Food for the Desert

The object in collecting the following brief sentences, is to meet the need of those who, when they cannot feed much, may feed little. There are various needs and various stated of soul. Some are only able to gather a little, while others gather much; but he that gathered little had no lack, and he that gathered much had nothing over. It is better to gather a little than not gather at all, and according to medical opinion, food of any and every kind should only be taken in proportion to the power of the patient’s digestion. One who could only take a little milk, would suffer much if he took meat. However, light food cannot injure the strongest, while it may be of the greatest use to the very weakest. There was always in the church, and always will be whilst it remains upon earth, babes, young men, and fathers, each and all standing in need of daily food, best suited to their condition. A weak person should take a little and often, if he wishes to recover his strength. We frequently find ourselves weak in body from not taking even a little food; we become faint and weary, fit for nothing and fit for nobody, so that the grasshopper becomes a burden. And so with the soul, if we would be strong, we must feed well, and live well, and above all, have plenty of “exercise.” True, few of us like the latter, hence our decline of strength, and morbid state of soul. Without exercise we get wisdom, but with all our getting, we do not get understanding; or in other words, we do not (1 Tim. 4:7) exercise ourselves rather unto godliness.

Many of the Lord’s people are fond of feeding upon rich truth, while they despise “milk for babes.” By so doing they become “puffed up,” or puffed out, but they are never (2 Tim. 2:1), apart from exercise, “strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” they know much, but are able to do little or nothing, except speak big words, and lay down the law for others: or, like Job at one time, they think that they are the men, and that wisdom will perish with them:

“Dropping buckets into empty wells,

And growing old in drawing nothing up.”

For obvious reasons, I have not considered it prudent to place the initials of the author against each sentence, as some of us are too apt to value the truth as we value the man ordained of God to speak it. We must guard against this, otherwise we shall become like Isaac (Gen. 27:1,4,20,22), not only feeble, but blind, and in our eagerness for “savory meat, such as we love,” and which must be prepared for us by a certain man only, find that the “savory meat” has been found for us “so quickly,” and in the end we shall with sorrow discover that the voice was Jacob’s voice, but the hands were the hands of Esau.

J.M.B. London, 1876.

1

As long as the Lord Jesus was here, He was a solitary Man upon earth: but now He, being raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, forms a new class of men of the same order as Himself: and every believer is of this same class.

2

The problem for the believer is to live Christ in His body upon earth. Nothing explains truth like practice.

3

We have to get rid of the bad: and what is strange, the more good we get, the more bad we have to get rid of.

4

We acquired, in the garden of Eden, the knowledge of good by doing evil, without the power to follow the good; and we acquired the knowledge of evil, without the power to withstand it.

5

Conscience and knowledge, two things men boast so much of, were got by an act of disobedience.

6

When I hear a person say, “I do not see the harm of it,” I answer: It is just because you have not learned enough good. And that is why a worldly saint will go through the world the easiest, and also do himself the least harm by going through it. It is only the worldly man who can say, I do not find it does me any harm.

7

The man who knows most of Christ, is always the one who is most apprehensive of Satan,

8

A saint walking with Christ sees Satanic power everywhere; the very air is full of evil spirits, and pernicious influence upon the soul.

9

The body is the place in which all the evil has been done; but now the Lord says, I have redeemed it; it must now be my place—my garden; it has been growing all the weeds that Satan could plant in it, but now it must grow flowers for me.

10

What is the Lord’s table? I express there that I have communion with the body of Christ; it is not the benefits, it is with the Benefactor; and I am thinking of Him at the moment when He broke everything here; I remember Him where He was when He opened the door so that I might have fellowship with Him.

11

Now you are to use this power that has been acting toward you; you are to “be strong in it,” that you may be able to resist Satan; and that, too, not now as an open adversary—not coming forth as a roaring lion—but in the most subtle way possible he is going to try and divert you from the path you are in.

12

Suppose a person gives up his state, what will his standing be? Satan will soon wile him off that; that is just where the Ephesians themselves went wrong, so that we find them in the Revelation as having lost their first love.

13

A title, without means to support it, lays a person open to ridicule and censure, is not now a question of the standing: but the question is, Have you means to support it?

14

Supposing a person goes on carelessly, it does not at all alter the fact of his title, but will lose the enjoyment of it; and I believe is one of the reasons why persons want to hear over and over again of the putting away of their sins; it is just that they are not walking blamelessly—that they are not walking up to the standing that they have received.

15

I may be a goldfinch, never sing a note: I am one before I sing. If I were a goldfinch only because I sang, that would be making new standing dependent on my state.

16

I will not let you find fault with your because He made them. You may find as fault as you like with the flesh, but that is your bodies. Our bodies are “members of Christ.” Christendom has fallen into the mistake of making our bodies members of the church, which is quite contrary to scripture: “We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.”

17

God’s power is just fitted for the saints’ weakness; and the saints’ weakness is just fitted for God’s power, so we suit each Other.

18

Everything you do here is according to the state you are in at the time, not according to your standing, but according to your state.

19

The danger with us who have learnt something of our standing, is to overlook our 5: We are anxious till we know our standing; eve is a legality about us, which makes us anxious until we do know it: when you first come to know it, it is like the sun rising after a dark night; but if you stop there you are sure to go down. Many a saint has felt the wonderful joy and delight of discovering his standing, which he had been reaching after, and then failed utterly as to keeping this joy through not maintaining the state corresponding to it. The standing is without any effort, yet it is always in the standing that you acquire the state; but then there is another thing. It is, that not only I have a state Godward, but I must have a state Satanward. You must have a state which is fitted to meet the character of the evil of this present scene, and according as you have that, you are able to do “according to the power that worketh in us.”

20

Have you read the history of Joshua? As soon as the children of Israel got into the land, they were warned not to forget God, for if they did, they would be worse off than they were in Egypt, where they had the river, for they would have no rain. I am sorry to say, I have seen many who have accepted the standing, but who have then given up the state in keeping with it, saying that it was impracticable, and who have thus perished “off the good land,” rather, have lost the blessings of the standing. They have no rain—no present ministration from. God; there is nothing so painful to the Spirit of God as your not accepting your standing. I refer you to the third of Hebrews for this, He calls it there “the day of provocation,” What was that? That they would not go up to their standing—they would not take possession of the good land.

21

People say, I do not assume to be heavenly. I know why; it is because you do not want to be heavenly.

22

I do not believe there is any moment of more ecstatic delight to the soul, than the one in which it finds that God’s place for it is its own. It is a moment of unspeakable delight; it has reached the climax of everything, and it knows that it is there, It is a wonderful moment; but, I say, woe betide the person who is satisfied with stopping at it What the Lord warns them about, on their getting into the land, is their state in it,

23

How can I progress, unless I accept the place God has put me in? How can I progress, unless I am in the Father’s house?

24

You may tell me you are a standard rosetree, and I do not doubt it, but I see no rose; and there will be none either, if a shoot be allowed from the briar,

25

You are never able to compete successfully with anything, unless you came into the combat in a right state.

26

It is not sin that keeps men from the great supper, it is the world. Poor wretched one! Is this world going to keep you from God’s great supper? “The great supper” is not salvation merely: it is entertainment.

27

“Who is blind as my servant? and who is deaf as my messenger?” It has been said a person never ministers so well in any meeting as when he comes in as a stranger, knowing nothing of the troubles that are in it, If I come from Gods presence I may not know what all of you are doing, but I know what God’s mind is about you.

28

A man of divine power comes into the world for God, and forms his judgment of things from Him. He has been so occupied with Christ, that though he may not know what is going on here, yet he comes with Christ’s mind and colour into the world, and is not prejudiced by the things he has to do with,

29

It is God’s purpose that we should know our standing, and I have nothing to do with obtaining it; but when I come to state, I come to what is my enjoyment of the standing in which He has set me.

30

What man is to be for me now?—the Man Christ Jesus.

31

Our path through the desert is strewed with countless mercies, and yet let but a cloud, the size of a man’s hand, appear on the horizon, and we at once forget the rich mercies of the past, in view of this single cloud, which, after all, may only “break in blessings on our head.”

32

Nothing is more dishonouring to God than the manifestation of a complaining spirit on the part of those that belong to Him.

33

The heart that ceases to retain a thankful sense of God’s goodness, will speedily become “dark.”

34

Wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? (Num. 14:3,) Such is the line along which a soul out of communion will travel, It first loses the sense of being in God’s hand for good, and finally begins to deem itself in His hands for evil—melancholy progress this!

35

If those who are redeemed from this present world do not walk with God in thankfulness of heart, satisfied with His provision for the redeemed in the wilderness, they are in danger of falling into the snare of Babylonish influence.

36

It demands a heavenly taste to feed on bread from heaven, Nature cannot relish such food. It will ever yearn after Egypt, and, therefore, it must be kept down.

37

The manna was so pure and delicate that it could not bear contact with the earth. It fell upon the dew (see Num. 11:9), and had to be gathered ere the sun was up. Each one, therefore, had to rise early, and seek his daily portion. So it is with the people of God now. The heavenly manna must be gathered fresh every morning.

38

Yesterday’s manna will not do for to-day, nor to-day’s for to-morrow. We must feed upon Christ every day, with fresh energy of the Spirit, else we shall cease to grow.

39

The new life in the believer can only be nourished and sustained by Christ.

40

If I am walking with God through the desert, I shall be satisfied with the food which He provides, and that is Christ.

41

The only provision which God has made, is the heavenly manna, and on this the true believer should ever feed.

42

It is truly deplorable to find Christians seeking after the things of this world. It proves very distinctly, that they are “loathing.” the heavenly manna, and esteeming it “light food,” they are ministering to that which they ought to mortify.

43

As in nature the more we exercise, the better the appetite; so in grace: the more our renewed faculties are called into play, the more we feel the need of feeding each day upon Christ.

44

It is one thing to know that we have life in Christ together with full forgiveness and acceptance before God, and it is quite another to be in habitual communion with Him.

45

Very many profess to have found pardon and peace in Jesus, who, in reality, are feeding upon a variety of things which have no connection with Him.

46

A man’s acts are always the truest index of his desires and purposes. Hence, if I find a professing Christian neglecting his Bible, yet finding abundance of time, yea, some of his choicest hours, for the newspaper, I can be at no loss to decide as to the true condition of his soul, I am sure he cannot be spiritual—cannot be feeding upon, living for, or witnessing to Christ.

47

We must make Christ the paramount object of our soul’s pursuit, else our spiritual fife inevitably decline.

48

Israel were never to forget amid the milk and honey of the land of Canaan, that which sustained them during their forty years in the wilderness.

49

We cannot, if entering into the truth and reality of our position, hoard up.

50

It is a deeply solemn thing to learn truth: for there is not a principle which we profess to have learnt which we shall not have to prove practically.

51

One often trembles to hear persons make high professions and use expressions of intense devotedness, whether in prayer or otherwise, lest when the hour of trial comes, there may not be the needed spiritual power to carry out what the lips have uttered.

