(15) Climb Upward
"And there was an enlarging, and a winding about
still upward to the side chambers: for the.
winding about of the house went still upward
round about the house: therefore the breadth of
the house was still upward and so increased from
the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst"
(Ezek. 41:7).
"Still upward be thine onward course:
For this I pray today;
Still upward as the years go by,
And seasons pass away.
"Still upward in this coming year,
Thy path is all untried;
Still upward may'st thou journey on,
Close by thy Saviors side.
"Still upward e'en though sorrow come,
And trials crush thine heart;
Still upward may they draw thy soul,
With Christ to walk apart.
"Still upward till the day shall break,
And shadows all have flown;
Still upward till in Heaven you wake,
And stand before the throne."
We ought not to rest content in the mists of the
valley when the summit of Tabor awaits us. How
pure are the dews of the hills, how fresh is the
mountain air, how rich the fare of the dwellers
aloft, whose windows look into the New Jerusalem!
Many saints are content to live like men in coal
mines, who see not the sun. Tears mar their faces
when they might anoint them with celestial oil.
Satisfied I am that many a believer pines in a
dungeon when he might walk on the palace roof,
and view the goodly land and Lebanon. Rouse thee,
O believer, from thy low condition! Cast away thy
sloth, thy lethargy, thy coldness, or whatever
interferes with thy chaste and pure love to
Christ. Make Him the source, the center, and the
circumference of all thy soul's range of delight.
Rest no longer satisfied with thy dwarfish
attainments. Aspire to a higher, a nobler, a
fuller life. Upward to heaven! Nearer to God!
--Spurgeon
"I want to scale the utmost height,
And catch a gleam of glory bright;
But still I'll pray, till heaven I've found,
Lord, lead me on to higher ground!"
Not many of us are living at our best. We linger
in the lowlands because we are afraid to climb
the mountains. The steepness and ruggedness
dismay us, and so we stay in the misty valleys
and do not learn the mystery of the hills. We do
not know what we lose in our self-indulgence,
what glory awaits us if only we had courage for
the mountain climb, what blessing we should find
if only we would move to the uplands of God.
--J. R. M
"Too low they build who build beneath the stars."
(16) Gentle Leading
"I will lead on softly, according as the cattle
that goeth before me and the children be able to
endure" (Gen. 33:14).
What a beautiful picture of Jacob's
thoughtfulness for the cattle and the children!
He would not allow them to be overdriven even for
one day. He would not lead on according to what a
strong man like Esau could do and expected them
to do, but only according to what they were able
to endure. He knew exactly how far they could go
in a day; and he made that his only consideration
in arranging the marches. He had gone the same
wilderness journey years before, and knew all
about its roughness and heat and length, by
personal experience. And so he said, "I will lead
on softly." "For ye have not passed this way
heretofore" (Josh.3:4.).
We have not passed this way heretofore, but the
Lord Jesus has. It is all untrodden and unknown
ground to us, but He knows it all by personal
experience. The steep bits that take away our
breath, the stony bits that make our feet ache
so, the hot shadeless stretches that make us feel
so exhausted, the rushing rivers that we have to
pass through--Jesus has gone through it all
before us. "He was wearied with his journey." Not
some, but all the many waters went over Him, and
yet did not quench His love. He was made a
perfect Leader by the things which He suffered.
"He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are
dust." Think of that when you are tempted to
question the gentleness of His leading. He is
remembering all the time; and not one step will
He make you take beyond what your foot is able to
endure. Never mind if you think it will not be
able for the step that seems to come next; either
He will so strengthen it that it shall be able,
or He will call a sudden halt, and you shall not
have to take it at all. --Frances Ridley
Havergal
In "pastures green"? Not always; sometimes He
Who knowest best, in kindness leadeth me
In weary ways, where heavy shadows be.
So, whether on the hill-tops high and fair
I dwell, or in the sunless valleys, where
The shadows lie, what matter? He is there.
--Barry
(17) Believing Prayer
"Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son
liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus
had spoken unto him, and he went his way" (John
4:50).
"When ye pray, believe" (Mark 11:24).
When there is a matter that requires definite
prayer, pray till you believe God, until with
unfeigned lips you can thank Him for the answer.
If the answer still tarries outwardly, do not
pray for it in such a way that it is evident that
you are not definitely believing for it. Such a
prayer in place of being a help will be a
hindrance; and when you are finished praying, you
will find that your faith has weakened or has
entirely gone. The urgency that you felt to offer
this kind of prayer is clearly from self and
Satan. It may not be wrong to mention the matter
in question to the Lord again, if He is keeping
you waiting, but be sure you do so in such a way
that it implies faith. Do not pray yourself out
of faith. You may tell Him that you are waiting
and that you are still believing Him and
therefore praise Him for the answer. There is
nothing that so fully clinches faith as to be so
sure of the answer that you can thank God for it.
