Our earthly existence is a pilgrimage which none can successfully perform without Divine aid.
I. ALL MEN NEED A GUIDE. There are many who have been determined to have their own way; and when that way has led them rote” the path of sin and ended, in,, shame and unhappiness, they have said, “Ah, I wish I had known this in time! Many persons often wish, “O that I could begin my life again with my present knowledge of what is best for me!” In the pilgrimage of earthly existence there are many perils. There is often the uncertainty of darkness. We are beset by the peril of false leaders. There are spiritual robbers who meet us on every hand. There are snares of sinful pleasure and selfish indulgence. There is the intoxication of prosperity. Some allow themselves to be broken down by adversity. We are in peril from flatterers.
II. THE LORD IS OUR GUIDE.
1. He is a compassionate guide.
2. A faithful guide.
3. A perfect guide.
4. He knows your life at the end as well as the beginning.
III. TO WHAT WILL THE LORD GUIDE US?
1. To truth.
2. To success in life. True success is to be able to do the will of
God.
3. The Lord will guide the burdened to the arms of strength. (W. Birch.)
The promised guidance
I. IT IS A NECESSARY PROMISE. “What could the children of Israel have done in the wilderness, without the cloudy fiery pillar to lead them over its trackless wastes? This world is just such a wilderness to us.
II. IT IS A REASONABLE PROMISE. I do not mean that it is reasonable for us to expect it. No, indeed, we have no right to look for a blessing so great and so gracious. I mean it is a reasonable promise so far as God is concerned. It is what He can easily fulfil.
III. IT IS A COMFORTING PROMISE. It meets our wants as the children of God, and meets them fully. If we are depending on our fellow-creatures for help, there are always two difficulties in our way. One is that our friends may not know just what help we are needing; or if they know it, they may not be able to reach us with the help we need. But God is able to concentrate His power, His presence, and His sufficiency in the case of each of His people, as thoroughly and as effectually as though that single case were the only one existing to claim His attention or to enlist His power. (R. Newton, D. D.)
A happy Christian
Observe in what connection this sunny sketch of prosperity occurs. It is set in a frame that excites the strong prejudice of some professing Christians. The setting is a framework of duties. The blessings are not promised to every Christian unconditionally,” “but are fenced in with terms: If thou doest this, and if thou doest that, then shall such-and-such blessings be thine.” Though salvation is of grace, the happiness of the Christian does depend upon his obedience.
I. These people, who are thus full of God’s Spirit, are described as possessing CONTINUAL GUIDANCE. “The Lord shall guide thee continually.”
1. There come to them, as to other men, dilemmas in providence. He goes not amiss who goes in the company of God.
2. The path of doctrine, also, is sometimes difficult. The Holy Ghost will lead us into all truth. So shall it be, likewise, in matters of spiritual experience.
3. Our experience often seems to be as though it had no rule. If we are enabled by grace to seek close and vital union with Christ, and to live upon Him continually, we may rest assured that whether our experience be gloomy or delightful, and whether our inward conflicts or joys be paramount, He will still be at the helm, and will guide us continually.
II. The second blessing promised in the text is INWARD SATISFACTION. “And satisfy thy soul in drought.” It is a blessed thing to have the soul satisfied, for the soul is of great capacity. The Christian has got what his soul wants. He has a removal of all that which marred his peace, blighted his prospects, and made his soul empty and hungry. His sin is pardoned; he is reconciled to God. He is satisfied with God’s dispensation. He is satisfied with God’s love. He is satisfied with promises that can never be broken, with covenants that can never be violated, with oaths that stand fast like mountains, and with the words of God which are great as the fathomless sea. He is satisfied with his God. The consequence of such a satisfaction as this is that the Christian is as well satisfied at one time as at another, if his soul be right. He shall be satisfied in times of drought. In the vast times of distress the Christian is still satisfied.
III. The next blessing is, SPIRITUAL HEALTH AND HAPPINESS. “And make fat thy bones.” Note the figure. It is not “make fat thy flesh.” When Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked. Sometimes abundance in earthly things makes poverty in heavenly things. But fatness here is to be upon the man’s hardest and most necessary part of his frame. A man is really built up when his bones, the solid pillars of the house of his manhood, have been strengthened. Vigour has been put into his constitution where it was most required. The figure seems to me to indicate two or three things in one. There is health here, the soul purged from its vices, sicknesses, and unbelief, pride, sloth, and such like. There is vigour here, no lukewarmness. There is growth, the man is not stunted. Christian joy is, after all, Christian strength.
IV. The fourth blessing is this, “AND THOU SHALT BE LIKE A WATERED GARDEN.” This figure of a garden is a very sweet and attractive one. Our fancy is soon at work to invent a picture of flower-beds, and fruit-trees, shady walks, and pleasant fountains, laid out close to some grand mansion, and opening its fairest views to the best apartments of the palace. Such a garden needs constant care, and then, although it may be more beautiful at one season than another, it will never be like a wild heath, or totally bereft of charms. But, alas! some professors of religion are not like this: there is little evidence of diligent cultivation in their character.
