405
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
August 1930
spices which had slumbered unknown in the heart of the great apostle! His cour age! His patience! His power of inspir ing hope amid despair, and breaking bread with thanksgiving! Ah, north wind, thy ministry has been o f incalculable worth to all o f us. We shiver before thy searching power, but the spices will repay. — F. B. Meyer. — o — August 16— "The hand of. the Lord was upon me in the evening” (Ezek. 33: 22 ). It is blessed to be in the hand o f God. Ezekiel found it so; again and again he tells us how that band guided and led and lifted him. This, too, was the secret of Job’s endurance. He knew the touch of God’s hands so well that he could say, “ Thine hands took pains about me” (10: 8, margin), and this was his testimony even in the midst of his troubles. What a difference it would make if we realized this more, that all things are working out God’s purposes in our lives when we are in His hand! Just go over the events of the day and trace His guiding and con trolling hand all through. Behind every thing is the Master-hand working out the pattern of our lives; showing us more and more how He is working out His purposes. Life becomes so much more restful once we realize this, I have no thing to do but to fall in with God’s plan. Does not this make us look up and pray more earnestly, “Lord, do not let me frus trate Thy purposes or plans for me” ? — L. B.S. August 17— "Concerning the work of my hands command ye me” (Isa. 45:11). Our Lord spoke in this tone when He said, “Father, I will.” Joshua used it when, in the supreme moment o f triumph, he lifted up his spear toward the setting sun, and cried, "Sun, stand thou still!" Elijah used it when be shut the heavens for three years and six months, and again opened them. Luther used it when, kneel ing by the dying Melanchthon, be for bade death to take his prey. It is a mar velous relationship into which God bids us enter. We are familiar with words like those which follow in this paragrph: “I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I com manded.” But that God should invite us to command Him, this is a change in re lationship which is altogether startling. What a difference there is between this attitude and the hesitating, halting, un- ’ believing prayers to which we are ac customed, and which by their perpetual repetition lose edge and point! How often during His earthly life did Jesus put men into a position to command Him! When entering Jericho, He stood still, and said to the blind beggars, “ What will ye that I shall do unto y ou ?” It was as though He had said, “I am yours to command.” Can we ever forget how He yielded to the Syrophenician woman the key to His resources, and told her to help herself even as she would? What mortal mind can realize the full significance o f the position to which our God lovingly raises His little children? He seems to say, “All my resources are at your command.” "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I dof’-r-F. B. Meyer.
me to cease pruning your life? Shall I leave you alone?” And the comforted heart cried; “N o!” —Streams in the Desert. —o— August 14— -“But I would ye should un derstand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance o f the gospel” (Phil. 1 : 12 ) . Never fancy that you could be some thing if you only had a different lot and sphere assigned you. The very things that you most depreciate, as fatal limita tions or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God’s opportunities.— Horace Bushnell. — o — August 15— “Awake, 0 north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out” (Song of Sol. 4:16). The garden o f the heart is like one of those old-fashioned gardens, surrounded by high brick walls, prepared for fruit trees. The garden is filled with all manner of spices. Sometimes, however, the spices hang heavily upon the air. They are pres ent, but hardly discernible to the quick est sense. Then the wind is needed to blow through the garden path, that the spices may flow out and pass beyond the barriers to the passers-by. How often it has happened in the history o f the chil dren of God, that those who have known them have never realized the intrinsic ex cellence and loveliness of their charac ters until the north wind of sorrow and pain has broken with blustering force upon them. Then suddenly, spices like rare odors have exhaled and been carried afar. How the delicate trees dread the north wind! What a tremor goes through the crowded garden walks when they hear the husbandman calling to the north wind to awake! We all choose the south wind. But remember that the Euroclydon that swept down the ravines of Crete, upon the Alexandrian corn-ship, brought out the
gloomy day 1” What makes them black? They are full, and hence light cannot pierce them; and if they be full, what then? Why, then it will rain, and every little plant and every tiny leaf and rootlet of that plant will suck up moisture, and' begin to laugh for joy, and the hot earth will be refreshed. Now, Christian, per haps your circumstances are not as you would like to arrange them. Losses come very closely upon one another. Friend after friend forsakes you. Sickness treads upon the heel of sickness. The clouds are very black, and may they not be black for the very same reason as are the clouds above you—because they are full? Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take: The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessing oh your head. Can you not affirm of your spiritual ex perience—certainly I can of my own—that the pelting showers and fiercer storms have been most soul-enriching? — Spurgeon. —o— August 12—“ The effectual f e r v e n t prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). The marginal reference to “ the prayer of faith” says, “He prayed in his prayer.” The words signify such a prayer as is suggested to the soul and wrought in it by a divine energy. When God designs to do some particular work in His Church, He pours out on His followers the spirit of grace and supplication; and this He does sometimes when He is about to do some special work for an individual. When such a power of prayer is granted, faith should be immediately called into exercise, that the blessing may be given. The spirit of prayer is the proof that the power of God is present to heal. It has been said that “prayer moves the Arm that moves the world.” We have no power to control God; we cannot dictate or pre scribe to Him; we cannot rfesist Him in the execution o f His purposes; but we .may ask Him for what we desire, and He has graciously said that such asking may effect much for our own good and the good of our fellow men. — Barnes? Notes. A child of God was dazed by the va riety of afflictions which seemed to make her their target. Walking past a vine yard in the rich autumal glow she noticed the untrimmed appearance and the lux uriant wealth o f leaves on the vines; also that the ground was given over to a tangle of weeds and grass, and that the whole place looked utterly uncared for. As she pondered, the heavenly Gardener whis pered a precious message : “My dear child, are you wondering at the sequence of trials in your life? Behold that vine yard arid learn of it. The gardener ceases to prune, to trim, to harrow, or to pluck the ripe fruit only when he expects noth ing more from the vine during that sea son. It is left to itself, because the season of fruit is past and further effort for the present would yield no profit. Compara tive uselessness is the condition o f free dom from suffering. Do you then wish August 13— “As many as I love, I re buke and chasten” (Rev. 3:19).
At t he Door o f the Day Each new morning of my life Sets a door ajar, Unknown guests its threshold seek, Guests from near and far, And I may not shut them out Nor the entrance bar. But whatever else may come, Go again, or stay,—■ ¡; All the swift or lagging feet Journeying this way, All the messengers of God, Tidings grave or gay,— Let Thy welcome face, my Lord, Be the first I see; So each following guest o f mine Thou wilt greet with me, And the joy or grief they bring I can meet,—with Thee. —Gospel Herald.
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