June 26.

June 26.“When He saw the multitudes He was moved”(Matt. ix. 36).He is able to be“touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”The word“touched”expresses a great deal. It means that our troubles are His troubles, and that in all our afflictions He is afflicted. It is not a sympathy of sentiment, but a sympathy of suffering.There is much help in this for the tired heart. It is the foundation of His Priesthood, and God meant that it should be to us a source of unceasing consolation. Let us realize, more fully, our oneness with our Great High Priest, and cast all our burdens on His great heart of love. If we know what it is to ache in every nerve with the responsive pain of our suffering child, we can form some idea of how our sorrows touch His heart, and thrill His exalted frame. As the mother feels her babe's pain, as the heart of friendship echoes every cry from another's woe, so in heaven, our exalted Saviour, even amid the raptures of that happy world, is suffering in His Spirit and even in His flesh with all His children bear.“Seeing then we have such a great high Priest, let us come boldly to the throne of grace,”and let us come to our great High Priest.[pg 184]June 27.“Be filled with the Spirit”(Eph. v. 18).Some of the effects of being filled with the Spirit are:1. Holiness of heart and life. This is not the perfection of the human nature, but the holiness of the divine nature dwelling within.2. Fulness of joy so that the heart is constantly radiant. This does not depend on circumstances, but fills the spirit with holy laughter in the midst of the most trying surroundings.3. Fulness of wisdom, light and knowledge, causing us to see things as He sees them.4. An elevation, improvement and quickening of the mind by an ability to receive the fulfilment of the promise,“We have the mind of Christ.”5. An equal quickening of the physical life. The body was made for the Holy Ghost, as well as the mind and soul.6. An ability to pray the prayer of the Holy Ghost. If He is in us there will be a strange accordance with God's working in the world around us. There is a divine harmony between the Spirit and Providence.[pg 185]June 28.“Leaning upon her beloved”(Songs of Solomon viii. 5).Shall you make the claim most practical and real and lean like John your full weight on the Lord's breast? That is the way He would have us prove our love.“If you love me lean hard,”said a heathen woman to her missionary, as she was timidly leaning her tired body upon her stalwart breast. She felt slighted by the timorous reserve, and asked the confidence that would lay all its weight upon the one she trusted. And He says to us,“Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you.”He would have us prove our love by a perfect trust that makes no reserve. He is able to carry all our care, to manage all our interests, to satisfy all our needs. Let us go forth leaning on His breast and feeding on His life. For John not only leaned but also fed. It was at supper that he leaned. This is the secret of feeding on Him, to rest upon His bosom. This is the need of the fevered heart of man. Let us cry to Him,“Tell me whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.”[pg 186]June 29.“He dwelleth with you and shall be in you”(John xiv. 17).Do not fail to mark these two stages in Christian life. The one is the Spirit's work in us, the other is the Spirit's personal coming to abide within us. All true Christians know the first, but few, it is to be feared, understand and receive the second. There is a great difference between my building a house and my going to reside in that house and make it my home. And there is a great difference between the Holy Spirit's work in regenerating a soul—the building of a house, and His coming to reside, abide and control in our innermost spirit and our whole life and being.Have we received Him Himself not as our Guest, but as the Owner, Proprietor and Keeper of the temple He has built to be“an habitation of God through the Spirit”?This is my wonderful story,Christ to my heart has come,Jesus the King of glory,Finds in my heart a home.I am so glad I received Him,Jesus, my heart's dear King,I, who so often have grieved Him,All to His feet would bring.[pg 187]June 30.“Therefore, choose”(Deut. xxx. 19).Men are choosing every day the spiritual or earthly. And as we choose we are taking our place unconsciously with the friends of Christ, or the world. It is not merely what ye say, it is what we prefer.When Solomon made his great choice at Gibeon, God said to him,“Because this was in thine heart to ask wisdom, therefore will I give it unto thee, and all else besides that thou didst not choose.”It was not merely that he said it because it was right to say, and would please God if he said it. But it was the thing his heart preferred, and God saw it in his heart and gave it to him with all besides that he had not chosen. What are we choosing, beloved? It is our choice that settles our destiny. It is not how we feel, but how we purpose. Have we chosen the good part? Have we said,“Whatever else I am or have, let me be God's child, let me have His favor and blessing, let me please Him?”Or have we said,“I must have this thing, and then I will see about religion.”Alas, God has seen what was in thine heart, and perhaps He has already said,“They have their reward.”[pg 188]July 1.“After that ye have suffered awhile”(I. Peter v. 10).Beloved, are we learning love in the school of suffering? Are our hearts being mellowed and deepened by the summer heat of trial until the fruit of the Spirit,“which is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance, faith, is ripening for the harvest of His coming, and our sufferings are easily borne for His sake”? Oh, this is the school of love, and makes Him unutterably more dear to our hearts and us to His. And thus only can we ever learn with Him the heavenly charity which“suffers long, and is kind.”We see the very first and the very last feature of the face of love, as delineated in St. Paul's portrait (I. Cor. xiii.), are marks of pain and patient suffering,“suffers long,”“endureth all things.”So let us learn thus in the school of love to suffer and be kind, to endure all things.Surely it will not be hard to love through all when it is the heart of Jesus within us which will love and continue to love to the very end.I want the love that suffers and is kind,That envies not nor vaunts its pride or fame,Is not puffed up, does no discourteous act,Is not provoked, nor seeks its own to claim.[pg 189]July 2.“And hath raised us up together”(Eph. ii. 6).Ascension is more than resurrection. Much is said of it in the New Testament. Christ riseth above all things. We see Him in the very act of ascending as we do not in the actual resurrection, as, with hands and lips engaged in blessing, He gently parts from their side, so simply, so unostentatiously, with so little imposing ceremony as to make heaven so near to our common life that we can just whisper through. And we, too, must ascend, even here.“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above.”We must learn to live on the heaven side and look at things from above. How it overcomes sin, defies Satan, dissolves perplexities, lifts us above trials, separates us from the world and conquers the fear of death to contemplate all things as God sees them, as Christ beholds them, as we shall one day look back upon them from His glory, and as if we were now really“Seated with Him,”as indeed we are,“in the heavenly places.”Let us arise with His resurrection and in fellowship with His glorious ascension learn henceforth to live above.[pg 190]July 3.“Look from the top”(Song of Solomon iv. 8).Yes, our perplexities would become plain if we kept on a spiritual elevation. How often when the traveler quite loses his way he can soon find it again from some tree top or some hill top where all the winding paths he has gone spread behind him, and the whole homeward road opens before. So, from the heights of prayer and faith, we too can see the plain path, and know that we are going home.There is no other way in which we can gain the victory over the world. We must get above it. We must see it from the side of our great reward. Then it looks like earthly objects after we have gazed upon the sun for a while. We are blind to them. When the Italian fruit-seller finds that he is heir to a ducal palace you cannot tempt him any more with the paltry profits of his trade or the company of his old associates. He is above it all. They who know the hope of their calling and the riches of the glory of their inheritance can well despise the world. It is the poor starving ones who go hungering for the husks of earth. We are born from above and have a longing to go home. Let us go forth to-day with our hearts on the homestretch.[pg 191]July 4.“Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not”(I. John iii. 6).In sanctification what becomes of the old nature? Many people are somewhat unduly concerned to know if it can be killed outright, and seem to desire a sort of certificate of its death and burial. It is enough to know that it is without and Christ is within. It may show itself again, and even knock at the door and plead for admittance, but it is forever outside while we abide in Him. Should we step out of Him and into sin we might find the old corpse in the ghastly cemetery, and its foul aroma might yet revive and embrace us once more. But he that abideth in Him sinneth not and cannot sin while he so abides.Therefore let us abide and let us not be anxious to escape the hold of eternal vigilance and ceaseless abiding. Our paths are made and the strength to pursue them; let us walk in them. God has provided for us a full sanctification. Is it strange that He should demand it of us, and require us to be holy, even as He is holy, seeing He has given us His own holiness. So let us put on our beautiful garments and prepare to walk in white with Him.[pg 192]July 5.“A garden enclosed”(Song of Solomon iv. 12).The figure here is a garden enclosed, not a wilderness. The garden soil is a cultivated soil, very different from the roadside or the wilderness. The idea of a garden is culture. The ground has to be prepared, to be broken up by ploughing, to be mellowed by harrowing, all the stones removed, the roots of all natural growth dug up, for the good things we are seeking are not natural growths and will not grow in our soil. We all start on the old basis and try to improve the old nature, but that is not God's way. His way is to get self out of the way entirely, and let Him create anew out of nothing, so that all shall be of Him; and we must find Jesus the Alpha and Omega.The thing you want to learn here is to die. There can be no real life till self dies, and don't try to die yourself, but ask God to slay you, and He will make a thorough work of it.This the secret nature hideth,Summer dies and lives again,Spring from winter's grave ariseth,Harvest grows from buried grain.[pg 193]July 6.“I am my beloved's”(Song of Solomon vii. 10).If you want power you must compress. It is the shutting in of the steam that moves the engine. The amount of powder on a flat surface that sends a ball to its destination when shut up in a gun only makes a flash. If you want to carry the electric current you must be insulated. Stand a man on a glass platform and turn a battery on him and he will be filled with electricity. Let him step off the glass, and the moment he touches earth he loses power.We must be inclosed by His everlasting Covenant. That holds us and keeps us from falling. He will be a wall of fire round about us. He comes Himself and envelops us round about with the old Shekinah glory, and will be the glory in the midst. He wants us inclosed—by a distinct act of consecration dedicated wholly to Him. Are you inclosed by His fences, His commandments, His promises, His covenant? Is your heart really and only for the Lord?If not, come to Him now and let Him separate you from all the things that take your life, and let Him separate you unto Himself, the Life Giver.[pg 194]July 7.“And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle”(Ex. xl. 35).In the last chapter of Exodus we read all the Lord commanded Moses to do, and that as he fulfilled these commands the glory of the Lord descended and filled the tabernacle till there was no room for Moses, and from that time the pillar of cloud overshadowed them, their guide, their protection. And so we have been building as the Lord Himself commanded, and now the temple is to be handed over to Him to be possessed and filled. He will so fill you, if you will let Him that yourself and everything else will be taken out of the way, the glory of the Lord will fill the temple, encompassing, lifting up, guiding, keeping; and from this time your moon shall not withdraw its light, nor your sun go down.Do you want power? You have God for it. Do you want holiness? You have God for it; and so of everything. And God is bending down from His throne to-day to lift you up to your true place in Him. From this time may the cloud of His glory so surround and fill us that we shall be lost sight of forever.[pg 195]July 8.“Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh”(Gal. iii. 3).Grace literally means that which we do not have to earn. It has two great senses always; it comes for nothing and it comes when we are helpless; it doesn't merely help the man that helps himself—that is not the Gospel; the Gospel is that God helps the man who can't help himself. And then there is another thing; God helps the man to help himself, for everything the man does comes from God. Grace is given to the man who is so weak and helpless he cannot take the first step. That is the meaning of grace—a little of the meaning of it; we can never know the fulness it has. Now, this river is as free as it is full, but you know some people have an idea when they get a little farther on they have got to pay an admission, and reserved seats are very high, and they shrink back from the higher blessings of the Gospel; ordinary Christians scarcely dare to claim them. If I understand the meaning of this, God has not put the higher blessings apart for a separate class who somehow are nearer to Him. God is no respecter of persons.