Footprints for Pilgrims: Evening Meditations for the Day of Days
Table of Contents
Footprints for Pilgrims - 1
"As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you."-Isa. 66:13.
One Song of Songs the sweetest,
Once learned thou still repeatest,
And singest, Christian, o'er and o'er-
Earth cannot learn its measure,
This song of heavenly treasure,
Of grace abounding evermore
Of one great LOVE it telleth,
Which every grief expelleth
Like mist before the morning sun;
Farewell to all thy sorrow,
Thy cares about the morrow,
When thou canst sing this sweetest song.
TRANS. FROM SPUTA.
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I KNOW there is the Lord's bosom for the reception of every care and every anxiety.
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We ought to be patient, for He is the doer of everything; and when we are not patient we really find fault with Him and His doing.
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He is a great giver, and if He hides His hand from giving to-day, to-morrow He oft gives two-fold.
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He is enough for us were the path ten thousand times more sad and difficult.
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He that made all things, and upholds all things, is equal to, and a match for, any and every contingency that can befall any between Calvary and the cloud of glory.
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With a heart broken, and a will subdued, I have given thanks for sorrows in which the iron entered into my own soul. I say not with levity, but as before God, "Thou knowest I could not have lived through this and that if Thou hadst not given me grace to receive it at Thy hand, and to find that out of the eater came forth meat."
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“Our Jesus hath done all things well”
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“Our Jesus hath done all things well”
has long been our song. And so it must be, whatever we may feel; for if the Father of an only-begotten Son settles everything for us which is for the glory of that Son, surely all is well.
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He loves you and wants His will to be all your satisfaction; wants you to find your all in Him and in His Son... He thinks that if all His pleasure is found in the Son of His love He can make that Son of His love enough for you when all else is gone. He so loves you in Him that He is making every affection in you, every thought in you, to find the Lord Jesus as its center.
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His love broke my heart to make room for Christ, and I know it was love that did it. Till then I never knew either the creature's need of Christ, nor Christ's sufficiency for a broken heart.
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Is He not worthy to have His saints with Him?... The words, "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice that I said, I go unto the Father," may be quoted here as true in this case also. Oh, have we no love for those that go? No love save for our own selves?... It is.. wretched selfishness which forgets God's joy and Christ's joy in welcoming to His presence a soul that leaves us, and which hinders, too, our thinking of its great gain.
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I refuse to say of myself "bereaved" when the Lord has won another to His presence. I will not say of myself "bereaved" when another has gone to be with Him. Surely if I love Him I must unselfishly resign all I love to Him.
C. V. W.
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“He woundeth, and his hands make whole?' -Job. 5:18.
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Dear Lord, I thankfully kiss the hand
That gently stripped me bare,
And laid me on Thy tender breast,
To lose my sorrow there.
'Twas anguish when earth's cup was spilled,
But now with Thee 'tis overfilled;
For, Jesus, Thou art MORE to me
Than all earth's brimming cups could be.
ANON.
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I CAN only say to you as I say to myself, " Keep your eye on the One gone up"... "He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus."... As you feel the dearth and weariness of everything here, simply turn your eye upward; all power and comfort must now come from above. As your eye becomes educated in the exaltation of Jesus, so will your heart be invigorated to endure for Him down here in everything, like the first martyr, though in comparison it may be a very small measure.
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I very willingly suffer with you in your suffering, and I am glad that you can have a sympathy greater than I could render, from Him who not only supports you under the suffering but raises the sufferer to His own side, to His own company. This to me is the force of "For such an high priest became us... made higher than the heavens." He lifts me to Himself. His arm comes down to me, but it lifts me up to Himself.
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Death threatens all ties when it rudely breaks one, and that one of the dearest; but this is the moment for you to find a light in the darkness, and to know the companionship of the Man of sorrows.
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You hide your head in sorrow, the whole sky is darkened... yet this is the moment for your heart to find in Jesus a resource and satisfaction never known before.... No one else can come near enough to you. The dignity of sorrow forbids the intrusion of any but the One who can truly sympathize.
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The horror of great darkness is the gateway into the most blessed unfoldings of His love.
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The Lord lead you to see how much He values your heart. "My son, give me thine heart"; and the heart occupied with Christ commands every blessing from God, as it is said, "Because ye have loved mc."
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It is not always that there is much food where is much ministry. Food is that which feeds, and you know that often the Lord's crumb is more than a long discourse.
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You must take care not to live on your enjoyment of divine things.... I think you judge yourself, or rather your state, by the amount of your joy.
(Continued in 24.)
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This I believe is unwise. I judge myself as to whether Christ is enough for me, and I do not raise the question of my joy at all; but I find that when He is enough my joy is full. I am rejoicing in the Lord, for He fills my cup.
(Continued from 23.)
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Press on saints as much as you can how Christ loves them, and that they have to continue in His love; then you will have a practical company, for continuing in the happy sense of His love is everything. You need not then trouble your soul about how much you obey, for if you continue in His love you must obey, and the more you continue in the love the better you will obey.
J. B. S.
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" Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."-2 Cor. 4:17.
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Though thy way be long and dreary,
Eagle strength He'll still renew;
Garments fresh and foot unweary
Tell how God hath brought thee through.
J. N. D.
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AH! it is blessed to be at the feet of Jesus in our sorrows, for there divine light shines upon them, and though we may suffer, and even be oppressed with our trials, we shall not, while there, doubt His love.
“ JESUS WEPT.” All know that the verses of our Bible are merely a human arrangement, and yet who can doubt that the Spirit of God controlled the one who made it in putting these two words into one verse? They indeed should stand alone, inasmuch as they afford such an inlet into the recesses of the Lord's heart. They have been the comfort of mourners in all ages, and they will continue to minister consolation to His people until God Himself shall wipe away all tears from their faces.
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"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Untold sorrows characterize the human race, and this invitation is not confined to those who are laden with sin. Jesus addresses any one who is bowed with any possible sorrow, any possible bereavement. Whatever the burden upon you, the Lord speaks to you.
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Your whole responsibility at the present moment is to "rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him." And what a blessing it is that you may and can rest, whatever your suffering, on the Lord's breast.
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It is indeed an immense thing to be in communion with His mind in His object in our sufferings.
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God chooses my circumstances, my sicknesses, my sorrows, in view of what He is accomplishing. " We do know that all things work together for good to those who love God.... Because whom he has foreknown, he has also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son." (Rom. 8:28, 29. New Trans.) He thus chooses the circumstances for us that will best accomplish His purpose of conforming us to the image of His Son. The consequence is that, if in the line of His purpose, I will never seek to change my circumstances. In fellowship with the heart of God I will gratefully leave that to Him.
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How merciful it is in the ways of God that it is only gradually we approach our sorrows, and that we find when they come upon us that they are "lustred with His love"!
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He alone who has made the blank in your life can fill it, and He will. When all the blanks of earth are filled with His presence we gain infinitely more than we have lost.
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When the Lord returns we shall lose all bodily weakness, so that it will take a little time, as it often seems to me, before we find ourselves at home in our new circumstances. How we shall reface when "In soul and body perfect." or this deliverance we have still to wait, but the blessed hope of it cheers us in the midst of our pilgrimage.
E. D.
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" Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry."-Heb. 10:37.
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A little while "-'twill soon be past,
Why should we shun the promised cross?
O let us in His footsteps haste,
Counting for Him all else but loss!
For how will recompense His smile,
The sufferings of this " little while."
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THE bitter waters of Marah must be tasted when the salt waters of the Red Sea have delivered us from Egypt forever and ever. Put the wood of the tree, the cross of Christ, into our cross and all will be sweet. "Crucified" is terrible work-crucified with Christ, joy and deliverance; reproach is cruel, the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
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If we have once really tasted the loving-kindness of God we never enjoy it so much as when we have nothing else to enjoy.
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We must all learn God... in the midst of His blessings... perhaps first, and some time or other have our hearts settled by being cast over on Himself and nothing else; being brought into a position where nothing helps God to make us happy... and where we must find in Him alone our all.
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(Luke 9:28-43.) Jesus was as much with His disciples when they came down as while they were on the mount, and that is our comfort. Do not let us suppose we have lost Christ.... The Lord give us, to know, while passing w through this world, what a Christ we have, taking our hearts clean out of the defiling circumstances around, so that whether we get a taste of the glory or are passing through the crowd of this world He may be everything to us, as He is everything for us.
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It is wonderfully sweet to feel that we near home; long often difficult and painful work (although it is a wonderful privilege to do it), and then eternal rest with the Lord.
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As long as Christ's grace is at work, if there is only one saint on the earth and everything else failed around, he would find the power of Christ ready to be exercised on his behalf.... However dark the dispensation may be, there is exactly the grace that is needed for the position.
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Never fear persecution; it will make your face shine as an angel's.
Self-sacrifice is always joy where there is grace in it. There is no such joy as self-devotedness.
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The soul is tested by afflictions as to how far self-will is active.... God searches us. By this means we learn on the one hand what we are, and on the other what God is for us in His faithfulness and daily care. We are weaned from the world, and our eyes become better able to discern and appreciate what is heavenly.
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All that makes heaven a home to Christ will make it a home to me. O come, Lord Jesus!
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Christ's perfection was not to act, but to suffer; in suffering there was a more entire surrender of Himself.
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In His eternal presence, how shall we feel that all our little sorrows and separations were but little drops by the way, to make us feel that we were not with Him, and when with Him what it is to be there.
J. N. D.
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" They looked unto him, and were lightened." -Psa. 34:5.
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O Lord we would delight in Thee,
And on Thy care depend,
To Thee in every trouble flee,
Our safe unfailing Friend.
When human cisterns all are dried,
Thy fullness is the same,
May we with this be satisfied,
And glory in Thy name.
RYLAND.
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WHICH would you rather have, a smooth path, or a path so rough that the Lord is compelled to show His face to you every step of the way?
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Christ wept; but He wept as in the sight of God.... Let us see to it that the sorrows we have flow from Himself, and flow toward Him in God; they will be all the deeper, I am sure, but what is from God and to God is sustained by God, and so we can give thanks always for all things.
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" What pleases Thee, Lord, pleases me" is a grand motto for rest and peace and quiet, and for the stopping of all repining about what we have not got.
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It is a great thing for each to be... ready to act on and from his own responsibility, but never going beyond that which he sees to be his own duty, never acting under the light which others have.... I would rather act under God's measure of light vouchsafed to me, or not act, because I had none such, than be the one to carry out the mind of any man, without my being assured his mind was God's mind for me.
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More and more does it become clear to me that "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way thou shouldest go: I will guide thee with mine eye" is the only proper and safe guide for us.
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How far is Christ practically formed in our hearts and minds?... so that His thoughts are our thoughts, His cares our cares, His subjects of interest our subjects of interest, and none other.
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You would not be easily startled by events if you saw all that you have in Christ to enable you to meet everything calmly.
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Has the restorative power of the Lord's coming got possession of your hearts?
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No sin the believer brings to God but when it comes to be weighed is not outweighed by the blood.
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God would have us to... count it a peculiar privilege to be whole-hearted for the Son of His love.
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Remember that there is no path for us smoother or broader than the path of the Son of man while in the world.
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You may have gone through deep waters, and many a furrow grief may have left on your forehead, but as you passed through the trouble which did you find most—the trial or Christ who passed through it with you?
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I judge that the great thing is to own God and be still. "I was dumb; thou didst it," said David.... There is rest in this-giving to God His own place.
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I am sure it is better for us... for divine wisdom and love to sit at the helm and decide for us than for us to have to decide.
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As to heaven, all is right, ready for us, and happier they that are there than we that are here. The good Lord settle for us the times of our going thither, and keep us while here ready and willing to slip in at any moment.
G. V. W.
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" Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able." -1 Cor. 10:12. 13.
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Oh, wondrous Love! that ne'er forgets
The objects of its tender care:
May chasten still, while sin besets,
To warn and guard them where they are.
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But ne’er forgets; but feeds them still
With tokens of His tender love;
Will keep, till freed from every ill,
They find their rest with Him above
J. N. D.
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WHAT we have to do, whether to Christians, to backsliders, or to sinners, is to maintain the attitude of God towards each of these classes. He never gives up one of His own, nor diminishes His love, though He does change His manner. As some one has said, we do not cease to love, but we do not caress a naughty child.
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The perfection of the Christian life is absolute trust in God. All roads lead to this, and the one who reaches it in any measure will never be confounded.
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Waiting before the Lord is the sure means of qualification for obedience to His bidding.
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The fear of God can lift the feeblest and humblest above the fear of man.
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Sympathy is the rarest of all ministries, as it is also the sweetest; it makes no show in the world, but it leaves its mark.
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In praying for the sick I once heard a brother use this expression: "May those who are too weak to pray be able to lean."
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Until the soul is at peace and in liberty divine things cannot be communicated.
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We get rest by a revelation of the Father's love through Christ.
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The one alleviation which always presents itself to my mind in cases of lunacy is that, even when reason has been dethroned, the spirit may be in conscious and intelligent communion with God. I formed this judgment many years ago.
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There is no pillow like love, and we have the Lord's perfect love to rest upon.
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"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." (Psa. 23:1.) " I shall not want." This conclusion flows, not from what we are to Him, but from what He is to us.
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To desire blessing is easy, but the path to blessing is through waves and clouds and storms—that is, through the deepest exercises.
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The secret of many of our sicknesses and sorrows is that our hearts have not been true to the Lord.... We assume too much when we are sick; we take it for granted that all is well with us, and forget the hand of the Lord may be in the sickness to recover the hearts of His people.
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What is true of us is not always true to us. It is true of every believer that he is in Christ, but in order to be true to him he must reach that position in his own soul experimentally.
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Whoever goeth to warfare at his own charges? No; He who calls, equips and sustains; and the servant has only to learn how to avail himself of what is provided. The Lord expects nothing from us, except looking to Him, and even for that He will give the power.
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Let me put you a simple question: How many of you have said to-day in your hearts, "The Lord Jesus Christ may be here before the day closes"?
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We are so apt to look for deliverance in suffering, but I suspect that God's object with each of us is to teach us to expect a fresh revelation of Christ and to learn His mind in the trial. E. D.
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" Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? "-Song of Sol. 8:5.
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Ah, me, I'm never well
But when I on my Best Beloved lean,
And then I'm never ill:
Crosses and trials all are right,
And pain is sweet and trouble light,
When Christ my heart doth fill.
ANON.
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GOD sends rain and fruitful seasons, but though they come, they never come in the same way in any one year, and I find that, as a rule, when I need anything, that it comes from a quarter that I never expected, and that from the quarter where it had come before it does not now. Thus God keeps the eye on Himself and not on the donor.
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The tendency is to lose dependence when we are enjoying the results of dependence.
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I consider self-vindication unworthy of any one standing for the Lord and for His truth, and I never saw a case of it where the one in the right did not suffer loss.
