March

March 1st

Come up in the morning . . . and present thyself unto me in the top of the mount. Ex. xccxiv. 2. The morning is the time fixed for my meeting the Lord. This very word morning is as a cluster of rich grapes. Let me crush them, and drink the sacred wine. In the morning! Then God means me to be at my best in strength and hope. I have not to climb in my weakness. In the night I have buried yesterday's fatigue, and in the morning I take a new lease of energy. Sweet morning! There is hope in its music. Blessed is the day whose morning is sanctified! Successful is the day whose first victory was won in prayer! Holy is the day whose dawn finds thee on the top of the mount! Health is established in the morning. Wealth is won in the morning. The light is brightest in the morning. "Wake, psaltery and harp; I myself will awake early." Joseph Parker.

March 2nd

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Gal. vi. 7. The most common actions of life, its every day and hour, are invested with the highest grandeur, when we think how they extend their issues into eternity. Our hands are now sowing se^eds for that great harvest. We shall meet again all we are doing and have done. The graves shall give up their dead, and from the tombs of oblivion the past shall ^ive up all that it holds in keeping, to bear true witness for or against us. Guthrie,

March 3rd

There are eleven days^ journey from Horeb, by the way of mount Seir, unto Kadesh-barnea. Deut. i. 2. Eleven days, and yet it took them forty years! How was this? Alas! we need not travel far for the answer. It is only too like ourselves. How slowly we get over the ground! What windings and turnings! How often we have to go back and travel over the same ground, again and again. We are slow travelers because we are slow learners. Our God is a faithful and wise, as well as a gracious and patient Teacher. He will not permit us to pass cursorily over our lessons. Sometimes, perhaps, we think we have mastered a lesson and we attempt to move on to another, but our wise Teacher knows better, and He sees the need of deeper ploughing. He will not have us mere theorists or smatterers; He will keep us, if need be, year after year at our scales until we learn to sing. C. H. M.

March 4th

March 5th

As captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. Josh. v. 14. Surely Israel might now face the foe with unwavering confidence, and sing of victory even before the battle was gained. And so may the Christian. It is to no conflict of uncertain issue that he advances; the result of the battle is not doubtful. The struggle may be severe, the warfare long; he may sometimes, like the pilgrim, be beaten to the ground, and welbnigh lose his sword; but "though cast down" he is "not destroyed." The Captain of salvation is on his side, and in the midst of sharpest conflict he can say, " Thanks be unto God,

ay who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." S. A. Blackwood.

March 6th

March 7th

March 8th

Quench not the Spirit. Thess. v. J9. In order that you may not quench the Spirit, you must make it a constant study to know what is the mind of the Spirit. You must discriminate with the utmost care between His suggestions and the suggestions of your own deceitful heart. You will keep in constant recollection what are the offices of the Spirit as described by Christ in the Gospel of John. You will be on your guard against impulsive movements, inconsiderate acts, rash words You will abide in prayer. Search the Word. Confess Christ on all possible occasions. Seek the society of His people. Shrink from conformity to the world, its vain fashions, unmeaning etiquette. Be scrupulous in your reading. " What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch!" "Have oil in your lamps." "Quench not the Spirit." Bowen.

March 9th

in Christ, that looked upon His body as prepared by God for His service; that looks upon our body as prepared by Him too, that we might offer it to Him. Like Christ, we too have a body in which the Holy Spirit dwells. Like Christ, we too must yield our body, with every member, every power, every action, to fulfil His will, to be offered up to Him, to glorify Him. Like Christ, we must prove in our body that we are holy to the Lord. Andrew Murray.

March 10th

Full of [satisfied with] years. Gen. xxv. 8. Scaffoldings are for buildings, and the moments and days and years of our earthly lives are scaffolding. What are you building inside it? What kind of a structure will be disclosed when the scaffolding is knocked away? Days and years are ours, that they may give us what eternity cannot take away—a character built upon the love of God in Christ, and moulded into His likeness. Has your life helped you to do that? If so, you have got the best out of it, and your life is completed, whatever may be the number of its days. Quality, not quantity, is the thing that determines the perfectness of a life. Has your life this completeness? Alex. Mc- Laren.

