HOPE-OR DESPAIR?

By A.W. Tozer


John the Baptist gave his questioners a brief sentence that I have called the "hope and the despair" of mankind. He told them that "a man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven." John was not referring to men's gifts. He was speaking of spiritual truth. Divine truth is of the nature of the Holy Spirit, and for that reason it can be received only by spiritual revelation. In his New Testament letters, the Apostle Paul declares again and again the inability of human reason to discover or comprehend divine truth. In that inability we see human despair. 

John the Baptist said, " . . . except it be given him from heaven"-and this is our hope! These words do certainly mean that there is such a thing as a gift of knowing, a gift that comes from heaven. Jesus promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit of truth would come and teach them all things. Jesus also prayed: "I thank thee, 0 Father, because thou hast hid these things from the wise, and hast revealed them unto babes" (Luke 10:21).

The Delight Of Despair

By Oswald Chambers


'And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.'
Revelation 1:17

It may be that like the apostle John you know Jesus Christ intimately, when suddenly He appears with no familiar characteristic at all, and the only thing you can do is to fall at His feet as dead. There are times when God cannot reveal Himself in any other way than in His majesty, and it is the awfulness of the vision which brings you to the delight of despair; if you are ever to be raised up, it must be by the hand of God.

"He laid His right hand upon me." In the midst of the awfulness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. The right hand not of restraint nor of correction nor of chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it is ineffable peace and comfort, the sense that "underneath are the everlasting arms," full of sustaining and comfort and strength. When once His touch comes, nothing at all can cast you into fear again. In the midst of all His ascended glory the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, and to say - "Fear not." His tenderness is ineffably sweet. Do I know Him like that?

Watch some of the things that strike despair. There is despair in which there is no delight, no horizon, no hope of anything brighter; but the delight of despair comes when I know that "in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing." I delight to know that there is that in me which must fall prostrate before God when He manifests Himself, and if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God. God can do nothing for me until I get to the limit of the possible.

How the Best Things Become Ours

The Friend on the Road and Other Studies in the Gospels: Chapter 3 - How the Best Things Become Ours

By John Henry Jowett


"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it."--Matt. x. 39.

THIS is one of the great laws of the spiritual life, and it covers all the highest things of the Spirit. If we selfishly hoard some spiritual bounty we shall certainly lose it. If we graciously give it away, eagerly letting it out of our hands, we shall have it in increasing abundance and in ever firmer possession. Spiritual treasure is like the widow's cruse of oil, it is ours as long as it is shared.

Nothing is really our own until we communicate it to others. We never see these great things until they are on the way to our neighbour. There are birds which never reveal the beauty of their plumage until they lift their wings to fly. And God's wonderful gifts to our spirit, gifts of truth and consolation, nestling in the depths of the soul, never unfold their hidden glory until we disturb them and send them away to other lives. Just when we are giving them away they become ours in unsuspected strength and beauty. I suppose that the Apostle Paul found new insight into the sacred mysteries of the Lord's Supper every time he unveiled its privileges to other people, and led them to the wonderful feast. "I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you." That is the appointed order in all vital possession. We receive of the Lord; we deliver unto you. And it is only in delivering unto others that the wealth of the reception is revealed. Every time Paul brought a new guest to share the sacramental meal his own spiritual inheritance broadened from glory to glory.

How is it with a truth? We never really own a truth until we begin to share it. The very effort to impart it gives us a stronger hold upon it. Every teacher has this experience. To share some truth with a child opens it out in new splendour. It becomes clearer and more beautiful as it is going away. We gain it while we lose it. How is it with a joy? Unshared joy soon burns itself out, but joy that is shared burns with extraordinary glow. It is oxygenated by fellowship. "That My joy may be in you." That is the law of growth in the matter of joy. My joy in you! It is then that joy blazes with wonderful light and heat.

And how is it with a conviction? My conviction more than doubles its strength when I impart it to somebody else. When I establish another man's life on some great faith or fidelity which forms one of the foundations in my life my sense of stability is immensely enriched. I am led into the experience to which the Apostle Paul refers when he says, "That I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me." We are drinking of the rock which follows us, and that rock is Christ. 

And, finally, how is it with peace? Who knows the real deep inwardness of peace until he becomes a peacemaker? Peace is not something we can keep, and nurse, and enjoy in the locked-up seclusion of our own souls. Peace becomes weak, and sickly, and restless in such imprisonment. 

We only know God's peace in its vital strength as we become peacemakers, enlisting in the ministry of reconciliation, seeking it by sacrifice, yea, making peace with our own blood. It was He who came to shed His blood in the work of reconciliation, "so making peace," who was able to speak very quietly, and confidently, and profoundly of "My peace." And it is along that road, it may be a long way off, but still on that road and following Him, that we too shall come to know the riches of the peace which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord. And we shall find it as we lose it.

But prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him

By A.B. Simpson


But prayer is the link that connects us with God. it is the bridge that spans every gulf and bears us over every abyss of danger or of need. How significant the picture of the apostolic church: Peter in prison, the Jews triumphant, Herod supreme, the arena of martyrdom awaiting the dawning of the morning to drink up the apostle's blood-everything against it. But prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. 

And what was the sequel? 

The prison open, the apostle free, the Jews baffled, the wicked king eaten of worms-a spectacle of hideous retribution-and the Word of God rolling on in greater victory. Do we know the power of our supernatural weapon? Do we dare to use it with the authority of a faith that commands as well as asks? May God baptize us with holy audacity and divine confidence. He is not wanting great men and women, but He is wanting men and women who will dare to prove the greatness of their God. But God! But prayer!

Many Adversaries

By J. Stuart Holden


"For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries" (1 Cor. 16:9).

Let there be no mistake about this. The place of Christian witness is often a hard and lonely place. But it is under just such conditions, matching the confidence of your faith against the apparent hopelessness of your efforts, that your own personal life will most surely develop. You may not appear to make much of the work entrusted to you. But it will make you! The man you are to be will not emerge from the man you are except by hardness and conflict and by the overcoming of obstacles in the power of Him Who neither dispenses with your personality nor suppresses it as you engage together in the holy warfare.

