Have you learned your lessons
so badly? George Milne, Lessons for the
Christians Daily Walk, 1859. All is vexation of spirit. Ecclesiastes 1.14. Who has not felt vexation? Who
knows not what it means? The infant in its cradle, the
schoolboy at his play, youth in all its vitality, manhood
in its prime, and especially old age. All, all have felt vexation. My soul, you know it well. Your
sins, your fallen nature, your infirmities, all lay you open
to vexation. How easily irritated you get,
how quick to feel offences, how swift to gather sorrows to yourself
through your excess of sensitivity. Often have you murmured at your
lot, rising in mutiny against your Maker. How often has your
patience failed? What trifles have often wounded
you? Some scheme of pleasure has been
thwarted, and you are quite vexed. A rainy day, or even some trifling
inconvenience, has often ruffled your composure. How often a kind
reproof, a friendly warning, some imagined slight, a look,
a smile withheld, and yet with no intention of unkindness, has
filled you with vexation! How often has wounded pride,
a humbling sense of your infirmities, a deep conviction of your lack
of judgment, the fear of standing low in man's opinion, vexed you
beyond expression! My soul, you are not singular
in your vexation. Go where you will, you will find
it. The world is full of vexation. All is vexation of spirit. This does not mean that woes
may lawfully be brooded over, or sense of injuries may be cherished
in the soul, or that morbid feelings may be indulged in, or that moody
silence brooding vexation and carking care are helpful for
the soul, oh no! If God is true, if Scripture
precept has its weight and promises their meaning, then vexation,
O my soul, should have no part in you. Open you must be to its
trials day by day, but where is your grace, where is your
holiness, where is your consistency, where is your strength, your
comfort, and your steadfastness, if you are conquered by vexation? Have you then learned of Christ,
the lowly and the meek one, and not found rest for your soul?
Have you learned your lesson so badly? Go, learn it over again. Fight, then, against this habit
of vexation. Give it no place within you.
Look to the Comforter to help you. Taste the tranquility of
God. Take every trial as it arises
to Jesus, your Savior Friend. then peace shall be your portion,
not vexation. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give you, I do not give to you as the world gives, do not
let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid. John 14.27 and the peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Philippians 4, 7