Prayers that pray us out of faith deny both God's
promise in His Word and also His whisper "Yes,"
that He gave us in our hearts. Such prayers are
but the expression of the unrest of one's heart,
and unrest implies unbelief in reference to the
answer to prayer. "For we which have believed do
enter into rest" (Heb. 4:3). This prayer that
prays ourselves out of faith frequently arises
from centering our thoughts on the difficulty
rather than on God's promise. Abraham "considered
not his own body," "he staggered not at the
promise of God" (Rom. 4:19, 20). May we watch and
pray that we enter not into temptation of praying
ourselves out of faith. --C. H. P.
Faith is not a sense, nor sight, nor reason, but
taking God at His Word. --Evans
The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and
the beginning of true faith is the end of
anxiety. --George Mueller
You will never learn faith in comfortable
surroundings. God gives us the promises in a
quiet hour; God seals our covenants with great
and gracious words, then He steps back and waits
to see how much we believe; then He lets the
tempter come, and the test seems to contradict
all that He has spoken. It is then that faith
wins its crown. That is the time to look up
through the storm, and among the trembling,
frightened seamen cry, "I believe God that it
shall be even as it was told me."
"Believe and trust; through stars and suns,
Through life and death, through soul and sense,
His wise, paternal purpose runs;
The darkness of His Providence
Is starlit with Divine intents."
(18) None to Help But God
"Lord, there is none beside thee to help." (2
Chron. 14:11, RV).
Remind God of His entire responsibility. "There
is none beside thee to help." The odds against
Asa were enormous. There was a million of men in
arms against him, besides three hundred chariots.
It seemed impossible to hold his own against that
vast multitude. There were no allies who would
come to his help; his only hope, therefore, was
in God. It may be that your difficulties have
been allowed to come to so alarming a pitch that
you may be compelled to renounce all creature
aid, to which in lesser trials you have had
recourse, and cast yourself back on your Almighty
Friend.
Put God between yourself and the foe. To Asa's
faith, Jehovah seemed to stand between the might
of Zerah and himself, as one who had no strength.
Nor was he mistaken. We are told that the
Ethiopians were destroyed before the Lord and
before His host, as though celestial combatants
flung themselves against the foe in Israel's
behalf, and put the large host to rout, so that
Israel had only to follow up and gather the
spoil. Our God is Jehovah of hosts, who can
summon unexpected reinforcements at any moment to
aid His people. Believe that He is there between
you and your difficulty, and what baffles you
will flee before Him, as clouds before the gale.
--F. B. Meyer
"When nothing whereon to lean remains,
When strongholds crumble to dust;
When nothing is sure but that God still reigns,
That is just the time to trust.
"'Tis better to walk by faith than sight,
In this path of yours and mine;
And the pitch-black night, when there's no outer
light
Is the time for faith to shine."
Abraham believed God, and said to sight, "Stand
back!" and to the laws of nature, "Hold your
peace!" and to a misgiving heart, "Silence, thou
lying tempter!" He believed God. --Joseph
Parker
(19)
Rejoice
"Rejoice
in the Lord alway: and again I say,
Rejoice"
(Phil. 4:4).
"Sing
a little song of trust,
O
my heart!
Sing
it just because you must,
As
leaves start;
As
flowers push their way through dust;
Sing,
my heart, because you must.
"Wait
not for an eager throng
Bird
on bird;
'Tis
the solitary song
That
is heard.
Every
voice at dawn will start,
Be
a nightingale, my heart!
"Sing
across the winter snow,
Pierce
the cloud;
Sing
when mists are drooping low
Clear
and loud;
But
sing sweetest in the dark;
He
who slumbers not will hark."
"An'
when He hears yo' sing, He bends down wid a
smile
on His kin' face an' listens mighty
keerful,
an' He says, 'Sing on, chile, I hears,
an'
I's comin' down to deliber yo': I'll tote dat
load
fer yo'; jest lean hawd on Me and de road
will
get smoother bime by."'
(20)
Appropriating Faith
"Arise
. . . for we have seen the land, and
behold,
it is very good; and are ye still? Be not
slothful
to go, and enter to possess the land:
for
God hath given it into your hands; a place
where
there is no want of anything that is in the
earth"
(Judges 18:9, 10).
Arise!
Then there is something definite for us to
do.
Nothing is ours unless we take it. "The
children
of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took
their
inheritance" (Joshua 16:4). "The house of
Jacob
shall possess their possessions" (Obad.
17).
"The upright shall have good things in
possession."
We
need to have appropriating faith in regard to
God's
promises. We must make God's Word our own
personal
possession. A child was asked once what
appropriating
faith was, and the answer was, "It
is
taking a pencil and underscoring all the me's
and
mine's and my's in the Bible."
Take
any word you please that He has spoken and
say,
"That word is my word." Put your finger on
this
promise and say, "It is mine." How much of
the
Word has been endorsed and receipted and said
"It
is done." How many promises can you subscribe
and
say, "Fulfilled to me."
"Son,
thou art ever with Me, and all that I have
is
thine." Don't let your inheritance go by
default.
"When
faith goes to market it always takes a
basket."
(21)
Intense Prayer
"Peter
was kept in prison: but prayer (instant
and
earnest prayer) was made for him"
(Acts
12:5, margin).
Peter
was in prison awaiting his execution. The
Church
had neither human power nor influence to
save
him. There was no earthly help, but there
was
help to be obtained by the way of Heaven.
