THERE are two motives which have influenced us in the production of this little book. We have sought, on the one hand, to supply aids to devotion either for the use of the family or of the individual, and on the other, to furnish points of suggestion to the student who is a prospective preacher. Perhaps it may be thought that these two aims are incongruous, and it would be too much to hope that in both we have succeeded; yet devotion is not the absence of thought, and thought is not necessarily the absence of devotion. At all events, the presence in the mind of two so reactionary aims may have had the beneficial result of preserving these meditations either from the fault of too much abstractness or from the sin of too little depth.
IT is only in the cool of the day that I can hear Thy footsteps, O my God. Thou art ever walking in the garden. Thy presence is abroad everywhere and always; but it is not everywhere nor always that I can hear Thee passing by. The burden and heat of the day are too strong for me. The struggles of life excite me, the ambitions of life perturb me, the glitter of life dazzles me; it is all thunder and earthquake and fire. But when I myself am still I catch Thy still small voice, and then I know that Thou art God. Thy peace can only speak to my peacefulness, Thy rest can only be audible to my calm; the harmony of Thy tread cannot be heard by the discord of my soul. Therefore, betimes I would be alone with Thee, away from the heat and the battle. I would feel the cool breath of Thy Spirit, that I may be refreshed once more for the strife. I would be fanned by the breezes of heaven, that I may resume the dusty road and the dolorous way. Not to avoid them do I come to Thee, but that I may be able more perfectly to bear them. Let me hear Thy voice in the garden in the cool of the day.
