Restoration Follows Forgiveness

By Theodore Epp


2 Samuel 12:11-23

When God forgives, He at once restores. He never carries a grudge. Nevertheless, we must expect to face consequences because of our sin. The Lord uses the rod of discipline on His children, and one aspect of that discipline is to let us reap what we sow. While He restores us to fellowship, the bitter cup we have brewed for ourselves has to be drunk. David lived for 20 more years, but the seeds of murder and lust that he had planted bore fruit in his own family.

Another son was born to David and Bathsheba, and David "called his name Solomon: and the Lord loved him. And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah [beloved of the Lord], because of the Lord" (2 Sam. 12:24,25).

David and Bathsheba's first son was taken from them because of their sin. But in the grace of God, their second son was chosen of God to succeed David on the throne. Surely this was an indication of God's complete forgiveness of David and a fresh evidence of God's mercy. On one hand we see the severity of God. On the other, we see His grace, since the lesson He taught His child had been learned.

"I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin" (Ps. 32:5).

The Way of Cain

Light and Truth: The Old Testament: Chapter 8 - The Way of Cain

By Horatius Bonar


"And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord." -- Genesis 4:16

"Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." --I John 3:12

"Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core."--Jude 11
AS "the way of Cain" is spoken of by the apostle Jude, as specially the way of the last days, let us inquire what it was. 

It was evil, not good. He is an open and defiant sinner; and in him sin takes its full swing. He is the first child of the fall, and the offspring of the fallen; he is no common transgressor; he runs no ordinary career of wickedness; he rushes to the extremity of evil. He is given as a beacon, yet as a true specimen of man, of the human heart even in the most favourable circumstances. He came into the world, not like Adam, full-grown, but a child, and therefore with the least possible amount of evil. He is the child of believing parents; for Adam shewed his faith by calling his wife, and Eve shewed hers by the way in which she received her first-born. He had a most godly brother, and was one of a pious household; brought up within sight of Paradise, and from childhood taught the knowledge of the true God, and the woman's seed. He was exposed to no outward temptation; he had no companion in sin; he walked the broad way alone. He was warned, no doubt, against the serpent and his seed. He was more than once spoken to directly by God. He had every possible advantage, in the absence of evil and the presence of good. Much might have been expected from him; yet he turns his back on God, on Paradise, on the altar, on the sacrifice, on all that is good and blessed.

But let us see more specially what the apostle calls "the way of Cain." It is the way,

I. Of unbelief. 

Cain is the first specimen of an unbelieving man. His parents were sinners, but they believed. His brother was a sinner, but he believed. Cain is not an atheist, nor an altogether irreligious man. He owns a God, and brings his fruits to the altar. But he brings no lamb, no blood, nothing that speaks of death. He comes with no confession, no cry for mercy. He sees no need of the woman's seed, no danger from the serpent; no preciousness, and perhaps no truth, in the promise of the serpent's crushed head or Messiah's bruised heel. He takes Satan's side against God, not God's against Satan; for all unbelief is a siding with Satan against God. God is not to him the God of grace, nor the woman's seed the Saviour of the lost. He has a religion, but it is self-made, a human religion, something of his own; without Christ, or blood, or pardon. The love of God is to him mere indifference to sin. Rejection of God's religion, and of His Messiah,--this is "the way of Cain."

II. It is the way of apostasy. 

He turns his back on God, and will have none of Him. He is not like one of our dark heathen, ignorant of the true God. He knows Jehovah, and has heard His voice; but he turns away. He is an apostate (the first apostate) from the religion of his father; a scorner of the Messiah; he wants a Messiah of his own,--"a Christ that is to be"; not God's Christ, but man's. From what small beginnings apostasy springs.

III. It is the way of worldliness. 

Having forsaken his father's God, he makes a god to himself; that god is the world. He goes far from Paradise, builds a city, becomes a thorough man of the world; becomes the father of the inventors of all curious instruments, leads the ever-swelling crowd in its race of worldliness and vanity,--with the cry, Onward, onward; progress, progress. They eat and drink, marry, and are given in marriage. All about Cain is of this present evil world. In our age what a spirit of worldliness is abroad; often not open wickedness, but simply worldliness, so absorbing the soul as to draw it quite down from the region of "the world to come."

It is the way of hatred. He begins with envy of his brother; goes on to hatred; ends in murder. He is specially jealous of his brother's having found favour with God. Yes, strange, though he would have none of God for himself, he cannot bear that his brother should have it. Not the love of man or woman, but of God is the cause of the first jealousy and the first murder. He hates God, and all the more for loving his brother. He hates Abel, and all the more for being loved of God. He cannot lay hands on God, as he fain would do, but he lays hands on His favourite, and so takes his revenge. Yes, the way of Cain is the way of envy, jealousy, hatred, murder!

The way of God-defiance. He dissembles; he wipes his bloody weapon and his bloody hands, saying, What have I done? He lies; he pretends; he would hide his doings from God. He has beguiled his brother into a lonely field and slain him, thinking that none would rescue, and none see. He acts as the liar and the hypocrite in the very presence of God. The way of Cain is the way of hypocrisy, falsehood, and defiance of God. God asks him of his brother; his answer is not only a lie, but a brazenfaced piece of impiety: "Am I my brother's keeper?" Thus he mocks God; utters the language of irreverence and defiance:--"He is your favourite, why do you not keep him? I never pretended to keep him." Here mingled fear, shame, audacity, defiance are manifested. He would fain deny the deed, but dares not. He trembles, and would fain conceal it. He puts on a defiant air and attitude, as if to brave it out before the all-seeing One!

Such is the way of Cain! Mark his doom.

1. Despair. No cry for mercy, but merely, My punishment is greater than I can bear. So is it in other ages. The sinner's despair of mercy, or complaint against God for making his punishment so heavy, is the repetition of Cain's offence and his doom. Why should a sinner despair on this side of hell? There is forgiveness to the uttermost; grace reaching far beyond the extremity of human guilt.

2. Banishment from God. He goes out from the presence of God, as if he could no longer bear that. He must away from Paradise, the birthplace of the race, the old seat of worship. But what is this to the eternal banishment? Cain has no rest, moving to and fro without hope or aim, a fugitive and vagabond, seeking rest, finding none. Sad curse! yet nothing to the eternal wandering!

