Streams in the Desert
By Charles E.Cowman
(1) A Bar of Steel
"I will make thee a new sharp threshing
instrument" (Isa. 41:15).
A bar of steel worth five dollars, when wrought
into horseshoes, is worth ten dollars. If made
into needles, it is worth three hundred and fifty
dollars; if into penknife blades, it is worth
thirty-two thousand dollars; if into springs for
watches it is worth two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. What a drilling the poor bar
must undergo to be worth this! But the more it is
manipulated, the more it is hammered, and passed
through the fire, and beaten and pounded and
polished, the greater the value.
May this parable help us to be silent, still, and
longsuffering. Those who suffer most are capable
of yielding most; and it is through pain that God
is getting the most out of us, for His glory and
the blessing of others. --Selected
"Oh, give Thy servant patience to be still,
And bear Thy will;
Courage to venture wholly on the arm
That will not harm;
The wisdom that will never let me stray
Out of my way;
The love that, now afflicting, knoweth best
When I should rest."
Life is very mysterious. Indeed it would be
inexplicable unless we believed that God was
preparing us for scenes and ministries that lie
beyond the veil of sense in the eternal world,
where highly-tempered spirits will be required
for special service.
"The turning-lathe that has the sharpest knives
produces the finest work."
(2) In His Name
"Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask
and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full"
(John 16:24).
During the Civil War, a man had an only son who
enlisted in the armies of the Union. The father
was a banker and, although he consented to his
son's going, it seemed as if it would break his
heart to let him go.
He became deeply interested in the soldier boys,
and whenever he saw a uniform, his heart went out
as he thought of his own dear boy. He spent his
time, neglected his business, gave his money to
caring for the soldiers who came home invalid.
His friends remonstrated with him, saying he had
no right to neglect his business and spend so
much thought upon the soldiers, so he fully
decided to give it all up.
After he had come to this decision, there stepped
into his bank one day a private soldier in a
faded, worn uniform, who showed in his face and
hands the marks of the hospital.
The poor fellow was fumbling in his pocket to get
something or other, when the banker saw him and,
perceiving his purpose, said to him:
"My dear fellow, I cannot do anything for you
today. I am extremely busy. You will have to go
to your headquarters; the officers there will
look after you."
Still the poor convalescent stood, not seeming to
fully understand what was said to him. Still he
fumbled in his pockets and, by and by, drew out a
scrap of dirty paper, on which there were a few
lines written with a pencil, and laid this soiled
sheet before the banker. On it he found these
words:
"Dear Father: "This is one of my comrades who was
wounded in the last fight, and has been in the
hospital. Please receive him as myself.
--Charlie."
In a moment all the resolutions of indifference
which this man made, flew away. He took the boy
to his palatial home, put him in Charlie's room,
gave him Charlie's seat at the table, kept him
until food and rest and love had brought him back
to health, and then sent him back again to
imperil his life for the flag. –Selected
(3) An Hour In The Garden
"He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and
when evening was come, he was there alone" (Matt.
14:23).
The man Christ Jesus felt the need of perfect
solitude--Himself alone, entirely by Himself,
alone with Himself. We know how much intercourse
with men draws us away from ourselves and
exhausts our powers. The man Christ Jesus knew
this, too, and felt the need of being by Himself
again, of gathering all His powers, of realizing
fully His high destiny, His human weakness, His
entire dependence on the Father.
How much more does the child of God need
this--himself alone with spiritual realities,
himself alone with God the Father. If ever there
were one who could dispense with special seasons
for solitude and fellowship, it was our Lord. But
He could not do His work or maintain His
fellowship in full power, without His quiet time.
Would God that every servant of His understood
and practiced this blessed art, and that the
Church knew how to train its children into some
sense of this high and holy privilege, that every
believer may and must have his time when he is
indeed himself alone with God. Oh, the thought to
have God all alone to myself, and to know that
God has me all alone to Himself!
--Andrew Murray
Lamertine speaks in one of his books of a
secluded walk in his garden where his mother
always spent a certain hour of the day, upon
which nobody ever dreamed for a moment of
intruding. It was the holy garden of the Lord to
her. Poor souls that have no such Beulah land!
Seek thy private chamber, Jesus says. It is in
the solitude that we catch the mystic notes that
issue from the soul of things.
(4) A MEDITATION
My soul, practice being alone with Christ! It is
written that when they were alone He expounded
all things to His disciples. Do not wonder at the
saying; it is true to thine experience. If thou
wouldst understand thyself send the multitude
away. Let them go out one by one till thou art
left alone with Jesus. . . . Has thou ever
pictured thyself the one remaining creature in
the earth, the one remaining creature in all the
starry worlds?
In such a universe thine every thought would be
"God and I! God and I!" And yet He is as near to
thee as that--as near as if in the boundless
spaces there throbbed no heart but His and thine.
Practice that solitude, O my soul! Practice the
expulsion of the crowd! Practice the stillness of
thine own heart! Practice the solemn refrain "God
and I! God and I!" Let none interpose between
thee and thy wrestling angel! Thou shalt be both
condemned and pardoned when thou shalt meet Jesus
alone! --George Matheson
(5) His Billows
"All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me"
(Ps. 42:7).
They are HIS billows, whether they go o'er us,
Hiding His face in smothering spray and foam;
Or smooth and sparkling, spread a path before us,
And to our haven bear us safely home.
They are HIS billows, whether for our succor
He walks across them, stilling all our fear;
Or to our cry there comes no aid nor answer,
And in the lonely silence none is near.
