October, 1933
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
364
New scenes surround my life, and faces strange; I thank Thee that no day can ever break, Saviour, when Thou wilt leave me or forsake. There may be days of darkness and dis tress, When sin has power to tempt, and care to press; Yet in the darkest day I will not fear, For ’mid the shadows, Thou wilt still be near. — H. L. R. D eck . NOVEMBER 8 "Groanings which cannot be uttered" (Rom. 8:26). The Christian, oppressed with the world’s load, is not, it appears, alone at his solitary prayers. A mystic Comrade is near, though undetected by our con sciousness, so intimately does He become the Confidant and Partner of our secret life. He enables the soul to breathe into God’s ear a scarce-formed, scarce-spoken wish—a groan not much more articulate than those of creation. Such groans are good prayers. . . . It is like the cry of a dumb thing in its pain; not asking for anything, so much as making appeal only to the great pity o f one far wiser and better. . . . What magnificent forces gird the struggling soul! What messen gers, mightier than any angel, have come to minister to the heirs of salvation! — O s w a l d D y k e s . NOVEMBER 9 “Purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9). An error very prevalent among unin structed Christians, and one to be guarded against constantly, is that of practically assuming that Christ is to be accepted by faith, and then maintained only by fighting gj-just as if Christianity were pardon by the Saviour’s free gift, and purification by the believer’s constant struggle. On the contrary, it is both justification and sanctification in one Lord, and both are to be appropriated and maintained by faith. Holiness is not an achievement, but a gift, and in the acceptance, appropriation, enjoyment, and use of the gift will be found our growing sanctification. Christ is all—pardoning, justifying, sanctifying; and faith means surrendering,,, yielding, dedicating, trusting, using, obeying. The Christian life from first to last is the Christ-life, and a life of faith. — W. H. G riffith T homas . NOVEMBER 10 “ Then shalt thou call and the Lord will answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am” (Isa. 58:9). The telephone o f faith always reaches the open ear of our beloved Lord; yea, a million voices may all be addressing Him at once, without delay and without confu sion. He is nigh unto all that call upon Him—no need o f sending forth a messen ger on a long journey. The very phrase ology of His promise recalls the familiar process o f telephoning: “ Thou shalt call, and the Lord will answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.” In every phase of prayer, whether confession o f sin, or offering thanks, or supplicating help, this blessed near-at-handness of Jesus is a precious encouragement. — T heodore L. C uyler . NOVEMBER 11 “ The Lord will perfect that which con- cerneth me” (Psa. 138:8). “The Lord will perfect that which con-
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very remarkable manner, the conceptions of peace and of war, for he employs a purely military word to express the office of this divine peace. That word, “shall keep,” is the same as is translated in an other of his letters “ kept with a garrison” ■—and though, perhaps, it might be going too far to insist that the military idea is prominent in his mind, it will certainly not be .unsafe to recognize its presence. So, then, this divine peace takes upon itself warlike functions, and garrisons the heart and mind. . . . The whole inner man, in all the extent of its manifold operations, that indwelling peace of God will garrison and guard. This peace is to be enjoyed in the midst of warfare. — A lexander M ac L aren . NOVEMBER 5 “ W e may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me" (Heb. 13:6). Here we have an admirable expression of Christian confidence. It is pure confi dence in God, viewed as the source not only of one’s own strength, but o f all strength, so that there remains nothing in the world worthy to excite alarm. I f the Lord be thy helper, and if all the power of man is inferior to that which accompanies thee, then why dost thou not do some great, some world-inspiring thing? . . . When we allow these soul-enkindling declara tions to come home to our consciousness, does it not seem as though he who in gen uine faith is able to speak of God as his helper, and to look disdainfully upon all that man can do against him, should go forth clothed in a transcendent power, and obtain some world-wide display o f the glory o f his Lord?— G eorge B owen . NOVEMBER 6 “ The power of his resurrection" (Phil. 3:10). We dwell so much on death, forgetting that death is but the negative side, while so few o f us pass on to the resurrection side o f the cross, and live in the power of His endless life. If we are willing to count all things loss, and to recognize God’s sentence of death upon all that we are and have (2 Cor. 1 :9), then He simply bids us take the place that Paul did, and maintain the unswerving attitude, “I have died," looking to the risen Lord to mani fest the “power o f his resurrection” in us day by day. Our perplexity comes from the old elementary difficulty of “ feelings.” We measure God’s fact by our experience of it, rather than resting upon God’s fact in His written Word, and expecting Him to prove it in His own time and way.— S elected . NOVEMBER 7 “ Lo, I am with you alway” (Matt. 28:20). I take Thy promise, Lord, in all its length, And breadth, and fullness, as my daily strength ; Into life’s future fearless I may gaze, For Jesus, Thou art with me “all the days.” Days may be coming fraught with loss and change,
NOVEMBER 1 “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God, and the pris oners heard them” (Acts 16:25). Is it midnight in your experience—an interminable time since the last gold-and- crimson hope died out in the west, and a seemingly longer interval before the hoped-for dawning of day? Midnight! Still, dark, and eery as death 1 It is time to pray, and it is time to sing. Strange, how prayer and singing open prison doors —but they do. Many a precious child of God, his feet fast in the stocks, is solemnly enduring his dungeon while God is waiting to make it a scene o f miracle power, as soon as the double key of prayer and song is inserted in the lock. Do you need the foundations to be shaken? Try prayer and singing. Do you need doors to be opened? Try prayer and singing. They go together. They work wonders.— S elected . NOVEMBER 2 “Let us cleanse ourselves . . . perfect ing holiness" (2 Cor. 7:1). The same word, “perfecting,” occurs in Hebrews 9 :6 : “The priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service o f God.” As the priests were every day engaged in accomplishing the duties of the sanctuary, so is the Chris tian to be every day engaged in perfecting holiness. Five times out of six in the New Testament the word “holy” is used of Christians, quite irrespective of their de gree o f attainment in life and conduct. Are they members of Christ and temples of the Holy Ghost? Then they are holy in God’s sight. But as soon as the title is given to any one, the power of it begins to work.— H ubert B rooke . NOVEMBER 3 “Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him” (Acts 12:5). Dear young Rhoda heard poor Peter knocking, Knocking, knocking, knocking at the door. Frightened Rhoda saw that it was Peter, Left him knocking, o’er and o’er and o’er. Foolish Rhoda ran and came and told us, “Peter’s ghost, and oh, I’m so afraid 1 It is Peter, for whom we’ve been apraying, Hear him knocking!” Silly little maid! Often since, when you and I were praying, We have heard the Answer knocking at the door. We have heard the Answer, to our dull dismaying, And have left it knocking o’er and o’er and o’er. Frightened, foolish, we have run and hidden, Hidden from the Answer we have longed to hear. Rhoda, have we blamed you ? ridiculed and chidden? We are just as silly. Pray excuse us, dear! ’Sfe— A mos R. W ells . NOVEMBER 4 “ The peace o f God” (Phil. 4:7 ). The apostle here blends together, in a
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