3. Disappointment. He himself was his mother's disappointment, for she thought she had gotten the man- child. So is he a disappointment to himself. From first to last we see in him a disappointed man, trying everything, succeeding in nothing; building cities, roaming from place to place, to soothe his conscience, and fill up his heart's void. But in vain!

4. Fruitless worldliness. He is the heir of a barren world; for the whole world is his. He is possessor of a soil made unfruitful by a brother's blood; tilling and sowing, yet not reaping. A weary man, toiling for that which is not bread; trying to wring water out of the world's dry sands and broken cisterns. Such is the career of thousands. Fruitless worldliness. A life of vanity; a soul utterly void; a being wholly wasted.

A New Name

By Marcus Dods


"And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone"

(John 1:42).

Coming in this mood, he is greeted with words which seem to say to him, I know the character identified with the name "Simon, son of John;" I know all you fear, all the remorseful thoughts that possess you; I know how you wish now you were a man like Andrew, and could offer yourself as a serviceable subject of this new kingdom. But no! thou art Simon; nothing can change that, and such as you are you are welcome; but "thou shalt be called Rock," Peter. The men standing round, and knowing Simon well, might turn away to hide a smile; but Simon knew the Lord had found him, and uttered the very word which could bind him forever to Him. 

And the event showed how true this appellation was. Simon became Peter,--bold to stand for the rest, and beard the Sanhedrim. By believing that this new King had a place for him in His kingdom, and could give him a new character which should fit him for service, he became a new man, strong where he had been weak, helpful and no longer dangerous to the cause he loved.

Such are the encouragements with which the King of men welcomes the diffident. He gives men the consciousness that they are known; He begets the consciousness that it is not with sin in the abstract He undertakes to do, but with sinners He can name, and whose weaknesses are known to Him. But He begets this consciousness that we may trust Him when He gives us assurance that a new character awaits us and a serviceable place in His kingdom. He assures the most despondent that for them also a useful life is possible.

Direction Of Discipline

By Oswald Chambers


'And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.'
Matthew 5:30

Jesus did not say that everyone must cut off the right hand, but - If your right hand offends you in your walk with Me, cut it off. There are many things that are perfectly legitimate, but if you are going to concentrate on God you cannot do them. Your right hand is one of the best things you have, but, says Jesus, if it hinders you in following His precepts, cut it off. This line of discipline is the sternest one that ever struck mankind.

When God alters a man by regeneration, the characteristic of the life to begin with is that it is maimed. There are a hundred and one things you dare not do, things that to you and in the eyes of the world that knows you are as your right hand and your eye, and the unspiritual person says - Whatever is wrong in that? How absurd you are! There never has been a saint yet who did not have to live a maimed life to start with. But it is better to enter into life maimed and lovely in God's sight than to be lovely in man's sight and lame in God's. In the beginning Jesus Christ by His Spirit has to check you from doing a great many things that may be perfectly right for everyone else but not right for you. See that you do not use your limitations to criticize someone else.

It is a maimed life to begin with, but in v.48 Jesus gives the picture of a perfectly full-orbed life - "Ye shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Life's Most Important Fear

By Theodore Epp

Romans 3:9-18

Romans 3:18 is not speaking of a reverential fear of God that a person has who recognizes Him as the great Potentate of all ages and as the Almighty God we serve. Rather, this verse refers to those who have no concern for the existence, character or attributes of God. They do not think that God merits any thought at all. They completely fail to recognize their accountability to Him.

People's basic problem--the root cause of all their trouble--is that they do not know God, and they do not fear meeting God when they die. People speak lightly of death because they do not want to face its realities. People have taken it for granted that God, if He even exists, will overlook what they do and will take care of them, regardless of how they live.

People's refusal to make God the God of their lives is the fountain from which all these evils flow. Solomon said, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 9:10). When people refuse to fear God, or recognize Him for who He is, they lack wisdom, and they experience increasing mental confusion. One needs only to consider the fields of modern music and modern art to see this. And in addition to the absence of wisdom and an increasing mental confusion, there is also moral and spiritual darkness.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding" (Prov. 9:10).

Distinguishing between Jacob and Esau

By A.W. Tozer


There are areas of Christian thought, and because of thought then also of life, where likenesses and differences are so difficult to distinguish that we are often hard put to it to escape complete deception. 

Throughout the whole world error and truth travel the same highways, work in the same fields and factories, attend the same churches, fly in the same planes and shop in the same stores. So skilled is error at imitating truth that the two are constantly being mistaken for each other. 

It takes a sharp eye these days to know which brother is Cain and which Abel. We must never take for granted anything that touches our soul's welfare. Isaac felt Jacob's arms and thought they were the arms of Esau. Even the disciples failed to spot the traitor among them; the only one of them who knew who he was was Judas himself. 

That soft-spoken companion with whom we walk so comfortably and in whose company we take such delight may be an angel of Satan, whereas that rough, plain-spoken man whom we shun may be God's very prophet sent to warn us against danger and eternal loss.

According to Our Faith

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman


"According to your faith be it unto you" (Matt. 9:29).

"Praying through" might be defined as praying one's way into full faith, emerging while yet praying into the assurance that one has been accepted and heard, so that one becomes actually aware of receiving, by firmest anticipation and in advance of the event, the thing for which he asks.

Let us remember that no earthly circumstances can hinder the fulfillment of His Word if we look steadfastly at the immutability of that Word and not at the uncertainty of this ever-changing world. God would have us believe His Word without other confirmation, and then He is ready to give us "according to our faith."

"When once His Word is past,
When He hath said , 'I will,' (Heb. 13:5)
The thing shall come at last;
God keeps His promise still." (2 Cor. 1:20)

The prayer of the Pentecostal age was like a cheque to be paid in coin over the counter. --Sir R. Anderson

"And God said...and it was so." (Gen. 1:9.)

God Doesn't Need Help

By Theodore Epp


11 Samuel 1:1-16

Second Samuel opens with the account of a messenger coming to David and telling him that Saul and Jonathan and many others were dead.

Thinking to gain David's approval and possibly receive a reward from him, this messenger, who was an Amalekite, told David that it was at his hands Saul had died.

He said he had come upon Saul, who was still alive even after falling on his own sword. Saul had pleaded with him to kill him before the Philistines came upon him and mutilated his body while he was still alive.

The young man claimed he did as Saul requested. Some Bible students believe the young man told the truth; others believe he lied, but whatever the correct version is, he took his story to the wrong man.

David had always had a strong aversion to raising his hand against God's anointed. Neither would he permit any of his own men to do it. So when this young Amalekite claimed to have killed Saul, David had him put to death.