They are HIS billows, whether we are toiling
Through tempest-driven waves that never cease,
While deep to deep with clamor loud is calling;
Or at His word they hush themselves in peace.
They are HIS billows, whether He divides them,
Making us walk dryshod where seas had flowed;
Or lets tumultuous breakers surge about us,
Rushing unchecked across our only road.
They are HIS billows, and He brings us through
them;
So He has promised, so His love will do.
Keeping and leading, guiding and upholding,
To His sure harbor, He will bring us through.
--Annie Johnson Flint
Stand up in the place where the dear Lord has put
you, and there do your best. God gives us trial
tests. He puts life before us as an antagonist
face to face. Out of the buffeting of a serious
conflict we are expected to grow strong. The tree
that grows where tempests toss its boughs and
bend its trunk often almost to breaking, is often
more firmly rooted than the tree than the tree
which grows in the sequestered valley where no
storm ever brings stress or strain. The same is
true of life. The grandest character is grown in
hardship. --Selected
(6) In The Heavenly Places
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great
love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ . . . and hath raised us up together, and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus" (Eph. 2:4-6).
This is our rightful place, to be "seated in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus," and to "sit
still" there. But how few there are who make it
their actual experience! How few, indeed think
even that it is possible for them to "sit still"
in these "heavenly places" in the everyday life
of a world so full of turmoil as this.
We may believe perhaps that to pay a little visit
to these heavenly places on Sundays, or now and
then in times of spiritual exaltation, may be
within the range of possibility; but to be
actually "seated" there every day and all day
long is altogether another matter; and yet it is
very plain that it is for Sundays and week-days
as well.
A quiet spirit is of inestimable value in
carrying on outward activities; and nothing so
hinders the working of the hidden spiritual
forces, upon which, after all, our success in
everything really depends, as a spirit of unrest
and anxiety.
There is immense power in stillness. A great
saint once said, "All things come to him who
knows how to trust and be silent." The words are
pregnant with meaning. A knowledge of this fact
would immensely change our ways of working.
Instead of restless struggles, we would "sit
down" inwardly before the Lord, and would let the
Divine forces of His Spirit work out in silence
the ends to which we aspire. You may not see or
feel the operations of this silent force, but be
assured it is always working mightily, and will
work for you, if you only get your spirit still
enough to be carried along by the currents of its
power. --Hannah Whitall Smith
"There is a point of rest
At the great center of the cyclone's force,
A silence at its secret source;
A little child might slumber undisturbed,
Without the ruffle of one fair curl,
In that strange, central calm, amid the mighty
whirl."
It is your business to learn to be peaceful and
safe in God in every situation.
(7) The Old Refiner
"He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of
silver" (Mal. 3:3).
Our Father, who seeks to perfect His saints in
holiness, knows the value of the refiner's fire.
It is with the most precious metals that the
assayer takes the most pains, and subjects them
to the hot fire, because such fires melt the
metal, and only the molten mass releases its
alloy or takes perfectly its new form in the
mould. The old refiner never leaves his crucible,
but sits down by it, lest there should be one
excessive degree of heat to mar the metal. But as
soon as he skims from the surface the last of the
dross, and sees his own face reflected, he puts
out the fire.
--Arthur T. Pierson
"He sat by a fire of seven-fold heat,
As He watched by the precious ore,
And closer He bent with a searching gaze
As He heated it more and more.
He knew He had ore that could stand the test,
And He wanted the finest gold
To mould as a crown for the King to wear,
Set with gems with a price untold.
So He laid our gold in the burning fire,
Tho' we fain would have said Him 'Nay,'
And He watched the dross that we had not seen,
And it melted and passed away.
And the gold grew brighter and yet more bright,
But our eyes were so dim with tears,
We saw but the fire--not the Master's hand,
And questioned with anxious fears.
Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow,
As it mirrored a Form above,
That bent o'er the fire, tho' unseen by us,
With a look of ineffable love.
Can we think that it pleases His loving heart
To cause us a moment's pain?
Ah, no! but He saw through the present cross
The bliss of eternal gain.
So He waited there with a watchful eye,
With a love that is strong and sure,
And His gold did not suffer a bit more heat,
Than was needed to make it pure."
(8) Run with patience
"Let us run with patience" (Heb. 12:1).
O run with patience is a very difficult thing.
Running is apt to suggest the absence of
patience, the eagerness to reach the goal. We
commonly associate patience with lying down. We
think of it as the angel that guards the couch of
the invalid. Yet, I do not think the invalid's
patience the hardest to achieve.
There is a patience which I believe to be
harder--the patience that can run. To lie down in
the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke
of adverse fortune, implies a great strength; but
I know of something that implies a strength
greater still: It is the power to work under a
stroke; to have a great weight at your heart and
still to run; to have a deep anguish in your
spirit and still perform the daily task. It is a
Christlike thing!
Many of us would nurse our grief without crying
if we were allowed to nurse it. The hard thing is
that most of us are called to exercise our
patience, not in bed, but in the street. We are
called to bury our sorrows, not in lethargic
quiescence, but in active service--in the
exchange, in the workshop, in the hour of social
intercourse, in the contribution to another's
joy. There is no burial of sorrow so difficult as
that; it is the "running with patience."
