{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_28416/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_28416","id":"gutenberg_28416","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28416","summary":null,"tags":["Calendars","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Devotional exercises"],"text":"Days of Heaven Upon Earth\n\n                      A Year Book of Scripture Texts\n\n                            And Living Truths\n\n                                    By\n\n                            Rev. A. B. Simpson\n\n                       Christian Alliance Pub. Co.\n\n                         3611 Fourteenth Avenue,\n\n                             Brooklyn, N. Y.\n\n                        Copyright, December, 1897\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nThe Days Of Heaven\nJanuary 1.\nJanuary 2.\nJanuary 3.\nJanuary 4.\nJanuary 5.\nJanuary 6.\nJanuary 7.\nJanuary 8.\nJanuary 9.\nJanuary 10.\nJanuary 11.\nJanuary 12.\nJanuary 13.\nJanuary 14.\nJanuary 15.\nJanuary 16.\nJanuary 17.\nJanuary 18.\nJanuary 19.\nJanuary 20.\nJanuary 21.\nJanuary 22.\nJanuary 23.\nJanuary 24.\nJanuary 25.\nJanuary 26.\nJanuary 27.\nJanuary 28.\nJanuary 29.\nJanuary 30.\nJanuary 31.\nFebruary 1.\nFebruary 2.\nFebruary 3.\nFebruary 4.\nFebruary 5.\nFebruary 6.\nFebruary 7.\nFebruary 8.\nFebruary 9.\nFebruary 10.\nFebruary 11.\nFebruary 12.\nFebruary 13.\nFebruary 14.\nFebruary 15.\nFebruary 16.\nFebruary 17.\nFebruary 18.\nFebruary 19.\nFebruary 20.\nFebruary 21.\nFebruary 22.\nFebruary 23.\nFebruary 24.\nFebruary 25.\nFebruary 26.\nFebruary 27.\nFebruary 28.\nMarch 1.\nMarch 2.\nMarch 3.\nMarch 4.\nMarch 5.\nMarch 6.\nMarch 7.\nMarch 8.\nMarch 9.\nMarch 10.\nMarch 11.\nMarch 12.\nMarch 13.\nMarch 14.\nMarch 15.\nMarch 16.\nMarch 17.\nMarch 18.\nMarch 19.\nMarch 20.\nMarch 21.\nMarch 22.\nMarch 23.\nMarch 24.\nMarch 25.\nMarch 26.\nMarch 27.\nMarch 28.\nMarch 29.\nMarch 30.\nMarch 31.\nApril 1.\nApril 2.\nApril 3.\nApril 4.\nApril 5.\nApril 6.\nApril 7.\nApril 8.\nApril 9.\nApril 10.\nApril 11.\nApril 12.\nApril 13.\nApril 14.\nApril 15.\nApril 16.\nApril 17.\nApril 18.\nApril 19.\nApril 20.\nApril 21.\nApril 22.\nApril 23.\nApril 24.\nApril 25.\nApril 26.\nApril 27.\nApril 28.\nApril 29.\nApril 30.\nMay 1.\nMay 2.\nMay 3.\nMay 4.\nMay 5.\nMay 6.\nMay 7.\nMay 8.\nMay 9.\nMay 10.\nMay 11.\nMay 12.\nMay 13.\nMay 14.\nMay 15.\nMay 16.\nMay 17.\nMay 18.\nMay 19.\nMay 20.\nMay 21.\nMay 22.\nMay 23.\nMay 24.\nMay 25.\nMay 26.\nMay 27.\nMay 28.\nMay 29.\nMay 30.\nMay 31.\nJune 1.\nJune 2.\nJune 3.\nJune 4.\nJune 5.\nJune 6.\nJune 7.\nJune 8.\nJune 9.\nJune 10.\nJune 11.\nJune 12.\nJune 13.\nJune 14.\nJune 15.\nJune 16.\nJune 17.\nJune 18.\nJune 19.\nJune 20.\nJune 21.\nJune 22.\nJune 23.\nJune 24.\nJune 25.\nJune 26.\nJune 27.\nJune 28.\nJune 29.\nJune 30.\nJuly 1.\nJuly 2.\nJuly 3.\nJuly 4.\nJuly 5.\nJuly 6.\nJuly 7.\nJuly 8.\nJuly 9.\nJuly 10.\nJuly 11.\nJuly 12.\nJuly 13.\nJuly 14.\nJuly 15.\nJuly 16.\nJuly 17.\nJuly 18.\nJuly 19.\nJuly 20.\nJuly 21.\nJuly 22.\nJuly 23.\nJuly 24.\nJuly 25.\nJuly 26.\nJuly 27.\nJuly 28.\nJuly 29.\nJuly 30.\nJuly 31.\nAugust 1.\nAugust 2.\nAugust 3.\nAugust 4.\nAugust 5.\nAugust 6.\nAugust 7.\nAugust 8.\nAugust 9.\nAugust 10.\nAugust 11.\nAugust 12.\nAugust 13.\nAugust 14.\nAugust 15.\nAugust 16.\nAugust 17.\nAugust 18.\nAugust 19.\nAugust 20.\nAugust 21.\nAugust 22.\nAugust 23.\nAugust 24.\nAugust 25.\nAugust 26.\nAugust 27.\nAugust 28.\nAugust 29.\nAugust 30.\nAugust 31.\nSeptember 1.\nSeptember 2.\nSeptember 3.\nSeptember 4.\nSeptember 5.\nSeptember 6.\nSeptember 7.\nSeptember 8.\nSeptember 9.\nSeptember 10.\nSeptember 11.\nSeptember 12.\nSeptember 13.\nSeptember 14.\nSeptember 15.\nSeptember 16.\nSeptember 17.\nSeptember 18.\nSeptember 19.\nSeptember 20.\nSeptember 21.\nSeptember 22.\nSeptember 23.\nSeptember 24.\nSeptember 25.\nSeptember 26.\nSeptember 27.\nSeptember 28.\nSeptember 29.\nSeptember 30.\nOctober 1.\nOctober 2.\nOctober 3.\nOctober 4.\nOctober 5.\nOctober 6.\nOctober 7.\nOctober 8.\nOctober 9.\nOctober 10.\nOctober 11.\nOctober 12.\nOctober 13.\nOctober 14.\nOctober 15.\nOctober 16.\nOctober 17.\nOctober 18.\nOctober 19.\nOctober 20.\nOctober 21.\nOctober 22.\nOctober 23.\nOctober 24.\nOctober 25.\nOctober 26.\nOctober 27.\nOctober 28.\nOctober 29.\nOctober 30.\nOctober 31.\nNovember 1.\nNovember 2.\nNovember 3.\nNovember 4.\nNovember 5.\nNovember 6.\nNovember 7.\nNovember 8.\nNovember 9.\nNovember 10.\nNovember 11.\nNovember 12.\nNovember 13.\nNovember 14.\nNovember 15.\nNovember 16.\nNovember 17.\nNovember 18.\nNovember 19.\nNovember 20.\nNovember 21.\nNovember 22.\nNovember 23.\nNovember 24.\nNovember 25.\nNovember 26.\nNovember 27.\nNovember 28.\nNovember 29.\nNovember 30.\nDecember 1.\nDecember 2.\nDecember 3.\nDecember 4.\nDecember 5.\nDecember 6.\nDecember 7.\nDecember 8.\nDecember 9.\nDecember 10.\nDecember 11.\nDecember 12.\nDecember 13.\nDecember 14.\nDecember 15.\nDecember 16.\nDecember 17.\nDecember 18.\nDecember 19.\nDecember 20.\nDecember 21.\nDecember 22.\nDecember 23.\nDecember 24.\nDecember 25.\nDecember 26.\nDecember 27.\nDecember 28.\nDecember 29.\nDecember 30.\nDecember 31.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE DAYS OF HEAVEN\n\n\nThe days of heaven are peaceful days,\n  Still as yon glassy sea;\nSo calm, so still in God, our days,\n  As the days of heaven would be.\n\nThe days of heaven are holy days,\n  From sin forever free;\nSo cleansed and kept our days, O Lord,\n  As the days of heaven would be.\n\nThe days of heaven are happy days.\n  Sorrow they never see;\nSo full of gladness all our days,\n  As the days of heaven would be.\n\nThe days of heaven are healthful days,\n  They feed on life\u2019s fair tree;\nSo feeding on Thy strength, O Christ,\n  Our days as heaven may be.\n\nWalk with us, Lord, thro\u2019 all the days,\n  And let us walk with Thee;\nTill as Thy will is done in heaven,\n  On earth so shall it be.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 1.\n\n\n\u201cRedeeming the time\u201d (Eph. v. 16).\n\nTwo little words are found in the Greek version here. They are translated\n\u201c_ton kairon_\u201d in the revised version, \u201cBuying up for yourselves the\nopportunity.\u201d The two words _ton kairon_ mean, literally, the opportunity.\n\nThey do not refer to time in general, but to a special point of time, a\njuncture, a crisis, a moment full of possibilities and quickly passing by,\nwhich we must seize and make the best of before it has passed away.\n\nIt is intimated that there are not many such moments of opportunity,\nbecause the days are evil; like a barren desert, in which, here and there,\nyou find a flower, pluck it while you can; like a business opportunity\nwhich comes a few times in a life-time; buy it up while you have the\nchance. Be spiritually alert; be not unwise, but understanding what the\nwill of God is. \u201cWalk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, buying up\nfor yourselves the opportunity.\u201d\n\nSometimes it is a moment of time to be saved; sometimes a soul to be led\nto Christ; sometimes it is an occasion for love; sometimes for patience:\nsometimes for victory over temptation and sin. Let us redeem it.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 2.\n\n\n\u201cI will cause you to walk in My statutes\u201d (Eze. xxxvi. 27).\n\nThe highest spiritual condition is one where life is spontaneous and flows\nwithout effort, like the deep floods of Ezekiel\u2019s river, where the\nstruggles of the swimmer ceased, and he was borne by the current\u2019s\nresistless force.\n\nSo God leads us into spiritual conditions and habits which become the\nspontaneous impulses of our being, and we live and move in the fulness of\nthe divine life.\n\nBut these spiritual habits are not the outcome of some transitory impulse,\nbut are often slowly acquired and established. They begin, like every true\nhabit, in a definite act of will, and they are confirmed by the repetition\nof that act until it becomes a habit. The first stages always involve\neffort and choice. We have to take a stand and hold it steadily, and after\nwe have done so a certain time, it becomes second nature, and carries us\nby its own force.\n\nThe Holy Spirit is willing to form such habits in every direction of our\nChristian life, and if we will but obey Him in the first steppings of\nfaith, we will soon become established in the attitude of obedience, and\nduty will be delight.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 3.\n\n\n\u201cWatch and pray\u201d (Matt. xxvi. 41).\n\nWe need to watch for prayers as well as for the answers to our prayers. It\nneeds as much wisdom to pray rightly as it does faith to receive the\nanswers to our prayers.\n\nWe met a friend the other day, who had been in years of darkness because\nGod had failed to answer certain prayers, and the result had been a state\nbordering on infidelity.\n\nA very few moments were sufficient to convince this friend that these\nprayers had been entirely unauthorized, and that God had never promised to\nanswer such prayers, and they were for things which this friend should\nhave accomplished himself, in the exercise of ordinary wisdom.\n\nThe result was deliverance from a cloud of unbelief which was almost\nwrecking a Christian life. There are some things about which we do not\nneed to pray, as much as to take the light which God has already given.\n\nMany persons are asking God to give them peculiar signs, tokens and\nsupernatural intimations of His will. Our business is to use the light He\nhas given, and then He will give whatever more we need.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 4.\n\n\n\u201cBlessed is the man that walketh not\u201d (Ps. i. 1).\n\nThree things are notable about this man:\n\n1. His company. \u201cHe walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor\nstandeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.\u201d\n\n2. His reading and thinking. \u201cHis delight is in the law of the Lord, and\nin His law doth he meditate day and night.\u201d\n\n3. His fruitfulness. \u201cAnd he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of\nwater, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall\nnot wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.\u201d\n\nThe river is the Holy Ghost; the planting, the deep, abiding life in\nwhich, not occasionally, but habitually, we absorb the Holy Spirit; and\nthe fruit is not occasional, but continual, and appropriate to each\nchanging season.\n\nHis life is also prosperous, and his spirit fresh, like the unfading leaf.\nSuch a life must be happy. Indeed, happiness is a matter of spiritual\nconditions. Put a sunbeam in a cellar and it must be bright. Put a\nnightingale in the darkest midnight, and it must sing.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 5.\n\n\n\u201cI know him that he will do the law\u201d (Gen. xviii. 19).\n\nGod wants people that He can depend upon. He could say of Abraham, \u201cI know\nhim, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham all that He hath spoken.\u201d God\ncan be depended upon; He wants us to be just as decided, as reliable, as\nstable. This is just what faith means. God is looking for men on whom He\ncan put the weight of all His love, and power, and faithful promises. When\nGod finds such a soul there is nothing He will not do for him. God\u2019s\nengines are strong enough to draw any weight we attach to them.\nUnfortunately the cable which we fasten to the engine is often too weak to\nhold the weight of our prayer, therefore God is drilling us, disciplining\nus, and training us to stability and certainty in the life of faith. Let\nus learn our lessons, and let us stand fast.\n\nGod has His best things for the few\n  Who dare to stand the test;\nGod has his second choice for those\n  Who will not have His best.\n\nGive me, O Lord, Thy highest choice,\n  Let others take the rest.\nTheir good things have no charm for me,\n  For I have got Thy best.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 6.\n\n\n\u201cThe body is not one member, but many\u201d (I. Cor. xii. 14).\n\nWe have a friend who has a phonograph for his correspondence. It consists\nof two parts. One is a simple and wonderful apparatus, whose sensitive\ncylinders receive the tones and then give them out again, word for word,\nthrough the hearing tube. The other part is a common little box that\nstands under the table, and does nothing but supply the power through\nconnecting wires.\n\nNow, the little box might insist upon being the phonograph, and doing the\ntalking; but if it should, it would not only waste its own life but\ndestroy the life of its partner.\n\nIts sole business is to supply power to the phonograph, while the latter\nis to do the talking. So some of us are called to be voices to speak for\nGod to our fellow-men, others are forces to sustain them, by our holy\nsympathy and silent prayer. (Some of us are little dynamos under the\ntable, while others are phonographs that speak aloud the messages of\nheaven.)\n\nLet each of us be true to our God-given ministry, and when the day comes\nour work will be weighed and the rewards distributed.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 7.\n\n\n\u201cNow unto Him that is able to keep you from stumbling\u201d (Jude 24).\n\nThis is a most precious promise. The revised translation is both accurate\nand suggestive. It is not merely from falling that He wants to keep us,\nbut from even the slightest stumbling.\n\nWe are told of Abraham that he staggered not at the promise. God wants us\nto walk so steadily that there will not even be a quiver in the line of\nHis regiments as they face the foe. It is the little stumblings of life\nthat most discourage and hinder us, and most of these stumblings are over\ntrifles. Satan would much rather knock us down with a feather than with an\nArmstrong gun. It is much more to his honor and keen delight to defeat a\nchild of God by some flimsy trifle than by some great temptation.\n\nBeloved, let us watch, in these days, against the orange peels that trip\nus on our pathway, the little foxes that destroy the vines, and the dead\nflies that mar, sometimes, a whole vessel of precious ointment. \u201cTrifles\nmake perfection,\u201d and as we get farther on, in our Christian life, God\nwill hold us much more closely to obedience in things that seem\ninsignificant.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 8.\n\n\n\u201cIt is I, be not afraid\u201d (Mark vi. 50).\n\nSomeone tells of a little child with some big story of sorrow upon its\nlittle heart, flying to its mother\u2019s arms for comfort, and intending to\ntell her the story of its trouble; but as that mother presses it to her\nbosom and pours out her love, it soon becomes so occupied with her and the\nsweetness of her affection that it forgets to tell its story, and in a\nlittle while even the memory of the trouble is forgotten. It has just been\nloved away, and she has taken its place in the heart of the little one.\n\nThis is the way God comforts us Himself. \u201cIt is I, be not afraid,\u201d is His\nreassuring word. The circumstances are not altered, but He Himself comes\nin their place, and satisfies every need of our being, and we forget all\nthings in His sweet presence, as He becomes our all in all.\n\nI am breathing out my sorrow\n  On Thy kind and loving breast;\nBreathing in Thy joy and comfort,\n  Breathing in Thy peace and rest.\n\nI am breathing out my longings\n  In Thy listening, loving ear;\nI am breathing in Thy answer,\n  Stilling every doubt and fear.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 9.\n\n\n\u201cNot as I will, but as Thou wilt\u201d (Matt. xxvi. 39).\n\n\u201cTo will and do of His good pleasure\u201d (Phil. ii. 13).\n\nThere are two attitudes in which our will should be given to God.\n\nFirst. We should have the surrendered will. This is where we must all\nbegin, by yielding up to God our natural will, and having Him possess it.\n\nBut next, He wants us to have the victorious will. As soon as He receives\nour will in honest surrender, He wants to put His will into it and make it\nstronger than ever for Him. It is henceforth no longer our will, but His\nwill. And having yielded to His choice and placed itself under His\ndirection, He wants to put into it all the strength and intensity of His\nown great will and make us positive, forceful, victorious and unmovable,\neven as Himself. \u201cNot My will, but Thine be done.\u201d That is the first step.\n\u201cFather, I will that they whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me.\u201d That is\nthe second attitude. Both are divine; both are right; both are necessary\nto our right living and successful working for God.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 10.\n\n\n\u201cCharity doth not behave itself unseemly\u201d (I. Cor. xiii. 5).\n\nIn the dress of a Hindu woman, her graceful robe is fastened upon her\nperson entirely by means of a single knot. The long strip of cloth is\nwound around her person so as to fall in graceful folds like a made\ngarment, and the end is fastened by a little knot, and the whole thing\nhangs by that single fastening. If that were loosed the robe would fall.\nAnd so in the spiritual life, our habits of grace are likened unto\ngarments; and it is also true that the garment of love, which is the\nbeautiful adorning of the child of God, is entirely fastened by little\n_nots_.\n\nIf you will read with care the thirteenth chapter of I. Corinthians, you\nwill find that most of the qualities of love are purely negative. \u201cLove\nenvieth not, love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave\nherself rudely, seeketh not her own, is not provoked, thinketh no evil.\u201d\nHere are \u201c_nots_\u201d enough to hold on our spiritual wardrobe. Here are\nreasons enough to explain the failure of so many, and the reason why they\nwalk naked, or with rent garments, and others see their shame. Let us look\nafter the _nots_.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 11.\n\n\n\u201cHold fast till I come\u201d (Rev. ii. 25).\n\nThe other day we asked a Hebrew friend how it was that his countrymen were\nso successful in acquiring wealth. \u201cAh,\u201d said he, \u201cwe do not make more\nmoney than other people, but we keep more.\u201d Beloved, let us look out this\nday for spiritual pickpockets and spiritual leakage. Let us \u201close nothing\nof what we have wrought, but receive a full reward\u201d; and, as each day\ncomes and goes, let us put away in the savings bank of eternity its\ntreasures of grace and victory, and so be conscious from day to day that\nsomething real and everlasting is being added to our eternal fortune.\n\nIt may be but a little, but if we only economize all that God gives us,\nand pass it on to His keeping, when the close shall come we shall be\namazed to see how much the accumulated treasures of a well spent life have\nlaid up on high, and how much more He has added to them by His glorious\ninvestment of the life committed to His keeping.\n\nOh, how the days are telling! Oh, how precious these golden hours will\nseem sometime! God help us to make the most of them now.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 12.\n\n\n\u201cAsk and it shall be given you\u201d (Matt. vii. 7).\n\nWe must receive, as well as ask. We must take the place of believing, and\nrecognize ourselves as in it. A friend was saying, \u201cI want to get into the\nwill of God,\u201d and this was the answer: \u201cWill you step into the will of\nGod? And now, are you in the will of God?\u201d The question aroused a thought\nthat had not come before.\n\nThe gentleman saw that he had been straining after, but not receiving the\nblessing he sought.\n\nJesus has said, \u201cAsk and ye shall receive.\u201d The very strain keeps back the\nblessing. The intense tension of all your spiritual nature so binds you\nthat you are not open to the blessing which God is waiting to give you.\n\u201cWhosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.\u201d\n\nHe tells me there is cleansing\n  From every secret sin,\nAnd a great and full salvation\n  To keep the heart within.\nAnd I take Him in His fulness,\n  With all His glorious grace,\nFor He says it is mine by taking,\n  And I take just what He says.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 13.\n\n\n\u201cThou shalt be to him instead of God\u201d (Ex. iv. 16).\n\nSuch was God\u2019s promise to Moses, and such the high character that Moses\nwas to assume toward Aaron, his brother. May it not suggest a high and\nglorious place that each of us may occupy toward all whom we meet, instead\nof God?\n\nWhat a dignity and glory it would give our lives, could we uniformly\nrealize this high calling! How it would lead us to act toward our\nfellow-men! God can always be depended upon. God is without variableness\nor shadow of turning. God\u2019s word is unchangeable, and we can trust Him\nwithout reserve or question. Oh, that we might so live that men can trust\nus, even as God!\n\nAgain, God has no needs or wants to be supplied. He is always giving.\n\u201cRich unto all that call upon Him.\u201d The glory of His nature is love,\nunselfish love, and beneficence toward all His creatures. The Divine life\nis a self-forgetting life, a life that has nothing to do but love and\nbless.\n\nLet us so live, representing our Master here, while He represents us\nbefore the Throne on high.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 14.\n\n\n\u201cUnto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ\u201d (Eph. iv. 13).\n\nGod loves us so well that He will not suffer us to take less than His\nhighest will. Some day we shall bless our faithful teacher, who kept the\nstandard inflexibly rigid, and then gave us the strength and grace to\nreach it, and would not excuse us until we had accomplished all His\nglorious will.\n\nLet us be inexorable with ourselves. Let us mean exactly what God means,\nand have no discounts upon His promises or commandments. Let us keep the\nstandard up, and never rest until we reach it. \u201cLet God be true and every\nman a liar.\u201d If we fail a hundred times don\u2019t let us accommodate God\u2019s\nideal to our realization, but like the brave ensign who stood in front of\nhis company waving the banner, and when the soldiers called him back he\nonly waved it higher, and cried, \u201cDon\u2019t bring the standard back to the\nregiment, but bring the regiment up to the colors.\u201d\n\nForward, forward, leave the past behind thee,\n  Reaching forth unto the things before;\nAll the Land of Promise lies before thee,\n  God has greater blessings yet in store.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 15.\n\n\n\u201cAs ye have received Christ Jesus so walk in Him\u201d (Col. ii. 6).\n\nIt is much easier to keep the fire burning than to rekindle it after it\nhas gone out. Let us abide in Him. Let us not have to remove the cinders\nand ashes from our hearthstones every day and kindle a new flame; but let\nus keep it burning and never let it expire. Among the ancient Greeks the\nsacred fire was never allowed to go out; so, in a higher sense, let us\nkeep the heavenly flame aglow upon the altar of the heart.\n\nIt takes very much less effort to maintain a good habit than to form it. A\ntrue spiritual habit once formed becomes a spontaneous tendency of our\nbeing, and we grow into delightful freedom in following it. \u201cLet us not be\never laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, but let us\ngo on unto perfection; and whereto we have already attained, let us walk\nby the same rule, let us mind the same things.\u201d\n\nEvery spiritual habit begins with difficulty and effort and watchfulness,\nbut if we will only let it get thoroughly established, it will become a\nchannel along which currents of life will flow with divine spontaneousness\nand freedom.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 16.\n\n\n\u201cProve what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God\u201d (Rom.\nxii. 2).\n\nThere are three conditions in which the water in that engine may be.\nFirst, the boiler may be full and the water clean and clear; or, secondly,\nthe boiler may not only be full but the water may be hot, very hot, hot\nenough to scald you, almost boiling; thirdly, it may be just one degree\nhotter and at the boiling point, giving forth its vapor in clouds of\nsteam, pressing through the valves and driving the mighty piston which\nturns the wheels and propels the train of cars across the country.\n\nSo there are three kinds of Christians. The first we will call cold water\nChristians, or, perhaps better, clean water Christians.\n\nSecondly, there are hot water Christians. They are almost at the boiling\npoint.\n\nOne degree more, we come to the third class of Christians, the boiling\nwater Christians. The difference is a very slight one; it simply takes one\nreservation out, drops one \u201cif,\u201d eliminates a single touch, and yet it is\nall the difference in the world. That one degree changes that engine into\na motive power, not now a thing to be looked at, but a thing to go.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 17.\n\n\n\u201cIt is God which worketh in you\u201d (Phil. ii. 13).\n\nGod has not two ways for any of us; but one; not two things for us to do\nwhich we may choose between; but one best and highest choice. It is a\nblessed thing to find and fill the perfect will of God. It is a blessed\nthing to have our life laid out and our Christian work adjusted to God\u2019s\nplan. Much strength is lost by working at a venture. Much spiritual force\nis expended in wasted effort, and scattered, indefinite and inconstant\nattempts at doing good. There is spiritual force and financial strength\nenough in the hands and hearts of the consecrated Christians of to-day to\nbring the coming of Christ, to bring about the evangelization of the world\nin a generation, if it were only wisely directed and utilized according to\nGod\u2019s plan.\n\nChrist has laid down a definite plan of work for His Church, and He\nexpects us to understand it, and to work up to it; and as we catch His\nthought, and obediently, loyally fulfil it, we shall work to purpose, and\nplease Him far better than by our thoughtless, reckless, and\nindiscriminate attempts to carry out our ideas, and compel God to bless\nour work.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 18.\n\n\n\u201cThat take and give for Me and thee\u201d (Matt. xvii. 27).\n\nThere is a beautiful touch of loving thoughtfulness in the account of\nChrist\u2019s miracle at Capernaum in providing the tribute money. After the\nreference to Peter\u2019s interview with the tax collector, it is added, \u201cWhen\nhe came into the house Jesus prevented him,\u201d that is, anticipated him, as\nthe old Saxon word means, by arranging for the need before Peter needed to\nspeak about it at all, and He sent Peter down to the sea to find the piece\nof gold in the mouth of the fish.\n\nSo our dear Lord is always thinking in advance of our needs, and He loves\nto save us from embarrassment, and anticipate our anxieties and cares by\nlaying up His loving acts and providing before the emergency comes. Then\nwith exquisite tenderness the Master adds: \u201cThat take and give for Me and\nthee.\u201d He puts Himself first in the embarrassing need and bears the heavy\nend of the burden for His distressed and suffering child. He makes our\ncares His cares, our sorrows His sorrows, our shame His shame, and \u201cHe is\nable to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 19.\n\n\n\u201cProve me now herewith\u201d (Mal. iii. 10).\n\nWe once heard a simple old colored man say something that we have never\nforgotten. \u201cWhen God tests You it is a good time for you to test Him by\nputting His promises to the proof, and claiming from Him just as much as\nyour trials have rendered necessary.\u201d\n\nThere are two ways of getting out of a trial. One is to simply try to get\nrid of the trial, and be thankful when it is over. The other is to\nrecognize the trial as a challenge from God to claim a larger blessing\nthan we have ever had, and to hail it with delight as an opportunity of\nobtaining a larger measure of Divine grace.\n\nThus even the adversary becomes an auxiliary, and the things that seem to\nbe against us turn out to be for the furtherance of our way. Surely, this\nis to be more than conquerors through Him who loved us.\n\nBlessed Rose of Sharon\n  Breathe upon our heart,\nFill us with Thy fragrance,\n  Keep us as Thou art.\nThen Thy life will make us\n  Holy and complete;\nIn Thy grace triumphant,\n  In Thy sweetness, sweet.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 20.\n\n\n\u201cYe know not what manner of spirit ye are of\u201d (Luke ix. 55).\n\nSome one has said that the most spiritual people are the easiest to get\nalong with. When one has a little of the Holy Ghost it is like \u201ca little\nlearning, a dangerous thing\u201d; but a full baptism of the Holy Spirit, and a\nreally disciplined, stablished and tested spiritual life, makes one\nsimple, tender, tolerant, considerate of others, and like a little child.\n\nJames and John, in their early zeal, wanted to call down fire from heaven\non the Samaritans. But John, the aged, allowed Demetrius to exclude him\nfrom the church, and suffered in Patmos for the kingdom and with the\npatience of Jesus. And aged Paul was willing to take back even Mark, whom\nhe had refused as a companion in his early ministry, and to acknowledge\nthat he was profitable to him for the ministry.\n\nI want the love that cannot help but love;\nLoving, like God, for very sake of love.\nA spring so full that it must overflow,\nA fountain flowing from the throne above.\n\n\u201cNow abideth faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 21.\n\n\n\u201cPray without ceasing\u201d (I. Thess. v. 17).\n\nAn important help in the life of prayer is the habit of bringing\neverything to God, moment by moment, as it comes to us in life. This may\nbe established as a habit on the principle on which all habits are formed,\nof repeated and constant attention, moment by moment, until that which is\nat first an act of will, becomes spontaneous and second nature.\n\nIf we will watch our lives we shall find that God meets the things that we\ncommit to Him in prayer with special blessing, and often allows the best\nthings that we have not committed to Him to be ineffectual, simply to\nremind us of our dependence upon Him for everything. It is very gracious\nand mindful of Him thus gently to compel us to remember Him and to hold us\nso close to Him that we cannot get away even the length of a single minute\nfrom His all-sustaining arm. \u201cIn everything ... let our requests be made\nknown unto God.\u201d\n\nLet us bring our least petitions,\n  Like the incense beaten small,\nAll our cares, complaints, conditions\n  Jesus loves to bear them all.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 22.\n\n\n\u201cHis wife hath made herself ready\u201d (Rev. xix. 7).\n\nThere is danger in becoming morbid even in preparing for the Lord\u2019s\ncoming. We remember a time in our life when we had devoted ourselves to\nspend a month in waiting upon the Lord for a baptism of the Holy Ghost,\nand before the end of the month, the Lord shook us out of our seclusion\nand compelled us to go out and carry His message to others; and as we\nwent, He met us in the service.\n\nThere is a musty, monkish way of seeking a blessing, and there is a\nwholesome, practical holiness which finds us in the company of the Lord\nHimself not only in the closet and on the mountain-top of prayer, but\namong publicans and sinners, and in the practical duties of life.\n\nIt seems to us that the practical preparation for the Lord\u2019s coming\nconsists, first, of a very full entering into fellowship with Him in our\nown spiritual life, and letting Him not only cleanse us, but perfect us in\nall the finer touches of the Spirit\u2019s deeper work, and then, secondly,\ngetting out of ourselves and living for the help of others and the\npreparation of the world for His appearing.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 23.\n\n\n\u201cI know a man in Christ\u201d (II. Cor. xii. 2).\n\nIt is a great deliverance to lose one\u2019s self. There is no heavier\nmillstone that one can be compelled to carry than self-consciousness. It\nis so easy to get introverted and coiled round one\u2019s self in our spiritual\nconsciousness. There is nothing that is so easy to fasten on as our\nmisery; there is nothing that is more apt to produce self-consciousness\nthan suffering, until it becomes almost a settled habit to hold on to our\nburden, and pray it unceasingly into the very face of God, until our very\nprayer saturates us with our own misery, instead of asking for power to\ndrop ourselves altogether, and leave ourselves in His loving hands and\nknow that we are free, and then rise into the blessed liberty of His\nhigher thoughts and will, and His love and care for others.\n\nThe very act of letting go of ourselves really lifts us into a higher\nplane, and relieves us from the thing that is hurting. This habit of\nprayer for others, and especially for the world, brings its own\nrecompense, and leaves upon our hearts a blessing like the fertility which\nthe Nile deposits upon the soil of Egypt, as it flows through to its\ndistant goal.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 24.\n\n\n\u201cFreely ye have received, freely give\u201d (Matt. x. 8).\n\nWhen God does anything marked and special for our souls, or bodies, He\nintends it as a sacred trust for us to communicate to others. \u201cFreely ye\nhave received, freely give.\u201d\n\nIt has pleased the Master in these closing days of the dispensation to\nreveal Himself in peculiar blessing to the hearts of His chosen disciples\nin all parts of the Christian Church; but this is intended to be\ncommunicated to a still wider circle, and every one of us who has been\nbrought into these intimate relations with God, becomes a trustee, or\nwitness for these higher truths to every one we can influence.\n\nIf God has revealed Himself to us as our Sanctifier, it is that we may\nhelp others to know Him as a Sanctifier.\n\nIf He has become our Healer, it is because there are sick and suffering\nlives to whom we can bring some blessing.\n\nIn like manner, if the hope of the Lord\u2019s coming has become precious to\nus, it would be worse than ingratitude for us to hide our testimony to\nthis truth, and hold it only for our own personal comfort.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 25.\n\n\n\u201cHold fast that which is good\u201d (I. Thess. v. 21).\n\nIt is a great thing to be able to receive new truth and blessing without\nsacrificing the truths already proved, and abandoning foundations already\nlaid.\n\nSome persons are always laying the foundations, and they present at last,\nthe appearance of a lot of abandoned sites and half constructed buildings,\nand nothing is ever brought to completion.\n\nThe fact that you are abandoning to-day for some new truth the things that\na year ago you counted most precious and believed to be divinely true,\nshould be sufficient evidence that you will probably a year from to-day\nabandon your present convictions for the next new light that comes to you.\n\nGod is ever wanting to add to us, to develop us, to enlarge us, to teach\nus more and more, but it is ever in the line of things which He has\nalready taught us, and in which we have been established.\n\nWhile we are to \u201cprove all things,\u201d let us \u201chold fast that which is good,\u201d\nand \u201cwhereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let\nus mind the same thing.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 26.\n\n\n\u201cI called him alone and blessed him\u201d (Isa. li. 2).\n\nWhen we were in the East we noticed the beautiful process of raising rice.\nThe rice is sown on a morass of mud and water, ploughed up by great\nbuffaloes, and after a few weeks it springs up and appears above the water\nwith its beautiful pale green shoots. The seed has been sown very thickly\nand the plants are clustered together in great numbers, so that you can\npull up a score at a single handful. But now comes the process of\ntransplanting. He first plants us and lets us grow very close to some of\nHis children, and in great clusters in the nursery or the hothouse, but\nwhen we reach a certain stage we must be transplanted, or come to nothing.\nHe calls us out by His Spirit and Providence into situations where we have\nto lean directly on Him, where He puts upon us a weight of responsibility\nand service so great that we have an opportunity of developing and are\nthrown upon the great resources of His grace.\n\n\u201cBlessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is;\nfor he shall be like a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out\nher roots by the rivers.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 27.\n\n\n\u201cThis one thing I do\u201d (Phil. iii. 13).\n\nOne of Satan\u2019s favorite employees is the switchman. He likes nothing\nbetter than to side-track one of God\u2019s express trains, sent on some\nblessed mission and filled with the fire of a holy purpose.\n\nSomething will come up in the pathway of the earnest soul, to attract its\nattention and occupy its strength and thought. Sometimes it is a little\nirritation and provocation. Sometimes it is some petty grievance we stop\nto pursue or adjust. Sometimes it is somebody else\u2019s business in which we\nbecome interested, and which we feel bound to rectify, and before we know,\nwe are absorbed in a lot of distracting cares and interests that quite\nturn us aside from the great purpose of our life.\n\nPerhaps we do not do much harm, but we have missed our connection. We have\ngot off the main line.\n\nLet all these things alone. Let grievances come and go, but press forward\nsteadily and irresistibly, crying, as you haste to the goal, \u201cThis one\nthing I do.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 28.\n\n\n\u201cThat my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full\u201d (John\nxv. 11).\n\nThere is a joy that springs spontaneously in the heart without external or\neven rational cause. It is an artesian fountain. It rejoices because it\ncannot help it. It is the glory of God; it is the heart of Christ, it is\nthe joy divine of which He says, \u201cThese things have I spoken unto you that\nMy joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.\u201d And your joy\nno man taketh from you. He who possesses this fountain is not discouraged\nby surrounding circumstances, but is often surprised at the deep, sweet\ngladness that comes without any apparent cause, and even comes most\nstrongly when everything in our condition and circumstances is fitted to\nfill us with sorrow and depression.\n\nIt is the nightingale in the heart, which sings at night, and sings\nbecause it is its nature to sing.\n\nIt is the glorified and incorruptible joy which belongs to heaven, and\nanticipates already the everlasting song. Lord, give me Thy joy under all\ncircumstances this day, and let my full heart overflow in blessing to\nothers.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 29.\n\n\n\u201cSend portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared\u201d (Neh. viii. 10).\n\nThat was a fine picture in the days of Nehemiah, when they were\ncelebrating their glorious Feast of Tabernacles. \u201cNeither be ye sorry; for\nthe joy of the Lord is your strength. Go your way, eat the fat, and drink\nthe sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared.\u201d\n\nHow many there are on every side for whom nothing is prepared! Let us find\nout some sad and needy heart for whom there is no one else to think or\ncare. Let us pray for some one that has none to pray for him. Let us be\nlike Him who, one Christmas Day, gave His life and His all, and came to\nthose who would not appreciate His holy gift, but rejected His blessed\nBabe, and murdered His only Son.\n\nLet us not be afraid to know something even of the love that is unrequited\nand is thrown away on the unworthy. That is the love of Christ, and God\nhas for such love a rich recompense.\n\nHow Christ must almost weep over the selfishness that meets Him from those\nfor whom He died.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 30.\n\n\n\u201cCast down but not destroyed\u201d (II. Cor. iv. 9).\n\nHow did God bring about the miracle of the Red Sea? By shutting His people\nin on every side, so that there was no way out but the divine way. The\nEgyptians were behind them, the sea was in front of them, the mountains\nwere on every side of them. There was no escape but from above.\n\nSome one has said that the devil can wall us in, but he cannot roof us\nover. We can always get out at the top. Our difficulties are but God\u2019s\nchallenges, and He makes them so hard, often, that we must go under or get\nabove them.\n\nIn such an hour, if there is a divine element, it brings out the highest\npossibilities of faith and we are pushed by the very emergency into God\u2019s\nbest.\n\nBeloved, this is God\u2019s hour. If you will rise to meet it you will get such\na hold upon Him that you will never be in extremities again, or if you\nare, you will learn to call them not extremities, but opportunities, and\nlike Jacob, you will go forth from that night at Peniel, no longer Jacob,\nbut victorious Israel. Let us bring to Him our need and prove Him true.\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY 31.\n\n\n\u201cJesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness and\nsanctification and redemption\u201d (I. Cor. i. 30).\n\nMore and more we are coming to see the supreme importance of getting the\nright conception of sanctification, not as a blessing, but as a personal\nunion with the personal Saviour and the indwelling Holy Spirit. Thousands\nof people get stranded after they have embarked on the great voyage of\nholiness.\n\nThey find themselves failing and falling, and are astonished and\nperplexed, and they conclude that they must have been mistaken in their\nexperience, and so they make a new attempt at the same thing and again\nfall, until at last, worn out with the experiment, they conclude that the\nexperience is a delusion, or, at least, that it was never intended for\nthem, and so they fall back into the old way, and their last state is\nworse than their first.\n\nWhat people need to-day to satisfy their deep hunger and to give them a\npermanent and Divine experience is to know, not sanctification as a state,\nbut Christ as a living Person, who is waiting to enter the heart that is\nwilling to receive Him.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 1.\n\n\n\u201cA well of water springing up\u201d (John iv. 14).\n\nIn the life overflowing in service for others, we find the deep fountain\nof life running over the spring and finding vent in rivers of living water\nthat go out to bless and save the world around us. It is beautiful to\nnotice that as the blessing grows unselfish it grows larger. The water in\nthe heart is only a well, but when reaching out to the needs of others it\nis not only a river, but a delta of many rivers overflowing in majestic\nblessing. This overflowing love is connected with the Person and work of\nthe Holy Spirit which was to be poured out upon the disciples after Jesus\nwas glorified.\n\nThis is the true secret of power for service, the heart filled and\nsatisfied with Jesus, and so baptized with the Holy Ghost that it is\nimpelled by the fulness of its joy and love to impart to others what it\nhas so abundantly received; and yet each new ministry only makes room for\na new filling and a deeper receiving of the life which grows by giving.\n\nLetting go is twice possessing,\nWould you double every blessing,\n    Pass it on.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 2.\n\n\n\u201cAnd whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And\nwhosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant\u201d (Matt. xx. 26,\n27).\n\nSlave is the literal meaning of the word, _doulos_.\n\nThe first word used for service is _diakanos_, which means a minister to\nothers in any usual way or work: but the word _doulos_ means a bond slave,\nand the Lord here plainly teaches us that the highest service is that of a\nbond slave.\n\nHe Himself made Himself the servant of all, and he who would come nearest\nto Him and stand closest to Him at last, must likewise learn the spirit of\nthe ministry that has utterly renounced selfish rights and claims forever.\n\nIt is quite possible to be entirely loyal to the Lord Jesus, and yet for\nJesus\u2019 sake, a servant ourselves, and under the authority of those who are\nover us in the Lord.\n\nThe _doulos_ spirit is the spirit of self-renunciation and glad submission\nto proper authority, service utterly disinterested, yielding our own\npreferences and interests unreservedly for the glory of the Master and the\nsake of our brethren. Lord, clothe us with humility and make us wholly\nThine.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 3.\n\n\n\u201cHe went out, not knowing whither He went\u201d (Heb. xi. 8).\n\nIt is faith without sight. When we can see, it is not faith but reasoning.\nIn crossing the Atlantic we observed this very principle of faith. We saw\nno path upon the sea nor sign of the shore. And yet day by day we were\nmarking our path upon the chart as exactly as if there had followed us a\ngreat chalk line upon the sea; and when we came within twenty miles of\nland we knew where we were as exactly as if we had seen it all three\nthousand miles ahead.\n\nHow had we measured and marked our course? Day by day our captain had\ntaken his instruments, and looking up to the sky had fixed his course by\nthe sun. He was sailing by the heavenly, not the earthly lights. So faith\nlooks up and sails on, by God\u2019s great Sun, not seeing one shore line or\nearthly lighthouse or path upon the way. Often its steps seem to lead into\nutter uncertainty, and even darkness and disaster. But He opens the way,\nand often makes such midnight hours the very gates of day. Let us go forth\nthis day, not knowing but trusting.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 4.\n\n\n\u201cLo, I am with you alway\u201d (Matt. xxviii. 20).\n\nThis living Christ is not the person that was, but the person that still\nis, your living Lord. At Preston Pans, near Edinburgh, I looked on the\nfield where in the olden days armies were engaged in contest. In the\ncrisis of the battle the chieftain fell wounded. His men were about to\nshrink away from the field when they saw their leader\u2019s form go down;\ntheir strong hands held the claymore with trembling grip, and they\nfaltered for a moment. Then the old chieftain rallied strength enough to\nrise on his elbow and cry: \u201cI am not dead, my children, I am only watching\nyou\u2014to see my clansmen do their duty.\u201d And so from the other side of\nCalvary He is speaking; we cannot see Him, but He says, \u201cLo, I am with you\nalway, even to the end of the world\u201d; and He puts it, \u201cI am\u201d\u2014an\nuninterrupted and continuous presence. Not \u201cI will be,\u201d but the unbroken\npresence still is with us forevermore.\n\nSoon the conflict shall be done,\nSoon the battle shall be won;\nSoon shall wave the victor\u2019s palm,\nSoon shall sing the eternal Psalm;\nThen our joyful song shall be,\nI have overcome through Thee.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 5.\n\n\n\u201cRest in the Lord\u201d (Ps. xxxvii.).\n\nIn the old creation the week began with work and ended with Sabbath rest.\nThe resurrection week begins with the first day\u2014first rest, then labor.\n\nSo we must first cease from our own works as God did from His, and enter\ninto His rest, and then we will work, with rested hearts, His works with\neffectual power.\n\nBut why \u201clabor to enter into rest\u201d? See that ship\u2014how restfully she sails\nover the waters, her sails swelling with the gale; and borne without an\neffort! And yet, look at that man at the helm. See how firmly he holds the\nrudder, bearing against the wind, and holding her steady to her position.\nLet him for a moment relax his steady hold and the ship will fall\nlistlessly along the wind. The sails will flap, the waves will toss the\nvessel at their will, and all rest and power will have gone. It is the\nfixed helm that brings the steadying power of the wind. And so He has\nsaid, \u201cThou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee,\nbecause he trusteth in Thee.\u201d The steady will and stayed heart are ours.\nThe keeping is the Lord\u2019s. So let us labor to enter and abide in His rest.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 6.\n\n\n\u201cPraying always for all saints\u201d (Eph. vi. 18).\n\nOne good counsel will suffice just now. Stop praying so much for yourself;\nbegin to ask unselfish things, and see if God won\u2019t give you faith. See\nhow much easier it will be to believe for another than for your own petty\nself. Try the effect of praying for the world, for definite things, for\ndifficult things, for glorious things, for things that will honor Christ\nand save mankind, and after you have received a few wonderful answers to\nprayer in this direction, see if you won\u2019t feel stronger to touch your own\nlittle burden with a Divine faith, and then go back again to the high\nplace of unselfish prayer for others.\n\nHave you ever learned the beautiful art of letting God take care of you,\nand giving all your thought and strength to pray for others and for the\nkingdom of God? It will relieve you of a thousand cares. It will lift you\nup into a noble and lofty sphere, and teach you to live and love like God.\nLord save us from our selfish prayers and give us the faith that worketh\nby love, and the heart of Christ for a perishing world.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 7.\n\n\n\u201cFaithful in that which is least\u201d (Luke xvi. 10).\n\nThe man that missed his opportunity and met the doom of the faithless\nservant was not the man with five talents, or the man with two, but the\nman who had only one. The people who are in danger of missing life\u2019s great\nmeaning are the people of ordinary capacity and opportunity, and who say\nto themselves, \u201cThere is so little I can do that I will not try to do\nanything.\u201d One of the finest windows in Europe was made from the remnants\nan apprentice boy collected from the cuttings of his master\u2019s great work.\nThe sweepings of the British mint are worth millions. The little pivots on\nwhich the works of your watch turn are so important that they are actually\nmade of jewels. And so God places a solemn value and responsibility on the\nhumble workers, the people that try to hide behind their insignificance\nthe trifling opportunities and the single talents; and our littleness will\nnot excuse us in the reckoning day.\n\n\u201cTalk not of talents, what hast thou to do?\n  Thou hast sufficient, whether five or two.\nTalk not of talents; is thy duty done?\n  This brings the blessing whether ten or one.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 8.\n\n\n\u201cWe are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves\u201d\n(II. Cor. iii. 5).\n\nInsufficient, \u201cAll sufficient.\u201d These two words form the complement of\neach other and together give the key to an efficient Christian life. The\ndiscovery and full conviction of our utter helplessness is the constant\ncondition of spiritual supply. The aim of the Old Testament, therefore, is\never to show man\u2019s failure; that of the New, to reveal Christ\u2019s\nsufficiency. He has all things for us, but we cannot receive them till we\nknow that we have nothing.\n\nThe very essence, therefore, of Christian perfection is the constant\nrenunciation of our own perfection, and the continual acceptance of\nChrist\u2019s righteousness. And as we receive deeper views of our nothingness\nand evil, it is but a call to claim more of His rich grace. But it is\npossible fully to know our insufficiency and yet not take firmly hold of\nHis \u201call things.\u201d This, too, must be done with a faith that will not\naccept less than ALL. The prophet was angry because the king of Israel had\nonly smitten thrice upon the ground. He should have done it five or six\ntimes. He might have had all. So let us meet His greatness and grace.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 9.\n\n\n\u201cNone of these things move me\u201d (Acts xx. 24).\n\nThe best evidence of God\u2019s presence is the devil\u2019s growl. So wrote good\nMr. Spurgeon once in \u201cThe Sword and the Trowel,\u201d and that little sentence\nhas helped many a tried and tired child Of God to stand fast and even\nrejoice under the fiercest attacks of the foe.\n\nWe read in the book of Samuel that the moment that David was crowned at\nHebron, \u201cAll the Philistines came up to seek David.\u201d And the moment we get\nanything from the Lord worth contending for, then the devil comes to seek\nus.\n\nWhen the enemy meets us at the threshold of any great work for God let us\naccept it as \u201ca token of salvation,\u201d and claim double blessing, victory\nand power. Power is developed by resistance. The cannon carries twice as\nfar because the exploding power has to find its way through resistance.\nThe way electricity is produced in the power-house yonder is by the sharp\nfriction of the revolving wheels. And so we shall find some day that even\nSatan has been one of God\u2019s agencies of blessing.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 10.\n\n\n\u201cI am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live\u201d (Gal. ii. 20).\n\nChrist life is in harmony with our nature. A lady asked me the other day\u2014a\nthoughtful, intelligent woman who was not a Christian, but who had the\ndeepest hunger for that which is right: \u201cHow can this be so, and we not\nlose our individuality! This will destroy our personality, and it violates\nour responsibility as individuals.\u201d\n\nI said: \u201cDear sister, your personality is only half without Christ. Christ\nwas made for you, and you were made for Christ, and until you meet you are\nnot complete, and He needs you as you need Him.\u201d I said: \u201cSuppose that\ngas-jet should say, \u2018If I take this fire in, the gas will lose its\nindividuality.\u2019 Oh, no; it is only when the fire comes in that the gas\nfulfils its very purpose of being. Suppose the snowflake should say, \u2018What\nshall I do? If I drop on the ground I shall lose my individuality.\u2019 But it\nfalls and is absorbed by the soil, and the snowflakes are seen by-and-by\nin the primroses and daisies. Let us lose ourselves and rise to a new life\nin Christ.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 11.\n\n\n\u201cStrengthened with all might unto all patience\u201d (Col. i. 11).\n\nThe apostle prays for the Colossians, that they may be \u201cstrengthened with\nall might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and\nlong-suffering with joyfulness.\u201d It is one thing to endure and show the\nstrain on every muscle of your face, and seem to say with every wrinkle,\n\u201cWhy does not somebody sympathize with me?\u201d It is another to endure the\ncross, \u201cdespising the shame\u201d for the joy set before us.