Leaves

from the Tree of Life

E. J. Waggoner

Articles from:

The Medical Missionary, 1897-1909

Cover:

Heinrich Halmen

Sabbath Rest Advent Church

Fonts used:

Freestyle Script

Linux Biolinum G

Linux Libertine G

October 2018

www.srac.info

www.practicaprophetica.com

Contents

The Full Length Articles

1. Himself He Cannot Save	7

2. The Light and Life of Men	13

3. The Spirit of Wine versus the Spirit of God	31

4. Thoughts on Health and Healing	39

5. Co-Workers with God	43

6. Present Truth, part 1	61

7. Present Truth, part 2	67

8. Present Truth, part 3	73

9. The Common Life	81

10. Healing through Faith, part 1	87

11. Healing through Faith, part 2	95

12. Healing through Faith, part 3	101

13. Eat That Which Is Good	107

14. The True Priesthood	113

15. Back to Nature	119

16. Saving, Not Stoning, Sinners	123

17. A Lesson for All Workers	127

18. He Bore Our Sicknesses	133

19. New Light and New Sight	141

20. Looking Forward	145

21. Workers Together with God	149

22. Preparation for Service	155

23. Has God Arbitrarily Limited Man’s Age?	159

24. Why the Japanese Succeed	163

25. Tired of Life	165

26. An Incentive to Thoroughness	167

27. My Life Work	169

28. The Lord’s Prayer	171

29. Is Any Afflicted? Let Him Pray	173

30. Our Father	181

31. The Holy Name	185

32. After Us—What?	189

33. Thanks for All Things	193

34. Comfort from Adversity	197

35. God’s Case in Court	201

36. Justification in Condemnation	205

The Daily Bread Articles

1. The Sufficiency of God	213

2. Thankfulness and Praise	229

3. Our Creator is Our Saviour	247

4. Psalm 23, 27, 16 & 17	263

5. Psalm 30, 31, 33, 35 & 37	285

6. Psalm 20, 116 & 121	301

7. The Word of God	319

8. Love	335

9. Health of Body and Soul	353

10. Spiritual Law in the Natural World	373

The
Full Length
Articles

Himself He Cannot Save

July 1897

WHEN Jesus hung upon the cross, the priests and scribes and elders said in mocking contempt,

Matthew 27

42 He saved others; Himself He cannot save.

And in these words there was a truth far beyond what the Jews had any thought of, a truth that even the followers of Jesus do not appreciate. Whoever grasps the full meaning of the statement, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save,” and who allows it to apply to himself, has salvation, for it contains the whole of the gospel.

“He saved others.” The Jews acknowledged this, yet they crucified Him. He whose only offense was that “He went about doing good” (Acts 10:38), was hanged as a malefactor, and He lifted no hand in self-defense, nor uttered a word of reproach against His persecutors.

Isaiah 53

7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.

He saved others, and even while hanging on the cross, “a reproach of men, and despised of the people” (Psalm 22:6), He showed His power to save, in the case of the penitent thief; but himself He could not save.

And this was the secret of His power to save others. It was not simply that He would not save himself,—not alone that He unselfishly forgot himself,—but He could not save himself. To have saved himself would have been the destruction of all others; for if He had planned to save himself, He would have stayed in heaven, and never exposed himself to reproach and cruelty. But such a thing was impossible; He could not thus save himself, for such a saving of self would have been selfishness, and there was no selfishness in Him. He absolutely could not remain in heaven and leave man to perish. But He could not save men, while keeping himself in safety apart from them and their troubles. So...

Titus 2

14 ...He gave himself for us.

Thus we see that the Gospel has the origin and perfection in giving.

John 3

16 God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.

Matthew 20

28 The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, [not to be served, but to serve,] and to give His life a ransom for many.

2 Corinthians 8

9 For you know that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich.

He had everything, and we had nothing; so He gave up everything, and He kept nothing, in order that we might have everything.

Most clearly is this set forth in Philippians 2:7, but in the rendering of the Revised Version, where we are told that when Jesus had everything, He did not count it a thing to be desired to hold it, “but emptied himself.” The Greek word from which this is translated has the sense of “to drain out.” In a sense He annihilated himself, threw himself away, in order that He might save those who were lost, and in danger of annihilation. He took no thought for himself; He did not defend himself against attacks that were made upon Him; utterly regardless, reckless of self, He was lost in solicitude for others.

This neglect of self was not a momentary enthusiasm, as when one under a strong impulse saves another from the impending death at the expense of his own life. On the contrary, it was a deliberate, settled purpose. Calmly and deliberately, looking over the whole situation, and counting the cost, He laid down His life, that is, He placed it from Him, gave it up to the service of others, and when that was done, the moment of death was but an incident in a long career of the same giving. His life was just as truly laid down for the sheep before He came to earth, and while He walked and talked and suffered in Judea and Galilee, as when with His expiring breath He cried,

Luke 23

46 ...Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit...

In all this history of self-sacrifice there is a lesson for us. We are not simply to admire the example of devotion, but to follow it. In it alone is there salvation. Jesus seemingly threw himself away, yes, that is what He actually did, for He “poured out His soul unto death” (Isaiah 53:12), “emptied himself,” drained the last drop;

Philippians 2

9 Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name.

His humiliation was His exaltation; His casting away of self was His salvation. And that was the only possible way of salvation; for, as before stated, to have sought to have saved himself would have been to deny himself, that is, to prove false to His nature. Since God is love, unselfishness, the only way that He can preserve His own existence is to give himself away.

1 John 3

16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

“The brethren” for whom we are to give ourselves are the sons of Adam, for all who are children of Adam must be brethren. Of course those who give themselves for their brethren in Adam, will without question give themselves for their brethren in Christ, who himself counts even those who do not know the name of God as his brethren, saying,

Hebrews 2

12 I will declare Your name unto my brethren.

1 John 3

16 ...we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Let no one say or think, “My life is so commonplace and uneventful that I have no occasion to lay down my life for anybody; no great opportunities come to me.” It is not in dying on some great occasion, that laying down one’s life consists; the laying down of life consists in not counting it our own, reckoning ourselves as dead, deliberately putting our life from us, and forgetting all about it in thoughts of others.

Philippians 2

5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

The lesson, in short, is that nobody can be saved by trying to be saved. Salvation is too great a thing to be accomplished by human efforts. Strange as it may seem, we can be saved only as we cease all efforts to save ourselves, and lose all thought of self in efforts to save others. Only so do we enter into full sympathy with Christ, and become laborers together with God.

But that casting away of self is our salvation, for while we are concerning ourselves for others, Christ, who is also concerning himself for others, is as a matter of course caring for us.

Job 42

10 God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.

Freedom from anxiety is thus assured to us. How easy to cast all our care upon Him, when we know He cares for us. And when we know that He cares for us, what need have we to care for ourselves? Thus we experience the truth that the Lord’s yoke is easy, and His burden light.

One thing more. Paul said,

Romans 1

14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians, both to the wise, and to the unwise.

That which was true of Paul, is equally true of us. Why was he debtor? The answer is plain, when we once stop to think; it is simply this, that Paul had received the whole of that which was given for the world. Christ gave His life for the world. He “tasted death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9). But Christ is not divided; every soul gets the whole of Him.

Ephesians 4

7 Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

His life is light; and a light that shines for me, shines equally bright for all. He is the “Sun of righteousness;” but the sun shines for all; each one gets all the benefit of the sun, and no one could get any more, even if he were the only person on earth. So each person gets the whole of the life of Christ, which is given to the world.

Now it is very evident that if I get the whole of something that is given to all the world, that I am debtor to the world; and the same is true of every soul. The only difference between the most of us and the Apostle Paul is that he realized that to him was the fullness of Christ given, and he accepted and appropriated the gift, while we are too often content with but a little of the divine life.

We selfishly think to take just enough for our own use, and put a part away from us, not realizing that we must have the whole; and so we fail to realize that we are debtors.

May God grant that we all may have the eyes of our understanding enlightened by the Holy Spirit, so that we may know the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and may not reject that portion of the life of Christ which to the natural man seems disagreeable, but may allow His perfectly unselfish life to abide in us, so that we, not alone with our lips, but by the glad offering of ourselves for others, may truly render thanks unto God for His unspeakable gift.

The Light and Life of Men

March 9-14, 1899

I HAVE selected for consideration this evening the words found in the latter part of the twentieth chapter of the Gospel according to John:

John 20

30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book:

31 But these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through His name.

Not only were these signs and miracles recorded in the Gospel of John written for this purpose, but all the miracles that Jesus did were written for the same purpose,—“that you might believe”—believe and know—“that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through His name.”

John 1

4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Light is the easiest thing in the world to see, because it is light that enables us to see. It always seems strange to me to hear people say they cannot see light. With Him is the fountain of life, as we read:

Psalm 36

9 For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light shall we see light.

The life of God is light, for you remember we read,

Psalm 104

2 Who covers Yourself with light as with a garment...

His clothing is light; but the light with which God is clothed proceeds from Himself; it is the shining forth of His own life, and He proposes to clothe men and women in the same way.

The Lord warns us against being unduly anxious about our clothing, and what we shall eat or drink; the Gentiles are worried over these things;

Matthew 6

33 But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness...

28 ...Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin,

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Now think of that. Take the grass. Of the particular grass of the field of which He speaks is the lilies,—“consider the lilies, how they grow;” “if God so clothe the grass of the field,”—that is, the lilies,—“shall He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

How is the lily clothed? It has a beautiful garment of white and green and various other colors. Solomon in all his glory, arrayed in his royal apparel, must have been a wonderful sight. The Queen of Sheba came a long way to see the glory of Solomon, and when she saw it, her heart fainted.

1 Kings 10

7 The half was not told me, [she said,] and I could not believe what I did hear.

Who would not go a long way to see one of the kings of the earth, although he might not be arrayed as gloriously as Solomon was? And in order to see this sight one would trample underfoot a score of lilies without noticing them. If one should place before him a stalk of modest lilies, they would consider them very plain.

“See the glory and all the magnificent array of Solomon!”

“Yes, but Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these lilies, for the royal apparel of Solomon was something that could be put on and taken off; and when he took it off, nobody would know, to look at him, that he was any different from other men.”

But the clothing of the lily is the life of the lily. It is not something that is put on, but something that comes from within; it is the inner life that the lily draws from God’s great storehouse in the air and in the earth, manifested in the beautiful green, the delicate white, and all the variegated colors,—the manifestation of life in its freshness and brightness,—that is the clothing of the lily. It is God’s own clothing, such as God himself wears,—His own life shining forth and making this beautiful garment. Now what does He say?

“If God so clothe the grass of the field,”

How? like Solomon?

“shall He not much more clothe you?”

I dare say you have all thought of that text much as I have in times past:

“Why, yes, there is a promise that God will clothe us with fairly good clothing, perhaps even broadcloth; we can trust the Lord to give us something fairly good.”

But what does He say? He says He will give us better clothing than Solomon had, because the lily is arrayed in greater glory than Solomon, and God will “much more clothe you.”

“Will He give us a more brilliant array than Solomon had?”

Oh, no; that is not the sort of clothing to be especially proud of; it is rather a thing to be ashamed of. Why? It is a sign of the curse. Every time a person looks at the clothing he has to wear, he should think,

“Ah, this is an evidence of the curse; if it were not for the curse, we should not need this clothing.”

So instead of being proud of what we have on, we ought to feel that it is an evidence of our fallen condition, that we are under the curse. Those who glory in the clothing they put on, glory in their shame. A recognition of this fact will lead us to wear such clothing as will attract just as little attention as possible. We must wear clothing in this present life, for decency’s sake and for comfort’s sake, but we will make that fact as little obtrusive as possible, because the more we intrude our clothing upon people, calling attention to it by its striking character, the more we advertise our fallen condition.

God clothed the lily with His own beauteous life.

“If God so clothe the grass of the field,..will He not much more clothe you?”

How? He clothed the lily with His own life; and if He does that, He will much more clothe you with His own life. He will clothe us with “light as with a garment”:

Psalm 149

4 For the Lord takes pleasure in His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation.

So we can sing and pray with the psalmist:

Psalm 90

16 Let Your work appear unto Your servants, and Your glory unto their children.

17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.

God will clothe us with His own beauty, with His own life, with His own light; and when He does that which is greatest, of course He will do that which is least: give us the little thing necessary for this life.

O, what a blessed example is this of clothing! To be clothed as the lily is clothed: with His life, with His light! It seems strange to me to hear people say they are studying to see light. How do you see light? Open your eyes; that is all you have to do. And then it is passing strange to hear people say they can see light in one thing, but cannot see light in another, they know there is light there, and by and by they expect to see it.

Light is one. When a person sees light, he has had his eyes open so that he knows light from darkness; he does not have to study every particular phase of it to know whether it is light or not.

Today we had sunlight. But now the sun has gone down, and what is this we have here tonight? Why this is light, too; it is the very same light that we had today. No matter where you go, no matter what is the source of light, when a person’s eyes are open, he says,

“This is light, I know it is light.”

So, when you come into conscious touch with the life of Christ, when you see Christ as the Light of the world, then you will have no difficulty in recognizing His light wherever it is manifested; the mere “opening of the word” is sufficient.

Psalm 119

130 The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding unto the simple.

Now let us consider one “sign:”

John 20

31 These [signs] are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through His name.

My mind rests upon one of the many miracles that Jesus wrought, a record of which we find in the eighth chapter of Luke, and I want you to remember this, not only when you read this miracle, but whenever you read the account of any miracle, that the miracles of Jesus were not merely isolated circumstances, or exceptional cases, but that is the way He does all the time.

God cannot do anything but miracles; He is always doing miracles. He is a great God, and He does only great things. So we should not think that once in a while the Lord has done a miracle, and possibly He may do one again. We are expecting that if our people are faithful, and receive the Spirit of God, miracles and signs and wonders will yet be wrought.

Why, my dear brethren and sisters, God is working miracles now, and if we only had our eyes open, we should see that miracles are just as common as the air we breathe. But their commonness should not make us despise them.

When we get into the world to come, we shall see miracles continually. We shall be brought into the immediate presence of God, and He will always be doing wonderful things, more wonderful things than we have ever dreamed of in this world. Every day there will be unfolded some new marvel of God’s power. Will this get monotonous? Shall we become tired of it, and say,

“Why, I have seen so many wonderful things that I am getting tired?”

No. Each new manifestation of the power of God will only whet the appetite for more. Who that had any sense of what is really good and beautiful ever got tired of seeing a glorious sunrise? Does the dewdrop ever lose its freshness? We have seen them morning after morning for many years, and yet every morning they are just as attractive as ever. So God’s mercies are new every morning, and if our eyes were open so that we could see the light, we should see that we are living in the constant manifestation of miracles. These miracles are a continual manifestation of the presence of the life of God abundantly around us in order that we may have life.

In what condition is a man who cannot see light? He is a poor, blind man. O, how many there are who need to make that confession, that they are

Revelation 3

17 ...wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.

Yes, naked, because if a man is blind, he is naked, too. He is blind because he cannot see the light; and if he cannot see the light, he does not receive the light which would clothe him with the life of God. But if he opens his eyes to see the light, then he sees life, and believing, he receives life through the name of Jesus Christ.

With reference to the miracles spoken of (Luke 8:41-48), Jesus had returned to Galilee, and the people had received Him, for they were glad, “they were all waiting for Him.” That was good, but how few of those who were waiting for Him got the blessing of His presence.

Luke 8

41 And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus’ feet, and besought Him that he would come into his house:

42 For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as He went the people thronged Him.

43 And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,

44 Came behind Him, and touched the border of His garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.

Another writer adds,

Matthew 9

20 For she said within herself, If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole.

21 And Jesus said, Who touched me?

22 When all denied...

They did not need to; it wasn’t such a crime to touch the Lord that they should all deny it; but they told the truth, they had not “touched” Him, and so they lost the benefit of His presence.

Luke 8

45 And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with Him said, Master, the multitude throng you and press you, and you say, Who touched me?

They were pressing Him and pushing Him on every side in those narrow streets (only six or eight feet wide), because they expected some great sensation; they were expecting to see a miracle performed, so they were crowding along just like boys rushing out to see a fire. They were going to see something, and behold, something was done, yet nobody saw it; a marvelous miracle was wrought, and she knew it.

If everyone in that crowd had known that there was a plague in his own heart, and had not been filled with idle curiosity for something to talk about, if all had been anxious to get to Jesus, and really “touch” Him, they might each have been conscious of a miracle. Yet a marvelous miracle had been wrought, and they did not know it.

There is a lesson for us. We are looking around for something that will stimulate us, and be food for talk; and yet marvelous miracles are going on all about us; the life of God is going out to quicken, to renew, to raise to life, and we know it not. Sometimes a congregation will wait and look for something to strike them with a sort of sensation, while some quiet person is receiving the life of God that cleanses from all sin; someone who is quietly sitting there comes in touch with the divine life, and knows that the Lord has been there, while others go away saying,

“Did you see anything wonderful tonight? I did not, and I expected some marvelous thing.”

Ah, but that person who came in touch with Christ felt something wonderful; he felt that he was healed of the plague in his heart.

They said it was strange that Jesus should ask who touched Him, when the people were pushing and jostling Him. But pushing Him and jostling Him was not “touching” Him. Coming into accidental touch with Christ was not “touching” Him. Jesus said, “Somebody has touched me.”

Now this woman had not strength enough to push her way through the crowd, and so she could not get as near to Jesus as others could, but she succeeded in working up near enough to touch the border of His garment, and Jesus felt that touch. It is only when persons draw near with a conscious purpose and in full assurance of faith that they touch the Lord.

When this woman thus drew near, and touched His garment, Jesus said,

Luke 8

46 ...Somebody has touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.

“Virtue”—power, life—had gone out from Him, and immediately the woman saw that she was healed. Jesus said unto her,

Luke 8

48 ...Daughter, be of good comfort: your faith has made you whole; go in peace.

That was the benediction pronounced upon this woman, “go in peace;” be justified; be made righteous by faith.

Romans 5

1 ...we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 4

7 The peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Every person is a sinner, and that woman was a sinner. We do not say that her disease was the direct result of some specific sin that she had committed, but she was a sinner, she had this disease, and the disease was the result of a course of sin that is in the world. But see what she received: Jesus said to her,

Luke 8

48 ...your faith has made you whole; go in peace.

Who can go in peace except the one who has received forgiveness of sins? That life, that “virtue,” which made her whole of her plague also cleansed her from all sin. She received a perfect sentence; she was made perfectly whole. By what means?

Now see the reality. This is not theory at all; it is not speculation; it does not require a philosopher to understand this; it simply requires somebody who has eyes and can see. Now if anybody goes out of this house tonight, and says, “I can’t see,” he is simply saying, “I am blind.”

I have had persons straighten up, and say:

“I can’t see that.”

They seemed to feel rather proud that they could not “see that.” If they had understood what that saying meant, they would not have felt so complacent over it. You never see a blind man going about complacently saying:

“I can’t see, I can’t see! I’m all right, I can’t see.”

Oh, no! The poor man wishes he could see; he does not feel like boasting over the fact that he cannot see. So if anyone, after reading this simple story, says:

“I can’t see how it can be!”

Then just let him know that he is saying, “I am blind.” But, thank the Lord, there is a cure for blindness. The spiritually blind man may anoint his eyes with eyesalve that he may see.

Isaiah 55

1 Ho, every one that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that has no money; come, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Buy what? Buy everything you need. With what? “Without money and without price.” Buy the anointing of the Holy Spirit, which will open your eyes and make you see.

What was it that the woman lacked? Life. What did she want? Life. What particular phase or form of disease was it that was taking away her life? It was loss of blood. You can all understand that; you have had wounds, and have seen blood flow. You may have had a wound which bled enough to cause you to feel faint. Why? Because the life was going out. The blood is the life.

So the life was departing from this woman. When she was healed, what was it that came into her body? Blood. All the loss was instantly repaired, and she was strong; the blood coursed through every vein in her body, and every part of her being was tingling with life. Where did it come from? From the Lord. Something went from Jesus which supplied her lack.

There is a promise:

Philippians 4

19 ...my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

And it is a real thing. Was that woman suffering from a real disease, or was it only imaginary? She was suffering from a real disease, and was about to die. Inasmuch as she had a real need, did she get anything to supply that need? Yes, that which she lacked came into her; that touch of faith brought something real and tangible to her from the Lord Jesus; but nobody could see it.

There are real things that these eyes cannot see, and that no eye has seen; but they are real, nevertheless. And there was a real thing in this case; real life came from Christ to this woman; He took her disease upon himself, for

Matthew 8

17 ...[He] took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.

Enough of life went from Christ to fill the vacuum in this woman’s life, and then He drew from the great ocean of God’s life sufficient to keep Him full.

John 1

16 Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

Well, if we have received it, why do we not have it? Because we do not believe. By believing we get life through His name. Now in the case of this woman there was a literal transfusion of blood.

I remember, when speaking of this some time ago, a physician told me of an incident in his experience. He said he once visited a patient who was himself a physician, and who was suffering from anemia, or lack of blood. He gave his patient real treatment, God’s own treatment: he prayed with him. And one day his patient, in a half-apologetic way, thinking he might be deemed fanatical, said,

“Every time we have prayer together it seems to me as if I have fifty per cent more blood in me than before.”

That was no mere fancy, because the Lord gives real things; and when he gives life, it takes the form of blood. So it was in the case of this woman; the life came from Jesus, and it was made blood, and the woman was made whole; she had touched the Life.

1 John 1

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Rather, how can we help coming in contact with it? Where can you go that you will not come in contact with it?

“But we must see Him;” you say, “we must see Him working.”

Well, we don’t have to go back nineteen hundred years to see Him; Jesus Christ is alive today. He says,

Revelation 1

18 I am He that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

He is alive; He gives life; He is working just the same today as He did when He was here among men. His manifestation in the flesh was for the purpose of making God’s presence so real that there would be no excuse for anyone to say, “I can’t see it.” The purpose was to enable anybody to see God was working, and then get his eyes opened so that He could see the same thing taking place everywhere.

There is some excuse for a person who has been born blind to say he cannot see light, but there is no excuse for a man who is not blind and who has seen light. When God has called attention sharply to the fact that He gives life, and how He gives it, and the reality of it, then there is no excuse for our saying we can’t see the reality of His working, and we don’t know how to get it.

Turn to the sixth chapter of Isaiah:

Isaiah 6

1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.

What is the garment of the Lord? Light. And what is light? Life. The flowing robe—the hem of His garment—filled the temple.

2 And above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly.

3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.

Thus the light that clothes the Lord, the train of His garment that fills the temple, goes out and fills the whole earth, so that not only the temple of God is filled with light from His presence, but the whole earth is filled with it; and wherever there is a soul that is sick and wounded and sinful, let such a one know that Jesus of Nazareth still lives and passes by, and that he may reach out by faith and touch the hem of His garment, and know that he is made perfectly whole. There have been men who have merely caught glimpses of Jesus. The poet says:

The healing of His seamless dress,
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch Him in life’s throng and press,
And we are whole again.

This is God’s own truth put in pleasing words. He who recognizes Jesus Christ, sees the life, and believes in his own heart, touches the light and life, and is healed. But he must touch the life.

“But,” you say, “this means physical life.” Yes; Christ said:

John 10

10 ...I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,

That we might touch the divine life; that we might lay hold on eternal life, and have that life which is eternal for our present necessity. There is no “mind-cure” about that, no imagination or “thinking oneself well;” there is no “Christian Science” nonsense about it; it is Christian because it is Christ; and it is science because it is true. “Christian Science,” so called, does not reach out and get its life from God, but denies that there is any such thing as disease, and says, “I have life in myself.” That is a denial of Christ.

Instead of only confessing,

“I am poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked; in me there is no good thing; I am lost and undone,”

We should say:

“I believe that in Him there is life, for He is life; I will keep in touch with that life that I may life.”

I shall, in the few moments left me, make a practical application: God has manifested life everywhere about us, and all these years He has been talking to us and calling our attention to the manifestation of His life in all the various forms with which He has surrounded us, that we might take these things directly from His hand and live upon them.

When a person is sick, there is no magic that will cure him; all that he needs is a fresh accession of life, and the belief that he gets it is no fanciful thing. God has given means by which we may take life consciously, and know in ourselves that we are healed.

Many people think that unless a thing is done on the stroke, it is not a miracle. Not always does God do a miracle instantly; miracles do not consist in the fact that they are done in an instant, it is the fact that they are done that makes them miracles.

Jesus at one time turned water into wine in a moment; that was a miracle. But for months the water has been taken up through the stalk of the vine and stored in clusters and then turned into wine, and that miracle has been wrought over and over and over, and simply because it has taken six months instead of six seconds, people think it is not a miracle. Well, if it is not a miracle, then you can do it; I’ll give you six months, or six years, or even six thousand years to do it in.

That woman who came and touched the Lord was made whole instantly, but we may be contented if we learn to know the Lord and to come in touch with Him so that we are healed in a few months and become perfectly whole; the cure is nonetheless a miracle whether six months or six seconds of time are taken in the work, and God is entitled to the same praise.

“But why does it take three, four, or six months or a year for me to get well? Why can’t I take hold of life at once?”

Because we are so stupid, so slow of heart to believe and learn, and so slow to take hold; but just as soon as you and I recognize the life wherever it is manifested, and appropriate it, to that extent do we get the benefit of it. If we would learn rapidly, we should soon get into a condition of health.

When we learn about the application of these principles of hygiene, which are a manifestation of God’s own life, and recognize God in them, and take them as God’s gift, we come into closer touch with the divine; then our life will spring forth, we shall see light manifested more clearly, and shall rejoice in the light; life will spring up again, we shall find that it is no fable, no fancy, no imaginary thing. The life of God is real, something to be delighted in.

I am glad for life. It is a blessed thing to live. He who comes to the Lord Jesus and receives life from Him knows it; he will never spend any time upon that foolish query, “Is life worth living?” We know that what some people call life is not worth living, because it is not life; but the life which is manifested in all its roundness— God’s own presence—is worth the living. The hem of His garment enfolds us as He carries us in His bosom according to His promise,

Isaiah 40 [Holman Christian Standard Bible]

11 ...He shall gather the lambs, in the fold of His garment will He carry them...

He will surround us with His life, and fill us with the fullness of His love.

With the principles of healthful living that have been taught us,—how to relate ourselves to proper diet, to breathe pure air and an abundance of it, to harden our bodies by receiving life, not pampering ourselves, all these things are simply drawing us into conscious touch with the Divine Life. Shall we recognize and take the Lord’s life? Suppose we do not recognize the Lord’s life in all this, and refuse it, what do we do?

There were some priests once who were very learned, and who claimed to be very pious, and they made a boast of their goodness, but they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross. Why? Because they did not know. Paul says:

1 Corinthians 2

8 We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,...which none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Suppose you and I do not discern the Lord’s body, suppose we do not recognize the life; what do we do? We trample it underfoot. That is a terrible thing; but we do worse than that; for life has been manifested, and we have seen it, and yet we say,

“I don’t think there is any use of being so full of it; I know there is more life in it than there is in what I am using, but this is good enough for me.”

What do we do? We reject life; we crucify the Son of God afresh. The chief priests did not know, and they put the Saviour to death. O, what a fearful responsibility we take upon ourselves when we reject what we have seen and known to be good! It is the same as saying,

“I know that is the Lord Jesus, and that He is perfect, but something a little less than perfect is good enough for me.”

We take a fearful responsibility upon ourselves when we do that; let us not do it any more. The life of God which is in Christ Jesus has been manifested to us; let us take it, and thank God for His unspeakable gift.

The Spirit of Wine versus
the Spirit of God

December 1899

IN THE 5th chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians we read the following exhortation, which is upon the face of it timely:

Ephesians 5

15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

17 Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

From these words it is very evident that there is no fellowship between the spirit of wine and the Spirit of God. They are directly opposed to each other. Both cannot rule at the same time in the same body.

When the spirit of wine holds sway, the Holy Spirit must be driven out; and if the Holy Spirit is given leave to control, then He will banish and keep away every trace of the deceiver from the body wherein He dwells.

Excess in Wine

In wine there is excess, or riot, as the Revision has it. The Greek word means nothing less than debauchery. This brings us face to face with the question as to how much wine (of course it is fermented wine that is here spoken of) one may take without going to excess. That depends wholly upon how much wine a person must have before it can be called wine.

The text does not say that there is excess in a barrel of wine, nor in a gallon, nor a quart, nor a pint, nor a single glass, nor a spoonful, nor even in a single drop. It is in wine, in the thing itself, regardless of quantity, that the excess lies. So it is evident that if one has but a single drop of wine, or any other liquor in which the same spirit is present, he has too much. Excess, riot, debauchery, lie in every drop.

The least portion of alcoholic liquor, therefore, is a foe to the Holy Spirit, and wars against His presence. There is no excess in the Spirit of God. One can never have too much. We are exhorted to be filled with the Spirit, even to overflowing:

John 7

38 He that believes on Me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

39 (But this spoke He of the Spirit...)

When a vessel is filled with any liquid, there is no room for anything else; therefore when one is filled with the Spirit, there will be in the entire body nothing but the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit will be the life of the body; and every thought and motion will be the result of the working of the Spirit. This is not merely the privilege, but the duty, of every Christian. The command to...

Ephesians 5

18 ...be filled with the Spirit,

...is as imperative as is the commandment:

Exodus 20

8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Wine Opposed to Wisdom

Notice that the exhortation to abstain from wine is coupled with the exhortation not to be unwise, but to understand what the will of the Lord is. The Holy Spirit is given to us to make known the things of God:

1 Corinthians 2

12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

God’s Spirit is...

Isaiah 11

2 ...the spirit of wisdom and understanding...

But the spirit of wine (alcohol) takes away the understanding.

Proverbs 20

1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

This lack of understanding cannot justly be charged to the Lord by saying that He has not given us intellects capable of comprehending His will, but is due solely to the spirit which works against the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. God gives His Spirit freely to everyone who is willing to receive, and who asks:

Luke 11

13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?

And it is the Spirit that gives understanding, that makes the simple wise.

“But, [most of the readers of this article will say,] this does not concern me, for I am a teetotaler; wine drinking is certainly not the cause of any lack of understanding of the will of God, so far as I am concerned.”

Let us see; the case is not yet finished. There is another exhortation which is really a part of the one that we have already quoted. It reads thus:

Proverbs 23

20 Be not among wine-bibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh;

21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

Wherein the Evil Lies

Before we give this text further attention, let us consider what the evil of wine drinking is. Wherein does it consist? Is it in the act of lifting a glass to our lips, or in the act of swallowing? Manifestly in neither, for we can lift a glass to our lips, and we may swallow the liquid contents of a glass without committing any sin.

The difference lies wholly in the nature of that which we swallow. If wine had no ill effects up man, there would be no sin in drinking it. We go through the same motions in drinking water that we do in drinking wine; but wine deceives, while water does not. It is the effect which alcoholic liquor has upon the body and soul that makes the taking of it a sin.

Suppose that instead of drinking alcohol, we manufacture it in our bodies; are we then clear? Manifestly not. Every one knows that the vender and manufacturer of liquor have a large share of responsibility for the existing drunkenness and crime. The sins of many drunkards lie at the door of the brewer and the distiller more than at the door of the weak ones who drank the stuff prepared for them.

What excuse, then, can be offered for those who not only manufacture alcohol, but who consume all that they make? Since the sin of drunkenness consists not in the mere act of swallowing the liquor, but in the effect of its poison on the individual, blunting his perceptive faculties and unfitting him for the service which God justly requires of him, it is evident that whoever manufactures alcoholic poison in his own body is in great need of the exhortation quoted at the beginning of this article. The same is true of whoever manufactures any other poisons.

One Effect of the Spirit of Wine

The last text quoted says:

“The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.”

This is preceded by the charge not to be among wine-bibbers and riotous eaters of flesh. It is a fact that the effects of meat eating are in many respects the same as those of liquor drinking, although not so marked.

At this point we will call attention to but one: drowsiness. After the first excitement produced by liquor has passed away, a feeling of drowsiness takes its place. The brain becomes dull, the mind less active, the eyes become fixed and glassy, and after ineffectual efforts to keep awake, the victim sinks into a heavy sleep, from which he awakes unrefreshed. Drunkenness is so common that few can have failed to see this process many times.

Intoxication from Food

Did you ever, my “temperance” friend, stop to think that this is precisely what takes place after a heavy meal of your favorite beef or turkey or chicken? Of course you did not notice it so much if you had hard work in the open air; neither does the drinker feel the effects of his potations so much if he can keep exercising in fresh air. It was when you sat down, as you felt quite incline to after your meal, that you dozed off.

Sometimes the effects are much more marked. You have doubtless witnessed cases where the drinker’s stomach was protesting against the poison of alcohol and was relieving itself of some of the load; and as you have turned aside, you have wondered,

“How a man can make such a filthy brute of himself?”

But did you never have the same experience?

“No; I have never drunk liquor.”

But you have frequently had “bilious spells,” have you not? Did you think that you ought to be blamed because of them? Did you not rather regard yourself as a poor sufferer to be pitied? And so you were; yet you were in exactly the same condition as the drunkard. You were both suffering from what you had put into your mouth and swallowed.

The drunkard swallowed poison; you may not have swallowed poison, but you at least took that which made poison after you swallowed it. Wherein were you better than he? Do you not see that the injunction to be filled with the Spirit instead of being drunk with wine has a very wide application?

A Cause of Lack of Knowledge

Perhaps you have left off the use of meat, and have considered yourself a health reformer. Nevertheless, you have not escaped that drowsiness which characterizes the drunkard.

Have you never excused yourself for your lack of knowledge of the Bible by saying that you could not study because as soon as you sat down with a book in your hand you went to sleep? Especially was this the case on Sabbath afternoon, when you ought to have been the most awake. When you went to church you either fell asleep or else had to make such desperate efforts to keep awake that you could not hear anything that was said. You were the exact picture of a drunken man trying to appear sober. And that is just what you were. Perhaps it is better to say “we,” for we have all passed through this experience.

Whence came this heaviness? We thought that it was constitutional, or that it was because we had to labor hard out of doors; but that was not the cause. We were intoxicated. We had perhaps eaten soft porridge, which could not possibly be digested; possibly we had added sugar to it, thus increasing its indigestibility; the mass had fermented, forming alcohol and other poisons, and we were suffering the effects. We were drunken with alcohol manufactured on the premises, and that kept us from hearing and understanding the will of the Lord, and from being filled with the Spirit. Is this not a terrible thought?

Need of Temperance Reform

I have mentioned only one of the many ways in which we may become self-intoxicated. Space will not permit more at present, but a careful study of what has been written on this subject and all that may yet appear, will teach us how to keep sober, so that the Spirit of God may have an opportunity to work.

Our sin has been one of ignorance, but people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. God is, however, graciously giving us opportunity to learn. We are exhorted to receive the Holy Ghost, and to pray for the Spirit; but how can we expect our prayers for the Spirit to be answered while we persistently fill ourselves with the opposing spirit?

Possibly you may have thought that too much has been said about health reform. Very well, let the expression “health reform” drop, if you will, and devote your attention to temperance. That, at least, accompanies the reception of the Spirit.

God expects all His people to have clear heads and minds, so that they can comprehend His will. They are to be

Isaiah 11

3 ...of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.

If they live an outdoor life, so much the more should they be able to comprehend the will of the Lord; for the Lord designed that all men should live in the open air and labor hard in tilling the soil; yet He expects all to know His will. This drowsiness that has hindered our studying the Word of God is due solely to intoxication through eating. The “spirit of slumber” has come upon us, because our table has been a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block.

Romans 11

8 (According as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

9 And David said, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompense unto them:

Let us study diligently to find the cause, and remove it.

1 Thessalonians 5

6 Let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

Romans 13

11 Now it is high time to awake out of sleep.

Joy in the Holy Ghost

What will be the result of learning to eat so that instead of becoming drunken with the spirit of wine we may eat to the glory of God, discerning the Lord’s body, and receiving by faith His perfect life? God has given us...

Isaiah 60

3 ...the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

And though we may never have studied music, and our voices may never be heard in the congregation, we shall involuntarily be:

Ephesians 5

19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thoughts on Health and Healing

November 1900

EVERYBODY desires health, but not all desire it from the same motive. Most people regard health as the end, whereas it should be only a means whereby we may glorify God. To desire to recover from any illness, merely in order that we may be relieved from suffering and inconvenience and expense, is base, ignoble, and selfish. No permanent healing may be expected under such circumstances, for the healed person does not consciously and willingly connect with the only Source of life and health.

Most people are willing to suffer a good deal of temporary deprivation in order to regain lost health, to a degree at least. When convinced that wrong habits of living have brought them into their present diseased state, they will consent to give up the bad habit for a time, until health seems to be restored. But usually it is only for a time. How often one hears,

“How long will it be before I can eat everything I wish to, just as I used to?”

This proves that the person wishes a renewal of strength only in order to be able again to indulge in the gratification of appetite, which wrecked him before. Such ones are described here:

James 4

3 You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.

When one desires only the glory of God, he may ask what he will and it will be given him.

A holy man is a whole man, one who is whole physically, as well as mentally and spiritually. And, conversely, a perfectly whole man is a holy man; for no man is whole if he lacks anything that is necessary to the making of a perfect man, according to...

Ephesians 4

13 ...the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

There have been many feeble saints, it is true; but necklines and sallowness are no signs of saintliness. Therefore the apostle prays:

1 Thessalonians 5

23 The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A perfect man is an indescribably higher being than a perfect animal of any other species. Man alone was made in the image of God, to be an associate with the Godhead in the government of the rest of creation. This should be borne in mind by everyone who seeks healing from any infirmity.

A horse that has no blemish in any limb or organ is a perfect horse; but a man may be as sound physically as the horse, and still be far from a perfect man. If all his members are not under Divine control, if they are used in any way that does not honor God, that is, that would be a disgrace for God himself to do, he is most imperfect.

If a man listens only to vile talk and foolish gossip, it is useless for him to have a good hearing. So far as any good that his ears do him, he might as well be deaf.

If a man’s feet are swift to do evil, he might better be lame, or even have no feet.

If a man talks only evil, he is in a worse condition than if he could not talk.

So no one should ask the Lord for restoration of any of these faculties, unless he expects to devote them wholly to the Lord’s service and control. Otherwise, even though physically healed, he is still maimed and diseased. He is not...

John 7

23 ...every bit whole.

1 Corinthians 6

19 What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?

20 ...therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Co-Workers with God

April-May 1903

WE DO NOT get our reward in the next world for the work that we do in this, we get our reward here. What we get in the next world is a free gift. We get our reward for the work that we do as we go along, and the reward is the happiness that we get out of it, and the ability that it gives us to do more.

He who does not work so well that he learns how to do more does not receive a full reward. I have within recent years learned more fully the meaning of these words of Scripture:

Revelation 22

12 Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

I used to think, in common, I suppose, with most people, that the reward the Lord would give, would be for what we had done here; that He would measure up the amount of work we had done, and then give us our wages. I have learned better than that. Real work cannot be paid for,—it is beyond price.

In the parable of the pounds, one pound is said to have gained five, and another ten, etc. In the other parable, the talents are doubled—each one had double the original amount, with the exception of the unfaithful servant. Then his lord said to the faithful servant,

Matthew 25

21 Well done, you good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: enter into the joy of your lord.

Put this with the following text:

Revelation 22

12 Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be,

We find that God gives to every man according as his work shall be found to be, that is to say, we are here in our apprenticeship. We must disabuse our minds entirely of the idea that we are here doing work for the Lord. We are simply learning how to work; we are serving our apprenticeship here, and when the Lord comes and examines our work, He will give us work to do according to the abilities which we have developed here.

So he that has done little in this world will have but little to do in the next, because he has developed but little capacity for work. He that has done much in this world will have much to do in the next, because he has developed a capacity for doing a great deal.

Now think! Can God give you any higher work than to associate you with Himself in the government of His kingdom? Can you think of anything higher? Is not that a far higher incentive to work than the idea that in the next world we will have nothing to do but lounging about and looking around and letting time hang heavy on our hands?

Can there be any incentive to work than to let God make the most out of us of that which is within us? And He can do wonderful things with very poor material. Can there be any higher incentive to faithfulness than the thought that according as our faithfulness has developed us here will our standing be in the world to come?

Do not get the idea that God’s work is to cease when this present world work ceases. God was at work before this world was made, and He has been working ever since, and He will have work to do throughout all eternity. When the sun is blotted out of the universe that will be only the beginning of work.

I have sometimes illustrated it in this way:

Here is a factory in which there is a number of machines at work. There is one master mind controlling them all; while for every one, two, or three machines,—according to the work,—here is one person in charge of the men, there is one master-mind directing the whole.

Suddenly, while everyone is busy and the hum and whirr of labor is everywhere heard, there is an unusual noise, and on investigation it is found that one of the machines has gone wrong; some part has given way, and it is out of repair.

Now what do the men do who are engaged in work with that machine? Their work does not cease, but it is changed, and their regular work ceases. There is an interference with and an interruption of their work because their machine is out of order, and they have to turn to it and repair it. When this is done, the regular work will go on.

We are now engaged in the work of repair here in this fallen world. Here is one part of the machinery of God’s great workshop that has gone wrong; it is out of repair, and the work in which all the workmen are engaged at present is simply that of repairing,—restoring that which was lost, and as soon as the work of restoration is completed then the real work will go on.

The real work of God will go on when lost souls have been restored and brought into harmony with God’s mind and purpose, so that they can understand Him, know Him, and know His ways.

You will remember the fault that God found with the children of Israel in the desert was that they had seen His work for forty years, and yet had not learned His way:

Hebrews 3

10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

Psalm 95

8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness;

9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.

10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways;

11 Unto whom I swore in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Now you would say it was a very stupid apprentice—a very dull scholar—that would go into any factory or workshop, or into business of any kind, and be there five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years, to say nothing of forty years, and have the privilege of seeing the master workman at work, and of understanding the work, and yet not learn anything about the business, wouldn’t you? You would say that he certainly should be turned off by that time.

Forty years is a good long apprenticeship, and if a man has not learned anything in that time, the master would certainly be warranted in pronouncing him incorrigible. So it was with the Israelites in the wilderness: God worked with them forty years, showing His marvelous work, and they were constantly seeing it, and yet at the end of forty years they had not learned His ways. But we know from the Scriptures that one of that number did learn the ways of God:

Psalm 103

7 He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.

All the children of Israel saw the acts of God, but Moses learned His ways; that, I think, was the reason Moses was promoted earlier than the others were; he found his place in the kingdom of God, and could go on and pursue the work there that he had so well learned to do on this earth. So we are here to learn the ways of God.

That brings to my mind a text,

Hebrews 11

6 He that comes to God must believe that He is.

It is the simplest thing in world to please God. Let us read the whole verse:

Hebrews 11

6 Without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that comes to God must believe that He is.

God does not require a difficult thing of us. All that He wants is for us to learn of Him—to learn His ways; to learn His way of working, that we may be prepared more fully to join in with Him in the work that He shall give us to do when this little interruption has been made good, when the damage in the workshop has been repaired, when His people have finished their apprenticeship and are prepared to go into the higher branch of work.

All that the Lord requires of us is that we shall recognize things as they are,—that we shall see what is; that we shall come to appreciate things that are, as they really are: to believe that things are just as they are.

We manufacture nothing by believing. Whether we believe a thing or not does not make a particle of difference with it. We do not create anything by faith; we appropriate by faith. We do not make anything in the universe any different from what it is by not believing it.

God wants us to believe only those things that are such plain, simple, self-evident truths that they lie open before our eyes, if we only have our eyes open,—and there, by the way, is the great difficulty. There are more people in this world going around blind, than anybody has any idea of. The Lord Jesus gave to His apostle Paul the work of opening blind eyes. And Jesus himself, when He entered His earthly ministry in Nazareth, quoted the words of the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 61

1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.

“The recovering of sight to the blind.” He was to enable the blind to see.

We read of those who worship false gods, which means everybody who does not know the true God. These gods themselves “have eyes, but they see not” (Psalm 115:5). And “they that make them are like unto them” (Psalm 115:8). That is, those who make the idols have eyes but they see not.

Who have eyes but see not? Those who worship false gods. That includes everyone who does not worship the true God. It is not necessarily everybody who makes an image and sets it up in his house and calls down and worships it three times a day, who worships a false god. It means everyone who does not know God. Just to the extent to which he does not know God, he has some false god that he worships.

To know God does not mean to know Him once in a while. There are some people with whom we have but a very slight acquaintance; we have met them occasionally on the street or in their house, but if we meet them on the street with a changed dress we do not recognize them. And if we meet them in an unexpected place or when we are not looking for them, we do not recognize them. That is the way with a great many people who think they know God; they know Him sometimes, they know Him occasionally, but they don’t know Him everywhere, they don’t know Him wherever He appears or is to be seen, and consequently they don’t know Him yet; and just to the extent that they don’t know Him, they are wandering around in the dark.

Hebrews 11

6 ...he that comes to God must believe that He is...

God is,—and when you have said that, you have said the greatest truth that can be grasped by finite beings. He that comes to God must believe that He is,—that is all; must believe that He is,—always, everywhere.

We must have our eyes open, because the apostle Paul tells us that:

Romans 1

20 The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity, so that they [those who do not worship Him] are without excuse.

The invisible things of God are clearly seen; and the man who sees nothing in this world beyond what he can see with his eyes sees but little. Man is to see more than his natural eyes will enable him to see. The man who does not see, does not know where he is going; and he who walks through this world confidently and with assurance, is the one who can see in the dark.