This was Thy patience, O Son of man! It was at
once a waiting and a running--a waiting for the
goal, and a doing of the lesser work meantime. I
see Thee at Cana turning the water into wine lest
the marriage feast should be clouded. I see Thee
in the desert feeding a multitude with bread just
to relieve a temporary want. All, all the time,
Thou wert bearing a mighty grief, unshared,
unspoken. Men ask for a rainbow in the cloud; but
I would ask more from Thee. I would be, in my
cloud, myself a rainbow--a minister to others'
joy. My patience will be perfect when it can work
in the vineyard. --George Matheson
"When all our hopes are gone,
'Tis well our hands must keep toiling on
For others' sake:
For strength to bear is found in duty done;
And he is best indeed who learns to make
The joy of others cure his own heartache."
(9) Waiting is Hard
"When the cloud tarried . . . then the children
of Israel . . . journeyed not" (Num. 9:19).
This was the supreme test of obedience. It was
comparatively easy to strike tents, when the
fleecy folds of the cloud were slowly gathering
from off the Tabernacle, and it floated
majestically before the host. Change is always
delightful; and there was excitement and interest
in the route, the scenery, and the locality of
the next halting-place. But, ah, the tarrying.
Then, however uninviting and sultry the location,
however trying to flesh and blood, however
irksome to the impatient disposition, however
perilously exposed to danger--there was no option
but to remain encamped.
The Psalmist says, "I waited patiently for the
Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry."
And what He did for the Old Testament saints He
will do for believers throughout all ages.
Still God often keeps us waiting. Face to face
with threatening foes, in the midst of alarms,
encircled by perils, beneath the impending rock.
May we not go? Is it not time to strike our
tents? Have we not suffered to the point of utter
collapse? May we not exchange the glare and heat
for green pastures and still waters?
There is no answer. The cloud tarries, and we
must remain, though sure of manna, rock-water,
shelter, and defense. God never keeps us at post
without assuring us of His presence, and sending
us daily supplies.
Wait, young man, do not be in a hurry to make a
change! Minister, remain at your post! Until the
cloud clearly moves, you must tarry. Wait, then,
thy Lord's good pleasure! He will be in plenty of
time!--Daily Devotional Commentary
An hour of waiting!
Yet there seems such need
To reach that spot sublime!
I long to reach them--but I long far more
To trust HIS time!
"Sit still, my daughter"--
Yet the heathen die,
They perish while I stay!
I long to reach them--but I long far more
To trust HIS way!
'Tis good to get,
'Tis good indeed to give!
Yet is it better still--
O'er breadth, thro' length, down length, up
height,
To trust HIS will! --F. M. N.
(10) What Cannot Be Uttered
"Likewise also the Spirit helpeth our
infirmities; for we know not what to pray for as
we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. 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. 8:26, 27).
This is the deep mystery of prayer. This is the
delicate divine mechanism which words cannot
interpret, and which theology cannot explain, but
which the humblest believer knows even when he
does not understand.
Oh, the burdens that we love to bear and cannot
understand! Oh, the inarticulate out-reachings of
our hearts for things we cannot comprehend! And
yet we know they are an echo from the throne and
a whisper from the heart of God. It is often a
groan rather than a song, a burden rather than a
buoyant wing. But it is a blessed burden, and it
is a groan whose undertone is praise and
unutterable joy. It is "a groaning which cannot
be uttered." We could not ourselves express it
always, and sometimes we do not understand any
more than that God is praying in us, for
something that needs His touch and that He
understands.
And so we can just pour out the fullness of our
heart, the burden of our spirit, the sorrow that
crushes us, and know that He hears, He loves, He
understands, He receives; and He separates from
our prayer all that is imperfect, ignorant and
wrong, and presents the rest, with the incense of
the great High Priest, before the throne on high;
and our prayer is heard, accepted and answered in
His name. --A. B. Simpson
It is not necessary to be always speaking to God
or always hearing from God, to have communion
with Him; there is an inarticulate fellowship
more sweet than words. The little child can sit
all day long beside its busy mother and, although
few words are spoken on either side, and both are
busy, the one at his absorbing play, the other at
her engrossing work, yet both are in perfect
fellowship. He knows that she is there, and she
knows that he is all right. So the saint and the
Saviour can go on for hours in the silent
fellowship of love, and he be busy about the most
common things, and yet conscious that every
little thing he does is touched with the
complexion of His presence, and the sense of His
approval and blessing.
And then, when pressed with burdens and troubles
too complicated to put into words and too
mysterious to tell or understand, how sweet it is
to fall back into His blessed arms, and just sob
out the sorrow that we cannot speak! --Selected
(11) Expectations Beyond Us
"But prayer" (Acts 12:5).
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, and everything else against it.
"But prayer was made unto God without ceasing."
And what was the sequel? The prison open, the
apostle free, the Jews baffled, the wicked king
eaten of worms, a spectacle of hidden
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
who will dare to prove the greatness of their
God. But God! But prayer! --A. B. Simpson
Beware in your prayer, above everything, of
limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by
fancying that you know what He can do. Expect
unexpected things, above all that we ask or
think. Each time you intercede, be quiet first
and worship God in His glory. Think of what He
can do, of how He delights to hear Christ, of
your place in Christ; and expect great things.
--Andrew Murray
Our prayers are God's opportunities.
Are you in sorrow? Prayer can make your
affliction sweet and strengthening. Are you in
gladness? Prayer can add to your joy a celestial
perfume. Are you in extreme danger from outward
or inward enemies? Prayer can set at your right
hand an angel whose touch could shatter a
millstone into smaller dust than the flour it
grinds, and whose glance could lay an army low.
What will prayer do for you? I answer: All that
God can do for you. "Ask what I shall give thee."
--Farrar
"Wrestling prayer can wonders do,
Bring relief in deepest straits;
Prayer can force a passage through
Iron bars and brazen gates."
