Young Christian: Volume 26, 1936

“I’ll go to the theater and enjoy myself in spite of you both. Why should a young fellow be cribbed and hindered from having a night’s fun by two girls?”

These words were spoken in a petulant tone, so unusual in that quiet home, that no sooner had Harry closed the door, leaving his two sisters alone, than they burst into tears. It was the first jarring note that had marred the harmony of the trio, who since the aged and godly mother’s death, had lived happily together in the old home.

The two sisters were happy, earnest Christians, never ashamed to let their light shine, or to tell of the Saviour whom they loved, to others. The younger was a delicate girl, not able to be much about, but she gathered a class of little girls on the Sunday afternoons, and had much joy in telling them the way of life through Jesus.

Harry, their brother, was studying medicine, but came out to their country home at the weekends, to spend the Sunday with his sisters. He “professed” conversion when quite a boy, and during his mother’s lifetime maintained his profession, outwardly at least; indeed, he could scarce do otherwise, for under her ever-watchful eye, he could not go far astray. But now that the prop upon which he had leaned was gone, and new companions had been found in the city, it was becoming painfully evident to his godly sisters that he was either becoming a “backslider,” or that he had never been really “born again.”

His determination to go to the theater that evening, soon after his return from the city, expressing the bitter words I have quoted, after being affectionately besought not to expose himself to the temptations of such a place, finally convinced the girls that Harry was not the Lord’s, that he had never been truly converted—turned to God—else it were impossible he could find satisfaction or enjoyment in the company of such as frequent the playhouse, no matter what religious, worldlings and unconverted preachers say in its favor.

“Let us join in prayer that God may arrest him, Lizzie dear,” said the elder sister. “He is able to do this, and He has said if two of His own agree to ask Him, that He will.”

An earnest, tearful prayer was wafted from that lone room to the eternal throne, and entered the open ear of God the Almighty. Miracles, such as were performed in the early days, exist no more; but the “arm of the Lord is not shortened,” in answer to prayer it is yet made bare.

At the very moment the sisters were praying, Harry was arrested as if by an unseen hand on the street. He cannot describe what he felt, but the words rang in his ear, “Prepare to meet thy God!” as they fell from the lips of a street preacher, and although the speaker may never know it here, they were God’s message to arrest the wanderer and bring him to himself. For a full hour, he wandered to and fro in the dark night, in great mental agony. The twinkling stars above his head reminded him that he had a mother in heaven, and that to her he had promised in his boyhood, that he would never cross the threshold of a theater. Now he was on the way to break that promise, and in all probability to plunge into the vortex of utter ungodliness, for once the restraints of home and godly upbringing are cast aside, it often happens, that such a one sinks deeper into the slough of sin than any other.

Wandering to and fro, uncertain what to do or where to go, ashamed to return to his sisters and confess his faults, goaded by the devil to make the final plunge, yet restrained by an awakened conscience, by the remembrance of his godly mother’s counsels and warnings, by the hand of God put forth in answer to his sisters’ prayers, he wandered into a quiet street and there—not by “chance,” as men would say, but by the appointment of that God who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will—he stood in front of a brightly-lit hall, at the door of which a number of young men were standing, singing the hymn, “Jesus is mighty to save.”

One of the circle seeing a stranger, evidently not “on business bent,” went up to him, and asked if he would come in and spend an hour at their Gospel Meeting, which was to be addressed that evening by a band of converted students.

Harry needed no second invitation: he entered and sat down. To his surprise, a few of the speakers were his own classmates, and as one after another told simply but definitely how he had been awakened, convicted and converted, Harry was fully convinced that his former “profession” had been a sham, and that he had never been truly converted at all. I do not know all that God spoke to him during that meeting, but at the close, he had a long, close, personal talk with two of the students, to whom he opened his mind, expressed his difficulties, and was pointed to a personal and present Savior.

“If you missed the mark before, and did not have Christ, you need not fear to trust Him now. He is able and willing to save. And you will know that you have not a profession, but a possession of eternal life, the moment you cast yourself upon Him.”

Harry did surrender himself as a sinner to the Saviour, and He—as He ever does—received him. He ran without stopping till he reached his home, and opening the door, he hurried to the parlor. He burst into tears, locking his sisters in his arms, with the joyful confession,

“I’m saved now, thank God.”

There was great joy and many thanksgivings, as he told the story of how the Lord met him, and in answer to their cry, arrested and brought him to Himself, in whose service through grace he still remains; telling with his lips, and showing by his life, the virtue of Jesus who is “Mighty to Save.”

There is a vast difference between an empty profession which has to be “kept up” and is always liable to be lost, and a genuine conversion which is the work of the Spirit of God, and is actually and manifestly wrought in all who as lost sinners personally receive Jesus Christ as their only Savior and Lord.

“Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37).

Dear Christians, do not lose heart in asking God to save your dear ones.

“This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, we know that we have the petition that we desired of Him.” (1 John 5:14, 15).

Never Perish

“Never perish!” words of mercy,

Coming from the lips of One

Who, though here a homeless stranger,

Fills the high eternal throne:

Brightness of the Father’s glory,

God and man in One combined;

Faithful Shepherd of the chosen,

Safe are those to Him assigned.

“Never perish!” words of sweetness,

Dissipating every fear;

Filling all with joy and gladness,

Who the Shepherd’s voice can hear;

Bringing richest consolation

To the soul fatigued, oppressed;

Sweet refreshment to the fainting,

And to weary spirits rest.

“Never perish!” words of power;

Satan now I can defy;

Safe my soul beyond my keeping,

Hid with Christ in God on high.

Come what will, I’m safe forever—

‘Tis the promise of my God;

Written in His Word unfailing,

Sealed with Jesus’ precious blood.

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Fifth Beatitude, Part 2

Matthew 5:1-16

Part 8

The Fifth Beatitude

Mercy and Grace

“Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy.” Verse 7.

Having thus spoken of mercy in a general way, we shall now notice more particularly its true character, and how it is to be manifested by all who have found mercy of the Lord.

In what way, we may inquire, does mercy differ from grace? Clearly they are not the the same thing, though they may come very near to each other. They are carefully distinguished in Scripture, and we will best learn their meaning by the use made of them there.

Both words, we find, are prominent in the character of God, as proclaimed to Moses,

“The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious.” (Ex. 34:6). He is merciful to forgive, and gracious to help in every time of need. The distinction is also maintained in the most marked way by the apostolic writers.

When addressing the church, they wish “grace and peace;” but when writing to individual Christians, they say, “Grace, mercy, and peace.” The reason of this significant change not only marks the essential difference of the two words, but it reveals the peculiar position of the church. It is viewed as raised up in Christ, and in the same place of privilege, blessing, and acceptance as Himself. Hence the word “mercy” is never introduced when she is addressed in this relationship.

The blessed Lord Jesus, though in this world as the lowly Son of Man, never was, and never could be, the object of divine mercy; but “grace was poured into His lips,” and the richest gifts of heaven surrounded the path of the perfect one. The church is now seen as one with Him.

“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.” (1 Cor. 12:12).

The last clause of this verse is a truly remarkable one— “so also is Christ.” It shows the perfect oneness of Christ and the church. But for this unity, the apostle must have said, “so also is the church.” He is speaking about the church, not Christ: why then say, in apparent violation of the ordinary rules of language, “so also is Christ”? Because the whole body, Head and members, are here viewed as “one body,” and in the same place of privilege and blessing. Surely this should be rest, eternal, perfect rest, for the heart; and also the complete settlement of every question as to the heavenly character and relationships of the church. The Lord grant it. But to return.

On the other hand, individual Christians are looked at as men in the body, and as encompassed with infirmities, passing through conflicts, and constantly needing mercy—and grace too, of course. Hence the apostle says to Timothy and Titus, “Grace, mercy, and peace:” and in writing to the Hebrews, he says,

“Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:16).

The term grace evidently conveys the idea of free gift, favor; without obligation on God’s part, without claim on ours: or without raising the question of the condition of the one so favored; it may be called the indulgence of love. (See John 3:16; 2 Cor. 8:9, where we have grace in its divine fullness). But mercy always marks the receiver as a wrong-doer.

To be “merciful” is to be ready to overlook or forgive a wrong, at the same time conscious that he to whom mercy is shown, deserves a contrary kind of treatment. It answers to what is called among men a tender, forgiving disposition; only it is to be exercised by believers on the higher ground of having obtained mercy of the Lord themselves, and looking forward to obtain it more fully, they are “merciful” to their fellow men.

But thou mayest yet inquire, my soul, what is the promised reward here assured to the merciful? “They shall obtain mercy.” We cannot need mercy in heaven. Surely not. Nevertheless, the promise is future, whether strictly applied to the Jew, or morally to the Christian.

Onesiphorus was no doubt a Christian, and Paul prayed for him, “that he might find mercy of the Lord in that day” —the time of future rewards. So filled with gratitude was the heart of the Apostle for the special kindness of Onesiphorus, when he risked his own life in finding him out, and in ministering to him in prison, that lie prayed for a reward that would be the reflection of, and that would commemorate forever, that noble service of love. Every service of love, from a cup of cold water and upwards, shall not only be rewarded in that day, but the reward will characterize the service, and thus be held in everlasting remembrance.

The small as well as the great will be remembered on that blessed day. What grace! What a day that will be! May we think of it now in all our service for Him!

But thou mayest say with many, What can I do? If I am only there myself, I shall not think of a reward. Stay, my soul, see that thou venture not on the wrong ground here. Many may speak thus as an excuse for spiritual indolence and worldliness. What is the teaching of the Lord in these Beatitudes? Surely that the vital principle of each feature here pronounced “blessed,” is in every soul that is born of God, though they are not alike prominent in all. We see poverty of spirit in one, and great activity in another. But those who mourn shall be comforted; the meek shall inherit the earth; the merciful shall obtain mercy.

May the Lord lead thee, and all who read this paper, to abound more and more in this heavenly, this God-like, grace of mercy. In the exercise of mercy towards others, thou shalt taste afresh the sweetness of God’s mercy to thine own soul. A gracious eye, a tender heart, an open hand, carry with them their divine reward.

Who abhors not the character of the steward who was forgiven ten thousand talents by his master, but would not forgive his fellow-servant a hundred pence? On the other hand, who admires not the mercy which shines in the good Samaritan, who did the neighbor’s part? This is the mercy of the gospel, seek especially to shine here—in the mercy that would seek to save the lost sinner—but forget not the mercy that shines in words, looks, and deeds. Mercy is the great need of mankind—sinners need it, saints need it, all need it. God in Christ Jesus is its source. May we be the channels of its many streams, both to the bodies and to the souls of men.

(To be continued)

Our "Light Affliction”

During the reign of one of the tyrant Roman emperors, a youth of noble birth was ruthlessly consigned to the dungeon. For years the heavy iron chains of a felon bound his ankles and his wrists, as day by day he lay in the dark and loathsome prison at the emperor’s pleasure.

Suffering not for crime, but for speaking the truth, and for faithfully exposing the sins and cruelties of those in high places in the world. Now the once bright countenance is worn, and the locks are gray with suffering. But the righteous will not always suffer thus. The day must come when the sufferer for righteousness’ sake will be rewarded.

The cruel emperor dies, and his successor sits on the imperial throne. Hardly had he been raised to wear the purple and the tiara, than he sends to the dungeon to have the prisoners released. Worn and weak with suffering, in his heavy chains, the prisoner is placed before the throne. His fetters are struck off, he is clothed with purple, and instead of his narrow cell and gloomy prison, he is raised to royal rank and honor. A pair of scales are brought forth, and the iron chains that he has worn are heaped on one after another, and carefully put in the balance. At the emperors word, gold is piled on the other scale, and for every pound of iron that he has worn in the dungeon, he now receives a pound of gold in return. Think you that he wishes now his fetters had been lighter? And so shall it be with all who suffer for Christ and His truth down here.

“If we suffer, we shall also reign.” (2 Tim. 2:12).

Every pang and abuse that is borne for righteousness’ sake, will have its return in the day when the Lord shall reward His servants. Our “light affliction” here shall have in return “an eternal weight of glory” there.

When “the righteous Judge” brings forth the just balance of heaven, and gives every man according as his work shall be,

“O, how will recompense His smile,

The sufferings of this little while.”

Dear young believer, are you a sufferer for Jesus’ sake? Do you bear from day to day the scowl and scorn of a world that crucified your Lord? Think it not strange. It in only what He promised. But it will not be always so. The last day of reproach, contempt, and scorn draws near. Then the honor and the crown. Cheer up! yours is a sure reward.

“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold which perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet. 1:7).

We Are His

“Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Cor. 6:20).

Paul describes us as slaves of Christ. Not only does our property belong to Him; we ourselves belong to Him. We are His, without qualification and without reserve. Our bodies belong to Him, with the muscles which we use in physical labor; and our minds belong to Him, with the knowledge, the keenness of judgment, with which to conduct our business or discharge the duties of our profession. We are not our own; we are the slaves of Christ.

Abel, Enoch and Noah

There are three men mentioned in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, as living before the flood, who are specially cited in order to bring out three great principles of faith, principles as much needed by men today as they ever were.

Abel is the first:

“By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of His gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” (Heb. 11:4).

He gives the beginning of life, and the principle of faith as the ground of righteousness, based on the revelation which God had given. He saw that the only way to approach God was by a living sacrifice—by the shedding of blood. Against God he sees he has sinned, and he comes with his confession, and “God had respect unto Abel and to his offering.”

The sacrifice he brings gives him acceptance, and this he has not thought out for himself, but is based on the revelation that God had given of the woman’s seed which should bruise the serpent’s head. Faith taught him that his sacrifice must speak to God of that. The manner of his coming to God is also of importance, since it shows a true spirit, an honest heart, and it meets with God’s approval.

Man had forfeited the life he had with God when he sinned, and since Adam’s fall all men are born in sin and under condemnation—without life as God views it. Abel sees and owns it, and the offering he brings is a type of Christ, the “Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” His was a more excellent sacrifice than Cain’s, and God accepts him at once, and declares him righteous also. How important, then, and how beautiful is this faith of Abel’s. It is a living faith today, “By it he being dead yet speaketh.” He is still pointing out to men the only true way of approach to God.

Enoch comes next:

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.” (Heb. 11:5).

He gives us the principle of the life of faith, in dependence upon God. A life before God and for Him. A life of testimony to God’s goodness and care, as well as to His holy character. A life in which there is constant self-judgment practiced. If Abel shows us the life obtained by faith, Enoch shows us that life now sustained by faith.

In the former it is justification by faith, and in the latter it is the practical life, acceptable to God by faith; and so a good conscience before God and men; a life victorious over sin, in communion with God. He is thus identified with God, and God is identified with him. He is thus delivered from himself and in fellowship with God. God’s things and interests are his object in life. He may be limited in every way, but there are no limitations to God. He needs wisdom, power and grace, and finds them all in God, and not in himself. His faith finds all in God, the inexhaustible one, and God is with him in everything and everywhere. Enoch’s life is thus one of progress and development an “adding to faith, virtue (courage), and to courage, knowledge.” He is pre-eminently a type of the church, which church is to be translated. He was God’s delight, and God takes him to be with Himself.

Noah is the third:

“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” (Heb. 11:7).

He gives us the principle of faith for the inheritance of God as a future thing, which is not in a scene so defiled as the one in which he lived. He does not lay up, then, treasures here; but for a new scene entirely. By faith he condemns the world. He knows that the present scene is to be visited with God’s judgment, and so his faith lays hold of God for the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. The world cannot give him anything, nor take away what he has by faith in God. God’s dwelling-place is not in this present corrupt scene, and neither is the inheritance which Noah looks for.

God may visit this world, as He does in His grace, but it is only as a visitor. So Noah cannot settle down where God is not. By faith he receives warning of the coming judgment, and he believes God and builds the ark. There are no signs to be seen, but faith counts upon God’s Word. The men of that day may have thought him a strange character; but that does not concern him. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage—making the most of this present life, and living in independence of God; but faith makes Noah a stranger to all that, and gives him the hope of eternal things.

It Pleaseth Thee

The following lines were composed by a very dear man converted through a stroke which maimed him for life.

A shattered wreck am I,

Enjoying now a chair;

And full of life I sit and sing

To Him who placed me there.

Content a shattered wreck to be,

Because, my God, it pleaseth Thee.

Naught have I else to do,

But sing the whole day long,

And He whom I love most to please,

Doth listen to my song,

He caught and clipped my once strong wing,

And now He stoops to hear me sing.

And it is good to soar,

These palsied limbs above

To Him whose purpose I adore;

Whose every act is love,

And in His mighty will to find

Such sweet repose for heart and mind.

Compromise

“A time to love and a time to hate.” (Ecc. 3:8).

“He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” (John 12:25).

Compromise here has ruined the testimony of many. They once made a fair start, but the fear of man, or the love of ease, or of social standing, or of the approval of kindred or acquaintances has come between them and the Lord. It is a poor exchange, but many a one has made it, and adhered to it to the end. It should break our hearts as we think of it, and make us hate the thought of compromise.

Let us trace the way of departure. Family influence is in opposition. Simplicity and faithfulness to Christ are derided, a name of reproach is given to true Christians; and the soul, because not abiding in Christ, is caught in the snare. Fearful of reproach or discomfort, the soul gives away and steers a middle course henceforth. Men call it moderation and wisdom, but the soul has been damaged and is adrift.

God is merciful, but the Word and communion with God and with His people are less and less enjoyed and trials and chastenings are too much for the heart. The peaceable fruits of righteousness do not follow. A sad witness for Christ! Such bear witness in their family and in the world that godliness is but a name, not a reality; or if not altogether so, still the course is vacillating, and the heart not at rest, and the testimony correspondingly marred.

The fear of man is, however, closely connected with our love of the world in some form. We are un-weaned in some way when the fear of God is displaced by the fear of man, and Satan has power with us. The pride of life—how weak our hearts that it should ever ensnare us!

Ought not a glance at the life of the Lord to make us ashamed? What pure joy is lost by love of social standing; how withering to the soul is such a preference and such an atmosphere. Self-love and idolatry are thrusting Christ from the heart.

In such cases there is also this grave danger—that of the hardening of the heart by the continuance of religious forms and outward service and utterances. But either way, the soul has made an evil choice, and has turned from the narrow way. Jesus is still knocking at the door, standing there, but He has been left outside—abandoned for Herod’s feast. Friendship with the world is enmity against God.

Christian, let no one come between your soul and Christ; and let nothing turn you aside from the cross. Christ has redeemed you by His blood, and has given you the Holy Spirit. By this great redemption you are separated to God from all worldly friendships and alliances and purposes. Christ has joined you to Himself forever, and He has joined you to His people; for we are members of His Body and members, one of another. His sheep can never perish (John 10:27, 28). Let that encourage the heart to rise up and follow Him. He loves His own and loves them to the end (John 13:1). Hence He washes their feet, cleanses away defilements; for if He washes us not we have no part with Him. So He restores our souls, never forsaking us.

Let us flee, then, from half-heartedness and world-bordering and compromise, in the family, in business, in the inward exercises of the soul. As Christ has died for us, let us live for Him (2 Cor. 5:15), and we shall realize the word, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” (Rom. 8:35, 37).

“In all these things.” In the midst of your fiery trials, Christian, “more than conquerors” through Him who loves you.

With such a word, may we let go all carnal seeking and carnal shrinking, and go forth upon the water to Him. Go forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. Let us boldly take faith’s reckoning,

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to us.” (Rom. 8:18).

“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went... (through faith) not knowing whither he went... Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the scars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand of the seashore innumerable. These all... confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country; and truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city.” (Heb. 11:8-16).

Correspondence: 1 Tim. 1:8; Lost Tribes Restored/Identified?

Question: What is the lawful use of the law spoken of in 1 Timothy 1:8?

Answer: That for which it was intended, namely, as a rule for man in the flesh, (not that he could ever keep it, but to demonstrate that he could not). The Christian is not under law. Hence to put him under it is not a lawful use of it; nevertheless he is to walk in the spirit of it and indeed far beyond it (Matt. 5).

Question: How and when will the lost Ten Tribes be restored, and can they be presently identified?

Answer: Israel, or the ten tribes, were taken to Assyria (2 Kings 17) about 130 years before Judah, or the Jews, were taken to Babylon. Idolatry, and turning to Assyria for help instead of to God, were the immediate causes of the deportation of the ten tribes to Assyria (see prophet Hosea). Not being involved in the guilt of Judah in rejecting and crucifying the Messiah, their restoration to the land of their fathers will be accomplished in a special way. They will not pass through the awful trials under the Anti-Christ which their brethren of Judah will. Ezekiel 20:33-39 records the restoration of the ten tribes by the Lord Himself. The mass of Judah will be restored by the aid of a seafaring nation (Isa. 18).

Whatever human instruments may be employed in assisting the return of the ten tribes, they are hid in the meantime and God Himself is presented as the source and power of their return. It is to be noted, too, that God deals with the conscience of Israel, or the ten tribes, in the wilderness, not in the land, and as the unbelieving and disobedient fell in the wilderness, and only the faithful entered it, so will it be in the return of these tribes; the rebels and disobedient will be first purged out, and then the godly will be brought into the land to rejoin their converted brethren of Judah. This sifting will take place while the Jews are suffering under Anti-Christ in the land. The wondrous meeting of the long disunited tribes of all Israel is most touchingly written in Jeremiah 31:8, 9.

There is an after return of any scattered amongst the nations, whether of Jews or Israelites, when the Lord comes, for it is He who sends out His messengers to gather His elect (Matt. 24:31; Isa. 66:19, 20).

There was a return of certain remnants of Judah from Babylon to Jerusalem after the seventy years captivity (see Ezra and Nehemiah), but there has been no return of Ephraim or the ten tribes. God has His eye upon them; He knows where they are, for He scattered them.

It is most singular that people will pretend to tell who and where the descendants of these long-lost tribes are. The truth is, no single people or nation can claim to be their descendants, for they were to be scattered amongst the heathen, and dispersed through the countries; their scattering and dispersion were to be worldwide (Ezek. 20 and 34).

God further declares them to be ‘lost,’ that He will ‘search’ and ‘seek them out.’ What God says, He will do, man is daring enough to say he has done. God says He will search for, and seek the lost sheep of Israel. Man says he has searched them out, and can tell you who, and where they are.

You have only to read carefully these two chapters to have all such thoughts as have been current of late dispelled. There is nothing like the sure and unerring testimony of God’s blessed Word in meeting the foolish thoughts and vain speculations of men.

God so Loved

A retired army officer told his own experience. He was a young lieutenant at the time, arid as wild as any of his brother officers, when God saved his soul and changed his whole life. Not only he but several others were affected in the same way, but his conversion was the greatest surprise because it was the least expected.

These young officers felt that they would like to preach the gospel that they had believed, and in a way that could easily be understood. If a man had been cured of a very painful malady by a skillful doctor, we should expect him to talk about it and recommend his doctor to others, and it ought not to make people surprised when men whose souls have been saved by the Great Savior should want to speak of Him. So, they rented a hall in the town in which their regiment was stationed and started their preaching, and my friend’s turn came to tell the story. He decided to take for his text those wonderful words,

“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).

He could not have chosen a better text. But when he had read it and looked up from his Bible to the crowd before him, he could not think of anything to say about it. Anyhow he would repeat the text, if he could remember it, and so he began,

“God—God loved the world—God, God so loved the world Yes, God so loved the world that, that” —and that was as far as he got, and catching sight of an open door at the back of the platform, he made a dash for it, and disappeared through it to the astonishment of his audience.

He paced up and down the anteroom, abusing himself for his folly in attempting to preach a sermon, and vowing that he would never do it again, when a knock came to the door and a young woman was brought in. The tears were running down her cheeks and she could not speak for sobs,

“What’s the matter with you?” said the would-be preacher, “is your father dead?”

“No,” came the answer that astonished him, “but Captain, I never knew before that. God loved me.”

It was an astonishing result from what he had thought was a great failure. The stumbling words had gone home and done their work, and there knelt together in that anteroom two astonished people—she that God loved her; he that God should have used his blundering to show her this.

And this is an astonishing fact surely: we would never have believed it if Jesus had riot told us. If God had been angry with us because of our sins, and cast us out of His holy presence forever, we should not have been astonished, but that He should have loved us, and shown us His love by giving his only-begotten Son for us!

This is the wonderful thing. The Son of God became the Son of Man, and was lifted up upon the cross for us. Yes, for sinners! He was wounded for our transgressions, He died for the ungodly. This is the one and only way of salvation, and the love of God provided the way.

“For God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8).

What a wonderful story it is. Does it not appeal to your heart, my reader, and will you not allow the light to shine into your soul, and say with wonder and thanksgiving,

“I never knew before that God loved me.”

But, beware of rejecting the message. God gave His only-begotten Son that you might not perish, but if you refuse this great Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, you will perish, There is no other way. You will have everlasting life through Him, if you believe in Him; or you will receive eternal judgment if you do not accept Him as your own Saviour. We do beg of you not to spurn His wonderful love.

“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” Heb. 2:3.

“There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).

The New Year

Another year has rolled away,

And with it, all its cares;

But Jesus Christ, the same for aye,

Doth calm our troubled fears.

‘Tis in His might alone we tread,

The path now veiled from sight,

The God Who promised daily bread,

Will help us do the right.

We need not fear the rugged road,

With Jesus by our side;

He’ll help us carry every load,

If we in Him confide.

We turn from turmoil, strife and din

To listen to His voice;

He gives sweet rest and peace within,

If we make Him our choice.

On bruised feet and tired brain

He looks with pitying eye;

From Him our daily strength we gain

He hears the faintest sigh.

The sad and lonely find in Him

Their joy, both true and pure;

And when at last the eye grows dim

His love doth still hold sure.

In Christ we ever must abide,

If we would know His will;

Then let us learn of Him our guide,

And our life’s work fulfill.

We of ourselves can nothing do,

But on His life depend;

All love and power, all wisdom too,

Are His and know no end.

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Sixth Beatitude, Part 1

Matthew 5:1-16

Part 10

The Sixth Beatitude

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Verse 7.

We now approach the most heavenly and lofty of all the beatitudes, and in some respects the most difficult to make plain to others. Not, surely, that we should be less acquainted with a pure heart than with a merciful heart, but the object of the pure heart, and the effect of seeing that object, is a blessedness which transcends the power of language.

We must have both the condition of heart and the object to know their full meaning; and so it is with the heart’s vision of heavenly things—the glory of God as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Let us now endeavor to explain.

The moral condition of the heart or soul, is here the important question. God only being pure absolutely, there must be purity of heart to appreciate Him.

There is no thought here, we need scarcely say, of bodily sight, for even Jesus is now hidden from our view. It is only with the eyes of the heart or the moral vision of the soul—which is simply faith—that we can see God or appreciate His excellency and glory; and this blessedness is made to depend on the condition of the heart.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

The purer the heart is, the more clearly it will see God; and the more clearly it sees God, the purer it must become. Thus the one acts and re-acts upon the other.

The purity of heart which is here pronounced “blessed” may thus be the result of faithfully following in the line of the earlier beatitudes, especially the first of this class, which leads to the contemplation of God in one of the most attractive aspects of His character—divine mercy. From the commencement to the close of Scripture, mercy is spoken of as the grand prerogative and glory of God. The Psalms especially speak much of His “mercy and His truth.” To him “belongeth mercy;” “He is plenteous in mercy;” it is “above the heavens;” and “the earth is full of His mercy.” Now the simple or normal effect of drinking at this fountain of mercy is to become “merciful,” and this grace immediately precedes and leads the way to that moral perception of God, which results in purity of heart.

It may be well to notice here, that we cannot make or keep the heart pure by trying to do so. Were we to look within and make the condition of the heart our study and our object, we should sink down, as many have done, into a state of mere mystical, self-occupation.

To be merciful, the heart must have an object that is the perfect expression of the divine mercy; to be pure, it must have an object that is absolute in purity. As the heart is not inherently pure, it can only be accounted so by reflecting a pure object; and that object being Christ, we find in Him the true explanation of a pure heart and seeing God. The heart is purified by faith in Christ, who is the brightness of God’s glory, and the express image of His person. (See Acts 15:9; 1 Peter 1:22; Heb. 1:3).

What relief, what rest, the heart finds in finding Him! No theories, no analogies, no efforts, no experience can solve the question or give rest to the mind, but Himself—Himself known as the once lowly but now exalted Man in glory.

Now then, my soul, let thine eye rest on Him—the eye of faith, the eye of thy heart. Meditate long, meditate deeply on Him. Gaze now on that “countenance transcendent.” Blended there are the rays of all divine perfection, and of every beatific vision. Majesty divine as “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God,” mingling its many glories with the sweet and lowly graces of godly sorrow, meekness, righteousness, mercy, holiness, and peace, together with all goodness, wisdom, and love, is the God whom the pure heart sees; but not only sees, its privilege is to bask in the beams of that moral glory now and for evermore.

“In Thee most perfectly expressed,

The Father’s self doth shine;

Fullness of Godhead, too, the blest—

Eternally divine.

Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou

That every knee to Thee should bow.”

But see, I pray thee, that Christ is thy one object; a pure heart must be an undivided heart—a whole heart. Thus and thus only shall thy whole body be full of light. All other objects but dim thy spiritual vision.

“They looked unto Him,” says the psalmist, “and were lightened.”

When darkness is loved rather than light, there can be no perception or appreciation of moral beauty. Such was Israel’s blindness, and such it is now, but the day is coming when they shall look on Him whom they rejected, and see in Him the glories and perfection of the Godhead. Then truly, shall they see God, and know the blessedness of being “pure in heart.”

With the people of Israel, we know, this is future; but what of thine own purity of heart, O my soul? Is it a present, deep, divine, blessed reality? Is thy heart pure?

Seest thou God? These are solemn questions, but proper ones; and God forbid that any of us should speak of these things without knowing them personally in the divine presence. But surely we know Him in whom the holiness of God is perfectly reflected. There only we can see God and have communion with Him.

(To be continued).

The Person of Christ

Do you see by faith Christ up there? Do you know a person in heaven with all the feelings and thoughts of a man, with all the glory and beauty of God? And in that beaming forth on you of that face of glory and beauty, is there nothing that addresses itself to your heart? Who can look on the face of that Lord Jesus and not see in Him the fount of eternal life? Will the beauty of that person not win your adoring love? Will you ever find that you can look on Him as He is, and not trust Him?

Are we not only knowing what we have in that ascended Christ as the one who has put away every spot of sin, the one who is going to take us into the Father’s house, but are we letting it be seen, as we pass through the wilderness, in all we do, as Paul did? He died for us, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves., but unto Him. O, what a position! not only what we are saved from and put into, but, even now, eternal life to be shown out: even now, present communion with the mind of Christ to be enjoyed; never as we pass through this world, seeking anything save to show out that mind, even as He never showed out anything but the Father’s mind.

"As for God, His Way is Perfect"

Someone went to see a Christian engineer who had just had his thumb cut off by a saw. The poor fellow was in great pain, and said to his friend,

“I see no use in taking off a man’s thumb.” The visitor replied,

“Well, George, we may not see the use of it, but it says in Psalms 18:30, ‘As for God, His way is perfect;’ so we may know that the taking off of your thumb is perfect.”

The engineer was silent, and was much struck by what his friend said.

When he next called, George told him that God had used the word he had spoken to him and made him content with his misfortune. He added that he had thought much of a story of some passengers on a steamer, who were terrified at the speed they were going through a dense fog. At length they sent a deputation to remonstrate with the captain who was on the bridge over the deck. His reply was,

“Tell the passengers that it is all right; it is all clear up here.”

The fog was low down upon the water and covered the deck, but the captain could see over it.

“So,” said the engineer, “God speaks from the bridge in the 18th Psalm. ‘His way is perfect,’ and I will trust Him.”

Dear young Christians, may we all remember that there is blessing in taking all from the Lord’s hand, and trusting when we cannot understand. Let us not doubt the wisdom of Him, Who loves us with a perfect love.

“All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.” (Rom. 8:28).

The Divinity and Humanity of Christ

There are two sides to the person of Christ. He was God manifest in flesh.

“The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).

The Word was the Eternal Son, and the Eternal Son became man. He was thus God and man—a union of extremes which was not possible in any other, and rendering His person so unfathomable, so incomprehensible, that He Himself said,

“No man knoweth the Son but the Father.” (Matt. 11:27).

But it is essential that we hold fast both His true divinity and His as equally true humanity. For had He not been true man, He could not have been a sacrifice for sin; and had He not been God, His sacrifice could not have been available for all. Satan knows this, and hence, in every age, he has sought to undermine the one or the other of these truths, insinuating doubts sometimes concerning His humanity, and sometimes concerning His divinity. But it is the glory of the person of Christ that He is both divine and human, that He is, in His one person, both God and man. This truth lies at the foundation of, and indeed gives its character to, redemption.