[pg 196]July 9.“Cast thy burden on the Lord”(Ps. lv. 22).Dear friends, sometimes we bring a burden to God, and we have such a groaning over it, and we seem to think God has a dreadful time, too, but in reality it does not burden Him at all. God says: It is a light thing for Me to do this for you. Your load, though heavy for you, is not heavy for Him. Christ carries the whole on one shoulder, not two shoulders. The government of the world is upon His shoulder. He is not struggling and groaning with it. His mighty arm is able to carry all your burdens. There is power in Christ for our sanctification. He is able to sanctify you. Yes, yes, the Lord can sanctify, the Lord can heal, the Lord can do anything. You must have faith in God. If you come to this river this morning, it will take you as your Niagara would take a little boat, and just bear you down—to a precipice? Oh, no, but to the bosom of love and blessing forever.Oft there comes a wondrous message,When my hopes are growing dim,I can hear it thro' the darknessLike some sweet and far-off hymn.Nothing is too hard for Jesus,No man can work like Him.[pg 197]July 10.“That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God”(I. Cor. ii. 12).The highest blessings of the Gospel are just as free as the lowest; and when you have served Him ten years you cannot sit down and say,“I have got an experience now and I count on that.”How often we do that; we say,“Now I know I am saved, I feel it.”And so we are building a different foundation—we are building on something in ourselves. Always take grace as something you don't deserve, something that is freely bestowed. The long, deep, boundless river is free; it is as free at the mouth as it is at the little stream, and free all the way along, and anybody can come and drink, and anybody can come and bathe in its boundless waters. Are you going to believe it?God has given us His Holy Spirit that we may“know the things that are freely given of us of God.”It is a hard thing for the poor child to look in through the window and see a fire, and the happy family sitting around the table when it is starving. What is the good of knowing that there is warmth, and love, and light, if it is not free? God has freely given all the goodness of His grace and love.[pg 198]July 11.“For it is God which worketh in you”(Phil. ii. 13).A day with Jesus. Let us seek its plan and direction from Him. Let us take His highest thought and will for us in it. Let us look to Him for our desires, ideals, expectations in it. Then shall it bring to us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Let Him be our Guide and Way. Let us not so much be thinking even of His plan and way as of Him as the Personal Guide of every moment, on whom we constantly depend to lead our every step.Let Him also be the sufficiency and strength of all the day. Let us never forget the secret:“I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”Let us have Jesus Christ Himself in us to do the works, and let us every moment fall back on Him, both to will and do in us of His good pleasure. Let our holiness be“the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”Let our health be the“life of Jesus manifest in our mortal flesh.”Let our faith be“the faith of the Son of God who loved us.”Let our peace and joy be His peace and joy. And let our service be not our works, but the grace of Christ within us.[pg 199]July 12.“When ye pray, believe that ye receive”(Mark xi. 24).Consecration is entered by an act of faith. You are to take the gift from God, believe you have, and confess that you have it. Step out on it firmly, and let the devil know you have it as well as the Lord. When once you say to Him boldly,“I am Thine,”He answers back from the heavenly heights,“Thou art Mine,”and the echoes go ringing down through all your life,“Mine! Thine!”If you dare confess Christ as your Saviour and Sanctifier He has bound Himself to make it a reality, but you must stand behind His mighty Word. It is the essence of testimony to tell of what Jesus has promised to become to you. It is right to have glorious words of thanksgiving, but these are not exactly testimony. God would have us put our seal on the promises, and lift up our hands and acknowledge them as ours.Then you are to ignore the old life and reckon it no longer yours if it should come up again. Every time it appears say,“This is from the under world. I am sitting in the heavenly places with Christ.”[pg 200]July 13.“Even Christ pleased not Himself”(Rom. xv. 3).Let this be a day of self-forgetting ministry for Christ and others. Let us not once think of being ministered unto, but say ever with Him:“I am among you as He that doth serve.”Let us not drag our burdens through the day, but drop all our loads of care and be free to carry His yoke and His burden. Let us make the happy exchange, giving ours and taking His. Let the covenant be:“Thou shalt abide for Me, I also for thee.”So shall we lose our heaviest load—ourselves—and so shall we find our highest joy, divine love, the more blessed“to give”than“to receive.”Let us do good to all men as we have opportunity. Let us lose no opportunity of blessing, and let us study ingenious ways of service and usefulness. Especially let us seek to win souls.The Days of Heaven are busy days,They serve continually,So spent for Thee and Thine, our days,As the Days of Heaven would be.The Days of Heaven are loving days,As one they all agree,So linked in loving unityMay our days as Heaven be.[pg 201]July 14.“Men ought always to pray”(Luke xviii. 1).Let this be a day of prayer. Let us see that our highest ministry and power is to deal with God for men. Let us be obedient to all the Holy Spirit's voices of prayer in us. Let us count every pressure a call to prayer. Let us cherish the spirit of unceasing prayer and abiding communion. Let us learn the meaning of the ministry of prayer. Let us reach persons this day we cannot reach in person; let us expect results that we have never dared to claim before; let us count every difficulty only a greater occasion for prayer, and let us call on God, who will show us many great and mighty things which we know not.And let it be a day of joy and praise. Let us live in the promises of God and the outlook of His deliverance and blessing. Let us never dwell on the trial but always on the victory just before. Let us not dwell in the tomb, but in the garden of Joseph and the light of the resurrection. Let us keep our faces toward the sun rising. Arise, shine. Rejoice evermore. In everything give thanks. Praise ye the Lord.Lord, give us Thy joy in our hearts which shall lift us to lift others, and fill us so we may overflow to others.[pg 202]July 15.“I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine”(Song of Solomon vi. 3).If I am the Lord's then the Lord is mine. If Christ owns me I own Him. And so faith must reach out and claim its full inheritance and begin to use its great resources. Moment by moment we may now take Him as our grace and strength, our faith and love, our victory and joy, our all in all. And as we thus claim Him we will find His grace sufficient for us, and begin to learn that giving all is just receiving all. Yes, consecration is getting Him fully instead of our own miserable life. There are, indeed, two sides of it. There are two persons in the consecration. One of them is the dear Lord Himself.“And for their sakes,”He says,“I consecrate Myself that they also might be consecrated through the truth.”The moment we consecrate ourselves to Him He consecrates Himself to us, and henceforth, the whole strength of His life and love and everlasting power is dedicated to keep and complete our consecration, and to make the very best and most of our consecrated life. Who would not give himself to such a Saviour? Surely we will to-day, first give ourselves and then give Him each moment as it comes, to be filled and used.[pg 203]July 16.“As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God”(Ps. xlii. 1).First in order to a consecrated life there must be a sense of need, the need of purity, of power, and of a greater nearness to the Lord. There often comes in Christian life a second conviction. It is not now a sense of guilt and God's wrath so much as of the power and evil of inward sin, and the unsatisfactoriness of the life the soul is living. It usually comes from the deeper revelation of God's truth, from more spiritual teaching, from definite examples and testimonies of this life in others, and often from an experience of deep trial, conflict and temptation in which the soul has found its attainments and resources inadequate for the real issues and needs of life. The first result is often a deep discouragement and even despair, but the valley of Achor is the door of hope, and the seventh chapter of Romans with its bitter cry,“O wretched man that I am,”is the gateway to the eighth with its shout of triumph,“The Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”[pg 204]July 17.“By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified”(Heb. x. 14).Are you missing what belongs to you? He has promised to sanctify you. He has promised sanctification for you by coming to you Himself and being made of God to you sanctification. Jesus is my sanctification. Having Him I have obedience, rest, patience and everything I need. He is alive forevermore. If you have Him nothing can be against you. Your temptations will not be against you; your bad temper will not be against you; your hard life, your circumstances, even the devil himself will not be against you. Every time he comes to attack you, he will only root you deeper in Christ. You will become a coward at the thought of being alone; you will be thrown on Jesus every time a trouble assails you. All things henceforth will work together for good to your own soul. Since God is for you nothing can be against you.My heavenly Bridegroom sought me and called me one glad day,“Arise, my love, my fair one, arise and come away,”I listened to His pleading, I gave Him all my heart,And we are one forever and nevermore shall part.[pg 205]July 18.“Ye are complete in Him”(Col. ii. 10).In Him we are now complete. The perfect pattern of the life of holy service for which He has redeemed and called us, is now in Him in heaven, even as the architect's model is planned and prepared and completed in his office. But now it must be wrought into us and transferred to our earthly life, and this is the Holy Spirit's work. He takes the gifts and graces of Christ and brings them into our life, as we need and receive them day by day, just as the sections of the vessel are reproduced in the distant Continent, and thus we receive of His fulness, even grace for grace, His grace for our grace, His supply for our need, His strength for our strength, His body for our body, His Spirit for our spirit, and He just“made unto us of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.”But it is much more than mere abstract help and grace, much more even than the Holy Spirit bringing us strength, and peace, and purity. It is personal companionship with Jesus Himself!Lord, help us receive from Thee to-day, that grace in all trial that shall mean our perfecting in Thee.[pg 206]July 19.“Nevertheless, David took the castle of Zion”(I. Chron. xi. 5).Many of you have so much fighting to do because you do not have one sharp, decisive battle to begin with. It is far easier to have one great battle than to keep on skirmishing all your life. I know men who spend forty years fighting what they call their besetting sin, and on which they waste strength enough to evangelize the world.Dear friends, does it pay to throw away your lives? Have one battle, one victory and then praise God. So they had rest from their enemies round about. There is labor to enter in. The height is steep. The way of the cross is not an easy way. It is hard to enter in, but having entered in there is perfect rest. May God help us and give us His perfect rest.O come and leave thy sinful self foreverBeneath the fountain of the Saviour's blood;O come, and take Him as thy Sanctifier,Come thou with us and we will do thee good.Come to the land where all the foes are vanquished,And sorrow, sin, disease and death subdued;O weary soul! by Satan bruised and baffled,Come thou with us and we will do thee good.[pg 207]July 20.“Forget also thine own”(Ps. xlv. 10).We, too, like the ancient Levites, must be“consecrated every one upon our son and upon our brother,”and“forget our kindred and our father's house”in every sense in which they could hinder our full liberty and service for the Lord. We, too, must let our business go if it stands between us and the Lord, and in any case let it henceforth be His business and His alone, pursued for Him, controlled by Him, and its profits wholly dedicated to Him, and used as He shall direct. And, like James and John, you must be willing to give up“the hired servants”too. It will make a great difference in your way of living. It will be a change to give up your ease and luxury, your being waited upon and indulged in every wish, and have to do your own work, to give up the attentions of others, to put with privations, and inconveniences, and humiliations, but it will be easy to do it with Him. He never owned a foot of land. He never rode in a carriage. He never had a hired servant. He lay down at last in a borrowed grave. But He is rich enough now, and so will you be some day if you can only be willing to suffer and to wait.[pg 208]