\n\nThere are some trees in the garden of the Lord which \u201cshall not see when\nheat cometh\u201d; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, nor cease\nfrom yielding fruit. Let us set our faces toward the sunrising and use the\nclouds that come, to make rainbows. Not much longer shall we have the\nglorious opportunity to rejoice in tribulation, and learn patience. In\nheaven we shall have nothing to teach long-suffering. If we do not learn\nit here, we shall be without our brightest crown forever, and wish\nourselves back for a little while, in the very circumstances of which we\nare now trying so hard to get rid.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 12.\n\n\n\u201cBut seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all\nthese things shall be added unto you\u201d (Matt. vi. 33).\n\nFor every heart that is seeking anything from the Lord this is a good\nwatchword. That very thing, or the desire for it, may unconsciously\nseparate you from the Lord, or at least from the singleness of your\npurpose unto Him. The thing we desire may be a right thing, but we may\ndesire it in a distrusting and selfish spirit. Let us commit it to Him,\nand not cease to believe for it, but let us, at the same time, keep our\npurpose fixed on His will and glory, and claim even His promised\nblessings, not for themselves or ourselves, but for Him. Then shall it be\ntrue, \u201cDelight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of\nthine heart.\u201d All other things but Himself God will \u201c_add_.\u201d But they must\nbe ever _added_, never _first_.\n\nThen shall we be able to believe for them without doubt, when we claim\nthem for Him and not for ourselves. It is only when \u201cwe are Christ\u2019s\u201d that\n\u201call things are ours.\u201d\n\nLord, help me this day to seek Thee first, and be more desirous to please\nThee and have Thy will than to possess any other blessing.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 13.\n\n\n\u201cThy prayers are come up for a memorial before God\u201d (Acts x. 4).\n\nWhat a beautiful expression the angel used to Cornelius, \u201cThy prayers are\ncome up for a memorial.\u201d It would almost seem as if supplications of years\nhad accumulated before the Throne, and at last the answer broke in\nblessings on the head of Cornelius, even as the accumulated evaporation of\nmonths at last bursts in floods of rain upon the parched ground. So God is\nrepresented as treasuring the prayers of His saints in vials; they are\ndescribed as sweet odors. They are placed like fragrant flowers in the\nchambers of the King. And kept in sweet remembrance before Him. And later\nthey are represented as poured out upon the earth; and lo, there are\nvoices and thunderings and great providential movements fulfilling God\u2019s\npurposes for His kingdom. We are called \u201cthe Lord\u2019s remembrancers,\u201d and\nare commanded to give Him no rest, day nor night, but crowd the heavens\nwith our petitions and in due time the answer will come with its\naccumulated blessings.\n\nNo breath of true prayer is lost. The longer it waits, the larger it\nbecomes.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 14.\n\n\n\u201cHe shall baptize you with fire\u201d (Matt. iii. 11).\n\nFire is strangely intense and intrinsic. It goes into the very substance\nof things. It somehow blends with every particle of the thing it touches.\n\nThere are the severe trials that come to minds more sensitive, to the\nminds that have more points of contact with what hurts; so that the higher\nthe nature the higher the joy, and the greater the avenues of pain that\ncome.\n\nAnd then there are deeper trials that come as we pass into the hands of\nGod, as we pass from the physical and intellectual into the spiritual\nnature.\n\nWhen they first come, we shrink back from their unnatural and fearful\nbreath, and we say: \u201cOh, this cannot be from the hand of a loving Father!\nThis cannot be necessary to me.\u201d\n\nAnd then come the pains and sufferings from God\u2019s own hand, when He sits\nas a refiner and purifier of silver, when He lets it burn, until it seems\nthat we must be burned to ashes, and we are, indeed, at last burned to\nashes.\n\nBut we must get the victory through faith. The moment you cease to fear\nit, that moment it ceases to harm you. He says, \u201cThe flames shall not\nkindle upon you.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 15.\n\n\n\u201cBe strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus\u201d (II. Tim. ii. 1).\n\nHow to enjoy this day. This will never come by trying to be happy and yet\nwe are responsible for the conditions of real joy.\n\n1. Be right with God; for \u201cGladness is sown for the upright in heart.\u201d \u201cIt\nis His joy that remains in us that makes our joy to be full.\u201d\n\n2. Forget yourself and live for others; for \u201cIt is more blessed to give\nthan to receive.\u201d\n\n3. When you cannot rejoice in feelings, circumstances and states, \u201crejoice\nin the Lord,\u201d and \u201ccount it all joy, when ye fall into divers\ntemptations.\u201d\n\nFinally, obey the Lord and be faithful to your trust; and again and again\nwill His blessed Spirit whisper to your heart, \u201cWell done, good and\nfaithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord.\u201d\n\n\u201cNot enjoyment and not sorrow\n  Is our destined end or way,\nBut to act that each to-morrow\n  Finds us farther than to-day.\n\n\u201cLet us then be up and doing\n  With a heart for any fate,\nStill achieving, still pursuing,\n  Learn to labor and to wait.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 16.\n\n\n\u201cWe will give ourselves continually to prayer\u201d (Acts vi. 4).\n\nIn the consecrated believer the Holy Spirit is pre-eminently a Spirit of\nprayer. If our whole being is committed to Him, and our thoughts are at\nHis bidding, He will occupy every moment in communion and we shall bring\nevery thing to Him as it comes, and pray it out in our spiritual\nconsciousness before we act it out in our lives. We shall, therefore, find\nourselves taking up the burdens of life and praying them out in a wordless\nprayer which we ourselves often cannot understand, but which is simply the\nunfolding of His thought and will within us, and which will be followed by\nthe unfolding of His providence concerning us.\n\nWant of faithfulness and obedience to the faintest whisper of His will\nwill often hinder some blessing which He meant for us until after a while\nwe may get so dull and negligent that He will not be able to trust us with\nHis whispers and we shall thus stumble on in the darkness and miss His\nhighest thoughts.\n\nLord, teach us to pray in the Spirit, to pray without ceasing and to lose\nnothing of Thy will.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 17.\n\n\n\u201cYour life is hid\u201d (Col. iii. 3).\n\nSome Christians loom up in larger proportion than is becoming. They can\ntell, and others can tell, how many souls they bring to Christ. Their\nlabor seems to crystallize and become its own memorial. Others again seem\nto blend so wholly with other workers that their own individuality can\nscarcely be traced. And yet, after all, this is the most Christ-like\nministry of all, for the Master Himself does not even appear in the work\nof the church except as her hidden Life and ascended Head, and even the\nHoly Spirit is lost in the vessels that He uses. The vine does not bear\nthe fruit, and even the sap is unseen in its ceaseless flow, and it is the\nlittle branches which bear all the clusters and seem to have all the honor\nof the vintage. And so the nearer we come to Christ the more we are\nwilling to be lost sight of in our fruit, and let others be more\nprominent, while we are the glad and willing witnesses of our testimony\nand hold up their hands by the silent ministry of love and prayer. Lord,\nlet me be like the veiled seraphim before the throne, who cover their\nfaces and their feet, and hide themselves and their service while they fly\nto obey Thee.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 18.\n\n\n\u201cChrist in you\u201d (Col. i. 27).\n\nHow great the difference between the old and the new way of deliverance!\nOne touch of Christ is worth a lifetime of struggling. A sufferer in one\nof our hospitals was in danger of losing his sight from a small piece of\nbroken needle that had entered his eye.\n\nOperation after operation had only irritated it, and driven the foreign\nsubstance farther still into the delicate nerves of the sensitive organ.\nAt length a skilful young physician thought of a new expedient. He came\none day without lancet and probes, and holding in his hand a small but\npowerful magnet, which he kept before the wounded eye, as close as it\ncould bear. Immediately the piece of steel began to move toward the\npowerful attraction, and soon flew up to meet it and left the suffering\neye completely relieved, without an effort or a laceration. It was as\nsimple as it was wonderful. By a single touch of power the organ was saved\nand a dangerous trouble completely cured.\n\nIt is thus that God delivers us, by the simple attraction of Christ\u2019s life\nand power.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 19.\n\n\n\u201cAs much as in me is I am ready\u201d (Rom. i. 15).\n\nBe earnest. Intense earnestness, a whole heart for Christ, the passion\nsign of the cross, the enthusiasm of our whole being for our Master and\nhumanity\u2014this is what the Lord expects, this is what His cross deserves,\nthis is what the world needs, this is what the age has a right to look\nfor. Everything around us is intensely alive. Life is earnest, death is\nearnest, sin is earnest, men are earnest, business is earnest, knowledge\nis earnest, the age is earnest; God forgive us if we alone are trifling in\nthe white heat of this crisis time. Oh, for the baptism of fire! Oh, for\nthe living coal upon the burning lips of love! Oh, for men God-possessed\nand self-surrendered grasping God\u2019s great idea and pressing forward \u201cfor\nthe mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.\u201d\n\nAll the world for Jesus\n  My prayer shall be,\nAnd my watchword ever,\n  Himself for me.\n\nAll the world for Jesus,\n  Lord, quickly come,\nBring Thy promised kingdom,\n  And take us home.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 20.\n\n\n\u201cFear thou not, for I am with thee\u201d (Isa. xli. 10).\n\nSatan is always trying to weaken our faith by fear. He is a great\nmetaphysician and knows the paralyzing effect of fear, that it is the\ngreat enemy of faith, and that faith is the great secret of help. If he\ncan get us fearing he will stop our trusting and hinder the very blessing\nwe need. Job found the peril of fear and gives us the sorrowful testimony,\n\u201cI feared a fear and it came upon me.\u201d\n\nFear is born of Satan, and if we would only take time to think a moment we\nwould see that everything Satan says is founded upon a falsehood. He is\nthe father of lies. Even his fears are falsehoods and his terrors ought\nrather be to us encouragements.\n\nWhen Satan tells you, therefore, that some ill is going to come, you may\nquietly look in his face and tell him he is a liar, that instead of ill,\ngoodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life, and then\nturn to your blessed Lord and say, \u201cWhat time I am afraid, I will trust in\nThee.\u201d Every fear is distrust and trust is the remedy for fear. \u201cWhat time\nI am afraid I will _trust_ in thee.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 21.\n\n\n\u201cBe not dismayed, for I am thy God\u201d (Isa. xli. 10).\n\nHow tenderly God is always comforting our fears! How sweetly He says in\nIsaiah xli. 10, \u201cFear not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am\nthy God: I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.\u201d And\nyet again with still tenderer thoughtfulness, \u201cI, the Lord thy God, will\nhold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee.\u201d Not\nonly does He say it once, but He keeps holding our right hand and\nrepeating such promises.\n\nThe blessed Lord has condensed it all into one sweet monogram of eternal\ncomfort in His message to the disciples on the sea of Galilee, \u201cIt is I;\nbe not afraid.\u201d He does not say, \u201cIt is over,\u201d or \u201cIt is morning,\u201d or \u201cIt\nis fine weather,\u201d or \u201cIt is smooth water,\u201d but He says, \u201cIt is I, be not\nafraid.\u201d He is the antidote to fear; He is the remedy for trouble; He is\nthe substance and the sum of deliverance. Therefore, we should rise above\nfear. Let us keep our eyes fastened upon Him; let us abide continually in\nHim; let us be content with Him; let us cling closely to Him and cry, \u201cWe\nwill not fear though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried\ninto the midst of the sea.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 22.\n\n\n\u201cHe that hath entered into His rest hath ceased from his own works even as\nGod did from His\u201d (Heb. iv. 10).\n\nWhat a rest it would be to many of us if we could but exchange burdens\nwith Christ, and so utterly and forever transfer to Him all our cares and\nneeds that we would not feel henceforth responsible for our burdens, but\nknow that He has undertaken all the care, and that our faith is simply to\ncarry His burdens, and that He prays, labors, and suffers only for us and\nour interests. This is what He truly invites us to do. \u201cCome unto Me,\u201d He\nsays, \u201call ye that labor and are heavy-laden and I will rest you,\u201d and\nthen He adds, \u201cTake My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.\u201d He takes our yoke\nand we take His and we find it a thousand times easier to carry one of His\nburdens than to carry our own. How much more delightful it is to spend an\nhour in supplication for another than five minutes in pleading for\nourselves. Are we not weary of carrying our wretched loads?\n\n\u2019Twas for this His mercy sought you,\nAnd to all His fulness brought you,\nBy the precious blood that bought you,\n    Pass it on.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 23.\n\n\n\u201cFor me to live is Christ and to die is gain\u201d (Phil. i. 21).\n\nThe secret of a sound body is a sound heart, and the prayer of the Holy\nGhost for us is, that we \u201cmay be in health and prosper even as our soul\nprospers.\u201d\n\nWe find Paul in the Epistles to the Philippians expressing a sublime and\nholy indifference to the question of life or death. Indeed he is in a real\nstrait, whether he would prefer \u201cto depart and be with Christ,\u201d or to\nremain still in the flesh.\n\nThe former would indeed be his sweetest preference, but the latter would\nbe at the same time a joyful service. His only object in wanting to live\nis to be a blessing. \u201cTo abide in the flesh is more needful to you.\u201d\n\nHaving reached this state of heart, it is beautiful to notice how quickly\nhe rises to the victorious faith necessary to claim perfect strength and\nhealth. Because it is more needful to you that I abide in the flesh, he\nadds, \u201cI know that I shall continue with you all, for your furtherance and\njoy of faith.\u201d Lord, help me to-day to \u201ccount not my life dear unto myself\nthat I may finish my course with joy and the ministry that I have received\nof Jesus.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 24.\n\n\n\u201cSin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but\nunder grace\u201d (Rom. vi. 14).\n\nThe secret of Moses\u2019 failures was this: \u201cThe law made nothing perfect, but\nthe bringing in of a better hope did.\u201d And this was why his life work also\ncame short of full realization. He saw but entered not the Promised Land.\nThe founder of the law had to be its victim, and his life and death might\ndemonstrate the inability of the law to lead any man into the Promised\nLand. The very fact, that it was for so slight a fault that Moses lost his\ninheritance, makes all the more emphatic the solemn sentence of the law.\n\u201cCursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in\nthe Book of the Law to do them.\u201d\n\nBut to the glory of the grace of God we can add that what the law could\nnot do for Moses the Gospel did; and he who could not pass over the Jordan\nunder the old dispensation is seen on the very heights of Hermon with the\nSon of Man, sharing His Transfiguration glory, and talking of that death\non Calvary to which be owed his glorious destiny.\n\nThat grace we have inherited under the Gospel of Jesus Christ.\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 25.\n\n\n\u201cI am the vine, ye are the branches\u201d (John xv. 5).\n\nHow can I take Christ as my Sanctifier, or Healer? is a question that we\nare constantly asked. It is necessary first of all that we get into the\nposture of faith. This has to be done by a definite and voluntary act, and\nthen maintained by a uniform habit. It is just the same as the planting of\na tree. You must put it in the soil by a definite act, and then you must\nlet it stay put and remain settled in the ground until the little roots\nhave time to fix themselves and begin to draw the sustenance from the\nsoil. There are two stages, the definite planting and then the habitual\nabsorbing of moisture and nourishment from the ground. The root fibers\nmust rest until they reach out their spongy pores and drink in the\nnutriment of the earth. After the habit is established, then by a certain\nuniform law, the plant draws its life from the ground without an effort,\nand it is just as natural for it to grow as it is for us to breathe.\n\nLord, help me this day to abide in Thee, and to grow into the habit of\ndrawing all my life from Thine so that it shall be true for me, \u201cIn Him I\nlive and move and have my being.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 26.\n\n\n\u201cMake you perfect in every good work\u201d (Heb. xiii. 21).\n\nIn that beautiful prayer at the close of the Epistle to the Hebrews, \u201cNow\nthe God of peace, that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ,\nthat great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting\ncovenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will,\u201d the phrase,\n\u201cmake you perfect in every good work,\u201d literally means, it is said,\n\u201cadjust you in every good work.\u201d It is a great thing to be adjusted,\nadjusted to our surroundings and circumstances rather than trying to have\nthem adjusted to us, adjusted to the people we are thrown with, adjusted\nto the work God has for us, and not trying to get God to help us to do our\nwork; adjusted to do the very will and plan of God for us in our whole\nlife. This is the secret of rest, power and freedom in our life-work.\n\n\u201cOh, fill me with Thy fulness, Lord.\n  Until my very heart o\u2019erflow\nIn kindling thought and glowing word,\n  Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show.\n\nOh, use me, Lord, use even me,\n  Just as Thou wilt, and when, and where;\nUntil Thy blessed face I see,\n  Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 27.\n\n\n\u201cStablish, strengthen, settle you\u201d (I. Peter v. 10).\n\nIn taking Christ in any new relationship, we must first have sufficient\nintellectual light to satisfy our mind that we are entitled to stand in\nthis relationship. The shadow of a question here will wreck our\nconfidence. Then, having seen this, we must make the venture, the\ncommittal, the choice, and take the place just as definitely as the tree\nis planted in the soil, or the bride gives herself away at the marriage\naltar. It must be once for all, without reserve, without recall.\n\nThen there is a season of establishing, settling and testing, during which\nwe must stay put until the new relationship gets so fixed as to become a\npermanent habit. It is just the same as when the surgeon sets the broken\narm. He puts it in splints to keep it from vibration. So God has His\nspiritual splints that He wants to put upon His children and keep them\nquiet and unmoved until they pass the first stage of faith.\n\nIt is not always easy work for us, \u201cbut the God of all grace who hath\ncalled you unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you have suffered\nawhile, stablish, strengthen, settle you.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nFEBRUARY 28.\n\n\n\u201cCount it all joy\u201d (James i. 2).\n\nWe do not always feel joyful, but we are to count it all joy. The word\n\u201creckon\u201d is one of the key-words of Scripture. It is the same word used\nabout our being dead. We do not feel dead. We are painfully conscious of\nsomething that would gladly return to life. But we are to treat ourselves\nas dead, and neither fear nor obey the old nature.\n\nSo we are to reckon the thing that comes as a blessing. We are determined\nto rejoice, to say, \u201cMy heart is fixed, O God, I will sing and give\npraise.\u201d This rejoicing, by faith, will soon become a habit, and will ever\nbring speedily the spirit of gladness and the spontaneous overflow of\npraise.\n\nThen, \u201calthough the fig-tree may wither and no fruit appear in the vines,\nthe labor of the olive fail and the fields yield no increase, the herd be\ncut off from the stall, and the cattle from the field, yet we will rejoice\nin the Lord, and joy in the God of our salvation.\u201d\n\n\u201cPeace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round,\nOn Jesus\u2019 bosom naught but calm is found;\nPeace, perfect peace, our future all unknown,\nJesus we know, and He is on the throne.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 1.\n\n\n\u201cWait on the Lord\u201d (Ps. xxvii. 14).\n\nHow often this is said in the Bible, how little understood! It is what the\nold monk calls the \u201cpractice of the presence of God.\u201d It is the habit of\nprayer. It is the continued communion that not only asks, but receives.\nPeople often ask us to pray for them and we have to say, \u201cWhy, God has\nanswered our prayer for you, and you must now take the answer. It is\nawaiting you, and you must take it by waiting on the Lord.\u201d\n\nThis it is that renews the strength, until we mount up with wings as\neagles, run and are not weary, walk and are not faint. Our hearts are too\nvast to take in His fulness at a single breath. We must live in the\natmosphere of His presence till we absorb His very life. This is the\nsecret of spiritual depth and rest, of power and fulness, of love and\nprayer, of hope and holy usefulness. \u201cWait, I say, on the Lord.\u201d\n\nI am waiting in communion at the blessed mercy seat,\n  I am waiting, sweetly waiting, on the Lord;\nI am drinking, of His fulness; I am sitting at His feet;\n  I am hearkening to the whispers of His word.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 2.\n\n\n\u201cThat good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost\u201d\n(II. Tim. i. 14).\n\nGod gives to us a power within which will hold our hearts in victory and\npurity. \u201cThat good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy\nGhost which dwelleth in us.\u201d It is the Holy Ghost; and when any thought or\nsuggestion of evil arises in our breast, the quick conscience can\ninstantly call upon the Holy Ghost to drive it out, and He will expel it\nat the command of faith or prayer, and keep us as pure as we are willing\nto be kept. But when the will surrenders and consents to evil, the Holy\nGhost will not expel it. God, then, requires us to stand in holy\nvigilance, and He will do exceeding abundantly for us as we hold fast that\nwhich is good, and He will also be in us a spirit of vigilance, showing us\nthe evil and enabling us to detect it, and to bring it to Him for\nexpulsion and destruction.\n\n\u201cO Spirit of Jesus fill us until we shall have room only for Thee!\u201d\n\nO, come as the heart-searching fire,\n  O, come as the sin-cleansing flood;\nConsume us with holy desire,\n  And fill with the fulness of God.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 3.\n\n\n\u201cNow no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous;\nnevertheless afterward\u201d (Heb. xii. 11).\n\nGod seems to love to work by paradoxes and contraries. In the\ntransformations of grace, the bitter is the base of the sweet, night is\nthe mother of day, and death is the gate of life.\n\nMany people are wanting power. Now, how is power produced? The other day\nwe passed the great works where the trolley engines are supplied with\nelectricity. We heard the hum and roar of countless wheels, and we asked\nour friend, \u201cHow do they make the power?\u201d \u201cWhy,\u201d he said, \u201cjust by the\nrevolution of those wheels and the friction they produce. The rubbing\ncreates the electric current.\u201d\n\nIt is very simple, and a trifling experiment will prove it to any one.\n\nAnd so when God wants to bring more power into your life, He brings more\npressure. He is generating spiritual force by hard rubbing. Some of us\ndon\u2019t like it. Some of us don\u2019t understand, and we try to run away from\nthe pressure, instead of getting the power and using it to rise above the\npainful cause.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 4.\n\n\n\u201cThey were all filled with the Holy Ghost\u201d (Acts ii. 4).\n\nBlessed secret of spiritual purity, victory and joy, of physical life and\nhealing, and all power for service. Filled with the Spirit there is no\nroom for self or sin, for fret or care. Filled with the Spirit we repel\nthe elements of disease that are in the air as the red-hot iron repels the\nwater that touches it. Filled with the Spirit we are always ready for\nservice, and Satan turns away when he finds the Holy Ghost enrobing us in\nHis garments of holy flame. Not half-filled, but filled with the Spirit is\nthe place of victory and power.\n\nThis is not only a privilege; it is a command, and He who gave it will\nenable us to fulfill it if we bring it to Him with an empty, honest,\ntrusting heart, and claim our privilege in the name of Jesus and for the\nglory of God.\n\nHoly Ghost, I bid Thee welcome;\n  Come and be my Holy Guest;\nHeavenly Dove within my bosom,\n  Make Thy home and build Thy nest;\nLead me on to all Thy fulness,\n  Bring me to Thy Promised Rest,\nHoly Ghost, I bid Thee welcome,\n  Come and be my Holy Guest.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 5.\n\n\n\u201cI have overcome the world\u201d (John xvi. 33).\n\nChrist has overcome for us every one of our four terrible foes\u2014Sin,\nSickness, Sorrow, Satan. He has borne our Sin, and we may lay all, even\ndown to our sinfulness itself, on Him. \u201cI have overcome for thee.\u201d He has\nborne our sickness, and we may detach ourselves from our old infirmities\nand rise into His glorious life and strength. He has borne our sorrows,\nand we must not even carry a care, but rejoice evermore, and even glory in\ntribulations also. And He has conquered Satan for us, too, and left him\nnailed to the cross, spoiled and dishonored and but a shadow of himself.\nAnd now we have but to claim His full atonement and assert our victory,\nand so \u201covercome him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our\ntestimony.\u201d\n\nBeloved, are we overcoming sin? Are we overcoming sickness? Are we\novercoming sorrow? Are we overcoming Satan?\n\nFear not, though the strife be long;\nFaint not, though the foe be strong;\nTrust thy glorious Captain\u2019s power;\nWatch with Him one little hour,\nHear Him calling, \u201cFollow me.\n\u201cI have overcome for thee.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 6.\n\n\n\u201cLean not unto thine own understanding\u201d (Prov. iii. 5).\n\nFaith is hindered by reliance upon human wisdom, whether our own or the\nwisdom of others. The devil\u2019s first bait to Eve was an offer of wisdom,\nand for this she sold her faith. \u201cYe shall be as gods,\u201d he said, \u201cknowing\ngood and evil,\u201d and from the hour she began to know she ceased to trust.\nIt was the spies that lost the Land of Promise to Israel of old. It was\ntheir foolish proposition to search out the land, and find out by\ninvestigation whether God had told the truth or not, that led to the awful\noutbreak of unbelief that shut the doors of Canaan to a whole generation.\nIt is very significant that the names of these spies are nearly all\nsuggestive of human wisdom, greatness and fame.\n\nSo in the days of Christ, it was the bondage of the Jews to the traditions\nof their fathers and the opinions of men, that kept them back from\nreceiving Him. \u201cHow can ye believe,\u201d He asked, \u201cwhich receive honor from\nmen, and seek not that which cometh from God only?\u201d\n\nLet us trust Him with all our heart and lean not to our own understanding.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 7.\n\n\n\u201cIt is more blessed to give than to receive\u201d (Acts xx. 35).\n\nHow shall we know the difference between the earthly and the heavenly\nlove? The one terminates on ourselves and is partly ourself seeking its\nown gratification. The other reaches out to God and others, and finds its\njoy in glorifying Him and blessing them. Love is unselfishness, and the\nlove that is not unselfish is not divine. How much do we pray for others,\nand how much for ourselves? What is the center of our being? Ourselves, or\nour Lord and His people and work? The Lord help us to know more fully the\nmeaning of that great truth, \u201cIt is more blessed to give than to receive.\u201d\n\u201cHe that saveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for My\nsake and the Gospel, shall keep it unto life eternal.\u201d\n\nHave you found some precious treasure,\n  Pass it on.\nHave You found some holy pleasure,\n  Pass it on.\nGiving out is twice possessing,\nLove will double every blessing,\nOn to higher service pressing,\n  Pass it on.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 8.\n\n\n\u201cPray Ye therefore\u201d (Luke x. 2).\n\nPrayer is the mighty engine that is to move the missionary work. \u201cPray ye\ntherefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into\nHis harvest.\u201d\n\nWe are asking God to touch the hearts of men every day by the Holy Ghost,\nso that they shall be compelled to go abroad and preach the Gospel. We are\nasking Him to wake them up at night with the solemn conviction that the\nheathen are perishing, and that their blood will be upon their souls, and\nGod is answering the prayer by sending persons to us every day who \u201cfeel\nthat the King\u2019s business requireth haste.\u201d\n\nBeloved, pray, pray, pray; and as the incense rises to the heavens, \u201cthere\nwill be silence in heaven\u201d by the space of more than half an hour, and the\ncoals of fire will be emptied out upon the earth, and the coming of the\nLord will begin to draw nearer. Pray till the Lord of the harvest shall\nthrust forth laborers into His harvest.\n\nSend the coals of heavenly fire,\n  From the altar of the skies;\nFill our hearts with strong desire,\n  Till our pray\u2019rs like incense rise.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 9.\n\n\n\u201cHow ye ought to walk and please God\u201d (I. Thess. iv. 1).\n\nHow many dear Christians are in the place that the Lord has appointed\nthem, and yet the devil is harassing their lives with a vague sense of not\nquite pleasing the Lord. Could they just settle down in the place that God\nhas assigned them and fill it sweetly and lovingly for Him there would be\nmore joy in their hearts and more power in their lives. God wants us all\nin various places, and the secret of accomplishing the most for Him is to\nrecognize our places from Him and our service in it as pleasing Him. In\nthe great factory and machine there is a place for the smallest screw and\nrivet as well as the great driving wheel and piston, and so God has His\nlittle screws whose business is simply to stay where He puts them and to\nbelieve that He wants them there and is making the most of their lives in\nthe little spaces that they fill for Him.\n\nThere is something all can do,\n  Tho\u2019 you\u2019re neither wise nor strong;\nYou can be a helper true,\nYou can stand when friends are few,\nSome lone heart has need of you,\n  You can help along.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 10.\n\n\n\u201cThe peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts\nand minds\u201d (Phil. iv. 7).\n\nIt is not peace with God, but the peace of God. \u201cThe peace that passes all\nunderstanding\u201d is the very breath of God in the soul. He alone is able to\nkeep it, and He can so keep it that \u201cnothing shall offend us.\u201d Beloved,\nare you there?\n\nGod\u2019s rest did not come till after His work was over, and ours will not.\nWe begin our Christian life by working, trying and struggling in the\nenergy of the flesh to save ourselves. At last, when we are able to cease\nfrom our own work, God comes in with His blessed rest, and works His own\nDivine works in us.\n\nOh! have you heard the glorious word\n  Of hope and holy cheer;\nFrom heav\u2019n above its tones of love\n  Are lingering on my ear;\nThe blessed Comforter has come,\n  And Christ will soon be here.\n\nOh, hearts that sigh there\u2019s succor nigh,\n  The Comforter is near;\nHe comes to bring us to our King,\n  And fit us to appear.\nI\u2019m glad the Comforter has come,\n  And Christ will soon be here.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 11.\n\n\n\u201cBut ye are a chosen generation, a peculiar people\u201d (I. Peter ii. 9).\n\nWe have been thinking lately very much of the strange way in which God is\ncalling a people out of a people already called. The word _ecclesia_, or\nchurch, means called out, but God is calling out a still more select body\nfrom the church to be His bride\u2014the specially prepared ones for His\ncoming.\n\nWe see a fine type of this in the story of Gideon. When first he sounded\nthe trumpet of Abiezer there resorted to him more than thirty thousand\nmen; but these had to be picked, so a first test was applied, appealing to\ntheir courage, and all but ten thousand went back; but there must be an\nelection out of the election, and so a second test was applied, appealing\nto their prudence, caution and singleness of purpose, and all but three\nhundred were refused; and, with this little picked band, he raised the\nstandard against the Midianites, and through the power of God won his\nglorious victory. So, again, in our days, the Master is choosing His three\nhundred, and by them He will yet win the world for Himself. Let us be sure\nthat we belong to the \u201cout and out\u201d people.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 12.\n\n\n\u201cThey wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way\u201d (Ps. cvii. 4).\n\nAll who fight the Lord\u2019s battles must be content to die to all the\nfavorable opinions of men and all the flattery of human praise. You cannot\nmake an exception in favor of the good opinions of the children of God. It\nis very easy for the insidious adversary to make this also all appeal to\nthe flesh. It is all right when God sends us the approval of our fellow\nmen, but we must never make it a motive in our life, but be content with\nthe \u201csolitary way\u201d and the lonely \u201cwilderness.\u201d\n\nAll such motives are poison and a taking away from you of the strength\nwith which you are to give glory to God. It is not the fact that all that\nsee the face of the Lord do see each other.\n\nThe man of God must walk alone with God. He must be contented that the\nLord knoweth that God knows. It is such a relief to the natural man within\nus to fall back upon human countenances and human thoughts and sympathy,\nthat we often deceive ourselves and think it \u201cbrotherly love,\u201d when we are\njust resting in the earthly sympathy of some fellow worm!\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 13.\n\n\n\u201cKeep yourselves in the love of God\u201d (Jude 21).\n\nSome time ago, we were enjoying a surpassingly beautiful sunset. The\nwestern skies seemed like a great archipelago of golden islands, the\nmasses in the distance rising up into vast mountains of glory. The hue of\nthe sky was so gorgeous that it seemed to reflect itself upon the whole\natmosphere, as we looked back from the west to the eastern horizon. The\nwhole earth was radiant with glory. The fields had changed to strange, red\nrichness, and the earth seemed bathed with the dews of heaven.\n\nAnd so it is, when the love of God shines through all our celestial sky,\nit covers everything below, and life becomes radiant with its light.\nThings that were hard become easy. Things that were sharp become sweet.\nLabor loses its burden, and sorrow becomes silver-lined with hope and\ngladness.\n\nThere are two ways of living in His love. One is constant trust, and the\nother is constant obedience, and His own Word gives the message for both.\n\u201cIf ye keep My commandments ye shall live in My love, even as I keep My\nFather\u2019s, and live in His love.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 14.\n\n\n\u201cWe are His workmanship\u201d (Eph. ii. 10).\n\nChrist sends us to serve Him, not in our own strength, but in His\nresources and might. \u201cWe are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto\ngood works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them.\u201d We do\nnot have to prepare them; but to wear them as garments, made to order for\nevery occasion of our life.\n\nWe must receive them by faith and go forth in His work, believing that He\nis with us, and in us, as our all sufficiency for wisdom, faith, love,\nprayer, power, and every grace and gift that our work requires. In this\nwork of faith we shall have to feel weak and helpless, and even have\nlittle consciousness of power. But if we believe and go forward, He will\nbe the power and send the fruits.\n\nThe most useful services we render are those which, like the sweet fruits\nof the wilderness, spring from hours of barrenness. \u201cI will bring her into\nthe wilderness and I will give her vineyards from thence.\u201d Let us learn to\nwork by faith as well as walk by faith, then we shall receive even the end\nof our faith, the salvation of precious souls, and our lives will bear\nfruit which shall be manifest throughout all eternity.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 15.\n\n\n\u201cContinue ye in My love\u201d (John xv. 9).\n\nMany atmospheres there are in which we may live. Some people live in an\natmosphere of thought. Their faces are thoughtful, minds intellectual.\nThey live in their ideas, their conceptions of truth, their tastes, and\nesthetic nature. Some people, again, live in their animal nature, in the\nlusts of the flesh and eye, the coarse, low atmosphere of a sensuous life,\nor something worse. Some, again, live in a world of duty. The\npredominating feature of their life is conscience, and it carries with it\na certain shadowy fear that takes away the simple freedom and gladness of\nlife, but there is a rectitude, and uprightness, a strictness of purpose,\nand of conduct which cannot be gainsaid or questioned.\n\nBut Christ bids us live in an atmosphere of love. \u201cAs My Father has loved\nMe, so have I loved you; continue ye in My love.\u201d In the original it is,\n\u201cLive in My love.\u201d Love is the atmosphere that He would have us ever live\nin, that is, believing that He ever loves us, and claiming His sweet\napproval and tender regard. This is a life of love.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 16.\n\n\n\u201cThe Lord will give grace and glory\u201d (Ps. lxxxiv. 11).\n\nThe Lord will give grace and glory. This word _glory_ is very difficult to\ntranslate, define and explain; but there is something in the spiritual\nconsciousness of the quickened Christian that interprets it. It is the\noverflow of grace; it is the wine of life; it is the foretaste of heaven;\nit is a flash from the Throne and an inspiration from the heart of God\nwhich we may have and in which we may live. \u201cThe glory which Thou hast\ngiven Me I have given them,\u201d the Master prayed for us. Let us take it and\nlive in it. David used to say, \u201cWake up my glory.\u201d Ask God to wake up your\nglory and enable you to mount up with wings as eagles, to dwell on high\nand sit with Christ in the heavenly places.\n\nMounting up with wings as eagles,\n  Waiting on the Lord we rise,\nStrength exchanging, life renewing,\n  How our spirit heavenward flies.\nThen our springing feet returning,\n  Tread the pathway of the saint,\nWe shall run and not be weary,\n  We shall walk and never faint.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 17.\n\n\n\u201cHe hath remembered His covenant forever\u201d (Ps. cv. 8).\n\nSo long as you struggle under law, that is by your own effort, sin shall\nhave dominion over you: but the moment you step from under the shadow of\nSinai, throw yourself upon the simple grace of Christ and His free and\nabsolute gift of righteousness, and take Him to be to you what He has\npledged Himself to be, your righteousness of thought and feeling, and to\nkeep you in spite of everything, that ever can be against you, in His\nperfect will and peace, the struggle is practically over. Beloved, do you\nreally know and believe that this is the very promise of the Gospel, the\nvery essence of the new covenant, that Christ pledges Himself to put His\nlaw in your heart, and to cause you to walk in His statutes, and to keep\nHis judgments and do them? Do you know that this is the oath which He\nsware unto Abraham, that He would grant unto us. \u201cThat we being delivered\nfrom the hands of our enemies, and from all that hate us, might serve Him\nwithout fear, in righteousness and holiness before Him all the days of our\nlife.\u201d He has sworn to do this for you, and He is faithful, that promised.\nTrust Him ever.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 18.\n\n\n\u201cNeither shall any plague come near thy dwelling\u201d (Ps. xci. 10).\n\nWe know what it is to be fireproof, to be waterproof: but it is a greater\nthing to be proof against sin. It is possible to be so filled with the\nSpirit and presence of Jesus that all the shafts of the enemy glance off\nour heavenly armor; that all the burrs and thistles which grow on the\nwayside fail to stick to our heavenly robes; that all the noxious vapors\nof the pit disappear before the warm breath of the Holy Ghost, and we walk\nwith a charmed life even through the valley of the shadow of death. The\nred hot iron repels the water that touches it, and the fingers that would\ntrifle with it: and, if we are on fire with the Holy Ghost, Satan will\nkeep his fingers off us, and the cold water that he pours over us will\nroll off and leave us unharmed: \u201cfor He that was begotten of God keepeth\nus, and that wicked one toucheth us not.\u201d\n\nIt is said that before going into a malarious region, it is well to\nfortify the system with nourishing food. So we should be fed and filled by\nthe life of Christ in such a way that the evil does not really touch our\nlife.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 19.\n\n\n\u201cLaunch out into the deep\u201d (Luke v. 4).\n\nMany difficulties and perplexities in connection with our Christian life\nmight be best settled by a simple and bold decision of our will to go\nforward with the light we have and leave the speculations and theories\nthat we cannot decide for further settlement. What we need is to act, and\nto act with the best light we have, and as we step out into the present\nduty and full obedience, many things will be made plain which it is no use\nwaiting to decide.\n\nBeloved, cut the Gordian knot, like Alexander, with the sword of decision.\nLaunch out into the deep with a bold plunge, and Christ will settle for\nyou all the questions that you are now debating, and more probably show\nyou their insignificance, and let you see that the only way to settle them\nis to overleap them. They are Satan\u2019s petty snares to waste your time and\nkeep you halting when you should be marching on.\n\nThe mercy of God is an ocean divine,\n  A boundless and fathomless flood;\nLaunch out in the deep, cut away the shore line,\n  And be lost in the fulness of God.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 20.\n\n\n\u201cThey which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall\nreign in life\u201d (Rom. v. 17).\n\nPrecious souls sometimes fight tremendous battles in order to attain to\nrighteousness in trying places. Perhaps the heart has become wrong in some\nmatter where temptation has been allowed to overcome, or at least to turn\nit aside from its singleness unto God; and the conflict is a terrible one\nas it seeks to adjust itself and be right with God, and finds itself\nbaffled by its own spiritual foes, and its own helplessness, perplexity\nand perversity. How dark and dreary the struggle, and how helpless and\nineffectual it often seems at such times! It is almost sure to strive in\nthe spirit of the law, and the result always is, and must ever be,\ncondemnation and failure. Every disobedience is met by a blow of wrath,\nand discouragement, and it well nigh sinks to despair. Oh, if the tempted\nand struggling one could only understand or remember what perhaps he has\nlearned before, that Christ is our righteousness, and that it is not by\nlaw but by grace alone, \u201cFor sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye\nare not under the law, but under grace.\u201d That is the secret of the whole\nbattle.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 21.\n\n\n\u201cCasting all your care upon Him\u201d (I. Peter v. 7).\n\nSome things there are that God will not tolerate in us. We must leave\nthem. Nehemiah would not talk with Sanballat about his charges and fears,\nbut simply refused to have anything to do with the matter\u2014even to go into\nthe temple and pray about it. How very few things we really have to do\nwith in life. If we would only drop all the needless things and simply do\nthe things that absolutely touch and require our attention from morning\ntill night, we would find what a small slender thread life was; but we\nstring upon it a thousand imaginary beads that never come, and burden\nourselves with cares and flurries that if we had trusted more, would never\nhave needed to preoccupy our attention. Wise indeed was the testimony of\nthe dear old saint who said, in review of her past life, \u201cI have had a\ngreat many troubles in my life, especially those that never came.\u201d\n\nTrust and rest with heart abiding,\n  Like a birdling in its nest,\nUnderneath His feathers hiding,\n  Fold thy wings and trust and rest.\n    Trust and rest, trust and rest,\n    God is working for the best.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 22.\n\n\n\u201cHold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end\u201d\n(Heb. iii. 6).\n\nThe attitude of faith is simple trust. It is Elijah saying to Ahab, \u201cThere\nis a sound of abundance of rain.\u201d But then there comes usually a deeper\nexperience in which the prayer is inwrought; it is Elijah on the mount,\nwith his face between his knees, travailing, as it were, in birth for the\npromised blessing. He has believed for it\u2014and now he must take. The first\nis Joash shooting the arrow out of the windows, but the second is Joash\nsmiting on the ground and following up his faith by perseverance and\nvictorious testing.\n\nIt is in this latter place that many of us come short. We ask much from\nGod, and when God proceeds to give it to us we are not found equal to His\nexpectation. We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of\nour confidence steadfast to the end, and trust Him through it all.\n\nFainting soldier of the Lord,\n  Hear His sweet inspiring word,\n\u201cI have conquered all thy foes.\n  I have suffered all thy woes;\nStruggling soldier, trust in Me,\n  I have overcome for thee.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 23.\n\n\n\u201cHe is a new creature\u201d (II. Cor. v. 17).\n\nResurrected, not raised. There is so much in this distinction. The\nteaching of human philosophy is that we are to raise humanity to a higher\nplane. This is not the Gospel. On the contrary, the teaching of the cross\nis that humanity must die and sink out of sight and then be resurrected,\nnot raised. Resurrection is not improvement. It is not elevation, but it\nis a new supernatural life lifting us from nothingness into God and making\nus partakers of the Divine nature. It is a new creation. It is an infinite\nelevation above the highest plane. Let us not take less than resurrection\nlife.\n\nI am crucified with Jesus,\n  And the cross has set me free;\nI have ris\u2019n again with Jesus,\n  And He lives and reigns in me.\n\nThis the story of the Master,\n  Through the cross He reached the throne,\nAnd like Him our path to glory,\n  Ever leads through death alone.\n\nLord, teach me the death-born life. Lord, let me live in the power of Thy\nresurrection!\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 24.\n\n\n\u201cAnd again I say, rejoice\u201d (Phil. iv. 4).\n\nIt is a good thing to rejoice in the Lord. Perhaps you found the first\ndose ineffectual. Keep on with your medicine, and when you cannot feel any\njoy, when there is no spring, and no seeming comfort and encouragement,\nstill rejoice, and count it all joy. Even when you fall into divers\ntemptations, reckon it joy, and delight, and God will make your reckoning\ngood. Do you suppose your Father will let you carry the banner of His\nvictory and His gladness on to the front of the battle, and then coolly\nstand back and see you captured or beaten back by the enemy? Never! the\nHoly Spirit will sustain you in your bold advance, and fill your heart\nwith gladness and praise, and you will find your heart all exhilarated and\nrefreshed by the fulness of the heart within.\n\nLord, teach me to rejoice in Thee, and to rejoice evermore.\n\nThe joy of the Lord is the strength of His people.\n  The sunshine that scatters their sadness and gloom;\nThe fountain that bursts in the desert of sorrow,\n  And sheds o\u2019er the wilderness, gladness and bloom.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 25.\n\n\n\u201cThe beauty of holiness\u201d (Ps. xxix. 2).\n\nSome one remarked once that he did not know more disagreeable people than\nsanctified Christians. He probably meant people that only profess\nsanctification. There is an angular, hard, unlovely type of Christian\ncharacter that is not true holiness; at least, not the highest type of it.\nIt is the skeleton without the flesh covering; it is the naked rock\nwithout the vines and foliage that cushion its rugged sides. Jesus was not\nonly virtuous and pure, but He was also beautiful and full of the sweet\nattractiveness of love.\n\nWe read of two kinds of graces: First, \u201cWhatsoever things are just,\nwhatsoever things are lovely and of good report.\u201d There are a thousand\nlittle graces in Christian life that we cannot afford to ignore. In fact,\nthe last stages in any work of art are always the finishing touches; and\nso let us not wonder if God shall spend a great deal of time in teaching\nus the little things that many might consider trifles.\n\nGod would have His Bride without a spot or even a wrinkle.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 26.\n\n\n\u201cJesus, the author and finisher of our faith\u201d (Heb. xii. 2).\n\nAdd to your faith\u2014do not add to yourself. This is where we make the\nmistake. We must not only enter by faith, but we must advance by faith\neach step of the way. At every new stage we shall find ourselves as\nincompetent and unequal for the pressure as before, and we must take the\ngrace and the victory simply by faith. Is it courage? We shall find\nourselves lacking in the needed courage; we must claim it by faith. Is it\nlove? Our own love will be inadequate; but we must take His love, and we\nshall find it given. Is it faith itself? We must have the faith of God,\nand Christ in us will be the spirit of faith, as well as the blessing that\nfaith claims. So our whole life from beginning to end, is but Christ in\nus\u2014in the exceeding riches of His grace; and our everlasting song will be:\nNot I; but Christ who liveth in me.\n\n\u2019Tis so sweet to walk with Jesus,\n  Step by step and day by day;\nStepping in His very footprints,\n  Walking with Him all the way.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 27.\n\n\n\u201cWhat time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee\u201d (Ps. lvi. 3).\n\nWe shall never forget a remark Mr. George Mueller once made in answer to a\ngentleman who asked him the best way to have strong faith. \u201cThe only way,\u201d\nreplied the patriarch of faith, \u201cto learn strong faith is to endure great\ntrials. I have learned my faith by standing firm amid severe testings.\u201d\nThis is very true. The time to trust is when all else fails. Dear one, if\nyou scarcely realize the value of your present opportunity, if you are\npassing through great afflictions, you are in the very soul of the\nstrongest faith, and if you will only let go, He will teach you in these\nhours the mightiest hold upon this throne which you can ever know. \u201cBe not\nafraid, only believe\u201d; and if you are afraid, just look up and say, \u201cWhat\ntime I am afraid, I will trust in Thee,\u201d and you will yet thank God for\nthe school of sorrow which was to you the school of faith.\n\nO brother, give heed to the warning,\n  And obey His voice to-day.\nThe Spirit to thee is calling,\n  O do not grieve Him away.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 28.\n\n\n\u201cThe fruit of the Spirit is all goodness\u201d (Gal. v. 22).\n\nGoodness is a fruit of the Spirit. Goodness is just \u201cGodness.\u201d It is to be\nlike God. And God-like goodness has special reference to the active\nbenevolence of God. The apostle gives us the difference between goodness\nand righteousness in this passage in Romans, \u201cScarcely for a righteous man\nwould one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to\ndie.\u201d The righteous man is the man of stiff, inflexible uprightness; but\nhe may be as hard as a granite mountain side. The good man is that\nmountain side all covered with velvet moss and flowers, and flowing with\ncascades and springs. Goodness respects \u201cwhatsoever things are lovely.\u201d It\nis kindness, affectionateness, benevolence, sympathy, rejoicing with them\nthat do rejoice, and weeping with them that weep. Lord, fill us with\nThyself, and let us be God-men and good men, and so represent Thy\ngoodness.\n\nThere are lonely hearts to cherish,\n  While the days are going by;\nThere are weary souls who perish,\n  While the days are going by.\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 29.\n\n\n\u201cHe will keep the feet of His saints\u201d (I. Sam. ii. 9).\n\nPerils as well as privileges attend the higher Christian life. The nearer\nwe come to God, the thicker the hosts of darkness in heavenly places. The\nsafe place lies in obedience to God\u2019s Word, singleness of heart, and holy\nvigilance.\n\nWhen Christians speak of standing in a place where they do not need to\nwatch, they are in great danger. Let us walk in sweet and holy confidence,\nand yet with holy, humble watchfulness, and \u201cHe will keep the feet of His\nsaints.\u201d And \u201cnow unto Him who is able to keep us from stumbling, and\npresent us faultless before the presence of His glory, to the only wise\nGod, our Saviour, be glory, and majesty, dominion and power, both now and\nforever. Amen.\u201d\n\nWhat to do we often wonder,\n  As we seek some watchword true,\nLo, the answer God has given,\n  What would Jesus do?