December
December
LIVES TAKEN AND KEPT
I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
2 Timothy 1:12
Having already said, "Take my life, for I cannot give it to Thee," let us now say, with deepened conviction, that without Christ we really can do nothing—"Keep my life, for I cannot keep it for Thee."
Yes!
He who is able and willing to take unto Himself, is no less able and willing to keep for Himself.
Our willing offering has been made by His enabling grace, and this our King has seen with joy.
Let us ask this with the same simple trust to which, in so many other things, He has so liberally and graciously responded. For this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will. He heareth us; and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.
There can be no doubt that this petition is according to His will, because it is based upon many a promise.
And now I find Thy promise true, of perfect peace and rest; I cannot sigh — I can but sing while leaning on Thy breast,
And leaving everything to Thee, whose ways are always best.
December 2
TOO FEEBLE TO GROPE
Who is among you that feareth the Lord .
. that walketh in darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.
Isaiah .50:10
There are times when we simply cannot see anything, when there is nothing to do, but to hold on and trust in the dark times when we do not seem even to be walking in the dark, but when, like Micah, we "sit in darkness," too feeble even to grope.
Such darkness often comes in a time of reaction and weariness after special work and exertion, very often indeed after great or exciting success, sometimes even after unusually vivid spiritual blessing. An interval of convalescence after acute illness, when the overtaxed nervous energy has more than it can do in slowly refilling the chalice of life that had been so nearly "spilled on the ground," is peculiarly liable to it. And the sufferers who never pass beyond that stage, who are never any more than "a little better," know its shadow perhaps best of
all.
It does not say so, but I think the Lord Jesus must have known it, because He was made like unto us in all things, and submitted not only to the causes but to the effects of all the natural experiences of the nature which He took on Him.
I cannot hear Thy voice, Lord! dost Thou still hear my cry?
I cling to Thine assurance that Thou art ever nigh; I know that Thou art faithful; I trust, but cannot see That it is still the right way by which Thou leadest me.
I think I could go forward with brave and joyful heart.
Though every step should pierce me with unknown fiery smart.
If only 1 might see Thee, if I might gaze above On all the cloudless glory of the sunshine of Thy love.
December 3
ALL FOR ME
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits.
Psalm 68:19
Just think of them deliberately (they are far too many to think of all in a flash) ; and how many did we actually ask for? Even that poor little claim was never brought to bear on thousands of them.
To begin at the beginning, we certainly did not ask Him to choose us in Christ Jesus before the world began, and to predestinate us to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Then, we certainly did not ask Him to call us by His grace; for before that call, we could not have wished, much less asked, for it.
Then, who taught us to pray, and put into our entirely corrupt and sinful hearts any thought of asking Him for anything at all? Look back at our early prayers. Has He not more than granted them?
Did we even know how much He could do for us?
Did He not answer prayer by opening out new vistas of prayer before us, giving us grace to ask for more grace, faith to plead for more faith ? And this is going on now, and will go on forever, when He has brought us with gladness and rejoicing into His own palace. Not till then shall we understand about those riches of glory in Christ Jesus, out of which He is even now pouring the supply of all our need.
Thanks be to God!
The thirsty land He laveth.
The perishing He saveth; The floods lift up their voices.
The answering earth rejoices.
Thanks be to Him, and never-ending laud.
For this new token of His bounteous love.
Who reigns in might the water floods above:
The gatheiing waters rusli along; And leaps the exultant shout, one cataract of song.
Thanks be to God!
December 4 LOVE Thy love to me was wonderful.
2 Samuel 1:26
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
John 15:9
His love!
What manner of love is it? What should be quoted to prove or describe it?
First the whole Bible with its mysteries and marvels of redemption, then the whole book of Providence and the whole volume of Creation.
Then add to these the unknown records of eternity past and the unknown glories of eternity to come, and then let the immeasurable quotation be sung by "angels and archangels, and all the company of Heaven," with all the harps of God, and still that love will be untold, still it will be "the love of Christ that passeth knowledge."
His love "for thee."
Not a passive, possible love, but outflowing, yes, outpouring of the real, glowing, personal love of His mighty and tender heart.
Love not as an attribute, a quality, a latent force, but an acting, moving, reaching, touching, and grasping power.
Love, not a cold, beautiful, far-off star, but a sunshine that comes and enfolds us, making us warm and glad, and strong and bright and fruitful.
Master, at Thy feet I bow in rapture sweet!
Before me, as in darkening glass, some glorious outlines pass, Of love, and truth, and holiness, and power; 1 own them Thine, O Christ, and bless Thee for this hour.
O full of truth and grace, smile of Jehovah's face, O tenderest heart of love untold! Who may Thy praise unfold?
Thee, Saviour, Lord of lords and King of kings.
