January

January 1st

Come up in the morning . . . and present thyself . . . to me in the top of the mount. Ex. xxxiv. 2. I My Father, I am coming. Nothing on the mean plain shall keep me away from the holy heights. Help me to climb fast, and keep Thou my foot, lest it fall upon the hard rock! At Thy bidding I come, so Thou wilt not mock my heart. Bring with Thee honey from heaven, yea, milk and wine, and oil for my soul's good, and stay the sun in his course, or the time will be too short in which to look upon Thy face, and to hear Thy gentle voice. Morning on the mount! It will make me strong and glad all the rest of the day so well begun. Joseph Parker.

January 2nd

My reward is with me. Rev, xxii. 12. We are to be rewarded, not only for work done, but for burdens borne, and I am not sure but that the brightest rewards will be for those who have borne burdens without murmuring. On that day He will take the lily, that has been growing so long among thorns, and lift it up to be the glory and wonder of all the universe; and the fragrance of that lily will draw forth ineffable praises from all the hosts of heaven. Andrew Bonar.

January 3rd

way? Oh, let me say to thee this morning, "The Lord hath need of thee." It may seem to be only a little thing He has for you to do, but it is an important one. He has "need of thee." Turn not thy back upon Him; put not thyself out of the way of being employed by Him; do not begin by laying down laws for thyself as to what thou wilt do and what thou wilt not do; but cry out from the very depth of thy heart, " Here am I, send me," W. Hay Aitken.

January 4th

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. Psa. xxxiv. 19. All the afflictions of the righteous open out into something glorious. The prisoner is not merely delivered, but he finds an angel waiting for him at the door. And with every deliverance comes a specific blessing. One angel is named faith; another, love; another, joy; another, longsuffering; another, gentleness; another, goodness; another, meekness; another, temperance; another, peace. Each of these graces says, " We have come out of great tribulation." G. Bowen.

January 5th

The Lord is my . . . song. Psa. cxviii. 14. Let US think of God Himself becoming our song. This is the fulness and perfection of knowing God: so to know Him that He Himself becomes our delight; so to know Him that praise is sweetest, and fullest, and freshest, and gladdest, when we sing of Him. He who has learned this blessed secret carries the golden key of heaven—nay, he hath fetched heaven down to earth, and need not envy the angels now. Mark Guy Pearse.

January 6th

of profound difficulty—leading them into a wedge from which there is no escape; contriving a situation which no human judgment would have permitted, had it been previously consulted. The very cloud conducts them thither. You may be thus involved at this very hour. It does seem perplexing and very serious to the last degree; but it is perfectly right. The issue will more than justify Him who has brought you hither. It is a platform for the display of His almighty grace and power. He will not only deliver you, but in doing so He will give you a lesson that you will never forget; and to which, in many a psalm and song in after days, you will revert. You will never be able to thank God enough for having done just as He has. F. B. Meyer.

January 7th

January 8th

Take good heed therefore unto your souls. Josh, xxiii. 11. {Margin.) Gold cannot be used for currency as long as it is mixed with the quartz and rock in which it lies imbedded. So your soul is useless to God till taken out from sin and earthliness and selfishness, in which it lies buried. By the regenerating power of the Spirit you must be separated unto Christ, stamped with His image and superscription, and made into a divine currency, which shall bear His likeness among men. The Christian is, so to speak, the circulating medium of Christ, the coin of the realm by whom the great transactions of mercy and grace to a lost world are carried on. As the currency stands for the gold, so does the Christian stand for Christ, representing His good and acceptable will. A. J. Gordon.

January 9th

He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much. Luke xvi. 10. The least action of life can be as surely done from the loftiest motive as the highest and noblest. Faithfulness measures acts as God measures them. True conscientiousness deals with our duties as God deals with them. Duty is duty, conscience is conscience, right is right, and wrong is wrong, whatever sized type they be printed in. " Large " and " small " are not words for the vocabulary of conscience. It knows only two words—right and wrong. Alex. Maclaren.

January 10th

My Ood shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Phil. iv. 19. What a source—"God"! What a standard—" His riches in glory"! What a channel—"Christ Jesus"! It is your sweet privilege to place all your need over against His riches, and lose sight of the former in the presence of the latter. His exhaustless treasury is thrown open to you, in all the love of His heart; go and draw upon it, in the artless simplicity of faith, and you will never have occasion to look to a creature^stream, or lean on a creature-prop. C, H, M.

