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August 1930
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
years in the shade. God’s love being un changeable, He is just as loving when we do not see or feel His Jove. Aíso His love and His sovereignty are coequal and universal; so He. withholds the enjoy ment and conscious progress, because He knows best what will really ripen and fur ther His work in us. —Memorials of. Frances R. Havergal. - —o--— August 26— “ Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices" (1 Pet. 2:5). The stones from the wall said, “We come from the mountains far away, from the sides of the craggy hills. Fire and water have worked on us for ages, but made us only crags. Human hands have made us into a dwelling where the chil dren of your immortal race are born, and suffer, and rejoice, and find rest and shel ter, and learn the lessons set them by our Maker and yours. But we have passed through much to fit us for this. Gun powder has rent our very heart; pick axes have cleaved •and broken u's, it seemed to us often without design or meaning, as we lay misshapen stones in the quarry; but gradually we were cut into blocks, and some o f us were chiseled with finer instruments to a sharper edge. But we are complete now, and are in our places, and are of service. You are in the quarry still, and not complete; and there fore to you, as once to us, much is in explicable. But you are destined for a higher building, and one day you will be placed in it by hands not human, living stones in a heavenly temple.”— Selected. —o— August 27— “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward” (Ex. 14:15). Imagine* O child of God, if you can, that triumphal march: the excited chil dren restrained from ejaculations of won der by the perpetual hush of their par ents ; the almost uncontrollable excite ment o f the women as théy found them selves suddenly saved from a fate worse thán death; while the men followed or accompanied them, ashamed or confound ed that they had ever mistrusted God or murmured against Moses, As you see those mighty walls of water piled by the outstretched hand of the Eternal, in re sponse to the faith of a single man, leárn what God will do for His own. Dread not any result o f implicit obedience to His command; fear not the angry waters which, ' in their proud insolence, forbid your progress. Above the voices o f many waters, the mighty breakers o f the sea, “the Lord sitteth King for ever.” A storm is only as the outskirts of His robe* the symptom o f His advent, the environment of His presence. Dare to trust Him; dare to follow Him 1 And discover that the very forces which barred your progress and threatened your life, at His bidding become the materials o f which an avenue is made to liberty.— F. B. M. —o— August 28— “ We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair” (2 Cor, 4:8). Why is it that the mountain hemlocks can attain such stateliness in spite o f fierce winter gales and crushing snows?
Faith might be compared to making the exposure when taking a photograph. We can see nothing on the film at once, but must wait until the development has taken place. And so when you and I pray in faith, according to the promises of God, our prayer is registered “up yonder” ; but we may not see the result for months or even years. Then we grow impatient and, like the Psalmist, we cry, “ O Lord, how long?" And in our very eagerness to see the finished picture we may spoil the la tent image. The patient waiting is a won derful discipline. Sometimes the thing we ask of God to give us, if sent at once, would be a curse rather than a blessing; and in His infinite wisdom He withholds it, until through patience we have de veloped the right spirit to make use of it. Faith is good, but “faith and patience,” form a wonderful combination.— I. D. L. —o— August 31— “ The Lord caused the sea to go back . . . all that night” (Ex. 14:21). In this verse there is a comforting mes sage showing how God works in the dark. The real work of God for the children of Israel was not when they awakened and found that they could get over the Red Sea; but it was “all that night.” The next day simply manifested what God had done during the night. So God may be working in your life when it all seems dark and you cannot see or trace. Do not forget that it was Fall that night.” God works all the night, until the light comes. You may not see it, but all this “night” in your life, as you believe God, He works.— C. H. P. Prayer is not the effort to tell our God what He knows already. Prayer is not the presumption that He does not feel for us far more than even we feel for ourselves. Prayer is not the attempt to change His wise and loving will. On the contrary, prayer is the unburdening o f our heavy hearts where we know they have been fully anticipated by the yearnings of an infinite compassion; the laying of our per plexities toward a light which we know must arise upon them, and, till it comes, will send peace that they may be borne; the lifting o f our sin to a love which we know seeks to pardon us, and whose par don is therefore our most just, as it is our most eager, hope; the struggle of our will to be one with His will, and of our mind to enter into His mind. That is prayer— not the asking o f our own way, but of His. Prayer is penitence, confession, as piration, resignation; the converse of our hearts with the Father; the discipline of our wills to His will; the sincere and strenuous approach of our minds to the mysteries of His. Nothing can keep us back from it, or shed a doubt upon its reality, if we know that we are His chil dren, and He is our Father.— Selected. —o— September 2— “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).: Can Christians live an overcoming life without getting alone with God in prayer ? They that would live triumphant each day. September 1— “For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself u n t o prayer” (Psa. 109:4).
If you look at one of them closely you will see that it has foliage almost as deli cate as a fir, its dark needles being as dainty as fairy feathers. Yet if you try to break a twig or a bough you will learn that therein lies the strength and the tenacious power of the hemlock. It will bend and yield—but it will not break. Winds may whip and toss.it this way and that, but they cannot break it—nor can elements, however fierce, pull its roots out of the ground. Secure and undaunted it stands. For months it may have its grace ful form held down by a mighty weight of snow, but when the warm breath of sum mer winds, and the melting influence of summer’s sun, relieve it of its burden, it straighens up, as proud and as noble as it was before. Beautiful, wonderful hemlock of the mountains—what a lesson you bring to us! Though we may be storm-tossed and bent by the winds of adversity, we need not be crushed and broken, if our souls are anchored to the Rock of Ages. — Selected. —o— August 29— “ Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee . . . who passirig through the valley o f Baca [weeping] make it a well” (Psa. 84:5, 6). Are you weary of the desert march— the dull monotony, the glaring sun, the shadeless tracks ? Algerius, w h o w a s burned at Rome in the year 1557, wrote a short time before his martyrdom, dating his letter, “ from the/ most delightful pleasure-garden, the prison called Leonia, the 12th of July, 1557,” as follows: “ I will relate an incredible thing—that I have found infinite sweetness in the lion’s bowels. Who will believe that which I relate? Who can believe it? In a dark hole I have found cheerfulness; in a place of bitterness and death, rest and hope of salvation; in the abyss or depth of hell, joy. Where others weep, I have found laughter; where others fear, I have found strength. Who will ever believe that in a state of misery I have had good plea sure/ that in a lonely corner I have had glorious company; and in the hardest bonds, perfect repose? All these things, 7e my companions in Jesus Christ, the bountiful hand of God has granted me.” —The Christian. —o— August 30— “It is my heart’s desire that each o f you would prove equally keen up on realising your full hope to the very end, so that instead o f being slack you may imitate those who inherit the prom ises by their steadfast faith” (Heb. 6 :12, Moffatt’s Translation). While faith stands at the head of the graces, there are many things that must be reckoned in connection with faith if we expect our faith to bear much -fruit. And not least among these is patience.
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