Well may adoring seraphs hymn with veiling wings.
December ')
LOVE INDEED
The love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
Hosea 7,:\ Put that into the personal application which no doubt underlies it, and say, "The love of the Lord towards me, who have looked away from Him, with wandering, faithless eyes, to other helps and hopes, and have loved earthly joys and sought earthly gratifications—the love of the Lord toward even me!"
And then hear Him saying in the next verse, "So I bought her to Me"; stooping to do that in His unspeakable conde-
scension of love, not with the typical silver and barley, but with the precious blood of Christ.
Then, having thus loved us, and rescued us, and bought us with a price indeed. He says, still under the same figure, "Thou shalt abide for Me many days."
This is both a command and a pledge.
But the very pledge implies our past unfaithfulness, and the proved need of even our own part being undertaken by the ever patient
Lord. He Himself has to guarantee our faithfulness, because there is no other hope of our continuing faithful.
Well may such love win our full and glad surrender, and such a pi'omise win our happy and confident trust!
But He says more.
He says, "So will I also be for thee!"
And this seems an even greater marvel of love, as we observe how He meets every detail of our consecration with this wonderful word.
Made for Thyself, O God!
Made for Thy love, Thy service. Thy delight:
Made to show forth Thy wisdom, grace, and might; Made for Thy praise, whom veiled archangels laud; Oh strange and glorious thought, that we may be A joy to Thee!
Yet the heart turns away From this grand destiny of bliss, and deems 'Twas made for its poor self, for passing dreams, Chasing illusions melting day by day; Till for ourselves we read on this world's best, "This is not rest!"
December 6 NOW
IS THE ONLY TIME TO SUFFER
If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Romans 8:17
It is only now that we can go with Jesus into conflict, suffering, loneliness, weariness.
It is only now that we can come to the help of the Lord against the mighty in this great battlefield.
Shall we shrink from opportunities which are not given to angels?
Surely, even with Him in glory, the disciples must remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said to them,
"Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations," with a thrill of rapturous thanksgiving that such a privilege was theirs.
He knelt and prayed, and kissed the stake, And blessed his Master's name That he was called his cross to take.
And counted worthy for His sake To suffer death and shame.
December 7 REMEMBER Thou meetest .
. those that remember thee in thy ways.
Isaiah 64:5
The holy remembrance, wrought by the Spirit, widens.
For "we will remember the name of the Lord our God" in its sweet and manifold revelations.
"I will remember the years" and "the works of the Lord."
"Surely I will remember Thy wonders of old."
Most of all "we will remember Thy love," the everlasting love of our Father, the "exceeding great love of our Master and only Saviour," the gracious, touching love of our Comforter.
And the remembrance of all this love will include that of its grand act and proof, "Thou shalt remember that .
. Jehovah thy God redeemed thee."
O Love that chose, O Love that died, O Love that sealed and sanctified, All glory, glory, glory be, O covenant. Triune God, to Thee I December 8
DELIGHT OF SELF-DENIAL
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself.
Matthew 16:24
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.
Philippians :!:8
"What about self-denial?" some reader will ask.
Consecration does not supersede this, but transfigures it.
Literally, a consecrated life is and must be a life of denial of self.
But all the effort and pain of it is changed into very delight. We love our Master; we know, surely and absolutely, that He is listening and watching our every word and way, and that He has called us to the privilege of walking "worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." And in so far as this is a reality to us, the identical things which are still self-denial in one sense, become actual self-delight in another.
It may be self-denial to us to turn away from something within reach of our purse which it would be very convenient or pleasant to possess.
But if the Master lifted the veil, and revealed Himself standing at our side, and let us hear His audible voice asking us to reserve the price of it for His treasury, should we talk about self-denial then?
Should we not be utterly ashamed to think of it? or rathei",
should we, for one instant, think about self or self-denial at all ? Would it not be an unimaginable joy to do what He asked us to do with that money?
But as long as His own unchangeable promise stands written in His Word for us, "Lo, I am with you alway," we may be sure that He is with us, and that His eye is as certainly on our opened or half-opened purse as it was on the treasury, when He sat over against it and saw the two mites cast in.
So let us do our shopping "as seeing Him who is invisible."
Only one heart to give, only one voice to use; Only one little life to live, and only one to lose.
Poor is my best, and small; how could I dare divide?
Surely my Lord shall have it all. He shall not be denied!
December 9
DWELLING AND WORKING
There they dwelt with the king for his work.
1 Chronicles 4:23
"There!"
Not in any likely place at all, not in the palace, not in the city of the great king, but in about the last place one would have expected, "among plants and hedges."
It does not even seem clear why they were there at all, for they were potters, not gardeners— thus giving us the combination of simple labor of the hands, carried on in out-of-the-way places
; and yet they were dwellers with the king, and workers with the king.