David did not want what the Lord did not give to him. He would not take by force what God had promised.

So many of us make the mistake of feeling we have to help God fulfill His promises.

"Thine, 0 Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine ,is the kingdom, 0 Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all" (1 Chron. 29:11).

Unconscious Farewells

Weekday Religion: Chapter 32 - Unconscious Farewells

By J.R. Miller


Every hour there are partings, thought to be only for a little season--which prove to be forever. One morning a young man bade his wife and child 'good-bye' and went out to his work. He was in an accident on the street, and before midday, his lifeless body was borne back to his home. It was a terrible shock--but there was one sweet comfort that came with wondrous power, to the crushed heart of the young wife. The last hour they had spent together, had been one of peculiar tenderness. Not a word had been spoken by either, that she could wish had not been spoken. She had not dreamed at the time, that it would be their last conversation, and yet there was nothing in it that left one painful recollection now that she should meet her husband no more. Through all these years of loneliness and widowhood, the memory of that last parting has been an abiding joy in her life, like a fragrant perfume or a bright lamp of holy peace.

Life is very precarious. Any word may be our last. Any farewell, even amid glee and merriment, may be forever. If this truth were but burned into our consciousness, if it ruled as a deep conviction and real power in our lives, would it not give a new meaning to all our human relationships? Would it not make us far more tender than we sometimes are? Would it not oftentimes put a rein upon our rash and impetuous speech? Would we carry in our hearts the miserable suspicions and jealousies, that now so often embitter the fountains of our loves? Would we be so impatient of the faults of others? Would we allow trivial misunderstandings to build up strong walls between us--and those whom we ought to hold very close to us? Would we keep alive petty quarrels year after year, which a repenting word any day would end? Would we pass neighbors or old friends on the street without recognition, because of some real or fancied slight, some wounding of pride or some supposed injury? Or would we be so stingy of our kind words, our commendations, our sympathy, our words of comfort--when weary hearts all about us are breaking for just such expressions of interest or appreciation or helpfulness as we have it in our power to give?

We all know how kindly it makes us feel toward anyone, to sit beside his death-bed. We are spending his last hour with him. We would not utter a harsh word or cherish a single grudge against him, for the world. There will never be an opportunity to recall any word spoken now, or to obliterate any painful impression made. We can never again give joy to this heart that is so soon to stop its beatings. What a softening influence this thought has! All our coldness melts down, before the eyes that have death's far-away look in them. All the long-frozen kindly sentiment in our hearts toward our friend, is thawed out as we hold our last fellowship with him.

Then we all know, too, how slumbering love awakens, and cold spirits warm, and all the chill of selfishness dissolves, beside the coffin of one who is dead. Everyone feels kindly then. Not a trace of grudging or bitterness lingers in any heart. Slights and wrongs are forgiven and forgotten. Icy winter changes to mellow summer. Loving words of gratitude or appreciation flow from every tongue. Praise and commendation, never spoken when the weary spirit needed them so much, find an expression, when the heavy ear can hear them no more. Men feel themselves awed in the presence of eternity, and heartily ashamed of their wretched spites, and petty animosities, and cold, mechanical friendship.

Now, how it would bless and beautify our lives, if we could carry that same thoughtful, grateful, patient, forgiving, loving spirit--into our every-day fellowship with each other; if we could treat men with the same gentle consideration, with the same frank, manly sincerity--as when we sit by their death-bed; if we could bring the post-mortem appreciation, gratitude, charity and unselfish kindliness--back into the vexed and overburdened years of actual, toilsome life!

It would be impossible to live otherwise, if we but realized that any hour's fellowship with another, might indeed be the last! If a man truly felt that he might be spending his last day with his family, taking his last meal with them, enjoying the last evening with them--would not his heart be cleansed of all harshness, bitterness and selfishness? Would not his feelings, his very tones, be charged with almost a divine tenderness? If a mother felt that today might be the last that she would have her child with her--would she be impatient by its endless questions, so easily annoyed by its restless activities, so fretted and vexed by its faults and thoughtless ways?

Would we be so exacting, so calculating, so cold and formal, so unkind, so selfish, in our fellowship with our friends--if we truly felt that today's sunset might be the last we would see; or that we would never meet our friends again? Would not the realization of the imminent possibility, act as a mighty restraint on all that is harsh or unloving in us, and as a powerful inspiration to bring out all that is kindly and tender?

With many a lonely heart, regret does indeed walk night and day, because of the memory of unkind words spoken which can never be unspoken, since the ears that heard them are deaf to every sound of earth. Friends have separated with sharp words or in momentary estrangement through some trivial difference, and have never met again. Death has come suddenly to one of them--or life has set their feet in paths divergent from that moment. Many a bitter and unavailing tear--bitter because unavailing--is shed over the grave of a departed one, by one who would give worlds for a single moment in which to beg forgiveness or seek to make reparation.

So uncertain is life and so manifold are the vicissitudes of human experience, that any leave-taking may be forever. We are never sure of an opportunity to unsay the angry word, or draw out the thorn we left rankling in another's heart! The kindness which we felt prompted to do today--but neglected or deferred--we may never be able to perform. The only way therefore, to save ourselves from unavailing sorrow and regret--is to let love always rule in our hearts, and control our speech. If we should in a thoughtless moment, speak unadvisedly, giving pain to another heart, let reparation be made upon the spot. The sun should never go down upon our anger. We should never leave anything over-night, that we would not be willing to leave finally and forever, just in that shape, and which we would blush to meet again in the great day of judgement.

Life's actions do not appear to us in the same colors--when viewed in the noontide glare and in the evening's twilight. Little things in our treatment of others, which at the time, under the crosslights of emulation and rivalry, or in the excitement of business and social life--do not seem wrong--when seen from the shadows of final separation or great grief, fill us with shame and regret. This after-view is by far the truest. After-thoughts are the wiser thoughts. We get the most faithful representation of life--in retrospect. The things we regret in such an hour--are things we ought not to have done. The things we wish then we had done--are things we ought to have done. There could be no better test of life's actions than the question, "How will this appear--when I look back upon it from the end? Will it give me pleasure--or pain?"

