The Song of Moses and the Lamb

Things That Matter Most: Chapter 12 - The Song of Moses and the Lamb
By John Henry Jowett

IN the mystical and mysterious book of Revelation there is a strange and jubilant song sung by "them that have gotten the victory over the beast." I am not concerned to identify any particular beast over whom these singers had proved victorious. The beast may very well and justly stand as typical of all that is unspiritual, the general beastliness which man has to encounter as he struggles towards his crown. Tennyson gives me the suggestion I seek in his description of the four tiers of symbolic sculpture which adorned the walls of Merlin's Hall:


On the lowest beasts were slaying men;
On the second men were slaying beasts;
On the third were warriors, perfect men,
And on the fourth were men with growing wings.


The singers in the Seer's vision had attained to this glorious power of wing; they had gotten the victory over the beast.

And what was the burden of their song? First of all they sang the eternal righteousness of God. "Righteous and true are Thy ways." That is ever the main theme of psalmist, prophet, apostle, martyr, and saint; that is the ground-work of the heavenly music, the very stuff and substance of the song. The praise of the blest is not primarily concerned with the tender love of God or His infinite compassion; not first with the flowers of the earth, but with earth's enduring frame; not first with God's graces, but with His grace, His incorruptible holiness. For what love can there be without a basis of truth? And what is the worth of mercy without the solidity of rectitude? And so it is that when these singers break into song this is the theme of their music: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord!"

And, secondly, their music wanders among the wonders of God's progressive providence. "Great and marvellous are Thy works! "These works are not primarily the works of nature, but the works of grace. The singers are contemplating the truth in its conflict with falsehood. They are watching the wonders of holiness in its hallowing ministries among the children of men. They are recalling the romance of God's providence as they see it unrolled through the generations of their own troubled national history. And their doxology of providence and grace gathers about two names, the names of Moses and the Lamb. In their songful recital of providential deliverances these two names seem to crystallize and tell the story. And what is the significance of the names? Surely it is this: Moses signifies emancipation from social bondage; the Lamb signifies emancipation from spiritual bondage. Moses stands for deliverance from wrong. The Lamb stands for deliverance from sin. Moses delivers from the wrong which man may suffer from his brother. The Lamb delivers from the wrong which man may suffer from himself. Moses delivers from the Pharaoh outside man. The Lamb delivers from the devil within man. Moses delivers from the gall of oppression and pain. The Lamb delivers from the gall of guilt and sin. This is the song the singers sing, the "Song of Moses and the Lamb"--Thy marvellous works in Moses against all wrong; Thy marvellous works in the Lamb against all sin!

Singing Before Suffering

By Andrew Bonar

'When they had sung an hymn' Matt. 26:30


'NEVER man spake like this man,' and possibly the same might be true of Christ's singing, 'never man sang like this man.' Did angels listen then as did the prisoners to the singing of Paul and Silas at Philippi? What fragrant associations has that upper room, and this also is among them. Christ sang, and the disciples joined. They were, most of them, fishermen, and fishermen are remarkable for their hearty singing. O to have heard the discourses! O to have heard that prayer (John 17)! And O to have heard that hymn! The singing would be heard outside, and perhaps the young man (Mark 14:51) who followed them to the Garden of Gethsemane may have crept near to listen. Would not you?


I. Christ sang.--His singing showed the reality of His humanity. Aristotle said of his god Jupiter, that no one ever heard of his singing; it would be beneath him. But Jesus sang, and showed He was truly one of us. We like a hymn--specially in affliction (Acts 16:25; Ps. 42:8; Job 35:10). Martyrs have sung going to the stake, and there is a tradition that the three youths in the fiery furnace sang aloud. A hymn is more unselfish than a prayer; it expresses gratitude and love. Hence, heaven is peculiarly the place of song, for all is unselfish there. Christ is on the eve of the most terrible conflict ever witnessed,--to-night and to-morrow the Garden and the Cross! He summons to His help every aid. His eye is on the Father's glory. He bathes Himself in it and is refreshed for conflict.


II. What He sang.--All writers agree that it was Psalm 118. For two thousand years the Jews have concluded the Passover by singing this Psalm. If you glance over it you will see how appropriate it is, and it came in course at the Passover. What shall we sing? The Master took what came in course. So let us do. At any rate, the Lord will tell you as occasion calls for. Appropriate 'His song shall be with me,' as well as 'My prayer' (Ps. 42:8).