Look out, then, upon that open door! And get you through it in fellowship with Jesus Christ! Look at the adversaries through the opportunity. Don't make the fatal mistake of looking at the opportunity through the adversaries. And remember, now and always, that Christ our Lord does not ask us to do anything that He does not propose to undertake also with us! "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Many adversaries? "Nay. In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us!"

Open My Eyes

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman


"Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see" (2 Kings 6:17).

This is the prayer we need to pray for ourselves and for one another, "Lord, open our eyes that we may see"; for the world all around us, as well as around the prophet, is full of God's horses and chariots, waiting to carry us to places of glorious victory. And when our eyes are thus opened, we shall see in all events of life, whether great or small, whether joyful or sad, a "chariot" for our souls.

Everything that comes to us becomes a chariot the moment we treat it as such; and, on the other hand, even the smallest trial may be a Juggernaut car to crush us into misery or despair if we consider it.

It lies with each of us to choose which they shall be. It all depends, not upon what these events are, but upon how we take them. If we lie down under them, and let them roll over us and crush us, they become Juggernaut cars, but if we climb up into them, as into a car of victory, and make them carry us triumphantly onward and upward, they become the chariots of God. --Hannah Whitall Smith

The Lord cannot do much with a crushed soul, hence the adversary's attempt to push the Lord's people into despair and hopelessness over the condition of themselves, or of the church. It has often been said that a dispirited army goes forth to battle with the certainty of being beaten. 

We heard a missionary say recently that she had been invalided home purely because her spirit had fainted, with the consequence that her body sunk also. We need to understand more of these attacks of the enemy upon our spirits and how to resist them. If the enemy can dislodge us from our position, then he seeks to "wear us out" (Daniel 7:25) by a prolonged siege, so that at last we, out of sheer weakness, let go the cry of victory.

Enlarge the Place of Your Tent

Living Without Worry: Chapter 8 - Enlarge the Place of Your Tent
By J.R. Miller


"Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes." Isaiah 54:2

It is a great thing for a man to be able by his influence on others, to enrich their lives. It is said that Michael Angelo once paid a visit to the studio of Raphael, when the artist was absent. On an easel there was a canvas with the outline of a human form--beautiful--but too small. Michael Angelo took a brush and wrote under the figure the word "Amplius"--larger. The same word might be written under many lives. They may be good and beautiful--but they are too small. They need to be enlarged. They have not sufficient height or breadth.

There are many people who live in only one room, so to speak. They are intended to live in a house with many rooms: rooms of the mind, rooms of the heart, and rooms of taste, imagination, sentiment, and feeling. But these upper rooms are left unused, while they live in the basement.

A story is told of a Scotch nobleman who, when he came into possession of his estates, set about providing better houses for his people, who were living huddled together in single-roomed cottages. So he built for them pretty, comfortable houses. But in a short time each family was living as before, in one room, and renting the rest of the house. They did not know how to live in higher, better ways. The experiment taught him, that people could not be really benefitted by anything done for them merely from the outside.

Horace Bushnell put it in an epigram--"The soul of improvement--is the improvement of the soul." It is not a larger house which is needed for a man--but a larger man in the house. A man is not made better by giving him more money, better furniture, finer pictures, richer carpets--but by giving him knowledge, wisdom, good principle, strength of character; by teaching him love.

Some lives are narrow, by reason of the way they have let circumstances dwarf them. But we must not say that poverty has this effect--for many who are poor, who have to live in a little house, with few comforts and no luxuries, live a life that is large and free, as wide as the sky in its joy; while on the other hand there are those who have everything earthly that heart could desire, yet whose lives are narrow.

There are some to whom life has been so heavy a burden, that they are ready to drop by the way. They pray for health, and illness comes with its suffering and its expense. Their work is hard. They have to live in continual discomfort. Their associations are uncongenial. There seems no hope of relief. When they awake in the morning, their first consciousness is of the load they must lift and begin again to carry. Their disheartenment has continued so long that it has grown into hopelessness. The message to such is: "Enlarge the place of your tent." No matter how many or how great are the reasons for discouragement, a Christian should not let bitterness enter his heart and blind his eyes--so that he cannot see the blue sky and the shining stars.

Looked at from an earthly view-point, could any life have been more narrow in its condition than Christ's? Think who he was--the Son of God, sinless, holy, loving, and infinitely gentle of heart. Then think of the life into which he came--the relentless hatred of him, the bitter enmity which pursued him, the rejection of love which met him at every step. Think of the failure of his mission, (as it seemed), his betrayal and death. Yet he was never discouraged. He never grew bitter. How did he overcome the narrowness? The secret was love. The world hated him--but he loved on. His own received him not, rejected him--but his heart changed not toward them. Love saved him from being embittered by the narrowness. This is the one secret that will save any life from the narrowing influence of the most distressing circumstances. Widen your tent! Make room in it for Christ and for your neighbor.

There was a woman who had become embittered by a long experience of sickness, and of injustice and wrong, until she was shut up in a prison of hopelessness. Then, by reason of the death of a brother, a little motherless child was brought to her door. The door was opened reluctantly at first; the child was not warmly welcomed. Yet when she was received, Christ entered with her, and at once the dreary home began to grow brighter. The narrowness began to be enlarged. Other human needs came and were not turned away. In blessing others--the woman was blessed herself. Today there is no happier home than hers. Try it if you are discouraged. Begin to serve those who need your love and ministry. Encourage some other disheartened one--and your own discouragement will pass away. Brighten another's lonely lot--and your own will be brightened.

Some lives are made narrow by their limitations. Men seem not to have the same chance that others have. They may be physically incapacitated for holding their place in the march of life. Or they may have failed in business after many years of hard toil, and may lack the courage to begin again. They may have been hurt by folly or sin, and not seem able to take the flights they used to take. There are some people in every community who, for one cause or another, do not seem to have a chance to make much of their life. But whatever it may be which shuts one in a narrow environment, as in a little tent, the gospel of Christ brings a message of hope and cheer. Its call ever is, "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide."