How vast a field is thus opened for our contemplation! Following Christ in His pathway down here, from the manger at Bethlehem to the cross at Calvary, we see the unfoldings both of the human and divine. As we behold Him, His lowly guise, “His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men” (Isa. 53:14); as we mark Him in companionship with His disciples, and see Him weary and resting, eating and drinking, weeping with those who wept (John 11), and sleeping, too, on a pillow in the hinder part of the ship (Mark 4:38), we cannot doubt that He was man. It was, indeed the proofs of His humanity which, meeting their eyes, confounded His adversaries, and blinded them to His higher claims.

On the other hand, the evidences of His divinity are no less clear to the anointed eye. Who but God could cleanse the leper, open the eyes of the blind, raise the dead to life, and control the wind and the waves? Hence He said to Philip, in answer to his demand to show him the Father,

“Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.” (John 14:10, 11).

What He was, what He is declared to be in the Scriptures, is, if possible, still more conclusive,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” (John 1:1, 18). He is said to be “the brightness of His (God’s) glory, and the express image of His person.” (Heb. 1:3). In another epistle He is described as

“The image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things, were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” (Col. 1:15-17).

Consider moreover His own words, and who can doubt that He claims to be divine?

“He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” (John 14:9).

“I and My Father are one.” (John 10:30).

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58).

We cannot too often bless God for the four gospels, in which are blended these two aspects of the person of Christ. Hence they are the profoundest of all the Scriptures—because they contain the unfoldings of a divine-human life. No doubt the narratives are simple on their surface; but as we are led on by the Spirit of God we begin to discover that there are depths of which we had never dreamed, and into which we must gaze, and continue to gaze, if we would behold the treasures that are therein contained. And the more we are familiarized with their contents, the more shall we be impressed with the majesty of the person of Christ as the God-man; God manifest in flesh. And it should never be forgotten that there can be no stability where there is any uncertainty as to the person of our Saviour. What strength it gives to the soul to be able to say (to quote the language of another)—

“The pillars of the earth rest upon that Man who was despised, spit upon, and crucified!”

It is the knowledge of what He is, no less (if not more) than what He has done, that draws out our hearts in confidence, adoration, and praise. For indeed He “is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.” (Rom. 9:5).

"The Coming of the Lord Draweth Nigh"

James 5:8

The times are really very solemn, and it behooves us to think seriously of our true state. There are, we fear, many—God only knows how many, who are not ready—many who would be taken aback and terribly surprised by death, or the coming of the Lord.

God grant that the reader may know what is to be ready in title and ready in state: that he may have a purged conscience and a truly exercised heart. Then he will be able to enter into the meaning of,

“And while they (the foolish virgins) went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with Him to the marriage; and the door was shut.” (Matt. 25:10).

How solemn! Those who were ready went in, and those who were not ready were shut out. Those who have life in Christ, and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, will be ready. But the mere professor—the one who has truth, in the head and on the lip, but not in the heart—who has the lamp of profession, but not the spirit of life in Christ—he will be shut out into outer darkness, in everlasting misery and gloom, the eternal monotony of hell.

O! beloved reader, put this question home to your very inmost soul,

“Are you ready?”

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36).

"Helps"

The little word which we have just penned occurs in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 12:28, where the inspired writer enumerates the various gifts and orders of ministry in the assembly,

“God hath set some in the church; first, apostles; secondarily, prophets; thirdly, teachers; after that, miracles; then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.”

Now, there is what we may call a beautiful undefinedness about the term “helps.” We can see at a glance, and understand fully what is meant by an apostle, a prophet, a teacher, a miracle, a gift of healing, a government, a tongue.

But the full import of the term “helps” is not just so easily seized. It indicates a very wide field of happy and important Christian service. There are many persons in the assembly who could not be said to possess any specific gift; they are not evangelists, pastors or teachers; but they can render effectual help to those who are.

You may sometimes find a man who is quite incompetent to take any part in public ministry, and yet he exerts a far more powerful influence for good than one who takes a prominent place. He is not a preacher or a lecturer; but he takes a deep interest in the work of such. He has no thought of occupying the platform; but it does the heart good to see the way in which he opens the door for you, leads you to a seat; hands you a Bible and hymnbook.

His heart is in the work, and he is ready to do anything or everything to further the good cause. There is a genial brightness and self-forgetting elasticity about the man rendering him a most delightful element in the assembly and in the work. He is ready for every good work-ready to serve all who may need his service. No matter what you want done, he is your man. Go to him when you will, or with what you will, he is always at your service. Difficulties are nothing to him. He only views them as an occasion for the display of energy. He is not encumbered with crotchets. He does not believe in them. His heart is free—his spirit fresh and bright. He loves Christ and His people, His servants and their work. He takes a profound interest in the progress of the gospel—in the salvation of souls—in the prosperity and growth of God’s people. He is not self-occupied. He delights to see the work done, no matter who does it. He is ready to sweep the floor, if needs be—ready to help in every possible way in which effective help may be rendered.

Have we any difficulty in assigning such an one, his place in the category of gifts? None whatever. He is one of the “helps” —a most blessed and valuable element. Would that we had more of such. We pray for evangelists, for pastors and teachers, and so we should, for we want them sadly. But we should pray for “helps” also, for they exert a marvelous influence for good, wherever they are found.

We have little idea of how much the blessing of God’s people, and the progress of His work are promoted by that class of persons indicated by the brief—but comprehensive—term “helps.” You may often hear a man say,

“O! I am not an evangelist or a teacher. I do not possess any gift for speaking.”

Well but you can be a help. You may not be a preacher or a teacher, but you can very effectually co-operate with such in a thousand ways. You can hold up his hands and encourage his heart, and refresh his spirit, and further his work in numberless and nameless little ways which, you may rest assured, are most grateful to the heart of Jesus, and will be amply rewarded in the day of His coming glory.

It is a very great mistake indeed to suppose that no one can help on the Lord’s people or the Lord’s work unless he has some special gift. Everyone has his own place to fill, his work to do. Every bird has his own note, except the mocking bird. This latter has nothing of its own, but mimics the notes of others. How much better to be real and simple—to give forth my own note, even though it be but the note of a robin, than to be seeking to imitate the thrush or the nightingale.

What we really want is a heart for the Lord’s work. Where there is this, it will not be a question as to my gift. I shall be ready for every good work. Even though my gift may be most distinct, I should hold myself in constant readiness to lend, a helping hand to others, to put my shoulder to the wheel, to further the blessed work in every possible way.

Gift or no gift, if I really love Christ, I shall seek to promote His cause and His glory. If I cannot preach the gospel, I can gather and I can pack the people. I can make them welcome and seek to make them comfortable and happy. I can prove that my whole soul is in the work, and thus give a holy impetus to others. I can help by prayer, by my presence, by my very look. A genial heart, a bright happy spirit, a mind freed from petty and detestable jealousies, a cordial well-wisher may prove a most delightful “help” to the work and the workman.

Beloved Christian reader, let us give ourselves to earnest prayer, that the Lord may be pleased to develop in our midst that most interesting and valuable agency suggested by the heading of this paper. And may we all seek to do what we can for the furtherance of the cause and glory of that blessed one who gave His life to rescue us from everlasting burnings.

"Be of Good Cheer"

We must work for a little while, and with a strength which is not our own, but which is enough for everything. We work under the eye, and encouraged by the goodness of Him whose love never fails us.

We count upon Him, abide in Him, feed on Him; then work patiently on, according to the strength He gives us.

“Strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory.” (Col. 1:11, N. T.).

True Service

“If any man serve Me, let him follow Me, and where I am, there shall also My servant be; if any man serve Me, him will My FATHER honor.” (John 12:26).

True service is to follow

Where’er the Lord may lead,

To listen for His bidding,

Unto His voice to heed.

Depending, on His guidance,

To seek to know His mind,

Obeying then whate’er He says

When His desire you find.

There’s nothing else can equal

Just being in His will,

Of following where’er He leads—

This service to fulfill.

This Shepherd true will lead us

To pastures green, and rest,

To paths of fellowship with Him,

With His own presence blest.

It may mean persecution,

Reproach we’ll have to bear,

If following “Outside the camp,”

But Jesus’ love is there.

And what on earth could equal

His fellowship so sweet?

For to be occupied with Christ

Gives happiness complete.

No outward show of service,

No fame of conquests won;

This path is for His eye alone,

Craves only His “Well done.”

Oh if He bids thee follow,

Fear not to make the choice;

Abundant blessings He bestows

On those who heed His voice.

His grace is all sufficient,

His presence He assures,

He grants the needed power to keep,

His mercy e’er endures.

So do not fear to follow,

He goeth on before;

And He will lead to joy and peace,

And life forevermore.

That I May Know Him

“I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Phil. 3:8).

The loftiest privilege of the Christian faith is that we should enter into the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, daily becoming acquainted with Him in clearer recognition and ampler experience, learning daily and hourly the fullness of His grace and the riches of His glory, until, in the contemplation of His measureless mercy, we are “lost in wonder, love, and praise.”

Correspondence: Singing with Grace; League of Nations

Question: What does “singing with grace” mean in Colossians 3:16?

Answer: Not merely with melody of voice which man can hear and appreciate, but with the grace of Christ in the heart which God alone can see and love. No singing is beautiful to God that lacks this; while the feeblest song, though with a broken voice, that is the fruit of His love and grace in the heart, is sweet to His ear.

Question: We hear much of the proposed League of Nations. Do you think we (Christians) shall be here to see it formed? Or, shall we be caught up to meet the Lord in the air before its formation?

Answer: We do not know when we may be caught up to meet the Lord in the air; it might be today. It is the first scriptural event we are to expect. His promise is, “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:3). He will not fail to keep His word. When the proper moment of the Father’s will arrives, He will not tarry any longer.

The League of Nations now about to be formed, and current events that have taken place or are taking place now, may in a way foreshadow or look like a fulfillment of prophecy, but what is prophesied is yet to come. We must keep distinctly before us that the League of Nations headed by the Beast of Revelation 13:1 and 17th chapter cannot be formed till the church is with Christ in glory. When the Lamb (Rev. 5) takes the book out of the hand of the one in the midst of the throne, the glorified saints are there on the twenty-four thrones. It is after that the Lamb breaks the seals, and prophecy begins to be fulfilled. We do not see the Beast yet, nor the woman that sits on it, but we see how rapidly developments take place.

Let us earnestly keep before our souls the coming of our Lord for us. Very soon we may see Him, and then when we are with Him, we shall be like Him.

Love Not the World

While visiting the other day in a little town where the Spirit of God had been working, I was much interested and not a little edified by the conversation of a bright young Christian.

She had told us that she had been early converted, and it was easy to be seen that she had made a whole-hearted choice of Christ for her life on earth, as well as for heaven hereafter. As she simply and naturally spoke of her Saviour, it seemed clear to me that she had chosen Him instead of the world, for it is impossible to walk in company with both.

Consequently, I was not a little surprised when she told us that she had gone to the theater a few nights before.

“I had never been to the theater in my life before, but a few nights ago I went to the Hippodrome, and O! I never felt so wretched, so miserable in all my life. I never want to be in such a place again. I felt as if I were in hell; and then to see those poor girls, little children, dancing on the stage before that crowd of godless men and women, I felt how awful to begin their young lives in such a hell. O! it was dreadful, I felt so ill, and wanted to get out. I was away in the back part of the stage. Somebody asked me if I was ill. I said, ‘Yes, I never felt so ill before.’”

Somewhat taken aback by this unexpected outpour, I said,

“Well, I am thankful that one dose has cured you, for I met a Christian only this very day who spoke approvingly of Christians attending the theater. But how came you to be there?”

“I am engaged to a young man who is an electrician” she explained, “and he had to do some work for his firm in connection with the lights. His aunt asked me if I would take him his supper. I said I did not want to go into a theater. She said he was working somewhere in the back part of the building; so I went, and not knowing where I was, I found myself in the back of the stage. O! it was terrible. I felt like being in hell.”

Here, my reader, was the effect upon a young Christian, who loved her Saviour, of a glance at the world’s efforts at pleasure apart from Christ. And I think we may fairly say that no Christian who loves Christ is likely to find much pleasure in such a scene.

She went on to describe the disastrous effect of association with the world, upon the spirituality of the young man.

“He’s not what he was,” she said with sorrow; “I said to him the other day, ‘O, A—, how can I think well of you when you turn your back upon my best Friend.’”

From the theater she hurried away to the little prayer meeting.

“And O! when I compared that little handful at the prayer meeting with that great crowd at the Hippodrome, I felt jealous for the kingdom of God.”

It did my heart good to listen to her simple testimony. Theater-going Christians will rarely, if ever, be seen at prayer meetings, and praying Christians will never be seen at theaters.

Fellow believer, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” (1 John 2:15-17).

Fragment: Faith and Anxiety

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Prov. 3:5).

When faith begins, anxiety ends; where anxiety begins, faith ends. Ponder these words of the Lord Jesus, “Only believe.”

As long as we are able to trust in God, holding fast in heart, that He is able and willing to help those who rest on the Lord Jesus for salvation, in all matters which are for His glory and their good, the heart remains calm and peaceful.

It is only when we practically let go faith in His power or His love, that we lose our peace and become troubled.

The Cross of Calvary

O Lamb of God, most precious;

From radiant courts on high

Thou cam’st in love so tender,

On Calvary’s cross to die.

Our sins were laid upon Thee,

Our judgment Thou did’st bear,

That we, Thy ransomed people

Might all Thy glory share.

Thou hast our guilt sustained!

Upon the cruel tree,

That we might share Thy glory

For all eternity.

Thy precious side was wounded,

From whence the life-blood flowed,

The debt we had augmented,

Was canceled by Thy blood.

‘Twas on the cross, Lord Jesus,

Thou did’st for sin atone,

That all Thy blood-bought people

Might share Thy glorious throne.

And soon Thy wide creation

Will Thy redemption see—

Fruit of Thy love and passion

Upon Mount Calvary.

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Sixth Beatitude, Part 2

Matthew 5:1-16

Part 11

The Sixth Beatitude

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Verse 7.

Throughout the New Testament there is much said about purity of heart. It is looked for as the true condition of all Christians, though, alas, all are not “pure in heart.” So much is said, and said truly, about the deceitfulness of the human heart in our discourses and papers, that the expression “pure in heart” is supposed, even by most Christians, to be a figure which is not intended to mean what it says, and thus it is passed over. But Scripture means a great deal that is most definite by pureness of heart. The apostle in writing to his Son Timothy, says,

“Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Tim. 2:22).

This passage clearly teaches what we are to look for and expect in all who come to the Lord’s table. Only such will suit Him who says, I am “He that is holy, He that is true.”

The Apostle Peter in his address to the council (Acts 15) speaks of the Gentiles as “purifying their hearts by faith,” and therefore as much entitled to Christian fellowship as the Jewish believers. And in his Epistle he says, “seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.”

The Apostle James in his exhortations uses a similar form of expression: “and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”

John, also, in speaking of the Lord’s coming, says, “And every one that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He” —that is, Christ— “is pure.” Here the Lord Jesus is brought before us, not only as being in Himself essentially pure, but as the measure and standard of purity for us.

“Every one that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself even as He is pure.” (1 John 3:3).

The hope of the Lord’s coming has thus a transforming power. In looking for Him, and waiting for Him now, we seek to purify ourselves even as He is pure. But when we see Him as He is in the glory, we shall be like Him—perfectly conformed to Him in all things. Now we are transformed by degrees, then we shall be conformed completely and forever.

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor. 3:18).

The meaning is plain and most important; we behold the glory of the Lord in the unveiled face of Jesus—the exalted Man in the glory—and are transformed according to the same image from one degree of glory to another, by the Lord the Spirit. But we are not only transformed into His likeness morally, we are the reflectors of His glory. Now the believer is the glass in whom the image of the Lord should be seen.

Forget not this great truth, O my soul; what can be more important? O, that this one thought may take possession of thy whole being! What! mirrored on thy spirit and ways should be the moral image of thy absent Lord! O see that nothing comes between thy heart and Him, that the likeness be not marred! The purer the mirror, the more distinct will each feature appear. O wondrous theme! O mystery divine! O blessing infinite!

Language fails to express the heart’s joyous wonder in meditating on this highest expression of sovereign grace. To be maintained in outward purity as men reckon, is a great mercy, and one for which we never can be too thankful.

Who sees not that Joseph had a purer heart, practically viewed, than Reuben and Judah, and on which have mankind set the seal of their approval? But to be brought so near to the Lord, and to be so purified by faith as to become like a polished mirror, on which may be reflected His glory, transcends all power to express the praise and thanksgiving due to His most blessed name.

But the day is near when thou wilt see thy Lord face to face, and as He is—in all the deep realities of His love and glory. Then no forgetfulness, no failure, no defilements by the way, shall ever dim the luster of thy mirror, or mar the reflection of His glory. The great promise of the New Jerusalem shall be fulfilled:

“They shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads.” (Rev. 22:4).

The likeness will then be complete and manifest to all. Higher than this we can never rise; richer in blessing we can never be; and for this consummation of all blessedness, not we only, but our Jesus prays,

“That they may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me.” (John 17:24).

And now, in parting with thee, my dear reader, for another month, as we may never meet again, allow me to ask, Is this to be thy eternity of celestial blessedness? Or art thou still undecided in thy soul about the Lord Jesus as thy Saviour? Why hesitate? Why be in doubt? The work required has been done by Jesus; done for thee, if thou wilt only believe; done for the chief of sinners. Thou hast nothing to trust to but His finished work. O then, believe in Him, put thy trust in Him, wait for Him, never doubt Him, and thy celestial blessing is secure forever. But remember, I pray thee, that without faith—faith in Jesus—there is no blessing, no purity, as we have been seeing, and without purity there can be no heaven for thee. The city of our God is a pure city, and over its pearly gates these words are written,

“There shall in nowise enter into it anything that defileth.” (Rev. 21:27).

Whatever its inhabitants once were, they are all pure now; and their robes of unsullied white can meet with no defilement there. The confusing mixtures of time—law and grace, faith and works, Christ and the world, flesh and Spirit, are unknown there—purity characterizes everything. The street is of pure gold, as it were transparent glass; the walls are jasper, and “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceedeth out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Rev. 21).

The Lord give thee, my dear reader, to come to Jesus now; give thy heart undividedly to Him: this is the first grand step towards purity of heart. O at once bow at His blessed feet. The dark regions of hell, where the lurid glare of its fire unquenchable will only make the darkness more visible, contrasts awfully with the city of glories.

“The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” (Rev. 21:23).

Which of those two places, my dear reader, is to be thine—thine forever? With both before thee, couldst thou hesitate another moment? Surely not. I must now leave thee with the Lord. May thy motto henceforth be “All for Jesus.”

(To be continued)

The Right Path

I have sometimes seen upon a mountain that there is one path which is simple and right, and a comfort indeed it is to know it though there are ever so many crooked ones going over the heath. That is just where we are now. If a person has the right path, he does not need to inquire about the fifty wrong ones.

“Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.” (Prov. 4:25).

If I look on I see Christ, and then all is easy, and with my eyes on Him, I go straight.

A broad path means a broad conscience, not a broad heart.

We have a narrow path, but it is a known path and a straight one.

The Resting Place

Leaning on Jesus’ bosom!

This is the place of rest

When the trials of earth surround us,

And the heart is sore opprest,

When the soul is sad and weary,

And longing for break of day,

When doubts, and fears, and failings

Forever will flee away.

Leaning on Jesus’ bosom!

This is the place of peace,

Where trouble cannot reach us,

And sorrows all must cease,

Leaning on Jesus’ bosom!

I have no care or fear—

No danger there can threaten,

No evil venture near.

Leaning on Jesus’ bosom!

These are His words to me,

“As one whom his mother comforteth,

So will I comfort thee:”

Though here you may have sorrow,

O conquer all your fears,

In the glory over yonder,

“God will wipe away your tears.”

Leaning on Jesus’ bosom!

Calmly may I be found

When the silent waves of Jordan

Encompass me around;

When the shadows have grown much longer,

And the days are dark and cold,

Then I think of Him in the glory,

Whose face we shall soon behold!

Leaning on Jesus’ bosom!

O, Christian, this your place,

The only place of resting

Amid life’s weary race;

Here there is naught but sorrow,

Sickness and want and care;

But sorrow will fade into gladness

In the glory over there.

Leaning on Jesus’ bosom!

His arm encircles round;

Listening to His gentle whispers,

You will hear no earthborn sound;

You will rest in the light of His beauty,

Like the ransomed glorified,

And the smiles of His love will thrill you

Ere you reach the other side.

"Being Let Go"

“And being let go, they went to their own company.” (Acts 4:23).

This simple statement presents a beautiful example of the instincts and tendencies of the divine nature. We always find that when a man is released from some special engagement—set free from some special demand upon him—in a word, when he is “let go,” he will, most probably, seek the company of those who are most congenial to his tastes. When parade is over, the soldiers betake themselves to their various associates and pursuits. When a school breaks up, the pupils do the same. When the warehouse or counting house is closed, the young men betake themselves, some to the religious assembly, some to the reading room, some alas! to the tavern, the theater, or the gambling house. “Being let go,” they are almost sure to go “to their own company.”

It is when a man is fully at leisure that you see what his bent and tendency really are. When he gets, free from present claims, you will be able to judge of the pursuits and companions of his heart’s selection.

Two men may be seen standing behind the same counter, from 9 in the morning, till 5, in the evening; but mark, when the clock strikes five, observe them when “being let go,” —and you will find one making his way to some pleasure, and the other to some place of worship or religious instruction. Thus it is always. “Being let go,” we soon find out “our own company.”

Reader, how do you act, when “let go?” What company do you seek? Do you betake yourself to those who, like the assembly in Acts 4, occupy themselves in holy worship, prayer and praise? Or do you own as your companions, the giddy and the thoughtless, the profane and the immoral, the scoffer and the skeptic, the infidel and the atheist? O! search and see.

Just ask yourself, when next you take your seat in the midst of your own company, “Would I, at this moment, like to hear, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God?” Are you washed from your sins in the blood of Jesus? Are you saved? Are you at peace with God?

Let me beseech you, dear friend, to make close, earnest, personal work of it, this very hour. Do not trifle with your immortal soul, and with a boundless eternity. God is in earnest—Christ is in earnest—the Holy Ghost is in earnest—Satan is in earnest—and will you trifle? Will you delay?

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2).

May God the Holy Ghost lead you, now, to believe in the love of God, and lean fully and, without a shadow of doubt, upon the perfect sacrifice of Christ. Then you will seek the “company” of the redeemed, on earth; and, when “let go” from every weight and hindrance, down here, you will join “your own company” in the mansions above.

What Should I Read? A Question for the Times: Part 1

The question which forms the heading of this paper is one of real weight and practical importance. There is much more involved in it than we might perhaps be disposed to admit. It is a common saying,

“Show me your company, and I will tell you what you are.” It may, with equal truth, be said,

“Show me your library and I will tell you where you are.”

Our reading may be taken, as a rule, as the great indicator of our moral, intellectual, and spiritual condition. Our books are our mental and spiritual pabulum the material on which the inner man feeds. Hence the seriousness of the entire question of Christian reading. Indeed, we may freely own to the reader of these lines that this subject has engrossed us much of late; and we feel constrained, in faithfulness to the Lord and to the souls of our readers, to offer a few words of admonition in reference to what we cannot but regard as a matter of real moment to all Christians.

We observe, with deep concern, a growing distaste for solid reading, especially among young Christians—though alas! it is not confined to them. Newspapers, religious novels, sensational tales, all sorts of poisonous and trashy literature are eagerly devoured, while volumes of most weighty and precious truth lie uncut and neglected on the bookshelf.

All this we consider most deplorable. We look upon it as a most alarming indication of a low spiritual condition. Indeed it is difficult to conceive how any one possessing a single spark of divine life can find pleasure in such defiling rubbish as one sees now-a-days, in the hands of many who occupy the very highest ground of Christian profession. The inspired apostle exhorts all Christians,

“As new-born babes, to desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby.” (1 Pet. 2:2).

How can we grow if we neglect the Word of God and devour newspapers and light worthless books? How is it possible for any Christian to be in a healthy condition of soul who can barely find a few hasty moments to run his eye over a verse or two of Scripture, but can give hours to light and desultory reading? We may depend upon it our reading proves, beyond question, what we are, and where we are. If our reading is light and frivolous, our state is the same. If our Christianity is of a solid and earnest type, it will be distinctly evidenced by our habitual and voluntary reading—the reading to which we turn for our recreation and refreshment. Some, perhaps, may say,

“We cannot be always reading the Bible and good books.”

We reply, and that with plain decision and emphasis, the new nature would never care to read anything else. Now the question is, whether do we wish to minister to the old nature or the new? If the latter, we may rest assured that newspapers and light literature are not the means to be used. It is utterly impossible that a truly spiritual, earnest Christian can find any enjoyment in such reading. It may be that a Christian engaged in business or in public official life, will have occasion, in connection with his business or his official duty, to refer to a newspaper; but this is another thing altogether from finding his actual enjoyment and recreation in such reading. He will not find the hidden manna or the old corn of the land of Canaan in the newspaper. He will not find Christ in the sensational novel. It is a poor low thing to hear a Christian say,

“How can we be always reading the Bible?” or, “What harm is there in reading a story book?”

All such questions afford melancholy evidence of the fact that the soul has got far away from Christ. This is what makes it so very serious. Spiritual decline must have set in and made alarming progress, ere a

Christian could thing of asking such questions. And hence there is little use in arguing about the right or the wrong of things. There is no ability to argue aright, no capacity to weigh evidence. The whole spiritual and moral condition is wrong. “There is death in the pot.” What is really needed is thorough restoration of soul. You must “bring meal,” or in other words, apply a divine remedy to meet the diseased state of the constitution.

(To be continued)

God's Word Our Food

Of this you may be sure, that as is our body when it only receives food once in several days, so is our soul when it is not frequently nourished by the Word of God. As hunger, and the want of food, make our bodies meager, so the soul which neglects to strengthen itself by the Word of God, becomes feeble and barren and unfit for any good work.

“Great peace have they which love Thy law.” (Psa. 119:165).

The Salvation of the Soul

It, most assuredly, is not our province, nor is it within the range of our capacity, to dictate to the Almighty Workman, the exact mode in which He is to do His work. He may, in some cases, carry on His new creation, so softly, so gently, so silently, that those who are standing by may be wholly unconscious of the mighty work. In other cases, He may see fit to conduct the soul through such deep exercises as to evoke the most heartrending cries and groans.

Are we competent to account for the contrast? Are we called upon to do so? Surely not. Look, for example, at the contrast between Lydia and the jailer, in Acts 16. Of the former, we read,

“Whose heart the Lord opened that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul.” The latter, on the other hand,

“Sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas.”

Now, it would be as unwarrantable to object to the excitement connected with the jailer’s conversion, as to question the reality of Lydia’s case, because all was done so quietly. Neither the excitement nor the quietness had anything to do with the salvation of the soul. The one was struck down; the other was not; both were saved by Christ.

See, also, the striking contrast between the quiet conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch, in Acts 8, and the overwhelming conversion of Saul of Tarsus, in Acts 9. The one was as real as the other, though the attendant circumstances were so widely different.

A person may be converted without ever moving from his seat, as in the case of the Eunuch; or he may fall to the earth, like Saul. He may be lead into instant joy and peace, in believing, or he may remain stunned and prostrate for three days; the circumstances, in no wise, affect the genuineness of the conversion. It is the Christ I reach, and not the way I reach Him, that saves my soul. To question the truth of a conversion because of certain exciting circumstances attendant thereon, would be as unwarrantable as to make such circumstances at all essential.

Regeneration is a divine work. The Agent in that work is the Holy Ghost. The instrument is the Word of God. And, as to the mode, it is as completely above and beyond us, as either the instrument or the Agent. God is sovereign. He giveth not account of any of His matters; and if we presume to set up our own judgment as a rule of what ought to be, in any given case, we shall find ourselves wholly astray.

The mysteries and marvels of God’s new creation will baffle and confound the most sagacious and deep thinking. Circumstances will be continually occurring which the poor human mind cannot account for, and concerning which we have only to say, It is the finger of God.

Love Rules All

Could we but see the hand of love that has marked out our way, we would cherish everything that comes to us. Those very hands which send into our lives a distressing circumstance are the ones that were pierced with the cruel nails on Calvary for us.

Is it possible that one who has shed His own Blood for us could send into our lives that which would cause us harm? No; a thousand times no! He loves us too much to do such a thing.

“All things work together for good to them that love God.” (Rom. 8:28).

Extract: Occupation with Christ

Dear Christian reader, we would affectionately ask, Does the Person of Christ, or His work, most engage our attention? Do His personal excellences and worth so fill our souls, that we have been constrained to live unto Him?

We believe that no part of divine truth needs more pressing on the consciences of believers at this, time, than personal intercourse and occupation with Christ Himself; for then we shall surely be constrained to yield ourselves and all we have to Him.

There is such a disposition in the present day to hold the highest doctrines of divine grace with a low and worldly walk, that stripping ourselves for the honor and glory of our precious Saviour has, we fear, but little place, even to what it had some years ago.

Was it not the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord which enabled the apostle Paul to strip himself of all he had ever prized and gloried in? It is this surely that our Lord demands. Did He not knock at the Laodicean Church, and show Himself ready to sup with any who would open the door to Him?

Happy are they who are thus taken up with Christ Himself. Such become knit to Him, drawn out in love to Him, strip themselves for Him, and, looking up, say, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

Correspondence: Matt. 3:15; Present Return of the Jews

Question: Why did the Lord say, “Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matt. 3:15).

Answer: Christ did fulfill the law, and made it honorable. He kept it perfectly, and was the only one who ever did. It was this that in part showed His perfect fitness to be a ransom for us. He kept the law as being born under it, and not for us as substitute. We are justified through His blood, not by His life before the cross.

Question: Is the present return of the Jews to the land of Palestine the fulfillment of Isaiah 54?

Answer: Isaiah M looks on to Israel’s full restoration as a nation to the Lord, and His delight in her (see vs. 3-10), and His future care over her. It is all a beautiful picture of the love of Jehovah, and His forgiving grace, and that in righteousness to the nation of Israel.

When the Lord Jesus was rejected by the Jews and crucified, God raised Him from the dead and crowned Him with glory and honor, and sent His Holy Spirit down into this world to gather out of it those who are to compose the bride of Christ. And ever since the Holy Spirit came down here, all who believe the gospel of God’s salvation are sealed by the Holy Ghost, and so are members of the body of Christ.

God’s last act toward the Jews was to send His armies to destroy the temple and city of Jerusalem, and to scatter the Jews among all nations. (Matt. 22:7; Luke 21:24). The Jews are not the Lord’s people now. Salvation is not national now, but individuals of both Jew and Gentile are now being gathered out.

During the period when the church is being gathered there are no prophecies concerning Israel and Palestine to be fulfilled. What the Lord gave His disciples to expect personally, is that He is coming to receive them to Himself, and this they were to wait for. Not one line or word of prophecy did He put in to take place first.

He is coming for His people, and 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 describes how it is to take place. And at their conversion it is said, they “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven” (Chapter 1). They were not to be shaken from this hope by any reports as if the apostles had taught otherwise. And he beseeches them to keep in mind the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him (2 Thess. 2:1).

The wars and rumors of wars, the pestilences, the famines and the earthquakes that are happening during this time of the church’s sojourn on earth, are not the fulfillment of prophecy.

“He is faithful that hath promised.” “He that shall come will come and will not tarry.” (Heb. 10:23, 37).

The only signs that we have to indicate the nearness of the coming of Christ is the state of the professing church on earth (2 Tim., 2 Peter, Jude, Rev. 2nd and 3rd chaps.). And there we find much to tell us He will soon call us home, just as we find it in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18. All who are the Lord’s, both dead and living, will be taken to heaven at that time.

After that the Jews will be gathered back to Palestine (Isa. 18), but as unbelievers in Jesus. Some will be converted, but many will remain in unbelief. The Lamb in Revelation 5 will take the book and begin to break the seven seals. Then will be the days of “the beginning of sorrows,” and it will deepen down to “the great tribulation,” as in Matthew 24. Then the scripture—wars and rumors of wars, the pestilences, the famines and the earthquakes will begin to take place, and the desperate battle talked of as “Armageddon” will take place; till the Lord will come in flaming fire to judge the living wicked, and to deliver the Jews, and to begin to set up His Kingdom, which will cover a thousand years. The wicked dead will stand before Him at the end of that time, to receive their doom.

Come As You Are!

