We must _have_ Christ, and simply be natural and true to the life within us, and that life will act itself out.
Oh, how easy it is to love every one, and see nothing but loveliness when our heart is filled with Christ, and how every difficulty melts away and every one we meet seems clothed with the Spirit within us when we are filled with the Holy Ghost!
SEPTEMBER 11.
"Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the age" (Matt.
xxviii. 20).
It is "all the days," not "always." He comes to you each day with a new blessing. Every morning, day by day, He walks with us, with a love that never tires and a blessing that never grows old. And He is with us "all the days"; it is a ceaseless abiding. There is no day so dark, so commonplace, so uninteresting, but you find Him there. Often, no doubt, He is unrecognized, as He was on the way to Emmaus, until you realize how your heart has been warmed, your love stirred, your Bible so strangely vivified, and every promise seems to speak to you with heavenly reality and power. It is the Lord! G.o.d grant that His living presence may be made more real to us all henceforth, and whether we have the consciousness and evidence, as they had a few glorious times in those forty days, or whether we go forth into the coming days, as they did most of their days, to walk by simple faith and in simple duty, let us know at least that the fact is true forevermore, THAT HE IS WITH US, a Presence all unseen, but real, and ready if we needed Him any moment to manifest Himself for our relief.
SEPTEMBER 12.
"The furnace for gold; but the Lord trieth the hearts" (Prov. xvii. 3.)
Remember that temptation is not sin unless it be accompanied with the consent of your will. There may seem to be even the inclination, and yet the real choice of your spirit is fixed immovably against it, and G.o.d regards it simply as a solicitation and credits you with an obedience all the more pleasing to Him, because the temptation was so strong.
We little know how evil can find access to a pure nature and seem to incorporate itself with our thoughts and feelings, while at the same time we resist and overcome it, and remain as pure as the sea-fowl that emerges from the water without a single drop remaining upon its burnished wing, or as the harp string, which may be struck by a rude or clumsy hand and gives forth a discordant sound, not from any defect of the harp, but because of the hand that touches it. But let the Master hand play upon it, and it is a chord of melody and a note of exquisite delight.
"In nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to you an evident token of salvation and that of G.o.d."
SEPTEMBER 13.
"Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you" (I.
Peter xii. 16).
Most persons after a step of faith are looking for sunny skies and unruffled seas, and when they meet a storm and tempest they are filled with astonishment and perplexity. But this is just what we must expect to meet if we have received anything of the Lord. The best token of His presence is the adversary"s defiance, and the more real our blessing, the more certainly it will be challenged. It is a good thing to go out looking for the worst, and if it comes we are not surprised; while if our path be smooth and our way be unopposed, it is all the more delightful, because it comes as a glad surprise.
But let us quite understand what we mean by temptation. You, especially, who have stepped out with the a.s.surance that you have died to self and sin, may be greatly amazed to find yourself a.s.sailed with a tempest of thoughts and feelings that seem to come wholly from within and you will be impelled to say, "Why, I thought I was dead, but I seem to be alive."
This, beloved, is the time to remember that temptation, the instigation, is not sin, but only of the evil one.
SEPTEMBER 14.
"For the Lord G.o.d will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore, have I set my face like a flint, and I know I shall not be ashamed" (Isa. l. 7).
This is the language of trust and victory, and it was through this faith, as we are told in a pa.s.sage in Hebrews, that in His last agony, "Jesus, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame." His life was a life of faith, His death was a victory of faith, His resurrection was a triumph of faith, His mediatorial reign is all one long victory of faith, "From henceforth expecting till all His enemies be made His footstool."
And so, for us He has become the pattern of faith, and in every situation of difficulty, temptation and distress has gone before us waving the banner of trust and triumph, and bidding us to follow in His victorious footsteps.
He is the great Pattern Believer. While we must claim our salvation by faith, the Great Forerunner also claimed the world"s salvation by the same faith.
Let us therefore consider this glorious Leader our perfect example, and as we follow close behind Him, let us remember where He has triumphed we may triumph, too.
SEPTEMBER 15.
"Though it tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come, and will not tarry" (Hab. ii. 3).
Some things have their cycle in an hour and some in a century; but His plans shall complete their cycle whether long or short. The tender annual which blossoms for a season and dies, and the Columbian aloe, which develops in a century, each is true to its normal principle. Many of us desire to pluck our fruit in June rather than wait until October, and so, of course, it is sour and immature; but G.o.d"s purposes ripen slowly and fully, and faith waits while it tarries, knowing it will surely come and will not tarry too long.
It is perfect rest to fully learn and wholly trust this glorious promise.
We may know without a question that His purposes shall be accomplished when we have fully committed our ways to Him, and are walking in watchful obedience to His every prompting. This faith will give a calm and tranquil poise to the spirit and save us from the restless fret and trying to do too much ourselves.
Wait, and every wrong will righten, Wait, and every cloud will brighten, If you only wait.
SEPTEMBER 16.
"I will never leave Thee nor forsake Thee" (Heb. xiii. 5).
It is most cheering thus to know that although we err and bring upon ourselves many troubles that might have been easily averted, yet G.o.d does not forsake even His mistaken child, but on his humble repentance and supplication is ever really both to pardon and deliver. Let us not give up our faith because we have perhaps stepped out of the path in which He would have led us. The Israelites did not follow when He called them into the Land of Promise, yet G.o.d did not desert them; but during the forty years of their wandering He walked by their side bearing their backsliding with patient compa.s.sion, and waiting to be gracious unto them when another generation should have come. "In all their afflictions He was afflicted, but the Angel of His presence saved them; He bare them and carried them all the days of old." And so yet, while our wanderings bring us many sorrows and lose us many blessings, to the heart which truly chooses His, He has graciously said: "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."
SEPTEMBER 17.
"Thy people shall be a freewill offering in the day of Thy power" (Ps. cx.
3).