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You ought to begin your day with this confidence, that you have enough in Christ to meet every difficulty that may befall you.
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I have One who loves me ten thousand times better than I love myself, and I am in His sphere. I belong to His house, and He cares for me.
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How little we realize the magnitude of the fact that God is our Father. If a man had an emperor for his father he would not go to a peasant to ask for help. We cannot naturally bear the delay and suspense to which we are subjected in turning to God. But the delay is simply to test our faith. He that believeth shall not make haste.
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The soul once truly habituated to wait on God learns so to value it that it never can again do without it.
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Every hour is an hour of difficulty with us while we are here, and if we do not keep our eye on Him in the little difficulties we shall not be able to find Him in the great ones.
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I do not think your timidity is a real hindrance. I believe that it will only make you have more sense of dependence and the need of it.
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I am interested in seeing that it is no doing of mine, but of God's, to fit me to be a witness!
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It is not wickedness to be harassed by bad thoughts if you resist them. It is Satan's effort to get you to adopt them, and thus you are sifted. You will find, if you keep near the Lord, that you are more established after an assault of the kind than you were before; and the only way to combat Satan's attacks is by the word.... If Satan can lead you to become indifferent to these assaults, then they will lead you to great damage; but if, on the contrary, they urge you to be more dependent on the Lord Himself and on His word, they will eventually cease, and you will be "settled." "After you have suffered awhile make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."
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There is a depth of love which we cannot easily take in in the Lord's desire that we should know His support. Blessed be His name! He likes to be indispensable to us. It is a marvelous time... when one has nothing to cling to, no support, but His mighty hand reaching down from "higher than the heavens."
J. B. S.
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" Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?"-Heb. 12:9.
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A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
My great Redeemer's throne,
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone.
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FAITH is a divine plant that only grows out of the soil of a broken will.
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Two lessons I have been learning: first, to expect nothing but from the Lord; and, secondly, to take nothing, even though it be that on which you have set your heart, and even if it be brought to you, but to wait on the Lord until He puts it into your hands. If ripe fruit, for example (I use "ripe fruit" figuratively), be hanging on a branch close to you, do not pluck it, but let the Lord, if it be His will, put it into your lips, and then you may enjoy it.
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You are of no use to God until your will is broken.
The calm of a soul which reposes in the will of God is unspeakable.
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When you have learned that your only home is God's presence, and your only happiness is in doing God's will, there is nothing more that I can teach you.
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The more subject we are to the will of God the more we shall grow in holiness.
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(Luke 22:42, etc.) You cannot expect an answer from God unless your will is gone. You shut out answers to prayer because you have a will about the thing for which you are praying.
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Madame Guyon used to say that the only difference she knew in places was where she realized most of the presence of God; so will it be with ourselves when we have no will of our own, and when we have no home but God's presence.
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If we knew the heart of God we would never question any of His dealings with us, nor should we ever desire His hand lifted off us till we had learned all He would teach us.
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Paul says, "Through evil report and good report," he did not stop to explain; a true servant of God has not time for that, and to defend yourself only leads to further charges.
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We are never to seek to vindicate ourselves when it is a personal matter, but when the Lord's name is dishonored for His glory we may speak.
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You never find the Lord defending Himself.
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Your character may not be vindicated down here. Jesus died under a cloud.
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He was never cleared in this world of the false accusations that had been made against Him.
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The will of God was the only law of Christ's life. He was never governed by human considerations or affections. Are we set upon this—that the will of God should be our only law?
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A soul who is in the secret of the divine mind must be content to be unappreciated and to walk alone.
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If we are not in the path of God's will we are not in the path of power.
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Our true wisdom is in subjection to the will of our Lord. To human eyes no plan of taking Jericho could have been more foolish than that which Joshua adopted; but it was God's plan, and hence its complete success.
E. D
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" If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be."- John 12:26.
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Take Thou our hearts, and let them be
Forever closed to all but Thee;
Thy willing servants, let us wear
The seal of love forever there.
Ah, Lord enlarge our scanty thought,
To know the wonders Thou hast wrought;
Unloose our stammering tongues to tell
Thy love, immense, unsearchable
Deszler.
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I AM learning that no servant can lead another beyond the measure of his own grace.... The Spirit honors the word spoken where it has been effectual in the speaker.
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Surely if I propound grave things—the gravest—and am not deeply affected myself, I cannot expect my word to produce in my hearers a greater effect than it has produced on myself.
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I believe that in conversion it is a great thing to have a good beginning; and a good beginning is always marked with deep repentance. If repentance does not mark the beginning, there is not depth in the conversion.
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There are no people so hard to teach as those who imagine that they are more advanced than they are.
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It is within the power of the feeblest and humblest to take such an interest in one another as to give the sense of Christ's love.... But then, to serve one another truly, we must get rid of self.
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If in the world no man of ability surrenders because of the difficulties to be encountered—be he soldier or lawyer—how much less should the man of God surrender because of difficulties. Difficulties to faith are God's opportunities.
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Whatever God is most set for, Satan is most set against.
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I believe every one ought to help, as far as in him or her lies, to rescue souls, and I think the more you are in concert with the heart of Christ, the more you will do so. I often say, If I were very near Him I could not get alongside a sinner without telling him of a Savior, or a saint without telling him of Christ his life in heaven.
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I know very well that a servant has to go through much in order that he might be fit for his Master's use. No real servant graduates easily.
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I find that it was easier to get Israel out of Egypt than to get them into Canaan. Each step in advance evokes more opposition than the previous step; but then God is more and more to us as we advance, and this is everything to the devoted heart.
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"When I am weak, then am I strong." It must ever be a losing on man's side when it is a gaining on Christ's side.
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I desire that the Lord may give you a higher line of service, and that you may be assured by Him that He wants you to be more His "friend." It is not great acts which convey the assurance of the greatest love. The greatest love of all can say, "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." The more minute the attention the greater the true love and interest.
J. B. S.
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" My strength is made perfect in weakness."- 2 Cor. 12:9.
My faith looks up to claim that touch divine,
Which robs me of this fatal strength of mine,
And leaves me resting wholly, Lord, on Thine.
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Yes, make me such an one as Thou cant bless,
Meet for Thy use through very helplessness;
Thine, only Thine, the glory of success.
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THE path of strength... is the being made sensible of our own weakness, so that divine strength, which will never be a supplement of flesh's strength, may come in.
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That self should feel self nothing... is a most divine work.
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Where shall we find strength for practical separation to God, unless in God Himself?
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The nothingness and incompetency of all flesh must be felt where it would be disposed to think itself competent. It must find its pretensions arrested and set aside when it has... such; it must find itself consciously weak where it might hope to be strong or capable of something. As to what self would lean on, it must find itself a hindering flesh where it would pretend to be a helping one.... We must be humbled when we are not humble, or in danger of not being so.
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Our very helplessness is our resource. We find that God Himself must come in because we can do nothing.
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We need God's power to be little.
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He refreshes the spirit, raises above weakness and pain.... Think much on Jesus (I do not mean as if you could think much in your weak state, but looking to Him), and lean on Him as a sick child lies in its mother's arms, because it has no strength—not because it can do much.
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It is a great deal... to get the knowledge of self—one's total want of strength... to know enough of "I" to be glad to get rid of it. This is the process of Romans 7. Peace by progress... so as to be content with self, is found to be impossible.... In the following chapter the way of deliverance is unfolded. Here only the Deliverer is named, and the truth is brought out that the deliverance is complete and immediate, and only thankfulness remains for us.... "I thank God": a deep and wonderful change... the soul occupied with God instead of self, and occupied with Him in thanksgiving.
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How hard it is to receive that the work of God and of His Christ is always in weakness! The rulers of the people saw in Peter and John unlearned and ignorant men.... The thorn in the flesh made Paul despised, and he conceived it would be better if that were gone.... It is God's rule of action, if we may so say, to choose weak things. Everything must rest on God's power; otherwise God's work cannot be done according to His mind.... For the work of God we must be weak, that the strength may be of God; and that work will last when all the earth shall be moved away.
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I am accused of letting things take their own course too much. Still, it seems to me that I trust in God that the work is His own. If I can help in that work it is a favor which He confers on me, but I think that often, when we wish to guide and govern too much, faith is wanting.
J. N. D.
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" Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father.... comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work."-2 Thess. 2:16, 17.
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Let us our feebleness recline
On that eternal love of Thine,
And human thoughts forget;
Childlike, attend what Thou wilt say,
Go forth and serve Thee while 'tis day,
Nor leave our sweet retreat.
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"Who hath despised the day of small things? " We are slow to learn that the importance of any service depends upon God's estimate of it... that the meanest service... is worthy of all our devotedness and zeal if the mind and heart of God are upon it, and if He has put it into our hand.
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We cannot have power with men if we have not power with God. The greatest mistake any of us can make is to seek to have power before men without having been in the presence of God.
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We are as dependent upon God when we speak to one soul as when we preach to a thousand. I have learned this by experience; I have gone to see a sick person in great self-confidence and found I had nothing to say. And then the Lord taught me I must wait upon Him for the message for a single soul as much as when I was going to preach. May we ever remember this, that there may be no trace of self-confidence remaining in the heart.
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The wonder is that the Lord condescends to use anything which He gives one to say, seeing that we so often adulterate it with our own thoughts.
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It is so gracious of Him to give us any encouragement in our service, but I am convinced that, in the issue, the fruit of our labors which we have not seen will be far more abundant than that which we have been permitted to know of, and hence it is that we have to scatter the seed in faith.
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I am certain that we must leave results until the judgment seat of Christ. In the meantime our one desire must be to gain His approbation and be content with that. Nothing else is worth seeking for.
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I suspect that we shall see in the future that the meetings we thought the least of were among the best. We may therefore take courage and go forward in the knowledge that He who can appraise them at their true value is the One who will praise us most for what we have really done for Him.
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I am coming to this conclusion, that the more one ministers Christ Himself the more you can count upon divine assistance. To exalt Christ is to be in communion with the mind of God. This will be our sole employment in heaven.
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One lesson I am learning of late is our absolute dependence upon the power of God every time we speak; it is not our liberty nor our words, but it is the power of God that affects the souls to whom we speak.
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A preacher will be so conscious that only divine power can touch a soul that he will rest in God about it. E. D.
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" Serving the Lord with all lowliness."-Acts 19. (New Trans.)
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Oh, to be but emptier, lowlier,
Mean, unnoticed and unknown,
And to God a vessel holier,
Filled with Christ, and Christ alone;
Naught of earth to cloud the glory,
Naught of self the light to dim,
Telling forth the wondrous story,
Emptied-to be filled with Him!
P. G.
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EVERY one of us that has been called of God finds more or less that he is isolated unto Him that called him... Christ was apart to God.
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Surely in our Father's house not those who have gone on well in this world, as you might have done... but those who have been called on service, will have most joy in their retrospect.
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If one could but be nothing, He might use us more. The carpenter can use his saw, or file, or hammer without fear of its boasting of the work being its own. If God used His children without a good deal of discipline to them accompanying they would be spoiled and boast in what was wrought as being theirs and not His. He loves us too much for that.
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The eye that is most anointed will not be the first to see failure in others, and the soul that knows most of walking under the yoke with the Master will not be the first to undertake the putting right, according to its own mind, of what halts and limps in others.
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Prayer is sure work and the harbinger of blessing... and often what sets us a praying for more is a first dropping of His rich love and grace.
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Through evil report and through good report Paul had to pass, and so far as any accusation against me is known to me as not true... I do not think one need to be unhappy about it.... But there is a reward for our bearing false accusations. (Matt. 5:11,12.)
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We are but leaden pipes to let the water down from the cistern above—dry till it flows in above and dry if it ceases to flow in. It is good to remember this at all times and to walk humbly in the truth of it.... I found it useful (the remembrance of it) in praying before speaking. Oft not a word seemed with me to give, and the spreading out before the Lord His estimate of the worthiness of His Son to be spoken about, and His will that He should be announced, has been followed by a full fresh flow of water of the word of life.
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Believe me, you can only plead with God as you know Christ. He alone is the channel by which God can bless.... The power of intercession is a great thing to the servant of God.
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It ennobles a Christian immensely to know and to feel that he is a channel through which the life of Christ is to flow out.
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Happy the person who has an empty vessel and God ever ready to fill. Unhappy they who have no empty vessel.... I doubt whether many know the sweetness of going into the presence of God as a channel or pipe to be filled in order to bring out what is wanted for others, saying, " I have got the ear and heart of Christ."
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Which is most worthy to occupy our thoughts—the littleness of our love or the fullness of that love which passes knowledge?
G. V. W.
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" Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."-Acts 1:8.
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Do Thou, the very God of peace,
Us wholly sanctify,
And grant us such a rich increase
Of power from on high,
That spirit, soul and body may,
Preserved free from stain,
Be blameless until that great day;
Lord Jesus Christ, Amen!
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IT is a mistake to suppose that we can be endowed, so to speak, with spiritual power. God never gives a fund of strength to any of His servants on which they can draw from time to time until the whole is used. The power is always in Himself, and not in them, and only supplied moment by moment to those who are walking with and in dependence upon Him.
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Bear in mind that we must not expect consciousness of power. It is on this point that so many stumble. They want to feel power, and failing to do so they conclude that they are in the wrong condition of soul for its exercise. No mistake could be greater. On the other hand, the Lord has to break down His servants... in order to reduce them to the sense of their own utter impotence, that they may learn the lesson that His strength is made perfect in weakness.
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Human arrangements interfere with divine power.
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At conferences people often find more pleasure in meeting one another than in waiting upon God, and then there is a lack of power. For many years I have noticed that when God is about to work He produces stillness—a solemn hush—and expectation. And the moment He does this Satan counterworks and seeks to divert the attention of the saints. We ought not to be ignorant of his devices.
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Unbelief is a barrier that shuts out the inflow of divine power.
A lady once called to see me and said, "I want you to tell me the secret of power." I replied, " It is being broken to pieces and the consciousness of that."
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J.N.D. has somewhere said that when we are occupied with past manifestations of the power of the Holy Ghost we are seldom in the current of His working at the present moment.
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It is only by the Lord's own power that the smallest of His precepts can be translated into practice; while it is equally true that His largest behests are as easy of performance as the smallest, inasmuch as adequate power is always at the service of faith.
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Unconscious testimony is always the most powerful. I often think that at the judgment seat of Christ we shall find a word we have spoken casually, a little sentence dropped, has been more used than all our preaching and lectures.
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The humblest believer walking in obedience to the Lord and dependence upon Him is displaying the greatest spiritual power. Power is displayed by the coming out of Christ in daily life.
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To be full of the Holy Ghost is the normal state of the believer, and if this is not so with us we should humble ourselves before God.
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There is no power except in the Spirit of God, yet how often we depend on human power—eloquence, learning, etc. It is so easy to resort to human expediency when not in a right state of soul. E. D.