III. When He sang.--After the solemn Passover service and the Supper, and just before the scenes of the Garden, with Calvary in view. We are not told in the Gospels of Christ singing until now--perhaps because His doing so in these circumstances was so peculiar and so fitted to instruct us. His last note was a cheerful note, though He knew what was in the future. Much more should ours be so. Let us try unselfishly, like Jesus, to keep our friends from sorrow as long as we can. In the face of difficulties, sing to the Lord. If you have a dread of what is coming, sing, instead of brooding over it. If you are like the Master-- singing before He went to the Garden--you will be enabled to go fearlessly forward.


IV. When He shall sing again, and what.--When all sorrow and conflict are over (Ps. 22:23, 69:30, and 118:21). It will be the day of the Song of Moses and the Lamb. When He comes again Christ will lead that great multitude of the redeemed whom no man can number, in the song of praise. He will sing over completed redemption at the sea of glass, as did Moses at the Red Sea.


After they had sung this hymn they seem all to have been so elated, in such spirits, so full of joy, that the Master had to put in a word of warning. 'All ye shall be offended because of Me this night.' But, so like the Master, He added, 'But I will not forsake you. I will go before you into Galilee.' But the silly sheep who were to be scattered did not believe Him. Do not blame Peter too much, for they all joined in saying, 'Though I should die with Thee,' etc. Christ did not contradict them. He knew the corruption of their heart; He knew what would happen. When they said this they were full of feeling. Let us not lay too much stress on feeling and emotion when we come to the Lord's Table. Put stress upon this, that the Shepherd's heart will never change toward you. 'Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.'


Transcribed from Reminiscences of Andrew A. Bonar D.D.

How Long?

The Revelation of Jesus Christ: Chapter 28 - How Long?
By Horatius Bonar


"And they cried with a loud voice, saying--How long, O Lord, holy and true, do You not judge and avenge our blood on those who sell on the earth?"--Revelation 6:10.


The words 'How long?' occur frequently in Scripture, and are spoken in various ways--

(1) As from man to man;
(2) as from man to God;
(3) as from God to man.

I. The passages in which the words are between man and man may be briefly noticed. They are such as, Job 8:2, 'How long will you speak these words?' 19:2, "How long will you vex my soul?' Psalm 4:2, 'How long will you turn my glory to shame?' 63:3, 'How long will you imagine mischief against a man?' They are the complaint of the troubled against his troublers, and of the righteous against the wicked. Strange interchange of words between man and man! But we do not dwell on this. We come to the other two, in their order.


II. The words as from man to God. Looking up to God, man breathes the deep-drawn sigh, 'How long?' Let me note the chief passages--Psalm 6:3, 'My soul is sore vexed--but You, O Lord, how long?' Psalm 13:1, 'How long will You forget me, and hide Your face? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, and sorrow in my heart? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?' Psalm 35:17, 'How long will you look on?' Psalm 64:10, 'How long shall the adversary reproach?' Psalm 79:5, 'How long will You be angry?' Psalm 89:46, 'How long will You hide Yourself?' Psalm 90:13, 'Return, O Lord, how long?' Psalm 94:3-4, 'How long shall the wicked triumph?' Habakkuk 1:2, 'How long shall I cry?' Revelation 6:10, 'How long, O Lord, do You not judge and avenge our blood?' These are the chief passages in which the expression occurs. Instead of dwelling on each of these in succession, let me thus sum up and classify their different meanings. 

It is the language of--


(1) Complaint. It is not murmuring or fretting--yet it is what the Psalmist calls 'complaining.' The righteous man feels the burden and the sorrow and the evil that have so long prevailed in this present evil world, and he cries, "How long?" Have these not lasted long enough? Would that they were done! In this complaint there is weariness, and sometimes there is sadness--almost despair--when unbelief gets the upper hand. Creation groans. Iniquity overflows. Death reigns. The wicked triumph. God seems to forget the earth and to hide His face. The saint ''groans within himself, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body.' 'Woe is me,' he says 'that I dwell in Mesech!' Yes, we that yet are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. We daily cry, 'How long?' We are oppressed, and oftentimes cast down. We are not desponding--yet we cannot laugh with the world.


