十月十二日
我要默想你的训词。（诗119：15）
沉静比交际更好，缄默比说话更智慧。我们若是常独自在一处，等候神，因默想他的话得到属灵的力量，好服侍他，那末我们必然会成爲更好的基督徒。我们应当以神的话爲乐，因爲我们因此可以从它们得到真实的营养。真道像一挂葡萄一样；若我们要得到葡萄汁，就必须多踹；我们必须再三地压榨、挤拧。踹酒醡之人的脚必须使劲地踹，不然汁水是不会流出来的；幷且也须把葡萄踹透，不然仍有许多宝贵的汁液消耗了；因此我们要想得到安慰的葡萄汁就得用默想，来踹真道的葡萄。
我们的身体得以存活幷非单把食物吃进口里就算完了，真正供给肌肉、神经、筋腱和骨胳的乃是消化作用。因着消化作用，内脏才能吸收外面来的食物。我们灵性的营养也是一样，我们听神的真道，不能在这里听一会，在那里听一会，或在别处又听一会就算够了。听、念、记、学，都需要里面加以消化直到完全能使用才行，真道的消化多赖默想真道的意义。
爲什麽有一些基督徒，虽然常听道，而他们属神的生命长进得非常缓慢呢？因爲他们忽略了私祷，也没有透彻地默想神的话。他们喜欢麦粉，但他们幷不去磨；他们愿意有麦穗，但是不愿到地里去拾；树上的果子累累，但他们却不采摘；水就流在他们的脚下，但他们却不弯腰去喝。神啊！愿你救我们脱离这种愚妄行事，今晨愿我们以“我要默想你的训词”作我们的誓言。
October
12
“I
will meditate in thy precepts.”–Psalm 119:15
There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is
wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone,
waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on his Word spiritual
strength for labour in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God,
because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. Truth is something like the
cluster of the vine: if we would have wine from it, we must bruise it; we must
press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser’s feet must come down joyfully
upon the bunches, or else the juice will not flow; and they must well tread the
grapes, or else much of the precious liquid will be wasted. So we must, by
meditation, tread the clusters of truth, if we would get the wine of
consolation therefrom. Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into
the mouth, but the process which really supplies the muscle, and the nerve, and
the sinew, and the bone, is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that
the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life. Our souls are not
nourished merely by listening awhile to this, and then to that, and then to the
other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking, and learning, all
require inwardly digesting to complete their usefulness, and the inward
digesting of the truth lies for the most part in meditating upon it. Why is it
that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances
in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully
meditate on God’s Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they
would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it;
the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at
their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O
Lord, and be this our resolve this morning, “I will meditate in thy
precepts.”
