f'r- ■,^"
,t tut ®lvco%%f ^
PRINCETON, N. J.
BV 4810 .N6 1896 ^
The Northfield year-book fo
each new day
Shelf.
FOR EACH NEW DAY
{Mrs. "Bdscv Holton {Moodv
Vii-iv of the Connecticut VaJtey
■V. L. {Moodv' s 'Birtliplace
FOR EACH NEW DAY
SELECTED AND ARRANGED
BY
Delavan L. Pierson
ILLUSTRATED
BY
MARY A. LATHBURY
New York Chicago Toronto
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
1896
Coi)yriglit, 1S06, by
Fleming H. Revell Company.
TO
MRS. BETSEY HOLTON MOODY
WHOSE SELF-DENYING LIFE OF FAITH AND LOVE
SO DEEPLY INFLUENCED THE CHARACTER AND LIFE OF HER SON
THROUGH WHOSE INSTRUMENTALITY NORTHFIELD HAS BECOME
A CENTER OF CHRISTIAN TEACHING, AND A PLACE OF
PENTECOSTAL POWER AND PRIVILEGE
THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED
[Mr. cMoociv's ^ible
BY WAY OF PREFACE
The Northfield Conferences have become famous
for the rich spiritual privileges which they afford
to Christians of every creed for joining in prayer
and consultation with men to whom the Holy Spirit
has given deep insight into divine truth and marked
success in Christian work. These conferences stand
for three things— devout and scholarly study of the
Word of God, close fellowship with the Son of God,
and increased spiritual power for the service of
God. It is a matter for regret that all of the most
valuable addresses here delivered could not have
been gathered yearly in permanent volumes for
constant reference; but this has been done only oc-
casionally, and such records as have been prepared
are now for the most part out of print. Enough
has been printed, however, in newspapers, maga-
zines, and books to form a rich mine, from which
we have sought in the present volume to gather
For Each New Day some of the choicest nuggets of
truth for the benefit of those who do not possess the
printed reports or who may find them more available
in this condensed form.
The power of the addresses has, of course, been
greatly increased by the personality of the speak-
3
PREFACE
ers, even as the attractiveness of Northfield is en-
hanced by the natural beauties of its surroundings.
Hence it seems most fitting that these "nuggets"
should be accompanied by portraits of some of the
men who have made the most marked impression on
their audiences, and by views of some of the pictur-
esque spots for which Northfield is noted.
We send this little book forth in the hope that it
will be the means of disseminating and perpetuat-
ing some of the glorious and heart-searching truths
which have been uttered at Northfield in the years
gone by, and many of which already have been
instrumental in the quickening and strengthen-
ing of the spiritual life of Christians at home and
abroad.
Delay AN L. Pierson.
LIST OF SPEAKERS QUOTED
Rev. William Ashmore, D. D.
Bishop M. E. Baldwin, D. D.
Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D. D.
William E. Blackstone.
Pres. Charles A. Blanchard.
Rev. Andrew A. Bonar, D. D.
Rev. John A. Broadus, D. D.
Rev. James H. Brookes, D. D.
Rev. J. Chamberlain, M.D.,D.D.
Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D. D.
Rev. W. W. Clark.
Rev. John E. Clough, D. D.
Rev. Joseph Cook, D. D.
Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.
Rev. John R. Davies, D. D.
Rev. A. C. Dixon, D. D.
Rev. I. D. Driver.
Prof. Henry Drummond.
Rev. W. J. Erdman, D. D.
Rev. W. H. P. Faunce, D. D.
Bishop Cyrus D. Foss, D. D.
Pres. Merrill E. Gates.
Rev. J. Monro Gibson, D. D.
Rev. E. P. Goodwin.
Rev. A. J. Gordon, D. D.
Rev. James M. Gray, D. D.
Rev. Wm. Henry Green, D. D.
Rev. David Gregg, D. D.
Rt. Rev. A. C. A. Hall, D. D.
Rev. H. L. Hastings.
Bishop Hendrix, D. D.
Rev. M. D. Hoge, D. D.
Rev. Geo. C. Lorimer, D. D.
Rev. H. C. Mabie, D. D.
Rev. R. S. MacArthur, D. D.
Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D. D.
Rev. John McNeill.
Rev. F. B. Meyer.
Rev. B. Fay Mills.
Pastor Adolph Monod.
D. L. Moody.
Prof. W. W. Moore.
John R. Mott.
Rev. L. W. Munhall.
Francis Murphy.
Rev. Andrew Murray.
Rev. George C. Needham.
Rev. John L. Nevius, D. D.
Rev. Chas. H. Parkhurst, D. D.
Pres. F. L. Patton, D. D., LL. D.
LIST OF SPEAKERS QUOTED
Rev. F. N. Peloubet, D. D.
Rev. George F. Pentecost, D. D.
Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D. D.
Rev. Marcus Rainsford.
Rev. A. F. Schauffler, D. D.
Rev. C. I. Scofield.
Rev. Wilton Merle Smith, D. D.
Robert E. Speer.
Rev. James Stalker, D. D.
Rev. Josiah Strong, D. D.
Rev. J. Hudson Taylor.
Bishop J. M. Thoburn, D. D.
Rev. Robt. Ellis Thompson, D. D.
Rev. R. A. Torrey.
Prof. L. T. Townsend.
Rev. H. Clay Trumbull, D. D.
Prebendary H. W. Webb-Peploe
Rev. Nathaniel West, D. D.
Major D. W. Whittle.
John_G. Woolley.
^
ILLUSTRATIONS
Mrs. Betsey Holton Moody, View of the Connecti-
cut Valley, D. L. Moody's Birthplace . . Frontispiece
Mr. Moody's Bible
The Pines
Winter Weeds
Facing Preface
January
The Home of D. L.
Moody
February
Andrew A. Bonar Bonar Glen
Lenten Lilies
Easter Lilies
March
Andrew Murray
April
A. J. Gordon
Wanamaker Falls
Gordon Lake
Apple Blossoms
Roses
May
F. B. Meyer
June
Francis L. Patton
The Seminary Build-
ings
Entrance to Lovers'
Retreat
7
ILLUSTRATIONS
July
Poppies Arthur T. Pierson Round Top
Awgtist
Maidenhair Fern H. W. Webb-Peploe The Auditorium
September
Chrysanthemums R. A. Torrev '^^^ ^^"^^ Hermon
•' Ferry
October
Oak Leaves John McNeill ^^® ^^^^ *o Camp
Northfield
November
Blue Gentians J. Hudson Taylor Cathedral Pines
December
Holly and Mistletoe Theo. L. Cuyler Seminary Grounds,
Winter Scene
^
[Month of January
The Tines
The Home ofT>. L. Moody
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the
glory of God.— Rom. v. 1, 2.
Peace for the past, grace for the present, and
glory for the future. Yes, there is glory for the
future; nothing before the true believer that isn't
glory. I think it would take the wrinkles out of
your brow if you would just look into the future
instead of into the past.
There are two kinds of people— some that live on
the past, and some that live on the future. You
never saw a person living upon the past all the time,
and always talking about the past, that did not have
a good many wrinkles on his brow. Instead of cast-
ing all their care on Him that careth for them, they
are all the time thinking about their troubles. They
go to a meeting, and when it is over they say,
"Wasn't it splendid! I enjoyed it so much; I forgot
all my cares and all my troubles." They laid their
bundle down under the seat, feut the moment the bene-
diction was over they picked it up again. Remember
that everything before the believer is glory.
D. L. Moody.
One result of communion with God is to make us
tender of all that respects God's honor. Moses for-
got himself; he had no room for thought of self;
hence God was able to clothe him with a halo of
glory. An earthly king likes to clothe his servants
in fine robes, and God is pleased when we enable him
to bless us.
Andrew A. Bonar.
DAY
IV
Men sometimes say, " We grant that the arguments
in favor of Christianity make its doctrines almost a
certitude, but isn't it just barely possible that some
other theory is true? " Suppose that it is, what are
you going to do about it ? A man says to me, " I am
going to Europe, and want to know on what vessel I
would better go." I say, " Well, there is a vessel
down at the wharf which stands A No. 1 at Lloyd's,
has a splendid record, safe cargo, fine captain, and
picked crew; there is every probability that if you go
in that vessel you will have a safe voyage. Here is
another vessel, that leaks like a sieve, has a drunken
captain and a mutinous crew. I don't think the
chances of your making a safe voyage are very
bright if you go on that vessel, but of course you can
do it if you want to." " Well," he says, " I will think
it over." The next day he comes back and says, " Did
I understand you that you would make an affidavit
that you could prove that this Cunard steamer would
go over all right, and that the other vessel was bound
for the bottom ? " " No," I say; " I didn't say that,
but I said there was very great likelihood of it."
" Well," he says, " I have been thinking this thing
over a good deal, and I have made up my mind that
if you could not prove that this vessel is going over
safely, and that the other is going to the bottom, I
am going to take the leaky vessel." " Oh well," I
say, " that is just as you choose. You are taking
the risk. If you want to go to sea on a raft or an
egg-shell, go; but I have done my duty when I have
told you which is the best vessel to go on."
Francis L. Patton.
12
DAY
V
We need to apprehend more clearly that for which
we have been apprehended. The blind man does not
need more light, but more eyes; the deaf man does
not need more sound, but more hearing; and the
Christian does not need more of the Spirit, but more
of the inspiration; that is, the inbreathing of the
Spirit. Suppose I go to a man who is sick with the
pneumonia, and the nurse says, " Oh, sir, he needs
more air." " But the windows are all wide open, my
dear woman; he has all the air there is. Do you not
see that it is not more air that he wants, but more
lungs ? " Now the Spirit is spiritus, the breath of
God, the breath of Jesus Christ; and the church is the
lungs of Jesus Christ, if I may say it, and you and I
are the cells in those lungs, and if the lungs get
closed up, you will have a consumptive church, a
feeble church, an asthmatic church, a church that is
full of weakness and failure, simply because it does
not take in more of the Spirit. It is not that you
need more of the Holy Ghost, but the Holy Ghost
needs more of you. ... I believe that the Holy
Ghost is in the church in living power. If you will
only let him he will do things of which you hardly
dream, in the management of the church and the
raising of funds, but most especially in the preach-
ing of the gospel. Christ prom.ised that the Spirit
was to show us things to come, to bring all things to
our remembrance, and to help our infirmities. There
is nothing we need that he has not promised to do for
us, and it is to me the most real experience.
A. J. Gordon.
13
DAY
VI
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.— Luke
xviii. 11.
This expression is here used to describe this man as
h^s prayer goes across from himself to himself, sup-
plicated and worshiped and thanked. All that God
gets out of this man is the action of the lips in utter-
ing his name. Self gets the true thanksgiving. He
is bound to say '' God," but he thanks and praises
himself. Could not you bite the tongue of somebody
who has been dangerously near that condition in the
house of God ? Using holy words, words which in
David's mouth were sobs, or triumphal shouts to God
in heaven, but on your tongue what were they?
Prostituted, debased to this evil use, to inflate your
own conceit.
It is right, my brother, that you should thank God
that you are not like the fellow who reeled past you
last night, the shame of his father's gray hairs and
the heartbreak of his mother. It is right, my sis-
ter, that you should thank God that you are not like
the daughters of shame whose presence defiles our
streets. But dost thou thank God ? " What hast thou
that thou didst not receive?" "Now, if thou didst
receive it, why dost thou therefore glory as though
thou hadst not received it?" Thank God, and not
yourself.
The Pharisee of Christ's day, as one has said, could
not hold a candle to the Pharisee of to-day. The
New Testament Pharisee said, " I thank God that I
am not as other men are ;" but the nineteenth-century
Pharisee knows that that is not orthodox; he plays
the publican, and says, " God, be merciful to me a
sinner," but remains as unhumbled and unhealed as
ever. John McNeill,
14
DAY
vn
Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with
the Spirit.— Eph. v. 18.
Evidently St. Paul had in mind a contrast between
the sensual effects of strong drink and that divine
intoxication which comes from being filled with the
Holy Spirit.
What are the effects of alcoholic inebriation? An
expansion of vision, followed by blurring of sight; un-
natural exhibitions before the brain; great hilarity,
followed by moroseness; on the muscular system, in
stimulating to efforts; on the speech, in first loosing
the tongue and then muddling language.
How different the effects of the Holy Spirit! The
eyes see with truth and power; the mind is aroused
to grand efforts of thought, the faculty of speech to
most gracious and eloquent utterances; while the
whole person is strengthened and the disposition at-
tuned to the Spirit of Christ.
Arthur T. Pierson.
The first thing said of the disciples after Pente-
cost was that they were " filled with the Holy Ghost."
Whenever there was anything important to be done,
it says, for example, ''Paul, being filled with the
Spirit," spake thus; "Peter, being filled with the
Spirit," did this. It was characteristic of the apos-
tolic church that they were men full of the Holy
Ghost. Is that our privilege? It is not only our
privilege ; it is our duty. " Be filled ^^ath the Spirit "
is a command. In Germany a man was once so holy
that the neighbors called him the " God-intoxicated
man." We want a God-intoxicated church.
A. J. Gordon.
15
DAY
vm
The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth
the will of God abideth forever.— 1 John ii. 17.
There are other thoughts in the Scriptures that
catch men up on glorious wings to show them the
face of Him whose we are and whom we serve; but
there is no thought that more transforms a man's
life, more floods over him the transfigured glory of
a face touched once on the mountain-top years ago,
than the thought that he can tie his life up to the
doing of the will of God. Do you seek for an object
in life? "I come to do thy will, 0 God." Do you
seek for food ? " My meat is to do the will of him
that sent me." Do you desire society? "Whoso-
ever shall do his will, the same is my mother, and my
sister, and brother." Do you seek for an education?
" Teach me to do thy will, 0 God." Do you wish for
pleasure ? "I delight to do thy will, 0 God." Seek-
est thou for reward? ''He that doeth the will of
God abideth forever." There will be no change for
him. When the wreck of matter comes, and the
everlasting heavens are folded up like a garment and
laid away for their last sleep, he will still abide.
Other things will pass away, but he that is doing the
will of God is a part now of a life that shall last for-
ever, of that great, sweeping, flowing life that alone
holds this world steady with all that is passing and
changing in it. And by and by, when other things
shall pass away, his life, instead of grasping in itself
the things that are laid aside, will find that it has laid
hold of the things that are going to abide forever,
the things that alone are worth the seeking, the lov-
ing, and the aspiring after.
Robert E. Speer.
16
DAY
IX
Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is
the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.— 1 John
V.4.
When a battle is fought, we are all anxious to
know who the victors are. There is a battle in which
we are all interested, and we can prophesy the vic-
tory in advance. If we are going to get the victory
over the world, we have got to gain it through Christ.
I wouldn't think of talking to unconverted men about
overcoming the world, for it is utterly impossible for
them to do it. A good many Christian people think
of the battle as already fought, the victory as al-
ready won. They have an idea that all they have to
do is to put the oars down in the bottom of the boat,
and that the current will carry them into the ocean of
God's eternal love; but we have got to go against the
current. We have got to learn how to watch and
fight, and how to overcome. The battle is not ended;
it has only just commenced. The Christian life is a
conflict, a warfare against evil, and the quicker we
find it out the better. D. L. Moody.
Who is it obtains the victory over the world? Is
it he who is in the midst of favorable circumstances,
with nothing to draw him from the right path? No;
the victorious man is the man of faith— a faith in
God that will overcome difficulties. The more un-
favorable our circumstances, the greater our joy and
reward if we can stand up for our blessed Master
here until the day when we shall hear him say,
" Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king-
dom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world." Andrew A. Bonar.
17
PAY
X
The one thing above all else that God desires of
men is worship, and yet there are very few in this
age who really do worship God. The term is used in
our day in a very vague and general and unscriptural
way. We speak of the whole service of a Lord's-day
morning or evening as " public worship," but there
is a great deal in it that is not worship. Reading the
Bible and meditating upon it may lead to worship, but,
in itself, is not worship. Listening to a sermon is not
worship. It is often, I fear, the worship of man; it
is not the worship of God. It may lead to worship.
Praying is not worship; it may be prefaced or con-
cluded with worship, but prayer is not worship.
Singing is not necessarily or generally worship.
There are hymns which, if sung intelligently and in
the proper spirit, would be worship, but they are
comparatively few, especially in the hymnology of the
present day, which is more taken up with man's ex-
perience and duty than with God and his glory. The
worship of God is the soul bowing down before God
in absorbed contemplation of himself. Over and over
do we read in the Scriptures, "They bowed their
heads and worshiped," or " They fell down and wor-
shiped." It has been well said that '' in prayer we
are occupied with our needs; in thanksgiving we are
occupied with our blessings; in worship we are oc-
cupied with himself." God would not have us less
occupied with our needs or present them less to him;
neither would he have us less occupied with our
thanksgiving, or return thanks less to him for them;
but he would have us, I am sure, more occupied with
himself in intelligent worship. R. A. Torrey.
18
DAY
XI
When a man asks me why I believe in miracles, I
answer, "Because I have seen them." He asks,
"When?" I reply, "Yesterday." "Where?" "In
such and such a place I saw a man who had been a
drunkard redeemed by the power of an unseen Christ,
and saved from sin. That was a miracle." The best
argument for Christianity is a Christian. That is a
fact which men cannot get over. There are fifty
other arguments for miracles, but none so good as
that you have seen them. Perhaps you are one
yourself. Show a man a miracle with his own eyes,
and if he is not too hardened he will believe.
Henry Drummond.
Sir Isaac Newton had a great intellect, but when
he thought it necessary to cut two holes in his barn
door— a big hole for the big cat and a little hole for
the little cat— then he did not display any great
amount of genius. Establish the great miracle, and
the lesser miracles will take care of themselves. If
the resurrection of Christ took place, then all the
other miracles become possible, and the history of
the Christian church is exactly w^hat you would ex-
pect; if it did not take place, then Christianity, the
most stupendous fact in history, stands to-day con-
fessedly upon a falsehood, inexplicable, and mth no
possibility of a solution. Now whether is easier,
to believe that Jesus did not rise from the dead, or
to believe, in virtue of the congruous history follow-
ing the story of his resurrection, and of the specific
testimony to the resurrection, and the antecedent
presumption in favor of his resurrection, that he did
rise from the dead?
Francis L. Patton.
19
DAY
xn
The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may
not do the things that ye [otherwise] would.— Gal. v. 17.
In the best men there is a tendency to do certain
things they ought not, but the more they are filled
with the Holy Spirit, the more it is true of them that
they are kept from doing what otherwise they would.
When I was a boy, I used to go to the Polytechnic
in London, where my favorite diversion was a diving-
bell, which had seats around the rim, and which at a
given time was filled with people and lowered into a
tank. We used to go down deeper, deeper into the
water, but not a drop ever came into that diving-
bell, though it had no bottom and the water was quite
within reach, because the bell was so full of air that,
though the water lusted against the air, the air lusted
against the water, because air was being pumped in
all the time from the top, and the water could not
do what it otherwise would do. If you are full of
the Holy Ghost, the flesh life is underneath you, and
though it would surge up, it is kept out.
F. B. Meyer.
We should all condemn sin, as God condemns it,
the moment we see it. It is in ourselves, though
sometimes it is hid from us. It may be some hidden
sin that keeps God from using us more. Let us be
honest with God. Let David's prayer be ours:
"Search me, 0 God"— not my neighbors, nor other
people, but " Search me I "
D. L. Moody.
20
DAY
xm
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a
vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and
prepared unto every good work.— 2 Tim. ii. 21.
No matter what kind of a vessel a man may be in
natural gifts, whether of gold, silver, or merely-
earthen, if he purge himself he shall be a vessel
unto honor.
Sometimes we see a speaker who has brilliant gifts,
but who is full of defilement or heresy, and we say,
" If that man were only converted, what a power he
would be ! " Another man, who is a believer, may not
glitter with natural endowments; yet, if he will purge
himself and become thoroughly sanctified, he may be
of far greater service : he may be so used that thou-
sands will bless him. God will use a vessel of wood
or earth, if it is made m.eet for His use, as readily as
one of gold or silver. No matter what the vessel is,
see that it is clean. George C. Needham.
Christians are apt to fall into two mistakes. One
class regard sanctification or consecration entirely
with reference to the personal life; they seek simply
personal holiness. They are always viewing them-
selves, and trying to determine whether they have
reached perfect sanctification, to the exclusion of
thought about service. Others seek consecration
only for service, and, in the midst of their arduous
and busy work, neglect their personal life. We
need both kinds of consecration— purifying and em-
powering. George F. Pentecost.
21
DAY
XIV
Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son
whom he receiveth.— Heb. xii. 6.
Suppose that away in South Africa there is a
woman whose husband had gone on a long journey
into the interior. He is to be away for months, cut
off from all postal communications. The wife is very
anxious to receive news. In months she has had no
letter or tidings from him. One day, as she stands
in her door, there comes a great, savage Kafir,
carrying his spears and shield, and with a terrible
face. The woman is frightened, and she rushes into
the house and closes the door. He knocks at the
door, and she is in terror. She sends her servant,
who comes back and says, "The man says he must
see you." She goes all affrighted. He takes out an
old newspaper, which he has brought from her hus-
band, and inside the dirty newspaper she finds a letter
from her husband telling her of his welfare. How
that wife delights in that letter! she forgets the face
that has terrified her. Weeks pass away again, and
she begins to long for that ugly Kafir messenger.
After long waiting he comes again, and this time she
rushes out to meet him because he is the messenger
from the beloved husband, and she knows that, with
all his repelling exterior, he is the bearer of a
message of love.
Beloved, have you learned to look at tribulation
and vexation and disappointment as the dark, savage-
looking messenger, with a spear in his hand, that
comes straight from Jesus? Have you learned to
say, " There is never a trouble by which my heart is
touched, or even pierced, but it comes from Jesus,
and brings a message of love"?
Andrew Murray.
DAY
XV
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to
man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a
way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.— 1 Cor. x. 13.
Solitude has its temptations as well as society.
St. Anthony of Egypt, before his conversion, was a
gay and fast young man of Alexandria, and when he
was converted he found the temptations of the city
so intolerable that he fled into the Egyptian desert
and became a hermit; but he afterward confessed
that the temptations of a cell in the wilderness were
worse than those of the city. It would not be safe
to exchange our temptations for those of another
man; every one has his o\vn.
The attraction of temptation is overcome by a
counter-attraction. The love of Christ in the heart
destroys the love of sin, and the new song of salvation
enables us to despise the siren song of temptation
and pass it by. That man alone is really safe who,
as he sails the seas of life, carries on board the
divine Orpheus, whose heavenly music is daily sound-
ing in his soul.
James Stalker.
The nearer you live in the power of the Holy
Ghost, the more keen you are to notice the approach
of temptation and the more prepared you are to
reckon yourself dead to the world of sin and lust.
F. B. Meyer.
23
DAY
XVI
Many say, '' I heard of this life of rest when I was
in bondage to the world, and I came back, made a
covenant, and took possession of what I thought was
the land of Jerusalem,— the city of peace,— but it
has never been a blessing to me. What is wrong in
my consecration? I gave myself to God, looked for
power; I pleaded for the fullness of the Spirit, asked
for a baptism; I thought I had something, but it never
came to anything." Brethren, the trouble is this:
you have been too much concerned for yourself in-
stead of being concerned with the Lord God Almighty
and his work. Remember those striking words, the
idea of which occurs so repeatedly in the epistles,
" Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do
all to the glory of God." You ate and drank that
you might get strong; you ate and drank that you
might get rich and fat in spiritual things; perhaps
you took work for the Lord that you might be pow-
erful; you entered upon the position which the Lord
accorded to you that you might become great in the
eyes of men, and it has been one long failure.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Many Christians wonder that they fail; but look at
the readiness with which they talk on any subject,
and never think that all that may be dissipating the
soul's power, and leading them to spend hours not in
the immediate presence of God. I fear the great
difficulty is that we are not willing to make the
needed sacrifice for a life of continual waiting upon
God.
Andrew Murray.
24
DAY
xvn
The moment that Moses came to years of discre-
tion we read that he " refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter." Take that as the starting-
point of the life of service. If your circumstances
are making it impossible for you to carry out what
would otherwise be the will of God, then drop your
circumstances as Moses did; it rests with you to
do it. Refuse any longer to be called the son of
Pharaoh's daughter. You have been in the courts
of men; you may have stood high in the favor of the
people of this world, and your heirship may look ex-
ceedingly brilliant. You must choose whether you
will take the heavenly inheritance or the earthly.
There comes a point in every man's history when, if
he wishes to be a sanctified vessel, meet for the
Master's use, he must decide to drop ever}i;hing that
prevents a holy career and a life of perfect service
among the people of the Lord. Would the devil be
what he is if he did not gild his bullets, and if he
did not find something to boast of to offset the glo-
rious attractions of heaven? Of course Pharaoh's
court, with all its grandeur, its learning, its talent,
its science, its magnificent prospects and possibilities
and power, attracts men, and they are dra^^^l into its
snare. Moses, the servant of God, calculated well,
and he concluded that it would be better to endure
the reproach of Christ than to have all the treasures
of Egypt. Put the two side by side, the things of
the world in one scale-pan, and the things of God in
the other, and see which kicks the beam. Make
your calculation, and say deliberately, " I esteem the
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures
of the world."
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
25
Lord, help me.— Matt. xv. 25.
There is a chain of but three links in this prayer
of the poor woman of Canaan, but it reaches a long
way. Some of the most beautiful prayers ever ut-
tered are very short prayers. This is a very short
prayer— any child can say it. There are three links
in the chain, mark you. One link is on the throne
of God; it is "Lord." The other link is down here;
it is " me." And then there is a great link between
that and this; it is " help." " Lord, help me." And
the greater your need, the more that middle link in
the chain will express. Marcus Rainsford.
Long prayers kill a prayer-meeting. See how
short are the prayers recorded in the Bible. " Lord,
help me," is one. "Lord, save, or I perish," is
another. Why, a man said that if Peter had had as
long a preamble as men put into prayers nowadays,
he would have been forty feet under water before
he would have got as far as the petition for rescue.
Prayer is asking God for something, and you can ask
it in a few words. If a man will pray fifteen minutes
in a prayer-meeting, he will pray all the spirituality
out of it. Fd rather have a man pray three times,
and only five minutes at a time, than to have him
take fifteen minutes all at once. D. L. Moody.
If we had prayed more we need not have worked
so hard. We have too little praying face to face
with God every day. Looking back at the end I
suspect there will be great grief for our sins of
omission— omission to get from God what we might
have got by praying. Andrew A. Bonar.
26
DAY
XIX
Buy the truth, and sell it not.— Prov. xxiii. 23.
The royal diamonds of England cost much, but
they are not for sale. The merchantman who found
the pearl of great price sold all he had that he might
buy it, but it was never on the market again; he
would not sell it. So with truth. The Christian,
especially the preacher, should be willing to pay any
price for it, but it should not be for sale. No in-
ducement should lead him to give up one jot or tittle
of truth, moral, religious, or experimental. It often
costs no little for a man to be honest and truthful;
to contend "for the faith once for all delivered to
the saints"; to get the living truth, which he can
learn only in the school of trial; but he should be
willing to pay the price for it. It is worth all it costs.
A. C. Dixon.
An eagle carrying a serpent in its talons to its nest
on the mountain was bitten to the heart, and fell to
the ground. Have you ever seen a man or woman in
the church fall in the same way? You do not know
the secret of the fall, but the omniscient eye of God
saw it. That neglect of prayer, that secret dishon-
esty in business, that stealthy indulgence in the
intoxicating cup, that licentiousness and profligacy
unseen of men, that secret tampering with unbelief
and error, was the serpent at the heart that brought
the eagle down.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
27
XX ^^J^iitil^
They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma-
ment; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars
for ever and ever.— Dan. xii. 3.
Ecclesiastical orders and titles count for nothing
in the kingdom of God. Christ's reward is not to a
titled clergy as such, but to " teachers " of the law
and the promise. It is not to fruitless preachers,
but to " turners of many to righteousness." There
is a glory in the kingdom for all, no matter how
varied or numerous they are. God's temple rests on
many pillars. God's garden has many flowers. God's
music has many notes. God's sky has many stars,
though differing one from another in glory. A glory
belongs to Christ, the central sun, that none of us
may claim as our own. Another glory belongs to
the church, the moon, that none of us may inherit,
a borrowed splendor that covers the whole company
of saints. But there is glory that belongs to the
individual " glitterers " of the firmament, different in
degree; and it is ours so to turn many to righteous-
ness as that neither Alcyone's sheen, nor the stars
that burn in Orion's belt, shall surpass our brightness
in the resurrection of the just. What a miracle of
splendor that will be when sun, moon, and stars all
shine in the firmament at the same time! We shall
each have our o\\ti peculiar glory while yet lost in
the " Greater Light" who rules that golden day; for
"the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of their Father." The splendor of Christ
will augment, not quench, our own. The clear gleam
of the saints will be both physical and spiritual—
nothing less than the glory of Christ himself. This
is the reward which they shall have forever for their
brief moment of work and suffering here on earth.
Nathaniel West.
28
DAY
XXI
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.— John xvii. 3.
Why do not God's people know their God? For
this reason. They take anything rather than God,
—ministers and preaching and books and prayers
and work and effort,— any exertion of human nature
instead of waiting until God reveals himself. . . .
Give God his place. Begin in your prayer. The
power of prayer depends almost entirely upon my
apprehension of who it is with whom I speak. Take
time, and get a sight of this great God in his power,
in his love, in his nearness, waiting to bless you.
Before and above everything, take time ere you pray
to value the glory and presence of God. What a
wonderful thing our church services and conventions
would be if all the worshipers were waiting upon
God, determined to let God have his place ! I cannot
fully give God his place upon the throne, for I can-
not realize what that place is; but God will increas-
ingly reveal himself and the place he holds. I know
about the sun because I see its light. No philosopher
could have told me about the sun if the sun did not
shine. No power of meditation and thought can
grasp the presence of God. Be quiet and trust and
rest, and the everlasting God will shine into your
hearts, and will reveal himself.
The abiding presence of God is the heritage of
every child of God. The Father never hides his face
from his child. Sin hides it, and unbelief hides it;
but the Father lets his love shine all the day on the
face of his children. The sun is shining day and
night. Your sun shall never go do\vn. Come and
live in the presence of God.
Andrew Murray.
DAY
xxn
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every crea-
ture.—Mark xvi. 15.
Christ never told his disciples to stay at home and
wait for sinners to come to them.
Every Christian of every age and calling is ap-
pointed an ambassador for Christ.
The gospel is to be preached to " every creature."
This means personal, hand-to-hand contact with the
unsaved— man to man, and woman to woman. Look
through the Scriptures, and you will be surprised to
see how much springs out of interviews with single
persons. The call is to you personally, and summons
you to personal dealing in the name of Christ with
every creature in the range of your influence. No
matter how low, no matter how foul, a man or woman
may be, no matter how forgotten by the world, your
Master is able to save to the uttermost, and you are
his appointed instrument to proclaim his mercy.
Christ does not say, "Go and address great multi-
tudes;" but he does say, " Go and preach the gospel
to every creature." In looking at some apparently
hopeless case, you may be tempted to think, " Oh,
some creatures are hardly worth saving." But how
do you know that from that very one a rich tribute
of praise may not arise to the Lord Jesus Christ?
In these 4ays Christ may seem to us to be working
in a very strange way, when he is taking up pugilists,
thieves, and illiterate and outcast men, and using
them to bear testimony to the power of his grace.
It is no concern of ours whether the creatures with
whom we deal are prepossessing or not. The com-
mand is to " preach the gospel to every creature."
James H. Brookes.
30
DAY
xxm
Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.—
Rev. V. 9.
We have been redeemed to God. It is a great
thing to be redeemed from sin, from Satan, from this
present evil world, from death; but suppose that re-
demption stopped there ? Suppose that God had said,
" Now you are out of your difficulties; make the best
of it." Suppose that, after taking Israel out of
Eg3rpt, God had left them in the wilderness. No;
he has redeemed us to himself, to sweet and blessed
relations with him; to heaven; to the companionship
of high and holy intelligences; to the nearest place in
his heart; to dominion with him over all the universe.
There is where we lose communion. We realize what
we are redeemed and delivered /rom, but we often do
not apprehend what we are redeemed and delivered
to. If we did, we should not be troubled with that
backward look upon what we are leaving that keeps
us in bondage. We would seek the things that are
above. George F. Pentecost.
We are sinful creatures, and our holiest service
can only be accepted through Jesus Christ our Lord.
When we walk in the light, as he is in the light, and
are having unbroken fellowship with God, and God
with us, it is because the blood of Jesus Christ his
Son is cleansing us from all sin. No holy service is
a ground of acceptance with God. Christ alone is
that ground. On the other hand, the fact that our
holiest things need to be accepted through Christ is
no reason why we should neglect to be holy. Though
sinful creatures, we must not be sinning creatures—
a very different thing indeed.
J. Hudson Taylor.
31
DAY
XXIV
0 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: never-
theless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.— Matt. xxvi. 39.
Every man who has come to the point where he
can swallow a bitter cup because he can feel the
breath of Christ on it, and who can say from his
heart, " Thy will, not mine, be done," has reached the
highest point which he can reach.
The core principle of Christianity is what? Faith?
No; more than that, deeper yet than that; the core
principle of practical Christianity is obedience—
obedience to Jesus Christ. The core principle in
the commonwealth is obedience to law; the core
principle in every well-regulated family is obedience
to parental authority. I am afraid there is not so
much of that old filial spirit as there used to be.
When a boy has learned the difference between " you
may" and "you must," that boy has the first start
in genuine manhood. Obedience is the first and the
great thing in this school of life in which the Master
has placed us. Has not the Master said, *' If ye love
me, keep my commandments " ? The motto for every
Christian should be, "Find out w^hat Jesus Christ
wants you to do, and then do it."
Theodore L. Cuyler.
To the child of God, yearning for holiness, there
is something exceedingly precious and delightful in
approaching a command that seems to be naturally
impossible; because he realizes that the Lord gave
the Word, and that it is for the Lord to make possi-
ble of fulfilment in his child that which he commands.
Surely we can say with Augustine, " Give what thou
commandest, and then command what thou wilt."
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
32
Freely ye have received, freely give,— Matt. x. 8.
Do not be afraid to call on the Lord's people to
give. I know they sometimes complain. " Oh," they
say, "it is all the time give, give, give! You are
always poking under our noses a collection-box or a
hat." Remind them that on the side of the Lord it is
always give, give, give to them. It might help par-
simonious Christians to look a little over their ac-
count with the Lord. It would stand somewhat thus:
Brother John Smith in account with his Master, the Lord
of the whole earth.
Dr.
To 10 showers of rain on his fields at $25
per shower, $250.00
2 extra showers at a critical period, $50
each, ■ 100.00
60 days of sunshine at $5, 300.00
$650.00
Cr.
;r contra:
By given for pastor's salary,
$10.00
Home missions,
.25
Foreign Missions,
.10
$10.35
Showing a heavy balance against Brother John Smith,
and it would be heavy even if he had given ten times
as much, for the farm is the Lord's. He prepared
its chemical constituents so as to make it a farm at
all rather than a patch of desert, and he, too, planted
the forest from which John Smith gets the fuel for
his fires. William Ashmore.
DAY
XXVI
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit
of God dwelleth in you?— 1 Cor. iii. 16.
The Jews' temple was an architectural triumph of
marvelous beauty and wondrous magnificence. We
are likened to it, and told that every believer is a
dwelling of the Holy Spirit. What the indwelling
power of the Spirit is may be seen in Moses' rod.
The rod was a common, insignificant stick,— a bit of
acacia,— but when it was linked with the power of
God it could do mighty works.
How quickly that power comes! The woman at
the well in Samaria went and told of Christ in the
power of the Spirit, and immediately there was a
great revival. A noted gambler in Chicago was con-
verted. His prayer to God was in gamblers' slang,
but God knew what he meant, and received him.
The man thought he ought to do something in his
Master's service. He told his story; God blessed it;
and in the power of the Spirit he has been telling it
ever since, with wonderful success. He has won more
souls than any man in my church. If the world
wants anything, it wants men and women set apart
to God, filled with the Spirit, and ready to be used.
E. P. Goodwin.
Are we living habitually in such nearness to the
Lord Jesus that the gentlest intimation of his wish
comes to us with the force of a command, and with
the consciousness that, some way or other, it is pos-
sible to obey, and that we shall be carried through
in any service to which he calls us?
J. Hudson Taylor.
34
DAY
xxvn
He satisfieth the longing soul.— Psalm c%ii. 9.
What would satisfy you in regard to religion if you
wrote out a catalogue of everything which you felt
you could desire, or above all that you can ask or
think? Would you not wTite do\vii at the very be-
ginning, "Peace with God, so that I should not be
afraid of him " ? You know in your hearts that that
is supplied by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the
cross. You have but to say, ''Amen; thank God, it
is true. I believe it."
Then would you not \NTite down, " Constant keep-
ing from all evil, and the supply of every need"?
The Bible is full of that blessed truth at every point:
the keeping Christ, the pro\iding Lord, the comfort-
ing Friend, the everlasting Portion of God's people.
WTiatever you \\ish, there stands the living God, and
says, I AM. God must give; he cannot \nthhold; he
would not be God, any more than a fountain would
be a fountain, if he were not perpetually pouring out
his fullness upon all the universe.
Suppose that you say, " I want a future that is
clear and full of provision for eternity." The Lord
is our everlasting Portion; the great God is ever say-
ing, I AM, and what more can men require for the
future ? The past and the present and the future are
all set before us in the living God as being completely
and everlastingly supplied. And yet how many souls
are satisfied in Christ, how many could say that they
have found in him everything that their souls desire ?
Not many, I fear. Whose fault is it?
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
35
DAY
xxvm
A good many Christians are kept back from wholly
surrendering themselves to God from fear lest he will
ask them to do something hard and disagreeable.
They think that there will then be no knowing what
he may do with them, or what their friends may
think of them.
Suppose that a child who had been wayward and
wilful were to come and say to a wise and loving
parent, "Father, from to-day I will let mother and
you choose my life; you shall choose my companions,
my amusements, and my books." Would that father
say to the mother, " Now, wife, here is a chance to
torment our child. What dress does she detest,
what companions does she hate, what books does she
eschew? Let us select these and pile them into her
life." Of course he would not; he would only take
from the child the things that were really cursing
her, as a cancer might curse a healthy body, and
then he would crowd her life with all that would
make it one long summer day of bliss. Will Christ,
who died for me, do worse?
Friends, you may trust him. He means to do the
best for you, and the only thing which can curse and
blast your life is to get out of God's hands. When
George Stephenson was trying to pass his bill for
railways in England, a peer said to him, "Suppose
that a cow were to get on the line when one of your
newfangled engines was on the road?" "So much
the worse for the coo ! " said he. If you get into
collision with God, it is so much the worse for
you. "Woe to the man that strive th with his
Maker! " Do not let the devil cheat you out of your
inheritance.
F. B. Meyer.
36
DAY
XXIX
We find no difficulty in distinguishing between the
works of God and the works of man. God's works
are absolutely perfect ; man's are only relatively so.
The most perfect needle may be perfect for the work
to which it is adapted; but make it a microscopic
object, and the smooth hole appears ragged and the
needle becomes a honeycombed poker. Take, on the
contrary, a hair from the leg of a fly, or the dust
from a butterfly's wing. Magnify these, and they
are seen to be absolutely perfect.
Now there is no more difficulty in recognizing the
Word of God from the word of man than there is in
recognizing the work of God from the work of man.
You need the minute examination and the anointed
eye that can perceive its beauties, which do not lie
on the surface. In this way God's Word contains the
best evidence of its own inspiration. It could not
have been forged or manufactured.
J. Hudson Taylor.
My friends, you needn't borrow any trouble about
the old Book; it is going to stand. Some people
think it is a ''back num.ber"; you and I will become
back numbers, but this Book is going to remain.
The Word of God is just lighting up the nations of
the earth. Some one asked a young convert how he
could believe that the Bible was inspired. He said,
" Because it inspires me." That is a short cut to in-
spiration. I would doubt my existence as quickly as
I would doubt the truth of that Book.
D. L. Moody.
37
DAY
XXX
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also
quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.—
Rom. viii. 11.
Everywhere the Holy Spirit stands related to Jesus
Christ. Howwas Jesus begotten? The angel Gabriel
said to Mary, " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee :
therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of
thee shall be called the Son of God." How did Jesus
receive the enduement of power? " Jesus also having
been baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,
and the Holy Ghost descended ... as a dove upon
him." Ask how he wTOught miracles, and I answer
in his o\vn words: "I by the Spirit of God cast out
devils." How did he complete the work of atone-
ment? "Who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without spot to God." How did he give the
great commission? I reply in the language of the
Acts: "After that he through the Holy Ghost had
given commandments unto the apostles." How was
he raised from the dead? He was "declared to be
the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit
of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead."
A. J. Gordon.
The answer of God to the heartfelt, sincere sur-
render of the whole being to the possession of Jesus
Christ is the filling of the whole man, spirit, soul, and
body, with the Holy Spirit. How insignificant in
comparison the human side, and yet how unspeak-
ably important, since the fullness of the Spirit's
presence depends upon it! C. I. Scofield.
88
DAY
XXXI
My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from
him.— Psalm Ixii. 5.
There is no joy like the joy of communion. Living
apart from God is misery. Look at Gethsemane; see
the Saviour's face; how sad with sorrow because of
the Father's wrath! But on the Mount of Trans-
figuration, when the Father said, " This is my well-
beloved Son," the person of Christ glistened with
glory.
Communion with God has the effect of making us
joyous. The Lord does not like to see any of his
disciples looking sad. . . . When men seek to entice
you to forego communion with God and to follow the
world with them, let your face shine with the bright-
ness that comes from your communion with the
Master, and they will cease to trouble you. Chris-
tians can sometimes do more by shining for God than
by speaking for him. Andrew A. Bonar.
What folly it is to imagine that I cannot expect
God to be with me every moment! Look at the sun-
shine! Have you ever said, ''Oh, how^ can I keep
that sunlight, and be sure that I shall have it to use
while w^orking?" Is not God, who made the sun to
shine, also willing and able to let his light and his
presence so shine through me that I can w-alk all the
day with God nearer to me than an3rthing in nature ?
Praise God, he can do it.
Why then does he do it so seldom, and in such
feeble measure? There is but one answ^er: you do
not permit it. You are so occupied and filled with
other things— religious things perhaps— that you do
not give God time to make himself knowm, and to
enter and take possession. Andrew Murray.
39
0 Church of Christ, behold at last
The promised sign appear,—
The gospel preached in all the world;
And lo! the King draws near.
He shall reign from sea to sea;
When he girds on his conquering sword,
All the ends of the earth shall see
The salvation of our God.
With girded loins, make haste! make haste!
Thy witness to complete.
That Christ may take his throne and bring
All nations to his feet.
And thou, 0 Israel, long in dust,
Arise, and come away!
See how the Sun of Righteousness
Sheds forth the beams of day.
Thy scattered sons are gath'ring home,
The fig-tree buds again;
A little while and David's Son
On David's throne shall reign.
Then sing aloud, 0 Pilgrim Church,
Brief conflict yet remains.
And then Immanuel descends
To bind thy foe in chains.
A. J. Gordon.
40
Drouth of February
IV inter M^ccds
^yiiidrcic ^^ . ''Boiiar
ISoimr Glen
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide
you into all truth.— John xvi. 13.
A man once asked me, " Is not conscience a safer
guide than the Holy Spirit?" I just took out my
watch and said, "Is not my watch better than the
sun?" Suppose that I said to you, "I will tell you
the hour by my watch, and you m^ust always take the
time from me." That is conscience. It is the sun
that is to rule the time. Conscience is fallen and
corrupt. If we had an unfallen conscience, like holy
Adam, it would be as if my watch were always to
agree with the sun. But now it is a most unsafe
guide. Sometimes we hear men say, " I don't see any
harm in this practice; my conscience doesn't condemn
it." It is not your conscience or your consciousness
that is the rule of right and wrong; the law is the
standard. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Sin
is the transgression of the law, not of conscience.
Andrew A. Bonar.
It is a great sin that multitudes of Christian be-
lievers are going to human sources for the things
which the Spirit has promised to give to them at first-
hand. H. M. Parsons.
When people say, " I want more of the Holy Ghost,"
I answer, " The Holy Ghost wants more of you." The
question is not, how much you can take in of the
Spirit, but how much the Spirit can take possession
of you. If you will yield yourself to the living God
with the conviction that he is all that every man can
want, not one good thing shall fail, any more than it
has failed in the past, of all that the Lord our God
has promised to give us.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
41
DAY
n
Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with
power from on high.— Luke xxiv. 49.
The apostles had taken a four years' course in the
best theological seminary that ever existed, in which
the Lord Jesus Christ himself was the chief and sole
instructor; they had been eye-witnesses of our Sav-
iour's miracles, his death, and his resurrection, and
were in a few moments to witness his ascension. Yet
Jesus said that they were not ready to work. The
world was dying; the apostles were the only ones who
knew the saving truth; but they were not to stir a
step until they had received something further— the
baptism with the Holy Spirit. Now if those men, with
such an exceptional training, were not allowed to
enter upon their work until they had received the
baptism with the Holy Spirit, should we dare to
undertake that service until we have been so bap-
tized?
In Acts we read, "God anointed Jesus of Naza-
reth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went
about doing good, and healing all that were op-
pressed of the devil; for God was with him." That
refers to the time when, as Jesus stood at the Jordan,
the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit de-
scended upon him in the form of a dove. Now if
Jesus Christ, "the only-begotten Son of God," did
not enter upon his public ministry until he was bap-
tized with the Holy Ghost and power, it seems to me
very closely akin to blasphemy for a man to under-
take Christian service until he has received this
baptism. R. A. TORREY.
42
DAY
m
Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. . . . Mor-
tify therefore your members which are upon the earth.— Col. iii.
3,5.
An awful responsibility lies with us of making dead
practically by the Holy Ghost what Christ made dead
judicially. You are ashamed to tell of the jealousy, the
lust, or the covetousness which is dragging you down.
Brethren, give it to the grave. Does not Jesus say
that you would better pluck out your eye or cut off
your right hand rather than that your whole body
should be cast into hell ? Put your passions to death.
They will rise up if they can; they have terrible tap-
roots, and you will never pull them all up ; but your
determination must be to destroy them. You may
have to do it openly. I have known men who have
had to lose all their character to win their souls. It
is a solemn process. There are downright damnable
things in most men who call themselves Christians,
and they are cherishing them. Bring them out and
put them to death.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
There is no way of being delivered from this life
of self but one : we must follow Christ, set our heart
upon him, listen to his teachings, give ourselves up
every day that Christ may be all to us, and by the
power of Christ the denial of self will be a blessed,
unceasing reality. Never for one hour do I expect
the Christian to reach a stage at which he can say,
" I have no self to deny." His fellowship with the
cross of Christ will be an unceasing denial of self
every hour and every moment.
Andrew Murray.
43
DAY
IV
Religion is communion between man and God— the
finite 'T' and the infinite "I AM." Christianity is
religion plus the incarnation. ... If you eliminate
the supernatural from Christianity, you will at once
get a new religion, a new Christianity, that has no
reference to the next life, no salvation; simply a moral
philosophy, a theory of life, and the present life at
that; a Christianity that is simply a philanthropy;
and the immortality of the individual having been
given up, the next thing will be to give attention to
the immortality of the organism. Hence it is that
some men at the present time are saying very little
about the salvation of the soul, but a great deal about
the salvation of the life and the regeneration of so-
ciety. Hence it is that a great deal of practical
Christian endeavor, that used to be addressed to the
question of making men sorry for sin and leading
them to seek pardon from God, is expending itself in
providing soup-kitchens and more comfortable en-
vironment for the poor.
Now, when we are told, as we have been, that the
church does not understand Christianity, that the
Young Men's Christian Association does not under-
stand Christianity, that Christianity does not under-
stand Christianity, the meaning is that those who
make this allegation have a fundamentally false view
as to the philosophy of life, as to the place that
Christianity is designed to serve in our world's his-
tory. We must understand the underlying philosophy
of these men if we would appreciate their anti-
evangelical attitude.
Francis L. Patton.
44
DAY
V
As in the case of the temple of Israel, so with the
believer, the temple of the Holy Spirit, our whole
natures should be consecrated to God. ''Present
your bodies— the court— a living sacrifice; " " Let the
peace of God rule in your hearts"— the holy place;
"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,
and bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ"— the mind, the holy of holies.
Perhaps our conception of consecration has been
poor and inadequate. We have been thinking of
service simply, and that in connection with the body;
we have said, ''Take my hands; take my lips; take
my feet," and so on in a kind of sentimental, anatom-
ical way. We have not thought of being God-filled,
God-possessed, quite apart from considerations of
service. I grow weary of the perpetual spurring on of
God's people to service,— as if any father ever cared
so much to have his children toiling for him as loving
and trusting him,— and the m.ore so as the God-pos-
sessed Christian invariably does serve. There is a
higher thought: the enthronement of Jesus as Lord
of all, and once for all; there should be no call for
reconsecration in the Christian's experience.
C. L SCOFIELD.
In full consecration to God it is a joy to recognize
all our members, all our faculties— every fiber of our
body and faculty of mind and appetite and pro-
pensity—all as his, for his service and glory; and as
his children to do all to the glory of God.
J. Hudson Taylor.
45
DAI
VI
Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.— Heb. ix. 28.
There is this mistaken view of the atonement: that
God would not forgive his creatures but for a vica-
rious atonement; that for this sin-offering he took
Christ, his Son, and that his pain and intense suffering
brought the pardon.
That is not it. There was sin in the world. Death
was the penalty. Who would pay the wages of sin?
Christ was the volunteer. He trod the wine-press
alone because there was none holy enough to stand
with him. God is not hampered by his own attri-
butes. Justice never forgives; it exacts punishment.
The defaulter cannot wipe out his crime by the mul-
tiplication table. If there is a world where five times
five make fifty, then there may be a world where the
wages of sin is life. If a friend gives a defaulter
fifty thousand dollars, he may pay the money back
and gain forgiveness. Christ paid the debt con-
tracted in the currency of earth in the higher cur-
rency of heaven.
A Russian officer could not make his accounts come
right; there was a heavy balance against him. In
the rigid despotism of the empire he feared the con-
sequences and the severe penalty if he could not
make it good. Poring over the figures at his table
one day, in his worry and despair he began scribbling.
He wTote on the paper before him, '^ Who will make
up this deficit?" He fell asleep. The czar passed;
he saw the officer, and, curious, read the scrap of
writing; he seized the pen and wrote underneath, "I,
even I, Alexander."
Who can pay the deficit of human sin? "I, even
I," said Christ on the cross, A. J. Gordon.
46
DAY
vn
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.— Gal. vi. 7.
In the natural world a man expects to reap if he-
sows; he expects to reap the same kind of seed; he
expects to reap more than he sows; and ignorance
of the kind of seed sown makes no difference in the
reaping. The man who sows his "wild oats" will
find that the same is true in his experience.
D. L. Moody.
Never trifle with one sin. It is like a little cloud
which, as a poet has said, may hold a hurricane in
its grasp. The next sin you commit may have a
mighty effect in the blighting of your life. You do
not know the streams that may flow from that foun-
tain; for sin is a fountain— not a mere act, but a
fountain of evil. Andrew A. Bonar.
Have you ever thought of the power of sin to per-
petuate and multiply itself? In Genesis thistles are
mentioned as a part of the earth's curse. One seed
is the first crop, twenty-four hundred the second, five
hundred and seventy-six million the third. So it is
with sin: " By one man's disobedience many were
made sinners." This stands as a law of nature,
natural and spiritual—" yielding fruit after his kind."
Man was created holy ; had he remained so there would
have been " fruit after his kind." But he sinned, and
Adam begat a son in his own likeness— not in God's
likeness. Then see the power of sin in producing
defiance of God. Cain is an example; he is the first-
fruit of the flesh— the first child born into the world.
It is not necessary to go through five hundred and
seventy-six million thistle-seeds in their growth and
development to know their nature ; they are all alike.
D. W. Whittle.
47
DAY
vin
Look at God. Who is God ? He is the great Being
for whom alone the universe exists, in whom alone it
can have happiness. It came from him; it can find
no rest or joy outside of him. Oh, if only Christians
understood and believed that God is nothing but a
fountain of happiness and perfect, everlasting bless-
edness, the result would be that every Christian would
say, " The more I can have of God, his will and his
love and his fellowship, the happier." If they be-
lieved that with their whole heart, how they would
with the utmost ease give up everything that might
separate them from God! . . .
Look at man's nature. For what was man created?
Simply to live in the likeness of God, and as his image.
Now, if we have been created in the image and like-
ness of God, we can find our happiness in nothing but
in what God finds his happiness. The more like to
him we are, the happier we shall be. In what does
God find his happiness? In two things: everlasting
righteousness and everlasting beneficence. "God
is light, and in him is no darkness at all." The
kingdom, the rule of God, will bring us nothing but
righteousness. Seek the kingdom of God and his
righteousness. If men but knew what sin is, and if
they really longed to be free from everything like
sin, what a grand message this would be! Jesus
comes to lead men to God and his righteousness. We
were created to be like God, in his perfect righteous-
ness and holiness and love.
Andrew Murray.
It is far less important to die the martyr's death
than to live the martyr's life. R. E. Speer.
48
DAY
DC
When man ends then God begins. When all the
world had become guilty before God; when Hebrew
righteousness had utterly failed to fear God and keep
his commandments; when the Greek by his wisdom
knew not God; when the Roman had stupefied his con-
science and liked not to retain God in his knowledge,
even though there was still taught by Hebrew and
by pagan creed, by seer and sibyl, the comJng of a
day of wrath and the impending judgment of Gehenna;
then God, in his love, wisdom, and power, made him-
self manifest, a just God and a Saviour.
W. J. Erdman.
Christ came into this world not simply as a moral
reformer, or as a moral philosopher, though he was
both, but as a Saviour. Christianity is salvation, and
the Bible gives us the plan of salvation. There is
either no peril at all, in which case we do not need
any religion, and need not trouble ourselves; or there
may be peril, and no salvation at all, in which case
we may trouble ourselves, but it will do us no good;
or else " there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved; " and " other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which
is Jesus Christ."
Francis L. Patton.
If we are going to get salvation, we have got to
get it upon God's terms and not upon our own; and
that is why I fear that a good many people will not
get it— simply because they can't have their own
way about it. D. L. Moody.
49
DAY
X
How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ? —
Rom. vi. 2.
We have been redeemed, like the people of Israel,
from bondage, and then have been led through the
Red Sea of Christ's bJood, and should know that our
enemies are practically drowned there. Every man
who desires to have contact with the flesh is putting
his arm across the Red Sea, and is shaking hands
with the survivors of the Egyptians, which are the
flesh, across the grave of Christ. Did you ever think
that when you made a concession to the flesh you
had to reach over the buried Son of God to get back
to your old lusts and appetites? No wonder that
Satan's hand is stronger than yours, and that he
pulls you over. Were you redeemed to go on living
in the wilderness forty years, supplied, like beggars,
every day with bread and water? God never lets his
children starve to death; he manages to give them
bread and water; but, after all, that is a tasteless
supply to most Christians. I hear Christians say,
" I suppose we must go through a howling wilderness
all the days of our life." It is a pilgrimage, my
brother. There is something far better than the old
bondage of Egypt, or than merely lingering on in a
howling wilderness, supplied with bread and water.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
He who begins by halving his heart between God
and mammon will end by being whole-hearted for the
world and faint-hearted for Christ. We are so con-
stituted that it is impossible for us to exercise a
divided allegiance; we must be out-and-out for God,
or we shall be in-and-in for the world and all its in-
terests. A. J. Gordon.
50
DAY
XI
And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the
Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.— Acts
V. 32.
Obedience means surrender, absolute surrender.
I come to God and say essentially, '' Heavenly Father,
thou hast bought me mth a price ; I acknowledge thine
absolute ownership. Take me, send me where thou
wilt, use me as thou wilt." Here we touch the hin-
drance in many lives. Many desire the baptism with
the Holy Spirit who are not conscious of any definite
sin, but there is not total surrender. One minister
wishes the baptism that he, in the power of the Holy
Spirit, may preach in Boston; another that he may
preach in New York; another in Chicago. Ah, God
may want you in Africa or in India or in the islands
of the sea; and before you can have the Holy Spirit's
power anywhere you must be willing to go an5rwhere.
R. A. TORREY.
Obedience means marching right on whether we
feel like it or not. D. L. Moody.
We hear much these days about God's sovereignty
and man's free agency. Christ said to the woman
of Canaan, " Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." Here
is something that looks like human sovereignty and
divine agency. Free to do what we please because
we please to do God's will. Such is the free agency
of faith that takes hold of the arm that moves the
world. Such free agency Moses had when the Red
Sea was no obstacle in the way of his progress. The
walls of Jericho fell before this free agency of faith.
By means of it any little David is more than a match
for the strongest Goliath. Armed with it, Gideon
and his three hundred were invincible.
A. C. Dixon.
51
DAY
xn
Have you a capacity for the law? Christ himself
is an Advocate. Come, practise in the supreme court;
expound the law of God. He will open your eyes and
show you wondrous things out of his law. Go forth
and teach men to obey this law.
If you are fond of working among conveyances and
title-deeds, go and help multitudes of people to get,
or to clear up, their title-deeds to mansions in the
skies. You will not get your fees in this world, but
you will in the next.
Have you a talent for medical work? Christ was
the great Physician. Come, heal the wounds that
sin has made; open blind eyes; unstop deaf ears; make
the lame to leap ; raise the dead. God himself will
furnish you the medicines: the balm of Gilead, the
Water of Life, the anointing salve for the eyes, the
leaves of the Tree of Life, which are for the healing
of the nations. You will receive your fees for pour-
ing in oil and wine, and for bringing to the great inn
above many a poor sinner who has fallen among
thieves as he wandered away from Jerusalem to
Jericho.