One night as the rain fell heavily and the wind shook the door on its hinges, the mother, alone in her cottage, could not sleep. Her daughter had gone astray, and had been absent for some time. The mother knew not where she was, or how she was; but the fear lest she might be out in such a storm, awoke the tenderest feelings of a mother’s heart. O! that she were under her mother’s roof! was, no doubt, her deepest and fondest wish. The ingratitude of the daughter had not quenched the love of the mother. Sorrow deepens such love, and a broken heart makes it tenfold more tender.

The mother arose to relieve her heart in prayer. Blessed refuge for a sorrowful and broken heart! Her prayer must be imagined. But that will be easy for those who have waked and watched for a prodigal’s return. But there was one who heard it all, and who was making all things work together for good, for the dear children of His love.

While the mother yet prayed, and while the storm yet raged, she heard a knock at the door; when she opened it, a well-known voice asked, if she could be forgiven. What a meeting! Who could describe it?

“My child, my child!” mingling with the welcome words,

“Will you forgive me, mother?” satisfied and overjoyed both hearts. The daughter was shoeless, in rags, and drenched with the wet, but she was now in her mother’s arms, under her mother’s roof, and she was, after all, her daughter still.

But the deeper joy was yet to come. When the grateful mother was thanking God for her daughter’s return, and praying that He would now forgive her sins and save her soul, the daughter whispered in her ear,

“I am saved already, mother.”

Enough, O enough, more than enough, to break a mother’s heart over again, but now with overwhelming joy. The daughter proceeded:

“About a week ago, I heard a man preaching in the street, and, as I stood and listened, all my sins seemed to come up before me, and I was so alarmed that I ran home to my lodgings, and prayed to God to forgive me, and I believed He pardoned my sins, and then I left for home at once, and have walked all the way.”

Beautiful and touching as this scene is, and brightly as the grace of God shines through it all, it is, blessed be His name; no uncommon case. We have known and witnessed ninny of a similar character. Though, alas! all have not praying mothers, as this one had, yet some have. The Lord’s name alone have all the praise and glory.

We have in the above narrative, a fine illustration of the right way for a sinner to come to Christ. The daughter returned to her mother just as she was, and at once. She was the very picture of misery and wretchedness. Her condition proved her prodigality. She needed not to say a word, but to throw herself on her mother’s mercy. The rags spoke loud enough—yes, loud enough and plain enough—for that mother’s, heart. But she came to the right place, and to the right person, and at once. Anything else would have been wrong.

And thus, surely, should it be with the lost sinner, when Jesus says, “Come.” He should come at once, and come just as he is. Anything else—everything else, must be wrong. Many think, when they hear the invitations of the gospel, that they must in some way or other be better before they can come. They think they must at least find shoes and clothes before coming, and so make a respectable appearance. But this can never be. Every hour’s delay is time lost, besides the sin of refusing the love of Jesus. The moment you hear Him say—Come, my dear fellow sinner, be sure that you come, and just as you are.

“The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7).

We may learn also two important lessons from the above:

1. The value of prayer. God’s twofold answer to that mother’s prayer ought to encourage all hearts to pray without ceasing, but especially those who are praying for a similar blessing. He not only delivered the daughter from the paths of evil, but saved her soul from the depths of hell. God’s time, and place, and way are the best. Let us wait on Him in faith, nothing wavering.

He always answers faith. The happy day will come when the long prayed for one shall be brought to the Lord, and numbered among His redeemed. Even though we are called away before it takes place, the prayer of faith remains before Him, and can never be overlooked.

“He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).

Here, the Lord be praised, the sheet-anchor of faith may be confidently cast; for no circumstance, however adverse, can move it from its stronghold. And, where, we may ask, is the thoughtful Christian, who has not some special object of prayer before the throne of grace? May we honor God with the unquestioning confidence of our hearts, and seek that His name in all things may be glorified.

2. We have here a word of encouragement for open-air preaching. Little did the preacher know that he was the means of saving a soul from hell—of filling a desolate home with songs of joy; and also, of filling all heaven with music and dancing. Disturbed and interrupted by the noise of the street, he may have gone home quite discouraged, and sought relief in casting all upon God, as many have done before him. But He who forgets not the work of faith and the labor of love, will show him the happy fruits of his work by and by. And when the brazen and granite monuments of earthly fame shall have passed away forever, the sinner saved by grace shall shine on the plains of glory, as the eternal monument of God’s own work by means of His feeble workman. Who would not rather be the means of saving one soul from hell than be the object, even the worthy object, of the greatest earthly fame?

“In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not which shall prosper, either this or that, or whether both shall be alike good.” (Ecc. 11:6).

“Preach the Word: be instant in season, out of season.” (2 Tim. 4:2).

More Grace

We have seen how that a sinner’s salvation is all of grace, and how the saved one is brought from under condemnation and wrath (John 3:18, 36), to “stand in grace” (Rom. 5:2). His feet are set there by God; it is not a slippery Place, but good firm footing.

He can never fall out of it into hell. He is “under grace” (Rom. 6:14).

How blessed then it is for us to know that grace has reached us not at the expense of righteousness, but according to it.

“Grace reigns through righteousness.” (Rom. 5:21). Well may we sing—

“Saved by grace alone,

This all my plea;

Jesus died for sinners, lost,

And Jesus died for me.”

It is “His grace” (Eph. 1:6); the riches of “His grace”(Eph. 1:7); “the exceeding riches of His grace” (Eph. 2:7).

Now, as saved ones we have still to do with grace to begin with, and grace all through.

Grace is our teacher (See Titus 2:13) Under grace (Rom. 6:14) we are to learn how to walk and please God. Forever step of our journey we need grace, and blessed be God we have the assuring Word

“My grace is sufficient for thee.” (2 Cor. 12:9).

You need not break down, you see, dear young saints, for want of supplies.

“God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that we, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound in every good work.” (2 Cor. 9:8).

Take a good grip of this, you who are in offices among unconverted mates, who tease and trouble you, and try to rouse your temper, or get you to dishonor God by doing wrong things. Be strong in grace (2 Tim. 3:1); go boldly to the throne and “find grace” (Heb. 4:16) there; and having found, hold it fast, that you may serve God acceptably (Heb. 12:28).

Then as regards others, to your enemies be gracious, as God is to His. Let your speech be always “with grace” (Col. 4:6); not giving tit-for-tat, nor paying back those who say or do wicked things, in “their own coin.” No, no; leave God to deal with all that. He will “square accounts” with them sooner or later.

Now, in closing, I will give you a “Motto Text” to take with you.

“For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” (Psa. 84:11).

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Seventh Beatitude, Part 1

Matthew 5:1-16

Part 12

The Seventh Beatitude

“Blessed are the peace makers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Verse 9.

The mission of the children of God in this world, has a character which far exceeds, we fear, the measure of our intelligence, faith, and practice. There is a dignity—a moral beauty and glory connected with it, which we too often fail to appreciate. It emanates from God the Father; it partakes of His own moral attributes; it is the reflection, however feeble, of the blessed Lord, who was the perfect reflection of the divine glory.

Every thought, every feeling, of His heart breathed the perfect rest, and rose to the height of the absolute purity and peace of the Godhead. The seven beatitudes shine in all their divine perfectness in the lowly path of the Son of Man—Emmanuel, God with us. And He being our life, the features of His character should be produced in us, by faith, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

This is the believer’s mission whether of Jewish or of Christian faith. In our meditations we muse on both; but chiefly on the application of truth to the latter; though we rejoice in the assurance that Israel will manifest the character and be crowned with the benedictions of all the beatitudes, in the latter day. However valuable they may be to the Christian now, they look forward to the setting up of the kingdom in power and glory, and will have their complete fulfillment in that future day. But in the meantime, the Christian should seek to shine in all the graces which are here pronounced “blessed.” They ought all to be found in every Christian, though some will be more manifest in one than in another.

Mark then, my soul, and weigh well, what thy mission is, and how it should be characterized. And see that thou beginnest well. Let thy first step be a right one; this is always important. Thou must begin with God, and work out from Him. There is no such thing as working up to God, thou must work from Him. This only is the right way. First learn thy own nothingness in His presence; be weighed and measured there. Thou wilt find a just balance for self nowhere else. O, how many things, unworthy of the Christian, this would save him from.

In place of being characterized by humility, dependence, and obedience, as the blessed Lord was, we are, from lacking these graces, self-willed and self-sufficient. But having learned thy lesson well at the Master’s feet, thou wilt be fitted to go forth and bear testimony for Him, according to the portrait here given of the believer. Because of the dishonor done to His name, thou wilt mourn; and like Him, thou wilt meekly bow to that which may be personally trying, and calmly leave things in His hands. Thou wilt also seek to do the will of God, to be merciful to those around thee, and to walk before God with a pure heart. And this brings us to the last of the seven beatitudes,

“Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the children of God.”

It is not, observe, they who live in peace, walk in peace, or keep peace, that are crowned with the divine blessing, but they who make peace— “peacemakers.”

The distinction is important, as many who have a peaceable nature are the least qualified to make peace, and are in danger of being unfaithful for the sake of peace. But peace-making is quite another thing. It is the grace of the Lord Jesus in blessed activity, pouring oil on troubled waters—on the tumultuous passions of men. And this, mark, without compromising the holiness of God, or saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. It may occasion much self-denial, much anxiety, much waiting on God, much disquiet to one’s own mind. The most opposite feelings, convictions, interests, affecting character and happiness for life, may have to be dealt with and weighed in the balances of the sanctuary. But the peace maker must be impartial; he must see that “mercy and truth meet together, that righteousness and peace kiss each other.”

There must be truth as well as grace, purity as well as peace. Time must be given for God to work; peace cannot be forced. But wherever there is the smallest possibility, consistently with the holiness and truth of God, of bringing peace into a scene of trouble and sorrow, the Christian should remember his privilege and calling, and if in the scene, should reckon upon God for guidance and blessing.

“Blessed are the peace makers; for they shall be called the children of God.”

Is every Christian, it may be asked, called to be a peacemaker? Everyone has the grace, and the privilege of the grace in Christ Jesus for this blessed work, but all have not used it alike. The quality or measure of grace necessary in a peace maker, depends upon his own state of soul in the presence of God. Are the other features of the Lord’s character manifest, we would inquire? Is he enjoying, for example, the blessedness of the last beatitude? “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” This is, the divine preparation for a peace maker. He must be right with God Himself, and breathe the sweet peace of communion with Him.

The pure in heart are at peace with God through the precious blood of Christ. Cleansed from all sin—whiter than snow—they see God, and have learned much in the divine presence that fits them for peace making, He who walks with God must live in the spirit of self-judgment—must all that belongs to himself naturally, and thereby gain complete control over his own Spirit, temper, words and ways.

The pure heart is a peaceful heart, loves peace, and earnestly desires the peace awl happiness of others. Love rules in such hearts, and overflows in truest charity to all who are in a condition to need the peace maker. But sound spiritual judgment is necessary, it will be said, in cases of dispute and discipline. Most true; but who so it to judge spiritually as those who judge themselves, and walk in the light as God is in the light?

The sixth beatitude, we have no doubt, is the true preparation for the exercise of the God-like grace of the seventh; or as James says, “First pure, then peaceable.” (James 3:17).

(To be continued)

Watching Daily

Proverbs 8:34

O child of God, so weary with earth’s toil

And ceaseless strife,

Thy Master chooseth thee for high behest

And fruitful life.

O, gladly wait

Beside the portal of the Master’s gate,

To do His bidding, for the day grows late.

Take thou His message, and then hasten back

To His dear feet;

And the will greet thee with His tender love

And comfort sweet.

Then gladly wait

Beside the portal of the Master’s gate

For the next message, as the day grows late,

And mourn not sorely, if thine errand seem

All fruitless now,

The message was thy Master’s, and His mark

Is on thy brow.

And thou didst wait

Beside the portal of the Master’s gate,

As the shades gathered, and the day was late.

Not now the time of reckoning: it will come

To thee at last,

And thou wilt smile to think of weary hours

That shall be past,

When thou didst wait,

Beside the portal of the Master’s gate,

To do His bidding, ere it was too late.

If the Lord Tarry

My Beloved Friend:

Since our last conversation, I have been thinking a good deal of the subject which was then before us; and the more I think of it, the more disposed I am to doubt the moral fitness of the use so frequently made of the sentence which stands at the head of my letter. It is not according to Scripture, though it seems to have become a favorite expression with many Christian people who, I feel assured, desire to speak and act as in His divine presence, and according to the direct teaching of Holy Scripture.

I trust I need not assure you, my friend, that in raising an objection to this special form of speech, I would not, for a moment, even seem to weaken in any heart, the sense of the nearness of the Lord’s coming—that most blessed hope which ought, each day, to become brighter and brighter in the vision of our souls. Far be the thought! That hope abides, in all its moral power, and, in no wise, depends on the using or not using any set form of words.

But then supposing I say, “If the Lord tarry, I mean to go to L. next week,” I make my going to L. dependent upon the Lord’s tarrying, whereas, He may tarry, and yet it may not be His will that I should go at all; and hence I ought to place all my movements, all my actions, all my plans, under the commanding influence of my Lord’s will.

Is not this in direct accordance with Scripture? What does the inspired Apostle James say on the point?

“Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain; whereas, ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15).

Here, the Spirit of God furnishes us with the proper form of words to be used in all our acts and ways; and surely we cannot find anything better than what He graciously deigns to give. “If the Lord will” includes everything which is to regulate our movements, whether the Lord is pleased to tarry or not.

But in writing this I have no thought, I assure you, of judging any one in his use of any particular phrase. I am merely giving you my reasons for not adopting the formulary in question. And I may just ado, in conclusion, that whether we say, “If the Lord tarry,” or “If the Lord will,” we should ever seek, most earnestly, to be ha the present power of the words we see, and thus avoid everything bordering., in the most remote degree, upon mare empty phraseology or religious cant. May the Lord make us very real, in all our words and ways!

Ever, my beloved friend,

Fragment: Home

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.

What Should I Read? Part 2

We feel pressed in spirit to call the serious attention of the Christian reader to this great practical question. We deem it to be one of deepest seriousness. We cannot doubt but that the extremely low spiritual tone of Christianity among us, is owing, in many cases, to the reading of light and worthless literature. The moral effect of all such is most pernicious. How can a soul prosper, how can there be growth in the divine life where there is no real love for the Bible, or for books which unfold the precious contents of the Bible to our souls?

Is it possible that a Christian can be in a healthy condition of soul who really prefers some light work to a volume designed for true spiritual edification? We do not and cannot believe it. We are persuaded that all true-hearted, earnest Christians—all who truly desire to get on in divine things—all who really love Christ, and are breathing after heaven and heavenly things—all such will be found diligently reading the holy Scriptures and thankfully availing them, selves of any good, helpful books which may come within their reach. They will have neither time nor taste for newspapers or light literature. With them it will not be a question as to the right or the wrong of such reading, they simply have no desire for it, they do not want it, would not have it. They have something far better.

“With ashes who would grudge to part, When called on angels’ bread to feast?”

We trust our readers will bear with us in writing thus plainly and pointedly. We feel constrained as in view of the judgment seat of Christ, to do so. And we can only say, Would that we could write as earnestly as we feel on the subject. We consider it one of the weightiest and most practical questions which can engage our attention. We entreat the Christian reader to shun and discountenance all light reading. Let us each ask the question, when about to take up a book or a paper,

“Should I like my Lord to come and find this in my hand? or Can I take this into the presence of God, and ask His blessing upon the reading of it? Can I read it to the glory of the name of Jesus?”

If we cannot say “Yes” to these questions, then by the grace of God, let us fling the paper or the book away, and devote our spare moments to the blessed Word of God, or to some spiritual volume written thereon. Then shall our souls be nourished and strengthened; we shall grow in grace, and in the knowledge and love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and the fruits of righteousness shall abound in our practical life, to the glory of God.

It may be, however, that some of our friends would repudiate altogether the habit of reading human writings. Some there are who take the ground of reading nothing but the Bible. They tell us they find all they want in that peerless volume, and that human writings are rather a hindrance than a help.

Well, as to this, each one must judge for himself. No one can be a rule for another. We certainly cannot take this high ground. We bless the Lord, each day, more and more, for all the gracious helps vouchsafed to us by means of the writings of His beloved servants. We look upon them as a most precious stream of refreshment and spiritual blessing, flowing down from our glorified Head in the heavens, for which we can never praise Him enough. We should just as soon think of refusing to hear a brother speak in the assembly, as of refusing to read his writings, for what is either but a branch of ministry given of God for our profit and edification?

No doubt we have to exercise a jealous care lest we make too much of ministry, whether oral or written; but the possible abuse of a thing is no valid argument against the use of it. There is danger on every side; and most surely it is a very dangerous thing to despise ministry. We are, none of us, self-sufficient. It is a divine purpose that we should be helpful one to another. We cannot do without “that which every joint supplieth.” How many will have to praise God throughout eternity for blessing received through tracts and books. How many there are who never got an atom of spiritual ministry save what the Lord sends them through the press.

It will be said, “They have the Bible.” True, but all have not the same ability to fathom the living depths, or seize the moral glories, of the Bible. No doubt, if we cannot have either oral or written ministry, the Spirit of God Call feed us directly in the green pastures of Holy Scripture. But who will deny that the writings of God’s servants are used by the Holy Ghost as a most powerful agency in building up the Lords’ people in their most holy faith? It is our firm conviction that God has made more use of such agency during the last forty years than ever before in the entire history of the arch.

And cannot we praise Him for it? Truly so. We should praise with full and glowing hearts; and we should earnestly pray Him to grant still further blessing on the writings of His servants—to deepen their tone, increase their power, and widen their sphere. Human writings if not clothed with the power of the Holy Ghost, are just so much waste paper. And in like manner, the voice of the public preacher or teacher, if not the living vehicle of the Holy Ghost, is but a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. But the Holy Ghost does make use of both agencies for the blessing of souls, and the spread of the truth; and we deem it a serious mistake for anyone to despise an agency which God is pleased to adopt. Indeed we must confess we have rarely met anyone who refused the help of human writings who did not prove exceedingly narrow, crude, and one-sided. This is only what we might expect, inasmuch as it is the divine method to make us mutually helpful one to another; and hence, if any one affects to be independent or self-sufficient, he must sooner or later find out his mistake.

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine...

“Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all” (1 Tim. 4:12, 13, 15).

(Concluded)

Be of Good Courage

Do not yield to discouragement no matter how sorely pressed or beset you may be in circumstances. A discouraged soul is helpless. He can neither resist the wiles of the enemy himself, while in this state, nor can he prevail in prayer for others. Flee from every symptom of this deadly foe as you would flee from a viper. Be not slow in turning your back on it, lest you bite the dust in bitter defeat.

“Have I not commanded thee, Be strong and of good courage.” (Josh. 1:9).

Grumbling

A certain man at one time, unknown to himself, had a piece of garlic about his clothes. Wherever he went he smelt garlic.

“Everybody,” said he, “seems to have been near garlic.”

At length, to his disgust, he found out that he himself was guilty of the obnoxious odor; in the folds of his garments was the cause of his complaints!

Now, I do not mean that you carry real garlic about with you, gentle reader; yet be sure of this, if you find everything and everybody wrong, your brethren all wrong, and the prayers all wrong, then carefully look over your own garments, as it were, for, as sure as you are reading these lines, the garlic is there. He who grumbles at everyone has in himself the cause of discontent.

“Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another.” (Rom. 12:20).

Extract: Self

If we could put down self in every way and entirely, we should find rest in all circumstances. If we walked as Christ did, we should see God and our Father in everything. Privations, temptations, difficulties—God and our Father in all.

Subjection to His Word in everything, saying, “It is written,” makes the bitterest thing sweet. Christ has pledged Himself that I shall have rest, He reveals the Father to me, that is the blessing He has shut me into. All blessing comes from Christ teaching every day to find rest by seeing God and my Father in everything.

Correspondence: Antediluvian Race; Acts 1:11; Col. 1:20; Eph 1:10; Psa. 16:1-2

Question: Did the Lord actually go down to the place of the imprisoned, antediluvian race, to preach to them (or announce) the accomplishment of salvation?

Answer: Read 1 Peter 3:19-22. It was the same Spirit, that quickened Christ from among the dead, that in Noah preached to the anti-diluvians, and it is because they did not hearken to the preaching by Noah that they are ever since in prison.

The Lord Jesus, when He died on the cross, went to His Father to whom He commended His spirit. He was absent from His body, present with His Father. The ascension of Christ is when body and spirit, united in resurrection, ascended up to the Father, a glorified Man.

Question: Does Acts 1:11 refer to Christ’s coming for us, or to His appearing to Israel?

Answer: The disciples here are still the remnant of Israel, looking for the setting up of the kingdom.

When the Lord comes for us, who are His heavenly people, we will hear His shout, and will be caught up in a moment to meet Him in the air. (1 Thess. 4:16,17).

When He comes to Israel as King, we will come with Him, and every eye shall see Him. He shall so come in like manner as they saw Him go; this is His appearing.

But the precious truth expressed here is sweet to each saved one—that is “this same Jesus,” the “Lord Himself,” whom we have known as our Savior, will come for us. He will not send an angel for us.

Question: Please explain (1) Colossians 1:20; (2) Ephesians 1:10.

Answer: (1) This passage stands in remarkable and striking contrast to Philippians 2:10, and here, when it is a question of being compelled to bow, three orders of things are included, things celestial, terrestrial, and infernal. There, where it is a question of reconciliation (Col. 1:20), and making peace by the blood, the things infernal are most pointedly omitted, and the expression “all things” is expressly limited to things celestial and terrestrial. The distinction is all important. What the reconciliation of earthly things means we know; that of heavenly things is more mysterious. In some way we know that Satan has access to the heavenlies, and there must be defilement where his presence is. Hebrews 9:23 refers to the same subject. It is sufficient for us to know that there will be nothing in heaven or earth left that is not reconciled to God by the blood of Christ.

(2) In Ephesians 1:10, “all things” is again limited to things celestial and terrestrial. Here Christ is not the reconciler, but the head and center of all, even as He will be in the Millennial reign, when this passage will be fulfilled.

Question: Please explain “In Thee do I put My trust,” and “My goodness extendeth not to Thee.” (Psa. 16:1,2).

Answer: Psalms 16 is a breathing of the spirit of Christ, in the place of dependence upon God into which He voluntarily entered. “In Thee do I put My trust.” He speaks as the dependent man. As to Jehovah, He says, “My goodness extendeth not to Thee.” As to the saints, He says, “All My delight is in them.” It is our privilege, in our little measure, to breathe the same spirit of trust in God, and of delight in His people. In Jesus it was perfect. He, though God over all, blessed forever, yet so perfectly took the place of man that He could say to God, “In Thee do I put My trust” — “My goodness extendeth not to Thee” — “My flesh shall rest in hope.”

God's Unfailing Word

Some few years ago a Christian woman, having decided that she ought to try to put into practice her faith in the efficacy of God’s Word to bring souls into the true light, bought some marked New Testaments to circulate among some of the Jewish women of her town. Several of these little books had gone out with kind personal notes inside them, and one day the last of the series was ready. The lady started on her errand.

The walk lengthened beyond her strength; so she sat down on the seafront to rest a while. One other person sat there with her, and that one was sitting white and still with closed eyes. A few moments passed, and the tired one timidly inquired:

“Are you ill, can I do anything for you?”

The eyes opened; they were dark and despairing. With a sad and hollow voice she said:

“Yes, I am ill—I am ill—I am dying, but no one can help that.” Swift as a thought came the gentle answer.

“Christ only; but what a comfort that He can!”

Suddenly new life seemed to vibrate through the frail form. Anger that almost paralyzed her hearer, rang in the scornful tones of the stranger: the dark eyes blazed with brilliancy.

“Do not mention that name to me! The impostor! The enemy of our race! The accursed one!”

With every nerve throbbing with anxiety to help, the Christian woman paused, uncertain how to answer. Faltering, she began:

“Have you ever read the New Testament?”

“Never!” came the sharp response in the same scathing accents.

“Is that quite fair? To us who know the Book and love it, your conduct seems like condemning a person unheard. You are dying, you say—the New Testament tells of a beautiful life beyond this. O, do read it!” holding it out to her. “O, do read about Him!” And again she held out the small parcel.

A weird smile lit up the sad, thin face.

“Well, nothing can hurt me now. At any rate, you mean well.” And the Jewess took the packet, slipping it into the bag by her side.

A year went by, and again the Christian friend was on the seafront. As she walked along, someone eyed her curiously, but with an unfriendly gaze which made her feel uncomfortable, though she knew not why. Turning to retrace her steps, they met again, and this time the other paused, asking abruptly:

“Are you Miss—?”

“Yes.”

“Then I have a message to give you. Do you remember giving a New Testament to a sick lady in a shelter here a year ago?”

“Yes.”

“Well, she is dead. As she was dying I promised her if I ever met you I would tell you that she died in peace, trusting in your Jesus Christ. I was a fool to promise her, but I did it, and I have kept my word; but I curse you for giving the Book to her; you have destroyed her soul.”

She was turning to go when the Christian woman stopped her.

“The New Testament—where is that?”

“I have it. I promised her to keep it; but no one shall ever see it—it shall do no more harm.”

Quickly she walked away, leaving no chance of an answer; and her hearer went home, so shadowed by the terrible looks and words of hatred, that for days she could hardly give thanks for the precious soul that had been redeemed and was in glory.

Many months sped on their way, marked only by silent prayer for that Jewish sister still in darkness. Then one morning a letter in a strange handwriting with a strange postmark arrived. It was brief and unsigned.

“Your Jewish sister thanks and blesses you. I, too, have read that New Testament, and found the true Messiah. Pray that I may be faithful; all here are against me, especially my husband. He has taken the Book from me. Pray for him also. Yours in the love of Christ.”

More months sped away—then another missive came.

“When this reaches you, I shall be with my sister before the throne. I am dying as she did of consumption, but I want you to know that I have been kept true, and that I have my dear copy of the New Testament again. Last week my husband gave it to me. He said not a word, but he is all kindness and love. I asked him if he had read it; he only said, ‘Ask no questions,’ so I am praying on in hope. Continue your prayers for him.”

Day by day that request was complied with, though the petitioner knew neither the name nor the abode of the one for whom she prayed. But the Hearer of prayer knew and sent one more answer. Two texts of Scripture written on a card came in a foreign envelope. One of them was: “My Word shall not return unto Me void,” a text which speaks convincingly of the hidden power which lives in the inspired Word of divine truth.

His Compassions Fail Not

1 Kings 17:14.

What joy to a heart bowed with sorrow,

A soul filled with utter despair,

With not one bright hope for the morrow,

Her last meal about to prepare,

What joy to hear words of such surety

When naught but starvation was faced—

“The cruse of oil shall not fail thee,

The barrel of meal shall not waste.”

What peace came to her as, believing,

She calmly took God at His Word!

What blessed results from receiving

The messenger sent from the Lord!

How sorrow was changed into gladness,

And mourning transformed into joy!

Dispelling the fear and the sadness,

Came rest which no soul could destroy.

Today the blest Saviour is speaking

To all of His children below—

To those bravely toiling and seeking

To battle and fight ‘gainst the foe.

His words are replete with assurance,

Than honey more sweet to the taste—

“The cruse of oil shall not fail thee,

The barrel of meal shall not waste.”

Unlimited all His resources,

His promises never shall fail;

Not all of the enemy’s forces

Can over His power prevail.

His bounties are never exhausted,

He offers rich blessings to pour;

Although of His gifts you have tasted,

Draw ever afresh from His store.

Follow the Master

What is the Christian’s path in the world? He is to follow his Master—in all things. Did He assert His right? Did He go to law? Did He try to regulate the world? Did He wield the sword? Was not His whole life one of complete self-surrender, from first to last? Was He not continually giving up until, at the Cross, He gave up His precious life as a ransom for many?

“Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord.” (John 15:20).

“The world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (John 17:14).

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Seventh Beatitude, Part 2

Matthew 5:1-16

Part 13

The Seventh Beatitude

“Blessed are the peace makers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Verse 9

But what shall we say of those who forget their heavenly mission of peace, and often cause trouble? who, in place of being well shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and carrying peace with them at every step, carry a spirit of fault-finding and contention? Few such there are, we humbly trust; but troubles do arise, and the elements of discord must be at work. Yet this may be done by a mistaken zeal for what is called truth and righteousness.

With some minds, a mistake is magnified into an offense; an inaccuracy of statement, into a deliberate falsehood; and different things being put together, a grave charge is constructed and made against one who is unconscious of his guilt. And both up to a certain point may be right, but who is to judge between them?

O, for a son of peace at such a moment! A little wisdom, a little patience, a little charity, a little consideration of human infirmity, a little waiting on the Lord, might save the weak, and satisfy the scruples of the strong. There is no moral or doctrinal evil in the case, it is only a question of apparent inconsistencies, which some minds are too quick in censuring, and others too slow in detecting. But less than we have just described, has sometimes caused trouble and heart-burnings, which time itself has failed to heal. Thank God, they extend not beyond our present condition of infirmity; all is peace in the paradise above. But a little of that sweet peace brought down by the hand of faith into our present imperfect state, would only be Christ-like, and would save us from many a sorrowful heart and bitter tear.

“Blessed are the peace makers; for they shall be called the children of God.”

But there is another class less excusable, who forget so far their peaceful mission as to manifest no small disappointment if they suppose that their services are not appreciated. Displeased and unhappy in themselves, they draw others into their sympathies. A party spirit is apt to spring up, and sorrow must be the result. Wounded vanity, ministerial jealousy, will be found at the root of all such troubles. What could be more sad than for a servant of the Lord to be more concerned for his own importance, than for the peace of his brethren? But self, in some of its ten thousand forms is the prolific source of all our troubles, both spiritual and social. Could we but sink self, and care only for the Lord’s glory in walking worthy of that sweetest of all titles— “They shall be called the children of God” —all would be peace and love.

How unspeakably important then it must be for every believer to consider well this expression of his character. What can make up for its absence? What can excuse its opposite? Nothing. He who sows discord from whatever motive, in place of keeping and making peace, has missed his way as a child of God.

True, a Christian may be the occasion of much criticism in certain circles through his faithfulness to Christ; but that is quite a different thing. Satan may stir up many against him because of his wholeheartedness for Christ. Indeed he may expect this, as our Lord says,

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” (Matt. 10:34).

Still, he will study to give no offense, and, if possible, take none. He will keep clear of strife and contention, meekly suffer for Christ’s sake, and pray for the unbelieving and careless around him.

The assemblage of the seven beatitudes with which God has enriched him, should now shine forth according to the position in which he finds himself. A little prudence, a little patience and waiting on God may go far to silence the strife of tongues, to calm the ruffled temper, to remove opposition, and to win hearts for Christ. None of the Christian graces so distinctly reveals God in His children as this peacemaking spirit.

“They shall be called the children of God.”

That which God is, and delights in, is seen in them. The moral resemblance is manifest, and their sonship is declared. So let thy sonship be verified, O my soul, always, earnestly, fervently pray!

God is the great Peacemaker. This is what He has been doing, what He is doing, and what He will do until peace is established forever in the new heavens and the new earth. He delights in the title “God of peace;” which occurs seven times in the epistles. He loves peace: strife and contention cannot dwell with Him. When the demon of strife enters, the God of peace retires. Without peace there can be no edification.

When the birth of Jesus was heralded by the heavenly host, they proclaimed,

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.” (Luke 2:14).

And during His lowly path of peacemaking, God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses. He is the great Reconciler; and hath committed to His ambassadors the word of reconciliation. And thus the blessed work should go on.

“Peace be unto you; as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” (John 20:21).

The true ground of peace between God and man was laid in the great work of the cross. There God was glorified, and there His good pleasure in men was manifested. Christ made peace by the blood of His cross: and when His blessed work was finished, He returned to His Father, leaving behind Him the full blessing of peace for His disciples.

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” (John 14:27).

The peace which He made on the cross, and His own personal peace which He enjoyed with His Father while passing through the sorrows of this world, He leaves as the rich legacy of His love for all who believe in Him.

What a legacy! thou mayest well exclaim, O my soul; and what a legacy for thee, and forever! Peace with God forever! and nothing less than the sweet peace of thy Lord’s own mind in His Father’s presence.

Such is thy peace, thy portion; and see that thou goest forth as filled and clothed with peace; and that all thy paths may indeed be paths of peace.

O! that all who read this paper may know in their sweet experience what this blessedness is! Surely it is to be in the presence of God, cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus—reconciled to God through the death of His Son. He has no charge against us now. Christ has answered for all. Peace is established on the solid ground of accomplished righteousness. And this is the immediate, sure, everlasting portion of all who believe in Him. He has bequeathed it as the birthright of all who are born of God.

