February, 1933
T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
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Head. He is our Authority. He is our W is dom. He is our Guide. The Holy Spirit has undertaken to minister to us all these things and to supply all our needs on His behalf. “ Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” Stay yourselves awhile, in this hurried and hurrying age. Consider. We are in special danger now of letting slip from us the things that need the greatest tenacity of grasp.—H enry B owker . FEBRUARY 23 "And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matt. 6:6). Here Jesus assures us that secret prayer cannot be fruitless; its blessing will show itself in our life. We have but in secret, alone with God, to entrust our life before men to H im ; He will reward us openly; He will see to it that the answer to prayer be made manifest in His blessing upon u s.... Not on the strong or the fervent feeling with which I pray does the blessing o f the closet depend, but upon the love and the power of the Father to whom I there en trust my needs. And therefore the Master has but one desire: Remember your Father is,:.and sees, and hears in secret; go there and stay there, and go again from there in confidence: He will recompense. —A ndrew M urray . FEBRUARY 24 “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Gen. 18:14). One o f the greatest mistakes we can make is to look at God through the difficul ties which oppose themselves to our realiza tion of His Word. For He appears strange ly far off when so viewed. On the other hand, to look at every difficulty through Him, and to see His power interposed for their conquest, is to make them all seem strangely insignificant and negligible. To doubt Him is to fail utterly of that saving experience o f His intervention which is the very life of His children. Sarai’s difficulty seems great enough to justify*her faithless laughter, had she not to do with Him who is the Creator of the ends o f the earth. To Him great things are little and little things are great. All He seeks is a vessel willing enough and weak enough to be used by His power . . . “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”- To this challenge faith responds with a. glad “ Nothing,” and goes on to prove it.—J. S tuart H olden . FEBRUARY 25 “ Still upward . . . still upward . . . still upward" (Ezek. 41:7).. Salvation—standing ' in Christ—is “by grace, through faith,” . “Perfect” as to “standing,” the believer has now “an high way o f holiness” before him, with innu merable flights o f upward progress. David had his feet on the rock, but not that he might stand still; he,adds, He “stablished my goings."- Paul knew that he was com plete as to this standing, but he said, “Not a"s though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” . . . . Should we not do well to ask ourselves what we know of “mounting up with the wings as eagles” ? Are we not almost satis fied with but a wilderness life o f ups and downs, backwards and forwards,"; instead of a triumphant career of victory? It is possible to “come up out of the wilderness leaning on the Beloved.” W e may “dwell on high,” and find each step attained a starting point for another. The principle is, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” It is “laying aside every weight,” and there is no weight like this “self” which we are to reckon as dead and buried. Each day,
CD a tly C D e vo i ion a lc^ ^ ea (lìing s A M E S S A G E F O R E V E R Y D A Y O F T H E M O N T H
FEBRUARY 17 “ He saved others; himself he cannot save” (Matt. 27:42). Reveal to me the omnipotent strength, that was unconsciously eulogized in the words, “He saved others: himself he can not save.” The world thought-it was a sign o f impotence, but it was strength unspeak able, .such strength as belonged only to Thee. That-JJnability of Thine was the greatest force in this universefp-the power of love. It was the power of Thy love that made Thee powerless to save. Thyself. O strong Son of God, whose strength was to say, “ I cannot save myself,” be that strength also mine; reveal Thine arm in me, as well as to me. Make me strong to bear the cross, to despise the shame, to en dure contradiction against myself, to pre fer the narrow path of duty to the king doms of the world and their glory. Make me strong to trample self under my feet, to surrender my will to Thy will, to yield up my spirit to. the crucifying hand of love. —G eorge M atheson . FEBRUARY 18 “A pure conscience” (1 Tim. 3:9 ). Entire surrender includes, not only first, place in the affections, but also, and as defi nitely, the surrender o f the conscience. Have you ever thought of that? The Chris tian’s conscience is to be given right over into the Lord’s •keeping, to be by Him cleansed, illuminated, controlled. I venture to think that the weak spot in the expe rience of Christian people in all churches at this very day is an unconsecrated, un purged conscience. What is God’s idea of the conscience, and what is ours?.: God’s conception is that of a transparent body, through which' the light streams without let or hindrance; and a transparent con science is of inestimable value amid the strain, and stress, and temptationsof our daily life. ... . Have you given your con science right over into the keeping of the Lord'Jesus; are you leaving it with Him; and do you accept as your rule of life day by day what that enlightened and conse crated conscience -enj oins ? —C harles I nwood . FEBRUARY 19 “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne o f grace” (Heb. 4:16). When you pray at morn or sundown, ■By yourself, or with your own, When you pray at rush of noontide— Just make sure you touch the throne. When you pray in busy moments, Oft to restless hurry prone, Brevity will matter little, If you really touch the throne. When you pray, as Christ directed, In a manner clearly shown, In His name, and by His Spirit, You will always touch His throne. ■—W inifred A. I verson . FEBRUARY 20 “ O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Psa. 96:9). The better we know God, the more won derful becomes our insight into the power o f intercession . . . The more we take time to abide in God’s presence, to enter fully
into His mind and will, to get our whole soul possessed by the thought of His glor ious purpose, the stronger will our faith become that God will Himself work out all the good pleasure of His will through our prayers. As the glory of God shines upon us, we shall become conscious of the depths of our helplessness ; and so rise up into the faith that believes that God will do above all that we can ask or think. The secret of true adoration can only be known by the soul that gives time to tarry in God’s pres ence, and that yields itself to God for Him to reveal Himself.—A ndrew M urray . FEBRUARY 21 “ By patient continuance in well-doinq” (Rom. 2:7). There must be “continuance” in that which is right, in holy living and serving. St. Peter, with his mind full of the impor tance of the continuance, says in tender sympathy, to all the people of God, “Ye have need of patience.” True words ! Con tinuance in well-doing is impossible with out the grace of patience. How much there is to discourage, to hinder, to daunt! Again and again the strength of opposing influ ences and circumstances is sorely felt. Per haps the hands begin to hang down, and the heart to feel overweary and faint. One is not' far off, whose sweet word reaches the ear, “Fear not, I will not fail thee” ; and, straightway, recognizing the Lord, the spirit revives, and renewed strength takes possession of the heart.—J. T. W. FEBRUARY 22 “Lest at any time we should let them slip” (Heb. 2:1). Have we in any true, Conscious measure realized the blessings we are privileged to enj oy in the fact that, since the incarnation, God has been speaking to us by His Son ; that our Teacher is no Jess a Person than the Son of God, Heir of all things, Creator of the worlds, the Upholder of all things by the Word of His power, the brightness o f His glory, and the express image of His Person? This is .the truth which we are exhorted not-to let slip—but to lay hold of it with a firm, tenacious grasp . . . . God has spoken to us" by His SonSjSHe is our Work from Pure Motives Legends tell us that when the Emperor Justinian had built the Byzantine Church with a. view to his own aggrandisement and glory, on the day of dedication he looked in vain for his own name on the memorial stone. Angel hands had obliter ated it, and substituted for it that o f the widow, Euphrasia—whose only merit was that out of pure devotion she had strewn a little straw in front of the beasts that drew the heavily laden trucks of marble from the quarry to the sacred pile. His motive was so ignoble that heaven ignored his g ift; hers was so pure and lovely that she received credit for the- whole. A las! how much of our work vanishes, without note in heaven, because it springs from no mo tive that can pass muster there. —S elected .
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