November
November
ALL THINGS NOT EXPEDIENT
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
This is not fully obeyed when we drink, merely because we like it, what is the very greatest obstacle to that glory in this world of ours. What matter that we prefer taking it in a more refined form, if the thing itself is daily and actively and mightily working misery, and crime, and death, and destruction to thousands, till the cry thereof seems as if it must pierce the very heavens ! And so it does — sooner, a great deal, than it pierces the walls of our comfortable dining room !
I only say here, you who have said, "Take my lips," stop and repeat that prayer next time you put that to your lips which is binding men and women hand and foot, and delivering them over, helpless to Satan !
Let those words pass once more from your heart out through your lips, and I do not think you will feel comfortable in letting the means of such infernal work pass in through them.
Church of God, beloved and chosen.
Church of Christ for whom He died.
Claim thy gifts and praise thy Giverl— "Ye are washed and sanctified."
Sanctified by God the Father, and by Jesus Christ His Son, And by God the Holy Spirit, Holy, Holy Three in One.
November 2
NO WANTING IN HEAVEN
The righteous hath hope in his death.
Proverbs 14:32
Let me die the death of the righteous.
Numbers 23:10
What will the harps of Heaven be to the thrill of the one Voice, saying, "Come, ye blessed of my Father!" and, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord."
Our dear departed ones have heard that! and that one word of the King must have made them most blessed forever.
At this moment they are exceeding glad, and the certainty of it stills every quiver of our selfish love.
The glory and joy of our Lord Jesus Christ are revealed to them, and they are "glad also with exceeding joy," rejoicing together with Jesus. How can they help reflecting His divine joy when they see it no longer by faith and afar off, but visibly, actually face to face!
nay, more, eye to eye, that very closest approach of tenderest intercourse too deep for words.
They see Him as He is; in all His beauty and love and glory; through no veil, no glass, no tear-mist.
The prayer for them, "The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee," is altogether fulfilled, and they are "full of joy with Thy countenance."
And every other prayer we ever prayed for them is fulfilled exceeding abundantly above all we asked or thought. We may not pray any more for them, because God has not left one possibility of blessedness unbestowed.
For I know That they who are not lost, but gone before, Are only waiting till I come; for death Has only parted us a little while.
And has not severed e'en the finest strand In the eternal cable of our love:
The very strain has twined it closer still, And added strength.
The music of these lives Is nowise stilled, but blended so with songs Around the throne of God, that our poor ears No longer hear it.
November 3
KING OF YOUR LIFE
Because the Lord hath loved his people, he hath made thee king over them.
2 Chronicles 2:11
God has appointed His King to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. Thus He gives His children a great bond of union. For "one King shall be king to them all," and He shall "gather together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad."
"Satan scatters, but Jesus gathers."
Shall we then let the enemy have his way, and induce us to keep apart and aloof from those over whom our beloved King reigns also?
Let us try this day to recollect this, and make it practical in all our contact with His other subjects.
Why has God made Jesus King? Who would have guessed the right answer?
"Because the Lord loved His people."
So the very thought of the kingship of Christ sprang from the everlasting love of God to His people.
Bring that wonderful statement down to personal reality — "His people" — that is, you and me.
God made Jesus King over you because He loved you, and that with nothing less than the love wherewith He loved Him.
And closer yet, and closer the golden bonds shall be, Enlinking all who love our Lord in pure sincerity; And wider yet, and wider shall the circling glory glow.
As more and more are taught of God that mighty love to know.
November 4
NO HALF MEASURES
Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
John 13:1
"He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." How true is the type, both as to each individual temple of the Holy Ghost, and "all the building that groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord"
; "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, his hands shall also finish it" — "His own house, whose house are we."
Our Lord Jesus Christ endorses it in the very amen of His great prayer, "I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it."
Only let us simply receive and believe what He shows us and tells us, and then to every Nathanael who comes to Him, He will say, "Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these."
Then we shall have, personally and indeed, "showers of blessing."
Unto him that hath, Thou givest Ever "more abundantly."
Lord, I live because Thou livest, Therefore give more life to me; Therefore speed me in the race; Therefore let me grow in grace.
November ^
ENLARGED CAPABILITIES
And his servants shall serve him.
Revelation 22:3
What will it be to be able at last to express not only all the love we now feel, but all the perfected love of infinitely enlarged capability of loving in the equally perfected service of equally enlarged capability of serving? — able to show Jesus a love which would burst our hearts if poured into them now !