The man who knows where he is going is the one who can see things that are unseen. He who cannot see things that are unseen is creeping through this world like one who goes into a dark room; where furniture is scattered about and does not know what he may run against: he has to feel his way very carefully, for he does not know where he is going. But the man who can see things that are invisible, things that are unseen, can walk securely and confidently where another person will walk hesitatingly and fearfully.

So faith is an eye-opener. Faith enables a person to see things that are unseen; mark you, not to imagine something, for it only enlarges his vision.

For example, suppose my eye-sight were so much better developed than yours that I could see as far and as clearly as a large telescope could reveal to you. You know very well, that as you look up to the starry heavens at night you can see a certain number of stars, but with even an ordinary glass you can see more, while with a larger telescope you can see wonderful things—they stand out clear and sharp. Now use the largest telescope, and where you could see but a few stars before, you can now see myriads of them. Where there was a little cluster of light you will see innumerable suns. Where you could see only a little spark of light, you can now see double stars, or three or four stars, or revolving suns—one blue, another red, another green, and another yellow.

Suppose here is a man whose sight is so keen that he can see all that the large telescope can reveal; he is with people who have never heard of the wonders of the heavens; he looks up into the sky on a clear night, and begins to tell them what he sees. He says,

“See that double star, that blue star, and that flaming red star—there are three stars! See that wonderful green star!”

People would say,

“That man is mad, he is crazy. He simply goes round with his head in the clouds, and he imagines things; you don’t want to pay any attention to him, he is off; he is a sort of harmless lunatic; you don’t know what he may do,—he hasn’t done anything dangerous yet, but he is off his head.”

Why, the man is not imagining anything. He is telling what he sees, and they can’t see it, that’s all.

Now that is all that faith does. The man who can see by faith will talk about things that to other people are nonsense. And that is exactly what the scripture says:

1 Corinthians 2

14 But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So all that talk about the things of God, and the work of God is often foolishness to the man whose eyes are not yet open. Therefore we are to pray to the Lord with the psalmist,

Psalm 119

18 Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

The Lord also invites us to ask of Him “eyesalve that our eyes may be opened, that we may see.” (Revelation 3:18) The Lord wants everybody to see, and then tell what he has seen, that’s all. All the Lord’s people must be seers,—they must see,—because the Lord has no blind men in His kingdom; there will not be any blind men there; the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

I want to impress upon you the thought that there are infinite things in the work of God, and in the word of God for us to see, and we have no more than entered the outskirts of the field of observation. As telescopes enlarged in capacity reveal greater wonders to astronomers who spend their lives in peering into the skies, discovering new suns and wonderful glories in the heavens, so the field of truth enlarges, because truth is that which is.

An Italian astronomer first took a small section of the heavens and counted the stars that were to be seen with the naked eye; then with a small telescope he viewed only one-thirteenth of that space, and saw just as many stars as he could see before in the large space; then with a telescope of a higher power and the field of vision very much reduced, he saw still more stars.

Now photography has come to the aid of human sight, and the stars have been made to tell their own story,—“the invisible things of God” (Romans 1:20). The invisible stars of God have been made to write their own record on the sensitive plate, and suns so far distant that the most powerful telescope would not reveal them, have been made to record themselves; by exposing the sensitive plate to some seemingly vacant space in the heavens for three or four hours, the light accumulates sufficient to leave an impression of innumerable dots showing the presence of a countless number of stars—stars that were so far distant that enough light did not come in five minutes to be perceptible.

And so, as the range of God’s universe is opened out before us more and more, we are warranted in the belief that if the astronomer with his telescope and his camera were transported from this earth to the most distant visible sun, and could there set up his instruments and look farther out into the universe in the same direction as before, the same thing would be repeated.

What a wonderful thing it is to believe that “God is”. We are told to lift up our eyes to the heavens,

Isaiah 40

26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who has created these things? He brings forth their hosts by number. He calls them by their names, because He is great in might and strong in power, not one of them is lacking.

There was a time, not so very many years ago, when people thought that God’s promise to Abraham did not amount to very much when He said,

Genesis 15

5 ...Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall your seed be.

People thought they had numbered the stars, but they had numbered only five or six thousand of them,—not very many. But they have since found that the stars are innumerable. That is God’s truth, and those are some of the works of God, and they show us His power who upholds all things,—“who knows the number of the stars and calls them by their names.” Now we are to believe that it is,—there is a large field for our faith.

And that shows us that we must learn to see things that are unseen, in the truth. God’s Spirit searches the deep things of God that we may know them. I am sure all of you remember the words of Christ when the Pharisees and other Jews were caviling with Him about work He had done, and when He had declared to them that they were not worthy to be the children of Abraham, and said to them,

John 8

56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad.

57 Then said the Jews unto Him, You art not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?

58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

That is a marvelous saying. If we were going to show our priority to someone younger than we, we would not use that expression; we would say,

“Before he was, I was.”

That is all we could say; but not so with the Lord:

“Before Abraham was I am.”

What is the difference between “I am,” and “I was”? It is only the difference in the person who is speaking. God says, “I am,” and we agree with Him, and say “God is.” So we have the same truth here.

In that chapter there is something that we are liable to overlook in our ordinary reading,—and we will begin at the fifty-eighth verse because we have it in our version,

“Before Abraham was, I am.”

I will give you only a few leading, striking points on this subject. I refer you to the fifty-eighth verse first because there the rendering is very plain:

“Before Abraham was, I am.”

Now turn to the twenty-third verse and on:

John 8

23 And He said unto them, You are from beneath; I am from above; you are of this world; I am not of this world.

24 I said therefore unto you, that you shall die in your sins; for if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sins.

I have read this just as it reads in your Bibles, but you will notice that the word He, following the words I am, is in italics. The original Greek of this expression is the same as the corresponding words in the fifty-eight, verse—“I am.” There is not a particle of difference in these expressions, and why the translators inserted the word He in the twenty-fourth verse and omitted it in fifty-eighth verse, I do not know. The original Greek reads:

“Before Abraham was, I am.”

Now read the twenty-fourth verse by the same rule.

24 If you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins.

That tells us the same thing, doesn’t it? That is wonderfully impressive; there is something in it that is most majestic and sublime. So comprehensive are the statements of Scripture that a very simple statement has enough matter in it for our contemplation for a lifetime.

Lord Aylesbury, better known to readers of scientific works as Sir John Lubbock, the famous author of a work on “Ants, Wasps, and Bees,” and other valuable works, recently said this:

“There is not one plant whose history is perfectly known; there is not one ordinary plant whose habits and history are known that would not well repay, not simply the devotion of an hour, but of a lifetime to its study.”

So wonderful are God’s works. So it is with any single statement that God has made. There is not a single truth but is so vast and so comprehensive that it will well repay the study of a lifetime.

“Before Abraham was, I am.”

“If you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins.”

Does not that correspond exactly with what we read in Hebrews 11:6?

“For he that comes to God must believe that He is.”

There is nothing worth studying but God,—to know His ways; to study His works and to learn His ways and to know God in all His works includes the knowledge of himself, first of all.

John 8

24 If you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins.

Now in the twenty-eighth verse we read:

28 Then Jesus said unto them, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am.

You all know what that expression means: “lifted up the Son of man.” You will also remember the well-known passage:

John 12

32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

Note again that the word “men” has been added. It actually means all things, not merely all men. He will draw all things unto himself.

33 This He spoke signifying what death He should die.

So the lifting up of Jesus means His elevation upon the cross,—it means the cross of Christ. Now I wish you to turn to a few texts of Scripture, put them together and see what you can see in them.

Isaiah 14

12 How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!

13 For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven: I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.

Let us seek for the original meaning of this expression, “the sides of the north.” It means extremity, the limit. So Lucifer said,

“I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit in the uttermost north.”

Now take another text:

Psalms 48

1 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness.

2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, in the sides of the north…

Or in the uttermost north. Here we have the same expression.

3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

Take another passage. This is very striking. The wicked are admonished not to be so proud:

Psalm 75

4 ...Lift not up the horn:

5 Lift not up your horn on high; speak not with a stiff neck.

6 For promotion comes neither from the east nor from the west, nor from the south.

7 But God is the judge; He puts down one and sets up another.

Where does promotion come from? From the north. That is to say, that wherever the nations are scattered, the people cannot promote a man. All the kings of the earth cannot promote a man to honor. Only God can do that. A man’s value is determined by what he is and what he does. And a man is and does, just according as he allows God to do in Him.

Men may place a gold chain about someone’s neck, and all the people may fall down and do homage to him because he has power, but that is not promotion. God promotes a man, and He is the only one who can promote. So promotion comes not from the east, from the west, or from the south; but God is judge, and He promotes one, and casts down another, according as he is or is not worthy of promotion.

We might multiply texts on this point.

Jeremiah 1

13 And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.

14 Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

I think you will find it clear that God inhabits the north.

Job 26

7 He stretches out the north over an empty space, and hangs the earth upon nothing.

Now that was not put into the Bible to fill up a little space. These two clauses did not come in accidentally.

“He stretches out the north over the empty place.”

That word “empty,” in Hebrew, is the same thing as found in Genesis:

Genesis 1

2 The earth was without form, and void.

It was empty.

“He stretches out the north over the empty [or void] place [over the formless space] and hangs the earth upon nothing.

We get from this that the north has something to do with the earth’s being poised in the air and hanging upon nothing. That is not much. Some people would say,

“Oh, very well, we can believe that, because we know enough about what men call magnetism to understand that.”

People think because they have given a thing a name they understand it, and know all about it.

So I say, men have gone about inventing names to hide God. Just as soon as a person says, “That is magnetism,” or “That is electricity,” they think they know all about those things. Why? Because they have used the name of the thing. But the name does not tell anything.

What does the word “electricity” mean? What does that word tell us about that mysterious thing of whose nature men know nothing? They know some of its workings: they have learned some of the methods by which it works, but they don’t know anything about it by the name they give it. They call it “electricity.”

The word “electricity” is from the Greek word amber, because it was discovered that amber, if rubbed, would produce the sensation with which all are so familiar. Rub a comb and use it, and it will produce the same feeling that one gets by the use an electric battery. If we should say of this characteristic of amber which we call “electricity,” that it is “ambericity,” you would say. “That does not mean anything.” And indeed it does not. Neither does “electricity” mean anything.

What does the word “magnetism” mean? It means that men have discovered a special force working in magnesia, and they call it “magnetism.” But that does not tell us anything about it. After a time they found that same force works in other materials as well as in magnesia.

Now men know enough about “magnetism” to know that the earth is, to use a common expression a magnet. They have discovered by observation, that there are certain principles that they can depend upon, and forces that always work in the same way, and can be depended upon, because God can be depended upon. God has one way of working, and that is the reason we can pray.

I was recently asked the question—and it is one that comes up frequently,

“Does not law remove the necessity for prayer?”

Oh, no! That is the only reason we can pray; it is because there is a fixed law of God, that we can pray. The reason we can pray is because God IS, and is without “variableness or shadow of turning.” James 1:17.

So, as we learn to know God, we find that He works constantly,—without variableness, and we know where to find Him and can depend upon Him.

So men have found that the magnetic needle of the compass always points in the same direction,—and you can’t make it point in any other direction. That is the reason navigators are able to steer their vessels. They know that the earth is charged with the mysterious force, which, for want of any better knowledge of it, they call “magnetism.” As you go nearer the north, the North Star seems higher up in the heavens; and the farther north you go, the higher you can see it. And where is the north then? It is upward—directly over head.

That brings us to another point. In the Hebrew, which is a very picturesque language, the “North” is a word that means “secret,” “hidden.” The “south” is a “desert.” Why is that Hebrew word used, which is translated “north,” and which means “secret,” or “hidden?” Because God dwells there,—in a place which no man can approach unto—He dwells in the secret place.

— to be continued —

(the June 1903 issue of Medical Missionary is missing,

so this article is not concluded)

Present Truth, part 1

July 1903

IN THE 40th chapter of Isaiah we have what we may call a specific command, as direct a command as there is in the Bible. When we have read it, we shall understand it, and know to whom it was addressed, and to what time it is specially applicable:

Isaiah 40

1 Comfort you, comfort you my people says your God.

2 Speak comfortably to [literally, to the heart of] Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

3 The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

7 The grass withers, the flower fades: because the spirit of the Lord blows upon it: surely the people is grass.

8 The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

9 O Zion, that brings good tidings, get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

Here is a command to speak comfortably to God’s people; to comfort their hearts; to prepare the way of the Lord and make a straight way for Him; Cry with a loud voice, “Behold your God.” There are three specific commands, altogether forming one whole.

The next verse tells us when it applies.

10 Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.

Many of you will involuntarily think of the last chapter of Revelation:

Revelation 22

12 Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

You will recognize that verse in Revelation as applying to the coming of the Lord,

“Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me,”

the time,

“when the Son of man shall come in the clouds of heaven,”

...and then shall He reward every man according to his deeds,—as the Saviour himself said. Here we have the same thing:

“Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him: He shall feed His flock like a shepherd shall gather the lambs in His arms and carry them in His bosom,” etc.

Then, this injunction, “Behold your God,” is a part of the preparation for the Lord when He shall come with strong hands, bringing His reward to His servants, rewarding everyone as his work shall be.

It is not only possible, but it is an absolute necessity for men to behold the Lord. So desirable is it, such a wonderful privilege is it, that it is the sum of all the blessings that God can bestow upon His faithful ones.

We have it in the last chapter of Revelation, at the time where there shall be no more curse, the former things having passed away, His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face; His name shall be in their foreheads.

For the servants of God to behold His face is the sum of all the blessings that God can bestow upon man. And so the Psalmist says,

Psalm 17

15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness, and shall be satisfied when I awake with your likeness.

Still further, the Saviour said,

Matthew 5

8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

That, then, is one of the glorious privileges of the pure in heart,—to see God.

In the book of Hebrews, we have this injunction,

Hebrews 12

14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

Now, we have, as a beginning, Christ himself revealed.

John 1

18 No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him,

He has manifested Him; so when Phillip said,

John 14

8 ...show us the Father, and it suffices us,

Christ said:

9 Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Phillip? He that has seen me has seen the Father.

That means that just as really as the apostles could see Jesus, when He was there among them, so really can men behold God.

Take, for instance, the word of the Psalmist:

Psalm 27

4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.

When does this apply? In the world to come? Why, of course it applies then, undoubtedly it does; but read the next verses,

5 For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock.

6 And now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises unto the Lord.

That is to say that when the Psalmist was permitted continuously to behold the beauty of the Lord in His temple, dwelling in His house, he would be kept in safety in the time of trouble, and that would be His safety.

And this agrees exactly with the ninety-first Psalm:

Psalm 91

1 He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.

3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

4 He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust: His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

5 You shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flies by day;

6 Nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.

7 A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come nigh you.

8 Only with your eyes shall you behold and see the reward of the wicked.

9 Because you have made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, your habitation;

10 There shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.

So this dwelling in close connection with the Lord, and beholding His face, and seeing God, is an absolute necessity to protection in the time of trouble, in the time of pestilence, and of war and trouble of every kind. Abiding in the house of God, to recognize His presence, look upon His face, to behold His beauty continuously, this is the only safety of man.

And thus it is that we have this for the last message. It is a message to prepare for the world to come. The message is to those who hear,

Isaiah 40

3 Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

The message is, “speak comforting words”, “speak to my people and proclaim the message of salvation to them”. The message is,

Isaiah 40

9 Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

Present Truth, part 2

August 1903

THE easiest thing in the world to see is light. If a person can see anything, he can see the light. If he cannot see the light, he cannot see anything at all, and there are many who cannot.

You ask me,

“How can we see God?”

There is just one answer,

“Open your eyes.”

The apostle speaks of some who are blind,—that is, those who have not faith, knowledge, virtue, temperance, godliness, brother kindness, and patience.

2 Peter 1

9 He that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

Ah! This power to see comes with purging from sin, and this is exactly what the Saviour said,

Matthew 5

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

It is necessary that the individual himself shall be pure, shall be, in a word, light, in order that he may see the light. For so it is stated in the Scripture:

Psalm 36

9 With you is the fountain of life; in your light shall we see light.

When we remember that the life is the light of men, then we have it, that with Him is the fountain of light, a flood of light, because He is clothed in light and He delights in the light. And that is the message for you and me to take to the world, “God is light,” and then to say, “Open your eyes, and behold your God.”

In the fourth chapter of Ephesians, we read:

Ephesians 4

17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.

If it were not for the blindness of their heart they would not have the ignorance, because their ignorance comes through the blindness of their heart. Then if they were not blind, they would not have that ignorance. If they did not have that ignorance, they would not be alienated from the life of God. Then they would be able to see; they would not be walking in darkness.

The ignorance that is in them is lack of the knowledge of the life of the Lord, for that life is the light that lights every man who comes into the world. This does not say, neither does it mean that there are some persons who are alienated from the life because they have none of it about them, and that the life is not in them. No, they are alienated from the light because they cannot see it; because of the ignorance that is in them, they do not know that it is there, and our message to the world is, “Behold, your God,” get your eyes open, and look around you, and see the presence of the Lord, that God is light.

Here is the introduction to that message,

Isaiah 40

1 Comfort...my people…

2 ...and cry unto her...that her iniquity is pardoned.

That is what we are commissioned to do,—go to the man who is a sinner, and who knows he is a sinner, and acknowledges that he is a sinner, and as soon as he acknowledges this, we are to communicate that message, “Your sin is pardoned.”

Now do not let anyone make the mistake of thinking because this text says, “Comfort my people,” that simply those belonging to the church are meant; that is, I am one of God’s people, and everyone who is as good as I am is one of God’s people, and all those who believe just as I do are God’s people.

Jesus says,

Matthew 9

12 They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick,

And we are sent even as Christ was sent, not...

Matthew 9

13 ...to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

We are sent to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” (Matthew 15:24) and these lost sheep are the other sheep not of this fold, for which Christ sought.

And on one occasion when He said, “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” He immediately gave a demonstration of who was meant by then, when He granted the prayer of the poor heathen woman. When His disciples would have sent her away He simply said,

Matthew 15

24 I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,

Then He immediately granted her request and healed her daughter, showing that a heathen woman was one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and therefore claimed by the Lord as one of His people.

The Lord says His people do not know Him:

Isaiah 1

3 The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not consider.

So God claims as His people those who do not know Him, those who are in darkness and blindness, alienated from the life of God through the blindness that is in them, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of other men; these are the people to whom we are to go with this message.

The world is full of people who will say:

“How can I get deliverance from this besetment?”

Not only in the church, but almost everywhere, men are diseased, besotted, yet God does not despise them; and we are forbidden to despise anybody. But they are down, and they know they are down, and this is what produces that awful feeling of despair that leads them in utter abandonment to do worse.

This abandonment to vice and debauchery is not always from pure viciousness and love of wickedness, but it is the abandonment of despair; they do not know how to do anything else; they cannot lift themselves up, and a discouraged man is in no condition to make progress; the tendency of discouragement is to go down.

These men know that they are sinners; they feel that they are sinners; in their moments of soberness they have a thoughtfulness, a feeling of unspeakable despair and despondency at their woe-begone condition, and they cannot be blamed for not knowing the way out when they are so many professing Christians who do not know the way. They will ask,

“Do you suppose it is possible to be delivered from this condition?”

Or,

“Do you believe it is possible to live above these besetments?”

A man cannot live under the feeling of condemnation and despair; it is impossible, and therefore, in order to find a little peace and quiet, a man resorts to drink, takes opiates, or enters into some other vice, because he cannot stand the pain of body and distress of mind, and this is the way many men enter into the dissipation and pleasures of the world. They would like to do better, but they cannot.

You and I are commissioned to comfort God’s people, and if we do not know how to do it, our business is first to find out, because it is the commandment that we should go and see these people who, God says, are “my people.” He includes them as His, just as truly as the father of the prodigal son claimed him as his son even when he was spending his substance among harlots. When he came back to his father, his father said:

“This is my son.”

He even forestalled his son, who tried to say:

“I am no more worthy to be called your son: make me as one of your hired servants.”

But the father said:

“Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand...and let us eat and be merry.”

Just so truly as that father claimed the prodigal in his dissipated life as his son, so the Lord looks at all these poor souls. They are wicked, they are unlovely in their actions, and there is much that is unlovely in their appearance; yet in spite of that, God loves them. We never know anything about love until we have found out the fact that true love loves the unlovely. It take no virtue to love a lovable person, but nothing but the love of God loves those who are unlovely.

Present Truth, part 3

September 1903

FAITH is that which enables one to see far off, to see farther than others can see, or to see things near at hand more accurately than someone else can see them. It enables one to see things that are invisible.

Now faith does not manufacture anything; it is not fancy imagination, but there are more things that are invisible than there are that are visible. That is to say, there are more things in the universe that you have never seen than there are that you have seen. Not only so, there are more things in the universe that are visible to the spiritual sight than there are that are visible to the natural sight.

The secret of Christianity, the secret of growth in the knowledge of God and in divine things, is in the ability to see what the ordinary man cannot see. And the work that we have, as messengers of God’s truth, is to give the last message to the world, which shall not only bring this people up to the height that other people have never attained to, but shall point out to men things that are about them that they do not see. That was the commission given to the apostle Paul:

Acts 26

18 To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

That is the thing—to open their eyes, to cause people to see, to behold the Lord, and to see the light. God is light, and when they see God they will behold the one who can save them, and who can heal them.

Moses was a man of most marvelous spiritual attainment, but he was at the same time a man of most marvelous physical development. Think of it! A man one hundred and twenty years old, when men did not live on an average more than we do now, and just as strong then as at forty.

After forty years of hard pastoral labor, he entered at eighty upon still harder service, which he followed for forty years, with a flock of people who were ten times as foolish and difficult to lead as a flock of sheep, and at the end of that time he was still as strong as ever. Why? Because of the truth which the Lord announced to the people when he led them forth:

Exodus 15

26 ...If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, [not only will I put] none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, [but I will take disease away from the midst of you, and you shall be strong;] for I am the Lord [your physician] that heals you.

That brings us to the fact that healing and saving are identical in the Scriptures. For instance, we read in the seventh chapter of Luke of the sinner who came to the Lord and washed His feet and wiped them with the hair of her head. Then the Lord, after some preliminary talk to the makers of the feast, said:

Luke 7

47 ...Her sins, which are many, are, forgiven, for she loved much.

Then to the woman He said:

50 ...Your faith has saved you, go in peace.

In the ninth chapter of Matthew, we read of a poor woman who had been suffering from disease; she had been to every doctor she could hear of and instead of getting better, she grew worse. And now she was on the verge of the grave, and she saw something that nobody else in that crowd saw. She saw the Lord; she saw a power there that they did not see, and she said:

Matthew 9

21 ...If I may but touch Him, I shall be made whole.

She reached through the crowd (she could not get to Him herself) and just touched the hem of His garment, and instantly she was healed of that plague. Then the Lord turned and said to her:

Luke 8

48 Your faith has made you whole: go in peace.

In the Greek we find that He said identically the same thing to one woman that He said to the other; the Greek words “to save” and “to heal” are the same thing. So the presence of the Lord saves; it heals. There is healing power in the presence of the Lord.

Now this is scientific, because religion is the most scientific thing in the world. It is the only scientific thing. Christianity is pure science. Science is knowledge, and Christianity is the knowledge of God, and this is the sum of all science, because he who knows God has the key to all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

God is light. A noted physician in London said not long ago:

“Wherever we can get light to penetrate, we can heal.”

This is not exactly true, for physicians do not do the healing; it is the light that penetrates, that heals. Wherever light penetrates it heals; and men are finding out much more about light than they formerly knew.

Dr. Vinsen, who is known over the whole world through his investigations of the properties of light, has a most beautiful institute at Copenhagen, where he treats people with nothing but simple light, and he has had many wonderful cures through its agency. Since he has called attention to this, pure light is being used to an extent never dreamed of in former times.

Of course, you all know the different applications of light in our sanitariums, as electric light baths, sun baths, etc. What does that mean? It means that light is a healing power of God; it means that God is light, and all the light that there is in the world is simply the shining forth of God’s own life.

Christ demonstrated that when He said to the man who had been born blind,

John 9

5 I am the light of the world.

This was not a theoretical thing, a mere figment of the mind, which some people would call “spiritual light,” or “mental light,” but real light that is visible to the natural eye. To show that, the next moment He causes the man to see.

So when He said, “I am the light of the world,” He meant that He is the light that shines from the sun; that He is the light that shines in the daylight, in the starlight. He meant that all the light and the glory of the heaven is but the glory of the Lord.

someone may ask,

“Then you think that all that can be seen—that is, all that the light makes manifest—is God?”

No, never. I wish to tell you the difference between this recognition of God in all His works and the heathen doctrine, pantheism. The line of distinction between truth and error is imperceptible, because naturally, they coincide. When we go outside of truth, that very instant we are in error; and, per contra, when we get out of error, there truth is. We need not go far to find error, for truth and error lie side by side, and it is good that this is so.

The first chapter of Romans contains both sides of that story:

Romans 1

20 For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world [that is, His everlasting power and divinity] are clearly seen, being understood [perceived] by things that are made.

So, as the preceding verse states:

19 That which may be known of God is manifest in them [in the heathen];

20 ...so that they are without excuse.

Those heathen (everybody) are without excuse, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. This being so, our business is to call their attention to that fact and free them from that alienation from the life of God by opening their eyes, thus removing their ignorance by removing their blindness; thus opening their eyes to the light and to the life, and that which may be known of God, which is manifest in them, so that they may lay hold upon eternal life, and that is salvation.

Now the heathen,

21 When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23 And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.

Then they...

25 ...changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator.

The heathen did not wish to retain God in their knowledge, but they saw the manifestation of supernatural power in a plant.

“That is God; the plant does this, and that is God.”

Then they saw a power in the wind, and there was another god working there. They saw wondrous things accomplished by the light, and there was another god, and so on with other things. So they worshiped all these things as God, a thing which they never could have done if they had recognized the truth and kept it in mind, that in everything that God has made is everlasting power.

The lie was to say that the power is inherent in the thing itself. Is there any difference? There is just as much difference as there is between heaven and earth and nobody in the world need make any mistake, neither can anyone make this mistake if he holds to the truth that God himself is working here.

Someone who has not given this matter the attention he ought to has written this:

“There is life manifested here and there, but it is not God’s life.”

This is pantheism; because if it is not God’s life, then the life is inherent in the thing, but life is an essential attribute of God. God is life; He is all the life there is. In Him is life; He is the source of life.

But if you have another supply of life, then at once you have another god. And if the life that is manifested in the growing plant, and in you, and in me, is not the life of God, and is not God himself personally working there, then you have no other alternative but that heathen idea—that the creature itself is God. But it is not God. All these things are created things, and these manifestations of life and power are God working in them.

Someone will say,

“Then you believe that God is just as much in these things as He is in the heavens?”

No, there is a place where God has His seat; the center of attraction; and His power centers all things in himself; all the universe, all the planets, all the suns, are keeping their place by His attraction. So, believing the Bible, we must seriously combat any statement to the effect that God is as much in one place as in another. We can say, God is truly and really without trying to make any comparison, present everywhere.

Psalm 139

7 Where shall I go from Your Spirit, or where shall I flee from Your presence?

8 If I ascend up into heaven, You are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea:

10 Even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.

11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me: even the night shall be light about me.

God is light, and the darkness and the light are both alike to Him, and He causes the light to shine out of darkness.

This is the truth which, proclaimed to man, will lift him up: and it is the only thing in the world that will give a man absolute continual deliverance from the besetments of the flesh, from the sins that he is heir to.

When I thus recognize this power in me to do that which I cannot, then I have only to do as the physician or the nurse does with the germ-infested chamber,—open it up and let the light shine through. I recognize the light that is there, and let the light do the work. So:

Philippians 2

13 It is God that works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Why should anyone mistake this? And why should anyone wish to shut his eyes to its glorious light? You need not go far to get health; you need not make a pilgrimage to some shrine to get deliverance. God is not far off; He is near at hand. God is working, and if your eyes are opened, you can get the evidence of His working, and a most marvelous working it is.

I have watched through the microscope the mysteries in a drop of water, and in no meeting that I have ever attended (and I have attended some glorious seasons of refreshing), did I have feelings of greater joy and such a constant lifting up as while looking into the secret chamber of God, watching as if I were in the very presence of God, seeing Him working in that wondrous way, when, in a creature which was not visible to the naked eye, I could see perfect joints, and could even see the blood coursing through the veins.

There is a beautiful verse written by Cowper which I will give you:

‘Tis sweet to muse upon the skill displayed,
Infinite skill, in all that He has made;
To trace in nature’s most minute design
The signature enstamped by power divine,
Contrivance intricate, expressed with ease,
Where unassisted sight no beauty sees,—
The shapely limb, the lubricated joint
Within the small dimensions of a point,
Muscle and nerve miraculously spun,
Whose mighty word He speaks, and it is done.

The Common Life

October 1903

I READ a warning recently by someone to the effect that we must not make the life of the Lord too common; that we must not bring it down to the level of our daily lives; but when we really understand the matter we shall find that we cannot make it any more common than it is. While we must not bring the life down to the level of our lives, we must let that life which is so common lift up our lives.

The Lord has put the gospel message into everything upon the earth; we cannot go anywhere where we cannot find the gospel proclaimed, so there is no danger of making the gospel too common. God himself has made it common.

The Lord Christ manifest in the flesh, is nigh unto every one...

Romans 10 [see also Deuteronomy 30:14]

8 ...even in your mouth and in your heart.

Christ crucified, buried, and risen again, with His eternal power, is with every person, in order that he may do the things that are right. The Lord has not left himself without witnesses, but He has put the witness in everyone.

In the thirtieth chapter of Deuteronomy we read:

Deuteronomy 30

19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live:

20 That you may love the Lord your God, and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave unto Him: for He is your life, and the length of your days.

This is true of you—He is your strength. He is your life,—your present life,—all the life you have. All the life there is, is the Lord’s, for He says:

John 14

6 I am the way, the truth, and the life.

He is the life, not a part of the life, but the life. Just as there is no other way, and no other truth, so there is no other life. That life does all that is done, or ever can be done, for mankind.

In the eighth chapter of Luke is the account of the healing of a poor woman who had suffered everything and was nearly dead. Jesus at this time was surrounded by a great crowd of people who wanted to see what was going on. They knew that this man had done many wondrous things, and they were there to see what they could, and have something to talk about. They crowded and pressed themselves as people do at a show, each trying to get to the front. This poor woman, with her life almost gone, could see no hope of getting to Him, and she thought:

Matthew 9

21 If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole.

I am sure that God had this one miracle recorded here in detail for a special purpose, because it is so fully illustrative of the universality of the cross,—that the power of the cross is our life. There is such comfort and instruction in it.

To continue: That woman’s peculiar form of disease was loss of blood: she was anemic, pale, thin, exhausted, almost ready to die because she did not have blood enough to nourish the tissues and keep life going. But she determined to get into touch with Jesus.

At last she got where she could touch the hem of His garment and instantly she was made whole. The record says that instantly she was made whole. It does not say only that the blood was staunched, or that she felt that she was healed, but that she was made whole; not simply that the ravages of the disease were checked, and she was started on her way toward recovery, but that she was made whole.

I go very carefully over this, because I have seen so many people who find it such a new idea that it seems difficult for them to grasp it. That is to say, Christians have become so accustomed to think that the cross of Christ is simply a piece of wood set up nineteen hundred years ago that they cannot grasp the idea that the cross of Christ is everywhere, always giving life. They cannot grasp the wondrous love of God and His infinite power, and the marvelous provision He has made for the redemption of fallen man, and see that it is always and everywhere working. It seems a strange thing, as the Lord said to the prophet Hosea:

Hosea 8

12 I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.

The trouble with this sick woman was lack of blood. If she was to be made whole she must have the lack supplied. She was made whole; therefore it is self-evident that she received that which she lacked; namely, blood. Whence did the woman get this fresh blood? Where did it come from?

Let us take the story a little further. Jesus looked up suddenly and said:

“Who touched Me?”

And then the people laughed, and said:

“That is a foolish question to ask, for everybody is crowding and pressing on every side.”

But Jesus said:

“Somebody has touched Me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me.”

That touch, then, which brought instant healing to the woman took something out of the Lord. She received power,—life-power, blood,—and power and vital force went forth from Christ. What she lacked, He supplied.

“How can that be?” someone asks. “No one saw the blood pass from Him to her.”

There are many things that human eyes never saw, yet they take place and we know them by faith. The woman could not see anything, but she took something by faith, and then she knew in herself, without any need of assurance from anyone that she had something very real.

Faith is for the purpose of making us see something that cannot be seen. Faith is not imagination or fancy, but substance, and is that power which makes intangible things patent to our senses.

Moses endured because by faith he saw the unseen; he saw the invisible; he beheld the glory of the Lord, looking not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen. We find in this strength, and courage, and hope.

And now I wish you to see some of the things that cannot be seen with your eyes, but which you can see just as plainly as if they were visible before you. You can walk through this world, seeing, just as plainly as you see the sun, things that the world cannot see.

No one saw anything pass from Christ to the woman, yet there was something real, because the thing she lacked came from Him, and what she lacked was good blood and plenty of it. The reason why so many people do not grasp that is because they think that blood cannot be other than as it is in our arteries.

You know that for many, many years, because people could not see the air, they thought it was really nothing at all. But we have lived to see air in a liquid form poured from one vessel to another. We have seen a dipperful thrown to the floor, and heard it strike in a body, like so much water, and instantly there was nothing visible.

The Lord has allowed such discoveries as this to come out, one by one, in order that there may not be a single peg upon which a reasoning person can hang any sort of doubt.

Suppose that instead of air being this invisible fluid, we had always seen it in no other form than liquid. We then would have the same difficulty in thinking of it as existing in an invisible form that people now have in thinking of blood as ever being invisible. If in that case someone said that air could pass from one vessel to another and nobody see it, the reply would instantly be:

“That cannot be, because air is always white, and has a definite color and consistency.”

There are many truths about the most common things which we have yet to learn. We have yet to learn the scientific fact that blood can be invisible, and yet as real as when we see it flowing; the same as the invisible air is real.

Of His Fullness Have We All Received

The case before us is an illustration of the fact that Christ took our sicknesses upon himself; He himself bore our sicknesses and carried our infirmities.

Suppose that here is a vessel about one-third full of water; the other two-thirds is, of course, full of emptiness, as far as water is concerned. Suppose I had another vessel full of water, and I poured out of that into this partially filled vessel until it became full. The vessel would then have received of the others fullness. What would that other one get from this?—Why, its emptiness; because to the extent that water has been drawn from it into the other there is a corresponding emptiness in it.

That is what happened when Jesus healed that woman’s infirmity. He felt the draft upon His life. Just as much life went from Him as the woman lacked and received. Why, then, did He not die?

We have to carry the illustration a little further in order to realize it. Suppose that instead of filling this vessel’s emptiness from another vessel, I take the water from a flowing fountain. Can you not see that the very same thing would take place? The vessel has received from the fountain’s fullness. What has the fountain got from the vessel? Emptiness, because I took a quantity of water from it, enough to fill the vessel. But you cannot see where it was taken, because there is a fresh supply constantly coming.

With God is the fountain of life; and Jesus Christ was in continual touch with God, because He was God manifest in the flesh; and therefore, although the sick and diseased came to Him by scores, He healed them all, as many as touched Him received healing—their need was supplied. He did not die, because He was in touch with the fountainhead, and the supply was kept up.

When was it that Jesus laid down His life for the world? Was it just that hour when He hung upon the cross? Was it not every day? He laid down His life, gave it up, when He healed that woman and all who came to Him, just as surely as when He hung on the cross of Calvary.

In the case of healing which we are studying, as in all others, we have the cross. Christ gave life, His own life, for those whom He healed. What did He do when He hung upon that piece of wood which we call the cross? He gave His life, His blood. The reason we are reconciled by the blood of Christ is that it flows through us and cleanses us from all impurity.

Where is sin? your sin and mine? It is in us, a part of us, it is in our flesh and blood; it is a plague that is defiling this body and sapping our life. If the blood of Christ cleanses me from sin, that blood must be in me; because if there is uncleanness, we can clean it only by applying the cleansing fluid to the impurity. And just as real as the sin is, so real must be the blood that cleanses it away. Yea, it is greater and more powerful than the sin.

Healing through Faith, part 1

November 1903

THE subject of faith healing is a very great subject, and cannot be exhausted in a few minutes. Yet it seems to me that it would not take more than five minutes for anyone who knows and believes the Bible to settle the subject.

I know that the term has fallen into disrepute. Most people think it savors of quackery. Just as soon as one hears of faith healing, one thinks of fanaticism. The only way to arrive at an understanding of anything is to reduce it to its simplest terms. So we will take first the last part of the term, namely, healing.

Whence does healing come? What is the source of life and health? Who is the healer? Everybody knows the psalm:

Psalm 103

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:

3 Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases;

4 Who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies;

5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

There we have the whole story: the saving of one from destruction, the renewing of his youth, and the healing of all diseases, is all from the Lord.

Or, take the words spoken to the Israelites in the desert, just after they had crossed the Red Sea, and had come to the bitter waters of Marah. The waters were bad, and there the Lord proved them, and said:

Exodus 15

26 If you will hearken to the voice of the Lord, and diligently keep all these statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you which I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that heals you.

Literally, “I am the Lord your physician.” The Lord is the physician, and He gives the preventive medicine that keeps us from getting ill.

A little later on the Lord said, on condition that they would be obedient to His commandments:

Exodus 23

25 I will take disease away from the midst of you;

So the two statements go together, to the effect that the Lord would let no disease come upon them, and would take away that which they had. There the Lord is shown as the healer.

Take the words of the wise man:

Proverbs 4

20 My son, attend to my words…

21 ...keep them in the midst of your heart;

22 For they are life to those that find them, and health [or, “medicine” in the margin] to all their flesh.

And so I might multiply texts. We have the truth, with which we are all agreed, unless we deny that the Bible is true, that God is the healer, and that there is no healing except from Him. God is our life.

Acts 17

28 In Him we live, and move, and have our being.

All these are familiar texts, showing that there is no life, there is no power of motion, except from God; and He himself is the strength and the power.

Now that we have the matter of healing settled, it is easy to settle the matter of faith healing. Faith, in this connection, is simply the recognition of the fact that God is the healer. It is the grasping of that truth, and the believing of it, so that healing shall be a reality with us.

It is simply to recognize the life that is manifested, and consciously, and with fixed purpose, and with absolute faith in its power, to come into harmony with it; not always by the same means, not always in the same way, but always to the same end—the receiving of life.

Now we well know that while God is the only source of life and healing, there are very many people who do not believe it. There are very many people who never give it a thought; they do not know whether they believe it or not, because they never think about it. They are healed without considering who heals them. They are kept alive, and their life is renewed day by day, without their thinking about it.

The Lord is good to the evil and the good, to the just and the unjust. He gives to all, regardless of their attitude to Him, “life, and breath, and all things.”

Now the proposition is,—and it certainly is a fair one,—that men should come to a recognition of the things that are, and see them as they are, and acknowledge the truth. And when they do that, then they have faith healing.

That settles the question of faith healing; but that is only the beginning. The end can be found only as we recognize the operations of the life.

Let us for the present leave out of our calculations that statement in the book of James about praying and anointing, and recognize faith healing aside from that direct prayer. And yet, we cannot leave it out entirely, because, as we read the Bible, we find multitudes of cases of instantaneous healing.

People who read those records misapprehend them very much. Some people read them as a sort of fairy tale, a novel. They find them interesting as a story, but have no idea that they are intended for anything more practical. Others read them, believing that they took place, but assuming that the day of miracles is past, and that God never works in that way now. They forget that God does not change—that the Lord Jesus Christ, who performed so many of those miracles, is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever,” that with Him “there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning;” and that because of that, we may know that:

James 1

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights.

It is strange that with those simple statements men cannot arrive at the facts.

The Use of Means

Others read the record of miracles, and assume that this is the way God would always bring people up from disease, and that there is no other way; that it is a denial of God and the Bible for anybody ever to expect healing in any other way than simple to pray, and then to wait for the result, regardless of anything else.

I have talked with many good people who think that they believe fully in faith healing, but who are most strenuous in their opposition to “the use of means.”

But, to say that God intended people should be healed of their diseases by absolutely nothing else than simply praying to the Lord, and then waiting for the healing to come, is a denial of the Bible, and of all the teaching and the whole spirit of the Bible.

I am sure we are justified in believing that the miracles of healing were performed and recorded for the same purpose that other miracles were performed; that is, to bring us to some sort of understanding—limited, of course, as all our understanding of God is—of how God ordinarily works, and of making us understand that healing, as well as everything else, comes from Him.

Accelerating of Ordinary Process

Take the first miracle that Jesus did, the turning of water into wine. This was a wondrous miracle; and yet I am sure we have all thought of that enough to see that it was only a quickening of the ordinary process of the making of wine, not decomposed wine, but real and perfect wine.

In the ordinary process the vine is planted, and it grows only by rain and dew from heaven. It depends absolutely upon moisture for its life; for all the nourishment that the plant receives, and the animal as well, must be in liquid form. Food has to be liquefied before the system can do anything toward assimilating it; so that it is a fact that nourishment can be appropriated by neither man, animal, nor plant, except as it is in a liquid form. And the rain that comes down from heaven is the medium, the means of life.

Very interesting it is to study that thought from the Scriptures. We know that…

Isaiah 55

10 ...the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater.

Psalm 65

11 ...Your paths drop fatness.

Fatness comes down from heaven to the earth. The rain that comes from heaven makes the earth capable of giving life to all that dwell upon it. The rootlets of the vine absorb the water, and it ascends the plant, penetrating into the utmost branches; and leaves grow, and buds are put forth, and the clusters of grapes are formed, which are nothing more nor less than the concentrated fatness of the vine. The fatness of the clouds coming up through the vine and making it grow, is concentrated in the clusters of grapes.

Then the sun looks upon it, and that mysterious change takes place which makes it what we call wine. The new wine is found in the cluster, and it is just as surely wine while it is there, before it has been pressed out, as it is afterward, when we have it in a vessel.

Now when Jesus turned the water into wine, He did instantaneously what He ordinarily does through a series of months. He shortened the process—that is all. He is the true vine, and He is the sun of righteousness. You see He comprehends in himself everything. He is the living water. There you have all the elements necessary for the formation of wine,—water from heaven, a vine, and the sun to look upon it, and turn the water into wine.

And so He, the Sun of Righteousness, looked upon the water, and instantaneously it became wine. Now He could do that all the time, but the world would not be nearly so enjoyable as it is if that were the way it were done, because if it would, God would have done it that way always.

He has done it the best way, and I know, and you know when you stop to think, that this world would not be nearly so pleasant a place if the Lord simply took water and turned it into wine instantaneously, as it is now that we see the grape vine with its beautiful foliage, and those rich clusters of fruit.

Moreover, He wants us to cultivate the vine, and thus be workers together with Him. Like the wise Father that He is, He trains His children to help in the work as much as they are able.

Does not that make the earth far more enjoyable than as if the Lord did it all by himself in that direct way? That shows that the Lord uses means, does it not? The grape vine that we see is the means that the Lord uses, and it shows us himself.

The same thing is revealed in the feeding of the multitudes with bread. A few loaves were taken, and they were multiplied, and the people ate, and were filled.

Now what was done simply for the purpose of emphasizing the fact, and making it so clear that nobody could mistake it, that the food that we eat comes directly out of the hand of God.

We trace that bread back to its source, and we find that it is grain that is sown in the ground and comes up. The good seed is the word of God. The first grain that ever grew, from which bread could be made, was the result of God’s saying to the earth, “Let grass be brought forth.” He sowed the seed—His word—in the ground; but the Word is God; and so when we have those seeds, the grain, we know that a portion of God’s life is there, invisible in the seed itself, but the seed is the means by which God’s life is conveyed to us.

God did it that time instantaneously, in order that we might be led to think upon the ordinary way, and trace the process. It is very simple, when you think of it.

And then, too, I know that life is much more enjoyable, and the earth is much more pleasant, when we see the bread come in the ordinary way, from the waving fields of grain that are as beautiful when they are yellow and ready for the harvest as they are when they are rich with the fresh green of spring.

It is far more enjoyable to get our bread that way than it would be if it were manufactured ready to hand all the time. If it were not so, God would have done it the other way, but He has done everything the best way.

It was grand to have bread rained down every day from heaven; but that came only because the people were in the desert. Wouldn’t you rather dwell in a fertile country and have bread grow than to live in a desert and have it rained down ready made?

We can see another reason why God has not given us the bread and the wine and all things that we need, ready made direct from His hand, and that is, that we may have the privilege of co-operating with Him in His work, for our encouragement and education.

In the training of the vine, the tilling of the soil, the sowing of the seed, in the gathering of the grapes, and the reaping of the harvest, we are laborers together with God, seeing His works, that we may learn His ways. The bread of idleness is never sweet; and so God allows us to assist Him, partly in order that we may enjoy our food, as we should not if He always dropped it into our mouths.

Healing through Faith, part 2

December 1903

WE DEPEND upon the Lord for life, and the Lord teaches us to pray:

Matthew 6

11 Give us this day our daily bread,

12 And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.

We are to pray for our daily bread, and to realize that it comes from heaven. We have the record that on certain occasions bread came down ready made, as the manna and the giving of bread in the wilderness. Suppose we say:

“We are taught to pray for our daily bread, and therefore we will not use means; we will pray, and expect the Lord to feed us right out of His hand with bread already made. If we expect bread in any other way, it shows lack of faith.”

I can understand why people think that it does; it is because they leave God out of all the operations of nature, and so they speak of God and nature as if they were two different things. They seem to think that God does some things, and nature some things; then the idea becomes prevalent that nature does more things than God does: and then at last nature does everything, and God is left without any occupation at all.

