_________________________________________________________________

Title: Our Daily Homily
Creator(s): Meyer, F.B. (1847-1929)
LC Subjects:

The Bible

Works about the Bible
_________________________________________________________________

Our Daily Homily

BY

F. B. MEYER, D.D.,

AUTHOR OF

“Peter: Fisherman, Disciple, Apostle.”

ETC., ETC.

1 SAMUEL – JOB.

MARSHALL, MORGAN & SCOTT, LTD.,

LONDON & EDINBURGH.

“WELL – What are ages and the lapse of time

Match’d against truths, as lasting as sublime?

Can length of years on God Himself exact?

Or make that fiction, which was once a fact?

No – marble and recording brass decay,

And, like the graver’s memory, pass away;

The works of man inherit, as is just,

Their author’s frailty, and return to dust;

But Truth divine for ever stands secure,

Its head is guarded as its base is sure;

Fix’d in the rolling flood of endless years,

The pillar of the eternal plan appears,

The raving storm and dashing wave defies,

Built by that Architect who built the skies.”

COWPER.

_________________________________________________________________

I have poured out my soul before the Lord. 1 Sam. i. 15.

HANNAH’S soul was fall of complaint and grief, which flowed over into her
face and made it sorrowful. But when she had poured out her soul before the
Lord, emptying out all its bitterness, the peace of God took the place of
her soul-anguish, she went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no
more sad. What a glad exchange! How great the contrast! How much the better
for herself, and for her home!

Is your face darkened by the bitterness of your soul? Perhaps the enemy has
been vexing you sorely; or there is an unrealized hope, an unfulfilled
purpose. in your life; or, perchance, the Lord seems to have forgotten you.
Poor sufferer, there is nothing for it but to pour out your soul before the
Lord. Empty out its contents in confession and prayer. God knows it all; yet
tell Him, as if He knew nothing. “Ye people, pour out your hearts before
Him. God is a refuge for us.” “In everything, by prayer and supplication
make your requests known unto God.”

As we pour out our bitterness, God pours in his peace. Weeping goes out of
one door whilst joy enters at another. We transmit the cup of tears to the
Man of Sorrows, and He hands it back to us filled with the blessings of the
new covenant. Some day you will come to the spot where you wept and prayed,
bringing your offering of praise and thanksgiving.
_________________________________________________________________

His mother made him a little coat. 1 Sam. ii. 19.

WHAT happy work it was! Those nimble fingers flew along the seams, because
love inspired them. All her woman’s art and wit were put into the garment,
her one idea and ambition being to make something which should be not only
useful, but becoming. Not mothers only, but fathers, are always making
little coats for their children, which they wear Iong years after a material
fabric would have become worn out. How many men and women are wearing today
the coats which their parents cut out and made for them long years ago!

Habits are the vesture of the soul. The Apostle bade his converts put off
the old man, “which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts,” and to
put on the new man, “which after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness”; to put off anger, wrath, and malice, whilst they put on mercy,
humility, and meekness. What words could better establish the fact that
habits are (as the name indicates) the clothing of the inner life! Where and
how are habits formed? Not in the mid-passage of life, but at its dawn; not
in great crises, but in daily circumstances; not in life’s arena, but in the
home, amid the surroundings of earliest childhood. Oh that the spotless robe
of Christ’s righteousness may ever be exhibited before those with whom we
daily come in contact!

By their behaviour to each other and to their children; by the ordering of
the home-life; by their actions, more than by their words; by the way in
which they speak, and spend their leisure hours, and pray – men and women
are making the little coats which, for better or worse, their children wear
ever after, and perhaps pass down to after generations.
_________________________________________________________________

And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel!
1 Sam. iii. 10.

SEE the urgency of God! Four times He came, and stood, and called. Mark how
He stands at the door to knock. At first He was content to call the lad once
by name; but after three unsuccessful attempts to attract him to Himself, He
uttered the name twice, with strong urgency in the appeal, Samuel! Samuel!
This has been called God’s double knock. There are seven or eight of these
double knocks in Scripture: Simon, Simon; Saul, Saul; Abraham, Abraham.

How may we be sure of a Divine call?

We may know God’s call when it grows in intensity. – If an impression comes
into your soul, and you are not quite sure of its origin, pray over it;
above all, act on it so far as possible, follow in the direction in which it
leads – and as you lift up your soul before God, it will wax or wane. If it
wanes at all, abandon it. If it waxes follow it, though all hell attempt to
stay you.

We may test God’s call by the assistance of godly friends. – The aged Eli
perceived that the Lord had called the child, and gave him good advice as to
the manner in which he should respond to it. Our special gifts and the drift
of our circumstances will also assuredly concur in one of God’s calls.

We may test God’s call by its effect on us. – Does it lead to self-denial?
Does it induce us to leave the comfortable bed and step into the cold? Does
it drive us forth to minister to others? Does it make us more unseIfish,
loving, tender, modest, humble! Whatever is to the humbling of our pride,
and the glory of God, may be truly deemed God’s call. Be quick to respond,
and fearlessly deliver the message the Lord has given you.
_________________________________________________________________

Let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. 1 Sam. iv. 3.

ISRAEL had been defeated with great loss. Their only hope of being able to
hold their own against the Philistines and the people of the land was in the
protection and help vouchsafed to them by God. They knew this, and thought
that they would be secured, if only the Ark of the covenant were on the
field. They forgot that it was only the material symbol of a spiritual
relationship; that it was useless unless that relationship was in living
force; and that the bending forms of the cherubim, emblematic of the Divine
protection, would not avail if their fellowship with the God of the cherubim
had been ruptured by backsliding.

There is a sense in which we are always sending for the Ark. The reliance on
outward rites, such as Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, on the part of those
who are alienated from the life of God ; the maintenance of the forms of
prayer and Scripture-reading, which no longer express the passionate love of
the soul; the habit of churchgoing, which so many practise, not because they
love God, but because they think that it will in some way secure his
alliance in life’s battle – all these are forms in which we still fetch the
Ark of the covenant, whilst our hearts are wrong with the God of the
covenant.

It should never be forgotten that nothing can afford to us protection and
succour but vital union with Christ. We must hide in his secret place if we
would abide under his shadow. We must dwell in the most holy place if we
would be shadowed by the wings of the Shekinah. There must be nothing
between us and God, if we are to walk together, and enjoy fellowship with
the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
_________________________________________________________________

Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord. 1
Sam. v. 3.

THE idols of the heathen represent demons who are their accepted gods, just
as the Ark was the symbol of the presence of Jehovah. In the one case there
was a material representation of the demon; but in the case of the Ark there
was only a throne, the Mercy Seat; and no attempt was made to represent the
appearance of the God of Israel. When placed in the Holy of Holies, the
Shekinah shone between the cherubim; this alone spoke of the Divine Spirit
who filled the apparently vacant throne. When the effigy of the fish-god was
confronted by the Sacred Ark, it was as though the demon spirit and the
Divine Spirit had come into contact, with the inevitable result that the
inferiority of the one ensured the crash of its effigy to the ground.

What a lesson this must have been to the Philistines – similar to that given
Pharaoh in the plagues of Egypt, and with the same object of leading them to
see the superior greatness of Jehovah! How great the encouragement to Israel
– to know that God could defend his superiority! And how striking the
prognostication for the future, when all the Dagons of the world shall be
broken before the symbol of Divine power and love!

Bring the Ark of God into your life. Set it down in your heart, and
forthwith the Dagons which have held sway for so long will one after another
succumb. “The idols He will utterly abolish.” Let Christ in – that is the
one need of the soul; and let Him take full possession of you. Then He will
do his own work. Darkness cannot abide light; nor the defilement of the
Augean stable the turning in of the water of the river.
_________________________________________________________________

And the kine went along the highway, lowing as they went. 1 Sam. vi. 12.

THAT two milch kine which had never borne the yoke should move quietly along
the high road, turning neither to the right nor to the left, and lowing for
the calves they had left behind, clearly indicated that they were possessed
and guided by some mysterious power, which we know to have been God’s. And
if He were able thus to overpower the instincts of their nature, and to
compel them to do his will, may we not infer that all circumstances, and all
men, however unwittingly, and against their natural instinct, are subserving
the purposes of his will, and bearing on the Ark? The fish yields the
tribute money; the colt of the ass waits where two ways meet to bear the
Redeemer; the man with the waterpot leads to the upper room; the Roman
soldiers enable Paul to fulfil the mission of his life, in preaching the
Gospel without hindrance in the very heart of Rome.

As we go forth into the world, let us believe that the movement of all
things is towards the accomplishment of God’s purpose. Herein is a
fulfilment of the Psalmist’s prediction about man, which can only be
perfectly fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the second Adam – that all things are
under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field.
Everything serves Christ, and those who serve Christ. In a true sense all
things are ours; they minister to us, even as Christ to God.

And against our natural inclinations let us always regard the claims of God
as paramount; and dare to go his way, though our heart pines for those we
leave behind. “He that loveth father or mother, son or daughter, more than
Me, is not worthy of Me.”
_________________________________________________________________

Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God. 1 Sam. vii 8.

SAMUEL was famous for his prayers. They are repeatedly referred to in the
brief record of his life. In the Psalms he is spoken of as the one “who
called upon God’s name.” Indeed, he fought and won Israel’s battles by his
strong intercessions. Mary of Scots said that she dreaded the prayers of
John Knox more than the battalions of the King of France. So his people were
accustomed to think that if the prophet’s hands were held out in importunate
prayer, their foes must be restrained.

In the Life of Mr. Reginald Radcliffe, one who contributes a reminiscence
interjects a remark which deserves to be carefully pondered: – “The great
secret of the blessing which came from God to the awakening of whole
districts, the quickening of Christians, and the salvation of multitudes,
was prayer, continued, fervent, believing, expectant. There was never
anything striking in the addresses; but through communion with the living
Christ, the word came forth with living and life-giving power. Often would
the forenoon be spent in continuous prayer.” This may well convict some of
us of the cause of our failure. We have expected the Lord to thunder and
discomfort our Philistines, and with a great deliverance ; but we have
ceased to cry unto the Lord.

Ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers, cease not to cry unto Him. If the
judge avenged the unfortunate widow, shall not God avenge his own elect, who
cry day and night? It is recorded of our Lord that He prayed early and late,
and all night. He prayed when He was about to be transfigured; for his
disciples; in the Garden of Gethsemane; and for his murderers. How much more
do we need to “pray without ceasing”!
_________________________________________________________________

But the thing displeased Samuel…. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. 1 Sam.
viii. 6.

A LITTLE further down in the chapter we learn that Samuel rehearsed the
words of the people unto the Lord. His prayer, to a large extent, was a
rehearsal of all the strong and unkind things that the people had said to
him; and in this way he passed them off his mind, and found relief. There is
a suggestion of close communion with God in the expression, “He rehearsed
them in the ears of the

Lord.” It had been the habit of his life to be on intimate terms with his
God.

Things do not always turn out as we had hoped, and we get displeased for our
own sakes and God’s. We had planned in one direction, but events have issued
in another; and the results have threatened to become disastrous. There is
but one resource. If we allow vexations to eat into our heart, they will
corrode and injure it. We must rehearse them to God – spreading the letter
before Him, as Hezekiah did; making request like Paul; crying like Samuel.

Surely it is the mistake of our life, that we carry our burdens instead of
handing them over; that we worry instead of trusting; that we pray so
little. The grass grows thick on the pathway to our oratory; the cobwebs
hang across the doorway. The time we spend in prayer is perhaps better spent
than in any other way. It was whilst Samuel prayed thus, that he saw the
Divine programme for Israel:

“And he who at the sixth hour sought

The lone house-top to pray,

There gained a sight beyond his thought –

The dawn of Gentile day.

Then reckon not, when perils lour,

The time of prayer mis-spent;

Nor meanest chance, nor place, nor hour,

Without its heavenward bent.”
_________________________________________________________________

Behold, there is in this city a man of God. 1 Sam. ix. 6.

THERE is a street in London, near St. Paul’s, which I never traverse without
very peculiar feelings. It is Godliman Street. Evidently the name is a
corruption of godly man. Did some saint of God once live here, whose life
was so holy as to give a sweet savour to the very street in which he dwelt?
Were the neighbours who knew him best, the most sure of his godliness? Would
that our piety might leave its mark on our neighbourhoods, and the memory
linger long after we have passed away!

A generation or two ago in the Highlands, there were earnest and holy men
who were known by the significant title of the men. No great religious
gathering was deemed complete without them. Their prayers and exhortations
were accompanied by an especial unction.

In such manner Samuel’s godliness was recognised far and wide. The fragrance
of his character could not be concealed. And this gave men confidence in
him. They said, “He is an honourable man; all that he saith cometh surely to
pass.” How much credit redounds to godliness, when it is combined with
trustworthiness and high credit amongst our fellows!

Let us seek to be God’s men and women. Let us live not only soberly and
righteously, but godly, in this present world. Let us remember that God hath
set apart the godly for Himself. The godly are the godlike. They become so
by cultivating the fellowship and friendship of God. Their faces become
enlightened with his beauty; their words are weighty with his truth. After
being for a little in their company, you detect the gravity, serenity,
gentleness, beauty of holiness, which are the court manners of heaven.
_________________________________________________________________

Thou shalt do as occasion serve thee. 1 Sam. x. 7.

THIS is an example of how God demands of us the use of our sanctified
common-sense. Samuel sketches to Saul the course of events during the next
few days; showing how clearly our lives lie naked and open to the eyes of
God, and how easily He can reveal them when necessary. But whilst the
various incidents are told, the prophet does not feel it incumbent to tell
this goodly young man how he should behave in any given instance. “When
these signs are come upon thee, thou shalt do as occasion serve thee.”

We are reminded of a parallel in the life of Peter. The angel of God
unbarred the prison-doors, and led him forth, because nothing short of
Divine power would avail. He led the dazed Apostle through one street,
because he was too bewildered to realize what had happened. But, as soon as
the night-air had brought him to his senses, the angel left him “to consider
the meitter” – to use his own judgment. The result of which was, that he
went to the house of Mary.

One of the divinest of our faculties is the judgment, before which the
reasons for and against a certain course of action must be adduced, but with
which the ultimate decision lies. It is a tendency with some to depreciate
the use of this wonderful power, by looking for signs and visions to point
their path. This is a profound mistake. God will give these when there are
complications in which the exercise of judgment might be at fault; but not
where it is sufficient. Where no sign is given, carefully divest yourself of
selfish considerations, weigh the pros and cons, ask for guidance, dare to
act; and having acted in faith, never look back or doubt.
_________________________________________________________________

Come let us go to Gilgal, and renew the Kingdom there . 1 Sam. xi. 14.

IT is good to have days and occasions for renewing the kingdom. Already Saul
had been anointed king. It was a recognised matter that he should inaugurate
the days of the kings, as distinguished from those of the judges. But his
great victory at Jabesh-Gilead seems to have wrought the enthusiasm of the
people to the highest pitch, and to have presented a great opportunity for
renewing the kingdom. They went to Gilgal to do this, because there, on the
first entrance into Canaan, Israel had rolled away the reproach of
uncircumcision, which symbolised their lack of separation.

Jesus is our King. The Father hath anointed Him, and set Him on his holy
hill; and we have gladly assented to the appointment, and made Him King. But
sometimes our sense of loyalty and devotion wanes. Insensibly we drift from
our strenuous endeavour to act always as his devoted subjects. Therefore we
need, from time to time, to renew the kingdom, and reverently make Him King
before the Lord.

Go over the old solemn form of dedication; turn to the yellow leaves of the
diary; bring under his sceptre any new provinces of influence that have been
acquired; tell Him how glad and thankful you are to live only for Him. Let
this be done at Gilgal, the place of circumcision and separation, with the
Jordan of death flowing behind, and the Land of Promise beckoning in front.
There is a sense in which we can consecrate ourselves only once; but we can
renew our vows often.

“Blessings abound where’er He reigns;

The prisoner leaps to burst his chains;

The weary find eternal rest,

And all the sons of want are blest”
_________________________________________________________________

The Lord will not forsake his people for his great Name’s sake. 1 Sam. xii.
22.

THE certainty of our salvation rests on the character of God. Moses, years
before, had pleaded that God could not afford to destroy or forsake Israel,
lest the Egyptians and others should have some ground for saying that He was
not able to carry out his purpose, or that He was fickle and changeable.
“What wilt Thou do for thy great Name?” Samuel uses the same argument. We
also may avail ourselves of it for our great comfort.

God knew what we should be – how weak and frail and changeful – before He
arrested us and brought us to Himself. Speaking after the manner of men, we
might say He counted the cost. He computed whether his resources were
sufficient to secure us from our foes, keep us from falling, and present us
faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. He foreknew
how much forbearance, pity, consolation, and tenderness, we should require.
And yet it pleased Him to make us his people. He cannot, therefore, now run
back from his purpose; otherwise it would seem that difficulties had arisen
which either He had not anticipated, or was not so well able to combat as He
had thought. What an absurd suggestion! In the former case there would be a
slur on his omniscience; on the other, upon his omnipotence.

“What if God should cast you into hell?” was asked of an old Scotchwoman.

‘Well,” she answered, “If He do, all I can say is, He will lose mair than I
will.”

The gracious promise given to Joshua may be appropriated by every trembling
saint of God: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” To the poor and
needy He says, “I the God of Israel will not forsake them.”
_________________________________________________________________

I forced myself, therefore, and offered a burnt-offering. 1 Sam. xiii. 12.

THIS was wholly outside Saul’s province. Samuel had engaged to arrive within
the seven days: they had nearly expired, and still there were no signs of
the prophet; and Saul, yielding to the promptings of his impetuous nature,
took the matter into his own hand, and rashly assumed an office to which he
had no right. He protested that he had been very unwilling to add the
function of priest to that of king. But this was notoriously contrary to the
truth. For some time he had chafed against Samuel’s prerogative, and now
sought to supersede the Divine order.

It seemed but a small act, and, to superficial judgment, not enough to
warrant the loss of his kingdom; but it was symptomatic of a great moral
deficiency. He had not learned to obey the commandment of the Lord: how
could he rule? He could not control the hasty suggestions of his own nature,
in favour of the deliberate movement of the Divine order: how could he be
God’s chosen agent? He acted on the showings of expediency, rather than of
faith: how could he be a man after God’s own heart? The restlessness and
haste which characterize the present age must not be allowed to affect our
service for God; for thereby the progress of the Gospel will be hindered
rather than helped.

We must learn to wait for God. He may not come till the allotted time has
almost passed; but He will come. He waits for the exact moment in which He
can best succour you. Not till patience has been exercised, but before it
has given out. In the meanwhile, be sure that your safety is secured; He
will see to it that the Philistines shall not come down to overwhelm you.
_________________________________________________________________

His eyes were enlightened. 1 Sam. xiv. 27.

THE Philistines were in full flight. The Israelites followed hard at their
heels through the wood. It was there that the honey dropped in rich
abundance on the ground, and there Jonathan tasted a little, dipping the end
of his rod into it. It made all the difference to him, warding off the
excessive exhaustion which paralysed the rest of the army.