Able to put all the new rapture of praise into living action for Him!
Able to go on serving Him day and night without any weariness in it, and never a hateful shadow of weariness of it
; without any interruptions; without any mistakes at all; without any thinking how much better someone else could have done it, or how much better we ought to have done it; above all, without the least mixture of sin in motive or deed—pure, perfect service of Him whom we love and see face to face! What
can be more joyful? We are not told much about it, we could not understand it now! the secrets of this wonderful service will only be told when we are brought to His house above, and see what are the heavenly "good works which God hath before ordained"
(margin, prepared) for us. How full of surprises the new service will be!—new powers, new and entirely congenial fellow-workers, new spheres, new ministries; only two things not new, if our earthly service has been true—no new power, and no new end and aim, but the same, even His power and His glory ! Then shall come the full accomplishment of the Messianic prophecy : "A seed shall serve Him"
; and still we shall say (only I think we shall sing it), "Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.
Amen."
"Whose I am and whom I serve" for ever!
Lord, Thou needest not, I know, service such as I can bring; Yet I long to prove and show full allegiance to my King.
Thou an honor art to me, let me be a praise to Thee.
November 6
A LIVING COMMENTARY
Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.
Psalm 119:49
God keeps writing a commentary on His Word in the volume of our own experience.
That is, insofar as we put that volume into His hands, and do not think to fill it with our own scribble.
We are not to undervalue or neglect this commentary, but to use it as John Newton did, when he wrote.
His love in times past forbids me to think He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink; Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.
Every record of love bears the great signature, "I am the Lord, I change not"
; "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever."
Every "hitherto" of grace and help is a "henceforth" of more grace and more help.
Every experience of the realities of faith widens the horizon of the possibilities of faith.
Every realized promise is the steppingstone to one yet unrealized.
Hitherto the Lord hath helped us, guiding all the way; Henceforth let us trust Him fully, trust Him all the day.
Hitherto the Lord hath loved us, caring for His own; Henceforth let us love Him better, live for Him alone.
November 7
HIS DESIRED DESIRE
With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer.
Luke 22:15
With Gethsemane and Calvary in fullest view, His heart's desire was to spend those few last hours in closest intercourse with His disciples. Now, if we take the King at His word, and really believe that He thus desires us, can we possibly remain coldhearted and indifferent to Him?
Can we bear the idea of disappointing His love— such love — and meeting it with any such pale, cool response as would wound any human heart, "I do not know whether I love you or not!"
Oh, do let us leave off morbidly looking to see exactly how much we love (which is just like trying to warm ourselves with a thermometer, and perhaps only ends in doubting whether we love at all), and look straight away at His love and His desire!
Think of Jesus actually wanting you, really desiring your love, not satisfied with all the love of all the angels and saints unless you love Him too—needing that little drop to fill His cup of joy!
Is there no answering throb, no responsive glow?
Within an "upper room" are met a small, yet faithful band, On whom a deep yet chastened grief hath laid its softening hand.
Among them there is One who wears a more than mortal mien, 'Tis He on whom in all distress the weary one may lean.
November 8
MY LORD AND
I Come with me.
Song of Solomon 4:8
It is a very common experience in great things and small, that the person or thing we most want is not there just when we most want him or it.
Never shall we have to complain of this as to the promised perpetual presence of our Lord; for He says,
"I will be with him in trouble."
"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee."
And in the deepest need of all, in the valley of the shadow of death, the soul that has yielded to the present call will be able to say, "Thou art with me!"
I do not think we consider enough how we disappoint the love of Jesus when we refuse to come with Him.
For He does truly and literally desire us to be with Him.
Would He have made it the very climax of His great prayer, representing it
as the very culmination of His own rest and glory that His people should be with Him, if He did not so very much care about it, and was only seeking and saving us out of bare pity?
No, it was in His love as well as in His pity that He redeemed us ! And love craves nearness.
This is the very thing that differences love from the lesser glow of mere pity, or kindness, whatever their degrees or combinations. The Lord Jesus would not say, "Come with Me," if He did not feel towards us something far beyond any degree of pity and kindness.
"Certainly I will be with thee I"
Starry promise in the night!
All uncertainties, like shadows, flee away before its light.
"Certainly I will be with thee!"
