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Hid with Christ in God, September 19
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in
Lebanon.
Psalm 92:12
.
See the weary traveler toiling over the hot sand of the desert, with no shelter
to protect him from the rays of the tropical sun. His water supply fails, and he has
nothing with which to slake his burning thirst. His tongue becomes swollen; he
staggers like a drunken man. Visions of home and friends pass before his mind as he
believes himself ready to perish. Suddenly he sees in the distance, rising out of the
dreary, sandy waste, a palm tree, green and flourishing. Hope quickens his pulses;
he presses on, knowing that that which gives vigor and freshness to the palm tree
will cool his fevered blood and give him renewed life.
As is the palm tree in the desert—a guide and a consolation to the fainting
traveler—so the Christian is to be in the world. He is to guide weary souls, full of
unrest, and ready to perish in the desert of sin, to the living water. He is to point his
fellowmen to Him who gives to all the invitation, “If any man thirst, let him come
unto me, and drink.”
The sky may be as brass, the burning sand may beat about the palm tree’s roots,
and pile itself about its trunk; yet the tree lives on, fresh and vigorous. Remove
the sand, and you discover the secret of its life; its roots strike down deep into the
waters hidden in the earth.
Thus it is with the Christian. His life is hid with Christ in God. Jesus is to him a
well of water, springing up unto everlasting life. His faith, like the rootlets of the
palm tree, penetrates beneath the things that are seen, drawing life from the fountain
of life. And, amid all the corruption of the world, he is true and loyal to God. The
sweet influence of Christ’s righteousness surrounds him. His influence elevates and
blesses.
The humblest and poorest of the disciples of Jesus can be a blessing to others.
They may not realize that they are doing any special good, but by their unconscious
influence they may start waves of blessings that will widen and deepen, and the
blessed results they may never know till the day of final reward. They are not
required to weary themselves with anxiety about success. They have only to go
forward quietly, doing faithfully the work God’s providence assigns, and their life
will not be in vain. Their own souls will be growing more and more into the likeness
of Christ; they are workers together with God in this life, and are thus fitting for the
higher work and the unshadowed joy of the life to come (
The Signs of the Times,
August 6, 1902
).
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