But all those miracles, as we have seen, are to show us that God works in the visible creation; not that nature is God, but that what men call nature, or natural laws, is the working of God.

You are all familiar, at least by title, with Drummond’s book, Natural Law in the Spiritual World. He simply had the thing turned upside down. Natural law does not work in the spiritual world, but spiritual law works in the natural world; and all the law that is manifest in the natural world is spiritual law. These things show us God.

People think that God does not have anything or at most very little to do with providing us with our daily bread. When they have plowed the field, and taken the grain and cast it into the earth, and then have harvested the grain, and threshed it, and ground it into flour and made it into bread they think that they have done it all. But they have really done very little.

The birds do not plow nor sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet our Heavenly Father feeds them; and we are much better than they; therefore we are to expect that in far greater measure the Lord will feed us.

What shall we do, then? Sit with open mouths and wait for the bread to drop in? Oh, no. The birds are not fed that way, except when they are too young to fly, too feeble to walk; and then it is only by their own parents. But as soon as they get old enough to move for themselves, they have to do just what their parents did,—fly about and gather what the Lord has scattered for them.

Now that is all that man does. Man does not do anything more toward getting a living than the birds do. He gathers—reaps what the Lord has strewn. The grain is strewn about, and man gathers it and eats it; but God does all the providing of it; and man is just as directly fed from heaven, from the hand of God, as the birds are.

Psalm 104

28 What You give them, they gather,

And that is all we can do. God has given us food as the means of perpetuating our life, in order that we may see and trust Him. If the life of all men were continued and renewed day by day without any of these means, without our eating bread and drinking water, men would say that they were self-existent. They would think:

“We are not dependent upon anybody for life; we are our own masters, and life is inherent in us.”

And there would be no means by which you could convince them it is not so. There would be no means of showing them God’s rightful claim upon their obedience. They would say:

“I do not owe Him anything. I do not receive anything from Him. This life proceeds from myself.”

Why, people say this to a large extent anyhow; they act as if that were the case, when it is patent to every one of us that it is not so. How much more so would it be the case if there were no invisible means for the maintenance of our life?

The prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” uttered in faith, is not at all inconsistent with going out and plowing the fields, and sowing the seed, in reaping the harvest, and threshing the grain, and making it into bread. He that prays that prayer in faith, recognizing that it is God who gives him the power even to do that work, will see himself working together with God. The farmer, whether he knows it or not, is a worker together with God.

Hebrews 10

38 Now the just shall live by faith.

“We live,” we say, “by eating.” True; and if we live in the right way, we eat only to live, the pleasure we get out of it being incidental. It is God’s will that we should get pleasure out of all the things that are right; but the object of eating is to get life, and thereby to recognize God as the giver of life.

Then the next logical thing, the only consistent thing, is that, recognizing God as the giver of life, we shall acknowledge that He is the only one who has the right to say how that life shall be used. And, stronger yet, that He is the only one that has the right to use the life.

So we shall acknowledge all the time that it is God that works in us both to will and to do, and the man who recognizes this all the time, and who is consistent with what he sees, will have all his ways right. Why? because he won’t use the life of the Lord, but he will let the life of the Lord use him. Our bodies are to be instruments of the life of the Lord. The Lord is to use our bodies as He will, and then everything that we do will be right; and thus the just live by faith.

Food as Medicine

What did the Lord give us in the beginning, and what does He still give as the means of healing, restoring us, as our bodies undergo waste; in short, what does God give to man, as his medicine?

Why, the food that we eat; it is man’s natural medicine, is it not? The food and the drink, the sunlight and the air,—they are medicine, medicine which God has put in our hands. God has designed that the food that we eat, should be the means of keeping us in life and health.

That being so, it is clear that when by some means or other, through our own fault or through the fault of somebody else, we have failed to allow that life to flow through us unhindered—have dammed up the stream—and there has come stagnation, congestion, disease, we are to be healed by coming to our senses, and recognizing that the life comes alone from God, and accepting His gifts which convey life to us,—coming into harmony with them.

The Lord does not pander to people’s laziness, and so He does not do the thing which He has given to man the power to do for himself. He did not roll away the stone from the grave of Lazarus. The people could do that as well as not. Why should they sit there with their hands folded, and allow the Lord to do that He had given them power to do?

Then Lazarus came forth, bound around the head with a napkin. You know as well as I do that the Lord could have brought Lazarus out of the grave with the napkin taken off and laid aside just as well as He could do what He did do. But He did not roll the stone neither did He take the napkin off. He said:

“Loose him, and let him go.”

They could do that by the power that He gave them: but there was a certain thing that they could not do. There was power above the measure of power they had received, and the Lord exercised that independently.

Jesus raised the ruler’s daughter. Then as soon as she had come to life He commanded that they should give her food. Why? In bringing her to life He had exercised the power and the life which was entirely beyond their comprehension or their power to co-operate with.

Then when He had come to the point where they had the means of life which God had put into their hands, He let them go on and use it. He brought the damsel back to life, but in that weakened condition that she was in before she died. Then having brought her to life, and healed the disease, He told them to give her something to eat, so that she could recover her strength.

He could have brought her to health, and made her perfectly strong, so that she would not have had any need for food—not for a while, at least—just as He could keep us alive without eating at all; but when He had brought her to that point, then it was a simple thing: Give her something to eat, and she will get her strength again.

All these things show that God works through means. In the greatest miracle, that of raising the dead, the Holy Spirit is the means by which the life is bestowed. The Lord has given life, and shown it everywhere. Now we are to see it, and find out the ways in which the Lord’s life manifests itself, and come into harmony with its workings, and we shall live,—and that is living by faith. And it is thus only that the Christian should live.

Healing through Faith, part 3

January 1904

HEALING power is only the same thing as living power intensified. It is seeing how God’s life is manifested, and bringing ourselves into right relation to it.

Just to illustrate: we know that we cannot live without sunlight; the sun is the great healing agency. The ordinary rays of the sun will of themselves alone heal many diseases; many persons if they were only brought out doors and given plenty of fresh air and sunlight, would be healed.

The ordinary rays of the sun will in a comparatively short time destroy any disease germ that lives. And we know that it is the life of the Lord swallowing disease; it is death swallowed up of life. But there are some conditions in which the life is so far gone that the ordinary degree of light will not cure.

Then what? We go to some institution where we will find the light concentrated. It takes more than the ordinary amount, so we gather up a vast number of rays and concentrate them upon the diseased part, and they do what the amount which ordinarily comes would be insufficient for. You see that it is simply the ordinary life intensified.

Now what is done in the healing of any disease? Why, when the vitality is lower than what we call normal,—although our lives are none of them normal,—it takes more of the gift of life to bring us up to the standard than it does ordinarily. It takes more life to bring us into a proper condition than it does to keep us there when we are going on well. It takes more power to start an object than it does to keep it going.

So when our vitality is low, the problem is simply this: to bring into operation for us, and to make us appropriate, a larger share of life than would have been needed if the vitality had not been lowered.

Here is a river; it has a regular flow but it meets an obstruction. Now what is needed? There must be an accumulation of force before that obstruction can be swept away. The ordinary flow of water will not sweep away that obstruction, for if it would, the obstruction would not be there at all, it never could have formed; but when that obstruction which dams up the stream is there, then there must be added force; and as the water continues coming down, by and by the amount accumulated is more than the obstruction can stand, and it is swept away, and there is the regular flow again. It is not any new flow of water, but a larger flow than usual.

Even so with life, the water of life, the stream that comes from God. It is sufficient to keep us in health; but when we have got out of harmony with it,—when we have transgressed, when we have put something athwart the stream, and dammed up its flow, then there must be an increased amount, to sweep it away.

That is the problem of healing; it is concentrated life. If we keep in a right condition, the ordinary light will keep our skin healthy. When we have tuberculosis of the skin, lupus, we must get more than the ordinary amount of light upon it, in order to bring the skin back to a normal condition.

Faith will accelerate that process very much, because faith means the seeing of things that are unseen. If a man has faith, he will conscientiously bring himself into harmony with the life that is manifested, and will use all the means which God has provided for the conveying of life. He will come into harmony with those means. And if he does that intelligently, through faith, he gets a great deal more than the man who does not recognize the life nor the means by which it is conveyed.

But a day comes very often when the measure of obstruction is greater than can be removed by the measure of life that is taken in through the ordinary means with which we are familiar.

Then we recognize the fact that God has more abundant life. We have come to the end of our ability to co-operate with God through the use of the ordinary means that He has provided for life. We have acknowledged God in all our way; but here is a case that baffles us. We do not know how God works to give life here. We have not learned His secrets any further than this, except that He gives the Spirit without measure, and “the Spirit is life” (Romans 8:10).

We have been able to co-operate with Him up to this point; but now we can no more. We do not claim that we have done work, we have only followed His orders, and we give Him thanks for the results day by day. Just as we pray for our daily bread, and then go and get it as He has provided for us, and thank Him for it, so we pray for healing of our disease, and then take the means that He has provided for health.

And when those means have proved efficacious we thank Him just as much for the healing as though nobody ever lifted a finger and we know and acknowledge that it comes from the Lord just as directly as though it had been instantaneous and invisible. That is healing by faith, although it is not what is described in James 5:14-15.

But now we come to a place when we cannot see how God works, but we know that He has the power, for He has all power in heaven and earth, and nothing is too hard for Him. So we ask Him in this case, that if it be His will we may receive the more abundant life,—that life which is so vast that exceeds all the life that is contained in all the things that are made,—and that He will simply let that life stream flow through us, and give us healing.

Now, we are doing in that case exactly—except in degree—what we were doing before, when we took the healing means,—not the death-dealing thing but the things which contain life. We are putting ourselves into harmony with the life.

That is, when we use the water, the air, the sunlight, food, and the exercise, we are putting ourselves in harmony with the stream of life as much as we know now. And now that there is a case that requires more concentrated life, and a larger measure of life than can be concentrated in any of these visible agencies, we do the same thing still,—we put ourselves absolutely into harmony with that life, and pray that the larger measure may fill us. We simply stand still now and see Him work by invisible means.

Now it seems to me that, clumsily expressed as this has been, it does really set before us the whole thing. It guards against the two extremes, of saying that:

God must do everything without our cooperation, without our losing the means that He provides; or

We do it all, and that He has no visible hand in the matter.

We recognize that God always does it all, but we are to learn His ways, and co-operate with Him, giving Him thanks all the time for every measure of healing of disease, even though it be a little wound which needs nothing but to be bound up.

In that case, what have we done? Nothing; we have simply let it alone, and let the Lord heal it. We bring the edges of the cut together, and then let it alone, and let God heal it by His life, and we have faith in Him, that He will do it.

A physician who does not really know God, does really exercise faith in God, although unintelligently, unconsciously; because he has that same confidence. He does nothing but bring the edges of the wound together and cover it up, and keep the germ-laden air away from it, and he has faith that it will be all right. He believes that there is a healing agency, but he does not know that it is God that is working. But that does not alter the fact that it is God who heals, though men are not always ready to recognize it.

Faith is not inconsistent with law. There would not be any faith, if there were no law. If everything were haphazard, sometimes one way, and sometimes another way, and sometimes not at all, who could have any faith? Who could depend upon God if He moved erratically?

In order that we may depend upon God, it must be that…

James 1

17 ...with Him there is no variableness neither shadow of turning.

So we can depend upon Him in faith. Why? Because there is a universal, an unchangeable law. Some people say, that there is no use of prayer, because everything is done by a fixed law. But the only thing that makes prayer of any value is the fact that we know what to depend upon. We know that we shall find God faithful every time that we depend upon Him, and that He will do the thing that He has promised to do, for upon His doing so depends His character as God.

Eat That Which Is Good

February 1904

ONE need not be very old to remember the time when the term “Health Reform” was more common among Seventh-day Adventists than almost any other. It was rare to find a member of the denomination who was not professedly a “health reformer.” Unfortunately, yet most naturally, there has been a reaction to a certain extent, and the matter of health and healthful living receives much less attention than it did twenty-five or thirty years ago.

The reason for this lessened interest in the subject of healthful living is no doubt to be found in the fact that with very many in former times zeal was not according to knowledge, and the results of their change of habits were not encouraging. The idea largely obtained was that health reform consisted in deprivation, and the consequence was often poorer health than when the old manner of life was followed.

Yet many faithful souls conscientiously persevered in the course which they believed to be right, regardless of consequences. Their purpose was that of the good brother who said:

“I am going to stick to health reform, and live it out if it kills me.”

They were the material out of which martyrs are made; and the nobility of their self-sacrifice was not lessened by ignorance of the truth that true health reform does not kill, but, on the contrary, gives fuller life.

If, with more correct ideas as to what constitutes health reform, the younger generation had the determination that the older one had, Seventh-day Adventists might be, as a body, the strongest people on earth, and be for signs and wonders in the world.

We have now learned that there is no virtue in self-torture, and that health does not come by keeping the body in a state of constant deprivation, longing for something which it is persistently denied.

It is now recognized that God gave us taste for a purpose, and that an inferior food which one relishes will do the system more good than a much better food which seems insipid.

Rigid scientific experiments have shown that the increased flow of saliva which comes at the sight or smell or even the thought of a favorite food is accompanied by a corresponding flow of gastric juice. That is, when “the mouth waters” in anticipation of savory food, it is an indication that the stomach is preparing to care for it promptly; while if food be not appetizing, digestion and assimilation are but indifferently performed.

With the knowledge that the satisfying of the appetite is absolutely essential to good digestion, there is danger of making the mistake of allowing the appetite full sway, and not giving reason its rightful place. Appetite, like conscience, is a good guide only when well instructed and trained.

No greater mistake could be made than to suppose that nothing is either essentially good or bad in itself; and that everything depends on the individual likes and dislikes.

It is indeed true, as before stated, that a poor food that is keenly relished, may do a person more good than a good food that is not desired; but how much more good might result if the keen appetite and the perfect food were combined.

The sum of health reform, as far as diet is concerned, is in finding out what kinds of food are best, and then training the appetite to choose and delight in only that which is good.

The fact that a person likes a thing or dislikes another is in itself no proof that the one is best for him, and the other to be rejected. Many men like tobacco and alcoholic liquor, and do not like fruit; but that does not prove that alcohol is nourishing, or that the Creator made a mistake in making man’s diet consist largely of fruits.

God has specified the class of substances which are the best food for mankind, and in that class there is such a wonderful variety that every person’s appetite under every varying condition may be fully gratified and satisfied. Outside of that limit a wise person will not desire to go; and if, through some abnormality, his appetite craves something else he will as speedily as possible educate it to delight only in that which is really good.

Milton’s lines tell the exact truth:

None but such as are good men can give good things,
And that which is not good is not delicious
To a well-governed and wise appetite.

God is good, and He gives only good things; and the well-governed and wise appetite will not find anything good which God has not prescribed. How often we read the words:

Psalm 103

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits;

5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 36

7 How excellent is Your lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.

8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Your house; and You shall make them drink of the river of Your pleasures.

This shows that those who learn from the Lord to be satisfied with good things, constantly experience exquisite keenness of delight to which all others are strangers.

The children of Israel in the wilderness were given bread from heaven. It was certainly a perfect food, and coming from God it must have been good in every sense, pleasant to both sight and taste. Yet most of them became disgusted with it and loathed it. Not relishing it, they undoubtedly found difficulty in digesting it, as they longed for the diet of their captivity.

So God gave them their heart’s desire, but with it, as the natural and inevitable accompaniment, He sent leanness, or literally rendered, consumption, into their souls.

1 Corinthians 10

6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

They fell in the wilderness, and we ought to learn the lesson that the food which God has not specifically appointed for us, cannot build us up in the long run, even though our perverted appetites may cause us to be temporarily benefited.

None of God’s provisions are arbitrary. He who made us knows our frame; and the food which He appointed in the beginning is the only food that is perfectly adapted to the human constitution. Wisdom says:

Proverbs 8

36 He that sins against Me wrongs his own soul; all they that hate Me love death.

And the result has always demonstrated the truth of the words. The oft-repeated question:

“Will this hurt me if I eat it?”

Or the statement:

“You can eat this with impunity,”

...indicate how utterly wrong is the popular attitude with regard to diet. People are content if only they do not suffer on account of their food, not knowing that they ought to experience the keenest pleasure from it, not only while eating, but much more from its effects.

It is not enough that food be negative; that is, that it does not cause us appreciable pain. It must have a positive effect for good. That which does not help to build up a perfectly healthy body does injury.

The sum of the matter is that we should learn of God, dwell with Him, and eat only at His table. If we do, we shall not only be merely contented, but “abundantly satisfied” with the good things that He provides, and shall loathe that which is not best for us.

The True Priesthood

August 1904

Outline of sermon before graduating class. A.M.M. College. June 19, 1904

Malachi 2

7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

THERE has never been a people or a nation that did not have a priesthood; and there has never been any nation that has not at some period of its existence been priest-ridden. If it has not been at the beginning or during the whole of the period, then certainly at the close; and that fact was the cause of its downfall.

This is not to say that a priesthood is a perversion of right—that it is not in the order of God that there should be priesthood; but it is to say that this world has never yet seen the perfection of the priesthood. No people has yet been willing to accept God’s perfect plan of a priesthood.

When the children of Israel were led by God out of Egypt, they received from Him a priesthood; but what they received from God was not what He proposed to give them. Israel as a people never rose to the measure of God’s plan for them; and no other people ever have. The Jewish people came at last to “overpass the deeds of the heathen” (Jeremiah 5:28) through their failure to comprehend and accept God’s plan for them as to the priesthood.

As in every other nation, the priests regarded themselves as a class apart from the people, as the ruling class—the power behind the throne. It was indeed God’s purpose that the priests should not only be behind the throne, but upon the throne, but not as a class apart from the people. God would have had His people a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6), and this is still His purpose (1 Peter 2:9). This is what God is still waiting for.

The fact that there has always been a priestly class ruling over the people, has been the fault of the people themselves. God said:

Jeremiah 5

30 A wonderful and a horrible thing is committed in the land;

31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so.

There has never been a tyranny, a dominant priesthood, a papacy, that was not primarily the fault of the people. Why? Because the people willingly renounced their privileges, and a few men seized upon them; and when any man grasps power or privilege that does not belong to him, he inevitably perverts and misuses both that and his own proper privilege.

If the people had all been willing to occupy the high position that God wanted them to occupy, and had been willing to pay the price for it, in self-denial and devotion to God, it would have been utterly impossible for the priesthood to degenerate into a class existing for the purpose of ruling over the people and being supported by them; for all would have been priests, living to give, and ruling by love.

Christ, our great High Priest, is the model for the priesthood. His priesthood is that of Melchizedek. He is king and priest—king because priest, and priest because king. The two offices are properly inseparable.

But God gives us the shepherd as His model of royalty. Jehovah, the King of the universe, is a Shepherd (Psalm 23:1); and the two greatest rulers that Israel ever had—the men specially chosen by God himself, and who most perfectly met His idea—Moses and David—were shepherds. Christ, “that great Shepherd of the sheep” (Hebrews 13:20), came forth from Bethlehem, the home of shepherds, to rule, that is, to feed, God’s people. Matthew 2:6, and margin.

We have referred to Melchizedek as the model. He was King of Righteousness and Prince of Peace, and therefore priest of the Most High God. That is all we know of him. In every nation the priesthood has been hereditary; but who can reckon his descent from Melchizedek? Everybody can. Nobody can dispute any person’s claim that he is descended from Melchizedek. He stands out as the representative of an individual priesthood. His nationality and descent are hidden, to show that he stands for every man of every age and nation.

This is suggestive of the truth that every individual of right ought to be a veritable son of God, and of the truth revealed in in the following verses, that every son is priest:

Hebrews 5

5 Christ glorified not himself to be made high priest; but He that said unto Him, You are my Son, today have I begotten you.

6 As He said also in another place, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

Christ is a priest because a son; and...

John 1

12 ...as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God,

...and therefore priests.

But every priest taken from among men is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices; and here again we find the model in Christ. He offered himself; and He is come in the flesh, in order that we also may present our bodies “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Romans 12:1)—spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

But no man takes to himself the honor and power. Whosoever will take power, loses it, even as he who seeks to save his life loses it. God gives us life including all gifts, in order that we in turn may give it. Whoever has had his eyes opened, is sent to open other blind eyes; and if the eyes that he opens can see better than he can, he is to rejoice at the success of his work.

“He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30), is the law of God’s kingdom. God often uses a very humble instrument to accomplish a great end. A small match may start a great blaze: the match goes out, and nobody thinks of it; and yet but for its momentary gleam the brilliant light would have been darkness.

Whenever God gives a thing to one person, it is that this one may help somebody else to the same possession, or that somebody else may use him as a stepping stone to something higher.

So, whenever God ordains a priest, it is that others may learn of him, and through him attain to knowledge even greater than his. The priest-king is not set over others, but above them, that he may lift them up to his level, and help them to go even higher, if God has given them ability.

There is one feature which seems to me most important, and which is especially pertinent today to those to whom this day means more than any other day has ever meant. The priests of Israel were physicians by God’s own appointment. The priests were the sanitary inspectors, the teachers of hygiene, and the ones to whom pertained the treatment of disease.

What was this but an indication that God’s design is that everyone should be his own physician, and should understand how to preserve his own health? Christ on earth was the greatest physician the world ever saw; and His words are medicine today as they were of old.

Psalm 107

20 He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Proverbs 4

20 My son, attend to my words; incline your ear unto my sayings.

21 Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart.

22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

Christ made men whole, and to be whole is to have no defect. If the gospel stopped short with making men simply good, no matter how good, and did not include making them physically whole, it would be a total failure; for men would sink into the grave and that would be the end of them. The Gospel must necessarily embrace as its culmination, the making of man “every whit whole” (John 7:23)—giving him complete victory over death.

Therefore, the true messenger of the Lord of hosts—the true priest—has it as a part of his business to teach men not only how to live in this world, but how to live so that they may keep on living forever.

You are here today a representative of the one school whose sole object in view is the training of the perfect priesthood—to send forth a class that shall do away with the idea of class, break the bands of ignorance, superstition, and tyranny, and establish the idea of sanctified, glorified humanity.

You are to give to others what you have received, not merely that they may be personally benefited, but that they, each according to his capacity or receiving, may minister the same to others.

And now one question arises. It comes whenever we start any work: “What shall we get?” The answer is:

Get leave to work

In this world—‘tis the best you’ll get at all;

Get work! get work!

Be sure ‘tis better than what you work to get.

This is only the echo of the Scripture statement:

Proverbs 14

23 In all labor there is profit.

Those who have really worked, who have recognized their calling as workers together with God, have appreciated the fact that labor is its own reward. The man who measures his work by a money standard, has a very poor idea of its value, and of himself. Because labor is life, the man who truly works gives his own life; and life cannot be valued with money. We hear of how much a man is worth; but the worth of a man is not what he gets, but what he gives.

We read in Exodus of the consecration of the priests. You can verify for yourselves the statement that the Hebrew of that word “consecrate” is to “fill the hand.” The priest was consecrated to his work: his hand was filled, that he might impart. The true priest’s hands are filled by God, whose hands are filled with good,—with light and life.

So to you there is no higher word than this:

Isaiah 60

1 Arise, shine, for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.

And though darkness, because of the perversion of divine truth, may cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, yet upon you, that you may be the light of the world, and that the people who sit in darkness may see a great light, even as of old they saw it when Christ ministered life and healing,—upon you the Lord shall arise, and the glory of God, the light of life, shall be seen on you; and people shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.

May God speed the good work!

Back to Nature

December 1904

THIS very common phrase is much misunderstood and misapplied, both by those who advocate it, and by those who disparage it. This is unfortunate; for the term ought to be in good repute, and the thing which it really means ought to be the object of all men.

There is no doubt that the objection to the term has arisen from the fact that the users of it quite frequently, if not always, refer to the habits of the lower orders of creation as models for men in their efforts to get “back to nature.”

Whether or not the first users of the phrase had this idea in mind, cannot be stated; but the fact is that it is now quite generally regarded in that light; at any rate those who discredit it do so on the ground that it means that we ought to copy the habits of beasts.

The propriety or impropriety of the term can be settled only by considering that “nature” rightly means when applied to man. Man was not created a beast, however near or even below that level many have fallen; and therefore man’s true nature is entirely different from that of the beasts. “Primitive man” was not a prowling savage, closely allied to the beasts in everything except form; and a return to nature cannot therefore mean a descent, but must, on the contrary, mean an ascent.

The last verse of the third chapter of Luke tells us that the first man, whose name was man,—Adam,—was the son God. Hence it follows that man is properly a partaker of the Divine nature, and that the more nearly he approaches the Divine, the more nearly does he get “back to nature.” Man has fallen from his original high estate, and a return to or regaining of his true nature must necessarily be his elevation. What that high position is no one can have any adequate conception of, except in proportion as one approaches it.

The key note of this perfect nature is simplicity, “the simplicity that is in Christ,—for we become the “perfect man” only when we attain to “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” This simplicity which is the measure of perfection, cannot be attained by the fallen sons of Adam in a moment; but we ought constantly to be approaching it in everything that goes to make up the sum of life.

For instance, some recall the fact that man in the beginning wore no clothes, that is, no tailor-made clothes, and they think to end all talk about returning to nature by saying that to be consistent the advocates of it ought to divest themselves of clothing.

Now there is not the slightest doubt that those who do eventually get fully back to nature, that is, those who “go on to perfection,” will be clothed only with light; but it is a most grievous error to suppose that they will then be naked. They will, on the contrary, be clothed far more completely and perfectly than it is possible to be at the present time.

Man never was naked, in the sense that one now divested of clothing would be nude; his primitive clothing of innocence and light constituted the most perfect covering. When man by sin lost this Divine dress (see Psalm 104:3), God Himself provided other clothing, suited to his circumstances. A return to nature means an approach to that state when God Himself can restore our proper clothing. So much for the objection in the matter of clothing.

There are other lines, however, in which man may and should very quickly come close to the original standard, and one of the chief of these is in the matter of diet. No doubt someone will at once object that the same argument applies here as in the case of clothing,—that God Himself, after the fall, gave man permission to eat all sorts of things.

It should be remembered that the inferior clothing that followed the fall was a matter of necessity; it was either that or no clothing at all, and God gave it to him. But it was not so with food. Here the original diet was available, and subsequent statements concerning food were only concessions to man’s degenerate habits, with the view of restraining their evil tendency as much as possible.

It has never been necessary, except in rare instances, for man to eat flesh. Fruits, including all seeds and grains, that contain the surplus life of plants, have always been within man’s reach, and they are man’s natural diet, a return to which would go far toward giving him the strength of the primitive man.

It is true that we may learn much from the beasts and the birds (Job 12:7); but the chief lesson that we are to learn from them is simplicity. They are fallen to a far less degree than man is; they retain more nearly the life which God designed for them than man does. What we are to learn from them is not so much their habits as it is such simple acceptance of God’s plan for us as will produce correct habits in us as men; and this is a course of study that cannot be overdone.

If everyone would make it the business of his life, so far as relates to himself, to eat, drink, breathe, exercise, sleep, and work only in a way to satisfy the actual needs of the body, and to build it up, there would be such a reformation as has never been seen, and which is absolutely necessary to a perfect moral and spiritual reformation.

Saving, Not Stoning, Sinners

January 1905

John 8

7 He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.

THESE well-known but little-heeded words of Christ, the model Medical Missionary, are of great importance to every missionary. The missionary necessarily comes in contact with people who, in a marked manner, have departed from the narrow way; and the medical missionary, especially, has to do with those persons whose wrong-doing has made itself apparent by its effect on their bodies.

Now the constant danger is, that seeing and handling those who seem to be sinners above others, we may become critical and Pharisaical, and thereby unfit ourselves for the work which we may have spent years in training to do. The effect of this counsel from our Saviour is, if heeded, to make us very considerate of those whose sins constitute their strongest plea for help from us, because it reminds us that we are all sharers in one common, fallen humanity.

“But I do not do the things that I condemn,” we are very likely to say. Perhaps not: but the question is, Do we indulge in some other sin, which doesn’t seem so bad to us, because it is our own? If so, then we are most certainly out of place in casting stones at our neighbor, and will find that sooner or later they will rebound and strike us.

Matthew 7

1 Judge not, that you be not judged;

2 For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again.

While a specific sin was under consideration when the Saviour spoke the words of our text, He did not say:

“Let him that has not committed this sin cast the first stone,”

but rather:

“He that is without sin.”

There was no specification as to the kind. Anybody who has sin is disqualified for sitting in judgment upon any other sinner. All sin is one, and he who condemns another condemns himself.

James 2

11 For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you are become a transgressor of the law.

In our narrowness of view we often make differences where there are none. The drunkard has long been held up to the public gaze for pity and condemnation and the sin of drunkenness is by no means to be minimized, for we are assured that no drunkard has inheritance in the kingdom of God.

But it is well to note wherein lies the essential evil of drunkenness. Is it not in this, that the drunkard is the slave of his appetite? Many do not consent in their minds to be drunkards, and would gladly be free, and determine to break the bonds; but when they pass a saloon or get the smell of liquor, or feel a desperate craving, their resolution breaks down, and they indulge again, “just this once.”

The trouble is with the will. Now wherein is the difference between the victim of alcoholic liquor and the one who indulges his appetite for anything else against his better judgment? Both are slaves to appetite; only there is this difference,—that the slaves to alcohol are usually more unwilling slaves than are those who eat to gratify a perverted appetite, and not the legitimate, real demands of the body.

This is only one point; there are many others where we can make a similar application; and the effect of the Saviour’s words, if kept in mind, is to make us more charitable to our neighbors and more strenuous with ourselves. Well for us and for the world is it that while our sinful nature makes it impossible for us to judge others, it does not prevent us from working for their salvation. The work of the Gospel has been committed to sinners, so much so that even He “who knew no sin” had to be made sin for us, in order that He might save us from sin. We are best able to help others while conscious of our own failings, and while struggling, in God’s strength, against them.

One thing should not be forgotten, and that is, that even if we get so Pharisaical as honestly to believe that we are not as other men are, we have no divine warrant for judging, for Christ, the sinless One, did not cast stones. He said:

John 12

47 I came not to condemn the world, but to save the world.

The two things cannot possibly go together. So then:

1 Corinthians 16

14 Let all your things be done with charity.

A Lesson for All Workers

March 1905

Colossians 3

17 And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,

23 And...do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men;

24 Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

THESE words were addressed by the apostle especially to servants who have “masters according to the flesh;” but it is self-evident that the same truth applies, in a pre-eminent degree, to all who are engaged in any part of what is technically called missionary work.

Rightly looked at, all true and lawful work is one, whether it be sweeping floors, washing dishes, sawing wood, digging ditches, ministering to the needs of the afflicted, or preaching to sinners. To every one a work is given, according to his ability, and whoever knows that he is doing the work belonging to him, knows that he is serving the Lord Christ, even though he ranks but as the servant of another man like himself.

It is this knowledge that, as Herbert says, “makes drudgery divine.” Only the recognition of this truth can make one truly contented and faithful in the humblest position.

The history of Joseph is one of the most perfect illustrations of the working of this principle, that all work is the Lord’s work, and is to be done heartily, as to Him. If all children had been thoroughly instructed in the story of Joseph,—not merely as a story, but in such a way that the lesson of his life was appreciated, and absorbed into the learner’s life:

There could never be such a thing as a strike;

We should never hear such an expression as, “I am not paid for doing that work, and I shall not do it.”

No one would question whether or not a certain thing was “in his line,” or whether it belonged to somebody else, and

Nobody would regulate his work according to the amount of money received for it, doing inferior work if little or no money were offered.

Let us take a brief view of Joseph as a servant, noting the principle on which he worked. When a lad of only seventeen years he was rudely torn from home, where he had never known want, and had been tenderly shielded, and was sold to a distant country as a slave.

Most people who have read the story of Joseph in Egypt, think of him only as steward in the household of Potiphar, and later, after a little experience in prison, as chief warder, and then the head of Egypt; but that is a most superficial view.

Joseph did not at once become the trusted head of Potiphar’s house. It was not until “his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand,” that “he made him overseer over all his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.” Genesis 39:3-4.

A young Hebrew slave, becoming the property of an Egyptian lord, where he was only one of hundreds of bond-servants, would naturally be set at first to menial tasks, to the first work that came to hand. He would be a servant of servants, receiving his orders from some other slave who had been longer in the service.

Homeless and friendless, Joseph was but a very small item in a great establishment. To all human appearance there was no prospect but that his life would be spent in obscurity—lost to sight among a crowd of slaves; but that could not be; “for God was with him.”

We cannot properly appreciate Joseph’s character, and the principle on which he worked, without first forming a mental picture of the average person in the same situation. It is not difficult to do this, for we all have the materials before us, and are familiar with the thoughts and language of the average laborer. It would be something like this:

The young man considers that he has been ill treated, and that the one who has bought him has no just claim to his services, and his first thought is that he will run away as soon as he can get a chance.

Meanwhile, however, he is compelled to work; but as he receives no wages, he will do no more than he is obliged to. He will shirk every task that he can, taking care only to escape beating for his dilatoriness.

His relation to his master is wholly one of antagonism: the master wants to get as much work out of him as possible, and he studies only to see how little he can do.

From what we know of the disposition of many people who work for wages, we can recognize this as a perfectly natural sketch of one sold as a slave. And there are not many who would condemn a young man for not exerting himself when he could hope for nothing.

But Joseph knew that “in all labor there is profit.” Proverbs 14:23. He knew that a man is not to work for a living, but to work because God has given him a living, making him a living being. He knew that in slighting a task he injured himself far more than he could injure the master; and, moreover, he had no desire to injure his master, for he knew that every ill turn to man is against God.

So whatever his hand found to do he did with his might; and he did it as soon as his hand found the task, without waiting to be told to do it. Indeed, his hand was hunting for work, for he knew that only by work could he develop to God’s standard and for him.

Thus Joseph let his light shine. God was with him, and God is light, and light that shines in darkness cannot be hid; and in process of time Potiphar’s attention was arrested by the sight of the young slave who worked as if he himself were to receive all the profit from his work.

Genesis 39

4 And Joseph found grace in his sight.

6 And he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand; and he knew not aught he had, save the bread which which he did eat.

Joseph was now a master of servants but he was still a slave, subject to the caprice of his master, and suddenly he found himself in a dungeon, in a far worse plight than when he was sold into Egypt. Thrown into prison without trial, there was no time set for his release, and he had no earthly prospect but to remain there indefinitely.

But even here Joseph’s principles made him master of the situation. He was not responsible for the situation; but he recognized that his sole business was to work to the very best of his God-given ability, regardless the situation; and so he did, with the result that all know.

But it must not be supposed that immediately on his entrance into the prison Joseph found himself appointed governor of it. Far from it. He was there as a common criminal, a Hebrew slave who had offended his master, and he found no easy place awaiting him.

Psalm 105

18 [His] feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in iron.

As a prisoner he had his daily routine of work, but he was compelled to work with galling chains upon his limbs. Surely here, if anywhere, a man would be justified in neglecting his work and in doing so little of it as possible.

But Joseph’s relation to the Lord was so close that he always lost sight of his apparent taskmasters, and worked as the immediate servant of “Him who is invisible.” Hebrews 11:27. If no work had been given him, he would have found some; for having life, he must work, and work in such a way as to make the most of his life. So he worked until all the work of the prison was in his hands,

Genesis 39

22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.

With the rest of the story all are familiar; that which we have considered is what is necessary for our present lesson. Looking back upon the completed history, we can see that from the first day that Joseph was in Egypt he was preparing to be its ruler. It was to that end that God sent him there.

But we must remember that Joseph could not see all this. He could not see a single day ahead. But he could see the Lord always before him, and he worked on in obscurity, in fetters for a greater reward than any lordship of Egypt,—for no less a person than the Lord himself; for Joseph had God’s word to his great grandfather Abraham:

Genesis 15

1 I am your shield and your exceeding great reward.

This is what makes the story of Joseph seem so fitting for a missionary magazine; for we, as children of Abraham, have the same promise and prize set before us. With this in view, nothing is unimportant, nothing insignificant, nothing menial or “beneath our dignity.”

He Bore Our Sicknesses

April 1905

The question has recently been asked:

“What is meant by the statement that Christ took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses? How did He bear them?”

THE question might be answered by saying that it is enough for us to know the fact that He bore them, and that it does not become us to speculate as to the manner of it; but that would not be wholly satisfactory.

It is a fact that it does not become us to speculate. Speculation in the financial world is dangerous, but in the spiritual realm it is fatal. Nobody has any right to speculate to the slightest degree on anything mentioned in the Scriptures. The Word of God is far broader and deeper than man’s mind, and where that Word is sent, human speculation is worse than folly.

But, on the other hand, it is not speculation or presumption to search it to the very depths, and to the utmost bounds, everything that is revealed in the Scriptures. Not only so, but it is our duty to seek to know all that may be known, remembering:

That the Bible reveals many things that it does not state in categorical terms, which are discerned only by him who searches as for hidden treasures; and,

That when we have learned all that our minds can grasp, we are still infinitely below the fullness of the truth.

If the Bible told us nothing about how Christ bore our sicknesses, it would be enough for us to know the fact. But it does tell us something about it, and that in the very place where the fact is mentioned. Evidently, this was told in order that we might be the better able to avail ourselves of the benefits of what He has done for us; and the ignorance of many on this point of revelation is the reason why so few are delivered from the sicknesses which Christ bore.

Let us now read and see what it tells us:

Matthew 8

16 When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils; and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick;

17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.

This tells the story plainly. Christ healed the sick, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself...bore our sicknesses.” That is to say, the bearing of sickness by Christ is the healing of it.

But this does not clear away the difficulty from the mind of the questioner, for the thought at once arises:

“If Christ has borne our sicknesses, why do we suffer them?”

And this question, when asked reverently, is a very pertinent one. There can, of course, be no doubt that we who live today are included in the “our” of Matthew 8:17. We may read that verse, in Isaiah 53:4, whence it is quoted, with as much assurance as could Peter’s wife’s mother or any of the multitude who gathered about the house at set of sun. He bore our sicknesses; this we are to believe as a fact; but again the question comes:

“Then why am I suffering from sickness?”

It is well to ask this question; for it is very evident that Christ bore our sicknesses in order that we might be relieved of them; and if we are still bearing them, we ought to know the reason why; for since Christ has borne them, the fault must be wholly ours if we are oppressed by them.

Perhaps it will help us if we read the words directly from Isaiah, with a little of the context.

Isaiah 53

4 Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows [sicknesses]; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Lord has laid on Him the iniquity us all.

Here we learn that Christ has borne our sins as well as our sicknesses. Now if one asks:

“Why then am I dominated and oppressed by my sins?”

Our questioner would undoubtedly answer:

“You do not need to be; if you are mastered by sin, it is only because you do not recognize and accept the Son of God your Saviour from sin; you make His sufferings of no effect, so far as you are concerned, by clinging to your sins refusing or neglecting to allow Him to relieve you of your burden.”

This would be a proper answer, and it applies equally to the question concerning our sicknesses.

Just here particular notice should be taken of one point, namely, that it was not merely during the short life of Jesus of Nazareth in Judea and Galilee that He bore the sins and the sicknesses of the world. Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, Isaiah spoke of it as a thing then in the past:

“Surely He has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows;”

“He was wounded for our transgressions;”

“the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all;” and

“with His stripes we are healed.”

It is true that when on earth in the flesh Jesus bore in His flesh all the sin of humanity, and was tempted and oppressed by it, and, moreover, that:

Isaiah 52

14 His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.

So greatly did He suffer; yet that alone does not meet the case in full, for it could not apply to those who were sick and sinful before that time.

And now that we have before us all the difficulties of the case, we are prepared to appreciate the explanation which the Scriptures give. It is found in these truths: Christ was:

Revelation 13

8 ...slain from the foundation of the world.

His name is I AM, and He is…

Hebrews 13

8 ...the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

Hebrews 9

14 [He] through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God.

The life of Jesus in Judea and Galilee, with His sufferings, death, and resurrection, was but a drawing of the vail, that we might see what God has been doing for His creatures…

Micah 5

2 ...from of old, from the days of eternity.

Christ is the living Word that was in the beginning with God, and was God; the Word which created all things. And this Word, since it now upholds all things, must necessarily bear all the curse that is on the earth,—all the sin and all the suffering.

He bears our sins and our sicknesses, whether we know it and believe it or not,

Acts 17

28 For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.

But it is only as we recognize the presence of the indwelling Word (see Deuteronomy 30:11-14; Romans 10:6-10), and with all our hearts depend upon it, allowing it to control our lives, and to be our life, that we reap the benefits of Christ’s burden-bearing. Then we roll away our burden of sin and sickness upon the Lord, and He swallows it up in His boundless life.

The living Word has borne the sin and suffering of the world from the beginning. The Israelites of old made Him to serve with their sins, and wearied Him with their iniquities (Isaiah 43:24), and:

Isaiah 63

9 In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them and carried them all the days of old.

Yet many of them in anguish and in sin, because “they forgot God their Saviour” (Psalm 106:21), and denied that He was among them. Exodus 17:7. So, since there can no temptation happen to us, but such as is common to men, Christ has indeed borne our sins and our sicknesses. But we reap the personal benefit of His sufferings only when He dwells in our hearts by faith.

It is in the miracles of Jesus that we see every phase of truth illustrated.

John 20

31 But these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through His name.

The miracles of healing recorded in Matthew 8:16-17 have taught us something of the bearing of our sicknesses by Christ, and another well-known miracle will make it still plainer. The reader can turn to the account in Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:24-34; Luke 5:43-48, and we need only to state the case in brief.

There was a poor woman, whose life-blood was ebbing away, and was almost gone. She said to herself that if she could but touch the hem of Christ’s garment she should be healed, but she could with difficulty get near Him, because a great crowd of people was about Him, pushing and jostling Him in the eagerness of their curiosity.

At last she succeeded in touching His garment, and instantly she was made whole. Note that the disease was not simply stayed, so that she began to improve, but she was well immediately. Jesus at once asked who touched Him, and when those about Him replied in surprise that the multitude were pressing upon Him, He said:

“Somebody touched me; for I perceive that power is gone out from me.”

This sets the case before us very vividly. At the same moment that the woman’s faith made a living connection between herself and Jesus, she received new life, and He lost correspondingly. The power, the life, that went out from Jesus, went into the woman. She received of His fullness, and He in turn took upon himself her emptiness.

What she lacked was life, and that is what she received; but as her lack was supplied from the Lord, it is evident that her lack of life was transferred to Him. Thus He bore her sickness, and thus He will relieve us of ours, if we but touch Him as purposely as the woman did.

This was not an isolated instance. We read that when He was in the land of Gennesaret, they brought to Him all that were diseased in all that country…

Matthew 14

36 And besought Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment; and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.

Also on another occasion…

Luke 6

19 The whole multitude sought to touch Him; for there went virtue [power] out of Him, and healed them all.

So we know that whenever anybody received life from Him He suffered a corresponding loss. But lack of life is disease and death; and so He bore the diseases of all who were healed. As already stated, He bears them in any case, but it becomes effective to the sufferer only through the touch of faith.

How may we personally experience the relief from infirmity that justly belongs to us, since Christ bears it? How may we touch at least the hem of His garment, and thus open the channel of communication? We may do it only by having our eyes opened to see that the “eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested” in Palestine nineteen hundred years ago, is just as truly manifested today. God is not partial; He gives to us the same opportunities that He gave to the people of old. Christ says:

Matthew 28

20 Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

Now, as in the days of Isaiah, “the whole earth is full of His glory;” or, “His glory is the fullness of the whole earth.” (Isaiah 6:3.) But His glory is His robe of light (Psalm 104:2), and so we see that wherever we are, on the earth, on the sea, or even in the midst of the earth (Psalm 139:7-10), we are within reach of the hem of His garment and may touch it and be healed.

Glory and power are synonymous terms. Compare Romans 6:4 and Ephesians 1:19-20 the first of which tells us that Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and the second that it was by the power of God. Therefore, all the power—God’s everlasting power and divinity—that is manifest in all creation, the power that:

Breathes in the air

And shines in the light,

That streams from the hills,

And descends to the plain.

And sweetly distils

In the dew and the rain.

All this power is for our healing, if we have eyes to see, and faith to lay hold. Today, as of old:

The healing of the seamless dress

Is by our beds of pain:

We touch Him in life’s throng and press

And we are whole again.

But this touch must not be occasional and momentary, but continually, if we are to become perfectly whole. In our ways we must acknowledge Him. We must know that every motion, every heartbeat, is only by His divine power, which has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

Thus, as our vision becomes clearer, and our faith stronger, we shall realize that “the power which works in us” is sufficient to do for us “exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20.

New Light and New Sight

May 1905

John 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

4 In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.

9 That was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world.

1 John 1

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

3 That which we have seen and heard we declare unto you.

WE OFTEN hear people talk about “new light.” Some people are said to have, or claim to have, new light; and the question whether or not “new light” should be accepted is discussed with great earnestness by many.

But the truth which the scripture states, and which is so plain as to be really self-evident, is that there is not and cannot be any such thing as “new light.” All the light that there is, or ever can be, has been from the beginning. Christ, who is the Beginning, is the light of the world; and He is…

Hebrews 13

8 ...the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

1 John 1

5 God is light.

He is the source of all light in the universe, and He is…

Psalm 90

2 ...from everlasting to everlasting [the same].

