十二月十七日

我都記得。（耶2：2）

我們要注意，基督喜歡他的教會，幷願看她的美麗。鳥兒怎樣常常歸窠，游子怎樣急欲返家，主的心也這樣繼續尋求它所選擇的對象。我們不能常常看我們所愛之人的臉，我們却願把我們所寶貴的東西常常放在我們的眼前。我們的主耶穌也是如此。從亘古，他就喜悅世人；他在他的選民未生在世上以前就想到他們，他在他先見的鏡子裏看到了他們。經上說：“我未成形的體質，你的眼早已看見了。你所定的日子，我尚未度一日，你都寫在你的册上了。”（詩139：16）地的根基還未建立之前，他“就照以色列人的數目，立定萬民的疆界。”（申32：8）在他未成肉身之前，他已經多次成爲人形來到卑賤的世界上了；在幔利橡樹那裏（創18），在雅博渡口（創32：24—30），在耶利哥的城下（書5：13），在巴比倫烈火的窑中（但3：19，25），“人子”已經多次地向人顯現了。因爲他的心喜悅他們，因他的心切慕他們，他就少不了他們。他們永遠離不開他的心，因他把他們的名字寫在他的手裏，刻在他的身上。大祭司所戴最美的裝飾便是有以色列十二支派名字的胸牌，基督所選之人的名字也是他所戴的貴重寶石，在他的心中晶瑩放光。我們有時忘記思念我們主的完全，但他却時時不忘記我們。我們要爲過去的遺忘責備自己，幷求他施恩叫我們永遠珍愛、記念他。神啊！願你在我的瞳人中畫上你兒子的形象。

December 17

"I remember thee."—Jeremiah 2:2

Let us note that Christ delights to think upon his Church, and to look upon her beauty. As the bird returneth often to its nest, and as the wayfarer hastens to his home, so doth the mind continually pursue the object of its choice. We cannot look too often upon that face which we love; we desire always to have our precious things in our sight. It is even so with our Lord Jesus. From all eternity "His delights were with the sons of men;" his thoughts rolled onward to the time when his elect should be born into the world; he viewed them in the mirror of his foreknowledge. "In thy book," he says, "all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them" (Ps. 139:16). When the world was set upon its pillars, he was there, and he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. Many a time before his incarnation, he descended to this lower earth in the similitude of a man; on the plains of Mamre (Gen. 18), by the brook of Jabbok (Gen. 32:24-30), beneath the walls of Jericho (Jos. 5:13), and in the fiery furnace of Babylon (Dan. 3:19, 25), the Son of Man visited his people. Because his soul delighted in them, he could not rest away from them, for his heart longed after them. Never were they absent from his heart, for he had written their names upon his hands, and graven them upon his side. As the breastplate containing the names of the tribes of Israel was the most brilliant ornament worn by the high priest, so the names of Christ's elect were his most precious jewels, and glittered on his heart. We may often forget to meditate upon the perfections of our Lord, but he never ceases to remember us. Let us chide ourselves for past forgetfulness, and pray for grace ever to bear him in fondest remembrance. Lord, paint upon the eyeballs of my soul the image of thy Son.