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" I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.“-1 Cor. 3:6.
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Thou shalt tell Me in the glory
All that thou hast done,
Setting forth alone; returning
Not alone.
Thou shalt bring the ransomed with thee,
They with songs shall come,
As the golden sheaves of harvest,
Gathered home.
T. P.
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Do not attempt to do too much. Let quality, not quantity, be the desire of your heart as to your service.
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The great secret of all blessing is to come from the Lord.... The Lord draw your heart so to Himself that you may come from Him to do every service.
You may find Christians... who are really thinking more of themselves than of the Lord, exacting love and consideration instead of truly in the fear of the Lord laboring to confer it. Whenever a soul makes itself the object the Lord is far from it.
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Every servant knows the past of our Lord, and many know of the future, but what really helps is knowing Him in the present.
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Pleasing God is the highest service. This was Enoch's service, and " Without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Some seem to intimate by their acts that God is a rewarder of those who diligently work for Him.... It is a healthy sign when saints are zealous of good works, but I believe there is nothing so likely to sap the soul as the satisfaction one derives from feeling that one is useful.... When you have been much in active service you need to go to the "desert to rest awhile" with the Lord. The soul who does not seek this, and long for it, is the soul that needs it most.
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Every servant requires, and as he waits for it receives, preparation for every coming service.... Every service, be it great or small, is in power according as the servant is prepared of God.
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If I think more of the subject (on which I should speak) than of the power of Christ, and the unction that can only be acquired in His presence, the word will not be effectual, even if it be the greatest truth and delivered in the most perfect way.
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If we cannot overcome where we are, we could not overcome anywhere.
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Let not one of you be satisfied with anything but a triumphant Savior. Then a better testimony would go abroad from you. What was it that arrested the elder brother of the prodigal when he approached his father's house? It was the sound of music and dancing. And we should wake up many a soul if we gave more the impression of those who have got the greatest thing that God can give.
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A Christian ought to draw from the whole range of heaven, from Him through whom he is filled with all divine teaching.... If he is not drawing from the heavenly treasure thus, he is not living in heart luxury. J. B. S.
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" Master.... at thy word I will let down the net."-Luke 5:5.
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Oh, use me, Lord, use even me,
Just as Thou wilt, and how, and where,
Until Thy blessed face I see,
Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share.
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"AND they were all amazed at the mighty power of God." (Luke 9:43.) It is very humbling to see how amazed they were about this power. They did not wonder at the power of evil. But they ought so to have counted on His power as to have been amazed if the power were not exerted.
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The faith of the laborer is the means of blessing to souls.
(Luke 10:38-42.) Martha, though preparing for the Lord, which was right surely, yet shows how much self is inherent in this kind of care, for she did not like to have all the trouble of it.
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What perseverance there is on the part of God! and we are called to go on in the same spirit. It does cost a great deal to go on and on, in spite of everybody and everything; and for us to do so marks the presence of divine power in us, for God's grace is unwearied.
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When no circumstances lead you to have any hope, is your hope then in Him?
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My service will be rewarded whatever may have been produced by the Holy Ghost answering the desire of Christ in working in me, for it is service of which I could not do an atom without His power.
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Our place is to meet everything in service in the patience and power of Christ.
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I always dread my work not being solid.
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We should pray for more of the working of the Spirit in us and desire to be filled with the Spirit—poor little hearts indeed, but they may be filled.
(Luke 14:10.) When God gives me a place it is one of power and nighness to Himself; but when a man takes a place for himself it is one of weakness and alienation from God, because self is the object.
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"Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves." You cannot turn a lamb into a wolf to defend itself.... The testimony is brighter... when I take things quietly and submit, not desiring to be a wolf among wolves. It is exceedingly difficult for one's heart to bow and say, "I will be nothing but a lamb," but that is our place, for the Lord says, "Vengeance is mine."
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John said, "We forbad him, because he followeth not with us." That tells the whole tale. They were thinking of themselves, not of Christ; of their own importance, and not His honor. If it had been His importance they would have thought how blessed it was to find the effect of His name and rejoiced to know His power was being exercised by man. But no; they were looking at themselves as well as at the Messiah.... And is there not something in us of the same thing—a satisfaction at that which aggrandizes self as well as Christ, instead of seeking the honor of Christ alone.
J. N. D.
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" As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."-John 20:21.
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From the glory and the gladness,
From His secret place,
From the rapture of His presence,
From the radiance of His face,
Christ, the Son of God, hath sent me
Through the midnight lands;
Mine the mighty ordination
Of the pierced hands.
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You must be in present dependence in preaching. There is no power unless we are receiving while we speak. What you need is a living connection with the heart of God, and then what flows out of the heart of God into your heart will come with power to the hearts of those you speak to.
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To hold ourselves at the Lord's disposal secures for us opened doors when He has work for us to do.
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We are left here to display Christ; if we are not doing this we are no use to Him or to the world.
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The qualification for service is a deeper acquaintance with the heart of Christ.
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The more you honor God by keeping man in the background the more blessing you will have in the work.
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The Holy Spirit is always ready to work when we exalt Christ, "He shall glorify me."
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The great danger is the presentation of any truth apart from Christ.
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What will become of those cut flowers tomorrow? They will fade. So truth that is separated from Christ will fade away.
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Nothing can justify a lack of tenderness in the presentation of the truth.
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We have to labor in faith, and in proportion to our confidence in God will be our expectation of blessing.
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I suppose we shall never know the full result of our service until we appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And it may be then that what we esteemed the least at the time will there be shown to have been richest in results.
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If you feel " I can do this or that service," you are not the vessel God can use.
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The Lord always sought to deepen exercises of soul, as He did in the case of the Syrophenician woman, refusing to grant her request till she was in the state to receive it. We seek to shorten them, as, for example, when we press souls to an immediate decision for Christ, without considering whether they have been brought to that point by the work of the Holy Ghost.
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When there are few gathered together at a meeting, remember there may be really as much blessing as with larger numbers. God will bring together those whom He purposes to bless, and if we remember this it will keep our eyes up to Him, and that is one condition of blessing.
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If any of us look for power or acceptance from anything that is of man, from manner, learning, fervor or eloquence... we are at once off the ground of dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit, because we are calling in to our aid that which has its source in man and natural abilities.
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A preacher has never to be anxious about results; that is God's concern. He has only to be anxious about three things: (1) the state of his own soul (2) being in communion with the mind of God as to those to whom he is speaking; and (3) fidelity in delivering the message.
E. D.
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"Him whom my soul loveth."-Song of Sol. E. 4.
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Marvel not that Christ in glory
All my inmost heart hath won;
Not a star to cheer my darkness,
But a light beyond the sun.
All below lies dark and shadowed,
Nothing there to claim my heart,
Save the lonely track of sorrow
Where of old He walked apart.
I have seen the Face of Jesus—
Tell me not of aught beside;
I have heard the Voice of Jesus—
All my soul is satisfied.
T. P.
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We do not read scripture with sufficient intimacy of heart. We read it as if we were acquainting ourselves with words and sentences. If I do not get by scripture into nearness to God in heart and conscience I have not learned the lesson it would teach me.
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Christ is your lesson as well as your teacher.... Is any book so worthy of reading as the book that we call Jesus?
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(Luke 19:12-27.) I am never really in the spirit of service if I do not remember that Christ is an absent and rejected Lord. I am... a servant who has to recognize the sorrowful fact that his Master has been rejected and insulted here. Is it not a tender thought that the very sorrows and insults which have been heaped upon Him here are so many fresh claims on one's affections?
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The heart, not the head, is the parent of eloquence.
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It is to make much of Christ we want—much of Himself, and His glorious achievements for poor sinners. We want... the breathings of a soul content with Him, and the peace of a conscience forever at rest in His unaided sufficiency.
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"And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping." (Luke 22: 45.) They were His thought, not He theirs. He their thought! They could not watch with Him one hour. So it is now. "He ever liveth to make intercession for us"; do we" ever live" to love Him, to serve Him? He ever lives for you; do you live ever for Him?
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Our power in drawing others after the Lord mainly rests in our joy and communion with Him ourselves.
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Is there not a fear lest familiarity with the things of Christ be much more than the soul's real acquaintance with Himself... I may be reading the books which tell of Him.... I may speak, nay, write about Him, while others... may be a good deal withdrawn from this, but their growth in divine knowledge and living understanding of Him may be far more advancing.
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It is one thing to render to Jesus the tribute of admiration, or even tears, and another to join one's self with Him for better or for worse, through good and evil.... One thing to speak well of Him, another to give up all for Him.
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"O fools, and slow of heart to believe." What? "ALL that the prophets hath spoken." Oh, how that should bind round your heart and mine every jot and syllable of God's word!
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It is worth a world to have an intimate eternity with Christ.
Oh, how poorly has the soul learned... the living, practical lesson of a scorned and rejected Jesus... though the mind and pen can trace the form of it without doubt or difficulty! Lord, give us to know the honor of witnessing Thy rejection in this proud world!
J. G. B.
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" One thing have I desired.... to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple."-Psa. 27:4.
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Jesus! Thou art enough
The mind and heart to fill;
Thy patient life—to calm the soul,
Thy love—its fear dispel.
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O fix our earnest gaze
So wholly, Lord, on Thee,
That, with Thy beauty occupied,
We elsewhere none may see.
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THE perfection of the Christian life is to lose sight of oneself completely and to make everything of Christ. The sign of a good state of soul is enjoyment of the presence of Christ.
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Everything that takes your eye off Christ is a snare of the devil.
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The one object of the Christian life is to learn more of Himself, and Satan cannot find entrance into a heart that is full of Christ.
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We are not to rejoice so much in the deliverances when they come as in the One who delivers us.
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The deeper the sense of the state from which we have been delivered the more absorbingly intense our affection for the Deliverer.
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Intellectual conviction is always powerless, it occupies itself with the truth, and never leads to Christ Himself.
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The Israelites were to gather the manna every man according to his eating. (Exo. 16:16.) The appetite governed the amount collected. How strikingly true this is of the believer! We all have as much of Christ as we desire—no more, and no less. If our desires are large, if we open our mouth wide, He will fill it.... On the other hand, if we are but feebly conscious of our need, a little only of Christ will be supplied.
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There are seasons when many believers feel as if they could not get into the presence, or obtain the ear of God.... Surely it would prove an antidote to Satan's temptations at such periods to remember, that if we cannot pray ourselves, Christ never fails to bear us up in His prevailing intercession.... It would soon dispel our gloom and coldness of heart, because it would lead us to look away from ourselves, and to expect all from Him, and from His continual ministry for us in the presence of God.
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A heart possessed of Christ is fortified against the most seductive allurements of the world.
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The state of our souls may be discerned by the effect produced upon us by the name of Jesus.
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Christ Himself is to be our great example of faith, of a life of dependence upon God. If the holiest man that ever lived were to fill our vision it would only hinder and not help us.
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Whenever we speak to one another of Christ He will always be one of the company. (See Mal. 3:16.) Do our hearts long for His presence? Then let us speak together of Him more.
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We feed on Christ by the appropriation of Him in every character that He is presented to us.
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The whole life of our blessed Lord as man is compressed into the words, "He humbled himself."
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"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." Christ is the sole authority in the kingdom. E. D.
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" He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."-Luke 24:27.
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Name of Jesus highest name!
Name that earth and heaven adore.
From the heart of God it came,
Leads me to God's heart once more.
Name of Jesus living tide!
Days of drought for me are past.
How much more than satisfied,
Are the thirsty lips at last.
Only Jesus fairest name
Life and rest, and peace and bliss
Jesus, evermore the same,
He is mine, and I am His.
G. T. S.
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The Lord Jesus began in a manger and on the cross, and the way He had not where to lay His head.
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A Jesus dying on the cross for the vilest meets the wants and burdens of the vilest.... If his sins are a burden to him he may see Christ bearing them, that he may be free and have peace.
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The more we see the value of the cross the more precious will Christ be to us.
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If Jesus sees perfection in us we need nothing more.
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The Holy Spirit is a power that detaches us from everything, and binds us to that which is invisible—to Christ in heaven, and to the love of the Father.
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(Luke 7:36-50.) “Her sins are forgiven; for she loved much." The Lord is able to make this pardon known. He reveals it to the poor woman. But it was that which she had seen in Jesus Himself which, by grace, melted her heart and produced the love she had to Him-the seeing what He was for sinners like herself. She thinks only of Him. He has taken possession of her heart so as to shut out other influences.... She goes into the house of this proud man without thinking of anything but the fact that Jesus is there.... She saw what He was for a sinner, and that the most wretched and disgraced found a resource in Him.... A Savior-God being present, of what importance was Simon and his house? Jesus caused all else to be forgotten. Let us remember this.
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Whatever enfeebles attachment to Christ destroys power. It is not gross sin that does it, which of course will be... judged; but it is the little things of every-day life which are apt to be chosen before Christ.
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If I have that in and about me which distresses the soul, I have that in Him which is unfailing joy and comfort.... Where could one's heart turn for rest if it had not Jesus to rest in? With Him let heaven and earth be turned upside down, and still I have a rest.
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There is power to attract out of every corruption around, and to gather the soul into the thoughts and ways of God, by the revelation of Christ Himself.
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"That on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience."... If people have not got Christ they tire. There will be no enduring unless Christ has possession of the soul; but if He has, there will be an abiding motive, and people will go on, and "bring forth fruit with patience."... Trouble may come in, in the church; disappointment may arise, even from the brethren; but they go on just the same, because they have got Christ before them; for the word they have heard and keep connects them with Christ, and He is more than anything else.
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Much as I love the brethren, my happiness has always been from God, not from them.
J. N. D.
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" Unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart."-Psa. 86:11, 12.
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As the sunflower ever turning,
To the mighty sun,
With the faithfulness of fealty,
Following only one—
So make me, Lord, to Thee.
J. TAULER
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MANY own the grace of God, but how comparatively seldom do we see the surrender of prospects and position in order to follow Christ fully.
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There is great need for David's mighty men in this day—m =en devoted to David. The nation gains from their services, but they are thinking of David.
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The more saints are for Him the more they will in every way gain for themselves.
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I see many converted souls, but I do not see many witnesses.... I feel that one man standing fully for Christ, like Anna the prophetess, would be a greater testimony than many conversions.
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I do not believe that any one advancing in this world and not surrendering it can be seeking the things above.
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I fear that the saints are rather advancing in the world instead of retiring from it. Surely there never has been real advance but as there has been renunciation, and the "manifold more" is with reference to the surrender.
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Those nearest and dearest to us naturally can do us the greatest mischief spiritually, because they consider too much for us and too little for the Lord.
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It is a good sign on all sides when children prefer their home to any other place. How blessed if this were true of each of us with respect to our home in the Father's house. The reason of our not doing so is that we do not sufficiently know the joy of it.
