There is not much to show in these words, but there is much in them. It was the time of the utter decadence of the people: everything worth having was gone; nothing was left but misery and godless pride. What could be done in such circumstances? Yet there were those who "feared the Lord." Anyway, nobody, nothing could take that from those who had it. Then, what did they do? They did not preach, or make public orations; they had no prophet by whose words they could be spellbound for the time being, even though they would not obey them; there was no Elijah, they had to wait for his reappearance to rebuild the altar with the twelve stones of a united people: there was no king to deliver them from the stranger's yoke: they had no power to recover the position in the world which their unfaithfulness had lost to them; they had no ground of visible encouragement in their distressful circumstances; it was no time to sing the songs of Zion, to proclaim their divinely appointed privileges, or even to call a general prayer-meeting. What then? What could they do?
"They spake often one to another." In the informal conversations one member of the company was as good as another, none had anything in which to display his superiority, in which to boast in the time of national humiliation; every voice in the company was formed in the common "fear of God;" and every utterance, however simple or illiterate, expressed that fear.
Moreover, it was no mere Sabbath day formalism. Days, hours, times, did not govern their conversations. It was no perfunctory thing to be done, and to be done with. "They spake often one to another." How often? That depended on the fellowship of the Spirit, and the opportunity afforded them: as it is said, "As often as ye do it — until He come."
And is it not striking, the exceeding simplicity, shorn of every adventitious appendage, of that anchor-word to keep the hearts of His disciples steadfast through all the stress of times, "Remember Me?" No artifice of the enemy, no failure of the church in whole or in part, can rob the feeblest saint of that. It was left by the Lord at the last supper, to bind the hearts of His own to Himself through all time until He comes. It imposed no burden: it enforced no duty; it demanded no sacrifice; it required no power; it prescribed no ritual; it set forth no times; but only "as often as — until." A word without a command; a direction without enforcement; a trumpet call without a fixed rallying point: a standard without a bearer; a voice without a crier: a rule, but one of love, it remains by its very simplicity indestructible and efficient for the gathering of every heart loyal to Himself ever since.
And after the same manner of simplicity and efficiency is the picture of Malachi 3:16, and an immense comfort for us today as we consider it. The times are evil and getting more so. How long we shall retain the little we have outwardly who can say? And the question is becoming more than ever serious. Then, when all hope is gone (Acts 27:20), what remains in the face of difficulties insurmountable? "God and the word of his Grace" (Acts 20:32). Acts 27 is instructive as regards the dispensation; John's writings as to what abides unto eternal life. E. C.
Fearing the Lord, and thinking on His Name,
The faithful few together often spake.
The faithful now His promised presence claim:
Remembering Him, Who suffered for their sake.