12. But then sometimes the will needs
supplementing; and the mere desire for perfect happiness does not win
it, unless performance wait upon intention. The Psalm, you
remember, goes on: And in His Law will he meditate day and
night. The man achieves the perfection of happiness by
unbroken and unwearied meditation in the Law. Now it may be
objected that this is impossible owing to the conditions of human
infirmity, which require time for repose, for sleep, for food: so
that our bodily circumstances preclude us from the hope of attaining
happiness, inasmuch as we are distracted by the interruption of our
bodily needs from our meditation by day and night. Parallel to
this passage are the words of the Apostle, Pray without
ceasing 1 Thess. v. 17.. As
though we were bound to set at naught our bodily requirements and to
continue praying without any interruption! Meditation in the Law,
therefore, does not lie in reading its words, but in pious performance
of its injunctions; not in a mere perusal of the books and writings,
but in a practical meditation and exercise in their respective
contents, and in a fulfilment of the Law by the works we do by night
and day, as the Apostle says: Whether ye eat or drink, or
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God 1 Cor. x. 31.. The way to secure uninterrupted
prayer is for every devout man to make his life one long prayer by
works acceptable to God and always done to His glory: thus a life
lived according to the Law by night and day will in itself become a
nightly and daily meditation in the Law.