“When He saw the multitudes He was moved”(Matt. ix. 36).

He is able to be“touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”The word“touched”expresses a great deal. It means that our troubles are His troubles, and that in all our afflictions He is afflicted. It is not a sympathy of sentiment, but a sympathy of suffering.

There is much help in this for the tired heart. It is the foundation of His Priesthood, and God meant that it should be to us a source of unceasing consolation. Let us realize, more fully, our oneness with our Great High Priest, and cast all our burdens on His great heart of love. If we know what it is to ache in every nerve with the responsive pain of our suffering child, we can form some idea of how our sorrows touch His heart, and thrill His exalted frame. As the mother feels her babe's pain, as the heart of friendship echoes every cry from another's woe, so in heaven, our exalted Saviour, even amid the raptures of that happy world, is suffering in His Spirit and even in His flesh with all His children bear.“Seeing then we have such a great high Priest, let us come boldly to the throne of grace,”and let us come to our great High Priest.

June 27.“Be filled with the Spirit”(Eph. v. 18).Some of the effects of being filled with the Spirit are:1. Holiness of heart and life. This is not the perfection of the human nature, but the holiness of the divine nature dwelling within.2. Fulness of joy so that the heart is constantly radiant. This does not depend on circumstances, but fills the spirit with holy laughter in the midst of the most trying surroundings.3. Fulness of wisdom, light and knowledge, causing us to see things as He sees them.4. An elevation, improvement and quickening of the mind by an ability to receive the fulfilment of the promise,“We have the mind of Christ.”5. An equal quickening of the physical life. The body was made for the Holy Ghost, as well as the mind and soul.6. An ability to pray the prayer of the Holy Ghost. If He is in us there will be a strange accordance with God's working in the world around us. There is a divine harmony between the Spirit and Providence.

“Be filled with the Spirit”(Eph. v. 18).

Some of the effects of being filled with the Spirit are:

1. Holiness of heart and life. This is not the perfection of the human nature, but the holiness of the divine nature dwelling within.

2. Fulness of joy so that the heart is constantly radiant. This does not depend on circumstances, but fills the spirit with holy laughter in the midst of the most trying surroundings.

3. Fulness of wisdom, light and knowledge, causing us to see things as He sees them.

4. An elevation, improvement and quickening of the mind by an ability to receive the fulfilment of the promise,“We have the mind of Christ.”

5. An equal quickening of the physical life. The body was made for the Holy Ghost, as well as the mind and soul.

6. An ability to pray the prayer of the Holy Ghost. If He is in us there will be a strange accordance with God's working in the world around us. There is a divine harmony between the Spirit and Providence.