Read it for thyself, my fellow-sinner, in John 14, and believe it for thyself, and trust in Him for thyself; and make good use of thy legacy, it can never grow less by the most extravagant indulgence, or the most liberal distribution. Seek to share it with all who will accept it—to scatter it freely in the cottages of the poor and in the mansions of the rich.

Yes, thou canst afford to be liberal, if thou art an heir of peace! Thy portion can never fail. Its spring, the heart of God; its channel, the cross of Jesus; its power, the Holy Spirit; the instrument by which it becomes thine, the Word of God.

But, remember, I pray thee, unbelief gains nothing but the righteous judgment of insulted goodness. Unbelief rejects everything that divine goodness has provided—peace, and the God peace; salvation and the Saviour; heaven and its happiness. And this is what so many think of as a mere passive or negative evil. But in God’s account, it is the active energy of all evil. It rejects the truth, it believes a lie; it refuses peace, it cherishes hostility; it shuts the door of heaven, it opens the gates of hell; its every breath is defiance, its every act is suicidal.

This is unbelief—the fatal sin of unbelief. But faith, even as a grain of mustard seed, will put thee in possession of the sevenfold blessedness of these beatitudes now, and fit thee for the endless blessedness., and unfading glories of thy Father’s house on high.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:31).

Peace with our holy God,

Peace from the fear of death,

Peace through our Saviour’s precious blood,

Sweet peace, the fruit of faith,

We worship at Thy feet,

We wonder and adore,

The coming glory scarce more sweet

Than sweet the peace before.

(To be continued)

Philippians

It has been often pointed out that in this epistle there is more about “joy” and “rejoicing” than perhaps in any other. And yet the Apostle is in circumstances that would naturally produce care and anxiety instead of joy; when writing it. But if we look carefully into the four chapters that compose this letter, we shall find that there are four great and important points that tell the secret of this Christian man being not only happy himself in spite of circumstances, but able to exhort others to “rejoice in the Lord alway.” And yet Paul was a man of like passions as ourselves. The four points are these:

In the 1st chapter, verse 21, Paul says that “for me to live is Christ.”

In the 2nd chapter, verses 5 to 9, he has what he exhorts others to have, “This mind that was in Christ Jesus.”

In the 3rd chapter, verses 13, 14, 20 and 21, he had the coming of the Lord before his soul continually.

In the 4th chapter, verse 13, he had Christ before him as his strength.

A Christian who has thus Christ as his object, Christ as his example, Christ’s coming as his hope, and Christ Himself as his strength, is and must be a happy soul. Reader, how is it with you and me?

A Fragment: Like Christ

1 John 3:1-3.

I am going to be like Christ in glory; then I must be as like Him now as ever I can be. Of course we shall all fail, but we are to have our hearts full of it.

Remember this, that the place you are in, is that of an epistle of Christ. We are set for this, that the life of Christ should be manifested in us. Christ has settled the question of our sins with God: now He appears in the presence of God for us, and we are in the presence of the world for Him.

“In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.”

If I know He is in me, I am to manifest the life of Christ in everything. If He has loved me with unutterable love which passes knowledge, I feel bound in heart to Him; my business is to glorify Him in everything I do. “Bought with a price” —that is settled: if bought, I am His.

But, beloved friends, I press upon you that earnestness of heart which cleaves to Him, especially in these last evil days, when we wait for the Son from heaven. O! if Christians were more thoroughly Christians, the world would understand what it was all about.

The Lord give you to have such a sense of the Love of Christ, that, as bought with a price, the only object of your souls may be to live by Christ, and to live for Christ; and for those who do not know Him, that they may learn how He came down in love to seek us, and, because righteousness could not pass over sin, died to put it away.

The Coming of the Lord

It will be a marvelous scene when Christ presents the church to Himself, when He takes that Bride of His to share His glory. Ah! not only that, but the oneness with Himself that characterizes us. What the heart feels is our being looked at as belonging to Himself—taken out of Himself—that the Father sees us not only in the relationship that links us up with the Son of His love in the glory, but in such a relationship that He could not do without us. He the Bridegroom, must have the Bride up there. And we know we shall be for His own self in the glory.

One may see the earthly side now, but when we see Christ Himself, it will be the heavenly side, it will be in the full unhindered energy of the Holy Ghost, having hearts responding to that blessed grace that brought us there. The first Adam was not alone, and the last Adam will not be so. He also will have His Bride.

“The Spirit and the Bride say come.” (Rev. 22:17).

“Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” (Rev. 22:20).

An important thing comes out here, that not only should we have communion with His mind in all that meets us in the wilderness., but there is another sort of communion to be enjoyed—communion responsive to the desire of His heart.

“Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

The effect of the bright light shining down has been, that we have found that this earth would not do for our future course, and we know because we have it revealed, that He means to come and take us to heaven. This thought has given joy in persecution.

But what is the thought of being in heaven compared with the thought of His coming to take us there? At times our hearts are drooping and we are “hardly bestead;” but what is anything we have to pass through here, if one has the consciousness of being able to respond to Him,

“Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).

“Thou dost desire, Lord, to take up Thy people, and most blessed it will to be up there.”

Is the desire of the Lord Jesus to come, which is put forth here, burning in my heart? If I know His desire to come, am I able to say, “Even so, come?”

It is really having communion with that heart of His, where every thought is the Father’s will, and who has been waiting nearly 2000 years to come and take up the people given by the Father—He, the Bridegroom, they, the Bride.

It is an immense help to remember that the Lord Jesus never forgets His coming. There is a fixedness of heart in Him to come and take His Bride home to the Father’s house, and I can have sympathy with Him in that.

Fortitude

Many years ago there was a freshet which carried much destruction with it. While the waters were still rising, a bridge was washed out just as a train of cars passed on it, and passengers, cars and bridge were dashed into the surging waters below.

The engineer of the train was thrown into the river near the shore. He could soon have made his escape, had it not been that his arm was caught between portions of the broken bridge and held as in a vise. The waters were rising rapidly and he must soon be submerged, if he could not be released from this dire situation. He called to a man not far off to get a saw quickly and come and saw off his arm.

This man without hesitation carried out the request of the poor, imprisoned engineer, and just in time for him to escape a watery grave. The maimed arm was bound up, and cared for, and in due time the engineer recovered.

The railroad company paid him $5,000.00 damages, and out of this he gave $500.00 to the man who had so heroically cut off his arm. It required true courage and resolution to perform such an act, but by it the life of the engineer had been saved, and with deep gratitude he gladly sought to repay the man who thus unflinchingly went forward in this trying duty.

Shall we, who have been redeemed at the cost of the precious blood of Jesus, show less fortitude, less courage, in rescuing souls from eternal misery, than this man did in rescuing a fellow-being from temporal death? Had he wavered, or stopped to think of the dreadful task before him, the waters would soon have swallowed up the poor prisoner.

Alas! how often the followers of Jesus Christ are afraid to speak, afraid to act for Him. They waver—they put off—and perhaps the opportunity is gone forever.

May the Lord give to each of His own, true courage in seeking to rescue souls from the everlasting burnings!

“Proclaim the Word; be urgent in season and out of season, convict, rebuke, encourage, with all longsuffering and doctrine.” (2 Tim. 4:2, N. T.)

“Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.” (Mark 5:19).

My Little Marguerite's Pincushion

I was in bed on the morning of my birthday. It was very early and I was half asleep and half-awake when I heard little feet approaching my bedside, and a gentle voice, saying,

“I am bringing you a birthday present. I made it all by myself!”

I felt the little fingers put a tiny package into my hand, but sleep overcame me. In about an hour I awoke, finding something in my hand, and then it all came back to me, and I understood that my dear little girl had got up early, on that cold January morning, to show me her affection, having done what was in her power for me.

I opened the small parcel, and was, indeed, surprised when I saw the contents. It was a birthday present, such as I had never seen before. As I looked at it, I did not know whether to cry or laugh, I was so deeply touched. My little darling’s present was simply a pincushion made from the mended heel of an old stocking she had taken from the rag bag. The stitches she had put in were long and irregular, and on the edges were knots and long threads—the whole thing was the most original piece of work any one had ever seen.

How do you suppose I received it? Did I tell my little girl it was useless? No! nor did I say,

“It seems to me you might have put in smaller stitches,” nor, “Why did you not cut the ends of thread off before bringing it to me?”

No, indeed! What touched me so deeply was that my child had done it for me. She had done her very best, and instead of throwing it aside as worthless, I kept it as a precious treasure, and today I would not exchange it for its weight in gold. It was a proof of my child’s love.

And, now, dear ones, who believe in Jesus, what lesson can we learn from this little account? Are not we the objects of our Father’s love? Does He look upon our little efforts to serve Him with less tenderness than I looked upon my child’s work? No, indeed! The love of God is far, far greater than mine for my little girl. We cannot compare His love, for He gave His only Son for us, and now that we are His children, He takes notice of every little effort on our part to please Him. Our work may be very poor, like the long and irregular stitches, the knots and the ends not cut off, yet we may have tried to please Jesus—

“We love Him, because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19).

And in His tenderness and love, He does not repulse us, nor send us away, saying, “I cannot accept it, because it is not perfect;” but He takes account of the smallest service done for Him, even a cup of cold water given in His name. How glad we shall be if He will be able to say about us,

“She hath done what she could.” (Mark 14:8) or, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.” (Matt. 25:21).

The Word of God tells us that people look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart, so when He sees that we are really trying to please Him, it is that which gives Him joy, and we must remember that we need to ask Him each day for strength to walk pleasing to Him.

We have a loving Father, one who appreciates any little act done for Him, much more than I did my little Marguerite’s pincushion.

“God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” (Heb. 6:10).

“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all, especially unto them which are of the household of faith.” (Gal. 6:10).

Rejoice

To rejoice does not mean to sing and act boisterously, but it does mean a calm, restful, peaceful, trustful spirit manifested momentarily no matter what the circumstances of life may be. It does mean to have a deep settled peace and joy in the Lord which nothing can mar nor destroy. It does mean to have a song of praise in the heart every moment, even though the outward circumstances are nothing but displeasing and unrestful.

“This is the day which the Lord hath made: we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psa. 118:24).

Correspondence: MAT 25; REV 19; EZE 37; REV 10:22; Jesus as Wisdom in PRO 8

Question: Please say something about the time of the judgments in Matthew 25, Revelation 19, and Ezekiel 37. Is there any portion in Scripture which supports the common idea of a general judgment?

Answer: The judgment of the living nations in Matthew 25 is a seasonal judgment, that is, the Lord as King will sit on the throne of His glory, and the living nations (Gentiles) be gathered before Him.

It will take place after the Lord comes out from heaven with us in manifested glory. The judgment is final, therefore “everlasting” in its results.

The warrior judgment in Revelation 19 takes place before this. Ezekiel 37 will not be fulfilled until Israel and Judah, the ten tribes and two tribes, shall be “one” in the land of Jehovah. Scripture nowhere speaks of a general judgment.

Question: What is having the heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, Hebrews 10:22? Is it practical walk?

Answer: It is rather the position in which the blood of Christ has set us. See 1 Peter 1:2.

Question: If wisdom in Proverbs 8 means the Lord Jesus, what is the meaning of “I was set up,” and “I was brought forth”? Does ver. 31 mean that Christ was looking forward to the future?

Answer: The whole passage is highly poetic and figurative. Now inasmuch as Christ is “the wisdom of God,” in this wonderful scripture, Christians of all ages have discerned the description of Christ Himself. Such phrases as you allude to are not to describe His beginning, but rather to show as far as human language can, that He was ever with God, “set up from everlasting” being equivalent to this.

Ver. 31 describes the delight Jehovah ever had in man, and His dwelling with him, a subject alluded to throughout Scripture (Ex. 15; John 14), but not consummated till sin is banished forever in the new heavens and earth (Rev. 21:3).

A Memorable Holiday

My only brother and I were on a holiday at a pretty watering place. Everything around was beautiful: the high hills behind, the calm lake in front; the bleating sheep on the hill sides, yet I was far from happy. In fact, I had been almost good for nothing for six months. A strange heaviness hung around me. Our doctor did not understand my complaint, and I could scarcely describe it myself—only I was very often troubled with thoughts of the future world and wondered where I would be when earthly life was past.

My mother advised me to join the church, which I did. That gave me no relief.

The minister gave me a district to visit, but I found no pleasure in that. I felt there was something still wanting, something that I knew that others had, and I had not. What this was, or how it was to be had I did not know.

In this strange condition of mind I accompanied my brother to S. He was sure the change of scenery, and the splendid boating and bathing, would soon bring me to my wonted health and spirit. Charlie thoroughly enjoyed the frivolous company, and was in his element, but I soon tired of it. I saw that all the round of pleasure was hollow underneath. It did not satisfy.

Our landlady was a very nice person, and did her utmost to make us comfortable. She was the most peaceful, contented, and happy person I had ever seen, and it was not because she had few troubles or cares. When we were a little acquainted, I asked her one day if she could give me her “Recipe” for rest and happiness. Smiling she said,

“I’ll be very glad to do that—it’s Jesus.”

I was taken aback at this strange answer, and thought she must suppose that I was an infidel or something of the sort. So I replied,

“O yes, of course we all must have Him.”

“But not everybody has Him,” said my landlady quietly— “some are rejecting Him, and many others are trying to hold on to the world and Jesus too, but that will not do.”

These words went to my heart like an arrow; they described my case exactly.

“But it is not so easy for us young people to give up the world just yet. When we come to your time of life it will be easier I suppose,” I said.

“Not a bit, my young lady,” said she, “but a great deal worse. None but Christ can break the string that binds the heart to the world, but as soon as Christ is received into the heart, it is the easiest thing on earth to let it go, because you have something so much better.”

I had never heard of such a thing before. I had been taught that Christianity was a hard, uncertain battle: that few, very few indeed, ever attained to the ideal of being a Christian, and these few only did so through great conflicts. Here was a simple woman, apparently in the enjoyment of something that made her heart glad every day, and she declared it was Christ.

I believed in my heart she told the truth: that she was a real Christian, and I determined to find out, if that were possible, the secret of the whole matter. Many an hour I spent with her in the kitchen, asking all sorts of questions, to all of which she gave the one simple answer,

“It’s all in Christ. You just need Him, and if you receive Him as your Saviour and Friend, all will be well.”

The dear simple woman told me how God had loved me and given His Son to be my Saviour, that I had only to receive Him as mine, as my own personal Saviour, just as if He had come to save me alone, apart from all others, and assuring me from His own Word that if I did so I would be saved.

I shall never forget the afternoon that the simplicity of God’s way of salvation dawned upon me as I sat alone. I saw my brother Charlie coming along, and as soon as he got to the garden gate I said,

“I’m saved.”

I could have danced with joy, and praise God, the cloud that hung over me vanished that hour. I know that Jesus is mine: He has given me eternal life (John 3:16). He is my peace (Eph. 2:14), and my keeper (Psa. 121:5). O how changed life is to me. I only wish I could tell everyone of Him who came to save, as that woman told me of Him by the lake side that summer day.

Reader, are you at peace with God? If not, will you receive Jesus Christ today as your own and only Saviour? Christ has taken my heart’s burden away, and given me His own peace. He has cleansed me from my sins in His precious blood (Rev. 1:5). He has given me eternal life (John 3:15), with the assurance that I shall never perish (John 10:28), but live with Himself in glory forever (John 17:24).

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” (Eph. 1:3).

The Secret of a Happy Path

“How can you look so pleasant tonight?” a man asked his friend. “You have had a score of interruptions this, afternoon, when you had hoped to do a lot of work.”

“That’s all right,” was the answer; “every morning I give my day to Christ, then I take what He sends. These interruptions come in the way of duty. Why should I complain about the service He has appointed?”

“In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” (Prov. 3:6).

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Beatitude of Position, Part 1

The Beatitude of Position

Matthew 5:10-12

Part 14

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

Were it not that we leave the children of the kingdom in a hostile world, we might here conclude our “Meditations,” in the full assurance of their perfect blessedness. Seven times blessed is divine completeness. But however blessed, however happy in the divine presence, however fit to inherit the earth in its bright Millennial day, however fit to reign with Christ in the higher regions of glory, they still stand in this world just where they stood before they were born of God, and surrounded it may be with the same persons and circumstances as they ever were.

This we may see every day. The home that was once cheerful and happy, is now a cheerless wilderness. How often the young convert has found himself an alien and a stranger in his father’s house—the very house in which he lived all his unconverted days! But now, he being completely changed, the family not, he has no fellowship with their ways, and they have none with his. All is changed; opposition is inevitable, and persecution in some way or other, especially if he reaches the sevenfold blessedness of his Master’s image.

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer, persecution.” (2 Tim. 3:12).

“Hold thy peace, art thou wiser than thy father and thy mother, than thy brothers and thy sisters, must we all give in to thee?” may be the lightest form of persecution experienced. Still it is resistance to the grace of God and the Spirit of Christ, as manifested by the young convert. He must now pursue his path alone.

So far, it will be observed, we have spoken chiefly of the character of God’s children, now we turn to meditate for a little on their position in an evil world. The moral character of those who belong to Christ, rising in grace to the seventh beatitude, must necessarily arouse the spirit of persecution, and expose them to trial, until the kingdom of heaven is set up in power and glory.

Had no special blessing been pronounced on this condition of things, the disciples might have been ready to say that their state was anything but blessed; that the benediction of heaven on their character only brought down upon themselves the hatred and oppression of mankind. True, this would have been natural, not spiritual, walking by sight, not by faith; but what will unbelief not say and do? much unbelief still lurks in the hearts of believers. But O, the grace, the rich, the abounding grace, of our Lord Jesus! He pronounces those twice blessed who are exposed to persecution from the world. This completes the beautiful picture of His people’s character and condition, and adds great interest and fullness to every circumstance of their position while the kingdom is in abeyance.

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

This must have been a strange language to those who were looking for outward glory, or a reign of peace, a paradise on earth. But the Lord plainly sets before His disciples what their new position would be in this world, and the more distinct their likeness to Himself, the heavier would be their persecutions. But He especially refers in this first blessedness of position, to the first group of beatitudes, which are characterized by righteousness; as the last three are by grace.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Every newborn soul must have the sense, more or less, of its own nothingness, and a sincere and earnest desire to be found in obedience to the will of God. This is righteousness, and the righteousness which brings persecution in this life.

For example, a Christian who is walking with the Lord fears to do what is wrong; he desires to do what is right; he seeks to maintain a conscience void of offense towards God and towards man. This is the breastplate of righteousness,. But he is offered, it may be, certain preferment in his position if he will agree to do something which he fears not to be right. The offer may be a tempting one and he is needy; but no, he waits on the Lord; he brings the matter before Him; light shines, the tempter’s object is seen, he positively refuses; righteousness prevails, but he suffers for it. He is misunderstood, is called foolish, or it may be fanatic and madman. He not only loses what was offered, but what he had; he is no use, he is turned out. Still he can say, My present loss, under the righteous government of God, will prove my eternal gain. He has a clear conscience, a happy heart: he is drawn closer to the Lord in dependence on Him.

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

When the King returns from the far country, and calls His own servants around Him, what will it be to hear Him say,

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord”? (Matt. 25:21).

Here, O my soul, pause a little. Let thy meditations be deep, patient, and prayerful, on this most practical subject. Consider, weigh well, I pray thee, the many ways in which thou mayest be faithful or unfaithful! Are there not many shades of practical unrighteousness in the affairs of this life? But they must all be brought up again and measured by a righteous standard. How solemn, though how blessed the thought, of being manifested before the tribunal of Christ—of having every thought, word, and act, brought into the light, examined and estimated there. Dost thou expect to hear Him say,

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant”?

I press not for an answer, but let thy heart answer to Him. Be manifested before Him now; seek to do the whole will of God in all things, and during all thy earthly days. After what the Lord has said of blessedness here, what must it be hereafter, when He will have everything His own way, and when every blessedness shall have its full and everlasting reflection in us!

May we walk with the Lord, though we may have to suffer for it.

(To be continued).

Fret Not Thyself

Worry is not only a sin against God, but it is a sin against ourselves. Thousands have shortened their lives by it, and millions have made their lives bitter by dropping this gall into their souls every day. Honest work seldom hurts us; it is worry that kills.

I have a perfect right to ask God for strength equal to the day, but I have no right to ask Him for one extra ounce of strength for tomorrow’s burden. When tomorrow comes, grace will come with it.

“Cast thy burden upon the Lord; and He shall sustain thee.” (Psa. 55:22).

The God of My Salvation

Thou art my joy, Lord Jesus,

For the Father rests in Thee;

Thou art my peace, Lord Jesus,

Thou didst give Thyself for me.

Ere the closing race be run,

Ere the crown of life be won,

Thou art my joy;

Thou art my shield from condemnation,

Thou art the strength of my salvation.

Thou art my strength, Lord Jesus;

Power belongs alone to Thee;

Thou art my song, Lord Jesus,

For Thy grace sufficeth me.

Till the tears of time be o’er,

Till the tempter tempt no more,

Thou art my strength!

Thou art my song in tribulation,

Thou art the horn of my salvation.

Thou art my bread, Lord Jesus,

Evermore I live by Thee;

Thou art my wine, Lord Jesus,

For Thy blood was shed for me,

In the battle’s deadly fray,

In the coming glory day,

Thou art my bread!

Thou art my wine of consolation,

Thou art the Rock of my salvation.

Thou art my light, Lord Jesus,

And I love to gaze on Thee;

Thou art my life, Lord Jesus,

Thou art throned on high for me,

Though the lesser lights may pale,

Though my heart and flesh may fail,

Thou art my light!

Thou art the Sun of God’s creation,

Thou art my light and my salvation.

Thou art my hope, Lord Jesus,

I am waiting here for Thee;

Thou art my gain, Lord Jesus,

Thou art all in all for me.

Thou art my joy, and food, and might,

Thou art my peace, and life, and light,

Thou art my hope!

Thou art my Lord, mine adoration,

Thou art the God of my salvation.

The Lord's Servants

I have been greatly struck with the way in which the Lord sought to educate, and then sent out His servants when He was here.

“Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest, And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth.” (John 4:34-37).

O, what an evangelist He was. Come from the Father’s heart, and laden with all its love, He traveled all through that burning desert to reach, and fill one empty, sinful heart. Son of God, we adore Thee! He went to death for you and me.

Beloved brethren, what are we going to do for Him? Are not souls perishing on every hand? What are we doing? Are we carrying the light, the blessed gospel of God’s grace, to them? Mark, it is a responsibility laid on us. Here the Lord says look, the fields are white already to harvest. May He press these words upon your hearts and mine. If we go elsewhere we find it written,

“But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.” (Matt. 9:36-38).

“Pray ye.” O, how beautiful! In the fourth of John it was, Look ye; here it is, Pray ye. He, so to speak, says, I will take you into fellowship with Me in the work. I do not know that they did pray, but anyway He sent out twelve:

“And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease... These twelve Jesus sent forth.” (Matt. 10:1, 5).

O, beloved, the laborers are indeed few. Do we pray after this sort?

In the sixteenth chapter of Mark, we find Him risen from the dead, and there He says in the fifteenth verse,

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” That is it. People sometimes say to me, “Where shall we preach?” He tells you, “Go ye into all the world.”

I quite admit, if you contend for it, that it was a special injunction to the twelve. But would you limit it to them? “Go ye into all the world” is an imperative command. Have we hearts to obey? Are our hearts so sweetly in tune with Him as to be ready to go?

This answers the question—Where to preach? If I look at the Apostle Paul, I find him preaching in all sorts of places. Hilltops, riversides, marketplaces, prisons, palaces, and synagogues, and his own hired house, all heard his voice. The point is that the servant is to be at the command of the Lord to carry out the testimony. His only exercise was as to how the Lord’s Word was to be addressed to those to whom his Master had sent him. Nor was it a question of fellowship with the assembly, though his oft-repeated request for their prayers showed how he valued their fellowship. If their hearts are right, they will be praying to the Lord for blessing.

The servant gets his commission from his Master. He wants no other authorization or commendation.

“For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.” (Mark 13:34).

He has authority from the Lord: that is enough. What will be the result? There will be a reward for all service rendered to Him by-and-by. The thirty-second chapter of Isaiah gives us a good illustration of the query, Where shall we preach?

“Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.” (Verse 20). Sow beside all waters. What is the meaning of that? Diligent toil.

But there is not only the question of where to preach, but when to preach? Solomon furnishes a good answer;

“Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God Who maketh all. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” (Ecc. 11:1-6).

In the East they sow the seed upon the waters, the water subsides, and the seed drops, into a soft fertile bed. This is not preaching. It is you and I just keen to drop the blessed seed of the Word of God in the soul, wherever God carries us. You are to be a person going about with the heavenly seed-basket on your arm, dropping the seed wherever you go. It may be to a saint. It may be to a sinner. The fact is, far too much is left to the preachers. Verse 4 teaches us not to be governed by circumstances. I think God often gives us a fair wind. It took Paul only a day and a half to come to Philippi from Troas with the gospel. (Acts 16:11, 12). But it took him five days to get back to Troas again. (Acts 20:6). Do you think God has told us that for nothing? God did not put that in His book without purpose.

Go on with your work. Let nothing hinder you. That is the great thing for a saint today.

“In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand.” That is when to preach. “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season.” (2 Tim. 4:2).

Where to preach? All the world your parish. When to do it? Morning and evening, always at it.

How to preach is also of importance, and Scripture tells us how to do it.

“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” (Psa. 126:5, 6).

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. I think that is how. There is a moral state. There is exercise of soul. And therefore you sow in tears, and reap in joy. That is a beautiful answer to the How, both in the way you go out, and in the way you present the truth.

Again we get an illustration of this in Paul’s history.

“And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.” (Acts 14:1).

Connect that with “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And Paul and Barnabas so spake that a multitude believed.

It is said of George Whitefield that he so felt the love of God, on the one hand, and the need of souls on the other, that he often wept over them when preaching. Little wonder that they wept under him. The Lord help you and me to preach like that.

Living for Christ

In Romans the Christian is always viewed upon earth; he has died to sin, is alive in Christ, and is perfectly justified, he is walking through the world in that condition, and has to yield himself up to God.

In Colossians you get him dead as in Romans, but also risen with Christ, and he has a hope laid up for him in heaven.

In Ephesians you get a step further, as there, he is seated in the heavenly places.

Each of these is a Christian state, so far.

And now let us see how the Christian lives. You can’t live in the world without an object before you, so the Apostle says,

“I live by the faith of the Son of God.”

How far can we say that we live by the faith of the Son of God?

“Whatsoever ye do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,” that will be by the faith of the Son of God.

I may fail, but here he speaks as a Christian. And mark how this acts upon the heart and the affections, it is He “who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

You get two things connected together; Christ lives in me, and is this blessed object, and I have the certainty of His deep affection for me. He has laid down His life for me, and I live by the faith of Him. How far can we say that?

His death has closed the whole history of man in the flesh. He loved us and gave Himself for our sins, and now He is the firstborn among many brethren. Then, are we living for Christ, or has the world got hold of our hearts? It is possible to live like Lot for a time. Are we living in association of faith with Christ in heaven, or are we living in this world?

The time is short. It is the time of God’s long-suffering now, and Peter says He “is ready to judge the quick and the dead.”

God knows the moment when grace will cease to gather souls to Christ in glory. Be assured there is reality with God.

We walk by faith not by sight. Which are we living by? Faith or sight?

Things to attract are stretched out on every hand. Shops are full of things everywhere. We know well what that is, but do we allow all that? Or are we so living by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us, that the world and the devil cannot distract us? But can we say “This one thing I do,”?

The Lord is patient in His love, but are we with purpose of heart living to Him who died for us and rose again? We know how far short we come, but still, is there a perfect heart with us, so that our conscience is good?

Conscience is purged and made perfect before God by the blood of Christ, but I speak of it now in a practical sense.

There is for us the present joy of having Christ in our hearts, by the power of the Holy Ghost, until we reach that blessed day, when He shall come and take us to be with Himself.

The great truth and essence of Christianity is that it takes the heart out of this world, and fixes it on Christ. It makes us live by Christ, on Christ, and to Christ.

Sympathy

Hebrews. 4:12-16; 10:19-23

Chapter four of Hebrews is the character of Christ’s support to me here on the earth. It is no question of sin. Priesthood is for me a poor feeble person down here. We are going on to the rest, and how are we to get on by the way? Chapter four tells us how Christ supplies us as we pass on through this world. The first thing is the Word of God; the second, the sympathy of Christ. I could not be sustained here where Christ is not, save by the grace of Christ. I have His sympathy.

In John 11, I find two sisters, both believers, suffering from the same affliction, a very terrible bereavement, they both are suffering, but in very different states of soul, and we see how the Lord meets and deals with each. When a soul goes wrong it is not priesthood sets him right; it is advocacy; the advocate has to do with sin.

If I am not subject to the Word, I do not get the Lord’s sympathy. See the difference between His way with Martha and with Mary, though both were suffering, and He loved them both; but one was subject to Him, the other was not. He gave Martha no sympathy. She was not subject. He does not go a step along with her. He stayed “in that place where Martha met Him.” He did not advance at all.

But when Mary comes to Him, we see His sympathy. He comes along side of her, as it were. He groans in His spirit. He is feeling what death is. He says to her, I have a deeper sense of death than you have. They were right to feel the death of their brother, but they were to be subject to the Lord in it.

Sympathy is that I feel what you feel. A great characteristic of Christ’s sympathy is that He always. presents Himself in the character that suits the person with whom He sympathizes. Trial does not soften people; sympathy does. This terrible bereavement was used by the Lord as an opportunity to acquaint Mary with the heart she would never lose, with all the depth and tenderness of the love that could never be taken from her; so that “out of the eater came forth meat.”

Weakness is not sinfulness. If a thing is wrong, Christ does not sympathize with us in it; nevertheless His love never ceases. He says;

“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Heb. 13:5).

But He does not show sympathy to a person that is perverse; the Word must deal with that person.

I often ask myself, Does the Lord sympathize with me in this? The first ministry of His grace brings the soul to understand, “I have considered for you.” Is the Lord thinking about me? Yes, what I want is the Lord’s grace. I know Him, I belong to Him, I feed on the manna, Christ on earth.

If I have not the sense that the Lord sympathizes with me, that He is looking after my affairs, I cannot turn round and think of His affairs. If you can, “the God of peace shall be with you.”

“Whatsoever things are true,... think on these things.”

If I am not going in company with the Lord, I am worried about my own affairs, but if I have the sympathy of Christ, I shall not be worried, I know that He is thinking about my affairs, and I leave them all to Him.

The Lord grant that each of us may know better His sympathy as we walk through this evil world.

Correspondence: 50 Days; MAR 14:3-9; JOH 12:38; LUK 10:38-42; REV 22:3

Question: Please explain how you find fifty days between the resurrection of the Lord, and the coming of the Holy Spirit?

Answer: The word “Pentecost” means fifty, or the fiftieth; the allusion is to Leviticus 23. In that chapter we get two offerings on the morrow after the Sabbath. The wave sheaf is the type of the resurrection of Christ (Verses 10-14). There is no sin offering attached to that; it is the Lord Himself. Then seven Sabbaths were counted, and on the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, that is, the first day of the week, a new meat offering— “two wave loaves baken with leaven” —is offered. A sin offering accompanies it, for it is typical of the redeemed church, which, though redeemed, has sin in each member (Verses 15-21).

In the New Testament we see that the Lord rose on the first day of the week, and was seen of His disciples forty days (Acts 1:3); then came His ascension. The disciples continued in prayer and supplication the rest of the period (not many days), till Pentecost, the fiftieth day was fully come; then the Holy Spirit came down.

Question: In Mark 14:3-9, the Lord’s head is said to have been anointed, and in John 12:38, His feet. Please explain this, and say if Luke 10:38-42 refers to the same event.

Answer: No doubt both are true. The propriety of the head being mentioned in Mark, and the feet only in John will be at once seen if we consider that in the former we have Christ as the servant, in the latter as the Son of God. Luke 10 describes a previous scene in which Mary was not rendering any service to Christ, but learning from Him. In John 12 we get Mary giving, in Luke 10 she is getting. And it was doubtless what she got on this and similar occasions that enabled her to show such exquisite feeling when it became her turn to give.

Question: Who are meant by “His servants” in Revelation 22:3? Does not our service end with our lives on the earth

Answer: Surely not. It means us. Are we not to be kings and reign? Our weariness and toil, our tears, our weakness, our unfaithfulness, will all be over then, but not our service. He ever will still be a servant (Luke 12:37), and shall not we? This, indeed, will be the bliss of heaven to be permitted to manifest, in a small but thus perfect measure, our love and faithfulness to our beloved Lord.

Without God

“Strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” (Eph. 2:12).