The Word of God is sweeter than the honeycomb. – Luscious to the sanctified
taste; enlightening to the dimming eyes; strength-giving to the weary. It
drops in abundance to the ground, as though inviting the hand of the
Christian warrior or wayfarer to take it freely. If there is no taste for
the written Word, it may be assumed that the living Word has not been
enthroned in the heart; for where He reigns supreme, there is a longing for
the food which alone can fit us for the Christian life.

Where we cannot take much, let us take some. – There was not time for
Jonathan to sit down and take his fill. He could only catch up some as he
hastily passed through the forest-glade; but that little made all the
difference to him. So, in the early morning, or at mid-day, if we cannot
fill our hearts with Scripture, we may catch up a morsel, which will
minister untold refreshment, and clear our spiritual vision.

We specially need to do this when flushed with success. – Too often, when we
have had success in the battles of the Lord – a good time in preaching or
teaching – we are apt to congratulate ourselves, and suppose that we can
live on the emotions excited. But, probably, there is no time when we need
more absolutely to turn to the Word of God. In victory, as in defeat, we
must be fed and nourished.
_________________________________________________________________

To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 1
Sam. xv. 22.

THIS is a great principle, which is repeatedly enforced throughout the
Bible. Men have always been apt to divorce religion and morality, and to
suppose that a certain tribute of sacrifice to God will be sufficient
compensation for notorious evil-doing. But in every age God’s servants have
protested against the notion, and have insisted, as Samuel did with Saul,
that it were better to obey, although there should be no spoil from which to
select victims for sacrifice. This was Christ’s perpetual protest against
the Pharisees.

Let the Ritualist beware. – There is a grave fear lest extreme attention to
the outward rite may be accompanied by carelessness to the inward temper.
Where the outward observance is the expression of the attitude of the soul,
it is to be respected even by those of us who feel that excessive symbolism
is hostile to the devout life; but where the rite takes the place of the
soul’s devotion, or condones a lax morality, it cannot be too sternly
deprecated. Though all the Levitical rites should be observed without flaw,
they could not compensate for the persistent neglect of the least item of
the decalogue. “God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth.”

Let us all beware. – We are apt to make sacrifices of time and money and
energy for God, and to comfort ourselves with the reflection that such as we
are may be excused if in small lapses of temper, or disposition, we come
short of the Divine standard. No; it cannot pass muster. One sin mastered,
one temptation resisted, one duty performed, is dearer to God than the most
costly sacrifices that were ever piled upon the altar.
_________________________________________________________________

The Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. 1 Sam. xvi.
13.

WHAT may not a day bring forth! Here was a shepherd lad, summoned hastily
from his sheep, and anointed king. But an even greater blessing came into
his life that day, for he was mightily endued with the Holy Spirit. Without
doubt, during his early years the Spirit of God had dwelt within him,
moulding his character, inditing his songs; but, henceforth, the Spirit was
to abide on him, as a Divine unction.

Why should not this day witness a similar transformation for you; not in the
change of earthly position, but in your reception of the “power from on high
” through a renewed enduement? Why should not the Spirit of the Lord come
mightily upon you from this holy hour, even as your eyes glance down this
page? Though it is quite possible that you have been empowered once, there
is no finality in God’s bestowals; the apostles were filled and filled again
(Acts ii. and iv.).

The age of Pentecost in which we live is distinctly one of Divine anointing.
It awaits all who will separate themselves to God, and receive it for his
glory. The characteristic preposition of this age is on. If you have not
received power, seek it; he that seeketh findeth; nay, receive it – to ask
is to get. If the Master, though begotten of the Holy Spirit, forebore to
preach the Gospel, and bind up broken hearts, till He had been anointed as
the Christ by the Spirit, who descended on Him at his baptism; how foolish
it is for us, who were born in sin, to attempt similar work, apart from
similar enduement! The promise to each child of God is: “Ye shall receive
power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses
unto Me” (Acts i. 8).
_________________________________________________________________

The armies of the living God. 1 Sam. xvii. 26, 36.

THIS made all the difference between David and the rest of the camp. To Saul
and his soldiers God was an absentee – a name, but little else. They
believed that He had done great things for his people in the past, and that
at some future time, in the days of the Messiah, He might be expected to do
great things again; but no one thought of Him as present. Keenly sensitive
to the defiance of the Philistine, and grieved by the apathy of his people,
David, on the other hand, felt that God was alive. He had lived alone with
Him in the solitude of the hills, till God had become one of -the greatest
and most real facts of his young existence; and as the lad went to and fro
among the armed warriors, he was sublimely conscious of the presence of the
living God amid the clang of the camp.

This is what we need. To live so much with God, that when we come amongst
men, whether in the bazaars of India or the market-place of an English town,
we may be more aware of his over-shadowing presence than of the presence or
absence of any one. Lo, God is here! This place is hallowed ground! But none
can realize this by the act of the will. We can only find God everywhere
when we carry Him everywhere. The miner sees by the candle he carries on his
forehead.

Each of us is opposed by difficulties, privations, and trials of different
sorts. But the one answer to them all is faith’s vision of the Living God.
We can face the mightiest foe in his name. If our faith can but make Him a
passage, along which He shall come, there is no Goliath He will not quell;
no question He will not answer; no need He will not meet
_________________________________________________________________

David behaved himself wisely. 1 Sam. xviii. 5, 14, 15, 30.

THERE must be some strong reason for the four-fold repetition of this phrase
in so short a space. It is as though the Holy Ghost would lay very distinct
stress on the Divine prudence and circumspection, which must characterise
the man whose life is hid in God. Let us walk with God, abiding in Him,
subjecting our thoughts and plans to his, communing about all things with
Him, talking over our lives with Him, before we go out to live them in the
presence of our fellows. Then we too shall have this gracious wisdom, which
is more moral than intellectual – the product of the grace of God rather
than of human culture.

Our life shall commend itself to men (5). – David’s was good in the sight of
all the people, and more wonderful still, in the sight of Saul’s servants,
who might have been jealous. A life lived in God disarms jealousy and envy.
He who, as a boy, did his Father’s business increased in wisdom, and in
favour with God and men.

Our life shall rebuke and awe our foes (15). – Saul stood in awe of him.
When traps and snares are laid for us we shall be enabled to thread our way
through them all, as Jesus did when they tried to entangle Him in his talk.
We shall have a wisdom which all our foes together shall not be able to
gainsay or resist.

Our name will be precious (30). – People loved to dwell on the name of
David; it was much set by; they noticed and were impressed with the beauty
and nobility of his character. We must always view our lives, amusements,
and undertakings, in the light of the result which will accrue to Him whose
name it is our privilege to bear.
_________________________________________________________________

And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan. 1 Sam. xix. 6.

IT was a noble act of Jonathan. He might have withdrawn from his friendship
with David when it threatened his relations with his father; but, instead,
be stopped into the breach, and pleaded for his friend, endeavouring to
eradicate the false ind ungenerous conceptions of which Saul had become
possessed. It is an example we do well to study and copy. For his love’s
sake, as well as for his father’s, he was extremely eager to effect a
reconciliation between him to whom he owed allegiance of son and subject,
and this fair shepherd-minstrel-warrior, who had so recently cast a sunny
gleam upon his life.

Men often misconceive of one another. Jealousy and envy distort behaviour
and actions which are in themselves as beautiful as possible.
Misrepresentation will blind us to the true excellences of one another’s
characters. Wrong constructions are often put on the most innocent
incidents. We cannot help these things, they are part of the sad heritage of
the Fall; but we may often take up the cause of a misunderstood man, and at
the risk of losing our own reputation, and diverting to ourselves some of
the odium which attaches to him, we may stand as his sponsors.

Even if we dislike another, as Saul did David, let us give scope to the good
Spirit to plead his cause at the bar of our hearts, as Jonathan did for his
friend. Let us consider all the kind and loving things that may be said of
him; let us put ourselves in his position; let us be willing to believe and
hope all things. Let us plead for others, since this is a work in which
Christ’s followers most closely approximate to Him who ever liveth to
intercede.
_________________________________________________________________

Thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty. 1 Sam. xx. 18.

JONATHAN and David had entered into a covenant,each loving the other as his
own soul. Anxious to shield his friend from the wrath of his father,
Jonathan discloses to David the plan by which he shall know how matters
fared in the royal palace. David’s vacant seat suggests a lesson for us.

There are a good many empty seats in our houses. Those that occupied them
can never do so again; they have gone never to return again, and we miss
them sorely.

Let us see to it that we do not leave our seats in the home circle
needlessly vacant. Let not the mother be away at the dance, or even at the
religious meeting, when she should be at home, joining in her children’s
evening prayers. Let the father be very sure that God has called him
elsewhere, before he habitually vacates his place in the evening family
circle. Let each of us avoid giving needless pain to those we love by
leaving empty seats. But if God calls us away to his service, then for those
who miss us, another Form shall glide in, and sit in the vacant chair; and
they will become conscious that the Master is filling the gap, and beguiling
the weary moments.

Above all, let not your seat be empty in the house of God, at the ordinary
service, or at the Lord’s Table. We are too prone to allow a trifle to deter
us from joining in the sacred feasts. At such times we are missed, our empty
seat witnesses against us; there is a lack in the song and prayer, which
cries out against us; there is a distinct loss to the power of the service,
which is in proportion to the number of earnest souls present. Oh that there
may be no empty seats at the marriage supper, vacated through our
unfaithfulness!
_________________________________________________________________

There is none like that; give it me. 1 Sam. xxi. 9.

WHAT David said of the sword of Goliath we may say of Holy Scripture – the
sword of the Spirit – “There is none like that.”

There is no book like the Bible for those convinced of sin. – The Word of
God assures the sinner of God’s love in Christ, whilst it refuses to condone
a single sin, or excuse one shortcoming. The Bible is as stern as conscience
herself against sin, but as pitiful as the heart of God to the sinner. It,
moreover, discloses the method by which the just God becomes the justifier
of those who believe.

There is no book like the Bible for the sorrowful. – It tells of the
Comforter; it reminds us that in all our sorrow God also is sad; it points
to the perfect plan according to which God is working out our blessedness;
it insists that all things are working together for good; it opens the
vision of the blessed future, where all the griefs and tears of men shall be
put away for ever.

There is no book like the Bible for the dying. – “Read to me,” said Sir
Walter Scott, on his dying bed, to his friend. “What shall l read?” “There
is only one book for a dying man,” was the answer; “read to me from the
Bible.” The Book which tells of the Lord, who died and rose again; of the
mansions which He has gone to prepare; of the reunion of the saints; of the
fountains of water of life – is the only pillow on which the dying head can
rest softly.

In these days of debate and doubt there is no such evidence for the Divine
authority of the Bible as that which accrues from its perpetual use, whether
in our own life, or in the conviction of the ungodly.
_________________________________________________________________

Till I know what God will do for me. 1 Sam. xxii. 3.

WE shall never get to the end of all that God will do for us, if only we
perfectly give ourselves up to Him. David had a very imperfect vision of all
that was in God’s plan for him; he had an inkling, but that was all. And we
have still less. Yet let us recapitulate some of the things which God will
do for us.

He waits to give us the spirit of Sonship: so that we may ever be conscious
of his Fatherhood, and look up into his face in the garden of Gethsemane,
and on the Mount of Transfiguration alike, calling Him Abba, Father.

He longs to lead us to full consecration; to lead us into such close
association with Jesus in his redeeming purpose, that we may become his
willing bond-servants, with no other purpose and aim in life than his
service and glory.

He desires to deliver us from all known sin: that we may be blameless and
harmless, his children without rebuke in this sinful world, who walk before
Him in holiness and righteousness all our days.

He wants to anoint us with the Holy Spirit: so that our ministry to men may
have more of the savour of Christ; may plough deeper furrows in human
hearts; may have more abiding results.

He desires us to come into partnership with his Son – here in his redemptive
purpose, yonder in his throne. To this indeed He calls us.

Who can know all that God waits to do, not here only, but yonder, when life
has entered upon its eternal stage! “Now are we children of God; and it is
not yet made manifest what we shall be” (1 John iii. 2, R.V.).
_________________________________________________________________

He said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod. 1 Sam. xxiii. 9.

DAVID was passing through one of the most awful experiences of his life,
when his men spoke of -stoning him instead of taking up his cause. How many
times in this chapter we are informed that David inquired of the Lord! Some
three or four times the appeal for direction was renewed, as though he were
fearful to stir one step by the light of his own unaided wisdom. In that
changeful life of his, it must have been extremely difficult to set the Lord
always before him, and await Divine direction. Many a time his circumstances
might seem to demand immediate action rather than prayer; and the rude
soldiery must have insisted on their voice being heard rather than a
priest’s; but David was not deterred by one or the other, and still held to
his practice of consulting the Urim and Thummim stone, set in the ephod;
which was probably a splendid diamond, flashing with God’s distinct “Yes,”
or growing cloudy and dark with his definite “No.”

Let us inquire of the Lord. The answer will surely come, if we wait for it.
If we are not sure of it, let us still wait, for it will come – not so early
as to save us from using our faith, not so late as to permit us to be
overwhelmed. Direction will come in the growing conviction of duty, in the
drift of circumstances, in the advice of friends, in the perceptions of a
sanctified judgment. None that wait on God can be ashamed. Whether our duty
be to arise and pursue, to sit still, or to escape – “the meek He will guide
in judgment; the meek He will teach his way.” He gives us a white stone in
which a name is written, which only they know who receive.
_________________________________________________________________

And David’s heart smote him. 1 Sam. xxiv. 5.

IT is well to have a tender conscience, and to obey its least monitions,
even when men and things militate against it. Here was an opportunity for
David and his band to end their wanderings and hardships by one thrust of
the spear; but though it was a very small thing that he had done, David was
struck with remorse for having taken advantage of Saul’s retirement in the
precincts of the cave, where his men and he were hiding, and cut off a piece
of his robe.

It was a trifling matter, and yet it seemed dishonouring to God’s anointed
king; and as such it hurt David to have done it. We sometimes in
conversation and criticism cut off a piece of a man’s character, or
influence for good, or standing in the esteem of others. Ought not our heart
to smite us for such thoughtless conduct? Ought we not to make confession or
reparation?

Circumstances seemed to favour it. – Of all the scores of caves in the
neighbourhood, the king had happened to choose the very one, in the dark
recesses of which David and his men were sheltering. What more natural than
to obtain some token to convince the king how absolutely he had been in his
young rival’s power? But favouring circumstances do not justify an act which
is not perfectly healthy and right. Opportunity does not make a wrong thing
right.

His men unanimously approved the act, nay, they wanted him to go further.
Their standard was a very low one, not only in this case, but in others. How
wonderful that David kept such a high ideal amid such comrades! We shall not
be judged hereafter by the standard which obtained among our comrades.
_________________________________________________________________

This shall be no grief unto thee. 1 Sam. xxv. 31.

THERE was an inimitable blending of woman’s wit with worldly prudence in the
words of the beautiful Abigail. Poor woman, she bad had a sorry life of it,
mated to such a man as Nabal was! An ill-assorted pair certainly, though
probably she had had no hand in bringing about the alliance. Like so many
Eastern women, she was the creature of another’s act and choice. But she
succeeded in averting the blow which David was hasting to inflict, by
asserting her belief that the time was not far distant when he would no
longer be a fugitive from his foes, and by suggesting that when that happy
time came it would be a relief to feel that he had not allowed himself to be
carried to all lengths by his hot passion.

It was very salutary advice. Let us always look at things from the
view-point of the future, when our passion shall have subsided, when time
shall have cooled us, and especially when we review the present from the
verge of the other world – how then?

We can well afford to do this since God is with us, and our life is bound up
with Him in the bundle of life. Abigail reminded David that God would do to

him all the good of which He had spoken, and would sling out his enemies as
from a sling. So God will do for us; not one good thing will fail of all
that He hath promised; no weapon that is formed against us shall prosper.
Within a little, Nabal was dead, and David’s wrong righted. So shall the
evil that now molests us pass away. God will deal with it. Let us leave it
to Him: before Him mountains shall melt like wax; and we shall have nothing
to regret.
_________________________________________________________________

Then said Saul, I have sinned. 1 Sam. xxvi. 21.

THE Apostle makes a great distinction, and rightly, between the sorrow of
the world and the sorrow of a godly repentance which needeth not to be
repented of. Certainly Saul’s confession of sin belonged to the former;
whilst the cry of the latter comes out in Psalm li., extorted from David by
the crimes of after years.

The difference between the two may be briefly summarized in this, that the
one counts sin a folly and regrets its consequences; whilst the other
regards sin as a crime done against the most Holy God, and regrets the pain
given to Him. “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in
thy sight.”

Obviously Saul’s confession was of the former description, “I have played
the fool.” He recognised the unkingliness of his behaviour, and the futility
of his efforts against David. But he stayed there, stopping short of a
faithful recognition of his position in the sight of God, as weighed in the
balances of eternal justice.

Many a time in Scripture do we meet with this confession. The Prodigal,
Judas, Pharaoh, David, and Saul, uttered it; but in what differing tones,
and with what differing motives! We need to winnow our words before God; not
content with using the expressions of penitence, unless we are very sure
that they bear the mint-mark of heaven, and deserve the master’s Beatitude,
“Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

When sin is humbly confessed, the Saviour assures us: “Thy sins, which are
many, are forgiven thee, go in peace.” “lf we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. ”
_________________________________________________________________

And David said, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. 1 Sam.
xxvii. 1.

WHAT a fit of despondency and unbelief was here! We can hardly believe that
this is he who in so many psalms had boasted of the shepherd care of God,
who had so often insisted on the safety of God’s pavilion. It was a fainting
fit, brought on by the bad air he had breathed amid the evil associations of
Adullam’s cave. Had not God promised to take care of him? Was not his future
already guaranteed by the promises that he should succeed to the kingdom?
But nothing availed to check his precipitate flight into the land of the
Philistines.

Bitterly he rued this mistake. The prevarication and deceit to which he was
driven; the anguish of having to march with Achish against his own people;
the sack and burning of Ziklag : these were the price he had to pay for his
mistrust. Unbelief always brings many other bitter sorrows in its train, and
leads the soul to cry,

“How long, Lord? Wilt Thou forget me for ever?

How long wilt Thou hide thy face from me?”

Let us beware of losing heart, as David did. Look not at Saul, but at God,
who is omnipotent; not at the winds and waves, but at Him who walks across
the water; not at what may come, but at that which is – for the gIorious
Lord is round about thee to deliver thee. He shall deliver thy soul from
death, thine eyes from tears, and thy feet from falling. He that has helped
will help. What He has done, He will do. God always works from less to more,
never from more to less. Dost thou not hear – hast thou not heard – his
voice saying, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee? What, then, can man
do unto thee? Every weapon used against thee shall go blunt on an invisible
shield!
_________________________________________________________________

Because thou obeyest not the voice of the Lord, therefore . . . 1 Sam.
xxviii. 18.

THUS unforgiven sin comes back to a man. We cannot explain the mysteries
that lie around this incident; but it is clear that in that supreme hour of
Saul’s fate, that early sin, which had never been confessed and put away,
came surging back on the mind and heart of the terror-stricken monarch.
“Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, and didst not execute his
fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee
This day. Moreover the Lord will deliver Israel also with thee into the
hands of the Philistines” (R.V.). But Saul did not realize that even then
the gates of God’s love stood open to him, if only he would pass through
them by humble penitence and faith. If instead of applying to the witch, he
had sought God’s mercy, light would have burst on his darkened path, and he
had never perished by his own hand on Mount Gilboa.