There is danger that some of us overdo our contentment. We regard as an impassable wall, certain obstacles and hindrances which God meant to be, to us, only inspirers of courage. Difficulties are not intended to stop our efforts--but to arouse us to our best. We give up too easily. We conclude that we cannot do certain things, and think we are submitting to God's will in giving up without trying to overcome, when in fact we are only showing our laziness. We suppose that our limitations are part of God's plan for us, and that we have only to accept them and make the best of them. In some cases this is true--there are barriers that are impassable--but in many cases God wants us to gain the victory over the limitations. The call ever is, "Enlarge the place of your tent!"

If there can be no physical victory over physical handicaps, there can always at least be a mental victory. We should never accept of captivity, which shuts our soul in any prison. Our spirit may be free, though our bodily life is shut up in a prison of circumstances. An English writer tells of two birds, caught and put into cages side by side. The starling began to resist and struggle, flying against the wires of its cage in vain efforts to escape. The canary accepted its captivity, and flying up on a bar, began to sing, filling all the place about with glad songs. The former bird was a captive indeed, shut up in a narrow, hopeless prison. The other turned its captivity into widest liberty and its narrow cage into a palace of victory. We say the starling acted very foolishly, and that the canary showed true wisdom. Which course do we take when we find ourselves shut up in any narrow, imprisoned life?

Life should never cease to widen. People talk about the "dead line"--it used to be fifty years; now it probably is less. After crossing that line, they tell us, a man cannot do his best. It is not true--at least it should not be true. A man ought to be at his best during the last years of his life. He ought always to be enlarging the place of his tent until its curtains are finally pushed out into the limitless spaces of immortality!

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"Not my will, but Thine" (Luke xxii. 42).

 
Days of Heaven Upon Earth





"Not my will, but Thine" (Luke xxii. 42).
He who once suffered in Gethsemane will be our strength and our victory, too. We may fear, we may also sink, but let us not be dismayed, and we shall yet praise Him, and look back from a finished course, and say, "Not one word hath failed of all that the Lord hath spoken."
But in order to do this, we must, like Him, meet the conflict, not with a defiant, but with a submissive spirit. He had to say, "Not My will, but Thine be done"; but in saying it, He gained the very thing He surrendered. So the submission of Gethsemane is not a blind and dead submission of a heart that abandons all its hope; but it is the free submission that bows the head, in order to get double strength through the faith and prayer.

We let go, in order that we may take a firmer hold. We give up, in order that we may more fully receive. We lay our Isaac on Mount Moriah, and we ask him back, no longer our Isaac, but God's Isaac, and infinitely more secure, because given back in the resurrection life.

Come Close to Him

Streams in the Desert





Come Close to Him


"He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray, and as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering . . . they saw his glory" (Luke 9:29, 32).

"If I have found grace in thy sight, show me thy glory" (Exod. 33:13).
When Jesus took these three disciples up into that high mountain apart, He brought them into close communion with Himself. They saw no man but Jesus only; and it was good to be there. Heaven is not far from those who tarry on the mount with their Lord.
Who has not in moments of meditation and prayer caught a glimpse of opening gates? Who has not in the secret place of holy communion felt the rush of some white surging wave of emotion--a foretaste of the joy of the blessed?
The Master had times and places for quiet converse with His disciples, once on the peak of Hermon, but oftener on the sacred slopes of Olivet. Every Christian should have his Olivet. Most of us, especially in the cities and towns, live at high pressure. From early morning until bedtime we are exposed to the whirl. Amid all this maelstrom how little chance for quiet thought, for God's Word, for prayer and heart fellowship!
Daniel needed to have an Olivet in his chamber amid Babylon's roar and idolatries. Peter found his on a housetop in Joppa; and Martin Luther found his in the "upper room" at Wittenberg, which is still held sacred.
Dr. Joseph Parker once said: "If we do not get back to visions, peeps into heaven, consciousness of the higher glory and the larger life, we shall lose our religion; our altar will become a bare stone, unblessed by visitant from Heaven." Here is the world's need today--men who have seen their Lord. --The Lost Art of Meditation
Come close to Him! He may take you today up into the mountain top, for where He took Peter with his blundering, and James and John, those sons of thunder who again and again so utterly misunderstood their Master and His mission, there is no reason why He should not take you. So don't shut yourself out of it and say, "Ah, these wonderful visions and revelations of the Lord are for choice spirits!" They may be for you! --John McNeill

Confidence in the Midst of Distress

By Charles Stanley


PSALM 46:1-11

"I'm outta here!" Most of us will feel this way at some point in our lives. When stress in daily living becomes unbearable, we want to escape. We may want out of jobs, relationships, or some other difficult situation. We think we can't handle things the way they are because they are much too stressful. So we decide we are walking out. Moving on. Heading for anywhere but where we are.

God has a powerful truth for us to hear. The way to handle stressful situations is to cease fighting against them and instead to be at rest. To the psalmist, this rest meant being still and knowing God. (Psalm 46:10 NIV) Jesus described it as a peacefulness that we will both find and receive as we spend time learning from Him. (Matthew 11:28-30) Our human instinct clamors for us to escape but God calls us to draw near and absorb the truths of Scripture.

Most of all, He wants us to know who He is. As we believe the truth of His sovereignty (1 Chronicles 29:11) and accept both the absolute goodness of His plans (Jeremiah 29:11) and His deep, abiding love for us (Ephesians 3:17-19), we will grow in trust. Then we will find it easier to "be still" and not to respond like the world, which says, "I'm outta here."

Our stress need not become distress. With an accurate understanding of our heavenly Father, we will be able to walk through circumstances with an inner quietness (Galatians 5:22) and genuine confidence. (Hebrews 13:6) This is our privilege as God's children.

