APRIL 17.
"He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city" (Prov.
xvi. 32).
Temperance is true self-government. It involves the grace of self-denial and the spirit of a sound mind. It is that poise of spirit that holds us quiet, self-possessed, recollected, deliberate, and subject ever to the voice of G.o.d and the conviction of duty in every step we take. Many persons have not that poise and recollected spirit. They are drifting at the impulse of their own impressions, moods, the influence of others, or the circ.u.mstances around them. No desire should ever control us. No purpose, however right, should have such mastery over us that we are not perfectly free. The pure affection may be an inordinate affection. Our work itself may be a selfish pa.s.sion. That thing that we began to do because it was G.o.d"s will, we may cling to and persist in ultimately, because it is our own will. Lord, give us the spirit ever controlled by Thy Spirit and will, and the eye that looks to Thee every moment as the eyes of a servant to the hands of her mistress. So shall Thy service be our perfect freedom, and our subjection divinest liberty.
APRIL 18.
"They shall mount up with wings" (Isa. xl. 31).
"They shall mount up with wings as eagles," is G.o.d"s preliminary; for the next promise is, "They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." Hours of holy exultation are necessary for hours of patient plodding, waiting and working. Nature has its springs, and so has grace.
Let us rejoice in the Lord evermore, and again we say, rejoice. And let us take Him to be our continual joy, whose heart is a fountain of blessedness, and who is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows. We must not be disappointed if the tides are not always equally high. Even at low tide the ocean is just as full. Human nature could not stand perpetual excitement, even of a happy kind, and G.o.d often rests in His love. Let us live as self-unconsciously as possible, filling up each moment with faithful service, and trusting Him to stir the springs at His will, and as we go on in faithful service we shall hear, again and again, His glad whisper: "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
APRIL 19.
"Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him" (Ps. x.x.xvii. 7).
It is a very suggestive thought that it is in the Gospel of Mark, which is the Gospel of service, we hear the Master saying to His disciples, "Come ye apart into a desert place, and rest awhile." G.o.d wants rested workers.
There is an energy that may be tireless and ceaseless, and yet still as the ocean"s depth, with the peace of G.o.d, which pa.s.ses all understanding.
The two deepest secrets of rest are, first, to be in harmony with the will of G.o.d, and, secondly, to trust. "Great peace have they that love Thy law," expresses the first. "Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee," describes the second.
There is a good deal in learning to "stay." Sometimes we forget that it literally means to stop. It is a great blessing even to stop all thought, and this is frequently the only way to answer the devil"s whirlwind of irritating questions and thoughts, to be absolutely still and refuse to even think, and meet his evil voice with a simple and everlasting "No!" If we will be still G.o.d will give us peace.
APRIL 20.
"There they dwelt with the King for His work" (I. Chron. iv. 23).
It is easy for water to run down from the upper springs, but it requires a divine impulse to flow up from the valley in the nether springs. There is nothing that tells more of Christ than to see a Christian rejoicing and cheerful in the humdrum and routine of commonplace work, like the sailors that stand on the dock loading the vessel and singing as they swing their loads, keeping time with the spirit of praise to the footsteps and movements of labor and duty. No one has a sweeter or higher ministry for Christ than a business man or a serving woman who can carry the light of heaven in their faces all day long. Like the sea fowl that can plunge beneath the briny tide with its beautiful and spotless plumage, and come forth without one drop adhering to its burnished breast and glowing wings because of the subtle oil upon the plumage that keeps the water from sticking, so, thank G.o.d, we too may be so anointed with the Holy Ghost that sin, sorrow and defilement will not adhere to us, but we shall pa.s.s through every sea as the ship pa.s.ses through the waves, in, but above the floods around us.
APRIL 21.
"The anointing which ye have received" (I. John ii. 27).
This is the secret of the deeper life, but "That ye may be rooted and grounded in love," is the substance of it, and the sweetness of it. The fulness of the divine love in the heart will make everything easy. It is very easy to do things that we love to do, and it is very easy to trust one whom we love, and the more we realize their love the more we will trust them for it. It is the source of healing. The tide of love flowing through our bodies will strangely strengthen our very frame, and the love of our Lord will become a continual spring of youth and freshness in our physical being. The secret of love is very simple. It is to take the heart of Jesus for our love and claim its love for every need of life, whether it be toward G.o.d or toward others. It is very sweet to think of persons in this way, "I will take the heart of Jesus toward them, to let me love them as He loves them." Then we can love even the unworthy in some measure, if we shall see them in the light of His love and hope, as they shall be, and not as they now are, unworthy of our love.
APRIL 22.
"Christ is the head" (Eph. v. 23).
Often we want people to pray for us and help us, but always defeat our object when we look too much to them and lean upon them. The true secret of union is for both to look upon G.o.d, and in the act of looking past themselves to Him they are unconsciously united. The sailor was right when he saw the little boy fall overboard and waited a minute before he plunged to his rescue. When the distracted mother asked him in agony why he had waited so long, he sensibly replied: "I knew that if I went in before he would clutch and drag me down. I waited until his struggles were over, and then I was able to help him when he did not grasp me too strongly."
When people grasp us too strongly, either with their love or with their dependence, we are intuitively conscious that they are not looking to G.o.d, and we become paralyzed in our efforts to help them. United prayer, therefore, requires that the one for whom we pray be looking away from us to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we together look to Him alone.
APRIL 23.
"An high priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Heb. iv.
15).
Some time ago we were talking with a greatly suffering sister about healing, who was much burdened physically and desirous of being able to trust the Lord for deliverance. After a little conversation we prayed with her, committing her case to the Lord for absolute trust and deliverance as she was prepared to claim. As soon as we closed our prayer she grasped our hand, and asked us to unite with her in the burden that was most upon her heart, and then, without a word of reference to her own healing, or the burden under which she was being crushed to death, she burst into such a prayer for a poor orphan boy, of whom she had just heard that day, as we have never heard surpa.s.sed for sympathy and love, imploring G.o.d to help him and save him, and sobbing in spasmodic agony of love many times during her prayer, and then she ceased without even referring to her own need. We were deeply touched by the spectacle of love, and we thought how the Father"s heart must be touched for her own need.
APRIL 24.
"Fret not thyself in any wise" (Ps. x.x.xvii. 8).
A life was lost in Israel because a pair of human hands were laid unbidden upon the ark of G.o.d. They were placed upon it with the best intent to steady it when trembling and shaking as the oxen drew it along the rough way, but they touched G.o.d"s work presumptuously, and they fell paralyzed and lifeless. Much of the life of faith consists in letting things alone.
If we wholly trust an interest to G.o.d we can keep our hands off it, and He will guard it for us better than we can help Him. "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Fret not thyself in any wise because of him that prospereth in the way, because of the man that bringeth wicked devices to pa.s.s." Things may seem to be going all wrong, but He knows as well as we; and He will arise in the right moment if we are really trusting Him so fully as to let Him work in His own way and time. There is nothing so masterly as inactivity in some things, and there is nothing so hurtful as restless working, for G.o.d has undertaken to work His sovereign will.