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diff --git a/28416-0.txt b/28416-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c18ee5 --- /dev/null +++ b/28416-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11261 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Days of Heaven Upon Earth by Rev. A. B. +Simpson + + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no +restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under +the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or +online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license + + + +Title: Days of Heaven Upon Earth + +Author: Rev. A. B. Simpson + +Release Date: March 27, 2009 [Ebook #28416] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAYS OF HEAVEN UPON EARTH*** + + + + + + Days of Heaven Upon Earth + + A Year Book of Scripture Texts + + And Living Truths + + By + + Rev. A. B. Simpson + + Christian Alliance Pub. Co. + + 3611 Fourteenth Avenue, + + Brooklyn, N. Y. + + Copyright, December, 1897 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +The Days Of Heaven +January 1. +January 2. +January 3. +January 4. +January 5. +January 6. +January 7. +January 8. +January 9. +January 10. +January 11. +January 12. +January 13. +January 14. +January 15. +January 16. +January 17. +January 18. +January 19. +January 20. +January 21. +January 22. +January 23. +January 24. +January 25. +January 26. +January 27. +January 28. +January 29. +January 30. +January 31. +February 1. +February 2. +February 3. +February 4. +February 5. +February 6. +February 7. +February 8. +February 9. +February 10. +February 11. +February 12. +February 13. +February 14. +February 15. +February 16. +February 17. +February 18. +February 19. +February 20. +February 21. +February 22. +February 23. +February 24. +February 25. +February 26. +February 27. +February 28. +March 1. +March 2. +March 3. +March 4. +March 5. +March 6. +March 7. +March 8. +March 9. +March 10. +March 11. +March 12. +March 13. +March 14. +March 15. +March 16. +March 17. +March 18. +March 19. +March 20. +March 21. +March 22. +March 23. +March 24. +March 25. +March 26. +March 27. +March 28. +March 29. +March 30. +March 31. +April 1. +April 2. +April 3. +April 4. +April 5. +April 6. +April 7. +April 8. +April 9. +April 10. +April 11. +April 12. +April 13. +April 14. +April 15. +April 16. +April 17. +April 18. +April 19. +April 20. +April 21. +April 22. +April 23. +April 24. +April 25. +April 26. +April 27. +April 28. +April 29. +April 30. +May 1. +May 2. +May 3. +May 4. +May 5. +May 6. +May 7. +May 8. +May 9. +May 10. +May 11. +May 12. +May 13. +May 14. +May 15. +May 16. +May 17. +May 18. +May 19. +May 20. +May 21. +May 22. +May 23. +May 24. +May 25. +May 26. +May 27. +May 28. +May 29. +May 30. +May 31. +June 1. +June 2. +June 3. +June 4. +June 5. +June 6. +June 7. +June 8. +June 9. +June 10. +June 11. +June 12. +June 13. +June 14. +June 15. +June 16. +June 17. +June 18. +June 19. +June 20. +June 21. +June 22. +June 23. +June 24. +June 25. +June 26. +June 27. +June 28. +June 29. +June 30. +July 1. +July 2. +July 3. +July 4. +July 5. +July 6. +July 7. +July 8. +July 9. +July 10. +July 11. +July 12. +July 13. +July 14. +July 15. +July 16. +July 17. +July 18. +July 19. +July 20. +July 21. +July 22. +July 23. +July 24. +July 25. +July 26. +July 27. +July 28. +July 29. +July 30. +July 31. +August 1. +August 2. +August 3. +August 4. +August 5. +August 6. +August 7. +August 8. +August 9. +August 10. +August 11. +August 12. +August 13. +August 14. +August 15. +August 16. +August 17. +August 18. +August 19. +August 20. +August 21. +August 22. +August 23. +August 24. +August 25. +August 26. +August 27. +August 28. +August 29. +August 30. +August 31. +September 1. +September 2. +September 3. +September 4. +September 5. +September 6. +September 7. +September 8. +September 9. +September 10. +September 11. +September 12. +September 13. +September 14. +September 15. +September 16. +September 17. +September 18. +September 19. +September 20. +September 21. +September 22. +September 23. +September 24. +September 25. +September 26. +September 27. +September 28. +September 29. +September 30. +October 1. +October 2. +October 3. +October 4. +October 5. +October 6. +October 7. +October 8. +October 9. +October 10. +October 11. +October 12. +October 13. +October 14. +October 15. +October 16. +October 17. +October 18. +October 19. +October 20. +October 21. +October 22. +October 23. +October 24. +October 25. +October 26. +October 27. +October 28. +October 29. +October 30. +October 31. +November 1. +November 2. +November 3. +November 4. +November 5. +November 6. +November 7. +November 8. +November 9. +November 10. +November 11. +November 12. +November 13. +November 14. +November 15. +November 16. +November 17. +November 18. +November 19. +November 20. +November 21. +November 22. +November 23. +November 24. +November 25. +November 26. +November 27. +November 28. +November 29. +November 30. +December 1. +December 2. +December 3. +December 4. +December 5. +December 6. +December 7. +December 8. +December 9. +December 10. +December 11. +December 12. +December 13. +December 14. +December 15. +December 16. +December 17. +December 18. +December 19. +December 20. +December 21. +December 22. +December 23. +December 24. +December 25. +December 26. +December 27. +December 28. +December 29. +December 30. +December 31. + + + + + + +THE DAYS OF HEAVEN + + +The days of heaven are peaceful days, + Still as yon glassy sea; +So calm, so still in God, our days, + As the days of heaven would be. + +The days of heaven are holy days, + From sin forever free; +So cleansed and kept our days, O Lord, + As the days of heaven would be. + +The days of heaven are happy days. + Sorrow they never see; +So full of gladness all our days, + As the days of heaven would be. + +The days of heaven are healthful days, + They feed on life’s fair tree; +So feeding on Thy strength, O Christ, + Our days as heaven may be. + +Walk with us, Lord, thro’ all the days, + And let us walk with Thee; +Till as Thy will is done in heaven, + On earth so shall it be. + + + + + +JANUARY 1. + + +“Redeeming the time” (Eph. v. 16). + +Two little words are found in the Greek version here. They are translated +“_ton kairon_” in the revised version, “Buying up for yourselves the +opportunity.” The two words _ton kairon_ mean, literally, the opportunity. + +They do not refer to time in general, but to a special point of time, a +juncture, a crisis, a moment full of possibilities and quickly passing by, +which we must seize and make the best of before it has passed away. + +It is intimated that there are not many such moments of opportunity, +because the days are evil; like a barren desert, in which, here and there, +you find a flower, pluck it while you can; like a business opportunity +which comes a few times in a life-time; buy it up while you have the +chance. Be spiritually alert; be not unwise, but understanding what the +will of God is. “Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, buying up +for yourselves the opportunity.” + +Sometimes it is a moment of time to be saved; sometimes a soul to be led +to Christ; sometimes it is an occasion for love; sometimes for patience: +sometimes for victory over temptation and sin. Let us redeem it. + + + + + +JANUARY 2. + + +“I will cause you to walk in My statutes” (Eze. xxxvi. 27). + +The highest spiritual condition is one where life is spontaneous and flows +without effort, like the deep floods of Ezekiel’s river, where the +struggles of the swimmer ceased, and he was borne by the current’s +resistless force. + +So God leads us into spiritual conditions and habits which become the +spontaneous impulses of our being, and we live and move in the fulness of +the divine life. + +But these spiritual habits are not the outcome of some transitory impulse, +but are often slowly acquired and established. They begin, like every true +habit, in a definite act of will, and they are confirmed by the repetition +of that act until it becomes a habit. The first stages always involve +effort and choice. We have to take a stand and hold it steadily, and after +we have done so a certain time, it becomes second nature, and carries us +by its own force. + +The Holy Spirit is willing to form such habits in every direction of our +Christian life, and if we will but obey Him in the first steppings of +faith, we will soon become established in the attitude of obedience, and +duty will be delight. + + + + + +JANUARY 3. + + +“Watch and pray” (Matt. xxvi. 41). + +We need to watch for prayers as well as for the answers to our prayers. It +needs as much wisdom to pray rightly as it does faith to receive the +answers to our prayers. + +We met a friend the other day, who had been in years of darkness because +God had failed to answer certain prayers, and the result had been a state +bordering on infidelity. + +A very few moments were sufficient to convince this friend that these +prayers had been entirely unauthorized, and that God had never promised to +answer such prayers, and they were for things which this friend should +have accomplished himself, in the exercise of ordinary wisdom. + +The result was deliverance from a cloud of unbelief which was almost +wrecking a Christian life. There are some things about which we do not +need to pray, as much as to take the light which God has already given. + +Many persons are asking God to give them peculiar signs, tokens and +supernatural intimations of His will. Our business is to use the light He +has given, and then He will give whatever more we need. + + + + + +JANUARY 4. + + +“Blessed is the man that walketh not” (Ps. i. 1). + +Three things are notable about this man: + +1. His company. “He walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor +standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” + +2. His reading and thinking. “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and +in His law doth he meditate day and night.” + +3. His fruitfulness. “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of +water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall +not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” + +The river is the Holy Ghost; the planting, the deep, abiding life in +which, not occasionally, but habitually, we absorb the Holy Spirit; and +the fruit is not occasional, but continual, and appropriate to each +changing season. + +His life is also prosperous, and his spirit fresh, like the unfading leaf. +Such a life must be happy. Indeed, happiness is a matter of spiritual +conditions. Put a sunbeam in a cellar and it must be bright. Put a +nightingale in the darkest midnight, and it must sing. + + + + + +JANUARY 5. + + +“I know him that he will do the law” (Gen. xviii. 19). + +God wants people that He can depend upon. He could say of Abraham, “I know +him, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham all that He hath spoken.” God +can be depended upon; He wants us to be just as decided, as reliable, as +stable. This is just what faith means. God is looking for men on whom He +can put the weight of all His love, and power, and faithful promises. When +God finds such a soul there is nothing He will not do for him. God’s +engines are strong enough to draw any weight we attach to them. +Unfortunately the cable which we fasten to the engine is often too weak to +hold the weight of our prayer, therefore God is drilling us, disciplining +us, and training us to stability and certainty in the life of faith. Let +us learn our lessons, and let us stand fast. + +God has His best things for the few + Who dare to stand the test; +God has his second choice for those + Who will not have His best. + +Give me, O Lord, Thy highest choice, + Let others take the rest. +Their good things have no charm for me, + For I have got Thy best. + + + + + +JANUARY 6. + + +“The body is not one member, but many” (I. Cor. xii. 14). + +We have a friend who has a phonograph for his correspondence. It consists +of two parts. One is a simple and wonderful apparatus, whose sensitive +cylinders receive the tones and then give them out again, word for word, +through the hearing tube. The other part is a common little box that +stands under the table, and does nothing but supply the power through +connecting wires. + +Now, the little box might insist upon being the phonograph, and doing the +talking; but if it should, it would not only waste its own life but +destroy the life of its partner. + +Its sole business is to supply power to the phonograph, while the latter +is to do the talking. So some of us are called to be voices to speak for +God to our fellow-men, others are forces to sustain them, by our holy +sympathy and silent prayer. (Some of us are little dynamos under the +table, while others are phonographs that speak aloud the messages of +heaven.) + +Let each of us be true to our God-given ministry, and when the day comes +our work will be weighed and the rewards distributed. + + + + + +JANUARY 7. + + +“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from stumbling” (Jude 24). + +This is a most precious promise. The revised translation is both accurate +and suggestive. It is not merely from falling that He wants to keep us, +but from even the slightest stumbling. + +We are told of Abraham that he staggered not at the promise. God wants us +to walk so steadily that there will not even be a quiver in the line of +His regiments as they face the foe. It is the little stumblings of life +that most discourage and hinder us, and most of these stumblings are over +trifles. Satan would much rather knock us down with a feather than with an +Armstrong gun. It is much more to his honor and keen delight to defeat a +child of God by some flimsy trifle than by some great temptation. + +Beloved, let us watch, in these days, against the orange peels that trip +us on our pathway, the little foxes that destroy the vines, and the dead +flies that mar, sometimes, a whole vessel of precious ointment. “Trifles +make perfection,” and as we get farther on, in our Christian life, God +will hold us much more closely to obedience in things that seem +insignificant. + + + + + +JANUARY 8. + + +“It is I, be not afraid” (Mark vi. 50). + +Someone tells of a little child with some big story of sorrow upon its +little heart, flying to its mother’s arms for comfort, and intending to +tell her the story of its trouble; but as that mother presses it to her +bosom and pours out her love, it soon becomes so occupied with her and the +sweetness of her affection that it forgets to tell its story, and in a +little while even the memory of the trouble is forgotten. It has just been +loved away, and she has taken its place in the heart of the little one. + +This is the way God comforts us Himself. “It is I, be not afraid,” is His +reassuring word. The circumstances are not altered, but He Himself comes +in their place, and satisfies every need of our being, and we forget all +things in His sweet presence, as He becomes our all in all. + +I am breathing out my sorrow + On Thy kind and loving breast; +Breathing in Thy joy and comfort, + Breathing in Thy peace and rest. + +I am breathing out my longings + In Thy listening, loving ear; +I am breathing in Thy answer, + Stilling every doubt and fear. + + + + + +JANUARY 9. + + +“Not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matt. xxvi. 39). + +“To will and do of His good pleasure” (Phil. ii. 13). + +There are two attitudes in which our will should be given to God. + +First. We should have the surrendered will. This is where we must all +begin, by yielding up to God our natural will, and having Him possess it. + +But next, He wants us to have the victorious will. As soon as He receives +our will in honest surrender, He wants to put His will into it and make it +stronger than ever for Him. It is henceforth no longer our will, but His +will. And having yielded to His choice and placed itself under His +direction, He wants to put into it all the strength and intensity of His +own great will and make us positive, forceful, victorious and unmovable, +even as Himself. “Not My will, but Thine be done.” That is the first step. +“Father, I will that they whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me.” That is +the second attitude. Both are divine; both are right; both are necessary +to our right living and successful working for God. + + + + + +JANUARY 10. + + +“Charity doth not behave itself unseemly” (I. Cor. xiii. 5). + +In the dress of a Hindu woman, her graceful robe is fastened upon her +person entirely by means of a single knot. The long strip of cloth is +wound around her person so as to fall in graceful folds like a made +garment, and the end is fastened by a little knot, and the whole thing +hangs by that single fastening. If that were loosed the robe would fall. +And so in the spiritual life, our habits of grace are likened unto +garments; and it is also true that the garment of love, which is the +beautiful adorning of the child of God, is entirely fastened by little +_nots_. + +If you will read with care the thirteenth chapter of I. Corinthians, you +will find that most of the qualities of love are purely negative. “Love +envieth not, love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave +herself rudely, seeketh not her own, is not provoked, thinketh no evil.” +Here are “_nots_” enough to hold on our spiritual wardrobe. Here are +reasons enough to explain the failure of so many, and the reason why they +walk naked, or with rent garments, and others see their shame. Let us look +after the _nots_. + + + + + +JANUARY 11. + + +“Hold fast till I come” (Rev. ii. 25). + +The other day we asked a Hebrew friend how it was that his countrymen were +so successful in acquiring wealth. “Ah,” said he, “we do not make more +money than other people, but we keep more.” Beloved, let us look out this +day for spiritual pickpockets and spiritual leakage. Let us “lose nothing +of what we have wrought, but receive a full reward”; and, as each day +comes and goes, let us put away in the savings bank of eternity its +treasures of grace and victory, and so be conscious from day to day that +something real and everlasting is being added to our eternal fortune. + +It may be but a little, but if we only economize all that God gives us, +and pass it on to His keeping, when the close shall come we shall be +amazed to see how much the accumulated treasures of a well spent life have +laid up on high, and how much more He has added to them by His glorious +investment of the life committed to His keeping. + +Oh, how the days are telling! Oh, how precious these golden hours will +seem sometime! God help us to make the most of them now. + + + + + +JANUARY 12. + + +“Ask and it shall be given you” (Matt. vii. 7). + +We must receive, as well as ask. We must take the place of believing, and +recognize ourselves as in it. A friend was saying, “I want to get into the +will of God,” and this was the answer: “Will you step into the will of +God? And now, are you in the will of God?” The question aroused a thought +that had not come before. + +The gentleman saw that he had been straining after, but not receiving the +blessing he sought. + +Jesus has said, “Ask and ye shall receive.” The very strain keeps back the +blessing. The intense tension of all your spiritual nature so binds you +that you are not open to the blessing which God is waiting to give you. +“Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” + +He tells me there is cleansing + From every secret sin, +And a great and full salvation + To keep the heart within. +And I take Him in His fulness, + With all His glorious grace, +For He says it is mine by taking, + And I take just what He says. + + + + + +JANUARY 13. + + +“Thou shalt be to him instead of God” (Ex. iv. 16). + +Such was God’s promise to Moses, and such the high character that Moses +was to assume toward Aaron, his brother. May it not suggest a high and +glorious place that each of us may occupy toward all whom we meet, instead +of God? + +What a dignity and glory it would give our lives, could we uniformly +realize this high calling! How it would lead us to act toward our +fellow-men! God can always be depended upon. God is without variableness +or shadow of turning. God’s word is unchangeable, and we can trust Him +without reserve or question. Oh, that we might so live that men can trust +us, even as God! + +Again, God has no needs or wants to be supplied. He is always giving. +“Rich unto all that call upon Him.” The glory of His nature is love, +unselfish love, and beneficence toward all His creatures. The Divine life +is a self-forgetting life, a life that has nothing to do but love and +bless. + +Let us so live, representing our Master here, while He represents us +before the Throne on high. + + + + + +JANUARY 14. + + +“Unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. iv. 13). + +God loves us so well that He will not suffer us to take less than His +highest will. Some day we shall bless our faithful teacher, who kept the +standard inflexibly rigid, and then gave us the strength and grace to +reach it, and would not excuse us until we had accomplished all His +glorious will. + +Let us be inexorable with ourselves. Let us mean exactly what God means, +and have no discounts upon His promises or commandments. Let us keep the +standard up, and never rest until we reach it. “Let God be true and every +man a liar.” If we fail a hundred times don’t let us accommodate God’s +ideal to our realization, but like the brave ensign who stood in front of +his company waving the banner, and when the soldiers called him back he +only waved it higher, and cried, “Don’t bring the standard back to the +regiment, but bring the regiment up to the colors.” + +Forward, forward, leave the past behind thee, + Reaching forth unto the things before; +All the Land of Promise lies before thee, + God has greater blessings yet in store. + + + + + +JANUARY 15. + + +“As ye have received Christ Jesus so walk in Him” (Col. ii. 6). + +It is much easier to keep the fire burning than to rekindle it after it +has gone out. Let us abide in Him. Let us not have to remove the cinders +and ashes from our hearthstones every day and kindle a new flame; but let +us keep it burning and never let it expire. Among the ancient Greeks the +sacred fire was never allowed to go out; so, in a higher sense, let us +keep the heavenly flame aglow upon the altar of the heart. + +It takes very much less effort to maintain a good habit than to form it. A +true spiritual habit once formed becomes a spontaneous tendency of our +being, and we grow into delightful freedom in following it. “Let us not be +ever laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, but let us +go on unto perfection; and whereto we have already attained, let us walk +by the same rule, let us mind the same things.” + +Every spiritual habit begins with difficulty and effort and watchfulness, +but if we will only let it get thoroughly established, it will become a +channel along which currents of life will flow with divine spontaneousness +and freedom. + + + + + +JANUARY 16. + + +“Prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. +xii. 2). + +There are three conditions in which the water in that engine may be. +First, the boiler may be full and the water clean and clear; or, secondly, +the boiler may not only be full but the water may be hot, very hot, hot +enough to scald you, almost boiling; thirdly, it may be just one degree +hotter and at the boiling point, giving forth its vapor in clouds of +steam, pressing through the valves and driving the mighty piston which +turns the wheels and propels the train of cars across the country. + +So there are three kinds of Christians. The first we will call cold water +Christians, or, perhaps better, clean water Christians. + +Secondly, there are hot water Christians. They are almost at the boiling +point. + +One degree more, we come to the third class of Christians, the boiling +water Christians. The difference is a very slight one; it simply takes one +reservation out, drops one “if,” eliminates a single touch, and yet it is +all the difference in the world. That one degree changes that engine into +a motive power, not now a thing to be looked at, but a thing to go. + + + + + +JANUARY 17. + + +“It is God which worketh in you” (Phil. ii. 13). + +God has not two ways for any of us; but one; not two things for us to do +which we may choose between; but one best and highest choice. It is a +blessed thing to find and fill the perfect will of God. It is a blessed +thing to have our life laid out and our Christian work adjusted to God’s +plan. Much strength is lost by working at a venture. Much spiritual force +is expended in wasted effort, and scattered, indefinite and inconstant +attempts at doing good. There is spiritual force and financial strength +enough in the hands and hearts of the consecrated Christians of to-day to +bring the coming of Christ, to bring about the evangelization of the world +in a generation, if it were only wisely directed and utilized according to +God’s plan. + +Christ has laid down a definite plan of work for His Church, and He +expects us to understand it, and to work up to it; and as we catch His +thought, and obediently, loyally fulfil it, we shall work to purpose, and +please Him far better than by our thoughtless, reckless, and +indiscriminate attempts to carry out our ideas, and compel God to bless +our work. + + + + + +JANUARY 18. + + +“That take and give for Me and thee” (Matt. xvii. 27). + +There is a beautiful touch of loving thoughtfulness in the account of +Christ’s miracle at Capernaum in providing the tribute money. After the +reference to Peter’s interview with the tax collector, it is added, “When +he came into the house Jesus prevented him,” that is, anticipated him, as +the old Saxon word means, by arranging for the need before Peter needed to +speak about it at all, and He sent Peter down to the sea to find the piece +of gold in the mouth of the fish. + +So our dear Lord is always thinking in advance of our needs, and He loves +to save us from embarrassment, and anticipate our anxieties and cares by +laying up His loving acts and providing before the emergency comes. Then +with exquisite tenderness the Master adds: “That take and give for Me and +thee.” He puts Himself first in the embarrassing need and bears the heavy +end of the burden for His distressed and suffering child. He makes our +cares His cares, our sorrows His sorrows, our shame His shame, and “He is +able to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” + + + + + +JANUARY 19. + + +“Prove me now herewith” (Mal. iii. 10). + +We once heard a simple old colored man say something that we have never +forgotten. “When God tests You it is a good time for you to test Him by +putting His promises to the proof, and claiming from Him just as much as +your trials have rendered necessary.” + +There are two ways of getting out of a trial. One is to simply try to get +rid of the trial, and be thankful when it is over. The other is to +recognize the trial as a challenge from God to claim a larger blessing +than we have ever had, and to hail it with delight as an opportunity of +obtaining a larger measure of Divine grace. + +Thus even the adversary becomes an auxiliary, and the things that seem to +be against us turn out to be for the furtherance of our way. Surely, this +is to be more than conquerors through Him who loved us. + +Blessed Rose of Sharon + Breathe upon our heart, +Fill us with Thy fragrance, + Keep us as Thou art. +Then Thy life will make us + Holy and complete; +In Thy grace triumphant, + In Thy sweetness, sweet. + + + + + +JANUARY 20. + + +“Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of” (Luke ix. 55). + +Some one has said that the most spiritual people are the easiest to get +along with. When one has a little of the Holy Ghost it is like “a little +learning, a dangerous thing”; but a full baptism of the Holy Spirit, and a +really disciplined, stablished and tested spiritual life, makes one +simple, tender, tolerant, considerate of others, and like a little child. + +James and John, in their early zeal, wanted to call down fire from heaven +on the Samaritans. But John, the aged, allowed Demetrius to exclude him +from the church, and suffered in Patmos for the kingdom and with the +patience of Jesus. And aged Paul was willing to take back even Mark, whom +he had refused as a companion in his early ministry, and to acknowledge +that he was profitable to him for the ministry. + +I want the love that cannot help but love; +Loving, like God, for very sake of love. +A spring so full that it must overflow, +A fountain flowing from the throne above. + +“Now abideth faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love.” + + + + + +JANUARY 21. + + +“Pray without ceasing” (I. Thess. v. 17). + +An important help in the life of prayer is the habit of bringing +everything to God, moment by moment, as it comes to us in life. This may +be established as a habit on the principle on which all habits are formed, +of repeated and constant attention, moment by moment, until that which is +at first an act of will, becomes spontaneous and second nature. + +If we will watch our lives we shall find that God meets the things that we +commit to Him in prayer with special blessing, and often allows the best +things that we have not committed to Him to be ineffectual, simply to +remind us of our dependence upon Him for everything. It is very gracious +and mindful of Him thus gently to compel us to remember Him and to hold us +so close to Him that we cannot get away even the length of a single minute +from His all-sustaining arm. “In everything ... let our requests be made +known unto God.” + +Let us bring our least petitions, + Like the incense beaten small, +All our cares, complaints, conditions + Jesus loves to bear them all. + + + + + +JANUARY 22. + + +“His wife hath made herself ready” (Rev. xix. 7). + +There is danger in becoming morbid even in preparing for the Lord’s +coming. We remember a time in our life when we had devoted ourselves to +spend a month in waiting upon the Lord for a baptism of the Holy Ghost, +and before the end of the month, the Lord shook us out of our seclusion +and compelled us to go out and carry His message to others; and as we +went, He met us in the service. + +There is a musty, monkish way of seeking a blessing, and there is a +wholesome, practical holiness which finds us in the company of the Lord +Himself not only in the closet and on the mountain-top of prayer, but +among publicans and sinners, and in the practical duties of life. + +It seems to us that the practical preparation for the Lord’s coming +consists, first, of a very full entering into fellowship with Him in our +own spiritual life, and letting Him not only cleanse us, but perfect us in +all the finer touches of the Spirit’s deeper work, and then, secondly, +getting out of ourselves and living for the help of others and the +preparation of the world for His appearing. + + + + + +JANUARY 23. + + +“I know a man in Christ” (II. Cor. xii. 2). + +It is a great deliverance to lose one’s self. There is no heavier +millstone that one can be compelled to carry than self-consciousness. It +is so easy to get introverted and coiled round one’s self in our spiritual +consciousness. There is nothing that is so easy to fasten on as our +misery; there is nothing that is more apt to produce self-consciousness +than suffering, until it becomes almost a settled habit to hold on to our +burden, and pray it unceasingly into the very face of God, until our very +prayer saturates us with our own misery, instead of asking for power to +drop ourselves altogether, and leave ourselves in His loving hands and +know that we are free, and then rise into the blessed liberty of His +higher thoughts and will, and His love and care for others. + +The very act of letting go of ourselves really lifts us into a higher +plane, and relieves us from the thing that is hurting. This habit of +prayer for others, and especially for the world, brings its own +recompense, and leaves upon our hearts a blessing like the fertility which +the Nile deposits upon the soil of Egypt, as it flows through to its +distant goal. + + + + + +JANUARY 24. + + +“Freely ye have received, freely give” (Matt. x. 8). + +When God does anything marked and special for our souls, or bodies, He +intends it as a sacred trust for us to communicate to others. “Freely ye +have received, freely give.” + +It has pleased the Master in these closing days of the dispensation to +reveal Himself in peculiar blessing to the hearts of His chosen disciples +in all parts of the Christian Church; but this is intended to be +communicated to a still wider circle, and every one of us who has been +brought into these intimate relations with God, becomes a trustee, or +witness for these higher truths to every one we can influence. + +If God has revealed Himself to us as our Sanctifier, it is that we may +help others to know Him as a Sanctifier. + +If He has become our Healer, it is because there are sick and suffering +lives to whom we can bring some blessing. + +In like manner, if the hope of the Lord’s coming has become precious to +us, it would be worse than ingratitude for us to hide our testimony to +this truth, and hold it only for our own personal comfort. + + + + + +JANUARY 25. + + +“Hold fast that which is good” (I. Thess. v. 21). + +It is a great thing to be able to receive new truth and blessing without +sacrificing the truths already proved, and abandoning foundations already +laid. + +Some persons are always laying the foundations, and they present at last, +the appearance of a lot of abandoned sites and half constructed buildings, +and nothing is ever brought to completion. + +The fact that you are abandoning to-day for some new truth the things that +a year ago you counted most precious and believed to be divinely true, +should be sufficient evidence that you will probably a year from to-day +abandon your present convictions for the next new light that comes to you. + +God is ever wanting to add to us, to develop us, to enlarge us, to teach +us more and more, but it is ever in the line of things which He has +already taught us, and in which we have been established. + +While we are to “prove all things,” let us “hold fast that which is good,” +and “whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let +us mind the same thing.” + + + + + +JANUARY 26. + + +“I called him alone and blessed him” (Isa. li. 2). + +When we were in the East we noticed the beautiful process of raising rice. +The rice is sown on a morass of mud and water, ploughed up by great +buffaloes, and after a few weeks it springs up and appears above the water +with its beautiful pale green shoots. The seed has been sown very thickly +and the plants are clustered together in great numbers, so that you can +pull up a score at a single handful. But now comes the process of +transplanting. He first plants us and lets us grow very close to some of +His children, and in great clusters in the nursery or the hothouse, but +when we reach a certain stage we must be transplanted, or come to nothing. +He calls us out by His Spirit and Providence into situations where we have +to lean directly on Him, where He puts upon us a weight of responsibility +and service so great that we have an opportunity of developing and are +thrown upon the great resources of His grace. + +“Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is; +for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out +her roots by the rivers.” + + + + + +JANUARY 27. + + +“This one thing I do” (Phil. iii. 13). + +One of Satan’s favorite employees is the switchman. He likes nothing +better than to side-track one of God’s express trains, sent on some +blessed mission and filled with the fire of a holy purpose. + +Something will come up in the pathway of the earnest soul, to attract its +attention and occupy its strength and thought. Sometimes it is a little +irritation and provocation. Sometimes it is some petty grievance we stop +to pursue or adjust. Sometimes it is somebody else’s business in which we +become interested, and which we feel bound to rectify, and before we know, +we are absorbed in a lot of distracting cares and interests that quite +turn us aside from the great purpose of our life. + +Perhaps we do not do much harm, but we have missed our connection. We have +got off the main line. + +Let all these things alone. Let grievances come and go, but press forward +steadily and irresistibly, crying, as you haste to the goal, “This one +thing I do.” + + + + + +JANUARY 28. + + +“That my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John +xv. 11). + +There is a joy that springs spontaneously in the heart without external or +even rational cause. It is an artesian fountain. It rejoices because it +cannot help it. It is the glory of God; it is the heart of Christ, it is +the joy divine of which He says, “These things have I spoken unto you that +My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” And your joy +no man taketh from you. He who possesses this fountain is not discouraged +by surrounding circumstances, but is often surprised at the deep, sweet +gladness that comes without any apparent cause, and even comes most +strongly when everything in our condition and circumstances is fitted to +fill us with sorrow and depression. + +It is the nightingale in the heart, which sings at night, and sings +because it is its nature to sing. + +It is the glorified and incorruptible joy which belongs to heaven, and +anticipates already the everlasting song. Lord, give me Thy joy under all +circumstances this day, and let my full heart overflow in blessing to +others. + + + + + +JANUARY 29. + + +“Send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared” (Neh. viii. 10). + +That was a fine picture in the days of Nehemiah, when they were +celebrating their glorious Feast of Tabernacles. “Neither be ye sorry; for +the joy of the Lord is your strength. Go your way, eat the fat, and drink +the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared.” + +How many there are on every side for whom nothing is prepared! Let us find +out some sad and needy heart for whom there is no one else to think or +care. Let us pray for some one that has none to pray for him. Let us be +like Him who, one Christmas Day, gave His life and His all, and came to +those who would not appreciate His holy gift, but rejected His blessed +Babe, and murdered His only Son. + +Let us not be afraid to know something even of the love that is unrequited +and is thrown away on the unworthy. That is the love of Christ, and God +has for such love a rich recompense. + +How Christ must almost weep over the selfishness that meets Him from those +for whom He died. + + + + + +JANUARY 30. + + +“Cast down but not destroyed” (II. Cor. iv. 9). + +How did God bring about the miracle of the Red Sea? By shutting His people +in on every side, so that there was no way out but the divine way. The +Egyptians were behind them, the sea was in front of them, the mountains +were on every side of them. There was no escape but from above. + +Some one has said that the devil can wall us in, but he cannot roof us +over. We can always get out at the top. Our difficulties are but God’s +challenges, and He makes them so hard, often, that we must go under or get +above them. + +In such an hour, if there is a divine element, it brings out the highest +possibilities of faith and we are pushed by the very emergency into God’s +best. + +Beloved, this is God’s hour. If you will rise to meet it you will get such +a hold upon Him that you will never be in extremities again, or if you +are, you will learn to call them not extremities, but opportunities, and +like Jacob, you will go forth from that night at Peniel, no longer Jacob, +but victorious Israel. Let us bring to Him our need and prove Him true. + + + + + +JANUARY 31. + + +“Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness and +sanctification and redemption” (I. Cor. i. 30). + +More and more we are coming to see the supreme importance of getting the +right conception of sanctification, not as a blessing, but as a personal +union with the personal Saviour and the indwelling Holy Spirit. Thousands +of people get stranded after they have embarked on the great voyage of +holiness. + +They find themselves failing and falling, and are astonished and +perplexed, and they conclude that they must have been mistaken in their +experience, and so they make a new attempt at the same thing and again +fall, until at last, worn out with the experiment, they conclude that the +experience is a delusion, or, at least, that it was never intended for +them, and so they fall back into the old way, and their last state is +worse than their first. + +What people need to-day to satisfy their deep hunger and to give them a +permanent and Divine experience is to know, not sanctification as a state, +but Christ as a living Person, who is waiting to enter the heart that is +willing to receive Him. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 1. + + +“A well of water springing up” (John iv. 14). + +In the life overflowing in service for others, we find the deep fountain +of life running over the spring and finding vent in rivers of living water +that go out to bless and save the world around us. It is beautiful to +notice that as the blessing grows unselfish it grows larger. The water in +the heart is only a well, but when reaching out to the needs of others it +is not only a river, but a delta of many rivers overflowing in majestic +blessing. This overflowing love is connected with the Person and work of +the Holy Spirit which was to be poured out upon the disciples after Jesus +was glorified. + +This is the true secret of power for service, the heart filled and +satisfied with Jesus, and so baptized with the Holy Ghost that it is +impelled by the fulness of its joy and love to impart to others what it +has so abundantly received; and yet each new ministry only makes room for +a new filling and a deeper receiving of the life which grows by giving. + +Letting go is twice possessing, +Would you double every blessing, + Pass it on. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 2. + + +“And whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And +whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (Matt. xx. 26, +27). + +Slave is the literal meaning of the word, _doulos_. + +The first word used for service is _diakanos_, which means a minister to +others in any usual way or work: but the word _doulos_ means a bond slave, +and the Lord here plainly teaches us that the highest service is that of a +bond slave. + +He Himself made Himself the servant of all, and he who would come nearest +to Him and stand closest to Him at last, must likewise learn the spirit of +the ministry that has utterly renounced selfish rights and claims forever. + +It is quite possible to be entirely loyal to the Lord Jesus, and yet for +Jesus’ sake, a servant ourselves, and under the authority of those who are +over us in the Lord. + +The _doulos_ spirit is the spirit of self-renunciation and glad submission +to proper authority, service utterly disinterested, yielding our own +preferences and interests unreservedly for the glory of the Master and the +sake of our brethren. Lord, clothe us with humility and make us wholly +Thine. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 3. + + +“He went out, not knowing whither He went” (Heb. xi. 8). + +It is faith without sight. When we can see, it is not faith but reasoning. +In crossing the Atlantic we observed this very principle of faith. We saw +no path upon the sea nor sign of the shore. And yet day by day we were +marking our path upon the chart as exactly as if there had followed us a +great chalk line upon the sea; and when we came within twenty miles of +land we knew where we were as exactly as if we had seen it all three +thousand miles ahead. + +How had we measured and marked our course? Day by day our captain had +taken his instruments, and looking up to the sky had fixed his course by +the sun. He was sailing by the heavenly, not the earthly lights. So faith +looks up and sails on, by God’s great Sun, not seeing one shore line or +earthly lighthouse or path upon the way. Often its steps seem to lead into +utter uncertainty, and even darkness and disaster. But He opens the way, +and often makes such midnight hours the very gates of day. Let us go forth +this day, not knowing but trusting. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 4. + + +“Lo, I am with you alway” (Matt. xxviii. 20). + +This living Christ is not the person that was, but the person that still +is, your living Lord. At Preston Pans, near Edinburgh, I looked on the +field where in the olden days armies were engaged in contest. In the +crisis of the battle the chieftain fell wounded. His men were about to +shrink away from the field when they saw their leader’s form go down; +their strong hands held the claymore with trembling grip, and they +faltered for a moment. Then the old chieftain rallied strength enough to +rise on his elbow and cry: “I am not dead, my children, I am only watching +you—to see my clansmen do their duty.” And so from the other side of +Calvary He is speaking; we cannot see Him, but He says, “Lo, I am with you +alway, even to the end of the world”; and He puts it, “I am”—an +uninterrupted and continuous presence. Not “I will be,” but the unbroken +presence still is with us forevermore. + +Soon the conflict shall be done, +Soon the battle shall be won; +Soon shall wave the victor’s palm, +Soon shall sing the eternal Psalm; +Then our joyful song shall be, +I have overcome through Thee. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 5. + + +“Rest in the Lord” (Ps. xxxvii.). + +In the old creation the week began with work and ended with Sabbath rest. +The resurrection week begins with the first day—first rest, then labor. + +So we must first cease from our own works as God did from His, and enter +into His rest, and then we will work, with rested hearts, His works with +effectual power. + +But why “labor to enter into rest”? See that ship—how restfully she sails +over the waters, her sails swelling with the gale; and borne without an +effort! And yet, look at that man at the helm. See how firmly he holds the +rudder, bearing against the wind, and holding her steady to her position. +Let him for a moment relax his steady hold and the ship will fall +listlessly along the wind. The sails will flap, the waves will toss the +vessel at their will, and all rest and power will have gone. It is the +fixed helm that brings the steadying power of the wind. And so He has +said, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, +because he trusteth in Thee.” The steady will and stayed heart are ours. +The keeping is the Lord’s. So let us labor to enter and abide in His rest. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 6. + + +“Praying always for all saints” (Eph. vi. 18). + +One good counsel will suffice just now. Stop praying so much for yourself; +begin to ask unselfish things, and see if God won’t give you faith. See +how much easier it will be to believe for another than for your own petty +self. Try the effect of praying for the world, for definite things, for +difficult things, for glorious things, for things that will honor Christ +and save mankind, and after you have received a few wonderful answers to +prayer in this direction, see if you won’t feel stronger to touch your own +little burden with a Divine faith, and then go back again to the high +place of unselfish prayer for others. + +Have you ever learned the beautiful art of letting God take care of you, +and giving all your thought and strength to pray for others and for the +kingdom of God? It will relieve you of a thousand cares. It will lift you +up into a noble and lofty sphere, and teach you to live and love like God. +Lord save us from our selfish prayers and give us the faith that worketh +by love, and the heart of Christ for a perishing world. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 7. + + +“Faithful in that which is least” (Luke xvi. 10). + +The man that missed his opportunity and met the doom of the faithless +servant was not the man with five talents, or the man with two, but the +man who had only one. The people who are in danger of missing life’s great +meaning are the people of ordinary capacity and opportunity, and who say +to themselves, “There is so little I can do that I will not try to do +anything.” One of the finest windows in Europe was made from the remnants +an apprentice boy collected from the cuttings of his master’s great work. +The sweepings of the British mint are worth millions. The little pivots on +which the works of your watch turn are so important that they are actually +made of jewels. And so God places a solemn value and responsibility on the +humble workers, the people that try to hide behind their insignificance +the trifling opportunities and the single talents; and our littleness will +not excuse us in the reckoning day. + +“Talk not of talents, what hast thou to do? + Thou hast sufficient, whether five or two. +Talk not of talents; is thy duty done? + This brings the blessing whether ten or one.” + + + + + +FEBRUARY 8. + + +“We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves” +(II. Cor. iii. 5). + +Insufficient, “All sufficient.” These two words form the complement of +each other and together give the key to an efficient Christian life. The +discovery and full conviction of our utter helplessness is the constant +condition of spiritual supply. The aim of the Old Testament, therefore, is +ever to show man’s failure; that of the New, to reveal Christ’s +sufficiency. He has all things for us, but we cannot receive them till we +know that we have nothing. + +The very essence, therefore, of Christian perfection is the constant +renunciation of our own perfection, and the continual acceptance of +Christ’s righteousness. And as we receive deeper views of our nothingness +and evil, it is but a call to claim more of His rich grace. But it is +possible fully to know our insufficiency and yet not take firmly hold of +His “all things.” This, too, must be done with a faith that will not +accept less than ALL. The prophet was angry because the king of Israel had +only smitten thrice upon the ground. He should have done it five or six +times. He might have had all. So let us meet His greatness and grace. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 9. + + +“None of these things move me” (Acts xx. 24). + +The best evidence of God’s presence is the devil’s growl. So wrote good +Mr. Spurgeon once in “The Sword and the Trowel,” and that little sentence +has helped many a tried and tired child Of God to stand fast and even +rejoice under the fiercest attacks of the foe. + +We read in the book of Samuel that the moment that David was crowned at +Hebron, “All the Philistines came up to seek David.” And the moment we get +anything from the Lord worth contending for, then the devil comes to seek +us. + +When the enemy meets us at the threshold of any great work for God let us +accept it as “a token of salvation,” and claim double blessing, victory +and power. Power is developed by resistance. The cannon carries twice as +far because the exploding power has to find its way through resistance. +The way electricity is produced in the power-house yonder is by the sharp +friction of the revolving wheels. And so we shall find some day that even +Satan has been one of God’s agencies of blessing. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 10. + + +“I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live” (Gal. ii. 20). + +Christ life is in harmony with our nature. A lady asked me the other day—a +thoughtful, intelligent woman who was not a Christian, but who had the +deepest hunger for that which is right: “How can this be so, and we not +lose our individuality! This will destroy our personality, and it violates +our responsibility as individuals.” + +I said: “Dear sister, your personality is only half without Christ. Christ +was made for you, and you were made for Christ, and until you meet you are +not complete, and He needs you as you need Him.” I said: “Suppose that +gas-jet should say, ‘If I take this fire in, the gas will lose its +individuality.’ Oh, no; it is only when the fire comes in that the gas +fulfils its very purpose of being. Suppose the snowflake should say, ‘What +shall I do? If I drop on the ground I shall lose my individuality.’ But it +falls and is absorbed by the soil, and the snowflakes are seen by-and-by +in the primroses and daisies. Let us lose ourselves and rise to a new life +in Christ.” + + + + + +FEBRUARY 11. + + +“Strengthened with all might unto all patience” (Col. i. 11). + +The apostle prays for the Colossians, that they may be “strengthened with +all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and +long-suffering with joyfulness.” It is one thing to endure and show the +strain on every muscle of your face, and seem to say with every wrinkle, +“Why does not somebody sympathize with me?” It is another to endure the +cross, “despising the shame” for the joy set before us. + +There are some trees in the garden of the Lord which “shall not see when +heat cometh”; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, nor cease +from yielding fruit. Let us set our faces toward the sunrising and use the +clouds that come, to make rainbows. Not much longer shall we have the +glorious opportunity to rejoice in tribulation, and learn patience. In +heaven we shall have nothing to teach long-suffering. If we do not learn +it here, we shall be without our brightest crown forever, and wish +ourselves back for a little while, in the very circumstances of which we +are now trying so hard to get rid. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 12. + + +“But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all +these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. vi. 33). + +For every heart that is seeking anything from the Lord this is a good +watchword. That very thing, or the desire for it, may unconsciously +separate you from the Lord, or at least from the singleness of your +purpose unto Him. The thing we desire may be a right thing, but we may +desire it in a distrusting and selfish spirit. Let us commit it to Him, +and not cease to believe for it, but let us, at the same time, keep our +purpose fixed on His will and glory, and claim even His promised +blessings, not for themselves or ourselves, but for Him. Then shall it be +true, “Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of +thine heart.” All other things but Himself God will “_add_.” But they must +be ever _added_, never _first_. + +Then shall we be able to believe for them without doubt, when we claim +them for Him and not for ourselves. It is only when “we are Christ’s” that +“all things are ours.” + +Lord, help me this day to seek Thee first, and be more desirous to please +Thee and have Thy will than to possess any other blessing. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 13. + + +“Thy prayers are come up for a memorial before God” (Acts x. 4). + +What a beautiful expression the angel used to Cornelius, “Thy prayers are +come up for a memorial.” It would almost seem as if supplications of years +had accumulated before the Throne, and at last the answer broke in +blessings on the head of Cornelius, even as the accumulated evaporation of +months at last bursts in floods of rain upon the parched ground. So God is +represented as treasuring the prayers of His saints in vials; they are +described as sweet odors. They are placed like fragrant flowers in the +chambers of the King. And kept in sweet remembrance before Him. And later +they are represented as poured out upon the earth; and lo, there are +voices and thunderings and great providential movements fulfilling God’s +purposes for His kingdom. We are called “the Lord’s remembrancers,” and +are commanded to give Him no rest, day nor night, but crowd the heavens +with our petitions and in due time the answer will come with its +accumulated blessings. + +No breath of true prayer is lost. The longer it waits, the larger it +becomes. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 14. + + +“He shall baptize you with fire” (Matt. iii. 11). + +Fire is strangely intense and intrinsic. It goes into the very substance +of things. It somehow blends with every particle of the thing it touches. + +There are the severe trials that come to minds more sensitive, to the +minds that have more points of contact with what hurts; so that the higher +the nature the higher the joy, and the greater the avenues of pain that +come. + +And then there are deeper trials that come as we pass into the hands of +God, as we pass from the physical and intellectual into the spiritual +nature. + +When they first come, we shrink back from their unnatural and fearful +breath, and we say: “Oh, this cannot be from the hand of a loving Father! +This cannot be necessary to me.” + +And then come the pains and sufferings from God’s own hand, when He sits +as a refiner and purifier of silver, when He lets it burn, until it seems +that we must be burned to ashes, and we are, indeed, at last burned to +ashes. + +But we must get the victory through faith. The moment you cease to fear +it, that moment it ceases to harm you. He says, “The flames shall not +kindle upon you.” + + + + + +FEBRUARY 15. + + +“Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (II. Tim. ii. 1). + +How to enjoy this day. This will never come by trying to be happy and yet +we are responsible for the conditions of real joy. + +1. Be right with God; for “Gladness is sown for the upright in heart.” “It +is His joy that remains in us that makes our joy to be full.” + +2. Forget yourself and live for others; for “It is more blessed to give +than to receive.” + +3. When you cannot rejoice in feelings, circumstances and states, “rejoice +in the Lord,” and “count it all joy, when ye fall into divers +temptations.” + +Finally, obey the Lord and be faithful to your trust; and again and again +will His blessed Spirit whisper to your heart, “Well done, good and +faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord.” + +“Not enjoyment and not sorrow + Is our destined end or way, +But to act that each to-morrow + Finds us farther than to-day. + +“Let us then be up and doing + With a heart for any fate, +Still achieving, still pursuing, + Learn to labor and to wait.” + + + + + +FEBRUARY 16. + + +“We will give ourselves continually to prayer” (Acts vi. 4). + +In the consecrated believer the Holy Spirit is pre-eminently a Spirit of +prayer. If our whole being is committed to Him, and our thoughts are at +His bidding, He will occupy every moment in communion and we shall bring +every thing to Him as it comes, and pray it out in our spiritual +consciousness before we act it out in our lives. We shall, therefore, find +ourselves taking up the burdens of life and praying them out in a wordless +prayer which we ourselves often cannot understand, but which is simply the +unfolding of His thought and will within us, and which will be followed by +the unfolding of His providence concerning us. + +Want of faithfulness and obedience to the faintest whisper of His will +will often hinder some blessing which He meant for us until after a while +we may get so dull and negligent that He will not be able to trust us with +His whispers and we shall thus stumble on in the darkness and miss His +highest thoughts. + +Lord, teach us to pray in the Spirit, to pray without ceasing and to lose +nothing of Thy will. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 17. + + +“Your life is hid” (Col. iii. 3). + +Some Christians loom up in larger proportion than is becoming. They can +tell, and others can tell, how many souls they bring to Christ. Their +labor seems to crystallize and become its own memorial. Others again seem +to blend so wholly with other workers that their own individuality can +scarcely be traced. And yet, after all, this is the most Christ-like +ministry of all, for the Master Himself does not even appear in the work +of the church except as her hidden Life and ascended Head, and even the +Holy Spirit is lost in the vessels that He uses. The vine does not bear +the fruit, and even the sap is unseen in its ceaseless flow, and it is the +little branches which bear all the clusters and seem to have all the honor +of the vintage. And so the nearer we come to Christ the more we are +willing to be lost sight of in our fruit, and let others be more +prominent, while we are the glad and willing witnesses of our testimony +and hold up their hands by the silent ministry of love and prayer. Lord, +let me be like the veiled seraphim before the throne, who cover their +faces and their feet, and hide themselves and their service while they fly +to obey Thee. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 18. + + +“Christ in you” (Col. i. 27). + +How great the difference between the old and the new way of deliverance! +One touch of Christ is worth a lifetime of struggling. A sufferer in one +of our hospitals was in danger of losing his sight from a small piece of +broken needle that had entered his eye. + +Operation after operation had only irritated it, and driven the foreign +substance farther still into the delicate nerves of the sensitive organ. +At length a skilful young physician thought of a new expedient. He came +one day without lancet and probes, and holding in his hand a small but +powerful magnet, which he kept before the wounded eye, as close as it +could bear. Immediately the piece of steel began to move toward the +powerful attraction, and soon flew up to meet it and left the suffering +eye completely relieved, without an effort or a laceration. It was as +simple as it was wonderful. By a single touch of power the organ was saved +and a dangerous trouble completely cured. + +It is thus that God delivers us, by the simple attraction of Christ’s life +and power. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 19. + + +“As much as in me is I am ready” (Rom. i. 15). + +Be earnest. Intense earnestness, a whole heart for Christ, the passion +sign of the cross, the enthusiasm of our whole being for our Master and +humanity—this is what the Lord expects, this is what His cross deserves, +this is what the world needs, this is what the age has a right to look +for. Everything around us is intensely alive. Life is earnest, death is +earnest, sin is earnest, men are earnest, business is earnest, knowledge +is earnest, the age is earnest; God forgive us if we alone are trifling in +the white heat of this crisis time. Oh, for the baptism of fire! Oh, for +the living coal upon the burning lips of love! Oh, for men God-possessed +and self-surrendered grasping God’s great idea and pressing forward “for +the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” + +All the world for Jesus + My prayer shall be, +And my watchword ever, + Himself for me. + +All the world for Jesus, + Lord, quickly come, +Bring Thy promised kingdom, + And take us home. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 20. + + +“Fear thou not, for I am with thee” (Isa. xli. 10). + +Satan is always trying to weaken our faith by fear. He is a great +metaphysician and knows the paralyzing effect of fear, that it is the +great enemy of faith, and that faith is the great secret of help. If he +can get us fearing he will stop our trusting and hinder the very blessing +we need. Job found the peril of fear and gives us the sorrowful testimony, +“I feared a fear and it came upon me.” + +Fear is born of Satan, and if we would only take time to think a moment we +would see that everything Satan says is founded upon a falsehood. He is +the father of lies. Even his fears are falsehoods and his terrors ought +rather be to us encouragements. + +When Satan tells you, therefore, that some ill is going to come, you may +quietly look in his face and tell him he is a liar, that instead of ill, +goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life, and then +turn to your blessed Lord and say, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in +Thee.” Every fear is distrust and trust is the remedy for fear. “What time +I am afraid I will _trust_ in thee.” + + + + + +FEBRUARY 21. + + +“Be not dismayed, for I am thy God” (Isa. xli. 10). + +How tenderly God is always comforting our fears! How sweetly He says in +Isaiah xli. 10, “Fear not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am +thy God: I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.” And +yet again with still tenderer thoughtfulness, “I, the Lord thy God, will +hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee.” Not +only does He say it once, but He keeps holding our right hand and +repeating such promises. + +The blessed Lord has condensed it all into one sweet monogram of eternal +comfort in His message to the disciples on the sea of Galilee, “It is I; +be not afraid.” He does not say, “It is over,” or “It is morning,” or “It +is fine weather,” or “It is smooth water,” but He says, “It is I, be not +afraid.” He is the antidote to fear; He is the remedy for trouble; He is +the substance and the sum of deliverance. Therefore, we should rise above +fear. Let us keep our eyes fastened upon Him; let us abide continually in +Him; let us be content with Him; let us cling closely to Him and cry, “We +will not fear though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried +into the midst of the sea.” + + + + + +FEBRUARY 22. + + +“He that hath entered into His rest hath ceased from his own works even as +God did from His” (Heb. iv. 10). + +What a rest it would be to many of us if we could but exchange burdens +with Christ, and so utterly and forever transfer to Him all our cares and +needs that we would not feel henceforth responsible for our burdens, but +know that He has undertaken all the care, and that our faith is simply to +carry His burdens, and that He prays, labors, and suffers only for us and +our interests. This is what He truly invites us to do. “Come unto Me,” He +says, “all ye that labor and are heavy-laden and I will rest you,” and +then He adds, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.” He takes our yoke +and we take His and we find it a thousand times easier to carry one of His +burdens than to carry our own. How much more delightful it is to spend an +hour in supplication for another than five minutes in pleading for +ourselves. Are we not weary of carrying our wretched loads? + +’Twas for this His mercy sought you, +And to all His fulness brought you, +By the precious blood that bought you, + Pass it on. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 23. + + +“For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. i. 21). + +The secret of a sound body is a sound heart, and the prayer of the Holy +Ghost for us is, that we “may be in health and prosper even as our soul +prospers.” + +We find Paul in the Epistles to the Philippians expressing a sublime and +holy indifference to the question of life or death. Indeed he is in a real +strait, whether he would prefer “to depart and be with Christ,” or to +remain still in the flesh. + +The former would indeed be his sweetest preference, but the latter would +be at the same time a joyful service. His only object in wanting to live +is to be a blessing. “To abide in the flesh is more needful to you.” + +Having reached this state of heart, it is beautiful to notice how quickly +he rises to the victorious faith necessary to claim perfect strength and +health. Because it is more needful to you that I abide in the flesh, he +adds, “I know that I shall continue with you all, for your furtherance and +joy of faith.” Lord, help me to-day to “count not my life dear unto myself +that I may finish my course with joy and the ministry that I have received +of Jesus.” + + + + + +FEBRUARY 24. + + +“Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but +under grace” (Rom. vi. 14). + +The secret of Moses’ failures was this: “The law made nothing perfect, but +the bringing in of a better hope did.” And this was why his life work also +came short of full realization. He saw but entered not the Promised Land. +The founder of the law had to be its victim, and his life and death might +demonstrate the inability of the law to lead any man into the Promised +Land. The very fact, that it was for so slight a fault that Moses lost his +inheritance, makes all the more emphatic the solemn sentence of the law. +“Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in +the Book of the Law to do them.” + +But to the glory of the grace of God we can add that what the law could +not do for Moses the Gospel did; and he who could not pass over the Jordan +under the old dispensation is seen on the very heights of Hermon with the +Son of Man, sharing His Transfiguration glory, and talking of that death +on Calvary to which be owed his glorious destiny. + +That grace we have inherited under the Gospel of Jesus Christ. + + + + + +FEBRUARY 25. + + +“I am the vine, ye are the branches” (John xv. 5). + +How can I take Christ as my Sanctifier, or Healer? is a question that we +are constantly asked. It is necessary first of all that we get into the +posture of faith. This has to be done by a definite and voluntary act, and +then maintained by a uniform habit. It is just the same as the planting of +a tree. You must put it in the soil by a definite act, and then you must +let it stay put and remain settled in the ground until the little roots +have time to fix themselves and begin to draw the sustenance from the +soil. There are two stages, the definite planting and then the habitual +absorbing of moisture and nourishment from the ground. The root fibers +must rest until they reach out their spongy pores and drink in the +nutriment of the earth. After the habit is established, then by a certain +uniform law, the plant draws its life from the ground without an effort, +and it is just as natural for it to grow as it is for us to breathe. + +Lord, help me this day to abide in Thee, and to grow into the habit of +drawing all my life from Thine so that it shall be true for me, “In Him I +live and move and have my being.” + + + + + +FEBRUARY 26. + + +“Make you perfect in every good work” (Heb. xiii. 21). + +In that beautiful prayer at the close of the Epistle to the Hebrews, “Now +the God of peace, that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ, +that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting +covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will,” the phrase, +“make you perfect in every good work,” literally means, it is said, +“adjust you in every good work.” It is a great thing to be adjusted, +adjusted to our surroundings and circumstances rather than trying to have +them adjusted to us, adjusted to the people we are thrown with, adjusted +to the work God has for us, and not trying to get God to help us to do our +work; adjusted to do the very will and plan of God for us in our whole +life. This is the secret of rest, power and freedom in our life-work. + +“Oh, fill me with Thy fulness, Lord. + Until my very heart o’erflow +In kindling thought and glowing word, + Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show. + +Oh, use me, Lord, use even me, + Just as Thou wilt, and when, and where; +Until Thy blessed face I see, + Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share.” + + + + + +FEBRUARY 27. + + +“Stablish, strengthen, settle you” (I. Peter v. 10). + +In taking Christ in any new relationship, we must first have sufficient +intellectual light to satisfy our mind that we are entitled to stand in +this relationship. The shadow of a question here will wreck our +confidence. Then, having seen this, we must make the venture, the +committal, the choice, and take the place just as definitely as the tree +is planted in the soil, or the bride gives herself away at the marriage +altar. It must be once for all, without reserve, without recall. + +Then there is a season of establishing, settling and testing, during which +we must stay put until the new relationship gets so fixed as to become a +permanent habit. It is just the same as when the surgeon sets the broken +arm. He puts it in splints to keep it from vibration. So God has His +spiritual splints that He wants to put upon His children and keep them +quiet and unmoved until they pass the first stage of faith. + +It is not always easy work for us, “but the God of all grace who hath +called you unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you have suffered +awhile, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” + + + + + +FEBRUARY 28. + + +“Count it all joy” (James i. 2). + +We do not always feel joyful, but we are to count it all joy. The word +“reckon” is one of the key-words of Scripture. It is the same word used +about our being dead. We do not feel dead. We are painfully conscious of +something that would gladly return to life. But we are to treat ourselves +as dead, and neither fear nor obey the old nature. + +So we are to reckon the thing that comes as a blessing. We are determined +to rejoice, to say, “My heart is fixed, O God, I will sing and give +praise.” This rejoicing, by faith, will soon become a habit, and will ever +bring speedily the spirit of gladness and the spontaneous overflow of +praise. + +Then, “although the fig-tree may wither and no fruit appear in the vines, +the labor of the olive fail and the fields yield no increase, the herd be +cut off from the stall, and the cattle from the field, yet we will rejoice +in the Lord, and joy in the God of our salvation.” + +“Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round, +On Jesus’ bosom naught but calm is found; +Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown, +Jesus we know, and He is on the throne.” + + + + + +MARCH 1. + + +“Wait on the Lord” (Ps. xxvii. 14). + +How often this is said in the Bible, how little understood! It is what the +old monk calls the “practice of the presence of God.” It is the habit of +prayer. It is the continued communion that not only asks, but receives. +People often ask us to pray for them and we have to say, “Why, God has +answered our prayer for you, and you must now take the answer. It is +awaiting you, and you must take it by waiting on the Lord.” + +This it is that renews the strength, until we mount up with wings as +eagles, run and are not weary, walk and are not faint. Our hearts are too +vast to take in His fulness at a single breath. We must live in the +atmosphere of His presence till we absorb His very life. This is the +secret of spiritual depth and rest, of power and fulness, of love and +prayer, of hope and holy usefulness. “Wait, I say, on the Lord.” + +I am waiting in communion at the blessed mercy seat, + I am waiting, sweetly waiting, on the Lord; +I am drinking, of His fulness; I am sitting at His feet; + I am hearkening to the whispers of His word. + + + + + +MARCH 2. + + +“That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost” +(II. Tim. i. 14). + +God gives to us a power within which will hold our hearts in victory and +purity. “That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy +Ghost which dwelleth in us.” It is the Holy Ghost; and when any thought or +suggestion of evil arises in our breast, the quick conscience can +instantly call upon the Holy Ghost to drive it out, and He will expel it +at the command of faith or prayer, and keep us as pure as we are willing +to be kept. But when the will surrenders and consents to evil, the Holy +Ghost will not expel it. God, then, requires us to stand in holy +vigilance, and He will do exceeding abundantly for us as we hold fast that +which is good, and He will also be in us a spirit of vigilance, showing us +the evil and enabling us to detect it, and to bring it to Him for +expulsion and destruction. + +“O Spirit of Jesus fill us until we shall have room only for Thee!” + +O, come as the heart-searching fire, + O, come as the sin-cleansing flood; +Consume us with holy desire, + And fill with the fulness of God. + + + + + +MARCH 3. + + +“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous; +nevertheless afterward” (Heb. xii. 11). + +God seems to love to work by paradoxes and contraries. In the +transformations of grace, the bitter is the base of the sweet, night is +the mother of day, and death is the gate of life. + +Many people are wanting power. Now, how is power produced? The other day +we passed the great works where the trolley engines are supplied with +electricity. We heard the hum and roar of countless wheels, and we asked +our friend, “How do they make the power?” “Why,” he said, “just by the +revolution of those wheels and the friction they produce. The rubbing +creates the electric current.” + +It is very simple, and a trifling experiment will prove it to any one. + +And so when God wants to bring more power into your life, He brings more +pressure. He is generating spiritual force by hard rubbing. Some of us +don’t like it. Some of us don’t understand, and we try to run away from +the pressure, instead of getting the power and using it to rise above the +painful cause. + + + + + +MARCH 4. + + +“They were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts ii. 4). + +Blessed secret of spiritual purity, victory and joy, of physical life and +healing, and all power for service. Filled with the Spirit there is no +room for self or sin, for fret or care. Filled with the Spirit we repel +the elements of disease that are in the air as the red-hot iron repels the +water that touches it. Filled with the Spirit we are always ready for +service, and Satan turns away when he finds the Holy Ghost enrobing us in +His garments of holy flame. Not half-filled, but filled with the Spirit is +the place of victory and power. + +This is not only a privilege; it is a command, and He who gave it will +enable us to fulfill it if we bring it to Him with an empty, honest, +trusting heart, and claim our privilege in the name of Jesus and for the +glory of God. + +Holy Ghost, I bid Thee welcome; + Come and be my Holy Guest; +Heavenly Dove within my bosom, + Make Thy home and build Thy nest; +Lead me on to all Thy fulness, + Bring me to Thy Promised Rest, +Holy Ghost, I bid Thee welcome, + Come and be my Holy Guest. + + + + + +MARCH 5. + + +“I have overcome the world” (John xvi. 33). + +Christ has overcome for us every one of our four terrible foes—Sin, +Sickness, Sorrow, Satan. He has borne our Sin, and we may lay all, even +down to our sinfulness itself, on Him. “I have overcome for thee.” He has +borne our sickness, and we may detach ourselves from our old infirmities +and rise into His glorious life and strength. He has borne our sorrows, +and we must not even carry a care, but rejoice evermore, and even glory in +tribulations also. And He has conquered Satan for us, too, and left him +nailed to the cross, spoiled and dishonored and but a shadow of himself. +And now we have but to claim His full atonement and assert our victory, +and so “overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our +testimony.” + +Beloved, are we overcoming sin? Are we overcoming sickness? Are we +overcoming sorrow? Are we overcoming Satan? + +Fear not, though the strife be long; +Faint not, though the foe be strong; +Trust thy glorious Captain’s power; +Watch with Him one little hour, +Hear Him calling, “Follow me. +“I have overcome for thee.” + + + + + +MARCH 6. + + +“Lean not unto thine own understanding” (Prov. iii. 5). + +Faith is hindered by reliance upon human wisdom, whether our own or the +wisdom of others. The devil’s first bait to Eve was an offer of wisdom, +and for this she sold her faith. “Ye shall be as gods,” he said, “knowing +good and evil,” and from the hour she began to know she ceased to trust. +It was the spies that lost the Land of Promise to Israel of old. It was +their foolish proposition to search out the land, and find out by +investigation whether God had told the truth or not, that led to the awful +outbreak of unbelief that shut the doors of Canaan to a whole generation. +It is very significant that the names of these spies are nearly all +suggestive of human wisdom, greatness and fame. + +So in the days of Christ, it was the bondage of the Jews to the traditions +of their fathers and the opinions of men, that kept them back from +receiving Him. “How can ye believe,” He asked, “which receive honor from +men, and seek not that which cometh from God only?” + +Let us trust Him with all our heart and lean not to our own understanding. + + + + + +MARCH 7. + + +“It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts xx. 35). + +How shall we know the difference between the earthly and the heavenly +love? The one terminates on ourselves and is partly ourself seeking its +own gratification. The other reaches out to God and others, and finds its +joy in glorifying Him and blessing them. Love is unselfishness, and the +love that is not unselfish is not divine. How much do we pray for others, +and how much for ourselves? What is the center of our being? Ourselves, or +our Lord and His people and work? The Lord help us to know more fully the +meaning of that great truth, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” +“He that saveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for My +sake and the Gospel, shall keep it unto life eternal.” + +Have you found some precious treasure, + Pass it on. +Have You found some holy pleasure, + Pass it on. +Giving out is twice possessing, +Love will double every blessing, +On to higher service pressing, + Pass it on. + + + + + +MARCH 8. + + +“Pray Ye therefore” (Luke x. 2). + +Prayer is the mighty engine that is to move the missionary work. “Pray ye +therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into +His harvest.” + +We are asking God to touch the hearts of men every day by the Holy Ghost, +so that they shall be compelled to go abroad and preach the Gospel. We are +asking Him to wake them up at night with the solemn conviction that the +heathen are perishing, and that their blood will be upon their souls, and +God is answering the prayer by sending persons to us every day who “feel +that the King’s business requireth haste.” + +Beloved, pray, pray, pray; and as the incense rises to the heavens, “there +will be silence in heaven” by the space of more than half an hour, and the +coals of fire will be emptied out upon the earth, and the coming of the +Lord will begin to draw nearer. Pray till the Lord of the harvest shall +thrust forth laborers into His harvest. + +Send the coals of heavenly fire, + From the altar of the skies; +Fill our hearts with strong desire, + Till our pray’rs like incense rise. + + + + + +MARCH 9. + + +“How ye ought to walk and please God” (I. Thess. iv. 1). + +How many dear Christians are in the place that the Lord has appointed +them, and yet the devil is harassing their lives with a vague sense of not +quite pleasing the Lord. Could they just settle down in the place that God +has assigned them and fill it sweetly and lovingly for Him there would be +more joy in their hearts and more power in their lives. God wants us all +in various places, and the secret of accomplishing the most for Him is to +recognize our places from Him and our service in it as pleasing Him. In +the great factory and machine there is a place for the smallest screw and +rivet as well as the great driving wheel and piston, and so God has His +little screws whose business is simply to stay where He puts them and to +believe that He wants them there and is making the most of their lives in +the little spaces that they fill for Him. + +There is something all can do, + Tho’ you’re neither wise nor strong; +You can be a helper true, +You can stand when friends are few, +Some lone heart has need of you, + You can help along. + + + + + +MARCH 10. + + +“The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts +and minds” (Phil. iv. 7). + +It is not peace with God, but the peace of God. “The peace that passes all +understanding” is the very breath of God in the soul. He alone is able to +keep it, and He can so keep it that “nothing shall offend us.” Beloved, +are you there? + +God’s rest did not come till after His work was over, and ours will not. +We begin our Christian life by working, trying and struggling in the +energy of the flesh to save ourselves. At last, when we are able to cease +from our own work, God comes in with His blessed rest, and works His own +Divine works in us. + +Oh! have you heard the glorious word + Of hope and holy cheer; +From heav’n above its tones of love + Are lingering on my ear; +The blessed Comforter has come, + And Christ will soon be here. + +Oh, hearts that sigh there’s succor nigh, + The Comforter is near; +He comes to bring us to our King, + And fit us to appear. +I’m glad the Comforter has come, + And Christ will soon be here. + + + + + +MARCH 11. + + +“But ye are a chosen generation, a peculiar people” (I. Peter ii. 9). + +We have been thinking lately very much of the strange way in which God is +calling a people out of a people already called. The word _ecclesia_, or +church, means called out, but God is calling out a still more select body +from the church to be His bride—the specially prepared ones for His +coming. + +We see a fine type of this in the story of Gideon. When first he sounded +the trumpet of Abiezer there resorted to him more than thirty thousand +men; but these had to be picked, so a first test was applied, appealing to +their courage, and all but ten thousand went back; but there must be an +election out of the election, and so a second test was applied, appealing +to their prudence, caution and singleness of purpose, and all but three +hundred were refused; and, with this little picked band, he raised the +standard against the Midianites, and through the power of God won his +glorious victory. So, again, in our days, the Master is choosing His three +hundred, and by them He will yet win the world for Himself. Let us be sure +that we belong to the “out and out” people. + + + + + +MARCH 12. + + +“They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way” (Ps. cvii. 4). + +All who fight the Lord’s battles must be content to die to all the +favorable opinions of men and all the flattery of human praise. You cannot +make an exception in favor of the good opinions of the children of God. It +is very easy for the insidious adversary to make this also all appeal to +the flesh. It is all right when God sends us the approval of our fellow +men, but we must never make it a motive in our life, but be content with +the “solitary way” and the lonely “wilderness.” + +All such motives are poison and a taking away from you of the strength +with which you are to give glory to God. It is not the fact that all that +see the face of the Lord do see each other. + +The man of God must walk alone with God. He must be contented that the +Lord knoweth that God knows. It is such a relief to the natural man within +us to fall back upon human countenances and human thoughts and sympathy, +that we often deceive ourselves and think it “brotherly love,” when we are +just resting in the earthly sympathy of some fellow worm! + + + + + +MARCH 13. + + +“Keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21). + +Some time ago, we were enjoying a surpassingly beautiful sunset. The +western skies seemed like a great archipelago of golden islands, the +masses in the distance rising up into vast mountains of glory. The hue of +the sky was so gorgeous that it seemed to reflect itself upon the whole +atmosphere, as we looked back from the west to the eastern horizon. The +whole earth was radiant with glory. The fields had changed to strange, red +richness, and the earth seemed bathed with the dews of heaven. + +And so it is, when the love of God shines through all our celestial sky, +it covers everything below, and life becomes radiant with its light. +Things that were hard become easy. Things that were sharp become sweet. +Labor loses its burden, and sorrow becomes silver-lined with hope and +gladness. + +There are two ways of living in His love. One is constant trust, and the +other is constant obedience, and His own Word gives the message for both. +“If ye keep My commandments ye shall live in My love, even as I keep My +Father’s, and live in His love.” + + + + + +MARCH 14. + + +“We are His workmanship” (Eph. ii. 10). + +Christ sends us to serve Him, not in our own strength, but in His +resources and might. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto +good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them.” We do +not have to prepare them; but to wear them as garments, made to order for +every occasion of our life. + +We must receive them by faith and go forth in His work, believing that He +is with us, and in us, as our all sufficiency for wisdom, faith, love, +prayer, power, and every grace and gift that our work requires. In this +work of faith we shall have to feel weak and helpless, and even have +little consciousness of power. But if we believe and go forward, He will +be the power and send the fruits. + +The most useful services we render are those which, like the sweet fruits +of the wilderness, spring from hours of barrenness. “I will bring her into +the wilderness and I will give her vineyards from thence.” Let us learn to +work by faith as well as walk by faith, then we shall receive even the end +of our faith, the salvation of precious souls, and our lives will bear +fruit which shall be manifest throughout all eternity. + + + + + +MARCH 15. + + +“Continue ye in My love” (John xv. 9). + +Many atmospheres there are in which we may live. Some people live in an +atmosphere of thought. Their faces are thoughtful, minds intellectual. +They live in their ideas, their conceptions of truth, their tastes, and +esthetic nature. Some people, again, live in their animal nature, in the +lusts of the flesh and eye, the coarse, low atmosphere of a sensuous life, +or something worse. Some, again, live in a world of duty. The +predominating feature of their life is conscience, and it carries with it +a certain shadowy fear that takes away the simple freedom and gladness of +life, but there is a rectitude, and uprightness, a strictness of purpose, +and of conduct which cannot be gainsaid or questioned. + +But Christ bids us live in an atmosphere of love. “As My Father has loved +Me, so have I loved you; continue ye in My love.” In the original it is, +“Live in My love.” Love is the atmosphere that He would have us ever live +in, that is, believing that He ever loves us, and claiming His sweet +approval and tender regard. This is a life of love. + + + + + +MARCH 16. + + +“The Lord will give grace and glory” (Ps. lxxxiv. 11). + +The Lord will give grace and glory. This word _glory_ is very difficult to +translate, define and explain; but there is something in the spiritual +consciousness of the quickened Christian that interprets it. It is the +overflow of grace; it is the wine of life; it is the foretaste of heaven; +it is a flash from the Throne and an inspiration from the heart of God +which we may have and in which we may live. “The glory which Thou hast +given Me I have given them,” the Master prayed for us. Let us take it and +live in it. David used to say, “Wake up my glory.” Ask God to wake up your +glory and enable you to mount up with wings as eagles, to dwell on high +and sit with Christ in the heavenly places. + +Mounting up with wings as eagles, + Waiting on the Lord we rise, +Strength exchanging, life renewing, + How our spirit heavenward flies. +Then our springing feet returning, + Tread the pathway of the saint, +We shall run and not be weary, + We shall walk and never faint. + + + + + +MARCH 17. + + +“He hath remembered His covenant forever” (Ps. cv. 8). + +So long as you struggle under law, that is by your own effort, sin shall +have dominion over you: but the moment you step from under the shadow of +Sinai, throw yourself upon the simple grace of Christ and His free and +absolute gift of righteousness, and take Him to be to you what He has +pledged Himself to be, your righteousness of thought and feeling, and to +keep you in spite of everything, that ever can be against you, in His +perfect will and peace, the struggle is practically over. Beloved, do you +really know and believe that this is the very promise of the Gospel, the +very essence of the new covenant, that Christ pledges Himself to put His +law in your heart, and to cause you to walk in His statutes, and to keep +His judgments and do them? Do you know that this is the oath which He +sware unto Abraham, that He would grant unto us. “That we being delivered +from the hands of our enemies, and from all that hate us, might serve Him +without fear, in righteousness and holiness before Him all the days of our +life.” He has sworn to do this for you, and He is faithful, that promised. +Trust Him ever. + + + + + +MARCH 18. + + +“Neither shall any plague come near thy dwelling” (Ps. xci. 10). + +We know what it is to be fireproof, to be waterproof: but it is a greater +thing to be proof against sin. It is possible to be so filled with the +Spirit and presence of Jesus that all the shafts of the enemy glance off +our heavenly armor; that all the burrs and thistles which grow on the +wayside fail to stick to our heavenly robes; that all the noxious vapors +of the pit disappear before the warm breath of the Holy Ghost, and we walk +with a charmed life even through the valley of the shadow of death. The +red hot iron repels the water that touches it, and the fingers that would +trifle with it: and, if we are on fire with the Holy Ghost, Satan will +keep his fingers off us, and the cold water that he pours over us will +roll off and leave us unharmed: “for He that was begotten of God keepeth +us, and that wicked one toucheth us not.” + +It is said that before going into a malarious region, it is well to +fortify the system with nourishing food. So we should be fed and filled by +the life of Christ in such a way that the evil does not really touch our +life. + + + + + +MARCH 19. + + +“Launch out into the deep” (Luke v. 4). + +Many difficulties and perplexities in connection with our Christian life +might be best settled by a simple and bold decision of our will to go +forward with the light we have and leave the speculations and theories +that we cannot decide for further settlement. What we need is to act, and +to act with the best light we have, and as we step out into the present +duty and full obedience, many things will be made plain which it is no use +waiting to decide. + +Beloved, cut the Gordian knot, like Alexander, with the sword of decision. +Launch out into the deep with a bold plunge, and Christ will settle for +you all the questions that you are now debating, and more probably show +you their insignificance, and let you see that the only way to settle them +is to overleap them. They are Satan’s petty snares to waste your time and +keep you halting when you should be marching on. + +The mercy of God is an ocean divine, + A boundless and fathomless flood; +Launch out in the deep, cut away the shore line, + And be lost in the fulness of God. + + + + + +MARCH 20. + + +“They which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall +reign in life” (Rom. v. 17). + +Precious souls sometimes fight tremendous battles in order to attain to +righteousness in trying places. Perhaps the heart has become wrong in some +matter where temptation has been allowed to overcome, or at least to turn +it aside from its singleness unto God; and the conflict is a terrible one +as it seeks to adjust itself and be right with God, and finds itself +baffled by its own spiritual foes, and its own helplessness, perplexity +and perversity. How dark and dreary the struggle, and how helpless and +ineffectual it often seems at such times! It is almost sure to strive in +the spirit of the law, and the result always is, and must ever be, +condemnation and failure. Every disobedience is met by a blow of wrath, +and discouragement, and it well nigh sinks to despair. Oh, if the tempted +and struggling one could only understand or remember what perhaps he has +learned before, that Christ is our righteousness, and that it is not by +law but by grace alone, “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye +are not under the law, but under grace.” That is the secret of the whole +battle. + + + + + +MARCH 21. + + +“Casting all your care upon Him” (I. Peter v. 7). + +Some things there are that God will not tolerate in us. We must leave +them. Nehemiah would not talk with Sanballat about his charges and fears, +but simply refused to have anything to do with the matter—even to go into +the temple and pray about it. How very few things we really have to do +with in life. If we would only drop all the needless things and simply do +the things that absolutely touch and require our attention from morning +till night, we would find what a small slender thread life was; but we +string upon it a thousand imaginary beads that never come, and burden +ourselves with cares and flurries that if we had trusted more, would never +have needed to preoccupy our attention. Wise indeed was the testimony of +the dear old saint who said, in review of her past life, “I have had a +great many troubles in my life, especially those that never came.” + +Trust and rest with heart abiding, + Like a birdling in its nest, +Underneath His feathers hiding, + Fold thy wings and trust and rest. + Trust and rest, trust and rest, + God is working for the best. + + + + + +MARCH 22. + + +“Hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” +(Heb. iii. 6). + +The attitude of faith is simple trust. It is Elijah saying to Ahab, “There +is a sound of abundance of rain.” But then there comes usually a deeper +experience in which the prayer is inwrought; it is Elijah on the mount, +with his face between his knees, travailing, as it were, in birth for the +promised blessing. He has believed for it—and now he must take. The first +is Joash shooting the arrow out of the windows, but the second is Joash +smiting on the ground and following up his faith by perseverance and +victorious testing. + +It is in this latter place that many of us come short. We ask much from +God, and when God proceeds to give it to us we are not found equal to His +expectation. We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of +our confidence steadfast to the end, and trust Him through it all. + +Fainting soldier of the Lord, + Hear His sweet inspiring word, +“I have conquered all thy foes. + I have suffered all thy woes; +Struggling soldier, trust in Me, + I have overcome for thee.” + + + + + +MARCH 23. + + +“He is a new creature” (II. Cor. v. 17). + +Resurrected, not raised. There is so much in this distinction. The +teaching of human philosophy is that we are to raise humanity to a higher +plane. This is not the Gospel. On the contrary, the teaching of the cross +is that humanity must die and sink out of sight and then be resurrected, +not raised. Resurrection is not improvement. It is not elevation, but it +is a new supernatural life lifting us from nothingness into God and making +us partakers of the Divine nature. It is a new creation. It is an infinite +elevation above the highest plane. Let us not take less than resurrection +life. + +I am crucified with Jesus, + And the cross has set me free; +I have ris’n again with Jesus, + And He lives and reigns in me. + +This the story of the Master, + Through the cross He reached the throne, +And like Him our path to glory, + Ever leads through death alone. + +Lord, teach me the death-born life. Lord, let me live in the power of Thy +resurrection! + + + + + +MARCH 24. + + +“And again I say, rejoice” (Phil. iv. 4). + +It is a good thing to rejoice in the Lord. Perhaps you found the first +dose ineffectual. Keep on with your medicine, and when you cannot feel any +joy, when there is no spring, and no seeming comfort and encouragement, +still rejoice, and count it all joy. Even when you fall into divers +temptations, reckon it joy, and delight, and God will make your reckoning +good. Do you suppose your Father will let you carry the banner of His +victory and His gladness on to the front of the battle, and then coolly +stand back and see you captured or beaten back by the enemy? Never! the +Holy Spirit will sustain you in your bold advance, and fill your heart +with gladness and praise, and you will find your heart all exhilarated and +refreshed by the fulness of the heart within. + +Lord, teach me to rejoice in Thee, and to rejoice evermore. + +The joy of the Lord is the strength of His people. + The sunshine that scatters their sadness and gloom; +The fountain that bursts in the desert of sorrow, + And sheds o’er the wilderness, gladness and bloom. + + + + + +MARCH 25. + + +“The beauty of holiness” (Ps. xxix. 2). + +Some one remarked once that he did not know more disagreeable people than +sanctified Christians. He probably meant people that only profess +sanctification. There is an angular, hard, unlovely type of Christian +character that is not true holiness; at least, not the highest type of it. +It is the skeleton without the flesh covering; it is the naked rock +without the vines and foliage that cushion its rugged sides. Jesus was not +only virtuous and pure, but He was also beautiful and full of the sweet +attractiveness of love. + +We read of two kinds of graces: First, “Whatsoever things are just, +whatsoever things are lovely and of good report.” There are a thousand +little graces in Christian life that we cannot afford to ignore. In fact, +the last stages in any work of art are always the finishing touches; and +so let us not wonder if God shall spend a great deal of time in teaching +us the little things that many might consider trifles. + +God would have His Bride without a spot or even a wrinkle. + + + + + +MARCH 26. + + +“Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. xii. 2). + +Add to your faith—do not add to yourself. This is where we make the +mistake. We must not only enter by faith, but we must advance by faith +each step of the way. At every new stage we shall find ourselves as +incompetent and unequal for the pressure as before, and we must take the +grace and the victory simply by faith. Is it courage? We shall find +ourselves lacking in the needed courage; we must claim it by faith. Is it +love? Our own love will be inadequate; but we must take His love, and we +shall find it given. Is it faith itself? We must have the faith of God, +and Christ in us will be the spirit of faith, as well as the blessing that +faith claims. So our whole life from beginning to end, is but Christ in +us—in the exceeding riches of His grace; and our everlasting song will be: +Not I; but Christ who liveth in me. + +’Tis so sweet to walk with Jesus, + Step by step and day by day; +Stepping in His very footprints, + Walking with Him all the way. + + + + + +MARCH 27. + + +“What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee” (Ps. lvi. 3). + +We shall never forget a remark Mr. George Mueller once made in answer to a +gentleman who asked him the best way to have strong faith. “The only way,” +replied the patriarch of faith, “to learn strong faith is to endure great +trials. I have learned my faith by standing firm amid severe testings.” +This is very true. The time to trust is when all else fails. Dear one, if +you scarcely realize the value of your present opportunity, if you are +passing through great afflictions, you are in the very soul of the +strongest faith, and if you will only let go, He will teach you in these +hours the mightiest hold upon this throne which you can ever know. “Be not +afraid, only believe”; and if you are afraid, just look up and say, “What +time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee,” and you will yet thank God for +the school of sorrow which was to you the school of faith. + +O brother, give heed to the warning, + And obey His voice to-day. +The Spirit to thee is calling, + O do not grieve Him away. + + + + + +MARCH 28. + + +“The fruit of the Spirit is all goodness” (Gal. v. 22). + +Goodness is a fruit of the Spirit. Goodness is just “Godness.” It is to be +like God. And God-like goodness has special reference to the active +benevolence of God. The apostle gives us the difference between goodness +and righteousness in this passage in Romans, “Scarcely for a righteous man +would one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to +die.” The righteous man is the man of stiff, inflexible uprightness; but +he may be as hard as a granite mountain side. The good man is that +mountain side all covered with velvet moss and flowers, and flowing with +cascades and springs. Goodness respects “whatsoever things are lovely.” It +is kindness, affectionateness, benevolence, sympathy, rejoicing with them +that do rejoice, and weeping with them that weep. Lord, fill us with +Thyself, and let us be God-men and good men, and so represent Thy +goodness. + +There are lonely hearts to cherish, + While the days are going by; +There are weary souls who perish, + While the days are going by. + + + + + +MARCH 29. + + +“He will keep the feet of His saints” (I. Sam. ii. 9). + +Perils as well as privileges attend the higher Christian life. The nearer +we come to God, the thicker the hosts of darkness in heavenly places. The +safe place lies in obedience to God’s Word, singleness of heart, and holy +vigilance. + +When Christians speak of standing in a place where they do not need to +watch, they are in great danger. Let us walk in sweet and holy confidence, +and yet with holy, humble watchfulness, and “He will keep the feet of His +saints.” And “now unto Him who is able to keep us from stumbling, and +present us faultless before the presence of His glory, to the only wise +God, our Saviour, be glory, and majesty, dominion and power, both now and +forever. Amen.” + +What to do we often wonder, + As we seek some watchword true, +Lo, the answer God has given, + What would Jesus do? + +When the shafts of fierce temptation, + With their fiery darts pursue, +This will be your heavenly armor, + What would Jesus do? + + + + + +MARCH 30. + + +“I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as +thy soul prospereth” (III. John 2). + +In the way of righteousness is life and in the pathway thereof is no +death. That is the secret of healing. Be right with God. Keep so. Live in +the consciousness of it, and nothing can hurt you. Off from the +breastplate of righteousness will glance all of the fiery darts of the +devil, and faith be stronger for every fierce assault. How true it is, +“Who is he that shall harm you if ye be followers of that which is good?” +And how true also, “Holding faith and a good conscience, which some having +put away, concerning faith, have made shipwreck.” + +And yet again, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord +thy God, and wilt keep all His statutes and commandments, I will put none +of these diseases upon thee that I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I +am the Lord that healeth thee.” + +There’s a question God is asking + Every conscience in His sight, +Let it search thine inmost being, + Is it right with God, all right? + + + + + +MARCH 31. + + +“What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them +and ye shall have them” (Mark xi. 24). + +Faith is not working up by will power a sort of certainty that something +is coming to pass, but it is seeing as an actual fact that God has said +that this thing shall come to pass, and that it is true, and then +rejoicing to know that it is true, and just resting and entering into it +because God has said it. Faith turns the promise into a prophecy. While it +is merely a promise it is contingent upon our co-operation; it may or may +not be. But when faith claims it, it becomes a prophecy and we go forth +feeling that it is something that must be done because God cannot lie. + +Faith is the answer from the throne saying, “It is done.” Faith is the +echo of God’s voice. Let us catch it from on high. Let us repeat it, and +go out to triumph in its glorious power. + +Hear the answer from the throne, +Claim the promise, doubting one, +God hath spoken, “It is done.” +Faith hath answered, “It is done”; +Prayer is over, praise begun, +Hallelujah! It is done. + + + + + +APRIL 1. + + +“Vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory” (Rom. ix. 23). + +Our Father is fitting us for eternity. A vessel fitted for the kitchen +will find itself in the kitchen. A vessel for the art gallery or the +reception room will generally find itself there at last. + +What are you getting fitted for? To be a slop-pail to hold all the stuff +that people pour into your ears, or a vase to hold sweet fragrance and +flowers for the King’s palace and a harp of many strings that sounds the +melodies and harmonies of His love and praise? Each one of us is going to +his own place. Let us get fitted now. + +The days of heaven are Christly days, + The Light of Heaven is He; +So walking at His side, our days + As the days of heaven would be. + +The days of heaven are endless days— + Days of eternity; +So may our lives and works endure + While the days of heaven shall be. + +Walk with us, Lord, through all the days, + And let us walk with Thee; +’Til as Thy will is done in heaven, + On earth so shall it be. + + + + + +APRIL 2. + + +“He shall dwell on high” (Isa. xxxiii. 