diff options
Diffstat (limited to '23241-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/23241-h.htm | 13786 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-a.png | bin | 0 -> 5626 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-b.png | bin | 0 -> 5758 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-c.png | bin | 0 -> 5571 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-d.png | bin | 0 -> 5763 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-e.png | bin | 0 -> 5751 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-f.png | bin | 0 -> 5592 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-g.png | bin | 0 -> 5126 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-h.png | bin | 0 -> 5555 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-i.png | bin | 0 -> 5572 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-j.png | bin | 0 -> 5682 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-l.png | bin | 0 -> 5730 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-m.png | bin | 0 -> 5846 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-n.png | bin | 0 -> 5674 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-o.png | bin | 0 -> 5646 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-p.png | bin | 0 -> 5677 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-s.png | bin | 0 -> 5857 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-t.png | bin | 0 -> 5645 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-u.png | bin | 0 -> 5795 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-w.png | bin | 0 -> 5974 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/img-y.png | bin | 0 -> 5899 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/imgflowers-even.png | bin | 0 -> 14432 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/imgflowers-odd.png | bin | 0 -> 14945 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/imgfrontis.jpg | bin | 0 -> 108981 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/imggrapes-even.png | bin | 0 -> 17884 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23241-h/images/imggrapes-odd.png | bin | 0 -> 15510 bytes |
26 files changed, 13786 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/23241-h/23241-h.htm b/23241-h/23241-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6839c7b --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/23241-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13786 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year, by John Henry Jowett</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + + .heading { font-size: 1.3em; + font-weight: bold; } + + .heading1 { font-size: 1.3em; + font-weight: bold; + text-decoration: underline;} + + .indent { margin-left: 5%; } + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + #page_content { + margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + } + + .ralign {position: relative; right: 10%;} + + + a { text-decoration: none; } + + .pagenum { visibility: hidden; + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: thick double;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px} + .centerbox { width: 55%; + margin: 0 auto; + padding: 2em; } + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + .lge {font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.5em;} + .sub {text-decoration: underline; font-size: 1.8em;} + .mid {font-size: 1.2em;} + .midh {text-decoration: underline; font-size: 1.2em;} + .sml {font-size: .8em;} + + .figcenter { margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: + .2em; margin-right: .25em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .poem {margin-left:15%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i1a {display: block; margin-left: .5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 85%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year, by +John Henry Jowett</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year</p> +<p>Author: John Henry Jowett</p> +<p>Release Date: October 29, 2007 [eBook #23241]<br /> +Most recently updated: August 16, 2012</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY DAILY MEDITATION FOR THE CIRCLING YEAR***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Anne Storer,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<p>Transcriber’s Notes:<br /> +<br /> +1. Links to beginning of each month added after Foreword.<br /> +<br /> +2. In the "April 15" meditation, the author mentions reading from Tennyson's +"Palace of Sin", which doesn't appear to exist. Possibly "Vision of Sin" +was meant?</p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>DAILY MEDITATION</h1> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="centerbox bbox"> +<p class="center">“<em>The greatest living master of the homiletic art.</em>”<br /> +—<em>British Weekly.</em></p> + +<h1>By J. H. JOWETT, D.D.<br /> +===================</h1> + +<p class="heading">Things That Matter Most</p> +<p class="indent">Devotional Papers. A Book of Spiritual Uplift and Comfort.<br /> +12mo, cloth, <span style="margin-left: 15em;">net $1.25</span></p> + +<p class="heading">The Transfigured Church</p> +<p class="indent">A Portrayal of the Possibilities Within the Church.<br /> +12mo, cloth, <span style="margin-left: 15em;">net $1.25</span></p> + +<p class="heading">The High Calling</p> +<p class="indent">Meditations on St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians.<br /> +12mo, cloth, <span style="margin-left: 15em;">net $1.25</span></p> + +<p class="heading">The Silver Lining</p> +<p class="indent">A Message of Hope and Cheer, for the Troubled and Tried.<br /> +12mo, cloth, <span style="margin-left: 15em;">net $1.00</span></p> + +<p class="heading">Our Blessed Dead</p> +<p class="indent">16mo, boards, <span style="margin-left: 15em;">net 25c</span></p> + +<p class="heading">The Passion for Souls</p> +<p class="indent">Devotional Messages for Christian Workers.<br /> +16mo, cloth, <span style="margin-left: 15.5em;">net 50c</span></p> + +<p class="heading">The Folly of Unbelief</p> +<p class="indent">And Other Meditations for Quiet Moments.<br /> +12mo, cloth, <span style="margin-left: 15.5em;">net 50c</span></p> + +<p class="heading1"><em>SENTENCE PRAYERS for EVERY DAY</em></p> +<p class="indent">“Brief, pertinent, helpful. Each prayer +can be read in a minute,<br /> +but will give inspiration for the entire day.”</p> + +<p class="heading">The Daily Altar</p> +<p class="indent">A Prayer for Each Day. Cloth, <span style="margin-left: 9em;">net 25c</span><br /> +Leather, <span style="margin-left: 17.5em;">net 35c</span></p> + +<p class="heading">Yet Another Day</p> +<p class="indent">A Prayer for Each Day. 32mo, cloth, <span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">net 25c</span><br /> +Leather, <span style="margin-left: 17.5em;">net 35c</span><br /> +A new large type edition. Cloth, <span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">net 75c</span><br /> +Leather, <span style="margin-left: 16.5em;">net $1.00</span></p> + +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 466px;"> +<img src="images/imgfrontis.jpg" width="466" height="700" alt="Title Page" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p class="center">Copyright, 1914, by<br /> +<strong>FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY</strong></p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center">New York: 158 Fifth Avenue<br /> +Chicago: 125 N. Wabash Ave.<br /> +Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W.<br /> +London: 21 Paternoster Square<br /> +Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>FOREWORD</h2> + + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 60px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="60" height="60" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE title of this book sufficiently interprets its purpose. I hope it may +lead to such practical meditation upon the Word of God as will supply +vision to common tasks, and daily nourishment to the conscience and +will. And I trust that it may so engage the thoughts upon the wonders of +meditation, as will fortify the soul for its high calling in Jesus Christ +our Lord.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 28em;" class="smcap">J. H. Jowett.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 5em;">Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">New York.</span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<table style="width:75%;" border="1" summary="Index"> + <tr> + <td> <a href="#JAN">JANUARY</a></td> + <td> <a href="#FEB">FEBRUARY</a></td> + <td> <a href="#MAR">MARCH</a></td> + <td> <a href="#APR">APRIL</a></td> + <td> <a href="#MAY">MAY</a></td> + <td> <a href="#JUN">JUNE</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> <a href="#JUL">JULY</a></td> + <td> <a href="#AUG">AUGUST</a></td> + <td> <a href="#SEP">SEPTEMBER</a></td> + <td> <a href="#OCT">OCTOBER</a></td> + <td> <a href="#NOV">NOVEMBER</a></td> + <td> <a href="#DEC">DECEMBER</a></td> + </tr> + +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div id="page_content"> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 1]</span><a name="JAN" id="JAN"></a></p> +<h2>JANUARY The First</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE UNKNOWN JOURNEY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He went out not knowing whither he went.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Hebrews</span> xi. 6-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div> +<p>BRAM began his journey without any knowledge of his ultimate destination. +He obeyed a noble impulse without any discernment of its consequences. He +took “one step,” and he did not “ask to see the distant scene.” And that +is faith, to do God’s will here and now, quietly leaving the results to +Him. Faith is not concerned with the entire chain; its devoted attention +is fixed upon the immediate link. Faith is not knowledge of a moral +process; it is fidelity in a moral act. Faith leaves something to the +Lord; it obeys His immediate commandment and leaves to Him direction and +destiny.</p> + +<p>And so faith is accompanied by serenity. “He that believeth shall not make +haste”—or, more literally, “shall not get into a fuss.” He shall not get +into a panic, neither fetching fears from his yesterdays nor from his +to-morrows. Concerning his yesterdays faith says, “Thou hast beset me +behind.” Concerning his to-morrows faith says, “Thou hast beset me +before.” Concerning his to-day faith says, “Thou hast laid Thine hand +upon me.” That is enough, just to feel the pressure of the guiding hand.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 2]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LARGER OUTLOOK</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xv. 5-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven!” The +tent was changed for the sky! Abraham sat moodily in his tent: God brought +him forth beneath the stars. And that is always the line of the Divine +leading. He brings us forth out of our small imprisonments and He sets our +feet in a large place. He desires for us height and breadth of view. For +“as the heavens are high above the earth” so are His thoughts higher than +our thoughts, and His ways than our ways. He wishes us, I say, to exchange +the tent for the sky, and to live and move in great, spacious thoughts of +His purposes and will.</p> + +<p>How is it with our love? Is it a thing of the tent or of the sky? Does it +range over mighty spaces seeking benedictions for a multitude? Or does it +dwell in selfish seclusion, imprisoned in merely selfish quest? How is it +with our prayers? How big are they? Will a tent contain them, or do they +move with the scope and greatness of the heavens? Do they just contain our +own families, or is China in them, and India, and “the uttermost parts of +the earth”? “Look now towards the heavens!” Such must be our outlook if we +are the companions of God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 3]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE NEVER-FAILING SPRINGS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xvii. 1-8.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> WILL establish My covenant.” The good promises of God are never +revoked. They are like springs which know no shrinking in times of +drought. Nay, in time of drought they reveal a richer fulness. The +promises are confirmed in the hour of my need, and the greater my need the +greater is my bounty. And so it was that the Apostle Paul came to “rejoice +in his infirmities,” for through his infirmities he discovered the riches +of Divine grace. He brought a bigger pitcher to the fountain, and he +always carried it away full. “As thy days so shall thy strength be.”</p> + +<p>So I need never fear that the promise of yesterday will exhaust itself +before to-morrow. God’s covenant goes with us like the ever-fresh waters +of the wilderness. “They drank of that rock which followed them, and that +rock was Christ.” Every fulfilment of God’s promise is the pledge of one +to come.</p> + +<p>God has no road without its springs. If His path stretches across the +waste wilderness the “fountains shall break out in the desert,” and “the +wilderness shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 4]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE GOD OF THEIR SUCCEEDING RACE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Exodus</span> vi. 2-8.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> APPEARED unto Abraham.... I will be to you a God.” The covenant made +with the father was renewed to the children. The father’s death did not +disannul the promise of the Lord. Death has no power in the realms of +grace. His moth and his rust can never destroy the ministries of Divine +love. Abraham died and was laid to rest, but the river of life flowed on, +and the bounties of the Lord never failed. The village well quenches the +thirst of many generations: and so is it through the generations with the +wells of grace and salvation. The villagers have not to dig a new well +when the patriarch dies: “the river of God is full of water.”</p> + +<p>And thus I am privileged to share the spiritual resources of Abraham, and +the still richer resources of the Apostle Paul. Nothing was given to him +that is withheld from me. He is like a great mountaineer, and he has +climbed to lofty heights; but I need not be dismayed. All the strength +that was given to him, in which he reached those lofty places, is mine +also. I may share his elevation and his triumph. “For the promise is +unto you and your children, and to all that are afar off.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 5]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE FLOWERS THAT NEVER FADE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Peter</span> i. 1-9.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>N inheritance incorruptible.” I am writing these words in the Island +of Arran. To-morrow I shall leave the land behind, but I shall take the +landscape with me! It will be with me in the coming winter, and I shall +gaze upon Goat Fell in the streets of New York. The land is a temporary +possession, the landscape abides!</p> + +<p>The praise of men often dies with the shout that proclaims it. Another +idol appears and the feverish worship is transferred to him. The world’s +garland begins to fade as soon as it is laid upon the brow. The morning +after the coronation I possess a handful of withering leaves. But the +garland of God’s praise acquires new grace and beauty with the years. It +is never so fresh and flourishing as just when everything else is fading +away. It is glorious in the hour of death! The soul goes, wearing her +garland, into the presence of the gracious Lord who gave it.</p> + +<p>We can begin even now to wear the flowers of Paradise. We can begin even +now to furnish our minds with lovely thoughts and memories. We can have +“the mind of Christ.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 6]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>“<em>COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS</em>”</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cv. 1-15.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/img-c.png" width="78" height="80" alt="C" title="" /> +</div><p>OUNT your blessings!” Yes, but over what area shall I look for them? +There is my personal life. Let me search in every corner. I have found +forget-me-nots on many a rutty road. I have found wild-roses behind a +barricade of nettles. Professor Miall has a lecture on “The Botany of a +Railway Station.” He found something graceful and exquisite in the midst +of its soot and grime. So I must look even in the dark patches of life, +among my disappointments and defeats, and even there I shall find tokens +of the Lord’s presence, some flowers of His planting.</p> + +<p>And there is my share in the life of the nation. “Ye seed of Abraham His +servant, ye children of Jacob His chosen.” There are hands that stretch +out to me from past days, laden with bequests of privilege and freedom. +Our feet “stand in a large place,” and the place was cleared by the +fidelity and the courage of the men of old. I have countless blessings +that were bought with blood. The red marks of sacrifice are over all my +daily ways. Let me not take the inheritance and overlook the blood marks, +and stride about as though it were nought but common ground. Mercies +abound on every hand! “Count your blessings!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 7]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>A JOURNAL OF MERCIES</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Nehemiah</span> ix. 6-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HOU hast performed Thy words: for Thou art righteous.” Frances Ridley +Havergal kept a journal of mercies. She had a record book, and she crowded +it with her remembrances of God’s goodness. She was always on the look-out +for tokens of the Lord’s grace and bounty, and she found them everywhere. +Everywhere she had communion with a covenant-keeping God. The Bible became +to her more and more the history of her own life and experience. Promise +after promise told the story of her own triumphs. She appropriated the +goodness of God, and she set her own seal to the testimony that God is +true.</p> + +<p>Many a complaining life would be changed into music and song by a journal +of mercies. Many a fear can be dispersed by a ready remembrance. Memory +can be made the handmaid of hope. Yesterday’s blessing can kindle the +courage of to-day. That is the purposed ministry of “the days that have +been.” We are to harness the strength of their experiences to the tasks +and burdens of to-day; and in the remembrance of God’s providences we +shall march through our difficulties with singing.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 8]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>HE IS FAITHFUL!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Kings</span> viii. 54-61.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HERE hath not failed one word of all His good promise.” Supposing one +word had failed, how then? If one golden promise had turned out to be +counterfeit, how then? If the ground had yielded anywhere we should +have been fearful and suspicious at every part of the road. If the bell +of God’s fidelity had been broken anywhere the music would have been +destroyed. But not one word has failed. The road has never given way in +time of flood. Every bell of heaven is perfectly sound, and the music is +full and glorious. “God is faithful, who also will do it.”</p> + +<p>“God is love,” and “love never faileth.” The lamp will not die out +at the midnight. The fountain will not fail us in the wilderness. The +consolations will not be wanting in the hour of our distresses. Love will +have “all things ready.” “He has promised, and shall He not do it?” All +the powers of heaven are pledged to the fulfilment of the smallest word of +grace. We can never be deserted! “God cannot deny Himself.” Every word of +His will unburden its treasure at the appointed hour, and I shall be rich +with the strength of my God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 9]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE PERILS OF POSSESSIONS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xiii. 1-9.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HERE is nothing more divisive than wealth. As families grow rich their +members frequently become alienated. It is rarely, indeed, that love +increases with the increase of riches. Luxurious possessions appear to be +a forcing-bed in which the seeds of sleeping vices waken into strength. +For one thing, selfishness is often quickened with success. Plenty, as +well as penury, can “freeze the genial currents of the soul.” And with +selfishness comes a whole brood of mean and petty dispositions. Envy comes +with it, and jealousy, and a morbid sensitiveness which readily leaps into +strife.</p> + +<p>So do our possessions multiply our temptations. So does the bright day +“bring forth the adder.” So do we need extra defences when “fortune smiles +upon us.” But our God can make us proof against “the fiery darts” of +success. Abram remained unscathed in “the garish day.” The Lord delivered +him from “the destruction that wasteth at noonday.” His wealth increased, +but it was not allowed to force itself between his soul and God. In the +midst of all his prosperity, he dwelt in “the secret place of the Most +High,” and he abode in “the shadow of the Almighty.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 10]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Tenth</h2> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LUST OF THE EYE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xiii. 10-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>OOK at Lot. He was a man of the world, sharp as a needle, having an eye +to the main chance. He boasted to himself that he always “took in the +whole situation.” He said that what he did not know was not worth knowing. +But such “knowing” men have always very imperfect sight. Lot saw “all the +well-watered plain of Jordan,” but he overlooked the city of Sodom and its +exceedingly wicked and sinful people. And the thing he overlooked was the +biggest thing in the outlook! It was to prove his undoing, and to bring +his presumptuous selfishness to the ground.</p> + +<p>Look at Abram. His spirit was cool and thoughtful, unheated by the +feverish yearning after increased possessions. He had a “quiet eye,” the +fruit of his faithful communion with God. He was more intent on peace than +plenty. He preferred fraternal fellowship to selfish increase. And so he +chose the unselfish way, and along that way he discovered the blessing of +God. “The Lord is mindful of His own. He remembereth His children.” In the +unselfish way we always enjoy the Divine companionship, and in that +companionship we are endowed with inconceivable wealth.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 11]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Eleventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>SELF-MADE OR GOD-MADE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> vi. 26-33.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HINK of Lot and then think of a lily of the field! Think of the +feverishness of the one and of the serenity of the other, or think of the +ugly selfishness of the one, and of the graceful beauty of the other! Look +upon avarice at its worst, upon a Shylock, and then gaze upon a lily of +the field! How alarming is the contrast! The one is self-made, guided by +vicious impulses; the other is the handiwork of God. The one is rooted in +self-will; the other is rooted in the power of the Divine grace. God has +nothing to do with the one; He has everything to do with the other. So one +becomes “big” and ugly; the other grows in strength and beauty.</p> + +<p>Now the wonder is this, that we, too, may be rooted in the power from +which the lily draws its grace. We may draw into our souls the wealth of +the Eternal, even the unsearchable riches of Christ. We may put on “the +beauty of holiness.” We may become clothed in the graces of the Spirit. +When we are in the field of the lilies we may appear unto the Lord as +kindred flowers of His own garden.</p> + +<p>“He that abideth in Me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit.” +“Rooted in Him,” we shall “grow up in all things unto Him.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 12]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Twelfth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>TWO OPPOSITES</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”<br />—1 <span class="smcap">John</span> +ii. 13-17.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-n.png" width="80" height="80" alt="N" title="" /> +</div><p>O man can love two opposites any more than he can walk in contrary +directions at the same time. No man can at once be mean and magnanimous, +chivalrous and selfish. We cannot at the same moment dress appropriately +for the arctic regions and the tropics. And we cannot wear the habits of +the world and the garments of salvation. When we try to do it the result +is a wretched and miserable compromise. I have seen a shopkeeper on the +Sabbath day put up one shutter, out of presumed respect for the Holy Lord, +and behind the shutter continue all the business of the world! That one +shutter is typical of all the religion that is left when a man “loves the +world” and delights in its prizes and crowns. His religion is a bit of +idle ritual which is an offence unto God!</p> + +<p>So I must make my choice. Shall I travel north or south? Which of the two +opposites shall I love—God or the world? Whichever love I choose will +drive out and quench the other. And thus if I choose the love of God it +will destroy every worldly passion, and the river of my affections and +desires will be like “the river of water of life, clear as crystal.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 13]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Thirteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE MIRACLE IN A DRY PLACE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cvii. 33-43.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>E turneth ... the dry ground into water-springs.” This is one of the +miracles of grace. The good Lord makes a dry experience the fountain of +blessing. I pass into an apparently waste place and I find riches of +consolation. Even in “the valley of the shadow” I come upon “green +pastures” and “still waters.” I find flowers in the ruts of the hardest +roads if I am in “the way of God’s commandments.” God’s providence is the +pioneer of every faithful pilgrim. “His blessed feet have gone before.” +What I shall need is already foreseen, and foresight with the Lord means +forethought and provision. Every hour gives the loyal disciples surprises +of grace.</p> + +<p>Let me therefore not fear when the path of duty turns into the wilderness. +The wilderness is as habitable with God as the crowded city, and in His +fellowship my bread and water are sure. The Lord has strange manna for the +children of disappointment, and He makes water to “gush forth from the +rock.” Duty can lead me nowhere without Him, and His provision is abundant +both in “the thirsty desert and the dewy mead.” There will be a spring at +the foot of every hill, and I shall find “lilies of peace” in the lonely +valley of humiliation.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 14]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Fourteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>FORGETTING GOD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Deuteronomy</span> viii. 11-20.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-b.png" width="79" height="80" alt="B" title="" /> +</div><p>EWARE ... lest when thou hast eaten and art full ... thine heart be +lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God.” I was in a little cottage +near Warwick. I said to the good man who lived in it, “Can you see the +castle?” and he replied, “We can see it best in the winter when the leaves +are off the trees. In the summer time it is apt to be hid!” The summer +bounty hid the castle; the winter barrenness revealed it! And so it is in +life. In the season of fulness we are prone to be blind to “the house of +many mansions,” and we forget the Master of the house, the Lord our God. +Our material wealth hides our eternal treasure.</p> + +<p>What, then, shall we do in the days of our prosperity, when all our trees +are in full leaf? We must pray that material things may never become +opaque, that they may be always transparent, so that through the seen we +may behold the unseen. This is a gift of the Spirit, and it may be ours. +He will anoint our eyes with the eye-salve of grace, and everything will +become to us a symbol of something better, so that even in the midst of +material plenty our hearts will be with our treasure in heaven. Everything +will be to us “as it were transparent glass.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 15]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Fifteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE MINISTRY OF PRAISE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxv.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Lord hath been mindful of us: He will bless us.” In that joyful +assurance there is both retrospect and prospect. There is the trodden +pathway of Providence, and there is the star of hope! The eyes are +steadied and refreshed in sacred memories, and then they gaze into the +future with serene and happy confidence. And so the Ebenezer of the soul +becomes both a thanksgiving and a reconsecration.</p> + +<p>Now perhaps our hopes are thin because our praises are scanty. Perhaps our +expectations are clouded because our memories are dim. There is nothing so +quickens hope as a journey among the mercies of our yesterdays. The heart +lays aside its fears amid the accumulated blessings of our God. Worries +pass away like cloudlets in the warmth of a summer’s morning. And the +recollections of God’s goodness always make summer even in the wintriest +day.</p> + +<p>Now I see why the New Testament is so urgent in the matter of praise. +Without praise many other virtues and graces cannot be born. Without +praise they have no breath of life. Praise quickens a radiant company +of heavenly presences, and among them is the shining spirit of hope.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 16]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Sixteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE DISTINCTION OF BEING RECOGNIZED</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> x. 1-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Good Shepherd knows His sheep, and knows them by name. And that is +what I am tempted to forget. I think of myself as one of an innumerable +multitude, no one of whom receives personal attention. “My way is +overlooked by my God.” But here is the evangel—the Saviour would +miss me, even me!</p> + +<p>At a great orchestral rehearsal, which Sir Michael Costa was conducting, +the man who played the piccolo stayed his fingers for a moment, thinking +that his trifling contribution would never be missed. At once Sir Michael +raised his hand, and said: “Stop! Where’s the piccolo?” He missed the +individual note. And my Lord needs the note of my life to make the music +of His Kingdom, and if the note be absent He will miss it, and the +glorious music will be broken and incomplete.</p> + +<p>There is a common vice of self-conceit, but there is also a common vice of +excessive self-depreciation. “My Lord can do nothing with me!” Yes, my +Lord knows thee and needs thee! And by the power of His grace thou canst +accomplish wonders!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 17]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Seventeenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>My sheep hear My voice!</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">John</span> x. 19-30.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HIS is spiritual discernment. We may test our growth in grace by our +expertness in detecting the voice of our Lord. It is the skill of the +saint to catch “the still small voice” amid all the selfish clamours of +the day, and amid the far more subtle callings of the heart. It needs a +good ear to catch the voice of the Lord in our sorrows. I think it +requires a better ear to discern the voice amid our joys! The twilight +helps me to be serious; the noonday glare tends to make me heedless.</p> + +<p>“<em>And they follow Me!</em>” Discernment is succeeded by obedience. That is the +one condition of becoming a saint—to follow the immediate call of the +Lord. And it is the one condition of becoming an expert listener. Every +time I hear the voice, and follow, I sharpen my sense of hearing, and the +next time the voice will sound more clear.</p> + +<p>“<em>And I give unto them eternal life.</em>” Yes, life is found in the ways of +a listening obedience. Every faculty and function will be vitalized when I +follow the Lord of life and glory. “In Christ shall all be made alive.”</p> + +<p>My Saviour, graciously give me the listening ear! Give me the obedient +heart.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 18]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY the Eighteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>FALSE SHEPHERDS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ezekiel</span> xxxiv. 1-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HIS word of the Lord puts before me the unlovely lineaments of the false +shepherds.</p> + +<p>They are self-seeking. They “<em>feed themselves</em>,” but they “<em>feed not +the flock</em>.” They take up religion for what they can make out of it! It +is a carnal ambition, not a holy service. It is used for getting, not for +giving, for self-glorification and not for self-sacrifice. It is +selfishness masquerading as holiness, the thief in the garb of the +shepherd.</p> + +<p>And, therefore, the false shepherds are devoid of sympathy. “<em>The diseased +have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick.</em>” +Selfishness always tends to benumbment. Humaneness is fostered by +sacrifice. Our sympathetic chords are kept refined by chivalrous deeds. +Drop the deeds and all our refinements begin to coarsen, and we make no +response to our brother’s cries of need and pain.</p> + +<p>And because there is no sympathy there is no quest. “<em>My sheep wandered +... and none did seek after them.</em>” How can we seek them if we have never +missed them, if we have no sense that they are lost? Our Lord came in +travail of soul to “seek that which was lost.” And I must share His +travail if I would share in the search.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 19]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Nineteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LOST SHEEP</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ezekiel</span> xxxiv. 11-19.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND now, again, I am bidden to contemplate the gracious ministries of the +Good Shepherd.</p> + +<p>The Good Shepherd searches the “far country” for His lost sheep. “<em>I will +bring them ... out of all places where they have been scattered.</em>” He goes +into the hard wilderness of cold indifference, and wasteful pride, and +desolating sin, searching “high and low” for His foolish sheep. And no +place is unvisited by the Great Seeker! Every perilous ravine, where a +sheep can be lost, knows the footprints of the Shepherd. And He knows my +far-country, and He is seeking me!</p> + +<p>And the Good Shepherd brings His wandering sheep back home. “<em>I will bring +them ... to their own land.</em>” We return from the land of pride to the home +of lowliness, from hard indifference to gracious sympathy, from the +barrenness of sin to the beauty of holiness. We come back to God’s +beautiful “lily-land” of eternal light and peace.</p> + +<p>And what nutriment the Good Shepherd provides for the home-coming sheep! +“<em>I will feed them in a good pasture.</em>” Our wasted powers shall be renewed +and strengthened by the fattening diet of grace. Love shall be both host +and meat! “He will satisfy thy mouth with good things.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 20]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Twentieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE PASSING OF THE BEAST</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ezekiel</span> xxxiv. 23-31.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HEN the Good Shepherd has charge of His flock “<em>the wild beasts will +cease out of the land</em>.” All beastly passions shall be destroyed. The fair +gardens of our souls shall no longer be ravaged by sleek pride, or fierce +appetite, or ravenous lust. “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder, +the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.”</p> + +<p>And the forces of nature shall be in friendly co-operation. “<em>I will cause +the shower to come down in his season.</em>” We are to have mystic allies in +sky and field. Nature sides with the man who sides with God. Our very +garden becomes our helpmeet when we are cultivating the fruits of the +Spirit. The heavens assume a friendly aspect when we are “marching to +beautiful Zion.” But when we are against the Lord all these forces appear +to be hostile. “The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.”</p> + +<p>And we are to have a joyful assurance of the companionship of our God. +“<em>This shall they know, that I, the Lord their God, am with them.</em>” And +in that precious assurance every other treasure is found! Only be sure of +that, and we shall walk about as kings and queens!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 21]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY the Twenty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE VALUE OF ONE SOUL</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xviii. 7-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT an infinite value the Lord attaches to one soul! “And <em>one of them</em> +be gone astray!” I thought He might never have missed the one! And yet the +Eastern shepherd says that out of his great flock he can miss the +individual face. A face is missing, as though a child were absent from the +family circle. When a soul is wandering in the far country there is an +awful gap in the Father’s house! Is thy place empty? Is mine?</p> + +<p>And mark the pangs of the Shepherd’s quest. He “<em>goeth into the mountain +and seeketh!</em>” The Eastern shepherd goes out in tempest, and in rocky +ravine, or in thorny scrub that tears the hands and feet, he seeks and +finds his sheep. And my Lord sought me, in stony and thorny places, in the +darkness of Gethsemane, and in the awful desolations of The Hill.</p> + +<p>And the Shepherd found His sheep, and He returns across the hills singing +the song of the triumph of grace—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“And up from the mountains, thunder-riven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And up from the rocky steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">A cry arose to the gates of heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Rejoice! I have found My sheep!’<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">And the angels echo around the throne,<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">‘Rejoice! for the Lord brings back His own!’”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 22]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Twenty-second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MY OWN SHEPHERD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xxiii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>OW shall we touch this lovely psalm and not bruise it? It is exquisite as +“a violet by a mossy stone!” Exposition is almost an impertinence, its +grace is so simple and winsome.</p> + +<p>There is the ministry of rest. “<em>He maketh me to lie down in green +pastures.</em>” The Good Shepherd knows when my spirit needs relaxation. He +will not have me always “on the stretch.” The bow of the best violin +sometimes requires to have its strings “let down.” And so my Lord gives me +rest.</p> + +<p>And there is the discipline of change. “<em>He leadeth me in the paths of +righteousness.</em>” Those strange roads in life, unknown roads, by which I +pass into changed circumstances and surroundings! But the discipline of +the change is only to bring me into new pastures, that I may gain fresh +nutriment for my soul. “Because they have no changes they fear not God.”</p> + +<p>And there is “<em>the valley of the shadow</em>,” cold and bare! What matter? He +is there! “I will fear no evil.” What if I see “no pastures green”? “Thy +rod and Thy staff they comfort me!” The Lord, who is leading, will see +after my food. “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine +enemies.” I have a quiet feast while my foes are looking on!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 23]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Twenty-third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE GIVER’S HAND</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> iv. 3-15.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/img-c.png" width="78" height="80" alt="C" title="" /> +</div><p>AIN and Abel both brought an offering unto the Lord, but one was accepted +and the other rejected. It is the giver who determines the worth or the +worthlessness of the gift. God looks not at the gift, but at the hand that +brings it. “Your hands are full of blood!” “Your hands are unclean!” The +Lord demands “clean hands.” He will not have our compliments if there is +defilement behind them. Our courtesies are rejected if iniquity attends +them. The shining gloss on the linen is an offence if the dirt looks +through! Who cares for food if presented by unclean hands? “Be ye clean, +ye that bear the vessels of the Lord!”</p> + +<p>Every gift is welcome to the Lord if offered with clean hands. A mite, or +a cup of cold water, or our daily labour, or the first-fruits of garden or +field—all receive the blessing of our God if the hands that bring them +are free from defilement. So is it with everything we offer to the Lord. A +song of praise makes sweet music in the hearing of our God if it come from +pure lips! Purity, as Thomas a’ Kempis says, gives the wings which carry +everything into the Father’s presence.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 24]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Twenty-fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE VOICE OF THE DEAD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Hebrews</span> xi. 1-6.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>ITH what voice shall we speak when we are dead? What will men hear when +they turn their thoughts toward us? What part of us will remain alive, +singing or jarring in men’s remembrance? It is the biggest part of us that +retains its voice. In some it is wealth, in others it is goodness; some +go on speaking in their cruelty, others in their gentleness. Cain still +speaks in his jealous passion. Abel speaks in his faith. Dorcas speaks in +her “good works and alms-deeds which she did”; Judas Iscariot speaks in +his betrayal. Yes, something goes on speaking. What shall it be?</p> + +<p>But these biggest things not only continue to speak in the ears of memory, +they persist as actual forces in the common life of men. Our faith is not +buried with our bones, nor is our avarice or pride. Our characters do not +die when our hearts cease to beat. “The evil that men do lives after +them,” and so does the good. But deeper than our deeds, our dominant +dispositions persist and mingle as friends or enemies in the lives of +others. By them we, being dead, still speak, and we speak in subtle forces +which aid or hinder other pilgrims who are fighting their way to God and +heaven.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 25]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Twenty-fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>FIRST, MY BROTHER!</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> v. 17-24.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-f.png" width="80" height="80" alt="F" title="" /> +</div><p>IRST be reconciled to thy brother.” We are to put first things first. +When we bring a gift unto the Lord He looks at the hand that brings it. If +the hand is defiled the gift is rejected. “Wash you, make you clean.” +“First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”</p> + +<p>All this tells us why some resplendent gifts are rejected, and why some +commonplace gifts are received amid heavenly song. This is why the widow’s +mite goes shining through the years. The hand that offered it was hallowed +and purified with sacrifice. Shall we say that in that palm there was +something akin to the pierced hands of the Lord? The mite had intimate +associations with the Cross.</p> + +<p>And it also tells me why so much of our public worship is offensive to our +Lord. We come to the church from a broken friendship. Some holy thing has +been broken on the way. Someone’s estate has been invaded, and his +treasure spoiled. Someone has been wronged, and God will not touch our +gift. “Leave there thy gift; first be reconciled to thy brother.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 26]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Twenty-sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE FIRE OF ENVY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil +work!</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">James</span> iii. 13-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>N Milton’s “Comus” we read of a certain potion which has the power to +pervert all the senses of everyone who drinks it. Nothing is apprehended +truly. Sight and hearing and taste are all disordered, and the victim is +all unconscious of the confusion. The deadly draught is the minister of +deceptive chaos.</p> + +<p>And envy is like that potion when it is drunk by the spirit. It perverts +every moral and spiritual sense. The envious is more fatally stricken than +the blind. He gazes upon untruth and thinks it true. He looks upon +confusion and thinks it order. Envy is colour-blind. It is like jealousy, +of which it is a blood-relation. It never sees anything in its natural +hues. It misinterprets everything.</p> + +<p>No one can quench the unholy fire of envy but the mighty God Himself. It +is like a prairie fire: once kindled it is beyond our power to stamp it +out. But God’s coolness is more than a match for all our feverish heat. +His quenchings are transformations. He converts the perverted and changes +envy into goodwill. The bitter pool is made sweet. For confusion He gives +order, for ashes He gives beauty, and in the face of an old enemy we see +the countenance of a friend.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 27]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Twenty-seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE CONFESSION OF SIN</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>I acknowledge my transgressions; +and my sin is ever before me.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> li. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-s.png" width="80" height="80" alt="S" title="" /> +</div><p>IN that is unconfessed shuts out the energies of grace. Confession makes +the soul receptive of the bountiful waters of life. We open the door to +God as soon as we name our sin. Guilt that is penitently confessed is +already in the “consuming fire” of God’s love. When I “acknowledge my sin” +I begin to enter into the knowledge of “pardon, joy, and peace.” But if I +hide my sin I also hide myself from “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” +“If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and +to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”</p> + +<p>I must then make confession of sin in my daily exercises in the presence +of the Lord. I am taking the way to recovered victory when I tell the Lord +the story of my defeat. Satan strengthens his awful chains when he can +induce me to keep silence concerning my sin. All his plans are thrown into +confusion as soon as I “pour out my soul before the Lord.” When I fall let +me not add to my guilt the further sin of secrecy. Unconfessed sin breeds +in its lurking-place and multiplies its hateful offspring. The soul that +makes confession is washed through and through, and the seeds of iniquity +are driven out of my soul.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 28]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Twenty-eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANGER</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ephesians</span> iv. 25-32.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET all anger be put away from you.” And yet only a moment ago the +Apostle had written the words, “Be ye angry and sin not.” My power of +anger is not to be destroyed, it is to be transformed and purified. Anger +can be like an unclean bonfire; it can also be like “a sea of glass +mingled with fire.” There can be more smoke than light in it, more selfish +passion than holy purpose. The fuel that feeds it may be envy, and +jealousy, and spite, and not a big desire for the good of men and the +glory of God. Worldly anger “is set on fire of hell”; holy anger borrows +flame from the altar-fires of God.</p> + +<p>Our anger reveals our character. What is the quality of our anger? What +kindles it? Is it incited by our own wrongs or by the wrongs of another? +Is it set on fire by self-indulgence or by a noble sympathy? Here is a +sentence which describes the anger of the Apostle Paul: “Who is made to +stumble and I burn not?” Paul’s holy anger was made to burn by oppression, +by the cruelty inflicted upon his fellow-men. His fire had nothing unclean +in it; it was pure as the flame of oxygen.</p> + +<p>This is the anger we must cherish. We cannot “work ourselves up” into it. +We must seek to be “baptized with the Holy Ghost <em>and with fire</em>.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 29]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Twenty-ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>NOBLE REVENGE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> vii. 4.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT is the noblest revenge, and in those moments David had intimate +knowledge of the spirit of his Lord. “If thine enemy hunger, feed him!”</p> + +<p><em>Evil for good is devil-like.</em> To receive a favour and to return a blow! +To obtain the gift of language, and then to use one’s speech to curse the +giver! To use a sacred sword is unholy warfare! All this is devil-like.</p> + +<p><em>Evil for evil is beast-like.</em> Yes, the dog bites back when it is bitten. +The dog returns snarl for snarl, venom for venom. And if, when I have been +injured, I “pay a man back in his own coin,” if I “give him as good as he +gave,” I am living on the plane of the beast.</p> + +<p><em>Good for good is man-like.</em> When I requite a man’s kindness by kindness! +When I send presents to one who loads me with benefits! This is a true and +manly thing to do, and lifts us far above the beast.</p> + +<p><em>Good for evil is God-like.</em> Yes, that lifts me into “the heavenly places +in Christ Jesus.” Then I have “the mind of Christ.” Then do I unto others +as my Saviour has done unto me.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 30]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Thirtieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>IRRESISTIBLE ARTILLERY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>When I cry unto Thee, then shall mine enemies turn back.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lvi.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-b.png" width="79" height="80" alt="B" title="" /> +</div><p>UT it must be a real “cry”! It must not be an idle recitation which sheds +no blood. It must be a cry like the cry of the drowning, a cry which +cleaves the air like a bullet. Said a man to me some while ago, “Assault +the heavens with cries for me!” That is the cry which takes the kingdom by +storm.</p> + +<p>When such a cry rends the heavens, “my enemies turn back.” A secret and +irresistible artillery begins to play upon them, and their strength fails. +Yes, believing prayer calls these invisible allies into the field. “The +mountains are full of horses and chariots of fire round about!” And the +enemy flies!</p> + +<p>“<em>This I know.</em>” The psalmist is building upon experience. The miracle +has happened a hundred times. Many a morning has he seen the enemy +vaingloriously tramping the field, and he has cried unto the Lord, and +before nightfall there has been a perfect rout. Blessed is the man who has +had such heartening dealings with the Lord that he can now face a hostile +host in unclouded faith and assurance!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 31]</span></p> +<h2>JANUARY The Thirty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>UNDER HIS WINGS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>In the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge.</em>”<br /> +— <span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lvii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/img-c.png" width="78" height="80" alt="C" title="" /> +</div><p>OULD anything be more tenderly gracious than this figure of hiding under +the shadow of God’s wings? It speaks of bosom-warmth, and bosom-shelter, +and bosom-rest. “Let me to Thy bosom fly!”</p> + +<p>And what strong wings they are! Under those wings I am secure even from +the lions. My animal passions shall not hurt me when I am “hiding in God.” +The fiercest onslaughts of the devil are powerless to break those mighty +wings. The tenderest little chick, “one of these little ones,” nestling +behind this soft and gentle shelter, shall be perfectly secure; “none of +its bones shall be broken.”</p> + +<p>I do not wonder that this sheltering psalmist begins to sing! “<em>I will +sing and give praise!</em>” I have often listened to the sheltering chicks, +hiding behind the mother’s wings, and I have heard that quaint, +comfortable, contented sound for which our language has no name. It is a +sound of incipient song, the musical murmur of satisfaction. “I will sing +unto Thee ... for Thy mercy is great.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 32]</span><a name="FEB" id="FEB"></a></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The First</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SOUL IN PRISON</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Bring my soul out of prison!</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxlii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> TOO, have my prison-house, and only the Lord can deliver me.</p> + +<p>There is <em>the prison-house of sin</em>. It is a dark and suffocating +hole, without friendly light or morning air. And it is haunted by such +affrighting shapes, as though my iniquities had incarnated themselves in +ugly and repulsive forms. None but the Lord can bring me out.</p> + +<p>And there is <em>the prison-house of sorrow</em>. My griefs sometimes wrap me +about like cold confining walls, which have neither windows nor doors. It +seems as though a fluid sorrow can congeal into a cold, hard temperament, +and hold me in its icy embrace. And none but the Lord can bring me out.</p> + +<p>And there is <em>the prison-house of death</em>. I must perforce pass through the +gate of death. Shall I find it a castle of gloom, or is there another gate +through which I shall emerge into the fair, sweet paradise of God? My +Master is Lord of the road! And He tells me that death shall not be a +castle of captivity, but only a thoroughfare through which I shall pass +into the realm of eternal day.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 33]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>HOW TO APPROACH A CRISIS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>It shall be given you in that same hour.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Matthew</span> x. 16-28.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so I am not to worry about the coming crisis! “God never is before His +time, and never is behind!” When the hour is come, I shall find that the +great Host hath made “all things ready.”</p> + +<p>When the crisis comes <em>He will tell me how to rest</em>. It is a great matter +to know just how to rest—how to be quiet when “all without tumultuous +seems.” We irritate and excite our souls about the coming emergency, and +we approach it with worn and feverish spirits, and so mar our Master’s +purpose and work.</p> + +<p>When the crisis comes <em>He will tell me what to do</em>. The orders are not +given until the appointed day. Why should I fume and fret and worry as to +what the sealed envelope contains? “It is enough that He knows all,” and +when the hour strikes the secrets shall be revealed.</p> + +<p>And when the crisis comes <em>He will tell me what to say</em>. I need not begin +to prepare my retorts and my responses. What shall I say when death comes, +to me or to my loved one? Never mind, He will tell thee. And what when +sorrow or persecution comes? Never mind, He will tell thee.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 34]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>TRANSFORMING THE HARD HEART</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><em>The Lord “turned the flint into a fountain of waters.”</em><br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxiv.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT a violent conjunction, the flint becoming the birthplace of a spring! +And yet this is happening every day. Men who are as “hard as flint,” whose +hearts are “like the nether millstone,” become springs of gentleness and +fountains of exquisite compassion. Beautiful graces, like lovely ferns, +grow in the home of severities, and transform the grim, stern soul into a +garden of fragrant friendships. This is what Zacchæus was like when his +flint became a fountain. It is what Matthew the publican was like when the +Lord changed his hard heart into a land of springs.</p> + +<p>No one is “too far gone.” No hardness is beyond the love and pity of God. +The well of eternal life can gush forth even in a desert waste, and “where +sin abounds grace doth much more abound.” Let us bring our hardness to the +Lord. Let us see what He can make of our flint. When we are dry and +“feelingless,” and desire is dead, let us bring this Sahara to the great +Restorer, and “the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the rose.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 35]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>SPIRITUAL BUOYANCY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>When thou passeth through the waters they shall not overflow +thee.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xliii. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HEN Mrs. Booth, the mother of the Salvation Army, was dying, she quietly +said, “The waters are rising but I am not sinking.” But then she had been +saying that all through her life. Other floods besides the waters of death +had gathered about her soul. Often had the floods been out and the roads +were deep in affliction. But she had never sunk! The good Lord made her +buoyant, and she rode upon the storm! This, then, is the promise of the +Lord, not that the waters of trouble shall never gather about the +believer, but that he shall never be overwhelmed. He shall “keep his head +above them.” Yes, to him shall be given the grace of “aboveness.” He shall +never be under, always above! It is the precious gift of spiritual +buoyancy, sanctified good spirits, the power of the Christian hope. When +we are in Christ Jesus circumstances shall never be our master. One is our +Master, and “we are more than conquerors in Him that loved us, and washed +us from our sins in His own blood.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 36]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>EVERYWHERE THE GATE OF HEAVEN</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxviii. 10-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT is the first time for many a day that Jacob had named the name of +God. In all the dark story of his wicked intrigue the name of God is never +mentioned. Jacob wanted to forget God! God would be a disturbing presence! +But here he encounters Him in a dream, and in the most unlikely place. +“And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place!”</p> + +<p>Jacob had yet to learn that there is everywhere “a ladder set up on the +earth and the top of it reaches to heaven.” There was a ladder from the +very tent in which he wore his deceptive skin. There was a ladder from the +secret place where he and his mother wove their mischievous plot. There is +no corner of earth which is cut away from the Divine vigilance. God gets +at us everywhere.</p> + +<p>But there is a merciful side to all this. If the ladder be everywhere, and +God can get at us, then also everywhere we can get at God. There are +“ascending angels” who will carry our confessions, our prayers, our sighs +and mournings, to the very heart of the eternally gracious God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 37]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE HOME-BIRD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xci. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> READ a sentence the other day in which a very powerful modern writer +describes a certain woman as “having God on her visiting list.” We may +recoil from the phrase, but it very vitally describes a very awful +commonplace. Countless thousands have God on their visiting lists. They +pay Him courtesy-calls, and between the calls He is forgotten. Perhaps the +call is paid once a week in the social function of worship. Perhaps it is +paid more rarely, like calls between comparative strangers. How great the +contrast between a caller and one who dwells in the secret place! It is +the difference between a flirt and a “home-bird,” between one who flits +about on a score of fancies, and one who settles down in the solid +satisfaction of a supreme affection.</p> + +<p>“<em>Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.</em>” Such is the reward of +the “home-bird,” the settled friend of the Lord. The shadow of the Lord +shall rest upon him continually. I sometimes read of our monarchs being +“shadowed” by protective police. In an infinitely more real and intimate +sense the soul that dwells in “the secret place” is shadowed by the +sleepless grace and love of God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 38]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>LEAVING ITS MARK</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Fear not, thou worm Jacob, I will make thee<br /> a threshing +instrument with teeth.</em>”<br />— +<span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xli. 8-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/img-c.png" width="78" height="80" alt="C" title="" /> +</div><p>OULD any two things be in greater contrast than a worm and an instrument +with teeth? The worm is delicate, bruised by a stone, crushed beneath a +passing wheel; an instrument with teeth can break and not be broken, it +can grave its mark upon the rock. And the mighty God can convert the one +into the other. He can take a man or a nation, who has all the impotence +of the worm, and by the invigoration of His own Spirit He can endow them +with strength by which they will leave a noble mark upon the history of +their time.</p> + +<p>And so the “worm” may take heart. The mighty God can make us stronger than +our circumstances. We can bend them all to our good. In God’s strength we +can make them all pay tribute to our souls. We can even take hold of a +black disappointment, break it open, and extract some jewel of grace. When +God gives us wills like iron we can drive through difficulties as the iron +share cuts through the toughest soil. “I will make thee,” saith the Lord, +“and shall He not do it?”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 39]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>REVISITING OLD ALTARS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>I will make there an altar unto God,<br /> who answered me in the day +of my distress.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxxv. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>T is a blessed thing to revisit our early altars. It is good to return +to the haunts of early vision. Places and things have their sanctifying +influences, and can recall us to lost experiences. I know a man to whom +the scent of a white, wild rose is always a call to prayer. I know another +to whom Grasmere is always the window of holy vision. Sometimes a +particular pew in a particular church can throw the heavens open, and we +see the Son of God. The old Sunday-school has sometimes taken an old man +back to his childhood and back to his God. So I do not wonder that God led +Jacob back to Bethel, and that in the old place of blessing he +reconsecrated himself to the Lord.</p> + +<p>It is a revelation of the loving-kindness of God that we have all these +helps to the recovery of past experiences. Let us use them with reverence. +And in our early days let us make them. Let us build altars of communion +which in later life we shall love to revisit. Let us make our early home +“the house of God and the gate of heaven.” Let us multiply deeds of +service which will make countless places fragrant for all our after +years.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 40]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE ROCK AND THE BOWING WALL</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lxii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE are two symbols by which the psalmist describes the confidence of the +righteous. “<em>He only is my rock.</em>” Only yesterday I had the shelter of a +great rock on a storm-swept mountain side. The wind tore along the +heights, driving the rain like hail, but in the opening of the rock our +shelter was complete.</p> + +<p>And the second symbol is this: “<em>He is my high place.</em>” The high place is +the home of the chamois, out of reach of the arrow. “Flee as a bird to +your mountain!” Get beyond the hunter’s range! Our security is found in +loftiness. It is our unutterable privilege to live in the heavenly places +in Christ Jesus. Such is the confidence of the righteous.</p> + +<p>In this psalm there is also another pair of symbols describing the +futility of the wicked. The wicked is “<em>as a bowing wall.</em>” The wall is +out of perpendicular, out of conformity with the truth of the plumb-line, +and it will assuredly topple into ruin. So is it with the wicked: he is +building awry, and he will fall into moral disaster. He is also “<em>as a +tottering fence.</em>” The wind and the rain dislodge the fence, it rots at +its foundations, and one day it lies prone upon the ground.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 41]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Tenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>REGISTERING A VERDICT</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we +obey.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Joshua</span> xxiv. 22-28.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE was a definite decision. Our peril is that we spend our life in +wavering and we never decide. We are like a jury which is always hearing +evidence and never gives a verdict. We do much thinking, but we never make +up our minds. We let our eyes wander over many things, but we make no +choice. Life has no crisis, no culmination.</p> + +<p>Now people who never decide spend their days in hoping to do so. But this +kind of life becomes a vagrancy and not a noble and illumined crusade. We +drift through our days, we do not steer, and we never arrive at any rich +and stately haven.</p> + +<p>It is therefore vitally wise to “make a vow unto the Lord.” It is good to +pull our loose thinkings together and to “gird up the loins of the mind.” +Let a man, at some definite place, and at some definite moment, make the +supreme choice of his life.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 42]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Eleventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE HILL COUNTRY OF THE SOUL</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxxi.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HERE should be a hill country in every life, some great up-towering peaks +which dominate the common plain. There should be an upland district, where +springs are born, and where rivers of inspiration have their birth. “I +will lift up mine eyes unto the hills.”</p> + +<p>The soul that knows no hills is sure to be oppressed with the monotony of +the road. The inspiration to do little things comes from the presence of +big things. It is amazing what dull trifles we can get through when a +radiant love is near. A noble companionship glorifies the dingiest road. +And what if that Companion be God? Then, surely, “the common round and +daily task” have a light thrown upon them from “the beauty of His +countenance.”</p> + +<p>The “heavenlies” are our salvation and our defence. “His righteousness is +like the great mountains.” “The mountains bring forth peace unto His +people.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 43]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Twelfth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE BULB AND THE SOIL</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them,<br /> he it is that +loveth Me.