Chapter 13. For the right timing of Meditations
Chapter 13.
For the right timing of Meditations Ques. 1. What is the fittest time for meditation?
Ans: For the timing of it, it is hard to prescribe, because of men's various callings and employments. But if I may freely speak my thoughts, the morning is the fittest time for meditation. The best time to converse with God is when we may be most private; that is, before worldly occasions stand knocking like so many suitors at the door, to be let in. The morning is, as it were, the cream of the day; let the cream be taken off the top, and let God have it. In distilling strong water, the first water drawn from the still is more full of spirits; the second drawing is weaker. So too, the first meditations that are distilled from the mind in the morning are the best, and we will find they are the most full of life and spirits. The morning is the golden hour. God loved the first-fruits; "The first of the first-fruits you shall bring into the house of the Lord," Exo 23.19. Let God have the first-fruits of the day — our first thoughts must be set upon heaven. The student takes the morning for his study; the usurer gets up in the morning and looks over his books of account; but a Christian must begin with God in the morning. David was with God before break of day; "I preceded the dawning of the morning," Psa
119.147.
Ques. 2. But why the morning for meditation?
Ans. 1. Because in the morning the mind is the fittest for holy duties; a Christian is most himself then. What weary devotion there will be at night, when a man is completely tired out with the business of the day; he will be fitter to sleep than to meditate. The morning is the queen of the day: then the fancy is quickest, the memory strongest, the spirits freshest, the organ of the body most disposed, having been recreated by sleep. It is a sure rule that the best time to serve God is when we find ourselves most in tune. In the morning the heart is like a viol that is strung and tuned, and then it makes the sweetest melody.
Ans. 2. The morning thoughts stay longest with us the day afterward. Wool takes the first dye best, and it is not easily rubbed out. When the mind receives the impression of good thoughts in the morning, it holds this sacred dye better; and like the colour in grain, it will not easily be lost. The heart keeps the relish of morning meditations like a vessel that receives a tincture and savour of the wine that is first put into it; or as a chest of sweet linen that keeps the scent a great while after. Perfume your mind with heavenly thoughts in the morning, and it will not lose its spiritual fragrance. Wind up your heart towards heaven in the beginning of the day, and it will go better the whole day after. Receiving thoughts into the mind, is like receiving guests into an inn: the guests who come first fill the best rooms in the house — if others come afterward, worse rooms will serve them. So it is when the mind entertains holy meditations for its morning-guests. If afterwards earthly thoughts come, they are put into some of the worst rooms — they lodge lowest in the affections.
The best rooms are taken up in the morning for Christ. The one who loses his heart to the world in the morning, will hardly find it again the whole rest of the day.
Ans. 3. It is a part of that solemn respect and honour which we give to God, to let him have the first thoughts of the day. We give persons of quality precedence; we let them take the first place. If we honour
God, whose name is reverend and holy, then we will let thoughts of God take place above all others. When the world has the first of our thoughts, it is a sign that the world lies uppermost in our heart — that we love it most. The first thing a covetous man meditates on in the morning is his money; it is a sign that his gold lies nearest to his heart. O Christians, let God have your morning meditations! It displeases God to have the world served before him. Suppose a king and a yeoman were to dine in the same room, and sat at two tables. If the yeoman were to have his food brought and he was served first, the king might well be displeased, and look at it as contempt of his person. When the world is served first, all our morning thoughts attend it, and the Lord is put off with the dregs of the day,85 when
our thoughts begin to run low. Isn't this contempt of the God of glory?
Ans. 4. Equity requires it. God deserves the first of our thoughts.
We had a being in his thoughts before we had a being. He thought upon us "before the foundations of the world," Eph 1.4. Before we fell, he was thinking how to raise us up again. We had the morning of his thoughts. Oh! What thoughts of free grace, what thoughts of peace he has had towards us! We have taken up his thoughts from eternity. If we had some of God's first thoughts, then well may He have our first thoughts.
Ans. 5. This imitates the pattern of the saints. Job rose early in the morning and offered [sacrifices], Job 1.5. When he awoke, David was with God, Psa 139.18. And indeed, this is the way to have a morning blessing. "In the morning the dew fell," Exo 16.13. The dew of a blessing falls early; that is when we are most likely to have God's company. If you would meet with a friend, you go timely in the morning, before he has gone out. We read how the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostles, Act 2.3-4. And it was in the morning, as may be gathered from Peter's sermon: it was only "the third hour of the day," Act 2.15. The morning is the time for fruitfulness: "In the morning you will make your seed flourish," Isa 17.11. By morning meditation, we make the seed of grace flourish.
Evening Meditation I would not wholly exclude evening meditation by this. Isaac went out to meditate in the evening, Gen 24.63. When business is over, and everything is calm, it is good to take a turn with God in the evening. God had his evening sacrifice, as well as his morning, Exo
29.39. As the cream at the top is sweet, so likewise is the sugar at the bottom.
Evening meditation does well in two cases:
1. In case the urgency of business has been such that you have time only for reading and prayer; then recompense the lack of morning meditation, with evening meditation.
2. In case you find yourself more inclined to good thoughts in the evening. For sometimes there is a greater impetus 86 upon the heart then, a greater aptitude and tuneableness of the mind. You dare not neglect meditation at such a time — who knows but that it may quench the Spirit! Do not drive this blessed dove from the ark of your soul.
In these two cases, evening meditation is seasonable. But I say, if I may toss in my verdict, the morning is to be preferred. As the flower of the sun opens in the morning to take in the sweet beams of the sun, so open your soul in the morning to take in sweet thoughts of God. And so much for the timing of meditation.