Anywhere and everywhere we, too, may dwell with the King for His work. We may be in a very unlikely or unfavorable place for this — it may be in a literal country life, with little enough to be seen of the goings of the King around us; it may be among hedges of all sorts, hindrances in all directions ; it may be, furthermore, with our hands full of all manner of pottery for our daily task. No matter!
The King who placed us there will come and dwell there with us; the hedges are all right, or He would soon do away with them, and it does not follow that what seems to hinder our way may not be for its very protection ; and as for the pottery, why, that is just exactly what He has seen fit to put into our hands, and therefore it is, for the present, "His work."
Now I will turn to my own land, and tell What I myself have seen and heard of Thee, And give Thine own sweet message, "Come and see!"
And yet in heart and mind forever dwell With Thee, my King of Peace, in loyal rest.
Within the fair pavilion of Thy presence blest.
December 10
IGNORANCE AND KNOWLEDGE
These things will they do .
. because they have not known the Father.
John 16:3
Ye have known the Father.
1 John 2:1.3
"If they only knew !" How often we say or think this when they misunderstand and misjudge a person, a position, or an action just because they do not know what we know! How we chafe against their speaking evil of things which they know not, and most of all when they speak wrongly or unworthily of a person whom we know much better than they do!
Ah, if they only knew !
This grieving sense of the injustice of ignorance rises to a feeling which needs much tempering of faith and patience when we see our God Himself misunderstood and misjudged.
Oh, how they daily mistake His words and His character, and how it does pain us!
How we do want them to know what He is, even so far as we are privileged to know Him!
. What added grandeur it gives to our anticipations of the day when every eye shall see Him, that He, our Father, will be known at last to be what He is, and that Jesus, our Lord and Master, will be seen in His own glory, and can never, never be misunderstood any more!
Oh, the joy to see Thee reigning, Thee, my own beloved Lord I Every tongue Thy name confessing.
Brought to Thee with glad accord!
Thee, my Master and my Friend, Vindicated and enthroned.
Unto earth's remotest end Glorified, adored, and owned!
December 11
DRAWN BY LOVE
I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Jeremiah 31:3
Just examine now—was it not so? Was it with anything but lovingkindness that He drew you?
Remember the way by which He led you ; it may have been hedged with thorns, but was it not paved with love? Were not the very stones laid with fair colors?
Can you help seeing the lovingkindness of the Lord all along? And what were they lavished for, but to draw you? That being acknowledged, what next?
Lovingkindness is
the fruit and expression and absolute proof of everlasting love.
There is no escape from this magnificent conclusion—"Yea, I have loved thee [personally thee] .
. therefore .
. have I drawn thee [personally thee]."
The coming was personal and individual.
It may have been "in the press," but we had nothing to do with the rest of the throng. We know in ourselves that we, you and I, individually, have come.
That personal coming was because of God the Father's personal drawing.
I do not know how He drew you, you do not know how He drew me, but without it most certainly neither you nor I ever could have come, because we never would have come.
From no less fountain such a stream could flow.
No other root could yield so fair a flower; Had He not loved, He had not drawn us so; Had He not drawn, we had nor will nor power
To rise, to come — the Saviour had passed by Where we in blindness sat without one care or cry.
December 12
LASTING JOY
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
John 15:11
Who that has known anything of joy in the Lord but has asked, "But will it last?" And why has the question been so often the very beginning of its not lasting? Because we have either asked it of ourselves or of others, and not of the Lord only.
His own answers to this continually recurring question are so different from the cautious, chilling, saddening ones which His children so often give.
They are absolute, full, reiterated.
We little realize how unscriptural we are when we meet His good gift of joy to ourselves or to others with a doubtful, and therefore faithless, "If it lasts!"
"To the law and to the testimony," happy Christian! there you shall find true and abundant answer to our only shadow on the brightness of the joy.
So long as you believe your Lord's word about it, so long it will last.
So soon as you ask of other counselors, and believe their word instead, so soon it will fail.
Jesus meets your difficulty explicitly.
He has provided against it by giving the very reason why He spoke the gracious words of His last discourse.
"That My joy might remain in you."
O the freedom and the fervor after all the faithless days!
O the ever-new thanksgiving and the ever-flowing praise!
Shall we tempt the gaze from Jesus, and a doubting shadow cast, Satan's own dark word suggesting by the whisper "if it last"?
December 13
AS THE TREE FALLS, SO IT LIES
Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble.
Psalm 32:7
A man shall be as an hiding niace from the wind, and a covert from the tempest.
Isaiah 32:2
Any hour may be the sunset of your day of grace, with no twilight of possibilities of salvation beyond. And then, as the tree falleth, so it lieth.
As death finds you, so judgment will find you. Where it finds you .