(2) Submission. While impatience sometimes rises, yet the cry does not mean this. It is really a cry of submission to a wise and sovereign God. It is the cry of one putting all events, as well as all times and seasons, into His hands, as Jesus did in Gethsemane. When we pray for deliverance, or plead for the Lord's coming, we do not mean to be impatient--but simply to utter our weariness--to unbosom ourselves to a gracious God. While we say--How long? We say also--Not my will, but Yours be done. We utter our own conscious helplessness, and put all into the hands of God.


(3) Inquiry. In all the passages there is an implied question. It is not merely--Oh that the time would come! But--When shall it come? We may not 'know the time how long,' but we ask earnestly, with the prophet--How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? We are warranted in asking, for God has given the prophetic word, that our inquiries may be stimulated and directed. The disciples inquired, and Christ answered fully (Matthew 24:3,4).


(4) Expectation. It is the voice of faith, and hope, and longing desire. The present is dark, the future is bright. God's word is sure concerning the coming glory; and so we, looking for and hastening to that glory, and depressed with the evil here, cry out day by day, 'How long?' When will the day dawn? When will the kingdom come? When will the glory break forth? Faith hears the voice of the Beloved, and says, 'Make haste;' it hears His 'Behold, I come quickly!' and it says, 'Even so, come, Lord Jesus!' We 'look for and hasten (unto) the coming of the day of God' (2 Peter 3:12).


III. The words as from God to man. I note the following instances--Exodus 10:3, 16:28, 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself?' Joshua 18:3, 'How long will you be slack to go in the possess the land?' 1 Kings 18:21, 'How long halt you between two opinions?' Psalm 82:2, 'How long will you judge unjustly?' Proverbs 1:22, 6:9, 'How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?' Jeremiah 4:14, 'O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be heard--how long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?'


Taking up these words of God as spoken to different classes, we would dwell on the following points--

"Christ is the head" (Eph. v. 23).

  


Days of Heaven Upon Earth


"Christ is the head" (Eph. v. 23).
Often we want people to pray for us and help us, but always defeat our object when we look too much to them and lean upon them. The true secret of union is for both to look upon God, and in the act of looking past themselves to Him they are unconsciously united. The sailor was right when he saw the little boy fall overboard and waited a minute before he plunged to his rescue. When the distracted mother asked him in agony why he had waited so long, he sensibly replied: "I knew that if I went in before he would clutch and drag me down. I waited until his struggles were over, and then I was able to help him when he did not grasp me too strongly."

When people grasp us too strongly, either with their love or with their dependence, we are intuitively conscious that they are not looking to God, and we become paralyzed in our efforts to help them. United prayer, therefore, requires that the one for whom we pray be looking away from us to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we together look to Him alone.

A SHREWD FOOL-THE RICH FARMER

Biblical Characters, 16 - A SHREWD FOOL, THE RICH FARMER
By Clovis G. Chappell

Luke 12:16-21
"And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

I count with confidence on your interest in this sermon. You will be interested, in the first place, because the picture that our Lord has given us in this wonderful story is the picture of a real man. This farmer is no wax figure. He is no bloodless nonentity. He is altogether human stuff. And we are interested in real folks.

Then we are interested in this man, in the second place, because he is successful. We are naturally interested in the people who make good. If you go out on the street to-morrow and start to tell your friends how you failed, the chances are that they will turn their backs upon you to listen to the man, with triumph in his face and victory in his voice, who is telling how he succeeded. We are great success worshippers. And the man who wins the prizes of life interests us very keenly.

But there is a shock for us in the story. The Master calls our shrewd hero a fool. "Thou fool." That is a harsh and jarring word. It insults us. It shakes its fist in our faces. It cuts us like a whip. It offends us. We do not like the ugly name in the least.

"Thou fool." Our Master frowns upon our using such language at all. He will not trust us with such a sharp sword. He will not suffer us to hurl such a thunderbolt. He forbids us, under a terrible penalty, to call our brother a fool. And yet He calls this keen and successful farmer a fool. And He doesn't do so lightly and flippantly, but there seems to ring through it scorn and indignation--positive anger, anger that is all the more terrible because it is the anger of love.

Why did the Master call this man a fool? He did not get the idea from the man himself. This well-to-do farmer would never have spoken of himself in that way. He regarded himself as altogether fit and mentally well furnished. Nor did the Master get His idea from the man's neighbors. They looked upon this man with admiration. There may have been a bit of envy mingled with their admiration, but they certainly did not regard him as a fool. They no more did so than we regard the man that is like him as a fool to-day.