They
gave themselves to fervent, importunate
prayer.
God sent His angel, who aroused Peter
from
sleep and led him out through the first and
second
wards of the prison; and when they came to
the
iron gate, it opened to them of its own
accord,
and Peter was free.
There
may be some iron gate in your life that has
blocked
your way. Like a caged bird you have
often
beaten against the bars, but instead of
helping,
you have only had to fall back tired,
exhausted
and sore at heart. There is a secret
for
you to learn, and that is believing prayer;
and
when you come to the iron gate, it will open
of
its own accord. How much wasted energy and
sore
disappointment will be saved if you will
learn
to pray as did the Church in the upper
room!
Insurmountable difficulties will disappear;
adverse
circumstances will prove favorable if you
learn
to pray, not with your own faith but with
the
faith of God (Mark 11:22, margin). Souls in
prison
have been waiting for years for the gate
to
open; love ones out of Christ, bound by Satan,
will
be set free when you pray till you
definitely
believe God. --C. H. P.
Emergencies
call for intense prayer. When the man
becomes
the prayer nothing can resist its touch.
Elijah
on Carmel, bowed down on the ground, with
his
face between his knees, that was prayer--the
man
himself. No words are mentioned. Prayer can
be
too tense for words. The man's whole being was
in
touch with God, and was set with God against
the
powers of evil. They couldn't withstand such
praying.
There's more of this embodied praying
needed. --The Bent-knee Time
"Groanings
which cannot be uttered are often
prayers
which cannot be refused."
--C.
H. Spurgeon
Step-By-Step
Grace
"When
thou passest through the waters...they
shall
not overflow thee" (Isa. 43:2).
God
does not open paths for us in advance of our
coming.
He does not promise help before help is
needed.
He does not remove obstacles out of our
way
before we reach them. Yet when we are on the
edge
of our need, God's hand is stretched out.
Many
people forget this, and are forever worrying
about
difficulties which they foresee in the
future.
They expect that God is going to make the
way
plain and open before them, miles and miles
ahead;
whereas He has promised to do it only step
by
step as they may need. You must get to the
waters
and into their floods before you can claim
the
promise. Many people dread death, and lament
that
they have not "dying grace." Of course, they
will
not have dying grace when they are in good
health,
in the midst of life's duties, with death
far
in advance. Why should they have it then?
Grace
for duty is what they need then, living
grace;
then dying grace when they come to die.
--J.
R. M.
"When
thou passest through the waters"
Deep
the waves may be and cold,
But
Jehovah is our refuge,
And
His promise is our hold;
For
the Lord Himself hath said it,
He,
the faithful God and true:
"When
thou comest to the waters
Thou
shalt not go down, BUT THROUGH."
Seas
of sorrow, seas of trial,
Bitterest
anguish, fiercest pain,
Rolling
surges of temptation
Sweeping
over heart and brain
They
shall never overflow us
For
we know His word is true;
All
His waves and all His billows
He
will lead us safely through.
Threatening
breakers of destruction,
Doubt's
insidious undertow,
Shall
not sink us, shall not drag us
Out
to ocean depths of woe;
For
His promise shall sustain us,
Praise
the Lord, whose Word is true!
We
shall not go down, or under,
For
He saith, "Thou passest THROUGH."
--Annie
Johnson Flint
(22)
Contentment
"I
have learned, in whatsoever state I am,
therewith
to be content" (Phil. 4:11).
Paul,
denied of every comfort, wrote the above
words
in his dungeon. A story is told of a king
who
went into his garden one morning, and found
everything
withered and dying. He asked the oak
that
stood near the gate what the trouble was. He
found
it was sick of life and determined to die
because
it was not tall and beautiful like the
pine.
The pine was all out of heart because it
could
not bear grapes, like the vine. The vine
was
going to throw its life away because it could
not
stand erect and have as fine fruit as the
peach
tree. The geranium was fretting because it
was
not tall and fragrant like the lilac; and so
on
all through the garden. Coming to a
heart's-ease,
he found its bright face lifted as
cheery
as ever. "Well, heart's-ease, I'm glad,
amidst
all this discouragement, to find one brave
little
flower. You do not seem to be the least
disheartened."
"No, I am not of much account, but
I
thought that if you wanted an oak, or a pine,
or
a peach tree, or a lilac, you would have
planted
one; but as I knew you wanted a
heart's-ease,
I am determined to be the best
little
heart's-ease that I can."
"Others
may do a greater work,
But
you have your part to do;
And
no one in all God's heritage
Can
do it so well as you."
They
who are God's without reserve, are in every
state
content; for they will only what He wills,
and
desire to do for Him whatever He desires them
to
do; they strip themselves of everything, and
in
this nakedness find all things restored an
hundredfold.
(23) Made Perfect Through
Sufferings
"For
I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which
shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18).
I
kept for nearly a year the flask-shaped cocoon
of
an emperor moth. It is very peculiar in its
construction.