But all men have not recognized the light. All have been blinded, and the light has been obscured. When a man’s eyes are opened, or “the vail that is spread over all nations” (Isaiah 25:7) is to some extent removed, then the light shines in, and it seems new to those who have been in darkness. To them it is indeed new, as all light must be, but it is in reality only “that which was from the beginning.” 1 John 1:1.

The so-called “X-rays” have been in the world since light first shone at the command of God, “Let there be light;” but it is only recently that they have been discovered by man.

In the Dark Ages the light was shining just as clearly as it is today but men were in dark dungeons where they could not see the light, or the light was covered up so that it could not shine forth. Luther, Wycliffe, and others tore away the covering, allowed the light to shine out, and those who loved light rejoiced in it.

The part of the gospel teacher is to take away the vail that is over the faces and hearts of men, and “to turn them from darkness to light.” Acts 26:18. He has nothing to do with the manufacture of light; he has only to point men to it, and to help the near-sighted and diseased to recognize it. And, on the other hand; the duty of all men with relation to light is summed up in the exhortation from the Source of light:

Revelation 3

18 Anoint your eyes with eyesalve, that you may see.

1 John 2

8 The darkness is past, and the true light now shines.

Therefore every one who has his eyes open must necessarily see the light. But light is infinite, since God is the light, and He is infinite. Men are finite, and can never, even in eternity, exhaust the fullness of God; they can never know the Almighty to perfection, so that there will be no more to be revealed. But ever and forever the perception and reception of light will only make possible still greater revelations.

And so the one who knows most of the light of life will be the one who both here and hereafter will acknowledge that there is yet much more to be revealed, much more to learn, and will continually rejoice in the things new to him, which the light that was from the days of eternity will make plain to him.

There is one case, however, in which it is allowable to look back. We may recall the years of the Most High, and talk of all His wondrous works. It is well to tell what God has done, for whatever He has done, is a prophecy of what He will do.

Recounting His glorious deeds, therefore, tends to progress, for, as the Father works, even so must all the sons do likewise. Looking backward upon what God has done is really the same as looking forward; for that to which we should continually be pressing is the beginning.

Such looking makes us see that we have done nothing, and thus excludes boasting, and impels us forward.

Looking Forward

June 1905

A RECENT number of the World’s Work contained a little incident concerning a prominent business man, now dead, which is very suggestive. The gentleman in question, Mr. Baldwin, besides being a successful businessman, was interested in many philanthropic enterprises, and at a meeting of the directors of one of them, charges of diminished efficiency were made, against the manager. One after another the directors charged mistakes and short-comings against him, until it came the turn of Mr. Baldwin to speak, who said:

“I have no direct charge against him, as the rest of you have. My reason for thinking with you that we ought to let him go is simply that he enjoys looking back over his past.”

When asked what he meant, he continued:

“He is an able man, and has done some excellent work; but the trouble with him is that he has become proud of what he has done. That is enough to show me that he has reached the end of his usefulness in this particular field.”

“Aren’t you passing sentence without evidence? Isn’t this a snap judgment?” asked one of the directors.

“Anything but a snap judgment,” said Mr. Baldwin. “I am judging by a rule that experience has taught me is correct. It is a rule that I have used for years in my business, and that has not once led me astray. It is this: Whenever I discover one of my men looking back with pride over his accomplishments, instead of keeping his eyes forward, that’s quite enough for me. I don’t wait for any positive offense. No matter how capable he may have been, put a cross against his name, and he goes out at the first opportunity. When a man gets to looking back on his record, his usefulness is past.”

There is a world of truth in these words, and they are worth serious consideration. When a man is continually telling about what great things some of his ancestors did, it is generally taken for granted that he himself has never done anything worth talking about; and when a man spends much time talking about what he himself has done, whether it be boastfully or merely in a reminiscent manner, that is equally good evidence that he has almost, if not quite, ceased to do such things. He either does not see anything more to do, or else he lacks the energy to do it.

The characteristic of youth is progress—looking ahead to new enterprises; new things to learn, new things to accomplish. A new world is continually opening up before him, and he sees new fields to explore, and feels eager to enter them.

So many worlds, so much to do;

So little done, such things to be.

When a man does not see infinitely more ahead of him, drawing him onward, than he can see behind him—when he is no longer so eagerly pressing on to that which is before that he has no thought of looking back,—that is a mark of senility, no matter what his age may be.

This is just as true in the spiritual world as in the world of business. Not only must a man receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child, but he must ever live as a little child. Two prominent features of childhood are wonder and growth. Every day the child sees something new, something to wonder at and examine; and thus his mind, as well as his body, is growing.

Now just this will characterize the inhabitants of the world to come. New wonders will continually greet their sight, not only in new things that come before them, but in those things with which they are most familiar; and so their minds will always be active and eager, like those of children.

If there should be one who ceased to look ahead with eager, youthful enthusiasm and wonder, and who fell into the habit of contemplating and talking about the great amount that he had learned and accomplished, that would show that the new earth had become old to him, and that he himself was falling into decay. This, of course, can never be in that world.

Neither ought it ever to be in this, world; for Christians are to live in this world as in the world to come, tasting its powers, and beholding the invisible things that are eternal. Each day, as he continues looking at the new world that the Spirit reveals to him, he becomes more conscious of the insignificance of his present attainments and achievements, and less inclined to talk about them.

And this holds as true of the church or any branch of it as a working body as it does of the single individual. As we learn more of “the work of God,” we are more conscious of its vastness; we see that it is a thing not of time merely, but of eternity; and as our sense of its immensity increases, we shall forget the things that are behind, in our eagerness to press onward to the things that are before.

This looking forward with the eager, wondering, mind of the child just introduced into a new world, has no small influence in keeping the body young and active. Witness the case of Moses, who continually saw wonders that were invisible to the multitude whose eyes were not opened. A young man at one hundred and twenty!

It is a sad confession of weakness when one says:

“I am too old to learn.”

It is true that the common tendency is for people to fall into certain grooves, and to become fixed in their habits of thought and speech and action; but it need not be so. A person is never too old to learn, if he takes the Lord Jesus for his teacher. There is no wrong habit of any kind whatever that such a one may not break; no line in which he may not make improvement.

Christ, the Eternal One, is ever the same, and His years do not fail. He is as young today as when He walked the streets of Nazareth; and when He dwells in the heart by faith, the man, even though he be fourscore years old, is transformed, and, being born again, he may learn as readily as any other child. Alas, how few ever realize fully what possibilities there are in a new creature in Christ.

If all Christians had from the beginning continued “little children” in the Lord, there never would have been any apostasy; the world itself would long since have become new. The failure to realize that the life and immortality that has been brought to light through the Gospel, means eternal youthful progress, is the reason why every reform that has hitherto begun in the church has soon come to a standstill.

The followers of the reformers, and even the reformers themselves, have become stereotyped. After running well for a season, they have turned around to see how far they have come, and that marked the end of progress. True, they have put forth more or less vigorous efforts to induce other people to make as much progress as they have made, and equally strong efforts to restrain them from going any farther.

This is not saying that those who have thus fallen into decay and contemplation of the past are lost; far from it; but they themselves have lost much that they might have had.

Workers Together with God

June 1905

1 Corinthians 3

9 We are laborers together with God; you are God’s husbandry, you are God’s building.

OF WHOM is this true? How many are included in this statement? Evidently only those who have yielded themselves to God as His servants. For while God’s will is surely being worked out, even by the haters of God, it is done in spite of them, and not with their will. They are constantly working against God; but He makes even the wrath of men to praise Him, and so that which was intended to be detrimental to His work in reality advances it:

2 Corinthians 13

8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

However, the good that God works with men’s efforts against Him is of course not their work: and only those who in their hearts desire God’s work to prosper can be called workers with Him.

The term, “the work of God,” is used so frequently, and it is so common to speak of this or that man as engaged in the Lord’s work, that we are in danger of losing sight of the greatness of that work, and in our minds reducing it to the measure of human ability.

When we stop to think, it must be very evident that God’s work must be only such as is worthy of the Creator and King of the universe. God is great, and does great things. His work must be worthy of himself; and that part of it which might be considered least is infinitely beyond the capacity of man.

It is of the highest importance that we keep constantly before us the thought of the greatness and the extent of God’s work, although no human mind can comprehend it. Otherwise our efforts will be misdirected and feeble, and we at the same time will be vainly imagining that our work is of great consequence, as being God’s work, when it is in reality nothing. We need the constant stimulus and inspiration of the thought of the infinite greatness of the work in which God accepts us as partners, to keep us up to the highest point of efficiency.

Our idea of the greatness of God’s work will be enlarged if we consider its extent and its duration. Our ordinary thought is too narrow, and our range of vision too limited. We are too often content with looking only at the things that are visible, and of thus imagining that the work of God pertains to this earth alone. True, this earth is where we are, and it is where the work is so far as we are concerned in it: but the work here is but a small portion of God’s work, just as it is but a very small fragment of His universe.

God’s kingdom is boundless in extent, and His work in the whole of it is undivided: one plan and one purpose runs through it all. Each person who is a worker together with God may not see more than that small portion of the work that is assigned to him; but each one ought ever to remember that he has countless millions of associates in heaven and in the numberless worlds, all employed on the same task. “Angels and principalities and powers” are working to the same end that every child of God on this earth is working; and our part of the work must be so well done that there will be no lack of harmony, nothing unsightly, no blot, in the finished product.

Still further, God’s work is eternal in duration. Not only will that which God does endure forever, but He will forever be working. As He “works hitherto,” so will He continue to work throughout eternity. God can never be idle.

Hebrews 4

12 The Word of God is living and energetic,

and must always be in action. So when “this present evil world” shall have passed away, and the new earth “wherein dwells righteousness” shall have taken its place, the work of God will by no means be needed, and our partnership with Him in that work will not be dissolved. We sing

When the work is over,

And our labor ended,

...and:

Resting by and by,

...so much that we fall into the habit of thinking that when the Lord comes all our work will cease, and that we shall spend eternity in sitting and singing; and this idea is to the detriment of our work now, for just to the extent that we lose the sense of the magnitude and glory of our work shall we lose the inspiration that is necessary to spur us to the highest effort.

It is true that the work of God in this world at present is to save lost men, and it is in this that we are workers with Him: but we must not imagine that we shall be out of employment when this work is accomplished.

Perhaps a little illustration will help us to grasp the true idea. Here is a ship at sea. The machinery is not in motion, the sails are not filled, and it seems to be drifting aimlessly about. Looking around, we find the explanation. There has been an accident, and a lot of people are struggling in the water. The ship has stopped in its course, and will not go on until every soul that can be reached has been rescued. For the present, the ship with its entire crew has no other work than to rescue the perishing. But, when all have been brought on board will the sailors say:

“Now our task is accomplished, and we can spend all our time henceforth sitting on deck and singing.”

Not by any means. Rejoicing there will certainly be, but there will be no idleness. Now that the work of saving life has been completed, all hands will at once proceed to their regular places, and the ship will proceed on its course, in the work for which it was sent out.

The crew was sent out with the ship to carry passengers and freight to a distant port; when the accident occurred everything had to give place to the saving of life; but as soon as that was done, the real work was resumed.

So the attention of God and angels and men who serve God is now directed to the saving of the lost; but when that is done all will proceed with the great work of God, in which He has been engaged “from of old, from the days of eternity.” The sooner we finish the work of rescue and repair, the sooner can we be employed in the great work which, because of sin and death, has been temporarily interfered with so far as this world is concerned, but which is nevertheless being carried on. Who is sufficient for these things?

Psalm 18

32 It is God that girds me with strength, and makes my way perfect.

Only God has the wisdom and skill and strength to do the work of God: and our work is nothing, and less than nothing, except as it is wrought in God. From Him we are to learn what the work is, and how to do it. Jesus said:

John 5

30 I can of my own self do nothing.

Yet He also said:

John 4

34 My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.

John 5

19 The Son can do nothing of himself, but what He sees the Father do; for what things soever He does, these also does the Son likewise.

20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that Himself does.

These words apply to us as well as to Christ for God has bestowed such love upon us that we should be called sons of God, and such we are. As children of God in the house of the Father (See Hebrews 3:4-6) our business is to look at the work of God, to watch Him at work, that we may learn how to work together with Him. Jesus said:

John 14

12 He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

God was grieved with the generation of Israel that saw His works for forty years, and yet did not learn His ways. He had a right to expect something of them after forty years’ apprenticeship; but they were failures. Moses learned God’s ways (Psalm 103:7), but the greater part of Israel saw His acts without profiting by the lesson.

As is the workman, so is the work. If the worker be not fit­ted and trained to his work, his efforts, even if he attempts the task, will be useless. The reason why so much poor and purposeless work is done is that we, not realizing that all real work is really God’s work, do not realize what we ought to be in all respects in order to have a part in it. Body, soul, and spirit must be employed together.

The spirit may be willing, but if the weakness of the flesh is such that the will of the spirit cannot be performed, we are but cripples to be carried, instead of workers together with God. God accepts the willingness of the spirit, but is certainly better pleased when the body is also “ready to every good work.” Titus 3:1.

It is the Word of God alone that does the work, and we can do real, lasting work only as that Word, which is spirit and life, abides in us,—only as God’s will and God’s Spirit are our will and spirit—our life.

God’s work is done quietly, and only in quietness and confidence do we have strength. Great things are expected of us, but since with God nothing is impossible, so nothing is impossible to him that believes; and with the accomplishment of the greatest and most glorious work boasting is excluded, because that work can be done only by one whose sense of his own weakness and inability to do anything forces him to depend wholly on God.

And what is the reward of labor here? Increased ability, and the privilege of being trusted with more responsibility and a larger portion of work. And when will rest come? Just as soon as we are really and wholly engaged in God’s work; for that work is a perfect work, and perfect work gives perfect rest. This is the work of God, that we believe; and we who have believed do enter into rest, even the rest that has remained to the people of God since the foundation of the world.

Hebrews 4

11 Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest.

The natural creature labors, frets, and sweats.

But after Christ work turns to privilege,

And henceforth, one with our humanity,

The six-day Worker, working still in us,

Has called us freely to work on with Him,

In high companionship. So, happiest.

I count that heaven itself is only work

To a sure issue.

Preparation for Service

July 1905

THERE are many people who have been deterred from taking a new course by the thought that in view of the shortness of time they could not allow to take so much time from their work and spend it in preparing to work.

Within the past year the writer has talked with several who were strongly inclined five or ten years ago to take the medical missionary training, and who were influenced to decide against it by the consideration just mentioned. If they had followed their convictions they might now be occupying a large field of usefulness, whereas, although they are by no means idle, they labor continually under a sense of being hampered, and of regret at having missed an opportunity.

They would like to begin a course of study now, but are kept back by the same thought that held them back before. They feel as though such a course would be equivalent to saying,

“My Lord delays his coming.”

To those who are thus troubled we wish to address a few words.

The coming of the Lord is certainly nearer than it was five or ten years ago; but that fact should not hinder anybody from taking a medical course, who conscientiously feels that with such a training he could serve God better.

Why repeat the same mistake that you made before? You feel that each follower of Christ has something to do toward hastening His coming; is it reasonable to suppose that His coming will be hastened by your failure to make the preparation necessary to enable you to perform your part in that work?

To run without a message, or to engage in work without proper preparation for it, may indicate abundance of zeal, but the zeal is evidently not wisely directed. What would you think of soldiers so eager to engage in a battle that they rushed in without any weapons?

The great mistake lies in the seeming supposition that time spent in preparation for the work is in a sense wasted, and that it is just so much taken from the work. Many think that four or five years spent in preparation for possibly no more than a year of work is altogether out of proportion, and too much. But it is not too much, nor out of proportion, if that much time is needed to prepare for the work to which God has called you.

God has given “to every man his work;” the duty of every man is to find out what his own particular work is, and then to set about doing it, or to fitting himself for it, if he is not already fitted. With the length of time that you may work after you are fitted for the work, you have nothing to do.

No person has ever known that he would have a long life for usefulness, or even that he would live a day, after completing his training; but this has never deterred a wise person from attempting to get an education; and if one dies at the very beginning of his career, his previous work of preparation is not counted as wasted.

If one needs a training for work, all the effort put forth without that training is in a measure wasted. It should be remembered that time spent in faithful preparation for more efficient work is counted as put into the work. The farmer pays his man just as much for the time spent in grinding his ax or whetting his scythe as he does for chopping wood or mowing grass. Indeed, he would not count the man’s services as worth anything, and would soon discharge him, if he persisted in trying to chop or mow with a dull tool. Who knows how much the coming of the Lord has already been delayed by the misdirected zeal of those whose faculties have not been sharpened by proper training?

Note the time that Jesus spent in obscurity before entering upon what is commonly termed “His ministry.” At twelve years of age he had wisdom and understanding that caused the learned scribes to marvel, yet he spent eighteen years more in quiet preparation for only three years of public work. The salvation of the world was committed to Him, and at the age of twelve He was fully conscious of His mission and of the shortness of time yet He did not allow these considerations to hurry Him “into the work.” He was in the work all the time.

When He said to His mother. “Wist you not that I must be about my Father’s business?” and then immediately returned to His home in Nazareth, He did not neglect what He knew to be His life work. There was no waste of time. We are “saved by His life” at the carpenter’s bench or in the fields just as much as by His life of teaching and preaching and healing. John the Baptist also spent thirty years in training for only half a year’s work.

You have no doubt been told by those who speak from experience that there is abundant opportunity for one to do missionary work while pursuing his studies; and the faculty of the American Medical Missionary College are continually endeavoring to impress this truth upon the minds of the students.

But aside from this, no student who is doing faithful and wisely directed work in his studies need feel that he is neglecting the work of the Lord. If the Lord should come while he is in the midst of his medical course, he, as well as the qualified medical missionary, would hear from the lips of the Master, “Well done, you good and faithful servant.”

Has God Arbitrarily Limited Man’s Age?

August 1905

Psalm 90

10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

THESE words are quite generally regarded by readers of the Bible as teaching that the Creator has positively fixed seventy years as the limit of man’s age, with a penalty of labor and sorrow for those whose strength enables them to overstep the bonds by a few years.

The text is well known, and so firmly fixed in the popular mind is the idea that the age of man is limited by a divine decree just as surely as is the length of the year, that those who talk about living a hundred years or more are looked upon as hopelessly endeavoring to overturn the order of creation.

Now if the text in question does teach that God has fixed the length of human life, limiting it to seventy years, then it is evident that to attempt to extend the period of man’s life would be both foolish and wicked. But all the evidence goes to show that no such limit has been set.

We find, as a matter of fact, that very many do live much longer than seventy years, in the possession of health and strength, and that without any thought of transgressing divine decrees. If it be said that these are but exceptions, and that enough more die before seventy to bring the average down, it must be replied that by far the majority of mankind die long before seventy, and that at the present time the average age of the human race can scarcely be one-half that stated by the psalmist. How, then, shall we understand the text?

The answer is plain: Understand the text just as it reads. It simply states the fact that at the time it was written the average age of man was threescore and ten years. It does not say, nor does it intimate, that God ever fixed the limit of man’s age at seventy years. Indeed, evidence to the contrary is furnished by the writer of the psalm in question.

The psalm is “a prayer of Moses, the man of God,” who at the age of fourscore was just beginning his lifework, and whose “eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated,” at the age of six-score years. Caleb, one of the associates of Moses, successfully carried on difficult military enterprises, involving severe bodily exercise and exposure, at the age of eighty-five, and was as vigorous and athletic at that age as when he was forty. Moses was not writing his own experience, but was merely telling how it was with the majority of man.

When God called Israel out of Egypt by Moses, it was His design that their days should “be long upon the land” which he was giving them.

1 Corinthians 10

5 But with many of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

He gave them the bread of life and the water of life, and was justly disappointed and grieved when they died, many of them undoubtedly at what would now be called a “ripe old age,” since it was not the young who perished, but those who were adults when they left Egypt.

The record of so many who lived to be much more than a hundred years old, and the absence of any decree arbitrarily limiting man’s age, are proof that God has placed no obstacle in the way of man’s living, but the contrary.

It is not true that God endows each person at his birth with a certain “store of vitality,” varying in quantity in each case, and that when that store is used up the person must die. That would indeed be “respect of persons,” and contrary to God’s character.

God’s mercies, which preserve us from being consumed, “are new every morning.” Lamentations 3:22-23. For each day as it comes God gives the strength necessary for the day, and our length of life depends solely on our appropriation of these mercies.

His law is life, and all who walk in His law have the promise of life, both that which now is and that which is to come. 1 Timothy 4:8.

Why the Japanese Succeed

September 1905

ONE reason, which has been much exploited, is that they pay strict attention to personal hygiene, and that they live simply. That is no small factor in the success of the Japanese in whatever they undertake; but it is not the only one.

A study of the precepts which have been instilled into their minds by their teachers reveals the fact that, although nominally heathen, they have some practical Christianity of which so-called Christian nations are largely destitute. One notable feature is that they do not boast of their future either of what they intend to do, or of what they have done. Nothing is surer than that boasting is excluded from all really successful work, from all work that is thorough and lasting. Other things being equal, the boaster is far more likely to fail than is the man who silently goes about his task, or who takes hold of it even with fear and trembling.

A note found on the body of a Japanese lieutenant, addressed to “officer or officers of the staff who may survive,” contains some precepts that Christian workers would do well continually to bear in mind. Here are three paragraphs from it:

“After the war with China, according to my experience, soldiers became too boastful of their achievements. Be modest and retiring.

“Do not act too proudly, lest you should be disliked by the people.

“Man is not God, therefore some injustice may be done you. Do not fight for rewards.”

Here is another precept that was impressed upon the mind of Admiral Togo when he was a youth, and which goes far toward explaining the secret of his present greatness:

“Where you see faults, take the blame of them yourself: where there is merit, attribute it to others.”

This is but another form of the apostolic injunction:

Philippians 2

3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory: but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

The reputed heathen who lives by this rule will go into the kingdom of heaven before the professed Christian who is neglects it.

Tired of Life

September 1905

WE FREQUENTLY see or hear the expression, “tired of life,” and many people think that it indicates their condition; but the truth is, that nobody ever was or ever will be tired of life. That which causes weariness and disgust is lack of life.

Perfect life is perfect joy, even though tribulations may surround it. It is not to be wondered at that people become tired of the fractional, perverted, unreal lives that they live; but it is not real life that wearies.

God would have all men become disgusted with the partial life that they lead, in order that they may accept His fullness of life, which is able to lift its possessor above the griefs and troubles of this present evil world.

‘Tis life, of which our nerves are scant;

‘Tis life, not death, for which we pant;

More life, and fuller, that we want.

An Incentive to Thoroughness

September 1905

THOROUGHNESS of preparation is one great secret of success in every calling. The greater the responsibility, and the more there is depending on the work in hand, the more necessary it is that one make his preparations for it with conscientious care.

The following words, therefore, by Sir James Paget, late Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, in one of his addresses to students, ought to be kept in a conspicuous place by every nurse and medical student:

“We sometimes see the beam of life and death so nearly balanced that it turns this way or that, according to the skill that may be cast into the scale of life. And surely, if we could gather into thought all the issues that are involved in the life or death of any man. the anxiety of ignorance at such a time would be intolerable. All is permitted to depend upon the skill of one. Conceive that one yourself: what would be your remorse if, when in their confusion and distress they look to you, you felt helpless as themselves; your hand paralyzed by the fear of ignorance, your mind confused in that half-knowledge, whose glimmerings only show that more skill might save the dying man! Yet this must be the remorse of every one who will neglect the study of his profession, and yet dare to undertake its responsibilities.”

In addition to this, keep these words continually in mind:

Colossians 3

17 Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus…

23 ...[and] do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men,

And your mind can be at ease as to results.

My Life Work

September 1905

“How can I know what my life work is?”

So many are asking.

“How can I know that the work I am doing is that to which the Lord has called me?”

THERE need be no perplexity whatever over this matter. We know that the Lord has given “to every man his work” and we ought to know that He would not do that without giving every man definite instructions as to what his work is.

Here is the answer to the questions cited:

Ecclesiastes 9

10 Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.

That is, the work that is nearest at hand is your work—your lifework, if you please; for though your work may change with time, it will always be the work that lies close at hand.

No matter if it be work that is called inferior to that to which you have been accustomed; no matter if it is work that somebody else ought to do; never mind if there is no promise of pay attached to it;—if you are not engaged in other work, that is your work.

The most efficient workers in this world spend much time doing work that somebody else has neglected, and nobody is fit for the highest tasks unless he is willing to perform the lowest.

The most perfect master is he who knows best how to serve.

The Lord’s Prayer

September 1905

JESUS taught His followers to pray, “Our Father who is in heaven.” Much has been said on the term “Our Father,” as indicating our common brotherhood with our fellowmen; but that which it should above all impress on our minds is the fact that both Jesus and we have one Father.

“Our Father” is “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:31. When, therefore, we from the heart, in childlike trustfulness, look up to God and say:

Matthew 6

9 Our Father, who is in heaven…

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our trespasses.

We should remember that the fulfillment of our request is as certain to follow as if made by Jesus Christ in person. We have the same right in the Father’s house and at His table that Jesus has, and the same right to share in the inheritance.

If we are children of God, then we are heirs,

Romans 8

17 ...heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

Is Any Afflicted? Let Him Pray

October 1905

James 5

13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

THE second part of this portion of Scripture has been often quoted and acted upon by believers in prayer for the sick; and it is not proposed at present to dwell upon it any more than is necessary in order to bring the first part sharply into prominence: for it seems as if the attention of believers has been directed to the latter part almost to the overlooking of the first.

It is evident at a glance that two different conditions are here presented, and these conditions are respectively indicated by the words rendered “afflicted” and “sick.” It is also evident that the condition indicated by the word “sick” is more serious than that indicated by “afflicted.” In the first instance, the individual’s own prayer is sufficient: but in the second the case is so grave that the combined prayers of the elders of the church are needed, and anointing with oil is added.

Notice further that the promise in the case of prayer by the elders of the church with anointing is explicit and unequivocal. There is nothing conditional. That is, when the given conditions—prayer by the elders and anointing—are met, there is no doubt as to the result.

“The prayer of faith shall heal the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.”

There is no intimation in this case that the elders are to pray that the sick one may be raised up, if it be the Lord’s will, and are then to wait and see what He will do; the instruction and promise are positive: pray, and the Lord shall raise him up.

How is this? Are we to understand that there is ever a time when we are warranted in praying, regardless of the will of God? that we can ever, under any conditions, make a request in the shape of a demand to God, and expect that He will unconditionally yield to our ultimatum? Not by any means.

There is no ground for expecting an answer to any prayer that does not contain through it all, “Your will be done.” Matthew 6:10. God works all things after the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11), and His will must be done, and will be done, in spite of all opposition.

Our only ground of positive confidence in any prayer at any time is this:

1 John 5

14 If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us;

15 And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.

What, then, is the conclusion as to the case before us? Simply this, that when the elders are called for, and anointing takes place with the prayer, positive evidence has been received beforehand that it is the Lord’s will that the person prayed for should be raised up at that particular time.

Those praying having received the assurance that it is the Lord’s will to raise up this particular person at this particular time,—the individual himself having received the same personal assurance before sending for them,—all that they have to do is to make their request in harmony with the Lord’s plainly expressed will. Having the positive assurance that it is the Lord’s will to do a certain thing, it would be a manifestation of unbelief if they should say:

“Lord, if it be your will, let this be done.”

This is more apparent when we take into consideration the promise that is coupled with the promise of healing: Let us read them both together.

James 5

15 The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Suppose anybody, acknowledging that he has sinned, should pray:

“Lord, if it be your will, forgive my sins.”

Would it not be evident that he did not know the promise of God, or else did not fully believe it? The publican did not pray:

“Lord, if it be your will, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

If he had so prayed, he would not have gone down to his house justified. God is good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon Him.

There are to be no conditions in our prayer for the pardon of our sins; our sincere prayer itself is the only condition, because we have beforehand, each one individually, the positive assurance that it is God’s will that we should be saved from sin. Even so it is in the case referred to in James 5:14-15.

Just how any sick person may know positively what is the Lord’s will in his case, is not a matter for discussion. No one could tell another how he may know, and nobody who knows could tell anybody else how he knows. It is a personal matter between the individual himself and the Lord. But...

Luke 18

1 ...men ought always to pray.

Therefore:

James 5

13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray.

For what shall he pray? For relief, of course, and he should expect to get it, too; for surely we would not be told to pray, if nothing were to come of it.

Isaiah 45

19 I said not to the seed of Jacob, Seek me in vain.

It will be noticed that there has been no attempt in this article to distinguish between and to define the two different states indicated in James 5:13-15 by the terms “afflicted” and “sick.” All that is desired is that it shall be recognized that there are two different conditions, and that in any case prayer is to be made to God.

The relation of prayer to the healing of disease has been much misunderstood, even by many believers in the efficacy of prayer. Too often it is regarded as a last resort. How often words like these are heard:

“We have done everything, and tried every remedy that we know, and now there is nothing left to do but to pray.”

The idea seems to obtain that prayer is another remedy, to be used when all others fail; that the Lord is merely a consulting physician, to be called in only in an extremity, when the regular physician’s skill is exhausted. This is a great mistake.

God is the physician, and there is none besides Him that can heal. But God accepts whosoever will, as “workers together with Him” (2 Corinthians 6:1), and He imparts to the sons of men wisdom, and knowledge of His ways, according to their willingness and ability to receive.

Whenever any person is healed of any disease, it is because the Lord healed him; and whenever any nurse or physician, or any minister of any kind, is instrumental in the recovery of the sick, it is only because such ones have applied the Lord’s remedies, or have cooperated with God in the application of them.

When this is fully recognized, there will be no question as to the use of “means” for the restoration of the sick. Prayer for the sick does not necessitate the abandoning of personal effort for them, any more than prayer that God will “give us this day our daily bread;” means that we are to fold our hands and expect God to drop the food into our mouths.

It is God’s will that men in this world shall eat bread in the sweat of their face; but however hard they work, and however much they sweat, it is God alone who gives them their food, and to Him and Him alone are thanks due.

When God rained down bread from heaven for the Israelites, they had to gather it. He can feed us without any effort on our part, as in the case of Elijah in the wilderness; but His usual way is through the sowing of the seed and the cultivation and harvesting of it by man.

Our work, however, does not shut out prayer. Both are in harmony, and both, with the well-instructed person, indicate submission to the will of God. Even so should it be in the case of sickness.

This subject has recently come into especial prominence in medical circles. There have always been Christian physicians, who believed in prayer, and who, however blindly they have worked, have regarded themselves as only working under a Chief Physician, who alone had the power to heal: but probably never before the present year has prayer been mentioned in a medical society as a therapeutic agent.

That, however, has been done, and in no obscure corner. At the recent annual meeting of the British Medical Association, Dr. Theodore B. Hyslop, superintendent of Bethlehem Royal Hospital, who has a high reputation as a specialist in neurology, and in the treatment of mental disease, gave the following testimony to the therapeutic value of prayer:

“As an alienist, and one whose whole life has been concerned with the sufferings of the mind, I would state that of all hygienic measures to counteract disturbed sleep, depressed spirits, and all the miserable sequels of a disturbed mind, I would undoubtedly give the first place to the simple habit of prayer.

“Let there be but a habit of nightly connection, not as a mendicant or repeater of words more adapted to the tongue of a sage, but as a humble individual who submerges or asserts his individuality as an integral part of a greater whole. Such a habit does more to clean the spirit and strengthen the soul to overcome mere incidental emotionalism than any other therapeutic agent known to me.”

No doubt the doctor’s language, and probably his ideas, may be open to criticism; nevertheless, we have here a recognition by a scientist, in an assemblage of scientific men, of the fact that the principles of the gospel are in the highest sense scientific.

There is much “science falsely so-called;” but there is real science, nevertheless, and that science consists primarily in recognizing that “there is one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all,” and that “of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things.”

Dr. Hyslop speaks only of prayer in nervous and mental diseases, because that is his specialty; but what he says may be applied to all cases. The effect is not imaginary: it is real. We all know the comfort and help there is in mere human sympathy. The mother’s loving embrace and kiss have soothed the real pain of many a child.

Think, then, of what must be the effect upon one who is racked by physical pain, when his mind grasps the truth that “underneath are the everlasting arms” to soothe him, “as one whom his mother comforts:” when he knows of a surety that this One sympathizes with him to the full, because He actually suffers with him.

And when the sufferer can realize that God does not merely share his suffering, but that God bears it all, and that he himself only shares a portion of God’s sufferings, this knowledge can cause him so to sink out of himself and be swallowed up in God, that he will lose all consciousness of his own pain in the contemplation of the sufferings of His Saviour; and this relief may be not merely temporary, but permanent.

This has been the personal experience of many; and it is a cause for rejoicing that there is one medical college in the world, having a reputation in the world as a scientific institution, where God is recognized as the one healer; and where, both in the simple case for which the divinely ordained remedy is plainly apparent, and also in the complicated case which leaves human skill utterly at fault, prayer to God is recognized and taught as the first scientific requisite.

Our Father

November 1905

Luke 11

1 And it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of his disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

THE same request is as pertinent now as it was then, “for we know not how to pray as we ought” and therefore “the Spirit also helps our infirmities,” not only by making intercession for us, but also by creating desires in our hearts, and putting right words into our mouths. Romans 8:26.

Men who have never had any verbal instruction, instinctively give expression to their wants to God, especially if they are in deep trouble, because the Spirit teaches all; but the most complete instruction that the Spirit has ever given concerning prayer is found in the model prayer which Jesus by the Spirit gave to His disciples.

While we are not confined to the exact form of words which Jesus uttered in response to the request of the disciples, we need to study them much; for they are so comprehensive that they cover the needs of every person in the world, in all conceivable circumstances; and no prayer is complete that does not in effect contain the petitions expressed in the Lord’s prayer.

First of all we have:

Our Father

No heathen worshiper could ever address these words to a god of wood or stone. Only he can use them who recognizes a God so great that all created beings are His offspring, and whose relationship as Father is so close and constant that “in Him we live, and move, and have our being.”

It is to a Father, not a king nor a judge, that we approach in prayer. Even though we know that we are coming to a “throne of grace,” the only thing that does or can draw us, and cause us to “come boldly,” is the all-absorbing thought that our Father sits upon it.

Afterward, when a sense of His tenderness as a Father has led us to confide in Him, and to pour out our hearts before Him, we exultingly proclaim Him king, because that is our assurance that to Him belongs power to do for us all that His love designs for us.

When we with understanding hearts say “our Father,” we feel the confidence and rest and comfort of the “everlasting arms” that are underneath us, clasping us to His bosom.

But there is nothing selfish in true prayer. God is “our” Father. There are crises in our lives, as when Jesus was in the garden, when the urgency of the case, and our extreme danger or need, shut out the consciousness of everything except our individual self and God. Then we can say only “my Father.”

But on all ordinary occasions we are to remember that we are only one of many, all of whom have equal rights to claim God as their Father. The one “God over all” (Romans 9:5), is the…

Ephesians 4

6 ...Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

This thought is the basis of all real missionary effort; for any work done for heathen, either at home or abroad, is effective only as it is prompted by the loving consciousness that they are our brothers.

When “the only begotten Son” (John 1:18) came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), it was with these words to the Father:

Hebrews 2 [Psalm 22:22]

12 I will declare your name unto my brethren.

All who are “partakers of flesh and blood” (Hebrews 2:14) are acknowledged by Christ as His brothers. Instead of feeling that His unsullied goodness gives Him superior claims on the Father’s love, He gladly makes known that the Father loves us even as He loves Him.

If at any time we feel that the wickedness of any fallen men makes them inferior to us, we put ourselves above the Lord, and really separate ourselves from God’s family, in that we cannot then unreservedly say “our Father.”

There is in the first two words of the Lord’s prayer a world of instruction and of admonition. If we always followed this teaching of the Spirit in our prayers, every prayer would be a consecration to missionary work.

In all this there is no denial of the fact that the great majority of the world do not know God as their Father, and do not acknowledge Him as such; and that by our acceptance of this truth we are drawn nearer to Him. But those who are nearest to Him, instead of boasting of it, or feeling that there is a great gulf between them and those who have not an acquaintance with God, are, like Christ, most conscious that the prodigal sons are their brethren.

Who is in Heaven

Psalm 119

3 Our God is in the heavens; He has done whatsoever He has pleased.

The fact that our Father is in heaven is the assurance that He has all power, and can do whatsoever He will.

1 Chronicles 29

10 Blessed be You, Lord God of Israel, our Father, for ever and ever.

11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Yours.

Note that the Scriptures will not let us lose sight of the fact that this mighty God in the heavens, who inhabits eternity, is our Father; and thus far in our prayer, although we know that He is King, that view of God is swallowed up in the one that He is our Father.

The thought that our Father is in heaven is not designed, however, to cause us to feel that He is far from any one of us. He who dwells “in the high and holy place” dwells “with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.” Isaiah 57:15. He is…

Acts 17

27 ...not far from every one of us.

Because:

28 In Him we live, and move, and are.

Jeremiah 23

24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see Him? says the Lord. Do not I fill the heaven and earth? says the Lord.

So whether we ascend into heaven, or lie in the depths of the earth, or fly on the wings of the morning to the uttermost parts of the sea, even there the Father’s hand leads us, and His right hand holds us. Psalm 139:8-10.

In life, in death, in dark and light,

All are in God’s care;

Sound the black abyss, pierce the deep of night,

And He is there.

This thought is enough for us to meditate upon, and to mold our prayers for a month, when we can learn more of how to pray.

The Holy Name

December 1905

Matthew 6

9 Hallowed be Your name.

AN essential element in all true prayer is recognition of the goodness and the greatness of God. The more we know of God, the more understandingly and confidently we can pray to Him.

Hebrews 11

6 Without faith it is impossible to please Him for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

Satan is always ready to try to discourage people with the very truths of Scripture that were written for our comfort; and too often he succeeds. So he tries to frighten us away from God by the thought of His holiness. The sinful one says:

“I dare not come to the Lord: He is so holy, and I am so vile, that He could not have anything to do with me.”

We must learn that just because God is absolute goodness, He receives sinners. Only the wicked turn from the wicked, and point the finger of scorn at them. The good are pitiful and merciful. So the name of the Lord is…

Exodus 34

6 The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

7 Keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

When the psalmist, in his extremity and desolation, called on the Lord, he said:

Psalm 22

5 But You are holy, O You that inhabits the praises of Israel.

God’s holiness is the only hope of fallen humanity.

Proverbs 18

10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower.

After the ascension of Jesus, the disciples went everywhere preaching always in “the Name.” When the lame man at the gate of the temple had risen at Peter’s command:

Acts 3

6 In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk,

...Peter preached Jesus to the wondering multitude, saying:

16 His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong.

The next day he said to the council:

Acts 4

10 In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, even in Him, does this man stand here before you whole.

From this last text we learn that Jesus himself is His name. “Jesus” means Saviour, and that is what Jesus of Nazareth is. So God’s name is His own character, His own being; and His name is in Christ, in whose name we pray.

Therefore in coming to God and presenting petitions “in the name of Jesus,” it is as though Christ came to the Father in person, making that request. God cannot reject any such request made in sincerity, for to do so would be to dishonor His own name.

Even among men the name stands for the person. If a business man breaks his word, or fails to meet his obligations, then his name is no longer of any value. The prophet Jeremiah applied this principle to the Lord when, having acknowledged his sin and the sins of the people, he boldly said:

Jeremiah 14

21 Do not abhor us, for Your name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of Your glory; remember, break not Your covenant with us.

This is in reality what we all say to the Lord when we say in our prayers, “Hallowed be Your name.” It is an appeal to the Lord to remember His name and His covenant,—“forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,”—and not to disgrace His name, but to honor it by doing all that it stands for. But this reminder to the Lord is not on His account, but on our own, for it serves to remind us that:

2 Timothy 2

13 He cannot deny Himself.

Thus we are taught by the Lord Jesus that in true prayer there can be no shadow whatever of doubt. We are not to pray, and then to wonder whether or not God has listened to our petition, or will answer it. At the very beginning of every prayer we are to express our perfect confidence that God will certainly give us all that we ask for in the name of Jesus, and…

Ephesians 3

20 ...exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.

The least doubt in prayer is to deny God, and to place Him, in our own minds, on a level with the gods of the heathen; for it is a denial that...

Hebrews 11

6 ...He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

His name is holy, and must remain so, and therefore we come with the boldness of absolute trust, making our requests known to God. How natural and easy, therefore, is it to “give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness” (Psalm 30:4; 97:12), even before we make our request.

After Us—What?

July 17, 1906

IN a recent number of the Medical Missionary reference was made to a positive indication of the nearness of the end, found in Dr. Maudsley’s statement that mankind had exhausted all the possible ways of sinning, and that the human body had exhausted the possibilities of disease, that is, that the limit of the inventive power of evil had been reached. Another and still more striking sign is found in facts set forth by that eminent physiologist, Professor Bunge, of Basel, in a recent article on Alcoholic Poisoning and Degeneration.

The article in question is devoted chiefly to statistical and physiological proof that the consumption of alcohol by the father leads to such physical degeneracy in the daughter that she cannot nurse her offspring, and that the artificial feeding thus made necessary tends to still further physical degeneracy, laying the foundation for many diseases.

Through the use of alcohol the tissues of the body lose their power of resistance to the noxious bacteria that are continually lying in wait to devour.

“How is it that the tissues have lost their power of resistance? For the simple reason that they have without ceasing, day in and day out, year in and year out, from generation to generation, been deluged with a particular poison, the poisonous excretion of a fungus, the yeast fungus.”

Under natural conditions the yeast fungus could do us no harm, for the digestive juices have power to destroy them.

“But the issues are very different when these fungi are cultivated in enormous numbers by purely artificial means outside our own bodies, their poisonous secretion collected, and the organs of our body deluged by it. Nature has not armed us against such attacks as these.”

Bunge continues:

“Let us for a moment pause to realize the madness of such a proceeding as this. Every year gigantic loads of our most valuable food products, various grains, fruits, berries, are sacrificed to provide nourishment for these yeast fungi. A tenth of the whole working power of the civilized nations is devoted to this service. The fungi eat up of our best, and what they leave us in return—their poisonous excrement—is collected in enormous quantities, put into casks and bottles, sent to all lands, and distributed among mankind in general.

“And then begins the daily swamping of all the organs, all the tissues, of the human body with this poison—among the tissues those also which separate the germ cells, and hence arises the general debility, the general lack of resisting power, which is passed on as an inheritance to all the following generations.

“I do not wish to be misunderstood. I do not assert that the alcoholic poisoning of the individual or of relations is absolutely the one and only cause of all known suffering and infirmity. Above all, I should not wish to affirm this with regard to tuberculosis; for we know for certain that this disease is due to many other causes.

“Everything which tends to lessen the power of resistance at the time, gives the advantage to our worst enemies in the struggle for existence, the bacteria, and makes it easier for them to enter into possession. But what I do assert is: that alcoholic poisoning is one of the causes—I go further, and say, that it is a chief cause.”

Then, after mention of the task which the total abstinence movement has before it, Professor Bunge makes this most remarkable statement:

“Let us not forget that we are the last of the reserve forces. When the Roman Empire fell, there were barbaric nations of the finest race, ready and fit to enter upon the inheritance of culture—but it is not so with us. If we go down we leave only inferior physiques for our heirs, who will be unable to lift themselves up on our shoulders, and to carry forward the work of civilization. And if, in spite of this, men still give themselves up to habits of drink, and thus further the work of degeneration, they can but be urged to it by that most unworthy of principles—apres nous le deluge!—‘after us the deluge.’”

And this is just the inevitable end. When of old “all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth” (Genesis 6:12), there was no alternative but the destruction of man with the earth; and the Scriptures foretell that the same conditions will produce a similar result. The same conditions are nearly fulfilled, and that end cannot be long delayed.

Such things as this are more than signs of the coming of the Lord; they are absolute proofs that He must come to save the work begun at the creation from undergoing utter destruction.

There may not be future generations as heirs of this degenerate race, but there will be a righteous nation of people who are heirs of God, who have sown to the Spirit, and who of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

The part of all reformers and missionaries is to help along that glorious consummation.

Thanks for All Things

January 13, 1909

Ephesians 5

18 Be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit.

20 Giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

MOST people, even professed Christians, would think this rather a hard matter. We are familiar with the exhortation:

1 Thessalonians 5

18 In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

And we are able to adjust ourselves to it. Of course we can in everything give thanks that things are no worse than they are; for no one except Christ has drank of the dregs of the cup of suffering. We may have learned how, even in the deepest of afflictions and severest trials, to thank God for the promise of His presence and salvation; but to give thanks always for all things, is a lesson that is not usually learned until one has passed through many experiences of bitter trial.

In the scripture just quoted there are two admonitions. One is, not to be drunken with wine; the other is to give thanks always for all things; and while the first seems the easier, the second is no less a Christian duty, or privilege.

“All things” is a term admitting no exceptions. Passing by the comforts and easily recognized blessings which are commonly named as calling for thanksgiving, we have:

Hardships, which are, equally with the others, included in the “all things” for which thanks is to be given to God.

Loss of property, or poverty on account of inability to obtain employment, calls for thanksgiving to God.

For that which is infinitely more crushing,—loss of friends,—we must give thanks.

Are we misunderstood, maligned, even persecuted? For this cause also we must thank God.

Even for the bonds of “affliction and iron” and the darkness and shadow of death that come down upon us as the result of our own folly and transgression, we are always to give thanks to God.

How can we do it? Only by knowing that:

Romans 8

28 All things work together for good to them that love God.

It cannot be done as a matter of duty, for thanksgiving must be as spontaneous as the songs of the birds. Real thanksgiving comes from a heart so full of a sense of gratitude that the most natural and the only thing to do is to express it.