March 11th

March 12th

Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me. Acts i. 8. Look at it! Think of it! A hundred and twenty men and women having no patronage, no promise of any earthly favor, no endowment, no wealth—a company of men and women having to get their living by

common daily toil, and busied with all the household duties of daily life—and yet ihey are to begin the conquests of Christianity! To them is entrusted a work wliich is to turn the world upside down. None so exalted but the influence of this lowly company shall reach to them, until the throne of the Caesars is claimed for Christ. None so far off but the power of this little band gathered in an upper room shall extend to them until the whole world is knit into a brotherhood! Not a force is there on the earth, either of men or devils, but they shall overcome it, until every knee shall bow to their Master, and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord. A thing impossible, absurd, look at it as you will, until you admit this they are to he filled icith the Holy Ghost. Then difficulties melt into the empty air. Then there is no limit to their hopes, for there is no limit to their power. Their strength is not only "as the strength of ten," it is as the strength of the Almighty. This is Christ's idea of Christianity; the idea not of man—it is infinitely too sublime—the idea of God!< —Mark Guy Pearse.

March 13th

He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fi'uit: for without Me ye can do nothing. John xv. 5. Too much taken up with our work, we may forget our Master; it is possible to have the hand full, and the heart empty. Taken up with our Master we cannot forget our work; if the heart is filled with His love, how can the hands not be active in His service? Adolphe Monod.

March 14th

strength. You feed on Christ, and then go and live your life; and it is Christ in you that lives your life, that heli)s the poor, that tells the truth, that fights the battles, and that wins the crown. Phillips Brooks.

March 15th

I sought Him, but I found Him not. Song of Sol. iii. 1. Tell me where you lost the company of Christ, and I will tell you the most likely place to find Him. Have you lost Christ in the closet by restraining prayer? Then it is there you must seek and find Him. Did you lose Christ by sin? You will find Him in no other way than by the giving up of the sin, and seeking by the Holy Spirit to mortify the member in which the lust doth dwell. Did you lose Christ by neglecting the Scriptures? You must find Him in the Scriptures. It is a true proverb, " Look for a thing where you dropped it; it is there." So look for Christ where you lost Him, for He has not gone away. Spurgeon.

March 16th

March 17th

They rest not day and night. Rev. iv. 8. O blessed rest! When we rest not day and night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty!" when we shall rest from sin, but not from worship; from suffering and sorrow, but not from joy! O blessed day, when I shall rest with God; when I shall rest in knowing, loving, rejoicing, and praising; w^hen my perfect soul and body shall together perfectly enjoy the most perfect God; when God, who is love itself, shall

perfectly love me, and rest in His love to me, and shall rest in my love to Him; when He shall rejoice over me with joy, and joy over me with singing, and I shall rejoice in Him! Baxter.

March 18th

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall ivalk, and not faint. Isa. xl. 31. The eagle that soars in the upper air does not worry itself as to how it is to cross rivers. Selected,

March 19th

Their eyes were holden, Luke xxiv. 16. Their eyes were opened. Luke xxiv. 31. There is much precious significance in this. The Lord is often present in our lives in things that we do not dream possess any significance. We are asking God about something which needs His mighty working, and the very instrument by which He is to work is by our side, perhaps for weeks and months and years all unrecognized, until suddenly, some day it grows luminous and glorious with the very presence of the Lord, and becomes the mighty instrument of His victorious working. He loves to show His hand through the unexpected. Often he keeps us from seeing His way until just before He opens it, and then, immediately that it is unfolded, we find that He was walking by our side in the very thing, long before we even suspected its meaning. A. B. Simpson.

