November, 1937
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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put him to flight? Then you have had a foretaste of the heavenly triumph—just an imagining of what the ultimate victory will be. God gives you these partial triumphs, that they may be earnests of the future. Go on and conquer, and let each conquest, though a harder one, and more strenuously contested, be to you as a pledge of the victory of heaven. — C harles H addon S purgeon . DECEMBER 7 A Complete Chain “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one” (John 17:23). “ Faith cometh by hearing,” and possession by faith. God’s choice of us lays hold of us only through our choice of Him. And it is when the soul, waking up to the fact of its sad alienation from its Maker and uttering its earnest “ I will arise and go to my father,” joins itself to that Father by a trusting faith that the Father, who in the Christ of eternity saw him “when he was yet a great way off,” and in the Christ of time crucified and slain came out to meet him, becomes completely reconciled to him. The first link of religion (“ religo,” to bind back) is the incarnation, God in Christ. The last is faith, the soul in Christ. And when the last has been joined to the first the chain is perfect.—A. J. G ordon . DECEMBER 8 Communion with Christ “ W e all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). To become like Christ, so that others will see Him in us, it is necessary that we fix our thoughts upon Him, take Him as our Companion, abide in Him. We must delight in Bible reading and in prayer, permitting nothing to interfere with our approach to God, that we may talk with Him and listen as He talks to us. We must be victors in the battle between self and God, which comes every day when we settle ourselves for the devotional period. If for one mo ment the world is allowed to come between us and God, during that moment self is Oiur ruler, not Christ. It is a life lived with Him that Christ asks for.— J. T. F aris . DECEMBER 9 A Voice Above All Others “ Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). “No matter what your problems, no mat ter what your perplexities, no matter what your temptations, no matter what accumu lations there may be of sin, come to Me, and I will solve your problems; I will meet your need. Learn of Me. Take My yoke upon you.” Is this Man an insufferable egotist? And if not, then who? His voice we hear still above all other voices in this day of complicated civilization. He speaks to us in the West as He spoke to them in the East, not to a tribe or nation, but to the whole race; and He is still speaking in the simplest language, so simple that any child can understand: “ Come, learn, take.” —W . G r a h a m S croggie .
DA ILY Devotional Readings A M ESSAG E FOR EVERY DAY O F THE M O N TH
DECEMBER 3 His Remembrance
DECEMBER 1 Wonderful! "Jesus . . . endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2). "M y God, my God, why hast thou for saken me? . . . Thou art holy” (Psa. 22:1, 3). If we would see something wonderful, let us look at the cross of Christ. It will take eternity to learn it. This is the age of won ders. Man is always wanting some new wonder, but the cross is passed by; Jesus crucified, the Wondrous One, is neglected and little thought of. Shall we who love the Lord be paying money here to go and see exhibitions, instead of filling our eyes with the Son of God, gazing our fill of Jesus crucified? May the wonder of Christ fill our souls and satisfy our hearts. — H . W . S oltau . It is only in moments of unselfishness that I am free. The iron chain that binds me is the thought of myself and of my own calamities; if I could but be liberated from that, my captivity would be turned in an hour. If, under the shadow of the cloud, I could but remember that the shadow of the same cloud hovers over my brother man, the vision of his shadow would destroy mine. In the moment of prayer for him my burden would fall from me. . . . O Thou divine Spirit of self-forgetfulness, Spirit of Christ, Spirit of the cross, it is in Thee alone that I can find this freedom. — G eorge M atheson . DECEMBER 2 Bearing Another’s Burden " And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends” (Job 42:10).
“ Thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, how thou wentest after me . . . in a land that was not sown” (Jer. 2:2). My Lord, dost Thou remember this of me? Forgetting every fall, Forgetting all the treacherous days, Forgetting all the wandering ways, With fullness of forgiveness covering all, Casting those memories, a hideous store, Into the crimson sea, for evermore, And only saying, “ I remember thee” ? —F. R. H. DECEMBER 4 God’s Perfection “ The Lord will perfect that which con cerned me” (Psa. 138:8). “ Faithful is he that called you, who also will do i f ’ (1 Thess. 5:24). God has given us His revealed word to meet our prophetic needs. He has given us complete redemption to meet our priestly need. He has given us resurrection to meet our kingly need. Christ is the perfect, and therefore final, Prophet, Priest, and King. Christ perfects all His work. He will per fectly and completely redeem all who re ceive Him. One can say, “ I was saved when I accepted Christ. I am being saved by Christ living in me now. I shall be saved completely when I receive my resur rection body.”—H. H. G regg . Pause at any verse of Scripture you choose, and shake, as it were, every bough of it, that, if possible, some fruit at least may drop down. If your soul really hungers, the Spirit of God will not send you away empty. You shall at length find in one, and that perhaps a short verse, such an abund ance of delicious fruit that you will gladly seat yourself under its shade, and abide there as under a tree laden with fruit. — M artin L u th er . DECEMBER 6 Victory Promised “ Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, wherunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses” (I Tim. 6:12). Have you ever struggled against an evil heart, and at last overcome it? Have you ever wrestled hard with a strong tempta tion, and known what it was to sing with thankfulness, “When I said, My foot slip- peth; thy mercy, O Lord, held me up” ? Have you, like Bunyan’s Christian, fought with Apollyon, and after a fierce contest, DECEMBER 5 Delicious Fruit “I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste” (Cant. 2:3).
PRESENCE Bible references indicating the presence of God, o f Christ, o f angels. A book o f 800 pages.
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