In order to thank God for trials and afflictions, we must know that:

Hebrews 12

6 Whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.

What if we can trace our trouble to our own transgressions? Chastisement from a loving parent (and, “God is love”) is not a token of anger. And we must never forget that whoever or whatever may be the means of our affliction, it comes from God. If it is the means of teaching us obedience, is it not a valid reason for thanksgiving?

Suppose we cannot see any reason why we are afflicted? Job could not for a long time; but the end demonstrated...

James 5

11 …that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

Hezekiah had served God “in truth and with a perfect heart” (Isaiah 38:3), and yet when he was left to himself he revealed things in his heart of which he was ignorant; but God knew them. The same was the case with Job, and affliction was necessary to make him know himself so as to abhor himself, and to know God as he could not know him in the time the time of unbroken prosperity.

Romans 5

3 ...tribulation works patience;

4 And patience experience, and experience hope:

5 And hope makes not ashamed…

It does not disappoint us, and therefore we can…

3 ...glory in tribulations also.

It may seem to us that the tribulations are altogether out of proportion to that which was lacking. For instance, Job was already…

Job 1

1 ...perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil.

Why should he need to suffer so much? Simply because the lesson could not be learned with less. When John Wesley was a child, his father said to his mother:

“Why do you tell that boy the same thing twenty times?”

And the answer was:

“Because nineteen times isn’t sufficient for him to remember it.”

James 1

2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations;

3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience.

4 But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

God desires that we should be “perfect and entire, wanting in nothing,” and when we know that only “divers temptations” can accomplish this result, we shall count them “all joy,” and give thanks for every one that brings us into closer communication with our loving Father.

Afflictions are necessary to fit us for service.

2 Corinthians 1

3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort;

4 Who comforts us in all our tribulation [even though our transgressions have brought them upon us], that we may be able to comfort them which are in trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

Unthankfulness is that which transformed men who once knew God into heathen (Romans 1:21-23), and thankfulness for all things, the recognition of God in all things,—will change a heathen into a Christian. How essential, then, that they whose lifework is to make known “the God of all comfort” to the heathen should have learned this lesson, in which one never can be proficient without undergoing suffering.

And how foolish to complain or to be discouraged over that which in God’s hands can work nothing but good.

Then welcome each rebuff

That turns earth’s smoothness rough,

Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go.

Comfort from Adversity

January 27, 1909

Psalm 76

10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; the remainder of wrath shall You restrain.

THESE words have doubtless given comfort to many Christians in times of persecution. They remind us that God rules even among wicked men, saying to them, as He does to the raging sea:

Job 38

11 Hitherto shall you come, but no further; and here shall your proud waves be stayed.

They show believers that even though the heathen may rage against them, they can still give thanks always for all things.

A little analysis of the text, however, will make it possible for us to read it more understandingly, and so to receive from it more spiritual consolation. The thoughtful reader cannot fail to have been struck by the statement concerning the “remainder of wrath.” The words would seem to imply that God will “restrain” the wrath that remains beyond what He is able to make to praise Him.

Then the question arises: Why does He not make all the wrath of man to praise Him? This, indeed, is what is implied in the first clause of the verse, for there is no qualification. Since all things, without limitation, are possible with God, it is certain that this “remainder of wrath” cannot be that which it is beyond His power to make praise Him. If He has power to “restrain” it, that in itself is to get praise from it.

A clearer idea is suggested by the reading of the Revision:

“The residue of wrath shall You gird upon Yourself.”

This is the exact meaning of the Hebrew:

chagar: “to bind around, to gird upon oneself, as clothing, or a sword.”

From the fact that the personal pronoun does not appear in the Hebrew text, the translators of the old version probably thought that the verb meant here merely to hold back; but there can be no doubt that it means to gird upon, as in every other instances of its occurrences, and the pronoun is naturally implied.

Now a word about the “remainder.” That which is left of anything obviously includes all that there is of it, and so we may and should read the text as it is in the Norwegian:

“The wrath of man prepares Your praise; with the utmost limit of wrath You gird Yourself about.”

The scholarly version of M. Segond has:

L’houme to célèbre meme dans an fureur

Quand tu te revets de tont ton courtoux,

Man praises You even in his fury,

When You clothe Yourself with all his rage.

Now we see that we have here a much stronger statement than that in the second psalm, that God laughs at the raging of the heathen. Yes, He takes the utmost limit of seemingly unbounded human wrath and binds it upon himself as a garment, making it minister to His pleasure.

A striking illustration of this truth is found in the case of Joseph and his brethren. The brothers, “moved with envy” (Acts 7:9), sold Joseph into Egypt, intending that to be a substitute for death as a means of putting an end to him, but it was in reality the means of advancing him to royal honor and power, and of making him the saviour of the world. So Joseph said to his brethren:

Genesis 50

20 ...you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

With a still stronger statement, the psalmist leaves the wicked brothers and their wrath altogether out of the question, saying:

Psalms 105

17 He [God] sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant.

Still more forcibly is the truth of our text illustrated in that which embraces all Christian experience in connection with Satanic rage. The high priest counseled the death of Christ, in order to put an end to His influence, and thereby was an instrument in making the “good tidings of great joy” effective to “all people.” Luke 2:10.

Thus in the prayer of the Spirit-filled disciples:

Acts 4

27 For of a truth against Your holy child Jesus, whom You have anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,

28 For to do whatsoever Your hand and Your counsel determined before to be done.

They didn’t mean it so, but all the rage of men against Jesus was simply a means of working out God’s purpose for the salvation of the world. And so it must ever be.

It becomes us, therefore, ever to keep alive such living faith that instead of being dismayed or discouraged by any sort of adversity, we may give thanks for it, knowing that it is working God’s praise, and so our salvation. It matters not that we cannot see how any good can come of it; we may then rejoice the more, because God is preparing for us a great surprise.

The text gives us another thought that should always be kept in mind as a support to the weakest of us. Since God makes the wrath of man to praise Him, using their utmost fury as a garment of praise, how much more will He not glorify himself by the feeble, often erring, yet sincere, and loyal, service of those who love Him.

God’s Case in Court

February 3, 1909

Isaiah 1

18 Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

THE love of God “passes knowledge.” Ephesians 3:19. The peace of God, that comes from believing, “passes all understanding.” Philippians 4:7. How then is it possible for men to reason out a thing which transcends human reason, and which can be known only by revelation?

The “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” in the knowledge of God casts down reasonings (2 Corinthians 10:5, margin) and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, so that the wisest philosopher is constrained to receive the kingdom of heaven as the little child in whom the reasoning faculty is not developed.

Where is reasoning then? An outline picture from a few texts of Scripture will enable us to derive more comfort than ever before from the oft-quoted exhortation and promise in Isaiah 1:18.

First compare these two:

Psalm 51

4 ...that You might be justified when You speak, and be clear when You judge.

Romans 3

4 ...that You might be justified in Your sayings, and might overcome when You are judged.

The latter is a repetition of the former, with a verbal change that does not change the meaning, but gives us a larger view of it. From the foregoing we learn that when God judges He Himself is judged. God has been fully slandered by Satan. He has been charged with selfish indifference to the wants of His creatures, and many have believed and repeated the accusation.

The case, therefore, has been brought into court, God is now on trial, and the final judgment of the world will be the announcement of the verdict in His case, when every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God...

Revelation 15

3 ...just and true are Your ways, You King of Saints.

A thorough study of the book of Isaiah reveals the fact that it is devoted to this trial, setting forth the claims of God as against those of the gods of the heathen. It is preeminently the book for the foreign missionary. Let us note a few suggestive passages.

The forty-first chapter begins with a call for silence in the court—to be still and know that He is God, and then to come near and produce their cause, bringing forth their strong reasons. Verse 21. God declares the end from the beginning, and does whatsoever He will; but the idols of men cannot tell even the things that are past, and have no power to do either good or evil.

Again in the forty-third chapter. When all the nations are assembled, God says to those who stand with His Servant, Christ: “You are my witnesses.” A whole “cloud of witnesses” testify to God’s lovingkindness and faithfulness, and His power and willingness to deliver the poor and needy.

God leaves His case in the hands of men; those who testify for Him, and change not, will triumph when His character is vindicated before all the worlds; and they who doubt God, and acknowledge His goodness only at the last, when the overwhelming weight of evidence wrings the confession from them, will be punished as false witnesses.

Now we come to our text. The “reasoning” is merely the deciding on evidence. Nearly all versions, except the English, use a term that accurately expresses the idea of the Hebrew, that of pleading a case in court. “Come, let us go into court together,” God says to sinful men.

They have “gone away backward” (backslidden) from Him, and are “laden with iniquity.” Isaiah 1:4. When they would do good evil is present with them, and the adversary makes them believe that they have gone too far to turn back, that God cannot pardon such sinners as they, and that He doesn’t care for them. Thus they echo Satan’s charges against God.

Then God calls for a trial of the cause in court, and rests His cause solely on the fact that He forgives sins “to the uttermost.” Hebrews 7:25.

1 John 1

9 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

Herein consists His righteousness. When men say that it is vain to serve God (Malachi 3:14), and that He does not regard His children (Psalm 94:7), He replies that He even “justifies the ungodly.” Romans 4:5.

When they think that God is so good that He must despise and look with disgust upon people whose sins have covered them from head to foot with “wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.” Isaiah 1:6. He replies that His goodness consists in the forgiveness of sins and in healing the wounds that sin has made. Exodus 34:6-7.

Yes, “Jesus saves,” because God is with Him, and He is “God with us.” Matthew 1:21-23. There is but one God, and He is the Saviour. To this fact He has pledged His existence. He has sworn by Himself that He will forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. His testimony is in, and sworn to.

The existence of the heavens and earth is proof that His word does not fail. Then let every sinner among the heathen…

Psalm 107

1 Give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever;

...and…

2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

Justification in Condemnation

February 17, 1909

1 John 4

8 ...God is love.

YET ever since the fall of Adam, Satan has had agents at work trying to make men believe that God at best is indifferent to the woes and sorrows of mankind. In spite of the fact that the Spirit of God is love, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, and meekness, children even of Christian parents have grown up afraid of Him.

The altogether too prevalent thought, unexpressed and even unformed in direct terms, is that although God may be willing to save men, He is not specially anxious; that, instead of seeking to save, He is on the lookout for opportunities to condemn and destroy.

When such thoughts of God are held by people who all their lives have heard the sound of the Gospel, it is not difficult to conceive how God is regarded by people in the darkness of heathendom.

The worst feature of the case is that the arch-enemy of mankind, not content with working on the natural unbelief of the sinful human heart, has presumed to use the Bible to aid his wicked designs, and by perversions of texts and the production of distorted views, to increase doubt and despair. One of the blessed assurances that has been so abused is:

1 John 3

18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.

20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

A superficial reading of this text has led to the thought that if our heart condemns us, the condemnation of God, who knows all things, must be much greater. There is certainly no comfort in that thought. If it were true, there could be no hope except the false hope of the Pharisee; for the publican would say, as so many sinners do:

“God can never receive and forgive so sinful and unworthy a person as I am.”

But what are the facts? Whoever condemns,...

Romans 8

33 ...it is God that justifies.

John 3

17 For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.

Self-condemnation is obviously the acknowledgment of sin committed, and:

1 John 1

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

There are many self-condemned sinners, trembling under the thought that they are condemned by God, to whom the servant of Christ is commissioned to say, as did the Master to the palsied man:

Matthew 9

2 Be of good cheer; your sins be forgiven you.

God, who commands light to shine out of darkness; creates courage from despair; and the fact that our heart condemns us should be to us the assurance that God forgives. This is what is really suggested by the text that we are studying:

1 John 3

19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.

20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

Just because He knows all things, He justifies.

Isaiah 53

11 ...by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.

There is abundance of Scripture in corroboration of this truth:

Psalm 139

1 O Lord, You have searched me, and known me.

2 You know my downsitting and my uprising, You understand my thought afar off.

3 You compass my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, You know it altogether.

5 You have beset me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

7 Where shall I go from Your spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence?

8 If I ascend up into heaven, You are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

10 Even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.

11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.

12 Yea, the darkness hides not from You; but the night shines as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to You.

13 For You have possessed my reins: You have covered me in my mother’s womb.

14 I will praise You; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Your works; and that my soul knows right well.

15 My substance was not hid from You, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

16 Your eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Your book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

17 How precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with You.

This psalm is one of the most comforting assurances, and derives its comfort from the fact that God has searched us and known us; that He understands our thoughts afar off, and is acquainted with all our ways. God’s Word is...

Hebrews 4

12 ...a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

As well...

Hebrews 4

13 ...all things are naked and laid open before the eye of Him with whom we have to do.

We are urged therefore to...

Hebrews 4

16 ...come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help time of need.

Uninstructed humanity, like Adam and Eve in the Garden, tends to hide itself from God. The thought, “You, God, see me,” (Genesis 16:13) is to them terrible; yet from the history of Adam and Eve we know that God was seeking then to announce to them the Gospel of a Saviour who should destroy sin and Satan.

We fly from God until we learn that He fills all things, and then we fly to Him, and find escape from God in God. As one with keen perception of the truth has written:

If there had anywhere appeared in space
Another place of refuge, where to flee,
Our hearts had taken refuge in that place,
And not with Thee.

But only when we found in earth and air,
In heaven or hell, that such might nowhere be,
That we could not flee from Thee anywhere,
We fled to Thee.

When our heart, knowing its own plague, condemns us, we appeal from it to the Supreme Court, which sits continually for the sole purpose of justifying the ungodly who flee to it for refuge; and none who appeal to it are ever lost, for:

John 3

18 He that believes...is not condemned.

Romans 10

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

The
Daily Bread
Articles

The Sufficiency of God

Daily Bread, February 1904

Our Daily Bread

Monday, February 1

Matthew 6

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

We may make this petition with the utmost confidence that it will be granted, because the Lord himself tells us what to ask for. We are sure before hand that it is His will. Therefore read:

1 John 5

14 And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He hears us:

15 And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.

It is all-inclusive; for bread means life, and the gift of life embraces “all things” necessary to it. Life from God is the evidence of His love,—the proof of His desire for our eternal salvation. Though we may have nothing whatever in our actual possession in the morning, the fact that we have life enough to ask for our daily bread, is assurance of everything.

Philippians 4

19 My God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory.

Bread Contains God’s Word

Tuesday, February 2

Matthew 4

4 Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Read Deuteronomy 8:3, and you will see that, instead of being contrasted with “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” bread is the means by which we know that we live by His word. Therefore it must be that bread contains God’s word.

This is demonstrated in creation: the seed from which all grain grew was God’s word, “Let the earth bring forth.” Our daily bread is a reminder that we have no life except the life of God, and that therefore it belongs, not to us, but to Him, and He is to direct and use it as He will.

The Word made Flesh

Wednesday, February 3

John 6

33 The bread of God is He which comes down from heaven, and gives life unto the world.

In our daily bread we receive the identical life that “was manifested” (1 John 1:2) in Jesus of Nazareth. He himself took bread in His hand, saying, “This is my body” (Luke 22:19).

In the presence of thousands in the wilderness He demonstrated this, when the bread with which He satisfied their hunger plainly came from His own hands. “The Word was made flesh” (John 1:14), and “of His fullness have all we received” (John 1:16).

If we recognize and acknowledge Him in His gifts, then we shall live by faith, Christ will dwell in our hearts by faith, and we shall be “filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19).

Spiritual Bread

Thursday, February 4

John 6

63 It is the Spirit that quickens; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Let us beware of saying, or even thinking, the unbelieving question of the Pharisees: “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:52). The real things, those which are eternal, are unseen; the things that are seen are but shadows that pass away. We endure only when we see the invisible.

Christ is the divine Word that was from the beginning—the source of all life and every created thing. The fact that we live demonstrates the truth that He gives us His flesh—“the word of life” (1 John 1:1)—to eat; but no finite mind can ever understand it.

We should rejoice that our God, and consequently His love, life, and power, is “broader than the measure of man’s mind.”1 F.W. Faber, There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy

Living Bread

Friday, February 5

1 Corinthians 10

17 We being many, are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.

Our bodies are built up of that which we eat; but though Christ is the bread given to feed all the world, only those who take Him in faith become one with Him.

He is the living Bread; if we receive Him by faith that sees Him in all His gifts, we are also the same body and bread. But this means that we, like Him, must give ourselves to the world; for bread is for no other purpose than to be eaten.

If we are true bread, we shall rejoice that we can be used to refresh the faint and weary; for that is the object of our existence.

Lessons from the Shewbread

Sabbath, February 6

Exodus 25

30 You shall set upon the table shewbread before me always.

Shewbread is literally “bread of the Presence.” Twelve loaves were placed upon the table before the Lord each Sabbath. The bread indicated, first of all, Christ, who is the Presence of God, and second, all the people who by partaking of Him, become “one bread;” for the twelve tribes were represented in the twelve loaves.

It was before the Lord continually, for new bread was placed upon the table when the old was eaten; so we, when we present our bodies “a living sacrifice,” are continually renewed. The bread of the Presence repeats the mystery of the burning bush; though eaten, it is not consumed, because God’s presence it in it. the bread was renewed on the Sabbath day, showing that the Sabbath is to give us fresh life for service.

Sowing our Seed

Sunday, February 7

John 12

24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.

The sowing has reference to the harvest, which is “the end of the world,” when the seed is gathered. Then only can it be known how much is produced by each life that is given up.

Luke 17

33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

If there were no sowing, there could be no bread. Our joy is to be not merely that by laying down our lives we have many lives as our fruit, but that in the death our own life will multiply, and become more fruitful.

Being Threshed

Monday, February 8

Romans 5

3 ...we glory in tribulation also; knowing that tribulation works patience;

4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope;

5 And hope makes not ashamed.

“Tribulation” is from the Latin tribulum, a threshing sledge. This instrument is absolutely essential to the production of bread. Dean Trench, in his Study of Words, quotes the following quaint lines from an early English poet (George Wither):

Till from the straw, the flail the corn does beat,
Until the chaff be purged from the wheat,
Yea, till the mill the grains in pieces tear,
The richness of the flour will scarce appear.

So, till men’s persons great afflictions touch,
If worth be found, their worth is not so much,
Because, like wheat in straw, they have not yet
That value which in threshing they may get.

For till the bruising flails of God’s corrections
Have threshed out of us our vain affections;
Till those corruptions which do mis-become us
Are by your sacred Spirit winnowed from us;

Until from us the straw of worldly treasures,
Till all the dusty chaff of empty pleasures,
Yea, till His flail upon us He does lay,
To thresh the husk of this our flesh away;

And leave the soul uncovered; nay, yet more,
Till God shall make our very spirit poor,
We shall not up to highest wealth aspire;
But then we shall; and that is my desire.

Threshed for Service

Tuesday, February 9

2 Corinthians 1

3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

4 Who may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

That is why we can glory in tribulation—in being threshed. Only in tribulation can we receive comfort; but the comfort is sure to come in the tribulation. This is our school for service; we can comfort others only with the comfort which we have received of the Lord; and therefore it is only in tribulation that we learn how to be of service to our fellow-men. To refuse tribulation is equal to refusing to carry consolation to suffering souls.

Learning through Tribulation

Wednesday, February 10

Isaiah 50

4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned [of disciples—those that are taught], that I should know how to speak a word in season [sustain with words] to him that is weary; He wakens morning by morning, He wakens mine ear to hear as the learned.

This is what we gain by tribulation. We really learn only by experience; and tribulation endured works experience. Romans 5:3-4. We get the “tongue of the learned,” so as to “know how to sustain with words” those that are weary, by experiencing the divine comfort that accompanies tribulation. Here is instruction in language, that is not given in any other school than that of Christ.

But we must not forget that the words which we learn from Christ are not mere sound. Real words are things; and divine words work. That is the test of the reality of a word. See Hebrews 4:12.

The Glory of the Cross

Thursday, February 11

Galatians 6

14 God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

The cross was the symbol of shame and degradation, and to this day it conveys the idea of all that is repugnant to human nature,—even death itself. The death of the cross was the most ignominious punishment known, and could never be inflicted on a Roman citizen; only slaves and vile criminals of another nations might suffer it.

But the death of Christ upon it has caused eternal glory to shine from the instrument of shame and death. Thus we see that:

1 Corinthians 1

28 ...base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things which are.

31 That, according as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord.

The Cross Reveals God

Friday, February 12

Jeremiah 9

23 Thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

24 But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

We are to glory only in the cross, yet God forbids us to glory in anything except the knowledge of Him. The inevitable conclusion is, therefore, that only in the cross can we understand and know God. The cross, which man despises, is the revelation of God—of divine love, divine power, and divine glory.

Redeemed from the Curse

Sabbath, February 13

Galatians 3

13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.

Wherever there is the curse, there is the cross of Christ. The curse is death, but Christ bears it, and so life flourishes even in the midst of “change and decay.”

We should glory in the cross, because it reveals His divine power, endless life, delivering from disobedience and death. Even disease should remind us of the Healer, for “He has borne our sicknesses and carried our sorrows.”

Sickness and pain are treasure, for they bring,
Each for itself, the remedy; the sting,
Piercing my Lord, loses its power to harm;
Its poison is annulled, and healing balm
Flows from the wound inflicted; endless life
Swallows up death; and in the mortal strife
Captivity is captive led.

Crucifixion with Christ

Sunday, February 14

Romans 12

1 I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

This means crucifixion with Christ; for that is the one acceptable sacrifice. As it is only in the cross that we can see and know God, so it is only there that we become united with Him. It comes from such faith in the truth that Christ has borne and does bear everything, that we know and feel His presence with us, bearing every temptation, hardship, and pain. This is our deliverance, and our power of endurance.

Ambassadors for Christ

Monday, February 15

Isaiah 6

8 I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me.

What a wonderful privilege, to stand so close by the side of the Lord, that when He wants somebody to run on an errand, we can say, “Here am I, send me.” Isaiah 6:8. No one in the universe can have a higher honor than to be an ambassador for Christ,—to speak for God. the redeemed in glory have no higher reward than this, that “they shall see His face,” (Revelation 22:4) “and His servants shall serve Him.” Revelation 22:3.

How is this honor gained? By being crucified with Christ, by presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, so that our lips may continually have the cleansing touch of the live coal from the altar.

A Living Sacrifice

Tuesday, February 16

Hebrews 10

7 Then said I, Lo, I come to do your will, O God.

When is this said? Whenever the only sacrifice that is acceptable to God is offered to Him—ourselves. God has prepared every one of us a body in which to do His will; but that body can be used to its proper end, as an instrument of righteousness, only when Christ has complete possession of it.

When we know the cross well enough to understand and see the Lord in it, we shall delight in being thus taken possession of to do His will, because we shall know that only so can we live. When God asks us to present our bodies “a living sacrifice,” He assures us that we shall have life with which to make the offering.

Guidance, Protection, Instruction

Wednesday, February 17

Proverbs 6

20 My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of your mother:

21 Bind them continually upon your heart, and tie them about your neck,

22 When you go, it shall lead you; when you sleep, it shall keep you; and when you awake, it shall talk with you.

What a blessed assurance of guidance, protection, and instruction. Psalm 1:1-3 tells to what a certain end the guidance is; Psalm 121:3-8 tells how sure is the protection; and Isaiah 51:4 tells of the awakening in the morning to hear. There is no better time to talk with the Lord than early in the morning. It is then that He speaks to us, if we have ears to hear; and it is then that He ought to hear our voices in response. Psalm 5:3.

God’s Thoughts in Us

Thursday, February 18

Psalm 139

17 How precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!

18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with You.

The only real, valuable thoughts are God’s thoughts; for

1 Corinthians 3

20 The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

Forsaking our ways and our thoughts, we are in a position for God to fill us with His precious thoughts. A famous astronomer exclaimed,

“O God, I am thinking Your thoughts after You.”

That is grand; but more glorious still is it to have God think His own thoughts in us. He watches over our slumbers, speaking to us sometimes even in our dreams; and when we awake we find Him patiently waiting to talk with us.

God’s Waves will not Harm

Friday, February 19

Psalm 42

7 All Your waves and Your billows are gone over me.

This seems like a terrible condition, and the one experiencing it often feels that he is lost; but comfort comes with the thought that they are God’s waves and billows that go over us, and that He is with us as we go through them.

His way is in the sea, and His path in the great waters (Psalm 77:19), and He is at home there; therefore the waves cannot drown us, though they go over us. Indeed, through the sea is often, as with Israel of old, the only way of deliverance from our enemies.

Day and Night

Sabbath, February 20

Psalm 42

8 Yet the Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

Not only in the daytime as distinguished from the night, but daily, as the Hebrew word indicates, will God command His loving-kindness to run after us (thus literally, Psalm 23:6), to protect us.

And what of the night? Will He withdraw His loving-kindness then? Not by any means; then He himself sits by our bedside, singing His lullaby to soothe us to sleep. When that song becomes our prayer, we make sure His continued presence with us; for He inhabits the praises of His people. Psalm 22:3.

God Hears

Sunday, February 21

Psalm 138

3 In the day when I cried you answered me, and strengthened me with strength in my soul.

God hears every cry of pain, every sigh of sorrow, and even the unuttered dread; and when He hears, He either removes the calamity or gives strength to endure it. And the help comes “in time of need.”

Isaiah 65

24 Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

It is true that this last refers especially to the new earth: but God is as good now as He will be then.

And it is not alone the cry directly addressed to Him, that He hears. When Ishmael, in the desert, was moaning with thirst, and about to die, “God heard the voice of the lad” (Genesis 21:17), and provided a well of water. Every suffering moan is in God’s ears a demand for help, which He instantly honors.

God Will Finish the Work

Monday, February 22

Psalm 138

8 The Lord will perfect that which concerns me: Your mercy, O Lord, endures for ever: forsake not the works of Your own hands.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise; He never becomes weary or discouraged, nor abandons a work that He has once begun. All may have the utmost confidence that,

Philippians 1

6 He which has begun a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 130

7 Hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.

Protection Like Mountains

Tuesday, February 23

Psalm 125

1 They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abides for ever.

2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever.

Sometimes clouds settle down and shut off the mountains from view; but the dwellers in the valley have no fear but that the mountains are still in their places, although unseen. The mountain was just as “full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17) and his servant before the young man’s eyes were opened to see them, as after. And this invisible protection by the Lord is far more sure than anything that could be seen.

Not rocks nor hills could guard so well

Fair Salem’s happy ground,

As those eternal arms of love,

That every saint surround.

No Fear from Catastrophes

Wednesday, February 24

Psalm 46

1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

What difference does the removal of the earth make to those who dwell in Him who made it, and whose word of power holds it up?

God is round about us,

And can we be dismayed?

During a severe earthquake, when people were shrieking with terror, and running about nearly beside themselves, a dear old lady was seen sitting in her chair, calmly reading her Bible.

“Are you not afraid, Grandmother?” one asked.

“No” she replied, “I am glad to know that I have a God who can shake the earth.”

The City of God is Safe

Thursday, February 25

Psalm 46

4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

God himself provides the river, for He is the “Fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13). Just as the ark rode safely on the raging waves of the flood, so the city of God will rest unmoved, when the earth is “clean dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat” (Isaiah 24:19, 2 Peter 3:10). That which is true of the city of God, is true of every soul in whom God abides: it cannot be moved. Therefore,

Isaiah 12

6 Cry out, and shout, you inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of you.

Deliverance from Fear

Friday, February 26

Psalm 56

3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in You.

Nameless fear, the dread of the unseen and the uncertain, is far more torturous than any evil that can actually befall us. And even though there be no danger impending, the fear, to a timid person, is none the less terrible. How good, then, to read this testimony:

Psalm 34

4 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

Better still it is to be able to say,

Isaiah 12

2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid.

“Fear has torment,” but “perfect love casts out fear,” (1 John 4:18) and God’s love for us is perfect.

Our Mighty Helper

Saturday, February 27

Psalm 89

19 I have laid help upon one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.

It is encouraging to know that we have a mighty helper, One who has “all power” in heaven and in earth; but still more blessed is the knowledge that the power is manifested in one of our own number,—One who was in all things like us,—a poor day laborer. He said,

John 5

30 I can of my own self do nothing.

How, then, did He get His great power? He…

Hebrews 5

7 ...offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears.

“To Him whom man despises” (Isaiah 49:7) God says, “In an acceptable time have I heard you” (Isaiah 49:8). You can trust Him without fear.

How Great is Your Goodness

Sunday, February 28

Psalm 31

19 Oh how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for them that fear You; which You have wrought for them that trust in You before the sons of men!

You feel despondent, almost discouraged, at the thought of your sinfulness; looking at your life, you see only the absence of goodness. Then look up and view the “great goodness” (Psalm 145:7), “like the great mountains” (Psalm 36:6), which God himself has wrought and laid up for whoever will claim it as his own through faith.

Psalm 107

8 Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men.

9 For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.

Hidden from Pride

Monday, February 29

Psalm 31

20 You shall hide them in the secret of Your presence from the pride of man: You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.

It is from the pride of man, that God will keep us safe in the secret of His presence; not from the pride of other men,—that cannot do us serious harm,—but from our own pride, for that alone causes us to fall.

He is “meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29) and in Him we find rest to our souls, form the assaults of pride. And what though the strife of tongues rages? If He but keep us from it, we can at the most but hear the noise of the strife afar off; and in the quiet of His pavilion we may be wholly unconscious of it.

Thankfulness and Praise

Daily Bread, April 1904

Thankfulness for What God Is

Friday, April 1

Psalm 106

1 Praise the Lord, O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: For His mercy endures for ever.

How often people say, or at least think,

“I don’t see what I have to be thankful for.”

That is the purely selfish idea of thankfulness:

so much visible, actual rain = so many thanks;

nothing in sight = no thanks.

Such a conception of thanksgiving naturally exists with one who lives by the law of works, whose reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt. His thanksgiving is a mere commercial transaction; it pertains to heathenism, and not to Christianity.

The intelligent Christian has always and everywhere a cause for thanksgiving: because God is, and He is good. No circumstance, no gain or loss, can ever interfere with true thanksgiving.

God is good, and, therefore, whether we consciously possess little or much, it is equally good, and calls for thanks. God is “Our Father,” and, therefore, we always have all things in Him. Whoever knows God must necessarily give thanks, not for what he himself has, but for what God is.

Revealing God Through Thanksgiving

Sabbath, April 2

Psalm 105

1 O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon His name; make known His deeds among the people.

Not to give thanks is to deny God; for it is virtually to say that He has done nothing, and that He himself is nothing, for which one should render thanks.

It is only by giving thanks for His wonderful works, and because He is, and not by argument, that we can make God known to the people who know Him not. God is known by His works; and His works are made known through the thanksgiving of those who take pleasure in them.

Thankfulness for God’s Holiness

Sunday, April 3

Psalm 97

12 Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.

The world is corrupt and empty; there is no satisfaction to be found in it. We are all sinful and destitute; in us dwells no good thing.

But God is good, “glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders” (Exodus 15:11), and He “fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). Therefore must we “rejoice evermore” (1 Thessalonians 5:16) and give thanks. God lives not for himself but for His creatures; His power and His holiness are for us.

So though our emptiness and helplessness, if we had nothing else to contemplate, might well cause us to sink in despondency, the remembrance of God’s holiness, of whose fullness we have all received, is sufficient cause for joyous thanksgiving. We must give thanks when we consider God’s holiness. Not to give thanks is to doubt it.

Yet in the maddening maze of things,

And tossed by storm and flood,

To one fixed trust my spirit clings;

I know that God is good!

Thankfulness for God’s Works

Monday, April 4

Psalm 75

1 Unto you, O God, do we give thanks: unto You do we give thanks: for that Your name is near Your wondrous works declare.

When questioned about the healing of the lame man, Peter said:

Acts 4

10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even in Him does this man stand here before you whole.

Thus we see that the name of the Lord is what He himself is—His personality. “Jesus” means “Saviour,” and He himself is Saviour, saving by His own life.

Therefore, when we read that God’s wondrous works declare that His name is near, it is the same as though it said that God’s works reveal His presence. That this is the case, is shown by:

Romans 1

20 For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.

So to the one who has eyes to see with, the works of God must produce thanksgiving, because they reveal the everlasting, divine power by which we are saved.

Thankfulness for Saving Power

Tuesday, April 5

Psalm 92

1 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Your name, O Most High;

4 For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands.

Psalm 111

2 The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

These works are the heavens and the earth. So wonderful are these works that when they were finished…

Job 38

7 ...the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

Psalm 111

6 ...[God] has showed His people the power of His works, that He may give them the heritage of the heathen.

Ephesians 2

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

It is done by the same power by which God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth. The creation of a new man in Christ is as wonderful a work as the creation of a new world. This is why there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents, even as there was when the earth was created.

All heaven is witness to the fact that it is a good thing to sing praises to the name of the Most High. What makes it so good a thing for us, is the fact that in God’s works we triumph. His works are our salvation.

Thankfulness Saves From Idolatry

Wednesday, April 6

Romans 1

21 Because that when they knew God they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.

24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.

Here we learn, negatively, the value of giving thanks.

Psalm 92

1 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.

Because it keeps people from lapsing into idolatry. All the evil that is in the world is the result of unthankfulness for God’s gift and lack of appreciation of His works, and this is due to the fact that people think more of themselves than of God, as did Lucifer. No one can consider God’s works, as the works of God, without praising Him; and praise is worship.

Thankfulness Works Salvation

Thursday, April 7

Psalm 50 [RV, margin]

23 Whoever offers praise glorifies Me, and prepares a way that I may show him the salvation of God.

It is no arbitrary requirement that God makes, that people should praise Him. There is no element of selfishness in it on His part. He simply desires our salvation.

When we praise God we are only giving Him the glory due to Him, for His wonderful and glorious works. And when we are praising God for His works, and thanking Him for His unspeakable gifts, we are not thinking of ourselves.

Now as self is the sole cause of sin, it follows that all that draws us away from self, works salvation for us. One cannot possibly thank God from the heart and at the same time commit sin.

And as God’s constant goodness calls for continual praise, it is plain that in praise is the way of salvation. It is with singing that the ransomed of the Lord return and come to Zion.

Thanking Before Receiving

Friday, April 8

Philippians 4

6 In nothing be anxious but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.

Why with thanksgiving? Because thanksgiving keeps fresh in our minds the wonderful works of God, and that begets confidence. We can come to the throne of grace with boldness when know what God delights in doing,—what it is His nature to do. This leads us to cast all our care on Him, knowing that He cares for us.

But thanksgiving in prayer must not be limited to things that are past. We must thank God for the things that we are asking for. What? Thank Him before we receive them? Certainly! If we do not, we show that we have some doubt whether or not we shall receive them; and the man who doubts receives nothing.

It is faith that grasps the blessings asked, and wherever there is faith there is thanksgiving. Without thanksgiving there is no real prayer.

Thankfulness for the Victory

Sabbath, April 9

1 Corinthians 15

57 Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember that when we ask God for victory, He does not have to go out and win it for us, before He can give it to us. He does not need to keep us waiting, for He has overcome the world.

This, then, is an additional reason for thanking God in advance for the blessing we ask for.

1 John 5

4 This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

Faith appreciates the victory already won for us; and when one who is sorely pressed by temptation realizes that the deliverance asked for is his already, he cannot help breaking forth into thanksgiving as he prays.

Eternal Thanksgiving

Sunday, April 10

2 Corinthians 9

15 Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.

It is by our steadfastness in the faith that we resist Satan, so that he flees from us (James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9). And thanksgiving is the signal to Him that we know the Mighty One on whom help has been laid, and that we accept the deliverance that He has wrought for us by His victory.

The gift is “unspeakable,” and that is why we must continually speak of it; an eternity of thanksgiving will not be sufficient to do it justice.

Through all eternity to You

A grateful song I’ll raise;

But, oh, eternity’s too short

To utter all Your praise.

Thankfulness in Everything

Monday, April 11

1 Thessalonians 5

18 In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

The will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us is our sanctification and salvation: consequently He wills that we should give thanks in everything, because thanksgiving is the way of salvation. He would have us give thanks in everything, because He would have us continually saved. It is not difficult to do this, when we know that all things work together for our good.

Praise is Strength

Tuesday, April 12

Psalm 8

2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have You established strength because of Your enemies, that You might still the enemy and the avenger.

Compare this with the rendering that Jesus gives of it in Matthew 20:16. In quoting Psalm 8:2 He substitutes “praise” for “strength,” thus showing that it means the same thing.

There is nothing else that will still the enemy as praise to God will; it is an argument that cannot be replied to. A little child, therefore, may put an enemy to silence better than a man can, for the man may be tempted to argue but the child cannot argue, it knows nothing but praise.

Public Thanks

Wednesday, April 13

Psalm 35

18 I will give You thanks in the great congregation; I will praise You among much people.

And why not? Though we ask in secret, God rewards us openly; and for public gifts, public thanks may well be offered.

There is altogether too much shyness about making mention of God in His works. Many Christians find it easier to talk about anything else than about God. Possibly this is because to their mind He is a long way off.

When we are acquainted with God as the one in whom “we live and move and have our being,” it will not be so difficult to give Him proper thanks even in a great congregation.

God Inhabits Our Praises

Thursday and Friday, April 14-15

[Editor’s note: Unfortunately, the last part of Friday, April 15, was missing. So I merged it with the previous day’s meditation.]

Psalm 22

3 You are holy, O you that inhabits the praises of Israel.

Exodus 15 [RV]

2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

The common version renders Exodus 15:2 in this way:

Exodus 15

2 He is my God, and I will prepare Him a habitation.

The two renderings amount to the same thing, because God inhabits the praise of His people.

God is “not far from every one of us,”—even though we be unconscious of His presence, or ignore it. But He dwells in the praises of His people, that is, in the hearts of those who praise Him.

This does not show that God is not everywhere, even in the heart and the mouth of the sinner, but with such He is present as a stranger—a transient lodger.

It is with those who praise Him that He has a permanent habitation. God’s presence recognized means something far different from His presence unrecognized. If the whole life and soul be filled with God’s praise, then His presence there fills the being with His holiness.

Thankfulness to the Great Shepherd

Sabbath, April 16

Psalm 100

3 He is God; it is He that has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture [or the flock that He feeds].

4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise; be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.

5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.

So we, His people, and the sheep of His pasture will come to His gates, gratefully recognizing the hand that feeds us with bread, of which one may eat and live forever (see John 6:50).

Thankfulness for God’s Presence

Sunday, April 17

1 Corinthians 2

14 Thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.

The word here rendered “savor” signifies odor or perfume. The perfume of God’s presence is shed forth from those in whom God abides; for He cannot be hid. His presence gives us always the victory, which calls for thanksgiving, and this, in turn, makes more sure the abiding Presence.

Thankfully Receiving and Giving

Monday, April 18

Psalm 116

12 What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward men?

13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.

What a marvelous way of paying debts! God’s benefits, with which He daily loads us, put us under everlasting obligation to Him. How shall we discharge this obligation? Only by calling upon God and taking more.

This, of course, places us under renewed and increased obligation, which can be paid only by taking yet more at the hands of the Lord.

And, so the stream flows on throughout eternity, its flow increasing instead of diminishing, if a way is only made for it by thankful reception.

Dig channels for the streams of love

Where they may broadly run,

And love has overflowing streams

To fill them everyone.

The Living Offering of Thanksgiving

Tuesday, April 19

Psalm 69

30 I will praise the name of the Lord with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.

31 This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs.

In Hebrews we read:

Hebrews 13

15 By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

This thought is taken from Hosea, where we are instructed to say,

Hosea 14

2 Take away iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips.

A better rendering is, “so will we render as calves our lips.” The lexicons show us that the Hebrew words “bullock” and “fruit” are almost identical, having a common origin, and with one underlying idea.

So when we offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving, the fruit of our lips, which is not mere lip-service, but which comes from the heart, we are offering bullocks that are, and always have been, more acceptable to God than bullocks with horns and hoofs.

The heathen rightly conceived that a human sacrifice was the highest and best that could be offered; but they were wholly mistaken as to the mode of offering. It is a “living sacrifice,” not a dead one, that is acceptable unto God.

A Living Sacrifice of Praise

Wednesday, April 20

Psalm 95

1 O come, let sing unto the Lord; let us make a joyful noise unto the Lord of our salvation.

2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms.

3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

When we do this, then will our prayers be set forth before Him as incense, and the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Such sacrifice when it is the spontaneous outflow of the whole being not only brings, but is salvation.

God Creates Thankfulness

Thursday, April 21

Colossians 3

15 Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in one body, and be thankful.

Note the form of this commandment, it is that of the word which creates. Thus, “Let there be light,” “Let there be a firmament,” etc. When God spoke thus to the matter that was wholly subject to Him, “it was so.”

Even so will He be with us, if we lend a willing ear when God says, “Let the peace of God rule your hearts,” and “Be thankful.”

We cannot make peace in our heart we can only allow Christ free sway there and “He is our peace.”

We cannot manufacture thankfulness; but we can meditate on God and His works, and thankfulness will spring up of itself.

Fulness of the Spirit Brings Thanks

Friday, April 22

Ephesians 5

18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Again the creative word. God will attend to it, if we will but let it be done. Our part is to stop hindering; for we can hinder the work of the Spirit, although we can do nothing to help it. Thanksgiving always for all things will come from one who is filled with the Spirit. It will come as naturally as babbling from one who is filled with wine.

The Thanks-filled Walk of Faith

Sabbath, April 23

Colossians 2

6 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in Him;

7 Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

How have we received Christ Jesus the Lord? By faith only. See John 1:13 and Ephesians 3:17. Therefore, we are to walk in Him by faith.

This does not mean that we are to imagine that we walk in Him, nor to make believe that we do, but actually to do it, and to do it by faith, the only way that it can be done either now or in eternity. Faith is certainty, and certainty begets thanksgiving; and this, in turn, creates abundance.

Saved To Give Thanks

Sunday, April 24

Psalm 106

47 Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto Your holy name, and to triumph in Your praise.

We triumph in God’s praise because it is His works that cause praise, and we triumph in the works of His hands.

God gives us and gathers us out from among the heathen (note that He doesn’t gather us and then save us, but saves us and gathers us), that we may give thanks. This shows that the essence of heaven—that which will make heaven for us—will be thanksgiving.

Hereby we may know how to have a section of heaven even here on this sin-cursed earth. The way is to thank God for all that He does for us.

Giving Thanks During Depression

Monday, April 25

Psalm 42 [margin]

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted in me? Hope in God, for I shall yet give Him thanks for the help of His countenance.

We must beware of reading this in such a way as to lead us to put off the time of thanksgiving. Not, I will yet, sometime in the future, give Him thanks, but I will yet, still, continually, thank Him for the help of His countenance, which is never withdrawn.

Praise for Deliverance

Tuesday, April 26

Psalm 79

11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before You; according to the greatness of Your power preserve those that are appointed to die [the children of death];

13 So we Your people and sheep of Your pasture will give You thanks forever; we will show forth Your praise to all generations.

Mark the words: “We will show forth Your praise to all generations,” not merely speak it. A prayer that God puts into mouths, as this one, is answered already.

Psalm 102

19 He has looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven will the Lord behold the earth;

20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.

When we sigh and groan for deliverance, God hears us, and hastens to our help. And He gives help, even His life.

God’s Victory is Ours

Wednesday, April 27

Psalm 98

1 O sing unto the Lord a new song; for He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him the victory.

Why should we sing because God’s right hand and holy arm have gained the victory for Him? Because His victory is ours. The Lord has made common cause with us, linking His fate with ours. Every assault on us, is an assault on Him.

Nay, more, He has assumed the sole responsibility, so that the battle is not ours, but God’s. Therefore, whenever tempted to doubt if you can ever gain the victory, forget yourself, and fall to wondering if God can withstand His foes. Oh, but there is no chance for wonder about that. He has the victory already. Then rejoice because you are safe.

God’s Help for the Poor

Thursday, April 28

Psalm 109

30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise Him among the multitude.

31 For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

God has especially chosen the poor, and:

Romans 8

33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.

34 Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

So we may say:

Isaiah 50

7 The Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

8 He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me?

God’s Strength is Ours

Friday, April 29

Psalm 21

13 Be exalted, O Lord, in Your own strength; so will we sing and praise Your power.

This is all that we need ask—that God will lift himself up in His own strength, above His enemies. That He can do it, does not admit of any doubt, because He rules the raging of the sea, and by the greatness of His might He keeps the infinite starry host. But He is our dwelling-place in all generations, and so shall our head be lifted up above our enemies round about; therefore will we offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy.

Praise Brings Abundance

Sabbath, April 30

Psalm 67

5 Let the people praise You, O God; let the people praise You.

6 Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our God, shall bless us.

How much depends upon praise and thanksgiving to God by the people! Let the people return to their allegiance to God, acknowledging Him in all their ways, and that alone would work a transformation in the face of the earth, such as no one could imagine.

Our Creator is Our Saviour

Daily Bread, May 1904

Blotting Out Our Sins

Sunday, May 1

Isaiah 13

25 I, even I, am He that blots out My transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember your sins.

These words are addressed to all who have made God to serve with their sins, and have wearied Him with their iniquities, and so stand in need of justification (see verses 24, 26).

The sins of all men are upon the Lord, whether they believe and acknowledge it or not; for all men and all things are borne by His life. Sins weary the Lord, and that is why He blots them out. It is for His own sake.

What blessed assurance this gives! Instead of our sin being too great for God to forgive, the greater it is, the more anxious, He is to blot it out and be free from it.

Removing Our Transgressions

Monday, May 2

Isaiah 44

22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and as a cloud, your sins.

By the sacrifice of Christ, reconciliation is made for the sins of the whole world; this sacrifice was made “from the foundation of the world;” “and He died for all.” God was “reconciling the world unto himself;” and by the obedience of Christ, who was always obedient, “the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.”