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I admire much her (Mary of Bethany) isolated path, because her affection for Him carried her outside and apart from every one here, and, as far as I can see it, it is in this connection she should be spoken of in the gospel. As the Lord says, "Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." It is the memorial that our blessed Lord not only so loved a sinner, but could make a sinner love Him so much.
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It is very marked the way the heart is weaned from a place when the object of it has left it, but it is much more weaned when it truly follows Him to the place where He is. His absence detaches you from this place, while His presence in heaven attaches you to heaven because He is there.
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Do not be satisfied with as much Christianity as will ease your conscience.
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It is not to the one who works most, nor to the one who reads most, that the Lord confides His mind, but to the one who loves Him most (as Mary Magdalene). It is only near Himself that the human mind is so in abeyance that His mind is in the ascendant.
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How many things try and annoy us all day which are not really for Christ's sake.
J. B. S.
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" That he might have the first place in all things."-Col. 1:18 (New Trans.).
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Of the vast universe of bliss,
The center Thou, and Sun;
The eternal theme of praise is this,
To heaven's beloved One;
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou,
That every knee to Thee should bow!
E. CONDER.
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CHRIST is everything. He is everything to the heart of God, and He desires to be everything to the hearts of His people. That it may be so with you is the highest blessedness I can desire for you.
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There is never any difficulty about guidance when the eye is on Christ, but if other considerations come in then you miss His leadings.
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"According to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body." Is it our desire to be able to adopt Paul's language? Do we hold our bodies as vessels for the display of Christ? As we rise in the morning do we look upon the coming day as another opportunity of making Christ great?
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We can present Christ to the hearts of men in our lives as well as by our words. We may not be able to explain a single passage of scripture, but we can live Christ. You may teach a Sunday school, or visit among the poor, and that is all right and good, but there is something far better—live Christ, present Christ.
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May the Lord teach us this lesson—that HE is the only thing that is indispensable to us.
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There is always a response to the ministry of Christ.
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Christ in some aspect is suited to the need of every soul.
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The only object of the preacher is to exalt and make much of Christ. The Spirit's testimony is Christ, and His work is to glorify Christ, and I desire to be in the line of the Spirit, otherwise one could not count upon being used in blessing.
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Half the preaching in the world today might be done away with to advantage. Nothing can meet the need of the people but Christ. There is nothing worth ministering but Christ.
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The truth is not Christ, but Christ is the truth. You can have the truth without having Christ, but if you have Christ you must have the truth—all the influences that flow from the truth—because He is THE TRUTH.
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The larger our thoughts of Christ the larger our communion with the heart of God.... The glory of Christ is the one subject that fills the heart of God, and filling His heart it should also fill ours.
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A real revival in our hearts is always the revival of the place of Christ in our hearts.
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The least bit of allowed self obscures the presentation of Christ.
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It always appeals to me that the last sight the disciples had of our blessed Lord was His passing into heaven with His outstretched arms of blessing. That indeed is His perpetual attitude towards us. No less striking is their response to what they had seen. It was, in one word, perpetual worship. Ah, if we did but worship more we should have far higher conceptions of who He is, and what He has done for us.
E. D.
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" Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul has found its delight."-Matt. 12:18 (New Trans.).
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Come now, and view that manger,
The Lord of glory see,
A houseless, homeless Stranger,
In this poor world for thee.
Oh, strange, yet fit beginning
Of all that life of woe,
In which Thy grace was winning
Poor man his God to know.
Bless'd Babe! who lowly liest
In manger-cradle there;
Descended from the highest,
Our sorrows all to share.
J. N. D.
EVERY ONE found room in the inn save He, but any who wanted to find Him whom angels celebrate must go to the manger.
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(Luke 4:4.) It is the written word He ever uses, and Satan is powerless. What amazing importance Jesus gives the scriptures.... It was not as an act of divine authority He dismissed Satan, but the enemy is proved unable to grapple with obedience to the word of God.... Jesus does not reason with Satan. A single text silences when used in the power of the Spirit. The whole secret of strength in conflict is using the word of God in the right way.
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(Luke 4:16.) "And He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up "—the low, despised place, but just the place where spiritual power is found. Was it not ever thus? When was it found allied to the great things of this world?
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God did not despise Nazareth, but man despises Jesus because He came out of Nazareth.... Man despises the lowliness to which grace brought Him-wretched man!
Christ never worked miracles for Himself, but for others.
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(Luke 8:37.) The world beseeches Jesus to depart, desiring their own ease, which is more disturbed by the presence and power of God than by a legion of devils.
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(Luke 9:30, 31.) "Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease." They were occupied with His death while talking with Him. One thing occupies the minds of heaven and earth. He was going to be crucified where He ought to have been King. Under such circumstances there was nothing for heaven or earth to talk about but His death. And so for us, the great thing to talk about Messiah is, that He died.... We shall never cease having interest in this subject: when with the Father in the glory, it will be the absorbing theme. He said Himself, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life." How much more shall we not love Him for the same cause?
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(John 12:1) Bethany receives Jesus for the last time; the blessed but momentary retreat of... a heart which has given us, in His relations with this beloved family, the example of an affection perfect, yet human, which found sweetness in being responded to and appreciated.
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(Luke 23:39-43.) Jesus crucified was more than King—He was Savior. The poor malefactor was a testimony to it, and the joy and consolation of the Lord's heart—the firstfruits of the love which had placed them side by side, where, if the poor thief bore the fruit of his sins from man, the Lord of glory at his side was bearing the fruit of them from God.... Through a work unknown to man save by faith, the sins of His companion were forever put away, they no longer existed, their remembrance was only of the grace which had taken them away, and which had forever cleansed his soul from them, making him that moment as fit to enter Paradise as Christ Himself his companion there!
J. N. D.
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" I have called you friends."-John 15:15.
O Lord, Thou seest, Thou knowest,
That to none my heart can tell
The joy and the love and the sorrow,
The tale that my heart knows well.
But to Thee, O my God, I can tell it-
To Thee, and to Thee, Lord, alone;
For Thy heart my heart hath a language,
For other hearts it hath none.
In the wide world speechless and lonely,
For me is no heart but Thine;
Lord, since I must love Thee only,
Oh. reveal Thy heart to mine.
H. SUSO.
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YE are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” If you meditate upon these words you will never reach their profound depths, nor shall we even in eternity. For who shall tell what friendship with Christ involves? No one can or ever will gauge the possible intimacy which it holds out to us.
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We should diligently cultivate the enjoyment of the love of Christ that we may become molded by it, so as to express it more in our very demeanor, and be surrounded by the holy atmosphere which it creates.
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Whatever makes Christ more precious to us is of God. Whatever comes between us and Christ is of the devil.
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"It is I; be not afraid." The realization of Christ's presence is the antidote to every possible fear, and the way to comfort people is the ministry of Christ in the power of the Spirit, to so present Him that they shall apprehend His presence.
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The nearer we are to God the more we lose sight of ourselves and the better we are able to apprehend and to communicate His mind.
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I do not know a happier employment than to sit down quietly before the Lord and let Him make impressions on your heart—to let Him impress you with His own presence, and to produce whatever influences He will upon you.
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By sitting at the feet of Jesus we shall both delight His heart and find ourselves in the place of untold and unfathomed blessing.
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Many people think communion is having happy feelings. It is being in the mind of God. Communion is doing the right thing at the right moment in the right way. Once get out of communion and you cannot do anything rightly.
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Are we satisfied with light instead of cultivating love for Christ? The more light the better if affection goes with it, but if light be held without the heart it will not benefit us. John 20. illustrates this. John had more light about the resurrection than Mary, yet when he came to the sepulcher and found it empty he went home. Mary had no light about the resurrection, yet as she waited there, weeping, Jesus revealed Himself to her. It is to the heart and not to the head that Christ reveals Himself, so the more heart you have the more you will get manifestations of Him.
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To be near Christ is the great enjoyment of the spiritual life. "Can the children of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? " As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. In heaven itself you would not be content never to come into contact with Christ; have you come into contact with Him to-day?
E. D.
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" Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."-1 John 1:3.
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Give us Thy meek, Thy lowly mind,
We would obedient be;
And all our rest and pleasure find
In fellowship with Thee.
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SOME Christians are apt to confound these two things—special joy and abiding communion, and to suppose, because the first is not always the case, the discontinuance of the latter is to be taken for granted and acquiesced in. This is a great mistake. Special visitations of joy may be afforded. Constant fellowship with God and with the Lord Jesus is the only right state, the only one recognized in scripture. We are to rejoice in the Lord always.
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The Christian, however strengthened by... communications of divine love to his soul, has to walk by faith, and not always in these sensible apprehensions of... glory.
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The highest kind of prayer is that which does not spring from a sense of need, but from the desires which the revelation of God's purposes produces.
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The object of Christ's love is to take us into the enjoyment of all that He enjoys Himself.
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If your souls would walk in peace and fellowship with God, you must learn there is no good in you, but you learn to know Him in the perfectness of His love.
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God wants as a present thing our hearts to be in tune with Him in everyday life.
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I think we ought to look for fruits as a sign that God is working with us, but it should not be the spring of labor, but our intercourse with Him so as to have His mind.
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Yes, our business is to be with Him, that our life should be Himself. The springs of life in the soul are then deep—deep as God Himself.
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The Lord must be known intimately in order to be able to walk in a way worthy of Him.
The way is a very simple one if the heart is simple; a very peaceful one if the heart enjoys communion with God; happy there, we peacefully discern what will be most for His glory.
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One's own soul suffers by being constantly occupied with evil. It is not the place of communion.
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As you enjoy Christ for yourself saints will find it out, and that will be your testimony to them.
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I am glad that you are making experience of the value of that inner life which is developed in communion with the Lord. The outward life, however blessed it be, can never give us that which is here communicated. It is the knowledge of Christ that matures the soul.
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I do not know what else we have to do down here but to know God better and to serve.
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We little know what high and blessed things we are called to. Oh, that the saints knew it better! To be with, and have common joy and communion with God!
J. N. D.
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" Without faith it is impossible to please him."-Heb. 11: 6.
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From various cares our hearts retire,
Though deep and boundless their desire,
We've now to please but One,
Him, before whom each knee shall bow,
With Him is all our business now,
And those that are His own.
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CHRIST'S grace is sufficient for us. His strength is made perfect in weakness, and God is faithful not to suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able, so that we have no excuse when we fail.
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The Holy Spirit is ... the operative power of God for producing in man all that is well-pleasing to Him.
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"That henceforth we should not serve sin." There is no necessity to have even a single evil thought.
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In order to be truly delivered one must learn, and that by experience, that one is captive to the power of sin, and has no power to deliver oneself even when desiring to be free.... "Who shall deliver me? " is the expression that we cannot do it ourselves: we look around for another. That is what we have to learn—our utter powerlessness, our dependence upon God.
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Life in the flesh is no more our position, because Christ, after having died, has become our life. Sin in the flesh is condemned, and that in the death of Christ on the cross.... Yea, for faith the flesh itself is done away with, since we are dead.
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The power of the Sprit is requisite to live before man—power over and above regeneration, and distinct from spiritual understanding.
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The best thing for Christians to do is to serve God so that He may commend them, and then let people say what they like.
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I can do all things through Him which strengtheneth me (is) the only true abiding state of the Christian, be he babe or father in Christ; only the thing he may have to do may be different, and his temptations too.
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"The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword." Whatever is flesh it cuts down mercilessly, and thank God for it, because it is a hindrance to our blessing.... Whatever is not a thought that comes from God, and an intent that goes to God, the word of God judges.
.. There is nothing for the flesh but the sword—a figure, of course, of that which judges, detects, and condemns it.
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Oh! beloved friends, if you will only let the pure word of God abide in your hearts you will find that it will sweep away all the cobwebs of the flesh.
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The believer's safeguard, morally... is a single eye. If I seek only the glory of God, that which presents no other motive than my own aggrandizement, or my own gratification... will have no hold upon me, and will show itself in the light of the word, which guides the single eye, as contrary to the mind of God.... If the heart seeks God alone, the most subtle snare is discovered.
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All we can do is to walk watchfully, but peacefully, thinking of the interests of the Lord Jesus, and having nothing as to ourselves, nothing to gain and nothing to lose. The path of peace, the place of testimony, is in seeking to please God.
J. N. D.
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" I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."-Rom. 12:1.
Thine, Jesus, Thine,
No more this heart of mine
Shall seek its joy apart from Thee;
The world is crucified to me,
And I am Thine.
Thine—Thine alone,
My joy, my hope, my crown;
Now earthly things may fade and die,
They charm my soul no more, for I
Am Thine alone.
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We may point out briefly the characteristics of the consecrated saint. First and foremost, he has no will. Like the apostle, he says: Not I, but Christ liveth in me. Crucified with Christ, the will, connected as it is with the old man, is gone before God.... The will of Christ is our only law, and we are His, for His sole and absolute use. Then, also, the consecrated believer seeks only the exaltation of Christ.... Self disappears from his view, and the glory of Christ fills his soul.
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Consecration lies in Christ having full control over the bodies of His people, so that they may be organs for the expression of nothing but Himself.
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It is never well with us until we are held by the Spirit at the disposal of the One we love.
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"The house was filled with the odor of the ointment." (John 12:3.) This was a matter of fact, but underlying the fact is the teaching that nothing is so fragrant to the heart of God, or to the hearts of the saints when in communion with Him, as an act of absorbing devotedness to Christ.
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This is the secret of all blessing—giving the Lord the supreme place. Thinking first of what is glue to Him, and losing sight of all else until this is rendered.
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What is the meaning of that expression in the Canticles, “Jealousy is cruel as the grave"? I will tell you how it presents itself to me. When a body is committed to the ground the grave closes in over it and shuts out every other object—it possesses that body absolutely. Well, the Lord's jealousy is like that. Do you suppose the Lord could contemplate with indifference our hearts going after this thing and that thing and the other thing which are contrary to Himself? No. If He loves us—and He does love us—He wants our whole hearts. Nothing less than our whole hearts will ever satisfy Him.
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Christ Himself is our only true blessedness and we never wholly live for God until Christ becomes everything to us.
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"Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men." Being redeemed we should disown and reject every authority that conflicts with that of Christ.
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"That in all things he might have the pre-eminence." (Col. 1:18.) If I am not giving Christ the first place in my heart I am not in accord with the mind of God.
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The most miserable man on the face of the earth is the Christian who is trying to enjoy both worlds.
We are told that Solomon was seven years building the temple and thirteen years building his own house. I cannot doubt, therefore, that we are intended to learn that the mind of Solomon was more set upon his own house than upon the house of God. We have the same lesson taught us in Haggai 1. And it is a needed lesson, as we all know. See what money Christians will spend upon the adornments of their own houses compared with what they give for the furtherance of the house of God.
E. D.
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" Let us go on unto perfection."-Heb. 6:1.
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Blest Savior, keep our spirits stayed,
Hard following after Thee,
Till we, in robes of white arrayed,
Thy face in glory see.