Have you been thinking of a business life ? Here
is a "merchandise better than the merchandise of
silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold." Men go
far from home to Brazil or South Africa, and toil in
the mud and mire of the mines to dig up diamond
stones, which they sell to kings and princes for
merely an earthly reward. Would you not, then, go
far away and assist to gather these gems which, when
washed in the blood of Christ and cut and polished
by the Holy Spirit, shall adorn the crown of him
who is King of kings, and flash back the glory of
the living God? William Ashmore.
52
DAY
xm
Elijah said to Elisha, " Is there anything you want?
Don't be afraid to ask. You seem to be very timid."
Elisha replied, " Yes, there is something I want."
"Well, don't be afraid to ask; you shall have what-
ever you want." A blank check! How did he fill
it out ? Did he ask for as much of the Spirit as Elijah
had? That would have been a great thing. Talk
about kings! Elijah had power over kings. Kings
are in the habit of ordering their subjects around.
Here was a subject who was in the habit of ordering
kings around. Talk about the power of Caesar,
Napoleon, Alexander, the great generals and warriors
of this earth! Why, it is nothing to the power of
the man who is in communion with God. Elisha was
not going to ask for a small thing. He says, "I
want a double portion of thy spirit." I can see Elijah
turn round to him in surprise and say, "You have
asked me a hard thing." But he says, " If you see
me when I am taken from you, you shall have it."
"Then," says Elisha, "you'll not get away without
my seeing you." He wanted a double portion of
Elijah's spirit, and he was determined to get it. So
he took good care to see him in the chariot, and he
did see him. Elisha performed twice the number of
miracles that Elijah did.
Jesus Christ has come dowTi from heaven since
then, and is it so wonderful to ask for the power of
the Spirit? W^e ought to have a hundred times more
power than Elijah and Elisha had.
D. L. Moody.
When God takes possession of a slow tongue, he
can make it fast if he wants to, but you will get none
of the credit. H. W. Webb-Peploe.
53
DAY
XIV
You will never possess any more of Christ than
you claim as your own. You do not gain God's bless-
ing by storing away books full of notes; you must
take God's truth into your very soul and feast upon
it. What good will abundance of food or water or
money do you if it is unclaimed and unused? The
money that a man takes from the bank is his enjoy-
able possession, that which he has in the bank is only
his lawful possession. You cannot pass through the
riches of God except by the study of this blessed
Book and by constantly dealing with God in prayer.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
The difference between Christians is not so much
a difference of endowment as it is a difference of
apprehension and appropriation. A man once owned
a small farm. He did his best to till it and rear a
family, but after working hard all his life he died a
poor man. The farm was inherited by his eldest son.
The son discovered a gold-mine and became im-
mensely rich. The property he had was the same
that his father had; but the father didn't know what
was in the land, while the son found it out.
That is the difference between Christians. Through
the atonement of Jesus Christ God hath made us heirs
to all things, but only the Holy Ghost reveals our
riches. A. J. Gordon.
" Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need." How many of God's people who have the
bank of heaven to draw on, and could come boldly to
the throne of grace and get help in time of need,
have thus far been living on a few crumbs.
D. L. Moody.
64
DAY
XV
I distinguish very clearly between a doctrine as
essential to salvation, and the belief of that doctrine
as essential to salvation. If Christianity is worth
anything at all, there could have been no hope for
you and me except upon the ground of the doctrine
of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ; for it is
the fact of the incarnation, together with what is
involved in it, that makes salvation possible. But it
is one thing to say that salvation is conditioned upon
a doctrine, and another thing to say that my salva-
tion is conditioned upon my belief in that doctrine.
I do not raise an inquiry here as to the minimum of
belief, though I hold some belief to be necessary;
but the question is, whether there is anything of a
dogmatic nature, in the content of the Christian re-
ligion, which is obligatory upon all who profess and
call themselves Christian.
Francis L. Patton.
A great many men are waiting for feeling; but
feeling never saves, and the most unsatisfactory
Christians are those w^ho are governed altogether by
their sentiments. D. L. Moody.
There are three things: feeling, faith, and fact.
You may have put them in this order: feeling, fact,
faith; or fact, feeling, faith. You must change, and
put them thus: fact, faith— and feeling a hundred
years after, if you like. You have been trying to
feel God's fact, but you must take God's fact on faith
—the great fact that Christ has come through the
grave into a new world. Upon your apprehension by
faith of that fact as revealed in the Bible the whole
structure of your deliverance depends.
F. B. Meyer.
65
DAY
XVI
And I, if I be lifted up, . . . will draw all men unto me.—
John xii. 32.
If you put yourself before the cross, you may hold
up the cross and yet obscure it. But the man that
will get behind the cross,— who is willing to get be-
hind Christ and the Bible, so that men will not see
him, but only the exalted Word,— that is the man
whom the Holy Ghost is likely to endue with great
power. Like the Statue of Liberty in New York
harbor, we are to be light-holders; and if we stand
on a high pedestal it is that we may hold the light a
little higher. May God truly endue us with power
by his Spirit and for his service!
Arthur T. Pierson.
One day a friend of mine, in passing down a Glas-
gow street, saw a crowd at a shop door, and had the
curiosity to look in. There he saw an auctioneer
holding up a grand picture so that all could see it.
When he got it in position, he remained behind it and
said to the crowd, "Now look at this part of the
picture, . . . and now at this other part," and so on,
describing each detail of it. " Now," said my friend,
" the whole time I was there I never saw the speaker,
but only the picture he was showing." That is the
way to work for Christ. He miust increase, but we
must be out of sight. Andrew A. Bonar.
Christ spake his parables unto the people. To
speak unto people is a thing that some commentators
and preachers never by any means try. They speak
over or under them, or past them, or all round about
them, but unto them they never tried yet.
John McNeill.
56
DAY
xvn
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. — 1 Cor, iii. 1.
The apostle here speaks of two stages of the
Christian life, two types of Christians: the spiritual
and the carnal. Those to whom he wrote were all
Christians,— in Christ,— but, instead of being spirit-
ual Christians, they were carnal.
In the wisdom which the Holy Ghost gives him St.
Paul feels, '' I cannot write to these Corinthian Chris-
tians unless I know their state, and unless I tell them
of it. If I give spiritual food to carnal Christians I
am doing them more harm than good, for they are
not fit to take it in. I cannot feed them with meat;
I must feed them with milk."
In the church of Christ you will find two classes
of Christians. Some have lived many years as be-
lievers, and yet always remain babes; others are
spiritual men, because they have given themselves
up to the power, the leading, and to the entire rule
of the Holy Ghost.
If we are to receive a blessing, the first thing
needed is for each one to know on which side of the
line he stands. Andrew Murray.
"Every one that useth milk is unskilful in the
word of righteousness: for he is a babe." It is to be
feared that many Christians are content with the
forgiveness of sins, and do not care to take another
step. " I write unto you, little children," says John,
" because your sins are forgiven you." Are we going
to be content to remain little children, without going
on to do the young men's battle with the wicked one ?
" I write unto you, young men, because ye have over-
come the wicked one." Andrew A. Bonar.
57
DAY
xvm
The trouble with us is, our proud hearts refuse to
accept the position in which God's Word places us.
It charges us with sin and corruption, and we would
like to excuse ourselves and harp a little upon the
dignity of human nature. God tells us that without
him we can do nothing. We are apt to think that
by our reasoning powers and high culture we can
ourselves do wonders. Not until we accept the
position of sinfulness and weakness are we prepared
to receive his blessing. A. C. Dixon.
Some Christians make a great deal of themselves
and little of Christ, while others make a little of them-
selves and a great deal of Christ. When a person
considers that he is growing little in the sight of the
Lord, in reality he is finding the true grace and
goodness of the God of mankind. D. L. Moody.
Allow God to take his place in your heart and life.
Luther often said to people, when they came to him
about difficulties, " Do let God be God." Let God be
all in all, every day in your life, from morning to
evening. No more say, " I and God; " let it be " God
and L" God first, and I second; God to lead, and I
to follow; God to work all in me, and I to work out
only what God works; God to rule, and I to obey.
Even in that order there is a danger, for the flesh is
so subtle, and one might begin to think, "It is God
and I. Oh, what a privilege that I have such a
partner!" There might be secret self-exaltation in
associating God with myself. There is a more pre-
cious word still—" God and not I; not God first, and
I second; God is all, and I am nothing." Paul said,
" I labored more abundantly than they all, though I
be nothing." Andrew Murray.
58
DAY
XDC
There is no truly Christian man who keeps an
unconverted pocket-book. God's universal law of un-
selfish service is as supreme in the domain of material
possessions— in the realm of that wealth which ex-
tends a man's power "to bring things to pass"— as
it is in any other department of man's possible efforts.
The unvarying law of God, which attaches an obliga-
tion to every opportunity and places a duty over
against every right, makes no exception of wealth
with its vast powers of service. God has so ordered
the social life of our race that no man can make the
most of his powers of mind and heart and will until
he employs those powers in the service of his fellow-
men. This is an accepted law in the realm of mind
and spirit. It is no less binding upon the power
which material wealth places at a man's disposal.
No man has the slightest right to say of his wealth,
"It is mine; I may use it selfishly if I will." No
man has arrived at a true conception of the respon-
sibility that attaches to the possession of property,
until his relations through it to his fellow-men fill a
larger place in his views of life than does his ability
by his wealth to serve his own selfish ends. No man
is free to make an option as to whether he or his
property shall come under God's law of service. He
and his property are of necessity under that law, as
he is of necessity a member of society and of the
state, without his leave having been asked. In the
use of his property, as of all his other powers, he
owes steady allegiance to that law of service; and
though in managing his property he may disregard
this obligation, he can never escape it.
Merrill E. Gates.
59
DAY
XX
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.— Eph. iii, 17.
One of our poets, speaking of our birth, beautifully
says, "Every soul leaves port under sealed orders.
We cannot know whither we are going or what we
are to do till the time comes for breaking the seal."
But I can tell you something more beautiful than this.
Every regenerated soul sets out on its voyage with
an invisible Captain on board, who knows the nature
of our sealed orders from the outset, and who will
shape our entire voyage accordingly if we will only
let him. A. J. Gordon.
If your heart is empty, if you have only sent the
devil out by a pledge or a resolution, he will surely
come back and say, "Is there any one inside?" If
there is silence he will smash open the door through
all your good resolutions, and he will bring seven
other devils along with him, and will fill your heart
with riot and sin. But if, when he comes back,
Christ says, "I am here," that is enough. Do you
mean to tell me that Christ can keep that sun full
of light, and cannot keep your heart full of light?
I believe, if Christ wished it, that he could make
Niagara leap back, and I believe that he can come
into your life and can take your passion and stay it.
Do not be afraid; Christ can keep. Put him in pos-
session, and he will keep his own.. F. B. Meyer.
Take the position of power and privilege which God
offers to you; no longer dare to vilify Christ in the
eyes of the world by saying "I cannot." No one
ever said that you could. Say once for all, " I can-
not, but Christ can." H. W. Webb-Peploe.
60
DAY
XXI
God be merciful to me a sinner.— Luke xviii. 13.
Sometimes in the darkness a man's foot kicks
against the ladder that slopes through the darkness
up to God. He takes the first round of it. It is not
the top of the ladder— justification; but it is a big
jump upward from where he has been lying in the
dirt at the bottom of the pit of iniquity. He is clean
out, altogether out, and up one rung on the ladder,
and will take the rest. For whom He calls, them He
also justifies; that is the first round, and the publican
took it in that prayer. And whom He justifies, them
He also sanctifies ; that is a rising up the ladder. And
v/hom He sanctifies, them He also glorifies.
The publican is in heaven. May we meet him
there, through the rich grace of Him who, a few
months afterward, died on the cross that the publi-
can's prayer might be heard and answered exceed-
ingly abundantly above all that he could ask or think.
John McNeill.
A soldier once said that, according to his idea,
repentance was, ''Halt! About face! Forward!
March!" Repentance is not lopping off particular
sins. If I have a vessel full of holes, and stop only
part of them, the vessel will sink just as surely as if
I did not stop any. We must break off from all sin
and turn unto God. D. L. Moody.
To repent means to change your mind about sin,
and especially about Christ. Peter says, " Repent; "
change from the Christ-rejecting to the Christ-ac-
cepting attitude of mind; accept Christ as Saviour
and as Lord. R. A. ToRREY.
61
DAY
xxn
I would rather aim at perfection and fall short of
it than aim at imperfection and fully attain it.
A. J. Gordon.
" Daniel purposed in his heart." That's the trou-
ble with a great many people; they purpose to do
right, but they only purpose in their heads, and that
doesn't amount to much. If you are .going to be
Christians, you must purpose to serve God away down
in your hearts. " With the heart man believeth unto
righteousness." D. L. Moody.
The purpose of our life should be twofold: first,
to understand what is our position in Christ, and then
by faith and by the power of the Holy Ghost to be
lifted to that level.
F. B. Meyer.
Many men have high aspirations, but not the right
motive. A man desires the baptism with the Holy Spirit
simply that he may be a greater preacher or a greater
personal worker, or that he may become renowned as
a Christian. One of the subtlest errors that Satan
leads us into is that where we are longing and crying
for this most solemn of all gifts that we may be
greater preachers or that our church may be built
up. The desire must not be for any glory that
comes to me or my church, but because God and
Christ are being dishonored by my life and lack of
power, and by the sin of the people around me, and
because he will be honored if I am baptized with the
Spirit. R. A. Torrey.
62
DAY
xxni
Philosophical doubt, although it has done harm,
has also done good; good results have come with the
spirit of investigation that has been developed. It
was no great credit to Thomas that he did not believe
the resurrection of Christ as the others did, and yet
what a wonderful chapter in the evidences of Chris-
tianity was opened by his skepticism! It was no
great credit to men that they called in question the
authenticity of the four gospels, but how their skep-
ticism has stimulated scholarly inquiry and strength-
ened the defenses of the gospel narratives!
When the elevated railroad was first started in
New York the people were a little timid about riding
on it; so the proprietors of the road took great
pleasure in apprising the public of the fact that this
road had been subjected to a most abnormal and
enormous tonnage, and that consequently people of
ordinary weight might deem themselves quite safe
in traveling over that road. I feel the same way
about the four gospels— that I can take my way to
heaven above the din and dust of daily life because
this elevated road has had all Germany upon it, and
that as yet it has given no sign of instability.
Francis L. Patton.
If you stand on the mountain of faith and look
down, things will seem easy to you; but if you are in
the valley of doubt they will look like giants. What
the church wants and what it is looking for are men
and women of faith.
D. L. Moody.
63
DAY
XXIV
There are men who tell us that a revelation from
God is impossible. I simply ask them, How do you
know? Because if God exists it is not impossible;
all things are possible with him.
Others say that a revelation is not needed. If I
should ask a dozen men for the time of day, and each
watch should mark a different time, it would be
difficult to tell which one was right; they might be
all wrong, but it would be clear that only one of
them could by any possibility be right. A man might
claim the gift of infallibility for his o^vn watch, which
would not be modest; or we might say, "There is no
telling what o'clock it is," which would be uncom-
fortable; or we might say, "It would be convenient
if there were a big town clock by which we could all
regulate our watches." What we want in this uni-
versal conflict about moral questions is a town clock
to tell us the time of day.
Others say that there is so much in the Bible that
could not have come from God; that this or that, for
instance, is not God's style. I don't know just what
God's style is, but it seems to me that what is fair
for one is fair for the other; and when I ask that my
verifying faculty be allowed the privilege of eliminat-
ing from the Bible what I do not like, I am fair enough
to say that my next-door neighbor may have the same
privilege. It may turn out that his eclecticism has
not hit upon the same thing to take out or keep in
as mine has. Now when we have all taken out what
we do not think could have come from God, I should
like to know how much of the Bible would be left
except that for which the bookbinder is responsible.
Francis L. Patton.
64
DAY
XXV
An hour alone with God isn't lost time.
D. L. Moody.
Persevering pray erf ulness— day by day wTestling
and pleading— is harder for the flesh than preaching.
Andrew A. Bonar.
Real prayer is need packed till it takes fire.
A. C. Dixon.
" Thy will be done " is the key-note to which every
prayer must be tuned.
A. J. Gordon.
"Praying in the Holy Ghost" (Jude 20). Not
simply the Holy Ghost praying in you. You are im-
mersed in the Holy Ghost. The atmosphere you
breathe is what you give out. It is wTong to imagine
that prayer is only speaking to God. Often the most
precious part of it is God speaking to us. On Jacob's
ladder angels descended as well as ascended. The
closet is the place of revelation.
Arthur T. Pierson.
Prayer is the most necessary and wonderful thing
in the spiritual life; yet we know neither how to pray
nor for what to pray as we ought, so the Spirit prays
for us with groanings unutterable. We often do not
know what the Spirit is doing within us; but God,
who searches the hearts, finds out, and answers the
prayer of the Spirit because it is according to his will.
What a solemn, blessed, comforting thought!
Andrew Murray.
65
DAY
XXVI
Receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to
save your souls.— James i. 21.
God has given only two perfect things to this lost
world: one of them is the incarnate Word, which is
the Lord Jesus Christ; the other is the written Word,
which is the Holy Scripture. There is a divine ele-
ment and a human element in both.
James H. Brookes.
Believe God's Word as it stands; you need not in-
terpret God's words until you have altogether changed
their meaning, as some expositors do.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
The best way to be equipped for the work is to be
deeply taught in the Word. If we want the work
"well in hand," we must have the Word "well in
hand." But it is one thing to have the Bible in the
hand, and quite another thing to know how to handle
it. The Word of God is called by Paul " the sword
of the Spirit." Any one can hold a sword, but only
an expert can use it skilfully. . . .
A man might come from hell, his eyes bursting
with terror, his flesh scorched with the fires of per-
dition, fly through your congregation as you preach,
and cry, " Flee from the wrath which is to come."
He might be followed by another, clad in white, from
the heavenly city to tell of the joys about God's
throne. And if the Spirit of God is not there it will
pass without effect from your people.
W. W. Clark.
66
DAY
xxvn
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth.— John iv. 24.
The only living that is acceptable to God is living
in the Spirit. The only walk that is acceptable to
God is walking in the Spirit. The only service that
is acceptable to God is serving in the Spirit. The
only praying that is acceptable to God is praying in
the Spirit. The only worship that is acceptable to
God is worshiping in the Spirit. Would we worship
aright, our hearts must look up and cry, ''Teach me,
Holy Spirit, to worship," and he will do it.
R. A. TORREY.
The service of the Israelites was very similar to
that of surrounding nations; but whereas the latter
kindled the fires upon their altars, God distinguished
his service by sending down fire from heaven. That
is the difference between true religion and its coun-
terfeit. Natural religion depends on the energy of
the flesh. Supernatural religion depends on the en-
ergy of the Spirit of God, which comes down from
above. It is quite possible to be perfectly right in
the forms of our service, and yet destitute of divine
power. George F. Pentecost.
It is a blessed privilege to fall before our Saviour
and worship, though all his dealings with us are as
dark as night. A. C. Dixon.
Those who are in communion with God live, those
who are not are dead. Henry Drummond.
67
DAY
XX vm
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature.— Mark xvi. 15.
There is the great commission, " Go ye." Where
men are ordered to enroll themselves as soldiers, it
is their business to do so thereupon. If they are
exempt, the onus probandi as to exemption rests upon
them and not upon the executive. It is for us to
do; as when Deborah and Barak called for troops,
"the people willingly offered themselves. Let us
recognize our obligation and offer ourselves.
WlILLAM ASHMORE.
There is no question that if we had a human im-
perial authority we could go around the globe in a
year, and promulgate this gospel decree all through
the world. And yet we stand still when the King of
kings is saying to us, " Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature."
Arthur T. Pierson.
If we could only put ourselves into harmony with
God, how easily the great work of carrying the gos-
pel into all the world would be fulfilled, and the time
brought near when our Redeemer shall come as a
King to reign and to judge the poor with equity!
There is something wrong when one man can sit in
a palace while another is perishing with hunger at
his door. W. E. Blackstone.
Work enough at home? There will be more
work at home if we don't take hold of missions
more in earnest. . . . Christianity is nothing if it is
not missionary. Your Christianity is nothing if it
is not missionary. John A. Broadus.
68
[Mouth of iMarch
Lenteu Lilies
Andrew Murray IVaiiamaker Falls
The sins of teachers are the teachers of sins. Be-
ware of the bad things of good men.
Andrew A. Bonar.
No amount of praying or psalm-singing will cover
up a sin. A lady once said to me, " I am more irri-
table than I was five years ago. Can you help me? "
I answered, "The next time you are angry with a
person, go and confess it, and ask forgiveness." " Oh,"
she said, " I shouldn't like to do that." Of course
not. I shouldn't like to take cod-liver oil, but I should
do it to save my life. When people do with their
souls as they would with their bodies, there will be
something accomplished.
D. L. Moody.
Many of us would love to have sin taken away.
Who loves to have a hasty temper? Who loves to
have a proud disposition? Who loves to have a
worldly heart? No one. You ask Christ to take it
away, and he doesn't do it. Why does he not do it?
It is because you wanted him to take away the ugly
fruits while the poisonous root remained in you. You
did not ask him that the flesh should be nailed to his
cross, and that you should henceforth give up self
entirely to the power of his spirit.
Do you suppose that a painter would want to work
out a beautiful picture on a canvas which did not
belong to him? No. Yet people want Jesus Christ
to bestow his trouble upon them in taking away this
temper or that other sin while as yet they have not
yielded themselves utterly to his command and his
keeping.
Andrew Murray.
69
DAY -^^^^..^vy^^-^-r^'S^.
n
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
—1 John ii. 15.
We are living under a materializing influence that
is disastrous to a more serious and devotional view
of life. In the minds of a great many good people
the ideal of human existence is a great deal of ma-
terial comfort and a large surplus of pleasure that
can be purchased in the form of desirable surround-
ings. These ideals rise in the scale of magnitude and
grandeur every year, and men say, "When I can
realize this ideal of earthly paradise, I am going to
devote a great deal of time to devotional preparation
for the next world." The trouble is that they no
sooner get their house on the sea-shore than they
want a house in the mountains, and when they have
that they want a house somewhere else. They say,
" Wait till my cat-boat grows into a sloop, and my
sloop into a schooner, and my schooner into a steam-
yacht; then I devise liberal things." But the " then "
never comes. Meanwhile they have become so im-
mersed in this world, and so filled with the spirit of
this world, and so absorbed in the pursuit of this
w^orld's pleasure and comfort, that they have no time
to read this Bible as they ought to read it.
Francis L. Patton.
Love not this world, because if you love it you
cannot love Him. Love not this world, because if
you love it you love something that by and by will
be ashes, and, while you thought you were grasping
the honors of the world that now is and is to come,
you will find you have grasped only the hot, dusty
ashes of the world that is to come.
Robert E. Speer.
70
DAY
m
Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself
with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he
drank.— Dan. i. 8.
Modern travelers commonly do not get half-way
to Babylon before they conclude that it is more
prudent to follow the example of the multitude, on
the drinking question, than to stand out by them-
selves, as did Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-
nego; so they drink the wines of the European tables,
as "everybody else does." When they have come
to that conclusion they are in a good state to con-
sider further whether it is wise to be cast into a den
of lions or a fiery furnace of invidious comment rather
than conform to the universal custom of the country
they are in, as to times and modes of worship, as to
local amusements, and as to a courteous recognition
of the images which King Fashion has set up to be
admired and extolled.
Henry Clay Trumbull.
Will the Christian find that he gets peace and joy
so long as he tries to satisfy his soul by saying that
his worldly taste is "only a little one"? I do not
say that it is ^vrong to smoke or for a Christian to
go to the theater. That is for each one to settle
with his God. But when Christians draw quibbling
distinctions between great and small sins, between
one theater and another, one dance and another, it
is clear that the conscience is not at rest, and there
can be no rest till God's voice is fully and heartily
obeyed.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
71
DAY
IV
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord.— Isa. li. 7.
If you ever expect to enter the kingdom of God,
you must give up your thoughts and accept God's
thoughts, give up your ways and accept God's ways;
for his thoughts and ways are as high above ours
as is the heaven above the earth.
D. L. Moody.
Get the love of Jesus into your heart, and the lust
for woman and man, the lust for gold, and the lust
for drink will be crowded out. Money! It was for
money that Zaccheus was damning his soul; but
Jesus so took possession of his heart that he virtu-
ally said, " Lord, as to money, I will fling it away by
the shovelful, now that I know thee; I will restore
fourfold." You say that you are converted. Show
me your hands; show me your purse. Do not pre-
tend that you know Jesus if you have a purse as
tight as a miser's fist. You say that you are con-
verted. Are you delivered from that which before
was dragging you down to the pit? Folks go about
scorning conversion. Nobody in Jericho scorned
and scoffed at the conversion of Zaccheus. It had
all the signs of a genuine turning of the man inside
out and outside in. He was radically changed, and
it was the love of Christ that did it. Zaccheus came
out of curiosity to see this man Jesus. He saw him,
and he got such a close look at him that his heart
rose up and said, "This is the Lord." That was
faith, saving faith. It works by love and purifies
the heart and overcomes the world.
John McNeill.
72
DAY
V
The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ.— John i. 17.
The law slays the sinner, grace slays the sin.
Ada R. Habershon.
Our first union was with the law; and the law
said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
strength, and with all thy mind. Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself." We never brought forth
one single particle of fruit to God during such con-
nection. Knowing that " cursed is every one that
continueth not in all things that are written in the
book of the law to do them," we have never continued
for one mortal hour in all things or in any of the
things written in the book of the law to do them. We
could bring forth no fruit to God in our connection
with the law. That is why he sent the law— that
we might learn this truth. Some people think they
can be justified by the law that condemns them to
eternal torment. It is impossible; we must look for
justification to some one who was able to satisfy the
demands of the law and of justice.
Marcus Rainsford.
The law produces legal conviction and leads to
despair; the gospel produces evangelical conviction
and leads to hope.
A. J. Gordon.
73
DAY
VI
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.— 1 John i. 9.
Some one has said, " Unconfessed sin in the soul
is like a bullet in the body." If you haven't power,
it may be there is some sin that needs to be con-
fessed, something in your life that needs to be
straightened out. No amount of psalm-singing, no
amount of attending religious gatherings, no amount
of praying, no amount of reading your Bible, is going
to cover up anything of that kind. If I have too
much pride to confess my sins, I needn't expect
mercy from God or answers to my prayers.
" He that covereth his sins shall not prosper." He
may be a man in the pulpit, a priest behind the altar,
or a king on the throne— I don't care who he is; he
will fail. Man has been trying it for six thousand
years. Adam tried it and failed ; Moses tried it when
he buried the Egyptian, but he failed; David tried
it; priests and kings and princes and the best men
that ever trod the earth have tried it, but all have
failed. " Be sure your sin will find you out." You
cannot bury your sins so deep that there will not be
a resurrection by and by, if they have not been
blotted out by the Son of God. What man has
failed to do for six thousand years you and I would
best give up trying to do.
The reason that some people's prayers go no higher
than their head is because they have some uncon-
fessed sin in their lives. You may pray and weep
and pray and weep, but it will do no good. First
confess to the one you have ^\Tonged, then go to
God and see how quickly he will hear you.
D. L. Moody.
74
DAY
vn
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works.— 2 Tim. iii. 16.
The Bible contains a complete rule for the whole
life of man. It tells a man how he should conduct
himself with reference to God, to the Lord Jesus, to
the Holy Spirit, to the Word which God has given,
and to the church which he has established. It
directs him how he should treat his ^^ife and care
for his children; how much he should pay his hired
man, and when he should pay him. It teaches the
hired man how he should conduct himself with ref-
erence to his employer. It tells men how to loan
money and how to collect debts as well as how to
worship. It teaches a man what kind of a citizen
he should be, how he ought to vote if he is in a self-
governing country. If he is a magistrate it directs
him how he ought to exercise authority, and says
that God ^ill call him to account for the manner in
which he executes his office.
We are apt to narrow do\^Ti the teachings of the
Bible and the business of the church, and to suppose
that they have to do chiefly \^ith the work of the
Sabbath, and that they have little or nothing to do
with our pleasures, our business, or our political and
our industrial relations; but the testimony of the
Word of God is that this Book is given by inspiration
of God, and that it is "profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in right doing:
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur-
nished unto every good work," not simply to some
good works.
Charles A. Blanchard.
75
DAY
vm
There are graces within our reach that we will
never seek until we are hard pressed by temptation
in the opposite direction. It is a profound mistake
merely to resist the tempter; a better policy is to
turn from the temptation to acquire the opposite
grace. If you are tempted to impurity, claim purity;
if you are tempted to impatience, claim patience; if
tempted to weakness, claim strength.
We must watch not only our weak points, but our
strong points, for many of the great Bible heroes
failed on their strong points; Moses in his meekness
and Job in his patience. There is nothing in which
men are naturally strong that can stand against the
power of our great adversary. Yielding is the result
of long previous decline; the sin which breaks out
in the manifestation has far-reaching roots, and to
be confessed properly one needs to go back from the
act to the intention, and from the intention to the
purpose, through the weeks or months of previous
life, until one gets at last to the beginning of the
sin ; then confess it in order that it may be expiated
before God.
There is this blessed thought— that there is re-
ciprocity between Christ and ourselves; and in this
the tempted man finds succor, first, that he is in
Christ, and, second, that Christ is in him. If you
are in Christ you are in the one under whose feet
the devil is. Abide there and you too are above the
devil, and therefore— now mark— the whole energy
of the devil is directed to solicit, to seduce men out
of Christ. F. B. Meyer.
76
DAY
IX
Some people ask how a man is to know that he is
saved. How do you know anything? Suppose that
I am dealing with an inquirer who has accepted
Christ, but has not the assurance which a believer
should have. Do I ask him to kneel down and pray
and pray until some happy feeling comes into his
heart ? If I do, I do not know how to lead a soul to
Christ. No; I take God's Word and put it into his
hand, and say, " My friend, ^v\\\ you read the thirty-
sixth verse of the third chapter of John : ' He that
believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life.' "
I say to him, " Who has everlasting life ? " "He that
believes on the Son of God." "Do you believe on
the Son of God ? " "I do." " Have you everlasting
life?" "No; I do not feel it!" "Will you please
read that again ? " And he reads, " He that believeth
on the Son of God hath everlasting life." I say, " Who
has everlasting life ? " He looks at the Book and says,
" He that believeth on the Son." I say, " Do you be-
lieve on the Son?" "I do." "What have you?"
" Why, I do not know that I have anything." " WTiat
does that verse say that the one that believes on the
Son of God hath? How many of those who believe
on the Son have everlasting life? " " All of them."
"How do you know it?" "It says so." "Do you
believe on the Son ? " "I do." " WTiat have you ? "
" Everlasting life! " " How do you know it ? " " Be-
cause God says so." It is only after he rests on what
God says in his Word that he has the testimony of
the Holy Ghost. Faith in the Word of God comes
first. R. A. ToRREY.
77
DAY ^^^^^^^--^-r^-^^.
X
With what weapons do the missionaries propose
to do this mighty work of conquering the heathen
world for Christ ? With nothing but " a little book."
That is like Moses going down with a sheep-crook to
conquer Pharaoh and all his host. Any weapon is
enough if the Lord is only behind it. The little Book
is enough if the Lord only helps you to use it. A
Christian warrior should always carry his fighting
Testament in his pistol pocket. If you cannot carry
around with you a double-barreled Testament, always
carry a single-barreled one.
William Ashmore.
When a man is giving a lecture with a map or
illustrations, he often uses a long pointer to indicate
the places or illustrations. Does the audience look
at that pointer? No. It might be of fine gold, but
the pointer cannot satisfy them. They want to see
what the pointer points at. The Bible is nothing
but a pointer pointing to God ; and Jesus Christ came
to point us, to show us the way, to bring us to God.
I fear that there are many people who love Christ
and trust in him, but who fail to see the one great
object of his work; they have never understood
the Scripture, " He died that he might bring us to
God." There is a difference between the way I am
going and the end I have in view. I might be travel-
ing amid beautiful scenery, in delightful company,
but if I have a home which I long to reach all the
scenery and company around me cannot satisfy me.
God is meant to be the home of our souls.
Andrew Murray,
78
DAY
XI
Men tell us so*metimes there is no such thing as
an atheist. There must be. There are some men
to whom it is true that there is no God. They can-
not see God because they have no eye. They have
only an abortive organ, atrophied by neglect.
Henry Drummond.
A good many people live on negations. They are
always telling what they don't believe. I want a
man to tell me what he does believe, not what he
does not believe.
D. L. Moody.
Young gentlemen, believe your beliefs and doubt
your doubts; do not make the mistake of doubting
your beliefs and believing your doubts.
Charles F. Deems.
Nothing cuts out the roots of the Christian life
so much as unbelief.
Andrew Murray.
Hinder not the will of God by a spirit of unbelief,
by limiting the Holy One of Israel, because you
thereby reject his holy counsel and purpose for you.
Train your souls in a spirit of receptivity and by the
exercise of faith to take all that God himself can
give. Be determined that *' your whole spirit, soul,
and body "—whatever department of your being you
can deal with— shall be placed submissively at the
disposal of God, to know, to receive, and to enjoy
everything that God can possibly give you.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
79
DAY
xn
Christianity stands out as a kind of "spiritual
highland " and headland for the human race, a sys-
tem which, the more it is studied and experienced,
is the more highly prized; its path is always the path
of peace, knowledge, elevation, emancipation, salva-
tion; a system various in manner, flexible in its cir-
cumstantials, while most inflexible in its essence;
full of strength for the weak, of consolation for the
sorrowful, of hope for the discouraged, of stimulus
for the sluggish, of defense for the defenseless, of
authority for the many, of terror for the evil, of
reward for the good, of pardon for the penitent; a
system which can satisfy all the desires that human
want awakens, which can enter all dark places and
leave them full of light by conquering despair and
instituting its wonderful miracles of renovation; a
system which can convert dens of thieves into bethels
of the Holy Ghost, and which can cast out its legion
of devils, and say to wretches whose brains have
been in a perpetual " craze " and whose hearts have
been filled with all sorts of villainies, " Peace, be
still ; " a system which can stand by the bedside of
the dying, quell every misgiving, wipe away the
death-sweat, and leave the brow calm and serene as
heaven; a system which can perfect the individual,
bless the family, correct and purify society, and
civilize the world; which can, in fine, do everything
it promises to do, and promises to do everything es-
sential to human happiness here and hereafter-
such a system has the unencumbered guaranty of
all times.
L. T. TOWNSEND.
80
DAY
xin
God has given us two sets of scales in our mental
and moral constitution. One of these scales is in-
tended to weigh evidence and subject it to rational
proofs; the other is to weigh right and wrong and
to ascertain the difference between morality and
immorality. Reason's office is to weigh evidence;
conscience's office is to weigh right and wrong.
Arthur T. Pierson.
If a man is morally color-blind he is likely to be
wrong— conscientiously. That faculty or element
in our nature which we call "conscience" is set
within us as a monitor, not as a teacher, in the school
of morals. Conscience tells us that we ought to do
right, but conscience does not tell us what right is.
The compass is safe to steer by as long as its needle
points where it ought to point; but the compass-
needle may be forcibly deflected from the pole, or it
may be drawn aside by the influences of its surround-
ings, and then, of course, it is untrustworthy.
It would be well if all of us understood just how far
from the true meridian our moral compass-needles
were deflected by the attractions of gold or pleasure
or appetite or ambition or love or hatred or by the
social atmosphere of our immediate neighborhood.
Henry Clay Trumbull.
Conscience is not a safe guide, because very often
conscience won't tell you you have done wrong until
after you have done it, but the Bible will tell you
what is wrong before you have done it.
D. L. Moody.
81
DAY
XIV
Faith is totally distinct from trust. By faith we
claim; by trust we prove that we have taken, and
that the gifts of God have become to us what God
in his omnipotence intended them to be.
Faith takes into our soul what God in his mercy
reveals, and believes God against all comers. Trust
hands over to God what God has given us, and says,
" Keep, Lord, and use, for I cannot." Then comes
a holy confidence and assurance which prevents us
from being disturbed under any circumstances what-
ever, and out of which comes a boldness which en-
ables us to act for the glory of God. Faith when it
has conceived brings forth trust, and trust when it
is finished brings forth confidence and boldness.
Alexander the Great had a physician who was his
bosom friend. One day there came an anonymous
letter on a waxed tablet to the king. " 0 king,
there is treachery in thy home. Thy physician pur-
poses to kill thee by the draft which he gives thee
to-morrow under the plea of healing thee." The
king put that waxed tablet into his breast, and the
next day, when the physician came to give him the
draft, he put out his left hand and took the cup, and
with his right hand handed the tablet to the physi-
cian and said, " Friend, I trust thee," and drank the
potion without stopping a moment to see the effect
upon the physician. It is not enough to believe that
Christ is the great Physician; you must trust him.
We trust the cook every day. What fools we are
that we cannot trust God!
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
82
DAY
XV
My little boy, since taken to heaven, once asked
me, " Papa, how is it that one person, Christ, could
atone for the sin of millions of men?" We were in
a garden at the time. I replied, " Suppose that there
was on the ground there a handful of worms; don't
you think that you would be more valuable than those
worms?" " Yes," he said. " Suppose that that wheel-
barrow was full of worms; would you not be more
valuable than all of them ? " " Yes." " Suppose all the
millions of worms in the earth were gathered to-
gether; would you not still be more valuable than
they, no matter how many?" "Yes; I am sure I
would." " Then is there not a far greater difference
in the scale of being between Christ and man than
between man and the worm? We are creatures;
God is the Creator. Had many other worlds sinned
as well as ours, the blood of Christ would be more
than sufficient to atone for them all."
R. C. Morgan.
Let us consider for a moment our standing with
Christ. Again we must distinguish. The death of
Christ has two aspects: one toward the guilt of sin,
the other toward the power of sin. The aspect to-
ward the guilt of sin is that by his one oblation and
sacrifice he has put the guilt away forever, and the
thunder-clouds that lower over his cross spend them-
selves on Calvary, and his cross is a lightning-con-
ductor to draw away what men might fear. But
Christ not only died /or sin, but he died unto sin.
F. B. Meyer.
83
DAY
XVI
It has taxed many minds to explain what Jesus
could have meant when on the cross he cried, " My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
It seems to me that we may see its meaning more
clearly in the light of an incident which happened
in the eastern part of Massachusetts some years ago.
A judge was obliged to try his own son, who had
been charged with some crime. There was great
anxiety to know how that judge would conduct the
case. To the astonishment of everybody, the judge
was just as impartial and unmoved as if the young
man had had no relation to him. When he had heard
the evidence he charged the jury with just the same
exactness and carefulness as if he had not known
the accused. People were astonished. They said
he had no heart. But when the jury uttered the
words " Not guilty " the judge jumped up, reached
out his hands, and cried, " Come up here, my boy."
He took his son right into his seat on the bench.
Notice that in Gethsemane Jesus says, ^'Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." He also
prayed, "Father, forgive them." But when he
reached the culmination of his agony, when he stood
before the judge bearing the sins of the world on
his shoulders,— a great culprit,— he could say "Fa-
ther " no more. For once it was, " My God, my God ! "
But when it was all over and he rose from the grave,
once more he is filled with the full radiance of the
Father's love, and the Father places him at his own
right hand.
A. J. Gordon.
84
DAY
xvn
If the amount of energy lost in trying to grow
were spent in fulfilling rather the conditions of
growth, we should have many more cubits to show
for our stature. . . .
The stature of the Lord Jesus was not itself
reached by work, and he who thinks to approach its
mystical height by anxious effort is really receding
from it. . . .
If God is adding to our spiritual stature, unfold-
ing the new nature within us, it is a mistake to keep
twitching at the petals with our coarse fingers. We
must seek to let the Creative Hand alone. "It is
God which giveth the increase." . . .
The life must develop out according to its type,
and, being a germ of the Christ-life, it must unfold
into the image of Christ.
Henry Drummond.
It is one thing to be innocent; it is another thing
to be virtuous. It is one thing to be like Adam,
created after the image of God in perfect purity and
simplicity; it is another thing to be like the perfected
Christ, who was tried and tempted in all points like
as we are, yet without sin. Remember that, while
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin,
conformity to the image of Christ wrought in us by
the Holy Spirit means that we, being changed from
glory to glory, may become like the Son of God, and
at last be actually one with him, seeing him as he is,
and being exact facsimiles of his perfect image.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
DAY
xvm
All things are possible to him that believeth.— Mark ix. 23.
Faith is simply claiming from God what God be-
stows, and thankfully accepting the benefits thereof.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Don't let experience judge your faith; let your
faith judge your experience.
Marcus Rainsford.
Always put your " if " in the right place. In the
case of the man who wanted Christ to cast the dumb
spirit out of his son, the father said, " If thou canst
do anything;" but the Lord answered him, "If thou
canst believe." Christ straightened out the "if"
and put it in the right place.
D. L. Moody.
The ten spies differed from Caleb and Joshua in
their report of the land of Canaan. There are three
words here beginning with G— the word " God," the
word " giant," and the word " grasshopper." Now,
note, these spies made a great mistake as to the
position of these three words; they compared them-
selves with the people of the land and said, " And
in their sight we were as grasshoppers." If they
had compared the people of the land with God, they
would have come back, as Caleb and Joshua did, who
said in effect, " We have compared the giants with
God, and the giants are as grasshoppers."
F. B. Meyer.
86
DAY
XIX
No man can serve two masters : for either he will hate the one,
and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise
the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.— Matt. vi. 24.
We become inevitably and insensibly assimilated
to that which most completely absorbs our time and
attention. One cannot be constantly mixed in secu-
lar society without not only losing something of his
interest in the divine society of God and angels, where
he belongs by his new birth, but also becoming him-
self secularized. "Our citizenship is in heaven,"
says the Scripture. It is a sublime conception that
even while here in the flesh we hold residence among
seraphs and saints' of the New Jerusalem. It is for
us, therefore, scrupulously to keep to our heavenly
fellowship, to pay taxes where we live, and to refuse
to be assessed by any rival system to Christ's true
church— simply because a divided loyalty is impos-
sible. . . .
A man cannot be two without ceasing to be one ;
a Christian cannot subdivide himself among many
interests without subtracting himself from some one
interest. . . .
The true disciple is bound to adopt the double
motto, " I believe and I belong."
A. J. Gordon.
When a man lives up to what he preaches, then
his testimony has weight.
D. L. Moody.
87
DAY
XX
Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son
whom he receiveth.— Heb. xii. 6.
It sometimes seems hard to find out any reason
for God's dealings with his children. We may not
be able to find out why we are afflicted, and may
think that perhaps it is because of some undiscovered
sin; but I do not think that God often deals with us
in that way. He generally likes to let his people
know their faults when he chastises them. You re-
member how when Absalom could not get Joab to
come and talk with him, he burned up his corn-fields
and then Joab came. Now the Lord often sends
sore afflictions upon his children in order that they
may come and talk with him more. You remember
that Christ took away Lazarus in order that the sisters
might send for Him, and that the people through all
ages might get a wondrous discovery of Him as the
resurrection and the life. And you remember, too,
how John the Baptist was taken away from his dis-
ciples in order that they might rather go to Christ.
Andrew A. Bonar.
When the devil tries our faith it is that he may
crush it or diminish it; but when God tries our faith
it is to establish and increase it.
Marcus Rainsford.
The man who has fallen most and wandered most
and caused God most trouble is the man who may
get some good out of his sins by learning to deal
with other men as God has dealt with him, and to
teach them the infinite love and mercy of God.
F. B. Meyer.
DAY
XXI
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every liv-
ing thing.— Ps. cxlv. 16.
Look away from self to God. The God who took
Israel through the Red Sea was the God who took
them through Jordan into Canaan. The God who
converted you is the God who is able to give you
every day this blessed life. God does not disinherit
any of his children. What he gives is for every one.
God is waiting to bestow it.
Andrew Murray.
There is no favoritism with God; just as the spring
flowers, the sunshine, and the pure air are for all, as
free to the beggar as to the sovereign, so God's
abundant grace is for every man and woman, and
there is nothing that any one has ever had which
you may not have if you will. The same stream is
passing your door, though you may not utilize the
power to drive your water-wheel; the same electricity
is in the air, though you have not learned to make it
flash your messages or do the work of your home.
The same grace that made a Luther, a Knox, a Lati-
mer, a Frances Ridley Havergal, or a Spurgeon is
for you to-day, and if you are living a low-down life,
beaten and thwarted and dashed down and constantly
compelled to admit shortcomings and failure, under-
stand it is not because there is any favoritism on
God's part; because all the Holy Ghost's power, and
everything which is stored in Jesus Christ, is waiting
to make you a saint and to lift you to the level which
you pine for in your best moments. It makes a
great difference when a man understands this.
F. B. Meyer.
89
DAY
xxn
The spiritual man having passed from death unto
life, the natural man must next proceed to pass
from life unto death. Having opened the new set
of correspondences, he must deliberately close up
the old. Regeneration, in short, must be accom-
panied by degeneration.
Henry Drummond.
Christ had no sinful self, but he had a self, and
that self he actually gave up unto death. In Geth-
semane he said, "Father, not my will." That un-
sinning self he gave up unto death that he might
rise out of the grave from God, raised up and glori-
fied. Do you expect to go to heaven any other way
than Christ went? Beware! Remember that Christ
descended into death and the grave, and it is in the
death of self, following Jesus to the uttermost, that
the deliverance and the life will come.
Andrew Murray.
Dead with Christ, and buried with him in baptism!
Our baptism is the burial service of the old man.
Then what business have we ever unearthing a stink-
ing corpse? H. W. Webb-Peploe.
There is a law of dynamics to the effect that for
every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
There is a law in Christianity that the ascent is
equivalent to the descent; that the lower we get the
higher we rise; that the deeper we drink in the cup
of our Saviour's death the deeper we shall drink in
the cup of his resurrection and ascension to glory.
F. B. Meyer.
90
DAY
xxm
The waters of God's blessings flow downward, and
he who would drink them must stoop.
Our faith can never afford to approach God in
robes of royalty. Sackcloth and ashes are always
its proper clothing. Faith can never grow too strong
to pray, " God be merciful to me a sinner." We are
all Pharisees by nature, publicans only by grace, and
let us shun as we would a viper all claim to sinless
perfection. Paul never reached it, or if he did he
was far from being conscious of his high attainment.
When a comparatively young Christian he WTote, " I
am the least of the apostles." After he had grown
in grace a few years he could say, *^ I am less than
the least of all saints." When he had grown old in
God's service he could subscribe himself the " chief
of sinners." A certain Methodist bishop, in charg-
ing a class of licentiates, said, " Aim at perfection,
but I charge you, in God's name, never to profess
it." The place for true faith is on its knees before
a holy God, weeping tears of penitence for its sins
and rejoicing only in his righteousness.
A. C. Dixon.
When a man's face really shines like Moses' he
wists it not. F. B. Meyer.
It is not the sight of our sinful heart that humbles
us; it is a sight of Jesus Christ. I am undone be-
cause mine eyes have seen the King.
Andrew A. Bonar.
91
DAY
XXIV
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it
goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.— John iii. 8.
We know that the wind listeth to blow where there
is a vacuum. If you find a tremendous rush of wind,
you know that somewhere there is an empty space.
I am perfectly sure about this fact: if we could ex-
pel all pride, vanity, self-righteousness, self-seeking,
desire for applause, honor, and promotion,— if by
some divine power we should be utterly emptied of
all that,— the Spirit would come as a rushing, mighty
wind to fill us. A. J. Gordon.
We must distinguish what the Bible clearly sepa-
rates: the difference between having the Spirit as an
indwelling presence, and the baptism with the Spirit
as a working power. I care not how full of imper-
fections your life may be, just as surely as you are
a child of God the Spirit of God dwells in you. But
it is one thing to have the Spirit of God dwelling in
you, and quite another thing to have the Spirit of
God filling you. There is a great difference between
having a tenant in the house and having a tenant
take possession of the house. Now, while we do not
need, if we are saved, to pray that the Spirit may
dwell in us, we do need to pray that he may dwell
in us more fully. R. A. Torrey.
Just as little as you should be drunk with wine, just
so little should you live without being filled with the
Spirit. Andrew Murray.
92
DAY
XXV
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one
in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.—
John xvii. 20, 21.
Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ has had his prayer
answered,— I suppose no one will doubt it,— and all
who believe upon him are, according to the Lord's
word and his Father's word, in union with him, then
see the consequences that follow. I never— I never
can be alone. I have joys. I never can have them
all to myself. He rejoices with me. I have sorrows.
I cannot monopolize them. Jesus knows them—
sympathizes with me in them. I have temptations;
he is touched with the feeling of them, for he was
in all points tempted like as I am, yet without sin,
that I might have a merciful high priest, and might
go to him with confidence and present my petition
to him. In this life I can be in no position of lone-
liness. Where I am he is with me. Lying down on
my bed, he is beside me. Rising in the morning, he
is with me. Walking through the weary paths of
life, he is with me— cannot be separated from me.
Otherwise this union is not true. As nothing that
concerns me can concern me alone, even so nothing
that concerns Jesus concerns him alone. He is in-
terested in all that concerns me, and I am interested
in all that concerns him, or there is no real union.
Marcus Rainsford.
Every Christian should be like Christ, should live
with Christ, and find the fountains of his being in
Christ. Through such lives Christ can speedily win
the world to himself. R. E. Speer.
93
DAY ^^.v^-^^^^^.^'^.
XXVI
Love is a wonderful thing. When a man tries to
love he has no real love, but the more opposition
true love meets the more it triumphs, for the more
it can manifest itself the more it rejoices. Beware,
above everything, of being unloving. If there is
one thing that grieves God and hinders the Spirit
(the fruit of the Spirit is love) it is the want of
lovingness. Love is rest, and rest is love, and where
there is no love the rest must be disturbed. The joy
of the Holy Ghost is the joy of always loving, of
losing my own life in love to others.
Andrew Murray.
There is a day coming in which God will bring to
light every little hidden service of his children, and
will let assembled worlds see the delight he has had
in that which has met no eye, but which has glad-
dened the heart of our Father in heaven. For he
is a Father indeed, and it is delightful to realize that
all that fatherhood ever has been or has produced,
all that motherhood has ever brought to our notice,
all, indeed, that is noble and pure and tender and
true, is but an outcome of the great, loving heart of
our heavenly Father. There is more light in the
glorious sun than in any of the thousands of reflec-
tions in the little dewdrops. So there is more love
and complacency and gratification in his children in
the heart of our heavenly Father than all the grati-
fication that earthly parents and earthly friends have
ever felt in the objects of their affection.
J. Hudson Taylor.
94
DAY
xxvn
Paul says that we are to be sound in faith, in
patience, and in love. If a man is unsound in his
faith the clergy take the ecclesiastical sword and
cut him off at once. But he may be ever eo unsound
in charity, in patience, and nothing is said about
that. We must be sound in faith, in love, and in
patience if we are to be true to God.
D. L. Moody.
How many there are to-day pretending to be lov-
ing both God and the world, men and wom.en trying to
touch the things that they should hate, and yet pre-
tending to be living in the closest friendship of Jesus
Christ! It is easy to put on the garments, but it is
easier to see through the thin, miOcking gauze of
them the true impossibility of such living. Just so
truly as God and the world are at war, so the mo-
ment our lives are laid down in uncompromising
obedience to him they are laid down in utter and
uncompromising contrariety with the things he has
told us we are not to love. We must choose be-
tween the evil love of the world and the overflowing
love of God.
Robert E. Speer.
Contemplate the love of Christ, and you will love.
Stand before that mirror, reflect Christ's character,
and you will be changed into the same image from
tenderness to tenderness. There is no other way.
You cannot love to order. You can only look at the
lovely object, and fall in love with it and grow into
likeness to it.
Henry Drummond.
S5
DAY
xxvm
As long as we dare to think that secular life must
be a separate existence from the spiritual, that
earthly engagements cannot be fulfilled in uninter-
rupted communion with God, just so long are we liv-
ing outside the purposes of God, contradicting the
majesty of our true nature, and den3ing the efficacy
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. There may be a
manifold manifestation of the great purposes of life,
but throughout all these manifestations there ought
to run one great unity of principle, one purpose,
one idea, and, unless that unity of life pervades every
operation in which we engage, it is no wonder that
we lack communion with God the Father, and with
his Son, Jesus Christ, that religion is divorced from
business, and that what men call the privileges of
the gospel are in their minds disassociated with the
duties and the demands of daily existence.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
The first and chief need of Christian life is fellovNT-
ship with God. The divine life within us comes
from God and is entirely dependent upon him. As
I need every moment afresh the air to breathe, as
the sun every moment sends down its light afresh,
so it is only in the direct living communication with
God that my soul can be strong. The manna of one
day was corrupt when the next day came. I must
every day have fresh grace from heaven, and I
obtain it only in direct waiting upon God himself.
Begin each day by tarrying before God and letting
him touch you. Take time to meet God.
Andrew Murray.
96
DAY
XXIX
It would be well if the Christians of to-day would
learn a lesson in prompt obedience from the servants
of Ahasuerus in publishing the king^s decree con-
cerning the Jews in Persia. This was one of the
greatest empires of antiquity, reaching from the
borders of the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus, and
from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was
fifteen hundred miles east and west, and a thousand
miles north and south— as large as the Congo basin
is to-day. The messengers of Ahasuerus had to
reach all the provinces with the utmost haste. They
had no postal facilities, no telegraphs or telephones,
no steam-vessels or steam-cars; nothing but drome-
daries, camels, and horses to depend upon. They
had to translate this decree into all the various
languages in all the one hundred and twenty-seven
provinces— not only translating it, but transcribing
it by hand, for they had no printing-presses. The
messengers had to publish the decree to every indi-
vidual in all the provinces. How long did it take to
accomplish this work? Upon the thirteenth day of
the twelfth month the commandment had been pub-
lished to all the people, and the Jews were ready on
that day to fight for their lives. In other words, it
took ten days less than nine months to do it. And
we have taken nineteen hundred years nearly to
carry the gospel to one quarter of the human race,
when we have the command of the King of kings to
do the King's business in haste. Now that is a
burning shame to Christendom, and we shall not
honor the Lord if we do not get stirred up on this
subject to do our duty in the evangelization of the
world. Arthur T. Pierson.
97
DAY
XXX
Word and work— the two W's. You will soon get
spiritually gorged if it is all Word and no work, and
you will soon be without power if it is all work and
no Word. If you want to be healthy Christians
there must be both Word and work.
D. L. Moody.
It is by steadfast drilling into the bed-rock of the
Word that we are able to bring up the drafts which
we can pass to others.
A. F. SCHAUFFLER.
If we are going to have the true secret of Chris-
tian leadership we must study that leader of Chris-
tian leaders, Jesus Christ. There we find the secret
that he came not to be ministered unto; he went
about as one that served; he taught that he who
would be greatest must be the servant of all: that
is the secret of enduring leadership in things spirit-
ual. John R. Mott.
A telegraph-wire must be completely insulated
before it can convey the electric communication.
So we must be separated from the world before God's
message to sinners can have free course through us.
When Saladin looked at the sword of Richard Coeur
de Lion, he wondered that a blade so ordinary should
have wrought such mighty deeds. The English king
bared his arm and said, " It was not the sword that
did these things; it was the arm of Richard." We
should be instruments that the Lord can use, and
when he has used us the glory should all be his.
George F. Pentecost.
98
DAY
XXXI
We are the members of the "body of Christ"; he
is the head. Be careful, then, for the head suffers
with the body. J. Wilbur Chapman.
Nothing is more dishonoring to Jesus Christ than
a church that is apostate and worldly and unconse-
crated. A man died some years ago, a very eminent
literary man, who had a magnificent head, lofty
browed and intellectual; but by a sad misfortune he
had that head upon a crippled body. He was a dwarf,
a hunchback, and you could not look upon him with-
out pity. '' What a splendid head," you would say,
"but alas, that it rests upon such an unsightly
form!" Shall Jesus Christ be so dishonored that
he shall have a body unsanctified and misshapen,
concerning which the angels might exclaim, "Alas!
what a noble head, but what an ignoble body!"
A. J. Gordon.
The church is compared to the body of which
Jesus Christ is the head; therefore, endeavor to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Men make a great mistake in trying by their evan-
gelical alliances and their compacts to make a unity;
it would be a great deal better if they would do
their best to keep the unity that the Spirit of God
has made. We are members of one another because
we are members of the same head.
The hand may say the foot is not in the body, but
it cannot help its being in the body, and after I have
got to heaven my High-church friend will see that
I have been in the body all the time, and he will be
sorry he didn't recognize me before.
F. B. Meyer.
99
My Jesus, I love thee; I know thou art mine;
For thee all the follies of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art thou;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
I love thee because thou hast first loved me.
And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree;
I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
I will love thee in life, I will love thee in death,
And praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death-dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;
I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow,
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
A. J. Gordon.
100
D\4onth of <tApril
Easter Lilies
tA. J. Gordon Gordon Laki
i
A stanza from an old hymn says that Jesus Christ
" burst the bars " of the grave and '' tore its bands
away." If a man bursts the bars of State's prison
all the police force of the commonwealth is after him
to bring him back. If, on the contrary, he has
served out his full time, all the power in the State
cannot retain him a single hour longer. Jesus
Christ must remain in the grave three days " accord-
ing to Scripture," but after the three days had ex-
pired there was not power enough in heaven or in
hell to retain him another moment.
Bunyan ^\Tites graphically about "the terrible
Captain Sepulcher and his standard-bearer. Corrup-
tion." I think I hear those two talking over the
situation on the night that Jesus Christ was buried.