He hath spoken:
I have heard!
True of old, and true this moment, I will trust Jehovah's word.
November 9
FORMED FOR HIS GLORY FOREVER
I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever.
Eoclesiastes 3:14
Therefore, we may rejoicingly say "ever" as well as "only" and "all for Thee!"
For the Lord is our Keeper, and He is the Almighty and the Everlasting God, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
He will never change His mind about keeping us, and no man is able to pluck us out of His hand.
Neither will Christ let us pluck ourselves out of His hand, for He says, "Thou shall abide for Me many days." And He that keepeth us will not slumber.
Once having undertaken His vineyard. He will keep it night and day, till all the days and nights are over, and we know the full meaning of the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, unto which we are kept by His power.
And then, for ever for Him! — passing from the gracious keeping by faith for this little while, to the glorious keeping in His presence for all eternit.y
For ever fulfilling the object for which He formed us and chose us, we showing forth His praise, and He showing the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in the ages to come!
He for us, and we for Him for ever!
Oh, how little we can grasp this!
Yet this is the fruition of being "kept for Jesus!"
Set apart forever for Himself alone!
Now we see our calling gloriously shown!
Owning, with no secret dread.
This our holy separation.
Now the crown of consecration Of the Lord our God shall rest upon our willing head!
November 10
LIFTED BY WAY OF REMEMBRANCE
O my God, my soul is cast down within me.
Psalm 42:6
Whenever you say this, add at once, "Therefore will I remember Thee." And what then? What comes of thus remembering
Him? "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips." What can be a sweeter, fuller promise than this!
Our heart's desire fulfilled in abundant satisfaction and joyful power of praise!
Yet there is a promise sweeter and more thrilling still to the loving, longing heart.
And so, this very night, as you put away the profitless musings and memories, and remember Him upon your bed, He will keep His word and meet you, for has He not said, "Thou meetest .
. those that remember Thee in Thy ways"?
The darkness shall be verily the shadow of His wing, for your feeble, yet Spirit-given remembrance, shall be met by His real and actual presence, for "hath He said and shall He not do it?"
Let us pray that this night the desire of our soul may be "to Thy name, and to the remembrance of Thee."
O sunlight of thanksgiving!
Who that knows Its bright forth-breaking after dreariest days.
Would change the after-thought of woes For memory's loveliest light that glows, If so he must forego one note of that sweet praise?
November 11
A MIND AT PERFECT PEACE
Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5
Are there any tyrants more harassing than our own thoughts?
Control of deeds and words seems a small thing in comparison but have we not been apt to fancy that we really cannot help our thoughts?
Instead of our dominating them, they have dominated us; and we have not expected nor even thought it possible, to be set free from the manifold tyranny of vain thoughts, and still less of wandering thoughts.
Yet, all the time, here has been God's Word about this hopeless, helpless matter, only ivhere has been our faith?
It is very strong language that the inspiring Spirit uses here—not "thoughts" in general, but definitely, and with no room for distressing exceptions, "every thought." Must it not be glorious rest to have
every thought of day and night brought into sweet, quiet, complete captivity to Jesus, entirely "obedient to the faith," to His holy and loving influence, to His beautiful and perfect law?
We should not have dared to hope or dream of such a rest to our souls; we should not have guessed it included in that promise to those who take the yoke of Christ upon them; and if we could find one text stating that it was not any part of God's infinitely gracious purpose for us, we should only say, "Of course, for it stands to reason it could not be!"
Not yet thou knowest what I do within thine own weak breast To mold thee to My image true, and fit thee for My rest.
But yield thee to My loving skill; the veiled work of grace.
From day to day progressing still, it is not thine to trace.
November 12
SPEAK JUST A WORD
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all n,en, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Galatians 6:10
He giveth goodly words.
Genesis 49:21
Satan even perverts humility into a hindrance, and persuades us that of course our friend knows as much or more of the things of God than we do, and that telling of what we have found in Jesus, may seem like or lead to talking about ourselves.
Yet perhaps all the while, that friend is hungering and feeling besieged, while we are withholding good tidings of plenty and deliverance.
Have there not been days when the brightest of us would have been most thankful for the simplest word about Jesus, from the humblest Christian? — days when even "the mention of His name" might have been food and freedom!
It does not in the least follow that members of Christian families need no such "good tidings" because of their favored position.