June 28.“Leaning upon her beloved”(Songs of Solomon viii. 5).Shall you make the claim most practical and real and lean like John your full weight on the Lord's breast? That is the way He would have us prove our love.“If you love me lean hard,”said a heathen woman to her missionary, as she was timidly leaning her tired body upon her stalwart breast. She felt slighted by the timorous reserve, and asked the confidence that would lay all its weight upon the one she trusted. And He says to us,“Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you.”He would have us prove our love by a perfect trust that makes no reserve. He is able to carry all our care, to manage all our interests, to satisfy all our needs. Let us go forth leaning on His breast and feeding on His life. For John not only leaned but also fed. It was at supper that he leaned. This is the secret of feeding on Him, to rest upon His bosom. This is the need of the fevered heart of man. Let us cry to Him,“Tell me whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.”

“Leaning upon her beloved”(Songs of Solomon viii. 5).

Shall you make the claim most practical and real and lean like John your full weight on the Lord's breast? That is the way He would have us prove our love.“If you love me lean hard,”said a heathen woman to her missionary, as she was timidly leaning her tired body upon her stalwart breast. She felt slighted by the timorous reserve, and asked the confidence that would lay all its weight upon the one she trusted. And He says to us,“Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you.”He would have us prove our love by a perfect trust that makes no reserve. He is able to carry all our care, to manage all our interests, to satisfy all our needs. Let us go forth leaning on His breast and feeding on His life. For John not only leaned but also fed. It was at supper that he leaned. This is the secret of feeding on Him, to rest upon His bosom. This is the need of the fevered heart of man. Let us cry to Him,“Tell me whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.”

June 29.“He dwelleth with you and shall be in you”(John xiv. 17).Do not fail to mark these two stages in Christian life. The one is the Spirit's work in us, the other is the Spirit's personal coming to abide within us. All true Christians know the first, but few, it is to be feared, understand and receive the second. There is a great difference between my building a house and my going to reside in that house and make it my home. And there is a great difference between the Holy Spirit's work in regenerating a soul—the building of a house, and His coming to reside, abide and control in our innermost spirit and our whole life and being.Have we received Him Himself not as our Guest, but as the Owner, Proprietor and Keeper of the temple He has built to be“an habitation of God through the Spirit”?This is my wonderful story,Christ to my heart has come,Jesus the King of glory,Finds in my heart a home.I am so glad I received Him,Jesus, my heart's dear King,I, who so often have grieved Him,All to His feet would bring.

“He dwelleth with you and shall be in you”(John xiv. 17).

Do not fail to mark these two stages in Christian life. The one is the Spirit's work in us, the other is the Spirit's personal coming to abide within us. All true Christians know the first, but few, it is to be feared, understand and receive the second. There is a great difference between my building a house and my going to reside in that house and make it my home. And there is a great difference between the Holy Spirit's work in regenerating a soul—the building of a house, and His coming to reside, abide and control in our innermost spirit and our whole life and being.

Have we received Him Himself not as our Guest, but as the Owner, Proprietor and Keeper of the temple He has built to be“an habitation of God through the Spirit”?

This is my wonderful story,Christ to my heart has come,Jesus the King of glory,Finds in my heart a home.

This is my wonderful story,

Christ to my heart has come,

Jesus the King of glory,

Finds in my heart a home.

I am so glad I received Him,Jesus, my heart's dear King,I, who so often have grieved Him,All to His feet would bring.

I am so glad I received Him,

Jesus, my heart's dear King,

I, who so often have grieved Him,

All to His feet would bring.

June 30.“Therefore, choose”(Deut. xxx. 19).Men are choosing every day the spiritual or earthly. And as we choose we are taking our place unconsciously with the friends of Christ, or the world. It is not merely what ye say, it is what we prefer.When Solomon made his great choice at Gibeon, God said to him,“Because this was in thine heart to ask wisdom, therefore will I give it unto thee, and all else besides that thou didst not choose.”It was not merely that he said it because it was right to say, and would please God if he said it. But it was the thing his heart preferred, and God saw it in his heart and gave it to him with all besides that he had not chosen. What are we choosing, beloved? It is our choice that settles our destiny. It is not how we feel, but how we purpose. Have we chosen the good part? Have we said,“Whatever else I am or have, let me be God's child, let me have His favor and blessing, let me please Him?”Or have we said,“I must have this thing, and then I will see about religion.”Alas, God has seen what was in thine heart, and perhaps He has already said,“They have their reward.”

“Therefore, choose”(Deut. xxx. 19).

Men are choosing every day the spiritual or earthly. And as we choose we are taking our place unconsciously with the friends of Christ, or the world. It is not merely what ye say, it is what we prefer.

When Solomon made his great choice at Gibeon, God said to him,“Because this was in thine heart to ask wisdom, therefore will I give it unto thee, and all else besides that thou didst not choose.”It was not merely that he said it because it was right to say, and would please God if he said it. But it was the thing his heart preferred, and God saw it in his heart and gave it to him with all besides that he had not chosen. What are we choosing, beloved? It is our choice that settles our destiny. It is not how we feel, but how we purpose. Have we chosen the good part? Have we said,“Whatever else I am or have, let me be God's child, let me have His favor and blessing, let me please Him?”Or have we said,“I must have this thing, and then I will see about religion.”Alas, God has seen what was in thine heart, and perhaps He has already said,“They have their reward.”

July 1.“After that ye have suffered awhile”(I. Peter v. 10).Beloved, are we learning love in the school of suffering? Are our hearts being mellowed and deepened by the summer heat of trial until the fruit of the Spirit,“which is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance, faith, is ripening for the harvest of His coming, and our sufferings are easily borne for His sake”? Oh, this is the school of love, and makes Him unutterably more dear to our hearts and us to His. And thus only can we ever learn with Him the heavenly charity which“suffers long, and is kind.”We see the very first and the very last feature of the face of love, as delineated in St. Paul's portrait (I. Cor. xiii.), are marks of pain and patient suffering,“suffers long,”“endureth all things.”So let us learn thus in the school of love to suffer and be kind, to endure all things.Surely it will not be hard to love through all when it is the heart of Jesus within us which will love and continue to love to the very end.I want the love that suffers and is kind,That envies not nor vaunts its pride or fame,Is not puffed up, does no discourteous act,Is not provoked, nor seeks its own to claim.

“After that ye have suffered awhile”(I. Peter v. 10).

Beloved, are we learning love in the school of suffering? Are our hearts being mellowed and deepened by the summer heat of trial until the fruit of the Spirit,“which is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance, faith, is ripening for the harvest of His coming, and our sufferings are easily borne for His sake”? Oh, this is the school of love, and makes Him unutterably more dear to our hearts and us to His. And thus only can we ever learn with Him the heavenly charity which“suffers long, and is kind.”

We see the very first and the very last feature of the face of love, as delineated in St. Paul's portrait (I. Cor. xiii.), are marks of pain and patient suffering,“suffers long,”“endureth all things.”So let us learn thus in the school of love to suffer and be kind, to endure all things.

Surely it will not be hard to love through all when it is the heart of Jesus within us which will love and continue to love to the very end.

I want the love that suffers and is kind,That envies not nor vaunts its pride or fame,Is not puffed up, does no discourteous act,Is not provoked, nor seeks its own to claim.

I want the love that suffers and is kind,

That envies not nor vaunts its pride or fame,

Is not puffed up, does no discourteous act,

Is not provoked, nor seeks its own to claim.

July 2.“And hath raised us up together”(Eph. ii. 6).Ascension is more than resurrection. Much is said of it in the New Testament. Christ riseth above all things. We see Him in the very act of ascending as we do not in the actual resurrection, as, with hands and lips engaged in blessing, He gently parts from their side, so simply, so unostentatiously, with so little imposing ceremony as to make heaven so near to our common life that we can just whisper through. And we, too, must ascend, even here.“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above.”We must learn to live on the heaven side and look at things from above. How it overcomes sin, defies Satan, dissolves perplexities, lifts us above trials, separates us from the world and conquers the fear of death to contemplate all things as God sees them, as Christ beholds them, as we shall one day look back upon them from His glory, and as if we were now really“Seated with Him,”as indeed we are,“in the heavenly places.”Let us arise with His resurrection and in fellowship with His glorious ascension learn henceforth to live above.

“And hath raised us up together”(Eph. ii. 6).