J. G. DECK.
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I BELIEVE the one great hindrance to our progress is the limited measure of our desire and preparation. We often think that we are wishing for and ready for much more than we are. We always get what we value.
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It is very helpful to see in Ephesians 4 that if you were well grown you would not be "tossed to and fro," The higher you go the safer you are—a fine principle, hence Satan would prevent us from going to the top.
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I think many do not habituate themselves to sitting before the Lord. One does not appear to be doing anything, and yet that is the very time in which the peculiar lines of His mind and pleasure for one are acquired.
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I believe the practical difficulty with us all is to say-not Adam in any form or quality, but Christ liveth in me!... Every believer likes to advance himself spiritually, but hardly any one likes to exchange himself for another Man.
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Learning is very real work, and there is no maturing without it, and I do not believe that any one matures brilliantly who does not learn sufferingly. Easily got, easily gone, was never so corroborated as in the highest things.
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I am quite sure that if there were more breaking of heart to know more of the Lord wondrous disclosures would be made to us.
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The great thing we need for progress is restfulness of heart. I do not believe that there is simple restfulness of heart until union with Christ is known, not merely as a doctrine, but as the unalterable bond of affection. You are not only assured of His grace in saving you, but you have found Him so necessary to you that you cannot live without Him; then to find out that you are united to Him is absolute solace and divine restfulness.
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I think what we all need is a greater taste or longing for heaven. I do not believe that any one seeks heaven until he knows the joys of it; and he cannot on earth know the joys of heaven except as he enjoys company with the Lord.
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It is as I increase in divine growth that I the more need Christ, and find Christ for everything. The more I grow the more I seek Him, because I want more; and the more I find the more I seek: hence seeking Him is the real mark of growth.
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For a saint to have solitude is of the deepest importance, because it is then the heart renews its acquaintance with Him who only has entrance into our most solitary retreats. When we are thoroughly alone and apart He loves to be our visitor.
J. B. S.,
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" Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth."-Col. 3:2.
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There has one object been disclosed on earth that might commend the place; but now gone Jesus is with the Father.
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THE world... to us is nothing now but the empty tomb of Jesus.
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What a difference... between giving up the world and the world giving us up! We may do the one with comparative ease, but when we feel the world despises us as Christ was despised, we shall discover, unless He fills and satisfies the heart, that we had a value for its esteem that we were not aware of.
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Whoever is keeping on terms with the world is not walking with God; for God is not walking with you there.
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You... listen to Satan every day of your lives that you seek a very little bit of the world.
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When the world creeps in... we show that a rejected Christ has little power in our eyes.
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If the film of this world has been drawn over our spiritual vision, hiding Christ from us, He alone can remove it.
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(Luke 6:20:26.) "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you," etc. If you can make yourselves happy and comfortable in this world which has rejected Jesus, count not on His blessing.
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When there is a deep sense of what is to be lost and saved, the world is a light matter, but when the pressure on the conscience is removed too often nature resumes a sort of place, and then Christ is not all and everything to the saint.
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It is not a question of whether a thing be right or wrong, but what savor have the things of Christ in it? It may be a very small thing. If we find the reading of a book makes the manifestation of Christ to become less precious to us, we have got away from God, and we cannot tell where the next step may take us. Satan often cheats us in this way.... If anything comes in and takes the freshness of Christ from your soul, take heed!
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(Luke 12:45.) Christendom apostatizes by putting off in heart the Lord's coming. The great stay of heavenly-mindedness is lost thereby, and our peculiar calling and hope. To expect the Lord detaches from the world.
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Nature would say of Moses, Why not stay in Pharaoh's court, that the people may be converted, instead of leaving it? Flesh cannot understand what faith leads to.
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"Take heed, and beware of covetousness." If love of the world or covetousness... slips into the heart it checks the power of Christ over the soul and conscience, and eats out the practical life of the Christian, and his soul is withered, withered, withered... This covetous care about earthly things is so subtle that while there is nothing on which to lay the hand, the practical power of christian life in the soul is gone.
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Worldly religion, and religious worldliness, is the pest of this day, and... will never stand in the day which shall try all things.
J. N. D.
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" For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."-Rom. 8:2.
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'Tis only in Thee hiding
We feel ourselves secure;
Only in Thee abiding,
The conflict can endure:
Thine arm the victory gaineth
O'er every hateful foe;
Thy love our hearts sustaineth
In all their cares and woe.
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"To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do." (Rom. 7:18, 19.) If souls would be honest, many would confess that this has been their condition for years-a condition which brings no glory to God and no happiness to themselves. What is the cause? Simply the mistake of thinking that all depends upon their own efforts instead of accepting the truth that they are utterly without strength, and that, therefore, everything depends upon God.
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You have fought with your foes again and again with undaunted courage, but you have never gained the victory. Pause, for a moment, and ask this simple question, What am I to learn by this sorrowful experiment?... It is that the enemy is too strong for you, that you cannot cope with his power.
.. If you continue upon the present line of effort it is only to court defeat in the future as in the past. Your case is, as far as your own strength is concerned, hopeless. If, on the other hand, you... come to the end of your own strength, it will bring rest to your soul, because... you will understand that your help, strength and succor come from... Christ and not from yourselves. Oh, the unspeakable blessedness of such a discovery! Ceasing henceforward to struggle, you will know what it is to rest in Another, and be able to take up the song of David, "The Lord is my light and my salvation."
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"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Deliverance is found, just as salvation is found, not through self, and the labors of self, but through Christ.
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"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not." (1 John 2:1.) The believer... should never for one moment receive the thought that sin cannot be avoided. If he once admits that sin is a necessary part of his experience, he will soon lose sight of its true character, its hatefulness to God... and in the end become the prey and sport of the evil one as to his walk through this world.
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GOD IS ABLE TO KEEP US FROM FALLING. (Jude 24.) To doubt this would not only be to disbelieve His own word, but also to forget that He is God.
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The Holy Spirit is our only power for a holy walk. Of ourselves we cannot take a single step in this path. The utmost human efforts, the most resolute determination, are of no avail either to keep ourselves from evil or to follow after Christ.
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If you leave out the truth of the coming of the Lord Jesus you miss a power for holiness that God has given to us. (See I John 3:3.)
E. D.
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" Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps."-1 Peter 2: 21.
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O Father, Thy care is not to make
The desert a waste no more,
But to keep our feet lest we lose the track
Where His feet went before.
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IF you are really going to take such a step as that of following Christ you must count the cost.... Friends must be given up for Christ. A man may have to leave everything else, but the question is, Am I to leave God?... "You cannot have two hearts—a heart for the world and a heart for Me," Christ would say. I tremble when I see people who have not counted the cost setting out in the profession of following Christ. It is God's way to put the barrier at the start. If you can leap that you will do.
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"He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem." He knows His Father's will and He does it. He sets His face there, where His Father's will is to be done, not looking to this side or to that, but there—Jerusalem. We, according to the measure we have of the single eye, shall be following in the same course, going to the cross steadily, with one purpose; and in proportion as we do so will those who do not so set their face, oppose us. But the Lord says: "If any man serve me, let him follow me." Service is not doing a great deal, but following the Master, and the world and half-hearted Christians do not like that. There is plenty of doing in the world, but "If any man serve me, let him follow me."
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"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily." "Daily"—this is the trial. A man might heroically do it once for all, and he would have plenty of people to honor him, and books written about him, but it is terribly difficult to go on every day denying oneself, and no one knowing anything about it.
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People do not like to do the things that Jesus did when He was down here. Why is there so much argument about that one passage, "Resist not evil"? It is because you like to resist evil.... It is given you as matter-of-fact exhortation, but you do not like it, and you will get rid of it if you can.
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At whatever cost to self, show love as Christ did.... "Love ye your enemies."... It must cost us something; it cost the life of Christ. His love was a stream which, if it met with hindrances in its way, only went on flowing over, and leaving them behind till it reached the cross.
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"If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." If it is so with you there is sure to be light in the path—light not for ten years hence but for this one step that is before you, and then for the next.
J. N. D.
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" These all... confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."-Heb. 11:13.
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Lord, since we sing as pilgrims,
O give us pilgrims' ways;
Low thoughts of self, befitting
Proclaimers of Thy praise;
O make us each more holy,
In spirit pure and meek.;
More like to heavenly citizens,
As more of heaven we speak.
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DIRECTLY you know Christ you must follow Him. He traces out a path for us that does not allow of retreat in any way.
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Christ never had a home down here: it was a wilderness to Him, it did not bear the stamp of His Father's heart. If there is a strange place to me, it ought to be the place where my Lord was crucified.
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Ejaculatory prayer, the lifting up of the eye, and the realizing the eye of God continually upon us, is the great secret of spirituality in social intercourse. The deeply spiritual mind cannot be a great talker, because such is watching and cherishing the visits of the Spirit, ascending at intervals in all the secret acts of love and praise.
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Now is the time to give up self: Christ's presence will be the place to have giving up of self owned in.
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Can we say of any when going into their house, "That person brings me Christ "? If one had paid a visit to Paul, would not one have come away with a fresh taste of Christ? I have often come out of the house of a poor bedridden creature feeling, Oh, how I wish my soul were like that! Oh, that that pulse of Christ were throbbing in every part of the body! How I want, how I long, to see it so in all who are His.
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The early Christians presented in a beautiful way the Nazarite character. They walked as those whose hearts Christ had taken away with Him into heaven.
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So immensely are our lives below the mark as nominal Christians that we have next to no idea of the distance at which we walk from God, and when the soul is turned to seek... Him only... we discover with amazement how many false props we have had, and how often we have been leaning on the love and approbation of others and not upon a Father's love alone.
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I find more and more the value of that word, "Enoch walked with God." I daresay in doing it he had his difficulties; but he did it.
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That which I desire for you is fellowship with Jesus in that which distinguished Him so pre-eminently above His fellows-repose of character.... How blessed and how unearthly the calm, quiet, unruffled composure of the course! No haste, no hurry, because though on earth yet still in heaven; His mind, His heart, deep buried in His Father's love. And may we not thus abide in Christ, and Christ in us?
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Are you walking in the light of the affections of that Lord Jesus who loved you and washed you from your sins in His own blood? Is that name of Jesus causing a vibration in your heart as you walk along the wilderness?
G. V. W.
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" Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us."-Heb. 12:1
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Is it some gently-stealing breeze,
The wiles of Nature, when at ease,
That bears a poisonous breath;
That slowly draws the heart away
From Christ, its Rock, and only stay;
Nor ever dreams, till far away,
How all is stamped with death?
Footprints for Pilgrims - 418
Is it some loved and kindred heart,
From which we cannot bear to part,
Round which we fondly cling?
We little know the danger here,
Till that which to our souls too dear
Has weaned us from our proper sphere,
Has clipped our soaring wing.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 419
CARES are most subtle things, because they enter as necessary duties, and there is no sin in doing one's duty. But if these duties choke the word and a man loses his soul through it, what then?
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"What harm in being rich? " a person once asked me. If it shuts you out of heaven, is there any harm in that? " Oh, I did not think of that!..." The evil is not the things themselves, but the love in the heart for them.
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It is a terrible thing if we, as Christians, have not this craving, this hungering and thirsting after a greater enjoyment of God: for where this is not, deadness and apathy of soul have come in.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 422
There is no such thing recognized in scripture as a Christian doubting he is saved. And it is all a totally false pretension of humility. If my Father forgives me, and I doubt His forgiveness, I am not trusting Him.... Let a man fear temptation, doubt his own heart— that is another thing; but not doubt God, or fear God.
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There may be a thousand and one things to vex me if self is of importance; they will not vex me at all if self is not there to be vexed.... What rubs we get when not walking with God, and thinking only of self! There is no such deliverance as that of having no importance in one's own eyes.
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When the eye is... upon God self is forgotten; if not, I am thinking of the slights I receive, and neither faith nor grace are in exercise.
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Common duties do not rob us of Him; from these the heart returns with fresh delight into its own center. It is the heart clinging to vanity that spoils our joy; it is anything which exalts self and lowers Christ-an idle thought, even, if allowed in the heart.
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If a thing is a snare to me I must give it up entirely. " Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Different things are snares to different people.... It is an individual thing with God. I cannot judge what may be a snare to you. If it is a snare, let it go.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 427
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Purity of heart (is) the absence of what would shut out God.
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Alas! feeble is he who even unconsciously leans upon man.
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We have to watch, for the enemy always does, and if we are not looking actively to the Lord we lose our safeguard, and when distracted from Him he gets in, and often unconsciously... and then all the feebleness of walk which flows from the heart not realizing Christ as motive and power, the light of His presence, and the soul in the light before Him.
J. N. D.
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" The God of all encouragement."-2 Cor. 1:3. (New Trans.)
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Though distant from the heavenly way
The souls you love, for whom you pray,
Ah! why need ye despair?
Plead on—and ye shall live to prove
That God is power, that God is love,
And loves to answer prayer.
SIR E. DENNY.
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"WE have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." It is not attainments, it is not watchfulness, it is not services or duties which... give the soul entrance into that wealthy place of divine favor—"By faith we have access into this grace wherein we stand."
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If we find our souls under pressure of the spirit of fear or bondage or uncertainty we may be sure that they have let go the gentle hand of faith.... This ought not to be so. We are to know that we have ever to do with love!
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" Father "—a name that may give abiding calmness and strength and liberty to the soul.
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The tempter would lead us to judge of God by the dark shadings of many a passage of our history here. But the Spirit of God would have us acquaint ourselves with Him in the beauteous light of the gospels, the glory that shines now in the face of Jesus Christ.
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David... when a stripling in the fight could say even to a giant, "This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand," but afterward said in his heart, "I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul."... Saul's hand which David feared was not so big as Goliath's hand which David despised; but then Christ was not so large and full before the eye of David's faith afterward as He had been before in the valley of Elah.
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"Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." Nothing peculiar ushered forth that glorious hour. No big expectations or strange events gave token of its coming. It was the natural, heavenly close of an undeviating heavenly journey.
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Faith is never too bold to please Him. In the days of His flesh He often rebuked the reserves and suspicions of little faith, but never the strength and decision of faith that aimed as at everything and would not go without a blessing.
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Would that we knew our God as He is to be known, for His praise and our comfort! Love delights to be used. Love is wearied with ceremoniousness.... The intimacy of faith is according to His grace, and ceremony is but a weariness to Him.
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The hand of God can do the business of God, though it have but a sling and a stone, or the jaw-bone of an ass, or lamps and pitchers; and the Spirit of God can do the business of God with souls, though He use but a word, or a look, or a groan.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 441
The simpler we are, the more like children, who learn their lesson rather than discuss it... the more surely shall we find Him, and reach Him, and know Him.
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Ah! it is hard to believe that God is doing your business in this world. It is much easier to us to do Christ's work than to believe He has done ours.
