Training Below For Service Above, Part 2

"The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads." REVELATION 12:3,4

AND doubtless unto thee is given
A life that bears immortal fruit
In such great offices as suit
The full-grown energies of heaven.
ALFRED TENNYSON

IF we are to be thus disciplined and trained, as workmen in various orders of work, instruments thus formed for God's service, what may we look to become hereafter? May not instruments thus formed, when this passing scene is over, and we appear in God's presence, cleansed and disciplined, with the true workman's hand, may we not be set to work in higher spheres, in grander ministries, in a world of nobler service? We speak of heaven as a sort of rest, of sweet consolation, of communion with God, such as we cannot know on earth; but consistently with this perfect sweetness, heaven is full of activity, of ministrations infinite. For God is active, and out of His activity He formed all creatures. As in the deep seas in their endless movements there is calm beneath, so in God are depths of peace as infinite as the activity of His creation. So, too, His creatures partake of infinite peace and intensely active service.
T. T. CARTER

By Mary Wilder Tileston, taken from "Joy and Strength"

Training Below For Service Above, Part 1

"So shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 THESSALONIANS 4:17

"They shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy." REVELATION 3:4

WE are taught to believe of the Blessed, that they "serve Him day and night in His temple," that "His servants shall serve Him." And this must be with powers and endowments developed in harmony with higher worlds, so that all the tastes, the desires, the affections, the artistic powers, the intellectual gifts, which belong to each individual, each with his own special capacities, trained and developed and exercised in spiritual modes of life, will be suited to that higher world, where they dwell in the presence of the Almighty God, and the "Lamb who is in the midst of them." The activities of a condition of life such as we cannot yet conceive, we shall enter upon, if fitted for it, trained for it, by the exercise of our gifts during our life in this world; we shall be like weapons in the Hand of God, ready for what Service He may will.
THOMAS THELLUSON CARTER

For those who live, as she did, with their whole talents dedicated to God's service, death is only the gate of life,--the path from joyous work in this world to greater capacities and opportunities for it in the other.
HORATIA K. EDEN

By Mary Wilder Tileston, taken from "Joy and Strength"

Keep Your Judgements in Check

"Let us not therefore judge one another any more." ROMANS 14:13

TELL not abroad another's faults
Till thou hast cured thine own;
Nor whisper of thy neighbor's sin
Till thou art perfect grown:
Then, when thy soul is pure enough
To bear My searching eye
Unshrinking, then may come the time
Thy brother to decry.
"Jesu, Saviour, pitying be;
Parce mihi, Domine!"

LYRA MYSTICA

THE habit of judging is so nearly incurable, and its cure is such an almost interminable process, that we must concentrate ourselves for a long while on keeping it in check, and this check is to be found in kind interpretations. We must come to esteem very lightly our sharp eye for evil, on which perhaps we once prided ourselves as cleverness. We must look at our talent for analysis of character as a dreadful possibility of huge uncharitableness. We are sure to continue to say clever things, so long as we continue to indulge in this analysis; and clever things are equally sure to be sharp and acid. We must grow to something higher, and something truer, than a quickness in detecting evil.

FREDERICK WM. FABER

By Mary Wilder Tileston,taken from "Joy and Strength"

Praising God

A few years ago at my church's Women's Retreat I was shown a great way to praise God. Instead of always thanking God for his blessings (which is still vitally important to do) try to spend some time praising Him for who He is. It's a great way to start your day and helps you to focus upon your devotional time. I encourage you to print this list out and place it in your Bible. Here is a list of things to praise God for because He is the......

Great I AM
Son-of-Man
Divine Teacher
Soul Winner
Great Physician
Bread of Life
Defender of the Weak
Light of the World

Immovable
Self-sufficient
Sovereign
Sympathetic
Mighty God
Consistent
Strong
Cheerful

Victorious
Holy
Powerful
Loving
Merciful
Forgiving
Faithful
Model Sufferer

Omega
Patience
Peace
Perfection
Truth
Purity
Bountiful
Holy

Rock of all Ages
Friend of Sinners
Miracle Worker
The Way
Gentleness
Self-Controlled
Good
Mighty Fortress

