Moreland: Kings

Saturday, December 30, 2017
Meditation:
    Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
    —Jeremiah 23:5 (KJV)
Quotation:
Who hath not marvelled at the might of Kings
When voyaging down the river of dead years?
What deeds of death to still an hour of fears,
What waste of wealth to gild a moth’s frail wings?
A Caesar to the wind his banner flings,
An Alexander with his bloody spears,
A Herod heedless of his people’s tears!
And Rome is flames while Nero laughs and sings:
Ye gilded actors of a drama old
Your names are by-words in Love’s temple now,
Your pomp and glory but a winding sheet;
Then Christ came scorning regal robes and gold,
To wear warm blood-drops on a willing brow,
And lo! in love, we stoop and kiss His feet.
    ... John Richard Moreland (1880-1947), Red poppies in the wheat, New York: J. T. White & Co., 1921, p. 58 (see the book)
    See also Jer. 23:5; Ps. 2:1-6; Matt. 27:28-29; John 18:36; Phil. 2:9-11; Rev. 17:12-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the whole world will acknowledge You as King. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brainerd: how precious is time!

Friday, December 29, 2017
    Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.”
    —John 15:1-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    O how precious is time, and how it pains me to see it slide away, while I do so little to any good purpose. O that God would make me more fruitful and spiritual.
    ... David Brainerd (1718-1747), Memoirs of the Rev. David Brainerd, New Haven: S. Converse, 1822, p. 295 (see the book)
    See also John 15:1-3; Matt. 9:37-38; John 9:4; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 5:15-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Fill Your people, Lord, that we may display the fruits of Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Quarles: He is my Altar

Thursday, December 28, 2017
    Feast of the Holy Innocents
Meditation:
    What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
    —2 Corinthians 6:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
He is my Altar, I His holy place;
    I am His guest, and He my living food;
I’m His by penitence, He is mine by grace;
    I’m His by purchase, He is mine by blood;
        He’s my supporting elm, and I His vine:
Thus I my best beloved’s am; that He is mine.
    ... Francis Quarles (1592-1644), Quarles’ Emblems, London: James Nisbet and Co., 1861, p. 268 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 6:16; Ps. 32:6; Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 3:16,17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I never forget that I am part of Your Temple. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Trench: one short hour

Wednesday, December 27, 2017
    Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
Praise be to the LORD,
    for he has heard my cry for mercy.
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
    my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
    and I will give thanks to him in song.
The LORD is the strength of his people,
    a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
Save your people and bless your inheritance;
    be their shepherd and carry them forever.
    —Psalm 28:6-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
Lord, what a change within us one short hour
Spent in thy presence will prevail to make—
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take,
What parchëd grounds refresh, as with a shower!
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower;
We rise, and all, the distant and the near,
Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear;
We kneel how weak, we rise how full of power!
Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong,
Or others—that we are not always strong;
That we are ever overborne with care;
That we should ever weak or heartless be,
Anxious or troubled, when with us in prayer,
And joy, and strength, and courage, are with thee?
    ... Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886), Poems, London: Macmillan, 1874, p. 139 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 28:6-9; 31:21-24; 107:19-22; 116:1-2; Isa. 35; John 4:13-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the source from which I drink and thirst no more. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wesley: the infinite God

Tuesday, December 26, 2017
    Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
    —Matthew 11:27 (ESV)
Quotation:
JESUS, the infinite I AM,
With God essentially the same,
With him enthroned above all height,
As God of God, and Light of Light,
Thou art by thy great Father known,
From all eternity his Son.

Thou only dost the Father know,
And wilt to all Thy followers show,
Who cannot doubt Thy gracious will
His glorious Godhead to reveal;
Reveal Him now, if Thou art He,
And live, eternal Life, in me.
    ... Charles Wesley (1707-1788), The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, v. X, John Wesley, London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871, p. 252-253 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 11:27; John 8:58; Rom. 10:19-20; 16:25-26
Quiet time reflection:
    Live, eternal Life, in me.

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Milton: On the Morning of Christ's Nativity

Monday, December 25, 2017
    CHRISTMAS DAY
Meditation:
    After [the Magi] had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
    —Matthew 2:9-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
This is the month, and this the happy morn,
Wherein the Son of Heaven’s Eternal King,
Of wedded maid and virgin mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,
    That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

That glorious form, that Light insufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze majesty,
Wherewith he wont at Heaven’s high council-table
To sit the midst of Trinal Unity
He laid aside, and, here with us to be.
    Forsook the courts of everlasting day,
And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

Say, Heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein
Afford a present to the Infant God?
Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain,
To welcome him to this his new abode,
Now while the heaven, by the Sun’s team untrod,
    Hath took no print of the approaching light,
And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?

See how from far upon the eastern road
The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet!
Oh! run; present them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet,
    And join thy voice unto the Angel Quire,
From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire.
    ... John Milton (1608-1674), [1629] from On the morning of Chist’s Nativity, The Complete Poems of John Milton, New York: P. F. Collier, 1909, p. 7 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 2:9-11; Isa. 9:6; Matt. 1:20-23; Luke 2:13-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are worthy of any gift I can give You.

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Mary Elizabeth Coleridge: I saw a stable

Sunday, December 24, 2017
    Advent IV
    Christmas Eve
Meditation:
    Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
    —Luke 2:34-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
I saw a stable, low and very bare,
    A little child in a manger.
The oxen knew Him, had Him in their care,
    To men He was a stranger,
The safety of the world was lying there,
    And the world’s danger.
    ... Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907), Poems, London: Elkin Mathews, 1908, p. 83 (see the book)
    See also Luke 2:34-35; Isa. 9:7; Luke 2:6-7,11; 1 Tim. 4:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have come to set all things right. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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