J. G. B.
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" The love of Christ constraineth us."-2 Cor. 5:14.
Dear suffering Lamb! Thy bleeding wounds,
With cords of love divine,
Have drawn our willing hearts to Thee,
And link'd our life with Thine.
SIR E. DENNY.
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WHAT was the power that made Levi leave all and follow Christ? Not the command: the power did lie in the word itself, but it was the presentation of Christ Himself to Levi. You cannot get separation apart from the presenting of the Person. This is the reason of failure in separation—it must begin with the heart. If you want to help souls you must present Christ to them. How should I separate a quantity of steel filings from a heap of dust? By picking them out? No, I should only defile my hand. By holding a powerful magnet to them, and all would instantly be attracted and drawn out of the dust. It is Christ revealed to us that detaches us from this world.
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There is many a Christian who has not reached Christ, and there is the weakness. There is a larger blessing than forgiveness—that is, HIMSELF. Nothing will satisfy Christ but revealing His heart to you, and you will never grow until you know Him. It is impossible to grow unless you are under the power of His love.
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"I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love." (Rev. 2:4, New Trans.) Nothing can compensate for want of heart for Christ.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 447
"And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught." (Mark 6:30.) Surely we could not do better than follow the example of the apostles in this respect. How much we should learn if we did so, and how gently He would remind us of many a failure to present the truth, or if we presented it correctly, how much we have failed to preach it in the power of the Spirit. But we have to do with One who loves us, and this gives us confidence in telling Him everything. It is even so in human relationships, for when we are assured of one another's love we do not hesitate to tell everything. Much more should it be so when we speak to the Lord.
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If we would wash another's feet aright our motive, like that of Jesus, must spring from love. (See John 13:1, etc.)
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The measure of our love indicates the measure of our usefulness. As the apostle teaches us—we may spend the whole of our substance in philanthropic work, and yet without love it is of no avail.
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" Knowledge puff eth up, but love edifieth." (I Cor. 8:1.) I have noticed in small meetings, when love is strongly developed in the Christians, they grow, though there is no gifted teacher among them.
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"And whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee." (Luke 10:35.) Spend anything you like on a child of God, and He will undertake to repay you.
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In proportion as death works in us, the divine nature is in activity, and God is love.
Love to Christ is the mainspring of holiness.
E. D.
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" Consider well him who endured so great contradiction from sinners against himself, that ye be not weary, fainting in your minds."-Heb. 12:3. (New Trans.)
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O Lord, through tribulation
Our pilgrim-journey lies,
Through scorn and sore temptation,
And watchful enemies;
Midst never-ceasing dangers
We through the desert roam,
As pilgrims here and strangers,
We seek the rest to come.
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O Lord, Thou too once hasted
This weary desert through,
Once fully tried and tasted
Its bitterness and woe.
And hence Thy heart is tender
In truest sympathy,
Though now the heavens render
All praise to Thee on high.
J. G. D.
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HAVE we that faith which so realizes Christ's presence so as to keep us as calm and composed in the rough sea as the smooth? It was not really a question of the rough or the smooth sea when Peter was sinking in the water, for he would have sunk without Christ just as much in the smooth as in the rough sea. The fact was, the eye was off Jesus and on the wave, and that made him sink. If we go on with Christ, we shall get into all kinds of difficulty, many a boisterous sea; but being one with Him, His safety is ours.
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If a storm arise, and if Christ appear asleep, and insensible to the danger—though "he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep "—as disciples we are in the same boat with Him. The Lord give us to rest on that with undivided, undistracted hearts, for Christ is in the boat, as well as the water.
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The nearer we are to God the more we want strength to walk there.
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"In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? " (Psa. 11:1.) Fear and unbelief would urge flight, as a bird, away from the scene to a place of refuge and human security. Faith looks higher—" In Jehovah put I my trust."
Footprints for Pilgrims - 460
"And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus." (Matt. 14:29.) This walk has no other foundation than, "If it be thou"; that is to say, Jesus Himself. There is no support, no possibility of walking, if Christ be lost sight of. All depends on Him.
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Now it solves every difficulty to ask—not what harm is there in doing this or that—but, why am I doing it? Is it for God or myself?
Footprints for Pilgrims - 462
God "is able to do exceeding abundantly according to the power that worketh in us." This is what we are to look for now; has your heart got hold of this?... How little faith there is in the power of God!... I never can think of a power of evil that is not below His power.
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The Christian cannot be in a difficulty that Christ is not sufficient for, nor on a long dark road where he cannot find Him enough.
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We may pass through strait and difficult places, but He is not the less faithful; only let us look to Him, and He is there, even when He seems to forsake us, in order to put faith to the proof, and to make us known to ourselves.
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There is a God above all adverse circumstances and undesirable influences. And our path for power is in letting patience have its perfect work.... Trust Him. He has power to work where we least expect it.
If we wait upon God, there is no danger. If we rush on, He must let us see the consequences of it.
J. N. D.
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" My soul thirsteth for God."-Psa. 42:2.
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Be not to me, my God,
As one that turned aside
To tarry for the night, and trod
His onward path. Abide
With me, as light divine
That brings into my breast
Those gladdening scenes e'en now, as mine—
Soon my eternal rest.
J. N. D.
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MAN seeks rest in his surroundings; God gives rest within... Why those lines of care? Oh, you know it—insubjection to God, and insubjection to His will—it is the source of all the care and unrest around us.
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The more your soul apprehends the glory of Christ's person, the more you are delivered from everything else; and so, unconsciously to yourself, you will become superior to everything here.
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"Let me now fall into the hands of the Lord; for very great are his mercies."... A weak person can tumble. Relinquish yourself into the hands of Christ; those blessed hands have been nailed to the cross; fall into them, and He will give you rest.
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Some of us have been hasty... as we learn of Him the hastiness goes back, the impetuosity retires, and we take in that which is of Himself “meekness and lowliness."
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We have got a measureless income to live upon—the grace of God.
We must remember that the presence of God is always open to us, and that in that presence is fullness of joy.... We never get on, never make headway in divine blessing unless we start from the presence of God. There, as the result of divine light shining in, you learn as you never can learn elsewhere, the truth about yourself. The first thing we learn as Christians is that there is no room for self there—for self in any form.
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There is but one place for the flesh—the only proper receptacle for the flesh is the grave of Christ.
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I have to take God's side against myself, and to refuse myself once and forever in God's presence.
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The presence of God settles everything even in every-day life.... We have cares; take them to God, and how they are changed in a moment.... You never come out of God's presence as you go in. You see things in their true character.
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We never get on in divine things unless we are content to let self go. Any way or purpose in connection with ourselves is only a barrier to divine blessing.
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It is a positive barrier to blessing to trust to experience in the past.
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Christ is made unto us wisdom.... We have to travel through this world—wisdom we need; well, I thank God we shall never lack it. CHRIST is our wisdom.... Whatever the case, there is unfailing wisdom for you in Christ at God's right hand.
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If you are not a missionary of divine blessing, there must be something between your soul and God.
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I believe it is joy to the heart of Christ when He sees us, as it were, compelled to turn to Him. He loves us so much that He is jealous of our turning elsewhere.
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When you are near Christ you cannot speak of your service. The more we are with Christ, self will retire, and Christ will take His rightful place. He has His place in heaven. Oh, that He might have it in our hearts.
E. P. C.
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" The Father himself has affection for you."-John 16:27. (New Trans.)
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Thou'st made the Father known;
Him have we seen
In Thy blest Person: infinite delight.
Yes, it suffices, though we here but glean
Some fortaste of His love—till all be light.
J. N. D.
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EVERY... believer must hold fast the precious truth that the family of God is one, and that the hearts of the children of God must never move in a narrower circle than the heart of the Father Him—self.... While joyfully remembering that all who are dear to the Father must also... be dear to us, we must at the same time not forget that the Father Himself must have the first place in our affections, and that true love for His children can only flow out when we are in obedience to His word.
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"If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." The Father could not manifest His love to a lover of the world, for there is the most absolute contrariety between the world and the Father.
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Worldliness in some shape or form finds an easy entrance amongst the children of God. We have need, therefore, to be always on the watch, and to remember that the love of the world absolutely excludes from the heart the love of the Father.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 487
The Father's will must be my only law.... The honor of God... is concerned in it, and my own happiness, and the happiness of all the children of God, is dependent on it.... All His children are so linked up together that they must be affected consciously or unconsciously by one another's conduct.
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How often care comes between our souls and Himself, and thus prevents all possible enjoyment of the Father's love.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 489
"Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." He would have us, in the intimacy of His love, to be without reserve before Him—all told out, nothing kept back. Our danger never lies in telling Him too much, but just in the opposite direction... He loves to hear the cry of His children, for He well knows that it is the expression of their confidence in Him. It may be, as it often is, a foolish cry, but still it is the cry of His own children, and He never wearies of listening to it.
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God never spares His rod if thereby He can bless His children.
But He lifts it up on high,
With pity in His heart,
That every stroke His children feel
May peace and joy impart.
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To enter into this will make an immense change in our experience. Meeting with trials and difficulties we shall instantly ask, "What has the Father to say to us through these things? " In this way we shall receive nothing but blessing through the most adverse circumstances.
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Like vines, our poor hearts send out tendrils in all directions, winding themselves around this and that object, and then it is that the Father permits trials... to come in to snap these ties to objects other than Christ, and by the discovery of Himself and His love to us in these chastenings He seeks to wean us from everything that might hinder our progress, and to attract us more fully to Himself.
E. D.
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" The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." -1 Tim. 1: 14.
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Press on! nor pause to look behind,
For that which thou hast lost to find,
Be it of earth or heaven.
Press on! and count on God for more,
For better than thou hadst before,
Bold enter at the open door,
And treble shall be given.
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WHERE has there ever been found a single blessing save in the hand of Christ? Could you wish for any save what He gives?
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Oh, do not be satisfied with ordinary Christianity, but be saying, “If nobody else is heavenly-minded, why not I? If others are not full of the Holy Ghost, why not I? "
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"Having loved his own... he loved them unto the end."... Oh, how sweet this experience of Christ's love in this cold world! When the heart is chilled, and yearning for a little warmth, how sweet to turn to the Lord Jesus and feel the warmth of His love! Ah, looking up to Him, the heart is always warmed.
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If you see any beauty in Christ, and say, "I desire to have that," God will work it in you.
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Can you spread out no wants before Christ, the Giver, the Healer? Believers grieve the Spirit by not using Christ, and then God must compel them to do it.
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I think if... could but make up his mind to leave himself as a dead man in the hands of the Lord, and look up more simply and entirely to the Lora in heaven, he would be more steadily in peace and joy, and perhaps his body less in his way. I know how the doctor thinks bad things about said body, but doctors know very little about how far the Lord may out of weakness make strong, or how He may make His strength perfect in weakness.
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To restore from beyond the grave is to Him easy; to turn back the downward course is to Him a pleasure, who is the resurrection and the life.
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I find it confessedly difficult to be sure as to His mind about simple medicinal remedies; but I am sure that those who cast all upon the Lord, and never touch any such supposed and real aids are the happiest; their conduct most in the Spirit... I dread more than I did getting under the power of things down here, in body or in mind.
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I fear... that... may be working beyond his strength of body... but that is the right side, perhaps, to err upon in these days of self-preservation and avoidance of trusting in God.
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God is able to deliver us, not only from the world and Satan practically, but from our own selves also, otherwise what and where would be His great salvation?
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Satisfied with God, rejoicing in Christ, full of the Holy Ghost, the weakest believer may be well wondered at by men of the earth... who feel an incessant craving for something they know not what.
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True, death came from the entrance of sin, but, if it should overtake me, I shall be borne upon the crest of the wave right into the presence of the Lord, one leap into the bosom of Christ.
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I can give no reason why my heart was wrapped round Christ, save that the grace of God drew me to Him, and has kept me these forty years, because He loved me, and will love me unto the end.
G. V. W.
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” How precious is thy lovingkindness, O God I" -Psa. 36:7. (New Trans.)
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Father! in Thy eternal power,
Thy grace, and majesty divine,
No soul, in this weak mortal hour,
Can grasp the glory that is Thine.
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E'en in the thoughts of sovereign grace
It leaves us far, far behind;
The love that gives with Christ a place
Surpasses our poor feeble mind.
J. N. D.
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THE prodigal afar off from his father asks to be made as one of his hired servants. When he comes into his father's presence, no such word. Before he was only thinking of what he was to his father, and not what his father was to him.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 512
(Exo. 33. and 34.) Remark here... one thing most beautiful to observe. God, after threatening to consume them (His people), had said (chap. 33:3), "I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiff-necked people." Yet Moses says in chapter 34:9: "If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people." Grace had come in in the interval, God's goodness had passed before him. This changed all; and the people being so stiffnecked, Moses says, We cannot do without God.... The moment grace is brought in... we feel that our very sinfulness is a reason why the presence of God cannot be dispensed with.
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People think it humility to doubt God's grace. It is no such thing. It is thinking your own thoughts when God has spoken.... True lowliness is to accept God's thought. We have no business to think when God has spoken; our business is to believe.
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The Lord intercedes for us without our even asking. We do not gain Him to intercede for us because of our repentance or prayers. He did not intercede for Peter when he repented, but before he sinned. He interceded for Peter because he needed it. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father."... It is the exercise of grace in His own heart towards us to restore our souls.
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(Luke 9:34.) "There came a cloud and overshadowed them."... It was the divine presence.... The fact was, coming into the cloud was coming into the presence of the Father, now a dwelling-place for us. It was thence the Father's voice was heard, "This is my beloved Son."... He brought them to the Father, the only place into which redemption brings us.... Until a man... is brought into His presence he can never know the Father's love; but when there, he can never know the end of it. It is the kind of love the prodigal never knew till he was in his father's arms.
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The heart finds itself infinitely and everlastingly a debtor to the continual fountain of all grace.
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If He uses me, it is a great honor; if He lays me by because self was elated, it is a great mercy. He is saying, as it were, Be satisfied with Myself, be content to know I love thee. Are you content with His love? The secret of all service is the due appreciation of the Master's grace.
J. N. D.
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" To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God."-Eph. 3:19.
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O Lord! Thy rich, Thy boundless love
No thought can reach, no tongue declare;
O give our hearts its depths to prove,
And reign without a rival there.
From Thee, O Lord, we all receive,
Thine, wholly Thine, alone we'd live.
GERHARDT.
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"TRULY our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." Fellowship with the Father is to be filled with His thoughts, His desires, His objects and His affections. So also with fellowship with the Son.... It is our privilege to be taken out of ourselves altogether, to be lost in the affections and aims of the Father and the Son!... Self disappears before such a blessed possibility. Shall I cling to my own thoughts and purposes when I may be occupied with those of the Father and the Son? Shall I have my own affections when I may be possessed with those that fill the heart of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ? Far be the thought! Rather let me be lost in this illimitable sea of bliss opened out before me in the marvelous grace of God.
