Spiritual Weaning

There is no moment of the spiritual life so painful and so dangerous as the weaning ; The hardest time to bear is neither Egypt or the Promised Land , but the desert that lies between . Egypt has the pleasures of sin , the Promised Land  has the pleasures of holiness, but the desert has no pleasures . It has given up the joys of Pharaohh , and it has not yet reached the delights of Canaan . It is only a stage of prohibitions ; it forbids the pleasures of the past , and it has as yet not even the grapes of Eschol to offer in their room.My soul , you cannot rest in the desert , you cannot be satisfied with a law which only says "Thou shalt not ."It is a hard thing to have the old cup snatched from your lips before any new cup is presented to you . It is a hard thing to have the old tenants expelled from your dwelling before any new guests are admitted there . It is a hard thing to have the house empty , swept , and garnished ere you have learned that it is empty for the reception of new visitors , garnished for the coming of nobler guests . Your old love of sin cannot be be replaced by law ; it can only be supplanted  by the joy of Canaan . It is vain to tell you to walk not in the counsel of the ungodly , and stand not in the way of sinners , until your delight shall be in the law of the Lord and your meditation on it day and night . Therefore your prayer must be ; O Love that art the recompense for every loss , send into my heart the well-spring of Thy joy , to gladden with its healing waters the places that have been left dry . Fill up the solitude's of that spirit which has been emptied of its old treasures  and swept of its past ideals . Teach me that behind the reproach of the desert there is to be found greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt . Change the struggle of my dawn into the spontaneity of a second day . Let law become grace ; let duty become privilege ; let service become freedom ; let work become play ; let sacrifice become joy . When I shall exchange the spirit of heaviness for a garment of praise , the old house shall be empty no more . Rev G Matheson

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