We all want to have beautiful endings to our lives. We want to leave sweet memories behind in the hearts of those who know and love us. We want our names to be fragrant in the homes on whose thresholds our footfalls are accustomed to be heard. We want the memory of our last parting with our friends to live as a tender joy with them as the days pass away. We want, if we should stand by a friend's coffin tomorrow, to have the consciousness that we have done nothing to embitter his life, to add to his burdens, or to tarnish his soul, and that we have left nothing undone which it lay in our power to do--to help him, or to minister to him comfort or cheer. 

We can make sure of this, only by always so living--that any day would make a tender and beautiful last day; that any hand-grasp would be a fitting farewell; that any hour's fellowship with friend or neighbor would leave a fragrant memory; and that no treatment of another would leave a regret, or cause a pang--if death or space should divide us forever.

For after any heart-throb, any sentence, any good-bye--God may write, 'Finis!'

Responding Properly to God's Promises

By Bob Hoekstra


By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. (Hebrews 11:11)

Before we proceed in our consideration of God's promises, let's look at some examples of those who responded properly to His promises. This will assist us in the path of living daily by the grace of God. Remember, living by God's grace and depending upon His promises are two perspectives on the same reality. Both speak of God working in and through the lives of His people.

Sarah responded properly to God's promises. It is true that she tried to fulfill God's promise of a son by her own ingenuity. "So Sarai said to Abram, 'See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her' " (Genesis 16:2). It is true that she later laughed with incredulity, when the promise was repeated. "And He said, 'I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.' And Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him . . . Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, 'After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also'? " (Genesis 18:10, 12). 

Nevertheless, she eventually related appropriately to what God had promised to do. "By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed." The proper response to God's promises is to believe them. All who trust in the Lord to do what He has promised experience God at work in their lives. Sarah trusted God's promise of a son, and she was enabled by God to conceive and birth that son. "By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age."

Isaac was born in spite of the fact that Sarah did not have the natural capacity to accomplish such any longer. Isaac was born by means of Sarah exercising faith in the promises of God. Note, however, that Sarah's faith was not merely some act of the human will (like "mind over matter" or "power of positive thinking"). Her faith was based upon the faithfulness of God. "She judged Him faithful who had promised." She considered what God had revealed to her about Himself and concluded that He was reliable, so she relied upon Him.

Dear faithful Father, I confess the many times I have responded to Your promises like Sarah did at first - - scheming to fulfill them myself, or overtaken with unbelief. Yet, when I look in the scriptures, I see Your faithfulness declared regularly and documented repeatedly. Also, every time I trust in You to do what You have promised, You demonstrate again Your great faithfulness. Lord, would You especially fulfill Your promises in those areas where I am as convinced of my helplessness as Sarah was of hers, for Your glory and honor, Amen.

God is Not Unobservant

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman


"I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling place" (Isa. 18:4, RV).

Assyria was marching against Ethiopia, the people of which are described as tall and smooth. And as the armies advance, God makes no effort to arrest them; it seems as though they will be allowed to work their will. He is still watching them from His dwelling place, the sun still shines on them; but before the harvest, the whole of the proud army of Assyria is smitten as easily as when sprigs are cut off by the pruning hook of the husbandman.

Is not this a marvelous conception of God--being still and watching? His stillness is not acquiescence. His silence is not consent. He is only biding His time, and will arise, in the most opportune moment, and when the designs of the wicked seem on the point of success, to overwhelm them with disaster. As we look out on the evil of the world; as we think of the apparent success of wrong-doing; as we wince beneath the oppression of those that hate us, let us remember these marvelous words about God being still and beholding.

There is another side to this. Jesus beheld His disciples toiling at the oars through the stormy night; and watched though unseen, the successive steps of the anguish of Bethany, when Lazarus slowly passed through the stages of mortal sickness, until he succumbed and was borne to the rocky tomb. But He was only waiting the moment when He could interpose most effectually. Is He still to thee? He is not unobservant; He is beholding all things; He has His finger on thy pulse, keenly sensitive to all its fluctuations. He will come to save thee when the precise moment has arrived. --Daily Devotional Commentary

Whatever His questions or His reticences, we may be absolutely sure of an unperplexed and undismayed Saviour.

"O troubled soul, beneath the rod,
Thy Father speaks, be still, be still;
Learn to be silent unto God,
And let Him mould thee to His will.

"O praying soul, be still, be still,
He cannot break His plighted Word;
Sink down into His blessed will,
And wait in patience on the Lord.

"O waiting soul, be still, be strong,
And though He tarry, trust and wait;
Doubt not, He will not wait too long,
Fear not, He will not come too late."

The Importance of Being in the Spirit

By T. Austin-Sparks


The phrase "in the Spirit" occurs several times in the book of the Revelation. It represents the way of escape for the Lord's people from the oppression of the earthly conditions which surround and beset them. John, being so oppressed on the island of Patmos, found deliverance from earth's limitations into the much larger realm of things as they are in heaven. The book of the Revelation shows, as perhaps few other books of the Bible do, how real and absolute is heaven's government. In the matter of the whole Church (represented by the seven churches), the nations, the great world systems (represented religiously by Babylon and politically by the Beast), and even to the hidden warfare with spiritual evil, it was made clear to John, and so to us all, that it is really the heavens which rule.

Emerging from this truth of heaven's absolute dominion is that fact that through the adversities and sufferings of His people, God is providing a fruitful ministry of spiritual fullness and wealth.

So heaven came in on Patmos, and turned what would have been misery and crippling limitation into something tremendously fruitful for the Church throughout many generations. There can be no question as to the untold value of John's ministry which resulted from this Revelation of Jesus Christ.

What was true in the case of John himself is revealed to be also the case for many of the Lord's servants. Those of us who have even a small experience of being shut up and hemmed in by difficult circumstances will perhaps realise a little of what the great apostle must have felt. He had so much spiritual wealth; he was the sole survivor of the apostles; he could realise how greatly the churches needed him; and yet he was, banished to a lonely island, cut off from all opportunity either of fellowship or service. In some way Paul before him had gone through a similar circumstance in his Roman imprisonment, and could also at times have felt singularly frustrated as to useful service to Christ. Yet how much poorer the Church would have been without his 'prison epistles'. So he and John had this in common, that the seeming limitation of being prisoners for Christ had produced unlimited spiritual helpfulness to many generations of Christians.

It may well be that what was true of them will be found to be valid for the whole Church. The vision at the end of this book is of a Church of such vast measurements that its dimensions seem to have been grossly exaggerated. The simple implication is that heaven will have overruled the earthly trials and tribulations of God's suffering saints and made out of them a fruitful means of dispensing Christ's riches to the whole universe for all eternity. This is the significance of being "in the Spirit".