Our sins have separated us from God; but Christ has “broken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in His flesh the enmity;” so that there is nothing to separate any man from God.

Our Redeemer

Tuesday, May 3

Isaiah 44

22 Return unto Me for I have redeemed you.

This is the only condition on which anybody could possibly be induced to return to God. The reason why many people do not come to the Lord, is that they are afraid to, thinking that He wishes to punish them.

If a criminal knows that a charge has been made against him in court, and that he is wanted for a crime, he will not come into court, no matter how earnest the request. But if he be called upon to come to hear his innocence declared, he will come gladly.

So when God calls us to Himself, He gives us the assurance that He has redeemed us, and that He wants us to come only to receive the free pardon. What a pity that so few know this!

Nature and Redemption

Wednesday, May 4

Isaiah 44

23 Sing, O heaven for the Lord has done it; shout you lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree therein for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.

The heavens and earth are called up to sing and shout for joy because God has redeemed men. Why is this? What interest have they in man’s redemption? Just this: the power that upholds them is the power that redeems mankind.

The Gospel “is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believes;” and this divine power is manifested in “the things that are made.” Therefore, if God failed to redeem man, all creation would be wrecked, and would cease to exist.

But the Lord still upholds all things by the word of His power; and so we know that with the Lord there is plenteous redemption.

Believing

Thursday, May 5

John 20

27 Be not faithless, but believing.

What shall we believe?

Believe the truth.

Believe that God is.

Believe that He is the living God, the fountain of life.

Believe that He is the Almighty,—that “there is no power but of God,”—that all power in heaven and in earth is His.

Believe that “God is love,” and therefore all the power of God is mercy.

Believe that God “has visited and redeemed His people,” and that He calls men to Him to receive the redemption that is already theirs as a free gift

Then let us come in faith, rejoicing in His salvation.

Hope for All

Friday, May 6

Hebrews 1

3 When He had by himself purified our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high.

It was not only our sins that He purged, He made purification for sins in general.

1 John 2

2 He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

This is done “by Himself,” because there is none greater. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” so, as all are in the same condition, there could be no hope for one if there were not hope for all.

But we know that there is hope for some, for some have already been glorified in heaven; therefore every person on earth may know that His own redemption has been secured to Him in Christ.

Redeemed by the Creator

Sabbath, May 7

Hebrews 10

12 This Man [Christ], after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God;

13 From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.

The sacrifice has been made, and Jesus is now waiting,—resting from His works just as God did from His “when He surveyed” His work, and saw that it was “very good.” His work is perfect and glorious, and men have but to believe in it to make it theirs; for:

John 6

29 This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.

A new creation has been opened for all for all whom Christ died; and...

2 Corinthians 5

17 ...if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

No new sacrifice needs to be made, for the one “from the foundation the world” is amply sufficient. The fact that by this one sacrifice the world was made, gives us our confidence.

Psalm 124

8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

A Living Sacrifice

Sunday, May 8

Hebrews 10

14 For by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified.

This “one offering” is the body of Christ. But Christ is one with humanity as a whole, since He took human nature, and He is the “perfect Man.” He is “the Son of man.” This is the title by which Jesus always designated himself, and by it He identifies himself with every son of man in the world.

Apart from our body, His one offering could avail us nothing; but it is not apart from us; for:

Romans 10

8 The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart.

Therefore, by Jesus Christ, everybody, in offering his own body a “living sacrifice,” presents a sacrifice which is “holy, acceptable unto God.”

Christ is Greater than Flesh

Monday, May 9

Romans 8

23 Ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

If we receive Christ by faith, then we, with Him, enter into rest, waiting only until all our foes be made our footstool,—till the flesh itself be purified and glorified, and no sin be left in it to molest us.

Christ’s enemies rage against Him, yet He looks upon them calmly and unmoved. Even so we, although enemies in our flesh threaten to destroy us, may be of good cheer, knowing that Christ has overcome the world in our flesh.

Waiting for the Manifestation

Tuesday, May 10

Romans 8

19 For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.

In every experience we are but sharing and repeating the experience of Christ. When He was on earth He was the Son of God; yet scarcely any received Him as such. Even now “He is despised and rejected of men,” although He has entered into glory, because men do not see the glory now any more than they did nineteen centuries ago.

Christ is yet waiting the hour of His triumph, still sharing all our conflicts. But the work is complete, nevertheless, and the whole creation is, with Christ, only waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. There is no doubt about the new heavens and the new earth and we may be just as sure that we also shall “appear with Him in glory.”

Removing the Veil

Wednesday, May 11

Acts 10

15 What God has cleansed, do not call common.

When we view creation in the light of the cross, everything is even now glorified. Although there is a veil spread over all things, “the whole world is full of His glory,” and the everlasting power and divinity of the Creator may be seen in everything that He has made.

The glory of God may be seen in every wayside plant as truly as at Cana of Galilee or at the grave of Lazarus. In everything and in every person we may see the same miraculous life working, and find cause to praise the wonderful works of God.

Why should we be content to look at the unsightly veil, when underneath are unspeakable glories? Shall we not rather do all we can toward removing the veil?

No Difference

Thursday, May 12

Acts 10

28 God has showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

To speak about “the common people” is wholly unwarranted in Scripture. It is true our translators have given us the term in Mark 12:37, but without reason. The Greek is literally rendered in the margin of the Revision, “the great multitude.” Other versions than the English have it correctly.

To speak of the “lower classes” is to exalt ourselves and to dishonor the Lord, who has gone down to the lowest place, and who is to be recognized in every person.

If we should look upon the earth from a balloon a mile above it, we could not distinguish between high and low objects: even so God, who from the height of His sanctuary beholds the children of men, sees “no difference.”

Romans 3

9 Are we better than they? No, in no wise.

But...

Acts 15

11 ...through the grace of our Lord Jesus we shall be saved even as they.

Reconciling the World

Friday, May 13

2 Corinthians 5

19 God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.

We must not forget that redemption is the work of God the Creator. When men are injured they naturally seek a victim in the transgressor; but when God was sinned against, He offered Himself. He was not offended, requiring to be appeased, but He gave, and still gives His life to reconcile the world.

No man’s sins are imputed to him, but God has taken upon Himself the responsibility for every man’s transgressions. No man’s sins will ever be charged to him, unless the man deliberately takes them on himself, and will not let them go.

The Word of Reconciliation

Sabbath, May 14

2 Corinthians 5 [margin]

9 God has put in us the word of reconciliation.

Let us take heed that we do not reject this word, and refuse to hear it; for whosoever does not speak the word and perform the ministry of reconciliation, thereby takes his sin upon himself, and is guilty of the sin of the one whom he condemns.

God, in Christ, did not impute the trespasses of the world to them, and so we must not. Our part is only to announce the opening of the prison to those who are bound through their ignorance.

Saved by His Life

Sunday, May 15

Romans 5

10 If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

The sacrifice for sin has been made once for all. It is nothing less than the gift of God’s life. The sin of all the world was upon Him who upholds the worlds; and so, in giving himself, He atoned for the sins of the world.

God will not impute any man’s sins to him until the judgment shows that the man claims it as his own, and refuses to let it go. This being so, how surpassingly sure we are of being “saved by His life,” if we but receive it as freely as it is given.

The Saviour of All Men

1 Timothy 4

10 We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

However impossible it may seem to us, it is true that God is “the Saviour of all men.” This is at once our hope for ourselves, and our message of comfort to the world. All have been saved, and it only remains for them not to neglect so great salvation.

Those who will at last be lost will be like a man who, having been pulled from the fire, deliberately turns and rushes into it, and is consumed. God is the Saviour of all men, but especially of those that believe, because it is by living faith in the living God that men make their calling and election sure.

The Work of God

John 6

29 This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.

Redemption is creation; and creation, even a new creation, was complete from the foundation of the world. It is in the work of God’s hands that we triumph (Psalm 92:4):

Ephesians 2

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before prepared, that we should walk in them.

Everything has been done for our salvation that could be done; and it has been well done. Our part is only to accept the finished work. All the Lord’s works exist in Himself; by faith we receive Him; and by believing we have all His works.

Rest from Our Works

Hebrews 4

3 We which have believed do enter into rest.

This seeming contrast to John 6:29 is the exact counterpart of that text; for when one’s work is finished, there is nothing else to do but to rest.

Now there is no work that is good for anything except the work of God; so we must cease from our own works, and take His.

But nothing can be done, even by God himself, much less by us, to improve His work; therefore when we accept His work, and His only, we must have rest.

Entering into His Rest

Matthew 11

28 Come unto me, all you that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

This rest to which Jesus calls all the weary ones of earth is the rest which God took when He saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. Nothing could be added to it, and so He rested.

Ever since the close of creation week the rest has remained for the people of God; and in Jesus we find it. He upon whom the universe securely rests calls to us to repose in Him as confidingly.

Deuteronomy 33

27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

That hand which bears creation up

Shall guard His children well.

God’s Presence gives Rest

Exodus 33

14 My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.

These words of God are addressed to each one of us as truly as they were to Moses. God’s personal presence is with every one of us, whether we know it or not; and our failure to recognize that presence is all that keeps us from having rest.

We are inclined to depend upon ourselves, instead of upon God, and that is what makes our lives burdensome. When we learn and remember the fullness of the truth that we live and move and have our being in God, also learn what it means for God to work in us, both to will and to do His good pleasure, we shall have rest.

God Directs Our Steps

Psalm 37

5 Commit your way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.

The literal rendering is, “Roll your way upon the Lord.” Throw the responsibility of it upon Him, and He will bring it to pass. It may not be the way that you have marked out for yourself; it certainly will not be the way that you would go if you had the ordering of it; but it will be the right way.

Jeremiah 10

23 The way of a man is not in himself; it is not in man that walks to direct His steps.

Therefore it is the highest wisdom to leave it to the Lord, who knows the way, and who is Himself the way.

Thinking God’s Thoughts

Proverbs 3

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding.

There is wisdom in this; for:

1 Corinthians 1

25 The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Proverbs 28

26 He that trusts in his own heart is a fool.

Isaiah 55

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

And so much better is the way of the man who trusts in the Lord than the way of the man who counts himself wise. It is impossible to imagine the advantage which the man has, who allows God to think for him. Only such a man is in the truest sense a thinker.

Dependence is Independence

Proverbs 3

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths [or, shall make your way right].

Man has been called “a thinking animal,” but man has no more power of himself to originate real thought than a tree has.

1 Corinthians 3

20 The Lord knows the thoughts of the [professedly] wise, that they are vain.

Man is but dust, designed an instrument for God to use. This does not destroy individuality, but is real individuality. God’s presence in men constitutes their individuality; and because God is infinite, no two men are the same.

To the degree that a man allows God to use his brains, as well as the rest of his being, does he approach to “the perfect man.” He who thinks that he is independent, and will not acknowledge God, finally loses his manhood.

God Knows the Way

Psalm 32

8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go.

You may not feel that it is the way that you should go; but that makes no difference. The most of the time that the Israelites were in the wilderness, they felt that they were going wrong; yet:

Deuteronomy 1

33 He led them forth by the right way.

And He himself went in the way before them, to search out a place for them to pitch their tents.

What can you expect to know about the way, when you never have gone over it before? Leave it to God, and He will bring it to the right end as surely as He directs the underground root to the spring of water. Let Him do it today.

Freedom in Dependence

Psalm 33

8 I will guide you with My eye.

9 Be not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle.

The horse or mule will not come near or obey unless drawn with a bit and bridle; and the man who will not acknowledge God, and who will not be guided by God’s eye, is as destitute of understanding as they. God would have us free; but freedom can be found only in being the willing agent of His will.

God Conducts Our Business

Psalm 31

15 My times are in Your hand.

Our present and future are in the hand of the Lord. He knows the end from the beginning, while we do not know one moment ahead, nor even properly understand the present.

How safe we are with the great God to interest himself personally in our welfare; yet how often we act as if we were suspicious that He had designs against us, and we seek to take ourselves and our affairs out of His hands.

Men pay vast sums to a human agent to conduct their business for them, and yet reject the superhuman power that will do everything for us freely. Let us not be so foolish.

God is Prepared

Acts 15

18 Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.

God is never taken by surprise. Nothing takes place that He has not foreseen. He is always ready for all emergencies. He did not begin to build this earth and its inhabitants without, like a wise architect, knowing what each one was to do, or rather, what He designed to do with each one.

Why, then, should we ever get excited and flurried when unexpected things occur? They are unexpected only to us, and not to God. The Lord has from the beginning known what He would do in every case, just as He knew what He would do when He had a multitude of hungry people in the wilderness, with only five loaves for them.

God’s Faithfulness

1 Samuel 7

12 “Ebenezer.” Hitherto has the Lord helped us.

If He had not, we should not have been here. Many things seemed to us to be wholly against us at the time of their occurrence; but now we can see that they were best for us, even as Jacob and Joseph could in looking back over their lives. Their greatest reverses were their greatest blessings.

God is just as good and powerful now as He was then, and He has not led us thus far to forsake us.

His love in times past

Forbids me to think

He’ll leave me at last,

In sorrow to sink.

A Commandment to Save

Psalm 71

3 You have given commandment to save me.

This is one of the commandments that we are to “keep;” that is, hold fast to. Never lose sight of the truth that God is not willing that any should perish; that He is the Saviour; and that He has His eye upon us individually, noting every danger.

Angels that “excel in strength,” who “do His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His Word,” (Psalm 103:20) are sent forth to minister unto us, to encamp round about us, and to deliver us from every peril.

His commandment is to save us, and His commandment is life everlasting. Surely the knowledge of this commandment ought to save us from all despondency.

Remembering the Works of the Lord

Psalm 77

10 I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High, I will remember the works of the Lord:

11 Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.

Psalm 118

16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

And how long has the Lord’s right hand been employed doing wonderful things? From eternity. We cannot count the years; we can only remember that God has promised to uphold us with the right hand of His righteousness (Isaiah 41:10), and that it can never fail.

Recall what God has done; meditate on the works of His hands: and you will know something of what it still does, and will do.

The Lord Our Maker

Psalm 146

5 Happy is he that has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God,

6 Which made heaven, earth, and the sea, and all that therein is.

Nothing is too hard for God, who made heaven and earth.

Isaiah 40

28 Have you not known? have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? there is no searching His understanding.

29 He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increases strength.

Psalm 100

3 It is He that has made us.

And He will not forsake the works of His hands. Then:

Psalm 95

6 Come let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

Psalm 23, 27, 16 & 17

Daily Bread, June 1904

The Lord is My Shepherd

Wednesday, June 1

Psalm 23

1 The Lord is my shepherd.

It is a great help to know and remember, in repeating these familiar words, that the word here rendered “Lord” is Jehovah—the Living One—the One who is—the I AM. Jehovah is my shepherd. Place the emphasis on both “Jehovah” and “my;” the One who inhabits eternity, whose word creates, has devoted His life to caring for me.

The word “Shepherd” is rendered from a word meaning “to feed”. A sheep, above all other domestic animals, requires gentle treatment; brusque, harsh usage disconcerts it. It cannot be driven, but must be led; and only the one who feeds and cares for it can lead it.

From the fact that the two greatest rulers in Israel—Moses and David—were shepherds, and that the King of the universe is the “Great Shepherd,” we may know God’s idea of royal authority, of fitness to rule. In God’s mind, to rule is not to domineer, but to use power in service. Our Shepherd combines infinite power and infinite tenderness. He feeds the flock with His own body, and thus demonstrates His right to rule.

Sufficient in God

Thursday, June 2

Psalm 23

1 ...I shall not want.

Wherever He may guide me,

No want shall turn me back;

My Shepherd is beside me,

And nothing can I lack.

How can we lack, when all things come of Him and are in Him, and He gives us himself. But everything depends on a proper understanding of what it is to be in want and not to want. The one who is content in whatever state he is, never knows want; while the discontented person is always suffering from want. The epitaph over a miser says that:

Content was never once his guest,

Though twice ten thousand filled his chest;

So this poor man, with all his store,

Fed in great want—the want of more.

But he who knows Whom he has believed, knows that there is nothing more, so wants no more.

Safety and Abundance

Friday, June 3

Psalm 23

2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

Two things are suggested by this verse: abundance of provision, and nothing to fear. An old shepherd was once asked when his sheep lay down, and he replied:

“When they have eaten and have nothing to frighten them.”

Those who dwell in the house of the Lord, as this psalm indicates, “shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness” of it (Psalm 36:8); and though the devil as a roaring lion goes about seeking to devour the flock, the knowledge that they are inside and he outside, precludes all fear.

Isaiah 30

15 Thus says the Lord, in returning and rest shall you saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.

Living Fountains of Water

Sabbath, June 4

Psalm 23

2 ...He leads me beside the still water.

We read of those who serve the Lord day and night in His temple:

Revelation 7

16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more...

17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.

For:

Isaiah 33

21 There the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams.

Israel’s experience in the desert (compare Exodus 17:1-7 with 1 Corinthians 10:4) shows that we may have this experience in this world as well as in that which is to come.

Jehovah is our Shepherd now as surely as He will ever be; and living waters of rest are our portion now as truly as they will be then, when with the eyes of our spiritual bodies we see God’s face and the crystal river flowing from His throne.

Soul Restoration

Sunday, June 5

Psalm 23

3 He restores my soul.

To restore is to bring back; so when we have wandered out of the way, the Lord kindly brings us back, even at the expense of His own life.

Isaiah 53

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him [has taken on himself] the iniquity of us all.

This bringing back is our restoration to life—our deliverance from sin and all its consequences.

Psalm 103

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits;

3 Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases;

4 Who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Paths of Righteousness

Monday, June 6

Psalm 23

3 ...He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Still “He leads me.” The paths of righteousness lie beside the still waters. It is not in warfare and strife that righteousness is gained.

James 1

20 The wrath of man works not the righteousness of God.

This does not mean that we should become hermits or go into cloisters, but that in the midst of the strife of tongues we, walking with Christ, should be kept “secretly in a pavilion” (Psalm 31:20).

Jesus was unmoved by false accusation and the clamor of the multitude for His life. His own righteousness and peace He gives us for His name’s sake. He himself is glorified by His own gifts. This is our safeguard against discouragement in view of our own unworthiness.

Life in the Presence of Death

Tuesday, June 7

Psalm 23

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.

While it is certainly true that the Lord is with the trusting ones who go down into the grave, for they sleep in Him, it is no less certain that this verse especially contemplates the Lord’s presence with us in the valley of the shadow of death, in order that we may pass through it alive. His presence with us means life to us...

Deuteronomy 30

20 ...for He is your life, and the length of your days.

He is “alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18), and He says:

John 14

19 ...because I live, you shall live also.

Isaiah 9

2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined.

And that light is “the light of life.” John 8:2. Have you seen the light? According to your faith, so be it unto you.

Food in the Presence of Enemies

Wednesday, June 8

Psalm 23

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

What could be more expressive of perfect security than this statement? Enemies are raging round us, yet in the face of their threatened attack we quietly sit down to the table which the Lord prepares for us. They come upon us to eat our flesh, and we in safety eat the good things of the Lord’s house.

When the wicked surround the New Jerusalem, intending to capture it and to destroy its inhabitants (Revelation 20:7-9), those who are inside will be no safer than those are now who put their trust in God. He serves them now, even as He will then. See Luke 12:37.

What a wonder! The King of glory not only catering for His subjects, but himself waiting upon them at table! What more could He do?

The Oil of Joy

Thursday, June 9

Psalm 23

5 You anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over.

This oil is “the oil of gladness” (Psalm 45:7), the “joy in the Holy Ghost” (Romans 14:17), which constitutes the kingdom of God. Christ is anointed to give...

Isaiah 61

3 ...beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

Those who are thus anointed are kings, reigning in life with Christ. The cheerful person is king indeed; if his cheerfulness comes from trust in God, nothing is impossible for Him. He has enough and to spare; his cup overflows to others, because the Lord, in whom is all fullness, is the portion of his inheritance and of his cup.

Psalm 16

5 The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: you maintain my lot.

Goodness and Mercy

Friday, June 10

Psalm 23

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

The Hebrew warrants the rendering given in some versions: “Only goodness and mercy shall follow me.” How can it be otherwise, when…

Romans 8

28 ...all things work together for good to them that love God.

Let good or ill befall,

It must be good for me,

Secure of having Thee in all,

Of having all in Thee.

And this goodness and mercy that follow us are God’s own self.

Exodus 34

6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Wherever we go, His goodness and mercy pursue us—run after us.

Psalm 139

7 Where shall I go from Your Spirit? or where shall I flee from Your presence?

8 If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

10 Even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.

In the House of the Lord

Sabbath, June 11

Psalm 23

6 ...I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

In whatever desert place we are, and however stony our bed, the Lord is in that place, whether we know it or not, and therefore it is His house. His presence makes “the dry land springs of water” (Isaiah 41:18), and so even in the barren land we walk beside the still waters, and lie down in green pastures. For...

Hebrews 12

22 ...you are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God.

It is a good place to dwell; for...

Psalm 92

13 ...those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing.

The Lord is My Light

Sunday, June 12

Psalm 27

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

The one message for this and all time is:

1 John 1

5 God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

He is the light of the world—all the light there is. His light is “the light of life” (John 8:12). This is why the light is the greatest healing agency known.

There can be no life where there is no light; but it has been discovered that light can penetrate everywhere, and that light shines forth from even the most opaque bodies.

God, however, is all light, and therefore He is the Saviour, the Healer. Having Him, there is no room to question if we shall be saved; we are then already saved, because He is our salvation.

The Lord is My Strength

Monday, June 13

Psalm 27

1 The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

The song for God’s people in the time of trouble is:

Isaiah 12

2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid.

The only remedy against fear is the knowledge that God is our strength and our salvation. Whoever trusts to the strength which he imagines that he has in and of himself, is sure sooner or later to fail through fear. But he who knows and acknowledges God as his sole strength cannot fail nor be frightened, because he knows that God cannot fail. The Rock of Ages stands firm.

But this means the constant recognition of the fact that we have no strength of brain or muscle apart from God; that it is in Him that we live and move. How gladly we should make this acknowledgment, since it means so much for us.

The Lord is My Defense

Tuesday, June 14

Psalm 27

2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

In John 18:3-6 we read how it was with those who came out against Christ. The power that was in Him made them fall to the ground. Afterward He went with them voluntarily; but the incident shows us how impossible it is even for armed foes to do anything against those whose strength is wholly the Lord’s, and who trust in Him alone.

We have nothing to do with defending ourselves against either weapons or words that devour, when we take God for our defense.

Fearless in the Face of War

Wednesday, June 15

Psalm 27

3 Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

In what shall we be confident when war arises against us? Simply in this, that the Lord is our light and our salvation and the strength of our life.

In 2 Kings chapter 6 we have the account of an army that came out against a single unarmed man. He had no fear, because he knew that invisible army for Him was far greater than the visible army against Him.

Neither swords nor cannon balls can pierce or break down the defense which God’s word forms round the child of God.

The storm may rage around me,

My heart may low be laid;

But God is round about me,

And can I be dismayed?

Behold the Beauty of the Lord

Thursday, June 16

Psalm 27

4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.

Jeremiah 45

5 Do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not.

That is, success in life does not consist in doing, but in being. It is not well to be so intent on doing some great work that we have no time to behold and appreciate the beauty of the Lord.

It is “not by works done in righteousness which we have done” (Titus 3:5), but by looking—looking unto Jesus—that we are saved. Time spent in beholding the beauty of the Lord is not wasted; for it is only when the beauty of the Lord is upon us that the work of our hands is established.

Psalm 90

17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish it.

Safe in His Pavilion

Friday, June 17

Psalm 27

5 In the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of the tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock.

This is why the one thing to be desired is to dwell in the house of the Lord, to behold the beauty of the Lord. Only in the Lord’s house can we behold His beauty and when we dwell in His house we are sure to be safe in the time of trouble, for we shall be out of the enemy’s reach.

When we are in the secret of the Lord’s tabernacle, we are hidden. We can see the enemy, but the enemy cannot see us. Read the ninety-first psalm, to learn of the security of the Lord’s secret place.

Psalm 91

1 He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.

3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

4 He shall cover you with his feathers, and under His wings shall you trust: His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

5 You shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flies by day;

6 Nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.

7 A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come nigh you.

8 Only with your eyes shall you behold and see the reward of the wicked.

9 Because you have made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, your habitation;

10 There shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come nigh your dwelling.

11 For He shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.

12 They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

13 You shall tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shall you trample under feet.

14 Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he has known My name.

15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him.

16 With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation.

Songs for Victory to Come

Sabbath, June 18

Psalm 27

6 And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.

It is with “songs of deliverance” that the Lord compasses us about.

Psalm 32

7 You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall compass me about with songs of deliverance.

That is to say, our safety is in singing the praises of God,—not in merely singing songs that somebody else has written, and which may mean nothing to us, but in singing and making melody in the heart, sometimes even without words, but always with the spirit and with the understanding.

It is not enough to praise the Lord for what He has done for us; true faith gives Him thanks for deliverance yet to come, with the enemies all round us. It was when Israel sang and gave thanks to God for His ever enduring mercy that God set ambushments against their enemies. Read 2 Chronicles 20.

2 Chronicles 20

1 It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.

2 Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There comes a great multitude against you from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they be in Hazazon–tamar, which is En–gedi.

3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

4 And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the Lord: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

5 And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court,

6 And said, O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven? and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand You?

7 Are You not our God, who did drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the seed of Abraham Your friend for ever?

8 And they dwelt therein, and have built You a sanctuary therein for Your name, saying,

9 If, when evil comes upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in Your presence, (for Your name is in this house,) and cry unto You in our affliction, then You will hear and help.

10 And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom You would not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not;

11 Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of Your possession, which You have given us to inherit.

12 O our God, will You not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that comes against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon You.

13 And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

14 Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation;

15 And he said, Hearken, all Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you king Jehoshaphat, Thus says the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

16 Tomorrow go down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and you shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel.

17 You shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.

18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord.

19 And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high.

20 And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established; believe His prophets, so shall you prosper.

21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endures for ever.

22 And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.

23 For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.

24 And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.

25 And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much.

26 And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the Lord: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah, unto this day.

27 Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies.

28 And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord.

29 And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel.

30 So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about.

An Inspired Prayer

Sunday, June 19

Psalm 27

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice; have mercy also upon me and deliver me.

Do not read this as though it meant that you are obliged to beg and entreat the Lord to listen to you, and that you must by your importunity break down His reluctance to hear and deliver. He is always more anxious to save every man than any man is to be saved.

But this is a petition inspired by the Holy Spirit, who helps our infirmities by teaching us what to ask for. This prayer, therefore, is the Spirit’s assurance that the Lord will hear and deliver us.

Seeking His Face

Monday, June 20

Psalm 27

8 When You said; Seek My face, my heart said, Your face, Lord, will I seek.

Yes, we may make that response, but where shall we look for Him, that we may see His face? Have no anxiety on that score; the Lord is looking for you; and all you have to do to see Him is to look up. He says:

Isaiah 40

26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things.

God has placed men where they are...

Acts 17

27 ...that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us.

There is danger that we may not feel after Him; but if we do reach out our hand, we are sure straightway to find His.

Desiring God’s Presence

Tuesday, June 21

Psalm 27

9 Hide not Your face far from me; put not Your servant away in anger: You have been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.

Here we have another inspired direction what to pray for with positive assurance that our petition will be granted, because we ask according to God’s will. He himself has said:

Hebrews 13

5 I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Therefore when we ask Him not to leave us, we are not trying to induce Him to stay with us, but, if we pray with the spirit and the understanding, we are expressing our willingness and desire to have His presence. He has helped us, and that is sufficient proof that He will still help us.

God is My Inheritance

Wednesday, June 22

Psalm 16

5 The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; You have been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.

This is what everyone receives who gives up himself. How can it be called “giving up,” when infinitely more is received in return? To Abraham God said:

Genesis 15

1 I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward.

Now...

Galatians 3

29 If you be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

That is, you are “heirs of God,”—not of His possessions, but of Himself. Think what it means to have God for your portion,—to inherit His life and character,—until the greatness of the thought fills your soul.

A Goodly Heritage

Thursday, June 23

Psalm 16

6 The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

Here we have the idea of our inheritance surveyed, and our portion allotted us. The lines have been run, and there is nothing to hinder us from taking possession of our “goodly heritage.”

How extensive is it? It includes all creation; for…

Colossians 1

17 ...in Him all things consist.

This is why the Christian will not contend for his rights; there is nothing to fight for, because he has all things in God, and no one can deprive Him of God.

Immovable

Friday, June 24

Psalm 16

8 I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Who has power to “set the Lord” always before him? Can anybody move the Lord about at will? Can one bring the Lord down from above, and set Him at his right hand? Certainly not: but one can recognize the abiding presence, and be established by it, as no one can who does not know that the Lord is in the place.

Be sure that if God is at your right hand, He will take hold of it: that is the reason why you will not fall. No matter where we are, even though it be “in the uttermost parts of the sea” (Psalm 139:9), even there shall His right hand hold us.

Unshaken as the sacred hills,

And fixed as mountains stand,

Firm as a rock the soul shall rest.

That trusts the Almighty hand.

The Path of Life and Joy

Sabbath, June 25

Psalm 16

11 You will show me the path of life: in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

If God is always before us, even at our right hand, and there is “fullness of joy” in His presence, surely we ought always to be full of joy. And so we should, if we only in our minds set Him always before us. Our joy is full when we have...

1 John 1

3 ...fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

This joy comes from seeing and knowing the Word of life. This is the path of life, for the living Word is both the water and the life. When God shows us the path of life, it is only that we may walk in it; and if we walk in the path of life we must surely live.

Kept from the Paths of Death

Sunday, June 26

Psalm 17

4 Concerning the works of men, by the word of Your lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

In this text and the last one we have two paths set before us—the path of life and the path of the destroyer. But however many those paths of death may be, we may keep ourselves from them all by the words of the Lord’s mouth, always provided that we search for and find those words and feed upon them.

Kept From Slipping

Monday, June 27

Psalm 17

5 Hold up my goings in Your paths, that my footsteps slip not.

What a grand assurance this inspired prayer is that God will hold us, so that our footsteps will not slip. This He is sure to do, if we walk in His paths. This is walking with God.

How blessed to start out in the morning, too weak to stand alone, and not knowing the way that we are to go, and yet to know that all the day our feet will not slip, that we shall be led “by the right way” (Psalm 107:7), where we may “walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31.

Saved from Enemies

Tuesday, June 28

Psalm 17

7 Show Your marvelous lovingkindness, O You that save by Your right hand them which put their trust in You from those that rise up against them.

All that is necessary, in order that we may be comforted by this text, is for us to know the simple rendering of it as given in the margin.

“God saves them that put their trust in Him, from those who rise up against His right hand.”

Enemies may think that they are fighting against us, but the Lord has declared that it is He that they are rising up against, and not us. You cannot for a moment suppose that it is possible for any enemy to break down the guard of God’s right hand; then why need we worry over what enemies are trying to do to us?

The Apple of the Eye

Wednesday, June 29

Psalm 17

8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of Your wings,

9 From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

The whole Bible contains no more expressive figure of safe keeping than this, that God keeps us as the apple of the eye. How closely we guard our eyes, and even though we be off our guard, it is almost impossible for a blow to come so suddenly that the eyelid will not close down to protect the eyeball. Even so carefully does God guard those who take refuge under His wings.

Satisfied to Look Upon God

Thursday, June 30

Psalm 17

15 I will behold Your face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Your likeness.

Note the exact wording and the punctuation of the text. It is not, as often quoted, that we shall be satisfied when we awake in His likeness. That would be the expression of selfishness.

The statement is that when we awake to “see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2), we shall be so satisfied with the sight that we shall have no desire to look at anything else. Our highest bliss, our greatest reward, will be that we shall see His face.

But unless we learn to discern His countenance here, and get some glimpses of His beauty, we cannot know that the fullness of His glory will be all-satisfying. It is what we see now that makes us want to see Him constantly.

Psalm 30, 31, 33, 35 & 37

Daily Bread, July 1904

Victory by Faith

Friday, July 1

Psalm 30

1 I will extol You, O Lord; for You have lifted me up, and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.

It should be remembered that we do not have to wait until the end before we can use these words. David’s enemies were not all dead, by any means; but, trusting in the Lord, he was as sure of the final outcome as if all conflicts were over.

Remember this, that even though our enemies do rejoice over us, and taunt us with our seeming defeat and their victory, it is not the Lord who has caused them to do so; and nothing can stand except that which the Lord does. Only the word of the Lord endures forever, and He has spoken peace to us.

Thanking in Advance

Sabbath, July 2

Psalm 30

2 O Lord, my God, I cried unto You, and You have healed me.

You say:

“But I have cried unto the Lord for healing, and He hasn’t healed me!”

The reason for it is plainly to be seen in the doubt implied in your complaint. We are too apt to forget that true prayer consists of cries of joy and thanksgiving, as well as of desire. The thanksgiving must be expressed before the desired end is in sight, for nothing else is compatible with faith.

The free gift of life—healing life—has been bestowed upon all; the faith that profits by the gift thanks God for it before the senses perceive it. The ten lepers were not healed until, in obedience to Christ’s instructions, they were on their way to the high priest to get his certificate to their healing.

Brought Up From the Grave

Sunday, July 3

Psalm 30

3 O Lord, You have brought up my soul from the grave: You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

This is true of every person on earth, even of those who have never suffered from any severe illness. Our very existence is evidence of God’s power manifested in raising the dead. The apostle Paul, speaking of Christ’s death and resurrection, says:

Ephesians 4

9 Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

And the psalmist, speaking of his own birth, says:

Psalm 139

15 My substance was not hid from You, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

All who die go back to the earth from which they were taken. Everybody who is alive may, therefore, with all his heart give expression to the words of our text for today.

Super-Abounding Grace

Monday, July 4

Psalm 30

3 Sing unto the Lord, O you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness;

4 For His anger endures but a moment; in His favor is life.

We are to give thanks at the remembrance or memorial of God’s holiness; and the evidence of His holiness is the fact that His grace far exceeds His wrath. Where sin abounds, grace super-abounds. Almost, if not quite, all other versions than the English render verse 5 as in the margin of the Revision:

“His anger endures but a moment; but His favor a lifetime.”

God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children in whom the same iniquities are manifested, but only to the third and fourth generations; while He shows mercy to thousands of generations of those that keep His commandments.

Weeping

Tuesday, July 5

Isaiah 30

5 Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

“Endure” is too strong a word to apply to weeping, and the Hebrew text does not warrant it in this place. The Norwegian version has it,

“In the evening weeping comes as a guest.”

This agrees with the margin of our Revised Version, which gives the following literal rendering of the Hebrew:

“Weeping may come in to lodge at even.”

Why does it come at evening? Because in the dark, and especially when we are weary, we are likely to be cast down by that which, in the freshness of the morning light, is seen to be of no consequence.

Weeping does not come to stay; and if we would only look at evening and see things in the light of day, as becomes children of the day, we should not even give it a night’s lodging. We need not, for we are told to:

Philippians 4

4 Rejoice in the Lord always.

Prosperity and Faith

Wednesday, July 6

Psalm 30

6 In my prosperity, I said, I shall never be moved.

That is better than many do; for it is not uncommon for people to mar all their manifest prosperity by fears of future ill. Still there isn’t much virtue in feeling confident when there is no adversity in sight.

Far better is it to have our eyes open to see God always before us, and to know that because He is at our right hand in trouble, “a very present help” (Psalm 46:1), we shall not be moved even by the storm and cloud of affliction.

Immovable

Thursday, July 7

Psalm 30

7 Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountains to stand strong.

That is why we can say with confidence, not only in prosperity, but in adversity as well:

Psalm 30

6 I shall never be moved.

Psalm 125

1 They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abides forever.

2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever.

It is better to have the Lord round about us than to be surrounded with mountain fortifications; for He sets the mountains fast by His power, and:

Psalm 95

4 ...the strength of the hills is His also.

Trading Sackcloth for Praise

Friday, July 8

Psalm 30

11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing: You have put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.

Many sincere people have clothed themselves with sackcloth, or worn hair shirts, supposing that they would thereby please God, and win His favor.

Others who do not actually put on the sackcloth, go about with as drawn and pitiful expressions as if they had it on, because they think that a smiling face is displeasing to heaven.

All such should learn that God never clothes people with sackcloth. None need think to gain His favor by torturing themselves. If all would but submit to Him, and allow Him to have His own way with them, He would speedily give them...

Isaiah 61

3 ...beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

A Friend in Adversity

Sabbath, July 9

Psalm 31

7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy: for You have considered my trouble; You have known my soul in adversities.

There are many “fair-weather friends” in this world; but the Lord is not one of them. He is not one who is friendly in our prosperity, but who does not know us in adversity.

Yet many people regard Him as such, thinking and saying when trouble comes that God has forgotten them. He cannot forget us in affliction, because He himself suffers it.

It is not merely that He shares our affliction; the case is just the reverse; all trouble comes primarily on the Lord, and when we suffer we but share a portion of His suffering. Assured that God knows us in adversity, we may be unmoved though supposed friends know us not.

Set at Liberty

Sunday, July 10

Psalm 31

8 You have not shut me up into the hands of the enemy; You have set my feet in a large room.

The Lord delights in liberty, and never deprives anybody of it. It is Satan that keeps a prison; the Lord has none. Moreover, it is absolutely impossible for the enemy to shut up anybody against his will; for nothing can succeed except what the Lord does, and He, instead of shutting people up, opens the prison doors.

2 Corinthians 3

17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty;

And His Spirit is everywhere (Psalm 139:7-10). God fills all things (Jeremiah 23:24); therefore the soul that dwells in God, has unlimited room.

Mercy in Time of Trouble

Monday, July 11

Psalm 31

9 Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble.

This is our recommendation to the mercy of the Lord. It is our rags, our filth, our hunger, our sickness, and our forsaken condition that plead for us with Him; and no such plea is ever made in vain.

James 5

11 The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

And where He sees affliction, He is always “moved with compassion.” Mark 6:34. If we are in trouble and distress, then we may be sure that the Lord is more attentive to us, if possible, than at any other time.

2 Corinthians 1

4 [He] comforts us in all our tribulation.

The Gospel is Power

Tuesday, July 12

Psalm 33

6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

1 Peter 1

25 And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.

The last announcement of the Gospel message, the fullness of it, to prepare people for the coming of the Lord, calls upon them to worship God especially as the one who made heaven and earth and sea. Revelation 14:6-7.

The reason for this is that the Gospel is the application of the power of creation to human lives. He who can create can do anything: and those who always recognize God’s eternal power and divinity, and who continually worship Him as Creator, can never depart from Him, nor be overcome by the enemy.

God’s Power in Nature

Wednesday, July 13

Psalm 33

8 Let all the earth fear Me Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him;

9 For He spoke and it was, He commanded and it stood fast.

No one can see the great mountains, or view the sea when the storm has lashed it to fury, without a feeling of awe; but the power that inspires this awe is that of God.

Jeremiah 5

22 Do you not fear Me? says the Lord: will you not tremble at My presence, which has placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

He who can make the shifting sand a bound for the mighty waves of the sea, can make feeble humanity a bulwark against the rage of Satan.

God’s Promises Will Prevail

Thursday, July 14

Psalm 33

11 The counsel of the Lord stands for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations.

The Lord can never be taken by surprise or thrown into confusion. That which He has promised, He is fully able to perform. Every purpose of His will be carried out to the minutest detail, no matter who or how many set themselves against it. Read the text for today, and then remember that...

Ephesians 1 [RV]

11 ...we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His will.

And His thoughts toward us are...

Jeremiah 29

11 ...thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Our Cause is His

Friday, July 15

Psalm 35

1 Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.

The reader should know that the word rendered “plead” in this verse is in the Hebrew text identical with the one rendered “strive;” thus the literal rendering is given in the Revision:

“Strive, O Lord, with them that strive with me.”

The sum of the matter is that God makes Himself responsible for our case, and proposes to do all our fighting for us. Whoever attacks us has God to contend with; His victory is our victory; and we may be confident in the assurance that in order to overcome us while we are trusting in God, the devil would have to overcome God himself.

The Lord Defends Us

Sabbath, July 16

Psalm 35

2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help.

No prayer for help can ever be offered to the Lord in vain. We may make foolish requests—requests for things that would be harmful for us. But no cry of need, no plea for help in trouble, no matter from whom, was ever unheeded by the Lord.

Whoever asks for help, asks according to God’s will, and may be sure of receiving that for which he asks. What a comfort to know that whenever any foes assail us, God himself takes His weapons and stands up for our defense.

Faith Better Than Weapons

Sunday, July 17

Psalm 35

3 Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me.

How often, when we are in trouble, if our eyes could be opened to discern spiritual realities, we should see a column of armed warriors standing between us and the enemy, guarding us from danger.

The province of faith is to enable us to see them, even when they are invisible, and to give us the same sense of security as if with our natural eyes we saw God with a spear in His hand, stopping the way of our pursuers.

The devil knows that he has no power against the Lord, and will not attempt to make any stand against Him; but he endeavors by roaring to frighten us so that we will flee from our place of shelter, and allow him to seize us when we are defenseless.

The Lord is Salvation

Monday, July 18

Psalm 35

3 Say unto my soul, I am your salvation.

We must not think that by this prayer we induce God to speak words of encouragement to us that He has not before thought of. It is He who teaches us to pray.

The need of which we are conscious, and which moves us to ask for help, is known to us only by God’s offer of the help which will supply it. This prayer is only for the purpose of making us realize that the great God himself is indeed our salvation.

It is not enough to say that He saves us: He is the salvation, saving by His own life.

Divine Intervention

Tuesday, July 19

Psalm 35

4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul, let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.

Although David wrote this psalm, the Spirit of Christ in him (compare 2 Samuel 22:1-2 and 1 Peter 1:10-11) prompted the words. This, therefore, is Christ’s own prayer, not a prayer for himself alone, but one which He utters in and for afflicted humanity.

When the mob came out against Jesus, they went backward and fell to the ground as soon as He spoke (John 18:6). Our text teaches us that it may be even the same with those who come out against us.

We must not wait until we see such things ourselves, before we trust; but the words of the Lord must beget such confidence in us that we shall see them.

God is Our Defense

Wednesday, July 20

Psalm 35

5 Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord chase them.

Our faith in God’s protecting care is assured by the completeness with which we commit the keeping of ourselves to Him. To worry about the future, about support and protection, is the characteristic of heathenism. See Matthew 6:31-32.

Our confidence in God as our defense is shown by our refraining from trying to defend ourselves. Whenever we undertake to defend ourselves from any kind of attack, we show that we do not believe that God will put our persecutors to flight, and save us.

Praise During Warfare

Thursday, July 21

Psalm 35

9 And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in His salvation.

When will the soul be joyful in God, and rejoice in His salvation? At the very time when God is fighting for it; that is, even while the battle is raging.

We shall not withhold our praises until we see the outcome, but, even before the battle begins, we shall be so sure that the victory will be ours that we shall sing for joy.

It is with the praise of the helpless that God stills the enemy and the avenger. Compare Psalm 8:2 and Matthew 21:16.

Turning Defeat to Victory

Friday, July 22

Psalm 35

10 All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto You, which delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoils him?

Note that the deliverance spoken of in this psalm is from physical as well as from spiritual ills. “All my bones” shall rejoice in salvation.

Note also that God delivers the poor and needy from those who are spoiling him. We are not to lose heart, and think that God has failed us, even if we are being plundered; for it is as easy for God to turn defeat into victory as it is to repulse the destroyer before he has attacked us.

Prosperity for the Afflicted and Friends

Sabbath, July 23

Psalm 35

27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favor my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which has pleasure in the prosperity of His servants.

Remember that God takes no pleasure in our adversity; it pleases Him to see us prosperous. The first psalm assures us that those who wholly trust the Lord, not in any way interposing their way against His, shall have prosperity in all things. That is, the Lord brings only prosperity; even adversity in His hands works good.

It is important, also, to remember that blessings come not only to the one in trouble, but also to those who favor his cause. This should teach us always to sympathize with the afflicted, and to take the part of the oppressed.

Contentment, not Envy

Sunday, July 24

Psalm 37

1 Fret not yourself because of evil doers, neither be envious against the workers of iniquity.

It is very foolish to be envious at the prosperity of others. We should rejoice at the prosperity of the righteous, whatever our own circumstances; and if the wicked seem to prosper, we should remember that it cannot last.

If we envy them, we are in reality desiring to share in their downfall; for:

Psalm 92

7 When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever.

The only wise course is to be content with what we have.

Safety and Security Come From Trust

Monday, July 25

Psalm 37 [RV, margin]

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall you dwell in the land, and feed securely.

Do not think that our dwelling in the land is pay for our good deeds; we do good only as the result of trusting in the Lord; and this trust is what causes us to dwell safely in the land, with sufficient for our needs.

The land that God has promised for our inheritance is the new earth; but this is no bar to a present application of the promise; for the greater includes the less, and it is a light thing for God, who gives eternal riches and salvation; to keep us in safety and supply our wants for the little time we have here.

All Wants Supplied

Tuesday, July 26

Psalm 37

4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

This is self-evident. Whosoever can say from the heart:

Psalm 73

25 Whom have I in heaven but you? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside you,

...is sure to have every want satisfied; for God is the portion of His people. What a blessed condition, to have no want that is not supplied! Such a person is richer than any millionaire.

God is Our Plan Maker

Wednesday, July 27

Psalm 37

5 Commit your way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.

Jeremiah 10

23 It is not in man that walks to direct His steps;

But...