52

There is a great danger of the intellect’s outstripping the conscience and the affections.

53

It is as we use what we receive that more will be given. The path of the believer is to be a practical one: and here it is that so many of us come short.

54

It will often be found that those who get on most rapidly in theory are the slowest in the practical and experimental elements, because it is more a work of intellect than of heart and conscience.

55

We should ever remember that Christianity is not a set of opinions, a system of dogmas, or a number of views: it is pre-eminently a living reality—a personal, practical, powerful thing, telling itself out in all the scenes and circumstances of daily life, shedding its hallowed influence over the entire character and course, and imparting its heavenly tone to every relationship which one may be called of God to fill.

56

There may be clear views, correct notions, sound principles, without any fellowship with Jesus: but our orthodox creed without Christ will prove a cold, barren, dead thing.

57

Christian, see carefully to it, that you are not only saved by Christ, but also living on Him. Make Him the daily portion of your soul. Seek Him “early,” seek Him “only.” When anything solicits your attention, ask the question, “Will this bring Christ to my heart? Will it unfold Him to my affections, or draw me near to His Person?” if not, reject it at once.

58

If your honest purpose be to get on in the divine life, to progress in spirituality, to cultivate personal acquaintance with Christ, then challenge your heart solemnly and faithfully as to this. Make Christ your habitual good. Go, gather the manna that falls on the dewdrops, and feed upon it with an appetite sharpened by a diligent walk with God through the desert.

59

Whether fallen man gets a privilege or a law, a blessing or a curse, it is all alike. His nature is bad—he can neither rest with, nor work for God. If God works and makes a rest for him, he will not keep it; and if God tells him to work, he will not do it. Such is man; he has no heart for God.

60

Nothing can exceed the desperate unbelief and wickedness of the human heart, save the superabounding grace of God.

61

We assuredly need to remember, when placed in a position of trial, that “there hath no temptation taken us, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Cor. 10:13.)

62

Whenever we get into trial, we may feel confident that, with the trial, there is an issue, and all we need is a broken will, and a single eye to see it.

63

“The gift of the Holy Ghost” is the result of the Son’s accomplished work upon the cross.

64

Until the rock was smitten, the stream was pent up, and man could do nothing.

65

What human hand could bring forth water from a flinty rock? And so we may ask, what could afford a warrant for opening the flood-gates of divine love? This is the true way in which to test man’s competency.

66

The gift of the Holy Ghost leads to conflict, the light rebukes and conflicts with the darkness; where all is dark, there is no struggle; but the very feeblest struggle bespeaks the presence of light.

Pharaoh and Amalek represent two different powers or influences: Pharaoh represents the hindrance to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt; Amalek represents the hindrance to their walk with God through the wilderness.

67

Pharaoh used the things of Egypt to keep Israel from serving the Lord: he, therefore, prefigures Satan, who uses “this present evil world” against the people of God. Amalek, on the other hand, stands before us as the type of the flesh. He was the grandson of Esau, who preferred a mess of pottage to the birthright. (See Gen. 36:12.) He was the first who opposed Israel after their baptism “in the cloud and in the sea.”

68

“We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” (Rom. 8:37.) The grace in which we stand renders the flesh utterly void of power to lord it over us. (See Rom. 6, passim.) If the law is “the strength of sin,” grace is the weakness thereof. The former gives sin power over us, the latter gives us power over sin.

69

Christ is on high for us, while the Holy Ghost carries on the mighty struggle in us. The two things go together. It is as we enter by faith into the prevalence of Christ’s intercession on our behalf that we make headway against our evil nature.

70

If you are delivered from sin you are delivered from yourself; and what a blessed deliverance, to have a right to have done with myself! It is the best thing in the world to have done with myself. “Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”

71

It would be out of character to tell us not to let sin reign, if it were not actually dwelling in us. There is a great difference between dwelling and reigning: it dwells in a believer, but it reigns in an unbeliever.

72

It is edifying to remark the contrast Moses on the hill and Christ on the throne. The hands of our great Intercessor can never hang down. His intercession never fluctuates. “He ever liveth to make intercession for us,” (Heb. 7). His intercession is never ceasing, and all prevailing. Having taken His place on high, in the power of divine righteousness, He acts for us, according to what He is, and according to the infinite perfectness of what He has done. His hands can never hang down, nor can He need anyone to hold them up.

73

The flesh is in us, though we are dead to it; but we are not in the flesh, because we are alive with Christ.

74

It seems like distrust of oneself, and deep lowliness of spirit, to shrink from heavy responsibility, but all we need to inquire is, Has God imposed that responsibility? If so, He will be assuredly with me in sustaining it; and having Him with me, I can sustain anything. With Him, the weight of a mountain is nothing; without Him the weight of a feather is overwhelming.

75

If a man, in the vanity of his mind, thrust himself forward and take a burden upon his shoulders, which God never intended him to hear, and, therefore, never fitted him to bear, we may then, surely, expect to see him crushed beneath the weight; but if God lays it upon him, He will qualify and strengthen him to carry it.

76

It is never the fruit of humility to depart from a divinely appointed post. On the contrary, the deepest humility will express itself by remaining there in simple dependence upon God.

77

It is a sure evidence of being occupied about self when we shrink from service on the ground of inability. God does not call us into service on the ground of our ability, but of His own.

78

God will not force people to abide in a place of honour if they cannot trust Him to sustain them there.

79

Thus it was with Moses. He complained of the burden, and the burden was speedily removed, but with it the high honour of being allowed to carry it.

80

The man who shrinks from responsibility the ground of his own feebleness, is danger of calling in question the fullness and sufficiency of God’s resources,

81

Where the Holy Ghost is working; one instrument is as good and efficient as seventy; and where He is not working, seventy are of no more value than one, it all depends upon the energy of the Holy Ghost. With Him one man can do all, endure all, sustain all. Without Him seventy men can do nothing.

82

If God honour a man by giving hire a great deal of work to do, let him rejoice therein, and not murmur; for if he murmur he can very speedily lose his honour. God is at no loss for instruments.

83

Oh, for a heart to serve Him! A patient, humble, self-emptied, devoted heart! A heart ready to serve in company, ready to serve alone a heart so filled with love to Christ that it will find its joy, its chief joy, in serving Him, let the sphere or character of service be what it may.

84

Jesus was not popular. The multitude might follow Him for a moment, because His ministry stood connected, in their judgment, with “the loaves and fishes,” which met their need; but they were just as ready to cry, “Away with him!” as “Hosanna to the Son of David.”

85

How encouraging and consolatory it is for the tried, emptied, buffeted, and self-abased children of God to remember that God only sees them on the heart of Jesus!

86

Everything that presents Christ in His own proper excellence, is sweet and acceptable to God. Even the feeblest expression or exhibition of Him, in the life or worship of a saint, is an odor of a sweet smell, in which God is well pleased.

87

Too often, alas! we have to be occupied with our failures and infirmities. If ever thy workings of indwelling sin be suffered to rise to the surface, we must deal with God about them, for He cannot go on with sin. He can forgive it, and cleanse us from it—He can restore our souls by the gracious ministry of our great High Priest—but He cannot go in our company with a single sinful thought. A light or foolish thought, as well as an unclean or covetous one, is amply sufficient to mar a Christian’s communion, and interrupt his worship.

88

When we are in our proper priestly condition, nature is as though it had no existence; then we can feed upon Christ. We can taste the divine luxury of being wholly at leisure from ourselves, and wholly engrossed with Christ.

89

All efforts at worshipping God by the unhallowed powers of nature, come under the head of “strange fire.” God is the object of worship; Christ the ground and the material of worship; and the Holy Ghost the power of worship.

90

All may not be alike devoted and fruitful; but “the precious blood of Christ,” and not devotedness or fruitfulness, is the solid and lasting ground of the believer’s rest. The more we enter into the truth and power of this, the more fruitful shall we be.

91

Let our range of intelligence be ever so wide, our fund of experience ever so rich, our tone of devotion ever so elevated, we shall always have to fall back upon the one simple, divine, unalterable, soul-sustaining, doctrine of THE BLOOD.

92

The most deeply-taught and gifted servants of Christ, have always rejoiced to come back to “that one well-spring of delight,” at which their thirsty spirits drank when first they knew the Lord. And the eternal song of the church in glory will be “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” The courts of heaven will for ever resound with the glorious doctrine of the blood.

93

The man who has constant recourse to the word of God, and allows that word to tell upon his heart and conscience, will be maintained in the holy activities of the divine life.

94

The more keenly we feel the edge of the word, the more we shall prize the merciful and gracious ministry of our High Priest.

95

Worship must ever be presented in the power of holiness.

96

We must lose sight of nature, as reflected in a looking-glass, and be wholly occupied with Christ as presented in the word.

97

Each one has a place to occupy, a ministry to fulfil, a responsibility to discharge; and you and I are, at this moment, either promoting the interests of the house of God, the body of Christ, the church, or helping on the godless schemes of a world yet stained with the blood of Christ and the blood of all His martyred saints.

98

The believer is delivered, most completely, from the observance of “days and months, and times and years.” Association with a risen Christ has taken him clean out of all such superstitious observances.

99

The sabbath belonged to the old creation; the Lord’s day belongs to the new.

100

The sabbath was a day of bodily rest for the Jew; the Lord’s day is a day of spiritual rest for the Christian. If the Jew worked on the sabbath, he was to be put to death; if the Christian does not work on the Lord’s day, he gives little proof of life.

101

Whenever we turn away in heart from leaning exclusively upon God Himself, whether in the matter of salvation or the necessities of the path, we are, in principle, saying, “Up, make us gods.”

102

He tells us the hairs of our head are all numbered, and that we shall never want any good thing; we through grace, believe, and enjoy a sweetly tranquilized heart.

103

The most brilliant attractions and bewitching fascinations of the world are to the church of God what the serpents and scorpions, and the ten thousand other dangers of the wilderness were to Israel.

104

The heart is so deceitful that we may be led to imagine that we are doing the Lord’s work, when, in reality, we are only pleasing ourselves.

105

If the heart is really subject to the authority of Christ, it is in readiness for anything and everything to which He calls us—be it to stand still or to go forward, to do little or much, to be active or passive.

106

To a really obedient heart the question is not at all, “What am I doing?” or “Where am I going?” It is simply, “Am I doing the will of my Lord?”

107

We have ever to be on our guard against a spirit of self-will and self-pleasing, which is never so dangerous as when it clothes itself in the garb of religious service, and work so called.

108

It behooves us to be very sure indeed that we are directly and simply governed by the claims of God, when we disregard the claims of relationship.

109

There are moments in which it would be open disloyalty to our Lord Christ to hearken, for one instant, to the voice of natural relationship.

110

As men of war, we are called to fight; as priests, we are privileged to worship; but as Levites, we are responsible to serve, and our service is to carry through this dreary desert scene the antitype of the tabernacle, and that tabernacle was the figure of Christ. This is our distinct line of service. To this we are called—to this we are set apart.