I was in a large town where gospel meetings were being held, and I went to them. The speaker was a fearless man, faithful to his Master, and to his hearers. I thought he was just suited for his audience, and was enjoying his plain words, when one evening he made use of what I regarded as a strange and unwarrantable expression. I remember the words well, even to this day—now over twenty years gone by—though no doubt the servant of God who uttered them has long since lost their remembrance, if indeed he has not gone home. The words are these,

“The most amiable lady in this town, out of Christ, is as near hell as the greatest drunkard in it.”

What dreadful words to use, I thought; how dare he say such a thing as this. I went home highly indignant with the preacher, and, of course, gave him the cold shoulder, and prated to my wife about such manner of preaching as his; but at the same time I was restless. Can it be true, thought I, that a religious man as I am—one who has never drunk a glass of intoxicating drink in his life, and who has lived most morally—can such a one be as near hell as a poor drunkard? No, no, the idea is too shocking. But what does God say?

“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23).

I read these words, among many others, and was led to bow to the Word of God. I discovered I was all wrong, and became anxious to be made all right.

Bless God, He soon revealed His Son to me as my only Saviour. I believed Him, and then could sing in truth,

“Happy day, happy day,

When Jesus washed my sins away.”

Some while after my conversion, I was in charge of a mission yacht, on her way to the Shetland Islands, to carry the good news of salvation to the hardy islanders. A steady breeze blew when the yacht was off the Y. coast, which freshened to a gale, and soon after, unable to keep her course—the gale increasing—she was compelled to scud before it under bare poles. The heavy seas rolled up like huge monsters under her stern, roaring and threatening to engulf vessel and crew; and, when midnight came in all its fearful blackness of darkness, the little vessel was fast making water, and all hope of saving her was gone. Then the writer committed the small crew to God—not one of whom was converted—and remembered the loved ones at home. And then he stood steering the little craft throughout the long night, expecting every minute the next sea would sweep all into eternity. In that soul-searching hour he was, by grace, enabled humbly, yet calmly, to sing,

“Jesus, lover of my soul,

Let me to Thy bosom fly,

While the nearer waters roll,

While the tempest still is high.”

And how dear these lines have been to him ever since! O, what a contrast it was that night, when looking into the face of a watery grave, and standing on the verge of eternity, between the storm without, and the calm within! What a contrast to his, feelings on the first storm which he has narrated!

As one who has faced death, both as an unsaved sinner and as a saved man, both in view of hell and of heaven, reader, I appeal to you. Are you at peace with God? Are you reconciled to Him, and are you one with His Christ? Would death be to you a leap in the dark—going, going, where?—to spend an eternity in hell? or would it be a blessed entrance into Paradise? Why will you be lost? For rejecting Christ, the only Savior?

Your sins may all be forgiven you, but the rejection of Christ will never be forgiven. Pardon and peace are now offered to you through the atoning blood of God’s own dear Son. Come then, repent now of your sins, believe on Christ, and be saved.

“This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:11, 12).

An Incident in the Life of Duncan Matheson

Mr. M. who had been greatly used of the Lord in many places in Scotland, was told that he need not attempt to go to a certain country town in the north. The ministers had told the people that the revival was a delusion, and Duncan was told that nobody wanted him, and that he would get none to hear him. Not discouraged by the failure in attempts made by others, he resolved to go.

After praying for a blessing, he went hired a hall for a week, announced his meetings, and commenced at the appointed hour. Not a soul appeared; undisputed victory seemed to remain with spiritual apathy. Most men would have looked on the empty hall as an intimation of the will of God to depart and seek a more promising field; but our evangelist opened his book, and saying,

“Let us praise God,” sang one of David’s Psalms, with somewhat of David’s spirit. Thereafter he said,

“Let us pray,” and proceeded to pray aloud, as if the whole town were there.

As the prayer was closing, a little boy dropped in, and sat down with all a child’s wonder and simplicity. The Word was read, the text announced, and the sermon preached, the great voice ringing and reverberating strangely in the empty hall.

Ere the close, two or three men came stealing in from sheer curiosity to see “a man preaching to nobody,” and sat as near the door as they could. The service ended, and the preacher announced that having made an engagement with the great God to meet Him for prayer, praise, and preaching of His gospel in that hall on every night of the week, he would be there, God helping him, at the same hour on the following evening, come what might, come who may.

Next night more came from curiosity, and ere the week closed the hall was crowded by an attentive, and in some instances awakened audience. Faith triumphed. Bolts and bars of triple steel gave way before the invisible artillery of believing prayer. Our evangelist once more realized our Saviour’s Words,

“All things are possible to him that believeth.”

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Beatitude of Position, Part 2

The Beatitude of Position

Matthew 5:10-12

Part 15

We have now come to the closing beatitude of the kingdom of heaven. It goes back and takes up the last three of the seven, which are characterized by grace—the graces of mercy, pureness, and peace. Thus the different graces of the divine life which ought to shine in all the children of God, are here assembled under the heads of righteousness and grace—that which is right before God, and that which is grace towards man.

“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.”

The promised blessing to the sufferers for Christ’s sake has some sweet and precious peculiarities in it. Nor need we wonder at this; what name like His? There is nothing higher, nothing better; they who have His name, have all that God can give; they have every blessedness that will ever be possessed throughout the endless ages of eternity. The promise, observe, is directly personal. “Blessed are ye” —not in the abstract, “Blessed are they.”

He is looking at the disciples around Him, and knowing what they would have to pass through, He speaks direct to their hearts, and gives them to feel His personal interest in them, and their personal nearness to Himself. This must always be the case when we suffer for His name’s sake. This is a much higher thing than suffering for righteousness’ sake, though the two may often go together.

Many an upright mind has suffered for righteousness’ sake, who knew not the Saviour’s love or His saving grace. Naturally upright, they would not stoop to deceive, and suffered for it. Even natural uprightness is too straight for the crooked ways of this sad, deceitful world.

O, how difficult and trying is the path of the Christian in the midst of it all! He must live and walk by the Word of the Lord and in communion with Him, if he would be preserved from a defiled conscience and a feeble testimony.

Suffering for Christ’s sake is the result of speaking about Him to others. Not merely a decided no, when we are asked or enticed to do what is wrong, but an earnest heart that watches every opportunity to speak about the blessed Lord and salvation; and if possible to those who would put difficulties in our way. There are always plenty of worldly-wise Christians near us to check zeal and hinder faithfulness, by what passes under the fair name of prudence.

There is a time and place for everything, it may be suggested, and there is no use in offending others, losing your influence, and throwing away your prospects for life. Surely we are not called upon to be always speaking about Christ and the gospel; you may cause your good to be evil spoken of. Such fair speeches and plausible reasons may come from the lips of some lukewarm Christian or mere professor, and so far, at least for a time, may do the enemy’s work. The voice is his, from whose lips soever the words may come, and ought to be treated as such. Certain we are it is not the voice of Jesus; and His sheep hear His voice and follow Him.

When Christ is precious to our hearts, such reasonings have no power. We see Him to be worth infinitely more than all that the world can do or give. The fair words of prudence fall to the ground; grace triumphs. Christ is before the soul; He commands all its energy; His love inspires the tongue; the lips cannot be refrained; His name burns in our hearts, it burns in our words, and we long for it to burn in the hearts and on the lips of others.

Speakest thou thus, my soul, of thyself, of thine own ways, or of what thou oughtest to be? My answer is plain and ready. I speak of myself and of all others. The rule is one. In the proportion that Christ is before the soul; in the proportion that He commands it; in that proportion will be our faithfulness and our sufferings. It may not be bodily suffering, or even worldly loss; but a very narrow path will be left for such to walk in, and a wide path of rejection, Save for those who are in the same narrow way, such an one would be alone and despised in the world.

You may speak of religion in a general way, of preachers, of churches, of missions to the heathen, of societies for doing good, and be popular; but speak of the Lord Himself, of His precious blood, of the full assurance of salvation, of oneness with Him in heaven, of separation from the world, of standing apart from all its shows and entertainments, and you will rapidly reduce the number of your friends. And as far as the enemy can gain power, you will be reviled and persecuted for His name’s sake. It may be nothing more than cold rejection, a contemptuous sneer, but the same spirit would lay the wood and silence the witness in the flames of martyrdom.

Who were the most implacable enemies of the Lord and His servant Paul? The most religious men in Israel. Is the world or human nature changed? We believe not.

But here thou art anxious to inquire, O my soul, and I wonder not, why there is so little persecution for Jesus’ sake now? There may be more than thou art aware of. The Christianity that is positive and aggressive, and pursues its path outside the camp where Jesus suffered, must taste the bitterness, or rather the sweetness, of persecution. Such Christians will be avoided, if not despised, by those in favor with the world. The outside place, the unworldly life, is a stinging rebuke to the time-serving, or merely professing Christian.

Such witnesses are everywhere spoken against, and frequently by those in high places who know little or nothing about them; they are unjustly characterized as the secret propagators of heresy, as seeking to draw away and deceive the simple. and held up under the grossest misrepresentation to the scorn and derision of all Christendom.

So far this may be harmless, thou wilt say; true, it opens no dungeons, it breaks no bones, it kindles no fires, it sharpens no swords; but how much further would this spirit of persecution go if let loose? Let the history of the church say. He who stoops to defame his fellow Christians because they differ from him on certain points of doctrine and practice, is not far from the spirit of Rome, which was the first to persecute for a difference of opinion.

But all this was anticipated by the blessed Lord, and graciously provided for. He thinks of everything. The saints are never dearer to His heart than when despised and suffering for His sake.

“Blessed are ye,” is His own sweet word of comfort to their hearts,

“Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

Should they suffer unto death, heaven will be their immediate home.

“Great is your reward in heaven.”

And they will also have the honor of following in the footsteps of those who suffered as the heralds of His coming—who testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. As this was true of the prophets, and is true of Christians in all ages, so will it be true of the Jewish remnant who shall be slain for their Messiah’s sake in the last days. (Rev. 6:9-11).

In rising from these meditations, O my soul, see that thou Nast learned this lesson well, Be careful what thou sayest of the Lord’s redeemed, and how thou actest towards them, They are not only dear to His heart; He delights in them. Grieve Him not by any unkindness to them. If plain speaking or faithful dealing with some be needful, let all be done in love and tenderness.

“Let brotherly love continue.”

That must never be interrupted, though brotherly kindness may, with the Lord’s sanction.

The Lord grant that our meditations on these beautiful beatitudes may leave an indelible impression of the Saviour’s character, not only on the whole life of the writer, but also of the reader. So shall we answer to the divine emblems here spoken of; “salt” and “light” —the preservative principle, or energy in the place where light has already come, where truth is already professed: and the blessed activities of love that go out in the light of grace and truth to a dark benighted world. Be this thy mission, O my soul, unweariedly, unchangeably, that many may be turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified, by faith which is in Christ Jesus. (Acts 26:16-18).

“We welcome still Thy faithful Word—

‘The cross shall meet its sure reward:’

For soon must pass the ‘little while’

Then joy shall crown Thy servant’s toil:

And we shall hear Thee, Saviour, say,

‘Arise, My love, and come away;

Look up, for thou shalt weep no more,

But rest on heaven’s eternal shore.’”

(Concluded)

His Love

Could we but see the hand of love that has marked out our way, we would cherish everything that comes to us. These very hands which send into our lives a distressing circumstance, are the ones that were pierced with the cruel nails on Calvary for us.

Is it possible that the one who has shed His own blood for us could send into our lives that which would cause us harm? No; a thousand times no! He loves us too much to do such a thing.

“All things work together for good to them that love God.” (Rom. 8:28).

Altogether Lovely

Changing not like earthly fashions,

Which so quickly pass away,

Jesus Saviour, Thy compassions

Fail us not by night or day.

Though the world may see no beauty,

Yet to those who know Thee well,

Thou art “altogether lovely”!

Fairer far than words can tell!

What are this world’s finest pleasures,

Charms which once we pondered o’er,

When compared to those vast treasures

Thou for us hast laid in store?

Ah! the best this world can offer,

Though it seem to please the eye,

Is not lasting, soon is over,

Only Thou canst satisfy.

We are Thine; not bought with money,

But redeemed by Thine own blood;

Sweeter far art Thou than honey,

Jesus Saviour, Son of God.

Keep us then, dear Saviour, keep us,

Till Thou callest us away.

Till we see Thy face, O! help us,

That from Thee we ne’er may stray.

The Winding up of All Things: Part 1

Notes of an Address

Revelation 20; to 21:1-8

We have in this passage the solemn winding up of everything in earth and in heaven; the saved and the lost, that is, it is an eternal winding up—the end of all things.

What a comfort it is to have from the Word of God and so from God Himself, light about all that is past, and all that is present, and all that is to come—good and evil alike.

Our chapter begins with what we call “the Millennium,” a very blessed season of a thousand years of rest and peace, and the reign of righteousness upon the earth. That great source of evil, Satan, himself who is engaged, as we know, only with himself (for his whole being is antagonism to everything that is of God right down to this very session of which we read, and he has marred everything) is bound, Every witness and testimony that God has set up in the earth, save one, he has marred. Of all the witnesses that God has had, there is but one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has been able to withstand this enemy of God, and enemy of man, called here “the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan.”

In order to bring about that happy state of things in the earth, Satan is imprisoned. An angel comes down from heaven with a great chain in his hand (of course, it is all figurative language), and he lays hold of this being—this dreadful being—this destroyer—deceiver— “who deceiveth the whole world.” One of his characteristics is that he is a deceiver, and that characteristic is manifested in a special way in our own day, deception; and we and the world all have to do with Satan as the serpent, the beguiler, the deceiver.

What can preserve any from his deception? Just one thing, dear friends, and that one thing is thought continually less and less of. hardly anywhere is it owned, its divine authority. What is that one thing? THE WORD OF GOD. This only can preserve from the deceptions of Satan whether it be an individual, or whether it be a nation.

“By the word of Thy lips have I kept me from the paths of the destroyer.” (Psa. 17:4).

The angel lays hold of Him, binds him and casts him into the abyss, called farther down “prison,” for a period of a thousand years; the abyss there is not his final abode. We have that farther down in the chapter. He is bound and out of the way, no longer to be feared in either of his characteristics.

The next thing is a very blessed sight!— “Thrones, and they sat upon them.” They are those we have read of once and again in the former part of this book beginning with the fourth chapter. There are two classes as it were, added to them, brought into the same blessing, priests unto God and to Christ, and what a change for them! They are two classes of martyrs; of these we read in the 6th chapter; the other class we find in the 15th chapter. We do not speak now of detail, but one judges the former class of martyrs for the truth, suffer in the early part of the power of the Antichrist.

The second class suffer later under another power; we do not speak of details, but of the wondrous change for them. Their past is a past, and their present is a present, and what is that present? That present is, they are all glorified now, and they live and reign with Christ a thousand years.

It is remarkable, this is the only scripture of the length of what we call “the Millennium,” and I think in this chapter it is mentioned six times—a thousand years. A thousand years of happy association with Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords. What a change for them!

Saved or unsaved, a change, an everlasting change is about to overtake us. The gospel warns people that a change is going to overtake them; how little men think of it!

When and how will that change take place for the people of God, and what is its nature? There is very, very little in Scripture about it, but that little, dear friends, comprehends much!

“Absent from the body and present with the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:8).

“To depart and to be with Christ.” (Phil. 1:23). That change may overtake any of God’s people at any moment.

We wait for the coming of the Lord when we shall be introduced by that coming into all that we are heirs of as the children of God. Scripture says,

“If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.” (Rom. 8:17).

It is the coming of the Lord Jesus that introduces us into that; in the meanwhile, (I speak of it for the refreshment of my own spirit as well as yours), those departed ones are with Christ, and with Christ they wait, but O, how different the circumstances in which they wait. We have very little conception of what those circumstances are in which they wait with the Lord.

The Lord Himself is waiting, you know; in this very book we read, “kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.” “Kept the word of My patience.” In that way, patience will come to an end by the realization of that for which patience has waited, both on the part of believers and on the part of the Redeemer. How happy and blessed is the portion of the child of God, whether he be here or there.

This is a little aside from what is before me; it was rather the latter part of the chapter and the opening of the next, but there is this happiness and the earth rejoicing under the sway of that once despised and rejected One. He has come as the “Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings,” that is, has come in that way at the time of which this scripture speaks.

He doesn’t come in that way at all when He comes to gather His saints to be with Him. Then He leaves the world in a worse plight than before. How is that? Because He, the Holy Spirit, who now restrains, and in whose energy and grace the gospel is preached, is gone, and the poor world is left in sadder and darker circumstances than before, and only to reap at length the fruit of rejecting, not only Christ here on earth, but Christ presented as a heavenly Saviour and the giver of eternal life.

Darkness follows the light, in the way of the government of God, and earth now enters as it were, her hour of travail when the time comes of which we speak. How little the poor world in its wisdom, pride and folly, knows there is a day at hand of which the Saviour, when He was here said, The like of which never has been known nor ever shall be, since the day God created man. This is what awaits this poor world.

(To be continued)

None Like Christ

There is none like Christ; nothing like redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. There is no learning nor knowledge like the knowledge of Christ; no life like Christ living in the heart by faith; no work like the service, the spiritual service of Christ; no reward like the free grace wages of Christ; no riches nor wealth like the unsearchable riches of Christ; no rest, no comfort, like the rest, the consolations of Christ; no pleasures like the pleasure of fellowship with Christ.

Little as I know of Christ, and it is my sin and shame that I know so little of Him, I would not exchange the learning of one hour’s fellowship with Christ for all the liberal learning in ten thousand universities for ten thousand ages, even though angels were to be my teachers; nor would I exchange the pleasure my soul has found in a word or two about Christ as my God, for all the dried-up pleasures of this world since time began. For what, then, would I exchange the being forever with Christ, to behold His glory, see God in Him as He is, and enter into the joy of my Lord.

We See Jesus

Hebrews 2:9.

It is very instructive to observe, that, in reading the gospels, we find presented to us, not a system of doctrines, but a living Person, even the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

“The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).

In the simple, but vivid and exquisitely beautiful, narratives of the evangelists, He lives and moves before us. We hear His words of grace, and see His acts of love. The disciples were drawn to Himself, and were occupied with Him. They were ignorant of much truth, but they knew Him who is truth incarnate, and who was then manifested as the living Truth and Grace come down among men. Thus Peter says, for himself and the rest,

“Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou halt the words of eternal life. And we believe, and are sure, that Thou art that Christ; the Son of the living God.” (John 6:68, 69).

Even so is it now. True, the Lord Jesus has “died for our sins;” but He is “risen again.”

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Rom. 5:10).

The eye of faith fixes itself, not on a dead Christ, but on a risen, living, glorified Savior.

The constant effort of Satan is, to draw away our thoughts and our hearts from Christ. How easy it is to have the mind engaged about ordinances, doctrines, or even our service for Christ, instead of cultivating direct fellowship with Christ Himself.

The casket is thought of, more than the jewel; the drapery is observed, more than the figure. Yet the true blessing of the soul is ever found, in steadily contemplating, with the eye of faith, the glorious Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor. 3:18).

Dear Christian reader, are you living by faith on Jesus, the Son of God, the unfailing food and life of your soul? Are you seeking daily constant communion with Him? Is your heart saying,

“Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, O, Thou bright and morning Star”?

“Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

Ye Are Not Your Own

We are apt to say that what we have is our own, and we can do with it as we please. The Psalmist evidently did not understand it thus, for he said,

“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Psa. 24:1).

If we belong to God, what we possess must be His also.

“Honor the Lord with thy substance” (Prov. 3:9), is the rule by which we are to determine how to appropriate what we possess.

“Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:20, 21).

Extract: The Future

There are many Christians wanting to peer into their own tomorrow, and wanting to have their future for a week laid open before them, but God will not allow it. It would but crush us could we see it. We have no rest of heart, except as we know that the future is the Lord’s, and the present is ours, with Him.

Correspondence: Passion Play; Matt. 22:12; Choose Ye This Day - Unbeliever?

Question: What do you think of the Passion Play?

Answer: To make the Lord Jesus and His finished work the subject of an entertainment is sacrilegious. Think how horrible it must be in the eyes of God, the Father, that men should dare to personify His beloved Son in the hour of His deep suffering as an atoning sacrifice.

Question: Can any one get into the feast without the wedding garment? Matthew 22:12.

Answer: Certainly because the feast is here regarded as that into which professors may enter, but from which they will inevitably be finally excluded when passed under the divine scrutiny; even as many pass muster now among Christians and outwardly enjoy divine things, who will however eventually be shut out from heaven.

Question: Is it right to use the text “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” in speaking to the unconverted? It seems very appropriate, and yet the Lord says, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.”

Answer: Certainly. Your question however raises the old and well-worn one of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Both are true and Scriptural, but incapable of being intellectually reconciled by our finite capacities, darkened as they are by sin. Responsibility throughout Scripture is pressed on unbelievers, “Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life,” while God’s electing Grace shows us that after all it is His drawing that brings us. We know no better illustration of the two truths than the familiar one of the door over which is written on the outside, “Whosoever will let him come,” while on the inside is written, “Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.” Some taking their stand outside, deny what is written within, while others from within, deny the free grace that is inscribed without. The Bible student knows that both are true and also that, although difficulties can be easily raised by cavilers, the truth of election forms no barrier for any soul really in earnest.

He Will Carry You Through

It was a bright summer’s day, and the birds outside were singing merrily, the bees were humming, and the sunbeams danced gaily over tree tops, hills, gardens, and valleys, while the waves in the lovely bay looked more beautiful still in the sunshine.

But let us look into a quiet room close by and find out what makes it so quiet and still on such a glorious morning.

A man is kneeling by a table and his face is buried in his hands, and we see at once that he is moved by intense sorrow.

No sound escapes from his lips, but in his heart a cry is going up to the throne of grace, that God would strengthen him for a great trial that lies before him, and that if it be the will of God he might go through the trial and return once more to his beloved family.

The man’s name is G. M., and he knows that there is but a step between him and death. On the morrow he has to undergo an operation, and it is doubtful if he will survive it.

Not that he is afraid of death, for lie is ready to enter into the joy of his Lord, yet he cannot help thinking of the loved ones he would leave behind in his own home, and the sorrow it would be to them.

But as he knelt, and committed all into the hands of his heavenly Father, certain promises came to his mind with comfort and healing, and he rose up quite calm.

The morrow came at length, and quietly each farewell was said, till all had said good-bye except Evelyn, his little daughter, who stood holding his hand.

He stooped and gave a long last kiss on her rosy lips, and then walked slowly down the garden path to the little gate where a vehicle was waiting for him. But something caused him to stop short and turn around.

Evelyn stood on the garden path, her eyes eagerly following her father’s movements, but she was singing, and he stopped to listen to the well-known words:

“Ask the Saviour to help you,

Comfort, strengthen, and keep you;

He is willing to aid you,

He will carry you through.”

A smile came into his face, and he nodded to let her see that he had heard, and then he passed on.

“He will carry you through!” O! how those words rang in his ears and brought comfort to his heart, and when on the following day he passed through deep waters of pain, and all seemed dark around him, still he seemed to hear those words and they kept him calm.

It was all over at last, and, as he lay so white and still, a doctor leaned over the bed and whispered,

“My friend, it is all over; you will live now.”

“Thank God,” said the sick man: only two words, but they came from the bottom of his heart, and the doctor wondered at the calmness of his patient.

Many days passed by, but each one saw an improvement in the sick man, and he began to look forward to the time when he should be able to return to his own home.

One day the doctor came in, and sitting down beside him said,

“Will you tell me what kept you so calm all the time you were undergoing the operation?”

A smile came to his pale face, and he slowly repeated the verse:

“Ask the Saviour to help you,

Comfort, strengthen, and keep you;

He is willing to aid you,

He will carry you through.”

But before we can really pray to the Lord Jesus to help us in our dark moments and difficulties we must first know Him as our Saviour, and that is what I desire all the readers of this little book to know for themselves.

He died for all, but only those receive forgiveness and blessing who own they are sinners before God, and who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their own Saviour. He is willing to bless you, but are you willing to receive His blessing?

I recently had a letter from a young Christian girl who is in business, and so meets with a good many people from time to time. She writes that she is surprised how many say they mean to be Christians someday, after they have seen a bit of life.

I am afraid this thought is in the minds of many. When death comes, they would like to die the death of the righteous, but do not want to live the life of the righteous.

That is a very selfish way to act—to live my life for my own pleasure and then expect God to save me at the last. But we read of some who sought admission to the marriage feast, after the door had been closed, and to them the Lord said, I never knew you as Mine. Depart from Me, into outer darkness. May this never be your portion.

“They that were ready went in with Him to the marriage: and the door was shut.” (Matt. 25:10).

Extract: True Humility

True humility does not so much consist in thinking badly of ourselves, as in not thinking of ourselves at all. I am too bad to be worth thinking about. What I want is, to forget myself, and to look to God, who is worth all my thoughts.

The Winding up of All Things: Part 2

Notes of An Address

Revelation 20, to 21:1-8

Part 2

We were speaking of its winding up, and all this leads to the eternal winding up. What we have said thus far has to do with time.

There is a blessed day coming for this poor world, but not for those who reject the gospel.

“His name (that is the Saviour’s name) shall be great to the ends of the earth.”

That time of blessing is brought about, not by the grace of God, but, by the righteous judgment of God. That King comes in the nineteenth chapter as a warrior, and “in righteousness doth He judge and make war.” All this is near at hand.

This remarkable book (Revelation) begins and ends as no other book in Scripture does:

“The time is at hand.” “Things which must shortly come to pass.”

That is what this book is about—what is at hand. The long-suffering mercy of God keeps it back, but that is all. There are no scriptures to be fulfilled, prophetic or otherwise, before the day of the grace of God is closed. There are prophetic scriptures, and they have their place, but not now.

The day of God’s patience will come to a close, and His throne and Himself assume another attitude towards the earth. You ask what that attitude is, both of Himself and His throne? His throne becomes what it never has yet been: a throne of judgment! and upon that throne He Himself sits, not as a Saviour-God upon a throne of grace, but as God the Judge, as one scripture says, “God, the Judge of all,” and as one speaks, he feels the blessedness of having to do with the Word of God, and our individual portion in Christ. Everything in heaven, everything in earth, and everything in hell—all is laid bare and laid bare in this book!

“They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” There we are, all glorified. What a scripture that is! How simple how definite; how positive. You and I and every other redeemed one at that time will partake in that life, and reign with Christ a thousand years! We know our future. But this is not the height of our blessing as Christians by any means; this is display.

When at home in the Father’s house, we are there as His children, but when He manifests us, it is not as His children, but as His sons. It is relationship that is enjoyed in the Father’s house. It seems very precious to think of finding ourselves in the Father’s house as His children.

Then we get a remarkable thing: that being, that wicked being, that mighty being, for such a one is Satan, bound, chained for a thousand years, is liberated, but it is for a little season. It is the last test to which man is put, or if you please, the last test to which the world is put. There has been that thousand years’ reign under the supremacy of the Lord Jesus and His saints. All creation has rejoiced in the deliverance He brought and maintained for a thousand years.

Why was Satan bound for a thousand years? Why not consign him at once to his eternal abode? God has yet some work for Satan to do, and for that purpose He liberates him. What is that purpose? To test man again. Man has lived under the blessed reign of peace and righteousness in the earth, and now that wicked one is liberated again that God may use him in making manifest those who have been really converted, and those who have not.

Nothing external converts a man. You may take him to Mount Sinai, and give him to see and hear the lightnings and thunderings which make him tremble from head to foot, and entreat that the word be not spoken any more—all filled with terror—but that doesn’t convert him. Here has been this reign of peace and righteousness and blessing; we read in the prophets and other scriptures how full the blessing will be, but thousands of them have not been converted, and so this enemy is liberated and he goes out. God makes this test, and he gathers these unconverted ones (I use that term so as to make it simple), and “they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.” He gets them together, as we learn from the preceding verse, a multitude as the sand of the sea, and gathers them about and against God’s people.

I think it exceedingly important to know that nothing outside man converts him. I do not say he is not responsible by that which is outside, but it doesn’t convert him. It has to be a work in the soul, and that is the work of God’s grace by His truth and His Spirit.

Look at Nebuchadnezzar as an instance of it. He sees those cast into the furnace of fire walking, and a fourth one, and he saw them come forth out of the midst of the fire with not a hair singed; the only things that were gone, as the result of the fire, were the cords that bound them. In a general way, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged God as the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He is an unconverted man. God takes hold of him later to humble him, and there is a work in his soul and he becomes a worshipper.

That is very important for us to remember in preaching the gospel: the need of God’s grace in the soul—in the heart.

Well, fire comes down from heaven and consumes them. That is, divine judgment overtakes them—those unconverted ones—living perhaps some of them nearly a thousand years. There will be very little death during that thousand years—there is death, but it is a rare thing, and it is when the government of God comes in in a special way for sin. Now divine judgment overtakes those enemies. What a change fore them to go from that blessed earth, that scene of righteousness, that place of peace, overtaken by divine judgment—an awful thing for them.

The great deceiver himself is not shut up again for a time, but forevermore. I speak with reverence in saying, God is done with him!

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.”

(To be continued)

Care-Free

“Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” (1 Pet. 5:6).

These are days of deep and sad trial for God’s beloved people. Privation, distress, oppression, and want tenaciously follow their footsteps continually, and in their extremities, they take up the cry of the saints of old,

“Master, carest Thou not?” (Mark 4:38).

“Lord, dost Thou not care?” (Luke 10:40).

The deep groan of the human heart is portrayed in these words, but it is not the mind of the Father concerning us. He would have us carefree (not careless). He desires us to be without carefulness, (1 Cor. 7:32), being

“Careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:6, 7).

The Work of the Gospel

We would earnestly appeal to our Christian readers to bestir themselves afresh in the work of the gospel. We must be aggressive. The enemy moves forward with restless zeal and with untiring energy; evil teachings and infidelity pursue their course. Captives are being continually made, who become soldiers for their cause. The true Christian should not be outrun by the foes of “the faith once delivered to the saints,” nor allow his zeal to pale before their intensity.

Our day is essentially one of opportunity for spreading the gospel. This century is notable for open doors, both in heathen lands and Christendom. Let us avail ourselves of our privilege, ever remembering that the Lord, who walks in the midst of the candlesticks, while He opens and no man shuts, also shuts and no man opens, and that when He gives the word, the doors of opportunity, now wide open, will be closed.

What can we do? In former years before the art of printing was known, during seasons of earnestness the gospel was distributed by word of mouth. In rhymes, in sermons, by repetition of text or passages of Scripture, the truth was spread over the land. In our day, advantages are multiplied a thousand fold. The printing press and the post are at our service. Each of us, who is a servant of Christ, can do something with these means, What a great result might be affected by the sending of a tract once a week.

Let us suppose five thousand of our readers so engaged, each one with a list of names of acquaintances or friends to whom the message is to be sent. Let the list be made out, shall we say, from the names of people met with last year, those of whom a little is known in different parts of the country; persons at whose houses a visit was made, or who were sick, or bereaved—persons whom we desire to introduce to the sinner’s Friend. O, how we should like to be of use to them in eternal things! Have we our list complete? Are there fifty names on it? If five thousand volunteers would send a little gospel book once a week to one person, one quarter of a million souls would be addressed by this means during the year.

The time, the prayer, the care, the cost of this little service you will not grudge, dear Christian reader; it means but a very little of your time, and but a small amount of your money a week. Who will respond and join in this undertaking?

Our readers may know certain districts, in town and country, notorious for evil living. One of these messengers entering such a locality might win a soul for Christ, who might, in his turn, become a warrior for Him. Let us be up and doing; let good Christian papers that exalt Christ, be addressed to Christians who know little of their wonderful blessings in Christ.

Be aggressive, dear fellow-Christian. We appeal for helpers; we would impress our friends with the consideration that many hands, by doing a little each, can do much together. Let us proclaim Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. We need to lift up the standard of divine truth; to speak out boldly of the immortality of man’s soul, of judgment being final, and the state of man, after the judgment, everlasting; of God’s righteousness, and the atoning blood of His Son; of Christ’s coming, and of heaven, and of hell. The door of opportunity is open; let us, with purpose of heart, enter afresh upon the glorious work of the gospel.

“I gave My life for thee,

My precious blood I shed,

That thou might’st ransomed be,

And quickened from the. dead.

I gave My life for thee;

What hast thou given for Me,”

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 15:58).

Consider Him

“For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” (Heb. 12:2, 3).

“Consider how great things He hath done for you.” (1 Sam. 12:24).

“My meditation of Him shall be sweet.” (Psa. 104:34).

Consider how great things the Saviour

Hath wrought and accomplished for you;

Lest ye become faint and discouraged—

Consider His great love for you.

O! think of Him leaving the glory

That He had with the Father above,

To tell to our ears that sweet story

Of infinite, marvelous love.