. there the day of the Lord will find you, "in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up."
What will you do then, when neither heavens nor earth afford even a standing place for you?
But come to Jesus. He is the hiding place from that fiery tempest.
"I flee unto Thee to hide me" "from the wrath to come."
"Thou art my Hidingplace."
Thou hast the words of endless life; Thou givest victory in the strife; Thou only art the changeless Friend.
On whom for aye we may depend:
In life, in death, alike we flee, O Saviour of the world, to Thee.
December 14
OUR ROYAL SUBSTITUTE
I will smite the king only.
2 Samuel 17:2
It may be that this futile threat of a wicked man against the king was like the saying of Caiaphas — "not of himself," but written for our learning "more about Jesus." A deadly stroke was to be aimed at "the king only," for he was "worth ten thousand" of the people; if he were smitten, they should escape. Do the words of David in another place tell of his great Antitype's desire that it should be so?
"Let Thine hand, I pray Thee, Lord my God, be on me, .
. but not on Thy people."
"For the transgression of my people was the stroke upon Him"
(margin) ; therefore not upon us, never upon us.
The lightning that strikes the conductor instead of the building to which it is joined, has spent its fiery force and strikes no more.
"The King onbj."
For "by Himself He purged our sms."
Cei-tainly we had nothing to do with it then!
Certainly no other man or means had anything to do with it! and certainly nothing and no one now can touch that great fact, so far out of reach of human quibbling and meddling, that Jesus, "His own self, bare our sins in His own body on the tree."
Is not the fact that He "with whom we have to do," was smitten of God instead of us, enough? What else can we want to guarantee our salvation?
"Now I see!"
But not the parting of the melting earth and sky.
Not a vision dread and startling, forcing one despairing cry.
But I see the solemn saying. All have sinned, and all must die; Holy precepts disobeying, guilty all the world must lie.
Bending, silenced, to the dust, now I see that God is just.
"Now I see!"
But not the glory, not the face of Him I love, Not the full and burning story of the mysteries above.
But I see what God hath spoken, how His well-beloved Son Kept the laws which man hath broken, died for sins which man hath done; Dying, rising, throned above!
Now I see that God is love.
December U
WORDS WITH WEIGHT
Grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
Psalm 45:2
And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
Luke 4:22
It is often helpful to read straight through one or more of the Gospels with a special thought on our mind, and see how much bears upon it. When we read one through with this thought
"His lips for me"—wondering, verse by verse, at the grace which was poured into them and the gracious words M'hich fell from them, wondering more and more at the cumulative force and infinite wealth of tenderness and power and wisdom and love flowing from them, we cannot but desire that our lips and all the fruit of them should be wholly for Him. "For thee" they were opened in blessing; "for thee" they were closed when
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And whether teaching, warning, counsel, comfort, or encouragement, commandments in whose keeping there is a great reward, or promises which exceed all we ask or think—all the precious fruit of His lips is "for thee," really and truly meant "for thee."
Christ is precious, oh most precious, gift by God the Father sealed; Pearl of greatest price and treasure, hidden, yet to us revealed; His own people's crown of glory, and resplendent diadem;
More than thousand worlds, and dearer than all life and love to them.
December 16
JOY IN SERVING
He that waiteth on his master shall be honoured.
Proverbs 27:18
And he shall serve him for ever.
Exodus 21:6
A promise only differs from a threat by one thing, love!
But that makes all the difference.
To those who are still enemies in their minds, the prospect of serving forever would be anything but pleasant.
But when the enmity is slain by the cross of Christ, and all things are become new, and the love of Christ constraineth, then it is among the brightest of our many bright anticipations, and everlasting joy and everlasting service become almost synonymous.
Rest is sweet, but service (in proportion to our love) is sweeter still.
Those who have served much here cannot but anticipate the fuller and more perfect service above.
Those who have to do little more than stand and wait here, will perhaps revel even more than others in the new experience of active service, coming at once, as it were, into its full delight.
"Shall serve Him" — and forever; Oh, hope most sure, most fair I The perfect love outpouring In perfect service there!
December 17
GIVING MUST COST
The abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
Corinthians 8:2
Neither will I offer .
. unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing.
2 Samuel 24:24
But I do not see at all how self-indulgence and needless extravagance can possibly co-exist with true consecration.
If we really never do go without anything for the Lord's sake, but, just because He has graciously given us means, always supply for ourselves not only every need but every notion, I think it is high time we looked into the matter before God. Why should only those who have limited means have the privilege of offering to their Lord that which has really cost them something to offer?
Observe, it is not merely going without something we would naturally like to have or do, but going without it for Jesus' sake.