111

We, as Christians, are very apt to jostle one another; indeed, we are sure to do so if we do not each one pursue his own divinely-appointed line of work.

112

If the Lord has made one man an evangelist, another a teacher, another a pastor, and another an exhorter, how is the work to go on? Surely it is not by the evangelist trying to teach, and the teacher to exhort, or one who is not fitted for either, trying to do both.

113

There are not two faces alike, not two leaves in the forest alike, not two blades of grass alike. Why then should anyone aim at another’s line of work, or affect to possess another’s gift? Let each one be satisfied to be just what his Master has made him.

114

We know of few things more precious than a tender conscience. We do not mean a scrupulous conscience, which is governed by its own crotchets; or a morbid conscience, which is governed by its own fears. Both these are most troublesome guests for anyone to entertain. But we mean a tender conscience, which is governed, in all things, by the word.

115

Communion with unconfessed sin upon the conscience, is a moral impossibility.

116

We must keep a clean conscience if we would walk with God.

117

Suspicion is the death-blow to all loving intimacy, and God would not have it in the midst of his congregation.

118

There is not a single act of service which we render to our Lord that will not be set down in His book; and not only the substance of the act, but the style of it also, for God appreciates style as well as we do. He loves a cheerful giver, and a cheerful worker, because that is precisely what He is Himself.

119

Of all the exercises in which the Christian can engage, there is nothing more precious, nothing more expressive, nothing that brings Christ more touchingly or solemnly before his heart, than the Lord’s supper. He may sing about the Lord’s death, he may pray about it, he may read about it, he may hear about it, but it is only in the supper that he “shows” it forth.

120

It is our happy and holy duty to submit to scripture, to bow down, absolutely and implicitly, to its divine authority.

121

There is such a thing as the response of love in the heart of the Christian, answering to the love of the heart of Christ. Is not this something?

122

If our blessed and adorable Lord has, in very deed, appointed the bread and wine, in the supper, as memorials of His broken body and shed blood: if He has ordained that we should eat of that bread and drink of that cup, in remembrance of Him, ought we not, in the power of responsive affection, to meet the desire of His loving heart?

123

It ought ever to be the very joy of our hearts to gather round the table of our loving Lord and remember Him in the way of His appointment, to shew forth His death till He come, It is only marvelous to think that He should seek a place in the remembrance of such hearts as ours.

124

Is God known, loved, and trusted? If He be, the heart will delight in the most absolute dependence upon Him.

125

How often do we vainly imagine, and confidently assert, that the cloud is moving in that very direction which suits the bent of our inclination! We want to do a certain thing, or make a certain movement, and we seek to persuade ourselves that our will is the will of God,

126

There is nothing in all this world more deeply blessed than to lead a life of habitual dependence upon God.

127

There is a vast difference between God’s using the creature to bless us, and our leaning on the creature to the exclusion of Him. In one case, we are blessed, and He is glorified; in the other, we are disappointed and He is dishonoured.

128

How often do we speak of living by faith, and of trusting only in God, when, at the same time, if we would only look down into the depths of our hearts, we should find there a large measure of dependence upon circumstances.

129

We are bent upon doing something which God does not want us to do at all; upon going somewhere that God does not want us to go. We pray about it, and get no answer. We pray again and again, and get no answer. How is this? Why, the simple fact is that God wants us to be quiet, to stand still, to remain just where we are. Wherefore, instead of racking our brain, and harassing our souls about what we ought to do, let us do nothing but simply wait on God.

130

Our ever-gracious God can give clearness and decision as to everything. If He does not give it, no one can, If He does, no one need.

131

We move on with comfort and satisfaction when we possess the countenance and help of sonic poor fellow-mortal; but we hesitate, falter, and quail, when called on to move on in naked faith in God.

132

When once the heart loses its freshness in the divine life, when heavenly things begin to lose their savour, when first love declines, when Christ ceases to be a satisfying and altogether precious portion for the soul, when the word of God and prayer lose their charm, and become heavy, dull, and mechanical; then the eye wanders back toward the world; the heart follows the eye, and the feet follow the heart.

133

How sad to hear a Christian say, “I want some recreation. How can I full up the day? I cannot be always thinking of Jesus.” We should like to ask all who speak thus, will you fill up eternity? Shall not Christ be sufficient to fill up its countless ages? Shall you want recreation there?

134

There is nothing more damaging to the cause of Christ, or the souls of His people than association with men of mixed principles. It is very much more dangerous than having to do with open and avowed enemies. Satan knows this well, and hence his constant effort to lead the Lord’s people to link themselves with those who are only half-and-half.

135

It is the wilderness that really brings out what is in the very best of us. It is there we prove what is in our hearts.

136

Whenever the Lord places a man in a position of responsibility, He will both fit him for it, and maintain him in it.

137

Faith brings God into the scene, and therefore it knows absolutely nothing of difficulties.

138

Unbelief says, “How can such and such things be?” It is full of “hows” but faith has one great answer to ten thousand “hows,” and that answer is—GOD.

139

The true secret of all ministry is spiritual power. It is not man’s genius, or man’s intellect, or man’s energy.

140

A ministry which flows from abiding dependence upon the Holy Ghost can never become barren. If a man is drawing upon his own resources, he will soon run dry. It matters not what his powers may be, or how extensive his reading, or how vast his stores of information; if the Holy Ghost be not the spring and power of his ministry, it must, sooner or later, lose its freshness and its effectiveness.

141

All who minister, whether in the gospel, or in the church of God, should lean continually and exclusively on the power of the Holy Ghost! He knows what souls need, and He can supply it.

142

We must really get at the bottom of all that belongs to self, if we are to be the vessels of the Holy Ghost.

143

It would be a fatal mistake for a man to use professed dependence upon the Spirit as a plea for neglecting prayerful study and meditation.

144

Let it ever be remembered that the Holy Ghost is the ever living, never failing spring of ministry. It is He alone that can bring forth in divine freshness and fullness the treasures of God’s word.

145

A man may speak a hundred times on the same portion of scripture, to the same people, and, on each occasion, he may minister Christ, in spiritual freshness, to their souls. And on the other hand, a man may rack his brain to find out new subjects, and new modes of handling old themes, and all the while there may not be one atom of Christ or of spiritual power in his ministry.

146

A man may be called to preach the gospel in the someplace for years, and he may, at times, feel burdened by the thought of having to address the same audience, on the same theme, week after week, month after month, year after year; he may feel at a loss for something new, something fresh, some variety; he may wish to get away into some new sphere, where the subjects which are familiar with him will be new to the people. It will greatly help such to remember that the one grand theme of the evangelist is Christ. The power to handle that theme is the Holy Ghost; and the one to whom that theme is to be unfolded is the poor lost sinner.

147

It is well for the evangelist to bear in mind, on every fresh occasion of rising to preach, that those to whom he preaches are really ignorant of the gospel, and hence he should preach as though it were the very first time his audience had ever heard the message, and the first time he had ever delivered it.

148

To preach the gospel is really to unfold the heart of God, the person and work of Christ.

149

God can act by one man just as well as by seventy; and if He does not act, seventy are no more than one.

150

Those whom we, in our folly, imagine to be indispensable coadjutors, frequently turn out the very reverse.

151

A man whose heart is full of Christ, will be able to say—to say it without affectation, provided the work is done, provided Christ is glorified, provided souls are saved, provided the Lord’s flock is cared for and fed—it matters nothing to me who does the work,

152

It is a most serious thing for anyone to speak against the Lord’s servant, We may rest assured that God will deal with it sooner or later.

153

It is a fatal mistake to speak against the very feeblest and humblest of God’s servants, if the servant does wrong—if he is in error, if he has failed in everything— the Lord Himself will deal with him; but let the fellow-servants beware how they attempt to take the matter into their hands, lest they be found like Miriam, meddling to their own hurt.

154

If we have not been able to discover the good thing in our brother and fellow-servant; if our eye has only defected the crooked thing; if we have not succeeded in finding the vital spark amid the ashes—the precious gem among the surrounding rubbish; if we have only seen what was of mere nature, why, then let us with a loving and delicate hand, draw the curtain of silence around our brother, or speak of him only at the throne of grace.

155

When we happen to be in company with those who indulge in the wicked practice of speaking against the Lord’s people, if we cannot succeed in changing the current of the conversation, let us rise and leave the place, thus bearing testimony against that which is so hateful to Christ, Let us never sit by and listen to a backbiter. We may rest assured he is doing the work of the devil, and inflicting positive injury upon three distinct parties, namely, himself, his hearer, and the subject of censorious remarks,

156

A man who knows his right place in the presence of God, is able to rise above all evil speaking. He is not troubled by it, save for those who practice it.

157

Faith is the only thing that gives God His proper place; and, as a consequence, is only thing that lifts the soul completely above the influence of surrounding circumstances, be they what they may.

158

Faith brings in God, and, therefore, all is bright and easy. Unbelief always shuts God out, and, therefore, all is dark and difficult.

159

The Christian should always be peaceful and happy—always able to praise God, come what may. His joys do not flow from himself, or from the scene through which he is passing; they flow from the living God, and they are beyond the reach of every earthly influence.

160

We take our eyes off God, and fix them on ourselves, or on our grievances, or our difficulties; hence, all is darkness and discontent, murmuring and complaining. This is not Christianity at all; it is unbelief; dark, deadly, God-dishonouring, heart-depressing unbelief.

161

If we want to be happy, we must be occupied with God and His surroundings. if we want to be miserable, we have only to be occupied with self and its surroundings.

162

What was it that shut up Zacharias in dumb silence? It was unbelief. What was it that filled the heart and opened the lips of Mary and Elizabeth? Faith.

163

Oh! how miserable to presume to move in our own strength! What defeat and contusion! What exposure and contempt! What humbling and smashing to pieces!

164

We take some false step: we get into trying circumstances in consequence; and then, instead of meekly bowing down under the hand of God, and seeking to walk with Him, in humbleness and brokenness of spirit, we grow restive and rebellious; we quarrel with the circumstances, instead of judging ourselves; and we seek, in self-will, to escape from the circumstances, instead accepting them as the just and necessary consequence of our own conduct.

165

It may happen that through weakness or failure, of one kind or another, we refuse to enter a position or path of spiritual privilege, and therefore we are thrown back in our course, and put upon a lower form in the school. Than instead of carrying ourselves humbly, and submitting, in meekness and contrition, to the hand of God, we presume to force ourselves into the position, and affect to enjoy the privilege, and put forth pretensions to power, and it all issues in the most humiliating defeat and confusion.

166

A pretentious spirit must, sooner or later, be brought down; and all, hollow assumption of power must be exposed.

167

If the wilderness proves what man is, it also proves what God is.

168

Faith can afford to wait patiently. Faith is never in a hurry.