Consider His meekness and patience,

His life of dependence and trust,

Committing His path to the Father,

Believing Him righteous and just.

Consider His wilderness testing,

When tempted by Satan, and tried,

He wisely replied, “It is written” —

God’s Word was His refuge and guide.

Consider Him then in the garden,

In agony, anguish and pain,

Submitting His will to the Father’s

“Not My will, but Thine, be done.”

Consider His willing obedience,

Yes, e’en to His death on the cross,

When He laid down His life as a ransom,

Consider—How great was the cost!

Consider Him now in the glory

Interceding and pleading for you,

Lest ye become faint and discouraged,

Remember, He’s faithful and true.

Consider the way He has led you—

This Comforter, Shepherd and Friend,

Today, yesterday and forever—

The same He will be to the end.

Lest ye become weary and burdened,

May your heart of His love be assured,

As you ponder His pathway of blessing,

And what grief for our sakes He endured.

Consider what joy is before you,

The prospect of seeing His face,

To be with Him and like Him forever,

And learn more of His riches and grace.

Let God Be Magnified

A company of men were one night carousing in a saloon on the outskirts of D., when the sound of voices was heard singing a spiritual song. It was a little band of Christian young women on their way home from a religious meeting, and they were giving expression to their joy in the Lord by singing,

“One there is above all others,

O, how He loves!”

The words of the hymn fell with a strange power upon the ear of a young man sitting at the tavern table. The others seemed not to hear the voices of the singers as they passed; to him it was the voice of God. He was arrested by the Holy Spirit, and became dumb with silence. His companions were astonished. They thought that he had suddenly gone mad. In vain they questioned him, in vain they jeered. He rose and left the saloon.

As he paced the street in the darkness of the night, the words of the hymn kept ringing in his ears. He thought of the love of that Savior whom he had hitherto rejected.

The thought pierced his heart and he burst into tears.

Thus stricken on account of his sins, he made his way to the house of a minister, and there, with subdued manner and a grieved look, he told how God had smitten his heart in the saloon, and turned his pleasures into wormwood and gall. He seemed to see his sins in the light of Christ’s love, and eagerly he inquired the way of salvation.

The faithful minister preached Christ to the awakened young man, and seemingly not in vain, for from that time the course of his life was changed.

Dear reader, do you speak of Jesus? Do you sing of Him? Is your heart so full, that Jesus is your theme?

“Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” (Luke 6:45).

Extract: Going through the World

It is said, Did not God make these things? Of course He did, who else could? God made the trees in the garden, but Adam used them to hide himself from Him. Man takes these things and uses them to separate himself from God if he can, and the question is, not, whether God made them, but the use man puts them to. Cain went out from the presence of God, and built a city, and thus used the things God had made, in order to make himself happy without God.

It is a great delusion to speak of God making the world as it is. He put man in Paradise, not in the world. The world is the fruit of sin and Satan.

The point is this; we have a world which has rejected the Son; what has it to do with the Father? All we can do with the world is to go through it as Christ did—a testimony for God in it.

Prayer Answered

There never was any petition really presented to the Lord without a gracious answer. When the Lord prayed at Gethsemane, the cup was not removed, but there was a gracious answer,

“There appeared an angel from heaven, strengthening Him.” The Lord had said,

“Father, if Thou be willing, let this cup pass from Me (He felt it fully): nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42).

When the Lord prayed He put in “not My will.” Paul did not put that in; Paul said,

“Take away this thorn, take it away—take it away,” but the Lord’s will was that Paul should have that thorn, and the gracious answer was,

“My grace is sufficient for thee: My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:8, 9). Paul was strengthened from heaven.

To my mind Moses’ sister (Ex. 2), is a perfect vignette of prayer: the babe committed to God—she watches. There will be an answer; watch Him for it—she watched unto praying, and prayed unto watching.

In praying for the Lord’s people, His concerns, and plans, if the Lord does not grant our petitions, He will at least say, as He did to David,

“It is well it was in thine heart to pray unto Me.” (1 Kings 8:18).

The time for granting the full answer may not have come, yet He will say, “It was well.”

Sometimes when people persevere in praying for things which the Lord in mercy has long withheld, He gives them their request, and they find it is to their great sorrow, but He always replies to prayer.

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (Heb. 11:6).

Grow in Grace

“Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (2 Pet. 3:18).

I trust you find the Name and grace of Jesus more and more precious to you; His promises more sweet, and your hope in them more abiding; your sense of your own weakness and unworthiness daily increasing; your persuasion of His all-sufficiency; to guide, support, and comfort you, more confirmed.

You owe your growth in these respects in a great measure to His blessing upon those afflictions which He has prepared for you, and sanctified to you.

May you praise Him for all that is past, and trust Him for all that is to come!

The Power of the Truth

1 John 2:13-29

To the young man, whose danger is being seduced by the world, God in His Word unfolds the true character of the world; its source and its end.

“All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world; and the world passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” (1 John 2:16).

And to the young man, as to the babe. God presents a double safeguard; the love of the Father, and the Word which reveals His will; these are what God has provided to keep him from falling a prey to, from being seduced by, the bait of the foe.

How far can each of us say that the love of the Father does exclude the world? Do we know anything of this practically? The reason that saints are too often found dabbling in the world, is because they have not the love of the Father in them; if they had, and enjoyed that love, how could a system set up in direct opposition to Him whose love they enjoy, attract them?

Satan has formed a world that is in direct opposition to the Father, but when the Father’s love is known and enjoyed, therein is found a safeguard that excludes the world.

And now as to the father in Christ, what is his safeguard? Religious deceits are brought to try him, his safeguard is Christ. The father has known “Him that is from the beginning.” —Christ the living Word. Thus in the case of the father, as of the young man, and as of the babe, the Word of God is the safeguard, and obedience thereto, the path of safety from all the power of the foe, who is powerless against obedience.

Paul, in speaking to Timothy, his son in the faith, of the last days, tells him the features that will characterize them, and among others is found religious deceit.

“A form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.” (2 Tim. 3:5).

Also a resistance of the truth by imitation of it. Do you know anything of this “form of godliness, but denying the power thereof”? You say, I mourn over it. Why then do you not turn away from it? You do not have to attack it; you have only to turn away from it.

The Word itself is your authority to do so: “from such turn away,” and on this, each child of God is not only authorized, but responsible to act. At such a time, and in such a state of things, Paul commends to Timothy three things: My doctrine; the holy Scriptures, and the person of Christ.

Thus God has provided for His people in everything. Though the enemy may press us hard, and be an expert in the use of his weapons, God has provided a perfect safeguard for us in His Word. Is it not true that what we need in the present day is not so much the knowledge of additional truth, not that we do not need truth, but rather to be in the power of the truth that is known? so to be in the power of it, that it should command us.

We need to be obedient ones, we need to be dependent ones, following in the steps of Him who has gone before us—that blessed one who in His pathway on earth, met and defeated all the power of the enemy by simple obedience, simple dependence.

May each one indeed follow Him, remembering that, if believers at all, they are set apart (sanctified) to His obedience—that is, to obey on the same principle on which He obeyed, who could say,

“My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.” (John 4:34).

False Friends and True

Woe to the servant of God whose bosom friend is a flatterer. He is a fool who relishes flattering. Are not there fools many?

A man’s best friend is he who tells him the truth. Have you such a friend? Has he offended you?

Correspondence: 1 Cor. 9:27; Mark 4:26-29; 1 Peter 2:8; 2 Cor. 5:16; Eph 2:14; Lev. 27:26

Question: Does 1 Corinthians 9:27 favor ascetic practices?

Answer: Not for the sake of asceticism. But we must beware lest in condemning all self-imposed bodily mortifications, we give the reins on the other hand to a love of ease and self-indulgence. There is a middle path, and this Paul trod, careful while preaching to others to keep the reins well over himself in everything, not as a meritorious action, but as an approved minister of the gospel.

Question: What does Mark 4:26-29 mean?

Answer: Mark 4:26-29, compares the kingdom of God “unto a man that casts seed into the ground who rising and sleeping day and night, allows it to increase without taking any notice of it. The earth produces thus fruit of itself, first the blade, then the ear, and then the full grain in the ear. Now when the fruit is ripe, the sickle is put in at once, because the harvest is come. Thus the Lord worked personally, sowing the Word of God upon earth; and at the end, He will return, and work again in person, when the time for the judgment of this world shall have come, but now, in the meantime, He remains seated at the right hand of God, as though He did not occupy Himself with His field, although in secret He does work by His grace, and produces everything. But it is not manifest. Without being seen, He works to make the seed grow in a divine way, by His grace, while apparently He allows the gospel to grow, without having anything to do with it, until the harvest. Then He will appear and will Himself work openly.” (J. N. D. Col. Writ.).

Question: What is meant by “whereunto also they were appointed”? (1 Pet. 2:8).

Answer: This, as in Jude 4, does not mean that they were appointed to sin or condemnation, but points out the special character of sin and of condemnation that they should fall into. The emphasis in Jude is on the word “this.” “Who were before of old ordained to this condemnation.”

Question: Please explain “Henceforth know we no man after the flesh.” (2 Cor. 5:16).

Answer: It means that the Christian is brought into a new sphere, and new relationships by the death and resurrection of Christ. The apostles had known Christ as the Messiah after the flesh. But He had died, and now in resurrection they know Him in His new character as head of the new creation and of the church. Their links also with Christians were all formed on this new and heavenly ground.

Question: What is meant by the “middle wall of partition,” Ephesians 2:14?

Answer: The legal ceremonies and ordinances that fenced the Jew off from the Gentile, thus forming a partition wall between them.

Question: Please explain Leviticus 27:26 with Romans 12:1.

Answer: In Leviticus under the law, inasmuch as the firstborn belonged to God by redemption (Ex. 13:2), it could not be set apart to God as a freewill offering, being already His. In Romans, however, under grace, the exact converse holds good; for although we are God’s property by redemption, we are told to yield ourselves unto God. Thus “of His own, have we given Him,” and in grace God receives this. The comparison of the two passages throws an interesting light on one of the many contrasts between law and grace.

"That Foolishness"

“Sit down in that chair!” The voice was peremptory—the tone excited.

Florence, a girl of nineteen, meekly obeyed her mother’s command and sat down upon the chair which had been placed for her in the middle of the room. Flourishing a stick before her, the mother asked,

“Will you give up thinking about that foolishness?”

“No, mother, I cannot,” meekly replied Florence.

The “foolishness” which the angry mother wanted her child to think no longer about was the blessed truth that she was saved—that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, had made her clean from all her sins.

For months Florence had been exercised about her sins. Her brother had been turned to the Lord, and this led her to think of her own condition, and she was made to feel that she was not in the state to meet God. Each afternoon, when she was through with her work, she went off and sat down where she could have a little quiet and rest; but day after day, as she did this, her sins rose up before her, and this made her very uncomfortable. She said to herself,

“I am a sinner, my sins are not forgiven.”

One day while thinking about these things—for she could not, try as she would, put these thoughts away from her—this verse of Scripture came to her mind:

“Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” (2 Cor. 6:14).

This only served to increase the feeling of guilt; she felt that she was hastening on the broad road in company with other sinners, instead of separating from them. The burden of her sins grew heavier and heavier and she knew not what to do.

About this time she left her home to go out for a period of service. But even there the thought of her sins pursued her. What should she do? how could she find rest for her troubled soul? One day as she was thinking about these things and feeling weighed down with the heavy burden she was carrying, these words came to her,

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:31).

Ah! now her eyes were opened, and the burden was rolled away. It was believe—only believe! Jesus had suffered for her sins; He had taken the strokes that were due to her; all was settled before God, and her sins would never be brought up against her; seeing this, gave rest to her conscience and made her heart very happy.

But now came a great trial to the dear girl’s faith. The time had come for her to leave her place of service and return home, and she knew that she would meet with opposition from her mother who had no love for the name of Jesus. Should she speak to her, or should she keep silence as to what God had done for her soul? She longed to bear testimony to that blessed One who had redeemed her; but felt that she had not courage to speak of it to her mother.

On her way home she stopped at the house of a Christian whom she had not before been willing to recognize. On entering, she took Mrs. W.’s hand and said,

“I am happy to meet you as a sister in the Lord.”

This gave much joy to this dear Christian, who had been watching with anxious heart to see Florence turn to the Lord. After a little conversation with Mrs. W. Florence went on her way.

On reaching home her courage failed her, and, much as she wished to tell her mother of the salvation that had come to her, she could not do so.

That evening a gospel service was held some distance away, and Florence was very glad to be able to go with her brother to attend it. During the address, the speaker repeated this verse,

“Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.” (Luke 12:4).

Ah! again the voice of the Lord had reached her soul; to the poor, trembling spirit, courage was given; she now felt that she could tell her mother what the Lord had done for her.

The meeting was over; the long walk was ended; the dreaded moment had come; Florence, sustained of the Lord, went to her mother and quietly told her she was saved.

The mother did not at once fly into a passion, but she said to her daughter,

“You are foolish,” and in a moment added, “I will settle that with you tomorrow.”

Next morning after the father and brother had gone away to their work, and there was no one in the house but Florence and her mother, the scene, with which this little sketch opens, took place.

When the mother found that her angry threats, when brandishing the stick before Florence, did not move her, she bade her go into the bedroom. Florence obeyed, saying in a quiet voice,

“All right, mother.”

The mother followed and when they were in the room, began to beat her with the stick she held in her hands. Poor Florence patiently stood and took the blows that fell thick and fast about her head and face, making no remonstrance whatever; but she clasped her hands above her head to protect it in a little measure from the heavy strokes which were frightfully bruising her. At last the mother, exhausted with her efforts, but not yet satisfied with her cruel work, for it had failed to have the desired effect, turned to the bureau and taking a knife from the drawer, told her daughter she would “cut her into pound pieces.” By this time the excited mother was so frenzied with rage that she was trembling from head to foot; but the Lord did not allow her to go further with her inhuman treatment of her daughter, except to take hold of her, and, saying,

“Now you can go to your own company,” push her out of the house and slam the door after her.

The poor girl, thus thrust out of her father’s house, went weeping along the road until she came to the house of Mrs. W., the Christian whom she had owned the day before as a “sister in the Lord.” Mrs. W., seeing that she was in distress, went out and asked her what was the matter.

After hearing her story, this kind Christian woman took her in and told her she should have a home with them. She then sent for the father and brother who were at work some miles away. When the messenger reached the aged father, who was a believer in Jesus, he left his work and in the greatest haste went to his afflicted child, to comfort her in her sorrow. After some consultation it was decided that Florence should have a home for the time at the house of Mr. and Mrs. W.

But now arose another question. How could she get her clothing? Almost sick from what she had passed through, timid and shrinking in soul, how could she again face her angry mother? Her dear friends, who had shown her such true Christian love and kindness, besought the Lord for her, and she, too, took the matter to the Lord, and when the next morning came, her fear was gone. She went back to her father’s house, met her mother, gathered up her clothes and departed. The Lord stood by her, and she was kept both from fear and from harm. It was some weeks before she recovered from the cruel beating that her mother had given her, but she was happy in her soul; and she was made to realize, in a very blessed way, that the Lord was her helper.

This dear girl was willing to suffer for Jesus; she confessed Him, knowing that it would bring upon her trial and persecution; and through it she has not been a loser. Her head, hands and arms were bruised and sore, and her heart was sore also because her mother had so dreadfully abused and ill-treated her; but while sore, her heart was also rejoicing in the Lord, and she had the happy consciousness of His approval.

The day is coming when the Lord Jesus will confess this dear girl; she was not ashamed of Him, and He will not be ashamed of her. How fully recompensed she will be when He confesses her before His Father, and before the holy angels! (Matt. 10:32; Luke 12:8).

“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” (Matt. 5:11, 12).

Extract: The Same Lord

The Lord that I have known as laying down His life for me, is the same Lord I have to do with every day of my life, and all His dealings with me are on the same principles of grace... How precious, how strengthening it is to know that Jesus is at this moment feeling and exercising the same love towards me as when He died on the cross for me.

What Is a Tract?

A tract is a silent messenger from God. It is a bearer of good news concerning the great things of life and eternity.

Tracts often go where men on missions of mercy do not go. They find their way into the homes of the rich and the poor, the high and the low; they steal quietly into offices, homes, railway stations, factories, hospitals, places of pleasure and houses of shame—taking as they go God’s message of love.

The lives of many men and women have been changed as the result of the reading of a tract. Thousands sick in hospitals or confined by illness to their homes have been helped by these little messengers of mercy. Scores with heavy burdens upon their hearts have felt these burdens grow lighter because of the comforting words of the silent little preachers.

The printed word is still powerful. If it be a simple word concerning life’s great issues and problems, it is powerful to bless, to encourage, to inspire.

He who sends forth good tracts is truly a servant of God and humanity. The work of distributing tracts is surely a worthy work.

“In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not which shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” (Ecc. 11:6).

“My Word... shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isa. 55:11).

Precious Promises

“Exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” (2 Pet. 1:4).

Peter describes the promises of God as being “exceeding great and precious.” They are precious because they are made by God Himself: they are an expression of His grace and love. They provide the surest inspiration for unwearied intercession.

The promises have been made to us in Christ Jesus in order that we should trust God completely at all times. The promises are precious, they are God’s love gift to His children.

The Winding up of All Things: Part 3

Notes of an Address

Revelation 20, to 21:1-8

Part 3

I suppose you have heard a great deal about the beast and the false prophet; where are they during that thousand years of blessing on the earth when all the earth is rejoicing? They were consigned immediately to their eternal abode, as we read in the 19th chapter. So we read in chapter 20:10.

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

After the thousand years, many, many will join their company as we shall see directly, and he who had given to that beast his throne and great authority, is now consigned with them; the deceiver and the deceived are together, and together forever!

“If the blind lead the blind” said the Saviour, “both shall fall into the ditch.” The leader and the led. What a word of warning!

What a solemn thing to take the place of being a leader of men, or preacher to men. It has to be feared, many a preacher and those he has preached to, will find themselves together in this way. One doesn’t let his mind or imagination run (must not do that in Scripture), but there are several scriptures not to develop this, but intimate it.

“All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?” (Isa. 14:10).

What a reception we gather from that scripture will be found in the other world. “Where the beast and the false prophet are.” Mighty here upon the earth for a short season. One mighty politically, the other mighty religiously. Hand in hand they were here on earth, and hand in hand they are in hell! Hell is a general word there, and it is called the lake of fire.

What is symbolized by the lake of fire burning with fire and brimstone is confinement under the severest judgment of God forever and ever. That is the second death. That is, it is everlasting separation from God under His judgment.

The Millennium is past, the devil is consigned to his everlasting abode, what takes place now? There is an awful scene. I know of no more awful scene in Scripture than that!

“And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.”

Who do you think that is? Other readings omit “God”. Who is it that sits upon that great white throne? It is the one the gospel presents as Saviour. It is Christ.

“For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.” (John 5:22).

We have seen and heard this one on another throne in Scripture; the throne of His glory as Son of Man in Matthew 25, and we have heard Him speak blessed and awful words from that throne; we have heard this Son of Man from that throne say,

“Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” And we have heard Him say,

“Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”

The righteous go into life eternal, and the wicked into everlasting punishment. It is the judgment of the sheep and the goats.

Here we find that one, not upon a dispensational throne, but upon a great white throne, and such is the terror of His face that earth and heaven flee away,

“From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.”

What scenes we get in Scripture! In how many ways the earth-rejected Saviour is brought before us, for it is He who is here.

“Before whose face earth and heaven fled away.”

That one is your Saviour and mine, if you are a believer in Him. He is our life and righteousness, but He is the sinner’s judge.

“And there was found no place for them.” There is one thing yet remains in this book, ere God can bring in His own eternity. What is it? Every unsaved soul has remained in death from the beginning down to that hour.

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead are judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

There they stand, upheld in space by the almighty power of that Judge before whom they stand. What a tremendous sight! Peter tells us that the earth is going to pass away with a great noise, and the elements melt with fervent heat.

Those who believe the Scripture know what is to become of heaven and earth—and of saint and sinner as instructed by God and His Word.

There they are, small and great—ruler and ruled—prince and pauper; all stand there and as far as we gather from this word, stand there dumb and in awful silence. There sits that Judge upon the judgment throne, and the books are opened, and every man’s record as the divine Recorder has kept it, is there, and there is no hiding place like in the end of the 6th chapter where they cry to the mountains and rocks to cover them; every hiding place is gone! Everyone remembers what his life has been, and is judged by it.

There are two books here (there are more, but) one is the book of righteousness, and the other book of grace. The book of righteousness records our deeds. The book of grace is the book of life. Suppose my name isn’t in that book of life (that is what saves me), but not a soul that stands there, dear friends, has his name in the book of life! He is a sinner, and as a sinner, is judged. In every dispensation men have had the gospel, not the gospel of the grace of God, but a gospel (1 Peter 4:6).

(To be continued)

Silenced by Satan

A young man, who, in the earliest days of his Christian life, was very devoted to the Lord, and diligent in His service, was observed to become all of a sudden very dull and desponding. His voice was never heard in prayer or testimony for the Lord, and we began to fear that some “little fox” was doing its deadly work, down at the roots of his spiritual being. One day I met him on the street and asked him what had gone wrong. With a tear in his eye, he sorrowfully replied,

“I have allowed Satan to close my mouth. I have not spoken to one in the office yet about their souls, and it would be hypocrisy to preach to others, when those around me are yet unwarned.”

Dear boy, how my heart felt for him. There was doubtless much truth in what he said, but the devil was using it to keep in perpetual silence one of the Lord’s witnesses. But it was only for a season. That night, Tom gathered a few of his companions in the office together, and told them what a coward he had been, spoke lovingly to them of Jesus, and his joy was restored.

How Satan seeks to spoil the young thus; and with many he has wonderfully succeeded. They never open their mouths in public; they seem to be ashamed of their Lord. By-and-bye they will lose heart for the things of God—as Tom was doing—and slip down into cold indifference.

Dear young, are you allowing Satan thus to rob you of your joy? to draw you into his net? and to cause you to grieve the Lord? Do you ever speak a word for Jesus? or are you ashamed of Him? It may be true that you have failed in the past to witness for Christ to those around you, but this need not keep you forever in silence. Go to God your Father at once, and confess your sin, and unfaithfulness to Him. Then seek grace to redeem the lost time, and begin to open your mouth in testimony for the Lord among your companions and fellow-workers yet unsaved. Courage will be given you, and God will give you help.

Full well the devil knows what one honest witness for Christ may do, and so he leaves no stone unturned to keep as many as he can in perpetual silence.

Young believer, let not the enemy thus triumph over you. Your lips belong to Jesus, and by them you may speak for His praise. Only a little while and the days of your testimony for Him on earth will be gone forever.

“Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My words... of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38).

The Ruin of the Church As a Testimony

God does not re-establish what man has ruined. The ruin of the church as a testimony, and looked at on the side of human responsibility, will continue to the end of its history. It has become unfaithful, till at last it has become established in the midst of the world, mixed up with iniquity of every kind which goes on to the close. God compares it to a great house with vessels to honor and dishonor (2 Tim. 2). And yet the moment will come, when the history of man’s responsibility being over, the Lord will present to Himself His Church, glorious, having neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing (Eph. 5). At that time it shall be said of her, as of Jacob, not “what hath man wrought,” but “what hath God wrought!” (Num. 23:23).

It is no longer a question of retracing the pathway; the edifice is in ruins: to replaster it, would be but to adorn its decay, which would be worse than the ruin itself.

The Lord abhors pretension to power in a day such as the present. Forfeited strength cannot be recovered. The display of human, fleshly power which we see on all sides, is utterly different from the power of the Spirit. Those who talk loudly about the power of God being with them, savor somewhat of the crowd who followed Simon Magus, saying: “This man is the great power of God” (Acts 8:10); and of Laodicea, who says, “I am rich,” not knowing that she is “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17).

However, we must never forget that, although the church as a corporate witness has failed, God has preserved a testimony to Christ in the midst of the ruin, and those who seek to maintain it, acknowledge and weep over their common failure in the presence of God. We find something similar in Ezekiel 9:4. The men of Jerusalem who sigh and cry, are marked on their foreheads by the angel of the Lord; they are a humbled people, as in Malachi 3:13-18.

There are two classes in this chapter; those who say: “What profit is it that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts?” (ver. 14); and the faithful ones, a feeble and afflicted remnant who speak one to another, acknowledging the ruin, but waiting for the Messiah Who alone can give them deliverance. These latter do not say: “What profit is it?” This humbling is for their profit, turning their eyes to Him who “raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes.” (1 Sam. 2:8).

God grant that this may also be our attitude, and that we may not be indifferent to the state of the church of God in this world, but rather weep at having contributed towards it. Let us, like Philadelphia, be content to have a little strength, and we shall hear the Lord say for our consolation: I have the key of David, power is Mine, fear not, I place it entirely at your disposal.

How touching is the grace which provides for worship in the midst of the ruin.

Mercies and Ties

“He said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in the present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.” (Luke 18:29, 30).

The Lord announces, If you give up what you naturally value, such as natural ties, when they come to bar the way; when they hinder you in your path with Me, I will take care that you gain by doing so. You shall have manifold more in this present time. If you sacrifice natural things for Christ here, you gain manifold more from Christ here.

There are rich men; some are rich in friends, others in belongings, in means, in bodily strength, in mental powers, no matter what, I say to you, if you begin to trust in such riches instead of surrendering them to Christ, you will find you are not progressing.

Now, is it not pleasant for the heart to be able thus to delight in God? To be able to say: I am a poor, feeble creature, without means; but He has taken me up in His arms, laid His hands upon me, and blessed me; whereas if I were a man of great natural resources, perhaps I should find it very difficult to give up everything to follow Christ.

And yet it is there that devotedness comes in, because devotedness consists in giving up for Christ.

And as for those who know what it is to surrender anything here for Christ, those things which I might have, but which I give up so that I may have more of Him, I have no loss, my gain is great, it is “manifold more.”

Let no one say, I have suffered through giving up for Christ. You have not. The Apostle says, All that I have given up for Him, I do count it but rubbish. That is the force of the word. What! Does a man talk of losing a farthing when he has picked up a sovereign instead? In this way I say a saint enjoys,

“The life that now is, and that which is to come.” (1 Tim. 4:8).

A saint walking with God, enjoys every remnant of good in this world, far more than a rich man does who is surrounded with every luxury that he is dependent on.

“A man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” (Luke 12:15).

“A cheerful heart is a continual feast.” (Prov. 15:15, N. T.). And who is there that knows Christ who cannot have a cheerful heart?

The Sweetest Sight "But We See Jesus."

When we awoke to the terrors—not the imaginary terrors, but the proper terrors of our condition, as without God and without hope in the world, how did we get peace but by looking off unto Jesus from that criminal self, where the longer and the more honest our search for anything good, the more hopeless was the prospect? Since then we have known much of the weariness of the journey, for the path of the Christian is not one exempt from trial and suffering; the Lord never promised that the tear should not flow: and what can keep us above it all but this, “We see Jesus”?

Like those around us in other things, we are unlike them in this. We see trial, we see sorrow, but we see Jesus. No mists from within, no clouds from the poor world around can hide Him from our view; all things may be in confusion around, the love of many waxing cold, myriads rushing headlong to destruction, but we see Jesus above it all.

May the blessed Spirit keep us occupied with Him; all else we can afford to part with.

“We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor.” (Heb. 2:9).

Our Father's Care

One day I made a purchase at a shop in a country town. The shopkeeper offered to send her little girl with my parcel to the railway station, and, as I had other calls to make, the offer was accepted. I reached the station first, and crossed the line at a level crossing from one platform to the other. The little girl presently come up with the parcel, but before crossing she carefully looked both ways to see that no train was approaching. When I had received the parcel, I said to her,

“Were you not afraid to cross at such a dangerous place, where trains pass so quickly?” The child, to my amazement, answered without any hesitation,

“I was very careful, sir, for I don’t know what my father would have thought if anything had happened to me, for my father thinks the world of ME!”

She knew something of the interest her father had in her, and took care of herself accordingly! What a lesson for me was this! My heavenly Father thinks more than the world of me; He gave His Son, who created all worlds, for me!

O, then, how much does our God and Father care for us; of what value we are to Him, and what an interest He has in us, His children, and how we ought to take care how we walk!

Live for Him

His Grace has blotted out our guilt,

“In Christ” it is we joy;

Then things behind forget, and all

Your power for Him employ,

One day, one life, O, who shall say

What harvest is above,

Of words you speak in tenderness,

Of deeds you do in love?

A prayer sincere, a hymn of praise,

A smile, a look, a tear;

May move a soul to seek its God,

May still an anxious fear.

Then live each little life to Him,

To whom you now belong;

He’ll make each day an anthem sweet,

Each little life a song.

Faith

Faith is always self-renouncing; it brings a broken, empty heart to receive and welcome God’s gracious gifts. Faith, therefore, gives all the glory to God. Believing in Christ we come to Him for all, employ Him in all, trust Him through all, look to Him under all, hope in Him to do all, and to Him ascribe the glory of all.

Correspondence: JUD 9; MAT 18:20; Confession/Forgiveness; Unsaved Relatives

Question: Why did not Michael, the archangel, rebuke Satan, seeing he himself was a dignity? (Jude 9).

Answer: Because he would not go beyond his authority, but carried out his orders in the spirit of dependence and subjection to his Lord, owning all the authority he possessed was from the Lord; he hid himself behind that. See the contrast in the 8th and 10th verses with the self-assertive spirit of men of the present day. Lowliness and meekness become the followers of the Lord.

Question: Is there any difference between “Where two or three are gathered together unto My name” and saying, “Where two or three gather together”?

Answer: (Matt. 18:20). Christ is the center; the condition needed for His presence is to be gathered in or to His name; that is, in separation from evil and in the unity of the Spirit, for it is only thus the Holy Spirit would gather the members of the body of Christ.

Incidental meetings of Christians may be precious seasons, but they have not the authority of the presence of the Lord in the midst. The two on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24) had the light of Christ’s word shining upon them, making their hearts burn within them, yet they did not know His presence; when they returned to Jerusalem, they had both His presence before them and His word shining in their souls.

Question: Please tell me if there is any difference between confessing our sins and asking the Father to forgive us our sins.

Answer: We cannot rightly ask forgiveness of our sins when we know we are forgiven for His name’s sake. We are forgiven for eternity. (1 John 2:12). But it is needful to confess our sins if we would walk in communion with God. And “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Question: How can a Christian speak to unsaved relatives of God’s claims or be at peace with them, or even maintain his own walk, when they are opposed to all that is of God?

Answer: You should follow the light as it streams in upon your soul, and leave the results with God. We must obey God at all cost, but care should be taken to avoid giving needless offense to those who have claims upon us flowing out of natural relationships. Delicacy, tenderness, modesty, and humility will ever mark the actings of the true Christian. May the Lord lead you into His own blessed and peaceful path!

The Uncertainty of Riches

On a bright morning, some years ago, a young girl of seventeen, stood at the gate, watching for the postman. There was something of special interest to her in that morning’s mail. Her uncle had left her a large sum of money in his will, and she expected to hear fully of it that day. The letter was delivered; the news was confirmed, and Julia became a wealthy heiress.

Her fortune was not an unmixed blessing, nor did it yield her all the happiness she had hoped from it. Riches do not give peace, nor do they brighten the prospect beyond the grave.

Five years later, she had lost it all through the crash of a concern in which it was invested, and bereft of all, she again stood at the gate, watching for the postman, only to have her worst fears confirmed.

By the same mail which took the last hope of worldly gain away, there came a letter from a former companion, who had heard of Julia’s loss, telling her of Christ and His unsearchable riches which never can be lost, and urging her to receive Him as the Saviour of her soul, and the comfort of her weary heart. There and then she trusted Christ, and enjoyed His love.

She afterward assured her friends that she was happier in Christ and with Christ, earning her daily bread, than ever she was with all her store of earthy wealth without Him.

Dear young friends, do not set your hearts upon riches.

“Labor not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.” (Prov. 23:4, 5).

“Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all thing to enjoy. That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come.” (1 Tim. 6:17-19).

Extract: The World, The Flesh, and The Devil

Three things set apart Christ in this scene: the world, the flesh and the devil. He overcame them all. What can give joy and alacrity but knowing this? Thou, Lord, leadest us on in triumph! Talk not to the saint who knows anything of what Christ’s conflict was, of the dread of conflict! Let me set my sorrows against Christ’s, my conflict against Christ’s!

He had none to solace Him; He was forsaken of God at the last hour. True, it is a conflict for us; there is no mistake about that; but if I know powerlessness, I know what it is to fight under Him; and if I have nothing to say for myself, I know that He is more than conqueror for me. We need watchfulness, we need to watch against Satan, to be separate from the world; but Christ is there for every time of need.