Not, "I will go without it, because, after all, I can't very well afford it"
; or, "because I dare say I shall be glad I have not spent the money"; but, "I will do without it,
because I do want to do a little more for Him who so loves me—just that much more than I could do if I did this other thing."
I fancy this is more often the heart-language of those who have to cut and contrive, than of those who are able to give liberally without any cutting and contriving at all.
The very abundance of God's good gifts too often hinders from the privilege and delight of really doing without something superfluous or comfortable or usual, that they may give just that much more to their Lord. What a pity All! for the last and least He stoopeth to uplift:
The altar of my great High Priest Shall sanctify my gift.
December 18
A SAFEGUARD FROM TEMPTATION
And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it .
. upon the thumb of his right hand.
Leviticus 14:14
We have given the hand to the Egyptians.
Lamentations 5:6
It may seem an odd idea, but a simple glance at one's hand, with the recollection, "This hand is not mine
; it has been given to Jesus, and it must be kept for Jesus," may sometimes turn the scale in a doubtful matter, and be a safeguard from certain temptations.
With that thought fresh in your mind as you look at your hand, can you let it take up things which, to say the very least, are not for Jesus? things which evidently cannot be used, as they most certainly are not used, either for Him or by Him?
Cards, for instance!
Can you deliberately hold in it books of a kind which you know perfectly well, by sadly repeated experience, lead you farther from instead of nearer to Him? books which must and do fill your mind with those other things which, entering in, choke the Word? books which you would not care to read at all, if your heart were burning within you at the coming of His feet to bless you?
Next time any temptation of this sort approaches, just look at your hand Just to ask Him what to do all the day, And to make you quick and true to obey.
Just to know the needed grace He bestoweth, Every bar of time and place overfloweth.
Just to take thy orders straight From the Master's own command I Blessed day! when thus we wait Always at our Sovereign's hand.
December 19
REMARKABLE AND FAR-REACHING
And God saw .
. that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 6:5
There is real comfort in knowing that every imagination of the thoughts of the natural heart is only evil continually, because this shows how really He is working in us when we find Him putting and keeping holy things in our minds. We may be quite sure no Godward thought comes natural to us
; but His new covenant is, "I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts."
The words are very remarkable and far-reaching. We feel that they go to the very depths, that it is our whole mental being which is to be thus pervaded with the incense of consecration; not that it is to be kept only in some inner recess of the heart, and not equally so in the mental consciousness, "Keep this for ever in the imagination."
Such mystery of iniquity within.
That we must loathe our very tho'ts, but for the cure He hath devised — the blessed Tree The Lord hath shown us, that, cast in, can heal The fountain whence the bitter waters flow.
Divinest remedy whose power we feel, Whose Krace we comprehend not, but we know.
December 20
"AFTERWARD" — NOW AND ALWAYS
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Hebrews 12:11
There are some promises which we are apt to reserve for great occasions, and thus lose the continual comfort of them.
Perhaps we read this one with a sigh, and say: "How beautiful this is for those whom the Lord is really chastening!
I almost think I should not mind that, if such a promise might then be mine.
But the things that try me are only the little things that turn up every day to trouble and depress me."
Well, now, does the Lord specify what degree of trouble, or what kind of trouble is great enough to make up a claim to the promise? And if He does not, why should you?
He only defines it as "not joyous, but grievous."
Perhaps there have been a dozen different things today which were "not joyous,
but grievous" to you. And though you feel ashamed of feeling them so much, and hardly like to own to their having been so trying, and would not think of dignifying them as "chastening," yet, if they come under the Lord's definition. He not only knows all about them, but they were, every one of them, chastenings from His hand ; neither to be despised and called "just nothing," when all the while they did grieve you; nor to be wearied of; because they are working out blessing to you and glory to Him.
Every one of them has been an unrecognized token of His love and interest in you; for "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth."
"There is no 'afterward' on earth for me!"
Beloved, 'tis not so!
That God's own "afterwards" are pledged to thee.
Thy life shall show.
But living fruit of righteousness to Him His chastening shall yield, And constant "afterwards," no longer dim.
Shall be revealed.
Is it no "afterward" that in thy heart His love is shed abroad?
And that His Spirit breathes, while called apart.
The peace of God?
December 21
A HIGHER MOTIVE
He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.
Psalm 40:3
O sing unto the Lord a nevsr song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth.
Psalm 96:1
It is not only for the sake of the unsaved that we want them so much to come to the Saviour.
Our earnestness has a stronger spring than even that.
We love our Lord, so that we cannot bear Him not to be esteemed aright. We cannot bear Him to be thought little of, and to be misunderstood; it is pain, real pain, to us when He is not appreciated and loved and adored—when all that He has done is treated as not worth whole-hearted gratitude and love—when His great and blood-bought salvation is neglected.
For His own beloved sake, for His own glory's sake, we want others to come, that they too may love, and bless, and glorify Him!