169

Man fails, but God is faithful, Man forfeits everything, but God makes good all.

170

Has not man failed always in everything?

171

God never repents of His call or His gift; and hence, though an unbelieving generation should murmur and rebel ten thousand times over, He will make good all that He has promised.

172

Everything goes to pieces in man’s hands, but God in Christ remains.

173

Let man be set up in business again and again, under the most favorable circumstances, and he is sure to become a bankrupt, but God has set up Christ in resurrection, and all who believe in Him are placed on a new footing altogether, they are taken into partnership with the risen and glorified Head, and there they stand for ever.

174

We very often plead ignorance when indifference would be the truer term to use.

175

A tender conscience is a most precious treasure to carry about with us from day to day.

176

Conscience may be compared to the regulator of a watch. It may happen that the hands of the watch get astray; but so long as the regulator has power over the spring, there is always the means of correcting the hands.

177

Independence and disobedience go together.

178

If God calls out a man into prominence, if He qualifies him for work, if He fills and fits the vessel for special service, if He assigns a man his position—then of what possible use can it be for anyone to quarrel with divine gift and divine appointments?

179

Has God given a man his place to fill—his work to do? Who will question this? Well then, let each one know his place and fill it—know his work and do it, It is the most senseless thing in the world for one to attempt to occupy another’s post, or do another’s work.

180

Why should one envy another? It would be quite as reasonable to charge the sun, moon, and stars, with taking too much upon them, when they shine in their appointed spheres, as to charge any gifted servant of Christ therewith, when he seeks to discharge the responsibility which his gift most surely imposes upon him.

181

It is a mistake to suppose that all the members of the body of Christ are called to places of prominence, or that any member can select his place in the body. It is wholly and absolutely a matter of divine appointment, or nothing, yea, worse than nothing, a daring usurpation of divine rights.

182

There is not a single member, however obscure, that does not derive positive benefit from the duly discharged functions of the prominent member. And, on the other hand, the prominent member is a debtor to the duly discharged functions of the obscure one. Let the eyes lose their power of vision, and every member will feel it. Let there be functional derangement in the most trivial member, and the most honorable member will suffer.

183

It is not a question of taking upon us much or little, but of doing our appointed work, and filling our appointed places. It is by the effectual working of all the members, according to the measure of every part, that the edification of the whole body is promoted.

184

The fact of the ruin of the professing church is no reason whatever for abandoning the truth of God, or sanctioning any denial of it.

185

The Christian is always solemnly bound to submit himself to the revealed mind of God. To plead circumstances as an excuse for doing wrong, or for neglecting any truth of is simply flying in the face of divine authority and making God the author of our disobedience.

186

There is never much use in contending with restless and disaffected people; better far leave them, in the Lord’s hands, for with Him, in reality, is their controversy.

187

If God sets a man in a certain position, and gives him a certain work to do, and his fellows think proper to quarrel with him simply on the score of his doing that work, aid filling that position, then is their quarrel really with God, knows how to settle it, and will do it in His own way. The assurance of this gives holy calmness and moral elevation to the Lord’s servant, in moments when envious and turbulent spirits rise up against him.

188

It is hardly possible for anyone to occupy a prominent place of service, or to be preeminently used of God, without, at some time or other, having to encounter the attacks of certain radical and discontented men who cannot bear to see any one more honored than themselves.

189

It is always well, when people are seeking a place, to let them have it to their heart’s content; for, most assuredly, the very place after which they have foolishly aspired will be the scene of their signal defeat and deplorable confusion.

190

You may sometimes see men envying others in a certain sphere of service, and longing to occupy that sphere themselves. Let them try it; and they are sure, in the end, to break down and retire, covered with shame and confusion of face.

191

It will most generally be found that loud talkers about the liberties, rights, and privileges of God’s people are, in reality, seeking their own exaltation and advantage.

192

Nothing can be more worthless than seeking a place for oneself. It is sure to end in disappointment and confusion.

193

The grand thing for each one is to be found filling his appointed place and doing his appointed work; and the more humbly, quietly, and unpretendingly, the better.

194

All the education and all the human authority under the sun could not make a man an evangelist, a pastor, or teacher, unless he has a bona fide gift from the Head of the church.

195

The very feeblest saint in the church of God is as much a priest as Paul was. It is not a question of capacity or spiritual power, but simply of position.

196

All believers are priests, and they are called to offer spiritual. sacrifices, according to Hebrews xiii. 15, 16.

197

What consummate folly for worms of the dust to lift themselves op against the Almighty God! Poor man! He is more silly by far than the moth that rushes against the blaze that consumes it.

198

Oh! to walk humbly with our God: to be content with His will, to be satisfied to fill a very humble niche, and to do the most unpretending work! This is true dignity, and true happiness.

199

If we are to be governed by the rule of God’s kingdom, we shall find that the only way to get up is to go down.

200

Nothing is more sad than to witness a pushing, bustling, forward, self-confident spirit and style in those who profess to be followers of Him who was meek and lowly in heart.

201

To be much alone with God is the sovereign remedy for pride and self-complacency,

202

How well it is for us that God acts towards us, and for us, and in us, for the glory of His own name!

203

Wherever you trace Satan, you will always find him raising questions. He fills the heart with all sorts of “ifs” and “hows,” and thus plunges the soul into thick darkness. If he can only succeed in raising a question, he has gained his point. But he is perfectly powerless with a simple soul that just believes that God is and GOD HAS SPOKEN.

204

Faith always brings in the very One that always shuts out. It thinks with God; infidelity thinks without Him.

205

Every minister, whatever be his gift, should be able, in his measure, to say, “God has put me into the ministry.” But for a man to use this language without possessing any gift, is, to say the least of it, worse than worthless.

206

If men pretend to gift or power without the reality, their folly shall speedily be manifest to all. All pretenders are sure to find their true level, sooner or later.

207

There may be a great deal of work done, there may be a great deal of activity; but if Christ be not the immolate object before the heart, if His guidance and authority be not fully owned, the work must go for nothing.

208

The smallest act of service, the meanest work done under the eye of Christ, done with direct reference to Him, has its value in God’s estimation, and shall, most assuredly, receive its due reward.

209

There is a pernicious tendency in some minds to depreciate every line of work save their own.

210

We should strongly suspect the ground occupied by a Christian assembly if there were not ample space allowed for every branch and style of Christian service, for every line of work capable of being taken up in individual responsibility to the great Head of the priestly house.

211

All that can be done in fellowship with Christ can surely be done in fellowship with those who are walking with Him.

212

What do we want, save an enlarged capacity to enjoy the fulness and blessedness of our proportion in a crucified, risen, and glorified Saviour? We may well say, “We have all and abound.”

213

Let it be our one grand object to prove, in our entire history, in every phase of our character, and in every department of our work, that God is enough for our hearts.

214

It is truly deplorable to find God’s people and Christ’s servants looking to the world for support, and trembling at the thought of that support being withheld. Only let us try to imagine the church of God, in the days of Paul, relying upon the Roman government for the support of its bishops, teachers, and evangelists.

215

God will take care of His people, and of His servants, if they will only trust Him.

216

The devil does not select an ignorant immoral man to make his grand and special attacks upon the Bible, for he knows full well that the former could not speak, and the latter would not get a hearing. But he craftily takes up some amiable, benevolent and popular person, some one of blameless morals, a laborious student, profound scholar, a deep and original thinker. Thus he throws dust in the eyes of the simple, the unlearned, and the unwary.

217

Christ has not only delivered me from the consequences of my sins, but also from the present power of sin, and from the claims and influences of that thing which scripture calls “the world.”

218

It is so natural to us all to be occupied with our thoughts and feelings about the blood of Christ, rather than with the blood itself, and with God’s thoughts respecting it.

219

The very moment the heart gets occupied with the question of its own interests, the moment the eye is withdrawn from that divine object which the word of God and the Holy Ghost presents, then spiritual darkness and perplexity must ensue, and the soul, instead of rejoicing in the perfection of the work of Christ is tormented by looking at its own poor imperfect feelings.

220

God Himself has made out our title for us, and that title is found in the blood alone, Oh! that most precious blood of Jesus, that speaks profound peace to every troubled soul that will simply lean upon its eternal efficacy.

221

Many seem to be quite satisfied with the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins through the atoning work of Christ, while, at the same time, they fail to realize deadness to the world in virtue of the death of Christ, and their identification with Him therein.

222

The truly devoted heart sees the dark shadow of the cross looming over all the glitter and glare, the pomp and fashion of this world.

223

Why are we slow to urge upon one another the separating power of the cross of Christ?

224

If my heart loves Jesus, I shall not seek a place, a portion, or a name where He found only a malefactor’s cross.

225

Do you really love Christ? Has your heart been touched and attracted by His wondrous love to you? If so, remember that He was cast out by this world. There is no change.

226

Be it remembered that one of Satan’s special devices is to lead people to salvation from Christ, while, at the same time they refuse to be identified with Him in His rejection; to avail themselves of the atoning work of the cross, while abiding comfortably in the world that is stained with the guilt of nailing Christ thereto.

227

The world is not changed. It may have changed its dress, but it has not changed its nature, its spirits, its principles. It hates Jesus as cordially as when the cry went forth, “Away with Him!” “Crucify Him!”

228

We doubt not but those who have much to do with the things of this world are most painfully sensible of the immense difficulty of escaping with unsoiled hands, Hence the need of holy diligence in all our habits and associations, lest we contract defilement, and interrupt our communion with God. He must have us in a condition worthy of Himself.

229

Wait much and earnestly on God. He is faithful and gracious; a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God; a liberal and an un-upbraiding giver.

230

Is it the real purpose of your soul to get on, to advance in the divine life, to grow in personal holiness? Then beware how you continue, for a single hour, in contact with what soils your hands and wounds your conscience, grieves the Holy Ghost, and mars your communion.

231

Be wholehearted. Give up at once the unclean thing, whatever it be—habit or association or anything else. Cost what it may, give it up. Entail what loss it may, abandon it.

232

No worldly gain, no earthly advantage, could compensate for the loss of a pure conscience, an uncondemning heart, and the light of your Father’s countenance.

233

The Christian can never be cut off from Christ, but His communion can be interrupted by a single sinful thought.

234

We may rest assured we cannot possible have fellowship with God and walk in defilement.

235

We have a powerful adversary, who is ever on the watch to ensnare us, and lead us off the path of truth and purity; we could not get on for a single moment, were it not for the gracious way in which our God has provided for all our exigencies in the precious death and all-prevailing advocacy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

236

Blessed be the God of all grace, He has met all our need in His own perfect way; and He has met it, too, not to make us careless, but to make us watchful.

237

May we ever abide in the sense of the perfect cleanness into which the death of Christ introduces us, and in which His priestly work maintains us.

238

The trials of the desert put nature to the test; they bring out what is in the heart, Forty years’ toil and travail make a great change in people.

