Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: September 23

 “The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took my veil away from me.”

Here again is a strange “green stone” verse. And yet a close look under the guidance of the Spirit shows us the wonder in it.

Who among us has not been smitten and wounded by “the watchmen” who go about Christendom “keeping order” with a big stick? Have you never been corrected sharply by some dear brother who feels God has called him to be your “watchmen” going about your city?

I [Eugenia Price, the author] well remember once when I was a very new Christian, and quite sincerely trying to find an answer in a certain difficult situation. I believed God’s will was to stop the undertaking we had begun. One such “watchman” brother fixed me with a cold eye and snapped: “Who are you to decide what God wants?” I admit I carried the bruise from the “watchman” brother’s “big stick” for a while. I rejoice now, because the “big stick” drove me to Jesus.

A woman’s veil in Biblical days signified her innocence. Have you never had “the keepers of the walls” take your “veil” away? I san share from my own bumpy first years in Christian service here too. At the very innocent outset I was unaware to the point of stupidity about Christians not loving one another. Few people manage to miss it as I had. I remembered fights in the church as a child, but I had’t been in a church for eighteen years.

Then some very definite minded “keepers of the walls” of the correct doctrine “took away my veil [of innocence] from me” I was almost blinded at first. But now I rejoice that it was jerked off so soon. Otherwise I might still be looking at those “keepers of the walls” and missing the face of my Beloved! His warning is such a great kindness:

”Look unto ME, and ye be saved…”