V. There is the blessing of CONTINUED STRENGTH, CONTINUED FRESHNESS, CONTINUED SUPPLY. “As a well of water whose waters fail not.” There are many wells in the East which do fail, and many apparent springs which deceive the traveller. I observe that the margin has it, “whose waters deceive not, or lie not. And how many a man who has appeared like a Christian has been but a mere deceiver! Not so God’s true people. They shall have so much grace that when a Christian friend expects to find grace in them, he shall not be disappointed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Thou shalt be like a watered garden
A watered garden
Cannot a garden water itself? No. That is the answer, definite, cold--discouraging, encouraging, as we may take the term. Is it not enough to be a garden? what matter about the sunshine? who cares about the rain or the dew? Is it not enough to be a garden, a geometric form, pearled and diamonded with many a flower? The king’s gardens cannot do without rain; Solomon’s parterres wither away but for the morning dew and the summer shower. We need something from without. Cannot a man sustain himself by his own resources? He cannot. What do you mean by being a man? A figure is not a man; a corpse is not a man; a mere personality, if it could be detached from all other personalities, would not be a man. We cannot live upon stature or figure or aught that our hand can hold. Life is deeper; there is a sanctuary of life, a well far away, where spring water bubbles and gurgles and flashes out in the sunlight like a great gospel preached to the thirst of man. Self-sustenance is not the law of the body; why should it he the law of the mind? The mind is not sustained by itself. You have books; lay them down, be your own book. You cannot. What do you want with all these libraries, and museums, and academies, and colleges, and schools of every name and degree? These are the wheatfields which the soul reaps, and it needs them every one, for the soul is bigger than literature. The soul lives by friction with some other soul. God is fire. To come into happy attrition with Him, or contact, or friction, who can tell what may come out of that soul touching soul, man praying to God? We are continually undergoing a process of education. What hast thou that thou hast not received? Have you ever seen a garden that has been left to itself? What do you think of it? God waits to give us every one more water, more sustenance, more sunshine. What we might be if we would enjoy our privileges! (J. Parker, D. D.)
The garden of God
1. The Church is appropriately compared to a garden because it is the place--
I. OF CHOICE FLOWERS. Christ comes to His garden, and plants there some of the brightest spirits that ever flowered upon the world. Some of them are violets, inconspicuous, but sweet. You have to search and find them. You do not see them very often, perhaps, but you find where they have been by the brightened face of the invalid, and the sprig of geranium on the stand, and the new window-curtains keeping out the glare of the sunlight. These flowers in Christ’s garden are not like the sunflower, gaudy in the light, but wherever darkness hovers over a soul that needs to be comforted, there they stand, night-blooming cereuses.
2. But in Christ’s garden there are plants that may be better compared to the Mexican cactus--thorns without, loveliness within; men with sharp points of character. They wound almost every one that touches them. They arc hard to handle. Men pronounce them nothing but thorns, but Christ loves them notwithstanding all their sharpnesses. Many a man has had a very hard ground to cultivate, and it has only been through severe trial he has raised even the smallest crop of grace. A very harsh minister was talking to a very placid elder, and the elder said, “Doctor, I do wish you would control your temper.” “Ah,” said the minister, “I control more temper in five minutes than you do-in five years:”
3. There are others planted in Christ’s garden who are always radiant, always impressive--more like the roses of deep hue that we occasionally find; the Martin Luthers, St. Pauls, Chrysostoms, Wyckliffes, Latimers, and Samuel Rutherfords. What in other men is a spark, in them is a conflagration. When they sweat, they sweat great drops of blood. When they pray, their prayer takes fire. When they preach, it is a Pentecost. When they fight, it is a Thermopylae. When they die, it is a martyrdom.
4. In this garden of the Church I also find the snowdrop, beautiful but cold-looking, seemingly another phase of winter. I mean those Christians who are precise in their tastes, unimpassioned, pure as snowdrops and as cold.
5. But I have not told you of the most beautiful flower of all this garden. If you see a century plant your emotions are started. You say, “Why, this flower has been a hundred years gathering up for one bloom, and it will be a hundred years more before other petals will come out. But I have to tell you of a plant that was Gathering up from all eternity, and that nineteen hundred years ago put forth its bloom never to wither. It is the passion plant of the Cross!
II. The Church is a place OF SELECT FRUITS. The coarser fruits are planted in the orchard or they are set out on the sunny hillside; but the choicest fruits are kept in the garden. So in the world outside the Church, Christ has planted a great many beautiful things--patience, charity, generosity, integrity; but He intends the choicest fruits to be in the garden, and, if they are not there, then shame on the Church. Religion is not a mere sentimentality. It is a practical, life-giving, healthful fruit--not posies, but apples. The Church of Christ is a glorious garden and it is full of fruit. I know there is some poor fruit in it; but are you going to destroy the whole garden because of a little gnarled fruit? There is no grander, nobler collection in all the earth than the collection of Christians.
III. The Church is the place of THOROUGH IRRIGATION. No garden could prosper long without plenty of water. I have seen a garden in the midst of a desert, yet blooming and luxuriant. All around was dearth and barrenness; but there were pipes, aqueducts, reaching from this garden up to the mountains, and through those aqueducts the water came streaming down and tossing up into beautiful fountains, until every root and leaf and flower was saturated. That is like the Church. The Church is a garden in the midst of a great desert of sin and suffering; but it is well irrigated. From the mountains of God’s strength there flow down rivers of gladness. Preaching the Gospel is one of the aqueducts. The Bible is another. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are aqueducts. Everything comes from above; pardon, joy, adoption, sanctification. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