239

Friends fail or pass away. Links of fond friendship are snapped in this cold, heartless world. Fellow-laborers part company. Mirriams and Aarons die— but God remaineth.

240

If we have the hand and heart of the living God with us, we need not fear. If we can say, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” we can assuredly add, “We shall not want.”

241

God’s treasury is absolutely inexhaustible. He can never fail a trusting heart, Let us remember this. God delights to be used. He never grows weary of ministering to the need of His people.

242

Desert life tests every one. It proves what is in us, and, thanks be to God, it brings out what is in Him for us.

243

Man would rather sit by the flesh pots, in a land of death and darkness, than walk with God through the wilderness, and eat bread from heaven.

244

If the Lord’s people will not walk happily and contentedly with Him, they must taste the power of the serpent—alas! a terrible power, in whatever way it may be experienced.

245

Man’s need has ever been the occasion for the display of God’s grace and mercy.

246

When Israel murmured, the serpent’s bite was the answer. When Israel confessed, God’s grace was the answer.

247

Nothing can ever bring a sinner back to a state of true happiness and holiness, but his being fully established in the faith and enjoyment of the love of God.

248

We must have to do with Christ for ourselves, and we must walk with God for ourselves. We can neither get life nor live by the faith of another.

249

If Balaam’s heart had been right with God, he would have made very short work with Balak’s message.

250

Balak would fain have Israel cursed; but, blessed be God, He will not suffer any one to curse His people. He may have to deal with them Himself, in secret, about many things; but He will not suffer another to move his tongue against them. He may have to expose them to themselves; but He will not allow a stranger to expose them.

251

The great question is not so much what the enemy may think of God’s people, or what they may think about themselves, or what they may think of one another. The real, the all-important question is, What does God think about them?

252

God knows us perfectly; and it is with Him we have to do, and we can say, in the triumphant language of the apostle, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8).

253

God sees us, thinks of us, speaks about acts towards us, according to what He Himself has made us, and wrought for us.

254

We must never measure the standing by the state; at always judge the state by the state, but always judge the state by the standing. To lower the standing because of the state, is to give the death-blow to all progress in practical Christianity.

255

If I am looking at the people of God “from the top of the rocks,” I shall see them as God sees them, and that is as clothed with all the comeliness of Christ—complete in Him, accepted in the Beloved. This is what will enable me to get on with them, to walk with them, to have fellowship with them, to rise above their points and angles, blots and blemishes, failures and infirmities.

256

There are moments in the history of God’s people, in the which tenderness to man becomes unfaithfulness to God; and it is of the utmost importance to be able to discern such moments.

257

Faith knows nothing sure but God and His word.

258

Faith takes God’s word and locks it up in the very innermost chamber of the heart, and there it remains as hid treasure. The happy possessor of this treasure is rendered thoroughly independent of the world.

259

Faith knows nothing positive, nothing real, but the word of the living God.

260

God delights in those who appreciate and enjoy the provision of His love—those who find their joy in Himself.

261

A bold and simple faith is always sure to be rewarded. It glorifies God, and God honors it.

262

It is utterly impossible for faith to overdraw its account in God’s bank.

263

God could no more disappoint faith than He could deny Himself.

264

The only thing in all this world that truly delights and refreshes the heart of God, is the faith that can simply trust Him; and we may rest assured of this, that the faith that can trust Him, is also the faith that can love Him, and serve Him, and praise Him.

265

We are not to carry things with a high hand and a strong will, though we have ever such strong faith, but be ever ready to yield ourselves to the adjusting power of the whole truth of God.

266

God delights in Christ, and it should be our constant aim to present to God that in which He delights.

267

Christ should ever be the material of our worship; and He will be, in proportion as we are led by the Spirit of God. How often, alas! it is otherwise with us the heart can tell. Both in the assembly and in the closet, how often is the tone low, and the spirit dull and heavy? We are occupies with self, instead of with Christ; and the Holy Ghost, instead of being able to do His own proper work, which is to take of the things of Christ and spew them unto us, is obliged to occupy us with ourselves, in self-judgment, because our ways have not been right.

268

Why is the tone of our public meetings frequently so low? Why such feebleness, such barrenness, such wandering? Why are the hymns and prayers so wide of the mark? Why is there so little that really deserves the name of worship? Why is there such restlessness and aimless activity? Why is there so little in our midst to refresh the heart of God? So little that He can really speak of as “His bread” for His sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savor unto Him? We are occupied with self and its surroundings—our wants, our weakness, our trials and difficulties; and we leave God without the bread of His sacrifice. We actually rob Him of His due, and of that which His loving heart desires.

269

Ought we not to be sufficiently at leisure from ourselves, when we assemble in His presence, to be able to present to Him something besides our own things?

270

Let us remember that there is something more in our precious Lord Jesus Christ, than the pardon of our sins and the salvation of our souls. What do the burnt-offering, the meat offering, and the drink-offering set forth? Christ as a sweet savor, Christ the food of God’s offering, the joy of His heart.

271

Are we not prone to confine our thoughts of Christ to what He did for us, to the virtual exclusion of what He is to God?

272

What can be more deplorable, more saddening and discouraging, than to find those who make a lofty profession, who talk loudly of death and resurrection, who boast of their high doctrines and heavenly privileges, in their walk and ways give the lie to their words?

273

It is very consolatory to the heart of the poor weary pilgrim to be assured that every stage of his wilderness journey is marked out by the infinite love and unerring wisdom of God. He is leading His people by a right way home to Himself; and there is not a single circumstance in their lot, or a single ingredient in their cup, which is not carefully ordered by Himself.

274

Faith is, at once, the power of ministry, the power of testimony, and the power of worship, If we are not living “by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us,” we shall neither be effectual servants, faithful witnesses, nor true worshippers.

275

We may be doing a great deal, but it will not be service to Christ.

276

We may be saying a great deal; but it will not be testimony to Christ.

277

We may exhibit a great deal of piety and devotion; but it will not be spiritual and true worship.

278

The moment the soul hesitates, the enemy has the advantage; but there is blessing in every act of obedience.

279

It is of the utmost importance to see that what really stamps man’s character and condition is his ignorance or knowledge of God.

280

The prodigal was just as much a sinner, and as positively away from the Father, when he had crossed the threshold, as when he was feeding the swine in the far country.

281

The reality of what I am is met by the reality of what God is, and this is salvation.

282

Man would fain make God a receiver instead of a giver; but this cannot be, for “it is more blessed to give than to receive:” and, assuredly God must have the more blessed place.

283

“Without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.”

284

God can accept the smallest gift from a heart which has learnt the deep truth contained in those words, “of thine own have we given thee.”

285

Praise is all that we can offer to God.

286

When everything is going on smoothly and pleasantly; our property safe, our business prosperous, our children and servants carrying themselves agreeably, our residence comfortable, our health excellent—everything, in short, just to our mind—how apt we are to mistake the peace which flows from the realized presence of Christ.

287

The path of obedience may often he found most trying to flesh and blood.

288

It is better far to suffer in God’s path, than to be at ease in Satan’s.

289

It is better to be poor with Christ than rich without Him.

290

There is a crisis in every man’s history, at which it will assuredly be made manifest on what ground he is resting, by what motives he is actuated, and also by what objects he is animated.

291

When one is not really walking with a single eye and purified affections, he will find a stone to stumble over. If he does not find it at one time, he will at another. If he does not find it here, he will find it there.

292

The man of faith can easily afford to allow the man of sight to take his choice.

293

Faith lays up its treasure in a place which nature would never dream of examining.

294

Men who run unsent, break down, in one way or another, and find their way back to that which they professed to have left.

295

Many a vessel has sailed out of harbor, in gallant style, with all its canvas spread, amid cheering and shouting, and with many fair promises of a first-rate passage; but alas! Storms, waves, shoals, rocks, and quicksands have changed the aspect of things; and the voyage that commenced with hope, has ended in disaster.

296

If we run unsent, we shall not only be loft to learn our folly, but to exhibit it.

297

When Abraham tarried at Charran, God waited for him; when he went down into Egypt. He restored him; when he needed guidance, He guided him; when there was a strife and a separation, He took care of him.

298

The heart is very treacherous; and it is often truly astonishing to see how it deceives us when we desire to gain some special point.

299

How frequently do we hear persons defending a continuance in a position which they admit to be wrong, on the plea that they thereby enjoy a wider sphere of usefulness!

300

The most effectual way to serve the world is to be faithful to it, by separating from, and testifying against it.

301

“A brother is born for adversity;” and it often happens that a season of adversity softens the heart, and renders it susceptible of kindness.

302

The claims of a brother’s trouble are answered by the affections of a brother’s heart.

303

Genuine faith, while it always renders us independent, never renders us indifferent. It will never wrap itself up in its fleece, while a brother shivers in the cold,

304

There are three things which faith does: it “purifies the heart;” it “works by love;” and it “overcomes the world.”

305

The man of faith is not exempt from the assaults of the enemy; and it frequently happens that immediately after a victory, one has to encounter a fresh temptation.

306

The more I love Jesus, the closer I shall walk with Him; and the closer I walk with Him, the more faithfully I shall imitate Him; and the more faithfully I imitate Him, the more I shall suffer with Him.

307

The man who walks in the Spirit will be filled with Christ; and, being filled with Him, he will not be occupied with suffering, but with Him for whom he suffers.

308

Moses spent forty years in the desert. Thus it must be with all God’s servants. They must be “tried” first, that being found “faithful,” they may be “put into the ministry.”

309

It is one thing to be a child of God; it is quite another to be a servant of Christ.

310

One who comes forward much in public, will need that chastened spirit, that matured judgment, that subdued and mortified mind, that broken will, that mellow tone, which are the sure and beautiful result of God’s secret discipline; and it will generally be found that those who take a prominent place without more or less of the above moral qualifications, will, sooner or later, break down.

311

There is a vast difference between God’s using the creature to minister to me, and my using me to shut Him out.

312

If the heart be really trusting in God, it will not trouble itself about His means.

313

The only true place of dignity and power is the place of felt-weakness and dependence.

314

The moment a child of God makes himself a debtor to nature or the world, he loses his dignity, and will speedily be made to feel his loss.

315

Grace forgives the sin and restores the soul, but that which is sown must be reaped.

316

Abraham and Sarah had to endure the bondwoman and her son for a number of years, and then get rid of them in God’s way.

317

A father loves an obedient child, and will make such a child more the depositary of his thoughts and plans. And is this not true in reference to our heavenly Father? Unquestionably.

318

It is much better to be drawn by the joys of heaven, than driven by the sorrows of earth,

319

The believer should not wait to be shaken out of present things.

320

He should not wait for the world to give him up before he gives up the world.

321

He should give it up in the power of communion with heavenly things.

322

There is no difficulty in giving up the world when we have, by faith, laid hold of Christ; the difficulty would then be to hold it.

323

If a scavenger were left an estate of ten thousand a year, he would not long continue to sweep the streets.