16). + +It is easier for a consecrated Christian to live an out and out life for +God than to live a mixed life. A soul redeemed and sanctified by Christ is +too large for the shoals and sands of a selfish, worldly, sinful life. The +great steamship, St. Paul, could sail in deep water without an effort, but +she could make no progress in the shallow pool, or on the Long Branch +sands; the smallest tugboat is worth a dozen of her there; but out in +mid-ocean she could distance them in an hour. + +Beloved, your life is too large, too glorious, too divine for the small +place that you are trying to live in. Your purpose is too petty; arise and +dwell on high in the resurrection life of Jesus, and the inspiring hope of +His blessed coming. + +Rise with thy risen Lord, + Ascend with Christ above, +And in the heavenlies walk with Him, + Whom seeing not, you love. + +Walk as a heavenly race, + Princes of royal blood; +Walk as the children of the light, + The sons and heirs of God. + + + + + +APRIL 3. + + +“My expectation is from Him” (Ps. lxii. 5). + +When we believe for a blessing, we must take the attitude of faith, and +begin to act and pray as if we had our blessing. We must treat God as if +He had given us our request. We must lean our weight over upon Him for the +thing that we have claimed, and just take it for granted that He gives it, +and is going to continue to give it. This is the attitude of trust. When +the wife is married, she at once falls into a new attitude, and acts in +accordance with the fact, and so when we take Christ as a Saviour, as a +Sanctifier, as a Healer, or as a Deliverer, He expects us to fall into the +attitude of recognizing Him in the capacity that we have claimed, and +expect Him to be to us all that we have trusted Him for. + +You may bring Him ev’ry care and burden, + You may tell Him ev’ry need in pray’r, +You may trust Him for the darkest moment, + He is caring, wherefore need you care? + +Faith can never reach its consummation, + ’Til the victor’s thankful song we raise: +In the glorious city of salvation, + God has told us all the gates are praise. + + + + + +APRIL 4. + + +“Resist the devil and he will flee” (James iv. 7). + +Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. This is a promise, and God +will keep it to us. If we resist the adversary, He will compel him to +flee, and will give us the victory. We can, at all times, fearlessly stand +up in defiance, in resistance to the enemy, and claim the protection of +our heavenly King just as a citizen would claim the protection of the +government against an outrage or injustice on the part of violent men. At +the same time we are not to stand on the adversary’s ground anywhere by +any attitude or disobedience, or we give him a terrible power over us, +which, while God will restrain in great mercy and kindness, He will not +fully remove until we get fully on holy ground. Therefore, we must be +armed with the breastplate of righteousness, as well as the shield of +faith, if we would successfully resist the prince of darkness and the +principalities in heavenly places. + +Your full redemption rights + With holy boldness claim, +And to the utmost fulness prove + The power of Jesus’ name. + + + + + +APRIL 5. + + +“Many shall be purified and made white and tried” (Dan. xii. 10). + +This is the promise for the Lord’s coming. It is more than purity. It is +to be made white, lustrous, or bright. To be purified is to have the sin +burned out; to be made white is to have the glory of the Lord burned in. +The one is cleansing, the other is illumination and glorification. The +Lord has both for us, but in order for us to have both, we must be put +into the fire to be tried, and to be led into difficult and peculiar +places where Christ shall be more to us because of the very extremity of +the situation. We are approaching these days. Indeed, they are already +around us, and they are the precursors of the Lord’s coming. + +Blessed is he that keepeth his garments lest he walk naked. + +There are voices in the air, filling men with hope and fear; +There are signals everywhere that the end is drawing near, +There are warnings to prepare, for the King will soon be here; + O it must be the coming of the Lord! + + + + + +APRIL 6. + + +“As we have many members in one body, so we being many are one body in +Christ” (Rom. xii. 4, 5). + +Sometimes our communion with God is cut off, or interrupted because of +something wrong with a brother, or some lack of unity in the body of +Christ. We try to get at the Lord, but we cannot, because we are separated +from some member of the Lord’s body, or because there is not the freedom +of His love flowing through every organic part. It does not need a blow +upon the head to paralyze the brain; a blow upon some nerve may do it; or +a wound in some artery at the extremities may be fatal to the heart. +Therefore we must stand right with all His children, and meet in the body +of Christ in the sweetest, fullest fellowship, if we would keep our +perfect communion with Christ Himself. Sometimes we will find that an +altered attitude to one Christian will bring us into the flood-tides of +the Holy Ghost. It seems impossible to have faith without love, or to have +Christ alone without the fulness of fellowship with all His dear saints; +and if one member suffer, all suffer together, and if one rejoice, all are +blessed in common. + + + + + +APRIL 7. + + +“In Him we live and move” (Acts xvii. 28). + +The hand of Gehazi, and even the staff of Elisha could not heal the +lifeless boy. It needed the living touch of the prophet’s own divinely +quickened flesh to infuse vitality into the cold clay. Lip to lip, hand to +hand, heart to heart, he must touch the child ere life could thrill his +pulseless veins. + +We must come into personal contact with the risen Saviour, and have His +very life quicken our mortal flesh before we can know the fulness and +reality of His healing. This is the most frequent cause of failure. People +are often trusting to something that has been done to them, to something +that they have done, or something that they have believed intellectually; +but their spirit has not felt its way to the heart of Christ, and they +have not drawn His love into their being by the hunger and thirst of love +and faith, and so they are not quickened. The greatest need of our souls +and bodies is to know Jesus personally, to touch Him constantly, to abide +in Him continually. + +May we this day lay aside all things that could hinder our near approach +to Him, and walk hand in hand, heart to heart, with Jesus. + + + + + +APRIL 8. + + +“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Prov. xvii. 22). + +King Solomon left among his wise sayings a prescription for sick and sad +hearts, and it is one that we can safely take. “A merry heart doeth good +like a medicine.” Joy is the great restorer and healer. Gladness of spirit +will bring health to the bones and vitality to the nerves when all other +tonics fail, and all other sedatives cease to quiet. Sick one, begin to +rejoice in the Lord, and your bones will flourish like an herb, and your +cheeks will glow with the bloom of health and freshness. Worry, fear, +distrust, care, are all poison drops; joy is balm and healing; and if you +will but rejoice, God will give power. He has commanded you to be glad and +rejoice; and He never fails to sustain His children in keeping His +commandments. Rejoice in the Lord always, He says; which means no matter +how sad, how tempted, how sick, how suffering you are, rejoice in the Lord +just where you are, and begin this moment. + +The joy of the Lord is the strength of our body, + The gladness of Jesus, the balm for our pain, +His life and His fulness, our fountain of healing, + His joy, our elixir for body and brain. + + + + + +APRIL 9. + + +“I do always those things that please Him” (John viii. 29). + +It is a good thing to keep short accounts with God. We were very much +struck some years ago with an interpretation of this verse: “So every one +of us shall give an account of himself to God.” The thought conveyed to +our mind was, that of accounting to God every day of our lives, so that +our accounts were settled daily, and for us judgment was passed, as we lay +down on our pillows every night. + +This is surely the true way to live. It is the secret of great peace, and +it will be a delightful comfort when life is closing, or the Master +coming, to know that our account is settled, and our judgment over, and +for us there is only waiting the glad “Well done, good and faithful +servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” + +Step by step I’ll walk with Jesus, + Just a moment at a time, +Heights I have not wings to soar to, + Step by step my feet can climb. + +Jesus, keep me closer—closer, + Step by step and day by day +Stepping in Thy very foot-prints, + Walking with Thee all the way. + + + + + +APRIL 10. + + +“Hold fast the confidence” (Heb. iii. 6). + +Seldom have we seen a sadder wreck of even the highest, noblest Christian +character than when the enemy has succeeded in undermining the simple +trust of a child of God, and got him into self-accusing and condemnation. +It is a fearful place when the soul allows Satan to take the throne and +act as God, sitting in judgment on its every thought and act; and keeping +it in the darkness of ceaseless condemnation. Well indeed has the apostle +told us to hold firmly the shield of faith! + +This is Satan’s objective point in all his attacks upon you, to destroy +your trust. If he can get you to lose your simple confidence in God, he +knows that he will soon have you at his feet. + +It is enough to wreck both the reason and the life for the soul that has +known the sweetness of His love to lose its perfect trust in God. +“Beloved, hold fast your confidence and the rejoicing of your hope firm +unto the end.” + +Fear not to take your place + With Jesus on the throne, +And bid the powers of earth and hell, + His sovereign sceptre own. + + + + + +APRIL 11. + + +“Commit thy way unto the Lord” (Ps. xxxvii. 5). + +Seldom have we heard a better definition of faith than was given once in +one of our meetings by a dear old colored woman, as she answered the +question of a young man how to take the Lord for needed help. + +In her characteristic way, pointing her finger toward him, she said with +great emphasis: “You’ve just got to believe that He’s done it, and it’s +done.” The great danger with most of us is, that after we ask Him to do +it, we do not believe that it’s done, but we keep on helping Him, and +getting others to help Him; superintending God and waiting to see how He +is going to do it. + +Faith adds its amen to God’s yea, and then takes its hands off, and leaves +God to finish His work. Its language is, “Commit thy way unto the Lord, +trust also in Him; and He worketh.” + +Lord, I give up the struggle, + To Thee commit my way, +I trust Thy word forever, + And settle it all to-day. + + + + + +APRIL 12. + + +“They were as it were, complainers” (Num. xi. 1). + +There is a very remarkable phrase in the book of Numbers, in the account +of the murmuring of the children of Israel in the wilderness. It reads +like this: “When the people, as it were, murmured.” Like most marginal +readings it is better than the text, and a great world of suggestive truth +lies back of that little sentence. + +In the distance we may see many a vivid picture rise before our +imagination of people who do not dare to sin openly and unequivocally, but +manage to do it “as it were” only. They do not lie straight, but they +evade or equivocate, or imply enough falsehood to escape a real conviction +of conscience. They do not openly accuse God of unkindness or +unfaithfulness, but they strike at Him through somebody else. They find +fault with circumstances and people and things that God has permitted to +come into their lives, and, “As it were,” murmur. They do not perhaps go +any farther. They feel like doing it if they dared to “charge God +foolishly.” + +These things were written for our warning. + + + + + +APRIL 13. + + +“Rejoice evermore” (I. Thess. v. 16). + +Do not lose your joy whatever else you lose. Keep the spirit of spring. +“Rejoice evermore,” and “Again I say, rejoice.” + +The loss of Canaan began in the spirit of murmurings, “When the people, as +it were, murmured, it displeased the Lord.” The first break in their +fellowship, the first falter in their advance, came when they began to +doubt, and grieve, and fret. + +Oh, keep the heart from the perforations of depression, discouragement, +distrust and gloom, for Satan cannot crush a rejoicing and praiseful soul. + +Look out for the beginning of sin. Don’t let the first touch of evil be +harbored. It is the first step that loses all. Oh, to keep so encased in +the Holy Ghost and in the very life of Jesus that the evil cannot reach +us! + +The little fly on the inside of the window-pane may be attacked by the +little bird on the outside, and it may seem to him that he is lost, but +the crystal pane between keeps him safely from all danger as certainly as +if it were a mighty wall of iron. + + + + + +APRIL 14. + + +“I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto Me” (John xii. +32). + +A true and pure Christian life attracts the world. There are hundreds of +men and women who find no inducements whatever in the lives of ordinary +Christians to interest them in practical religion, but who are won at once +by a true and victorious example. We believe that more men of the world +step at a bound right into a life of entire consecration than into the +intermediate state which is usually presented to them at the first stage. + +In an audience once there was a man who for half a century or more had +lived without Christ, and who was a very prominent citizen, a man in +public life, of irreproachable character, lofty intellect, and a most +winning spirit and manners, but utterly out of sympathy with the Christian +life. + +At the close of a service for the promotion of deeper spiritual life he +rose to ask the prayers of the congregation, and before the end of the +week he was himself a true and acknowledged follower of the Lord Jesus +Christ. He said, as he went home that night, “If that is the religion of +Jesus Christ, I want it.” + + + + + +APRIL 15. + + +“Rooted and grounded in love” (Eph. iii. 17). + +There is a very singular shrub, which grows abundantly in the west, and is +to be found in all parts of Texas. It is no less than the “mosquito tree.” +It is a very slim, and willowy looking shrub, and would seem to be of +little use for any industrial purposes; but is has extraordinary roots +growing like great timbers underground, and possessing such qualities of +endurance in all situations that it is used and very highly valued for +good pavements. The city of San Antonio is said to be paved with these +roots. It reminds one of those Christians who make little show externally, +but their growth is chiefly underground—out of sight, in the depth of God. +These are the men and women that God uses for the foundation of things, +and for the pavements of that city of God which will stand when all +earthly things have crumbled into ruin and dissolved into oblivion. + +Deeper, deeper let the living waters flow; + Blessed Holy Spirit! River of Salvation! + All Thy fulness let me know. + + + + + +APRIL 16. + + +“Quit you like men” (I. Cor. xvi. 13). + +Be brave. Cowards always get hurt. Brave men generally come out unharmed. +Jeremiah was a hero. He shrank from nothing. He faced his king and +countrymen with dauntless bravery, and the result was he suffered no harm, +but came through the siege of Jerusalem without a hair being injured. +Zedekiah, the cowardly king, was always afraid to obey God and be true, +and the result was that he at last met the most cruel punishment that was +ever inflicted on human heart. + +The men and women that stand from the beginning true to their convictions +have the fewest tests. When God gives to you a good trial, if you can +stand the strain, He is not always repeating it. When Abraham offered up +his son Isaac at Mount Moriah, it was a final testing for the rest of his +life. Do not let Satan see that you are afraid of him, for he will pursue +to the death if he thinks that he has a chance of getting you. + +Be true, be true, +Whether friends be false or few, +Whatsoe’er betide, ever at His side, + Let Him always find you true. + + + + + +APRIL 17. + + +“He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city” (Prov. +xvi. 32). + +Temperance is true self-government. It involves the grace of self-denial +and the spirit of a sound mind. It is that poise of spirit that holds us +quiet, self-possessed, recollected, deliberate, and subject ever to the +voice of God and the conviction of duty in every step we take. Many +persons have not that poise and recollected spirit. They are drifting at +the impulse of their own impressions, moods, the influence of others, or +the circumstances around them. No desire should ever control us. No +purpose, however right, should have such mastery over us that we are not +perfectly free. The pure affection may be an inordinate affection. Our +work itself may be a selfish passion. That thing that we began to do +because it was God’s will, we may cling to and persist in ultimately, +because it is our own will. Lord, give us the spirit ever controlled by +Thy Spirit and will, and the eye that looks to Thee every moment as the +eyes of a servant to the hands of her mistress. So shall Thy service be +our perfect freedom, and our subjection divinest liberty. + + + + + +APRIL 18. + + +“They shall mount up with wings” (Isa. xl. 31). + +“They shall mount up with wings as eagles,” is God’s preliminary; for the +next promise is, “They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and +not faint.” Hours of holy exultation are necessary for hours of patient +plodding, waiting and working. Nature has its springs, and so has grace. + +Let us rejoice in the Lord evermore, and again we say, rejoice. And let us +take Him to be our continual joy, whose heart is a fountain of +blessedness, and who is anointed with the oil of gladness above His +fellows. We must not be disappointed if the tides are not always equally +high. Even at low tide the ocean is just as full. Human nature could not +stand perpetual excitement, even of a happy kind, and God often rests in +His love. Let us live as self-unconsciously as possible, filling up each +moment with faithful service, and trusting Him to stir the springs at His +will, and as we go on in faithful service we shall hear, again and again, +His glad whisper: “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into +the joy of thy Lord.” + + + + + +APRIL 19. + + +“Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him” (Ps. xxxvii. 7). + +It is a very suggestive thought that it is in the Gospel of Mark, which is +the Gospel of service, we hear the Master saying to His disciples, “Come +ye apart into a desert place, and rest awhile.” God wants rested workers. +There is an energy that may be tireless and ceaseless, and yet still as +the ocean’s depth, with the peace of God, which passes all understanding. +The two deepest secrets of rest are, first, to be in harmony with the will +of God, and, secondly, to trust. “Great peace have they that love Thy +law,” expresses the first. “Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind +is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee,” describes the second. +There is a good deal in learning to “stay.” Sometimes we forget that it +literally means to stop. It is a great blessing even to stop all thought, +and this is frequently the only way to answer the devil’s whirlwind of +irritating questions and thoughts, to be absolutely still and refuse to +even think, and meet his evil voice with a simple and everlasting “No!” If +we will be still God will give us peace. + + + + + +APRIL 20. + + +“There they dwelt with the King for His work” (I. Chron. iv. 23). + +It is easy for water to run down from the upper springs, but it requires a +divine impulse to flow up from the valley in the nether springs. There is +nothing that tells more of Christ than to see a Christian rejoicing and +cheerful in the humdrum and routine of commonplace work, like the sailors +that stand on the dock loading the vessel and singing as they swing their +loads, keeping time with the spirit of praise to the footsteps and +movements of labor and duty. No one has a sweeter or higher ministry for +Christ than a business man or a serving woman who can carry the light of +heaven in their faces all day long. Like the sea fowl that can plunge +beneath the briny tide with its beautiful and spotless plumage, and come +forth without one drop adhering to its burnished breast and glowing wings +because of the subtle oil upon the plumage that keeps the water from +sticking, so, thank God, we too may be so anointed with the Holy Ghost +that sin, sorrow and defilement will not adhere to us, but we shall pass +through every sea as the ship passes through the waves, in, but above the +floods around us. + + + + + +APRIL 21. + + +“The anointing which ye have received” (I. John ii. 27). + +This is the secret of the deeper life, but “That ye may be rooted and +grounded in love,” is the substance of it, and the sweetness of it. The +fulness of the divine love in the heart will make everything easy. It is +very easy to do things that we love to do, and it is very easy to trust +one whom we love, and the more we realize their love the more we will +trust them for it. It is the source of healing. The tide of love flowing +through our bodies will strangely strengthen our very frame, and the love +of our Lord will become a continual spring of youth and freshness in our +physical being. The secret of love is very simple. It is to take the heart +of Jesus for our love and claim its love for every need of life, whether +it be toward God or toward others. It is very sweet to think of persons in +this way, “I will take the heart of Jesus toward them, to let me love them +as He loves them.” Then we can love even the unworthy in some measure, if +we shall see them in the light of His love and hope, as they shall be, and +not as they now are, unworthy of our love. + + + + + +APRIL 22. + + +“Christ is the head” (Eph. v. 23). + +Often we want people to pray for us and help us, but always defeat our +object when we look too much to them and lean upon them. The true secret +of union is for both to look upon God, and in the act of looking past +themselves to Him they are unconsciously united. The sailor was right when +he saw the little boy fall overboard and waited a minute before he plunged +to his rescue. When the distracted mother asked him in agony why he had +waited so long, he sensibly replied: “I knew that if I went in before he +would clutch and drag me down. I waited until his struggles were over, and +then I was able to help him when he did not grasp me too strongly.” + +When people grasp us too strongly, either with their love or with their +dependence, we are intuitively conscious that they are not looking to God, +and we become paralyzed in our efforts to help them. United prayer, +therefore, requires that the one for whom we pray be looking away from us +to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we together look to Him alone. + + + + + +APRIL 23. + + +“An high priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb. iv. +15). + +Some time ago we were talking with a greatly suffering sister about +healing, who was much burdened physically and desirous of being able to +trust the Lord for deliverance. After a little conversation we prayed with +her, committing her case to the Lord for absolute trust and deliverance as +she was prepared to claim. As soon as we closed our prayer she grasped our +hand, and asked us to unite with her in the burden that was most upon her +heart, and then, without a word of reference to her own healing, or the +burden under which she was being crushed to death, she burst into such a +prayer for a poor orphan boy, of whom she had just heard that day, as we +have never heard surpassed for sympathy and love, imploring God to help +him and save him, and sobbing in spasmodic agony of love many times during +her prayer, and then she ceased without even referring to her own need. We +were deeply touched by the spectacle of love, and we thought how the +Father’s heart must be touched for her own need. + + + + + +APRIL 24. + + +“Fret not thyself in any wise” (Ps. xxxvii. 8). + +A life was lost in Israel because a pair of human hands were laid unbidden +upon the ark of God. They were placed upon it with the best intent to +steady it when trembling and shaking as the oxen drew it along the rough +way, but they touched God’s work presumptuously, and they fell paralyzed +and lifeless. Much of the life of faith consists in letting things alone. +If we wholly trust an interest to God we can keep our hands off it, and He +will guard it for us better than we can help Him. “Rest in the Lord and +wait patiently for Him. Fret not thyself in any wise because of him that +prospereth in the way, because of the man that bringeth wicked devices to +pass.” Things may seem to be going all wrong, but He knows as well as we; +and He will arise in the right moment if we are really trusting Him so +fully as to let Him work in His own way and time. There is nothing so +masterly as inactivity in some things, and there is nothing so hurtful as +restless working, for God has undertaken to work His sovereign will. + + + + + +APRIL 25. + + +“The very God of Peace sanctify you wholly” (I. Thess. v. 23). + +A great tidal wave is bearing up the stranded ship, until she floats above +the bar without a straining timber or struggling seaman, instead of the +ineffectual and toilsome efforts of the struggling crew and the strain of +the engines, which had tried in vain to move her an inch until that +heavenly impulse lifted her by its own attraction. + +It is God’s great law of gravitation lifting up, by the warm sunbeams, the +mighty iceberg which a million men could not raise a single inch, but +melts away before the rays and the warmth of the sunshine, and rises in +clouds of evaporation to meet its embrace until that cold and heavy mass +is floating in fleecy clouds of glory in the blue ocean of the sky. + +How easy all this! How mighty! How simple! How divine! Beloved, have you +come into the divine way of holiness! If you have, how your heart must +swell with gratitude! If you have not, do you not long for it, and will +you not unite in the prayer of the text that the very God of peace will +sanctify you wholly? + + + + + +APRIL 26. + + +“Strangers and pilgrims” (Heb. xi. 13). + +If you have ever tried to plough a straight furrow in the country—we are +sorry for the man that does not know how to plough and more sorry for the +man that is too proud to want to know—you have found it necessary to have +two stakes in a line and to drive your horses by these stakes. If you have +only one stake before you, you will have no steadying point for your +vision, but you can wiggle about without knowing it and make your furrows +as crooked as a serpent’s coil; but if you have two stakes and ever keep +them in line, you cannot deviate an inch from a straight line, and your +furrow will be an arrow speeding to its course. + +This has been a great lesson to us in our Christian life. If we would run +a straight course, we find that we must have two stakes, the near and the +distant. It is not enough to be living in the present, but it is a great +and glorious thing to have a distant goal, a definite object, a clear +purpose before us for which we are living, and unto which we are shaping +our present. + + + + + +APRIL 27. + + +“The sweetness of the lips” (Prov. xvi. 21). + +Spiritual conditions are inseparably connected with our physical life. The +flow of the divine life-currents may be interrupted by a little clot of +blood; the vital current may leak out through a very trifling wound. + +If you want to keep the health of Christ, keep from all spiritual sores, +from all heart wounds and irritations. One hour of fretting will wear out +more vitality than a week of work; and one minute of malignity, or +rankling jealousy or envy will hurt more than a drink of poison. Sweetness +of spirit and joyousness of heart are essential to full health. Quietness +of spirit, gentleness, tranquility, and the peace of God that passes all +understanding, are worth all the sleeping draughts in the country. + +We do not wonder that some people have poor health when we hear them talk +for half an hour. They have enough dislikes, prejudices, doubts, and fears +to exhaust the strongest constitution. + +Beloved, if you would keep God’s life and strength, keep out the things +that kill it; keep it for Him, and for His work, and you will find enough +and to spare. + + + + + +APRIL 28. + + +“For it is God which worketh in you” (Phil. ii. 13). + +Sanctification is the gift of the Holy Ghost, the fruit of the Spirit, the +grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the prepared inheritance of all who enter +in, the greatest obtainment of faith, not the attainment of works. It is +divine holiness, not human self-improvement, nor perfection. It is the +inflow into man’s being of the life and purity of the infinite, eternal +and Holy One, bringing His own perfection and working out His own will. +How easy, how spontaneous, how delightful this heavenly way of holiness! +Surely it is a “highway” and not the low way of man’s vain and fruitless +mortification. + +It is God’s great elevated railway, sweeping over the heads of the +struggling throngs who toil along the lower pavement when they might be +borne along on His ascension pathway, by His own almighty impulse. It is +God’s great elevator carrying us up to the higher chambers of His palace, +without over-laborious efforts, while others struggle up the winding +stairs and faint by the way. + +Let us to-day so fully take Him that He can “cause us to walk in His +statutes.” + + + + + +APRIL 29. + + +“Love never faileth” (I. Cor. xiii. 8). + +In our work for God it is a great thing to find the key to men’s hearts, +and recognize something good as a point of contact for our spiritual +influence. When Jesus met the woman at Samaria He immediately seized hold +of the best things in her, and by this He reached her heart, and drew from +her a willing confession of her salvation. A Scotchman once said that his +salvation was all due to the fact that a good man (Lord Shaftsbury, we +believe) once put his arms around him and said, “John, by the grace of God +we will make a man of you yet.” + +The old legend tells the story of a poor, dead dog lying on the street in +the midst of the crowd, every one of whom was having something to say, +until Jesus came along, and immediately began to admire its beautiful +teeth. He had something kind to say even of him. + +There is but One can live and love like this; + The Christ-love from the living Christ must spring. +O! Jesus! come and live Thy life in me, + And all Thy heaven of love and blessing bring. + + + + + +APRIL 30. + + +“Love believeth all things” (I. Cor. xiii. 7). + +Beautiful is the expression in the Book of Isaiah which reflects with +exceeding sweetness the love of our dear Lord. He said, “They are My +people, children that will not lie; so He was their Saviour.” They did +lie, but He would not believe it. At least He speaks as if He would not +believe it in the greatness of His love, because they were His people. He +has not seen iniquity in Jacob nor perversity in Israel. There is plenty +of it to see, and the devil sees it all, and a good many people are only +too glad to see it; but the dear Father will not see it. He covers it with +His love and the precious blood of His dear atoning Son. Such a wonderful +love ought surely to make us gentler to others, and more anxious to cause +our Father less need to hide His loving eyes from our imperfections and +faults. + +If we have the mind and heart of Christ, we shall clothe even the world +with those graces which faith can claim for them, and try our best to +count them as if they were real, and by love and prayer we shall at length +make them real. “Love believeth all things.” + + + + + +MAY 1. + + +“The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness” (Gal. v. 22). + +Nature’s harshness has melted away and she is now beaming with the smile +of spring, and everything around us whispers of the gentleness of God. +This beautiful fruit is in lovely harmony with the gentle month of which +it is the keynote. May the Holy Spirit lead us, beloved, these days, into +His sweetness, quietness, and gentleness, subduing every coarse, rude, +harsh, and unholy habit, and making us like Him, of whom it is said, “He +shall not strive, nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the +streets.” + +The man who is truly filled with Jesus will always be a gentleman. The +woman who is baptized of the Holy Ghost, will have the instincts of a +perfect lady, although low born and little bred in the schools of earthly +refinement. Beloved, let us receive and reflect the gentleness of Christ, +the spirit of the holy babe, until the world will say of us, as the +polished and infidel Chesterfield once said of the saintly Fenelon, “If I +had remained in his house another day, I should have had to become a +Christian.” + +Lord, help us to-day, to so yield to the gentle Dove-Spirit, that our +lives shall be as His life. + + + + + +MAY 2. + + +“Always causeth us to triumph” (II. Cor. ii. 14). + +How these words help us. Think of them when the people rasp you, when the +devil pricks you with his fiery darts, when your sensitive, self-willed +spirit chafes or frets; let a gentle voice be heard above the strife, +whispering, “Keep sweet, keep sweet!” And, if you will but heed it +quickly, you will be saved from a thousand falls and kept in perfect +peace. + +True, you cannot keep yourself sweet, but God will keep you if He sees +that it is your fixed, determined purpose to be kept sweet, and to refuse +to fret or grudge or retaliate. The trouble is, you rather enjoy a little +irritation and morbidness. You want to cherish the little grudge, and +sympathize with your hurt feelings, and nurse your little grievance. + +Dear friends, God will give you all the love you really want and honestly +choose. You can have your grievance or you can have the peace that passeth +all understanding; but you cannot have both. + +There is a balm for a thousand heartaches, and a heaven of peace and power +in these two little words—KEEP SWEET. + + + + + +MAY 3. + + +“My peace I give unto you” (John xiv. 27). + +Here lies the secret of abiding peace—God’s peace. We give ourselves to +God and the Holy Spirit takes possession of our breast. It is indeed +“Peace, Peace.” But it is just then that the devil begins to turn us away, +and he does it through our thoughts, diverting or distracting them as +occasion requires. This is the time to prove the sincerity of our +consecration and the singleness of our heart. If we truly desire His +Presence more than all else, we will turn away from every conflicting +thought and look steadily up to Jesus. But if we desire the gratification +of our impulse more than His Presence, we will yield to the passionate +word or the frivolous thought or the sinful diversion, and when we come +back our Shepherd has gone, and we wonder why our peace has departed. +Failure occurs often in some trifling thing, and the soul failure has +occurred in some trifling thing, usually a thought or word, and the soul +which would not have feared to climb a mountain has really stumbled over a +straw. + +The real secret of perfect rest is to be jealously, habitually occupied +with Jesus. + + + + + +MAY 4. + + +“Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” (I. John iv. +4). + +Satan loves to trip us over little things. The reason of this is because +it is generally a greater victory for him, and shows that he can upset us +by a shaving and knock us down with a straw. It is the old boast of the +Jebusite, when they told David they could defend Jerusalem by a garrison +of the blind and lame. Most of us get on better in our great struggles +than we do in our little ones. It was over a little apple that Adam fell, +but all the world was wrecked. Look out, beloved, for the little stumbling +blocks, and do not let Satan laugh at you, and tell his myrmidons how he +tripped you over an orange peel. And, too, when the devil wants to stop +some great blessing in our lives, he generally throws some ugly shadow +over it and makes it look distasteful to us. How many of us have been +keeping back from truths, places and persons in which God has reappeared, +the greatest blessing of our lives, and the devil has succeeded in keeping +us away from them by some false or foolish prejudice! + + + + + +MAY 5. + + +“If ye then be risen” (Col. iii. 1). + +God is waiting this morning to mark the opening hours for every ready and +willing heart with a touch of life and power that will lift our lives to +higher pleasures and offer to our vision grander horizons of hope and holy +service. + +We shall not need to seek far to discover our risen Lord. He was in +advance even of the earliest seeker that Easter morning, and He will be +waiting for us before the break of day with His glad “All Hail,” if we +have only eyes to see and hearts to welcome and obey Him. + +What is His message to us this spring time? “If ye then be risen with +Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the +right hand of God. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in +God.” + +It is not risen with Christ, but _resurrected_. It is not rising a little +higher in the old life, but it is rising from the dead. The resurrection +will mean no more than the death has meant. Only so far as we are really +dead shall we live with Him. + + + + + +MAY 6. + + +“Reckon ye also yourselves to be alive unto God” (Rom. vi. 11). + +Death is but for a moment. Life is forevermore. Live, then, ye children of +the resurrection, on His glorious life, more and more abundantly, and the +fulness of your life will repel the intrusion of self and sin, and +overcome evil with good, and your existence will be, not the dreary +repression of your own struggling, but the springing tide of Christ’s +spontaneous overcoming life. + +Once in a religious meeting a dear brother gave us a most exhilarating +talk on the risen life. Then another brother got up and talked for a long +time on the necessity of self-crucifixion. A cold sweat fell over us all, +and we could scarcely understand why. But after he had got through, a good +sister clarified the whole situation by saying, that “Pastor S. had taken +us all out of the grave by his address, and then Pastor P. has put us back +again.” + +Don’t go back into the grave again after you have got out, but live like +Him, who “liveth and was dead, and lo! He is alive forevermore, and has +the keys of hell and of death.” Keep out of the tomb, and keep the door +locked, and the keys in His risen hands. + + + + + +MAY 7. + + +“I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. iv. 19). + +It is a blessed moment when we are born again and a new heart is created +in us after the image of God. It is a more blessed moment when in this new +heart Christ Himself is born and the Christmas time is reproduced in us as +we, in some real sense, become incarnations of the living Christ. This is +the deepest and holiest meaning of Christianity. It is expressed in Paul’s +prayer for the Galatians. “My little children, for whom I travail in birth +again till Christ be formed in you.” + +There will yet be a more glorious era when we, like Him, shall be +transformed and transfigured into His glory, and in the resurrection shall +be, in spirit, soul and body, even as He. + +Let us live, under the power of the inspiring thought, incarnations of +Christ; not living our life, but the Christ-life, and showing forth the +excellencies, not of ourselves, but of Him who hath called us “out of +darkness into His marvelous light”; so our life shall be to all the +re-living in our position of the Christ life, as He would have lived it, +had He been here. + + + + + +MAY 8. + + +“Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die” (John xii. 24). + +Death and resurrection are the central ideas of nature and Christianity. +We see them in the transformation of the chrysalis, in the buried seed +bursting into the bud and blossom of the spring, in the transformation of +the winding sheet of winter to the many tinted robes of spring. We see it +all through the Bible in the symbol of circumcision, with its significance +of death and life, in the passage of the Red Sea and the Jordan leading +out and leading in, and in the Cross of Calvary and the open grave of the +Easter morning. We see it in every deep spiritual life. Every true life is +death-born, and the deeper the dying the truer the living. We doubt not +the months that have been passing have shown us all many a place where +there ought to be a grave, and many a lingering shred of the natural and +sinful which we would gladly lay down in a bottomless grave. God help us +to pass the irrevocable sentence of death and to let the Holy Ghost, the +great undertaker, make the interment eternal. Then our life shall be ever +budding and blossoming and shedding fragrance over all. + + + + + +MAY 9. + + +“All hail” (Matt. xxviii. 9). + +It was a stirring greeting which the Lord of Life spake to His first +disciples on the morning of the resurrection. It is a bright and radiant +word which in His name we would speak to His beloved children at the +commencement of another day. It means a good deal more than appears on the +surface. It is really a prayer for our health, but which none but those +who believe in the healing of the body can fully understand. A thoughtful +friend suggested once that the word “hail” really means health, and it is +just the old Saxon form of the word. We all know that a hale person is a +healthy person. Our Lord’s message, therefore, was substantially that +greeting which from time immemorial we give to one another when we meet. +“How is your health?” “How are you?” or, better still, “I wish you +health.” Christ’s wish is tantamount to a promise and command. It is very +similar to the Apostle John’s benediction to his dear friend Gaius, and we +would re-echo it to our beloved friends according to the fulness of the +Master’s will. + + + + + +MAY 10. + + +“I am alive forevermore” (Rev. i. 18). + +Here is the message of the Christ of the cross and the still more glorious +and precious Christ of the resurrection. It is beautiful and inspiring to +note the touch of light and glory with which these simple words invest the +cross. It is not said I am He that was dead and liveth, but “I am He that +liveth and was dead, but am alive forevermore.” Life is mentioned before +the death. There are two ways of looking at the cross. One is from the +death side and the other from the life side. One is the Ecce Homo and the +other is the glorified Jesus with only the marks of the nails and the +spear. It is thus we are to look at the cross. We are not to carry about +with us the mould of the sepulchre, but the glory of the resurrection. It +is not the Ecce Homo, but the Living Christ. And so our crucifixion is to +be so complete that it shall be lost in our resurrection and we shall even +forget our sorrow and carry with us the light and glory of the eternal +morning. So let us live the death-born life, ever new and full of a life +that can never die, because it is “dead and alive forevermore.” + + + + + +MAY 11. + + +“Whosoever will save his life shall lose it” (Luke ix. 24). + +First and foremost Christ teaches resurrection and life. The power of +Christianity is life. It brings us not merely law, duty, example, with +high and holy teaching and admonition. It brings us the power to follow +the higher ideal and the life that spontaneously does the things +commanded. But it is not only life, but resurrection life. + +And it begins with a real crisis, a definite transaction, a point of time +as clear as the morning dawn. It is not an everlasting dying and an +eternal struggle to live. But it is all expressed in a tense that denotes +definiteness, fixedness and finished action. We actually died at a certain +point and as actually began to live the resurrection life. + +Let us reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God +through Jesus Christ. + +And death is only the pathway and portal, + To the life that shall die nevermore; +And the cross leadeth up to the crown everlasting, + The Jordan to Canaan’s bright shore. + + + + + +MAY 12. + + +“Tell me where Thou makest Thy flock to rest at noon” (Song of Solomon i. +7). + +Beloved, do you not long for God’s quiet, the inner chambers, the shadow +of the Almighty, the secret of His presence? Your life has been, perhaps, +all driving and doing, or perhaps straining, struggling, longing and not +obtaining. Oh, for rest! to lie down upon His bosom and know that you have +all in Him, that every question is answered, every doubt settled, every +interest safe, every prayer answered, every desire satisfied. Lift up the +cry, “Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest, where Thou +makest Thy flock to rest at noon”! + +Blessed be His name! He has this for us, His exclusive love—a love which +each individual somehow feels is all for himself, in which he can lie +alone upon His breast and have a place which none other can dispute; and +yet His heart is so great that He can hold a thousand millions just as +near, and each heart seem to possess Him just as exclusively for his own, +even as the thousand little pools of water upon the beach can reflect the +sun, and each little pool seems to have the whole sun embosomed in its +beautiful depths. And Christ can teach us this secret of His inmost love. + + + + + +MAY 13. + + +“Abide in Me” (John xv. 4). + +Christianity may mean nothing more than a religious system. Christian life +may mean nothing more than an earnest and honest attempt to follow and +imitate Christ. + +Christ life is more than these, and expresses our actual union with the +Lord Jesus Christ, and He is undoubtedly in us as the life and source of +all our experience and work. + +This conception of the highest Christian life is at once simpler and +sublimer than any other. We do not teach in these pages, that the purpose +of Christ’s redemption is to restore us to Adamic perfection, for if we +had it we should lose it to-morrow; but rather to unite us with the Second +Adam, and lift us up to a higher plane than our first parents ever knew. + +This is the only thing that can reconcile the warring elements of diverse +schools of teaching with respect to Christian life. + +The Spirit of God will lead us to have no controversy respecting mere +theories, but simply hold to the person and life of Jesus Christ Himself, +and the privilege of being united to Him, and living in constant +dependence upon His keeping power and grace. + + + + + +MAY 14. + + +“But God” (Luke xii. 20). + +What else do we really need? What else is He trying to make us understand? +The religion of the Bible is wholly supernatural. The one resource of +faith has always been the living God, and Him alone. The children of +Israel were utterly dependent upon Jehovah as they marched through the +wilderness, and the one reason their foes feared them and hastened to +submit themselves was that they recognized among them the shout of a King, +and the presence of One compared with whom all their strength was vain. + +“Wherein,” asked Moses, “shall we be separated from all other peoples of +the earth, except it be in this that Thou goest before us.” + +A church relying on human wisdom, wealth or resources, ceases to be the +body of Christ and becomes an earthly society. When we dare to depend +entirely upon God and without doubt, the humblest and feeblest agencies +will become “mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.” May +the Holy Spirit give to us at all times, His own conception of these two +great words, “But God.” + + + + + +MAY 15. + + +“I press toward the mark” (Phil. iii. 14). + +We have thought much about what we have received. Let us think of the +things we have not received, of some of the vessels that have not yet been +filled, of some of the places in our life that the Holy Ghost has not yet +possessed for God, and signalized by His glory and His presence. + +Shall the coming months be marked by a diligent, heart-searching +application of “the rest of the oil,” to the yet unoccupied possibilities +of our life and service? + +Have we known His fulness of grace in our spiritual life? Have we tasted a +little of His glory? Have we believed His promise for the mind, the soul, +the spirit? Have we known all His possibilities for the body? Have we +tested Him in His power to control the events of providence, and to move +the hearts of men and nations? Has He opened to us the treasure-house of +God, and met our financial needs as He might? Have we even begun to +understand the ministry of prayer, as God would have us exercise it? God +give us “the rest of the oil”! + + + + + +MAY 16. + + +“It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. x. 23). + +United to Jesus Christ as your Redeemer, you are accepted in the Beloved. +He does not merely take my place as a man and settle my debts. He does +that and more. He comes to give a perfect ideal of what a man should be. +He is the model man, not for us to copy, for that would only bring +discouragement and utter failure; but He will come and copy Himself in us. +If Christ lives in me, I am another Christ. I am not like Him, but I have +the same mind. The very Christ is in me. This is the foundation of +Christian holiness and Divine healing. Christ is developing a perfect life +within us. Some say man can never be perfect. “It is not in man that +walketh to direct his steps.” We are all a lot of failures. This is true, +but we should go further. We must take God’s provision for our failure and +rise above it through His grace. We must take Jesus as a substitute for +our miserable self. We must give up the good as well as the bad and take +Him instead. It is hard for us to learn that the very good must go, but we +must have Divine impulses instead of even our best attainments. + + + + + +MAY 17. + + +“To him that overcometh, will I give” (Rev. ii. 17). + +A precious secret of Christian life is to have Jesus dwelling within the +heart and conquering things that we never could overcome. It is the only +secret of power in your life and mine, beloved. Men cannot understand it, +nor will the world believe it; but it is true, that God will come to dwell +within us, and be the power, and the purity, and the victory, and the joy +of our life. It is no longer now, “What is the best that I can do?” but +the question is, “What is the best that Christ can do?” It enables us to +say, with Paul, in that beautiful passage in Philippians, “I know both how +to be abased, and I know how to abound, everywhere and in all things, I am +instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer +need. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.” + +With this knowledge I go forth to meet my testings, and the secret stands +me good. It keeps me pure and sweet, as I could never keep myself. Christ +has met the adversary and defeated him for me. Thanks be unto God who +giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ. + + + + + +MAY 18. + + +“For ye are dead” (Col. iii. 3). + +Now, this definite, absolute and final putting off of ourselves in an act +of death, is something we cannot do ourselves. It is not self-mortifying, +but it is dying with Christ. There is nothing can do it but the Cross of +Christ and the Spirit of God. The church is full of half dead people who +have been trying, like poor Nero, to slay themselves for years, and have +not had the courage to strike the fatal blow. Oh, if they would just put +themselves at Jesus’ feet, and let Him do it, there would be +accomplishment and rest. On that cross He has provided for our death as +well as our life, and our part is just to let His death be applied to our +nature just as it has been to our old sins, and then leave it with Him, +think no more about it, and count it dead, not recognizing it any longer +as ourselves, but another, refusing to listen or fear it, to be identified +with it, or even try to cleanse it, but counting it utterly in His hands, +and dead to us forever, and for all our new life depending on Him at every +breath, as a babe just born depends upon its mother’s life. + + + + + +MAY 19. + + +“He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit” (John xv. 2). + +Recently we passed a garden. The gardener had just finished his pruning, +and the wounds of the knife and saw were just beginning to heal, while the +warm April sun was gently nourishing the stricken plant into fresh life +and energy. We thought as we looked at that plant how cruel it would be to +begin next week and cut it down. Now, the gardener’s business is to revive +and nourish it into life. Its business is not to die, but to live. So, we +thought, it is with the discipline of the soul. It, too, has its dying +hour; but it must not be always dying: Rather reckon ourselves to be dead +indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death +is but a moment. Live, then, ye children of the resurrection, on His +glorious life more and more abundantly, and the fulness of your life will +repel the intrusion of self and sin, and overcome evil with good, and your +existence will be, not the dreary repression of your own struggling, but +the springing tide of Christ’s spontaneous overcoming and everlasting +life. + + + + + +MAY 20. + + +“Ye are not your own” (I. Cor. vi. 19). + +What a privilege that we may consecrate ourselves. What a mercy that God +will take us worthless worms. What rest and comfort lie hidden in those +words, “Not my own.” Not responsible for my salvation, not burdened by my +cares, not obliged to live for my interests, but altogether His; redeemed, +owned, saved, loved, kept in the strong, unchanging arms of His +everlasting love. Oh, the rest from sin and self and cankering care which +true consecration brings! To be able to give Him our poor weak life, with +its awful possibilities and its utter helplessness, and know that He will +accept it, and take a joy and pride in making out of it the utmost +possibilities of blessing, power and usefulness; to give all, and find in +so doing we have gained all; to be so yielded to Him in entire self +surrender, that He is bound to care for us as for Himself. We are putting +ourselves in the hands of a loving Father, more solicitous for our good +than we can be and only wanting us to be fully submitted to Him that He +may be more free to bless us. + + + + + +MAY 21. + + +“We will come unto Him and make our abode with Him” (John xiv. 23). + +The Bible has always held out two great promises respecting Christ. First, +I will come to you; and, second, I will come into you. For four thousand +years the world looked forward to the fulfilment of the first. The other +is the secret which Paul says has been hid from ages and generations, but +is now made manifest to His saints, which is Christ in you, the hope of +glory. This is just as great a revelation of God as the incarnation of +Jesus, for it makes you like Christ, as free from sin as He is. If Christ +is in you, what will be the consequences? Why, He will put you aside +entirely. The I in you will go. You will say, “Not I, but Christ.” Christ +undertakes your battles for you. Christ becomes purity and grace and +strength in you. You do not try to attain unto these things, but you know +you have obtained them in Him. It is glorious rest with the Master. Jesus +does not say, “Now we must bring forth fruit, we must pray much, we must +do this or that.” There is no constraint about it, except that we must +abide in Him. That is the center of all joy and help. + + + + + +MAY 22. + + +“Fight the good fight of faith” (I. Tim. vi. 12). + +Oh, beloved, how must God feel about us after He has given us His heart’s +blood, put so many advantages in our way, expended upon us so much grace +and care, if we should disappoint Him. It makes the spirit cry, “Who is +sufficient for these things?” Evermore I can see before me the time when +you and I shall stand on yonder shore and look back upon the years that +have been, these few short years of time. Oh, may we cast ourselves at +Jesus’ feet and say: “Many a time have we faltered; many a hard fight has +come, but Thou hast kept me and held me, thanks to God, who has given me +the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.” From the battlefields of the +Peninsula, a little band of veterans came forth, and they gave each a +medal with the names of all their battles on one side, and on the other +side this little sentence, “I was there.” Oh, when that hour shall come, +may it be a glad, glad thought to look back over the trials and sacrifices +of these days and remember, “I was there, and by the help of God and the +grace of Jesus, I am here.” + + + + + +MAY 23. + + +“The fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ” (Rom. xv. 29). + +Many Christians fail to see these blessings as they are centered in Him. +They want to get the blessing of salvation, but that is not the Christ. +They want to get the blessing of His grace to help, but that is not Him. +They want to get answered prayer from Him to work for Him. You might have +all that and not have the blessing of Christ Himself. A great many people +are attached rather to the system of doctrine. They say, “Yes, I have got +the truth; I am orthodox.” That is not the Christ. It may be the cold +statue in the fountain with the water passing from the cold hands and +lips, but no life there. A great many other people want to get the +blessing of joy, but it is not the blessing of Christ personally. A great +many people are more attached to their church and pastor, or to dear +Christians friends, but that is not the Christ. The blessing that will +alone fill your heart when all else fails is the loving heart of Jesus +united to you, the fountain of all your blessings and the unfailing one +when they all wither and are exhausted—Jesus Christ Himself. + + + + + +MAY 24. + + +“Where is the way where light dwelleth” (Job xxxviii. 19). + +Jewels, in themselves, are valueless, unless they are brought in contact +with light. If they are put in certain positions they will reflect the +beauty of the sun. There is no beauty in them otherwise. The diamond that +is back in its dark gallery or down in the deep mine, displays no beauty +whatever. What is it but a piece of charcoal, a bit of common carbon, +unless it becomes a medium for reflecting light? And so it is also with +the other precious gems. Their varied tints are nothing without light. If +they are many-sided, they reflect more light, and display more beauty. If +you put paste beside a diamond there is no brilliancy in it. In its crude +state it does not reflect light at all. So we are in a crude state and are +of no use at all until God comes and shines upon us. The light that is in +a diamond is not its own possession; it is the beauty of the sun. What +beauty is there in the child of God? Only the beauty of Jesus. We are His +peculiar people, chosen to show forth His excellencies who hath called us +out of darkness into His marvelous light. Let its reflect to-day His light +and love. + + + + + +MAY 25. + + +“That I may know Him” (Phil. iii. 10). + +Better to know Jesus Himself than to know the truth about Him for the deep +things of God as they are revealed by the Holy Ghost. It was Paul’s great +desire, “That I may know Him,” not about Him, not the mysteries of the +wonderful world, of the deeper and higher teachings of God, but to enter +into the Holy of Holies, where Christ is, where the Shekinah is shining +and making the place glorious with the holiness of God, and then to enter +into the secret of the Lord Himself. It was what Jacob strove for at +Peniel, when he pleaded with God, “Tell me Thy name.” He has told us His +name, giving us “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the +face of Jesus Christ.” That is the secret. It is the Lord Himself, and +nothing else; it is acquaintance with God; it is knowing Jesus Christ as +we know no one else; it is being able to say, not only “I believe Him,” +but “I know Him”; not about Him, but I know Him. That is the secret above +all others that God wants us to have; it is His provision for glory and +power, and it is given freely to the single-hearted seeker. + + + + + +MAY 26. + + +“Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with +thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. iv. 6). + +Commit means to hand over, to trust wholly to another. So, if we give our +trials to Him, He will carry them. If we walk in righteousness He will +carry us through. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of +God that He may exalt you in due time.” There are two hands there—God’s +hand pressing us down, humbling us, and then God’s hand lifting us up. +Cast all your care on Him, then His hand will lift you up, exalt you in +due time. There are two cares in this verse—your care and His care. They +are different in the original. One means anxious care, the other means +Almighty care. Cast your anxious care on Him and take His Almighty care +instead. Make no account of trouble any more, but believe He is able to +sustain you through it. The government is on His shoulder. Believe that, +if you trust and obey Him, and meet His will, He will look after your +interests. Simply exchange burdens. Take His yoke upon you, and let Him +care for you. + + + + + +MAY 27. + + +“The government shall be upon His shoulder” (Isa. ix. 6). + +You cannot make the heart restful by stopping its beating. Belladonna will +do that, but that is not rest. Let the breath of life come—God’s life and +strength—and there will be sweet rest. Home ties and family affection will +not bring it. Deliverance from trouble will not bring it. Many a tried +heart has said: “If this great trouble was only gone, I should have rest.” +But as soon as one goes another comes. The poor, wounded deer on the +mountain side, thinks if he could only bathe in the old mountain stream he +would have rest. But the arrow is in its flesh and there is no rest for it +till the wound is healed. It is as sore in the mountain lake as on the +plain. We shall never have God’s rest and peace in the heart till we have +given everything up to Christ—even our work—and believe He has taken it +all, and we have only to keep still and trust. It is necessary to walk in +holy obedience and let Him have the government on His shoulder. Paul said +this: “This one thing I do.” There is one narrow path for us all—Christ’s +will and work for us. + + + + + +MAY 28. + + +“He humbled Himself” (Phil. ii. 8). + +One of the hardest things for a lofty and superior nature is to be under +authority, to renounce his own will, and to take a place of subjection. +But Christ took upon Him the form of a servant, gave up His independence, +His right to please Himself, His liberty of choice, and after having from +eternal ages known only to command, gave Himself up only to obey. I have +seen occasionally the man who was once a wealthy employer a clerk in the +same store. It was not an easy or graceful position, I assure you. But +Jesus was such a perfect servant that His Father said: “Behold, My Servant +in whom My soul delighteth.” All His life His watchword was, “The Son of +Man came to minister.” “I am among you as He that doth serve.” “I can do +nothing of Myself.” “Not My will, but Thine, be done.” Have you, beloved, +learned the servant’s place? + +And once more, “He became obedient unto death, even the death of the +cross.” His life was all a dying, and at last He gave all up to death, and +also shame, the death of crucifixion. This last was the consummation of +His love. + + + + + +MAY 29. + + +“The body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body” (I. Cor. vi. 13). + +Now, just as it was Christ Himself who justified us, and Christ Himself +who was made unto us sanctification, so it is only by personal union with +Him that we can receive this physical life and redemption. It is, indeed, +not a touch of power upon our body which restores and then leaves it to +the mere resources of natural strength and life for the future; but it is +the vital and actual union of our mortal body with the risen body of our +Lord Jesus Christ, so that His own very life comes into our frame and He +is Himself made unto us strength, health and full physical redemption. + +He is alive forevermore and condescends to live in these houses of clay. +They who thus receive Him may know Him as none ever can who exclude Him +from the bodies which He has made for Himself. This is one of the deep and +precious mysteries of the Gospel. “The body is for the Lord, and the Lord +for the body.” “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy +Ghost, which is in you, and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a +price; therefore, glorify God in your body, which is God’s.” (R. V.) + + + + + +MAY 30. + + +“I will put My Spirit within you” (Ez. xxxvi. 27). + +“I will put My Spirit within you, and I will cause you to walk in My +statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments.” “I will put My fear in your +hearts, and ye shall not turn away from Me.” Oh, friend, would not that be +blessed, would not that be such a rest for you, all worn out with this +strife in your own strength? Do you not want a strong man to conquer the +strong man of self and sin? Do you not want a leader? Do you not want God +Himself to be with you, to be your occupant? Do you not want rest? Are you +not conscious of this need? Oh, this sense of being beaten back, longing, +wanting, but not accomplishing. That is what He comes to do; “Ye shall +receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.” Better than +that, “Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you.” That +is the true version, and really it is immensely different from the other. +You shall not receive power yourself, so that people shall say: “How much +power that man has. You shall not have any power whatever, but you shall +receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, He having the power, +that is all.” + + + + + +MAY 31. + + +“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child” (Matt. +xviii. 4). + +You will never get a humble heart until it is born from above, from the +heart of Christ. For man has lost his own humanity and alas, too often has +a demon heart. God wants us, as Christians, to be simple, human, +approachable and childlike. The Christians that we know and love best, and +that are nearest to the Lord, are the most simple. Whenever we grow +stilted we are only fit for a picture gallery, and we are only good on a +pedestal; but, if we are going to live among men and love and save them, +we must be approachable and human. All stiffness is but another form of +self-consciousness. Ask Christ for a human heart, for a smile that will be +as natural as your little child’s in your presence. Oh, how much Christ +did by little touches! He never would have got at the woman of Samaria if +He had come to her as the prophet. He sat down, a tired man, and said: +“Give me a drink of water.” And so, all through His life, it was His +simple humanness and love that led Him to others, and led them to Him and +to His great salvation. + + + + + +JUNE 1. + + +“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Rom. viii. +4). + +Beloved friends, do you know the mistake some of you are making? Some of +you say: “It is not possible for me to be good; no man ever was perfect, +and it is no use for me to try.” That is the mistake many of you are +making. I agree with the first sentence, “No man ever was perfect”; but I +don’t agree with the second, “There is no use trying.” There is a divine +righteousness that we may have. I don’t mean merely that which pardons +your sins—I believe that, too—but I mean far more; I mean that which comes +into your soul and unites itself with the fibers of your being; I mean +Christ; your life, your purity, making you feel as Christ feels; think as +Christ thinks, love as Christ loves, hate as Christ hates, and be +“partakers of the divine nature.” That is God’s righteousness; “that the +righteousness of the law might be fulfiled in us,” not by us, but in us; +not our hands and feet merely, but our very instincts, our very desires, +our very nature springing up in harmony with His own. Have you got Him, +dear friends? He will come and fulfil all right things in you if to-day +you will open your heart. + + + + + +JUNE 2. + + +“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in Him” +(Col. ii. 6). + +Here is the very core of spiritual life. It is not a subjective state so +much as a life in the heart. Christ for us is the ground of our salvation +and the source of our justification; Christ in us of our sanctification. +When this becomes real, “Ye are dead”; your own condition, states and +resources are no longer counted upon any more than a dead man’s, but “your +life is hid with Christ in God.” It is not even always manifest to you. It +is hid and so wrapped up and enfolded in Him that only as you abide in Him +does it appear and abide. Nay, “Christ who is your life,” must Himself +ever maintain it, and be made unto you of God all you need. Therefore, +Christian life is not to come to Christ to save you, and then go on and +work out your sanctification yourself, but “as ye have received Christ +Jesus, the Lord, so to walk in Him,” just as dependent and as simply +trusting as for your pardon and salvation. + +Ah friends, how much it would ease our tasks + For the day that’s just begun, +To live our life a step at a time + And our moments one by one. + + + + + +JUNE 3. + + +“Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost” (Acts i. 8). + +There is power for us if we have the Holy Ghost. God wants us to speak to +men so that they will feel it, so that they will never forget it. God +means every Christian to be effective, to count in the actual records and +results of Christian work. Dear friends, God sent you here to be a power +yourself. There is not one of you but is an essential wheel of the +machinery, and can accomplish all that God calls you to. I solemnly +believe that there is not a thing that God expects of man but that God +will give the man power to do. There is not a claim God makes on you or me +but God will stand up to, and will give what He commands. I believe when +Christ Jesus lived and died and sent down the Holy Ghost, He sent +resources for all our need, and that there is no place for failure in +Christian life if we will take God’s resources. Jesus, the ascended One, +and the Holy Ghost, the indwelling energy, life and efficiency of God, are +sufficient for all possible emergencies. Do you believe this? If you +believe it, let Him into your heart, without reserve and allow Him to +control and work through you to-day by His power. + + + + + +JUNE 4. + + +“Looking unto Jesus” (Heb. xii. 2). + +There must be a constant looking unto Jesus, or, as the German Bible gives +it, an off-looking upon Jesus; that is, looking off from the evil, +refusing to see it, not letting the mind dwell upon it for a second. We +should have mental eyelashes as well as physical ones, which can be used +like shields, and let no evil thing in; or, like a stockade camp in the +woods, which repels the first assault of the enemy. This is the use of the +fringes to our eyes, and so it should be with the soul. Many do not seem +to know that they have spiritual eyes. They go through the world as if +somebody had cut off their eyelashes, and they stare away on the good and +evil alike. The devil comes along with his evil pictures and bids them +look. We cannot look upon evil without being defiled. Sometimes, in going +down the street, the sight of some of the pictures on the way will cast +their filth upon the soul so that we shall feel the need of being bathed +in Jesus’ blood for hours for cleansing. There has been no consent unto +sin, but the sight of it has defiled. There is no help for it but in the +resolute, steady, inner view of Christ. + + + + + +JUNE 5. + + +“My heart is fixed, O God” (Ps. lvii. 7). + +We do not always feel joyful, but we are always to count it joy. This word +_reckon_ is one of the keywords of Scripture. It is the same word used +about our being dead. We are painfully conscious of something which would +gladly return to life. But we are to treat ourselves as dead, and neither +fear nor obey the old nature. So we are to reckon the thing that comes a +blessing; we are determined to rejoice, to say, “My heart is fixed, Lord; +I will sing and give praises.” This rejoicing by faith will soon become a +habit, and will ever bring speedily the spirit of gladness and the +spontaneous overflow of praise. + +Then, although the fig tree may wither and no fruit appear in the vines, +the labor of the olive fail, and the field yield no increase, the herd be +cut off from the stall, and the cattle from the field, yet will we rejoice +in the Lord and joy in the God of our salvation. + +Though the everlasting mountains + And the earth itself remove, +Naught can change His loving kindness + Or His everlasting love. + + + + + +JUNE 6. + + +“He emptied Himself” (Phil. ii. 8, R. V.). + +The first step to the righteousness of the kingdom is “poor in spirit.” +Then the next is a little deeper, “they that mourn.” Because now you must +get plastic, you must get broken, you must get like the metal in the fire, +which the Master can mould; and so, it is not enough to see your +unrighteousness, but deeply to feel it, deeply to regret it, deeply to +mourn over it, to own it not a little thing that sin has come into your +life. And so God leads a soul unto His righteousness. He usually leads it +through some testings and trials. This generally comes after conversion. I +do not think it necessary for a soul to have deep and great suffering +before it is saved. I think He will put it into the fire when He knows it +is saved; when it realizes it is accepted; when it is not afraid of the +discipline; when it is not the hand of wrath, but the hand of love. Oh, +then, God, takes you down and makes you poor in spirit, and makes you +mourn until you get to the third step, which is to be meek, broken, +yielded, submissive, willing, surrendered, and laid low at His feet, +crying: “What wilt Thou have me to do?” + + + + + +JUNE 7. + + +“When ye go; ye shall not go empty” (Ex. iii. 21). + +When we are really emptied He would have us filled with Himself and the +Holy Spirit. It is very precious to be conscious of nothing good in +ourselves; but, oh, are we also conscious of His great goodness? We may be +ready to admit our own disability, but are we as ready to admit His +ability? There are many Christians who can say, “We are not sufficient of +ourselves to think anything as of ourselves”; but the number I fear is +very small who can say, “Our sufficiency is of God.” + +Are you sure that He is able to provide every want in you, or do you feel +that you must supply it yourself? Are you believing that God does now +supply every lack in your heart and your life, so that all stumbling is +taken away, and you are endowed with power for His service, as Elisha took +the empty vessels and filled them before they were set aside to be used? +Our Saviour, at Cana, ordered the water-pots to be filled to the brim. +Then the water was made into wine, but not until the vessels were full. +God wants His children to have always a full heart. + + + + + +JUNE 8. + + +“Bread corn is bruised” (Isa. xxviii. 28). + +The farmer does not gather timothy and blue grass, and break it with a +heavy machine. But he takes great pains with the wheat. So God takes great +pains with those who are to be of much use to Him. There is a nature in +them that needs this discipline. Don’t wonder if the bread corn is treated +with the wise, discriminating care that will fit it for food. He knows the +way He is taking, and there is infinite tenderness in the oversight He +gives. He is watching the furnace you are in lest the heat should be too +intense. He wants it great enough to purify, and then it is withdrawn. He +knoweth our frame. He will not let any temptation take us but such as is +common to man, and He will with the temptation also make a way to escape, +that we may be able to bear it. Do you believe in this disciplining love +of the Husbandman, and are you trusting Him with the leading and +government of your life? Oh, that you would cease to envy or be disturbed +by the people around you! Some day you will be glad for the training and +blessing they have brought you. + + + + + +JUNE 9. + + +“Ye are the light of the world” (Matt. v. 14). + +We are called the lights of the world, light-bearers, reflectors, +candle-sticks, lamps. We are to be kindled ourselves, and then we will +burn and give light to others. We are the only light the world has. The +Lord might come down Himself and give light to the world, but He has +chosen differently. He wants to send it through us, and if we don’t give +it the world will not have it. We should be giving light all the time to +our neighbors. God does not put a meteor in the sky to tell us when to +shine. We are to be giving light all the time wherever we are, at home, or +in the social circle, or in our place in the church. We should feel always +we may never have another opportunity for it, and so we should always be +burning and shining for Him. Let our lamps be trimmed and burning and full +of the oil of the Spirit. Above all, let us be a steady light to the lost +ones. + +Let me dwell in Timnath Serah, + Where the sun forever shines, +Where the night and darkness come not, + And the day no more declines. + + + + + +JUNE 10. + + +“Your heavenly Father knoweth ye have need” (Matt. vi. 32). + +Christ makes no less of our trust for temporal things than He does for +spiritual things. He places a good deal of emphasis upon it. Why? Simply +because it is harder to trust God for them. In spiritual matters we can +fool ourselves, and think that we are trusting when we are not; but we +cannot do so about rent and food, and the needs of our body. They must +come or our faith fails. It is easy to say that we trust Him in things +that are a long way off, but there can be no trifling about it in things +where the faith must bring practical answers. It is easy to have faith for +our needs, and to trust Him when the sun is shining. But let some things +arise which irritate and rasp and fret us, and we soon find whether we +have real trust or not. And so the things of everyday life are tests of +our real faith in God, and He often puts us where we have to trust for +tangible matters—for money and rent, and food and clothes. If you are not +trusting here wholly, when you are placed in such tests you will break +down. Are you trusting God for everything through the six ordinary days of +the week? + + + + + +JUNE 11. + + +“Thou hast the dew of thy youth” (Ps. cx. 3). + +Oh, that you might get such a view of Him as would make it impossible for +little things ever to fret you again! The petty cares and silly trifles +that have troubled you so much ought rather to fill you with wonder that +you can think so much about them. Oh, if you had the dew of His youth you +should go forth as the morning and fulfil the promise of a glorious day! +What a difference it has made in life since we have seen it was possible +to do this! How easy it seems now when the little troubles come, to draw a +little closer to Christ, to drink in a little more of that fountain of +life, to get a little nearer to that loving heart, and to draw in great +draughts of refreshing and strength from it. How clear it makes the brain +for work! Coming to Him thus, heavy and dull and tired, how rested you +become and able to spring forth ready for work. How inspiring to think +that our living Head never grows weary. He is as fresh as He ever was; He +is a glorious conqueror; He is ever the victorious Christ. Let Him take +you to-day, and He will cause you to see in Him the invincible Leader! + + + + + +JUNE 12. + + +“We would see Jesus” (John xii. 21). + +Glory to Him for all the things laid up for us in the days to come. Glory +to Him for all the visions of service in the future; the opportunities of +doing good that are far away as well as close at hand. Our Saviour was +able to despise the cross for the joy that was before Him. Let us look up +to Him, and rise up to Him till we get on high and are able to look out +from the mount of vision over all the land of far distances. There shall +not a single thing come to us in all the future in which we may not be +able to see the King in His beauty. Let us be very sure that we do not see +anything else. Our pupils will become impressed as they look at this +vision, so that they will not be able to reflect anything else. My little +child came to me once and said: “Papa, look at that golden sign across the +street a good while; now look at that brick wall and tell me what you +see.” “Why, I see the golden sign on the brick wall.” And he laughed +merrily over it. So, if we look a long time upon Jesus we cannot look at +anything else without seeing a reflection of Him. Everything which we +behold will become a part of Him. + + + + + +JUNE 13. + + +“The sweetness of the lips increaseth learning” (Prov. xvi. 21). + +Life is very largely made up of words. They are not so emphatic, perhaps, +as deeds. Deeds are more deliberate expressions of thought. One of the +most remarkable authors of the New Testament has said, “If any man offend +not in word, the same is a perfect man.” It is very often a test of +victory in Christian life. Our triumph in this often depends on what we +say, or what we do not say. It is said by James of the tongue, “It is set +on fire of hell.” The true Christian, therefore, is righteous in his ways +and upright in his words. His deeds appeal to men; but in speech he is +looking up, for God is listening. His words are sent upward and recorded +for the judgment. I believe that this is an actual fact, and I can almost +fancy that the skies above, which seem so transparent, the beautiful blue +ether over our heads, is like a waxen tablet with a finely sensitive +surface, and receives an impression of every word we speak, and that then +these tablets are hardened and preserved for the eternal judgment. So we +should speak, dear friends, with our eyes ever upward, never forgetting +that we shall some day meet the words that we have spoken. + + + + + +JUNE 14. + + +“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him” (Ps. xxv. 14). + +There are secrets of Providence which God’s dear children may learn. His +dealing with them often seems, to the outward eye, dark and terrible. +Faith looks deeper and says, “This is God’s secret. You look only on the +outside; I can look deeper and see the hidden meaning.” Sometimes diamonds +are done up in rough packages, so that their value cannot be seen. When +the tabernacle was built in the wilderness there was nothing rich in its +outside appearance. The costly things were all within, and its outward +covering of rough badger skin gave no hint of the valuable things which it +contained. God may send you, dear friends, some costly packages. Do not +worry if they are done up in rough wrappings. You may be sure there are +treasures of love, and kindness and wisdom hidden within. Do not be so +foolish as to throw away a nugget of gold because there is some quartz in +it. If we take what He sends, and trust Him for the goodness in it, even +in the dark, we shall learn the meaning of the secrets of His providence. + + + + + +JUNE 15. + + +“Grow up into Him in all things” (Eph. iv. 15). + +Harvest is a time of ripeness. Then the fruit and grain are fully +developed, both in size and weight. Time has tempered the acid of the +green fruit. It has been mellowed and softened by the rains and the heat +of summer. The sun has tinted it into rich colors, and at last it is ready +and ripe to fall into the hand. So Christian life ought to be. There are +many things in life that need to be mellowed and ripened. Many Christians +have orchards full of fruit, but they are all green and sharp to the +taste. There is a great deal in them that is good, but it is incomplete, +and very sharp and sour. Perhaps something goes wrong in your domestic +life, and you get flurried and cross and lose your confidence in God, and +then, of course, your Christian joy. These things produce regret and all +kinds of misery. There are many things day after day you are sorry for. +You know you are not ripe and mellow and you cannot become so by trying. +You cannot bring the sweetness in. It must be wrought out from within. + + + + + +JUNE 16. + + +“Ye cannot serve God and Mammon” (Matt. vi. 24). + +He does not say ye cannot very well serve God and mammon, but ye cannot +serve two masters at all. Ye shall be sure to end by serving one. The man +who thinks he is serving God a little is deceived; he is not serving God. +God will not have his service. The devil will monopolize him before he +gets through. A divided heart loses both worlds. Saul tried it. Balaam +tried it. Judas tried it, and they all made a desperate failure. Mary had +but one choice. Paul said: “This one thing I do.” “For me to live is +Christ.” Of such a life God says: “Because he hath set his love upon Me +therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he hath known +My name.” God takes a peculiar pride in showing His love to the heart that +wholly chooses Him. Heaven and earth will fade away before its trust can +be disappointed. Have we chosen Him only and given Him all our heart? + +Say is it all for Jesus, + As you so often sing? +Is He your Royal Master? + Is He your heart’s dear King? + + + + + +JUNE 17. + + +“The glory of the Lord shall be thy reward” (Isa. lviii. 8). + +He comes by our side as our helper; nay, more. He comes to dwell within +us; to be the life in our blood, the fire in our thought, the faith within +us, both in inception and consummation. Thus He becomes not only the +recompense of the victor, but the resources of the victory. He is the +Captain and the Overcomer in our lives. If we have caught any help that +has relieved us of a troubled morning, it has been of Him. He lifts our +eyes up unto Himself and delivers us from apathy, from discontent and from +fears. He is always the helper in this heavenly competition, and will be +the great reward in all the ages to come. If our life is hidden with Him +we shall have to go through the same trials that He went through, but we +shall not find them too hard. If once we take Him fully as the strength of +our life, and our all in all, we shall be able to lay aside all the +hindering things that press upon us day by day. + +I have overcome, overcome, + Overcome for thee, +Thou shalt overcome, overcome, + Overcome thro’ Me. + + + + + +JUNE 18. + + +“I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down” (Neh. vi. 3). + +When work is pressing there are many little things that will come and seem +to need attention. Then it is a very blessed thing to be quiet and still, +and work on, and trust the little things with God. He answers such trust +in a wonderful way. If the soul has no time to fret and worry and harbor +care, it has learned the secret of faith in God. A desperate desire to get +some difficulty right takes the eye off of God and His glory. Some dear +ones have been so anxious to get well, and have spent so much time in +trying to claim it, that they have lost their spiritual blessing. God +sometimes has to teach such souls that there must be a willingness to be +sick before they are so thoroughly yielded as to receive His fullest +blessing. + +The enemy often keeps at this work. Sanballat came four times to Nehemiah +and received always the same answer. It is best to stick to a good answer. +How many fears we have stopped to fight which have proved to be nothing at +last. Nehemiah recognized that fear was sin, and did not dare to yield to +it. + + + + + +JUNE 19. + + +“Who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again” +(Rom. xi. 35). + +The Christian women of the world have it in their power, by a very little +sacrifice, to add millions to the treasury of the Lord. Beloved sisters, +have you found the joy of sacrifice for Jesus? Have you given up something +that you might give it to Him? Are you giving your substance to Jesus? He +will take it, and He will give you a thousandfold more. I should rather be +connected with a work founded on great sacrifice than on enormous +endowments. The reason God loved the place where His ancient temple rose +in majesty was because there Abraham offered his son and David his +treasure. The reason redemption is so dear to the Father and the heavenly +world is because its foundation-stone is the Cross of Calvary. And the +Christian life that is dearest to the heart of God, and will rise to the +highest glory and usefulness, is the one whose foundation principle is +sacrifice and self-renunciation. This is why the Master teaches us to +give, because giving means loving, and love is but another name for life. + + + + + +JUNE 20. + + +“Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called” (I. Cor. +vii. 20). + +O ye who complain about your calling or fret about the changes and trials +of life, how do you know but that these very changes are the divine +methods by which God’s purposes of blessing and usefulness concerning you +be fulfilled? Had Aquila not been compelled to leave Rome and break up his +home and business, he would probably have never met with Paul, and been +called to the knowledge and service of Christ through this providential +meeting. Had he not been a working man, and pursuing his ordinary +avocation he would not have been brought into contact with the apostle. It +was in the line of their calling, their common duties, and the +providential changes of their life that God called them. And so He meets +us. Do not try hard to run away from it, but, as the apostle has so finely +put it, “Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called, let +him therein abide with God.” Make the most of your incidental +opportunities. + + + + + +JUNE 21. + + +“God hath set some in the church ... helps” (I. Cor. xii. 28). + +In the apostle’s lists of officers in the church the “helps” are mentioned +before the “governments.” By the ministry of prayer, by the ministry of +giving, by the ministry of encouragement, by the shining face and mute +pressure of the hand, and a little word of cheer, and by the countless +ways in which we can help, or at least can keep from hindering, we can all +find still the footprints of Aquila and Priscilla, if we want to follow +them. It is a great grace to be able to rejoice in another’s work and pour +our lives, like affluent rivers, into great streams. But God knows whence +every drop has come, and in the greater day of recompense many of the +helps shall have the chief reward. Beloved, are you helping? Are you +helping your pastor, your brother, your husband, your mother, your +fellow-worker, and when the harvest comes shall he that soweth and he that +reapeth rejoice together? + +You can help by holy prayer, + Helpful love and joyful song, +O, the burdens you may bear, +O, the sorrows you may share, +O, the crowns you yet may wear, + If you help along. + + + + + +JUNE 22. + + +“This is that bread which came down from heaven” (John vi. 58). + +We had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in +ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead; who delivereth us from so +great a death, who doth deliver; in whom we trust that He will yet deliver +us. This was the supernatural secret of Paul’s life; he drew continually +in his body from the strength of Christ, his Risen Head. The body which +rose from Joseph’s tomb was to him a physical reality and the +inexhaustible fountain of his vital forces. More than any other he has +imparted to us the secret of His strength; “We are members of His body, of +His flesh and of His bones”; “The Lord is for the body and the body is for +the Lord.” Marvelous truth! Divine Elixir of Life and Fountain of +Perpetual Youth! Earnest of the Resurrection! Fulfilment of the ancient +psalms and songs of faith! “The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom +shall I be afraid? My flesh and my heart faint and fail, but God is the +strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Beloved, have we learned +this secret, and are we living the life of the Incarnate One in our flesh? + + + + + +JUNE 23. + + +“Now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be” +(I. John iii. 2). + +We are the sons of God. We are not merely called and even legally +declared, but actually are sons of God by receiving the life and nature of +God; and so we are the very brethren of our Lord; not only in His human +nature, but still more in His divine relationship. “Therefore, He is not +ashamed to call us brethren.” He gives us that which entitles us to that +right, and makes us worthy of it. He does not introduce us into a position +for which we are uneducated and unfitted, but He gives us a nature worthy +of our glorious standing; and as He shall look upon us in our complete and +glorious exaltation reflecting His own likeness and shining in His +Father’s glory, He shall have no cause to be ashamed of us. Even now He is +pleased to acknowledge us before the universe and call us brethren in the +sight of all earth and heaven. Oh, how this dignifies the humblest saint +of God! How little we need mind the misunderstanding of the world if He +“is not ashamed to call us brethren.” + +So let us go out to-day to represent His royal family. + + + + + +JUNE 24. + + +“I will clothe thee with change of raiment” (Zech. iii. 4). + +For Paul every exercise of the Christian life was simply the grace of +Jesus Christ imparted to him and lived out by him, so that holiness was to +put on the Lord Jesus and all the robes of His perfect righteousness which +he loves to describe so often in his beautiful epistles. “Put on +therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,” he says to the +Colossians, “bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, +long suffering”; and, “above all these things, put on love which is the +bond of perfectness.” None of these things are regarded as intrinsic +qualities in us, but as imparted graces from the hand of Jesus. And even +in the later years of his life, and after the mature experience of a +quarter of a century we find him exclaiming, “I count all things but loss +for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord; for whom I +have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but refuse, that I +might win Christ and be found in Him.” + +Lord, enable us to-day to go out, clothed in Thy robes of perfect +rightness and with our hearts in adjustment with Thy perfect love. + + + + + +JUNE 25. + + +“Who leadeth us in triumph” (II. Cor. ii. 14). + +Every victor must first be a self-conqueror. But the method of Joshua’s +victory was the uplifted arm of Moses on the Mount. As he held up his +hands Joshua prevailed, as he lowered them Amalek prevailed. It was to be +a battle of faith and not of human strength, and the banner that was to +wave over the discomfited foe, “Jehovah-nissi.” This, too, is the secret +of our spiritual triumph. “If we are led of the Spirit we shall not fulfil +the lusts of the flesh.” “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are +not under the law but under grace.” + +Have we thus begun the battle and in the strength of Christ planted our +feet on our own necks, and thus victorious over the enemy in the citadel +of the heart been set at liberty for the battle of the Lord and the +service of others? It was the lack of this that hindered the life of Saul +and it has wrecked many a promising career. One enemy in the heart is +stronger than ten thousand in the field. May the Lord lead us all into +Joshua’s first triumph, and show us the secret of self-crucifixion through +the greater Joshua, who alone can lead us on to holiness and victory! + + + + + +JUNE 26. + + +“When He saw the multitudes He was moved” (Matt. ix. 36). + +He is able to be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” The word +“touched” expresses a great deal. It means that our troubles are His +troubles, and that in all our afflictions He is afflicted. It is not a +sympathy of sentiment, but a sympathy of suffering. + +There is much help in this for the tired heart. It is the foundation of +His Priesthood, and God meant that it should be to us a source of +unceasing consolation. Let us realize, more fully, our oneness with our +Great High Priest, and cast all our burdens on His great heart of love. If +we know what it is to ache in every nerve with the responsive pain of our +suffering child, we can form some idea of how our sorrows touch His heart, +and thrill His exalted frame. As the mother feels her babe’s pain, as the +heart of friendship echoes every cry from another’s woe, so in heaven, our +exalted Saviour, even amid the raptures of that happy world, is suffering +in His Spirit and even in His flesh with all His children bear. “Seeing +then we have such a great high Priest, let us come boldly to the throne of +grace,” and let us come to our great High Priest. + + + + + +JUNE 27. + + +“Be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. v. 18). + +Some of the effects of being filled with the Spirit are: + +1. Holiness of heart and life. This is not the perfection of the human +nature, but the holiness of the divine nature dwelling within. + +2. Fulness of joy so that the heart is constantly radiant. This does not +depend on circumstances, but fills the spirit with holy laughter in the +midst of the most trying surroundings. + +3. Fulness of wisdom, light and knowledge, causing us to see things as He +sees them. + +4. An elevation, improvement and quickening of the mind by an ability to +receive the fulfilment of the promise, “We have the mind of Christ.” + +5. An equal quickening of the physical life. The body was made for the +Holy Ghost, as well as the mind and soul. + +6. An ability to pray the prayer of the Holy Ghost. If He is in us there +will be a strange accordance with God’s working in the world around us. +There is a divine harmony between the Spirit and Providence. + + + + + +JUNE 28. + + +“Leaning upon her beloved” (Songs of Solomon viii. 5). + +Shall you make the claim most practical and real and lean like John your +full weight on the Lord’s breast? That is the way He would have us prove +our love. “If you love me lean hard,” said a heathen woman to her +missionary, as she was timidly leaning her tired body upon her stalwart +breast. She felt slighted by the timorous reserve, and asked the +confidence that would lay all its weight upon the one she trusted. And He +says to us, “Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you.” He +would have us prove our love by a perfect trust that makes no reserve. He +is able to carry all our care, to manage all our interests, to satisfy all +our needs. Let us go forth leaning on His breast and feeding on His life. +For John not only leaned but also fed. It was at supper that he leaned. +This is the secret of feeding on Him, to rest upon His bosom. This is the +need of the fevered heart of man. Let us cry to Him, “Tell me whom my soul +loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.” + + + + + +JUNE 29. + + +“He dwelleth with you and shall be in you” (John xiv. 17). + +Do not fail to mark these two stages in Christian life. The one is the +Spirit’s work in us, the other is the Spirit’s personal coming to abide +within us. All true Christians know the first, but few, it is to be +feared, understand and receive the second. There is a great difference +between my building a house and my going to reside in that house and make +it my home. And there is a great difference between the Holy Spirit’s work +in regenerating a soul—the building of a house, and His coming to reside, +abide and control in our innermost spirit and our whole life and being. + +Have we received Him Himself not as our Guest, but as the Owner, +Proprietor and Keeper of the temple He has built to be “an habitation of +God through the Spirit”? + +This is my wonderful story, + Christ to my heart has come, +Jesus the King of glory, + Finds in my heart a home. + +I am so glad I received Him, + Jesus, my heart’s dear King, +I, who so often have grieved Him, + All to His feet would bring. + + + + + +JUNE 30. + + +“Therefore, choose” (Deut. xxx. 19). + +Men are choosing every day the spiritual or earthly. And as we choose we +are taking our place unconsciously with the friends of Christ, or the +world. It is not merely what ye say, it is what we prefer. + +When Solomon made his great choice at Gibeon, God said to him, “Because +this was in thine heart to ask wisdom, therefore will I give it unto thee, +and all else besides that thou didst not choose.” It was not merely that +he said it because it was right to say, and would please God if he said +it. But it was the thing his heart preferred, and God saw it in his heart +and gave it to him with all besides that he had not chosen. What are we +choosing, beloved? It is our choice that settles our destiny. It is not +how we feel, but how we purpose. Have we chosen the good part? Have we +said, “Whatever else I am or have, let me be God’s child, let me have His +favor and blessing, let me please Him?” Or have we said, “I must have this +thing, and then I will see about religion.” Alas, God has seen what was in +thine heart, and perhaps He has already said, “They have their reward.” + + + + + +JULY 1. + + +“After that ye have suffered awhile” (I. Peter v. 10). + +Beloved, are we learning love in the school of suffering? Are our hearts +being mellowed and deepened by the summer heat of trial until the fruit of +the Spirit, “which is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, +meekness, temperance, faith, is ripening for the harvest of His coming, +and our sufferings are easily borne for His sake”? Oh, this is the school +of love, and makes Him unutterably more dear to our hearts and us to His. +And thus only can we ever learn with Him the heavenly charity which +“suffers long, and is kind.” + +We see the very first and the very last feature of the face of love, as +delineated in St. Paul’s portrait (I. Cor. xiii.), are marks of pain and +patient suffering, “suffers long,” “endureth all things.” So let us learn +thus in the school of love to suffer and be kind, to endure all things. + +Surely it will not be hard to love through all when it is the heart of +Jesus within us which will love and continue to love to the very end. + +I want the love that suffers and is kind, + That envies not nor vaunts its pride or fame, +Is not puffed up, does no discourteous act, + Is not provoked, nor seeks its own to claim. + + + + + +JULY 2. + + +“And hath raised us up together” (Eph. ii. 6). + +Ascension is more than resurrection. Much is said of it in the New +Testament. Christ riseth above all things. We see Him in the very act of +ascending as we do not in the actual resurrection, as, with hands and lips +engaged in blessing, He gently parts from their side, so simply, so +unostentatiously, with so little imposing ceremony as to make heaven so +near to our common life that we can just whisper through. And we, too, +must ascend, even here. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those +things that are above.” We must learn to live on the heaven side and look +at things from above. How it overcomes sin, defies Satan, dissolves +perplexities, lifts us above trials, separates us from the world and +conquers the fear of death to contemplate all things as God sees them, as +Christ beholds them, as we shall one day look back upon them from His +glory, and as if we were now really “Seated with Him,” as indeed we are, +“in the heavenly places.” Let us arise with His resurrection and in +fellowship with His glorious ascension learn henceforth to live above. + + + + + +JULY 3. + + +“Look from the top” (Song of Solomon iv. 8). + +Yes, our perplexities would become plain if we kept on a spiritual +elevation. How often when the traveler quite loses his way he can soon +find it again from some tree top or some hill top where all the winding +paths he has gone spread behind him, and the whole homeward road opens +before. So, from the heights of prayer and faith, we too can see the plain +path, and know that we are going home. + +There is no other way in which we can gain the victory over the world. We +must get above it. We must see it from the side of our great reward. Then +it looks like earthly objects after we have gazed upon the sun for a +while. We are blind to them. When the Italian fruit-seller finds that he +is heir to a ducal palace you cannot tempt him any more with the paltry +profits of his trade or the company of his old associates. He is above it +all. They who know the hope of their calling and the riches of the glory +of their inheritance can well despise the world. It is the poor starving +ones who go hungering for the husks of earth. We are born from above and +have a longing to go home. Let us go forth to-day with our hearts on the +homestretch. + + + + + +JULY 4. + + +“Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not” (I. John iii. 6). + +In sanctification what becomes of the old nature? Many people are somewhat +unduly concerned to know if it can be killed outright, and seem to desire +a sort of certificate of its death and burial. It is enough to know that +it is without and Christ is within. It may show itself again, and even +knock at the door and plead for admittance, but it is forever outside +while we abide in Him. Should we step out of Him and into sin we might +find the old corpse in the ghastly cemetery, and its foul aroma might yet +revive and embrace us once more. But he that abideth in Him sinneth not +and cannot sin while he so abides. + +Therefore let us abide and let us not be anxious to escape the hold of +eternal vigilance and ceaseless abiding. Our paths are made and the +strength to pursue them; let us walk in them. God has provided for us a +full sanctification. Is it strange that He should demand it of us, and +require us to be holy, even as He is holy, seeing He has given us His own +holiness. So let us put on our beautiful garments and prepare to walk in +white with Him. + + + + + +JULY 5. + + +“A garden enclosed” (Song of Solomon iv. 12). + +The figure here is a garden enclosed, not a wilderness. The garden soil is +a cultivated soil, very different from the roadside or the wilderness. The +idea of a garden is culture. The ground has to be prepared, to be broken +up by ploughing, to be mellowed by harrowing, all the stones removed, the +roots of all natural growth dug up, for the good things we are seeking are +not natural growths and will not grow in our soil. We all start on the old +basis and try to improve the old nature, but that is not God’s way. His +way is to get self out of the way entirely, and let Him create anew out of +nothing, so that all shall be of Him; and we must find Jesus the Alpha and +Omega. + +The thing you want to learn here is to die. There can be no real life till +self dies, and don’t try to die yourself, but ask God to slay you, and He +will make a thorough work of it. + +This the secret nature hideth, + Summer dies and lives again, +Spring from winter’s grave ariseth, + Harvest grows from buried grain. + + + + + +JULY 6. + + +“I am my beloved’s” (Song of Solomon vii. 10). + +If you want power you must compress. It is the shutting in of the steam +that moves the engine. The amount of powder on a flat surface that sends a +ball to its destination when shut up in a gun only makes a flash. If you +want to carry the electric current you must be insulated. Stand a man on a +glass platform and turn a battery on him and he will be filled with +electricity. Let him step off the glass, and the moment he touches earth +he loses power. + +We must be inclosed by His everlasting Covenant. That holds us and keeps +us from falling. He will be a wall of fire round about us. He comes +Himself and envelops us round about with the old Shekinah glory, and will +be the glory in the midst. He wants us inclosed—by a distinct act of +consecration dedicated wholly to Him. Are you inclosed by His fences, His +commandments, His promises, His covenant? Is your heart really and only +for the Lord? + +If not, come to Him now and let Him separate you from all the things that +take your life, and let Him separate you unto Himself, the Life Giver. + + + + + +JULY 7. + + +“And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Ex. xl. 35). + +In the last chapter of Exodus we read all the Lord commanded Moses to do, +and that as he fulfilled these commands the glory of the Lord descended +and filled the tabernacle till there was no room for Moses, and from that +time the pillar of cloud overshadowed them, their guide, their protection. +And so we have been building as the Lord Himself commanded, and now the +temple is to be handed over to Him to be possessed and filled. He will so +fill you, if you will let Him that yourself and everything else will be +taken out of the way, the glory of the Lord will fill the temple, +encompassing, lifting up, guiding, keeping; and from this time your moon +shall not withdraw its light, nor your sun go down. + +Do you want power? You have God for it. Do you want holiness? You have God +for it; and so of everything. And God is bending down from His throne +to-day to lift you up to your true place in Him. From this time may the +cloud of His glory so surround and fill us that we shall be lost sight of +forever. + + + + + +JULY 8. + + +“Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh” (Gal. +iii. 3). + +Grace literally means that which we do not have to earn. It has two great +senses always; it comes for nothing and it comes when we are helpless; it +doesn’t merely help the man that helps himself—that is not the Gospel; the +Gospel is that God helps the man who can’t help himself. And then there is +another thing; God helps the man to help himself, for everything the man +does comes from God. Grace is given to the man who is so weak and helpless +he cannot take the first step. That is the meaning of grace—a little of +the meaning of it; we can never know the fulness it has. Now, this river +is as free as it is full, but you know some people have an idea when they +get a little farther on they have got to pay an admission, and reserved +seats are very high, and they shrink back from the higher blessings of the +Gospel; ordinary Christians scarcely dare to claim them. If I understand +the meaning of this, God has not put the higher blessings apart for a +separate class who somehow are nearer to Him. God is no respecter of +persons. + + + + + +JULY 9. + + +“Cast thy burden on the Lord” (Ps. lv. 22). + +Dear friends, sometimes we bring a burden to God, and we have such a +groaning over it, and we seem to think God has a dreadful time, too, but +in reality it does not burden Him at all. God says: It is a light thing +for Me to do this for you. Your load, though heavy for you, is not heavy +for Him. Christ carries the whole on one shoulder, not two shoulders. The +government of the world is upon His shoulder. He is not struggling and +groaning with it. His mighty arm is able to carry all your burdens. There +is power in Christ for our sanctification. He is able to sanctify you. +Yes, yes, the Lord can sanctify, the Lord can heal, the Lord can do +anything. You must have faith in God. If you come to this river this +morning, it will take you as your Niagara would take a little boat, and +just bear you down—to a precipice? Oh, no, but to the bosom of love and +blessing forever. + +Oft there comes a wondrous message, + When my hopes are growing dim, +I can hear it thro’ the darkness + Like some sweet and far-off hymn. +Nothing is too hard for Jesus, + No man can work like Him. + + + + + +JULY 10. + + +“That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (I. +Cor. ii. 12). + +The highest blessings of the Gospel are just as free as the lowest; and +when you have served Him ten years you cannot sit down and say, “I have +got an experience now and I count on that.” How often we do that; we say, +“Now I know I am saved, I feel it.” And so we are building a different +foundation—we are building on something in ourselves. Always take grace as +something you don’t deserve, something that is freely bestowed. The long, +deep, boundless river is free; it is as free at the mouth as it is at the +little stream, and free all the way along, and anybody can come and drink, +and anybody can come and bathe in its boundless waters. Are you going to +believe it? + +God has given us His Holy Spirit that we may “know the things that are +freely given of us of God.” It is a hard thing for the poor child to look +in through the window and see a fire, and the happy family sitting around +the table when it is starving. What is the good of knowing that there is +warmth, and love, and light, if it is not free? God has freely given all +the goodness of His grace and love. + + + + + +JULY 11. + + +“For it is God which worketh in you” (Phil. ii. 13). + +A day with Jesus. Let us seek its plan and direction from Him. Let us take +His highest thought and will for us in it. Let us look to Him for our +desires, ideals, expectations in it. Then shall it bring to us exceeding +abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Let Him be our Guide and +Way. Let us not so much be thinking even of His plan and way as of Him as +the Personal Guide of every moment, on whom we constantly depend to lead +our every step. + +Let Him also be the sufficiency and strength of all the day. Let us never +forget the secret: “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth +me.” Let us have Jesus Christ Himself in us to do the works, and let us +every moment fall back on Him, both to will and do in us of His good +pleasure. Let our holiness be “the law of the spirit of life in Christ +Jesus.” Let our health be the “life of Jesus manifest in our mortal +flesh.” Let our faith be “the faith of the Son of God who loved us.” Let +our peace and joy be His peace and joy. And let our service be not our +works, but the grace of Christ within us. + + + + + +JULY 12. + + +“When ye pray, believe that ye receive” (Mark xi. 24). + +Consecration is entered by an act of faith. You are to take the gift from +God, believe you have, and confess that you have it. Step out on it +firmly, and let the devil know you have it as well as the Lord. When once +you say to Him boldly, “I am Thine,” He answers back from the heavenly +heights, “Thou art Mine,” and the echoes go ringing down through all your +life, “Mine! Thine!” If you dare confess Christ as your Saviour and +Sanctifier He has bound Himself to make it a reality, but you must stand +behind His mighty Word. It is the essence of testimony to tell of what +Jesus has promised to become to you. It is right to have glorious words of +thanksgiving, but these are not exactly testimony. God would have us put +our seal on the promises, and lift up our hands and acknowledge them as +ours. + +Then you are to ignore the old life and reckon it no longer yours if it +should come up again. Every time it appears say, “This is from the under +world. I am sitting in the heavenly places with Christ.” + + + + + +JULY 13. + + +“Even Christ pleased not Himself” (Rom. xv. 3). + +Let this be a day of self-forgetting ministry for Christ and others. Let +us not once think of being ministered unto, but say ever with Him: “I am +among you as He that doth serve.” Let us not drag our burdens through the +day, but drop all our loads of care and be free to carry His yoke and His +burden. Let us make the happy exchange, giving ours and taking His. Let +the covenant be: “Thou shalt abide for Me, I also for thee.” So shall we +lose our heaviest load—ourselves—and so shall we find our highest joy, +divine love, the more blessed “to give” than “to receive.” Let us do good +to all men as we have opportunity. Let us lose no opportunity of blessing, +and let us study ingenious ways of service and usefulness. Especially let +us seek to win souls. + +The Days of Heaven are busy days, + They serve continually, +So spent for Thee and Thine, our days, + As the Days of Heaven would be. + +The Days of Heaven are loving days, + As one they all agree, +So linked in loving unity + May our days as Heaven be. + + + + + +JULY 14. + + +“Men ought always to pray” (Luke xviii. 1). + +Let this be a day of prayer. Let us see that our highest ministry and +power is to deal with God for men. Let us be obedient to all the Holy +Spirit’s voices of prayer in us. Let us count every pressure a call to +prayer. Let us cherish the spirit of unceasing prayer and abiding +communion. Let us learn the meaning of the ministry of prayer. Let us +reach persons this day we cannot reach in person; let us expect results +that we have never dared to claim before; let us count every difficulty +only a greater occasion for prayer, and let us call on God, who will show +us many great and mighty things which we know not. + +And let it be a day of joy and praise. Let us live in the promises of God +and the outlook of His deliverance and blessing. Let us never dwell on the +trial but always on the victory just before. Let us not dwell in the tomb, +but in the garden of Joseph and the light of the resurrection. Let us keep +our faces toward the sun rising. Arise, shine. Rejoice evermore. In +everything give thanks. Praise ye the Lord. + +Lord, give us Thy joy in our hearts which shall lift us to lift others, +and fill us so we may overflow to others. + + + + + +JULY 15. + + +“I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine” (Song of Solomon vi. 3). + +If I am the Lord’s then the Lord is mine. If Christ owns me I own Him. And +so faith must reach out and claim its full inheritance and begin to use +its great resources. Moment by moment we may now take Him as our grace and +strength, our faith and love, our victory and joy, our all in all. And as +we thus claim Him we will find His grace sufficient for us, and begin to +learn that giving all is just receiving all. Yes, consecration is getting +Him fully instead of our own miserable life. There are, indeed, two sides +of it. There are two persons in the consecration. One of them is the dear +Lord Himself. “And for their sakes,” He says, “I consecrate Myself that +they also might be consecrated through the truth.” The moment we +consecrate ourselves to Him He consecrates Himself to us, and henceforth, +the whole strength of His life and love and everlasting power is dedicated +to keep and complete our consecration, and to make the very best and most +of our consecrated life. Who would not give himself to such a Saviour? +Surely we will to-day, first give ourselves and then give Him each moment +as it comes, to be filled and used. + + + + + +JULY 16. + + +“As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, +O God” (Ps. xlii. 1). + +First in order to a consecrated life there must be a sense of need, the +need of purity, of power, and of a greater nearness to the Lord. There +often comes in Christian life a second conviction. It is not now a sense +of guilt and God’s wrath so much as of the power and evil of inward sin, +and the unsatisfactoriness of the life the soul is living. It usually +comes from the deeper revelation of God’s truth, from more spiritual +teaching, from definite examples and testimonies of this life in others, +and often from an experience of deep trial, conflict and temptation in +which the soul has found its attainments and resources inadequate for the +real issues and needs of life. The first result is often a deep +discouragement and even despair, but the valley of Achor is the door of +hope, and the seventh chapter of Romans with its bitter cry, “O wretched +man that I am,” is the gateway to the eighth with its shout of triumph, +“The Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and +death.” + + + + + +JULY 17. + + +“By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. +x. 14). + +Are you missing what belongs to you? He has promised to sanctify you. He +has promised sanctification for you by coming to you Himself and being +made of God to you sanctification. Jesus is my sanctification. Having Him +I have obedience, rest, patience and everything I need. He is alive +forevermore. If you have Him nothing can be against you. Your temptations +will not be against you; your bad temper will not be against you; your +hard life, your circumstances, even the devil himself will not be against +you. Every time he comes to attack you, he will only root you deeper in +Christ. You will become a coward at the thought of being alone; you will +be thrown on Jesus every time a trouble assails you. All things henceforth +will work together for good to your own soul. Since God is for you nothing +can be against you. + +My heavenly Bridegroom sought me and called me one glad day, +“Arise, my love, my fair one, arise and come away,” +I listened to His pleading, I gave Him all my heart, +And we are one forever and nevermore shall part. + + + + + +JULY 18. + + +“Ye are complete in Him” (Col. ii. 10). + +In Him we are now complete. The perfect pattern of the life of holy +service for which He has redeemed and called us, is now in Him in heaven, +even as the architect’s model is planned and prepared and completed in his +office. But now it must be wrought into us and transferred to our earthly +life, and this is the Holy Spirit’s work. He takes the gifts and graces of +Christ and brings them into our life, as we need and receive them day by +day, just as the sections of the vessel are reproduced in the distant +Continent, and thus we receive of His fulness, even grace for grace, His +grace for our grace, His supply for our need, His strength for our +strength, His body for our body, His Spirit for our spirit, and He just +“made unto us of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and +redemption.” + +But it is much more than mere abstract help and grace, much more even than +the Holy Spirit bringing us strength, and peace, and purity. It is +personal companionship with Jesus Himself! + +Lord, help us receive from Thee to-day, that grace in all trial that shall +mean our perfecting in Thee. + + + + + +JULY 19. + + +“Nevertheless, David took the castle of Zion” (I. Chron. xi. 5). + +Many of you have so much fighting to do because you do not have one sharp, +decisive battle to begin with. It is far easier to have one great battle +than to keep on skirmishing all your life. I know men who spend forty +years fighting what they call their besetting sin, and on which they waste +strength enough to evangelize the world. + +Dear friends, does it pay to throw away your lives? Have one battle, one +victory and then praise God. So they had rest from their enemies round +about. There is labor to enter in. The height is steep. The way of the +cross is not an easy way. It is hard to enter in, but having entered in +there is perfect rest. May God help us and give us His perfect rest. + +O come and leave thy sinful self forever + Beneath the fountain of the Saviour’s blood; +O come, and take Him as thy Sanctifier, + Come thou with us and we will do thee good. + +Come to the land where all the foes are vanquished, + And sorrow, sin, disease and death subdued; +O weary soul! by Satan bruised and baffled, + Come thou with us and we will do thee good. + + + + + +JULY 20. + + +“Forget also thine own” (Ps. xlv. 10). + +We, too, like the ancient Levites, must be “consecrated every one upon our +son and upon our brother,” and “forget our kindred and our father’s house” +in every sense in which they could hinder our full liberty and service for +the Lord. We, too, must let our business go if it stands between us and +the Lord, and in any case let it henceforth be His business and His alone, +pursued for Him, controlled by Him, and its profits wholly dedicated to +Him, and used as He shall direct. And, like James and John, you must be +willing to give up “the hired servants” too. It will make a great +difference in your way of living. It will be a change to give up your ease +and luxury, your being waited upon and indulged in every wish, and have to +do your own work, to give up the attentions of others, to put with +privations, and inconveniences, and humiliations, but it will be easy to +do it with Him. He never owned a foot of land. He never rode in a +carriage. He never had a hired servant. He lay down at last in a borrowed +grave. But He is rich enough now, and so will you be some day if you can +only be willing to suffer and to wait. + + + + + +JULY 21. + + +“Look from the place where thou art” (Gen. xiii. 14). + +Let us now see the blessedness of faith. Our own littleness and +nothingness sometimes becomes bondage. We are so small in our own eyes we +dare not claim God’s mighty promises. We say: “If I could be sure I was in +God’s way I could trust.” This is all wrong. Self-consciousness is a great +barrier to faith. Get your eyes on Him and Him alone; not on your faith, +but on the Author of your faith; not a half look, but a steadfast, +prolonged look, with a true heart and fixedness of purpose, that knows no +faltering, no parleying with the enemy without a shadow of fear. When you +get afraid you are almost sure to fail. + +Travelers who have crossed the Alps know how dangerous those mountain +passes are, how narrow the foothold, how deep the rocky ravines and how +necessary to safety it is that you should look up continually; one +downward glance into the dizzy depths would be fatal; and so if we would +surmount the heights of faith we must look up—look up. Get your eyes off +yourself, off surrounding circumstances, off means, off gifts, to the +Great Giver. + + + + + +JULY 22. + + +“He that ministereth let us wait on our ministering” (Rom. xii. 7). + +Beloved, are you ministering to Christ? Are you doing it with your hands? +Are you doing it with your substance and with what you have? Is He getting +the best of what is most real to you? Has He a place at your table? And +when He does not come to fill the chair, is it free to His representative, +His poor and humble children? Your words and wishes are cheap if they do +not find expression in your actual gifts. Even Mary did not put Him off +with the incense of her heart, but laid her costliest gifts at His feet. + +Ye busy women, who work so hard to dress your children and furnish your +houses and tables, what have your hands earned for the Master, what have +you done or sacrificed for Jesus? “Can you afford it?” was asked of a +noble woman, as she promised a costly offering for the Master’s work. +“No,” was her noble reply, “but I can sacrifice it.” Let us to-day look +around us and see, what we do and give more to the loving Saviour, who +gave up His whole life for us. + + + + + +JULY 23. + + +“Bring them hither to Me” (Matt. xiv. 18). + +Why have ye not received all the fulness of the Holy Spirit? And how may +we be anointed with “the rest of the oil?” The greatest need is to make +room when God makes it. Look around you at your situation. Are you not +encompassed with needs at this very moment, and almost overwhelmed with +difficulties, trials and emergencies? These are all divinely provided +vessels for the Holy Spirit to fill, and if you would but rightly +understand their meaning, they would become opportunities for receiving +new blessings and deliverances which you can get in no other way. + +Bring these vessels to God. Hold them steadily before Him in faith and +prayer. Keep still, and stop your own restless working until He begins to +work. Do nothing that He does not Himself command you to do. Give Him a +chance to work, and He will surely do so, and the very trials that +threatened to overcome you with discouragement and disaster, will become +God’s opportunity for the revelation of His grace and glory in your life, +as you have never known Him before. “Bring them (all needs) to Me.” + + + + + +JULY 24. + + +“The righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Rom. vii. 4). + +In our earlier experiences we know the Holy Ghost only at a distance, in +things that happen in a providential direction, or in the Word alone, but +after awhile we receive Him as an inward Guest, and He dwells in our very +midst, and He speaks to us in the innermost chambers of our being. But +then the external working of His power does not cease, but it only +increases, and seems the more glorious. The Power that dwells within us +works without us, answering prayer, healing sickness, overruling +providences, “Doing exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, +according to the Power that worketh in us.” + +There is a double presence of the Lord for the consecrated believer. He is +present in the heart, and is mightily present in the events of life. He is +the Christ in us, the Christ of all the days, with all power in heaven and +earth. + +And so the Holy Ghost is our wonder-worker, our all sufficient God and +Guardian, and He is waiting in these days to work as mightily in the +affairs of men as in the days of Moses, of Daniel and of Paul. + + + + + +JULY 25. + + +“He that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God” (Rom. xiv. +18). + +God can only use us while we are right. Satan cared far less for Peter’s +denial of his Master than for the use he made of it afterwards to destroy +his faith. So Jesus said to him: “I have prayed for thee that thy faith +fail not.” It was Peter’s faith he attacked, and so it is our faith that +Satan contests. “The trial of our faith is much more precious than gold +that perisheth.” + +Whatever else we let go let us hold steadfastly to our trust. “Cast not +away, therefore, your confidence,” and “hold fast the rejoicing of our +hope firm unto the end.” And if you would hold your trust, hold your +sweetness, your rightness of spirit, your obedience to Christ, your +victory in every way. + +Whatever comes, regard it as of less consequence, than that you should +triumph and stand fast, and accepting every circumstance as God is pleased +to let occur, wave the banner of your victory in the face of every foe, +and go on, shouting in His name, “Thanks be unto God that always causeth +us to triumph in Christ Jesus.” + + + + + +JULY 26. + + +“Now mine eye seeth Thee” (Job xlii. 5). + +We must recognize the true character of our self-life and its real +virulence and vileness. We must consent to its destruction, and we must +take it ourselves, as Abraham did Isaac, and lay it at the feet of God in +willing sacrifice. + +This is a hard work for the natural heart, but the moment the will is +yielded and the choice is made, that death is past, the agony is over, and +we are astonished to find that the death is accomplished. + +Usually the crisis of life in such cases hangs upon a single point. God +does not need to strike us in a hundred places to inflict a death wound. +There is one point that touches the heart, and that is the point God +usually strikes, the dearest thing in our life, the decisive thing in our +plans, the citadel of the will, the center of the heart, and when we yield +there, there is little left to yield anywhere else, and when we refuse to +yield at this point, a spirit of evasion and compromise enters into all +the rest of our life. Lord, we take Thee to enable us to will Thy will to +be done in all things in our life without and within. + + + + + +JULY 27. + + +“The building up of the body of Christ” (R. V., Eph. iv. 13). + +God is preparing His heroes, and when the opportunity comes He can fit +them into their place in a moment and the world will wonder where they +came from. Let the Holy Ghost prepare you, dear friend, by all the +discipline of life; and when the last finishing touch has been given to +the marble, it will be easy for God to put it on the pedestal, and fit it +into its niche. + +There is a day coming, when, like Othniel, we, too, shall judge the +nations, and rule and reign with Christ on the millennial earth; but ere +that glorious day can be, we must let God prepare us as He did Othniel at +Kirjethsepher, amid the trials of our present life, and in the little +victories, the significance of which, perhaps, we little dream. At least, +let us be sure of this, that if the Holy Ghost has got an Othniel ready, +the Lord of heaven and earth has a throne prepared for him. + +Is it for me to be used by His grace, + Helping His kingdom to bring, +Is it for me to inherit a place, + E’en on the throne of my King? + + + + + +JULY 28. + + +“Not my will, but Thine” (Luke xxii. 42). + +He who once suffered in Gethsemane will be our strength and our victory, +too. We may fear, we may also sink, but let us not be dismayed, and we +shall yet praise Him, and look back from a finished course, and say, “Not +one word hath failed of all that the Lord hath spoken.” + +But in order to do this, we must, like Him, meet the conflict, not with a +defiant, but with a submissive spirit. He had to say, “Not My will, but +Thine be done”; but in saying it, He gained the very thing He surrendered. +So the submission of Gethsemane is not a blind and dead submission of a +heart that abandons all its hope; but it is the free submission that bows +the head, in order to get double strength through the faith and prayer. + +We let go, in order that we may take a firmer hold. We give up, in order +that we may more fully receive. We lay our Isaac on Mount Moriah, and we +ask him back, no longer our Isaac, but God’s Isaac, and infinitely more +secure, because given back in the resurrection life. + + + + + +JULY 29. + + +“My helpers in Christ Jesus” (Rom. xvi. 3). + +Christ’s Church is overrun with captains. She is in great need of a few +more privates. A few rivers run into the sea, but a larger number run into +other rivers. We cannot all be pioneers, but we can all be helpers, and no +man is fitted to go in the front until he has learned well how to go +second. + +A spirit of self-importance is fatal to all work for Christ. The biggest +enemy of true spiritual power is spiritual self-consciousness. Joshua must +die before Jericho can fall. + +God often has to test His chosen servants by putting them in a subordinate +place before He can bring them to the front. Joseph must learn to serve in +the kitchen and to suffer in prison before he can rise to the throne, and +as soon as Joseph is ready for the throne, the throne is always waiting +for Joseph. God has more places than accepted candidates. Let us not be +afraid to go into the training class, and even take the lowest place, for +we shall soon go up, if we really deserve to. Lord, use me so that Thou +shalt be glorified and I shall be hid from myself and others. + + + + + +JULY 30. + + +“If thou wilt diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God and +wilt keep all His statutes” (Ex. xv. 26). + +Sometimes people fail because they have not confidence in the Physician. +The very first requirement of this Doctor is, that you trust Him, and +trust Him implicitly, so implicitly that you go forward on His bare word, +and act as if you had received His healing the moment you claimed His +promise. But no one would expect to be healed by an earthly doctor as soon +as they obeyed his directions. + +You must do what the Great Physician tells you, if you expect Him to make +you whole. + +You cannot expect to be healed if you are living in sin, any more than you +could expect the best physician to cure you while you lived in a malarial +climate and inhaled poison with every breath. So you must get up into the +pure air of trust and obedience before Christ can make you whole. And +then, if you will trust Him, and attend to His directions, you will find +that there is balm in Gilead, and that there is a Great Physician there. + + + + + +JULY 31. + + +“We were troubled on every side” (II. Cor. vii. 5). + +Why should God have to lead us thus, and allow the pressure to be so hard +and constant? + +Well, in the first place, it shows His all-sufficient strength and grace +much better than if we were exempt from pressure and trial. “The treasure +is in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and +not of us.” + +It make us more conscious of our dependence upon Him. God is constantly +trying to teach us our dependence, and to hold us absolutely in His hand +and hanging upon His care. + +This was the place where Jesus Himself stood and where He wants us to +stand, not with a self-constituted strength, but with a hand ever leaning +upon His, and a trust that dare not take one step alone. + +It teaches us trust. There is no way of learning faith except by trial. It +is God’s school of faith, and it is far better for us to learn to trust +God than to enjoy life. + +The lesson of faith, once learned, is an everlasting acquisition and an +eternal fortune made; and without trust even riches will leave us poor. + + + + + +AUGUST 1. + + +“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one +may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done” +(II Cor. v. 10). + +It will not always be the day of toil and trial. Some day, we shall hear +our names announced before the universe, and the record read of things +that we had long forgotten. How our hearts will thrill, and our heads will +bow, as we shall hear our own names called, and then the Master shall +recount the triumph and the services which we had ourselves forgotten! +And, perhaps, from the ranks of the saved He shall call forward the souls +that we have won for Christ and the souls that they in turn had won, and +as we see the issue of things that have, perhaps, seemed but trifling at +the time, we shall fall before the throne, and say, “Not unto us, O Lord, +not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory!” + +Beloved, the pages are going up every day, for the record of our life. We +are setting the type ourselves, by every moment’s action. Hands unseen are +stereotyping the plates, and soon the record will be registered, and read +before the audience of the universe. and amid the issues of eternity. + + + + + +AUGUST 2. + + +“Thy gentleness hath made me great” (Ps. xviii. 35). + +The blessed Comforter is gentle, tender, and full of patience and love. +How gentle are God’s dealings even with sinners! How patient His +forbearance! How tender His discipline, with His own erring children! How +He led Jacob, Joseph, Israel, David, Elijah, and all His ancient servants, +until they could truly say, “Thy gentleness hath made me great.” + +The heart in which the Holy Spirit dwells will always be characterized by +gentleness, lowliness, quietness, meekness, and forbearance. The rude, +sarcastic spirit, the brusque manner, the sharp retort, the unkind cut—all +these belong to the flesh, but they have nothing in common with the gentle +teaching of the Comforter. + +The Holy Dove shrinks from the noisy, tumultuous, excited, and vindictive +spirit, and finds His home in the lowly breast of the peaceful soul. “The +fruit of the Spirit is gentleness, meekness.” + +Lord, make me gentle. Hush my spirit. Refine my manner. Let me have Christ +in my bearing and my very tones as well as in my heart. + + + + + +AUGUST 3. + + +“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God” (I. Peter v. +6). + +The pressure of hard places makes us value life. Every time our life is +given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning, and we +learn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God and man. + +The pressure helps us to understand the trials of others, and fits us to +help and sympathize with them. + +There is a shallow, superficial nature, that gets hold of a theory or a +promise lightly, and talks very glibly about the distrust of those who +shrink from every trial; but the man or woman who has suffered much never +does this, but is very tender and gentle, and knows what suffering really +means. + +This is what Paul meant when he said, “Death worketh in us, but life in +you.” Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward; even as the +furnace fires in the hold of that mighty ship give the force that moves +the piston, drives the engine, and propels that great vessel across the +sea, in the face of the winds and waves. + + + + + +AUGUST 4. + + +“Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God +dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of +His” (Rom. viii. 9). + +A spiritual man is not so much a man possessing a strong spiritual +character as a man filled with the Holy Spirit. So the apostle said: “Ye +are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God +dwelleth in you.” + +The glory of the new creation, then, is not only that it recreates the +human spirit, but that it fits it for the abode of God Himself, and makes +it dependent upon the sun, as the child upon the mother. The highest +spirituality, therefore, is the most utter helplessness, the most entire +dependence and the most complete possession of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, +the beautiful act of Christ in breathing upon His disciples, and imparting +to them from His own lips the very Spirit that was already in Him, +expressed in the most vivid manner the crowning glory of the new creation. +And when the Holy Spirit thus possesses us, He fills every part of our +being. + + + + + +AUGUST 5. + + +“If any man hear My voice and open the door I will come into him and will +sup with him and he with Me” (Rev. iii. 20). + +Some of us are starving, and wondering why the Holy Spirit does not fill +us. We have plenty coming in, but we do not give it out. Give out the +blessing you have, start larger plans for service and blessing, and you +will soon find that the Holy Ghost is before you, and He will “prevent you +with the blessings of goodness,” and give you all that He can trust you to +give away to others. + +There is a beautiful fact in nature which has its spiritual parallels. +There is no music so heavenly as an Aeolian harp, and the Aeolian harp is +nothing but a set of musical cords arranged in harmony, and then left to +be touched by the unseen fingers of the wandering winds. And as the breath +of heaven floats over the chords, it is said that notes almost divine +float out upon the air, as if a choir of angels were wandering around and +touching the strings. + +And so it is possible to keep our hearts so open to the touch of the Holy +Spirit that He can play upon them at will, as we quietly wait in the +pathway of His service. + + + + + +AUGUST 6. + + +“As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God” (Rom. +viii. 14). + +The blessed Holy Spirit is our Guide, our Leader, and our Resting-place. +There are times when He presses us forward into prayer, into service, into +suffering, into new experiences, new duties, new claims of faith, and +hope, and love, but there are times when He arrests us in our activity, +and rests us under His overshadowing wing, and quiets us in the secret +place of the Most High, teaching us some new lessons, breathing into us +some deeper strength or fulness, and then leading us on again, at His +bidding alone. He is the true Guide of the saint, and the true Leader of +the Church, our wonderful Counsellor, our unerring Friend; and he who +would deny the personal guidance of the Holy Ghost in order that he might +honor the Word of God as our only guide, must dishonor that other word of +promise, that His sheep shall know His voice, and that His hearkening and +obedient children shall hear a voice behind them saying, “This is the way, +walk ye in it.” + + + + + +AUGUST 7. + + +“Knowing this that our old man is crucified” (Rom. vi. 6). + +It is purely a matter of faith, and faith and sight always differ, so that +to your senses it does not seem to be so, but your faith must still reckon +it so. This is a very difficult attitude to hold, and only as we +thoroughly believe God can we thus reckon upon His Word and His working, +but as we do so, faith will convert it into fact, and it will be even so. + +These two words, “yield” and “reckon,” are passwords into the resurrection +life. They are like the two edges of the “Sword of the Spirit” through +which we enter into crucifixion with Christ. + +This act of surrender and this reckoning of faith are recognized in the +New Testament as marking a very definite crisis in the spiritual life. It +does not mean that we are expected to be going through a continual dying, +but that there should be one very definite act of dying, and then a +constant habit of reckoning ourselves as dead, and meeting everything from +this standpoint. + +“Reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus +Christ.” + + + + + +AUGUST 8. + + +“Be like the dove” (Jer. xlviii. 28). + +Harmless as a dove, is Christ’s interpretation of the beautiful emblem. +And so the Spirit of God is purity itself. He cannot dwell in an unclean +heart. He cannot abide in the natural mind. It was said of the anointing +of old, “On man’s flesh it shall not be poured.” + +The purity which the Holy Spirit brings is like the white and spotless +little plant which grows up out of the heap of manure, or the black soil, +without one grain of impurity adhering to its crystalline surface, +spotless as an angel’s wing. + +So the Holy Spirit gives a purity of heart which gives its own protection, +for it is essentially unlike the evil things which grow around it. It may +be surrounded on every side with evil, but it is uncontaminated and pure +because its very nature is essentially holy and divine. Like the plumage +of the dove, it cannot be soiled, but comes forth from the miry pool +unstained and unsullied by the dark waters, because it is protected by the +oily covering which sheds off every defilement and makes it proof against +the touch of every stain. + + + + + +AUGUST 9. + + +“He shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess +over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel; transgressions and +sins” (Lev. xvi. 21). + +As any evil comes up, and the consciousness of any unholy thing touches +our inner senses, it is our privilege at once to hand it over to the Holy +Ghost and to lay it upon Jesus, as something already crucified with Him, +and as of old, in the case of the sin offering, it will be carried without +the camp and burned to ashes. + +There may be deep suffering, there may be protracted pain, it may be +intensely real; but throughout all there will be a very sweet and sacred +sense of God’s presence, and intense purity in our whole spirit, and our +separation from the evil which is being consumed. Truly, it will be borne +without the camp, and even without the smell of the flames upon our +garments. + +It is so blessed to have the Holy Spirit slay things. No swords but His +can pass so perfectly between us and the evil, so that it consumes the sin +without touching the spirit. + +Lord Jesus, my Sin Offering, I lay my sin, my self, my whole nature, upon +Thy Cross. Consume me by Thy holy fire, and let me die to all but Thee! + + + + + +AUGUST 10. + + +“There is no spot in thee” (Song of Solomon iv. 7). + +The blessed Holy Spirit who possesses the consecrated heart is intensely +concerned for our highest life, and watches us with a sensitive, and even +a jealous love. Very beautiful is the true translation of that ordinary +passage in the Epistle of James, “The Spirit that dwelleth in us loveth us +to jealousy.” + +The heart of the Holy Ghost is intensely concerned in preserving us from +every stain and blemish, and bringing us into the very highest +possibilities of the will of God. + +The Heavenly Bridegroom would have His Church not only free from every +spot, but also from “every wrinkle, or any such thing.” The spot is the +mark of sin, but the wrinkle is the sign of weakness, age, and decay, and +He wants no such defacing touch upon the holy features of His Beloved; and +so the Holy Ghost, who is the Executor of His will, and the Divine +Messenger whom He sends to call, separate, and bring home His Bride, is +jealously concerned in fulfilling in us all the Master’s will. + +Lord, take from me every blemish and mark of weakness and decay, and make +me Thy spotless Bride. + + + + + +AUGUST 11. + + +“All the land which thou seest” (Gen. xiii. 15). + +The actual provisions of His grace come from the inner vision. + +He who puts the instinct in the bosom of yonder bird to cross the +continent in search of summer sunshine in yonder Southern clime is too +good to deceive it, and just as surely as He has put the instinct in its +breast, so has He also put the balmy breezes and the vernal sunshine +yonder to meet it when it arrives. + +He who gave to Abraham the vision of the Land of Promise, also said in +infinite truth and love: “All the land that thou seest will I give thee.” +He who breathes into our hearts the heavenly hope, will not deceive or +fail us when we press forward to its realization. There is nothing +unfaithful in Him who has said: “If it were not so, I would have told +you,” and we may know that He never will deceive us nor fail us, but all +that He reveals by His Holy Spirit He will make our own, as we press +forward and enter into its realization. + +Lord, give me first the vision and then the victory. Show me all my +inheritance, and then give it all to me in Christ Jesus. + + + + + +AUGUST 12. + + +“Not ourselves, but Christ Jesus” (II. Cor. iv. 5). + +Your Christian influence, your reputation as a worker for God, and your +standing among your brethren, may be an idol to which you must die, before +you can be free to live for Him alone. + +If you have ever noticed the type on a printed page, you must have seen +that the little “_i_” has always a dot over it, and it is that dot that +elevates it above the other letters in the line. + +Now, each us us is a little _i_, and over every one of us there is a +little dot of self-importance, self-will, self-interest, self-confidence, +self-complacency, or something to which we cling and for which we contend, +which just as surely reveals self-life as if it were a mountain of real +importance. + +This _i_ is a rival of Jesus Christ, and the enemy of the Holy Ghost, and +of our peace and life, and therefore God has decreed its death, and the +Holy Spirit, with His flaming sword is waiting to destroy it, that we may +be able to enter through the gates and come to the Tree of Life. Lord, +crowd me out by Thy fulness even as the glory of the Lord left no room for +Moses in the Tabernacle. + + + + + +AUGUST 13. + + +“Clouds and darkness are round about Him” (Ps. xcvii. 2). + +The presence of clouds upon your sky, and trials in your path, is the very +best evidence that you are following the pillar of cloud, and walking in +the presence of God. They had to enter the cloud before they could behold +the glory of the transfiguration, and a little later that same cloud +became the chariot to receive the ascending Lord, and it is still waiting +as the chariot that will bring His glorious appearing. + +Still it is true that white “clouds and darkness are round about His +throne, mercy and truth” are ever in their midst, and “shall go before His +face.” + +Perhaps the most beautiful and gracious use of the cloud was to shelter +them from the fiery sun. Like a great umbrella, that majestic pillar +spread its canopy above the camp, and became a shielding shadow from the +burning heat in the treeless desert. No one who has never felt an Oriental +sun can fully appreciate how much this means—a shadow from the heat. + +So the Holy Spirit comes between us and the fiery, scorching rays of +sorrow and temptation. + + + + + +AUGUST 14. + + +“Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm” (Ps. cv. 15). + +I would rather play with the forked lightning, or take in my hands living +wires, with their fiery current, than speak a reckless word against any +servant of Christ, or idly repeat the slanderous darts which thousands of +Christians are hurling on others, to the hurt of their own souls and +bodies. + +You may often wonder, perhaps, why your sickness is not healed, your +spirit filled with the joy of the Holy Ghost, or your life blessed and +prosperous. It may be that some dart which you have flung with angry +voice, or in an idle hour of thoughtless gossip, is pursuing you on its +way, as it describes the circle which always bring back to the source from +which it came every shaft of bitterness, and every idle and evil word. + +Let us remember that when we persecute or hurt the children of God, we are +but persecuting Him, and hurting ourselves far more. + +Lord, make me as sensitive to the feelings and rights of others as I have +often been to my own, and let me live and love like Thee. + + + + + +AUGUST 15. + + +“He will guide you into all truth” (John xvi. 13). + +The Holy Ghost does not come to give us extraordinary manifestations, but +to give its life and light, and the nearer we come to Him, the more simple +will His illumination and leading be. He comes to “guide us into all +truth.” He comes to shed light upon our own hearts, and to show us +ourselves. He comes to reveal Christ, to give, and then to illumine, the +Holy Scriptures, and to make Divine realities vivid and clear to our +spiritual apprehension. He comes as a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in +the knowledge of Christ, to “enlighten the eyes of our understanding, that +we may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the +glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding +greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of +His mighty power.” + +Spirit of Power! with heavenly fire, +Our souls endue, our tongues inspire; + Stretch forth Thy mighty Hand, +Thy Pentecostal gifts restore, +The wonders of Thy power once more + Display in every land. + + + + + +AUGUST 16. + + +“I am with you alway” (Matt. xxviii. 