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">John</span> xiv. 15-24.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-y.png" width="81" height="80" alt="Y" title="" /> +</div><p>ES, but how can I keep them? Some one sent me a bulb which requires a +certain kind of soil, but he also sent me the soil in which to grow it. He +sent instructions, but he also sent power. And when I am bidden to keep a +commandment I feel as though I have received the bulb but not the soil! +But is this God’s way of dealing with His people? I will read on if +perchance I may find the gift of the soil.</p> + +<p>“He that abideth in Me ... the same bringeth forth much fruit.” That is +the gift I seek. For the keeping of His commandments the Lord provides +Himself. I am not called upon to raise fruits out of the soil of my own +will, out of my own infirmity of aspiration or desire. I can rest +everything in God! I can “abide in Him,” and I may have the holy energies +of the Godhead to produce in me the fruits of a holy and obedient life. +The good Lord provides both the bulb and the soil.</p> + +<p>It is the tragedy of life that we forget this, and seek to make a soil-bed +of our own. And thus do we suffer the calamity of fruitless labour, the +heavy drudgery of tasks beyond our strength. “Come unto Me, all ye that +labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 44]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Thirteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GRUDGES</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Thou shalt not bear any grudge.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Leviticus</span> xix. 11-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>OW searching is that demand upon the soul! My forgiveness of my brother +is to be complete. No sullenness is to remain, no sulky temper which so +easily gives birth to thunder and lightning. There is to be no painful +aloofness, no assumption of a superiority which rains contempt upon the +offender. When I forgive, I am not to carry any powder forward on the +journey. I am to empty out all my explosives, all my ammunition of anger +and revenge. I am not to “bear any grudge.”</p> + +<p>I cannot meet this demand. It is altogether beyond me. I might utter words +of forgiveness, but I cannot reveal a clear, bright, blue sky without a +touch of storm brewing anywhere. But the Lord of grace can do it for me. +He can change my weather. He can create a new climate. He can “renew a +right spirit within me,” and in that holy atmosphere nothing shall live +which seeks to poison and destroy. Grudges shall die “like cloud-spots in +the dawn.” Revenge, that awful creation of the unclean, feverish soul, +shall give place to goodwill, the strong genial presence which makes its +home in the new heart.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 45]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Fourteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>IMPERFECT CONSECRATION</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xix. 16-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE rich young ruler consecrated a part, but was unwilling to consecrate +the whole. He hallowed the inch but not the mile. He would go part of the +way, but not to the end. And the peril is upon us all. We give ourselves +to the Lord, but we reserve some liberties. We offer Him our house, but +we mark some rooms “Private.” And that word “Private,” denying the Lord +admission, crucifies Him afresh. He has no joy in the house so long as any +rooms are withheld.</p> + +<p>Dr. F. B. Meyer has told us how his early Christian life was marred and +his ministry paralyzed just because he had kept back one key from the +bunch of keys he had given to the Lord. Every key save one! The key of one +room kept for personal use, and the Lord shut out. And the effects of the +incomplete consecration were found in lack of power, lack of assurance, +lack of joy and peace.</p> + +<p>The “joy of the Lord” begins when we hand over the last key. We sit with +Christ on His throne as soon as we have surrendered all our crowns, and +made Him sole and only ruler of our life and its possessions.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 46]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Fifteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE WITNESS OF YESTERDAY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lxxviii. 1-8.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>UR yesterdays are to be the teachers of our children. We are to take them +over our road, and show them the pitfalls where we stumbled and the snares +that lured us away. And we are to show them how we found the springs of +grace, and how the Lord made Himself known to us in daily providence and +care. We are to relate His exploits, “His wonderful dealings with the +children of men.” We must make our life witness of God to our children, +and when their minds roam over our road they must see it radiant with the +grace and mercy of the Lord.</p> + +<p>The best inheritance I can give my child is a steadfast witness of my +knowledge of God. The testimony of a light that never failed may give him +the needful wisdom when his own way becomes troubled with clouds and +darkness. And what a story it is, this story of the deeds of our gracious +God. It is full of quickening for weary and desponding souls. It is a +perfect reservoir of inspiration for those whose desire has failed, and in +whose lives the wells of impulse have become dry. Let us bring forward +yesterday’s wealth to enrich the life of to-day. “Do ye not remember the +miracle of the loaves?”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 47]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Sixteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CROWDING OUT GOD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Lest thou forget.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Deuteronomy</span> iv. 5-13.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT is surely the worst affront we can put upon anybody. We may oppose a +man and hinder him in his work, or we may directly injure him, or we may +ignore him, and treat him as nothing. Or we may forget him! Opposition, +injury, contempt, neglect, forgetfulness! Surely this is a descending +scale, and the last is the worst. And yet we can forget the Lord God. We +can forget all His benefits. We can easily put Him out of mind. We can +live as though He were dead. “My children have forgotten Me.”</p> + +<p>What shall we do to escape this great disaster? “<em>Take heed to thyself!</em>” +To take heed is to be at the helm and not asleep in the cabin. It is to +steer and not to drift. It is to keep our eyes on the compass and our +hands on the wheel. It is to know where we are going. We never +deliberately forget our Lord; we carelessly drift into it. “Take heed.”</p> + +<p>“<em>And keep thy soul diligently.</em>” Gardens run to seed, and ill weeds grow +apace. The fair things are crowded out, and the weed reigns everywhere. It +is ever so with my soul. If I neglect it, the flowers of holy desire and +devotion will be choked by weeds of worldliness. God will be crowded out, +and the garden of the soul will become a wilderness of neglect and sin.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 48]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Seventeenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>BLESSINGS AND CURSINGS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He read all the words of the law, the blessings and the +cursings.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Joshua</span> viii. 30-35.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>E are inclined to read only what pleases us, to hug the blessings and to +ignore the warnings. We bask in the light, we close our eyes to the +lightning. We recount the promises, we shut our ears to the rebukes. We +love the passages which speak of our Master’s gentleness, we turn away +from those which reveal His severity. And all this is unwise, and +therefore unhealthy. We become spiritually soft and anæmic. We lack moral +stamina. We are incapable of noble hatred and of holy scorn. We are +invertebrate, and on the evil day we are not able to stand.</p> + +<p>We must read “all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings.” +We must let the Lord brace us with His severities. We must gaze steadily +upon the appalling fearfulness of sin, and upon its terrific issues. At +all costs we must get rid of the spurious gentleness that holds compromise +with uncleanness, that effeminate affection which is destitute of holy +fire. We must seek the love which burns everlastingly against all sin; we +must seek the gentleness which can fiercely grip a poisonous growth and +tear it out to its last hidden root. We must seek that holy love which is +as a “consuming fire.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 49]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Eighteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SUBTLETY OF TEMPTATION</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">James</span> i. 12-20.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-e.png" width="80" height="80" alt="E" title="" /> +</div><p>VIL enticements always come to us in borrowed attire. In the Boer War +ammunition was carried out in piano cases, and military advices were +transmitted in the skins of melons. And that is the way of the enemy of +our souls. He makes us think we are receiving music when he is sending +explosives; he promises life, but his gift is laden with the seeds of +death. He offers us liberty, and he hides his chains in dazzling flowers. +“Things are not what they seem.”</p> + +<p>And so our enemy uses mirages, and will-o’-the-wisps and tinselled crowns. +He lights friendly fires on perilous coasts to snare us to our ruin. And +therefore we need clear, sure eyes. We need a refined moral sense which +can discriminate between the true and the false, and which can discern the +enemy even when he comes as “an angel of light.” And we may have this +wisdom from “the God of all wisdom.” By His grace we may be kept morally +sensitive, and we shall know our foe even when he is a long way off.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 50]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Ninteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE THOUGHT AFAR OFF</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxxxix. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HOU knowest my thought afar off.” That fills me with awe. I cannot find +a hiding-place where I can sin in secrecy. I cannot build an apparent +sanctuary and conceal evil within its walls. I cannot with a sheep’s skin +hide the wolf. I cannot wrap my jealousy up in flattery and keep it +unknown. “Thou God seest me.” He knows the bottom thought that creeps in +the basement of my being. Nothing surprises God! He sees all my sin. So am +I filled with awe.</p> + +<p>“Thou knowest my thought afar off.” This fills me also with hope and joy. +He sees the faintest, weakest desire, aspiring after goodness. He sees the +smallest fire of affection burning uncertainly in my soul. He sees every +movement of penitence which looks toward home. He sees every little +triumph, and every altar I build along life’s way. Nothing is overlooked. +My God is not like a policeman, only looking for crimes; He is the God of +grace, looking for graces, searching for jewels to adorn His crown. So am +I filled with hope and joy.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 51]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Twentieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>TAMPERING WITH THE LABEL</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">John</span> iii. 4-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-s.png" width="80" height="80" alt="S" title="" /> +</div><p>IN is transgression. It is the deliberate climbing of the fence. We see +the trespass-board, and in spite of the warning we stride into the +forbidden field. Sin is not ignorance, it is intention. We sin when we are +wide-awake! There are teachers abroad who would soften words like these. +They offer us terms which appear to lessen the harshness of our actions; +they give our sin an aspect of innocence. But to alter the label on the +bottle does not change the character of the contents. Poison is poison +give it what name we please. “Sin is the transgression of the law.”</p> + +<p>Let us be on our guard against the men whose pockets are filled with +deceptive labels. Let us vigilantly resist all teachings which would +chloroform the conscience. Let us prefer true terms to merely nice ones. +Let us call sin by its right name, and let us tolerate no moral conjuring +either with ourselves or with others. The first essential in all moral +reformation is to call sin “sin.” “If we confess our sin He is faithful +and just to forgive us our sin.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 52]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Twenty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GRACE REIGNS!</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Romans</span> v. 12-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HEN old Mr. Honest came to the river, and he entered the cold waters of +death, the last words he was heard to utter by those who stood on the +shore were these:—“Grace reigns!” All through his pilgrimage old Mr. +Honest had been in Emmanuel’s land where grace reigned night and day. It +was through grace that he had found the way of life. It was through grace +that he had been delivered from the beasts and pitfalls of the road. It +was grace that had given him lilies of peace, and springs of refreshment, +and the fine air that inspired him in difficult tasks. And in death he +still found “grace abounding,” and the Lord of the changing road was also +Lord of the dark waters through which he passed into the radiant glories +of the cloudless day.</p> + +<p>In every yard of a faithful pilgrimage we shall find the decrees of +sovereign love. We are never in alien country. “Grace reigns” in every +hill and valley, through every green pasture and over every rugged road, +in every moment of “the day of life,” and in the last sharp passage +through the transient night of death.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 53]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Twenty-second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE THREE GARDENS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Revelation</span> xxii. 1-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Bible opens with a garden. It closes with a garden. The first is the +Paradise that was lost. The last is Paradise regained. And between the two +there is a third garden, the garden of Gethsemane. And it is through the +unspeakable bitterness and desolation of Gethsemane that we find again the +glorious garden through which flows “the river of water of life.” Without +Gethsemane no New Jerusalem! Without its mysterious and unfathomable night +no blessed sunrise of eternal hope! “We were reconciled to God by the +death of His Son.”</p> + +<p>We are always in dire peril of regarding our redemption lightly. We hold +it cheaply. Privileges easily come to be esteemed as rights. And even +grace itself can lose the strength of heavenly favour and can be received +and used as our due. “Gethsemane can I forget?” Yes, I can; and in the +forgetfulness I lose the sacred awe of my redemption, and I miss the real +glory of “Paradise regained.” “Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a +price.” That is the remembrance that keeps the spirit lowly, and that +fills the heart with love for Him “whose I am,” and whom I ought to +serve.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 54]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Twenty-third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE PROCESS AND THE END</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Ye have seen the end of the Lord:<br /> that the Lord is very pitiful, +and of tender mercy.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">James</span> v. 7-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so we are bidden to be patient. “We must wait to the end of the Lord.” +The Lord’s ends are attained through very mysterious means. Sometimes the +means are in contrast to the ends. He works toward the harvest through +winter’s frost and snow. The maker of chaste and delicate porcelain +reaches his lovely ends through an awful mortar, where the raw material of +bone and clay is pounded into a cream. In that mortar-chamber we have no +hint of the finished ware. But be patient, even in this chamber of +affliction the ware is on the way to glory!</p> + +<p>And so it is with the ministries of our Lord. He leads us through discords +into harmonies, through opposition into union, through adversities into +peace. His means of grace are processes, sometimes gentle, sometimes +severe; and our folly is to assume that we have reached His ends when we +are only on the way to them. “The end of the Lord is very pitiful, and of +tender mercy.” “Be patient, therefore,” until it shall be spoken of thee +and me, “And God saw that it was good.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 55]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Twenty-fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MOVING TOWARDS DAYBREAK</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He hath brought me into darkness, but not into +light.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Lamentations</span> iii. 1-9.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-b.png" width="79" height="80" alt="B" title="" /> +</div><p>UT a man may be in darkness, and yet in motion toward the light. I was in +the darkness of the subway, and it was close and oppressive, but I was +moving toward the light and fragrance of the open country. I entered into +a tunnel in the Black Country in England, but the motion was continued, +and we emerged amid fields of loveliness. And therefore the great thing to +remember is that God’s darknesses are not His goals; His tunnels are means +to get somewhere else. Yes, His darknesses are appointed ways to His +light. In God’s keeping we are always moving, and we are moving towards +Emmanuel’s land, where the sun shines, and the birds sing night and day.</p> + +<p>There is no stagnancy for the God-directed soul. He is ever guiding us, +sometimes with the delicacy of a glance, sometimes with the firmer +ministry of a grip, and He moves with us always, even through “the valley +of the shadow of death.” Therefore, be patient, my soul! The darkness is +not thy bourn, the tunnel is not thy abiding home! He will bring thee out +into a large place where thou shalt know “the liberty of the glory of the +children of God.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 56]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Twenty-fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE FRESH EYE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>His compassions fail not: they are new every +morning.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Lamentations</span> iii. 22-33.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>E have not to live on yesterday’s manna; we can gather it fresh to-day. +Compassion becomes stale when it becomes thoughtless. It is new thought +that keeps our pity strong. If our perception of need can remain vivid, as +vivid as though we had never seen it before, our sympathies will never +fail. The fresh eye insures the sensitive heart. And our God’s compassions +are so new because He never becomes accustomed to our need. He always sees +it with an eye that is never dulled by the commonplace; He never becomes +blind with much seeing! We can look at a thing so often that we cease to +see it. God always sees a thing as though He were seeing it for the first +time. “Thou, God, seest me,” and “His compassions fail not.”</p> + +<p>And if my compassions are to be like a river that never knows drought, I +must cultivate a freshness of sight. The horrible can lose its horrors. +The daily tragedy can become the daily commonplace. My neighbour’s needs +can become as familiar as my furniture, and I may never see either the one +or the other. And therefore must I ask the Lord for the daily gift of +discerning eyes. “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” And with an always +newly-awakened interest may I reveal “the compassions of the Lord!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 57]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Twenty-sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE CELLARS OF AFFLICTION</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xxxiv. 9-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-s.png" width="80" height="80" alt="S" title="" /> +</div><p>AMUEL RUTHERFORD used to say that whenever he found himself in the +cellars of afflictions he used to look about for the King’s wine. He would +look for the wine-bottles of the promises and drink rich draughts of +vitalizing grace. And surely that is the best deliverance in all +affliction, to be made so spiritually exhilarant that we can rise above +it. I might be taken out of affliction, and emerge a poor slave and +weakling. I might remain in affliction, and yet be king in the seeming +servitude, “more than conqueror” in Christ Jesus. It is a great thing to +be led through green pastures and by still waters; I think it is a greater +thing to have a “table prepared before me <em>in the presence of mine +enemies</em>.” It is good to be able to sing in the sunny noon; it is better +still to be able to sing “songs in the night.”</p> + +<p>And this deliverance may always be ours in Christ Jesus. The Lord may not +smooth out our circumstances, but we may have the regal right of peace. He +may not save us from the sorrows of a newly-cut grave, but we may have the +glorious strength of the immortal hope. God will enable us to be masters +of all our circumstances, and none shall have a deadly hold upon us.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 58]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Twenty-seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE MIGHT OF FRAILTY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cv. 23-36.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT is the wonder of wonders, that the Almighty God will use frail +humanity as the vehicles of His power, and will make Moses and Aaron shine +with reflected glory. Man can send an electric current into a fragile +carbon film and make it incandescent. He can send his voice across a +continent, and make it speak on a distant shore. And the Lord God can do +wonders compared with which these are only as the dimmest dreams. He can +send His holy power into human speech, and the words can wake the dead. He +can send His virtue into the human will, and its strength can shake the +thrones of iniquity. He can send His love into the human heart, and the +power of its affection can capture the bitterest foe.</p> + +<p>And so the word “impossible” becomes itself impossible when the soul of +man is in fellowship with the Lord of Hosts. The pliant will becomes an +iron pillar. The weak heart becomes “as a defended city” when it is the +home of God. Dumb lips become the thrones of mysterious eloquence when +touched with divine inspiration.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 59]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Twenty-eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE TEST OF FULNESS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Deuteronomy</span> viii. 1-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND thou shalt eat and be full, and thou shalt bless the Lord thy God.” +Fulness is surely a more searching test than want. Fulness induces sleep +and forgetfulness. Many a man fights a good fight with Apollyon in the +narrow way, who lapses into sleepy indifference on the Enchanted Ground. +Men often sit down to a full table without “grace.” Pain cries out to God, +while boisterous health strides along in heedlessness. Yes, it is our +fulness that constitutes our direst peril. “This was the iniquity of +Sodom, <em>fulness</em> of bread and abundance of idleness.”</p> + +<p>And so our tests may come on the sunny day. A nation’s supreme tests may +come in its prosperity. The sunshine may do more damage than the +lightning. The soul may falter even in Beulah land, where “the sun shines +night and day.”</p> + +<p>Prayer must not, therefore, tarry until sickness and adversity come. We +must “pray without ceasing” in the cloudless noon, lest we are stricken +with “the arrow that flieth by day.” We must seek the eternal strength +when no apparent enemy crouches at our gate, and when our easy road is +lined with luxuriant flowers and fruit.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 60]</span></p> +<h2>FEBRUARY The Twenty-ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>INVINCIBLE RELIANCE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Hebrews</span> xi. 17-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>CCOUNTING that God was able.” That is the faith that makes moral heroes. +That is the faith that prompts mighty ventures and crusades. It is faith +in God’s willingness and ability to redeem His promises. It is faith that +if I do my part He will most assuredly do His. It is faith that He cannot +possibly fail. It is faith that when He makes a promise the money is +already in the bank. It is faith that when He sends me into the wilderness +the secret harvest is already ripe from which He will give me “daily +bread.” It is faith that “all things are now ready,” and in that faith I +will face the apparently impossible task.</p> + +<p>And thus the “impossible” leads me to the “prepared.” The desert leads me +to “fields white already.” The hard call to sacrifice leads me to the +“lamb in the thicket.” “God is able,” and He is never behind the time. The +critical need unveils His grace.</p> + +<p>Faith goes out on this invincible reliance. It is “the assurance of things +hoped for.” And by faith it inherits these things and is rich and strong +in their possession.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 61]</span><a name="MAR" id="MAR"></a></p> +<h2>MARCH The First</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>OVERCHARGING THE HEART</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> xxi. 25-36.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is a great peril. Our hearts may be “<em>overcharged with surfeiting, +and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you +unawares</em>.” Our mode of living may send our spirits to sleep. Yes, we may +so ill-use our bodies that the watchman sleeps at his post! We can +over-eat, and dim our moral sight. A man’s daily meals have vital +relationship with his vision of the Lord. If I would have a clear spirit I +must not overburden the flesh.</p> + +<p>And therefore am I bidden to “<em>take heed</em>” to myself. I must exercise +common sense, the most important of all the senses. I must put a bridle +upon my appetite, and hold it in subjection to my Lord.</p> + +<p>And I must “<em>watch</em>!” The devil is surpassingly cunning, and, if he can, +he will mix an opiate even with the sacramental wine. He will lure me +among the winsome poppies, and put me into a perilous sleep.</p> + +<p>And I must “<em>pray</em>!” I have a great and glorious Defender! Let me humbly +yet confidently use Him, and I shall be delivered from the snares of +appetite, and from the benumbing influence of all excess.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 62]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE POWER OF THE CROSS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> x. 11-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> LAY down my life.” In that supreme sacrifice all other sacrifices turn +pale. In the power of that sacrifice the blackest guilt finds forgiveness. +Its energies seek out the ruined and desolate life with glorious offer of +renewal. When the Lord laid down His life the entire race found a new +beginning. Our hope is born at the Cross. It is there that “the burden of +our sin rolls away.” In His night we find daybreak. When He said, “It is +finished,” our soul could sing, “Life is begun.”</p> + +<p>And so pilgrims gather at the Cross. Songs are heard there, the “sweetest +ever sung by mortal tongues.” And the power of the Cross never wanes. Its +glorious grace reaches the soul to-day as in the earliest days. It +inspires the despairing heart. It transforms the mind. It remakes the +tissues of the will. There is no shattered power that the power of the +Cross cannot restore. “We are complete in Him.”</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“In the Cross of Christ I glory,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Towering o’er the wrecks of time;<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">All the light of sacred story<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Gathers round its head sublime.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 63]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>PREPARING FOR THE BRIDE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xiv. 1-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>UR Lord has prepared a place. It is the Bridegroom “getting the house +ready” for the bride. And, therefore, the preparations are not made +grudgingly and with slow reluctance. Everything is of the best, and done +with the swift delight of love. “Come, for all things are now ready.”</p> + +<p>And our Lord will fetch His bride to the prepared place. “I am the way.” +We become so wrapt up in Him that nothing else counts. I once travelled +through the Black Country with a fascinating friend, and I never saw it! +And we can become so absorbed in our glorious Bridegroom that we shall be +almost oblivious of adverse circumstances which may beset us. Yes, even +this is possible: “He that believeth in Me shall never see death!”</p> + +<p>“I will receive you unto Myself.” The last obscuring veil is to be rent, +and we are to see Him “face to face.” And that will be home, for that will +be satisfaction and peace. The deepest hunger of the soul will be +gratified in a glorious contentment, and we shall find that “the half hath +not been told.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 64]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE GREAT COMPANION</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xiv. 15-31.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so even the road is to have the home-feeling in it. “<em>I will not leave +you orphans.</em>” Yes; there is to be something of home even in the way to +it. I find something of Devonshire even in Dorsetshire; Shropshire gives +me a taste of Wales. My Lord will not leave me comfortless. Heaven runs +over, and I find its bounty before I arrive at its gate. The “Valley of +Baca” becomes “a well.”</p> + +<p>And there are to be wonderful visions to speed the pilgrim’s feet. “<em>I +will manifest Myself unto him.</em>” At unexpected corners the glory will +break! We shall be assuming that we have picked up a common traveller, and +suddenly we shall discover it is the Lord, for He will be made known to us +“in the breaking of bread.” And at many “risings” of the road, where the +climbing is stiff and burdensome, we shall be inspired with many a +glorious view, and we shall see “the land that is very far off.”</p> + +<p>The one condition is, that I keep His word. If I am obedient, He will +appear unto me, and the humdrum road will shine with miracles of grace.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 65]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE TENT AND THE BUILDING</em></h2> + +<p class="center">2 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> v. 1-9.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>T present we live in a tent—“<em>the earthly house of this tabernacle.</em>” +And often the tent is very rickety. There are rents through which the rain +enters, and it trembles ominously in the great storm. Some tents are frail +from the very beginning, half-rotten when they are put up, and they have +no defence even against the breeze. But even the strongest tent becomes +weather-worn and threadbare, and in the long run it “falls in a heap!” And +what then?</p> + +<p>We shall exchange the frail tent for the solid house! “<em>If the earthly +house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, a house +not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.</em>” When we are unclothed we +shall find ourselves clothed with our house which is from heaven. The +glory of this transition can only be confessed by “the saints in light.” +To awake, and discover that the creaking, breaking cords are left behind, +that all the leakages are over, that we are no longer exposed to the +cutting wind, that pain is passed, and sickness, and death—this must be a +wonder of inconceivable ecstasy!</p> + +<p>And “absent from the body” we shall be “present with the Lord.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 66]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>HOME-LIFE IN GOD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xvii. 20-26.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE home-life in God is to be a life of perfect union—“<em>I in them, and +Thou in Me.</em>” Home is only another name for union. It is the perfect +fusion of life with life, the harmonizing of differences as many different +notes combine to form the mystery of choral song. And so will it be in the +home-land! Our manifold individualities will be retained, but we shall +“fit into one another,” and in the perfect harmony we shall hear the “new +song” of heaven.</p> + +<p>And we are to prepare that union by the contemplation of the glory of the +Lord. “<em>That they may behold My glory.</em>” Yes, and we can begin to do that +now. We can lift our eyes away from the ugly compromises of men and fix +them upon the radiant holiness of the Lord. We can look away from the +dirty Alpine village and gaze upon the virgin snow of the uplifted +heights. “Looking unto Jesus!”</p> + +<p>And in that contemplation we shall most assuredly become transformed. “<em>I +have given unto them the glory which Thou gavest Me.</em>” That is our +wonderful possibility. For thee and me is this prize offered, we can +“awake in His likeness.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 67]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THINGS MISSING IN HEAVEN</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Revelation</span> xxi. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT a number of “conspicuous absences” there are to be in “the +home-land!”</p> + +<p>No more sea! John was in Patmos, and the sea rolled between him and his +kinsmen. The sea was a minister of estrangement. But in the home-country +every cause of separation is to be done away, and the family life is to be +one of inconceivable intimacy. No more sea!</p> + +<p>And no more pain! Its work is done, and therefore the worker is put away. +When the building is completed the scaffolding may be removed. When the +patient is in good health the medicine bottles can be dispensed with. And +so shall it be with pain and all its attendants. “The inhabitant never +says: ‘I am sick!’”</p> + +<p>And no more death! “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death.” Yes, +he, too, shall drop his scythe, and his lax hand shall destroy no more for +ever. Death himself shall die! And all things that have shared his work +shall die with him. “The former things have passed away.” The wedding-peal +which welcomes the Lamb’s bride will ring the funeral knell of Death and +all his sable company.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 68]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE CITIZENS OF THE HOME-LAND</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Revelation</span> vii. 9-17.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE citizen of “the home-land” wears white robes. His habits are perfectly +clean. And the purity which he wears is a Divine gift and not a human +accomplishment. It cannot be attained by self-sacrifice; it is ours +through the sacrifice of our Lord. “They have washed their robes and made +them white in the blood of the Lamb.”</p> + +<p>And every citizen of the home-land bears a palm in his hand. It is the +emblem of conquest and sovereignty. By the grace of Christ they have been +lifted above self and sin, and the devil, and death, and “made to sit with +Him” on His throne. The palm is the heavenly symbol that all their +spiritual enemies are under their feet.</p> + +<p>And every citizen of the home-land takes part in the new song. The +home-folk are therefore one in purity, one in self-conquest, and one in +praise. “Salvation unto our God which sitteth upon the throne!” In that +melody of thankfulness their union is deepened and enriched.</p> + +<p>And we, too, can begin now to wear the white robe! And even now can we +carry the palm! And even now we can join in the song of ceaseless praise.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 69]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>NEARING HOME!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">2 <span class="smcap">Timothy</span> iv. 1-8.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is a most valiant pilgrim nearing home! By the mercy of Christ he can +look back upon a brave day, and there’s a fine hopeful light in the +evening sky.</p> + +<p>He has fought well! “<em>I have fought a good fight.</em>” And his has been a +hard field. The enemy has ever regarded him as a leader in the army of the +Lord and against him has the fiercest fight been waged. But he has never +lost or stained his flag.</p> + +<p>And he has run well! “<em>I have finished my course.</em>” There was no +melancholy turning back when the feverish start had cooled. There was no +shrinking when the biting wind of malice and persecution swept across his +track. On and on he ran, with increasing speed and ardour, until he +reached the goal.</p> + +<p>And well had he guarded his treasure! “<em>I have kept the faith.</em>” He was +the custodian of “unsearchable riches,” and he watched, day and night, +lest any infernal burglar should despoil him of his wealth. He guarded his +gospel, his liberty, his hope, as the sentinels guard the crown jewels in +the Tower.</p> + +<p>And now the hard day is nearly over. “Henceforth there is laid up for me a +crown of righteousness which the Lord will give me at that day.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 70]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Tenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>EXALTATION BY SEPARATION</em></h2> + +<p class="center">2 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> vi. 11-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HEN we turn away from the world, and leave it, we ourselves are not left +to desolation and orphanhood. When we “come out from among them” the Lord +receives us! He is waiting for us. The new companionship is ours the +moment the old companionship is ended. “I will not leave you comfortless.” +What we have lost is compensated by infinite and eternal gain. We have +lost “the whole world” and gained “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”</p> + +<p>And therefore separation is exaltation. We leave the muddy pleasures of +Sodom and we “drink of the river of His pleasures.” We leave “the garish +day,” and all the feverish life of Vanity Fair, and He maketh us “to lie +down in green pastures,” “He leadeth us beside the still waters.” We leave +a transient sensation, we receive the bread of eternity. We forfeit +fireworks, we gain the stars!</p> + +<p>What fools we are, and blind! We prefer the scorched desert of Sodom to +the garden of Eden. We prefer a loud reputation to noble character. We +prefer delirium to joy. We prefer human applause to the praise of God. We +prefer a fading garland to the crown of life. Lord, that we may receive +our sight!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 71]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Eleventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GOOD AND BAD ROADS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> i.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HERE is nothing breaks up more speedily than a badly-made road. Every +season is its enemy and works for its destruction. Fierce heat and +intensest cold both strive for its undoing. And “the way of the ungodly” +is an appallingly bad road. There is rottenness in its foundations, and +there is built into it “wood, and hay, and stubble,” How can it stand? +“The Spirit of the Lord breatheth upon it,” and it is surely brought to +nought. All the forces of holiness are pledged to its destruction, and +they shall pick it to pieces, and shall scatter its elements to the winds.</p> + +<p>“I am the way!” That road remains sound “in all generations.” Changing +circumstances cannot affect its stability. It is proof against every +tempest, and against the most violent heat. It is a road in which little +children can walk in happiness and in which old people can walk in peace. +It is firm in the day of life, and it is absolutely sure in the hour of +death. It never yields! “Thou hast set my feet upon a rock and hast +established my goings.” “This is the way, walk ye in it.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 72]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Twelfth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE COMING OF THE LORD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> xvii. 22-32.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>N a certain very real way the Lord is coming every moment. And the great +art of Christian living is to be able to discern Him when He arrives. He +may appear as the village carpenter; or we may “suppose Him to be one of +the gardeners,” and we may mistake His appearing! He may meet us in some +lowly duty, or in some seemingly unpleasant task. He may shine in the +cheeriness of some triumph, or whisper to us in a message of good news. “I +come again.” And if our eyes are open we shall see Him coming continually. +It is by this perception that the value of our life is measured and +weighed.</p> + +<p>But He will also come again “suddenly,” when the soul will be translated +into unknown climes. He will come again in the sable robes of death. Shall +we know Him? Will our eyes be so keen and true that we shall be able to +pierce the dark veil and say “It is the Lord!” This has been the joyful +experience of countless multitudes. When the summons came their souls went +forth, not as victims to encounter death, but as the bride “to meet the +bridegroom!” They had intimacy with Him in life; they had glorious +fellowship with Him in death!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 73]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Thirteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>SICKNESS AMONG CHRIST’S FRIENDS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xi. 1-16.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so sickness can enter the circle of the friends of the Lord. “<em>He whom +Thou lovest is sick.</em>” My sicknesses do not mean that I have lost His +favour. The shadow is His, as well as the sunshine. When He removes me +from the glare of boisterous health it may be because of some spiritual +fern which needs the ministry of the shade. “<em>This sickness is ... for the +glory of God.</em>” Something beautiful will spring out of the shadowed +seclusion, something which shall spread abroad the name and fame of God.</p> + +<p>And, therefore, I do not wonder at the Lord’s delay. He did not hasten +away to the sick friend: “<em>He abode two days still in the same place where +He was.</em>” Shall I put it like this: the awaking bulbs were not yet ready +for the brighter light—just a little more shade! We are impatient to get +healthy; the Lord desires that we become holy. Our physical sickness is +continued in order that we may put on spiritual strength.</p> + +<p>And there are others besides sick Lazarus concerned in the sickness: “I am +glad <em>for your sakes</em> I was not there.” The disciples were included in the +divine scheme. Their spiritual welfare was to be affected by it. Let me +ever remember that the circle affected by sickness is always wider than +the patient’s bed. And may God be glorified in all!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 74]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Fourteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>“<em>EVEN NOW!</em>”</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xi. 17-31.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me consider this marvellous confession of Martha’s faith. “I know that +<em>even now</em>, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee!” Mark +the “even now”! Lazarus was dead, and it was midnight in the desolate +home. But “even now”! Beautiful it is when a soul’s most awful crises are +the seasons of its most radiant faith! Beautiful it is when our lamp +shines steadily in the tempest, and when our spiritual confidence remains +unshaken like a gloriously rooted tree. Beautiful it is when in our +midnight men can hear the strains of the “even now”!</p> + +<p>And let me consider the wonder of the Divine response. “<em>I am the +resurrection and the life.</em>” A faith like Martha’s will always win the +Saviour’s best. And here is an overwhelming best before which we can only +bow in silent homage and awe. He is the Fountain in whom the stagnant +brook shall find currency again. He is the Life in whom the fallen dead +shall rise to their feet again.</p> + +<p>And what is this? “Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me <em>shall never +die</em>!” We shall go to sleep, but we shall never taste the bitterness of +death. In the very act of closing our material eyes we shall open our +spiritual eyes, and find ourselves at home!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 75]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Fifteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>JESUS AT A GRAVE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xi. 32-45.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is Jesus weeping. “Jesus wept.” Why did He weep? Perhaps He wept out +of sheer sympathy with the tears of others. And perhaps, too, He wept +because some of our tears were needless. If we were better men we should +know more of the love and purpose of our Lord, and perhaps many of our +tears would be dried. Still, here is the sweet and heartening evangel. He +sympathizes with my grief! Never a bitter tear is shed without my Lord +sharing the tang and the pang.</p> + +<p>Here is Jesus praying! “Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me.” +Then it is not so much a prayer as a thanksgiving. He gives thanks for +what He is “about to receive.” Is this my way? Perhaps I do it before I +take a meal. Do I do it before I begin to live the day? In the morning do +I thank my God for what I am about to receive? Can I confidently give +thanks before I receive the gifts of God, before the dish-covers are +removed? Can I trust Him?</p> + +<p>And here is Jesus commanding, clothed in sovereign power: “Lazarus, come +forth!” That is the same voice which “in the beginning created the heavens +and the earth.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 76]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Sixteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE NEMESIS OF BIGOTRY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xi. 46-57.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p> FEARFUL nemesis waits upon the spirit of bigotry. Oliver Wendell Holmes +has said that bigotry is like the pupil of the eye, the more light you +pour into it the more it contracts. The scribes and Pharisees became +smaller men the more the Lord revealed His glory. In the raising of +Lazarus they saw nothing of the glory of the resurrection life, nothing of +the joy of the reunited family, nothing of the gracious ministry of the +Lord! “Darkness had blinded their eyes.”</p> + +<p>And it is also the nemesis of bigotry to be bitter, cruel, and violent. +They sought to kill the Giver of life!</p> + +<p>It is the ministry of light to ripen and sweeten the dispositions. “The +fruit of the light is in all goodness.” It is the ministry of the darkness +to make men sour and unsympathetic, and revengeful, and to so pervert the +heart as to make it a minister of poison and death.</p> + +<p>And yet, how powerless is bigotry in the long run! It can no more stay the +progress of the Kingdom than King Canute could check the flowing tide! +Bigotry slew the Lord, and He rose again! And so it ever is. “Truth +crushed to earth shall rise again; the eternal years of God are hers.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 77]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Seventeenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE COMMONPLACE OF DEATH</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> vii. 11-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-d.png" width="80" height="80" alt="D" title="" /> +</div><p>EATH is never a commonplace. We never become so accustomed to funerals as +not to see them. Everybody sees the mournful procession go along the +street. A momentary awe steals over the flippant thought, and for one +brief season the superficial opens into the infinite abyss.</p> + +<p>And yet, while a thousand are arrested, only a few are compassionate. +There can be awe without pity; there can be interest without service. When +this humble funeral train trudged out of the city of Nain our Lord halted, +and His heart melted! There was an “aching void,” and He longed to fill +it. There was a bleeding, broken heart, and He yearned to stand and heal +it. He found His own joy in removing another’s tears, His own satisfaction +in another’s peace.</p> + +<p>“<em>The Lord hath visited His people!</em>” That is what the people said, and I +do not wonder at the saying! And let me, too, be a humble visitor in the +troubled ways of men! Let my heart be a well of sweet compassion to all +the sons and daughters of grief! Like Barnabas, let me be “a son of +consolation.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 78]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Eighteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>SERENITY IN THE TEMPEST</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Job</span> xix. 23-27.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/img-p.png" width="78" height="80" alt="P" title="" /> +</div><p>ERHAPS I am akin to Job in having experienced the pressure of calamity. I +have felt the shock of adverse circumstances, and the house of my life has +trembled in the convulsion. Or death has been to my door and has returned +again and again, and every time he has left me weeping! All God’s billows +have gone over me! Verily, I can take my place by the patriarch Job.</p> + +<p>But can I share his witness, “<em>I know that my Redeemer liveth</em>”? Have I a +calm assurance that my ruler is not caprice, and that my comings and +goings are not determined by unfeeling chance? When death knocked at my +door, did I know that the King had sent him? When some cherished scheme +toppled into ruin, had I any thought that the Lord’s hand was concerned in +the shaking? Even when my circumstances are dubious, and I cannot trace a +gracious purpose, do I know that my Vindicator liveth, and that some day +He will justify all the happenings of the troubled road?</p> + +<p>I will pay for this gracious confidence. I would have a firm step even +among disappointments; yea, I would “sing songs in the night!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 79]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Nineteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>DEATH AS MY SERVANT</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Revelation</span> xx. 1-6.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-e.png" width="80" height="80" alt="E" title="" /> +</div><p>VEN now I would rise from the dead. Even now I would know “the power of +His resurrection.” Even now I would taste the rapture of the deathless +life. And this is my glorious prerogative in grace. Yes, even now I can be +“risen with Christ,” and “death shall no more have dominion over me!”</p> + +<p>And yet I must die! Yes, but the old enemy shall now be my friend. He will +not be my master, but my servant. He shall just be the porter, to open the +door into my Father’s house, into the home of unspeakable blessedness and +glory. Death shall not hurt me!</p> + +<p>I have seen a little child fall asleep while out in the streets of the +city, and the kind nurse has taken charge of the sleeper, and when the +little one awaked she was at home, and she opened her eyes upon her +mother’s face.</p> + +<p>So shall it be with all who are alive in Christ, and who have risen from a +spiritual grave. They shall just fall into a brief sweet sleep, and gentle +death shall usher them into the glory of the endless day.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 80]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Twentieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LORD IS AT HAND!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xxiv. 42-51.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HEN let me always live as though my Lord were at the gate! Let me arrange +my affairs on the assumption that the next to lift the latch will be the +King. When I am out with my friend, walking and talking, let me assume +that just round the corner I may meet the Lord.</p> + +<p>And so let me practise meeting Him! Said a mother to me one day concerning +her long-absent boy: “I lay a place for him at every meal! His seat is +always ready!” May I not do this for my Lord? May I not make a place for +Him in all my affairs—my choices, my pleasures, my times of business, my +season of rest? He may come just now; let His place be ready!</p> + +<p>If He delay, I must not become careless. If He give me further liberty, I +must not take liberties with it. Here is the golden principle, ever to +live, ever to think, ever to work as though the Lord had already arrived. +For indeed, He has, and when the veil is rent I shall find Him at my +side.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 81]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Twenty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>IN THE GOLDEN CITY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> lii. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so these are the glories of the golden city. There is <em>wakefulness</em>. +“Awake! awake!” In the golden city none will be asleep. Everybody will be +bright-eyed, clear-minded, looking upon all beautiful things with fresh +and ready receptiveness. “The eyes of them that see shall not be dim.”</p> + +<p>There is <em>strength</em>. “Put on thy strength!” There will be no broken wills +in the golden city, and no broken hearts. No one will walk with a limp! +Everybody will go with a brave stride as to the strains of a band. And no +one will tire of living, and the inhabitant never says, “I am sick.”</p> + +<p>And there is <em>beauty</em>. “Put on thy beautiful garments.” Bare strength +might not be attractive. But strength clothed in beauty is a very gracious +thing. The tender mosses on the granite make it winsome. Strength is +companionable when it is united with grace. In the golden city there will +be tender sentiment as well as rigid conviction.</p> + +<p>And these glories will be our defence. A positive virtue is our best +rampart against vice. A robust health is the best protection against the +epidemic. “The prince of this world cometh, and he hath nothing in me.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 82]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Twenty-second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>COUNSEL AND MIGHT</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxix. 33-40.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE psalmist prays for an <em>illumined understanding</em>. “Teach me, O Lord, +the way of Thy statutes.” We are so prone to be children of the twilight, +and to see things out of their true proportions. Therefore do we need to +be daily taught. I must go into the school of the Lord, and in docility of +spirit I must sit at His feet. “O, teach me, Lord, teach even me!”</p> + +<p>And the psalmist prays for <em>rectified inclinations</em>. “Incline my heart +unto Thy testimonies.” We so often have the wrong bias, the fatal taste, +and our desires are all against the will of the Lord. If only my leanings +were toward the Lord how swift my progress would be! I strive to walk +after holiness, while my inclinations are in the realm of sin. And so I +need a clean mouth, with an appetite for the beautiful and the true. +“Blessed are they that hunger after righteousness.”</p> + +<p>And the psalmist prays for <em>a strenuous will</em>. “Make me to go in the path +of Thy commandments.” He is praying for “go,” for moral persistence, for +power to crash through all obstacles which may impede his heavenly +progress. And such is my need. Good Lord, endow me with a will like “an +iron pillar,” and help me to “stand in the evil day.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 83]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Twenty-third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE DARK BETRAYAL</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xviii. 1-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>UR Master was betrayed by a disciple, “one of the twelve.” The blow came +from one of “His own household.” The world employed a “friend” to execute +its dark design. And so our intimacy with Christ may be our peril; our +very association may be made our temptation. The devil would rather gain +<em>one</em> belonging to the inner circle than a thousand who stand confessed as +the friends of the world. What am I doing in the kingdom? Can I be +trusted? Or am I in the pay of the evil one?</p> + +<p>And our Master was betrayed in the garden of prayer. In the most hallowed +place the betrayer gave the most unholy kiss. He brought his defilement +into the most awe-inspiring sanctuary the world has ever known. And so may +it be with me. I can kindle the unclean fire in the church. I can stab my +Lord when I am on my knees. While I am in apparent devotion I can be in +league with the powers of darkness.</p> + +<p>And this “dark betrayal” was for money! The Lord of Glory was bartered for +thirty pieces of silver! And the difference between Judas and many men is +that they often sell their Lord for less! From the power of Mammon, and +from the blindness which falls upon his victims, good Lord, deliver me!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 84]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Twenty-fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>IN GETHSEMANE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> xxii. 39-46.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-s.png" width="80" height="80" alt="S" title="" /> +</div><p>URELY this is the very Holy of Holies! It were well for us to fall on our +knees and “be silent unto the Lord.” I would quietly listen to the awful +words, “Remove this cup from Me!” and I would listen again and again until +never again do I hold a cheap religion. It is in this garden that we learn +the real values of things, and come to know the price at which our +redemption was bought. No one can remain in Gethsemane and retain a +frivolous and flippant spirit.</p> + +<p>“<em>And there appeared unto Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him.</em>” I +know that angel! He has been to me. He has brought me angel’s food, even +heavenly manna. Always and everywhere, when my soul has surrendered itself +to the Divine will, the angel comes, and my soul is refreshed. The laying +down of self is the taking up of God. When I lose my will I gain the +Infinite. The moment of surrender is also the moment of conquest. When I +consecrate my weakness I put on strength and majesty like a robe.</p> + +<p>“<em>And when He rose up from His prayer</em>”—what then? Just this, He was +quietly ready for anything, ready for the betraying kiss, ready for +crucifixion. “Arise, let us be going.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 85]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Twenty-fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE FEAR OF MAN</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xviii. 15-27.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND this is the disciple who had been surnamed “The Rock”! Our Lord looked +into the morrow, and He saw Simon’s character, compacted by grace and +discipline into a texture tough and firm as granite. But there is not much +granite here! Peter is yet loose and yielding; more like a bending reed +than an unshakable rock. A servant girl whispers, and his timid heart +flings a lie to his lips and he denies his Lord.</p> + +<p>Peter denied the Master, not because he coveted money, but because he +feared men. He was not seeking crowns, but escaping frowns. He was not +clutching at a garland, but avoiding a sword. It was not avarice but +cowardice which determined his ways. He shrank from crucifixion! He saw a +possible cross, and with a great lie he passed by on the other side.</p> + +<p>But the Lord has not done with Peter. He is still “in the making.” Some +day he will justify his new name. Some day we shall find it written: “When +they saw the boldness of Peter, they marvelled”! Once a maid could make +him tremble. Now he can stand in high places, “steadfast and unmovable”!</p> + +<p>From the spirit of cowardice and from all temporising, and from the unholy +fear of man, deliver me, good Lord!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 86]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Twenty-sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE KING OF KINGS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xviii. 28-38.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT a strange King our Lord appears, claiming mystic sovereignty, and yet +betrayed by a false friend!</p> + +<p>And yet, even in His apparent subjection His majestic kingliness stands +revealed. When I watch the demeanours of Pilate and Jesus, I can see very +clearly who it is who is on the throne; Pilate wears the outer trappings +of royalty, but my Lord’s is “the power and the glory.” Pilate fusses +about in a little “brief authority,” but my Lord stands possessed of a +serene dominion. Even at Pilate’s judgment bar Jesus is the King.</p> + +<p>But His kingdom is “<em>not of this world</em>.” And therefore this King is +unlike every other King. He seeks His possessions not by fighting, but by +“lighting”; not by coercion, but by constraint. His servants do not go +forth with swords, but with lamps; not to drive the peoples, but to lead +them. His visible throne is a cross, and His conquests are made in the +power of sacrifice.</p> + +<p>And so His armaments are the Truth, and the Truth alone. “<em>For this cause +came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the Truth.</em>” When +the Truth wins and wooes, the triumph is lasting. Garlands won by the +sword perish before the evening. To be one of the King’s subjects is to +share His nature. “Everyone that is of the truth heareth My voice.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 87]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Twenty-seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SILENCE OF JESUS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He answered him nothing!</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Luke</span> xxiii. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND yet, “Ask, and it shall be given you!” Yes, but everything depends +upon the asking. Even in the realm of music there is a rudeness of +approach which leaves true music silent. Whether the genius of music is to +answer us or not depends upon our “touch.” Herod’s “touch” was wrong, and +there was no response. Herod was flippant, and the Eternal was dumb. And +I, too, may question a silent Lord. In the spiritual realm an idle +curiosity is never permitted to see the crown jewels. Frivolousness never +goes away from the royal Presence rich with surprises of grace. “Thy touch +has still its ancient power!” So it has, but the healing touch is the +gracious response to the touch of faith. “She touched Him, and...!”</p> + +<p>“<em>And Herod ... mocked Him.</em>” That was the real spirit behind the eager +curiosity. And I, too, may mock my Lord! I may bow before Him, and array +Him in apparent royalty, while all the time my spirit is full of flippancy +and jeers. I may lustily sing: “Crown Him Lord of all,” while I will not +recognize His rights on a single square foot of the soil of my +inheritance. And this it is to be the kinsman of Herod. And this, too, +will be the issue; the heavens will be as brass, and the Lord will answer +us nothing.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 88]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Twenty-eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE CHOICE OF BARABBAS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> xxiii. 13-24.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-b.png" width="79" height="80" alt="B" title="" /> +</div><p>ARABBAS rather than Christ! The destroyer of life rather than the Giver +of life! This was the choice of the people; and it is a choice which has +often stained and defiled my own life.</p> + +<p>When I choose revenge rather than forgiveness, I am preferring Barabbas to +Christ. For revenge is a murderer, while forgiveness is a healer and +saviour of men. But how often I have sent the sweet healer to the cross, +and welcomed the murderer within my gate!</p> + +<p>When I choose carnal passion before holiness, I am preferring Barabbas to +Christ. For is there any murderer so destructive as carnality? And +holiness stands waiting, ready to make me beautiful with the wondrous +garments of grace. But I spurn the angel, and open my door to the beast.</p> + +<p>The devil is always soliciting my service, and the devil “is a murderer +from the beginning.” Have I never preferred him, and sent my Lord to be +“crucified afresh,” and “put Him to an open shame”?</p> + +<p>Again let me pray—for all my unholy and unwholesome choices, for all my +preference of the murderer, forgive me, good Lord!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 89]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Twenty-ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MYSTIC ALARM-BELLS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xxvii. 19-25.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/img-p.png" width="78" height="80" alt="P" title="" /> +</div><p>ILATE was warned. Pilate’s wife had a dream, and in the dream she had +glimpses of reality, and when she awoke her soul was troubled. “Have thou +nothing to do with that just man!”</p> + +<p>And I, too, have mysterious warnings when I am treading perilous ways. +Sometimes the warning comes from a friend. Sometimes “the angel of the +Lord stands in the way for an adversary.” My conscience rings loudly like +an alarm-bell in the dead of night. Yes, the warnings are clear and +pertinent, but...!</p> + +<p>Pilate ignored the warning, and handed the Lord to the revengeful will of +the priests. Pilate defiled his heart, and then he washed his hands! What +a petty attempt to escape the certain issues! And yet we have shared in +the small evasion. We have crucified the Lord, and then we wear a +crucifix. We violate the spirit, and then we do reverence to the letter. +We hand the Lord over to be crucified, and then we practise the postures +and gait of the saints. Yes, we have all sought an escape in outer +ceremony from the nemesis of our shameful deeds.</p> + +<p>My soul, attend thou to the mystic warnings, and “play the man”!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 90]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Thirtieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE VICTORY OF MEEKNESS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Peter</span> ii. 17-25.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HEN I may be not only the betrayer, but the betrayed. In my inner circle +there may be a friend who will play me false, and hand me over to the +wolves. What then? Just this—I must imitate the grace of my Lord, and +“consider Him.”</p> + +<p>There must be no violent retaliation. “<em>When He was reviled, He reviled +not again.</em>” The fire of revenge may singe or even scorch my enemy, but it +will do far more damage to the furniture of my own soul. After every +indulgence in vengeful passion some precious personal possession has been +destroyed. The fact of the matter is, this fire cannot be kept burning +without making fuel of the priceless furnishings of the soul. “Heat not a +furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.”</p> + +<p>There must be a serene committal of the soul to the strong keeping of the +Eternal God. “<em>He committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.</em>” +This is the way of peace, as this is the way of victory. If ever the enemy +is to be conquered this must be the mode of the conquest. When men +persecute us, let us rest more implicitly in our God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 91]</span></p> +<h2>MARCH The Thirty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>AT THE CROSS!</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xxvii. 38-50.