Why then did the Master label him with this ugly name? It was not because he had a prejudice against him. Jesus was no soured misanthrope. He was no snarling cynic. He did not resent a man just because he had made a success. He was not an I. W. W. growling over real or fancied wrongs. No, the reason that Jesus called him a fool is because no other name would exactly fit him.

It is well, however, that the Master labeled this picture. Had He not done so you and I might have been tempted to put the wrong label on it. We might have labeled it "The Wise Man," or some such fine name. But had we done so it would have been a colossal blunder. Had we done so I am persuaded that the very fiends would have howled with derisive laughter. For when we see this man as he really is, when we see him through the eyes of Him who sees things clearly, then we realize that there is only one name that will exactly fit him. Then we know that that one name is the short ugly one by which he is called--"Fool."

But why is he a fool? In what does his foolishness consist? Certainly it does not consist in the fact that he has made a success. He is not a fool simply because he is rich. The Bible is a tremendously reasonable book. It is the very climax of sanity. It is the acme of good common sense. It never rails against rich men simply because they are rich. It no more does that than it lauds poor men because they are poor. It frankly recognizes the danger incident to the possession of riches. It makes plain the fact that the rich man is a greatly tempted man. But never is he condemned simply because he is rich.

The truth of the matter is that riches in themselves are counted neither good nor bad, neither moral nor immoral. The Bible recognizes money as a real force. What is done with this force depends upon the one who controls it. Money is condensed energy. It is pent-up power. It is lassoed lightning. It is a Niagara that I can hold in my hand and put into my pocket. It is a present day Aladdin's lamp. If I possess this lamp a million genii stand ready to do my bidding. Whatever service I demand, that will they do, whether that service look toward the making of men or the wrecking of men.

In case I live for self they are able to assist me in all my selfish enterprises. They can provide a winter palace in the city and a summer palace in the mountains or down by the sea. They can adorn my walls with the choicest of paintings. They can put the finest of carpets upon my floors. They can make possible tours abroad and private boxes at the theatre. They can search the treasure houses of the world and bring to me their rarest jewels. They can give me a place among the select four hundred, with whole columns about myself in the society page of the Metropolitan Daily.

Even this is not all. If I, their master, am so minded, these powerful genii will defeat for me the ends of justice. They will override the constitution. They will enable me to put a stain upon the very flag of my own country. They will make it possible for me at times to disregard the rights of others. When occasion demands they may even purchase at my desire the honor of manhood and the virtue of womanhood.

On the other hand, if I am a good man, I may set these genii to the doing of tasks great and worthwhile. I may command them to give clothing to the naked and food to the hungry. I can order them to build better schools for the education of the world. I can compel them to build better churches for the worship of God. I can send them with a chance in their hands for the unfortunate and the handicapped. I can make it impossible for one to say of that bright lad:--

"But knowledge to his eyes her ample scroll, Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll. Chill penury suppressed his noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul."

In fact there is no high task that man is called upon to perform but that these mighty genii can be of assistance. They can help "to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." They can even make their master friends who will one day receive him into everlasting habitations.

"Dug from the mountain side, washed in the glen, Servant am I of the Master of men. Earn me, I bless you; steal me, I curse you; Grip me and hold me, a fiend shall possess you. Lie for me, die for me, covet me, take me, Angel or devil, I am what you make me."

Nor was this man a fool because he had accumulated his money dishonestly. The man who does accumulate money dishonestly is a fool. So says the prophet Jeremiah and every clear thinking man must agree with him. There is a way of getting money that makes money a curse rather than a blessing. There is a way of getting money that makes the very eagle upon it to turn vulture to tear at your heart.

But this man had not made his money after that fashion. He had never run a saloon nor a gambling house nor a sweatshop. There is no hint that he had failed to pay an adequate wage to his laborers. James calls upon the rich men of his day to weep and howl because they were guilty in this respect. But no such charge as this is laid against this man. Nor had he robbed the widow or the fatherless. "An orphan's curse will drag to hell a spirit from on high," but no such curse was on this man.

How had he made his money? He had made it in a way that is considered the most honest and upright that is possible. He had made his money farming. Listen: "The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully." The ground. It smacks of cleanliness, honesty, uprightness.