(12) It Must Be Bought
"On all bare heights shall be their pasture"
(Isa. 49:9, RV).
Toys and trinkets are easily won, but the
greatest things are greatly bought. The top-most
place of power is always bought with blood. You
may have the pinnacles if you have enough blood
to pay. That is the conquest condition of the
holy heights everywhere. The story of real
heroisms is the story of sacrificial blood. The
chiefest values in life and character are not
blown across our way by vagrant winds. Great
souls have great sorrows.
"Great truths are dearly bought, the common
truths,
Such as men give and take front day to day,
Come in the common walk of easy life,
Blown by the careless wind across our way.
"Great truths are greatly won, not found by
chance,
Nor wafted on the breath of summer dream;
But grasped in the great struggle of the soul,
Hard buffeting with adverse wind and stream.
"But in the day of conflict, fear and grief,
When the strong hand of God, put forth in might,
Plows up the subsoil of the stagnant heart,
And brings the imprisoned truth seed to the
light.
"Wrung from the troubled spirit, in hard hours
Of weakness, solitude, perchance of pain,
Truth springs like harvest from the well-plowed
field,
And the soul feels it has not wept in vain."
The capacity for knowing God enlarges as we are
brought by Him into circumstances which oblige us
to exercise faith; so, when difficulties beset
our path let us thank God that He is taking
trouble with us, and lean hard upon Him.
(13) The Captive
"As I was among the captives by the river of
Chebar, the heavens were opened and I saw visions
of God . . . and the hand of the Lord was there
upon me" (Ezek. 1:1,3).
There is no commentator of the Scriptures half so
valuable as a captivity. The old Psalms have
quavered for us with a new pathos as we sat by
our "Babel's stream," and have sounded for us
with new joy as we found our captivity turned as
the streams in the South.
The man who has seen much affliction will not
readily part with his copy of the Word of God.
Another book may seem to others to be identical
with his own; but it is not the same to him, for
over his old and tear-stained Bible he has
written, in characters which are visible to no
eyes but his own, the record of his experiences,
and ever and anon he comes on Bethel pillars or
Elim palms, which are to him the memorials of
some critical chapter in his history.
If we are to receive benefit from our captivity
we must accept the situation and turn it to the
best possible account. Fretting over that from
which we have been removed or which has been
taken away from us, will not make things better,
but it will prevent us from improving those which
remain. The bond is only tightened by our
stretching it to the uttermost.
The impatient horse which will not quietly endure
his halter only strangles himself in his stall.
The high-mettled animal that is restive in the
yoke only galls his shoulders; and every one will
understand the difference between the restless
starling of which Sterne has written, breaking
its wings against the bars of the cage, and
crying, "I can't get out, I can't get out," and
the docile canary that sits upon its perch and
sings as if it would outrival the lark soaring to
heaven's gate.
No calamity can be to us an unmixed evil if we
carry it in direct and fervent prayer to God, for
even as one in taking shelter from the rain
beneath a tree may find on its branches fruit
which he looked not for, so we in fleeing for
refuge beneath the shadow of God's wing, will
always find more in God than we had seen or known
before.
It is thus through our trials and afflictions
that God gives us fresh revelations of Himself;
and the Jabbok ford leads to Peniel, where, as
the result of our wrestling, we "see God face to
face," and our lives are preserved. Take this to
thyself, O captive, and He will give thee "songs
in the night," and turn for thee "the shadow of
death into the morning." --William Taylor
"Submission to the divine will is the softest
pillow on which to recline."
"It filled the room, and it filled my life,
With a glory of source unseen;
It made me calm in the midst of strife,
And in winter my heart was green.
And the birds of promise sang on the tree
When the storm was breaking on land and sea."
(14) Nothing is Too Hard
"Is there anything too hard for Jehovah?" (Gen.
18:14).
Here is God's loving challenge to you and to me
today. He wants us to think of the deepest,
highest, worthiest desire and longing of our
hearts, something which perhaps was our desire
for ourselves or for someone dear to us, yet
which has been so long unfulfilled that we have
looked upon it as only a lost desire, that which
might have been but now cannot be, and so have
given up hope of seeing it fulfilled in this
life.
That thing, if it is in line with what we know to
be His expressed will (as a son to Abraham and
Sarah was), God intends to do for us, even if we
know that it is of such utter impossibility that
we only laugh at the absurdity of anyone's
supposing it could ever now come to pass. That
thing God intends to do for us, if we will let
Him.
"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Not when we
believe in Him enough to go forward and do His
will, and let Him do the impossible for us. Even
Abraham and Sarah could have blocked God's plan
if they had continued to disbelieve.
The only thing too hard for Jehovah is
deliberate, continued disbelief in His love and
power, and our final rejection of His plans for
us. Nothing is too hard for Jehovah to do for
them that trust Him --Messages for the Morning
Watch
(15) The Greatest Pains
"As many as I love I rebuke and chasten" (Rev.
3:19).
God takes the most eminent and choicest of His
servants for the choicest and most eminent
afflictions. They who have received most grace
from God are able to bear most afflictions from
God. Affliction does not hit the saint by chance,
but by direction. God does not draw His bow at a
venture. Every one of His arrows goes upon a
special errand and touches no breast but his
against whom it is sent. It is not only the
grace, but the glory of a believer when we can
stand and take affliction quietly. --Joseph Caryl
If all my days were sunny, could I say,
"In His fair land He wipes all tears away"?
If I were never weary, could I keep
Close to my heart, "He gives His loved ones
sleep"?