Corruption says to Sepulcher: ''Hold fast to that
man in Joseph's tomb yonder! There is a rumor
that he proposes to break forth from the grave. Do
not let him go till I can fasten upon him." But
Corruption fails to touch him, because it had been
written, " Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see
corruption," Then hell from beneath cries out,
"Hold fast to this man! If he comes out he will
make a breach in the walls of death through which
all the prisoners of Hades will escape." And "he
that hath the power of death, even the devil," ex-
claims in fright, " If thou let this man go, thou art
not Satan's friend!" But vain the seal, and vain
the watch, and vain the grip of death, and vain the
doors of the tomb. As it began to dawn the first
day of the week there began to be a mighty stir in
the sepulcher; terrible Captain Sepulcher tightens
his grip, but in vain. " It was not possible that he
should be holden of death." A. J. Gordon.
101
DAY
n
If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your
sins.— 1 Cor. xv. 17.
The belief in the incarnation stands or falls with
the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
You may just as well shut up the Bible, recall the
missionaries, pull down the churches, and let us eat,
drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die and don't
know what is coming next, if it be not true that
Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
If a man should tell me now that a man who had
been buried two days ago had been seen to-day I
should not believe it. On an ordinary question I
will believe the testimony of men; but if I should be
told that an ordinary man who had been in his grave
two days had come out, I should say the presump-
tion against it was enormous; But Jesus Christ was
not an ordinary man. We take the specific evidence
after the resurrection of Christ as an argument for
that resurrection ; but the Old Testament also creates
a presumption in behalf of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ in advance. The ordinary man dying and
going into his grave, it is presumable that he will
not rise from the dead. Jesus Christ stands so
manifestly at the climax of Jewish history, and is
so organically related to it, that when he came into
the world he came as an exceptional man, and when
he died there was an antecedent presumption of his
resurrection as was the case with no other man.
So that you can say, as it is said in the Acts, "It
was not possible that he should be holden of death."
Francis L. Patton.
102
DAY
m
I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in
my bonds. ... If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught,
put that on mine account.— Phil. 10, 18.
We may draw most helpful lessons from the study
of Paul's letter to Philemon, as illustrating in the
characters of Philemon and Onesimus and Paul, mas-
ter, slave, and friend, the relation of the sinner to
God and Christ.
The sinner is the property of God. He has fled
from God, and is now under the curse of alienation
and separation. Not only so, but he has wTonged
God, and has robbed him besides. The law of God
provides no right of asylum for the sinner. He is
the absolute property of God— both a bond-slave
and a criminal. This ownership is not made void by
the sinner's flight. He may break the relationship
he sustains to God, but he cannot break the obliga-
tion. There is but one thing conceded to him; that
is the right of appeal. He may run to Christ, who
is the partner of God, and through his intercession
seek mercy. Jesus receives him. He comforts him.
Not only so, but he manumits him by adoption— be-
gets him in bonds as his own son. And then he
sends him back to the Father to be received as him-
self, and he says, "If he hath wronged thee, or
oweth thee aught, put that on my account;" and
with his own signature, written in blood, he says,
" I will repay." The reception of the sinner is ex-
ceedingly abundant— more than he can ask or think.
Arthur T. Pierson.
103
DAY
IV
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a
heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the
flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the
eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God ? — Heb. ix.
13, 14.
That is the great central thought of the atone-
ment: the sacrifice of Christ's own blood, not the
blood of bulls and goats, shall "purge your con-
science from dead works to serve the living God."
John A. Broadus.
There are two things which we must uphold and
hold fast— the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross,
and the priesthood of Christ in heaven.
Andrew A. Bonar.
The great strength in us and the great stumbling-
block by which the devil himself will be overthrown
is the blood. By the blood of the Lamb we are saved,
we are strengthened; by the blood of the Lamb we
are misunderstood, we are scoffed at.
John McNeill.
The last that the world ever saw of Christ, he
was hanging on the cross. The last business of his
life was the saving of a poor penitent thief. That
was a part of his triumph; that was one of the
glories attending his death. No doubt Satan said
to himself, " I will have the soul of that thief pretty
soon down here in the caverns of the lost." But
Christ snapped the fetters of this soul and set him
at liberty. Satan lost his prey. " The Lion of the
tribe of Judah " conquered the lion of hell.
D. L. Moody.
104
DAY
V
I am the vine, ye are the branches.— John xv. 5.
We know how close is the union between the vine
and its branches. The same life that nourishes the
root nourishes the most distant spray on the most
distant point of the most distant branch. When
our dear Lord was here he was the vine— he bore
all the fruit himself. But now that he is trans-
planted into heaven and on the throne, he bears all
his fruit in his branches. But all the life in all the
leaves and all the blossoms and all the fruit borne
here comes down from him as the root. It is the
natural order reversed. How shall I call it? The
root above, and the branches below. That is what
we ought to be— branches in Jesus, growing out of
his fullness, spreading his name and his fragrance
over this whole world. Till we are in Christ we
cannot serve Christ. Vital Christianity in the doc-
trine is union with the Son of God. Till we have
union with him we have no power. Corrupt trees
cannot bring forth good fruit, and we are corrupt
to the core. Christianity in the practical is just the
manifestation of union with the Son of God in our
walk and conduct in the church and in the world.
Marcus Rainsford.
Adam had rest and fellowship with God, but Adam
fell because he was not so perfectly linked to God
as to prevent the possibility of Satan injuring him.
But we are so linked unto God in Christ Jesus that
it will be impossible for us to fall from that position.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
105
DAY
VI
There was a famous sculptor in Paris, who exe-
cuted a great work which stands to-day in the Ga-
lerie des Beaux Arts. He was a great genius, and
this was his last work; but, like many a great genius,
he was very poor and lived in a small garret. This
garret was his workshop, his studio, and his bed-
room. He had this statue almost finished in clay
when, one night, a frost suddenly fell over Paris.
The sculptor lay on his bed, with the statue before
him in the center of the fireless room. As the chill
air came down upon him he saw that if the cold got
more intense the water in the interstices of the clay
would freeze. So the old man arose and heaped the
bedclothes reverently upon the statue. In the morn-
ing, when his friends came in, they found the old
sculptor dead; but the image was saved!
Preserve at any cost the image into which you
are being changed by the unseen Sculptor, who is
every moment that you are in his presence working
at that holy task. The Spirit of God is busy now re-
creating men, within these commonplace lives of ours,
in the image of God. Henry Drummond.
Christ said, " Peter, deny yourself." Instead of
doing that Peter denied his Lord. Just think of it!
It was a choice between that ugly, cursed self and
that beautiful, blessed Son of God; and Peter chose
self. No wonder that he wept bitter tears.
Christians, look at your own lives in the light of
the words of Jesus. Is there self-will, self -pleasing?
Remember this: every time you please yourself you
deny Jesus. It is one of the two. I must please him
and deny self, or please myself and deny him.
Andrew Murray.
106
DAY
vn
In many a man's life in that harbor out of which
he sails his little boat two vessels arise. One ves-
sel has the sound of laughter, rich and full, upon
it; the sound of music and dancing upon it; gaudy-
colors float from its mastheads: it is the ship of the
"World and its Lusts." Another ship lies in the
offing, a good, stanch boat, free from things that
are for the pleasures of the flesh, but filled with a
royal crew, captained by One who never failed to
lead his vessel safely through to the desired haven.
Upon one of those two boats you and I must embark.
Most of us have already put off our little boats on
the sea with the Brittany fisherman's prayer, " Keep
me, 0 God; the sea is so large, and my boat is so
small." But perhaps some are still halting between
the choice of the world and the good will of our
God. The two boats put out to sea; the sky is blue,
the Father's face is sweet and tender, and the sea is
sweet and peaceful ; and the two vessels sail quickly
over the waters. By and by the wind comes, and
that rocky cape which every vessel must round before
she reaches her haven looms up in the gathering
darkness. There, while the clouds surge heavy
overhead, and the night-birds sweep, and the waters
pitch and toss tempestuously beneath, the "World
and its Lusts " has passed away, but the good ship
of the " Will of God " rides on. The storms go down
and the clear sun shines out lovingly after the rain,
and by and by the light breaks upon the hills of the
better country, and the " Good Will of God " casts
anchor in the haven of my Father's land at the very
threshold of my Father's house.
Robert E. Speer.
107
DAY
vm
Upon the coast of France, the sailors say, there
is a buried city; and on quiet nights, as they are
rocked upon the deep, they think that they can hear
the tones of the buried bells coming up from the
steeples far down in the ocean depths with muffled
sound. So in the hearts of men of the world who
have lived lives of self-indulgence and evil there are
muffled tones from the depths of their nature, ring-
ing in the steeples of conscience, that tell them to
choose what is right and to shun what is wrong.
Conscience is not simply the knowledge of right
and wrong; it is the judgment-seat of God in minia-
ture. Every Christian carries the judgment-seat
inside of him, and day after day he stands before
it; and the Son of man, to whom all judgment is
committed, sits upon the throne of this inner court,
and not only tells us that this or the other is right
or wrong, but he goes further and he pronounces
sentence with a kiss of infinite delight or with a look
of infinite sorrow. He says to each of us, " Come,
thou blessed soul, loved of my Father and me; come
into the joy that I have prepared for you; " or, " De-
part into the darkness of unfellowship and broken
communion, 0 thou who hast disobeyed the dictates
of the inner voice!" We cannot doubt that there
is a judgment to come when we carry a judgment
in miniature within us. F. B. Meyer.
The more you know of God's Word, the more you
can know God's Word; and the more you are living
by God's Word the better you can understand God's
Word. But if you keep it at arm's-length, and
dally with it, and play around it, then years may
pass without your having progressed one whit.
John A. Broadus.
108
DAY
DC
There is, I grant, a place for the reason in con-
sidering this question about the information given
to us about salvation; there is also a place for the
church as the great agency in transmitting this in-
formation; but the greatest place, the most conspic-
uous place, the supreme place, belongs to the Bible,
and it will not do to say that the reason, the church,
and the Bible are coordinate, because they do not
stand in any such relation to one another. It is very
absurd to put the reason and the church in such re-
lation to the Bible as to imply that either could be
a substitute for the Bible.
Suppose that a man gets a telegram to-day from
his friend in China, sad or happy as the case may be,
and he says, " I don't need any message. I have my
o\^Ti reason, and I can excogitate out of my o"«ti con-
sciousness all that I need know of my friend in China."
" Oh no," you reply; '' your reason is the condition of
your being able to read this message, but it is no sub-
-stitute for the information, and will not give you the
information which the message contains." But he re-
plies, " I don't need any message; I have an unbroken
continuity of telegraph-\\Tre from here to the anti-
podes." "Xo," you reply; ''the telegi'aph-boy is
useful and the telegraph-wire is an important thing
as making the connection between you and the mes-
sage, but what you needed was the message.^'
Your reason is the condition of your being able
to read the message which your heavenly Father has
sent you; and the church has performed a most im-
portant function in transmitting the message; and
the Bible, my friends, is the message.
Franxis L. Patton.
109
DAY
X
Look at that man, Paul. Men called him a madman.
I wish we had a lot of that kind of madness now.
Some one has said, " If he was mad, he had a good
keeper on the way, and a fine asylum at the end of
the route." He could afford to be mad; he was a
man that turned the world upside down— it was
wrong side up before. There was a man who conse-
crated his life to God. He had one motto: "This
one thing I do." He hadn't forty aims; if he had,
you would never have heard of him. He threw his
whole life into one channel. " This one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind, and reach-
ing forth unto those things which are before, I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus."
The world looked down upon him, but the world
wasn't worthy of him. He is well known in heaven.
If you had asked the rich men in Corinth what kind
of a man Paul was, they would have said, *' Huh! he
is a fanatic— gone clean mad. He's honest enough,
but he is a madman." He has been gone eighteen
hundred years, and now his epistles are going to the
very corners of the earth. Let us get right on
Paul's platform, and have one aim: "One thing I
do." Let the kingdom be first in everything, and
everything else will be added. We needn't be
bothering our heads and troubling our minds about
what our future is going to be. If we are wholly
given up to God, he will lead us. Paul never marked
out the path he was going to tread. Hold your reins
loosely, and God will guide you,
D. L. Moody, f
110
DAY
XI
The light of Christ strikes down on our hearts
and lives, and, as in Switzerland the sun at dawn
only strikes the loftiest mountains and leaves the
valleys as yet unreached, so, when Christ first begins
to deal with a soul, he does not show the soul the
whole of its depravity, but he deals with one or two
or three outstanding sins. Directly the soul sees
that, it says, " I will give that up to God," and it
shoots up on to another level, and for some happy
weeks or months lives upon a higher level of Chris-
tian enjoyment than ever before. Then there comes
another moment. It may be a month or a year
after, and the great light of God's revelation within
reveals something else which has never been noticed
or suspected, which the soul has done comparatively
innocently; but instantly that sin stands out before
God as the one thing to be dealt with. The soul
shudders for a moment and then says, " I treat that
as I treated the former one; I yield it," and it shoots
right up again and goes on to a higher level than
ever. The process is repeated upon that higher
platform. So life is one great stairway upon our
dead selves as stepping-stones to higher things.
My growth is simply because God Almighty is con-
stantly revealing things deeper and deeper. As a
line is made up of a number of dots, so Christian
life is made up of a number of surrenders to God,
but you do not think them to be surrenders because
your heart is so taken up with what he is giving
that you drop the thing that holds you to take the
better thing he gives. God wants to deal with you
as his child.
F. B. Meyer.
Ill
DAY
xn
Take heed therefore, that the light which is in thee be not
darkness.— Luke xi. 35.
Beware of moral color-blindness! A man's think-
ing that he sees the truth aright does not shield him
from the consequences of his error. Conscientious
wrong-doing is never safe doing. In moral color-
blindness there is moral peril, and you may be morally
color-blind without knowing it. The Mosaic law de-
clared, " If any one sin, . . . though he knew it not,
yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity." The lips
of the loving Jesus said also of the sinning servant,
" He that knew not, and did commit things worthy
of stripes, shall be beaten," although with fewer
stripes than the conscious transgressor.
If a color-blind engineer mistakes a red signal for
a white one at an open drawbridge, the resulting
calamity is as terrible to himself and the train-load
of passengers as if he had deliberately defied a token
of danger which he read correctly.
One's danger of misreading the signals along his
personal life-course is no less in the moral world
than in the physical. Man's conscience, like a ship's
compass, should be corrected according to a divine
standard. It must be set right by comparison with
the true standard of the Sun of Righteousness, rated
frequently by the Bible record, and guarded watch-
fully, lest by careless usage its accuracy be lost and
the soul in mid-ocean be without a guide. Unless
you know how much your conscience chronometer
slows or quickens in the various latitudes where you
sail, you will never be able to learn your bearings
accurately or to lay your course correctly.
Henry Clay Trumbull.
112
DAY
Xffl
Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the
Lord.— 2 Cor. vi. 17.
That command means not only come out, but it
means also stay out. Some come out and then
go back. Some come out and straddle the line.
Christ draws sharp lines. " He that is not with me
is against me." Some church-members have their
roots on one side of the church w^all and their boughs
all hang over and drop the fruit on the world's side.
It is not only a question of where your roots are, but
w^here the boughs hang and the apples fall. We want
more in these days of clear, distinct, emphatic,
Christly religion, so that we do not need to look into
the church-roll to find out whether a man is a Chris-
tian or not. Theodore L. Cuyler.
Probably the most of the difficulties of trying to
live the Christian life arise from attempting to half
live it. Henry Drummond.
We can and do make it hard for Christ to confess
us. For as the devil of old came into the presence
of God accusing Job, so now the devil in a sense
enters the courts of heaven accusing us before the
Father. Here is some poor trembling, faltering
sinner who walks unworthy of the vocation where-
unto he is called. The devil comes before God, and
says, "Ah, yes; that is one of yours, who promised
to serve you and be faithful, and yet see how he is
living." Christ's reply is, " Well, he has confessed
me before men, and I promised to confess him be-
fore my Father. Yes; he is one of mine, and I am
hoping that this and that will remove every trace
of evil." It is a hard thing for Christ to confess us
in the face of our many inconsistencies, but he is
faithful to his promise. A. J. Gordon.
113
DAY
XIV
Suppose that you see a mother with a beautiful
little babe, six months old, rosy and chubby. It
cannot speak, it cannot walk; but we are not troubled
about that, for it is natural. Suppose, however,
that a year later you find the child not grown at all,
and three years later still the same; you would at
once say, "There must be some terrible disease;"
that baby, that at six months old was a joy to every
one, has become to the mother and to all her friends
a source of anxiety and of sorrow. It was quite
right, at six months old, that it should eat nothing
but milk; but years have passed by, and it remains
in the same weakly state.
Now this is just the condition of many believers.
They are converted, they know what it is to have
assurance and faith; they believe in pardon for sin,
they begin to work for God, and yet, somehow, there
is very little growth in spirituality, in the real hea-
venly life. You come into contact with them, and
you feel at once there is something wanting; there
is none of the beauty of holiness or of the power of
God's Spirit in them. Is it not sad to see a believer
who has been converted five, ten, twenty years, and
who has yet no growth and no strength and no joy
of holiness! Andrew Murray.
There are a great many church-members who are
just hobbling about on crutches. They can just
make out that they are saved, and imagine that is
all that constitutes a Christian in this nineteenth
century. As far as helping others is concerned,
that never enters their heads. They think if they
can get along themselves they are doing amazingly
well. They have no idea what the Holy Ghost wants
to do through them. D. L. Moody,
114
DAY
XV
As long as the soldier slinks outside the battle he
carries a whole skin; but let him plunge in and fol-
low the captain, and he will soon have the bullets
flying about him. Some of you have had a good
time because there was no use in the devil wasting
powder and shot upon you; you haven't been doing
him any harm; but directly you begin to wake up
and set to work for God, the devil will set a thou-
sand evils to worrying you, or he may come himself
to see to you. F. B. Meyer.
If Satan was dangerous when Paul wrote his epis-
tles, how much more dangerous must he be now, for
he has so much more experience!
Andrew A. Bonar.
*^ Stand fast therefore in all the armor of GodJ^ We
are in the heavenlies to fight the devil and all the
principalities and powers who are trying to draw
us out from our fortress where God has placed us.
There can be no peace between us and the devil;
we must fight him to the very end, because he is
always assailing our souls and trying to draw us out
of our high place in Christ Jesus. From the pit of
darkness to the throne of God Christ Jesus raises
us, and, putting us above all principalities and
powers, says, " Having done all, stand." But mind
that you take the whole armor of God; don't omjt
one piece. The devil is crafty; let him see one spot
without its covering, and he will hurl a fiery dart
that will make you groan with pain, and would
wound you unto death, perhaps, were it not for the
oil and wine which the good Samaritan deigns to
pour in. H. W. Webb-Peploe.
115
DAY
XVI
The pleasure of sin may seem very great to you
when you are young, but what will be the end?
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
The biggest lie ever uttered in hell is that the
devil is an easy master and God a hard one. I would
like to drive that lie back into perdition; and I testify
now that my God is not a hard master and the devil
an easy one. I take up that old Book, and read,
"The way of the transgressor is hard;" and looking
around me, I see that it is hard. Go down to yon
prison, and ask the prisoner if it is not hard. Go
with me to the gambler, the drunkard, the forger,
who has lost everything, and ask if the way of the
transgressor is not hard. D. L. Moody.
When a man begins to argue with his conscience,
he is sure to be in the wrong. Are you trying to
justify yourself in an act? You may be sure that
that act, in your deepest consciousness, is not what
it should be. May I go deeper down? Is it not a
fact that with some of us there are sins which we
permit, but which we condemn? We excuse our-
selves by saying that they are hereditary, and that
we cannot help them. We say, " We have a strong
nature; we are swept by the winds of passion; some
men were born good, but we were born with a crook
in us." These excuses will not be accepted by God ;
his grace is sufficient; Christ can take a Simon and
make a Peter of him. F. B. Meyer.
There are many sins which must either be dealt
with suddenly or not at all.
Henry Drummond.
116
DAY
xvn
There is an awful responsibility in the gospel.
It damns a man if he will not accept it. God
makes provision for a free pardon, but what if you
decline to take it? Here it is; God holds it out to
you— take it; if you do not there are a^vful conse-
quences, and the fault is yours, not God's. If you
turn your back on God you set your face toward the
devil. If the gospel needed to be preached to Cor-
nelius, then a man's own righteousness will not save
him; Cornelius must close with God's bargain; he
must take God's gift; that was all he had to do, and
all was right. H. W. Webb-Peploe.
A sinner, telling of his conversion, may at one
time say, " If it had not been for that sermon, I
would have been a sinner still." Another time, " If
it had not been for that person." Another time,
" If I had not turned." But when he looks solemnly
into the whole case, he says, " Unless He who is
exalted a Prince and a Saviour had called me, and
the Holy Spirit had brought home the Word, I
should have been a lost sinner still." Let us cease
giving credit to ourselves and depending on our-
selves. Andrew A. Bonar.
No man can believe on Jesus without repentance
toward God; but mark this: you never find repen-
tance toward Jesus spoken of in the Bible. Faith in
Jesus Christ produces repentance toward God; for
we do not know God till we come to Jesus.
Marcus Rainsford.
117
DAY
xvm
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is
covered.— Ps. xxxii. 1.
There are two ways of covering sin, man's way and
God's way. You cover your sins and they will have
a resurrection sometime; let God cover them, and
neither devil nor man can find them. There are four
expressions in the Bible with regard to where God
puts sins. He puts them " behind his back." If God
has forgiven me, who shall bring a charge against
me? "He has blotted them out as a thick cloud."
You see a cloud to-night, and to-morrow there isn't
a cloud to be seen. " He casts them into the depths
of the sea." Som^e one has said, " Thank God that
it is a sea and not a river; a river might dry up, but
the sea cannot." The greatest blessing that ever
comes to me this side of heaven is when God for-
gives me. Have you been forgiven? The fourth
expression is that he removes them " as far as the
east is from the west." Do you know how far that
is? Perhaps some good mathematician will figure
that up. " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness." Then make sure that you are
forgiven. D. L. Moody.
If God had waited until we repented and asked his
pardon for our sins before he gave his Son and
brought to bear upon us all his loving-kindness to
bring us to repentance, we should have spent eter-
nity in hell. If you know that you hold any ill
will toward any one, and you wish God to work a
mighty work in your soul, get down and ask God to
cast the bitterness out of your heart.
R. A. TORREY.
118
DAY
XDC
, God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.—
1 Pet. V. 5.
It is pride— unwillingness to admit that there is
any fundamental lack in our experience— that keeps
many back from spiritual blessing. Many preachers
of the gospel fail of the Holy Spirit's power simply
because they are unwilling to come right out and
humbly and frankly confess that there is such a
thing as the baptism with the Holy Ghost, which
they have never received, and that they have been
preaching all these years without that power which
Jesus commanded his disciples to wait for before
they stirred a step. R. A. Torrey.
Pride changed an archangel in heaven into a devil
in hell, and pride was the cause of all the wretched-
ness of man. Pride is the root of every sin; we
need to see that above everything we must be saved
from pride and self-will. It is good to be saved
from lying and stealing and murder and every other
evil; but a man needs, above all, to be saved from
the root of all sin. Andrew Murray.
There is a false humility, which is marked by two
signs: first, a reluctance to enter upon the work of
God, on the ground of incapacity. The true soldier
of Christ says, " These are not my words or my
works; I am doing my Master's work, and using my
Master's weapons in my Master's service." False
humility is detected, secondly, by self-consciousness.
If you think you are humble, you never are.
Arthur T. Pierson.
119
DAY
XX
Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before
us.— Heb. xii. 1.
Of course sins are weights, but all weights are not
sins. A sin necessarily impairs or destroys all com-
munion with God and all spiritual life, but a weight
is something which is not necessarily a sin, but
which is a hindrance. The author of this epistle says,
" Seeing the race which is set before us, let us not
only lay aside the sin which makes all holy running
impossible, but let us lay aside every weight which
prevents all rapid racing."
Arthur T. Pierson.
God is willing to do for any man or woman all
that he ever did for any one. If there is not a
mighty work of God in us, it is our own fault. Find
out what these hindrances are, and put them away.
R. A. TORREY.
Sometimes professing Christians are beset by
special hindrances to their usefulness— tendencies
of speech or action that mar the beauty of holiness
most sadly. What are you going to do \^ith the
evil habit, or the half-dozen, which are hindering
you? Fight them one by one; that is one way.
What did you do last winter when the panes of the
window were covered with frost, and you could not
see out of them? Did you scratch them off with a
knife? That would take too long. Heat up the
room and the frost goes off the pane. Warm up
the soul with the love of Christ and the bad habits
will run off. That is what Chalmers calls the " ex-
pulsive power of a new affection." Bring Jesus
Christ into the soul and you will overcome the evil
habits. Theodore L. Cuyler.
120
DAY
XXI
God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and
God in him.— 1 John iv. 16.
The landscape is very much affected by the glass
through which you regard it. If that glass is yel-
low, everything looks yellow. If it is blue, every-
thing looks blue. If it is somber, everything looks
somber. Now, the man who is living a life of love
looks out upon his life through the love of God, and
the love of God has such a mysterious property in
it that it takes away from terrible things their ter-
ror, from dreadful things their dread, and from the
malignity of man his spite; and the soul looks with
a calm serenity upon all the circumstances of life,
and finds itself hushed and calm.
F. B. Meyer.
You are not very holy if you are not very kind.
Andrew Bonar.
Christ's love to God and his love to man were not
two great passions, but one. He loved man because
he saw God in him. This must ever be the pulse of
a powerful philanthropy— to see God in man. In
the humblest— aye, in the most sinful human being
—we see one whom God loves, whom the Saviour
died for, and who may be an heir of the glory of
Christ. James Stalker.
Love stops not to think how much must be given
and what may be kept; it gives all. What is your
most precious possession? Money? Will you give
it up to him? Your voice? Give it up to him.
You must strip yourself, and God must have all.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
121
DAY
XXII
Thou, 0 Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up
of mine head.— Ps. iii. 3.
God is whatever you need him to be. There is
an old tradition among the Jews that the manna
tasted like whatever you were hungry for every
morning. If you woke up, for example, hungry for
Egyptian cucumbers and leeks, and did not murmur
after them, but thankfully took your manna, the
manna tasted like them. And God, he is our life;
he is all our strength and stay, and is whatever we
need him to be. Do you want a friend? God is a
friend. Do you want a guide? God is a guide. Do
you want somebody to be, as it were, your leader
in battle? The Lord is a man of war. Do you
want somebody to be your advocate, to stand in the
high court and plead your cause ? We have an Ad-
vocate. Our God adapts himself exactly to the very
shape and body and color of our wants.
John McNeill.
What God the Father was to his Son, Jesus Christ
is prepared to be to every one of us. In reading
the gospel, if you will substitute the thought of
Christ's relationship to yourself every time Jesus
speaks of the Father's attitude to him, you will find
that the gospel will have a new emphasis and mean-
ing.
F. B. Meyer.
God wants all his sons and daughters to be very
happy, but he wants them to be happy in a way that
will help and not hinder them,
D. L. Moody.
122
DAY
xxm
I can do all things [I am all-prevailing] in him that strength-
eneth me.— Phil. iv. 13.
A great Methodist preacher in Manchester once
entered his pulpit, gave out this text, and began
solemnly reading in measured tones: " *I can do all
things '—Paul," he said, " you are a liar. ' I can do
all things'— Paul, thou art a terrible liar. Oh, I
beg your pardon, Paul; I see it now— 'through Christ
which strengtheneth me.' That is quite another
thing. Paul, you are quite right— ^ I can do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth me.' " This is
a secret worth learning, even though a man has to be
shut up in a prison with a galling chain on his wrist
in order to learn it. H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Ah, if we but knew the power that worketh in us
and the power that worketh for us, there would be
less talking and more working, and things that seem
to be, from the point of unbelief and panic-stricken-
ness, almost too big to attempt, would be seen to be
natural and obvious. John McNeill.
There is a good deal of diiference between social
power, political power, and a kind of religious power.
Strength is one thing, and power is another. The
giant of Gath had strength, but David had power.
It would be a good idea when a man or woman wants
to join the church to ask him if he wants to be a
member with or without power. If he says, " With-
out power," it would be well to say, " We have plenty
of that kind of church-members. What we want is
a few with power." D. L. Moody.
We have a supernatural work to do, and we must
have supernatural power with which to do it.
A. J. Gordon.
123
DAY
XXIV
Every man who desires the pearl of great price
must sacrifice his all to buy it. It is not enough to
see the beauty and the glory and almost to taste the
joy of this wonderful life; you must become the
possessor of it. The man had found and seen, de-
sired and rejoiced, in the pearl of great price, but
he did not have it until he gave up everything and
bought it.
Ah, friends, there is a great deal which must be
given up: the world, its pleasure, its favor, its good
opinion. The world rejected Jesus and cast him
out, and you must take up the position of your Lord,
to whom you belong, and follow with the rejected
Christ. You have to give up all that is good in
yourself, even your past religious life and experi-
ence and successes, and to be humbled in the dust
of death. The blessed Spirit cannot teach us more
effectually only because the wisdom of man prevents
the light of God from shining in.
Some Christians may be holding fast some doubt-
ful thing, not willing to surrender and leave behind
the whole of the wilderness life and lust.
You cannot live every day in perfect fellowship
with God without giving up time to it. Hours and
days and weeks and months and years are gladly
given up by men and women to perfect themselves
in some profession or accomplishment. Do you ex-
pect that religion is so cheap that without giving
time you can find close fellowship with God? You
cannot. But, my brothers and sisters, this pearl is
worth everything. If you find that there is a strug-
gle within the heart, never mind. By God's grace,
if you will lie at his feet, you may depend upon it
deliverance will come. Andrew Murray.
•124
DAY
XXV
In these days the work of rescuing the individual
sinner is very popular, but it is not so popular to
point out and put down the evil that destroys him,
because there are material interests involved. Men
are trying to save a few wrecks here and there,
while thousands go down and the wreckers keep
plying their trade. It is better to hang or reform
the wreckers than to save one wreck.
Charles A. Blanchard.
Possibly the most eloquent passage that Dr. Guth-
rie ever uttered was one in which he said little. He
was pleading for a ragged school, and a large con-
gregation of conservative people were opposing him.
One man said, " I am utterly opposed to this plan.
You intend to go down among those people who are
the very offscouring of the earth, dirty, filthy, in-
temperate, and vicious, expecting to make decent
folks of them. I for one do not care to spend my
money in trying to accomplish what is impossible.
The very rags on which your feet step as you go
along the street are better than they." Dr. Guth-
rie, filled with indignation, took a piece of white
paper and waved it before them. "My friends,
what is this paper made of? Is it not made of
those very rags that you trample under your feet? "
A. J. Gordon.
Never despair of any man. Seek him out to save
him, even though he be as the vilest reptile. Go
and die for him if necessary.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
125
DAY
XXVI
When you are discouraged, when you see how
much worldliness there is in the church, defections
in doctrine and defections in the members, when
you see how little impression has been made on this
world by nineteen centuries of Christian history, do
you not think that it is an encouragement and a
help for the child of God to feel that he has a con-
ception of God's work, in which he is simply working
for God along the lines that God projected? He
has to do what God gives him to do, and leave the
result to God. He does not estimate his success by
figures, but he says, " I am commanded by my Lord
to go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature; I go as I am bidden, and leave the
strategy to my Lord himself. What he means, he
knows, but what he commands, I do."
Arthur T. Pierson.
0 church of the living God, awake!— arise from
your lethargy, and spring forward to the conflict.
Give your choicest sons, your loveliest daughters,
to this war of Immanuel. Consecrate to him your
silver and your gold. Fill up the mission treasuries
to overflowing. Let a shout go forth that shall leap
over seas and continents, and reach the ears of your
waiting hosts in those distant lands. And what
shall that shout be? Shall we catch the cry,
" March onward ! Seize every point of vantage. Call
upon the enemy to surrender. Reinforcements five
thousand strong are on the way; supplies in abun-
dance are coming. March on, and conquer the land
for Christ "? This is the shout that we long to
hear, but it has not come. Shall it be long delayed?
Jacob Chamberlain.
126
DAY
xxvn
There was a defect in the faith of many who came
to Christ to be healed. But it was not the strength
of their faith Christ looked to, but the reality of it.
They got the cure though the hand that touched
him trembled. Andrew A. Bonar.
Our faith needs strengthening, and it would be
an unkindness for God to give us great answers
to wavering faith. If we have not faith enough to
remove a mountain, we may climb it step by step,
and, when we reach its summit, our spiritual mus-
cles will be greatly strengthened, and from the
height thus gained we may breathe a purer atmo-
sphere and get a broader view. A. C. Dixon.
I heard of a woman in Scotland who was intro-
duced to a minister by another minister as a woman
of great faith. She instantly rebuked him by say-
ing, " No; I am a woman of little faith with a great
God." She had the right idea. If I have even a
little faith I have the power of the Almighty behind
me. D. L. MooDY.
The faith that rests in Jesus is the faith that
trusts itself to him with all it has. In our homes,
in our business, in society, everywhere, let Christ be
the one object of our trust. If you want power in
your house, in your Bible class, in your social circle
and your nation, or in the church of Christ, then
come into contact with Jesus in this rest of faith
that accepts his life fully, that trusts him fully for
yourself, and you will be able by faith to influence
your family, by faith to overcome the world, by
faith to bless others, by faith to live a life to the
glory of God. Andrew Murray.
127
DAY
xxvra
If we really believe that God loved us with his
whole heart, what a help it would be to us in our
daily lives! We would then feel that we could go
at any moment into the presence of a loving Father,
who cared as much for us as if he had nothing else
to care for. A child may come into the presence
of its earthly father, except when the parent is oc-
cupied. Our heavenly Father is never so occupied.
At all times he will bestow on us the same attention.
A child likes to play in the presence of its earthly
parents, even though they take no notice of it, and
is happy simply because it is with them. How
much more ought we to be joyous in our heavenly
Father's presence! We need not be always singing.
The heart has a silent language. There is too little
of adoration— simple worship— at the present time.
Andrew A. Bonar.
Worship is a blessed privilege, not only because
it brings supreme joy, but because it also brings
likeness to God. It is by communion with God we
are made like him. When Moses cam^e do^vn from
beholding God, his own face shone with a strange
and awful glory; and Paul says that " we all, reflect-
ing as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are trans-
formed into the same image from glory to glory."
Our complete transformation into his likeness will
come through the complete and undivided vision of
himself. "We shall be like him; for we shall see
him even as he is."
R. A, TORREY,
128
DAY
XXIX
We talk about being " filled with the Spirit," yet
Paul goes beyond that in Ephesians iii. 14, where he
says, ''For this cause I bow my knees unto the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, . . . that ye,
being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to
comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and
length, and depth, and height; and to know the love
of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might
be"— filled with? No; "that ye might he filled
into all the fullness of God." Do you not see the
difference? Here are empty vessels. You say,
"First get yourself empty and then full." I may
dip out and fill these vessels; but put an emipty ves-
sel into the ocean, and it quickly fills itself. This
seems to be Paul's thought. Archbishop Leighton
makes a beautiful comment on the words of Christ,
" Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." The arch-
bishop, lifting up his eyes to heaven, said, "Lord
Jesus, it is only a little joy that now enters into us;
but by and by we shall enter into joy as vessels put
into a sea of happiness." Cast yourself into the
great deeps of the Spirit, then there will be no
trouble in getting filled.
A. J. Gordon.
The gift of Pentecost is for you; as you claimed
forgiveness from the hand of the dying Christ, j-ou
must claim your Pentecost from the hand of the
risen Christ; and as you were forgiven in answer to
your faith, so you shall now be endued and filled
and glorified by the Holy Ghost according to your
faith. The same law applies inviolably.
F. B. Meyer.
129
DAY
XXX
God loveth a cheerful giver.— 2 Cor. ix. 7.
In Herefordshire there was one very rich man in
my parish, who had a sudden paralytic stroke when
I was away from home for a holiday. He was a
common, ignorant farmer, and had come into eighty
thousand pounds through the death of a brother.
He had told me that he did not care for his brother's
money because he had as much as he wanted before,
and yet he had not given more than sixpence a year
for charity. As soon as I returned home I went
down to see him, and he said, "The Lord has
stricken me, and I am afraid I may die. I have sent
for you at once that I may do what I suppose is
right before God; I want to go to heaven, and I want
you to take a hundred pounds for the poor." I
looked him straight in the face, and said, " Do you
think you are going to buy your soul's way to glory
by a dirty hundred pounds! Give your money where
you like; I v^dll not touch it!" That was rather
strong; but, blessed be God, the man lived seven
years, and was a very different man before he died.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
There is no happiness in having and getting, but
only in giving; half the world is on the wrong scent
in the pursuit of happiness.
Henry Drummond.
"Our citizenship is in heaven." Any Christian
who can realize the meaning of that text will be a
Christian wholly separated from the world. He will
pay taxes where his treasure is. Nine tenths of the
Christians are paying taxes do\vn here in the world.
A. J. Gordon.
130
DAonth of DA ay
Apple "Blossoms
F. "B. Meyer The Seminary 'Buildings
^^^^
And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion [the first-
born son's portion] of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou
hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am
taken from thee, it shall be so.— 2 Kings ii. 9.
That was the condition of the coveted blessing—
"if thou see me." Do you not think that Elisha
kept a sharp watch on Elijah ? Then suddenly there
swept down that chariot of fire; Elijah stepped into
his Father^s carriage, which had come to take him
home, and was swept away up to heaven. As Elisha
watched him, Elijah seems to have suddenly thought
he would not want the old mantle up there, that he
would get a new white robe; so he threw the old
one down at Elisha's feet. Then Elisha took it up
reverently, and said to himself, "I have seen him
go, and I have what he promised." I doubt not the
devil said to him, " Ah, you are a fool ! you have
nothing but an old mantle that is not worth your
carrying." " Yes," said Elisha, " I have something
more than that— I have his power." " You do not
feel it, do you ? " " No ; but that makes no difference ;
I have it for all that. I saw him go, and I have it
though I do not feel it." When he reached the
Jordan there were a number of young students
watching him. I think the devil said, "Now see
those shrewd young fellows looking at you; if you
make a failure, they will never forget it; and you
are bound to fail. Wait until they have gone home
to supper, and when it is a bit dusk you can practise
with your old mantle." " No," he said, " I am not
going to practise with it; I do not need to; I have my
master's power, and I am going to act in faith." And
he struck the waters in faith ; in the act of faith he
found he received that for which he trusted God.
F. B. Meyer.
131
DAY
n
^^T^^^^^^^^-^
Would it not be better to leave to-morrow with
God? That is what is troubling men; to-morrow's
temptations, to-morrow's difficulties, to-morrow's
burdens, to-morrow's duties. Martin Luther in his
autobiography says, "I have one preacher that I
love better than any other upon earth ; it is my little
tame robin, which preaches to me daily. I put his
crumbs upon my windov/-sill, especially at night.
He hops on to the sill when he wants his supply,
and takes as much as he desires to satisfy his need.
From thence he always hops on to a little tree close
by, and lifts up his voice to God and sings his carol
of praise and gratitude, tucks his little head under
his wing and goes fast asleep, and leaves to-morrow
to look after itself. He is the best preacher that I
have on earth." H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Moment by moment I'm kept in his love;
Moment by moment I've life from above;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine.
Moment by moment, 0 Lord, I am thine.
D. W. Whittle.
So many Christians want to walk by sight; they
want to see how a thing is going to come out.
Jacob walked by sight. He never could have gone
through the temptations and trials that his son
Joseph did. Joseph had more faith: he could walk
in the dark. Lot was a weak character, and should
have stayed with Abraham. A good many men, as
long as they are bolstered up by some godly person,
get along very well; but they can't stand alone.
Have faith in God to guide you, even though you
can't see. D. L. Moody.
132
w^^^
DAY
m
It is not strange when you have the Bible deal-
ing with the physical world, and when physical science
is dealing with the same facts, that you should have
a double interpretation of the same phenomena.
The double interpretation makes it all the stronger;
we see that every day. I go early in the morning
and make a very informal call upon a friend with
whom I am very intimate. I walk in without knock-
ing, it may be, and I say to the first one I meet, " Is
So-and-so at home?" I say to myself, "Yes, he
must be here; his hat and cane are here, and there
is a favorite book he has left open; there are indica-
tions all around of his having been here within a
short time." And, answering my question himself,
he says, " Yes; I will be down in a minute." I have
performed a rapid and unconscious induction, and
then received the direct information from him. I go
around this world and I investigate it; I interpret it
and say, "Is God here?" And I perform an induc-
tion, which I call an argument, for the existence of
God; and while I am going through that process of
reasoning I get a message from God himself. He
says, "In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth." Is there any trouble about my in-
ference reached one way and God's information
given me in another way? No; the Christian creed
is strengthened by the double testimony of science
and revelation.
Francis L. Patton.
No single fact in science has ever discredited a
fact in religion.
Henry Drummond.
133
DAY
IV
The authenticity of the Scriptures depends upon
the truth of the facts contained in them, and not upon
men's interpretation of those facts. Facts alone
can authenticate anything. Leave the settlement
to interpretation, and you have as many interpreta-
tions as you have interpreters. If a document is
authentic its authenticity must be established by
questions of fact, and when this is done no interpre-
tation can set it aside. All the philosophies of man
must fall when they come in contact with a single
fact. The fall of an apple and the discovery of
gravitation destroyed the philosophy that man had
been building for six thousand years.
Suppose that I should attempt to do with the
Constitution of the United States what the opposers
of Christianity for eighteen hundred years have been
trying to do with the Bible. They offer their own
interpretations as proof that God is not the author
of the Bible. I might offer my interpretation to prove
that the fathers never made the Constitution.
If the Bible is ever authenticated, it must be done
in the same way that any other document is authen-
ticated—by a study of its facts. In no other way
could a revelation be given than by supernatural
acts attesting a divine mission, and then by monu-
mental testimony, as " seals," putting these evidences
in an imperishable form to transmit to future gen-
erations. The acts which Moses and Christ performed
were the highest evidences that God could give that
he had sent them. The national monuments are as
good evidence to us as the acts were to those
who saw them. Testimony, accompanied by proper
" seals " and attestations, can lose none of its value
by time. I. D. Driver.
134
DAY
V
A Bible that man can comprehend, or anybody
else can comprehend, is not very much of a Bible.
Infinite things cannot be grasped by the human mind.
The Bible opens with three great mysteries: the
mystery of time, the mystery of being, and the
mystery of creation. We cannot understand them;
they are past our finding out.
Alexander McKenzie.
The great canon of interpretation, that spiritual
things are spiritually discerned, cannot be too
strongly insisted on. One cannot interpret Scrip-
ture by mere intellect any more than a mathemati-
cian can interpret the oratorio, " The Creation," by
his multiplication table, or a shopkeeper can com-
prehend " Paradise Lost " with his yardstick. Only
the Spirit that inspired the Word of God can give
us the key to that Word. A. J. Gordon.
Did you ever notice the inspiration that is found
in what is not said in the Bible? Swedenborg openly
declares what the Bible leaves in mystery. Suppose
that the Bible had pronounced on the age when we
become morally responsible. Suppose the Bible had
pronounced on science, and so diverted man's atten-
tion from spiritual things. We do not know what
Paul's thorn in the flesh was; consequently we each
think that our particular infirmity or trouble may
be like Paul's. Nothing is said as to the limits of
propriety in the matter of worldly amusements.
Nothing is said of the personal features of the Lord
Jesus Christ. These and many other matters are
passed over in silence, and the wisdom of that si-
lence is as great as the wisdom of speech.
A. T. PlERSON.
135
DAY
VI
We find in Scripture the word " true " used with
regard to a number of objects: the true bread, the
true wine, the true manna, the true tabernacle.
What is this intended to teach us? God could have
made man to need no sleep, to need no food, as
we have reason to suppose the angels were made;
but had this been the case we should have known
nothing of rest, as we now know it, nor could we
have learned the spiritual truths revealed to us
through the illustration of food and nourishment.
So that the bread we eat is not true bread; but
Christ is the true bread, of which it is merely a type.
The earthly relationship of parent and child is only
a type and dim reflection of the preexisting relation-
ship in the divine mind; and all that the bridegroom
and bride bring before us of trust and of love are
only intended to teach us the true relationship of
the church to Christ, and of Christ to his church.
We only rightly knov/ him v/hen we realize that to
please God is to give God pleasure, as earthly pa-
rents receive pleasure when their children please
them. J. Hudson Taylor.
There are seven marvelous truths contained in
John iii. 16: 1. The greatest possible gift: God gave
his Son; 2. For the greatest possible number: ''the
world;" 3. On the easiest possible terms: "whoso-
ever believeth;" 4. For the most blessed deliverance
from eternal perdition: " shall never perish;" 5. The
greatest blessing: "everlasting life;" 6. On the
highest possible security: on the witness of Christ
himself; 7. From the highest possible motive, God's
love: "God so loved the v/orld."
Marcus Rainsford.
136
W^^^ ""y^
This little world was the altar of the universe on
which lay the almighty Sacrifice. The incarnation
was but the scaffolding for the atonement. ^ It is the
cross that shows us the love of God at white heat.
Andrew A. Bonar.
God's Word teaches us two things about the cross
of Christ: Christ died /or sin and for me. But what
gave his death such power to atone was the spirit
in which he died. He died unto sin. Sin had
tempted him in Gethsemane to say, " I cannot die."
But, God be praised, he died unto sin, and in dying
he conquered. He gave up his life rather than
yield to sin. I cannot die/c>r sin like Christ, but I
can and must die to sin like Christ.
Andrew Murray.
We are not pardoned on the ground of any com-
promise. God has not agreed to let us off for fifty
cents on a dollar; he has not allowed us to go into
bankruptcy and take a poor debtor's oath. We are
forgiven on the ground of justice. ''Justification " is
Paul's word. God is just to you because in Christ
you have died. So in Romans you read, " He that
is dead is free from sin; " Revised Version, " He that
hath died is justified from sin." A man was drafted
in the war, and his substitute went to the field of
battle and died. When the man was drafted again
he pleaded that he was dead, and was justified by
the courts. That point has been decided in court
three times: once in America, once in France, and
once in Germany.
A. J. Gordon.
137
DAY
vm
It were easier to disprove .the existence of George
Washington or Napoleon Bonaparte than that of
Jesus Christ, and to blot out Bunker Hill or Water-
loo than Calvary. Did George Washington live, and
do the 22d of February and the 4th of July prove
it? How about that other anniversary, dear to
England and to America, and destined to be the
greatest day in all the earth, observed by gifts from
parents to children to commemorate God's gift to
man? Why is that observed at all? Because of
Christ. Who is he? Suppose that he were just
now to come— as come he will, we know not when
—and, making himself evident to us, should say,
"Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?"
I would have to say, " Blessed Master, some say that
thou art a myth," unless my tongue should cleave
to the roof of my mouth so that I could not utter the
word. " Some say that thou art a fancy portrait,
and that a picture has turned the world on its
hinges." And then, should he go on to say, " Who
say ye that I am? " oh, now, on my bended knee and
with streaming tears, I would cry, "Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God." For he has out-
lived himself, outlived death and the grave.
Cyrus D. Foss.
Christ's character was prefigured by the national
tabernacle. The Holy Ghost gave the tabernacle
three names: the tent of meeting, the tent of wit-
ness, and the dwelling-place of God. Christ was
the meeting-place for God and man, a witness for
the Father, and there God dwelt.
M. E. Baldwin.
138
^^^^
DAY
IX
In the first Adam I died to God; I died in sin.
When I was born I had the life of the fallen Adam.
The moment I am born again by believing in Jesus
I become united to Christ, the second Adam, and am
made partaker of the life of Christ— that life which
died unto sin and rose again. Therefore God tells
us, "Reckon yourselves indeed dead unto sin, and
alive unto God in Christ Jesus." As in the first
Adam you died in sin and unto God, so in the second
Adam you died in Christ and unto sin. Many Chris-
tians do not understand that they are dead to sin;
therefore Paul says, " How shall we, that are dead to
sin, live any longer therein ? Know ye not, that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into his death ? "
You must get hold of your union to Christ; believe
in the new nature within you, that spiritual life which
you have from Christ, a life that has died and has
been raised again. Every man acts according to
the idea he has of his state. A king acts like a
king if he is conscious of his kingship. So I cannot
live the life of a true believer unless I am conscious
every day that I am dead in Christ. He died unto
sin: I am united with him, and he lives in me, and I
am dead to sin. Adam lives in a natural man the
death-life, a life under the power of sin, a life of
death to God. Christ, the second Adam, has come
to me with a new life, and I now live in his life, the
death-life of Christ. Andrew Murray.
The difference between the regenerate and the
unregenerate man is that the unregenerate man
lives in sin, and he loves it; but the regenerate man
lapses into sin, and he loathes it.
A. J. Gordon.
139
DAY
X
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.— Prov. xxviii. 13.
Sins unconfessed and not set straight are hindering
a mighty work of God in many a man and woman to-
day. David tried not confessing his sins to God, and
we know the misery he experienced. He says in the
Thirty-second Psalm, ''When I kept silence, my
bones waxed old through my roaring all the day
long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon
me." At last he came to his senses; he confessed
his transgressions, and the Lord forgave the iniquity
of his sin. Then God wrought mightily in David,
and the Thirty-second Psalm and the Fifty-first
Psalm, and many another psalm that has comforted
and edified the children of God for nearly three
thousand years, are the result.
R. A. TORREY.
Nine tenths of our prayers never go higher than
the room they are uttered in. Why? Something
is concealed. If I regard iniquity in my heart God
will not hear, much less answer; and if our prayers
are not answered let us not think the trouble is on
God's side, for it is on ours. Isaiah lix. is quoted
many times by men who stop in the wrong place.
" Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it
cannot save: but your iniquities have separated be-
tween you and your God, and your sins have hid his
face from you, that he will not hear." As long as
you have a bullet in your body you will never have
a perfectly healthy body; and as long as you have a
sin in your soul you will not have a healthy soul.
D. L. Moody.
140
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.— Ps. cvii. 2.
Run up the colors to the masthead. We must
confess Christ. Some of us mean well, but a false
discretion overtakes us. We are not unlike that
soldier who w^as always discovered, in the shock of
battle, betaking himself, without orders, to safe
places. The captain at last accused him of having
a cowardly heart. "Oh," said the soldier, "my
heart is as brave as can be, but whenever danger
comes I have a cowardly pair of legs that run off
with my brave heart." Many of us are like that.
Our convictions are right when confession is not
needed, but in the shock of battle we fail.
John McNeill.
I heard of a young man who went into the army.
The first night in the barracks, with about fifteen
men plajdng cards and gambling around him, he
fell on his knees and prayed, and they began to
curse and to throw boots at him. So it went on the
next night and the next, and finally the young man
told the chaplain what had taken place, and asked
him what he should do. " Well," the chaplain said,
" those soldiers have just as much right in the bar-
racks as you have. It makes them angry to have
you pray, and the Lord will hear you just as well in
bed." Som.e weeks after that the chaplain met the
young man and asked, " By the way, did you take
my advice?" "I did for two or three nights; but
I felt like a whipped hound, and the third night I
knelt down and prayed." "Well," said the chaplain,
" how did that work ? " The young soldier answered,
"We have a prayer-meeting there now every night;
three have been converted, and we are praying for
the rest." D. L. Moody.
141
DAY
xn
^TS^^^^B^^i^'^*^
Thomas said before Christ's death, "Let us go
and die with him;" and Peter said, "Lord, I am
ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death."
But the disciples all failed, and our Lord took a man,
one of the off scouring of the earth, who hung beside
him on Calvary, and through him shows us what it
is to die with him. He shows us, first of all, the
state of a heart prepared to die with Christ— a
humble, whole-hearted confession of guilt. Here is
one reason why the church enters so little into the
death of Christ; men do not wish to believe that the
curse of God is upon everything in them that has
not died with Christ. The church suffers to-day
from trusting in intellect and culture. Men rob the
intellect of its crucifixion mark. Christ said to
Paul, " Go, preach the gospel of the cross, but not
with wisdom of words." The intellect, the affections,
everything, must go into the grave with Christ.
God will raise them from the dead again, sanctified
and made alive unto God.
Then the penitent thief had faith in the almighty
power of Christ; there is not a faith in the Bible like
that. This cursed malefactor, hanging on the cross
beside Jesus, dares to say, " I am dying under the
just curse of my sins, but I believe that thou canst
take me into thy heart. Remember me when thou
comest into thy kingdom." Brother, you and I need
a much deeper faith in the power of Christ to take
us into his arms and carry us through this death-life.
Would you, now that Christ is on the throne, be
afraid of doing what the malefactor did when Christ
was upon the cross— to trust yourself to him to
live as one dead with him?
Andrew Murray.
142
^^^^«
DAY
xni
Have you ever noticed that people who flatter
themselves that it is not foolish to live a kind of
half-and-half life, sanctified so far as belonging to
God is concerned, but living in the most perilous
surroundings and dangerous habits, always think
that they can escape the danger of corruption and
influence others? Lot dwelt in Sodom mth the
expectation that he could affect the people around
him for good. But be assured that the world will
drag you down to their level; you will never bring
them up to your level until you have taught them
boldly to know Christ and to see the depravity of
their nature and their ways.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
One backslider will do more harm than twenty
Christian men can do good.
W. E. Blackstone.
Many Christians believe in Christ without belong-
ing to him; they give Christ their faith, and with-
hold from him their fealty; they own him, but shrink
from being owned by him. We plead for a service
of Christ which is entire, undivided, and wanting
nothing. Therefore we urge upon Christians the
duty of separation: separation from associations
that are secret, that they may live an open life of
devotion to Christ; separation from societies that
assess a tax on time which is already mortgaged for
its full value to the Lord; separation from bonds
that hold men together by compacts and oaths,
when they aught to be free to yield with their full
force to the attractions of Christ— separation in
order to concentration. A. J. Gordon.
143
DAY
xrv
Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from
iniquity.— 2 Tim ii, 19.
Forsake dangerous associations. Health is not
contagious, but sickness is. We quarantine yellow
fever to keep it out of the country, but we do not
bring in health or quarantine it. Sin is catching;
holiness is not. Be very careful to whom you give
the key of your heart. Look out! This association,
with us imitative creatures, has a tremendous influ-
ence on a man's or a woman's Christian character.
Lot bought real estate down near Sodom; pitched
his tent over against Sodom; then he moved into
Sodom; and pretty soon Sodom moved into him.
The angel put a hand on his shoulder and said, " Es-
cape for thy life, lest thou be consumed." That is
the only way for any one to get out of dangerous
associations in business, in politics, or anything else.
Christians, the moment you find that you are in any
associations that harm and poison your piety, escape
out of that place as quickly as Lot hastened out of
Sodom, for there is no safety in remaining there.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
Christians call the Bible the only rule of faith and
practice; but is it the only rule of practice? Do
we take this Bible when any question of doubtful
propriety comes up, and ask ourselves what the
Bible says on that subject? Do we make the Bible
the standard of our life? Do we take that Bible
when difficulties arise, and say, "How does Paul's
teaching or Jesus Christ's teaching bear upon this? "
Nay; we are more apt to be governed by what peo-
ple will say, by what they all do, and by what the
law allows. Francis L. Patton.
144
w^^^
DAY
XV
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker.— Isa. xlv. 9.
We may strive with our Maker in two ways: we
may say to him, "What makest thou?" or we may
say, " He hath no hands." We may quarrel with
God as to the direction in which he is making us,
and we may quarrel with God as to the method
which he adopts.
What makest thou ? " If thou wouldst make me
a man of business I shouldn't mind, if I am success-
ful ; but I do not wish to be only a clerk. Why didst
thou make me this way? " "If thou hadst only made
me a Moody I should thank thee; but thou hast made
me a working-man, to earn my bread by the sweat
of my brow; I don't like this." What makest thou?
" I am a young girl, and want to go to the zenanas
in India; but I have a widowed mother, and sisters
and brothers, and I must work for them. Make me
something else, 0 God; I am tired of this. I will
be good and obedient and loving and sweet if thou
wilt let me have my way; but why didst thou make
me this way? I don't like it." That is striving
with your Maker.
Another man thinks that God is doing nothing.
He says, "He hath no hands." He thinks that he
could do better for himself; as much as to say, " My
God, thou dost not understand what thou art doing;
thou hast no hands; thou dost not know how to deal
with souls. Not this way; put me there, and I shall
do better." That is the way in which people, who
would not put their thoughts into those words, are
nevertheless striving with their Maker.
F. B. Meyer.
145
DAY
XVI
We do not teach sinlessness; for when a man is
living up to his loftiest ideal there will always be a
chasm between God's ideal and man's loftiest living.
The man who boasts about his sinlessness is the man
who has not seen the perfect standard of God, and
he usually calls infirmities what God calls sins.
We do not teach sinlessness, but we do teach that
God is able so to possess a soul that it shall not be
constantly conscious of failure; and if there is any
failure in your life it is because you have not ap-
prehended God's deliverance. And why? Because
there is some one thing in your life— there may be
more than one— which has come between God and
your soul and which has shut off God's helpful grace.
You will never be happy and able to sing again until
you are willing to renounce that thing and let God
draw you closer to himself.
F. B. Meyer.
We often see a thing and yet do not possess it.
You often see beautiful fruit displayed behind a
plate-glass window or in some shop, and the hungry
little boys look and long for it, but they cannot reach
it. If you were to tell one of them who has never
seen glass to take some, he might attempt it; but
he finds something invisible between him and that
fruit. Just so many Christians can see that God's
gifts are beautiful, but they cannot take, because
the self-life comes in between, even though they
cannot see it. What glorious blessings we should
have if we were only willing to give up the self-life
and take what God has prepared for us— not only
righteousness, not only peace, but the joy of the
Holy Ghost! Andrew Murray.