Yoke
Ruler
Lord Savior
Knowledge
Freedom
Law-Giver
Liberator

Triumphant
Understanding
Graciously Hears
Eternal Mind
Sacred
Untainted
Son-of-God

Omnipotent
Conqueror of Death
Admired
All-Knowing
Infinite
Supreme-Being
Honored
Beautiful

Glorious
Unbounded Grace
Hope
Eternal
Our Atonement
Above Every Name
Blessed Assurance
Almighty King

Everlasting Father
Arm of the Lord
Anointed Preacher
Radiant
All Wise
Spiritual Discerner
Just
Gentle

Abba
Unfailing Love
Abundance
Integrity
Merciful
Messiah
Great Healer
Omnipresent

Living Word
Exalted One
Majestic
Awesome
Most High
Brightest Star
Judge
Provider

Lifter of my Head
Almighty
Lover of my Soul
Renewer
Breath of Life
Wounded Lord
Whiter than Snow
Water of Life

Good Shepherd
Prince of Life
Righteous King
Divine Servant
True Vine
Creator
Compassionate

Light
Joy Giver
Steadfast
Strength
Divine Vision
Clean
Christ
Protector

Omniscient
Light Divine
Marvelous
Beloved
Amazing
Satisfying
Redeemer
Immortal

Deliverer
Exhorter
Messiah
Jehovah
Relief Giver
Honest
Sinless

Krista Jones
1.19.07

Peace in God's Daily Presence

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant." PSALMS 25:14

THEN shall my days be Thine,
And all my heart be love;
And joy and peace be mine,
Such as are known above.
Come, Holy Spirit, quickly come,
And make my heart Thy lasting home.
ANDREW REED

IT is a sign that the soul is living in God, if it maintain calmness within through the consciousness of His Presence, while working for Him in active ministrations. Such restfulness will show itself in the commonest ways, in doing common duties at the right time, in preserving a sweetness and evenness of temper in the midst of ordinary interruptions and disturbances, in walking to and fro quietly on the day's varied errands, in speaking gentle words, in sweetly meeting unexpected calls. A calm, restful temper grows as self is learning to lose itself in God. Such grace tells gradually on the daily life; even the minutest detail may be brought under the power of God, and carried out in union with Him.
T. T. CARTER

By Mary Wilder Tileston, taken from "Joy and Strength"

Just Do It!

"See that ye hasten the matter." 2 CHRONICLES 24:5

AND grant me, Lord, to do,
With ready heart and willing,
Whate'er Thou shalt command,
My calling here fulfilling;
And do it when I ought,
With all my strength, and bless
The work I thus have wrought,
For Thou must give success.
JOHANN HEERMANN

NO unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant. Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquillity, and hindering our communion with God. If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it.
ALEXANDER MACLAREN

She constantly yielded to that kind of selfishness which makes the writing, or not writing, a letter depend upon the inclination of the moment.
SARAH W. STEPH

By Mary Wilder Tileston, taken from "Joy and Strength"

Seeing the Will of God in Daily Events

"The very hairs of your head are all numbered." MATTHEW 10:30

"I will go in the strength of the Lord God." PSALMS 71:16

NO trouble is too small wherein to see the will of God for thee. Great troubles come but seldom. Daily fretting trials, that is, what of thyself would fret thee, may often, in God's hands, conform thee more to His gracious will. They are the daily touches, whereby He traces on thee the likeness of His divine will. There is nothing too slight wherein to practice oneness with the will of God. By daily practice in slight crosses of our own will, do we learn the lesson our Lord taught, "Not as I will, but as Thou." All the things whereof men daily complain may perfect thee in the will of God. The changes of the seasons, bodily discomforts or ailments, rude words, petty slights, little jealousies, unevenness of temper in those with whom thou livest, misunderstandings, censures of thy faith or practice, severe judgments, thanklessness of those thou wouldest benefit, interruptions in what thou wouldest do, oppressiveness or distraction of thy labors,--whatever thou canst think of, wherein others fret themselves, and, still more, thyself; therein thou seest how to be of one will with God. - EDWARD B. PUSEY

By Mary Wilder Tileston,taken from "Joy and Strength"

What Kind of Fruit Are You?

What Kind of Fruit Are You?