The Silver Trumpets of Redemption

By T. Austin-Sparks

      Reading: Numbers 10:1-10

      There is a great deal about trumpets in the Bible: indeed the word occurs about a hundred times. This suggests that God has something to say to us on this subject, especially to His servants. This is our privilege as ministers of Christ, to sound forth the clear message of salvation like silver trumpets.

      We notice that the material used for these trumpets was silver which, in Old Testament symbolism, denotes redemption. This suggests that God's message to man is about redemption, but it also means that no one can be God's trumpet unless he himself is redeemed. The trumpets were made of solid silver, which means that they were the embodiment of the spiritual reality of redemption. So it is that before we can proclaim the message of God we must know redemption in the very constitution of our being. What is more, they are described as being "of beaten work". They have to be hammered out in such a way that redemption is wrought into their very experience. It is not just that God gives us words to say, but that our message must have a background of some real and thorough-going experience in the matter of which we speak.

      These things, then, should characterise every one who would be a messenger of God to others. It is better to have a small experience but a very real one, and to witness of that, than to speak empty words which have no solid background in the life and cannot therefore serve God in the trumpet call of His grace. The process will go on if we allow God to pursue it and He will work our redemption into us, making us like those silver trumpets which were "of beaten work". Redemption does not begin and end just with our being saved from judgment and hell and being assured of heaven. This is an important part of our Christian experience, but it is only a part, for redemption begins to apply to and touch every part of our lives until we are wholly on that ground.

      When the Israelites were redeemed by God from their bondage in Egypt, the result was that not one ox was left in the land. God applied this matter of redemption to the last hoof of the last animal to leave Egypt. His idea was a very thorough-going redemption which left nothing outside. Now that illustrates our point. It was true in history, but it shows us that in our spiritual life everything has to be wrought and beaten into us, so that our lives can be silver trumpets for God.

      The trumpets were two in number. This surely stresses their devotion to witnessing. In the Bible the legal position was that the evidence of one person alone was never accepted. It had to be confirmed and corroborated by a second reliable witness before it could be valid. "At the mouth of two witnesses... shall every word be established" (2 Corinthians 13:1). Two is the irreducible minimum of God. As many more as you like, but no less than two. It was equally the case with the silver sockets of the tabernacle boards - there had to be two sockets for each board. God wishes to have everything ratified and confirmed in an unmistakable way where His testimony is concerned.

      This matter is taken up by the apostle Paul in the passage about trumpets where he writes: "If the trumpet give an uncertain voice, who shall prepare himself for war?" (1 Corinthians 14:8). Unhappily there is far too much indefiniteness and uncertainty about some Christian witness today. It is essential that there should be nothing of the kind where redemption is concerned. The witness must be positive.

      It is helpful to consider the purpose of these silver trumpets:

      1. To Call Together (v.3)

      In the first place they were to be used to call an assembly together. Here were instruments to establish the relatedness, the oneness, of the fellowship together of God's people. We should have a unifying effect on our fellow believers, avoiding anything which could tend to scatter or divide the people of God. It is a great ministry to bring the Lord's people together. The ministry of the silver trumpets is never to disintegrate God's people but rather to strengthen relationships and consolidate fellowship.

2. To Order Movement (v.5)

      We find that the trumpets were used for the ordering of the life and movement of Israel. It is interesting to notice that the two silver trumpets come next to the cloud of Shekinah glory which rested upon the Tabernacle. They worked together. The pillar of cloud and fire provided guidance for God's people, and when Israel was in right relationship with Him, then the guidance was always towards the land of promise. So when it was time for the people to move forward, the trumpets were sounded to give direction to the march, bringing them ever nearer and nearer to the spiritual wealth and fullness of God's objective for them.

      In this way we see that the trumpets proclaimed God's great purpose for His redeemed people. The trumpet note cannot be sounded too strongly in this connection nor too clearly, for we are called with a great divine purpose which God formulated before the world was. The Lord's people need to have it made known to them, for there is a tremendous purpose governing their being called together into the fellowship of His Son, and they need not only to know the purpose, but also God's way of realising it. They need to be kept from wandering round in circles, straying about indefinitely without any clear assurance of what redemption really involves and where it should be leading them. There is a great need for an enlightening and inspiring ministry of the Word which will summon God's redeemed people to move on to His eternal purpose for them in Christ. The silver trumpets were to govern God's people in relation to the ultimate fullness which He has for them in Christ.