In strong contrast with this, let us put the assurance of the new covenant:
“Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” When God forgives, He
blots out from the book of his remembrance. The sin is gone as a pebble in
the ocean; as a cloud in the blue of a summer’s sky.

Saul’s was a sin of omission. The question was not what evil he had done,
but the good be had failed to do. Let us remember that we need pardon for
the sad lapses and failures of our lives, equally as for the positive
transgressions. And if such things are not forgiven, they will lie heavy on
our consciences when the shadows of death begin to gather around us. The New
Testament especially judges those who knew and did not do – the slothful
servant, the virgin without the oil, the priest that passed by on the other
side.
_________________________________________________________________

What do these Hebrews here? 1 Sam. xxix. 3.

IT was a very natural remark. The Philistines were going into battle with
the Hebrew king and his troops, and it was very anomalous that a strong body
of Hebrews should be forming part of the Philistine array. They had no
business to be there. The annoyance of the chief captains and lords that
surrounded Achish was natural enough. For long, probably, it had been
smouldering; now it broke out into flame.

It is very terrible when the children of the world have a higher sense of
Christian propriety and fitness than Christians themselves, and say to one
another, “What do these Hebrews here?” The word “Hebrew” means one that has
passed over – a separatist. The death of our Lord Jesus was intended to make
all his followers separatists. Through Him they have passed from death unto
life; they have been delivered out of the power of darkness and translated
into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. The appeal of his cross to us all is,
“Come out from among them, and be ye separate.” Too often, however, that
call is unheeded; and, for fear of man, we mingle with the ranks of the
enemies of our Lord.

If Christians attend the theatre; if Sunday-school teachers, elders or
deacons of a church, are found participating in the pleasures of the
ungodly; if the young Christian man is found loosely consorting with the
card-players of the smoking-room of an ocean steamer – may not the sneer go
round, “What do these Hebrews here? ” “What doest thou here, Elijah! ” is
the remonstrance of God. “What do these Hebrews here? ” that of the world,
which not unfrequently has a truer sense of propriety than God’s professing
followers.
_________________________________________________________________

David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. 1 Sam. xxx. 6.

HIS God! Doubtless the chronicler heard him say repeatedly, as he was so
fond of saying, “My God, my God. ” “I will say unto God, my rock, why hast
Thou forsaken me?” Though he had seriously compromised God’s cause, by the
failure of his faith, by consorting with Achish and the Philistines, by a
tortuous and treacherous policy, yet God was still his God; and, in the
supreme crisis which had overtaken him, he naturally betook himself to the
covert of those loving wings.

He encouraged himself. – He would go back on promises of forgiveness and
succour, which had so often cheered him in similar straits. He would recall
his songs in former nights as black as this, and therefore would have hope.
He would remember that he had been brought through worse trials; and surely
He who had helped him against Goliath and Saul would not fail him against
the Amalekites. Besides, he had probably left his dear ones in the
protection of the encamping angel; and though his faith might be tried, it
could not be entirely disappointed. In this way he encouraged himself. All
around was tumult and fear; but in God peace and rest brooded, as swans on a
tranquil lake. His men might speak of stoning him; his heart be greatly
distressed for wives and children; his life be in jeopardy: but God was a
very present help, “Why art thou cast down, and disquieted, my soul? Hope
thou in God.”

In similar circumstances, let us have resort to similar sources of comfort;
hide in God, and encourage ourselves in Him. It was in this spirit that John
Knox, when about to face death, said to his wife, “Read to me where I first
cast anchor.”
_________________________________________________________________

All the valiant men . . . 1 Sam. xxxi. 11, 12.

THIS was a noble and generous act. At the beginning of his reign, in the
early dawn of youthful promise and prowess, when he was the darling of the
nation, Saul had interposed to deliver their beleagured city. And now, as
the awful tidings of his defeat and suicide spread like fire through the
country, the men whom he had succoured remembered his first kingly act, and
showed their appreciation for his kindness by doing a strong and chivalrous
deed in rescuing his remains from dishonour. They could not help him, but
they could save his honour. When David heard of this act, he sent messengers
to the men of Jabesh-Gilead, thanking them for their chivalrous devotion to
the memory of the fallen king, and promising to requite the kindness as one
done to the entire nation, and to himself

Are we careful enough of the honour and name of our dear Lord? He has done
for us spiritually all that Saul did for Jabesh-Gilead, and more. He has
delivered our soul from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from
falling. Let us be swift to maintain the honour of his name among those who
are so apt at making it their scorn.

It was well that these men did not wait for others to act. Had they done so,
the body of Saul might have rotted piecemeal on the walls of the temple at
Bethshan. If they had left this act of reparation for Abner, or Ish-bosheth,
it would never have been done. There is no order of precedence, when a wrong
has to be righted, or a friend vindicated. The man who is next must act. Let
us strike into the fray, and count that our opportunity is warrant enough.
He who can, may.
_________________________________________________________________

Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives. 2 Sam. i. 23.

IT was very lovely and pleasant of David to say so. He had no hesitation, of
course, in saying this of his beloved Jonathan, every memory of whom was
very pleasant, like a sweet strain of music, or the scent of the spring
breeze; but he might have been excused for omitting Saul from the graceful
and generous epithets he heaped on the kindred soul of his friend. But death
had obliterated the sad, dark memories of recent days, and had transported
the Psalmist across the dream of years to Saul as he was when he was first
introduced to him. All that could be said in praise of the first Hebrew king
was crowded into these glowing lines – the courage, martial prowess,
swiftness to aid those who required help, his pleasantness and courtesy in
address.

This is the love of God, which He breathes into the hearts of his children.
They become perfect in love, as He is. “God commendeth his love towards us,
in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” It is God-like for
his children to love their enemies, bless those who curse them, and pray for
all who despitefully use and persecute them. Is such love ours? Do we
forbear from thinking evil? Do we look on the virtues more often than the
failures of our friends? Do we cast the mantle of forgiveness over the
injuries done to us, and dwell tenderly on the excellences of our foes? Such
is the love which never fails, but endures when faith has turned to
fruition, and hope has realized its dreams.

We need most of all a baptism of love. A piece of clay will become fragrant
if placed in contiguity to attar of roses. Let us lie where John did, on the
bosom of incarnate love, till we begin to love as he.
_________________________________________________________________

The men of Judah came, and there they annoited David king. 2 Sam. ii. 4.

THUS was David anointed a second time. Hitherto he had been the leader of a
troop; now he became king of his own tribe: and his kingdom clustered around
the ancient city of Hebron.

Typically, we learn that our blessed Lord will be acknowledged King of his
own people, the Jews, before He is accepted by the world at large. Now, his
kingdom is in mystery – it is in the Adullam stage. Men are gathering to Him
from all quarters; but as yet the world does not recognise it in their
political calculations. But ere long the Jews will recognise Him as King,
and then we may begin to expect his enthronement over the populations of the
globe. When they repent and are converted, times of repenting will come to
all the world.

Experimentally we are taught, that as each new department of our life
unfolds, we should give Christ a fresh coronation. The attitude which we
took up years ago, of complete consecration, must be applied perpetually to
each fresh development of experience. Each new step should be characterised
by a definite waiting on God, that there may be a fresh enduement of power,
a recharging of the spirit with his might. Was He King in the cave, then be
sure to acknowledge Him as such, now that you are called from obscurity into
the glare of noon. Whenever God says, by the circumstances of your life, Go
up; always kneel at the feet of Jesus, saying, “Lord, in the very little I
found my joy and strength in serving Thee only; and now, amid the greater
responsibility and publicity of my life, I desire to be thy earnest,
simple-minded, whole-hearted follower.”

Have you anointed Jesus as your King? Do not fail. Remember how near of kin
He is.
_________________________________________________________________

David wared stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul wared weaker. 2
Sam. iii. 1.

THE war between the flesh and the Spirit is Iong, but the end is sure. As
the Baptist said of Jesus, so must the flesh say of the Spirit, He must
increase; I must decrease. Sometimes, in the long strain of the war, our
spirit dies down. Will the bugle never cease to ring out its alarm? Will the
assaults never come, to an end? When shall we be able to lay aside sword and
breastplate, and to enter the land of rest? Oh to be able to say with the
Apostle, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have
kept the faith”!

Yet take heart. The assaults diminish in frequency and strength in
proportion as they are faithfully resisted. Each time you resist
successfully you will find it easier to resist. The strength of the
vanquished foe enters the vanquisher.

Moreover, ultimate victory is secured. ” Whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world,
even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God? ” (1 John v. 4, 5). It makes a great
difference to the soldier, when he belongs to an All-Victorious Legion, and
serves under a Captain that never lost a fight. And there can be no doubt as
to the issue in your heart or mine. “He must reign till He has put all
enemies under his feet.”

At any moment we may look for the sudden collapse of a great portion of the
confederacy of evil, which has so long menaced us; as when Abner suddenly
came to Hebron to give in his adhesion to David. What a hugh piece of cliff
fell that day into the sea! Expect the sudden collapse of evils which have
long troubled you.
_________________________________________________________________

As the Lord liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity. 2 Sam.
iv. 9.

IT was the mid-day of David’s life, and, looking back, he saw how good the
Lord had been to him. Step by step God had brought him up out of a horrible
pit, and from the miry clay, setting him upon a rock, and establishing his
goings. What need was there, then, that men should interfere to hasten the
unfolding of the Divine purposes? It had been his lifelong habit to wait.
Whatever he needed he looked to God to supply. Whatever difficulties blocked
his path, he looked to God to remove. Whatever men stood in his way, he
looked to God to deal with them. Twice in the wilderness he refused to take
Saul’s life. He had executed the Amalekite because he claimed to have slain
Saul on Gilboa. And, in pursuance of the same policy, he could have no
complicity in the act of the murderers of Ishbosheth, even though they made
his way clear to the throne of Israel.

Let God redeem thee out of all thine adversities. Do not lose heart or hope.
Do not put forth thy hand to snatch at any position or deliverance by an act
which might afterwards cause thee shame or sorrow. “Trust in the Lord, and
do good. Roll thy way upon the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall bring
it to pass. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him ” (Psa. xxxvii.
3-7, R.V.). He who turns glaciers to rivers that pass away, will remove all
thy difficulties and perplexities. He shall cause thee to inherit the land.
He will promote thee in due time, and give thee to see thy desire upon thine
enemies.He who redeemed thy soul by his most precious blood cannot fail
thee, however long He may tarry.Remember that He ever liveth, and loveth,
and reigneth
_________________________________________________________________

And David took him more wives out of Jerusalem. 2 Sam. v. 13.

THIS is terribly disappointing! According to the ideas of the surrounding
nations, the greatness of a monarch was gauged by the extent of his harem.
But the law of Moses put severe restraint on the multiplication of wives,
“that his heart turn not away ” (Deut. xvii. 17). It seems as though the
soul of David sank into sensual indulgence and luxuriance. It lost much of
its early hardihood and strength in consequence; and at this period of his
life those seeds were sown, which in after years brought forth such a
plentiful and terrible harvest of anguish, murder, and impurity, in his
family.

Few of us realize how much our character owes to the stern discipline to
which God subjects us. The only way to keep us healthy and vigorous is to
send us many a nipping frost, many a keen northern blast. The bleak hillside
breeds stronger natures than the warm sheltered valley. The difference
between Anglo-Saxon and Negro is largely wrought by temperature and soil.
The campaign, with its strain on every power of endurance, trains better
soldiers than the barracks. As David was a stronger, better man, when hunted
like a coney in the rocks of Engedi, so are we braced to a nobler life, when
all things seem against us.

Few of us can be trusted with unbroken happiness. God is compelled to
withhold what the flesh craves. But where prosperity has shone on your path,
be very careful not to abuse it. Consider it as indicating God’s loving
trust in you. He would rather convey his lesson in sunshine than in storm.
But walk carefully and humbly, looking to Him constantly for daily grace,
and never relaxing the girdle about the loin.
_________________________________________________________________

They set the Ark of God upon a new cart. 2 Sam. vi. 3.

THIS was their mistake. The Divine directions were explicit that the Ark of
the living God must be carried on the shoulders of living men. There would
have been no stumbling of oxen, no swaying of the Ark to falling, no need
for Uzzah to reach out his hand, if only this simple direction had been
obeyed. This breaking forth of God was to recall men to simple absolute
obedience to the rules and regulations that had been so explicitly laid down
in the Levitical code. It could not fall into disuse without grave loss to
the entire people. Better that one life should be sacrificed for
disobedience than that the whole nation should be impoverished for the
relaxation of that ancient law.

We are fond of bringing new carts to God. At every birthday we build the new
cart of good resolution, and place thereon the Ark of God. We will be
different, and on our fresh endeavours the Lord of Hosts shall ride; but we
must drive, and if needs be, steady the Ark. Ah! it is not long before the
oxen stumble, and Uzzah who drives is smitten to the dust of death.

God wants, not new carts, but the living shoulders of consecrated men. We
must live for Him, surrendering ourselves to his service; not driving, but
being driven; not conducting, but being impelled; not imposing our thoughts
on Him, but being willing to submit ourselves absolutely to Him. There is no
need to fear God, if only we will obey Him, and in obedience discover the
laws by which we may approach and serve Him. Then the power which otherwise
flames forth to destroy will become the useful servant of our faith, and we
shall be able to undertake great things for God.
_________________________________________________________________

Do as Thou hast said. 2 Sam. vii. 25.

THIS is the voice of a childlike faith.

Note what led to these words. – Nathan had just unfolded to the king all the
purposes of God’s heart towards him. That He would establish his throne,
deliver him from his enemies, and set up his dynasty to succeed him – this
and much else. David’s heart was full of joy and gladness – he knew that God
would not run back from his word; but he felt none the less the duty of
claiming the fulfilments of these guarantees. So it is with all the promises
of God; though they are Yea and Amen in Christ, it is requisite for us to
put our hand on them; plead them before God; and claim their fulfilment with
appropriating faith.

Notice the attitude in which David uttered these words. – “He sat before the
Lord.” Was not this the position of rest and trust? On another occasion, he
lay all night upon the earth (xii. 16), in an agony of prayer, because not
sure of God’s purpose, and hoping to turn God by the extremity of his
anguish. But there is a marvellous alteration in the tone of our prayer, so
soon as we can base it on the declared purposes of God. We enter into his
rest; we put ourselves in the current of his purposes; we sit before the
Lord.

Mark the blessedness of communion with God. – It is as a man talks with his
friend. We are not retired always to kneel when we pray, or to con over a
certain form of words; we can sit and talk with God, catching up his words
as they fall on our hearts, and reflecting them back on Him in praise, and
prayer, and happy converse. All true prayer originates in the declarations
of God’s love, to each of which we answer, Do as Thou hast said.
_________________________________________________________________

The silver and gold he had dedicated of all nations which he subdued. 2 Sam.
viii. 11.

DAVID might not build the temple, but he was bent on making provision for
it. Indeed, Solomon had never been able to do as he did, unless his father
had gathered these stores of gold and silver. Thus other men labour, and we
enter into their labours; but the accomplished building is credited by God
to each. He does not forget David when Solomon’s temple stands complete. The
reward is proportioned to each man’s service, according to his share.

It is a glorious thing when we not only defeat our foes, but get spoils out
of their overthrow which we can use for the service of God and man. It is as
possible for us as for David. Out of our failures, temptations, mistakes,
let us get the power of helping and directing others. In death Jesus won the
keys of death and Hades, and the power to become a merciful and faithful
High Priest; and now He ever liveth to make intercession for his people
(Heb. vii. 25).

But the main lesson of this chapter is the foreshadowing of God’s purpose,
that Gentiles should contribute to the building of his Temple. What was
literally true in the case of the temple of Solomon, is spiritually true of
the heavenly Temple, the Church. From every nation, and kindred, people and
tongue, souls are being gathered, who form a spiritual house, a holy Temple
in the Lord. The whole world is destined to contribute to that structure,
which is being prepared secretly and mystically, but shall ere long be
manifested in its full glory. It is very interesting to get this suggestion
from the chronicles of a nation so exclusive and haughty as the Jews. “They
shall come from the East and West . . . . ”
_________________________________________________________________

Thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. 2 Sam. ix. 7.

FOUR times in this chapter we are told of the lame man eating bread at the
royal table. But what are these facts recorded and repeated for, save to
accentuate the infinite blessings which come to us through the Divine love!

Mephibosheth had done nothing to merit the royal favour. Not a word is said
of his being well-

favoured and attractive. So far from that, he was lame on both his feet, and
probably a sickly invalid. In his own judgment he was worthless as a dead
dog. His state was impoverished; no deed of prowess could win David’s
notice; he was almost entirely at the mercy of his servant, Ziba. In these
respects there are many analogies to our own condition in the sight of God.
We are lame indeed; and, so far as we are concerned, it is quite impossible
that we should ever win the Divine regard, or sit at his table among his
sons.

But between David and Jonathan a covenant had been struck, which had
provided for the children of the ill-fated Jonathan (1 Sam. xx. 14-16). It
was because of this sacred obligation that Mephibosheth fared as he did.
Look away, child of God, to the covenant struck between God and thy
representative, the Son of his love. It is idle of thee to seek to
propitiate the Divine favour, or earn a seat at his table; but if thou art
willing to identify thyself with thy Lord, and to shelter thyself in Him by
the living union of faith; if thou canst base thy plea on the Blood of the
everlasting covenant – then the provisions of that covenant between Father
and Son shall be extended to thee: and because of God’s love to Jesus thou
shalt sit at the Divine table, and be regarded as one of the heirs of the
great King.
_________________________________________________________________

The Lord do that which seemeth Him good. 2 Sam. x. 12.

ISRAEL was arrayed against overwhelming odds. To human sight it must have
appeared very improbable that Joab would be able to hold his own. However,
he made the best arrangements he could; exhorted his men to be of good
courage and do their utmost; and then piously left the issue to the God of
battles.

There are times in all lives when the case seems desperate. How can we meet
with ten thousand him who cometh against us with twenty thousand! Heart and
flesh fail. What resource is there, then save in the flight of the lonely
man to the only God? It is for God to act, since the help of man is vain.

In your personal straits. – When patience is exhausted; when the last
handful is taken from the barrel; when complicated trials meet and hem you
in; when the iron gate and the keepers before the door appear to render
escape impossible – then look up, God is marching with reinforcements to
your aid.

In your work and war for God in the world. – We too often act and speak as
if success were to be won by the forces that we may be able to bring into
the field, whereas God asks us for nothing more than fidelity and the right
disposition of such forces as we can command; He will do all the rest.

In your outlook on the conflict between good and evil. – It is quite true
that there appears to be an infinite disparity between the one and the
other. But there are other forces in the field than appear. There is another
host of which God Himself is captain. When the enemy comes in like a flood,
the Spirit of the Lord lifts up the standard. “There is none like unto the
God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven to thy help.”
_________________________________________________________________

David tarried still at Jerusalem. 2 Sam. xi. 1.