January 11th

Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. James i. 2, We cannot be losers by trusting God, for He is honored by faith, and most honored when faith discerns His love and truth behind a thick cloud of His ways and providence. Happy those who are thus tried! Let us only be clear of unbelief and a guilty conscience. We shall hide ourselves in the rock and pavilion of the Lord, sheltered beneath the wings of everlasting love till all calamities be overpast. Selected.

January 12th

Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. John XX. 29. The seen are shadows: the substance is found in the unseen. . . . No doubt, in Christ, the foundation of our faith is unseen; but so is that of yonder tower that lifts its tall erect form among the waves over which it throws a saving light. It appears to rest on the rolling billows; but, beneath these, invisible and immovable, lies the solid rock on which it stands secure; and when the hurricane roars above, and breakers roar below, I could go calmly to sleep in that lone sea tower. Founded on a rock, and safer than the proudest palace that stands on the sandy, surf-beaten shore, it cannot be moved. Still less the Rock of Ages! Who trusts in that is fit for death, prepared for judgment, ready for the last day's sounding trumpet, since, " The Lord redeem eth the soul of His servants, and none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate." Guthrie.

January 13th

Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. John xv. 8. What a possibility, what an inspiration, that we can enhance the glory of " our Father " ! Our hearts leap at the thought, How can this be done? By bearing "leaves,"— a profession of love for Him? No. By bearing some fruit? No. " That ye bear much fruit." In the abundance of the yield is the joy, the glory of the husbandman. We should, therefore, aim to be extraordinary, " hundred-fold " Christians, satisfied with none but the largest yield. Our lives should be packed with good deeds. Then at harvest time we can say, " Father, I have glorified Thee on the earth!" W. Jennings.

January 14th

lO There is a very beautiful device by which the Japanese are accustomed to express their wishes for their friends. It is the figure of a drum in which the birds have built their nest. The story told of it is that once there lived a good king, so anxiously concerned for the welfare of his people that at the palace gate he set a drum, and whoever had any wrong to be redressed or any want, should beat the drum, and at once, by day or night, the king would grant the suppliant an audience and relief. But throughout the land there reigned such prosperity and contentment that none needed to appeal for anything, and the birds built their nests within it and filled it with the music of their song. Such gracious access is granted to us even by the King of Heaven, and day and night His ready hearing and His help are within the reach of all that come to Him; but of all men most blessed are they who have found on earth a blessedness in which all want is forgotten, and trust rests so assured of safety in the Father's care that prayer gives place to ceaseless praise. They rejoice in the Lord alway,—Mark Guy Pearse.

January 15th

They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.—Isa. xl. 31. This, my soul, is the triumph of thy being—to be able to walk with God! Flight belongs to the young soul; it is the romance of religion. To run without weariness belongs to the lofty soul; it is the beauty of religion. But to walk and not faint belongs to the perfect soul; it is the power of religion. Canst thou walk in white through the stained thoroughfares of men ? Canst thou touch the vile and polluted ones of earth and retain thy garments pure? Canst thou meet in contact with the sinful and be thyself undefiled? Then thou hast surpassed the flight of the eagle ! George Matheson.

January 16th

And Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. Ex. xxiv. 18. The life of fellowship with God cannot be built up in a day. It begins with the habitual reference of all to Him, hour by hour, as Moses did in Egypt. But it moves on to more and longer periods of communion; and it finds its consummation and bliss in days and nights of intercession and waiting and holy intercourse. —F. B. Meyer.

January 17th

Elisha said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. Kings vi. 17. This is the prayer we need to pray for ourselves and for one another, " Lord, open our eyes that we may see "; for the world all around us, as well as around the prophet, is full of God's horses and chariots, waiting to carry us to places of glorious victory. And when our eyes are thus opened, we shall see in all the events of life, whether great or small, whether joyful or sad, a " chariot '' for our souls. Everything that comes to us becomes a chariot the moment we treat it as such; and, on the other hand, even the smallest trial may be a Juggernaut car to crush us into misery or despair if we so consider them. It lies with each of us to choose which they shall be. It all depends, not upon what these events are, but upon how we take them. If we lie down under them, and let them roll over us and crush us, they become Juggernaut cars, but if we climb up into them, as into a car of victory, and make them carry us triumphantly onward and upward, they become the chariots of God. Smith.

January 18th

tCL that work for the believer's good, but nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, and one beside.—George Müller.

January 19th

Thou shall make holy garments for Aaron. Ex. xxviii. 2. Have we no garments of blue, and purple, and beautiful suggestiveness? We have garments of praise; we are clothed with the Lord Jesus. And have we no ornaments? The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is, in the sight of God, of great price. And have we no golden bells? We have the golden bells of holy actions. Our words are bells, our actions are bells, our purposes are bells. Wherever we move, our motion is thus understood to be a motion towards holy places, holy deeds, holy character. Joseph Parker.