They may need it all the more, because no one thinks it necessary to try and help them. And when? The constantly recurring word meets us here again, "Now!"
The memory of a kindly word for long gone by.
The fragrance of a fading flower sent lovingly.
The gleaming of a sudden smile or sudden tear, The warmer pressure of the hand, the tone of cheer.
The hush that means "I cannot speak, but I have heard!"
The note that only bears a verse from God's own Word— Such tiny things we hardly count as ministry;
The givers deeming they have shown scant sympathy; But, when the heart is overwrought, oh who can tell The power of such tiny things to make it well!
November 13
THE LAMB THE KING
God will provide himself a lamb.
Genesis 22:8
I have provided me a king.
1 Samuel 16:1
So the source of the kingship of Christ is God Himself, in the eternal counsels of His love.
It is one of the grand thoughts of God.
Christ said to His Father, "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." At that mysterious date, not of time, but of everlasting love, God "chose us in Him."
Before the world began, God, that cannot lie, gave the promise of eternal life to Him for us, and made with Him for us "a covenant ordered in all things, and sure."
The leading provisions of that covenant were, a Lamb for our atonement, and a King for our government — a dying and a living Saviour.
Having provided. He appointed and anointed His King: "Yet have I set [margin, anointed] My King upon My holy hill of Zion."
What a marvelous meeting-place is thus found in the Kingship of Jesus for God's heart and ours
He says in His majestic sovereignty, "I have set my King"
; and we say in lowly and loving loyalty, "Thou art my King."
True the report that reached my far-off land Of all His wisdom and transcendent fame; Yet I believed not until I came— Bowed to the dust till raised by royal hand.
The half was never told by mortal word; My King exceeded all the fame that I had heard!
November 14
CLEAVING WITH PURPOSE
He .
. exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.
Acts 11:2.3
Cleaving to the Lord is not a mere terrified clinging for safety —it is the bright, brave resolution, strengthened, not weakened, by the sight of waverers or renegades, to be on His side, come what may, because He is our King, because we love Him, because His cause and His kingdom are so very dear to us.
We cannot thus cleave, without loosening from other interests.
But what matter!
Let us be noble for Jesus, like the men of might who "separated themselves unto David," and who "held strongly with him in his kingdom."
Shall we be mean enough to aim at less, when it is our Lord Jesus
who would have us entirely "with Him"?
It is, after all, the easiest and safest course. The especial friends and "the mighty men which belonged to David," not only did not follow the usurping Adonijah, but they were never tempted to do so.
"But me, even me thy servant .
. hath he not called."
There is many a temptation, very powerful and dangerous to a campfollower, which the enemy knows it is simply useless to present to one of the bodyguard.
Our Father leads us "not into temptation," when He leads us closer to Jesus.
Unfurl the Christian standard, and follow through the strife The noble army who have won the martyr's crown of life; Our ancestors could die for Truth, could brave the deadly glow, And shall we let the standard fall, and yield it to the foe?
November D
WORDS THAT PAY
Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord.
Judges 11:11
The Lord .
. did let none of his words fall to the ground.
1 Samuel 3:19
A cottager of no more than average sense and intelligence remarked, "It was all so trifling at the reading; I wish gentle folks would believe that poor people like something better than what's just to make them laugh." After all, nothing really pays like direct, straightforward, uncompromising words about God and His works and word.
Nothing else ever made a man say, as a poor Irishman did when he heard the Good News for the first time, "Thank ye, sir; you've taken the hunger off us today!" What about our words?
They are all uttered before the Lord in one sense, whether we will or no ; for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, Thou, Lord, knowest it altogether How solemn is this thought, but how sweet does it become when our words are uttered consciously before the Lord as we walk in the light of His perpetual presence!
Oh, that we may so walk, that we may so speak, with kept feet and kept lips, trustfully praying, "Let the meditation of my heart and the words of my mouth be alway acceptable in Thy sight, Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer!"
Yes. we have a word for Jesus!
Living echoes we will be Of Thine own sweet words of blessing, of Thy gracious "Come to Me."
Jesus, Master! yes. we love Thee, and to prove our love, would lay Fruit of lips which Thou wilt open, at Thy blessed feet today.
Many an effort it may cost us, many a heart-beat, many a fear, But Thou knowest, and wilt strengthen, and Thy help is always near.
Give us grace to follow fully, vanquishing our faithless shame.