From "Toward The Mark" Nov-Dec, 1972

In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given, his writings are not copyrighted. Therefore, we ask if you choose to share them with others, please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of changes, free of charge and free of copyright.

Seize the Banner

By Gene Edwards


Let me tell you a secret, a secret you will learn someday. Once you discover this secret, you'll be tempted, as most of us are, to use it. Here it is: you can use your past as a tool for your own advantage. What do I mean by such a statement? You can use your past to unify the work (your work). All those grizzly experiences you went through. Remember? You can use them to warn people against OTHER folk. In so doing you will unify them around a common prejudice. This is one of the great secrets of launching and sustaining a movement! Someone once said if you want to start a movement then get a group of people together and teach them how to hate a common enemy. And it is true.

Let me illustrate. Perhaps your work is being threatened by someone in your group. Okay. You have a problem. You begin looking around for a tool to save the hour. Actually, all you need is one good illustration. Make it one that will cause everyone's hair to stand on their necks. The more terrifying, the better. Many Christian workers built their whole life's work on the basis of telling stories about their enemies. By prejudicing their followers they rally everyone around a common enemy, or a common fear. Look around you. Much Christian work today is held together by being taught either to hate or to fear someone or something. It is not Christ who unifies many groups. Will you use your past as such a tool? At times you will feel you absolutely cannot perform the task God has called you to unless you pick up one of these tools. You know full well that unless you pick them up all your work will be lost.

Some of the tools are perfect to get you through a crisis. With that one tool you could step forward and unify. . . you could step forward and banish. . . the impending threat. The longer you live the more tools there will be. Some of them look very noble. Look again. Every one of them is LESS than Christ! Listen, dear saint of the Lord. YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY ENEMIES. Remember that! All the Lord's people need is Christ. If Jesus Christ will not suffice, if Christ cannot deliver you out of the situation you are in, then let everything go to destruction. . . yes, let your work be lost. But will this not open us to error, always giving in to the wrong? And also, if things go wrong in the church and all the fine people yield, who will stop the wrong element? 

These are good questions. Men have asked them for centuries. But I want you to know that throughout history men have come up with one predominant answer! We must be "defenders of the faith." 

Today, the Lord is looking for a group of people who will instead say, "We will know nothing but the Lord." In that hour you may choose to do something very self-sacrificing, and maybe something even very noble. Yet ask yourself, "Is it less than Christ?" Lift your face toward the highlands. Look above you. Catch a glimpse of your Lord's ways. See a soil where no footprints are found. See heights that have not been trod for nearly two millenia. Seize. . . the banner.

He that in these things serveth Christ

By A.B. Simpson


God can only use us while we are trusting Him completely. Satan cared far less for Peter's denial of his Master than for the use he made of it afterwards to destroy his faith. So Jesus said to him, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not (Like 22:32). It was Peter's faith Satan attacked, and so it is our faith that he contests. The trial of your faith, being much more precious that of gold that perisheth (1 Peter 1:7). 

Whatever else we let go, let us go, let us hold steadfastly to our trust. Cast not away therefore your confidence (Hebrews 10:35), and hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end (Hebrews 3:6). And if you would hold your trust, hold your sweetness, your rightness of spirit, your obedience to Christ, your victory in every way. Whatever comes, regard it as of less consequence than that you should triumph and remain steadfast. 

Accept every circumstance as something God is pleased to allow. Wave the4 banner of your victory in the face of every foe. Go on, shouting in Jesus' name, Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14).

The Cry of the Elect

By T. Austin-Sparks

      Reading: Luke 18:1-8.

      The common interpretation of this parable is that it is a lesson in, or an exhortation to, importunity in prayer, and it has been generally used in that connection. While undoubtedly there is that element in it, that is altogether too limited an interpretation. If you look at the setting of the parable, you will see that it has a much larger connection than that.

      You know that the division of the books of the Bible into chapters is something much more recent than the writing of the Gospel. It has nothing to do whatever with the original narrative. So, looking back into chapter 17 you find there is quite a lot about the Lord's coming.

      "There shall be two women grinding together the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. And they answering say unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Where the body is, thither will the eagles also be gathered together." And earlier, you see the chapter is grouped around the day of the coming of the Son of Man; and then you go on into this parable itself. The last verse of the parable is this, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith (or, the faith) on the earth?"

      Thus the parable is set right into the coming of the Lord and must be interpreted in the light thereof, not merely and only as a lesson in importunity in personal prayer. It cannot be that, because the elect is in view. "Shall not God avenge his elect, that cry to him day and night?". "The elect" is only the eternal designation of the Church. The word "Church" brings us into time as the called-out company but "the elect" takes you back before time - "chosen in him before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4). It is the Church, therefore, which is in view here, and the Church as related to the coming of the Lord.

      Then, again, the avengement of the Church can only take place when the Lord comes. The Church will not be avenged until He appears. We know that, and much Scripture could be cited to support that. He will avenge His Church at His coming.

      The Increasing Pressure and the Deepening Cry

      Thus it becomes perfectly clear as to what the Lord was really saying. There is an adversary, and that adversary is here set forth as the adversary of the elect, the adversary of the Church, and that adversary is seen to be engaged in a persistent pressure upon the Church, a persistent and growing pressure, which is bringing the Church more and more to the place of crying to be avenged. Now here we have two things, namely, the growing pressure and the deepening cry, and I do not think it necessary beloved, to try to prove that the pressure is intensifying. It is another sign that the coming of the Lord is drawing near. All truly spiritual children of God are well aware of the intensification of pressure, spiritual pressure, from the adversary. We see it and we feel it in many directions. Things are closing in on the Church, pressing the Church in.

      We see it in the political situation today, the international situation; that in that realm, no sooner does God begin to do something in a living way than the enemy himself begins to do something. There was a great spiritual movement beginning in China. Many were seeking, inquiring, coming to the Lord; and then came the war in China, to scatter, to arrest, to break up, to hinder. Blessed be God, He is sovereign, and sovereignly takes hold of those counter movements of the enemy and turns them to serve His own end. Nevertheless, it is marked. In Norway again, there was something of the Lord, a real movement of the Spirit; and now, in the very places marked by the twos and threes who were keys to that country for something more of the Lord, the very heat of things is raging today, to scatter, to paralyse. What is true in these two, is true over a much larger area. We have seen it again and again, pressing in.

