Daily Devotionals

Music For the Soul

Devotional: June 25th

THE MASTER’S CALL

The Master is here, and calleth thee. - John 11:28

"He stood still, and commanded him to be called ". Remember that. He was on His road to His Cross, and the tension of spirit which the Evangelists notice as attaching to Him then, and which filled the disciples with awe as they followed Him, absorbed Him, no doubt, at this hour, so that He heard little of the people’s shouts. But He did hear the blind beggar’s cry, and He arrested His march in order to attend to it. That pause of the King, and the quick ear which discerned the difference between the unreal shouts of the crowd and the terrible sincerity in the cry of the beggar is still open. He is in the heavens, surrounded by its glories, and, as I think Scripture teaches us, wielding providence and administering the affairs of the universe. He does not need to pause in order to hear you and me. If He did, He would - if I may venture upon such an impossible supposition - bid the hallelujahs of heaven hush themselves, and suspend the operations of His providence if needs were, rather than you or I, or any poor man who cries to Him, should be unheard and unhelped. The living Christ is as tender a friend, has as quick an ear, is as ready to help at once, to-day, as He was outside the gate of Jericho. And every one of us may lift his or her poor, thin voice, and it will go straight up to the throne, and not be lost in the clamor of the hallelujahs that echo round His seat. Christ still hears and answers the cry of need. Send you it up, and you will find that true. Notice the suppliant’s response. That is a very characteristic right-about-face of the crowd, who one moment were saying, " Hold your tongue, and do not disturb Him," and the next moment were all eager to encumber him with help, and to say, " Rise up! be of good cheer! He calleth thee." No thanks to them that He did. And what did the man do? "Sprang to his feet " - as the words rightly rendered would be - and flung away the frowsy rags that he had round himself for warmth and softness of seat, as he waited at the gate; "and he came to Jesus." Brother! "casting aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, let us run’’ to the same refuge. You have to abandon something if you are to go to Christ to be healed. I daresay you know well enough what it is. I do not, but certainly there is something that entangles your legs and keeps you from finding your way to Him. And if there is nothing else there is yourself, and your trust in self, and that is to be put away. Cast away the garment spotted with the flesh, and go to Christ, and you will get succor,