"I do always those things that please Him."--John, viii. 29.
What a glorious motto for a man--"_I live for God!_" It is religion's
truest definition. It is the essence of angelic bliss--the
motive-principle of angelic action; "Ye ministers of His, that do His
pleasure." The Lord of angels knew no higher, no _other_ motive. It was,
during His incarnation, the regulator and directory of His daily being.
It supported Him amid the depressing sorrows of His woe-worn path. It
upheld him in their awful termination in the garden and on the cross.
For a moment, sinking human nature faltered under the load His Godhead
sustained; but the thought of "pleasing God" nerved and revived Him.
"Not my will, but _Thine_ be done."
It is only when the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, that this
animating desire to "please Him" can exist. In the holy bosom of Jesus,
that love reigned paramount, admitting no rival--no competing affection.
Though infinitely inferior in degree, it is the same impelling principle
which leads His people still to link enjoyment with His service, and
which makes consecration to Him of heart and life its own best
recompense and reward. "There is a gravitation," says one whose life was
the holy echo of his words, "in the moral as in the physical world. When
love to God is habitually in the ascendant, or occupying the place of
will, it gathers round it all the other desires of the soul as
satellites, and whirls them along with it in its orbit round the center
of attraction." (_Hewitson's Life._) Till the heart, then, be changed,
the believer can not have "this testimony that he _pleases God_." The
world, self, sin--these be the gods of the unregenerate soul. And even
_when_ changed, alas that there should be so many ebbings and flowings
in our tide of devotedness! Jesus could say, "I do _always_ those things
that please the Father." Glory to God burned within His bosom like a
living fire. "Many waters could not quench it." His were no fitful and
inconsistent frames and feelings, but the persistent habit of a holy
life, which had the one end in view, from which it never diverged or
deviated.
Let it be so, in some lowly measure with us. Let God's service not be
the mere livery of high days,--of set times and seasons; but, like the
alabaster box of ointment, let us ever be giving forth the fragrant
perfume of holiness. Even when the shadows of trial are falling around
us, let us "pass through the cloud" with the sustaining motive--"All my
wish, O God, is to please and glorify Thee! By giving or taking--by
smiting or healing--by the sweet cup or the bitter--'Father, glorify thy
name!'" "I don't want to be weary of God's dealing with me," said
Bickersteth, on his death-bed; "I want to glorify Jesus in them, and to
find Him more precious." Do I shrink from
trials--duties--crosses--because involving hardships and self-denial, or
because frowned on by the world? Let the thought of God's approving
countenance be enough. Let me dread no censure, if conscious of acting
in accordance with _His_ will. Let the Apostle's monitory word determine
many a perplexing path--"If I please men, I am not the servant of
Christ."
"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."
Sixteenth Day.