Feebly it may be, but truly, witnessing for Thy dear Name.
November 16
NO CLEANSING WITHOUT CONFESSION
Give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him.
Joshua 7:19
Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper?
Chronicles 24:20
We must not forget the things that are behind till they are confessed and forgiven.
Let us now bring all this unsatisfactory past experience, and, most of all, the want of trust which has been the poison-spring of its course, to the precious blood of Christ, which cleanseth us, even us, from all sin, even this sin.
. And, oh, let us wonderingly love Him the more that He has been so patient and gentle with us, upbraiding not, though in our slow-hearted foolishness we have been grieving
Him by this subtle unbelief; and then, by His grace may we enter upon a new era of experience, our lives kept for Him more fully than ever before, because we trust Him more simply and unreservedly to keep them!
Oh, cleanse me now!
My Lord, I cannot stay For evening shadows and a silent hour:
Now I have sinned, and now, with no delay, I claim Thy promise and its total power.
November 17
INFINITE MIND THINKING ON US
He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
Psalm 147:4-5 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
Psalm 147:3
Why did He expend such immeasurable might of mind upon a world which is to be burnt up, but that He would fit it perfectly to be, not the home, but the school of His children?
The infinity of His skill is such that the most powerful intellects find a lifetime too short to penetrate a little way into a few secrets of some one small department of His working.
If we turn to Providence, it is quite enough to take only one's own life, and look at it microscopically and telescopically, and marvel at the treasures of wisdom lavished upon its details, ordering and shaping and fitting the tiny confused bits into the true mosaic which He means it to be. Many a little thing in our lives reveals the same Mind which, according to a well-known and very beautiful illustration, adjusted a perfect
proportion in the delicate hinges of the snowdrop and the droop of its bell with the mass of the globe and the force of gravitation.
How kind we think it if a very talented friend spends a little of his thought and power of mind in teaching us or planning for us!
Have we been grateful for the infinite thought and wisdom which our Lord has expended upon us and our creation, preservation, and redemption?
.... There we see His thoughts to usward, thoughts of peace That stoop to tenderest love; that still increase With increase of our need; that never change.
That neve^ fail, or falter, or forget.
O pity infinite!
O royal mercy free!
O gentle climax of depth and height Of God's most precious tho'ts, most wonderful, most strange!
"For I am poor and needy, yet The Lord Himself, Jehovah, thinketh upon me!"
November 18
FIRST OF ALL
For thy servant doth know that I have sinned: therefore, behold, I am come the first this day of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.
2 Samuel 19:20
Yes, I have sinned.
I know that I have sinned. Whether I feel it more or less does not touch the fact:
I knoiv it. And what then?
"Therefore, behold, I am come the first this day of all ... to meet my Lord the King."
Just because I knotv I have sinned, I come to Jesus. He came to call sinners. He came to save sinners, so He came to call and to save me.
"This is all my desire."
Just because I know that I have sinned, I may and must come "the first of all."
Thousands are coming, but the heart knoweth its own bitterness.
So, not waiting for others, not coming in order, but "first of all," by the pressure of my sore need of pardon, I come.
There is no waiting for one's turn in coming to Jesus.
"The first of all," because it is against "my Lord the King" that I have sinned.
I am His servant, so I have the greater sin.
The first of all, because I have so much to be forgiven, and have already been forgiven so much, that I must, I do, love much; and love, even of a sorrowing sinner, seeks nearness, and cannot rest in distance.
"Therefore," also, "I am come this day."
I dare not and could not wait till tomorrow.
No need to wait, even till tonight!
I bring my sins to Thee, the sins I cannot count, That all may cleansed be in Thy once-opened Fount.
I bring them. Saviour, all to Thee.
The burden is too great for me.
/ November 19
BEYOND OUR KEN BUT NOT OUR SPIRIT
And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?
1 Chronicles 29:5
Do not startle at the term, or think, because you do not understand all it may include, you are therefore not qualified for it.
I dare say it comprehends a great deal more than either you or I understand, but we can both enter into the spirit of it, and the detail will unfold itself as long as our probation shall last.
Christ demands a hearty consecration in will, and He will teach us what that involves in act.
This explains the paradox that full consecration may be in one sense the act of a moment, and in another the work of a lifetime.
Who is on the Lord's side? Who will serve the King?
Who will be His helpers, other lives to bring?