\n\nWhen the shafts of fierce temptation,\n  With their fiery darts pursue,\nThis will be your heavenly armor,\n  What would Jesus do?\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 30.\n\n\n\u201cI wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as\nthy soul prospereth\u201d (III. John 2).\n\nIn the way of righteousness is life and in the pathway thereof is no\ndeath. That is the secret of healing. Be right with God. Keep so. Live in\nthe consciousness of it, and nothing can hurt you. Off from the\nbreastplate of righteousness will glance all of the fiery darts of the\ndevil, and faith be stronger for every fierce assault. How true it is,\n\u201cWho is he that shall harm you if ye be followers of that which is good?\u201d\nAnd how true also, \u201cHolding faith and a good conscience, which some having\nput away, concerning faith, have made shipwreck.\u201d\n\nAnd yet again, \u201cIf thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord\nthy God, and wilt keep all His statutes and commandments, I will put none\nof these diseases upon thee that I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I\nam the Lord that healeth thee.\u201d\n\nThere\u2019s a question God is asking\n  Every conscience in His sight,\nLet it search thine inmost being,\n  Is it right with God, all right?\n\n\n\n\n\nMARCH 31.\n\n\n\u201cWhat things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them\nand ye shall have them\u201d (Mark xi. 24).\n\nFaith is not working up by will power a sort of certainty that something\nis coming to pass, but it is seeing as an actual fact that God has said\nthat this thing shall come to pass, and that it is true, and then\nrejoicing to know that it is true, and just resting and entering into it\nbecause God has said it. Faith turns the promise into a prophecy. While it\nis merely a promise it is contingent upon our co-operation; it may or may\nnot be. But when faith claims it, it becomes a prophecy and we go forth\nfeeling that it is something that must be done because God cannot lie.\n\nFaith is the answer from the throne saying, \u201cIt is done.\u201d Faith is the\necho of God\u2019s voice. Let us catch it from on high. Let us repeat it, and\ngo out to triumph in its glorious power.\n\nHear the answer from the throne,\nClaim the promise, doubting one,\nGod hath spoken, \u201cIt is done.\u201d\nFaith hath answered, \u201cIt is done\u201d;\nPrayer is over, praise begun,\nHallelujah! It is done.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 1.\n\n\n\u201cVessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory\u201d (Rom. ix. 23).\n\nOur Father is fitting us for eternity. A vessel fitted for the kitchen\nwill find itself in the kitchen. A vessel for the art gallery or the\nreception room will generally find itself there at last.\n\nWhat are you getting fitted for? To be a slop-pail to hold all the stuff\nthat people pour into your ears, or a vase to hold sweet fragrance and\nflowers for the King\u2019s palace and a harp of many strings that sounds the\nmelodies and harmonies of His love and praise? Each one of us is going to\nhis own place. Let us get fitted now.\n\nThe days of heaven are Christly days,\n  The Light of Heaven is He;\nSo walking at His side, our days\n  As the days of heaven would be.\n\nThe days of heaven are endless days\u2014\n  Days of eternity;\nSo may our lives and works endure\n  While the days of heaven shall be.\n\nWalk with us, Lord, through all the days,\n  And let us walk with Thee;\n\u2019Til as Thy will is done in heaven,\n  On earth so shall it be.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 2.\n\n\n\u201cHe shall dwell on high\u201d (Isa. xxxiii. 16).\n\nIt is easier for a consecrated Christian to live an out and out life for\nGod than to live a mixed life. A soul redeemed and sanctified by Christ is\ntoo large for the shoals and sands of a selfish, worldly, sinful life. The\ngreat steamship, St. Paul, could sail in deep water without an effort, but\nshe could make no progress in the shallow pool, or on the Long Branch\nsands; the smallest tugboat is worth a dozen of her there; but out in\nmid-ocean she could distance them in an hour.\n\nBeloved, your life is too large, too glorious, too divine for the small\nplace that you are trying to live in. Your purpose is too petty; arise and\ndwell on high in the resurrection life of Jesus, and the inspiring hope of\nHis blessed coming.\n\nRise with thy risen Lord,\n  Ascend with Christ above,\nAnd in the heavenlies walk with Him,\n  Whom seeing not, you love.\n\nWalk as a heavenly race,\n  Princes of royal blood;\nWalk as the children of the light,\n  The sons and heirs of God.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 3.\n\n\n\u201cMy expectation is from Him\u201d (Ps. lxii. 5).\n\nWhen we believe for a blessing, we must take the attitude of faith, and\nbegin to act and pray as if we had our blessing. We must treat God as if\nHe had given us our request. We must lean our weight over upon Him for the\nthing that we have claimed, and just take it for granted that He gives it,\nand is going to continue to give it. This is the attitude of trust. When\nthe wife is married, she at once falls into a new attitude, and acts in\naccordance with the fact, and so when we take Christ as a Saviour, as a\nSanctifier, as a Healer, or as a Deliverer, He expects us to fall into the\nattitude of recognizing Him in the capacity that we have claimed, and\nexpect Him to be to us all that we have trusted Him for.\n\nYou may bring Him ev\u2019ry care and burden,\n  You may tell Him ev\u2019ry need in pray\u2019r,\nYou may trust Him for the darkest moment,\n  He is caring, wherefore need you care?\n\nFaith can never reach its consummation,\n  \u2019Til the victor\u2019s thankful song we raise:\nIn the glorious city of salvation,\n  God has told us all the gates are praise.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 4.\n\n\n\u201cResist the devil and he will flee\u201d (James iv. 7).\n\nResist the devil, and he will flee from you. This is a promise, and God\nwill keep it to us. If we resist the adversary, He will compel him to\nflee, and will give us the victory. We can, at all times, fearlessly stand\nup in defiance, in resistance to the enemy, and claim the protection of\nour heavenly King just as a citizen would claim the protection of the\ngovernment against an outrage or injustice on the part of violent men. At\nthe same time we are not to stand on the adversary\u2019s ground anywhere by\nany attitude or disobedience, or we give him a terrible power over us,\nwhich, while God will restrain in great mercy and kindness, He will not\nfully remove until we get fully on holy ground. Therefore, we must be\narmed with the breastplate of righteousness, as well as the shield of\nfaith, if we would successfully resist the prince of darkness and the\nprincipalities in heavenly places.\n\nYour full redemption rights\n  With holy boldness claim,\nAnd to the utmost fulness prove\n  The power of Jesus\u2019 name.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 5.\n\n\n\u201cMany shall be purified and made white and tried\u201d (Dan. xii. 10).\n\nThis is the promise for the Lord\u2019s coming. It is more than purity. It is\nto be made white, lustrous, or bright. To be purified is to have the sin\nburned out; to be made white is to have the glory of the Lord burned in.\nThe one is cleansing, the other is illumination and glorification. The\nLord has both for us, but in order for us to have both, we must be put\ninto the fire to be tried, and to be led into difficult and peculiar\nplaces where Christ shall be more to us because of the very extremity of\nthe situation. We are approaching these days. Indeed, they are already\naround us, and they are the precursors of the Lord\u2019s coming.\n\nBlessed is he that keepeth his garments lest he walk naked.\n\nThere are voices in the air, filling men with hope and fear;\nThere are signals everywhere that the end is drawing near,\nThere are warnings to prepare, for the King will soon be here;\n  O it must be the coming of the Lord!\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 6.\n\n\n\u201cAs we have many members in one body, so we being many are one body in\nChrist\u201d (Rom. xii. 4, 5).\n\nSometimes our communion with God is cut off, or interrupted because of\nsomething wrong with a brother, or some lack of unity in the body of\nChrist. We try to get at the Lord, but we cannot, because we are separated\nfrom some member of the Lord\u2019s body, or because there is not the freedom\nof His love flowing through every organic part. It does not need a blow\nupon the head to paralyze the brain; a blow upon some nerve may do it; or\na wound in some artery at the extremities may be fatal to the heart.\nTherefore we must stand right with all His children, and meet in the body\nof Christ in the sweetest, fullest fellowship, if we would keep our\nperfect communion with Christ Himself. Sometimes we will find that an\naltered attitude to one Christian will bring us into the flood-tides of\nthe Holy Ghost. It seems impossible to have faith without love, or to have\nChrist alone without the fulness of fellowship with all His dear saints;\nand if one member suffer, all suffer together, and if one rejoice, all are\nblessed in common.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 7.\n\n\n\u201cIn Him we live and move\u201d (Acts xvii. 28).\n\nThe hand of Gehazi, and even the staff of Elisha could not heal the\nlifeless boy. It needed the living touch of the prophet\u2019s own divinely\nquickened flesh to infuse vitality into the cold clay. Lip to lip, hand to\nhand, heart to heart, he must touch the child ere life could thrill his\npulseless veins.\n\nWe must come into personal contact with the risen Saviour, and have His\nvery life quicken our mortal flesh before we can know the fulness and\nreality of His healing. This is the most frequent cause of failure. People\nare often trusting to something that has been done to them, to something\nthat they have done, or something that they have believed intellectually;\nbut their spirit has not felt its way to the heart of Christ, and they\nhave not drawn His love into their being by the hunger and thirst of love\nand faith, and so they are not quickened. The greatest need of our souls\nand bodies is to know Jesus personally, to touch Him constantly, to abide\nin Him continually.\n\nMay we this day lay aside all things that could hinder our near approach\nto Him, and walk hand in hand, heart to heart, with Jesus.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 8.\n\n\n\u201cA merry heart doeth good like a medicine\u201d (Prov. xvii. 22).\n\nKing Solomon left among his wise sayings a prescription for sick and sad\nhearts, and it is one that we can safely take. \u201cA merry heart doeth good\nlike a medicine.\u201d Joy is the great restorer and healer. Gladness of spirit\nwill bring health to the bones and vitality to the nerves when all other\ntonics fail, and all other sedatives cease to quiet. Sick one, begin to\nrejoice in the Lord, and your bones will flourish like an herb, and your\ncheeks will glow with the bloom of health and freshness. Worry, fear,\ndistrust, care, are all poison drops; joy is balm and healing; and if you\nwill but rejoice, God will give power. He has commanded you to be glad and\nrejoice; and He never fails to sustain His children in keeping His\ncommandments. Rejoice in the Lord always, He says; which means no matter\nhow sad, how tempted, how sick, how suffering you are, rejoice in the Lord\njust where you are, and begin this moment.\n\nThe joy of the Lord is the strength of our body,\n  The gladness of Jesus, the balm for our pain,\nHis life and His fulness, our fountain of healing,\n  His joy, our elixir for body and brain.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 9.\n\n\n\u201cI do always those things that please Him\u201d (John viii. 29).\n\nIt is a good thing to keep short accounts with God. We were very much\nstruck some years ago with an interpretation of this verse: \u201cSo every one\nof us shall give an account of himself to God.\u201d The thought conveyed to\nour mind was, that of accounting to God every day of our lives, so that\nour accounts were settled daily, and for us judgment was passed, as we lay\ndown on our pillows every night.\n\nThis is surely the true way to live. It is the secret of great peace, and\nit will be a delightful comfort when life is closing, or the Master\ncoming, to know that our account is settled, and our judgment over, and\nfor us there is only waiting the glad \u201cWell done, good and faithful\nservant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.\u201d\n\nStep by step I\u2019ll walk with Jesus,\n  Just a moment at a time,\nHeights I have not wings to soar to,\n  Step by step my feet can climb.\n\nJesus, keep me closer\u2014closer,\n  Step by step and day by day\nStepping in Thy very foot-prints,\n  Walking with Thee all the way.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 10.\n\n\n\u201cHold fast the confidence\u201d (Heb. iii. 6).\n\nSeldom have we seen a sadder wreck of even the highest, noblest Christian\ncharacter than when the enemy has succeeded in undermining the simple\ntrust of a child of God, and got him into self-accusing and condemnation.\nIt is a fearful place when the soul allows Satan to take the throne and\nact as God, sitting in judgment on its every thought and act; and keeping\nit in the darkness of ceaseless condemnation. Well indeed has the apostle\ntold us to hold firmly the shield of faith!\n\nThis is Satan\u2019s objective point in all his attacks upon you, to destroy\nyour trust. If he can get you to lose your simple confidence in God, he\nknows that he will soon have you at his feet.\n\nIt is enough to wreck both the reason and the life for the soul that has\nknown the sweetness of His love to lose its perfect trust in God.\n\u201cBeloved, hold fast your confidence and the rejoicing of your hope firm\nunto the end.\u201d\n\nFear not to take your place\n  With Jesus on the throne,\nAnd bid the powers of earth and hell,\n  His sovereign sceptre own.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 11.\n\n\n\u201cCommit thy way unto the Lord\u201d (Ps. xxxvii. 5).\n\nSeldom have we heard a better definition of faith than was given once in\none of our meetings by a dear old colored woman, as she answered the\nquestion of a young man how to take the Lord for needed help.\n\nIn her characteristic way, pointing her finger toward him, she said with\ngreat emphasis: \u201cYou\u2019ve just got to believe that He\u2019s done it, and it\u2019s\ndone.\u201d The great danger with most of us is, that after we ask Him to do\nit, we do not believe that it\u2019s done, but we keep on helping Him, and\ngetting others to help Him; superintending God and waiting to see how He\nis going to do it.\n\nFaith adds its amen to God\u2019s yea, and then takes its hands off, and leaves\nGod to finish His work. Its language is, \u201cCommit thy way unto the Lord,\ntrust also in Him; and He worketh.\u201d\n\nLord, I give up the struggle,\n  To Thee commit my way,\nI trust Thy word forever,\n  And settle it all to-day.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 12.\n\n\n\u201cThey were as it were, complainers\u201d (Num. xi. 1).\n\nThere is a very remarkable phrase in the book of Numbers, in the account\nof the murmuring of the children of Israel in the wilderness. It reads\nlike this: \u201cWhen the people, as it were, murmured.\u201d Like most marginal\nreadings it is better than the text, and a great world of suggestive truth\nlies back of that little sentence.\n\nIn the distance we may see many a vivid picture rise before our\nimagination of people who do not dare to sin openly and unequivocally, but\nmanage to do it \u201cas it were\u201d only. They do not lie straight, but they\nevade or equivocate, or imply enough falsehood to escape a real conviction\nof conscience. They do not openly accuse God of unkindness or\nunfaithfulness, but they strike at Him through somebody else. They find\nfault with circumstances and people and things that God has permitted to\ncome into their lives, and, \u201cAs it were,\u201d murmur. They do not perhaps go\nany farther. They feel like doing it if they dared to \u201ccharge God\nfoolishly.\u201d\n\nThese things were written for our warning.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 13.\n\n\n\u201cRejoice evermore\u201d (I. Thess. v. 16).\n\nDo not lose your joy whatever else you lose. Keep the spirit of spring.\n\u201cRejoice evermore,\u201d and \u201cAgain I say, rejoice.\u201d\n\nThe loss of Canaan began in the spirit of murmurings, \u201cWhen the people, as\nit were, murmured, it displeased the Lord.\u201d The first break in their\nfellowship, the first falter in their advance, came when they began to\ndoubt, and grieve, and fret.\n\nOh, keep the heart from the perforations of depression, discouragement,\ndistrust and gloom, for Satan cannot crush a rejoicing and praiseful soul.\n\nLook out for the beginning of sin. Don\u2019t let the first touch of evil be\nharbored. It is the first step that loses all. Oh, to keep so encased in\nthe Holy Ghost and in the very life of Jesus that the evil cannot reach\nus!\n\nThe little fly on the inside of the window-pane may be attacked by the\nlittle bird on the outside, and it may seem to him that he is lost, but\nthe crystal pane between keeps him safely from all danger as certainly as\nif it were a mighty wall of iron.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 14.\n\n\n\u201cI if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto Me\u201d (John xii.\n32).\n\nA true and pure Christian life attracts the world. There are hundreds of\nmen and women who find no inducements whatever in the lives of ordinary\nChristians to interest them in practical religion, but who are won at once\nby a true and victorious example. We believe that more men of the world\nstep at a bound right into a life of entire consecration than into the\nintermediate state which is usually presented to them at the first stage.\n\nIn an audience once there was a man who for half a century or more had\nlived without Christ, and who was a very prominent citizen, a man in\npublic life, of irreproachable character, lofty intellect, and a most\nwinning spirit and manners, but utterly out of sympathy with the Christian\nlife.\n\nAt the close of a service for the promotion of deeper spiritual life he\nrose to ask the prayers of the congregation, and before the end of the\nweek he was himself a true and acknowledged follower of the Lord Jesus\nChrist. He said, as he went home that night, \u201cIf that is the religion of\nJesus Christ, I want it.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 15.\n\n\n\u201cRooted and grounded in love\u201d (Eph. iii. 17).\n\nThere is a very singular shrub, which grows abundantly in the west, and is\nto be found in all parts of Texas. It is no less than the \u201cmosquito tree.\u201d\nIt is a very slim, and willowy looking shrub, and would seem to be of\nlittle use for any industrial purposes; but is has extraordinary roots\ngrowing like great timbers underground, and possessing such qualities of\nendurance in all situations that it is used and very highly valued for\ngood pavements. The city of San Antonio is said to be paved with these\nroots. It reminds one of those Christians who make little show externally,\nbut their growth is chiefly underground\u2014out of sight, in the depth of God.\nThese are the men and women that God uses for the foundation of things,\nand for the pavements of that city of God which will stand when all\nearthly things have crumbled into ruin and dissolved into oblivion.\n\nDeeper, deeper let the living waters flow;\n  Blessed Holy Spirit! River of Salvation!\n      All Thy fulness let me know.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 16.\n\n\n\u201cQuit you like men\u201d (I. Cor. xvi. 13).\n\nBe brave. Cowards always get hurt. Brave men generally come out unharmed.\nJeremiah was a hero. He shrank from nothing. He faced his king and\ncountrymen with dauntless bravery, and the result was he suffered no harm,\nbut came through the siege of Jerusalem without a hair being injured.\nZedekiah, the cowardly king, was always afraid to obey God and be true,\nand the result was that he at last met the most cruel punishment that was\never inflicted on human heart.\n\nThe men and women that stand from the beginning true to their convictions\nhave the fewest tests. When God gives to you a good trial, if you can\nstand the strain, He is not always repeating it. When Abraham offered up\nhis son Isaac at Mount Moriah, it was a final testing for the rest of his\nlife. Do not let Satan see that you are afraid of him, for he will pursue\nto the death if he thinks that he has a chance of getting you.\n\nBe true, be true,\nWhether friends be false or few,\nWhatsoe\u2019er betide, ever at His side,\n  Let Him always find you true.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 17.\n\n\n\u201cHe that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city\u201d (Prov.\nxvi. 32).\n\nTemperance is true self-government. It involves the grace of self-denial\nand the spirit of a sound mind. It is that poise of spirit that holds us\nquiet, self-possessed, recollected, deliberate, and subject ever to the\nvoice of God and the conviction of duty in every step we take. Many\npersons have not that poise and recollected spirit. They are drifting at\nthe impulse of their own impressions, moods, the influence of others, or\nthe circumstances around them. No desire should ever control us. No\npurpose, however right, should have such mastery over us that we are not\nperfectly free. The pure affection may be an inordinate affection. Our\nwork itself may be a selfish passion. That thing that we began to do\nbecause it was God\u2019s will, we may cling to and persist in ultimately,\nbecause it is our own will. Lord, give us the spirit ever controlled by\nThy Spirit and will, and the eye that looks to Thee every moment as the\neyes of a servant to the hands of her mistress. So shall Thy service be\nour perfect freedom, and our subjection divinest liberty.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 18.\n\n\n\u201cThey shall mount up with wings\u201d (Isa. xl. 31).\n\n\u201cThey shall mount up with wings as eagles,\u201d is God\u2019s preliminary; for the\nnext promise is, \u201cThey shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and\nnot faint.\u201d Hours of holy exultation are necessary for hours of patient\nplodding, waiting and working. Nature has its springs, and so has grace.\n\nLet us rejoice in the Lord evermore, and again we say, rejoice. And let us\ntake Him to be our continual joy, whose heart is a fountain of\nblessedness, and who is anointed with the oil of gladness above His\nfellows. We must not be disappointed if the tides are not always equally\nhigh. Even at low tide the ocean is just as full. Human nature could not\nstand perpetual excitement, even of a happy kind, and God often rests in\nHis love. Let us live as self-unconsciously as possible, filling up each\nmoment with faithful service, and trusting Him to stir the springs at His\nwill, and as we go on in faithful service we shall hear, again and again,\nHis glad whisper: \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into\nthe joy of thy Lord.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 19.\n\n\n\u201cRest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him\u201d (Ps. xxxvii. 7).\n\nIt is a very suggestive thought that it is in the Gospel of Mark, which is\nthe Gospel of service, we hear the Master saying to His disciples, \u201cCome\nye apart into a desert place, and rest awhile.\u201d God wants rested workers.\nThere is an energy that may be tireless and ceaseless, and yet still as\nthe ocean\u2019s depth, with the peace of God, which passes all understanding.\nThe two deepest secrets of rest are, first, to be in harmony with the will\nof God, and, secondly, to trust. \u201cGreat peace have they that love Thy\nlaw,\u201d expresses the first. \u201cThou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind\nis stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee,\u201d describes the second.\nThere is a good deal in learning to \u201cstay.\u201d Sometimes we forget that it\nliterally means to stop. It is a great blessing even to stop all thought,\nand this is frequently the only way to answer the devil\u2019s whirlwind of\nirritating questions and thoughts, to be absolutely still and refuse to\neven think, and meet his evil voice with a simple and everlasting \u201cNo!\u201d If\nwe will be still God will give us peace.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 20.\n\n\n\u201cThere they dwelt with the King for His work\u201d (I. Chron. iv. 23).\n\nIt is easy for water to run down from the upper springs, but it requires a\ndivine impulse to flow up from the valley in the nether springs. There is\nnothing that tells more of Christ than to see a Christian rejoicing and\ncheerful in the humdrum and routine of commonplace work, like the sailors\nthat stand on the dock loading the vessel and singing as they swing their\nloads, keeping time with the spirit of praise to the footsteps and\nmovements of labor and duty. No one has a sweeter or higher ministry for\nChrist than a business man or a serving woman who can carry the light of\nheaven in their faces all day long. Like the sea fowl that can plunge\nbeneath the briny tide with its beautiful and spotless plumage, and come\nforth without one drop adhering to its burnished breast and glowing wings\nbecause of the subtle oil upon the plumage that keeps the water from\nsticking, so, thank God, we too may be so anointed with the Holy Ghost\nthat sin, sorrow and defilement will not adhere to us, but we shall pass\nthrough every sea as the ship passes through the waves, in, but above the\nfloods around us.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 21.\n\n\n\u201cThe anointing which ye have received\u201d (I. John ii. 27).\n\nThis is the secret of the deeper life, but \u201cThat ye may be rooted and\ngrounded in love,\u201d is the substance of it, and the sweetness of it. The\nfulness of the divine love in the heart will make everything easy. It is\nvery easy to do things that we love to do, and it is very easy to trust\none whom we love, and the more we realize their love the more we will\ntrust them for it. It is the source of healing. The tide of love flowing\nthrough our bodies will strangely strengthen our very frame, and the love\nof our Lord will become a continual spring of youth and freshness in our\nphysical being. The secret of love is very simple. It is to take the heart\nof Jesus for our love and claim its love for every need of life, whether\nit be toward God or toward others. It is very sweet to think of persons in\nthis way, \u201cI will take the heart of Jesus toward them, to let me love them\nas He loves them.\u201d Then we can love even the unworthy in some measure, if\nwe shall see them in the light of His love and hope, as they shall be, and\nnot as they now are, unworthy of our love.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 22.\n\n\n\u201cChrist is the head\u201d (Eph. v. 23).\n\nOften we want people to pray for us and help us, but always defeat our\nobject when we look too much to them and lean upon them. The true secret\nof union is for both to look upon God, and in the act of looking past\nthemselves to Him they are unconsciously united. The sailor was right when\nhe saw the little boy fall overboard and waited a minute before he plunged\nto his rescue. When the distracted mother asked him in agony why he had\nwaited so long, he sensibly replied: \u201cI knew that if I went in before he\nwould clutch and drag me down. I waited until his struggles were over, and\nthen I was able to help him when he did not grasp me too strongly.\u201d\n\nWhen people grasp us too strongly, either with their love or with their\ndependence, we are intuitively conscious that they are not looking to God,\nand we become paralyzed in our efforts to help them. United prayer,\ntherefore, requires that the one for whom we pray be looking away from us\nto the Lord Jesus Christ, and we together look to Him alone.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 23.\n\n\n\u201cAn high priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities\u201d (Heb. iv.\n15).\n\nSome time ago we were talking with a greatly suffering sister about\nhealing, who was much burdened physically and desirous of being able to\ntrust the Lord for deliverance. After a little conversation we prayed with\nher, committing her case to the Lord for absolute trust and deliverance as\nshe was prepared to claim. As soon as we closed our prayer she grasped our\nhand, and asked us to unite with her in the burden that was most upon her\nheart, and then, without a word of reference to her own healing, or the\nburden under which she was being crushed to death, she burst into such a\nprayer for a poor orphan boy, of whom she had just heard that day, as we\nhave never heard surpassed for sympathy and love, imploring God to help\nhim and save him, and sobbing in spasmodic agony of love many times during\nher prayer, and then she ceased without even referring to her own need. We\nwere deeply touched by the spectacle of love, and we thought how the\nFather\u2019s heart must be touched for her own need.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 24.\n\n\n\u201cFret not thyself in any wise\u201d (Ps. xxxvii. 8).\n\nA life was lost in Israel because a pair of human hands were laid unbidden\nupon the ark of God. They were placed upon it with the best intent to\nsteady it when trembling and shaking as the oxen drew it along the rough\nway, but they touched God\u2019s work presumptuously, and they fell paralyzed\nand lifeless. Much of the life of faith consists in letting things alone.\nIf we wholly trust an interest to God we can keep our hands off it, and He\nwill guard it for us better than we can help Him. \u201cRest in the Lord and\nwait patiently for Him. Fret not thyself in any wise because of him that\nprospereth in the way, because of the man that bringeth wicked devices to\npass.\u201d Things may seem to be going all wrong, but He knows as well as we;\nand He will arise in the right moment if we are really trusting Him so\nfully as to let Him work in His own way and time. There is nothing so\nmasterly as inactivity in some things, and there is nothing so hurtful as\nrestless working, for God has undertaken to work His sovereign will.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 25.\n\n\n\u201cThe very God of Peace sanctify you wholly\u201d (I. Thess. v. 23).\n\nA great tidal wave is bearing up the stranded ship, until she floats above\nthe bar without a straining timber or struggling seaman, instead of the\nineffectual and toilsome efforts of the struggling crew and the strain of\nthe engines, which had tried in vain to move her an inch until that\nheavenly impulse lifted her by its own attraction.\n\nIt is God\u2019s great law of gravitation lifting up, by the warm sunbeams, the\nmighty iceberg which a million men could not raise a single inch, but\nmelts away before the rays and the warmth of the sunshine, and rises in\nclouds of evaporation to meet its embrace until that cold and heavy mass\nis floating in fleecy clouds of glory in the blue ocean of the sky.\n\nHow easy all this! How mighty! How simple! How divine! Beloved, have you\ncome into the divine way of holiness! If you have, how your heart must\nswell with gratitude! If you have not, do you not long for it, and will\nyou not unite in the prayer of the text that the very God of peace will\nsanctify you wholly?\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 26.\n\n\n\u201cStrangers and pilgrims\u201d (Heb. xi. 13).\n\nIf you have ever tried to plough a straight furrow in the country\u2014we are\nsorry for the man that does not know how to plough and more sorry for the\nman that is too proud to want to know\u2014you have found it necessary to have\ntwo stakes in a line and to drive your horses by these stakes. If you have\nonly one stake before you, you will have no steadying point for your\nvision, but you can wiggle about without knowing it and make your furrows\nas crooked as a serpent\u2019s coil; but if you have two stakes and ever keep\nthem in line, you cannot deviate an inch from a straight line, and your\nfurrow will be an arrow speeding to its course.\n\nThis has been a great lesson to us in our Christian life. If we would run\na straight course, we find that we must have two stakes, the near and the\ndistant. It is not enough to be living in the present, but it is a great\nand glorious thing to have a distant goal, a definite object, a clear\npurpose before us for which we are living, and unto which we are shaping\nour present.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 27.\n\n\n\u201cThe sweetness of the lips\u201d (Prov. xvi. 21).\n\nSpiritual conditions are inseparably connected with our physical life. The\nflow of the divine life-currents may be interrupted by a little clot of\nblood; the vital current may leak out through a very trifling wound.\n\nIf you want to keep the health of Christ, keep from all spiritual sores,\nfrom all heart wounds and irritations. One hour of fretting will wear out\nmore vitality than a week of work; and one minute of malignity, or\nrankling jealousy or envy will hurt more than a drink of poison. Sweetness\nof spirit and joyousness of heart are essential to full health. Quietness\nof spirit, gentleness, tranquility, and the peace of God that passes all\nunderstanding, are worth all the sleeping draughts in the country.\n\nWe do not wonder that some people have poor health when we hear them talk\nfor half an hour. They have enough dislikes, prejudices, doubts, and fears\nto exhaust the strongest constitution.\n\nBeloved, if you would keep God\u2019s life and strength, keep out the things\nthat kill it; keep it for Him, and for His work, and you will find enough\nand to spare.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 28.\n\n\n\u201cFor it is God which worketh in you\u201d (Phil. ii. 13).\n\nSanctification is the gift of the Holy Ghost, the fruit of the Spirit, the\ngrace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the prepared inheritance of all who enter\nin, the greatest obtainment of faith, not the attainment of works. It is\ndivine holiness, not human self-improvement, nor perfection. It is the\ninflow into man\u2019s being of the life and purity of the infinite, eternal\nand Holy One, bringing His own perfection and working out His own will.\nHow easy, how spontaneous, how delightful this heavenly way of holiness!\nSurely it is a \u201chighway\u201d and not the low way of man\u2019s vain and fruitless\nmortification.\n\nIt is God\u2019s great elevated railway, sweeping over the heads of the\nstruggling throngs who toil along the lower pavement when they might be\nborne along on His ascension pathway, by His own almighty impulse. It is\nGod\u2019s great elevator carrying us up to the higher chambers of His palace,\nwithout over-laborious efforts, while others struggle up the winding\nstairs and faint by the way.\n\nLet us to-day so fully take Him that He can \u201ccause us to walk in His\nstatutes.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 29.\n\n\n\u201cLove never faileth\u201d (I. Cor. xiii. 8).\n\nIn our work for God it is a great thing to find the key to men\u2019s hearts,\nand recognize something good as a point of contact for our spiritual\ninfluence. When Jesus met the woman at Samaria He immediately seized hold\nof the best things in her, and by this He reached her heart, and drew from\nher a willing confession of her salvation. A Scotchman once said that his\nsalvation was all due to the fact that a good man (Lord Shaftsbury, we\nbelieve) once put his arms around him and said, \u201cJohn, by the grace of God\nwe will make a man of you yet.\u201d\n\nThe old legend tells the story of a poor, dead dog lying on the street in\nthe midst of the crowd, every one of whom was having something to say,\nuntil Jesus came along, and immediately began to admire its beautiful\nteeth. He had something kind to say even of him.\n\nThere is but One can live and love like this;\n  The Christ-love from the living Christ must spring.\nO! Jesus! come and live Thy life in me,\n  And all Thy heaven of love and blessing bring.\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL 30.\n\n\n\u201cLove believeth all things\u201d (I. Cor. xiii. 7).\n\nBeautiful is the expression in the Book of Isaiah which reflects with\nexceeding sweetness the love of our dear Lord. He said, \u201cThey are My\npeople, children that will not lie; so He was their Saviour.\u201d They did\nlie, but He would not believe it. At least He speaks as if He would not\nbelieve it in the greatness of His love, because they were His people. He\nhas not seen iniquity in Jacob nor perversity in Israel. There is plenty\nof it to see, and the devil sees it all, and a good many people are only\ntoo glad to see it; but the dear Father will not see it. He covers it with\nHis love and the precious blood of His dear atoning Son. Such a wonderful\nlove ought surely to make us gentler to others, and more anxious to cause\nour Father less need to hide His loving eyes from our imperfections and\nfaults.\n\nIf we have the mind and heart of Christ, we shall clothe even the world\nwith those graces which faith can claim for them, and try our best to\ncount them as if they were real, and by love and prayer we shall at length\nmake them real. \u201cLove believeth all things.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 1.\n\n\n\u201cThe fruit of the Spirit is gentleness\u201d (Gal. v. 22).\n\nNature\u2019s harshness has melted away and she is now beaming with the smile\nof spring, and everything around us whispers of the gentleness of God.\nThis beautiful fruit is in lovely harmony with the gentle month of which\nit is the keynote. May the Holy Spirit lead us, beloved, these days, into\nHis sweetness, quietness, and gentleness, subduing every coarse, rude,\nharsh, and unholy habit, and making us like Him, of whom it is said, \u201cHe\nshall not strive, nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the\nstreets.\u201d\n\nThe man who is truly filled with Jesus will always be a gentleman. The\nwoman who is baptized of the Holy Ghost, will have the instincts of a\nperfect lady, although low born and little bred in the schools of earthly\nrefinement. Beloved, let us receive and reflect the gentleness of Christ,\nthe spirit of the holy babe, until the world will say of us, as the\npolished and infidel Chesterfield once said of the saintly Fenelon, \u201cIf I\nhad remained in his house another day, I should have had to become a\nChristian.\u201d\n\nLord, help us to-day, to so yield to the gentle Dove-Spirit, that our\nlives shall be as His life.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 2.\n\n\n\u201cAlways causeth us to triumph\u201d (II. Cor. ii. 14).\n\nHow these words help us. Think of them when the people rasp you, when the\ndevil pricks you with his fiery darts, when your sensitive, self-willed\nspirit chafes or frets; let a gentle voice be heard above the strife,\nwhispering, \u201cKeep sweet, keep sweet!\u201d And, if you will but heed it\nquickly, you will be saved from a thousand falls and kept in perfect\npeace.\n\nTrue, you cannot keep yourself sweet, but God will keep you if He sees\nthat it is your fixed, determined purpose to be kept sweet, and to refuse\nto fret or grudge or retaliate. The trouble is, you rather enjoy a little\nirritation and morbidness. You want to cherish the little grudge, and\nsympathize with your hurt feelings, and nurse your little grievance.\n\nDear friends, God will give you all the love you really want and honestly\nchoose. You can have your grievance or you can have the peace that passeth\nall understanding; but you cannot have both.\n\nThere is a balm for a thousand heartaches, and a heaven of peace and power\nin these two little words\u2014KEEP SWEET.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 3.\n\n\n\u201cMy peace I give unto you\u201d (John xiv. 27).\n\nHere lies the secret of abiding peace\u2014God\u2019s peace. We give ourselves to\nGod and the Holy Spirit takes possession of our breast. It is indeed\n\u201cPeace, Peace.\u201d But it is just then that the devil begins to turn us away,\nand he does it through our thoughts, diverting or distracting them as\noccasion requires. This is the time to prove the sincerity of our\nconsecration and the singleness of our heart. If we truly desire His\nPresence more than all else, we will turn away from every conflicting\nthought and look steadily up to Jesus. But if we desire the gratification\nof our impulse more than His Presence, we will yield to the passionate\nword or the frivolous thought or the sinful diversion, and when we come\nback our Shepherd has gone, and we wonder why our peace has departed.\nFailure occurs often in some trifling thing, and the soul failure has\noccurred in some trifling thing, usually a thought or word, and the soul\nwhich would not have feared to climb a mountain has really stumbled over a\nstraw.\n\nThe real secret of perfect rest is to be jealously, habitually occupied\nwith Jesus.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 4.\n\n\n\u201cGreater is He that is in you than he that is in the world\u201d (I. John iv.\n4).\n\nSatan loves to trip us over little things. The reason of this is because\nit is generally a greater victory for him, and shows that he can upset us\nby a shaving and knock us down with a straw. It is the old boast of the\nJebusite, when they told David they could defend Jerusalem by a garrison\nof the blind and lame. Most of us get on better in our great struggles\nthan we do in our little ones. It was over a little apple that Adam fell,\nbut all the world was wrecked. Look out, beloved, for the little stumbling\nblocks, and do not let Satan laugh at you, and tell his myrmidons how he\ntripped you over an orange peel. And, too, when the devil wants to stop\nsome great blessing in our lives, he generally throws some ugly shadow\nover it and makes it look distasteful to us. How many of us have been\nkeeping back from truths, places and persons in which God has reappeared,\nthe greatest blessing of our lives, and the devil has succeeded in keeping\nus away from them by some false or foolish prejudice!\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 5.\n\n\n\u201cIf ye then be risen\u201d (Col. iii. 1).\n\nGod is waiting this morning to mark the opening hours for every ready and\nwilling heart with a touch of life and power that will lift our lives to\nhigher pleasures and offer to our vision grander horizons of hope and holy\nservice.\n\nWe shall not need to seek far to discover our risen Lord. He was in\nadvance even of the earliest seeker that Easter morning, and He will be\nwaiting for us before the break of day with His glad \u201cAll Hail,\u201d if we\nhave only eyes to see and hearts to welcome and obey Him.\n\nWhat is His message to us this spring time? \u201cIf ye then be risen with\nChrist, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the\nright hand of God. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in\nGod.\u201d\n\nIt is not risen with Christ, but _resurrected_. It is not rising a little\nhigher in the old life, but it is rising from the dead. The resurrection\nwill mean no more than the death has meant. Only so far as we are really\ndead shall we live with Him.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 6.\n\n\n\u201cReckon ye also yourselves to be alive unto God\u201d (Rom. vi. 11).\n\nDeath is but for a moment. Life is forevermore. Live, then, ye children of\nthe resurrection, on His glorious life, more and more abundantly, and the\nfulness of your life will repel the intrusion of self and sin, and\novercome evil with good, and your existence will be, not the dreary\nrepression of your own struggling, but the springing tide of Christ\u2019s\nspontaneous overcoming life.\n\nOnce in a religious meeting a dear brother gave us a most exhilarating\ntalk on the risen life. Then another brother got up and talked for a long\ntime on the necessity of self-crucifixion. A cold sweat fell over us all,\nand we could scarcely understand why. But after he had got through, a good\nsister clarified the whole situation by saying, that \u201cPastor S. had taken\nus all out of the grave by his address, and then Pastor P. has put us back\nagain.\u201d\n\nDon\u2019t go back into the grave again after you have got out, but live like\nHim, who \u201cliveth and was dead, and lo! He is alive forevermore, and has\nthe keys of hell and of death.\u201d Keep out of the tomb, and keep the door\nlocked, and the keys in His risen hands.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 7.\n\n\n\u201cI travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you\u201d (Gal. iv. 19).\n\nIt is a blessed moment when we are born again and a new heart is created\nin us after the image of God. It is a more blessed moment when in this new\nheart Christ Himself is born and the Christmas time is reproduced in us as\nwe, in some real sense, become incarnations of the living Christ. This is\nthe deepest and holiest meaning of Christianity. It is expressed in Paul\u2019s\nprayer for the Galatians. \u201cMy little children, for whom I travail in birth\nagain till Christ be formed in you.\u201d\n\nThere will yet be a more glorious era when we, like Him, shall be\ntransformed and transfigured into His glory, and in the resurrection shall\nbe, in spirit, soul and body, even as He.\n\nLet us live, under the power of the inspiring thought, incarnations of\nChrist; not living our life, but the Christ-life, and showing forth the\nexcellencies, not of ourselves, but of Him who hath called us \u201cout of\ndarkness into His marvelous light\u201d; so our life shall be to all the\nre-living in our position of the Christ life, as He would have lived it,\nhad He been here.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 8.\n\n\n\u201cExcept a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die\u201d (John xii. 24).\n\nDeath and resurrection are the central ideas of nature and Christianity.\nWe see them in the transformation of the chrysalis, in the buried seed\nbursting into the bud and blossom of the spring, in the transformation of\nthe winding sheet of winter to the many tinted robes of spring. We see it\nall through the Bible in the symbol of circumcision, with its significance\nof death and life, in the passage of the Red Sea and the Jordan leading\nout and leading in, and in the Cross of Calvary and the open grave of the\nEaster morning. We see it in every deep spiritual life. Every true life is\ndeath-born, and the deeper the dying the truer the living. We doubt not\nthe months that have been passing have shown us all many a place where\nthere ought to be a grave, and many a lingering shred of the natural and\nsinful which we would gladly lay down in a bottomless grave. God help us\nto pass the irrevocable sentence of death and to let the Holy Ghost, the\ngreat undertaker, make the interment eternal. Then our life shall be ever\nbudding and blossoming and shedding fragrance over all.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 9.\n\n\n\u201cAll hail\u201d (Matt. xxviii. 9).\n\nIt was a stirring greeting which the Lord of Life spake to His first\ndisciples on the morning of the resurrection. It is a bright and radiant\nword which in His name we would speak to His beloved children at the\ncommencement of another day. It means a good deal more than appears on the\nsurface. It is really a prayer for our health, but which none but those\nwho believe in the healing of the body can fully understand. A thoughtful\nfriend suggested once that the word \u201chail\u201d really means health, and it is\njust the old Saxon form of the word. We all know that a hale person is a\nhealthy person. Our Lord\u2019s message, therefore, was substantially that\ngreeting which from time immemorial we give to one another when we meet.\n\u201cHow is your health?\u201d \u201cHow are you?\u201d or, better still, \u201cI wish you\nhealth.\u201d Christ\u2019s wish is tantamount to a promise and command. It is very\nsimilar to the Apostle John\u2019s benediction to his dear friend Gaius, and we\nwould re-echo it to our beloved friends according to the fulness of the\nMaster\u2019s will.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 10.\n\n\n\u201cI am alive forevermore\u201d (Rev. i. 18).\n\nHere is the message of the Christ of the cross and the still more glorious\nand precious Christ of the resurrection. It is beautiful and inspiring to\nnote the touch of light and glory with which these simple words invest the\ncross. It is not said I am He that was dead and liveth, but \u201cI am He that\nliveth and was dead, but am alive forevermore.\u201d Life is mentioned before\nthe death. There are two ways of looking at the cross. One is from the\ndeath side and the other from the life side. One is the Ecce Homo and the\nother is the glorified Jesus with only the marks of the nails and the\nspear. It is thus we are to look at the cross. We are not to carry about\nwith us the mould of the sepulchre, but the glory of the resurrection. It\nis not the Ecce Homo, but the Living Christ. And so our crucifixion is to\nbe so complete that it shall be lost in our resurrection and we shall even\nforget our sorrow and carry with us the light and glory of the eternal\nmorning. So let us live the death-born life, ever new and full of a life\nthat can never die, because it is \u201cdead and alive forevermore.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 11.\n\n\n\u201cWhosoever will save his life shall lose it\u201d (Luke ix. 24).\n\nFirst and foremost Christ teaches resurrection and life. The power of\nChristianity is life. It brings us not merely law, duty, example, with\nhigh and holy teaching and admonition. It brings us the power to follow\nthe higher ideal and the life that spontaneously does the things\ncommanded. But it is not only life, but resurrection life.\n\nAnd it begins with a real crisis, a definite transaction, a point of time\nas clear as the morning dawn. It is not an everlasting dying and an\neternal struggle to live. But it is all expressed in a tense that denotes\ndefiniteness, fixedness and finished action. We actually died at a certain\npoint and as actually began to live the resurrection life.\n\nLet us reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God\nthrough Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd death is only the pathway and portal,\n  To the life that shall die nevermore;\nAnd the cross leadeth up to the crown everlasting,\n  The Jordan to Canaan\u2019s bright shore.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 12.\n\n\n\u201cTell me where Thou makest Thy flock to rest at noon\u201d (Song of Solomon i.\n7).\n\nBeloved, do you not long for God\u2019s quiet, the inner chambers, the shadow\nof the Almighty, the secret of His presence? Your life has been, perhaps,\nall driving and doing, or perhaps straining, struggling, longing and not\nobtaining. Oh, for rest! to lie down upon His bosom and know that you have\nall in Him, that every question is answered, every doubt settled, every\ninterest safe, every prayer answered, every desire satisfied. Lift up the\ncry, \u201cTell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest, where Thou\nmakest Thy flock to rest at noon\u201d!\n\nBlessed be His name! He has this for us, His exclusive love\u2014a love which\neach individual somehow feels is all for himself, in which he can lie\nalone upon His breast and have a place which none other can dispute; and\nyet His heart is so great that He can hold a thousand millions just as\nnear, and each heart seem to possess Him just as exclusively for his own,\neven as the thousand little pools of water upon the beach can reflect the\nsun, and each little pool seems to have the whole sun embosomed in its\nbeautiful depths. And Christ can teach us this secret of His inmost love.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 13.\n\n\n\u201cAbide in Me\u201d (John xv. 4).\n\nChristianity may mean nothing more than a religious system. Christian life\nmay mean nothing more than an earnest and honest attempt to follow and\nimitate Christ.\n\nChrist life is more than these, and expresses our actual union with the\nLord Jesus Christ, and He is undoubtedly in us as the life and source of\nall our experience and work.\n\nThis conception of the highest Christian life is at once simpler and\nsublimer than any other. We do not teach in these pages, that the purpose\nof Christ\u2019s redemption is to restore us to Adamic perfection, for if we\nhad it we should lose it to-morrow; but rather to unite us with the Second\nAdam, and lift us up to a higher plane than our first parents ever knew.\n\nThis is the only thing that can reconcile the warring elements of diverse\nschools of teaching with respect to Christian life.\n\nThe Spirit of God will lead us to have no controversy respecting mere\ntheories, but simply hold to the person and life of Jesus Christ Himself,\nand the privilege of being united to Him, and living in constant\ndependence upon His keeping power and grace.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 14.\n\n\n\u201cBut God\u201d (Luke xii. 20).\n\nWhat else do we really need? What else is He trying to make us understand?\nThe religion of the Bible is wholly supernatural. The one resource of\nfaith has always been the living God, and Him alone. The children of\nIsrael were utterly dependent upon Jehovah as they marched through the\nwilderness, and the one reason their foes feared them and hastened to\nsubmit themselves was that they recognized among them the shout of a King,\nand the presence of One compared with whom all their strength was vain.\n\n\u201cWherein,\u201d asked Moses, \u201cshall we be separated from all other peoples of\nthe earth, except it be in this that Thou goest before us.\u201d\n\nA church relying on human wisdom, wealth or resources, ceases to be the\nbody of Christ and becomes an earthly society. When we dare to depend\nentirely upon God and without doubt, the humblest and feeblest agencies\nwill become \u201cmighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.\u201d May\nthe Holy Spirit give to us at all times, His own conception of these two\ngreat words, \u201cBut God.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 15.\n\n\n\u201cI press toward the mark\u201d (Phil. iii. 14).\n\nWe have thought much about what we have received. Let us think of the\nthings we have not received, of some of the vessels that have not yet been\nfilled, of some of the places in our life that the Holy Ghost has not yet\npossessed for God, and signalized by His glory and His presence.\n\nShall the coming months be marked by a diligent, heart-searching\napplication of \u201cthe rest of the oil,\u201d to the yet unoccupied possibilities\nof our life and service?