April 1929
199
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“How shall I quiet my heart? How shall I keep it still? How shall il hush its tremulous start, at tidings of good or ill? How shall I gather and hold content ment and peace and rest, Wrapping their sweetness, fold on fold, over my troubled breast? “The Spirit of God is still and gentle and mild and sweet, What time His omnipotent, glorious will guideth the worlds at His feet: Controlling all lesser things, this turbu lent heart of mine He keepeth as under His folded wings in a peace serene—divine. “So shall I quiet my heart, so shall I keep . it still, So shall I hush its tremulous start at tidings of good or ill; So shall I silence my soul with a peace fulness deep and broad, So shall I gather divine control in the in finite quiet of God.” April 12— “I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the fenced place, and will watch to see what HE will say unto me” (Hab. 2:1, Margin). The prophet entered a “fenced place” to see what God would say to him. Try to have a “fenced place” and a “fenced time” every morning and evening for the Bible. There are many hindrances which try to break through these fences, but we must keep them out. We miss some great message when we are not at the meeting- place at the time we have appointed for our interview with God. Abraham “went unto the place of which God had told him. . . . .” It was a place of SACRIFICE; and when we make a sacrifice of sleep or ease to meet God, He will meet us and bless us there.— Canon R. C. Joynt. .Is it not necessary for the nation,.the Church, and the individual to re-learn the almost lost art of prayer, the mightiest force for the development of character and the accomplishment of Christian work? There never was greater need than in the present hour, for the growth among us of a true, earnest, persistent, aggressive prayer-life. In the face of world-wide unrest, of grim, grievous anxieties, of unprecedented sorrows, of deepening darkness, the call is to PRAY, and in prayer to be taught of the Spirit how to wield the weapon of the victory of Calvary, to beat back the forces of evil and stand in the gap for Christ and His purposes.— Rev. Gordon Watt. — o — April 14— “Have faith in God" (Mark 11 : 22 ). There is always strength in looking to God, but if the mind rests upon the weak ness otherwise than to cast it upon God, it becomes unbelief. Difficulties may arise, God may allow many things to come in to prove our weakness, but the simple path of faith is to go on, not looking be forehand at what we have to do, but reck oning upon the help that we shall need April 13— “We will give ourselves contin ually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:4).
Da ily D evo t iona l R ead ings
A M essage for Every Day of the Month
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alllllllllliillllllllllllipilllllllillllllllllllllllilllilllllllllllllllllliiiilliililililliilllliilliliiiiiiiiiiiiffl April 7— "Thy hand presseth me sore. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his lov ingkindness” (Psa. 38:2; Psa. 42:7, 8). Human reasoning would say, “Why has all this pressure, and why have all these waves of sorrow come on me, if God cares, and if He loves?” But God’s Word draws a different conclusion. It acknowl edges that it is His hand, that presses, that they are His billows; but the end is— “Yet the Lord will command His loving kindness.” It reminds one of other words on the subject—“Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (Heb. 12:11). “The end of the Lord . . . He is very pitiful and of tender mercy” (Jas. 5:11). One needs to lift up one’s eyes unto the hills, above them indeed, to the Lord who made them. One needs to “lift up the heart with the hands unto God in the heavens” (Lam. 3:41); and to “lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees” (Heb. 12:12). Does it sound too great an effort ? Ah, listen! “When my father and my mother for sake me”—all our natural protectors and earthly hopes fail to uphold—“then the Lord will take me up,” or, as the margin says, “gather me up” (Ps. 27:10). Can’t we see the tired little child putting up its tiny arms and saying, “Oh, take me up, please, mother, carry me!” And she gathers up the wee thing, and cuddles it close to her loving heart. Even So does our heavenly Father clasp our souls to Him. “He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom” (Isa. 40:11). Our age makes us none the less lambs in His sight: for He knows the real, helpless droop of utter weari ness : and the Hand that presseth us sore for some marvelous reason, will take and hold and bless moment by moment, till at last that same Hand will open the gate of Home, and lead us in to be there for ever.— Selected. — o — April 8—" Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong” (1 Cor. 16:13). Let there be always a real line of communication b e t w e e n God a n d yourself through Jesus Christ, that He may impart to you moment by moment the strength to do His will. It is essen tial to remember that our resources are not in ourselves, or in any material things, not in committees, not in churches, not in societies, not anywhere here; our re sources are in what the apostle says. Be strong in the grace. Be strong in the Holy Ghost. Draw upon your heavenly resources in Christ.— Rev. H. Tydeman Chilvers. April 9—" Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a ship” (Matt. 14:22). The Lord constrained His disciples to get into the ship, and sent them into the darkness on the sea. “And it was now
dark, and Jesus was not come to them.” Though He did constrain them, it was only after giving them a first-rate meal. “They did all eat, and were filled.” He feeds well before He tries well. He had given them miracle bread: He feeds well before passing His children through the heat of the fire. He is my Father! and my Father is so tender, so compassionate, so fatherly, that He cannot bear to put us into the storm unless He has fed us well first. Don’t be afraid that He will put you into the storm unless He has thor oughly equipped you for it first. He will constrain you to go into no storm without giving you His grace first, and preparing you for it by miracle bread. And if you are not able to stand in the storm, it will not be His fault. “It was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them.” But when He did come they were afraid. They saw Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship, and they were afraid (Mark 6:47-50). How often it is just the same with us. We are afraid when we ought to> be glad. We long that He should come to u s; we want to know more of His holy comings into our hearts, and we are in the dark without Him, and yet when He does appear we are afraid; we do not recognize Him. Do not be afraid of Him, troubled soul. It is dark, but He is coming.— Streams in the Desert. —o— April 10— "Jesus, being wearied, . . . . sat thus on the well” (John 4:6). On life’s toilsome, exhausting journey we may, like our Lord, find the wells we need. The goodness of God and the faithfulness of man have provided and preserved them for us. There they are, the wells of divine truth and love that meant so much to those who have gone before us. They drank of “the brook by the way,” and lifted up their heads. So may we in Christ enjoy the inexhaustible fulness of divine love and truth. Now all the weariness of Jesus is past. All power is His, and He is ever with us through life’s changing day.— James Prin gle. —o— April 11— “But whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil” (Prov. 1:33). What comfort and assurance there is in this promise for all who are truly the Lord’s ! “They shall dwell safely” in the midst of turmoil and affliction, they “shall be quiet” when others know only unrest and doubt. Depending on the Lord we realize another promise, “His soul shall dwell at ease.” How much better than a body at ease and a soul disquieted. Peace in one’s soul is a heaven-sent bless ing; earth cannot bestow it, for it is not of this world. To be “quiet from the fear of evil” means the Lord’s hand upon weak nerves, so that we shall not be afraid of evil tidings; the heart is calm when t r u s t i n g in the Lord.— Faith Holden,
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