Psalm 18

32 It is God that girds me with strength, and makes my way perfect.

If we commit our way to the Lord, it may not, and most likely will not, come out as we would have made it if we could; but it will be the right way, and we shall say that it is just as we would have it.

If we commit our way unto the Lord, we must leave it wholly with Him, and not prescribe to Him how He shall order it.

Light from Darkness

Thursday, July 28

Psalm 37

6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday.

It makes no difference if the blackness of sin has blotted out all our righteousness; even then if we trust in God He will make our righteousness appear, even covering us with it, because it is God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that shines in our hearts.

Nothing hinders the Lord; out of the most faulty material He can produce a perfect structure.

Worry is Evil

Friday, July 29

Psalm 37

8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not yourself in any wise to do evil.

This is how we usually read it; but we shall understand it better if we read it thus, as in the Revision:

“Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.”

If we fret and worry, it is only to do evil. Fretting is to take our cause out of God’s hands, and the end can only be evil.

Isaiah 30

15 In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.

Earth Given to the Poor

Sabbath, July 30

Psalm 37

11 The meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

This is the same as Matthew 5:5; but we miss much of the blessedness of the promise by not grasping fully the force of the word “meek.”

Isaiah 61

1 He has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek.

Compare the above with Christ’s quotation of it:

Luke 4

16 He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

By comparing these, we see that the promise of the earth is to those who have nothing. God has chosen “the poor of this world, rich in faith,” to be heirs of the kingdom. James 2:5. Such persons are only seemingly poor.

God Defends the Just

Sunday, July 31

Psalm 37

12 The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes upon Him with his teeth.

13 The Lord shall laugh at him: for He sees that his day is coming.

This text furnishes the clearest proof that whoever plots against any of God’s people is plotting against God himself. God laughs at the plotter, and at his rage not because He is indifferent, but because He knows that it is all senseless.

The wicked think that they have only defenseless mortals to fight against, when the attack is on the everlasting God. It is a vain thing that they imagine; for even while they take counsel together against the just, the Lord declares the decree:

Psalm 2

6 Yet have I set My king upon My holy hill of Zion.

That “whosoever will” may apply to himself all the promises of Psalm 2:6-9, is evident from:

Revelation 22

17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Psalm 20, 116 & 121

Daily Bread, August 1904

Prayers Answered in Time of Trouble

Monday, August 1

Psalm 20

1 The Lord hear you in the day of trouble.

The Revised Version renders the Hebrew of this verse accurately thus:

“The Lord answer you in the day of trouble.”

Often in the Bible we have the word “hear” in the place of “answer.” This is not really inaccurate; for with the Lord to hear prayer is to answer it; just as for us to hear His voice is to obey.

Do not forget that this expression of desire that the Lord will hear us is God’s own word, and therefore a promise that He will.

Especially noteworthy is the assurance that He will answer us in the day of trouble. Not only will God answer the prayers offered in tribulation, but prayers that in time of prosperity may have seemed unheeded by Him will often in time of trouble be answered in a marvelous manner.

Strengthened Above Enemies

Tuesday, August 2

Psalm 20

1 The name of the God of Jacob defend you.

Note the marginal reading, as well as the Revised Version, where in place of “defend you” we have the stronger expression, “set you up on high.” The Hebrew word is defined:

“to set up on high, to exalt, to make powerful.”

So the promise is not merely that we shall be protected from assaults, but that we shall be made powerful,—“endued with power from on high,”—and placed above our enemies. The name of the Lord will do this, for:

Psalm 18

10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower.

Strengthened Within

Wednesday, August 3

Psalm 20

2 [The Lord] send you help from the sanctuary, and strengthen you out of Zion.

Read this verse, and each succeeding verse in succession with all that precedes, and note how the promise accumulates.

Here we have a corroboration of the statement that the Lord defends us not merely by enclosing us with a wall of defense, but by making us strong to carry on aggressive warfare against our enemies.

Of course this is not our own strength, for “power belongs unto God” (Psalm 62:11); but He supports us, as the margin has it, so that His strength for us is the same as though it were inherent in us.

God and human flesh unite to make the perfect man. All that we have comes from Him, and all that He has is ours.

Our Offerings Made Fat

Thursday, August 4

Psalm 20

3 [The Lord] remember all your offerings, and accept the burnt sacrifice.

But you say, “I haven’t anything to offer Him.” True, and that is just what the text contemplates; for here again the marginal reading gives the literal rendering of the Hebrew as “make fat” your burnt sacrifice.

The altar sanctifies the gift; that which is in itself worthless becomes valuable when given to God, which takes the waste, refuse matter that we cast upon the ground, and from it build beautiful flowers and nourishing food. So...

Fear not to enter His courts in the slenderness

Of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine;

For truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness,

These are the offerings to lay on His shrine.

These, though we bring them in trembling and fearfulness,

He will accept for the Name that is dear.

Righteous Asking

Friday, August 5

Psalm 20

4 [The Lord] grant you according to your own heart, and fulfill all your counsel.

Truly God is a most indulgent Father, for nothing that His children ask Him is denied. Even “the rebellious also” (Psalm 68:18) have their heart’s desire. Even in everlasting punishment people will get only what they have actually worked for.

What a responsibility this places upon us! When God gives us, carte blanche, as it were, allowing us to have what we will, it becomes us to give great consideration to what we ask for. Far better is it for us to waive our privilege, and say:

“Not what I will, but what You will.”

Then we shall fare infinitely better than if we insisted on choosing for ourselves, for God’s choice for us is…

Ephesians 3

20 ...exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.

Rejoicing in God’s Victory

Sabbath, August 6

Psalm 20

5 We will rejoice in Your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners.

For “rejoice,” the Revised Version has “triumph,” and gives us in the margin the alternative reading of “victory” for “salvation.” This suggests the truth that our triumph is not simply in the fact that God saves us, but is in the victory that He himself gains over His foes. His victory is ours; Christ, who conquered death, says:

John 14

19 Because I live, you shall live also.

Gesenius, in his lexicon, quotes the second part of this verse, and renders it:

“In honor of our God we will set up banners.”

Thus the element of selfishness is entirely removed. God is the one whose victory is most important; our interest and at­tention are wholly absorbed in Him; and while we celebrate His fame, we ourselves are saved.

Fulfilling Our Petitions

Sunday, August 7

Psalm 20

5 The Lord fulfill all your petitions.

When Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, he said:

Genesis 41

32 For that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice, it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

Then how certain it must be that we cannot ask for anything that God will not grant us, since the assurances to that effect are so many times multiplied. What great need there is of taking heed how and for what we ask.

Saving His Anointed

Monday, August 8

Psalm 20

6 Now know I that the Lord saves His anointed.

This is a matter of positive knowledge; there is no room for doubt that “the Lord saves His anointed,” because He has already done it.

When the heathen raged, and the people imagined extravagant things, and the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers took counsel together against Christ, plotting to destroy Him, God set Him upon His holy hill of Zion, “far above all principality and power.”

Now remember that “you have an unction from the Holy One” (John 2:20), and that therefore, as the anointed of Jehovah, your salvation is as sure as that of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Receiving to Give

Tuesday, August 9

Psalm 20

6 The Lord will answer him [His anointed, whoever it may be] from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.

God is very practical in His answers: He answers with His strong right hand. With Him, to hear is to answer, and to answer is to do. This is for God’s anointed—those who are consecrated, set apart, to Him.

In this connection we are reminded of the fact that the Hebrew of “consecrate” is to fill the hand. When God consecrates one as priest, He fills His hand. God’s hands are always filled with good things, and when He opens them He fills the hands of His anointed ones,—His children,—that they also may be ready to distribute.

Force versus Faith

Wednesday, August 10

Psalm 20

7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember [make mention of] the name of the Lord our God.

8 They are brought down and fallen but we are risen, and stand upright.

Here we see contrasted the result of trusting in chariots and horses—the strength of nations—and of trusting in the name of the Lord.

Those who trust in that which, because it is visible, appeals to them as the most practical means of help, suffer a double fall; while those who call on the name of the Lord are raised from where they had fallen.

Take the name of Jesus ever

As a shield from every snare;

When temptations round you gather,

Breathe that holy name in prayer.

God is Listening

Thursday, August 11

Psalm 20

9 Save, Lord: let the king hear us when we call.

Truly the Lord will hear us when we call, because He is listening. God is anxiously listening, not to hear the evil that we say, but to hear the slightest whisper of an appeal to Him. In listening, He is compelled to hear many things that are wicked, but these are not what He is listening for.

When we call to Him, it is because He has first called to us. Shall we not take heed that He hears only what He is listening for?

The Nearness of God

Friday, August 12

Psalm 116

1 I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications.

That is good reason for loving Him; and that is reason for everybody to love Him.

Perhaps the reason why more do not love the Lord is that so few really believe that God hears prayer. They go through the form of prayer, it is true, but it is too often a mere form, without real expectation and positive certainty that God will hear them.

To most people God seems so far away that there is room for much possibility that He may miss hearing many prayers. But he who knows from His wondrous working that God is near, cannot doubt that He hears prayer, and must therefore love Him.

Continually Calling

Sabbath, August 13

Psalm 116

2 Because He has inclined His ear unto me. therefore I call upon Him as long as I live.

Many misunderstand the parable in Luke 18:1-8, imagining that the unjust judge represents God. But God is not unjust, and in the parable Christ says that God will “speedily” avenge those who cry day and night unto Him. Someone asks:

“What need is there of crying day and night to God, if He answers at once?”

The answer is plain. When people find one who relieves their wants and supplies their need promptly and freely, they are very sure to apply to him again and again.

This is just what the Lord desires; it is because He wants to have people call on Him continually, that He gives so readily and so abundantly.

Dealing with the Sorrows of Death

Sunday, August 14

Psalm 116

3 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

Nothing is too hard for the Lord:

He delights in difficulties.

He takes the utmost wrath of men and binds it about Him as a garment, using it for the accomplishment of His designs.

He brings forth light out of darkness, and strength out of weakness, and

From the pains and the pit of death He brings forth life everlasting.

So the fact that one is encompassed by the sorrows and pains of death is no evidence that God has left him, and no reason for ceasing to call on Him.

Psalm 139

8 If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

Deliverance from Death

Monday, August 15

Psalm 116

4 Then I called upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech You, deliver my soul.

This text is well illustrated in the case of Jonah. He was in the depths, and that because of his own perverseness; but “out of the belly of hell” (Jonah 2:2) he cried unto the Lord, and was speedily answered and delivered.

Better still is it illustrated in the case of Him who carried in His own body the sins of the world, who cried “unto Him that was able to save Him from death” (Hebrews 5:7), and was brought up from the grave, an example of what God desires to do for all men.

The Lord Preserves the Simple

Tuesday, August 16

Psalm 116

6 The Lord preserves the simple: I was brought low, and He helped me.

Read this verse in connection with the preceding one. Many who would not dream of questioning God’s righteousness, do often doubt that He forgives and saves them. But the fact that God does this, is given as proof of His righteousness.

1 John 1

9 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It is “the simple” that God upholds; that is, those who are single in mind and heart, and not double-minded.

James 1

8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Why? Because he trusts now in God, and now in himself. But a man who trusts in God alone is firm as a rock.

Drawn by the Lord’s Bounty

Wednesday, August 17

Psalm 116

7 Return unto your rest, O my soul; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

It would seem to be a most natural thing for men to return to and remain with the One who deals bountifully with them; yet they do not, because they do not recognize God in His gifts. God says:

Isaiah 1

3 The ox knows His owner, and the ass His master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not consider.

So the professedly wise man has less knowledge than the dullest of brutes because he does not get acquainted with the One who daily feeds him.

But still God continues His good works, that we may return and find rest, and in returning and rest find salvation.

God Constantly Saves

Thursday, August 18

Psalm 116

8 For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

This is the bountiful way in which the Lord has dealt with us. But there are so many to whom this is but a theory or doctrine. They believe, as a matter of history, that God raised Christ from the dead, but they do not realize that God has saved their souls from death.

Nevertheless, God has saved every living soul from death. Whether or not they accept the salvation is another matter. The miracle of the resurrection is enacted every day in bringing thousands to birth, and in breathing the breath of life into millions more. Then “let everything that has breath praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:6), and in so doing find salvation.

Without Money, Without Price

Friday, August 10

Psalm 116

12 What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?

There is not a soul on earth that does not with good reason ask this question, for God is daily leading everybody to benefits that cannot be measured. And if they cannot be measured, they certainly cannot be paid for.

What shall we render for them? Nothing, except make such use of them that God can see that we appreciate them too much to squander them.

We pay for the things that are of little or no value; but the best possessions come to us as a free gift, because they are beyond price.

Multiplied by Giving

Sabbath, August 20

Psalm 116

13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.

Here is the answer to the question asked:

12 What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?

What shall we do? Take what He gives and ask for more! What a wonderful way of doing business; it is truly not after the manner of men.

And when we have paid for what God has given us, by asking more, then what? Why, the new gift has laid us under double obligations, and so we must now take twice as much as before, and so on in geometrical progression.

And to eternity there will be no diminution in the supply, because life and love multiply by giving.

Immortal Love, forever full,

Forever flowing free;

Forever shared, forever whole,

A never-ebbing sea!

The Loss of a Valued Instrument

Sunday, August 21

Psalm 116

15 Precious in the sight of Lord is the death of His saints.

“Precious” comes from “price;” the precious metals are those that are most costly. The Hebrew word in this place means costly, and is so rendered in some versions.

“Costly in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”

The Lord’s saints are the instruments of His righteousness; and to lose one’s instrument, is always an expensive matter. When the harvest is plenteous, the laborers few, the husbandman cannot afford to lose any of his workers. So every saint that dies in this time, when the work is to be cut short and closed up, is a distinct loss to God. Be sure that He himself will not lightly lay any of them aside.

The service of God contains a promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come.

1 Timothy 4

8 ...godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

Servant of the Lord

Monday, August 22

Psalm 116

16 O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, and the son of Your handmaid: You have loosed my bonds.

Who may say this? Everybody who yields himself to the Lord, to be His servants; for:

Romans 6

16 To whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are.

Everyone, therefore, is free to determine his own standing. And then what? He is a free man; for the Lord’s service is liberty. He is free from the bondage of the service of sin, because “no man can serve two masters.” Matthew 6:24.

When therefore Satan, the old taskmaster, comes about claiming us as his servants, and trying to drive us back into bondage, we are truly to declare to the Lord that we are His servants, to assert our liberty in Him and to claim His protection; and we may be sure that the Lord will not neglect His own.

God Greater Than the Hills

Tuesday, August 23

Psalm 121 [margin]

1 Shall I lift up my eyes to the hills? whence should my help come?

The marginal reading is to be preferred; because our help comes from God, and not from the hills.

Jeremiah 3

23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.

The ancient heathen built their temples on the hills, but no help could come from them, because the gods that were in those temples had no power. They were on the hills: but God, whose temple was also on a hill, is above the hills.

God, by the strength with which He is girded, sets the mountains fast (Psalm 65:6); but the mountains cannot impart strength.

The Source of Strength

Wednesday, August 24

Psalm 121

2 My help comes from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

Our need is too great and too pressing to allow us to be content with any secondary source of strength, if there were any such. We must draw from the original source of strength.

The mountains and all things that God has made reveal His everlasting power and divinity, but they cannot impart any of it. They can only declare the glory of God, directing us to their Maker and ours, as the one who has help to supply for all need. He is worthy of eternal thanks, because:

Ephesians 3

20 [He] is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

A Firm Foundation

Thursday, August 25

Psalm 121

3 He will not suffer your foot to be moved.

Who is it that will not suffer our foot to be moved? It is God, who made “the everlasting hills,” setting them fast by His strength.

In His strength we may be even more immovable than they: for the mountains shall be carried into the sea: but God says that though the mountains depart, and the hills be removed, His lovingkindness that holds us up shall not depart from us.

When the mountains and the hills move out of their places, it will be good to be able to rest in the hand that can both set them fast and move them.

The Unsleeping Keeper

Friday, August 26

Psalm 121

3 He that keeps you will not slumber.

4 Behold, He that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

There are two words here, “slumber,” and “sleep.” The last one means to be asleep, while the first one means:

“to fall asleep from weariness or lassitude. The primary idea seems to be that of nodding.” - Gesenius.

This God never does.

Isaiah 40

28 The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary.

God does not nod over His work; His hands never relax through weariness, and allow what they are holding to drop. How wonderful! And because God wakes, we can sleep, and be sure of waking.

Kept Constantly by God

Sabbath, August 27

Psalm 121

5 The Lord is your keeper.

Your keeper, remember; not your jailor. Have you ever thought what you should do if the Lord should fall asleep? Of course you would never do anything again.

Have you ever thought how it is that you are kept alive during the night, and wakened from your unconscious condition in the morning? The sleeping man is dead in every respect except that he breathes. He lives, but he is certainly doing nothing then for his living.

How is this breath of life continued to us, when we are awake, as well as when we are asleep? By no other means than that by which the first breath was given to Adam.

Everyone thinks of God as very near to Adam when He made him; but if God, whose hands have fashioned us as truly as they did Adam, were not as close to us as to the first man when he was made, we could not live a moment.

Acts 17

28 In Him we live, and move, and have our being.

A Keeper and a Shade

Sunday, August 28

Psalm 121

5 The Lord is your keeper: the Lord is your shade upon your right hand.

There is another wonder: “The Lord God is a sun,” and He is at the same time a shield from the sun. Psalm 84:11. He is “a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29), and He is also “the fountain of living waters.” Jeremiah 2:13.

This is beyond all comprehension; but the truth of it we may grasp and clearly perceive when we remember that all things come from Him. The earth itself is the offspring of God, as truly as we are, who come from the earth.

Colossians 1

16 In Him were all things created...

17 ...and in Him all things consist.

So He is both sun and shade to us, indicating that in Him we get everything in exactly the right proportion. Safely we may...

Sit down beneath His shadow,

And rest with great delight;

The faith that now beholds Him

Is pledge of future sight.

Protection from the Elements

Monday, August 29

Psalm 121

6 The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.

Every Bible student involuntarily thinks of the description of “the seven last plagues” (Revelation 16) when the sun will have “power to scorch men with fire,” and is glad of this promise. God will then be a shade for His people.

When the wicked are destroyed and the righteous dwell in “everlasting burnings” (Isaiah 33:14),

Isaiah 4

6 There shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge.

But why not bring the application nearer? The Lord is the same now that He will ever be. Then why should any of His servants now suffer from sunstroke? The Bible says:

Psalm 121

5 ...the Lord is your shade upon your right hand.

Is He? See how this does not indicate a way of enduring the great heat of summer without discomfort.

Preserved from Spiritual and Physical Evils

Tuesday, August 30

Psalm 121

7 The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.

Blessed promise! Why should we limit it? We believe that He is able to keep us from all spiritual evil, and we must believe that He is just as able to preserve us from physical evils. But whatever God is able to do for His people, He has done.

Isaiah 5

4 What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it?

His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life, as well as to godliness (2 Peter 1:3). If all good men had always trusted God as much for their life as they did for godliness, the history of the world would have been different.

And a change must even yet take place, because every promise of God must be practically demonstrated among men before the end comes.

A Constant Companion

Wednesday, August 31

Psalm 121

8 The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Romans 8

31 What shall we say to these things. If God be for us, who can be against us?

32 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?

He cannot do otherwise, because “in Him all things consist.” Colossians 1:17. Then let us accept all His gifts in the spirit in which He has given them and for the purpose for which He designed them, and life will nevermore be “a burden,” but a joy.

The Word of God

Daily Bread, September 1904

In the Beginning

Thursday, September 1

John 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

In order to understand any given problem, the first principles involved in it must be grasped; in order to get at the truth of any matter of report, we must trace it back to the beginning; and in like manner we must begin at the beginning if we would know the history and mystery of all things that engage our attention in the world.

That beginning is the Word of God. In the light of the Word, and in that alone, all history and science may be understandingly studied. Unto this Word we do well that we take heed.

In the Beginning God

Friday, September 2

Genesis 1

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

We should do well often to stop with the first four words of this verse, and meditate upon them: “In the beginning God.” That is the sum of everything. All faith is contained in those words; for:

Hebrews 11

6 ...he that comes to God must believe that He is.

To worship God continually with all the heart, as the self-existent One, is the sum of all religion. The fullness of the Gospel message, which prepares those who accept it for the coming of Christ, is:

Revelation 14

7 Fear God, and give glory to Him...and worship Him that made the heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

He is the Beginning

Sabbath, September 3

Colossians 1

17 He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

18 And He is…the beginning.

This the complement of the first words in the Bible: “In the beginning God.” The reader will understand that since Christ said:

John 10

30 I and my Father are one;

and:

John 14

9 He that has seen me has seen the Father,

...we do not have to discriminate when reading, and think, “This refers to the Father,” and “This refers to the Son.” Without explanation we may say, “He is the beginning.” He was in the beginning, as He was the beginning. And what He was, He is. He is the beginning.

Everything that exists now has Him for its beginning. There is not a plant, a beast, or a bird, or a man, that does not come as really from the hand of God as did everything referred to in Genesis 1.

All things begin and continue in Him. The beginning of all true scientific research is God; and whenever we trace anything back to its ultimate elements we find God.

The Beginning of Creation

Sunday, September 4

Revelation 3

14 These things says the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.

Not the first created being, but the beginning of all creation.

Colossians 1

16 For in Him were all things created...

17 And He is before all things.

He is the Creator, not one created. He is the Amen. “Amen” means, “so let it be;” it is and shall be so. In the work of creation God said, “Let such and such a thing be,” “and it was so;” and “it was so” in Him who is the Amen.

This shows us how any and every moment may be a new creation for us; for He who is the Amen is the beginning: and whenever we receive Him as our beginning, we are new creatures.

The Word in Flesh

Monday, September 5

John 1

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.

The Greek word rendered “among” is “en,” the primary and common meaning of which is “in.” While the rendering “among” in this place cannot be condemned, the rendering “in” cannot by any means be excluded, and is much to be preferred as better expressing the meaning.

Christ dwells among us, only because He dwells in us—in humanity. He dwells in every man, “full of grace and truth;” and the just condemnation of sinners is simply this, that they…

Romans 1

18 ...hold down the truth in unrighteousness.

But those who know His name as “God with us” (Matthew 1:23), must trust in Him and...

Psalm 96

2 ...show forth His goodness from day to day.

The Word in Us

Tuesday, September 6

John 1

16 And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for [or upon] grace.

Here we have at once the incentive to righteousness, and the means for its accomplishment. We have not to ask God to do some new thing for us, and then wonder if He will do it, but we have simply to accept and rest in what has already been done. His divine power has already given to every one of us “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3); and we have but to allow the word to run in us unhindered, in order that it may be glorified in our salvation.

The Word is Life and Light

Wednesday, September 7

John 1

4 In Him [the Word] was life, and the life was the light of men.

“That which was from the beginning” was the word of life. 1 John 1:1. He is the light of the world, because He is the life of the world. Since His life is light, we may know that wherever there is any light, there is His life.

That this life is real light, by which we see, is demonstrated in John 9. Jesus saw a man who was born blind, and said:

John 9

5 As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world,

Then He immediately caused the man to see. The light which is so pleasant to our eyes, and so essential to our life, is the life of the Lord; so near is He to every one of us.

Light from the Word

Thursday, September 8

Psalm 119

105 The entrance of Your word gives light.

That which was from the beginning was the Word of life, and the life was the light of men; therefore, whenever the word of God is received, there is light within.

People sometimes speak of having received light on the Word, or some portion of it, so that they understand it; but that is a mistake. If they received light, it was from the word, and not on it; for God’s word is the only light to our feet and lamp to our path.

How necessary, then, that we hide the word within us. By so doing we shall not only have light, but shall be light.

The Light of the World

Friday, September 9

John 1

9 That was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world.

Christ is the light of the world. No man has any light whatever that is not the light of His life and there is no man that has not in coming into the world received his portion of that light. God is no respecter of persons, and He has given all people an equal chance for life and salvation.

There are many who walk in darkness, and who will be destroyed for lack of knowledge of the light of life; but it is only because they have covered up the light that is in them.

The Light is for All

Sabbath, September 10

1 John 1

5 This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

This is the message for all time, which is to be given to the world. It is the same as that given in:

Isaiah 40

9 Behold your God!

How shall we behold Him? By opening our eyes. And then when our eyes are opened, we must remember that we are sent to the people as was Paul,...

Acts 26

18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.

The light is come, and it shines for all, “whosoever will” may enjoy it.

Light Triumphs Over Darkness

Sunday, September 11

John 1 [RV, margin]

5 And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness overcame it not.

The word “comprehend,” which used in the old version of this text, used now only metaphorically, concerning the mind, which seizes a statement and makes it its own. Hence, it no longer conveys the meaning of the Greek word which John used, which is that of enclosing, shutting in, as in:

Isaiah 40

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

We must, therefore, employ apprehension, seize, or overcome, to express the meaning of the text. The darkness cannot shut the light in. Light triumphs over darkness.

Light is life, and life cannot be conquered by death. Truth is sure to triumph over error. The man who holds fast to the light of God’s word need not trouble himself about consequences.

A Light to Others

Monday, September 12

2 Corinthians 4

6 God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

In the beginning, darkness was over the whole earth; God sent His word into the midst of the darkness, and thus caused the light to shine forth from it. The light shone out of the darkness.

Even so our hearts are full of the darkness of sin; but God sends the light of the Word of life in, and the light then, if cherished will shine out. The light shines in for the purpose of giving light. To whom? To others; for “no man lives to himself.” Romans 14:7. God lightens our darkness, but only that we may be a light to others who sit in darkness.

The Indwelling Word

Tuesday, September 13

Colossians 3

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.

Mark the words: Let the word of Christ dwell in you. God puts it there; we are to allow it to remain there.

Deuteronomy 30

11 For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not hidden from you, neither is it far off.

12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

14 But the word is very near unto you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.

John 12

50 And I know that His commandment is life eternal.

The Enduring Word

Wednesday, September 14

Isaiah 40

7 Surely the people is grass.

8 The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God shall stand forever.

Jesus who spoke not His own words, but the word of God, because He was the word of God, said:

Matthew 24

35 Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my word shall not pass away.

It cannot pass away, because God is the Word. The Word was before all things, and by it and from it all things were created; so when all visible things wither and vanish away, the Word will still remain: and he who has built upon it will be able to stand forever.

We are to be so firmly rooted and grounded in the Word that it will grow up into us, and permeate our being, creating us anew; and thus, the foundation and the superstructure being all one, we can no more be swept away than can the Rock of Ages.

Creation and the Gospel

Thursday, September 15

1 Peter 1

25 And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.

What word is it that is preached unto us in the Gospel? The Word that was in the beginning; the Word that made heaven and earth, and all things in them; and that Word that upholds all things, and that endures forever.

Whoever receives that Word must become a new creation, as surely as the heavens and earth sprang into existence at the sound of that Word in the beginning.

How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord.

Is laid for your faith in His excellent word.

Born by the Word

Friday, September 16

James 1

18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth.

The child does nothing in order to be born; but does many things because it has been born. Even so we can do nothing that will cause us to be born of God; but having been born of God, we must necessarily show forth the works of God.

John 1

12 As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name;

13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Continual Creation

Sabbath, September 17

1 Peter 1

23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever.

That which was created in the beginning has been marred, corrupted, and ruined, and must be made new again, in order that God’s work shall not be lost. The Gospel announces the new creation and how it is effected. Therefore, the Gospel reveals the Word that created in the beginning; for only that which created can re-create.

This Word is the seed whence every plant on earth grew (Genesis 1:11), and it is that also which became flesh, making a perfect man. Therefore, when this incorruptible Word abides in us, there will be for us a continual new birth or new creation.

Believing is Receiving

Sunday, September 18

1 Thessalonians 2

13 When you received the word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works also in you that believe.

It is the Word of righteousness that works righteousness. Only the Word of God can really do work that is lasting, it alone can do work that will abide.

Our ability to do effective work depends on the Word of God abiding in us; and then it is not we that work, but the Word of God.

Romans 10

10 With the heart man believes unto righteousness…

...because believing is receiving.

The Word Builds Up

Monday, September 19

Acts 20

32 I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

Human knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. It cannot be repeated too often that there is no power but that of the Word of God. No real work is done except by that word.

Where the Word of God is not regarded, all that seems to be accomplished will sooner or later be found to be nothing. The house that is built upon the rock of God’s word stands, because it is the foundation—the living Word—that makes the building, and the two become one.

Living and Active

Tuesday, September 20

Hebrews 4

12 The word of God is living and active.

What, then, must be the condition of one who is built upon the Word, and built up by it, and in whom the Word dwells, so that he is transformed and born again by it, becoming wholly of the nature of the Word?

Simply this, that he will be living and active. He must live, and he must work; and his work will abide. No one born of the Word can be an idler; he will work from the love of work. Instead of having to drive himself to work, he will always be fresh and eager for it.

The Word Gives Strength

Wednesday, September 21

1 Peter 2

2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.

Milk is the life of the newborn babe; it turns to it as naturally as it breathes, and grows by it. Nothing else can fully supply its place.

Even so the newly-born child of God must earnestly desire the pure milk of the Word, and must feed freely upon it, or else he will not grow.

1 John 2

14 l have written unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you.

That is what gives strength.

Chewing the Word

Thursday, September 22

Hebrews 5

13 For everyone that partakes of milk is without experience in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

14 But solid food is for full-grown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Milk is good and absolutely necessary for babes; but it is not the nourishment for full-grown men. By feeding on milk, babes develop teeth as they grow; and the appearance of teeth is an indication that now they must take solid food, instead of milk.

There are many Christians who never get beyond infancy. They want everything made so easy for them that they can swallow it without chewing, that is, without thought. For that reason they never grow strong.

Unless we exercise all our faculties, we shall lose the use of them, and then, instead of being active factors in the world’s work, we are burdens to be carried.

Advancing in the Word

Friday, September 23

Hebrews 6

1 Wherefore let us leave the word of the beginning of Christ, and press on unto perfection.

This does not mean that we are to forget or ignore any portion of the Word, or anything that pertains to Christ.

The young student of mathematics should very quickly get past the first principles; for if he continues working in notation and numeration, simple addition, etc., he will never amount to anything, And yet, however far he advances in mathematics, whatever abstruse problems he solves, he must always make use of those first principles, and of those only. The most profound problems consist only of simple principles in various combinations.

So as we leave the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, and go on unto perfection, we leave them only in the sense that we do not use them detached, but in combination. The man who eats hard food, instead of milk, does not reject any element that is in milk, but gets it all and more.

Growth and Change

Sabbath, September 24

Isaiah 28

9 Whom will He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

Nothing is more nearly perfection than a little child in its mother’s arms; yet if it remains the same, and no change takes place in it, after the lapse of years it is most imperfect and repulsive. Continued perfection depends on growth and constant change.

The infant, in order to receive knowledge, must cease to be an infant. It must be weaned, and must learn to feed upon solid food, suitable for the nourishment of its body to the measure of the stature of a perfect man.

This applies in the spiritual realm, as well as in the physical.

Speaking the Words of God

Sunday, September 25

John 3

34 He whom God has sent speaks the words of God.

What else should he speak? If one is sent with a message for another, he has no business to speak his own words; his sole business is to give the message of the one who sent him. Even so with those whom the Lord sends forth as His ambassadors.

It is true that our text refers primarily to Jesus Christ: but it also applies to all His followers; for He says:

John 20

21 As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Since we are to speak only the words of God, it follows that we should give great heed to know just what they are.

As the Oracles of God

Monday, September 26

1 Peter 1

11 If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God.

From Acts 7:38, where we read that in Mount Sinai Moses “received the lively oracles to give unto us” (Acts 7:38), we know that the oracles of God are the ten commandments. If anyone speak, then, he is to speak as authoritatively, and words that are as true and lasting, as the law of God.

This is the same as saying that if one has not such words in him, and is not sure that his words are as true as God’s words, and are indeed that word, he should keep still.

How much less we should talk, and how much more we should say, if we always remembered this commandment.

God Confirms the Word

Tuesday, September 27

Isaiah 44

26 [God] conforms the word of His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers.

God’s word is forever “settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89); it “cannot be broken” (John 10:35); though heaven and earth should pass away, His word cannot fail.

Even so sure does God make the words of His servants. It cannot be otherwise, because they speak the words of God. With what confidence, then, can the servants of the Lord speak, and how boldly they may meet the world.

Whatsoever the church speaks, whether it consist of one member or a thousand, is sealed in heaven only when the word that it speaks first came from heaven. When men speak God’s word, whatever they say will most surely be performed.

Not by Bread Alone

Wednesday, September 28

Jeremiah 15

16 Your words were found, and I did eat them: and Your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by Your name, O Lord.

It is by no means a mere figure of speech when the Scriptures represent the word of God as food. It is from God’s word that everything comes. His word is seed that was sown in the beginning, that the earth might bring forth grass, herbs, and trees bearing fruit.

Luke 8

11 The good seed is the word of God.

But only a small fraction of God’s word is in the food that He gives us; and this is given to us in so tangible and visible a form, in order that we may learn how richly we may live if we feed on all the word. Our daily bread is given, that we may know that...

Matthew 4

4 Man does not live bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Hear and Live

Thursday, September 29

Isaiah 55

3 Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live.

As the Word of God is living, and is life itself, so it gives life to all who receive it.

John 5

25 The hour...now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.

Ecclesiastes 9

5 ...the dead know not anything.

All their senses have utterly departed: yet they can hear the voice of God calling to them, and, hearing it, they live, and recover all their lost faculties.

Since this is the case with those who have died, and returned to dust, what an immeasurable difference there must necessarily be between the life and activity of the already living one who hears and receives the word, and the one who heeds it not.

Do our lives testify to the world that we have heard the Word of God?

Passed from Death to Life

Friday, September 30

John 5

24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears My word, and believes on Him that sent Me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Wonderful promise! Most comforting assurance! Death and the judgment are as though they were not to the one who knows this truth. The sting of the one and the terror of the other are removed for him.

Though he walks in the valley of the shadow of death, he has the light of life, and he is exempt from the call to judgment because Christ has answered for him.

God’s Almighty arms are ‘round me:

Peace, peace is mine;

Judgment scenes need not confound me:

Peace, peace is mine.

Love

Daily Bread, October 1904

The Great Importance of Love

Sabbath, October 1

1 Corinthians 13

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

The reader should know that throughout this chapter the word “love” should be used, as in the Revision, instead of “charity,” which is not nearly so expressive. The Greek word is everywhere else rendered “love;” and to render it “charity” in this place causes us to lose the application of this wonderful definition of love to the word as it occurs elsewhere.

Here we learn the great importance of love. To be able to speak with tongues is very desirable; the word spoken by angels is steadfast; but the eloquence of Apollos and of all the angels combined in one person destitute of love would have no more weight than the inharmonious clang of two pieces of brass.

The Service of Love

Sunday, October 2

1 Corinthians 13

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.

Romans 14

7 None of us lives to himself.

Nothing in the universe was created merely for its own sake. The sun shines, and the grass grows, solely for the benefit of others. So man was made to serve others, and this service is by love.

Galatians 5

13 ...by love serve one another.

The man who has not love, lives for himself alone; for love means giving of one’s self; and he who lives only for himself, even though he have all wisdom and all might, is nothing—at best but a caricature of a man.

Goods are not Life

Monday, October 3

1 Corinthians 13

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.

How is it, since love is giving, that one can bestow all his goods upon the poor, and give his body to be burned, and not have love?—Simply because “the flesh profits nothing.” John 6:63. The giving of goods is not the giving of one’s life. Gifts may be made with a selfish motive—to secure applause or honor. But Christ loved us, and gave Himself for us.

But how about giving the body to be burned? The body is not the sum of the man; and, moreover, nobody would be benefited by the burning of another’s body. The slaying of Reuben’s two sons could not compensate Jacob for the loss of Benjamin: but Judah showed love, in that he offered himself as a living substitute.

Longsuffering

Tuesday, October 4

1 Corinthians 13

4 Love suffers long, and is kind.

We read that “the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah” (1 Peter 3:20), and that:

2 Peter 3

9 The Lord...is longsuffering to usward not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Longsuffering, therefore, is patience, forbearance. The word itself implies that the one possessing the characteristic is subject to much opposition or reproach, and has to do with those who are exasperating—utterly regardless of his wishes.

To become irritated in such a case, and to treat the offenders with any unkindness, is to show lack of love; and not to have love is not to keep the commandments; for...

Romans 13

10 ...love is the fulfilling of the law.

Love Envies Not

Wednesday, October 5

1 Corinthians 13

4 Love envies not.

It is a great thing when one has learned with Paul, in whatsoever state he is, therewith to be content. Philippians 4:11.

The Greek word here used is not the classic word for envy, but a word signifying “eager rivalry, zealous imitation, emulation,” and the thing meant by it was considered among the Greeks, as it commonly is now, as “a noble passion.” It is supposed, however, to be love.

In the perfect state, whatever one desires and strives after is for its own sake, because its possession is necessary to fit one for service, wholly regardless of whether others possess it or not. The perfect Christian attitude toward every other one is that expressed by John the Baptist toward Christ:

John 3

30 He must increase, I must decrease.

Love Vaunts Not Itself

Thursday, October 6

1 Corinthians 13

4 Love vaunts not itself.

To vaunt is “to make a vain display of one’s own worth, attainments, or powers,” to boast, or to be vainglorious. The one who has love follows the injunction:

Philippians 2

3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

The word “vaunt,” as may be seen, is allied to the word “vain” and vanity as emptiness. So however much a person may seem to possess, if he is vain, and boasts about it, he shows that he really has nothing. For one really has only that which one uses solely for the benefit of others, and not for self-glorification.

To be able to rejoice in another’s prosperity, even when his success seems to be at our expense, and to our disadvantage, is to have attained to happiness that nothing can destroy.

Love is Not Puffed Up

Friday, October 7

1 Corinthians 13

5 Love is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly.

1 Corinthians 8

1 Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

Love is therefore the only real possession and true knowledge. The desire “to pass”—merely to be able make a fair show—is becoming more and more common, as the world gets further away from the spirit of Christianity.

The possession of love also makes one all that can be conveyed by the term “gentleman;” for not to behave one’s self unseemly, means to do just the right thing at all times, with perfect grace of manner.

The word “unseemly” covers every deviation from the right way. The Greek word is defined to “behave ill, act indecorously, awkwardly, or basely.” Love delivers its possessor from all this.

If kings’ courts give polish of manner, where could one expect to learn better manners than in the court of the King of kings?

Love Seeks Not Its Own

Sabbath, October 8

1 Corinthians 13

5 Love seeks not its own.

When a man is striving with another for the possession of something, he usually thinks that the statement, “I want nothing but what belongs to me,” is a complete justification of his course.

But love does not seek or strive for even that. Love is content with what comes to it; for whatever it seeks is not for itself, but for the benefit of others.

Philippians 2

5 Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God,

7 But emptied himself.

Love is Not Provoked

Sunday, October 9

1 Corinthians 13

5 Love is not provoked.

The translators of our common version made a loop-hole by inserting the word “easily,” which has no manner of warrant in the text. Because of this, many have taken it for granted that they were justified in becoming provoked on severe provocation. But love is not provoked, whatever the provocation. No annoyance can ruffle it.

The Greek word here rendered “provoke” is paroxysm. The word “provoke” itself means to call forth, to excite. The possessor of love will not allow anything to call him out from his peaceful place in the house of God, in the secret place of the Most High.

Some would say that the possession of such characteristics unfits one for this world. It does certainly make one unworldly, but it fits one for the world to come, when this world shall pass away.

Love Thinks No Evil

Monday, October 10

1 Corinthians 13

5 Love takes not account of evil.

The common rendering, “thinks no evil,” expresses the truth concerning love, but does not convey all the meaning of the word used by the Apostle Paul. It is not merely that love is incompatible with meditating evil as well as with doing it; but love will not think evil of another.

The word in the text is defined by Liddell and Scott as “to set down to one’s account,” “to take into account, consider,” “to count, deem, or consider that a thing is so.” It is equivalent to the Latin imputare, impute.

We see the full manifestation of it in God who, in Christ, was…

2 Corinthians 5

19 ...reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.

We thus see that “thinks no evil” is a step in advance of “is not provoked.” Love will not only not be provoked, but will not even think that any evil was meant. The French has it, “does not suspect evil.”

Love Rejoices Not in Unrighteousness

Tuesday, October 11

1 Corinthians 13

6 Love rejoices not in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.

The crowning sin of the heathen, as set forth in the first chapter of Romans, is that they,

Romans 1

32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

But love not only “works no ill to his neighbor” (Romans 13:10), but has no pleasure in unrighteousness done by anybody else. It will not do anything through strife or vainglory, and will not applaud the winner in strife.

Love Bears All Things

Wednesday, October 12

1 Corinthians 13

7 Love bears all things.

The word here rendered “bears,” occurs but three times besides in the New Testament, being twice rendered “forbear,” and once “suffer.”

One definition is “to bear up against, resist;”—and all know that love gives one powers of endurance far beyond the ordinary physical capacity.

The mother endures for her child what would cause a strong man to break down.

The love that causes one to give himself wholly for the good of others, furnishes one with superhuman strength.

Moses and Christ afford striking instances of this.

Love Believes All Things

Thursday, October 13

1 Corinthians 13

7 Love believes all things.

At first thought this seems to conflict with the statement that “love thinks no evil”; but we know that it cannot, and that the possessor of love will not receive a false report.

The statement becomes very plain when we remember that only whatever God says is so (see Genesis 1), and whatever is not so has no real existence. The truth alone is positive; falsehood and error are only negations of the truth.

Our text, thus, teaches us that in love there is no element of doubt. “Love is of God” (1 John 4:7), and believes implicitly and without question every word of God.

Love Hopes All Things

Friday, October 14

1 Corinthians 13

7 Love hopes all things.

Romans 5

5 Hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.

That is, hope never disappoints. This is now what commonly passes for hope, which is desire and a measure of expectation, with uncertainty. Christian hope is absolute certainty, based on the sure promise of God. Love, which believes all things, takes every promise of God at its full value, and so has fullness of hope.

It is well constantly to remember that “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10), and thus to know that whoever has not all patience and faith and hope is not a commandment keeper.

Love Endures All Things

Sabbath, October 15

1 Corinthians 13

7 Love endures all things.

In this word “endures” we have something more than is contained in the word “bears.” Its primary meaning is “to stay behind, to remain at home.” Thus it appears that love is modest and retiring. So we read of God, who is love:

Isaiah 45

13 Verily You are a God that hides Yourself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.

Love does not put itself forward, but meekly waits, and is willing to stay at home and do the “drudgery” that others shun.

Love Never Fails

Sunday, October 16

1 Corinthians 13

8 Love never fails; but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.

The twelfth chapter closes with the words:

1 Corinthians 12

31 Covet earnestly the best gifts and yet I show unto you a more excellent way.

And that way is set forth in the chapter. There is no disparagement of prophecies, tongues, and knowledge; but love is best of all, both because without it, all else is nothing, and because it remains, when all else ceases. And since love is that which alone gives all else its worth, he who has love alone has all things.

Love never fails or falls away because it does not depend on the condition of the one loved. God’s love, the only love there is, has its highest manifestation toward His enemies, and that leaves no room for doubt that it will be continued to those who are seeking to serve Him.

He who has the love of God, loves with an “everlasting love.” Jeremiah 31:3.

Love Greater Than Knowledge

Monday, October 17

1 Corinthians 13

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.

We are saved by faith, and not by the amount of our knowledge: for they which know most of God and His work, know nothing, in comparison with what there is to learn.

1 Corinthians 1

25 The foolishness of God is wiser than men.

Eternity will not be long enough for us to learn all that there is to be known of God. If we only keep in mind how small is the part of knowledge that we have, we should always speak very modestly. We have but the most limited knowledge even of things that we count ourselves most expert in.

1 Corinthians 8

2 If any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know it.

But by and by the partial will give place to the perfect; and while we can never exhaust the knowledge of God, we shall then know perfectly all that we do learn. They all will know the Lord, from the least to the greatest.

Much More

Tuesday, October 18

1 Corinthians 13

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child; now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things.

This shows that progress is the law of the Christian life, just as growth is the law of the physical life. The weight, size, and habits of a child may be just what they ought to be for a child, but they are not at all adapted to a man. The man, however, in becoming a man, does not repudiate His childhood, but only develops it.

The Christian must not only learn more of the Word of God, but must see further and deeper into that with which he has been familiar from childhood. God’s Word is infinite and inexhaustible; when we seem to have mastered any portion of it, we are only at the beginning. “Much more” (Romans 5:20) is the motto for the Christian.

Spiritual Realities

Wednesday, October 19

1 Corinthians 13

12 For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.

It is evident that the illustration of childhood and manhood refers to more than growth in this world; for the “now” and “then” of this verse plainly means the present time and the perfect state in the world to come. Now we see only reflections in a mirror, but in the next world we shall see realities:

2 Corinthians 4

18 For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Spiritual things are the only realities. The Greek word rendered “darkly” is our familiar word “enigma,” and the Revised Version recognizes this by putting “riddle” in the margin. God hides himself now; but the time is coming when we shall see His face and all that is enigmatic now will be solved.

The Greatest is Love

Thursday, October 20

1 Corinthians 13

13 Now abides faith, hope, and love, these three: and the greatest of these is love.

We have all read of the time when faith shall be lost in sight, and hope in fruition; but the Scriptures know nothing of a time when faith and hope will be extinct. Faith, hope, and love abide. Indeed, faith and hope must abide as long as love does; for love believes and hopes all things.

