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K i n g ’ s
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August 1929
make my refuge.” Happy, for “in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.” Re member, too, that it is a command as well as a promise; it is what you are to do today, all day long: “Under His wings shalt thou trust” 1 —o— August 25— “My Father is the hus bandman" (John 15:1). The care of this vine is not left to any hired gardener. It ought to be a great comfort for us to know that our life’s culture is under the Father’s care. We are sure of His love, and sure also that He is a wise husbandman. The expe riences that sometimes so break into our plans and seem to be destroying us, are not accidents, nor are they the work of an enemy. If an ignorant, inexperienced, unskillful man were to enter a beautiful vineyard and begin cutting at the vines, he would soon destroy them. He does not know what he ought to cut off. But if the man who comes to prune under stands vines, has had experience, and is skillful, though he may sometimes seem to be cutting away the best branches, yet we know that he is not making any mis take, and that his most painful prunings are for the vine’s'good. We have similar confidence when God seems to be deal ing sorely with us. Our Father is the husbandman, and He has all wisdom and love, and never gives us pain, nor cuts away any of our joys, except when such pruning is for our good.— J. R. Miller. —o— August 26— “A tranquil heart" (Prov. 14:30). “In God’s will,” Dante said, “is our peace.” When the government is on His shoulder, of its increase and of our peace there is no end. Would you have your peace flow as a river? Then rest in the Lord, be silent unto Him; fret not thy self; turn away from the things that are seen and temporal; set thy face to those that are unseen and eternal. Live in the secret place of the Most High, and hide under the shadow of the Almighty. Say of the Lord that He is thy fortress and high tower. Put God between thyself and everything. Let the one aim of thy life be to please Him, and do the one small piece of work He has entrusted thee with. Look away from all others to Him alone. And learn to look out on others with a tender sympathetic gaze, turning to prayer about them and all things else that might ruffle and sadden. Let all thy requests be made known unto God, so shall His peace keep heart and mind. “Draw me to Thee, till far within Thy rest, In stillness of Thy peace, Thy voice I hear— Forever quieted upon Thy breast, So loved, so near.” —o— August 27— “He . . . . looked up to heaven” (Mark 6:41). In working for God, first look to heaven. It is a grand plan. Over and over again our Lord Jesus Christ looked to heaven and said, “Father.” Let us imitate Him ; although standing on the
‘B u i l d i h g B y M a r ie W il l ia m s V an d eg rift
After the sowing, reaping, After the dry years, rain. After the toiling, resting, After the lean years, gain. After the blossom, fruitage, After the dawning, light. After the morning, noontide, After the frailty, might. After the faint light, radiance, After the bud, the flower, After the first stones, resting, Heavenward looms the tower. But, must we wait for heaven? Day by day we can build, Each home may be a heaven, Each with Love’s spirit filled.
We may build high our temples, Towering to the sky, Yet if we help not our brother, Life’s greatest joy passes by. When in the blaze of noonday Gleaming our turrets rise, Onward and upward they point us To that city beyond the skies. There we will find no envy, Pride and prejudice cease. A city of love and affection, A city of hope and peace. Thus is our progress charted, Thus is Life’s armor cast, Seeking and toiling and waiting, Success crowns our work at last.
August. 2l —“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you" (John 14:27). Lord, help me to keep my love. What ever else I lose may I never lose that. There is a peace which comes by the death of patience—by ceasing any longer to wait or to expect. There is a peace which is not patience, because it prays for nothing—a peace which is painless be cause it is numb, and is free from strug gle because it is dead. I would not have that gift, O my father ¿—George Mathe- son. — o — ■ August 22— “What things soever ye de sire, when ye pray, believe that ye have received them and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24, R. V.). \ “Believe that ye have received." This is the word of central importance, of which the meaning is too often misunder stood. Believe th a t' you have received now, while praying, the thing you ask for. It may only be later that you shall have it in personal experience, that you shall see what you believe; but now, without seeing, you are to believe that it has been given you of the Father in heaven. “This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, he heareth u s; and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have desired of Him.” “And ye shall home them." That is, the gift which we first hold in faith as bestowed upon us in heaven, will also become ours in personal experience. But will it be needful to pray longer if once we know we have been heard and have received what we asked? There are cases in which such prayer will not be needful, in which the blessing is ready to break through at once, if we but hold fast our confidence, and prove our faith by praising for what we have re ceived, in the face of our not yet having it in experience. There are other cases in which the faith that has received needs to be still further tried and strengthened in persevering prayer. God only knows when everything in and around us is fully ripe for the manifestation of the bl.essing that has been given to faith.— Andrew Murray.
August 23— “Come ye yourselves apart and rest a while" (Mark 6:31). “Reverie,” it has been said, “is the Sunday of the mind.” Let us often in these days give our mind a “Sunday,” in which it will do no manner of work, but simply lie still, and look upward, and spread itself out before the Lord like Gid eon’s fleece, to be soaked and moistened with the dews of heaven. Let there be intervals when we shall do nothing, think nothing, plan nothing, but just lay our selves on the green lap of nature and “rest' a while.” Time so spent is not lost time. The fisherman cannot be said to be losing time when he is mending his nets, nor the mower when he takes a few min utes to sharpen his scythe at the top of the ridge. City men cannot do better than follow the example of Isaac, and, as often as they can, get away from the fret and fever of life into the fields. Wearied with the heat and din, the noise and bustle, communion with nature is very grateful; it will have a Calming, healing influence. A walk through the fields, a saunter by the seashore or across the daisy-sprinkled meadows, will purge your life from sor didness, and make the heart beat with new joy and hope. “The little cares that fretted me, I lost them yesterday, Out in the fields with God.” —o—• August 24— “Under His wings shalt thou trust” (Psa. 91: 4). When the little eaglets that have not yet a feather to fly with, are under the great wings of the parent eagle, how safe they are 1 Who would dare touch them ? So safe shall you be “under His wings” ; “nothing shall by any means hurt you” there. . . . “Under His wings shalt thou trust,” not “shalt thou see." So you are to trust, rest quietly and peace fully, “under His wings” ; stay there, not be peeping out and wondering whether God really is taking care of youl Safe, for “in the shadow of Thy wings will I
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