146
DAY
xvn
In the fable of the magic skin it gave the wearer
power to get anything he wanted; but every time
he gratified his wishes the skin shrank and com-
pressed him into smaller dimensions until, by and
by, with the last wish life itself was crushed out.
The magic skin is selfishness. It is a great thing to
learn to say no to one's self instead of indulging
every whim and wish, even though there be nothing
sinful in it. Moses renounced the pleasures and
treasures of Egypt for the sake of a higher recom-
pense of reward. There was no necessary wrong in
his inheriting the royal treasures and enjoying the
pleasures of Egypt, so far as they were not in them-
selves sinful; but Moses had a high vocation, and
these would have been hindrances; so he renounced
them.
Arthur T. Pierson.
All that there has been and ever will be of sin
and of darkness and of wretchedness and of misery
will be nothing but the reign of self, the curse of
self, separating man and turning him away from his
God. If we are to understand fully what Christ is
to do for us, and are to become partakers of a full
salvation, we must learn to know and to hate and
to give up entirely this cursed self.
Andrew Murray.
You can't jump away from your shadow, but if you
turn to the sun your shadow is behind you, and if you
stand under the sun your shadow is beneath you.
What we should try to do is to live under the meri-
dian Sun, with our shadow, self, under our feet.
F. B. Meyer.
147
Under the Levitical law if a man came in contact
with death he could only be cleansed from that
contact by sacrifice. There is, perhaps, a danger in
some quarters at the present day of the thought
being accepted that certain things are right if we
do not feel them to be wrong— that certain things
are right if we are, so to speak, unavoidably thrown
in contact with them. We must ever bear in mind
that we have in God's will, as revealed in the Scrip-
tures, an absolute standard of right and wTong; and
no ignorance on our part, or want of opportunity
on our part, can make the wrong to be right. If a
person through ignorance does that which is contrary
to God's revealed will, it may not at the time hinder
communion; but as soon as it is revealed to him that
the thing done is contrary to God's will it must be con-
fessed, not as a misfortune, but as a sin, and the
atoning blood must be upon it before communion
can be fully and satisfactorily reestablished.
J. Hudson Taylor.
The glory of the Lord cannot stay in the house
of man, because of sin. God wants a consecrated
temple, a consecrated people. God is ready to con-
secrate you, but it will cost you something. Are
you ready for any sacrifice?
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
When a man finds out that he can't empty his own
heart, what he wants to do is just to let the water in
from above. Get under the fountain and stay there,
and there will be no trouble about your being full to
overflowing. D. L. Moody.
148
^^^^
DAY
XDC
To give a perfect rule of life humanity needs many
things besides laws; example, experience, mistakes,
departures— all are needed. To safely navigate the
seas the compass, quadrant, and chronometer are
not sufficient. By the aid of these the mariner
knows which way to go and where he is; but with-
out the discoveries, mistakes, and disasters of those
who have gone before him he is in constant danger.
These mistakes and disasters are not put down on
his chart for him to imitate and follow, but to show
him where there is danger that he may avoid it; and
every such place marked on his chart has been the
scene of greater or less disaster, and its location on
the chart is the highest evidence of honesty and
wisdom. Viewed from this standpoint, the sins and
mistakes of the patriarchs, related by inspiration,
show a faithful record and point out to us the dan-
ger by showing the disastrous results and telling of
the condemnation of God; yet all writers against
Christianity have used these departures to disprove
the inspiration of the Bible. As well might they use
the past accidents and disasters on the seas against
the art of navigation. They first ignore the Bible,
then condemn Noah, David, and Solomon by the
Bible. I. D. Driver.
The Bible is the only book which shows us what
w^e are— not only our needs, but our possibilities.
Too many men are content to live in the valley or
to roam about among the foot-hills, who might be
climbing upon the peaks of the higher Christian ex-
perience. John R. Mott.
149
DAY
XX
c^T^^^i^^^^^
Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your
children.— Acts ii. 38, 39.
What promise is here referred to? Ah, it refers
to this glad news, the promise of the gift of the
Holy Ghost, which is for every child of God in every
age of the Christian church. What a wondrous
truth, that there isn't a man or a woman or a child
who has a living, saving faith in Jesus Christ that
cannot have the baptism with the Spirit of God!
But with the glorious privilege there is the deep
responsibility. If I am not willing to pay the price
and claim the blessing I am responsible before God
for the work I might have done and did not do. I
tremble for myself, and for my brethren in the
ministry, and my brethren in Christian work in the
larger ministry— not because they are preaching
error; but because they are preaching the truth,
but not preaching it in the power of the Holy Ghost.
The most deadening thing on earth is the truth
preached in the power of the flesh. "The letter
killeth; it is the Spirit that giveth life."
R. A. TORREY.
We are told that John and Peter were filled in the
second chapter, and again in the fourth. Now, they
had either lost some of their power or had greater
capacity. If Peter and John needed to be filled
again so soon after Pentecost, don't you think you
and I need to be filled again?
D. L. Moody.
150
w^^^
DAY
XXI
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto
your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?— Luke xi. 13.
There is no article "the" in that passage; the
word is partitive, not personal; it is ''Holy Spirit."
There is no doubt that none of us have realized the
fullness of the possibilities that might be expected
concerning the gift or powers or qualities of this
" Holy Ghost," and that the holiest of us ^^i.\\ always
be conscious of needing more. It is one thing for
me to ask God to give me more of the Spirit in my
own personal enjo3Tnent; it is another thing to ask
God to give his own perfect gift again from heaven
as though he never had bestowed it. It is one thing
to recognize that I have failed to take and to use
what my Father has bestowed; it is another thing
to charge my Father with not having bestowed what
he says he has given.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
There is a difference between gifts and graces.
The graces of the Spirit are humility and love, like
the humility and love of Christ, and are to make a
man free from self; the gift of the Spirit is to fit a
man for work. We see this illustrated among the
Corinthians. In the twelfth and fourteenth chapters
we read that the gifts of prophecy and of working
miracles were in great power among them; but the
graces of the Spirit were noticeably absent.
Andrew Murray.
151
DAY
XXII
<^Vt^^^^^^^
We should abandon the idea that we are to use
the Holy Ghost, and accept the thought that the
Holy Ghost is to use us. There is a wide distinction
between those two conceptions. I was in the Chi-
cago World's Fair, and was attracted to a man
dressed up in a very gaudy Oriental costume, who
was turning with all his might a crank which was
attached to a pump from which a great stream of
water was pouring out. I said, " That man is work-
ing hard and producing splendid results." I came
near, and, to my astonishment, found that the man,
which was really only wooden, was not turning the
crank, but the crank was turning him, and, instead
of his making that stream of water go, it was mak-
ing him go. Many people want the secret of power.
They hear about Peter preaching that wonderful
sermon, and of course they would give anything if
they had the ability to preach one sermon and con-
vert three thousand people. They say to Peter,
"How did you get hold of the power?" ''I didn't
get hold of the pov/er at all," he would say; "the
power got hold of me." " We have preached the
gospel unto you with"— no, not "with"; if it had
been translated correctly we should learn that, in-
stead of Peter using the Spirit, the Spirit used him.
"We have preached the gospel unto you in the
power of the Holy Ghost." As a wheel dips itself
into the river and makes all the cotton factories
whirl, so Peter dipped into the Spirit and was swept
by the current.
A. J. Gordon.
152
■ The very power that raised Jesus from the dead, not-
withstanding the host of de\ils that opposed him,
and set him at the right hand of God is waiting to lift
each one of us from the grave of sin and lust, above
the heads of the devils that oppose us, and to set us in
heavenly places in Christ. If man will only live in his
Head, in Christ, the devil is always under his feet ; but
the mistake with so many of us is that we do not
maintain our heavenly life, but by getting out of
fellowship with Jesus we, as it were, get into the
devil's power again. If you and I would always live
in him we would always live above.
F. B. Meyer.
Our union with Christ is a real union. Every-
thing that concerns me Christ is concerned in, and
everything that concerns Christ I am concerned in.
The Bible tells us from beginning to end that our
salvation is not our own salvation merely, but that
Jesus Christ may be glorified. Our pardon shows
his grace; our sanctification shows his holiness; our
resurrection shows his power; and our being glorified
is to reflect his glory. It all concerns him, and be-
cause it concerns him it ought to concern us; and
we ought to love— oh, how we ought to love!— his
glorious appearing.
D. W. Whittle.
Count nothing small. The smallest thing may be
a link in the golden chain which binds a man to the
divine Master himself.
A. F. SCHAUFFLER.
153
DAY
XXIV
Knowing this, that the trying of yom- faith worketh patience.
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect
and entire, wanting nothing. — James i. 3, 4.
James actually declares that if a man has perfect
patience he has a perfect character. I wish I had
a voice that could ring over our run-mad country
in this end of the nineteenth century, when men are
tumbling over one another, rushing after nothing and
finding it. I would like to proclaim this lesson : who-
ever has perfect patience has a perfect character.
John A. Broadus.
A just man is a man who in society is most exact
in all the details of duty; honorable in his dealings;
he pays all his debts ; he won't injure any one. Joseph
of Arimathea was also a " good man "; that is to say,
a kind man, a man of generous disposition. These
are the two characteristics of the natural man, in this
case at least; it is these which make a man liked by
his fellow-men. Joseph was all this and yet not a
Christian. A man in his natural state may be all
that Joseph was and yet be outside of the pale of
salvation. Andrew A. Bonar.
A friend went one morning to Sir Robert Peel's
house and found him with a great bundle of letters
lying before him, bowed over it in prayer. The
friend retired, and came back in a short time and
said, "I beg your pardon for intruding upon your
private devotions." Sir Robert said, "No; those
were my public devotions. I was just giving the
affairs of state into the hands of God, for I could
not manage them." Try trusting the living God
with your letter-bag or your housekeeping.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
154
w^^^
DAY
XXV
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet,
moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.—
Heb. xi. 7.
The fear of God makes a hero; the fear of man
makes a coward. Fear to do wrong makes the hero;
fear to do right makes the coward. Noah was
warned of things not seen as yet, and he believed
God's warning. Such a thing as a flood the world
had never known. It was out of the range of his
experience ; there were scores of arguments against
it; but God's word with Noah was stronger than all
arguments. The need of this day is a healthy fear:
faith in Sinai with its thundering of judgment as
strong as faith in Calvary with its whisperings of
love; a belief in the words of Christ about the worm
that dieth not as strong as a belief in the mansions
which he is preparing for his people.
The fear of Noah moved him forward; the fear of
the coward moves him backward. Wellington once
commissioned two soldiers to go on a dangerous er-
rand. As they galloped along, one looked at the
other and said, " You are scared." " Yes," replied
his comrade; " and if you were scared as badly as I
am you would run." The brave man turned his horse,
and, galloping back to the general's tent, said, " Sir,
you have sent with me a coward. I left him trembling
like a leaf." ^' Well," said Wellington, " unless you
return pretty soon his mission will be performed."
And, sure enough, as the brave man galloped back
he met the coward returning, with the dangerous
work already done. It is manly to fear to do wrong;
it may not be unmanly to tremble in the presence
of danger while we stand, in spite of our trembling,
at the post of duty. A. C. Dixon.
155
DAY
XXVI
^^Tti^^!^^^'^^
Some people seem to think that Jerusalem was
built by men who desired a city and said, " We will
not build on a hill, because then it will be necessary
to carry the stone and timber up. We will get a
smooth, level country down in the valley, and there
build a beautiful city, and we mil have a temple in
the midst of it, and then when it is done we will get
together and pray, ' 0 Lord, we have built a city;
we have built it in a plain, because it was easier;
now, Lord, please lift up the ground and make a
hill of it; " So the Lord did it. Then they prayed,
" Now, Lord, please pile the mountains around us for
our defense." So the Lord did that also.
What are the facts? These people wanted a city,
and they said, "It is best that this city should be
on a hill. We will build where God has laid the
foundation. It will be hard to get the stone up,
hard to get the timber up; but we will do it." It
makes all the difference in the world whether you
lay your plans and ask God to prosper them, or give
your life to God, and let him make the plans, and
then carry out his own plans. I fear that quite a
proportion of the prayers of good people is really,
" 0 Lord, my will be done." Did you pray this morn-
ing that God would bless you in something that you
had made up your mind to do ? You ought to have
said, " Here, Lord, lies before me this strange, new
day; I never saw it — nobody ever saw it. Here am
I; what wilt thou have me to do?" God will never
move the mountains around a selfish man ; you must
put your house where God put the mountains before
he put you into the world; put your life where God
has put the plan and purpose of your life.
Alexander McKenzie.
156
^#>^^
DAY
xxvn
Christ died that he might make us a "peculiar
people." A great many Christians are afraid that
they will be peculiar. A few weeks before Enoch
was translated his acquaintances would probably
have said he was a little peculiar; they would have
told you that when they had a progressive-euchre
party and the whole country-side was invited, you
wouldn't find Enoch or one of his family there. He
was very peculiar, very. We are not told he was a
warrior or a great scientist or a great scholar. In
fact, we are not told he was anything that the world
would call great, but he walked with God three hun-
dred and sixty-five years, and he is the brightest
star that shone in that dispensation. If he could
walk with God, cannot you and I? As old Dr. Bonar
has said, " He took a long walk one day, and has not
come back yet. The Lord liked his company so well
that he said, ' Enoch, come up higher.' " We shall
find him up there som.e day.
I suppose that if you had asked the men in Eli-
jah's time what kind of a man he was, they would
have said, *' He is very peculiar." The king would
say, "I hate him." Jezebel didn't like him; the
v/hole royal court didn't like him, and a great many
of the nominal Christians didn't like him; he was
too radical. I am glad the Lord had seven thou-
sand that had not bowed the knee to Baal; but I
would rather have Elijah's little finger than the
whole seven thousand. I wouldn't give much for
seven thousand Christians in hiding. They will just
barely get into heaven; they won't have any crown.
See that " no man take thy crown." Be willing to
be one of Christ's peculiar people, no matter what
men may say of you. D. L. Moody.
157
DAY
xxvm
Thou, 0 Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up
of mine head.— Ps. iii. 3.
I like that last expression— "Lifter up of my
head." There is your child, my good mother, and
your child has been bad, and you have chastised it.
You have put the poor little bundle of wretched-
ness and crossness into a corner, and there it is
standing soiling all its face with hot, scalding tears.
Then your heart relents; the extreme of misery tells
upon you, for you are its mother. And you come
toward the little thing, and it creeps into the corner
and hangs its head. And what do you do? In-
stead of chastising it any more, you come quite
close, and with one hand on the little one's shoulder,
you put the other hand below its chin, and literally
you lift up the little face into the light of your own,
and stoop down and kiss it. Did you ever think that
that is what God wants to do with the poor weary
sinner who has gone back and done shamefully?
When fears are on every side, and awful voices in
your heart speak ominously of eternal doom, God
comes, and with his own gracious hand lifts up your
head. He anoints and cheers your soiled face; he
lifts up your head, and lets the light of his own
reconciled countenance beam down upon you.
John McNeill.
If we were to believe in the survival of the fittest
there would not be much chance for some of us.
But the glory of the gospel is this, that God comes
to the unfit, to the marred and spoiled, to those who
have thwarted and resisted him, and that he is pre-
pared to make them over again; and if you will let
him he will make you too. F. B. Meyer.
158
DAY
XXIX
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love.— Eph. i. 4.
Christians, claim your full privileges. In tempo-
ral things men are beginning to do this. Suppose
that the son and heir of some wealthy deceased man
were told by certain trustees that he was left with
only three or four hundred dollars a year, and that
the rest was left in their hands in trust; he would
go along on that three or four hundred dollars only
so long as he was obliged to. Some one tells him
that the whole fortune is left to him, and he goes
to some la\vyer's office and asks to see his father's
will. As he reads the will the whole truth comes
out, and he says, " I have been living on three hun-
dred dollars a year when I have a hundred thousand.
I am going to come into possession of what I have,
and live proportionately to my wealth." Thousands
of us are yet living on two or three hundred dollars
that might live on the exceeding riches of God's
glory. M. E. Baldwin.
The beautiful trees and green grass and the
bright sun God created that they might show forth
his beauty and wisdom and glory. When that tree,
one hundred years old, was planted, God did not
give it a stock of life in which it could carry on
its existence. Nay, verily. God clothes the lilies
every year afresh with their beauty; every year he
clothes the tree with its foliage and its fruit; every
day and every hour it is God who maintains the life
of all nature. God created us that we might be the
empty vessels in which he could work out his beauty,
his will, his love, and the likeness of his blessed
Son. Andrew Murray.
159
DAY
XXX
The accidental miracles of our Lord are among
the most remarkable— those that, as it were, he
spilled over by the way. While he was on his way
to do one miracle he dropped another, almost as if
he didn't intend it. He was going to heal the
daughter of Jairus when the woman with an issue
of blood reached out her hand, touched the hem of
his garment, and was healed. When an electric jar
is filled, only a touch will unload it. So it might be
in the experience of every believer. I do not know
but that, if we were fully the Lord's, the greater
part of the good we did would be that of which we
were not cognizant. Service would overflow from us.
A. J. Gordon.
If you are abiding in Christ you are reproducing
yourself in thousands of instances when you are
wholly unaware of it. Out of the personal relation-
ship between the soul and Christ come the fruits of
holy living. The vine does not bear fruit of itself;
it bears its fruit through the branches. Our un-
conscious influence thus becomes far more fruitful
than our conscious influence. In the last great day
many will bewail that they have accomplished so
little, and, looking at the scanty results, will say,
" When saw we thee hungry, and fed thee ? or athirst,
and gave thee drink?" to find that unconsciously
their lives had abounded in fruits well pleasing in
the Master's sight. It is from such holy lives as
this that is derived our Master's highest joy. It is
when the whole body of Christ becomes instinct with
his spirit that the world is made conscious of his
divine headship over the church.
Bishop Hendrix,
160
^^^^^M^^^^
DAY
XXXI
If you go into a dark room filled with vermin you
cannot see anything; but if you light a match, you
see some crawling creatures; if you light a lamp
you see more; and if you turn on an electric light
it reveals the good and the evil in sharp contrast.
"That which doth make manifest is light," and
Christians are to be lights in the world. When the
Christian holds up his light, men are able to see
good and evil. The church establishes the moral
standard for men who never go near it and for com-
munities who reject it.
Charles A. Blanchard.
A candle that won't shine in one room is very un-
likely to shine in another. If you do not shine at
home, if your father and mother, your sister and
brother, if the very cat and dog in the house are
not the better and happier for your being a Chris-
tian, it is a question whether you really are one.
J. Hudson Taylor.
Whatever rest is provided by Christianity for the
children of God, it is certainly never contemplated
that it should supersede personal effort. And any
rest which ministers to indifference is immoral and
unreal— it makes parasites, and not men.
Henry Drummond.
Let the engineer pull out the throttle and play
cards, let the pilot of a steamer in a hurricane im-
merse himself in a novel, but let not the watchman
of the Lord be anything but awake and in dead
earnest, when all around imm.ortal souls are in death-
grapple with their great enemy. Cyrus D. Foss.
161
Dying with Jesus, his death reckoned mine;
Living with Jesus, a new life divine;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine.
Moment by moment, 0 Lord, I am thine.
Moment by moment I'm kept in his love;
Moment by moment I've life from above;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,
Moment by moment, 0 Lord, I am thine.
Never a trial that he is not there,
Never a burden that he doth not bear.
Never a sorrow that he doth not share;
Moment by moment I'm under his care.
Never a heartache and never a groan,
Never a tear-drop and never a moan.
Never a danger, but there on the throne
Moment by moment he thinks of his own.
Never a weakness that he doth not feel.
Never a sickness that he cannot heal;
Moment by moment, in woe or in weal,
Jesus, my Saviour, abides with me still.
D. W. Whittle.
162
[Mouth of June
7(oscs
Francis L Vat Ion EiU ranee lo Lovers' Retreat
up
Bias of mind has a great deal to do with the conclu-
sion which a man reaches; we have to recognize this
sometimes to explain men's manner of dealing with
gospel evidence. It is exactly as our Saviour said : " If
they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will
they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
If the trouble had been a lack of evidence, then more
evidence would have helped them. But there was a
lack of something else. And when that is the case
more evidence does no good. You cannot cure a man's
eyes by operating on his ears. We understand that.
Here is a president of a bank; he has his books and
his securities, and he locks up his safe and sets the
time-lock for ten o'clock in the forenoon of the
next day. He goes home and thinks of something
he would like to get out of the vault. He goes down
to the bank, but he cannot open the vault. He has
the combination; he may be president and cashier
and stock-holder and director all in one, but he can-
not open that vault until ten o'clock next day. If
he could only get inside, or if there were only some-
body inside that he could talk to and tell him to
change the adjustment, all that he would want then
would be knowledge of the combination. But he
cannot open it. That is what I think is really needed
in men. They need some one to change them within
—what we call regeneration. We may accumulate
argument, and pound at men with the presentation
of the truth objectively; but we won't do very much
until the hour strikes for the soul's release, and when
the Spirit does his work then the combination comes
into play, and men yield to the power of entreaty and
respond to the presentation of evidence and argu-
ment. Francis L. Patton.
163
DAY
n
Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? — Acts
xix. 2.
E^ddently there is a reception of the Holy Ghost
over and beyond that which first brings us to believe
in Jesus. Therefore I put it to you, in all earnest-
ness, hast thou received thy share in thy Father's
gift ? If not, it is waiting for thee to-day in the hands
of the living Saviour, and thou hast but to claim it
and it will be thine.
F. B. Meyer.
The filling with the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God
coming upon the believer, taking possession of his
faculties, imparting to him gifts not naturally his
own, but which qualify him for the service to which
God has called him.
R. A. TORREY.
What, then, shall we do to be filled? What did
they do in the days of Hezekiah, when the temple
had had all kinds of iniquity and filth brought into
it? The priests came and purged out all the filth that
they found, and cast it into the brook Kidron. What
did they do in Nehemiah's day, when Tobiah had filled
God's chambers with household stuff? The prophet
cast it all forth out of the Lord's house. What did
the Lord Jesus do when the temple was filled with
money-changers and sellers of merchandise? He
made a scourge of small cords and drove them all out.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
A revelation of Christ by the Spirit to our souls
must precede our being filled by Christ with the
Spirit.
D. W. Whittle.
164
DAY
m
He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water. — John vii. 38.
There is a promise to test. Do you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ as the giver of this full blessing?
It does not mean, " He that believeth on me for the
pardon of his sins," because there are many persons
who are pardoned and who have not this fullness of
blessing— you can see that rivers of living water do
not rush out from them. But it is, "He that be-
lieveth on me as the giver of the fullness of the
Spirit." Look also at that other passage, " Whoso-
ever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst." I accept that promise. I do believe
that I shall never thirst again. I do believe that from
me— poor little me— rivers shall flow^, rivers of living
water; and God shall be glorified.
J. Hudson Taylor.
Since it pleased the Father that in Jesus all full-
ness should dwell, and it pleases Jesus and the Father,
and the Spirit too, that all poor sinners who believe
in Jesus shall be branches in him, incorporated into
him— since he assumed the connection and the posi-
tion of a root to his branches, God has no chance to
show himself out if it be not through his people. Oh,
think what a glorious company we shall be by and
by, when all the fullness in Jesus Christ shall be ex-
pressed. Then again, just as if you take away the
branches from the root it cannot express itself, so
if you take away the root from the branches they
must wither and die. The branches depend on the
root for their very life, and without the branches the
root cannot be manifested— there can be no expres-
sion of its nature but through the branches.
Marcus Rainsford.
165
DAY
IV
Our Lord's great lesson in John xv. is about the
vine and its branches. He says, " I am the vine, ye
are the branches." If you look at the branches of
a vine, you observe that the bark is the same, the
leaves are the same, and the fruit is the same. There
is the closest resemblance between the branches and
the vine. Some Christians reduce your spiritual
temiperature to zero. They have comparatively little
or no spirituality, and, worse, they are worldly. If
I brought you a slip of a log, and said I had found
it growing on a vine, you would say, " I think there
is a mistake; this is oak, the leaves are ragged like
those of an oak. We are not accustomed to see that
kind of branch on a vine." I can believe that that
oak grew on a vine before I can believe that some
men and women that I have met grow on Jesus Christ.
M. E. Baldwin.
A man standing erect on the earth breathes air
of a purer quality than that breathed by the insects
that crawl at his feet; so the man risen with Christ
should stand erect, as a new man in Christ Jesus, and
breathe the air of heaven.
D. W. Whittle.
Make Christ your most constant companion. Be
more under his influence than under any other influ-
ence. Ten minutes spent in his society every day-
aye, two minutes, if it be face to face and heart to
heart— will make the whole day different. Every
character has an inward spring; let Christ be that
spring. Every action has a key-note; let Christ be
that note to which your whole life is attuned.
Henry Drummond.
166
"^- ^ <^h€'^p^ ^^^
Israel passed through two stages— two parts of
God's work of redemption: God brought them out
from Egypt that he might bring them into Canaan.
This is applicable to every believer. At conversion
God brought you out of Egypt; and the same Al-
mighty God is longing to bring you into the Canaan
life. God brought the Israelites out, but they would
not let him bring them in; so they were obliged to
wander for forty years in the wilderness— the type,
alas! of so many Christians. The wilderness life is
wandering backward and forward; going after the
world, and coming back and repenting; led astray by
temptation, and returning, only to go off again— a
life of ups and downs. In Canaan, on the other hand,
is a life of rest, because the soul has learned to trust.
A second difference is that one was a life of want,
the other a life of plenty. In the wilderness God
graciously supplied their wants by the manna and
the water from the rock. But alas! they were not
content, and their life was one of want and of mur-
muring. But in Canaan God gave them a land flowing
with milk and honey, a land nourished by the rain
of heaven, and which had the very care of God him-
self. Oh, believe that there is a possibility of such
a change for you, a way out of that life of spiritual
want and complaining, into the land of supply of
every want! A third difference is that in the
wilderness there was no lasting victory. In Canaan
they conquered every enemy. So God w^aits to give,
not freedom from temptation, but victory every day.
You desire an entrance into the life of rest and vic-
tory; then in the stillness of your heart say, "My
God, I believe there is such a life prepared for me
and within my reach." Andrew Murray.
167
DAY
VI
There are many, very many, Christians who are
afraid of making an unreserved surrender to God.
They are afraid that God will ask some hard thing
of them, or some absurd thing. They fear sometimes
that it will upset all their life-plans. In a word, they
are afraid to surrender unreservedly to the will of
God, for him to do all he wishes to for them and
whatsoever he wills with them. Friends, the will of
God concerning us is not only the wisest and best
thing in the world; it is also the tenderest and sweet-
est. God's will for us is not only more loving than
a father's; it is more tender than a mother's. It is
true that God does oftentimes revolutionize utterly
our life-plans when we surrender ourselves to his will.
It is true that he does require of us things that to
others seem hard. But when the will is once sur-
rendered the revolutionized life-plans become just
the plans that are most pleasant, and the things that
to others seem hard are just the things that are
easiest and most delightful. Do not let Satan deceive
you into being afraid of God's plans for your life.
R. A. TORREY.
When a ship is moored at a dock and is ready to
start, the order is given, "Let go!" Then the last
rope is loosened and the steamer moves. There are
things that tie us to earth and to the self -life; but
to-day the message comes, " If thou wouldst die with
Jesus, let go!" Jesus carried the penitent thief
through death to life. The thief knew not where he
was going, but Jesus, the mighty conqueror, took him
in his arms and landed him in Paradise in his igno-
rance. If you cannot understand all about this cru-
cifixion with Christ, never mind; trust the Lord's
promise. Andrew Murray.
168
DAY
vn
When a heavy morning mist veils the beautiful
valley and hills, the landscape is shut out from our
vision. But suddenly there comes a breath, or the
sun's rays; the mist parts, and the magnificent sce-
nery stands unveiled. So God often parts the mist
that hides the future, and shows what a man m.ay be.
Young people especially, seek from God the vision of
what your life may be, and then follow out that reve-
lation, because when you catch God's vision you will
always find him responsible for the outworking of it.
F. B. Meyer.
A sculptor has many models from which he chisels
various statues, though one may be his masterpiece.
But when I come into the Lord's studio I find only
one design: that we should be made in the likeness
of Jesus Christ. " Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of
his Son." If you should go to the kingdom of glory
to-day, and open the great book of God, and should
find your own name there, after that name you would
find written these words: "To be conformed to the
image of my dear Son." Not the image of Paul,
however grand; not that of any sanctified man that
we may meet in our pilgrimage here; but that of the
dear Lord, that Holy One. You may say that the
materials of your heart are vicious,— and they are
not single in that,— but be assured that, if Thorwald-
sen could not make a masterpiece of art out of loose
sandstone, God can make a being that will shine like
a star before his throne out of the poor, weary, bur-
dened sinners that his grace calls to the hallowed
feet of Jesus Christ. The materials form no obstruc-
tion to that heavenly architect.
M. E. Baldwin.
169
DAY
vm
For what are you living? Are your pursuits
bounded by the narrow horizon of earth and limited
to the fleeting moments of time ? Are you constantly
engaged in lining as warmly as possible the nest in
which you hope to spend old age and die? Are you
perpetually seeking to make the best of this world ?
I fear that these are the real aims of many profess-
ing Christians; and if so, it is simply useless for them
to claim kinship with that stream of pilgrims which
is constantly pouring through the earth, bound to
the city which hath foundations, their home and
mother city. F. B. Meyer.
Our choice in life must be a cubic choice. It must
have three dimensions. First, it must be very high
—as high as I can reach with my life. Next, it
must be very broad, covering all the powers of my
life— mind, voice, hands, feet. And then it must be
very long— run out seventy years, if that be the sum
of my days on earth. I cannot afford to swap horses
in the middle of the stream. I cannot afford to change
my choice at thirty or forty. We are to make our
choice the highest, the broadest, and the longest
possible. This is to be our aim: that the life of
Christ in us shall be and do what the life of Christ
was and did in himself. We are so to live that our
life shall repeat the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
Alexander McKenzie.
Some of the maxims of the ungodly are very good
when they are properly interpreted. An example
may be found in the maxim, " Take care of number
one." Who is number one? The ungodly man says,
" I am number one." But God is number one. Take
care of God's interests first, and he will look after
yours. J. Hudson Taylor.
170
DAY
IX
A soldier was once posted in a forest to watch for
the approach of Indians. It was a position of pecu-
liar danger, three different men having been surprised
and killed at this post without having had time to
fire a shot. The soldier was left with strict orders
to observe the utmost vigilance. In a short time
an object moving among the trees at some distance
caught his eye. He watched it attentively, with gun
ready, until, as it came a little nearer, he saw it to
be a wild hog. Another came in sight. He satisfied
himself it was a mid hog, rooting under the leaves.
Presently in another direction the leaves were rus-
tled, and a third wild hog appeared. Being now
used to these creatures, he paid but little attention.
The movements of the last animal, however, soon
engaged the mean's thoughts. He observed a slight
awkwardness in the movements of this one, and
thought that possibly an Indian might be approach-
ing him covered with a hog's skin. If it was an
Indian the safest thing was to shoot. If it was not
an Indian, and he should shoot, he would run no risk.
He raised his rifle and fired. With a bound and a
yell, an Indian leaped to his feet and fell back dead.
The man had saved his life, and prevented the sur-
prise of the garrison, by his watchfulness. So the
child of God must be ever on the alert and guarded
against the approaches of the Evil One. Draw the
Word of God upon every object that approaches you
in this dark world of sin. If the devil is in it, you
may be sure the Word will expose him. Stripped of
his disguise, he will howl and will leave you. In the
name of Christ we can ever have the victory. With-
out Christ, and in our own strength or wisdom, we
shall suffer defeat. D. W. Whittle.
171
DAY
X
Did you ever notice that when some of the strong-
est men in the Bible failed they almost always failed
on the strongest point of their character? Elijah
was noted for his boldness, and Jezebel scared him
out of his wits. Moses was renowned for his meek-
ness, humility, and gentleness; yet he became angry
and killed that Egjrptian; he was angry and said,
"Must I bring water out of this rock, ye rebels?"
God kept him out of the Promised Land because he
lost his tem^per. If you think you are meek, it is a
good sign that you are not. Peter was one of the
boldest of all the disciples, but when one little maid
looked at him and said, "You are one of his disciples,"
he began to curse and to swear and to say that he
was not, and down he fell. John and James were
noted for their meekness and gentleness, and yet
they wanted to call fire down from heaven to con-
sume a town in Samaria. Do you not see that man
is a complete failure away from God? But he that
is in you is greater than he that is in the world.
When Jesus Christ on the cross said, " It is finished,"
it was the shout of a conqueror. He had fought and
overcome the world. Now if I have Christ in me, I
will overcome the world, and if I have not it is the
height of madness for me to undertake to overcome.
D. L. Moody.
The men that have redeemed human history, and
stood like lighthouses on the dark and stormy prom-
ontories of life, casting out healing rays and saving
beams through the dark waters, have been men that
got their enthusiasm for humanity out of the cross
— men whose motto was, "The love of Christ con-
straineth me." M. D. HoGE.
172
DAY
XI
Christians do not know how much they rob Christ
by reading what literature they choose. Bring your
mind to the feet of Jesus. Then there is the whole
outer life: your relation to society, your home life,
your money, your time, and your business. Put
everything in the hands of Jesus.
Andrew Murray.
You never can drive out the uncleanness of evil
thoughts except by pouring in the clean wholesome-
ness of the thoughts of Christ. Have you made
Christ for any length of time the one object of your
thought? Try it, you men who want to break loose
from the shackles that you know are keeping you
away from the great blessing of God and from the
pure sweetness of his free and holy life. What else
is there to think about that is worth anything, com-
pared with him ? All treasures of wisdom and know-
ledge are hidden in him. How it must grieve him,
who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became
poor, to see us filling our minds with passing things,
worthless things, dying after the fashion of the world,
while Christ is crowded away into some bare and
paltry place in our lives! Oh, that we might learn
to make Jesus, and Jesus only, the object of all our
thinking! If we did, how we w^ould lose taste for
much that pleases us no^v! How music, that perhaps
takes a large place in our hearts now, would be put
into a subordinate place ! How the taste for certain
classes of books or of studies or certain lines of
thought would vanish into an insignificant place the
moment we gave to Jesus Christ the place to which
he is entitled in our thinking!
Robert E. Speer.
173
DAY
xn
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
-Gal. V. 16.
I do not believe that that passage is meant to be
done away with by the Christian. I have heard it
said, " I pity St. Paul when he wrote that; he was in
a low, groveling experience." Nay, brethren; the
lust of the flesh is in all men to the last. If a man
says that he is delivered from the flesh so that it
has no longer any existence in his experience, he is
contradicting God's holy Word. The flesh is there,
and what is the Christian to do ? " Walk in the Spirit,
and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." The
flesh is lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh, and you are between the two. The
question is, To which are you going to yield? Walk
in the Spirit because willingly led of the Spirit, and
stay there all the days of your life; if you do, you
will never fulfil the lust of the flesh.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
A saint without the help of the Holy Spirit can no
more walk in the light as God is in the light than a
sinner can be justified apart from the shedding of
the blood without which there is no remission.
Andrew Bonar.
A good many are trying to work with the anoint-
ing they got three years ago.
D. L, MoQPY.
174
DAY
xm
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan,
and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days
tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and
when they were ended, he afterward hungered.— Luke iv. 1, 2.
Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost, and yet he was
tempted. Temptation often comes upon a man with
its strongest power when he is nearest to God. As
some one has said, the devil aims high. He got one
apostle to curse and swear and say he didn't know
Christ. Very few men have such conflicts with the
devil as Martin Luther had. Why? Because he was
going to shake the very kingdom of hell. Oh, what
conflicts John Bunyan had! If a m.an has much of
the Spirit of God he will have great conflicts with
the tempter.
D. L. Moody.
Our Lord's temptation came right after his bap-
tism and right before his ministry, as soon as the
heavens had been opened above him, and the Spirit
of God was seen descending and resting upon him;
immediately the Spirit leadeth him— more, driveth
him— into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Ah, my friends, after feelings have been stirred, after
resolutions have been made, after means of grace
have been received, then we should look for tempta-
tions. Those things are not to keep temptation at
arm's-length; they are to prepare us to meet temp-
tation, to stand in the evil day, to stand by our prom-
ise, to be true to God's voice that has been heard,
to claim, aye, to appropriate and really make our
own, the grace that has been bestowed.
A. C. A. Hall.
175
DAY
XIV
But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord.— Micah
iii. 8.
There is a great difference between strength and
power. Strength implies ability; but power implies
activity and efficiency. A man may be a strong man,
even a giant, and yet be powerless because he is
bound by fetters— unable to exercise his strength.
The great lack in our entire spiritual life is a lack
of power. We cannot do the things that we would.
Romans vii. 19 is too often the experience not only
of the Christian, but of every man: "The good that
I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that
I do." Ovid said, " I see and approve the right, but
I follow and practise the wrong." Therefore the
great requirement of man is power— power in two
directions: power to overcome evil; power to help
others to effect the same thing.
Arthur T. Pierson.
Christ said that the works that he did we should
do, " and greater works than these." He turns us
from the miracles unto higher things which are with-
in our reach as his disciples. He might have given
to us the power to lay our fingers upon benighted
eyes and give them sight, to put our hands upon
crooked ankle-bones and give them strength, to speak
to the sick and bring them back to health, and to
summon the dead to life again. Greater works than
these are ours. If you open the eyes of a man so
that he sees God, if you touch his ankle-bones so that
he walks with God, if you bring healing to his spirit
and he is made holy, if you shall call the dead to the
life of a child of God, your greater work is done.
Alexander McKenzie.
176
DAY
XV
Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.— Matt. xxi. 28.
Let US put out of our minds forever the thought
that thirty years from now we are going to do some-
thing. You will not, unless you do it now. There
is more time wasted, more sin committed, waiting
for a more propitious opportunity than from any
other one cause. ''Behold, now"— not thirty minutes
from now, not ten seconds ahead, but now; the " now "
of Scripture has not the duration of a thousandth
part of a second. " Now is the accepted time," no*
only to believe on Jesus Christ, but to serve him.
H. C. Mabie.
A religion of effortless adoration may be a religion
for an angel, but never for a man. Not in the con-
templative, but in the active, lies true hope; not in
rapture, but in reality, lies true life; not in the realm
of ideals, but among tangible things, is man's sanc-
tification wrought.
Henry Drummond.
Don^t wait for something to turn up, but go and
turn up something.
D. L. Moody.
We are not responsible for results. What is suc-
cess in our estimation may be failure from God's
standpoint. Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost
and lifted three thousand people into the kingdom.
Stephen was filled with the Holy Ghost and was
stoned to death. One was as great a triumph as the
other in the thought of God.
J. Wilbur Chapman.
177
DAY
XVI
In many theological-treatises the definition of the
church is, "A body of believers voluntarily associated
together for the purpose of worship and edification."
As well say that my body is a voluntary association
of hands and feet and ears and eyes, for the purpose
of work and locomotion! The fact is that, as my
body was formed out of a germ and all stands to-
gether in the head, so the church is formed out of
Christ. As Eve was taken out of Adam, so the church,
the bride of Christ, is taken out of Christ; and when
he rises and ascends to the Father, then the Holy
Ghost comes down, and as the Word is preached he
begins to gather about himself those who are to
constitute the church of Christ.
It is very instructive to notice the " additions "
named in the Acts of the Apostles. As soon as Peter
finished his first sermon " they that gladly received
his word were baptized: and the same day there
were added unto them about three thousand souls."
The words ''unto them" do not belong there; all
that is said is that believers were " added." If we
are anxious to know to what they were added, read
Acts V. 14: "And believers were the more added to
the Lord, multitudes both of men and women."
Ah! that is it. If you put a slip down into the
earth, there will be an addition of branch after
branch growing out of it. Jesus Christ came do\\Ti
in the person of the Holy Ghost to constitute the
center for the church, and as soon as believers were
regenerated they became added to him.
A. J. Gordon.
178
^m£^^^ i^
Let the blessed Lord come, step aboard our poor
fishing-boats, take charge, order us to the right and
left, make the biggest of us mere deck-hands. Let
the great Master's voice ring from stem to stern on
every ship: " Launch out into the deep, and let down
your nets for a draft." No m.asters, no lieutenants,
no officers, no " orders of clergy"; everybody just a
deck-hand to pull ropes and shoot nets when he
comes. When the Lord is away, oh, we play fine
games ! We divide the boat into the officers' quarters
and the forecastle, and we walk majestically on the
poop, some of us, and spend a great deal of time dis-
cussing the different places and positions, and the
rules and regulations— how far my command is to
go, and where it is to stop, and on what chalk-line
your command begins. Just let the Lord come and
take comm.and, and you will not be splitting hairs
as to your position in the church.
John McNeill.
There is a familiar story about John Wesley and
others going to the river that bounds the Holy City,
and finding, to their astonishment, that they had to
drop their cloaks and garments in which they ap-
proached. One drops his cloak, another his robe,
another his surplice, and they come out on the other
side astonished to find that they are all in the same
white, beautiful robe, the robe of righteousness,
which is Christ Jesus, our Lord. Cannot we gain a
little more of heaven upon earth by handing out more
of the right hand of fellowship? " Stand fast in one
spirit, with one mind."
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
179
DAY
xvm
We very often see people who say that they do
not believe m foreign missions, but believe in home
missions. They are very largely like the man in one
of our Western States who, when a subscription was
presented to him for foreign missions, said, " I don't
know anything about them, and I do not want to give
my money to the work." They let him rest, but when
they had an urgent appeal to help a needy church
in Minnesota, they went to him, hoping to get his
subscription; but he said, "I do not know anything
about Minnesota; that is too far away. I want to
give my money right here at home, where I can see
what it does." Then, when they found that the fence
around the graveyard needed to be repaired, they
said, '* Well, we have him now sure." And so they
presented the subscription for the fence around the
graveyard, and the good brother looked at it and said
very solemnly, " I don't see the use of that; for those
that are in there can't get out, and those who are out
don't want to get in." That is my belief in regard
to people professing to be Christians who have no
interest in foreign missions. I do not think they have
any interest in any mission; for when they have the
interest which the divine teaching brings they will
want to have the gospel preached to every creature.
S. L. Baldwin.
I do not imagine that an Anglo-Saxon is any dearer
to God than a Mongolian or an African. My plea is
not, save America for America's sake, but, save
America for the world's sake.
JosiAH Strong.
180
•^t t^f^fi^^'?^^^ DAY
Five hundred years before Christ India was groan-
ing under Brahmanical sacerdotalism, priestcraft,
polytheism, idolatry, and caste. Buddha arose as a
reformer, teaching them that there was one .God,
that no human mediation was necessary between
God and man, that all men constituted one brother-
hood. He fired his disciples with zeal, and they went
forth with him to conquer India to their new-found
faith. Kings became the nursing fathers of the new
religion. A prince crossed to Ceylon, and that island
was converted to Buddhism. They penetrated the
jungles and climbed the mountains, and Siam and its
monarch embraced the faith. They climbed the
Himalayas, and the Nepaulese became Buddhists.
They climbed over into Tibet, and that land is to-day
their stronghold. They passed on into Siberia and
into China, and that mighty empire embraced their
faith. They crossed over to Japan, and the standard
of Buddha was planted there.
Let this history be a prophecy and an inspiration
to us. We may, by God's blessing, bring India to
Christ within our generation. The Hindu converts,
touched by the divine fire, inspired by the love of
Christ, will repeat the history of the past, but with
new zeal, aided by a power that Buddha's disciples
knew not. The nations of Asia will be conquered for
Christ, and will together plant the royal standard of
King Immanuel, and from those united hosts will go
up the shout, "Halleluiah: for the Lord God omnip-
otent reigneth." Brothers, be it ours, each one, to
own a share in that halleluiah shout of victory.
Jacob Chamberlain.
181
DAY
XX
There is none other name under heaven given among men,
v/hereby we must be saved. — Acts iv. 12.
Apart from Christianity we have nothing to depend
upon. Without stopping to decide the question
whether your Christian experiences have been genu-
ine or not,— you need not go into the rubbish of
the past,— if you give up Christianity you are gone.
John A. Broadus.
If Christianity were a mere philosophy, you would
spin it out of your own brain, and then you would
write articles and defend your positions against
others, and they would defend theirs against you,
and when you got through it would make very little
difference whether you or they came out ahead. A
great deal of philosophical discussion consists in a
trial of wits, in sword-play. If it were a matter of
science, you would scrutinize the facts and by a pro-
cess of induction generalize the laws that express
the order of sequence in which these facts occur.
Christianity is neither philosophy nor science. A
circumstance occurred last night outside of your
knowledge, except as somebody conversant with the
facts comes to you and tells you the facts. And, upon
the assumption that men generally speak the truth,
you believe your informant, and you call the recital of
the facts " a piece of information." Now the Chris-
tian religion is a piece of information about some-
thing that happened outside of your knowledge, and
that you never could have known under any circum-
stances, and that no process of thinking could have
ever educed, induced, or deduced; it is a piece of
information given to us on the part of God.
Francis L. Patton.
182
DAY
XXI
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to
all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
— James i. 5.
The truth of a personal God is the great and fun-
damental need of philosophy and of human life, the
one prof oundest want of man's brain and of his heart.
The great masters of skeptical thought, after the
profoundest investigations into the science of the
known and the probable, come back with the awe-
struck air of men who have heard footsteps which
they cannot trace, and the rustle of royal robes whose
wearer is unknown to them. Thus they go a step
further than Athens, which worshiped the "unknown
God," while they recognize merely the " unknown."
I am reminded of some doubters by the royal psalm-
ist: "The fool hath said in his heart. There is no
God "—as though only a fool could say it, and he only
in his heart. Lord Bacon, great in logic and not
mean in philosophy, said, " I would rather believe ail
the fables of the Talmud and the Koran than that
this universal frame is without a mind." The great
want of philosophy is God; and if of philosophy, how
much more of the great, aching brain and heart of
the world, which in every age has cried out, " As the
hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my
soul after thee, 0 God." Cyrus D. Foss.
No man of the human race has been in circum-
stances to become absolutely wise; but every one of
the human family possessed of sufficient wisdom to
be responsible can be good; and Jesus did not say,
" Blessed are the wise in head," but, " The pure in
heart shall see God." I. D. Driver.
183
DAY
xxn
What is called "metaphysics" is often only a'
beclouding of a hearer's mind by subtleties that are
meant to confuse and bewilder.
A certain case at law turned on the resemblance
between two car-wheels, and Webster and Choate
were the opposing counsel. To a common eye the
wheels looked as if made from the same model, but
Choate, by a tram of hair-splitting reasoning and a
profound discourse on the " fixation of points," tried
to overwhelm the jury with metaphysics, and to com-
pel them to conclude, against the evidence of their
eyes, that there was really hardly a shadow of essen-
tial resemblance. Webster rose to reply. " Gentle-
men of the jury," said he, as he opened wide his great
black eyes and stared at the big twin wheels before
him, ''there they are— look at 'em!" As he thun-
dered out these words it was as though one of Jupi-
ter's bolts had struck the earth.
That one sentence and look shattered Choate^s
subtle argument to atoms, and the cunning sophistry
on the '' fixation of points " dissolved as into air. I
have great confidence in the strong common sense
of an honest mind feeling the utter worthlessness of
an argument even v/hen unable to tell the reason why.
Arthur T. Pierson.
The alternatives of the intellectual life are Chris-
tianity or agnosticism. The agnostic is right when
he trumpets his incompleteness. He who is not com-
plete in Him must be forever incomplete.
Henry Drummond.
184
DAY
xxm
Faith has done many things in this world besides
the bringing down of the walls of Jericho. Men
sometimes laugh at faith as though it were a feeble
thing, when, in fact, it is one of the great forces of
the world.
If we were to use scriptural language with regard
to all the things that faith has accomplished, we
might speak as follows: By faith Columbus crossed
the ocean, not knomng whither he went. By faith
Cyrus Field planned and perfected the Atlantic cable,
while all men laughed at him and called him vision-
ary. By faith our forefathers crossed the deep,
seeking a country where they could freely worship
their God. By faith Edison toiled on, seeking new
discoveries in his science, not sure of the issue of his
efforts. All these ^^TOught with faith, and so worked
wonders. The fact is that without faith the world
would come to a standstill.
This same faith applied to spiritual things has done
wonders for the world. Faith in the word and prom-
ises of God has led to the establishment of mission-
ary work all over the world. Faith leads men and
women to go far from home and friends to preach
the truth to those in darkest Africa. Faith leads the
city missionary to go to the plague-spots in darkest
New York or London, and to believe that he can bring
light and purity there. And God rewards this faith,
so that the modern miracles are not so much those
of the healing of the bodies of men as of their spirits.
If ever this old and sinful world is to be made over,
so that it shall be full of righteousness, it wall only
be when men act more by faith and less by sight,
and dare and do great things for God and their fel-
low-men. A. F. SCHAUFFLER.
185
DAY
XXIV
Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide j^ourselves bags which
wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not.— Luke
xii. 33.
A bag that does not wax old is one that will never
fail to be sending in an income. There are men in
heaven, saved by grace (as all are), who were rich
while on earth. But all their money was invested in
fine mansions and gardens and railroads and bank
shares. When they had possession of them they failed
to convert any part of them into the exchange of
heaven, and now they get no more good from them.
Ask him, " 0 saint, are you getting in anything now
from your investments down there?" He will tell
you, "Nothing whatever; the interest is all paid in
the coin of earth, and that is not transmissible. I
ought to have seen to that when I had a chance; I
cannot do it now." Very different is it with the saints
who have given money to help save men from death,
whether the amounts be large or small. Look, for
example, at those who in some wise way have in-
vested their property vdth a view to results in another
world. Ask them, " Are you getting any income from
your investments down there ? " " Oh yes, a wonder-
ful income. There is a continual stream of persons
coming in here who were started heavenward or were
helped on their way by those investments. They are
beginning to come up out of all lands and tribes and
kindreds and tongues." These earthly investments
pay dividends in heaven. WilliAxM Ashmore.
Christianity removes the attraction of the earth;
and this is one way in which it diminishes men's
burden. It makes them citizens of another world.
Henry Drummond.
186
DAY
XXV
Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself.— Heb. ix. 26.
When sin entered into the world, and long before
sin entered into the world, the God of all grace had
provided a remedy. The Lamb of God was slain from
the foundation of the world. But Adam was not
created from the foundation of the world. Then God
had provided that when man sinned, and entailed
death upon himself, he might die by proxy. That
was what the great heart of God proposed and pro-
vided, determined and arranged. And many a picture
was hung out before the world to set it forth. When
Adam's nakedness was discovered to him, and he
tried to make himself clothes of fig-leaves, God pro-
vided him with better clothes; he clothed him and
he clothed Eve with the skins of beasts. The life of
the animal that provided the clothing of course was
forfeited. It was the first illustration of the great
substitution that the Lord in his love had provided.
Ages rolled on and animals were sacrificed. There
was the morning lamb, and there was the evening
lamb, telling of the blood that was to be the substi-
tute for the life of man (for the blood is the life),
until at last the Lamb himself came— the Lamb of
God, that taketh away the sin of the world. As it
was " appointed unto men once to die,"— the great
emphasis is upon the "once,"— so Christ was once
offered. And oh, " if the blood of bulls and of goats,
and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much
more shall the blood of Christ . . . purge your con-
science from dead works to serve the living God ? "
Marcus Rainsford.
187
DAY
XXVI
A man is not converted without first having con-
viction of sin. When that conviction of sin comes
and his eyes are opened, he learns to be afraid of his
sin and to flee from it to Christ. But a man needs
a second conviction of sin; a believer must be con-
victed of his peculiar sin. The sins of an uncon-
verted man are different from the sins of a believer.
An unconverted man, for instance, is not ordinarily
convicted of the corruption of his nature; he thinks
principally about external sins: " I have taken God's
name in vain, been a liar, and I am on the way to
hell." He is then convicted for conversion. But the
believer is in quite a different condition. His sins
are far more blamable, for he has had the light and
the love and the Spirit of God given to him. He has
striven to conquer his sins, and has grown to see that
his nature is utterly corrupt, that the carnal mind,
the flesh within him, was making his whole state
utterly wretched. When a believer is thus convicted
by the Holy Spirit, it is specially his life of unbelief
that condemns him; he sees that, because of the great
guilt connected with this, he has been kept from
receiving the full gift of God's Holy Spirit; he is
brought' down in shame and confusion of face, and
he begins to cry, " Woe is me, for I am undone. I
have heard of God by the hearing of the ear; I have
known a great deal of him, and preached about him,
but now my eye seeth him." God comes near him,
and Job, the righteous man whom God had trusted,
sees in himself the deep sin of self and its right-
eousness that he had never seen before.
Andrew Murray.
188
DAY
xxvn
In these days there is a great deal of lowering the
standards. Business men tell me that business
standards have been lowered, and now a good deal
of business runs into gambling. In politics the
standards have been lowered. There has been a
lowering of standards in theology, and in reference
to the supreme authority of God's iDlessed Book. We
must keep the standard up to the very tiptop peak
of God's flagstaff. Be careful, my brother, about
lowering your standard of right, obedience, and holi-
ness. You remember, perhaps, that scene in the days
of conflict, when a color-sergeant had carried the
colors so near to the enemy's redoubt that the regi-
ment shouted to him to bring them back or they
would be captured. The color-sergeant said, "No,
no; bring your men up to the colors! " With a mag-
nificent dash, they carried the colors themselves into
the rampart. The commandment of the Captain of
our salvation to us ministers is, " Bring my church
up to my colors, and then we will go forward and
capture the enemy." Theodore L. Cuyler.
One in twelve of the ancient apostles was a Judas.
I don't believe that one in twelve of the modern
apostles is a Judas. Nevertheless, there is this dif-
ference between the ancient and the modern: the
ancient Judas carried the bag, and when he betrayed
his Master he had the grace to go and hang himself.
In our modern church system, when the man who
carries the bag proves dishonest he shows no sorrow;
and, what is worse, the churches have such lax ideas
of discipline that they do not even turn him out of
ofiice. Joseph Cook.
189
DAY
xxvm
I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of
his holy hill.— Ps. iii. 4.
What a grand philosophy of prayer we get in God's
Book! Down here in darkness, with trouble closing
upon me like wolves upon the belated traveler, I
cried; and One as loving and human and personal as
myself heard me. My Father, God up yonder in
heaven, heard me. When I, his child, fell down here
on the earth, I tried to get up and began to cry. He
knew the cry of his bairn, and, quicker than I can tell
it, flew to my relief. *' That's my David," said God,
as he rose and came to the front door of heaven to
listen, when they were badgering him and the hounds
of hell were upon him. *' I knew my David's voice
among ten thousand voices." And God came out and
scattered the foe right and left, and set him on high
from all his enemies. John McNeill.
If we had prayed more we need not have worked
so hard. We have too little praying face to face
with God every day. Looking back at the end, I
suspect there will be great grief for our sins of
omission— omission to get from God what we might
have got by praying. Andrew A. Bonar.
Jesus never taught his disciples how to preach,
but he did teach them how to pray. I would rather
be able to pray like Daniel than to preach like Ga-
briel. If men know how to pray they know how to
work for God. D. L. Moody.
You may work without praying, but you can't pray
without working. J. Hudson Taylor.
190
Pray without ceasing.— 1 Thess. v. 17.
We prove the value which we attach to things by
the time we devote to them. The kingdom of God
asks our time, and it is only by giving it that the
kingdom can be kept in its true place, first every day,
and all day. God has broken up our lifetime into
day and night. One object of that is that we may
learn to live a day at a time, and should thus have
a time every morning, after having been raised out
of sleep in which we were utterly helpless, when we
should begin afresh with our God. Begin the day
with God, and God will maintain his kingdom in your
heart. Andrew Murray.
Men do not excel to-day, because, after their con-
version, they do not go apart, like Moses and Paul,
into Horeb or Arabia for a season. Young Chris-
tians must go into Arabia. Book-learning mil never
make preachers. You must but get away alone with
God and his holy Word, and let God speak to you
until you can see God. Then you will see the burn-
ing bush, the majesty of God, and it will make you
take off your shoes, for you will see that the ground
whereon you stand is holy. Then only will God call
you to be delivered and a deliverer.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
He who rushes into the presence of God and hur-
riedly whispers a few petitions and rushes out again
never, perhaps, sees God there at all. He can no
more get a vision than a disquieted lake can mirror
the stars. We must stay long enough to become
calm, for it is only the peaceful soul in which eternal
things are reflected as in a placid water.
Arthur T. Pierson.
191
^ ^cO^y^P
There is no warrant for carelessness or self-suffi-
ciency in the smallest thing we may be called upon
to do for God. A young divinity student in Ireland
was preaching for the Bishop of Cashel. As they
went into the pulpit the good bishop asked the young
student what he would preach about. He replied
that he had made no preparation, and that he was
quite uncertain, but was confident that he could oc-
cupy the time, as he was just from the university.
After two or three minutes of labor over a text glibly
given out, he broke down in confusion, and the bishop
was obliged to finish the sermon. When they came
back to the vestry the young man buried his face in
his hands and groaned in shame and humiliation.
" My young brother," said the bishop, " if you had
gone up as you came down, you would have come
down as you went up."
D. W. Whittle.
May we always have grace to take our proper
place under the Master's table and plead for the
crumbs. God says you have sinned and come short
of his glory. Let us reply, "Truth, Lord; yet thou
receivest sinners and eatest with them." God says,
" Ye are weakness itself." " Truth, Lord; yet in our
weakness thou dost delight to show forth thy
strength." God says, "Your msdom is folly."
"Truth, Lord; yet thou hast promised to give wis-
dom to them that ask it of thee." We receive God's
favors only as we thus accept the positions of un-
worthiness and weakness to which we are assigned
in his Word.