Ascension is more than resurrection. Much is said of it in the New Testament. Christ riseth above all things. We see Him in the very act of ascending as we do not in the actual resurrection, as, with hands and lips engaged in blessing, He gently parts from their side, so simply, so unostentatiously, with so little imposing ceremony as to make heaven so near to our common life that we can just whisper through. And we, too, must ascend, even here.“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above.”We must learn to live on the heaven side and look at things from above. How it overcomes sin, defies Satan, dissolves perplexities, lifts us above trials, separates us from the world and conquers the fear of death to contemplate all things as God sees them, as Christ beholds them, as we shall one day look back upon them from His glory, and as if we were now really“Seated with Him,”as indeed we are,“in the heavenly places.”Let us arise with His resurrection and in fellowship with His glorious ascension learn henceforth to live above.

July 3.“Look from the top”(Song of Solomon iv. 8).Yes, our perplexities would become plain if we kept on a spiritual elevation. How often when the traveler quite loses his way he can soon find it again from some tree top or some hill top where all the winding paths he has gone spread behind him, and the whole homeward road opens before. So, from the heights of prayer and faith, we too can see the plain path, and know that we are going home.There is no other way in which we can gain the victory over the world. We must get above it. We must see it from the side of our great reward. Then it looks like earthly objects after we have gazed upon the sun for a while. We are blind to them. When the Italian fruit-seller finds that he is heir to a ducal palace you cannot tempt him any more with the paltry profits of his trade or the company of his old associates. He is above it all. They who know the hope of their calling and the riches of the glory of their inheritance can well despise the world. It is the poor starving ones who go hungering for the husks of earth. We are born from above and have a longing to go home. Let us go forth to-day with our hearts on the homestretch.

“Look from the top”(Song of Solomon iv. 8).

Yes, our perplexities would become plain if we kept on a spiritual elevation. How often when the traveler quite loses his way he can soon find it again from some tree top or some hill top where all the winding paths he has gone spread behind him, and the whole homeward road opens before. So, from the heights of prayer and faith, we too can see the plain path, and know that we are going home.

There is no other way in which we can gain the victory over the world. We must get above it. We must see it from the side of our great reward. Then it looks like earthly objects after we have gazed upon the sun for a while. We are blind to them. When the Italian fruit-seller finds that he is heir to a ducal palace you cannot tempt him any more with the paltry profits of his trade or the company of his old associates. He is above it all. They who know the hope of their calling and the riches of the glory of their inheritance can well despise the world. It is the poor starving ones who go hungering for the husks of earth. We are born from above and have a longing to go home. Let us go forth to-day with our hearts on the homestretch.

July 4.“Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not”(I. John iii. 6).In sanctification what becomes of the old nature? Many people are somewhat unduly concerned to know if it can be killed outright, and seem to desire a sort of certificate of its death and burial. It is enough to know that it is without and Christ is within. It may show itself again, and even knock at the door and plead for admittance, but it is forever outside while we abide in Him. Should we step out of Him and into sin we might find the old corpse in the ghastly cemetery, and its foul aroma might yet revive and embrace us once more. But he that abideth in Him sinneth not and cannot sin while he so abides.Therefore let us abide and let us not be anxious to escape the hold of eternal vigilance and ceaseless abiding. Our paths are made and the strength to pursue them; let us walk in them. God has provided for us a full sanctification. Is it strange that He should demand it of us, and require us to be holy, even as He is holy, seeing He has given us His own holiness. So let us put on our beautiful garments and prepare to walk in white with Him.

“Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not”(I. John iii. 6).

In sanctification what becomes of the old nature? Many people are somewhat unduly concerned to know if it can be killed outright, and seem to desire a sort of certificate of its death and burial. It is enough to know that it is without and Christ is within. It may show itself again, and even knock at the door and plead for admittance, but it is forever outside while we abide in Him. Should we step out of Him and into sin we might find the old corpse in the ghastly cemetery, and its foul aroma might yet revive and embrace us once more. But he that abideth in Him sinneth not and cannot sin while he so abides.

Therefore let us abide and let us not be anxious to escape the hold of eternal vigilance and ceaseless abiding. Our paths are made and the strength to pursue them; let us walk in them. God has provided for us a full sanctification. Is it strange that He should demand it of us, and require us to be holy, even as He is holy, seeing He has given us His own holiness. So let us put on our beautiful garments and prepare to walk in white with Him.

July 5.“A garden enclosed”(Song of Solomon iv. 12).The figure here is a garden enclosed, not a wilderness. The garden soil is a cultivated soil, very different from the roadside or the wilderness. The idea of a garden is culture. The ground has to be prepared, to be broken up by ploughing, to be mellowed by harrowing, all the stones removed, the roots of all natural growth dug up, for the good things we are seeking are not natural growths and will not grow in our soil. We all start on the old basis and try to improve the old nature, but that is not God's way. His way is to get self out of the way entirely, and let Him create anew out of nothing, so that all shall be of Him; and we must find Jesus the Alpha and Omega.The thing you want to learn here is to die. There can be no real life till self dies, and don't try to die yourself, but ask God to slay you, and He will make a thorough work of it.This the secret nature hideth,Summer dies and lives again,Spring from winter's grave ariseth,Harvest grows from buried grain.

“A garden enclosed”(Song of Solomon iv. 12).

The figure here is a garden enclosed, not a wilderness. The garden soil is a cultivated soil, very different from the roadside or the wilderness. The idea of a garden is culture. The ground has to be prepared, to be broken up by ploughing, to be mellowed by harrowing, all the stones removed, the roots of all natural growth dug up, for the good things we are seeking are not natural growths and will not grow in our soil. We all start on the old basis and try to improve the old nature, but that is not God's way. His way is to get self out of the way entirely, and let Him create anew out of nothing, so that all shall be of Him; and we must find Jesus the Alpha and Omega.

The thing you want to learn here is to die. There can be no real life till self dies, and don't try to die yourself, but ask God to slay you, and He will make a thorough work of it.

This the secret nature hideth,Summer dies and lives again,Spring from winter's grave ariseth,Harvest grows from buried grain.

This the secret nature hideth,

Summer dies and lives again,

Spring from winter's grave ariseth,

Harvest grows from buried grain.

July 6.“I am my beloved's”(Song of Solomon vii. 10).If you want power you must compress. It is the shutting in of the steam that moves the engine. The amount of powder on a flat surface that sends a ball to its destination when shut up in a gun only makes a flash. If you want to carry the electric current you must be insulated. Stand a man on a glass platform and turn a battery on him and he will be filled with electricity. Let him step off the glass, and the moment he touches earth he loses power.We must be inclosed by His everlasting Covenant. That holds us and keeps us from falling. He will be a wall of fire round about us. He comes Himself and envelops us round about with the old Shekinah glory, and will be the glory in the midst. He wants us inclosed—by a distinct act of consecration dedicated wholly to Him. Are you inclosed by His fences, His commandments, His promises, His covenant? Is your heart really and only for the Lord?If not, come to Him now and let Him separate you from all the things that take your life, and let Him separate you unto Himself, the Life Giver.

“I am my beloved's”(Song of Solomon vii. 10).

If you want power you must compress. It is the shutting in of the steam that moves the engine. The amount of powder on a flat surface that sends a ball to its destination when shut up in a gun only makes a flash. If you want to carry the electric current you must be insulated. Stand a man on a glass platform and turn a battery on him and he will be filled with electricity. Let him step off the glass, and the moment he touches earth he loses power.

We must be inclosed by His everlasting Covenant. That holds us and keeps us from falling. He will be a wall of fire round about us. He comes Himself and envelops us round about with the old Shekinah glory, and will be the glory in the midst. He wants us inclosed—by a distinct act of consecration dedicated wholly to Him. Are you inclosed by His fences, His commandments, His promises, His covenant? Is your heart really and only for the Lord?

If not, come to Him now and let Him separate you from all the things that take your life, and let Him separate you unto Himself, the Life Giver.

July 7.“And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle”(Ex. xl. 35).In the last chapter of Exodus we read all the Lord commanded Moses to do, and that as he fulfilled these commands the glory of the Lord descended and filled the tabernacle till there was no room for Moses, and from that time the pillar of cloud overshadowed them, their guide, their protection. And so we have been building as the Lord Himself commanded, and now the temple is to be handed over to Him to be possessed and filled. He will so fill you, if you will let Him that yourself and everything else will be taken out of the way, the glory of the Lord will fill the temple, encompassing, lifting up, guiding, keeping; and from this time your moon shall not withdraw its light, nor your sun go down.Do you want power? You have God for it. Do you want holiness? You have God for it; and so of everything. And God is bending down from His throne to-day to lift you up to your true place in Him. From this time may the cloud of His glory so surround and fill us that we shall be lost sight of forever.