Were no graves mine, might I not come to deem
The Life Eternal but a baseless dream?
My winter, and my tears, and weariness,
Even my graves, may be His way to bless.
I call them ills; yet that can surely be
Nothing but love that shows my Lord to me!
--Selected
"The most deeply taught Christians are generally
those who have been brought into the searching
fires of deep soul-anguish. If you have been
praying to know more of Christ, do not be
surprised if He takes you aside into a desert
place, or leads you into a furnace of pain."
Do not punish me, Lord, by taking my cross from
me, but comfort me by submitting me to Thy will,
and by making me to love the cross. Give me that
by which Thou shalt be best served . . . and let
me hold it for the greatest of all Thy mercies,
that Thou shouldst glorify Thy name in me,
according to Thy will. --A Captive's Prayer
(16) Heart's Sacrifice
"But what things were gain to me, those I counted
loss for Christ" (Phil. 3:7).
When they buried the blind preacher, George
Matheson, they lined his grave with red roses in
memory of his love-life of sacrifice. And it was
this man, so beautifully and significantly
honored, who wrote,
"O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee,
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
"O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee,
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
"O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee,
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shalt tearless be.
"O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from Thee,
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red,
Life that shall endless be."
There is a legend of an artist who had found the
secret of a wonderful red which no other artist
could imitate. The secret of his color died with
him. But after his death an old wound was
discovered over his heart. This revealed the
source of the matchless hue in his pictures. The
legend teaches that no great achievement can be
made, no lofty attainment reached, nothing of
much value to the world done, save at the cost of
heart's blood.
(17) Come Close to Him
"He took Peter and John and James, and went up
into a mountain to pray, and as he prayed, the
fashion of his countenance was altered, and his
raiment was white and glistering . . . they saw
his glory" (Luke 9:29, 32).
"If I have found grace in thy sight, show me thy
glory" (Exod. 33:13).
When Jesus took these three disciples up into
that high mountain apart, He brought them into
close communion with Himself. They saw no man but
Jesus only; and it was good to be there. Heaven
is not far from those who tarry on the mount with
their Lord.
Who has not in moments of meditation and prayer
caught a glimpse of opening gates? Who has not in
the secret place of holy communion felt the rush
of some white surging wave of emotion--a
foretaste of the joy of the blessed?
The Master had times and places for quiet
converse with His disciples, once on the peak of
Hermon, but oftener on the sacred slopes of
Olivet. Every Christian should have his Olivet.
Most of us, especially in the cities and towns,
live at high pressure. From early morning until
bedtime we are exposed to the whirl. Amid all
this maelstrom how little chance for quiet
thought, for God's Word, for prayer and heart
fellowship!
Daniel needed to have an Olivet in his chamber
amid Babylon's roar and idolatries. Peter found
his on a housetop in Joppa; and Martin Luther
found his in the "upper room" at Wittenberg,
which is still held sacred.
Dr. Joseph Parker once said: "If we do not get
back to visions, peeps into heaven, consciousness
of the higher glory and the larger life, we shall
lose our religion; our altar will become a bare
stone, unblessed by visitant from Heaven." Here
is the world's need today--men who have seen
their Lord. --The Lost Art of Meditation
Come close to Him! He may take you today up into
the mountain top, for where He took Peter with
his blundering, and James and John, those sons of
thunder who again and again so utterly
misunderstood their Master and His mission, there
is no reason why He should not take you. So don't
shut yourself out of it and say, "Ah, these
wonderful visions and revelations of the Lord are
for choice spirits!" They may be for you! --John
McNeill
(18) Seek Communion
"They that dwell under his shadow shall return;
they shall revive as the corn and grow as the
vine" (Hosea 14:7).
The day closed with heavy showers. The plants in
my garden were beaten down before the pelting
storm, and I saw one flower that I had admired
for its beauty and loved for its fragrance
exposed to the pitiless storm. The flower fell,
shut up its petals, dropped its head; and I saw
that all its glory was gone. "I must wait till
next year," I said, "before I see that beautiful
thing again."
That night passed, and morning came; the sun
shone again, and the morning brought strength to
the flower. The light looked at it, and the
flower looked at the light. There was contact and
communion, and power passed into the flower. It
held up its head, opened its petals, regained its
glory, and seemed fairer than before. I wonder
how it took place--this feeble thing coming into
contact with the strong thing, and gaining
strength!
I cannot tell how it is that I should be able to
receive into my being a power to do and to bear
by communion with God, but I know It is a fact.
Are you in peril through some crushing, heavy
trial? Seek this communion with Christ, and you
will receive strength and be able to conquer. "I
will strengthen thee."
YESTERDAY'S GRIEF
The rain that fell a-yesterday is ruby on the
roses,
Silver on the poplar leaf, and gold on willow
stem;
The grief that chanced a-yesterday is silence
that incloses
Holy loves when time and change shall never
trouble them.
The rain that fell a-yesterday makes all the
hillsides glisten,
Coral on the laurel and beryl on the grass;
The grief that chanced a-yesterday has taught the
soul to listen
For whispers of eternity in all the winds that
pass.
O faint-of-heart, storm-beaten, this rain will
gleam tomorrow,
Flame within the columbine and jewels on the
thorn,
Heaven in the forget-me-not; though sorrow now be
sorrow,
Yet sorrow shall be, beauty in the magic of the
morn.