A. C. Dixon,
192
(Mouth of filly
Topples
Arthur T. Tierson %oiiiid Top
Concerning the work of my hands command ye me.— Isa. xlv.
11.
In nature we find great universal forces— light,
heat, gravity, cohesion, magnetism, electricity, chem-
ical affinity, life. We have only to understand the
laws or conditions within which they act, and we may
command them: obey the law of the power, and the
power obeys you. Thus we command light, and it
becomes our artist; heat, and it becomes our refiner
and purifier; gravity, and it becomes our giant me-
chanic; magnetism, our pilot; electricity, our motor,
messenger, illuminator. The Holy Spirit is the all-
subduing power of the spiritual realm. Obey the law^s
of the Spirit, and all his power is at your disposal.
In the work of God the believer may command him.
Arthur T. Pierson,
Imagine one mthout genius, and devoid of the
artist's training, sitting down before Raphael's fa-
mous picture of the " Transfiguration " and attempt-
ing to reproduce it! How crude and mechanical and
lifeless his work would be! But if such a thing were
possible that the spirit of Raphael should enter into
the man, and obtain the mastery of his mind and eye
and hand, it would be entirely possible that he should
reproduce this masterpiece; for it would simply be
Raphael reproducing Raphael. For this purpose have
we been filled with the Spirit of God, that we might
do the very things which he would do if he were here.
" The works that I do shall ye do also ; and greater
works than these shall ye do; because I go unto my
Father."
A. J. Gordon.
193
DAY
U
God never alters his law. The two visits of Moses
up the mount were different, yet they ended in the
same way. Moses broke the first tables of stone,
but made the new exactly the same. It is as impos-
sible to alter God's law as to alter his throne. You
cannot get above the law. Then get deeper and
deeper in sympathy with it, because that law is the
mind of God. Andrew A. Bonar.
In our estimate of the decalogue we have made
too much of the law element, and too little of the
element of love. As a consequence, it has not been
easy for us to see how it is that God's law is love,
and that love is the fulfilling of God's law. But the
ten commandments are a simple record of God's
loving covenant with his people, and they are not
the arbitrary commandings of God to his subjects.
They indicate the inevitable limits within which God
and his people can be in loving union rather than
declare the limits of dutiful obedience on the part
of those who would be God's faithful subjects.
Henry Clay Trumbull.
The law is used by God as the means of putting
an end to man's boasting; it stops every man's mouth.
A man who is trying to measure himself by the law
is pretty small; but if he measures himself by his
neighbors he thinks that he is about two inches taller
than any one else. Under the old dispensation the
prodigal would have been turned out and stoned.
The law says, ''Smite him;" grace says, "Forgive
him." The law says, ''Cast him out;" grace says,
" Bring him in." ' D. L. Moody.
194
DAY
m
God does not want any further expiation for sin
than that which has already been so blessedly ac-
cepted. Christ's resurrection is receipt in full for
all the law's just claim upon us; and the Holy Ghost
has come down to give us a blank draft upon God's
fullness. He writes his name— I AM; and you put
in what you want, send it, backed by faith and
prayer, and God will honor it. Do you want strength ?
"I am strength." Do you want salvation? "I am
salvation." Do you want peace ? " I am that peace."
It is all for Jesus, and all for you; for, as it has
pleased God that in Christ all fullness should dwell,
so he is pleased that of his fullness all we should
receive, and grace for grace. There is no fountain
on this earth to slake a poor sinner's thirst, li you
do not get a drink from the living water you will
never be satisfied. All the kingdoms of the earth
are vanity and vexation of spirit.
Marcus Rainsford.
The love of God is as universal now as in the day
when Jesus Christ said it included every man; the
needs of the world are as intense to-day as when
they pierced the very heart of God and drew his
only Son down to earth to die for the sins of men.
The pathetic appeal of the poor lost world, as it
staggers, blindfold, around the great altar, is the
more pitiable because it does not know it is blind,
and calls us to an immediate and undaunted effort
to at once undertake operations which shall secure,
before we die, the evangelization of this world.
Robert E. Speer.
195
DAY
IV
The Lord's portion is his people.— Deut. xxxii. 9.
We should be solicitous not only as to what we
have in God, but what God has in us. We are God's
heritage; we are his property, which he has re-
claimed from the waste wilderness of the world,
which he has fertilized with his own blood, which
he has fenced in by his cross, in which he has erected
his dwelling-place, and which he has brought under
his own cultivation. 0 soul, conceive of thyself as
an estate which has come into the possession of the
eternal God. Some time ago, in Scotland, I gained
new light upon this thought, as I noticed the amount
of care which Scotch people take of very poor land.
Some of us have been barren land, just reclaimed
from the ocean of barrenness and waste, and we
have come beneath the cultivation of God, and, if
we will only let him, God is prepared to bring under
his care every faculty, every quality of our nature,
leaving no part untouched, but raising crop after
crop out of us— his estate. In earlier life we are
all inclined to do the best we can with our powers
for God, till repeated failure convinces us how little
we can make of ourselves; and when the sun is
reaching its zenith, when we have despaired of get-
ting any more crops out of the soil that seems hope-
lessly impoverished, we are led to fall back upon God
and say to him, "My God, this estate is thine; rear
from the spirit, from the imagination, from the will,
from the affections, from all the powers that thou
hast given me, some fruit which shall bring glory to
thee and shall keep my life from having been wasted."
F. B. Meyer.
196
DAY
V
Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth ... to declare his
righteousness [justification] for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forebearance of God; to declare, I say, at this
time his righteousness : that he might be just, and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus.— Rom. iii. 24, 26.
Righteousness, or justification, means, therefore,
not only the sinner's vindication, but God's vindica-
tion. It is the divine scheme of mercy and love
whereby God can acquit and justify a transgressor,
and yet acquit and justify himself, as having no
complicity with guilt or sin or laxity as to his in-
violable law.
This side of justification is habitually overlooked.
In pardoning sin the perfection of God is in danger
of compromise. In the loose notions of forgiveness
now prevalent, there is a tendency to magnify love
at the expense of belittling law. Perfect govern-
ment demands perfect law, and perfect law demands
perfect sanctions of reward and penalty. The cer-
tainty that every transgression and disobedience re-
ceives its just recompense of reward is part of the
perfection of God and his government. Laxity of
administration imperils the foundations of society.
Hence, if God forgives and justifies the sinner, it
must be in such a way as to justify himself. His
law must be kept intact and his justice must not
suffer for the sake of his mercy.
Here lies the glory of God's justification. It
is so provided for as that law and justice and
government and the character of God are abso-
lutely safe. Penalty is borne by the innocent Sub-
stitute, so that the law is magnified; the hatred of
sin is as manifest in the sacrifice of God's dear Son
as though all transgressors received their full rec-
ompense. Arthur T. Pierson.
197
DAY
VI
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain.— Heb. xi. 4.
Abel's offering was such as God could accept.
His first thought was to get rid of sin; he came with
the blood. Cain, like the Pharisee who "prayed
with himself," offered unto himself. He came with
the fruits of his field as the result of his industry
and intelligence. There was no mysticism about
him; in his own opinion, he had no sin needing
atonement; if, indeed, there was sin, he thought that
his industry and other good qualities made amends
for it, so that God would accept his fruits as an
atonement for his faults. He presented the fruit
of prayer with the serpent of sin coiled in it. Abel
heroically saw himself as he was; Cain looked at
himself as he wished to be. Sinner that he was,
Abel presented the offering of blood ; self-complacent
as he was, Cain refused to confess his sin, which, un-
confessed, soon developed into crime.
A. C. Dixon.
Men will never find salvation until they give up
all efforts to save themselves. Some one asked an
Indian how he got converted. He built a fire in a
circle round a worm, and then, after the worm had
crawled round every way and then lay down to die,
he reached over and took him out. That is the way
in which God saves us.
D. L. Moody.
198
DAY
vn
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit.— John iii. 6.
Spiritual things may be imitated by the flesh but
cannot be produced from it. It would be folly to
look for anything but crab-apples from a crab-apple
tree, if no better fruit had been grafted in upon its
stem. So it is useless to exhort a piety that does
not exist, and fruitless to teach an unregenerate
man to cultivate an unrenewed heart.
D. W. Whittle.
The Spirit must convict before you can convert.
A. J. Gordon.
Not more certain is it that it is something outside
the thermometer that produces a change in the
thermometer than it is something outside the soul
of man that produces a moral change upon him.
That he must be susceptible to that change, that he
must be a party to it, goes without saying; but that
neither his aptitude nor his will can produce it is
equally certain.
Henry Drummond.
He who would be most like Christ must pay the
cost. As God reckons jewelry, there is no gem that
shines with more brilliancy than the tear of true
penitence; yet God only knoweth what heart-pres-
sure and what crushing of wilful pride may have
been necessary to force the tear to the cheek of
a stubborn sinner.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
199
DAY
vm
There is no joy like hearing the joy-song of a
new-born soul. Yes, another joy may be as deep—
the joy of sympathy with Jesus in his rejected life,
and the assurance that the Father looks on me with
pleasure. Think of the number of Christians in the
world, and then of the unsaved millions of heathen-
dom, and then ask, Are we true followers of Christ,
who went all the way to Calvary to give his blood
for man? Remember, the joy of the Holy Ghost is
the joy of working for God. Most of us look at all
our facilities for work and say that we will try to
manage these things better. Oh, if we had a sense
of the state of the millions around us, we should
fall on our faces before God and say, " God help us
to something new. Oh, that every fiber of my being
may be taken possession of for this great work with
God!" Andrew Murray.
If I had the choice of preaching like Gabriel,
swaying men at my will, without winning them to
Christ, or taking them one by one in private and
leading them to the truth, how gladly would I
choose the latter! Men ought to prize the reputa-
tion of knowing how to win young men and clear
away their troubles. It is the greatest honor you
and I can enjoy. D. L. Moody.
Personal work means helpful contact with another
so as to awaken or promote in him the Christ-life.
Aim to put yourself in his place, and in Christ's
place in relation to him. Seek to learn what is his
real difficulty, the truth he needs to realize; how to
win an entrance for truth into his heart, and to find
a parallel case in Scripture.
James McConaughy.
200
DAY
IX
The atonement of Christ reveals the great heart
of the Ahnighty beating with love and compassion
for men; and to attempt to reduce it to any theory
is sim^ply presumptuous and hopeless. "The good
Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." There are
the sheep, and there are the wolves, and here is the
good Shepherd. I understand thus much thoroughly,
that I should have died from the wolves if Jesus
Christ had not died for me. But I bless God that
the atonement is so great I cannot measure it, that
the heart of the Eternal is so deep I cannot sound
it. There is such a vastness in atoning love, there
is such fullness in it, that it cannot be reduced to
any form of speech, and the reverent heart comes
at last to see this great, burning, loving heart of
the Eternal and to be quiet in adoring love and trust.
Alexander McKenzie.
What could the world give Christ that was not
already his? What could it add to the position of
one of whom it was said, " By him were all things
made, and without him was not anything made that
was made " ? What could the world add to the glory
of him who had been by the Father seated at his
own right hand, far above principalities and powers
and thrones and dominions, with a name above every
name? There was but one new glory Christ could
acquire— that of service and sacrifice. All crowns
were already his, save one— the crown of thorns.
His whole life was a ministry of love, of instruction
to the ignorant, pardon to the penitent, healing to
the sick, and comfort to the sorrowing.
M. D. HOGE.
201
DAY
X
If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.— 1 John ii. 1.
I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Advocate.
— John xiv. 16.
After the day of Pentecost this promise of another
Advocate was fulfilled, and now what do we have?
One Advocate on the throne; another Advocate here;
just as, sometimes, there is a law firm in which there
are two partners. One of them is the pleader, and
the other is the counselor. The one goes into court;
the other occupies the office, and gives advice and
counsel to the clients. So to-day there are two
partners in the divine Trinity. One has gone into
court; he is the Advocate to plead for us there; the
other is down here, and he is the Counselor. What-
ever Jesus Christ, the Advocate, does for us up there,
the other Advocate does in us down here.
A. J. Gordon.
There is a great difference between possessing the
Spirit and being possessed by the Spirit. Was there
not a difference between the apostles before and
after Pentecost? Before, they were full of rivalry
and jealousy, weak in confessing their Master, and
quick to misunderstand him; but after, they were
bold as lions, intelligent, loving, spiritual. Chrono-
logically we are living on this side of Pentecost;
but experimentally many are living upon the other
side. F. B. Meyer.
202
DAY
XI
We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the
Spirit himself maketh intercession for us.— Rom. viii. 26.
The Greek or Roman advocate helped his client in
two different ways. Sometimes he spoke for the
client before the tribunal, as our advocates do, and
it is in this sense that Christ is called our Advocate,
pleading for us before the throne. But in other
cases the ancient advocate merely prepared a speech
which the client might speak for himself. It is in
this sense that the Holy Spirit is our Advocate. He
teaches us what to pray for. The desires which the
Spirit works in the heart will often be too deep to
find adequate expression in human language; and so
the Spirit is said to intercede with groanings which
cannot be uttered. But their meaning is fully known
to God, and the prayer which the Spirit works in us
is sure to be according to the will of God, and it is
as sure to be answered.
John A. Broadus.
When, in Christ's name, we come to God, not we,
but he is the suppliant. Hence he is said to offer
the prayers of God's saints at the golden altar which
is before the throne, and even to pray the Father
for us. More than this, he hints that it is not need-
ful that he should thus pray the Father for us, for
the Father himself loves us because we have believed
in Jesus and are thus one with him, whom the Father
heareth always.
Arthur T. Pierson.
203
DAY
XII
It is not God who has not given; it is we who have
not taken. We have filled the temple of God with
our household stuff, and have put the money-changers
and divers kinds of folly into the Father's house;
therefore we are not filled with the Holy Ghost.
Let a man, let the church, go down before God and
say, "Search me, 0 God." When he has searched
you, he will show you things you never knew. You
can only get rid of what you find; and God gives no
further than man can take; and man can take only
what he knows. Let us go to God and tell him all
our sin and folly, and the pride that has prevented
us from confessing the evil things of which we knew.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
An old man once said to me, *' Do you think that
it is right, when paying money that has been taken
wrongly, to give your name at the same time ? " I
asked what he meant, and he replied, " I took thirty
pounds' worth of coal that did not belong to me, and
I feel miserable. When I try to speak for God, it
seems as if something choked me. I have put ten
pounds in the letter-box, but that didn't make me
any happier, and so I went and put in another ten
pounds. I thought I would put in another ten to
make it thirty, but do you think I ought to confess
it?" I said, "Certainly; you must be a man; you
must own up to it." The man did confess, and his
employer was so struck with it that he told his man-
ager they would break off a practice that was not
perfectly honest, because he was not quite easy in
his conscience. That old man, after he had done
his duty, shot right up into the sunlight!
F. B. Meyer.
204
DAY
xm
A rough sailor once stood alone before Munkacszy's
great picture of " Christ before Pilate." As he looked,
he could not turn away, but stood there with his
eyes fixed on that central figure of majesty and love.
In a few moments he took off his hat and let it fall
to the floor. Then a little later he sat down and
picked up a book that described the picture, and
began to read; every few seconds his eyes would
turn toward the canvas and toward the figure of
Christ. The doorkeeper saw him lift up his hand
and wipe away some tears. Still he sat there— five,
ten, fifteen, sixty minutes— as though he could not
stir. At last he arose, and, coming softly and
reverently toward the door, he hesitated, to take
one last look, and said to the w^oman who sat there,
" Madam, I am a rough, wicked sailor. I have never
believed in Christ; I have never used his name, ex-
cept in an oath. But I have a Christian mother, who
begged me to-day, before I went to sea, to come and
look at this picture of the Christ. To oblige her I
have come. I did not think that anybody believed
in Christ; but as I have looked at that form and that
face I have thought that some man must have be-
lieved in him, and it has touched me, and I have
come to believe in him too." Oh, beloved, if a poor,
weak man, living in a godless land, could take his
brush and preach on canvas,- and cause our Christ
to glow upon it, until a rude, licentious man was
won to believe in him, what might not our God do
if he might paint Christ in us— nay, if he might re-
produce Christ in a human life, that the life might
be Christ's, and that men might come to believe on
him! B. Fay Mills.
205
DAY
XIV
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all
saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that
ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.— Eph. iii. 17-19.
Oh, may God point out more to us of the heights
and depths and lengths and breadths of the believer's
position in Christ, that we may know the love of
Christ, which passeth knowledge, and that we may
be filled with all the fullness of God! I do not know
what the breadth is or what the length is, but I
think I know what the height is. I am in Christ—
there is nothing higher. And I think I know what
the depth is; that is, Christ in me— and God knows
I know nothing lower. Marcus Rainsford.
If we are like Christ, there will be about us the
savor of his name. We are to be chosen witnesses
to his resurrection. Men can believe that there is
a God up in heaven if they can see a God dwelling
in our hearts. The greatest evidence of the spirit-
ual religion is a holy life. A m.an that will be pure
in the midst of impurity, that will be loving in the
midst of the bitter sarcasms of a cruel world, that
will reproduce the lowly character of the dear Sa-
viour in a polluted, sinful world, is the most clear
and irrefragable argument that God is true and
that his Word is true. M. E. Baldwin.
God does not ask to have us hide Christ away in
our impure hearts ; he wants Christ so formed in me
that Christ and I are one, and that the image of his
blessed Son may be manifest in my thoughts and
heart and life. Andrew Murray,
206
DAY
XV
Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.— Col. iii. 3.
If this is true of me, then one thing is very clear:
if my life is hid with Christ, I haven't it; and if I
haven't it, I can't lose it. Is not that plain ? Some
people think they wall lose it. Blessings on his holy
name, no! It is hid in the safest place in all the
universe, is the life of a Christian. It was too dearly
purchased for God to leave it for us to keep. Why,
if he did that, the devil would soon get hold of it.
God gave life to Adam to keep, and how long did he
keep it? If he had given me my life to keep, oh,
what neglect there would be! I thank God that I
have not the keeping of it.
Marcus Rainsford.
I never saw a long-faced Christian that amounted
to anything. It is worse to meet such a man than
to face an east wind in March. What we want is
the spirit and confidence of the old martyr who said
to a king who threatened to banish him because he
would not give up testifying for Christ, " I am not
afraid of that, for you cannot banish me from where
Christ is." The king said, " Well, I will take away
your property." The man replied, "No, you can't;
my treasure is laid up in heaven; it is hid with Christ
in God." The king said hotly, " I will kill you, then."
"You can't do that, either; I have been dead these
forty years ! " exclaimed the martyr. " What are you
going to do with such a fanatic ? " asked the king.
You can't do anything with him; he has a security
and peace which all the kings on earth cannot dis-
turb. D. L. Moody.
207
DAY
XVI
However distasteful a service may be, or however
disagreeable the person to whom it must be rendered,
God is back of it all, and loved that person well
enough to give his Son to die for him. Dr. Guthrie
was walking along the streets of Edinburgh, when
he overtook a little girl carrying a child much too
heavy for her. In a very gentle way Dr. Guthrie
said, " My child, the baby is too heavy for you, isn't
he?" With a shining face, she made quick re-
sponse, "No, sir; he's my brother" It makes a
difference that one for whom I must toil and wait,
whose burden I must bear, was one for whom Jesus
died, and thus is bound to me with the chord of
divine love. J. Wilbur Chapman.
Humanity loves to be loved for itself, and under
the ragged shirts and soiled dresses of poor outcast
men and women there is a heart that wants love
just as much as you want love, and a good deal
more, because they haven't had it and you have.
S. H. Hadley.
Where is the secret of power? In my college
days the professor of natural philosophy used to
exhibit his great horseshoe magnet, wound about
with coils of wire. He hung it up, charged the wire
with a galvanic current, and it caught up and held
four thousand pounds. He signaled to his assistant
to draw off the current, and the power was gone.
My brother, encircle your soul with faith and let
the divine electricity of the love of Jesus Christ
charge it. Then you can lift anything; you can do
anything that God wants you to do. Draw it off,
and you are a shorn Samson, a weakling.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
208
DAY
xvn
Many a man seeks to excuse himself for his sinful
habits by saying, '' If God wants me to be good and
happy, why doesn't he make me good?" We can-
not really be good unless we might be evil. We are
endowed by Almighty God with the awful but blessed
prerogative of free will, and God will not ignore that
feature of his image with which he has endowed us.
He would not have us serve him with a merely
mechanical obedience; from us he looks for a moral
obedience, and that involves preference. The hea-
venly bodies serve God with an undeviating obedi-
ence ; to them he has given a law which cannot be
broken. But the obedience of a little child in
some trifling matter is something infinitely higher,
because it is a moral act of surrender of will to
will. We can only become pure by choosing purity
when we might choose self-indulgence. We can
only become loving when we sacrifice ourselves in
one way or another for others when we might cling
to our own self-interest. We can only become really
true and brave when we stand by honor and truth
when we might gain some advantage by swerving
from truth, by compromise or concession. Temp-
tation is necessary for the moral development of
a moral being. A. C. A. Hall.
God permits temptation because it does for us
what the storms do for the oaks— it roots us; and
what the fire does for the painting on porcelain— it
makes us permanent. You never know that you
have a grip on Christ or that he has a grip on you
so well as when the devil is using all his force to
attract you from him; then you feel the pull of
Christ's right hand. F. B. Meyer.
209
DAY
xvm
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired
to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed
for thee, that thy faith fail not.— Luke xxii. 31, 32.
And Satan was permitted to have Peter— not to
enter and possess him, as he did Judas, who never
was a child of God, but to have him in the sense of
being let loose upon him to tempt him and to over-
come him, for the humbling of Peter's pride and for
sifting out his self-confidence, God overruling all that
Satan did for Peter's spiritual good and God's own
glory.
Peter's experience is a type of the experience of
the whole church, and of the individuals of the
church. In each generation of its history the church
has been sifted by Satan. He changes from age to
age the agencies employed, but his malice is un-
changed, and the results are still the same. Perse-
cution at one period; prosperity at another. Truth
without the Holy Spirit in one age; false doctrine
following. Contempt from the world in this genera-
tion; world conformity in the next. Zeal without
knowledge, breaking out into fanaticism and dividing
the church; knowledge without zeal, ending in mate-
rialism and paralyzing the church. Ecclesiasticism
and spiritual oppression dwarfing the church; lawless
liberty, with no recognition of scriptural authority,
scattering the church. Thus the body of Christ has
been, and is being, sifted, and will continue to be
sifted unto the end. What the Holy Ghost has re-
corded of its early history, he has prophesied should
be its experience until Satan should be bound.
D. W. Whittle.
210
^^r«fiM^^ ^.M^ DAY
The devil ... is a liar, and the father of it.— John viii. 44.
The great tempter of men-has two lies with which
he plies us at two different stages: Before we have
fallen he tells us that one fall does not matter; it is
a trifle ; w^e can easily recover ourselves again. After
we have fallen he tells us that it is hopeless; we are
given over to sin, and need not attempt to rise.
It is a terrible falsehood to say that to fall once
does not matter. Even by one fall there is some-
thing lost that can never be recovered again. It is
like the breaking of an infinitely precious vessel,
which may be mended, but will never be again as if
it had not been broken. Again, one fall leads to
others; it is like going upon very slippery ice on the
face of a hill; even in the attempt to rise we are
carried away again farther than ever. Moreover,
we give others a hold over us. If we have not sinned
alone, to have sinned once involves a tacit pledge
that we will sin again, and it is often almost impos-
sible to get out of such a false position. God keep
us from believing the devil's lie, that to fall once
does not matter.
But then, if we have fallen, Satan plies us with
the other lie: it is of no use to attempt to rise; you
cannot overcome your besetting sin. This is falser
still. You may rise. If we could ascend to heaven
to-day, and scan the ranks of the blessed, should we
not find multitudes among them who were once sunk
low as man can fall ? But they are washed, they are
justified, they are sanctified through the blood of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God.
And so may we be.
James Stalker.
211
DAY
XX
Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for
the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.— Rom. xiii. 14.
Self-indulgence is the besetting sin of the times;
but if you long to be a strong, athletic Christian, you
must count the cost and renounce the things of the
flesh. It will cost you the cutting up of some old
favorite sins by the roots, and the cutting loose from
some entangling alliances, and some sharp conflicts
with the tempter; it will cost you the submitting of
your will to the will of Christ; but you will gain more
than you ever gave up.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
Every permitted sin incrusts the windows of the
soul and blinds our vision, and every victory over evil
clears the vision of the soul, so that we can see God
a little plainer. The unholy man could not see God
if he were set down in the midst of heaven; but men
and women whose hearts are pure see him in the very
commonest walks of life.
J. Wilbur Chapman.
If I have not victory over myself, I am the last man
to help somebody else. Appetite is very good in its
place, but out of its place it becomes my foe. Fire
is a very good friend to man if it is his servant, but
when it becomes his master it is his enemy. Water
is very good— you cannot live without it— when it
is under your control, but when it controls you it is
your ruin. The lust of the flesh will either conquer
me, or I must conquer lust.
D. L. Moody.
212
DAY
XXI
Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and
acceptable, and perfect will of God.— Rom. xii. 2.
Offer yourselves to the Lord, and keep offering,
and you will find that you are delivered out of the
hand of your enemy, both the attacking enemy and
the seductive enemy. The world says, " Come and
have a little dance, a little gambling, a little pleasure.
We will not gamble for dollars, but let us put up a
few cents on a game of v/hist." AVhat we must say
is, " I am doing a great work, and I cannot go down.
I am building the walls of Jerusalem." You need
not ask whether it is ^^Tong to go to a ball or the
theater. Preach Christ, live for Christ, look for
Christ, and walk with Christ, and the world will very
soon drop you. Faith in a living Christ will keep us
from the world.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
You will notice that in the placid waters of a lake
everything which is highest in reality is lowest in the
reflection. The higher the trees, the lower their
image. That is the picture of this world; what is
highest in this world is lowest in the other, and what
is highest in that world is lowest in this. Gold is
on top here; they pave the streets with it there. To
serve is looked upon as ignoble here; there those that
serve reign, and the last are first. Any girl is will-
ing to fling away paste diamonds for the real stones;
when a man understands what God can be to the
soul, he loses his taste for things he used to care for
most.
F. B. Meyer.
213
DAY
xxn
There are two marks of a little child. One is that
a little child cannot help himself, but is always keep-
ing others occupied to serve him. What a little
tyrant a baby often is! The mother cannot go out;
there must be a servant to nurse it; it needs to be
cared for constantly. God made a man to care for
others, but the baby was made to be cared for and
to be helped. So there are Christians who always
want help. Their pastor and their Christian friends
must always be teaching and comforting them.
They go to church and to prayer-meetings and to
conventions, always wanting to be helped— a sign of
spiritual infancy.
The other sign of an infant is this : he can do noth-
ing to help his fellow-man. Every man is expected
to contribute something to the welfare of society;
every one has a place to fill, and a work to do; but
the babe can do nothing for the common weal. It
is just so with Christians. How little some can do!
They take a part in so-called work, but how little
sign there is that they are exercising spiritual power
and carrying a real blessing!
Andrew Murray.
There are hundreds of members in our churches
who injure the cause of Christ every time they get
up to speak in meetings, because they are jealous,
unforgiving, and backsliding, and live too much like
the world. What we want in our churches are mem-
bers who are filled with grace and who live up to
what they preach.
D. L. Moody.
214
DAY
xxni
A young girl who had been born blind was utterly
ignorant of the fact that she was blind until she was
eight or ten years of age. All her training had in
view the concealment of the fact that she was differ-
ent from other children, and, as she had never seen^
she did not know what it was to see or not to see.
She used freely the language of sight with her own
ideas of that language. She spoke of being glad to
see those whom she met, and of being pleased with
their looks; of enjoying the sunlight and the clear
sky and the fine scenery after a storm had passed
away. So little thought had she that she was walk-
ing in darkness that, on one occasion, when a stranger
spoke out pityingly in her hearing of her misfortune,
she ran merrily to her parents and said, " There's a
little girl over there who says I am blind. I think
I can see as well as she can." There is a great deal
of such training in the world of morals.
Orientals are taught from infancy that lying to an
enemy, or where anything can be made by lying, is
a duty, and they try to attend to that duty. Ameri-
can Indians are taught that a man's character is best
rated by the scalps he can show, so they risk their
lives for scalps. The Dyaks of Borneo are taught
that skulls are worthier trophies than scalps, and
they " hunt heads " accordingly. Our fathers were
taught that human slavery was a divine institution,
and that rum was to be swallowed gratefully as a
" gift of God," and they lived up to those teachings.
How can men's consciences discern truth from
error on points where their instruction from the
beginning has been as much at fault as in these in-
stances? We all are sadly in need of being taught
of God. Henry Clay Trumbull.
215
DAY
XXIV
There are many Christians who seem to think,
" How little can I do, and yet keep up a respectable
appearance in the community, and finally be saved? "
Perhaps some one of you says, '' Well, I hope I was
converted several years ago. I joined the church, I
come to the sacrament, I never brought any scandal
on religion— never; I lead a respectable life. If, at
the last, saved by grace, I can get through the door
into heaven, I shall be satisfied." Do you think you
will? No! you never vrill he— never! If, by the
grace of God, you are, as the saying goes, "saved
by the skin of your teeth," and once get inside of the
pearly gates, and look up and see Paul and all the
apostles and martyrs and prophets and evangelists,
Luther and Calvin and the Wesleys and Spurgeon,
and all that glorious array; and not only these, but
some poor, hard-working washerwoman that, at the
end of a day's toil, dragged herself away to a prayer-
meeting, and at the end of the week carried her little
pile of rags to a mission school— when you look at
these, you will be so ashamed of yourself that you
will ask God to let you come back and work out your
salvation. Satisfied? God have mercy on any one
who is satisfied with himself or herself! May the
Holy Spirit give us all a holy dissatisfaction with our
condition, and a desire to rise and go forward.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
If you do not indulge in godly sorrow, is it not
likely you are losing a good deal of sanctification?
Have we nothing to repent of? No wasted hours?
How little we have done for God! Ah, that we had
prayed more!
Andrew Bonar.
216
DAY
XXV
Archbishop Ussher, in his declining years, had a
room built -s^ith windows facing the east, south, and
west, so that he could warm himself by the rays of
the sun. In the morning he stationed himself at the
east window, at noon at the south -vsindow, and in the
evening at the west window, where he could watch
the setting of the sun. The west window w^as at
that time symbolical of the setting of his sun of life.
But sunrise follows the setting of the sun, and the
sunset of life is the sunrise of immortality.
Arthur T. Pierson.
What was the outlook for the child of God? Ask
Paul as he sits in the Mamertine prison, a deep
dungeon with only a ray of light. He stood or lay
there for three years, most of the time with a chain
on his hand and a soldier w^atching by his side. I
notice that his face glows with rapture, and, as he
wTites, his pen almost catches fire in the speed of its
flight. ''Blessed apostle, w^hat of the outcome?"
"That is just w'hat I am writing: 'I have fought
the good fight, I have finished my course, my depar-
ture is at hand: henceforth a crowm.' " " Is that all
you see— a crown? For I see a man w^aiting with
a sword just outside the city gate to take off your
head. Do you hear anything in particular, Paul?
For I hear the crunching of bones and groans in
that den of beasts." " Since you speak of it, I do
hear the w^elcome of innumerable harpers, harping to
welcome me home." That was the salvation which
Paul had, and in the joy and light of which he stead-
ily lived, and which, in God's name, I commend to you.
Cyrus D. Foss.
217
DAY
XXVI
Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.— 2 Tim.
1.10.
How can Christ have abolished death ? Christians
die as really as others. We know of but two per-
sons of all the race of Adam who have been ex-
empted from dying.
The English Parliament decreed, August 1, 1836, to
abolish slavery in the West Indies, but the decree did
not go into effect until one year later. During that
year the slave was still under the whip of his master,
and all went on as in the old slavery days. But on
July 31, 1837, twenty thousand slaves met together
in Jamaica. They put on white robes, and at eleven
o'clock they knelt down and waited for one hour with
upturned faces. When the clock struck twelve these
white-robed slaves rose up and shouted, " We are
free! we are free!" Slavery was abolished by en-
actment a year before, but now it was abolished in
fact. In Revelation vi. 9, 10, we read, " I saw un-
derneath the altar the souls of them that had been
slain for the Word of God : . . . and they cried with a
great voice, saying. How long, 0 Master, the holy and
true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on
them that dwell on the earth ? " They wanted the
resurrection bodies. They were tired of waiting,
though they were in Paradise beholding his face in
glory. " And white robes were given unto every one
of them; and it was said unto them, that they should
rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants
also and their brethren, that should be killed as
they were, should be fulfilled." 0 ye martyrs, be
not impatient; there is another company of martyrs
coming on; wait for them! A. J. Gordon.
218
DAY
xxvn
He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his
God, and he shall be my son. — Rev. xxi. 7.
Perhaps you didn't know that I was a millionaire.
I don't know how many millions I own. They say
the Rothschilds can't tell within millions how much
they are worth. That is just my condition. All the
wealth of this world and all the planets— everything
—is mine; I am joint-heir with Jesus Christ. Find
out what Jesus Christ is worth, and I will tell you
what I am worth. *'He that overcometh shall in-
herit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall
be my son." Think of that— the son of God!
D. L. Moody.
Battles are not won by lectures on gunpowder. It
is no holiday work to which we are called, no dress-
parade service. It cost the Son of God his life to
witness for his Father here in this sinful world, and
he says, " Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and
come after me, cannot be my disciple." Spirit-filled
men and women have always been, and always will
be, cross-bearing men and women. When Paul was
called to service, he was told of a great work which
God would do through him, and there was added to
the message, '' I will show him how great things he
must suffer for my name's sake." Before Stephen
received his crown he had to bear the cross. We
are quite willing to share his crown, but how about
his cross? D. W. Whittle.
You must take possession of Christ for salvation,
but to win a crown Christ must take possession of
you. H. W. Webb-Peploe.
219
DAY
XX vm
There are resources at God's command which men
nowadays seldom take into account. One can hardly
speak in the nineteenth century about angels, we
have become so materialistic— we have got so "ad-
vanced." ''Oh, supernatural stories!" Men come
to us with hypocritical faces and say, " If you would
suppress all this about angels and heavenly powers,
and interference with the natural order of things,
and reduce your Book to what undoubtedly is in it,
a very valuable collection of ethical maxims, well,
then we might accept it." Thank you, sir, for noth-
ing. If we could take all the bones out of it, what
a beautiful jellyfish it would be! No; we keep in the
miraculous; it is the very strength and mainstay of
revelation; it is all miraculous. The angels are here
still, although we do not see them. Although they
do not come into actual contact with us, and with
gracious violence smite our sides, and wake us up,
and lead us forth past all peril into safety, still un-
seen they stand about us, and still God has a thou-
sand thousand resources at his hand for the marvel-
ous preservation of his people. " We are immortal
till our work is done."
John McNeill.
God does not work miracles, and God does not send
angels to do that for which he has already provided
means. He will not send his angel to snatch us from
some temptation into which we deliberately run any
more than he will send his angel to avert the pesti-
lence or the scarlet fever if we neglect to keep our
sanitary conditions pure.
A. C. A. Hall.
220
DAY
XXIX
It is not enough that we shall know what the
Bible says, but we want to know that the Bible has
a right to be respected when it speaks; we want to
know how it came into existence, and by what right
it holds its present position in our thought. Of
course apostolic Christianity has been supernatural
Christianity, and prayer-meeting Christianity has
been supernatural Christianity, and ecclesiastical
Christianity has been supernatural Christianity, and
martyr Christianity has been supernatural Chris-
tianity; and the Christianity that is robbed of its
supernaturalness \vill be a Christianity for which the
world will have very little use after a short time.
The question which men are raising, therefore, in-
volves the inquiry whether the Christian world has
been the victim of a great delusion.
Francis L. Patton.
If apostolic Christianity were to die, it would have
died long ago. It has had many good chances to
die— better chances than it will ever have again. It
would have been bound to the stake with the early
martyrs, have expired in their ashes, and have been
entombed in the graves of her first and last apostles.
But "all true work," as Carlyle has said, "hang
the author of it on w^hat gibbet you like, must and
will accomplish itself."
L. T. TOWNSEND.
Religion is not a strange or added thing, but
the inspiration of the secular life, the breathing of
an eternal spirit through this temporal world.
Henry Drummond.
221
DAY
XXX
People read infidel books and wonder why they
are unbelievers. Why do they read such books?
They say that to form an unprejudiced opinion
they must read both sides. If a book is a lie, how
can it be one side? Infidel books are not one side.
D. L. Moody.
Agnosticism is simply not believing; it is denial,
negation, darkness. There is only one cure for dark-
ness, and that is coming to the light. If you will
persist in putting your eyes out or in barring God's
daylight out, there is no help for you; you must die
in the dark. Sin has made your soul sick, and if you
will not even try Christ's medicine, then the blood-
poisoning of infidelity will run its fatal course.
Neither skepticism nor agnosticism ever won a vic-
tory, ever slew a sin, ever healed a heartache, ever
produced a ray of sunshine, ever saved an immortal
soul. Unbelief is foredoomed to defeat; do not risk
your eternity on that spider's web.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
The torrent of the love of God is pouring into
your human nature, and there is an incarnation
begun in your home by the love of God. You know
that God is love when you begin to live a life of love.
But, on the other hand, I often find that people who
doubt that the nature of God is love are the people
who are unmerciful, untender, austere, and harsh.
Men throw on God the hues of their own characters.
Oh, that God may make us godlike, that we may
know God!
F. B. Meyer.
222
DAY
XXXI
God has made us with two eyes, both intended to
be used so as to see one object. Binocular vision is
the perfection of sight. There is a corresponding
truth in the spiritual sphere. We have two faculties
for the apprehension of spiritual truth— reasoTi and
faith; the former intellectual, the latter largely in-
tuitive, emotional. Reason asks, How? wherefore?
Faith accepts testimony and rests upon the person
who bears witness.
Now reason and faith often seem in conflict, but
are not. Reason prepares the way for faith, and
then both act jointly. We are not called to exercise
blind faith, but to be ready always to give answer to
every man who asks a reason.
There are three questions which belong to reason
to answer: First, is the Bible the Book of God?
Second, what does it teach? Third, what relation
has its teaching to my duty? When these are
settled, faith accepts the Word as authoritative, and
no longer stumbles at its mysteries, but, rather, ex-
pects that God's thoughts will be above our thoughts.
Thus, where reason's province ends faith's begins.
Arthur T. Pierson.
Verily, theology without the Holy Ghost is poison;
there have been more men ruined by handling the
deep things of God without the Spirit of God to help
them than by any other process that I am aware of.
The light is made for the eye; but if the eye is
diseased, the light becomes intolerably painful; it
torments the eye. So the truth is made for the soul ;
but if our soul is unsanctified, that which ought to
come to it as its own native air hurts, injures,
destroys. A. J. Gordon.
223
Take time to be holy,
Speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in him always,
And feed on his Word;
Make friends of God's children,
Help those who are weak,
Forgetting in nothing
His blessing to seek.
Take time to be holy.
The world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret
With Jesus alone;
By looking to Jesus,
Like him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct
His likeness shall see.
Take time to be holy,
Let him be thy Guide,
And run not before him,
Whatever betide;
In joy or in sorrow.
Still follow thy Lord,
And, looking to Jesus,
Still trust in his word.
Take time to be holy.
Be calm in thy soul,
Each thought and each motive
Beneath his control;
Thus led by his Spirit
To fountains of love.
Thou soon shalt be fitted
For service above.
W. D. LONGSTAFF.
224
[Month of zA II gust
(Maidenhair Fern
H. IV. IVibb-Teploe The Aiiditonum
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in
heaven is perfect.— Matt. v. 48.
A man is called into existence to enjoy fellowship
and union ^vith God; to know God until he becomes
in some sense the representative of God. Should
there, then, not always be present to man's mind this
one thought: " I am created for God; I am to repre-
sent God to the things below me; I am to walk in
oneness with God; the ambition of my soul is so to
be the very reflector of God that I become one with
him, and yet remain a creature to the end of eter-
nity"? If that be the standard it is e\ident that
something must be done to meet man's present cir-
cumstances and to bring them into accord ^vith what
God requires, which is nothing less than perfection.
Our holiness is the extent to v/hich we carry out that
perfection.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Many souls are being exercised about holiness,
but not equally about righteousness. Holiness is
the hidden thing we cannot see; righteousness is
the manifestation of holiness in act and life.
Andrew A. Bonar.
It is the law of influence that we become like those
whom we habitually admire. . . . Through all the
range of literature, of history, and of biography this
law presides. Men are all mosaics of other men.
There was a savor of David about Jonathan, and a
savor of Jonathan about David. Jean Valjean, in
the masterpiece of Victor Hugo, is Bishop Bienvenu
risen from the dead. Metempsychosis is a fact.
Henry Drummond.
225
DAY
n
Difficulties are the parents of all progress. Things
" hard to be understood " is the price paid for all
\Yisdom. A religion without difficulties never came
from the Author of nature. For the last three thou-
sand years no pagan worship has contained anything
'' hard to be understood." The regions of the dead
have made as much mental progress as the genera-
tions of the living. Twenty-five hundred years be-
fore Christ China made gunpowder, and yet has gone
no further than to blaze it away in fire-crackers.
Two thousand years before the Christian era she had
the magnet, and yet a Chinese junk never crossed
the ocean unless she v^^as towed by a Christian ship.
Show us one step in mental or moral progress for
two thousand years outside of where the Bible cir-
culates. It contains the germs of all natural and
scientific progress.
I. D. Driver.
There are certain immutable elements in the primi-
tive Christian faith, as there are in nature, which
never have changed, and never can change, and
which will never outgrow the passions and loves of
the human soul. The beauty of a mild sunset, the
sublimity of a midnight heaven, the dazzle of light-
nings playing across the sky, the repose and beauty
of a lily clad in raiment surpassing that of any pres-
ent or future Solomon in all his glory, will not be out-
grown, though society should exist in a state of con-
stant progress for ten thousand years.
L. T. TOWNSEND.
DAY
m
It is sometimes said to us, in the name of science,
" Let us distribute the territory in which science and
religion claim undivided interests. You religious
people may take your part, and we scientific people
will take our share. We will be generous with you :
we will let you have the unexplored dark continent
of don't-knowdom, and we will keep the little island
of ascertained fact." But Christian apologists very
properly decline the offer. They say, ''We are
going to take possession of the entire continent of
thought, in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost." Let us understand it; reli-
gion is not afraid; she does not ask for any specific
arithmetic or grammar or exceptional canons of
evidence; all she needs, as Chief Justice Gibson
once said, is a common-law trial and a fair jury.
Francis L. Patton.
Paul was a great man of logic. He was a wonder-
ful man to argue. This is true, but never, never
think of the great apostle as one of those poor ped-
dling creatures called " logicians." Logic is a very
shriveling science when there is nothing but itself.
Never dream of Paul as being simply one of your
argumentative, dry logicians. Paul was a volcano
in a perpetual state of activity. Logic? Aye; but
logic set on fire with love to Christ and with love to
the souls of men.
John McNeill.
227
DAY
IV
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
redeeming the time, because the days are evil.— Eph. v. 15, 16.
The words, '' redeeming the time," are not fairly-
translated. They mean " buying up the opportunity."
Be on the lookout for opportunities. The saddest
part of our record, I fear, is that we have let precious
opportunities flow by us, never to be recalled. Think
of the opportunities you have had to say a word to
an impenitent soul, or some word of comfort to a
friend, or to testify for Christ. The specter I most
fear is the ghost of lost opportunities. Be on the
lookout for opportunities, and you will never know
just what blessing is going to burst on you. A poor
itinerant Methodist minister went to Colchester to
preach. It was a cold day, and he found only fifteen
or twenty people in that primitive little chapel. He
went up into the pulpit and took for his text, " Look
unto me, and be ye saved." The whole sermon was
only a repetition of the one thought, look to Christ.
" A young lad up in the gallery looks very sad. He
will never get any comfort until he looks to Christ."
Heaven knows who that boy in the gallery was; the
world knows; but from that day Charles H. Spurgeon
never saw that preacher again. He went his way.
He did his work. Spurgeon has already met him in
heaven, I doubt not. Oh, would not life be worth liv-
ing if a stray shot of ours should bring a Spurgeon
to the Saviour ? Who knows! Who knows! If you
have consecrated yourself to the work of lifting up
the Saviour, how do you know who is to look to him
and be saved?
Theodore L. Cuyler.
228
DAY
V
Lord, increase our faith.— Luke xvii. 5.
All faith which has Christ for its object is the
right kind of faith.
If you want your faith to grow there are four
rules that you must adopt: First, be willing to have
a great faith. When men say they cannot believe,
ask, "Are you willing to believe?" because if the
will is toward faith the Holy Ghost will produce a
great faith. Second, use the faith you have; the
child's arm, with its slender muscles, will not be
able to wield the sledge-hammer unless he begins
step by step to use it. Do not, therefore, stand on
the boat's edge and wait to be able to swim a mile,
but throw yourself out from its side into the water
and swim a yard or two; for it is in these smaller
efforts that you are to be prepared for the greater
and mightier exploits. Third, be sure to put God
between yourself and circumstances. Everything
depends on w^here you put God. There are three
matters to consider in the case— yourself, your owti
position, and God's position and the position of the
circumstances with wiiich you have to deal. Most
men put circumstances betw^een themselves and God
so much that they can hardly see God at all, or if
they do see him it is like looking at a landscape
through a reversed telescope, w^hich makes it seem
at a great distance. But there are other wiser and
happier souls who put God between themselves and
circumstances, and at once, when one looks out
through God upon circumstances, that which before
had almost paralyzed him becomes infinitesimal and
unw^orthy of his dread. Fourth, live a life of daily
obedience to God's will. Observe these rules and
your faith will grow. F. B. Meyer.
229
DAY
VI
Many there be who say of my soul, There is no help for him
in God.— Ps. iii. 2.
That is the last and deadliest arrow in Satan's
quiver; when that thought comes then the old guard
of hell has burst upon your soul. That shot goes
home all the more, proves itself to be all the more
deadly, if there is something in your own heart that
only too sadly inclines to say the same thing as the
voices from without. But wait a minute and think
of it. What an awful silence comes into one's heart!
What a midnight this day would be if it were true!
But it is not. David does not argue; he ignores it
and goes on, " But thou, 0 Lord, art a shield for me;
my glory, and the lifter up of mine head." There is
no use trying to argue down some thoughts and
temptations. If this desertion and abandonment by
God is true then hell has come. There is no time to
argue ; I must instantly destroy it. So David meets
a very positive statement by another equally positive.
When any thought comes to you and says, " There
is no help for you even in God," that messenger has
shown the cloven hoof. He has not only done it, but
he has overdone it. It is not true. Then let these
voices be the voices of so many liars unto you.
When they say, " There is no help in Absalom," quite
right; when they say, " Ahithophel has turned treach-
erous," I do not doubt it; "Shimei is cursing you,"
perfectly true; when they say, "You are an old
hypocrite," quite right; but when they say, "God
has cast you off," get thee behind me, Satan! Liar!
Worse than I am is the voice that would dare to
speak against the faithfulness of my Redeemer, God.
" He abideth faithful." John McNeill.
230
DAY
vn
Who is among you . . . that walketh in darkness, and hath no
light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his
God.— Isa. 1. 10.
If we can put our trust in God when we are in
total darkness, when may we not trust him? Some-
times we are called upon to trust in God when he
seems to go right back against all his promises.
That is trusting him in the darkness. Weak faith
will judge God's promises by one's feelings, by one's
evidences, when we ought to judge the feelings and
the evidences by the promises. As long as I have
the promises, God give me grace to trust in him,
whatever befall, and bid my soul keep still, knowing
that he will never fail.
Marcus Rainsford.
Faith is the soul's organ of vision and hearing and
touch. By faith we behold and hear and take hold
on God. Hence the reality and power of all com-
munion with God depend on how far we believe his
own word of promise.
Arthur T. Pierson.
I use my Bible as I use my check-book in the bank,
only with this difference: I have to tear a leaf out
every time I cash a check, and can't use it a second
time; but in taking from this book I can leave the
leaf in and use it again and again. It is a sort of
circulating letter; you never come to the end of it.
J. Hudson Taylor.
231
DAY
vm
Going through the magnificent Rocky Mountain
scenery some time ago, we plunged into the Royal
Gorge, and later s\vung into the Grand Canon, and
it seemed to me that scenery more sublime could not
be found in all the world. If I had never been im-
pressed before with the existence of God, I should
have cried out unto him in the midst of those moun-
tain-peaks. Every one in the car, with one single
exception, was gazing in rapt admiration. This one
woman was intently reading a book, and did not lift
her eyes once from the printed page while we were
passing through that wonderful scenery. When we
had swomg out into the great table-land I overheard
her say to a friend, " This is the thirteenth time I
have crossed the mountains. The first time I could
not keep the tears from rolling dowm my cheeks, so
impressed was I; but now I know it so well that I fre-
quently go through the whole range with scarcely a
glance cast out the window." It is thus, alas! that
we too often read God's Word ; that which furnishes
the angels a theme for never-ending praise w^e read
with indifference, or fail to read at all.
J. Wilbur Chapman.
When people have lost all enjoyment in the Word
of God, this is no reason why they should relinquish
its study. They may lose all enjojmient in their
morning ablutions, but that is no reason why they
should not bathe. A man should go on reading
because of the almost unconscious effect the Bible
may have upon his inner life, and because he may
thereby learn to love it.
F. B. Meyer.
232
DAY
IX
If we want to live more than ordinary spiritual
lives as Christian men, it is necessary that we be
great feeders upon the Word of God, which is not
only quick, but powerful. De Quincey divided all
literature into the literature of knowledge and the
literature of power; this is preeminently the litera-
ture of power. " If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be
done unto you." And still further, we might make
this additional statement: that without spiritual
Bible study other spiritual helps may often lead us
in danger, and ultimiately they may be abandoned.
Take the matter of meditation; without the Bible
meditation may lead a man to morbid introspection.
Secret prayer is not a monologue, but is a dialogue.
John R. Mott.
The study of Christ in the Old Testament is ex-
ceedingly profitable. In Genesis he is described as
the seed of the woman; in Exodus as the " Passover
lamb"; in Leviticus the high priest; in Numbers
the smitten rock and the uplifted serpent; and in
Deuteronomy the person of Moses. All of these
typify and set forth the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Psalm.s also are full of references
to him. All the prophets, either in type or in pre-
diction, " testified beforehand of his sufferings, and
the glory that should follow." The gospels record
his life, death, resurrection, and ascension; the Acts
the establishment of his church; the epistles the de-
velopment of his doctrines; and the Apocalypse the
revelation of his coming glory. The great work of
the Holy Spirit is to testify. W. W. Clark.
233
DAY
X
1^19^^
The bane of humanity is bad heredity. We cannot
get rid of it. " The fathers have eaten s'^ur grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge," say the
Scriptures. The fathers have drunk the cup of sin-
ful pleasure, and the children have drunk the dregs.
The wondrous thing about the gospel is that it gives
us a new heredity. I count that the very highest
and sublimest statement of the doctrine of regenera-
tion. A man grafting trees saws off a limb to put in
the scion. If the limb is rotten he has to saw it off
nearer to the trunk. We were grafted in Adam, but
it was discovered that the branch was rotten, and
then God began at the very beginning, and grafted
us into Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God. Dr.
Williams, of Boston, was asked, " How early do you
think the training of a child ought to begin?" He
replied instantly, " A hundred years before the child's
birth." When God would build up a child holy in all
things he goes back to the very beginning and gives
us our birth in God himself: "Which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God." The river of life has its
sources in the very throne of God, and when we get
that life we have something in us which tends to
make us do well instead of doing ill. As from Adam
we had this hereditary tendency to do wrong, so when
we are grafted into Jesus Christ, and given the eter-
nal life, we have that influence impelling us to holi-
ness: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit
sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin,
because he is born of God."
A. J. Gordon.
234
DAY
XI
A call to be a disciple is one thing, and a call to
be a clergyman is another. A good many people
make a mistake because they haven't made that dis-
tinction. Peter, James, and John were called to be
disciples. They wouldn't have left their nets and
their fishing-smacks and followed Christ if they had
not been called. Afterward they were called to be
apostles. I believe no man ought to go into the min-
istry unless he is forced into it by the Spirit of God.
Many men nowadays think if they can't do anything
else they will turn their hand to the ministry. They
might better be hammering iron, or making clothes,
or sowing wheat. I'd rather plow or saw wood than
be in a work to which God hadn't sent me. If a man
runs before he is sent he will be a miserable failure ;
he'll break down. But if a man waits till he gets
his commission he is going to bear good testimony,
and God will bless his testimony. One way to tell
whether you have been called is to look at the results
of your work. If you preach because you can't help
it, and your whole soul is in it, and souls are won to
Christ, that is a pretty good sign that you have been
called of God.
D. L. MooDT.
If you desire to know God's will first pray to him
for guidance. The man who neglects this sins. But
no less is it important to use all the facts within our
reach, and our faculties of judgment and decision,
and then our full power of locomotion.
John N. Forman.
DAY
xn
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you,
always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand
perfect and complete in all the will of God.— Col. iv. 12.
The prayer of Epaphras for the Colossians should
be our prayer for ourselves and others. We do
sometimes bow down and say, " Thy will be done."
Men put up the whites of their eyes and roll their
heads about as if with agony at the thought that the
will of God is to be done. One would think the will
of God was the most terrible infliction that the Al-
mighty could lay upon his creatures. But the will
of God is the joy of Christ Jesus. It is the one joy
of a sanctified soul that it is permitted and enabled
to do the will of God; so that when a person prays
for me that I may "stand perfect and complete in all
the will of God," it is the most blessed prayer that
can be offered for me.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Our first parents forfeited Eden by their disobe-
dience, and Christ, the second Adam, takes up the
battle in the wilderness and fights his way back to
Paradise. We have to do the same. We have for-
feited our Eden of innocence and peace with God by
disobedience to some higher law. We have lost our
Eden, and we find ourselves in the wilderness, and
we have got to take up the battle and, under Christ's
leadership and reljing on his sympathy and help, to
fight our way back again to Paradise. " To him that
overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which
is in the midst of the Paradise of God."
A. C. A. Hall.
236
DAY
xm
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgive-
ness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.— Eph. i. 7.
There is the riches of God's grace. Ephesians i.
18 tells us of the riches of his glory: "The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened; that ye may
know what is the hope of his calling, and what the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints."
What is the riches of his glory? It is unfolded
further on, in Ephesians iii. 16: "That he would
grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to
be strengthened mth might by his Spirit in the inner
man." Contrast these two things, and you find this:
the riches of his grace is that which we get from
the cross; the riches of his glory is that which we
get from the throne. Forgiveness is of grace; the
enduement of the Spirit is of glory.
A. J. Gordon.
There are different ways of coming to fortune.
You may inherit it, or you may achieve it, or you
may come to it as Ruth did. Like her, although at
first only a poor gleaner, you may marry the Laird!
And that is the only way to true possession. Faith
marries us to the Lord of all.
John McNeill.
Gleaning is a poor trade; it is hard work, with
comparatively little result. There are so many
Christians who have never been taught anything
better than to go into the field and labor hard and
carry away as much as they could carry. But that
never makes a home, that never makes full provision.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
237
DAY
XIV
The one lesson that God has taught me, if he ever
has taught me anything in connection with the grace
of God, is that there is such a thing as a divine plan
in a man's life, and that the only wisdom in this world
is to find out what that plan is, and to be led into it
step by step, and not to mind what is the end of it.
There is much said about the divine call, little said
about the end of it. Why? Because no tongue, not
even the divine tongue, will attempt to tell what is
the outcome of a life that is led of God. Even the
Bible, with all its majesty and divinity, does not un-
dertake to tell how great that life is which takes its
way into the life of God; it only gives a clue by which
we can find the way step by step.
Only two patterns are possible. The Bible does
not present a third. Every man must live the life
of Cain, the first rejecter of the gospel, or the life
of Abel, the first believer. Cain was the first unbe-
liever. He rejected God's testimony, and murder was
incidental to it. It was the fruit, not the root. A
man must live the life of Jacob, the supplanter, or
of Israel, the prince of God. He must live the life of
Saul, the persecutor of the church and of the Lord
Jesus Christ himself, or the life of Paul, apostolic in
its tone and spirit and temper and outcome. He
must live the life of the old man, or the life of the
new man.
H. C. Mabie.
Where a foundation has been laid anybody can
build, but only God can build on nothing.
A. J. Gordon,
DAY
XV
A dear companion of mine, for three years a true
yoke-fellow in evangelistic work, one extremely cold
winter evening, as he joined me in a railway-train
to take his last journey on earth in the service of
his Master, said pleasantly, " I got a good illustration
from the man at the gate as I came on to the train.
It is very cold, and every one was grumbling, and
some abusing him as he made them all get their
tickets out and show them before they could get past.
I said to him, ' You don't seem to be very popular
around here.' * If I am popular with the man that
put me here it is all that I want,' was his reply.
Ah," said this dear friend, " if we could go through
this world keeping the same thought toward Christ,
what a straight path we should make!" May this
be our ambition, the only ambition the gospel enjoins.
" Wherefore also we are ambitious, whether at home
or absent, to be well pleasing unto him."
D. W. Whittle.
What we want to-day is men of one idea. Men
said that Paul was a narrow-minded man, a man of
one idea. If you have one idea that covers every-
thing—the one idea of Christ crucified— you can
afford to be called fanatical.
D. L. Moody.
There is no vital connection between merely hav-
ing the ideal and being conformed to it. Thousands
admire Christ who never become Christians.
Henry Drummond.
239
DAY
XVI
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.— Rom.
xii. 21.