      3. To Call to War (v.9)

      They were also to sound the summons to war. Perhaps this note is as much needed as any, for every Christian is intended to be involved in spiritual warfare. It is so easy to be surprised or worried when we become involved in conflict, as though this were very strange and unfair for peace-loving persons. The fact is, though, that conflict is far from being strange or unusual but is the calling of every true Christian. The silver trumpets call us to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. We must realise that we have a part in the Lord's battles and that these will go on to the very end. We must learn to respond to the rallying voice of redemption's trumpet. It calls us to victory, for the words seem to suggest that the Lord Himself would listen for the trumpet alarm and when He heard it, would remember His beloved people and send them salvation from their enemies.

      4. To Express Praise (v.10)

      The fourth purpose was simply the trumpeting of praise to God on feast days and special occasions of rejoicing. Salvation is a feast, and is often so described in the Gospels. Our testimony to the world around us should always be bright and clear. In this way the trumpet call can be a call of salvation to those who are outside of God's grace in Christ. Paul writes about their sound going into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Romans 10:18). God's people are set in so many places that they may be a witness to Him, like the silver trumpets celebrating the perfect offering of Christ and the gospel truth of God's provision for sinners by that offering. For us, then, every day should be a feast day, a day of gladness. There is no time when we should not be sounding the silver trumpets of redemption as we remember Christ and rejoice in His saving grace. As we make much of the Lord Jesus and concentrate on Him, then from us goes out a message of hope and salvation to those around us. We blow our trumpets over the one great Burnt Offering and Peace Offering and we are assured that God will always remember us and work for us as we do this. The last word of this passage is: "I am the Lord your God". What a joy if others should enter into such a relationship because we have served as silver trumpets of redemption.

In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given, his writings are not copyrighted. Therefore, we ask if you choose to share them with others, please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of changes, free of charge and free of copyright.

At Wit's End

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

      "At their wit's end, they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out" (Ps. 107:27, 28).

      Are you standing at "Wit's End Corner,"
      Christian, with troubled brow?
      Are you thinking of what is before you,
      And all you are bearing now?
      Does all the world seem against you,
      And you in the battle alone?
      Remember--at "Wit's End Corner"
      Is just where God's power is shown.

      Are you standing at "Wit's End Corner,"
      Blinded with wearying pain,
      Feeling you cannot endure it,
      You cannot bear the strain,
      Bruised through the constant suffering,
      Dizzy, and dazed, and numb?
      Remember--at "Wit's End Corner"
      Is where Jesus loves to come.

      Are you standing at "Wit's End Corner"?
      Your work before you spread,
      All lying begun, unfinished,
      And pressing on heart and head,
      Longing for strength to do it,
      Stretching out trembling hands?
      Remember--at. "Wit's End Corner"
      The Burden-bearer stands.

      Are you standing at "Wit's End Corner"?
      Then you're just in the very spot
      To learn the wondrous resources
      Of Him who faileth not:
      No doubt to a brighter pathway
      Your footsteps will soon be moved,
      But only at "Wit's End Corner"
      Is the "God who is able" proved.
      --Antoinette Wilson

      Do not get discouraged; it may be the last key in the bunch that opens the door. Stansifer

That I might finish my course with joy

By A.B. Simpson

      This is a most serious thought, this thought of finishing our work. There is nothing in the Christian life quite so sad as unfinished work. As I look over the work of God, I see strewn all along the way this curse of incompleted work. The book of Judges tells us of five hundred years of declension because God's people did not complete their work when they were in possession of Canaan. They conquered Jericho; they conquered 31 kingdoms; they divided the land among 12 victorious tribes; but they left here and there little strongholds that were not subdued-little tribes that could not or would not be driven out-and it was not long until they brought Israel under subjection and neutralized all the work of Joshua's conquest. 

Consider the ministry of Elijah. Never has the world seen anything more sublime than his victory on Carmel. But who has not grieved at his reaction on the following day when, at the shaking of a woman's finger, he fled into the desert and left the field in possession of God's enemies. It is not enough to go on for a while. It is the last step that wins. May God put on our hearts this thought, that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have receive of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

We Need Sanctified Thinkers PART 2

  A.W. Tozer 

 The creative religious thinker is not a daydreamer, not an ivory tower intellectual carrying on his lofty cogitations remote from the rough world. He is more likely to be a troubled, burdened man weighed down by the woes of existence, occupied not with matters academic or theoretical but the practical and personal. 

