Our Meditations by J. Clarke.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 1, 1863

Our Meditations.

By J. Clarke.

“AND in his law doth he meditate day and night.” Suppose that David had meditated upon the foul sin of Absalom, the conspiracy and baseness of his darling son, or the treachery of Ahithophel or the cruelty of his father-in-law, Saul, and the trials of his eventful life; would he have written the book of Psalms, if he had allowed such meditations to press him to the earth? Doubtless he often thought of his dreadful trials, but he did not allow these things to weigh him down. No, his meditations were worthy of the man of God.

Often, no doubt, these things came upon him with crushing weight; but he looked upward, and holy wisdom descended and filled his soul. Then the affairs of earth dwindled into insignificance, as the glories of eternity beamed brightly before his eye of faith and love.

So let us look upward for light, for we shall not find it in these trials. Below is darkness, above is light. Immoderate and uncontrollable grief does not always prove either depth of mind, or largeness of benevolence; but it is as often the offspring of ignorance and superstition, as of love. Witness an Irish funeral, or an Indian dance.

Piety and wisdom calm the passions, and grief is one of the passions; good, if well controlled; evil, when carried to an extreme. As the skillful workman tempers the steel for the keen, cutting blade, so should all our passions be well tempered, not too brittle, nor too soft, but just exactly right.

J. CLARKE.