--Katherine Lee Bates
(19) Faith Triumphs
"Under hopeless circumstances he hopefully
believed" (Rom. 4:18). (Weymouth)
Abraham's faith seemed to be in a thorough
correspondence with the power and constant
faithfulness of Jehovah. In the outward
circumstances in which he was placed, he had not
the greatest cause to expect the fulfillment of
the promise. Yet he believed the Word of the
Lord, and looked forward to the time when his
seed should be as the stars of heaven for
multitude.
O my soul, thou hast not one single promise only,
like Abraham, but a thousand promises, and many
patterns of faithful believers before thee: it
behooves thee, therefore, to rely with confidence
upon the Word of God. And though He delayeth His
help, and the evil seemeth to grow worse and
worse, be not weak, but rather strong, and
rejoice, since the most glorious promises of God
are generally fulfilled in such a wondrous manner
that He steps forth to save us at a time when
there is the least appearance of it.
He commonly brings His help in our greatest
extremity, that His finger may plainly appear in
our deliverance. And this method He chooses that
we may not trust upon anything that we see or
feel, as we are always apt to do, but only upon
His bare Word, which we may depend upon in every
state. --C. H. Von Bogatzky
Remember it is the very time for faith to work
when sight ceases. The greater the difficulties,
the easier for faith; as long as there remain
certain natural prospects, faith does not get on
even as easily as where natural prospects fail.
--George Mueller
(20) Lawn Care
"He shall come down like rain upon the mown
grass" (Ps. 72:6).
Amos speaks of the king's mowings. Our King has
many scythes, and is perpetually mowing His
lawns. The musical tinkle of the whetstone on the
scythe portends the cutting down of myriads of
green blades, daisies and other flowers.
Beautiful as they were in the morning, within an
hour or two they lie in long, faded rows.
Thus in human life we make a brave show, before
the scythe of pain, the shears of disappointment,
the sickle of death.
There is no method of obtaining a velvety lawn
but by repeated mowings; and there is no way of
developing tenderness, evenness, sympathy, but by
the passing of God's scythes. How constantly the
Word of God compares man to grass, and His glory
to its flower! But when grass is mown, and all
the tender shoots are bleeding, and desolation
reigns where flowers were bursting, it is the
most acceptable time for showers of rain falling
soft and warm.
O soul, thou hast been mown! Time after time the
King has come to thee with His sharp scythe. Do
not dread the scythe--it is sure to be followed
by the shower. --F. B. Meyer
"When across the heart deep waves of sorrow
Break, as on a dry and barren shore;
When hope glistens with no bright tomorrow,
And the storm seems sweeping evermore;
"When the cup of every earthly gladness
Bears no taste of the life-giving stream;
And high hopes, as though to mock our sadness,
Fade and die as in some fitful dream,
"Who shall hush the weary spirit's chiding?
Who the aching void within shall fill?
Who shall whisper of a peace abiding,
And each surging billow calmly still?
"Only He whose wounded heart was broken
With the bitter cross and thorny crown;
Whose dear love glad words of Joy had spoken,
Who His life for us laid meekly down.
"Blessed Healer, all our burdens lighten;
Give us peace, Thine own sweet peace, we pray!
Keep us near Thee till the morn shall brighten,
And all the mists and shadows flee away!"
(21) Unadorned Life
"These were the potters, and those that dwelt
among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with
the king for his work" (1 Chron. 4:23).
Anywhere and everywhere we may dwell "with the
king for his work." We may be in a very unlikely
and unfavorable place for this; it may be in a
literal country life, with little enough to be
seen of the "goings" of the King around us; it
may be among the hedges of all sorts, hindrances
in all directions; it may be furthermore, with
our hands full of all manner of pottery for our
daily task.
No matter! The King who placed us "there" will
come and dwell there with us; the hedges are
right, or He would soon do away with them. And it
does not follow that what seems to hinder our way
may not be for its very protection; and as for
the pottery, why, that is just exactly what He
has seen fit to put into our hands, and therefore
it is, for the present, "His work."
--Frances Ridley Havergal
"Go back to thy garden-plot, sweetheart!
Go back till the evening falls,
And bind thy lilies and train thy vines,
Till for thee the Master calls.
"Go make thy garden fair as thou canst,
Thou workest never alone;
Perhaps he whose plot is next to thine
Will see it and mend his own."
The colored sunsets and starry heavens, the
beautiful mountains and the shining seas, the
fragrant woods and painted flowers, are not half
so beautiful as a soul that is serving Jesus out
of love, in the wear and tear of common, unpoetic
life. --Faber
The most saintly spirits are often existing in
those who have never distinguished themselves as
authors, or left any memorial of themselves to be
the theme of the world's talk; but who have led
an interior angelic life, having borne their
sweet blossoms unseen like the young lily in a
sequestered vale on the bank of a limpid stream.
--Kenelm Digby
(22) Only Through Death
"Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and
die, it remains a single grain, but if it dies
away in the ground, the grain is freed to spring
up in a plant bearing many grains" (John 12:24).
Go to the old burying ground of Northampton,
Mass., and look upon the early grave of David
Brainerd, beside that of the fair Jerusha
Edwards, whom he loved but did not live to wed.
What hopes, what expectations for Christ's cause
went down to the grave with the wasted form of
that young missionary of whose work nothing now
remained but the dear memory, and a few score of
swarthy Indian converts! But that majestic old
Puritan saint, Jonathan Edwards, who had hoped to
call him his son, gathered up the memorials of
his life in a little book, and the little book
took wings and flew beyond the sea, and alighted
on the table of a Cambridge student, Henry
Martyn.
