9. Ninth Day.
White Garments.
"Let thy garments be always white."--Eccles. ix. 8.
"Always?" Oh, how can that be? They are soiled again directly after they have been washed clean! Yet G.o.d says, "Let them be _always_ white;" and He would not tell you to do what was impossible. Then how are you to help soiling them? Only in one way. Last night"s "little pillow" told you how Jesus washes us "whiter than snow" in His own precious blood, that cleanseth from all sin. But will He only cleanse His little one just for the moment? is that all He is able and willing to do for you?
No; if you will only keep on trusting to that precious blood, and not turn away from it, He says that it cleanseth, that is, _goes on cleansing_. You could not keep your garments white for five minutes; careless thoughts would come like dust upon them, and wrong words would make great dark stains and before long some naughty deed would be like a sad fall in the mud, and you would feel sad and ashamed before the kind Saviour who still stands ready to cleanse you again. But why should all this happen over and over again, till anybody but our own loving, long-suffering Saviour would be tired of us, and give up doing any more for us? Why should it be, when His precious blood is meant to "_go on cleansing_," so that our garments may be always white? Perhaps you never thought of this; ask Him now this morning not only to wash you in the fountain of His precious blood, but _to keep you in it_, to _go on cleansing_ you all day long. _Trust_ Him to do this, and see if it is not the happiest day you ever spent!
"And He can do all this for me, Because in sorrow, on the tree, He once for sinners hung; And, having washed their sin away, He now rejoices, day by day, To cleanse His little one."
10. Tenth Day.
Made Beautiful.
"Let the beauty of the Lord our G.o.d be upon us."--Ps. xc. 17.
"How great is His beauty!" said Zechariah. How can His beauty be upon us?
In two ways; try to understand them, and then ask that in both ways the beauty of the Lord our G.o.d may be upon you.
One way is by His covering you with the robe of Jesus Christ"s righteousness, looking upon you not as you are in yourself, all sinful and unholy, but as if all the Saviour"s beautiful and holy life were yours, reckoning it to you for His sake. In this way He can call us "perfect through my comeliness which I had put upon thee." The other way is by giving you the beauty of holiness, for that is His own beauty; and though we never can be quite like Him till we see Him as He is, He can begin to make us like Him even now. Look at a poor little colorless drop of water, hanging weakly on a blade of gra.s.s. It is not beautiful at all; why should you stop to look at it? Stay till the sun has risen, and now look. It is sparkling like a diamond; and if you look at it from another side, it will be glowing like a ruby, and presently gleaming like an emerald. The poor little drop has become one of the brightest and loveliest things you ever saw. But is it its own brightness and beauty? No; if it slipped down to the ground out of the sunshine, it would be only a poor little dirty drop of water. So, if the Sun of Righteousness, the glorious and lovely Saviour, shines upon you, a little ray of His own brightness and beauty will be seen upon you. Sometimes we can see by the happy light on a face that the Sun is shining there; but if the Sun is really shining, there are sure to be some of the beautiful rays of holiness, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, making the life even of a little child very lovely.
"Jesus, Lord, I come to Thee, Thou hast said I may; Tell me what my life should be, Take my sins away.
"Jesus, Lord, I learn of Thee, In Thy word divine; Every promise there I see, May I call it mine!"
11. Eleventh Day.
Pleasant Gifts.
"Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy."--I Tim. vi. 17.
Think a little this morning of G.o.d"s great kindness to you. How _very_ good He is to you! I know one of His dear children who looks up many, many times a day, and says, "_Good_ Lord Jesus!" or "_Kind_ Lord Jesus!" She does not set herself to say it, but it seems as if she could not help saying it, just because He _is_ so good and kind. And then it seems only natural to look up again and say, "_Dear_ Lord Jesus!" How _can_ anybody go on all day long, and never see how good He is, and never look up and bless Him? Most especially on bright pleasant days, when He giveth us more even than usual to enjoy! "He giveth." Not one single pleasant thing, not one single bit of enjoyment comes to us but what He giveth. We can not get it, we do not earn it, we do not deserve it; but He _giveth_ lovingly, and kindly, and freely. Suppose He stopped giving, what would become of us?
"Richly." So richly, that if you tried to write down half His gifts to you, your hand would be tired long before you had done. You might easily make a list of the presents given you on your birthday, but you could not make a list of what G.o.d gives you every day of your life.
