April 30
He is His Own Interpreter
In the Hour of Silence"He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."—Luke 24:27.
JESUS is not only the one glorious Subject of the Scriptures—He is their one effectual and unerring Expounder and Revealer.
My mind, my conscience, my heart, my will: through them, as I bend over the holy Book, my Master makes His voice heard. Are not these faculties of His creating and fashioning? and does He not use them for the disclosure to me of His purpose and His love? By the avenues of my own nature, which He comprehends well, and to which He has many modes of access, my Saviour draws near me.
The discipline of life is His instrument, too, for the explanation and unfolding of His Word. In weakness and sorrow many a text grows plain to me. In difficult duty many a promise glows with a new light. In temptation many a precept and sacred example shine out as they never did formerly. This, also, cometh from my Lord, who is wonderful in His counsel and excellent in His working.
Most of all, the Holy Spirit is His Interpreter. It is He who makes the Bible quick and powerful, living and active. He helps me to hear in each of its sentences the "yea" of heaven—strong, sufficient, final. He renders it all profitable to me—for my teaching, my reproof and correction, my guidance and consolation. And He is my dear Master's Deputy and Ambassador.
Thus Jesus, though He walks no longer in visible form along the highways of my world, continues to expound to me the things in the Scriptures which concern Himself and myself.
May.
LUX IN TENEBRIS.
LEST that the candle of my faith Grow faint in the love-light and bliss, There was sent down a night of death Where the great darkness is.
And though the candle that I hold Sheds but a little ray about, Fearful the darkness and the cold If her light were put out.
Yet she doth burn up well, and throws Her faint, protecting gold around, Shielding from dark and evil foes My little plot of ground.
Comfortless? Nay; for still I feel Thou walkest with me through the night, Shoulder to shoulder, heel to heel, Within my space of light.
So I would choose being comfortless More than great comfort without Thee; With Thee great darkness, much distress, The vast and shoreless sea.
Fence Thou my candle round about With Thy sweet hands, lest she grow pale; Lest that the earth winds blow her out, And the black night prevail.
KATHARINE TYNAN HINKSON.