"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit." Matthew 12:13

What kind of fruit are you? Do you bear fruit that comes from God? "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control...." (Galatians 5:22).

How do we bear love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? To bear these kinds of fruits means you need to be immersed daily in God's Word, studying it and memorizing it. Start your day off with one chapter of the Bible. Try memorizing one verse a week. It takes such little time to do these things and yet, the eternal consequences of time spent with our Lord are greater then we realize.

When you start putting time into the Word you will begin to want to put more time into it and begin to look more like Jesus. Have you ever watched a baby begin to eat solid food? At first all the baby craves is milk. As soon as they are old enough to get their first taste of solid food you notice a change. At first they may not like the texture, spit it out and get crabby. Yet, the more you present them with something other then milk the more they get use to it and desire it. Then you notice how when you eat their little mouths start making eating motions and they reach for your fork wanting to eat solid food.

Like babies getting use to solid food, it takes time and effort to grow Spiritually. Going through the motions and hearing a sermon once or twice a week does not make you bear the fruit of the Spirit. If you aren't being feed the proper foods you cannot look like the fruit of God. The Bible says, "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God." (Colossians 1:10).

How will people recognize you?

Krista Jones
1.19.07

Like Unto Us

"Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto His brethren" (Heb. 2:17).

Had our Lord appeared on earth as an angel of light, He would doubtless have inspired far more awe and reverence, and would have collected together even larger multitudes to attend His ministry. But to save man He became Man, not merely like man, but very man. In language, in costume, in everything unsinful, He made Himself one with those He sought to benefit. Had He been born a noble Roman, rather than a Jew, He would, perhaps, if less loved, have commanded more of a certain kind of respect; and He would assuredly thereby have been spared much indignity to which He was subjected. This, however, was not His aim; He emptied Himself. Surely no follower of the meek and lowly Jesus will be likely to conclude that it is "beneath the dignity of a Christian missionary" to seek identification with this poor people, in the hope that he may see them washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God! Let us rather be followers of Him who "knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God, He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments, and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded."

By James Hudson Taylor, taken from "Giant Steps"

The Joy of the Lord

"...the joy of the LORD is your strength" (Neh. 8:10).

What is the joy of the Lord? Is it joy that there is such a Lord? For we cannot realize His existence without joy. Or, is it joy that He is our Lord? For possession is a fruitful source of joy Or, again, is it joy that He has imparted to us, and shed abroad in our hearts by His Spirit? Or, lastly, is it His own joy which is our strength? We feel no doubt that, while all these sources of joy are ours, it is to the last of them that this passage specifically refers.

John 15:11 refers to our Saviour's joy in fruit-bearing through His branches. It was His will that His joy might remain in them; and that consequently their joy might be full. Here we see the joy of the Lord distinguished from the joy of His people.

In Hebrews 12:2, we have the joy of the Lord in the redemption of His people-joy to despise the shame and endure the cross. It was strength for self-sacrifice.

In Zephaniah 3:17, we have the joy of the Lord in the possession of His purchased inheritance. Oh, how wonderful is this joy! "He will rejoice over thee with joy, He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing."

It is the consciousness of the threefold joy of the Lord--His joy in ransoming us--His joy in dwelling within us as our Saviour and Power for fruitbearing--and His joy in possessing us, as His Bride and His delight; it is the consciousness of this joy which is our real strength. Our joy in Him may be a fluctuating thing: His joy in us knows no change.

By James Hudson Taylor, taken from "Giant Steps"

The Breaking of the Storm

"And there arose a great storm" (Mark 4:37).

Some of the storms of life come suddenly: a great sorrow, a bitter disappointment, a crushing defeat. Some come slowly. They appear upon the ragged edges of the horizon no larger than a man's hand, but, trouble that seems so insignificant spreads until it covers the sky and overwhelms us.

Yet it is in the storm that God equips us for service. When God wants an oak He plants it on the moor where the storms will shake it and the rains will beat down upon it, and it is in the midnight battle with elements that the oak wins its rugged fibre and becomes the king of the forest.

When God wants to make a man He puts him into some storm. The history of manhood is always rough and rugged. No man is made until he has been out into the surge of the storm and found the sublime fulfillment of the prayer: "O God, take me, break me, make me."