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me listen to the ribald jeers which were flung upon my Lord. And let +me listen, not as a judge, but as one who has been in the company of the +callous crowd. For I, too, have mocked Him! I have said: “Hail, King!” and +I have bowed before Him, but it has been mock and empty homage! I have +sung: “Crown Him Lord of all!” but there has been no real recognition of +His sovereignty; mine has been a mock coronation. From the seat of the +mocker, deliver me, good Lord!</p> + +<p>And let me stand near the cross while that awful voice of desolation rends +the heavens. “<em>My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?</em>” In that +agonizing cry I am led to the real heart of the atonement. My Saviour was +standing where His believers will never stand. That was the real death, +the death of an inconceivable abandonment. And “He died for me!” He so +died in order that I may never taste death. “He that liveth and believeth +in Me shall never die.”</p> + +<p>Every believer will go to sleep, and through a short sleep he will wake in +the glory of the Eternal Presence. But he will never die: no, never die!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 92]</span><a name="APR" id="APR"></a></p> +<h2>APRIL The First</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> xxiii. 33-47.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>OOK at our Lord in relation to His foes. “<em>Father, forgive them; for they +know not what they do!</em>” Their bitterness has not embittered Him. The +“milk of human kindness” was still sweet. Nothing could sour our Lord, and +convert His goodwill into malice, His serene beneficence into wild +revenge. And how is it with me? Are my foes able to maim my spirit as well +as my body? Do they win their end by making me a smaller man? Or am I +magnanimous even on the cross?</p> + +<p>And look at our Lord in relation to the penitent thief. “<em>To-day shalt +thou be with Me in Paradise.</em>” There was no self-centredness in our +Saviour’s grief. He was the good Physician, even when His body was mangled +on the cross. He healed a broken heart even in the very pangs of death. +When “there was darkness over all the earth,” He let the light of the +morning into the heart of a desolate thief. And, good Lord, graciously +help me to do likewise!</p> + +<p>And all this amazing graciousness is explained in our Lord’s relation to +His Father. “<em>Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit!</em>” Yes, +everything is there! When I and My Father are one, my spirit will remain +sweet as the violet and pure as the dew.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 93]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>“<em>ON HIM!</em>”</h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> liii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me tell a dream which was given by night to one of my dearest friends. +He beheld a stupendous range of glorious sun-lit mountains, with their +lower slopes enfolded in white mist. “Lord,” he cried, “I pray that I may +dwell upon those heights!” “Thou must first descend into the vale,” a +voice replied.</p> + +<p>Into the vale he went. And down there he found himself surrounded with all +manner of fierce, ugly, loathsome things. As he looked upon them he saw +that they were the incarnations of his own sins! There they were, sins +long ago committed, showing their threatening teeth before him!</p> + +<p>Then he heard some One approaching, and instinctively he knew it was the +Lord! And he felt so ashamed that he drew a cloak over his face, and stood +in silence. And the Presence came nearer and nearer, until He, too, stood +silent. After a while my friend mastered sufficient courage to lift the +corner of his cloak and look out upon the Presence: and lo! all the +loathsome things were <em>on Him</em>!</p> + +<p>“The Lord had laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 94]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE STONE ROLLED AWAY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Mark</span> xvi. 1-8.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> AM always wondering who will roll away the stone! There is a great +obstacle in the way, and my frailty is incompetent to its removal. And lo! +when I arrive at the place I find that the angel has been before me, and +the obstacle is gone! And I would that I might learn wisdom to-day from +the miracle of yesterday. Let me not be confounded about a new stone when +I know that my fears about the old one had no foundation.</p> + +<p>And then the young man at the sepulchre! He is a type of eternal youth, +and he is sitting serenely in a routed grave. He represents the +unwithering in the very home of corruption. And this, too, is my hope! It +is mine in Christ to put on incorruption, and through a brief sleep to +become clothed with immortal youth. “There everlasting spring abides, and +never withering flowers!”</p> + +<p>And I may have the assurance of the coming glory even now. Even now may I +taste the heavenly feast, and wear some of the unfading flowers of the +glorified. Yes, even now my leaf need not wither, and my hopes may remain +unshaken through all my troubled years.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 95]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE RESURRECTION MORNING</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xxviii. 1-15.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me reverently mark the happenings of this most wonderful morn. “<em>It +began to dawn.</em>” Yes, that was the first significance of the resurrection. +It was a new day for the world. Everything was to be seen in a new light. +Everything was to wear a new face—God, and heaven, and life, and duty, +and death! “All things are become new.”</p> + +<p>“<em>And there was a great earthquake.</em>” Yes, and this was significant of the +tremendous upheaval implied in the resurrection. The kingdom of the devil +was upheaved from its foundations. All the boasted pomp of his showy +empire was turned upside down. “I beheld Satan falling!”</p> + +<p>“<em>And the angel rolled away the stone.</em>” And that, too, is significant of +the resurrection. The awful barrier was rolled away, and the grave became +a thoroughfare! “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.”</p> + +<p>And there was “<em>fear and great joy</em>.” And mingled awe and gladness, a +reverential delight.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 96]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE EMPTY TOMB</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> xxiv. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT empty tomb means the conquest of death. The Captive proved mightier +than the captor. He emerged from the prison as the Lord of the prison, and +death reeled at His going. In the risen Saviour death is dethroned; he +takes his place at the footstool to do the bidding of his sovereign Lord +and King. And that empty tomb means the conquest of sin. Sin had done its +worst, and had failed. All the forces of hell had been rallied against the +Lord, and above them all He rose triumphant and glorified. A little while +ago I discovered a spring. I tried to choke it. I heaped sand and gravel +upon it; I piled stones above it! And through them all it emerged, +noiselessly and irresistibly, a radiant resurrection!</p> + +<p>And so the empty tomb becomes the symbol of a thoroughfare between life in +time and life in the unshadowed Presence of our God. Death is now like a +short tunnel which is near my home; I can look through it and see the +other side! In the risen Lord death becomes transparent. “O death, where +is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 97]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Last of all He was seen of me also.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> xv. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND by that vision Saul of Tarsus was transformed. And so, by the ministry +of a risen Lord we have received the gift of a transfigured Paul. The +resurrection glory fell upon him, and he was glorified. In that +superlative light he discovered his sin, his error, his need, but he also +found the dynamic of the immortal hope.</p> + +<p>“Seen of me also!” Can I, too, calmly and confidently claim the +experience? Or am I altogether depending upon another man’s sight, and are +my own eyes unillumined? In these realms the witness of “hear-says” counts +for nothing; he only speaks with arresting power who has “seen for +himself.” “Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee +of Me?” That is the question which is asked, not only by the Master, but +by all who hear us tell the story of the risen Lord. “Has He been seen of +thee also?”</p> + +<p>My Saviour, I humbly pray Thee to give me first-hand knowledge of Thee. +Let me be a witness who can say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth!” Before +all the doubts and hesitancies of man enable me to answer, “Have I not +seen Jesus Christ our Lord?”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 98]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>IF CHRIST WERE DEAD!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> xv. 12-26.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p><em>F Christ be not risen!</em>” That is the most appalling “if” which can be +flung into the human mind. If it obtains lodging and entertainment, all +the fairest hopes of the soul wither away like tender buds which have been +nipped by sharp frost! See how they fade!</p> + +<p>“<em>Your faith is vain.</em>” It has no more strength and permanency than +Jonah’s gourd. Nay, it has really never been a living thing! It has been a +pathetic delusion, beautiful, but empty as a bubble, and collapsing at +Joseph’s tomb.</p> + +<p>“<em>Ye are yet in your sins.</em>” The hope of forgiveness and reconciliation is +stricken, and there is nothing left but “a certain fearful looking-for of +judgment.” Nemesis has only been hiding behind a screen of decorated +falsehoods, and she will pursue us to the bitter end.</p> + +<p>“<em>We are of all men the most miserable.</em>” Joy would fall and die like a +fatally wounded lark. The song would cease from our souls. The holy place +would become a tomb.</p> + +<p>“But now <em>is</em> Christ risen from the dead!” Yes, let me finish on that +word. That gives me morning, and melody, and holy merriment that knows no +end.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 99]</span></p> +<h2>April The Eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MY INHERITANCE IN THE RISEN LORD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Peter</span> i. 1-9.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>N my risen Lord I am born into “a living hope,” a hope not only vital, +but vitalizing, sending its mystic, vivifying influences through every +highway and by-way of my soul.</p> + +<p>In my risen Lord mine is “<em>an inheritance incorruptible</em>.” It is not +exposed to the gnawing tooth of time. Moth and rust can not impair the +treasure. It will not grow less as I grow old. Its glories are as +invulnerable as my Lord.</p> + +<p>In my risen Lord mine is “an inheritance ... <em>undefiled</em>.” There is no +alloy in the fine gold. The King will give me of His best. “Bring forth +the best robe, and put it on him.” The holiest ideal proclaims my +possibility, and foretells my ultimate attainment. Heaven’s wine is not to +be mixed with water. I am to awake “in His likeness.”</p> + +<p>And mine is “an inheritance ... that <em>fadeth not away</em>.” It shall not be +as the garlands offered by men—green to-day and to-morrow sere and +yellow. “Its leaf also shall not wither.” It shall always retain its +freshness, and shall offer me a continually fresh delight. And these are +all mine in Him!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Thou, O Christ, art all I want.”</span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 100]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE EVER-LIVING LORD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Revelation</span> i. 9-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me take the simple words, and quietly gaze into the wonderful depths +of their fathomless simplicity. An old villager used to tell me it would +strengthen my eyes if I looked long into deep wells. And it will assuredly +strengthen the eyes of my soul to gaze into wells like these.</p> + +<p>“<em>I am He that liveth.</em>” What a marvellous transformation it worked upon +Dr. Dale, when one day, in his study, it flashed upon him, as never +before, that Jesus Christ is alive! “Christ is alive!” he repeated again +and again, until the clarion music filled all the rooms in his soul. +“Christ is alive!”</p> + +<p>“<em>And was dead.</em>” Yes, the Lord has gone right through that dark place. +There are footprints, and they are the footprints of the Conqueror, all +along the road. “Christ leads me through no darker room than He went +through before.”</p> + +<p>“<em>And, behold, I am alive for ever more.</em>” “Jesus has conquered death and +all its powers.” Never more will it sit on a transient throne. Its power +is broken, its “sting” has lost its poison, there isn’t a boast left in +its apparently omnivorous mouth! “Where’s thy victory, O grave?” And here +is the gospel for me—“Because I live ye shall live also.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 101]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Tenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>RESURRECTION-LIGHT</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>If we believe that Jesus died and rose again....</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Thessalonians</span> iv. 13-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT is the eastern light which fills the valley of time with wonderful +beams of glory. It is the great dawn in which we find the promise of our +own day. Everything wears a new face in the light of our Lord’s +resurrection. I once watched the dawn on the East Coast of England. Before +there was a grey streak in the sky everything was held in grimmest gloom. +The toil of the two fishing-boats seemed very sombre. The sleeping houses +on the shore looked the abodes of death. Then came grey light, and then +the sun, and everything was transfigured! Every window in every cottage +caught the reflected glory, and the fishing-boats glittered in morning +radiance.</p> + +<p>And everything is transfigured in the Risen Christ. Everything is lit up +when “the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings.” Life is +lit up, and so is death, and so are sorrow and daily labour and human +friendships! Everything catches the gleam and is changed. “We are no +longer of the night, but of the day.” “Walk as children of light.” “Awake, +thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon +thee.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 102]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Eleventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THROUGH DEATH TO LIFE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Romans</span> v. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Lord went through death to make a path to life. He descended into +shame and suffering, and appalling desolation in order that He might “open +the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.” And the way is now open!</p> + +<p>Therefore, “<em>let us have peace with God</em>.” Let us reverently and willingly +tread the heavenly road, and seek the King’s presence, and gratefully +accept “the everlasting covenant.” Let us go, as once rebel soldiers, and +let us surrender our arms, and at His bidding take them again, to fight in +His service.</p> + +<p>And let us “<em>glory in tribulation</em>.” If we are in the King’s road, at +peace with the King, every stormy circumstance will be made to do us +service. Yes, all our troubles will be compelled to minister to us, to +robe us, and to adorn us, and to make us more like the sons and daughters +of a royal house. “Out of the eater will come forth meat, and out of the +strong will come forth sweetness.”</p> + +<p>And, therefore, let us “<em>joy in God</em>.” Don’t let us be “the King’s own,” +and yet march in the sulks! Let us march to the music of grateful song and +praise.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Children of the heavenly King,<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">As ye journey, sweetly sing.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 103]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Twelfth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LAMB ON THE THRONE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>In the midst of the throne stood a Lamb as it had been +slain!</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Revelation</span> v. 6-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>OW strange and unexpected is the figure! A lamb—the supreme type of +gentleness! A throne, the supreme symbol of power! And the one is in the +very midst of the other. The sacrificial has become the sovereign: the +Cross is the principal part of the throne. “I, if I be lifted up, will +draw all men unto Me.”</p> + +<p>Yes, this sovereign sacrificial Lord is to receive universal homage and +worship. “<em>Every creature which is in heaven and on the earth</em>” is to pay +tribute at His feet. And this, not by a terrible coercion, but by a +gracious constraint. We are not to be driven, we are to be drawn; we are +to move by love—compulsion: the Lamb in God is to win the wills of men.</p> + +<p>And I, too, may take my harp and make melodious praise before my King. And +I, too, may fill the “golden vials” with my grateful intercession, and +heaven shall be the sweeter for the odour of my prayers. And I, too, may +sound my loud “Amen,” the note of gladsome resignation to the sovereign +will of God. Yes, even now I may be one of “the multitude whom no man can +number,” who, in a new song, ascribe all worthiness to “the Lamb that was +slain.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 104]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Thirteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>PURE GOLD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Thou shalt overlay it with pure gold....<br />And there I will meet +with thee.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Exodus</span> xxv. 10-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> MUST put my best into my preparations, and then the Lord will honour my +work. My part is to be of “pure gold” if my God is to dwell within it. I +must not satisfy myself with cheap flimsy and then assume that the Lord +will be satisfied with it. He demands my very best as a condition of His +enriching Presence.</p> + +<p>My prayers must be of “pure gold” if He is to meet me there. There must be +nothing vulgar about them, nothing shoddy, nothing hastily constructed, +nothing thrown up anyhow. They must be chaste and sincere, and overlaid +with pure gold.</p> + +<p>My home must be of “pure gold” if He is to meet me there. No unclean +passion must dwell there, no carnal appetite, no defiling conversation, no +immoderateness in eating and drinking. How can the Lord sit down at such a +table, or make One at such a fireside?</p> + +<p>Let me present to Him pure gold. Let me offer Him nothing cheap. Let me +ever make the ark of my best, and the Lord will meet me there.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 105]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Fourteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>RELIGION AS MERE MAGIC</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp,<br /> +all Israel shouted with a great shout.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Samuel</span> iv. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HEY were making more of the ark than of the Lord. Their religion was +degenerating into superstition. I become superstitious whenever the means +of worship are permitted to eclipse the Object of worship. I then possess +a magic instrument, and I forget the holy Lord.</p> + +<p>It can be so with prayer. I may use prayer as a magic minister to protect +me from invasive ills. I do not pray because I desire fellowship with the +Father, but because I should not feel safe without it. The ark is more +than the Lord.</p> + +<p>It can be so with a crucifix. A crucifix may become a mere talisman, and +so supplant the Lord. I may wear the thing and have no fellowship with the +Person. And so may it be with the Lord’s Supper. I may come to regard it +as a magic feast, which makes me immune from punishment, but not immune +from sin. It may be a minister of safety, but not of holiness.</p> + +<p>So let mine eyes be ever unto the Lord! Let me not be satisfied with the +ark, but let me seek Him whose name is holy and whose nature is love.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 106]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Fifteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>DEGRADING HOLY THINGS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Samuel</span> vi. 1-15.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> MUST remember that a holy thing can be the minister of a plague. Things +that were purposed to be benedictions can be changed into blights. The +very ark of God must be in its appointed place or it becomes the means of +sickness and destruction. So it is with all the holy things of God: if I +dethrone them they will uncrown me.</p> + +<p>It is even so with music. Unless I give it its holy sovereignty it will +become a minister of the passions, and the angel within me is mastered by +a beast. Let me read again Tennyson’s “Palace of Sin,” and let me +heedfully note how music becomes the instrument of ignoble sensationalism, +and aids in man’s degradation. “But exalt her, and she shall exalt thee.”</p> + +<p>It is even so with art. It is purposed to be the holy dwelling-place of +God, but I can so abuse it as to make it the agent of degradation. Instead +of hallowing the life it will debase and impoverish it.</p> + +<p>I will therefore remember that, if I infringe the Divine order, I can turn +the sacramental cup into a vehicle of moral poison and spiritual blight. +“They must be holy who bear the vessels of the Lord.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 107]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Sixteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>PRIESTS OF THE LORD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span> xv. 1-3, 11-15.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HERE are prepared people for prepared offices. The Lord will fit the man +to the function, the anointed and consecrated priest for the consecrated +and consecrating ministry.</p> + +<p>But now, in the larger purpose of the Lord, and in “the exceeding riches +of His grace,” everybody may be a priest of the Lord. “He hath made us to +be priests and kings unto God.” And He will prepare us to carry our ark, +and to “minister in holy things.”</p> + +<p>I can be His priest in the home. He will anoint me as one who is to engage +in holy ministries, and I shall be serving at the altar even while engaged +in the lowly duties of the house. The humble meal will be sacramental, and +common work will be heavenly sacrifice.</p> + +<p>I can be His priest in my class. The Lord will clothe me in “linen clean +and white,” and in my consecrated spirit my scholars shall discern the +incense of sacrifice. And woe is me if I attempt to fill the godly office +without my God.</p> + +<p>And I can be His priest in my workshop. Yes, in the carpenter’s shop I may +wear the radiant robe of the sanctified. And I, too, as one of the priests +of the Lord, can “bear the sin of many, and make intercession for the +transgressor.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 108]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Seventeenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GREAT PRAISE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span> xvi. 7-36.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-g.png" width="79" height="80" alt="G" title="" /> +</div><p>REAT is the Lord!” So many people have such a little God! There is +nothing about Him august and sublime. And so He is not greatly praised. +The worship is thin, the thanksgivings are scanty, the supplications are +indifferent.</p> + +<p>All great saints have a great God. He fills their universe. Therefore do +they move about in a fruitful awe, and everywhere there is only a thin +veil between them and His appearing. Everywhere they discern His holy +presence, as the face of a bride is dimly seen beneath her bridal veil. +And so even the common scrub of the wilderness is aflame with sacred fire: +the humble “primrose on the rock” becomes “the court of Deity”: and the +“strength of the hills is His also”!</p> + +<p>Yes, a great God inspires great praise, and in great praise small cares +and small meannesses are utterly consumed away. When praise is mean, +anxieties multiply. Therefore let me contemplate the greatness of God in +nature and in providence, in His power, and His holiness, and His love. +Let me “stand in awe” before His glory: and in the fruitful reverence the +soul will be moved in acceptable praise.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 109]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Eighteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MECHANICAL PIETY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Philemon</span> 10-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Apostle Paul declares that benefits may be given in one of two +ways—“<em>of necessity</em>” and “<em>willingly</em>.” One is mechanical, the other is +spontaneous. I once saw a little table-fountain playing in a drawing-room, +but I heard the click of its machinery, and the charm was gone! It had to +be wound up before it would play, and at frequent periods it “ran down.” A +little later I saw another fountain playing on a green lawn, and it was +fed from the deep secret resources of the hills!</p> + +<p>There is a generosity which is like the drawing-room fountain. If you +listen you can hear the mechanical click, and a sound of friction, arising +from murmuring and complaint. And there is a generosity which is like the +fountain that is the child of the hills. It is clear, and sweet, and +musical, and flows on through every season! One is “of necessity”; the +other is “willingly.” And “God loveth a cheerful giver.”</p> + +<p>And prayer can be of the same two contrary orders. One prayer is +mechanical, it is hard, formal, metallic. The other is spontaneous, +forceful, and irresistible. Listen to the Pharisee—“Lord, I thank Thee +that I am not as other men are.” It is the click of the machine! Listen to +the publican—“God be merciful to me, a sinner!” It is the voice of the +deeps.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 110]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Ninteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>UNION IN HARMONY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Be ye all of one mind.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Peter</span> iii. 8-17.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-b.png" width="79" height="80" alt="B" title="" /> +</div><p>UT this is not unison: it is harmony. When an orchestra produces some +great musical masterpiece, the instruments are all of one mind, but each +makes its own individual contribution. There is variety with concordance: +each one serves every other, and the result is glorious harmony. “By love +serve one another.” It is love that converts membership into fraternity: +it is love that binds sons and daughters into a family.</p> + +<p>Look at a field of wild-flowers. What a harmony of colour! And yet what a +variety of colours! Nothing out of place, but no sameness! All drawing +resource from the same soil, and breathing the vitalizing substance from +the same air!</p> + +<p>“And ye, being rooted and grounded in love,” will grow up, a holy family +in the Lord. If love be the common ground the varieties in God’s family +may be infinite!</p> + +<p>And so the unity which the apostle seeks is a unity of mood and +disposition. It is not a unity which repeats the exact syllables of a +common creed, but a unity which is built of common trust, and love, and +hope. It is not sameness upon the outer lips, but fellowship in the secret +place.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 111]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Twentieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE JOY OF THE LOVER</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Romans</span> xii. 9-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>OVE finds her joy in seeing others crowned. Envy darkens when she sees +the garland given to another. Jealousy has no festival except when she is +“Queen of the May.” But love thrills to another’s exaltation. She feels +the glow of another’s triumph. When another basks in favour her own “time +of singing of birds is come!”</p> + +<p>And all this is because love has wonderful chords which vibrate to the +secret things in the souls of others. Indeed, the gift of love is just the +gift of delicate correspondence, the power of exquisite fellow-feeling, +the ability to “rejoice with them that do rejoice, and to weep with them +that weep.” When, therefore, the soul of another is exultant, and the +wedding-bells are ringing, love’s kindred bells ring a merry peal. When +the soul of another is depressed, and a funeral dirge is wailing, love’s +kindred chords wail in sad communion. So love can enter another’s state as +though it were her own.</p> + +<p>Our Master spake condemningly of those who have lost this exquisite gift. +They have lost their power of response. “We have piped with you, and ye +have not danced; we have mourned with you, and ye have not lamented.” They +lived in selfish and loveless isolation. They have lost all power of +tender communion.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 112]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Twenty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>LOVE AS THE GREAT MAGICIAN</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">John</span> ii. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p> NEW commandment! And yet it is an old one with a new meaning. It is the +old water-pot, but its water has been changed into wine. It is the old +letter with a new spirit. It is the old body with a new soul. Love makes +all things new! It changes duty into delight, and statutes into songs.</p> + +<p>What a magic difference love makes to a face. It at once becomes a face +illumined. Love makes the plainest face winsome and attractive. It adds +the light of heaven, and the earthly is transfigured. No cosmetics are +needed when love is in possession. She will do her own beautifying work, +and everybody will know her sign.</p> + +<p>What a magic difference love makes in service! The hireling goes about his +work with heavy and reluctant feet: the lover sings and dances at his +toil. The hireling scamps his work: the lover is always adding another +touch, and is never satisfied. Just one more touch! And just another! And +so on until the good God shall say that loving “patience has had her +perfect work.”</p> + +<p>Love lights up everything, for she is the light of life. Let her dwell in +the soul, and every room in the life shall be filled with the glory of the +Lord.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 113]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Twenty-second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>SPEECH AS A SYMPTOM OF HEALTH</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>The tongue of the wise is health.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Proverbs</span> xii. 13-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>UR doctors often test our physical condition by the state of our tongue. +With another and deeper significance the tongue is also the register of +our condition. Our words are a perfect index of our moral and spiritual +health. If our words are unclean and untrue, our souls are assuredly +sickly and diseased. A perverse tongue is never allied with a sanctified +heart. And, therefore, everyone may apply a clinical test to his own life: +“What is the character of my speech? What do my words indicate? What do +they suggest as to the depths and background of the soul?” “By thy words +thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”</p> + +<p>God delighteth in truthful lips. Right words are fruit from the tree of +life. The Lord turns away from falsehood as we turn away from material +corruption, only with an infinitely intenser loathing and disgust.</p> + +<p>It is only the lips that have been purified with flame from the holy altar +of God that can offer words that are pleasing unto Him.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Take my lips and let them be<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">Filled with messages from Thee.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 114]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Twenty-third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MASCULINE FORGIVENESS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Colossians</span> iii. 12-17.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>RUE forgiveness is a very strong and clean and masculine virtue. There is +a counterfeit forgiveness which is unworthy of the name. It is full of +“buts,” and “ifs,” and “maybes,” and “peradventures.” It moves with +reluctance, it offers with averted face, it takes back with one hand what +it gives with the other. It forgives, but it “cannot forget.” It forgives, +but it “can never trust again.” It forgives, but “things can never be the +same as they were.” What kind of forgiveness is this? It is the mercy of +the police-court. It is the remission of penalty, not the glorious +“abandon” of grace! It is a cold “Don’t do it again,” not the weeping and +compassionate goodwill of the Lord.</p> + +<p>“<em>Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.</em>” That is to be our motive, +and that is to be our measure. We are to forgive <em>because</em> Christ forgave +us. The glorious memory of His grace is to make us gracious. His tender, +healing words to us are to redeem our speech from all harshness. In the +contemplation of His cross we are to become “partakers of His sufferings,” +and by the shedding of our own blood help to close and heal the alienation +of the world.</p> + +<p>And we are to forgive <em>as</em> Christ forgave us. Resentment is to be changed +into frank goodwill, and filled with the grace of the Lord.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 115]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Twenty-fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>LIMITED FORGIVENESS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> xvii. 3-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>E are always inclined to set a limit to our moral obligations. We wish, +as we say, “to draw a line somewhere.” We want to appoint a definite place +where obligation ceases, and where the moral strain may be released. The +Apostle Peter wished his Master to draw such a line in the matter of +forgiveness. “Lord, how oft shall I forgive? Till seven times?” He wanted +a tiny moral rule which he could apply to his brother’s conduct.</p> + +<p>Not so the Lord. Our Master tells His disciple that in those spiritual +realms relations are not governed by arithmetic. We cannot, by counting, +measure off our obligations. Our repeated acts of forgiveness never bring +us nearer to the freedom of revenge. No amount of sweetness will ever +permit us to be bitter. We cannot, by being good, obtain a license to be +evil. The fact of the matter is, if our goodness is of genuine quality, +every act will more strongly dispose us to further goodness. It is the +counterfeit element in our goodness that inclines us to the opposite camp. +It is when our forgiveness is tainted that we anticipate the “sweetness” +of revenge.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 116]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Twenty-fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page Decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE HIDDEN FOES</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> v. 21-26.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>UR Lord always leads us to the secret, innermost roots of things. He does +not concern Himself with symptoms, but with causes. He does not begin with +the molten lava flowing down the fair mountain slope and destroying the +vineyards. He begins with the central fires in which the lava is born. He +does not begin with uncleanness. He begins with the thoughts which produce +it. He does not begin with murder, but with the anger which causes it. He +pierces to the secret fires!</p> + +<p>Now, all anger is not of sin. The Apostle Paul enjoins his readers to “be +angry, and sin not.” To be altogether incapable of anger would be to offer +no antagonism to the wrongs and oppressions of the world. “Who is made to +stumble, and I burn not?” cries the Apostle Paul. If wrong stalked abroad +with heedless feet he burned with holy passion. There is anger which is +like clean flame, clear and pure, as “the sea of glass mingled with fire.” +And there is anger which is like a smoky bonfire, and it pollutes while it +destroys.</p> + +<p>It is the unclean anger which is of sin. It seeks revenge, not +righteousness. It seeks “to get its own back,” not to get the wrong-doer +back to God. It follows wrong with further wrong. It spreads the devil’s +fire.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 117]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Twenty-sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GOLIATH VERSUS GOD!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Samuel</span> xvii. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-g.png" width="79" height="80" alt="G" title="" /> +</div><p>OLIATH seemed to have everything on his side <em>except</em> God. And the things +in which he boasted were just the things in which men are prone to boast +to-day.</p> + +<p>He had physical strength. “His height was six cubits and a span.” +Athletics had done all they could for him, and he was a fine type of +animal perfection.</p> + +<p>He had splendid military equipment. “A helmet of brass,” and “a coat of +mail,” and “a spear like a weaver’s beam!” Surely, if fine material +equipment determines combats, the shepherd-lad from the hills of Bethlehem +will be annihilated.</p> + +<p>And he enjoyed the enthusiastic confidence of the Philistines. He was his +nation’s pride and glory! He strode out amid their shouts, and the cheers +were like iron in his blood.</p> + +<p>But all this counted for nothing, because God was against him. Men and +nations may attain to a fine animalism, their warlike equipment may +satisfy the most exacting standard, and yet, with God against them, they +shall be as structures woven out of mists, and they shall collapse at the +touch of apparent weakness. The issue was not Goliath versus David, but +Goliath versus God!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 118]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Twenty-seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>OBSCURE BIRTHPLACES</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Samuel</span> xvii. 12-27.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-g.png" width="79" height="80" alt="G" title="" /> +</div><p>OD’S champion is at present feeding sheep! Who would have expected that +Goliath’s antagonist would emerge from the quiet pastures? “Genius hatches +her offspring in strange places.” Very humble homes are the birthplaces of +mighty emancipations.</p> + +<p>There was a little farm at St. Ives, and the farmer lived a quiet and +unsensational life. But the affairs of the nation became more and more +confused and threatening. Monarchical power despoiled the people’s +liberties, and tyranny became rampant. And out from the little farm strode +Oliver Cromwell, the ordained of God, to emancipate his country.</p> + +<p>There was an obscure rectory at Epworth. The doings in the little rectory +were just the quiet practices of similar homes in countless parts of +England. And England was becoming brutalized, because its religious life +was demoralized. The Church was asleep, and the devil was wide awake! And +forth from the humble rectory strode John Wesley, the appointed champion +of the Lord to enthuse, to purify, and to sweeten the life of the people.</p> + +<p>On what quiet farm is the coming deliverer now labouring? Who knows?</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 119]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Twenty-eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>PREPARING FOR GREAT ENCOUNTERS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Samuel</span> xvii. 28-37.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HIS young champion of the Lord had won many victories before he faced +Goliath. Everything depends on how I approach my supreme conflicts. If I +have been careless in smaller combats I shall fail in the larger. If I +come, wearing the garlands of triumph won in the shade, the shout of +victory is already in the air! Let me look at David’s trophies before he +removed Goliath’s head.</p> + +<p>He had conquered his temper. Read Eliab’s irritating taunt in the +twenty-eighth verse, and mark the fine self-possession of the young +champion’s reply! That conquest of temper helped him when he took aim at +Goliath! There is nothing like passion for disturbing the accuracy of the +eye and the steadiness of the hand.</p> + +<p>He had conquered fear. “<em>Let no man’s heart fail because of him.</em>” There +was no panic, there was no feverish and wasteful excitement. There was no +shouting “to keep the spirits up!” He was perfectly calm.</p> + +<p>And he had conquered unbelief. He had a rich history of the providential +dealings of God with him, and his confidence was now unclouded and serene. +He had known the Lord’s power when he faced the bear and the lion. Now for +Goliath!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 120]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Twenty-ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE MOOD OF TRIUMPH</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Samuel</span> xvii. 38-54.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE man who comes up to his foes with this assurance will fight and win. +Reasonable confidence is one of the most important weapons in the +warrior’s armoury. Fear is always wasteful. The man who calmly expects to +win has already begun to conquer. Our mood has so much to do with our +might. And therefore does the Word of God counsel us to attend to our +dispositions, lest, having carefully collected our material implements, we +have no strength to use them.</p> + +<p>And the man who comes up to his foes with holy assurance will fight with +consummate skill. He will be quite “collected.” All his powers will wait +upon one another, and they will move together as one. He is as +self-possessed upon the battlefield as upon parade, as undisturbed before +Goliath as before a flock of sheep! And therefore do I say that, fighting +with perfect composure, he fights with superlative skill. The right moment +is seized, the right stone is chosen, the right aim is taken, and great +Goliath is brought low.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 121]</span></p> +<h2>APRIL The Thirtieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE TEST OF VICTORY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>David behaveth himself wisely.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Samuel</span> xvii. 55—xviii. 5.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE hour of victory is a more severe moral test than the hour of defeat. +Many a man can brave the perils of adversity who succumbs to the +seductions of prosperity. He can stand the cold better than the heat! He +is enriched by failure, but “spoilt by success.” To test the real quality +of a man, let us regard him just when he has slain Goliath! “David behaved +himself wisely”!</p> + +<p>He was not “eaten up with pride.” He developed no “side.” He went among +his friends as though no Goliath had ever crossed his way. He was not for +ever recounting the triumph, and fishing for the compliments of his +audience. He “behaved wisely.” So many of us tarnish our victories by the +manner in which we display them. We put them into the shop-window, and +they become “soiled goods.”</p> + +<p>And in this hour of triumph David made a noble friend. In his noonday he +found Jonathan, and their hearts were knit to each other in deep and +intimate love. It is beautiful when our victories are so nobly borne that +they introduce us into higher fellowships, and the friends of heaven +become our friends.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 122]</span><a name="MAY" id="MAY"></a></p> +<h2>MAY The First</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE CONDITIONS OF SERENITY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxxiv.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>F I would be like the Psalmist, I must <em>clearly recognize my perils</em>. He +sees the “waters,” the “proud waters.” He beholds the “enemy,” and his +“wrath,” and his “teeth.” He sees “the fowler” with his snare! I must not +shut my eyes, and “make my judgment blind.” One of the gifts of grace is +the spirit of discernment, the eyes which not only detect hidden treasure, +but hidden foes. The devil is an expert in mimicry; he can make himself +look like an angel of light. And so must I be able to discover his snares, +even when they appear as the most seductive food.</p> + +<p>And if I would be like the Psalmist, I must <em>clearly recognize my great +Ally</em>. “If it has not been the Lord, who was on our side!” To see the Ally +on the perilous field, and to see Him on my side, gives birth to holy +confidence and song. “The Lord is on my side, whom shall I fear?” I must +make sure of the Ally, and “victory is secure.”</p> + +<p>And if I would be like the Psalmist, I must not omit the doxology of +praise. When the prayer is answered, I am apt to forget the praise. My +thanksgivings are not so ready as my requests. And so the apparently +conquered enemy steals in again at the door of an ungrateful heart.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 123]</span></p> +<h2>May The Second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE HAPPY WARRIOR</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ephesians</span> vi. 10-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is a portrait of the happy warrior! Let me first look at the warrior, +and then at the implements with which he fights.</p> + +<p>“You cannot fight the French merely with red uniforms; there must be men +inside them!” So said Thomas Carlyle. Well, look at this man. +“<em>Strengthened in the Lord, and in the power of His might.</em>” There is a +secret communion with the Almighty, and he draws his resources from the +Infinite. The water in my home comes from the Welsh hills; every drop was +gathered on those grand and expansive uplands. And this man’s soldierly +strength is drawn from the hills of God; every ounce of his fighting blood +comes from the veins of the Lord.</p> + +<p>And mark the nature of his armoury. His weapons are dispositions. He +fights with “truth,” and “righteousness,” and “peace,” and “faith,” and +“prayer”! There are no implements like these. A sword will fail where a +courtesy will prevail. We can kill our enemies by kindness. And as for the +devil himself there is nothing like a grace-filled disposition for putting +him to flight! A prayerful disposition can drive him off any field, at any +hour of the day or night. “Put on the whole armour of God.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 124]</span></p> +<h2>May The Third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>OTHER GODS!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Exodus</span> xx. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>F we kept that commandment all the other commandments would be obeyed. If +we secure this queen-bee we are given the swarm. To put nothing “before” +God! What is left in the circle of obedience? God first, always and +everywhere. Nothing allowed to usurp His throne for an hour! I was once +allowed to sit on an earthly throne for a few seconds, but even that is +not to be allowed with the throne of God. Nothing is to share His +sovereignty, even for a moment. His dominion is to be unconditional and +unbroken. “Thou shalt have no other gods beside Me.”</p> + +<p>But we have many gods we set upon His throne. We put money there, and +fame, and pleasure, and ease. Yes, we sometimes usurp God’s throne, and we +ourselves dare to sit there for days, and weeks, and years, at a time. +Self is the idol, and we enthrone it, and we fall down and worship it. But +no peace comes from such sovereignty, and no deep and vital joy. For the +real King is not dead, and He is out and about, and our poor little +monarchy is as the reign of the midge on a summer’s night. Our real +kingship is in the acknowledgment of the King of kings. When we worship +Him, and Him only, He will ask us to sit on His throne.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 125]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>A HEALTHY PALATE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>How sweet are Thy words unto my taste.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxix. 97-104.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-s.png" width="80" height="80" alt="S" title="" /> +</div><p>OME people like one thing, and some another. Some people appreciate the +bitter olive; others feel it to be nauseous. Some delight in the sweetest +grapes; others feel the sweetness to be sickly. It is all a matter of +palate. Some people love the Word of the Lord; to others the reading of it +is a dreary task. To some the Bible is like a vineyard; to others it is +like a dry and tasteless meal. One takes the word of the Master, and it is +“as honey to the mouth”; to another the same word is as unwelcome as a +bitter drug. It is all a matter of palate.</p> + +<p>But what is a man to do who has got a perverted palate, and who calls +sweet things bitter and bitter things sweet? He must get a new mouth! And +where is he to get it? Not by any ministry of his own creation; his own +endeavours will be impotent. A healthy moral palate depends upon the +purity of the heart. Our spiritual discernments are all determined by the +state of the soul. If the heart be pure, the mouth will be clean, and we +shall love God’s law. If the soul-appetite be healthy, God’s words will be +sweet unto our taste. And so does the good Lord give us new palates by +giving us new hearts. “Create within us clean hearts, O God, and renew +right spirits within us.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 126]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>HEALTHY LISTENING</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">James</span> i. 21-27.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HEN we hear the word, but do not do it, there has been a defect in our +hearing. We may listen to the word for mere entertainment. Or we may +attach a virtue to the mere act of listening to the word. We may assume +that some magical efficacy belongs to the mere reading of the word. And +all this is perverse and delusive. No listening is healthy which is not +mentally referred to obedience. We are to listen <em>with a view to +obedience</em>, with our eyes upon the very road where the obedient feet will +travel. That is to say, we are to listen with purpose, as though we were +Ambassadors receiving instructions from the King concerning some momentous +mission. Yes, we must listen with an eye on the road.</p> + +<p>“Doing” makes a new thing of “hearing.” The statute obeyed becomes a song. +The commandment is found to be a beatitude. The decree discloses riches of +grace. The hidden things of God are not discovered until we are treading +the path of obedience. “And it came to pass that as he went he received +his sight.” In the way of obedience the blind man found a new world. God +has wonderful treasures for the dutiful. The faithful discover the “hidden +manna.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 127]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE PERFECTING OF LOVE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Herein is our love made perfect.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">John</span> iv. 11-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>OW? By dwelling in God and God in us. Love is not a manufacture; it is a +fruit. It is not born of certain works; it springs out of certain +relations. It does not come from doing something; it comes from living +with Somebody. “Abide in Me.” That is how love is born, for “love is of +God, and God is love.”</p> + +<p>How many people are striving who are not abiding. They live in a +manufactory, they do not live in a home. They are trying to make something +instead of to know Somebody. “This is life, to know Thee.” When I am +related to the Lord Jesus, when I dwell with Him, love is as surely born +as beauty and fragrance are born when my garden and the spring-time dwell +together. If we would only wisely cultivate the fellowship of Jesus, +everything else would follow in its train—all that gracious succession of +beautiful things which are called “the fruits of the Spirit.”</p> + +<p>And “herein is our love made perfect.” It is always growing richer, +because it is always drawing riches from the inexhaustible love of God. +How could it be otherwise? Endless resource must mean endless growth. “Our +life is hid with Christ in God,” and hence our love will “grow in all +wisdom and discernment.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 128]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>IN THE WAYS OF OBEDIENCE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xix. 7-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me listen to the exquisite chimes of this wonderful psalm as they ring +out the blessedness of the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord. +What shall he find in the ways of obedience?</p> + +<p>He shall find restoration. “Restoring the soul.” He shall find new stores +of food along the way. In every emergency he shall find fresh provision; +every new need shall discover new supplies. When one store is spent, +another shall take its place. “Thou re-storest my soul.” In the ways of +righteousness the good Lord has appointed ample stores for the provision +of all His faithful pilgrims.</p> + +<p>He shall find joy. “Rejoicing the heart.” In the way of obedience there +shall be springs of delight as well as stores of provision. “With joy +shall ye draw waters out of the wells of salvation.” Fountains of +delicious satisfaction rise in the realm of duty, the satisfaction of +being right with God, and in union with the eternal will. There is no day +without its spring, and “the joy of the Lord is our strength.”</p> + +<p>He shall find vision. “Enlightening the eyes.” The eyes of the obedient +are anointed with the eye-salve of grace, and wondrous panoramas break +upon the sight. Visions of grace! Visions of love! Visions of glory!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 129]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>HOW NOT TO FORGET</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Deuteronomy</span> xi. 18-25.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>F we wish to retain “the word of the Lord” everything depends upon where +we keep it. If we just keep it in the mind, a leaky memory may waste the +treasure. A Chinese convert declared that he found the best way to +remember the word was to do it! The engraved word became character, +written upon the fleshy tables of the heart. He incarnated the word, and +it became a vital part of his own personality. He lived it and it lived in +him. The word became flesh. This is the only really vital “way of +remembrance,” to convert the word into the primary stuff of the life.</p> + +<p>There is a secondary way by which we may help our apprehension of God’s +word. “Ye shall teach them.” Our hold upon a truth is increased while we +impart it to others. The gospel becomes more vivid as we proclaim it to +our fellow-men. We see it while we explain it. It grips us the more firmly +as we use it to grip our children. This is a great law in life. In these +matters it is literally true that memory best retains what she gives away. +A truth that is never shared is never really possessed. The word that we +teach becomes rooted in our own mind.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 130]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>LOVING THE LORD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> x. 21-28.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE secret of life is to love the Lord our God, and our neighbours as +ourselves. But how are we to love the Lord? We cannot manufacture love. We +cannot love to order. We cannot by an act of will command its appearing. +No, not in these ways is love created. Love is not a work, it is a fruit. +It grows in suitable soils, and it is our part to prepare the soils. When +the conditions are congenial, love appears, just as the crocus and the +snowdrop appear in the congenial air of the spring.</p> + +<p>What, then, can we do? We can seek the Lord’s society. We can think about +Him. We can read about Him. We can fill our imaginations with the grace of +His life and service. We can be much with Him, talking to Him in prayer, +singing to Him in praise, telling Him our yearnings and confessing to Him +our defeats. And love will be quietly born. For this is how love is born +between heart and heart. Two people are “much together,” and love is born! +And when we are much with the Lord, we are with One who already loves us +with an everlasting love. We are with One who yearns for our love and who +seeks in every way to win it. “We love Him because He first loved us.” And +when we truly love God, every other kind of holy love will follow. Given +the fountain, the rivers are sure.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 131]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Tenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GOD’S USE OF MEN</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>I have surely seen the affliction of My people ...<br /> +come now, therefore, I will send thee.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Exodus</span> iii. 1-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-d.png" width="80" height="80" alt="D" title="" /> +</div><p>OES that seem a weak ending to a powerful beginning? The Lord God looks +upon terrible affliction and He sends a weak man to deal with it. Could He +not have sent fire from heaven? Could He not have rent the heavens and +sent His ministers of calamity and disasters? Why choose a man when the +arch-angel Gabriel stands ready at obedience?</p> + +<p>This is the way of the Lord. He uses human means to divine ends. He works +through man to the emancipation of men. He pours His strength into a worm, +and it becomes “an instrument with teeth.” He stiffens a frail reed and it +becomes as an iron pillar.</p> + +<p>And this mighty God will use thee and me. On every side there are Egypts +where affliction abounds, there are homes where ignorance breeds, there +are workshops where tyranny reigns, there are lands where oppression is +rampant. “Come now, therefore, I will send thee.” Thus saith the Lord, and +He who gives the command will also give the equipment.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 132]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Eleventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>BUT——!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>And Moses answered and said, But</em>——”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Exodus</span> iv. 1-9.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="E" title="" /> +</div><p>E know that “but.” God has heard it from our lips a thousand times. It is +the response of unbelief to the divine call. It is the reply of fear to +the divine command. It is the suggestion that the resources are +inadequate. It is a hint that God may not have looked all round. He has +overlooked something which our own eyes have seen. The human “buts” in the +Scriptural stories make an appalling record.</p> + +<p>“Lord, I will follow Thee, but——” There is something else to be attended +to before discipleship can begin. Obedience is not primary: it must wait +for something else. And so our obedience is not a straight line: it is +crooked and circuitous; it takes the way of by-path meadow instead of the +highway of the Lord. We do not wait upon the Lord’s pleasure; we make Him +wait upon ours.</p> + +<p>There need be no “buts” in our relationship to the King’s will. Everything +has been foreseen. Nothing will take the Lord by surprise. The entire +field has been surveyed, and the preparations are complete. When the Lord +says to thee or me, “I will send thee,” every provision has been made for +the appointed task. “I will not fail thee.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 133]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Twelfth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MOUTH AND MATTER</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Exodus</span> iv. 10-17.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND what a promise that is for anyone who is commissioned to proclaim the +King’s decrees. Here can teachers and preachers find their strength. God +will be with their mouths. He will control their speech, and order their +words like troops. He does not promise to make us eloquent, but to endow +our words with the “demonstration of power.”</p> + +<p>“<em>And I will teach thee what thou shall say.</em>” The Lord will not only be +with our mouths, but with our minds. He will guide our thoughts as well as +our words. He will be as sentinel at the lips. He will be our guide in our +processes of meditation and judgment, and He will bring us to enlightened +ends. All of which is just this: He will give us mouth and matter.</p> + +<p>This does not put a premium upon idleness. The Lord guides when men are +honestly groping. He gives us fire when we have built the altar. He works +His miracle when we have provided the five loaves. He sends His light +through diligent thinking. The divine power is given through the +consecrated strength.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 134]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Thirteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>COMMONPLACE FIDELITIES</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Exodus</span> ii. 11-25.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-g.png" width="79" height="80" alt="G" title="" /> +</div><p>OD prepares us for the greater crusades by more commonplace fidelities. +Through the practice of common kindnesses God leads us to chivalrous +tasks. Little courtesies feed nobler reverences. No man can despise +smaller duties and do the larger duties well. Our strength is sapped by +small disobediences. Our discourtesies to one another impair our worship +of God. The neglect of the “pointing” of a house may lead to dampness and +fatal disease.</p> + +<p>And thus the only way to live is by filling every moment with fidelity. We +are ready for anything when we have been faithful in everything. “Because +thou hast been faithful in that which is least!” That is the order in +moral and spiritual progress, and that is the road by which we climb to +the seats of the mighty. When every stone in life is “well and truly laid” +we are sure of a solid, holy temple in which the Lord will delight to +dwell. The quality of our greatness depends upon what we do with “that +which is least.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 135]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Fourteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CALAMITY AS REVEALER</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> vi. 1-8.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>E lost a hero, and he found the Lord. He feared because a great pillar +had fallen: and he found the Pillar of the universe. He thought everything +would topple into disaster, and lo! he felt the strength of the +everlasting arms. When Uzziah lived Isaiah had forgotten his Lord. He so +depended on the earthly that he had overlooked the heavenly. Uzziah +concealed his Lord as a thick veil can hide a face. And when Uzziah died, +when the earthly king passed away, the eternal King was revealed; as when +by the passing of an earth-born cloud the moon reigns radiant in the open +sky.</p> + +<p>And thus it is that apparent calamity is often the minister of revelation. +The great storm clears the air, and luminous vistas come into view. The +howling wind of adversity drives away the earth-born clouds and we see the +face of God. Our sorrows prove the occasion of our visions. We see new +panoramas through our tears. Bereavement gives us spiritual surprises, and +death becomes the servant of life. And so it happens that days which began +in gloom end in revelation, and we keep their recurring anniversary with +deepening praise.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 136]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Fifteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GOD IS WIDE-AWAKE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond +tree.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Jeremiah</span> i. 7-19.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND through the almond tree the Lord gave the trembling young prophet the +strength of assurance. The almond tree is the first to awake from its +wintry sleep. When all other trees are held in frozen slumber the almond +blossoms are looking out on the barren world. And God is like that, awake +and vigilant. Nobody anticipates Him. Wherever Jeremiah was sent on his +prophetic mission the Lord would be there before him. Before the prophet’s +enemies could get to work the Lord was on the field. In the wintriest +circumstances of a prophet’s life God is wide awake: “He that keepeth +Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”</p> + +<p>And still the almond tree has its heartening significance for thee and me. +Our God is wide-awake. He looks out upon our wintry circumstances, and +nothing is hid from His sight. There is no unrecognized and uncounted +factor which may steal in furtively and take Him by surprise. Everything +is open. He is wide-awake on the far-off field where the isolated +missionary is ploughing his lonely furrow. He is wide-awake on the field +of common labour where some young disciple finds it hard to keep clean +hands while he earns his daily bread.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 137]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Sixteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE DETAILS OF PROVIDENCE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>The very hairs of your head are all numbered.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Matthew</span> x. 24-31.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/img-p.png" width="78" height="80" alt="P" title="" /> +</div><p>ROVIDENCE goes into details. Sometimes, in our human intercourse, we +cannot see the trees for the wood. We cannot see the individual sheep for +the flock. We cannot see the personal soul for the masses. We are blinded +by the bigness of things; we cannot see the individual blades of grass +because of the field.</p> + +<p>Now God’s vision is not general, it is particular. There are no “masses” +to the Infinite. “He calleth His own sheep <em>by name</em>.” The single one is +seen as though he alone possessed the earth. When God looks at the wood He +sees every tree. When He looks at the race He sees every man.</p> + +<p>And, therefore, I need not fear that “my way is overlooked by my God.” He +knows every turning. He knows just where the strain begins at the hill. He +knows the perils of every descent. He knows every happening along the +road. He knows every letter that came to me by this morning’s post. He +knows every visitor who knocks at the door of my life, whether the visitor +come at the high noon or at the midnight. “There is nothing hid.” “The +very hairs of your head are all numbered.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 138]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Seventeenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MY BODILY INFIRMITIES</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> ix. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>N infirmity becomes doubly burdensome when we give it a false +interpretation. The weight of a thing is determined by our conception of +it. If I look upon my ailment as the stroke of an offended God, I wear it +like the chains of a slave. If I look upon it as the fire of the gracious +Refiner, I can calmly await the beneficent issue. It is my Lord, engaged +in chastening His jewels!</p> + +<p>And so our Master first of all relieves the blind man of the false +interpretation of his infirmity. “<em>Neither did this man sin, nor his +parents.</em>” That lifts the sorrow out of the winter into the spring. It +sets it in the warm, sweet light of grace. It becomes transfigured. It +wears a new face, placed there in “the light of His countenance.”</p> + +<p>And then our Lord relieves the blind man of the infirmity itself. The +ministry of blindness was accomplished, and sight was given. No man is +kept in the darkness a moment longer than infinite love deems good. Our +Lord does not overlook the prison-house, and leave us there forgotten. “He +that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” So cheer thee, my +soul! The Lord is on thy side! The Miracle-worker knows His time and “the +dreariest path, the darkest way, shall issue out in heavenly day.