Poor Martyn! Why should he throw himself away,
with all his scholarship, his genius, his
opportunities! What had he accomplished when he
turned homeward from "India's coral strand,"
broken in health, and dragged himself northward
as far as that dreary khan at Tocat by the Black
Sea, where he crouched under the piled-up
saddles, to cool his burning fever against the
earth, and there died alone?
To what purpose was this waste? Out of that early
grave of Brainerd, and the lonely grave of Martyn
far away by the splashing of the Euxine Sea, has
sprung the noble army of modern missionaries.
--Leonard Woolsey Bacon
"Is there some desert, or some boundless sea,
Where Thou, great God of angels, wilt send me?
Some oak for me to rend, Some sod for me to
break,
Some handful of Thy corn to take
And scatter far afield,
Till it in turn shall yield
Its hundredfold
Of grains of gold
To feed the happy children of my God?
"Show me the desert, Father, or the sea;
Is it Thine enterprise? Great God, send me!
And though this body lies where ocean rolls,
Father, count me among all faithful souls."
(23) Through Faith
"Pressed out of measure" (2 Cor. 1:8).
"That the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2
Cor. 12:9).
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
became enlarged in his faith and knowledge of
God, and in the power of a new and victorious
life.
God had to compel David, by a long and painful
discipline of years, to learn the almighty power
and faithfulness of his God, and grow up into the
established principles of faith and godliness,
which were indispensable for his 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.
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 fullness 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.
--A. B. Simpson
(24) He Knows Us
"I know him, that he will command his children"
(Gen. 18:19).
God wants people that He can depend upon. He
could say of Abraham, "I know him, that he will
command his children . . . that the Lord may
bring upon Abraham that which 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. 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 to stability
and certainty in the life of faith. Let us learn
our lessons and stand fast. --A. B. Simpson
God knows that you can stand that trial; He would
not give it to you if you could not. It is His
trust in you that explains the trials of life,
however bitter they may be. God knows our
strength, and He measures it to the last inch;
and a trial was never given to any man that was
greater than that man's strength, through God, to
bear it.
(25) Your Crown of Glory
"They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb . . .
and they loved not their lives unto the death"
(Rev. 12:11).
When James and John came to Christ with their
mother, asking Him to give them the best place in
the kingdom, He did not refuse their request, but
told them it would be given to them if they could
do His work, drink His cup, and be baptized with
His baptism.
Do we want the competition? The greatest things
are always hedged about by the hardest things,
and we, too, shall find mountains and forests and
chariots of iron. Hardship is the price of
coronation. Triumphal arches are not woven out of
rose blossoms and silken cords, but of hard blows
and bloody scars. The very hardships that you are
enduring in your life today are given by the
Master for the explicit purpose of enabling you
to win your crown.
Do not wait for some ideal situation, some
romantic difficulty, some far-away emergency; but
rise to meet the actual conditions which the
Providence of God has placed around you today.
Your crown of glory lies embedded in the very
heart of these things--those hardships and trials
that are pressing you this very hour, week and
month of your life. The hardest things are not
those that the world knows of. Down in your
secret soul unseen and unknown by any but Jesus,
there is a little trial that you would not dare
to mention that is harder for you to bear than
martyrdom.
There, beloved, lies your crown. God help you to
overcome, and sometime wear it. --Selected
"It matters not how the battle goes,
The day how long;
Faint not! Fight on!
Tomorrow comes the song."
(26) Unanswered?
"Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not
God avenge his own elect which cry day and night
unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell
you that he will avenge them speedily" (Luke
18:6, 7).
God's seasons are not at your beck. If the first
stroke of the flint doth not bring forth the
fire, you must strike again. God will hear
prayer, but He may not answer it at the time
which we in our minds have appointed; He will
reveal Himself to our seeking hearts, but not
just when and where we have settled in our own
expectations. Hence the need of perseverance and
importunity in supplication.
In the days of flint and steel and brimstone
matches we had to strike and strike again, dozens
of times, before we could get a spark to live in
the tinder; and we were thankful enough if we
succeeded at last.
Shall we not be as persevering and hopeful as to
heavenly things? We have more certainty of
success in this business than we had with our
flint and steel, for we have God's promises at
our back.
Never let us despair. God's time for mercy will
come; yea, it has come, if our time for believing
has arrived. Ask in faith nothing wavering; but
never cease from petitioning because the King
delays to reply. Strike the steel again. Make the
sparks fly and have your tinder ready; you will
get a light before long. --C. H. Spurgeon
I do not believe that there is such a thing in
the history of God's kingdom as a right prayer
offered in a right spirit that is forever left
unanswered. --Theodore L. Cuyler
(27) Don't Be Offended
"Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended
in me" (Luke 7:23).
It is sometimes very difficult not to be offended
in Jesus Christ. The offenses may be
circumstantial. I find myself in a
prison-house--a narrow sphere, a sick chamber, an
unpopular position--when I had hoped for wide
opportunities. Yes, but He knows what is best for
me. My environment is of His determining. He
means it to intensify my faith, to draw me into
nearer communion with Himself, to ripen my power.
In the dungeon my soul should prosper.
The offense may be mental. I am haunted by
perplexities, questions, which I cannot solve. I
had hoped that, when I gave myself to Him, my sky
would always be clear; but often it is overspread
by mist and cloud. Yet let me believe that, if
difficulties remain, it is that I may learn to
trust Him all the more implicitly--to trust and
not be afraid. Yes, and by my intellectual
conflicts, I am trained to be a tutor to other
storm-driven men.
The offense may be spiritual. I had fancied that
within His fold I should never feel the biting
winds of temptation; but it is best as it is. His
grace is magnified. My own character is matured.