A Frenchman has painted a picture of universal genius. There stand orators, philosophers and martyrs, all who have achieved pre-eminence in any phase of life; the remarkable fact about the picture is this: Every man who is pre-eminent for his ability was first pre-eminent for suffering. In the foreground stands that figure of the man who was denied the promised land, Moses. Beside him is another, feeling his way--blind Homer. Milton is there, blind and heart-broken. Now comes the form of one who towers above them all. What is His characteristic? His Face is marred more than any man's. The artist might have written under that great picture, "The Storm."

The beauties of nature come after the storm. The rugged beauty of the mountain is born in a storm, and the heroes of life are the storm-swept and the battle-scarred.

You have been in the storms and swept by the blasts. Have they left you broken, weary, beaten in the valley, or have they lifted you to the sunlit summits of a richer, deeper, more abiding manhood and womanhood? Have they left you with more sympathy with the storm-swept and the battle-scarred? --Selected

The wind that blows can never kill
The tree God plants;
It bloweth east, it bloweth west,
The tender leaves have little rest,
But any wind that blows is best.
The tree that God plants
Strikes deeper root, grows higher still,
Spreads greater boughs, for God's good will
Meets all its wants.

There is no storm hath power to blast
The tree God knows;
No thunderbolt, nor beating rain,
Nor lightning flash, nor hurricane;
When they are spent, it doth remain,
The tree God knows,
Through every tempest standeth fast,
And from its first day to its last
Still fairer grows. --Selected

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Taken From: Streams in the Desert

Open Your Treasures and Give

"And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." MATTHEW 2:11

GIVE yourselves anew to God and to God's service, and He will give you the desire and the power to open your treasures; to give to Him, it may be wealth, it may be time, it may be personal service, it may be life itself. In His store there is a place for all, for the tears of the penitent, the barley loaves of the child, the two mites of the widow, the savings of the Philippians' "deep poverty," as well as for Mary's ointment, for the land of Barnabas, for the gold and incense and myrrh of these Eastern sages. And if the vision of Christ be before his eyes, and the love of Christ be in his heart, the man of wealth will give his large offering, the man of learning his dear-bought knowledge, the man of business his hard-earned leisure, for the glory of God, for the benefit of his fellow-men, for the Church or for the poor; to feed the hungry, or to teach the ignorant, to help the struggling, or to guide the erring; and each gift will be welcomed by Him who gave Himself for us all, and who asks in return for ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him.

JOHN ELLERTON

By Mary Wilder Tileston, taken from "Joy and Strength"

Be Still

"And the Lord appeared unto Isaac the same night" (Gen. 26:24).

"Appeared the same night," the night on which he went to Beer-sheba. Do you think this revelation was an accident? Do you think the time of it was an accident? Do you think it could have happened on any other night as well as this? If so, you are grievously mistaken. Why did it come to Isaac in the night on which he reached Beer-sheba? Because that was the night on which he reached rest. In his old locality, he had been tormented. There had been a whole series of petty quarrels about the possession of paltry wells. There are no worries like little worries, particularly if there is an accumulation of them. Isaac felt this. Even after the strife was past, the place retained a disagreeable association. He determined to leave. He sought change of scene. He pitched his tent away from the place of former strife. That very night the revelation came. God spoke when there was no inward storm. He could not speak when the mind was fretted; His voice demands the silence of the soul. Only in the hush of the spirit could Isaac hear the garments of his God sweep by. His still night was his starry night.

My soul, hast thou pondered these words, "Be still, and know"? In the hour of perturbation, thou canst not hear the answer to thy prayers. How often has the answer seemed to come long after I The heart got no response in the moment of its crying--in its thunder, its earthquake, and its fire. But when the crying ceased, when the stillness fell, when thy hand desisted from knocking on the iron gate, when the interest of other lives broke the tragedy of thine own, then appeared the long-delayed reply. Thou must rest, O soul, if thou wouldst have thy heart's desire. Still the beating of thy pulse of personal care. Hide thy tempest of individual trouble behind the altar of a common tribulation and, that same night, the Lord shall appear to thee. The rainbow shall span the place of the subsiding flood, and in thy stillness thou shalt hear the everlasting music. --George Matheson

Tread in solitude thy pathway,
Quiet heart and undismayed.
Thou shalt know things strange, mysterious,
Which to thee no voice has said.