Hold fast the confidence

By A.B. Simpson


Seldom will we see a sadder wreck of even the highest, noblest Christian character than when the enemy has succeeded in undermining the simple trust of a child of God and lured him into self-accusation and condemnation. it is a fearful place when the believer allows Satan to take the throne and act as God, sitting in judgment oil his every thought and act and keeping him in the darkness of ceaseless condemnation. Well indeed has the Apostle told us to hold firmly the shield of faith! This is Satan's objective point in all hi upon us, to destroy Our trust. if he can get us to lose our simple confidence in God, he knows that he will soon have us at his feet. 

For the Christian who has known the sweetness of God's love to lose his perfect trust in God is enough to wreck both reason and life. Let us hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of [our] hope firm unto the end. Fear not to take your place With Jesus on the throne, And bid the powers of earth and hell, His sovereign sceptre own.

The Great Act of Receiving

The Friend on the Road and Other Studies in the Gospels: Chapter 59 - The Great Act of Receiving

By John Henry Jowett
"Receive ye."--John xx. 22.

IT is a great thing to ask. It is a still greater thing to receive. There are many askers to one receiver. We make our request, but we do not take the answer. We call for the waters, but we do not fill our pitchers. We present the promissory form, but we do not wait for the money And so we have frequently a maimed conception of prayer. We have regarded it only as a petition, while an equally vital content is reception. And therefore it happens that a great many suppliants are spiritual paupers because they are listless or careless about receiving the very things for which they prayed. It might be truly said concerning them, "Ye have not because ye will not take the things ye ask."

And think how many supremely wonderful things are waiting to be received! And it is not as though the rich provisions are waiting on the fields of California while the hungry folk are fainting in New York. The provision is alongside the hunger, the wealth is close to the want. We have no journey to take. We have no indifference to arouse. We have no anger to appease. The heavenly stores are within our gates, just waiting to be received. And think, I say, what some of them are. Recall their evangels. "Receive remission of sins!" "Ye shall receive power!" "Receive ye the Holy Spirit!" All these treasures of grace are not deposited in the inner room of the soul whether we will or no. We have to take them in. We must receive them, and the reception is a deliberate act of the soul.

How do we receive them? "Believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them." So that believing is the act of reception. But belief is more than a mental assumption. A mental assumption may rest in the mind as idly and as impotently as marbles in a boy's pocket. Mental assumptions may be like stones, or they may be like seeds. They are like stones when they stand alone; they become seeds when they are wedded to the will and become the faith of positive and practical life. The act of belief is the will acting on the divine answer to our prayers, and working that answer into everything we think and say and do.

When I have prayed for forgiveness I am to receive it, and I receive it when I face the road again as a forgiven man, and shape all my intercourse as one who has been forgiven, and I shall surely experience the reality of it in spiritual joy and peace. And so it is with all the waiting gifts of grace. Let us believe we have them, let us act as though the treasure is already in our wallets, and let us start out upon our journey giving freely, on the kindling assumption that we have freely received.

THE END

Rising in His Confidence

By Mary Wilder Tileston


Nothing shall by any means hurt you.

LUKE 10:19 

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
ISAIAH 43:2

JUST as soon as we turn toward Him with loving confidence, and say, "Thy will be done," whatever chills or cripples or enslaves our spirits, clogs their powers, or hinders their development, melts away in the sunshine of His sympathy. He does not free us from the pain, but from its power to dull the sensibilities; not from poverty and care, but from their tendency to narrow and harden; not from calumny, but from the maddening poison in its sting; not from disappointment, but from the hoplessness and bitterness of thought which it so often engenders.

We attain unto this perfect liberty when we rise superior to untoward circumstances, triumph over the pain and weakness of disease, over unjust criticism, the wreck of earthly hopes, over promptings to envy, every sordid and selfish desire, every unhallowed longing, every doubt of God's wisdom and love and kindly care, when we rise into an atmosphere of undaunted moral courage, of restful content, of child-like trust, of holy, all-conquering calm.
WILLIAM W. KINSLEY

Divine Visitations

The Friend on the Road and Other Studies in the Gospels: Chapter 35 - Divine Visitations
By John Henry Jowett

"Thou knowest not the time of thy visitation."--Luke xix. 44.
GOD visits us in opportunity. The dawn of opportunity is the unveiling of His presence. When the door opens upon the way of sacrifice and enlargement, He is there! No longer does He visit us in bodily form; He comes in the form of circumstance. He speaks to us in the voice of events. We may behold His comings and goings in the movements of our day. We may see Him in a tendency, we may hear Him in a challenge, we may find Him in the midst of upheaval and unrest. He comes to us in the brightness of some glorious hope, being "clothed with light as with a garment"; and he comes to us in the shadow of some chilling disappointment, visiting us "in the night seasons."

It is therefore a fine attainment in grace to be able so to interpret events as to discern the presence of the Lord. We are advancing in the school of the Spirit when we know the time of His visitation, when we can look upon the robe of light or the pale of darkness, and say, "It is the Lord!" But when events have no divine significance, when they are empty as a drum, life becomes a very hollow procession--indeed, it is scarcely a procession at all, but just a disorderly assemblage of blind and warring instincts, rushing out of the night and into the night again.

To recognise the divine visitation, and to discern the Visitor! To know Him as He comes to the door! "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." How may we know His knock? "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." "With what measure ye hear it shall be measured to you again." We need the consecrated ear, and the ear is sanctified in the consecrated heart. When the heart is sanctified all the senses are awake to the presence of the Lord. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

"I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry." Psalm 40:1

Miller's Year Book—a Year's Daily Readings

J. R. Miller, 1895

"I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry." Psalm 40:1

Has God taught you some great truth, or revealed to you, in deep personal experience, some new, sweet thought of his love? What is the next thing? Is it not that you shall whisper the blessed secret to some other soul? After Peter's strange vision, he sat pondering what it could mean; and while he thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, "Behold, three men seek you." The picture is very suggestive. 