A narrow opening is left in the
neck
of the flask, through which the perfect
insect
forces its way, so that a forsaken cocoon
is
as entire as one still tenanted, no rupture of
the
interlacing fibers having taken place. The
great
disproportion between the means of egress
and
the size of the imprisoned insect makes one
wonder
how the exit is ever accomplished at
all--and
it never is without great labor and
difficulty.
It is supposed that the pressure to
which
the moth's body is subjected in passing
through
such a narrow opening is a provision of
nature
for forcing the juices into the vessels of
the
wings, these being less developed at the
period
of emerging from the chrysalis than they
are
in other insects.
I
happened to witness the first efforts of my
prisoned
moth to escape from its long
confinement.
During a whole forenoon, from time
to
time, I watched it patiently striving and
struggling
to get out. It never seemed able to
get
beyond a certain point, and at last my
patience
was exhausted. Very probably the
confining
fibers were drier and less elastic than
if
the cocoon had been left all winter on its
native
heather, as nature meant it to be. At all
events
I thought I was wiser and more
compassionate
than its Maker, and I resolved to
give
it a helping hand. With the point of my
scissors
I snipped the confining threads to make
the
exit just a very little easier, and lo!
immediately,
and with perfect case, out crawled
my
moth dragging a huge swollen body and little
shrivelled
wings. In vain I watched to see that
marvelous
process of expansion in which these
silently
and swiftly develop before one's eyes;
and
as I traced the exquisite spots and markings
of
divers colors which were all there in
miniature,
I longed to see these assume their due
proportions
and the creature to appear in all its
perfect
beauty, as it is, in truth, one of the
loveliest
of its kind. But I looked in vain. My
false
tenderness had proved its ruin. It never
was
anything but a stunted abortion, crawling
painfully
through that brief life which it should
have
spent flying through the air on rainbow
wings.
I have thought of it often, often, when
watching
with pitiful eyes those who were
struggling
with sorrow, suffering, and distress;
and
I would fain cut short the discipline and
give
deliverance. Short-sighted man! How know I
that
one of these pangs or groans could be
spared?
The far-sighted, perfect love that seeks
the
perfection of its object does not weakly
shrink
from present, transient suffering. Our
Father's
love is too true to be weak. Because He
loves
His children, He chastises them that they
may
be partakers of His holiness. With this
glorious
end in view, He spares not for their
crying.
Made perfect through sufferings, as the
Elder
Brother was, the sons of God are trained up
to
obedience and brought to glory through much
tribulation. --Tract.
Shut
Doors
"They
were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach
the
Word in Asia" (Acts 16:6).
It
is interesting to study the methods of His
guidance
as it was extended towards these early
heralds
of the Cross. It consisted largely in
prohibitions,
when they attempted to take another
course
than the right. When they would turn to
the
left, to Asia, He stayed them. When they
sought
to turn to the right, to Bithynia, again
He
stayed them. In after years Paul would do some
of
the greatest work of his life in that very
region;
but just now the door was closed against
him
by the Holy Spirit. The time was not yet ripe
for
the attack on these apparently impregnable
bastions
of the kingdom of Satan. Apollos must
come
there for pioneer work. Paul and Barnabas
are
needed yet more urgently elsewhere, and must
receive
further training before undertaking this
responsible
task.
Beloved,
whenever you are doubtful as to your
course,
submit your judgment absolutely to the
Spirit
of God, and ask Him to shut against you
every
door but the right one. Say,
"Blessed
Spirit, I cast on Thee the entire
responsibility
of closing against my steps any
and
every course which is not of God. Let me hear
Thy
voice behind me whenever I turn to the right
hand
or the left."
In
the meanwhile, continue along the path which
you
have been already treading. Abide in the
calling
in which you are called, unless you are
clearly
told to do something else. The Spirit of
Jesus
waits to be to you, O pilgrim, what He was
to
Paul. Only be careful to obey His least
prohibition;
and where, after believing prayer,
there
are no apparent hindrances, go forward with
enlarged
heart. Do not be surprised if the answer
comes
in closed doors. But when doors are shut
right
and left, an open road is sure to lead to
Troas.
There Luke awaits, and visions will point
the
way, where vast opportunities stand open, and
faithful
friends are waiting. --Paul, by Meyer
Is
there some problem in your life to solve,
Some
passage seeming full of mystery?
God
knows, who brings the hidden things to light.
Is
there some door closed by the Father's hand
Which
widely opened you had hoped to see?
Trust
God and wait--for when He shuts the door
He
keeps the key.
Is
there some earnest prayer unanswered yet,
Or
answered NOT as you had thought 'twould be?
God
will make clear His purpose by-and-by.
He
keeps the key.
Have
patience with your God, your patient God,
All
wise, all knowing, no long tarrier He,
And
of the door of all thy future life
He
keeps the key.
Unfailing
comfort, sweet and blessed rest,
To
know of EVERY door He keeps the key.
That
He at last when just HE sees 'tis best,
Will
give it THEE.
--Anonymous
(24)
Trained to Comfort
"Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your
God"
(Isa. 40:1).
Store
up comfort. This was the prophet's mission.
