April 1931
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April 19— “Thou, O Lord, art a. shield for me” (Psa. 3:3). It is a beautiful figure, this figure of the shield! It suggests the all-sufficient protection which comes from the compan ionship of God. The Lord will be a shield against the foe without. The Lord will not permit my external circumstances to injure my spirit. The world will not be permitted to pass beyond its threats. The hostility of my surroundings shall not hin der my spiritual growth. My gardener said to me two or three weeks ago : “I have got some shoots in the frame ; we must have them covered up before the winter comes.” And now the gardener has supplied the shield, and the tender shoots are growing in spite of the un friendly air without. And there are young shoots in the life, the tender growths of faith, and hope, and love. In my external life there is often a winter of failure and adversity and human mal ice and contempt. The Lord will defend the young shoots. He will be “a shield for me.” But the Lord will also be a shield against the foe within.' When the circumstances are unfriendly, man is apt to> become embittered. The hostility may nourish revenge. Failure may make a cynic. The wintertime may breed envy, malice, and uncharitableness. I need some defense against the foes within, “Man needs reenforcement against his worse self.” This reenforcement I obtain from my God. Anything which shelters me from the enemy is the armour of God. “The shields of the earth belong to God” (Psa. 47:9). We claim them all. — J. H. Jowett. — o — April 20— “They shall be priests of God and of Christ” (Rev. 20:6). Endow me, O Lord, with the priestly spirit ; consecrate me to the service of Thy tabernacle. Help me to take my place with the stricken sons of the wilderness. I do not ask to be enabled to pray for them on the height; let me come down from the height. Let me stand in the scene of pestilence. Let me touch the leper’s spots ere I say, “Be thou clean.” Often have I thought of these words : “If a man be overtaken in a fault, restore him in the spirit of meekness.” I have seen men who would restore in the spirit of pride; they speak to the fallen, but they speak from the mountain top. Not thus would I restore, O Lord. . . . Teach me that for the healing of a soul there is more virtue in the touch than in the ointment. Let the touch precede the text ; let the pity precede the precept ; let the kindness precede the. kingdom; let the brotherhood with man precede the breath of God. Let me meet, the fallen in. their own valley, the desolate in their own ruin, the broken in their own desert, the wan dered' in their own night. Then shall I be in truth one of Thy royal priesthood. •—George Matheson. —o— April 21— “Neither yield ye your mem bers as instruments of. unrighteousness unto sin” (Rom. 6:13). There is more than the surrender of the heart’s affections and conscience and will; yes, more than that. What else? The surrender of the body. With pro found and special significance, the apostle says : “Present your bodies a living sacri fice.” “Neither yield ye your members as
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I 8« Qïaily d evo tiona l Readings A M essage for Every D ay of ihe Month
April 15— “For I have given you an ex ample, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). Do we begin to know our Bible as Jesus did? Do we begin to pray as He did? How thoughtful He was of others, how patient toward dullness, how quiet under insult! Do we stoop to serve? Can any one say of us, as was said of Him, that we go about “doing good” ? “Christlike” is a word often on our lips. Do not speak it too lightly!— Maltbie D. Babcock. —o— April 16— “Thy faith hath saved thee” (Lk. 18:42). Faith is the channel of blessing from God to man, just as faith is the channel of blessing from physician to patient, from government to subject, and from parent to child. If the patient has no faith in the physician, his remedies will do little good. If the citizen has no faith in the government, he is apt to resist its auth ority and cut himself off from its bless ings. If the child has no faith in the parent, there is little chance of the par ent’s moulding the child’s character for good. Everything that is worth saving is saved by faith. Take away faith in the government, in the family, in the bank, in the railroad corporation, in the church, and these institutions will fall to pieces of their own weight. Faith is the cement that binds their parts together. Now God applies this universal principle to the realm of salvation. We are saved by faith. Without our faith, God can be neither Physician, Father, nor King. Unbelief destroys the channel of blessing. — A. C. Dixon. —o— April 17— “Take my yoke upon you” (Matt. 11:29). “Take my yoke” comes as a further in vitation to those who, already responding to His call, “Come unto me,” have found rest of conscience, as His free gift. “Take my yoke” is the summons to a holier rest. Not “a yoke” but “my yoke” is the alluring cry. What though the yoke be qne of the meanest, as it is one of the commonest of implements! What though it speaks of lowly service, entire subj ection! It is a yoke to which His sacred neck has bowed, and it is the cer tainty of experience that breathes through the words: “My yoke is easy and my bur den is light.” To the resistant oxen, we are told, the yoke is particularly uneasy; but its very pressure becomes a help when they unresistingly yield- to it. How ut terly, unquestioningly the will of the di vine Son was ever yielded to that of the divine Father we slowly learn; nor dare we say that we have yet gauged the far meanings of such expressions as those in John 5:19, 30. “I do always tho£e things that please him” was His life-song. We know somewhat of the cost' to Him of obedience so implicit; but He could say:
“I delight to do thy will.” Oh that Christ alone may be the dominant power in that citadel of the human heart—-the will 1 “No bar would I remove, No bond would I unbind; Within the limits of Thy love Full liberty I find.” -—Lucy A. Bennett. Paul’s prison pen carries him to Eu rope, as his feet had done when free. Little four-chaptered Philippians seems to have been written because two people there, whom he knew, couldn’t get along together. How modern it sounds 1 But though this homely touch puts the pen in his hand, what pictures are sketched 1 Each fresh epistle in prison brings a fresh vision of Jesus. Here he is seen voluntarily coming down to the lowest depths of humility and shame. And then he is lifted up to the highest heights of power and glory. The music throughout here is tuned in the major key. It bursts out in peals of joyous shouts. “Joy” is the keyword with its variations. A pris on may become a symphony concert cham ber when Jesus is allowed to pitch the music. It’s as true of circumstance- walled prisons as of stone walls. And the crowds outside are always listening. — S. D. Gordon. April 18— "To me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21).
The Blood o f Christ The blood once shed upon the tree, The theme shall be in glory; Too short eternity, though long, To tell in song its story. The blood that makes the sinner whole; '• The Lamb, in soul so straitened; On heavenly strings touch strains so grand No seraph hand e’er wakened. The chiefest theme of heavenly hymn Is, “Unto him that loved us”; There, holy strings will ever raise The wondrous praise o f Jesus. The song, while countless ages last, Will ne’er get past its opening; New wonders from Golgotha’s deep Will ever keep emerging. —Translation from the Welsh “Mae’r Gwaed a redodd ar y groes.”
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