All God’s gifts are eternal, and He does not call us to anything in this life that we are to leave behind in the fuller life. This world is but a preparation for the world to come; and here we are to learn lessons of faith, hope, and love that will make us faithful and hopeful and loving throughout eternity.

The future life will be one of constant trust in God, and fresh revelations will awaken ever fresh hope of more to be revealed. But love will ever be the greatest, because it includes all.

God is Love

Friday, October 21

1 John 4

8 He that loves not, knows not God for God is love.

Since God is love, the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is a description of the character of God. God can never cease loving, because He cannot cease to be. This is why love never fails.

Our knowledge of God is measured by our love. People of different races and nationalities never perfectly understand one another. Only as people are alike in character and taste, can they have mutual understanding.

They who do not love are of a different race from God, and know Him not; and those who do not know Him cannot possibly make Him known to others.

1 John 4

7 Every one that loves is born of God and knows God.

God’s Love in Our Hearts

Sabbath, October 22

Romans 5

5 Hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Note that it does not say “love for God”, but “the love of God”; that is, God’s own love is shed abroad in our hearts by His Spirit. His Spirit brings His character into the life of everyone who yields to Him. Thus it is that:

Galatians 5

22 As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

The first fruit of the Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22): and this love springing up will show itself in us in just the same way that it does in God himself.

He First Loved Us

Sunday, October 23

1 John 4

19 We love, because He first loved us.

Our common version has it, “We love Him, because He first loved us.” This is true, but it is not what the text says. The fact that God first gave us His love is the only reason why we love at all.

There is much that is called love that is only a caricature of it; but whenever there is any real love at all, it is of God. George Herbert caught the truth from Scripture, and beautifully said:

From Thee all pity flows.

Mothers are kind because Thou art,

And dost dispose

To them a part.

Unconscious of Divine love, many people nevertheless love because God loves; but the more we recognize and appreciate His love, the more shall we love.

The Gift of God’s Love

Monday, October 24

1 John 4

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The gift of God’s Son, which was the gift of Himself, for the world, is the one perfect expression of love. Herein we see that love consists in giving. Love exists not for the benefit of the possessor of it, but for the benefit of the one loved.

Galatians 2

20 [Christ] loved me, and gave Himself for me.

And this perfect love does not inquire about the character of the object of love.

John 15

13 Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Romans 5

8 But God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

This was that we might learn how to love.

Laying Down of Life

Tuesday, October 25

1 John 3

16 Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

All true love has in it some trace of this original gift of love—some drops from the fountain. The one great object-lesson of love is Christ laying down His life for us. We ought in like manner to lay down our lives for the brethren.

We may do this many times, day after day: for Jesus was laying down His life when, without sparing himself, He went about healing the sick, as truly as when He was nailed to the cross. His life was laid down for others from the beginning, and was never taken up for His own benefit.

And who are “the brethren” for whom we ought to lay down our lives? The answer is found in those for whom Christ laid down His life. It was while we were enemies that we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Romans 5:10.

Love and the Commandments

Wednesday, October 26

1 John 5

3 This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.

To keep God’s commandments is the sign of our love, not simply to Him, but to all: for the first and greatest commandment is this:

Luke 10

27 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.

And the second is like unto it:

Matthew 19

19 You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

And His commandments are not grievous, for they are life. Love consists in giving; so we love God when we give ourselves to His service.

Love Fulfills the Law

Thursday, October 27

Romans 13

10 Love works no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Nothing could more fully show that the law of God is love, and hence His own life and character.

Romans 13

8 He that loves another has fulfilled the law.

Read all the description of love in 1 Corinthians and elsewhere, and you have a description of commandment-keeping. Commandment-keeping does not consist in mere form: it is the life of the Lord within.

1 John 3

18 Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

The Father’s Love

Friday, October 28

John 17

23 I in them, and You in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that You sent me, and loved them even as You loved me.

No one ever thinks of doubting the love of God for His Son Jesus Christ. To this He himself gave testimony in the hearing of all the people, saying:

Matthew 3

17 This is my beloved Son.

Now Jesus tells us that the Father loves us just as He loves Him; and this is proved by the fact that God gave His Son Jesus Christ to die for us. His life for ours shows that He values our life the same as His.

So we may each one hear the voice of God from heaven, saying to us personally, “This is my beloved Son.”

What Manner of Love

Sabbath, October 29

1 John 3

1 Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew Him not.

Yes, behold! Look, consider, and keep on contemplating. Think of all that God has done for Jesus, how He has “highly exalted Him” (Philippians 2:9), and then think that the same love is extended to us, for the same purpose, because He counts us His sons equally with Jesus.

Not until the gulf that paganism in the church has set between Christ and us is done away, and we recognize the oneness of Jesus with us, can we appreciate the greatness of the love which the Father has bestowed upon us.

No Fear in Love

Sunday, October 30

1 John 4

18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.

In this we see that love is the perfection of Sabbath-keeping, and understand how true Sabbath-keeping is the seal of the law, since it is love—the fulfillment of the law. For Sabbath-keeping is absolute rest in God and His word; it is the fearlessness of perfect truth—the fearlessness of the infant in its mother’s arms.

Perfect love casts out fear. There is no fear in love; therefore by our fear under any circumstances we may measure our lack of love. What a happy condition to be in, when nothing can make us afraid!

Perfect Love

Monday, October 31

1 John 2

5 Whoso keeps His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him.

Love is the “bond of perfectness” (Colossians 3:14); therefore whoever has the love of God perfected in him is a perfect man.

And how is this perfection attained? Simply by keeping, holding fast within us, the word of God, because the Word is God, and God is love. God is love, and God is our life; therefore perfect love means fullness of life.

1 John 3

14 We know that we have passed out of death unto life, because we love the brethren.

Health of Body and Soul

Daily Bread, November 1904

Our Health is God’s Will

Tuesday, November 1

3 John

2 Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and in health; even as your soul prospers.

Whoever believes that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16), must accept these words as from God; and since “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34), it follows that they express God’s desire for everybody.

It is not a light matter for one to lose his health. While it may not bring condemnation from God, it certainly grieves the Lord. The words of the text are full of hope; for since God sets so great value on our health, we may be sure that He has provided abundant means whereby we may retain it, or regain it if it is lost.

When God’s will is done on earth as it is done in heaven, there will be no sickness.

Isaiah 33

24 The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.

The Commandments and Health

Wednesday, November 2

Exodus 15

26 If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that heals you. [Literally, “I am the Lord, your Physician.”]

Just as it is the wish of the Lord that all should be in health, so the doing of His will results in health. It cannot be otherwise; for with God is “the fountain of life.” Psalm 36:9.

Just as “he that does righteousness is righteous” (1 John 3:7), so he that lives healthfully is healthy. The promise of God to ancient Israel is for all who will hearken to Him, and obey His law; and it is in full force today.

And we must not think that we must wait till the new earth state for its fulfillment. We read that before the coming of the Lord, there will be people who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12); therefore, according to our text, it follows that they will all be free from disease.

Health Follows Service

Thursday, November 3

Exodus 23

25 You shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless your bread, and your water, and I will take sickness away from the midst of you.

This promise is a step in advance of that in Exodus 15:26. There it is said that no diseases will come upon those who fear God and keep His commandments; here we learn that those who serve the Lord will have sickness taken away from them. They will be healed of their diseases,—made whole.

But this text shows plainly that health is not an accident. God works through the means that He has provided. The food that God gives us is the proper medicine for the body. Taken as He gives it to us, in such measure and manner as to retain the blessing that He puts in it, recognizing Him in it, and holding the strength that comes from it subject to Him, health must follow.

Health by Faith

Friday, November 4

Psalm 103

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits;

3 Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases.

The Lord is the only healer. He is our life, and there is no life but from Him. Only He can heal disease. But this text says more than this; it says not only that God is the healer, but that He heals all diseases. His healing power is co-equal and co-extensive with His forgiving mercy.

Then why are not all healed? For the same reason that all are not saved; they do not recognize and accept the gift. God says to rebellious sinners:

Isaiah 44

22 Return unto Me, for I have redeemed you.

But all do not come. Forgiveness is free for all, however, if they will take it. Even so many who accept forgiveness, and rejoice in it, do not grasp the fact that the life which cleanses from sin is the life that raises the dead; and not believing for health, they do not receive it.

Matthew 9

29 According to your faith be it unto you.

Redeemed from Destruction

Sabbath, November 5

Psalm 103

4 Who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies.

The blessedness of the Psalms—that which makes them so pre-eminently adapted to devotion—is their personal character. They express human experience, and God’s relation to it. Everyone who reads them, therefore, should read them as if they were his own experience; he should make them his experience.

To read these verses, or to repeat them, and not to accept the redemption of the life from destruction, is to turn the Scriptures into a lie. We are too prone to read the Scriptures according to our experience, instead of, as we ought, letting them make our experience—an experience of things new and wonderful.

Appetite and Health

Sunday, November 6

Psalm 103

5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The margin of the Revised Version is in harmony with the Hebrew, “years,” instead of “mouth”. The verse might be read,

“Who satisfies your age with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Here we are reminded of the truth suggested in Exodus 23: 25, that perfect health depends largely on living according to the diet that God prescribed and blessed.

The trouble too often is that we are not satisfied with the good things that God provides. This is not because they are not satisfying, but because we do not train our appetites to choose that which is good. The ordinary appetite needs to be taken in hand and trained the same as a spoiled child.

There is nothing which more quickly responds and yields to training than the appetite; and the promise, even to the old who are satisfied with God’s good things, is that they shall renew their youth.

Strength from the Lord’s House

Monday, November 7

Psalm 92

13 Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.

The reason for this, in harmony with Exodus 23:25 and Psalm 103:5, is found in the fact that “they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness” (Psalm 36:8) of the Lord’s house; and He will make them drink of the river of His pleasure. When may this be? Now; for if we desire it as the one thing above all others, we may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our life, even for ever.

Psalm 27

4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.

Psalm 23

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Freedom from Disease

Tuesday, November 8

Matthew 8

17 Himself took our infirmities and bare our diseases.

In this verse we learn how it is that the Lord heals our diseases. He does it just as He forgives our sins—by taking the sin on himself. Just as He bears the sins of the world, so He bears the diseases of the world; and yet people in their ignorance and unbelief go on bearing all the load themselves.

If we learn of Him, and walk in His way, the burden will be removed from us, and He will swallow it up in life. These promises and assurances are for us now; if we do not experience the blessing of freedom from disease, it is our duty to search for the hindering cause until we find it, assured that God will not fail us.

More Abundant Life

Wednesday, November 9

John 10

10 I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

God is “the living God;” He is our life and Christ is the Life-giver. All life is one, but much depends upon the measure of it that we receive.

Christ came to give life to the world. The life which all men live day by day is given to them by virtue of the sacrifice of Christ. The breath that we breathe comes to us from the cross of Calvary, where Christ “breathed out” His life for mankind.

But this is not sufficient; if it were all, it would amount to nothing; for we should soon be as if we had not been. So Christ came that we might have more abundant life…

Psalm 21

4 ...even length of days for ever and ever.

The greater includes the less; we believe that we have eternal life in Christ; how dear for Him to “hold our soul in life” in this present time!

A Refuge from Disease

Thursday, November 10

Psalm 91

5 You shall not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flies by day;

6 Nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.

What a blessed condition! what perfect rest and content, to “be quiet from fear of evil” (Proverbs 1:33); to know that we are immune when the pestilence rages. Who may have this confidence? He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High, making the Lord his habitation. Psalm 91:1, 9-10.

But you say that it refers to “the time of trouble,” when the seven last plagues shall be on the earth. Very true: but how can we know that God will protect us in the time of trouble to come, if we do not have His protection in present troubles? And if men do not now take God’s presence as the shield against disease, how can they trust in it when “sudden destruction” (1 Thessalonians 5:3) comes? Will they not be found unprepared?

“God is our refuge and strength” (Psalm 46:1) today, as surely as He ever will be, if we will but take Him as such. It is possible, and is God’s desire for us, that we shall be as free from the ravages of epidemics now, as when a thousand fall at our side, and ten thousand at our right hand.

Protection Available Now

Friday, November 11

Psalm 121

6 The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.

In the fourth of the seven last plagues, the atmosphere will be so changed that the sun will have power to “scorch men with fire” (Revelation 16:8), yet the promise is that no plague shall come near the dwelling of anyone who trusts in the Lord.

If we believe this promise, we shall certainly make use of it whenever the sun shines with excessive vehemence, and shall find in the presence of the Lord a certain safeguard against sunstroke.

Those who are proclaiming the truth of the Lord’s coming, and of the great deliverances connected with it, ought themselves to be specially free from disease. How else can they expect the world to believe them?

The Effect of the Gospel

Sabbath, November 12

Psalm 67

1 God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us,

2 That Your way may be known upon earth, Your saving health among all nations.

We read that one day when Jesus sat teaching in the midst of Pharisees and doctors of the law…

Luke 5

17 ...the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

But the only way that it could certainly be known that healing power was present was by its effect on somebody. One man believed and was made whole, and the multitude gave God the glory.

So when those who go into all the world preaching the gospel, according to Christ’s command, reveal in their own bodies God’s saving health, it will be known among all the nations, and not till then.

The power of the Lord is always present to heal whenever Jesus is present; for He is “the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24); and He is present with His people now, and “even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20.

Removing Afflictions Caused by Sin

Sunday, November 13

Psalm 107

20 He sent His word, and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.

The Revised Version makes this in the present:

“He sends His word, and heals them.”

Surely God is able and willing now to do whatever He has done for those who called upon Him in past time. And who are these whom God heals? They are “fools” who are afflicted because of their transgression, and who have brought themselves “near unto the gates of death.” Psalm 107:17-18.

It matters not that we have brought our afflictions upon ourselves, and that they are only the consequences of our own folly, the Lord will heal us, and keep us well, if we will but receive His word.

That means that we must give His word free course in us. God’s word is life; and if we learn “the law of the spirit of life in Christ” (Romans 8:2), and submit to that law, life and health from the Lord must result.

Curing with the Word

Monday, November 14

Proverbs 4

20 My son, attend to My words; incline your ear unto My sayings.

21 Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart.

22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

This is why afflicted ones are healed when God sends His word to them. God’s word “runs very swiftly” (Psalm 147:15); consequently, whoever is willing to receive it may speedily be delivered from all the diseases that flesh is heir to.

But this will not be anything in the way of magic. It will be the result of studying God’s word in His works as well as in the Scriptures, and coming into harmony with it. If “the word of life” (Philippians 2:16) is kept dwelling in one, it must follow that this one will live.

New Strength Every Day

Tuesday, November 15

Isaiah 40

31 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

Waiting on the Lord implies steadiness of purpose. Daniel served in Nebuchadnezzar’s court, but he waited on a greater Sovereign than Nebuchadnezzar, and he showed it by purposing in his heart that he would not depart from the law of his God.

The result was seen in Daniel’s superior physical and mental strength. For full seventy years Daniel was the leading man in the kingdom, responsible for the business of the whole world, and the last we hear of him he was as keen and active as ever.

The promise in this verse is specially to the old who trust in the Lord, in contrast with the young who walk in their own ways. New strength every day is the portion of those who wait on the Lord. This means, of course, that they know the ways of the Lord, and conform to them.

Breaking the Chains

Wednesday, November 16

Isaiah 58

8 Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily.

When will this be? When you...

7 ...deal your bread to the hungry, and...bring the poor that are cast out to your house [and] when you see the naked, that you cover him.

Here is a promise of speedy health, and therefore health is possible. It must not be forgotten, however, that one of the conditions is “that you break every yoke” (Isaiah 58:6), loosing the bands of wickedness, and undoing the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free. This includes the yokes and bands that we have placed upon ourselves, as well as those with which we have oppressed others.

Many of our chains we cling to; but surely such a result as is promised in our text is worth all self-denial, especially when that which we part with is a chain.

Sustenance for Service

Thursday, November 17

Isaiah 58

11 The Lord shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and make fat your bones: and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Why like a watered garden and a spring of ever flowing water? Because of partaking of the water that Christ gives which is a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Our light will rise in obscurity and our darkness be as the noonday (Isaiah 58:10) only when the Light of the world shines upon us and in us.

That is, such going about doing good as is spoken of in this chapter can be done only by one in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells in full measure. And to such the health of Christ will necessarily be imparted. Although He bore our sicknesses, no one ever saw Him ill or unable to respond to a call for help.

Safe in the Lord’s Work

Jeremiah 45

5 Do you seek great things for yourself? seek them not; for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, says the Lord; but your life will I give unto you for a prey in all places where you go.

So by not seeking great things for ourselves, the greatest thing will be given us; for life is more than all things else, inasmuch as it includes all things.

What a blessed promise this is for the missionary in strange lands. Even though he goes to the West Coast of Africa, which is known as “the white man’s grave,” he has the assurance that he can have his life saved for him.

The one who goes at the bidding of God to carry His message, does not “take his life in his hand.” If he carried it in so insecure a place, he would certainly lose it. His life is hid with Christ in God, and being “bound in the bundle of life with the Lord” (1 Samuel 25:29), it is as safe as God’s life.

This promise is equally valid for those who are serving God at home.

Perfect Health for Service

Sabbath, November 19

Mark 16

18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

When men have such abundance of life dwelling in them that venomous serpents will have no power to harm them and that they can drink poison without injury, they will have life to bestow on others, and will truly be “ministers of the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:6.

This promise is in line with Jeremiah 45:5, and shows that this verse applies especially to those who go into all the world, preaching the gospel to every creature.

Of course it is understood that nobody having such power would attempt to use it for display. Such an attempt would result in its speedy loss. This blessing is only for those who seek not great things for themselves.

That the promise is not a vain one, is proved by the case of Paul, to mention no other. It needs no argument to show that one who can drink a deadly thing without harm will be able successfully to resist any kind and quantity of disease germs.

And so again we see the possibility of perfect health for those who serve God.

Health as a Witness

Sunday, November 20

Psalm 91

9 Because you have made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, your habitation;

10 There shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.

What could be a stronger witness to the presence of the power of God? Surely the following promise will be fulfilled to those who dwell thus securely in the midst of devastating plagues:

Isaiah 45

4 They shall fall down unto you, they shall make supplication unto you, saying, Surely God is in you; and there is none else.

Who, then, can believe that God will reserve the greatest of all witnesses for the time when it will be of no avail? Because at that time, the Gospel will already have been preached in all the world for a witness into all nations.

Now is the time when such witness will be effective, and now it may be given by those who dwell in God.

Strength is to Increase

Monday, November 21

Deuteronomy 33

25 As your days, so shall your strength be.

26 There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rides upon the heaven in your help, and in His excellency on the sky.

27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

Read the context, and see how exactly it coincides with the text last cited:

“As your days so shall your strength be.”

This is commonly quoted:

“As your day so shall your strength be.”

It is taken to mean that whatever any day may bring, strength will be given to bear it. This it does mean and more, too.

What it says, and what the Hebrew expresses still more plainly, is that as many as our days may be, while they last, strength will last. Strength is to increase with our days, when we continually rest in the everlasting Arms. This is in harmony with the assurance that:

Isaiah 40

31 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

Death as a Witness

Tuesday, November 22

Psalm 116

15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.

The Lord’s saints are workers together with Him. They are His children, who have learned His ways by seeing the works that He has brought before them. Surely, then, the Lord would gladly keep them alive. He has not so many workers that He can afford to lay any aside unless their death would glorify Him.

The fact that God’s people die is no evidence that He has cut them off; on the contrary, He is grieved at their loss. Their death is costly, and the more devoted they are to His cause, the more costly is their death.

Yet those who, like Paul, have only the one desire, that God may be glorified in their bodies, whether by life or death, may be used to His glory in death. Such ones, though dead, will yet speak. Their testimony will not end with their lives.

An Almighty Life

Wednesday, November 23

Psalm 27

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life: of whom shall l be afraid?

Meditate on the expression:

“The Lord is the strength of my life.”

This evidently means more than the simple truth that our life is from the Lord. It means nothing less than that the Almighty himself is our life. Such a life is surely invulnerable.

“Of whom shall I be afraid?”

Not of our adversary, the devil, whose only power is death. The shield of faith, the faith of Jesus, will quench all his fiery darts.

A mighty fortress is our God,

A refuge never failing.

A Living Sacrifice

Thursday, November 24

Romans 12

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Such a present God will accept. And He will use it well, taking care that it is not destroyed. Only He who defiles (destroys) the temple of God, will God destroy. 1 Corinthians 3:17. But when we say from the heart:

Take my life and let it be

Consecrated, Lord, to Thee,

...and yield it up to Him, we may be sure that God will preserve it from all evil.

This verse emphasizes the fact that we are to put ourselves consciously and intelligently into God’s hands if we would have the blessing of perfect health in body, soul, and spirit.

Rising from the Sickbed

Friday, November 25

Psalm 41

1 Blessed is he that considers the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.

2 The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth; and you will not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.

3 The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; you will make [margin: “turn”] all his bed in his sickness.

There is a promise for those who, having served God faithfully, are nevertheless laid upon the bed of languishing.

Psalm 37

24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.

Job was a perfect and an upright man, who feared God, and eschewed evil; yet he suffered terrible afflictions. However, he was delivered from them all. The Lord “turned” his bed in his sickness, and he rose a well man, because he did not lose his faith.

Many more people might live, if in the midst of sore afflictions they could keep hold of God’s promise to keep them alive, and say:

Psalm 118

17 I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.

The Power of the Resurrection

Sabbath, November 26

2 Corinthians 1

8 We were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.

9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead.

10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver: in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us.

Brought down to the verge of death, so that all hope seemed lost, Paul was delivered from death by trusting in God, who raises the dead.

God sometimes allows His most faithful ones to suffer deep affliction, that they may more perfectly learn that their life and strength are in God alone. Paul suffered, but he was kept alive. He experienced what everyone may experience now—the power of the resurrection.

Dying Yet Living

Sunday, November 27

2 Corinthians 4

10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Christ crucified means Christ risen. It was the resurrection power that saved Christ from all the attacks upon His life, and from all the diseases that He took upon himself, and enabled Him to lay down His life as a voluntary sacrifice.

It was as sure that He would come out of the grave as that He went into it. God raised Him up, having loosed the pains of death,...

Acts 2

24 ...because it was not possible that He should be held of it.

Whoever, therefore, has the dying of Jesus in his body, is sure of the life of Jesus. And this life is to be made manifest in the body, by keeping it alive; for Jesus Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every man.

He died that we might live; and He who can keep us alive throughout eternity, can easily keep us alive the few years that this present evil world has to stand.

Manifestation of the Life of Jesus

Monday, November 28

2 Corinthians 4

11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

Note that the life of Jesus is to be “made manifest in our mortal flesh.” When it is said that His life is manifested in sinful flesh, we know that it means that it successfully resists its sinfulness.

In like manner we are to know that the life of Jesus manifest in mortal flesh is in overcoming its mortality. In no other way could life be made manifest in mortal flesh. Immortality will not be bestowed until the coming of Christ in glory; but eternal life is ours now, to be manifested in the midst of mortality.

Strength in Weakness

Tuesday, November 29

1 Corinthians 15

10 By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Paul was the weakest and frailest in body of all the apostles: yet he labored more abundantly than they all, because he more fully than any other, presented his body a living sacrifice. He kept his body under, and neither disease nor sin could overcome it.

Stoned and left for dead as he was in Asia (compare Acts 14:19-20; 2 Corinthians 1:8-10), he nevertheless continued his work without interruption. Even though it was in weakness and in “much trembling;” he still continued to work. And that is the great thing.

God’s life in our mortal flesh may be manifested in two ways: in healing our diseases, and in making us superior to them, so that, even though suffering, we can work as much as if well. In either way God is glorified, and that is enough.

Made Perfect in Weakness

Wednesday, November 30

2 Corinthians 12

9 And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for you: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

To the person who has this experience, sickness is the same as health; for even more than health does it show the power of the life of Jesus in mortal flesh. In such a case it is no disgrace to suffer infirmity, but it is something in which to glory, since it is to the glory of God.

All this springs from that wonderful life that is freely given to all who will receive it.

2 Corinthians 9

15 Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.

Spiritual Law in the Natural World

Daily Bread, December 1904

Stand Still

Thursday, December 1

Job 37

14 Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.

Why should we do this? Because:

Psalm 111

3 His work is honorable and glorious.

And His wondrous works declare that His name is near:

Psalm 75

1 Unto You, O God, do we give thanks, unto You do we give thanks: for that Your name is near Your wondrous works declare.

Psalm 111

4 He has made His wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.

God has “made His wonderful works to be remembered” because through them men learn of His goodness and compassion and the power of His salvation.

It is God’s works that bear witness to Him, and through which we may learn His ways. Every feature of the Gospel is illustrated in God’s creation; for redemption is simply the work of creating anew.

The more we consider God’s mighty acts, the more shall we know of the power which works salvation in everyone who believes. But in order to consider rightly, we must cease the hurry and rush that is miscalled “progress;” we must obey His injunction to “stand still.”

The best work is done with the least outward show. God works in quietness and “in quietness and confidence” do we become sharers of His strength.

Truths in Nature

Friday, December 2

Job 12

7 Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach you; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell you;

8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto you.

9 Who knows not in all these that the hand of the Lord has wrought this?

10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.

All things in heaven and earth are our teachers, and will give us valuable lessons in wisdom, if we are only humble enough to learn of them. In them God shows us himself at work, that we may know His ways.

Ancient Israel saw God’s works, but did not learn His ways. In these days men are closely observing the works of God, but are using the knowledge they gain only for selfish purposes—for commerce and war.

Why should there not be a body of Christians who will show the world the truth for which God would have His works to be remembered, that through them they may be led to speak of “the glorious majesty of His kingdom.”

Psalm 145

10 All Your works shall praise You, O Lord; and Your saints shall bless You.

11 They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of Your power;

12 To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.

Clothed Within

Sabbath, December 3

Matthew 6

28 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29 And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you?

One of the most valuable lessons is to be learned from the lilies. Part of the lesson is that we should not worry, but trust in God. The life of the lily is but for a day, yet God clothes it with garments of surpassing beauty; man is created for eternity, and it therefore stands to reason that God will be at least no less mindful of his needs.

But there is more than this. Solomon had unlimited wealth at his disposal, and all the lands brought their treasures to him, so that he could clothe himself with the richest fabrics, and as much variety of color as that of all lilies; yet in all his glory he was not arrayed as a single lily of the valley. Why not?

Because his clothing was all put on, and was no part of himself. Every day it had to be taken off. But the clothing of the lily is an essential part of itself,—the outshining of the life within. In the same way, but “much more” will God clothe those who trust in Him, with the garments of glory and beauty—the robe of righteousness.

Gathering What God Gives

Sunday, December 4

Matthew 6

26 Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns: yet our heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?

One reason, undoubtedly, why Christians have not dwelt more upon this part of Christ’s teachings, and profited more by it, is that they have a feeling that it tends to produce idleness and carelessness. People have a distorted view of the importance of their own efforts in what is called “making a living,” compared with those of the birds.

But trust in God for support does not mean laziness. No man is ever busier than the birds are, and no tiller of the soil does more toward getting his own living than the birds do in proportion to their needs.

They do not sit on a limb waiting for God to place the food in their mouths, but they diligently gather what He gives them.

Psalm 104

28 That You give them they gather: You open Your hand, they are filled with good.

And no man can do any more. Men no more get their living by their own exertions than the birds do; both are absolutely dependent on God for their support and if men learned the lesson and accepted the fact as implicitly as the birds do, their lives would be full of song.

As an Eagle

Monday, December 5

Deuteronomy 32

11 As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them on her wings;

12 So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.

Interesting stories are told of the way in which the eagle teaches her young to fly. When they have gained sufficient strength, she forces the young one out of the nest, thus compelling it to use its hitherto untried wings. Soon the little one gets weary, or frightened at the vast space beneath it, and begins to sink. More and more feeble grow its struggles, and at last it begins to fall as though shot.

Then the mother swoops beneath it, and catches it upon her broad back. Here it rests in safety until it has fully recovered itself, when she drops from beneath it, leaving it again to use its wings, but yet she continually hovers near, ready again to bear it up.

So the Lord teaches His people through adversity to use the strength that He provides, and to depend on Him for more.

The Birds Guided by God

Tuesday, December 6

Job 39

26 Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?

27 Does the eagle mount up at your command, and make her nest on high?

These questions without an answer, coming in the midst of God’s address to Job, in which the patriarch was made to feel his own insignificance in comparison with the Almighty, are full of instruction.

They teach us that the birds are guided by God in their flight southward, and that they build their nests in harmony with Divine directions. This explains why there is so little “improvement,” as men would say, in the construction of their nests. Being guided by supreme wisdom, they build in the place and manner best adapted to their needs, and there is no reason for changing.

The lesson that we are to learn is that however well our work may be done, we have no occasion for boasting or pride; for the wisdom that enabled us to do it was wholly the Lord’s.

Bird Migrations Teach Faith

Wednesday, December 7

Jeremiah 8

7 The stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know not the judgment of the Lord.

People say, “How can we know?” and the answer is, God has revealed it in His word. From the argument that since the birds know their seasons, God’s people ought to know of the times and the seasons, we learn that both have the same source of knowledge.

The migration of birds presents a mystery that no naturalist has yet been able to solve. It is not known how they can guide their flight accurately across long stretches of sea, so as to come back to the exact spot from which they started, although that would be a remarkable feat for a man without a compass.

But those who have for many years watched the flight of birds from and to the same place, tell us that the young birds invariably start away about two weeks ahead of the old ones, to a place which they have never seen.

We know, therefore, that they are guided by the same One who conducted Abraham to land which he knew not of. And thus the birds become our teachers in faith that will make us children of Abraham.

The Seed of Christ

Thursday, December 8

Mark 4

26 So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knows not how.

The yearly round of seasons, no less than the yearly round of service in the Jewish temple, is an object lesson concerning the kingdom of God.

In the growth of the seed, and the mysterious way in which it reproduces itself in scores and hundreds of other seeds, each having the same life as the parent seed, and to the same degree, we have a perfect representation of the increase of the Government of Christ, who is the true Seed.

People sometimes cavil at the teaching of the Gospel concerning the incarnation and resurrection of Christ and the work of the Spirit in man; they say that such things are “not reasonable,” meaning that they are beyond the power of reason to explain or comprehend.

But the same mystery confronts them when they consider the sown seed. It springs and grows up, “he knows not how.” The natural scientist, like the writer of the Gospel, can only describe what he has seen, but is unable to explain the how and why. It is enough for us to know that…

Psalm 62

11 ...power belongs unto God.

God’s Power in Fruit Bearing

Friday, December 9

Mark 4

28 For the earth brings forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

Literally, the earth brings forth fruit “automatically.” Yet the earth is inert, having no life in itself. Dust is not only the emblem, but the very substance of death.

The earth brings forth today, just as on the third day of the creation week, in obedience to the word of God. It is the word of God that is the seed whence all living things come. The covering of the face of the earth with fruit is the manifestation of the miracle of bringing life from the dead by the power of God’s word.

Even so with the fruit that man brings forth to the glory and praise of God. They come from man, and are his own works, yet it is God that works in him…

Philippians 2

13 ...both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

We are but dust; and as we cannot conceive of the dust of the earth initiating action on its own account, so we ought never to conceive of anything that we have done as due to any inherent power in our flesh. Of ourselves we can do nothing. The machine that acts automatically, acts only in response to the power continually exerted in it.

All Flesh is Grass

Sabbath, December 10

Isaiah 40

6 All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field;

7 ...surely the people is grass.

8 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

There is nothing that grows out of the ground that is less imposing than grass. The oak tree and the cedars of Lebanon are symbols of strength and endurance; but grass is used in Scripture as the symbol of frailty. To say that all flesh is grass is to say that all nations together are but for a day.

Ordinarily, when a person becomes impressed with the consciousness that he is weak and helpless, he becomes discouraged. If a man thought that he had no more power than a single blade of grass, he would consider his case hopeless; yet this very thing is a part of God’s message of comfort to us. See the chapter from the beginning. The secret is found in:

2 Corinthians 12

9 And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for you: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Vine and Branches

Sunday, December 11

John 15

1 I am the true Vine, and My Father is the husbandman.

5 I am the Vine, you are the branches: He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

This is not a figure of speech; it is not a parable; it is the statement of a reality—a fundamental truth. When Jesus looked upon the vine that night with His disciples, and said, “I am the true Vine,” He expressed the truth that:

Colossians 1

17 ...in Him all things consist.

He is the parent stock whence all vines on earth spring; and therefore when that same night He took the cup containing the fruit of the vine, He could say:

Matthew 26

28 This is my blood.

And we are in reality branches of Him. The fact that we do not see any connection between Him and us, as we see the apple hanging from the limb, makes no difference.

2 Corinthians 4

18 The things that are seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen are eternal.

And therefore more real than the visible. When we have the clearer, deeper sight that faith gives, we shall draw real vital sap from the Divine Branch for our daily life as consciously as we drink the juice of the grape.

The Planting of the Lord

Monday, December 12

Isaiah 61

1 The spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord has anointed me…

2 ...to comfort all that mourn;

3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.

Whoever reads and believes the first and second chapters of Genesis must know that man is in reality what the Scriptures represent him to be—a plant, a growth from the soil. Whether we shall be...

Philippians 1

11 ...filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

...or...

Jeremiah 2

21 ...turned unto the degenerate plant of a strange vine...

...depends entirely upon our attitude to the grace and the mercy which the Spirit of God gives.

The first psalm presents a glorious possibility for the trees of God. But we must not forget that our test as trees of righteousness will be the character of the fruit that we bear, as a food product. Fruit grows in order that it may be eaten, and may thus go to build up new life. If we truly minister life to others, then are we what our text calls for.

Shining as the Sun

Tuesday, December 13

Matthew 13

43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

The “fruit of the Spirit” is the “fruit” of the light (see Ephesians 5:9 in both versions): and this is true of all fruit-bearing trees, whether they stand immovably fixed in a forest or an orchard, or move about as human beings.

The luscious fruits of autumn are the produce of the sunlight that the tree has stored hp. The tree may be very plain and dull, but hour after hour during the long days of summer it is storing up the gorgeous sunshine; and this hidden light “shines forth” in the service it renders to man, either in yielding food for his table or warmth and light for his dwelling.

So in the harvest the righteous will shine forth the light which the Sun of righteousness has “shined in” their hearts. Then all men will know the true light.

But the disciple of Christ will not wait till then to shine. At the marriage at Cana, at the grave of Lazarus, and through His whole life, Jesus manifested the glory of God, which was none the less brilliant because there were not eyes to see it.

As the Rain

Wednesday, December 14

Isaiah 55

10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not there, but except it waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater;

11 So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth.

Every drop of rain that comes down from heaven returns thither, but not until it has accomplished the purpose for which God sent it.

The rain is an illustration of the lavishness that God displays in the bestowal of His grace. He sends rain on the rocky soil where nothing grows, and even on the sea where there is abundance of water; but nothing is in vain.

The falling rain, with sun and wind, in time makes even the rocks support vegetation in some form, or else the water appears as a spring. So God’s word works God’s will, whatever opposition it may meet.

Pouring Down Righteousness

Thursday, December 15

Isaiah 45

8 Drop down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness.

The rain does more than merely to show us how freely God bestows His gifts. It is the flowing forth of the stream of God’s own life (Psalm 65:9-10), and is therefore literally God’s righteousness. We may learn this from the fact that the Israelites drank from Christ, the living Rock, and the flowing of that water was proof to them that the Lord was among them.

Exodus 17

7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?

Yet the water which they drank was identical with the rain that falls from heaven. The rain, in that it causes the earth to bring forth, is life to us. If, therefore, we always recognized it as God’s life, the effect would necessarily be to produce righteousness in us.

Rain and Fruit

Friday, December 16

Hebrews 6

7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it, and brings forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receives blessing from God.

What is the blessing which it receives from God, which that which bears thorns and briers does not receive? Manifestly the blessing is the fruit which it brings forth, since it is in that respect alone that it differs from the unfruitful soil.

Both alike receive rain, and in this respect both are equally blessed. But one appropriates the blessing, and is therefore blessed, while the other rejects the same blessing, and is cursed.

Thus we see that the curse is the blessing rejected; and the good that we bring forth in response to God’s blessing is our real blessing from God.

As the Dew

Sabbath, December 17

Hosea 14

5 I will be as the dew unto Israel.

All that dew is to the grass and herbs, that God is to His people who trust in Him.

How literally this is true may be understood when we remember that God is “the fountain of living water” (Jeremiah 2:13), and that in the New Jerusalem:

Isaiah 33

21 The glorious Lord will be to us a place of broad rivers and streams.

“All flesh is grass” (Isaiah 40:6), and therefore it must necessarily have dew, or else it will perish. Isaiah 58 tells us how we may be as “a watered garden.”

Growth: Silent and Imperceptible

Sunday, December 18

Isaiah 27

6 Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

Hosea 14

3 He shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

How does the lily grow? Man “knows not how.” Mark 4:27. It grows because the life of God is in it, and it is not rebellious against it. It makes no effort to grow; it simply grows, and growth means continual advancement.

So all our real growth in grace is made when we are unconscious of ourselves, and conscious only of God.

Stilling the Seas

Monday, December 19

Psalm 65

7 God stills the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.

Seas are used to represent people, and the raging of the sea represents strife among nations. But all are in God’s hand, as the seas are; and the ease with which He stills the seas when they roar, shows how easily He can make wars to cease unto the ends of the earth and deliver His people from all enemies.

As a mother stills her child,

You can hush the ocean wild

Boisterous waves obey Your will

When You say to them, “Be still.”

Wondrous Sovereign of the sea,

Jesus, Saviour, pilot me.

The Sand and the Sea

Tuesday, December 20

Jeremiah 5

22 Fear you not Me? says the Lord: will you not tremble at My presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

The inert sand of the seashore shows the power of God even more than the mighty sea itself. It is not the rock, but the light, shifting sand, that God sets as the bounds of the sea.

While the exhibition of the mighty power of God in holding the sea within bounds is calculated to make us tremble, it at the same time produces confidence, in that it shows us how God’s strength is made perfect in weakness.

The Thunder of His Voice

Wednesday, December 21

Job 37

5 God thunders marvelously with His voice; great things does He which we cannot comprehend.

Many a child that stops its ears and trembles with terror when it thunders, would listen to the sound with delight if it had been taught that thunder is the voice of God. It is awful in its majesty, it is true, as the voice of God might be expected to be; but thunder does not necessarily mean wrath.

The law was proclaimed from Sinai in thunder tones, yet it was given because:

Deuteronomy 33

3 He loved the people.

Thunders and lightnings come from the throne—that throne of grace to which we are exhorted to come with boldness. And when Christ shall come, His voice will shake earth and heaven, and yet it will be the voice of mercy, because it will bring the dead from the graves in the freshness of eternal youth.

God’s Care of the Trees

Thursday, December 22

Psalm 29

9 The voice of the Lord...strips the forests bare.

Why do the leaves fade and fall on the approach of winter? It is in order to protect the tree from being frozen to death; and this is accomplished by stopping the transpiration.

But what makes them fall? It is popularly supposed that it is the frost; but this is not the case. The leaves fall, or are at least practically severed from their connection with the tree before the frost comes, in order to guard against injury by the frost.

Kerner, undoubtedly the best botanical authority in the world, says:

“The late cause of this instinctively adapted periodicity is certainly not yet explained; it is as mysterious as those life processes and phenomena which regularly recur at certain periods, which are perhaps hastened or retarded by favorable or unfavorable external conditions, but cannot be stopped by them, and which the plant carries out, or endeavors carry to out, without immediate external stimulus.”

The explanation, as far as any is possible, is found in our text: “The voice of the Lord strips the forests bare,”—the same voice that says to the snow, “Be you on the earth” (Job 37:6),—the same voice that says, “Let the earth bring forth.” Genesis 1:11.

How wonderful is God’s care for the trees! Are we not of more value than they?

Frost by His Breath

Friday, December 23

Job 37

10 By the breath of God frost is given.

The same silent voice that strips the forests bare in anticipation of the coming cold, sends the frost.

Who has not been struck by the beautiful forms which frozen breath on the window-pane assumes, and noted similar forms in the frost on the stone pavement, where no person has breathed?

But how many have thought that the frost was an evidence that God is near? In the cold, dreary winter God’s presence and working are as manifest as in the glorious, fruitful summer.

So we may know that God is just as near in adversity as in prosperity, since both come from Him for our good.

God Feeds the Wild Beasts

Sabbath, December 24

Psalm 104

21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.

When the wild beasts utter their cries, so terrible to us, they utter articulate speech in the ears of God. He understands what they say, and gives them their desire. They are dependent on God for their food, just as much as little children are upon their parents; and they eat only what He gives them; yet He satisfies even their perverted appetites.

Should not this be a source of confidence to God’s people? Can they not be sure that their Father will not feed them to the wild beasts? Jesus in the wilderness, among the wild beasts, and Daniel in the lions’ den, are assurances that if we are serving God we are as safe in the midst of ravenous beasts as in our own homes.

God with Us

Sunday, December 25

Matthew 1

23 Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Centuries ago this was written, yet it is living truth today. The birth of the child of the virgin, who, being the Son of God, was God manifest in the flesh, was not merely God with her, but God with us. The Son of God was born of woman, to teach us that every “son of man” is by birth a son of God (read Luke 3:23-38); and that to the extent that we do not exhibit “the Divine nature” we come short of our privileges.

John 1

12 As many as received Him, to them gave He power [right or privilege] to become the sons of God.

But He is given to “all people” (Luke 2:10) alike, and therefore everybody has the same privileges by birth that any other one has, whether he accepts and uses them or not.

What an “unspeakable gift” is ours! The more we meditate upon it, the more wonderful and unspeakable will it appear to us.

Commanding the Lightning

Monday, December 26

Job 36 [RV]

32 He covers His hands with the lightning; and gives it a charge that it strike the mark.

The Danish has it still more plainly:

“He gives it orders against whom it shall strike.”

There are no accidents in God’s universe. The lightning does not dart about at random, but is under Divine control just as much as the plants are in their course.

Light, in whatever form it appears, is from God; for God is light. So when we see the sharp lightning we need have no fear that it will accidentally strike us. It is in God’s hands, and can do nothing except at His command.

Sparrows and Men

Tuesday, December 27

Matthew 10

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

Sparrows are even cheaper than that, for in Luke 12:6 we read that five are sold for two farthings. But humble and insignificant as they are, they are given a place in God’s house (Psalm 84:3), and not one of them is forgotten.

Matthew 10

31 Fear not therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.

And God’s care for us is in proportion to our superior value to the sparrows.

Matthew 10

30 The very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Think of the exactness of God’s knowledge of His vast dominion, and His infinite care for details! He knows the number of the stars, and calls them all by name; and He knows the number of hairs on every head, keeping accurate count, however they may vary from day to day.

Psalm 139

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

Beneath His watchful eye,

His saints securely dwell;

That hand which bears creation up

Shall guard His children well.

Under the Wings

Wednesday, December 28

Matthew 23

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!

What more striking figure of solicitous care and tender protection could be given than this. The hen’s wings afford a safe shelter for the young chickens, to which they flee for protection and warmth. Under the mother’s wings the little ones rest content, knowing and fearing nothing of want or danger.

Just such a hiding place does the Lord afford for His people; and our text tells us how His heart yearns to receive even those whose stubborn rejection of His love is exposing them to destruction. The illustration is several times used in the Bible.

Psalm 36

7 How excellent is Your lovingkindness, O God; therefore the sons of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.

Psalm 91

4 He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust.

O, God, how excellent Your grace,

Whence all our hope and comfort spring;

The sons of Adam in distress

Fly to the shadow of Your wing.

Life from Death

Thursday, December 29

John 12

24 Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.

This is the beginning and end of the Gospel. It is the secret of creation. Life is fed by death. For every new birth, life must be given.

The tree puts its life into fruit, that others may live. The mother gives her life for her child. And God gives His life for the universe.

Creation could not have been a fact if God had not desired it sufficiently to put His life into it. He gave himself for creation, that He might not abide alone. And after all we like sheep had gone astray, He still gave himself for us, that we might be with Him. So the lesson that we are to learn is:

John 12

25 He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

The Ox and Ass

Friday, December 30

Isaiah 1

3 The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people does not consider.

Thus it appears that they who do not know God have actually less knowledge than the brutes.

The ox and the ass are dull, plodding animals, one of them the synonym for stupidity: yet they know their owner and recognize that the one who feeds them has a right to their service.

But men who pride themselves upon their intellect take their food daily at the hand of the Lord, and at the same time talk boastingly of their “independence”! As though there were any such thing in this world! No man can consistently talk about independence as he eats food that another has made and prepared for him.

And since God bestows himself in His gifts, all that will be necessary to convict and condemn the one who in the judgment claims that he never had a chance to know God, will be to ask him if he never ate. Truly, one who can for years eat daily at the table of another, without ever becoming acquainted with that other, must be so dense that it is useless to waste time on him.

The Need for Close Observation

Sabbath, December 31

Psalm 107

43 Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.

It is for this very purpose that the Sabbath was made and given to men: that they might study the works of God’s hands, and become acquainted with Him. To be acquainted with God is to understand His lovingkindness that passes knowledge: for God is love, and with His everlasting lovingkindness He draws all men toward himself.

The great works of God—great in the smallest as well as in the largest—are “sought out” of all that have pleasure in them. Psalm 111:2. Mere passive observation of what casually appears to our eyes is not sufficient. His works require careful, painstaking study,—close observation; and whoever does this conscientiously must be led to say:

Psalm 92

4 You, Lord, have made me glad through Your works; I will triumph in the works of Your hands.