January 20th

My voice shall thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up. Psa. v. 3. The morning is the gate of the day, and should be well guarded with prayer. It is one end of the thread on which the day's actions are strung, and should be well knotted with devotion. If we felt more the majesty of life we should be more careful of its mornings. He who rushes from his bed to his business and waiteth not to worship is as foolish as though he had not put on his clothes, or cleansed his face, and as unwise as though he dashed into battle without arms or armor. Be it ours to bathe in the softly flowing river of communion with God, before the heat of the wilderness and the burden of the way begin to oppress us. Spurgeon.

January 21st

January 22nd

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Heb. iv. 9. How sweet the music of this first heavenly chime floating across the waters of death from the towers of the New Jerusalem. Pilgrim, faint under thy long and arduous pilgrimage, hear it! It is rest. Soldier, carrying still upon thee blood and dust of battle, hear it! It is REST. Voyager, tossed on the waves of sin and sorrow, driven hither and thither on the world's heaving ocean of vicissitude, hear it! The haven is in sight; the very waves that are breaking on thee seem to murmur ''So He giveth His beloved rest." It is the long-drawn sigh of existence at last answered. The toil and travail of -earth's protracted week is at an end. The calm of its unbroken Sabbath is begun. Man, weary man, has found at last the long^sought-for rest in the bosom of his God! Macduff.

January 23rd

Under His shadow. Song of Sol. ii. 3. Frances Eidley Havergal says: I seem to see four pictures suggested by that: under the shadow of a rock in a weary plain; under the shadow of a tree; closer still, under the shadow of His wing; nearest and closest, in the shadow of His hand. Surely that hand must be the pierced hand, that may oftentimes press us sorely, and yet evermore encircling, upholding and shadowing!

January 24th

He made as though He would have gone further. Luke xxiv. 28. Is not God always acting thus? He comes to us by His Holy Spirit as He did to these two disciples. He speaks to . us through the preaching of the Gospel, through the Word of God, through the various means of grace and the providential circumstances of life; and having thus spoken, He makes as though He would go further. If the ear be opened to His voice and the

heart to His Spirit, the prayer will then go up, " Lord, abide with me." But if that voice makes no impression, then He passes on, as He has done thousands of times, leaving the heart at each time harder than before, and the ear more closed to the Spirit's call. F. Whitfield.

January 25th

My God shall be my strength. Isa. xlix. 5. Oh, do not pray for easy lives! Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come in you by the grace of God. Phillips Brooks.

January 26th

Despising the shame. Heb, xii. 2. And how is that to be done? In two ways. Go up the mountain, and the things in the plain will look very small; the higher you rise the more insignificant they will seem. Hold fellowship with God, and the threatening foes here will seem very, very unformidable. Another way is, pull up the curtain and gaze on what is behind it. The low foot-hills that lie at the base of some Alpine country may look high when seen from the plain, as long as the snowy summits are wrapped in mist; but when a little puff of wind comes and clears away the fog from the lofty peaks, nobody looks at the little green hills in front. So the world's hindrances and the world's difficulties and cares look very lofty till the cloud lifts. But when we see the great white summits, everything lower does not seem so very high after all. Look to Jesus, and that will dwarf the difficulties.—JLko?. Maclaren.

January 27th

ij heaven, is a proof that some work awaits him.

William Arnot

January 28th

January 29th

The living God. Dan. vi. 20. How many times we find this expression in the Scriptures, and yet it is just this very thing that we are so prone to lose sight of! We know it is written ''the living God''''\ but in our daily life there is scarcely anything we practically so much lose sight of as the fact that God is The Living God; that He is now whatever He was three or four thousand years since; that He has the same sovereign power, the same saving love towards those who love and serve Him as ever He had, and that He will do for them now what He did for others two, three, four thousand years ago, simply because He is the living God, the unchanging One. Oh, how therefore we should confide in Him, and in our darkest moments never lose sight of the fact that He is still and ever will he The Living God!—George Muller.

January 30th

Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Rom. vi. 4. That is the life we are called upon to live, and that is the life it is our privilege to lead; for God never gives us a call without its being a privilege, and He never gives us the privilege to come up higher without stretching out to us His hand to lift us up. Come up higher and higher into the realities and glories of the resurrection life, knowing that your life is hid with Christ in God. Shake yourself loose of every incumbrance, turn your back on every defilement, give your-

self over like clay to the hands of the potter, that He may stamp upon you the fulness of His own resurrection glory, that you, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, may be changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.— W. Hay Aitken.

January 31st