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unduly flippant; therefore, wash me, cleanse me now, for the Redeemer’s sake” ? Would not full and free forgive ness follow as swiftly as it did in the case of David’s confession (2 Sam. 12:13), and in that o f Daniel (Dan. 9 :20-23) ? The very moment that Isaiah’s cry was ut tered, “ I am undone,” the seraph flew with a live coal from off the altar, saying: “ Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.” Of course, this habit would not supersede the calmer laying bare of weakness and need to the eye o f the all- pitiful Physician. If grace invite confession to detach Souls from their sin, Shall faith not lift the latch? — Selected. The Christian life is a life of unchang ing joy. We must not forget that there is a vast difference between joy and happi ness. Happiness depends upon what hap pens, upon circumstances, the “hap” of life. Joy is independent of circumstances, and is connected with our relationship to God; Happiness is very much like the sur face of the sea, sometimes turbulent, at other times calm; but joy is like the bed o f the ocean, which is untouched by any thing on the surface. Joy, referring to our relationship to God, is threefold. There is the joy of retrospect, as we look back at the past ; there is the joy of aspect, as we look around on the present; there is the joy o f prospect, as we look forward to the future. Also there is the joy of memory, the joy of love, and the joy of hope. There is the joy of the peaceful conscience, the joy of the grateful heart, the joy o f the teachable mind, the joy of the trusting soul, the joy of the adoring spirit, the joy o f the obedient life, and the joy of the glowing hope. “In thy name, do they rejoice.” That is where we get our joy—“ In thy name,” in the revela tion o f God. Wherever the word “name” occurs, it never means a mere title, but a character. As we get to know the “name” and what it means in all its fulness, we shall have joy, which will depend, not up on ourselves, but upon God. — W. H. Griffith. The saints of old, they being willing and resolved for heaven, what could stop them? Could fire and fagot, sword or halter, stinking dungeons, whips, bears, bulls, lions, cruel rackings, stoning, starv ing, nakedness, etc.? “And in all these things they were more than conuqerors, through him that loved them” ; who had also made then “willing in the day o f his power.” See again, on the other side, the children o f the devil; because they are not willing, how many shifts and starting- holes they will have. I have married a wife, I have a farm, I shall offend my landlord, T shall offend "my master, I shall lose my trading, I shall lose my pride, my pleasures, I shall be mocked and scoffed, therefore I dare not come. Thy will, if it be set for heaven, will not be beat off with discouragements. This was the reason that when Jacob wrestled with the angel, though he lost a limb, as it December 18— “In thy name shall they rejoice all the day" (Psa. 89:16). December 19— "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me" (Gen. 32:26).
! D a i l y (D e v o t io n a l R e a d in g s I A M essage for Every D ay o f the Month
enjoin me to watch and pray. And it is high time that my heart awoke. —Alexander Smellie. —o— December 17— “I f we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive” (1 John 1:9). Some of us know what if is to have gone on for days, perhaps even for weeks, with the spiritual perceptions dimmed, with all the Spiritual gladness and elas ticity gone, simply because of the exis tence of something which has destroyed the sweetness of communion with God. The very smallest known but unconfessed sin will cause this. What a loss this is to ourselves, and—may we not reverently say it ?—-what a pain and loss to Him who deigns to seek our intimacy, and who has made so ample a provision for its unin terrupted continuance! But. these proud hearts are long in learning the blessed ness of swift and unrestrained confession. May we pot believe that even the common waiting for the quiet hour of prayer is a mistake? Why not, rather, the immediate upward glance, the instantan eous avowal, “Lord Jesus, I have sinned, I have judged harshly,” or, “I have been
December 15—“ They need not depart; give ye them to eat” (Matt. 14:16). At the moment when the disciples were preparing to dismiss a task as impossible, Christ steps in and makes it possible to faith and obedience. Ah, these moments of real, actual contact with the impossible-— how they search us! It may be that Christ so mercifully ministers His secret and sufficient aid that we go happily through many labors and conflicts, little under standing how large is our debt to Him. Then He appoints some experience in which we realize how hard the hard things are, how impossible the impossible things are, that we may know that salva tion is of the Lord. “They need not de part.” You and I also need not dismiss the impossible from our lives. Let us however, clearly understand that all true Christian life is perpetually engaged with undertakings for which our own re sources are but five loaves and two fishes set before thousands o f hungry men and women. The simple secret o f faith is that, so long as we abide in the will o f Christ, His omnipotence and grace are as truly available for the accomplishment o f our appointed task as our muscular strength is sufficient for our limbs. To any one not “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man,” Christian living and enterprise are a despair. “And they did all eat, and were filled; and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.” How happily it all passed off 1 True picture o f the life whose strength is in God!— C. G. Moore. —o— December 16— “He . . . findeth them asleep" (Matt. 26:40). Disciples who sleep—I wonder whether I am among them. The indulgence of hidden sin benumbs the heart, and steals buoyancy and joyousness from the life. Hurry and fitfulness in secret devotion soon drain my virtue out of me. An ex cess of attention to the world in its work, or its gain, or its literature, or its amuse ment seldom conduces to the health and watchfulness of the spirit. Security and satisfaction, like those of Peter and his fellows, invariably loosen my grasp of the Son of God, and are infallible preludes of disaster and shame. So the sunrise glow vanishes, and conscience is no longer sensitive. The Master’s will becomes a bondage and a tax, and the sight o f Him in the garden and on the bitter cross does not conquer and constrain and captivate as it used to do. It is guilty to sleep. That those whom God the Spirit has awakened, and the blood of Jesus has redeemed, should succumb again to sloth—what - a Crime that is! It is impoverishing to sleep. I deprive myself of progress and enlightenment, of much o f my influence here and some of my glory hereafter, when I am content with a stagnant life. My Master’s need and my Master’s love
O Bethlehem B y H oward L eslie L unt O Bethlehem! glad Bethlehem! O city o f the guiding star! How many thousand pilgrim feet Have hither come, from near and far, To stand beside this sacred shrine, Where Christ was born, the Child divine! O Bethlehem! fair Bethlehem.1 What charms thy ancient walls enfold, Since first the wise men wor shiped here With gifts of myrrh and prec ious gold; And shepherds heard the heaven ly story, And came to seek the Child of glory. O Bethlehem! blessed Bethle hem! O city set on Judah’s hill! To light the world with love and truth, Through Him whose life and deeds fulfill The prophet’s vision o f a King, Whose reign on earth good will would bring. —The Presbyterian.
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