“And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle”(Ex. xl. 35).

In the last chapter of Exodus we read all the Lord commanded Moses to do, and that as he fulfilled these commands the glory of the Lord descended and filled the tabernacle till there was no room for Moses, and from that time the pillar of cloud overshadowed them, their guide, their protection. And so we have been building as the Lord Himself commanded, and now the temple is to be handed over to Him to be possessed and filled. He will so fill you, if you will let Him that yourself and everything else will be taken out of the way, the glory of the Lord will fill the temple, encompassing, lifting up, guiding, keeping; and from this time your moon shall not withdraw its light, nor your sun go down.

Do you want power? You have God for it. Do you want holiness? You have God for it; and so of everything. And God is bending down from His throne to-day to lift you up to your true place in Him. From this time may the cloud of His glory so surround and fill us that we shall be lost sight of forever.

July 8.“Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh”(Gal. iii. 3).Grace literally means that which we do not have to earn. It has two great senses always; it comes for nothing and it comes when we are helpless; it doesn't merely help the man that helps himself—that is not the Gospel; the Gospel is that God helps the man who can't help himself. And then there is another thing; God helps the man to help himself, for everything the man does comes from God. Grace is given to the man who is so weak and helpless he cannot take the first step. That is the meaning of grace—a little of the meaning of it; we can never know the fulness it has. Now, this river is as free as it is full, but you know some people have an idea when they get a little farther on they have got to pay an admission, and reserved seats are very high, and they shrink back from the higher blessings of the Gospel; ordinary Christians scarcely dare to claim them. If I understand the meaning of this, God has not put the higher blessings apart for a separate class who somehow are nearer to Him. God is no respecter of persons.

“Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh”(Gal. iii. 3).

Grace literally means that which we do not have to earn. It has two great senses always; it comes for nothing and it comes when we are helpless; it doesn't merely help the man that helps himself—that is not the Gospel; the Gospel is that God helps the man who can't help himself. And then there is another thing; God helps the man to help himself, for everything the man does comes from God. Grace is given to the man who is so weak and helpless he cannot take the first step. That is the meaning of grace—a little of the meaning of it; we can never know the fulness it has. Now, this river is as free as it is full, but you know some people have an idea when they get a little farther on they have got to pay an admission, and reserved seats are very high, and they shrink back from the higher blessings of the Gospel; ordinary Christians scarcely dare to claim them. If I understand the meaning of this, God has not put the higher blessings apart for a separate class who somehow are nearer to Him. God is no respecter of persons.

July 9.“Cast thy burden on the Lord”(Ps. lv. 22).Dear friends, sometimes we bring a burden to God, and we have such a groaning over it, and we seem to think God has a dreadful time, too, but in reality it does not burden Him at all. God says: It is a light thing for Me to do this for you. Your load, though heavy for you, is not heavy for Him. Christ carries the whole on one shoulder, not two shoulders. The government of the world is upon His shoulder. He is not struggling and groaning with it. His mighty arm is able to carry all your burdens. There is power in Christ for our sanctification. He is able to sanctify you. Yes, yes, the Lord can sanctify, the Lord can heal, the Lord can do anything. You must have faith in God. If you come to this river this morning, it will take you as your Niagara would take a little boat, and just bear you down—to a precipice? Oh, no, but to the bosom of love and blessing forever.Oft there comes a wondrous message,When my hopes are growing dim,I can hear it thro' the darknessLike some sweet and far-off hymn.Nothing is too hard for Jesus,No man can work like Him.

“Cast thy burden on the Lord”(Ps. lv. 22).

Dear friends, sometimes we bring a burden to God, and we have such a groaning over it, and we seem to think God has a dreadful time, too, but in reality it does not burden Him at all. God says: It is a light thing for Me to do this for you. Your load, though heavy for you, is not heavy for Him. Christ carries the whole on one shoulder, not two shoulders. The government of the world is upon His shoulder. He is not struggling and groaning with it. His mighty arm is able to carry all your burdens. There is power in Christ for our sanctification. He is able to sanctify you. Yes, yes, the Lord can sanctify, the Lord can heal, the Lord can do anything. You must have faith in God. If you come to this river this morning, it will take you as your Niagara would take a little boat, and just bear you down—to a precipice? Oh, no, but to the bosom of love and blessing forever.

Oft there comes a wondrous message,When my hopes are growing dim,I can hear it thro' the darknessLike some sweet and far-off hymn.Nothing is too hard for Jesus,No man can work like Him.

Oft there comes a wondrous message,

When my hopes are growing dim,

I can hear it thro' the darkness

Like some sweet and far-off hymn.

Nothing is too hard for Jesus,

No man can work like Him.

July 10.“That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God”(I. Cor. ii. 12).The highest blessings of the Gospel are just as free as the lowest; and when you have served Him ten years you cannot sit down and say,“I have got an experience now and I count on that.”How often we do that; we say,“Now I know I am saved, I feel it.”And so we are building a different foundation—we are building on something in ourselves. Always take grace as something you don't deserve, something that is freely bestowed. The long, deep, boundless river is free; it is as free at the mouth as it is at the little stream, and free all the way along, and anybody can come and drink, and anybody can come and bathe in its boundless waters. Are you going to believe it?God has given us His Holy Spirit that we may“know the things that are freely given of us of God.”It is a hard thing for the poor child to look in through the window and see a fire, and the happy family sitting around the table when it is starving. What is the good of knowing that there is warmth, and love, and light, if it is not free? God has freely given all the goodness of His grace and love.

“That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God”(I. Cor. ii. 12).

The highest blessings of the Gospel are just as free as the lowest; and when you have served Him ten years you cannot sit down and say,“I have got an experience now and I count on that.”How often we do that; we say,“Now I know I am saved, I feel it.”And so we are building a different foundation—we are building on something in ourselves. Always take grace as something you don't deserve, something that is freely bestowed. The long, deep, boundless river is free; it is as free at the mouth as it is at the little stream, and free all the way along, and anybody can come and drink, and anybody can come and bathe in its boundless waters. Are you going to believe it?

God has given us His Holy Spirit that we may“know the things that are freely given of us of God.”It is a hard thing for the poor child to look in through the window and see a fire, and the happy family sitting around the table when it is starving. What is the good of knowing that there is warmth, and love, and light, if it is not free? God has freely given all the goodness of His grace and love.

July 11.“For it is God which worketh in you”(Phil. ii. 13).A day with Jesus. Let us seek its plan and direction from Him. Let us take His highest thought and will for us in it. Let us look to Him for our desires, ideals, expectations in it. Then shall it bring to us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Let Him be our Guide and Way. Let us not so much be thinking even of His plan and way as of Him as the Personal Guide of every moment, on whom we constantly depend to lead our every step.Let Him also be the sufficiency and strength of all the day. Let us never forget the secret:“I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”Let us have Jesus Christ Himself in us to do the works, and let us every moment fall back on Him, both to will and do in us of His good pleasure. Let our holiness be“the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”Let our health be the“life of Jesus manifest in our mortal flesh.”Let our faith be“the faith of the Son of God who loved us.”Let our peace and joy be His peace and joy. And let our service be not our works, but the grace of Christ within us.

“For it is God which worketh in you”(Phil. ii. 13).

A day with Jesus. Let us seek its plan and direction from Him. Let us take His highest thought and will for us in it. Let us look to Him for our desires, ideals, expectations in it. Then shall it bring to us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Let Him be our Guide and Way. Let us not so much be thinking even of His plan and way as of Him as the Personal Guide of every moment, on whom we constantly depend to lead our every step.

Let Him also be the sufficiency and strength of all the day. Let us never forget the secret:“I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”Let us have Jesus Christ Himself in us to do the works, and let us every moment fall back on Him, both to will and do in us of His good pleasure. Let our holiness be“the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”Let our health be the“life of Jesus manifest in our mortal flesh.”Let our faith be“the faith of the Son of God who loved us.”Let our peace and joy be His peace and joy. And let our service be not our works, but the grace of Christ within us.

