_RECKONING UP THINGS_
PSALM xc. 1-12.
Numbering things is one of the healthful exercises of the spiritual life.
Unless we count, memory is apt to be very tricky and to snare us into
strange forgetfulness. Unless we count what we have given away, we are
very apt to exaggerate our bounty. We often think we have given when we
have only listened to appeals; the mere audience has been mistaken for
active beneficence. The remedy for all this is occasionally to count our
benevolences and see how we stand in a balance-sheet which we could
present to the Lord Himself.
And we must count our blessings. It is when our arithmetic fails in the
task, and when counting God's blessings is like telling the number of the
stars, that our souls bow low before the eternal goodness, and all
murmuring dies away "like cloud-spots in the dawn."
And we must also "number our days." We are wasteful with them, and we
throw them away as though they are ours in endless procession. And yet
there are only seven days in a week! A day is of immeasurable
preciousness, for what high accomplishment may it not witness? A day in
health or in sickness, spent unto God, and applied unto wisdom, will
gather treasures more precious than rubies and gold.