Days of Heaven Upon Earth Part 11

MARCH 9.

"How ye ought to walk and please G.o.d" (I. Thess. iv. 1).

How many dear Christians are in the place that the Lord has appointed them, and yet the devil is hara.s.sing their lives with a vague sense of not quite pleasing the Lord. Could they just settle down in the place that G.o.d has a.s.signed them and fill it sweetly and lovingly for Him there would be more joy in their hearts and more power in their lives. G.o.d wants us all in various places, and the secret of accomplishing the most for Him is to recognize our places from Him and our service in it as pleasing Him. In the great factory and machine there is a place for the smallest screw and rivet as well as the great driving wheel and piston, and so G.o.d has His little screws whose business is simply to stay where He puts them and to believe that He wants them there and is making the most of their lives in the little s.p.a.ces that they fill for Him.

There is something all can do, Tho' you're neither wise nor strong; You can be a helper true, You can stand when friends are few, Some lone heart has need of you, You can help along.

MARCH 10.

"The peace of G.o.d which pa.s.seth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds" (Phil. iv. 7).

It is not peace with G.o.d, but the peace of G.o.d. "The peace that pa.s.ses all understanding" is the very breath of G.o.d in the soul. He alone is able to keep it, and He can so keep it that "nothing shall offend us." Beloved, are you there?

G.o.d's rest did not come till after His work was over, and ours will not.

We begin our Christian life by working, trying and struggling in the energy of the flesh to save ourselves. At last, when we are able to cease from our own work, G.o.d comes in with His blessed rest, and works His own Divine works in us.

Oh! have you heard the glorious word Of hope and holy cheer; From heav'n above its tones of love Are lingering on my ear; The blessed Comforter has come, And Christ will soon be here.

Oh, hearts that sigh there's succor nigh, The Comforter is near; He comes to bring us to our King, And fit us to appear.

I'm glad the Comforter has come, And Christ will soon be here.

MARCH 11.

"But ye are a chosen generation, a peculiar people" (I. Peter ii. 9).

We have been thinking lately very much of the strange way in which G.o.d is calling a people out of a people already called. The word _ecclesia_, or church, means called out, but G.o.d is calling out a still more select body from the church to be His bride-the specially prepared ones for His coming.

We see a fine type of this in the story of Gideon. When first he sounded the trumpet of Abiezer there resorted to him more than thirty thousand men; but these had to be picked, so a first test was applied, appealing to their courage, and all but ten thousand went back; but there must be an election out of the election, and so a second test was applied, appealing to their prudence, caution and singleness of purpose, and all but three hundred were refused; and, with this little picked band, he raised the standard against the Midianites, and through the power of G.o.d won his glorious victory. So, again, in our days, the Master is choosing His three hundred, and by them He will yet win the world for Himself. Let us be sure that we belong to the "out and out" people.

MARCH 12.

"They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way" (Ps. cvii. 4).

All who fight the Lord's battles must be content to die to all the favorable opinions of men and all the flattery of human praise. You cannot make an exception in favor of the good opinions of the children of G.o.d. It is very easy for the insidious adversary to make this also all appeal to the flesh. It is all right when G.o.d sends us the approval of our fellow men, but we must never make it a motive in our life, but be content with the "solitary way" and the lonely "wilderness."

All such motives are poison and a taking away from you of the strength with which you are to give glory to G.o.d. It is not the fact that all that see the face of the Lord do see each other.

The man of G.o.d must walk alone with G.o.d. He must be contented that the Lord knoweth that G.o.d knows. It is such a relief to the natural man within us to fall back upon human countenances and human thoughts and sympathy, that we often deceive ourselves and think it "brotherly love," when we are just resting in the earthly sympathy of some fellow worm!

MARCH 13.

"Keep yourselves in the love of G.o.d" (Jude 21).

Some time ago, we were enjoying a surpa.s.singly beautiful sunset. The western skies seemed like a great archipelago of golden islands, the ma.s.ses in the distance rising up into vast mountains of glory. The hue of the sky was so gorgeous that it seemed to reflect itself upon the whole atmosphere, as we looked back from the west to the eastern horizon. The whole earth was radiant with glory. The fields had changed to strange, red richness, and the earth seemed bathed with the dews of heaven.

And so it is, when the love of G.o.d shines through all our celestial sky, it covers everything below, and life becomes radiant with its light.

Things that were hard become easy. Things that were sharp become sweet.

Labor loses its burden, and sorrow becomes silver-lined with hope and gladness.

There are two ways of living in His love. One is constant trust, and the other is constant obedience, and His own Word gives the message for both.

"If ye keep My commandments ye shall live in My love, even as I keep My Father's, and live in His love."

MARCH 14.

"We are His workmanship" (Eph. ii. 10).

Christ sends us to serve Him, not in our own strength, but in His resources and might. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which G.o.d hath prepared that we should walk in them." We do not have to prepare them; but to wear them as garments, made to order for every occasion of our life.

We must receive them by faith and go forth in His work, believing that He is with us, and in us, as our all sufficiency for wisdom, faith, love, prayer, power, and every grace and gift that our work requires. In this work of faith we shall have to feel weak and helpless, and even have little consciousness of power. But if we believe and go forward, He will be the power and send the fruits.

The most useful services we render are those which, like the sweet fruits of the wilderness, spring from hours of barrenness. "I will bring her into the wilderness and I will give her vineyards from thence." Let us learn to work by faith as well as walk by faith, then we shall receive even the end of our faith, the salvation of precious souls, and our lives will bear fruit which shall be manifest throughout all eternity.

MARCH 15.

"Continue ye in My love" (John xv. 9).

Many atmospheres there are in which we may live. Some people live in an atmosphere of thought. Their faces are thoughtful, minds intellectual.