Who will leave the world's side? Who will face the foe?
Who is on the Lord's side? Who for Him will go?
By Thy call of mercy, by Thy grace divine.
We are on the Lord's side; Saviour, we are Thine.
November 20
POOR WITHIN REACH OF TREASURES
We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household.
2 Kings 7:9
Just the last persons who would seem to need the good tidings, and the last, too, who would seem likely to have them to convey
But, oh, how true the figure is! How many among the King's own household need the good tidings which these lepers brought!
For they are starving so near to plenty, and poor within reach of treasure, and thinking themselves besieged when the Lord has dispersed the foe for them.
Is it not often the spiritual leper, the conscious outcast, the famine-stricken, possessionless soul, who takes the boldest step into the fullest salvation, and finds deliverance and abundance and riches beyond what the more favored and older inmate of the King's household knows anything about?
It may be one of the enemy's devices, that we sometimes hold back good tidings, just because we shrink from telling them to the King's household. How many who do not hesitate to speak of Jesus to little children or poor people, or even to persons who openly say, "We will not have this man to reign over us," never say one word to their fellow-
subjects about the blessed discoveries that the Holy Spirit has made to them of the fullness of His salvation, and the reality of His power, and the treasures of His Word, and the satisfaction of His love, and the far-reaching fulfillments of His promises, and the real, actual deliverance, and freedom, and victory, which He gives, and the strength and the healing that flow through faith in His name!
Tell it out among the nations that the Saviour reigns!
Tell it out among the heathen, bid them burst their chains!
Tell it out among the weeping ones that Jesus lives; Tell it out among the weary ones what rest He gives;
Tell it out among the sinners that He came to save; Tell it out among the dying that He triumphed o'er the grave.
November 21
HUMBLING BLESSEDNESS
Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law.
Psalm 94:12
Perhaps we have gone through all this, and known the humbling blessedness of being searched and "told," and then pardoned and cleansed ; and now again there is something not right. We hardly know what, only there is a misgiving, a dim, vague uneasiness; we "really don't know of anything in particular," and yet there is something unsatisfied and unsatisfactory.
There is nothing for it but to come to our Saviour afresh, and ask Him to tell us what we have done, or are doing, which is not in accordance with His will.
It will be useless coming if we are not sincerely purposed to let Him tell us what
He will, and not merely what we expect; or if we hush up the first word of an unwelcome whisper, and say, "Oh, that can't have anything to do with it!" or, "I am all right there, at any rate !" We must simply say, "Master, say on"
; and perhaps He will then show us, as He did Simon, that we have not done Him the true and loving service which some poor, despised one has rendered.
Oh, never shrink from the probings of our beloved Physician.
Dearer and dearer will the hand become as we yield to it.
Sweeter and sweeter will be the proofs that He is our own faithful Friend, who only wounds that He may perfectly heal.
Is it not often so, That we only learn in part.
And the Master's testing time may show That it was not quite "by heart"?
Then He gives, in His wise and patient grace.
That lesson again With the mark still set in the self-same place.
November 22
INHERIT THE KINGDOM?
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Matthew 25:34
The call will be no longer, Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden ; for the weariness and the burdens that have been cast upon Jesus will be at an end for ever.
It will be, "Come, ye blessed !"
Not "blessed" then for the first time, but "ye" whose position already is that of "the blessed of the Lord."
Every one who comes to Jesus takes that glorious position, and possesses all its manifold privileges.
If you are only come today for the first time, "thou art now the blessed of the Lord." You are now made kings and priests unto God by Him who loved you and washed you from your sins in His own blood.
By faith in Christ Jesus you are the children of God.
"And if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ."
He will make you inherit the throne of His glory. He has prepared not only a place, and a city, but a kingdom for you.
What then? eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard!
Wait till thou too hast fought the noble strife.
And won, through Jesus Christ, the crown of life I Then shall thou know the glory of the word.
Then as the stars for ever — ever shine.
Beneath the King's own smile — perpetual Zenith thine!
November 23
GRADUALLY OR DECISIVELY?
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Corinthians 5: 17
"A very severe test!" you say.
I cannot help that; I can only tell you exactly what God says.
I cannot reverse it, and you cannot alter it.
So then, if old things have not passed away in your life, and if you are not a new creature, "born again," altogether different in heart and life and love and aim, you are not "in Christ."