Simple resistance is not enough; we need to be
aggressive, not defensive only. To stand against
evil is a great thing, but to compel evil to withdraw
before us and drive it away is greater. He who is
not overcome is not conquered, but he who overcomes
is a conqueror. In one case he is not defeated; in
the other case his foe is defeated and driven from the
field. If the former is conquest the latter is more
than conquest. And the secret of it is not to stand
on the defensive, but in the power of the truth and
goodness carry on the war in the confidence of faith,
with the sword of the Spirit, in the power of prayer.
Arthur T. Pierson.
The Bible is positive and negative ; it requires and
forbids ; it points out evils and prescribes the remedies.
Some say that the way to destroy evil is to proclaim
the good. God does not do this. It is necessary
both to root out the evil and to establish the good.
God commands us not to profane his name, not to
steal, or kill, or commit adultery, and then gives
positive commands to honor our fathers and mothers,
to remember the Sabbath, and to love God and man.
No farmer is fool enough to try to kill weeds by
planting good corn. He relies upon the plow and
the hoe. No brier patch was ever brought into sub-
jection by sowing good wheat upon it. Evil must
be eradicated and good must be implanted.
Charles A. Blanchard.
Every time we overcome one temptation we gain
strength to overcome another.
D. L. Moody
240
DAY
xvn
Fight the good fight of faith.— 1 Tim. vi. 12.
The fight of faith is a " good fight " because it is
for the best objects; it insures a clean heart, a pure
conscience, and God's approval. It is a good fight
because God supplies us with weapons. It is a win-
ning fight because the omnipotent Christ takes us
into his own keeping, and neither man nor devils can
pluck us out of his hand. When the Son of God is
conquered we will be conquered, and not before.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
A merchant in Glasgow used to preach wherever
he thought he could do good. One day he was talk-
ing about Shamgar. " Over the hill," he said, " there
came a man. He came near Shamgar and said,
' Shamgar, Shamgar, run for your life ! Six hundred
Philistines are coming over the hill after you.' But
Shamgar said, 'They are four hundred short. I'll
take care of them.' He believed in Scripture, you
see— that one should chase a thousand."
D. L. Moody.
Never dare to fight God's battles with the devil's
weapons, whatever they may be, and never dare do
evil that good may come. The end never justifies
the means. Never compromise with the world's
laxity, and never snatch in your own way at what
God will give you with a blessing in his own way.
A. C. A. Hall.
241
DAY
xvni
«^M^
How can we get spiritual power? We cannot get
it. No man ever possessed it; no man ever owned
it; no man ever used it. It is a question, not of our
getting power, but of God getting us; not of our using
God, but of God using us. The disciples were not
told to pray for power nor to seek for power. They
were told to wait for the Holy Ghost. A wind always
blows toward a vacuum. In that upper chamber the
disciples were being emptied and a vacuum was
being made. The son of thunder was emptied of the
thunder that he might be filled with love. The
doubting Thomas was emptied of his doubt that he
might be filled with light. Peter was emptied of his
presumption and his fickleness that he might be filled
with all the power of God. Then there came the
sound as of a mighty rushing wind, and God came
upon them and used them.
A great mesmerist told me that the one qualifica-
tion under which he could mesmerize people was that
they should have vacant minds. If a man might pour
his mind into the vacant mind of another creature
until he should think his thought and do his will,
what might not God do if only he could have vacant
spirits into which he could pour himself? The great
condition of power is to be emptied of self and to be
filled with God; to renounce self and to appropriate
God; to be dead unto self, but to be alive unto God
by the power of the Holy Ghost.
B. Fay Mills.
If the incense of prayer is rising steadily and fer-
vently from our souls, the Spirit of God will blow
upon us stronger and stronger.
W. W. Moore.
242
DAY
XIX
What saves men? Not the blood of Christ alone,
not the gospel message alone, not the work of the
Holy Ghost alone; not all of these alone. ^ Some be-
liever is the link to connect with that atoning blood,
that witnessing gospel, and that comforting Spirit.
There is almost always a human agent somewhere;
it may be only in the giving of a tract, the asking
of a question; it may be a parent, a Sunday-school
teacher, a minister of Christ; but there is some
human link that comes between the soul and the
gospel, and so men are saved. So Paul said, " I fill
up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ."
Until the believer falls into line something is missing.
Christ on the cross is to be brought to the know-
ledge of men. The gospel of the printed page is to
be brought to the knowledge of m^en. The Holy
Ghost is an invisible personality, unknown and un-
recognized by the world. How is the world to be
saved ? The believing child of God lifts up the cross,
tells the gospel story to the unsaved, becomes the
dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit, and out of him
flows the water of life. Paul counted mission work
a sublime privilege: " Unto me, who am less than the
least of all saints, is tJiis grace given, that I should
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ."
Arthur T. Pierson.
He who is not a missionary Christian will be a
missing Christian when the great day comes for be-
stowing the rev/ards of service.
A. J. Gordon.
243
DAY
XX
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know
that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.— 1 Cor. xv. 58.
Only fixed convictions will produce permanent
Christian activity, and only those who are actively
at work will maintain fixed convictions. The two
may stand together; either attempted alone will fail.
John A. Broadus.
God can take the devilment, the meanness, and
the skill that a man had in serving the devil and
that he learned in serving the devil and make them
useful in his own work. Oh, I think that is great,
that the dear Lord Jesus Christ can turn the guns
on the devil. S. H. Hadley.
The honest service of Jesus Christ pays the soul
a rich dividend of solid satisfaction. There is no
wretchedness in a true Christian's trials; his bruised
flowers emit sweet fragrance. The fruits of the
Holy Spirit are love, joy, and peace; the promise of
the Lord Jesus is that his joy shall be full. The
sweetest honey is gathered out of the hive of a
busy, unselfish, useful, and holy life.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
I shall pass through this world but once. Any
good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness
that I can show to any human being, let me do it
now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall
not pass this way again.
Henry Drummond.
244
DAY
XXI
We are laborers together with God.— 1 Cor. iii. 9.
Too many men say, " My God, I am going to work
in such and such a part of the vineyard to-day;
please come and help me." Our true prayer should
be '' Lord, where are you working to-day? Let me
come and work along with you." We want God to
help us carry out our little plans; God wants us to
help him accomplish his great plan. We would be
much happier if, instead of trying to fit God mto our
scheme, we would fit ourselves into his and be work-
ers together with God. That is the secret of George
Miiller's work; he took for his motto. Our fellow-
ship [our partnership] is with the Father. Our
partnership is with the Father, and with the Son,
and mth the Holy Ghost, and we become very
humble members of the very great firm which never
suspends payment. We are workers together with
P J F. B. Meyer.
Let us do what we can. Let us not be seeking
some high position, but let us get down at the feet
of the Master and be willing to let God use us— to
let him breathe his Spirit upon us and send us out
to his work. If you can't be a lighthouse you can
be a tallow candle.
We want to get possession of power and use it.
God wants the power to get possession of us and use
us. If we give ourselves to the power to rule m us
the power will give itself to us to rule through us.
Andrew Murray.
One ought to talk only as loud as he lives-a rule
which would deprive some people of the privilege of
shouting, j^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^
245
DAY
xxn
God does not want us to withdraw from the world
as recluses, but he wants us to mingle with our
fellow-men, and to seek in all ways to lead them
Godward. We are to own the ties of family and of
country, and to have sympathy for all humanity,
even as we have Christ for our example. He was a
familiar guest in the homes of the people. He took
the little children up in his arms and blessed them.
He was present at the marriage feast and in the
house of mourning. He went regularly to the feasts
at Jerusalem, and in all places and at all times was
ever accessible to and in sympathy with man. But
in doing this he ever retained his character as a
heavenly man. In the home he spoke of God. We
cannot conceive that he ever occupied his precious
time in talking with Martha and Mary about Herod's
last ball or the theatrical entertainments at the
Jerusalem theater, or gossiped with them about the
latest Roman fashions or the last scandal at Herod's
palace. Nor would Jesus be led by Simon and the
Pharisees to spend the dinner hour in discussing
ecclesiastical politics and criticizing the latest
speeches in the sanhedrim; nor by Zaccheus into
a calculation as to the future course of the stock
market and the movements in the commercial world.
Filled with love and benevolence, a citizen of
heaven, Christ moved here a man among men; but
a heavenly-minded man— never allowing himself to
be dragged down to a worldly level, but ever seeking
to lift up the men of the world to the plane of
heavenly things where he abode.
D. W. Whittle.
246
DAY
xxni
Has a Christian concern with any other conversa-
tion than Christ? This whole land would be swept
with the Christian life as no section of the world
has ever been swept mth it if men made it their
business to talk Christ; if, when they walked with
one another, they talked him; if, when they sat down
for a conversation, they talked him; if they came to
know Christ as the object of their speech. Mr.
Ruskin gathers up what the conviction of all of us
must be, in his "Notes on the Construction of
Sheepfolds," when he says that it is the business of
every Christian man, w^he.ther he be a minister or
layman, to be constantly and incessantly talking
Christ, not only indirectly but directly; to the ser-
vants in his home, to the men he meets on railway-
trains, to that man with whom he is thrown in touch
in his work in life; it is his one business as a Chris-
tian man to talk Jesus Christ. Oh, the glory of the
lives who have learned that lesson !
Robert E. Speer.
You never can tell when God will take a little
word you may drop, like an arrow shot at a venture,
and cause it to strike some hearer between the joints
of the harness and bring him down. Therefore let
no opportunity slip for speaking a word for Christ.
A. F. SCHAUFFLER.
Do you want to be like Christ ? Go and find some
one who has fallen, and get your arm under him and
lift him up toward heaven, and the Lord will bless
you in the very act. May God help us to act like
the good Samaritan. D. L.' Moody.
247
DAY
XXIV
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might
he increaseth strength.— Isa. xl. 29.
God gives power to them that have no might; he
increases their strength so that they mount up with
wings as eagles. Notice the great contrast between
the arrow and the eagle. The arrow shot from the
bow always slackens in its pace with every inch of
space over which it flies, because of the friction with
which it meets; but the eagle's flight is ever swifter
and higher because its speed is not derived from the
impetus with which it is launched into space, but
it is fed by the inherent fountain of vitality and
strength within. Thus the believer does not know
the slackening speed of the arrow, but the ever-
soaring and quickening speed of the eagle, because
his strength is fed from within, where God, the un-
tired, is ever maintaining his energy.
F. B. Meyer.
Demonstrate in your own experience that God is
teaching you to win souls for Christ here and now
before you cross the Atlantic or Pacific. Has there
been a revival in your town since you were called?
You will never find men laughing at the idea of your
being a missionary if you can wake up your native
town. That is what we w^ant for men who are to
labor in China, in Japan, in India, where the most
colossal difliculties have to be met; we want not an
army so much as an elect company who have proved
their power on their native sod before they encounter
those bulwarks of Satan in pagan fields.
H. C. Mabie.
248
DAY
XXV
He that winneth souls is wise.— Prov. xi. 30.
I don't know the prominent business men of
Babylon. I couldn't tell who the sharpest politicians
were, the leading philosophers or astronomers; could
you? But I know Daniel pretty well; his spotless life
is still resplendent as the day, and the good he did
to those about him is still recorded to perpetuate
his name. Oh, it's true that he that winneth souls
is wise! D. L. Moody.
By far the best way to help men with their
temptations is to bring them to Christ. It may be
of some service to a man if, in the time of trial, I
put round him the sympathetic arm of a brother;
but it is infinitely better if I can get him to allow
Christ to put round him his strong arm. This is the
effectual defense, and no other can be really de-
pended on.
James Stalker.
We can serve God acceptably in any sphere ; every
calling may be made a divine vocation. The great
mistake of many is that they feel they must leave
tha carpenter's plane, give up the trowel, and enter
some learned profession. God says, "What's that
in your hand?" In Moses' hand was the shepherd's
crook, in Solomon's the scepter, in David's the sling
or the harp, and in Dorcas's the needle. The Bible
is God's tool-chest. It is one of these patent tool-
chests which contains every kind of tool. The Word
of God is adapted to every purpose.
Arthur T. Pierson.
249
DAY
XXVI
No obstacles in the way of the Christian pulpit
and Christian work ought to be named as an apology
for omitting to do that work except the obstacles
within the church itself. As well might General
Grant have complained of the cannon and sharp-
shooting of Lee's army; but for them there would
have been no use for him. We are to go on with
the conquest set before us. Cyrus D. Foss.
To a very large extent preaching in the pulpit
to-day is preaching in defense of the Bible rather
than preaching the content of the Bible. We spend
a great deal of time in making clear and clean the
approaches to the temple, and a great many of us
never get any farther than the vestibule door, and
we spend so much time in this way that we do not
have time to go inside and worship.
Francis L. Patton.
Christ sends us into all the world to preach the
gospel ; and every time we preach the Holy Ghost is
present to bring home the message to men's hearts.
I confess that I am not sure if I preach on politics
or on the strikes that the Holy Ghost will bear wit-
ness to that teaching. These miay be important
matters, but the Spirit has been given to bear tes-
timony to Jesus Christ. I have not the sense of his
presence in handling these themes, if I ever venture
on them; but I often do have it when preaching
Christ, even in the simplest way— the Holy Ghost
co-witnessing and bearing the message home to the
hearts and consciences of mc^.
A. J. Gordon.
250
DAY
xxvn
The work of the world's evangelization is a matter
not of option but of obligation. Christianity is not
worth keeping unless we take for granted that what
makes Christianity Avorth having is that it brings
to us the message of life found nowhere else. If
that is so, then this places us under obligation to
give the message to all the world. The moment a
man says that his Christianity does not require him
to give the gospel to the world, then he hasn't a
Christianity at all. We believe that God sent his
Son from heaven, and that the Son gave his life for
the world's life upon the cross; that he came not to
judge, but to save the world; that God was in him
reconciling the w^orld to himself; that he told his
disciples to give the message of his life and his death
and his blood to every creature; that you and I are
his disciples; and that apart trom his name there is
" no name under heaven given among men, whereby
we must be saved." Does not this belief carry with
it the obligation to spread the knowledge of these
facts around the world? Yet here w^e sit. Imagine
Simon Peter standing on the shores running up from
the Sea of Galilee, ^^ith a loaf in one hand and a fish
in the other, while five thousand poor starving people
lie about on the grass, and saying, " What a pity it
is that these poor people are not given something to
eat! What a nice thing it would be if some one
went out and fed them!" Would Christ have
allowed him to go about with a misty sort of sym-
pathy for a world that w^as dying for a practical
knowledge of Christ? No; he said, "Give ye them
to eat." The work of evangelizing this world, for
every man, is a matter of personal, inalienable
obligation. Robert E. Speer.
251
DAY
xxvm
If you find, by the Bible teachings, that one tenth
of your income and one seventh of your time belong
to the Lord absolutely and outright to begin with,
and that your hold on the other nine tenths of your
income and six sevenths of your time is not that of
unconditional ownership, but of conditioned Chris-
tian stewardship, then see whether your conscience-
chronometer does not run pretty slow in that latitude.
A rating up of Christian consciences generally, by
this standard, would add ciphers pretty fast at the
right hand of benevolent contributions. There would
be little trouble then about the support of mission-
aries or the building of new churches.
Henry Clay Trumbull.
I go to Christians of wealth and ask for money,
and they say, " My money is so tied up that I cannot
spare it." I want to see the church of God able to
say, " My money is so tied up that I cannot spare it
for the theater and ball-room; it is tied up for Jesus
Christ, it is under consecration."
A. J. Gordon.
God Almighty will take your poor gift with de-
light, even though it is not worth anything what-
ever. Only give him what you have, and you will
find that the joy of the Lord comes back to you
moment by moment, until at last you can say, " My
soul is satisfied with marrow and fatness," while
God is well pleased for his righteousness' sake.
H. W. Webb-Peploe,
252
DAY
XXIX
How are we to attain to the blessed position in
which the kingdom of God shall fill our hearts with
such enthusiasm that it will spontaneously be first
every day ? We must be ^^illing to give up everything
for it. You have often seen in history how soldiers
and men who were not soldiers could give up their
lives in sacrifice for king or country. In South
Africa, not many years ago, the war for liberty was
fought. They said, "We must have our liberty."
They bound themselves together to fight for it,
and went home to prepare for the struggle. Such
a thrill of enthusiasm passed through that country
that women whose husbands were exempt from ser-
vice said, "No; go, even though you have not been
commanded." Mothers, when one son was called to
the front, said, " Take two, take three." Every man
and woman was ready to die. It was in very deed,
" Our country first, before everything." So, if you
desire to have this wonderful kingdom of God take
possession of you, I beseech you, give up everything
for it. Andrew Murray.
If it costs much to be a zealous and successful
Christian, it will cost infinitely more to live and die
an impenitent sinner. Bible religion costs self-de-
nial; sin costs self-destruction. To be a sober man
costs self-restraint and the scoff of fools. To be a
tippler costs a ruined purse, a ruined body, and a
lost soul. The sensualist pays for his vices a tre-
mendous toll. The swearer must pay for his oaths,
and the Sabbath-breaker for his breach of God's
law.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
253
DAY
XXX
A holy life is made up of a number of small
things; little words, not eloquent speeches or ser-
mons; little deeds, not miracles of battle nor one
great heroic act of mighty martyrdom, make up the
true Christian life. The little constant sunbeam,
not the lightning; the waters of Siloam that "go
softly " in the meek mission of refreshment, not the
" waters of the river, great and many," rushing down
in noisy torrents, are the true symbols of a holy life.
The avoidance of little evils, little sins, little incon-
sistencies, little weaknesses, little follies, indiscre-
tions, and imprudences, little foibles, little indul-
gences of the flesh; the avoidance of such little things
as these goes far to make up at least the negative
beauty of a holy life. Andrew A. Bonar.
Any man who persists in living in known sin or
indulging in questionable practices, entertaining
doubts about things that he would be certain about
if he woke up, is not in a position to be used by God.
We must live near to God that we may hear his
voice. His voice was not in the great wind nor in
the earthquake, nor yet in the fire, but in the still,
small voice, or, as the Revised Version puts it, the
"sound of gentle stillness." We hear the noise
of rumbling, the voice of birds, and other voices of
nature; if we shut these out, we listen to the voice
of man; if we shut this out, we hear the voice of
selfish ambition. How hard it is to get down to
that point where we hear the voice which the sheep
always know! I beseech you, be not content until
you have heard that voice. Keep near to God.
John R. Mott.
254
DAY
XXXI
Where the devil cannot rob us of our salvation he
often very easily robs us of our expectation. Your
ability to exhibit better, brighter, more powerful, and
more beautiful lives in future than you dreamed
possible in the past depends upon your conception
of God. If we could only comprehend God we
should live a perfect life, because " this is life eter-
nal, that they might know thee the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, w^hom thou hast sent." It is for want
of knowledge of God that our lives are such failures.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Surely it is the marvel of angels how near we
stand to God and spend so much of our life in carry-
ing burdens that he w^ould bear and in not seeking
by fellowship with him that grace which we need
for his work and for daily duty. Probably the
reason why we pray so little is because we under-
stand so slightly the philosophy of prayer. The key
to the philosophy of prayer lies in the general con-
ception that true prayer is the reflection of the
thought and mind of God, and that just as the
fountain, rising day and night, seeks the level from
which it came, so the prayer of the believer comes
from God and returns to God.
F. B. Meyer.
Some men tell us that they don't have time to
pray; but if any man has God's work Ijdng deep in
his heart, he will have time to pray.
D. L. Moody.
255
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long.
Perfect submission, perfect delight.
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Saviour am happy and blest.
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with his goodness, lost in his love.
Fanny J. Crosby.
256
[Month of September
Crysaiitluiiiiiiiis
7(. A. Toner Tin- Mount Hi'iinoii Fern-
I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the
dry ground. — Isa. xliv. 3.
Do you know what it means to be thirsty? Ah,
when a man is thirsty it seems as if every pore in
his body cried one thing: "Water, water, water!"
When a man is thirsty for the baptism with the
Holy Ghost all the longings of his soul seem to be
concentrated in one cry: " The Holy Ghost, the Holy
Ghost, the Holy Ghost!" Just so long as a man is
trying to find some way of accomplishing his work
without the Holy Spirit, and believes that he can
get along without this baptism, he is not going to
receive it.
R. A. TORREY.
I wish that we were so thirsty to-day that the
flood-gates would be lifted up and the tide from
heaven come in upon us. What does the hungry
man want? Money? Not at all. Fame? Not a
bit. Good clothes? Not a bit. Good reputation?
No; that isn't it. He wants /oo(Z. What does the
thirsty man want? Bonds and stocks? No; he
wants water. When we are in dead earnest, and
want the bread of heaven and the water of life with
all our souls, we are going to get it. You may be
as dry as tinder, but, thank God, you can have all
this living water if you come boldly before the
throne of grace and present your case.
D. L. Moody.
We are sav/ing off the branch that we are sitting
on when we resist the Spirit of God.
John McNeill.
257
DAY
n
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not
on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see
me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is
judged.— John xvi. 8.
The Spirit has been sent to the church to bear
witness of Christ in order to bring conviction to the
world. Jesus Christ performs three offices in his
work of redemption, as prophet, priest, and King. The
Holy Spirit has also a corresponding threefold con-
viction to bring home to men's hearts. He convinces,
first, concerning Christ who was crucified; second,
concerning Christ who has been glorified ; third, con-
cerning Christ who is to come again and judge the
world.
Conscience bears witness to the law; the Comforter
bears witness to Christ. Conscience brings legal
conviction; the Comforter brings evangelical con-
viction. Conscience brings conviction unto con-
demnation, and the Comforter brings conviction
unto justification. "He shall convince the world
of sin, because they believe not on me." The coming
of the Son of God made a sin possible that was not
possible before; light reveals darkness. There are
negroes in central Africa who never dreamed that
they were black until they saw the face of a white
man; and there are people vv^ho never knew they
were sinful until they saw the face of Jesus Christ
in all its whiteness and purity.
Conscience convicts of sin committed, of right-
eousness impossible, and of judgment impending.
The Comforter convicts of sin committed, of right-
eousness imputed, and of judgment past.
A. J. Gordon.
258
DAY
m
He . . . commanded them that they should not depart from
Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.— Acts i. 4.
If the apostles, who had been associated with
Christ, who had heard all his sermons and seen all
his miracles, needed to w^ait for power, do you not
think that we need to wait upon God for powder be-
fore we undertake service for him? Suppose that
Peter had said, "Lord, you don't mean that we
should wait here while men are perishing all the
time; hadn't we better go to them now?" "No,
no; go back and wait until the power comes, and
greater works than I have done shall ye do." I
used to think the greatest work in this wide world
was the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead;
but the longer I work the more I am convinced that
the greatest miracle the world has ever known was
on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand Jews
were converted by an unlettered fisherman from
Galilee, in one sermon. Some one has said that
now it takes three thousand sermons to convert one
Jew. I believe that if these men had gone to preach-
ing'^bef ore they had received power they would have
been swept from the face of the earth. They waited
ten days, and then the power came. Oh, how re-
freshing it must have been! I suppose there were
more converted at that one sermon of Peter than
during all the three years of Christ's ministry.
D. L. Moody.
Peter, when asked how the work of Pentecost was
done, said, " With the Holy Ghost." The greatest
works for God have been wrought with such power
of the Holy Ghost that there has been no conscious-
ness of forth-putting of human energy.
A. J. Gordon.
259
DAY
IV
Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
—Acts i. 8.
I venture to say the hardest place for those dis-
ciples to begin to preach was in their own city,
Jerusalem. Then Judea was the next hardest place
and Samaria was the next hardest. The hardest
place to begin is at home, in your own church, your
own family; but that is what God wants us to do.
D. L. Moody.
God calls us to be witnesses. What does it re-
quire for you to be a witness? First you must know
something, and then tell it. Is there any one who
cannot do that? Have Jesus Christ in your soul
and a tongue to tell it. Belief in the heart and con-
fession with the mouth— that makes a witness.
Arthur T. Pierson.
You must teach what the Spirit of God has brought
home and wrought into your own experience, not
what you gain from any one else. You must be
able to say, " I not only know whom I have believed,
but I know what I believe; I know the dangers
against which I warn men; the means of grace—
prayer. Scripture, and the sacrament— to which I
point them; I lead them along paths which I have
trodden; I teach them to value what I have come to
prize." A. C. A. Hall.
A man is never safe in rebuking another if it does
not cost him something to have to do it.
Andrew A. Bonar.
260
DAY
V
Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.— Matt. iv. 19.
It is a simple thing to be a fisher. Fishing does
not mean a gaily painted boat and a swallowtail
coat. You want to set your heart on the fish and
not on yourself. Too many regard the world as a
place for boat-riding. Go where the fish are and do
not be afraid to fish. Go into partnership with
Christ, and you will find that you will have many
miraculous drafts.
Arthur T. Pierson.
There are lots of nets that will never catch any
fish unless they are first washed and mended. It is
always well when you are going to fish to go where
the fish are; nowadays we have a fashion of building
a big fish-house on a hill, and expecting the fish to
come up out of the water to be caught.
H. L. Hastings.
The first thing we must do if we want to win
sinners is to get down to a level with them. Don't
go under the supposition that you are a great deal
better than they. When Christ wanted to save the
poor Samaritan woman he traveled forty miles to
meet her, and in order to gain her confidence and
reach her sympathies he asked her for water.
Marcus Rainsford.
When a man gets up so high that he can't reach
down and save poor sinners, there is something
wrong. D. L. Moody.
261
DAY
VI
One great difference between the Christian and
the non-Christian worker is this: non-Christian
workers say that there is a certain proportion of
rnen who cannot be reached anyway. As a modern
English author has said, '^ There is no substitute for
a good heart, and no remedy for a bad one." Oh,
frightful gospel that some of the philanthropists of
our day are preaching! Is that all the message
they have to the world— no remedy for a bad heart?
What means the parable of the lost coin if, though
lost, there was no gleam of its original luster?
What means the parable of the lost sheep if there
was not some dumb, inarticulate longing for the
shelter of the fold? And what means the parable
of the lost son if there was not in those distant
fields a cry of longing for the father's home and
heart ? The Christian worker holds on to the promise
of God in Isaiah: "Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool." There is no man
so low that the gospel of Christ cannot reach him;
there is no people gone so far astray, no slum in
the great city, which the grace of God cannot re-
deem; there is no field so dry and barren and deso-
late that when God works with us it may not become
the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
W. H. P. Faunce.
" Son of man, prophesy to the bones." God says,
"Do what you can; bare, white, and glistening
though they be, preach; roll away the stone of
do-nothingism and mere lamentation, and then trust
me for the quickening breath."
John McNeill.
DAY
vn
Twelve men were Christ^s guests at his own table.
Their feet were dusty from the road, and it was the
business of the servant to wash them. But Jesus
never kept any servants, and these men were not
willing to pour water on one another's feet. Peter
thought, "It is just as much John's business to
wash my feet as it is my business to wash John's."
They said, " After all, our feet are not very dusty,
and if they should be washed now they would be
dusty again the minute we go out." Then Jesus
gave Christianity its badge— a basin and a towel.
The world has seldom seen a stranger thing than
Jesus washing the feet of Judas. When he came
to Peter, Peter said, ''Lord, dost thou wash my
feet?" Jesus said, "What I do thou knowest not
now, but thou shalt understand hereafter." " Thou
shalt never wash my feet." " If I wash thee not,
thou hast no part with me." "Lord, not my feet
only, but my hands and my head." Be willing that
God should give you just as much as he wants to
give. Are you? It is a serious thing. He may
say, " You want me to give you a very great bless-
ing; very well; I will let you help bring China to
Christ." Then you say, "I did not mean as much
as that; I meant a little blessing." Ah, be willing
that God should choose the blessing and give more
than you ask. Do not shrink back as Peter did.
Just take what he gives; God knows best. There is
in this world a great deal that passes for humility
which is pride. Humility says, " I am not worthy,"
but to that sense of unworthiness comes the bless-
ing that mercy and grace bestow.
Alexander McKenzie.
263
DAY
vm
Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say ?
—Luke vi. 46.
Christ feels that he has a right to command us,
not only as one who possesses us, but also as one
who has absolute, unquestionable authority over us,
as absolute as the potter's authority over his clay.
We sing to this day of the glory of the " Charge of
the Light Brigade." They knew perfectly well that
no one was justified in giving them the order to ride
to needless annihilation. No one would have blamed
their refusal to obey that order. But without ques-
tioning the order they rode straight into the jaws
of death, into the mouth of hell.
If men in war will obey commands which they
know to be unreasonable simply because given by
those in authority, what shall be said of us who call
Jesus Christ " Lord," who know it is impossible for
him to give us anything but loving and reasonable
commands, and who still allow these commands to
go unheeded and disobeyed? It is not our place to
raise objections or postpone obedience by excuses.
The Master will take care of things if we obey him.
But if we disobey him the laws which govern us
carry with them curses to men and women who call
him " Master," but fail to do his bidding. Can any
one for one moment think that we are exempt from
this curse? Why is it that Satan's influence is so
strong? Why is it that all Christian effort finds so
many almost insuperable obstacles in its path of
progress? Simply because generation after gener-
ation of those who have called Christ "Master"
have failed to do his bidding, his will.
Robert E. Speer.
264
K'?ii'Ui*=#^-i^5a^^eTs:'=f^^^^^^ ^-^
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptiz-
ing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Ghost.— Matt, xxviii. 19, R. V.
Do not wait for a special call to the foreign field.
Do not wait for an avalanche to strike you or for a
sheet to be let down from heaven. When Jehovah
addressed Elijah, was it through the strong wind?
Was the Lord in the earthquake or in the fire?
Listen to the "still, small voice." It floats across
the ocean. The millions of India, China, Japan, and
Africa are crying, "Come over and help us." Who
are under more obligation to go than we?
Robert P. Wilder.
We who have gone to the front send back an
appealing voice to our home churches in all the
lands that support us, asking them to hasten on the
reinforcements, that the final assault may now be
made. We strain our ears to catch the reply.
What is it that we hear? " Hold on! you are going
too fast. The church at home cannot afford to let
you advance any further. Hold what you have
gained if you can; but the church of Christ is too
poor to let you go on to the final assault for victory."
0 merciful Jesus! is it thus that we, redeemed by
thy precious blood— we for whom on Calvary thou
didst cry in agony, " My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? "—we, bought by the blood-sweat drops in Geth-
semane— is it thus that we show the measure of our
love to thee?
Jacob Chamberlain.
265
DAY
X
Good impulses are abundant and cheap. They
will never hold you in a sharp fight unless you have
the staying power which Christ imparts. To stand
the sneers of scoffers, to resist the sudden rush for
wealth, to conquer fleshly appetites, to hold an un-
ruly temper under control, to keep base passions
subdued, and to direct all your plans and purposes
straight toward the highest mark require a power
above your own. Christ's mastery of you will give
you self-mastery; yes, and mastery over the powers
of darkness and of hell. Faith will fire the last
shot, and when the battle of life ends you will stand
among the crowned conquerors in glory.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
It may be a diflficult task which is before us, but
we must not be discouraged. Difliculties are what
make character; men who can go into a hard field
and succeed— they are the men we want. Any
quantity of men are looking for easy places, but the
world will never hear of them. We want men who
are looking for hard places, who are willing to go
into the darkest corners of the earth and make those
dark places bloom like gardens. They can do it if
the Lord is with them.
D. L. Moody.
Many church-members turn up in Sunday cloth-
ing at popular conventions and for all dress-parade
occasions, but when there is a real battle with evil
to be fought they are missing. As one has well said,
"The tendency in our day is to take our religion with
too many trimmings."
D. W. Whittle.
266
.A^^ DAY
XI
We need, above all things, more faith in God. You
may say that we cannot have too much of that. Yes,
we can. When Jesus was tempted of the devil he
was taken up on a pinnacle of the temple, and the
devil said, " Jump down." Our Lord replied, " Why
should I jump dou^i?" "Why, simply because the
Bible says that God will give his angels charge over
thee, and they shall bear thee up in their hands,
lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Now your
Father in heaven will not allow you to dash your
foot against a stone, so you just jump over and trust
to him." Jesus answered, "Thou shalt not tempt
the Lord thy God." You shall not jump off the
pinnacle of any temple unless you are called to do
it in the service of God and for his glory; you shall
not do it simply for the purpose of testing whether
God will keep his promise or not. There is the great
weakness of our Christian life and faith. We ask
God for something very earnestly, but without a
thought as to whether we are tempting God or
whether we are showing faith in him.
Faith in God leaves off and insanity and tempting
and recklessness begin at the moment when we ask
for more power and greater faith, while we intend
to use them for any other purpose than for his o^^m
divine glory. If God had said to Jesus, " Jump off
the pinnacle of the temple, for it will be to my
glory," he would have leaped off. But when it was
only bringing God's power and providence to bear
upon his life \\ith no advantage to the kingdom of
God, he said, "That is tempting God." You have
no right to exercise faith in getting from God that
which does not add to his glory.
Russell H. Conwell.
267
DAY
xn
If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that be-
lieveth,— Mark ix, 23.
Why is there no water in the pipes of some of
our houses in winter? It is not because the city
has no water-supply; it is not because the streets
are not threaded all through their length from the
great reservoirs with a perfect system of piping; it
is not that the system of piping does not go into
every house. Then why do we turn the tap in vain
in our houses? Because there is a block of ice in
the pipes. Why is the blessing not leaping and
laughing like bubbling water through humanity?
It is not because the great ocean and fountain of
fullness is not there; it is not because the links of
communication between divine fullness and our
emptiness are not formed. Christ is there and his
church is here, and all the channels and tubes and
pipes of prayer and promise and supplication are
there. What is WTong? There is ice in the pipe;
that is the trouble. The frost has come on our
hearts— we are frozen, and need to be thawed out
by the fire of the Holy Spirit. John McNeill.
Men tell me that the day of miracles has passed,
but I answer no. Miracles have not ceased. Faith
has ceased. God offers all things to him who has the
faith to claim them. When he said, " Be filled with the
Spirit," he simply declared that this was possible.
When the will is surrendered he in whose dispensa-
tion we live will come in and fill us. And the result
is a kind of passive activity, as if one were ^vrought
upon and controlled by some power outside of him-
self. J. Wilbur Chapman.
268
DAY
xm
The Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not
yet glorified.— John vii. 39.
What was true in the objective life of Christ must
be true of the subjective life of the Christian. Only
when Christ is King in your heart will you have the
fullness of the Holy Ghost.
F. B. Meyer.
The Holy Spirit is given to make the presence of
Jesus an abiding reality, a continual experience.
The joy unspeakable, the joy that nothing can take
away, the joy of -the nearness and friendship and
love of Jesus, fills our hearts. This alone will en-
able us to live in the rest of God. There is only
one hindrance: God's people do not know their Sa-
viour. They have no conception of Jesus as an ever-
present, all-pervading, indwelling Christ, who longs
to take charge of our whole life. Why can we not
trust our glorious, exalted, almighty, ever-present
Christ perfectly to do his work and bring us into the
rest of God? A man can endure almost anything
for the hope of joy; Jesus himself, " for the joy that
was set before him, endured the cross." A sighing
and a trembling and a doubting life is not right.
Believe that the joy of the Holy Ghost is meant for
you. Do you not loelieve that this adorable Son of
God, who shed his blood for you, could fill your
heart with delight day and night, if he were always
present? He is longing for you, because he needs
you to satisfy his heart of love. Let him have your
whole heart, and the joy of the Holy Ghost shall be
your portion.
Andrew Murray.
269
DAY
XIV
All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedi-
ent and gainsaying people.— Rom. x. 21.
Have we ever thought of those " hands stretched
forth " from heaven to this world, draining themselves
of love, if it were possible, toward " disobedient and
gainsaying people " ? '\All day long I have stretched
forth my hands," saith the Lord. Is not this wonder-
ful—wonderful ? Men have to run away from the
love of God if they are ever without it. They must
get somewhere— I know not where; some strange
cell of their own invention must be found by men
who would escape the love of God; for God's hands
are stretched out, and they drip with riches of mercy.
Yet drops would not suffice, for, as we sing:
" Mercy-drops round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead."
And these show^ers of blessing are really falling upon
us all. H. W. Webb-Peploe.
This poor lost world that has swung out into the
cold and the dark doesn't know anything about the
love of God, and if we do not love men with the
same kind of love that Jesus had for this lost world,
we are not going to reach them. I wish we could
rise to a higher plane of duty and let love be the
motive power. How easy it is to work for God if
the heart is filled with love! and if it is not filled
with love let us pray God to fill it with love. What
we want is to be baptized with the love of Christ
for this world, and if we are full of love for the
perishing, we are sure to succeed.
P, L, Moody.
270
DAY
XV
In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of
the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, nei-
ther he that loveth not his brother.— 1 John iii. 10,
One of the greatest services of Jesus to the world
was to harmonize religion and morality. He would
not allow neglect of man to be covered by zeal for
God, but ever taught that he only loves God who
loves his brother also.
James Stalker.
Tell me to love an unlovely person or one I have
never seen,— some heathen in Africa or China,— and
I cannot do it unless God puts the love for them in
my heart. But when the Holy Ghost sheds abroad
the love of God in our hearts, we shall have the
same kind of love that Jesus Christ had. What we
want is to be baptized with the Spirit of Calvary.
Mr. Spurgeon, a few years before he died, went to
visit a friend who had built a new barn, on which
was a weather-vane, and on that weather-vane the
text, '^ God is love." Mr. Spurgeon said, " Do you
mean that God's love is as changeable as the wind? "
"No," said his friend; "I mean to say that God is
love whichever way the wind blows." So if a man
is filled with the Spirit, he will be filled with love
whichever way the wind blows.
D. L. Moody.
The only greatness is unselfish love. . . . There is
a great difference between trying to please and giving
pleasure.
Henry Drummond.
271
DAY
XVI
Two Germans wanted to climb the Matterhorn,
near which they were staying. They took three
guides, and began to climb the mountain in its
steepest and most slippery part. When traveling
thus they rope themselves together; there was first
a guide, next a traveler, then another guide, then
the second traveler, and finally a guide— five men in
all. When they had been ascending for a short
time the guide at the bottom began to slip, but was
held up by the other four, whose feet rested in
niches cut in the rock; but the last pulled down the
man just above him, and these two dislodged the
next, and the three the one above them. The only
man who kept his footing was the first, who drove
his ax with all his might into the ice before him and
clung to it; and as he stood, the man beneath re-
gained his footing, and so the next and the next and
the next, and the whole party were saved because
the first man stood his ground.
I am one of those men that slipped, but, thank
God, I am bound in living partnership to Christ in
glory, and because he stands, I can never be cast
away. F. B. Meyer.
The penitent thief turned to Jesus when of the
whole world he alone was praying to Christ. Do
not wait to see what others do. There must be
personal intrustment of the soul to Jesus' death to sin ;
personal acceptance of Jesus to do the mighty work.
Andrew Murray,
272
.A^^ DAY
xvn
The gospels nowhere describe Christ's character.
They nowhere tell us that he was dignified under
insult, calm before opposition, submissive under
suffering, indignant at the sight of hypocrisy, sym-
pathetic with sorrow. These characteristics are
manifested by him, but never affirmed of him. They
appear only in his words and acts. The writers of
the first three gospels make no attempt at delinea-
tion; they are apparently quite unconscious that
they are giving to the world a portrait; they make
Christ speak and act before us, and we form our
judgment of his character independently, as if we
had seen and heard him ourselves. Whatever feel-
ings may spring from reading the gospels, they are
never the result of sympathy with the writers. One
could not be sure, judging simply from their style,
that the synoptic evangelists were not indifferent
spectators of what they recorded. There is no
writing for effect, no exhibition of their own opin-
ions, but an unadorned narrative which simply re-
counts the words and works of Christ. From these
we get a distinct conception of this divine-human
character. Josiah Strong.
, Many Christs are now preached, but we know only
one— Jesi^s. To some, alas! he is a myth or fabled
god; to others merely a hero, philosopher, or poet.
Alas for such as are swept down the rapid cur-
rent of humanitarianism, or are swallowed in the
vortex of religious infidelity! Better believe in no
Christ than be guilty of acknowledging a perverted
or mutilated Christ. Better renounce all belief in
the supernatural and spiritual if to us Christ is not
verily divine, if Jesus is not God manifest in flesh.
George C. Needham.
273
DAY
xvin
When I see the blood, I will pass over you.— Exod. xii. 13.
God did not say to Israel, and he does not say to
us, "When I see your good works, your good in-
tentions, your righteousness," but " When I see the
blood, I will pass over you." What made those Is-
raelites safe in Goshen when the Egjrptians were all
exposed to death? It was not their righteousness,
but it was an act of obedience; it was putting the
blood upon their homes. Some people say that it
is not the death of Christ that atones for sin and
that is going to help men, but that it is the life and
teaching of Christ, the moral example, that it is
preaching his character, that will reform the world.
God didn't say, " When I see a live lamb tied at your
door-post, I will pass over you." If some Israelite had
tried that, death would have laid his hand on the
first-born in that house. But it was the death of the
lamb. Many men seem to think that if they were
only as good as Moses or Aaron or Caleb or Joshua,
they would be perfectly safe. But the babe in his
mother's arms was just as safe as Moses or Caleb or
Aaron, or any other of the Israelites. It was the
blood that made them safe; it was not their own
righteousness. If you are sheltered behind the
blood, you are as safe as if you were in heaven to-
day. Some one has said that a little fly in Noah's
ark was as safe as the elephant. It was not the
strength of the elephant that made him safe, but it
was the ark that saved the elephant as well as the
fly; so it is the blood of Christ that saves us.
D. L. Moody.
274
..^^^ DAY
XIX
We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement.— Rom. v. 11.
Sin and guilt produced entire and hopeless alien-
ation between God and man. The effect of Christ's
work is twofold : first, it makes possible in God the
reconciliation with man by the satisfaction made to
a broken law and a dishonored government; and
second, it makes possible man's reconciliation with
God by the regeneration of his sinful nature. As
alienation is mutual, so reconciliation must be mu-
tual. Paul represents the reconciliation between
man and God as already partial; i. e., on God's side,
in Christ, the attitude of reconciliation has been
taken. " God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself." And so all that remains is for man
to turn toward God. He therefore adds, '' We pray
you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
Arthur T. Pierson.
The details of the atonement are questions which
concern the government of God. If we choose to
pry into them w^e shall find w^e are undertaking a
very difficult task. The attempts to explain the
process of salvation simply lead people into confu-
sion. I think that emphasis ought to be placed upon
the whole work of Christ m^ore than it has ever
been. The atonement is a question of status, man's
standing in God's sight. Christ would also have us
concerned about reproducing his life among men.
Henry Drummond.
275
DAY
XX
There is a popular impression abroad that repen-
tance is simply sorrow for sin. A man may be sorry
for sin simply because of the consequences of sin
which he has experienced, or because of the conse-
quences which some other person whom he loves
has experienced; and yet he may not be so sorry for
sin but that, as soon as those consequences are
removed, or even before, he will commit that very
same sin again and with delight. Pharaoh was
sorry for sin; yes, bitterly sorry for disobeying God
every time one of those dreadful plagues came down
upon him and his household and nation; and yet the
moment the plague was removed Pharaoh was the
same as before, and his heart was as hard against
God as it had ever been. Again, a man may be
sorry for sin, that is, for some particular sin, with-
out being at all sorry for some other sins which
bring him no difficulty, and at present no bitter
consequences. Herod is a case in point here. It
is wi'itten that the preaching of John the Baptist
made quite an impression upon Herod. When he
heard John, Herod "did many things, and heard
him gladly." The inference is that, as a result of
John's preaching, Herod laid aside certain of his
external sins, that he reformed in certain particu-
lars; but we know that, like Pharaoh, he never ex-
perienced repentance, for not long after, in a drunken
debauch, he permitted the murder of the man whom
he feared, and whose preaching he received appa-
rently with such gladness of heart. Whatever re-
pentance may be, it is not simply sorrow for sin.
James M. Gray.
276
XXI
A young girl who had run away from home was
living a life of sin, and her mother wanted a friend
to find her daughter. This friend took a number of
photographs of the mother, and wrote down beneath
the sweet face these words: " Come back." Then he
took those pictures down into the haunts of Bin and
the mission stations, and left them there. Not long
after this daughter was going into a place of sin and
there she saw the face of her mother. The tears ran
down her face so that at first she could not see the
words beneath; but she brushed away the tears and
looked, and there they were: "Come back." She
went out to her old home, and when she put her
hand on the latch the door was open, and when she
stepped in her mother, with her arms about her,
said, " My dear child, the door has never been fast-
ened since you went away." The door of God's
great heart of love has never been closed against
his sinning and erring children; it is wide open.
J. Wilbur Chapman.
Sometimes a sinner will be brought to realize his
position and the need of immediate acceptance of
Christ by showing him the uncertainty of life. I
remember once talking to a young man before
others. Said I, "I want you to promise me that
you will not become a Christian for one year."
" Oh my! No, sir! " said he. I shortened it a little:
"Will you make it six months?" That seemed to
sober him. "No," he said; "I will make it a
month." " No, no." " I will make it a week." The
Lord blessed that to his awakening. He realized
that he v/as not sure of his life for a single day.
A. F. SCHAUFFLER.
277
DAY
xxn
Resist the devil, and he will flee from j'^ou.— James iv. 7.
Resist him when he comes ^vith subtle doubts, with
difficult questions, with hard and bitter things
against you; drive him back by the sword of the
Spirit and the shield of faith; quench all his fiery
darts, and listen to the voice of God.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Billy Bray, the Cornish miner whose rugged piety
has been a blessing to so many of God's children,
gives much instruction in his quaint way as to how
to treat the temptations of Satan. He says that
one day, when he was a little downhearted, he stood
upon the brink of a coal-pit, and some one seemed
to say, " Now, Billy, just throw yourself down there
and be rid of all your trouble." He knew in a
minute who it was, and, drawing back, said, " Oh
no, Satan; you can just throw yourself down there.
That is your way home; but I am going to my home
in a different direction." Another time his crop of
potatoes turned out poorly; and as he was digging
them in the fall, Satan was at his elbow and said,
" There, Billy, isn't that poor pay for serving your
Father the way you have all the year? Just see
those small potatoes." He stopped hoeing and re-
plied, "Ah, Satan, at it again— talking against my
Father, bless his name! Why, when I served you I
didn't get any potatoes at all. What are you talking
against Father for?" And on he went hoeing and
praising the Lord for small potatoes— a valuable
lesson for us all.
D. W. Whittle.
278
DAY
xxm
0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord.— Rom. vii. 24, 25.
The bitterest experience with most believers is the
presence and power of sin. They long to walk
through this grimy world with pure hearts and
stainless garments. But when they would do good,
evil is present v/ith them. They consent to God's
law, that it is good; they endeavor to keep it; but
they seem as unable to perform it as a man whose
brain has been smitten with paralysis is unable to
walk straight. AVhat rivers of tears have been
shed over the penitents' psalm by those who could
repeat it every word from the heart! And what
regiments of weary feet have trodden the Bridge of
Sighs, if we may so call the seventh of Romans,
which sets forth in vivid force the experience of a
man who has not learned God's secret!
Surely our God must have provided for all this.
It would not have been like him to fill us with hatred
to sin and longings for holiness if there were no
escape from the tyranny of the one, and no possi-
bility of attaining the other. It would be a small
matter to save us from sinning on the other side of
the pearly gate; we want to be saved from sinning
now and in this dark world. We want it for the
sake of the world, that it may be attracted and con-
vinced. We want it for our own peace, which can-
not be perfected while we groan under a worse than
Egyptian bondage. We want it for the glory of
God, which would be then reflected from us with
undimming brightness, as sunshine from burnished
metal. Thank God, we may have deliverance through
Jesus Christ. F. B. Meyer.
279
DAY
xxrv
A great many people have consciences which are
morbidly scrupulous. They are constantly asking,
" Ought I to wear jewels ? " " Ought I to go to this,
that, or the other place?" What would a young
man think if, when he came to spend one hour a
week in the com.pany of his loved one, she was all
the while upstairs before the dressing-glass, putting
on now this and now the other thing, and seeing
how she looked in them, until the last three minutes
of his hour, when she would come down, hoping
that, on the whole, she v/ould suit? Now a scru-
pulous conscience is always keeping the soul wonder-
ing as to what will suit Christ. You should ask
Christ to show you what he would have you do.
An enlightened conscience is the contrast, the
antipodes, to a scrupulous conscience, and if you
want to have an enlightened conscience, bathe it
in the truth of God's Word. Some people think
that the law of God is soap to cleanse them with.
It is not soap; it is a looking-glass in which they
may see themselves and com.pare themselves with
God's eternal standard of rectitude.
F. B. Meyer.
We cannot be justified by the law which we have
broken. Christ would have committed spiritual
adultery if he had brought us into union with him-
self before he had broken the connection between
us and our first husband. But Christ died in our
place, that he might destroy him that had the power
of death; and when he had overthrown him he rose
triumphant, and in the power of an endless life he
wedded the soul that believes in him. Now, in
union with the risen Lord, the Christian brings forth
fruit unto God. Marcus Rainsford.
280
DAY
XXV
When God made this world he made laws to regu-
late it. This universe could not exist if it were not
for law, and there cannot be a law without a penalty
for its violation. The controversy of Eden is not
settled yet. God said, " The soul that sinneth, it
shall die." Satan walked in and said, " You will not
die if you sin." Adam believed Satan's lie, and that
is where he fell, and you and I are to rise on the
spot where he tumbled. The law has been broken,
and the penalty must be met. I must either die or
find some one to die for me. Why does God demand
blood? It is the life of all flesh, and all flesh has
sinned and come short of the glory of God; and how
can the law of God be kept, and how can God jus-
tify me without ignoring his law ? It is an absurdity
to have a law without a penalty. Suppose that no
penalty should be attached to the law against steal-
ing; some man would have my pocket-book inside
of five minutes. It is not the law that people are
afraid of; it is the penalty. I believe there was
one legislature that made a law and forgot to
attach a penalty, and it was the laughing-stock of
the day. Do you suppose God has made a law with-
out a penalty ? What an absurd thing it would be !
Now, there is a penalty; it is death. I must either
die or get somebody to die for m.e, and if that old
Book does not teach that doctrine it does not teach
anything. It teaches it from the beginning to the
end. If God turned Adam^ out of Eden for that
one sin, do you think he is going to allow us into
heaven with ten thousand sins?
D. L. Moody.
281
DAY
XXVI
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make interces-
sion for them.— Heb. vii. 25.
Christ Jesus is able to save forever and forever,
because he is the same unchangeable priest; he is
able to save— to save unto completeness; not simply
to begin it and keep at it awhile, but to complete-
ness. Oh, the wrecks in human history of things
that men began with noble intent and sustained with
high endeavor; but they died, and their work fell
through and passed away. Our Saviour " is able to
complete the salvation of them that come to God
through him, seeing he ever liveth."
John A. Broadus.
A dear old woman lay dying, and an infidel came
in to scoff at her, and said, " They tell me you are
not afraid to die and are very happy." " Yes, thank
God." " Do you believe in a God ? " " Yes, I do."
"Do you believe God punishes sin?" "Yes, I do."
Then the infidel said, " I should like to know how
you are happy, for if there ever was a bad old
woman you are one. If what you say could be be-
lieved, it would be a great deal too good to be true."
She looked him in the face and said, "It is— it is a
deal too good to be true; but, bless the Lord, it is
true, for all that!"
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Our repentance is far from being the condition of
God's forgiveness; the fact is, our tears need wash-
ing in the blood of Christ before they can be accept-
able. God was in Christ putting away the obstacles
to our communion with him. A. J. Gordon.
282
<^^ DAY
XX vn
I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.— John x. 28.
What a place of protection! But, as if to make
it stronger, Jesus goes on to say, '' My Father . . .
is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. I and my Fatjier
are one." Here is our position, in the hand of
Christ, the hand that swung the worlds off into
space, the hand that brushes the tear from a weep-
ing woman's face. Then just above us is placed the
hand of the Father, the hand that holds the winds
and turns them whithersoever he will; the Father
and the Son are one in holding us safe. What pro-
tection—held between the hands of the Father and
of the Son!
J. Wilbur Chapman.
There are three classes of people who never ought
to have assurance: those who have never been con-
verted, but have joined a church to get assurance,
those who believe but do not confess Christ, and
those who are unwilling to work for Christ. God
never intended a lazy person to have assurance.
Somebody has said, " If you want to be discouraged,
look within; if you want to be distracted, look about;
but if you want to be satisfied, look up." Some
people live on doubts, because they have nothing
else to do. Just be occupied mth the Master and
his work, and you mil have assurance. No matter
what the feeling, the relation with God is the same,
and even death cannot change it.
D. L. Moody.
283
DAY
xxvra
Now the God of peace . . . make you perfect in every good
work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing
in his sight, through Jesus Christ ; to whom be glory for ever
and ever. Amen.— Heb. xiii. 20, 21.
In order to this we must receive a complete bap-
tism of the life-giving blood and yield ourselves un-
reservedly to its influence. According to the old
Scandinavian legend, "Siegfried slew Fafnir, and
in the hot blood of his foe he bathed himself, and
so took on, as it were, an outer covering of new life,
rendering himself sword-proof save at a single point,
where a leaf of the linden-tree fell between his
shoulders and shielded the flesh from the life-impart-
ing blood."
Christians, you claim to have been baptized with
blood,— the blood, not of a foe, but of your covenant
Friend,— and it is life-giving blood, but is it a full
baptism? Is there no linden-leaf betwixt your
shoulders? Is there no unsurrendered sin that
makes you vulnerable still to the assaults of Satan?
The tragedy of many a life pivots on the reservation
of some one cherished purpose. How many unbap-
tized dollars, how many unbaptized talents, how many
unbaptized ambitions, might be found in the visible
church? What is your reservation? What is the
besetting sin that prevents you from demonstrating
daily your identity of nature with the Son of God?
Give it up! It is the death-spot in your armor!
Invulnerable you cannot be until you bring the whole
life under the influence of that shielding blood. Do
that, and the very God of peace will sanctify you
wholly, and your whole spirit and soul and body will
be preserved blameless "unto the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. W. W, Moore.
284
mkj,/^ — ^«^ «=N>» 4. ^^G>^fl<aC-t#' DAY"
XXIX
Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which
he alloweth.— Rom. xiv. 22.
Apply that rule to your daily life and you will
soon settle the questions about a pleasure or busi-
ness. Can I go into partnership with one who serves
man and the devil? How can Christ have fellow-
ship with Belial ? Do not deceive yourself with the
idea you are going to do good. If you make your-
self one with the world on the plea of raising the
world to God, you know that you will have to pay
for it in the day of the Lord's settlement.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
There is a subtle leakage of power in a man who
is inconsistent with his best self. He may not show
it, he may seem as devoted and earnest as possible,
but there is a loss of the dynamics of spiritual force,
and the devil knows it and says, " I need not worry;
his sins are sufficient antidote for his work."
F. B. Meyer.
A man cannot have the kingdom of God first, and
then at times, by way of relaxation, throw it off and
seek his own enjoyment in the things of this world.
People have an idea that life will become too solemn,
too great a strain, if they have the kingdom of God
first continually. Every one feels at once how wrong
it is to think thus. The presence of the love of God
must every moment be our highest joy.
Andrew Murray.
Many Christians get cold warming themselves by
this world's fires. A. J. Gordon.
285
XXX "^""^T^^
Your consecration is not so much a consecration
which you make to Christ as a consecration which
Christ makes of you to himself. The one conspicu-
ous instance of consecration in the New Testament
is where Jesus says to the Father in his prayer, "Fa-
ther, I consecrate myself." He could do it. To
consecrate means to appoint, to ordain, to separate
or sanctify. If Christ had been a modern preacher
he would have said, "Now, my friends, consecrate
yourselves." He did not say that, but, "I conse-
crate myself; Father in heaven, consecrate my dis-
ciples. I separate myself; Father, separate them."
If there is any consecration that is effective, Christ
must consecrate us to his service. There seems to
be a provision for a periodical consecration which
ought not to be in any calendar or any meeting.
Never appoint a time a month ahead for a conse-
cration meeting. Well, but you say you may fall
away. Very well; but don't provide for it before-
hand. If you expect to fall away before the first
Sunday of every month you will probably do it. If
sometime in the middle of the month you find that
you are faltering, come back and devote yourself
again to God; but do it feeling that you can live
a Christian life by the force of the Christ-life which
he gives to you. It is a dreadful thing that so many
people are trying to consecrate themselves and save
themselves and strengthen themselves and work
their way out through life. You must let God con-
secrate you and strengthen and support you. Not
all the good books in the world, not the Bible, not
the church, not the sacraments, without Christ in
them and working through them, can do you much
good. Alexander McKenzie.
286
Dvfontb of October
Oak Leaves
John McNeill The 'T{oad to Camp U^oi'thjield
The nineteenth century is apt to quietly sneer us
out of our faith in the miraculous. We feel the
blush inclined to steal upon our cheeks, and "with
bated breath and bated whispering humbleness " we
would allow judgment to go by default, because we
do not like to say that we do believe in the miracu-
lous stories in the Bible. You remember how it
was with Peden, the great Scotch prophet, in the
killing times in Scotland when King James was the
Herod. Poor Peden, for the faith and fear of Jesus
Christ, was being persecuted, ^\^th a little band of his
followers to whom he had been preaching in dens
and caves of the earth in the south of Scotland.
They were alarmed in time and determined to make a
struggle for existence; they made a rush for safety.
Their pursuers, being horsemen, gained on them,
and when Peden and his little band had gone down
into the hollow of a hill, for want of breath and for
want of hope, he called a halt, and then he uttered
a memorable prayer. " 0 God," he said, " it is the
day and the hour of the power of thine enemies.
