DAILY WORDS FOR ZION'S WAYFARERS
or, THROUGH BACA'S VALLEY
Selected from the works of J. C. Philpot by his daughters, 1893
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca, ("weeping")
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
until each appears before God in Zion."
Psalm 84:5-7
"It shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary." Ezekiel 47:12
It is now all new; it is received as new, felt as new, fed upon as new, relished as new. It seems as though we never saw anything in the passage before. So with prayer; so with hearing. You may perhaps have had your soul shut up in distress and bondage and misery for months; you could scarcely trace anything of the life of God in you. But under the preached word, it may have pleased God to drop something which has come into your heart with warmth, and life, and feeling.
Oh, how new it is! It is as new as though it were never heard before; it seems as though the eyes were now first opened to see new things, and the ears were opened to hear new things, and the heart opened to receive new things.
The Lord thus fulfils that blessed promise, "He that sits upon the throne says, Behold, I make all things new!" "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new."