July 12.“When ye pray, believe that ye receive”(Mark xi. 24).Consecration is entered by an act of faith. You are to take the gift from God, believe you have, and confess that you have it. Step out on it firmly, and let the devil know you have it as well as the Lord. When once you say to Him boldly,“I am Thine,”He answers back from the heavenly heights,“Thou art Mine,”and the echoes go ringing down through all your life,“Mine! Thine!”If you dare confess Christ as your Saviour and Sanctifier He has bound Himself to make it a reality, but you must stand behind His mighty Word. It is the essence of testimony to tell of what Jesus has promised to become to you. It is right to have glorious words of thanksgiving, but these are not exactly testimony. God would have us put our seal on the promises, and lift up our hands and acknowledge them as ours.Then you are to ignore the old life and reckon it no longer yours if it should come up again. Every time it appears say,“This is from the under world. I am sitting in the heavenly places with Christ.”

“When ye pray, believe that ye receive”(Mark xi. 24).

Consecration is entered by an act of faith. You are to take the gift from God, believe you have, and confess that you have it. Step out on it firmly, and let the devil know you have it as well as the Lord. When once you say to Him boldly,“I am Thine,”He answers back from the heavenly heights,“Thou art Mine,”and the echoes go ringing down through all your life,“Mine! Thine!”If you dare confess Christ as your Saviour and Sanctifier He has bound Himself to make it a reality, but you must stand behind His mighty Word. It is the essence of testimony to tell of what Jesus has promised to become to you. It is right to have glorious words of thanksgiving, but these are not exactly testimony. God would have us put our seal on the promises, and lift up our hands and acknowledge them as ours.

Then you are to ignore the old life and reckon it no longer yours if it should come up again. Every time it appears say,“This is from the under world. I am sitting in the heavenly places with Christ.”

July 13.“Even Christ pleased not Himself”(Rom. xv. 3).Let this be a day of self-forgetting ministry for Christ and others. Let us not once think of being ministered unto, but say ever with Him:“I am among you as He that doth serve.”Let us not drag our burdens through the day, but drop all our loads of care and be free to carry His yoke and His burden. Let us make the happy exchange, giving ours and taking His. Let the covenant be:“Thou shalt abide for Me, I also for thee.”So shall we lose our heaviest load—ourselves—and so shall we find our highest joy, divine love, the more blessed“to give”than“to receive.”Let us do good to all men as we have opportunity. Let us lose no opportunity of blessing, and let us study ingenious ways of service and usefulness. Especially let us seek to win souls.The Days of Heaven are busy days,They serve continually,So spent for Thee and Thine, our days,As the Days of Heaven would be.The Days of Heaven are loving days,As one they all agree,So linked in loving unityMay our days as Heaven be.

“Even Christ pleased not Himself”(Rom. xv. 3).

Let this be a day of self-forgetting ministry for Christ and others. Let us not once think of being ministered unto, but say ever with Him:“I am among you as He that doth serve.”Let us not drag our burdens through the day, but drop all our loads of care and be free to carry His yoke and His burden. Let us make the happy exchange, giving ours and taking His. Let the covenant be:“Thou shalt abide for Me, I also for thee.”So shall we lose our heaviest load—ourselves—and so shall we find our highest joy, divine love, the more blessed“to give”than“to receive.”Let us do good to all men as we have opportunity. Let us lose no opportunity of blessing, and let us study ingenious ways of service and usefulness. Especially let us seek to win souls.

The Days of Heaven are busy days,They serve continually,So spent for Thee and Thine, our days,As the Days of Heaven would be.

The Days of Heaven are busy days,

They serve continually,

So spent for Thee and Thine, our days,

As the Days of Heaven would be.

The Days of Heaven are loving days,As one they all agree,So linked in loving unityMay our days as Heaven be.

The Days of Heaven are loving days,

As one they all agree,

So linked in loving unity

May our days as Heaven be.

July 14.“Men ought always to pray”(Luke xviii. 1).Let this be a day of prayer. Let us see that our highest ministry and power is to deal with God for men. Let us be obedient to all the Holy Spirit's voices of prayer in us. Let us count every pressure a call to prayer. Let us cherish the spirit of unceasing prayer and abiding communion. Let us learn the meaning of the ministry of prayer. Let us reach persons this day we cannot reach in person; let us expect results that we have never dared to claim before; let us count every difficulty only a greater occasion for prayer, and let us call on God, who will show us many great and mighty things which we know not.And let it be a day of joy and praise. Let us live in the promises of God and the outlook of His deliverance and blessing. Let us never dwell on the trial but always on the victory just before. Let us not dwell in the tomb, but in the garden of Joseph and the light of the resurrection. Let us keep our faces toward the sun rising. Arise, shine. Rejoice evermore. In everything give thanks. Praise ye the Lord.Lord, give us Thy joy in our hearts which shall lift us to lift others, and fill us so we may overflow to others.

“Men ought always to pray”(Luke xviii. 1).

Let this be a day of prayer. Let us see that our highest ministry and power is to deal with God for men. Let us be obedient to all the Holy Spirit's voices of prayer in us. Let us count every pressure a call to prayer. Let us cherish the spirit of unceasing prayer and abiding communion. Let us learn the meaning of the ministry of prayer. Let us reach persons this day we cannot reach in person; let us expect results that we have never dared to claim before; let us count every difficulty only a greater occasion for prayer, and let us call on God, who will show us many great and mighty things which we know not.

And let it be a day of joy and praise. Let us live in the promises of God and the outlook of His deliverance and blessing. Let us never dwell on the trial but always on the victory just before. Let us not dwell in the tomb, but in the garden of Joseph and the light of the resurrection. Let us keep our faces toward the sun rising. Arise, shine. Rejoice evermore. In everything give thanks. Praise ye the Lord.

Lord, give us Thy joy in our hearts which shall lift us to lift others, and fill us so we may overflow to others.

July 15.“I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine”(Song of Solomon vi. 3).If I am the Lord's then the Lord is mine. If Christ owns me I own Him. And so faith must reach out and claim its full inheritance and begin to use its great resources. Moment by moment we may now take Him as our grace and strength, our faith and love, our victory and joy, our all in all. And as we thus claim Him we will find His grace sufficient for us, and begin to learn that giving all is just receiving all. Yes, consecration is getting Him fully instead of our own miserable life. There are, indeed, two sides of it. There are two persons in the consecration. One of them is the dear Lord Himself.“And for their sakes,”He says,“I consecrate Myself that they also might be consecrated through the truth.”The moment we consecrate ourselves to Him He consecrates Himself to us, and henceforth, the whole strength of His life and love and everlasting power is dedicated to keep and complete our consecration, and to make the very best and most of our consecrated life. Who would not give himself to such a Saviour? Surely we will to-day, first give ourselves and then give Him each moment as it comes, to be filled and used.

“I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine”(Song of Solomon vi. 3).

If I am the Lord's then the Lord is mine. If Christ owns me I own Him. And so faith must reach out and claim its full inheritance and begin to use its great resources. Moment by moment we may now take Him as our grace and strength, our faith and love, our victory and joy, our all in all. And as we thus claim Him we will find His grace sufficient for us, and begin to learn that giving all is just receiving all. Yes, consecration is getting Him fully instead of our own miserable life. There are, indeed, two sides of it. There are two persons in the consecration. One of them is the dear Lord Himself.“And for their sakes,”He says,“I consecrate Myself that they also might be consecrated through the truth.”The moment we consecrate ourselves to Him He consecrates Himself to us, and henceforth, the whole strength of His life and love and everlasting power is dedicated to keep and complete our consecration, and to make the very best and most of our consecrated life. Who would not give himself to such a Saviour? Surely we will to-day, first give ourselves and then give Him each moment as it comes, to be filled and used.

July 16.“As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God”(Ps. xlii. 1).First in order to a consecrated life there must be a sense of need, the need of purity, of power, and of a greater nearness to the Lord. There often comes in Christian life a second conviction. It is not now a sense of guilt and God's wrath so much as of the power and evil of inward sin, and the unsatisfactoriness of the life the soul is living. It usually comes from the deeper revelation of God's truth, from more spiritual teaching, from definite examples and testimonies of this life in others, and often from an experience of deep trial, conflict and temptation in which the soul has found its attainments and resources inadequate for the real issues and needs of life. The first result is often a deep discouragement and even despair, but the valley of Achor is the door of hope, and the seventh chapter of Romans with its bitter cry,“O wretched man that I am,”is the gateway to the eighth with its shout of triumph,“The Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

“As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God”(Ps. xlii. 1).

