My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year | Page 6

the voice amid our joys! The twilight helps me to be
serious; the noonday glare tends to make me heedless.
"And they follow Me!" Discernment is succeeded by obedience. That is
the one condition of becoming a saint--to follow the immediate call of
the Lord. And it is the one condition of becoming an expert listener.
Every time I hear the voice, and follow, I sharpen my sense of hearing,
and the next time the voice will sound more clear.
"And I give unto them eternal life." Yes, life is found in the ways of a
listening obedience. Every faculty and function will be vitalized when I
follow the Lord of life and glory. "In Christ shall all be made alive."
My Saviour, graciously give me the listening ear! Give me the obedient
heart.

JANUARY the Eighteenth
FALSE SHEPHERDS

EZEKIEL xxxiv. 1-10.
This word of the Lord puts before me the unlovely lineaments of the
false shepherds.
They are self-seeking. They "feed themselves," but they "feed not the
flock." They take up religion for what they can make out of it! It is a
carnal ambition, not a holy service. It is used for getting, not for giving,
for self-glorification and not for self-sacrifice. It is selfishness
masquerading as holiness, the thief in the garb of the shepherd.
And, therefore, the false shepherds are devoid of sympathy. "The
diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which
was sick." Selfishness always tends to benumbment. Humaneness is
fostered by sacrifice. Our sympathetic chords are kept refined by
chivalrous deeds. Drop the deeds and all our refinements begin to
coarsen, and we make no response to our brother's cries of need and
pain.
And because there is no sympathy there is no quest. "My sheep
wandered ... and none did seek after them." How can we seek them if
we have never missed them, if we have no sense that they are lost? Our
Lord came in travail of soul to "seek that which was lost." And I must
share His travail if I would share in the search.

JANUARY The Nineteenth
THE LOST SHEEP
EZEKIEL xxxiv. 11-19.
And now, again, I am bidden to contemplate the gracious ministries of
the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd searches the "far country" for His lost sheep. "I
will bring them ... out of all places where they have been scattered." He
goes into the hard wilderness of cold indifference, and wasteful pride,

and desolating sin, searching "high and low" for His foolish sheep. And
no place is unvisited by the Great Seeker! Every perilous ravine, where
a sheep can be lost, knows the footprints of the Shepherd. And He
knows my far-country, and He is seeking me!
And the Good Shepherd brings His wandering sheep back home. "I will
bring them ... to their own land." We return from the land of pride to
the home of lowliness, from hard indifference to gracious sympathy,
from the barrenness of sin to the beauty of holiness. We come back to
God's beautiful "lily-land" of eternal light and peace.
And what nutriment the Good Shepherd provides for the home-coming
sheep! "I will feed them in a good pasture." Our wasted powers shall be
renewed and strengthened by the fattening diet of grace. Love shall be
both host and meat! "He will satisfy thy mouth with good things."

JANUARY The Twentieth
THE PASSING OF THE BEAST
EZEKIEL xxxiv. 23-31.
When the Good Shepherd has charge of His flock "the wild beasts will
cease out of the land." All beastly passions shall be destroyed. The fair
gardens of our souls shall no longer be ravaged by sleek pride, or fierce
appetite, or ravenous lust. "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder,
the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet."
And the forces of nature shall be in friendly co-operation. "I will cause
the shower to come down in his season." We are to have mystic allies
in sky and field. Nature sides with the man who sides with God. Our
very garden becomes our helpmeet when we are cultivating the fruits of
the Spirit. The heavens assume a friendly aspect when we are
"marching to beautiful Zion." But when we are against the Lord all
these forces appear to be hostile. "The stars in their courses fought
against Sisera."

And we are to have a joyful assurance of the companionship of our God.
"This shall they know, that I, the Lord their God, am with them." And
in that precious assurance every other treasure is found! Only be sure of
that, and we shall walk about as kings and queens!

JANUARY the Twenty-first
THE VALUE OF ONE SOUL
MATTHEW xviii. 7-14.
What an infinite value the Lord attaches to one soul!