The
world is full of comfortless hearts, and ere
thou
art sufficient for this lofty ministry, thou
must
be trained. And thy training is costly in
the
extreme; for, to render it perfect, thou too
must
pass through the same afflictions as are
wringing
countless hearts of tears and blood.
Thus
thy own life becomes the hospital ward where
thou
art taught the Divine art of comfort. Thou
art
wounded, that in the binding up of thy wounds
by
the Great Physician, thou mayest learn how to
render
first aid to the wounded everywhere. Dost
thou
wonder why thou art passing through some
special
sorrow? Wait till ten years are passed,
and
thou wilt find many others afflicted as thou
art.
Thou wilt tell them how thou hast suffered
and
hast been comforted; then as the tale is
unfolded,
and the anodynes applied which once thy
God
wrapped around thee, in the eager look and
the
gleam of hope that shall chase the shadow of
despair
across the soul, thou shalt know why thou
wast
afflicted, and bless God for the discipline
that
stored thy life with such a fund of
experience
and helpfulness. --Selected
God
does not comfort us to make us comfortable,
but
to make us comforters. --Dr. Jowett
"They
tell me I must bruise
The
rose's leaf,
Ere
I can keep and use
Its
fragrance brief.
"They
tell me I must break
The
skylark's heart,
Ere
her cage song will make
The
silence start.
"They
tell me love must bleed,
And
friendship weep,
Ere
in my deepest need
I
touch that deep.
"Must
it be always so
With
precious things?
Must
they be bruised and go
With
beaten wings?
"Ah,
yes! by crushing days,
By
caging nights, by scar
Of
thorn and stony ways,
These
blessings are!"
(25) Hardship Makes Character
"In all these things we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37).
This is more than victory. This is a triumph so
complete that we have not only escaped defeat and
destruction, but we have destroyed our enemies
and won a spoil so rich and valuable that we can
thank God that the battle ever came. How can we
be "more than conquerors"? We can get out of the
conflict a spiritual discipline that will greatly
strengthen our faith and establish our spiritual
character. Temptation is necessary to settle and
confirm us in the spiritual life. It is like the
fire which burns in the colors of mineral
painting, or like winds that cause the mighty
cedars of the mountain to strike more deeply into
the soil. Our spiritual conflicts are among our
choicest blessings, and our great adversary is
used to train us for his ultimate defeat. The
ancient Phrygians had a legend that every time
they conquered an enemy the victor absorbed the
physical strength of his victim and added so much
more to his own strength and valor. So temptation
victoriously met doubles our spiritual strength
and equipment. It is possible thus not only to
defeat our enemy, but to capture him and make him
fight in our ranks. The prophet Isaiah speaks of
flying on the shoulders of the Philistines (Isa.
11:14). These Philistines were their deadly foes,
but the figure suggested that they would be
enabled not only to conquer the Philistines, but
to use them to carry the victors on their
shoulders for further triumphs. Just as the wise
sailor can use a head wind to carry him forward
by tacking and taking advantage of its impelling
force; so it is possible for us in our spiritual
life through the victorious grace of God to turn
to account the things that seem most unfriendly
and unfavorable, and to be able to say
continually, "The things that were against me
have happened to the furtherance of the Gospel."
--Life More Abundantly
A noted scientist observing that "early voyagers
fancied that the coral-building animals
instinctively built up the great circles of the
Atoll Islands to afford themselves protection in
the inner parts," has disproved this fancy by
showing that the insect builders can only live
and thrive fronting the open ocean, and in the
highly aerated foam of its resistless billows. So
it has been commonly thought that protected ease
is the most favorable condition of life, whereas
all the noblest and strongest lives prove on the
contrary that the endurance of hardship is the
making of the men, and the factor that
distinguishes between existence and vigorous
vitality. Hardship makes character. --Selected
"Now thanks be unto God Who always leads us forth
to triumph with the Anointed One, and Who
diffuses by us the fragrance of the knowledge of
Him in every place" (2 Cor. 2:14, literal
translation).
(26) Put Forth
"He putteth forth his own sheep" (John10:4).
Oh, this is bitter work for Him and
us--bitter
for us to go, but equally bitter for Him to
cause
us pain; yet it must be done. It would not
be
conducive to our true welfare to stay
always in
one happy and comfortable lot. He therefore
puts
us forth. The fold is deserted, that the
sheep
may wander over the bracing mountain slope.
The
laborers must be thrust out into the
harvest,
else the golden grain would spoil.
Take heart! it could not be better to stay
when
He determines otherwise; and if the loving
hand
of our Lord puts us forth, it must be well.
On,
in His name, to green pastures and still
waters
and mountain heights! He goeth before thee.
Whatever awaits us is encountered first by
Him.
Faith's eye can always discern His majestic
presence in front; and when that cannot be
seen,
it is dangerous to move forward. Bind this
comfort to your heart, that the Savior has
tried
for Himself all the experiences through
which He
asks you to pass; and He would not ask you
to
pass through them unless He was sure that
they
were not too difficult for your feet, or
too
trying for your strength.
This is the Blessed Life--not anxious to
see far
in front, nor careful about the next step,
not
eager to choose the path, nor weighted with
the
heavy responsibilities of the future, but
quietly
following behind the Shepherd, one step at
a
time.