\n\nHave we known His fulness of grace in our spiritual life? Have we tasted a\nlittle of His glory? Have we believed His promise for the mind, the soul,\nthe spirit? Have we known all His possibilities for the body? Have we\ntested Him in His power to control the events of providence, and to move\nthe hearts of men and nations? Has He opened to us the treasure-house of\nGod, and met our financial needs as He might? Have we even begun to\nunderstand the ministry of prayer, as God would have us exercise it? God\ngive us \u201cthe rest of the oil\u201d!\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 16.\n\n\n\u201cIt is not in man that walketh to direct his steps\u201d (Jer. x. 23).\n\nUnited to Jesus Christ as your Redeemer, you are accepted in the Beloved.\nHe does not merely take my place as a man and settle my debts. He does\nthat and more. He comes to give a perfect ideal of what a man should be.\nHe is the model man, not for us to copy, for that would only bring\ndiscouragement and utter failure; but He will come and copy Himself in us.\nIf Christ lives in me, I am another Christ. I am not like Him, but I have\nthe same mind. The very Christ is in me. This is the foundation of\nChristian holiness and Divine healing. Christ is developing a perfect life\nwithin us. Some say man can never be perfect. \u201cIt is not in man that\nwalketh to direct his steps.\u201d We are all a lot of failures. This is true,\nbut we should go further. We must take God\u2019s provision for our failure and\nrise above it through His grace. We must take Jesus as a substitute for\nour miserable self. We must give up the good as well as the bad and take\nHim instead. It is hard for us to learn that the very good must go, but we\nmust have Divine impulses instead of even our best attainments.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 17.\n\n\n\u201cTo him that overcometh, will I give\u201d (Rev. ii. 17).\n\nA precious secret of Christian life is to have Jesus dwelling within the\nheart and conquering things that we never could overcome. It is the only\nsecret of power in your life and mine, beloved. Men cannot understand it,\nnor will the world believe it; but it is true, that God will come to dwell\nwithin us, and be the power, and the purity, and the victory, and the joy\nof our life. It is no longer now, \u201cWhat is the best that I can do?\u201d but\nthe question is, \u201cWhat is the best that Christ can do?\u201d It enables us to\nsay, with Paul, in that beautiful passage in Philippians, \u201cI know both how\nto be abased, and I know how to abound, everywhere and in all things, I am\ninstructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer\nneed. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.\u201d\n\nWith this knowledge I go forth to meet my testings, and the secret stands\nme good. It keeps me pure and sweet, as I could never keep myself. Christ\nhas met the adversary and defeated him for me. Thanks be unto God who\ngiveth us the victory through Jesus Christ.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 18.\n\n\n\u201cFor ye are dead\u201d (Col. iii. 3).\n\nNow, this definite, absolute and final putting off of ourselves in an act\nof death, is something we cannot do ourselves. It is not self-mortifying,\nbut it is dying with Christ. There is nothing can do it but the Cross of\nChrist and the Spirit of God. The church is full of half dead people who\nhave been trying, like poor Nero, to slay themselves for years, and have\nnot had the courage to strike the fatal blow. Oh, if they would just put\nthemselves at Jesus\u2019 feet, and let Him do it, there would be\naccomplishment and rest. On that cross He has provided for our death as\nwell as our life, and our part is just to let His death be applied to our\nnature just as it has been to our old sins, and then leave it with Him,\nthink no more about it, and count it dead, not recognizing it any longer\nas ourselves, but another, refusing to listen or fear it, to be identified\nwith it, or even try to cleanse it, but counting it utterly in His hands,\nand dead to us forever, and for all our new life depending on Him at every\nbreath, as a babe just born depends upon its mother\u2019s life.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 19.\n\n\n\u201cHe purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit\u201d (John xv. 2).\n\nRecently we passed a garden. The gardener had just finished his pruning,\nand the wounds of the knife and saw were just beginning to heal, while the\nwarm April sun was gently nourishing the stricken plant into fresh life\nand energy. We thought as we looked at that plant how cruel it would be to\nbegin next week and cut it down. Now, the gardener\u2019s business is to revive\nand nourish it into life. Its business is not to die, but to live. So, we\nthought, it is with the discipline of the soul. It, too, has its dying\nhour; but it must not be always dying: Rather reckon ourselves to be dead\nindeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death\nis but a moment. Live, then, ye children of the resurrection, on His\nglorious life more and more abundantly, and the fulness of your life will\nrepel the intrusion of self and sin, and overcome evil with good, and your\nexistence will be, not the dreary repression of your own struggling, but\nthe springing tide of Christ\u2019s spontaneous overcoming and everlasting\nlife.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 20.\n\n\n\u201cYe are not your own\u201d (I. Cor. vi. 19).\n\nWhat a privilege that we may consecrate ourselves. What a mercy that God\nwill take us worthless worms. What rest and comfort lie hidden in those\nwords, \u201cNot my own.\u201d Not responsible for my salvation, not burdened by my\ncares, not obliged to live for my interests, but altogether His; redeemed,\nowned, saved, loved, kept in the strong, unchanging arms of His\neverlasting love. Oh, the rest from sin and self and cankering care which\ntrue consecration brings! To be able to give Him our poor weak life, with\nits awful possibilities and its utter helplessness, and know that He will\naccept it, and take a joy and pride in making out of it the utmost\npossibilities of blessing, power and usefulness; to give all, and find in\nso doing we have gained all; to be so yielded to Him in entire self\nsurrender, that He is bound to care for us as for Himself. We are putting\nourselves in the hands of a loving Father, more solicitous for our good\nthan we can be and only wanting us to be fully submitted to Him that He\nmay be more free to bless us.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 21.\n\n\n\u201cWe will come unto Him and make our abode with Him\u201d (John xiv. 23).\n\nThe Bible has always held out two great promises respecting Christ. First,\nI will come to you; and, second, I will come into you. For four thousand\nyears the world looked forward to the fulfilment of the first. The other\nis the secret which Paul says has been hid from ages and generations, but\nis now made manifest to His saints, which is Christ in you, the hope of\nglory. This is just as great a revelation of God as the incarnation of\nJesus, for it makes you like Christ, as free from sin as He is. If Christ\nis in you, what will be the consequences? Why, He will put you aside\nentirely. The I in you will go. You will say, \u201cNot I, but Christ.\u201d Christ\nundertakes your battles for you. Christ becomes purity and grace and\nstrength in you. You do not try to attain unto these things, but you know\nyou have obtained them in Him. It is glorious rest with the Master. Jesus\ndoes not say, \u201cNow we must bring forth fruit, we must pray much, we must\ndo this or that.\u201d There is no constraint about it, except that we must\nabide in Him. That is the center of all joy and help.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 22.\n\n\n\u201cFight the good fight of faith\u201d (I. Tim. vi. 12).\n\nOh, beloved, how must God feel about us after He has given us His heart\u2019s\nblood, put so many advantages in our way, expended upon us so much grace\nand care, if we should disappoint Him. It makes the spirit cry, \u201cWho is\nsufficient for these things?\u201d Evermore I can see before me the time when\nyou and I shall stand on yonder shore and look back upon the years that\nhave been, these few short years of time. Oh, may we cast ourselves at\nJesus\u2019 feet and say: \u201cMany a time have we faltered; many a hard fight has\ncome, but Thou hast kept me and held me, thanks to God, who has given me\nthe victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d From the battlefields of the\nPeninsula, a little band of veterans came forth, and they gave each a\nmedal with the names of all their battles on one side, and on the other\nside this little sentence, \u201cI was there.\u201d Oh, when that hour shall come,\nmay it be a glad, glad thought to look back over the trials and sacrifices\nof these days and remember, \u201cI was there, and by the help of God and the\ngrace of Jesus, I am here.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 23.\n\n\n\u201cThe fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ\u201d (Rom. xv. 29).\n\nMany Christians fail to see these blessings as they are centered in Him.\nThey want to get the blessing of salvation, but that is not the Christ.\nThey want to get the blessing of His grace to help, but that is not Him.\nThey want to get answered prayer from Him to work for Him. You might have\nall that and not have the blessing of Christ Himself. A great many people\nare attached rather to the system of doctrine. They say, \u201cYes, I have got\nthe truth; I am orthodox.\u201d That is not the Christ. It may be the cold\nstatue in the fountain with the water passing from the cold hands and\nlips, but no life there. A great many other people want to get the\nblessing of joy, but it is not the blessing of Christ personally. A great\nmany people are more attached to their church and pastor, or to dear\nChristians friends, but that is not the Christ. The blessing that will\nalone fill your heart when all else fails is the loving heart of Jesus\nunited to you, the fountain of all your blessings and the unfailing one\nwhen they all wither and are exhausted\u2014Jesus Christ Himself.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 24.\n\n\n\u201cWhere is the way where light dwelleth\u201d (Job xxxviii. 19).\n\nJewels, in themselves, are valueless, unless they are brought in contact\nwith light. If they are put in certain positions they will reflect the\nbeauty of the sun. There is no beauty in them otherwise. The diamond that\nis back in its dark gallery or down in the deep mine, displays no beauty\nwhatever. What is it but a piece of charcoal, a bit of common carbon,\nunless it becomes a medium for reflecting light? And so it is also with\nthe other precious gems. Their varied tints are nothing without light. If\nthey are many-sided, they reflect more light, and display more beauty. If\nyou put paste beside a diamond there is no brilliancy in it. In its crude\nstate it does not reflect light at all. So we are in a crude state and are\nof no use at all until God comes and shines upon us. The light that is in\na diamond is not its own possession; it is the beauty of the sun. What\nbeauty is there in the child of God? Only the beauty of Jesus. We are His\npeculiar people, chosen to show forth His excellencies who hath called us\nout of darkness into His marvelous light. Let its reflect to-day His light\nand love.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 25.\n\n\n\u201cThat I may know Him\u201d (Phil. iii. 10).\n\nBetter to know Jesus Himself than to know the truth about Him for the deep\nthings of God as they are revealed by the Holy Ghost. It was Paul\u2019s great\ndesire, \u201cThat I may know Him,\u201d not about Him, not the mysteries of the\nwonderful world, of the deeper and higher teachings of God, but to enter\ninto the Holy of Holies, where Christ is, where the Shekinah is shining\nand making the place glorious with the holiness of God, and then to enter\ninto the secret of the Lord Himself. It was what Jacob strove for at\nPeniel, when he pleaded with God, \u201cTell me Thy name.\u201d He has told us His\nname, giving us \u201cthe light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the\nface of Jesus Christ.\u201d That is the secret. It is the Lord Himself, and\nnothing else; it is acquaintance with God; it is knowing Jesus Christ as\nwe know no one else; it is being able to say, not only \u201cI believe Him,\u201d\nbut \u201cI know Him\u201d; not about Him, but I know Him. That is the secret above\nall others that God wants us to have; it is His provision for glory and\npower, and it is given freely to the single-hearted seeker.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 26.\n\n\n\u201cBe careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with\nthanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God\u201d (Phil. iv. 6).\n\nCommit means to hand over, to trust wholly to another. So, if we give our\ntrials to Him, He will carry them. If we walk in righteousness He will\ncarry us through. \u201cHumble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of\nGod that He may exalt you in due time.\u201d There are two hands there\u2014God\u2019s\nhand pressing us down, humbling us, and then God\u2019s hand lifting us up.\nCast all your care on Him, then His hand will lift you up, exalt you in\ndue time. There are two cares in this verse\u2014your care and His care. They\nare different in the original. One means anxious care, the other means\nAlmighty care. Cast your anxious care on Him and take His Almighty care\ninstead. Make no account of trouble any more, but believe He is able to\nsustain you through it. The government is on His shoulder. Believe that,\nif you trust and obey Him, and meet His will, He will look after your\ninterests. Simply exchange burdens. Take His yoke upon you, and let Him\ncare for you.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 27.\n\n\n\u201cThe government shall be upon His shoulder\u201d (Isa. ix. 6).\n\nYou cannot make the heart restful by stopping its beating. Belladonna will\ndo that, but that is not rest. Let the breath of life come\u2014God\u2019s life and\nstrength\u2014and there will be sweet rest. Home ties and family affection will\nnot bring it. Deliverance from trouble will not bring it. Many a tried\nheart has said: \u201cIf this great trouble was only gone, I should have rest.\u201d\nBut as soon as one goes another comes. The poor, wounded deer on the\nmountain side, thinks if he could only bathe in the old mountain stream he\nwould have rest. But the arrow is in its flesh and there is no rest for it\ntill the wound is healed. It is as sore in the mountain lake as on the\nplain. We shall never have God\u2019s rest and peace in the heart till we have\ngiven everything up to Christ\u2014even our work\u2014and believe He has taken it\nall, and we have only to keep still and trust. It is necessary to walk in\nholy obedience and let Him have the government on His shoulder. Paul said\nthis: \u201cThis one thing I do.\u201d There is one narrow path for us all\u2014Christ\u2019s\nwill and work for us.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 28.\n\n\n\u201cHe humbled Himself\u201d (Phil. ii. 8).\n\nOne of the hardest things for a lofty and superior nature is to be under\nauthority, to renounce his own will, and to take a place of subjection.\nBut Christ took upon Him the form of a servant, gave up His independence,\nHis right to please Himself, His liberty of choice, and after having from\neternal ages known only to command, gave Himself up only to obey. I have\nseen occasionally the man who was once a wealthy employer a clerk in the\nsame store. It was not an easy or graceful position, I assure you. But\nJesus was such a perfect servant that His Father said: \u201cBehold, My Servant\nin whom My soul delighteth.\u201d All His life His watchword was, \u201cThe Son of\nMan came to minister.\u201d \u201cI am among you as He that doth serve.\u201d \u201cI can do\nnothing of Myself.\u201d \u201cNot My will, but Thine, be done.\u201d Have you, beloved,\nlearned the servant\u2019s place?\n\nAnd once more, \u201cHe became obedient unto death, even the death of the\ncross.\u201d His life was all a dying, and at last He gave all up to death, and\nalso shame, the death of crucifixion. This last was the consummation of\nHis love.\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 29.\n\n\n\u201cThe body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body\u201d (I. Cor. vi. 13).\n\nNow, just as it was Christ Himself who justified us, and Christ Himself\nwho was made unto us sanctification, so it is only by personal union with\nHim that we can receive this physical life and redemption. It is, indeed,\nnot a touch of power upon our body which restores and then leaves it to\nthe mere resources of natural strength and life for the future; but it is\nthe vital and actual union of our mortal body with the risen body of our\nLord Jesus Christ, so that His own very life comes into our frame and He\nis Himself made unto us strength, health and full physical redemption.\n\nHe is alive forevermore and condescends to live in these houses of clay.\nThey who thus receive Him may know Him as none ever can who exclude Him\nfrom the bodies which He has made for Himself. This is one of the deep and\nprecious mysteries of the Gospel. \u201cThe body is for the Lord, and the Lord\nfor the body.\u201d \u201cKnow ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy\nGhost, which is in you, and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a\nprice; therefore, glorify God in your body, which is God\u2019s.\u201d (R. V.)\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 30.\n\n\n\u201cI will put My Spirit within you\u201d (Ez. xxxvi. 27).\n\n\u201cI will put My Spirit within you, and I will cause you to walk in My\nstatutes, and ye shall keep My judgments.\u201d \u201cI will put My fear in your\nhearts, and ye shall not turn away from Me.\u201d Oh, friend, would not that be\nblessed, would not that be such a rest for you, all worn out with this\nstrife in your own strength? Do you not want a strong man to conquer the\nstrong man of self and sin? Do you not want a leader? Do you not want God\nHimself to be with you, to be your occupant? Do you not want rest? Are you\nnot conscious of this need? Oh, this sense of being beaten back, longing,\nwanting, but not accomplishing. That is what He comes to do; \u201cYe shall\nreceive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.\u201d Better than\nthat, \u201cYe shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you.\u201d That\nis the true version, and really it is immensely different from the other.\nYou shall not receive power yourself, so that people shall say: \u201cHow much\npower that man has. You shall not have any power whatever, but you shall\nreceive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, He having the power,\nthat is all.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nMAY 31.\n\n\n\u201cWhosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child\u201d (Matt.\nxviii. 4).\n\nYou will never get a humble heart until it is born from above, from the\nheart of Christ. For man has lost his own humanity and alas, too often has\na demon heart. God wants us, as Christians, to be simple, human,\napproachable and childlike. The Christians that we know and love best, and\nthat are nearest to the Lord, are the most simple. Whenever we grow\nstilted we are only fit for a picture gallery, and we are only good on a\npedestal; but, if we are going to live among men and love and save them,\nwe must be approachable and human. All stiffness is but another form of\nself-consciousness. Ask Christ for a human heart, for a smile that will be\nas natural as your little child\u2019s in your presence. Oh, how much Christ\ndid by little touches! He never would have got at the woman of Samaria if\nHe had come to her as the prophet. He sat down, a tired man, and said:\n\u201cGive me a drink of water.\u201d And so, all through His life, it was His\nsimple humanness and love that led Him to others, and led them to Him and\nto His great salvation.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 1.\n\n\n\u201cThat the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us\u201d (Rom. viii.\n4).\n\nBeloved friends, do you know the mistake some of you are making? Some of\nyou say: \u201cIt is not possible for me to be good; no man ever was perfect,\nand it is no use for me to try.\u201d That is the mistake many of you are\nmaking. I agree with the first sentence, \u201cNo man ever was perfect\u201d; but I\ndon\u2019t agree with the second, \u201cThere is no use trying.\u201d There is a divine\nrighteousness that we may have. I don\u2019t mean merely that which pardons\nyour sins\u2014I believe that, too\u2014but I mean far more; I mean that which comes\ninto your soul and unites itself with the fibers of your being; I mean\nChrist; your life, your purity, making you feel as Christ feels; think as\nChrist thinks, love as Christ loves, hate as Christ hates, and be\n\u201cpartakers of the divine nature.\u201d That is God\u2019s righteousness; \u201cthat the\nrighteousness of the law might be fulfiled in us,\u201d not by us, but in us;\nnot our hands and feet merely, but our very instincts, our very desires,\nour very nature springing up in harmony with His own. Have you got Him,\ndear friends? He will come and fulfil all right things in you if to-day\nyou will open your heart.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 2.\n\n\n\u201cAs ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in Him\u201d\n(Col. ii. 6).\n\nHere is the very core of spiritual life. It is not a subjective state so\nmuch as a life in the heart. Christ for us is the ground of our salvation\nand the source of our justification; Christ in us of our sanctification.\nWhen this becomes real, \u201cYe are dead\u201d; your own condition, states and\nresources are no longer counted upon any more than a dead man\u2019s, but \u201cyour\nlife is hid with Christ in God.\u201d It is not even always manifest to you. It\nis hid and so wrapped up and enfolded in Him that only as you abide in Him\ndoes it appear and abide. Nay, \u201cChrist who is your life,\u201d must Himself\never maintain it, and be made unto you of God all you need. Therefore,\nChristian life is not to come to Christ to save you, and then go on and\nwork out your sanctification yourself, but \u201cas ye have received Christ\nJesus, the Lord, so to walk in Him,\u201d just as dependent and as simply\ntrusting as for your pardon and salvation.\n\nAh friends, how much it would ease our tasks\n  For the day that\u2019s just begun,\nTo live our life a step at a time\n  And our moments one by one.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 3.\n\n\n\u201cYe shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost\u201d (Acts i. 8).\n\nThere is power for us if we have the Holy Ghost. God wants us to speak to\nmen so that they will feel it, so that they will never forget it. God\nmeans every Christian to be effective, to count in the actual records and\nresults of Christian work. Dear friends, God sent you here to be a power\nyourself. There is not one of you but is an essential wheel of the\nmachinery, and can accomplish all that God calls you to. I solemnly\nbelieve that there is not a thing that God expects of man but that God\nwill give the man power to do. There is not a claim God makes on you or me\nbut God will stand up to, and will give what He commands. I believe when\nChrist Jesus lived and died and sent down the Holy Ghost, He sent\nresources for all our need, and that there is no place for failure in\nChristian life if we will take God\u2019s resources. Jesus, the ascended One,\nand the Holy Ghost, the indwelling energy, life and efficiency of God, are\nsufficient for all possible emergencies. Do you believe this? If you\nbelieve it, let Him into your heart, without reserve and allow Him to\ncontrol and work through you to-day by His power.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 4.\n\n\n\u201cLooking unto Jesus\u201d (Heb. xii. 2).\n\nThere must be a constant looking unto Jesus, or, as the German Bible gives\nit, an off-looking upon Jesus; that is, looking off from the evil,\nrefusing to see it, not letting the mind dwell upon it for a second. We\nshould have mental eyelashes as well as physical ones, which can be used\nlike shields, and let no evil thing in; or, like a stockade camp in the\nwoods, which repels the first assault of the enemy. This is the use of the\nfringes to our eyes, and so it should be with the soul. Many do not seem\nto know that they have spiritual eyes. They go through the world as if\nsomebody had cut off their eyelashes, and they stare away on the good and\nevil alike. The devil comes along with his evil pictures and bids them\nlook. We cannot look upon evil without being defiled. Sometimes, in going\ndown the street, the sight of some of the pictures on the way will cast\ntheir filth upon the soul so that we shall feel the need of being bathed\nin Jesus\u2019 blood for hours for cleansing. There has been no consent unto\nsin, but the sight of it has defiled. There is no help for it but in the\nresolute, steady, inner view of Christ.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 5.\n\n\n\u201cMy heart is fixed, O God\u201d (Ps. lvii. 7).\n\nWe do not always feel joyful, but we are always to count it joy. This word\n_reckon_ is one of the keywords of Scripture. It is the same word used\nabout our being dead. We are painfully conscious of something which would\ngladly return to life. But we are to treat ourselves as dead, and neither\nfear nor obey the old nature. So we are to reckon the thing that comes a\nblessing; we are determined to rejoice, to say, \u201cMy heart is fixed, Lord;\nI will sing and give praises.\u201d This rejoicing by faith will soon become a\nhabit, and will ever bring speedily the spirit of gladness and the\nspontaneous overflow of praise.\n\nThen, although the fig tree may wither and no fruit appear in the vines,\nthe labor of the olive fail, and the field yield no increase, the herd be\ncut off from the stall, and the cattle from the field, yet will we rejoice\nin the Lord and joy in the God of our salvation.\n\nThough the everlasting mountains\n  And the earth itself remove,\nNaught can change His loving kindness\n  Or His everlasting love.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 6.\n\n\n\u201cHe emptied Himself\u201d (Phil. ii. 8, R. V.).\n\nThe first step to the righteousness of the kingdom is \u201cpoor in spirit.\u201d\nThen the next is a little deeper, \u201cthey that mourn.\u201d Because now you must\nget plastic, you must get broken, you must get like the metal in the fire,\nwhich the Master can mould; and so, it is not enough to see your\nunrighteousness, but deeply to feel it, deeply to regret it, deeply to\nmourn over it, to own it not a little thing that sin has come into your\nlife. And so God leads a soul unto His righteousness. He usually leads it\nthrough some testings and trials. This generally comes after conversion. I\ndo not think it necessary for a soul to have deep and great suffering\nbefore it is saved. I think He will put it into the fire when He knows it\nis saved; when it realizes it is accepted; when it is not afraid of the\ndiscipline; when it is not the hand of wrath, but the hand of love. Oh,\nthen, God, takes you down and makes you poor in spirit, and makes you\nmourn until you get to the third step, which is to be meek, broken,\nyielded, submissive, willing, surrendered, and laid low at His feet,\ncrying: \u201cWhat wilt Thou have me to do?\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 7.\n\n\n\u201cWhen ye go; ye shall not go empty\u201d (Ex. iii. 21).\n\nWhen we are really emptied He would have us filled with Himself and the\nHoly Spirit. It is very precious to be conscious of nothing good in\nourselves; but, oh, are we also conscious of His great goodness? We may be\nready to admit our own disability, but are we as ready to admit His\nability? There are many Christians who can say, \u201cWe are not sufficient of\nourselves to think anything as of ourselves\u201d; but the number I fear is\nvery small who can say, \u201cOur sufficiency is of God.\u201d\n\nAre you sure that He is able to provide every want in you, or do you feel\nthat you must supply it yourself? Are you believing that God does now\nsupply every lack in your heart and your life, so that all stumbling is\ntaken away, and you are endowed with power for His service, as Elisha took\nthe empty vessels and filled them before they were set aside to be used?\nOur Saviour, at Cana, ordered the water-pots to be filled to the brim.\nThen the water was made into wine, but not until the vessels were full.\nGod wants His children to have always a full heart.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 8.\n\n\n\u201cBread corn is bruised\u201d (Isa. xxviii. 28).\n\nThe farmer does not gather timothy and blue grass, and break it with a\nheavy machine. But he takes great pains with the wheat. So God takes great\npains with those who are to be of much use to Him. There is a nature in\nthem that needs this discipline. Don\u2019t wonder if the bread corn is treated\nwith the wise, discriminating care that will fit it for food. He knows the\nway He is taking, and there is infinite tenderness in the oversight He\ngives. He is watching the furnace you are in lest the heat should be too\nintense. He wants it great enough to purify, and then it is withdrawn. He\nknoweth our frame. He will not let any temptation take us but such as is\ncommon to man, and He will with the temptation also make a way to escape,\nthat we may be able to bear it. Do you believe in this disciplining love\nof the Husbandman, and are you trusting Him with the leading and\ngovernment of your life? Oh, that you would cease to envy or be disturbed\nby the people around you! Some day you will be glad for the training and\nblessing they have brought you.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 9.\n\n\n\u201cYe are the light of the world\u201d (Matt. v. 14).\n\nWe are called the lights of the world, light-bearers, reflectors,\ncandle-sticks, lamps. We are to be kindled ourselves, and then we will\nburn and give light to others. We are the only light the world has. The\nLord might come down Himself and give light to the world, but He has\nchosen differently. He wants to send it through us, and if we don\u2019t give\nit the world will not have it. We should be giving light all the time to\nour neighbors. God does not put a meteor in the sky to tell us when to\nshine. We are to be giving light all the time wherever we are, at home, or\nin the social circle, or in our place in the church. We should feel always\nwe may never have another opportunity for it, and so we should always be\nburning and shining for Him. Let our lamps be trimmed and burning and full\nof the oil of the Spirit. Above all, let us be a steady light to the lost\nones.\n\nLet me dwell in Timnath Serah,\n  Where the sun forever shines,\nWhere the night and darkness come not,\n  And the day no more declines.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 10.\n\n\n\u201cYour heavenly Father knoweth ye have need\u201d (Matt. vi. 32).\n\nChrist makes no less of our trust for temporal things than He does for\nspiritual things. He places a good deal of emphasis upon it. Why? Simply\nbecause it is harder to trust God for them. In spiritual matters we can\nfool ourselves, and think that we are trusting when we are not; but we\ncannot do so about rent and food, and the needs of our body. They must\ncome or our faith fails. It is easy to say that we trust Him in things\nthat are a long way off, but there can be no trifling about it in things\nwhere the faith must bring practical answers. It is easy to have faith for\nour needs, and to trust Him when the sun is shining. But let some things\narise which irritate and rasp and fret us, and we soon find whether we\nhave real trust or not. And so the things of everyday life are tests of\nour real faith in God, and He often puts us where we have to trust for\ntangible matters\u2014for money and rent, and food and clothes. If you are not\ntrusting here wholly, when you are placed in such tests you will break\ndown. Are you trusting God for everything through the six ordinary days of\nthe week?\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 11.\n\n\n\u201cThou hast the dew of thy youth\u201d (Ps. cx. 3).\n\nOh, that you might get such a view of Him as would make it impossible for\nlittle things ever to fret you again! The petty cares and silly trifles\nthat have troubled you so much ought rather to fill you with wonder that\nyou can think so much about them. Oh, if you had the dew of His youth you\nshould go forth as the morning and fulfil the promise of a glorious day!\nWhat a difference it has made in life since we have seen it was possible\nto do this! How easy it seems now when the little troubles come, to draw a\nlittle closer to Christ, to drink in a little more of that fountain of\nlife, to get a little nearer to that loving heart, and to draw in great\ndraughts of refreshing and strength from it. How clear it makes the brain\nfor work! Coming to Him thus, heavy and dull and tired, how rested you\nbecome and able to spring forth ready for work. How inspiring to think\nthat our living Head never grows weary. He is as fresh as He ever was; He\nis a glorious conqueror; He is ever the victorious Christ. Let Him take\nyou to-day, and He will cause you to see in Him the invincible Leader!\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 12.\n\n\n\u201cWe would see Jesus\u201d (John xii. 21).\n\nGlory to Him for all the things laid up for us in the days to come. Glory\nto Him for all the visions of service in the future; the opportunities of\ndoing good that are far away as well as close at hand. Our Saviour was\nable to despise the cross for the joy that was before Him. Let us look up\nto Him, and rise up to Him till we get on high and are able to look out\nfrom the mount of vision over all the land of far distances. There shall\nnot a single thing come to us in all the future in which we may not be\nable to see the King in His beauty. Let us be very sure that we do not see\nanything else. Our pupils will become impressed as they look at this\nvision, so that they will not be able to reflect anything else. My little\nchild came to me once and said: \u201cPapa, look at that golden sign across the\nstreet a good while; now look at that brick wall and tell me what you\nsee.\u201d \u201cWhy, I see the golden sign on the brick wall.\u201d And he laughed\nmerrily over it. So, if we look a long time upon Jesus we cannot look at\nanything else without seeing a reflection of Him. Everything which we\nbehold will become a part of Him.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 13.\n\n\n\u201cThe sweetness of the lips increaseth learning\u201d (Prov. xvi. 21).\n\nLife is very largely made up of words. They are not so emphatic, perhaps,\nas deeds. Deeds are more deliberate expressions of thought. One of the\nmost remarkable authors of the New Testament has said, \u201cIf any man offend\nnot in word, the same is a perfect man.\u201d It is very often a test of\nvictory in Christian life. Our triumph in this often depends on what we\nsay, or what we do not say. It is said by James of the tongue, \u201cIt is set\non fire of hell.\u201d The true Christian, therefore, is righteous in his ways\nand upright in his words. His deeds appeal to men; but in speech he is\nlooking up, for God is listening. His words are sent upward and recorded\nfor the judgment. I believe that this is an actual fact, and I can almost\nfancy that the skies above, which seem so transparent, the beautiful blue\nether over our heads, is like a waxen tablet with a finely sensitive\nsurface, and receives an impression of every word we speak, and that then\nthese tablets are hardened and preserved for the eternal judgment. So we\nshould speak, dear friends, with our eyes ever upward, never forgetting\nthat we shall some day meet the words that we have spoken.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 14.\n\n\n\u201cThe secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him\u201d (Ps. xxv. 14).\n\nThere are secrets of Providence which God\u2019s dear children may learn. His\ndealing with them often seems, to the outward eye, dark and terrible.\nFaith looks deeper and says, \u201cThis is God\u2019s secret. You look only on the\noutside; I can look deeper and see the hidden meaning.\u201d Sometimes diamonds\nare done up in rough packages, so that their value cannot be seen. When\nthe tabernacle was built in the wilderness there was nothing rich in its\noutside appearance. The costly things were all within, and its outward\ncovering of rough badger skin gave no hint of the valuable things which it\ncontained. God may send you, dear friends, some costly packages. Do not\nworry if they are done up in rough wrappings. You may be sure there are\ntreasures of love, and kindness and wisdom hidden within. Do not be so\nfoolish as to throw away a nugget of gold because there is some quartz in\nit. If we take what He sends, and trust Him for the goodness in it, even\nin the dark, we shall learn the meaning of the secrets of His providence.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 15.\n\n\n\u201cGrow up into Him in all things\u201d (Eph. iv. 15).\n\nHarvest is a time of ripeness. Then the fruit and grain are fully\ndeveloped, both in size and weight. Time has tempered the acid of the\ngreen fruit. It has been mellowed and softened by the rains and the heat\nof summer. The sun has tinted it into rich colors, and at last it is ready\nand ripe to fall into the hand. So Christian life ought to be. There are\nmany things in life that need to be mellowed and ripened. Many Christians\nhave orchards full of fruit, but they are all green and sharp to the\ntaste. There is a great deal in them that is good, but it is incomplete,\nand very sharp and sour. Perhaps something goes wrong in your domestic\nlife, and you get flurried and cross and lose your confidence in God, and\nthen, of course, your Christian joy. These things produce regret and all\nkinds of misery. There are many things day after day you are sorry for.\nYou know you are not ripe and mellow and you cannot become so by trying.\nYou cannot bring the sweetness in. It must be wrought out from within.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 16.\n\n\n\u201cYe cannot serve God and Mammon\u201d (Matt. vi. 24).\n\nHe does not say ye cannot very well serve God and mammon, but ye cannot\nserve two masters at all. Ye shall be sure to end by serving one. The man\nwho thinks he is serving God a little is deceived; he is not serving God.\nGod will not have his service. The devil will monopolize him before he\ngets through. A divided heart loses both worlds. Saul tried it. Balaam\ntried it. Judas tried it, and they all made a desperate failure. Mary had\nbut one choice. Paul said: \u201cThis one thing I do.\u201d \u201cFor me to live is\nChrist.\u201d Of such a life God says: \u201cBecause he hath set his love upon Me\ntherefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he hath known\nMy name.\u201d God takes a peculiar pride in showing His love to the heart that\nwholly chooses Him. Heaven and earth will fade away before its trust can\nbe disappointed. Have we chosen Him only and given Him all our heart?\n\nSay is it all for Jesus,\n  As you so often sing?\nIs He your Royal Master?\n  Is He your heart\u2019s dear King?\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 17.\n\n\n\u201cThe glory of the Lord shall be thy reward\u201d (Isa. lviii. 8).\n\nHe comes by our side as our helper; nay, more. He comes to dwell within\nus; to be the life in our blood, the fire in our thought, the faith within\nus, both in inception and consummation. Thus He becomes not only the\nrecompense of the victor, but the resources of the victory. He is the\nCaptain and the Overcomer in our lives. If we have caught any help that\nhas relieved us of a troubled morning, it has been of Him. He lifts our\neyes up unto Himself and delivers us from apathy, from discontent and from\nfears. He is always the helper in this heavenly competition, and will be\nthe great reward in all the ages to come. If our life is hidden with Him\nwe shall have to go through the same trials that He went through, but we\nshall not find them too hard. If once we take Him fully as the strength of\nour life, and our all in all, we shall be able to lay aside all the\nhindering things that press upon us day by day.\n\nI have overcome, overcome,\n  Overcome for thee,\nThou shalt overcome, overcome,\n  Overcome thro\u2019 Me.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 18.\n\n\n\u201cI am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down\u201d (Neh. vi. 3).\n\nWhen work is pressing there are many little things that will come and seem\nto need attention. Then it is a very blessed thing to be quiet and still,\nand work on, and trust the little things with God. He answers such trust\nin a wonderful way. If the soul has no time to fret and worry and harbor\ncare, it has learned the secret of faith in God. A desperate desire to get\nsome difficulty right takes the eye off of God and His glory. Some dear\nones have been so anxious to get well, and have spent so much time in\ntrying to claim it, that they have lost their spiritual blessing. God\nsometimes has to teach such souls that there must be a willingness to be\nsick before they are so thoroughly yielded as to receive His fullest\nblessing.\n\nThe enemy often keeps at this work. Sanballat came four times to Nehemiah\nand received always the same answer. It is best to stick to a good answer.\nHow many fears we have stopped to fight which have proved to be nothing at\nlast. Nehemiah recognized that fear was sin, and did not dare to yield to\nit.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 19.\n\n\n\u201cWho hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again\u201d\n(Rom. xi. 35).\n\nThe Christian women of the world have it in their power, by a very little\nsacrifice, to add millions to the treasury of the Lord. Beloved sisters,\nhave you found the joy of sacrifice for Jesus? Have you given up something\nthat you might give it to Him? Are you giving your substance to Jesus? He\nwill take it, and He will give you a thousandfold more. I should rather be\nconnected with a work founded on great sacrifice than on enormous\nendowments. The reason God loved the place where His ancient temple rose\nin majesty was because there Abraham offered his son and David his\ntreasure. The reason redemption is so dear to the Father and the heavenly\nworld is because its foundation-stone is the Cross of Calvary. And the\nChristian life that is dearest to the heart of God, and will rise to the\nhighest glory and usefulness, is the one whose foundation principle is\nsacrifice and self-renunciation. This is why the Master teaches us to\ngive, because giving means loving, and love is but another name for life.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 20.\n\n\n\u201cLet every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called\u201d (I. Cor.\nvii. 20).\n\nO ye who complain about your calling or fret about the changes and trials\nof life, how do you know but that these very changes are the divine\nmethods by which God\u2019s purposes of blessing and usefulness concerning you\nbe fulfilled? Had Aquila not been compelled to leave Rome and break up his\nhome and business, he would probably have never met with Paul, and been\ncalled to the knowledge and service of Christ through this providential\nmeeting. Had he not been a working man, and pursuing his ordinary\navocation he would not have been brought into contact with the apostle. It\nwas in the line of their calling, their common duties, and the\nprovidential changes of their life that God called them. And so He meets\nus. Do not try hard to run away from it, but, as the apostle has so finely\nput it, \u201cLet every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called, let\nhim therein abide with God.\u201d Make the most of your incidental\nopportunities.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 21.\n\n\n\u201cGod hath set some in the church ... helps\u201d (I. Cor. xii. 28).\n\nIn the apostle\u2019s lists of officers in the church the \u201chelps\u201d are mentioned\nbefore the \u201cgovernments.\u201d By the ministry of prayer, by the ministry of\ngiving, by the ministry of encouragement, by the shining face and mute\npressure of the hand, and a little word of cheer, and by the countless\nways in which we can help, or at least can keep from hindering, we can all\nfind still the footprints of Aquila and Priscilla, if we want to follow\nthem. It is a great grace to be able to rejoice in another\u2019s work and pour\nour lives, like affluent rivers, into great streams. But God knows whence\nevery drop has come, and in the greater day of recompense many of the\nhelps shall have the chief reward. Beloved, are you helping? Are you\nhelping your pastor, your brother, your husband, your mother, your\nfellow-worker, and when the harvest comes shall he that soweth and he that\nreapeth rejoice together?\n\nYou can help by holy prayer,\n  Helpful love and joyful song,\nO, the burdens you may bear,\nO, the sorrows you may share,\nO, the crowns you yet may wear,\n  If you help along.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 22.\n\n\n\u201cThis is that bread which came down from heaven\u201d (John vi. 58).\n\nWe had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in\nourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead; who delivereth us from so\ngreat a death, who doth deliver; in whom we trust that He will yet deliver\nus. This was the supernatural secret of Paul\u2019s life; he drew continually\nin his body from the strength of Christ, his Risen Head. The body which\nrose from Joseph\u2019s tomb was to him a physical reality and the\ninexhaustible fountain of his vital forces. More than any other he has\nimparted to us the secret of His strength; \u201cWe are members of His body, of\nHis flesh and of His bones\u201d; \u201cThe Lord is for the body and the body is for\nthe Lord.\u201d Marvelous truth! Divine Elixir of Life and Fountain of\nPerpetual Youth! Earnest of the Resurrection! Fulfilment of the ancient\npsalms and songs of faith! \u201cThe Lord is the strength of my life, of whom\nshall I be afraid? My flesh and my heart faint and fail, but God is the\nstrength of my heart and my portion forever.\u201d Beloved, have we learned\nthis secret, and are we living the life of the Incarnate One in our flesh?\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 23.\n\n\n\u201cNow we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be\u201d\n(I. John iii. 2).\n\nWe are the sons of God. We are not merely called and even legally\ndeclared, but actually are sons of God by receiving the life and nature of\nGod; and so we are the very brethren of our Lord; not only in His human\nnature, but still more in His divine relationship. \u201cTherefore, He is not\nashamed to call us brethren.\u201d He gives us that which entitles us to that\nright, and makes us worthy of it. He does not introduce us into a position\nfor which we are uneducated and unfitted, but He gives us a nature worthy\nof our glorious standing; and as He shall look upon us in our complete and\nglorious exaltation reflecting His own likeness and shining in His\nFather\u2019s glory, He shall have no cause to be ashamed of us. Even now He is\npleased to acknowledge us before the universe and call us brethren in the\nsight of all earth and heaven. Oh, how this dignifies the humblest saint\nof God! How little we need mind the misunderstanding of the world if He\n\u201cis not ashamed to call us brethren.\u201d\n\nSo let us go out to-day to represent His royal family.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 24.\n\n\n\u201cI will clothe thee with change of raiment\u201d (Zech. iii. 4).\n\nFor Paul every exercise of the Christian life was simply the grace of\nJesus Christ imparted to him and lived out by him, so that holiness was to\nput on the Lord Jesus and all the robes of His perfect righteousness which\nhe loves to describe so often in his beautiful epistles. \u201cPut on\ntherefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,\u201d he says to the\nColossians, \u201cbowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness,\nlong suffering\u201d; and, \u201cabove all these things, put on love which is the\nbond of perfectness.\u201d None of these things are regarded as intrinsic\nqualities in us, but as imparted graces from the hand of Jesus. And even\nin the later years of his life, and after the mature experience of a\nquarter of a century we find him exclaiming, \u201cI count all things but loss\nfor the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord; for whom I\nhave suffered the loss of all things, and count them but refuse, that I\nmight win Christ and be found in Him.\u201d\n\nLord, enable us to-day to go out, clothed in Thy robes of perfect\nrightness and with our hearts in adjustment with Thy perfect love.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 25.\n\n\n\u201cWho leadeth us in triumph\u201d (II. Cor. ii. 14).\n\nEvery victor must first be a self-conqueror. But the method of Joshua\u2019s\nvictory was the uplifted arm of Moses on the Mount. As he held up his\nhands Joshua prevailed, as he lowered them Amalek prevailed. It was to be\na battle of faith and not of human strength, and the banner that was to\nwave over the discomfited foe, \u201cJehovah-nissi.\u201d This, too, is the secret\nof our spiritual triumph. \u201cIf we are led of the Spirit we shall not fulfil\nthe lusts of the flesh.\u201d \u201cSin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are\nnot under the law but under grace.\u201d\n\nHave we thus begun the battle and in the strength of Christ planted our\nfeet on our own necks, and thus victorious over the enemy in the citadel\nof the heart been set at liberty for the battle of the Lord and the\nservice of others? It was the lack of this that hindered the life of Saul\nand it has wrecked many a promising career. One enemy in the heart is\nstronger than ten thousand in the field. May the Lord lead us all into\nJoshua\u2019s first triumph, and show us the secret of self-crucifixion through\nthe greater Joshua, who alone can lead us on to holiness and victory!\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 26.\n\n\n\u201cWhen He saw the multitudes He was moved\u201d (Matt. ix. 36).\n\nHe is able to be \u201ctouched with the feeling of our infirmities.\u201d The word\n\u201ctouched\u201d expresses a great deal. It means that our troubles are His\ntroubles, and that in all our afflictions He is afflicted. It is not a\nsympathy of sentiment, but a sympathy of suffering.\n\nThere is much help in this for the tired heart. It is the foundation of\nHis Priesthood, and God meant that it should be to us a source of\nunceasing consolation. Let us realize, more fully, our oneness with our\nGreat High Priest, and cast all our burdens on His great heart of love. If\nwe know what it is to ache in every nerve with the responsive pain of our\nsuffering child, we can form some idea of how our sorrows touch His heart,\nand thrill His exalted frame. As the mother feels her babe\u2019s pain, as the\nheart of friendship echoes every cry from another\u2019s woe, so in heaven, our\nexalted Saviour, even amid the raptures of that happy world, is suffering\nin His Spirit and even in His flesh with all His children bear. \u201cSeeing\nthen we have such a great high Priest, let us come boldly to the throne of\ngrace,\u201d and let us come to our great High Priest.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 27.\n\n\n\u201cBe filled with the Spirit\u201d (Eph. v. 18).\n\nSome of the effects of being filled with the Spirit are:\n\n1. Holiness of heart and life. This is not the perfection of the human\nnature, but the holiness of the divine nature dwelling within.\n\n2. Fulness of joy so that the heart is constantly radiant. This does not\ndepend on circumstances, but fills the spirit with holy laughter in the\nmidst of the most trying surroundings.\n\n3. Fulness of wisdom, light and knowledge, causing us to see things as He\nsees them.\n\n4. An elevation, improvement and quickening of the mind by an ability to\nreceive the fulfilment of the promise, \u201cWe have the mind of Christ.\u201d\n\n5. An equal quickening of the physical life. The body was made for the\nHoly Ghost, as well as the mind and soul.\n\n6. An ability to pray the prayer of the Holy Ghost. If He is in us there\nwill be a strange accordance with God\u2019s working in the world around us.\nThere is a divine harmony between the Spirit and Providence.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 28.\n\n\n\u201cLeaning upon her beloved\u201d (Songs of Solomon viii. 5).\n\nShall you make the claim most practical and real and lean like John your\nfull weight on the Lord\u2019s breast? That is the way He would have us prove\nour love. \u201cIf you love me lean hard,\u201d said a heathen woman to her\nmissionary, as she was timidly leaning her tired body upon her stalwart\nbreast. She felt slighted by the timorous reserve, and asked the\nconfidence that would lay all its weight upon the one she trusted. And He\nsays to us, \u201cCasting all your care upon Him for He careth for you.\u201d He\nwould have us prove our love by a perfect trust that makes no reserve. He\nis able to carry all our care, to manage all our interests, to satisfy all\nour needs. Let us go forth leaning on His breast and feeding on His life.\nFor John not only leaned but also fed. It was at supper that he leaned.\nThis is the secret of feeding on Him, to rest upon His bosom. This is the\nneed of the fevered heart of man. Let us cry to Him, \u201cTell me whom my soul\nloveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 29.\n\n\n\u201cHe dwelleth with you and shall be in you\u201d (John xiv. 17).\n\nDo not fail to mark these two stages in Christian life. The one is the\nSpirit\u2019s work in us, the other is the Spirit\u2019s personal coming to abide\nwithin us. All true Christians know the first, but few, it is to be\nfeared, understand and receive the second. There is a great difference\nbetween my building a house and my going to reside in that house and make\nit my home. And there is a great difference between the Holy Spirit\u2019s work\nin regenerating a soul\u2014the building of a house, and His coming to reside,\nabide and control in our innermost spirit and our whole life and being.\n\nHave we received Him Himself not as our Guest, but as the Owner,\nProprietor and Keeper of the temple He has built to be \u201can habitation of\nGod through the Spirit\u201d?\n\nThis is my wonderful story,\n  Christ to my heart has come,\nJesus the King of glory,\n  Finds in my heart a home.\n\nI am so glad I received Him,\n  Jesus, my heart\u2019s dear King,\nI, who so often have grieved Him,\n  All to His feet would bring.\n\n\n\n\n\nJUNE 30.\n\n\n\u201cTherefore, choose\u201d (Deut. xxx. 19).\n\nMen are choosing every day the spiritual or earthly. And as we choose we\nare taking our place unconsciously with the friends of Christ, or the\nworld. It is not merely what ye say, it is what we prefer.