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 139]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Eighteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>BLINDED JUDGMENTS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> ix. 13-25. +</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is a ceremonialism which is blind to the humane. Its scrupulous +ritualisms have dried up its philanthropy. It thinks more of etiquette +than equity. It esteems genuflexions more than generosity. It values the +husk more than the kernel. It is Sabbatarian but not humanitarian. My God, +deliver me from all pious conventionalities which make me indifferent to +the ailments and cries of my fellow-men!</p> + +<p>And here is a dense prejudice which is blind to the evident. “<em>They did +not believe that he had been blind.</em>” A prejudice can deflect the +judgment, as subtle magnetic currents can deflect the needle. The film of +an ecclesiastical prejudice can be so opaque as to make us “blind to +facts.” We do not “see things as they are.” Our perverted eyes give us a +crooked world.</p> + +<p>And here is a bitter violence which is blind to the glory of the Lord. “We +know that this man is a sinner!” And so it comes to that. Our judgments +can become so warped that when we look upon Him, “who is the chief among +ten thousand and the altogether lovely,” “there is no beauty that we +should desire Him”! And therefore let this be my daily prayer, “Lord, that +I might receive my sight!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 140]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Nineteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE ROCK OF EXPERIENCE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> ix. 26-41.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Lord gains a witness, and a stalwart witness too! First, he stood upon +his own inalienable experience. “<em>One thing I know, that whereas I was +blind, now I see.</em>” Second, he drew his own firm inferences from the +beneficence of the work. And, in the third place, he reached his grand +conclusion. “<em>If this man were not of God, He could do nothing.</em>” A grand +testimony, and given by one who “dared to stand alone!”</p> + +<p>And the witness gained a Friend. “Jesus heard that they had cast him out, +and when He had found him....” Our Lord is always seeking the outcasts. He +never abandons the abandoned. When the faithful witness is driven into the +wilderness he finds “a table spread” before him “in the presence of his +enemies.” The man who had recovered his sight was cast out, but on the +threshold he met his Lord!</p> + +<p>And further sight was given. By the first sight he could see his parents, +by the second sight he saw the Son of God. The film was first removed from +his eyes, and then from his soul, and he saw “the glory of the Lord.” “And +he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 141]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Twentieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LONE CRY IN THE BIG CROWD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Mark</span> x. 46-52.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>UR Lord hears the cry of need even when it rises from the midst of the +tumultuous crowd. A mother can hear the faint cry of her child in the +chamber above, even when the room resounds with the talk and laughter of +her guests. And our Lord heard the wail of poor Bartimæus! That lone, +sorrowful cry pierced the clamour, “and Jesus stood still.” My soul, cry +to Him! “Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.”</p> + +<p>And Bartimæus knew what he wanted. He merged all his petitions in one. +“Lord, that I might receive my sight!” And let me, too, come to my Saviour +with some great, dominant, all-commanding request. I trifle with my +Master. I ask Him for toys, for petty things, while all the time He is +waiting to give me “unsearchable wealth,” “sight, riches, healing of the +mind.” “The Lord is great”; and shall I add, “and greatly to be <em>prayed</em>!”</p> + +<p>And how delicately gracious it is that our Lord should attribute the +miracle to Bartimæus himself. “<em>Thy faith hath made thee whole!</em>” As +though the Lord had had no share in the ministry! He makes so much of our +faith, and our endeavour, and our obedience. “If ye had faith as a grain +of mustard-seed!” That’s all He wants, and miracles are accomplished.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 142]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Twenty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>HUMAN FRAILTIES</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xlii. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT a winsome revelation of the delicate gentleness of the Lord! “The +bruised reed”—is it the impaired musical reed, that cannot now emit a +musical sound, and can only be thrown away? He will not snap it and cast +it to the void. The discordant life can be made tuneful again: He will put +“a new song in my mouth.”</p> + +<p>“And the smoking flax”—the life that has lost its fire, and therefore its +light, its enthusiasm, and therefore its ideals; the life that is +smouldering into the cold ashes of moral and spiritual death! He will not +stamp it out with His foot. The smouldering fire can be rekindled, a spent +enthusiasm can be revived. “He shall baptize you ... with fire!”</p> + +<p>And so He comes to minister to the infirm. He comes to restore injured +faculty; “<em>to open blind eyes</em>.” He comes to give vision to restored +sight: “<em>to be a light of the Gentiles</em>.” And He comes to endow the +restored life with a rich and gracious freedom: “<em>to bring out the +prisoners from the prison</em>.” Sight, and light, and freedom! And my Lord is +at the gate, and these gifts are in His hand.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 143]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Twenty-second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LIGHT AS DARKNESS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xiii. 10-17.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE condition of the heart determines the quality of my discernment. If +“the heart is waxed gross,” the ears will be “dull of hearing,” and the +eyes will be “closed.” My spiritual senses gain their acuteness or +obtuseness from my affections. If my love is muddy my sight will be dim. +If my love be “clear as crystal” the spiritual realm will be like a +gloriously transparent air.</p> + +<p>And the awful nemesis of sin-created blindness is this, that it interprets +itself as sight. “The light that is in thee is darkness.” We think we see, +and all the time we are the children of the night. We think it is “the +dawn of God’s sweet morning,” and behold! it is the perverse flare of the +evil one. He has given us a will-o’-the-wisp, and we boastfully proclaim +it to be “the morning star.”</p> + +<p>But there is hope for any man, however blind he be, who will humbly lay +himself at Jesus’ feet. Let this be my prayer, O Lord, “Cleanse Thou me +from secret faults.” Deliver me from self-deception, save me from +confusing the fixed light of heaven with the wandering beacon-lights of +hell. And again and again will I pray, “Lord, that I might receive my +sight!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 144]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Twenty-third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>WIND AND FIRE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Acts</span> ii. 1-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Holy Spirit will minister to me as a <em>wind</em>. He will create an +atmosphere in my life which will quicken all sweet and beautiful growth. +And this shall be my native air. Gracious seeds, which have never awaked, +shall now unfold themselves, and “the desert shall rejoice and blossom as +the rose.” It was a saying of Huxley, that if our little island were to be +invaded by tropical airs, tropical seeds which are now lying dormant in +English gardens and fields would troop out of their graves in bewildering +wealth and beauty! “Breathe on me, breath of God!”</p> + +<p>And the Holy Spirit will minister to me as a <em>fire</em>. And fire is our +supreme minister of cleansing. Fire can purify when water is impotent. The +great fire burnt out the great plague. There are evil germs which cannot +be dealt with except by the searching ministry of the flame. “He shall +baptize you ... <em>with fire</em>.” He will create a holy enthusiasm in my soul, +an intense and sacred love, which will burn up all evil intruders, but in +which all beautiful things shall walk unhurt.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Kindle a flame of sacred love<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">On these cold hearts of ours.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 145]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Twenty-fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CALVARY AND PENTECOST</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Acts</span> ii. 22-36.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Apostle Peter traces the stream of Pentecostal blessing to a tomb. +This “river of water of life” has its “rise” in a death of transcendent +sacrifice. And I must never forget these dark beginnings of my eternal +hope. It is well that I should frequently visit the sources of my +blessedness, and kneel on “the green hill far away.”</p> + +<p>It will save me from having a cheap religion. I shall never handle the +gifts of grace as though they had cost nothing. There will always be the +marks of blood upon them, the crimson stain of incomparable sacrifice.</p> + +<p>And it will save me from all flippancy in my religious life. When I visit +the cross and the tomb, life is transformed from a picnic into a crusade. +For that is ever my peril, to picnic on the banks of the river and to +spend my days in emotional loitering.</p> + +<p>After all, my Pentecost is purposed to prepare me for my own Gethsemane +and Calvary! Life is given me in order that I may spend it again in ready +and fruitful sacrifice.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 146]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Twenty-fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>VISIONS AND DREAMS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Joel</span> ii. 21-32.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND this old-world promise is good for me to-day. It is like some +weather-stained well, whose waters have continued flowing throughout the +generations, right down to my own time. Let me drink!</p> + +<p>Holy inspiration will give me insight into the mind of my God. “<em>Your sons +and your daughters shall prophesy.</em>” The breath of God creates an +atmosphere in which spiritual realities are clearly seen. It is like the +Sabbath air in some busy city, when the fumes and smoke of commerce have +been blown away. “Thou shalt behold the land that is very far off.”</p> + +<p>And so in my younger days holy inspiration will give me visions. “Your +young men shall see visions.” I shall be an idealist, and I shall see +things as they exist in God’s idea, even though at present they be maimed +and imperfect. I shall see them “according to the pattern on the Mount.”</p> + +<p>And in my later days holy inspiration will give me dreams. “<em>Your old men +shall dream dreams.</em>” And what shall they dream about? Not like the +Chinese, of a golden age in a distant past, but of a golden age to be. +Their dreams shall have a “forward-looking eye.” They shall see “the new +Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 147]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Twenty-sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE UNITING OF SUNDERED PEOPLES</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>On the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy +Ghost.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Acts</span> x. 34-48.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND this is ever the issue of a true outpouring of the Spirit: sundered +peoples become one. At “low tide” there are multitudes of separated pools +along the shore: at “high tide” they flow together, and the little +distinctions are lost in a splendid union.</p> + +<p>It is so racially. “Jew and Gentile!” Peter and Cornelius lose their +prejudices in the emancipating ministry of the Spirit. And so shall it be +with English and Irish, with French and German, with Asiatic and European: +they shall be “all one” in Christ.</p> + +<p>It is so socially. “Bond and free!” The master and the servant shall +discover a glorious intimacy and union. And so shall rich and poor, the +learned and the illiterate, the many-talented and the obscure. The pools +shall flow together.</p> + +<p>It is so ecclesiastically. Our sectarianisms are always most frowning and +obtrusive when spiritually we are at “low tide.” When the tide rises, it +is amazing how the ramparts are submerged. It is not round-table +conferences that we need, but seasons of communion when together we shall +await the outpouring of the Holy Ghost.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 148]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Twenty-seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>RECEIVING THE HOLY GHOST</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Acts</span> ii. 37-47.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE sacred process by which the Holy Spirit is received is the same +throughout all the years.</p> + +<p>First there is <em>repentance</em>. And repentance is not a flow of emotion, but +a certain direction of mind. I may repent with dry eyes. It is not a +matter of feeling, but of willing. It is to lay hold of the aimless, +drifting thought, and <em>steer it toward God</em>! It is a change of mind.</p> + +<p>Second, there is a definite and avowed choice of my new Goal, my new Lord +and King. The Christian life cannot be a subterfuge. It cannot be lived +incognito. I cannot be the Christ’s and wear the livery of an alien power. +There must be <em>confession</em>, a bold and clarion-like avowal that henceforth +I am a soldier of the Lord.</p> + +<p>And the spiritual experiences will be sure, as sure as the law-governed +processes of the material world. There will be “<em>remission of sins</em>.” The +old guilt will fall away from my soul as the chains fell from Peter’s +limbs when the angel touched them. And there will be “<em>the gift of the +Holy Ghost</em>.” A new dynamic is mine! I enter into fellowship with the +power of the ascended Lord.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 149]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Twenty-eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SONS OF GOD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of +God.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Romans</span> viii. 9-17.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND how unspeakably wealthy are the implications of the great word!</p> + +<p>If a son, then what holy freedom is mine! Mine is not “<em>the spirit of +bondage</em>.” The son has “the run of the house.” That is the great contrast +between lodgings and home. And I am to be at home with the Lord.</p> + +<p>And if a son, then heir! “All things are yours.” Samuel Rutherford used to +counsel his friends to “take a turn” round their estate. And truly it is +an inspiring exercise! The Spirit shall lead me over my estate, and I will +survey, with the sense of ownership, “the things which God hath prepared +for them that love Him.”</p> + +<p>I wonder if I have the manner of a king’s son? I wonder if there is +anything in my very “walk” which indicates distinguished lineage and royal +blood? Or am I like a vagrant who has no possessions and no heartening +expectations?</p> + +<p>“Lord, I would serve, and be a son!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 150]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Twenty-ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MANY GIFTS—ONE SPIRIT</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> xii. 1-13.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HERE is no monotony in the workmanship of my God. The multitude of His +thoughts is like the sound of the sea, and every thought commands a new +creation. When He thinks upon me, the result is a creative touch never +again to be repeated on land or sea. And so, when the Holy Spirit is given +to the people, the ministry does not work in the suppression of +individualities, but rather in their refinement and enrichment.</p> + +<p>Our gifts will be manifold, and we must not allow the difference to breed +a spirit of suspicion. Because my brother’s gift is not mine I must not +suspect his calling. To one man is given a trumpet, to another a lamp, and +to another a spade. And they are all the holy gifts of grace.</p> + +<p>And thus the gifts are manifold in order that every man may find his +completeness in his brother. One man is like an eye—he is a seer of +visions! Another man is like a hand—he has the genius of practicality! He +is “a handy man”! One is the architect, the other is the builder. And each +requires the other, if either is to be perfected. And so, by God’s +gracious Spirit, the individual man is only a bit, a portion, and he is +intended to fit into the other bits, and so make the complete man of the +race.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 151]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Thirtieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>FINDING THE DEEP THINGS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of +God.</em>”<br />—1 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> ii. 7-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE deep things of God cannot be discovered by unaided reason. “<em>Eye hath +not seen:</em>” they are not to be apprehended by the artistic vision. “<em>Ear +hath not heard:</em>” they are not unveiled amid the discussion of the +philosophic schools. “<em>Neither hath entered into the heart of man:</em>” even +poetic insight cannot discern them. All the common lights fail in this +realm. We need another illumination, even that provided by the Holy +Spirit. And the Spirit is offered unto us “that we might know the things +that are freely given to us of God.”</p> + +<p>And here we have the reason why so many uncultured people are spiritually +wiser than many who are learned. They lack talent, but they have grace. +They lack accomplishments, but they have the Holy Ghost. They lack the +telescope, but they have the sunlight. They are not scholars, but they are +saints. They may not be theologians, but they have true religion. And so +they have “the open vision.” They “walk with God,” and “the deep things of +God” are made known to their souls.</p> + +<p>We must put first things first. We may be busy polishing our lenses when +our primary and fundamental need is light. It is not a gift that we +require, but a Friend.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 152]</span></p> +<h2>MAY The Thirty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CONNECTION AND CONCORD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> xii. 12-19.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>T is only in the spirit that real union is born. Every other kind of +union is artificial, and mechanical, and dead. We can dovetail many pieces +of wood together and make the unity of an article of furniture, but we +cannot dovetail items together and make a tree. And it is the union of a +tree that we require, a union born of indwelling life. We may join many +people together in a fellowship by the bonds of a formal creed, but the +result is only a piece of social furniture, it is not a vital communion. +There is a vast difference between a connection and a concord.</p> + +<p>Many members of a family may bear the same name, may share the same blood, +may sit and eat at the same table, and yet may have no more vital union +than a handful of marbles in a boy’s pocket. But let the spirit of a +common love dwell in all their hearts and there is a family bound together +in glorious union.</p> + +<p>And so it is in the spirit, and there alone, that vital union is to be +found. And here is the secret of such spiritual union. “By one Spirit are +we all baptized into one body.” The Spirit of God, dwelling in all our +spirits, attunes them into glorious harmony. Our lives blend with one +another in the very music of the spheres.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 153]</span><a name="JUN" id="JUN"></a></p> +<h2>JUNE The First</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE BEAUTY OF VARIETY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> xii. 20-31.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-g.png" width="79" height="80" alt="G" title="" /> +</div><p>OD’S glory is expressed through the harmony of variety. We do not need +sameness in order to gain union. I am now looking upon a scene of +surpassing loveliness. There are mountains, and sea, and grassland, and +trees, and a wide-stretching sky, and white pebbles at my feet. And a +white bird has just flown across a little bank of dark cloud. What +variety! And when I look closer the variety is infinitely multiplied. +Everything blends into everything else. Nothing is out of place. +Everything contributes to finished power and loveliness. And so it is in +the grander sphere of human life. The glory of humanity is born of the +glory of individuals, each one making his own distinctive contribution.</p> + +<p>And thus we have need of one another. Every note in the organ is needed +for the full expression of noble harmony. Every instrument in the +orchestra is required unless the music is to be lame and broken. God has +endowed no two souls alike, and every soul is needed to make the music of +“the realm of the blest.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 154]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>OUR SPIRITUAL GUIDE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all +truth.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">John</span> xvi. 7-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>OW great is the difference between a guide-post and a guide! And what a +difference between a guide-book and a companion! Mere instructions may be +very uninspiring, and bare commandments may be very cold. Our Guide is an +inseparable Friend.</p> + +<p>And how will He guide us? He will give us insight. “He will guide you into +all truth.” He will refine our spirits so that we may be able to +distinguish “things that differ,” and that so we may know the difference +between “the holy and the profane.” Our moral judgment is often dull and +imperceptive. And our spiritual judgment is often lacking in vigour and +penetration. And so our great Spirit-guide puts our spirits to school, and +more deeply sanctifies them, that in holiness we may have discernment.</p> + +<p>And He will also give us foresight. He will enable us to interpret +circumstances, to apprehend their drift and destiny. We shall see harvests +while we are looking at seeds, whether the seeds be seeds of good or evil. +All of which means that the Holy Spirit will deliver our lives from the +governance of mere whim and caprice, and that He will make us wise with +the wisdom of God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 155]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SAFETY OF THE OCCUPIED HEART</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Galatians</span> v. 16-25.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>WO friends were cycling through Worcestershire and Warwickshire to +Birmingham. When they arrived in Birmingham I asked them, among other +things, if they had seen Warwick Gaol along the road. “No,” they said, “we +hadn’t a glimpse of it.” “But it is only a field’s length from the road!” +“Well, we never saw it.” Ah, but these two friends were lovers. They were +so absorbed in each other that they had no spare attention for Warwick +Gaol. Their glorious fellowship made them unresponsive to its calls. They +were otherwise engaged.</p> + +<p>“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.” That +great Companionship will make us negligent of carnal allurements. “The +world, and the flesh, and the devil” may stand by the wayside, and hold +their glittering wares before us, but we shall scarcely be aware of their +presence. We are otherwise engaged. We are absorbed in the “Lover of our +souls.”</p> + +<p>This is the only real and effective way to meet temptation. We must meet +it with an occupied heart. We must have no loose and trailing affections. +We must have no vagrant, wayward thoughts. Temptation must find us engaged +with our Lover. We must “offer no occasion to the flesh.” Walking with the +Holy One, our elevation is our safety.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 156]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>LIFE’S REAL VALUES</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Proverbs</span> viii. 10-19.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is a man who knows the relative values of things. “<em>Instruction is +better than silver</em>”; “<em>knowledge rather than choice gold</em>”; “<em>wisdom is +better than rubies.</em>” He weighs the inherent worth of things, and puts his +choice upon the best.</p> + +<p>Let me remember that “all is not gold that glitters.” The leaden casket is +often the shrine of the priceless scroll. The glaring and the theatrical +have often a ragged and seamy interior, and won’t bear “looking into.” A +man may have much display and be very lonely; he may have piles of wealth +and be destitute of joy. His libraries may cover an acre, and yet he may +have no light. And a man may have only “a candle, and a table, and a bed,” +and he may be the companion of the eternal God.</p> + +<p>I would seek these priceless things. And I would “<em>seek them early</em>.” I +have so often been late in the search. I have given the early moments to +seeking the world’s silver and gold, and the later weary moments have been +idly devoted to God. “They that seek Me early shall find Me.” Let me put +“first things first.” “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His +righteousness.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 157]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SPEECH OF EVENTS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Acts</span> xiii. 14-23.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-d.png" width="80" height="80" alt="D" title="" /> +</div><p>O I sufficiently remember the witness of history? Do I reverently listen +to the “great voice behind me”? God has spoken in the speech of events. +“Day unto day” has uttered speech. There has been a witness in national +life, sometimes quiet as a fragrance, and sometimes “loud as a vale when +storms are gone.” Is it all to me as though it had never been, or is it +part of the store of counsel by which I shape and guide my life?</p> + +<p>And do I sufficiently remember my own providences, “<em>all the way my God +has led me</em>”? When a day is over, do I carry its helpful lamp into the +morrow? Do I “learn wisdom” from experience? That is surely God’s purpose +in the days; one is to lead on to another in the creation of an ever +brightening radiance, that so at eventide it may be light.</p> + +<p>And do I sufficiently remember that I, too, am making history for my +fellows who shall succeed me? What kind of a witness will it be? Grim and +full of warning, like the pillar of salt, or winsome and full of +heartiness, like some “sweet Ebenezer” built by life’s way? Let me pray +and labour that my days may so shine with grace that all who remember me +shall adore the goodness of my Lord.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 158]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>LOVE’S EXPENDITURES</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">John</span> iii. 11-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>EREBY perceive we the love of God, because “<em>He laid down His life for +us</em>.” And the real test of any love is what it is prepared to “lay down.” +How much is it ready to spend? How much will it bleed? There is much +spurious love about. It lays nothing down; it only takes things up! It is +self-seeking, using the speech and accents of love. It is a “work of the +flesh,” which has stolen the label of a “fruit of the Spirit.” Love may +always be known by its expenditures, its self-crucifixions, its Calvarys. +Love is always laying down its life for others. Its pathway is always a +red road. You may track its goings by the red “marks of the Lord Jesus.”</p> + +<p>And this is the life, the love-life, which the Lord Jesus came to create +among the children of men. It is His gracious purpose to form a spiritual +fellowship in which every member will be lovingly concerned about his +fellows’ good. A real family of God would be one in which all the members +bleed for each, and each for all.</p> + +<p>How can we gain this disposition of love? “God is love.” “We love because +He first loved us.” At the fountain of eternal love we too may become +lovers, becoming “partakers of the divine nature,” and filled with all +“the fulness of God.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 159]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MORAL SURGERY</em></h2> + +<p class="center" ><span class="smcap">Galatians</span> vi. 1-8.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HIS is a surgical operation in the realm of the soul. A man has been +“<em>overtaken in a fault</em>,” some evil passion has pounced upon him, and he +is broken. Some holy relationship has been snapped, and he is crippled in +his moral and spiritual goings. Perhaps his affections have been broken, +or his conscience, or his will. Or perhaps he has lost his glorious hope +or the confidence of his faith. Here he is, a broken man, the victim of +his own broken vows, lame and halt in the pilgrim-way! And some surgeon is +needed to re-set the dislocation, and to make him whole again.</p> + +<p>And who is to be the surgeon? “<em>Ye which are spiritual restore such a +one.</em>” The men who live under the control of God’s Spirit are to be the +surgeons for broken hearts and souls. When a man has fallen by reason of +sin, the Christian is to be a Good Samaritan, seeking to restore the +cripple to health and strength again. We are to kneel and minister to him, +binding up his wounds, giving him the balm and cordial of oil and wine.</p> + +<p>And what is to be the spirit of the surgeon? “The spirit of meekness.” We +are not to be supercilious, for the “touch” of pride is never the minister +of healing. We are to heal as though some day we may need to be healed.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 160]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE NEW BIRTH</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> iii. 1-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is the Life in contact with the icy legalism of the day. Nicodemus +was a Pharisee, and his piety was cold and mechanical. Religion had become +a bloodless obedience to lifeless rules. Men cared more about being proper +than about being holy. Modes were emphasized more than moods. An external +pose was esteemed more highly than an internal disposition. The popular +Saint lived on “the outsides of things.”</p> + +<p>Then came the Life. And what will He say to the externalist? “Ye must be +born again.” Nothing else could He have said. If the mechanical is to +become the vital there is nothing for it but a new birth. To get from the +outside into the inside of things, from the letter into the spirit, we +need the miracle of renewal, the recreating ministry of grace.</p> + +<p>And so it is to-day. The ritualistic is vitalized by the evangelistic. If +the mechanical is to become the spontaneous, there is need of the “well of +living water, springing up unto eternal life.” When we are born again, +ritual becomes helpful trellis for the spiritual flowers; the outward form +becomes the helpmeet of redeeming grace.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 161]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE STORY OF A SORROWFUL SOUL</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> iii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HIS tearful little psalm tells me where a sorrowful soul found a place of +help and consolation. He resorted to God.</p> + +<p>“<em>Thou art a shield about me.</em>” He got the Lord between him and his +circumstances. There is nothing else subtle enough to interpose. Our +hurtful circumstances are so invasive and so immediate that only God can +come between us and them. But when God gets in between we are immune. +“Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.”</p> + +<p>“<em>Thou art my glory.</em>” And that is an honour that need never be stained. +My worldly glory can be besmirched. An evil man throws mud, and my poor +reputation is gone. “There’s always somebody ready to believe it!” But my +glory with God, and in God—man’s mud cannot touch that fair fame! Even +Absalom cannot defile that resplendent robe.</p> + +<p>“<em>Thou art the lifter-up of my head.</em>” The flower is “looking up” again! +In the Lord’s presence we recover our lost spirits. “He restoreth my +soul.” “And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round +about me.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 162]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Tenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>PILLARS OF CLOUD AND FIRE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Exodus</span> xiii. 17—xiv. 4.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> NEED His leadership in the daytime. Sometimes the daylight is my foe. It +tempts me into carelessness. I become the victim of distraction. The +“garish day” can entice me into ways of trespass, and I am robbed of my +spiritual health. Many a man has been faithful in the twilight and night +who has lost himself in the sunshine. He went astray in his prosperity: +success was his ruin. And so in the daytime I need the shadow of God’s +presence, the cooling, subduing, calming influence of a friendly cloud.</p> + +<p>“<em>And by night in a pillar of fire.</em>” And I need God’s leadership in the +night. Sometimes the night fills me with fears, and I am confused. The +darkness chills me, sorrow and adversity make me cold, and I shiver along +in uncertain going. But my God will lead me as a presence of fire. He will +keep my heart warm even in the midnight, and He will guide me by the +kindlings of His love. There shall be “nothing hid from the heat thereof.” +And my bewildering fears shall flee away, and I will sing “songs in the +night.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 163]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Eleventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE PATH ACROSS THE SEA</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Thy way is in the sea.</em>”<br /> +— <span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lxxvii. 11-20.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND the sea appears to be the most trackless of worlds! The sea is the +very symbol of mystery, the grim dwelling-house of innumerable things that +have been lost. But God’s way moves here and there across this trackless +wild. God is never lost among our mysteries. He knows his way about. When +we are bewildered He sees the road, and He sees the end even from the +beginning. Even the sea, in every part of it, is the Lord’s highway. When +His way is in the sea we cannot trace it. Mystery is part of our appointed +discipline. Uncertainty is to prepare us for a deeper assurance. The +spirit of questioning is one of the ordained means of growth. And so the +bewildering sea is our friend, as some day we shall understand. We love to +“lie down in green pastures,” and to be led “beside the still waters,” and +God gives us our share of this nourishing rest. But we need the mysterious +sea, the overwhelming experience, the floods of sorrows which we cannot +explain. If we had no sea we should never become robust. We should remain +weaklings to the end of our days.</p> + +<p>God takes us out into the deeps. But His way is in the sea. He knows the +haven, He knows the track, and we shall arrive!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 164]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Twelfth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>WAITING FOR THE SPECTACULAR</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>The waves covered their enemies.... Then believed they His +words.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cvi. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HEIR faith was born in a great emergency. A spectacular deliverance was +needed to implant their trust in the Lord. They found no witness in the +quiet daily providence; the unobtrusive miracle of daily mercy did not +awake their song. They dwelt upon the “special” blessing, when all the +time the really special blessing was to be found in the sleepless care +which watched over them in their ordinary and commonplace ways.</p> + +<p>It is the old story. We are wanting God to appear in imperial glory; and +He comes among us as a humble carpenter. We want great miracles, and we +have the daily Providence. We see His dread goings in the earthquake; we +do not feel His presence in the lilies of the field. We watch Him in the +smoke and flames of Vesuvius; we do not recognize His footprints in the +little turf-clad hill that is only a few yards from our own door.</p> + +<p>It is a great day when we discover our God in the common bush. That day is +marked with glory when our daily bread becomes a sacrament. When we enjoy +a closer walk with God, common things will wear the hues of heaven.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 165]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE the Thirteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CLOUDED BUT NOT LOST!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Clouds and darkness are round about Him.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xcvii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HEN Lincoln had been assassinated, and word of the tragedy came to New +York, “the people were in a state of mind which urges to violence.” A man +appeared on the balcony of one of the newspaper offices, waving a small +flag, and a clear voice rang through the air: “Fellow-citizens! Clouds and +darkness are round about Him! His pavilion is dark waters, and thick +clouds of the skies! Justice and judgment are the habitation of His +throne! Fellow-citizens, God reigns!” It was the voice of General +Garfield.</p> + +<p>That voice proclaimed the divine sovereignty, even when the heavens were +black with the menace of destruction. Lincoln had been assassinated, but +God lived! Human confusion does not annihilate His throne. God liveth! +“The firm foundation standeth sure.” This is the only rock to stand upon +when the clouds have gathered, and the waters are out, and the great deeps +are broken up. God’s sceptre does not fall from His grasp, nor is snatched +by alien hands. The throne abideth. Joy will rise from the apparent chaos +as springs are unsealed by the earthquake. He will bring fortune out of +misfortune; the darkness shall be the hiding-place of His grace.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 166]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Fourteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LAW IN THE HEART</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>I will put My laws into their hearts.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Hebrews</span> x. 16-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-e.png" width="80" height="80" alt="E" title="" /> +</div><p>VERYTHING depends on where we carry the law of the Lord. If it only rests +in the memory, any vagrant care may snatch it away. The business of the +day may wipe it out as a sponge erases a record from a slate. A thought is +never secure until it has passed from the mind into the heart, and has +become a desire, an aspiration, a passion. When the law of God is taken +into the heart, it is no longer something merely remembered: it is +something loved. Now things that are loved have a strong defence. They are +in the “keep” of the castle, in the innermost custody of the stronghold. +The strength of the heart is wrapped about them, and no passing vagrant +can carry them away.</p> + +<p>And this is where the good Lord is willing to put His laws. He is wishful +to put them among our loves. And the wonderful thing is this: when laws +are put among loves they change their form, and His statutes become our +songs. Laws that are loved are no longer dreadful policemen, but +compassionate friends. “O! how I love Thy law!” That man did not live in a +prison, he lived in a garden, and God’s will was unto him as gracious +flowers and fruits. And so shall it be unto all of us when we love the law +of the Lord.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 167]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Fifteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE KING’S GUESTS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xxiv.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HO shall be permitted to pass into the sanctuary of the cloud, and have +communion with the Lord in the holy place? “He that hath clean hands.” +These hands of mine, the symbols of conduct, the expression of the outer +life, what are they like? “Your hands are full of blood.” Those hands had +been busy murdering others, pillaging others, brutally ill-using their +fellow-men. We may do it in business. We may do it in conversation. We may +do it in a criminal silence. Our hands may be foul with a brother’s blood. +And men and women with hands like these cannot “ascend into the hill of +the Lord.” There must be no stain of an unfair and scandalous life.</p> + +<p>“And a pure heart.” We need not trouble about the hands if the heart be +clean. If all the presences that move in the heart—desires, and motives, +and sentiments, and ideals—are like white-robed angels “without spot, or +wrinkle, or any such thing,” everything that emerges into outer life will +share the same radiant purity. The heart expresses itself in the hands. +Character blossoms in conduct. The quality of our current coin is +determined by the quality of the metal in the mint. “As a man thinketh in +his heart, so is he.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 168]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Sixteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>SINAI AND CALVARY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Hebrews</span> xii. 18-28.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>E need not live at the foot of Mount Sinai. It is like living at the foot +of Mount Pelee, the home of awful eruption, and therefore the realm of +gloom and uncertainty and fear. We are not saved by law, neither indeed +can we be. Neither can law heal us after our transgressions and defeats. +The law has nothing for prodigal men but “blackness, and darkness, and +tempest.” It has no sound but dreaded decree, no message but menace, no +look but a frown. Who will build his house at the foot of Mount Sinai?</p> + +<p>“But ye are come unto Mount Zion.” Our true home is not at Sinai, but at +Calvary. There is no place for the sinner at the first mount; at the +second mount there is a place for no one else. At Calvary we may find our +way back to the holiness we lost at Sinai. Through grace we may drop the +burden of our sin and begin to wear the garments of salvation. The way +back to heaven is by “the green hill, without a city wall.” It is a mount +that can be reached by the most exhausted pilgrim; and the one who has +“spent all” will assuredly find a full restoration of life at the gate of +his Saviour’s death. “Ye are come to Jesus, the mediator of the new +covenant.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 169]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Seventeenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE INVISIBLE PRESENCE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Show me Thy glory.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Exodus</span> xxxiii. 12-23.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-m.png" width="81" height="80" alt="M" title="" /> +</div><p>OSES wist not what he asked. His speech was beyond his knowledge. The +answer to his request would have consumed him. He asked for the blazing +noon when as yet he could only bear the quiet shining of the dawn. The +good Lord lets in the light as our eyes are able to bear it. The +revelation is tempered to our growth. The pilgrim could bear a brightness +in Beulah land that he could not have borne at the wicket-gate; and the +brilliance of the entry into the celebrated city throws the splendours of +Beulah into the shade. Yes, the gracious Lord will unveil His glory as our +“senses are exercised to receive it.”</p> + +<p>“My Presence shall go with thee.” That is all the glory we need upon the +immediate road. His companionship means everything. The real glory is to +possess God; let Him show us His inheritance as it shall please Him. +Life’s glory is to “feel Him near.” When the loving wife feels that the +husband is in the house, and when the loving husband feels that the wife +is in the house, that is everything! The joy of each other’s presence is +the crown of married bliss. And so it is with the soul that is married to +the Lord: His presence is the soul’s delight. “Thou, O Christ, art all I +want.” “O Master, let me walk with Thee.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 170]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Eighteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE BENEFITTED AS BENEFACTORS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Who comforteth us ... that we may be able to comfort.</em>”<br /> +—2 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> i. 3-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND how does the Lord comfort us? He has a thousand different ways, and no +one can ever tell by what way the comfort will come to his soul. Sometimes +it comes by the door of memory, and sometimes by the door of hope. +Sometimes it is borne to us through the ministry of nature, and at other +times through the ministry of human speech and kindness. But always, I +think, it brings us the sense of a Presence, as though we had a great +Friend in the room, and the troubled heart gains quietness and peace. The +mist clears a little, and we have a restful assurance of our God.</p> + +<p>Now comforted souls are to be comforters. They who have received benefits +of grace are to be benefactors. They who have heard the sweet music of +God’s abiding love are to sing it again to others. They who have seen the +glory are to become evangelists. We must not seek to hoard spiritual +treasure. As soon as we lock it up we begin to lose it. A mysterious moth +and rust take it away. If we do not comfort others, our own comfort will +turn again to bitterness; the clouds will lower and we shall be imprisoned +in the old woe. But the comfort which makes a comforter grows deeper and +richer every day.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 171]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Nineteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>RECKONING UP THINGS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xc. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-n.png" width="80" height="80" alt="N" title="" /> +</div><p>UMBERING things is one of the healthful exercises of the spiritual life. +Unless we count, memory is apt to be very tricky and to snare us into +strange forgetfulness. Unless we count what we have given away, we are +very apt to exaggerate our bounty. We often think we have given when we +have only listened to appeals; the mere audience has been mistaken for +active beneficence. The remedy for all this is occasionally to count our +benevolences and see how we stand in a balance-sheet which we could +present to the Lord Himself.</p> + +<p>And we must count our blessings. It is when our arithmetic fails in the +task, and when counting God’s blessings is like telling the number of the +stars, that our souls bow low before the eternal goodness, and all +murmuring dies away “like cloud-spots in the dawn.”</p> + +<p>And we must also “number our days.” We are wasteful with them, and we +throw them away as though they are ours in endless procession. And yet +there are only seven days in a week! A day is of immeasurable +preciousness, for what high accomplishment may it not witness? A day in +health or in sickness, spent unto God, and applied unto wisdom, will +gather treasures more precious than rubies and gold.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>>[Pg 172]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Twentieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE REVEALING PRESENCE OF THE LORD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ephesians</span> vi. 1-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p> STARLING never reveals the richness of its hues until we see it in the +sunlight. A duty never discloses its beauties until we set it in the light +of the Lord. It is amazing how a dull road is transfigured when the +sunshine falls upon it! God’s grace reveals the graces in all healthy +things. Hidden lovelinesses troop out when we set them in the presence of +the Lord.</p> + +<p>And so the Apostle counsels an obedience which is “in the Lord.” He wants +us to know how beautiful common things can be when they are linked to +Christ. And what he says about obedience he says about everything. One of +the great secrets in the teaching of Paul is expressed in just this +phrase, “in the Lord,” “in Christ.” It meant connection with a power-house +whose energy would light up all the common lamps of life—the lamps of +hope, of faith, of love, of daily labour, and of human service.</p> + +<p>And this is the secret of the Christian life. We need no other; at least, +all other secrets are involved in this. If we attend to this little +preposition “in,” we have entry into the infinite. If we are “in Christ,” +we are in the kingdom of everything that endures, and we are outside +nothing but sin.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 173]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Twenty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>ROOM FOR THE SAPLINGS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Children crying in the temple, saying Hosanna!</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xxi. 1-16.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/img-c.png" width="78" height="80" alt="C" title="" /> +</div><p>HILDREN’S voices mingling in the sounds of holy praise! A little child +can share in the consecrated life. Young hearts can offer love pure as a +limpid spring. Their sympathy is as responsive as the most sensitive harp, +and yields to the touch of the tenderest joy and grief. No wonder the Lord +“called little children unto Him”! They were unto Him as gracious streams, +and as flowers of the field.</p> + +<p>Let the loving Saviour have our children. Let there be no waiting for +maturer years. Maturity may bring the impaired faculty and the embittered +emotion. Let Him have things in their beginnings, the seeds and the +saplings. Let Him have life before it is formed, before it is “set” in +foolish moulds. Let us consecrate the cradle, and the good Lord will grow +and nourish His saints.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 174]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Twenty-second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CHILDLIKENESS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Mark</span> ix. 33-41.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>T is the child-spirit that finds life’s golden gates, and that finds them +all ajar. The proudly aggressive spirit, contending for place and power, +may force many a door, but they are not doors which open into enduring +wealth and peace. Real inheritances become ours only through humility.</p> + +<p>The proud are, therefore, self-deceived. They think they have succeeded +when they have signally failed. They have the shadow, but they have missed +the substance. They may have the applause of the world, but the angels +sigh over their defeat. They pride themselves on having “got on”; the +angels weep because they have “gone down.”</p> + +<p>When we grow away from childlikeness we are “in a decline.” “God resisteth +the proud; He giveth grace to the humble.” The lowly make great +discoveries; to them the earth is full of God’s glory.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 175]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Twenty-third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE GREATEST BENEFACTORS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> x. 29-42.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>T is a very wonderful thing that the finest services are within the power +of the poorest people. The deepest ministries find their symbols in “cups +of cold water,” which it is in the power of everybody to give. The great +benefactors are the great lovers, and their coin is not that of material +money, but the wealth of the heart. A bit of affection is worth infinitely +more than the gift of a necklace of pearls. To kindle hope in a fainting +soul is far more precious than to adorn the weary pilgrim with dazzling +gems. “He brought me heaps of presents, but I was hungering for love!” +Such was the pathetic cry of one who was “clothed in purple and fine +linen, and fared sumptuously every day.”</p> + +<p>“Cups of cold water,” simple ministries of refreshment, the love-thought, +the love-prayer, the love-word—these are the privileged services of all +of us. And everybody needs these gentle and gracious services of +refreshment, and often there is greatest need where there seems to be +least.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 176]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Twenty-fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>AT EASE IN ZION</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Woe to them that are at ease in Zion!</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Amos</span> vi. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> WOULD be delivered from the folly of confusing ease and rest. There is +an infinite difference between comforts and comfort. It is one thing to +lie down on a luxurious couch: it is a very different thing to “lie down +in green pastures” under the gracious shepherdliness of the Lord. The ease +which men covet is so often a fruit of stupefaction, the dull product of +sinful drugs, the wretched sluggishness of carnal gratification and +excess. The rest which God giveth is alive and wakeful, abounding in +tireless and fruitful service. “Oh, rest in the Lord.”</p> + +<p>But is it not a strange thing that men can be “at ease in Zion”? That they +can play the beast in the holy place? Zion was full of holy memory, and +abounded with suggestions of the Divine Presence. And yet here they could +carouse, and lose themselves in swinish indulgence! A little while ago I +saw a beautiful old church which had been turned into a common +eating-house!</p> + +<p>My soul, be on thy guard. Be watchful and diligent, and busy thyself in +the practice of “self-knowledge, self-reverence, self-control.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 177]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Twenty-fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>DESOLATIONS WROUGHT BY SIN</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>The Lord hath spoken this word.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxiv. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Lord hath spoken this word,” and it is a word of judgment. It unveils +some of the terrible issues of sin.</p> + +<p>See the effects of sin upon the spirit of man. “<em>The merry-hearted do +sigh.</em>” Life loses its wings and its song. The buoyancy and the optimism +die out of the soul. The days move with heavy feet, and duty becomes very +stale and unwelcome. If only our ears were keen enough we should hear many +a place of hollow laughter moaning with troubled and restless sighs. The +soul cannot sing when God is defied.</p> + +<p>But see another effect of sin. “<em>The earth moaneth.</em>” That is a frequent +note in Bible teaching. The forces of nature are mysteriously conditioned +by the character of man. When man is degraded, nature is despoiled. The +beauty of the garden is checked when man has lost his crown. “The whole +creation groaneth in pain,” waiting for the manifestation of the children +of God.</p> + +<p>Sin spreads desolation everywhere. When I sin, I become the centre of +demoralizing forces which influence the universe. And so let me ever pray, +“Deliver me from evil.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 178]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Twenty-sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CRUCIFYING THE FLESH</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Peter</span> iv. 1-8.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET not the body be dominant, but the soul. Let me study the example and +counsel of the Apostle Paul.</p> + +<p>“<em>I keep my body under.</em>” Literally, I pummel it! If it is obtrusive and +aggressive, its appetites clamouring for supremacy, I pummel it! Paul was +not afraid of severe measures where carnality was concerned. He would fast +a whole day in order to put the flesh in its place. And so should it be +with all the Lord’s children. We are too self-indulgent. It is well at +times to put the body on the cross, and crucify its cravings.</p> + +<p>“<em>Give no occasion to the flesh.</em>” Do not give it a chance of mastery! +And, therefore, do not feed it with illicit thought. Turn the mind away +from the subjects in which the body will find exciting stimulant. It is +thought which awakes passion, and thought can do much to destroy it. “Set +your mind on things which are above.” Keep the mind pure, and the swine +will never enter the holy place.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 179]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Twenty-seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GOD IS LIGHT!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>In Him is no darkness at all.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">John</span> i.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT wonderful mansion of God’s Being is gloriously radiant in every room! +In the house of my life there are dark chambers, and rooms which are only +partially illumined, the other parts being in the possession of night. +Some of my faculties and powers are dark ministers, and some of my moods +are far from being “homes of light.” But “God is light,” and everything is +glorious as the meridian sun! His holiness, His grace, His love, His +mercy: there are no dark corners where uncleanness hides; everything +shines with undimmed and speckless radiancy!</p> + +<p>And if I “walk in the light,” I, too, shall become illumined. “They looked +unto Him and were lightened.” We are fashioned by our highest +companionships. We acquire the nature of those with whom we most +constantly commune.</p> + +<p>And the light He gives is also fire. It will burn away our sin. We may +measure the reality and strength of our communion by the destruction of +our sin. A great burning will be proceeding in our life, and one evil +habit after another will be in the love-furnace of purification. The Lord +still “purifies Jerusalem by the spirit of burning.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 180]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Twenty-eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE WAITING LIGHT</em></h2> + +<p class="center">2 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> iv. 1-6.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> CAN shut out the sweet light of the morning. I can refuse to open the +shutters and draw up the blinds. And I can shut out the Light of life. I +can draw the thick blinds of prejudice, and close the impenetrable +shutters of sin. And the Light of the world cannot get into my soul.</p> + +<p>And I can let in the waiting light of the morning, and flood my room with +its glory. And the Light is “a gracious, willing guest.” No fuss is +needed, no shouting is required. Open thy casement, and the gracious guest +is in! And my Lord has no reluctance in His coming; we have not to drag +Him to our table. Open thy heart, and the Lord is in!</p> + +<p>And when the light is within there will be radiance at the windows. And +when the Lord is shining in our hearts there will be a witness in the +life. Men will see that we are “with Jesus,” because we are “light in the +Lord.”</p> + +<p>Good Lord, deliver me from “the god of this world” lest I be blinded and +become unable to see Thee! I open my heart to Thee! Shine in, Thou light +of life, and make my soul the radiant witness of Thy grace.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 181]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Twenty-ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>EFFECTUAL PRAYERS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth +much.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">James</span> v. 13-20.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>R, as Weymouth translates it, “The heartfelt supplication of a righteous +man exerts a mighty influence.” Prayer may be empty words, with no more +power than those empty shells which have been foisted upon the Turks in +their war with the Balkan States. Firing empty shells! That is what many +professed prayers really are; they have nothing in them, and they +accomplish nothing. They are just forged upon the lips, and they drop to +the earth as soon as they are spoken. Effectual prayers are born in the +heart; they are stocked with heart-treasure, with faith, and hope, and +desire, and holy urgency, and they go forth with power to shake the world.</p> + +<p>What are my prayers like? <em>If I were God, could I listen to them?</em> Are +they mere pretences at prayer, full of nothing but sound? Is there any +reasonable ground for assuming that they can accomplish anything? Or are +my prayers weighted with sincere desire? Do they comprehend my brother’s +good as well as my own? Are they spoken in faith? Do they go forth in +great expectancy? Then do they surely “exert a mighty influence,” and they +become fellow-labourers with all God’s ministries of grace. The greatest +thing I can do is greatly to pray.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 182]</span></p> +<h2>JUNE The Thirtieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GOD MY STRENGTH AND SONG</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>The Lord is my strength and my song.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxviii. 14-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-y.png" width="81" height="80" alt="Y" title="" /> +</div><p>ES, first of all “my strength” and then “my song”! For what song can +there be where there is languor and fainting? What brave music can be born +in an organ which is short of breath? There must first be strength if we +would have fine harmonies. And so the good Lord comes to the songless, and +with holy power He brings the gift of “saving health.”</p> + +<p>“And my song”! For when life is healthy it instinctively breaks into song. +The happy, contented soul goes about the ways of life humming its +satisfactions to itself, and is now and again heard by the passer-by. The +Lord fills the life with instinctive music. When life is holy it becomes +musical with His praise.</p> + +<p>So here I see the appointed order in Christian service. It is futile to +try to make people joyful unless we do it by seeking first to make them +strong. First the good, and then the truly happy! First the holy, and then +the musical. First God, and then the breath of His Holy Spirit, and then +“the new song.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 183]</span><a name="JUL" id="JUL"></a></p> +<h2>JULY The First</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LIFE OR THE LIGHT OF MEN</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>In Him was life.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">John</span> i. 1-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-n.png" width="80" height="80" alt="N" title="" /> +</div><p>OT merely a pool of life, but the well-spring. All rivers of enriching +vitality have their source in Him. Nowhere is there a crystal stream which +was not born at the Fountain. Let us make our claim for the Lord +all-comprehensive and inclusive. Whatever energizes body, mind, or soul, +has its origin in our Sovereign King. “All our springs are in Thee.” “Thou +of life the Fountain art.”</p> + +<p>“<em>And the life was the light of men.</em>” And what did He not light up? His +amazing rays streamed down the darkest ways of men, and illumined the +vast, sombre chambers of human circumstance. He lit up sin and showed its +true colour! He lit up sorrow, and transfigured it! He lit up duty, and +gave it a new face. He lit up common work, and glorified it. He lit up +death, and we could see through it! But, above all, He lit up God, and +“the people that sat in darkness saw a great light.”</p> + +<p>“<em>And the darkness apprehended it not.</em>” The darkness could not lay hold +of it and quench it! It was not overwhelmed and eclipsed by the murkiest +fog of prejudice, or by the dingiest antagonism of sinful pride. “The +light showeth in the darkness,” inviolable and invincible!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 184]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>LIGHT AND LIGHTNING</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xi. 1-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND the spirit is one of light! All the doors and windows are open. His +correspondences are perfect and unbroken. He is of “quick understanding,” +keen-scented to discern the essences of things, alert to perceive the +reality behind the semblance, to “see things as they are.” All the great +primary senses are awake, and He has knowledge of every “secret place.”</p> + +<p>“<em>He shall smite ... with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His +lips shall He slay.</em>” The spirit of light follows a crusade of holiness. +The light becomes lightning! The “breathing,” which cools the +fever-stricken, can also become a hot breath, which wastes and destroys +every plant of evil desire. It is an awful thing, and yet a gracious +thing, that “our God is a consuming fire.” It was foretold of our Lord +that He should baptize “with fire.”</p> + +<p>And this crusade of holiness is in the ministry of peace. He will burn +away all that defileth, in order that He may create a profound and +permanent fellowship. When His work is done, there will be a mingling of +apparent opposites, and antagonisms will melt into a gracious union. “The +sucking child will play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall +put his hand on the adder’s den.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 185]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MY ELDER BROTHER</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Hebrews</span> ii. 9-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND doth my Lord call me one of His brethren? Let me leisurely think upon +it, until my very soul moves amid my affairs in noble and hallowed +dignity. If I steadily remember “who I am,” it will assuredly transfigure +“what I am.” I lose the sense of my high kinship, and then I am quite +content to be “sent into the fields to feed swine.”</p> + +<p>And my elder Brother came to “destroy the works of the devil.” That is the +entire ministry of destruction. Nothing beautiful does He destroy, nothing +winsome: only the insidious presences which are the foes of these things. +He will destroy only the pestiferous microbes which ravage the vital peace +of the soul. Our Lord is the enemy of the deadly, and therefore of “him +that had the power of death—that is, the devil!”</p> + +<p>And in this holy ministry of destruction He can defend my soul as “one who +knows,” Himself “having been tempted.” He knows the subtlety of the devil, +and where the soul is most perilously exposed, and He is therefore “able +to succour them that are tempted.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 186]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>EMPTYING ONESELF</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He emptied Himself.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Philippians</span> ii. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>N Mr. Silvester Horne’s garden a very suggestive scene was one day to be +witnessed. A cricketer of world-wide renown was playing a game with Mr. +Horne’s little four-year-old son! And the fierce bowler “emptied himself,” +and served such gentle, dainty little balls that the tiny man at the +wickets was not in the least degree afraid! And the Lord of glory “emptied +Himself,” fashioning Himself to our “low estate,” and in His unspeakably +gentle approaches we find our peace.