First in order to a consecrated life there must be a sense of need, the need of purity, of power, and of a greater nearness to the Lord. There often comes in Christian life a second conviction. It is not now a sense of guilt and God's wrath so much as of the power and evil of inward sin, and the unsatisfactoriness of the life the soul is living. It usually comes from the deeper revelation of God's truth, from more spiritual teaching, from definite examples and testimonies of this life in others, and often from an experience of deep trial, conflict and temptation in which the soul has found its attainments and resources inadequate for the real issues and needs of life. The first result is often a deep discouragement and even despair, but the valley of Achor is the door of hope, and the seventh chapter of Romans with its bitter cry,“O wretched man that I am,”is the gateway to the eighth with its shout of triumph,“The Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

July 17.“By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified”(Heb. x. 14).Are you missing what belongs to you? He has promised to sanctify you. He has promised sanctification for you by coming to you Himself and being made of God to you sanctification. Jesus is my sanctification. Having Him I have obedience, rest, patience and everything I need. He is alive forevermore. If you have Him nothing can be against you. Your temptations will not be against you; your bad temper will not be against you; your hard life, your circumstances, even the devil himself will not be against you. Every time he comes to attack you, he will only root you deeper in Christ. You will become a coward at the thought of being alone; you will be thrown on Jesus every time a trouble assails you. All things henceforth will work together for good to your own soul. Since God is for you nothing can be against you.My heavenly Bridegroom sought me and called me one glad day,“Arise, my love, my fair one, arise and come away,”I listened to His pleading, I gave Him all my heart,And we are one forever and nevermore shall part.

“By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified”(Heb. x. 14).

Are you missing what belongs to you? He has promised to sanctify you. He has promised sanctification for you by coming to you Himself and being made of God to you sanctification. Jesus is my sanctification. Having Him I have obedience, rest, patience and everything I need. He is alive forevermore. If you have Him nothing can be against you. Your temptations will not be against you; your bad temper will not be against you; your hard life, your circumstances, even the devil himself will not be against you. Every time he comes to attack you, he will only root you deeper in Christ. You will become a coward at the thought of being alone; you will be thrown on Jesus every time a trouble assails you. All things henceforth will work together for good to your own soul. Since God is for you nothing can be against you.

My heavenly Bridegroom sought me and called me one glad day,“Arise, my love, my fair one, arise and come away,”I listened to His pleading, I gave Him all my heart,And we are one forever and nevermore shall part.

My heavenly Bridegroom sought me and called me one glad day,

“Arise, my love, my fair one, arise and come away,”

I listened to His pleading, I gave Him all my heart,

And we are one forever and nevermore shall part.

July 18.“Ye are complete in Him”(Col. ii. 10).In Him we are now complete. The perfect pattern of the life of holy service for which He has redeemed and called us, is now in Him in heaven, even as the architect's model is planned and prepared and completed in his office. But now it must be wrought into us and transferred to our earthly life, and this is the Holy Spirit's work. He takes the gifts and graces of Christ and brings them into our life, as we need and receive them day by day, just as the sections of the vessel are reproduced in the distant Continent, and thus we receive of His fulness, even grace for grace, His grace for our grace, His supply for our need, His strength for our strength, His body for our body, His Spirit for our spirit, and He just“made unto us of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.”But it is much more than mere abstract help and grace, much more even than the Holy Spirit bringing us strength, and peace, and purity. It is personal companionship with Jesus Himself!Lord, help us receive from Thee to-day, that grace in all trial that shall mean our perfecting in Thee.

“Ye are complete in Him”(Col. ii. 10).

In Him we are now complete. The perfect pattern of the life of holy service for which He has redeemed and called us, is now in Him in heaven, even as the architect's model is planned and prepared and completed in his office. But now it must be wrought into us and transferred to our earthly life, and this is the Holy Spirit's work. He takes the gifts and graces of Christ and brings them into our life, as we need and receive them day by day, just as the sections of the vessel are reproduced in the distant Continent, and thus we receive of His fulness, even grace for grace, His grace for our grace, His supply for our need, His strength for our strength, His body for our body, His Spirit for our spirit, and He just“made unto us of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.”

But it is much more than mere abstract help and grace, much more even than the Holy Spirit bringing us strength, and peace, and purity. It is personal companionship with Jesus Himself!

Lord, help us receive from Thee to-day, that grace in all trial that shall mean our perfecting in Thee.

July 19.“Nevertheless, David took the castle of Zion”(I. Chron. xi. 5).Many of you have so much fighting to do because you do not have one sharp, decisive battle to begin with. It is far easier to have one great battle than to keep on skirmishing all your life. I know men who spend forty years fighting what they call their besetting sin, and on which they waste strength enough to evangelize the world.Dear friends, does it pay to throw away your lives? Have one battle, one victory and then praise God. So they had rest from their enemies round about. There is labor to enter in. The height is steep. The way of the cross is not an easy way. It is hard to enter in, but having entered in there is perfect rest. May God help us and give us His perfect rest.O come and leave thy sinful self foreverBeneath the fountain of the Saviour's blood;O come, and take Him as thy Sanctifier,Come thou with us and we will do thee good.Come to the land where all the foes are vanquished,And sorrow, sin, disease and death subdued;O weary soul! by Satan bruised and baffled,Come thou with us and we will do thee good.

“Nevertheless, David took the castle of Zion”(I. Chron. xi. 5).

Many of you have so much fighting to do because you do not have one sharp, decisive battle to begin with. It is far easier to have one great battle than to keep on skirmishing all your life. I know men who spend forty years fighting what they call their besetting sin, and on which they waste strength enough to evangelize the world.

Dear friends, does it pay to throw away your lives? Have one battle, one victory and then praise God. So they had rest from their enemies round about. There is labor to enter in. The height is steep. The way of the cross is not an easy way. It is hard to enter in, but having entered in there is perfect rest. May God help us and give us His perfect rest.

O come and leave thy sinful self foreverBeneath the fountain of the Saviour's blood;O come, and take Him as thy Sanctifier,Come thou with us and we will do thee good.

O come and leave thy sinful self forever

Beneath the fountain of the Saviour's blood;

O come, and take Him as thy Sanctifier,

Come thou with us and we will do thee good.

Come to the land where all the foes are vanquished,And sorrow, sin, disease and death subdued;O weary soul! by Satan bruised and baffled,Come thou with us and we will do thee good.

Come to the land where all the foes are vanquished,

And sorrow, sin, disease and death subdued;

O weary soul! by Satan bruised and baffled,

Come thou with us and we will do thee good.

July 20.“Forget also thine own”(Ps. xlv. 10).We, too, like the ancient Levites, must be“consecrated every one upon our son and upon our brother,”and“forget our kindred and our father's house”in every sense in which they could hinder our full liberty and service for the Lord. We, too, must let our business go if it stands between us and the Lord, and in any case let it henceforth be His business and His alone, pursued for Him, controlled by Him, and its profits wholly dedicated to Him, and used as He shall direct. And, like James and John, you must be willing to give up“the hired servants”too. It will make a great difference in your way of living. It will be a change to give up your ease and luxury, your being waited upon and indulged in every wish, and have to do your own work, to give up the attentions of others, to put with privations, and inconveniences, and humiliations, but it will be easy to do it with Him. He never owned a foot of land. He never rode in a carriage. He never had a hired servant. He lay down at last in a borrowed grave. But He is rich enough now, and so will you be some day if you can only be willing to suffer and to wait.

“Forget also thine own”(Ps. xlv. 10).

We, too, like the ancient Levites, must be“consecrated every one upon our son and upon our brother,”and“forget our kindred and our father's house”in every sense in which they could hinder our full liberty and service for the Lord. We, too, must let our business go if it stands between us and the Lord, and in any case let it henceforth be His business and His alone, pursued for Him, controlled by Him, and its profits wholly dedicated to Him, and used as He shall direct. And, like James and John, you must be willing to give up“the hired servants”too. It will make a great difference in your way of living. It will be a change to give up your ease and luxury, your being waited upon and indulged in every wish, and have to do your own work, to give up the attentions of others, to put with privations, and inconveniences, and humiliations, but it will be easy to do it with Him. He never owned a foot of land. He never rode in a carriage. He never had a hired servant. He lay down at last in a borrowed grave. But He is rich enough now, and so will you be some day if you can only be willing to suffer and to wait.

Back to Index Next