His Heaven is sweeter at the close of the day.
There I shall look back on the turnings and
trials of the way, and shall sing the praises of
my Guide. So, let come what will come, His will
is welcome; and I shall refuse to be offended in
my loving Lord. --Alexander Smellie
Blessed is he whose faith is not offended,
When all around his way
The power of God is working out deliverance
For others day by day;
Though in some prison drear his own soul
languish,
Till life itself be spent,
Yet still can trust his Father's love and
purpose,
And rest therein content.
Blessed is he, who through long years of
suffering,
Cut off from active toil,
Still shares by prayer and praise the work of
others,
And thus "divides the spoil."
Blessed are thou, O child of God, who sufferest,
And canst not understand
The reason for thy pain, yet gladly leavest
Thy life in His blest Hand.
Yea, blessed art thou whose faith is "not
offended"
By trials unexplained,
By mysteries unsolved, past understanding,
Until the goal is gained. --Freda Hanbury Allen
(28) Quicken Us
"Thou, who hast showed its many and sore
troubles, wilt quicken us again" (Ps. 71:20, RV).
God shows us the troubles. Sometimes, as this
part of our education is being carried forward,
we have to descend into "the lower parts of the
earth," pass through subterranean passages, lie
buried amongst the dead, but never for a moment
is the cord of fellowship and union between God
and us strained to breaking; and from the depths
God will bring us again.
Never doubt God! Never say that He has forsaken
or forgotten. Never think that He is
unsympathetic. He will quicken again. There is
always a smooth piece in every skein, however
tangled. The longest day at last rings out the
evensong. The winter snow lies long, but it goes
at last.
Be steadfast; your labor is not in vain. God
turns again, and comforts. And when He does, the
heart which had forgotten its Psalmody breaks out
in jubilant song, as does the Psalmist: "I will
thank thee, I will harp unto thee, my lips shall
sing aloud." --Selected
"Though the rain may fall and the wind be
blowing,
And old and chill is the wintry blast;
Though the cloudy sky is still cloudier growing,
And the dead leaves tell that the summer has
passed;
My face I hold to the stormy heaven,
My heart is as calm as the summer sea,
Glad to receive what my God has given,
Whate'er it be.
When I feel the cold, I can say, 'He sends it,'
And His winds blow blessing, I surely know;
For I've never a want but that He attends it;
And my heart beats warm, though the winds may
blow."
(29) Devil's Burden
"There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people
of God" (Heb. 4:9).
The rest includes victory, "And the Lord gave
them rest round about; . . . the Lord delivered
all their enemies into their hand" (Joshua
21:44).
"He will beautify the meek with victory" (Ps.
149:4). (Rotherham, margin)
An eminent Christian worker tells of his mother
who was a very anxious and troubled Christian. He
would talk with her by the hour trying to
convince her of the sinfulness of fretting, but
to no avail. She was like the old lady who once
said she had suffered so much, especially from
the troubles that never came.
But one morning the mother came down to breakfast
wreathed in smiles. He asked her what had
happened, and she told him that in the night she
had a dream.
She was walking along a highway with a great
crowd of people who seemed so tired and burdened.
They were nearly all carrying little black
bundles, and she noticed that there were numerous
repulsive looking beings which she thought were
demons dropping these black bundles for the
people to pick up and carry.
Like the rest, she too had her needless load, and
was weighed down with the devil's bundles.
Looking up, after a while, she saw a Man with a
bright and loving face, passing hither and
thither through the crowd, and comforting the
people.
At last He came near her, and she saw that it was
her Saviour. She looked up and told Him how tired
she was, and He smiled sadly and said:
"My dear child, I did not give you these loads;
you have no need of them. They are the devil's
burdens and they are wearing out your life. Just
drop them; refuse to touch them with one of your
fingers and you will find the path easy and you
will be as if borne on eagle's wings."
He touched her hand, and lo, peace and joy
thrilled her frame and, flinging down her burden,
she was about to throw herself at His feet in
joyful thanksgiving, when suddenly she awoke and
found that all her cares were gone. From that day
to the close of her life she was the most
cheerful and happy member of the household.
And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.
--Longfellow
(30) Reaching Perfection
"Perfect through suffering" (Heb. 2:10).
Steel is iron plus fire. Soil is rock, plus heat,
or glacier crushing. Linen is flax plus the bath
that cleans, the comb that separates, and the
flail that pounds, and the shuttle that weaves.
Human character must have a plus attached to it.
The world does not forget great characters. But
great characters are not made of luxuries, they
are made by suffering.
I heard of a mother who brought into her home as
a companion to her own son, a crippled boy who
was also a hunchback. She had warned her boy to
be very careful in his relations to him, and not
to touch the sensitive part of his life but go
right on playing with him as if he were an
ordinary boy. She listened to her son as they
were playing; and after a few minutes he said to
his companion: "Do you know what you have got on
your back?" The little hunchback was embarrassed,
and he hesitated a moment. The boy said: "It is
the box in which your wings are; and some day God
is going to cut it open, and then you will fly
away and be an angel."
Some day, God is going to reveal the fact to
every Christian, that the very principles they
now rebel against, have been the instruments
which He used in perfecting their characters and
moulding them into perfection, polished stones
for His great building yonder. --Cortland Myers
Suffering is a wonderful fertilizer to the roots
of character. The great object of this life is
character. This is the only thing we can carry
with us into eternity. . . . To gain the most of
it and the best of it is the object of probation.
--Austin Phelps
"By the thorn road and no other is the mount of
vision won."