</p> + +<p>And I, too, am to seek a corresponding lowliness of mind in order that I, +too, may be of service to my weak and needy brother. It is for me to empty +myself of the pride of strength, the brutal aggressiveness of success, the +sometimes unfeeling obtrusiveness of health; I must empty myself, and “get +down” by the side of weakness and infirmity, and in gentle fellowship +humbly proffer my help.</p> + +<p>And if the mind is to be in me “which was also in Christ Jesus,” it is +needful for me to commune with Him “without ceasing.” His gentleness can +make me great.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 187]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE DISCIPLESHIP THAT TELLS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He that followeth Me.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">John</span> viii. 12-20.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-y.png" width="81" height="80" alt="Y" title="" /> +</div><p>ES, but I must make sure that I follow Him in Spirit and in truth. It is +so easy to be self-deceived. I may follow a pleasant emotion, while all +the time a bit of grim cross-bearing is being ignored. I may be satisfied +to be “out on the ocean sailing,” singing of “a home beyond the tide,” +while all the time there is a piece of perilous salvage work to be done +beneath the waves. To “follow Jesus” is to face the hostility of scribes +and Pharisees, to offer restoring friendship to publicans and sinners, to +pray in blood-shedding in Gethsemane, to brave the derision of the brutal +mob, and to be “ready” for the appalling happenings on Calvary! Therefore, +following is not a light picnic; it is a possible martyrdom!</p> + +<p>But if I set my face “to go,” the Lord Himself will visit me with “<em>the +light of life</em>.” And the resource shall not be broken and spasmodic: it +shall be mine without ceasing. “Be thou faithful ... and I will give thee +... life.” That life will flow into my soul, just as the oxygenating air +flows down to the diver who is faithfully busy recovering wreckage from +the wealth-strewn bed of the mighty sea. Let me be faithful, and every +moment the Lord will crown me with His own vitalizing life!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 188]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>LIFE AS A VOICE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> i. 19-34.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HIS man humbly desires to be “<em>a voice</em>.” He has no ambition to receive +popular homage. He does not covet the power of the lordly purple. He does +not crave to be a great person; he only wants to be a great voice! He +wants to articulate the thought and purpose of God. He is quite content to +be hidden, like a bird in a thick bush, if only his song may be heard.</p> + +<p>And in order that he may be a voice he retires into the silent solitudes +of the desert. He will listen before he speaks. Come thou, my soul, into +his secret! The air is clamorous with speech behind which there has been +no hearing. Men speak, and in their words there is no pulse of the +Infinite. In their consolations there is no balm. In their reproaches +there is no sword. Their words are empty vessels, full of sound! Let my +voice be hushed until I have heard the voice of the Highest. “He that hath +ears to hear, let him hear.”</p> + +<p>And when he spake, it was in clear and definite testimony, “Behold the +Lamb of God!” The “voice” succeeded, for men began to look away from the +herald to the herald’s Lord. In forgetting John they found the King. They +passed the <em>signpost</em>, and arrived at <em>home</em>!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 189]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>IN THE GOLDEN AGE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xl. 1-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so these things are to happen when the Lord has come to His own, and +His decrees are honoured in our midst.</p> + +<p>Certain <em>inequalities</em> are to be ended. Valleys are to be exalted, and +mountains are to be made low. There is to be a levelling! Men are to be +equal in freedom and opportunity.</p> + +<p>Certain <em>crookednesses</em> are to be ended. They are to be “made straight.” +Society has become warped with the heat of lust, and the fierce fever of +competition, and the hot, devouring fires of greed. When the Lord is +enthroned the fires will be put out, the heat will pass, and the twisted +fellowships will be rectified.</p> + +<p>Certain <em>roughnesses</em> are to be ended. Class works against class with +jagged edge, like the teeth of a saw. They tear and rend one another, and +the family of God is always bleeding. These “rough places” are to be “made +plain.” We are to “work in to one another,” smoothly, congenially, in a +frictionless peace.</p> + +<p>And this Lord is coming, coming every day, and “His arm shall rule for +Him.” “Say unto the cities of Judah—Behold your God!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 190]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>WHAT MANNER OF MAN?</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xi. 7-15.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HERE are some men who are only as <em>desert reeds</em>! They move to the breath +of the desert wind. They bend before it, no matter in what way it may be +blowing. They never resist the wind. They never become “hiding places from +the wind,” stemming a popular drift. They are the victims of passing +opinions, and are swayed by the current passions.</p> + +<p>And some men are “<em>clothed in soft raiment</em>”! They shrink from the rough +fustian, the labourer’s cotton smock, the leather suit of George Fox. They +are ultra-“finicky.” They are afraid of the mire. They touch the sorrows +of the world with a timid finger, not with the kindly, healing grasp of a +surgeon.</p> + +<p>And other men are “<em>prophets</em>”! They have a secret fellowship with the +Infinite. When we listen to them it is like putting one’s ear to the +seashell: we catch the sound of the ocean roll. “The voice of the Great +Eternal dwells in their mighty tones.”</p> + +<p>And others are “<em>children of the Kingdom</em>.” They are greater than the old +prophets, because the mystic voice has become a Presence, and they have +“seen the Lord.” The veil has been rent, and they “walk in the light” as +“children of light.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 191]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>SCHOLARS IN CHRIST’S SCHOOL</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He taught His disciples.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Mark</span> ix. 30-37.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND my Lord will teach me. He will lead me into “the deep things” of God. +There is only one school for this sort of learning, and an old saint +called it the Academy of Love, and it meets in Gethsemane and Calvary, and +the Lord Himself is the teacher, and there is room in the school for thee +and me.</p> + +<p>But the disciples were not in the mood for learning. They were not +ambitious for heavenly knowledge, but for carnal prizes, not for wisdom, +but for place. “They disputed one with another who was the greatest.” And +that spirit is always fatal to advancement in the school of Christ. Our +petty ambitions close the door and windows of our souls, and the heavenly +light can find no entrance. We turn Gethsemane into “a place of strife,” +and we carry our clamour even to Calvary itself. From this, and all other +sinful folly, good Lord, redeem us!</p> + +<p>They who would be great scholars in this school must become “as little +children.” Through the child-like spirit we attain unto God-like wisdom. +By humility is honour and life.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 192]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Tenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE GREAT RENUNCIATION</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xvii. 1-13.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT if the Transfiguration was the type of the purposed consummation of +every life? If we had remained “without sin,” it may be that we should +have gradually ripened up to a moment when we should have become +transfigured, and in the surpassing brilliance have been translated to +higher planes of being. Perhaps our Lord had reached this material +consummation, and was now on the wonderful border land, and could by +choice slip into “the glory!”</p> + +<p>But He made another choice. And this was, of a truth, the “great +renunciation!” He turned His back on the glory, and deliberately faced the +darkening way which led to Calvary and the grave. I do not wonder that His +mysterious visitors spake with Him “of the decease which He should +accomplish at Jerusalem.” He could talk about nothing else! He “set His +face to go.”</p> + +<p>And in my Master’s choice of death I find my hope of life. Through “the +dark gate” I can find “the mount.” My transfiguration is made possible in +His humiliation. If my Lord had never descended I could never have +ascended. If He had abode on the mount I should have remained in my sin. +He has “opened to me the gates of righteousness.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 193]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Eleventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE FRIEND OF THE BRIDEGROOM</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He that hath the bride is the bridegroom.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">John</span> iii. 23-36.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>E ministers sometimes speak of “my church.” I occasionally read of Mr. +So-and-So’s church! I know that the phrase is colloquially used, but +nevertheless, it is unfortunate. Words that are perversely used tend to +pervert the spirit. And this phrase tends to displace the Bridegroom. It +helps to make us obtrusive, unduly aggressive, when we ought to be +reverently hiding our faces with our wings. The Bride is His!</p> + +<p>“<em>But the friend of the bridegroom.</em>” That is my place, and that is my +dignity. And what a title it is, making me a member of the finest and most +select aristocracy in heaven or on earth! The “friend of the bridegroom” +used to carry messages to the bride, to share in the wooing, and to help +to bring the wedding about. And that, too, is my gracious office, to be a +match-maker for my Lord, to testify concerning Him, to speak His praises, +until the soul “fall in love” with Him.</p> + +<p>“<em>He must increase, but I must decrease.</em>” Yes, when the sun is rising the +moon becomes dim! When the glory of the Bridegroom breaks upon the bride +He becomes “all in all,” “the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether +lovely.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 194]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Twelfth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>PREPARING HIS SERVANTS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> i. 35-51.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>UR Lord does not stumble upon His disciples by accident. His discoveries +are not surprises. He knows where His nuggets lie. Before He calls to +service He has been secretly preparing the servant. “I girded thee, though +thou hast not known Me.”</p> + +<p>He knew all about Simon. “<em>Thou art Simon</em>”—just a <em>listener</em>, not yet a +strong, bold doer: a man of many opinions not yet consolidated into the +truth of experimental convictions. “<em>Thou shalt be called Peter.</em>” Simon +become Peter! Loose gravel become hard rock! Hear-says become the +“verilies” of unshakable experience! The Lord proclaims our glorious +possibilities.</p> + +<p>And He knew all about Nathanael. “<em>When thou wast under the fig-tree I saw +thee.</em>” “In that secret meditation of thine, when thy wishes and desires +were being born, ‘I saw thee!’” “When others saw nothing, I had fellowship +with thee in the secret place.”</p> + +<p>And He knows all about thee and me. “I know My sheep.” We do not take Him +by surprise. He does not come in late, and find the performance half over! +He is in at our beginnings, when grave issues are being born. “I am +Alpha.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 195]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Thirteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>PLAIN GLASS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>They were fishers.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Matthew</span> iv. 12-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so our Lord went first to the fishing-boats and not to the schools. +Learning is apt to be proud and aggressive, and hostile to the +simplicities of the Spirit. There is nothing like plain glass for letting +in the light! And our Lord wanted transparent media, and so He went to the +simple fishermen on the beach. “God hath chosen the foolish things of the +world.”</p> + +<p>And by choosing labouring men our Master glorified labour. He Himself had +worn the workman’s dress, and the garment which the King wears becomes +regal attire. Yes, the workingman, if he only knew it, is wearing the +imperial robe. He is one of the kinsmen of the Lord of Glory!</p> + +<p>Our Lord took the fisherman’s humble calling, and made it the symbol of +spiritual service. “<em>I will make you fishers of men.</em>” And He will do the +same for thee and me. He will turn our daily labour into an apocalypse, +and through its ways and means He will make us wise in the ministry of the +kingdom. He will make the material the handmaid of the spiritual, and +through the letter He will lead us into the secret places of the soul.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 196]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Fourteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE UNLIKELY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> ix. 1-13.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p> DISCIPLE from among the publicans! In what waste places our Lord Jesus +finds His jewels! What exquisite possibilities Ruskin saw in a pinch of +common dust! What radiant glory the lapidary can see in the rough, +unpolished gem! The Lord loves to go into the unlikely place, and lead +forth His saints. “In the wilderness shall waters break out!”</p> + +<p>We must prayerfully cultivate this sacred confidence in the possibilities +of the unlikely. We can never be successful helpers of the Lord unless we +can see the diamond in the soot, and the radiant saint in the disregarded +publican. It is a most gracious art to cultivate, this of discerning a +man’s possible excellencies even in the blackness of his present shame. To +see the future best in the present worst, that is the true perception of a +child of light.</p> + +<p>“O give us eyes to see like Thee!” Well, this is the medium of +vision:—“Blessed are the pure in heart, for <em>they shall see</em> God,” and +the god-like, even in the wilderness of sin. “Anoint thine eyes with +eye-salve, that thou may’st see!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 197]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Fifteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE DAILY CROSS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> ix. 18-26.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>UR Lord never bribes His disciples by promising them ways of sunny ease. +He does not buy them with illicit gold. He does not put the glittering +crown upon the entrance-gate, and hide the cross behind the wall. No: on +the very first stage of the sacred pilgrimage there falls “the shadow of +the Cross.” “<em>Let him take up his cross daily, and follow Me.</em>”</p> + +<p>And yet, the Lord’s blessing is hidden in the apparent curse. In the act +of bearing the cross we increase our strength. That is the heartening +paradox of grace. Virtuous energies pass from our very burdens into our +spirits, and thus “out of the eater comes forth meat.” We bravely shoulder +our load, and lo! a mystic breath visits the heart, and a strange facility +attends our goings! The dead cross becomes a tree of life, and a secret +vitality renews our souls.</p> + +<p>How foolish, then, O heart of mine, to avoid and evade Thy cross! Refuse +the burden, and thou declinest the strength! Ignore the duty, and thou +shalt feel no inspiration! Carefully husband thy blood, and thou shalt +remain for ever anæmic! But lose thy life, and thou shalt find it!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 198]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Sixteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE VINE AND THE BRANCH</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xv. 1-16.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> NEED the Lord. What can a branch do apart from the vine? It may retain a +certain, momentary greenness, but death is advancing apace. And there are +multitudes of professing Christians who are like detached branches; their +spiritual life is ebbing away: they do not startle the beholder and cause +him to exclaim, “How full of life!” They do not <em>strike</em> at all! They have +no splendid “<em>force</em> of character,” and they therefore exercise no +arresting witness for the King. They are not “abiding” in the Eternal, and +therefore there is no powerful pulse from the Infinite. “Apart from Me ye +can do nothing!”</p> + +<p>And my Lord needs me. For the vine has need of the branch! The vine +expresses itself in the branch, and comes to manifestation in leaf, and +flower, and fruit. And my Lord would manifest Himself in me, and cause my +branch to be heavy with the glorious fruits of His grace. And if I deprive +Him of the branch, and deny Him this means of expression, I am “limiting +the Holy One of Israel.” “My son, give Me thine heart!”</p> + +<p>Lord, help me to abide in Thee! Save me from the follies of a fatal +independence! Good Lord, “Abide in me.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 199]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Seventeenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE DYING OF SELF</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xii. 12-36.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-e.png" width="80" height="80" alt="E" title="" /> +</div><p>XCEPT a corn of wheat ... die!” Yes, it is through death we pass to +life. Discipleship in which there is no death can never be truly alive. +The nipping winter is essential to the green and flowery spring. No tomb, +no resurrection glory! In every life there must be a grave, and self must +be buried within it.</p> + +<p>We must die to self <em>in our prayers</em>. In many prayers self is obtrusive +and aggressive from end to end. It is self, self, self! That self must be +crucified. We must make more room for others in our supplications. On our +knees the egotist must die, and the altruist be born. And “if it die, it +bringeth forth much fruit”! There are multitudes of professing Christians +who would experience a wonderful resurrection if they were more “given to +hospitality” in their communion with the Lord.</p> + +<p>And if self die in our prayers, nowhere else will it be seen. That which +is truly slain when we are upon our knees will not reassert itself when we +return to common ways of work and service. And, therefore, let the corn of +wheat fall into the ground and die!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 200]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Eighteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE MESMERISM OF THE WORLD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xix. 23-30.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-m.png" width="81" height="80" alt="M" title="" /> +</div><p>ATERIAL possessions multiply our spiritual difficulties. It is hard for a +rich man “<em>to enter into the kingdom of heaven</em>.” For what is the kingdom? +It is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” It is easy +for a rich man to appear respectable, but how hard is it to be holy! He +may surround himself with comforts, but how hard to get into peace! He may +move in the cold gleam of a glittering happiness, but how hard to get into +the rich, warm quietness of an abiding joy! Yes, our material possessions +so easily range themselves as ramparts between us and our destined +spiritual wealth.</p> + +<p>And if we find that any material thing so mesmerizes us that we are held +in fatal bondage, we are to sacrifice it. “If thine eye offend thee, pluck +it out, and cast it from thee!” Whatever interposes itself between us and +our Lord must go! It is a hard way, but it leads to a sound and boisterous +health. We verily “receive an hundredfold!” We lose “a thing,” and gain a +grace. We lose fickle sensations and gain abounding inspiration. We lose +the world, and gain the Lord!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 201]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Nineteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE WRATH OF THE LAMB</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> ii. 13-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE narrative of the cleansing follows the story of the wedding-feast. In +the one the Lord has taken the spirit of the sanctuary into a worldly +feast, and thereby illumined and glorified the feast. In the other, the +spirit of the world has invaded the sanctuary, and thereby defiled and +dishonoured it. The spirit of worldliness, like an unclean, insurgent +flood, would enter and possess the entire realm of human life and service. +And here it converted a legitimate convenience into an unhallowed +business. It transformed a needful expedient into an unholy end. It fixed +its tables in the very courts of the Temple, and exalted the quest of +money above the worship of God.</p> + +<p>“<em>And He made a scourge of cords.</em>” And is this “the Lamb of God”? Yes, +“the Lamb of God” is also “the lion of Judah.” The mild sunshine can +become focussed into scorching flame! As soon as blessings touch sin they +become curses. “For this was the Son of Man manifested, that He might +destroy the works of the devil.”</p> + +<p>My soul, remember thou the scourge of thy Lord, and do not trifle in His +holy place! Seek thou the clean hands and the pure heart, and the thunders +of Sinai shall come to thee as beatific music from the hill.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 202]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Twentieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>DEFILING THE HOLY PLACE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Mark</span> xi. 11-19.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>T was a teaching of the old Rabbis that no one should make a thoroughfare +of the Temple, or enter it with the dust upon his feet. The teaching was +full of sacred significance, however far their practice may have departed +from its truth.</p> + +<p>Let me not use the Temple as a mere passage to something else. Let me not +use my religion as an expedient for more easily reaching “the chief seats” +among men. Let me not put on the garments of worship in order that I may +readily and quickly fill my purse. Let me not make the sanctuary “a short +cut” to the bank!</p> + +<p>And let me not carry the dust of the world on to the sacred floor. Let me +“wipe my feet.” Let me sternly shake off some things—all frivolity, +easeful indifference, the spirit of haste and self-seeking. Let me not +defile the courts of the Lord.</p> + +<p>And let me remember that “the whole earth is full of His glory.” +Everywhere, therefore, I am treading the sacred floor! Lord, teach me this +high secret! Then shall I not demean the Temple into a market, but I shall +transform the market into a temple. “Lo, God is in this place, and I knew +it not!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 203]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Twenty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>PURIFYING THE SANCTUARY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">2 <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span> xxix. 1-11, 15-19.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>ORSHIP has vital connections with work. There are nerve-relationships +between the heart and the hand. The condition of the sanctuary is +reflected in the state of the empire. If there is uncleanness in “the holy +place,” there will be blight and degeneracy among the people. The fatal +seeds of national instability and decay are not found in economics; they +are found in the sanctuary. “Until I went into the sanctuary ... then +understood I!”</p> + +<p>Hezekiah cleansed “the house of the Lord.” He cast forth the filthiness +out of the holy place. He ushered in his golden age with the reformation +of worship. He recalled exiled and white-robed Piety to her appointed +throne. He began the re-establishment of right by recognizing the rights +of God. He gave the Lord His due! All our rights are born out of our +“being right” with God! We begin to be rich when we cease to rob God!</p> + +<p>“<em>And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also.</em>” +That is ever so. Our real songs begin with our sacrifices. We enter the +realm of music when we enter the realm of self-surrender. A willing +offering, on a clean altar, introduces the soul into “the joy of the +Lord.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 204]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Twenty-second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>VISIONS AND TASKS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">2 <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span> xxxiv. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-j.png" width="81" height="80" alt="J" title="" /> +</div><p>OSIAH “<em>began to seek after God</em>.” The other day I saw a young art +student copying one of Turner’s pictures in the National Gallery. His eyes +were being continually lifted from his canvas to his “master.” He put +nothing down which he had not first seen. He was “seeking after” Turner!</p> + +<p>And thus it was with Josiah. His eyes were “ever toward the Lord!” He +studied the “ways” of the Lord, in order that he might incarnate them in +national life and practice. Wise doings always begin in clear seeing. We +should be far more efficient in practice if we were more diligently +assiduous in vision. It is never a waste of time to “look unto Him.” +Looking is a most needful part of our daily discipline. “What I say unto +you, I say unto all, <em>Watch</em>!”</p> + +<p>And because Josiah saw the holiness of the Lord he saw the uncleanness of +the people. He had a vision of God’s holy place, and he therefore saw the +defilement of the material worship.</p> + +<p>“<em>In the twelfth year he began to purge Judah.</em>” Yes, that is the +sequence. The reformer follows the seer. We shall begin to sweep the +streets of our own city when we have gazed upon the glories of the holy +city, the New Jerusalem.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 205]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Twenty-third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>A GREAT SOUL AT PRAYER</em></h2> + +<p class="center">2 <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span> vi. 12-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me reverently study this great prayer in order that, when I go to the +house of God, I may be able to enrich its ministry by the wealth of my own +supplications.</p> + +<p>Solomon prayed that the eyes of the Lord might be open toward the house +“day and night.” Like the eyes of a mother upon her child! Like the eyes +of a lover upon his beloved! And therefore it is more than protective +vision; shall we reverently say that it is <em>inventive</em> vision, devising +gracious surprises, anticipating needs, preparing love-gifts; it is sight +which is both insight and foresight, ever inspecting and prospecting for +the loved one’s good.</p> + +<p>And Solomon prayed that God’s ear might be open to the cry of His people’s +need. “<em>Hear Thou from Thy dwelling-place.</em>” He prayed that the house of +God might be the place of open communion. That is ever the secret of +peace, and therefore of power. If I know that I have correspondence with +the Holy One, I shall walk and work as a child of light. If God hear me, +then I can sing!</p> + +<p>And Solomon prays for the grace of forgiveness. He prays for the sense of +sweet emancipation which is the gift of grace. It is the miracle of +renewal, and it ought to happen every time we open the doors of the +sanctuary.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 206]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Twenty-fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>LOVE OF THE SANCTUARY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lxxxiv.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-g.png" width="79" height="80" alt="G" title="" /> +</div><p>RACIOUS is the strength of this man’s desire for the holy place. He +covets the privilege of the very sparrow which builds its nest beneath the +sacred eaves! When he is away from the Temple its worship and music haunt +his mind and soul. It wooes him in the market-place. Its insistent call is +with him by the fireside. Yes, “in his heart are the highways to Zion!”</p> + +<p>And the permanency of this devotional mood transfigures every place. It +turns “<em>the valley of weeping</em>” into “<em>a place of springs</em>.” The colour of +any place is largely determined by our moods. It is surprising what +treasures we find when our soul is full of light. What discoveries old +Scrooge made when the Christmas mood possessed his own heart! When we +carry about the spirit of the sanctuary, we convert every spot into rich +and hallowed ground.</p> + +<p>“<em>I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in +the tents of wickedness.</em>” Better to have the temple-spirit, even as a +menial, than the unhallowed heart in the glittering high places of sin. +“God’s worst is better than the devil’s best.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 207]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Twenty-fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>NO TEMPLE THEREIN</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>And I saw no temple therein!</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Revelation</span> xxi. 22-27.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND that because it was all temple! “Every place was hallowed ground.” +There was no merely localized Presence, because the Presence was +universal. God was realized everywhere, and therefore the little +meeting-tent had vanished, and in place of the measurable tabernacle there +were the immeasurable and God-filled heavens.</p> + +<p>Even here on earth I can measure my spiritual growth by the corresponding +enlargement of my temple. What is the size of my sanctuary? Am I moving +toward the time when nothing shall be particularly hallowed because all +will be sanctified? Are the six days of the week becoming increasingly +like the seventh, until people can see no difference between my Monday +manners and my Sunday mood? And how about places? Do I still speak of +“religion being religion,” and “business being business,” or is something +of the sanctuary getting into my shop, and is the exchange becoming a +side-chapel of the Temple?</p> + +<p>“<em>And the Lamb is the light thereof.</em>” When we have done with the local +temple we can dispose of its candles. When we pass out of the twilight +into the morning “the stars retire.” The fore-gleams will change into the +wondrous glory of the ineffable day.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 208]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Twenty-sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE WELLS OF SALVATION</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> iii. 1-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE springs of our redemption are found in infinite love. “God is love!” +Redemption was not inspired by anger, but by grace. We do not contemplate +an angry God, demanding a victim, but a compassionate Father making a +sacrifice. At one extreme of our golden text is eternal “love,” and at the +other extreme is “eternal life.” What if the two are one? Etymologically, +“love” and “life” are akin. What if they are only two names for the same +thing?</p> + +<p>To “believe” in the love is to receive the life. For when I believe in a +person’s love I open my doors to the lover. And to believe in the love of +God is to let the heavenly Lover in. And with love comes a wonderful +tropical air—light, and warmth, and air; and “all things become new!” It +is the letting in of the spring, and things which have been in wintry +bondage awake, and arise from their graves.</p> + +<p>And so I “<em>enter into the kingdom of God</em>.” I become a native of a new and +marvellous country. I begin to be acclimatized in the realm of the blest. +And I “<em>see</em> the kingdom of God.” Spiritual perceptions become mine, and I +gaze upon the mystic glories of the home of God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 209]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Twenty-seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE WORK OF FAITH</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">John</span> v. 1-13.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so by belief <em>I find life</em>. I do not obtain the vitalizing air through +controversy, or clamour, or idle lamentation, but by opening the window! +Faith opens the door and window of the soul to the Son of God. It can be +done without tears, it can be done without sensationalism. “If any man +will open the door, I will come in.” “And he that hath the Son hath the +life.”</p> + +<p>And by belief <em>I gain my victories</em>. “Who is he that overcometh ... but he +that believeth?” It is not by flashing armour that we beat the devil, but +by an invincible life. On these battlefields a mystic breath does more +destruction than all our fine and costly expedients. To believe is to +obtain the winning spirit, and every battle brings its trophies to our +feet.</p> + +<p>And by belief <em>I gain assurance</em>. “He that believeth ... hath the witness +in him.” So many Christians fight in doubt and indecision, and their +uncertainty impairs their strength and skill. It is the man who can +quietly say “I know” who is terrible in battle and who drives his foes in +confusion from the field.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 210]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Twenty-eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>ALL THINGS NEW!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">2 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> v. 14-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is a new constraint! “The love of Christ constraineth me.” The love +of Christ <em>carries me along like a crowd</em>. I am taken up in its mighty +movement and swept along the appointed road! Or it <em>arrests me</em>, and makes +me its willing prisoner. It lays a strong hand upon me, and I have no +option but to go. A gracious “necessity is laid upon me.” <em>I must!</em></p> + +<p>And here is a new world. “<em>Old things are passed away.</em>” The man who is +the prisoner of the Lord’s love will find himself in new and wonderful +scenery. Everything will wear a new face—God, man, self, the garden, the +sky, the sea! We shall look at all things through love-eyes, and it is +amazing in what new light a great love will set familiar things! +Commonplaces become beautiful when looked at through the lens of Christian +love. When we “walk in love” our eyes are anointed with “the eye-salve” of +grace.</p> + +<p>And here is a new service. “We are ambassadors ... for Christ.” When we +see our Lord through love-eyes, and then our brother, we shall yearn to +serve our brother in Christ. We shall intensely long to tell the +love-story of the Lord our Saviour. What we have seen, with confidence we +tell.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 211]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Twenty-ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>NAMES AND NATURES</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Romans</span> viii. 1-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-m.png" width="81" height="80" alt="M" title="" /> +</div><p>EN will recognize my Christianity by the sign of the Spirit of Christ. +And they will accept no other witness. I saw a plant-pot the other day, +full of soil, bearing no flower, but flaunting a stick on which was +printed the word “Mignonette.” “Thou hast a name to live and art dead.” +The world will take no notice of our labels and our badges: it is only +arrested by the flower and the perfume. “If any man hath not the Spirit of +Christ he is none of His.”</p> + +<p>And in the Spirit of Christ I shall best deal with “<em>the things of the +flesh</em>.” There are some things which are best overcome by neglecting them. +To give them attention is to give them nourishment. Withdraw the +attention, and they sicken and die. And so I must seek the fellowship of +the Spirit. That friendship will destroy the other. “Ye cannot serve God +and Mammon.” If I am in communion with the Holy One the other will pine +away, and cease to trouble me.</p> + +<p>Lord, make my spirit a kinsman of Thine! Let the intimacy be ever deeper +and dearer. “Draw me nearer, blessed Lord,” until in nearness to Thee I +find my peace, my joy, and my crown.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 212]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Thirtieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>SIN AS POISON</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Numbers</span> xxi. 4-9.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND this is the familiar teaching, that sin is a serpent. It possesses a +deadly poison. We may give it pleasant names, but we are only ornamenting +death. A chemist might put a poison into a chaste and elegant flask, but +he has in no wise changed its nature. And when we name sin by philosophic +euphemisms, and by less exacting terminologies—such as “cleverness,” +“smartness,” or “fault,” or “misfortune,” we are only changing the flask, +and the diabolical essence remains the same.</p> + +<p>And, then, sin is a serpent because it is so subtle. It creeps into my +presence almost before I know it. Its approaches are so insidious, its +expedients so full of guile. “Therefore, I say unto all, Watch!”</p> + +<p>But in Christ the old serpent is dead! Christ “became sin,” and in Him sin +was crucified. The thing that bit is bitten, and its nefarious power +destroyed. But out of Christ the serpent is still busy and malicious, +claiming what he presumes to call his own.</p> + +<p>Let me, then, dwell in Christ, where sin “has no more dominion.” +“Whosoever believeth shall not perish but have life.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 213]</span></p> +<h2>JULY The Thirty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE CLEAN FLAME OF LOVE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">John</span> iv. 4-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HIS aged apostle cannot get away from the counsels of love. All his +mental movements circle about this “greatest thing in the world.” Once he +would “call down fire upon men”; now the only fire he knows is the pure +and genial flame of love. Beautiful is it when our fires become cleaner as +we get older, when temper changes to compassion, when malice becomes +goodwill, when an ill-controlled conflagration becomes a homely fireside.</p> + +<p>And all the love we acquire we must get from the altars of God. “We love +because He first loved us.” We can find it nowhere else. “Love is of God.” +Why, then, not seek it in the right place? Why seek for palms in arctic +regions, or for icebergs in the tropics? God is the country of love, and +in His deep mines there are riches “unsearchable.”</p> + +<p>And the gracious law of life is this, that every acquisition of love +increases our powers of discernment. “He that loveth knoweth...!” It is as +though every jewel we find gives us an extra lens for the discovery of +finer jewels still. And thus the love-life is a continual surprise, and +the surprise will be eternal, for the object of the wonder is the infinite +love of God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 214]</span><a name="AUG" id="AUG"></a></p> +<h2>AUGUST The First</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GOD AS OUR ALLY!</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Romans</span> viii. 31-39.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>F God is for us!” But we must make sure of that. Is God on the field, +taking sides with us? Have we been so busy with our preparations, so +concerned with many things, and everybody, that we have forgotten our +greatest possible Ally? Is He on the field, and on which side! My soul, go +on thy knees, and settle this in secret. That purpose of thine! That +choice of thine! That work of thine! Is it hallowed with thy Lord’s +approval and seal?</p> + +<p>And “if God is for us, who can be against us?” Nothing else counts. It is +ever a foolish and futile thing to count the heads in the opposing ranks. +“God is always on the side of the big battalions!” It is a black lie of +the devil! We need not fear the big battalions if only we are securely in +the right. We are not to count heads, but to weigh and estimate causes. +Which of the causes provides a tent for the Lord of Hosts? Where has the +truth its waving flag? Stand near that flag, my soul, and thou wilt be +near thy Lord! And nothing shall separate thee from His love, and leave +thee weak and isolated on the field. Thou shalt be “more than conqueror” +in Him who loves thee, and will love thee for evermore.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 215]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>BY JACOB’S WELL</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> iv. 1-15.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div> +<p> WEARY woman and a weary Lord! But the Lord was only weary in body; the +woman was dry and exhausted in soul. Her heart was like some charred +chamber after a destructive fire. All its furniture was injured, and some +of it was almost burnt away. For sin had been blazing in the secret place, +and had scorched the delicacies of the spirit, and the inward satisfaction +was gone. And now she was very weary, and her daily walk had become a most +tiresome march.</p> + +<p>And the Lord, with sympathetic insight, discerned the inward dryness. +There was no sound of holy contentment, no melody of joyful, spiritual +desire. There was only the cold, clammy silence of death. “He knew what +was in man.” And there was no “river of water of life” making glad the +streets of this woman’s soul.</p> + +<p>And so He would bring to her the waters of spiritual satisfaction, the +holy well of eternal life. “In the wilderness shall waters break out, and +springs in the desert.” The Lord is about to work a miracle of grace, +changing dull pang into healing peace, and suffocated desire into soaring +fellowship with God. He is about to transform an outlawed woman into one +of the “elect saints.” How will He do it? Let us watch Him.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 216]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CHANGING ASKING INTO THIRSTING</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Go, call thy husband!</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">John</span> iv. 16-30.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div> +<p> NEVER supposed that the transformation would begin here. I thought that +there were some words which would remain unspoken. But here our Master +speaks a word which only deepens the weariness of the woman, and irritates +the sore of her galling yoke. What is He doing?</p> + +<p>He is seeking to change the sense of wretchedness into the sense of sin! +He is seeking to change weariness into desire! <em>He wants to make the woman +thirst!</em> And so He puts His finger upon her sin. He cannot give the +heavenly water to lips that merely ask for it. “Sir, give me this water!” +No, it cannot be had for the asking, only for the thirsting! And so the +gracious Lord turns the woman’s eyes upon her own sinful life, in order +that in the heat of a fierce shame she might cry out, “I thirst for God, +for the living God!” And sure I am that, before the Lord had done with +her, this quiet, lone cry leapt from her lips, and in immediate response +to the cry she was given a deep draught from the eternal well.</p> + +<p>And, good Lord, arouse my sense of my sin that I, too, may thirst for Thy +water! Now, make me thirst for it, and in the thirst receive it!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 217]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>HIDDEN MANNA</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>I have meat to eat that ye know not of.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">John</span> iv. 31-42.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND what sort of meat is this? The Lord found secret refreshment in +feeding other people. In vitalizing the woman of Samaria He restored His +own soul. The disciples were amazed when they returned to find that the +weariness had gone out of His face, and that He looked like one who had +been at a feast!</p> + +<p>And that is the law of life. “<em>My meat is to do the will.</em>” There is a +secret nutriment in the bread we give away. The Lord gives us to eat of +the “hidden manna” whenever we are seeking the refreshment of our fellows. +Distributed bread has a sacramental efficacy for our own souls. The man +who feeds the hungry shall himself be “satisfied as with marrow.”</p> + +<p>And these ways of service are open on every side. There are millions of +weary people waiting, like the woman at the well. “<em>Lift up your eyes, and +look on the fields: for they are white already to harvest!</em>” Be it mine to +be a minister in the mighty service, and in the ways of obedience let me +find delights and delicacies for my own soul.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">“Bread of Heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feed me till I want no more!”</span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 218]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>BROOKS BY THE WAY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE wells of the Lord are to be found where most I need them. The Lord of +the way knows the pilgrim life, and the wells have been unsealed just +where the soul is prone to become dry and faint. At the foot of the hill +Difficulty was found a spring! Yes, these health-springs are lifting their +crystal flood in the cheerless wastes of evil antagonisms and exhausting +grief.</p> + +<p>Sometimes I am foolish, and in my need I assume that the well is far away. +I knew a farmer who for a generation had carried every pail of water from +a distant well to meet the needs of his homestead. And one day he sunk a +shaft by his own house door, and to his great joy he found that the water +was waiting at his own gate! My soul, thy well is near, even here! Go not +in search of Him! Thy pilgrimage is ended, the waters are at thy feet!</p> + +<p>But I must “<em>draw</em> the water out of the wells of salvation.” The hand of +faith must lift the gracious gift to the parched lips, and so refresh the +panting soul. “I will <em>take</em> the cup of salvation.” Stretch out thy “lame +hand of faith,” and take the holy, hallowing energy offered by the Lord.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 219]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>WATERS OF CONTENTMENT</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> lv. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE refreshing waters are offered to “everyone” that is thirsty. The +evangel is like some clear bugle peal, sounded on some commanding upland, +and which is heard alike in palace and cottage, in school and at the mill, +by the child of plenty and by the child of want. “Ho, everyone!” The +appeal is to the common heart, whether the setting be squalor or +splendour, whether the soul faints in the glare of the prosperous noon, or +under the chill of the burdensome night. “Ho, everyone that thirsteth!”</p> + +<p>And the waters may be ours “without money and without price.” We have not +to earn them by the sweat of body, mind, or soul. We have not to make a +toilsome pilgrimage, on bleeding feet, to some distant Lourdes, where the +sacred healer abides. No, we are asked to pay nothing, and for the simple +reason that we “have nothing wherewith to pay.” The reviving grace is +given to us “freely,” and all that we have to present is our thirst.</p> + +<p>And yet we spend and spend, we labour and labour, but we buy no bread of +contentment, and the waters of satisfaction are far away. The satisfying +bread cannot be bought; it can only be begged. The water of life cannot be +taken from a cistern; it must be drunk at the spring.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 220]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>RIVERS FROM THE SNOW</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Revelation</span> xxii. 1-7, 17-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE water of life flows out of the throne. Grace has its rise in sovereign +holiness. This river is born amid the virgin snow. All true love springs +out of spotless purity. “Love” from any other source is illegitimately +wearing a stolen name. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord!” That is the first +note in the song of redemption. In that burning whiteness I discern the +possibility of my own sanctification.</p> + +<p>For the grace which flows out of sovereign holiness is a minister of the +holy Lord to make me holy. If it were not perfectly pure it would itself +be an agent of defilement. But it is “clear as crystal,” and therefore it +purifies and fertilizes wherever it flows. Rare trees grow upon its banks, +and grace-fruits make every season beautiful. “Everything shall live +whither the river cometh.”</p> + +<p>But without the river my soul shall be “as an unwatered garden.” My life +shall be a realm of perpetual drought. Things may begin to grow, but they +shall speedily droop and die. The heavenly Husbandman shall find no fruit +when He walks amid the garden in the cool of the day. And therefore, my +soul, look to the river which flows from the throne! “There is a river, +the streams whereof make glad the city of God,” and that river is for +thee!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 221]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SCARLET SIN</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> i. 10-20.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>OW can we deal with glaring sin, with sin that is “scarlet,” that is “red +like crimson”? And when the red stain has soaked into the very texture of +the character, and every fibre is stupefied, what can we do then? Let me +listen.</p> + +<p>“<em>Wash you.</em>” But ordinary washings will not suffice. The ministry of +education will fail. Art, and literature, and music will leave the +internal stain undisturbed. They may impart a polish, but the polish shall +be like the gloss on badly-washed linen. And the ministry of work will +fail. Work never yet made a foul soul clean. There is “a fountain opened +for all uncleanness.” I must wash “in the blood of the Lamb.” That red +sacrifice can wash out the deep red stain.</p> + +<p>“<em>Cease to do evil.</em>” Yes, I must turn my back on the roads of defilement. +There must be a sharp decision, and an immediate reversal of my ways. +“Halt!” “Right about turn!” “Quick march!”</p> + +<p>“<em>Learn to do well!</em>” Yes, let me diligently learn, like a child at +school, until the deliberative becomes the instructive, and “practice +makes perfect.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 222]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GOD’S REQUIREMENTS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>What doth the Lord require of thee?</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Micah</span> vi. 1-8.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>O do justly.” Then I must not be so eager about my rights as to forget +my duties. For my duties are just the observance of my neighbour’s rights. +And to see my neighbour’s rights I must cultivate his “point of view.” I +must look out of his windows! “Look not every man on his own things, but +every man also on the things of others.”</p> + +<p>“<em>And to love mercy.</em>” And mercy is justice <em>plus</em>! And it is the “plus” +which makes the Christian. His cup “runneth over.” He gives, like his +Lord, “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.” There +is always “a little extra” for Christ’s sake! And “blessed are the +merciful.”</p> + +<p>“<em>And to walk humbly with thy God.</em>” And there I am at the root of the two +graces which have been enjoined upon me. The lowly friend of the Lord will +most surely be both just and merciful. He cannot help it. The fragrance +will cling to him as the fragrance of the orange clings to him who labours +in the fruitful groves of Spain.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 223]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Tenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GOOD FRUIT</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> vi. 43-49.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-m.png" width="81" height="80" alt="M" title="" /> +</div><p>Y Lord seeks “good fruit.” It must be sound. No disease must lurk within +it. My virtues are so often touched with defilement. There is a little +untruth even in my truth. There is a little jealousy even in my praise. +There is a little superciliousness even in my forbearance. There is a +little pride even in my piety. It is not “whole,” not holy. God demands +sound fruit.</p> + +<p>And “good fruit” demands “a good tree.” We must not look for truth from an +untrue soul. If the bullet-mould is deformed, all the bullets will share +its deformity. First get the mould right, and every bullet will share its +rectitude. When the soul is “true,” all our words, and deeds, and gestures +will be “of the truth,” and will be true indeed. “Make the tree good.”</p> + +<p>And that is just what our Lord proclaims His willingness to do. He does +not begin with effects, but with causes; not with fruit, but with trees. +He does not begin with our speech, but with the speaker; not with conduct, +but with character. And, blessed be His name, He can transform “corrupt +trees” into “good trees,” until it shall be said: “He that hath turned the +world upside down has come hither also.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 224]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Eleventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE CONSECRATION OF THE WILL</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> v. 1-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-m.png" width="81" height="80" alt="M" title="" /> +</div><p>Y Lord demands my will in the ministry of healing. “<em>Art thou willing</em> to +be made whole?” He will not carry me as a log. When my schoolmaster put a +belt around me, and held me over the water with a rope, and taught me to +swim, I had to use my arms. The condition of help was endeavour. And so in +my salvation. I have always will-power sufficient to pray and to try. In +the effort of faith I open the door to the energies of God. Grace flows in +the channels of the determined will. “O, God, my heart is set!”</p> + +<p>And my Lord demands my will in the living of the consecrated life. “Sin no +more!” I must “will” to be whole, and I must will to remain holy. And here +is the gracious law of the kingdom, that every time I exercise my will I +add to its power. Every difficulty overcome adds its strength to my +resources. Every enemy conquered marches henceforth in my own ranks. I go +“from strength to strength.”</p> + +<p>“God worketh in me to will!” The gracious Lord ever strengthens the will +that is willing. He transforms the frail reed into an iron pillar, and +makes trembling timidity bold as a lion.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Mighty Spirit, dwell with me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">I myself would mighty be.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 225]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Twelfth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MY LIFE AND HOPE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> v. 19-30.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is my reservoir. “<em>The Son hath life in Himself.</em>” All vitality has +its source in Him. He is the enemy of death and the deadly. I can paint +the dead to look like life; I can use rouge for blood, and make the white +lips red, but it all remains clammy and cold. I can galvanize, but I +cannot vitalize. I can “break the ball of nard,” and make perfume, “but +still the sleeper sleeps.” “In Him is life.” “In Christ shall all be made +alive!”</p> + +<p>And here is my hope. “<em>The Son also quickeneth.</em>” He is not only a +reservoir, He is a river. He is “the river of water of life.” And His +blessed purpose is to flow into desolate places, converting deserts into +gardens, and making wildernesses to blossom as the rose.</p> + +<p>And He will come my way if only I will “hear” and “believe.” There is a +flippant hearing which, while it listens, laughs Him to scorn. There is a +cheap hearing which will venture nothing on His counsel. And there is the +hearing of faith, which simply “takes Him at His word,” and in the +glorious venture experiences the unsealing of the fountain of eternal +life. “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 226]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Thirteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE INNER ROOMS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> v. 31-47.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT should I think of a man who was contented to remain in the outer +halls and passages of Windsor Castle, when he was invited into the royal +precincts to have gracious communion with the King? And what shall I think +of men who are contented to “search the Scriptures” and “will not come” to +the Lord? They spend their life exploring the lobbies, when the Host and +the feast are waiting in the upper room!</p> + +<p>And some men spend their days in criticism and they never advance to +worship. They are like unto one who should give his strength to the +deciphering of some time-worn inscription on the outer wall of some grand +cathedral, and who never treads the sacred floor in fruitful and enriching +awe.</p> + +<p>And some men live in the senses, and not in the conscience, in the awful +presence of the great white throne. They are for ever seeking sensations, +and avoid the fellowship of duty. They ride about in the channel, and they +never come to the harbour. They have no settled moral home.</p> + +<p>My Lord, help me to regard all good things as merely passages leading to +Thee! Let all good things bring me into intimate fellowship with Thee.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 227]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Fourteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE PARALYSIS OF THE SOUL</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> v. 17-26.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE miracle done in the body is purposed to be a symbol of a grander +miracle to be wrought in the soul. “<em>That ye may know that the Son of Man +hath power on earth to forgive sins, then saith He...!</em>” He heals the +paralyzed body that we may know what He can do with a paralyzed soul. He +liberates the man who is bound by palsy that we may know what He can do +for a man who is bound by guilt. We are to reason from the less to the +greater, from the material type to the spiritual reality.</p> + +<p>And so it is with all my Lord’s doings in nature. They are a glorious +symbolism of what He will do in the spirit. “That ye may know how +beautiful the Son of Man can make the heart of man, then saith He to the +seeds of the spring-time, Come forth!” And so nature becomes a literature, +in which we see our possible inheritance in the Spirit.</p> + +<p>But on our side it is all conditioned by faith. “There He could do no +mighty works because of their unbelief.” Even in the miracles of the +Spirit our faith must co-operate. Divine grace and human faith can +transfigure the race. “Lord, increase our faith!” And everywhere, let +palsied souls be delivered, and attain to glorious freedom!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 228]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Fifteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>WITHERED LIMBS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Mark</span> iii. 1-8.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HERE are withered limbs of the spirit as well as of the body. There are +faculties and powers which are wasting away, sacred endowments which have +lost their vital circulation. In some lives the will is a withered limb. +In others it is the conscience. In others, again, it is the affections. +These splendid moral and spiritual powers are being dried up, and they +hang comparatively limp and useless in the life. They have been withered +by sin and sinful negligence.</p> + +<p>And the Lord is the healer of withered limbs. He can deal with imprisoned +affections as the warm spring deals with the river which has been locked +in ice. He can minister to a stricken will, and make it as a benumbed hand +when the circulation has been restored. He can give it grip and tenacity. +And so with all our powers. He, who is the Life, can vitalize all!</p> + +<p>But here again the remnant of our withered endowment must be used in the +healing. We must surrender to the Healer. We must obey. If the Lord says: +“Stretch forth thy hand,” we must attempt the impossible! In this region +the impossible becomes possible in sanctified endeavour.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 229]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Sixteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE CHURCH AS AN INFIRMARY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> xiii. 10-17.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT infirmities gather together in the synagogue! What moral and +spiritual ailments are congregated in every place of worship! If the veil +of the flesh could be removed, and the inward life revealed, how we should +pity one another, and how we should pray! In how many lives should we +behold a spirit “bound together,” who “could in no wise lift herself up!” +Wills like crushed reeds, consciences like broken vocal chords, hopes like +birds with injured wings, and hearts like ruined homes!</p> + +<p>But the blessed Lord still goes into the synagogue; nay, He anticipates +our coming. And He is present “to heal the broken in heart,” and to “bind +up his wounds.” His touch “has still its ancient power.” Still does the +gracious Master speak with authority. “Woman, thou art loosed from thine +infirmity!” And immediately she is “made straight.”</p> + +<p>Then why do so many spiritual cripples leave the synagogue cripples still? +Because they do not give the Healer a chance. No one can remain crooked +and broken in conscience and will who grips the hand of the Lord of Life.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 230]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Seventeenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE PSALM OF PRAISE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cvii. 1-15.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE miracle of deliverance must be followed by the psalm of praise. There +are multitudes who cry, “God be merciful!” who never cry, “God be +praised!” “There were none that returned to give thanks save this +Samaritan.” Ten cleansed, and only one grateful! “Oh, that men would +praise the Lord for His goodness!” Many a blessing becomes stale because +it is not renewed by thanksgiving. Graces that are received ungratefully +droop like flowers deprived of rain. Yes, gratitude gives sustenance to +blessings already received. Therefore “in everything give thanks.”</p> + +<p>But emancipated lives are not only to break into praise before God, they +must exercise in confession before men. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say +so!” Unconfessed blessings become like the Dead Sea; refused an outlet +they lose their freshness and vitality. I am found by the Lord in order +that I, too, may be a seeker. I receive His peace in order that I may be a +peacemaker. I am comforted in order that I “may comfort others with the +comfort wherewith I am comforted of God.” Have you ever received a +blessing; “pass it on!” Tell the story of thy deliverance to the enslaved, +that he, too, may find “the iron gate” swing open, and so attain his +freedom.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 231]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Eighteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE CHURCH OF THE FIRSTBORN</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxxii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND my Jerusalem is “the church of the living God.” Do I carry her on my +heart? Do I praise God for her heritage, and for her endowment of +spiritual glory? And do I remember her perils, especially those parts of +her walls where the defences are very thin, and can be easily broken +through? Yes, has my Church any place in my prayer, or am I robbing her of +part of her intended possessions?</p> + +<p>And is the <em>entire</em> Jerusalem the subject of my supplication? Or do I only +think of a corner of it, just that part where my own little synagogue is +placed? I am a Congregationalist; do I remember the Anglican? I am an +Anglican; do I remember the Quaker? Am I thus concerned only with a small +section of Jerusalem, or does my intercession sweep the entire city?</p> + +<p>“<em>They shall prosper that love thee.</em>” I cannot be healthy if I am bereft +of fellowship. If I ignore the house of prayer I impoverish my home. The +peaceful glow of the fireside is not unrelated to the coals upon the +common altar. The sacrament is connected with my ordinary meal. To love +the Church of Christ is to become enriched with “the fulness of Christ.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 232]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Nineteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>IN GREEN PASTURES</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xxiii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HIS little psalm has been called the nightingale of the psalms. It sings +“in the shade when all things rest.” It makes music in the darkness; it +gives me “songs in the night.” And what does it sing about?</p> + +<p>It sings of God’s bounty in food and rest. “<em>Green pastures</em>”; “<em>still +waters</em>.” My Lord knows when my heart is faint, when it needs His reviving +food. He knows when my heart is tired and needs His sweet rest. “<em>He +restoreth my soul.</em>”</p> + +<p>And it sings of the God-appointed way across the hill. “<em>He leadeth me in +paths of righteousness.</em>” He makes the right way clear. He walks the path +of duty with me. “<em>Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow I +will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.</em>”</p> + +<p>And it sings of the feast which the Lord serves in the very midst of my +foes. “<em>He spreadeth a table before me in the midst of mine enemies.</em>” He +gives me the fat things of grace in the very presence of frowning +circumstances.</p> + +<p>And it sings of the providence <em>which guards the rear</em>. “Goodness and +mercy shall follow me!” God’s grace comes between me and my yesterdays. It +cuts off the heredity from the old Adam, and no far-off plague comes nigh +my dwelling.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 233]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Twentieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>FEEDING THE FLOCK</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xl. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is the gracious promise of provision. “<em>He shall feed His flock like +a Shepherd.</em>” He knows the fields where my soul will be best nourished in +holiness. I am sometimes amazed at His choice. He takes me into an +apparent wilderness, but I find rich herbage on the unpromising plain. And +so I would rest in His choice even when it seems adverse to my good.</p> + +<p>And here is the gracious promise of gentle discrimination. “<em>He shall +gather the lambs in His arm, and carry them in His bosom.</em>” Says old +Trapp, “He hath a great care of His little ones, like as He had of the +weaker tribes. In their march through the Wilderness He put a strong tribe +to two weak tribes, lest they should faint or fail.” Yes, “He knoweth our +frame.” He will not lay upon us more than we can bear. At the back of +every commandment there is a promise of adequate resource. His askings are +also His enablings. The big duty means that we shall have a big lift. And +when we are tired He will lead on gently. Such is the grace and tenderness +of the Lord.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 234]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Twenty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>SATISFACTION</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>My people shall be satisfied with My goodness.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Jeremiah</span> xxxi. 10-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND how unlike is all this to the feasts of the world! There is a great +show, but no satisfaction. There is much decorative china, but no +nutritious food or drink. “Every one that drinketh of this water shall +thirst again.” We rise from the table, and our deepest cravings are +unappeased. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” We know. We have had a +condiment, but no meat; a showy menu-card, but no reviving feast.</p> + +<p>Nothing but the goodness of the Lord can satisfy the soul. Whatever else +may be on the table of life, if this be absent we shall go away unfed. We +may have money, and pleasure, and success, and fame, but they are all +delusive husks if the grace of the Lord be absent.</p> + +<p>This is the real furnishing of the feast. There are vast multitudes of +things I can do without if only I have the holy bread of life in the +gracious Presence of my Lord. In this sphere it is the Guest who makes the +table! “Thou, O Christ, art all I want!” “Having Him we have all things.” +A glorious satisfaction possesses the soul, and though we may not increase +our worldly possessions, we do something better, we “grow in grace and in +the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 235]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Twenty-second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SICK AND THE LOST</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ezekiel</span> xxxiv. 11-16.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-s.png" width="80" height="80" alt="S" title="" /> +</div><p>URELY everybody is included in this redemptive purpose of the Lord! He is +looking for everybody, for everybody finds a place in His holy quest.</p> + +<p>He is seeking the “<em>lost</em>” sheep. The one that has wandered far away, and +now no longer hears the sound of the Shepherd’s voice! The one that is +carelessly nibbling the herbage on the very edge of perdition! He is +looking for this one. Is He therefore looking for thee and me?</p> + +<p>He is seeking “<em>that which was driven away</em>.” Some hireling, some enemy of +the shepherd, drove it far away from the fold. “A thief and a robber,” for +his own purposes, hath done this. And the Lord’s sheep are driven away by +“principalities and powers,” and by the violence of wicked men. Some +impure and unworthy professor of religion can drive a whole household from +the fellowship of the Church. And the Good Shepherd is seeking these. Is +He therefore looking for thee or me?</p> + +<p>And He is seeking “<em>that which was sick</em>.” And some of the Lord’s sheep +are sickly. The chill of disappointment, or failure, or bereavement has +blown upon them, and they are “down.” Or they have been feeding on illicit +pleasure. And the Lord is seeking such. Is He therefore seeking thee or +me?</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 236]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Twenty-third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>NOT LOST IN THE FLOCK</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>I know My sheep, and am known of mine.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">John</span> x. 7-16.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HERE is mutual recognition, and in that recognition there is confidence +and peace.</p> + +<p>“<em>I know my sheep.</em>” He knows us one by one. My knowledge of the +individual wanes in proportion as the multitude is increased. The teacher +with the smaller class has the deepest intimacy with her scholars. The +individual is lost in the crowd. But not so with our Lord. There are no +“masses” in His sight. However big the crowd, even though it be “a +multitude which no man can number,” we still remain individuals, known to +the Lord by name, and face, and personal need. If thou art away from the +fold, thy face is missed, and the Shepherd is away in search of thee!</p> + +<p>“<em>And I am known of mine.</em>” And the knowledge deepens with every day’s +experience. There are false shepherds who can subtly mimic the Good +Shepherd, and in my early discipleship I am liable to be deceived. The +devil himself can array himself like a shepherd, and imitate the very +tones of the Lord. Therefore must I watch, and ever watch. But here is my +hope and inspiration. Every day I spend with my Good Shepherd sharpens my +discernments, enables me to see through the outer show of things, and to +discriminate between the false and the true.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 237]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Twenty-fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LORD’S BODY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">John</span> xvii. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HIS quiet confession is in itself a token of our Lord’s divinity. The +serenity in which He makes His claims is as stupendous as the claims +themselves. “Finished,” perfected in the utmost refinement, to the last, +remotest detail! Nothing scamped, nothing overlooked, nothing forgotten! +Everything which concerns thy redemption and my redemption has been +accomplished. “It is finished!”</p> + +<p>“<em>And now ... I come to Thee.</em>” The visible Presence is withdrawn. There +is no longer in our midst a Jesus whose body we can bruise and crucify. +“<em>But these are in the world.</em>” Yes, and His disciples are now His body. +He becomes reincarnated in them. If they refuse Him a body, He has none! +He looks through their eyes, listens through their ears, speaks through +their lips, ministers through their hands, goes on sacred pilgrimages with +their feet! “Know ye not that ye are the body?”</p> + +<p>Does my discipleship offer my Lord a limb? Can He communicate with the +world through me? Does my discipleship multiply His powers of expression? +Has He more eyes, more ears, more hands because I am a member of His +Church? Or——?</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 238]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Twenty-fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>IMPOTENT ENEMIES</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Romans</span> viii. 31-39.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HO can get between the love of Christ and me? What sharp dividing +minister can cleave the two in twain, and leave me like a dismembered and +dying branch?</p> + +<p>Terrible experiences cannot do it. “<em>Tribulation, distress, persecution, +famine, nakedness, peril, or sword!</em>” All these may come about my house, +but they cannot reach the inner sanctuary where my Lord and I are closeted +in loving communion and peace. They may bruise my skin, nay, they may give +my body to be burned, but no flame can destroy the love of Jesus which +enswathes my soul with invisible defence.</p> + +<p>And terrible ministers cannot do it. “<em>Angels, nor principalities, nor +powers.</em>” These mysterious agents of darkness, for they must be the +legions of the evil one, are unable to quench the light and fire of my +Saviour’s love. The devil can never blow out the lamp of grace.</p> + +<p>And terrible death itself cannot do it. Death does not separate me from +Jesus; death is the Lord’s minister to lead me into deeper privilege and +ripe experiences of grace and love. Therefore, “I will lay me down in +peace, and take my rest.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 239]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Twenty-sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MISSING THE LORD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Thou knowest not the time of thy visitation.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Luke</span> xix. 37-44.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-y.png" width="81" height="80" alt="Y" title="" /> +</div><p>ES, that has been my sad experience. I have wasted some of my wealthiest +seasons. I have treated the hour as common and worthless, and the +priceless opportunity has passed.</p> + +<p>There have been times when my Lord has come to me, and I have turned Him +away from my door. He so often journeys “incognito,” and if I am +thoughtless I dismiss Him, and so lose the privilege of heavenly communion +and benediction. He knocks at my door as a Carpenter, and the humble +attire deceives me, and I treat Him with scant courtesy, and sometimes +with contempt. I know not the time of my visitation.</p> + +<p>He comes to me in the guise of needy people—as sick, or hungry, or a +stranger, and I cannot be troubled with His presence. I dismissed Him as a +pauper, little knowing that I was turning away a millionaire! I knew not +the time of my visitation! “I was an hungered, and ye gave Me no meat,” +and so we missed the bread of life.</p> + +<p>And so there is nothing for it, but to be always “on the watch.” I must +treat everybody as though everybody was the Christ. And I must treat every +commonplace moment as though it were the home of the eternal.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 240]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Twenty-seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>WHAT ABOUT TO-MORROW?</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Joshua</span> xxiv. 1-15.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>T is not mine to worry about the coming day, but to fill the immediate +moment with radiant duty. My Lord is the Pioneer, the great Maker of +roads, and He will see to the appointments and provisions of the way. He +has His scouts, His advance guard, His miners and sappers opening the +highway across the waste! “I will send mine angel before thee!” “I will +send hornets before you!” Yes, the Lord will look after the road. What, +then, am I called to do? Let me find the answer in the 14th verse.</p> + +<p>“<em>Fear the Lord!</em>” The Lord must be the sovereign thought in my life. All +true and well-proportioned living must begin in well-proportioned thought. +God must be my biggest thought, and from that thought all others must take +their colour and their range.</p> + +<p>“<em>Put away the gods.</em>” My supreme homage must not be shared among many, it +must be given to One. When the Lord is enthroned as King all usurpers must +be banished. When He comes to His own the others go into exile.</p> + +<p>“<em>Serve ye the Lord.</em>” My strength must be enlisted with my loyalty. I +must not merely shout; I must work. I must not merely clap my hands when +the King goes by, I must consecrate those hands in sacrificial service.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 241]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Twenty-eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Job</span> xxviii. 12-28.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-m.png" width="81" height="80" alt="M" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE learning will not make me wise. The path to wisdom is not necessarily +through the schools. The brilliant scholar may be an arrant fool. True +wisdom is found, not in mental acquisitions, but in a certain spiritual +relation. The wise man is known by the pose of his soul. He is “<em>inclined +toward the Lord</em>!” He has returned unto his rest, and he finds light and +vision in the fellowship of his Lord.</p> + +<p>“<em>To depart from evil is understanding.</em>” Yes, I need the lens of purity +if I am to see the secrets of things. A dirty lens is the explanation of +much ignorance and obscurity. I do not think I can ever see a flower if my +lens is defiled. Much less can I see “the things of others.” And still +less again can I enjoy “the secret of the Lord.” What we want is not so +much a theological training as a right spirit, not so much to go to school +as to “<em>depart from evil</em>.” When I leave an evil habit worlds unseen begin +to show their glory. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see +God.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 242]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Twenty-ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE RICHES OF SPIRITUALITY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Proverbs</span> iv. 1-13.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me review some of these riches which are conferred upon the man who +has made his soul the guest-room of spiritual religion.</p> + +<p>“<em>Love her, and she shall keep thee.</em>” Spirituality is to be my true +defence. All other ramparts are vulnerable. They are the happy +hunting-ground of the ravages of time; they fail in the crisis; they are +the sure victims of moth and rust. But spirituality keeps me from +childhood to age, and its shields are invincible, even in the hour of +death. “There shall no evil befall thee.”</p> + +<p>“<em>Exalt her, and she shall promote thee.</em>” She will lead me in the paths +of progress. Every day she will lead me to new conquests, and in +constantly enriching character I shall move towards life’s appointed goal. +Holiness is the only success worth having. Other successes are like lamps +whose trembling flames are blown out in the first gusty, stormy night. +“But the path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more +even unto perfect day.”</p> + +<p>“<em>She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace.</em>” Yes, and her +adornments are always beautiful. No beauty ever steals into the human face +comparable with the delicate presence of spirituality. It makes plain +features lovely, and transfigures them with “the glory of the Lord.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 243]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Thirtieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>HOW TO DELIGHT IN THE WORD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxix. 97-104.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p> MAN may measure his growth in grace by his growing delight in the speech +of the Lord. When His words are unwelcome in my ears, when they are an +intrusion which mars my pleasures, it is clear I am still in the far +country of revolt. But if His words make “music in my ears,” if the Lord’s +conversation is the very marrow of the feast, then I have entered into the +circle of His intimate friends. When His words taste sweet, even with a +bare board, I am “in heavenly places with Christ.”</p> + +<p>And how can I attain unto this spiritual delight? Well, first of all I +must make “<em>His testimonies my meditations.</em>” Our doctors tell us that the +only way to taste the real savour of food is to masticate it well. Bolted +food never unlocks its essences. And meditation is just mental +mastication. To “turn the word over” in my mind will help to disburden its +treasure.</p> + +<p>And then I must diligently put the word into practice. “<em>I have not +departed from Thy judgments.</em>” There is nothing like obedience for setting +free a spiritual essence. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear +Him.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 244]</span></p> +<h2>AUGUST The Thirty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE REAL GAINS AND LOSSES</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Godliness with contentment is great gain.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Timothy</span> vi. 6-16.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so I must go into my heart if I would make a true estimate of my gains +and losses. The calculation is not to be made in my bank-books, or as I +stride over my broad acres, or inspect my well-filled barns. These are the +mere outsides of things, and do not enter into the real balance-sheet of +my life. We can no more estimate the success of a life by methods like +these than we can adjudge an oil-painting by the sense of smell.</p> + +<p>What is my stock of godliness? That is one of the test questions. What are +my treasures of contentment? What about peace and joy, and hallowed and +blessed carelessness? How much pure laughter rings in my life? How much +bird-music is heard in the chambers of my heart? Is the note of praise to +be found in the streets of my soul? Am I rich in these things or +pathetically poor? “By these things men live,” and therefore of these +things will I make my balance-sheet and reckon up my gains.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 245]</span><a name="SEP" id="SEP"></a></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The First</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE VIRTUE OF PROPORTION</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> vi. 25-34.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> MUST put first things first. The radical fault in much of my living is +want of proportion. I think more of pretty window curtains than of fresh +air, more of “nice” wallpaper than of the moving pageant of the skies. I +magnify the immediate desire and minimize the ultimate goal. And so +“things do not come right!” How can they when the apportionment is so +perverse, when everything is topsy-turvy? If I want things to be firm and +durable I must revere the Divine order, and must put first things first. +“<em>Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.</em>”</p> + +<p>And, therefore, I must seek holiness before success. I am to esteem +holiness with apparent failure as infinitely better than success with +stain and shame.</p> + +<p>I must seek character before reputation. The applause of the world must be +as nothing compared with the approbation of God. The favouring “voice from +heaven” must be sweeter to my ears than the noisy cheers of the crowd.</p> + +<p>And I must seek righteousness before quietness. The way of disturbance is +sometimes the way to peace. I must not be so concerned for a quiet life as +for a life that is “right with God.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 246]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>PRAYER AND REVOLUTION</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> iv. 43-54.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HIS miracle began in a prayer. The nobleman went unto Jesus “<em>and +besought Him</em>.” In such apparently fragile things can mighty revolutions +be born! “Prayer,” said Tennyson, “opens the sluice-gates between us and +the Infinite.” It brings the frail wire into contact with the battery. It +links together man and God.</p> + +<p>Prayer was corroborated by belief. “<em>The man believed the word that Jesus +spake unto him.</em>” By our faith we cut the channels along which the healing +energy will flow. Faith “prepares the way of the Lord.” Our faith is +purposed to be a fellow-laborer with grace, and, if faith be absent, grace +“can do no mighty works.”</p> + +<p>The healing begins with the faith. “<em>It was at the same hour in which ... +he himself believed.</em>” These “coincidences” are inevitable happenings in +the realm of the Spirit. When we offer the believing prayer, God’s mighty +energies begin to besiege the life for which the prayer is made. Mr. +Cornaby, the Methodist missionary, declares how conscious he is in +far-away China when someone is interceding for him in the home-land! The +power possesses him in vitalizing flood! Hudson Taylor’s mother shuts +herself in a little room to pray, and eighty miles away her son is +converted.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 247]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MY SHARE IN THE MIRACLE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> ii. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>UR Lord always demands our best. He will not work with our second-best. +His gracious “extra” is given when our own resources are exhausted. We +must do our best before our Master will do His miracle. We must “fill the +water-pots with water”! We must bring “the five loaves and two fishes”! We +must “let down the net”! We must be willing “to be made whole,” and we +must make the effort to rise! Yes, the Lord will have my best.</p> + +<p>Our Lord transforms our best into His better. He changes water into wine. +He turns the handful of seed into a harvest. Our aspirations become +inspirations. Our willings become magnetic with the mystic power of grace. +Our bread becomes sacramental, and He Himself is revealed to us at the +feast. Our ordinary converse becomes a Divine fellowship, and “our hearts +burn within us” as He talks to us by the way.</p> + +<p>And our Lord ever keeps His best wine until the last. “Greater things than +these shall ye do!” “I will see you again,” and there shall be grander +transformations still! “The best is yet to be.” “Dreams cannot picture a +world so fair.” “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered +into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for +them that love Him.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 248]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>A PORTRAIT OF A GREAT SUPPLIANT</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> viii. 5-13.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE we have <em>the grace of sympathy</em>; one man troubled about the sickness +of another. We are drawing very near to the Lord when our soul vibrates +responsively to another man’s need. We can measure our likeness to the +Lord by the range of our sensitiveness to the world’s sorrow and pain. Our +God is the “Father of <em>pities</em>”; He is sensitive in every direction, no +side is numb, and we are putting on His likeness in proportion as we +attain an all-round responsiveness to the cries of human need.</p> + +<p>And here we have <em>the grace of humility</em>. “I am not worthy!” Our pride +always blocks “the way of the Lord.” Our humility makes us porous to the +Divine. The “poor in spirit” are already in the kingdom, and the gracious +powers of the kingdom are commanded to attend their bidding.</p> + +<p>And here we have <em>the grace of faith</em>. “Only say the word!” The centurion +conceives the Lord’s words as soldiers attending on the Lord’s will. Let +one be spoken, and at once the mission is executed. And so it is. “The +words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” His words +are vehicles of power, and when they are spoken, miracles are always +wrought. “The entrance of Thy word giveth light.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 249]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>FAITH AND RIDICULE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> ix. 18-26.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND, so one man’s faith is more than a match for many people’s scorn. The +steady trust of the ruler was not shaken by the rude flippancy of the +artificial mourners, and his daughter was brought from the dead. “This is +the victory that overcometh, even our faith.” Everything bows, like +fragile reeds, before the march of a victorious faith. Scorn, and hatred, +and all manner of devilry, and death itself, all lose their power in the +presence of a belief which remains steady and steadfast. “Said I not unto +thee that, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God?”</p> + +<p>And what an infinite reservoir of power is waiting to be tapped by the +hand of faith! A ruler believes and his daughter is vitalized. A poor +woman, bent and broken, reaches out her thin, frail hand, and lo! she is +erect and graceful as the pine! And “my sufficiency is of God!” All that I +may need is in the same wonderful reservoir of grace. That healing flood +is like the ocean fulness, and it will fill every bay, and cove, and creek +in the wide-stretching shore of human need.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“The healing of His seamless dress<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is by our beds of pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">We touch Him in life’s throng and press,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And we are whole again.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 250]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CONTEMPTUOUS WORDS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xv. 21-28.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> WONDER if this word “dogs” was my Saviour’s word, or had He picked it up +from the disciples that He might cast it away again for ever? Did He use +it that He might reveal its ugliness, and so banish it from human speech? +As Jesus and His disciples came along the road the Master walked before +them. “And behold, a Canaanitish woman came out from those borders!” And +the disciples whispered to one another, “Here comes one of the dogs!” And +the Master overheard it, and His tender spirit grieved. And there and then +He resolved to help the woman and at the same time cleanse the men.</p> + +<p>Is there not therefore something half-ironical in our Saviour’s use of the +word? When He spake of the woman as a “dog,” and of the disciples as “the +children,” would there not be something significant in His very looks and +tones? These cold, unfeeling men “the children,” and this tender yearning +woman the “dog”!</p> + +<p>When the Lord used the disciples’ word they began to be ashamed, and in +the fire of their shame their self-conceit was consumed. He turned with +impatient longing to the woman, “O, woman, great is thy faith; be it unto +thee even as thou wilt.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 251]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>EXPERIMENT AND EXPERIENCE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Hebrews</span> xi. 1-6.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> LIKE the marginal rendering of the introductory sentence of this great +chapter. “<em>Faith is the giving substance to things hoped for.</em>” Faith +converts cloudy castles into substantial homes. Faith substantiates the +unseen. Faith sucks the energy out of splendid ideals, and incorporates it +in present and immediate life. Faith unfolds the eternal in the moment, +the infinite in the trifle, the divine in the commonplace. Faith +incorporates God and man. Yes, faith gives substance to “things hoped +for,” it brings them out of the air, and gives them reality and movement +in the hard and common ways of earth and time.</p> + +<p>And faith is also “<em>the test of things not seen</em>.” By a test faith gains a +conquest. By an experiment faith acquires an experience. By a great +speculation faith makes a great discovery. “Try me now herewith, and prove +Me!” It is an invitation to humble and sincere assumption. Try if it +works! Make a hallowed experiment with the powers of grace.</p> + +<p>Lord, incline me to make the gracious test! Let me stake my all upon the +venture! Let me dare all in order that I may gain all! Let me sow +bountifully, and so reap a bountiful harvest.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 252]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE BRACING AIR OF PUBLICITY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Romans</span> x. 1-13.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HERE is a belief which never registers itself in confession. It never +exercises itself in the strong, bracing air of publicity. It is a +cloistered belief, and suffers from want of ventilation. Such Christians +are always anæmic; indeed, they are always puny, and never get beyond the +stage of spiritual babyhood. “Ye are yet babes!” Belief which is never +oxygenated by open confession can never nourish the soul into vigorous and +exhilarant health.</p> + +<p>But there is a belief which expresses and confirms itself in confession. +“<em>With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.</em>” Such confession is a +means of moral and spiritual health. And confession in the early days +meant risk, venture which exposed the life to the shedding of blood. It +meant a frank defiance of the world, and an eager challenge of the devil. +And it is on such fields of open encounter for the Lord that muscle is +made, and the soul goes “from strength to strength,” and “from glory to +glory.”</p> + +<p>My soul, art thou secretly ashamed of thy Lord? Art thou afraid to “lift +high His royal banner”? Then thou wilt always be as a feather-bed soldier, +and the trophies of the honourable war are not for thee. Stand out in the +open, and boldly testify, “As for me and my house, we will serve the +Lord!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 253]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>DEALING WITH SIN</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xxxii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is the burden of unconfessed sin. “<em>When I kept silence my bones +waxed old.</em>” There is nothing brings on premature age like secret sin. It +keeps the mind in perpetual unrest, and a troubled mind soon makes the +body old. The real nourisher of the body is a quiet and radiant soul. But +let the soul be in chaos, and the body will soon be a ruin.</p> + +<p>And here, too, is the healthy act of confession. “<em>I acknowledged my sin +unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.</em>” He retained no single germ +of the whole unclean brood. He brought them out into the light one by one, +as though he were emptying a noisome kennel. He brought them out, and +named them, in the awful Presence of the Lord.</p> + +<p>And here is the ministry of forgiveness, and therefore the miracle of +restored health. Let me mark the rich variety of the descriptive words. +“<em>Forgiven!</em>” “<em>Covered!</em>” “<em>Imputed not!</em>” It is all removed and +obliterated, and the place of defilement and profanity becomes the holy +temple of the Lord.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 254]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Tenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CRITICISM AND PIETY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Thinkest thou, that judgest them that do such things,<br /> that thou +shalt escape?</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Romans</span> ii. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT is always my peril, to assume that by being severe with others I +exculpate myself. I go on to the bench, and deliver sentence upon my +brother, when my proper place is in the dock. And this is the subtlety of +the snare, that I regard my criticisms and condemnations of other people +as signs of my own innocence. This is the last refinement in temptation, +and multitudes fall before its power.</p> + +<p>The way to moral and spiritual health is to direct my criticisms upon +myself. I must stand in the dock, and hear the grave indictment of my own +soul. Unless I pass through the second chapter of Romans I can never enter +the fifth and sixth, and still less the glorious forgiveness of the +eighth. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ +Jesus.” I pass into that warm, cheery light through the cold road of +acknowledged guilt and sin.</p> + +<p>“If we confess our sins He is just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse +us from all unrighteousness.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 255]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Eleventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>A FATAL DIVORCE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>They feared the Lord, and served their own gods.</em>”<br /> +—2 <span class="smcap">Kings</span> xvii. 24-34.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND that is an old-world record, but it is quite a modern experience. The +kinsmen of these ancient people are found in our own time. Men still fear +one God and serve another.</p> + +<p>But something is vitally wrong when men can divorce their fear from their +obedience. And the beginning of the wrong is in the fear itself. “Fear,” +as used in this passage, is a counterfeit coin, which does not ring true +to the truth. It means only the payment of outward respect, a formal +recognition, a passing nod which we give on the way to something better. +It is a mere skin courtesy behind which there is no beating heart; a +hollow convention in which there is no deep and sacred awe.</p> + +<p>But the real “fear of God” is a spiritual mood in which virtue thrives, an +atmosphere in which holy living is quite inevitable. “The fear of the Lord +is <em>clean</em>.” It is not lip-worship, but heart-homage, a reverence in which +the soul is always found upon its knees. And so “the fear of the Lord is +to hate evil”; it is an indignant repulsion from all that is hateful to +God. It is the sharing of the Spirit of the Lord. There cannot be any true +fear where the soul does not worship “in spirit and in truth.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 256]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Twelfth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE GARMENTS OF THE SOUL</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Joel</span> ii. 12-19.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> AM so apt to think that the rending of an outer garment is a token of +true penitence and amendment of life. But it is the inner garments I must +deal with, the raiments and habits of the soul. Some of these robes—such +as vanity and pride—are as gay and showy as a peacock; others are dirty +and leprous, and we should not dare to bring them to the door, and display +them in the light. But all need severe treatment; they must be torn, fibre +from fibre, and reduced to rags.</p> + +<p>But “rending” must be accompanied by “turning.” “<em>Turn unto the Lord your +God.</em>” For the Lord our God is gracious, and His love will not only +provide a new wardrobe, but a swift furnace in which to burn the remnants +of the old. Yes, His “great kindness” will burn away the filth of my +alienation, and will “bring forth the best robe” and put it on me. The +good Lord will give me new habits. He will “cover me with the robe of +righteousness, and the garment of salvation.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 257]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Thirteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE CLEAN HEART</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> li.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT will the Lord do with my sin, if in true humility I come into His +Presence? Let me hear the music of the evangel.</p> + +<p>He will “<em>blot out my transgression</em>.” He will so erase it that even His +own holy eyes can see no stain or shame. He will blot it out, as I have +seen a gloomy cloudlet blotted out, and there has been nothing left but +radiant sky.</p> + +<p>And He will “<em>wash me throughly from mine iniquity</em>.” Yes, and that not +like the washing of the hands, but like the washing of clothes, not like +the washing of a surface, but the removal of uncleanness from a fabric, +the ousting of every germ lurking in the innermost cells of the stuff. +When the Lord washes a soul it is “throughly” done, and every strand is +white in holiness.</p> + +<p>So will He give me “<em>a clean heart</em>”; so will He “<em>renew a right spirit +within me</em>.” The very atmosphere of my life shall be as the air after +deluges of cleansing rain. It shall be sweet, and clean, and clear! I +shall walk in a new inspiration, and I shall “behold the land that is very +far off.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 258]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Fourteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SENSE OF WANT</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>This man went down to his house justified rather than the +other.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Luke</span> xviii. 9-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Master sets the Pharisee and publican in contrast, and His judgment +goes against the man who has made some progress in moral attainments, and +favours the man who has no victories to show, but only a hunger for +victory. The dissatisfied sinner is preferred to the self-satisfied saint. +The Pharisee had gained an inch, but had lost his sense of the continent. +The publican had not pegged out an inch of moral claim, but he had an +overwhelming sense of the untrodden universe.</p> + +<p>So this, I think, is the teaching for me. We are justified by the penitent +sense of want and not by the boastful sense of possession. Our sense of +lack is the measure of our hope, and our measure of hope determines the +poverty or fulness of our communion with the Lord. The Pharisee had no +“beyond,” no realm of admiration, no hope! Aspiration was dead, and +therefore inspiration had ceased. Our possibilities nestle in our +cravings.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 259]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Fifteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>RESTORING A RUINED LIFE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> ciii. 1-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/img-c.png" width="78" height="80" alt="C" title="" /> +</div><p>OULD there be a sweeter chime than the opening music of this psalm?</p> + +<p>“<em>Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.</em>” He receives me back home again, +interrupts the broken story of my sin, and drowns my sobbings in His +rejoicings.</p> + +<p>“<em>Who healeth all thy diseases.</em>” He takes in hand the foul complaints +which I acquired in “the far country,” and with His powerful medicines, +and His wonderful “bread of life,” He drives the foul things from my soul.</p> + +<p>“<em>Who redeemeth thy life from destruction.</em>” Yes, with His own blood He +buys me back from a midnight servitude, strikes every chain and shackle +from my limbs, and makes me dance in “the glorious liberty of the children +of God.”</p> + +<p>“<em>Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercy.</em>” He encircles +me with the invulnerable army of His own love. Henceforth if the devil +would get at me he must deal with God. “As the mountains are round about +Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people.”</p> + +<p>“<em>Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things.</em>” He sets before me a +glorious table, and enlivens my spirits with glorious fellowship. That so +I can be no other than “satisfied,” and my heart is at rest in the Lord. +“Thou, O Christ, art all I want!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 260]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Sixteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE STEADFASTNESS OF THE LORD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>My covenant shall stand fast.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lxxxix. 19-29.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-s.png" width="80" height="80" alt="S" title="" /> +</div><p>UCH a divine assurance ought to make me perfectly quiet in spirit. +Restlessness in a Christian always spells disloyalty. The uncertainty is +born of suspicion. There is a rift in the faith, and the disturbing breath +of the devil blows through, and destroys my peace. If I am sure of my +great Ally, my heart will not be troubled, neither will it be afraid.</p> + +<p>And such a divine assurance ought to make me bold in will and majestic in +labour. I ought to be inventive in chivalrous enterprise, and I ought to +covet the hardest parts of the field. If the mighty Ally will never fail, +I should never be afraid of the marshalled hosts of wickedness. “One with +God is in a majority.” “He always wins who sides with God.” “The Lord is +on my side, whom shall I fear?”</p> + +<p>And such a divine assurance ought to give me a kingly demeanour. The +members of the Court acquire a certain stateliness by their lofty +fellowship. And, surely, one who walks with God should be characterized by +something of the Divine glory, and men should know that his acquaintances +are found in the courts of heaven.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 261]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Seventeenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE NEVER-WITHERING LEAF</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Jeremiah</span> xvii. 5-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me look at “the blessed man” in the interpreting symbol of this +healthy and graceful tree.</p> + +<p>The blessed life is a life of vast resource. “<em>As a tree planted by the +waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river.</em>” It is not watered +by an occasional shower, it is unceasingly bathed by the vitalizing flood. +Its rootlets are always drinking the nutritious waters of grace. The +blessed life is planted on the banks of that wonderful river which takes +its rise in the great white throne.</p> + +<p>And just because of these boundless supplies, the blessed life is +undisturbed in times of grave crisis and emergency. “<em>He shall not see +when heat cometh.</em>” He shall be cool when the unblessed are hot and +fever-stricken. He shall “keep his head” in times of general panic. His +powers of endurance shall make the world wonder! He shall “hold out” when +everybody else is faint.</p> + +<p>So shall there be nothing “sere and yellow” about him. “<em>His leaf shall be +green.</em>” His faith, and hope, and love shall remain fresh and beautiful +even in “the dark and cloudy day.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 262]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Eighteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE ALL-ROUND DEFENCE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Thou hast beset me behind.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxxxix. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND that is a defence against the enemies which would attack me in the +rear. There is yesterday’s sin, and the guilt which is the companion of +yesterday’s sin. They pursue my soul like fierce hounds, but my gracious +Lord will come between my pursuers and me. His mighty grace intervenes, +and my security is complete.</p> + +<p>“Thou hast beset me ... <em>before</em>.” And that is a defence against the +enemies which would impede my advance and frighten me out of the heavenly +way. There is fear—fear of the morrow, fear of consequences, fear of +death! And my Lord will come between me and them, and their menace shall +be destroyed. The fiery darts shall be quenched before they reach my soul.</p> + +<p>“<em>And laid Thine hand upon me.</em>” And that is a defence against the enemies +which may lie in ambush in present and immediate circumstances: the sudden +temptation to passion, or the temptation to panic, or the temptation which +would snare me to criminal ease. But my Lord’s hand is all-sufficient! And +so on every side my defence standeth; “the angel of the Lord encampeth +round about them that fear Him.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 263]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Nineteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE NEEDS OF THE BODY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> vi. 1-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Lord who came to save His people was sensitive to His people’s hunger. +In the presence of the supreme need the smaller need was not forgotten. He +honoured the body as well as the soul. He ministered to the transient as +well as the eternal. And that is ever the characteristic of true +kingliness; it has a kingly way of doing the smaller things. I can measure +my own progress toward the throne by my sovereign attention to scruples. +“He that is faithful in that which is least, the same also is great.”</p> + +<p>The Lord is not oppressed by the multitude of His guests. “He Himself knew +what He would do.” We need not jostle one another for His bounty. We shall +not crowd one another out. “There is bread enough and to spare.” Even in +the material realm this is true, and everybody would have his daily bread +if the will of the Lord were done. There is no straitness in the gracious +Host! It is the greed of the guests which mars the satisfaction of the +feast.</p> + +<p>And how careful the Lord of Glory was to “gather up the fragments”! Our +infinitely wealthy Lord is not wealthy enough to “throw things away.” He +cannot afford to waste bread. Can He afford to lose a soul? “He goeth out +after that which is lost until He find it”!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 264]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Twentieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE PATHETIC MULTITUDE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Mark</span> viii. 1-9.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-m.png" width="81" height="80" alt="M" title="" /> +</div><p>Y Lord has “<em>compassion upon the multitude</em>.” And (shall I reverently say +it?) His compassion was part of His passion. His pity was always costly. +It culminated upon Calvary, but it was bleeding all along the road! It was +a fellow-feeling with all the pangs and sorrows of the race. And a pity +that bleeds is a pity that heals. “In His love and in His pity He redeemed +us.”</p> + +<p>And the multitude is round about us still, and the people are in peril of +fainting by the way. There is the multitude of misfortune, the children of +disadvantage, who never seem to have come to their own. And there is the +multitude of outcasts, the vast army of publicans and sinners. And there +are the bewildering multitudes of Africa, and India, and China, and they +have “nothing to eat”!</p> + +<p>How do I regard them? Do I share the compassion of the Lord? Do I exercise +a sensitive and sanctified imagination, and enter somewhat into the pangs +of their cravings? My Lord calls for my help. “How many loaves have ye?” +“Bring out all you have! Consecrate your entire resources! Put your all +upon the altar of sacrifice!” And in reply to the call can I humbly and +trustfully say, “O, Lamb of God, I come!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 265]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Twenty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>LIFE AS BREAD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Mark</span> viii. 10-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>T is gracious to know that my Lord is “the Bread of Life,” and that I can +feed on Him. It is fearful to know that I, too, am bread, and that others +are feeding on me. Am I the nutriment of vice or the sustenance of virtue? +Am I an evil leaven, like the Pharisees, or a holy leaven like the Lord? +When little children feed on my presence do they grow in strength and +beauty? Or do they become relaxed and demoralized? Who will feed upon me +to-day, and what will be the end of it?</p> + +<p>If I would have my life to be as hallowed and hallowing leaven I must +regularly feed upon the Bread of Life. If I am sustained by the Lord, I +too shall be a sustainer of all who aspire after a true and holy life. My +very character will itself become heavenly bread, and men will be +nourished by it even when I am unconscious of the ministry. When they have +spent a brief hour in my company they will go away refreshed.</p> + +<p>“Lord, evermore give us this bread!” So feed us with Thyself that we may +share Thy nature. Let “virtue” go forth from us, and let it be as holy +bread to all who are heavy-laden, and ready to faint.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 266]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Twenty-second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE HANDFUL OF MEAL</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Kings</span> xvii. 8-16.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT marvellous “coincidences” are prepared by Providential grace! The +poor widow is unconsciously ordained to entertain the prophet! The ravens +will be guided to the brook Cherith! “I have commanded them to feed thee +there.” Our road is full of surprises. We see the frowning, precipitous +hill, and we fear it, but when we arrive at its base we find a refreshing +spring! The Lord of the way had gone before the pilgrim. “I go to prepare +... for you.”</p> + +<p>But how strange that a widow with only “a handful of meal” should be +“commanded” to offer hospitality! It is once again “the impossible” which +is set before us. It would have been a dull commonplace to have fed the +prophet from the overflowing larder of the rich man’s palace. But to work +from an almost empty cupboard! That is the surprising way of the Lord. He +delights to hang great weights on apparently slender wires, to have great +events turn on seeming trifles, and to make poverty the minister of “the +indescribable riches of Christ.”</p> + +<p>The poor widow sacrificed her “handful of meal,” and received an unfailing +supply. And this, too, is the way of the Lord.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Whatever, Lord, we lend to Thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">Repaid a thousand fold will be.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 267]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Twenty-third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE DEDICATION OF SUBSTANCE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">2 <span class="smcap">Kings</span> iv. 38-44.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is a man recognizing the sacredness of his substance. He saw the seal +of the Lord upon his harvest, and he offered the first-fruits in token of +its rightful Owner. Men go wrong when the only name upon their field is +their own. “<em>My</em> power, and the strength of <em>my</em> hand hath gotten me this +wealth.” It matters nothing what the wealth may be—material substance, +mental skill, or business sagacity. It becomes unhallowed power when we +attach our own label to it, and erase the name of God.</p> + +<p>This man dedicated his substance, and the hunger of his fellows was +appeased. That is a great principle in human life. One man’s satisfaction +is dependent on another man’s fidelity. His want is to be filled with my +fulness. If I am selfish he remains hungry. If I acknowledge “the rights +of God,” and therefore “the rights of man,” he has “enough and to spare.” +If I hoard my treasure I rob both God and man.</p> + +<p>My gracious Lord, remove the scales from my eyes. Help me to be sensitive +to the obligations of all wealth. Let my plenty call me to the children of +need. Let me acknowledge my stewardship, and be Thy fellow minister in the +service of man.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 268]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Twenty-fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>AFTER THE TRIUMPH!</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xiv. 23-33.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>FTER the great miracle of feeding the multitude our Lord “<em>went up into a +mountain to pray</em>.” May we reverently wonder if it was a season of +temptation? Did they want to make Him a King? Was our human Lord assailed +by “the destruction that wasteth at noonday”? And did He shut Himself up +with the Father?</p> + +<p>I am so disposed to pray <em>up</em> to my successes, and to cease to pray <em>in</em> +them! I remember God in my struggles, I forget Him in my attainments. I +hold fellowship with Him on the road, I part company with Him when I +arrive. I become a practical atheist in the midst of my successes. My only +security is to go up into a mountain apart and pray. Unless I become +closeted with God, and see all things in their true colours and +proportion, I shall be lifted up in most unholy and destructive pride.</p> + +<p>And let me notice that our Lord returned from His privacy with the Father +to do even greater miracles still. He had appeased the pangs of hunger; +now He appeases the passion of the sea. And so in my degree shall it be +with me. If in all my triumphs I remain the humble companion of the Lord, +my triumphs shall be repeated and enriched. “Greater works than these +shall ye do.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 269]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Twenty-fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SENSE OF GRACE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cvii. 21-32.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p> VITAL part of all devotion is the remembrance of the goodness of God. +Such a remembrance keeps my soul in the realm of grace. I am so inclined +to proclaim my personal rights rather than glorify the favour of God, so +inclined to exhibit my own prowess rather than God’s most gracious bounty. +And whenever I lose the sense of grace I become a usurper and take the +throne. Our salvation is “not of works, lest any man should boast.”</p> + +<p>And such a remembrance would keep my soul in the mood of humility. +“Nothing in my hands I bring.” I can no more claim the glory of salvation +than a child, who has cut a shallow trench on the sands, can claim the +glory of initiating the roll of the ocean-tide. I owe all my desires and +all my hopes and all my present attainments to the boundless goodness of +God.</p> + +<p>And such a remembrance would keep my soul in the dispensation of love. I +cannot quietly and steadily contemplate the goodness of the Lord without +my soul being kindled into loving response. Without high contemplations +love smoulders, and will eventually die out. But God’s goodness inflames +the soul, and communicates its own most gracious heat. “We love because He +first loved us!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 270]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Twenty-sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MY LORD AS MY BREAD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> vi. 26-35.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>UR life’s bread is a Person. We may have much to do with Christianity and +nothing to do with Christ. The other day I was in a great and wonderful +bakery, but I never ate nor touched a morsel of bread. I touched the +machinery. I was absorbingly interested in the processes, but I ate no +bread! And I may be deeply interested in the means of grace, I may be +familiar with all “the ins and outs” of ecclesiastical machinery, and I +may never handle nor taste “the bread of God.” Our religion is dead and +burdensome until it becomes a personal relation, and we have vital +communion with Christ.</p> + +<p>“Thou, O Christ, art all I want.” We find everything in Him. Everything +else is preliminary, preparatory, subordinate, and to be in the long run +dropped and forgotten. A ritual is only a way to “the bread,” and by no +means essential, and very often undesirable. The heart can find the Lord +with a look, with a cry, and needs no obtrusion of ritual or priest. But +how pathetic! To be contented to potter about among the ritual and never +to find the Bread! To be in the house and never to see the Host! “Ye +search the Scriptures ... and ye will not come to Me.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 271]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Twenty-seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>TAKE AND EAT</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> vi. 52-63.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HERE is, first of all, <em>appropriation</em>. I must “stretch out” “lame hands +of faith”; and “take” before I “eat.” In the lives of many Christians +there is too much asking and too little taking. If it were only rightly +regarded, prayer is companionship as well as petition, and companionship +is literally significant of the sharing of bread. In every season of +communion a part must be assigned to the taking of the things for which we +have prayed. “<em>Receive ye</em> the Holy Ghost.”</p> + +<p>And there is <em>assimilation</em>. We must “eat” as well as “take.” It is in the +exercises of obedience that we digest and incorporate the bread of life. +Without our obedience the living Lord never becomes “part of ourselves.” +We never “become one in the bundle of life” with the Lord our God. And +truth which is not assimilated becomes a drug. Instead of being a “savour +of life unto life,” it becomes a “savour of death unto death.”</p> + +<p>And there is <em>vitalization</em>. The assimilated bread of life makes +everything alive. Every faculty in my being feels the touch of divine +inspiration. It is native bread for native power, and everything is +renewed.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 272]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Twenty-eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE DAILY MANNA</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>I will rain bread from heaven for you.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Exodus</span> xvi. 11-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND this gracious provision is made for people who are complaining, and +who are sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt! Our Lord can be patient with +the impatient: He can be “kind to the unthankful.” If it were easy to +drive the Lord away I should have succeeded long ago. I have murmured, I +have sulked, I have turned Him out of my thoughts, and “He stands at the +door and knocks!” I yearn for “the flesh-pots,” “He sends me manna,” “Was +there ever kindest shepherd half so gentle, half so sweet?”</p> + +<p>“<em>And they gathered it every morning.</em>” And that I think is the best time +to gather the heavenly food. At night I am weary, my body is craving +sleep, and I am not vitalized in the fields of grace. But in the morning I +am refreshed, and I can go to the heavenly fields and gather “the things +which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” I can be fed as the day +begins, and I can set out to my daily work with the taste of God in my +mouth, and His mighty grace in my heart, and I shall delight to “walk in +the paths of His commandments.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 273]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Twenty-ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE FOUNTAIN</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">John</span> v. 9-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-m.png" width="81" height="80" alt="M" title="" /> +</div><p>Y Lord is “the fountain of life.” “This life is in His Son.” The springs +are nowhere else—not in elaborate theologies, or in ethical ideals, or in +literary masterpieces, or in music or art. “In Him was life.” It is so +easy to forget the medicinal spring amid the distractions of the +fashionable spa. There are some healing waters at Scarborough, but they +have been almost “crowded out” by bands and entertainments. It is possible +that the secondary ministries of the Church may crowd out the Church’s +Lord. I do not object to the entertainment if only it opens out on to the +Spring!</p> + +<p>To have the Son is to have life. Nothing else is needed. “Thou, O Christ, +art all I want.” Ritualisms, and ecclesiasticisms, and formal theologies +are not requisite. We can be saved without an academic knowledge of “the +plan of salvation.” Many a gamekeeper’s little child knows all the roads +on the estate, although she would be quite “at sea” in explaining “the +plan of the estate” which hangs in the house of the steward. “This is life +eternal, to know Thee and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 274]</span></p> +<h2>SEPTEMBER The Thirtieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>WHITE ROBES IN THE STREETS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xvii. 11-28.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE man who has been fed with the “bread of life” must remain “in the +world.” The Lord gives no countenance to the life of the ascetic. Our +sanctification is not to be gained by withdrawal and retreat. At the best, +that would be a holiness sickly and anæmic, a coddled virtue devoid of +firm muscle and iron nerve. Our Lord purposes a holiness which shall wear +white robes in the streets, and shine like virgin snow in the market, and +keep itself chivalrous and stately in the common fellowships of men.</p> + +<p>“In the world,” but “<em>not of the world</em>.” The man who is fed on “the bread +of life” is endowed with powers of resistance against “the noisome +pestilence.” The germs of worldly epidemics find no nutriment in him. “The +prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.” When an evil microbe +finds no foothold it withers away. If I am not “of the world” I shall +quite naturally and instinctively be able to resist “all the wiles of the +devil.”</p> + +<p>And my Lord purposes me to have this positive, masculine holiness in order +“<em>that the world may believe</em>.” He wants disciples who will arrest the +world by their glorious health, and by their invincible moral defences. He +wants my purity to advertise His grace; He wants my faith to increase “the +household of the faith.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 275]</span><a name="OCT" id="OCT"></a></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The First</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>A WONDERFUL UNBELIEF</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lxxviii. 15-25.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HEY believed not in God ... though He had——” Let everyone finish that +sentence out of his own experience. How much grace can our unbelief +withstand? The Lord had made the rock like unto a spring of water, and yet +these people believed not! What has He done for thee and me? Let us +retrace the pilgrimage of our own years. Let us recall the blessings by +the way—the streams in the desert, the pillar of fire that led us in the +night. And yet what is the quality of our faith? It is often weak and +reluctant, riddled with timidities, or moth-eaten with worldly ease. It is +not mighty and daring, riding forth every morning like a chivalrous knight +to inevitable conquest. It creeps along, like Mr. Halting, and Miss +Much-Afraid, and Mr. Little-Faith.</p> + +<p>“He marvelled at their unbelief.” The Lord Jesus wondered that men and +women, seeing what they had seen, did not immediately spring to the life +and service of faith. Perhaps we do not give time for faith to be born! +Perhaps we do not see because we do not look. Perhaps we are blind to His +mercies and are therefore dead to the faith. And therefore, perhaps, our +first prayer should be, “Lord, that I might receive my sight,” and then +the prayer, “Lord, increase my faith.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 276]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>HUMBLING OUR PRIDE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Job</span> xxxviii. 1-15.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> WILL demand of thee, and answer thou Me.” When our God begins to ask +questions our pride is soon humbled, for the limits of our knowledge and +power are speedily reached. The mist is very close to our doors, and in a +very few steps we are lost on a trackless moor. Who can trace the real +springs of a tear and lay his hand on the emotion that gave it birth? Who +can lead us into the bright realm where smiles are born? Who knoweth the +way of a frown, or who can uncover the secrets of fear? No living man can +explain his own breathing, or can unravel the mysterious decree which +moves his own finger!</p> + +<p>And as there is so much mystery, it must be surely true that mystery is a +very gracious thing. Uncertainty is the divine ministry of blessedness. If +it were not so, He would have told us! “I have many things to say unto +you, but ye cannot bear them now.” If it were best for us that the mist +should be removed, He would roll it up like a garment and give us the +light of unclouded day. But the mist remains, the home of blessing. “He +cometh in a thick cloud.” “The clouds drop fatness.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 277]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>WATCHING THE CREATOR</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Jeremiah</span> x. 10-16.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>E hath made the earth by His power.” And He is making it still. Even in +the material world “His mercies are new every morning.” James Smetham used +to speak of going into his garden “to see what the Lord is doing.” He +would stand on the top of Highgate Hill on a blustering night “to watch +the goings of the Lord in the storm.” And all this means that to James +Smetham creation was not merely a single event, but a <em>process</em> whose +countless events are still going on. He watched his Lord at work! Every +sunset was a new creation from the Almighty Maker’s hands.</p> + +<p>To many of us the Creator is remote from His works. He is not immediately +near. And so He no longer “walks in the garden in the cool of the day.” +The garden is no longer a holy place. Let us recover the sacredness of +things. Let us “practise the presence of God.” Let us link His love and +power to every flower that blows. And so shall we be able to say, as we +move amid the glories of the natural world, “The Lord is in His holy +temple.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 278]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CREATOR AND CREATURE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xl. 9-28.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me mark the range of this teaching. “Who hath measured the waters in +the hollow of His hand.... He shall feed His flock like a shepherd.” And +let me mark it again. “The Creator of the ends of the earth ... giveth +power unto the faint.” Almightiness offers itself to carry my burden! The +Creator offers Himself to re-create me! I can engage the forces of the +universe to help me on my journey. Emerson counselled us to hitch our +wagon to a star. We can do better than that. We can hitch it to the Maker +of the star! We have something better than an ideal; we have the Light of +the world. We are not left to a radiant abstraction; we have a gracious +God.</p> + +<p>The water flows from the Welsh hills to every house in Birmingham. Rich +and poor alike share the bounty of the mountains. The wealth of the +mountains comes to the common thirst. And everybody, too, may have the +water from the everlasting hills. “The water that I shall give him shall +be in him.” The river of life will flow to every soul of man.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 279]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SOUL AND NATURE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxlviii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/img-p.png" width="78" height="80" alt="P" title="" /> +</div><p>RAISE ye the Lord.” And the Psalmist calls upon the creation to join in +the anthem. And that is the gracious purpose of our God, that the world +should be filled with harmonious praise. It is His will that the character +of man should harmonize with the flowers of the field, that the beauty of +his habits should blend with the glories of the sunrise, and that his +speech and laughter should mingle with the songs of birds and with the +melody of flowing streams. But man is too often a discord in creation. The +flowers put him to shame. The birds make him sound harsh and jarring. He +is “out of tune.”</p> + +<p>What then? “Tune my heart to sing Thy praise.” We must bring the broken +strings, the rusted strings, the jarring strings to the Repairer and Tuner +of the soul. It is the glad ministry of His grace to re-awaken silent +chords, to restore broken harps, to “put new songs” in our mouths. He will +make us the kinsfolk of all things bright and beautiful. We shall “go +forth with joy,” and “all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 280]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>HE KNOWETH OUR FRAME</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> ciii. 13-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>E knoweth our frame.” The Bible abounds in such gracious and tender +words. “He remembereth us in our low estate.” “I have many things to say +unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” “He will not permit you to be +tempted above that ye are able.” The burden is suited to our strength. The +revelation is determined by our experience. The pace is regulated by our +years. “He carrieth the lambs in His arms.” He “leads on softly.” Nothing +is done in ignorance. “The Lord is mindful of His own. He remembereth His +children.”</p> + +<p>And so I must practise the belief in God’s compassionate nearness. In my +childhood I used to sing “There’s a Friend for little children, Above the +bright blue sky.” I know better now. He is nearer to me than I can dream. +I used to sing “There is a happy land, Far, far away.” Now I sing, “There +is a happy land, <em>Not</em> far away.” The good Father and His home are not in +some remote realm. They are very, very near to me, and He knows all about +me. “He knoweth our frame.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 281]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>NEEDING AND WANTING</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Acts</span> xvii. 22-31.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>S though He needed anything.” “He may not need us; but does He want us?” +Such is the question I heard Dr. Parker ask as he preached upon these +words. And he took up a handful of flowers which he had upon the pulpit, +and said: “These flowers were gathered for me by little hands in a +Devonshire lane. Did I need them? No. Did I want them?... Your little girl +kissed you before you left for business this morning. Did you need it?... +Did you want it?”</p> + +<p>And so Almightiness may not need our weakness, but the loving Father wants +His children. “We are His offspring.” Our Father delights in the love of +His children. The Saviour said to a Samaritan woman, “Give Me to drink.” +And perhaps it is within the scope of our holy privilege to refresh the +heart of our Lord. Perhaps we can give Him to drink of the well of our +affections, and He will see of “the travail of His soul and be +satisfied.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 282]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GOD’S GLORIOUS PURPOSE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>I have created him for My glory, I have formed him;<br /> yea, I have +made him.