Basic HTML Version
Mementos in Memory’s Halls, May 9
Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and
called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord
helped us.
1 Samuel 7:12
.
There is more encouragement to us in the least blessing which we
receive ourselves than in reading biographical works relating to the faith
and experience of noted men of God. The things we ourselves have
experienced of the blessings of God through His gracious promises we
may hang in memory’s halls, and whether rich or poor, learned or illiterate,
we may look and may consider these tokens of God’s love. Every token
of God’s care and goodness and mercy should be hung as imperishable
mementos in memory’s halls. God would have His love, His promises,
written upon the tablets of the mind. Guard the precious revealings of
God that not a letter shall become obliterated or dimmed.
When Israel obtained special victories after leaving Egypt, memorials
were preserved of these victories. Moses and Joshua were commanded of
God to do this, to build up remembrances. When the Israelites had won a
special victory over the Philistines, Samuel set up a commemorative stone
and called it Ebenezer, saying, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us”....
Can we not, in view of the past, look on new trials and increased
perplexities—even afflictions, privations, and bereavements—and not be
dismayed, but look upon the past and say, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped
us.’ I will commit the keeping of my soul unto Him as unto a faithful
Creator. He will keep that which I have committed to His trust against
that day.”
Let us look to the monumental pillars, reminders of what the Lord
has done to comfort us and to save us from the hand of the destroyer. Let
us keep fresh in our memory all the tender mercies that God has shown
us—the tears He has wiped away, the pains He has soothed, the anxieties
removed, the fears dispelled, the wants supplied, the blessings bestowed—
thus strengthening ourselves for all that is before us through the remainder
of our pilgrimage.
[136]
140