Do ye doubt our feeble witness? Though ye scorn us, come and see!
Come and hear Him for yourselves, and ye shall know that it is He!
Ve shall find in Him the Center, the very Truth and Life, Resplendent resolution of the endless doubt and strife.
December 22
OUR INVINCIBLE DEFENDER
Nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Luke 10:19
Is not this one of those very strong promises which we are apt to think are worded a little too strongly, and off w'hich we take a great discount?
Now, instead of daring a "Yea, hath God said?" let us just take all the comfort and rest and gladness of it for ourselves. Let us believe every word, just as our beloved Master uttered it to the simple-hearted seventy who were so surprised to find His name so much more powerful than they expected.
Nothing?
If He said "nothing," have we any right to add, "Yes, but except .
."?
Nothing can hurt those who are joined to Christ, "for with Me thou shalt be in safeguard," unless anything can be found which should separate us from Him. And "who shall separate us?"
Earthly tribulations, even the most terrible, shall not do it, for "in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." Yet a farther-reaching and indeed, entirely exhaustive list is given, none of which, "nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us."
Our Father, our Father, who dwellest in light.
We lean on Thy love, and we rest on Thy might; In weakness and weariness joy shall abound.
For strength everlasting in Thee shall be found:
Our Refuge, our Helper in conflict and woe.
Our mighty Defender, how blessed to know That Thine is the power:
December 23
TENDERNESS
And the king commanded .
. saying. Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom.
2 Samuel 18:5
Even with Absalom ! Even with the heartless, deliberate traitor and rebel. We must recollect clearly what he was, to appreciate the exquisite tenderness of David in such a command to his rough war captains in such untender times.
For the sake of his people and his kingdom, he must send them forth against him, but the deep love gushes out in the bidding, "Deal gently for my sake."
It was no new impulse.
When Amnon was murdered, the king wept very sore and mourned for his son every day, and yet, when the fratricide had fled, the soul of
King David longed to go forth unto him, and the king's heart was toward Absalom.
And when God's own vengeance fell upon the wicked son, David's lamentation over him is perhaps unparalleled in its intensity of pathos among the records of human tenderness.
Turn to the Antitype, and see the divine tenderness of our King. Again and again it gleams out, whether
He Himself wept, or whether He said, "Weep not"—whether in the tender look, the tender word, or the tender touch of gentlest mercy. May we not recognize a command in this, as well as a responsibility to follow the example of the gentleness of Christ?
Perhaps next time we are tempted to be a little harsh or hasty with an erring or offending one, the whisper will come, "Deal gently, for My sake!"
Return I O erring, yet beloved!
I wait to bind thy bleeding feet, for keen And rankling are the thorns where thou hast been;
I wait to give thee pardon, love, and rest; Is not My joy to see thee safe and blest?
Return!
I wait to hear once more thy voice.
To welcome thee anew, and bid thy heart rejoice!
December 24
SIMPLE TRUST FOR INFINITE REST
The word of my lord the king shall now be "for rest."
2 Samuel 14:17 (margin) Here is the whole secret of rest from the very beginning to the very end.
The word of our King is all we have and all we need for deep, utter heart-rest, which no surface waves of this troublesome world can disturb. What gave "rest from thy sorrow and from thy fear" at the very first, when we wanted salvation and peace?
It was not some vague, pleasing impression, some indefinable hush that came to us (or if it was, the unreality of the rest was soon proved), but some word of our King which we saw to be worthy of all acceptation; we believed it, and by it Jesus gave us rest. There is no other means of rest for all the way but the very same.
The moment we simply believe any word of the King, we find that it is truly "for rest," about the point to which it refers. And if we would but go on taking the King's word about every single thing, we should always find it, then and there, "for rest."
The Master hath said it I Rejoicing in this.
We ask not for sign or for token; His word is enough for our confident bliss, "The Scripture cannot be broken!"
December 2')
WONDERFUL
His name shall be called Wonderful.
Isaiah 9:6
All the other names of Jesus are nouns.
But here is a name that is an adjective; so we may use it not only as a name by itself, but as an adjective to all His other names; and the more we know Him and love Him the more we shall delight in this.
If we know Jesus as our Saviour at all, we shall be quite sure that He is a Wonderful Saviour. And if we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we shall find more and more, year by year, and even day by day, what a Wonderful Friend, and Wonderful Gift, and Wonderful High Priest, and Wonderful everything else He is.
When you see a wonderful sight, don't you always want others to see it first thing? And if you cannot bring them to see it, don't you want to tell about it, try to give them an idea of it?
So I think one proof that we have really found Jesus is that we shall want others to come and see what a Wonderful Saviour we have found.
Jesus is Wonderful in what He is.
