108
February 1929
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
Some natures ripen and some natures bloom Only on blood-wet soil, some souls prove great Only in moments dark with death or doom.” Feb. 19— "Without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5), Apart from Him we can do nothing. Whilst we are abiding in Him nothing is impossible.. The one purpose o f our life should therefore be to remain in living and intense union with Christ, guarding against everything that would break it, employing every means of cementing and enlarging it. And just in proportion as we do so, we shall find His strength flow ing into us for every possible emergency. We may not feel its presence; but we shall find it present whenever we begin to draw on it. There is no temptation which we cannot master; no privation which we cannot patiently bear; no diffi culty with which we cannot cope; no work which we cannot perform; no con fession or testimony which we cannot make, if only our souls are living in healthy Union with Jesus Christ; for as our day or hour, so shall our strength be. FrF. B. Meyer. — o — Feb. 20— “She took for him an ark of bul rushes . , , . . and she laid' it in the flags by the river’s brink” (Exodus 2:3). The mother of Mqses laid the ark in the flags by the river’s brink. Aye, but before doing so, she laid it on the heart of God! She could not have laid it so courageously upon the Nile, if she had not first de voutly laid it upon the care and love of God. We are often surprised at the, out ward calmness of men who are called upon to do unpleasant and most trying deeds; but could we have seen them in secret, we should have known the moral preparation which they underwent be fore coming out. to be seen by men. Be right in the sanctuary, if you would be right in the market-place. . Be steadfast in prayer, if you would be calm in affliction. Start your race from the throne of God itself, if you would run well, and win the prize.— Joseph Parker. —o— Feb. 21— "When He was accused . . . . He answered nothing” (Matt. 27:12). We should learn from Jesus the wisdom of silence under false accusation. There was no use in His arguing with His ac cusers. Any of us may sometimes have to meet false accusations, and usually our true course will be to be silent. A certain bishop in the olden times when grievously and unfairly accused by enemies, refused to give even one word of denial. He said that God knew all about it, and while it was God’s will that he should live under the shadow of false accusations, he would do it in silence, like his Master on His trial. Jesus answered nothing, but “com mitted Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.” He left His name, His life, and the whole matter of his vindication to His heavenly Father. It was safe in those hands. There is no spot today on the name of Jesus, though He died as a malefactor. So we may trust ourselves in the hands of God when we are wrongly
accused, standing in silence, answering nothing, committing all to Him who judgeth righteously.— J. R. Miller. —o— Feb. 22— “But when he saw the wind bois terous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me” (Matt. 14:30). Peter had a little faith in the midst of his doubts, says Bunyan; and so with cry ing and coming he was brought to Christ. But fifeperyou see that sight was a hin- drandethe 7#aves were none of his busi ness when once he had set out; all Peter had any concern with, was the pathway of light that came gleaming across the dark ness from where Christ stood. If it was tenfold Egypt beyond that, Peter had no call to look and see. When the Lord shall call to you over the waters, “Come,” step gladly forth. Look not for a moment away from Him. Not by measuring the waves can you pre vail; not by gauging the wind will you grow strong; to scan the danger may be to fall before it; to pause at the difficul ties is to have them break above your head. Lift up your eyes unto the hills, and go forward—there is no other way.— From “Streams in the Desert.” “Dost thou fear to launch away? Faith lets go to swim! Never will He let thee go. ’Tis by trusting thou shalt know Fellowship with Him.” . — 6- — Feb. 23— “My soul, wait thou only upon God” (Psa. 62:5). Did it ever occur to you that if you do not hear God’s answer to prayer, it may be not because He is dumb, but because you are deaf; not because He has no an swer to give, but because you have not been listening for it? We are . so busy with our service, so busy with our work, and sometimes so busy with our praying, that it does not occur to us to stop our own talking and listen if God has some answer to give us with “the still small voice” ; to be passive, to be quiet, to do nothing, say nothing, in some true sense think nothing; simply to be receptive and waiting for the voice. “Wait thou only Upon God,” says the Psalmist; and again, “Wait on the Lord.”— Selected. •—o— Feb. 24— “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” (Heb. 12:6). Believer, rejoice in the thought that the rod, the chastening rod, is in the hands of the living, loving Saviour, who died for thee! Tribulation is the King’s Highway, and yet that highway is paved with love. As some flowers before shedding their fragrance require to be pressed, so does thy God see meet to bruise thee. As some birds are said to sing their sweetest notes when the thorn pierces their bosom, so does He appoint afflictions to lacerate, that thou mayest be driven to the wing, singing, in thy upward soaring, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed!" “Those,” says the heavenly Leighton, “He means to make the most resplendent, He hath oftenest His tools upon.” “Our troubles,” says another, “seem in His Word to be ever in His mind. Perhaps half the commands and half the promises
He gives us there, are given us as troubled men.” Be it purs to say, “Lord, I will love Thee, not only despite of Thy rod, but because of Thy rod.” When Thy voice calls, as to Abraham pf old, to pre pare for bitter trial, be it mine to respond with bounding heart, “Here am I!” —and to read in the bow which spans my dark est cloud, “He chastens because He loves!”—John R. Macduff. —o— Feb. 25— “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Prov. 3:6). No ancient pillar ever made the way more plain to those who watched it for guidance than does God’s providence make the path of duty, in common days for those who truly acknowledge God and desire His guidance. It is not because we cannot know God’s way, that we do not see it, but because we want instead to take our own way. There is no use in our looking into our Lord’s face, and asking, “What now, dear-Master ?” if we do not mean to take the path He marks out. We must have the spirit of obedience if we are to receive the divine direction. “Not my will, but Thine,” must be the prayer of our heart, cost what it may to sur render our own, and take God’s.— j. R. Miller. Feb. 26— “I have called you friends" (John 15:15): Years ago there was an old Gertnan professor whose beautiful life was a marvel to his students. Some of them resolved to know the secret of it ; so one of their number hid in the study where the old professor spent his evenings. It was late when the teacher came in. He was very tired, but he sat down and spent an hour with his Bible. Then he bowed his head in secret prayer; and, finally closing the Book of books, he said, “Well, Lord Jesus, we’re on the same old terms.”. To know Him is life’s highest attain ment; and, at all costs, every Christian should strive to be “on the same old terms” with Him. The reality of Jesus comes as a result of secret prayer, and a personal study of the Bible that is devo tional and sympathetic. Christ becomes more real to the one who persists in the cultivation of His presence. “Speak thou to Him for He heareth, And spirit with spirit will meet ! Nearer is He than breathing, Nearer than hands and feet.” ■—o— . Feb. 27— “I will rain bread from heaven for you" (Ex, 16:4). The Bible represents God as caring minutely for thè needs of the world. Even the birds He feeds, and much more His own children. Some people laugh at the belief, that there is One who looks after our wants in this way. But we need not be disturbed by such sneers. God is not limited to ordinary means. He never works needless miracles. He did not send manna while the people were in Go shen, because there was no need for it then, and as soon as they reached Canaan it ceased; for there bread was abundant. But here in the wilderness, where food could not be obtained in any ordinary way, God supplied it supernaturally. “Yes,” ■—Maltbie Babcock.
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