They may not be idle, but hast thou no other work
for them than to send them after us? Send them
to pursue those to whom thou ^\dlt give strength to
flee; but as for us, our strength is gone. Twine
them round the hill, 0 Lord, and cast the lap of
thy cloak round Sandy and these puir things, and
we shall tell to thy praise and glory what thou didst
for us at sic a time." As surely as he prayed one
of those dangerous, sudden, blinding mists for which
our Cheviot hills are famous came do^^^l upon them.
Their enemies with curses thundered past them
through the mist and never saw them.
John McNeill.
287
DAY
n
Rejectors of the gospel will often be heard say-
ing, " Well, the Mohammedan has his belief, and
the Hindu his belief, and the Parsee his belief, and
the Christian his belief. They all have faith, and
each one who is sincere in his faith will be accepted
of God." If faith simply saved this might be so. But
with the statement, " God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the
Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath
not life," before us, its fallacy is readily seen. If a
man puts faith in a real, living person who has
power to save him, and who engages to save him,
he is certainly in a different position from the man
who puts faith in that which has not life and which
is not truth.
There were those in the time of Noah who un-
doubtedly had firm belief, as the rain commenced
falling, that the hills would be just as safe a refuge
for them as the ark. Their fii'm belief made no
difference in their fate. Noah had a firm belief in
God's word that the ark would save him. His belief
led him to go into the ark, and the ark, not his be-
lief, saved him. Christ is the ark in which we find
salvation. D. W. Whittle.
W^hen men ask us what we believe, our answer
should be, " It is not what I believe, but it is in
whom I believe." "I know whom I have believed."
I should have a personal knowledge of the person
in whom I believe. Christians have nothing to do
\vith " its " in their belief. Our creed and our bless-
ing are vitally connected ^^ith Christ; more than
that, they are Christ himself.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
DAY
m
So long as there is a radical difference between
truth and falsehood, and so long as truth sustains
relations to life, it will make a difference whether
men believe true or false doctrine. Doctrines are
the roots of life. Great lives do not grow out of
false beliefs. Doctrine is immensely important, but
not all-important. The root does not exist for
itself; it is a means to the tree and the fruit as an
end. A Christian truth in the heart brings forth
Christian acts in the life as naturally as the root
pushes its stalk up into the air and the sun. Cut
the stalk, fell the tree, and the root dies at length.
A faith without works is soon dead. If our doc-
trines do not flower and fruit in Christian living,
they die. Many a man's creed is a field full of
stumps. There was life there once, but because
the natural expression of that life was prevented, it
perished. We have not overestimated the impor-
tance of believing the truth, but we have underesti-
mated the importance of living the truth.
JosiAH Strong.
There can be nothing acceptable to God which
does not begin with faith, but he who is contented
with becoming a believer is like a man who expends
all his strength in laying a good foundation and
then ceases to build.
William Henry Green.
What the eye is to the body, faith is to the soul.
You don't dig your eyes out to see if you have the
right kind, but you are doing that to your faith.
D. L. Moody.
289
DAY
IV
Have faith in God.— Mark xi. 22.
What do they think God is who speak of the
" good old times " or long for past hours when they
better knew and enjoyed the blessing and fellowship
of Christ? What kind of a God do they think we
have? Does he not always keep the best things for
the last? Is his love stronger than his strength,
that we had the best things yesterday and the day
before, and are not having yet better things to-day,
nor to have better things to-morrow? A true the-
ology insists that this month is the best month of
our lives. Every day is the best day, and the next
day will be better.
Robert E. Speer.
Trust the providence of God, but do not tempt
him by expecting too much. There are times when
we have no right to dismiss a subject by saying,
"God is God, and he will take care of his own."
The question really, then, is this: We have a duty
to perform, and God expects us to be of some use
in the world. We must pray; but pray for that
which will be for his glory. Do not ask God for
things which it is not best for him to give. Be not
dissatisfied when God says no to your request.
There is a difference between the things which we
are to receive and those which we are not to re-
ceive, and to discover this difference we need to
pray especially for the indwelling Spirit of the liv-
ing God.
Russell H. Conwell.
Faith is the golden key that unlocks the doors of
heaven. D. L. Moody.
290
DAY
V
Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering : for he that wavereth
is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.—
James i. 6.
The church is weak to-day because it has not
come to appreciate the distinction between asking
and taking, between praying and claiming. They
may be parts of the same act, but alas! in too many
cases life passes by in perpetually pleading with
God to give certain gifts which all the while are
waiting for the suppliant soul upon the outstretched
palm of God, and all that the soul needs is to take.
Say to yourself, " My Father has blessed me with all
spiritual blessings in Christ," and then ask yourself
whether you are not living a life that seems to be
in the most distinct contradiction to the assertion
of that text. Now it is either true that God has
blessed you or has not blessed you with all spiritual
blessings in Christ. You are bound to believe that
God has put into Jesus Christ as your trustee his
own unsearchable wealth, that he has vested in the
hand of Jesus for every member of his mystical
body, the church, his own divine fullness. Then
how is it that your life is so threadbare? Do you
live in your home day by day as a spiritual million-
aire? Do you not rather live as a pauper? What
is the result of your influence upon your family and
upon others who know you best? Do you give them
to feel that there is something within your reach
that they have not yet touched, though they have
all the riches of the Indies? If we were once to
live as though we had something that they have
not, we would not have to press men to come to us;
they would come without pressing.
F. B. Meyer.
291
DAY
VI
Human life is character-building; for remember
that character means exactly what we are, while
reputation is only what other people think we are.
Every man builds his own character. Fix one fact
in your mind, however, and that is, the better and
stronger Christian you are, the more dearly you
must pay for it. All the best things are costly.
Jesus Christ laid down his life to redeem you from
sin and death. " Free grace " for you meant Cal-
vary for Christ. A strong godly character is not
to be had gratis. Theodore L. Cuyler.
The foundation of the spiritual temple that God
is erecting, in which the Holy Ghost will dwell, is
faith. Perseverance is the engineer that adds tier
upon tier and stair upon stair. Brotherly love is
the cement that binds all the stones together.
Memory comes and hangs the walls with tender
pictures of the past. Joy comes and fills every
apartment with flowers plucked from the Paradise
of God. Love comes and fills the halls with music,
and at last hope comes and throws over the edifice
a beautiful dome, through which aspiration looks
up and longs for heaven. But even then, when
man enters that edifice so divine, it only is to clothe
him for better, nobler service here upon earth, and
to prepare him for life eternal. M. D. HoGE.
We must not spend all our lives in cleaning our
windows, but in sunning ourselves in God's blessed
light. That light will soon show us what still needs
to be cleansed, and will enable us to cleanse it with
unerring accuracy. F. B. Meyer.
292
DAY
vn
The best things in life have to be given freely, not
from a sense of duty. You never can measure out
friendship ; you never can tell how much a man ought
to do for his country ; you never can tell what he should
do for God. There is always that overflow, that abun-
dance, which is chiefly valuable for us, and is valu-
able to God as it comes as the freewill offering of
our hearts. You say of a certain person that he is
just, implying you don't quite like him. You say of
another person that he is generous, meaning that
you do like him. It is because of that which he
does beyond what he is obliged to do. If there is
any life where this applies with the utmost force it
is to the religious life. Your piety must make the
cup overflow. If you do exactly your duty and
nothing else, your life is no comfort to you and lit-
tle help to any one else. You want something of
joyousness and freedom in it and then it tells.
Alexander McKenzie.
There is a Christian life which, in comparison
with that experienced by the majority of Chris-
tians, is as summer to winter, or as the mature
fruitfulness of a golden autumn to the struggling
promise of a cold and late spring. This life should
be the normal life of every Christian. It is God's
thought not for a few, but for all his children. The
youngest and weakest may lay claim to it equally
with the strongest and oldest. We should step into
it at the moment of conversion, without wandering
with blistered feet for forty years in the desert.
F. B. Meyer.
293
DAY
vm
It was only when Luther could say, "Martin Luther
does not live here; Jesus Christ lives here," that God
could use Luther. And it was only as Paul could
say, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I
live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," that Paul
could be used of God. We cannot truly say, " Whom
I serve," until we have said, " Whose I am."
B. Fay Mills.
A French officer whose ship had been taken by
Nelson was brought on board Nelson's vessel, and
he walked up to the great admiral and gave him
his hand. "No," said Nelson; "your sword first,
please." That is the gospel. Many people would
take Christ's hand and say he is a noble character.
Give up your rebellious will first; admit your guilt;
then Christ will take your hand and never let go.
John McNeill.
" The creature is dead, but he don't know it," said
an Irishman, as he looked at the moving legs of a
turtle whose head he had cut off a few hours be-
fore. " The flesh is dead in me," says the modern
opponent of Paul ; but the lively motions of the flesh
that are often seen by the onlooker make him doubt
if the flesh knows it. The remedy in all things for
a believer is, to know Christ.
D. W. Whittle.
God hates the self-life dressed in sanctified
clothes as much as when it is dressed in rags.
F. B. Meyer.
294
DAY
IX
The sentence of death is on everything that is of
nature. But how many of us cherish it and try to
escape the sentence or to forget it! We do not
believe fully that the sentence of death is on us.
We must die daily. Jesus lived every day in the
prospect of the cross, and we, in the power of his
victorious Hfe being made conformable to his death,
must rejoice every day in going down with him into
death. Take an oak some hundred years old. How
was that oak born ? In a grave. A grave was made
for the acorn that the acorn might die. It died and
disappeared; it cast roots downward and shoots up-
ward, and now that tree has been standing one hun-
dred years in its grave. But all the time it has
stood in the very grave where it died it has been
growing higher and stronger and more beautiful.
All the fruit it ever bore and all the foliage that
adorned it year by year it owed to that grave in
which its roots are cast and kept. Even so we owe
everything to the death and grave of Jesus. Oh,
let us live every day rooted in the death of Jesus!
Andrew Murray.
If a man is not willing to go to heaven by the
way of Calvary he cannot go at all. Many men
want a religion in which there is no cross, but they
cannot enter heaven that way. If we are to be dis-
ciples of Jesus Christ we must deny ourselves, and
take up our cross, and follow him. Do not think
that you will have no battles if you follow the Naza-
rene; many battles are before you. Men do not
object to a battle if they are confident that they
will have victory, and, thank God, every one of us
may have the victory if we will. D. L. Moody.
295
DAY
X
How excellent is thy loving-kindness, 0 God! therefore the
children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.—
Ps. xxxvi. 7.
Loving-kindness is love in action. " God is love."
Then Jesus Christ is loving-kindness, God manifest-
ing his love to us. Notice, " wings " is plural. The
wing of God's power is to me no protection. I am
afraid of power. Power let loose may destroy me.
In the thunderbolt there is power that kills. God's
omnipotence, viewed alone or linked ^vith his jus-
tice, gives me no comfort; but linked with his love
I find shelter beneath it. My danger is great in
proportion to the power that may be against me.
My safety is great in proportion to the power that
may be for me. God's power linked with his love is
for me; and I put trust under the shadow of the
wings of his love and power. A. C. Dixon.
People used to speak of God as a tyrant, and as
if to be in his hands was to be next to all that was
miserable and terrible. The hands that bled for
me on the cross mean only to bless me. 0 hands
of the Crucified, shall I dread to intrust my life to
you? Nay; the misery of life will not be to be in
the hand, but to be outside the hand of God. Never
be afraid of God, unless you are sinning against him;
always believe that behind what seems difiicult and
mysterious there is a heart as true and tender as
the heart of the sweetest, gentlest woman that ever
pressed her child to her bosom. Nay; all the love
in all women's hearts together, compared to the
love of his heart, is as a glow-worm's torch com-
pared to the sun at noontide. F. B. Meyer.
296
DAY
XI
Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy
walls are continually before me.— Isa. xlix. 16.
Faithful Jews who were about to take a distant
journey employed an artist to grave or paint a pic-
ture of Jerusalem upon the palms of their hands; so
that when they were far away from the beloved
city of the sanctuary they had but to open their
hand and behold its memorial before them. In like
manner, our Lord has gone into a " land of far dis-
tances." But he too has carried inside the veil the
memorial of his beloved church. Those pierced
hands remind him of his cross and passion and of
the victory he has achieved over sin. And they are
busy hands; every day and hour they are recording
as with the graving of a diamond in the register of
God the names of some new souls born into the
kingdom of heaven.
George C. Needham.
Think what God is trying all the while to do for
us, and see if it is not beyond our greatest thought.
Christ is more than teacher. He is our divine Lord
and Saviour, able to save to the uttermost. Oh, if
the world were \^illing to take what he is so ready
to bestow! If we desired more we should receive
more. It is because our prayers are too narrow,
because we only want to fill the cup up within an
inch of the top, that we are poor; when w^e are will-
ing that the cup shall run over there comes a
springing out from heaven, a pouring down from
above of that which fills the cup from the great
wealth and mercy of our God.
Alexander McKenzie.
297
DAY
xn
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask
what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.— John xv, 7.
God is the source of the spiritual electric energy,
and when we insulate ourselves from the world by-
prayer and communion with Christ it is precisely as
it is with filling a body with electric energy : the
spiritual power of God fills us. I have found in my
own life that there is a very close proportion be-
tween the time I spend in communion with God and
the amount of power that I have in dealing with
men.
R. A. TORREY.
Every prayer should be actuated by a love for
God and a desire to be used in his service. Every
prayer should be judged by this standard: Will it be
of use to the Lord God? Is it for his glory? " God,
give me health to-day." Why? "Oh, because I
shall feel better." Ah! that is not prayer; that is
only presumption. " Lord, give me an ability that
I have not now." What for? " Because I shall hold
a higher place in the world's estimation." That is
presumption. " Lord, help me to get such an edu-
cation as shall give me influence with men, that I
may be able to earn more money." It is tempting
God. " Lord, keep my family alive." " Lord- pre-
serve the life of my sick child, because I shall need
that child's love by and by in order to be happy
myself." It is tempting God. But the prayer that
says, " Lord, give me health that I may glorify thee;
give me wisdom that I may use it for thee; preserve
the life of my child that I may bring her up for thee"
is the prayer of faith.
Russell H. Conwell.
298
DAY
xm
The hour cometh, and now is, when the true woishipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh
such to worship him.— John iv. 23.
No idea of prayer reaches a higher point than
worship, which is the form which fills the Apoca-
lypse. The soul is lost in thought of God. What
new appreciation of adorable qualities! In Psalm
xxix., that psalm of nature where the creation is
seen as a temple, all nature is God's grand cathedral ;
the waters are the great organ with its deep dia-
pason, and the thunders peal forth like the colossal
pipes of the pedals; cyclones and whirlwinds are the
choir with majestic voices; the lightnings are the
electric lamps; giant oaks and cedars are the bow-
ing worshipers; and the psalmist says, "In his tem-
ple doth everything shout, Glory!"
Arthur T. Pierson.
In prayer there is worship, when a man just bows
do^\m to adore the great God. We do not take
enough time to worship. I hope to spend eternity in
worshiping God.
There is not only the worship of a king, but
fellowship as a child with God. Christians think
prayer is only asking and thanksgiving. If Christ
is to make me what I am to be I must tarry in
fellowship with God. I may put a poker in the fire
twenty times in the course of the day, and leave it
there two or three minutes each time, and it never
will be thoroughly heated. If you are to get the
fire of God's holiness and love and power burning in
your heart you must take more time in his fellow-
ship. Andrew Murray.
DAY
XIV
Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.—
Matt, xxviii. 20.
Man when he promises for the future needs to
say, "I will do;" but God can say nothing stronger
than " I do " or " I am." Thus the promise of
promises of Jesus to his disciples as their ever-
present, all-sustaining Lord is, '' Lo, I am with you
alway;" not "Lo, I will be," but "Lo, I am." So
God's covenant promise to Israel to be their loving,
guarding, and guiding God for all time to come is
in the words, " I am Jehovah thy God, which brought
thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage." Henry Clay Trumbull.
The Lord said to Moses, " Say unto them, ' I AM
hath sent me.' " Some one has said that God gave
him a blank check and all he had to do was to fill
it out from that time on. When he wanted to bring
water out of the rock all he had to do was to fill out
the check; it was the same when he wanted bread;
he had a rich banker. God had taken him into
partnership with himself. D. L. Moody.
Herein it was that Israel sinned : they never could
take in the Godhead, I AM. They never could
realize that they were dealing with One to whom
past, present, and future are absolutely one. They
deigned to accept what God had accomplished, but
dared to doubt what God had promised.
The moment a man doubts the unknown future
he has boldly said to God, "Thou liest," and it is
the one sin there is no salvation for. Every sin can
be forgiven except blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost. H. W. Webb-Peploe,
300
DAY
XV
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.— John xvii. 3.
Ignorance is the chief sin of our time. You say
unbelief is. I think not. You say the great need
is faith. But when we have intelligence we shall
have faith. We need knowledge of God. I do think
that people need most in this world to-day belief in
God. It is a very rare man that truly and deeply
believes in God. If you believe in God you see him
in everything, in the birds and flowers and bright-
ness and beauty as well as when the storms gather
and sorrow sweeps over you. If a man believes there
is a God his belief controls him all through his
being. Jesus said, " Let your light so shine before
men that they will glorify God." In order to make
other men think of God we must believe in him and
must have such a strong obedience coming out of
our belief that men will take knowledge of us that
we believe in God and know him.
Alexander McKenzie.
We don't want the faith that comes by seeing,
but the seeing that comes by faith.
John McNeill.
When Christ said to his disciples, " Have faith in
God," he did not mean, " Accept this moment all the
doctrines which I have been propounding to you,"
though he well knew that that would follow from a
surrender to him. What he meant was that they,
personally, should surrender their lives in the abso-
lute confidence of an unwavering trust to God.
Robert E. Speer.
301
DAY
XVI
God has given us powers, and he means that we
shall study to know what they are. Half the life-
blunders come from not knowing one's self. If we
overrate our abilities we attempt more than we can
accomplish; if we underrate our abilities we might
accomplish more than we attempt. In both cases
life loses just so much from its sum of power. Not
a few come to know themselves only through fail-
ures and disappointments. Strangers to their own
defects,— perhaps also to their own powers,— they
see h,ow they might have succeeded only when suc-
cess is finally forfeited. Their eyes open too late.
A Southern orator tells of a little negro who very
much wished to have a kitten from a new-born
litter, and whose mistress promised that as soon as
they were old enough he should take one. Too im-
patient to wait, he slyly carried one off to his hut.
Its eyes were not yet open, and in disgust he drowned
it. But subsequently, finding the kitten lying in
the pail dead, but with open eyes, he exclaimed,
"Humph! when you's alive you's blind; now you's
dead you see ! " Pity, indeed, if our eyes open only
when it is too late to make life of use!
Arthur T. Pierson.
Is your life what you want it to be? Is it satis-
factory? I hear people sometimes say in prayer-
meeting, " I want a few crumbs from the Master's
table." Well, you may have them if you want to;
crumbs are good for cats and dogs; but I am going
for the whole loaf. The Lord doesn't want his people
to live on crumbs; he is longing to give them a
whole loaf.
D. L. Moody.
302
DAY
xvn
When men are puzzled about the doctrine of the
Trinity they would do well to consider their own
nature, and discover in the spirit, soul, and body the
trinity in unity of the one personality of the indi-
vidual. Man is like the Jewish temple: the most
holy place represented the spirit; the holy place,
where the priests did their work, the soul; and the
outer courts the body. In the unregenerate man
the holy of holies of the spirit, which was meant to
hold converse with God, is left dark and untenanted ;
or with some the holy of holies, v/hich was meant
for God, may be inhabited by the spirit of evil. I
am inclined to think that in most cases it is simply
untenanted, so that the natural man is a man the
holy of holies of whose spirit is empty; therefore
his nature is dominated entirely by the soul of his
natural life. We can easily understand, then, why
the body is not kept right, because nothing can
dominate the body but spirit. In regeneration the
Spirit of God becomes the Shechinah of the most
holy place, so that what before had been dark now
becomes illuminated. Even in a regenerate man
there is often failure because the man, whose
personality resides always in the soul, the holy
place, has the choice of living according to the
spirit in the holy-of-holies place, or according to
the flesh in the outer court, and chooses the latter
in preference to the former and so becomes a carnal
Christian. F. B. Meyer.
What this world wants is this doctrine thundered
out, regeneration by the power of the Holy Ghost. No
man is really born of God until he is brought into
harmony wdth God's plan, and then God can work in
him and through him. D. L. Moody.
303
DAY
xvin
If you would go to heathen lands to work for
Christ first satisfy yourself fully as to the inspiration
of the Scriptures. Don't go to war with a quiver-
ful of arrows the shafts of which are partly hickory
and partly mullen stocks. If a missionary believes
the Scriptures are inspired only in patches the
heathen will trip up his heels as easily as if he were
standing on ice. When you point to them the stupid
cosmogony of their sacred books, and from thence
argue their unreliability as religious guides, they
will retort, " But you say there are scientific errors
in your Bible, and that the Word of your God is
contained in your Scriptures along with some rub-
bish. Now you know how to sympathize with us.
The divine truths of our religion are contained in
our " shasters." Unfortunately, our writers did not
know everything, as you say yours did not, and
some rubbish has crept into ours too." If you are
lame and halting then better stay at home. We
want strong and able-bodied men who know what
they believe and why they believe it and are ready
to assert it with vigor. William Ashmore.
What are soldiers good for if they don't know
how to use their weapons? What is a young man
starting out in the Christian work good for if he
does not know how to use his Bible? A man isn't
worth much in battle if he has any doubt about his
weapon, and I have never found a man who has his
doubts about the Bible who has amounted to much
in Christian work. I have seen work after work
wrecked because men lost confidence in the truth
of this old Book. D. L. Moody.
304
DAY
XIX
I know of nothing which would be more ridiculous,
if it were not so lamentable and fraught with evil,
than to see a man \^ise in his own conceit go on the
cool assumption that the church, the Bible, Christen-
dom, and the great God himself have no rights ex-
cept such as first vindicate themselves to his lordly
reason. Suppose the village poetaster should so
treat "Paradise Lost," or the village architect
should express grave doubts as to the excellence of
the dome of St. Peter's. " Paradise Lost " and the
dome of St. Peter's would not feel it much, but it
would fix the grade of the architect and the poet.
Cyrus D. Foss.
I believe that all the philosophy and literary criti-
cism and the study of history, when rightly under-
taken, will constitute an overwhelming argument in
vindication of our belief in the Bible. I look for the
coming of a good time when men who now disparage
and despise and s^t at naught this Book mil treat it
as the inspired Word of God.
Francis L. Patton.
I would that every student of the Bible would
take the motto which Bengel took for his guidance
in study: "Apply thyself wholly to the Scriptures,
and apply the Scriptures wholly to thyself." Learned
critics are applying themselves wholly to the Scrip-
tures \vith microscopic intensity of search and re-
search, but they neglect the other half. We hear
of some people who are famous at taking a sword
and cutting up the Scripture, but we would like to
see the Scripture, which is itself a sword, go through
these men and cut some of them^ up.
A. J. Gordon.
305
DAY
XX
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned.— 1 Cor. ii. 14.
No one can so well explain the meaning of words
as he who wrote them. Tennyson could best ex-
plain some of his deeper references in " In Memo-
riam." If, then, you wish to read the Bible as you
should, make much of the Holy Ghost, who inspired
it through holy men. As you open the book lift up
your heart and say, "Open thou mine eyes, that I
may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Speak,
Lord; for thy servant heareth." F. B. Meyer.
The natural man discerneth not the things of the
Spirit. This Bible is burglar-proof against un-
sanctified learning that seeks to penetrate into its
mysteries. The violent have attempted to take it
by force, but the Holy Spirit alone has the key to
this treasure-house, and he only knows the combi-
nation of prayer and faith by which it can be
unlocked and all the treasures of wisdom and
righteousness therein stored be found out and appro-
priated. God forbid that I should despise any kind
of learning. On the contrary, I put my strong em-
phasis on the importance of it. Modifying Augus-
tine's phrase, let us remember that the sufficiency
of learning is to discover that learning is insuffi-
cient. Your responsibility is that you make the
Spirit of God your private tutor, and then you can-
not be led very far astray. It is one thing not to
know, it is another thing through the pride of un-
sanctified learning to be led to forget, that the
Word of God is not to be comprehended by secular
learning but by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
A. J. Gordon.
306
DAY
XXI
Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. —
2 Pet. 1. 21.
The consummate prophecy of Scripture is the
Messianic. These prophecies were sufficiently re-
mote in time to have made it impossible for the pro-
phets to have influenced the results. Between the
two Testaments was a space of four hundred years.
There was absolutely no inspired prediction between
Malachi and Matthew. As to minuteness of de-
tail, Canon Liddon found three hundred and thirty-
three distinct predictions concerning the Messiah.
In order to estimate the chance of all these partic-
ulars meeting in one person, you must raise i to
the three hundred and thirty-second power, which
is 8 5,ooo,ooo;oiro, i.e., there is but one chance in
85,000,000,000! The promise that the seed of the
woman shall bruise the head of the serpent is the
germ of all Messianic prophecy. If there was to
be but a single fruit to appear on a tree of over
three hundred branches, and you must determine
the particular twig on which that fruit should ap-
pear, every new ramification of the branches would
make it more difficult to determine the exact twig.
Of Adam's sons one must be the progenitor of the
Messiah, and Seth is chosen. Noah has three sons;
Japheth is chosen. Abraham has two sons; Isaac
is chosen. Isaac has two sons; Jacob is chosen.
Jacob has twelve sons, and one of the twelve must
be Christ's ancestor— Judah. So the lineage rami-
fies indefinitely until we reach the very household in
which Jesus Christ was born.
Arthur T. Pierson.
307
DAY
xxn
In looking at the stars through a great telescope,
it is necessary first to put out every light until you
are left in total darkness. Every light sets the air
in motion, and disturbs the focus, and blurs the
vision of the stars. How often our vision of God is
blurred and dimmed by the flames of self-conscious-
ness and sordidness that float around us! How
many times we have to put out the light of self-
seeking, earthly ambition and false pride of position
in order to look upward, and in the clear still air
know whither God's lights are leading us and what
God will have us to do!
W. H. P. Faunce.
It is difficult to convince men of anything which
they do not wish to believe. They demand evidence,
and what would afford proof to an unbiased mind is
often quite insufficient to convince men against
their will, while that which harmonizes with pre-
conceived opinion is often accepted with little or no
evidence. The narrower men are, the more difficult
is it to convince them of anything which runs
counter to their prejudices.
JosiAH Strong.
It is supposed by some, altogether falsely, that
faith is opposed to reason and that Christ does not
claim intellect. His very name is the Word and the
wisdom of God, and he demands the cultivation of
all our faculties, and he bids us prepare ourselves
in order that we may do his work.
A. C. A. Hall.
308
DAY
xxin
My friends, the outcome is bright. Men will
keep on until they shall have circumnavigated the
globe of thought,— these earnest men, these philo-
sophical adventurers, these scientific discoverers,—
and when they come back, as they surely will, to the
old land from which they have set out, they will say
with an earnestness they never knew before, " We
believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of
heaven and earth." And when they get so far
they will go on and say, '' And in Jesus Christ, his
only Son." The day of reconciliation between
science and religion is not afar off. High authori-
ties in philosophy tell us that agnosticism is on the
wane. We look for the coming of the day which
shall end the long estrangement, when science shall
confess, " W^e know in part, but then we know," and
religion will reply, " We know, but then we know
only in part." Francis L. Patton.
We sometimes look upon this world and say, " It
is no use; the race is corrupt and there is no
promise." Stop ! the promise is not in the men, but
in the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Be
faithful, consecrated, hopeful. Some day the world
will be filled with the righteousness and peace of
God. George C. Lorimer.
Thank God, the stone cut out of the mountain is
growing and is going to come into collision with the
image, which will become like the chaif of a thresh-
ing-floor. My friends, I am no pessimist, and I thank
God for the outlook. I believe the time is coming
when the voice of men will only give out the echo
of God's voice, when Jesus Christ shall come to sway
his scepter over the whole earth. D. L. Moody.
309
DAY
XXIV
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteous-
ness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.— Rom. xiv. 17.
The kingdom of God is righteousness; that repre-
sents the work of the Father. The foundations of
his throne are justice and judgment and peace;
that is the work of the Son; he is our peace, our
Shiloh, our rest. The kingdom of God is peace; not
only the peace of pardon for the past, but of perfect
assurance as to the future. Not only the work of
atonement is finished, but the work of sanctification
also is finished in Christ. The new man has been
completed, and I need only live out my life in him;
and then, if a kingdom is established in righteous-
ness, there can be perfect rest. Then if there be
peace without and within there can be also joy, the
work of the Holy Spirit.
Andrew Murray.
According to God's idea, the first element of re-
ligion is righteousness, and there are two kinds of
righteousness spoken of in the Bible: the imputed
righteousness and the imparted righteousness. The
imputed righteousness is that which was lived out
by the Lord Jesus Christ in a life of perfect devotion
to God and in a death that was substitutionary, and
that righteousness is imputed to every one who puts
his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The imparted
righteousness is that which is imparted to the soul
after it has believed in Jesus Christ, whereby it
grows in fitness for the life here and for the inher-
itance of the saints in glory.
W. W. Moore.
310
DAY
XXV
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
thee: because he trusteth in thee.— Isa. xxvi. 3.
There is the secret of peace; that was the source
of Daniel's peace in the den of iions.
I can imagine Daniel walking through the streets
of Babylon on his way to be cast to the lions, ac-
cording to the king's decree. He was the greatest
character that ever walked the streets of Babylon.
He moved like a giant, like a conqueror; they cast
him to the lions. There was no music in the palace
that night. The king was in great distress ; he could
not sleep; and early the next morning you could
see an unusual sight— the king abroad in his char-
iot; and you could hear the chariot go rattling over
the pavements of the streets. What does it mean?
I see that royal chariot sweeping up to the lions'
den, and the king goes to the mouth of the den and
cries to Daniel, " Is thy God, whom thou servest
continually, able to deliver thee from the mouths of
the lions?" And a voice comes up out of that
den: "My God has sent his angels and shut the
mouths of the lions." The calmest man in all Baby-
lon that night, in my opinion, was Daniel. He
prayed with his face toward Jerusalem, and after
prayer took a lion for a pillow and lay down to
sleep with a clear conscience. The king took him
with him back to the palace, and then sent out a
decree that the one hundred and twenty should be
cast into the lions' den, and they were all devoured
before ever they came to the bottom of the den.
"There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked,"
but the man who trusts in the Lord need never be
troubled. D. L. Moody.
311
DAY
XXVI
Christ came not alone to preach the gospel, but
to be the gospel. When the cross was taken down
scarcely any one knew that Jesus had ever been in
the world, and his own disciples did not know clearly
and fully why he had come. One thing was done to
make the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ
known to the world, and that was done in one in-
stance by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus wanted some-
thing done, but he never hired any one and he never
will. He said to Peter, "Simon, do you love me
enough to do anything just because you love me?"
Simon answered, "Lord, I do." Then Jesus said,
"Simon, I have died for the world, and the world
does not know it. Do you see those sheep? They
are my sheep; I have been feeding them; and now I
am going out of the world. Simon, will you take
care of these sheep?" "Yes, Lord." "I shall de-
pend upon you, Simon; those sheep will starve to
death if you do not feed them." " But, Lord, what
is John going to do?" "No matter about John.
Simon, will you feed my sheep?" Simon said,
" Lord, I will." Then Jesus went to heaven with no
more anxiety; and if, when he reached heaven, some
archangel had said, " Son of God, thou didst die for
the world; does the world know it?" "Scarcely
any one." "What arrangement have you made?"
" Simon said he would go and tell the world that I
have died." "And you trusted Simon?" "Yes."
"But, Lord, you might as Avell never have left
heaven if Simon fails you." " I know it. I depend
upon him." Jesus knew that love never faileth, and
so he went calmly to his eternal home. Then the
Holy Spirit came, and men witnessed and preached.
Alexander McKenzie.
312
DAY
xxvn
It seems to me as if there has been but one in-
stance of faith. Jesus Christ went to heaven, not
calling legions of angels, but trusting a handful of
fishermen to tell men of his death on the cross for
them. No men were truer than they; before those
men had left the world there was scarcely a tribe
upon the earth that had not heard of the redeeming
love of the world's Saviour. It needed but to carry
it on a little longer, and long, long ago the whole
world would have heard the story, and foreign mis-
sions would never have been known.
But there came a time when the men disappointed
this trust. The shepherds began to feed the sheep
a little less, and presently the work of shepherds
was to make the sheep feed them. An old writer
has said that in the early days of the church they
had wooden chalices and golden bishops, but now
the church has golden chalices and wooden bishops.
One of the popes said, " The time has gone by when
the church had to say, ' Silver and gold have I none.' "
"Yes," was the answer; "and the time has gone by
also when the church can say, ' In the name of Jesus
of Nazareth, rise up and walk.' "
Hear the appeal of Jesus Christ to you and to me:
" Do you love me ? " " What is the salary? " " I
do not give any salary." A m.an may well count the
cost, for you know what is coming next: "Do you
love me more than money, more than ease, more
than life?" And when one replies, "Lord, thou
knowest that I love thee," there is always one an-
swer: "I died for that man, and he does not know
it; go and tell him." There are thousands of men
and women who are without God and without a Sa-
viour; go tell them. Alexander McKenzie.
313
DAY
xxvm
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.— James iv. 8.
There is not a moment, not a talent, not a possi-
bility of our being that should not be consecrated
entirely to God and that should not be surrendered in
tender, grateful, humble submission to his authority.
We should feel that we could not afford to go out
into the world and engage in its pleasures, its pur-
suits, and its ambitions, not because we have not
the money, but because we cannot afford the peril,
the temptation, the risk to the soul's peace and
progress. Our ambition, our pleasure, should be to
get nearer to God.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
God is the critic of the thoughts and intents of
the heart, and I hardly can conceive of a better way
of achieving saintliness than every night to sit still
and let God say to you whatever he has to say. By
the touch of his Spirit he seeks to mold men, but
you must give the Spirit of God time. More bless-
ing has been obtained among the hills and woods
about Keswick than in the tent, though it has been
the scene of the meeting of God and the soul in
thousands of cases.
F. B. Meyer.
Conversion and consecration stand in marked con-
trast. In conversion the believer receives the tes-
timony of God and sets his seal to it that it is true.
In consecration God receives the gift we place upon
the altar and sets his seal upon the believer that he
is true.
J. Wilbur Chapman.
314
^^^iJ^±^ DAY
S^<^ XXIX
And we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to his pur-
pose.—Rom. viii. 28.
How wonderfully blessed to have everything that
happens to me a pure blessing! A man may curse
at me, an accident may injure me terribly, I may be
brought to poverty; but if I once learn that there is
the blessing of God in everything, what a life of
blessing and love and joy unspeakable I shall have!
God sent the storm when Jonah v\^ent aboard the
ship ; God appointed a great fish to swallow him, and
afterward to cast him out; God caused the hot wind
to blow when the sun was sending down its scorch-
ing rays upon Jonah; God made the gourd to grow,
God sent the worm to kill the gourd, and God sent
the east wind to distress Jonah. If I am a child of
God every circumstance of my life, every comfort
and every trial, comes from God in Christ. So if I
give up my whole life to Jesus and say, "Lord, I
want grace to believe that thou art overseer," noth-
ing really harmful can touch a hair of my head.
The secret of the Christ-life is this: such a con-
sciousness of God's presence that, whether Judas
came to betray him or Caiaphas condemned him
unjustly or Pilate gave him up to be crucified, the
presence of the Father was upon him and within
him and around him, and man could not touch his
spirit. That is what God wants to be to us. God
first says to Moses, *' I ^vill bring you out," and then,
"I will bring you in." Ah, God be praised! he has
brought many of us out of the unconverted state;
but has he brought us into the life of abiding com-
munion? I fear not.
Andrew Murray.
315
DAY
XXX
Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.—
1 Cor. vii. 23.
Jesus Christ has bought us with his blood, but
alas! he has not had his money's worth. He paid
for all, and he has had but a fragment of our energy,
time, and earnings. Of old the mighty men of Israel
were willing to swim the rivers at their flood to come
to David, their uncrowned but God-appointed king.
And when they met him they cried, " Thine are we,
David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse." They
were his because God had given them to him, but
.they could not rest content till they were his also
by their glad choice. Why, then, should we not
say the same to Jesus Christ?
F. B. Meyer.
It is the hardest thing in the grammar of life to
learn to put *'mine" and "thine" in just the right
place. That is life's lesson. Paul had learned it when
he said, "Ye are not your own," and when he stood on
that deck in the storm and said, " God, whose I am
and whom I serve." The Christian man is the man
who has found to whom he belongs. The world
wants men who know where they belong and to
whom they belong.
W. W. Moore.
One may use that which has been dedicated and
belongs to God, but in doing so he robs God. Ye
are not your own. Ye have been bought with a
price, and the price is the precious blood of Christ;
and ye were sealed with a seal, which is the Spirit
of God.
J. Wilbur Chapman.
816
DAY
XXXI
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also
appear with him in glory.— Col. iii. 3.
There are three truths upon which I try to live
every day: "I have died;" "My life is hid with Christ
in God;" and "When Christ, who is my life, shall
be manifested, I also shall be manifested with him
in glory." Do you believe that? If you have not
set to your seal that God is true in these great
statements, oh, for the Spirit of God to seal them
upon your heart!
Marcus Rainsford.
Our life is a trust, not a gift; let us use it ac-
cordingly. Robert E. Speer.
Some men talk of holiness as if it meant that it
was wrong to laugh, be bright, engage in manly
sports, play the piano, read any book but the Bible,
or follow certain pursuits for which we have natural
aptitudes. I believe that God in his Word will not
contradict the nature which he has given, and that
which is wrong in us is not our natural aptitudes,
but the self-life around which those aptitudes re-
volve. The life which God desires his children to
live is not a life of denial of anything which God
has imparted, but the transference of these from
the pivot of self to the pivot of not self, w^hich is
Jesus Christ, incarnate love. The man who enters
this life is still a bright companion, a manly athlete,
still enters into all that home and friendship and
life may mean ; but everything is hallowed, elevated,
ennobled, because revolving evermore round the will
of Jesus Christ. F. B. Meyer.
317
In the secret of his presence how my soul delights to
hide!
Oh, how precious are the lessons which I learn at
Jesus' side!
Earthly cares can never vex me, neither trials lay
me low;
For when Satan comes to tempt me, to the secret
place I go.
When my soul is faint and thirsty, 'neath the shadow
of his wing
There is cool and pleasant shelter and a fresh and
crystal spring;
And my Saviour rests beside me, as we hold com-
munion sweet:
If I tried I could not utter what he says when thus
we meet.
Only this I know: I tell him all my doubts, my griefs,
and fears.
Oh, how patiently he listens! and my drooping soul
he cheers.
Do you think he ne'er reproves me? What a false
friend he would be
If he never, never told me of the sins which he must
see!
Would you like to know the sweetness of the secret
of the Lord?
Go and hide beneath his shadow; this shall then be
your reward.
And whene'er you leave the silence of that happy
meeting-place,
You must mind and bear the image of the Master
in your face.
Ellen Lakshmi Goreh.
318
iMontb of iJ^oveniber
"Blue Geuiiaiis
J. Hudson Taj'lor CcHhcdral Tines
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the
Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his.— Rom. viii. 9.
In the matter of consecration God said to an
Israelite, " Now, if you wish to fully consecrate your
life to me, to separate yourself unto the Lord, you
are at liberty to do so for any period that you de-
sire." The vow of a Nazarite might be taken for a
year, or for five or seven years, for a half or a whole
lifetime. God seemed to say, " You may just go in
for as much consecration and blessing as you have
the heart to." But under the new covenant God
would have us all to recognize all through our Chris-
tian life that we are not our own, that we are bought
with a price, and that he has a rightful claim to all
we have and to all we are.
In like manner, under the old covenant the Holy
Spirit was given for special service on special occa-
sions, but it was needful for the receiver to pray,
"Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." The Spirit
was given to Saul, but was taken away, and we might
find other illustrations of the same truth. But to
the believer under the new covenant the Spirit is
given as a seal upon a document, never to be re-
moved—as an earnest not to be recalled until the
redemption of the purchased possession. We may
grieve the Spirit and lose the benefit of his guidance,
but the Spirit does not leave the believer. What we
want is to have the open ear always ready to hear
and to obey the precious One who has taken his
abode within us.
J. Hudson Taylor.
319
DAY
n
. Consecration is not the act of our feelings, but of
our will. Do not try to feel anything. Do not try
to make yourself good or earnest enough for Christ.
God is working in you to will, whether you feel it or
not. He is giving you power to will and do his good
pleasure. Believe this and act upon it at once, and
say, " Lord Jesus, I am willing to be thine;" or if you
cannot say as much as that, say, " Lord Jesus, I am
willing to be made willing to be thine forevermore."
Consecration is only possible when we give up our
will about everything. As soon as we come to the
point of giving ourselves to God we are almost cer-
tain to become aware of the presence of one thing,
if not of more, out of harmony with his will. Every
room and cupboard in the house, with the exception
of this, thrown open to the new occupant; every limb
in the body, but one, submitted to the practised hand
of the good Physician. But that small reserve spoils
the whole. To give ninety-nine parts and to with-
hold the hundredth undoes the whole transaction.
Jesus will have all or none. Who would live in a
fever-stricken house so long as one room was not
exposed to disinfectants, air, and sun? Who would
undertake a case so long as the patient refused to
submit one part of his body to examination? Who
would become responsible for a bankrupt so long as
one ledger was kept back? The reason that so
many fail to attain the blessed life is that there is
some one point in which they hold back from God
and concerning which they prefer to have their own
way and will rather than his. This one little thing
mars the whole, robs them of peace, and compels
them to wander in the desert.
F, B. Meyer,
320
DAY
m
There are three grades of Christian life. There
is, first of all, the dissatisfied life; the life that knows
there is something which it does not possess; the life
that is perpetually discontented, and rightly so, with
itself. There is, second, the life that is half and
half, that now and then rises up to the Mount of
Transfiguration, and then paces for long seasons over
weary wastes of whitened ashes. There is a third
life of satisfaction and contentment, of peace and
power and rest; the life that has made Jesus Christ
its one object; the life that every man lives who is
able to say, in the fine phrase of Ignatius, " 0 Christ,
thou art ' my inseparable life.' " The soul that has
made Christ its one object has entered into rest and
has entered into power; it has entered into a life of
activity which no foe can withstand, and of content-
ment which no storm can ruffle; for over all the seas
where it voyages speaks that voice which quieted
the turbulent waves of the Tiberian Sea: " Peace, be
still." Nothing can overcome or disturb the soul
that is hid with Christ in God and has made Christ
the one object of its life. Robert E. Speer.
The difference in men is the way in which the
truth gets hold of them and passes through them.
The electric current passes through the wire easily
and the wire is unaffected by it; but the carbon-point
in an electric light holds the current and is deeply
possessed by it; hence there flashes out the brilliancy
of an arc-light. So the man that not only lets truth
pass through him, but is charged, possessed, and
held by that truth, becomes a point where truth is
manifested and vivified. Wilton Merle Smith.
321
DAY
IV
Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see
me.— John xiv. 19.
When the sun goes down our hemisphere does not
see it any more, but the moon sees it all night long,
and the moon takes the sun's light and throws it
down upon us. When the Sun of Righteousness set
behind the hill of Olivet the world saw him no more;
but the church, because it is seated in heavenly-
places in Christ, all the night long sees the Sun, and
throws the light upon the world through the Holy
Ghost. The world receives what light it has from
the church, and the church receives it from Jesus
Christ. A. J. Gordon.
Only Christ can influence the world; but all that
the world sees of Christ is what it sees of him in the
life of his followers. ... So that a Christian's use-
fulness depends solely upon his relationship to Christ
and the accuracy with which he reflects the divine
likeness. Henry Drummond.
Those little things which fill up our lives when
relaxation comes are spiritual tests. Do we choose
spiritual pleasures, or are we living on unspiritual
things? Robert E. Speer.
What is needed in the church is simplicity of
worship, a pure gospel, fervent prayer, unity of work,
godly men, beauty of holiness, and prayer for return
of the Holy Spirit. Arthur T. Pierson.
We talk about drawing ministers; what we want
is a few more drawing church-members!
D. L. Moody.
322
;?2-2^ DAY
V
I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day:
the night cometh, when no man can work,— John ix. 4.
This world is a poor enough place for selfishness,
but it is a glorious place for denying self. The op-
portunities for doing good in this world are far be-
yond those in heaven. A very little light goes a
great way; so shines a good deed in a naughty world.
A rushlight in a humble home may guide a wanderer.
In the true spirit of consecration there is light. It
is a great thing to give light, even if it is in the
humblest home and goes no farther. But it does go .
farther. The daybreak is a jojiu] prospect, but not
for those whose lights have smoked and died to ashes.
" If only I had let it blaze in the night, how many
wanderers it might have guided!" you lament.
"Work, for the night is coming;" but better yet is,
" Work, for the night is past." Make good use of
the night while it lasts. The light of love is greatly
needed. There should be no limit to great-hearted-
ness. J. Monro Gibson.
Christians are constantly praying that they may
hear, " Well done," when the Lord comes to reward
his servants, while, as a matter of fact, they are do-
ing nothing. They talk about entering into rest, but
what are they going to rest from? A beautiful verse
in Thessalonians referring to the rest of the saints
is, "Those that are laid to sleep through Jesus."
Dives was tormented with insomnia. If he had been
late to dinner because he was looking after Lazarus's
family, and had clothed a thousand children among
the poor, he might have had sleep; but because he
was self-centered he could get none.
A. J. Gordon.
323
DAY
VI
The Bible is the most practical book in the world.
It flies straight as an arrow to its mark and wastes
no time on side issues. Its one design is to bring
men into right relations to God, and so to save them
from their sins and guide them into heaven. There-
fore it is not a revelation of all religious truth; it
reveals only what we need to know for our salvation.
Consequently, also, it contains many statements
which present only partial truths. As a rule, they
present facts, not reasons; duties, and not the phi-
losophy of religion. Hence there are many omissions
of what would interest us greatly as to the history
of the past, as to science, as to the biography of
great men. Addison P. Foster.
When Kepler was seeking to discover the true law
of planetary motion, he made seventeen successive
experiments before the hypothesis was applied which
disclosed the true path of a planet's orbit. In the
endeavor to unlock the mysteries of planetary motion
he had tried seventeen different keys, and they would
not work; but at last he said, "I will suppose the
path of a planet around the sun to be not a circle,
but an ellipse, with the sun at one of the foci."
When he put that key in the lock the bolts were
thrown back, the doors that had been shut for mil-
lenniums flew open ; he flung up his hands in rapture
and said, "0 Almighty God, I am thinking thy
thoughts after thee." That is the way to study the
Bible. Take the biblical facts and seek to find God's
key. When you have found that, it will perfectly
unlock God's mysteries, and you will not need to go
hunting around for a human locksmith.
Arthur T. Pierson.
324
DAY
vn
The unity of the Bible is fourfold. First, the same
purpose runs through the Bible. The first two chap-
ters describe the creation of the first earth, the last
two chapters the creation of the new earth; the first
two the birth of man, the last two the birth of the
race; the first two the earthly Eden, the last two the
heavenly Eden. And all the Bible between is the
bringing of man from earth to heaven.
Second, there is the unity of the character of God.
He is always holy, pure, sin-hating, the eternal
Father, Saviour, and Comforter.
Third, the moral law of the Bible is always the
same. The ten commandments are just as binding
to-day as three thousand years ago, and as much en-
forced by the conscience of men. They smite every
sin and crime of the nineteenth century as they did
the sins of the past. The applications have been
different, but they have the same hold on human
nature. The ceremonial laws were not done away
with, but fulfilled in Christ, and the spiritual truths
thus taught are eternal truths. The laws are the
scaifolding that falls away, and the truth is the
temple that remains forever.
Fourth, there is a unity of the scheme of redemp-
tion running throughout the whole Bible, at first in
types and symbols, in ceremonies and forms, for the
training of the infancy of the race in the truths of
salvation, and at last in the life of the Son of God
and his atonement on the cross, to which all types
and sacrifices pointed, and in which all were fulfilled.
We will not understand fully the Old Testament
and its sacrifices till we see them in the light shining
from the cross, which they prefigured and foretold.
F. N. Peloubet.
325
DAY
vm
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.—
John vii. 17.
Obedience, as Robertson puts it, is the spiritual
organ of knowledge, and if any man refuses to obey
what he knows, he shall know no more; whereas if
any man obeys what he knows, he shall be led
swiftly in the path of truth.
A. F. SCHAUFFLER.
The Bible rings with one long demand for obedi-
ence. The key-word of the Book of Deuteronomy is,
" Observe and do." The burden of our Lord's fare-
well discourse is, " If ye love me, keep my command-
ments." We must not question or reply or excuse
ourselves. We must not pick and choose our way.
We must not think that obedience in one direction
will compensate for disobedience in some other par-
ticular. God gives one command at a time; if we
obey this he will flood our soul with blessing, and
lead us forward into new paths and pastures. But
if we refuse we shall remain stagnant and water-
logged, make no progress in Christian experience,
and lack both power and joy.
F. B. Meyer.
There is only one way to get to know God, and it
is along the path of obedience, along the path of
bowing our stiff knees, and opening our lockjawed
mouths, and praying out of our hearts, and giving
our entire obedience to his will.
John McNeill.
326
DAY
IX
And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business,
and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.—
1 Thess. iv. 11.
Here St. Paul exhorts us to service conjoined
with silence, doing the best we can and saying noth-
ing about it. Some clocks strike the hours, and
some tell the time of day only with their hands. So
some Christians advertise their business, and others
do it and say nothing about it. Two texts ought to
be read together: "Do not sound a trumpet before
you," and "Let your light so shine." God wants
you to be ambitious to have good works that some-
body can see; light travels faster than sound, and
so, with Christians, you see the flash before you hear
the report if they are the right sort. The ambition
is, not that men may praise you, but that they may
glorify your Father which is in heaven. You thus
have an opportunity to be ambitious, and yet to be
sublimely humble.
A. J. Gordon.
The first thing a man must do if he desires to be
used in the Lord's work is to make an unconditional
surrender of himself to God. He must consecrate and
then concentrate. A man who does not put his whole
life into one channel does not count for much, and
the man who only goes into work with half a heart
does not amount to much. We are living in an in-
tense age, and if a man is to succeed he must set
himself apart for the work and throw all his energy
into it.
D. L. Moody.
327
DAY
X
The Bible has very little to say about the end of
its heroes and heroines, but very much about their
beginning. The death-bed, the parting scene, the
final rapture— these things find small space in the
Scriptures; but the divine summons to service is re-
lated almost everywhere with minute and definite
detail. What was the end of the life of the Apostle
Paul ? The last sentence in regard to him reads, "Paul
dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, . . .
preaching the kingdom of God, ... no man for-
bidding him." But the conversion of that apostle
with his summons to his apostolate is related three
times with wonderful and startling vividness. The
last sentence with regard to Peter is simply, " And
Peter departed and went into another place." But
can we ever forget how the young Messiah, w^alking
by the Sea of Galilee, summoned the young apostles,
Peter and Andrew, to follow after him? Peter was
never weary of telling of that. So of Moses it is
saidj " No man knoweth his sepulcher," but every
man knows his call. Did Amos pass away in peace ?
What were the closing scenes in the life of Ezekiel ?
What was the end of Jeremiah? The Bible does not
tell us; but every one of those prophets has related
with the utmost detail how at some time in his life
a divine hand was laid upon him, and a divine voice
was heard speaking to his soul. In short, the Bible
places tremendous emphasis on the fact that God
does summon men and women to specific forms of
Christian service, and that we may recognize his call.
W. H. P. Faunce.
S2g
"^ XI
There are three passages in which Christ speaks
of the work we ought to do and where he teaches
the principle of the overflowing cup. They are very
remarkable. First, " As the Father hath sent me,
even so send I you." Are you willing to be sent
into the world as Jesus Christ was sent? We
shrink back. I believe that it is true, and yet it
is hard for me to believe that I am sent down into
the towTi where I live as Jesus Christ was sent into
the world. The next passage carries us a little
further; it teaches that if you go into the world
loving and trusting Christ you shall do the works
that he did, "and greater works than these shall
ye do." Have you worked any miracle to-day? We
talk about Christ's miracles. He said, "You shall
do greater ones." Think of that! Jesus opened
the eyes of a blind man, and he looked up and saw
the face of his Lord. Have you ever opened your
friend's eyes so that he looked up into the face of
Jesus? That is a greater thing. The other pas-
sage is the strangest of all. Christ said to the
Father, "The glory that thou gavest me I have
given them, . . . that the world may know that
thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me." I
believe with all my heart in the love of God. But
here we see his royal bounty. Let us be willing to
be loved as Christ is loved, and to love in return
with all the heart and more.
Alexander McKenzie.
We are workers together with God; do not let us
forget God.
Francis Murphy.
329
^0-0^^^^^
DAY
xn
Power belongeth unto God.— Ps. Ixii. 11.
It is only as we have power from on high that we
have spiritual power at all. Some people have a
good deal to say about the latent power that exists
in the church of God. There is no such thing as
power, either latent or expressed, in the church of
God. Power is just as distinct from the church as
steam is distinct from the engine that it moves, or
as life is distinct from the earth that seems to bring
it forth.
B. Fay Mills.
There is no such thing as a church of God in
which the Spirit of God does not preside. There
are a great many so-called churches of Christ which
I believe Christ utterly disowns because the Spirit
of God does not regulate those church organiza-
tions. They are mere churches of men— sometimes
religious clubs, sometimes benevolent societies,
sometimes social organizations, baptized with a re-
ligious name; but that alone is a church of God in
which the Spirit of God rules and presides, and
where his invisible headship is acknowledged and
reverently submitted to in the fear of God.
Arthur T. Pierson.
The Holy Spirit must have the right atmosphere
to work in. You must have air to convey sound,
and you must have the Spirit in order to carry
home the truth to men's hearts.
D. L. Moody.
All Christians, like all Scripture, should be God-
breathed. A. J. Gordon.
330
^^Z^ DAY
^^
xni
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross, and follow me. —Matt. xvi. 24.
I must deny myself and take Jesus himself as my
life; I must choose. There are two lives, the self-
life and the Christ-life; I must choose either of the
two. "Follow me," says our Lord; "make me as
your rule of conduct, give me your whole heart,
follow me, and I will care for all."
Andrew Murray.
The clay has no option but to be what the potter
would make it; but, somehow, you and I possess the
marvelous power of saying "Yes" and "No" to
God. If you say " Yes," then you have the blessed-
ness of the beatitudes; if you say "No," "Woe to
him that striveth with his Maker!" God wants to
make you, but you have the power to resist, and
you have used it.
A great Christian worker, when dying, was asked
the secret of his saintliness. He modestly dis-
claimed any title to saintliness, but he said, "The
secret of my life is that I have said ' Yes ' to Christ."
I think I hear that clay saying " Yes " to the potter
every time he touches it. With all your heart say
" Yes " to Jesus Christ, and let him have a chance
to make you over again. F. B. Meyer.
We talk about being surrendered to the will of
God. When you get into your carriage you sur-
render yourself to the horse, but you hold the reins
and make him go where you want to. It seems that
we surrender to God's will, but try to hold the reins
and do God's will by doing our way.
A. J. Gordon.
331
DAY
XIV
There is more said in the Bible about praise than
about prayer. I believe it is just as important that
we sing with the Spirit as that we pray with the
Spirit or speak in the Spirit, and if we could have
all our worship in the Spirit, the Holy Ghost would
work not only while we were preaching and pray-
ing, but while we were singing. Many a church
has lost its power on account of the choir that has
not been in harmony with God. A godless choir
will keep the Holy Ghost from working in any
church, or a choir that sings in an unknown tongue.
We don't thank and praise God half enough.
That is one reason why so many of our churches are
so dull and gloomy. When churches get into a
backslidden state, they hire singers to stand away
up in some organ-loft and praise God for them.
How can we expect God to give us further blessings
if we don't thank him for what he has given us?
One of the best ways to wake a church up and start
a revival is to hold a praise-meeting.
D. L. Moody.
Cheerful tempers manufacture solace and joy
out of very unpromising material. They are the
magic alchemists which extract sweet essences out
of bitter herbs, like the dear old colored saint in
the smoky hut who was " glad of anything to make
a smoke with," and, though she had but two teeth,
thanked God that they were " opposite each other."
Arthur T. Pierson.
God can do no more for you than he has done.
All that God has is within your reach, but you must
learn to take it. F. B. Meyer.
332
DAY
XV
The work of the hands and of the head are sub-
ordinate to that of the heart. If you have been re-
deemed by Christ, renewed by the Holy Ghost, and
your citizenship is in heaven, what is your principal
business? It is to tell others about Jesus Christ,
and bring them to the knowledge of his love and
of his grace. Whatever else you do must be sub-
ordinated to that, and it is a shame and scandal in
our nineteenth-century Christianity that so many
business men get and live and labor and save, as if
they understood that getting riches was the end of
their existence, instead of getting riches in order
to glorify God. I care not what your occupation
is,— you may be a carpenter at the bench, a black-
smith at the forge, a merchant behind the counter,
—your first business is to give the gospel to those
that have not heard it. Does it look as though we
regarded it as our principal business?
There are eight billions in the hands of Christians
in America; that is, invested for the most part in
bonds, mortgages, diamonds, silks, horses, carriages,
houses, furniture, pictures, and a thousand other
things— vastly more than in that which ought to be
the principal business of the Christian, giving the
gospel to the world. Some men say, "I believe
that the world is getting better and iDetter every
day," although they have milHons laid up, and yet
you cannot get twenty cents out of them for the
Lord's work. A. J. Gordon.
There is no other way to win a soul than by see-
ing in him one whom Christ loves, and whom Christ,
your Saviour, would have you win to him.