When we have gotten anything from God—there is always someone waiting to get from us what God has just given to us. Heavenly visions are not shown to us, only to be absorbed in our own soul—but to be translated into some form that will bless the world. That is what the artist does with his visions. That is what we should do with ours.

Can it be possible?

Charles Spurgeon

"Do this in remembrance of Me!" (1 Corinthians 11:24)

It appears that Christians may forget Christ! There would be no need for this loving exhortation--if there were not a fearful possibility that our memories might prove treacherous. Nor is this an empty notion. It is, sadly, too well confirmed in our experience; not as a possibility--but as a lamentable fact!

It appears almost impossible that those who have been redeemed by the blood of the dying Lamb, and loved with an everlasting love by the eternal Son of God--could forget their gracious Savior! But if startling to the ear, sadly, it is too apparent to the eye to allow us to deny the crime.

Can we forget Him--who never forgot us!
Can we forget Him--who poured His blood out for our sins!
Can we forget Him--who loved us even to death!
Can it be possible?

Yes, it is not only possible--but conscience confesses that is is too sadly a fault with all of us. Instead of Him being a permanent resident in our memories--we treat Him as a visitor. The cross--where one would expect that memory would linger--is desecrated by the feet of forgetfulness.

Doesn't your conscience say that this is true? Don't you find yourselves forgetful of Jesus? Some other love steals away your heart--and you are unmindful of Him upon whom your chief affection ought to be set. Some earthly business engrosses your attention--when you ought to be fixed steadily upon the cross. It is the incessant turmoil of the world, the constant attraction of earthly things--which takes the soul away from Christ! While memory works to preserve a poisonous weed--it allows the rose of Sharon to wither!

Let us charge ourselves to tie a heavenly forget-me-not around our hearts for Jesus our Beloved, and whatever else we let slip, let us hold tight to Him!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When he saw the multitudes he was moved

By A.B. Simpson


He is able to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15). The word "touched" is very expressive. It means that our troubles are His troubles, and that in all our afflictions He is afflicted. It is not a sympathy of sentiment, but a sympathy of suffering. There is in this thought abundant help for the tired heart. It is the foundation of Christ's Priesthood, and God meant that it should be to us a source of unceasing consolation.

 Let us realize more fully our oneness with our Great High Priest, and cast all our burdens on His great heart of love. if we know what it is to ache in every nerve with the responsive pain of our suffering child, we can form some idea of how our sorrows touch the heart of Christ. 

As the mother feels her baby's pain, as the heart of friendship echoes every cry from another's anguish, so in heaven our exalted Savior, even in the raptures of that happy world, is suffering in His spirit and even in His flesh with all that His children bear. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, . . . let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:14,16) and let us come to our Great High Priest.

Doing the Impossible

The Friend on the Road and Other Studies in the Gospels: Chapter 34 - Doing the Impossible

By John Henry Jowett


"The things which are impossible with men are possible with God."--Luke xviii. 27.

WE have not to travel far before we meet the impossible. We soon reach the end of the short road of "the possible," and then the impossible looms before us! It is possible to restrain a man from crime; it is impossible to restrain him from sin. We can compel a man to pay his income tax; it is impossible to compel him to be generous. We can readjust man's circumstances; we cannot renew a man's heart. We can educate; we cannot regenerate. We can refurnish a man's mind; we cannot give him the mind of Christ. We can give him courtesy; we cannot endow him with grace. We may give him good manners; we cannot make him a good man. We may save him from worldly excesses; we cannot make him immune from the contagion of the world. We may "patch up a bad job," but we have no power of new creation.

And so we touch our "impossible" almost at a stride. The "impossibles" stare upon us on every side. How then? It is only in God and in the power of his holy grace that the impossible thing can be realised. In the Lord Jesus miracles may happen every day; they are happening every day. But in our pathetic folly we go on trying to mend the broken earthenware, when the mighty God would recreate the vessel. We rely upon the ministry of good fellowship when we can do nothing without the communion of the Holy Ghost. We use social cosmetics upon a withered and wizened society, and the holy Lord is waiting with the unspeakable quickening of the new birth. We use rouge when we really need the blood of the Lamb.

The world is always arrested when it sees impossibles being accomplished. In God the impossible becomes possible!

"Though earth and hell the Word gainsay,
The Word of God can never fail;
The Lamb shall take my sins away,
'Tis certain, though impossible.
The thing impossible shall be.
All things are possible to me."

"Turn my eyes from looking at what is worthless." Psalm 119:37

Miller's Year Book—a Year's Daily Readings
J. R. Miller, 1895

"Turn my eyes from looking at what is worthless." Psalm 119:37

We must be always turning—if we would keep our life true and according to God's commandments. There are some flowers which always turn toward the sun. There was a little potted rose-bush in a sick-room which I visited. It sat by the window. One day I noticed that the one rose on the bush was looking toward the light. I referred to it; and the sick woman said that her daughter had turned the rose around several times toward the darkness of the room—but that each time the little flower had twisted itself back, until again its face was toward the light. It would not look into the darkness.

The rose taught me a lesson—never to allow myself to look toward any evil—but instantly to turn from it. Not a moment should we permit our eyes to be inclined toward anything sinful. To yield to one moment's sinful act—is to defile the soul. One of the main messages of the Bible is, "Turn from the wrong, the base, the crude, the unworthy—to the right, the pure, the noble, the godlike." We should not allow even an unholy thought to stay a moment in our mind—but should turn from its very first suggestion, with face fully toward Christ, the Holy One.

"I will set before my eyes no vile thing!" Psalm 101:3

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things!" Philippians 4:8

But we should train ourselves to turn also from all discouragements. There is always a bright side, and we should find it. Discouragement is full of danger. It weakens and hurts the life.

Bypassing Death

By Theodore Epp


2 Kings 2:1-11

The closing incident in Elijah's life was perhaps the most touching in his whole history. He was translated to heaven without having to die.

His ministry may have covered 15 or 20 years, but the public aspect of it was much briefer than that.

At a time of great depression in his life, when lying under a juniper tree, he had prayed for death, but when the time of his translation came, he was thankful that God had not answered that prayer.