And if you are not in Christ, you are out of Christ, outside the only place of safety.
"Come thou into the Ark!"
It is one of the devices of the destroyer to delude you into fancying that no very decided step is necessary. He is very fond of the word "gradually." You are to become more earnest — gradually.
You are to find salvation — gradually.
You are to turn your mind to God — gradually.
Did you ever think that God never used this word nor anything like it?
Neither the word nor the sense of it occurs anywhere in the whole Bible with reference to salvation.
You might have been gradually approaching the Ark, and gradually making up your mind to enter; but unless you took the one step into the Ark, the one step from outside to inside, what would have been your fate when the door was shut?
Complete in Him, our glorious Head, With Jesus raised from the dead, And by His mighty Spirit led!
O blessed Lord, is this for me?
Then let my whole life henceforth be One AUelnjah-song to Thee.
November 24
HIS PERSONAL POSSESSION OURS
My peace I give unto you.
John 14:27
"Peace I leave with you" is much ; "My peace I give unto you" gift—"My peace."
Not merely "peace with God"; Christ has made that by the blood of His cross, and being justified by is more.
The added word tells the fathomless marvel of the faith we have it through Him.
But after we are thus reconciled, the enmity and the separation being ended, Jesus has a gift for us from His own treasures; and this is its special and wonderful value, that it is His very own.
How we value a gift which was the giver's own possession !
What a special token of intimate friendship we feel it to be!
To others we give what we have made or purchased ; it is only to very near and dear ones that we give what has been our own personal enjoyment or use. And so Jesus gives us not only peace made and peace purchased, but a share in His very own peace — divine, eternal, incomprehensible peace — which dwells in His own heart as God, and which shone in splendor of calmness through His life as man. No wonder that it "passeth all understanding."
Thy reign is perfect peace; Not mine, but Thine!— A stream that cannot cease.
For its fountain is Thy heart.
O depth unknown!
Thou givest of Thine own.
Pouring from Thine and filling mine.
The "noise of war" hath passed away; God's peace is on the throne.
Ruling with undisputed sway.
November 25
FULLNESS OF PLEASUHE
Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
For even Christ pleased not himself.
Romans 15:2-3 If people only would believe it, self-pleasing is always a failure in the end. Our good Master gives us a reality and fullness of pleasure in pleasing Him which we never get out of pleasing ourselves.
Dialects of love are many, though the language be but one; Study all you can, or any, while life's precious school-hours run.
Silence is no certain token that no secret grief is there; Sorrow which is never spoken is the heaviest load to bear.
Seldom can the heart be lonely, if it seek a lonelier still.
Self-forgetting, seeking only emptier cups of love to fill.
November 26
THE POWER OF GODS WILL
[God] worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
Ephesians 1:11
He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth.
Daniel 4:35
Think of the infinite mysteries of that will !
For ages and generations the hosts of Heaven have wonderingly watched its vouchsafed unveilings and its sublime developments, and still they are waiting, watching, and wondering.
Creation and Providence are but the whisper of its power, but Redemption is its music, and praise is the echo which shall yet fill His temple.
The whisper and the music, yes, and "the thunder of His power," are all for thee.
For what is "the good pleasure of His will" (Ephesians 1:5) ?
Oh, what a grand list of blessings purposed, provided, purchased, and possessed, all flowing to us out of it! And nothing but blessings, nothing but privileges, which we never should have imagined, and which even when revealed, we are "slow of heart to believe"
; nothing but what should even now fill us "with joy unspeakable and full of glory !"
Think of this will as always and altogether on our side always working for us, and in us, and with us, if we will only let it.
Think of it as always and only synonymous with infinitely wise and almighty love.
Think of it as undertaking all for us, from the great work of our eternal salvation down to the momentary details of guidance and supply, and do we not
feel utter shame and self-abhorrence at ever having hesitated for an instant to give up our tiny, feeble, blind will, to be—not crushed, not even bent, but bent with His glorious and perfect will?
Blest will of God! most glorious, the very fount of grace, WTience all the goodness floweth that heart can ever trace Temple whose pinnacles are love, and faithfulness its base.
Blest will of God! whose splendor is dawning on the world, On hearts in which Christ's banner is manfully unfurled, On hearts of childlike meekness, with dew of youth impearled.
November 21
THE POWER OF THE KING'S WORD
Where the word of a king is, there is power.
