My dear friends,
When all is said and done, there are very few of our ills that cannot be traced up to our lack of drawing aside to our Lord to know His perfect will in all that we do. The Bible calls it "meditation", and unless one is gravely mistaken, there is a great lack of meditation among the professing people of God today.
Time was when the believers seldom thought or acted on any particular matter without first of all committing it to the Lord. And, in fact, the act and practice of meditation had become such a "common" feature of the average Christian believer that most issues were faced in the light of these daily meditations. We have our substitutes today, of course, in our conferences and dialogues, seminars and discussions. But the inadequacy of these things is usually shown in the shallow conclusions so often arrived at.
Alexander Whyte* believes that John Bunyan puts his finger firmly on the matter in the Holy War. There is one young fellow in that Book "Young Master Think-well, the Late and Only Son of Old Mister Meditation", and, says our author, if you were to go into the museum in the City of Mansoul you would find there the pocket-book that once belonged to Old Mister Meditation; and here are the kind of things you would find written there: – "Monday, death; Tuesday, judgment, Wednesday, heaven; Thursday, hell; Friday, my past life; Saturday, the passion of my Saviour; Lord's Day, creation and salvation." In other words, these were the subjects that occupied Old Mister Meditation's thoughts from one weekend to the next. From day to day he systematically brought before himself the whole counsel of God concerning his soul's salvation. And once he did that, then, all others things fell into their rightful places and he approached them in a right attitude of heart and mind.
Meditation has an "off-spring", you see, and Bunyan has well named the off-spring of Old Mister Meditation, Young Master Think-well. David himself knew something of it in the 8th Psalm: "when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him …?" It's a good word that we have from the Lord – "Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you."
May we learn to travail in the quiet place and bring forth a family of well-formed healthy thoughts.
Sincerely,
W. J. Seaton
This Page Title – Pastor's Letter - Meditation and young master Think-wel The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness". Internet Edition number 75 – placed on line November 2008 Magazine web address – www.wicketgate.co.uk |