People talk of romance of affection; I can only say I wish there were more of it. I wish to be where my blessed Lord is. What alone can give bounding of heart; what can give brightness of face? It is getting to know Christ in heaven, and finding that He has there a heart flowing over with affection for me!

Perfect Love

God exhausted all His resources as to showing the manner and way of His love when He gave His only begotten Son. The sin that man brought in; the death that man brought in; the ruin that man brought in, never made any change in the heart of God; they only presented the opportunity of showing the love that was there— “perfect love.” When the Son of God was put upon the cross for me, God poured out upon me such an expression of His love as can never be shown again.

I could lie down tonight and die, saying one word, and that word, “Amen.” Amen to all that I am—to all my ruin, my misery, my degradation—nothing too bad for me, but not stopping there; there is no comfort in that; but Amen, too, to all that Christ is; Amen to all the perfect love that God is to me in Him.

If you think there is a single thought about you in the heart of God that you would sooner not have there, then you are not resting in “perfect love;” and you never can know the joy that God would have you know until you pillow your heart upon His love—His perfect love to you.

Can you let Him roll perfect love in upon your heart? If you can, it ejects fears as it comes in. “Perfect love casteth out fear.” A resting place for a poor soul in this world is only found in “perfect love.” And God would have that love which is perfect toward you, made perfect in you.

Fragment: Confessing Christ

He is not ashamed to call you brethren; and will you be ashamed to confess Him as your Lord and Master in the face of the world? Be not debating within yourselves when you shall avow yourselves; do so at once, decidedly. Make the plunge, and trust God for the consequences.

I know it by experience that an open, bold confession of being Christ’s is more than half the struggle over.

I say, as one who knows, that if a man, in the strength of the Lord, is just brought to say to his companions and friends,

“I am Christ’s, and I must act for Him,” he will not suffer what others must feel who are creeping on fearful, and afraid to own Him whom they desire to serve.

The Winding up of All Things: Part 4

Notes of an Address

Revelation 20, to 21:1-8

Part 4

There they are; that book of life is opened, and that is their ruin. O, sinner, your sins and mine need not be the damnation of our souls. There is that book of life, and in that book of life every believer’s name is recorded. In what way? As one who receives Christ as his Saviour.

There is that innumerable, awful company; there is not one whose name is in that book of life; had it been, they would not be there, and it is opened just to show them. What a blessed and solemn thing it is.

Men go on regardless of their state before God; regardless of the provision God has made for them in the gospel. Dear friends, see to it that your name is written in the book of life, and you will never have to face that record before God as a Judge.

What becomes of them? This is the final clearing up—winding up—of everything. It is given in general terms here,

“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it: and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.” No escape.

“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Unsaved one, hear that! That is bringing it down to close quarters. One hopes there is not one here whose name is not at this moment written in the book of life.

“The sea gave up the dead” —none can escape. “Death and hell” means that unseen world. “There shall be a resurrection of the just and of the unjust,” and it is the resurrection of the unjust we have here. The contents of the unseen world and the grave are emptied into that place of confinement, the lake of fire, and cease to be.

“No more death” means this: the second death remains; no more such thing as a man being in one place and his body in another, either saint or sinner. Death overtakes both and separates soul from body; that ceases, forever when eternity comes.

Now the way is cleared, perfectly cleared; the Millennium is over, Satan is in his eternal place, and the wicked are judged and consigned to the same quarters—all is cleared now, and we get what follows, and that is as blessed as the other was awful,

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”

A new heaven and a new earth in which God can rejoice, and will forever. We learn from another Scripture, God will joy and rejoice in His people in that new creation, and His people will joy and rejoice in Him.

That is the winding up, happy, blessed, wondrous winding up for all those who have part in it, whether in heaven or on earth. How blessed it will be! I do not speak of details now; a new heaven and a new earth. No more tears; no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away. The former things are former things.

That is, they are not present; they are passed away, and thank God! passed away for eternity!

“And God shall wipe away all tears” —we get that in different scriptures. How little the blessed God is known as the wiper away of tears. We find the blessed Saviour when here, mingled tears with the tears of others, and we find Him wiping them away, saying to that poor widow, “Weep not,” and drying her tears and stilling her sobs by returning to her the cause of all those tears and sorrows.

This blessed view of eternity! What a wondrous winding up, and how near it is we know not, but it will come. How good of God to bring this matter before us in the symbolic way, symbolic language, and then graciously help us to understand it, that is, where there is patient, lowly, inquiry.

Now we come to the present scene. In the 6th verse we come back to time and our own time. It is the settled purpose of God,

“And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”

That is the gospel, dear friends. Who is the fountain of the water of life? Who was it that said, and says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink”? The fountain of the water of life was down here in the Person of the Son of God.

“What will it be to dwell above,

And with the Lord of glory reign,

Since the blest knowledge of His love,

So brightens all this dreary plain?

No heart can think, no tongue can tell,

What joy ‘twill be with Christ to dwell.

“When left this. scene of faith and strife,

The flesh and sense deceive no more,

When we shall see the Prince of life,

And all His works of grace explore,

What heights and depths of love divine

Will there through endless ages shine!

“And God has fixed the happy day

When the last tear shall dim our eyes,

When He will wipe these tears away,

And fill our hearts with glad surprise;

To hear His voice, and see His face,

And know the fullness of His grace.”

(Concluded)

Waiting to Be Caught up

The true Christian attitude is, waiting for the Lord from heaven, waiting to be caught up to meet Him in the air (1 Thess. 4:15-18); and a fine example of this expecting spirit is found in the Thessalonian believers. But all are not thus waiting. To strangers to Jesus, His coming will be a day of terror, and the thought of it causes them unhappiness even now.

Dear reader, young or old, how is it with you? Is Christ’s coming a prospect dear to you? This question is a good test of your soul’s condition, for if your sins are not put away, you can only regard Christ’s coming with distress. The Thessalonians knew that Jesus, who was coming for them, had delivered them from the wrath to come. On the cross Jesus cried, “It is finished;” and, surely when He said so, it was so!

If, then, the claims of God’s justice were satisfied upon the cross, why should not you be satisfied that His death has met the guilt of your sins? Never, until you are assured of salvation, will you be able to say from a heart filled with Christ’s love,

“Lord Jesus, come. Come quickly and take Thy beloved ones home to Thyself, to dwell forever in Thy blessed presence, to go no more out.”

Yet, while many do indeed know that Jesus has bought them for Himself, alas! how few are really “waiting for His coming!” If we really lived in the power of this “blessed hope,” how little the troubles and cares of this world would affect us! and, as for its so-called pleasures, they would be indeed contemptible in our eyes!

If we lived in the power and hope of a coming Christ, what different Christians we should be! When we went out in the morning we should feel that, perhaps, we might be “caught up” before evening, and when we went to rest at night, it would be with the thought that we might be with the Lord before another sunrise!

Thus, fellow-believers, we should show to the world that we had real faith in the promise of our beloved Lord. We should be manifestly a people “waiting for God’s Son from heaven.” The Lord looks for us to go through the duties of our present life in the constant, lively expectation of His return.

If we were in this spirit, we should be like Gideon’s three hundred men, who lapped the waters with their hands to quench their thirst in passing, and who did not stoop down on their knees to enjoy it; we should use the things of earth only in passing, and not seek our enjoyment in them. When we follow earthly things because of the enjoyment they give us, we have relinquished our waiting posture.

The Lord keep “His own” true to Himself in these days of abounding evil and lukewarmness!

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour.” (Matt. 25:13).

Come Ye Apart

“I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste.” (Song of Sol. 2:3).

The disciples were not losing time when they sat down beside their Master and held quiet converse with Him under the olives of Bethany or by the shores of Galilee. Those were their school hours: those were their feeding times.

The healthiest Christian, the one who is best fitted for godly living and godly labors, is he who feeds most on Christ. Here lies the benefit of Bible reading and of secret prayer. The very act of sitting down quietly at His table of love has its significance.

Teach the Little Ones

“From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim. 3:15).

Teach the little ones the Scriptures,

Help them learn them day by day;

Teach them to revere the Scriptures,

And the Bible to obey.

Teach the little ones the Scriptures,

Though it may much labor cost,

Teach them now the Holy Scriptures,

Think no time for such is lost.

Teach the little ones the Scriptures,

Store them early in their mind,

Teach them to believe the Scriptures,

That by nature all are blind.

Teach them, too, about salvation,

Through the precious blood alone,

That, from every tribe and nation,

Saved ones gather at God’s Throne.

Teach them all that God hath written,

Statutes, judgments—none refuse:

Teach them Christ, the Rock, was smitten,

For the Gentiles and the Jews.

Teach them, too, the types so many,

Sterner parts of truth as well;

Teach them, too, that very many

Now are on the road to hell.

Teach them, too, of future blessing,

For the faithful, suffering ones,

Who, eternal life possessing,

Are now called, by God, His sons.

Teach them, too, of Israel’s blessing,

In “That Day” when they shall mourn,

All their sins to God confessing,

Then they will His law adorn.

Teach them, too, of wrath with sadness,

(How solemnity alway),

That the lost will know no gladness

In God’s awful Judgment Day!

Teach them, while the time is fleeting,

In the Holy Spirit’s power;

Often with your Saviour meeting,

Use for Him each passing hour!

Shall I Have a Radio?

The child of God should ever remember, when confronted by any question, What saith the Scripture?

“For man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4).

Faith does not reason, nor talk of expediency, but listens to His voice, knowing that wisdom is with God, and comes to us through the living Word. Have we not very plain Scripture instruction as a precious word of warning?

“Remove far from me vanity and lies.” (Prov. 30:8).

“Cease, my son, to hear the instructions that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” (Prov. 19:27).

That such comes over the radio cannot be denied, and in plain and blessed language the Lord taught His disciples to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.”

Let any one answer before the Lord whether or not they are not often tempted to “listen in” when “vanity is on the air.”

Vanity is there, and the Christian who feels most his weakness and the need of godly edifying, will remove such “far from him.”

Let us know more of the Lord, the joy of the Holy Spirit, of the comfort of the Scriptures, more of the blessedness of intercession, and we will neither need nor desire a radio.

Successful Workers

The word of exhortation to God’s people to be of good courage runs all through the Bible. He who undertakes to fight for God must do so with a brave spirit, or he will certainly be defeated. The secret of courage lies in the sense that God is with us, and this sense flows out from obeying God’s Word.

A work is given to every Christian to do for Christ. It must be undertaken and pursued with courage. Faint hearts win no fights. Successful workers for God are men and women who believe God has sent them to accomplish an end for Him on the earth.

Has God given us a work to do? Then go forward and do it in His strength! Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. On your knees you may plead and pour out your fears, but before the foe, fear should have no place.

Communion

There is nothing the true heart desires more than communion, and it is not only my desire, but Christ’s heart desires it. This is an immense comfort, and yet it is so little known. We know so little of what it is to be in company with the Lord; walking down here but in company with Him. It is not only that He is considering for me, but I may be in company with His mind, with Himself. The youngest believer may be in company with the Lord, though he may know very little.

In John 13 the Supper was in prospect in remembrance of His death. All was in prospect, and now He rises from supper, and begins another work, a new work. He has finished one work, completed; “there is no more offering for sin;” what the upper represented is over, and He begins another work which is going on now. Washing our feet: “the washing of water by the Word.”

The Lord did not give His Word in this way to Old Testament saints. You do not find them washing their feet. It is Christ’s present work for us; and what is the object of it? That we should have communion with Himself.

We might use the word concert, for the word communion has become so common that we have lost the real meaning of it. The meaning of communion with Christ is that I am in concert with Him. We are together in company; we are in the same line of things. No one can follow the Lord save in communion.

In Philippians there is a different acquaintance with Christ in each chapter. All of us are in more or less trial and difficulty in which we can have company with the Lord. If I tell out all my difficulties to Him, I shall have the peace of God (chapter 4:7), and what am I to do then?

“Whatsoever things are lovely... think on these things.”

You could not do this if you were not in peace. If worried by the affairs of life, you cannot display these beautiful traits of character. Unburden, then, your heart to God; tell Him all; and you will come out in the practical thing with the peace of God, and the God of peace with you.

This is not for any high line of service, but for the daily routine of life. I am not worried by the details of daily life, because I have learned what Christ is to me. So that Paul says,

“I can do all things through Him who strengtheneth me.”

Instead of being flurried and worried, I come out gracious and considerate to everyone. If not, I am not walking in the circumstance in the power of Christ.

Secret Prayer

Part 1

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” (Matt. 6:6).

It is this going into our closet and shutting the door; it is this that is wanted, SECRET PRAYER. This is the main spring of everything. And yet we make excuses, and say we cannot find time. But the truth is, if we cannot find time for secret prayer, it matters little to the Lord whether we find time for public service or not.

Is it not the case that we can find time for, I may say, everything except this getting into our closet and shutting the door, in order to be alone with God. We can find time to talk with our brethren, and the minutes fly past unheeded until they become hours; and yet we do not feel it a burden. Yet, when we find we should be getting into our closet to be alone with God for a season, there are ever so many difficulties standing right in the way.

Ten thousand foes arise, to keep us from that hallowed spot, “thy closet.” It would seem as if Satan cares not how we are employed, if so being, we seek not our Father’s face; for well the great tempter knows if he can but intercept the communications between us and our God, he has us at his mercy.

Yes! we can find time for everything but this slipping away to wrestle with God in prayer. We find time, it may be, even to preach the gospel and minister to the saints, while our own souls are barren and sapless for lack of secret prayer and communion with God.

What saints we often appear before people? O, the subtlety of this Adam nature. When we go into our closet and shut the door, no one sees us, no one hears us but God. It is not the place to make a fair show. No one is present before whom to make a little display of our devotion. No one is there to behold our zeal for the Lord. No one is there but God: and we know we dare not attempt to make Him believe we are different from what we really are.

We feel that He is looking through us, that He sees us, and knows us thoroughly. If evil is lurking within, we instinctively feel that God is searching us: for evil shall not dwell with Him (Psa. 5:4).

Ah, it is a searching spot alone in the presence of God. Little wonder so many beg to be excused from spending much time there. But, beloved, it is the lack of spending time there that is the secret of so much of the lifelessness and the carnality that abounds.

What we want to see is a great revolution in the praying habits of God’s people. We cannot pray by proxy—that is, another doing it for us—no more than our bodies can thrive by another taking food for us. There must be individual closet work. The prayer meeting will not suffice us, blessed privilege though it be.

“Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray” (Matt. 6:5).

How many there may be who have gradually left off secret prayer, until communion with God has been as effectively severed as if, for them, there were no God at all. We do not speak at random. Anyone who does a little in coming and going among saints will have discovered this by experience.

That God has His praying ones we believe—yea, we rejoice to know. He is never without faithful ones—remnant though they be, who cry day and night unto Him. Yet the terrible downward current of these last days is carrying the many before it: yea, the many even of God’s people: and the great enemy of souls could not have hit upon a more deadly device for making merchandise of the saints, than by stopping the supplies at the throne of grace.

When closet prayer languishes, “the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.” The lack of secret prayer betrays a lack of heavenly appetite. It implies a positive absence of desire for the presence of God.

(To be continued)

Extract: Not the Lips, but the Ear

In prayer, it is not the lips, it comes from, but the ear it goes to, that is the great thing.

His Own

Called “His own” —endearing name

For His loved and purchased ones,

Once in Satan’s bondage held—

Now to God, beloved ones.

Bought at the amazing price

Paid in blood at Calvary;

Chosen by His loving heart—

To be His eternally.

Since I’m not my own, but His,

Both by purchase and by choice,

For His pleasure I would live,

And His heart of love rejoice.

Stand Faithful

These lines were written to a dear friend undergoing trial, and her plea is for loyalty to Christ, and all to be done to the glory of God.

“The Lord has your interests and mine as much at heart as any of His redeemed ones—and think of His power and love for His children.

“We are not promised a path strewn with flowers and perpetual prosperity, but we are promised perfect peace, if our hearts are fixed on God. It may not be all we expect, but if it is His way, then it must be well. The fruitful life is one that has known much sorrow.

“The text on the calendar for today is,

“‘Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised.’ (Heb. 10:33).

“I would love automobiles, fine clothes, servants, and to be able to walk into a store and have the clerks say, ‘This is Mrs. so and so—she is very wealthy;’ as I have heard it said of others.

“I would like to have loads of money to give away—why there is not enough in the whole world to satisfy, when I think of everything. But when we dwell on higher things and eternal life that you and I have, and think of what it means to those who are drifting down to eternity—dreadful thought! do not wealth, fame, and temporary alleviation appear like an infinitesimal atom? On the other hand, what are we going to do in return for what has been done for us?

“I feel that God has some great things for you, because He has tried you so hard! He knows how much we can stand, and what we need for refining.

“‘Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.’ (James 1:12).

“Do everything, I pray you, to God’s glory and stand faithful. All the world would think you a fool for giving up worldly glory and pleasure, for they do not see or understand. Remember Christ in the wilderness and what Satan offered Him—the whole world!

“You are acknowledging Christ, and that is what Satan is after, because you have stepped aside to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and remember it is only for a little while. Some people get their testing time early, and some later in life, but know that you will get no more than you can stand.

“May God guide you at this time and keep you unswerving in your testimony for Christ, and faithful in your walk.

“With warmest love to you in our soon coming Lord.”

Correspondence: JOE 2:14; 1TI 1:15; MAT 24:34 & LUK 21:32, 19:12-27; PHI 3:18-19

Question: Who it is that returns and repents in Joel 2:14?

Answer: God, and the blessing He leaves is to be rendered back to Himself as an offering. The desolate wilderness of verse 3 left neither corn nor wine for meat and drink offerings, but on their repentance, God would not so utterly destroy the land, but leave sufficient for them to enjoy, and offer to God.

Question: What is the meaning of “Sinners, of whom I am chief,” 1 Timothy 1:15?

Answer: The word is not “arkos,” a chief or ruler, but “protos,” the first or foremost, a word used constantly, and always rendered “first.” The meaning surely is “foremost as a sinner” that is in guilt. And was it not so? When Christ had just established the infant church on the Rock, the man who undertook to wipe it off the face of the earth, to destroy “the body,” now they had slain “the Head,” was Saul of Tarsus. And yet this was the man who in the wonderful ways of God is the only one to whom is committed the mystery of the church, and who alone fully unfolds the real character of that against which he had sinned so deeply.

Question: How are we to reconcile “This generation shall not pass, etc.” (Matt. 24:34 and Luke 21:32)?

Answer: “Generation” is not literal, for nearly all who heard the Lord’s words would be dead even before the taking of Jerusalem, and even this event only partially fulfills the prophecy. The word is used characteristically, meaning that the same self-will and rejection of Christ should still characterize His people until all these things were fulfilled, that is right up to Christ’s return to Mount Olivet.

Question: Please explain the giving of the pounds in Luke 19:12-27.

Answer: This describes our Lord’s present absence from this world, and the faithful or unfaithful conduct of His servants in this world, to each of which He has entrusted some gift to be used for His glory. It also describes the future rewards for faithful service. The Lord said, “Occupy till I come.”

Question: Can Philippians 3:18, 19 be understood as referring to believers, Demas for instance?

Answer: Verse 19 appears to say more than could be said even of worldly Christians, for their end is not destruction, however much God may chastise them by the way. These would appear to be only professors.

"None but Christ Can Satisfy"

It was a lovely afternoon, and the steamer on her return trip, was laden with excursionists and tourists, who were passing the time in singing favorite songs. After a time a fresh program was designed, and one and another asked to give their names as willing to play a part.

A young lady, well known in former years as a singer at high-class concerts and entertainments, but who had been converted to God, and had consecrated her voice and talents to the service of Christ, was present. An old friend of bygone years asked her to allow her name to be put upon the program for a song, and before she could answer, he had written it down and was gone. When her name was called, there was a “hush.” It was well-known to some of the passengers that she had ceased to sing the world’s songs, and they were curious to know what she would do. Standing up, she sang the now well-known hymn,

“Now, none, but Christ can satisfy,” which then was new; her silvery voice ringing across the calm sea, the words so strangely true, once of herself, and still of others, as many felt.

“I tried the broken cisterns, Lord,

But ah, the waters failed.

Even as I stooped to drink, they fled,

And mocked me as I wailed.

“Now none but Christ can satisfy,

None other name for me;

There’s love and life and lasting joy,

Lord Jesus found in Thee.”

A solemn silence seemed to brood over the gay company, while that sacred song was being sung by one whose heart was Christ-filled, and knew in blessed experience its meaning. There is a wonderful charm in singing or speaking in the power of what is felt and enjoyed in the heart and soul, and that young believer, who had cast herself upon God for special help in the strange circumstances in which she was called upon to testify for her Lord, was wonderfully helped to sing her experience of Christ. There was power in that song; it went to hearts, we know, and there was no call for anything to follow it that afternoon.

There is a reality in being saved, in having Christ, in being able to speak and sing of what He is, and gives to the soul. Those who are not hardened feel the power of such testimony, for there is nothing like it under the sun.

Men may sneer at what is called “religion”: they may argue and question the “doctrine” of the gospel; but a true “living epistle” in whom Christ’s likeness is seen, and in whose heart He is truly loved, they cannot so easily ignore, although as in the case of Stephen of old, whose face shone with the reflected glory of Christ (Acts 7:15), they may hate and even murder him if they dare.

Do you know the Lord as a Saviour and satisfying portion. Can you sing in truth that He has saved and now satisfies your heart; or are you lifeless, careless and Christ-less? Soon the world’s pleasures will all perish and fade away, or your grasp of them be forever relaxed by the icy touch of death.

Your companions in sin and its scenes, will be far away from you in that dread hour, when you enter the dark and unknown eternity, you will meet God, unmasked of all that now hides the true state of your soul, and pass into the place you have fitted your soul to fill. Where will it be? In a heaven of bliss and glory, or lost to God, and banishment from His presence by sin and Christ rejection?

Fairest flowers soon decay,

Youth and beauty pass away,

O, you have not long to stay,

Be in time.

While God’s Spirit bids you come,

Sinner, do not longer roam,

Lest you seal your hopeless doom,

Be in time.

Satisfied with Thee, Lord Jesus,

I am blest;

Peace which passeth understanding,

On Thy breast;

No more doubting, no more trembling,

O, what rest!

Taken up with Thee, Lord Jesus,

I would be;

Finding joy and satisfaction

All in Thee;

Thou the nearest, and the dearest

Unto me.

Lust

“Lust” is the stretching forth of the hand to take something for self. If God says, “Take,” it is no lust to take. But, if the very crown prepared by God for you were there, and you took it unbidden by Him, it would be lust. God has sheltered us in Christ.

“Walk in the Spirit,” then, “and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Gal. 5:16).

Lust is the very essence of the world.

“Lo, I come to do Thy will,” was Christ’s way.

Wherever there is a, “Thus saith the Lord,” though it be even going to the stake, you will find a joy, a calmness, which you will never find in stolen waters taken for yourself. A path utterly unblameable may be pursued, and yet God may say, I did not put you there; and this comes in to interfere with the sustainment of quiet peace in the heart. Is it with me,

“Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do?”

“Lo, I come to do Thy will,” recognizing obedience to God as the one great thing.

Act for Eternity

Begin with meditation. Meditate upon eternity. Pray about its realities, seek for grace to be possessed with its tremendous issues; then you will begin to act for eternity.

Take another step. Shut yourself in your room alone, and speak to the Lord about eternity, with the name of one soul—a friend, a neighbor—upon your lips. Let that name and eternity be breathed together before God. Where will that person spend eternity? Think over it, pray over it, weep over it, and, possessed with the reality, you will not be able to avoid speaking to your friend about it.

Visit the sick and dying. Deathbeds are the most powerful sermons the living can hear. Those sweet testimonies to the love of Jesus, those visions of glory, those cheering words of Jesus to His own; ah! what preacher ever told to the heart so well who and what the Saviour is for His people, as the dying whispers of His beloved people?

“Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak; for your work shall be rewarded.” (2 Chron. 15:7).

Secret Prayer

Part 2

Those who are strangers to the closet, fall an easy prey to temptation. Satan gets an advantage of them at every turn. Nothing comes right: everything happens, in an untoward way, for,

Thorny is the road

That leads my soul from God.

If a brother is not at the prayer meeting for a time or two, you can speak to him about it and exhort him. His absence is a thing you can see. But if he is absenting himself from the closet, that is a thing beyond your observation. You only feel, when you come into contact with him, that something is sapping his spiritual life: and who shall estimate the eternal loss that follows the neglect of secret prayer.

On speaking to one as to how it fared with him and his God, he surprised us by saying he was a backslider. He had tasted of the heavenly joys: but had gone back to the world. His backsliding had commenced with the neglect of secret prayer.

“I missed prayer for a time,” he said, “and then I missed it oftener, and things went on in this way until, somehow, everything slipped through my fingers, and I found myself in the world again.”

We fear this is true of many. Little by little, neglect eats in, until they wake up to find they have not even the desire to go into the closet to meet with their God.

How different with those who watch with jealous care that the Lord has always His portion, whoever may have to want theirs. Their going out, their coming in, their whole manner of life declares that they have been where the heavenly dew has been falling.

Their Father who saw them in secret, is rewarding them openly. They carry about with them, although all unconscious of it, the serenity of the secret place, where they have been communing with God as friend with friend. But these are reckoned “peculiar”, and it is to be feared their number is few, few compared with the many who are hurrying on, strangers to the closet and the hour alone with God.

Little wonder that the saints are getting as worldly as the very worldling. Little wonder the plainest precepts of the Word of God are brought to bear upon them in vain. We need not wonder that they as resolutely refuse to obey the Word of the Lord, as a water-logged ship refuses to obey its helm. They cannot see this truth; and that practical truth which affects the closet has never exercised them.

But why should this surprise us, if private prayer has lost its charm?

“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” (Psa. 25:14).

It is an Abraham, in sweet communion with God, that knows the fate of Sodom, long before the dwellers in that city are dreaming of danger. And it is the same Abraham who hastens and rises early in the morning to do the thing the Lord has commanded, although that thing be the severing of natures tenderest tie (Gen. 22). Men of communion are men of obedience.

It is men, delighting to be near the King, who are ready to hazard their lives to fetch him a drink from Bethlehem’s well (1 Chron. 11:17). And it is men of prayer that have moved the arm of Omnipotence in all ages; while they who seemed to have least need to pray, have been the very ones to whom the closet has been dearest.

Our great example was a man of prayer. We read of Him rising a great while before day, and departing into a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35). Let us follow Him, whithersoever He goeth. If He needed the aid of heavenly power to help Him in the evil hour, how much more do we. Then let no uncertain sound be given in this all-important matter.

Let secret prayer be urged on God’s people as one of the great essentials of spiritual life, without which our greatest service will be barren and fruitless in the eyes of Him who looks on the heart. And let each one of us ask ourselves the question,

“Am I delighting in the secret place—to plead with the Lord—to renew my strength—to have power with God and prevail?”

(Concluded)

Extract: For Nothing

I know no word more settling to the soul than “Be careful for nothing.” How often I have found it so— “for nothing.”

Christ Is Coming!

“Surely, I Come Quickly.” (Rev. 22:20).

He is coming. He is coming!

Our long-looked-for, absent Lord!

He is coming for His people,

As He promised in His Word.

He is coming. He is coming!

Don’t you feel that He is near?

He is on the very threshold,

Soon His voice will greet your ear.

He is coming! O what rapture!

Our beloved one is near.

He is coming! He is coming!

Soon His loving voice we’ll hear.

He is coming! Are you ready?

Is your lamp all trimmed and bright?

Are you waiting for the Morning?

Are you looking toward the light?

He is coming! He is coming!

Hark His footsteps drawing near!

How it thrills your very being,

As you list His voice to hear

Lo, the eastern sky is glowing,

Soon the glorious Day will break,

Soon He’ll burst upon our vision—

O, ye sleeping saints, Awake!

Soon the “trump of God” will call us,

Soon we’ll meet Him in the air—

Him, the “altogether lovely,”

And the fairest of the fair.

He is coming! He is coming!

Cast the shades of night away!

He is coming! Our Beloved!

Dawns at last the glorious Day.

How to Read

I was visiting an aged Christian in a hospital. In one of the beds sat a little old woman with a bright, pleasant face. She repeated many verses of Scripture to me, and appeared to enjoy them thoroughly.

“God has blessed you with a good memory.” I remarked.

“Yes, ma’am, He has, but then I try to remember. I often think of what a lady said to me years ago. She said, ‘When you read, think of a cow. What does a cow do? It eats all it wants, then it goes, and lies down, and it chews the cud.’” And then the lady said, “Now you should be like the cow. Don’t forget when you read, don’t shut up the Bible and forget all about it, but be like the cow and chew the cud.”

“That was good advice,” I said.

“Yes, ma’am,” she answered “it was good advice, and I have chewed the cud many a time after reading, and now when I lie awake of a night, as I often do, I say over my verses out of my Bible and my hymns, and they are a great comfort to me.”

May we not all take a lesson from these simple words? Are we not all far too apt to read and forget, to close our Bible, and forget to “chew the cud?”

“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them.” (1 Tim. 4:13, 15).

Happy Service for Young Believers

The Lord Jesus, the Master of the house, has given “to every man his work.” There must be no loiterers or “unemployed” in the ranks of the saved. All are redeemed to serve, and there is an infinite variety of work in the great vineyard of the Lord, with abundant room for all kinds of workers.

To the young believer just starting on his life of service, a hidden corner is usually given! he is not generally brought into publicity at once. It is well to begin low, and not aim at too high things. We see this among the Lord’s first disciples.

Andrew led Simon, his brother, to Jesus, and on the day of Pentecost, three thousand were converted through Simon’s instrumentality. Andrew found a “lad” in the crowd, and the whole five thousand were fed from his store.

May the Lord’s hidden ones be encouraged to serve in such paths. May the young believer follow his bright example, seeking to lead his “own” kindred to the Saviour.

Where the demoniac of Gadara was converted, he was told by the Lord to go “home” and tell his “friends” what the Lord had done for him, and no doubt he began his testimony there. Then the “whole city” heard his voice. (Luke 8:39).

This is the “right road” to higher things. Begin where you are; do not wait till a “better opening” appears. There is quite a nice opening just now, and it’s there you are called to begin.

Here are a few ways in which some dear young Christian boys and girls spent their early days. Most of them are now men and women, actively engaged in service for the Lord.

Willie and Jack, apprentices, got the use of a widow’s kitchen, and one night a week, gathered the children together, and told them of Jesus. At least ten of them were converted, and the two boys were greatly blessed.

Mary and her cousin stamped gospel texts on the envelopes used by Christian workers in their correspondence. A text boldly printed on the corner of an envelope, and followed into the post office by the prayers of the sender, was used to awaken an aged postman over three hundred miles from the place where it was posted. There are many such cases no doubt, which the day will declare.

Ours is to “Sow beside all waters.” To bring Christ before those who know Him not, is our life business here. This is a service in which you may share.

Love One Another

The Christian’s heart is his pocket book, and love is his money. He is bidden, “Owe no man anything.” but love. Let the one who loves you, have it back in his own coin; and to him whose purse is empty of love, yet heavy with unkindness, give him such an abundance of the heavenly coin that he may be ashamed into a settlement of his accounts.

“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” (1 Pet. 1:22).

Come and See

John 1:46

Now my eye rests on Jesus: I find the Lord from heaven a Man.

Do I look at myself? At all around? What do I see? Enough to break my heart, if there be a heart to be broken. But a rest is here! A Man who satisfied God—this blessed Man on earth, in the presence of God, looking to God, and an object of God! Not Messiah purging His floor, but Him in whom God’s thoughts are all folded up—not man perishing before the moth, but Jesus the Son of Man, not merely coming down from Abraham and David, “which was the son of Adam, which was the Son of God” (Luke 3:21, 22, 38). “The second Man, the last Adam, the quickening Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45).

What a relief; for what is man? What is one’s self when the heart’s sin is known—giving up God for an apple from the beginning hitherto! But now a Man, a blessed Man appears, and praying. The dependent Man: for dependence is the essence of a perfect man. Truly we see God shining all through, but yet in Jesus the dependent Man, in the place and condition of perfectness as man.

The root of sin in us is self-will, independence. Here my heart has rest. A dependent Man in the midst of sorrow, but perfectly with God in all; in humiliation or in glory, it makes no difference as to this; the perfect is ever the dependent one.

And when that blessed heart thus expressed its dependence, did He get no answer? “The heavens opened.” Does heaven open thus on me? It is open to me, no doubt, but I pray because it is open; It opened because He prayed. I come and look up because the heavens were opened on Him.

