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September 1929
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September 11— “The steps o f a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he de lighteth in his way" (Psa. 37:23). It is best to let Jesus, plan for us, and not to plan or even wish for ourselves. He will supply all our spiritual need. It is so blessed to feel that nothing could be for our soul’s good which He withholds, however much it may seem to ourselves that it would be so. It is so blessed, stand ing perplexed at the head of two or three paths, to shut our eyes and put our hand in His, and say, “Jesus, lead me.” It is so blessed, when the path thus taken leads over sharp thorns and through a weary wilderness, to feel, “He led me here; I did not lead myself into this.” It is so blessed when the loneliness of the way makes Him stoop and clasp our hand more tightly, and the sharper thorns and stones induce Him to lift us sometimes quite off our feet. Do you know that feel ing—of being, as it were, lifted off one’s feet? I do; but it was in the days of deepest trial my heart ever had. Such a happy, nestling, confiding feeling! I have never wholly lost it since—the feeling— though gently set down again upon the stones and thorns. And I know that if the road could be so painful again, He would carry me as before. Shall we ever, EVER fathom- the ultra-philosophic depths of that phrase, “as a little child” ? —Emily Blatchley. September 12— "Fear not their fear, neither be troubled” (1 Pet. 3:14, R.V.). It was a time of very real and fiery trial when Peter wrote these words. Per secution was already beginning with the House of God. The first mutterings of the awful storm which was to break in Nero’s terrible atrocities were making themselves heard throughout the Roman world. The intention of this epistle, therefore, was to encourage these scat tered saints, that they might not be over whelmed. Some who read these words may need similar comfort. Remember, beloved fellow believers, that Jesus has suffered; your Lord and Master has trod den these thorns before you. See, they are flecked with His blood. Would you not desire to be fellow partaker with Him in His sorrow, that you may share His glory? It is only in suffering that we can properly identify ourselves with the great anguish of the world, or learn to comfort or pray for others. And, probably, none know the innermost tenderness and com panionship of Jesus like those who daily fill up that which is behind of His suf ferings. Besides, their fear is much worse in anticipation than in actual experience. Probably God entirely delivers His mar tyrs from those physical tortures which to onlookers might seem unbearable. —o— September 13— "Peace always by all means” (2 Thess. 3:16). How full is the declaration contained in this verse ! Always peace, this is the promise. Perhaps if one thing disturbs our peace more than another it is that disappointments and disasters happen which we cannot account for, nor do we see any reason why they should have been allowed. Let us wait and believe that all has happened for the best. If we knew all, we should probably be praising God
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D a i ly D e v o t io n a l R e a d in g s A Message for Every Day o f the Month 1L— __________—_______ _______________ ____—» i 1 giiiuiiiuiiiiiinioiiiiiiiiii September 7— "Lord, if Thou hadst been here” (John 11:21). ■ I
It was his rapt and long-continued com munion with God that put such beauty into the face of Moses and made it shine with an unearthly luster. Converse with heaven has a transfiguring effect, not only on the countenance, but on character and life as well. If we had more retirement from the world, if our seasons of prayer were more protracted, and our fellowship with God more absorbing, while our faces might not be lit up with splendor, yet our lives would be; our character would be come pure and transparent; and our whole being would take on a brightness not of earth. We should come down from the mountain as light-bearers, and our light would so shine before men in meek ness and humility, and all the instances of a heavenly conversation, that they would take knowledge of us, where we had been, and with whom we had been holding converse. We all know that men carry unconscious signs about them of the work they are habitually engaged in. The plowman has clinging to him a cer tain odor of the soil. The carpenter car ries with him some of the chips and saw dust of the workshop. You can tell from the mason that he works in lime and mortar. The flower-girl bears on her per son the perfume of the flowers she car ries in her basket. How much more, if one has seen God, and held high con verse with heaven, and been saturated with celestial influence, will he carry in his words and ways, and in the very look of his face, the sacred tokens of divine intercourse. “When one who holds communion with the skies Has filled his urn where these pure wa ters rise, And once more mingles with us meaner things, ’Tis even as if an angel shook his wings; Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide, That tells us whence his treasures are supplied.” Are you shut in like Job (19:8) or “shut up” like Jeremiah in prison? (Jer. 36:6.) Or is there an open door before thee? (Rev.13:8.) We do not go astray because we have no guide, but because our souls are callous to His influence. As the Indian can detect a footstep by the bruising of a leaf, so Christians of deli cate temper follow Jesus as by an instinct. They are responsive to the softest im pression. Duty is “laid upon” them as the gentle dew falls on the grass, and truth springs up within them as a living well. They move with Jesus in a per petual fellowship of mind, and they detect the slightest imprint of His feet by the signs of the nails. “And God in ways we have not known Will lead His own.” —Streams in the Desert. September 10— “I will guide thee with mine eye” (Psa. 32:8).
Christ’s delays are delays of love. We have all of us, I suppose, had expe rience of desires for the removal of bit terness or sorrows, or for the fulfillment of expectations and wishes, which we be lieve, on the best evidence that we could find, to be in accordance with His will, and which we have been able to make prayers out of, in true faith and submis sion, which prayers have had to be of fered over and over and over again, and no answer has come. . . . . Nothing but the purest and simplest love, transparent and without a fold in it, sways Him in all that He does. Why should it be so dif ficult for us to believe this? If we were more in the way of looking at life, with all its often unwelcome duty, and its ar rows of pain and sorrow, and all the dis appointments and other ills that it is heir to, as a discipline, and were to think less about the unpleasantness, and more about the purpose, of what befalls us, we should find far less difficulty in understanding that His delay is born of love, and is a token of His tender care........... So, dear friends, if you carry a lifelong sorrow, do not think that it is a mystery why it should lie upon your shoulders when there are omnipotence and an infinite heart in the heavens. If it has the ef fect of bending you to His purposes, it is the truest token of His loving care that He can send.— Alexander Maclaren, D.D. — o — September 8— "When the burnt offering began, the sona of the Lord began also” (2 Chron. 29:27). In preparing for a great battle one of the most able and successful generals was assigned by the commander to the guard ing of a certain bridge which seemed en tirely out of the field of conflict. The general thought himself dishonored in being thus kept out of the battle. He heard the noise of the engagement far away, and fretted at being kept in his obscure place, with his command abso lutely idle. But at length the line of bat tle swerved and moved toward him. The enemy was falling back, and the bridge he was guarding became the very key to the situation. So it came about that this brave and valiant soldier was in the end the hero of the battle. The commander had foreseen . the importance of this bridge, and had assigned his ablest gen eral to defend it. We do not know the importance in the Master’s eye of the ob scure position we are set to occupy, or of the inconspicuous work we are set to do. It may be the vital element in some great providential movement. We may trust our Master to choose our place and our work. — J. R. Miller. — o — September 9— "And the children of Is rael saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone" (Exod. 34:35).
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