AH! fatal dalliance in the arms of sensual ease! It led to David’s undoing.
It was the time of the year when kings generally went forth to the fight;
and in earlier days David would never have thought of leaving to Joab or
others the strain and stress of conflict when there were hard knocks to give
and take. Indeed, on more. than one occasion his followers had remonstrated
against his exposing the Light of Israel to the risks of the battlefield.
But now he sends Joab and his mighty men to fight against Ammon, while he
tarries securely at Jerusalem.In this fatal lethargy he betrays the
deterioration of his soul. Already the walls were broken down, and entrance
into the citadel was easy. We are not surprised to learn that as he
sauntered lazily on his palace roof in the sultry afternoon he was swept
away before the rush of sudden passion, and took the poor man’s ewe lamb to
satisfy the va-rant, hungry impulse which suddenly came to him.

Beware of hours of ease! Rest is necessary; times of recruiting and renewal
must come to us all; nature positively demands re-creation; but there must
be no neglect of known duty, no handing over to others of what we might and
could do ourselves, no tarrying behind the march of the troops when we
should go forth with them to the battle. Watch and pray, that ye enter not
into temptation. Be most on guard when not actively engaged against the
enemy. One unlocked gate may admit the foe to the citadel of the life, and
rob you of peace for all after-days. The luxury of the plains of Capua was
more fatal to the soldiers of Hannibal than the passage of the Alps.
_________________________________________________________________

And David went to Rabboh, and fought against it, and took it. 2 Sam. xii.
29.

VICTORY might seem to have been for ever forfeited after so great a fall. We
could not have been surprised had we been told that from this time onward
the course of David’s conquests had stayed. And yet this thought would be a
misconception of God’s dealings with the penitent. Where there is true
contrition, confession, and faith, He not only forgives, but restores; He
not only restores to the enjoyment of his favour, but reinstates in
opportunities of usefulness. So Jesus not only met the apostle who had
denied Him, and put him back into the old position of happy fellowship, but
gave him a commission to feed his sheep and lambs.

We have sometimes met backsliders who have doubted the possibility of their
forgiveness; or, if they have realized this, they have never dared to hope
that they could ever be what they had been. And so long as faith refuses to
believe in the perfect work of God’s love, it must inevitably take a back
seat. Let us seek for such an entire faith in God’s forgiving and restoring
love as to dare to believe that we are put again into the old place, and
allowed to anticipate the same victories as aforetime. “If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness” (1 John i. 9).

Directly David said, “I have sinned,” in the dash of a moment Nathan said,
“The Lord hath put away thy sin”; and when Joab sent tidings that Rabbah was
about to fall, David was permitted the honour of its final capture, though
it had been associated so closely with Uriah’s death. Where sin abounds
grace superabounds, and reigns through righteousness. Dare to believe this.
_________________________________________________________________

Then the king arose, and tare his garments, and lay on the earth. 2 Sam.
xiii. 31.

THROUGHOUT the incidents of this chapter, the soul of David touched the
bottom of the sea of anguish and remorse. The circumstances narrated were in
themselves sad enough; but there was a more bitter element in them for
David, because he knew that they were the harvest of which his own sin was
the seed. Here began to be fulfilled the sentence of God through Nathan,
“The sword shall never depart from thine house.”

He had broken up the peace of another’s home, and peace had quitted his
home, never to return. He had defiled the purity of Uriah’s wife, and the
purity of his own daughter had been trampled under foot. He had smitten
Uriah, and now Absalom had murdered Amnon. Through those awful hours when
the entire fate of the whole of his family seemed trembling in the balance,
he drank to the dregs the cup of bitterness. Oh, how true are the apostle’s
words: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth
to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the
Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

Sin resembles the Australian weed, which when once it is sown in the waters
will spread with such rapidity as to spoil their beauty, and choke their
flow. We must distinguish between the penal and natural results. The penal
were borne by Christ for us all, and are remitted for evermore; but the
natural remain even to forgiven penitents, as they did to David. Still,
God’s grace may transmute them into blessings, and cause pearls to grow
where before there had been gaping wounds. Ask God to take in hand the
natural consequences of your sins, and make them means of grace and
ennoblement.
_________________________________________________________________

Yet doth He devise means that his banished be not expelled from Him. 2 Sam.
xiv. 14.

THE means that David devised were really inadequate. He allowed his heart to
dictate to his royal sense of justice and rectitude, and permitted Absalom
to return to his country and home without one word of confession, one
symptom of penitence. The king was overmastered by the father; and the
result was disastrous. It shook the respect of his people, undermined the
foundations of just government, slackened the bands of every family in the
land, and confirmed Absalom in his wilful and obstinate career. “What!” said
he to himself, “does my father bid me come back without conditions? Does he
demand no confession or reparation? Then he condones my sin.”

Lot parents be warned. If your children disobey, and violate the rules of
your home, you have no right to treat them as you did before, until they
have owned their sin. You must insist on penitence, confession, and
reparation, though it take hours or days or even weeks of suffering and
pleading to bring it about.

Into what relief does David’s mistake throw God’s way of forgiveness and
salvation! Had he acted as David, and as so many wish us to believe, He
would have reinstated the human family in the Paradise of his love without
waiting for the work of the Mediator, or the confession of the prodigal. By
the arbitrary exercise of his sovereign will He might have wiped out the
record of our sins %without our concurrence. But it would have been to the
irreparable undoing of man. Hence it behoved Christ to suffer, by his blood
making an atonement for our sins, and by his Spirit bringing us to penitence
and confession.
_________________________________________________________________

Here am I, let Him do to me as seemth good unto Him. 2 Sam. xv. 26.

THERE is the patience of hope. We love to gird ourselves in the vehemence of
our self-will, to go where we choose, to rule the lives of others; but as
the years pass and our pride is humbled, the sinews of our strength
slackened, and the radiance of early prospects overcast, we are willing to
hand ourselves over to our Father, saying, “Behold, here am I; let Him do to
me as seemeth good unto Him.”

It was thus that Isaac was passive in the hands of Abraham. It was thus that
Jesus spoke to his Father, “I come to do thy will, my God.” It was thus that
the maiden who was blessed above women, answered the angel’s message. It was
thus that Paul, when urged not to go up to Jerusalem, avowed his willingness
to live or die, as the Lord might choose.

God is ever working upon us through circumstances; and, as in the present
case, sometimes He overrules the plottings of wicked men to fulfil his
Divine purpose. His will is sometimes brought to us in a cup which a Judas
holds to our lips. How blessed to be able to say, as we go forth to meet our
Father’s will, Behold, here am I! and to look beyond the plottings and
machinations of our enemies to One who loves us infinitely. Whatever He
permits must be good. Good, if driven as an exile from our home; good, if
exposed to the revilings of a Shimei; good, if the heart breaks in bitter
tears. All must be good which the good Lord permits or appoints. Many were
the afflictions of David, but out of them all he was delivered. When he had
learnt the lesson, the rod was stayed. God did not take away his mercy from
him. Thou too art in his hands, and He will certainly bring thee again, and
show thee the city and his habitation.
_________________________________________________________________

The king and all the people came weary, and refreshed themselves there. 2
Sam. xvi. 14.

A GREAT weariness falls often on our souls. We are wearied because of the
greatness of our way, and inclined to say there is no hope. Memory tires us,
perpetually casting up the record of past unfaithfulness and transgression.
The bitter way of the natural consequences of sin is toilsome and difficult
to the feet. We faint before the averted eve of former friends and the
pitiless criticism of foes. Longings for a vanished past, for life and love,
for purity and peace, grind heavily in the soul. Our King has known
something of human weariness, though not from all the sources that cause it
in his subjects.

But amid the presence of our weariness the voice of God may be heard saying,
“This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, and this is the
refreshing.” There is rest for weary souls beneath the shadow of the cross,
in the sight of which the burden rolls away. There is rest and refreshment
as we sit in the banqueting house of Christ’s manifested and realized
affection. There is refreshment as we eat of his flesh and drink of his
blood; as we yield our will to his; as we sit with Him in heavenly places.
We assuredly find Him to be “a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from
the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land” (Isa. xxxii. 2).

There is no hill Difficulty without its arbour; no desert without its oasis;
no sultry heat without its shadow of a great rock; no weariness without its
pillow ; no intolerable sorrow without its solace; no weariness without its
refreshment; no failure of man without a very present help in God.
_________________________________________________________________

Arise, and pass quickly over the water. 2 Sam. xvii. 21.

THE water of Jordan may serve as an illustration for our position. Our David
has passed over the waters of death and in doing so has taken us with Him.
There is a sense in which in the morning light of Easter Day all who
believed passed over with Him, so that “by the morning light there lacked
not one of them that was not gone over Jordan.”

We all hold the doctrine of Substitution. Do we sufficiently realize that of
Identification? Not only did Jesus die for us, but we died with and in Him.
In Him, as the true Noah’s Ark, the whole Church passed over the Jordan of
death from the old world to the new. There are some who do not understand
that in the purpose of God we are already standing on resurrection ground.
Across the water we can hear the murmur of the world, and detect its
corruption; but we are the inheritors of the world in which there is no
death nor corruption nor the dominion of sin. When a man realizes this he no
longer braces himself up to meet death, because he knows that in the person
of Christ he has left it behind for ever.

What is true, however, in God’s purpose should be the aim and goal of our
daily striving. To us there comes the unceasing call, “Arise, and go over
Jordan.” There is always a thither and a hither side for every experience
and act. We may always do as the world does; this is to stay on the death
side. We may always do as Christ does; this is to pass over to the risen and
living side. Reckon that you have died, and mortify the deeds of your body.
“And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is
life because of righteousness. ”
_________________________________________________________________

Wherefore wilt thou run? . . . Come what may, said he, I will run. 2 Sam.
xviii. 22, 23 (R.V.).

MOAB did not love David, as Ahimaaz did, and could not understand what made
the young man so eager to carry the tidings. Doubtless Ahimaaz and Cushi
entirely misinterpreted the heart of David, and thought that he would be
glad to hear that the rebellion was stamped out, and Absalom was dead. And
it was because of the pleasure which he thought to give his king that the
swift-footed son of Zadok pleaded for permission to run. What though there
would be no reward, or that it would fall to the lot of Cushi, who had
already started at Joab’s command – that mattered not, the love of David
constrained him.

How often that question of reward is thrown at the servants of God! It is
one of the favourite taunts of the world; as Satan said of Job, that we do
as we do because we are paid. “Doth Job serve God for nought?” And nothing
so startles men as disinterested service. They cannot account for it; but it
wins their respect. “Reward or no reward; recompense or none; smiles or
tears, come what may, let me run.” That is the spirit that becomes a
Christian, and convinces the world. “The love, of Christ constraineth us.”

Ahimaaz outran Cushi. The one was a volunteer for love’s dear sake; the
other, a bond-servant, doing as he was told. Love lent wings to his feet,
and speeding past his fellow bore him first into David’s presence. So God’s
will is done in heaven: “The cherubim ran and returned like a flash of
lighting.” So God’s will is done on earth: “They departed quickly from the
tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring his disciples word. And
behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail!”
_________________________________________________________________

The King is near of kin to us. 2 Sam. xix. 42.

THERE are two derivations for the word king: one from the word can – the
king is the man that can do things; the other from the word kin – the king
is closely related to us, of our kith and kin. In either case, there is a
beautiful meaning, as touching our Lord and Saviour. He is King, because He
has overcome our enemies, and can overcome. He is King, because He has taken
on Himself our flesh and blood, and has for ever made us one with Himself.
The King is our kinsman. Our kinsman is King.

It is very comforting to know how really our Lord has identified Himself
with us. The Gospels are full of the wonderful story. His kinship was
manifested in –

His Prayers. – He bade us speak to God as our Father; in that marvellous
possessive pronoun, not only Iinking us all to one another, but including
Himself in our petitions, save when we ask for forgiveness.

His Infirmities. – “We have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities.” His hunger and thirst; his weariness and
exhaustion; his suffering unto death – all accentuate the closeness of the
tie between us.

His Temptation. – “In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
The avenues through which the tempter could approach Him were those by which
He assails us also. No temptation took Him, but such as is common to man. So
to every lonely soldier of his He draws near, saying, “Be of good cheer; I
have passed through it all. I am your brother in the fight; I feel for you
with a quick sympathy; the glories of my throne do not alter my true-hearted
love.”
_________________________________________________________________

The men of Judah clave unto their King. 2 Sam. xx. 2.

WE are reminded of the exhortation of the good Barnabas, that with purpose
of heart the converts of Antioch should cleave unto the Lord. This is the
test of a true faith. We often come to the dividing of the paths. We stand
on the watershed of the hills: that way leads back to Moab with its
fascinations; this on to Canaan with its spiritual attractions. Orpah and
Ruth must choose. Each is equally profuse in speeches and tears; but the
ultimate test of love is whether they will stay or go. Which will cleave to
the widowed Naomi? She is the truest lover; her fidelity will attest the
fervour and strength of her affection. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, and
returned to her people and her gods, while Ruth “clave unto her.”

We must cleave to Jesus, in spite of the derision of the multitude. We must
be prepared to stand with Him when He stands alone, or goes forth alone to
die. We must be willing to stem the mighty tide of the world which has left
Him and pours past us. Though all forsake Him, yet we must cleave.

We must cleave to Jesus, in spite of the rebellion of the flesh. Our whole
nature may sometimes rise in insurrection, demanding some forbidden fruit.
It is no child’s play then for the lonely will to stand by itself in
unshaken fidelity and loyalty; but it must.

We must cleave to Jesus when He seems to rebuff us. Only those who can stand
so sharp an ordeal, are exposed to it. But sometimes we are called to pass
through it as Job, that angels may learn how Christ’s lovers cling to Him,
not for his gifts, but for Himself.
_________________________________________________________________

Because he slew the Gibeonites. 2 Sam. xxi. 1.

THE Gibeonites were under the protection of a special covenant, which had
been entered into between them and Joshua. That covenant was the outcome of
a ruse on their part. But since it had been most solemnly made by the
leaders of Israel, it held good. The fact of their deceit and chicanery
could not absolve Israel from the oath which had been passed for their
safety. For centuries the provisions of this covenant had been observed,
till Saul invaded them, and slew the Gibeonites. This was a grievous sin,
which, according to the religious light of the time, seemed to demand blood;
and David proposed to atone for blood by blood. Nothing but blood could
atone for sin so black and dark.

We are also protected by a covenant, into which the Father has entered with
the Son, not for our worthiness or merit, but only because He would. The
provisions of that covenant engage to take us to be his people, to remember
our sins no more, and to make the Divine law the object of our love (Heb.
viii.). And the argument is irresistible, that if man is so mindful of a
covenant as to feel that its infraction is a sin which can only be expiated
by blood-shedding, it is impossible to suppose that God will ever run back
from his.

my soul, thou mayest rest secure in this: here is an everlasting rock; this
foundation shall suffice thee for evermore. Thou art in the Son of his love.
Though thou art sinful and evil, yet thou art included in the covenant which
is more lasting than that of day and night. Jesus has met its conditions on
thy behalf, and has undertaken to secure thy obedience and holiness.
_________________________________________________________________

Thy gentleness hath made me great. 2 Sam. xxii. 36.

THE triumph of God’s gentle goodness will be our song for ever. In those far
distant ages, when we look back on our earthly course, as a grown man on his
boyhood, and when the words of this Psalm shall express our glad emotions,
we shall recognise that the Hand which brought us thither was as gentle as
our mother’s; and that the things we craved, but faileth to receive, were
withheld by his gentle goodness. Our history tells what gentleness will do.

The Apostle besought the Corinthian converts by the gentleness of Christ (2
Cor. x. 1). Though there were abuses amongst them that seemed to call for
stringent dealing, he felt that they could be best removed by the gentle
love which he had learned from the heart of Christ. The wisdom which is from
above is gentle as well as pure; and in dealing with the sin that chokes our
growth, it is probable that gentleness will do more than severity. The
gentleness of the nurse that cherishes her children; of the lover to her
whom he cherishes above himself; of the infinite love which bears and
endures to the uttermost – is the furnace before which the foul ingredients
of our hearts are driven never to return. We might brave the lion; we are
vanquished by the Lamb. We could withstand the scathing look of scorn; but
when the gentle Lord casts on us the look of ineffable tenderness, we go out
to weep bitterly.

That He has borne with us so lovingly; that He has filled our lives with
mercy even when compelled to correct; that He has never altered in his
tender behaviour towards us; that He has returned our rebuffs and slights
with meekness and forbearance; that He has never wearied of us – this is an
everlasting tribute to the gentleness that makes great.
_________________________________________________________________

As the light of the morning when the sun riseth, a morning without clouds. 2
Sam. xxiii. 4.

THE dealings of God with man are compared to morning light, and the
sprouting of tender grass in the sunshine that follows rain. The one may
refer to youth, and the other to age. In each there is sunlight: in the one
case it is before the clouds have gathered; in the other after they have
dispersed.

Clouds. – There are many different sorts: the cirrus, like platines in the
sky; the cumulus, in heaps, like the summits of distant mountains; the
strata, or long bars; the nimbus, heavy with shower. There is a counterpart
for each in human life, without which we should miss much of those
experiences of light and shade that so frequently reveal the nature of the
light. We should not know God’s comfort and very present help, if it were
not for the clouds which are born in the marsh-lands of trouble. Who does
not prefer the changeful beauty of an English spring to the unclouded blue
of Italian skies?

The Light of the Morning. – The love of God steals over hearts as the dawn.
He is the Rock; but his advent breaks gently as light. So God’s love came to
Lydia, whose heart opened as a flower its petals. This makes it difficult
for some of us to decide the moment of our regeneration; only we know that,
once darkness, we are now light in the Lord.

Clear Shining after Rain. – We all know something of cloud and rain. If we
did not, our lives would be arid as a desert. Rain is necessary to fructify
the seeds that lie buried in the soil but clear shining is needed too. Times
of joy are needed equally as those of sorrow. The tender grass is the child
of rain and sun. Hast thou had tears, thou shalt have smiles! Hast thou had
clouds and rain, thou shalt have clear shining!
_________________________________________________________________

Neither will I offer burnt offerings . . . of that which doth cost me
nothing. 2 Sam. xxiv. 24.

GOD’S love to us cost Him something. He spared not his own Son, and that Son
spared not his blood. But how little our love to Him costs us! Let us
understand that where there is true, strong love to Jesus, it will cost us
something. Love is the costliest of all undertakings.

It will cost us Self-denial. Christ and self are perfectly incompatible; to
have the one we must be prepared to surrender the other. The heart subtly
schemes to hold both; but it does not deceive Christ. He knows in a moment
when we have preferred to spare ourselves and to sacrifice Him, or to obey
Him and sacrifice ourselves. We know it also. At first we may find it an
effort to count all things but loss for Him; but as we go on doing it, and
drink in the fresh air that breathes about the mountains of self-denial –
above all, as we see the smile of pleasure on his face – our hearts leap
with joy, and we love to give Him everything, not thinking of the cost, any
more than Mary did when she broke the alabaster box of very precious
ointment. After all, it is but fitting that we offer our bodies “a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.”