The prophet's translation was to be at a specially designated place. Elijah had learned long ago that absolute obedience to God's directions was necessary for God's blessings.

Elijah began his journey from Gilgal to the place of his ascension, and Elisha insisted on going with him. This journey involved a great test for Elisha, who was to be Elijah's successor.

From the account you may be led to think that Elijah was reluctant to have Elisha go with him, but this may well have been part of the test for the younger man.

Elijah was alone in his ministry, and he was humble, and he may have felt that his coming translation was too sacred a matter to be witnessed by others.

We can learn valuable lessons from this experience. If we wish to behold the glory of God and to be fit vessels to participate in God's work, we must go on to maturity in Christ.

"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:17).

We were troubled on every side

By A.B. Simpson


Why should God have to lead us through troubles and allow the pressure to be so hard and constant? In the first place, it shows His all-sufficient strength and grace much better than if we were exempt from pressure and trial. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us (2 Corinthians 4:7). Also, it makes us more conscious of our dependence upon God. God is constantly trying to teach us our dependence and to hold us absolutely in His hand and hanging upon His care. 

This was the place where Jesus Himself stood and where He wants us to stand, not with a self constituted strength, but with a hand ever leaning upon His, and a trust that dares not take one step alone. 

Troubles teach us trust. There is no way of learning faith except by trial. It is God's school of faith, and it is far better for us to learn to trust God than to escape trials. The lesson of faith, once learned, is an everlasting acquisition and an eternal fortune made. Without trust even riches will leave us poor.

Psalm 91

By Henry Law


Internal textual evidence establishes that the apprehension of near sickness and the approach of pestilence awakened this Psalm. Firm confidence is expressed in God's protecting power. May we find Him a very present help in all our troubles!

1. "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

The Ark behind the veil was regarded as the symbol of God's presence. Common gaze penetrates not the secret place. In general men do not strive for acquaintance with God. They do not seek Him in Christ. But those who thus find Him will ever cling to Him with strengthening grasp. They will rest in Him as in a calm and cool abode. His shadow will ward off the fiery darts of Satan, and avert the hot persecution of the ungodly.

2. "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in Him will I trust."

Faith makes bold profession. It casts off fear, and avows that in God it finds a safe retreat--a sure protection--an almighty friend. This confidence will never be disappointed.

3-6. "Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the harmful pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust; His truth shall be your shield and rampart. You shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flies by day; nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday."

Troubles are enumerated such as are common to this mortal lot. But trust in God exalts above their fatal reach. The fowler may lay hidden snares, but they shall not entrap. The noxious pestilence shall inflict no deathful wound. The Almighty shall extend His covering wing. His faithful promises shall uphold the combatant in the hour of battle. By night, by day, the dwelling shall be impervious to plague.

There may be a literal reference to the deliverance of Israel's sons, and their exemption from all contact with harm when plagues laid low the Egyptian hosts. There may be spiritual reference to the deliverance of God's children from the destroying attacks of Satan. But one truth is undeniable. The real happiness and safety of true believers is emphatically assured, and we are exhorted to pray for sustaining faith, and in all perils to trust without one fear.

7-10. "A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, your habitation; there no evil shall befall you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling."

Other terms are added to strengthen assurance. Those who by faith repose on God shall surely be upheld. Though troubles be multiplied, they shall never be cast off. In much apparent peril they shall be really safe.

11-12. "For He shall give His angels charge over You, to keep You in all Your ways. They shall bear You up in their hands, lest You dash Your foot against a stone."

This promise is distinctly addressed to Jesus. As such the devil quoted it, and Jesus heard without rejection. If we are one with Jesus, the promises which were poured upon His head will flow down to us, and will invest us in security.

13-16. "You shall tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shall you trample under feet. Because He has set His love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation."

The same encouraging strain still sounds. All who have set their love on God, and all who know His name, may claim fulfillment. They shall have deliverance in every day of trouble. God will honor them in time, and honor them with a long life, even forever and ever. Happy indeed are the people who thus dwell in the secret place of the Most High.

The Discipline Of Difficulty

By Oswald Chambers


'In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.'
John 16:33

An average view of the Christian life is that it means deliverance from trouble. It is deliverance in trouble, which is very different. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High...there shall no evil befall thee" - no plague can come nigh the place where you are at one with God.

If you are a child of God, there certainly will be troubles to meet, but Jesus says do not be surprised when they come. "In the world yet shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, there is nothing for you to fear." Men who before they were saved would scorn to talk about troubles, often become "fushionless" after being born again because they have a wrong idea of a saint.

God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome. The strain is the strength. If there is no strain, there is no strength. Are you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy? He cannot, unless you will accept the strain. Immediately you face the strain, you will get the strength. Overcome your own timidity and take the step, and God will give you to eat of the tree of life and you will get nourishment. 

If you spend yourself out physically, you become exhausted; but spend yourself spiritually, and you get more strength. God never gives strength for to-morrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the minute. The temptation is to face difficulties from a common-sense standpoint. The saint is hilarious when he is crushed with difficulties because the thing is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God.

Rehearse Your Troubles to God Only

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman


"Love covereth" (Prov. 10:12). "Be eager in pursuit of this love" (1 Cor. 13:7-13, Weymouth).

Rehearse your troubles to God only. Not long ago I read in a paper a bit of personal experience from a precious child of God, and it made such an impression upon me that I record it here. She wrote:

"I found myself one midnight wholly sleepless as the surges of a cruel injustice swept over me, and the love which covers seemed to have crept out of my heart. Then I cried to God in an agony for the power to obey His injunction, 'Love covereth.'

"Immediately the Spirit began to work in me the power that brought about the forgetfulness.

"Mentally I dug a grave. Deliberately I threw up the earth until the excavation was deep.

"Sorrowfully I lowered into it the thing which wounded me. Quickly I shoveled in the clods.

"Over the mound I carefully laid the green sods. Then I covered it with white roses and forget-me-nots, and quickly walked away.