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It is written, "All things are possible to him that believeth"; we read the words, do not doubt them, and yet we seldom think of the possibility of their being verified in our own experience.
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Circumstances may be the form of the expression of God's will for us, but the normal thing for the Christian should be the inward apprehension of the Lord's mind. "I will guide thee, having mine eye upon thee." If this is true, we have to wait until we hear His voice, and if that attitude be maintained, I am sure that we never should be confounded.
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It must ever be remembered that guidance is a matter of faith, not sight.
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The Christian ought to be the most dignified person in the world. We do not think half enough of ourselves as we are before God.
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(Gal. 6:14.) If the cross be applied to ourselves, and then to the world, you have two crucified things, and consequently there could not be the least attraction between the two. That, therefore, is the true way of overcoming the attractions of the world.
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When the heart is at leisure from itself, through being satisfied with Christ, the Holy Ghost is free to lead it out into all the circle of God's interests, whether as regards the church, His ancient people, or the world.
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An open door in service is from the Lord and not from man. We may, therefore, be independent of man altogether, and we shall be if we keep our eyes wholly upon the Lord, remembering He always sets an open door before us if we keep His word and do not deny His name. (See Rev. 3:8.)
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"As thy days, so shall thy strength be." (Deut. 33:25.) The whole force of this scripture depends upon the connection. The last words of verse 24 are, "Let him dip his foot in oil"; that is, in its christian interpretation, let him walk in the power of the Holy Ghost, and then his shoes should be as iron and brass-a firm and consistent walk, and his spiritual strength should never decay. As thy days, thy strength shall be.
E. D.
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" In thy light shall we see light."-Psalm 36: 9.
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Though trials and afflictions
May cast their shadows o'er us,
Thy love doth throw a heavenly glow
Of light on all before us.
That love has smiled from heaven,
To cheer our path of sadness;
And lead the way through earth's dark day,
To realms of joy and gladness.
H. W.
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THE next step we should take is the one Satan sets himself to hinder.
J. B. S.
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Hold on to the highest rung of the ladder-Satan or friends may give you a knock across the knuckles, but hold on. J. B. S.
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All that we pass through is that we may get a fresh view of Christ, or a deepening of a former one; but often we are so occupied with the circumstances, or ourselves in the circumstances, that we fail to learn the lesson God would teach us. C. T.
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David's inordinate tenderness only paved the way for Absalom's open rebellion. Terrible warning! Deal tenderly with evil, and it will assuredly rise to a head, and crush you in the end. On the other hand, meet evil with a face of flint, and your victory is sure. Sport not with the serpent, but at once crush it beneath your foot. Plain, unflinching decision is, after all, the safest and happiest path. It may be trying at first, but the end is peaceful. C. H. M.
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He has not suffered you to walk smoothly down the stream of life, but by large and rough billows has dashed you on the promises. V. P.
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"My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." His will and His work. There are not many considerations for the servant of Christ; there is only the will of the Father, and the work of the Father.
E. P. C.
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You say, "You make a great deal of a meeting." I say, "I cannot make enough of being in the presence of the Son of God." E. P. C.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 538
A young man in my office, going abroad, said, "I am going in for money," etc. I believe Christians ought to have something they are going in for. I am going in "to be filled with all the fullness of God." Nothing less. It is all in the heart of God that we should have this.
E. P. C.
I have often thought that the ideal way of speaking would be to be so conscious of the Lord's presence as to have no eyes for the saints who are present. Indeed, this should always be the case, and then one would only seek to commend oneself to the Lord. Alas! how seldom this is the case. And yet, even in preaching the apostle says, "As from God, and as before God, we speak in Christ." This would be the perfection of speaking. E. D.
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Simeon "blessed God." (Luke 2:28.) "And Simeon blessed them." (Ver. 34.) When you bless God you will be able to bless other people, for all service must be carried on in the spirit of worship. No service is effective that is not the overflowing of the heart. E. D.
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We are flattered into good thoughts of people, and slighted into hard ones. J. G. B.
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" He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."-John 16:14.
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Blest, Thy Spirit's touch well known,
To the heart's oft silent strings;
Wakening them to Thee alone,
While my spirit of Thee sings.
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Bright the vision He doth bring,
Of Thyself before my sight;
Fit eclipse of everything;
Every earthly joy or light.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 544
WHETHER for walk, conflict, testimony or worship, our only and all-sufficient power is in the Holy Ghost.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 545
The maintenance of constant dependence is a necessary condition of continued spiritual power.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 546
There are many of the Lord's people who have learned in a measure their weakness, but who know nothing of the source of power as provided in the Holy Spirit; there are others who believe in the provision, but who have scarcely any skill in drawing upon it for use; there are others again who act even in the Christian life as if everything depended upon themselves.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 547
It must not be forgotten that power does not act independently of our spiritual condition. The Holy Spirit dwells within, so that our bodies are His temples. If we are careless, unwatchful, if we seek our pleasure in the world, rather than in Christ, let us not for one moment suppose that He will condescend to use us as vessels of His power... But, on the other hand, if the eye be single, and a single eye sees nothing but Christ, if He is the object of our lives, the Holy Spirit then ungrieved will sustain us in every position in which we are placed, and bring us victoriously out of the very conflict through which we may pass.
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Let us not rest until we know practically something of being channels for the manifestation of divine power even in this world.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 549
"If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." We cannot be children of God without suffering with Christ. But the measure of our suffering with Him will entirely depend upon the degree in which we are under the governance and power of the Holy Ghost. A child of God who is walking faithfully before God with an ungrieved Spirit will thus suffer with Christ more than one who is walking carelessly.... But it should never be forgotten that the suffering as well as the glory is with Christ. This blessed companionship is never wanting.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 550
(I John 2:27.) John teaches the "babes" that since they have been anointed by the Holy Ghost, they are themselves at the source of all knowledge... that in having the anointing they have the possibility... of distinguishing between truth and error. In divine things it is well to bear in mind that the Holy Ghost is the only power of apprehension. The mind, human reason and intellect have no place here.
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Ah, what could lead us astray if the anointing of the Holy Ghost were in mighty operation in our souls!
There can be no likeness to Christ except as the result of the work of the Holy Spirit.
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Nothing can please God, and nothing can please us which has not been wrought out by His Spirit for the glory of Christ. E. D.
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" Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."-John 17:17.
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By Thy truth and Spirit guiding,
Earnest He of what's to come,
And with daily strength providing,
Thou dost lead Thy children home.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 555
THE simple child of God receives the word as certainly as Christ gives it. Reliance on God's word is the only sure ground. How can you be certain God has said it. If God's speaking requires proof, I must have something more sure and true than God.... If God cannot speak so as to claim authority, without another to accredit what He says, there is no such thing as faith.
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If we wait on God, erroneous doctrines become inlets to clearer truth.
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To a spiritually intelligent mind, the word of God carries an authority beyond all cavils.
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The more you nourish your own soul by feeding on the word of God the more likely is He to use you.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 559
The sight of the eyes is constantly tending to dim the estimate which faith forms; and if faith is not nourished by the word, it sinks down and fades away. If I am not feeding on the word, faith is not fed, for it cannot be fed by sight of things all around.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 560
The only thing that endures forever is "the word of the Lord." The wisdom of this world is against it—human reasoning is against it; but it is the only thing worth waiting upon diligently; and if Christians reason about the things of God instead of appealing to the word, they are sure to be going down.
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When the Spirit of God brings home the truth with power, there is no uncertainty about it.
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"Take heed how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given." If on hearing, I possess that which I hear... then it becomes a part of the substance of my soul, and I shall get more, for when the truth has biome a substance in my soul, there is a capacity for receiving more.
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If the truth is held in communion with God, it separates to Himself. Truth is to produce fruit, and you have no truth that does not bear fruit.... Christ becomes precious in and by the truth that I learn; and if it has not that power, it all drops out, comes to nothing, and is taken away.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 564
The nearer we are to God, the more precious is all the truth of God, and everything which is near to His heart.
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All error is mischievous, for we are sanctified by the truth.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 566
Infidelity may do to amuse and deceive the mind while the spring of life flows, but when it begins to ebb, and more when it dries up, what can it do or say?
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The truth of God is ever more precious; it strengthens and nourishes the soul, for it abides forever, and because it reveals Jesus, and attaches us to Him, the source and power of all good.
J. N. D.
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" The fullness of the blessing of Christ."- Rom. 15:29. (New Trans.)
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Ye desolate children of sorrow!
As fleet as the bloom of May,
Your dreams of a brighter morrow,
Your hopes have they passed away?
The chill breath of time, does it wither
The boughs where ye build your nest?
Ah, come then, ye mourners, come hither,
I'll tell you of endless rest.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 570
I'll tell you of Him who path spoken
Sweet peace to my weary heart,
And heard it, though wither'd and broken,
With love's all-availing art.
It was He, 'twas the Lord of glory,
Who died on the cursed tree,
On Calvary, stricken and gory,
A suffering Lamb for me.
SIR E. DENNY.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 571
BEING alone with Jesus is the sinner's first position, it is the beginning of his joy, and no one has a right to meddle with it.... Sin casts us upon God alone.... We must not surrender to any the right of God to talk with us alone about our sins.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 572
"And they remembered his words." (Luke 24:8.) How much mischief do we get into by not remembering God's words! When the Lord Jesus was tempted He had the word of God at hand, and by that simple word He could claim the victory in the battle.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 573
"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.".. How entirely has Christendom refused to learn this lesson of "the little child"! She has consented to forget that it was a poor despised Galilean, a carpenter's Son, that suffered the death of the cross.... He did not go to Calvary from kings' courts, or amid the acclamations of the world; but He was the rejected One... "a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people."... Christendom... may boast of Calvary and of the Lamb of God in a certain way, but it has entirely lost sight of Nazareth and of the carpenter's Son. It links the palace with the cross, greatness in the world, wealth and ease with the confession of Jesus and of the gospel.
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Nothing perhaps has been a more common source of... falling out by the way than the holding of favorite religious opinions, or the undue, disproportioned estimation of certain doctrines or points of truth.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 575
If we were only happy in Him, we should work much better for Him. It is joy in Christ that gains victory over the world. Why are we in subjection to the world? Just because we have not found in Christ all the joy we ought to find.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 576
He was a divine visitor to this world, a heavenly stranger among men.... He had not where to lay His head while He was visiting their necessities with all the resources of God. This is the ideal of a saint of God-to be independent of all this world can give, while with open heart and lavish hand bestowing upon it all the benefits and blessings of God.
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It is one thing to be the advocate of Christianity, and another to be the disciple of it. And though it may sound strange at first, far easier is it to teach its lessons than to learn them.
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Worldliness and selfishness have no power to breathe the atmosphere of the kingdom of God.
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Are our hearts upon such enjoyments as God can sanction and Jesus share with us?
Footprints for Pilgrims - 580
We need not so much to covet information about Him as power to use divinely what we know.
J. G. B.
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" Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."-James 4:10.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 582
Low at Thy feet, Lord Jesus,
This is the place for me,
Here I have learned deep lessons-
Truth that has set me free.
Free from myself, Lord Jesus,
Free from the ways of men;
Chains of thought that have bound me.
Never shall bind again.
None but Thyself, Lord Jesus,
Conquered this wayward will;
But for Thy love constraining,
I had been wayward still.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 583
God demands a complete submission to His revealed will. He demands that the world should submit to Jesus: all those who will not shall be forced to do so when judgment comes, and then to their own confusion and endless sorrow. God presents His Son in humiliation in order to save the world, but without submission to Jesus all is useless, because this is what God requires and values.... God will have a surrender of the heart to Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 584
(Matt. 11:20-30.) In the midst of a world of evil Jesus remained the sole revealer of the Father, the source of all good.... He calls all those who are weary and heavily laden.... If it was the sense of sin which burdened them, so much the better. Every way the world no longer satisfied their hearts-they were miserable, and therefore the objects of the heart of Jesus.... The love of the Father... which in the Person of the Son sought out the wretched, would bestow rest... on every one that came to Jesus. It was the perfect revelation of the Father's name to the heart that needed it; and that by the Son; peace, peace with God. They had but to come to Christ: He undertook all and gave rest. But there is a second element in rest. There is more than peace through the knowledge of the Father in Jesus. And more than that is needed; for even when the soul is perfectly at peace with God, this world presents many causes of trouble to the heart. In these cases it is a question of self-will. Christ, in the consciousness of His rejection, in the deep sorrow caused by the unbelief of the cities in which He had wrought so many miracles, had just manifested the most entire submission to His Father, and had found therein perfect rest to His soul. To this He calls all that heard Him, all that felt the need of rest to their own souls. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me," that is to say, the yoke of entire submission to His Father's will, learning of Him how to meet the trials of life; for He was "meek and lowly in heart," content to be in the lowest place at the will of His God. In fact nothing can overthrow one who is there. It is the place of perfect rest to the heart.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 585
We never get God's fullest blessings till we are where the flesh is brought down and destroyed.... We cannot get into the simple joy and power of God till we accept the place of lowliness and humiliation—till the heart is emptied of what is contrary to the lowliness of Christ.
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The Christian is humble... because he has given up seeking good in himself, to adore the One in whom there is nothing else.
J. N. D.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 587
" The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether... Moreover by them is thy servant warned."-Psa. 19:9, 11.
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Savior! may we never cherish
That which nailed Thee to the cross,
All of earth, oh, let it perish,
Be it counted worse than loss.
Let no siren's song seducing,
Turn us from our joys divine,
Idols in the heart producing,
Hearts which would be wholly Thine.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 589
"Do all things without murmurings and disputings." We murmur at a thousand things in our lot, just as the Israelites did in the wilderness, and thereby question the care, the love and the wisdom of Him who orders all our path, and lose the blessed sense of His presence with us.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 590
When people become slaves to a fad they soon become tyrants.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 591
When knowledge enters the head it exalts me. When knowledge enters the heart it humbles me.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 592
Nothing has so corrupted Christianity as the acceptance of worldly help for the furtherance of its objects.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 593
May we never bridge over the chasm between the world and us, and we shall never seek to do so if we can adopt the language of the apostle, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world."
Footprints for Pilgrims - 594
All error has a particle of truth in it, and that is why it is so dangerous.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 595
"Wisdom and might are his." (Dan. 2:20.) A simple utterance, but how profound! For if wisdom and might are God's, they are nowhere else to be found, and it is in vain to turn for them to any but God.