While the crowd of petty hustlers
Grasps at vain and paltry things,
Thou wilt see a great world rising
Where soft mystic music rings.

Leave the dusty road to others,
Spotless keep thy soul and bright,
As the radiant ocean's surface
When the sun is taking flight.
--(From the German of V. Schoffel) H. F.

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, taken from "Streams in the Desert"

Helping Our Neighbor

"Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good." ROMANS 15:2

"Let us consider one another." HEBREWS 10:24

LOOK around you, first in your own family, then among your friends and neighbors, and see whether there be not some one whose little burden you can lighten, whose little cares you may lessen, whose little pleasures you can promote, whose little wants and wishes you can gratify. Giving up cheerfully our own occupations to attend to others, is one of the little kindnesses and self-denials. Doing little things that nobody likes to do, but which must be done by some one, is another. It may seem to many, that if they avoid little unkindnesses, they must necessarily be doing all that is right to their family and friends; but it is not enough to abstain from sharp words, sneering tones, petty contradiction, or daily little selfish cares; we must be active and earnest in kindness, not merely passive and inoffensive.

LITTLE THINGS, 1852

The labor of the baking was the hardest part of the sacrifice of her hospitality. To many it is easy to give what they have, but the offering of weariness and pain is never easy. They are indeed a true salt to salt sacrifices withal.

GEORGE MACDONALD

By Mary Wilder Tileston, taken from "Joy and Strength"

Resting Our Sorrows in the Love of God

"He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven." PSALMS 107:29,30

AS thou learnest this lesson, to carry all thy sorrows to God, and lie at thy Saviour's feet, and spread thy grief before Him, thou wilt find a calm come over thee, thou knowest not whence; thou wilt see through the clouds a bright opening, small perhaps and quickly closed, but telling of eternal rest, and everlasting day, and of the depth of the Love of God. Thy heart will still rise and sink, but it will rise and sink, not restlessly, nor waywardly, not in violent gusts of passion; but resting in stillness on the bosom of the ocean of the Love of God. Then shalt thou learn, not to endure only patiently, but, in everything against thy will, humbly and quickly to see and to love the loving Will of God. Thy faith and thy love and thy hope will grow, the more thou seest the work of God with thee; thou wilt joy in thy sorrow, and thy sorrow will be turned into joy.
EDWARD B. PUSEY

By Mary Wilder Tileston
Taken From: Joy and Strength

Trained to Comfort

"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God" (Isa. 40:1).

Store up comfort. This was the prophet's mission. The world is full of comfortless hearts, and ere thou art sufficient for this lofty ministry, thou must be trained. And thy training is costly in the extreme; for, to render it perfect, thou too must pass through the same afflictions as are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood. Thus thy own life becomes the hospital ward where thou art taught the Divine art of comfort. Thou art wounded, that in the binding up of thy wounds by the Great Physician, thou mayest learn how to render first aid to the wounded everywhere. Dost thou wonder why thou art passing through some special sorrow? Wait till ten years are passed, and thou wilt find many others afflicted as thou art. Thou wilt tell them how thou hast suffered and hast been comforted; then as the tale is unfolded, and the anodynes applied which once thy God wrapped around thee, in the eager look and the gleam of hope that shall chase the shadow of despair across the soul, thou shalt know why thou wast afflicted, and bless God for the discipline that stored thy life with such a fund of experience and helpfulness. --Selected

God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters. --Dr. Jowett

"They tell me I must bruise
The rose's leaf,
Ere I can keep and use
Its fragrance brief.

"They tell me I must break
The skylark's heart,
Ere her cage song will make
The silence start.

"They tell me love must bleed,
And friendship weep,
Ere in my deepest need
I touch that deep.

"Must it be always so
With precious things?
Must they be bruised and go
With beaten wings?

"Ah, yes! by crushing days,
By caging nights, by scar
Of thorn and stony ways,
These blessings are!"

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Taken From: Streams in the Desert

Showers and Sunshine

"I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing" (Ezek. 34:26).

