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February 1931
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terest in life. The cross is anything dif ficult to bear; anything hard, galling, un congenial; anything that robs the step of lightness and blots out the sunshine from the sky. And one of the primary secrets of discipleship is given in our text: “If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross daily.”— Geo. H. Morrison. —o— February 20— “W hen thou pa ssest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not over flow thee" (Isa. 43:2). Two American scientists have lately descended to a depth in the Atlantic of 1,426 feet, or five times lower than any previous record. The steel sphere, in which they were “battened” down, had a telephone communicating with the upper world so that they were in constant com munication with those above. It had oxy gen tanks, so that all the time they breathed the air of another world, while supplies of sodium rendered the poison of their own breath innocuous. Likewise, the Christian, let down into unprecedented depths where he encounters stormy sor rows, where death and destruction surge around him, where all is dense darkness, is as safe as if he were walking the fields of the bright world above; and even if, for a moment, he loses consciousness, or in some dreadful hour—like Christ upon the cross—loses even the sense of his Fath er’s love, nevertheless he is held in a grip of steel. And at last, to whatever depth he has gone—by surgical operation or great renunciation or overwhelming sor row or tragic fall—at the right moment, and when the diver’s work is over, by rapture or death he ascends swiftly home, into his native world of light and beauty. "—The Dawn. “When thou passest through the waters,” Deep the waves may be and cold, But Jehovah is thy refuge And His promise is thy hold; For the Lord Himself hath said it, He, the faithful God and true,— When thou comest to the waters Thou shalt not go down, but through. — Annie Johnson Flint. —o— February 21— “Now the end of the com mandment is charity out of a pure heart" (1 Tim. 1:5). Rightly viewed, all sin is selfishness; all righteousness is love. It was to recall us from this unrighteous selfish life that Je sus lived and died. However little men may recognize it, the self-life is a hateful life. What a description does Paul give of it in Titus 3 :3. In contrast to all this is the picture of heavenly love in 1 Cor inthians 13. Love stoops. There is no pride in love; she vaunteth not herself, is not puffed up ; she is not occupied with herself, no, not with her humility. How wonderful is the humility of Jesus! It is so profound that its measure can never be approached, but it is so natural to Him that the attention is not arrested by it. The companion of the mean and poor, the friend of publicans and sinners, outcast and despised. The Lord of life and glory never once allowed those with whom He mingled to feel that He was condescending to them. His humility was so complete
H - i I ! c.Daily Devotional Deadingi A Message for Every Day of the Month
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cation of His love and strength, to have our life filled with His—it is for this He invites us to enter the inner chamber and shut the door. It is in the closet, in the morning watch, that our spiritual life is both tested and strengthened. There is the battlefield where it is to be decided whether God is to have all, whether our life is to be absolute obedience. If we truly conquer there, getting rid of our selves into the hands of our Almighty Lord, the victory'during the day is sure. To meet God, to give ourselves into His holy will, to know that we are pleasing to Him, to have Him give us our orders, and lay His hand upon us and bless us, and say to us, “Go in this thy strength”— it is when the soul learns that this is what is to be found in the morning watch, day by day, that we shall learn to long for it and delight in it.— Andrew Murray. —o— February 18— “I beseech you . . . that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reason able service" (Rom. 12:1). Use me, then, my Saviour,, for what ever purpose and in whatever way Thou mayest require. Here is my poor heart, an empty vessel; fill it with Thy grace. Here is my sinful and troubled soul; quicken and refresh it with Thy love. Take my heart for Thy abode; my mouth to spread abroad the glory of Thy name, my love and all my powers for the advancement of Thy believing people; and never suffer the steadfastness and confi dence of my faith to abate----- so that at all times I may be enabled from the heart to say, “Jesus needs me, and I Him.” — D. L. Moody. —o— February 19— “I f any man will come af ter me, let him . . . . take up his cross daily" (Lk. 9:23). When the Romans crucified a criminal, not only did they, hang Kim on a cross, but, as a last terrible indignity, they made him carry the cross upon his back. Prob ably Jesus, when a lad, had been a wit ness of that dreadful spectacle. When He became a man, He used the imagery of cross-bearing to describe all that is bit-
February IS— “My heart said, Thy face, Lord, will I seek" (Psa. 27:8). Show me Thy face, for this alone I pray, I seek no higher joy from day to day; Within the sunshine of Thy love and light Life’s dreary places will grow fair and bright. Show me Thy face; one steadfast look from Thee Will silence all the doubt and agony; One moment with Thee in the glad today Will drive the gloom of yesterday away. Show me Thy face; as yet I know not where The road is leading, but if Thou art there I shall forget the weakness and the pain, And, hand in hand with Thee, be strong again. Show me Thy face; be near me till that day When all the mists .of earth shall roll away: No veil between, biit face to face with Thee, My Saviour, through a bright eternity 1 —Florence M. Taylor. —o— February 16— “He went up into a moun tain apart to pray" (Matt. 14:23). Carefully observe and mark well, O my soul, the hand of the Master in drawing this beautiful picture. Before He ascends on high, He dismisses the multitude or the unbelieving nation. Then He gathers His disciples, or the believing remnant, into a ship, and launches them on a tempestuous sea alone. And now. He goes Himself to a mountain to make intercession for them. During the long, dark night of His ab sence, His eye of love, which neither slumbers nor sleeps, followed His loved, though tossed and tried ones, all the way through the deep. O blessed Lord, what a night that was to Theel Its silent watches must have pictured to Thy far- seeing eye these last eighteen hundred years and more. During the long, dark night of man’s day, Thy beloved ones have had to meet an opposing current in this evil age, which is indeed hard to strive against. But the morning watch brings relief. This dark and dreary night, with its toiling and rowing, will soon be past. “Surely I come quickly,” is the word of Jesus; and the Spirit speaks as if we could count on nothing more than the “twinkling of an eye” between us and the coming of the Lord. “A little while, a little while, , And Jesus will be here.” —Things New and Old. —o— February 17— “Enter into thy closet, and . . . pray to thy Father which is in secret” (Matt. 6:6). To have more of God, to know Him better, to receive from Him the communi-
No Other Way “Come, take up the cross" (Mk. 10:21) By the thorn-road and none other, Is the mount of vision won; Tread it without shrinking, brother! Jesus trod it; press thou on! — Selected.
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