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into which He, my Master, has drawn me with His wounded, loving hand, and con strained me to rest with Him. He has taught me that there is no good and noble thing, no thing worth having, but is born of struggling and of pain, and that pain is not a punishment, but tenderest love. Out o f each of thè shadows I have only stepped back into my old sunny pathway to find! the sunshine more gladly bright, the birds’ song sweeter, and vision clearer. Such a beautiful, beautiful pathway, and such beautiful, beautiful shadows! I scarcely know which the sweeter is, for the shadows are so bathed in light. Did you ever on a bright June morning walk down an avenue of trees, across one half of which shadows stretched; and then, late in the afternoon, retrace your steps? Where the morning’s shadows had been, you found only drifts and floodings of sunshine. I fancy that our life retro spectively will be like that, such a won derful Alchemist is Love—our God. — Selected. —o— October 4 — “So the Lord blessed the latter end o f Job more than his begin ning” (Job 42:12). Through his griefs Job came to his heritage. He was tried that his godliness might be confirmed. Are not my troubles intended to deepen my character and to robe me in graces of which I had little be fore? I come to my glory through eclip ses, tears, death. My ripest fruit grows against the roughest wall. Job’s afflic tions left him with higher conceptions of God and lowlier thoughts of himself. “ Now,” he cried, “mine eye seeth thee.” And if, through pain and loss, I feel God so near in His maj esty that I bend low be fore Him and pray, “Thy will be done,” I gain very much. God gave Job glimpses o f the future glory. In those wearisome days and nights, he penetrated within the veil, and could say, “ I know that my Re deemer liveth.” Surely the latter end of Job was more blessed than the beginning. —In the Hour o f Silence. — o— October 5—“I will lead on softly, ac cording as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure” (Gen. 33:14). What a beautiful picture of Jacob’s thoughtfulness for the cattle and the chil dren ! He would not allow them to be overdriven even for one day. He would not lead on according to what a strong man like Esau could do and expected them to do, but only according to what they were able to endure. He knew exactly how far they could go in a day; and he made that his only consideration in ar ranging the marches. He had made the same wilderness journey years before, and knew by personal experience .all about its roughness and heat and length. So he said, “ I will lead on softly.” “For ye have not passed this way heretofore” (Josh. 3:4). We have not passed this way heretofore, but the Lord Jesus has. It is all untrod den and unknown ground to us, but He knows it all by personal experience. The steep bits that take away our breath, the stony bits that make our feet ache, the hot shadeless stretches that make us feel
mighty purpose behind the command, “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray.” The greatest miracles of Elijah arid Eli sha took place when they were alone with God. It was alone with God that Jacob became a prince; it is there that we, too, may become princes—“men [aye, women too!] wondered at” (Zech. 3:8). Covet to get alone with God. If we neglect it, we not only rob ourselves, but others too, of blessing, since when we are blessed we are able to pass on blessing to others. It may mean less outside work; it must mean more depth and power. The consequence will be, “they saw no man save Jesus only.”;— Thoughts of God. Suppose God tells you to do something which is an enormous test to your com mon sense, what are you going to do? Hang back? In the physical domain, once get into the habit of doing a thing, and you will do it every time until you break the habit determinedly. The same thing is true spiritually. You will get up to what Jesus Christ wants again and again, and every time turn back when it comes to the point, until you resolutely abandon. “Yes, I will obey God if He will let me use my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.” Jesus Christ demands o f the man who trusts Him the same reckless snorting spirit that the natural man exhibits. If a man is going to do anything worth while, there are times when he has to risk everything on his leap. In the spiritual domain Jesus Christ demands that I risk everything I hold by my common sense and leap into what He says, andl immediately. I do, I find that what He says, fits on as solidly as my common sense. At the bar o f common sense Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad; but bring them to the bar of faith, and you begin to find with awestruck spirit that they are the words o f God. Trust entirely in God, and when He brings you to the venture, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis. Only one out of a crowd is daring enough to bank his faith in the character of God. —My Utmost for His Highest. I entreat you, give no place to des pondency. This is a dangerous temptation, a refined, not a gross temptation of the adversary. Melancholy contracts and withers the heart, and renders it unfit to receive the impressions o f grace. It mag nifies and gives a false coloring to ob jects, and thus renders your burdens too heavy to bear. God’s designs regarding you, and His methods of bringing about those designs, are infinitely wise. —Madame Guyon. —o— October 3— “ Until the day break, and the shadows flee away" (Song of Sol. 4:6). My life has been just one long path of golden sunshine, with deep, deep shadows by the wayside for refreshment—shadows — o — October 1— "Lord, I will follow thee; but . . . "(Luke 9 :61). October 2—" Although . . . yet I will rejoice in the Lord" (Hab. 3:17, 18).
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