Dark is the sky! and veiled the unknown
morrow
Dark is life's way, for night is not yet
o'er;
The longed-for glimpse I may not meanwhile
borrow;
But, this I know, HE GOETH ON BEFORE.
Dangers are nigh! and fears my mind are
shaking;
Heart seems to dread what life may hold in
store;
But I am His--He knows the way I'm taking,
More blessed still--HE GOETH ON BEFORE.
Doubts cast their weird, unwelcome shadows
o'er
me,
Doubts that life's best--life's choicest
things
are o'er;
What but His Word can strengthen, can
restore me,
And this blest fact; that still HE GOES
BEFORE.
HE GOES BEFORE! Be this my consolation!
He goes before! On this my heart would
dwell!
He goes before! This guarantees salvation!
HE GOES BEFORE! And therefore all is well.
--J. D. Smith
The Oriental shepherd was always ahead of
his
sheep. He was down in front. Any attack
upon them
had to take him into account. Now God is
down in
front. He is in the tomorrows. It is
tomorrow
that fills men with dread. God is there
already.
All the tomorrows of our life have to pass
Him
before they can get to us. --F. B. M.
"God is in every tomorrow,
Therefore I live for today,
Certain of finding at sunrise,
Guidance and strength for the way;
Power for each moment of weakness,
Hope for each moment of pain,
Comfort for every sorrow,
Sunshine and joy after rain."
(27) Be Still
"And the Lord appeared unto Isaac the
same night"
(Gen. 26:24).
"Appeared the same night," the
night on which he
went to Beer-sheba. Do you think this
revelation
was an accident? Do you think the time of
it was
an accident? Do you think it could have
happened
on any other night as well as this? If so,
you
are grievously mistaken. Why did it come to
Isaac
in the night on which he reached
Beer-sheba?
Because that was the night on which he
reached
rest. In his old locality, he had been
tormented.
There had been a whole series of petty
quarrels
about the possession of paltry wells. There
are
no worries like little worries,
particularly if
there is an accumulation of them. Isaac
felt
this. Even after the strife was past, the
place
retained a disagreeable association. He
determined to leave. He sought change of
scene.
He pitched his tent away from the place of
former
strife. That very night the revelation
came. God
spoke when there was no inward storm. He
could
not speak when the mind was fretted; His
voice
demands the silence of the soul. Only in
the hush
of the spirit could Isaac hear the garments
of
his God sweep by. His still night was his
starry
night.
My soul, hast thou pondered these words,
"Be
still, and know"? In the hour of
perturbation,
thou canst not hear the answer to thy
prayers.
How often has the answer seemed to come
long
after I The heart got no response in the
moment
of its crying--in its thunder, its
earthquake,
and its fire. But when the crying ceased,
when
the stillness fell, when thy hand desisted
from
knocking on the iron gate, when the
interest of
other lives broke the tragedy of thine own,
then
appeared the long-delayed reply. Thou must
rest,
O soul, if thou wouldst have thy heart's
desire.
Still the beating of thy pulse of personal
care.
Hide thy tempest of individual trouble
behind the
altar of a common tribulation and, that
same
night, the Lord shall appear to thee. The
rainbow
shall span the place of the subsiding
flood, and
in thy stillness thou shalt hear the
everlasting
music. --George
Matheson
Tread in solitude thy pathway,
Quiet heart and undismayed.
Thou shalt know things strange, mysterious,
Which to thee no voice has said.
While the crowd of petty hustlers
Grasps at vain and paltry things,
Thou wilt see a great world rising
Where soft mystic music rings.
Leave the dusty road to others,
Spotless keep thy soul and bright,
As the radiant ocean's surface
When the sun is taking flight.
--(From the German of V. Schoffel) H. F.
(28) The Breaking of the Storm
"And there arose a great storm"
(Mark 4:37).
Some of the storms of life come suddenly: a
great
sorrow, a bitter disappointment, a crushing
defeat. Some come slowly. They appear upon
the
ragged edges of the horizon no larger than
a
man's hand, but, trouble that seems so
insignificant spreads until it covers the
sky and
overwhelms us.
Yet it is in the storm that God equips us
for
service. When God wants an oak He plants it
on
the moor where the storms will shake it and
the
rains will beat down upon it, and it is in
the
midnight battle with elements that the oak
wins
its rugged fibre and becomes the king of
the
forest.
When God wants to make a man He puts him
into
some storm. The history of manhood is
always
rough and rugged. No man is made until he
has
been out into the surge of the storm and
found
the sublime fulfillment of the prayer:
"O God,
take me, break me, make me."
A Frenchman has painted a picture of
universal
genius. There stand orators, philosophers
and
martyrs, all who have achieved pre-eminence
in
any phase of life; the remarkable fact
about the
picture is this: Every man who is
pre-eminent for
his ability was first pre-eminent for
suffering.
In the foreground stands that figure of the
man
who was denied the promised land, Moses.
Beside
him is another, feeling his way--blind
Homer.
Milton is there, blind and heart-broken.
Now
comes the form of one who towers above them
all.
