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August 1929
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K i n g ’ s
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healer. Gladness of spirit will bring health to the bones and vitality to the nerves when all other tonics fail, and all other sedatives cease to quiet. Sick one, begin to rejoice in the Lord, and your bones will flourish like an herb, and your cheeks will glow with the bloom of health and freshness. Worry, fear, distrust, care, all are poison drops; joy is balm and heal ing; and if you will but rejoice, God will give power. He has commanded you to be glad and rejoice; and He never fails to sustain His children in keeping His com mandments. Rejoice in the Lord always, He says, which means no matter how sad, how tempted, how sick, how suffer ing you are, rejoice in the Lord just where you are, begin this moment. The joy of the Lord is the strength of our body; The gladness of Jesus, the balm for our pain, His life and His fulness, our fountain of healing, His joy, our elixir for body and brain. — A. B. Simpson. — o — August 13— “They shall mount up . . . run . . . walk” (Isaiah 40:31). There are three effects resulting from renewing the strength: the mounting up with wings, the running and the walking. The believer, after receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit, mounts up with wings as eagles. . . . What great worlds of truth and beauty burst on his vision as he takes his first flight into the upper blue sky of perfect love! His Bible be comes a new book; he looks down upon the landscape of his past life and sees all things with such clearness and distinct ness! He sees the state of the world, and the state of the visible churches, just ex actly as it is described in the Bible. . . . After a while, the believer who has rev ceived the great baptism comes down from his ecstatic flight, and touches earth again, and runs along on his journey without being weary. This represents a more practical and steady-going form of religious experience. In this stage of the spiritual life there is a steady, burning zeal for the things of God. There is a zeal for good works, missions, and relig ious meetings or benevolent enterprises. Then, later comes the third condition—a steady, patient daily walk with God. To walk with God requires more grace and maturity of thought and habit than to fly or run. The steady, quiet, slow walk with God is the condition of the deepest and most perfect knowledge of divine things.— G. D. Watson, D.D. — o — August 14— “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him” (Psa. 37:7). It is a very suggestive thought that it is in the Gospel of Mark, which is the Gospel of service, we hear the Master saying to His disciples, “Come ye apart into a desert place, and rest a while.” God wants rested workers. There is an energy that may be tireless and ceaseless, and yet still as the ocean’s depth, ,*with the peace of God, which passes all under standing. The two deepest secrets of rest are, first,_to be in harmony with the will of God, and, secondly, to trust. “Great peace have they that love Thy. law,” ex presses the first. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
Da i ly Devo t iona l Read ings
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A Message for Every Day of the Month
August 7— "Enoch walked with God” (Genesis 5:24). The Hebrew ward might be rendered, “Enoch walked, and continued to walk.” Be sure to go God’s way. He will not walk with thee in thy way, but thou may- est walk with Him in His. To this He calls thee. Each moment, and especially when two or three roads diverge, look up to Him, and say, “Which way art Thou taking, that I may accompany Thee?” It will not be so hard to forsake inviting paths and engaging companions, if only the eye is kept fixed on His face, and the track of His footsteps determines thy road beyond hesitation or dispute. Be sure to keep God’s pace. Do not run im petuously before Him; learn to wait His time: the minute-hand as well as the hour-hand must point the exact moment for action. Do not loiter behind in indo lence or sloth. Be loyal and true to His ideals, and quick to obey His least com mands.— F. B. Meyer. —o— August 8— “And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:39). Be heroic in your faith. If storms and darkness come, remember that there is a Christ in every ship that sails the Lake of Gennesaret. We have a Christ in our ship; and when he seems to be asleep, and fears begin to arise, speak to Him, and He will take command not only of the ship, but of the troubled sea, and of the angry waves, and there shall be a calm. Living or dying, let us be the Lord’s. It is base to ask permission to live by for feiting the principles which alone dignify human life and human nature. It is glo rious to live and fight the battles of the Lord, and win trophies of grace by over coming the adversaries of our King; and when, at last, you who suffer with your Lord shall rise through the periods of time to stand in His presence in heaven, He will crown you with victory there. And the memory of all that you have suf fered, what will it be but as the drops of a storm when you look at it in reverse, and see but a rainbow ? Our troubles, with the heavenly light shining upon them, will be bright and joyous.— Henry Ward Beecher. —o— August 9—" For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteous ness’’ (Gal. 5:5). Thou, O Spirit, hast brought into this world a new order of heroes—rthe man who can wait. Thou hast made patience divine. Thou hast taught us that the Fa ther’s will may be received, just because it is His will. Thou hast revealed to us that a soul may see nothing but sorrow in the cup, and yet may refuse to let it go, convinced that the eye of the Father sees-
further than its own. Give me the power to wait for hope itself. I shall reach the climax of strength when I have learned to wait for hope. August 10— “Being in an agony, he prayed” (Luke 22:44). “Being in an agony, he prayed,” is the record of our Saviour’s Gethsemane ex perience. The lesson stands for all time. Like a bright lamp the little sentence shines amid the olive trees of the garden. It shows us the path to comfort in our time of sorrow. Never before or since was there such grief as the Redeemer’s that night, but in His prayer He found comfort. As we watch Him the hour through we see the agony changing as He prayed, until at last its bitterness, was all gone and sweet, blessed peace took its place. The gate of prayer is always the gate to comfort. There is no other place to go. We may learn also from our Lord’s Gethsemane how to pray in our Gethsemanes. God will never blame us for asking to have the cup removed nor for the intensity of our supplication; but we must always pray with submission. It is when we say, in our deepest intensity, “Not my will, but thine,” that comfort comes, that peace comes. —o—- August 11— “He goeth before them” (John 10:4). Whatever awaits us is encountered first by Him—each difficulty and complication, each wild beast or wilder robber, each yawning chasm or precipitous path. Faith’s eye can always discern His ma jestic presence in front; and when that cannot be seen, it is dangerous to move forward. Bind this comfort to | your heart: that the Saviour has tried for Himself all the experiences through which He asks you to pass; and He would not ask you to pass through them unless He was sure that they were not too difficult for your feet, or too trying for your strength. The Breaker always goes up before us. The Woodsman hews a path for us through the trackless for est. The broad-shouldered Brother pushes a way for us through the crowd. And we have only to follow. This is the blessed life—not anxious to see far in front; not careful about the next step; not eager to choose the path; not weighted with the heavy responsibilities of the future; but quietly following behind the Shepherd, one step at a time. — F. B. Meyer. — o — , August 12— “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine" (Prov. 17:22). King Solomon left among his wise say ings a prescription for sick and sad hearts, and it is one that we can safely take. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” Joy is the great restorer and
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