\n\nWhen Solomon made his great choice at Gibeon, God said to him, \u201cBecause\nthis was in thine heart to ask wisdom, therefore will I give it unto thee,\nand all else besides that thou didst not choose.\u201d It was not merely that\nhe said it because it was right to say, and would please God if he said\nit. But it was the thing his heart preferred, and God saw it in his heart\nand gave it to him with all besides that he had not chosen. What are we\nchoosing, beloved? It is our choice that settles our destiny. It is not\nhow we feel, but how we purpose. Have we chosen the good part? Have we\nsaid, \u201cWhatever else I am or have, let me be God\u2019s child, let me have His\nfavor and blessing, let me please Him?\u201d Or have we said, \u201cI must have this\nthing, and then I will see about religion.\u201d Alas, God has seen what was in\nthine heart, and perhaps He has already said, \u201cThey have their reward.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 1.\n\n\n\u201cAfter that ye have suffered awhile\u201d (I. Peter v. 10).\n\nBeloved, are we learning love in the school of suffering? Are our hearts\nbeing mellowed and deepened by the summer heat of trial until the fruit of\nthe Spirit, \u201cwhich is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,\nmeekness, temperance, faith, is ripening for the harvest of His coming,\nand our sufferings are easily borne for His sake\u201d? Oh, this is the school\nof love, and makes Him unutterably more dear to our hearts and us to His.\nAnd thus only can we ever learn with Him the heavenly charity which\n\u201csuffers long, and is kind.\u201d\n\nWe see the very first and the very last feature of the face of love, as\ndelineated in St. Paul\u2019s portrait (I. Cor. xiii.), are marks of pain and\npatient suffering, \u201csuffers long,\u201d \u201cendureth all things.\u201d So let us learn\nthus in the school of love to suffer and be kind, to endure all things.\n\nSurely it will not be hard to love through all when it is the heart of\nJesus within us which will love and continue to love to the very end.\n\nI want the love that suffers and is kind,\n  That envies not nor vaunts its pride or fame,\nIs not puffed up, does no discourteous act,\n  Is not provoked, nor seeks its own to claim.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 2.\n\n\n\u201cAnd hath raised us up together\u201d (Eph. ii. 6).\n\nAscension is more than resurrection. Much is said of it in the New\nTestament. Christ riseth above all things. We see Him in the very act of\nascending as we do not in the actual resurrection, as, with hands and lips\nengaged in blessing, He gently parts from their side, so simply, so\nunostentatiously, with so little imposing ceremony as to make heaven so\nnear to our common life that we can just whisper through. And we, too,\nmust ascend, even here. \u201cIf ye then be risen with Christ, seek those\nthings that are above.\u201d We must learn to live on the heaven side and look\nat things from above. How it overcomes sin, defies Satan, dissolves\nperplexities, lifts us above trials, separates us from the world and\nconquers the fear of death to contemplate all things as God sees them, as\nChrist beholds them, as we shall one day look back upon them from His\nglory, and as if we were now really \u201cSeated with Him,\u201d as indeed we are,\n\u201cin the heavenly places.\u201d Let us arise with His resurrection and in\nfellowship with His glorious ascension learn henceforth to live above.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 3.\n\n\n\u201cLook from the top\u201d (Song of Solomon iv. 8).\n\nYes, our perplexities would become plain if we kept on a spiritual\nelevation. How often when the traveler quite loses his way he can soon\nfind it again from some tree top or some hill top where all the winding\npaths he has gone spread behind him, and the whole homeward road opens\nbefore. So, from the heights of prayer and faith, we too can see the plain\npath, and know that we are going home.\n\nThere is no other way in which we can gain the victory over the world. We\nmust get above it. We must see it from the side of our great reward. Then\nit looks like earthly objects after we have gazed upon the sun for a\nwhile. We are blind to them. When the Italian fruit-seller finds that he\nis heir to a ducal palace you cannot tempt him any more with the paltry\nprofits of his trade or the company of his old associates. He is above it\nall. They who know the hope of their calling and the riches of the glory\nof their inheritance can well despise the world. It is the poor starving\nones who go hungering for the husks of earth. We are born from above and\nhave a longing to go home. Let us go forth to-day with our hearts on the\nhomestretch.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 4.\n\n\n\u201cWhosoever abideth in Him sinneth not\u201d (I. John iii. 6).\n\nIn sanctification what becomes of the old nature? Many people are somewhat\nunduly concerned to know if it can be killed outright, and seem to desire\na sort of certificate of its death and burial. It is enough to know that\nit is without and Christ is within. It may show itself again, and even\nknock at the door and plead for admittance, but it is forever outside\nwhile we abide in Him. Should we step out of Him and into sin we might\nfind the old corpse in the ghastly cemetery, and its foul aroma might yet\nrevive and embrace us once more. But he that abideth in Him sinneth not\nand cannot sin while he so abides.\n\nTherefore let us abide and let us not be anxious to escape the hold of\neternal vigilance and ceaseless abiding. Our paths are made and the\nstrength to pursue them; let us walk in them. God has provided for us a\nfull sanctification. Is it strange that He should demand it of us, and\nrequire us to be holy, even as He is holy, seeing He has given us His own\nholiness. So let us put on our beautiful garments and prepare to walk in\nwhite with Him.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 5.\n\n\n\u201cA garden enclosed\u201d (Song of Solomon iv. 12).\n\nThe figure here is a garden enclosed, not a wilderness. The garden soil is\na cultivated soil, very different from the roadside or the wilderness. The\nidea of a garden is culture. The ground has to be prepared, to be broken\nup by ploughing, to be mellowed by harrowing, all the stones removed, the\nroots of all natural growth dug up, for the good things we are seeking are\nnot natural growths and will not grow in our soil. We all start on the old\nbasis and try to improve the old nature, but that is not God\u2019s way. His\nway is to get self out of the way entirely, and let Him create anew out of\nnothing, so that all shall be of Him; and we must find Jesus the Alpha and\nOmega.\n\nThe thing you want to learn here is to die. There can be no real life till\nself dies, and don\u2019t try to die yourself, but ask God to slay you, and He\nwill make a thorough work of it.\n\nThis the secret nature hideth,\n  Summer dies and lives again,\nSpring from winter\u2019s grave ariseth,\n  Harvest grows from buried grain.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 6.\n\n\n\u201cI am my beloved\u2019s\u201d (Song of Solomon vii. 10).\n\nIf you want power you must compress. It is the shutting in of the steam\nthat moves the engine. The amount of powder on a flat surface that sends a\nball to its destination when shut up in a gun only makes a flash. If you\nwant to carry the electric current you must be insulated. Stand a man on a\nglass platform and turn a battery on him and he will be filled with\nelectricity. Let him step off the glass, and the moment he touches earth\nhe loses power.\n\nWe must be inclosed by His everlasting Covenant. That holds us and keeps\nus from falling. He will be a wall of fire round about us. He comes\nHimself and envelops us round about with the old Shekinah glory, and will\nbe the glory in the midst. He wants us inclosed\u2014by a distinct act of\nconsecration dedicated wholly to Him. Are you inclosed by His fences, His\ncommandments, His promises, His covenant? Is your heart really and only\nfor the Lord?\n\nIf not, come to Him now and let Him separate you from all the things that\ntake your life, and let Him separate you unto Himself, the Life Giver.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 7.\n\n\n\u201cAnd the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle\u201d (Ex. xl. 35).\n\nIn the last chapter of Exodus we read all the Lord commanded Moses to do,\nand that as he fulfilled these commands the glory of the Lord descended\nand filled the tabernacle till there was no room for Moses, and from that\ntime the pillar of cloud overshadowed them, their guide, their protection.\nAnd so we have been building as the Lord Himself commanded, and now the\ntemple is to be handed over to Him to be possessed and filled. He will so\nfill you, if you will let Him that yourself and everything else will be\ntaken out of the way, the glory of the Lord will fill the temple,\nencompassing, lifting up, guiding, keeping; and from this time your moon\nshall not withdraw its light, nor your sun go down.\n\nDo you want power? You have God for it. Do you want holiness? You have God\nfor it; and so of everything. And God is bending down from His throne\nto-day to lift you up to your true place in Him. From this time may the\ncloud of His glory so surround and fill us that we shall be lost sight of\nforever.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 8.\n\n\n\u201cHaving begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh\u201d (Gal.\niii. 3).\n\nGrace literally means that which we do not have to earn. It has two great\nsenses always; it comes for nothing and it comes when we are helpless; it\ndoesn\u2019t merely help the man that helps himself\u2014that is not the Gospel; the\nGospel is that God helps the man who can\u2019t help himself. And then there is\nanother thing; God helps the man to help himself, for everything the man\ndoes comes from God. Grace is given to the man who is so weak and helpless\nhe cannot take the first step. That is the meaning of grace\u2014a little of\nthe meaning of it; we can never know the fulness it has. Now, this river\nis as free as it is full, but you know some people have an idea when they\nget a little farther on they have got to pay an admission, and reserved\nseats are very high, and they shrink back from the higher blessings of the\nGospel; ordinary Christians scarcely dare to claim them. If I understand\nthe meaning of this, God has not put the higher blessings apart for a\nseparate class who somehow are nearer to Him. God is no respecter of\npersons.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 9.\n\n\n\u201cCast thy burden on the Lord\u201d (Ps. lv. 22).\n\nDear friends, sometimes we bring a burden to God, and we have such a\ngroaning over it, and we seem to think God has a dreadful time, too, but\nin reality it does not burden Him at all. God says: It is a light thing\nfor Me to do this for you. Your load, though heavy for you, is not heavy\nfor Him. Christ carries the whole on one shoulder, not two shoulders. The\ngovernment of the world is upon His shoulder. He is not struggling and\ngroaning with it. His mighty arm is able to carry all your burdens. There\nis power in Christ for our sanctification. He is able to sanctify you.\nYes, yes, the Lord can sanctify, the Lord can heal, the Lord can do\nanything. You must have faith in God. If you come to this river this\nmorning, it will take you as your Niagara would take a little boat, and\njust bear you down\u2014to a precipice? Oh, no, but to the bosom of love and\nblessing forever.\n\nOft there comes a wondrous message,\n  When my hopes are growing dim,\nI can hear it thro\u2019 the darkness\n  Like some sweet and far-off hymn.\nNothing is too hard for Jesus,\n  No man can work like Him.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 10.\n\n\n\u201cThat we might know the things that are freely given to us of God\u201d (I.\nCor. ii. 12).\n\nThe highest blessings of the Gospel are just as free as the lowest; and\nwhen you have served Him ten years you cannot sit down and say, \u201cI have\ngot an experience now and I count on that.\u201d How often we do that; we say,\n\u201cNow I know I am saved, I feel it.\u201d And so we are building a different\nfoundation\u2014we are building on something in ourselves. Always take grace as\nsomething you don\u2019t deserve, something that is freely bestowed. The long,\ndeep, boundless river is free; it is as free at the mouth as it is at the\nlittle stream, and free all the way along, and anybody can come and drink,\nand anybody can come and bathe in its boundless waters. Are you going to\nbelieve it?\n\nGod has given us His Holy Spirit that we may \u201cknow the things that are\nfreely given of us of God.\u201d It is a hard thing for the poor child to look\nin through the window and see a fire, and the happy family sitting around\nthe table when it is starving. What is the good of knowing that there is\nwarmth, and love, and light, if it is not free? God has freely given all\nthe goodness of His grace and love.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 11.\n\n\n\u201cFor it is God which worketh in you\u201d (Phil. ii. 13).\n\nA day with Jesus. Let us seek its plan and direction from Him. Let us take\nHis highest thought and will for us in it. Let us look to Him for our\ndesires, ideals, expectations in it. Then shall it bring to us exceeding\nabundantly above all that we can ask or think. Let Him be our Guide and\nWay. Let us not so much be thinking even of His plan and way as of Him as\nthe Personal Guide of every moment, on whom we constantly depend to lead\nour every step.\n\nLet Him also be the sufficiency and strength of all the day. Let us never\nforget the secret: \u201cI can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth\nme.\u201d Let us have Jesus Christ Himself in us to do the works, and let us\nevery moment fall back on Him, both to will and do in us of His good\npleasure. Let our holiness be \u201cthe law of the spirit of life in Christ\nJesus.\u201d Let our health be the \u201clife of Jesus manifest in our mortal\nflesh.\u201d Let our faith be \u201cthe faith of the Son of God who loved us.\u201d Let\nour peace and joy be His peace and joy. And let our service be not our\nworks, but the grace of Christ within us.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 12.\n\n\n\u201cWhen ye pray, believe that ye receive\u201d (Mark xi. 24).\n\nConsecration is entered by an act of faith. You are to take the gift from\nGod, believe you have, and confess that you have it. Step out on it\nfirmly, and let the devil know you have it as well as the Lord. When once\nyou say to Him boldly, \u201cI am Thine,\u201d He answers back from the heavenly\nheights, \u201cThou art Mine,\u201d and the echoes go ringing down through all your\nlife, \u201cMine! Thine!\u201d If you dare confess Christ as your Saviour and\nSanctifier He has bound Himself to make it a reality, but you must stand\nbehind His mighty Word. It is the essence of testimony to tell of what\nJesus has promised to become to you. It is right to have glorious words of\nthanksgiving, but these are not exactly testimony. God would have us put\nour seal on the promises, and lift up our hands and acknowledge them as\nours.\n\nThen you are to ignore the old life and reckon it no longer yours if it\nshould come up again. Every time it appears say, \u201cThis is from the under\nworld. I am sitting in the heavenly places with Christ.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 13.\n\n\n\u201cEven Christ pleased not Himself\u201d (Rom. xv. 3).\n\nLet this be a day of self-forgetting ministry for Christ and others. Let\nus not once think of being ministered unto, but say ever with Him: \u201cI am\namong you as He that doth serve.\u201d Let us not drag our burdens through the\nday, but drop all our loads of care and be free to carry His yoke and His\nburden. Let us make the happy exchange, giving ours and taking His. Let\nthe covenant be: \u201cThou shalt abide for Me, I also for thee.\u201d So shall we\nlose our heaviest load\u2014ourselves\u2014and so shall we find our highest joy,\ndivine love, the more blessed \u201cto give\u201d than \u201cto receive.\u201d Let us do good\nto all men as we have opportunity. Let us lose no opportunity of blessing,\nand let us study ingenious ways of service and usefulness. Especially let\nus seek to win souls.\n\nThe Days of Heaven are busy days,\n  They serve continually,\nSo spent for Thee and Thine, our days,\n  As the Days of Heaven would be.\n\nThe Days of Heaven are loving days,\n  As one they all agree,\nSo linked in loving unity\n  May our days as Heaven be.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 14.\n\n\n\u201cMen ought always to pray\u201d (Luke xviii. 1).\n\nLet this be a day of prayer. Let us see that our highest ministry and\npower is to deal with God for men. Let us be obedient to all the Holy\nSpirit\u2019s voices of prayer in us. Let us count every pressure a call to\nprayer. Let us cherish the spirit of unceasing prayer and abiding\ncommunion. Let us learn the meaning of the ministry of prayer. Let us\nreach persons this day we cannot reach in person; let us expect results\nthat we have never dared to claim before; let us count every difficulty\nonly a greater occasion for prayer, and let us call on God, who will show\nus many great and mighty things which we know not.\n\nAnd let it be a day of joy and praise. Let us live in the promises of God\nand the outlook of His deliverance and blessing. Let us never dwell on the\ntrial but always on the victory just before. Let us not dwell in the tomb,\nbut in the garden of Joseph and the light of the resurrection. Let us keep\nour faces toward the sun rising. Arise, shine. Rejoice evermore. In\neverything give thanks. Praise ye the Lord.\n\nLord, give us Thy joy in our hearts which shall lift us to lift others,\nand fill us so we may overflow to others.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 15.\n\n\n\u201cI am my Beloved\u2019s and my Beloved is mine\u201d (Song of Solomon vi. 3).\n\nIf I am the Lord\u2019s then the Lord is mine. If Christ owns me I own Him. And\nso faith must reach out and claim its full inheritance and begin to use\nits great resources. Moment by moment we may now take Him as our grace and\nstrength, our faith and love, our victory and joy, our all in all. And as\nwe thus claim Him we will find His grace sufficient for us, and begin to\nlearn that giving all is just receiving all. Yes, consecration is getting\nHim fully instead of our own miserable life. There are, indeed, two sides\nof it. There are two persons in the consecration. One of them is the dear\nLord Himself. \u201cAnd for their sakes,\u201d He says, \u201cI consecrate Myself that\nthey also might be consecrated through the truth.\u201d The moment we\nconsecrate ourselves to Him He consecrates Himself to us, and henceforth,\nthe whole strength of His life and love and everlasting power is dedicated\nto keep and complete our consecration, and to make the very best and most\nof our consecrated life. Who would not give himself to such a Saviour?\nSurely we will to-day, first give ourselves and then give Him each moment\nas it comes, to be filled and used.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 16.\n\n\n\u201cAs the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after Thee,\nO God\u201d (Ps. xlii. 1).\n\nFirst in order to a consecrated life there must be a sense of need, the\nneed of purity, of power, and of a greater nearness to the Lord. There\noften comes in Christian life a second conviction. It is not now a sense\nof guilt and God\u2019s wrath so much as of the power and evil of inward sin,\nand the unsatisfactoriness of the life the soul is living. It usually\ncomes from the deeper revelation of God\u2019s truth, from more spiritual\nteaching, from definite examples and testimonies of this life in others,\nand often from an experience of deep trial, conflict and temptation in\nwhich the soul has found its attainments and resources inadequate for the\nreal issues and needs of life. The first result is often a deep\ndiscouragement and even despair, but the valley of Achor is the door of\nhope, and the seventh chapter of Romans with its bitter cry, \u201cO wretched\nman that I am,\u201d is the gateway to the eighth with its shout of triumph,\n\u201cThe Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and\ndeath.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 17.\n\n\n\u201cBy one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified\u201d (Heb.\nx. 14).\n\nAre you missing what belongs to you? He has promised to sanctify you. He\nhas promised sanctification for you by coming to you Himself and being\nmade of God to you sanctification. Jesus is my sanctification. Having Him\nI have obedience, rest, patience and everything I need. He is alive\nforevermore. If you have Him nothing can be against you. Your temptations\nwill not be against you; your bad temper will not be against you; your\nhard life, your circumstances, even the devil himself will not be against\nyou. Every time he comes to attack you, he will only root you deeper in\nChrist. You will become a coward at the thought of being alone; you will\nbe thrown on Jesus every time a trouble assails you. All things henceforth\nwill work together for good to your own soul. Since God is for you nothing\ncan be against you.\n\nMy heavenly Bridegroom sought me and called me one glad day,\n\u201cArise, my love, my fair one, arise and come away,\u201d\nI listened to His pleading, I gave Him all my heart,\nAnd we are one forever and nevermore shall part.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 18.\n\n\n\u201cYe are complete in Him\u201d (Col. ii. 10).\n\nIn Him we are now complete. The perfect pattern of the life of holy\nservice for which He has redeemed and called us, is now in Him in heaven,\neven as the architect\u2019s model is planned and prepared and completed in his\noffice. But now it must be wrought into us and transferred to our earthly\nlife, and this is the Holy Spirit\u2019s work. He takes the gifts and graces of\nChrist and brings them into our life, as we need and receive them day by\nday, just as the sections of the vessel are reproduced in the distant\nContinent, and thus we receive of His fulness, even grace for grace, His\ngrace for our grace, His supply for our need, His strength for our\nstrength, His body for our body, His Spirit for our spirit, and He just\n\u201cmade unto us of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and\nredemption.\u201d\n\nBut it is much more than mere abstract help and grace, much more even than\nthe Holy Spirit bringing us strength, and peace, and purity. It is\npersonal companionship with Jesus Himself!\n\nLord, help us receive from Thee to-day, that grace in all trial that shall\nmean our perfecting in Thee.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 19.\n\n\n\u201cNevertheless, David took the castle of Zion\u201d (I. Chron. xi. 5).\n\nMany of you have so much fighting to do because you do not have one sharp,\ndecisive battle to begin with. It is far easier to have one great battle\nthan to keep on skirmishing all your life. I know men who spend forty\nyears fighting what they call their besetting sin, and on which they waste\nstrength enough to evangelize the world.\n\nDear friends, does it pay to throw away your lives? Have one battle, one\nvictory and then praise God. So they had rest from their enemies round\nabout. There is labor to enter in. The height is steep. The way of the\ncross is not an easy way. It is hard to enter in, but having entered in\nthere is perfect rest. May God help us and give us His perfect rest.\n\nO come and leave thy sinful self forever\n  Beneath the fountain of the Saviour\u2019s blood;\nO come, and take Him as thy Sanctifier,\n  Come thou with us and we will do thee good.\n\nCome to the land where all the foes are vanquished,\n  And sorrow, sin, disease and death subdued;\nO weary soul! by Satan bruised and baffled,\n  Come thou with us and we will do thee good.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 20.\n\n\n\u201cForget also thine own\u201d (Ps. xlv. 10).\n\nWe, too, like the ancient Levites, must be \u201cconsecrated every one upon our\nson and upon our brother,\u201d and \u201cforget our kindred and our father\u2019s house\u201d\nin every sense in which they could hinder our full liberty and service for\nthe Lord. We, too, must let our business go if it stands between us and\nthe Lord, and in any case let it henceforth be His business and His alone,\npursued for Him, controlled by Him, and its profits wholly dedicated to\nHim, and used as He shall direct. And, like James and John, you must be\nwilling to give up \u201cthe hired servants\u201d too. It will make a great\ndifference in your way of living. It will be a change to give up your ease\nand luxury, your being waited upon and indulged in every wish, and have to\ndo your own work, to give up the attentions of others, to put with\nprivations, and inconveniences, and humiliations, but it will be easy to\ndo it with Him. He never owned a foot of land. He never rode in a\ncarriage. He never had a hired servant. He lay down at last in a borrowed\ngrave. But He is rich enough now, and so will you be some day if you can\nonly be willing to suffer and to wait.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 21.\n\n\n\u201cLook from the place where thou art\u201d (Gen. xiii. 14).\n\nLet us now see the blessedness of faith. Our own littleness and\nnothingness sometimes becomes bondage. We are so small in our own eyes we\ndare not claim God\u2019s mighty promises. We say: \u201cIf I could be sure I was in\nGod\u2019s way I could trust.\u201d This is all wrong. Self-consciousness is a great\nbarrier to faith. Get your eyes on Him and Him alone; not on your faith,\nbut on the Author of your faith; not a half look, but a steadfast,\nprolonged look, with a true heart and fixedness of purpose, that knows no\nfaltering, no parleying with the enemy without a shadow of fear. When you\nget afraid you are almost sure to fail.\n\nTravelers who have crossed the Alps know how dangerous those mountain\npasses are, how narrow the foothold, how deep the rocky ravines and how\nnecessary to safety it is that you should look up continually; one\ndownward glance into the dizzy depths would be fatal; and so if we would\nsurmount the heights of faith we must look up\u2014look up. Get your eyes off\nyourself, off surrounding circumstances, off means, off gifts, to the\nGreat Giver.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 22.\n\n\n\u201cHe that ministereth let us wait on our ministering\u201d (Rom. xii. 7).\n\nBeloved, are you ministering to Christ? Are you doing it with your hands?\nAre you doing it with your substance and with what you have? Is He getting\nthe best of what is most real to you? Has He a place at your table? And\nwhen He does not come to fill the chair, is it free to His representative,\nHis poor and humble children? Your words and wishes are cheap if they do\nnot find expression in your actual gifts. Even Mary did not put Him off\nwith the incense of her heart, but laid her costliest gifts at His feet.\n\nYe busy women, who work so hard to dress your children and furnish your\nhouses and tables, what have your hands earned for the Master, what have\nyou done or sacrificed for Jesus? \u201cCan you afford it?\u201d was asked of a\nnoble woman, as she promised a costly offering for the Master\u2019s work.\n\u201cNo,\u201d was her noble reply, \u201cbut I can sacrifice it.\u201d Let us to-day look\naround us and see, what we do and give more to the loving Saviour, who\ngave up His whole life for us.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 23.\n\n\n\u201cBring them hither to Me\u201d (Matt. xiv. 18).\n\nWhy have ye not received all the fulness of the Holy Spirit? And how may\nwe be anointed with \u201cthe rest of the oil?\u201d The greatest need is to make\nroom when God makes it. Look around you at your situation. Are you not\nencompassed with needs at this very moment, and almost overwhelmed with\ndifficulties, trials and emergencies? These are all divinely provided\nvessels for the Holy Spirit to fill, and if you would but rightly\nunderstand their meaning, they would become opportunities for receiving\nnew blessings and deliverances which you can get in no other way.\n\nBring these vessels to God. Hold them steadily before Him in faith and\nprayer. Keep still, and stop your own restless working until He begins to\nwork. Do nothing that He does not Himself command you to do. Give Him a\nchance to work, and He will surely do so, and the very trials that\nthreatened to overcome you with discouragement and disaster, will become\nGod\u2019s opportunity for the revelation of His grace and glory in your life,\nas you have never known Him before. \u201cBring them (all needs) to Me.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 24.\n\n\n\u201cThe righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us\u201d (Rom. vii. 4).\n\nIn our earlier experiences we know the Holy Ghost only at a distance, in\nthings that happen in a providential direction, or in the Word alone, but\nafter awhile we receive Him as an inward Guest, and He dwells in our very\nmidst, and He speaks to us in the innermost chambers of our being. But\nthen the external working of His power does not cease, but it only\nincreases, and seems the more glorious. The Power that dwells within us\nworks without us, answering prayer, healing sickness, overruling\nprovidences, \u201cDoing exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,\naccording to the Power that worketh in us.\u201d\n\nThere is a double presence of the Lord for the consecrated believer. He is\npresent in the heart, and is mightily present in the events of life. He is\nthe Christ in us, the Christ of all the days, with all power in heaven and\nearth.\n\nAnd so the Holy Ghost is our wonder-worker, our all sufficient God and\nGuardian, and He is waiting in these days to work as mightily in the\naffairs of men as in the days of Moses, of Daniel and of Paul.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 25.\n\n\n\u201cHe that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God\u201d (Rom. xiv.\n18).\n\nGod can only use us while we are right. Satan cared far less for Peter\u2019s\ndenial of his Master than for the use he made of it afterwards to destroy\nhis faith. So Jesus said to him: \u201cI have prayed for thee that thy faith\nfail not.\u201d It was Peter\u2019s faith he attacked, and so it is our faith that\nSatan contests. \u201cThe trial of our faith is much more precious than gold\nthat perisheth.\u201d\n\nWhatever else we let go let us hold steadfastly to our trust. \u201cCast not\naway, therefore, your confidence,\u201d and \u201chold fast the rejoicing of our\nhope firm unto the end.\u201d And if you would hold your trust, hold your\nsweetness, your rightness of spirit, your obedience to Christ, your\nvictory in every way.\n\nWhatever comes, regard it as of less consequence, than that you should\ntriumph and stand fast, and accepting every circumstance as God is pleased\nto let occur, wave the banner of your victory in the face of every foe,\nand go on, shouting in His name, \u201cThanks be unto God that always causeth\nus to triumph in Christ Jesus.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 26.\n\n\n\u201cNow mine eye seeth Thee\u201d (Job xlii. 5).\n\nWe must recognize the true character of our self-life and its real\nvirulence and vileness. We must consent to its destruction, and we must\ntake it ourselves, as Abraham did Isaac, and lay it at the feet of God in\nwilling sacrifice.\n\nThis is a hard work for the natural heart, but the moment the will is\nyielded and the choice is made, that death is past, the agony is over, and\nwe are astonished to find that the death is accomplished.\n\nUsually the crisis of life in such cases hangs upon a single point. God\ndoes not need to strike us in a hundred places to inflict a death wound.\nThere is one point that touches the heart, and that is the point God\nusually strikes, the dearest thing in our life, the decisive thing in our\nplans, the citadel of the will, the center of the heart, and when we yield\nthere, there is little left to yield anywhere else, and when we refuse to\nyield at this point, a spirit of evasion and compromise enters into all\nthe rest of our life. Lord, we take Thee to enable us to will Thy will to\nbe done in all things in our life without and within.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 27.\n\n\n\u201cThe building up of the body of Christ\u201d (R. V., Eph. iv. 13).\n\nGod is preparing His heroes, and when the opportunity comes He can fit\nthem into their place in a moment and the world will wonder where they\ncame from. Let the Holy Ghost prepare you, dear friend, by all the\ndiscipline of life; and when the last finishing touch has been given to\nthe marble, it will be easy for God to put it on the pedestal, and fit it\ninto its niche.\n\nThere is a day coming, when, like Othniel, we, too, shall judge the\nnations, and rule and reign with Christ on the millennial earth; but ere\nthat glorious day can be, we must let God prepare us as He did Othniel at\nKirjethsepher, amid the trials of our present life, and in the little\nvictories, the significance of which, perhaps, we little dream. At least,\nlet us be sure of this, that if the Holy Ghost has got an Othniel ready,\nthe Lord of heaven and earth has a throne prepared for him.\n\nIs it for me to be used by His grace,\n  Helping His kingdom to bring,\nIs it for me to inherit a place,\n  E\u2019en on the throne of my King?\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 28.\n\n\n\u201cNot my will, but Thine\u201d (Luke xxii. 42).\n\nHe who once suffered in Gethsemane will be our strength and our victory,\ntoo. We may fear, we may also sink, but let us not be dismayed, and we\nshall yet praise Him, and look back from a finished course, and say, \u201cNot\none word hath failed of all that the Lord hath spoken.\u201d\n\nBut in order to do this, we must, like Him, meet the conflict, not with a\ndefiant, but with a submissive spirit. He had to say, \u201cNot My will, but\nThine be done\u201d; but in saying it, He gained the very thing He surrendered.\nSo the submission of Gethsemane is not a blind and dead submission of a\nheart that abandons all its hope; but it is the free submission that bows\nthe head, in order to get double strength through the faith and prayer.\n\nWe let go, in order that we may take a firmer hold. We give up, in order\nthat we may more fully receive. We lay our Isaac on Mount Moriah, and we\nask him back, no longer our Isaac, but God\u2019s Isaac, and infinitely more\nsecure, because given back in the resurrection life.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 29.\n\n\n\u201cMy helpers in Christ Jesus\u201d (Rom. xvi. 3).\n\nChrist\u2019s Church is overrun with captains. She is in great need of a few\nmore privates. A few rivers run into the sea, but a larger number run into\nother rivers. We cannot all be pioneers, but we can all be helpers, and no\nman is fitted to go in the front until he has learned well how to go\nsecond.\n\nA spirit of self-importance is fatal to all work for Christ. The biggest\nenemy of true spiritual power is spiritual self-consciousness. Joshua must\ndie before Jericho can fall.\n\nGod often has to test His chosen servants by putting them in a subordinate\nplace before He can bring them to the front. Joseph must learn to serve in\nthe kitchen and to suffer in prison before he can rise to the throne, and\nas soon as Joseph is ready for the throne, the throne is always waiting\nfor Joseph. God has more places than accepted candidates. Let us not be\nafraid to go into the training class, and even take the lowest place, for\nwe shall soon go up, if we really deserve to. Lord, use me so that Thou\nshalt be glorified and I shall be hid from myself and others.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 30.\n\n\n\u201cIf thou wilt diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God and\nwilt keep all His statutes\u201d (Ex. xv. 26).\n\nSometimes people fail because they have not confidence in the Physician.\nThe very first requirement of this Doctor is, that you trust Him, and\ntrust Him implicitly, so implicitly that you go forward on His bare word,\nand act as if you had received His healing the moment you claimed His\npromise. But no one would expect to be healed by an earthly doctor as soon\nas they obeyed his directions.\n\nYou must do what the Great Physician tells you, if you expect Him to make\nyou whole.\n\nYou cannot expect to be healed if you are living in sin, any more than you\ncould expect the best physician to cure you while you lived in a malarial\nclimate and inhaled poison with every breath. So you must get up into the\npure air of trust and obedience before Christ can make you whole. And\nthen, if you will trust Him, and attend to His directions, you will find\nthat there is balm in Gilead, and that there is a Great Physician there.\n\n\n\n\n\nJULY 31.\n\n\n\u201cWe were troubled on every side\u201d (II. Cor. vii. 5).\n\nWhy should God have to lead us thus, and allow the pressure to be so hard\nand constant?\n\nWell, in the first place, it shows His all-sufficient strength and grace\nmuch better than if we were exempt from pressure and trial. \u201cThe treasure\nis in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and\nnot of us.\u201d\n\nIt make us more conscious of our dependence upon Him. God is constantly\ntrying to teach us our dependence, and to hold us absolutely in His hand\nand hanging upon His care.\n\nThis was the place where Jesus Himself stood and where He wants us to\nstand, not with a self-constituted strength, but with a hand ever leaning\nupon His, and a trust that dare not take one step alone.\n\nIt teaches us trust. There is no way of learning faith except by trial. It\nis God\u2019s school of faith, and it is far better for us to learn to trust\nGod than to enjoy life.\n\nThe lesson of faith, once learned, is an everlasting acquisition and an\neternal fortune made; and without trust even riches will leave us poor.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 1.\n\n\n\u201cFor we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one\nmay receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done\u201d\n(II Cor. v. 10).\n\nIt will not always be the day of toil and trial. Some day, we shall hear\nour names announced before the universe, and the record read of things\nthat we had long forgotten. How our hearts will thrill, and our heads will\nbow, as we shall hear our own names called, and then the Master shall\nrecount the triumph and the services which we had ourselves forgotten!\nAnd, perhaps, from the ranks of the saved He shall call forward the souls\nthat we have won for Christ and the souls that they in turn had won, and\nas we see the issue of things that have, perhaps, seemed but trifling at\nthe time, we shall fall before the throne, and say, \u201cNot unto us, O Lord,\nnot unto us, but unto Thy name give glory!\u201d\n\nBeloved, the pages are going up every day, for the record of our life. We\nare setting the type ourselves, by every moment\u2019s action. Hands unseen are\nstereotyping the plates, and soon the record will be registered, and read\nbefore the audience of the universe. and amid the issues of eternity.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 2.\n\n\n\u201cThy gentleness hath made me great\u201d (Ps. xviii. 35).\n\nThe blessed Comforter is gentle, tender, and full of patience and love.\nHow gentle are God\u2019s dealings even with sinners! How patient His\nforbearance! How tender His discipline, with His own erring children! How\nHe led Jacob, Joseph, Israel, David, Elijah, and all His ancient servants,\nuntil they could truly say, \u201cThy gentleness hath made me great.\u201d\n\nThe heart in which the Holy Spirit dwells will always be characterized by\ngentleness, lowliness, quietness, meekness, and forbearance. The rude,\nsarcastic spirit, the brusque manner, the sharp retort, the unkind cut\u2014all\nthese belong to the flesh, but they have nothing in common with the gentle\nteaching of the Comforter.\n\nThe Holy Dove shrinks from the noisy, tumultuous, excited, and vindictive\nspirit, and finds His home in the lowly breast of the peaceful soul. \u201cThe\nfruit of the Spirit is gentleness, meekness.\u201d\n\nLord, make me gentle. Hush my spirit. Refine my manner. Let me have Christ\nin my bearing and my very tones as well as in my heart.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 3.\n\n\n\u201cHumble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God\u201d (I. Peter v.\n6).\n\nThe pressure of hard places makes us value life. Every time our life is\ngiven back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning, and we\nlearn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God and man.\n\nThe pressure helps us to understand the trials of others, and fits us to\nhelp and sympathize with them.\n\nThere is a shallow, superficial nature, that gets hold of a theory or a\npromise lightly, and talks very glibly about the distrust of those who\nshrink from every trial; but the man or woman who has suffered much never\ndoes this, but is very tender and gentle, and knows what suffering really\nmeans.\n\nThis is what Paul meant when he said, \u201cDeath worketh in us, but life in\nyou.\u201d Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward; even as the\nfurnace fires in the hold of that mighty ship give the force that moves\nthe piston, drives the engine, and propels that great vessel across the\nsea, in the face of the winds and waves.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 4.\n\n\n\u201cYe are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God\ndwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of\nHis\u201d (Rom. viii. 9).\n\nA spiritual man is not so much a man possessing a strong spiritual\ncharacter as a man filled with the Holy Spirit. So the apostle said: \u201cYe\nare not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God\ndwelleth in you.\u201d\n\nThe glory of the new creation, then, is not only that it recreates the\nhuman spirit, but that it fits it for the abode of God Himself, and makes\nit dependent upon the sun, as the child upon the mother. The highest\nspirituality, therefore, is the most utter helplessness, the most entire\ndependence and the most complete possession of the Holy Spirit. Therefore,\nthe beautiful act of Christ in breathing upon His disciples, and imparting\nto them from His own lips the very Spirit that was already in Him,\nexpressed in the most vivid manner the crowning glory of the new creation.\nAnd when the Holy Spirit thus possesses us, He fills every part of our\nbeing.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 5.\n\n\n\u201cIf any man hear My voice and open the door I will come into him and will\nsup with him and he with Me\u201d (Rev. iii. 20).\n\nSome of us are starving, and wondering why the Holy Spirit does not fill\nus. We have plenty coming in, but we do not give it out. Give out the\nblessing you have, start larger plans for service and blessing, and you\nwill soon find that the Holy Ghost is before you, and He will \u201cprevent you\nwith the blessings of goodness,\u201d and give you all that He can trust you to\ngive away to others.\n\nThere is a beautiful fact in nature which has its spiritual parallels.\nThere is no music so heavenly as an Aeolian harp, and the Aeolian harp is\nnothing but a set of musical cords arranged in harmony, and then left to\nbe touched by the unseen fingers of the wandering winds. And as the breath\nof heaven floats over the chords, it is said that notes almost divine\nfloat out upon the air, as if a choir of angels were wandering around and\ntouching the strings.\n\nAnd so it is possible to keep our hearts so open to the touch of the Holy\nSpirit that He can play upon them at will, as we quietly wait in the\npathway of His service.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 6.\n\n\n\u201cAs many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God\u201d (Rom.\nviii. 14).\n\nThe blessed Holy Spirit is our Guide, our Leader, and our Resting-place.\nThere are times when He presses us forward into prayer, into service, into\nsuffering, into new experiences, new duties, new claims of faith, and\nhope, and love, but there are times when He arrests us in our activity,\nand rests us under His overshadowing wing, and quiets us in the secret\nplace of the Most High, teaching us some new lessons, breathing into us\nsome deeper strength or fulness, and then leading us on again, at His\nbidding alone. He is the true Guide of the saint, and the true Leader of\nthe Church, our wonderful Counsellor, our unerring Friend; and he who\nwould deny the personal guidance of the Holy Ghost in order that he might\nhonor the Word of God as our only guide, must dishonor that other word of\npromise, that His sheep shall know His voice, and that His hearkening and\nobedient children shall hear a voice behind them saying, \u201cThis is the way,\nwalk ye in it.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 7.\n\n\n\u201cKnowing this that our old man is crucified\u201d (Rom. vi. 6).\n\nIt is purely a matter of faith, and faith and sight always differ, so that\nto your senses it does not seem to be so, but your faith must still reckon\nit so. This is a very difficult attitude to hold, and only as we\nthoroughly believe God can we thus reckon upon His Word and His working,\nbut as we do so, faith will convert it into fact, and it will be even so.\n\nThese two words, \u201cyield\u201d and \u201creckon,\u201d are passwords into the resurrection\nlife. They are like the two edges of the \u201cSword of the Spirit\u201d through\nwhich we enter into crucifixion with Christ.\n\nThis act of surrender and this reckoning of faith are recognized in the\nNew Testament as marking a very definite crisis in the spiritual life. It\ndoes not mean that we are expected to be going through a continual dying,\nbut that there should be one very definite act of dying, and then a\nconstant habit of reckoning ourselves as dead, and meeting everything from\nthis standpoint.\n\n\u201cReckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus\nChrist.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 8.\n\n\n\u201cBe like the dove\u201d (Jer. xlviii. 28).\n\nHarmless as a dove, is Christ\u2019s interpretation of the beautiful emblem.\nAnd so the Spirit of God is purity itself. He cannot dwell in an unclean\nheart. He cannot abide in the natural mind. It was said of the anointing\nof old, \u201cOn man\u2019s flesh it shall not be poured.\u201d\n\nThe purity which the Holy Spirit brings is like the white and spotless\nlittle plant which grows up out of the heap of manure, or the black soil,\nwithout one grain of impurity adhering to its crystalline surface,\nspotless as an angel\u2019s wing.\n\nSo the Holy Spirit gives a purity of heart which gives its own protection,\nfor it is essentially unlike the evil things which grow around it. It may\nbe surrounded on every side with evil, but it is uncontaminated and pure\nbecause its very nature is essentially holy and divine. Like the plumage\nof the dove, it cannot be soiled, but comes forth from the miry pool\nunstained and unsullied by the dark waters, because it is protected by the\noily covering which sheds off every defilement and makes it proof against\nthe touch of every stain.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 9.\n\n\n\u201cHe shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess\nover him all the iniquities of the children of Israel; transgressions and\nsins\u201d (Lev. xvi. 21).\n\nAs any evil comes up, and the consciousness of any unholy thing touches\nour inner senses, it is our privilege at once to hand it over to the Holy\nGhost and to lay it upon Jesus, as something already crucified with Him,\nand as of old, in the case of the sin offering, it will be carried without\nthe camp and burned to ashes.\n\nThere may be deep suffering, there may be protracted pain, it may be\nintensely real; but throughout all there will be a very sweet and sacred\nsense of God\u2019s presence, and intense purity in our whole spirit, and our\nseparation from the evil which is being consumed. Truly, it will be borne\nwithout the camp, and even without the smell of the flames upon our\ngarments.\n\nIt is so blessed to have the Holy Spirit slay things. No swords but His\ncan pass so perfectly between us and the evil, so that it consumes the sin\nwithout touching the spirit.\n\nLord Jesus, my Sin Offering, I lay my sin, my self, my whole nature, upon\nThy Cross. Consume me by Thy holy fire, and let me die to all but Thee!\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 10.\n\n\n\u201cThere is no spot in thee\u201d (Song of Solomon iv. 7).\n\nThe blessed Holy Spirit who possesses the consecrated heart is intensely\nconcerned for our highest life, and watches us with a sensitive, and even\na jealous love. Very beautiful is the true translation of that ordinary\npassage in the Epistle of James, \u201cThe Spirit that dwelleth in us loveth us\nto jealousy.\u201d\n\nThe heart of the Holy Ghost is intensely concerned in preserving us from\nevery stain and blemish, and bringing us into the very highest\npossibilities of the will of God.\n\nThe Heavenly Bridegroom would have His Church not only free from every\nspot, but also from \u201cevery wrinkle, or any such thing.\u201d The spot is the\nmark of sin, but the wrinkle is the sign of weakness, age, and decay, and\nHe wants no such defacing touch upon the holy features of His Beloved; and\nso the Holy Ghost, who is the Executor of His will, and the Divine\nMessenger whom He sends to call, separate, and bring home His Bride, is\njealously concerned in fulfilling in us all the Master\u2019s will.\n\nLord, take from me every blemish and mark of weakness and decay, and make\nme Thy spotless Bride.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 11.\n\n\n\u201cAll the land which thou seest\u201d (Gen. xiii. 15).\n\nThe actual provisions of His grace come from the inner vision.\n\nHe who puts the instinct in the bosom of yonder bird to cross the\ncontinent in search of summer sunshine in yonder Southern clime is too\ngood to deceive it, and just as surely as He has put the instinct in its\nbreast, so has He also put the balmy breezes and the vernal sunshine\nyonder to meet it when it arrives.\n\nHe who gave to Abraham the vision of the Land of Promise, also said in\ninfinite truth and love: \u201cAll the land that thou seest will I give thee.\u201d\nHe who breathes into our hearts the heavenly hope, will not deceive or\nfail us when we press forward to its realization. There is nothing\nunfaithful in Him who has said: \u201cIf it were not so, I would have told\nyou,\u201d and we may know that He never will deceive us nor fail us, but all\nthat He reveals by His Holy Spirit He will make our own, as we press\nforward and enter into its realization.\n\nLord, give me first the vision and then the victory. Show me all my\ninheritance, and then give it all to me in Christ Jesus.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 12.\n\n\n\u201cNot ourselves, but Christ Jesus\u201d (II. Cor. iv. 5).\n\nYour Christian influence, your reputation as a worker for God, and your\nstanding among your brethren, may be an idol to which you must die, before\nyou can be free to live for Him alone.\n\nIf you have ever noticed the type on a printed page, you must have seen\nthat the little \u201c_i_\u201d has always a dot over it, and it is that dot that\nelevates it above the other letters in the line.\n\nNow, each us us is a little _i_, and over every one of us there is a\nlittle dot of self-importance, self-will, self-interest, self-confidence,\nself-complacency, or something to which we cling and for which we contend,\nwhich just as surely reveals self-life as if it were a mountain of real\nimportance.\n\nThis _i_ is a rival of Jesus Christ, and the enemy of the Holy Ghost, and\nof our peace and life, and therefore God has decreed its death, and the\nHoly Spirit, with His flaming sword is waiting to destroy it, that we may\nbe able to enter through the gates and come to the Tree of Life. Lord,\ncrowd me out by Thy fulness even as the glory of the Lord left no room for\nMoses in the Tabernacle.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 13.\n\n\n\u201cClouds and darkness are round about Him\u201d (Ps. xcvii. 2).\n\nThe presence of clouds upon your sky, and trials in your path, is the very\nbest evidence that you are following the pillar of cloud, and walking in\nthe presence of God. They had to enter the cloud before they could behold\nthe glory of the transfiguration, and a little later that same cloud\nbecame the chariot to receive the ascending Lord, and it is still waiting\nas the chariot that will bring His glorious appearing.\n\nStill it is true that white \u201cclouds and darkness are round about His\nthrone, mercy and truth\u201d are ever in their midst, and \u201cshall go before His\nface.\u201d\n\nPerhaps the most beautiful and gracious use of the cloud was to shelter\nthem from the fiery sun. Like a great umbrella, that majestic pillar\nspread its canopy above the camp, and became a shielding shadow from the\nburning heat in the treeless desert. No one who has never felt an Oriental\nsun can fully appreciate how much this means\u2014a shadow from the heat.\n\nSo the Holy Spirit comes between us and the fiery, scorching rays of\nsorrow and temptation.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 14.\n\n\n\u201cTouch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm\u201d (Ps. cv. 15).\n\nI would rather play with the forked lightning, or take in my hands living\nwires, with their fiery current, than speak a reckless word against any\nservant of Christ, or idly repeat the slanderous darts which thousands of\nChristians are hurling on others, to the hurt of their own souls and\nbodies.\n\nYou may often wonder, perhaps, why your sickness is not healed, your\nspirit filled with the joy of the Holy Ghost, or your life blessed and\nprosperous. It may be that some dart which you have flung with angry\nvoice, or in an idle hour of thoughtless gossip, is pursuing you on its\nway, as it describes the circle which always bring back to the source from\nwhich it came every shaft of bitterness, and every idle and evil word.\n\nLet us remember that when we persecute or hurt the children of God, we are\nbut persecuting Him, and hurting ourselves far more.\n\nLord, make me as sensitive to the feelings and rights of others as I have\noften been to my own, and let me live and love like Thee.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 15.\n\n\n\u201cHe will guide you into all truth\u201d (John xvi. 13).\n\nThe Holy Ghost does not come to give us extraordinary manifestations, but\nto give its life and light, and the nearer we come to Him, the more simple\nwill His illumination and leading be. He comes to \u201cguide us into all\ntruth.\u201d He comes to shed light upon our own hearts, and to show us\nourselves. He comes to reveal Christ, to give, and then to illumine, the\nHoly Scriptures, and to make Divine realities vivid and clear to our\nspiritual apprehension. He comes as a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in\nthe knowledge of Christ, to \u201cenlighten the eyes of our understanding, that\nwe may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the\nglory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding\ngreatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of\nHis mighty power.