What is His characteristic? His Face is
marred
more than any man's. The artist might have
written under that great picture, "The
Storm."
The beauties of nature come after the storm.
The
rugged beauty of the mountain is born in a
storm,
and the heroes of life are the storm-swept
and
the battle-scarred.
You have been in the storms and swept by
the
blasts. Have they left you broken, weary,
beaten
in the valley, or have they lifted you to
the
sunlit summits of a richer, deeper, more
abiding
manhood and womanhood? Have they left you
with
more sympathy with the storm-swept and the
battle-scarred? --Selected
The wind that blows can never kill
The tree God plants;
It bloweth east, it bloweth west,
The tender leaves have little rest,
But any wind that blows is best.
The tree that God plants
Strikes deeper root, grows higher still,
Spreads greater boughs, for God's good will
Meets all its wants.
There is no storm hath power to blast
The tree God knows;
No thunderbolt, nor beating rain,
Nor lightning flash, nor hurricane;
When they are spent, it doth remain,
The tree God knows,
Through every tempest standeth fast,
And from its first day to its last
Still fairer grows. --Selected
(29) The Living God
"O Daniel, servant of the living God,
is thy God
whom thou servest continually, able to
deliver
thee" (Dan. 6:20).
How many times we find this expression in
the
Scriptures, and yet it is just this very
thing
that we are so prone to lose sight of. We
know it
is written "the living God"; but
in our daily
life there is scarcely anything we
practically so
much lose sight of as the fact that God is
the
living God; that He is now whatever He was
three
or four thousand years since; that He has
the
same sovereign power, the same saving love
towards those who love and serve Him as
ever He
had and that He will do for them now what
He did
for others two, three, four thousand years
ago,
simply because He is the living God, the
unchanging One. Oh, how therefore we should
confide in Him, and in our darkest moments
never
lose sight of the fact that He is still and
ever
will be the living God!
Be assured, if you walk with Him and look
to Him
and expect help from Him, He will never fail
you.
An older brother who has known the Lord for
forty-four years, who writes this, says to
you
for your encouragement that He has never
failed
him. In the greatest difficulties, in the
heaviest trials, in the deepest poverty and
necessities, He has never failed me; but
because
I was enabled by His grace to trust Him He
has
always appeared for my help. I delight in
speaking well of His name. --George Mueller
Luther was once found at a moment of peril
and
fear, when he had need to grasp unseen
strength,
sitting in an abstracted mood tracing on
the
table with his finger the words,
"Vivit! vivit!"
("He lives! He lives!"). It is
our hope for
ourselves, and for His truth, and for
mankind.
Men come and go; leaders, teachers,
thinkers
speak and work for a season, and then fall
silent
and impotent. He abides. They die, but He
lives.
They are lights kindled, and, therefore,
sooner
or later quenched; but He is the true light
from
which they draw all their brightness, and
He
shines for evermore. --Alexander Maclaren
"One day I came to know Dr. John
Douglas Adam,"
writes C. G. Trumbull. "I learned from
him that
what he counted his greatest spiritual
asset was
his unvarying consciousness of the actual
presence of Jesus. Nothing bore him up so,
he
said, as the realization that Jesus was
always
with him in actual presence; and that this
was so
independent of his own feelings,
independent of
his deserts, and independent of his own
notions
as to how Jesus would manifest His
presence.
"Moreover, he said that Christ was the
home of
his thoughts. Whenever his mind was free
from
other matters it would turn to Christ; and
he
would talk aloud to Christ when he was
alone--on
the street, anywhere--as easily and
naturally as
to a human friend. So real to him was
Jesus'
actual presence.
(30) The Fiery Furnace
"Now thanks be unto God, which always
causeth us
to triumph in Christ" (2 Cor. 2:14).
God gets His greatest victories out of
apparent
defeats. Very often the enemy seems to
triumph
for a little, and God lets it be so; but
then He
comes in and upsets all the work of the
enemy,
overthrows the apparent victory, and as the
Bible
says, "turns the way of the wicked
upside down."
Thus He gives a great deal larger victory
than we
would have known if He had not allowed the
enemy,
seemingly, to triumph in the first place.
The story of the three Hebrew children
being cast
into the fiery furnace is a familiar one.
Here
was an apparent victory for the enemy. It
looked
as if the servants of the living God were
going
to have a terrible defeat. We have all been
in
places where it seemed as though we were
defeated, and the enemy rejoiced. We can
imagine
what a complete defeat this looked to be.
They
fell down into the flames, and their
enemies
watched them to see them burn up in that
awful
fire, but were greatly astonished to see
them
walking around in the fire enjoying
themselves.
Nebuchadnezzar told them to "come
forth out of
the midst of the fire." Not even a
hair was
singed, nor was the smell of fire on their
garments, "because there is no other
god that can
deliver after this sort."
This apparent defeat resulted in a
marvelous
victory.
Suppose that these three men had lost their
faith
and courage, and had complained, saying,
"Why did
not God keep us out of the furnace!"