Even the angels must have wondered to see the Son of God, whom they all worship, lying in a manger as a little baby. But I think they must have wondered more still when they saw "Him taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain."
They must have marvelled indeed then at the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, yet He was not dying for them but for you, so you may say, "Thy love to me was wonderful."
Everything that He did was wonderful.
Isaiah said that many should be astonished at Him ; and I want you to see how exactly that was fulfilled.
Look in the first seven chapters of Mark, and you will see it five times mentioned that they were astonished or amazed at Him.
And His words were not less wonderful.
Look in the 4th chapter of Luke, and you will see how even those who did not love Him wondered, and were astonished and amazed at His words.
If we wonder at His gracious words to us now, how much more shall we wonder when we see Him on the throne of His glory, and hear His own voice.
O Bringer of Salvation, wlio wondrously hast wrouRht, Thyself the revelation of love beyond our thought:
We worship Thee, we bless Thee, to Thee alone we sing; We praise Thee, and confess Thee, our gracious Lord and King!
December 26
WE — THY BONE AND THY FLESH
The king is near of kin to us.
2 Samuel 19:42
Not only in the Prophet raised up "from the midst of thee, of thy brethren," and in the High Priest, "thy brother," taken from among men, do we see the kinship of Christ; but in the divinely chosen King the same wonderful link is given—"One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother."
When we have exhausted all that is contained in the very full and dear idea of brother, we are led beyond, to realize One who "sticketh closer than a brother."
. The King is so near of kin, that we may come to Him as the tribes of Israel did, and say, "Behold, we are Thy bone and Thy flesh."
So near of kin, that He is "in all things" "made like unto His brethren."
So "near of kin to us," and yet God ! Is this not worth thinking out?
Oh let me sing .
. For very joy. because Thou an ray King:
Oh let me praise .
. Thy love and faithfulness thro' all my days.
December 21
ON GIVING
Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee.
Deuteronomy 16:17
There is always a danger that just because we say "all," we may practically fall shorter than if we had only said "some," but said it very definitely.
God recognizes this, and provides against it in many departments.
For instance, though our time is to be "all" for Him, yet He solemnly sets apart the one day in seven which is to be specially for Him.
Those who think they know better than God, and profess that every daj^ is a Sabbath, little know what flood-gates of temptation they are opening by being so very wise above what is written.
God knows best, and that should be quite enough for every loyal heart.
So, as to money, though we place it all at our Lord's disposal, and rejoice to spend it all for Him directly or indirectly, yet I am quite certain it is a great help and safeguard, and, what is more, a matter of simple obedience to the spirit of His commands, to set aside a definite and regular proportion of our income or receipts for His direct service.
I gave My life for thee, My precious blood I shed, That thou might'st ransomed be, and quickened from the dead.
I gave My life for thee; what hast thou given for Me?
December 28
HEARTS FILLED AND FIXED
His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.
Psalm 112:7
Whose heart? An angel's?
A saint's in glory?
No!
Simply the heart of the man that feareth the Lord, and delighteth greatly in His commandments.
Therefore yours and mine, as God would have them be; just the normal idea of a God-fearing heart, nothing extremely and hopelessly beyond attainment.
"Fixed, trusting in the Lord."
Here is the means of the fixing—trust. He works the trust in us by sending the Holy Spirit to reveal God in Christ to us as absolutely, infinitely worthy of our trust.
When we "see Jesus" by Spirit-wrought faith, we cannot but trust Him; we distrust our hearts more truly than ever before, but we trust our Lord entirely, because we trust
Him only.
For, entrusting our trust to Him, we know that He is able to keep that which we commit (i.e., entrust) to Him.
It is His own way of winning and fixing our hearts for Himself.
Nor can the vain toil cease.
Till in the shadowy maze of life we meet One who can guide our aching, wayward feet To find Himself, our Way, our Life, our Peace.
In Him the long unrest is soothed and stilled; Our hearts are filled.
December 29
PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE
Ye sought for David in times past to be king over you:
Now then do it.
2 Samuel 3:17-18 Well we might, for the bondage of any other lord was daily harder.
Well we might, with even a dim glimpse of the grace and glory of the King who waited for our homage. We sought, first, only for something—we hardly knew what—restlessly and vaguely ; then, for Someone, who was not merely the desire of all nations, but our own desire.
And yet we did not come to the point: we were not ready for His absolute monarchy, for we were loving and doing the will of our old tyrant. We come face to face with a great "now!" "Now then do it!" He does not force allegiance—He waits for it.
The crown of our own individual love and loyalty must be offered by our own hands.
We must do it. When?
Oh, now! Now let us, first in solemn heart-surrender, and then in open and unmistakable life-con-
fession, yield ourselves to Him as our Sovereign, our Ruler.
What a glorious life of victory and peace opens before us when this is done!