We recognize it in a spiritual way, apart from anything outside; spiritual pressure, naked pressure from the enemy upon the spirit and the mind of the child of God. It is indeed intensification. And what shall we say about this which is becoming such an obvious thing, this spreading of physical pressure upon the children of God? We have to take account of these things, and that is the point now. 

Beloved, a very great deal, an immense amount, of the physical suffering today of the children of God, of the servants of the Lord, is pressure from the enemy. It cannot be, in the last issue, accounted for on merely natural grounds, for so often the assault is related to some spiritual interest, is bound up with something that God is doing or is going to do. There is the crippling and paralysing attempt of the enemy in the physical, the bodily, realm of the saints. 

We could almost say you will hardly find one who is a key to spiritual things who is not assailed in that way at some time or other. Pressure in every way is intensifying upon the Church. I am sure you are alive to that, the fact of it, at any rate; and it is going to intensify, and true spiritual work, the thing that is heavenly and that really counts in relation to God's ultimate and full purpose, is going to find itself under increasing pressure from the adversary.

      

But then there is the other side. What is this to result in? In what way will the sovereignty of God govern this? What does the Lord intend to be the issue? The deepening and strengthening cry of the Church, "Avenge me!" - the Church as one man, "me"; not us, but "me". "Avenge me of my adversary!"; and that, according to the way in which the Lord puts it, is to become a continuous cry at the end: "which cry day and night unto him".

      There are implications in this parable, and one of them is this, that the coming of the Lord, the avenging of the Church and the destruction of the work of the adversary is bound up with this cry, and the cry must be. The Lord has put the two together. Until there is the cry, there cannot be avengement, and that means there cannot be the coming of the Lord in intervention for the Church, and there cannot be the destruction of the adversary. The cry is essential.

      Present Responsibility

      Well now, in the light of that, where are we? What does it mean for us now immediately. It means this, that we have to take account of what lies behind things. We have to take account of what lies behind this world situation, what the implications of it are, so far as the Church is concerned, and we must not just accept this present world conflagration, this international situation, this war, as merely a bit of the history of this world, the course of things here on this earth. 

No, there is something at the heart of this thing which is eternal and which is heavenly, and the adversary is prepared to throw all the nations into conflict and carnage in order to get that "seed royal", that "man-child", to injure that "elect", to defeat God's purpose as bound up with the Church. If you have spiritual eyes open, that is the focal point of your present observation; not simply the fact of a war between this nation and that, these and those, but that which lies behind it, and so in every other connection. What is behind this pressure and assault upon the bodies of the Lord's people, and especially where spiritual interests are the more bound up, this seeking to put out of action, to render incapable of functioning because of physical conditions? What lies behind the spiritual pressure and the circumstantial pressure, pressure coming in all these different ways? Oh, beloved, ask the Lord to open your eyes to that, to get you engaged with that, for it is in that realm that the Church's effectiveness is seen to obtain. 

When you get back of things to the adversary and bring that adversary up before the Throne of God and the Church cries, "Avenge me of mine adversary", you have touched the realm of spiritual effectiveness, you have got behind things. My longing, my craving, is to find the Lord's people seeing this and acting accordingly. Oh that, while not always occupied with the Devil and talking about the Devil and demons and so on, and getting that kind of mentality, we were nevertheless alive to this great reality, that back of things is an adversary, and that we went behind things and did not just pray for the things themselves. You see, you may pray for the Lord to heal, for the Lord to raise up, to make better, and oh! you have not really touched the realm of effectiveness in prayer. 

What is there of the adversary in this? Until you have touched that, you have not really touched the issue. We have no real ground for effectual prayer over these situations in the world until we have got behind them to the adversary who, in his own interests, for his own ends, is bringing them about, precipitating them. Oh for the day when our prayer gatherings will be more characterized by this seeing, and acting accordingly, in the heavenlies! That is the thing. We shall recognize what this pressure is meant to produce; a cry, a united cry, a one-voiced cry in the saints: "Avenge me of mine adversary!" The Lord bring us into that.

      All Will Centre at Last in a Cry

      Unless I am mistaken, this parable of the Lord is intended to lead us to one or two other conclusions. In the first place, that the Church, the spiritual Body, will be so pressed that it has no other cry than this. It has only this one cry. I mean that it will be gradually and definitely centred in this, that all its other praying will be recognized as of little avail, and its one great heart cry will be this, perhaps not in these words, but with this significance, with this meaning - "Avenge me of mine adversary!" That means that the people of God will be pressed into recognizing that they are not up against some human situation, and therefore their cry will be in relation to this ultimate issue, being avenged of the adversary - pressed into crying.

      The "Cry" and the "Coming"

      Then it seems to me that the Lord intended that we should take account of this too, that, when the Church really does reach that point and position where it does cry like this, that means that the end is just at hand. "He will avenge them and that speedily." Now the Lord said those words many centuries ago, and if we reasoned according to man, we should say, Speedily? Well, of course the Lord dwells in eternity and there is no time with Him. A thousand years is as a day with Him. With Him it may be speedily, but for the poor Church it is two thousand years - we cannot call it speedily. 

But that is not what the Lord meant by "speedily". He meant that, when the Church really cried like that, it would be speedily. Has the Church done it? When it really becomes one cry from the Church, you may take it that God's hour synchronizes with the cry. We have always to recognize that principle in God's Word, that God's time is always made to synchronize with something else. He may fix His time, but He fixes it in relation to something else; and the time of His coming may be fixed, it may be appointed, but it is a related time, and His appearing to avenge His Church is bound up with the Church's cry day and night: "Avenge me!" If the Lord by the Holy Spirit were to produce that cry in the Church, we can take it as settled that His coming is near.

      Now, is He working toward that? Is there today an activity of the sovereign government of God to hedge the Church up to this cry? Some of us can say that, for our part, we have no doubt about it. As we look out, we can see movements in that direction. Yes, inability to do a very great many things, inability to be occupied with much that has been occupying the Church; a cutting off, a shutting in, and this sense of the adversary withstanding, obstructing, hindering, limiting, and all efforts to break through seeming to be unavailing, until almost in despair, the cry which is focused upon the enemy, the adversary, breaks out of the heart.

      

Well, that is what the Lord is doing, I am quite sure. We must ask the Lord to keep us very much alive to what lies behind things and to bring us strongly into this cry which is for the Church's deliverance, the Church's emancipation, the Church to be avenged of the adversary, the adversary cast down from his place of accusing the brethren. "Avenge me of mine adversary this adversary which accuseth the elect before God, day and night".