March 20th

March 21st

He always has a purpose in His leading. He knows where the bits of green pasture are, and He would lead His flock to these. The way may be rough, but it is the right way to the pasture. "Paths of righteousness" may not be straight paths; but they are paths that lead somewhere— to the right place. Many desert paths are illusive. They start out clear and plain, but soon they are lost in the sands. They go nowhere. But the paths of righteousness have a goal to which they unerringly lead. J. B. Miller,

March 22nd

And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou xvilt send. Ex. iv. 13. " It was a very grudging assent. It was as much as to say, " Since Thou art determined to send me and I must undertake the mission, then let it be so; but I would that it might have been another, and I go because I am compelled." So often do we shrink back from the sacrifice or obligation to which God calls us, that we think we are going to our doom. We seek every reason for evading the divine will, little realizing that He is forcing us out from our quiet homes into a career which includes, among other things, the song of victory on the banks of the Red Sea; the two lonely sojourns for forty days in converse w^ith God; the shining face; the vision of glory; the burial by the hand of Michael; and the supreme honor of standing beside the Lord on the Transfiguration mount. F, B, Meyer,

March 23rd

March 24th

^^ The mother oi' Moses laid the ark in the flags by the river's brink. Ay, but before doing so, she laid it on the heart of God ! She could not have laid it so courageously upon the Nile, if she had not first devoutly laid it upon the care and love of God. We are often surprised at the outward calmness of men who are called upon to do unpleasant and most trying deeds; but could we have seen them in secret, we should have known the moral preparation which they underwent before coming - out to be seen by men. Be right in the sanctuary, if you would be right in the market-place. Be steadfast in prayer, if you would be calm in affliction. Start your race from the throne of God itself, if you would run well, and win the prize. Joseph Parker,

March 25th

March 26th

/ have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. John xvii. 4. Was the work of the Master indeed done? Was not its heaviest task yet to come? He had not yet met the dread hour of death. Why did He say that His work was done? It was because He knew that, when the will is given, the battle is ended. He was only in the shadows of the garden; but to conquer these shadows was already to conquer all. He who has willed to die has already triumphed over death. All that remains to Him is but the outer husk, the shell. The cup which our Father giveth us to drink is a cup for the will. It is easy for the lips to drain it when once the heart has accepted it. Not on the heights of Calvary, but in the shadows of Gethsemane is the cup presented; the act is easy after the choice. The real

battle-field is in the silence of the spirit. Conquer there, and thou art crowned. George Matheson,

March 27th

March 28th

God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. Gen. i. 4. No sooner is there a good thing in the world than a division is necessary. Light and darkness have no communion; God has divided them, let us not confound them. Sons of light must not have fellowship with deeds, doctrines, or deceits of darkness. The children of the day must be sober, honest, and bold in their Lord's work, leaving the works of darkness to those who shall dwell in it forever. W© should by our distinct separation from the world divide the light from the darkness. In judgment, in action, in hearing, in teaching, in association, we must discern between the precious and the vile, and maintain the great distinction which the Lord made upon the world's first day. O Lord Jesus, be Thou our light throughout the whole of this day, for Thy light is the light of men. —Spiirgeon.

March 29th

The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and m,ore unto the perfect day. Prov. iv. 18. Have I begun this path of heavenly love and knowledge now? Am I progressing in it? Do I feel some dawnings of the heavenly light, earnests and antepasts of the full day of glory? Let all God's dealings serve to quicken me in my way. Let every affection it may

please Him to send, be as the moving pillar-cloud of old, beckoning me to move my tent onward, saying, "Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest." Let me be often standing now on faith's lofty eminences, looking for "the day of God"—the rising sun which is to set no more in weeping clouds. Wondrous progression! How will all earth's learning, its boasted acquirements and eagle-eyed philosophy sink into the lispings of very infancy in comparison with this manhood of knowledge! Heaven will be the true ''Excelsior,'''' its song, "a song of degrees,''^ Jesus leading His people from height to height of glory, and saying, as He said to Nathaniel, '^Thou shalt see greater things than these! ^^—Macduff.

March 30th

Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards ; for our vineyards are in blossom. Song of Sol. ii. 15. {R. V.) How numerous the little foxes are! Little compromises with the world; disobedience to the still, small voice in little things; little indulgences of the flesh to the neglect of duty; little strokes of policy; doing evil in little things that good may come; and the beauty, and the fruitfulness of the vine are sacrificed! J, Hudson Taylor,

March 31st

The children of your Father which is in heaven. Matt. v. 45. The best name by which we can think of God is Father. It is a loving, deep, sweet, heart^touching name, for the name of father is in its nature full of inborn sweetness and comfort. Therefore, also, we must confess ourselves children of God, for by this name we deeply touch our God, since there is not a sweeter sound to the father than the voice of the child. Martin Luther.

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