What a silencing of our fears lest the time to come should nevertheless be as the time past!
God's "Now" is sounding in your ears; oh, let it reach your heart!
Not only from your sinfulness He bids you part; Your righteousness as filthy rags must all relinquished be, And only Jesus' precious death must be your plea.
December 30
A CHANNEL FOR BOUNDLESS LOVE
The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Romans 5:5
When the Holy Spirit reveals the love of Christ, and sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, this (natural) love is penetrated with a new principle, as it discovers a new Object.
Everything that it beholds in that Object gives it new depth and new colors.
As it sees the holiness, the beauty, and the glory, it takes the deep hues of conscious sinfulness, unworthiness, and nothingness.
As it sees even a glimpse of the love that passeth knowledge, it takes the glow of wonder and gratitude. And when it sees that love drawing close to its deepest need with blood-purchased pardon, it is intensified and stirred, and there is no more time for weighing and measuring; we must pour it out, all there is of it, with our tears, at the feet that were pierced for love of us.
And what then?
Has the flow grown gradually slower and shallower?
Has our Lord reason to say, "My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as a stream of brooks they pass away"?
It is humiliating to have found that we could not keep on loving Him, as we loved in that remembered hour when "Thy time was the time of love." We have proved that we were not able.
Let this be only the steppingstone to proving that He is able!
Are you shining for Jesus, dear one?
You have given your heart to Him; But is the light strong within it, Or is it but pale and dim?
Can everybody see it That Jesus is all to you?
That your love to Him is burning With radiance warm and true?
Is the seal upon your forehead.
So that it must be known That you are "all for Jesus,"
That your heart is all His own?
December 31
SILENT NEARNESS
He will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest [be silent] in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17
With a passing guest or ceremonial acquaintance you feel under an obligation to talk ; you make effort to entertain them as a matter of courtesy; you may be tired or weak, but no matter, you feel you must exert yourself.
But with a very dear and intimate friend sitting by you, there is no feeling of the kind.
To be sure, you may talk if you feel able: pouring out all sort of confidences, relieved and refreshed by the interchange of thoughts and sympathies.
But if you are very tired, you know you do not need to say a word. You are perfectly understood, and you know it. You can enjoy the mere fact of your friend's presence, and find that does you more good than conversation.
The sense of that present and sympathetic affection rests you more than any words. And your friend takes it as the highest proof of your friendship and confidence, and probably never loves you so vividly as in these still moments.
Even so we may be silent to the Lord ; because we know He loves us and understands us so thoroughly
There is no need when very weary, bodily or mentally, or both, to force ourselves to entertain Him, so to speak ; to go through a sort of duty-work of a certain amount of uttered words or arranged thoughts.
That might be if He were only to us as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night, but not with the beloved and gracious One who has come in to abide with us, and is always there
If this is His relation to us, there is no fear but what there will be, at other times, plenty of intercourse ; but now, when we are "so tired," we may just be silent to Him, instead of speaking to Him.
Love culminates in bliss when it doth reach A white, unflickering, fear-consuming glow; And, knowing it is known as it doth know.
Needs no assuring word or soothing speech.
It craves but silent nearness, so to rest, No sound, no movement, love not heard but felt.
Longer and longer still, till time should melt, A snowflake on the eternal ocean's breast.
Have moments of this silence starred thy past, Made memory a glory-haunted place, Taught all the joy that mortal ken can trace?
By greater light 'tis but a shadow cast So shall the Lord thy God rejoice o'er thee, And in His love will rest, and silent be.
ADVENT SONG
Thou art coming ! rays of glory Through the veil Thy death has rent, Touch the mountain and the river With a golden glowing quiver, Thrill of light and music blent.
Earth is brightened when this gleam Falls on flower and rock and stream; Life is brightened when this ray Falls upon its darkest day.
Not a cloud and not a shadow.
Not a mist and not a tear, Not a sin and not a sorrow.
Not a dim and veiled tomorrow, For that sunrise grand and clear!
Jesus, Saviour, once with Thee, Nothing else seems worth a thought!
Oh, how marvellous will be All the bliss Thy pain hath bought.
FINIS Another little volume filled with varied verse and song, Should wake another note of praise, unheard, but deep and strong For He who knows my truest need, and leads me day by day,
Has given the music that hath been such solace on my way.
I bless Thee, gracious Father, who hast moulded praise from pain, And turned a wail of mourning to a trustful, calm refrain,
To many a sorrow giving me an afterward of song, And wafting it to other hearts in comfort true and strong.
1 bless Thee, gracious Father, for Thy pleasant gift to me, And earnestly I ask Thee that it may always be In perfect consecration laid at Thy glorious feet,
Touched with Thine altar-fire, and made an offering pure and sweet.
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