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Philanthropy has man for its object, religion has God for its object.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 597
Wherever there is a claim to great spirituality there is a danger.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 598
A meeting ought to close when it is over. The Lord often leaves a meeting long before the people do.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 599
If you make health an object, you never get it.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 600
Nothing so injures the soul as controversy.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 601
In this day of grace God would have all men to be saved, and hence we have to beseech (2 Cor. 5:20)—not denounce—all men. You cannot feed souls with denunciations—even though the things denounced are errors.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 602
Even a German poet said, "Refute error by the statement of the truth," so the presentation of Christ will expose evil and build up the hearers.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 603
How easily we stray whenever we get on the line of expediency. The Lord must have the first place, or we shall soon drift on the rocks.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 604
Two lessons we need to learn—first to be brought to an end of ourselves and also to be brought to the end of man, and we then expect nothing from self, and nothing from man.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 605
If our hearts are set on one single thing on which the heart of God is not set, in so far we are out of communion.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 606
There are only two channels of testimony—the lip and the life, and the lip should be but the expression of what has been first produced in the life. What we should all desire is intense reality, to be possessed and controlled by the truth we profess to hold, and thus to shun the use of phrases and sentences which we have never eaten, digested and found true in our souls.
E. D.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 607
" He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away."-Luke 1:53.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 608
And hungry souls there are, that find and eat
God's manna day by day,
And glad they are, their life is fresh and sweet,
For as their food are they.
C. T. S.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 609
OUR unceasing cry to God should be for power, power, power, spiritual power—without this all is thorough vanity.
C. H. M.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 610
We must either be gathering with Christ or scattering abroad. If we are not engaged for Christ, we are engaged against Him—to do nothing for Christ is to do something for Satan.
C. H. M.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 611
Faith must pass through the furnace—it will not do to say that we trust in the Lord, we must prove that we do, and that too when everything is against us.
C. H. M.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 612
Let us... in all our difficulties, honor the Lord by bringing Him into them.... His power can reach the greatest. His love will stoop to the smallest. C. H. M.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 613
Let but faith address the mercy-seat, and the most astounding results will follow. "If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it."... Oh! we have but little idea of what our God would do for us did we only honor
Him. C. H. M.
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If you do not preach the coming of the Lord you only preach a half gospel. E. D.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 615
"Apply thine heart unto my knowledge. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips." (Prov. 22:17, 18.) The Spirit will never bring a scripture to our lips for use unless we have first possessed it in our hearts.
E. D.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 616
Nothing justifies us in hardness of spirit. We have to be faithful to God and tender to the one who erred.
E. D.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 617
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." God will never be a debtor to any one, only let us throw our whole souls into His work, and the end will declare how far we have acted upon sound principles.
C. H. M.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 618
The charm of sin is gone the moment it is perpetrated. J. G. B.
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(Luke 11:5-9.) Christ speaks of a man going to a friend at midnight, and asking for three loaves, "And he from within shall answer," etc.; these are pregnant words, are you within? It is a dangerous condition in this world. What I mean by that is, losing your sympathies with the joy and sorrows around you. J. G. B.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 620
The soul that gives up God must find out other masters and other resources.
J. G. B.
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The mind of a saint is full of light. It is the "mind of Christ." (1 Cor. 2.)... Even angelic nature is all life. Torpidity and dullness do not belong to it. "Winds" and "flames of fire" express that nature: and such things act constantly and fervently. And in like virtue, the mind of Christ, the divine nature in the saint, is full of
affection and intelligence. J. G. B.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 622
" Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."-Matt. 12:47, 49, 50.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 623
The circle of Thine own
My heart must hold most dear,
The dwelling of the HOLY ONE,
Who represents Thee here.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 624
But oh! when this is past,
" Far better " lies beyond
With Thee, who mad'st that circle loved,
Who art Thyself its bond.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 625
WHENEVER there is a work of grace in souls they are drawn together in the bonds of divine love.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 626
How many of us fail to adjust the claims of God and of His people with family ties! To be without natural affection is a given sign of the last and perilous times; but if it become absorbing, or if it be elevated beyond love to the brethren, and assume the supreme and governing motive of our lives, we could not be in the spirit of... our blessed Lord.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 627
Spiritual ties, if sometimes slighted, are never sundered.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 628
I feel increasingly that the bond which knits our hearts together is indestructible because it is Christ. Human affection is beautiful in its place, and the heart gets at times very hungry for it, but Christ alone can satisfy.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 629
Domestic happiness is sometimes a great barrier to waiting for the Lord. It may come between the soul and Christ, and thus the Lord strips some of us, and we wait, and are solitary while waiting, because He cannot trust us with too much affection in this world. He loves us so much that He is jealous over us, and wants us for Himself.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 630
It is exceedingly dangerous to listen to the advice of a relative in the things of God.... Relatives look through the medium of their claims, or their natural affection, and hence the eye not being single cannot judge aright in the presence of God.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 631
I have long since learned (from Matthew 12:46-50) that spiritual ties are closer than the closest of natural ties, and that the state of the church to-day has largely resulted from the failure to recognize this truth.
"Love is of God." Does a saint love you, divinely love you? Trace it back to the heart of God.
Of necessity those who are closest to Christ will be themselves drawn closer together.
It is only where divine affections for the people of God exist in the heart, as so markedly exemplified in Moses and in Paul, as well as in Daniel and Ezra, that there can be power in intercession on their behalf. And may it not be suggested that the urgent need of to-day is that of intercessors? holy men and women who, divinely taught and filled with the Spirit, shall be enabled, like Epaphras, to labor fervently for the saints in prayer.
"The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul." The root of all discords in the church of God is the lack of the Spirit's power; where He works unhinderedly in any company of saints, because ungrieved, there must be unity.... The lack of enjoyed unity in any company is due to the absence of the power of the Holy Spirit.
E. D.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 632
" The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary."-Isaiah 1.4.
" A word spoken in due season, how good is it!”—Proverbs 15:23.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 633
Lord, speak to me, that I may speak
In living echoes of Thy tone;
As Thou hast sought, so let me seek
Thy erring children lost and lone.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 634
IF God had passed over the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden, I should have been able to say, Sin is no matter, but when I look at the cross I cannot.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 635
Take out expiation and scripture becomes impossible to understand; introduce it, and all is plain.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 636
If we who believe on Him were not justified and made like Him, He would not see of the fruit and travail of His soul.... A Redeemer without the redeemed would have lost the reward of His work and sufferings. We form part of the glory of Christ, and it is a deep source of joy to our souls that we by our likeness to Him in eternity shall be the proof of the value of the work of Christ.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 637
The Lord is coming... the time for the world is passing away.... May God find us watching, and thinking only of one thing—of Him about whom God thinks—Jesus, our precious Savior.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 638
To judge oneself is often necessary and useful, but if that produces distrust, it is evil; the spirit of legalism is there; the heart of God is judged according to what we find in our own—a sad way, if we desire to know Him.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 639
Be assured that God knows how to manage His own affairs. He has shown it.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 640
The Lord Jesus was in this world "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." A world of sin in contrast with His holiness, a world of sorrow and suffering in contrast with His love could not but be for His heart a source of sorrow and pain.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 641
No extent of knowledge, even where given of God, is in itself spiritual power in our souls.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 642
True worship... is the honor and adoration which are rendered to God by reason of what He is in Himself and what He is for those who render it.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 643
God must be worshipped in "spirit and in truth," for He is a Spirit; but it is as "the Father" that He "seeketh such to worship him."... Love seeks worshippers, but it seeks them under the gentle name of Father.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 644
I do not believe that hurry in acting is the way of God.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 645
Christ as man was born of the Holy Ghost: His life was the expression of the Holy Spirit. He cast out devils by the Holy Ghost. His words were spirit and life.... By the Holy Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God.... Finally, the power of the Holy Spirit was shown in the greatest and most perfect way in the Lord's resurrection. Being put to death in the flesh, He was quickened by the Spirit.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 646
"Rejoice in the Lord alway" and "Be careful for nothing." What sweeping words, leaving us without excuse for not being happy! For "nothing" takes in everything, and "always" leaves no time out, only it must be "in the Lord."
Footprints for Pilgrims - 647
His faithfulness to His church and people who trust in Him is infallible, and He cannot but help you in all for which you look to Him. J. N. D.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 648
" His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord." -Psalm 112: 7.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 649
In heavenly Love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear,
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 650
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid,
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?
A. WARING.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 651
WHATEVER throws you upon God is an immense gain to the soul.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 652
It is well for us all when we are grounded upon what has been termed the impregnable rock of scripture. Resting on this foundation opinions may come and opinions may go, but they will never be able to disturb the divine certainty of the soul that is able to say, "Thus it is written."
Footprints for Pilgrims - 653
We may always trust the tenderness of the Lord, and fail as we may we may trust Him.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 654
The Spirit brought home to me the other morning an old scripture with great power. It was only this: "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." ( John 11.) In this very chapter Martha does nothing save to blunder, and exhibit her blindness to the glory of the Person of her Lord, and yet the chapter is prefaced by the statement that Jesus loved her. It touched me deeply as I saw a little of the significance of the statement, and it taught me that the Lord's love to us rises above all our failures, and that, therefore, we may count upon it and rest in it at all times.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 655
Without the present operation of faith there can be no display of power through the servant of God, whatever zeal or earnestness, whereas if there be but the smallest degree of faith in exercise, divine power is so brought in that obstacles as large as mountains are removed.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 656
His way is ever perfect, and it only needs that, with the knowledge of His love, we should repose in Him with unshaken confidence in all circumstances.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 657
It is ever a fatal mistake when we measure the difficulties of service by what we are. The question is what God is; and the difficulties that appear as mountains, looming through the mists of our unbelief, are nothing to Him but the occasion for the display of His omnipotent power.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 658
Faith deals with things not seen, and hence seldom agrees with the conclusions that are drawn from providential events and circumstances.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 659
It is comparatively easy... to engage in the service of God when He intervenes in power to sustain His servants and to secure results, but it is only the man of faith who can labor on amid discouragements of every kind, who can trust to a power not seen to uphold and prosper, and is assured that the Spirit, who is invisible in His working to the natural eye, is even more mighty than manifested power. There are many Elijahs indeed who prefer the strong winds and the earthquakes to the all-efficacious still small voice of the Spirit of God.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 660
There is nothing so destructive of confidence in God as a questioning mind.
E. D.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 661
" Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."-Ephesians 6:16.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 662
Myself I cannot save, Myself I cannot keep;
But strength in Thee I surely have
Whose eyelids never sleep.
(EPH. 4:26, 27.) "Be ye angry, and sin not." Righteous anger is communion with God in His indignation against evil (see Mark 3:5), but even if anger produced in us by the Holy Ghost be nursed, it will soon pass into a natural feeling, and thus we are told, "Let not the sun go down upon thy wrath." And then the injunction follows, "Neither give place to the devil." To cherish a feeling against any one is to give place to the devil.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 663
The moment we enter upon the enjoyment of any blessing Satan will seek to rob us of it.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 664
An unsatisfied heart is a source of danger, and a divided heart is the continual cause of inconsistency of walk. On the other hand, when Christ possesses and engrosses the affections we are superior to every temptation of the enemy.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 665
We never enter upon any service rightly unless we expect to encounter the opposition of Satan.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 666
The preacher has to learn that liberty is not power. The temptation is to rest satisfied in speaking with ease and freedom. Whenever this is the case it is Satan's opportunity, and thus we ought to be on our guard.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 667
There is nothing like boldness in the face of the adversary— "Resist the devil and he will flee from you."
Footprints for Pilgrims - 668
Satan cannot touch the obedient believer. As long as he is kept in dependence and obedience all Satan's assaults are foiled.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 669
It is easier to keep the enemy out than it is to expel him after he has effected an entrance.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 670
There is not a single operation of the Spirit of God, nor a single form of His working, but Satan does not imitate.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 671
The Spirit and the word of God are sufficient to preserve us from the most dangerous simulations of the truth that Satan may present to our souls.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 672
We may rest confidently, whatever the present seeming success of the evil one, for "the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly."
Footprints for Pilgrims - 673
Satan is never so completely defeated as in his apparent victories.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 674
We do not sufficiently reckon on the activity of the foe, and occupied with his instruments we often overlook the hand by which they are wielded.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 675
Happy is he... who has learned to look beyond the actions of men to the power that controls them all, and to receive all, favor or persecution, aids or hindrances, from the Lord. That soul has acquired the secret of perfect peace amid the confusion and turmoil of the world, as well as in the presence of Satan's power.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 676
If believers settle down in the world, mind earthly things " (Rev. 3:10)—using this phrase in its moral sense—Satan will let them alone; but the moment wrought upon by the Spirit of God... they go forth in living testimony, the adversary will seek to turn them aside by any art or device which is likely to accomplish his purpose.
E. D.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 677
" Mary... sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word."-Luke 10:39.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 678
" Lord, teach us to pray."-Luke 11:1.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 679
God and Father, we Thy children
Would in meekness hear Thy word;
Undistracted, hearts responsive,
As Thy Spirit strikes the chord.
All Thy mind we would be learning,
As the desert path we trace;
Thine we are, and would be leaning,
Ever on Thy boundless grace.
GUSTAFFSON.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 680
The principle of all-prevailing intercession lies in the soul entering into the thoughts of God and turning them into prayer.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 681
"Pray for them which despitefully use you." (Luke 6:28.) If a brother treats you coldly, if a sister speaks against you, do you make it your habit to pray for them? Oh, how different we would be, if we thus bare one another up before the Lord.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 682
Luther said, "To pray well is to study well," and we may add, to preach well.
All that is outside of the Bible, all that presumes to come into competition with it and challenges the ears of men, is but a sea, an unformed mass, of opinions and reasonings. How welcome therefore to the soul, wearied in its quest after some stable foundation on which to rest in view of death and eternity, is the immutable basis laid for faith in the infallible scriptures.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 683
If we would be preserved from the snares of mysticism and imagination the word of God must be the basis of our contemplations.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 684
Resting on the word... we are on a sure rock, against which all the waves of error dash themselves only to be scattered as mist and foam.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 685
The unchanging God imparts His own character to His own truth, and it thus abides through all times as changeless in its perfections as He whose word it is.
Footprints for Pilgrims - 686
(Ezek. 3., Rev. 10.) Both Ezekiel and John were commanded to eat the book which contained the subjects of their future testimonies... By eating we understand that the word was to be appropriated. These prophets were to make the messages they were commissioned to deliver their own.... Even eating, or appropriating, is not sufficient: there is also the digesting of what we have appropriated.... Most of us know from our own experience that the process of digesting the truth we have really received is often a slow operation; and also that the truth is never effective in us, or through us, until it has been digested. There is a great distinction therefore between... Ezekiel having the roll in his mouth, and enjoying its sweetness, and eating it with his belly and filling his bowels with it....
Footprints for Pilgrims - 687
In the case of John that which was sweet in his mouth was bitter in his belly. This should be easily understood by every spiritual believer. The opening out of some new truth to the soul, the perception of its character and beauty, is ever a delightful experience, but when it is accepted in the power of the Spirit it gradually brings death in upon all that we are, and then it becomes "bitter" as it discovers to us the real nature of many things which we had hitherto cherished, and, in separating us from them, produces in us a growing conformity to Christ.
E. D.
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