L. W. MUXHALL.
333
DAY
XVI
Enthusiasm is the normal condition of a true
Christian. Sometimes in the month of February,
when the thermometer is away down at zero, an
ignorant man says, " The sun doesn't give as much
heat as usual; it must be burning out and cooling
down." But on the very day when the thermome-
ter is at zero, if you could send a pyramid of ice
fifty miles in diameter flying toward the sun at the
rate of two hundred and seventy millions of miles
in a minute, it would melt as fast as it flew. We
are at a different angle to the sun in February to
what we are in July. If you are a cold Christian
you are in a wrong attitude toward Jesus Christ;
away from duty, away from prayer, away in worldli-
ness, away in unbelief, indulging in some besetting
sin. When you get into the right position with
reference to Jesus Christ, the blessing will descend
upon you most abundantly.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
A great many people are afraid of enthusiasm.
If a man is enthusiastic they raise the cry, "Zeal
without knowledge!" I should rather have zeal
without knowledge than knowledge without zeal.
I know men as wise as owls without any fire in
their souls. Enthusiasm means "in God"; and I
can't understand how any man can realize his stand-
ing before God and not be on fire three hundred and
sixty-five days in the year. Any man who goes into
business and doesn't throw his heart into it doesn't
succeed. Now why not go into the Lord's work as
earnestly as into athletics?
D. L. Moody.
834
DAY
xvn
The psalmist tells us that " the fool hath said in
his heart, No God, no God." It was a fool who said
it, and even a fool had to say it in his heart, for
even a fool's head knew better than that. Atheism,
of whatever kind, is a freezing void, an arctic breath,
a lifeless life, an atmosphere in which no wing can
soar, no heart can beat, and no soul rejoice. Athe-
ism can transform a rare day in June into a raw
day in January. R. S. MacArthur.
A good theological definition of the nature and
effects of the labors and mission of an atheist or
infidel is, "The devil's whetstone to sharpen dull
preachers on." I. D. Driver.
Honest doubt is simply the absence of conviction,
and its remedy is evidence; dishonest doubt comes
from moral alienation, and its only remedy is re-
pentance and submission to truth. You can no
more cure dishonest doubt by evidence than you
can cure cataract on the eye by an operation on the
ears. We should respect honest doubt which comes
from insufficient evidence; for we are not sponges
to be put a-soak in a tub of doctrine, and take up
whatever happens to be in the tub. But an honest
doubter will leave no stone unturned in order that
he may find out the truth. Arthur T. Pierson.
The most mischievous infidelity is not that which
men read out of books, but that which they read out
of professedly Christian lives. When church-mem-
bers show that Christ is able to cast out the devil of
self, they will furnish the evidence which the skeptic
demands. Josiah Strong.
335
DAY
xvm
A small circle of usefulness is not to be despised.
A light that doesn't shine beautifully around the
family table at home is not fit to take a long way
off to do a great service somewhere else.
J. Hudson Taylor.
Some men are afraid of being too religious.
What we need to-day is men who believe down deep
in their soul what they profess. The world is tired
and sick of sham. Let your whole heart be given
up to God's service. Aim high. God wants us all
to be his ambassadors. It is a position higher than
that of any monarch on earth to be a herald of the
cross; but you must be filled with the Holy Ghost.
A great many people are afraid to be filled with the
Spirit of God— afraid of being called fanatics. You
are not good for anything until the world considers
you a fanatic. Fox said that every Quaker ought
to shake the country ten miles around. What does
the Scripture say? "One shall chase a thousand,
and two shall put ten thousand to flight." It takes
about a thousand to chase one now. It takes about
a thousand Christians to make one decent one now.
Why? Because they are afraid of being too reli-
gious. What does this world want to-day? Men—
men that are out and out for God, and not half-
hearted in their allegiance and service.
D. L. Moody.
What a cowardly religion it is to be afraid to
oppose the foe until Christ has vanquished him, and
then rush over his corpse and kick it and get all we
can from what Jesus has done, but never think of
him who gained the victory at the cost of his life.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
336
DAY
XIX
Sanctification is making real in our lives our con-
dition in Christ. If we are sanctified in Christ, it is
our business to be sanctified in ourselves. Make
the real state correspond to the ideal. The gospel
is the opposite from morality. Morality says, " I
ought to be holy, therefore I will be holy." The
gospel says, "Ye are holy in Christ, therefore be
holy in yourself." A. J. Gordon.
God's Word tells us that the Holy Ghost is already
given as the universal income of the church. We
shall know the full extent of our inheritance when
we see Jesus as he is ; meanwhile, the Holy Ghost is
described as " the earnest of our inheritance." A
man may possess a splendid income and yet may
never have seen his magnificent property. What
we enjoy of our income is the measure of holiness
which we really possess and exhibit in this life.
Holiness is, so to speak, the expenditure of income
received through God's gift of the Holy Spirit.
Hereafter the inheritance will be ours in its full-
ness; then we shall know as we are known.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
A man who is filled with the Holy Spirit will have
an undoubted assurance of his sonship; moreover,
he will be cleansed from the power and love of in-
dwelling sin; he will be tempted, but will find that
his inner nature is like a tinder-box which has be-
come damp. The devil will still try to strike his
matches upon him, but the man will not respond;
he will be so saturated with the Holy Spirit that
there will be no response as in other days.
F. B. Meyer.
337
DAY
XX
It is more blessed to give than to receive.— Acts xx. 35.
This is true whatever be the character of our ac-
quisitions. There are riches of learning; but what
are the highest advantages of intellectual culture?
Is one to study and travel, read and write, simply for
the sake of being a student, a writer, a walking library
of knowledge or an encyclopedia of information?
Our instincts tell us that we are not to live simply
to acquire; society does not want mere effigies,
whether stuffed with bran or brains; but the world
wants men, living, working, serving others, who ac-
quire in order to impart, who have at heart the good
of the race. Arthur T. Pierson.
Inquire diligently what blood mortgage there is on
your property in the interest of foreign missions—
how much you owe to the heathen because of what
you owe to Christ for redeeming you with his pre-
cious blood. It will go hard with you when your Lord
comes to reckon with you if he finds your wealth
invested in superfluous luxuries, or hoarded up in
needless accumulations, instead of being sacredly
devoted to giving the gospel to the lost.
A. J. Gordon.
The mistake of the Christian world is that they
expect to have the beatitudes without fulfilling the
conditions attached to them. How often do we pray
that we may have the kingdom of heaven without
thinking that we must first be poor in spirit. How
often do we pray for mercy, without first seeking to
be merciful. How often do we expect to be filled
because we hunger and thirst, when we have never
made sure that what we are hungering and thirst-
ing for is real righteousness.
338 Henry Drummond.
DAY
XXI
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such
there is no law.— Gal. v. 22, 23.
Let US not talk of the fruits of the Spirit; it is
the fruit of the Spirit— nine grapes in one bunch.
It is all of one Spu'it who desires to work one and
the same blessed fruit in us all. Here are nine
beautiful grapes, and they all relate to character,
rather than conduct. Perhaps you are longing for
splendid conduct, wanting to go and do some great
works. God wants you to begin with character.
The Holy Ghost works character; then he can fill
you for service; and assuredly God desires all to be
thus blessedly filled. It is no man's special preroga-
tive or gift, above his fellows, to be filled with the
Spirit. But remember that, while the world "re-
sists the Holy Ghost," even a child of God may
" grieve " and " quench " him.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
The Holy Ghost comes to make Christ an actual,
indwelling, always abiding Saviour. Christ saves
me with a full salvation. Whatever delay there
may be in the full enjoyment, if we trust Christ he
will make his word true. Then rest simply upon
the word of promise. Resting means abandoning
yourself to the object upon which you rest. Aban-
don yourself to the living Christ; let your faith rest
in the promise and the love of Jesus— that is your
only safety, but that is a sure foundation.
Andrew Murray.
339
DAY
xxn
It is remarkable how often maps have played a
great part in the extension of the kingdom of God.
The little haystack prayer-meeting in Williamstown
was not simply a place for worship, but a place for
the study of the map of the world. Carey's cobbler
shop was not only a place for making shoes, not
only a place of prayer; it was a place for the study
of the world's map. If your map has less than the
world on it, then you cannot truly decide on your
field of Christian endeavor. I believe that no one
field is better than all other fields, and no one form
of Christian service is more acceptable to God than
all other forms. Suppose we should take Charles
H. Spurgeon, Phillips Brooks, David Livingstone,
and Joseph Neesima, could any of you take those
four lives and say which has been most blessed of
God? We should be content with the song of little
Pippa as she passed through the city singing:
"All service ranks the same with God:
. . . There is no last or first."
Every opening life should have before it the
knowledge of the entire kingdom of God. We
should keep before our eyes what God is doing in
all parts of the world, and remember that the field
is the world, and not simply a little part of it. The
field is not the church; the church is simply the
reapers thrust out into the field. God help us to
keep before ourselves the map of his entire extended
kingdom, and give us a heart that is willing to go
anywhere. Until we are willing to go anywhere we
are fit to go nowhere.
W. H. P. Faunce.
W^^^-'^^^-^^ °^^
'^'^^Kfe
xxni
There is great need at home. Let no man in his
zeal for the mission field minimize for one moment
the need for Christian activity in this land. With
a hundred thousand drunkards going down every
year to the drunkards' hell; with a million voters
unable to read the votes they cast; with four million
children out of the public schools; with thirteen
million children out of the Sabbath-school; with
seventy-five per cent, of our young men never en-
tering a Christian church— God knows there is need
enough for Christian work in the United States!
But enough for what? Enough to make us ashamed
that there should be so much after two centuries
of Christian activity. Yes, but not enough to
justify us in nullifying the last command of Christ.
Whose fault is it that there is so much work to be
done in the United States? Is it the Hindu's or
the Chinaman's or the African's fault? By what
right do we shut them out of the kingdom of God
because of a state of affairs for which they have no
responsibility at all? The gospel was not given to
them on condition that there was no need in Amer-
ica for the gospel. It was given to " every crea-
ture." Of course there is need for Christian work
in the United States, but at whose door is the re-
sponsibility to be laid? God's? "All power is
given unto me, and I hand it on to you." The
heathen's door? They have not knowTi there was
any such country as this. No man can hide him-
self behind the sophistry that God's peculiar love
for our nation, or the peculiar need for Christian
work in this land, justifies us in neglecting the
untold millions who wait that life whose dawning
maketh all things new. Robert E. Speer.
341
DAY
XXIV
There is a world-wide difference between the falling
of a sinner and the stumbling of a saint. The sin-
ner habitually walks in the way of evil; the saint
has deliberately chosen the way of good. When
the sinner falls, he falls in the evil way that he is
pursuing; that is to say, his uniform course is sin-
ful, but his fall involves an outbreaking sin. Lust
has been in his heart, but it breaks out in open im-
purity; latent hate has been there, but it betrays
him into the sin of violence; secret avarice now be-
comes open overreaching or dishonesty. The sin is
in accordance with the habitual life w^hich he has
been leading. On the other hand, when the child
of God, who has chosen the good way and walked in
it thus far, stumbles into sin, this is not in accor-
dance with his ordinary walk; and when he is re-
covered by the grace of God, he pursues the same
path, in the same direction, as before his error.
The difference between these two is finely expressed
in the Bible. James says, " Brethren, if any of you
do err from the truth, and one bring him back." A
brother is supposed to be w^alking in the way of the
truth, and to make a temporary deviation from that
way; and some one is to call his attention to the
evil-doing, and bring him back into the right way.
Again, the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the
Galatians, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in
a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a
one." Some old habit comes up, as it were, from
behind, and, when he is incautious and unheeding,
trips him up, so that he falls. Now you, says Paul,
which are spiritual, go and help him up on his feet,
and set him on his way again, with the help of your
S3mipathy and prayer. Arthur T. Pierson.
342
DAY
XXV
How many men and women of ability there are in
the church of whom we expect great things but
who always disappoint us! What is the matter?
Sin! Oh, if you would have a mighty work of God
in your own soul, ask God to search your heart,
and if God shows you some sin, give it up. No
matter if it is like tearing out your heartstrings,
out with it! It hinders a mighty work of God in
your soul. R. A. Torrey.
You are not responsible if disreputable persons
ring at your door; but for the persons whom you
systematically take into your home life you are
permanently responsible. Just so for the thought
that you dwell on, that you turn as a sweet morsel
under the tongue, that colors and shapes the whole
fabric of your life— for that thought you are respon-
sible. Merrill E. Gates.
Have you gained the victory over the foes with-
in you? There is jealousy. Would you overcome
that? If you are jealous of any one, do him some
good turn. There is a fable of an eagle which was
jealous of another that could outfly him. He saw
a sportsman one day, and said to him, " I wish you
would bring down that eagle." The sportsman re-
plied that he would if he only had some feathers to
put into his arrow. So the eagle pulled one out of
his wdng. The arrow was shot, but didn't quite
reach the rival eagle; it was flying too high. The
envious eagle kept pulling out more feathers until
he lost so many that he couldn't fly, and then the
sportsman turned around and killed him. My
friend, if you are jealous, the only man you can
hurt is yourself. D. L. MoODY.
343
DAY
XXVI
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of
the world.— 1 John ii. 16.
Satan, the world, and the flesh are the three
mighty foes of the child of God.
Man, led captive by Satan at his will, either denies
his existence or clothes him with hoofs and horns,
a creature to be dreaded and shrunk from; instead
of remembering the warning that he appears as an
angel of light, presenting to each a tempting bait,
and luring on in pleasant paths the soul to hell.
Never will you be in so great danger from Satan as
when careless and unconcerned as to his existence,
and even questioning his personality.
D. W. Whittle.
The defiled imagination is the devil's sharp-shooter
secretly firing death-missiles into the souls of man
from the domain of hell. By it he fetters the will,
deadens the sense of right and duty, sears the con-
science, hardens the heart, and destroys the soul.
Using it as a banquet-table, he spreads before ap-
petite, passion, and lust every allurement for evil
which can be wrought out of the wine-cup, gam-
bling game, lottery device, race-track scourge, un-
hallowed love, evil reading, and kindred vices. The
defiled imagination fills the atmosphere of the soul
with reeking odors; it deposits a deadly poison in
the fountain of moral purity, corrupting the stream
of life. As sewer-gas poisons and infects the atmo-
sphere of the home, bringing disease and death in
its wake, so the debauched imagination, the sewer-
gas of hell, infects the domain of the mind.
Anthony Comstock.
344
DAY
xxvn
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to
God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting
life.— Rom. vi. 22.
I have had people come to me again and again
and say, " I would not, of course, go to a polished-
floor ball, but I suppose there is no harm in a car-
pet-dance. I would not for anything go to see
some of the impure plays of which I read or hear,
but a good first-class moral theater I suppose is all
right for Christian people, is it not?" I cannot
stop to weigh worldly pleasures in the scales as a
chemist or a physician would measure out poisons;
to examine into the exact amount of grains that
make up the difference between morality and im-
morality. My Lord has called me to preach a life
full of privilege, when all is consecrated to God; a
life of honor and of delight, in giving up everjrthing
to the Master. Such quibbling distinctions are only
of the devil. We must not degrade our Christianity
thus. We must ask ourselves just this one thing:
" If I am consecrated to God from this day forward,
for time and for eternity, and my profession is real,
how can I prove it best by every action of my life,
by every thought and every word that proceeds
from me?" That is all that we need to inquire.
It is not how near v/e may sail to the world in its
pleasures and custom, and give the fag-ends to God
from a sense of duty and necessity, but how we can
delight our souls in him and his service. There are
many Christians who seem to live upon earth, and
now and then pay duty-calls in heaven; but the
true privilege of the Christian is to live in heaven,
and pay certain duty-calls on earth when God im-
poses the necessity. H. W. Webb-Peploe.
345
DAY
XXVffl
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church, which is his body, the full-
ness of him that filleth all in all.— Eph. i. 22, 23.
Why did God say that Christ was the head to the
church, which was his body ? In the first place, the
head is the seat of government so far as the body
is concerned. It is an indication of a diseased
spiritual condition when the church is not through
and through governed by Christ. What a mighty
work the church might accomplish through the
power of God if it should awaken to tha glorious
truth that the Lord Christ is head over all !
Christ, as the head of the church, is the seat of
wisdom. What a glorious thought that all the wis-
dom locked up in the eternal being of Jehovah is ours!
Suppose it were possible for the various members
of the body to act independently of the headship.
Suppose my right foot were to walk, my left foot
to dance, my right hand to write a sermon, and my
left hand to play the banjo; I should at least make
a very suspicious-looking figure. Many a church in
the sight of God's angels is just as ridiculous as
that. In how many churches you find that instead
of every organization being guided by Christ's wis-
dom and working in harmony, every member is pull-
ing his own way.
Again, the head is the seat of the consciousness
of joy and pain! What a comfort to feel that, how-
ever small the position we hold, Christ feels our joy
and pain! In the physical body sometimes the brain
gets out of order, needs sleep, so that it does not
warn us of danger. But Christ never sleeps.
A. S. GUMBART.
346
DAY
xxrx
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell
together in unity! — Ps. cxxxiii. 1.
A great commentator on the Psalms says that it
is not unity with one another that is meant, but
unity with the great Head which makes unity with
one another. A. J. Gordon.
Three things are essential to the communion of
the saints; first, their union to the Lord Jesus
Christ by his Holy Spirit on his part and faith on
their part; second, the simultaneous workings of
love and hope and joy and peace and life and full-
ness of assurance of salvation in the souls of all
believers; and third, the consciousness of the simul-
taneousness of these workings.
Nathaniel West.
" Many as the waves, but one as the sea," is the
motto of the true church of Christ. But equally
true is it of the works of God and the Word of God.
F. N. Peloubet.
Even among Christians, how often there are di-
visions and bitternesses among those who work to-
gether! The fruit of the Spirit, which is love, is
often absent in Christ's own people. Jesus Christ can
give us the victory over sin and can keep from ac-
tual transgression. I do not say that the root of sin
will be eradicated and that you will not have any
natural tendency to sin; but when the Holy Spirit
comes not only in his power for service as a gift,
but when he comes in divine grace to fill the heart,
there is victory over sin; power not to fulfil the
lusts of the flesh; ability to live peaceably among
our brethren. Andrew Murray.
347
DAY
XXX
My cup runneth over.— Ps. xxiii. 5.
Now there is no use in a cup running over; if a
cup is full, that is enough; if it is nearly full, it is
more convenient; and yet it is the part of friendship
and it is the part of God to have the cup running
over. The Queen of Sheba came to see Solomon,
and when she went away the king, having given
her everything which she asked for, added some-
thing more; not because she had desired it, but be-
cause he had desired it; not out of her heart's seek-
ing, but out of his heart's wishing to bestow. The
part he wanted to give is called the "royal bounty";
that is, the part that overflowed, and it was very
much the best part.
Christ always gives more than men ask for. At
Capernaum they brought a man sick with the palsy.
Jesus saw perfectly well what they wanted, but he
passed over that and said, " Son, be of good cheer;
thy sins are forgiven thee." That was enough. The
man would be able to walk in a few days; death
would heal him. But they were a little discon-
tented, so Jesus healed him— threw that in.
Then he came to that miracle by the Sea of Galilee.
The disciples had toiled all night and taken nothing.
In the morning Jesus told them where to cast the
net, and they drew it in full of fishes— a hundred
and fifty-three fishes. But then there was a fire of
coals on the shore and fish laid thereon. That last
fish is the running over of the cup. That was the
best fish of all. That is what Christ is doing all the
while. He gives us a hundred and fifty-three to
sustain life and then he adds another— that is his
royal bounty.
Alexander McKenzie,
348
(Month of Tfec ember
Holly and Mistletoe
Theo. L. Curler Seniiimrv Grounds^ Winter Scene
Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before
us.— Heb. xii. 1.
We all have what the negro called our " upsetting
sin," but we don't always know what it is. I will tell
you what is the besetting sin of every one of us.
When man fell from God originally he fell into
himself. There is your besetting sin— self. Self is
the house devil, after all, that :very one of us has
to fight; smooth-tongued, suave, hoodwinking us all.
" Oh, how much good I am doing! " Are you? Self
whispered that. When they told a noted preacher
at the foot of the stairs that he had preached a good
sermon he said, " The devil told me that before I left
the pulpit." I tell you, self in some form, my brother,
will be an enemy all the time to be fought. We
must get rid of self, or we can never be filled with
the Spirit. Charles G. Finney said that when he
went into the cities to begin his evangelistic work he
would sometimes preach a day or two without one
atom of power. What did he do? He just let him-
self down before God and prayed God to empty him
of Charles G. Finney, as it were, to take the bump
of self-reliance, self-trust, and self-seeking out of
him. "Seekest thou great things for thyself ?"—
even in Christian work, — ^' seek them not." Let
them be for Christ. When self is out there may be
an inpouring of the Spirit. Pray that you may be
so filled mth Christ that there shall not be room for
the house devil of self.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
849
DAY
n
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spir-
itual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.— Gal. vi. 1.
There we see two marks of the spiritual man:
he will be a meek man and he will have power and
love to help and restore those that are fallen.
Andrew Murray.
Brethren, we are members one of another. Why,
then, do we hurt and annoy one another? There
ought to be no discord in the home or in the church,
because we are called to be one body, and if I wound
a brother Christian I am blighting my own life; I am
spoiling the body which is one.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
To be a Christian a man must be born of the Spirit,
born into the family of God. The Lord Jesus is the
elder brother in this family, and we are all ordained
to be conformed to the image of the elder brother.
If you do not see the likeness to Christ in your
fellow-Christians the trouble may be in the dullness
of your eyes. You must get more of the Spirit of
God as a medium through which the Spirit may shine
upon the eyes of your understanding.
L. W. MUNHALL.
Some people will never know anything about Jesus
Christ except what they see in the lives of his dis-
ciples. We must remind people of Christ by living
the Christ-life ourselves. We must walk so close
behind Christ that people will not see us, but Christ.
J. M. Thoburn.
350
DAY
m
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
—John X. 27.
True sheep know the voice of their shepherd. It
is a sick sheep that will follow a stranger. The
goats will follow anybody's voice, but Jesus is the
only one whom it is safe to follow in all things. If
you follow Abraham you are apt to get to lying; if
you follow Moses you are apt to lose your temper;
if you follow Elijah you'll get discouraged and sit
down under the juniper-tree; but follow Jesus Christ
and you will find that you are led in the path of
righteousness and peace.
D. L. Moody.
When Garibaldi was raising his army he said, " I
have no money, no food, no clothing, no stores, no
resources; let every man that is willing to suffer
poverty, shame, hunger, disease, and death, and who
loves Italy, follow me." It is the measure of our
suffering that will enable us to be like the Master.
It has been said that when he died he left his purse
to Judas, his clothes to the soldiers, his mother to
John, his pardon to the dying thief, and his peace to
his disciples. Some one has said, " I look for the
world and I find it in the church, and I look for the
church and I find it in the world." You may try all
you please for the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and
unless you are ^villing to present your bodies a living
sacrifice to God, you cannot be filled with the Spirit.
D. W. Whittle.
Hope is a heavenly bird of passage, with faith and
love as its wings.
L. W. MUNHALL.
351
DAY
IV
Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready
to be revealed in the last time.— 1 Pet. i. 5.
A great many are afraid that they won't hold out.
It is a good thing to remember that we haven't got
to hold on to Christ; Christ holds on to us.
D. L. Moody.
Two little boys are walking along the road with
their father. One grasps hold of his father's fingers,
and finds that it is about all he can manage. The
other puts his hand right into his father's large,
strong hand, and the father holds it. Suddenly they
come to a ditch in the road. Both slip; the one who
is holding his father's hand loses his hold and goes
down; the other is held up firmly by the father's
strong grasp. You do the trusting and let God do
the keeping, and you will go safe through life and
enter into glory. H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Christ in heaven is our hope in glory, and Christ
in the heart is our hope of glory. An anchor is
useless unless fastened at both ends, and Christ has
fastened one end in glory, while the Holy Ghost
comes down and fastens the other end of the anchor
in our hearts. In olden times the anchor used to be
brought in first and the ship came in afterward. So
Christ has gone in as the forerunner within the veil,
and we shall come in afterward. A. J. Gordon.
God may not give us an easy journey to the
Promised Land, but he will give us a safe one.
Andrew A. Bonar.
352
DAY
V
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not hav-
ing spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy
and without blemish.— Eph. v. 27.
In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and
unblamable and unreprovable in his sight.— Col. i. 22.
Here are eight different terms to express the final
state of the church: *' glorious," "spotless," "with-
out wrinkle," "without any such thing," "holy,"
"without blemish," "unblamable," "unreprovable;"
and Jude has one more adjective— "faultless."
Think of it. Even you are to be presented faultless
before the presence of his glory. The presence of
God's glory is so awful that when Daniel himself,
the well-nigh perfect man in Babylon, was confronted
with the vision of the glory, he says, " My comeliness
was turned into corruption, and there remained in
me no more strength." The very things that he had
prided himself upon,— his virtue, his morality, the
excellence of his character, and the blamelessness
of his life,— when the glory of the Son of God beat
upon him, lost their beauty, and his very comeliness
was turned into corruption. And the holy man of
God, John, who leaned on the breast of eTesus at
supper, tells us that when he beheld the vision of
the glory of the Lord he " fell at his feet as dead."
And yet— astounding fact!— you and I are to be
presented faultless before the presence of that same
glory. It will remove the last taint or scar of sin,
so that even God cannot find a remnant of sin, not
a trace of guilt, not even a scar left by the wounds
of sin on your soul, in your final, ultimate, glorious
perfection,
Arthur T. Pierson.
353
DAY
VI
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof 'but canst not teil whence it coraeth, and whither it goeth:
30 is every one that is born of the Spirit.— John iii. 8.
In condescension to the infirmity of our nature,
God clothes his spiritual truth in material forms,
making the kingdom of nature, which is seen, illus-
trate for us the kingdom of Christ, which is not
seen. The greatest teacher of spiritual truth that
ever lived cast nearly all his instruction in the form
of parables. In like manner, when the Scriptures
would give us some insight into the character and
phases of the third person of the Trinity, they do it
by a series of emblems drawn from the natural world.
One emblem of the Spirit is that of fire, the illumi-
nating agency in the world, as the Spirit is the only
agency that can drive away the darkness of sin and
let in the sunlight of God. Another emblem of the
Spirit is water, the universal cleansing agent, as the
Spirit is the only power that can cleanse us from the
pollution of sin. Another emblem is oil, the old-time
medicine, as the Spirit is the only being in the uni-
verse to bind up the broken heart; also oil is the
consecrating element, and we cannot become kings
and priests unto God until we have the Holy Spirit.
But the m-ost remarkable emblem of the Holy Spirit
is the wind. There are three great points about the
Holy Spirit stated in this verse which our Lord ob-
truded upon the mind of Nicodemus. The wind and
the Spirit are both invisible to man, they are both
indispensable to him, and they are both independent
of him.
W. W. Moore.
354
DAY
vn
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.— 2 Cor. iii. 17.
Some people think that this means liberty for them
to do just about as they please. I never shall forget
how I was startled when a Christian once asked me,
" Do you always have a program made out for the
Holy Ghost in your church?" In most of our
churches everything is planned very exactly: a
voluntary here, a response here, a sermon here, and
so on— all fixed from beginning to end. It is the
lack of liberty that causes so much deadness in the
pulpit and deadness in the pew. Oh, for the liberty
of the Spirit! A. J. Gordon.
When a man tries to speak for Christ without the
help of the Spirit he will not have liberty; he is apt
to be fettered, like Lazarus when he came out of the
grave with a napkin bound over his mouth. If a
man neglects prayer and his Bible he is not going to
have liberty. I have seen ministers in the pulpit as
dry as Gideon's fleece. Sometimes it is the fault of
the minister and sometimes it is the fault of the
people. Do you suppose there would have been any-
body converted on the day of Pentecost if the one
hundred and twenty had been criticizing Peter?
Suppose James had said to John, " I do not think
Peter is preaching as well as usual. It is the most
influential congregation I have ever seen in Jerusa-
lem. There is half of the sanhedrim, and more than
forty of the leading rabbis, and half of the leading
Sadducees; and yet Peter is giving a very ordinary
sort of a talk." But Peter had not talked very long
before there came gales from heaven and swept over
that audience. Those one hundred and twenty were
holding Peter up in prayer. D. L. Moody.
355
DAY
vm
Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there
am I in the midst of them.— Matt, xviii. 20.
If Christ had said, " Where five or six hundred are
gathered in my name, there am I in the midst," how
anxious we should have been to attend great meet-
ings, that we might get near the Lord ! But he says,
" Where two or three are gathered together." If he
had said, "Where bishops or popes or great men
are assembled, there will I be," we should travel the
world over to attend such assemblies. But we go to
the prayer-meeting, and we find only half a dozen,
and we think it is best to adjourn. We say, " There
will be no one there but that old lame brother, and
that blind sister, and that deaf one," and so we stay
away. When we believe what Christ has said we
will not open a prayer-meeting by asking him to
come and be in our midst, but we will come expect-
ing to find him, and will simply say, "Speak, Lord;
for thy servant heareth." H. L. Hastings.
Much of our strength in prayer and effort is ex-
hausted in striving to induce God to agree with us
and come to our assistance. Some one asked Abra-
ham Lincoln to appoint a day of fasting and prayer,
that God might be on their side. "Don't bother
about that," said the man of common sense. " God
is now on the right side; you simply get with him."
The only way to command God is to obey him, just
as the only way to command electricity and steam
is to obey the laws that govern them.
A. C. Dixon.
S56
DAY
DC
Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and sup-
plication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto
God —Phil. iv. 6.
In prayer the most important thing is to catch the
ear of him to whom I speak* Do not offer one peti^
tion until you are fully conscious of having secured
the attention of God. You need to have your heart
filled by the Spirit with the holy consciousness that
the everlasting, almighty God is indeed come very
near you. Andrew Murray.
It is not necessary to make long prayers, but it is
essential to be much alone with God, waiting on his
will, hearkening for his voice, lingering in the garden
of Scripture for the coming of the Lord God in the
dawn or cool of the day. No number of meetings,
no fellowship with Christian friends, no amount of
Christian activity, can compensate for the neglect
of the still hour. F. B. Meyer.
It is possible to recite even as sublime a prayer as
the Lord's Prayer, and do it with as little thought or
emotion or appreciation as though one were reeling
off prayers by the yard. To repeat the alphabet or
multiplication table is not more thoughtless than
many formal prayers that have become mere reci-
tations. Arthur T. Pierson.
He that saveth his time from prayer shall lose it.
He that loseth his time for communion with God
shall find it in blessing. Robert P. Wilder.
God loves us too much to give us all we ask for.
We sometimes pray for razors, and then complain
and say that God doesn't answer prayer.
D. L. Moody.
357
DAY
X
The Bible is not specially concerned with the
points wherein men differ. No; the Bible is busy
with a matter of life and death. Suppose that men
were drowning, and you were shouting directions by
which they should escape. You would call them to
seize the rope you threw them without stopping to
explain to them that a rope which holds the end of a
sail is called a sheet; you vv^ould tell them to swim
to the ship \vithout being particular to describe the
vessel as a hermaphrodite brig, though that might
be its technical name. So the Bible does not trifle
with us by a display of learning or by delays to ex-
plain every trivial thing. It sweeps right ahead in an
herculean effort to save life, and does not stop to
palter over the length of geologic days, or the omis-
sion of a name here and there in a genealogical
table. It tells no untruth, though on a multitude
of subjects it does not commit itself, but presses
straight on to pluck a brand from the burning.
Addison P. Foster.
What man made man may destroy; what God has
made God \v\\\ preserve. The grass of infidel oratory
withereth, the flower of Christian interpretation often
fadeth, but the Word of God shall stand forever.
R. S. MacArthur.
A foolish child can pull a flower in pieces, but it
takes a God to form and paint a flower. Until a man
can construct a book that equals the Bible he would
better let the Bible stand in its solitary grandeur and
power. David Gregg.
358
DAY
XI
A Scotchwoman who received kind letters from
her son found bank-bills inside them, but, having
never seen such money, thought they were only
pretty pictures and put them aside. Many people
think the promises found in the Bible are very pretty
pictures, and perhaps some of you have put them
away in an old tea-pot. Is it not time to understand
that they are drafts on the bank of heaven that will
be honored night and day? God make us ashamed
that we have such a poverty-stricken spiritual life,
when all the resources of the Holy Ghost are ready
to supply our need. God does not want us to be
beggars, but sons. A. J. Gordon.
God never deals out to men just so much as they
need and no more. David said, " He maketh me to
lie down in green pastures." But it would not be
possible for him to lie down in a millionth part of
the pastures. "He leadeth me beside the still
waters." There were a hundred thousand water-
brooks, and he could only wait by one to refresh
himself. There are flowers in the woods where no
man can enjoy their beauty. We could get along
without beautiful birds and their warbling notes.
Ah! they are the overflow of the cup. God gives us
a great many blessings that we do not ask for. So
some people say that there is no need in praying be-
cause God gives us what we need without our asking.
Yes; but God lets us come to him and tell him our
wants, and he gives more than we name. Then let
us ask for what we need, and come back and thank
him for that and for the royal bounty.
Alexander McKenzie.
359
DAY
xn
The most important of all things is the conception
which a man has of God. Given a man's idea of God,
and the degree of sincerity with which God is wor-
shiped, and there can be no difficulty in discovering
the moral quality of the worshiper. Find a man
whose idea of God is low, and you find a heathen.
Find a man whose conception of God is lofty, pure,
tender, loving, and you find a life ennobled and en-
riched with proportionate thought and charity. A
God infinite in power, and in wisdom, and in good-
ness, and in love, a God to whom sin is abominable,
such a God ought to produce a man of purity, of
dignity, of largeness of heart, and of nobleness of
character. David Gregg.
God is true and righteous and holy; he is perfect
in his equity and in his standards. Instead of turning
away from the judgment of God as a blemish on his
character, we ought to rejoice in it as another aspect
of his benevolence. We must have in God the bloom-
ing valley full of beautiful flowers and ^^^th the purl-
ing streams of grace, and also the dark, frowning
crags of divine judgment, the very intensity of
whose shadow implies an intensity of glory, for you
never can get shadow without light. Prostrate
yourself before an engine, and the very quahties
which make it a blessing make it an engine of de-
struction. God moves on a track of absolute and
perfect equity and holiness, and the same qualities
that insure that you would be borne forward into the
eternal ages if connected with God make it sure that
you would be ground to powder if you place yourself
before his wheels of judgment.
Arthur T. Pierson.
360
DAY
xm
There is a sevenfold seal of God upon the Bible,
which may be noticed in the following particulars:
1. Predictive prophecy, the seal of divine omnis-
cience; 2. History and biography, the seal of divine
providence; 3. Miracles, the seal of divine omnipo-
tence; 4. Morality, the seal of divine righteousness; 5.
Unity, the seal of divine omnipresence; 6. Accuracy,
the seal of divine truthfulness; 7. Practical power,
the seal of divine benevolence.
Arthur T. Pierson.
It is not mere speculation of fancy to consider the
tabernacle and temple as typical.
First, they were typical of heaven, God's true
abiding-place, and, indeed, of the whole vast uni-
verse, which is a sjonmetrical temple perfect in
every part, and in which are continually being
sung praises to the almightiness, to the power, to
the wisdom, and to the love of God.
Then the temple stands as a type of the incarna-
tion of the Son of God and of the blessed Christ, the
true meeting-place between God and man. Hence
he could say, "Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up again."
Then we know, from the Epistles to the Corin-
thians, that the tabernacle and temple are types of
every Christian, for, " Know ye not that ye are the
temple of God?" David Baron.
If the early morning hours spent by Christians
over the newspaper were given to the Bible, keeping
the paper till later, what a change would be wrought
in the tone of our Christian life!
Robert E. Speer.
361
DAY
XIV
The believer's union with Christ is represented in
the Scriptures in the form of similitudes because the
human mind thus understands it better. To give
the idea of security it is compared to the union of
the stones of a building with the foundation-stone.
But stones are inanimate, and to supply the idea
of vitality it is further compared to that of the vine
and its branches. But a plant has no consciousness
and power of motion, and therefore the union be-
tween Christ and the believer is compared to that
between the head and memibers of a body : Christ the
head, the seat of intelligence and feeling, the source
of vitality and volition, and all the members being
united to it by a common set of nerves, and by the
community of life and motion. But no affection is
suggested in that figure, so this union is further
compared to that between the husband and wife,
united by a legal tie, and both thus becoming one.
But between husband and wife there may be also a
lack of perfect harmony; and so Jesus compares the
union between himself and the believer to that be-
tween himself and the Father, the sweetest accord
of perfect harmony. And in the eighth chapter of
Romans Paul puts the capstone on this glorious struc-
ture when he pronounces the union between Christ
and the believer to be everlasting, challenging all the
sundering forces of the universe to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
All these ideas are gathered up and expressed at
once in a great general statement in Paul's first
letter to the Corinthians, when he says, " But he that
is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." This general
statement means that the believer is identical v/ith
Jesus in the Holy Spirit. W. W. Moore.
362
DAY
XV
A church is not of much account where the min-
ister does all the preaching, and nearly all the pray-
ing, and all the visiting. D. L. MoODY.
A factory is sometimes linked by a belt to a power-
house. Christ is the center and source of all power
for his church. The. Holy Ghost is the belt to the
church, carrying up our needs and prayers, and
bringing down Christ's answers and fullness. As I
believe that wind-power is the best for sail-boats, and
steam-power is the best for engines, so I believe
that the Holy Ghost is the best power for churches.
For a church to bring in an opera-singer or amuse-
ments and secular appliances to make the church go
is as absurd as for an ocean steamer to uncouple its
shaft from the engine and couple it on to the donkey-
engine. A. J. Gordon.
" Unto every one that entereth the house of the
Lord, his daily portion." You have been looking
ahead and have been fretting because you know not
how the supply ^vill come, how you can ever go
through this or that trial or sacrifice. Beloved,
God never said look ahead, God said look up; God
never said look around, he only said look into the
holy of holies; God never said look down, he only
said look into the face of the living God; "Look
unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."
As we look beyond to-day and say, " How can I ex-
pect that in the w^ear and tear of daily life this holy
peace is to be sustained?" the answer is, "Unto
every one that entereth into the house of the Lord,
his daily portion.'' H. W. Webb-Peploe.
363
DAY
XVI
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.— John i. 1.
A word is the manifestation of a thought. If I
wish to communicate a thought to you that thought
takes shape in words. You cannot see my thought,
but what is there comes through the channels of
speech, and so travels through your ear to your
mind, and becomes part of your thought. Now
Christ became the Word to take the thought out
of the mind and heart of God, and translate that
thought so that we could understand it, so that
what was before invisible and inaudible and beyond
the reach of our senses, comes into our minds and
hearts as something that was in God's mind and
heart, but now is in ours. Beautiful indeed is this
as an expression of what Christ is to us. You want
to know God; well then, study Christ, and you will
know all about him. " He that hath seen me hath
seen the Father," said Jesus.
Arthur T. Pierson.
In the gospel story we find five great points of
special importance— the birth, the life on earth, the
death, the resurrection, and the ascension. An old
writer has called them " the process of Jesus Christ "
—the process by which he became our glorified King
and our life. In all this life-process we must be
made like unto him. In his birth he received his
life from God. In his life upon earth he lived in
dependence on God. In death he gave up his life to
God. In his resurrection he was raised up by God.
In his ascension he lives a life in glory with God.
Andrew Murray.
364
DAY
xvn
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and
things under the earth.— Phil. ii. 9, 10.
The other names of Jesus express his relationships,
offices, and work, but this name is most potent and
precious. There is majesty in the name God;
there is independent being in the name Jehovah;
there is authority in the name Lord ; there is unction
in the name Christ; there is friendship in the name
Immanuel; there is help in the name Advocate; but
in the name Jesus alone is there salvation.
George C. Needham.
Between creation and the incarnation of Christ
there is one small but imiportant object, an altar of
sacrifice. Between the first coming and the second
coming is another small object, the table of the Lord.
The altar of sacrifice refers back to the creation and
fall of man, and forward to the incarnation and cross
of Christ. Every victim that bled upon the altar
reminded men of their sin, of Adam's fall, and of the
disaster that overtook the race, and pointed forward
to the Lamb of God that was to take away the sin
of the world. Likewise the table of the Lord has a
double reference— backward to the cross, forward
to the coming of the Lord; and every time we sit
down at the Lord's table the body and blood of our
Lord, as represented in the bread and the cup, point
back to his cross and forward to his second appear-
ing. " As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this
cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come."
Arthur T. Pierson.
365
DAY
xvm
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me.— Ps. 1. 23.
Christ here teaches that the highest object of
money is not even to minister to the poor, but to
glorify God and express the gratitude of a loving
heart. Arthur T. Pierson.
I am so impressed with the importance that God
attaches to sweet voluntariness that I am often
tempted to resolve never to beg a cent for God
again, but rather spend my energy in getting Chris-
tians spiritualized, assured that they will certainly
become liberalized. A. J. Gordon.
Gold has no value in heaven. They use it there
to pave the streets Vvith— better gold than we have
down here— transparent gold. God can make gold
as easily as he can make dirt; but he knows that
man has his heart set on it, and what he wants is
what your heart is set on. If you love him you will
give him everything.
God told the children of Israel that if they hadn't
», anything else they might even bring goats' hair and
■^ it would be accepted. Thank God for the goats'
hairs! Lots of people haven't any gold or silver or
brass or fine linen, but they have a few goats' hairs.
God wants every one to do something, as much as
each one is able. D. L. Moody.
The church is weighed down to earth by bags of
gold, and cannot lift itself heavenward. You will
have to give an account of that which God has in-
trusted to you to be kept for himself and not for
yourself. David Baron.
366
DAY
XIX
Be not wise in your own conceits.— Rom. xii. 16.
What God wants is men great enough to be small
enough to be used. H. W. Webb-Peploe.
I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves
one above the other, and that the taller we grew in
Christian character the easier we should reach them.
I find now that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath
the other, and that it is not a question of growing
taller, but of stooping lower, and that we have to go
down, always down, to get his best gifts.
F. B. Meyer.
We have come so much to regard humility a car-
dinal virtue of Christianity that we may have forgot-
ten that the Christian should be ambitious. I think
he should be the most ambitious person on the earth.
To whom is the promise of eternal life spoken but
to those who, in patient endurance, in well-doing,
seek for glory, honor, and immortality, than which
there cannot be a much higher ambition ? Humility
is sometimes only pride turned wrong side out, just
as you turn a garment, and dye it, and refit it. A
person says, " If I can get into heaven at last I am
willing to occupy a back seat." But Scripture very
certainly indicates that you are to seek not only
barely to get into heaven, but you are to seek " an
abundant entrance " which " shall be given you into
the kingdom of God." The back seats are all spoken
for, and God wants us to get as near the throne as
possible. A. J. Gordon.
367
DAY
XX
St. Paul says to the Philippians, "In everything
and in all things have I learned the secret [Have
you? What secret?] both to be filled and to be hun-
gry, both to abound and to be in want "—the secret
of perfect contentment. There sat the aged apostle,
bound by a chain to a brutal Roman soldier. Nero
might at any moment order his head to be cut off,
or that he be thrown into the Tiber, or given to the
lions. He has nothing but the comforts of a miser-
able Roman prisoner. He has not even a friend at
times, and yet, with the galling chain upon his wrist,
and facing a martyr's death, the man takes the pen
and writes, " In all things have I learned the secret
[blessed initiation into the mysteries of the kingdom!]
both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound
and to be in want." He drops a little thing, only
one, and gains more than all things; that is the se-
cret. H. W. Webb-Peploe.
The peace of Christ is not something that he puts
into your heart, and that you must keep that it may
keep you. If the peace of God is to rule in my heart
it is because the God of peace himself is there.
Andrew Murray.
How little have we accepted and made use of the
legacy of peace and joy which Christ left to us! In-
stead of faces telling the world what a full salvation
we have, how often a long face has suggested that
men had better take their fill of happiness first be-
fore they leave it behind by becoming Christians!
May God give us so to live winning lives that others
will be allured to desire the same blessings we enjoy.
J. Hudson Taylor,
DAY
XXI
"Woe to him that strive th with his Maker!"
Pharaoh did it, and was overthrown in the Red Sea;
Saul did it, and was deposed; Jehoiakim did it, and
he perished; Judas did it, and he hanged himself; the
Pharisees did it, and their city was destroyed ; Julian
the Apostate did it, and, falling back upon the field
of battle, said, "Thou hast conquered, 0 Galilean!"
You can tell a man who has thwarted God if you
know much about him. Many old fossils give the
same experience twenty years after their conversion
that they gave the month after. In a prayer-meet-
ing many pray the same stereotyped prayer year
after year. Some ministers are just where they
were in their doctrine and the expression, and in
their very sermons, as when they commenced their
ministry— arrested, dwarfed. F. B. Meyer.
We must cooperate with God. If there is any sin
in my heart that I am not willing to give up, then I
need not pray. You may take a bottle, and cork it
up tight, and put it under Niagara, and there will
not a drop of that mighty volume of water get into
the bottle. If there is any sin in my heart that I am
not willing to give up I need not expect a blessing.
D. L. Moody.
These are the things that hinder a mighty work
of God in the individual man: present sin; uncon-
fessed and unrectified past sin; an unforgiving spirit;
fear of surrendering unreservedly to the will of God;
pride; unbelief. Which of them is the hindrance in
your case? Be in earnest; find out the hindrance,
and ask God to take it away. R. A. Torrey.
DAY
xxn
Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his
arm.— Jer. xvii, 5.
Trust in yourself, and you are doomed to disap-
pointment; trust in your friends, and they will die
and leave you; trust in money, and you may have it
taken from you; trust in reputation, and some slan-
derous tongue may blast it; but trust in God, and
you are never to be confounded in time or eternity.
D. L. Moody.
The Scriptures not only tell us that the Christian
religion has come to inform us how we are to be
saved, but that our faith in Jesus Christ conditions
our salvation. It is not as it might have been— that
the salvation came, and that we can get the benefit
of it whether we know anything about it or not,
whether we have any creed or not, whether we re-
pudiate the whole thing or not, whether we believe
in it or not. It is not like the tide, that rises
whether you care about the moon's influence or not.
Our destiny is connected not simply with the fact
of Christ's atonement as recorded in the Bible, but
is conditioned on our acceptance of it. There is no
question of greater moment to you in your intellec-
tual life than this obligation to believe something
definite about Jesus Christ, as to what he was, what
he did, and how the doing of what he did stands re-
lated to the divine economy of men's salvation.
Francis L. Patton.
Unless our faith is manifested in righteousness,
we must beware lest we think it is genuine when it
is not; there must be in it the seed of all holy life.
Teunis S. Hamlin.
370
DAY
xxm
The seed is the Word of God.— Luke viii. 11.
The seed is the perfect fruit of the flower, to which
all parts of the flower are subservient, and the flower
must die to develop the seed in its completeness. The
gospel of Christ is the seed to which everything in
God's Word is subject. Not till Calvary did we have
a complete gospel, which is therefore the final pro-
duct of God's thought; and Christ himself is the rose
of Sharon and the lily of the valley. It was necessary
that Christ should die that you and I might have
that seed which contains the very life of God. We
cannot find the product of God's thought in any
other character. Therefore, though we ought to
know the whole of the Word of God, we ought to
study it only in connection with this thought, that
we are somehow to be led to the clearer and fuller
understanding of the Word of God, which is the seed.
the seed is composed of two parts— the shell, or
outer part, without life, and the inner part contain-
ing life. The gospel of Christ consists of two parts.
There is the shell, the printed Bible; and there is
the inner part, which contains the life and the spirit.
What is the shell for ? So far as the seed is concerned,
for the protection of the life within and for the con-
veyance of that which makes the life within. If you
destroy the shell you destroy the life. The shell of
that seed which is the Word of God has been given us
for the protection of the life within and for its con-
veyance.
God intended the seed for dissemination. Is this
gospel to stay in your heart or town? No; wherever
there is a human heart there is where God expects
this seed to be planted. A. S. Gumbart.
371
DAY
XXIV
God seeks to mold us by circumstances, and you
must believe that God has put you down just where
you are because your present position is the very
best place in the universe to make you what he
wants you to become. He could have made you a
king or a bishop, a millionaire or a statesman; but
he passed all these by and has put you just where
you are. You may be a stablem.an, a cook, or a
housemaid; but God had the whole universe to choose
from, and he wanted to do his best for you, and he
put your soul just where it is because he knew that
there you would be surrounded by the best condi-
tions to make you what he wanted you to become.
F. B. Meyer.
Jesus Christ is a very, very peculiar Saviour to meet
the very, very peculiar need of very, very peculiar
sinners, in all our very, very peculiar circumstances,
and to bring victory to our very, very peculiar souls,
under all the very, very peculiar difficulties under
which we, in our very, very peculiar circumstances,
may be called to pass throughout our lives.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
When a young man is converted he is almost al-
ways inclined at first to say, " I know I could do far
more good if I was a preacher, so I'll leave my busi-
ness and become a preacher of the gospel." But
very often mistakes are made just in this way. God
may have given you some work to do for him in the
position in which he has placed you which no one
else could do if you were to leave it undone. We
should be very careful how we wish to change from
whatever position in life into which God has seen fit
to put us. Andrew A. Bonar.
372
-^i
I wonder not that the scorning skeptic so often
mocks at Christians because he says that they cow-
ardly cringe at the foot of the cross, ready to take
God's gift like a sneak, but show nothing as a fruit
of that blessed gift. Remember that God demands,
and where God demands he enables, and where God
enables he expects us to fulfil.
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
When Leonard Woods, president of Bowdoin Col-
lege, was in France, he was invited to dine with the
king. He presented himself at the palace, and was
met by the king with his accustomed courtesy, who
said, " We did not know that we were to have the
pleasure of your company to-day. You did not
answer our invitation." Leonard Woods said, *'I
thought the invitation of a king was to be obeyed,
not answered." When the Spirit says " Come " it is
equal to a command, and we would better put off
all other engagements and come. No matter how
gently and winsomely the invitation comes, let us
never forget that there is a voice of royal, imperial,
imperious urgency and authority behind it.
John McNeill.
We must not only accept God's will as revealed
in his Word, but we must accept it in every provi-
dence. Whether it be a Judas that betrays or Pilate
in his indifference who gives you up to the enemy,
whatever trouble or temptation, vexation or worry
comes, see God in it, and accept it as his will.
Andrew Murray.
373
DAY
XXVI
It is time that the church of God should awake
to her responsibility. We have been acting as
though we had an eternity in which to do the work,
and the people whom we seek to reach an eternity
on earth in which to be reached.
Arthur T. Pierson.
Did you ever think, my brother, my sister, that if
it were not for missionary work you would be serv-
ing idols to-day? Suppose that Paul and those who
labored with him had been directed to go east in
place of west. How shocked you are when, in some
picture, you see a mother throwing her child into
the Ganges! It might have been you, my sister.
Have you no pity for the fellow-beings that are dy-
ing at the rate of one hundred thousand a day?
W. E. Blackstone.
In China are tens of thousands of villages with
small trace of Bible influence, but hardly a hamlet
where the opium pipe does not reign. It does more
harm in a week than all our missionaries are doing
good in a year; it is the sum of villainies. It de-
bauches more families than drink and it makes more
slaves than the slave-trade.
J. Hudson Taylor.
The world is open to Christian woman as it never
has been before. She must wTite; for a literature
must be created for the women of the East. She
must teach; for the convert must be trained and the
heathen won. She must evangelize; for her feet
alone can carry the good tidings of peace to her
sisters in their seclusion. J. M. Thoburn.
374
DAY
xxvn
The more your religion costs you, the richer re-
turns it will bring you.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
Men talk much of giving their spirits to God; they
talk somewhat of giving their souls; and they think
that they can satisfy God and man by saying that
they present their spirits, which no man can lay
hold of, and their souls, which are only observable
in their outward acts; but they refuse to give their
bodies, for the most part, because this would cost
them something palpable; this would involve what
even men call ** self-sacrifice."
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Christ is our life. The air is our life, and is every-
where. Is the air nearer to us than Christ? Verily,
no! Christ is around us on every side. Nothing in
heaven or earth or hell can keep the light of Christ
from shining into the heart that is empty and open.
Then take him in his blessed meekness and gentle-
ness. When he has taken possession of you there
will be blessed fellowship with him day by day.
Andrew Murray.
Hercules could not kill the monster against which
he contended until he lifted him from earth, his
mother. We are engaged in a violent struggle with
evils that are of the earth, earthy, and w^e shall
never kill those things within us and of us till we
lift them away from that in which they were born
and cleanse them in the atmosphere of spiritual
union with Christ. W. W. Moore.
875
DAY
xxvm
Before any work for God there always comes the
vision of God. To behold him, to be lifted up above
our troubled hearts, above our worries and discords,
and to be absolutely sure that we have spoken with
God and he has spoken with us, this is the indis-
pensable preliminary of doing anything whatsoever
in God's service. If a servant of God is uncertain
of his Master he will be uncertain of everything
that follows in his service. If you and I have no
doubt about having seen God, then our divine service
will grow sweeter and clearer and easier every year
we live. I have had men say to me, " Didn't Paul's
Christian life begin with the question, * What wilt
thou have me to do?'" No, it did not; no life be-
gins with that question. It began with the question,
"Who art thou. Lord?" When Paul had settled
that it was the risen Christ who appeared to him,
then came the much easier question, "What wilt
thou have me to do?" We cannot feed the multi-
tude out of an empty basket; we cannot present the
Lord until we have seen the Lord.
W. H. P. Faunce.
When God beckons you forward he is always re-
sponsible for the transport. F. B. Meyer.
When God almighty linked himself with Moses'
rod it was worth more than all the armies in the
world. If God can use an old, dried-up, withered
rod he can use you and me. It was not Moses nor
Moses' rod that brought the plagues on the Egyp-
tians, but it was the God behind the rod.
D. L. Moody.
Point to without trying to prop up the cross.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
376
DAY
XXIX
Remember there are few, if any, cases where in
judgment much is made of sins committed; for they
are purged away by the blood of Christ. Men are
judged because of what they have not done, more
than because of what they have done. As a Christian
said on his death-bed, when asked by a friend who
saw him weeping if he was afraid to die, "Oh no; I
am not afraid, but I am so ashamed to die, for I have
done so little for my Lord." What have you done
for him in return for what he has done for you?
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
Napoleon sought to rule men; Washington aimed
to serve them. You see the results of the two sys-
tems in what is left of them. At Waterloo to-day
you find a great waste desert, in the center of which
is simply a mound to commemorate a great battle.
But around the field of Bunker Hill sprang up the
great city of colleges and schools, and those influ-
ences that went out through all the world; that is
the result of the service which Washington rendered
in contrast to the domination of Napoleon. You
find at Mount Vernon a very plain structure for the
tomb of Washington, scarcely to be noticed, except
one goes out of his way to see it. Napoleon's tomb
is in the heart of Paris, and a marble casket holds
his remains. Washington's remains are as broad
as the continent. That is the result of service as
opposed to self-seeking.
Alexander McKenzie.
A man who would have God's guidance must be
willing to make spiritual things his main business.
H. C. Mabie.
377
DAY
XXX
To every truly established Christian there ought
to be a fixed standard of faith and duty, a great
revelation from God of his privilege and obligation
in every respect from the beginning to the end of
eternity. We must put God to the front, and then
remember that the standard of holiness which we
are to attain must never be lowered to meet the
necessity of man's circumstances, but must remain
the same, the absolutely true and perfect standard
of God himself. If God were ever to lower his
standard to meet my requirements there could never
be satisfaction through eternity for us creatures,
because we hope to rise higher and higher, to be
nearer and nearer to God. If I found that God had
lowered his standard of holiness to meet my ideas
down here in my imperfection, how could I reverence
him as the absolute and all-perfect one?
H. W. Webb-Peploe.
The conscience sustains to the mil of God some
such relation as the eye sustains to any work that
we have to do. Your eye may be very accurate,
but who would trust you to build a wall if you have
no dependence but your eye? You must drop the
plumb-line alongside and lay the level upon your
work, and then the united action of eye, plumb-line,
and level helps you to make a perfectly upright wall.
In the matter of truth and duty your eye is the
fallible conscience, the plumb-line and level the
revealed ^vill of God, and the action of the two to-
gether enable you to build a character and to do
works that are according to the will of God. Christ
had to come as the prophet to supply us with the
plumb-line and level. Arthur T. Pierson.
378
DAY
XXXI
That is to be the common, every-day experience
of the believer, not his life only at set times. Did
ever a father or mother think, " To-day I want my
child to love me "? No; they expect the love every
day. So God wants his child every moment to have
a heart filled with love by the Spirit. In the eyes
of God it is most unnatural to expect a man to love
as he should if he is not filled with the Spirit.
Andrew. Murray.
It is only when we begin to love other people, and
become rooted and grounded in love to them, that
we learn to know what Christ's love is to us. You
must love a woman that you may understand what
•Christ feels for his church ; you miust love a child to
know how God feels to his children; you must love
a friend to know how Christ feels to his friend.
Every time you do an unselfish, gentle, tender thing
it is another window into the love of God. You
must go lengths to understand the length of his
love, which is everlasting; you must go depths to
the infamy and degradation of such as you would
help if you would understand the depth of the love
of Christ; you must go breadths outside the narrow
limits of your charity to understand his broad ex-
panse of love ; and you must climb to heights, bear-
ing up some languid, fainting soul, if you will under-
stand something of the upspringing of Christ's love
that bears us in his ascension climb. Love men if
you want to know the love of Christ.
F. B. Meyer.
The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Rom. v. 5.
379
DATE DUE
m»mu ■
'^7''
i^MMI
CAVLORD
rRINTCOINU-S.A.
Theological Semmary-Speer Library
1 1012
01003 4850
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11