What is thy season this morning? Is it a season of drought? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers. "As thy day so shall thy strength be." "I will give thee showers of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If He gives converting grace, He will also give comforting grace. He will send "showers of blessings." Look up today, O parched plant, and open thy leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering. --Spurgeon

"Let but thy heart become a valley low,
And God will rain on it till it will overflow."

Thou, O Lord, canst transform my thorn into a flower. And I want my thorn transformed into a flower. Job got the sunshine after the rain, but has the rain been all waste? Job wants to know, I want to know, if the shower had nothing to do with the shining. And Thou canst tell me Thy Cross can tell me. Thou hast crowned Thy sorrow. Be this my crown, O Lord. I only triumph in Thee when I have learned the radiance of the rain. --George Matheson

The fruitful life seeks showers as well as sunshine.

"The landscape, brown and sere beneath the sun,
Needs but the cloud to lift it into life;
The dews may damp the leaves of tree and flower,
But it requires the cloud-distilled shower
To bring rich verdure to the lifeless life.

"Ah, how like this, the landscape of a life:
Dews of trial fall like incense, rich and sweet;
But bearing little in the crystal tray
Like nymphs of night, dews lift at break of day
And transient impress leave, like lips that meet.

"But clouds of trials, bearing burdens rare,
Leave in the soul, a moisture settled deep:
Life kindles by the magic law of God;
And where before the thirsty camel trod,
There richest beauties to life's landscape leap.

"Then read thou in each cloud that comes to thee
The words of Paul, in letters large and clear:
So shall those clouds thy soul with blessing feed,
And with a constant trust as thou dost read,
All things together work for good. Fret not, nor fear!"

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Taken From: Streams in the Desert

The Divine Shepherd Hears His Sheep

"He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when He shall hear it, He will answer thee." ISAIAH 30:19

THAT Was the Shepherd of the flock; He knew
The distant voice of one poor sheep astray;
It had forsaken Him, but He was true,
And listened for its bleating night and day.

And thou, fallen soul, afraid to live or die
In the deep pit that will not set thee free,
Lift up to Him the helpless homeward cry,
For all that tender love is seeking thee.
ANNA L. WARING

OUR Divine Shepherd followed after His lost sheep for three and thirty years, in a way so painful and so thorny that He spilt His heart's blood and left His life there. The poor sheep now follows Him through obedience to His commands, or through a desire (though at times but faint) to obey Him, calling upon Him and beseeching Him earnestly for help; is it possible that He should now refuse to turn upon it His life-giving look? Will He not give ear to it, and lay it upon His divine shoulders, rejoicing over it with all His friends and with the angels of Heaven? For if our Lord ceased not to search most diligently and lovingly for the blind and deaf sinner, the lost drachma of the Gospel, till He found it, how is it possible that He should abandon him who, as a lost sheep, cries and calls upon his Shepherd?
LORENZO SCUPOLI

By Mary Wilder Tileston
Taken From: Joy and Strength

None to Help But God

"Lord, there is none beside thee to help." (2 Chron. 14:11, RV).

Remind God of His entire responsibility. "There is none beside thee to help." The odds against Asa were enormous. There was a million of men in arms against him, besides three hundred chariots. It seemed impossible to hold his own against that vast multitude. There were no allies who would come to his help; his only hope, therefore, was in God. It may be that your difficulties have been allowed to come to so alarming a pitch that you may be compelled to renounce all creature aid, to which in lesser trials you have had recourse, and cast yourself back on your Almighty Friend.

Put God between yourself and the foe. To Asa's faith, Jehovah seemed to stand between the might of Zerah and himself, as one who had no strength. Nor was he mistaken. We are told that the Ethiopians were destroyed before the Lord and before His host, as though celestial combatants flung themselves against the foe in Israel's behalf, and put the large host to rout, so that Israel had only to follow up and gather the spoil. Our God is Jehovah of hosts, who can summon unexpected reinforcements at any moment to aid His people. Believe that He is there between you and your difficulty, and what baffles you will flee before Him, as clouds before the gale. --F. B. Meyer

"When nothing whereon to lean remains,
When strongholds crumble to dust;

When nothing is sure but that God still reigns,
That is just the time to trust.

"'Tis better to walk by faith than sight,
In this path of yours and mine;

And the pitch-black night, when there's no outer light
Is the time for faith to shine."

