The Law and the Testimony: A Book of Daily Meditation

By Thomas Parker Boyd

Experience the life-changing power of Thomas Parker Boyd with this unforgettable book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andura Publishing
• Release date: Oct 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9791220204675

Book preview

The Law and the Testimony, A Book of Daily Meditation

Thomas Parker Boyd

Contents

Foreword

The Silent Places

The Mind of Christ

A Prayer

Daily Meditations for a Week:

Health

Prayer

Good Cheer

Trust

Fear Cure

Comfort

Peace

Daily Meditations for a Month:

Unity of Life

The Ever Present Friend

Help

Peace

The Great Sayings of Jesus

Omnipresence

Omnipotence

Omniscience

Life

Meditation Blessings

Opening and Closing Forms

Sample Affirmations for Speaking the Word

Foreword

Thou givest me this day my daily bread. Shall we eat today? Certainly if we would conserve strength. It is said that once Elijah went on the strength of a meal forty days, but to ordinary mortals under ordinary conditions we can do better with three meals per day at regular hours.

The purpose of this little book is to help the reader to cultivate the habit of regular feeding on the Word of Truth. There are crumbs for one in haste, crackers for a light repast, biscuits for a more leisurely meal, and full loaves for those who find time for, and delight in, the sustenance found in the eternal Truth. The Truth is milk for babes, bread for children, meat for strong men and women of mature digestive power, honey for those who like sweets, jewels for those who love adornment, treasure for those who desire riches.

There are single thoughts to be carried through the day as a motto to be repeated mentally and audibly when convenient. Many full meditations will richly repay regular study and practice, for in so doing they will feed and instruct the reader in the right way of meditation. There is something in this little volume that will help you, no matter what your need may be.

The arrangement of these meditations is in line with the title, a quotation from the Law of the Spirit of Life, as found in the Scriptures, followed by the testimony of the human heart in all ages. Make the testimony your own by feeding upon it.

To the Law and to the Testimony, if they speak not according to this Word, surely there is no morning for them. Isaiah 8:20.

The Silent Places

We learn by precept and example. We know things by putting them into practice. A theory remains a theory if no one puts it to the acid test of experience. The things we believe are so many useless pieces of junk. The things we know because we have proved them, are transmuted into the pure gold of experience, the highest standard of value.

We have all wondered at the glorious attainment of illumined souls and wished that we too might know the secret by which they climbed to the heights. For be sure that they climbed. If we knew the silent years, the patient waiting, the misunderstanding of friends, the crushing burdens, the Alpine barriers, they should disillusion us. We thought they had mounted up as the chosen of the gods, having everything in their favor.

Their pathway led far from the valleys of ease. Far from the noise and, strife of the daily turmoil they found the secret of attainment. In the silences! The desert, the mountain, the closet, the inner silence of the soul! These are the birthplaces of power. When some splendid soul begins to write a brilliant path of light on the sky to cheer and help the world, the hidden and silent years of waiting, and temptation, and buffeting come, until they cleansed his soul, toughened his moral muscles, and perfected his spiritual balance for his dizzy careering on the heights.

Be still and know, is the formula of old. There is none other. Enter into thy closet and shut the door, and pray in secret is the way to find power to achieve openly. It took Moses forty years at the lonesome and onerous task of herding sheep to become still enough to hear what the Lord had been saying to him. Good and gracious God! Has our humanity been making such a racket that we could not hear what our divinity has been saying?! It took forty days in the desert to get ready to meet and vanquish the devil of that time. It took the Mount of Transfiguration to show the secret of mastery over disease. It took a night in Gethsemane to get ready to meet a cross. It took a death and burial to prove that we cannot die!

These are the silent places where we learn the secrets of life. It does not matter so much what our special trials are as does the manner in which we meet them. Nevertheless, we may be sure that we will find the secret of how to meet them in the Silence. The greater the task, the deeper is the need of repose to find and touch the secret of strength. The more life is beset with cares the greater the need to find the still waters where the soul’s divine poise is restored.

Every great soul has his or her way of going into the Silence. Sometimes it is in a place apart, and more often it is within. Meditation is carrying your problem into the Silence and holding it in the light of some word of wisdom from the Lord. As your mind atmospheres itself in His word, your problem is dissolved and its dross is melted away in the refinery of the spirit, and the pure gold of truth and right is left in your hand.

Practice entering the Silence until you learn that you carry the Silence with you always, and it is available even when life outwardly is thundering at you like a boiler shop. Have a system for the practice of meditation. At least until you have learned where the secret place of the Lord is. Have a time and place most favorable. Take that position in which your body is most comfortable. Relax both in body and mind. Breathe deeply for a few times. Turn your thoughts to God by thinking some word of His, such as are given in the exercises in the following chapters. Do not try