It is indeed a lovely picture of grace, and we may be bold to say that the Father loved to look down, in the midst of all sin, on His beloved Son (John 8:29). Nothing but what was divine could thus awaken God’s heart; and yet it was the lowly perfect Man. He takes not the place of His eternal glory as Creator, the Son of God—He stoops and is baptized. He says, “In Thee do I put My trust, Thou art My Lord” (Psa. 16), and the Holy Ghost descends like a dove on Him—fit emblem of that spotless Man!—fit resting place for the Spirit in the deluge of this world. And how sweet, too, that Jesus is pointed out to us as God’s object.

I know the way the Father feels about Him. I am made His intimate, and admitted to hear Him expressing His affection for His Son, to see the links reformed between God and man.

Thus I get rest, and my heart finds communion with God in His beloved Son. It is only the believer who enjoys it, but the link is there. And if I find that in and about me which distresses the soul, I have that in Him which is unfailing joy and comfort. With Him let heaven and earth be turned upside down, and still I have rest. What blessedness for the heart to have the Object God Himself is occupied with!

“Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22).

"He Oft Refreshed Me"

Have you ever noticed the service of a brother named Onesiphorus? I believe it has a word for us in these days, when many are isolated and often are unable to meet with the Lord’s people for fellowship. The apostle said of him in 2 Timothy 1:16-18,

“He oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain... he sought me out very diligently, and found me... in many things he ministered unto me.”

What a lovely list of things are mentioned here, and how suggestive surely to any whose heart is filled with the love of Christ! “He oft refreshed me” —like a morning breeze, full of freshness and vitality, this dear man had often refreshed the heart of the great apostle. Although Paul may at times have been cast down, here was one who had ministered to him, who had encouraged his heart, who had cheered his spirit and sympathized with the Lord’s prisoner in his bonds.

Are there not some whom we could refresh, some drooping spirits whom we could water, some whom we might be able to cheer and encourage? And then having done it once, do it often! Of Onesiphorus it is also said,

“He sought me out very diligently and found me.”

There are some lonely ones who will only be found in this way. They will need seeking out and finding, and such service is noticed by Him who could seek out the poor outcast woman of Sychar’s well. They are known to the Lord and never forgotten by Him, yet He would have us search them out, and by so doing, remind them of that link which binds us together and to Christ in glory.

Both in Rome and Ephesus, Onesiphorus ministered to the Apostle, in what way we do not know, but it was known to the Lord and was precious to Him, because done to one of His own, as He says,

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” (Matt. 25:40).

O, that we too may be ready thus to serve Him, as we serve those that are His own!

Christ, Our Object

Why could Paul say, “Brethren, be followers together of me”? He was a man of like passions with us, and it would be going too far to say that he was never overcome, never failed. We can only understand it by remembering, that the point here is not the state attained to, but the object before the soul: Christ was always Paul’s object. It is a cheer to our hearts that we have before us, not only the Author and Finisher of faith, but one running after Him, a man of like passions with ourselves.

If we are occupied with the path, we never shall present the likeness of Christ that we see here; nothing but occupation with Christ will produce this. Paul was not occupied with the path, or with anything to which he had attained; the object was everything to him. He refers to his path only as “forgetting the things that are behind.”

It cheers us to know, that though we may fail a thousand times—and we shall judge ourselves, surely, for our failure—yet we may always have the right object before us.

On the other hand, Christians may go on, nothing outwardly to be found fault with, all fair outside, and yet they may be among those who “mind earthly things.” We must have an object of some kind; if Christ is not our object, earthly things are. They may not be wrong things, such as would be scouted by Christians, but they are earthly, sublunary things, and how foolish it is for us, when we come to think of it, to mind earthly things!

It may be tomorrow, it may be today that the Lord will call our spirits to Himself, or He may come and change our vile bodies, and earthly things will be over forever. There will be a complete transfer of interests then, but we need not be exiles from our true home now; our spirits need not be prisoners here.

If attainment were the point, one could not dare to speak of this subject, but it is a cordial to our hearts to know that the point is not attainment, but who is our object?

Peace, Perfect Peace

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.” (Isa. 26:3).

If you cannot have riches, health, and many other desirable things, peace you may have. It is the free gift of God to all who will accept it by faith. It is gold for the poor, comfort for the mourning, and life to all who have accepted it.

In heaven the overcomers will carry the palms, and sing the songs of victory.

Come, Lord Jesus, say it again, “Peace be unto you.”

The Precious Word

A mountain of transparent pearls heaped as high as heaven, is not as rich and valuable as the Bible. Worldly riches are procured with labor, kept with care, lost with grief. They are false friends farthest from us when we have most need of comfort.

But not so with the Word of God, for if we lay it up in our hearts as Mary did, the comforts thereof shall sustain us when all other comforts fail. O let nothing in all the world be dearer to you than God’s Word!

“I rejoice at Thy Word, as one that findeth great spoil.” (Psa. 119:162).

"Fullness"

The “fullness” of the Godhead

Our blessed Lord, Thou art;

And yet, in lowly manhood

Thou graciously had’st part.

That by Thy death and rising

Thine own redeemed might be,

Thy “fullness”, Lord of Glory,

In wondrous unity.

The “fullness” of Christ Jesus,

Who “filleth all in all,”

O! wondrous, matchless favor

To subjects of the fall.

The church which is Thy body,

With Thee. the Head above,

Displays the Father’s purpose,

The Bridegroom’s wondrous love.

And now our hearts in worship

Are bowed before Thy face;

For we are blessed in Thee, Lord,

The objects of Thy grace.

Faith

True faith is tried faith, and without works faith is dead (James 2:26).

Faith is tested and proved; only God tries the weak gently, and the strong severely. The trial of our faith is much more precious than of gold, which perishes. This is subjected to the heat of the furnace, but our faith is tried by the things of every day, and often by the heat of affliction, so that it might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:7). What a light does this cast upon the trials and difficulties which all who love Christ must needs undergo!

True faith moves the whole being. God spoke to Abraham: he believed God, and believing, became a pilgrim and a stranger on earth, and a looker for a city which has foundations, and whose builder and maker is God.

God gave David the promise of the throne, and though pursued by Saul, and at times despairing of his life, still David believed God, and was more than conqueror.

God told Paul that he and those with him in the ship should be saved out of the storm; Paul believed God, and not one of those was lost for whom he trusted the divine Word. The Word of God has much greater influence over some Christians than others. Why? Some believe God, others hardly do so. We are not now speaking of salvation, but of practical daily life.

Faith overcomes difficulties—nay, impossibilities!—as the overthrow of Jericho, and the triumphs of Gideon and of Samson show, and as the records of earnest, believing men of our times prove. The giants among believers are the men of faith, strong in faith, made strong by it, for God’s work and glory!

Democracy

Democracy is a great effort on Satan’s part, through the agency of man, to bring all down to his own level; thus he would bring down the highest to the place of the lowest, even his own outer darkness.

Divine equality must be in the risen Christ, He seeks to bring the lowest up to the highest place, even into His own presence and His own glory; His redeemed are His agency in this work.

“Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28).

Insensible to God's Love

The solemn mistake of the man in the parable of the talents (Luke 19:21) surely was this, that his wretched heart found a reason in his master to hide his talent. Had he said that the service itself had so many difficulties in it, that he was discouraged and gave it up, through fear and infirmity, it would have been different; but to say, his master was hard and austere, that was terrible, and betrayed the insensibility of his heart to all the ways and appeals of love.

Correspondence: Luke 13:6-9 & 1 Cor. 11:30; Heb. 6:4-6; Spirits of Dead Believers

Question: Have Luke 13:6-9 and 1 Corinthians 11:30, any application to believers now?

Answer: The parable of the fig tree in Luke refers to the Jewish nation. It is interesting to note that on three great occasions from Moses to Christ, blessing was given and fruit sought with an interval of seventy weeks (490 years) between each. Once in Solomon’s time, 490 years after Moses, when they had reached their highest position as a nation; next, 490 years after, when restored under Nehemiah; and lastly, 490 years after this, when Christ came: but according to verse 8, a further respite was still granted till the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus.

The passage in Corinthians does refer to believers, and means the death of the body. (See also Heb. 12:5-11).

Question: Please explain Hebrews 6:4-6.

Answer: This refers to Jewish professors who, after having taken their place amongst Christians and enjoyed all their peculiar privileges, turned round and apostatized from the faith. It nowhere says they had eternal life. If we compare the passage with verse 18, we learn two things: first, that the greatest amount of privileges cannot save; secondly, that the weakest faith can.

Question: Are the spirits of departed believers in an unconscious state now until the resurrection?

Answer: The idea of departed spirits being in an unconscious state is as absurd as it is unscriptural. Has Paul been unconscious for the last eighteen hundred years? If there were any truth in this notion, could he have said, “To die is gain”? Would it be gain to be unconscious? Would it be “far better” than to enjoy Christ here, and serve Him in the gospel and in the assembly?

When the Lord said to the dying thief, “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise,” did He mean that he was to be unconscious? Why say, “with Me in paradise”? If he was to be unconscious, what difference could it make where he was to be?

When the blessed Apostle says, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord,” does he mean a state of unconsciousness?

Had Stephen nothing but a state of unconsciousness before him, when he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”?

It is really most deplorable to find any who call themselves Christians, holding such a miserable theory. Excuse our strong language. It is hard to speak in measured terms of such a baseless absurdity as a ransomed spirit asleep in the presence of Christ! May the Lord deliver His people from all vain and foolish notions! The word “asleep” refers to the body (1 Thess. 4:14, 15).

Old Stamford's Debt

“It stands in my book against you, and you may tell me as often as you like you feel sure you are not in my debt, but I have ‘black and white’ to prove it, and you have no receipt to show it is paid.”

The speaker was a baker, and he was addressing an old man, named Stamford, who kept a small store.

Stamford had been in the habit of taking bread each week from this baker to retail to his customers, and, one week, there was no receipt in the book to show that this was paid for, and the baker angrily demanded the money.

Poor old Stamford could not be convinced he was in debt for this amount; so the matter was carried to the County Court, and, as no proof could be shown that he had paid the money, judgment was given against him, and he was ordered to pay the sum demanded, and the costs amounting in all to about $30.00.

The poor old man could scarcely manage to exist on the small profits his store produced, and his daughter, who kept his house, was almost constantly an invalid, so this fresh trouble pressed upon his spirits like a black thundercloud, and crushed him down to the earth. He was so ill from anxiety and worry, that he could not crawl down the stairs, as usual.

Where to look he did not know. He had no friend who could pay the debt for him, and he knew of none who loved him sufficiently well to do so. One thought kept haunting him night and day; one vision was ever before him, waking and sleeping—that debt. He pictured the day when the bailiff would take possession, and he be a homeless wanderer in a cold, dreary world.

It was during the gloom of November, with its dark days and thick smoky fogs, that the old man lay on his bed purposing, planning, contriving, how he could get out of his difficulty. His weary brain and aching heart always came back to the same conclusion, hopelessly in debt, and nothing to pay with, and no one he knew who would, or could, meet his need.

Reader, have you seen yourself a sinner, hopelessly involved, with “nothing to pay”? Have you heard God, in His Word, declare you are “lost,” a “debtor,” “without strength”? Have you discovered that your state and character are recorded in black and white in the imperishable records of the Word of God? and are you anxiously saying,

“Where can I get this load of guilt removed? Who can show me any good? Where can I find one who loves me well enough to pay the mighty debt of accumulated sins of omission and commission?”

Our old friend did not believe he was in debt until the judgment was recorded, and the verdict given against him.

Have you discovered that judgment has been recorded against you, and the verdict pronounced,

“The soul that sinneth it shall die”? and gazed upon these words which tell of something after death—(“the judgment,”) and learned that judgment means eternal separation from home, and light, and life, and joy, and peace, in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, and are unable to rest night and day, because of the dark, doleful, dreaded future? If so, listen as I tell you how God, in His goodness, undertook for old Stamford.

Just as the old man was in the deepest distress, and the day that he feared was drawing near, the writer of this paper called to see him, and heard the story of his suffering, his debt, and inability to pay. He went to some friends whom he knew, and told the woeful story. One of them immediately said,

“I shall be delighted to pay the debt. I have never seen the old man, but what you tell me of his need is enough. Here is the money; go and pay the debt, but do not tell him who paid it.”

It was then suggested that the money should be paid directly into the Court, without telling the old man anything about it, so that the first bearer of the good news would be the postman, who brought the letter containing the Court’s discharge.

Early the following morning the money was paid, the Court satisfied, and old Stamford declared free. What was now needed that he should be delivered from all his perplexities, and freed from his anxieties? You will say, “The knowledge of the fact that his debt is paid.”

Hours rolled away, and his misery continued, for though he was a free man he did not know it.

Even so, years have rolled away since the work of Christ was finished, and the “debt our sins augmented” was paid in “blood;” since the Friend of sinners, pitying us in our deep, deep, need, met all the claims of justice. Long, long before we knew anything about it, He “who was delivered for our offenses,” “was raised again for our justification.” The work which saves us eternally from all the consequences of our sins is a work done by another, altogether outside of ourselves.

Just as Stamford’s debt was paid by one who was both able and willing to do it, and did do it, before the old man knew anything about it, so Christ’s work was completed before we knew anything about it. The friend who paid Stamford’s debt had never seen the one whom he had befriended; they were strangers to each other. It was his need alone which drew out his benefactor’s love, and caused him to befriend him.

Could the old man have worked, or “done” anything to pay his debt, he would not have needed a friend.

So with you, anxious soul, it is your need, your helplessness, your utter inability to help yourself which renders you a fit subject for the grace of God, and the work of Christ. What will make you happy, set your soul at liberty, and speak peace to your conscience? Faith in the fact, stated in three words, “it is finished,” the debt is paid.

Let us follow the postman as he goes rat-tat at the door, and hands in a blue envelope with an official-looking seal.

The daughter takes it with trembling hand, and, as the old man listens, he says to himself, “Ah! it has come at last, here is the letter to tell us the execution is to be put into effect.” With sorrowful heart she breaks the seal, and reads of a “complete discharge.”

Surely now she will be filled with joy, and hasten up the rickety stairs to her sorrowing father, and tell him the good news, that the “debt is paid.”

Not so, however. As she reads she says,

“There is some mistake here, this cannot be meant for us—it cannot be true!” and she hurried upstairs, calling out,

“Father, just look at this letter. It says the debt is paid, but that cannot be true.”

With beating heart, and shaking hand, the letter is eagerly scanned, and, as he lays it down upon the bed, he says,

“Yes, there is some mistake somewhere, this cannot be for us, we don’t know a person in the world who would pay the debt.”

And so they were more perplexed than ever. The same Court that declared they were in debt had now declared their discharge from the debt; the same authority that condemned had now justified them; the power that had pronounced them guilty now declared that they were free; but this did not make them happy. Why? Because they did not believe it. They said, it was “too good to be true,” and thus their perplexity only increased.

Anxious soul, Jesus, who was nailed to the cross, delivered for our offenses, is now raised again for our justification. He who was crucified between two thieves, made “a curse,” “made sin,” is now in the best place in heaven, exalted to the highest seat, because of the perfect and complete way He has paid “the debt,” and glorified God about the question of sin. And that Word, which announces that the unbeliever is “condemned already,” also declares that “through this Man (Christ Jesus) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38), and tells you in plain, unmistakable terms, that Christ Jesus “gave Himself a ransom for all,” “died for sinners,” “died the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.”

Reader, do you believe it? Do you accredit what God’s Word says?

If you look at yourself, you may well say, “It is too good to be true,” but it is not too good for God, it is just like Him, for He “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).

The father and daughter did not believe what was written, and so remained perplexed, troubled, anxious. In order to solve their doubts, they sent for a neighbor, and asked him to read the letter, and tell them what he thought about it.

“Why,” said he, “it’s plain enough, there it is in black and white, the Court has discharged you, and you may be sure somebody has paid the debt for you.”

“Then you really think it is true?”

“True, why there it is as plain as plain can be, the Court says so, and that ought to be quite enough for anybody.”

The load went, the anxiety departed, and the effect was so powerful, when he believed what the letter stated, that he got up from his bed, the news doing what the doctor’s medicine had failed to do, enabling him to go downstairs for the first time for several weeks. Joy and thanksgiving filled his soul, and his one desire now was to know the one who had paid the debt.

Doubting soul, learn a lesson from our friend. Believe what God says because God says it; rest in what Christ has done, believe the witness of the Holy Ghost, who attests, with unmistakable truth, the precious record that, “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more,” and then joy, and

O, What a Debt I Owe!

All that I was, my sin, my guilt,

My death, was all my own;

All that I am, I owe to Thee,

My gracious God, alone.

The evil of my former state

Was mine, and only mine;

The good in which I now rejoice

Is Thine, and only Thine.

The darkness of my former state,

The bondage all was mine;

The light of life in which I walk,

The liberty is Thine.

Thy grace first made me feel my sin,

And taught me to believe!

Then, in believing, peace I found,

And in Thy Christ, I live.

All that I am e’en here on earth,

All that I hope to be,

When Jesus comes, and glory dawns,

I owe it, Lord, to Thee.

Fragment: Has and Gives

The faithful steward gives, because he has, and has, because he gives.

The Blesser, and the Blessing

A young Christian once said to me, “When my heart is inclined to grow cold, I think of what. I am saved from. Through the wondrous love of God, I am saved from hell!”

Another said, “I love to think of what I am saved for—to be near Christ, and like Him. When I am cast down in my soul, I seek to dwell upon what I am brought to, through the grace of God.”

Of which do you think the most, dear young friend, the wrath to come from which you have been delivered; or the blessings which are yours as a saved one?

Let me suppose a kind and rich man walking through the streets of a city upon a dark and cheerless night. It was bitterly cold, and he wraps his ample overcoat about him, as he hurries to the brightness and warmth of his gladsome home. Yes, his is a joyous home; it is not only wealthy, but the riches of contentment and peace are there, and even the humblest among his many servants is satisfied.

As the rich man hastens on, his eye lights on a kind of bundle in a dark corner of the street—he approaches it, asking himself,

What can it be? Ah! it is a poor ragged little child, starving and freezing in the pitiless night. Touched with compassion, the good man brings the little wanderer to his house, and saves him from the death he was so near. But more, such is the goodness and love of the man’s heart towards the child, he adopts him into his own family as a son, and bids the boy call him father.

Now tell me, dear young friend, what will the boy’s heart be occupied with most? Will it be the street, the rags, the misery from which he was saved? Surely he will never forget these—never. But he will be chiefly occupied with his father, his house, its wealth, its treasures, its glories. And he will study his adopted father’s character, and seek to be like him, and to walk worthy of the high and noble calling wherewith he is called.

This is the kind of spirit we so much need, and you will find that there is a great deal more said in God’s Word about what we are saved for, than what we are saved from. I think some Christians find it easier to think of the misery from which God has rescued them, than of the blessedness which He has bestowed upon them. Perhaps they have not yet been through all the rooms of the house. Maybe they are not quite at home in their new place; possibly they are timid, and hardly bold enough in God’s love to say, “Abba Father.”

“But if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ,” and “because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba Father!” (Rom. 8:17; Gal. 4:6).

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). Can you write down any of the spiritual blessings with which you are blessed?

“All (or every) spiritual blessings,” not three or four; no, not ten or twenty, but all. Then how many can you count up? Notice, this text does not speak of what we are saved from at all. It does not describe the pitiless street, but draws out the heart to the glorious house, and the Father there.

You will find it is happy and profitable occupation to seek to write down some of the blessings which the first chapter of Ephesians describes, and the more you think about them, the brighter you will grow.

The once ragged boy, by continual heart and mind occupation with the rich man and his home, loses all traces of the dirt and manners of the street whence he came, and grows like his father. Thus let us be occupied with what God has done for us, and we shall find such wealth and gladness in His Word, that the world will be only like the dirt and the street to us. A growing Christian has his face turned toward heaven, and shines with its light.

Stephen looked up steadfastly, and said “I see Jesus,” and all who looked upon Stephen saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Fix your eye of faith upon Christ, the one through whom we have received “every spiritual blessing;” the one who loved us and gave Himself for us: the one who washed us from our sins in His own precious blood; the one who is risen and now sits at the right hand of God for us; the one who is soon coming to take us to be with Himself forever—yes, let us be occupied with Him and our hearts will rejoice, and we shall desire to please Him in all our ways.

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” (Col. 3:1).

Waiting and Watching

Christ “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil world,” and so I am called to pass through this world. Supposing Christ had been crucified last night, well the question is, am I going on with the world that crucified Him, or am I going on with Him?

Again; I must have the Holy Ghost to know that I am accepted with joy. I cannot look up and say, “Come quickly,” unless I know that my redemption is settled; and then I find that Christ is all, and in all; He is everything to us as our object, and He is in all as the power of life and joy.

Having washed me from my sins in His own blood, He has become everything to my soul. I cannot find a thing in Christ the value of which has not been spent upon me. Let me remark one thing here, and that is, that we know whom we love, even if we do not love Him enough. If anyone says,

“I love my mother, and I think I love her enough,” I say,

“You wretch, you do not love her at all.” But if a child says,

“O, I do not half love my mother for all her care and painstaking, and labor for me,” I say, that child does love its mother.

So it is with the Lord and us; and we long therefore to see Him. This characterizes the Christian position; the Holy Ghost has come down from heaven, and we know that we are sons; He dwells with us consequent upon accomplished redemption; Christ has thus become precious to us.

The second thing, therefore, that characterizes the Christian is, that he is waiting for Christ; I say this advisedly. And herein is the test of everyone’s state: Supposing the Lord should come tonight, am I ready to meet Him? I do not know when He will come; but it says,

“In such an hour as ye think not.”

Are our hearts, our thoughts, and our affections in good order? Are our lights burning? Are we confessing Him before men? Are we like men that wait for their Lord? For to such He comes and knocks, and they open to Him immediately. That is, the character we are to have. We who are believers, through grace, we do not half believe in the interest Christ personally takes in each one of us. We have to go through the world, but can we say that we are watching for Christ?

Do our hearts answer to the love that Christ has to us now?

Are we answering to that love by waiting and watching for Him, because He is going to have us in the glory with Himself?

May the Lord give us to be as men that wait for their Lord:

“Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching!” (Luke 12:37).

Extract: Strength and Peace

Until we receive God for our strength, we cannot know Him for our peace.

God uses what we know and what we can do. When David was learning to use his sling, he didn’t know that the time would come when God would use him to kill a giant.

We cannot know what future honor may depend on the way we do the simplest, most common-place thing today.

“Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ.” (Col. 3:23, 24).

"The Lord's Supper, As the Moral Center, the Object of the Assembly"

Let us remark some of the thoughts of the Spirit in connection with this ordinance.

1st. He links the affections with it in the strongest way. It was the same night on which Jesus was betrayed that He left this memorial of His sufferings and of His love. As the paschal lamb brought to mind the deliverance which the sacrifice offered in Egypt had procured for Israel, thus the Lord’s Supper called to mind the sacrifice of Christ. He is in the glory, the Spirit is given; but they were to remember Him. His offered body was the object before their hearts in this memorial.

Take notice of this word “Remember.” It is not a Christ as He now exists; it is not the realization of what He is: that is not a remembrance—His body is now glorified. It is a remembrance of what He was on the cross. It is a body slain, and blood shed, not a glorified body. It is remembered, though, by those who are now united to Him in the glory into which He is entered. As risen and associated with Him in glory, they look back to the blessed work of love, and His love in it which gave them a place there. They drink also of the cup in remembrance of Him. In a word, it is. Christ looked at as dead: there is not such a Christ now.

It is the remembrance of Christ Himself. It is that which attaches to Himself, it is not only the value of His sacrifice, but attachment to Himself, the remembrance of Himself. The Apostle then shows us, if it is a dead Christ, who it is that died. Impossible to find two words, the bringing together of which has so important a meaning, the death of the Lord. How many things are comprised, in that He who is called the Lord, had died! What love! what purposes! what efficiency! what results! The Lord Himself gave Himself up for us. We celebrate His death. At the same time, it is the end of God’s relations with the world on the ground of man’s responsibility, except the judgment.

This death has broken every link—has proved the impossibility of any. We show forth this death until the rejected Lord shall return, to establish new bonds of association by receiving us to Himself to have part in them. It is this which we proclaim in the ordinance when we keep it. Besides this, it is in itself a declaration that the blood, on which the new covenant is founded, has been already shed; it was established in this blood.

I do not go beyond that which the passage presents.; the object of the Spirit of God here, is to set before us, not the efficacy of the death of Christ, but that which attaches the heart to Him in remembering His death, and the meaning of the ordinance itself. It is a dead, betrayed Christ whom we remember. The offered body was, as it were, before their eyes at this supper. The shed blood of the Savior claimed the affections of their heart for Him. They were guilty of despising these precious things, if they took part in the supper unworthily.

The Lord Himself fixed our thoughts there in this ordinance, and in the most affecting way, at the very moment of His betrayal. Extract from Synopsis. J. N. D. (1 Cor. 11:23-26).

Reading

“Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it.” (Luke 11:28).

“Blessed is he that readeth.” (Rev. 1:3).

“Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.”

“Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them.” (1 Tim. 4:13, 15).

“Continue in the things which thou hast learned.” (2 Tim. 3:14).

Dear young Christian, I beg of you to consider, whenever you take up anything to read, as to what is the character of your book or paper.

What are you going to feed your soul upon—the Word of God, which will cause you to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? or the poison of trashy literature?

You will never get an end to the Word of God. Also the Lord has given His servants who have unfolded to us the deep and precious truths contained in it through their writings. There are many valuable books which will be of help to us in our study of the Bible.

Let us store our minds with His Word, and learn more of our blessed Lord during the little while that He leaves us here. Surely His coming is very near.

The following is an extract from a letter by James Hudson Taylor to his younger sister, Louisa, whose spiritual welfare was much on his heart.

“There is one thing I would specially warn you against... one of the greatest curses I believe of the present day—the practice of novel reading. If you value your mind and soul, avoid it as you would a dangerous serpent. I cannot tell you what I would give to be able to forget certain novels I have read, and to efface their influence from my memory. And I firmly believe, though some would deny it... that no Christian ever did or ever will read them without injury, very serious injury too, if the habit is indulged in. It is like opium smoking, and begets, a craving for more, that must be supplied. Better books are neglected, and no one can estimate the mischief that results. None, I believe, could honestly ask God’s blessing upon the reading of a novel, and few would venture to assert that they read them to the glory of God. The only safety lies in avoiding them as one of Satan’s most subtle snares.”

From Strength to Strength

“How is it that some Christians break down? How is it their needs are not met? How is it some get into confusion and perplexity?”

The answer to these questions is in many cases because they have got out of the path of God’s will. In that path we get full supplies. We do not carry resources with us: we must learn the secret of continual dependence on Him. We must be always receiving from Him.

It is like a waterwheel going round. What makes it go round? The water that went over it yesterday? No! The stream that may flow tomorrow? No! What then? The water passing over it just now. If that stops, the wheel stops. So we are dependent moment by moment.

Let me illustrate this. Some years ago, when I was a little boy, my father took me to India. I well remember many of the incidents of the journey. For instance, between Cairo and Suez—there was no railway or canal then—we had to travel a hundred miles over a dry, arid desert. But we had no provisions with us, no change of horses. We needed these things in such a long journey. How did we manage? There was a certain path marked out for us, and in that path provision was made for our needs all the way along. If we kept that path, we had stage by stage, refreshment, fresh horses and so on; but we had to keep the path, else we should have had no supplies.

So there is a path of the will of God for us, and in that path there is full provision.

Out of it we need not wonder if we do not find constant supplies. Remember, then, one great secret of success is to be learning more and more perfectly, how to be kept in the path of God’s will.

“Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path.” (Psa. 27:11).

True Faith

“Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” (Isa. 26:4).

When a man is down he has a grand opportunity for trusting in God. A false faith can only float in smooth water but true faith, like a lifeboat, is at home in storms.

If our Christianity does not bear us up in time of trial, what is the use of it? If we cannot believe God when our circumstances appear to be against us, we do not believe Him at all. The Lord is good, and He will undertake for His servants, and we shall praise His name.

It Is Well It Shall Be Well

2 Kings 4

‘IT IS WELL’—the year declining

Tells of mercies hitherto;

‘SHALL BE WELL’—the year that’s dawning,

Brings His love to gladden you.

IT IS WELL—no promise faileth,

Never has, nor ever will!

SHALL BE WELL—for He is coming,

Brightest hopes to then fulfill.

IT IS WELL—a trustful spirit

Gratifies His loving heart.

SHALL BE WELL—assured no power

From His love, His own can part.

Correspondence: Children of God in 1 John; Dan. 3:25; Exo. 30:9

Question: How are the children of God viewed in the First Epistle of John?

Answer: The features of God’s children are seen in this epistle, as light, love, obedience, righteousness, and faith; and are contrasted with the children of the devil, as darkness, hatred, disobedience, unrighteousness and unbelief.

Question: Was it the Lord who was seen in the fiery furnace? (Dan. 3:25).

Answer: Yes. In the Old Testament the Lord appeared at times in different forms.

In Genesis 18, He is a wayfaring man communing with Abraham the pilgrim.

In Joshua 5, He appears as Captain of the Lord’s host, giving instructions how to take Jericho.

In Daniel, He is a companion in tribulation, and a deliverer, while in it, from its power. The fire killed the men that put these three men into it, but over them it had no power. It took the cords off their limbs, and put them in the company of one like to the Son of God. Nebuchadnezzar did not know the Son of God. (It is literally “a son of the gods”). But how happy a place it was to be in. Was it not? They might be afraid before they were thrown in, but it was delightful to be in the presence of the Lord Himself (Nah. 1:7).

Question: In Exodus 30:9 why was there to be no burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering, neither drink offering offered thereon? I can see how they would have been out of place upon this altar, which was for incense only, but why the admonition? An admonition would not have been given if there had not been the danger of offering these offerings, I would think. Then, why does it not say, there shall be no sin offering offered thereon?

Answer: The altar of incense was the presentation to God in worship of all that Christ was, both in life and in death. To offer burnt sacrifice, on this altar would be to deny the work that had been done at the brazen altar. (Witness the Roman Mass). No mention is made of the sin offering, because, in its distinctive character as a sin offering, it was not offered on the altar of burnt offering at all, but burned without the camp.

Young Christian: Volume 26, 1936

Table of Contents

A Medical Student's Conversion

Never Perish

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Fifth Beatitude, Part 2

Our "Light Affliction”

We Are His

Abel, Enoch and Noah

It Pleaseth Thee

Compromise

Correspondence: 1 Tim. 1:8; Lost Tribes Restored/Identified?

God so Loved

The New Year

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Sixth Beatitude, Part 1

The Person of Christ

"As for God, His Way is Perfect"

The Divinity and Humanity of Christ

"The Coming of the Lord Draweth Nigh"

"Helps"

"Be of Good Cheer"

True Service

That I May Know Him

Correspondence: Singing with Grace; League of Nations

Love Not the World

Fragment: Faith and Anxiety

The Cross of Calvary

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Sixth Beatitude, Part 2

The Right Path

The Resting Place

"Being Let Go"

What Should I Read? A Question for the Times: Part 1

God's Word Our Food

The Salvation of the Soul

Love Rules All

Extract: Occupation with Christ

Correspondence: Matt. 3:15; Present Return of the Jews

Come As You Are!

More Grace

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Seventh Beatitude, Part 1

Watching Daily

If the Lord Tarry

Fragment: Home

What Should I Read? Part 2

Be of Good Courage

Grumbling

Extract: Self

Correspondence: Antediluvian Race; Acts 1:11; Col. 1:20; Eph 1:10; Psa. 16:1-2

God's Unfailing Word

His Compassions Fail Not

Follow the Master

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Seventh Beatitude, Part 2

Philippians

A Fragment: Like Christ

The Coming of the Lord

Fortitude

My Little Marguerite's Pincushion

Rejoice

Correspondence: MAT 25; REV 19; EZE 37; REV 10:22; Jesus as Wisdom in PRO 8

A Memorable Holiday

The Secret of a Happy Path

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Beatitude of Position, Part 1

Fret Not Thyself

The God of My Salvation

The Lord's Servants

Living for Christ

Sympathy

Correspondence: 50 Days; MAR 14:3-9; JOH 12:38; LUK 10:38-42; REV 22:3

Without God

An Incident in the Life of Duncan Matheson

Meditations on the Beatitudes: The Beatitude of Position, Part 2

His Love

Altogether Lovely

The Winding up of All Things: Part 1

None Like Christ

We See Jesus

Ye Are Not Your Own

Extract: The Future

Correspondence: Passion Play; Matt. 22:12; Choose Ye This Day - Unbeliever?

He Will Carry You Through

Extract: True Humility