 The great religious thinkers of the past were rarely men of leisure; mostly they were men of affairs, close to and very much a part of the troubled world. Neither will the sanctified thinker of our times be a poet gazing at a sunset from some quiet secluded spot, but one who feels himself a traveler lost in a wilderness who must find his way to safety. That others will later follow the path he makes will not be primary in his thinking. Later he will understand this, but for the time being he will be all engaged hunting the way out for himself.

To think well and usefully a man must be endowed with certain indispensable qualifications. He must, for one thing, be completely honest and transparently sincere. The trifler is automatically eliminated. He is weighed in the balance and found too light to be entrusted with the thoughts of God. Let but a breath of levity enter the mind and the power to do creative thinking instantly goes out. And by levity I do not mean wit or even humor; I do mean insincerity, sham, the absence of moral seriousness. Great thoughts require a grace attitude toward life and mankind and Cod. Another qualification is courage. 

The timid man dare not think lest he discover himself, an experience to him as shocking as the discovery that he has cancer. The sincere thinker comes to his task with the abandonment of a Saul of Tarsus, crying, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” 

Thinking carries a moral imperative The searcher for truth must be ready to obey truth without reservation or it will elude him. Let him refuse to follow the light and he dooms himself to darkness. The coward may be shrewd or clever but he can never be a wise thinker, for wisdom is at bottom a moral thing and will have no truck with evil. Again, the effective religious thinker must possess some degree of knowledge. 

A Chinese saying has it, “Learning without thought is a snare; thought without learning is a danger.” I have met Christians with sharp minds but limited outlook who saw one truth and, being unable to relate it to other truths, became narrow extremists, devoutly cultivating their tiny plot, naively believing that their little fence enclosed the whole earth. An acquaintance with or at least a perception of the significance of what Kant called “the starry heavens above and the moral law within” is necessary to right thinking. Add to this a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, a good historic sense and some intimate contact with the Christian religion as it is practiced currently and you have the raw material for creative thought. Still, this is not enough to make a thinker. 

 Man is a worshiper and only in the spirit of worship does he find release for all the powers of his amazing intellect. A religious writer has warned us that it may be fatal to “trust to the squirrel-work of the industrious brain rather than to the piercing vision of the desirous heart.” The Greek church father, Nicephorus, taught that we should learn to think with our heart. “Force your mind to descend into the heart,” he says, “and to remain there… When you thus enter into the place of the heart give thanks to God and, praising His mercy, keep always to this doing, and it will teach you things which in no other way will you ever learn.” 

 It is itself a cliché that the Christian faith is full of apparent self-contradictions commonly called paradoxes. One such paradox is the necessity to repudiate self and depend wholly upon God while at the same time having complete confidence in our own ability to receive and know and understand with the faculties God Himself has given us. That brand of humility which causes a man to distrust his own mentality to the point of moral diffidence and chronic irresolution is but a weak parody on the real thing. It is a serious reflection upon the wisdom and goodness of God to question His handiwork. “Does the clay say to the potter, What are you making?” 

 A religious mentality characterized by timidity and lack of moral courage has given us today a flabby Christianity, intellectually impoverished, dull, repetitious and, to a great many persons, just plain boresome. This is peddled as the very faith of our fathers in direct lineal descent from Christ and the apostles. We spoon-feed this insipid pabulum to our inquiring youth and, to make it palatable, spice it up with carnal amusements filched from the unbelieving world. It is easier to entertain than to instruct, it is easier to follow degenerate public taste than to think for oneself, so too many of our evangelical leaders let their minds atrophy while they keep their fingers nimble operating religious gimmicks to bring in the curious crowds. 

 Well, I dare to risk a prophecy: The sheep are soon going to become weary both of the wilted clover we are giving them and the artificial color we are spraying over it to make it look fresh. And when they get sick enough to leave our pastures, Father Divine, Mrs. Eddy and their kind will find them easy victims. Christianity must embrace the total personality and command every atom of the redeemed being. We cannot withhold our intellects from the blazing altar and still hope to preserve the true faith of Christ.


 From the book “God Tells the Man Who Cares” by AW Tozer 
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