\u201d\n\nSpirit of Power! with heavenly fire,\nOur souls endue, our tongues inspire;\n  Stretch forth Thy mighty Hand,\nThy Pentecostal gifts restore,\nThe wonders of Thy power once more\n  Display in every land.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 16.\n\n\n\u201cI am with you alway\u201d (Matt. xxviii. 20).\n\nOh, how it helps and comforts us in the plod of life to know that we have\nwith us the Christ who spent the first thirty years of His life in the\ncarpenter shop at Nazareth, swinging the hammer, covered with sweat and\ngrimy dust, physically weary as we often are, and able to understand all\nour experiences of drudgery and labor! and One who still loves to share\nour common tasks and equip us for our difficult undertakings of hand and\nbrain!\n\nYes, humble sister, He will help you at the washboard and the kitchen-sink\nas gladly as at the hour of prayer. Yes, busy mechanic, He will go with\nyou and help you to swing the hammer, or handle the saw, or hold the plow\nin the toil of life, and you shall be a better mechanic, a more skilled\nworkman, and a more successful man, because you take His wisdom for the\ncommon affairs of life. There is no place or time where He is not able and\nwilling to walk by our side, to work through our hands and brains, and to\nunite Himself in loving and all-sufficient partnership with all our needs\nand tasks and trials, and prove our all-sufficiency for all things.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 17.\n\n\n\u201cSpeak ye unto the Rock\u201d (Num. xx. 8).\n\nThe Holy Ghost is very sensitive, as love always is. You can conquer a\nwild beast by blows and chains, but you cannot conquer a woman\u2019s heart\nthat way, or win the love of a sensitive nature; that must be wooed by the\ndelicate touches of trust and affection. So the Holy Ghost has to be taken\nby a faith as delicate and sensitive as the gentle heart with whom it is\ncoming in touch. One thought of unbelief, one expression of impatient\ndistrust or fear, will instantly check the perfect freedom of His\noperations as much as a breath of frost would wither the petals of the\nmost sensitive rose or lily.\n\nSpeak to the Rock, do not strike it. Believe in the Holy Ghost and treat\nHim with the tenderest confidence and the most unwavering trust, and He\nwill meet you with instant response and confidence.\n\nBeloved, have you come to the rock in Kadesh? Have you opened all your\nbeing to the fulness of the Spirit, and then, with the confidence of the\nchild to the mother, the bride to the husband, the flower to the sunshine,\nhave you received by faith, and are you drinking of His blessed life?\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 18.\n\n\n\u201cThe three hundred blew the trumpets\u201d (Judges vii. 22).\n\nWe little dream, sometimes, what a hasty word, a thoughtless speech, an\nimprudent act, or a confession of unbelief and fear may do to hinder our\nhighest usefulness, or turn it aside from some great opportunity which God\nhas been preparing for us.\n\nAlthough the Holy Ghost uses weak men, He does not want them to be weak\nafter He chooses and calls them. Although He uses the foolish things to\nconfound the wise, He does not want us to be foolish after He comes to\ngive us His wisdom and grace. He uses the foolishness of preaching, but,\nnot necessarily, the foolishness of preachers. Like the electric current,\nwhich can supply the strength of a thousand men, it is necessary that it\nshould have a proper conductor, and a very small wire is better than a\nvery big rope.\n\nGod wants fit instruments for His power\u2014wills surrendered, hearts\ntrusting, lives consistent, and lips obedient to His will; and then He can\nuse the weakest weapons, and make them mighty through God to the pulling\ndown of strongholds.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 19.\n\n\n\u201cHave faith in God\u201d (Mark xi. 22).\n\nHe requires of us a perfect faith, and He tells us that if we believe and\ndoubt not, we shall have whatsoever we ask. The faintest touch of unbelief\nwill neutralize our trust.\n\nBut how shall we have such perfect faith? Is it possible for human nature?\nNay, but it is possible to the Divine nature, it is possible to the Christ\nwithin us. It is possible for God to give it; and God does give it. But\nChrist is the Author and Finisher of our faith, and He bids us have the\nfaith of God, and as we have it through the imparting of the Spirit of\nChrist, we believe even as He.\n\nWe pray in His name, and in His very nature, and we live by the faith of\nthe Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. The love that He\nrequires of us is not mere human love, nor even the standard of love\nrequired in the Old Testament, but something far higher. The new\ncommandment is, Love one another, not as yourselves, but as I have loved\nyou.\n\nHow shall such love be made possible? Herein is our love made perfect,\nbecause as He is so are we also in this world. Our love is simply His love\nwrought in us, and imparted to us through the Spirit.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 20.\n\n\n\u201cHerein is My Father glorified\u201d (John xv. 8).\n\nThe true way to glorify God is, for God to show His glory through us, to\nshine through us as empty vessels reflecting His fulness of grace and\npower.\n\nThe sun is glorified when he has a chance to show his light through the\ncrystal window, or reflect it from the spotless mirror or the glassy sea.\n\nThere is nothing that glorifies God so much as for a weak and helpless man\nor woman to be able to triumph, through His strength, in places where the\nhighest human qualities will fail us, and carry in Divine power through\nevery form of toil and suffering, a spirit naturally weak, irresolute,\nselfish, and sinful, transformed into sweetness, purity, power and\nstanding victorious amid circumstances from which its natural qualities\nmust utterly unfit it. A mind not naturally wise or strong, directed by a\nDivine wisdom, and carried along the line of a great and mighty plan, and\nused to accomplish stupendous results for God and man\u2014this is what\nglorifies God.\n\nSo let me glorify my Lord this day and adorn the doctrine of God in all\nthings.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 21.\n\n\n\u201cThe battle is not yours\u201d (II. Chron. xx. 15).\n\nThe thing is to count the battle God\u2019s. \u201cThe battle is not yours, but\nGod\u2019s.\u201d Ye shall not need to fight in this battle. As long as we count the\ndangers and responsibilities ours, we shall be distracted with fear, but\nwhen we realize He is bound to take care of us, as His property and His\nrepresentatives, we shall feel infinite relief and security.\n\nIf I send my servant on a long journey I am responsible for his expenses\nand protection, and if God sends me anywhere, He is responsible. If we\nbelong to God, and put our life, our family, and our all in His hands, we\nmay know He will take care of us.\n\nIf our body belongs to Him, it is His interest to keep us well, just as\nmuch as it is for the interest of the shepherd to have his sheep well fed\nand well cared for, and a credit to him.\n\n\u201cThanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph.\u201d\n\nStand up, stand up for Jesus,\n  Stand in His strength alone;\nThe arm of flesh will fail you,\n  Ye dare not trust your own.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 22.\n\n\n\u201cI the Lord, the first and with the last\u201d (Isa. xli. 4).\n\nThousands of people get stranded after they have embarked on the great\nvoyage of holiness, because they have depended upon the experience rather\nthan on the Author of it. They had supposed that they were thoroughly and\npermanently delivered from all sin, and in the ecstacy of their first\nexperience they imagine that they shall never again be tried and tempted\nas before, and when they step out into the actual facts of Christian life\nand find themselves failing and falling, they are astonished and\nperplexed, and they conclude that they must have been mistaken in their\nexperience, and so they make a new attempt at the same thing, and again\nfall, until at last, worn out, with the experiment, they conclude that the\nexperience is a delusion, or, at least, that it was never intended for\nthem, and so they fall back into the old way, and their last state is\nworse than the first.\n\nWhat men and women need to-day is to know, not sanctification as a state,\nbut Christ as a living Person.\n\nLord Jesus, give me Thy heart, Thy faith, Thy life, Thyself.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 23.\n\n\n\u201cEven as He is pure\u201d (I. John iii. 3).\n\nGod is now aiming to reproduce in us the pattern which has already\nappeared in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Christian life is not an\nimitation of Christ, but a direct new creation in Christ, and the union\nwith Christ is so complete that He imparts His own nature to us and lives\nHis own life in us and then it is not an imitation, but simply the\noutgrowth of the nature implanted within.\n\nWe live Christ-like because we have the Christ-life. God is not satisfied\nwith anything less than perfection. He required that from His Son. He\nrequires it from us, and He does not, in the process of grace, reduce the\nstandard, but He brings us up to it. He does not let down the\nrighteousness of the law, but He requires of us a righteousness that far\nexceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, and then He\nimparts it to us. He counts us righteous in sanctification, and He says of\nthe new creation, \u201cHe that doeth righteousness is righteous even as He is\nrighteous.\u201d\n\nLord, live out thy very life in me.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 24.\n\n\n\u201cLet your moderation be known unto all men\u201d (Phil. iv. 5).\n\nThe very test of consecration is our willingness not only to surrender the\nthings that are wrong, but to surrender our rights, to be willing to be\nsubject. When God begins to subdue a soul, He often requires us to yield\nthe things that are of little importance in themselves, and thus break our\nneck and subdue our spirit.\n\nNo Christian worker can ever be used of God until the proud self-will is\nbroken, and the heart is ready to yield to God\u2019s every touch, no matter\nthrough whom it may come.\n\nMany people want God to lead them in their way and they will brook no\nauthority or restraint. They will give their money, but they want to\ndictate how it shall be spent. They will work as long as you let them\nplease themselves, but let any pressure come and you immediately run up\nagainst, not the grace of resignation, but a letter of resignation,\nwithdrawing from some important trust, and arousing a whole community of\ncriticising friends, equally disposed to have their own opinions and their\nown will about it. It is destructive of all real power.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 25.\n\n\n\u201cAnd I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My\nstatutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them\u201d (Ezek. xxxvi. 27).\n\nThis is a great deal more than a new heart. This a heart filled with the\nHoly Ghost, the Divine Spirit, the power that causes us to walk in God\u2019s\ncommandments.\n\nThis is the greatest crisis that comes to a Christian\u2019s life, when into\nthe spirit that was renewed in conversion, God Himself comes to dwell and\nmake it His abiding place, and hold it by His mighty power in holiness and\nrighteousness.\n\nNow, after this occurs, one would suppose that we would be lifted into a\nmuch more hopeful and exuberant spirit, but the prophet gives a very\ndifferent picture. He says when this comes to pass we shall loathe\nourselves in our own eyes.\n\nThe revelation of God gives a profound sense of our own nothingness and\nworthlessness, and lays us on our face in the dust in self-abnegation.\n\nThe incoming of the Holy Ghost displaces self and disgraces self forever,\nand the highest holiness is to walk in self-renunciation.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 26.\n\n\n\u201cThine handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil\u201d (II.\nKings iv. 2).\n\nHe asked her, \u201cWhat hast thou in the house?\u201d And she said, \u201cNothing but a\npot of oil.\u201d But that pot of oil was adequate for all her wants, if she\nhad only known how to use it.\n\nIn truth it represented the Holy Spirit, and the great lesson of the\nparable is that the Holy Ghost is adequate for all our wants, if we only\nknow how to use Him.\n\nAll that she needed was to get sufficient vessels to hold the overflow,\nand then to pour out until all were filled.\n\nAnd so the Holy Spirit is limited only by our capacity to receive Him, and\nwhen God wants us to have a larger fulness, He has to make room for it by\ncreating greater needs.\n\nGod sends us new vessels to be filled with His Holy Spirit in the needs\nthat come to us, and the trials that meet us. These are God\u2019s\nopportunities for God to give us more of Himself, and as we meet them He\ncomes to us in larger fulness for each new necessity.\n\nLord, help me to see Thee in all my trying situations and to make them\nvessels to hold more of Thy grace.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 27.\n\n\n\u201cTake no thought for your life\u201d (Matt. vi. 25).\n\nStill the Lord is using the things that are despised. The very names of\nNazarene and Christian were once epithets of contempt. No man can have\nGod\u2019s highest thought and be popular with his immediate generation. The\nmost abused men are often most used.\n\nThere are far greater calamities than to be unpopular and misunderstood.\nThere are far worse things than to be found in the minority. Many of God\u2019s\ngreatest blessings are lying behind the devil\u2019s scarecrows of prejudice\nand misrepresentation. The Holy Ghost is not ashamed to use unpopular\npeople. And if He uses them, what need they care for men?\n\nOh, let us but have His recognition and man\u2019s notice will count for\nlittle, and He will give us all we need of human help and praise. Let us\nonly seek His will, His glory, His approval. Let us go for Him on the\nhardest errands and do the most menial tasks. Honor enough that He uses us\nand sends us. Let us not fear in this day to follow Him outside the camp,\nbearing His reproach, and by-and-by He will own our worthless name before\nthe myriads of earth and sky.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 28.\n\n\n\u201cAccording to the power that worketh in us\u201d (Eph. iii. 20).\n\nWhen we reach the place of union with God, through the indwelling of the\nHoly Ghost, we come into the inheritance of external blessing and enter\nupon the land of our possession. Then our physical health and strength\ncome to us through the power of our interior life; then the prayer is\nfulfilled, that we shall be in health and prosper, as our soul prospereth.\nThen, with the kingdom of God and His righteousness within us, all things\nare added unto us.\n\nGod\u2019s external working always keeps pace with the power that worketh in\nus. When God is enthroned in a human soul, then the devil and the world\nsoon find it out. We do not need to advertise our power. Jesus could not\nbe hid, and a soul filled with Divine power and purity should become the\ncenter of attraction to hungry hearts and suffering lives.\n\nLet us receive Him and recognize Him in His indwelling glory, and then\nwill we appropriate all that it means for our life in all its fulness.\nLord, give me the \u201chiding of Thy power,\u201d and let Christ be glorified in\nme.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 29.\n\n\n\u201cTo obey is better than sacrifice\u201d (I. Sam. xv. 22).\n\nOur healing is thus represented as a special recompense for obedience. If,\ntherefore, we would please the Lord and have the reward of those who\nplease Him, there is no service so acceptable to Him as our praise.\n\nLet us ever meet Him with a glad and thankful heart and He will reflect it\nback in the health of our countenance and the buoyant life and springing\nhealth, which is but the echo of a joyful heart.\n\nFurther, thankfulness is the best preparation for faith. Trust grows\nspontaneously in the praiseful heart. Thankfulness takes the sunny side of\nthe street and looks at the bright side of God, and it is only thus that\nwe can ever trust Him. Unbelief looks at our troubles and, of course, they\nseem like mountains, and faith is discouraged by the prospect. A thankful\ndisposition will always find some cause for cheer, and gloomy one will\nfind a cloud in the brightest sky and a fly in the sweetest ointment. Let\nus cultivate a spirit of cheerfulness, and we shall find so much in God\nand in our lives to encourage us that we shall have no room for doubt or\nfear.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 30.\n\n\n\u201cHappy are ye if ye do them\u201d (John xiii. 17).\n\nYou little know the rest that comes from the yielded will, the surrendered\nchoice, the abandoned world, the meek and lowly heart that lets the world\ngo by, and knows that it shall inherit the earth which it has refused! You\nlittle know the relish that it gives to the blessing to hunger and thirst\nafter righteousness, and to be filled with a satisfaction that worldly\ndelight cannot afford, and then to rise to the higher blessedness of the\nmerciful, the forgiving, the hearts that have learned that it is \u201cmore\nblessed to give than to receive,\u201d and the lives that find that \u201cletting go\nis twice possessing,\u201d and blessing others is to be doubly blessed!\n\nNay, there is yet one jewel brighter than all the rest in this crown of\nbeatitudes. It is the tear-drop crystallized into the diamond, the\nblood-drop transfigured into the ruby of heaven\u2019s eternal crown. It is the\njoy of suffering with Jesus, and then forgetting all the sorrow in the\noverflowing joy, until with the heavenly Pascal we know not which to say\nfirst, and so we say them both together, \u201cTears upon tears, joy upon joy\u201d.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUGUST 31.\n\n\n\u201cLead me in the way everlasting\u201d (Ps. cxxxix. 24).\n\nThere is often apparently but little difference in two distinct lives\nbetween constant victory and frequent victory. But that one little\ndifference constitutes a world of success or failure. The one is the\nDivine, the other is the human; the one is the everlasting way, the other\nthe transient and the imperfect. God wants to lead us to the way\neverlasting, and to establish us and make us immovable as He. We little\nknow the seriousness of the slightest surrender. It is but the first step\nin a downward progression, and God only knows where it shall end.\n\nLet us be \u201cnot of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that\nbelieve unto the saving our the soul.\u201d\n\nYour victory to-day is but preparing the way for a greater victory\nto-morrow, and your surrender to-day is opening the door for a more\nterrible defeat in the days to come. Let us, therefore, whatever we have\nclaimed from our blessed Master, commit it to His keeping, and take Him to\nestablish us and hold us fast in the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the\nend.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 1.\n\n\n\u201cAfterward that which is spiritual\u201d (I. Cor. xv. 46).\n\nGod has often to bring us not only into the place of suffering, and the\nbed of sickness and pain, but also into the place where our righteousness\nbreaks down and our character falls to pieces, in order to humble us in\nthe dust and show us the need of entire crucifixion to all our natural\nlife. Then, at the feet of Jesus we are ready to receive Him, to abide in\nHim and depend upon Him alone, and draw all our life and strength each\nmoment from Him, our Living Head.\n\nIt was thus that Peter was saved by his very fall, and had to die to Peter\nthat he might live more perfectly to Christ.\n\nHave we thus died, and have we thus renounced the strength of our own\nself-confidence?\n\nWe begin life with the natural, next we come into the spiritual; but then,\nwhen we have truly received the kingdom of God and His righteousness, the\nnatural is added to the spiritual, and we are able to receive the gifts of\nHis providence and the blessings of life without becoming centered in them\nor allowing them to separate us from Him.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 2.\n\n\n\u201cWho hath despised the day of small things\u201d (Zech. iv. 10).\n\nThe oak comes out of the acorn, the eagle out of that little egg in the\nnest, the harvest comes out of the seed; and so the glory of the coming\nage is all coming out of the Christ life now, even as the majesty of His\nkingdom was all wrapped up that night in the babe of Bethlehem.\n\nOh, let us take Him for all our life. Let us be united to His person and\nHis risen body. Let us know what it is to say, \u201cThe Lord is for the body\nand the body is for the Lord\u201d! We are members of His body and His flesh\nand His bones.\n\nHe that gave that little infant, His own blessed babe and His only\nbegotten Son, on that dark winter night to the arms of a cruel and\nungrateful world, will not refuse to give Him in all His fulness to your\nheart if you will but open your heart and give Him right of way and full\nownership and possession. Then shall you know in your measure His\nquickening life, even in this earthly life, and by-and-by your hope shall\nreach its full fruition when you shall sit with Him on His throne with\nevery fiber of your immortal being even as He.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 3.\n\n\n\u201cThe God of Israel hath separated you\u201d (Num. xvi. 9).\n\nThe little plant may grow out of a manure heap, and be surrounded by\nfilth, and covered very often with the floating dust that is borne upon\nthe breeze, but its white roots are separated from the unclean soil, and\nits leaves and flowers have no affinity with the dust that settles upon\nthem; and after a shower of summer rain they throw off every particle of\ndefilement, and look up, as fresh and spotless as before, for their\nintrinsic nature cannot have any part with these defiling things.\n\nThis is the separation which Christ requires and which He gives. There is\nno merit in my staying from the theater if I want to go. There is no value\nin my abstaining from the foolish novel or the intoxicating cup, if I am\nall the time wishing I could have them. My heart is there, and my soul is\ndefiled by the desire for evil things. It is not the world that stains us,\nbut the love of the world. The true Levite is separated from the desire\nfor earthly things, and even if he could, he would not have the forbidden\npleasures which others prize.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 4.\n\n\n\u201cCome ye yourselves apart\u201d (Mark vi. 31).\n\nOne of the greatest hindrances to spirituality is the lack of waiting upon\nGod. You cannot go through twenty-four hours with two or three breaths of\nair, in the morning, as you sip your coffee. But you must live in the\natmosphere, and you must breathe it all day long. Christians do not wait\nupon God enough. It needs hours and hours daily of spiritual communion\nwith the Holy Spirit to keep your vitality healthful and full. Every\nmoment should find you breathing out yourself into Christ, and breathing\nafresh His life, and love and power.\n\nGod is waiting to send us the Holy Spirit. He is longing to bless us. His\none business is to quicken and sustain our spiritual life. He has nothing\nelse to do with His infinite and great resources. Let us receive Him. Let\nus live in Him. Let us give to Him the joy of knowing that His infinite\ngrace has not been bestowed in vain, but that we appreciate and improve\nthe blessings which He oft has so freely bestowed.\n\nLord, help me this day to dwell in Thee as the flower in the sunshine, as\nthe fish in the sea, living in Thy love as the atmosphere and element of\nmy being.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 5.\n\n\n\u201cHe breathed on them\u201d (John xx. 22).\n\nThe beautiful figure suggested by this passage is full of simple\ninstruction. It is as easy to receive the Holy Ghost as it is to breathe.\nIt almost seems as if the Lord had given them the very impression of\nbreathing, and had said, \u201cNow, this is the way to receive the Holy Ghost.\u201d\n\nIt is not necessary for you to go to a smallpox hospital to have your\nlungs contaminated with impure air. It is enough for you to keep in your\nlungs the air you inhaled a minute ago and it will kill you. All the pure\nelements have been absorbed from it, and there is nothing left but carbon\nand other deadly gases and fluids.\n\nTherefore, if you are to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you must first\nget emptied not only of your old sinful life, but of your old spiritual\nlife. You must get a new breath every moment, or you will die. God wants\nyou to empty out all your being into Him, and then you will take Him in,\nwithout needing to try too hard. A vacuum always gets filled, an empty\npair of lungs unavoidably breathes in the pure air. If you are only in the\ntrue attitude, there will be no trouble about receiving the Holy Ghost.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 6.\n\n\n\u201cFinally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord\u201d (Phil. iii. 1).\n\nThere is no spiritual value in depression. One bright and thankful look at\nthe cross is worth a thousand morbid, self-condemning reflections. The\nlonger you look at evil the more it mesmerizes and defiles you into its\nown likeness. Lay it down at the cross, accept the cleansing blood, reckon\nyourself dead to the thing that was wrong, and then rise up and count\nyourself as if you were another man and no longer the same person; and\nthen, identifying yourself with the Lord Jesus, accept your standing in\nHim and look in your Father\u2019s face as blameless as Jesus. Then out of your\nevery fault will come some lesson of watchfulness or some secret of\nvictory which will enable you some day to thank Him, even for your painful\nexperience.\n\nBut praise is a sacrifice, for \u201cit is acceptable to God.\u201d It goes up to\nheaven sweeter than the songs of angels, \u201ca sweet smelling savor to your\nLord and King.\u201d It should be unintermittent\u2014\u201cthe sacrifice of praise\ncontinually.\u201d One drop of poison will neutralize a whole cup of wine, and\nmake it a cup of death, and one moment of gloom will defile a whole day of\nsunshine and gladness. Let us \u201crejoice evermore.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 7.\n\n\n\u201cI will joy in the God of my salvation\u201d (Hab. iii. 18).\n\nThe secret of joy is not to wait until you feel happy, but to rise, by an\nact of faith, out of the depression which is dragging you down, and begin\nto praise God as an act of choice. This is the meaning of such passages as\nthese: \u201cRejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, rejoice\u201d; \u201cI do\nrejoice; yes, and I will rejoice.\u201d \u201cCount it all joy when ye fall into\ndivers temptations.\u201d In all these cases there is an evident struggle with\nsadness and then the triumphs of faith and praise.\n\nNow, this is what is meant\u2014in part, at least\u2014by the sacrifice of praise. A\nsacrifice is that which costs us something. And when a man or woman has\nsome cherished grudge or wrong and is harboring it, nursing it, dwelling\non it, rolling it as a sweet morsel under the tongue, and quite determined\nto enjoy a miserable time in selfish morbidness and grumbling, it costs us\nno little sacrifice to throw off the morbid spell, to refuse the\nsuggestions of injury, neglect and the remembrance of unkindness, to rise\nout of the mood of self-commiseration in wholesome and holy determination,\nand say, \u201cI will rejoice in the Lord\u201d; I will \u201ccount it all joy.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 8.\n\n\n\u201cHe that eateth Me, even He shall live by Me\u201d (John vi. 57).\n\nWhat the children of God need is not merely a lot of teaching, but the\nLiving Bread. The best wheat is not good food. It needs to be ground and\nbaked before it can be digested and assimilated so as to nourish the\nsystem. The purest and the highest truth cannot sanctify or satisfy a\nliving soul.\n\nHe breathes the New Testament message from His mouth with a kiss of love\nand a breath of quickening power. It is as we abide in Him, lying upon His\nbosom and drinking in His very life that we are nourished, quickened,\ncomforted and healed.\n\nThis is the secret of Divine healing. It is not believing a doctrine, it\nis not performing a ceremony, it is not wringing a petition from the\nheavens by the logic of faith and the force of your will; but it is the\ninbreathing of the life of God; it is the living touch which none can\nunderstand except those whose senses are exercised to know the realities\nof the world unseen. Often, therefore, a very little truth will bring us\nmuch more help and blessing than a great amount of instruction.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 9.\n\n\n\u201cAll things are lawful for Me\u201d (I. Cor. x. 23).\n\nI may be perfectly free myself to do many things, the doing of which might\nhurt my brother and wound his conscience, and love will gladly surrender\nthe little indulgence, that she may save her brother from temptation.\nThere are many questions which are easily settled by this principle.\n\nSo there are many forms of recreation which, in themselves might be\nharmless, and, under certain circumstances, unobjectionable, but they have\nbecome associated with worldliness and godlessness, and have proved snares\nand temptations to many a young heart and life; and, therefore, the law of\nlove would lead you to avoid them, discountenance them, and in no way give\nencouragement to others to participate in them.\n\nIt is just in these things that are not required of us by absolute rules,\nbut are the impulses of a thoughtful love, that the highest qualities of\nChristian character show themselves, and the most delicate shades of\nChristian love are manifested.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 10.\n\n\n\u201cWherefore, receive ye one another as Christ also received us, to the\nglory of God\u201d (Rom. xv. 7).\n\nThis is a sublime principle, and it will give sublimity to life. It is\nstated elsewhere in similar language, \u201cWhatsoever ye do in word or deed,\ndo all in the name of the Lord Jesus.\u201d\n\nThis is our high calling, to represent Christ, and act in His behalf, and\nin His character and spirit, under all circumstances and toward all men.\n\u201cWhat would Jesus do?\u201d is a simple question which will settle every\ndifficulty, and always settle it on the side of love.\n\nBut we cannot answer this question rightly without having Jesus Himself in\nour hearts. We cannot _act_ Christ. This is too grave a matter for acting.\nWe must _have_ Christ, and simply be natural and true to the life within\nus, and that life will act itself out.\n\nOh, how easy it is to love every one, and see nothing but loveliness when\nour heart is filled with Christ, and how every difficulty melts away and\nevery one we meet seems clothed with the Spirit within us when we are\nfilled with the Holy Ghost!\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 11.\n\n\n\u201cLo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the age\u201d (Matt.\nxxviii. 20).\n\nIt is \u201call the days,\u201d not \u201calways.\u201d He comes to you each day with a new\nblessing. Every morning, day by day, He walks with us, with a love that\nnever tires and a blessing that never grows old. And He is with us \u201call\nthe days\u201d; it is a ceaseless abiding. There is no day so dark, so\ncommonplace, so uninteresting, but you find Him there. Often, no doubt, He\nis unrecognized, as He was on the way to Emmaus, until you realize how\nyour heart has been warmed, your love stirred, your Bible so strangely\nvivified, and every promise seems to speak to you with heavenly reality\nand power. It is the Lord! God grant that His living presence may be made\nmore real to us all henceforth, and whether we have the consciousness and\nevidence, as they had a few glorious times in those forty days, or whether\nwe go forth into the coming days, as they did most of their days, to walk\nby simple faith and in simple duty, let us know at least that the fact is\ntrue forevermore, THAT HE IS WITH US, a Presence all unseen, but real, and\nready if we needed Him any moment to manifest Himself for our relief.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 12.\n\n\n\u201cThe furnace for gold; but the Lord trieth the hearts\u201d (Prov. xvii. 3.)\n\nRemember that temptation is not sin unless it be accompanied with the\nconsent of your will. There may seem to be even the inclination, and yet\nthe real choice of your spirit is fixed immovably against it, and God\nregards it simply as a solicitation and credits you with an obedience all\nthe more pleasing to Him, because the temptation was so strong.\n\nWe little know how evil can find access to a pure nature and seem to\nincorporate itself with our thoughts and feelings, while at the same time\nwe resist and overcome it, and remain as pure as the sea-fowl that emerges\nfrom the water without a single drop remaining upon its burnished wing, or\nas the harp string, which may be struck by a rude or clumsy hand and gives\nforth a discordant sound, not from any defect of the harp, but because of\nthe hand that touches it. But let the Master hand play upon it, and it is\na chord of melody and a note of exquisite delight.\n\n\u201cIn nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to you an evident token\nof salvation and that of God.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 13.\n\n\n\u201cThink it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you\u201d (I.\nPeter xii. 16).\n\nMost persons after a step of faith are looking for sunny skies and\nunruffled seas, and when they meet a storm and tempest they are filled\nwith astonishment and perplexity. But this is just what we must expect to\nmeet if we have received anything of the Lord. The best token of His\npresence is the adversary\u2019s defiance, and the more real our blessing, the\nmore certainly it will be challenged. It is a good thing to go out looking\nfor the worst, and if it comes we are not surprised; while if our path be\nsmooth and our way be unopposed, it is all the more delightful, because it\ncomes as a glad surprise.\n\nBut let us quite understand what we mean by temptation. You, especially,\nwho have stepped out with the assurance that you have died to self and\nsin, may be greatly amazed to find yourself assailed with a tempest of\nthoughts and feelings that seem to come wholly from within and you will be\nimpelled to say, \u201cWhy, I thought I was dead, but I seem to be alive.\u201d\nThis, beloved, is the time to remember that temptation, the instigation,\nis not sin, but only of the evil one.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 14.\n\n\n\u201cFor the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded;\ntherefore, have I set my face like a flint, and I know I shall not be\nashamed\u201d (Isa. l. 7).\n\nThis is the language of trust and victory, and it was through this faith,\nas we are told in a passage in Hebrews, that in His last agony, \u201cJesus,\nfor the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the\nshame.\u201d His life was a life of faith, His death was a victory of faith,\nHis resurrection was a triumph of faith, His mediatorial reign is all one\nlong victory of faith, \u201cFrom henceforth expecting till all His enemies be\nmade His footstool.\u201d\n\nAnd so, for us He has become the pattern of faith, and in every situation\nof difficulty, temptation and distress has gone before us waving the\nbanner of trust and triumph, and bidding us to follow in His victorious\nfootsteps.\n\nHe is the great Pattern Believer. While we must claim our salvation by\nfaith, the Great Forerunner also claimed the world\u2019s salvation by the same\nfaith.\n\nLet us therefore consider this glorious Leader our perfect example, and as\nwe follow close behind Him, let us remember where He has triumphed we may\ntriumph, too.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 15.\n\n\n\u201cThough it tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come, and will not\ntarry\u201d (Hab. ii. 3).\n\nSome things have their cycle in an hour and some in a century; but His\nplans shall complete their cycle whether long or short. The tender annual\nwhich blossoms for a season and dies, and the Columbian aloe, which\ndevelops in a century, each is true to its normal principle. Many of us\ndesire to pluck our fruit in June rather than wait until October, and so,\nof course, it is sour and immature; but God\u2019s purposes ripen slowly and\nfully, and faith waits while it tarries, knowing it will surely come and\nwill not tarry too long.\n\nIt is perfect rest to fully learn and wholly trust this glorious promise.\nWe may know without a question that His purposes shall be accomplished\nwhen we have fully committed our ways to Him, and are walking in watchful\nobedience to His every prompting. This faith will give a calm and tranquil\npoise to the spirit and save us from the restless fret and trying to do\ntoo much ourselves.\n\nWait, and every wrong will righten,\nWait, and every cloud will brighten,\n    If you only wait.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 16.\n\n\n\u201cI will never leave Thee nor forsake Thee\u201d (Heb. xiii. 5).\n\nIt is most cheering thus to know that although we err and bring upon\nourselves many troubles that might have been easily averted, yet God does\nnot forsake even His mistaken child, but on his humble repentance and\nsupplication is ever really both to pardon and deliver. Let us not give up\nour faith because we have perhaps stepped out of the path in which He\nwould have led us. The Israelites did not follow when He called them into\nthe Land of Promise, yet God did not desert them; but during the forty\nyears of their wandering He walked by their side bearing their backsliding\nwith patient compassion, and waiting to be gracious unto them when another\ngeneration should have come. \u201cIn all their afflictions He was afflicted,\nbut the Angel of His presence saved them; He bare them and carried them\nall the days of old.\u201d And so yet, while our wanderings bring us many\nsorrows and lose us many blessings, to the heart which truly chooses His,\nHe has graciously said: \u201cI will never leave thee nor forsake thee.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 17.\n\n\n\u201cThy people shall be a freewill offering in the day of Thy power\u201d (Ps. cx.\n3).\n\nThis is what the term consecration properly means. It is the voluntary\nsurrender or self-offering of the heart, by the constraint of love to be\nthe Lord\u2019s. Its glad expression is, \u201cI am my Beloved\u2019s.\u201d It must spring,\nof course, from faith. There must be the full confidence that we are safe\nin this abandonment, that we are not falling over a precipice, or\nsurrendering ourselves to the hands of a judge, but that we are sinking\ninto a Father\u2019s arms and stepping into an infinite inheritance. Oh, it is\nan infinite inheritance. Oh, it is an infinite privilege to be permitted\nthus to give ourselves up to One who pledges Himself to make us all that\nwe would love to be, nay, all that His infinite wisdom, power and love\nwill delight to accomplish in us. It is the clay yielding itself to the\npotter\u2019s hands that it may be shaped into a vessel of honor, and meet for\nthe Master\u2019s use. It is the poor street waif consenting to become the\nchild of a prince that he may be educated and provided for, that he may be\nprepared to inherit all the wealth of his guardian.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 18.\n\n\n\u201cWe walk by faith, not by sight\u201d (II. Cor. v. 7).\n\nThere are heavenly notes which have power to break down walls of adamant\nand dissolve mountains of difficulty. The song of Paul and Silas burst the\nfetters of the Philippian gaol; the choir of Jehoshaphat put to flight the\narmies of the Ammonites, and the song of faith will disperse our\nadversaries and lift our sinking hearts into strength and victory.\nBeloved, is it the dark hour with us? the winter of barrenness and gloom?\nOh, let us remember that it is God\u2019s chosen time for the education of\nfaith and that He conceals beneath the surface, precious and untold\nharvests of unthought-of fruit! It will not be always winter, it will not\nbe always night, and when the morning comes and spring spreads its verdant\nmantle over the barren fields then we shall be glad that we did not\ndisappoint our Father in the hour of testing, but that faith had already\nclaimed and seen in the distance the glad fruition which sight now\nbeholds, with a rapture even less than the vision of naked faith.\n\nLord, help me to believe when I cannot see, and learn from my trials to\ntrust Thee more.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 19.\n\n\n\u201cIn due season we shall reap if we faint not\u201d (Gal. vi. 9).\n\nIf the least of us could only anticipate the eternal issues that will\nprobably spring from the humblest services of faith, we should only count\nour sacrifices and labors unspeakable heritages of honor and opportunity,\nand would cease to speak of trials and sacrifices for God.\n\nThe smallest grain of faith is a deathless and incorruptible germ, which\nwill yet plant the heavens and cover the earth with harvests of\nimperishable glory. Lift up your head, beloved, the horizon is wider than\nthe little circle that you can see. We are living, we are suffering, we\nare laboring, we are trusting, for the ages yet to come. \u201cLet us not be\nweary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not,\u201d and\nwith tears of transport we shall cry some day, \u201cOh, how great is thy\ngoodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which Thou hast\nwrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men.\u201d\n\nHelp me to-day to live under the powers of the world to come, and to live\nas a man in heaven walking upon the earth.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 20.\n\n\n\u201cThey shall not be ashamed that wait\u201d (Isa. xlix. 23).\n\nOften He calls us aside from our work for a season and bids us be still\nand learn ere we go forth again to minister. Especially is this so when\nthere has been some serious break, some sudden failure and some radical\ndefect in our work. There is no time lost in such waiting hours. Fleeing\nfrom his enemies the ancient knight found that his horse needed to be\nreshod. Prudence seemed to urge him without delay, but higher wisdom\ntaught him to halt a few minutes at the blacksmith\u2019s forge by the way to\nhave the shoe replaced, and although he heard the feet of his pursuers\ngalloping hard behind, yet he waited those minutes until his charger was\nrefitted for his flight, and then, leaping into his saddle just as they\nappeared a hundred yards away, he dashed away from them with the fleetness\nof the wind, and knew that his halting had hastened his escape. So often\nGod bids us tarry ere we go, and fully recover ourselves for the next\ngreat stage of the journey and work.\n\nLord, teach me to be still and know that Thou art God and all this day to\nwalk with God.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 21.\n\n\n\u201cFaint, yet pursuing\u201d (Judges viii. 4).\n\nIt is a great thing thus to learn to depend upon God to work through our\nfeeble resources, and yet, while so depending, to be absolutely faithful\nand diligent, and not allow our trust to deteriorate into supineness and\nindolence. We find no sloth or negligence in Gideon, or his three hundred;\nthough they were weak and few, they were wholly true, and everything in\nthem ready for God to use to the very last. \u201cFaint yet pursuing\u201d was their\nwatchword as they followed and finished their glorious victory, and they\nrested not until the last of their enemies were destroyed, and even their\nfalse friends were punished for their treachery and unfaithfulness.\n\nSo God still calls the weakest instruments, but when He chooses and\nenables them they are no longer weak, but \u201cmighty through God,\u201d and\nfaithful through His grace to every trust and opportunity; \u201ctrusting,\u201d as\nDr. Chalmers used to say, \u201cas though all depended upon God, and working as\nthough all depended upon themselves.\u201d\n\nTeach me, my blessed Master, to trust and obey.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 22.\n\n\n\u201cWe see not yet all things put under Him, but we see Jesus\u201d (Heb. ii. 8,\n9).\n\nHow true this is to us all! How many things there are that seem to be\nstronger than we are, but blessed be His name! they are all in subjection\nunder Him, and we see Jesus crowned above them all; and Jesus is our Head,\nour representative, our other self, and where He is we shall surely be.\nTherefore when we fail to see anything that God has promised, and that we\nhave claimed in our experience, let us look up and see it realized in Him,\nand claim it in Him for ourselves. Our side is only half the circle, the\nheaven side is already complete, and the rainbow of which we see not the\nupper half, shall one day be all around the throne and take in the other\nhemisphere of all our now unfinished life. By faith, then, let us enter\ninto all our inheritance. Let us lift up our eyes to the north and to the\nsouth, to the east and to the west, and hear Him say, \u201cAll the land that\nthou seest will I give thee.\u201d Let us remember that the circle, is\ncomplete, that the inheritance is unlimited, and that all things are put\nunder His feet.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 23.\n\n\n\u201cI am the Lord that healeth thee\u201d (Ex. xv. 26).\n\nIt is very reasonable that God should expect us to trust Him for our\nbodies as well as our souls, for if our faith is not practical enough to\nbring us temporal relief, how can we be educated for real dependence upon\nGod for anything that involves serious risk? It is all very well to talk\nabout trusting God for the distant and future prospect of salvation after\ndeath! There is scarcely a sinner in a Christian land that does not trust\nto be saved some day, but there is no grasp in faith like this. It is only\nwhen we come face to face with positive issues and overwhelming forces\nthat we can prove the reality of Divine power in a supernatural life.\nHence as an education to our very spirits as well as a gracious provision\nfor our temporal life, God has trained His people from the beginning to\nrecognize Him as the supply of all their needs, and to look to Him as the\nPhysician of their bodies and Father of their spirits. Beloved, have you\nlearned the meaning of Jehovah-rophi, and has it changed your Marah of\ntrial into an Elim of blessing and praise?\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 24.\n\n\n\u201cHe calleth things that are not as though they were\u201d (Rom. iv. 17).\n\nThe Word of God creates what it commands. When Christ says to any of us\n\u201cNow are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you,\u201d We are\nclean. When He says \u201cno condemnation\u201d there is none, though there has been\na lifetime of sin before. And when He says, \u201cmighty through God to the\npulling down of strongholds,\u201d then the weak are strong. This is the part\nof faith, to take God at His Word, and then expect Him to make it real. A\nFrench commander thanked a common soldier who had saved his life and\ncalled him captain, although he was but a private, but the man took the\ncommander at his word, accepted the new name and was thereby constituted\nindeed a captain.\n\nShall we thus take God\u2019s creating word of justification, sanctification,\npower and deliverance and thus make real the mighty promise, \u201cHe giveth\npower to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength;\nfor they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 25.\n\n\n\u201cThe faith of the Son of God\u201d (Gal. ii. 20).\n\nLet us learn the secret even of our faith. It is the faith of Christ,\nspringing in our heart and trusting in our trials. So shall we always\nsing, \u201cThe life that I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God, who\nloved me and gave Himself for me.\u201d Thus looking off unto Jesus, \u201cthe\nAuthor and Finisher of our faith,\u201d we shall find that instead of\nstruggling to reach the promises of God, we shall lie down upon them in\nblessed repose and be borne up by them with the faith which is no more our\nown than the promises upon which it rests. Each new need will find us\nleaning afresh on Him for the grace to trust and to overcome.\n\nFurther we see here the true spirit of prayer. It is the Spirit of Christ\nin us. \u201cIn the midst of the church will I sing praises unto thee.\u201d Christ\nstill sings these praises in the trusting heart and lifts our prayers into\nsongs of victory! This is the true spirit of prayer, like Paul and Silas\nin the prison at Philippi, turning prayer into praise, night into day, the\nnight of sorrow into the morning of joy, and when He is in us, the spirit\nof faith, He will also become the spirit of praise.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 26.\n\n\n\u201cI will be with Him in trouble\u201d (Ps. xci. 15).\n\nThe question often comes, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t He help me sooner!\u201d It is not His\norder. He must first adjust you to the situation and cause you to learn\nyour lesson from it. His promise is, \u201cI will be with him in trouble; I\nwill deliver him and honor him.\u201d He must be with you in the trouble first\nuntil you grow quiet. Then He will take you out of it. This will not come\ntill you have stopped being restless and fretful about it and become calm\nand trustful. Then He will say, \u201cIt is enough.\u201d\n\nGod uses trouble to teach His children precious lessons. They are intended\nto educate us. When their good work is done a glorious recompense will\ncome to us through them. There is a sweet joy and opportunity in them. He\ndoes not regard them as difficulties but as opportunities. They have come\nto give God a greater interest in you, and to show how He can deliver you\nfrom them. We cannot have a mercy worth praising God for without\ndifficulty. God is as deep, and long, and high, as our little world of\ncircumstances.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 27.\n\n\n\u201cThe glorious liberty of the children of God\u201d (Rom. viii. 21).\n\nAre you above self and self-pleasing in every way? Have you got above\ncircumstances so that you are not influenced by them? Are you above\nsickness and the evil forces around that would drag down your physical\nlife into the quicksands? These forces are all around, and if yielded to\nwould quickly swamp us. God does not destroy sickness, or its power to\nhurt, but He lifts us above it. Are you above your feelings, moods,\nemotions and states? Can you sail immovable as the stars through all sorts\nof weather? A harp will give out sweet music or discordant sounds as\ndifferent fingers touch the strings. If the devil\u2019s hand is on your harp\nstrings what hideous sounds it will give. Let the fingers of the Lord\nsweep it, and it will breathe out celestial music. Are you lifted above\npeople, so that you are not bound by or to any one except in the dear\nLord, and are you standing free in His glorious life?\n\n\u201cI am risen with Christ, I am dwelling above;\n  I am walking with Jesus below,\nI am shedding the light of His glory and love\n  Around me wherever I go.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 28.\n\n\n\u201cThe trial of your faith being much more precious than gold\u201d (I. Peter i.\n7).\n\nOur trials are great opportunities. Too often we look on them as great\nobstacles. It would be a heaven of rest and an inspiration of unspeakable\npower if each of us would henceforth recognize every difficult situation\nas one of God\u2019s chosen ways of proving to us His love and power, and if\ninstead of calculating upon defeat we should begin to look around for the\nmessages of His glorious manifestations. Then indeed would every cloud\nbecome a rainbow, and every mountain a path of ascension and a scene of\ntransfiguration. If we will look upon the past, many of us will find that\nthe very time our heavenly Father has chosen to do the kindest things for\nus and give us the richest blessings has been the time when we were\nstrained and shut in on every side. God\u2019s jewels are often sent us in\nrough packages and by dark liveried servants, but within we find the very\ntreasures of the King\u2019s palace and the Bridegroom\u2019s Love.\n\nFire of God, thy work begin,\nBurn up the dross of self and sin;\nBurn off my fetters, set me free,\nAnd through the furnace walk with me.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 29.\n\n\n\u201cCall not thou common\u201d (Acts x. 15).\n\n\u201cThere is nothing common of itself\u201d (Rom. xiv. 14).\n\nWe can bring Christ into common things as fully as into what we call\nreligious services. Indeed, it is the highest and hardest application of\nDivine grace, to bring it down to the ordinary matters of life, and\ntherefore God is far more honored in this than even in things that are\nmore specially sacred.\n\nTherefore, in the twelfth chapter of Romans, which is the manual of\npractical consecration, just after the passage that speaks of ministering\nin sacred things, the apostle comes at once to the common, social and\nsecular affairs into which we are to bring our consecration principles. We\nread: \u201cBe kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor\npreferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit;\nserving the Lord.\u201d\n\nGod wants the Levites scattered all over the cities of Israel. He wants\nyour workshop, factory, kitchen, nursery, editor\u2019s room and\nprinting-office, as much as your pulpit and closet. He wants you to be\njust as holy at high noon on Monday or Wednesday, as in the sanctuary on\nSabbath morning.\n\n\n\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 30.\n\n\n\u201cIn the secret places of the stairs\u201d (Song of Solomon ii. 14).\n\nThe dove is in the cleft of the rock\u2014the riven side of our Lord. There is\ncomfort and security there. It is also in the secret places of the stairs.\nIt loves to build its nest in the high towers to which men mount the\nwinding stairs for hundreds of feet above the ground. What a glorious\nvision is there obtained of the surrounding scenery. It is a picture of\nascending life. To reach its highest altitudes we must find the secret\nplaces of the stairs. That is the only way to rise above the natural\nplane. Our life should be one of quiet mounting with occasional resting\nplaces; but we should be mounting higher step by step. Everybody does not\nfind this way of secret ascent. It is for God\u2019s chosen ones. The world may\nthink you are going down. You may not have as much public work to do as\nformerly. \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit.