Christ Himself through His prayer life gave to His disciples the training for the most intimate communion with the heavenly Father. Then, too, the Holy Ghost, to whom they willingly surrendered and whose gifts they used for the good of the church, was later their teacher. Prayer and the Holy Ghost are the great essentials for a rich inner life, for meditation.
Paul's epistles are not simply divine revelations, but the result of his inner readiness to follow these streams of the Spirit and to see the divine mysteries revealed. In this connection we need to understand the text: "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" (1 Cor. 2:10).
The Epistle to the Romans shows this working together of divine revelation and personal meditation very clearly in the treatment of righteousness by faith. From the ninth chapter on, Paul weaves in his own soul struggle. He suffers genuine soul agony on behalf of his own race in his endeavor to bring near to them the redeeming grace. Overwhelmed by this inner experience, he cries out: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Rom. 11:33). Here is genuine meditation.
In reading John's Gospel and Epistles one notices immediately that the apostle John uses outer happenings to bring to light deep inner relationships. He is an outspoken representative for meditation. One can call him the man with the inward look, for through this thoughtful way of considering he saw Jesus as no other one was able to see Him.
The men of God of the past Christian centuries have regarded the Word of God from this viewpoint. In his preface Martin Luther wrote concerning proper study of the Word:
"Second, you must meditate, that is, you must not only in your heart but also outwardly constantly review the actual expressions and literal words of the Bible and make them familiar to you, read it again and again, with diligent attention and thinking over of that which the Holy Spirit means to say. And beware that you do not become satiated with it, or think that with one or two times you have already read, heard, and spoken it enough, and that you understand it all from the ground up." MARTIN LUTHER, Ausgewiihlte Werke ("Selected Works"), vol. 1, p. 6.
Spurgeon counsels: "Thinking is the backbone of study. How good it would be if our pastors thought more! We need men who meditate about God's revealed truth, and not dreamers who invent religions out of their own heads. Far be it from me to challenge you to emu late those proud thinkers of our time who preach to empty churches and then assert that they preach to the educated. That is a hypocritical thing to say. It is something completely different and very worthy of recommendation when we meditate about our faith." Spurgeon's Counsels for Preachers, p. 204. "Many people forget how to think, because they have given it up in favor of reading. They fill themselves with book-wisdom and then suffer spiritual indigestion." Ibid., p. 200.
And from the recent past, take a look into the life of Ellen G. White. She possessed in out standing measure the spirit of prayer, the seeking for communion with God, and a glowing longing to penetrate the depths of divine wisdom. Herein lay her whole power of accomplishment. With such an attitude, the Lord considered her worthy of His revelation. Led by the Spirit of God, she plunged into the divine mysteries. Her books are sermons, eventful representations which are worthy of being re-experienced. She writes in ("Life and Works") Leben und Wirken:
"I have every reason to praise my heavenly Father for the clarity of thought which He has given me concerning things of the Scriptures. I long to present these precious things so that the thoughts of ministers and lay members if possible may be with drawn from contention and strife and turned toward something that nourishes the soul. . . . The word of God to me is: Look upon these things and meditate about them. You can lay claim to the rich grace of truth which nourishes the soul. ... In all that you say and do, speak as one to whom the Lord has spoken. He is your authority, and He will give you His grace to uphold you." Pages 492, In this connection consider also her warning words:
"Thousands of men who minister in the pulpit are lacking in the essential qualities of mind and character because they do not apply themselves to the study of the Scriptures. They are content with a superficial knowledge of the truths of God's word." Gospel Workers, pp. 249, 250. " 'Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,' Christ said, 'hath eternal life.' . . . When the servants of God know of a truth the meaning of these words, the elements of eternal life will be found in the ministry. The tame, dull sermonizing will cease. The foundation truths of the gospel will be presented in a new light. There will be a fresh perception of truth, a clearness and power that all will discern." Ibid., pp. 252, 253.
True Meditation
In a treatise "Instruction on Meditation" (Der Weg zur Seele, Heft 7, 1950, S. 9 The Way to the Soul, Notebook 7, 1950, p. 9) three steps are distinguished. On the primary level, first of all purely outward quiet, relaxation, exclusion of all disturbance, concentration on the object to be considered, are recommended. To the inner attitude belongs the opening of the soul to God. A young girl, when called to the family's morning prayers, said, "Wait a minute, please first I must completely change myself inside; already today we have had so much nonsense."
Now when a meaningful word of the Holy Scriptures comes into such a prepared, receptive soul, there comes about a living inner contact between the soul and God. This is the secondary level of meditation. The special characteristic of meditation is worshipful musing, devout probing into a Scriptural text, lingering over this probing. "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven" (John 3:27).
When this procedure has become a genuine experience it leaves behind deep marks and impressions on the inner being, which is the third level of meditation. Only that which touches the depths of our inmost soul becomes our own. A sermon otherwise built only by the laws of logic then becomes transformed into a sermon out of the deepest, innermost conviction.
It is self-evident that genuine Christian meditation must be directed toward a specific, predetermined subject. The subject must be of a high level of worth, such as the Holy Scriptures offer in rich abundance.
When this kind of Christian meditation is refused or no longer thus understood, it is a proof of how far we have gone from the Christian inner life. Until the beginning of this century meditation was considered the essential core of the life of a successful preacher and pastor. The two world wars have made man restless, driven him into an endless hunt and chase, and left him torn in soul and often indifferent to life. Must the same thing hap pen to the minister? He lives in the same world and is also subject to its influences, but our believers have a right to expect him to refresh their souls with the manna of heaven through his preaching. So the content of the sermon must be such that the listener finds again rest and soul balance. Man must be transplanted into a divine atmosphere. But that is possible only if the preacher himself lives in it and brings it to fruition in his sermon.
