Christian’s abhorrence of sin is not a thoughtless aversion. “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” His godly sorrow is not a thoughtless grief. “Then shall ye,” says God, “remember your own evil ways, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight.” His confidence is not a thoughtless trust; it is the result of knowledge:- “They that know thy name shall put their trust in thee.” His hope is not a presumptive expectation. He has “two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie,” which give him sure anchorage for his hope, of which he is “ready to give a reason to every one that asketh.” His patience in trouble is not the result of natural hardihood, or stoical apathy, or a reckless desperation: it is the effect of thought,-scriptural, sanctified thought.

May we consider our ways, and the Lord give us understanding in all things!