324

Instead of refreshing the Lord, Lot gets his righteous soul vexed; instead of enjoying communion with the Lord, he is at a lamentable distance from the Lord; and lastly, instead of interceding for others, he finds enough to do to intercede for himself.

325

The Lord remained to commune with Abraham, and merely sent His angels to Sodom.

326

It is a bitter thing to seek, in any wise, to manage for ourselves; we are sure to make the most grievous mistakes.

327

We cannot profit by the world, and, at the same time, bear effectual testimony against its wickedness.

328

It is vain to speak of approaching judgment, while finding our place, our portion, and our enjoyment in the very scene which is to be judged.

329

There is nothing so elevating to the whole moral being as faith.

330

Nature’s uprightness and honor cannot be trusted; they rest on a bad foundation, and are liable to give way at any moment.

331

The heart most be probed to the very bottom, in order that no element of hypocrisy, or false profession, may be allowed to lodge there.

332

The soul that has found all its springs in God, can, without any demur, retire from all creature streams.

333

The moment we confer with flesh and blood, our testimony and service are marred, for flesh and blood can never obey.

334

If we merely act from impulse, when the impulse subsides, the acting will subside also.

335

True devotedness will ever be founded upon, and governed by, divine principle.

336

Whenever devotedness passes beyond divinely appointed bounds, it is suspicious.

337

It is easy to make a show of devotedness, when there is no demand for it.

338

Nothing can be more thoroughly worthless than a spirit of empty pretension.

339

It is one thing to rest in God’s blessings, and another thing to rest in Himself.

340

It is one thing to trust God, when I have before my eyes the channel through which the blessing is to flow; and quite another thing to trust Him when that channel is entirely stopped up.

341

God looks for reality, and honors it where He sees it.

342

Without trial we can be but theorists, and God would not have us such; He would have us entering into the living depths that are in Himself.

343

Faith can do without every one and everything but God.

344

Where Satan ends, God begins.

345

The most spiritual teaching will ever be characterized by a full and constant presentation of Christ. He will ever form the burden of such teaching. The Spirit cannot dwell on aught but Jesus. Of Him He delights to speak. He delights in setting forth His attractions and excellencies. When a man is ministering by the power of the Spirit of God, there will always be more of Christ than anything else in his ministry. The Spirit’s sole object—be it well, remembered by all who minister—will ever be to set forth Christ.

346

So long as we continue in a low position, we are robbing ourselves of blessing, and failing totally in our testimony and service.

347

It is so exceedingly sweet to find ourselves wholly dependent upon One who finds infinite joy in blessing us.

348

Praying and planning will never do together. If I plan, I am leaning more or less on my plan; but when I pray, I should lean exclusively upon God.

349

We often feel very well satisfied with ourselves when we add prayer to our arrangement, or when we have used all lawful means, and called upon God to bless them. When this is the case, our prayers are worth about as much as our plans.

350

We can never get to the end of our plans until we have been brought to the end of ourselves.

351

No matter what we may think of ourselves, nor yet what man may think about us; the great question is, what does God think about us?

352

Nothing ever brought out the real state of man’s heart toward God but the coming of Christ.

353

Christ not merely “died for our sins, according to the scriptures,” but He was “made sin for us.”

354

There can be no such thing known as peace or joy, until we see all our trespasses forgiven and our sin judged.

355

When the soul is led to taste the sweetness of spiritual communion with Christ—to feed upon Him, in peace and thankfulness, in the dive presence—it is drawn out in earnest desire to know more of the wondrous mysteries of His person.

356

The Lord Jesus never once stopped to inquire how any act or circumstance would affect Himself,

357

If the heart be delighting in the Christ which scripture unfolds, it will assuredly shrink from the false Christs which Satan will introduce. If we are feeding upon God’s reality, we shall unhesitatingly reject Satan’s counterfeit.

358

There is nothing the heart can crave which we have not in Jesus. Does it long for genuine sympathy? Where can it, save in Him who could mingle His tears with those of the bereaved sisters of Bethany? Does it desire the enjoyment of sincere affection? It can only find it in that heart which told forth its love in drops of blood. Does it seek the protection of real power? It has but to look to Him who made the worlds. Does it feel the need of unerring wisdom to guide? Let it betake itself to Him who is Wisdom personified, and “who of God is made unto us wisdom,” In one word, we have all in Christ.

359

How often is our economy marred by the exhibition of a miserly spirit! At times, too, our niggard hearts refuse to open themselves to the full extent of the need which presents itself before us; while, at other times, we squander, through a wanton extravagance, that which might satisfy many a needy fellow-creature.

360

It is impossible that a man full of himself can be the vessel of the Holy Ghost. Such an one must first be emptied of himself, and then the Spirit can use him.

361

A man may say, “I feel myself called to preach the gospel, and I find my situation, or my business, a clog.” Well, if you are divinely called and fitted for the work of the gospel, and find that you cannot combine the two things, then resign your situation, or wind up your business.

362

If only we are self-emptied, our every act may emit a sweet odor to God. The smallest as well as the greatest services may, by the power of the Holy Ghost, present the fragrance of Christ. The paying of a visit, the writing of a letter, the public ministry of the word, giving a cup of cold water to a disciple, giving a penny to a pauper, yea, the commonplace acts of eating and drinking—all may emit the sweet perfume of the name and grace of Jesus.

363

It must be evident that when the Holy Ghost speaks of confession, He does not mean praying.
And it is equally evident that He knows there are moral elements in, and practical results flowing out of, confession which do not belong to prayer.

364

Our sins can never come into God’s presence, inasmuch as Christ, who bore them all and put them away, is there instead.

365

It is a much easier thing to ask, in a general way, for the forgiveness of our sins, than confess those sins. Confession involves self-judgment; asking for forgiveness may not, and in itself, does not.

366

Self-judgment is one of the most valuable and healthful exercises of the Christian life; and, therefore, anything which produces it must be highly esteemed by every earnest Christian.

367

God has put our sin out of His sight for ever. Though it be in us, it is not the object on which His eye rests. He sees only the blood; and, therefore, He can go on with us, and allow us the most unhindered fellowship with Him.

368

The way to be truly humble is to walk with God in the intelligence and power of the relationship in which He has set us. He has made us His children, and if we only walk as such, we shall be humble.

369

We gather round the Lord’s table, in all the joys of conquerors. We look back to the cross where the battle was fought and won; and we look forward to the glory where we shall enter into the full and eternal results of the victory.

370

We are not to gaze upon our sins; but upon Him who bore them on the cross, and put them away for ever.

371

We begin our worship in the spirit and end in the flesh.

372

Our care should ever be, not to suffer ourselves proceed to for a single moment beyond the energy of the Spirit, as the time for the Spirit will always keep us directly occupied with Christ. If the Holy Ghost produces “five words” of worship or thanksgiving, let us utter the five and have done. If we proceed further, we are eating the flesh of our sacrifice beyond the time; and so far from its being “accepted,” it is really “an abomination.”

373

Nothing is of any value in the judgment of God, which is not immediately connected with Christ.

374

See that Christ is the ground, Christ is the material, and the Holy Ghost the power of your worship. Take care that your outward act of worship does not stretch itself beyond the inward power.

375

Let us live for Him who died for us.

376

The unregenerate man could never rejoice in the divine holiness. His aim would be to lower that holiness, if he could not ignore it altogether. Such an one will, console himself with the thought that God is good; God is gracious; God is merciful; but you will never find him rejoicing in the thought that God is holy.

377

If I wrong my fellow-man, that wrong will undoubtedly interfere with my communion with God; and that communion can only be restored on the ground of atonement.

378

The sinner needs a sacrifice; the believer needs a priest; we have both the one and the other in Christ.

379

Man spoils everything. Place him in a position of highest dignity, and he will degrade him—self. Endow him with the most ample privileges, and he will abuse them. Scatter blessings around him in richest profusion, and he will prove ungrateful. Place him in the midst of the most impressive institutions, and he will corrupt them.

380

God’s holiness is as quick to reject all “strange fire” as His grace is ready to accept the faintest, feeblest breathings of a true heart. He must pour out His righteous judgment upon all false worship, though He will never “quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed.”

381

Private communion with God must be kept up, else we shall be fruitless as servants, and defeated as men of war.

382

It is vain for us to bustle about, and run hither and thither, in what we call service, or indulge in vapid words about Christian armor and Christian Warfare. If we are not keeping our priestly garments unspotted, and if we are not keeping ourselves free from all that would excite nature, we shall assuredly break down.

383

Communion with God should be dearer to our hearts than all beside; and just in proportion as we prize that communion, shall we watch and pray against anything that would rob us of it.

384

God is faithful, and He can never allow any one to be empty in His blessed presence.

385

The prodigal may wander, and squander, and come to poverty; but it must ever hold good that “in my Father’s house is bread enough and to spare.”

386

The communion of a Christian is like a sensitive plant; it is easily hurt by the rude influences of an evil world. It will expand beneath the genial action of the air of heaven; but must firmly shut itself up from the chilling breath of time and sense.

387

It is a poor thing for a man to be continually occupied in procuring food for other people, and he himself dying of starvation.

388

Some professing Christians are all for love, so called, and some for righteousness. Neither can exist, in a divine way, without the other.

389

Grace meets the needy one just where he is, and as he is.

390

Divine grace delights in making provision for those who are “not able” to make provision for themselves.

391

The Lord Jesus did not make His appearance in this world in connection with the great or the noble. He was preeminently a poor man. He took His place with the poor.

392

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. (2 Cor. 8:9).

393

How happy it is that we have a Father’s heart to come to and count on!

394

We need not be discouraged, so long as we see such a motto inscribed on the door of our Father’s treasury, “He giveth more grace.” It has no limit. It is bottomless and boundless.

395

No doubt it is a very happy thing to realize, to feel, and to experience; but if we put these things in the place of Christ, we shall neither have them nor the Christ that yields them.

396

A condition of doubt is a condition of torture.

397

We are to watch against the working of evil in our ways just as carefully as against evil in ourselves.

398

Where the one desire of the heart is to enjoy the divine presence, we shall easily discover those things which tend to deprive us of that unspeakable blessing.

399

We can well afford to dispense with earth and nature, inasmuch as we have gotten instead, thereof “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

400

I am better off by far than if Adam had never sinned. Precious truth! To be washed in the blood is better far than to be clothed in innocence.

401

The prodigal found a higher place, and tasted higher communion than ever he had known before. “The fatted calf” had never been slain for him before. “The best robe” had never been on him before. And how was this? Was it a question of the prodigal’s merit? Oh! No; it was simply a question of the Father’s love.

402

Our capacity may vary; but, blessed be God, when we get into His presence, all the desires of the new nature, in their utmost intensity, are satisfied.

403

Fallen human nature is an impure fountain, and all its streams are polluting. It cannot send forth aught that is pure, holy, or good.

404

The devil is never more diabolical than when he appears with the Bible in his hand.