It will cost us Companionships. Those who knew us will pass us with averted
faces. It will cost us hard-earned money; for we shall realize that we have
no property in anything that we possess. It will cost us high repute amongst
our fellows. But what shall we mind if we gain Christ? You cannot give up
for Him without regaining everything you have renounced, but purified and
transfigured. Did not the Lord say so? And did He not add a hundredfold,
with persecution. Let us heartily respond, “Lord, Thou knowest all things:
Thou knowest that I love Thee! ”
_________________________________________________________________

As the Lord liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress. 1 Kings
i. 29.

“IN my distress I called on the Lord, and cried to my God.” Never let there
be distress without its cry. He will hear your voice out of his temple, and
your cry will come before Him even into his ears. He will answer, and set
you in a large place. There is even a gain to be won from distress, because
it brings out new phases of Christ’s redemptive help.

God redeemed David from the calumny of those who maligned him without cause.
In so many of his psalms he refers to the unjust and cruel hatred which
misrepresented him and his doings. But God, to whom he committed his cause,
vindicated him, so that his righteousness shone as the light, and his
judgment as the noonday. So He will do for you. Those who now lay all manner
of unkind charges to your door, will be compelled to admit your innocence.
Only leave your cause with God, and be still.

God redeemed David from all the afflictions that shadowed his early days:
from his wanderings in the wilderness; from his hairbreadth escapes in the
eaves; from meeting his death on many a terrible battlefield. We hardly
realize, just now, how much we owe to the Angel of God’s redemption, who is
ever beside us, environing us with careful love, so that no evil may
approach us, or snare take our feet. Our pathway is thick with shares and
dangers, as the pilgrims found it when journeying through the valley of the
shadow; but there is a way out, and in the morning we shall marvel to see
how we escaped.

God redeemed David’s life from destruction. This was the greatest miracle of
all, when we consider the strong passions that slumbered within him,
breaking out whenever he broke loose from God’s grace.
_________________________________________________________________

That the Lord may continue his word. 1 Kings ii. 4.

HOW strongly David held to God’s promise! It was deeply graven in his soul.
How could he forget the word which guaranteed the succession of his race
upon the throne of Israel! At the same time be distinctly recognised that
the fulfilment was conditional. There was an if in it. It was only in so far
as his children took heed to walk before God in truth that God was bound to
place them on the throne of Israel; therefore he urged Solomon to keep the
charge of the Lord, that the Lord might continue his word. We also must obey
the threefold condition if we would enjoy a continuance of God’s helpful
care.

1. Be thou strong. – The strength which is in Jesus Christ waits to make us
strong. In the Lion of the tribe of Judah there is the boldness which will
not swerve in the face of the foe. Timid women and little children in the
days of persecution have waxed valiant in the fight, and have not flinched
from death, because Jesus was beside them.

2. Keep the charge of the Lord thy God. – He has committed to our care many
a sacred deposit, in return for our deposit with Him (2 Tim. i. 12, 14;
R.V., marg.). They are his holy Gospel, the Rest Day, the doctrines of the
Evangelical Faith, and the Inspired Word. Let us watch them until we see
them weighed out in the temple as were the sacred vessels which Ezra
committed to the priests for transport across the desert (Ezra viii. 33).

3. Keep his statutes and commandments. – We must obey with reverent care the
one great law of love, which includes all the rest. Acting thus, we shall
put ourselves in the way of enjoying a continuance of that favour which God
has promised.
_________________________________________________________________

I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked. 1 Kings iii. 13.

THE understanding heart was Solomon’s supreme request, and it was given him
before the morning light had broken over Jerusalem. But God did exceeding
abundantly beyond what he asked or thought. Riches and honour, victory and
long life, were thrown in as part of the Divine gift; as paper and string
are given by the tradesmen with the goods we purchase. It seems as though
our Lord’s words were anticipated, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Put first things first. – One of the most important lessons of life is to
discern the relative value of the

objects within our reach. The child will take the handful of glass beads,
and leave the heap of diamonds in the rough. It is the terrible mistake of
men that, perplexed by earth’s cross-lights, they put evil for good and good
for evil; they make earth rather than heaven their centre; time rather than
eternity their measurement.

Seek God and all things in Him. – Things without God cannot satisfy the
craving of the soul. To know God, and to be known by Him, is to possess all
things. All that is lovely, strong, or right, in any human being was in the
Creator before it entered the creature; having God, you possess all things
in Him.

Be more careful of what you are than what you have. – A man’s life
consisteth not in the abundance of things that he possesseth; but in his
purity, truth, tenderness, and the properties of his soul. The fruit of the
Spirit must ever be manifest in the life of the believer – “Love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.”
_________________________________________________________________

Largeness of heart. 1 Kings iv. 29.

WE must all admit that our soul is too narrow. It holds too little, knows
too little, is deficient in willpower, and, above all, in capacity of love;
and when we are called to run in the way of God’s commandments, we break
down in despair, and cry, “If I am to be a runner, Thou must first enlarge
my heart.”

How little we know of the experience which Madame Guyon describes when she
says: “This vastness or enlargedness, which is not bounded by anything,
increases every day; so that my soul in partaking of the qualities of her
Spouse seems also to partake of his immensity.”

“There is,” remarks one of the old Puritans, “a straitness, slavery, and
narrowness, in all sin; sin crumples up our souls; which, if they were
freely spread abroad, would be as large and wide as the whole universe. No
man is truly free; but be that hath his will enlarged to the extent of God’s
will, by loving whatsoever God loves, and nothing else, he enjoys boundless
liberty, and a boundless sweetness.” God’s love embraces the universe. He
“so loved the world that He gave his only-begotten Son.” We who have
partaken of the Divine nature must also love as He does.

Thomas a Kempis says, finally: “He who desires glory in things outside of
God, or to take pleasure in some private good, shall many ways be encumbered
and straitened; but if heavenly grace enter in, and true charity, there will
be no envy, neither narrowness of heart, neither will self-love busy itself,
for Divine charity overcometh all things, and enlargeth all the powers of
the soul.” Give unto us, God, this largeness of heart, even as the sand that
is on the sea-shore I
_________________________________________________________________

Now the Lord my God hath given me rest on every side. 1 Kings v. 4.

GOD is the Rest-Giver, When He surrounds us on every side with his
protecting care, so that our life resembles one of the cities of the
Netherlands in the great war – inaccessible to the foe because surrounded by
the waters of the sea, admitted through the sluice – then neither adversary
nor evil occurrent can break in, and we are kept in perfect peace, our minds
being stayed on God.

“Hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand,

Never foe can enter, never traitor stand.

Have you experienced the rest which comes by putting God round about you, on
every side – like the light which burns brightly on a windy night because
surrounded by its four panes of clear glass! Ah! what a contrast between the
third and fourth verse: Wars on every side; Rest on every side. And yet the
two are compatible, because the wars expend themselves on God, as the waves
on the shingle; and there are far reaches of rest within, like orchards and
meadows and pasture-lands beyond the reach of the devastating water.

Out of such rest should come the best work. We are not surprised to find
Solomon announcing his purpose to build a house unto the name of the Lord.
Mary, who sat at the feet of Jesus, anointed Him. Out of quiet hearts arise
the greatest resolves; just as from the seclusion of country hamlets have
come the greatest warriors, statesmen, and patriots. Men think, foolishly,
that the active, ever-moving souls are the strongest. It is not so, however.
They expend themselves before the day of trial comes. Give me those who have
the power to restrain themselves and wait; these are they that can act with
the greatest momentum in the hour of crisis.
_________________________________________________________________

There was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard. 1 Kings vi.
7.

IN absolute silence, like the growth of a palm in the desert, that noble
building arose in the symmetry of its fair proportions. But there was plenty
of quarrying and hammering and chiselling before the materials were brought
to the site.

The absolute silence with which the Temple rose is a meet emblem of the
progress of the Church, from its foundations laid in the Apostolate towards
the top stone, which before very long will be laid upon the completed
structure. Amid the rise and fall of dynasties and empires, the Church is
being built. Soul after soul, as so many added bricks, is being quietly
placed upon the walls. Some day the world will be amazed when it sees the
New Jerusalem descend out of heaven from God. The mightiest works of God are
the fruit of silence.

You and I are now in the quarry, hewn, chipped, chiselled: or we are in the
saw-pit, being sawn, planed, pierced by nails. Be of good cheer! It will not
be long, the preparatory work will be over, and we shall become part of the
eternal structure. Into heaven there can enter neither hammer, nor axe, nor
any tool of iron. The trial will have done its work. Sorrow and crying will
flee away. The apostle Paul, who knew more than any man what trial and pain
meant, could confidently declare: “I reckon that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us.” Then shall the city of God shine forth in completed beauty,
her walls Salvation and her gates Praise; and the triumphant song of the
redeemed shall ring forth: “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be
unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”
_________________________________________________________________

In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them. 1 Kings vii. 46.

THE Apostle tells us to obey from the heart that mould or form of doctrine
to which we were delivered (Rom. vi. 17). What a mould is to the metal which
is wrought into various forms of utensils, that the form of sound doctrine
is to believers who desire to resemble Christ. When our hearts, melted in
contrition and penitence, are poured into the teaching of the Apostles, to
ponder it in memory, and to carry it out in life, they are, so to speak,
cast into the pattern of Jesus Christ, which they wear for evermore. Thus we
are conformed to the image of his Son.

We differ as widely as the vessels named here. Some are lavers, and some
bases; some shovels, and some basons. It matters little what shape we bear;
so long as we are cleansed and meet for the Master’s use. Each vessel in
Solomon’s temple filled its own niche. The machinery of the whole would have
been hindered if one had been missing. Be content with the shape which the
Great Designer hath intended for thee. Yield to it. Dare to pour thyself
into the dark passages of the mould. Do not ask the intention of this or
that. Obey from the heart, otherwise thou mayest have to be broken up, and
put back again into the furnace to go through the process once more. This is
the Plain of the Jordan for us, the place of death; but soon we shall be
remitted to the Palace and Temple of God.

There is no clue to the understanding of the mysteries of our mortal life,
save the hypothesis, that we are being prepared for the position which has
been prepared for us in the eternal world. “And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God.”
_________________________________________________________________

That he maintain the cause of his servant, as every day shall require. 1
Kings viii. 59 (R.V.).

THE marginal (R. V.) reading is, “The thing of a day in its day.” What rest
would come into our lives, if we really believed that God maintained the
cause of his servants! Men hate you, and say unkind or untrue things about
you; on your part, though you are quite prepared to admit that you have made
mistakes, yet you know that you desire above all things to act as God’s
servant should, that your motives are sincere, and your hands clean – be of
good courage then: God will maintain your cause, as every day may require.

Or, you are beset by strong competition; and, in order to hold your own, you
have been tempted to do what is not perfectly the best – to spice your
teaching with a little heterodoxy, puff your wares with misleading titles,
to adulterate your goods. But there is no need to do this; if only you are
faithful to God, He will maintain your cause, as every day may require.

Or, you are tempted almost beyond endurance, and think that you must yield.
The seductions are so insidious, the pitfalls so carefully concealed, the
charm of evil so subtle. But, if you will only look away to God, you will
find Him a very present help to maintain your cause. Oh, trust Him; for none
of them that do so can be desolate. Daily strength for daily need; daily
manna for daily hunger; daily maintenance for daily temptation. These are
assured.

As we stand on the hill-top in the morning and look across the valley of the
coming day, its scenes are too closely veiled in heavy-hanging mists for us
to specify all our requests. We can breathe the comprehensive petition,
“Give us this day our daily bread.” And God will suit his help to each
requirement. As the moment arrives “the thing” will be there.
_________________________________________________________________

I have hallowed this house which thou hast built. 1 Kings ix. 3.

MAN builds; God hallows. This co-operation between man and God pervades all
life. Man performs the outward and mechanical; God the inward and spiritual.
Paul plants, Apollos waters; but God gives the increase. We elaborate our
sermons and addresses, building them up with careful, eager thought; but God
must work in and through them for his own glory in the salvation and
upbuilding of souls. We must be careful to do our part with reverence and
godly fear, remembering that God must work in realms we cannot touch, and to
issues we cannot reach, before our poor exertions can avail.

May we not apply this especially to the education of a child’s life? Many
who read these lines are engaged in building structures which will outlive
the Pyramids. The body is only the scaffolding, behind and through which the
building of the soul is being upreared. The materials with which we build
may be the gold, silver, and precious stones, of our example, precept,
careful watching, and discipline; but God must come in to hallow. Our
strenuous endeavour must be supplemented by the incoming of the Holy Spirit.

God hallows by his indwelling. Holiness is the result of his putting his
Name into a place, a day, a human soul; for his Name is his nature, Himself.
Each day may be a building, reared between sunrise and sunset, with our
activities; but it were vain to hope to realize our ideal unless the
structure become a Temple filled with God. Build what you will; but never be
satisfied unless God sets his eyes and heart upon your life, hallowing and
sanctifying each day and act to Himself.
_________________________________________________________________

Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee. 1 Kings x. 9.

THERE were two reasons why Solomon was on the throne. First, because of
God’s love to him; secondly, because of God’s love to Israel. May we not
address our Saviour with similar expressions of gladness as those which the
queen addressed to a less than He?

How well it is, now and again, to let ourselves go in exuberant adoration!
Prayer is good, but it may revolve too largely about our own needs and
desires: thanks are right, when we have received great benefits at his
hands; but praise is best, because the heart forgets itself and earth and
time, in enlarged conceptions of its adorable Lover and Saviour.

We are reminded in this connection of a noble hymn by old John Ryland: –

“Thou Son of God, and Son of Man,

Beloved, adored Emmanuel,

Who didst, before all time began,

in glory with thy Father dwell:

“We sing thy love, who didst in time,

For us, humanity assume,

To answer for the sinner’s crime,

To suffer in the sinner’s room.

“The ransomed Church thy glory sings,

The hosts of heaven thy will obey;

And, Lord of lords, and King of kings,

We celebrate thy blessed away.”

We can never praise Him enough. Our furthest thoughts fall short of the
reality. His wisdom and prosperity exceed his fame. No question He cannot
answer; no desire He cannot gratify; no munificence He cannot excel. Happy
are they who stand continually before Him. Let us see that this is our happy
privilege; not content to pay Him a transient visit, returning to our own
land, but communing with Him always of that wh)ich is in our heart.
_________________________________________________________________

His wives turned away his heart. 1 Kings xi. 4.

EVERY man is vulnerable at one point of his character. Strong everywhere
else, and armour-plated, he is weak there; and our great enemy knows just
where to strike home. It would have been useless to argue with Solomon for
the claims of idols. He could at once, by his wisdom, have annihilated all
infidel arguments, and have established the existence and unity of God. But,
step by step, he was led by silken cords, a captive, to the worship of other
gods. It is a solemn warning; and Nehemiah was perfectly justified when, in
his contention with the Jews who had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and
of Moab, he said, “Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things! Yet
among many nations there was no king like him who was beloved of his God. ”

Let young people beware where they let their hearts go forth in love. Whom
we love we resemble; and in the marriage tie it is almost inevitable that
seductions to the lower will overcome the drawings to the higher. When a
Christian disobeys God’s distinct command against intermarriage with the
ungodly, he begins to sink to the level of his ungodly partner whom he had
thought to raise to his own religious standing.

Our associates determine the drift and current of our life. It is so easy to
launch upon the current that flows past our feet; it seems impossible that
the laughing, enticing water should ever carry us against sharp, splintering
rocks, or over breaking cataracts. When we are compelled to associate with
the ungodly, let us maintain a strict self-watch, and pray that the breath
of the heavenward gale may more than counteract the tendency of the
earthward current.
_________________________________________________________________

The month which he had devised of his own heart. 1 Kings xii. 33.

JEROBOAM acted on expediency. It did seem reasonable to argue that the
constant going up to Jerusalem to worship might alienate the people from his
throne, and awaken a desire for the old national unity; and without doubt a
mere worldly wisdom extolled his setting-up of idol-gods at Bethel and Dan;
but his policy in this respect led to the downfall of his kingdom. Had he
trusted God’s promise, made through the prophet Ahijah, the Divine purpose
would have ensured the continuance of his rule; but the prompting of
expediency resulted in ultimate disaster (ch. xiv).

How prone we all are to devise out of our own hearts! We take counsel with
ourselves, and do what seems prudent and far-seeing, with the inevitable
result of being betrayed into courses of action that God cannot approve, and
of which we have reason to repent bitterly. It is infinitely better to wait
on God till He develop his plan, as He most certainly will, when the
predestined hour strikes. He who trusts in his own heart, and takes his own
way, is a fool. To run before God is to sink knee-deep into the swamp. We
must make all things after the pattern shown us on the Mount, and take our
time from God’s almanack. What a contrast to the course of Jeroboam was that
of the Son of man! He would do nothing of Himself. His eye was always on His
Father’s dial-plate, and thus He knew when his time was not yet fulfilled.
He was always consulting the movement of his Father’s will, and did only
those things which He saw his Father doing. Similarly make God’s will and
way thy Pole-star. Oh to be able to say with our blessed Lord, “I seek not
mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me “!
_________________________________________________________________

Forasmuch as thou hast been disobedient, . . . but camest back. 1 Kings
xiii. 21, 22 (R.V.).

WE are inclined at first sight to pity this unknown prophet, and to justify
his return; but as we look closer into the story, we not only discover the
reason for the severe penalty that overtook him, but we are warned lest we
make a similar mistake. When we have received a direct command fresh from
the lips of Christ, we must act on it, and not be turned aside by a
different suggestion, made to us through the lips of professing Christians.
God does not vacillate or alter in the thing which proceeds from his mouth.
When we know we are in the line of his purpose, we must not allow ourselves
to be diverted by any appeal or threat, from whomsoever it may emanate. Deal
with God at first-hand.

The rule for determining the true worth of the advice which our friends
proffer us, is to ask, first, whether it conflicts with our own deep-seated
conviction of God’s will; and, secondly, whether it tends to the ease and
satisfaction of the flesh, as the old prophet’s suggestion certainly did.
Beware of any one who allures you with the bread and water that are to break
your fast. That bait is likely enough to disturb the balance of your
judgment. When a voice says spare thyself, be on the alert; it savours the
things that be of man, not of those that be of God.

Learn to deal with God at first-hand. Do not run hither and thither to human
teachers, or to the Church. Be still before God, and what He says in the
depths of thy soul, do. His Holy Spirit shall guide you into all truth; and
when once his way has been revealed to thee, go straight on, listening to no
other voice, however much it professes Divine inspiration.
_________________________________________________________________

I am sent to thee with heavy tidings. 1 Kings xiv. 5.

HOW foolish! Jeroboam thought that the old prophet could penetrate the vail
that hid the future, but not the disguise in which his wife wished to
conceal herself. As we might have expected, the aged prophet’s inner sight
read her heart. From God no secrets are hid. Immediately on his accosting
her by her name there came the dread announcement of inevitable disaster.

We must not hesitate to unfold all the consequences of sin. As watchmen on
the walls, we are bound to tell men of the certain fearful looking for of
fiery indignation which shall devour the transgressors. None of us should
flinch from declaring the whole counsel of God. We should specially insist
on the guilt side of sin. Not only that it is a misfortune, a mistake, an
error, a disease, a tyranny; but a crime. The sinner is a criminal, who has
incurred the just wrath and anger of a holy God: for which he must suffer a
due recompense.