"Sweet sleep came. The wound which had been so nearly deadly was healed without a scar, and I know not today what caused my grief."

"There was a scar on yonder mountain-side,
Gashed out where once the cruel storm had trod;
A barren, desolate chasm, reaching wide,
Across the soft green sod.

"But years crept by beneath the purple pines,
And veiled the scar with grass and moss once more,
And left it fairer now with flowers and vines
Than it had been before.

"There was a wound once in a gentle heart,
Whence all life's sweetness seemed to ebb and die;
And love's confiding changed to bitter smart,
While slow, sad years went by.

"Yet as they passed, unseen an angel stole
And laid a balm of healing on the pain,
Till love grew purer in the heart made whole,
And peace came back again."

Psalm 25

  Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

2 O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

3 Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

4 Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.

5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

6 Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Lord.

8 Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.

10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

11 For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.

12 What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.

13 His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.

14 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

15 Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

16 Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.

17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.

18 Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.

19 Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.

20 O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.

21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.

22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

Doing the Impossible

The Friend on the Road and Other Studies in the Gospels: Chapter 18 - Doing the Impossible

By John Henry Jowett


"Stretch forth thy hand."--Mark iii. 5.

THAT was the one thing he couldn't do! And he was asked to do it! Christ named his great incapacity and demanded the impossible. For years and years the shrunken, shrivelled thing had hung helplessly at his side, a poor mockery of a hand. "Stretch forth thy hand!" Impossible! But he did it! "And his hand was made whole like unto the other."

I very much like an epitaph which is found upon a woman's grave in New England--"She hath done what she couldn't!" Strange achievements hide behind that significant line. She did the impossible. Nobody would have dared to prescribe such things for her. Nobody ever thought she could do them. But she did them. "In watchings oft!" Long night watchings in nursing the sick! Night after night, day after day! "You'll never be able to do it!" But she did! Or she made prolonged vigils in quest of God's lost children, on desolate wastes and on cold nights. "You'll break down!" But she didn't. "She hath done what she couldn't!"

And that is to be the Christian's distinction. "What do ye more than others?" We are not to walk in the average ranks; we are to march in the van. We are to triumphantly beat the average. Anybody can do the possible. We are called to do the impossible, the things we cannot do. We are to make a living, and at the same time to ennoble a life. We are to get on and get up. We are to be ambitious and aspirant. We are to be creatures with wings, and yet to be the busiest folks on the hardest roads.

And harder things than these we have to do. We are to go to lives where hearts are like flint, and we are to melt them with the ministry of light. Impossible! Yes, we are to win great battles, and we are to have no other equipment than "the armour of light." We are to overturn mighty strongholds with the forces of the spirit. Impossible! "Things that are not are to bring to nought things that are." Such is to be the Christian's distinction. We are to march beyond the stern borders of the possible and set our feet in impossible lands.

Our Lord commands it. What is the secret of the achievement? This is the secret. His commandments are always the pledge of the needful endowments. The blind man obeys his Master, and goes forth to find his sight in the pool of Siloam. How impossible! Yes, but he went, and Christ's holy power went with him, and he came back seeing. The cure was not in Siloam, but in the journey; not in the mineral spring, but in the obedience. "As he went he received his sight." At Christ's bidding faith sets out on the most astounding errands, "and laughs at impossibilities, and cries, It shall be done!'"

Jesus - "Father Forgive Them"

By R.B. Jones


Golgotha is the place where the contrast between the Savior's heart of grace and man's heart of rebellion is most striking. Golgotha is the focal point of revelation and history and experience. There God did His best and man did his worst. There faith is justified, hope assured, and love conquers.

Crucifixion was the invention of depraved minds determined to make death as painful as possible. . . . No one ever thought of this as the perfect place for prayer.

But the first word of Jesus was a prayer--and His fourth, and His seventh! . . . Notice that He did not pray, "Father, forgive Me." He was the spotless Lamb, without blemish, being offered for the sin of the world. He knew it.

The phrase of His praying that stirs my heart more than all else can only be seen in the Greek original. "Then Jesus said" might be changed to "Then Jesus kept saying," for the verb is imperfect, indicating continuous action in past time. . . .

Can you reconstruct the picture?

Arriving at the place of the skull, Jesus looked about and prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." As the centurion crushed Him to the ground and tied His arms to the crossbeam, He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." When the blunt spikes tore through each quivering palm, He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." When they elevated Him to the cross, He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." When the crowd cursed and reviled, He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." When the soldiers parted His garments and gambled for the seamless robe, He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." How many times that prayer pierced heaven's blue that day no one knows. It was not an ejaculatory petition shot into heaven in a moment of mercy. Rather the Surety was storming the Throne of Grace with a barrage of burning appeal. Jesus kept saying, "Father, forgive them . . . "

. . . The One who prayed like that is the One I need and want for my Savior.

HOW beauteous are their feet

By A Collection of Hymns
S.M. Isaiah lii. 7 - 10.

1 HOW beauteous are their feet
Who stand on Zion's hill;
Who bring salvation in their tongues,
And words of peace reveal!

2 How cheering is their voice,
How sweet the tidings are!
"Zion, behold thy Saviour King;
He reigns and triumphs here."

3 How blessed are our ears
That hear this joyful sound,
Which kings and prophets waited for,
And sought, but never found!

4 How blessed are our eyes
That see this heavenly light!
Prophets and kings desired long,
But died without the sight.

5 The watchmen join their voice,
And tuneful notes employ;
Jerusalem breaks forth in songs,
And deserts learn the joy.

6 The Lord makes bare his arm
Through all the earth abroad:
Let all the nations now behold
Their Saviour and their God.

The Bishop of Souls

By Bible Names of God

"For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." 1 Peter 2:25

The elders of the early church were "overseers"-called to care for the flock as under-shepherds. Here Christ is set before us as the One who directs the under-shepherds. He is The Bishop. He is the imparter of life which is eternal, which He purchased for us by His own sacrifice. His eye is upon us. He is the One whose heart goes out in love to the lost, straying sheep and who never fails in His own good way and time to bring them back to the fold (the true church)> God help those who selfishly seek and faithlessly serve as under-shepherds. "Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not."