They would
have been burned, and God would not have
been
glorified. If there is a great trial in
your life
today, do not own it as a defeat, but
continue,
by faith, to claim the victory through Him
who is
able to make you more than conqueror, and a
glorious victory will soon be apparent. Let
us
learn that in all the hard places God
brings us
into, He is making opportunities for us to
exercise such faith in Him as will bring
about
blessed results and greatly glorify His
name.
--Life of Praise
"Defeat may serve as well as victory
To shake the soul and let the glory out.
When the great oak is straining in the
wind,
The boughs drink in new beauty, and the
trunk
Sends down a deeper root on the windward
side.
Only the soul that knows the mighty grief
Can know the mighty rapture. Sorrows come
To
stretch out spaces in the heart for joy."
Persistent Prayer
"Men ought always to pray and not to faint"
(Luke18:1).
"Go to the ant." Tammerlane used to relate to his
friends an anecdote of his early life. "I once he
said, "was forced to take shelter from my enemies
in a ruined building, where I sat alone many
hours. Desiring to divert my mind from my
hopeless condition, I fixed my eyes on an ant
that was carrying a grain of corn larger than
itself up a high wall. I numbered the efforts it
made to accomplish this object. The grain fell
sixty-nine times to the ground; but the insect
persevered, and the seventieth time it reached
the top. This sight gave me courage at the
moment, and I never forgot the lesson.--The
King's Business
Prayer which takes the fact that past prayers
have not been answered as a reason for languor,
has already ceased to be the prayer of faith. To
the prayer of faith the fact that prayers remain
unanswered is only evidence that the moment of
the answer is so much nearer. From first to last,
the lessons and examples of our Lord all tell us
that prayer which cannot persevere and urge its
plea importunately, and renew, and renew itself
again, and gather strength from every past
petition, is not the prayer that will prevail.
--William Arthur
Rubenstein, the great musician, once said, "If I
omit practice one day, I notice it; if two days,
my friends notice it; if three days, the public
notice it." It is the old doctrine, "Practice
makes perfect." We must continue believing,
continue praying, continue doing His will.
Suppose along any line of art, one should cease
practicing, we know what the result would be. If
we would only use the same quality of common
sense in our religion that we use in our everyday
life, we should go on to perfection.
The motto of David Livingstone was in these
words, "I determined never to stop until I had
come to the end and achieved my purpose." By
unfaltering persistence and faith in God he
conquered.
Sorrow, God's Plowshare
"Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the
sadness of the countenance the heart is made
better" (Eccles. 7:3).
When sorrow comes under the power of Divine
grace, it works out a manifold ministry in our
lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths in the soul,
and unknown capabilities of experience and
service. Gay, trifling people are always shallow,
and never suspect the little meannesses in their
nature. Sorrow is God's plowshare that turns up
and subsoils the depths of the soul, that it may
yield richer harvests. If we had never fallen, or
were in a glorified state, then the strong
torrents of Divine joy would be the normal force
to open up all our souls' capacities; but in a
fallen world, sorrow, with despair taken out of
it, is the chosen power to reveal ourselves to
ourselves. Hence it is sorrow that makes us think
deeply, long, and soberly.
Sorrow makes us go slower and more considerately,
and introspect our motives and dispositions. It
is sorrow that opens up within us the capacities
of the heavenly life, and it is sorrow that makes
us willing to launch our capacities on a
boundless sea of service for God and our fellows.
We may suppose a class of indolent people living
at the base of a great mountain range, who had
never ventured to explore the valleys and canyons
back in the mountains; and some day, when a great
thunderstorm goes careening through the
mountains, it turns the hidden glens into echoing
trumpets, and reveals the inner recesses of the
valley, like the convolutions of a monster shell,
and then the dwellers at the foot of the hills
are astonished at the labyrinths and unexplored
recesses of a region so near by, and yet so
little known. So it is with many souls who
indolently live on the outer edge of their own
natures until great thunderstorms of sorrow
reveal hidden depths within that were never
hitherto suspected.
God never uses anybody to a large degree, until
after He breaks that one all to pieces. Joseph
had more sorrow than all the other sons of Jacob,
and it led him out into a ministry of bread for
all nations. For this reason, the Holy Spirit
said of him, "Joseph is a fruitful bough…by a
well, whose branches run over the wall" (Gen.
49:22). It takes sorrow to widen the soul. --The
Heavenly Life
The dark brown mould's upturned
By the sharp-pointed plow;
And I've a lesson learned.
My life is but a field,
Stretched out beneath God's sky,
Some harvest rich to yield.
Where grows the golden grain?
Where faith? Where sympathy?
In a furrow cut by pain.
--Afaltbie D. Babcock
Every person and every nation must take lessons
in God's school of adversity. "We can say,
'Blessed is night, for it reveals to us the
stars.' In the same way we can say, 'Blessed is
sorrow, for it reveals God's comfort.' The floods
washed away home and mill, all the poor man had
in the world. But as he stood on the scene of his
loss, after the water had subsided,
broken-hearted and discouraged, he saw something
shining in the bank which the waters had washed
bare. 'It looks like gold,' he said. It was gold.
The flood which bad beggared him made him rich.
So it is ofttimes in life." --H. C. Trumbull