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xliii. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT is surely a superlative honour! “I have created him for My glory.” I +stood before one of Turner’s paintings, and a man of fine judgment said to +me, “That is Turner’s glory!” He meant that in that picture the genius and +the power and the grace of Turner were most abundantly expressed. And it +is the will of God that man should express His glory, and by his +righteousness and goodness witness to the great Creator’s power and love. +Amid all the wonders and sublimities of earth, and sky, and sea, man is to +be the Almighty’s “glory.”</p> + +<p>The contrast is pathetic when we turn from the Creator’s purpose to our +immediate life. There is so much that is shameful, crooked, and perverse. +There is little or nothing of “glory.” But, blessed be God! the purpose +abides, and the Creator’s work goes on. In His redemptive grace He has +made provision for marred work, for spoilt and perverted life. “The +crooked shall be made straight.” “I will bring again that which is out of +the way.” “Where sin abounds grace doth much more abound.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 283]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LARGER WATERS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Thessalonians</span> iv. 13-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-d.png" width="80" height="80" alt="D" title="" /> +</div><p>EATH is not an end; it is only a new beginning. Death is not the master +of the house; he is only the porter at the King’s lodge, appointed to open +the gate, and let in the King’s guests into the realms of eternal day. +“And so shall we be ever with the Lord.”</p> + +<p>And so the range of three score years and ten is not the limit of our +life. Our life is not a land-locked lake enclosed within the shore-lines +of seventy years. It is an arm of the sea, and where the shore-lines seem +to meet in old age they open out into the infinite. And so we must build +for those larger waters. We must lay our life plans on the scale of the +infinite, not as though we were only pilgrims of time, but as children of +eternity! We are immortal! How, then, shall we live to-day in prospect of +the eternal morrow?</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 284]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Tenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>OUR REFUGE AND STRENGTH</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xlvi.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-g.png" width="79" height="80" alt="G" title="" /> +</div><p>OD is our refuge and strength.” And in the varied conflicts and perils +of life we need both these resources. We need the “refuge.” There are +times when our mightiest warfare is to lie passive, to shelter quietly in +the strong defences of our God. Our finest strategy is sometimes to “rest +in the Lord and wait.” We can slay some of our enemies by leaving them +alone. We can “starve them out.” They can be weakened and beaten by sheer +neglect. We feed their strength, and give them favoured chances, if we go +out and face them actively, “marching as to war.” The best way is to hide, +and keep quiet; and “God is our refuge.”</p> + +<p>But we also need the “strength.” This is positive equipment for active +service. The defensive is changed to the offensive, and in the “strength” +of the Lord we advance against the foe. We “ride abroad, redressing human +wrongs.” We “tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the +dragon we trample under foot.” We meet our enemy on the open field, and we +slay him in his pride!</p> + +<p>And so our God is our resource in the double warfare of active and passive +crusade. In Him we can take refuge, and the enemy withers. In Him we can +find fighting strength, and the enemy is overthrown.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 285]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Eleventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE OLD COMPANION ON THE NEW ROAD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Get thee out ... and I will show thee.”<br /> “So Abram departed ... +and the Lord appeared.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xii. 1-9.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>E must bring these separated passages together if we would appreciate the +graciousness of the Lord’s call. They are like the two sides of the same +shield. They answer each other as voice and echo. When I move in obedience +the Lord moves in inspiration. He never lets me go on my own charges. “All +things are now ready.” Before He makes me hunger the bread is prepared. +Before I thirst the water is at hand. Before He calls me He has opened +springs in difficult places and arbours of rest along the road. When Abram +set out from his own country the Lord went before him.</p> + +<p>And so I need not fear the arduous call. The very measure of its +difficulty is also the measure of the riches of the divine provisions. “As +thy day so shall thy strength be.” At every turning of the winding way the +Lord will appear unto us. At every new demand we shall discover new +bounty, and everywhere in the unfamiliar road we shall gaze upon the +familiar and friendly face of the Lord.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 286]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Twelfth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>ROUND-ABOUT WAYS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Acts</span> vii. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-u.png" width="81" height="80" alt="U" title="" /> +</div><p>NTO a land that I will show thee.” But what mysterious windings there +often are before that land is reached! But God’s windings are never +wasteful and purposeless. The apparent deviations are always gracious +preparations. We are taken out of the way in order that we may the more +richly reach our end. George Pilkington yearned to go to the foreign +field, and God sent him to a dairy farm in Ireland. But the Irish dairy +farm proved to be on the way to Uganda; and all the experience and +knowledge which Pilkington picked up in this strange business proved +invaluable when he reached his appointed field. “He bringeth the blind by +a way that they know not.”</p> + +<p>So I will remember that the “short cut” is not always the finest road. +God’s round-about ways are filled with heavenly treasure. Every winding is +purposed for the discovery of new wealth. What riches we gather on the way +to God’s goal!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“The hill of Zion yields<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A thousand sacred sweets<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">Before we reach the heavenly fields<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or walk the golden streets.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 287]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Thirteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE ROYAL AIR</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Galatians</span> iii. 6-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-e.png" width="80" height="80" alt="E" title="" /> +</div><p>MERSON says somewhere that he has noticed that men whose duties are +performed beneath great domes acquire a stately and appropriate manner. +The vergers in our great cathedrals have a dignified stride. It is not +otherwise with men who consciously live under the power of vast +relationships. Princes of royal blood have a certain great “air” about +them. The consciousness of noble kinships has an expansive influence upon +the soul. The Jews felt its influence when they called to mind “our Father +Abraham.”</p> + +<p>So is it with men and women of glorious kinships in the realm of faith. +Their souls expand in the vast and exalted relations. “The children of +faith” have vital communion with all the spiritual princes and princesses +of countless years. They have blood-relationship with the patriarchs, and +psalmists, and prophets, and they dwell “in heavenly places” with Paul, +and Augustine, and Luther, and Wesley.</p> + +<p>Surely, such exalted kinship should influence our very stride, and set its +mark upon our “daily walk and conversation.” It ought to make us so big +that we can never speak a mean word, or do a petty and peevish thing.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 288]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Fourteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>COMMONPLACE PEOPLE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> i. 35-47.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>UR Lord delights to glorify the commonplace. He loves to fill the common +water-pots with His mysterious wine. He chooses the earthen vessels into +which to put His treasure. He calls obscure fishermen to be the +ambassadors of His grace. He proclaims His great Gospel through provincial +dialects, and He fills uncultured mouths with mighty arguments. He turns +common meals into sacraments, and while He breaks ordinary bread He +relates it to the blessing of heaven.</p> + +<p>And “this same Jesus” is among us to-day, with the same choices and +delights. He will make a humdrum duty shine like the wayside bush that +burned with fire and was not consumed. He will make our daily business the +channel of His grace. He will take our disappointments, and, just as we +sometimes put banknotes into black-edged envelopes, He will fill them with +treasures of unspeakable consolation. He will use our poor, broken, +stammering speech to convey the wonders of His grace to the weary sinful +souls of men.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 289]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Fifteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE CALL AND THE EQUIPMENT</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> v. 27-32.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-m.png" width="81" height="80" alt="M" title="" /> +</div><p>ATTHEW was very weary, and the all-seeing Lord read the signs of his +spiritual dissatisfaction and unrest. As Jesus “passed by” nothing escaped +His watchful eye. He saw a look in Matthew’s eye as of some caged creature +longing for freedom. Matthew’s office, the contempt of his fellows, and +perhaps his own self-contempt held him in imprisoning disquietude. The +Lord knew it all, and one word from Him and the iron gate was open, and +the prisoner was free! “Follow Me! And he left all, rose up, and followed +Him.” With the Lord’s command was conveyed the ability to obey, and +Matthew stepped into “the glorious liberty of the children of God.”</p> + +<p>And this is the Master’s way. His calls are always equipments. Every +received commandment is also the vehicle of requisite grace. God’s decrees +are also promises, nay, they are immediate endowments. If we reverently +open one of His callings we shall find it a store-house of needed +strength.</p> + +<p>And therefore we need not fear the calls of the Lord. They are not the +harsh commandments of a tyrant, they are the loving invitations of a +friend. If we obey them we shall taste the grace of them, and “His +statutes will become our songs.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 290]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Sixteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE INSPIRATIONS OF THE PAST</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> li. 1-6.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is a sentence from Lord Morley: “If a man is despondent about his +work the best remedy I can prescribe for him is to turn to a good +biography.” He counsels him to go into the yesterdays to find inspiration +for the life of to-day. Other men’s attainments are bugle-calls to me. +“Look unto Abraham, your father.” Look unto the blessings which waited +upon his obedience! See how springs of refreshment broke out in the +troubled way! God “called him and blessed him.” Rekindle your hope at his +radiant triumph. Strengthen your will in his glorious persistence.</p> + +<p>Here do I see God’s mercy in the gift of memory and in the witness of +history. I can turn to the yesterdays for light and quickening. “Do ye not +remember the miracle of the loaves?” Yes, I can recall the grace that met +me in my need, the power that made the crooked straight and the rough +places plain. And I am privileged to turn the pages of other men’s +testimonies and read the record of the Lord’s dealings with them. And so +do memory and history come as helpful angel-presences to my soul.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“His love in time past<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Forbids me to think<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">He’ll leave me at last<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In trouble to sink.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 291]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Seventeenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>NO QUEST OF GOD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He inquired not of the Lord.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span> x. 6-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT was where Saul began to go wrong. When quest ceases, conquests cease. +“He inquired not”; and this meant loss of light. God will be inquired +after. He insists that we draw up the blinds if we would receive the +light. If we board up our windows He will not drive the gentle rays +through our hindrance. We must ask if we would have. The discipline of +inquiry fits us for the counsel of the Lord.</p> + +<p>“He inquired not”; and this meant loss of sight. When light fails, sight +fails. The ponies in our pits become blind. When a spiritual power is not +exercised in the heavenly, it is deprived of its appointed functions. And +the tragedy is this, that the blind are deceived into thinking that they +still retain their sight. “Ye say, we see!”</p> + +<p>“He inquired not”; and this meant loss of might. For “the light of life” +is not only illumination; it is inspiration too. It is both light and +heat; it confers guidance and dynamic. When a man, therefore, refuses the +light he becomes a weakling, and he will meet with disaster in the first +tempestuous day.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 292]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Eighteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>UNANIMITY IN THE SOUL</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">James</span> i. 1-8.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>F two men are at the wheel with opposing notions of direction and +destiny, how will it fare with the boat? If an orchestra have two +conductors both wielding their batons at the same time and with +conflicting conceptions of the score, what will become of the band? And a +man whose mind is like that of two men flirting with contrary ideals at +the same time will live a life “all sixes and sevens,” and nothing will +move to purposeful and definite issues. If the mind flirt with Satan and +Christ, life will be filled with disastrous instability and confusion.</p> + +<p>The first thing we need, therefore, for influential and impressive living +is unanimity. Unanimity in the mind is the primary factor in a forceful +life. To bring “all that is within me” into concord, to make every +instrument of the soul bow to one conductor, to lead all the powers into +homage to the Lord—this is the unanimity which assures the perfection of +holiness. “Unite my heart to fear Thy name.” That is the mood which wins +life’s prize, “the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 293]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Nineteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>READY!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Let your loins be girded about.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Luke</span> xii. 35-40.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>OOSE garments can be very troublesome. An Oriental robe, if left +ungirdled, entangles the feet, or is caught by the wind and hinders one’s +goings. And therefore the wearer binds the loose attire together with a +girdle, and makes it firm and compact about his body. And loose principles +can be more dangerous than loose garments. Indefinite opinions, caught by +the passing wind of popular caprice, are both a peril and a burden. Many +people go through life with loose beliefs and purposes, and they never +arrive at any glorious goal. “Let your loins be girded about.” Bind your +loose thinkings together with the girdle of truth into firm and saving +conviction.</p> + +<p>“<em>And your lights burning.</em>”</p> + +<p>Be ready for the emergency. When the darkness falls, don’t have to hasten +away to buy oil. Look after your resources, and be competent to meet the +crisis when it comes. Let the light of conscience be burning with clear +flame, like a brilliant lighthouse on a dangerous shore. Let the light of +love be burning, like a lamp which sends its friendly, cheery beams to the +pilgrims of the night. “Our sufficiency is of God,” and the oil of grace +will keep the lights burning through the longest night.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 294]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Twentieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LORD AS THE SERVANT</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His +hands,<br /> and that He came forth from God, and goeth to +God</em>....”<br />—<span class="smcap">John</span> xiii. 1-20.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND how shall we expect the sentence to finish? What shall be the issue of +so vast a consciousness? “<em>He took a towel, and girded Himself ... and +began to wash the disciples’ feet.</em>”</p> + +<p>So a mighty consciousness expresses itself in lowly service. In our +ignorance we should have assumed that divinity would have moved only in +planetary orbits, and would have overlooked the petty streets and ways of +men. But here the Lord of Glory girds Himself with the apron of the slave, +and almightiness addresses itself to menial service.</p> + +<p>And that is the test of an expanding consciousness. We may be sure that we +are growing smaller when we begin to disparage humble services. We may be +sure we are growing larger when we love the ministries that never cry or +lift their voices in the streets. When a man begins to despise the +“towel,” he is losing his kingly dignity, and is resigning his place on +the throne. “I have given you an example that ye also should do as I have +done to you.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 295]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Twenty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE CONTRITE HEART</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> lvii. 13-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET us look at this description of the dwelling-place of the Eternal God. +“<em>I dwell with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.</em>”</p> + +<p>And who are the contrite? In the original word there is the significance +of pieces of rock or lumps of soil having been crumbled into the finest +powder. Have I not sometimes heard the phrase—“He’s just a lump of +pride”? Well, that pride has to be broken down into the finest powder, +until not a bit of stubborn self-conceit remains. And then the contrite +become the humble! Our gracious Lord has sometimes to use heavy hammers in +the destruction of this hard and stony pride: the shock of calamity, the +battering of disappointment and defeat! Our pride <em>must</em> be ground to +powder. Then He will come in and dwell with us!</p> + +<p>And what then? He will “<em>revive the spirit of the humble, and revive the +heart of the contrite ones</em>.” Our broken pride shall be as broken soil in +which our Lord will grow the flowers and fruits of the Spirit. The death +of pride shall be followed by a revival of all things sweet and beautiful. +When pride is laid low, it is a “day of resurrection.” The wilderness +shall “blossom as the rose.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 296]</span></p> +<h2>October The Twenty-second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE TRUE STANDARD OF GREATNESS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xviii. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is our Lord’s estimate of true greatness. How infinite is the +contrast between His standard and the standards of the world! The world +measures greatness by money, or eloquence, or intellectual skill, or even +by prowess on the field of battle. But here is the Lord’s +standard—“<em>Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little +child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.</em>”</p> + +<p>Those people are greatest who are most like God. We become partakers of +the Divine nature through a child-like relationship to God. The grace and +power of God pour into our souls when we wait upon Him like a little +child.</p> + +<p>Child-likeness opens the doors and windows to the incoming of the +Almighty. The child-like is the trustful, and no barriers of cynical +suspicion block the channels of spiritual communion. And the child-like is +the docile, and no boulders of arrogance or self-conceit block the channel +of the invigorating waters of life. And so the child-like become the +God-like, and, of course, they are the greatest among the sons of men. The +little child enshrines the secret of the God-man, and we should be +infinitely wise if we had the little child always in our midst.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 297]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Twenty-third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>MASTERS AND SERVANTS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xx. 20-28.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>T is always our peril that we hunger for place more than for character, +for position more than for disposition, for a temporal sceptre more than +for a majestic self-control.</p> + +<p>These disciples coveted places on the right and left of the Lord, and they +had little or no concern about their worthiness for the posts. +Temporalities eclipsed spiritualities, fleeting fireworks hid the quiet +stars. They wanted to be great and prominent, the Lord wanted them to be +pure and good. They longed to be Prime Ministers, the Lord purposed that +they should be glad to be ministers, working contentedly in an obscure +place.</p> + +<p>Now mark our Lord’s response. “<em>Are ye able to drink of the cup that I +drink of?</em>” They wanted to be the King’s cup-bearers; He offers them to +drink of His cup. They call for sovereignty: He asks for sacrifice. They +crave sweetness: He offers them bitterness. They seek a life of “getting”: +He demands a life of “giving.” Who has a cup of bitterness to drink? Go +and share it with him! Where are the morally and spiritually anæmic? Go +and give them thy blood! “Whoever shall lose his life shall find it.” +Through self-sacrifice we pass to our throne.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 298]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Twenty-fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>“<em>PUSH</em>” <em>AND</em> “<em>PULL</em>”</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> xiv. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE world canonizes “push.” It eulogizes the “man of push.” It loves to +see a man elbowing his way through the jostling crowd, and gaining for +himself a “chief seat” at life’s feast. He is proclaimed a “successful” +man, and he rises in “the chief seat,” and amid loud hurrahs he responds +to the toast of his health.</p> + +<p>Yes, “push” is the word of the world, but “pull” is the word of the Lord, +and between the two there is the difference of darkness and light. “Push” +is selfish and exclusive: “pull” is inclusive and neighbourly. “Push” +takes as its motto, “The weakest to the wall!” “Pull” takes as its motto, +“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”</p> + +<p>The final verdict upon life will be founded, not upon our own success in +gaining a chief seat, but upon our success in encouraging the faint and +the weakling, and in “helping lame dogs over stiles.”</p> + +<p>My gracious Lord, help me to put on “a heart of compassion” that by +neighbourly feeling and ministry I may lead my fellows to the choice +places of life’s feast.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 299]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Twenty-fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE ROBE OF HUMILITY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Peter</span> v. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me, therefore, learn this lesson, that if my Lord should give me +prominence in His church it is not to feed my lust of dominion, but in +order to strengthen and extend the influence of the church’s life. +“<em>Neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making +yourselves ensamples to the flock.</em>”</p> + +<p>The only truly imperial purple is the robe of humility. Any other sort of +attire may appear to be kingly, but it has none of the glorious +significance which belongs to our sovereign Lord. When a man puts on the +robe of pride, he immediately belittles his manhood. When a man puts on +the robe of humility, he becomes a greater man.</p> + +<p>But humility is more than an imperial robe, it is a complete armour. It is +fine for defence! The devil cannot get at the man who is “clothed in +humility.” There is no chink or crevice through which his deadly rapier +can pierce. And it is equally fine for offence! Wearing this armour we can +go out “redressing human wrongs.” The stroke of pride is ever futile. When +the humble man deals a blow, the power of the Almighty is in his right +hand. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 300]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Twenty-sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LUST OF THE EXTERNAL</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> xxiii. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/img-p.png" width="78" height="80" alt="P" title="" /> +</div><p>HARISAISM is the lust of externalities, and the utter negligence of the +inward sanctities of the spirit. It thinks more of decorum than of +holiness, more of etiquette than of equity, more of ritualism than of “the +robe of righteousness and the garment of salvation.” Pharisaism lives in +the streets: it does not dwell in the inner chambers of our mystic life.</p> + +<p>Pharisaism thirsts for the homage of men and not for the approbation of +God. It is far more alert to the “Rabbi! Rabbi!” of the crowd than it is +to the secret callings of the Lord. The path between itself and the +highest is unfrequented and grass-grown; the path between itself and the +multitude is a well-trodden and barren road.</p> + +<p>My Lord, let me be warned! Let me not pervert the ministries of religion +to the aggrandizement of self. Let me not, in appearing to worship Thee, +be seeking the worship of men. Give me singleness of mind. Give me purity +of heart. And may I discover true greatness in seeking greatness for +others.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 301]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Twenty-seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>PAYING HOMAGE TO THE KING</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Proverbs</span> iii. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>CKNOWLEDGE Him.” But not with a passing nod of recognition. I must not +merely glance at Him now and again, admitting His existence on the field. +To acknowledge Him is to acknowledge Him as King, with the right to +control, and as predominant partner in all the affairs of my life, even +the right to give the determining voice in all my decisions. No, it is not +the recognition paid to an acquaintance, it is the homage paid to a King.</p> + +<p>And if I thus acknowledge Him, He will direct my paths. Life shall always +be moving on to its purposed end and glory. The path chosen will not +always be the most alluring one, but it will be the right one, and +therefore the safe one, and there will be wonderful discoveries on the +uninviting track.</p> + +<p>How will He let me know which path to take? I cannot say. We can never +anticipate God’s ways of dealing with us. But if my life is bent to the +loving acknowledgment of His will, He will assuredly find a way to make +His will known. The light will always reach the willing mind.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 302]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Twenty-eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>PLEASANTNESS AND PEACE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are +peace.</em>”<br />—<span class="smcap">Proverbs</span> iii. 13-26.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>N the ways of the Lord I shall have feasts of “pleasantness.” But not +always at the beginning of the ways. Sometimes my faith is called upon to +take a very unattractive road, and nothing welcomes me of fascination and +delight. But here is a law of the spiritual life. The exercised faith +intensifies my spiritual senses, and hidden things become manifest to my +soul—hidden beauties, hidden sounds, hidden scents! Faith adds a +mysterious “plus” to my powers, and “all things become new.”</p> + +<p>And in the ways of the Lord I shall also find the gracious gift of peace. +Not that the road will be always smooth, but that I may be always calm. I +can be unperturbed when “all around tumultuous seems.” I can journey in +holy serenity, because the Lord of the road is with me. For peace +consists, not in friendliness of circumstances, but in friendship with the +Lord.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 303]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Twenty-ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE STORY OF THE PAST</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Deuteronomy</span> xxxi. 7-13.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND no ears are more receptive to spiritual story than the ears of a +little child. It is not needful to open the gate of interest; it is wide +ajar already. And imagination also is there, ready to busy itself about +the story. And so, too, is the spirit of homage and adoration. The +children are ready for the King! “Suffer little children to come unto Me, +for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”</p> + +<p>And, therefore, we have need of wise tellers of the story, who know the +story themselves. And in these delicate regions I must ever remember how +much my spirit shares in the story I tell. My spirit is a friend or a foe +to my power. My words may be well chosen, but they may all be light as +empty shells, devoid of all vitality. My words have just the power of +their spiritual contents. “You cannot fight the French with 200,000 red +uniforms,” said Carlyle; “there must be men inside them.” And we cannot +engage in the evangelization with mere uniforms of words. There must be +spirit inside them, even the spirit of pure and consecrated lives.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 304]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Thirtieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>A TESTIMONY MEETING</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xxxiv. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HIS is a little testimony meeting, in which each of the witnesses tells +the story of the Lord’s gracious dealings with him. Let me listen to them.</p> + +<p>“<em>He delivered me from all my fears.</em>” His fears held him in dungeons. +Even the noontide was as darkness round about him, and there was no song +in his soul. And the Lord broke open the prison-gate and let him out to +light, and joy, and belief.</p> + +<p>“<em>They looked to Him and were lightened.</em>” They looked upon the grace of +the Lord, and were lit up, just as I have seen humble cottage windows +ablaze with the glory of the rising sun. I must “set my face” towards the +Lord, and I, too, shall catch the radiance of His glory.</p> + +<p>“This poor man cried ... <em>and the Lord saved him out of all his +troubles</em>.” And these troubles were what I should call “tight corners,” +when the life is hemmed in by unfortunate circumstances, and there seems +no way of escape. Disappointment shuts us in. Sorrow shuts us in. Lack of +money shuts us in. Let me cry unto the Lord. He is a wonderful Friend in +the tight corner, and He will bring my feet into “a large place.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 305]</span></p> +<h2>OCTOBER The Thirty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>TWO GREAT MYSTERIES</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lxxxi.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HIS is an unutterable mystery, that a man can close his life against God. +“<em>Israel would have none of Me.</em>” We can shut out God as we can shut out +the pure air. We can bar His entrance just as we can exclude the light +from the chamber. And then the pity is, we can deceive ourselves into +believing that the air is perfectly fresh and that the room is flooded +with light. We lose our fine discernment, and we call evil good, and the +darkness we call day. If we “refuse to have God” in our thoughts God gives +us over to a “reprobate mind.”</p> + +<p>And it is an equally unutterable mystery that a man can open his life to +the entertainment of Almighty God. “I will dwell with them!” That is my +supreme honour, that the Lord will be my guest. I can “hearken” to Him, +and “talk” to Him, and “walk” with Him. And He offers me protection. He +will “subdue my enemies.” And He offers me unfailing provision. The Guest +becomes the Host! I put my little upon the table, and lo! I find that “the +cruse of oil fails not, and the meal in the barrel is not consumed!”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 306]</span><a name="NOV" id="NOV"></a></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The First</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>IN THE DAYS OF YOUTH</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ecclesiastes</span> xii. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-n.png" width="80" height="80" alt="N" title="" /> +</div><p>N my university days at Edinburgh there was a young medical student named +Macfarlane. He was one of our finest athletes, and everybody liked him. +One day he was stricken with typhoid, which proved fatal. Macfarlane in +his days of boisterous health had neglected his Lord, and when one of his +friends, visiting him in his sickness, led his thoughts to the Saviour, he +turned and said, “But wouldn’t it be a shabby thing to turn to Christ +now?” “Yes,” replied his friend, “it will be a shabby thing, but it will +be shabbier not to turn to Him at all!” And I believe that poor Macfarlane +turned his shame-filled soul to the Lord.</p> + +<p>But it is shabby to offer our Lord the mere dregs in life’s cup. It is +shabby to offer Him the mere hull of the boat when the storms of passion +have carried its serviceableness away. Let me offer Him my best, my finest +equipment, my youth! Let me offer Him the best, and give Him the helm when +I am just setting sail and life abounds in golden promise! “Remember now +thy Creator in the days of thy youth.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 307]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>LEADING TO CHRIST</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Suffer little children to come unto Me.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Mark</span> x. 13-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-u.png" width="81" height="80" alt="U" title="" /> +</div><p>NTO <em>Me</em>!” We must not keep them at any half-way house. We are so prone +to be satisfied if only we bring them a little way along the road. If we +get them to pray! If we get them to attend the Lord’s house! If we get +them to be truthful and gentle! All of which is unspeakably good. It is a +blessed thing to be in “the ways of Zion”; it is a far more blessed thing +to be in the palace with Zion’s King and Lord. When we are dealing with +little children, every road must lead to Jesus, and not until the road is +trodden and we arrive at Him must we think our ministry accomplished.</p> + +<p>And, therefore, if I am talking to the little ones about Samuel, or David, +or Paul, I must always see the short lane which leads to the Lord. “Suffer +the little children to come unto <em>Me</em>!” And once they really own Him, we +may trust their instincts for the rest. The heart in the child will leap +to the love of the Lord, “for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” When a +little one sees the Saviour, it is “love at first sight”!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 308]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LORD’S OWN</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xv. 11-25.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE “Lord’s own” possess the Lord’s love. “<em>I have loved you.</em>” And love +is not a beautiful sentiment, a passive rainbow stretched over the realm +of human life. It is a glorious, active energy, infinitely more powerful +than electricity, and always besieging the gates of the soul, or +ministering to its manifold needs. Love is the greatest force in the +world.</p> + +<p>And the “Lord’s own” are taken into the inner circle of intimacy, where +the deepest secrets dwell. We are not kept on the door-step, or left +standing in the hall, or limited to one or two “public rooms”; we are +privileged to enter the King’s privacy, and be nourished at the King’s +table, and listen to the King’s table-talk concerning “all things” which +He has heard of the Father. We have “the glorious liberty of <em>the +children</em> of God.”</p> + +<p>And the “Lord’s own” will experience the world’s hatred. “<em>Therefore the +world hateth you.</em>” Our very friendship with the Lord pronounces judgment +on the world, and its hostility is aroused. If we are “partakers of the +glory” we shall most assuredly be “partakers of the sufferings of +Christ.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 309]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE HOLY SPIRIT AS WITNESS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xv. 26—xvi. 11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Holy Spirit is to be a witness of Jesus. “<em>He shall testify of Me.</em>” +He shall be “the Friend of the Bridegroom,” and He shall sing the +Bridegroom’s grace, and goodness, and prowess, in the eager ear of the +bride. And the early love of the bride shall become deeper and richer as +more and more she enters into “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”</p> + +<p>And the Holy Spirit is thus to be a strengthener of the friends of the +Lord. He will be my “<em>Comforter</em>.” By His gracious advocacy He will make +my faith and hope invincible. The best service which can be rendered me is +not to change my circumstances, but to make me superior to them; not to +make a smooth road, but to enable me to “leap like an hart” over any road; +not to remove the darkness, but to make me “sing songs in the night.” And +so I will not pray for less burdens, but for more strength! And this is +the gracious ministry of “The Comforter.”</p> + +<p>Holy Spirit, strengthen me! Transform my frail opinions into firm +convictions, and change my fleeting, dissolving views into abiding +visions!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 310]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE TEMPLE OF THE BODY</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Romans</span> xii. 1-9.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Lord wants my body. He needs its members as ministers of +righteousness. He would work in the world through my brain, and eyes, and +ears, and lips, and hands, and feet.</p> + +<p>And the Lord wants my body as “<em>a living</em> sacrifice.” He asks for it when +it is thoroughly alive! We so often deny the Lord our bodies until they +are infirm and sickly, and sometimes we do not offer them to Him until +they are quite “worn out.” It is infinitely better to offer them even then +than never to offer them at all. But it is best of all to offer our bodies +to our Lord when they are strong, and vigorous, and serviceable, and when +they can be used in the strenuous places of the field.</p> + +<p>And so let me appoint a daily consecration service, and let me every +morning present my body “a living sacrifice” unto God. Let me regard it as +a most holy possession, and let me keep it clean. Let me recoil from all +abuse of it—from all gluttony, and intemperance, and “riotous living.” +Let me look upon my body as a church, and let the service of consecration +continue all day long. “Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of +the Holy Spirit?”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 311]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>PEACE IN TRIBULATION</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xvi. 25-33.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is a strange medley of experiences! I am to enjoy the gift of peace, +and yet I am to be smarting under tribulation!</p> + +<p>When the Holy Spirit is my guest I am to enjoy the gift of peace. “<em>These +things I said unto you that ye might have peace.</em>” The life of the soul is +to move without jar or discord. It shall be like a quiet engine-house, in +which every wheel co-operates with every other wheel, and there is no +waste or friction in the holy place. “All that is within me” blesses God’s +holy name.</p> + +<p>And yet, while peace reigns within, there may be tribulation without! “<em>In +the world ye shall have tribulation.</em>” Here is a peace which is not broken +by the noise and assault of brutal circumstance. The most tempestuous wind +cannot disturb the quiet serenity of the stars. When the world stones me, +not one grain of its gritty dust need enter the delicate workings of my +soul. That was the peace of my Lord, and it is my Lord who says to me: “My +peace I give unto you!” So “<em>be of good cheer</em>,” my soul! Thy Lord has +“<em>overcome the world</em>,” and thou shalt share His victory.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 312]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>REJECTED LOVE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> lxiii. 7-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>F I refuse the friendship of the Holy One I inevitably invite His +hostility. “<em>But they rebelled, and vexed His holy Spirit: therefore He +was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them.</em>”</p> + +<p>And so, if I reject the forces of grace I do not turn them from my gate, I +convert them into foes. Malachi teaches me that rejected sunshine becomes +like a burning oven. The Epistle to the Hebrews teaches me that rejected +love becomes “a consuming fire.” Holiness nourishes virtue, it withers +vice. If I offer my Lord a tender aspiration, His breath wooes it like the +balmy air of the spring; if I come before Him with the weeds of ignoble +dispositions, He blights them as with the nipping of the frost.</p> + +<p>And is it not well, for thee and me, that our Lord is thus fiercely +hostile to our sins? Is not this “consuming fire” the friend of my soul? +May I not pray: Burn on, burn on, pure flame, until all the refuse and +rubbish of my life are utterly consumed; burn on, burn on, until fierce +flame becomes mild light, flinging its genial radiance over a transfigured +desert?</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 313]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE ORGAN OF SPIRITUAL VISION</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> ii. 9-16.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-o.png" width="79" height="80" alt="O" title="" /> +</div><p>UR finest human instruments fail to obtain for us “<em>the things which God +hath prepared for them that love Him</em>.”</p> + +<p>Art fails! “<em>Eye hath not seen.</em>” The merely artistic vision is blind to +the hidden glories of grace. Philosophy fails! “<em>Neither hath ear heard.</em>” +We may listen to the philosopher as he spins his subtle theories and +weaves his systematic webs, but the meshes he has woven are not fine +enough to catch “the deep things of God.” Poetry fails! “<em>Neither hath it +entered into the heart of man to conceive.</em>” Poetic imagination may +stretch her wings, and soar, but she fails to enter the guest-chamber of +the Lord, and take an inventory of “the things prepared.” All these +gracious ministries fail to reach life’s glorious and purposed end.</p> + +<p>“<em>But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.</em>” When art, and +poetry, and philosophy all pitiably fail, the Spirit unveils to us the +bewildering feast. And so the unlearned has the same ultimate advantage as +the learned, and the cottager has equal privilege with the monarch. The +greatest things are not the perquisites of culture, but the endowments of +humility and holy faith. The poor man has access to the “many mansions,” +and finds a place at the King’s feast.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 314]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE HOLY SPIRIT AS EMANCIPATOR</em></h2> + +<p class="center">2 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> iii. 4-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>N the Holy Spirit I experience a large emancipation. “<em>Where the Spirit +of the Lord is, there is liberty.</em>” I am delivered from all enslaving +bondage—from the bondage of literalism, and legalism, and ritualism. I am +not hampered by excessive harness, by multitudinous rules. The harness is +fitting and congenial, and I have freedom of movement, and “my yoke is +easy and my burden is light.”</p> + +<p>And I am to use my emancipation of spirit in the ministry of +contemplation. I am to “<em>behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord</em>.” +My thought has been set free from the cramping distractions devised by +men, and I am now to feast my gaze upon the holy splendours of my Lord. It +is like coming out of a little and belittling tent, to feast upon the +sunny amplitude of the open sky! I can “cease from man,” and commune with +God.</p> + +<p>And the contemplation will effect a transformation. “<em>We are changed into +the same image from glory to glory.</em>” The serene brightness of the sky +gets into our faces. The Lord becomes “<em>the health of our countenance</em>,” +and we shine with borrowed glory.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 315]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Tenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>NEVERTHELESS!</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> v. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is obedience in spite of the night of failure. “<em>Nevertheless, at Thy +word I will let down the net.</em>” That word “nevertheless” has always made +history. It has been spoken after scourgings, after “bonds and +imprisonments.” Ten thousand times has it been heard in the chamber of +bereavement, the first sound to break the awful silence. “At evening my +wife died.... In the morning I did as God commanded me.” And may it be +true of me! May my “nevertheless” of willing obedience rise like a lark +above the storm.</p> + +<p>And because there was obedience there came vision. In the wonderful answer +to his faith Peter beheld the glory of his Lord. And so I never know where +the unenticing road of obedience will lead me. At the end of the dull road +there will be some gracious surprise! It is the rugged path which leads to +the summit! The panorama comes as the reward of the toilsome climb! +Always, in the realm of the Spirit, the dogged “nevertheless” will lead to +the “shining tableland to which our God Himself is moon and sun.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 316]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Eleventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>FOILING THE ENEMY’S PLOTS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> xxii. 24-34.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> DO not meet my tempter alone. The engagement has been foreseen by my +Lord. “<em>Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you!</em>” The tempter’s +plots, and wiles, and ambuscades are all clearly perceived. My Lord has +got the enemy’s maps, and his plan of campaign, for all things are open to +the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. I do not fight a lonely warfare +on a dark and unknown field. My Lord Himself both scouts and fights for +those who are His own.</p> + +<p>And one great means of His co-operation is the mighty ministry of +intercession. “<em>But I have prayed for thee.</em>” That “but” is the massing of +the forces of heaven against the black and subtle hordes of hell. Let me +ever remember that the Lord’s prayers are always the conveyers of holy +power to those for whom He prays. It is as when Christian met Apollyon in +the Valley of Humiliation: there comes a sudden accession of strength to +the bleeding warrior, and Apollyon retires wounded and beaten from the +field.</p> + +<p>And the only way to preserve the fruits of a triumph is by helping other +warriors to gain a similar conquest. “<em>When thou art converted strengthen +thy brethren.</em>” I shall retain the hard, muscular limbs of a soldier if I +am willing to share my blood with the entire army.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 317]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Twelfth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE FASHIONING OF A DENIAL</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> xxii. 54-62.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-f.png" width="80" height="80" alt="F" title="" /> +</div><p>ROM Peter’s denial I would learn the peril of the first cowardly +surrender to sin. Surely Peter must have “trimmed” many times in the days +which preceded his actual discipleship. Great crises do not make men, they +reveal them. The men have been made in the smaller issues which go before. +We march to our crises by a gradient, every step of which is a moral +decision. The interior of the tree is secretly eaten away by white ants; +the tempest reveals and completes the destruction.</p> + +<p>And I would learn from Peter’s denial the cumulative power of sins. One +sin widens the road for a bigger one to follow. The second denial will be +more vehement than the first. The third will add the element of blasphemy. +Yes, every sin is a miner and sapper for a larger army in the rear. It not +only does its own work, it prepares the way for its successor.</p> + +<p>But I will connect this “dark betrayal night” with that sweet +after-morning when the Lord and His denier met face to face by the lake. +And that sweet morning of reconciliation is a possible experience for all +the deniers of the Lord, and it is therefore possible for thee and me.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 318]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Thirteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>A TRANSFORMED FISHERMAN</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">John</span> xxi. 1-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-s.png" width="80" height="80" alt="S" title="" /> +</div><p>IMON PETER had often gone a fishing, but never had he gone as he went in +the twilight of that most wonderful evening. He handled the ropes in a new +style, with a new dignity born of the bigger capacity of his own soul. He +turned to the familiar task, but with a quite unfamiliar spirit. He went a +fishing, but the power of the resurrection went with him.</p> + +<p>This action of Simon Peter’s is the only true test of the reality of any +spiritual experience. How does it fit me for ordinary affairs? A spiritual +festival should do for the soul what a day on the hills does for the +body—equip it for the better doing of the duties in the vale.</p> + +<p>This action is also a preparative to a renewal of the gracious experience. +The road of common duty was just the way appointed for another meeting +with his Lord, for in the morning-light there came a voice across the +waters: “Children, have ye any meat?” “And that disciple whom Jesus loved +saith unto Peter: ‘It is the Lord.’”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 319]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Fourteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE PURIFICATION OF LOVE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xxi. 15-25.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>OVEST thou Me?” There was a day, only a little while back, when Simon +Peter’s love was not yet purified, and it indulged itself in loud and +empty boasts. True love never blusters and brawls. It is like a stream of +water flowing silently underground, and secretly bathing the roots of +things, and keeping their heads fresh, and cool, and sweet. The boast has +now dropped out of the love! It is now ashamed of words! “Lord, Thou +knowest that I love Thee!”</p> + +<p>Yes, true love expresses itself, not in clamorous boastfulness, but in +quiet services. It ministers to the Lord’s sheep and the Lord’s lambs. It +spends its strength on the mountains, “seeking that which is lost,” and it +does this in the darkness, where there is no applauding crowd. The true +lover does not ask for some dramatic scene where he can die for the +beloved; he delights in obscure services, the feeding and tending of the +sheep of the flock.</p> + +<p>But the love that does the humbler thing will be ready for the greater +sacrifice whenever the day shall demand it. Some day the once boastful +denier shall lay down his life for his Saviour, and through martyrdom he +shall pass to his crown.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 320]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Fifteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE MUSIC OF RECONCILIATION</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lxxxv.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me listen to this psalm of reconciliation, as it makes music for my +soul to-day.</p> + +<p>It tells me of the Divine favour. “<em>Lord, Thou hast been favourable to Thy +land.</em>” As I write these words, the sun has just slipped out from behind +the cloud. It has been there all the time, but the ministry of the cloud +was needed, and so it appeared as though there would be sun and spring no +more. “Behind a frowning Providence He hides a smiling face.”</p> + +<p>And it tells me of the Divine forgiveness. “<em>Thou hast forgiven the +iniquity of Thy people.</em>” Yes, when the sun appears, He loosens the frozen +earth and streams, and turns the bondage into liberty. The soul that was +imprisoned in freezing guilt attains a joyous freedom.</p> + +<p>And it tells me of revival. “<em>Wilt Thou not revive us again?</em>” It is the +next step in the returning spring. The sleeping, benumbed things will all +awake! “The flowers appear on the earth.” Where grace reigns, graces +spring! Forgiveness is attended by renewal, and the wilderness begins to +“blossom like the rose.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 321]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Sixteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE MAKING OF A BRAVE MAN</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Acts</span> iv. 13-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>ERE is a marvellous transformation! I have been wondering at the +littleness of the denier, and now this same denier is making the world +wonder by his majestic boldness! His one resource is now the risen Christ, +and his one moral standard is “whether it be right!” Once he quailed +before an accusing maid; now he stands undaunted before the rulers of the +earth. How has it all come about?</p> + +<p>He has been to the empty tomb. The awe of the resurrection is upon his +spirit. Through the once blind cul-de-sac of the grave he has seen the +King and the great white throne.</p> + +<p>And he has been by the lake on the morning of reconciliation. The live +coal from the altar of his Lord’s love has touched him and has purged away +the uncleanness of his denial.</p> + +<p>And he has been in the upper room at Pentecost, and the mighty Spirit has +come upon him like wind and flame, endowing him with forceful and +enthusiastic character. Now he can dare for God, now he can work for God, +now he can burn for God! And this is how he has been transformed.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 322]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Seventeenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>IF GOD BE FOR US——!</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Romans</span> viii. 31-39.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HO else is worth naming? How much does anybody count? If the sun be on my +side, why should I be dismayed at any icy obstacle that may rear itself in +my way? Sun <em>versus</em> ice! God <em>versus</em> my impediments! Why should I fear? +If the atmosphere is on my side, then even the opposing strength of iron +will rust away into powder. “The breath of the Lord bloweth upon it,” and +if the holy breath, God’s Holy Spirit, is for us, then the apparently +invincible obstacle will crumble away into dust.</p> + +<p>But we are deceived by mass, and we are forgetful of spirit. Mere size +affrights us. We are dismayed by numbers. We forget the quiet, pervasive, +all-powerful ministry of the Spirit of God. We are overwhelmed by the +phenomena of tempest and earthquake and fire, and we forget that +almightiness hides in the “still, small voice,” in “the sound of a gentle +stillness.” God’s breath is more than the fierce threatenings of embattled +hosts. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” I will hide myself in +His holy fellowship, and “none shall make me afraid.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 323]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Eighteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>EXHILARANT SPIRITS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xviii. 31-39.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> THINK of Wordsworth’s lines, in which he describes a natural lady, made +by Nature herself:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“She shall be sportive as the fawn<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">That wild with glee across the lawn<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or up the mountain springs.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And it is this buoyancy, this elasticity, this springiness that the Lord +is waiting to impart to the souls of His children, so that they may move +along the ways of life with the light steps of the fawn.</p> + +<p>Some of us move with very heavy feet. There is little of the fawn about us +as we go along the road. There is reluctance in our obedience. There is a +frown in our homage. Our benevolence is graceless, and there is no charm +in our piety, and no rapture in our praise. We are the victims of “the +spirit of heaviness.” And yet here is the word which tells us that God +will make our feet “like hinds’ feet.” He will give us exhilaration and +spring, enabling us to leap over difficulties, and to have strength and +buoyancy for the steepest hills. Let us seek the inspiration of the Lord. +“It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 324]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Nineteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE ARMOUR OF GOD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ephesians</span> vi. 10-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE Word describes the armour, and it directs us to the armoury. The +description would oppress me if the directions were absent. If I have to +forge the armour for myself I should be in despair. But I can go to the +armoury of grace, where there is an ever-open door and abundant welcome +for every person who fain would be a knight-errant of the Lord. The Lord +will provide me with perfect equipment suitable for every kind of contest +which may meet me along the road. There are no favourites among the +pilgrims except, perhaps, the neediest, and to them is given “more +abundant honour.”</p> + +<p>Sometimes one of the Lord’s knights loses one piece of armour, and he must +at once repair to the armoury. Perhaps he has lost his helmet, or his +shield, or even his breastplate, and the enemy has discovered his +vulnerable place. We must never continue our journey imperfectly armed. +The evil one will ignore the pieces we have, and he will direct all his +attack where there is no defence. Back to the armoury! Back to the +armoury, that we may “put on the <em>whole</em> armour of God.” The Lord is +waiting; let us humbly and penitently ask for the missing piece.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 325]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Twentieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE REAL ARISTOCRACY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Abraham, my friend.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xli. 8-16.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> THINK that is the noblest title ever given to mortal man. It is the +speech of the Lord God concerning one of His children. It is something to +be coveted even to enjoy the friendship of a noble man; but to have the +friendship of God, and to have the holy God name us as His friends, is +surely the brightest jewel that can ever shine in a mortal’s crown. And +such recognition and such glory may be the wonderful lot of thee and me.</p> + +<p>“Abraham, my friend.” The Lord of hosts found delight in human +friendships. He comes in to sup with us. He drinks of the cup of our +delights. For, surely, it is one of the supreme characteristics of true +friendship that it rejoices at the other’s joy. And my heavenly Friend is +glad in my gladness as well as sympathetic in the day of sadness and +tears. Yes, He comes in to sup with me, and I may sup with Him.</p> + +<p>“Abraham, my friend.” And He shares His sweets with His friend, in inward +counsels, and in tender revelations of His purposes and in the gifts of +joy and peace. There is perfect openness between these friends; nothing is +hid. They have the run of each other’s hearts.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I tell Him all my joys and fears,<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">And He reveals His love to me.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 326]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Twenty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE EARLY BUILDERS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Kings</span> viii. 1-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>T is always a healthy means of grace to link my own accomplishments with +the fidelity and achievements of the past. Solomon traced his finished +Temple to the holy purpose in the heart of David his father. I lay the +coping-stone, but who turned the first sod? I lead the water into new +ministries, but who first dug the well?</p> + +<p>There is the temple of liberty. In our own day we are enriching it with +most benignant legislation, but we must not forget our dauntless fathers, +in whose blood the foundations were laid. When I am walking about in the +finished structure, let me remember the daring architects who “did well” +to have it in their hearts.</p> + +<p>Such retrospect will make me humble. It will save me from the isolation +and impotence of foolish pride. It will confirm me in human fellowship by +showing me how many springs I have in my fellow-men.</p> + +<p>And such retrospect will make me grateful to my God. Noble outlooks always +engender the spirit of praise. The fine air of wide spaces quickens the +soul to a song.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 327]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Twenty-second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>RECOVERING LOST STRENGTH</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Kings</span> viii. 22-36.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>N this portion of this great prayer I discern the unalterable mode in +which nations and individuals recover their moral health and strength.</p> + +<p>How do they lose it? Two words tell the story. They “<em>sin</em>” and are +“<em>smitten</em>.” It is an inevitable sequence. Every sin is the minister of +disease. Sometimes we can see it, when the disease flaunts its flags in +the flesh; lust and drunkenness have glaring placards, and we know what is +going on within. But even when sin makes no visible mark the wasting +process is at work. It is as true of falsehood as of drunkenness, of +treachery as of lust. “Evil shall slay the wicked.”</p> + +<p>And how do we recover our lost estate? There are three words which tell +the story. “<em>Turn!</em>” “<em>Confess!</em>” “<em>Make supplication!</em>” The words need no +exposition. I must turn my face to my despised and neglected Lord; I must +tell them all about my miserable revolt, and I must humbly crave for His +restoring grace.</p> + +<p>And the answer is sure. Such humble exercise sets the joy-bells ringing, +and the rich forgiveness of the Lord fills the soul with peace. “O taste +and see how gracious the Lord is.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 328]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Twenty-third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE STRANGER</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Kings</span> viii. 37-53.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-y.png" width="81" height="80" alt="Y" title="" /> +</div><p>ES, indeed, what space has “the stranger” in my supplications? Has he any +place at all? Are my intercessions private enclosures, intended only for +the select among my friends? Do I ever open the door to anyone outside my +family circle? Are my ecclesiastical sympathies large enough to include +“outsiders” from afar? What do I do with “the stranger”?</p> + +<p>There is nothing which keeps prayer sweet and fresh and wholesome like the +letting in of “the stranger”! To let a new guest sit down at the feast of +my intercession is to give my own soul a most nutritious surprise. It is a +most healthy spiritual habit to see to it that we bring in a new +“stranger” every time we pray. Let me be continually enlarging the circle +of hospitality! Let some new and weary bird find a resting-place in the +branches of my supplications every time I hold communication with God.</p> + +<p>A prayer which has no room for “the stranger” can have little or no room +for God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 329]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Twenty-fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE PRAYER WHICH ENDS IN SACRIFICE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Kings</span> viii. 54-66.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND that is the healthy order of all true worship. It begins in spacious +supplication in which “the stranger” finds a place. Then there is a lavish +consecration of self and substance. And then the wedding-bells begin to +ring, and “the joy of the Lord is our strength!” “<em>They went unto their +tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had +done.</em>”</p> + +<p>But so many suppliants miss the middle term, and therefore the gladness is +wanting. Supplication is not followed by consecration, and therefore there +is no exultation. It is a fatal omission. When we are asking for “the gift +of God” our request must be accompanied by the gift of ourselves to God. +If we want the water we must offer the vessel. No gift of self, no bounty +of God! No losing, no finding! “When the burnt offering began, the song of +the Lord began.”</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Take my life, and let it be<br /></span> +<span class="i1a">Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 330]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Twenty-fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>AFTER THE PRAYER THE FIRE!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>When Solomon had made an end of praying the fire<br /> came down from +heaven.</em>”<br />—2 <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span> vii. 1-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND the fire is the symbol of the Holy God. Pure flame is our imperfect +mode of expressing the Incorruptible. This burning flame is heat and light +in one. And when Solomon had prayed, the holy Flame was in their midst.</p> + +<p>But not only is the flame the symbol of the Holy; it also typifies the +power which can make me holy. We have no cleansing minister to compare +with fire. Where water fails fire succeeds. After an epidemic water is +comparatively impotent. We commit the infested garments to the flames. It +was the great fire of London which delivered London from the tyranny of +the plague. And so it is with my soul. God, who is holy flame, will burn +out the germs of my sin. He will “purify Jerusalem with the spirit of +burning.” “Our God is a consuming fire.”</p> + +<p>Come to my soul, O holy Flame! Place Thy “burning bliss” against my +wickedness, and consume it utterly away!