A New Year's Motto

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“COME, ye children, hearken unto Me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” Psa. 34:1111Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. (Psalm 34:11).
No doubt you will be saying to your friends, when you meet them, on this New Year’s morning, “A Happy New Year to you.” Well, we join with you most heartily, and trust that both yourselves, and the dear ones you love, will indeed have a very, very happy one; and not only so, but that throughout the year, if it so please the Lord, your happiness may increase.
We have been thinking, dear children, what makes true happiness, and we believe that bur motto will help us to answer the question. Let us look at it in its four parts.
First, it is an appeal to us all.
“Come, ye Children.”
Ah! how graciously the blessed Lord Jesus, when He was down here, showed His love to children, saying,
In our motto it is not simply saying— Suffer them to come, but there is a direct invitation: “Come, ye children.”
You may rely upon this, that, if Jesus invites you, He has something very blessed to speak to you about; so He says,
“Hearken Unto Me.”
We may learn from this that He would have us to value His word, and so He says elsewhere,
“Blessed is the man that heareth Me.” Prov. 8:3434Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. (Proverbs 8:34). O! will you now, on this New Year’s Day, if you have never done so before, just receive His word into your hearts, and trust in the virtue of His precious blood to make you clean from all your sin? If you do, we can truly say that it will be the happiest New Year you have ever had.
To all who come to Him, and hearken unto Him, He says further,
“I will Teach you the Fear of the Lord.”
This word “fear” does not mean that we should be afraid, like Adam, when he heard God’s voice in the garden (Gen. 3:1010And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. (Genesis 3:10)); but now, His perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:1818There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)). It means that we should reverence Him, and not like to do what would grieve Him. He looks for our loving obedience to His word.
And then, lastly, our motto says,
“Blessed is the Man that Trusteth in Him.”
What does this word “blessed” mean? Well, another word for it is happy; and so we may read it this way, “Happy is the man (or child) that trusteth in Him.”
Ah! dear children, we who write this were called to follow the Lord many years ago, and we can indeed commend earnestly this invitation from the blessed Lord to you all this New Year, and if you accept it, and make it your motto, we are sure you will not need any one to tell you about this true happiness, but you will prove it for yourselves.
May He bless you indeed, and make you truly happy by constant trust in Him.
ML 01/04/1925