Lord, help us to recognize Thee as our Bishop and be subject to Thy guidance. Hold us. Keep us. Feed us. Amen.

Vineyards in the Wilderness

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

"I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness...And I will give her her vineyards from thence" (Hosea 2:14-15).

A strange place to find vineyards--in the wilderness! And can it be that the riches which a soul needs can be obtained in the wilderness, which stands for a lonely place, out of which you can seldom find your way? It would seem so, and not only that, but the "Valley of Achor," which means bitterness, is called a door of hope. And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth!

Yes, God knows our need of the wilderness experience. He knows where and how to bring out that which is enduring. The soul has been idolatrous, rebellious; has forgotten God, and with a perfect self-will has said, "I will follow after my lovers." But she did not overtake them. And, when she was hopeless and forsaken, God said, "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." What a loving God is ours! --Crumbs

We never know where God hides His pools. We see a rock, and we cannot guess it is the home of the spring. We see a flinty place, and we cannot tell it is the hiding place of a fountain. God leads me into the hard places, and then I find I have gone into the dwelling place of eternal springs. --Selected

"He himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a juniper tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. 1 Kings 19:4

Miller's Year Book

J. R. Miller, 1895

"He himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a juniper tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." 1 Kings 19:4

He was sorely discouraged. It seemed to him that all he had done, had come to nothing. There are few things we need more to guard against than discouragement. When once we come under its influence, it makes us weak, robbing us of our hope and making cowards of us. Many a life is discrowned and drawn down to failure, through discouragement.

It is surely a sad picture: this greatest of the old prophets lying there under the little bush, in the wilderness, longing to die! If he had died then and there, what an inglorious ending it would have made of his life! As it was, however, he lived to do further glorious work and to see great results from his contest with idolatry. God was kinder to him, than he knew.

It is wrong to wish ourselves dead. Life is God's gift to us, a sacred trust for which we shall have to give account. While God keeps us living—he has something for us to do. Our prayer should be for grace to do our duty bravely and well unto the end. 

From Elijah's after-experience, we learn that we would never be cast down by any discouraging experiences. The things we think have failed are often only slowly ripening into rich success. We have only to be faithful to God and to duty, and we may always rejoice. What seems failure—is often best success.

"I lie in the dust, completely discouraged; revive me by your word." Psalm 119:25

Octavius Winslow, MORNING THOUGHTS
"I lie in the dust, completely discouraged; revive me by your word." Psalm 119:25

Ah! how many whose eye scans this page may take up and breathe David's words. You feel a deadness, a dullness, and an earthliness in spiritual enjoyments, and duties, and privileges, in which your whole soul should be all life, all fervor, all love. You are low where you ought to be elevated; you grovel where you ought to soar; you cleave to the earth where you ought to be embracing the heavens. Your thoughts are low; your affections are low; your feelings are low; your spirits are low; and you seem almost ready to question the existence of the life of God in your soul. 

But even in this sad and depressed state may there not be something cheering, encouraging, hopeful? There was evidently in David's–"My soul cleaves unto the dust: quicken me." This was the cheering, encouraging, hopeful feature in the Psalmists's case–his breathing after the requickening of the Divine life of his soul. 

Here was that which marked him a man of God. It was a living man complaining of his deadness, and breathing after more life. It was a heaven-born soul lamenting its earthliness, and panting after more of heaven. It was a spiritual man mourning over his carnality, and praying for more spirituality. It is not the prayer of one conscious of the low state of His soul, and yet satisfied with that state. 

"I lie in the dust, completely discouraged; revive me by your word." Perhaps no expression is more familiar to the ear, and no acknowledgment is more frequently on the lips of religious professors, than this. And yet where is the accompanying effort to rise above it? Where is the putting on of the armor? Where is the conflict? Where is the effort to emerge from the dust, to break away from the enthrallment, and soar into a higher and purer region? 

Alas! many from whose lips smoothly glides the humiliating confession still embrace the dust, and seem to love the dust, and never stretch their pinions to rise above it. But let us study closely this lesson of David's experience, that while deep lamentation filled his heart, and an honest confession breathed from his lips, there was also a breathing, a panting of soul, after a higher and a better state. 

He seemed to say–"Lord, I am prostrate, but I long to rise; I am fettered, but I struggle to be free; my soul cleaves to the dust, but quicken me!" Similar to this was the state of the Church, so graphically depicted by Solomon in his Song–"I sleep, but my heart wakes."

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him." Ephesians 1:17

DAILY PORTIONS

(Selected from the writing of Joseph Philpot by his daughters)

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him." Ephesians 1:17

Revelation means literally an uncovering or unveiling of a concealed or covered-up object. It is used, therefore, sometimes in the sense of manifesting, making known, or bringing to light, what had before been hidden in darkness and obscurity. This revelation is, therefore, either outward in the word, or inward in the soul, and the two strictly correspond to and are counterparts of each other. 

Immediately when, by the power of divine grace, a poor Gentile sinner turns to the Lord, the Spirit of revelation removes the veil off the Scriptures, and off his heart. Have we not found it so? What a sealed book was the word of God once to us! How we read or heard it without one real ray of light to illuminate the dark page; and what a thick veil was there of ignorance, unbelief, prejudice, self-righteousness, and impenitence on our heart. 

But the gracious Spirit of revelation took this double veil away, and by giving us the light of life, made the word of God a new book, and gave us a new heart; and ever since the day when the entrance of his word gave us light, God's word has been a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path.

But the Spirit of revelation is chiefly given to lead us into a spiritual, experimental, and saving knowledge of Christ. Without this blessed Spirit of revelation Christ cannot be effectually or savingly known. 

When, therefore, Peter made that noble confession of his faith in Christ as "the Son of the living God," our Lord said to him--"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah; for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father who is in heaven."