\u201d It is a secret, hidden life.\nWe may be hardly aware that we are growing, till some day a test comes and\nwe find we are established. Have you got above the power of sin so that\nChrist is keeping you from wilful disobedience? Does it give you a shudder\nto know the consciousness of sin? Are you lifted above the world?\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 1.\n\n\n\u201cThat in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace\u201d\n(Eph. ii. 7).\n\nChrist\u2019s great purpose for His people is to train them up to know the hope\nof their calling, and the riches of the glory of their inheritance and\nwhat the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.\n\nLet us prove, in all our varied walks of life, and scenes of conflict, the\nfulness of His power and grace and thus shall we know \u201cIn the ages to come\nthe exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Jesus Christ.\u201d\n\nBeloved, are you thus following your Teacher in the school of faith, and\nfinishing the education which is by and by to fit you for \u201ca far more\nexceeding and eternal weight of glory\u201d? This is only the School of Faith.\n\nLittle can we now dream what these lessons will mean for us some day, when\nsitting with Him on His throne and sharing with Him the power of God and\nthe government of the universe. Let us be faithful scholars now and soon\nwith Him, we too, will have \u201cendured the cross despising the shame,\u201d and\nshall \u201csit down at the right hand of the throne of God.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 2.\n\n\n\u201cMoses gave not any inheritance; the Lord God of Israel was their\ninheritance, as He said unto them\u201d (Josh. xiii. 33).\n\nThis is very significant. God gave the land to the other tribes but He\ngave Himself to the Levites. There is such a thing in Christian life as an\ninheritance from the Lord, and there is such a thing as having the Lord\nHimself for our inheritance.\n\nSome people get a sanctification from the Lord which is of much value, but\nwhich is variable, and often impermanent. Others have learned the higher\nlesson of taking the Lord Himself to be their keeper and their sanctity,\nand abiding in Him they are kept above the vicissitudes of their own\nstates and feelings.\n\nSome get from the Lord large measures of joy and blessing, and times of\nrefreshing.\n\nOthers, again, learn to take the Lord Himself as their joy.\n\nSome people are content to have peace with God, but others have taken \u201cthe\npeace of God that passeth all understanding.\u201d\n\nSome have faith _in_ God, while others have the faith _of_ God. Some have\nmany touches of healing from God, others, again, have learned to live in\nthe very health of God Himself.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 3.\n\n\n\u201cThe little foxes that spoil the vines\u201d (Song of Solomon, ii. 15).\n\nThere are some things good, without being perfect. You don\u2019t need to have\na whole regiment cannonading outside your room to keep you awake. It is\nquite enough that your little alarm clock rings its little bell. It is not\nnecessary to fret about everything; it is quite enough if the devil gets\nyour mind rasped with one little worry, one little thought which destroys\nyour perfect peace. It is like the polish on a mirror, or an exquisite\ntoilet table, one scratch will destroy it; and the finer it is the smaller\nthe scratch that will deface it. And so your rest can be destroyed by a\nvery little thing. Perhaps you have trusted in God about your future\nsalvation; but have you about your present business or earthly cares, your\nmoney and your family?\n\nWhat is meant by the peace that passeth all understanding? It does not\nmean a peace no one can comprehend. It means a peace that no amount of\nreasoning will bring. You cannot get it by thinking. There may be perfect\nbewilderment and perplexity all round the horizon, but yet your heart can\nrest in perfect security because He knows, He loves, He leads.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 4.\n\n\n\u201cInstead of the brier, the myrtle tree\u201d (Isa. lv. 13).\n\nGod\u2019s sweetest memorial is the transformed thorn and the thistle blooming\nwith flowers of peace and sweetness, where once grew recriminations.\n\nBeloved, God is waiting to make just such memorials in your life, out of\nthe things that are hurting you most to-day. Take the grievances, the\nseparations, the strained friendships and the broken ties which have been\nthe sorrow and heartbreak of your life, and let God heal them, and give\nyou grace to make you right with all with whom you may be wrong, and you\nwill wonder at the joy and blessing that will come out of the things that\nhave caused you nothing but regret and pain.\n\n\u201cBlessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of\nGod.\u201d The everlasting employment of our blessed Redeemer is to reconcile\nthe guilty and the estranged from God, and the highest and most\nChrist-like work that we can do is, to be like Him.\n\nShall we go forth to dry the tears of a sorrowing world, to heal the\nbroken-hearted, to bind up the wounds of human lives, and to unite heart\nto heart, and earth to heaven?\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 5.\n\n\n\u201cHe hath triumphed gloriously\u201d (Ex. xv. 1).\n\nBeloved, God calls us to victory. Have any of you given up the conflict,\nhave you surrendered? Have you said, \u201cThis thing is too much\u201d? Have you\nsaid, \u201cI can give up anything else but this\u201d? If you have, you are not in\nthe land of promise. God means you should accept every difficult thing\nthat comes in your life. He has started with you, knowing every\ndifficulty. And if you dare to let Him, He will carry you through not only\nto be conquerors, but \u201cmore than conquerors.\u201d Are you looking for all the\nvictory?\n\nGod gives His children strength for the battle and watches over them with\na fond enthusiasm. He longs to fold you to His arms and say to you, \u201cI\nhave seen thy conflict, I have watched thy trials, I have rejoiced in thy\nvictory; thou hast honored Me.\u201d You know He told Joshua at the beginning,\n\u201cThere shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy\nlife; as I was with Moses, so shall I be with thee: I will not fail thee,\nnor forsake thee.\u201d And again, He says to us, \u201cFear thou not, for I am with\nthee.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 6.\n\n\n\u201cEphraim, he hath mixed himself\u201d (Hos. vii. 8).\n\nIt is a great thing to learn to take God first, and then He can afford to\ngive us everything else, without the fear of its hurting us.\n\nAs long as you want anything very much, especially more than you want God,\nit is an idol. But when you become satisfied with God, everything else so\nloses its charm that He can give it to you without harm, and then you can\ntake just as much as you choose, and use it for His glory.\n\nThere is no harm whatever in having money, houses, lands, friends and\ndearest children, if you do not value these things for themselves.\n\nIf you have been separated from them in spirit, and become satisfied with\nGod Himself, then they will become to you channels to be filled with God\nto bring Him nearer to you. Then every little lamb around your household\nwill be a tender cord to bind you to the Shepherd\u2019s heart. Then every\naffection will be a little golden cup filled with the wine of His love.\nThen every bank, stock and investment will be but a channel through which\nyou can pour out His benevolence and extend His gifts.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 7.\n\n\n\u201cHe opened not His mouth\u201d (Isa. liii. 7).\n\nHow much grace it requires to bear a misunderstanding rightly, and to\nreceive an unkind judgment in holy sweetness! Nothing tests a Christian\ncharacter more than to have some evil thing said about him. This is the\nfile that soon proves whether we are electro-plate or solid gold. If we\ncould only know the blessings that lie hidden in our lives, we would say,\nlike David, when Shimei cursed him, \u201cLet him curse; it may be the Lord\nwill requite me good for his cursing this day.\u201d\n\nSome people get easily turned aside from the grandeur of their life-work\nby pursuing their own grievances and enemies, until their life gets turned\ninto one little petty whirl of warfare. It is like a nest of hornets. You\nmay disperse the hornets, but you will probably get terribly stung, and\nget nothing for your pains, for even their honey is not worth a search.\n\nGod give us more of His Spirit, who, when reviled, reviled not again; but\ncommitted Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.\n\nConsider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 8.\n\n\n\u201cThere failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken\u201d\n(Josh. xxi. 45).\n\nSome day, even you, trembling, faltering one, shall stand upon those\nheights and look back upon all you have passed through, all you have\nnarrowly escaped, all the perils through which He guided you, the\nstumblings through which He guarded you, and the sins from which He saved\nyou; and you shall shout, with a meaning you cannot understand now,\n\u201cSalvation unto Him who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.\u201d\n\nSome day He will sit down with us in that glorious home, and we shall have\nall the ages in which to understand the story of our lives. And He will\nread over again this old marked Bible with us, He will show us how He kept\nall these promises, He will explain to us the mysteries that we could not\nunderstand, He will recall to our memory the things we have long\nforgotten, He will go over again with us the book of life, He will recall\nall the finished story, and I am sure we will often cry: \u201cBlessed Christ!\nyou have been so true, you have been so good! Was there ever love like\nthis?\u201d And then the great chorus will be repeated once more\u2014\u201cThere failed\nnot aught of any good thing that He hath spoken; all came to pass.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 9.\n\n\n\u201cPeace be unto you\u201d (John xx. 19, 21).\n\nThis is the type of His first appearing to our hearts when He comes to\nbring us His peace and to teach us to trust Him and love Him.\n\nBut there is a second peace which He has to give. Jesus said unto them\nagain, \u201cPeace be unto you.\u201d There is a \u201cpeace,\u201d and there is an \u201cagain\npeace.\u201d There is a peace with God, and there is \u201cthe peace of God that\npasseth understanding.\u201d It is the deeper peace that we need before we can\nserve Him or be used for His glory.\n\nWhile we are burdened with our own cares, He cannot give us His. While we\nare occupied with ourselves, we cannot be at leisure to serve Him. Our\nminds will be so filled with our own anxieties that we would not be equal\nto the trust which He requires of us, and so, before He can entrust us\nwith His work, He wants to deliver us from every burden and anxiety.\n\n\u201cPeace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin,\nThe blood of Jesus whispers peace within.\nPeace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed,\nTo do the will of Jesus, this is rest.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 10.\n\n\n\u201cIf ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall\nlive\u201d (Rom. viii. 13).\n\nThe Holy Spirit is the only one who can kill us and keep us dead. Many\nChristians try to do this disagreeable work themselves, and they are going\nthrough a continual crucifixion, but they can never accomplish the work\npermanently. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and when you really\nyield yourself to the death, it is delightful to find how sweetly He can\nslay you.\n\nBy the touch of the electric spark they tell us life is extinguished\nalmost without a quiver of pain. But, however this may be in natural\nthings, we know the Holy Spirit can touch with celestial fire the\nsurrendered thing, and slay it in a moment, after it is really yielded up\nto the sentence of death. That is our business, and it is God\u2019s business\nto execute that sentence, and to keep it constantly operative.\n\nDon\u2019t let us live in the pain of perpetual and ineffectual suicide, but\nreckoning ourselves dead indeed, let us leave ourselves in the hands of\nthe blessed Holy Spirit, and He will slay whatever rises in opposition to\nHis will, and keep us true to our heavenly reckoning, and filled with His\nresurrection life.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 11.\n\n\n\u201cAnd He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,\nbecause He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of\nGod\u201d (Rom. viii. 27).\n\nThe Holy Spirit becomes to the consecrated heart the Spirit of\nintercession. We have two Advocates. We have an Advocate with the Father,\nwho prays for us at God\u2019s right hand; but the Holy Spirit is the Advocate\nwithin, who prays in us, inspiring our petitions and presenting them,\nthrough Christ, to God.\n\nWe need this Advocate. We know not what to pray for, and we know not how\nto pray as we ought, but He breathes in the holy heart the desires that we\nmay not always understand, the groanings which we could not utter.\n\nBut God understands, and He, with a loving Father\u2019s heart, is always\nsearching our hearts to find the Spirit\u2019s prayer, and to answer it. He\nfinds many a prayer there that we have not discovered, and answers many a\ncry that we never understood. And when we reach our home and read the\nrecords of life, we shall better know and appreciate the infinite love of\nthat Divine Friend, who has watched within as the Spirit of prayer, and\nbreathed out our every need to the heart of God.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 12.\n\n\n\u201cThe law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free\u201d (Rom.\nviii. 2).\n\nThe life of Jesus Christ brought into our heart by the Holy Spirit,\noperates there as a new law of divine strength and vitality, and\ncounteracts, overcomes and lifts us above the old law of sin and death.\n\nLet us illustrate these two laws by a simple comparison. Look at my hand.\nBy the law of gravitation it naturally falls upon the desk and lies there,\nattracted downward by that natural law which makes heavy bodies fall to\nthe earth.\n\nBut there is a stronger law than the law of gravitation\u2014my own life and\nwill. And so through the operation of this higher law\u2014the law of\nvitality\u2014I defy the law of gravitation, and lift my hand and hold it above\nits former resting-place, and move it at my will. The law of vitality has\nmade me free from the law of gravitation.\n\nPrecisely so the indwelling life of Christ Jesus, operating with the power\nof a law, lifts me above, and counteracts the power of sin in my fallen\nnature.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 13.\n\n\n\u201cThe carnal mind is enmity against God\u201d (Rom. viii. 7).\n\nThe flesh is incurably bad. \u201cIt is not subject to the law of God, neither,\nindeed, can be.\u201d It never can be any better. It is no use trying to\nimprove the flesh. You may educate it all you please. You may train it by\nthe most approved methods, you may set before it the brightest examples,\nyou may pipe to it or mourn to it, treat it with encouragement or\nseverity; its nature will always be incorrigibly the same.\n\nLike the wild hawk which the little child captures in its infancy and\ntries to train in the habits of the dove, before you are aware it will\nfasten its cruel beak upon the gentle fingers that would caress it, and\nshow the old wild spirit of fear and ferocity. It is a hawk by nature, and\nit can never be made a dove. \u201cFor the carnal mind is enmity against God.\nIt is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be.\u201d\n\nThe only remedy for human nature is to destroy it, and receive instead the\ndivine nature. God does not improve man. He crucifies the natural life\nwith Christ, and creates the new man in Christ Jesus.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 14.\n\n\n\u201cGet thee, behind me, Satan\u201d (Matt. xvi. 23).\n\nWhen your old self comes back, if you listen to it, fear it, believe it,\nit will have the same influence upon you as if it were not dead; it will\ncontrol you and destroy you. But if you will ignore it and say: \u201cYou are\nnot I, but Satan trying to make me believe that the old self is not dead;\nI refuse you, I treat you as a demon power outside of me, I detach myself\nfrom you\u201d; if you treat it as a wife would her divorced husband, saying:\n\u201cYou are nothing to me, you have no power over me, I have renounced you,\nin the name of Jesus I bid you hence,\u201d\u2014lo! the evil thing will disappear,\nthe shadow will vanish, the wand of faith will lay the troubled spirit,\nand send it back to the abyss, and you will find that Christ is there\ninstead, with His risen life, to back up your confidence and seal your\nvictory.\n\nSatan can stand anything better than neglect. If you ignore him he gets\ndisgusted and disappears. Jesus used to turn His back upon him and say,\n\u201cGet thee behind Me, Satan.\u201d So let us refuse him, and we shall find that\nhe will be compelled to act according to our faith.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 15.\n\n\n\u201cFaith is the evidence of things not seen\u201d (Heb. xi. 1).\n\nTrue faith drops its letter in the post-office box, and lets it go.\nDistrust holds on to a corner of it, and wonders that the answer never\ncomes.\n\nI have some letters in my desk that have been written for weeks, but there\nwas some slight uncertainty about the address or the contents, so they are\nyet unmailed. They have not done either me or anybody else any good yet.\nThey will never accomplish anything until I let them go out of my hands\nand trust them to the postman and the mail.\n\nThis is the case with true faith. It hands its case over to God, and then\nHe works.\n\nThat is a fine verse in the thirty-seventh Psalm: \u201cCommit thy way unto the\nLord, trust also in Him, and He worketh.\u201d But He never worketh until we\ncommit.\n\nFaith is a receiving, or still better, a taking of God\u2019s proffered gifts.\nWe may believe, and come, and commit, and rest, but we will not fully\nrealize all our blessing until we begin to receive and come into the\nattitude of abiding and taking.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 16.\n\n\n\u201cWhereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, I will make thee a joy\u201d (Isa.\nlx. 15).\n\nGod loves to take the most lost of men, and make them the most magnificent\nmemorials of His redeeming love and power. He loves to take the victims of\nSatan\u2019s hate, and the lives that have been the most fearful examples of\nhis power to destroy, and to use them to illustrate and illuminate the\npossibilities of Divine mercy and the new creations of the Holy Spirit.\n\nHe loves to take the things in our own lives that have been the worst, the\nhardest and the most hostile to God, and to transform them so that we\nshall be the opposites of our former selves.\n\nThe sweetest spirits are made out of the most stormy and self-willed, the\nmightiest faith is created out of a wilderness of doubts and fears, and\nthe Divinest love is transformed out of stony hearts of hate and\nselfishness.\n\nThe grace of God is equal to the most uncongenial temperaments, to the\nmost unfavorable circumstances; and its glory is to transform a curse into\nblessing, and show to men and angels of ages yet to come, that \u201cwhere sin\nabounded, there grace did much more abound.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 17.\n\n\n\u201cAbraham believed God\u201d (Rom. iv. 3).\n\nAbraham\u2019s faith reposed on God Himself. He knew the God he was dealing\nwith. It was a personal confidence in one whom he could utterly trust.\n\nThe real secret of Abraham\u2019s whole life was that he was the friend of God,\nand knew God to be his great, good and faithful Friend, and, taking Him at\nHis word, he had stepped out from all that he knew and loved, and gone\nforth upon an unknown pathway with none but God.\n\nBeloved, are we trusting not only in the word of God, but have we learned\nto lean our whole weight upon Himself, the God of infinite love and power,\nour covenant God and everlasting Friend?\n\nWe are told that Abraham glorified God by this life of faith. The true way\nto glorify God is to let the world see what He is, and what He can do. God\ndoes not want us so much to do things, as to let people see what He can\ndo. God is not looking for extraordinary characters as His instruments,\nbut He is looking for humble instruments through whom He can be honored\nthroughout the ages.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 18.\n\n\n\u201cAll things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to\ndo\u201d (Heb. iv. 13).\n\nThe literal translation of this phrase is, all things are stripped and\nstunned. This is the force of the Greek words. The figure is that of an\nathlete in the Coliseum who has fought his best in the arena, and has at\nlength fallen at the feet of his adversary, disarmed and broken down in\nhelplessness. There he lies, unable to strike a blow, or lift his arm. He\nis stripped and stunned, disarmed and disabled, and there is nothing left\nfor him but to lie at the feet of his adversary and throw up his arms for\nmercy.\n\nNow this is the position that God wants to bring us to, where we shall\ncease our struggles and our attempts at self-defence or self-improvement,\nand throw ourselves helplessly upon the mercy of God. This is the sinner\u2019s\nonly hope, and when he thus lies at the feet of mercy, Jesus is ready to\nlift him up and give him that free salvation which is waiting for all.\n\nThis, too, is the greatest need of the Christian seeking a deeper and\nhigher life, to come to a full realization of his nothingness and\nhelplessness, and to lie down, stripped and stunned at the feet of Jesus.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 19.\n\n\n\u201cDenying ungodliness\u201d (Titus ii. 12).\n\nLet us say, \u201cNo,\u201d to the flesh, the world and the love of self, and learn\nthat holy self-denial in which consists so much of the life of obedience.\nMake no provision for the flesh; give no recognition to your lower life.\nSay \u201cNo\u201d to everything earthly and selfish. How very much of the life of\nfaith consists in simply denying ourselves.\n\nWe begin with one great \u201cYes,\u201d to God, and then we conclude with an\neternal \u201cNo,\u201d to ourselves, the world, the flesh and the devil.\n\nIf you look at the ten commandments of the Decalogue, you will find that\nnearly every one of them is a \u201cThou shalt not.\u201d If you read the thirteenth\nchapter of First Corinthians, with its beautiful picture of love, you will\nfind that most of the characteristics of love are in the negative, what\nlove \u201cdoes not, thinks not, says not, is not.\u201d And so you will find that\nthe largest part of the life of consecration is really saying, \u201cNo.\u201d\n\nI am not my own,\n  I belong to Him.\nI am His alone,\n  I belong to Him.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 20.\n\n\n\u201cLet us not be weary in well-doing\u201d (Gal. vi. 9).\n\nIf Paul could only know the consolation and hope that he has ministered to\nthe countless generations who have marched along the pathway from the\ncross to the Kingdom above, he would be willing to go through a thousand\nlives and a thousand deaths such as he endured for the blessing that has\nfollowed since his noble head rolled in the dust by the Ostian gate of\nRome.\n\nAnd if the least of us could only anticipate the eternal issues that will\nprobably spring from the humblest services of faith, we should only count\nour sacrifices and labors unspeakable heritages of honor and opportunity,\nand would cease to speak of trials and sacrifices made for God.\n\nThe smallest grain of faith is a deathless and incorruptible germ, which\nwill yet plant the heavens and cover the earth with harvests of\nimperishable glory. Lift up your head, beloved, the horizon is wider than\nthe little circle that you can see. We are living, we are suffering, we\nare laboring, we are trusting, for the ages yet to come!\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 21.\n\n\n\u201cWho shall separate us from the love of Christ?\u201d (Rom. viii. 35).\n\nAnd then comes the triumphant answer, after all the possible obstacles and\nenemies have been mentioned one by one, \u201cNay, in all these things we are\nmore than conquerors, through Him that loved us.\u201d Our trials will be\nturned to helps; our enemies will be taken prisoners and made to fight our\nbattles. Like the weights on yonder clock, which keep it going, our very\ndifficulties will prove incentives to faith and prayer, and occasions for\nGod becoming more real to us.\n\nWe shall get out of our troubles not only deliverance but triumph, and in\nall these things be even more than conquerors through Him that loved us.\n\nOur security depends not upon our unchanging love, but on the love of God\nin Christ Jesus toward us. It is not the clinging arms of the babe on the\nmother\u2019s breast that keep it from falling, but the strong arms of the\nmother about it which will never let it go. He has loved us with an\neverlasting love, and although all else may change, yet He will never\nleave us nor forsake us.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 22.\n\n\n\u201cTouched with the feeling of our infirmities\u201d (Heb. iv. 15).\n\nSome of us know a little what it is to be thrilled with a sense of the\nsufferings of others, and sometimes, the sins of others, and sins that\nseem to saturate us as they come in contact with us, and throw over us an\nawful sense of sin and need.\n\nThis is, perhaps, intended to give us some faint conception of the\nsympathy that Jesus felt when He had taken our sins, our sicknesses and\nour sorrows. Let us not hesitate to lay them on Him! It is far easier for\nHim to bear them off us than to bear them with us. He has already borne\nthem for us, both in His life and in His death. Let us roll the burden\nupon Him, and let it roll away, and then, strong in His strength, and\nrested in His life and love, let us go forth to minister to others the\nsympathy and help which He has so richly given us.\n\nThe world is full of sorrow, and they that have known its bitterness and\nhealing are God\u2019s ministers of consolation to a weeping world.\n\nO, the tears that flow around us,\n  Let us wipe them while we may;\nBring the broken hearts to Jesus,\n  He will wipe their tears away.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 23.\n\n\n\u201cHow long halt ye between two opinions?\u201d (I. Kings xviii. 21).\n\nIt is strange that people will not get over the idea that a consecrated\nlife is a difficult one. A simple illustration will answer this foolish\nimpression. Suppose a street car driver were to say, \u201cIt is much easier to\nrun with one wheel on the track and the other off,\u201d his line would soon be\ndropped by the public, and they would prefer to walk. Of course, it is\never so much easier to run with both wheels on the track, and always on\nthe track, and it is much easier to follow Christ fully than to follow\nwith a half heart and halting step. The prophet was right in his pungent\nquestion, \u201cHow long halt ye between two opinions?\u201d The undecided man is a\nhalting man. The halting man is a lame man and a miserable man, and the\nout-and-out Christian is the admiration of men and angels, and a continual\njoy to himself.\n\nSay, is it all for Jesus,\n  As you so often sing;\nIs He your Royal Master,\n  Is He your heart\u2019s true King?\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 24.\n\n\n\u201cFirst gave their ownselves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God\u201d\n(II. Cor. viii. 5).\n\nIt is essential, in order to be successful in Christian work, that you\nshall be loyal not only to God, but to the work with which you are\nassociated. The more deeply one knows the Lord the easier it is to get\nalong with Him.\n\nSuperficial Christians are apt to be crotchetty. Mature Christians are so\nnear the Lord that they are not afraid of missing His guidance, and not\nalways trying to assert their loyalty to Him and independence of others.\n\nThe Corinthians, who had given themselves first to the Lord, had no\ndifficulty in giving themselves to His Apostle by the will of God. It is\ndelightful to work with true hearts on whom we can utterly depend.\n\nGod give us the spirit of a sound mind and the heart to \u201chelp along.\u201d\n\nYou can help by holy prayer,\n  Helpful love and joyful song;\nO, the burdens you may bear;\n  O, the sorrows you may share;\nO, the crowns you may yet may wear,\n  If you help along.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 25.\n\n\n\u201cNow it is high time to awake out of sleep. Let us cast off the works of\ndarkness and let us put on the armor of light\u201d (Rom. xiii. 11, 12).\n\nLet us wake out of sleep; let us be alert; let us be alive to the great\nnecessities that really concern us.\n\nLet us put off the garments of the night and the indulgences of the night;\nthe loose robes of pleasure and flowing garments of repose; the festal\npleasures of the hours of darkness are not for the children of the day.\nLet us cast off the works of darkness.\n\nLet us arm ourselves for the day. Before we put on our clothes, let us put\non our weapons, for we are stepping out into a land of enemies and a world\nof dangers; let us put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of\nfaith and love, and the shield of faith, and stand armed and vigilant as\nthe dangers of the last days gather around us.\n\nLet us put on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our robe of day. Not our own\nworks or righteousness, but the person and righteousness of the Lord Jesus\nChrist, who gave us His very life, and becomes to us our All-Sufficiency.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 26.\n\n\n\u201cGo out into the highways and compel them to come in\u201d (Luke xiv. 23).\n\nIn the great parable in the fourteenth chapter of Luke, giving an account\nof the great supper an ancient lord prepared for his friends and\nneighbors, and to which, when they asked to be excused, he invited the\nhalt and the lame from the city slums and the lepers from outside the\ngate, there is a significant picture and object lesson of the program of\nChristianity in this age.\n\nIn the first place, it is obvious to every thoughtful mind that the Master\nis beginning to excuse the Gospel-hardened people of Christian countries.\nIt is getting constantly more difficult to interest the unsaved of our own\nland, especially those that have been accustomed to hear the Gospel and\nthe things of Christ. They have asked to be excused from the Gospel feast,\nand the Lord is excusing them.\n\nAt the same time, two remarkable movements indicated in the parable are\nbecoming more and more manifest in our time. One is the Gospel for the\nslums and the neglected classes at home; the other is the Gospel for the\nheathen or the neglected classes abroad.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 27.\n\n\n\u201cBehold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard\nfor Me?\u201d (Jer. xxxii. 27.)\n\nCyrus, the King, was compelled to fulfil the vision of Jeremiah, by making\na decree, the instant the prophecy had foretold, declaring that Jehovah\nhad bidden him rebuild Jerusalem and invite her captives to return to\ntheir native home. So Jeremiah\u2019s faith was vindicated and Jehovah\u2019s\nprophecy gloriously fulfilled, as faith ever will be honored. Oh, for the\nfaith, that in the dark present and the darker future, shall dare to\nsubscribe the evidences and seal up the documents if need be, for the time\nof waiting, and then begin to testify to the certainty of its hope like\nthe prophet of Anathoth!\n\nThe word Anathoth has a beautiful meaning, \u201cechoes.\u201d So faith is the\n\u201cecho\u201d of God and God always gives the \u201cecho\u201d to faith, as He answers it\nback in glorious fulfilment. Oh, let our faith echo also the brave claim\nof the ancient prophet and take our full inheritance, with his glorious\nshout, \u201cOh, Lord, Thou art the God of all flesh, is there anything too\nhard for the Lord?\u201d and back like an echo will come the heavenly answer to\nour heart, \u201cI am the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for Me?\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 28.\n\n\n\u201cThou good servant, because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have\nthou authority over ten cities\u201d (Luke xix. 17).\n\nIt is not our success in service that counts, but our fidelity. Caleb and\nJoshua were faithful and God remembered it when the day of visitation\ncame. It was a very difficult and unpopular position, and all of us are\ncalled in the crisis of our lives to stand alone and in this very matter\nof trusting God for victory over sin and our full inheritance in Christ we\nhave all to be tested as they.\n\nOur brethren even in the church of God, while admitting in the abstract\nthe loveliness and advantages of such an ideal life, tell us as they told\nIsrael that it is impracticable and impossible, and many of us have to\nstand alone for years witnessing to the power of Christ to save His people\nto the uttermost and like Caleb following Him wholly, if alone. But this\nis the real victory of faith and the proof of our uncompromising fidelity.\n\nLet us not therefore complain when we suffer reproach for our testimony or\nstand alone for God, but thank Him that He so honors us, and so stand the\ntest that He can afterwards use us when the multitudes are glad to follow.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 29.\n\n\n\u201cWhatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you\u201d (John\nxvi. 23).\n\nTwo men go to the bank cashier, both holding in their hands a piece of\npaper. One is dressed in expensive style, and presents a gloved and\njeweled hand; the other is a rough, unwashed workman. The first is\nrejected with a polite sentence, and the second receives a thousand\ndollars over the counter. What is the difference? The one presented a\nworthless name; the other handed in a note endorsed by the president of\nthe bank. And so the most virtuous moralist will be turned away from the\ngates of mercy, and the vilest sinner welcomed in if he presents the name\nof Jesus.\n\nWhat shall we give to infinite purity and righteousness? Jesus! No other\ngift is worthy for God to receive. And He has given Him to us for this\nvery end, to give back as our substitute and satisfaction. And He has\n\u201ctestified\u201d of this gift what He has of no other, namely, that in Him He\nis well pleased and all who receive Him \u201care accepted in the Beloved.\u201d\nShall we accept the testimony that God is satisfied with His Son? Shall we\nbe satisfied with Him?\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 30.\n\n\n\u201cDwell deep\u201d (Jer. xlix. 8).\n\nGod\u2019s presence blends with every other thought and consciousness, flowing\nsweetly and evenly through our business plans, our social converse our\nheart\u2019s affections, our manual toil, our entire life, blending with all,\nconsecrating all, and conscious through all, like the fragrance of a\nflower, or the presence of a friend consciously near, and yet not\nhindering in the least the most intense and constant preoccupation of the\nhands and brain. How beautiful the established habit of this unceasing\ncommunion and dependence, amid and above all thoughts and occupations! How\nlovely to see a dear old saint folding away his books at night and humbly\nsaying, \u201cLord Jesus, things are still just the same between us,\u201d and the\nfalling asleep in His keeping.\n\nSo let us be stayed upon Him. Let us grow into Him with all the root and\nfibers of our being. He will not get tired of our friendship. He will not\nwant to put us off sometimes. Beautiful the words of the suffering saint:\n\u201cHe never says good-bye.\u201d He stays. So let us be stayed on Him.\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 31.\n\n\n\u201cMy grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in\nweakness\u201d (II. Cor. xii. 9).\n\nGod allowed the crisis to close around Jacob on the night when he bowed at\nPeniel in supplication to bring him to the place where he could take hold\nof God as he never would have done; and from that narrow pass of peril\nJacob came enlarged in his faith and knowledge of God, and in the power of\na new and victorious life. He had to compel David, by a long and painful\ndiscipline of years, to learn the almighty power and faithfulness of his\nGod, and to grow up into the established principles of faith and\ngodliness, which were indispensable for his subsequent and glorious career\nas the king of Israel.\n\nNothing but the extremities in which Paul was constantly placed could ever\nhave taught him, and taught the church through him, the full meaning of\nthe great promise he so learned to claim, \u201cMy grace is sufficient for\nthee.\u201d And nothing but our trials and perils would ever have led some of\nus to know Him as we do, to trust Him as we have, and to draw from Him the\nmeasures of grace which our very extremities made indispensable.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 1.\n\n\n\u201cWe will come unto him and make our abode with him\u201d (John xiv. 23).\n\nThis idea of trying to get a holiness of your own, and then have Christ\nreward you for it, is not His teaching. Oh, no; Christ is the holiness; He\nwill bring the holiness, and come and dwell in the heart forever.\n\nWhen one of our millionaires purchases a lot, with an old shanty on it, he\ndoes not fix up the old shanty, but he gets a second-hand man, if he will\nhave it, to tear it down, and he puts a mansion in its place. It is not\nfixing up the house that you need, but to give Christ the vacant lot, and\nHe will excavate below our old life and build a house where He will live\nforever.\n\nNow that is what we mean when we say that Christ will be the preparation\nfor the blessing, and make way for His own approach. It is as when a great\nAssyrian king used to set out on a march. He did not command the people to\nmake a road, but he sent on his own men, and they cut down the trees and\nfilled the broken places, and levelled the mountains. So He will, if we\nwill let Him, be the Coming King, the Author and Finisher of our faith.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 2.\n\n\n\u201cBringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ\u201d (II.\nCor. x. 5).\n\nIf we would abide in Christ we must have no confidence in self.\nSelf-repression must be ever the prime necessity of divine fulness and\nefficiency. Now you know how quickly you spring to the front when any\nemergency arises. When something in which you are interested comes up, you\nsay what you think under some sudden impulse, and then perhaps you have\nweeks of taking back your thought and taking the Lord\u2019s instead. It is\nonly when we get out of the way of the Lord that He can use us. So, be out\nof self, always suspending your will about everything until you have\nlooked at it and said: \u201cLord, what is your will? What is your thought\nabout it?\u201d\n\nThose who thus abide in Christ have the habit of reserve and quiet; they\nare not rattling and reckless talkers, they will not always have an\nopinion about everything, and they will not always know what they are\ngoing to do. There will be a deferential holding back of judgment, and\nwalking softly with God. It is our headlong, impulsive spirit that keeps\nus so constantly from hearing and following the Lord.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 3.\n\n\n\u201cThis is my Beloved, and this is my Friend\u201d (Song of Solomon v. 16).\n\nHe is our Friend. \u201cWhich of you shall have a friend at night?\u201d This has\ndeep significance through the experience of each one of us. Who has not\nhad a friend, and more of a friend in some respects than even a father?\n\nThere are some intimacies not born of human blood that are the most\nintense and lasting bonds of earthly love. One by one let us count them\nover and recall each act and bond of love, and think of all that we may\ntrust them for and all in which they stood by us, and then as we\nconcentrate the whole weight of recollection and affection, let us put God\nin that place of confidence and think He is all that and infinitely more.\n\nOur Friend! The one who is personally interested in us; who has set His\nheart upon us; who has come near to us in the tender and delicate intimacy\nof unspeakable fellowship; who gave us such invaluable pledges and\npromises; who has done so much for us, and who is ever ready to take any\ntrouble or go to any expense to aid us\u2014to Him we are coming in prayer, our\nHeavenly Friend.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 4.\n\n\n\u201cHath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings as in obeying the voice\nof the Lord?\u201d (I. Sam. xv. 22).\n\nMany a soul prays for sanctification, but fails to enter into the blessing\nbecause he does not intelligently understand and believingly accept God\u2019s\nappointed means by Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit. Many a\nprayer for the salvation of others is hindered because the very friend\ntakes the wrong course to bring about the answer, and resorts to means\nwhich are wholly fitted to defeat his worthy object.\n\nWe know many a wife who is pleading for her husband\u2019s soul, and hoping to\nwin him by avoiding anything that may offend him, and yielding to all his\nworldly tastes in the vain hope of attracting him to Christ. Far more\neffective would be an attitude of fidelity to God and fearless testimony\nto Him, such as God could bless.\n\nMany a congregation wonders why it is so poor and struggling. It may be\nfound that its financial methods are wholly unscriptural and often\nunworthy of ordinary self-respect.\n\nWhen we ask God for any blessing, we must allow Him to direct the steps\nwhich are to bring the answer.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 5.\n\n\n\u201cI in them, and Thou in Me\u201d (John xvii. 23).\n\nIf we would be enlarged to the full measure of God\u2019s purpose, let us\nendeavor to realize something of our own capacities for His filling.\n\nWe little know the size of a human soul and spirit. Never, until He\nrenews, cleanses and enters the heart can we have any adequate conception\nof the possibilities of the being whom God made in His very image, and\nwhom He now renews after the pattern of the Lord Jesus Himself.\n\nWe know, however, that God has made the human soul to be His temple and\nabode, and that He knows how to make the house that can hold His infinite\nfulness. We know something of this as all our nature quickens into spring\ntide life at the coming of the Holy Spirit, and as from time to time new\nbaptisms awaken the dormant powers and susceptibilities that we did not\nknow we possessed.\n\nOh, let us give Him the right to make the best of us, and, with wonder\nfilled, we shall some day behold the glorious temple which He has reared,\nand shall say, \u201cLord, what is man that Thou hast set Thine heart upon\nHim?\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 6.\n\n\n\u201cBless the Lord, O, my soul\u201d (Ps. ciii. 1).\n\nBless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me be stirred up to\nmagnify His holy name. \u201cBless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His\nbenefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy\ndiseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with\nlovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good\nthings, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle\u2019s.\u201d Who so well can\nsing this thanksgiving song as we, rejoicing as most of us do, we trust,\nin this full salvation, and praising God for the glorious health of a\nrisen Lord and a continual youth?\n\nThis psalm and its opening verses is in the very center of the Scriptures\nby an exact count of letters and verses. So let it stand in our lives, as\nwe look backward and forward and upward in grateful thanksgiving as we\nsing in its closing strains, \u201cBless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is\nwithin me, bless His holy name.\u201d Lord, center my heart in Thee and in the\nspirit of love and praise.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 7.\n\n\n\u201cI will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee\u201d\n(Isa. xli. 10).\n\nGod has three ways of helping us: First, He says, \u201cI will strengthen\nthee\u201d; that is, I will make you a little stronger yourself. And secondly,\n\u201cI will help thee\u201d; that is, I will add My strength to your strength, but\nyou shall lead and I will help you. But thirdly, when you are ready, \u201cI\nwill uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness\u201d; that is, I will\nlift you up bodily and carry you altogether, and it will neither be your\nstrength or My help, but My complete upholding. Hence it must be quite\ntrue, that when we come to the end of our strength, we come to the\nbeginning of His, and that in Him the weakest are the strongest, and the\nmost helpless the most helped. \u201cHe giveth power to the faint,\u201d but to\n\u201cthem that have no might\u201d at all \u201cHe gives more strength,\u201d and His word\nforever is, \u201cMy grace is sufficient for thee.\u201d The answer is a paradox of\ncontradictions, and yet the most practical truths, \u201cMost gladly,\ntherefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may\nrest upon me; for when I am weak, then am I strong.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 8.\n\n\n\u201cFor the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free\u201d\n(Rom. viii. 2).\n\nThere is a natural law of sin and sickness, and if we just let ourselves\ngo and sink into the trend of circumstances we shall go down and sink\nunder the power of the tempter. But there is another law of spiritual life\nand of physical life in Christ Jesus to which we can rise and through\nwhich we can counterpoise and overcome the other law that bears us down.\nBut to do this requires real spiritual energy and fixed purpose and a\nsettled posture and habit of faith. It is just the same when we bind the\npower in our factory. We must turn the belt on and keep it on. The power\nis there, but we must keep the connection and while we do so the law of\nthis higher power will work and all the machinery will be in operation.\nThere is a spiritual law of choosing, believing, abiding and holding\nsteady in our walk with God which is essential to the working of the Holy\nGhost either in our sanctification or healing.\n\nThere is a word that saves the soul,\n        \u201cI will trust\u201d;\nIt makes the sick and suffering whole.\n        \u201cI will trust.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 9.\n\n\n\u201cBecause I live ye shall live also\u201d (John xiv. 19).\n\nAfter having become adjusted to our Living Head and the source of our\nlife, now our business is to abide, absorb and grow, leaning on His\nstrength, drinking in His life, feeding on Him as the Living Bread, and\ndrawing all of our resources from Him in continual dependence and\ncommunion. The Holy Spirit will be the great Teacher and Minister in this\nblessed process. He will take of the things of Christ and show them unto\nus, and He will impart them through all the channels and functions of our\nspiritual organism. As we yield ourselves to Him He will breathe His own\nprayer of communion, drawing out our hearts in longings and hungerings,\nwhich are the pledge of their own fulfilment, calling us apart in silent\nand wordless prayer and opening every pore, organ, sense and sensibility\nof our spiritual being to take in His life. As the lungs absorb the oxygen\nof the atmosphere, as the senses breathe in the sweet odors of the garden,\nso the heart instinctively receives and rejoices in the affection and\nfellowship of the beloved One by our side. Thus we become like a tree\nplanted by the rivers of waters.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 10.\n\n\n\u201cBut prayer was made without ceasing, of the church unto God for him\u201d\n(Acts xii. 5).\n\nBut prayer is the link that connects us with God. This is the bridge that\nspans every gulf and bears us over every abyss of danger or of need. How\nsignificant the picture of the apostolic church: Peter in prison, the Jews\ntriumphant, Herod supreme, the arena of martyrdom awaiting the dawning of\nthe morning to drink up the apostle\u2019s blood,\u2014everything else against it.\n\u201cBut prayer was made unto God without ceasing.\u201d And what the sequel? The\nprison open,\u2014the apostle free,\u2014the Jews baffled,\u2014the wicked king eaten of\nworms, a spectacle of hideous retribution, and the Word of God rolling on\nin greater victory.\n\nDo we know the power of our supernatural weapon? Do we dare to use it with\nthe authority of a faith that commands as well as asks? God baptize us\nwith holy audacity and Divine confidence. He is not wanting great men, but\nHe is wanting men that will dare to prove the greatness of their God.\n\nBut God! But prayer!\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 11.\n\n\n\u201cReckon yourselves dead, indeed\u201d (Rom. vi. 11).\n\nOur life from the dead is to be followed up by the habit and attitude\nhenceforth which is the logical outcome of all this. \u201cReckon yourselves\n_dead indeed_, unto sin, but _alive unto God_ through Jesus Christ, and\nyield yourselves unto God,\u201d not to die over again every day, \u201c_but, as\nthose who are alive from the dead_, and your members as instruments of\nrighteousness unto God.\u201d\n\nFurther His resurrection life is given to fit us for \u201cthe fellowship of\nHis sufferings and to be made conformable unto His death.\u201d\n\nIt is intended to enable us to toil and suffer with rejoicing and victory.\nWe \u201cmount up with wings as eagles,\u201d that we may come back to \u201crun and not\nbe weary, to walk and not faint.\u201d\n\nBut let us not mistake the sufferings. They do not mean _our_ sufferings,\nbut His. They are not our struggles after holiness, our sicknesses and\npains, but those higher sufferings which, with Him, we bear for others,\nand for a suffering church and a dying world. May God help us, henceforth,\nnever to have another sorrow for ourselves, and put us at leisure, in the\npower of His resurrection, to bear His burdens and drink His cup.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 12.\n\n\n\u201cThe earnest of the Spirit in our hearts\u201d (II. Cor. i. 22).\n\nLife in earnest. What a rare, what a glorious spectacle! We see it in the\nSon of God, we see it in His apostle, we see it in every noble,\nconsecrated and truly successful life. Without it there may be a thousand\ngood things, but they lack the golden thread that binds them all into a\nchain of power and permanence. They are like a lot of costly and beautiful\nbeads on a broken string, that fall into confusion, and are lost in the\nend for want of the bond that alone could bind them into a life of\nconsistent and lasting power. O for the baptism of fire! O for \u201cTHE\nEARNEST, THE SPIRIT!\u201d O for lives that have but one thing to do or care\nfor! O for the depth and everlasting strength of the heart of Christ\nwithin our breast, to love, to sacrifice, to realize, to persevere, to\nlive and die like Him!\n\nWe are going forth with a trust so sacred,\n  And a truth so divine and deep,\nWith a message clear and a work so glorious,\n  And a charge\u2014such a charge\u2014to keep.\nLet it be your greatest joy, my brother,\n  That the Lord can count on you;\nAnd if all besides should fail and falter,\n  To your trust be always true.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 13.\n\n\n\u201cDelight thyself in the Lord\u201d (Ps. xxxvii. 4).\n\nDaniel\u2019s heart was filled with God\u2019s love for His work and kingdom and his\nprayers were the mightiest forces of his time, through which God gave to\nhim the restoration of Israel to their own land, and the acknowledgment by\nthe rulers of the world of the God of whom he testified and for whom he\nlived.\n\nThere is a beautiful promise in the thirty-seventh Psalm, \u201cDelight thyself\nin the Lord, and He will give thee the desires of thine heart,\u201d which it\nis, perhaps, legitimate to translate, that not only does it mean the\nfulfilment of our desires, but even the inspiration of our desires, the\ninbreathing of His thoughts into us, so that our prayers shall be in\naccord with His will and so shall bring back to us the unfailing answer of\nHis mighty providence.\n\nTeach me Thy thoughts, O God!\n  Think Thou, Thyself, in me,\nThen shall I only always think\n  Thine own thoughts after Thee.\n\nTeach me Thy thoughts, O God!\n  Show me Thy plan divine:\nSave me from all my plans and works,\n  And lead me into Thine.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 14.\n\n\n\u201cThe things which are seen are temporal\u201d (II. Cor. iv. 18).\n\nHow strong is the snare of the things that are seen, and how necessary for\nGod to keep us in the things that are unseen! If Peter is to walk on the\nwater, he must walk; if he is going to swim, he must swim, but he cannot\ndo both. If the bird is going to fly it must keep away from the fences and\nthe trees, and trust to its buoyant wings. But if it tries to keep within\neasy reach of the ground, it will make poor work of flying.\n\nGod had to bring Abraham to the end of his own strength, and to let him\nsee that in his own body he could do nothing. He had to consider his own\nbody as good as dead, and then take God for the whole work, and when he\nlooked away from himself, and trusted God alone, then He became fully\npersuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.\n\nThis is what God is teaching us, and He has to keep away encouraging\nresults until we learn to trust without them, and then He loves to make\nHis word real in fact as well as faith.\n\nLet us look only to Him to-day to do all things as He shall choose and in\nthe way He shall choose.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 15.\n\n\n\u201cOh, man of desires\u201d (margin) (Dan. x. 11).\n\nThis was the divine character given to Daniel of old. It is translated in\nour version, \u201cO man, greatly beloved.\u201d But it literally means \u201cO man of\ndesires!\u201d This is a necessary element in all spiritual forces. It is one\nof the secrets of effectual prayer, \u201cWhat things soever ye desire, when ye\npray, believe that ye receive them.\u201d The element of strong desire gives\nmomentum to our purposes and prayers. Indifference is an unwholesome\ncondition; indolence and apathy are offensive both to God and nature.