Ecclesiastes 8:4
Then the question is "Where is it?"
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly," and there, even in you, will be power. The Crowned One, who is now "upholding all things by the word of His power," hath said, "I have given them Thy word." And those who have received this great gift, "not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God," know that there is power with it, because it effectually worketh also in them.
They know its life-giving power, for they can say, "Thy word hath quickened me"
; and its life-sustaining power, for they live "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
They can say, "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee"
; for in proportion as the word of the King is present in the heart, "there is power" against sin. Then let us use this means of absolute power more, and more life and more holiness will be ours.
"His word was with power" in Capernaum of old, and it will be with the same power in any place nowadays.
His word cannot fail ; it "shall not return void"
; it "shall prosper."
Therefore, when our "words fall to the ground," it only proves that they were not His words.
So what we want is not merely that His power may accompany our word, but that we may not speak our own at all, but simply and only the very word of the King. Then there will be power in and with it.
Bows drawn at a venture hit in a way that astonishes ourselves, when God puts His own arrows on the string.
Upon the Word
rest, so strong, so sure.
So full of comfort blest, so sweet, so pure!
The chaiter of salvation, faith's broad foundation.
November 28
HEARTS AFLAME
Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him.
John 1:45
When Jesus had found Philip, Philip knew that he had found Him. And the next thing to knowing that we have found Him is to find someone else, and say, "Come and see!
. We have found Him .
. We see Jesus!"
If you only knew the irresistible longing, the very heart's desire that you should find, and see Him too, you would pardon all the pertinacity, all the insistence, with which again and again we say, "Come and see!"
The woman of Samaria left her waterpot, and went her way into the city with the same message:
"Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did." And we to whom Jesus has said, "I that speak unto thee am He," cannot do otherwise or less.
"Come!" to those who never heard Why the Saviour's blood was shed; Bear to them the message-word That can quicken from the dead; Tell them Jesus "died for all,"
Tell them of His loving call.
November 29
UNLIMITED GRACE
And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability.
Matthew 25:1.S But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Ephesians 4:7
Which is greatest, gifts or grace?
Gifts are given "to every man according to his several ability."
That is, we have just as much given as God knows we are able to use, and what He knows we can best use for Him.
"But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ."
Claiming and using that royal measure of grace, you may, and can, and will do more for God than the mightiest intellect in the world without it.
For which, in the clear light of His Word, is likely to be most effectual, the natural ability which at its best and fullest, without Christ, "can do nothinfj''
(observe and believe that word!), or the grace of our Almighty God and the power of the Holy Ghost, which is as
free to you as it ever was to any one?
If you are responsible for making use of your limited gift, are you not equally responsible for making use of the grace and power which are to be had for the asking, which are already yours in Christ, and which are not limited?
In God's great field of labor all work is not the same.
He hath a service for each one who loves His holy Name.
And you, to whom the secrets of all sweet sounds are known.
Rise up! for He hath called you to a mission of your own.
And, rightly to fulfill it. His grace can make you strong.
Who to your charge hath given the ministry of song.
November 30
THE MOUTH BETRAYS THE HEART
He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.
Proverbs 22:11
Who can say, "I have made my heart clean, I am pure"? Who must not despair of the friendship of the King if this were the condition?
But His wonderful condescension in promising His friendship bends yet lower in its tenderly devised condition.
Not to the absolutely pure in heart, but to the perhaps very sorrowfully longing lover of that pureness, comes the gracious words, "The King shall be his Friend."
Yet there must be some proof of this love; and it is found in "the grace of His lips." "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."
Here, again, we stop and question our claim ; for our speech has not always been "with grace"
; and the memory of many a graceless and idle word rises to bar it.
How, then, shall the King be our Friend?
Another word comes to our help: "Grace is poured into thy lips"—grace that overflowed in gracious words, such as never man spake, perfectly holy and beautiful; and we look up to our King and plead that He has
Himself fulfilled the condition in which we have failed—that this is part of the righteousness which He wrought for us, and which is really unto us and upon us, because we believe in Him and so, for the grace of His own lips, the King shall be our Friend.
.lust lo let Him speak to thee through His Word, Watching, (hat His voice may be clearly heard.
Just to tell Him everything as it rises.
And at once to Him to bring all surprises.
.lust to listen, and to stay Where you cannot miss His voice.
This is all!
And thus today.
Communing, you shall rejoice.