"All things." All the things you really need, and a great many more besides. All the things that will do you good, a great many more than you would ever have thought of. All the things that He can fill your little hands with, and trust you to carry without stumbling and falling. _All_ things, everything that you have at all!
"To enjoy." Now how kind this is! not only "to do us good," but "to enjoy." So you see He means you to be happy with what He gives you, to smile and laugh and be glad, not to be dismal and melancholy. If you do not enjoy what He "giveth," that is your own fault, for He meant you to enjoy it. Look up to Him with a bright smile, and thank Him for having given you richly all things to enjoy!
"My joys to Thee I bring, The joys Thy love hath given, That each may be a wing To lift me nearer heaven.
I bring them, Saviour, all to Thee, For Thou hast purchased all for me."
12. Twelfth Day.
Much more than this.
"The Lord is able to give thee much more than this."--2 Chron. xxv. 9.
Amaziah, king of Judah, was going to war against the Edomites. He thought he would make sure of victory by hiring a hundred thousand soldiers from the King of Israel, and he paid them beforehand a hundred talents, which was about 34,218.15s. of our money. But a man of G.o.d warned him not to let the army of Israel go with him, for Israel had forsaken the Lord, and so He was not with them. It seemed a great pity to waste all that money, and so Amaziah said, "But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of G.o.d answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this." So Amaziah simply obeyed, and sent the soldiers away, and trusted G.o.d to help him to do without them.
Was it any wonder that he gained a great victory over the Edomites?
Does not this teach us that we should simply do the right thing, and trust G.o.d at any cost? When you do this, you will find that, in hundreds of ways which you never thought of, "the Lord is able to give thee much more." The trial comes in many different ways. One may be tempted to hurry over prayer and Bible, because there is something else that she very much wants to get done before breakfast, and she is afraid of not having time enough.
Another shuts up her little purse when a call comes to give something for G.o.d"s work, because she is afraid she will not have enough left for another purpose. Another is tempted to look at a key, or to glance over another"s shoulder at a lesson, because without it he would not get the marks he is trying for. Another is tempted not to tell the exact truth, or to conceal something which he ought to tell, because he would lose something by it. Oh, resist the devil, and do what you know is right, and trust G.o.d for all the rest! For "the Lord is able to give thee much more than this," whatever your "_this_" may be. And His smile and His blessing will always be "more than this," more than anything else!
"Be brave to do the right, And scorn to be untrue; When fear would whisper "yield!"
Ask, "What would Jesus do?""
13. Thirteenth Day.
The Doings of the King.
"Whatsoever the king did pleased all the people."--2 Sam. iii. 36.
David had been giving a proof of his love for one who had long been his enemy, but whom he had received into friendship; and he had been giving a proof of his tender-heartedness and sympathy with the people, by weeping with them at the grave of Abner. "And all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them: as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people."
This was because they loved their king. They watched him, not as the wicked Pharisees watched the Lord Jesus that they might find something against Him; but with the watching of admiration and love, taking notice of the kind and gracious things he did and said. Do you thus take notice of what your King does? Does it please you to hear and read of what He has done and what He is doing? It must be so if He really is your King.
But the "whatsoever" is a little harder; and yet, if it is once really learnt, it makes everything easy. For if we learn to be pleased with _whatsoever_ our King Jesus does, nothing can come wrong to us.
Suppose something comes to-day which is not quite what you would have liked; heavy rain, for instance, when you wanted to go out,--recollect that your King Jesus has done it, and that will hush the little murmur, and make you quite content. Ask Him this morning to make you so loving and loyal to Him, that _whatsoever_ He does, all day long, may please you, because it has pleased Him to do it. I think He loves us so much, that He always gives us as much happiness as He can possibly trust us with, and does what is pleasantest for His dear children whenever He sees it will not hurt them; so, when He does something which at first does not seem so pleasant, we may still trust our beloved King, and learn by His grace to be pleased with _whatsoever_ He does.
"I hear a sweet voice ringing clear, "All is well!"
It is my Father"s voice I hear, All is well!
Where"er I walk that voice is heard, It is my G.o.d, my Father"s word-- "Fear not, but trust; I am the Lord, All is well!""