Oh for more tenderness that we may with tears warn men of their doom! We are
so self-possessed, so stolid ; we need to ask that our eyes, like
Jeremiah’s, should be fountains of tears, that we might weep day and night.
If the tidings are heavy, let us first feel their pressure on our own
hearts; let us bend over the regions of despair and darkness, and hear the
bitter weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and come back to warn our
brethren, lest they also come to that place of torment. Though it was with
fear and much trembling that Paul preached the Gospel, yet he did not shun
to declare the whole counsel of God. And while we go to men with the good
tidings of salvation, we must not withhold the heavy tidings from those who
persist in unbelief
_________________________________________________________________

Asa did . . . right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father. 1
Kings xv. 11.

IT is a great thing to have such a testimony as this. We may do right in our
own eyes; yet the eye of the Lord may detect evil which neither our
associates nor we have seen. We may deceive ourselves, we may deceive
others; but we cannot deceive God. In the home or business, in situation or
factory, let us live as under the searching gaze of God.

Asa’s life was one of religious activity: he destroyed the idols of his
father, and even deposed his queen-mother, “because she made an idol in a
grove.” It needs Divine courage so to live for God that at home or afield
men shall take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. This is what
the world is languishing for – reality, consistency under all circumstances,
and before all men.

There are, however, two clouds overhanging this otherwise bright life. “The
high places were not removed ” (14). Though idols were destroyed, the groves
in which they were erected remained. They were no snare to him; and he took
care that during his life they should not ensnare others; but after his
death, in the reign of Jehoshaphat his son, “the people offered and burnt
incense” in them (xxii. 43). We must not only cleanse our way before the
Lord, but remove any evil thing which may cause others to stumble.

The other cloud is indicated in 2 Chron. xvi. 12: “He was diseased in his
feet.. . . Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the
physicians.” Strange that in affliction he should not have turned to the
Great Physician. The enemy of souls is ever on the watch. Pray that amid the
pains of death you may not act unworthily.
_________________________________________________________________

Ahab did more to provoke the Lord to anger than all the kings. 1 Kings xvi.
33.

HIS sin was very aggravated, largely through the influence of Jezebel, his
young and beautiful wife, who introduced the abominations of Phoenician
idol-worship. This is why he is said to have exceeded his predecessors in
wickedness. They broke the second commandment, and worshipped Jehovah under
the form of a calf. Ahab and Jezebel broke the first, and chose other gods
– Baal, the sun, and Ashtoreth, the moon. The inveterate love for this
idolatry was connected with licentious rites with which these deities were
served. What wonder that the land became corrupt when the fountains of its
religious life were polluted at the source?

The connection between the indulgence of impurity and the declension of the
spiritual life, is very close. As the apostle Paul tells its in Romans i.,
the men that refuse to retain God in their knowledge are given up to the
working of passion; and as they yield to passion they lose the sweet, clear
impression of the truth and nearness of the Christ. The first, second, and
third thing to be said to young people on venturing out into the world,
corrupt through many deceitful lusts, is, Be pure. Wear the white flower of
a blameless life. If you cannot be faultless, be blameless. If you cannot
realize all the good you know, at least refrain from all the evil. Keep your
robes unspotted from the world. Then through purity of heart and obedience
in life, you shall see God. As the living Christ enters the heart, He will
drive before Him the brute forms of evil, overthrow the tables of the
money-changers, and will sit to teach of God. Give yourself unreservedly
into his keeping, that He may govern and control every avenue of your life.
_________________________________________________________________

I have commanded the ravens . . . a widow women . . . there. 1 Kings xvii.
4, 9.

WE must be where God desires. – Elijah spoke of himself as always standing
before the Lord God of Israel. He deemed himself as much a courtier in the
royal palace as Gabriel (Luke i. 19). And he could as distinctly stand
before God when hiding beside Cherith, or sheltering in the widow’s house at
Zarephath, as when he stood erect on Carmel, or listened to the voice of God
at Horeb. Wherever you go, and whatever ministry you are called to
undertake, glory in this, that you never go to any greater distance from
God.

If we are where God wants us to be, He will see to the supply of our need.
It is as easy for Him to feed us by the ravens as by the widow woman. As
long as God says, Stay here, or there, be sure that He is pledged to provide
for you. Though you resemble a lonely sentinel in some distant post of
missionary service, God will see to you. The ravens are not less amenable to
his command than of old: and out of the stores of widow women He is as able
to supply your need as He did Elijah’s, at Zarephath.

How often God teaches best in seclusion and solitude! It is by the murmuring
brooks of nature that we have our deepest lessons. It is in the homes of the
poor that we are fitted for our greatest tasks. It is beside couches where
children suffer and die, that we receive those preparations of the heart
which avail us when the bugle note summons us to some difficult post.

God leads through death to life. – It was needful that the child should die,
that sin might be remembered and dealt with; but through Death’s portal the
trio entered a richer, fuller life. Fear not that gateway!
_________________________________________________________________

So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. 1
Kings xviii. 42.

SUCH differences obtain still. The children of this world and the children
of light are manifest. What though the bodies of four hundred and fifty
prophets lay slain in the gorge of the Kishon; or that by one great act
Elijah had hewn down the upas tree, the deadly influence of which had
corrupted Palestine; or that the long-expected rain was in the air – yet
Ahab must eat and drink. These are the things which the children of the
world seek after. Watch and pray, lest you enter into this temptation. Let
appetite be kept well in hand – your servant, not your master; and see to it
that you are capable of such profound and absorbing interest in the things
of the Kingdom of God, as to count the gratification of physical desire
unworthy to be compared with the high delights of service, prayer, and
communion with the unseen.

Though he must have been exhausted with the excitements and efforts of the
day, Elijah must spend the evening hour with God. Though he knew that the
rain was near, he felt that his prayers were a needful condition for its
bestowment. Though any part of Carmel might have become his oratory, he
sought the lonely solitudes of the summit with the outspread sea before him,
that his soul might hold undisturbed vigil, and that he might see over the
wide expanse of the ocean the first tokens of the coming answer. His
attitude denoted his humility. His repeated injunction to the lad, his
perseverance. His success approved his faith.

Stand, suppliant soul, on the highest point of expectant hope; see the
hurrying answer, which was being prepared from pools and lakes and seas,
long ere thy prayer began. “Before they call, I will answer.”
_________________________________________________________________

Behold, an angel touched him. 1 Kings xix. 5.

IN all probability the angels often touch us when danger is near,
threatening our health and life, or when foul fiends step up to us with
hideous temptation. They find us out, especially when, like Elijah, we are
alone and depressed; when nervous depression has crept about our hearts;
when we seem to have failed in the conflict against evil, and long for death
to end our long and weary strife. It was the lament of a holy soul on the
verge of eternity, that he had made so little of the ministry of God’s holy
and tender angels.

It was very gracious for God to deal thus with his servant. We might have
expected rebuke or remonstrance, chiding or chastisement; but we would
hardly have expected such loving, gentle treatment as this. Is this the man
who defied Ahab and all his priests? He is as frail and impotent as any!
Nay, but God looked beneath the surface depression, and detected the strong
fountains of courage and devotion that lay beneath, only capable of being
called again into intense manifestation. He knew his servant’s frame, and
recognised that he was dust. He knew how to distinguish between the passing
overstrain of the body and the heroic temper of the spirit. So, he
understands us in our fits of depression and despair.

Whenever these angel-fingers touch you, whether directly or through the
medium of loving mortal hands, you will always find the cake and the cruse
of water. God never awakens to disappoint. It is an infinite pleasure to Him
to awaken his loved ones to good things, which they had neither asked nor
thought. Will not dying be something like this? The angel of life will touch
us, and we shall awake to see what love has prepared.
_________________________________________________________________

As thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. 1 Kings xx. 40.

THIS was likely enough to happen on a battlefield. It would not be possible
to hold your prisoner, and to busy yourself about other things at the same
time. This man, in the prophet’s parable, made a great mistake to concern
himself about a number of trifles, when so serious a matter as his own life
depended on giving all his attention to the custodianship of the prisoner
entrusted to his care. But is it not thus that men miss the main end of
life?

Busy here and there, and life is gone. – Many spend their days in mere
trivialities. Like children they dig in the sand; like the butterfly, they
flit from flower to flower. A round of visits, a few novels, a good many
hours of light gaiety; vanity, fashion, and amusement – these fill their
hours, the days flash by, and life is gone. They have nothing to show for
it.

Busy here and there, and the chance of saving others is gone. – Lives touch
lives, for the chief pur-pose that one should influence the other. But too
often we deal only with superficialities, busying ourselves in the slightest
interests, but not seeking the salvation of those with whom we associate.
The dance, the game, the business relationship, monopolise our thought, and
our friends are swept from us in the eddying whirl of life’s battle, and are
gone.

Busy here and there, and the knowledge of God is gone. – Remember how the
birds caught away the seed of the Kingdom; and be sure that, in the same
way, the cares and riches of this world, and the lusts of other things may
enter in, and destroy the impression made on the heart. The ephemeral
interests of life press hard on its real interests. Like boys, we squander
in trifling the hours given to prepare for an examination on which all the
future must turn.
_________________________________________________________________

And Ahab said to Elijah, hast thou found me, O mine enemy? 1 Kings xxi. 20.

AHAB got his garden of herbs, but he had Elijah withal, who stood at the
gate like an incarnate conscience. Men may get the prize on which they have
set their heart; but if they have obtained it wrongfully, the conscience of
the wrong done will haunt them, and take away the pleasure on which they
counted, and ultimately bring them like a quarry to the ground.

We turn our best friends into enemies, as Ahab did Elijah. The cloud that
lights Israel is darkness to Pharaoh; the angel that protects Jerusalem,
slays the host of Sennacherib; the gentle love which anoints the Saviour,
instigates in Judas a jealousy which ends in murder. The God who shows
Himself merciful to the merciful is froward to the froward. The cause of the
alteration is to be sought within ourselves. The sun that melts wax hardens
clay, but the difference is in the clay. To the widow of Zarephath Elijah
was an angel of light; whilst to Ahab he was an enemy. The difference lay in
their hearts; the one being holy and loving, the other dark and turbid. What
you are, determines whether Elijah will be your friend or your enemy.

This word “sold thyself” is very awful. It underlies Goethe’s tragedy of
Faust, in which the soul sells itself to the devil for so many years of
worldly pleasure. A few promises which are never kept; a mirage that is
dissipated in thin air when we approach it; a bribe of gold or silver that
burns the hands which receive it – such are the price for which men sell
themselves. “They sell themselves for nought.” Truly the devil drives a hard
bargain. When he gets the soul into his power, he laughs at his former
promises, and pays as wages, death.
_________________________________________________________________

A certain man . . smote the king of Israel between the joints of the
harness. 1 Kings xxii. 34.

EVERY man we meet is clothed in armour; in other words, we all cover
ourselves with plates on which to receive the thrust of accusation and
reproach. “I only do as others.” “I do not see any special harm in it.” “My
father did it before me.” “I cannot help it.” Such are some of the plates in
the armour of the soul; and our work as Christian workers becomes abortive
in so many instances, because we are content to belabour the plates, instead
of striking home to the one place where the armour joints are. Successful
soul-winning depends on discovering the vulnerable part of a man, and
striking there. But all this demands a very special discernment of spirits,
and anointing of the Holy Ghost. Only so can we detect where best to bring
about conviction, and make men know their need of the Gospel of God’s grace.
The great need of the present day is a sharper and more searching analysis
of sin. Men need to be shown how they are violating the laws of God. They
assent generally to the Scriptural statements of what God requires, but fail
to realize how greatly they have come short. You are almost sure to hit, if
you begin to show the various ways in which respectably-living people are
coming under the Divine sentence.

But several conditions must be fulfilled. (1) Study well your own heart. (2)
Be a deep student of the biographies of Scripture; because every type of
human character is delineated in Holy Writ. (3) Open your heart to the Holy
Ghost, through whom alone you can discern spirits. He is a discerner of the
thoughts of the heart, and will teach you to cut to the dividing asunder of
the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow.
_________________________________________________________________

Thou man of God! 2 Kings i. 9, 11, 13.

OH that thou and I might so live before God and men, that they should
recognise us as men of God, as God’s men! See how these ungodly captains at
once recognised this, in the case of Elijah. They fretted and chafed against
his holiness; but they were forced to admit it. They tried to impose their
orders, or those of their king; but they realized that Elijah was the
servant of Him whom they set at nought, so far as their own lives were
concerned.

If we are really men of God, we shall be the last to assume the title.
Notice that Elijah puts an if before the title with which he was saluted:
“If I be a man of God.” Paul counted himself the least of all saints.

We must be of God. – All our goodness must originate in Him. We can no more
boast of goodness than a chamber can boast of the light which irradiates
each corner of its space. The faith that takes his grace, as well as the
grace it takes, is his. We are absolutely his debtors; and happy are they
who love to have it so, and lie always at the Beautiful Gate of God’s heart,
expecting to receive alms at his hand.

We must be for God. – This is the only cure for self-consciousness, for that
perpetual obtrusion of the self-life which is our bane and curse. Ask that
the Holy Spirit may fill you with so absorbing a passion for the glory of
Jesus, that there may be no room to think of your own reputation or
emolument.

We must be in God, and God in us. – This is possible, when we love
perfectly. He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. Oh,
sea of light, may we lie spread out in thy translucent waves, as the sponges
in southern sapphire seas, till every fibre of our being be permeated and
infilled!
_________________________________________________________________

Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee. 2 Kings ii. 2, 4, 6.

THRICE Elijah spoke thus to his friend and disciple, to test him.
Perseverance, tenacity of purpose, a refusal to be content with anything
short of the best, are indispensable conditions for the attainment of the
highest possibilities of experience and service. And perpetually in our
life’s discipline these words come back on us, Tarry here! Not that God
desires us to tarry, but because He desires each onward step to be the
choice and act of our own will.

Tarry here in Consecration. – “You have given so much; is it not time that
you refrained from further sacrifices? Ungird your loins, sit down and rest,
forbear from this strenuous following after. Spare thyself; this shall not
come to thee.”

Tarry here in the Life of Prayer. – “It is waste time to spend so much time
at the footstool of God. You have done more than most, desist from further
intercession and supplication.”

Tarry here in the attainment of the likeness of Christ. – “It will cost you
so much, if all that is not Christ-like is to pass away from your life.”

Such voices are perpetually speaking to us all. And if we heed them, we are
at once shut out of that crossing the Jordan, that rapturous intercourse
with heaven, that reception of the double portion of the Spirit, which await
those who have successfully stood the test. The law of the Christian life is
always Advance; always leaving that which is behind; always reckoning that
you have not attained; always following on to know the Lord, growing in
grace and in the knowledge of the blessed Saviour, and saying to the Spirit
of God, as Elisha to Elijah, I will not leave thee.
_________________________________________________________________

Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be
filled. 2 Kings iii. 17.

THIS is God’s way of fulfilling the desire of them that fear Him. We like to
see the clouds blown forward through the sky, and hear the moan of the
rising wind; in other words, we like to see God’s gifts on their way, or to
have the sensible emotion of receiving them. Sometimes we have symptoms and
signs that fill us with rapture; at other times, these are lacking, and we
surrender ourselves to despair. Yet when we see neither wind nor rain, God
may be most mightily at work.

It is so in Church work. – How often we make our valleys full of ditches!
Our machinery is complicated and perfect; we have spared neither pains nor
care. Then we ardently desire the signs of a powerful revival, and break our
hearts if they are not apparent; while, all the time, if we only knew it,
the Divine blessing is welling up in the ditches, doing more than would be
the case if our highest wishes were gratified.Here and there tears are
failing silently, hearts are being cleansed, lives are becoming yielded to
God.

It is so in Christian experience. – We expect to have our Pentecost as the
early Church received hers. We desire to see wind and rain, and to know that
God is baptizing us; but this is not granted. There is no footfall of
hurrying clouds, no coronet of flame, no gift of tongues. But, deep down,
the ditches are being filled up, yearnings are being satisfied, the capacity
for God within us is being met, though it grows apace. God be praised that
the success of his work is not gauged by outward signs!

A well may be filled as completely by the percolation of water, a drop at a
time, as by turning a river into it.
_________________________________________________________________

And the oil stayed. 2 Kings iv. 6.

WHAT a sorrowful confession! There was no reason why it should stay. There
was as much oil as ever, and the power which had made so much could have
gone on without limit or exhaustion. The only reason for the ceasing of the
oil was in the failure of the vessels. The widow and her sons had secured
only a limited number of vessels, and therefore there was only a limited
supply of the precious oil.

This is why so many of God’s promises are unfulfilled in your experience.
– In former days you kept claiming their fulfilment; frequently you brought
God’s promises to Him and said, “Do as Thou hast said.” Vessel after vessel
of need was brought empty and taken away full. But of late years you have
refrained, you have rested on your oars, you have ceased to bring the
vessels of your need. Hence the dwindling supply.

This is why your life is not so productive of blessing as it might be. – You
do not bring vessels enough. You think that God has wrought as much through
you as He can or will. You do not expect Him to fill the latter years of
your life as He did the former. You can trust Him for two sermons a week,
but not for five or six.

This is why the blessing of a revival stays in its course. – As long as the
missioner remains with us, we call look for the continuance of blessing. But
after awhile we say, Let the services stop; they have run their course, and
fulfilled their end. And forthwith the blessing stops in mid-flow. Let us go
on pleading with the unsaved, and bringing the empty vessels of our poor
effort for God to fill them up to the full measure of their capacity.
_________________________________________________________________

Like unto the flesh of a little child. 2 Kings v. 14.

IS there any fabric woven on the loom of time to be compared in perfect
beauty to the flesh of a little child, on which, as yet, no scar or blemish
can be traced? So sweet, so pure, so clean. It was a wonderful combination,
that the strong muscles and make of the mighty man of war should blend with
the flesh of a child. But this may be ours also, if we will let the hand of
Jesus pass over our leprous-smitten souls. At this moment, if you let Hin,
He will touch you and say, “Be clean,” and immediately the leprosy will
depart, and you will return to the days of your youth – not forgiven only,
but cleansed; not pardoned only, but clad in the beauty of the Lord your
God, which He will put on you.

We do not count a little child to be free from the taint of sin. It is
conceived in sin, and inherits the evil tendencies of our fallen race. Its
innocence of evil is not holiness. Jesus gives us more than innocence, He
makes us pure and holy. But there are other childlike qualities which our
Saviour gives. The humility of a little child, who is unconscious of itself,
and who is not perpetually looking for admiration. The unselfishness of a
little child, who seeks its companion to share its luxuries and games. The
trust of a little child, which so naturally clings to a strong and loving
heart, willing to follow anywhere, to believe in anything. The love of a
little child, who responds to every endearment with sunny laughter and soft
caresses.

There is a great difference between childish and childlike. The former is
put away, as we grow up into Christ: the latter we grow into, as we become
more like our Lord. The oldest angels are the youngest: the ripest saints
are the most childlike.
_________________________________________________________________

Behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about
Elisha. 2 Kings vi. 17.

SO it is with each of God’s saints. We cannot see, because of the
imperfection of mortal vision, the harnessed squadrons of fire and light;
but the Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and
delivereth them. If our eyes were opened, we should see the angel-hosts as
an encircling fence of fire; but whether we see them or not, they are
certainly there.