      The Essential Ministry

      We should ask the Lord that we may be so much in the Spirit when we come together for prayer that we are not found dealing with things on the surface, as they appear, but touching the throne in relation to the adversary and what he is doing behind things. Oh, do ask Him to interpret this to your hearts, to give you the meaning in every matter. There is no doubt that there is today much that is locked up, that is hindered, that is limited, much of the Lord's interests brought well-nigh, if not altogether, to a standstill by the work of the adversary. You say, Can that be? Yes, even such a one as Paul who was not ignorant of his devices and who knew something about union with the sovereign Lord said, "...but Satan hindered". "We would fain have come unto you, I Paul once and again; but Satan hindered us". You say, That is a problem: here is a man anointed, laid hold of by God, and yet that man has to say "but Satan hindered"! Satan succeeded in stopping something, preventing something, something of value. Are we to say that the Lord never intended the Apostle to go? No, not at all, not in that case. 

Where, then, are we to find the solution? There are many servants of the Lord and many interests of the Lord locked up like that, not able to function, to fulfil their ministry, by reason of the hindrances of Satan, because the Church is not prevailing for that ministry, for those interests. There is not a company of the Lord's people who know how to take hold of the throne for the release of those Divine interests. That is borne out more than once by things that Paul said when he appealed for prayer from the Church; for example, "...that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel". He appealed for united prayer, for corporate prayer, that he might fulfil his ministry; and I say again, there are many things being limited, held down, paralysed by Satan, the adversary, the release of which can only be brought about by this prayer, this cry; and, if it is true that the Church's final deliverance is coming through its own cry, the Lord's response to that, it is true in the details of the Church's life. If the whole thing is an issue like that, then the principles are the same in every detail.

      There is a ministry here. There are multitudes of the Lord's people who need light, revelation, spiritual reinforcement, in order to bring them through to God's full end; but Satan has come in between them and the resources and the ministry, the stewardship, and they will not get it unless there is prevailing over the enemy on the part of spiritual and enlightened children of God. It is a Divine way, Divine order. Here is our responsibility. Do take it to heart. 

Very much more could be today if there was a prevailing instrument, a vessel with God's cry, a vessel that saw through the situation, saw the adversary, and knew the meaning of touching the throne to bring Haman's great campaign of death to an end, to turn it from death to life, for the children of God. Well, the Word of God is shot through and through with this truth that, while God wills, God's will is brought into operation by the co-operation of those who are one with Himself. This is a basic truth. Oh, may He bring us there, for the large interests which are at stake today!

     

 First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Jul-Aug 1940, Vol 18-4

In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given, his writings are not copyrighted. Therefore, we ask if you choose to share them with others, please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of changes, free of charge and free of copyright.

Psalm 114

By Henry Law


The greatness and the glory of God are shown in His dealings with Israel. Let us joyfully remember that this God is our God forever and ever.

1-2. "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion."

Grievous was Israel's slavery in the land of Egypt. They were oppressed by tyrants, aliens in blood and speech. Their history should remind us that when we were lost by sin God sent redemption through His beloved Son, and called us into the kingdom of liberty and grace. Israel thus delivered was raised to be a peculiar people. They were consecrated to the service of the Lord. They had His sanctuary and His laws, His temple and His ordinances. The priestly office solemnized its rites, and God was acknowledged as their King. So, also, we are no more our own. We are ransomed, that we may delight in His ordinances and serve Him as our rightful Lord.

3-4. "The sea saw it, and fled; Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs."

When the set time of deliverance comes, no obstacles can check. The waters of the Red Sea seem to forbid escape from Egypt. The waters of Jordan seem to forbid entrance into Canaan. But at God's word they parted, and there was a dry passage for the hosts. Thus departure from perils was effected; thus entrance into the promised land was gained. Let faith take courage. The same power still works. The chosen seed shall depart in triumph from the captivity of Satan, and in triumph enter their eternal home. In Israel's march, also, astounding prodigies were shown. The strongest mountains trembled at God's presence and the gaping earth obeyed His mandates. Mighty powers are arrayed in opposition to God's people; but when the Lord speaks, trembling and quaking shake their might. "Who are you, O great mountain; before Zerubbabel, you shall become a plain."

5-8. "What ailed you, O sea, that you fled? Jordan, that you were driven back? mountains, that you skipped like rams; and little hills, like lambs? Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; who turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters."

These marvelous interpositions were the direct acts of God. No natural causes produced these prodigies. This truth is enforced by lively questions addressed to inanimate objects. The presence of the Lord effected all. We next are reminded that providential care supplied their needs in the wilderness; the flinty rock melted, and streams in abundance flowed. 

These emblems teach that God's people shall have every need relieved. "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue fails for thirst, I the Lord will hear them; I the God of Jacob will not forsake them." O Lord, be it unto us according to Your gracious word! Supply all our need, according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus!

Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding. 1 Chron, xxix. 15.

Our Daily Homily Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding. 1 Chron, xxix. 15.             ALL life has been compared to the shadow of a smoke wreath; a gesture in the invisible air; a hier oglyph traced for an instant on the sand, and effaced a moment after by a breath of wind; an air bubble vanishing on the river. Pilgrims and sojourners, as were all our fathers such is the universal confession. But even such may do a work that will last for ages. David and the men of his time, though transitory their stay on our planet, left behind them a standing evidence that they had been here.            Our life is nothing, but it may be divine: our days are as a breath, but they may affect unborn generations: the tent of the body is laid aside, but the soul, which had dwelt in it, is immortal in its touch: it leaves traces of its own immortality behind in its works, and it lives in them. In one sense, the answer to the ancient prayer is certain: "Establish Thou the works of our hands upon us." But we may well ask, that they may be such that we shall have no need to be ashamed of.            But, for this, God must live mightily within us. Abide in Me, said our Lord. . . . I have appointed you that ye may bring forth fruit, and that your fruit may abide. It is impossible to be in true union with Christ without feeling the pulse of his glorious life; and where it enters like a tidal river, it can have but one result it must manifest itself in fruit. It is only in proportion as our works are done in God, and God permeates our works, that they become sources of enduring blessing to coming time. Pilgrims though we be, yet, if our lives are spent before Him, we may build temples which will outlast the wreck of matter.