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 331]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Twenty-sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>UNCONSECRATED SOULS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>This house which I have sanctified will I cast out of my sight,<br /> +and will make it a proverb and a by-word among all nations.</em>”<br /> +—2 <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span> vii. 12-22.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND thus am I taught that consecrated houses are nothing without +consecrated souls. It is not the mode of worship, but the spirit of the +worshipper which forms the test of a consecrated people. If the worshipper +is defiled his temple becomes an offence. When the kernel is rotten, and I +offer the husk to God, the offering is a double insult to His most holy +name.</p> + +<p>And yet, how tempted I am to assume that God will be pleased with the mere +outsides of things, with words instead of aspiration, with postures +instead of dispositions, with the letter instead of the spirit, with an +ornate and costly temple instead of a sweet and lowly life! Day by day I +am tempted to treat the Almighty as though He were a child! Nay, the Bible +uses a more awful word; it says men treat the Lord as though He were a +fool!</p> + +<p>From all such irreverence and frivolity, good Lord, deliver me! Let me +ever remember that Thou “desirest truth in the <em>inward</em> man.” “In the +hidden parts” help me “to know wisdom.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 332]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Twenty-seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE VALUE OF REVERENCE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Romans</span> xiii. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HEN I pay honour to honourable ministers I not only honour my God, but I +enrich and refine my own soul. One of the great secrets of spiritual +culture is to know how to revere. There is an uncouth spirit of +self-aggression which, while it wounds and impoverishes others, destroys +its finest spiritual furniture in its own ungodly heat. The man who never +bows will never soar. To pay homage where homage is due is one of the +exercises which will help to keep us near “the great white throne.”</p> + +<p>I know my peril, for I recognize one of the prevalent perils of our time. +Some of the old courtesies are being discarded as though they belonged to +a younger day. Some of the old tokens of respect have been banished to the +limbo of rejected ritual. Dignitaries are jostled in the common crowd. +“One man is as good as another!” And so there is a tendency to strip life +of all its reverences, and venerable fanes become stables for unclean +things.</p> + +<p>My soul, come thou not into this shame! Move in the ways of life with +softened tread, and pay thy respect at every shrine where dwells the grace +and power of God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 333]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Twenty-eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>HOW TO FIGHT EVIL</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Overcome evil with good.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Romans</span> xii. 9-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-f.png" width="80" height="80" alt="F" title="" /> +</div><p>OR how else can we cast out evil? Satan cannot cast out Satan. No one can +clean a room with a filthy duster. The surgeon cannot cut out the disease +if his instruments are defiled. While he removed one ill-growth he would +sow the seed of another. It must be health which fights disease. It will +demand a good temper to overcome the bad temper in my brother.</p> + +<p>And therefore I must cultivate a virtue if I would eradicate a vice. That +applies to the state of my own soul. If there be some immoral habit in my +life, the best way to destroy it is by cultivating a good one. Take the +mind away from the evil one. Deprive it of thought-food. Give the thought +to the nobler mood, and the ignoble mood will die. And this also applies +to the faults and vices of my brother. I must fight them with their +opposites. If he is harsh and cruel, I must be considerate and gentle. If +he is grasping, I must be generous. If he is loud and presumptuous, I must +be soft-mannered and self-restrained. If he is devilish, I must be a +Christian. This is the warfare which tells upon the empire of sin. I can +overcome evil with good.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 334]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Twenty-ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>TRANSFORMING OUR FOES</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> v. 38-48.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>OVE your enemies.”</p> + +<p>It must be the aim of a Christian to make his enemy lovely. It is not my +supreme business to secure my safety, but to remove his ugliness. He may +only annoy me, but he is destroying himself. He may injure my reputation; +but far worse, he is blighting his own character. Therefore must I seek to +remove the greater thing, the corrosive malady in his own soul. I must +make it my purpose to recover his loveliness, and restore the lost +likeness of the Lord.</p> + +<p>And only love can make things lovely. Revenge can never do it. Even duty +will fail in the gracious work. There is a final touch, a consummate +bloom, to which duty can never attain, and which is only attainable by +love. All love’s ministries are creative of loveliness. Wherever her +finger rests, something exquisite is born. Love is a great magician: she +transforms the desert into a garden, and she makes the wilderness blossom +like the rose.</p> + +<p>But where shall we get the love wherewith to make our enemy lovely? From +the great Lover Himself. “We love, because He first loved us.” The great +Lover will love love into us! And we, too, shall become fountains of love, +for our Lord will open “rivers in the high places, and fountains in the +midst of the valleys.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 335]</span></p> +<h2>NOVEMBER The Thirtieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SPRING AND THE RIVER</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>With the Lord there is mercy.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxxx.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT is the ultimate spring. All the pilgrims of the night may meet at +that fountain. We have no other common meeting-place. If we make any other +appointment we shall lose one another on the way. But we can meet one +another at the fountain, men of all colours, and of all denominations, and +of all creeds. “By Thy mercy, O deliver us, good Lord!”</p> + +<p>“<em>There is forgiveness with Thee.</em>” That is the quickening river. Sin and +guilt scorch the fair garden of the soul as the lightning withers and +destroys the strong and beautiful things in woodland and field. The graces +are stricken, holy qualities are smitten, and the soul languishes like a +blasted heath. But from the fountain of God’s mercy there flows the +vitalizing stream of His forgiveness. “There is a river the streams +whereof shall make glad the city of God.” It is the mystic “river of life, +clear as crystal.” “Everything shall live whither the river cometh.”</p> + +<p>“<em>With Him is plenteous redemption.</em>” Salvation is not merely a recovered +flower, it is a recovered garden. It is not the restoring merely of a +withered hand; “He restoreth my soul.” God does not make an oasis in a +surrounding desert; He makes the entire wilderness to “rejoice and blossom +as the rose.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 336]</span><a name="DEC" id="DEC"></a></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The First</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>A FAITHFUL FRIEND</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Proverbs</span> xxvii. 1-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p><em> FAITHFUL friend is a strong defence.</em>”</p> + +<p>He is a gift of God, and therefore a “means of grace.” The Lord’s seal is +upon his ministry. How we impoverish ourselves by separating these +precious gifts from their Giver? We desecrate many a fair shrine by +emptying it of God. We turn many a temple into just a common house. When +we think of our friend let us link him to our Father, and fall upon our +knees in grateful praise.</p> + +<p>He is God’s minister in his encouragements. When he cheers me, it is “the +Sun of righteousness who rises with healing in His wings.” All radiant +words are just lamps for “the light of life.” All genial speech carries +flame from the altar fire of heaven.</p> + +<p>And he is God’s minister in his reproofs. He uses a clean knife: there is +no poison on the blade. And when he does surgeon’s work upon me, it is +clean work, healthy work, the relentless enemy of disease. Some men cut +me, and the wound festers. There is malice in the deed. My friend wounds +me in order that he may give me a larger, sweeter life.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 337]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LORD AS A FRIEND</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> xv. 8-17.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-y.png" width="81" height="80" alt="Y" title="" /> +</div><p>E are my friends!”</p> + +<p>In my Lord’s friendship there is <em>the ministry of sacrifice</em>. “Greater +love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” +This great Friend is always giving His blood. It is a lasting shame when +professed Christians are afflicted with spiritual anæmia. And yet we are +often so fearful, so white-faced, so chicken-hearted, so averse from +battle, that no one would think us to be “the soldiers of the Lord.” We +need blood. “Except ye drink my blood ye have no life.”</p> + +<p>And in my Lord’s friendship there is the <em>privilege of most intimate +communion</em>.</p> + +<p>“All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” He +takes us into His confidence, and tells us His secrets. It is His delight +to lift the veil, and give us constant surprises of love and grace. He +discovers flowers in desert places, and in the gloom He unbosoms “the +treasures of darkness.” He is a Friend of inexhaustible resource, and His +companionship makes the pilgrim’s way teem with interest, and abound in +the wonders of redeeming grace.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 338]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>ARMS AND THE MAN!</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Thessalonians</span> v. 4-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT wonderful armour is offered to me in which to meet the insidious +assaults of the devil!</p> + +<p>There is “<em>the armour of light</em>.” Sunlight is the most sanative energy we +know. It is the foe of many a deadly microbe which seeks a lodging in our +bodies. Light is a splendid armour, even in the realm of the flesh. And so +it is in the soul. If the soul is a home of light, the eternal light, evil +germs will die as soon as they approach us. They will find nothing to +breed on. “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”</p> + +<p>And there is the armour of “<em>faith and love</em>.” The opposite to faith is +uncertainty, and the opposite to love is cynicism, and who does not know +that uncertainty and cynicism are the very hotbeds for the machinations of +the evil one? When faith is enthroned the soul is open to the reception of +grace, and when love shares the throne the sovereignty is invincible.</p> + +<p>And there is the armour of “<em>hope</em>.” Even in a physical ailment a man has +a mighty ally who wrestles in hope. And when a man’s hope is in the Lord +his God all the powers in the heavenly places are his allies, and by his +hope he shall be saved.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 339]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CHILDREN OF LIGHT</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Thessalonians</span> v. 5-11.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/img-c.png" width="78" height="80" alt="C" title="" /> +</div> +<p>AN we think of a more beautiful figure than this—“<em>children of light</em>”? +As I write these words I look out upon a building every window of which is +ablaze with light, every room the home of attractive brightness. And my +life is to be like that! And I look again and I see a lighthouse sending +out its strong, pure, friendly beams to guide the mariner as he seeks his +“desired haven.” And my life is to be like that! And I look once more, and +I see a common road lamp, sending its useful light upon the busy street, +helping the wayfarer as he goes from place to place. And my life is to be +like that!</p> + +<p>And if my soul is all lit up in friendly radiance for others, the light +will be my own defence. Light always scares away the vermin. Lift up a +stone in the meadow, let in the light, and see how a hundred secret things +will scurry away. And light in the soul scares away “the unfruitful works +of darkness”; they cannot dwell with the light. Light repels the evil one; +it acts upon him like burning flame. Yes, we are well protected when we +are clothed in “the armour of light.”</p> + +<p>But how can we become “children of light,” holy homes of protective and +saving radiance? Happily, it is not our lot to provide the light, it is +ours to provide the lamp. If we offer the lamp the Lord will give the +flame.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 340]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SECOND-BEST FOR GOD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span> xvii. 1-15.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-s.png" width="80" height="80" alt="S" title="" /> +</div> +<p>O the best was for man, and the second-best for God! The cedar for +self-indulgence, and the curtains for the home of worship! It is a marked +sign of spiritual awakening when a man begins to contrast his own +indulgences with the rights of God. There are so many of us who are lavish +in our home and miserly in the sanctuary. We multiply treasures which +bring us little profit, and we are niggardly where treasure would be of +most gracious service.</p> + +<p>“I dwell in a house of cedar,” and yet I am thoughtless about God’s poor! +For I must remember that the poor are the arks of the Lord. “I was naked, +and ye clothed Me not.”</p> + +<p>“I dwell in a house of cedar”; my liberties are many and spacious; and yet +there are tribes of God’s people held in the tyranny of dark and hopeless +servitude. I dwell in England, but what about the folk on the Congo? I +dwell in a land of ample religious freedom, but what about Armenia? Do my +sympathies remain confined within my cedar walls, or do they go out to +God’s neglected ones in every land and clime?</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 341]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE GRACE OF LOWLINESS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span> xvii. 16-27.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div> +<p>T is by such lowliness that we arrive at our true sovereignty. All +spiritual treasures are hidden along the ways of humility, and it is +meekness which discovers them. The uplifted head of pride overlooks them, +and its “finds” are only pleasure of the passing day.</p> + +<p>Lowliness is the secret of spiritual perceptiveness. I find my sight in +lowly places. The Sacred Word speaks of “the <em>valley</em> of vision.” I +usually associate vision and outlook with mountain summits, but in +spiritual realms the very capacity to use the heights is acquired in the +vale.</p> + +<p>Lowliness is the secret of spiritual roominess. It is only the humble man +who has any room for the Lord. All the chambers in the proud man’s soul +are thronged with self-conceits, and God is crowded out. Our Lord always +finds ample room for Himself wherever the heart bows in humility and says: +“I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 342]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CHOSEN AS BUILDERS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Take heed now, for the Lord hath chosen thee to build.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span> xxviii. 1-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND how must he take heed? For it may be that the Lord hath also chosen me +to build, and the counsel given to Solomon may serve me in this later day. +Let me listen.</p> + +<p>“<em>Serve Him with a perfect heart.</em>” God’s chosen builders must be +characterized by singleness and simplicity. He can do nothing with +“double” men, who do things only “by half,” giving one part to Him and the +other part to Mammon. It is like offering the stock of a gun to one man +and the barrel to another; and the effect is nil. No, the entire gun! The +“perfect heart”!</p> + +<p>“<em>And with a willing mind.</em>” For the willing mind is the ready mind, and +God can do nothing with the unready. I never know just when He will call +me to add another stone to the rising walls of the New Jerusalem, and if I +am “otherwise engaged” I am a grievous hindrance to His gracious plans. He +must be willing and ready who would be a builder of the walls of Zion. And +to that man the Lord will entrust the privilege of responsibility.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 343]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>JUDGED BY OUR ASPIRATIONS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Thou didst well, it was in thine heart.</em>”<br /> +—2 <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span> vi. 1-15.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND this was a purpose which the man was not permitted to realize. It was +a temple built in the substance of dreams, but never established in wood +and stone. And God took the shadowy structure and esteemed it as a +perfected pile. The sacred intention was regarded as a finished work. The +will to build a temple was regarded as a temple built. And hence I discern +the preciousness of all hallowed purpose and desire, even though it never +receive actual accomplishment. “Thou didst well, it was in thine heart.”</p> + +<p>And so the will to be, and the will to do, is acceptable sacrifice unto +the Lord! “I wish I could be a missionary to the foreign field,” but the +duties of home forbid. But as a missionary she is accepted of our God, +even though she never land on distant shore. Our purposes work, as well as +the work itself. Desire is full of holy energy as well as fruition. The +wish to do good is good itself; the very longing is a minister in the +kingdom of our God. If, therefore, we are to be judged by our aspirations, +there are multitudes of apparent failures who will one day be revealed as +clothed in the radiance of spiritual victory.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 344]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>NATIONAL BLESSEDNESS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lxxxix. 1-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-b.png" width="79" height="80" alt="B" title="" /> +</div><p>LESSED is the people who love the sound of the silver trumpet which calls +to holy convocation! Blessed is the people who are sacredly impatient for +the hour of holy communion! Blessed is the people “in whose heart are the +highways to Zion.” And in what shall their blessedness consist?</p> + +<p>In illumination. “<em>They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy +countenance.</em>” The favour of the Lord shall shine upon them when they walk +through rough and troublous places. There shall always be a sunny patch +where the soul is in communion with its Lord.</p> + +<p>In exultation. “<em>In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day.</em>” There is +nothing like sunshine for making the spirits dance! Light is a great +emancipator, a great breaker-up of frozen bondages. It thaws “the genial +currents of the soul,” and the stream of life sings in its progress.</p> + +<p>In exaltation. “<em>In Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.</em>” They will +be lifted up above their enemies. In elevation they will find their +safety. God lifts us above our passions, above our cares, above our little +fears and tempers, and we find our peace upon the heights.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 345]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Tenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE ONLY WISE BEGINNING</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxi.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>F I want to do anything wisely I must begin with God. That is the very +alphabet of the matter. Every other beginning is a perverse beginning, and +it will end in sure disaster. “I am Alpha.” Everything must take its rise +in Him, or it will plunge from folly into folly, and culminate in +confusion.</p> + +<p>If I would be wise in my daily business I must begin all my affairs in +God. My career itself must be chosen in His presence, and in the +illumination of His most holy Spirit. And in the subsequent days nothing +must be done that is not rooted and grounded in Him.</p> + +<p>If I would be wise as a teacher I must begin with God. I must not merely +call Him in to bless my lesson when my labour is done. The very beginnings +of my thinkings must be in Him. Our Lord will not write an appendix to a +volume about which He has never been consulted. “They who seek Me <em>early</em> +shall find Me.” And so it is with the varied activities of our +multitudinous life. If we would have them shine with quiet wisdom we must +light them at the Sun of glory.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 346]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Eleventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SPEECH OF THE INCARNATION</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He hath spoken to us in His Son.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Hebrews</span> i.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND that blessed Son spake my language. He came into my troubled +conditions and expressed Himself out of my humble lot. My surroundings +afforded Him a language in which He made known His good news. The +carpenter’s shop, the shepherd on the hill, the ladened vine, a wayside +well, common bread, a friend’s sickness, the desolation of a garden, the +darkness of “the last things”—these all offered Him a mode of speech in +which He unveiled to me the heart of God.</p> + +<p>He came as the Son to make me a son. For I had made myself a slave, and +called my bondage freedom. I wore my badge of servitude with unholy pride. +But when He came and spake to me, my lost inheritance dawned upon my +wondering eyes, and I knew myself to be enslaved. But His was the glorious +mission not only to awake but to emancipate, not only to unveil lost +splendour but to recover it. He came to set us free, “and if the Son shall +make you free ye shall be free indeed.”</p> + +<p>“This my son was lost and is found.” Has that great word been spoken +concerning me in the Father’s home of light? “Lord, I would serve, and be +a son. Dismiss me not, I pray.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 347]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Twelfth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>RELATING EVERYTHING TO GOD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do,<br /> +do all to the glory of God.</em>”<br /> +—1 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> x. 23-33.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so all my days would constitute a vast temple, and life would be a +constant worship. This is surely the science and art of holy living—to +relate everything to the Infinite. When I take my common meal and relate +it to “the glory of God,” the common meal becomes a sacramental feast. +When my labour is joined “unto the Lord,” the sacred wedding turns my +workshop into a church. When I link the country lane to the Saviour, I am +walking in the Garden of Eden, and paradise is restored.</p> + +<p>The fact of the matter is, we never see anything truly until we see it in +the light of the glory of God. Set a dull duty in that light and it shines +like a diamond. Set a bit of drudgery in that light and it becomes +transfigured like the wing of a starling when the sunshine falls upon it. +Everything is seen amiss until we see it in the glory! And, therefore, it +is my wisdom to set everything in that light, and to do all to the glory +of God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 348]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Thirteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE HOLY AND THE PROFANE</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Put difference between the holy and the unholy.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Leviticus</span> x. 1-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE peril of our day is that so many of these differences are growing +faint. The holy merges into the unholy, and we can scarcely see the +dividing line. Black merges into white through manifold shades of grey. +Falsehood slopes into truth through cunning expediences and white lies. +Lust merges into purity through conviviality and geniality and +good-fellowship. So is one thing losing itself in another, and vivid moral +distinctions are being obscured and effaced.</p> + +<p>There is only one way to keep these native contrasts in vivid relief, and +that is by living in the unsullied light of God’s holy presence. “In Thy +light shall we see light.” Things are seen in their true colours only when +we bring them before the great white throne. Fabrics seen in the gas-light +reveal quite other shades when we bring them into the light of day. We +must not make our distinctions in the gas-light of worldly standard and +expediency; we must take them into His presence before whose radiance even +the angels veil their faces, and we shall see things as they are, and we +shall know “the difference between the holy and the profane.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 349]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Fourteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SACRED USE OF LIBERTY</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Take heed lest this liberty of yours becomes a +stumbling-block.</em>”<br />—1 <span class="smcap">Corinthians</span> viii. 8-13.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT is a very solemn warning. My liberty may trip someone into bondage. +If life were an affair of one my liberty might be wholesome; but it is an +affair of many, and my liberty may be destructive to my fellows. I am not +only responsible for my life, but for its influence. When a thing has been +lived there is still the example to deal with. If orange peel be thrown +upon the pavement, that is not the end of the feast. The man who slips +over the peel is a factor in the incident, and my responsibility covers +him.</p> + +<p>I am, therefore, to consider both my deeds and their influence. How does +my life trend when it touches my brother? In what way does he move because +of the impact of my example? Towards liberty or towards license? To the +swamps of transgression or to the fields of holiness? These are +determining questions, and I must not seek to escape or ignore them. My +brother is a vital part of my life. I must never shut him out of my sight. +How is he influenced by my example? “If meat make my brother to stumble, I +will eat no flesh while the world standeth.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 350]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Fifteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>WHAT IS MY TENDENCY?</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Whether we live, we live unto</em>....”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Romans</span> xiv. 7-21.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-u.png" width="81" height="80" alt="U" title="" /> +</div><p>NTO what? In what direction are we living? Whither are we going? How do +we complete the sentence? “We live unto <em>money</em>!” That is how many would +be compelled to finish the record. Money is their goal, and their goal +determines their tendency. “We live unto <em>pleasure</em>!” Such would be +another popular company. “We live unto <em>fame</em>!” That would be the banner +of another regiment. “We live unto <em>ease</em>!” Thus would men and women +describe their quests. “Unto” what? That is the searching question which +probes life to its innermost desire.</p> + +<p>“For whether we live, we live <em>unto the Lord</em>.” That was the apostle’s +unfailing tendency, increasing in its momentum every day. He crashed +through obstacles in his glorious quest. He sought the Lord through +everything and in everything. When new circumstances confronted him, his +first question was this—“Where is Christ in all this?” He found the right +way across every trackless moor by simply seeking Christ.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 351]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Sixteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page direction" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE GREATEST WONDERS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Hebrews</span> xi. 30-40.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE greatest wonders are not in Nature but in grace. A regenerated soul is +a greater marvel than the marvel of the spring-time. A transfigured face +is a deeper mystery than a sun-lit garden. To rear graces in a life once +scorched and blasted by sin is more wonderful than to grow flowers on a +cinder-heap. If we want to see the realm of surpassing wonders we must +look into a soul that has been born again and is now in vital union with +the living Christ. Even the angels watch the sight with ever-deepening awe +and praise.</p> + +<p>As the spiritual is the home of wonders, so also is it the field of +brightest exploits. It is not what men have done by the sword that counts +in the esteem of heaven—such deeds mean little or nothing; it is what +they have done “by faith.” Weak, frail men and women have put their faith +in God, and have done the impossible! Faith unites the weakling with +almightiness! Faith makes a lonely soul one with “the spirits of just men +made perfect,” and with them he shares “the power and the glory” of the +eternal God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 352]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Seventeenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page direction" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>GOD’S PRESENCE OUR DEFENCE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Exodus</span> xv. 11-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-w.png" width="80" height="80" alt="W" title="" /> +</div><p>HEN we invent little devices to protect us against the evil one, he +laughs at our petty presumption. It is like unto a child erecting sand +ramparts against an incoming sea. The only thing that makes the devil fear +is the presence of God. Our money can do nothing. Our culture can do +nothing. Our social status can do nothing. Only God can deal with devils. +“By the greatness of Thine arm they shall be still as a stone.” When Thou +art with me “I will fear no evil”; the fear shall be with my foes.</p> + +<p>It is, therefore, the divine in anything which endows it with a strong +defence. If the holy God dwells in our culture, then our culture becomes +like an invulnerable fort. If God abides in our recreations, then our very +sports are armed against our foes. If “the joy of the Lord” is in our +festivity, then our very merriment is proof against the invasion of the +world. When the Lord is in us, fear dwells in the opposite camp. +“Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed, and though the +mountains be shaken in the heart of the seas.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 353]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Eighteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SINNER’S GUEST</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>He is gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Luke</span> xix. 1-10.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>T was hurled as an accusation; it has been treasured as a garland. It was +first said in contempt; it is repeated in adoration. It was thought to +reveal His earthliness; it is now seen to unveil His glory. Our Saviour +seeks the home of the sinner. The Best desires to be the guest of the +worst. He spreads His kindnesses for the outcasts, and He offers His +friendship to the exile on the loneliest road. He waits to befriend the +defeated, the poor folk with aching consciences and broken wills. He loves +to go to souls that have lost their power of flight, like birds with +broken wings, which can only flutter in the unclean road. He went to +Zacchæus.</p> + +<p>Yes, the Lord went to be “guest with a man that is a sinner,” and He +changed the sinner into a saint. The worldling found wings. The stone +became flesh. Gentle emotions began to stir in a heart hardened by +heedlessness and sin. Restitution took the place of greed. The home of the +sinner became the temple of the Lord. “To-day is salvation come to this +house forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 354]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Nineteenth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>A light to lighten the Gentiles.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Luke</span> ii. 25-40.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HAT was the wonder of wonders. Hitherto the light had been supposed to be +for Israel alone; and now a heavenly splendour was to fall upon the +Gentiles. Hitherto the light had been thought of as a lamp, illuming a +single place; now it was to be a sun, shedding its glory upon a world. The +“people that sat in darkness” are now to see “a great light.” New regions +are to be occupied; there is to be daybreak everywhere! “The Sun of +Righteousness is arisen, with healing in His wings.”</p> + +<p>“To lighten the Gentiles!” And thus the heavenly beams have come to thee +and me, to Europe and America, and to all the nations of the earth. The +amazing privilege is our personal inheritance. We are born to glorious +rights in Christ Jesus. But a wealthy heir may neglect this inheritance. +We may have the light and neglect our garden. We may have all the favours +of a blessed clime, and yet our life may be like a wilderness. The +Gentiles may have the light, and may yet be children of the darkness. It +is ours to believe in the light that our lives may become “light in the +Lord.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 355]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Twentieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE COMING OF THE LORD</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> i. 1-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 81px;"> +<img src="images/img-m.png" width="81" height="80" alt="M" title="" /> +</div><p>Y Lord came as “<em>the word</em>.” He came as the expression of the mind of the +eternal God. Ordinary words could not have carried the “good news.” +Ordinary language was an altogether inadequate vessel for this new wine. +And so the mighty news was spoken in the incarnation of the Lord.</p> + +<p>My Lord came as “life.” “<em>In Him was life.</em>” But not a mere cupful of +life, or even a cup running over. He came as “the fountain of life.” Nay, +if I had the requisite word I must get even behind and beyond this. For He +was the Creator of fountains. “The water that I shall give him shall be +<em>in him a well</em>.” Yes, He was the fountain of fountains!</p> + +<p>The Lord came as “light.” “<em>The life was the light.</em>” True light is always +the child of life. Our clearest light comes not from speech or doctrine, +still less does it emerge from controversy. It is the fine, subtle issue +of fine living. And my light is to “shine before men” by reason of the +indwelling life of the Christ.</p> + +<p>And my Lord came as “power.” “<em>To them gave He power.</em>” All the power I +need for a full, holy, healthy life I can find in Him. Every obligation +has its corresponding inspiration, and I am competent to do His will.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 356]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Twenty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LORD OF WORKING MEN</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> ii. 8-20.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so the good news was told to shepherds, to working men who were +toiling in the fields. The coming King would hallow the common work of +man, and in His love and grace all the problems of labour would find a +solution.</p> + +<p>The Lord of the Christmas-tide throws a halo over common toil. Even +Christian people have not all learnt the significance of the angels’ visit +to the lonely shepherds. Some of us can see the light resting upon a +bishop’s crosier, but we cannot see the radiance on the ordinary +shepherd’s staff. We can discern the hallowedness of a priest’s vocation, +but we see no sanctity in the calling of the grocer, or of the scavenger +in the street. We can see the nimbus on the few, but not on the crowd; on +the unusual, but not upon the commonplace. But the very birth-hour of +Christianity irradiated the humble doings of humble people. When the +angels went to the shepherds, common work was encircled with an immortal +crown.</p> + +<p>And it is in the Lord Jesus that all labour troubles are to be put to +rest. If we work from any other centre we shall arrive at confusion +confounded. “I have the keys.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 357]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Twenty-second</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LORD OF THE WORSHIPPER</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> ii. 25-35.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so the good news was taken to the worshipper bowing within the gates +of the Temple. The soul of old Simeon was filled with holy satisfaction +and peace. The cravings of the heart were quieted, and its desires found +the coveted feast in the holy Child of God.</p> + +<p>And thus the Lord Jesus was not only to dignify the body but to gratify +the soul. He was to be most efficient where He was most needed. And this +has been the unfailing experience of the years. There is a hunger in my +soul for which I can find no satisfying bread. I have tried many breads; I +have tried nature, and art, and music, and literature, and I have tried +human fellowship and social service. But my soul is hungry still! And the +Lord Jesus comes to me, as I reverently grope in the vast temple, and He +“satisfies the hungry soul” with good things. His “bread of life” is very +wonderful; it lifts the soul into the restfulness of strength, and gives +me a strange buoyancy, and “the glorious liberty of the children of God.”</p> + +<p>“My soul, wait thou only on Him!” He is thy hope, thy strength, and thy +salvation! He is “the desire of all the nations.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 358]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Twenty-third</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LORD OF THE STUDENTS</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Matthew</span> ii. 1-12.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-a.png" width="80" height="80" alt="A" title="" /> +</div><p>ND so the good news came to “wise men,” shall we say to students, busying +themselves with the vast and intricate problems of the mind. And the +evangel offered the students mental satisfaction, bringing the +interpreting clue, beaming upon them with the guiding ray which would lead +them into perfect noon.</p> + +<p>Yes, our wise men must find the key of wisdom in the Lord. In a wider +sense than the meaning of the original word it is true that “the fear of +the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” To seek mental satisfactions and +leave out Jesus is like trying to make a garden and leave out the sun. +“Without Me ye can do nothing,” not even in the unravelling of the +problems which beset and besiege the mind.</p> + +<p>If my mental pilgrimage is to be as “a shining light shining more and more +even unto perfect day,” I must begin with Jesus, and pay homage to His +Kingly and incomparable glory. I must lay my treasures at His feet, “gold, +and frankincense, and myrrh.” Then will He lead me “into all truth,” and +“the truth shall make me free.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 359]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Twenty-fourth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>ENTERING IN AT LOWLY DOORS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Unto us a Child is born.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> ix. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-h.png" width="80" height="80" alt="H" title="" /> +</div><p>OW gentle the coming! Who would have had sufficient daring of imagination +to conceive that God Almighty would have appeared among men as a little +child? We should have conceived something sensational, phenomenal, +catastrophic, appalling! The most awful of the natural elements would have +formed His retinue, and men would be chilled and frozen with fear. But He +came as a little child. The great God “emptied Himself”; He let in the +light as our eyes were able to bear it.</p> + +<p>“<em>Unto us a Son is given.</em>” And that is the superlative gift! The love +that bestows such gift is all-complete and gracious. And the Son is given +in order that we may all be born into sonship. It is the Son’s ministry to +make sons. “Now are we the sons of God,” and we are of His creation.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Lord, I would serve, and be a son;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dismiss me not, I pray.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 360]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Twenty-fifth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>CHRISTMAS CHEER</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Good will toward men!</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Luke</span> ii. 8-20.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-t.png" width="80" height="80" alt="T" title="" /> +</div><p>HE heavens are not filled with hostility. The sky does not express a +frown. When I look up I do not contemplate a face of brass, but the face +of infinite good will. Yet when I was a child, many a picture has made me +think of God as suspicious, inhumanly watchful, always looking round the +corner to catch me at the fall. That “eye,” placed in the sky of many a +picture, and placed there to represent God, filled my heart with a +chilling fear. That God was to me a magnified policeman, watching for +wrong-doers, and ever ready for the infliction of punishment. It was all a +frightful perversion of the gracious teaching of Jesus.</p> + +<p>Heaven overflows with good will toward men! Our God not only wishes good, +He wills it! “He gave His only begotten Son,” as the sacred expression of +His infinite good will. He has good will toward thee and me, and mine and +thine. Let that holy thought make our Christmas cheer.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 361]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Twenty-sixth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>DAYBREAK IN THE SOUL</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> ix. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>T is a lonely and a chilling experience to sit in the darkness. And the +gloom and the cold are all the more intense when there is death in the +house. In such conditions we are in great need of light and fire.</p> + +<p>And that is how the children of men were feeling before the Saviour came. +They “<em>sat in darkness</em>” and in “<em>the shadow of death</em>.” The world was +cold, and sin and death were in it, and they longed for light and cheer. +And “the great Light came,” and His wonderful Presence not only illumines +the house but banishes the fear of sin and death. “<em>They that dwelt in the +land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.</em>”</p> + +<p>Where can we get this living light except in the Lord Jesus Christ? +Everything else is candle-light! It fails us in the midnight. It flickers +amid conflicting currents. It goes out in the rough blast. The light of +art and of literature fails me when I need them most. When I sit in the +darkness, with death in the house, these kindly ministers have no +effective beams. I turn to the Master, and He shines upon me, and it is +daybreak in the soul!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 362]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Twenty-seventh</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE SUNNY SIDE OF THINGS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">John</span> i. 1-7.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> HAVE just come out of a gloomy room into a sunny room to write these +words. I had my choice. I could have stayed in the sombre room, but I +choose to come into the sun-lit room and the warm, cheering beams are even +now falling upon my page. “Walk in the light!” And I make my choice, and +how often I choose to walk without Christ in the unfertilizing and +unfruitful gloom of self-will! In the light of the Lord I could have a +garden of Eden; how often I choose the dingy wilderness where I can grow +neither flowers nor fruits.</p> + +<p>“Walk in the light.” The Lord’s companionship always makes the sunny side +of the street. It may be that the way is rough and stony and difficult, +but in His company there is light that never fails, compared with which +the world’s noontide is only as the gloomiest night. And the souls that +“walk in the light” gather “sacred sweets” all along the way. Heavenly +fruits grow for the children of light, fruits of love and joy and peace, +and the favoured pilgrim plucks them as he goes along. “All I find in +Jesus.” The way of light is the way of delight, and “the joy of the Lord +is our strength.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 363]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Twenty-eighth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-odd.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>IN HIM WAS LIFE</em></h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> i. 1-18.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p> HAVE heard men speak of “wanting to see a bit of life,” and I found that +what they meant was to see a bit of death. It is as if a man should go to +the hospital to see a bit of health, or as if he should go to a gory +battlefield to see the human frame. It is like going to a refuse-heap to +see a bit of garden. Life is not found in fields of license; it is not +found among the wild oats of a dissipated youth. Life is found only in +Christ, and if we want to see a bit of life we must go to Him.</p> + +<p>“In Him was life”; and that not merely to be looked at but to be shared. +He is the well to which everybody can bring his pitcher, and take it away +filled. And my pitcher is just my need. “All the fitness He requires is to +feel our need of Him.” The Life is all-sufficient for the needs of the +race. This Life can vitalize all that is withered and dead; it can make +decrepit wills muscular and mighty, and it can transfigure the leper with +the glow and purity of perfect health.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Thou of life the Fountain art,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Freely let me take of Thee.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 364]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Twenty-ninth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-even.png" width="480" height="93" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE LOVE OF GOD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">1 <span class="smcap">John</span> iv. 7-14.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-l.png" width="80" height="80" alt="L" title="" /> +</div><p>ET me more assiduously think of God’s love. Let me sit down to it. In the +National Gallery can be seen two sorts of people. There are the mere +vagrants, who are always “on the move,” passing from picture to picture, +without seeing any. And there are the students, who sit down, and +contemplate, and meditate, and appropriate, and saturate. And there are +vagrants in respect to the love of the Lord. They have a passing glimpse, +but the impression is not vital and vitalizing, and there are the +students, who are always gazing, and who are continually crying, “O the +depth of the riches of the love of God in Christ!” “His riches are +unsearchable!”</p> + +<p>And God’s love is the creator of my love. “While I muse the fire burns.” I +am kindled into the same holy passion. That is to say, contemplation +determines character. We acquire the hues of the things to which we cling. +To hold fellowship with love is to become loveful and lovely. “We love +because He first loved us.”</p> + +<p>And then, in the third place, it is through my love that I know my Lord. +“<em>Everyone that loveth knoweth God.</em>” Love is the lens through which I +discern the secret things of God.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 365]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Thirtieth</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imggrapes-odd.png" width="480" height="99" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE BLESSEDNESS OF FORGIVENESS</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven.</em>”<br /> +—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xxxii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/img-i.png" width="80" height="80" alt="I" title="" /> +</div><p>T is the blessedness of emancipation. The boat which has been tethered to +the weird, baleful shore is set free, and sails toward the glories of the +morning. The man, long cramped in the dark, imprisoning pit, is brought +out, and stretches his limbs in the sweet light and air of God’s free +world. Black servitude is ended; glorious liberty begins.</p> + +<p>It is the blessedness of education. For when we are freed we are by no +means perfected. We are liberated babes; and our Emancipator does not +desert us in our spiritual infancy. The foundling is not abandoned. +“Having loved His own He loved them unto the end.” He begins with us in +the spiritual nursery, and He will train and lead and feed us until we are +“perfect in Christ Jesus.”</p> + +<p>Therefore is it the blessedness of exultation. The babe is resting on the +bosom of the Lord, and “the joy of the Lord is his strength.” It is not my +emancipation that ensures my joy; it is the abiding Presence of the +Emancipator.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 366]</span></p> +<h2>DECEMBER The Thirty-first</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/imgflowers-even.png" width="480" height="86" alt="Page decoration" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><em>THE REAR-GUARD</em></h2> + +<p class="center">“<em>Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.</em> +”<br />—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xxiii.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/img-b.png" width="79" height="80" alt="B" title="" /> +</div><p>UT why “<em>follow</em>” me? Why not “go before”? Because some of my enemies are +in the rear; they attack me from behind. There are foes in my yesterdays +which can give me fatal wounds. They can stab me in the back! If I could +only get away from the past! Its guilt dogs my steps. Its sins are ever at +my heels. I have turned my face toward the Lord, but my yesterdays pursue +me like a relentless hound! So I have an enemy in the rear.</p> + +<p>But, blessed be His name, my mighty God is in the rear as well as my foe. +“Goodness and mercy shall follow me!” No hound can break through that +defence. Between me and my guilt there is the infinite love of the Lord. +The loving Lord will not permit my past to destroy my soul. I may sorrow +for my past, but my very sorrow shall be a minister of moral and spiritual +health. My Lord is Lord of the past as well as of the morrow, and so +to-day “I will trust and not be afraid.”</p> + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> + + + + + +<h2><span class="smcap">devotional</span></h2> +<p class="center"> +=================================================</p> + + +<p><span class='midh'><em>ROBERT F. HORTON</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>The Triumphant Life:</span> +<span class='mid'>Life, Warfare and Victory through the Cross</span></p> + +<p>16mo, Cloth, net 50c.</p> + +<p>The author, one of the most influential preachers and devotional +writers, presents an attractive volume of brief counsels on Faith +and Duty. +</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>CHARLES BROWN</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>Lessons from the Cross</span></p> + +<p>16mo, Cloth, net 50c.</p> + +<p>A volume of remarkable spiritual power which will also prove an +incentive to further study of this great subject.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>MILFORD HALL LYON</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>For the Life That Now Is</span></p> + +<p>16mo, Cloth, net 75c.</p> + +<p>“Emphasizes the power and presence of a life hid with Christ in +God. It will be a revelation to many that there is such a +correspondence between the needs of mankind and the provisions of +redeeming grace.”—<em>Reformed Church Messenger.</em></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>HANNAH WHITALL SMITH</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life</span></p> + +<p>New Edition, with Decorative Lace Border and Lace Cover Design. 12 +mo, Cloth, net $1.00.</p> + +<p>A Handsome New Gift Edition of this famous Christian classic, which +as a prominent writer once said will “transform the dark days of +your life, as it has transformed those of thousands before you.”</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>J. H. JOWETT</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>Our Blessed Dead</span></p> + +<p>16mo, Boards, 25c.</p> + +<p>A booklet of consolation; suggestive and effective.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>CORTLAND MYERS</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>The Real Holy Spirit</span></p> + +<p>12mo, Cloth, net 50c.</p> + +<p>“To make this unreality real and mighty in the life of the +individual and of the Church is the purpose of this book, that is +eminently sane and practical, and will appeal with force to every +thoughtful and earnest Christian.”—<em>Christian Guardian.</em></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h2><span class="smcap"><strong>the world of religious thought</strong></span></h2> +<p class="center"> +=================================================</p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>RICHARD ROBERTS</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>The Renascence of Faith</span></p> + +<p>With an Introduction by G. A. Johnston Ross. 12mo, cloth, net $1.50.</p> + +<p>“A fresh and striking contribution to current religious discussion. +It is the average man,—the man in the street—who is at once the +subject of Mr. Roberts’ study. He is keenly alive to and frankly +critical of the weaknesses, shortcomings and divisions of modern +Christianity; but he has a well-grounded optimism and a buoyant +faith which will be found contagious.”—<em>Living Age.</em></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>JAMES W. LEE</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>The Religion of Science</span><br /> +The Faith of Coming Man</p> + +<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.50.</p> + +<p>“Dr. Lee thinks scientifically. He delivers a clear-cut thought +product and his powers of intellectual visualization are +transferred to the reader. After having read ‘The Religion of +Science,’ we can only underwrite the testimony of Dr. Birney, Dean +of the Theological School of Boston University: ‘It is the finest +apologetic for the modern mood of thought concerning things +Christian that I have seen. The book in a masterly manner reveals +the pathway of triumphant faith.’”—<em>Christian Advocate.</em></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>MARSHALL P. TALLING, Ph. D.</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='sml'><em>Author of “Extempore Prayer” +and “Inter-Communion with God”</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>The Science of Spiritual Life</span></p> + +<p>An Application of Scientific Method in the Exploration of Spiritual +Experience. Cloth, net $1.50.</p> + +<p>This comprehensive handbook of theology is a mediatory work of real +value, combining as it does the insight of a spiritually minded man +with the keen perception of one who fully recognizes what science +has done and is doing to-day.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>JOHN DOUGLAS ADAM, D.D.</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>Religion and the Growing Mind</span></p> + +<p>12mo, cloth, net 75c.</p> + +<p>This stimulating treatise on the development of a science of soul +culture is intended primarily for young people. The expansion of +the spiritual nature is shown to be the supreme thing in life. In +clear, brief, logical, sane manner Dr. Adam describes man’s +psychical nature and methods of its development in terms of modern +psychology.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>W. H. P. FAUNCE, D.D.</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>What Does Christianity Mean?</span></p> + +The Cole Lectures for 1912. 12mo, cloth, net $1.25. + +<p>Dr. Faunce, President of Brown University, has chosen an unusually +attractive theme which is discussed in this series of lectures on +the following subjects:</p> + +<p>1. The Essence of the Christian Faith. 2. The Meaning of God. 3. +The Basis of Character. 4. The principle of Fellowship. 5. The Aim +of Education. 6. The Goal of Our Effort.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<h2><span class="smcap"><strong>theological discussion</strong></span></h2> +<p class="center"> +=================================================</p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>ROBERT F. HORTON, D.D.</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>How the Cross Saves</span></p> + +<p>16mo, cloth, net 50c.</p> + +<p>“Will bring help and light to minds perplexed and darkened by +doubt. It is a clear statement of the central truth of +Christianity. Logically and biblically Dr. Horton calls to mind the +fact that the atonement is of God; that men need it; and that +man-made atonements which minimize sin will not do. Then he +discusses the atonement, the meaning and the victory of the +cross.”—<em>Advance.</em></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>JAMES A. ANDERSON, L.L.D.</em></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class='sml'><em>Editor of “the Western Methodist”</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>Religious Unrest and Its Remedy</span></p> + +<p>12mo, cloth, net 75c.</p> + +<p>A query raised by theological unrest and an attempt to indicate +where rest is found.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><span class='sub'><em>Christian Faith and Doctrine Series</em></span></p> + +<p class="center">12mo, cloth, each net $1.00.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>PRINCIPAL W. F. ADENEY, D.D.</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>The Christian Conception of God</span></p> + +A vitalizing, tonic treatise of a fundamental theme. The scholarly +author of “The Theology of the New Testament” needs no +introduction. He is a stalwart defender of the essential truths of +Christianity. The <em>British Congregationalist</em> says: “This +remarkable book will have a place of its own side by side with +Prof. Newton Clarke’s more elaborate work.” + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D.</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'> +The Inspiration and Authority of Holy Scriptures</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class='sml'><em>With Introduction by Principal Forsythe</em></span></p> + +<p>Principal Forsythe’s Introduction gives the key to the book: “There +is no more difficult position to-day than that of the minister who +has to stand between the world of modern knowledge and the world of +traditional religion and mediate between them.” “Its facts have +been verified in the writer’s own experience, and they are set down +in the precise order that they appear to be necessary in the life +of a man who desires to live well and die well.”—<em>Expository +Times.</em></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>GEORGE HANSON, D.D.</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>The Resurrection and the Life</span></p> + +<p>This thorough-going study of the Resurrection of Jesus is +characterized by a vigorous intellectual grasp of the subject. The +author presents a most assuring and comforting contribution to +Christian apologetics. It is a work that will not only meet the +demands of the scholarly and thoughtful, but minister to those who +have no questionings.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h2><span class="smcap"><strong>gift books, essays, etc.</strong></span></h2> +<p class="center"> +=================================================</p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>W. J. DAWSON, D.D.</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>The Book of Courage</span></p> + +<p>12mo, decorated cloth, net $1.25.</p> + +<p>To meet a present day demand. Everyone needs help to live the +courageous life—to learn to face life as it is and yet continue to +be in love with it. The Book of Courage meets the need of all who +search for help. It is a mine of inspiration to courageous living.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS, D.D.</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>The Contagion of Character</span></p> + +<p>Studies in Culture and Success. Gilt top, net $1.20.</p> + +<p><em>The Outlook</em> says: “Brief, pungent studies, sparks struck out on +the anvil of events. Sparkling indeed they are and likewise full of +ethical wisdom and vigor. Essays for the times whose lessons are +printed and clinched at every turn with personal experiences that +grip attention.”</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>PROF. HUGH BLACK, D.D.</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>Happiness</span></p> + +<p>Decorated, 8vo, cloth, gilt top, net $1.50.</p> + +<p>This is the fourth in a quartette of gift books which began with +FRIENDSHIP and naturally ends with HAPPINESS. Similar to FRIENDSHIP +in its form it is distinct in matters of cloth, cover design, title +page and decorative page borders. Altogether it is one of the +season’s most delightful gift books—the mechanical setting being +worthy of the subject matter in every respect.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>HERBERT G. STOCKWELL</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>Essential Elements of Business Character</span></p> + +<p>16mo, cloth, net 60c.</p> + +<p>The author has won an enviable reputation through his articles on +“Business” in recent issues of <em>The Outlook</em>. The editors say that +the readers of <em>The Outlook</em> have expressed their appreciation in a +very unusual way. Some of the largest corporations in the country +have written asking for permission to reprint extracts in their +“house organs.”</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='midh'><em>FREDERICK A. ATKINS</em></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class='lge'>Life Worth While</span></p> + +<p>A Volume of Inspiration for Young Men. Net 50c.</p> + +<p>This new volume of talks to young men by Mr. Atkins contains the +same tonic qualities that made MORAL MUSCLE, FIRST BATTLES and +ASPIRATION AND ACHIEVEMENT so truly helpful. The author is a man of +magnetic and winning personality. His appeal is particularly to +young men. The virile and persuasive tone will stimulate to greater +endeavor and higher achievement.</p> + +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY DAILY MEDITATION FOR THE CIRCLING YEAR***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 23241-h.txt or 23241-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/2/4/23241">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/2/4/23241</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution.</p> + + + +<pre> +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a> + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a> + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-a.png b/23241-h/images/img-a.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f608831 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-a.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-b.png b/23241-h/images/img-b.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..03d48bc --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-b.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-c.png b/23241-h/images/img-c.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad45341 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-c.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-d.png b/23241-h/images/img-d.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d4bf95 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-d.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-e.png b/23241-h/images/img-e.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b75b692 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-e.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-f.png b/23241-h/images/img-f.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ea176a --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-f.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-g.png b/23241-h/images/img-g.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..45ea903 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-g.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-h.png b/23241-h/images/img-h.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6a0253 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-h.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-i.png b/23241-h/images/img-i.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4da648c --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-i.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-j.png b/23241-h/images/img-j.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..82fd930 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-j.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-l.png b/23241-h/images/img-l.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..37da76b --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-l.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-m.png b/23241-h/images/img-m.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e682d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-m.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-n.png b/23241-h/images/img-n.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..432359a --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-n.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-o.png b/23241-h/images/img-o.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..43b6370 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-o.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-p.png b/23241-h/images/img-p.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a028413 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-p.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-s.png b/23241-h/images/img-s.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..edce150 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-s.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-t.png b/23241-h/images/img-t.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2b4b93 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-t.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-u.png b/23241-h/images/img-u.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca41b7d --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-u.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-w.png b/23241-h/images/img-w.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5eee3e --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-w.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/img-y.png b/23241-h/images/img-y.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e755f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/img-y.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/imgflowers-even.png b/23241-h/images/imgflowers-even.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..20f5f0a --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/imgflowers-even.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/imgflowers-odd.png b/23241-h/images/imgflowers-odd.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2317028 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/imgflowers-odd.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/imgfrontis.jpg b/23241-h/images/imgfrontis.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..42e552b --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/imgfrontis.jpg diff --git a/23241-h/images/imggrapes-even.png b/23241-h/images/imggrapes-even.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f63821 --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/imggrapes-even.png diff --git a/23241-h/images/imggrapes-odd.png b/23241-h/images/imggrapes-odd.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b2cd85c --- /dev/null +++ b/23241-h/images/imggrapes-odd.png |