405

We are not saved by realization, but by Christ; and the way to get Christ, in all His preciousness and fulness, is to believe.

406

It is better to be deceived in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, than to shut up the bowels of compassion against a single worthy object. Our heavenly Father causes His sun to shine upon the evil and upon the good; and sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust.

407

The same sunbeams that gladden the heart of some devoted servant of Christ, are poured upon the path of some ungodly sinner; and the selfsame shower that falls upon the tillage of a true believer, enriches also the furrows of some blaspheming infidel.

408

The believer is perfect in Christ; but, in himself, he is a poor feeble creature, ever liable to fall. Hence the unspeakable blessedness of having One who can manage all his affairs for him, at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. One who upholds him continually by the right hand of His righteousness. One who will never let him go. One who is able to save to the uttermost. One who is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” One who will bear him triumphantly through all the difficulties and dangers which surround him.

409

Divine institutions are speedily marred in the hands of men: but, oh! how deeply blessed to know that the thirsty soul that feels the barrenness and drought connected with a scene of empty religious formality, has only to drink freely of His exhaustless springs, and so become a channel of blessing to others.

410

If our hearts are cherishing the abiding hope of the Lord’s return, we shall set light by all earthly things. It is morally impossible that we can be in the attitude of waiting for the Son from heaven, and not be detached from this present world.

411

One who lives in the habitual expectation of Christ’s appearing must be separated from that which will be judged and broked up when He comes.

412

It is not a question of the shortness and uncertainty of human life, which is quite true, or of the transitory and unsatisfying character of the things of time, which is equally true; it is far more potent and influential than either or both of these; it is this, — “The Lord is at hand.”

413

There may be a vast difference as to knowledge, gift, and fruitfulness; as to title there is none. The sapling and the tree, the babe and the father, the convert of yesterday and the matured believer, are all on the same ground.

414

Christ is our title. The Holy Ghost is our capacity. Self has nothing to do with either the one or the other.

415

The blood of Jesus opens the door; the Holy Ghost conducts us through the house. The blood of Jesus opens the casket; the Holy Ghost unfolds the precious contents. The blood of Jesus makes the casket ours; the Holy Ghost enables us to appreciate its rare and costly gems.

416

If we cannot “dig” we can “beg;” and directly we take the place of a beggar, it is no longer a question of what we are able to earn, but of what God is pleased to give.

417

How happy to take, when God is glorified in giving!

418

It is well to be poor, when the knowledge of our poverty serves but to unfold to us the exhaustless riches of divine grace. That grace can never suffer any one to go empty away. It can never tell any one that he is too poor. It can meet the very deepest human need; and not only so, but it is glorified in meeting it.

419

When God educates, He educates in a manner worthy of Himself and His most holy service. He will not have a novice to do His work. The servant of Christ has to learn many a lesson, to undergo many an exercise, to pass through many a conflict, in secret, ere he is really qualified to act in public.

420

Moses “looked, this way and that way.” There is no need of this when a man is acting with and for God.

421

Whenever we look around to shun a mortal’s frown or catch his smile, we may rest assured there is something wrong: we are off the proper ground of divine service.

422

No man is in a position to serve others who is not wholly independent of them.

423

Even a Moses “feared,” and a Paul “repented;” but the Lord Jesus never did either. He never had to retrace a step, to recall a word, or correct a thought.

424

Jonah might have deemed it a very remarkable opening of Providence to find a ship going to Tarshish; but in truth it was an opening through which he slipped off the path of obedience.

425

Obadiah took care of God’s witnesses, but Elijah was a witness for God. Darius was so attached to Daniel that he lost a night’s rest on his account; but Daniel spent that selfsame night in the lion’s den, as a witness for the truth of God. Nicodemus ventured to speak a word for Christ, but a more matured discipleship would have led him to identify himself with Christ.

426

The Lord Jesus does not want patronage; He wants fellowship.

427

He identified Himself with us, at the heavy cost of all that love could give.

428

God has had all His servants very much alone with Himself, both before and after their entrance upon their public work; nor will any one ever get on without this. The absence of secret training and discipline will, necessarily, leave us barren, superficial, and theoretic. A man who ventures forth upon a public career, ere he has duly weighed himself in the balances of the sanctuary, or measured himself in the presence of God, is like a ship putting out to sea without proper ballast; he will doubtless overset with the first stiff breeze.

429

A man who is always doing will be apt to do too much.

430

In order to act for God outside, I should be with Him inside.

431

If I allow my work to get between my heart and the Master, it will be little worth. We can only effectually serve Christ as we are enjoying Him, nor is there any one who can minister Christ with unction, freshness, and power to others, if he be not feeding upon Christ in the secret of his own soul.

432

The man who will present Christ to others must be occupied with Christ for Himself.

433

The man who is merely feeding upon the fruits of his ministry, who delights in the gratification which it affords, or the attention and interest which it commands, is like a mere pipe conveying waters to others and retaining only rust itself.

434

There is a vast difference between God sending a roan, and a man running unsent. But it is very manifest that Moses was not ripe for service when first he set about acting.

435

God takes up the weakest instruments to accomplish His mightiest ends.

436

Nothing is more dishonouring to God or more dangerous to us than a mock humility.

437

If, when God speaks, I refuse to believe, on the ground of something in myself, I make Him a liar. (1 John 5:10).

438

We move along with bold decision, when we possess the countenance and support of a poor frail mortal like ourselves; but we falter, hesitate, and demur, when we have the light of the Master’s countenance to cheer us, and the strength of His omnipotent arm to support us.

439

If our personal acquaintance with God, and our experience of His presence, be not such as to enable us, if needful, to walk alone, we shall find the presence of a brother of very little use.

440

It frequently happens that the very person whose presence we deem essential to our progress and success, afterwards a source of deepest sorrow to our hearts.

441

It is no light matter to be the Lord’s servant. No ordinary education will qualify a man for such a position. Nature must be put in the place of death and kept there.

442

Be it remembered that the man who will speak, on God’s behalf, of death and judgment, life and salvation, must, ere he does so, enter into the practical power of these things in his own soul.

443

The sentence of death must be written on nature: and if se seek to avoid if in one way, we shall have to encounter it in another.

444

Let each one who stands up to preach, or teach, or exhort, or serve in any way, seriously inquire if indeed he be fitted, and taught, and sent of God. If not, his work will neither be owned of God nor blessed to men, and the sooner he ceases the better for himself and for those upon whom he has been imposing the heavy burden of hearkening to him.

445

Neither a humanly-appointed, nor a self-appointed ministry will ever suit within the hallowed precincts of the Church of God. All must be divinely gifted, divinely taught, and divinely sent.

446

Forty years of wilderness life are sure to make grace changes in men and things.

447

God gives wisdom; but it is not a wisdom which locks the heart against all the appeals of human need and misery. He gives a knowledge of nature, but it is not a knowledge which causes us to grasp with a selfish eagerness that which we falsely call “our own.” He gives experience, but it is not an experience which results in suspecting everybody except myself.

448

The springs which move me, and the objects which animate me, are all above, where He is, who is “the same yesterday, and today and forever.”

449

The messenger of God should ever remember whose message he bears.

450

If I look at my sins in connection with the claims of God as a judge, I find, in the cross, a perfect settlement of those claims,

451

If God be not known, He cannot be obeyed; for obedience is ever founded upon knowledge.

452

We want to live more in the region of faith, the region of heaven, the region of the “new creation.” Then we should see things as God sees them, think about them as He thinks; and our whole course and would be more elevated, more disinterested, more thoroughly separated from earth and earthly things.

453

The true and whole-hearted servant of Christ must ever expect to be looked on, by the men of this world, as a mere visionary enthusiast.

454

When the heart can find its sweet relief in God Himself—when it can retreat into the strong tower which His name affords—when it can find, in His character, a perfect answer to all its need—then, truly, it is raised far above the region of the creature.

455

Nothing is more calculated to assure and establish the doubting, trembling heart than the knowledge that God has taken us up just as we are, and in the full intelligence of what we are; and, moreover, that He can never make any fresh discovery to cause an alteration in the character and measure of His love.

456

The heart can never be happy, or the conscience at rest until one knows and believes that all divine requirements have been divinely answered.

457

The effect of the power of godliness will be seen by our “continuing in the things which we have learned.”

458

God’s people must be separated, not, by any means, on the ground of their superior personal sanctity, but because they are His people.

459

The believer must know where the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ have forever set him, ere he can be an intelligent worshipper, an acceptable servant, or an effectual witness.

460

Every doubt in the heart of a Christian is a dishonor done to the word of God and the sacrifice of Christ.

461

A risen Christ is the eternal proof of an accomplished redemption; and if redemption is an accomplished fact, the believer’s peace is a settled reality.

462

God has not only satisfied His own claims, but, in so doing, He has found out a divinely righteous vent through which His boundless affections may flow down to the guiltiest of Adam’s guilty progeny.

463

We are dead to the world and alive with Christ. We are at once partakers of His rejection by earth and His acceptance in heaven, and the joy of the latter makes us count as nothing the trial connected with the former. To be cast out of earth, without knowing that I have a place and a portion on high, would be intolerable; but when the glories of heaven fill the soul’s vision, a little of earth goes a great way.

464

The deeper my fellowship with the Father, the keener will be my sense of what is worldly.

465

There is always much more serious damage done to the cause of Christ by persons seeming to give up the world and returning to it again, than if they had remained entirely of it; for they virtually confess that, having tried heavenly things they have discovered that earthly things are better or more satisfying.

466

We have left that land of death and darkness; we have been brought to God Himself, so that we may enjoy Him, in the energy of that life with which we are endowed, and in the sphere of righteousness in which we are placed. Thus it is our joy to serve. There is not an affection in the heart of which He is not worthy; there is not a sacrifice in all the flock too costly for His altar. The more closely we walk with Him, the more we shall esteem it to be our meat and drink to His blessed will. The believer counts it his highest privilege to serve the Lord.

467

How utterly vain it is for man to harden and exalt himself against God; for truly, He can grind to powder the hardest heart, and bring down to the dust the haughtiest spirit. “Those that walk in pride, He is able to abase.” (Dan. 4:37).

468

The most splendid intellect, the most commanding genius, the most indomitable energy, if not under the direct control of the Spirit of God, are but so many instruments in Satan’s hand to carry forward his dark designs. No man is his own master; he is either governed by Christ or governed by Satan.

469

God gives people at times according to the real best of their heart’s desires.

470

Man may seek to hide his humiliation in various ways; to cover his retreat through the valley of death in the most heroic manner possible; to call the last humiliating stage of his career by the most honourable titles he can devise; to gild the bed of death with a false light; to adorn the funeral procession and the grave with the appearance of pomp, pageantry, and glory; to raise above the mouldering ashes a splendid monument, on which are engraved the records of human All these things he may do; but death is death after all, and he cannot keep it off for a moment, or make it aught else than what it is, namely, “the wages of sin.”

