the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Our Daily Homily - Volume 1
Deuteronomy 24:11—The man to whom thou dost lend shall bring forth the pledge without unto thee. (R.V.)
What courtesy and respect for the feelings of another prompted this injunction! The poor man needs a loan, and for this purpose goes to his rich neighbour. It would be possible for the latter, in the pride of his purse and position, to go ruthlessly across the threshold of the poor man’s house, look contemptuously around its penury, and lay his hand with indelicate haste on the treasures of the poor man’s family life. This, which had been dear to his father! That, associated with happier, better days! Such conduct might not be, said the divine precept. If the poor man asked a loan, he must choose his own pledge, and fetch it from his house with his own hand; it must be his act.
God respects the nature with which He has endowed us.—He will not force an entrance on any man. Though He made us, He waits for us to give Him right of entrance. He stands at the door and knocks. He asks for our consecration, that we should give Him our whole being in pledge, and in return for the loan of infinite grace; but He will not take till we give, or count on aught belonging to us as His property, until we have surrendered spirit, soul, and body, at His invitation.
God expects us to respect the nature of others.—Let us reverence that wonderful soul-life which is the perquisite of each individual. We have no right to break in with the mailed foot of the politician, or the furtive tread of the priest. The father-confessor has no right to stand within the sacred precincts of conscience. No man has a claim on his brother save that which love supplies. If we have partaken of the grace of God, we must be gracious to our fellows.