\n\nAnd so in our spiritual life, God often has to wake us up by the presence\nof trying circumstances, and push us into new places of trust by forces\nthat we must subdue, or sink beneath their power. There is no factor in\nprayer more effectual than love. If we are intensely interested in an\nobject, or an individual, our petitions become like living forces, and not\nonly convey their wants to God, but in some sense convey God\u2019s help back\nto them.\n\nMay God fill us to-day with the heart of Christ that we may glow with the\nDivine fire of holy desire.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 16.\n\n\n\u201cWatch therefore, for ye know neither the day\u201d (Matt. xxv. 13).\n\nJesus illustrates the unexpectedness of His coming by the figure of a\nthief entering a house when the master was not there. Life, like the old\nJewish night, may be divided into three watches, youth, maturity, old age.\nThe summons to meet God may come to us in either of these watches. A\nwriter tells us of his experience with a camping party, of which he was a\nmember, and which, he tells us, always arranged to have watches at night.\n\u201cWe became especially careful after what I am about to narrate happened.\nDuring the first night, from sunset to sunrise, we had in turn carefully\nguarded our camp. But when the next night came, so impressed were we with\nthe orderly character of the neighborhood, that we concluded that no guard\nwas needed until bedtime. Within our main tent the evening was spent in\nstory-telling, singing and general amusement. When the hour to retire\narrived, it was discovered that our other tents had been robbed and\neverything of value stolen. The work was done before we thought a guard\nnecessary.\u201d It is never too soon to begin watching against sin.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 17.\n\n\n\u201cThe ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them\u201d (Num. x. 33).\n\nGod does give us impressions but not that we should act on them as\nimpressions. If the impression be from God, He will Himself give\nsufficient evidence to establish it beyond the possibility of a doubt.\n\nHow beautifully we read, in the story of Jeremiah, of the impression that\ncame to him respecting the purchase of the field of Anathoth, but Jeremiah\ndid not act upon this impression until after the following day, when his\nuncle\u2019s son came to him and brought him external evidence by making a\nproposal for the purchase. Then Jeremiah said: \u201cI knew this was the word\nof the Lord.\u201d\n\nHe waited until God seconded the impression by a providence, and then he\nacted in full view of the open facts, which could bring conviction unto\nothers as well as himself.\n\nGod wants us to act according to His mind.\n\nWe are not to ignore the Shepherd\u2019s personal voice, but like Paul and his\ncompanions at Troas, we are to listen to all the voices that speak, and\n\u201cgather\u201d from all the circumstances, as they did, the full mind of the\nLord.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 18.\n\n\n\u201cAnd He that sat upon the throne said, It is done\u201d (Rev. xxi. 5, 6).\n\nGreat is the difference between action and transaction. We may be\nconstantly acting without accomplishing anything, but a transaction is\naction that passes beyond the point of return, and becomes a permanent\ncommittal. Salvation is a transaction between the soul and Christ in which\nthe matter passes beyond recall. Sanctification is a great transaction in\nwhich we are utterly surrendered, irrevocably consecrated and wholly\ncommitted to the Holy Ghost, and then He comes and seals the transaction\nand undertakes the work. Our covenant for our Lord\u2019s healing should be\njust as explicit, definite and irrevocable. And so of the covenants to\nwhich God is leading His children from time to time in regard to other\nmatters of obedience and service. God grant that during this hallowed day\nmany a consecrated life may be able to say with new significance and\npermanence, \u201c\u2019Tis done, the great transaction\u2019s done.\u201d\n\nFor the living Vine is Jesus,\n  In whose fulness we may hide;\nAnd find our life and fruitfulness\n  As we in Him abide.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 19.\n\n\n\u201cWe would see Jesus\u201d (John xii. 21).\n\nWhen any great blessing is awaiting us, the devil is sure to try and make\nit so disagreeable to us that we shall miss it. It is a good thing to know\nhim as a liar, and remember, when he is trying to prejudice us strongly\nagainst any cause, that very likely the greatest blessing of our life lies\nthere. Spurgeon once said that the best evidence that God was on our side\nis the devil\u2019s growl, and we are generally pretty safe in following a\nthing according to Satan\u2019s dislike for it. Beloved, take care, lest in the\nvery line where your prejudices are setting you off from God\u2019s people and\nGod\u2019s truth, you are missing the treasures of your life. Take the\ntreasures of heaven no matter how they come to you, even if it be as\nearthly treasures generally are, like the kernel inside the rough shell,\nor the gem in the bosom of the hard rock.\n\nI have seen Jesus and my heart is dead to all beside,\nI have seen Jesus, and my wants are all, in Him, supplied.\nI have seen Jesus, and my heart, at last, is satisfied,\n        Since I\u2019ve seen Jesus.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 20.\n\n\n\u201cThe disciple whom Jesus loved leaned on His breast\u201d (John xxi. 20).\n\nAn American gentleman once visited the saintly Albert Bengel. He was very\ndesirous to hear him pray. So one night he lingered at his door, hoping to\noverhear his closing devotions. The rooms were adjoining and the doors\najar. The good man finished his studies, closed his books, knelt down for\na moment and simply said: \u201cDear Lord Jesus, things are still the same\nbetween us,\u201d and then sweetly fell asleep. So close was his communion with\nhis Lord that labor did not interrupt it, and prayer was not necessary to\nrenew it. It was a ceaseless, almost unconscious presence, like the\nfragrance of the summer garden, or the presence of some dear one by our\nside whose presence we somehow feel, even though the busy hours pass by\nand not a word is exchanged.\n\n\u201cO blessed fellowship, divine,\n  O joy, supremely sweet,\nCompanionship with Jesus here,\n  Makes life with joy replete;\nO wondrous grace, O joy sublime,\nI\u2019ve Jesus with me all the time.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 21.\n\n\n\u201cConsider the lilies how they grow\u201d (Matt. vi. 28).\n\nIt is said that a little fellow was found one day by his mother, standing\nby a tall sunflower, with his feet stuck in the ground. When asked by her,\n\u201cWhat in the world are you doing there?\u201d he naively answered, \u201cWhy, I am\ntrying to grow to be a man.\u201d\n\nHis mother laughed heartily at the idea of his getting planted in the\nground in order to grow, like the sunflower, and then, patting him gently\non the head, \u201cWhy, Harry, that is not the way to grow. You can never grow\nbigger by trying. Just come right in, and eat lots of good food, and have\nplenty of play, and you will soon grow to be a man without trying so\nhard.\u201d\n\nWell, Harry\u2019s mother was right. Mrs. H. W. Smith never said a sweeter\nthing than when she answered the question\u2014\u201cHow do the lilies grow?\u201d by\nsimply adding, \u201cThey grow without trying.\u201d\n\nOur sweetest spiritual life is the life of self-unconsciousness through\nwhich we become so united to Christ, and live continually on His life,\nnourished, fed and constantly filled with His Spirit and presence and all\nthe fulness of His imparted life.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 22.\n\n\n\u201cCast the beam out of thine own eye\u201d (Matt. vii. 5).\n\nGreater than the fault you condemn and criticise is the sin of criticism\nand condemnation. There is no place we need such grace as in dealing with\nan erring one. A lady once called on us on her way to give an erring\nsister a piece of her mind. We advised her to wait until she could love\nher a little more. Only He who loved sinners well enough to die for them\ncan deal with the erring. We never see all the heart. He does, and He can\nconvict without condemning, and reprove without discouraging. Oh, for more\nof the heart of Christ! Take care, brother, how you speak of another\u2019s\nfault. Ere you know, you may be in the same or deeper condemnation. Very\nsignificantly does the Master say that the man that sees a mote in his\nbrother\u2019s eye, usually has a rafter in his own eye! One of the two\nunpardonable sins of the Bible is unforgiving lovelessness.\n\n\u201cGive me a heart like Thine,\nGive me a heart like Thine,\n  By Thy wonderful power,\n  By Thy grace every hour,\nGive me a heart like Thine.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 23.\n\n\n\u201cIt is high time to awake out of sleep\u201d (Rom. xiii. 11).\n\nOne of the greatest enemies to faith is indolence. It is much easier to\nlie and suffer than to rise and overcome; much easier to go to sleep on a\nsnowbank and never wake again, than to rouse one\u2019s self and shake off the\nlethargy and overcome the stupor. Faith is an energetic art; prayer is\nintense labor; the effectual working prayer of the righteous man availeth\nmuch.\n\nSatan tries to put us to sleep, as he did the disciples in the garden; but\nlet us not sleep as do others, but let us wake and be sober, continuing in\nprayer and watching therein with all perseverance, stirring up ourselves\nto take hold of His strength, \u201cnot slothful, but followers of them, who,\nthrough patience, inherit the promise.\u201d It is the wind that carries the\nship across the waves; but the wind is powerless unless the hand of the\nboatman is held firmly upon the rudder, and that rudder is set hard\nagainst the wind. In like manner we hold the rudder, God fills the sails.\nIt is not the rudder that carries the ship; but it is the rudder which\ncatches the wind that carries the ship, so God keeps us in perfect peace\nwhile we are stayed upon Him.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 24.\n\n\n\u201cI can do all things through Christ\u201d (Phil. iv. 13).\n\nA dear sister said one day: \u201cI have so much work to do that I have not\ntime to get strength to do it by waiting on the Lord.\u201d Surely that was\nmaking bricks without straw, and even if it was the name of the Lord and\nthe church, it was the devil\u2019s bondage. God sends not His servants on\ntheir own charges; but \u201cHe is able to make all grace abound towards us,\nthat we, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto\nevery good work.\u201d The old story of the chieftain, fleeing from his foes\nand almost overtaken, but stopping in the midst of his flight to get a\nshoe upon his horse that he might fly more successfully is a true type and\nlesson for Christian workers.\n\nThe old Latin motto _festina lente_, \u201cmake haste slowly,\u201d has a great\nlesson for us. The more work we have to do, the more frequently we have to\ndrop our head upon our desk and wait a little for heavenly aid and love,\nand then press on with new strength. One hour baptized in the love of the\nHoly Ghost is worth ten battling against wind and tide without the\nheavenly life.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 25.\n\n\n\u201cJudge nothing before the time, until the Lord come\u201d (I. Cor. iv. 5).\n\nNothing will more effectually arrest the working of the Spirit in the\nheart than the spirit of criticism. At the end of a meeting a young\nminister came forward and told us of the great blessing he had received\nthat afternoon, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit that had come into his\nheart and being, setting him free from the bondage of years. And then he\nadded, \u201cIt all came through your answer to that question, \u2018Will a\ncriticizing spirit hinder the Holy Ghost from filling the heart?\u2019 \u201d\n\nAs the question was asked and answered, he said, \u201cI was sitting in the\nchurch criticizing a good deal that was going on, objecting to this thing\nand to that thing, finding fault with the expressions, and praises and\ntestimonies, and feeling thoroughly unhappy. The Lord brought the answer\nhome to my heart and convicted me of my sin, and there and then I laid it\ndown and began to see the good instead of the evil. Blessing fell upon me\nand my soul was filled with joy and praise, and I saw where my error lay,\nthat for years I had been trying to see the truth with my head instead of\nmy heart.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 26.\n\n\n\u201cHe purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit\u201d (John xv. 2).\n\nOne day we passed a garden. The gardener had finished his pruning, and the\nwounds of the knife and saw were beginning to heal, while the warm April\nsun was gently nourishing the stricken plant into fresh life and energy.\nWe thought as we looked at that plant how cruel it would be to begin next\nweek and cut it down again. It would bleed to death. Now, the gardener\u2019s\nbusiness is to revive and nourish into life. Its business is not to die,\nbut to live. So, we thought, it is with the discipline of the soul. It,\ntoo, has its dying hour; but it must not be always dying. Rather reckon\nourselves to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus\nChrist our Lord Everlasting.\n\nBreathe Thine own breath through all my mortal frame,\nHelp me Thy resurrection life to claim,\nWhich, \u2019mid all changes, still abides the same,\n  And lead me in the way Everlasting.\n\nGive me the heavenly foretaste here, I pray;\nLet faith foredate the everlasting day,\nAnd walking in its glory all the way,\n  O, lead me in the way Everlasting!\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 27.\n\n\n\u201cAnd the remnant of the oil ... shall pour upon the head\u201d (Lev. xiv. 18).\n\nIn the account of the healing of the Hebrew leper there is a beautiful\npicture of the touching of his ears, hands and feet, with the redeeming\nblood and the consecrating oil, as a sign that his powers of\nunderstanding, service, and conduct were set apart to God, and divinely\nendued for the Master\u2019s work and will.\n\nBut after all this, we are significantly told that \u201cthe rest of the oil\u201d\nwas to be poured upon his head.\n\nThe former anointing was from the oil in the hand of the priest, but the\nlatter was to be from the log, or vessel of oil itself. It was to be\nliterally emptied over him, until he was bathed with all its contents.\n\nIt is a figure of the large and boundless baptism of the Holy Ghost. It\nspeaks of something more even than the ordinary experiences of the\nconsecrated Christian. It tells of the abundant and redundant supply which\nGod has for us out of His illimitable fulness.\n\nHave we received \u201cthe rest oil\u201d? Are we _filled_ with the Spirit, and\nletting the overflow bless others?\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 28.\n\n\n\u201cWithout Me ye can do nothing\u201d (John xv. 5).\n\nHow much can I do for Christ? We are accustomed to say.\u2014As much as I can.\nHave we ever thought we can do more than we can?\n\nThis thought was lately suggested by the remarks of a Christian friend,\nwho told how God had laid it upon her heart to do something for His cause\nwhich was beyond her power, and when she dared to obey Him, He gave her\nthe assurance of His power and resources, and so marvelously met her faith\nthat she was enabled to do more than she could otherwise, and accomplish\nher heart\u2019s desire, and see a work fulfilled to which her resources were\nunequal.\n\nThe apostle says, \u201cI can do all things through Christ, who is my\nstrength,\u201d and yet He says we are not able to think anything, as of\nourselves.\n\nOh, blessed insufficiency! Oh, blessed All-Sufficiency! Oh, blessed\nnothingness, which brings us all things! Oh, blessed faith, whose rich\ndowry is, \u201cAll things are possible to him that believeth\u201d!\n\nO to be found of Him in peace,\nSpotless and free from blame.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 29.\n\n\n\u201cCould ye not watch with Me one hour?\u201d (Matt. xxvi. 40.)\n\nA young lady whose parents had died while she was an infant, had been\nkindly cared for by a dear friend of the family. Before she was old enough\nto know him, he went to Europe. Regularly he wrote to her through all his\nyears of absence, and never failed to send her money for all her wants.\nFinally word came that during a certain week he would return and visit\nher. He did not fix the day or the hour. She received several invitations\nto take pleasant trips with her friends during that week. One of these was\nof so pleasant a nature that she could not resist accepting it. During her\ntrip, he came, inquired as to her absence, and left. Returning she found\nthis note: \u201cMy life has been a struggle for you, might you not have waited\none week for me?\u201d More she never heard, and her life of plenty became one\nof want. Jesus has not fixed the day or hour of His return, but He has\nsaid, \u201cWatch,\u201d and should He come to-day, would He find us absorbed in\nthoughtless dissipation? May we be found each day, in the expectant\nattitude of those watching for a loved one.\n\n\n\n\n\nNOVEMBER 30.\n\n\n\u201cIn lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves\u201d (Phil.\nii. 3).\n\nWhen the apostle speaks of \u201cthe deep things of God,\u201d he means more than\ndeep spiritual truth. There must be something before this. There must be a\ndeep soil and a thorough foundation.\n\nVery much of our spiritual teaching fails, because the people to whom we\ngive it are so shallow. Their deeper nature has never been stirred.\n\nThe beatitudes begin at the bottom of things, the poor in spirit, the\nmourners, and the hungry hearts. Suffering is essential to profound\nspiritual life. We need not go to a monastery or a leper hospital to find\nit. The first real opportunity for unselfishness will bring into your life\nthe anguish of crucifixion, unless you are born of some different race\nfrom Adam\u2019s.\n\nIt is because men and women have not faced this that they know so little\nof suffering and death. We must have deep convictions. Truth must be to us\na necessity, and principle a part of our very being. Lord, make me poor in\nspirit. Lord help me to be even as Thou wert when on earth, always the\nlowest, and therefore \u201chighly exalted.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 1.\n\n\n\u201cAs He is, so are we in this world\u201d (I. John iv. 17).\n\nJesus will come into the surrendered heart and unite Himself with it,\nimpart to it His own life and being and become anew from day to day, the\nsupply of its spiritual needs and the substitute for its helplessness.\n\nOur part is simply to yield ourselves fully recognizing our own\nworthlessness and then take Jesus Himself to live in us and be, moment by\nmoment, our strength, purity and victory.\n\nOne in His death on the tree,\n  One as He rose from the dead;\nI from the curse am as free\n  E\u2019en as my glorious Head.\n\nOne in His merits I stand,\nOne as I Pray in His name,\nAll that His worth can demand\nI may with confidence claim.\n\nOne on the Throne by His side,\n  One in His Sonship divine,\nOne as the Bridegroom and Bride,\n  One as the Branch and the Vine.\n\nAll that He has shall be mine,\n  All that He is I shall be;\nRobed in His glory divine,\n  I shall be even as He.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 2.\n\n\n\u201cLooking diligently lest any man fail\u201d (Heb. xii. 15).\n\nIt is not losing all, but coming short we are to fear. We may not lose our\nsouls, but we may lose something more precious than life\u2014His full\napproval, His highest choice, and our incorruptible and star-gemmed crown.\nIt is the one degree more that counts, and makes all the difference\nbetween hot water\u2014powerless in the boiler\u2014and steam\u2014all alive with power,\nand bearing its precious freight across the continent.\n\nI want, in this short life of mine,\n  As much as can be pressed\nOf service true for God and man,\n  Help me to be my best.\n\nI want to stand when Christ appears\n  And hear my name confessed\nNumbered among the hidden ones,\n  His holiest and best.\n\nI want, among the victor throng,\n  To have my name confessed;\nAnd hear my Master say at last,\n  Well done, you did your best.\n\nGive me, O Lord, Thy highest choice;\n  Let others take the rest:\nTheir good things have no charm for me,\n  For I have got Thy best.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 3.\n\n\nThy thoughts are very deep (Ps. xcii. 5).\n\nWhen a Roman soldier was told by his guide that if he insisted on taking a\ncertain journey it would probably be fatal he answered, \u201cIt is necessary\nfor me to go, it is not necessary for me to live.\u201d That was depth. When we\nare convicted like that we shall come to something.\n\nThe shallow nature lives in its impulses, its impressions, its intuitions,\nits instincts, and very largely in its surroundings. The profound\ncharacter looks beyond all these and moves steadily on, sailing past all\nthe storms and clouds into the clear sunshine which is always on the other\nside, and waiting for the afterwards which always brings the reversion of\nsorrow and seeming defeat and failure.\n\nWhen God has deepened us, then He can give us His deeper truths, His\nprofoundest secrets, and His mightier trusts.\n\nLord, lead me into the depths of Thy life and save me from a shallow\nexperience.\n\nOn to broader fields of holy vision;\n  On to loftier heights of faith and love;\nOnward, upward, apprehending wholly,\n  All for which He calls thee from above.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 4.\n\n\n\u201cFrom me is thy fruit found\u201d (Hos. xiv. 8).\n\nNothing keeps us from advancement more than ruts and drifts, and\nwheel-tracks into which our chariots roll and then move on in the narrow\nline with unchanging monotony, currents in life\u2019s stream on which we are\nborne in the old direction until the law of habit almost makes advance\nimpossible. The true remedy for this is to commence at nothing; taking\nChrist afresh to be the Alpha and Omega for a deeper, higher, Divine\nexperience, waiting even for His conception of thought, desire, prayer,\nand afraid lest our highest thought should be below His great plan of\nwisdom and love.\n\nO Comforter gentle and tender,\n  O holy and heavenly Dove,\nWe\u2019re yielding our heart in surrender,\n  We\u2019re waiting Thy fulness to prove.\n\nO come as the heart-searching fire,\n  O come as the sin-cleansing flood;\nConsume us with holy desire,\n  And fill with the fulness of God.\n\nAnoint us with gladness and healing;\n  Baptize us with power from on high;\nO come with filling and sealing\n  While low at the Thy footstool we lie.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 5.\n\n\n\u201cWith a perfect heart to make David King\u201d (I. Chron. xii. 38).\n\n\u201cWhat is the supreme purpose of our life? They were all of one heart to\nmake David king.\u201d Is this our purpose, to prepare the Bride, to prepare\nthe world, to prepare His way? Does it dwarf and dim all other ambitions,\nall other cares? Does it fill and satisfy every capacity, every power,\nevery desire? Does it absorb every moment, every energy, every resource?\nDoes it give direction and tone to every plan and work of life? Does it\ndecide for us the education of our children, the investment of our means,\nthe friendships and associations of life, the whole activity, interest and\noutlook of our being? Are we in it, spirit, soul and body, all we are, all\nwe do, all we hope for\u2014OF ONE HEART TO MAKE JESUS KING?\n\nWe\u2019re going forth united\n  With loyal heart and hand,\nTo bear His royal banner\n  Aboard o\u2019er every land.\n\nFrom every tribe and nation\n  We\u2019ll haste His Bride to bring.\nAnd Oh, with what glad welcome\n  We\u2019ll make our Jesus King.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 6.\n\n\n\u201cHumble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may\nexalt you\u201d (I. Peter v. 6).\n\nOpposition is essential to a true equilibrium of forces. The centripetal\nand centrifugal forces acting in opposition to each other keep our planet\nin her orbit. The one propelling, and the other repelling, so act and\nreact, that instead of sweeping off into space in a pathway of desolation\nand destruction, she pursues her even orbit around her solar center.\n\nSo God guides our lives. It is not enough to have an impelling force\u2014we\nneed just as much a repelling force, and so He holds us back by the\ntesting ordeals of life, by the pressure of temptation and trial, by the\nthings that seem to be against us, but really are furthering our way and\nstablishing our goings. Let us thank Him for both, let us take the weights\nas well as the wings, and thus divinely impelled, let us press on with\nfaith and patience in our high and heavenly calling.\n\nLord, help me to learn from all that comes to me this day Thy highest\nwill.\n\nLord, help me to-day to sink under Thy blessed hand, that Thou mayest have\nThy way and will with me.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 7.\n\n\n\u201cAbide with us; for it is toward evening\u201d (Luke xxiv. 29).\n\nIn His last messages to the disciples in the 14th and 15th chapters of\nJohn, the Lord Jesus clearly teaches us that the very essence of the\nhighest holiness is, \u201cAbide in Me, and I in you, for without Me ye can do\nnothing.\u201d\n\nThe very purpose of the Holy Ghost whom He promised was to reveal Him,\nthat at \u201cthat day, ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me,\nand I in you,\u201d and the closing echo of His intercessory prayer was\nembraced in these three small but infinite words, \u201cI in them.\u201d\n\nIs it for me to be cleansed by His power\n  From the pollution of sin?\nIs it for me to be kept every hour\n  By His abiding within?\n\nIs it for me to be perfectly whole\n  Thro\u2019 His anointing divine;\nClaiming in body, and spirit, and soul,\n  All of His fulness as mine?\n\nWonderful promise so full and so free,\n  Wonderful Saviour, Oh, how can it be,\nCleansing and pardon and mercy for me?\n  Yes, it\u2019s for me, for me.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 8.\n\n\n\u201cIs there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?\u201d (Jer. viii.\n22).\n\nDivine healing is just divine life. It is the headship of Christ over the\nbody. It is the life of Christ in the frame. It is the union of our\nmembers with the very body of Christ and the inflowing life of Christ in\nour living members. It is as real as His risen and glorified body. It is\nas reasonable as the fact that He was raised from the dead and is a living\nman with a true body and a rational soul to-day, at God\u2019s right hand. That\nliving Christ belongs to us in all His attributes and powers. We are\nmembers of His body, His flesh and His bones, and if we can only believe\nand receive it, we may live upon the very life of the Son of God.\n\nLord, help me to know the \u201cLord for the body and the body for the Lord.\u201d\n\nThere is healing in the promise,\n  There is healing in the blood,\nThere is strength for all our weakness\n  In the risen Son of God.\n\nAnd the feeblest of His children,\n  All His glorious life may share;\nHe has healing balm in Gilead,\n  He\u2019s the Great Physician there.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 9.\n\n\n\u201cLaunch out into the deep\u201d (Luke v. 4).\n\nOne of the special marks of the Holy Ghost in the Apostolic Church was the\nspirit Of boldness. One of the most essential qualities of the faith that\nis to attempt great things for God and expect great things from God, is\nholy audacity. Where we are dealing with a supernatural Being, and taking\nfrom Him things that are humanly impossible, it is easier to take much\nthan little; it is easier to stand in a place of audacious trust than in a\nplace of cautious, timid clinging to the shore. Like wise seamen in the\nlife of faith, let us launch out into the deep, and find that all things\nare possible with God, and all things are possible unto him that\nbelieveth.\n\nLet us to-day attempt great things for God, take His faith and believe for\nthem and His strength to accomplish them.\n\nThe mercy of God is an ocean divine,\n  A boundless and fathomless flood;\nLaunch out in the deep, cut away the shore-line,\n  And be lost in the fulness of God.\n\nOh, let us launch out in this ocean so broad,\n  Where the floods of salvation o\u2019erflow,\nOh, let us be lost in the mercy of God,\n  Till the depth of His fulness we know.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 10.\n\n\n\u201cAccording to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed\u201d (II.\nCor. x. 13).\n\nAccording to thy faith be it unto thee was Christ\u2019s great law of healing\nand blessing in His earthly ministry. This was what He meant when He said,\n\u201cWith what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.\u201d These\nmighty measures are limited by the the measures that we bring. God deals\nout His heavenly treasures to us in these glorious vessels, but each of us\nmust bring our drinking cup, and according to its measure we shall be\nfilled.\n\nBut even the measure of our faith may be a Divine one. Thank God, the\nlittle cup has become enlarged through the grace of Jesus, until from its\nbottom there flows a pipe into the great ocean, and if that connection is\nkept open we shall find that our cup is as large as the ocean and never\ncan be drained to the bottom. For He has said to us, \u201cHave the faith of\nGod,\u201d and surely this is an illimitable measure.\n\nLet us claim the mighty promise,\n  Let us light the torches dim;\nLet us join the glorious chorus,\n  Nothing is too hard for Him.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 11.\n\n\n\u201cI pray not for the world, but for them\u201d (John xvii. 9).\n\nHow often we say we would like to get some strong spirit to pray for us,\nand feel so helped when we think they are carrying us in their faith. But\nthere is One whose prayers never fail to be fulfilled and who is more\nwilling to give them to us than any human friend. His one business at\nGod\u2019s right hand is to make intercession for His people, and we are simply\ncoming in the line of His own appointment and His own definite promise and\nprovision, when we lay our burdens upon Him and claim His advocacy without\ndoubt or fear. \u201cSeeing then that we have a great High Priest that is\npassed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us come boldly to the\nthrone of grace that we may find help in time of need.\u201d\n\nLike a golden censer glowing,\n  Filled with burning odors rare,\nAll my heart is upward flowing,\n  In a cloud of ceaseless prayer.\n\nO\u2019er the heavenly altar bending,\n  Jesus interceding stands,\nAll our prayers to heaven ascending,\n  Reach the Father through His hands.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 12.\n\n\n\u201cTo abide in the flesh is more needful for you, and having this\nconfidence, I know that I shall abide\u201d (Phil. i. 24, 25).\n\nOne of the most blessed things about divine healing is that the strength\nit brings is holy strength, and finds its natural and congenial outflow in\nholy acts and exercises.\n\nMere natural strength seeks its gratification in natural pleasures and\nactivities, but the strength of Christ leads us to do as Christ would do,\nand to seek our congenial employment in His holy service.\n\nThe life of Christ in a human body saves it from a thousand temptations to\nself-indulgence and sin, and not only gives us strength for higher\nservice, but also a desire for it, and puts into it a zest and spring\nwhich gives it double power.\n\nLord, help us to-day to claim Thy life and then give it for the help of\nothers.\n\nHave you found the branch of healing?\n    Pass it on.\nHave you felt the Spirit\u2019s sealing,\n    Pass it on.\n\u2019Twas for this His mercy sought you,\nAnd to all His fulness brought you,\nBy the precious blood that bought you,\n    Pass it on.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 13.\n\n\n\u201cHe that abideth in Me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for\napart from Me ye can do nothing\u201d (John xv. 5).\n\nSo familiar are the vine and the branches, it is not necessary to explain;\nonly the branches and the vine are one. The vine does not say, I am the\ncentral trunk running up and you are the little branches; but I am the\nwhole thing, and you are the whole thing. He counts us partakers of His\nnature. \u201cApart from Me ye can do nothing.\u201d The husband and the wife, and\nmany more figures contribute to this marvelous Christ teaching, which has\nno parallel, no precedent in any other teaching under the sun; that Christ\nis the life of His people, and that we are absolutely linked with and\ndependent upon Him. All other systems teach how much man is and may\nbecome. Christianity shows how a man must lose all he is if he would come\ninto full unity with Christ in His life.\n\nLord, help me this day to abide in Thee.\n\nOh! what a wonderful place\n  Jesus has given to me!\nSaved by His glorious grace,\n  I may be even as He.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 14.\n\n\n\u201cInstead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree\u201d (Isa. lv. 13).\n\nDifficulties and obstacles are God\u2019s challenges to faith. When hindrances\nconfront us in the path of duty we are to recognize them as vessels for\nfaith to fill with the fulness and all-sufficiency of Jesus, and as we go\nforward, simply and fully trusting Him, we may be tested, we may have to\nwait and let patience have her perfect work, but we shall surely find at\nlast the stone rolled away, and the Lord waiting to render unto us double\nfor our time of testing, and fulfil the promise, \u201cInstead of the thorn\nshall come up the fir tree, instead of the brier the myrtle tree, and it\nshall be to the Lord for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.\u201d\n\nOft there comes a wondrous message\n  When my hopes are growing dim;\nI can hear it through the darkness,\n  Like some sweet and far-off hymn.\nNothing is too hard for Jesus,\n  No man can work like Him.\n\nWhen my way is closed in darkness\n  And my foes are fierce and grim,\nStill it sings above the conflict\n  Like some glad, victorious hymn:\nNothing is too hard for Jesus,\n  No man can work like Him.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 15.\n\n\n\u201cWhen my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the Rock that is higher than I\u201d\n(Ps. lxi. 2).\n\nThe end of self is the beginning of God. \u201cWhen the tale of bricks is\ndoubled then comes Moses.\u201d That is the old Hebrew way of putting it.\n\u201cMan\u2019s extremity is God\u2019s opportunity.\u201d That is the proverbial expression\nof it. \u201cWhen my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher\nthan I.\u201d That is David\u2019s way of expressing it. \u201cWe have no might against\nthis company, neither know we what to do.\u201d No might, no light\u2014\u201cbut our\neyes are upon Thee,\u201d that was Jehoshaphat\u2019s experience of it. \u201cMine eyes\nfail with looking upward. I am oppressed, Lord, undertake for me.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen I had great trouble I always went to God and was wondrously carried\nthrough; but in my little trials I used to try to manage them myself, and\noften most signally failed.\u201d So Miss Havergal has expressed the experience\nof many a Christian. God wants us \u201cat our wit\u2019s end,\u201d and then He will\nshow His wisdom, love and power. How often we ask God to help, and then\nbegin to count up the human probabilities! God\u2019s very blessings become a\nhindrance to us if we look from Him to them.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 16.\n\n\n\u201cI will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker\nworm and the caterpillar and the palmer worm, my great army, which I sent\namong you\u201d (Joel ii. 25).\n\nA friend said to me once: \u201cI have got to reap what I sowed, for God has\nsaid: \u2018Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.\u2019 Then why don\u2019t\nyou apply this in the spiritual world, and compel the sinner to pay the\npenalty of his sins?\u201d\n\nChrist has borne this penalty, and the same Christ has borne the natural\npenalties, too, and delivered us out of condemnation in every sense.\nPhysical sufferings come to us, but not under the law of retribution, but\nonly as a Divine discipline. Every penalty has been fulfilled by Christ\nand every law satisfied, and so far as we can have risen with Him into the\nplane of spiritual and eternal life, we are lifted above the mere realm of\nlaw, and we enter into the full effects of His complete satisfaction of\nevery claim against us. So it is true that even the wreck that sin has\nbrought upon our physical and temporal life is removed by His great\natonement, and the promise is made real to us, \u201cI will restore to you the\nyears that the locust hath eaten.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 17.\n\n\n\u201cBe careful for nothing\u201d (Phil. iv. 6).\n\nWhat is the way to lay your burden down? \u201cTake My yoke upon you, and learn\nof Me; for I am meek and and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto\nyour souls.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor My yoke is easy and My burden is light.\u201d That is the way to take His\nburden up. You will find that His burden is always light. Yours is a very\nheavy one. Happy day if you have exchanged burdens and laid down your\nloads at His blessed feet to take up His own instead. God wants to rest\nHis workers, and He is too kind to put His burden on hearts that are\nalready bowed down with their own weight of cares.\n\nAre you fearing, fretting or repining?\n  You can never know God\u2019s perfect peace.\nOn His bosom all your weight reclining.\n  All your anxious doubts and cares must cease.\nWould you know the peace that God has given?\nWould you find the very joy of heaven?\nBe careful for nothing,\nBe prayerful for everything,\nBe thankful for anything,\nAnd the peace of God that passeth understanding\n  Shall keep your mind and heart.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 18.\n\n\n\u201cThe faith of the Son of God\u201d (Gal. ii. 20).\n\nFaith is hindered most of all by what we call \u201cour faith,\u201d and fruitless\nstruggles to work out a faith which is but a make-believe and a desperate\ntrying to trust God, which must ever come short of His vast and glorious\npromises. The truth is that the only faith that is equal to the stupendous\npromises of God and the measureless needs of our life, is \u201cthe faith of\nGod\u201d Himself, the very trust which He will breathe into the heart which\nintelligently expects Him as its power to believe, as well as its power to\nlove, obey, or perform any other exercise of the new life.\n\nBlessed be His name! He has not given us a chain which reaches within a\nsingle link of our poor helpless heart, but that one last link is fatal to\nall the chain. Nay, the last link, the one that fastens on the human side\nis as Divine as the link that binds the chain of promise in the heavens.\n\u201cHave the faith of God,\u201d is His great command. \u201cI live by the faith of the\nSon of God\u201d is the victorious testimony of one who had proved it true.\n\nLord, teach me to have the faith of the Son of God.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 19.\n\n\n\u201cGod giveth grace unto the humble\u201d (James iv. 6).\n\nOne of the marks of highest worth is deep lowliness. The shallow nature,\nconscious of its weakness and insufficiency, is always trying to advertise\nitself and make sure of its being appreciated. The strong nature,\nconscious of its strength, is willing to wait and let its work be made\nmanifest in due time. Indeed, the truest natures are so free from all\nself-consciousness and self-consideration that their object is not to be\nappreciated, understood or recompensed, but to accomplish their true\nmission and fulfil the real work of life.\n\nOne of the most suggestive expressions used respecting the Lord Jesus is\ngiven by the evangelist John in the thirteenth chapter of His Gospel,\nwhere we read, \u201cJesus, knowing that He came from God, and went to God,\nriseth from supper and began to wash the disciples\u2019 feet.\u201d It was because\nHe knew His high dignity and His high destiny that He could stoop to the\nlowest place and that place could not degrade Him.\n\nGod give to us the Divine insignia of heavenly rank, a bowed head, a meek\nand lowly spirit.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 20.\n\n\n\u201cThat I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,\nministering the Gospel of God\u201d (Rom. xv. 16).\n\nThis is a very beautiful and practical conception of missionary work.\nThere is a great difference in being consecrated to our God. We may be\nconsecrated to our work and consecrated to our God. We may be consecrated\nand fitted to do missionary work, and utterly fail, if He should call us\nto do something different. But when we are consecrated to Him, we shall be\nready for anything He may require of us, and be as well qualified to serve\nHim by the sick bed of a brother, or even in the secular duties of home,\nas in standing in the pulpit or leading a soul to Christ.\n\nPaul\u2019s conception is holy work, or a special sacrifice, and directly unto\nChrist, and Christ alone; and he stood as one should stand at the altar of\nincense, lifting up with holy hands the Gentile nations unto God, and\nlaying all his work like fragrant incense before the throne, pleased only\nwith what would please his Master, and stand the test of His inspection,\nand the seal of His approval in that glorious day.\n\nThis is the spirit of true service.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 21.\n\n\n\u201cGive us day by day our daily bread\u201d (Luke xi. 3).\n\nIt is very hard to live a lifetime at once, or even a year, but it is\ndelightfully easy to live a day at a time. Day by day the manna fell, so\nday by day we may live upon the heavenly bread, and live out our life for\nHim. Let us, breath by breath, moment by moment, step by step, abide in\nHim, and, just as we take care of the days, He will take care of the\nyears.\n\nGod has given two precious promises for the days. \u201cAs thy days so shall\nthy strength be,\u201d is His ancient covenant, and the literal translation of\nour Master\u2019s parting words to His disciples is, \u201cLo, I am with you all the\ndays, even unto the end of the age.\u201d\n\nLike the little water spider that goes down beneath the waters of the pool\nenclosed in a bubble of air, and there builds its nest and rears its\nyoung, and lives its little life in that bright sphere down beneath the\nslimy pool, so let us in this dark world shut ourselves in with Christ in\nthe little circle of each returning day, and so abide in Him, breathing\nthe air of heaven and living in His love.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 22.\n\n\n\u201cMy tongue also shall talk of Thy righteousness all the day long\u201d (Ps.\nlxxi. 24).\n\nIt is a simple law of nature, that air always comes in to fill a vacuum.\nYou can produce a draught at any time, by heating the air until it\nascends, and then the cold air rushes in to supply its place. And so we\ncan always be filled with the Holy Spirit by providing a vacuum. This\nbreath is dependent upon exhausting the previous breath before you can\ninhale a fresh one. And so we must empty our hearts of the last breath of\nthe Holy Spirit that we have received, for it becomes exhausted the moment\nwe have received it, and we need a new supply, to prevent spiritual\nasphyxia.\n\nWe must learn the secret of breathing out, as well as breathing in. Now,\nthe breathing in will continue if the other part is rightly done. One of\nthe best ways to make room for the Holy Spirit is to recognize the needs\nthat come into the life as vacuums for Him to fill, and we shall find\nplenty of needs all around us to be filled, and as we pour out our lives\nin holy service, He will pour His in\u2014in full measure.\n\nJesus, empty me and fill me\nWith Thy fulness to the brim.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 23.\n\n\n\u201cOut of the spoils won in battles, did they dedicate to maintain the house\nof the Lord\u201d (I. Chron. xxvi. 27).\n\nPhysical force is stored in the bowels of the earth, in the coal mines,\nwhich came from the fiery heat that burned up great forests in ancient\nages. And so spiritual force is stored in the depths of our being, through\nthe very sufferings which we cannot understand. Some day we shall find\nthat the deliverance we have won from these trials were preparing us to\nbecome true \u201cGreat Hearts\u201d in life\u2019s Pilgrim\u2019s Progress, and to lead our\nfellow pilgrims triumphantly through trial to the city of the King.\n\nBut let us never forget that the source of helping other people must be\nvictorious suffering. The whining, murmuring pang never does anybody any\ngood. Paul did not carry a cemetery with him, but a chorus choir of\nvictorious praise, and the harder the trial, the more he trusted and\nrejoiced, shouting from the very altar of sacrifice, \u201cYea, and if I be\noffered upon the service and sacrifice of your faith, I joy and rejoice\nwith you all.\u201d\n\nLord, help me this day to draw strength from all that comes to me.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 24.\n\n\n\u201cAnd seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not; for behold I\nwill bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord; but thy life will I give\nunto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest\u201d (Jer. xlv. 5).\n\nA promise given for hard places, and a promise of safety and life in the\nmidst of tremendous pressure, a life for a prey.\n\nIt may well adjust itself to our own times, which are growing harder as we\nnear the end of the age, and the tribulation times.\n\nWhat is the meaning of \u201ca life for a prey\u201d? It means a life snatched out\nof the jaws of the destroyer, as David snatched the lamb from the lion. It\nmeans not a place of security, or of removal from the noise of the battle,\nand the presence of our foes, but it means a table in the midst of our\nenemies, a shelter from the storm, a fortress amid the foe, a life\npreserved in the face of continual pressure, Paul\u2019s healing when pressed\nout of measure so that he despaired even of life, Paul\u2019s Divine help when\nthe thorn remained, but the power of Christ rested upon him and the grace\nof Christ was sufficient.\n\nLord, give me my life for a prey, and in the hardest places help me to-day\nto be victorious.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 25.\n\n\n\u201cI bring you glad tidings\u201d (Luke ii. 10).\n\nA Christmas spirit should be a spirit of humanity. Beside that beautiful\nobject lesson on the Manger, the Cradle, and the lowly little child, what\nChristian heart can ever wish to be proud? It is a spirit of joy. It is\nright that these should be glad tidings, for, \u201cBehold, I bring you glad\ntidings of great joy which shall be to all people.\u201d\n\nIt is a spirit of love. It should be the joy that comes from giving joy to\nothers. The central fact of Christmas is the Christ who loved us, and came\nto live among us and die for us, and he or she has no right to share its\njoys who is living for himself or herself alone.\n\nLove is always sacrificial, and so the Christmas spirit will call us to a\nglad and full surrender, first to God, and then the joyful sacrifice of\nwhat we call our own for His glory and the good of others.\n\nThe Christmas spirit is a spirit of worship. It finds the Magi at His feet\nwith their gold and frankincense and myrrh. Let it find us there, too.\n\nThe Christmas spirit is a spirit of missions. Its glad tidings are for all\npeople.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 26.\n\n\n\u201cThe Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy\u201d (James iv. 5).\n\nThis beautiful passage has been unhappily translated in our Revised\nVersion: \u201cThe Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.\u201d It ought to be,\n\u201cThe Spirit that dwelleth in us loveth us to jealousy.\u201d It is the figure\nof a love that suffers because of its intense regard for the loved object.\n\nThe Holy Ghost is so anxious to accomplish in us and for us the highest\nwill of God, and to receive from us the truest love for Christ, our Divine\nHusband, that He becomes jealous when in any way we disappoint Him, or\ndivide His love with others.\n\nTherefore, it is said in the preceding passage, \u201cYe adulterers and\nadulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with\nGod?\u201d\n\nOh, shall we grieve so kind a Friend? Shall we disappoint so loving a\nHusband? Shall we not meet the blessed Holy Spirit with the love He brings\nus, and give in return our undivided and unbounded affection?\n\nWas there ever a Bridegroom so loving seeking our heart to gain?\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 27.\n\n\n\u201cHe sent forth the dove which returned not again unto him\u201d (Gen. viii.\n12).\n\nFirst, we have the dove going forth from the ark, and finding no rest upon\nthe wild and drifting waste of sin and judgment. This represents the Old\nTestament period, perhaps, when the Holy Ghost visited this sinful world,\nbut could find no resting-place, and went back to the bosom of God.\n\nNext, we have the dove going forth and returning with the olive leaf in\nher mouth, the symbol and the pledge of peace and reconciliation, the sign\nthat judgment was passed and peace was returning. Surely this may\nbeautifully represent the next stage of the Holy Spirit\u2019s manifestation,\nas going forth in the ministry and death of Jesus Christ, to proclaim\nreconciliation to a sinful world.\n\nThere is a third stage, when, at length, the dove goes forth from the ark\nand returns no more; but it makes the world its home, and builds its nest\namid the habitations of men. This is the third and present stage of the\nHoly Spirit\u2019s blessed work. Let us welcome the Dove to a nest in our\nhearts.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 28.\n\n\n\u201cThe Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him\u201d (Acts v. 32).\n\nWe can only know and prove the fulness of the Spirit as we step out into\nthe larger purposes and plans of Christ for the world.\n\nPerhaps the chief reason why the Holy Spirit has been so limited in His\nwork in the hearts of Christians, is the shameful neglect of the unsaved\nand unevangelized world by the great majority of the professed followers\nof Christ. There are millions of professing Christians\u2014and, perhaps, real\nChristians\u2014in the world, who have never given one real, earnest thought to\nthe evangelization of the heathen world.\n\nGod will not give the Holy Spirit in His fulness for the selfish enjoyment\nof any Christian. His power is a great trust, which we must use for the\nbenefit of others and for the evangelization of the lost and sinful world.\nNot until the people of God awake to understand His real purpose for the\nsalvation of men, will the Church ever know the fulness of her Pentecost.\nGod\u2019s promised power must lie along the line of duty, and as we obey the\ncommand, we shall receive His promise in his fulness.\n\nLord, help me to understand Thy plan.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 29.\n\n\n\u201cI have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God\u201d (Acts xx.\n27).\n\nIt is probable that God lets every human being, that crosses our path,\nmeet us, in order that we may have the opportunity of leaving some\nblessing in his path, and dropping into his heart and life some influence\nthat will draw him nearer to God. It would be blessed, indeed, if we could\nmeet every immortal soul, at last, that we have ever touched in the path\nof life, and truly say, \u201cI am pure from the blood of all men.\u201d\n\nBeloved, is it so? The servant that works in your household; the man that\nsat beside you in the train; the laborer that wrought for you, and, above\nall, the members of your household and family, your fellow-laborer in the\nshop or factory, have you done your best to lead them to Christ?\n\nThe early Christians regarded every situation as an opportunity to witness\nfor Christ. Even when brought before kings and governors, it never\noccurred to them that they were to try to get free, but the Master\u2019s\nmessage to them was, \u201cIt shall turn to you for a testimony.\u201d It was simply\nan occasion to preach to kings and rulers, whom otherwise they could not\nreach.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 30.\n\n\n\u201cThat God would fulfil in you all the good pleasure of His goodness, and\nthe work of faith with power\u201d (II. Thess. i. 11).\n\nOur God is looking to-day for pattern men, and when He gets a true sample,\nit is very easy to reproduce it in a thousand editions, and multiply it in\nother lives without limitation.\n\nAll the experiences of life come to us as tests, and as we meet them, our\nloving Father is watching with intense and jealous love, to see us\novercome, and if we fail He is deeply disappointed, and our adversary is\nfilled with joy.\n\nWe are a gazing-stock continually for angels and principalities, and every\nstep we take is critical and decisive for something in our eternal future.\n\nWhen Abraham went forth that morning to Mount Moriah, it was an hour of\nsolemn probation, and when he came back he was one of God\u2019s tested men,\nwith the stamp of His eternal approbation. God could say, \u201cI know him,\nthat he will do judgment and justice, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham\nall that He hath spoken.\u201d\n\nGod is looking for such men to-day. Lord, help me to be such an one.\n\n\n\n\n\nDECEMBER 31.\n\n\n\u201cI pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou\nshouldst keep them from the evil\u201d (John xvii. 15).\n\nHe wants us here for some higher purpose than mere existence. That purpose\nis nothing else than to represent Him to the world, to be the messengers\nof His Gospel and His will to men, and by our lives to exhibit to them the\ntrue life, and teach them how to live it themselves.\n\nHe is representing us yonder, and our one business is to represent Him\nhere. We are just as truly sent into this world to represent Him as if we\nhad gone to China as the ambassador of the American Government.\n\nWhile engaged in the secular affairs of life, it is simply that we may\nrepresent Him there, carry on His business, and have means to use for His\naffairs. He came here from another realm, and with a special message, and\nwhen His work was done He was called to go home to His Father\u2019s\ndwelling-place and His own.\n\nLord, help me to worthily represent Thee.\n\nAnd carry music in our heart\nThrough busy street and wrangling mart;\nPlying our daily task with busier feet,\nBecause our souls a heavenly strain repeat.","title":"Days of Heaven Upon Earth","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":76896}