May 1931
236
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May 21— “Speak; for thy servant hear- eth” (1 Sam. 3:10). Speak, Lord, in the stillness
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c.Daily (Devotional tf°{eadingi A Message for Everg Day of ihe Month ^o«»o«o<
While I wait on Thee— Hushed my heart to listen In expectancy. Speak, O blessed Master, In this quiet hour. Let me see Thy face, Lord— Feel Thy touch of power.
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—Selected.
censure, in His look and tone; love and gladness at His child’s boldness and con fidence in Him. For it is just that very tangible act, that touching in faith, that taking in confidence, that touches the Saviour’s heart as well as His garment and opens His hand of bounty. —Northcote Deck. —o— May 19— "Abstain from all appearance of evil" (1 Thess. 5:22). Whatever the form, no child of God should allow himself to be for one mo ment attached to what is evil. The Holy Spirit is a power in you to emancipate you from things which overcame you be fore your conversion. If evil takes shape in your mind and you see it to be wrong, instantly abstain from it; avoid all ap pearance of it. And by that you main tain not only actual progress in the divine life, but also a holy abiding frame which is in the sight of God more than any occasional act, for God looks behind our acts, which are comparatively transient and unimportant, to that which is the habit.— A . T . . Pierson. —o— May 20— “I f I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psa. 66:18). What strikes us in the condition which David describes is its deliberateness. It is not -something into which a man may fall, out of weakness, and almost with out knowing it. To “regard iniquity” is a voluntary act. The man or woman chooses the sin and chooses to cling to it. The deliberateness may cloak itself and try to pass for a necessity. You may lay the blame on circumstance, on tempera ment, on education, on almost anything; but all the time, down at the bottom of your heart, in the moment when you are sincerely honest, you know which are the sins you choose. . . . You can tell them by a certain confidence in their step as they enter and walk through the streets of your heart; they are different from those that have climbed in over the un guarded wall. It is man’s obstinacy, not God’s reluctance, that keeps back the mer cy.— Phillips Brooks..
May 15— "Grace and peace be multi plied unto you” (2 Pet. 1:2). From, the very commencement of hi,s Christian life to the last moment of his existence upon earth, the believer is, led, guarded,' kept, empowered, blessed in ev ery way by the ever-varying, all encir cling, never-failing grace of God . . . In every time of temptation and trial, of sorrow and pain, of weariness and weak ness, of perplexity and doubt, of con scious failure and of deep desire after a life of holiness, it is grace, abounding grace, that comes to meet our need and satisfy our longing. By the grace of God, we “can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us.” — F. 1. Horsefield. — o — May 16— “The joy of the Lord is your strength’’ (Neh. 8:10). Oh, how we need this joy amid the plod and the drudgery of the one hundred and sixty-eight hours of every week, in the factory and in the shop, over the counter, in the kitchen, at the desk, on the street, on the farm, and . . . in the great, heart less, noisy world! Thank God! circum stances will make little difference where the everlasting springs are bursting from the deep well of His joy in the heart. The joy of the Lord is our strength for life’s burdens, And gives to each duty a heavenly zest, It sets to sweet music the task of the toiler, And softens the couch of the laborer’s rest. The joy tof the Lord is the strength for our trials, And lifts the crushed heart above sor row and care, Like the nightingale’s notes, it can sing in the darkness, And rejoice when the fig-tree is fruitless and bare. — A. B. Simpson. —o— May 17— "No chastening for the pres ent seemeth to be joyous . . . nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are ex ercised thereby” (Heb. 12:11). , Oh, what owe I to the file, to the ham mer, to the furnace of my Lord Jesus, who hath now let me see how good the wheat of Christ is that goeth through His mill and His oven, to be made for His own table! Grace tried is glory in its infancy.:— Samuel Rutherford. —o— May 18— "Thy faith hath made thee whole” (Matt. 9:22). When a promise is realized by an act of faith, I like to think of the joy to Him; and I seem to see the blessed Master turn His gracious face as of old to ask again: “Who touched me?” There is love, not
—o— May 22— "He is a lto g e th e r lovely” (Cant. 5:16). There is in the Lord Jesus a perfect evenness of various perfections. All the elements òf perfect character are in love ly balance. His gentleness is never weak. His courage is never harsh. Follow Him through all the scenes of outrage and in sult on the night and morning of His •arrest and trial . . . See Him brow-beaten, bullied, scourged, smitten upon the face, spit upon, mocked. How His inherent greatness comes out! Not once does He lose His high dignity. Follow Him still. Go with thè jeering crowd without the gate. See Him stretched upon the great, rough cross, and hear the dreadful sound of the sledge as the spikes are forced through the hands and feet. See, as the yelling mob falls back, the cross bearing this gentlest, sweetest, bravest, loveliest Man, upreared until it falls into its sock et in the rock . . . Hear Him ask the Father to forgive His murderers. Think of Him from first to last and say: Is He not “altogether lovely” ? — C. I. Scofield. May 23— "Holding forth” (Phil. 2:16). Faith is not growing exceedingly un less it advances at each stage of God’s re quirement. To hinder this progress is one of Satan’s chief devices. He knows the blessing resulting from a steady, un hesitating response to the divine com mand. He will endeavor to persuade us to hide our light under a bushel—to keep òur religion to ourselves. But a divine command appeals to faith at this step and bids us confess with the mouth as well as believe with the heart. It is thus that our faith will grow exceedingly—not by introspection, not by emotional efforts to believe, but by a simple childlike obe dience to God’s biddings at each step of the path along which He leads us. — Selected. May 24— " If ye have faith . . . ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence” (Matt. 17:20). What is the mountain before you? What.is the thing in your way which you feel to be so impossible that you dare not face it? Is there any power which can practically take you and, in a moment, break the chains that ,have held you cap tive and set you free in the liberty, the light, and the joy of God? There is. That faith which began as a grain of mustard seed, and which thereafter be came the tree of beauty and of song— that faith now says to the mountain, “Be thou removed and cast into the sea,” and it shall be done . . . What is the root of our failure, month by month and year by year? It is trusting self, trusting our ef-
Above the Ordinary For some reason, I have failed to receive my February issue. Will you please forward me a copy? I f yours were only an ordinary magazine, I would not mind so much if I missed a num ber. But T he K ing ’ s B usiness is something above the ordinary, and to miss a copy means losing much information and soul nu triment.—From Oran, Mo.
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