God is between us and temptation. – However strong the foe, God is stronger.
However swift the descending blow, God is swifter to catch and ward off.
However weak we are, through long habits of yielding, God is greater than
our hearts, and can keep in perfect peace. “Trust ye in the Lord forever;
for in the Lord Jehovah is the Rock of Ages.”

God is between us and the hate of man. – Dare to believe that there is an
invisible wall of protection between you and all that men devise against
you. What though the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing! No
weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall
rise in judgment shall be condemned.

God is between you and the deluge of care. – What thousands are beset with
that dark spectre! They have no rest or peace either day or night, saying,
“Where will the next rent, the next meal, come from? ” How different the
life of birds, and flowers, of children, of Jesus, and all holy souls. Oh,
rest in the Lord, and put Him between you and black care.

God is between you and the pursuit of your past. – He is your reward; and as
He intercepted the pursuit of Pharaoh, so He stands at Calvary between your
past and you. The assayer of retribution is arrested by that Divine Victim
– what more can we ask!
_________________________________________________________________

This day is a day of good tidings. 2 Kings vii. 9.

IT was indeed. The enemy that bad so long hemmed them in had dispersed,
leaving a great spoil behind. The famine which had driven the people to
awful straits was at an end, and there was now plenty of everything. It was
inhuman for these four lepers to be content with eating and drinking, and
sharing out the spoil, when hard by a city was in agony. Common humanity
bade them give information of what had happened.

Let us take care lest some mischief befall us, if we withhold the blessed
Gospel from a dying world. We know that Jesus has died and risen again, and
that his unsearchable riches wait for appropriation. We have availed
ourselves of the offer; but let us see to it that so far as we can, we are
making known that the wine and milk may be obtained without money and
without price.

Mischief always overtakes a selfish policy; whereas those who dare to share
with others what they have received, not only keep what they have, but find
the fragments enough for many days afterwards.

Let us tell men that the Saviour has overcome our foes, and has opened the
kingdom of heaven to all who believe. Let us speak from a full heart of all
that He has proved to be. Let us invite men to share with us the grace which
hath neither shore nor bound.

One ounce of testimony is worth a ton weight of argument, and overpowers all
objection. The Lord, on whom the king leaned, derided the possibility of the
prophet’s prediction; and no doubt had plenty of adherents. But the leper’s
report swept all his words to the winds. They had known, tasted, and
handled. Let us remember that we are called to be witnesses of what God hath
done for us.
_________________________________________________________________

And the Man of God wept. 2 Kings viii. 11.

ELISHA foresaw all the evil that Hazael would inflict on Israel, and it
moved him to tears. Though he was a strong man, able to move kingdoms by his
message and prayer, yet he was of a tender and compassionate disposition.
This was he who one moment upbraided the king of Israel for his crimes, and
the next called for a minstrel to calm his perturbed spirit with strains of
music. The men that can move others are themselves very susceptible and
easily moved.

The nearer we live to God, the more we deserve to be known as men and women
of God, the more will our tears flow for the slain of the daughters of our
people. Consider the ravages that drink, and impurity, and gambling, are
making among our people; enumerate the homes that are desolate, the young
life that is wrecked as it is leaving the harbour, the awful dishonour done
to woman; and surely there must come times when tears well up for very
humanity’s sake, to say nothing of the pity which they acquire who look at
things from God’s standpoint.

Jesus beheld the city and wept over it. Give us this day, Son of Man, thy
compassion, thy love, thy tears, that we may speak of thy grace graciously,
of thy love tenderly, and even of thy judgments with brimming, eyes.

“A broken heart, a fount of tears:

Ask, and it shall not be denied.’

Wouldst thou avert such issues; begin with the cradled babes of your homes.
Win them for God; teach them how to curb passion and subdue themselves.
Tenderness and wisdom may arrest the making of Ben-hadads.
_________________________________________________________________

Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace? 2 Kings ix. 22.

WE all want peace. Of every telegraph messenger, as he puts the
buff-coloured envelope into our hands, we ask almost instinctively, Is it
peace? If there is a rumour of war, a depression in trade, a bad harvest, a
sudden calamity in our neighbourhood, we instantly consider the effect it
may have on the tranquillity and prosperity of our life.

By peace we too often mean the absence of the disagreeable, the unbroken
routine of outward prosperity, the serene passage of the years: not always
eager for anything deeper. And if other and profounder questions intrude
themselves, we instantly stifle or evade them. Like Herod, we shut up the
Baptist in the dungeon. Like the Roman general, we make a desert and call it
peace. Men will flee from a Gospel ministry which pursues them into close
quarters, and arouses unwelcome questions that break the peace.

There cannot be true peace so long as we permit the infidelities and charms
of some Jezebel of the soul-life to attract and affect us. Jezebel may stand
for the painted world, with its wiles and snares, or for the flesh, or for
some unholy association of the past life, like that which clung to
Augustine. But there must be no quarter given to the unhallowed rival of our
Lord. Whatever its charms, it must be flung out of the window before we can
be at peace.

“Then, and not till then, we shall see Thee as Thou art;

Then, and not till then, in thy glory bear a part;

Then, and not till then, Thou wilt satisfy each heart.”

If you are entirely surrendered to the Lord, “the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in
Christ Jesus.”
_________________________________________________________________

Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel . 2 Kings x.
31.

JEHU was the Cromwell of his time. He swept away the symbols of idolatry
with ruthless destruction. Nothing could withstand his iconoclastic
enthusiasm. But he failed to keep his own heart, and therefore his dynasty
lasted for but one generation. It is a deep lesson for us all.

We may keep other people’s vineyards, and neglect our own. We may give good
advice to our friends, but into the very faults against which we warn them.
We may pose as infallible guides, but fall into the crevasses and precipices
from which we had carefully warned our companions. Jehu avenged the
idolatries of Ahab, but he departed not from Jeroboam’s calves.

Before you rebuke another, be sure that you are free from the faults that
you detect in him. When you hear of the failings of some erring brother, ask
yourself whether you are perfectly free from them. And never attempt to cast
out the mote from your neighbour’s eye till you are sure that the beam has
been taken from your own.

Take heed to your heart. Its complexion colours all the issues of life. Do
not be content to be strong against evil; be eagerly ambitious of good. It
is easier to be vehement against the abominations of others than to judge
and put away your own secret sins. But while we keep our heart with all
diligence, we cannot afford to be independent of the keeping power of God.
We must yield ourselves to Him, reserving nothing. The King must have all.
The light of his face must fill every nook and corner of the soul. And every
power that opposes itself to his dominion, must be dragged beyond the
barriers and ruthlessly slain.
_________________________________________________________________

They made him king, and anointed him. 2 Kings xi. 12.

THIS dexterous overthrow of Athaliah by the bringing of the youthful king,
who had been hidden in the secret chambers of the Temple, accommodates
itself so obviously to a reference to the inner life, that we must be
pardoned for making it.

Is not the spiritual condition of too many children of God represented by
the condition of the Temple, during the early years of the life of Joash?
The king was within its precincts, the rightful heir of the crown and
defender of the worship of Jehovah: but, as a matter of fact, the crown was
on the head of the usurper Athaliah, who was exercising a cruel and
sanguinary tyranny. The king was limited to a chamber, and the majority of
the priests, with all the people, had not even heard of his existence. So,
unless we are reprobates, Jesus is within the spirit, which has been
regenerated by the Holy Ghost; but in too many cases He is limited to a very
small corner of our nature, and exercises but a limited power over our life.

There needs to be an anointing, an enthroning, a determination that He shall
exercise his power over the entire Temple of our Being; the spirit, which
stands for the Holy of Holies; the soul, for the Holy Place ; the body, for
the outer court.

Holiness or Sanctification is Dot a quality or attribute which can be
attributed to us apart from the indwelling of the Holy One. If we would be
holy, we must be indwelt by Him who is holy. If we would have holiness, we
must be infilled by the Holy One. But there must be no limiting of his
power, no barrier to his control, no veiling or curtaining of his light. The
veil, if such there be, must be rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
_________________________________________________________________

The money that cometh into any man’s heart to bring into the house of the
Lord. 2 Kings xii. 4.

THE margin suggests that the thought of giving for God’s house would ascend
in a man’s heart, till it became the royal and predominant thought, swaying
the whole man to obedience. It is a beautiful conception !

For the reconstruction of the Temple there were two classes of revenue: the
tribute money which each Israelite was bound to give, and the money which a
man might feel prompted to give. Surely the latter was the more precious in
the eye of God.

Does it ever come into your heart to bring some money into the house of God?
Perhaps the sug-gestion comes, but you put it away, and refuse to consider
it. The thought begins to ascend in your heart, but you thrust it down and
back, saying, Why should I part with what has cost me so much to get! Beware
of stifling these generous promptings. To yield to them would bring untold
blessing into heart and life. Besides, the money is only yours as a
stewardship; and the thought to give it to God is only the Master’s request
for his own.

The great mistake with us all is, that we do not hold all our property at
God’s disposal, seeking his directions for its administration; and that we
forget how freely we have received that we may resemble our Father in
heaven, and freely give. Too many, alas! are anxious to hoard up and keep
for themselves that which God has given them, instead of counting themselves
and all they have as purchased property, and using all things as his
representatives and trustees. Let us make a complete surrender to our Lord,
and from the heart sing,

“Take my silver and my gold,

Not a mite would I withhold.
_________________________________________________________________

He smote thrice and stayed. 2 Kings xiii. 18.

A STRIKING spectacle. The dying prophet, with his thin hands on the muscular
hands of the young king, as he shoots his arrow through the eastern window;
the exhortation to smite the remaining arrows on the ground; the bitter
chiding that the king had struck thrice only, instead of five or six times.
What lessons are here! The Lord Jesus put his hands upon ours. Here is the
reverse to the incident referred to. Ours are weak, his are strong; ours
would miss the mark, his will direct the arrows, if only we will allow Him,
with unerring precision. We shoot, but the Lord directs the arrow’s flight
to the heart of his foes.

Our success is commensurate with our faith. If we strike but thrice, we
conquer but thrice. If we strike seven times, we attain a perfect victory
over the adversary. Is not this the cause of comparative failure in Gospel
effort? Souls are not saved because we do not expect them to be saved. A few
are saved, because we only believe for a few. It is one of the most radical
laws in the universe of God, and one which our Lord repeatedly emphasized,
that our faith determines the less or more in our own growth, and in the
victories we win for Christ. Do not stay, soul-winner, but smite again and
yet again in the secret of thy chamber, that thou mayest smite Satan, and
compel him to acknowledge thy might.

Let us not stay, though the energy of earlier days may be ebbing fast. The
sanctified spirit waxes only stronger and more heroic, as Elisha’s and
Paul’s did, amid the decay of mortal power. The Lord will say to us, as He
did to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made
perfect in weakness.”
_________________________________________________________________

Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. 2 Kings xiv. 6.

SO ran the law of Moses. It forbade the imposition of punishment on the
relatives of the wrong-doer, but it had no mercy on him. “The soul that
sinneth, it shall die,” was the succinct and conclusive verdict of the older
law, in this reflecting the spirit and letter of one yet older, which ran,
“The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

First, we were dead in our sins. – Eph. ii. 5 puts this beyond all doubt. In
the sight of God, all who walk according to the course of this world, and
obey the prince that now worketh in the children of this world, are dead in
trespasses and sins. However much they may be alive as to their souls, they
are dead as to their spirits, entirely destitute of the life of God.

Second, we have died for our sins. – 2 Cor. v. 14, 15 (R.V.) establishes
this fact, and shows that in Jesus, we who believe in Him, are reckoned to
have died in Him when He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. In God’s
estimate, his death is imputed to us; so that we are reckoned as having
satisfied, in Jesus, the demands of a broken law. It has no more to ask.

Third, we must die to our sin.- Rom. vi. 11. Reckon that you have died, and
whenever sin arises, to menace or allure you, point back to the grave, and
argue that since you died in Christ, you have passed altogether beyond its
jurisdiction, for you have yielded your members as weapons of righteousness
unto God. And having been crucified with Christ, you now no longer live, but
Christ liveth in you. Let it become your daily habit to place the grave of
Jesus between yourself and all allurements of the world, the flesh, and the
devil.
_________________________________________________________________

The sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 2 Kings xv.
9, 18, 24, 28.

THIS chapter anticipates the final overthrow of the kingdom of the tribes.
It describes the corruption and disorganization of the people which made
them the easy prey of Assyria. One puppet-king after another was set upon
the throne to fall after a brief space of rule, and four times over it is
said that they followed in the steps of Jeroboam, “who made Israel to sin.”
The seed sown two hundred years before had at last come to maturity, issuing
in the ruin of the nation. ‘What a comment on the inspired words, “Sin, when
it is finished, bridgeth forth death.”

Twelve times in the story of the kingdom of Israel we are told that
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, made Israel to sin. The institution of the
calves on his part seemed to be a piece of political wisdom, but it was an
infraction of the Divine law; and what is morally wrong can never be
politically right. The house cannot stand unless the foundation can bear the
test of the Divine plummet. The kingdom of Israel fell, to prove to all
after-time that the disregard of God’s law is a foundation of sand, which
can never resist the test of time.

Why is Jeroboam so frequently called “the son of Nebat- Why should the
father be for ever pilloried with the son, except that he was in some way
responsible for, and implicated in, his sins? There was a time when perhaps
Nebat might have restrained the growing boy, or led him to the true worship
of God; or perhaps his parental influence and example were deadly in their
effect. How important that parents should leave no stone unturned to promote
the godliness of their children, bringing them up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord.
_________________________________________________________________

King Ahaz sent to Urijah the fashion of the alter and the pattern of it. 2
Kings xvi. 10.

THE fashion of this world passeth away like a fleeting dream; or like the
panorama of clouds that constitutes a pavilion of the setting sun, but
which, whilst we gaze, tumbles into a mass of red ruin. And yet we are
always so prone to imitate King Ahaz, and visit Damascus with the intention
of procuring the latest design, and introducing it, even into the service of
the sanctuary.

Man naturally imitates. He must get the pattern of his work from above, or
beneath; from God or the devil: hence, the repeated injunction to us all, to
make all things after the pattern shown on the mount. lf we would be rid of
the influence of worldly fashion, we must conform ourselves to the heavenly
and divine. The pattern of the Body of Christ – of the position of each
individual believer among its members, and of the work which each should
accomplish – was fixed before the worlds were made. The best cure for
worldliness is not unworldliness, but other-worldliness. The best way of
resisting the trend of people around us is to cultivate the speech, thought,
and behaviour of that celestial world to which we are bound by the most
sacred ties, and whither we are travelling at every heart-throb.

This introduction of the altar of a heathen shrine into the holy temple of
Jerusalem, reminds us of the many rites in modern religious observances
which have been borrowed from paganism, and warns us that the Church has no
right to go to the world for its methods and principles. Let the world do as
it may in its discussions about truth, its efforts to attract attention, and
its organizations; our course is clear – not to build altars after its
fashion, nor model our life on its maxims.
_________________________________________________________________

These nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images. 2 Kings xvii.
41.

IT was a curious mixture. These people had come from Babylon, Hamath, and
Sepharvaim, and were settled in the land from which Israel was deported. In
their desire to propitiate the God of the country, they added his worship to
that of their own gods (ver. 32), though they did not really fear Him (ver.
34). There was an outward recognition of the God of Israel, which was worse
than useless. Are you sure this is not a true description of your own
position? You pay an outward deference to God by attending his house, and
acknowledging his day, whilst you are really prostrating yourself before
other shrines. The one originates in a superstitious fear, a desire to stand
well with your fellows; but it is in the direction of the other that your
heart really goes. You come as his people come, sit as his people sit, kneel
as his people kneel; but your heart is far apart, and you only do as you do
that you may follow your own evil ways with less fear of discovery.

With all of us there is too much of this double worship; but let it be
clearly understood that it is only apparent, not real. No man ever really
serves two masters, or worships two gods. Whatever conflicts with God in
heart or life is our chosen god. Whatever appears to share our heart with
God really holds our heart. God will never be in competition with another.
He must either be all or none.

The soul that endeavours to divide its service between Jehovah on the first
day, and its graven images all the other days of the week, might as well
discontinue its religious observances, for they count for nothing: except to
blind it to its true condition.
_________________________________________________________________

Now on whom dost thou trust? 2 Kings xviii. 20.

IT was no small thing for Hezekiah to rebel against the proud king of
Assyria. Hamath and Arpad, Samaria and Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah, reduced to
heaps of stones, were sufficient proofs of the might of his ruthless
soldiers. How could Jerusalem hope to withstand? Rabshakeh could not
comprehend the secret source of Hezekiah’s confidence. It was of no use for
him to turn to Egypt. Pharaoh was a bruised reed. And as for Jehovah! Was
there any likelihood that He could do for Israel more, than the gods of the
other nations had done for them? Not infrequently does the puzzled world ask
the Church, “In whom dost thou trust? ”

Our life must to a large extent be a mystery, our peace pass understanding,
and our motives be hidden. The sources of our supply, the ground of our
confidence, the reasons for our actions, must evade the most searching
scrutiny of those who stand outside the charmed circle of the face of God;
as it is written, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard what God hath prepared.”

We all ought to have the secrets which the world cannot penetrate. Doubt
your religion if it all lies on the surface, and if men are able to
calculate to a nicety the considerations by which you are actuated. We must
be prepared to be misunderstood and criticised, because our behaviour is
determined by facts which the princes of this world know not. We do not look
up to the hills, because we look beyond them to God; we do not trust in
silver or gold, or human resource, because God is our confidence. We cannot
but seem eccentric to this world, because we have found another centre, and
are concentric with the Eternal Throne.
_________________________________________________________________

And Hezekiah spread it before the Lord. 2 Kings xix. 14.

AMID the panic that reigned in Jerusalem, the king and the prophet alone
kept level heads, for they alone had quiet, trustful hearts. We hardly
realize the crisis unless we compare it with the march of 200,000 Kurds or
Turkish soldiers upon some peaceful Armenian community. Israel had no
earthly allies. Her only reinforcements could reach her from heaven, and it
was the care of these two saintly men to implicate their cause with that of
the living God (ver. 4). This is the faith that overcomes the world, which
realizes that God lives here and now in our home and life and circumstances.
His cause is implicated in our deliverance; his name will be disgraced if we
are overwhelmed, and honoured, if preserved. He is our Judge, Lawgiver, and
King, and is therefore bound by the most solemn obligations to save us, or
his name will be tarnished.

When therefore letters come to you, anonymous or otherwise, full of bitter
reproach; when unkind and malignant stories are set on foot with respect to
you; when all hope from man has perished, then take your complaint – the
letter, the article, the speech, the rumour – and lay it before God. Let
your requests be made known unto Him. Tell Him how absolutely you trust.
Then malice and fear will pass from your heart, whilst peace and love will
take their place: and presently there will come a swift message of comfort,
like that which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying on the
behalf of God, “That which thou hast prayed to Me, I have heard.”

God knew the contents of the missive before you did; but He likes to read it
again in the company of his child.
_________________________________________________________________

Let the shadow return backward ten degrees. 2 Kings xx. 10.