471

A man’s life is really of no account until he begins to walk with God, in the knowledge of full salvation and settled peace, through the precious blood of the Lamb.

472

All that which engages the attention of the man of this world—the honours, the riches, the pleasures, the attentions of life, so called—all, when examined in the light of the judgment of God, when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, must be accounted as a dismal blank, or worthless void, utterly unworthy of a place in the records of the Holy Ghost.

473

Men speak of “seeing life,” when they launch forth into society, travel hither and thither, and see all that is to be seen; but they forget that the only true, the only real, the only divine way to “see life” is to “believe on the Son of God.”

474

We can get life and happiness only in Christ, Apart from Him, all is death and misery.

475

There is nothing real, nothing solid, nothing satisfying, but in Christ.

476

Either Christ’s atoning sacrifice is sufficient, or it is not; if it is sufficient, why those doubts and fears?

477

The words of our lips profess that the work is finished, but the doubts and fears of the heart declare that it is not. Everyone who doubts his full and everlasting forgiveness, denies, so far as he is concerned, the completeness of the sacrifice of Christ.

478

We are apt to regard the fruits of the Spirit in us, rather than the work of Christ for us, as the foundation of peace.

479

The Holy Ghost is the only gatherer; Christ object to which we are gathered; and our assembly, when thus convened, is to be characterized by holiness, so that the Lord our God may dwell among us. The Holy Ghost can only gather to Christ. He cannot gather to a system, a name, a doctrine, or an ordinance. He gathers to a Person, and that Person is a glorified Christ in heaven.

480

We are not merely under the eternal shelter of the blood of the Lamb, but we feed, by faith, upon the Person of the Lamb. We are apt to rest satisfied with being saved by what Christ has done for us, without cultivating holy communion with Himself. His loving heart could never be satisfied with this.

481

Grace not only saves the soul with an everlasting salvation, but also imparts a nature which delights in everything that belongs to God.

482

To have my heart unlocked anywhere save in the presence of infinite grace, would plunge me in hopeless despair. The heart of man is but a little hell. What boundless mercy, then, to be delivered from its terrible depths!

483

It is in the day of trial and difficulty that the soul experiences something of the deep and untold blessedness of being able to count on God.

484

It is not in gliding along the surface of a tranquil lake, that the reality of the Master’s presence is felt; but actually when the tempest roars, and the waves roll over the ship.

485

The Lord does not hold out to us the prospect of exemption from trial and tribulation; quite the opposite. He tells us we shall have to meet both the one and the other; but He promises to be with us in them, and this is infinitely better.

486

God’s presence in the trial is much better than exemption from the trial. The sympathy of His heart with us is sweeter far than the power of His hand for us. The Master’s presence with His faithful servants, while passing through the furnace, was better far than the display of His power to keep them out of it. (Dan. 3).

487

We would frequently desire to pass on our way without trial, but this would involve serious loss. The Lord’s presence is never so sweet as in moments of appalling difficulty.

488

It is when the people of God are brought into the greatest straits and difficulties, that they are favoured with the finest displays of God’s character and actings; and for this reason, He ofttimes leads them into a trying position, in order that He may the more markedly show Himself.

489

When a cloud comes between us and the sun, it robs us for the time of the enjoyment of his beams. It does not prevent him from shining, it merely hinders our enjoyment of him. Exactly so is it when we allow trials and sorrows, difficulties and perplexities, to hide from our souls the bright beams of our Father’s countenance, which ever shine, with changeless lustre, in the face or Jesus Christ.

490

There is no difficulty too great for our God; yea the greater the difficulty, the more room there is for Him to act in His proper character, as the God of all power and grace.

491

Unbelief creates or magnifies difficulties , and then sets us about removing them by our own bustling and fruitless activities, which in reality do but raise a dust around us, which prevents our seeing God’s salvation.

492

When unbelief is driven from the scene, then God can enter; and, in order to get a proper view of his actings, we must stand still.

493

No one would think of bringing a lighted candle to add brightness to the sun at mid-day; and yet the man who would do so might well be accounted wise, in comparison with him who attempts to assist God by his bustling officiousness.

494

God never gives guidance for two steps at a time. I must take take one step, and then I get light for the next.

495

If the eye, instead of resting on our sins and sorrows, could rest only on Christ, it would sweeten many a bitter cup, and enlighten many a gloomy hour.

496

One finds constantly that nine-tenths of our trials and sorrows are made up of anticipated or imaginary evils, which only exist in our own disordered, because unbelieving, minds.

497

We can never sing with real spiritual intelligence and power when we are looking at ourselves.

498

Are there any doubts or fears in the holiest?

499

That very heat that removes the fair traces of spring, produces the mellowed and matured fruits of autumn. Thus it is also in the Christian life.

500

It is only when man puts himself under law that he forfeits everything; for then God must allow him to prove how much he can claim on the ground of his own works.

501

There is nothing in which we so signally fail as in the cultivation or a confiding and thankful spirit.

502

Ten thousand mercies are forgotten in the presence of a trifling privation.

503

Our path through the desert is strewed with countless mercies; and yet let but a cloud the size of a man’s hand appear on the horizon, and we at once forget the rich mercies of the past in view of this single cloud, which after all may only “break in blessing on our head.”

504

If I stay here, Christ gains. If I am called to leave the body, I gain.

505

The Lord, that living person who first had to do with us, who has to do with us every day and all day long—the Lord who has gone to prepare a place for us—the Lord, the eternal lover of our souls—that Lord is the first object in that scene, in that glory, in that day.

506

He that is our resurrection life, He searches the dust of the earth, and all those who sleep through Him in the earth. (Buried no matter where or in what time: no matter what puny spite had shown itself in the deaths to which they are subjected.) The dead rise first, blessed without question. Blessed for Stephen; blessed for Paul: blessed for Peter, and others; but oh, what will the heart find of blessing in thinking of those names we are among, the worthies of the New Testament, compared with the blessedness of that one man, who, coming forth from God, will sweep with His power through the grave, and bring up all that sleep through Jesus, and in resurrection bodies, like the Lord! There is no power in us to mount up. We are caught up in a moment to meet the Lord in the air. He fills us up with life.

507

Those who are waiting for Him, the living ones who remain until the coming of the Lord, are caught up with those that slept, together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And he adds, “Therefore comfort one another with these words,” referring to the sorrow hearts of some who had not their hearts centered in that heart of Christ. Let me appeal to your souls individually, What do you think of Christ? What is that day to you? What is the Lord to you?

508

Oh! what a tale will steal out in that day, when we see what the Lord’s love has been to us! I know His distinct love to me. I know His determination, but nothing but His blood shall be known as the atonement for my sin, His determination that no false prop shall suit me. I know His arm as an arm that may be leaned upon. And well He knows now in the days of His solitude, His service, His sorrow down here, His Father’s love was enough for Him, and He knows how His own individual love for the child of God is enough for the path, were it multiplied with sorrows ten thousand times more.

509

The children of God have a great deal too much looked at outward service, and not at the life they have.

510

Having loved us, having washed us from our sins in His own blood, He is coming to receive us to Himself. Some who turn to Him in their trials, their difficulties, their temptations, their sorrows, their joys; one quite understands how the coming of the Son from heaven does not move their hearts. Oh the power that gives the individual believer the freshness of that hope, just flows from the knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One living in heaven, who knows us, whom we know, and who is coming back to give us the blessed taste of being for ever with Himself in the Father’s house.

511

All the need down here, the groans that go up to God, all are precious to Him, and the counterpart of them will be found in that day when we come to the glory.

512

Many a heart Christ has dealt with, many a soul He has comforted and strengthened, will almost selfishly say, “I long to be out of this scene, I long to be where all sorrow will be over.” Nay, I long for the hour to come when I shall behold Himself in His glory that day.

513

What has He been to you, this Christ, this Son of God, this Saviour? Do you know Him individually? Have you no character to give Him? Have you no thoughts you could express from that which you have known about Him? What do you know about Him? He is no dead Christ, He that brings a poor sinner off the wild common of nature into the flock of God: what do you know of Him? Have you no cause to cleave to Him? Have you no want of Him? Have you no good thought about the love He bears to you, about that heart of His? Have you no calculations upon Him, that as He has delivered so He will? Have you no thoughts about that gracious preparation of all and each of His people by Himself for that day? Would you like your work to turn up there and find the counterpart of it in His presence, at His coming? Each of us has work as an individual. What is the other side of the medal? Will it shine when Christ comes? Can you connect gladly His coming with it and your being there in glory with Him? You will find the counterpart of that glory in works down here.

514

Jesus died, therefore it could be no strange thing to a believer to find himself, in the power of resurrection, called to pass over that bit of road which Christ trod.

515

Will you complain of the jealousy of the Lord’s love? Would any one like to be like Lot? It was not worth God’s while to keep any calendar of that man’s doings. It was no use keeping that man straight. He would just pick, him out of Sodom at the last. His works must all be burnt. What difference in Abraham, the friend of God!

516

Let us do God’s will because He has left us here to carry on. His service, everything else to be laid aside.

517

The first-born among many brethren, whose lips have so often spoken our names there on high, whose hand has so often been stretched forth to help us in the hour of need and trial. He is the One who is coming for us from the throne, to receive us home to Himself.

For us the Lord intends

A bright abode above,

The place -where sorrow ends,

And nought is known but love;

With such a hope lift up the voice,

Rejoice! again I say, Rejoice.

But he (Stephen) being FULL of the Holy Ghost, looked up INTO heaven, and saw the glory of God; (not his trial), and Jesus (His name and character when upon earth) standing on the right hand (place of power) of God; and see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man (the One who has and does fully all our griefs, sorrows, sufferings and trials, for He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief), standing on the right hand of God, Had Stephen looked at the circumstances in which he was placed instead of looking right into heaven, his suffering upon earth would have been to him far greater than all he saw in This same Jesus has still, as He ever had from all eternity, the same love and sympathy for all His tried and suffering ones. He takes the greatest interest in not only what we suffer here for Him, but also in cur every movement. There is not an ache, a pain, a trial, or sorrow, His heart does riot fully enter into. As I judge,- Jesus standing was in the attitude of a servant waiting upon, cheering and comforting His afflicted one, and waiting eagerly to receive him so soon as His purpose in leaving him upon earth should have been accomplished. All of us have our work to do down here, and depend upon it, we shall not go until it is done. Jesus willingly suffered all for us, without a murmur, but His heart yearns over those suffering for Him.

“In every pang that rends the heart,

The Man of sorrows had a part.”

Be our trial what it may, rest assured He knows all about and will take good care of us in

it, for—

“His heart is filled with tenderness,

His very name is love.”

Food for the Desert

Table of Contents

Food for the Desert: Being Choice Selections From J. N. D., G. V. W., J. B. S., C. H. M., and Others: Food for the Desert: Being Choice Selections From J. N. D., G. V. W., J. B. S., C. H. M., and Others

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77