MORNING BY MORNING by F. A. Noble, D. D.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 1, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 13.

MORNING BY MORNING.

By F. A. Noble, D. D.

THE lesson of the direction given by Moses, so many centuries ago, to the Israelites concerning the gathering of the manna miraculously supplied for their daily feeding, abides a fresh and perennial lesson. Except on the Sabbath they were to gather it "morning by morning, every man according to his eating." If in fear lest the assurance of enough for each day's need might fail, or in the spirit of avaricious accumulations, anyone should attempt to gather a portion to be held over until the morrow, the manna would simply spoil and become offensive on his hands. "And Moses said unto them: Let no man leave of it till the morning. . . . But some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank."

The law of the manna is the law of the grace of God. We live by the day. Yesterday's gathering is not available for present uses. There is no need to be troubled about to-morrow's requirements. It is to be "morning by morning." In Christ Jesus, there is fullness of supply; resources, indeed, both in kind and measure, to meet all the possible exigencies of our lives; but everything is in the present tense. Vital religion always has been, and always must be, a present tense religion. In every life which has been long in fellowship with God, there are memories of past disclosures and interpositions and helps, precious beyond any compassing in words. In every soul quickened by faith, there are hopes which beam with celestial lights, and fill the mind to overflowing with anticipations of future blessedness. But neither memories nor hopes can meet the issue of immediate needs. We live in the Now. It is the Now which is emphatic. We must be fed of God to-day. We must have supplies of God's grace to-day. This is God's plan—"morning by morning."

The religion of some people seems to be simply a reminiscence. Sometimes it is a decayed and offensive reminiscence. They do not live in God at this present passing hour, but in the recollection of what God was to them in some past hour of their existence. They live just as the children of Israel would have lived if they had had their way—not on the fresh manna right out of the heavens, sweet and nourishing, but on the juiceless and insipid manna which they had laid up in their pots and jars.

God is not alone a God of the ages which are gone. He is not alone a God of the ages which are to be. God is a living God. Christ is a living Christ. The Holy Spirit is a living agency. It is life all along the line. At the dawning of each new day the vast storehouse of the divine resources is opened to our needs. There is no limitation except in our own capacities or inclinations. It is to eat and be full. It is to drink and be satisfied. It is to let in the light until every faculty is illuminated. It is to nourish the whole man into more faith, and more love, and more purity, and more strength, and more likeness to Christ. But this cannot be done on yesterday's manna; it must be from the fresh and full supply of to-day. It must be by a new opening out of the life to God; by a new and vital contact with God; and by entering into a new experience—not necessarily unlike previous

experiences, but new, in the same sense in which the day is new and sincere and real.

It is in spiritual as it is in material things, only we do not know it so well. We cannot live on the traditions of yesterday's sunlight and yesterday's warmth. Nor is there need. The sun comes up to-day with beams as radiant as on the morning of the creation. There is the light, the warmth, the healing, for to-day's requirements. The tonic which is in the atmosphere is not yesterday's, but to-day's; and it is available for to-day's necessities. Morning by morning the manna was there. Morning by morning the manna was gathered. Morning by morning it had to be gathered if it was to be good for anything for nourishment.

Herein lies the secret of a joyous and fruitful Christian life. It is in living in God by the day; it is in gathering our manna morning by morning; it is in breakfasting the soul as we breakfast the body on food fresh and warm and suitable to the new day's needs; it is to take God's light as we take the light of the great central luminary in the heavens, each succeeding day, and see our way in it, and do our work in it, and grow in fitness for higher experiences; it is to abide in Christ, not thinking it sufficient that perchance we were in him yesterday or may be to-morrow, but that we must be in him all the time, getting from him the divine nutriment on which our spirituality thrives, and we grow in knowledge and usefulness and moral symmetry, if we are to meet the conditions of his will and realize the best possibilities of a life hid with Christ in God; it is to abide in Christ unto the end. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna." What a blessed reward!—F. A. Noble, D. D. in Independent.