Abraham believed God, and said to sight, "Stand back!" and to the laws of nature, "Hold your peace!" and to a misgiving heart, "Silence, thou lying tempter!" He believed God. --Joseph Parker

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Taken From: Streams in the Desert

Rejoice

"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice" (Phil. 4:4).

"Sing a little song of trust,
O my heart!
Sing it just because you must,
As leaves start;
As flowers push their way through dust;
Sing, my heart, because you must.

"Wait not for an eager throng
Bird on bird;
'Tis the solitary song
That is heard.
Every voice at dawn will start,
Be a nightingale, my heart!

"Sing across the winter snow,
Pierce the cloud;
Sing when mists are drooping low
Clear and loud;
But sing sweetest in the dark;
He who slumbers not will hark."

"An' when He hears yo' sing, He bends down wid a smile on His kin' face an' listens mighty keerful, an' He says, 'Sing on, chile, I hears, an' I's comin' down to deliber yo': I'll tote dat load fer yo'; jest lean hawd on Me and de road will get smoother bime by."'

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Taken From: Streams in the Desert

Be a Light

"Thou thyself art . . . a light of them which are in darkness." Romans 2:19

We were kindled that we might kindle others. I would like, if I might have my choice, to burn steadily down, with no guttering waste, and as I do so to communicate God's fire to as many unlit candles as possible, and to burn on steadily until the socket comes to view; then to light in the last flicker, twenty, thirty, or a hundred candles at once, so that as one expires they may begin burning and spreading light which shall shine until Jesus comes."

Let me burn out for Thee, dear Lord,
Burn and wear out for Thee;
Don't let me rust, or my life be
A failure, my God, to Thee.
Use me, and all I have, dear Lord,
And get me so close to Thee
That I feel the throb of the great
heart of God,
Until I burn out for Thee

- Bessie F. Hatcher

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman taken from "Springs in the Valley"

God Can Restore

"I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten." Joel 2:25

How many years are we not told; only this: "I will restore the years."

Human lives are often laid bare - barren patches produced by your own failures; a wilderness stretching across our life. But what comfort in these words: I will RESTORE the years that the locus hath eaten."

Have you been brooding over some sorrow? Has it darkened your life as a swarm of locusts might darken the sun at midday? And have you cried out in your anguish, "The sun will never shine again?" But read the word He has promised:

"I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten."

Turn to Him, dear reader - turn to the One whom you may have been inclined to forget when you lived in the larger house. He is waiting; and if he does not see fit to give you back the earthly possession once so highly prized by you, remember this: in a higher and better way He will restore those years.

The years that the locust hath eaten sometimes take another form: years spent away from God in pursuit of worldly pleasure and self-gratification! How many have tried this! No wonder the fields are bare! Can God restore those years? Did He not restore the years for Naomi?

GOD CAN!

The blue water-lily abounds in several of the canals in Alexandria, Egypt, which at certain seasons become dry; and the beds of these canals, which quickly become burnt as hard as bricks by the action of the sun, are then used as carriage roads. When, however, the water is admitted again, the lily resumes its growth with redoubled vigour and splendour.

By Mrs. Charles E Cowman taken from "Springs in the Valley"

He is Faithful

"He is faithful that promised." Hebrews 10:23

God's power will keep God's promises! Promises for the soul, promises for the body, promises for others, promises for our work, promises for our business, promises for time and for eternity: these are all ours! It is not your weakiness that can defeat God's promise, nor your strength that can fulfill the promise: He that spoke the Word will Himself make it good. It is neither your business nor mine to keep God's promises: that is His grace.

The signed check is given us. How foolish if we fear to present it! Never yet has one single check been dishonoured! "He is faithful that promised."

I take; He undertakes!

We may pray much over a promise, and yet never obtain it. Askikng is not taking. Beseeching is not claiming.

I clasp the hand of Love divine,
I claim the gracious promise mine,
And add to His my countersign.
I take, He undertakes.

I simply take Him at His Word;
I praise Him that my prayer is heard
And claim my answer from the Lord.
I take, He undertakes.

- Dr. A. B. Simpson

Remember what you take is all you will ever get.

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman taken from "Springs in the Valley"