Philip and the Ethiopian

  
George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons

      Philip and the Ethiopian
     
      And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert--Act 8:26
     
      God Removed Philip from the Middle of Evangelistic Success
     
      Philip was in the full tides of work for Christ when the message came from God that he must leave it. He had been preaching in Sebaste, the old city of Samaria, and his preaching had been crowned with wonderful success when suddenly there came the angel of the Lord with this summons to get southward towards Gaza. It was a strange command, swiftly and well obeyed. There was nothing of the spirit of Jonah about Philip. Perhaps Philip remembered Jesus in the desert and thought he was going to meet his Master there. Then came the hour when the chariot rolled by. It was a very picturesque and lordly equipage. Its occupant was the chancellor of the Nubian exchequer, and he was reading aloud, as the Eastern custom is. A few broken syllables fell on Philip's ear in the brief respites of the jolting and the jarring, and Philip (to whom the Old Testament was doubly precious now) recognized the priceless chapter of Isaiah. Did he remember the prophecy of the psalms, "Ethiopia soon shall stretch out her hands to God" (Psa 68:31). Here was the stretched-out hand of Ethiopia, and God had so ordered it that it was not stretched in vain. Philip ran up to the side of the chariot--it was going very slowly on that rough desert road. He asked the courtier if he understood the chapter. The answer came, "How can I, without a guide?" And the passage closes with the preaching of a Savior, and with the conversion, baptism, and joy of this true seeker from afar for God.
     
      From Crowds to an Individual: the Value of an Individual
     
      Note then the value of a single soul. It must have seemed very strange and dark to Philip that he should be summoned from his Samaritan work. The tide was with him; enthusiasm was heightening vast crowds were moved by the preaching of Christ crucified. It would have been hard to leave all that through sickness; it was doubly hard to do it when well and strong. Could no one else be found for that desert work? Was it right to leave the thousands in Samaria for the single chariot of a southern courtier? I am sure that Philip had many a thought like that, for he was a man of like passions with ourselves. Then gradually it would grow very clear to him that a single soul must be very dear to God. He would remember how the shepherd had left the ninety and nine that the one sheep in the desert might be found. From that hour on to the day he died, Philip held fast in all his work for Christ to the infinite worth, in the eyes of Christ, of one. We must never forget that in a busy city. Where God is, we are not lost in any crowd. We are separately precious and separately sought. In the love of Jesus we all stand alone. One by one we are found and led and humbled till the day break and the shadows flee away.
     
      Disappointed in Jerusalem, the Courtier Did Not Quit
     
      Again observe that the earnest do not despair when disappointed. There is something very noble in this courtier. There is a touch of true greatness in the man. In a heathen court and with everything against him, his life had grown into a great cry for God. Somehow, he had got his hands on the Old Testament. Never a Jewish trader came to Meroe but the chancellor had earnest converse with him until at last nothing would ease his heart but the resolve to journey to Jerusalem. The Temple was there, and the priests and scribes were there--would he not learn all that he craved for there? And now he is returning homeward, a weary, baffled, disappointed man. He had craved for bread--they had given him a stone. He had cried, like Luther when he first saw Rome, "Hail, Holy City"; and the holy city had brought no solace to him. How many a man, in such a disappointment, would have cast his Scripture to the winds of heaven? But the eunuch was of another mould than that. His was too great a heart to nurse despair. He must still seek; he must still read; he must still study. He was deep in Isaiah on that desert road. And it was in that hour when his journey seemed so useless and his hope was quenched and his heart was sick and weary--it was then that he stepped into the light of Christ. We must remember there are disappointments in all seeking There come times when we all seem baffled in our quest. We are tempted to ask, What is the use of it? Is it worth while? Had we not better give in? We are often brought to the point of losing heart. In such moods recall the Ethiopian. He would still hold to it in spite of all failure. And on the day when everything seemed vain, the footsteps of the dawn were on the hills.
     
      God Ordained What He Thought a Chance Meeting
     
      Then lastly, God is behind many a chance meeting. I think that the driver of this Nubian chariot was not a little startled to see Philip; it was an unlikely place to light on any traveler. And when he got home to the stables of his master and told the story by the fire at night, all would agree that this accidental meeting had been one of the strange chances of the road. But we know that the meeting was not that. The hand of God had ordered and prepared it. It had been arranged for in the plans of heaven, though it seemed an accident to the dusky charioteer. We must believe that it is often so. Our friendships and comradeship's do not begin haphazard. We seem to be thrown across each other's path, but the hand of God has been ordering the way. Two people meet--we call the meeting chance. But life will be different evermore for both. It were well to strike out chance from our vocabulary, and in its place to put the will of God.

Seek Communion

  
Streams in the Desert

      Seek Communion
     
      "They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine" (Hosea 14:7).
     
      The day closed with heavy showers. The plants in my garden were beaten down before the pelting storm, and I saw one flower that I had admired for its beauty and loved for its fragrance exposed to the pitiless storm. The flower fell, shut up its petals, dropped its head; and I saw that all its glory was gone. "I must wait till next year," I said, "before I see that beautiful thing again."
     
      That night passed, and morning came; the sun shone again, and the morning brought strength to the flower. The light looked at it, and the flower looked at the light. There was contact and communion, and power passed into the flower. It held up its head, opened its petals, regained its glory, and seemed fairer than before. I wonder how it took place--this feeble thing coming into contact with the strong thing, and gaining strength!
     
      I cannot tell how it is that I should be able to receive into my being a power to do and to bear by communion with God, but I know It is a fact.
     
      Are you in peril through some crushing, heavy trial? Seek this communion with Christ, and you will receive strength and be able to conquer. "I will strengthen thee."
     
      YESTERDAY'S GRIEF
     
      The rain that fell a-yesterday is ruby on the roses,
      Silver on the poplar leaf, and gold on willow stem;
      The grief that chanced a-yesterday is silence that incloses
      Holy loves when time and change shall never trouble them.
     
      The rain that fell a-yesterday makes all the hillsides glisten,
      Coral on the laurel and beryl on the grass;
      The grief that chanced a-yesterday has taught the soul to listen
      For whispers of eternity in all the winds that pass.
     
      O faint-of-heart, storm-beaten, this rain will gleam tomorrow,
      Flame within the columbine and jewels on the thorn,
      Heaven in the forget-me-not; though sorrow now be sorrow,
      Yet sorrow shall be, beauty in the magic of the morn.
      --Katherine Lee Bates