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8. A Thanksgiving "Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which c a u s e t h through us thanksgiving to God” (2 Cor. 9:11). For all Thy blessings given there are many to thank Thee, Lord, But for the gifts withholden I fain would add my word. For the good things I desired that barred me from the best: The peace at the price of honor, the sloth of a shameful rest; The poisonous sweets I longed for to my hungering heart denied, The staff that broke and failed me when I walked in the way of pride; The tinsel joys withheld that so con tent might still be mine, The help refused that might have made me loose my hand from Thine; The light withdrawn that I might not see the dangers of my way; For what Thou hast not given, I thank Thee, Lord, today. —Annie Johnson Flint. 9. Accessibility of Christ “And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid” (Mk. 7:24). When.our Lord said that He had nowhere to lay His head, He did not only mean that He had no home He could call His own; He implied that He had no opportunity of privacy, no garden where He could close the gate, no house where He could shut the door. He lived in the public eye; He could only be alone when darkness closed the door of night. When every man went to his own home, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives...His life was one long act of giving Him self away.—John MacBeath. 10. A Mighty Stirring “Wherefore I put thee in remem brance, that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee” (2 Tim. 1:6). Stir up all the gift which is now in you, and this is the way to have the gift enlarged, that whatever your hand findeth to do in the way of service to God, you now do it with all your might. Doing it because of His author ity, you will at length do it because of your own renovated taste. As you persevere in the labors of His service you will grow in the likeness of His character. The graces of holiness will both brighten and multiply upon you. —Chalmers. 11. Divine Increase “I [Paul] have planted, Apollos Watered; but God gave the increase” (1 Cor. 3:6). “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, a l w a y s abounding in the work of the Lord,
DAILY Devotional Readings
1. Singing Cross Bearers “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Lk. 14:27). Not on the towering mountain-peak Crest-crowned with fiery glow Do men the earth’s rich harvest seek, But in deep vales below. Not for some glaring high emprise Seek thou far-soaring wings; That faith is noblest in God’s eyes That bears a cross—and sings. —Selected. 2. Glorious Is Our God “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name:. . .worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (1 Chron. 16:29). If Heaven and earth, and ten thous and Heavens even round about the Heavens that now are, were all in one garden of paradise, decked with all the fairest roses, flowers, and trees that can come forth from the art of the Almighty Himself; yet set but One Flower, that groweth out of the root of Jesse, beside that orchard of pleas ure, one look of Him, one view of His Godhead would infinitely exceed, and go beyond, thé smell, color, beauty, and loveliness of that paradise! Oh, worthy, worthy loveliness! Open tl*e fountains of Love and Glory on us dried pits and withered trees. —Samuel Rutherford. 3. Trust in the Lord “For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, -specially of those that believe” (1 Tim. 4:10). In the measure in which we truly recognize Him as our Lord and our selves as His possession will it be easy to put our triist in Him. Our Good Shepherd has paid for us an infinite price, and we are not merely the sheep of His pasture and the subjects of His Kingdom, but are members of that Church which is the bride whom He loves. Well may we put our trust in Him!—J. Hudson Taylor. * 4. By the Holy Spirit “And the God of peace himself sanc tify you wholly; and, may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23, R. V.). One of the most decisive marks of the presence of the Holy Ghost in His fulness is a resigned and peaceful state of the (human) spirit originating
in perfect faith in God; a withdrawal of natural excitability—an eager and unsettled activity of nature—and the substitution of a pure and deeply in terior rest of soul such as was seen in our Saviour.—r.Upham. Greater Than Our Fegrs “I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Psa. 34:4). Yes, we trust the Lord—we truly do —and our faith does not waver; but as one billow of trouble after another rolls over us, it is hard to be perfectly calm. Paul could not always do it; and his Master was exceedingly sorrowful even unto death. Even the most favored Christians must accept the valley experiences as well as the mountain-top experiences and it is no proof of dereliction on our part, but of the varied discipline need ed for our perfecting. —The Bible Today. 6. Witnesses Only “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour” (Isa. 43:10. 11). The final triumph of the Gospel is as sure as the promises of God. But we are to use prophecy, not as a sedative and narcotic, but as .a tonic and stimulant. Duty is ours; results are God’s. We are not responsible for conversion, but we are for contact. We are to go everywhere and preach the Gospel. All are to go to all. We are to bear our witness among all nations, and leave our God to bear His witness in confirmation of our own. —A. T. Pierson. 7. Standing Growth ». “For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord” (1 Thess. 3:8). iThere is a point of view from which the watchword of the Christian life is growth, But from another point of view the watchword is stand. If it Would grow, striking root downward, and bearing fruit upward, the' tree must not be transported and trans planted by its ow n restlessness. It must stand in the one soil in which the growth can take place, and just there where the heavenly Gardener has put it in. Let “Thy will be done” be not a sigh, but a song. —Handley G. C. Moule. 5.
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