20). + +Oh, how it helps and comforts us in the plod of life to know that we have +with us the Christ who spent the first thirty years of His life in the +carpenter shop at Nazareth, swinging the hammer, covered with sweat and +grimy dust, physically weary as we often are, and able to understand all +our experiences of drudgery and labor! and One who still loves to share +our common tasks and equip us for our difficult undertakings of hand and +brain! + +Yes, humble sister, He will help you at the washboard and the kitchen-sink +as gladly as at the hour of prayer. Yes, busy mechanic, He will go with +you and help you to swing the hammer, or handle the saw, or hold the plow +in the toil of life, and you shall be a better mechanic, a more skilled +workman, and a more successful man, because you take His wisdom for the +common affairs of life. There is no place or time where He is not able and +willing to walk by our side, to work through our hands and brains, and to +unite Himself in loving and all-sufficient partnership with all our needs +and tasks and trials, and prove our all-sufficiency for all things. + + + + + +AUGUST 17. + + +“Speak ye unto the Rock” (Num. xx. 8). + +The Holy Ghost is very sensitive, as love always is. You can conquer a +wild beast by blows and chains, but you cannot conquer a woman’s heart +that way, or win the love of a sensitive nature; that must be wooed by the +delicate touches of trust and affection. So the Holy Ghost has to be taken +by a faith as delicate and sensitive as the gentle heart with whom it is +coming in touch. One thought of unbelief, one expression of impatient +distrust or fear, will instantly check the perfect freedom of His +operations as much as a breath of frost would wither the petals of the +most sensitive rose or lily. + +Speak to the Rock, do not strike it. Believe in the Holy Ghost and treat +Him with the tenderest confidence and the most unwavering trust, and He +will meet you with instant response and confidence. + +Beloved, have you come to the rock in Kadesh? Have you opened all your +being to the fulness of the Spirit, and then, with the confidence of the +child to the mother, the bride to the husband, the flower to the sunshine, +have you received by faith, and are you drinking of His blessed life? + + + + + +AUGUST 18. + + +“The three hundred blew the trumpets” (Judges vii. 22). + +We little dream, sometimes, what a hasty word, a thoughtless speech, an +imprudent act, or a confession of unbelief and fear may do to hinder our +highest usefulness, or turn it aside from some great opportunity which God +has been preparing for us. + +Although the Holy Ghost uses weak men, He does not want them to be weak +after He chooses and calls them. Although He uses the foolish things to +confound the wise, He does not want us to be foolish after He comes to +give us His wisdom and grace. He uses the foolishness of preaching, but, +not necessarily, the foolishness of preachers. Like the electric current, +which can supply the strength of a thousand men, it is necessary that it +should have a proper conductor, and a very small wire is better than a +very big rope. + +God wants fit instruments for His power—wills surrendered, hearts +trusting, lives consistent, and lips obedient to His will; and then He can +use the weakest weapons, and make them mighty through God to the pulling +down of strongholds. + + + + + +AUGUST 19. + + +“Have faith in God” (Mark xi. 22). + +He requires of us a perfect faith, and He tells us that if we believe and +doubt not, we shall have whatsoever we ask. The faintest touch of unbelief +will neutralize our trust. + +But how shall we have such perfect faith? Is it possible for human nature? +Nay, but it is possible to the Divine nature, it is possible to the Christ +within us. It is possible for God to give it; and God does give it. But +Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith, and He bids us have the +faith of God, and as we have it through the imparting of the Spirit of +Christ, we believe even as He. + +We pray in His name, and in His very nature, and we live by the faith of +the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. The love that He +requires of us is not mere human love, nor even the standard of love +required in the Old Testament, but something far higher. The new +commandment is, Love one another, not as yourselves, but as I have loved +you. + +How shall such love be made possible? Herein is our love made perfect, +because as He is so are we also in this world. Our love is simply His love +wrought in us, and imparted to us through the Spirit. + + + + + +AUGUST 20. + + +“Herein is My Father glorified” (John xv. 8). + +The true way to glorify God is, for God to show His glory through us, to +shine through us as empty vessels reflecting His fulness of grace and +power. + +The sun is glorified when he has a chance to show his light through the +crystal window, or reflect it from the spotless mirror or the glassy sea. + +There is nothing that glorifies God so much as for a weak and helpless man +or woman to be able to triumph, through His strength, in places where the +highest human qualities will fail us, and carry in Divine power through +every form of toil and suffering, a spirit naturally weak, irresolute, +selfish, and sinful, transformed into sweetness, purity, power and +standing victorious amid circumstances from which its natural qualities +must utterly unfit it. A mind not naturally wise or strong, directed by a +Divine wisdom, and carried along the line of a great and mighty plan, and +used to accomplish stupendous results for God and man—this is what +glorifies God. + +So let me glorify my Lord this day and adorn the doctrine of God in all +things. + + + + + +AUGUST 21. + + +“The battle is not yours” (II. Chron. xx. 15). + +The thing is to count the battle God’s. “The battle is not yours, but +God’s.” Ye shall not need to fight in this battle. As long as we count the +dangers and responsibilities ours, we shall be distracted with fear, but +when we realize He is bound to take care of us, as His property and His +representatives, we shall feel infinite relief and security. + +If I send my servant on a long journey I am responsible for his expenses +and protection, and if God sends me anywhere, He is responsible. If we +belong to God, and put our life, our family, and our all in His hands, we +may know He will take care of us. + +If our body belongs to Him, it is His interest to keep us well, just as +much as it is for the interest of the shepherd to have his sheep well fed +and well cared for, and a credit to him. + +“Thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph.” + +Stand up, stand up for Jesus, + Stand in His strength alone; +The arm of flesh will fail you, + Ye dare not trust your own. + + + + + +AUGUST 22. + + +“I the Lord, the first and with the last” (Isa. xli. 4). + +Thousands of people get stranded after they have embarked on the great +voyage of holiness, because they have depended upon the experience rather +than on the Author of it. They had supposed that they were thoroughly and +permanently delivered from all sin, and in the ecstacy of their first +experience they imagine that they shall never again be tried and tempted +as before, and when they step out into the actual facts of Christian life +and find themselves failing and falling, they are astonished and +perplexed, and they conclude that they must have been mistaken in their +experience, and so they make a new attempt at the same thing, and again +fall, until at last, worn out, with the experiment, they conclude that the +experience is a delusion, or, at least, that it was never intended for +them, and so they fall back into the old way, and their last state is +worse than the first. + +What men and women need to-day is to know, not sanctification as a state, +but Christ as a living Person. + +Lord Jesus, give me Thy heart, Thy faith, Thy life, Thyself. + + + + + +AUGUST 23. + + +“Even as He is pure” (I. John iii. 3). + +God is now aiming to reproduce in us the pattern which has already +appeared in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Christian life is not an +imitation of Christ, but a direct new creation in Christ, and the union +with Christ is so complete that He imparts His own nature to us and lives +His own life in us and then it is not an imitation, but simply the +outgrowth of the nature implanted within. + +We live Christ-like because we have the Christ-life. God is not satisfied +with anything less than perfection. He required that from His Son. He +requires it from us, and He does not, in the process of grace, reduce the +standard, but He brings us up to it. He does not let down the +righteousness of the law, but He requires of us a righteousness that far +exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, and then He +imparts it to us. He counts us righteous in sanctification, and He says of +the new creation, “He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as He is +righteous.” + +Lord, live out thy very life in me. + + + + + +AUGUST 24. + + +“Let your moderation be known unto all men” (Phil. iv. 5). + +The very test of consecration is our willingness not only to surrender the +things that are wrong, but to surrender our rights, to be willing to be +subject. When God begins to subdue a soul, He often requires us to yield +the things that are of little importance in themselves, and thus break our +neck and subdue our spirit. + +No Christian worker can ever be used of God until the proud self-will is +broken, and the heart is ready to yield to God’s every touch, no matter +through whom it may come. + +Many people want God to lead them in their way and they will brook no +authority or restraint. They will give their money, but they want to +dictate how it shall be spent. They will work as long as you let them +please themselves, but let any pressure come and you immediately run up +against, not the grace of resignation, but a letter of resignation, +withdrawing from some important trust, and arousing a whole community of +criticising friends, equally disposed to have their own opinions and their +own will about it. It is destructive of all real power. + + + + + +AUGUST 25. + + +“And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My +statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them” (Ezek. xxxvi. 27). + +This is a great deal more than a new heart. This a heart filled with the +Holy Ghost, the Divine Spirit, the power that causes us to walk in God’s +commandments. + +This is the greatest crisis that comes to a Christian’s life, when into +the spirit that was renewed in conversion, God Himself comes to dwell and +make it His abiding place, and hold it by His mighty power in holiness and +righteousness. + +Now, after this occurs, one would suppose that we would be lifted into a +much more hopeful and exuberant spirit, but the prophet gives a very +different picture. He says when this comes to pass we shall loathe +ourselves in our own eyes. + +The revelation of God gives a profound sense of our own nothingness and +worthlessness, and lays us on our face in the dust in self-abnegation. + +The incoming of the Holy Ghost displaces self and disgraces self forever, +and the highest holiness is to walk in self-renunciation. + + + + + +AUGUST 26. + + +“Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil” (II. +Kings iv. 2). + +He asked her, “What hast thou in the house?” And she said, “Nothing but a +pot of oil.” But that pot of oil was adequate for all her wants, if she +had only known how to use it. + +In truth it represented the Holy Spirit, and the great lesson of the +parable is that the Holy Ghost is adequate for all our wants, if we only +know how to use Him. + +All that she needed was to get sufficient vessels to hold the overflow, +and then to pour out until all were filled. + +And so the Holy Spirit is limited only by our capacity to receive Him, and +when God wants us to have a larger fulness, He has to make room for it by +creating greater needs. + +God sends us new vessels to be filled with His Holy Spirit in the needs +that come to us, and the trials that meet us. These are God’s +opportunities for God to give us more of Himself, and as we meet them He +comes to us in larger fulness for each new necessity. + +Lord, help me to see Thee in all my trying situations and to make them +vessels to hold more of Thy grace. + + + + + +AUGUST 27. + + +“Take no thought for your life” (Matt. vi. 25). + +Still the Lord is using the things that are despised. The very names of +Nazarene and Christian were once epithets of contempt. No man can have +God’s highest thought and be popular with his immediate generation. The +most abused men are often most used. + +There are far greater calamities than to be unpopular and misunderstood. +There are far worse things than to be found in the minority. Many of God’s +greatest blessings are lying behind the devil’s scarecrows of prejudice +and misrepresentation. The Holy Ghost is not ashamed to use unpopular +people. And if He uses them, what need they care for men? + +Oh, let us but have His recognition and man’s notice will count for +little, and He will give us all we need of human help and praise. Let us +only seek His will, His glory, His approval. Let us go for Him on the +hardest errands and do the most menial tasks. Honor enough that He uses us +and sends us. Let us not fear in this day to follow Him outside the camp, +bearing His reproach, and by-and-by He will own our worthless name before +the myriads of earth and sky. + + + + + +AUGUST 28. + + +“According to the power that worketh in us” (Eph. iii. 20). + +When we reach the place of union with God, through the indwelling of the +Holy Ghost, we come into the inheritance of external blessing and enter +upon the land of our possession. Then our physical health and strength +come to us through the power of our interior life; then the prayer is +fulfilled, that we shall be in health and prosper, as our soul prospereth. +Then, with the kingdom of God and His righteousness within us, all things +are added unto us. + +God’s external working always keeps pace with the power that worketh in +us. When God is enthroned in a human soul, then the devil and the world +soon find it out. We do not need to advertise our power. Jesus could not +be hid, and a soul filled with Divine power and purity should become the +center of attraction to hungry hearts and suffering lives. + +Let us receive Him and recognize Him in His indwelling glory, and then +will we appropriate all that it means for our life in all its fulness. +Lord, give me the “hiding of Thy power,” and let Christ be glorified in +me. + + + + + +AUGUST 29. + + +“To obey is better than sacrifice” (I. Sam. xv. 22). + +Our healing is thus represented as a special recompense for obedience. If, +therefore, we would please the Lord and have the reward of those who +please Him, there is no service so acceptable to Him as our praise. + +Let us ever meet Him with a glad and thankful heart and He will reflect it +back in the health of our countenance and the buoyant life and springing +health, which is but the echo of a joyful heart. + +Further, thankfulness is the best preparation for faith. Trust grows +spontaneously in the praiseful heart. Thankfulness takes the sunny side of +the street and looks at the bright side of God, and it is only thus that +we can ever trust Him. Unbelief looks at our troubles and, of course, they +seem like mountains, and faith is discouraged by the prospect. A thankful +disposition will always find some cause for cheer, and gloomy one will +find a cloud in the brightest sky and a fly in the sweetest ointment. Let +us cultivate a spirit of cheerfulness, and we shall find so much in God +and in our lives to encourage us that we shall have no room for doubt or +fear. + + + + + +AUGUST 30. + + +“Happy are ye if ye do them” (John xiii. 17). + +You little know the rest that comes from the yielded will, the surrendered +choice, the abandoned world, the meek and lowly heart that lets the world +go by, and knows that it shall inherit the earth which it has refused! You +little know the relish that it gives to the blessing to hunger and thirst +after righteousness, and to be filled with a satisfaction that worldly +delight cannot afford, and then to rise to the higher blessedness of the +merciful, the forgiving, the hearts that have learned that it is “more +blessed to give than to receive,” and the lives that find that “letting go +is twice possessing,” and blessing others is to be doubly blessed! + +Nay, there is yet one jewel brighter than all the rest in this crown of +beatitudes. It is the tear-drop crystallized into the diamond, the +blood-drop transfigured into the ruby of heaven’s eternal crown. It is the +joy of suffering with Jesus, and then forgetting all the sorrow in the +overflowing joy, until with the heavenly Pascal we know not which to say +first, and so we say them both together, “Tears upon tears, joy upon joy”. + + + + + +AUGUST 31. + + +“Lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. cxxxix. 24). + +There is often apparently but little difference in two distinct lives +between constant victory and frequent victory. But that one little +difference constitutes a world of success or failure. The one is the +Divine, the other is the human; the one is the everlasting way, the other +the transient and the imperfect. God wants to lead us to the way +everlasting, and to establish us and make us immovable as He. We little +know the seriousness of the slightest surrender. It is but the first step +in a downward progression, and God only knows where it shall end. + +Let us be “not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that +believe unto the saving our the soul.” + +Your victory to-day is but preparing the way for a greater victory +to-morrow, and your surrender to-day is opening the door for a more +terrible defeat in the days to come. Let us, therefore, whatever we have +claimed from our blessed Master, commit it to His keeping, and take Him to +establish us and hold us fast in the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the +end. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 1. + + +“Afterward that which is spiritual” (I. Cor. xv. 46). + +God has often to bring us not only into the place of suffering, and the +bed of sickness and pain, but also into the place where our righteousness +breaks down and our character falls to pieces, in order to humble us in +the dust and show us the need of entire crucifixion to all our natural +life. Then, at the feet of Jesus we are ready to receive Him, to abide in +Him and depend upon Him alone, and draw all our life and strength each +moment from Him, our Living Head. + +It was thus that Peter was saved by his very fall, and had to die to Peter +that he might live more perfectly to Christ. + +Have we thus died, and have we thus renounced the strength of our own +self-confidence? + +We begin life with the natural, next we come into the spiritual; but then, +when we have truly received the kingdom of God and His righteousness, the +natural is added to the spiritual, and we are able to receive the gifts of +His providence and the blessings of life without becoming centered in them +or allowing them to separate us from Him. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 2. + + +“Who hath despised the day of small things” (Zech. iv. 10). + +The oak comes out of the acorn, the eagle out of that little egg in the +nest, the harvest comes out of the seed; and so the glory of the coming +age is all coming out of the Christ life now, even as the majesty of His +kingdom was all wrapped up that night in the babe of Bethlehem. + +Oh, let us take Him for all our life. Let us be united to His person and +His risen body. Let us know what it is to say, “The Lord is for the body +and the body is for the Lord”! We are members of His body and His flesh +and His bones. + +He that gave that little infant, His own blessed babe and His only +begotten Son, on that dark winter night to the arms of a cruel and +ungrateful world, will not refuse to give Him in all His fulness to your +heart if you will but open your heart and give Him right of way and full +ownership and possession. Then shall you know in your measure His +quickening life, even in this earthly life, and by-and-by your hope shall +reach its full fruition when you shall sit with Him on His throne with +every fiber of your immortal being even as He. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 3. + + +“The God of Israel hath separated you” (Num. xvi. 9). + +The little plant may grow out of a manure heap, and be surrounded by +filth, and covered very often with the floating dust that is borne upon +the breeze, but its white roots are separated from the unclean soil, and +its leaves and flowers have no affinity with the dust that settles upon +them; and after a shower of summer rain they throw off every particle of +defilement, and look up, as fresh and spotless as before, for their +intrinsic nature cannot have any part with these defiling things. + +This is the separation which Christ requires and which He gives. There is +no merit in my staying from the theater if I want to go. There is no value +in my abstaining from the foolish novel or the intoxicating cup, if I am +all the time wishing I could have them. My heart is there, and my soul is +defiled by the desire for evil things. It is not the world that stains us, +but the love of the world. The true Levite is separated from the desire +for earthly things, and even if he could, he would not have the forbidden +pleasures which others prize. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 4. + + +“Come ye yourselves apart” (Mark vi. 31). + +One of the greatest hindrances to spirituality is the lack of waiting upon +God. You cannot go through twenty-four hours with two or three breaths of +air, in the morning, as you sip your coffee. But you must live in the +atmosphere, and you must breathe it all day long. Christians do not wait +upon God enough. It needs hours and hours daily of spiritual communion +with the Holy Spirit to keep your vitality healthful and full. Every +moment should find you breathing out yourself into Christ, and breathing +afresh His life, and love and power. + +God is waiting to send us the Holy Spirit. He is longing to bless us. His +one business is to quicken and sustain our spiritual life. He has nothing +else to do with His infinite and great resources. Let us receive Him. Let +us live in Him. Let us give to Him the joy of knowing that His infinite +grace has not been bestowed in vain, but that we appreciate and improve +the blessings which He oft has so freely bestowed. + +Lord, help me this day to dwell in Thee as the flower in the sunshine, as +the fish in the sea, living in Thy love as the atmosphere and element of +my being. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 5. + + +“He breathed on them” (John xx. 22). + +The beautiful figure suggested by this passage is full of simple +instruction. It is as easy to receive the Holy Ghost as it is to breathe. +It almost seems as if the Lord had given them the very impression of +breathing, and had said, “Now, this is the way to receive the Holy Ghost.” + +It is not necessary for you to go to a smallpox hospital to have your +lungs contaminated with impure air. It is enough for you to keep in your +lungs the air you inhaled a minute ago and it will kill you. All the pure +elements have been absorbed from it, and there is nothing left but carbon +and other deadly gases and fluids. + +Therefore, if you are to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you must first +get emptied not only of your old sinful life, but of your old spiritual +life. You must get a new breath every moment, or you will die. God wants +you to empty out all your being into Him, and then you will take Him in, +without needing to try too hard. A vacuum always gets filled, an empty +pair of lungs unavoidably breathes in the pure air. If you are only in the +true attitude, there will be no trouble about receiving the Holy Ghost. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 6. + + +“Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord” (Phil. iii. 1). + +There is no spiritual value in depression. One bright and thankful look at +the cross is worth a thousand morbid, self-condemning reflections. The +longer you look at evil the more it mesmerizes and defiles you into its +own likeness. Lay it down at the cross, accept the cleansing blood, reckon +yourself dead to the thing that was wrong, and then rise up and count +yourself as if you were another man and no longer the same person; and +then, identifying yourself with the Lord Jesus, accept your standing in +Him and look in your Father’s face as blameless as Jesus. Then out of your +every fault will come some lesson of watchfulness or some secret of +victory which will enable you some day to thank Him, even for your painful +experience. + +But praise is a sacrifice, for “it is acceptable to God.” It goes up to +heaven sweeter than the songs of angels, “a sweet smelling savor to your +Lord and King.” It should be unintermittent—“the sacrifice of praise +continually.” One drop of poison will neutralize a whole cup of wine, and +make it a cup of death, and one moment of gloom will defile a whole day of +sunshine and gladness. Let us “rejoice evermore.” + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 7. + + +“I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. iii. 18). + +The secret of joy is not to wait until you feel happy, but to rise, by an +act of faith, out of the depression which is dragging you down, and begin +to praise God as an act of choice. This is the meaning of such passages as +these: “Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, rejoice”; “I do +rejoice; yes, and I will rejoice.” “Count it all joy when ye fall into +divers temptations.” In all these cases there is an evident struggle with +sadness and then the triumphs of faith and praise. + +Now, this is what is meant—in part, at least—by the sacrifice of praise. A +sacrifice is that which costs us something. And when a man or woman has +some cherished grudge or wrong and is harboring it, nursing it, dwelling +on it, rolling it as a sweet morsel under the tongue, and quite determined +to enjoy a miserable time in selfish morbidness and grumbling, it costs us +no little sacrifice to throw off the morbid spell, to refuse the +suggestions of injury, neglect and the remembrance of unkindness, to rise +out of the mood of self-commiseration in wholesome and holy determination, +and say, “I will rejoice in the Lord”; I will “count it all joy.” + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 8. + + +“He that eateth Me, even He shall live by Me” (John vi. 57). + +What the children of God need is not merely a lot of teaching, but the +Living Bread. The best wheat is not good food. It needs to be ground and +baked before it can be digested and assimilated so as to nourish the +system. The purest and the highest truth cannot sanctify or satisfy a +living soul. + +He breathes the New Testament message from His mouth with a kiss of love +and a breath of quickening power. It is as we abide in Him, lying upon His +bosom and drinking in His very life that we are nourished, quickened, +comforted and healed. + +This is the secret of Divine healing. It is not believing a doctrine, it +is not performing a ceremony, it is not wringing a petition from the +heavens by the logic of faith and the force of your will; but it is the +inbreathing of the life of God; it is the living touch which none can +understand except those whose senses are exercised to know the realities +of the world unseen. Often, therefore, a very little truth will bring us +much more help and blessing than a great amount of instruction. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 9. + + +“All things are lawful for Me” (I. Cor. x. 23). + +I may be perfectly free myself to do many things, the doing of which might +hurt my brother and wound his conscience, and love will gladly surrender +the little indulgence, that she may save her brother from temptation. +There are many questions which are easily settled by this principle. + +So there are many forms of recreation which, in themselves might be +harmless, and, under certain circumstances, unobjectionable, but they have +become associated with worldliness and godlessness, and have proved snares +and temptations to many a young heart and life; and, therefore, the law of +love would lead you to avoid them, discountenance them, and in no way give +encouragement to others to participate in them. + +It is just in these things that are not required of us by absolute rules, +but are the impulses of a thoughtful love, that the highest qualities of +Christian character show themselves, and the most delicate shades of +Christian love are manifested. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 10. + + +“Wherefore, receive ye one another as Christ also received us, to the +glory of God” (Rom. xv. 7). + +This is a sublime principle, and it will give sublimity to life. It is +stated elsewhere in similar language, “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, +do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” + +This is our high calling, to represent Christ, and act in His behalf, and +in His character and spirit, under all circumstances and toward all men. +“What would Jesus do?” is a simple question which will settle every +difficulty, and always settle it on the side of love. + +But we cannot answer this question rightly without having Jesus Himself in +our hearts. We cannot _act_ Christ. This is too grave a matter for acting. +We must _have_ Christ, and simply be natural and true to the life within +us, and that life will act itself out. + +Oh, how easy it is to love every one, and see nothing but loveliness when +our heart is filled with Christ, and how every difficulty melts away and +every one we meet seems clothed with the Spirit within us when we are +filled with the Holy Ghost! + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 11. + + +“Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the age” (Matt. +xxviii. 20). + +It is “all the days,” not “always.” He comes to you each day with a new +blessing. Every morning, day by day, He walks with us, with a love that +never tires and a blessing that never grows old. And He is with us “all +the days”; it is a ceaseless abiding. There is no day so dark, so +commonplace, so uninteresting, but you find Him there. Often, no doubt, He +is unrecognized, as He was on the way to Emmaus, until you realize how +your heart has been warmed, your love stirred, your Bible so strangely +vivified, and every promise seems to speak to you with heavenly reality +and power. It is the Lord! God grant that His living presence may be made +more real to us all henceforth, and whether we have the consciousness and +evidence, as they had a few glorious times in those forty days, or whether +we go forth into the coming days, as they did most of their days, to walk +by simple faith and in simple duty, let us know at least that the fact is +true forevermore, THAT HE IS WITH US, a Presence all unseen, but real, and +ready if we needed Him any moment to manifest Himself for our relief. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 12. + + +“The furnace for gold; but the Lord trieth the hearts” (Prov. xvii. 3.) + +Remember that temptation is not sin unless it be accompanied with the +consent of your will. There may seem to be even the inclination, and yet +the real choice of your spirit is fixed immovably against it, and God +regards it simply as a solicitation and credits you with an obedience all +the more pleasing to Him, because the temptation was so strong. + +We little know how evil can find access to a pure nature and seem to +incorporate itself with our thoughts and feelings, while at the same time +we resist and overcome it, and remain as pure as the sea-fowl that emerges +from the water without a single drop remaining upon its burnished wing, or +as the harp string, which may be struck by a rude or clumsy hand and gives +forth a discordant sound, not from any defect of the harp, but because of +the hand that touches it. But let the Master hand play upon it, and it is +a chord of melody and a note of exquisite delight. + +“In nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to you an evident token +of salvation and that of God.” + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 13. + + +“Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you” (I. +Peter xii. 16). + +Most persons after a step of faith are looking for sunny skies and +unruffled seas, and when they meet a storm and tempest they are filled +with astonishment and perplexity. But this is just what we must expect to +meet if we have received anything of the Lord. The best token of His +presence is the adversary’s defiance, and the more real our blessing, the +more certainly it will be challenged. It is a good thing to go out looking +for the worst, and if it comes we are not surprised; while if our path be +smooth and our way be unopposed, it is all the more delightful, because it +comes as a glad surprise. + +But let us quite understand what we mean by temptation. You, especially, +who have stepped out with the assurance that you have died to self and +sin, may be greatly amazed to find yourself assailed with a tempest of +thoughts and feelings that seem to come wholly from within and you will be +impelled to say, “Why, I thought I was dead, but I seem to be alive.” +This, beloved, is the time to remember that temptation, the instigation, +is not sin, but only of the evil one. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 14. + + +“For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded; +therefore, have I set my face like a flint, and I know I shall not be +ashamed” (Isa. l. 7). + +This is the language of trust and victory, and it was through this faith, +as we are told in a passage in Hebrews, that in His last agony, “Jesus, +for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the +shame.” His life was a life of faith, His death was a victory of faith, +His resurrection was a triumph of faith, His mediatorial reign is all one +long victory of faith, “From henceforth expecting till all His enemies be +made His footstool.” + +And so, for us He has become the pattern of faith, and in every situation +of difficulty, temptation and distress has gone before us waving the +banner of trust and triumph, and bidding us to follow in His victorious +footsteps. + +He is the great Pattern Believer. While we must claim our salvation by +faith, the Great Forerunner also claimed the world’s salvation by the same +faith. + +Let us therefore consider this glorious Leader our perfect example, and as +we follow close behind Him, let us remember where He has triumphed we may +triumph, too. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 15. + + +“Though it tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come, and will not +tarry” (Hab. ii. 3). + +Some things have their cycle in an hour and some in a century; but His +plans shall complete their cycle whether long or short. The tender annual +which blossoms for a season and dies, and the Columbian aloe, which +develops in a century, each is true to its normal principle. Many of us +desire to pluck our fruit in June rather than wait until October, and so, +of course, it is sour and immature; but God’s purposes ripen slowly and +fully, and faith waits while it tarries, knowing it will surely come and +will not tarry too long. + +It is perfect rest to fully learn and wholly trust this glorious promise. +We may know without a question that His purposes shall be accomplished +when we have fully committed our ways to Him, and are walking in watchful +obedience to His every prompting. This faith will give a calm and tranquil +poise to the spirit and save us from the restless fret and trying to do +too much ourselves. + +Wait, and every wrong will righten, +Wait, and every cloud will brighten, + If you only wait. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 16. + + +“I will never leave Thee nor forsake Thee” (Heb. xiii. 5). + +It is most cheering thus to know that although we err and bring upon +ourselves many troubles that might have been easily averted, yet God does +not forsake even His mistaken child, but on his humble repentance and +supplication is ever really both to pardon and deliver. Let us not give up +our faith because we have perhaps stepped out of the path in which He +would have led us. The Israelites did not follow when He called them into +the Land of Promise, yet God did not desert them; but during the forty +years of their wandering He walked by their side bearing their backsliding +with patient compassion, and waiting to be gracious unto them when another +generation should have come. “In all their afflictions He was afflicted, +but the Angel of His presence saved them; He bare them and carried them +all the days of old.” And so yet, while our wanderings bring us many +sorrows and lose us many blessings, to the heart which truly chooses His, +He has graciously said: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 17. + + +“Thy people shall be a freewill offering in the day of Thy power” (Ps. cx. +3). + +This is what the term consecration properly means. It is the voluntary +surrender or self-offering of the heart, by the constraint of love to be +the Lord’s. Its glad expression is, “I am my Beloved’s.” It must spring, +of course, from faith. There must be the full confidence that we are safe +in this abandonment, that we are not falling over a precipice, or +surrendering ourselves to the hands of a judge, but that we are sinking +into a Father’s arms and stepping into an infinite inheritance. Oh, it is +an infinite inheritance. Oh, it is an infinite privilege to be permitted +thus to give ourselves up to One who pledges Himself to make us all that +we would love to be, nay, all that His infinite wisdom, power and love +will delight to accomplish in us. It is the clay yielding itself to the +potter’s hands that it may be shaped into a vessel of honor, and meet for +the Master’s use. It is the poor street waif consenting to become the +child of a prince that he may be educated and provided for, that he may be +prepared to inherit all the wealth of his guardian. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 18. + + +“We walk by faith, not by sight” (II. Cor. v. 7). + +There are heavenly notes which have power to break down walls of adamant +and dissolve mountains of difficulty. The song of Paul and Silas burst the +fetters of the Philippian gaol; the choir of Jehoshaphat put to flight the +armies of the Ammonites, and the song of faith will disperse our +adversaries and lift our sinking hearts into strength and victory. +Beloved, is it the dark hour with us? the winter of barrenness and gloom? +Oh, let us remember that it is God’s chosen time for the education of +faith and that He conceals beneath the surface, precious and untold +harvests of unthought-of fruit! It will not be always winter, it will not +be always night, and when the morning comes and spring spreads its verdant +mantle over the barren fields then we shall be glad that we did not +disappoint our Father in the hour of testing, but that faith had already +claimed and seen in the distance the glad fruition which sight now +beholds, with a rapture even less than the vision of naked faith. + +Lord, help me to believe when I cannot see, and learn from my trials to +trust Thee more. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 19. + + +“In due season we shall reap if we faint not” (Gal. vi. 9). + +If the least of us could only anticipate the eternal issues that will +probably spring from the humblest services of faith, we should only count +our sacrifices and labors unspeakable heritages of honor and opportunity, +and would cease to speak of trials and sacrifices for God. + +The smallest grain of faith is a deathless and incorruptible germ, which +will yet plant the heavens and cover the earth with harvests of +imperishable glory. Lift up your head, beloved, the horizon is wider than +the little circle that you can see. We are living, we are suffering, we +are laboring, we are trusting, for the ages yet to come. “Let us not be +weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not,” and +with tears of transport we shall cry some day, “Oh, how great is thy +goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which Thou hast +wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men.” + +Help me to-day to live under the powers of the world to come, and to live +as a man in heaven walking upon the earth. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 20. + + +“They shall not be ashamed that wait” (Isa. xlix. 23). + +Often He calls us aside from our work for a season and bids us be still +and learn ere we go forth again to minister. Especially is this so when +there has been some serious break, some sudden failure and some radical +defect in our work. There is no time lost in such waiting hours. Fleeing +from his enemies the ancient knight found that his horse needed to be +reshod. Prudence seemed to urge him without delay, but higher wisdom +taught him to halt a few minutes at the blacksmith’s forge by the way to +have the shoe replaced, and although he heard the feet of his pursuers +galloping hard behind, yet he waited those minutes until his charger was +refitted for his flight, and then, leaping into his saddle just as they +appeared a hundred yards away, he dashed away from them with the fleetness +of the wind, and knew that his halting had hastened his escape. So often +God bids us tarry ere we go, and fully recover ourselves for the next +great stage of the journey and work. + +Lord, teach me to be still and know that Thou art God and all this day to +walk with God. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 21. + + +“Faint, yet pursuing” (Judges viii. 4). + +It is a great thing thus to learn to depend upon God to work through our +feeble resources, and yet, while so depending, to be absolutely faithful +and diligent, and not allow our trust to deteriorate into supineness and +indolence. We find no sloth or negligence in Gideon, or his three hundred; +though they were weak and few, they were wholly true, and everything in +them ready for God to use to the very last. “Faint yet pursuing” was their +watchword as they followed and finished their glorious victory, and they +rested not until the last of their enemies were destroyed, and even their +false friends were punished for their treachery and unfaithfulness. + +So God still calls the weakest instruments, but when He chooses and +enables them they are no longer weak, but “mighty through God,” and +faithful through His grace to every trust and opportunity; “trusting,” as +Dr. Chalmers used to say, “as though all depended upon God, and working as +though all depended upon themselves.” + +Teach me, my blessed Master, to trust and obey. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 22. + + +“We see not yet all things put under Him, but we see Jesus” (Heb. ii. 8, +9). + +How true this is to us all! How many things there are that seem to be +stronger than we are, but blessed be His name! they are all in subjection +under Him, and we see Jesus crowned above them all; and Jesus is our Head, +our representative, our other self, and where He is we shall surely be. +Therefore when we fail to see anything that God has promised, and that we +have claimed in our experience, let us look up and see it realized in Him, +and claim it in Him for ourselves. Our side is only half the circle, the +heaven side is already complete, and the rainbow of which we see not the +upper half, shall one day be all around the throne and take in the other +hemisphere of all our now unfinished life. By faith, then, let us enter +into all our inheritance. Let us lift up our eyes to the north and to the +south, to the east and to the west, and hear Him say, “All the land that +thou seest will I give thee.” Let us remember that the circle, is +complete, that the inheritance is unlimited, and that all things are put +under His feet. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 23. + + +“I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Ex. xv. 26). + +It is very reasonable that God should expect us to trust Him for our +bodies as well as our souls, for if our faith is not practical enough to +bring us temporal relief, how can we be educated for real dependence upon +God for anything that involves serious risk? It is all very well to talk +about trusting God for the distant and future prospect of salvation after +death! There is scarcely a sinner in a Christian land that does not trust +to be saved some day, but there is no grasp in faith like this. It is only +when we come face to face with positive issues and overwhelming forces +that we can prove the reality of Divine power in a supernatural life. +Hence as an education to our very spirits as well as a gracious provision +for our temporal life, God has trained His people from the beginning to +recognize Him as the supply of all their needs, and to look to Him as the +Physician of their bodies and Father of their spirits. Beloved, have you +learned the meaning of Jehovah-rophi, and has it changed your Marah of +trial into an Elim of blessing and praise? + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 24. + + +“He calleth things that are not as though they were” (Rom. iv. 17). + +The Word of God creates what it commands. When Christ says to any of us +“Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you,” We are +clean. When He says “no condemnation” there is none, though there has been +a lifetime of sin before. And when He says, “mighty through God to the +pulling down of strongholds,” then the weak are strong. This is the part +of faith, to take God at His Word, and then expect Him to make it real. A +French commander thanked a common soldier who had saved his life and +called him captain, although he was but a private, but the man took the +commander at his word, accepted the new name and was thereby constituted +indeed a captain. + +Shall we thus take God’s creating word of justification, sanctification, +power and deliverance and thus make real the mighty promise, “He giveth +power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength; +for they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.” + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 25. + + +“The faith of the Son of God” (Gal. ii. 20). + +Let us learn the secret even of our faith. It is the faith of Christ, +springing in our heart and trusting in our trials. So shall we always +sing, “The life that I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God, who +loved me and gave Himself for me.” Thus looking off unto Jesus, “the +Author and Finisher of our faith,” we shall find that instead of +struggling to reach the promises of God, we shall lie down upon them in +blessed repose and be borne up by them with the faith which is no more our +own than the promises upon which it rests. Each new need will find us +leaning afresh on Him for the grace to trust and to overcome. + +Further we see here the true spirit of prayer. It is the Spirit of Christ +in us. “In the midst of the church will I sing praises unto thee.” Christ +still sings these praises in the trusting heart and lifts our prayers into +songs of victory! This is the true spirit of prayer, like Paul and Silas +in the prison at Philippi, turning prayer into praise, night into day, the +night of sorrow into the morning of joy, and when He is in us, the spirit +of faith, He will also become the spirit of praise. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 26. + + +“I will be with Him in trouble” (Ps. xci. 15). + +The question often comes, “Why didn’t He help me sooner!” It is not His +order. He must first adjust you to the situation and cause you to learn +your lesson from it. His promise is, “I will be with him in trouble; I +will deliver him and honor him.” He must be with you in the trouble first +until you grow quiet. Then He will take you out of it. This will not come +till you have stopped being restless and fretful about it and become calm +and trustful. Then He will say, “It is enough.” + +God uses trouble to teach His children precious lessons. They are intended +to educate us. When their good work is done a glorious recompense will +come to us through them. There is a sweet joy and opportunity in them. He +does not regard them as difficulties but as opportunities. They have come +to give God a greater interest in you, and to show how He can deliver you +from them. We cannot have a mercy worth praising God for without +difficulty. God is as deep, and long, and high, as our little world of +circumstances. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 27. + + +“The glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. viii. 21). + +Are you above self and self-pleasing in every way? Have you got above +circumstances so that you are not influenced by them? Are you above +sickness and the evil forces around that would drag down your physical +life into the quicksands? These forces are all around, and if yielded to +would quickly swamp us. God does not destroy sickness, or its power to +hurt, but He lifts us above it. Are you above your feelings, moods, +emotions and states? Can you sail immovable as the stars through all sorts +of weather? A harp will give out sweet music or discordant sounds as +different fingers touch the strings. If the devil’s hand is on your harp +strings what hideous sounds it will give. Let the fingers of the Lord +sweep it, and it will breathe out celestial music. Are you lifted above +people, so that you are not bound by or to any one except in the dear +Lord, and are you standing free in His glorious life? + +“I am risen with Christ, I am dwelling above; + I am walking with Jesus below, +I am shedding the light of His glory and love + Around me wherever I go.” + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 28. + + +“The trial of your faith being much more precious than gold” (I. Peter i. +7). + +Our trials are great opportunities. Too often we look on them as great +obstacles. It would be a heaven of rest and an inspiration of unspeakable +power if each of us would henceforth recognize every difficult situation +as one of God’s chosen ways of proving to us His love and power, and if +instead of calculating upon defeat we should begin to look around for the +messages of His glorious manifestations. Then indeed would every cloud +become a rainbow, and every mountain a path of ascension and a scene of +transfiguration. If we will look upon the past, many of us will find that +the very time our heavenly Father has chosen to do the kindest things for +us and give us the richest blessings has been the time when we were +strained and shut in on every side. God’s jewels are often sent us in +rough packages and by dark liveried servants, but within we find the very +treasures of the King’s palace and the Bridegroom’s Love. + +Fire of God, thy work begin, +Burn up the dross of self and sin; +Burn off my fetters, set me free, +And through the furnace walk with me. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 29. + + +“Call not thou common” (Acts x. 15). + +“There is nothing common of itself” (Rom. xiv. 14). + +We can bring Christ into common things as fully as into what we call +religious services. Indeed, it is the highest and hardest application of +Divine grace, to bring it down to the ordinary matters of life, and +therefore God is far more honored in this than even in things that are +more specially sacred. + +Therefore, in the twelfth chapter of Romans, which is the manual of +practical consecration, just after the passage that speaks of ministering +in sacred things, the apostle comes at once to the common, social and +secular affairs into which we are to bring our consecration principles. We +read: “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor +preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; +serving the Lord.” + +God wants the Levites scattered all over the cities of Israel. He wants +your workshop, factory, kitchen, nursery, editor’s room and +printing-office, as much as your pulpit and closet. He wants you to be +just as holy at high noon on Monday or Wednesday, as in the sanctuary on +Sabbath morning. + + + + + +SEPTEMBER 30. + + +“In the secret places of the stairs” (Song of Solomon ii. 14). + +The dove is in the cleft of the rock—the riven side of our Lord. There is +comfort and security there. It is also in the secret places of the stairs. +It loves to build its nest in the high towers to which men mount the +winding stairs for hundreds of feet above the ground. What a glorious +vision is there obtained of the surrounding scenery. It is a picture of +ascending life. To reach its highest altitudes we must find the secret +places of the stairs. That is the only way to rise above the natural +plane. Our life should be one of quiet mounting with occasional resting +places; but we should be mounting higher step by step. Everybody does not +find this way of secret ascent. It is for God’s chosen ones. The world may +think you are going down. You may not have as much public work to do as +formerly. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” It is a secret, hidden life. +We may be hardly aware that we are growing, till some day a test comes and +we find we are established. Have you got above the power of sin so that +Christ is keeping you from wilful disobedience? Does it give you a shudder +to know the consciousness of sin? Are you lifted above the world? + + + + + +OCTOBER 1. + + +“That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace” +(Eph. ii. 7). + +Christ’s great purpose for His people is to train them up to know the hope +of their calling, and the riches of the glory of their inheritance and +what the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. + +Let us prove, in all our varied walks of life, and scenes of conflict, the +fulness of His power and grace and thus shall we know “In the ages to come +the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Jesus Christ.” + +Beloved, are you thus following your Teacher in the school of faith, and +finishing the education which is by and by to fit you for “a far more +exceeding and eternal weight of glory”? This is only the School of Faith. + +Little can we now dream what these lessons will mean for us some day, when +sitting with Him on His throne and sharing with Him the power of God and +the government of the universe. Let us be faithful scholars now and soon +with Him, we too, will have “endured the cross despising the shame,” and +shall “sit down at the right hand of the throne of God.” + + + + + +OCTOBER 2. + + +“Moses gave not any inheritance; the Lord God of Israel was their +inheritance, as He said unto them” (Josh. xiii. 33). + +This is very significant. God gave the land to the other tribes but He +gave Himself to the Levites. There is such a thing in Christian life as an +inheritance from the Lord, and there is such a thing as having the Lord +Himself for our inheritance. + +Some people get a sanctification from the Lord which is of much value, but +which is variable, and often impermanent. Others have learned the higher +lesson of taking the Lord Himself to be their keeper and their sanctity, +and abiding in Him they are kept above the vicissitudes of their own +states and feelings. + +Some get from the Lord large measures of joy and blessing, and times of +refreshing. + +Others, again, learn to take the Lord Himself as their joy. + +Some people are content to have peace with God, but others have taken “the +peace of God that passeth all understanding.” + +Some have faith _in_ God, while others have the faith _of_ God. Some have +many touches of healing from God, others, again, have learned to live in +the very health of God Himself. + + + + + +OCTOBER 3. + + +“The little foxes that spoil the vines” (Song of Solomon, ii. 15). + +There are some things good, without being perfect. You don’t need to have +a whole regiment cannonading outside your room to keep you awake. It is +quite enough that your little alarm clock rings its little bell. It is not +necessary to fret about everything; it is quite enough if the devil gets +your mind rasped with one little worry, one little thought which destroys +your perfect peace. It is like the polish on a mirror, or an exquisite +toilet table, one scratch will destroy it; and the finer it is the smaller +the scratch that will deface it. And so your rest can be destroyed by a +very little thing. Perhaps you have trusted in God about your future +salvation; but have you about your present business or earthly cares, your +money and your family? + +What is meant by the peace that passeth all understanding? It does not +mean a peace no one can comprehend. It means a peace that no amount of +reasoning will bring. You cannot get it by thinking. There may be perfect +bewilderment and perplexity all round the horizon, but yet your heart can +rest in perfect security because He knows, He loves, He leads. + + + + + +OCTOBER 4. + + +“Instead of the brier, the myrtle tree” (Isa. lv. 13). + +God’s sweetest memorial is the transformed thorn and the thistle blooming +with flowers of peace and sweetness, where once grew recriminations. + +Beloved, God is waiting to make just such memorials in your life, out of +the things that are hurting you most to-day. Take the grievances, the +separations, the strained friendships and the broken ties which have been +the sorrow and heartbreak of your life, and let God heal them, and give +you grace to make you right with all with whom you may be wrong, and you +will wonder at the joy and blessing that will come out of the things that +have caused you nothing but regret and pain. + +“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of +God.” The everlasting employment of our blessed Redeemer is to reconcile +the guilty and the estranged from God, and the highest and most +Christ-like work that we can do is, to be like Him. + +Shall we go forth to dry the tears of a sorrowing world, to heal the +broken-hearted, to bind up the wounds of human lives, and to unite heart +to heart, and earth to heaven? + + + + + +OCTOBER 5. + + +“He hath triumphed gloriously” (Ex. xv. 1). + +Beloved, God calls us to victory. Have any of you given up the conflict, +have you surrendered? Have you said, “This thing is too much”? Have you +said, “I can give up anything else but this”? If you have, you are not in +the land of promise. God means you should accept every difficult thing +that comes in your life. He has started with you, knowing every +difficulty. And if you dare to let Him, He will carry you through not only +to be conquerors, but “more than conquerors.” Are you looking for all the +victory? + +God gives His children strength for the battle and watches over them with +a fond enthusiasm. He longs to fold you to His arms and say to you, “I +have seen thy conflict, I have watched thy trials, I have rejoiced in thy +victory; thou hast honored Me.” You know He told Joshua at the beginning, +“There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy +life; as I was with Moses, so shall I be with thee: I will not fail thee, +nor forsake thee.” And again, He says to us, “Fear thou not, for I am with +thee.” + + + + + +OCTOBER 6. + + +“Ephraim, he hath mixed himself” (Hos. vii. 8). + +It is a great thing to learn to take God first, and then He can afford to +give us everything else, without the fear of its hurting us. + +As long as you want anything very much, especially more than you want God, +it is an idol. But when you become satisfied with God, everything else so +loses its charm that He can give it to you without harm, and then you can +take just as much as you choose, and use it for His glory. + +There is no harm whatever in having money, houses, lands, friends and +dearest children, if you do not value these things for themselves. + +If you have been separated from them in spirit, and become satisfied with +God Himself, then they will become to you channels to be filled with God +to bring Him nearer to you. Then every little lamb around your household +will be a tender cord to bind you to the Shepherd’s heart. Then every +affection will be a little golden cup filled with the wine of His love. +Then every bank, stock and investment will be but a channel through which +you can pour out His benevolence and extend His gifts. + + + + + +OCTOBER 7. + + +“He opened not His mouth” (Isa. liii. 7). + +How much grace it requires to bear a misunderstanding rightly, and to +receive an unkind judgment in holy sweetness! Nothing tests a Christian +character more than to have some evil thing said about him. This is the +file that soon proves whether we are electro-plate or solid gold. If we +could only know the blessings that lie hidden in our lives, we would say, +like David, when Shimei cursed him, “Let him curse; it may be the Lord +will requite me good for his cursing this day.” + +Some people get easily turned aside from the grandeur of their life-work +by pursuing their own grievances and enemies, until their life gets turned +into one little petty whirl of warfare. It is like a nest of hornets. You +may disperse the hornets, but you will probably get terribly stung, and +get nothing for your pains, for even their honey is not worth a search. + +God give us more of His Spirit, who, when reviled, reviled not again; but +committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. + +Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. + + + + + +OCTOBER 8. + + +“There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken” +(Josh. xxi. 45). + +Some day, even you, trembling, faltering one, shall stand upon those +heights and look back upon all you have passed through, all you have +narrowly escaped, all the perils through which He guided you, the +stumblings through which He guarded you, and the sins from which He saved +you; and you shall shout, with a meaning you cannot understand now, +“Salvation unto Him who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” + +Some day He will sit down with us in that glorious home, and we shall have +all the ages in which to understand the story of our lives. And He will +read over again this old marked Bible with us, He will show us how He kept +all these promises, He will explain to us the mysteries that we could not +understand, He will recall to our memory the things we have long +forgotten, He will go over again with us the book of life, He will recall +all the finished story, and I am sure we will often cry: “Blessed Christ! +you have been so true, you have been so good! Was there ever love like +this?” And then the great chorus will be repeated once more—“There failed +not aught of any good thing that He hath spoken; all came to pass.” + + + + + +OCTOBER 9. + + +“Peace be unto you” (John xx. 19, 21). + +This is the type of His first appearing to our hearts when He comes to +bring us His peace and to teach us to trust Him and love Him. + +But there is a second peace which He has to give. Jesus said unto them +again, “Peace be unto you.” There is a “peace,” and there is an “again +peace.” There is a peace with God, and there is “the peace of God that +passeth understanding.” It is the deeper peace that we need before we can +serve Him or be used for His glory. + +While we are burdened with our own cares, He cannot give us His. While we +are occupied with ourselves, we cannot be at leisure to serve Him. Our +minds will be so filled with our own anxieties that we would not be equal +to the trust which He requires of us, and so, before He can entrust us +with His work, He wants to deliver us from every burden and anxiety. + +“Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin, +The blood of Jesus whispers peace within. +Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed, +To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.” + + + + + +OCTOBER 10. + + +“If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall +live” (Rom. viii. 13). + +The Holy Spirit is the only one who can kill us and keep us dead. Many +Christians try to do this disagreeable work themselves, and they are going +through a continual crucifixion, but they can never accomplish the work +permanently. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and when you really +yield yourself to the death, it is delightful to find how sweetly He can +slay you. + +By the touch of the electric spark they tell us life is extinguished +almost without a quiver of pain. But, however this may be in natural +things, we know the Holy Spirit can touch with celestial fire the +surrendered thing, and slay it in a moment, after it is really yielded up +to the sentence of death. That is our business, and it is God’s business +to execute that sentence, and to keep it constantly operative. + +Don’t let us live in the pain of perpetual and ineffectual suicide, but +reckoning ourselves dead indeed, let us leave ourselves in the hands of +the blessed Holy Spirit, and He will slay whatever rises in opposition to +His will, and keep us true to our heavenly reckoning, and filled with His +resurrection life. + + + + + +OCTOBER 11. + + +“And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, +because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of +God” (Rom. viii. 27). + +The Holy Spirit becomes to the consecrated heart the Spirit of +intercession. We have two Advocates. We have an Advocate with the Father, +who prays for us at God’s right hand; but the Holy Spirit is the Advocate +within, who prays in us, inspiring our petitions and presenting them, +through Christ, to God. + +We need this Advocate. We know not what to pray for, and we know not how +to pray as we ought, but He breathes in the holy heart the desires that we +may not always understand, the groanings which we could not utter. + +But God understands, and He, with a loving Father’s heart, is always +searching our hearts to find the Spirit’s prayer, and to answer it. He +finds many a prayer there that we have not discovered, and answers many a +cry that we never understood. And when we reach our home and read the +records of life, we shall better know and appreciate the infinite love of +that Divine Friend, who has watched within as the Spirit of prayer, and +breathed out our every need to the heart of God. + + + + + +OCTOBER 12. + + +“The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free” (Rom. +viii. 2). + +The life of Jesus Christ brought into our heart by the Holy Spirit, +operates there as a new law of divine strength and vitality, and +counteracts, overcomes and lifts us above the old law of sin and death. + +Let us illustrate these two laws by a simple comparison. Look at my hand. +By the law of gravitation it naturally falls upon the desk and lies there, +attracted downward by that natural law which makes heavy bodies fall to +the earth. + +But there is a stronger law than the law of gravitation—my own life and +will. And so through the operation of this higher law—the law of +vitality—I defy the law of gravitation, and lift my hand and hold it above +its former resting-place, and move it at my will. The law of vitality has +made me free from the law of gravitation. + +Precisely so the indwelling life of Christ Jesus, operating with the power +of a law, lifts me above, and counteracts the power of sin in my fallen +nature. + + + + + +OCTOBER 13. + + +“The carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom. viii. 7). + +The flesh is incurably bad. “It is not subject to the law of God, neither, +indeed, can be.” It never can be any better. It is no use trying to +improve the flesh. You may educate it all you please. You may train it by +the most approved methods, you may set before it the brightest examples, +you may pipe to it or mourn to it, treat it with encouragement or +severity; its nature will always be incorrigibly the same. + +Like the wild hawk which the little child captures in its infancy and +tries to train in the habits of the dove, before you are aware it will +fasten its cruel beak upon the gentle fingers that would caress it, and +show the old wild spirit of fear and ferocity. It is a hawk by nature, and +it can never be made a dove. “For the carnal mind is enmity against God. +It is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be.” + +The only remedy for human nature is to destroy it, and receive instead the +divine nature. God does not improve man. He crucifies the natural life +with Christ, and creates the new man in Christ Jesus. + + + + + +OCTOBER 14. + + +“Get thee, behind me, Satan” (Matt. xvi. 23). + +When your old self comes back, if you listen to it, fear it, believe it, +it will have the same influence upon you as if it were not dead; it will +control you and destroy you. But if you will ignore it and say: “You are +not I, but Satan trying to make me believe that the old self is not dead; +I refuse you, I treat you as a demon power outside of me, I detach myself +from you”; if you treat it as a wife would her divorced husband, saying: +“You are nothing to me, you have no power over me, I have renounced you, +in the name of Jesus I bid you hence,”—lo! the evil thing will disappear, +the shadow will vanish, the wand of faith will lay the troubled spirit, +and send it back to the abyss, and you will find that Christ is there +instead, with His risen life, to back up your confidence and seal your +victory. + +Satan can stand anything better than neglect. If you ignore him he gets +disgusted and disappears. Jesus used to turn His back upon him and say, +“Get thee behind Me, Satan.” So let us refuse him, and we shall find that +he will be compelled to act according to our faith. + + + + + +OCTOBER 15. + + +“Faith is the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. xi. 1). + +True faith drops its letter in the post-office box, and lets it go. +Distrust holds on to a corner of it, and wonders that the answer never +comes. + +I have some letters in my desk that have been written for weeks, but there +was some slight uncertainty about the address or the contents, so they are +yet unmailed. They have not done either me or anybody else any good yet. +They will never accomplish anything until I let them go out of my hands +and trust them to the postman and the mail. + +This is the case with true faith. It hands its case over to God, and then +He works. + +That is a fine verse in the thirty-seventh Psalm: “Commit thy way unto the +Lord, trust also in Him, and He worketh.” But He never worketh until we +commit. + +Faith is a receiving, or still better, a taking of God’s proffered gifts. +We may believe, and come, and commit, and rest, but we will not fully +realize all our blessing until we begin to receive and come into the +attitude of abiding and taking. + + + + + +OCTOBER 16. + + +“Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, I will make thee a joy” (Isa. +lx. 15). + +God loves to take the most lost of men, and make them the most magnificent +memorials of His redeeming love and power. He loves to take the victims of +Satan’s hate, and the lives that have been the most fearful examples of +his power to destroy, and to use them to illustrate and illuminate the +possibilities of Divine mercy and the new creations of the Holy Spirit. + +He loves to take the things in our own lives that have been the worst, the +hardest and the most hostile to God, and to transform them so that we +shall be the opposites of our former selves. + +The sweetest spirits are made out of the most stormy and self-willed, the +mightiest faith is created out of a wilderness of doubts and fears, and +the Divinest love is transformed out of stony hearts of hate and +selfishness. + +The grace of God is equal to the most uncongenial temperaments, to the +most unfavorable circumstances; and its glory is to transform a curse into +blessing, and show to men and angels of ages yet to come, that “where sin +abounded, there grace did much more abound.” + + + + + +OCTOBER 17. + + +“Abraham believed God” (Rom. iv. 3). + +Abraham’s faith reposed on God Himself. He knew the God he was dealing +with. It was a personal confidence in one whom he could utterly trust. + +The real secret of Abraham’s whole life was that he was the friend of God, +and knew God to be his great, good and faithful Friend, and, taking Him at +His word, he had stepped out from all that he knew and loved, and gone +forth upon an unknown pathway with none but God. + +Beloved, are we trusting not only in the word of God, but have we learned +to lean our whole weight upon Himself, the God of infinite love and power, +our covenant God and everlasting Friend? + +We are told that Abraham glorified God by this life of faith. The true way +to glorify God is to let the world see what He is, and what He can do. God +does not want us so much to do things, as to let people see what He can +do. God is not looking for extraordinary characters as His instruments, +but He is looking for humble instruments through whom He can be honored +throughout the ages. + + + + + +OCTOBER 18. + + +“All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to +do” (Heb. iv. 13). + +The literal translation of this phrase is, all things are stripped and +stunned. This is the force of the Greek words. The figure is that of an +athlete in the Coliseum who has fought his best in the arena, and has at +length fallen at the feet of his adversary, disarmed and broken down in +helplessness. There he lies, unable to strike a blow, or lift his arm. He +is stripped and stunned, disarmed and disabled, and there is nothing left +for him but to lie at the feet of his adversary and throw up his arms for +mercy. + +Now this is the position that God wants to bring us to, where we shall +cease our struggles and our attempts at self-defence or self-improvement, +and throw ourselves helplessly upon the mercy of God. This is the sinner’s +only hope, and when he thus lies at the feet of mercy, Jesus is ready to +lift him up and give him that free salvation which is waiting for all. + +This, too, is the greatest need of the Christian seeking a deeper and +higher life, to come to a full realization of his nothingness and +helplessness, and to lie down, stripped and stunned at the feet of Jesus. + + + + + +OCTOBER 19. + + +“Denying ungodliness” (Titus ii. 12). + +Let us say, “No,” to the flesh, the world and the love of self, and learn +that holy self-denial in which consists so much of the life of obedience. +Make no provision for the flesh; give no recognition to your lower life. +Say “No” to everything earthly and selfish. How very much of the life of +faith consists in simply denying ourselves. + +We begin with one great “Yes,” to God, and then we conclude with an +eternal “No,” to ourselves, the world, the flesh and the devil. + +If you look at the ten commandments of the Decalogue, you will find that +nearly every one of them is a “Thou shalt not.” If you read the thirteenth +chapter of First Corinthians, with its beautiful picture of love, you will +find that most of the characteristics of love are in the negative, what +love “does not, thinks not, says not, is not.” And so you will find that +the largest part of the life of consecration is really saying, “No.” + +I am not my own, + I belong to Him. +I am His alone, + I belong to Him. + + + + + +OCTOBER 20. + + +“Let us not be weary in well-doing” (Gal. vi. 9). + +If Paul could only know the consolation and hope that he has ministered to +the countless generations who have marched along the pathway from the +cross to the Kingdom above, he would be willing to go through a thousand +lives and a thousand deaths such as he endured for the blessing that has +followed since his noble head rolled in the dust by the Ostian gate of +Rome. + +And if the least of us could only anticipate the eternal issues that will +probably spring from the humblest services of faith, we should only count +our sacrifices and labors unspeakable heritages of honor and opportunity, +and would cease to speak of trials and sacrifices made for God. + +The smallest grain of faith is a deathless and incorruptible germ, which +will yet plant the heavens and cover the earth with harvests of +imperishable glory. Lift up your head, beloved, the horizon is wider than +the little circle that you can see. We are living, we are suffering, we +are laboring, we are trusting, for the ages yet to come! + + + + + +OCTOBER 21. + + +“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom. viii. 35). + +And then comes the triumphant answer, after all the possible obstacles and +enemies have been mentioned one by one, “Nay, in all these things we are +more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.” Our trials will be +turned to helps; our enemies will be taken prisoners and made to fight our +battles. Like the weights on yonder clock, which keep it going, our very +difficulties will prove incentives to faith and prayer, and occasions for +God becoming more real to us. + +We shall get out of our troubles not only deliverance but triumph, and in +all these things be even more than conquerors through Him that loved us. + +Our security depends not upon our unchanging love, but on the love of God +in Christ Jesus toward us. It is not the clinging arms of the babe on the +mother’s breast that keep it from falling, but the strong arms of the +mother about it which will never let it go. He has loved us with an +everlasting love, and although all else may change, yet He will never +leave us nor forsake us. + + + + + +OCTOBER 22. + + +“Touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb. iv. 15). + +Some of us know a little what it is to be thrilled with a sense of the +sufferings of others, and sometimes, the sins of others, and sins that +seem to saturate us as they come in contact with us, and throw over us an +awful sense of sin and need. + +This is, perhaps, intended to give us some faint conception of the +sympathy that Jesus felt when He had taken our sins, our sicknesses and +our sorrows. Let us not hesitate to lay them on Him! It is far easier for +Him to bear them off us than to bear them with us. He has already borne +them for us, both in His life and in His death. Let us roll the burden +upon Him, and let it roll away, and then, strong in His strength, and +rested in His life and love, let us go forth to minister to others the +sympathy and help which He has so richly given us. + +The world is full of sorrow, and they that have known its bitterness and +healing are God’s ministers of consolation to a weeping world. + +O, the tears that flow around us, + Let us wipe them while we may; +Bring the broken hearts to Jesus, + He will wipe their tears away. + + + + + +OCTOBER 23. + + +“How long halt ye between two opinions?” (I. Kings xviii. 21). + +It is strange that people will not get over the idea that a consecrated +life is a difficult one. A simple illustration will answer this foolish +impression. Suppose a street car driver were to say, “It is much easier to +run with one wheel on the track and the other off,” his line would soon be +dropped by the public, and they would prefer to walk. Of course, it is +ever so much easier to run with both wheels on the track, and always on +the track, and it is much easier to follow Christ fully than to follow +with a half heart and halting step. The prophet was right in his pungent +question, “How long halt ye between two opinions?” The undecided man is a +halting man. The halting man is a lame man and a miserable man, and the +out-and-out Christian is the admiration of men and angels, and a continual +joy to himself. + +Say, is it all for Jesus, + As you so often sing; +Is He your Royal Master, + Is He your heart’s true King? + + + + + +OCTOBER 24. + + +“First gave their ownselves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God” +(II. Cor. viii. 5). + +It is essential, in order to be successful in Christian work, that you +shall be loyal not only to God, but to the work with which you are +associated. The more deeply one knows the Lord the easier it is to get +along with Him. + +Superficial Christians are apt to be crotchetty. Mature Christians are so +near the Lord that they are not afraid of missing His guidance, and not +always trying to assert their loyalty to Him and independence of others. + +The Corinthians, who had given themselves first to the Lord, had no +difficulty in giving themselves to His Apostle by the will of God. It is +delightful to work with true hearts on whom we can utterly depend. + +God give us the spirit of a sound mind and the heart to “help along.” + +You can help by holy prayer, + Helpful love and joyful song; +O, the burdens you may bear; + O, the sorrows you may share; +O, the crowns you may yet may wear, + If you help along. + + + + + +OCTOBER 25. + + +“Now it is high time to awake out of sleep. Let us cast off the works of +darkness and let us put on the armor of light” (Rom. xiii. 11, 12). + +Let us wake out of sleep; let us be alert; let us be alive to the great +necessities that really concern us. + +Let us put off the garments of the night and the indulgences of the night; +the loose robes of pleasure and flowing garments of repose; the festal +pleasures of the hours of darkness are not for the children of the day. +Let us cast off the works of darkness. + +Let us arm ourselves for the day. Before we put on our clothes, let us put +on our weapons, for we are stepping out into a land of enemies and a world +of dangers; let us put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of +faith and love, and the shield of faith, and stand armed and vigilant as +the dangers of the last days gather around us. + +Let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our robe of day. Not our own +works or righteousness, but the person and righteousness of the Lord Jesus +Christ, who gave us His very life, and becomes to us our All-Sufficiency. + + + + + +OCTOBER 26. + + +“Go out into the highways and compel them to come in” (Luke xiv. 23). + +In the great parable in the fourteenth chapter of Luke, giving an account +of the great supper an ancient lord prepared for his friends and +neighbors, and to which, when they asked to be excused, he invited the +halt and the lame from the city slums and the lepers from outside the +gate, there is a significant picture and object lesson of the program of +Christianity in this age. + +In the first place, it is obvious to every thoughtful mind that the Master +is beginning to excuse the Gospel-hardened people of Christian countries. +It is getting constantly more difficult to interest the unsaved of our own +land, especially those that have been accustomed to hear the Gospel and +the things of Christ. They have asked to be excused from the Gospel feast, +and the Lord is excusing them. + +At the same time, two remarkable movements indicated in the parable are +becoming more and more manifest in our time. One is the Gospel for the +slums and the neglected classes at home; the other is the Gospel for the +heathen or the neglected classes abroad. + + + + + +OCTOBER 27. + + +“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard +for Me?” (Jer. xxxii. 27.) + +Cyrus, the King, was compelled to fulfil the vision of Jeremiah, by making +a decree, the instant the prophecy had foretold, declaring that Jehovah +had bidden him rebuild Jerusalem and invite her captives to return to +their native home. So Jeremiah’s faith was vindicated and Jehovah’s +prophecy gloriously fulfilled, as faith ever will be honored. Oh, for the +faith, that in the dark present and the darker future, shall dare to +subscribe the evidences and seal up the documents if need be, for the time +of waiting, and then begin to testify to the certainty of its hope like +the prophet of Anathoth! + +The word Anathoth has a beautiful meaning, “echoes.” So faith is the +“echo” of God and God always gives the “echo” to faith, as He answers it +back in glorious fulfilment. Oh, let our faith echo also the brave claim +of the ancient prophet and take our full inheritance, with his glorious +shout, “Oh, Lord, Thou art the God of all flesh, is there anything too +hard for the Lord?” and back like an echo will come the heavenly answer to +our heart, “I am the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for Me?” + + + + + +OCTOBER 28. + + +“Thou good servant, because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have +thou authority over ten cities” (Luke xix. 17). + +It is not our success in service that counts, but our fidelity. Caleb and +Joshua were faithful and God remembered it when the day of visitation +came. It was a very difficult and unpopular position, and all of us are +called in the crisis of our lives to stand alone and in this very matter +of trusting God for victory over sin and our full inheritance in Christ we +have all to be tested as they. + +Our brethren even in the church of God, while admitting in the abstract +the loveliness and advantages of such an ideal life, tell us as they told +Israel that it is impracticable and impossible, and many of us have to +stand alone for years witnessing to the power of Christ to save His people +to the uttermost and like Caleb following Him wholly, if alone. But this +is the real victory of faith and the proof of our uncompromising fidelity. + +Let us not therefore complain when we suffer reproach for our testimony or +stand alone for God, but thank Him that He so honors us, and so stand the +test that He can afterwards use us when the multitudes are glad to follow. + + + + + +OCTOBER 29. + + +“Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you” (John +xvi. 23). + +Two men go to the bank cashier, both holding in their hands a piece of +paper. One is dressed in expensive style, and presents a gloved and +jeweled hand; the other is a rough, unwashed workman. The first is +rejected with a polite sentence, and the second receives a thousand +dollars over the counter. What is the difference? The one presented a +worthless name; the other handed in a note endorsed by the president of +the bank. And so the most virtuous moralist will be turned away from the +gates of mercy, and the vilest sinner welcomed in if he presents the name +of Jesus. + +What shall we give to infinite purity and righteousness? Jesus! No other +gift is worthy for God to receive. And He has given Him to us for this +very end, to give back as our substitute and satisfaction. And He has +“testified” of this gift what He has of no other, namely, that in Him He +is well pleased and all who receive Him “are accepted in the Beloved.” +Shall we accept the testimony that God is satisfied with His Son? Shall we +be satisfied with Him? + + + + + +OCTOBER 30. + + +“Dwell deep” (Jer. xlix. 8). + +God’s presence blends with every other thought and consciousness, flowing +sweetly and evenly through our business plans, our social converse our +heart’s affections, our manual toil, our entire life, blending with all, +consecrating all, and conscious through all, like the fragrance of a +flower, or the presence of a friend consciously near, and yet not +hindering in the least the most intense and constant preoccupation of the +hands and brain. How beautiful the established habit of this unceasing +communion and dependence, amid and above all thoughts and occupations! How +lovely to see a dear old saint folding away his books at night and humbly +saying, “Lord Jesus, things are still just the same between us,” and the +falling asleep in His keeping. + +So let us be stayed upon Him. Let us grow into Him with all the root and +fibers of our being. He will not get tired of our friendship. He will not +want to put us off sometimes. Beautiful the words of the suffering saint: +“He never says good-bye.” He stays. So let us be stayed on Him. + + + + + +OCTOBER 31. + + +“My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in +weakness” (II. Cor. xii. 9). + +God allowed the crisis to close around Jacob on the night when he bowed at +Peniel in supplication to bring him to the place where he could take hold +of God as he never would have done; and from that narrow pass of peril +Jacob came enlarged in his faith and knowledge of God, and in the power of +a new and victorious life. He had to compel David, by a long and painful +discipline of years, to learn the almighty power and faithfulness of his +God, and to grow up into the established principles of faith and +godliness, which were indispensable for his subsequent and glorious career +as the king of Israel. + +Nothing but the extremities in which Paul was constantly placed could ever +have taught him, and taught the church through him, the full meaning of +the great promise he so learned to claim, “My grace is sufficient for +thee.” And nothing but our trials and perils would ever have led some of +us to know Him as we do, to trust Him as we have, and to draw from Him the +measures of grace which our very extremities made indispensable. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 1. + + +“We will come unto him and make our abode with him” (John xiv. 23). + +This idea of trying to get a holiness of your own, and then have Christ +reward you for it, is not His teaching. Oh, no; Christ is the holiness; He +will bring the holiness, and come and dwell in the heart forever. + +When one of our millionaires purchases a lot, with an old shanty on it, he +does not fix up the old shanty, but he gets a second-hand man, if he will +have it, to tear it down, and he puts a mansion in its place. It is not +fixing up the house that you need, but to give Christ the vacant lot, and +He will excavate below our old life and build a house where He will live +forever. + +Now that is what we mean when we say that Christ will be the preparation +for the blessing, and make way for His own approach. It is as when a great +Assyrian king used to set out on a march. He did not command the people to +make a road, but he sent on his own men, and they cut down the trees and +filled the broken places, and levelled the mountains. So He will, if we +will let Him, be the Coming King, the Author and Finisher of our faith. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 2. + + +“Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II. +Cor. x. 5). + +If we would abide in Christ we must have no confidence in self. +Self-repression must be ever the prime necessity of divine fulness and +efficiency. Now you know how quickly you spring to the front when any +emergency arises. When something in which you are interested comes up, you +say what you think under some sudden impulse, and then perhaps you have +weeks of taking back your thought and taking the Lord’s instead. It is +only when we get out of the way of the Lord that He can use us. So, be out +of self, always suspending your will about everything until you have +looked at it and said: “Lord, what is your will? What is your thought +about it?” + +Those who thus abide in Christ have the habit of reserve and quiet; they +are not rattling and reckless talkers, they will not always have an +opinion about everything, and they will not always know what they are +going to do. There will be a deferential holding back of judgment, and +walking softly with God. It is our headlong, impulsive spirit that keeps +us so constantly from hearing and following the Lord. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 3. + + +“This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend” (Song of Solomon v. 16). + +He is our Friend. “Which of you shall have a friend at night?” This has +deep significance through the experience of each one of us. Who has not +had a friend, and more of a friend in some respects than even a father? + +There are some intimacies not born of human blood that are the most +intense and lasting bonds of earthly love. One by one let us count them +over and recall each act and bond of love, and think of all that we may +trust them for and all in which they stood by us, and then as we +concentrate the whole weight of recollection and affection, let us put God +in that place of confidence and think He is all that and infinitely more. + +Our Friend! The one who is personally interested in us; who has set His +heart upon us; who has come near to us in the tender and delicate intimacy +of unspeakable fellowship; who gave us such invaluable pledges and +promises; who has done so much for us, and who is ever ready to take any +trouble or go to any expense to aid us—to Him we are coming in prayer, our +Heavenly Friend. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 4. + + +“Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings as in obeying the voice +of the Lord?” (I. Sam. xv. 22). + +Many a soul prays for sanctification, but fails to enter into the blessing +because he does not intelligently understand and believingly accept God’s +appointed means by Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit. Many a +prayer for the salvation of others is hindered because the very friend +takes the wrong course to bring about the answer, and resorts to means +which are wholly fitted to defeat his worthy object. + +We know many a wife who is pleading for her husband’s soul, and hoping to +win him by avoiding anything that may offend him, and yielding to all his +worldly tastes in the vain hope of attracting him to Christ. Far more +effective would be an attitude of fidelity to God and fearless testimony +to Him, such as God could bless. + +Many a congregation wonders why it is so poor and struggling. It may be +found that its financial methods are wholly unscriptural and often +unworthy of ordinary self-respect. + +When we ask God for any blessing, we must allow Him to direct the steps +which are to bring the answer. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 5. + + +“I in them, and Thou in Me” (John xvii. 23). + +If we would be enlarged to the full measure of God’s purpose, let us +endeavor to realize something of our own capacities for His filling. + +We little know the size of a human soul and spirit. Never, until He +renews, cleanses and enters the heart can we have any adequate conception +of the possibilities of the being whom God made in His very image, and +whom He now renews after the pattern of the Lord Jesus Himself. + +We know, however, that God has made the human soul to be His temple and +abode, and that He knows how to make the house that can hold His infinite +fulness. We know something of this as all our nature quickens into spring +tide life at the coming of the Holy Spirit, and as from time to time new +baptisms awaken the dormant powers and susceptibilities that we did not +know we possessed. + +Oh, let us give Him the right to make the best of us, and, with wonder +filled, we shall some day behold the glorious temple which He has reared, +and shall say, “Lord, what is man that Thou hast set Thine heart upon +Him?” + + + + + +NOVEMBER 6. + + +“Bless the Lord, O, my soul” (Ps. ciii. 1). + +Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me be stirred up to +magnify His holy name. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His +benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy +diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with +lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good +things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Who so well can +sing this thanksgiving song as we, rejoicing as most of us do, we trust, +in this full salvation, and praising God for the glorious health of a +risen Lord and a continual youth? + +This psalm and its opening verses is in the very center of the Scriptures +by an exact count of letters and verses. So let it stand in our lives, as +we look backward and forward and upward in grateful thanksgiving as we +sing in its closing strains, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is +within me, bless His holy name.” Lord, center my heart in Thee and in the +spirit of love and praise. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 7. + + +“I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee” +(Isa. xli. 10). + +God has three ways of helping us: First, He says, “I will strengthen +thee”; that is, I will make you a little stronger yourself. And secondly, +“I will help thee”; that is, I will add My strength to your strength, but +you shall lead and I will help you. But thirdly, when you are ready, “I +will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness”; that is, I will +lift you up bodily and carry you altogether, and it will neither be your +strength or My help, but My complete upholding. Hence it must be quite +true, that when we come to the end of our strength, we come to the +beginning of His, and that in Him the weakest are the strongest, and the +most helpless the most helped. “He giveth power to the faint,” but to +“them that have no might” at all “He gives more strength,” and His word +forever is, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” The answer is a paradox of +contradictions, and yet the most practical truths, “Most gladly, +therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may +rest upon me; for when I am weak, then am I strong.” + + + + + +NOVEMBER 8. + + +“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free” +(Rom. viii. 2). + +There is a natural law of sin and sickness, and if we just let ourselves +go and sink into the trend of circumstances we shall go down and sink +under the power of the tempter. But there is another law of spiritual life +and of physical life in Christ Jesus to which we can rise and through +which we can counterpoise and overcome the other law that bears us down. +But to do this requires real spiritual energy and fixed purpose and a +settled posture and habit of faith. It is just the same when we bind the +power in our factory. We must turn the belt on and keep it on. The power +is there, but we must keep the connection and while we do so the law of +this higher power will work and all the machinery will be in operation. +There is a spiritual law of choosing, believing, abiding and holding +steady in our walk with God which is essential to the working of the Holy +Ghost either in our sanctification or healing. + +There is a word that saves the soul, + “I will trust”; +It makes the sick and suffering whole. + “I will trust.” + + + + + +NOVEMBER 9. + + +“Because I live ye shall live also” (John xiv. 19). + +After having become adjusted to our Living Head and the source of our +life, now our business is to abide, absorb and grow, leaning on His +strength, drinking in His life, feeding on Him as the Living Bread, and +drawing all of our resources from Him in continual dependence and +communion. The Holy Spirit will be the great Teacher and Minister in this +blessed process. He will take of the things of Christ and show them unto +us, and He will impart them through all the channels and functions of our +spiritual organism. As we yield ourselves to Him He will breathe His own +prayer of communion, drawing out our hearts in longings and hungerings, +which are the pledge of their own fulfilment, calling us apart in silent +and wordless prayer and opening every pore, organ, sense and sensibility +of our spiritual being to take in His life. As the lungs absorb the oxygen +of the atmosphere, as the senses breathe in the sweet odors of the garden, +so the heart instinctively receives and rejoices in the affection and +fellowship of the beloved One by our side. Thus we become like a tree +planted by the rivers of waters. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 10. + + +“But prayer was made without ceasing, of the church unto God for him” +(Acts xii. 5). + +But prayer is the link that connects us with God. This is the bridge that +spans every gulf and bears us over every abyss of danger or of need. How +significant the picture of the apostolic church: Peter in prison, the Jews +triumphant, Herod supreme, the arena of martyrdom awaiting the dawning of +the morning to drink up the apostle’s blood,—everything else against it. +“But prayer was made unto God without ceasing.” And what the sequel? The +prison open,—the apostle free,—the Jews baffled,—the wicked king eaten of +worms, a spectacle of hideous retribution, and the Word of God rolling on +in greater victory. + +Do we know the power of our supernatural weapon? Do we dare to use it with +the authority of a faith that commands as well as asks? God baptize us +with holy audacity and Divine confidence. He is not wanting great men, but +He is wanting men that will dare to prove the greatness of their God. + +But God! But prayer! + + + + + +NOVEMBER 11. + + +“Reckon yourselves dead, indeed” (Rom. vi. 11). + +Our life from the dead is to be followed up by the habit and attitude +henceforth which is the logical outcome of all this. “Reckon yourselves +_dead indeed_, unto sin, but _alive unto God_ through Jesus Christ, and +yield yourselves unto God,” not to die over again every day, “_but, as +those who are alive from the dead_, and your members as instruments of +righteousness unto God.” + +Further His resurrection life is given to fit us for “the fellowship of +His sufferings and to be made conformable unto His death.” + +It is intended to enable us to toil and suffer with rejoicing and victory. +We “mount up with wings as eagles,” that we may come back to “run and not +be weary, to walk and not faint.” + +But let us not mistake the sufferings. They do not mean _our_ sufferings, +but His. They are not our struggles after holiness, our sicknesses and +pains, but those higher sufferings which, with Him, we bear for others, +and for a suffering church and a dying world. May God help us, henceforth, +never to have another sorrow for ourselves, and put us at leisure, in the +power of His resurrection, to bear His burdens and drink His cup. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 12. + + +“The earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (II. Cor. i. 22). + +Life in earnest. What a rare, what a glorious spectacle! We see it in the +Son of God, we see it in His apostle, we see it in every noble, +consecrated and truly successful life. Without it there may be a thousand +good things, but they lack the golden thread that binds them all into a +chain of power and permanence. They are like a lot of costly and beautiful +beads on a broken string, that fall into confusion, and are lost in the +end for want of the bond that alone could bind them into a life of +consistent and lasting power. O for the baptism of fire! O for “THE +EARNEST, THE SPIRIT!” O for lives that have but one thing to do or care +for! O for the depth and everlasting strength of the heart of Christ +within our breast, to love, to sacrifice, to realize, to persevere, to +live and die like Him! + +We are going forth with a trust so sacred, + And a truth so divine and deep, +With a message clear and a work so glorious, + And a charge—such a charge—to keep. +Let it be your greatest joy, my brother, + That the Lord can count on you; +And if all besides should fail and falter, + To your trust be always true. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 13. + + +“Delight thyself in the Lord” (Ps. xxxvii. 4). + +Daniel’s heart was filled with God’s love for His work and kingdom and his +prayers were the mightiest forces of his time, through which God gave to +him the restoration of Israel to their own land, and the acknowledgment by +the rulers of the world of the God of whom he testified and for whom he +lived. + +There is a beautiful promise in the thirty-seventh Psalm, “Delight thyself +in the Lord, and He will give thee the desires of thine heart,” which it +is, perhaps, legitimate to translate, that not only does it mean the +fulfilment of our desires, but even the inspiration of our desires, the +inbreathing of His thoughts into us, so that our prayers shall be in +accord with His will and so shall bring back to us the unfailing answer of +His mighty providence. + +Teach me Thy thoughts, O God! + Think Thou, Thyself, in me, +Then shall I only always think + Thine own thoughts after Thee. + +Teach me Thy thoughts, O God! + Show me Thy plan divine: +Save me from all my plans and works, + And lead me into Thine. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 14. + + +“The things which are seen are temporal” (II. Cor. iv. 18). + +How strong is the snare of the things that are seen, and how necessary for +God to keep us in the things that are unseen! If Peter is to walk on the +water, he must walk; if he is going to swim, he must swim, but he cannot +do both. If the bird is going to fly it must keep away from the fences and +the trees, and trust to its buoyant wings. But if it tries to keep within +easy reach of the ground, it will make poor work of flying. + +God had to bring Abraham to the end of his own strength, and to let him +see that in his own body he could do nothing. He had to consider his own +body as good as dead, and then take God for the whole work, and when he +looked away from himself, and trusted God alone, then He became fully +persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. + +This is what God is teaching us, and He has to keep away encouraging +results until we learn to trust without them, and then He loves to make +His word real in fact as well as faith. + +Let us look only to Him to-day to do all things as He shall choose and in +the way He shall choose. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 15. + + +“Oh, man of desires” (margin) (Dan. x. 11). + +This was the divine character given to Daniel of old. It is translated in +our version, “O man, greatly beloved.” But it literally means “O man of +desires!” This is a necessary element in all spiritual forces. It is one +of the secrets of effectual prayer, “What things soever ye desire, when ye +pray, believe that ye receive them.” The element of strong desire gives +momentum to our purposes and prayers. Indifference is an unwholesome +condition; indolence and apathy are offensive both to God and nature. + +And so in our spiritual life, God often has to wake us up by the presence +of trying circumstances, and push us into new places of trust by forces +that we must subdue, or sink beneath their power. There is no factor in +prayer more effectual than love. If we are intensely interested in an +object, or an individual, our petitions become like living forces, and not +only convey their wants to God, but in some sense convey God’s help back +to them. + +May God fill us to-day with the heart of Christ that we may glow with the +Divine fire of holy desire. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 16. + + +“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day” (Matt. xxv. 13). + +Jesus illustrates the unexpectedness of His coming by the figure of a +thief entering a house when the master was not there. Life, like the old +Jewish night, may be divided into three watches, youth, maturity, old age. +The summons to meet God may come to us in either of these watches. A +writer tells us of his experience with a camping party, of which he was a +member, and which, he tells us, always arranged to have watches at night. +“We became especially careful after what I am about to narrate happened. +During the first night, from sunset to sunrise, we had in turn carefully +guarded our camp. But when the next night came, so impressed were we with +the orderly character of the neighborhood, that we concluded that no guard +was needed until bedtime. Within our main tent the evening was spent in +story-telling, singing and general amusement. When the hour to retire +arrived, it was discovered that our other tents had been robbed and +everything of value stolen. The work was done before we thought a guard +necessary.” It is never too soon to begin watching against sin. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 17. + + +“The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them” (Num. x. 33). + +God does give us impressions but not that we should act on them as +impressions. If the impression be from God, He will Himself give +sufficient evidence to establish it beyond the possibility of a doubt. + +How beautifully we read, in the story of Jeremiah, of the impression that +came to him respecting the purchase of the field of Anathoth, but Jeremiah +did not act upon this impression until after the following day, when his +uncle’s son came to him and brought him external evidence by making a +proposal for the purchase. Then Jeremiah said: “I knew this was the word +of the Lord.” + +He waited until God seconded the impression by a providence, and then he +acted in full view of the open facts, which could bring conviction unto +others as well as himself. + +God wants us to act according to His mind. + +We are not to ignore the Shepherd’s personal voice, but like Paul and his +companions at Troas, we are to listen to all the voices that speak, and +“gather” from all the circumstances, as they did, the full mind of the +Lord. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 18. + + +“And He that sat upon the throne said, It is done” (Rev. xxi. 5, 6). + +Great is the difference between action and transaction. We may be +constantly acting without accomplishing anything, but a transaction is +action that passes beyond the point of return, and becomes a permanent +committal. Salvation is a transaction between the soul and Christ in which +the matter passes beyond recall. Sanctification is a great transaction in +which we are utterly surrendered, irrevocably consecrated and wholly +committed to the Holy Ghost, and then He comes and seals the transaction +and undertakes the work. Our covenant for our Lord’s healing should be +just as explicit, definite and irrevocable. And so of the covenants to +which God is leading His children from time to time in regard to other +matters of obedience and service. God grant that during this hallowed day +many a consecrated life may be able to say with new significance and +permanence, “’Tis done, the great transaction’s done.” + +For the living Vine is Jesus, + In whose fulness we may hide; +And find our life and fruitfulness + As we in Him abide. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 19. + + +“We would see Jesus” (John xii. 21). + +When any great blessing is awaiting us, the devil is sure to try and make +it so disagreeable to us that we shall miss it. It is a good thing to know +him as a liar, and remember, when he is trying to prejudice us strongly +against any cause, that very likely the greatest blessing of our life lies +there. Spurgeon once said that the best evidence that God was on our side +is the devil’s growl, and we are generally pretty safe in following a +thing according to Satan’s dislike for it. Beloved, take care, lest in the +very line where your prejudices are setting you off from God’s people and +God’s truth, you are missing the treasures of your life. Take the +treasures of heaven no matter how they come to you, even if it be as +earthly treasures generally are, like the kernel inside the rough shell, +or the gem in the bosom of the hard rock. + +I have seen Jesus and my heart is dead to all beside, +I have seen Jesus, and my wants are all, in Him, supplied. +I have seen Jesus, and my heart, at last, is satisfied, + Since I’ve seen Jesus. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 20. + + +“The disciple whom Jesus loved leaned on His breast” (John xxi. 20). + +An American gentleman once visited the saintly Albert Bengel. He was very +desirous to hear him pray. So one night he lingered at his door, hoping to +overhear his closing devotions. The rooms were adjoining and the doors +ajar. The good man finished his studies, closed his books, knelt down for +a moment and simply said: “Dear Lord Jesus, things are still the same +between us,” and then sweetly fell asleep. So close was his communion with +his Lord that labor did not interrupt it, and prayer was not necessary to +renew it. It was a ceaseless, almost unconscious presence, like the +fragrance of the summer garden, or the presence of some dear one by our +side whose presence we somehow feel, even though the busy hours pass by +and not a word is exchanged. + +“O blessed fellowship, divine, + O joy, supremely sweet, +Companionship with Jesus here, + Makes life with joy replete; +O wondrous grace, O joy sublime, +I’ve Jesus with me all the time.” + + + + + +NOVEMBER 21. + + +“Consider the lilies how they grow” (Matt. vi. 28). + +It is said that a little fellow was found one day by his mother, standing +by a tall sunflower, with his feet stuck in the ground. When asked by her, +“What in the world are you doing there?” he naively answered, “Why, I am +trying to grow to be a man.” + +His mother laughed heartily at the idea of his getting planted in the +ground in order to grow, like the sunflower, and then, patting him gently +on the head, “Why, Harry, that is not the way to grow. You can never grow +bigger by trying. Just come right in, and eat lots of good food, and have +plenty of play, and you will soon grow to be a man without trying so +hard.” + +Well, Harry’s mother was right. Mrs. H. W. Smith never said a sweeter +thing than when she answered the question—“How do the lilies grow?” by +simply adding, “They grow without trying.” + +Our sweetest spiritual life is the life of self-unconsciousness through +which we become so united to Christ, and live continually on His life, +nourished, fed and constantly filled with His Spirit and presence and all +the fulness of His imparted life. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 22. + + +“Cast the beam out of thine own eye” (Matt. vii. 5). + +Greater than the fault you condemn and criticise is the sin of criticism +and condemnation. There is no place we need such grace as in dealing with +an erring one. A lady once called on us on her way to give an erring +sister a piece of her mind. We advised her to wait until she could love +her a little more. Only He who loved sinners well enough to die for them +can deal with the erring. We never see all the heart. He does, and He can +convict without condemning, and reprove without discouraging. Oh, for more +of the heart of Christ! Take care, brother, how you speak of another’s +fault. Ere you know, you may be in the same or deeper condemnation. Very +significantly does the Master say that the man that sees a mote in his +brother’s eye, usually has a rafter in his own eye! One of the two +unpardonable sins of the Bible is unforgiving lovelessness. + +“Give me a heart like Thine, +Give me a heart like Thine, + By Thy wonderful power, + By Thy grace every hour, +Give me a heart like Thine.” + + + + + +NOVEMBER 23. + + +“It is high time to awake out of sleep” (Rom. xiii. 11). + +One of the greatest enemies to faith is indolence. It is much easier to +lie and suffer than to rise and overcome; much easier to go to sleep on a +snowbank and never wake again, than to rouse one’s self and shake off the +lethargy and overcome the stupor. Faith is an energetic art; prayer is +intense labor; the effectual working prayer of the righteous man availeth +much. + +Satan tries to put us to sleep, as he did the disciples in the garden; but +let us not sleep as do others, but let us wake and be sober, continuing in +prayer and watching therein with all perseverance, stirring up ourselves +to take hold of His strength, “not slothful, but followers of them, who, +through patience, inherit the promise.” It is the wind that carries the +ship across the waves; but the wind is powerless unless the hand of the +boatman is held firmly upon the rudder, and that rudder is set hard +against the wind. In like manner we hold the rudder, God fills the sails. +It is not the rudder that carries the ship; but it is the rudder which +catches the wind that carries the ship, so God keeps us in perfect peace +while we are stayed upon Him. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 24. + + +“I can do all things through Christ” (Phil. iv. 13). + +A dear sister said one day: “I have so much work to do that I have not +time to get strength to do it by waiting on the Lord.” Surely that was +making bricks without straw, and even if it was the name of the Lord and +the church, it was the devil’s bondage. God sends not His servants on +their own charges; but “He is able to make all grace abound towards us, +that we, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto +every good work.” The old story of the chieftain, fleeing from his foes +and almost overtaken, but stopping in the midst of his flight to get a +shoe upon his horse that he might fly more successfully is a true type and +lesson for Christian workers. + +The old Latin motto _festina lente_, “make haste slowly,” has a great +lesson for us. The more work we have to do, the more frequently we have to +drop our head upon our desk and wait a little for heavenly aid and love, +and then press on with new strength. One hour baptized in the love of the +Holy Ghost is worth ten battling against wind and tide without the +heavenly life. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 25. + + +“Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come” (I. Cor. iv. 5). + +Nothing will more effectually arrest the working of the Spirit in the +heart than the spirit of criticism. At the end of a meeting a young +minister came forward and told us of the great blessing he had received +that afternoon, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit that had come into his +heart and being, setting him free from the bondage of years. And then he +added, “It all came through your answer to that question, ‘Will a +criticizing spirit hinder the Holy Ghost from filling the heart?’ ” + +As the question was asked and answered, he said, “I was sitting in the +church criticizing a good deal that was going on, objecting to this thing +and to that thing, finding fault with the expressions, and praises and +testimonies, and feeling thoroughly unhappy. The Lord brought the answer +home to my heart and convicted me of my sin, and there and then I laid it +down and began to see the good instead of the evil. Blessing fell upon me +and my soul was filled with joy and praise, and I saw where my error lay, +that for years I had been trying to see the truth with my head instead of +my heart.” + + + + + +NOVEMBER 26. + + +“He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit” (John xv. 2). + +One day we passed a garden. The gardener had finished his pruning, and the +wounds of the knife and saw were beginning to heal, while the warm April +sun was gently nourishing the stricken plant into fresh life and energy. +We thought as we looked at that plant how cruel it would be to begin next +week and cut it down again. It would bleed to death. Now, the gardener’s +business is to revive and nourish into life. Its business is not to die, +but to live. So, we thought, it is with the discipline of the soul. It, +too, has its dying hour; but it must not be always dying. Rather reckon +ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus +Christ our Lord Everlasting. + +Breathe Thine own breath through all my mortal frame, +Help me Thy resurrection life to claim, +Which, ’mid all changes, still abides the same, + And lead me in the way Everlasting. + +Give me the heavenly foretaste here, I pray; +Let faith foredate the everlasting day, +And walking in its glory all the way, + O, lead me in the way Everlasting! + + + + + +NOVEMBER 27. + + +“And the remnant of the oil ... shall pour upon the head” (Lev. xiv. 18). + +In the account of the healing of the Hebrew leper there is a beautiful +picture of the touching of his ears, hands and feet, with the redeeming +blood and the consecrating oil, as a sign that his powers of +understanding, service, and conduct were set apart to God, and divinely +endued for the Master’s work and will. + +But after all this, we are significantly told that “the rest of the oil” +was to be poured upon his head. + +The former anointing was from the oil in the hand of the priest, but the +latter was to be from the log, or vessel of oil itself. It was to be +literally emptied over him, until he was bathed with all its contents. + +It is a figure of the large and boundless baptism of the Holy Ghost. It +speaks of something more even than the ordinary experiences of the +consecrated Christian. It tells of the abundant and redundant supply which +God has for us out of His illimitable fulness. + +Have we received “the rest oil”? Are we _filled_ with the Spirit, and +letting the overflow bless others? + + + + + +NOVEMBER 28. + + +“Without Me ye can do nothing” (John xv. 5). + +How much can I do for Christ? We are accustomed to say.—As much as I can. +Have we ever thought we can do more than we can? + +This thought was lately suggested by the remarks of a Christian friend, +who told how God had laid it upon her heart to do something for His cause +which was beyond her power, and when she dared to obey Him, He gave her +the assurance of His power and resources, and so marvelously met her faith +that she was enabled to do more than she could otherwise, and accomplish +her heart’s desire, and see a work fulfilled to which her resources were +unequal. + +The apostle says, “I can do all things through Christ, who is my +strength,” and yet He says we are not able to think anything, as of +ourselves. + +Oh, blessed insufficiency! Oh, blessed All-Sufficiency! Oh, blessed +nothingness, which brings us all things! Oh, blessed faith, whose rich +dowry is, “All things are possible to him that believeth”! + +O to be found of Him in peace, +Spotless and free from blame. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 29. + + +“Could ye not watch with Me one hour?” (Matt. xxvi. 40.) + +A young lady whose parents had died while she was an infant, had been +kindly cared for by a dear friend of the family. Before she was old enough +to know him, he went to Europe. Regularly he wrote to her through all his +years of absence, and never failed to send her money for all her wants. +Finally word came that during a certain week he would return and visit +her. He did not fix the day or the hour. She received several invitations +to take pleasant trips with her friends during that week. One of these was +of so pleasant a nature that she could not resist accepting it. During her +trip, he came, inquired as to her absence, and left. Returning she found +this note: “My life has been a struggle for you, might you not have waited +one week for me?” More she never heard, and her life of plenty became one +of want. Jesus has not fixed the day or hour of His return, but He has +said, “Watch,” and should He come to-day, would He find us absorbed in +thoughtless dissipation? May we be found each day, in the expectant +attitude of those watching for a loved one. + + + + + +NOVEMBER 30. + + +“In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Phil. +ii. 3). + +When the apostle speaks of “the deep things of God,” he means more than +deep spiritual truth. There must be something before this. There must be a +deep soil and a thorough foundation. + +Very much of our spiritual teaching fails, because the people to whom we +give it are so shallow. Their deeper nature has never been stirred. + +The beatitudes begin at the bottom of things, the poor in spirit, the +mourners, and the hungry hearts. Suffering is essential to profound +spiritual life. We need not go to a monastery or a leper hospital to find +it. The first real opportunity for unselfishness will bring into your life +the anguish of crucifixion, unless you are born of some different race +from Adam’s. + +It is because men and women have not faced this that they know so little +of suffering and death. We must have deep convictions. Truth must be to us +a necessity, and principle a part of our very being. Lord, make me poor in +spirit. Lord help me to be even as Thou wert when on earth, always the +lowest, and therefore “highly exalted.” + + + + + +DECEMBER 1. + + +“As He is, so are we in this world” (I. John iv. 17). + +Jesus will come into the surrendered heart and unite Himself with it, +impart to it His own life and being and become anew from day to day, the +supply of its spiritual needs and the substitute for its helplessness. + +Our part is simply to yield ourselves fully recognizing our own +worthlessness and then take Jesus Himself to live in us and be, moment by +moment, our strength, purity and victory. + +One in His death on the tree, + One as He rose from the dead; +I from the curse am as free + E’en as my glorious Head. + +One in His merits I stand, +One as I Pray in His name, +All that His worth can demand +I may with confidence claim. + +One on the Throne by His side, + One in His Sonship divine, +One as the Bridegroom and Bride, + One as the Branch and the Vine. + +All that He has shall be mine, + All that He is I shall be; +Robed in His glory divine, + I shall be even as He. + + + + + +DECEMBER 2. + + +“Looking diligently lest any man fail” (Heb. xii. 15). + +It is not losing all, but coming short we are to fear. We may not lose our +souls, but we may lose something more precious than life—His full +approval, His highest choice, and our incorruptible and star-gemmed crown. +It is the one degree more that counts, and makes all the difference +between hot water—powerless in the boiler—and steam—all alive with power, +and bearing its precious freight across the continent. + +I want, in this short life of mine, + As much as can be pressed +Of service true for God and man, + Help me to be my best. + +I want to stand when Christ appears + And hear my name confessed +Numbered among the hidden ones, + His holiest and best. + +I want, among the victor throng, + To have my name confessed; +And hear my Master say at last, + Well done, you did your best. + +Give me, O Lord, Thy highest choice; + Let others take the rest: +Their good things have no charm for me, + For I have got Thy best. + + + + + +DECEMBER 3. + + +Thy thoughts are very deep (Ps. xcii. 5). + +When a Roman soldier was told by his guide that if he insisted on taking a +certain journey it would probably be fatal he answered, “It is necessary +for me to go, it is not necessary for me to live.” That was depth. When we +are convicted like that we shall come to something. + +The shallow nature lives in its impulses, its impressions, its intuitions, +its instincts, and very largely in its surroundings. The profound +character looks beyond all these and moves steadily on, sailing past all +the storms and clouds into the clear sunshine which is always on the other +side, and waiting for the afterwards which always brings the reversion of +sorrow and seeming defeat and failure. + +When God has deepened us, then He can give us His deeper truths, His +profoundest secrets, and His mightier trusts. + +Lord, lead me into the depths of Thy life and save me from a shallow +experience. + +On to broader fields of holy vision; + On to loftier heights of faith and love; +Onward, upward, apprehending wholly, + All for which He calls thee from above. + + + + + +DECEMBER 4. + + +“From me is thy fruit found” (Hos. xiv. 8). + +Nothing keeps us from advancement more than ruts and drifts, and +wheel-tracks into which our chariots roll and then move on in the narrow +line with unchanging monotony, currents in life’s stream on which we are +borne in the old direction until the law of habit almost makes advance +impossible. The true remedy for this is to commence at nothing; taking +Christ afresh to be the Alpha and Omega for a deeper, higher, Divine +experience, waiting even for His conception of thought, desire, prayer, +and afraid lest our highest thought should be below His great plan of +wisdom and love. + +O Comforter gentle and tender, + O holy and heavenly Dove, +We’re yielding our heart in surrender, + We’re waiting Thy fulness to prove. + +O come as the heart-searching fire, + O come as the sin-cleansing flood; +Consume us with holy desire, + And fill with the fulness of God. + +Anoint us with gladness and healing; + Baptize us with power from on high; +O come with filling and sealing + While low at the Thy footstool we lie. + + + + + +DECEMBER 5. + + +“With a perfect heart to make David King” (I. Chron. xii. 38). + +“What is the supreme purpose of our life? They were all of one heart to +make David king.” Is this our purpose, to prepare the Bride, to prepare +the world, to prepare His way? Does it dwarf and dim all other ambitions, +all other cares? Does it fill and satisfy every capacity, every power, +every desire? Does it absorb every moment, every energy, every resource? +Does it give direction and tone to every plan and work of life? Does it +decide for us the education of our children, the investment of our means, +the friendships and associations of life, the whole activity, interest and +outlook of our being? Are we in it, spirit, soul and body, all we are, all +we do, all we hope for—OF ONE HEART TO MAKE JESUS KING? + +We’re going forth united + With loyal heart and hand, +To bear His royal banner + Aboard o’er every land. + +From every tribe and nation + We’ll haste His Bride to bring. +And Oh, with what glad welcome + We’ll make our Jesus King. + + + + + +DECEMBER 6. + + +“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may +exalt you” (I. Peter v. 6). + +Opposition is essential to a true equilibrium of forces. The centripetal +and centrifugal forces acting in opposition to each other keep our planet +in her orbit. The one propelling, and the other repelling, so act and +react, that instead of sweeping off into space in a pathway of desolation +and destruction, she pursues her even orbit around her solar center. + +So God guides our lives. It is not enough to have an impelling force—we +need just as much a repelling force, and so He holds us back by the +testing ordeals of life, by the pressure of temptation and trial, by the +things that seem to be against us, but really are furthering our way and +stablishing our goings. Let us thank Him for both, let us take the weights +as well as the wings, and thus divinely impelled, let us press on with +faith and patience in our high and heavenly calling. + +Lord, help me to learn from all that comes to me this day Thy highest +will. + +Lord, help me to-day to sink under Thy blessed hand, that Thou mayest have +Thy way and will with me. + + + + + +DECEMBER 7. + + +“Abide with us; for it is toward evening” (Luke xxiv. 29). + +In His last messages to the disciples in the 14th and 15th chapters of +John, the Lord Jesus clearly teaches us that the very essence of the +highest holiness is, “Abide in Me, and I in you, for without Me ye can do +nothing.” + +The very purpose of the Holy Ghost whom He promised was to reveal Him, +that at “that day, ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, +and I in you,” and the closing echo of His intercessory prayer was +embraced in these three small but infinite words, “I in them.” + +Is it for me to be cleansed by His power + From the pollution of sin? +Is it for me to be kept every hour + By His abiding within? + +Is it for me to be perfectly whole + Thro’ His anointing divine; +Claiming in body, and spirit, and soul, + All of His fulness as mine? + +Wonderful promise so full and so free, + Wonderful Saviour, Oh, how can it be, +Cleansing and pardon and mercy for me? + Yes, it’s for me, for me. + + + + + +DECEMBER 8. + + +“Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?” (Jer. viii. +22). + +Divine healing is just divine life. It is the headship of Christ over the +body. It is the life of Christ in the frame. It is the union of our +members with the very body of Christ and the inflowing life of Christ in +our living members. It is as real as His risen and glorified body. It is +as reasonable as the fact that He was raised from the dead and is a living +man with a true body and a rational soul to-day, at God’s right hand. That +living Christ belongs to us in all His attributes and powers. We are +members of His body, His flesh and His bones, and if we can only believe +and receive it, we may live upon the very life of the Son of God. + +Lord, help me to know the “Lord for the body and the body for the Lord.” + +There is healing in the promise, + There is healing in the blood, +There is strength for all our weakness + In the risen Son of God. + +And the feeblest of His children, + All His glorious life may share; +He has healing balm in Gilead, + He’s the Great Physician there. + + + + + +DECEMBER 9. + + +“Launch out into the deep” (Luke v. 4). + +One of the special marks of the Holy Ghost in the Apostolic Church was the +spirit Of boldness. One of the most essential qualities of the faith that +is to attempt great things for God and expect great things from God, is +holy audacity. Where we are dealing with a supernatural Being, and taking +from Him things that are humanly impossible, it is easier to take much +than little; it is easier to stand in a place of audacious trust than in a +place of cautious, timid clinging to the shore. Like wise seamen in the +life of faith, let us launch out into the deep, and find that all things +are possible with God, and all things are possible unto him that +believeth. + +Let us to-day attempt great things for God, take His faith and believe for +them and His strength to accomplish them. + +The mercy of God is an ocean divine, + A boundless and fathomless flood; +Launch out in the deep, cut away the shore-line, + And be lost in the fulness of God. + +Oh, let us launch out in this ocean so broad, + Where the floods of salvation o’erflow, +Oh, let us be lost in the mercy of God, + Till the depth of His fulness we know. + + + + + +DECEMBER 10. + + +“According to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed” (II. +Cor. x. 13). + +According to thy faith be it unto thee was Christ’s great law of healing +and blessing in His earthly ministry. This was what He meant when He said, +“With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.” These +mighty measures are limited by the the measures that we bring. God deals +out His heavenly treasures to us in these glorious vessels, but each of us +must bring our drinking cup, and according to its measure we shall be +filled. + +But even the measure of our faith may be a Divine one. Thank God, the +little cup has become enlarged through the grace of Jesus, until from its +bottom there flows a pipe into the great ocean, and if that connection is +kept open we shall find that our cup is as large as the ocean and never +can be drained to the bottom. For He has said to us, “Have the faith of +God,” and surely this is an illimitable measure. + +Let us claim the mighty promise, + Let us light the torches dim; +Let us join the glorious chorus, + Nothing is too hard for Him. + + + + + +DECEMBER 11. + + +“I pray not for the world, but for them” (John xvii. 9). + +How often we say we would like to get some strong spirit to pray for us, +and feel so helped when we think they are carrying us in their faith. But +there is One whose prayers never fail to be fulfilled and who is more +willing to give them to us than any human friend. His one business at +God’s right hand is to make intercession for His people, and we are simply +coming in the line of His own appointment and His own definite promise and +provision, when we lay our burdens upon Him and claim His advocacy without +doubt or fear. “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is +passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us come boldly to the +throne of grace that we may find help in time of need.” + +Like a golden censer glowing, + Filled with burning odors rare, +All my heart is upward flowing, + In a cloud of ceaseless prayer. + +O’er the heavenly altar bending, + Jesus interceding stands, +All our prayers to heaven ascending, + Reach the Father through His hands. + + + + + +DECEMBER 12. + + +“To abide in the flesh is more needful for you, and having this +confidence, I know that I shall abide” (Phil. i. 24, 25). + +One of the most blessed things about divine healing is that the strength +it brings is holy strength, and finds its natural and congenial outflow in +holy acts and exercises. + +Mere natural strength seeks its gratification in natural pleasures and +activities, but the strength of Christ leads us to do as Christ would do, +and to seek our congenial employment in His holy service. + +The life of Christ in a human body saves it from a thousand temptations to +self-indulgence and sin, and not only gives us strength for higher +service, but also a desire for it, and puts into it a zest and spring +which gives it double power. + +Lord, help us to-day to claim Thy life and then give it for the help of +others. + +Have you found the branch of healing? + Pass it on. +Have you felt the Spirit’s sealing, + Pass it on. +’Twas for this His mercy sought you, +And to all His fulness brought you, +By the precious blood that bought you, + Pass it on. + + + + + +DECEMBER 13. + + +“He that abideth in Me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for +apart from Me ye can do nothing” (John xv. 5). + +So familiar are the vine and the branches, it is not necessary to explain; +only the branches and the vine are one. The vine does not say, I am the +central trunk running up and you are the little branches; but I am the +whole thing, and you are the whole thing. He counts us partakers of His +nature. “Apart from Me ye can do nothing.” The husband and the wife, and +many more figures contribute to this marvelous Christ teaching, which has +no parallel, no precedent in any other teaching under the sun; that Christ +is the life of His people, and that we are absolutely linked with and +dependent upon Him. All other systems teach how much man is and may +become. Christianity shows how a man must lose all he is if he would come +into full unity with Christ in His life. + +Lord, help me this day to abide in Thee. + +Oh! what a wonderful place + Jesus has given to me! +Saved by His glorious grace, + I may be even as He. + + + + + +DECEMBER 14. + + +“Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree” (Isa. lv. 13). + +Difficulties and obstacles are God’s challenges to faith. When hindrances +confront us in the path of duty we are to recognize them as vessels for +faith to fill with the fulness and all-sufficiency of Jesus, and as we go +forward, simply and fully trusting Him, we may be tested, we may have to +wait and let patience have her perfect work, but we shall surely find at +last the stone rolled away, and the Lord waiting to render unto us double +for our time of testing, and fulfil the promise, “Instead of the thorn +shall come up the fir tree, instead of the brier the myrtle tree, and it +shall be to the Lord for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” + +Oft there comes a wondrous message + When my hopes are growing dim; +I can hear it through the darkness, + Like some sweet and far-off hymn. +Nothing is too hard for Jesus, + No man can work like Him. + +When my way is closed in darkness + And my foes are fierce and grim, +Still it sings above the conflict + Like some glad, victorious hymn: +Nothing is too hard for Jesus, + No man can work like Him. + + + + + +DECEMBER 15. + + +“When my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the Rock that is higher than I” +(Ps. lxi. 2). + +The end of self is the beginning of God. “When the tale of bricks is +doubled then comes Moses.” That is the old Hebrew way of putting it. +“Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” That is the proverbial expression +of it. “When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher +than I.” That is David’s way of expressing it. “We have no might against +this company, neither know we what to do.” No might, no light—“but our +eyes are upon Thee,” that was Jehoshaphat’s experience of it. “Mine eyes +fail with looking upward. I am oppressed, Lord, undertake for me.” + +“When I had great trouble I always went to God and was wondrously carried +through; but in my little trials I used to try to manage them myself, and +often most signally failed.” So Miss Havergal has expressed the experience +of many a Christian. God wants us “at our wit’s end,” and then He will +show His wisdom, love and power. How often we ask God to help, and then +begin to count up the human probabilities! God’s very blessings become a +hindrance to us if we look from Him to them. + + + + + +DECEMBER 16. + + +“I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker +worm and the caterpillar and the palmer worm, my great army, which I sent +among you” (Joel ii. 25). + +A friend said to me once: “I have got to reap what I sowed, for God has +said: ‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’ Then why don’t +you apply this in the spiritual world, and compel the sinner to pay the +penalty of his sins?” + +Christ has borne this penalty, and the same Christ has borne the natural +penalties, too, and delivered us out of condemnation in every sense. +Physical sufferings come to us, but not under the law of retribution, but +only as a Divine discipline. Every penalty has been fulfilled by Christ +and every law satisfied, and so far as we can have risen with Him into the +plane of spiritual and eternal life, we are lifted above the mere realm of +law, and we enter into the full effects of His complete satisfaction of +every claim against us. So it is true that even the wreck that sin has +brought upon our physical and temporal life is removed by His great +atonement, and the promise is made real to us, “I will restore to you the +years that the locust hath eaten.” + + + + + +DECEMBER 17. + + +“Be careful for nothing” (Phil. iv. 6). + +What is the way to lay your burden down? “Take My yoke upon you, and learn +of Me; for I am meek and and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto +your souls.” + +“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” That is the way to take His +burden up. You will find that His burden is always light. Yours is a very +heavy one. Happy day if you have exchanged burdens and laid down your +loads at His blessed feet to take up His own instead. God wants to rest +His workers, and He is too kind to put His burden on hearts that are +already bowed down with their own weight of cares. + +Are you fearing, fretting or repining? + You can never know God’s perfect peace. +On His bosom all your weight reclining. + All your anxious doubts and cares must cease. +Would you know the peace that God has given? +Would you find the very joy of heaven? +Be careful for nothing, +Be prayerful for everything, +Be thankful for anything, +And the peace of God that passeth understanding + Shall keep your mind and heart. + + + + + +DECEMBER 18. + + +“The faith of the Son of God” (Gal. ii. 20). + +Faith is hindered most of all by what we call “our faith,” and fruitless +struggles to work out a faith which is but a make-believe and a desperate +trying to trust God, which must ever come short of His vast and glorious +promises. The truth is that the only faith that is equal to the stupendous +promises of God and the measureless needs of our life, is “the faith of +God” Himself, the very trust which He will breathe into the heart which +intelligently expects Him as its power to believe, as well as its power to +love, obey, or perform any other exercise of the new life. + +Blessed be His name! He has not given us a chain which reaches within a +single link of our poor helpless heart, but that one last link is fatal to +all the chain. Nay, the last link, the one that fastens on the human side +is as Divine as the link that binds the chain of promise in the heavens. +“Have the faith of God,” is His great command. “I live by the faith of the +Son of God” is the victorious testimony of one who had proved it true. + +Lord, teach me to have the faith of the Son of God. + + + + + +DECEMBER 19. + + +“God giveth grace unto the humble” (James iv. 6). + +One of the marks of highest worth is deep lowliness. The shallow nature, +conscious of its weakness and insufficiency, is always trying to advertise +itself and make sure of its being appreciated. The strong nature, +conscious of its strength, is willing to wait and let its work be made +manifest in due time. Indeed, the truest natures are so free from all +self-consciousness and self-consideration that their object is not to be +appreciated, understood or recompensed, but to accomplish their true +mission and fulfil the real work of life. + +One of the most suggestive expressions used respecting the Lord Jesus is +given by the evangelist John in the thirteenth chapter of His Gospel, +where we read, “Jesus, knowing that He came from God, and went to God, +riseth from supper and began to wash the disciples’ feet.” It was because +He knew His high dignity and His high destiny that He could stoop to the +lowest place and that place could not degrade Him. + +God give to us the Divine insignia of heavenly rank, a bowed head, a meek +and lowly spirit. + + + + + +DECEMBER 20. + + +“That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, +ministering the Gospel of God” (Rom. xv. 16). + +This is a very beautiful and practical conception of missionary work. +There is a great difference in being consecrated to our God. We may be +consecrated to our work and consecrated to our God. We may be consecrated +and fitted to do missionary work, and utterly fail, if He should call us +to do something different. But when we are consecrated to Him, we shall be +ready for anything He may require of us, and be as well qualified to serve +Him by the sick bed of a brother, or even in the secular duties of home, +as in standing in the pulpit or leading a soul to Christ. + +Paul’s conception is holy work, or a special sacrifice, and directly unto +Christ, and Christ alone; and he stood as one should stand at the altar of +incense, lifting up with holy hands the Gentile nations unto God, and +laying all his work like fragrant incense before the throne, pleased only +with what would please his Master, and stand the test of His inspection, +and the seal of His approval in that glorious day. + +This is the spirit of true service. + + + + + +DECEMBER 21. + + +“Give us day by day our daily bread” (Luke xi. 3). + +It is very hard to live a lifetime at once, or even a year, but it is +delightfully easy to live a day at a time. Day by day the manna fell, so +day by day we may live upon the heavenly bread, and live out our life for +Him. Let us, breath by breath, moment by moment, step by step, abide in +Him, and, just as we take care of the days, He will take care of the +years. + +God has given two precious promises for the days. “As thy days so shall +thy strength be,” is His ancient covenant, and the literal translation of +our Master’s parting words to His disciples is, “Lo, I am with you all the +days, even unto the end of the age.” + +Like the little water spider that goes down beneath the waters of the pool +enclosed in a bubble of air, and there builds its nest and rears its +young, and lives its little life in that bright sphere down beneath the +slimy pool, so let us in this dark world shut ourselves in with Christ in +the little circle of each returning day, and so abide in Him, breathing +the air of heaven and living in His love. + + + + + +DECEMBER 22. + + +“My tongue also shall talk of Thy righteousness all the day long” (Ps. +lxxi. 24). + +It is a simple law of nature, that air always comes in to fill a vacuum. +You can produce a draught at any time, by heating the air until it +ascends, and then the cold air rushes in to supply its place. And so we +can always be filled with the Holy Spirit by providing a vacuum. This +breath is dependent upon exhausting the previous breath before you can +inhale a fresh one. And so we must empty our hearts of the last breath of +the Holy Spirit that we have received, for it becomes exhausted the moment +we have received it, and we need a new supply, to prevent spiritual +asphyxia. + +We must learn the secret of breathing out, as well as breathing in. Now, +the breathing in will continue if the other part is rightly done. One of +the best ways to make room for the Holy Spirit is to recognize the needs +that come into the life as vacuums for Him to fill, and we shall find +plenty of needs all around us to be filled, and as we pour out our lives +in holy service, He will pour His in—in full measure. + +Jesus, empty me and fill me +With Thy fulness to the brim. + + + + + +DECEMBER 23. + + +“Out of the spoils won in battles, did they dedicate to maintain the house +of the Lord” (I. Chron. xxvi. 27). + +Physical force is stored in the bowels of the earth, in the coal mines, +which came from the fiery heat that burned up great forests in ancient +ages. And so spiritual force is stored in the depths of our being, through +the very sufferings which we cannot understand. Some day we shall find +that the deliverance we have won from these trials were preparing us to +become true “Great Hearts” in life’s Pilgrim’s Progress, and to lead our +fellow pilgrims triumphantly through trial to the city of the King. + +But let us never forget that the source of helping other people must be +victorious suffering. The whining, murmuring pang never does anybody any +good. Paul did not carry a cemetery with him, but a chorus choir of +victorious praise, and the harder the trial, the more he trusted and +rejoiced, shouting from the very altar of sacrifice, “Yea, and if I be +offered upon the service and sacrifice of your faith, I joy and rejoice +with you all.” + +Lord, help me this day to draw strength from all that comes to me. + + + + + +DECEMBER 24. + + +“And seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not; for behold I +will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord; but thy life will I give +unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest” (Jer. xlv. 5). + +A promise given for hard places, and a promise of safety and life in the +midst of tremendous pressure, a life for a prey. + +It may well adjust itself to our own times, which are growing harder as we +near the end of the age, and the tribulation times. + +What is the meaning of “a life for a prey”? It means a life snatched out +of the jaws of the destroyer, as David snatched the lamb from the lion. It +means not a place of security, or of removal from the noise of the battle, +and the presence of our foes, but it means a table in the midst of our +enemies, a shelter from the storm, a fortress amid the foe, a life +preserved in the face of continual pressure, Paul’s healing when pressed +out of measure so that he despaired even of life, Paul’s Divine help when +the thorn remained, but the power of Christ rested upon him and the grace +of Christ was sufficient. + +Lord, give me my life for a prey, and in the hardest places help me to-day +to be victorious. + + + + + +DECEMBER 25. + + +“I bring you glad tidings” (Luke ii. 10). + +A Christmas spirit should be a spirit of humanity. Beside that beautiful +object lesson on the Manger, the Cradle, and the lowly little child, what +Christian heart can ever wish to be proud? It is a spirit of joy. It is +right that these should be glad tidings, for, “Behold, I bring you glad +tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.” + +It is a spirit of love. It should be the joy that comes from giving joy to +others. The central fact of Christmas is the Christ who loved us, and came +to live among us and die for us, and he or she has no right to share its +joys who is living for himself or herself alone. + +Love is always sacrificial, and so the Christmas spirit will call us to a +glad and full surrender, first to God, and then the joyful sacrifice of +what we call our own for His glory and the good of others. + +The Christmas spirit is a spirit of worship. It finds the Magi at His feet +with their gold and frankincense and myrrh. Let it find us there, too. + +The Christmas spirit is a spirit of missions. Its glad tidings are for all +people. + + + + + +DECEMBER 26. + + +“The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy” (James iv. 5). + +This beautiful passage has been unhappily translated in our Revised +Version: “The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.” It ought to be, +“The Spirit that dwelleth in us loveth us to jealousy.” It is the figure +of a love that suffers because of its intense regard for the loved object. + +The Holy Ghost is so anxious to accomplish in us and for us the highest +will of God, and to receive from us the truest love for Christ, our Divine +Husband, that He becomes jealous when in any way we disappoint Him, or +divide His love with others. + +Therefore, it is said in the preceding passage, “Ye adulterers and +adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with +God?” + +Oh, shall we grieve so kind a Friend? Shall we disappoint so loving a +Husband? Shall we not meet the blessed Holy Spirit with the love He brings +us, and give in return our undivided and unbounded affection? + +Was there ever a Bridegroom so loving seeking our heart to gain? + + + + + +DECEMBER 27. + + +“He sent forth the dove which returned not again unto him” (Gen. viii. +12). + +First, we have the dove going forth from the ark, and finding no rest upon +the wild and drifting waste of sin and judgment. This represents the Old +Testament period, perhaps, when the Holy Ghost visited this sinful world, +but could find no resting-place, and went back to the bosom of God. + +Next, we have the dove going forth and returning with the olive leaf in +her mouth, the symbol and the pledge of peace and reconciliation, the sign +that judgment was passed and peace was returning. Surely this may +beautifully represent the next stage of the Holy Spirit’s manifestation, +as going forth in the ministry and death of Jesus Christ, to proclaim +reconciliation to a sinful world. + +There is a third stage, when, at length, the dove goes forth from the ark +and returns no more; but it makes the world its home, and builds its nest +amid the habitations of men. This is the third and present stage of the +Holy Spirit’s blessed work. Let us welcome the Dove to a nest in our +hearts. + + + + + +DECEMBER 28. + + +“The Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him” (Acts v. 32). + +We can only know and prove the fulness of the Spirit as we step out into +the larger purposes and plans of Christ for the world. + +Perhaps the chief reason why the Holy Spirit has been so limited in His +work in the hearts of Christians, is the shameful neglect of the unsaved +and unevangelized world by the great majority of the professed followers +of Christ. There are millions of professing Christians—and, perhaps, real +Christians—in the world, who have never given one real, earnest thought to +the evangelization of the heathen world. + +God will not give the Holy Spirit in His fulness for the selfish enjoyment +of any Christian. His power is a great trust, which we must use for the +benefit of others and for the evangelization of the lost and sinful world. +Not until the people of God awake to understand His real purpose for the +salvation of men, will the Church ever know the fulness of her Pentecost. +God’s promised power must lie along the line of duty, and as we obey the +command, we shall receive His promise in his fulness. + +Lord, help me to understand Thy plan. + + + + + +DECEMBER 29. + + +“I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts xx. +27). + +It is probable that God lets every human being, that crosses our path, +meet us, in order that we may have the opportunity of leaving some +blessing in his path, and dropping into his heart and life some influence +that will draw him nearer to God. It would be blessed, indeed, if we could +meet every immortal soul, at last, that we have ever touched in the path +of life, and truly say, “I am pure from the blood of all men.” + +Beloved, is it so? The servant that works in your household; the man that +sat beside you in the train; the laborer that wrought for you, and, above +all, the members of your household and family, your fellow-laborer in the +shop or factory, have you done your best to lead them to Christ? + +The early Christians regarded every situation as an opportunity to witness +for Christ. Even when brought before kings and governors, it never +occurred to them that they were to try to get free, but the Master’s +message to them was, “It shall turn to you for a testimony.” It was simply +an occasion to preach to kings and rulers, whom otherwise they could not +reach. + + + + + +DECEMBER 30. + + +“That God would fulfil in you all the good pleasure of His goodness, and +the work of faith with power” (II. Thess. i. 11). + +Our God is looking to-day for pattern men, and when He gets a true sample, +it is very easy to reproduce it in a thousand editions, and multiply it in +other lives without limitation. + +All the experiences of life come to us as tests, and as we meet them, our +loving Father is watching with intense and jealous love, to see us +overcome, and if we fail He is deeply disappointed, and our adversary is +filled with joy. + +We are a gazing-stock continually for angels and principalities, and every +step we take is critical and decisive for something in our eternal future. + +When Abraham went forth that morning to Mount Moriah, it was an hour of +solemn probation, and when he came back he was one of God’s tested men, +with the stamp of His eternal approbation. God could say, “I know him, +that he will do judgment and justice, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham +all that He hath spoken.” + +God is looking for such men to-day. Lord, help me to be such an one. + + + + + +DECEMBER 31. + + +“I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou +shouldst keep them from the evil” (John xvii. 15). + +He wants us here for some higher purpose than mere existence. That purpose +is nothing else than to represent Him to the world, to be the messengers +of His Gospel and His will to men, and by our lives to exhibit to them the +true life, and teach them how to live it themselves. + +He is representing us yonder, and our one business is to represent Him +here. We are just as truly sent into this world to represent Him as if we +had gone to China as the ambassador of the American Government. + +While engaged in the secular affairs of life, it is simply that we may +represent Him there, carry on His business, and have means to use for His +affairs. He came here from another realm, and with a special message, and +when His work was done He was called to go home to His Father’s +dwelling-place and His own. + +Lord, help me to worthily represent Thee. + +And carry music in our heart +Through busy street and wrangling mart; +Plying our daily task with busier feet, +Because our souls a heavenly strain repeat. + + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAYS OF HEAVEN UPON EARTH*** + + + +CREDITS + + +March 27, 2009 + + Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1 + Produced by Robin Monks, Sea View Full Gospel Church Library + (http://seaviewministries.com), David King, and the Online + Distributed Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. + + + +A WORD FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG + + +This file should be named 28416-0.txt or 28416-0.zip. + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + + + http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/4/1/28416/ + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one — the old editions will be +renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one +owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and +you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission +and without paying copyright royalties. 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