THE THOUGHTS OF DAVID IN THE NIGHT
Text: Psalm 119:55 -- "I have remembered Thy Name, O Lord, in the night; and have kept Thy Law."
When his senses were dulled by sleep, David remembered the name of the Lord. When he was shrouded in darkness where none could observe him, the thoughts of the Psalmist were filled with sanctified meditations of his Lord." When there was none to remind him, he remembered his God.
This is the true character of a man: what is he like when he is alone? when he is under the cover of darkness where none can observe him? What does he meditate upon when there is no one to remind him to remember the name of the Lord? We know what he is in public, but what is he like in private?
Such powers have our thoughts of the day that they determine our thoughts in the night. The conscious mind set the program for the unconscious mind. Such will be our dreams...and such will we meditate upon when sleep eludes us.
What our minds feed upon in our waking hours, such will our minds remember in our sleeping hours. Computer programmers have coined a word called "GIGO" which stands for "garbage in, garbage out." It is also true with the greatest computer in the world --the human mind.
Now, it is indeed a great blessing when our thoughts are a comfort to us; when in the night of mental depression we are completely cut off by the world and left alone, that our personal integrity speaks to us words of assurance. This was the ineffable peace of the Psalmist.
By his thoughts in the night, David determined his conduct in the day. Our thoughts, too, set the course for our actions, or as Matthew Henry says it, "I have remembered Thy name in the night and therefore I have kept Thy Law all day." Such is the meaning of the text. If we do not keep the name of the Lord in our memory, we shall not long keep the Law of God in our conduct. We will not remember to keep His commandments, if we do not remember Him in our thoughts.
Contempt for the Law originates in a general disregard of God. It is forgetfulness of the Lord that fosters every transgression of His Laws. Therefore, we will be induced to keep the Law of God by the remembrance of His name. The saints of God have often enjoyed the name of the Lord in the night of lonely exiles, in the night of gloom-filled prisons, as well as in the night of blindness. There is, therefore, never a time when it is not proper to remember the name of the Lord.
Reader: this is what the Psalmist did: he "remembered the name of the Lord." Reader, have you this day been careless to keep the Lord in your remembrance?
This is when the Psalmist did it: " ...in the night..." Reader, what you are really like is known by your behavior when you are all alone, or where you are virtually unknown; when none is present to remind you how you ought to behave. It is determined by your conduct when under the darkness of mental depression.
This is the result of his remembrance: he "kept" the Law of the Lord. It was His solemn and deliberate purpose to continue in the way of obedience. Reader, does your obedience flow from Love and Gratitude to the Lord? or do you obey simply for mercenary reasons? Such is the obedience of the Christian man, that though imperfectly, yet spiritually he labors to keep the Precepts of the Lord.
Part XIV THE MARRIAGE RING
The Pleasures of home must not be allowed to interfere with the calls and claims of public duty. Wives must not ask, and husbands must not give that time which is demanded for the cause of God and man...nor should they allow the soft allurements of their own houses to draw them away from what is obviously the post of duty.... Who can do good, or ought to wish to do it, without sacrifices?
I know an eminently holy and useful minister, who told the lady to whom he was about to be united, that one of the conditions of their marriage was, that she should never ask him for that time, which on any occasion, be felt it to be his duty to give to God.
-John Angell James
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21, 1649 --Maryland. As the number of Protestants in Maryland have increased, they have become increasingly uneasy with the Proprietary government under Roman Catholic control, and have desired to curb the rights of the Romanists here.
Lord Baltimore, becoming increasingly uneasy, has appointed a Protestant governor by the name of William Stone.
Today, he has secured from the Maryland legislature the adoption of toleration for "conscience in matters of Religion" which document he has written. Under this act, toleration is limited to those believing in the Deity of Christ; and the penalty for denying this doctrine is Death.
Under this Act, any person within this province who calls another a "Heretic, Schismatic, Idolater, Puritan, Independent, Popish priest, Jesuit, Jesuited Papist, Lutheran, Calvinist, Anabaptist, Brownist, Antinomian, Barrowist, Roundhead, Separatist, or any other name in a
reproachful manner relating to religion shall forfeit l0 shillings for each offence, half to be paid unto the person of whom spoken. Also every person within this province who shall profane the Sabbath or Lord’s Day called Sunday, by frequent swearing, drunkenness, or by
any menial or disorderly recreation or by working when not absolutely necessary, shall be fined 2 shillings, 6 pence for the first offence, 5 shillings for the second, 10 shillings for each additional offence."
29, 1607 -- Virginia. The London Company erects a cross on Cape Henry.
29, 1703 --France. Sunday. A band of Camisards (Huguenots) takes refuge in a deserted farmhouse. They are led by Cavalier. A miller attends them who’s two sons are members of Cavalier’s band, Though he exhibits apparent piety the Huguenots have no sooner lain down to sleep, than the miller, possessed with a love for gold sets out to sell the lives of his two sons and the Camisard leader. The price is fifty pieces of gold. Eight regiments of foot and two regiments of dragoons are immediately dispatched to surprise the Camisards while they sleep.
The alarm is given and four hundred men, with Cavalier at their head, seek to free three hundred others yet remaining in the Tower. For five hours they fight. Four hundred to five hundred more Huguenots rallying to help their brethren prove unsuccessful, and before daybreak, the Camisards retreat unable to free their brethren.
At last, the fortifications of the Tower are set on fire by use of hand grenades, and the three hundred imprisoned, singing Psalms, perish amidst the flames. The Huguenots have lost some four hundred men, while the Royalists have lost some twelve hundred!