IT is impossible for us to understand how this could be. The shadow of the
declining day waxes ever longer, and only a miracle could change its
appearance on the dial. It may suggest some significant thoughts about
shadows that may still go back.

The shadow of a wasted life. – Of course, there is a sense in which the
wasted years will never come again; they have passed beyond recall. But the
shadow may go back on the dial of our life when we truly repent, and turn
again to God, for He hath promised: “I will never leave thee, neither
forsake thee.” And “I will give back the years that the canker worm and
caterpillar have eaten.”

The shadow of happier days. – These seem to have gone. For long you have
noticed the growing twilight, and it has seemed impossible ever again to
have the lightsomeness and spring of one or two decades back. But be of good
cheer, for when a man comes into that fellowship with God which sorrow and
temptation teach, when with growing years he attains added grace, we are
told that he shall return to the days of his youth.

The shadow of early affection. – Have you lost loved ones, so that your life
is like a house the windows of which, one after another, have become
shuttered and dark? But love is not forfeited for ever. Those who forsake
all for Christ’s sake shall get all back again in Him. His love comprehends
all human love. The relationships of his kingdom surpass in tenderness and
tenacity those of the warmest earthly ties. Thy brother shall rise again,
and thou shalt hear him call thy name, and shalt sit with him in the Home of
Life.
_________________________________________________________________

And his mother’s name was Hephzi-bah. 2 Kings xxi. 1.

HEPHZI-BAH means, “My delight is in her” (Isa. Ixii. 4). How strange,
supposing that her name was any indication of her character, that such a
woman should have borne such a son; for “Manasseh did wickedly above all the
Amorites did which were before him.” A godly ancestry, however, does not
guarantee a holy seed. Hezekiahs and Hephzi-bahs may be the parents of
manassehs. That this may not be so: –

Let us guard against the inconsistencies of our private life. – The child of
religious parents becomes habituated to their use of expressions in public
which betoken the highest degree of holiness, and is therefore quicker to
notice any inconsistency in temper or walk. Is there not a subtle temptation
also for those who work much for God in public to feel that a certain laxity
is permissible in the home? Will not late after-meetings at night compensate
for indolence in the morning; and will not protracted services be the
equivalent for private prayer? May not irritability to servants or children
be accounted for by the overstrain of our great work? Hence, inconsistency
and failure to realize our lofty aims, which are quickly noticed, beget
distaste for our religion.

Let us guard against absorption in public religious duty to the neglect of
the home. – Does it never happen that the children of religious parents are
put to bed by nurses who are heedless of their prayers, because their
mothers have undertaken a mission? Do not boys sometimes grow up without the
correcting influence of the father’s character, because he, good man, is so
taken up with committees?

Let us guard against an austerity of manner, which prevents us being the
companions, play-fellows, and associates of our children.
_________________________________________________________________

Thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace. 2 Kings xxii. 20.

AS a matter of fact, Josiah’s death was not a peaceful one. He persisted in
going into conflict with Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, against the latter’s
earnest remonstrance (see 2 Chron. xxxv. 20-22); and, in consequence of his
hardihood, met his death. His servants carried him in a chariot dead from
Megiddo (ch. xxiii. 30). Is there, then, any real contradiction between the
prophet’s prediction and this sad event?

Certainly not! The one tells us what God was prepared to do for his servant;
the other what he brought on himself by his own folly. There are many
instances of this change of purpose in the Word of God. One of them is known
as “his breach of promise,” or “altering of purpose ” (Num. xiv. 34, marg.).
He would have saved his people from the forty years’ wandering in the
wilderness, but they made Him to serve with their sins, and wearied Him with
their iniquities. He would have gathered Jerusalem as a hen gathers her
brood, but she would not.

Let us beware lest, a promise being left us, we should seem to come short of
it; lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God, and frustrating some blessed purpose of his heart. “Eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the
things which God hath prepared for them that love Him “; but we may limit
the Holy One of Israel, and so restrain Him by our unbelief as to stay the
mighty works which are in his plan for us. He may desire for us a prosperous
life and a peaceful death; but we may close our dying eyes amid disaster and
defeat, because we wilfully chose our own way.
_________________________________________________________________

Like unto Josiah was there no king before him. 2 Kings xxiii. 25.

THIS chapter is a marvellous record of cleansing and purging. We are led
from one item to another of drastic reform. Nothing was spared that savoured
of idolatry. Priests and altars, buildings and groves, came under the
searching scrutiny of this true-hearted monarch; and, as the result, it was
possible to keep such a Passover as had not been observed during the days of
the judges or the kings (ver. 22).

How much our enjoyment of the solemn feast depends upon our previous efforts
to put away from our lives all that is inconsistent with the law of God. We
hardly realize how insidiously evils creep in. Before we are aware, we have
fallen beneath God’s ideal, and adopted the customs of our neighbours, or of
those with whom we come into daily contact. All such declension hinders our
joy in keeping the Passover. It is needful, therefore, that there should be
times when we turn to God with fresh devotion, and in the light of his holy
truth pass the various departments of our life under review, testing
everything by the Book of the Law. In Josiah’s case, the sacred volume was
recovered from long neglect; in our case it needs to be re-read in the light
of higher resolves. This would be like a new discovery. Our ultimate rule
must always be the will of God, appreciated with growing clearness, and used
as a standard by which to judge the habits and tenets of our life. We read
the Bible for purposes of a truer knowledge of God and his ways, and for
spiritual quickening; but let us also use it more frequently as the bath of
the spirit. Let us bathe in it. Let us revel in it as the grimy children of
the slums in the laughing wavelets of river and sea.
_________________________________________________________________

He carried out thence all the treasures of the House of the Lord. 2 Kings
xxiv. 13.

AMONGST these deported treasures must have been much of the sacred furniture
of the Temple, and the holy vessels; because, in the days of Belshazzar,
find them brought out to grace the royal banquet. BeIshazzar drank wine from
them with his lords, wives, and concubines, whilst they praised the gods of
Babylon, who had given them victory over their foes. Amongst the rest was
the golden candlestick, whose flame afterwards illuminated the inscription
of doom, written by God’s hand upon the palace wall. By the command of Cyrus
these precious vessels were finally restored (Ezra v. 14), and carried back
to Jerusalem, by a faithful band of priests (viii. 33).

The whole story of the captivity is full of solemn lessons. – The Church of
God must make her choice between one of two courses: either she must keep
from all entangling alliances, and from vieing for temporal power; or she
must face the liability of being brought under the power with which she
would fain assimilate. Israel wanted to be as the other nations around her,
imitating their organization, and allying herself now with one, and then
with another; in consequence she was swept into captivity to the very nation
whose fashions she most affected (Isa. xxxviii.).

Have we never tasted the bitters of captivity? – Borne away from our happy
early homes to live among strangers, set to repugnant tasks, removed from
all that made life worth living, we have known the exile’s lot. Alas! if it
be so; yet, even in our captivity, where the Lord’s song is silenced, and
our harps hang from the willows, if we repent, and put away our sins, and
turn again to the Lord, He will not only have mercy, but abundantly pardon,
and bring us again that we may be as we were in times past.
_________________________________________________________________

Every day a portion, all the days of his life 2 Kings xxv. 30 (R.V.).

IS it to be supposed that the king of Babylon took more care of Jehoiachin
than God will take of us? Jehoiachin had resisted his suzerain, and cost him
a great expenditure of men and treasure; but nothing which had transpired in
the past hindered this provision of a daily supply. Will God do less for
you, his child? Would it not come as a relief if you were to be told that,
from this moment till you die, you could always have a sufficient provision
of all the necessaries of life? But if you are a child of God, that promise
has already been made! Do not be anxious. but believe that God’s word is at
least as sure and as efficient as man’s.

The allowance was continual. – It did not begin with plenty, and gradually
dwindle to scraps. The supply was maintained year after year. Will God drop
off your supplies, think you, because He forgets, or because his power is
exhausted? You know that each supposition is alike untenable. What He has
done, He will do. The storehouses of nature open to his key. His are the
cattle on a thousand hills.

Every day a portion. – Jehoiachin had not the provisions of a year or a
month put down at his door; but as each day broke he was sure of the day’s
portion. It may be that God is dealing thus with you. Only manna for the
day: daily strength for daily need.

All the days of his life. – Jesus is with us “all the days”; and He is the
Bread of God, in whom is every property necessary for life. All the days are
included in God’s care for us, of birth and death, of sunshine and shadow.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life, and
you shall dwell in the House of the Lord for ever.
_________________________________________________________________

Adam, Sheth, Enosh. 1 Chron. i. 1.

THIS is an ancient graveyard. The names of past generations who were born
and died, who loved and suffered, who stormed and fought through the world,
are engraven on these solid slabs. But there is no inscription to record
their worth or demerit. Just names, and nothing more.

How strange to think that if Christ tarry, our names will be treated with
the same apathy as these! So far as this world is concerned, we and all our
generation shall pass away. As the flowers of the field, so we shall perish
from the earth.

But each of these lives fulfilled a necessary part in the progress of the
race. Each was in turn father and son; each passed on the torch of life;
each contributed something to the fabric of humanity rising like a coral
island from unknown depths. The hill-tops would not be possible but for
their lower courses which touch the valleys. We could not have the
somebodies without an immense number of nobodies. The flowers of the race
were prepared for by the slow progress of the plant through years of growth.

But each was the object of the love of God. Each was included in the
redemptive purpose of our Lord; each contributed some minute particle to his
nature; ach is living yet somewhere; each will have to stand before the
judgment-bar of God; each is predestined to live in the unknown world that
lies on the other side. It is a stupendous thought to imagine the whole
race, rooted in Adam, like one vast far-spreading tree. Ah, reader, be sure
that thou art taken out of the first Adam, and grafted into the second – the
Lord Jesus; and abiding in him, see ‘that thou bring forth much fruit to his
glory.
_________________________________________________________________

These are the sons of Israel. 1 Chron. ii. 1.

IT is noticeable how irrevocable the Divine sentence is on a human life. Of
Er, the grave, impartial voice of Scripture says, he was “wicked in the
sight of the Lord”; of Achan, he was the “troubler of Israel, and committed
a trespass in the devoted thing.” These sentences are recorded with such
precision as to admit of no dispute, no appeal; and they sum up the life.

But was there not much else in each of these men? Were there not tender or
chivalrous moments? Did they never shine for a moment in some transfiguring
ray? Was all their life dyed with these sad and sombre hues? Ah, it may have
been so – still the one thing that the Scripture tells of them is the sin in
which all their life seemed to culminate and express itself. With unerring
accuracy God can distinguish the one act or word by which the character is
revealed. He may forgive it, but He holds it up as the epitome or summary of
what the life was.

Let us see how we live, walking before God with reverent fear, watching and
praying, because any moment may give birth to a word or act which may
characterise our life in all coming time. It must be remembered, however,
that all these things emanate from the heart. The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked; but the issues of life proceed thence:
it therefore must be watched with all diligence and care. What a man thinks,
that he is. The chance word or act is a true indication of the inner life.
Therefore it is preserved for all after-time by the voice of God. See that
your heart is perfect before God. There is forgiveness; but then is also the
unerring verdict.
_________________________________________________________________

These were the sons of David. 1 Chron. iii. 1.

BUT how different they were to the Son of David! Contrast any one of these
with our blessed Lord, and what an infinite chasm lies between them! Solomon
was the most reputable of them, but a greater than Solomon was born in
Bethlehem, and cradled in a manger. Surely the least earnest must be struck
with the difference in these sons and that Son. But in this difference, is
there not the most conspicuous proof of his miraculous conception? Even
though the story of his wondrous birth had never been preserved for us by
the evangelists, we should have felt convinced that something like it must
have happened, in virtue of which He should be the Man of men, the one
absolutely flawless and perfect flower on the stem of humanity. With new
emphasis we read the familiar words, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore that Holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of GOD.”

We, too, who have been born once, need to be born again. To be born of a
David does not ensure perfectness of heart and life. Though born of parents,
who were after God’s own heart and are passed into the skies, we need to be
born again, or we may repeat the sins of an Ammon, an Adonijah, an Absalom.
It is a serious question to ask whether, like David, we have called his
greater Son our Lord. This is the true mark of the new birth. Those who are
born of the Holy Ghost call Jesus Lord, and none other The recognition of
the supreme lordship of Jesus is imperative for the peace and right ordering
of the heart and life, So we pass to our true stature in Jesus.
_________________________________________________________________

Because I bare him with sorrow. 1 Chron. iv. 9.

THE products of sorrow have been the rarest gifts to mankind. The books,
hymns, discoveries, deeds, to which men and women have been urged by sorrow,
or which have been born into the world amid heart-rending soul-travail, are
those which will never be allowed to die, because perennial sources of
inspiration and comfort. It was thus with the child of whom we have this
brief record. We might becomingly weave the four petitions of the prayer of
Jabez into the supplications of each new morning hour.

To be blessed indeed. – Not the lower springs only, but the upper ones also;
not life alone, but life more abundantly; not those blessings only which
pertain to the body or worldly circumstance, but those spiritual ones of the
heavenlies, that are the best donation man can receive or God bestow.

A larger coast. – There is a godly ambition which may be reverently
cherished for wider influence over men, not for its own sake, but for the
Master’s. You may feel that you have fulfilled the measure of your present
possibilities, but have unexhausted powers and talents. Tell God so, and ask
for a wider extent of territory to bring under cultivation for Him.

Thine hand with me. – The father puts his hand on the boy’s hand as he draws
back the bowstring, strengthening the thin arms of youth. So will the mighty
God of Jacob do for you.

Keep me from evil. – You cannot keep your heart door shut when a tumult of
temptation or care assaults it from without; but God’s peace and grace, like
angel sentries, can avail you. Though tempted, you may be kept in the
temptation and delivered from the evil. Thus your spirit, and the Holy
Spirit shall be ungrieved.
_________________________________________________________________

They cried to God in the battle, and He was entreated of them. 1 Chron. v.
20.

WHETHER they cried to God before they went into the battle we are not told;
but probably they did, because we read that the war was of God, and it is
hardly likely that they would have prayed to Him in the midst of the fight,
when the foemen’s blows fell like hail on their armour, if they had not
prayed before they entered the bloody fray. Men often excuse themselves for
neglecting their morning devotions by saying that they will surely look to
God, as they may require his gracious help, in the midst of the day’s
temptations and needs; but, as a matter of fact, when once they are plunged
into its war they forget to look up. You must direct your prayer in the
morning, and look up whilst the early shadows lie long on the dewy grass, if
you would keep looking off to Jesus, amid the din of the fight.

It is very lovely to contract and preserve this habit of looking upward, and
crying to God in the battle. When our feet are slipping, when the foe seems
about to overmaster, when heart and flesh fail – how refreshing and
strengthening to fling one eager look or cry to heaven, and say, “I am
thine, save me.” There can be no doubt as to the issue. God is always
intreated of those who put their trust in Him. Sooner might a mother forget
her sucking child than God be unmindful of one sigh, or tear, or upward
glancing look from his own. Oh, child of God, put thou thy trust in God, and
go through this tempestuous world as one who is confident of a Divine Ally.
At any moment He will ride on the heavens to thy help. “Let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find
grace to help in time of need.”
_________________________________________________________________

Heman the singer. 1 Chron. vi. 33.

THIS is a very brief record to put on a man’s grave, but a very expressive
one. To decipher that epitaph about Heman is to learn a good deal about him.
From this clue we might almost construct his entire personality and
character. And it would be well if it could be said of us that we had
ministered with song before the tabernacle of the Lord.

Would you be a singer – not on Sundays only, but always; not with your voice
only, but in your heart; not only when the sunshine pours into the open
casement through the swaying boughs of honeysuckle, but when the shutters
tell of bereavement and removal – then remember these rules: – (1st.) God
must put the new song into your mouth; (2nd.) You must be fully consecrated
to Him; for the song of the Lord only begins when the burnt-offering is
complete. (3rd.) You must not go into a strange land, for it is impossible
to sing the Lord’s song there.

Sing on, dear heart, sing on. There is nothing that scares off the devil so
quickly as a hymn. Luther said, “Let us sing a hymn, and spite the devil.”
There is nothing that so well beguiles the pilgrim’s step, and quickens his
pace, when the miles are growing long and weary. There is nothing that
brings so much of heaven into the heart. Singing makes every movement
rhythmic, every service praise, every act thanksgiving. Sing when times are
dark, you will make them bright; sing when the house of life is lonely, it
will become peopled with unseen choristers; go down into the valley of
shadow with a song, and you will find yourself singing the new song of Moses
and the Lamb when you awake on the other side.
_________________________________________________________________

It went evil with his house. 1 Chron. vii. 23.

IT is an old-world tale, and those tears have long since been wiped away.
What led to the death of so many of the stalwart sons of Ephraim is not
quite clear; but apparently they made a raid from the hill-fastnesses on the
men of Gath to lift their cattle, and were repelled with great disaster. At
any rate, they were slain by men of Gath, that were born in the land. They
were part of the early nations of Canaan that should have been destroyed.
This suggests a significant train of thought. We must beware of the
tendencies and impulses which were born in us, which we have inherited.

They are strong in all of us. Parents transmit to an awful extent their own
passions. What a reason this is for carefully curbing them! I have known the
children of drunkards, grown to middle-life, who have confessed that they
have never spent a day without the conscious craving for alcohol. These are
the men of Gath, born in the land, who will slay us unless we are on our
guard.

There will be irremediable sorrow if we yield to them. Many days of mourning
will not avail to wipe out the sad and bitter memory of the disaster, when
once they have wreaked their wild will on us. If permitted within, they
will, like traitors, open the door to Satan without.

But faith is the victory. He that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God; he
in whom Jesus lives by the Holy Spirit; he who knows the Stronger than the
strong man armed, shall be kept from falling, and preserved unto God’s
heavenly kingdom. “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of
the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh.”
_________________________________________________________________

Esh-baal, . . . Merib-baal. 1 Chron. viii. 33, 34.

BAAL was the idol-god of Zidon and of many surrounding nations. This idol,
representing the sun in his productive force, was worshipped with impure and
scandalous rites. The introduction of this name into the appellation of one
of Saul’s sons indicates the secret root of the declension and consequent
misfortunes of that ill-fated monarch. In the earlier part of his reign he
was perfect in his allegiance to Jehovah – Jonathan means “Gift of Jehovah ”
– but as the years went on, he became proud and seIfsufficient; he turned to
Baal, the Spirit of the Lord departed from him, and an evil spirit rushed in
to take His place, as wind rushes in to fill a vacuum.

The name which Jonathan gave his son had another significance. Merib-baal is
one who opposes Baal. It is as though he would indelibly stamp upon his
child an undying hatred and opposition to that idolatry which was undoing
his father’s character and kingdom. In this choice of his child’s name we
also gather the deep-seated piety and devotion of that noble soul, whose
heart was true to God amid the darkening shadows of his father’s reign. It
was this that probably drew David and him so closely in affinity.

How absolutely necessary it is for the peace of a household that there
should be a oneness of devotion to God! Where that is the first
consideration, there is peace and blessedness; and that it may be so, it is
of the greatest importance that the parents should be constant in their
godly allegiance. The ruin of Saul’s home, family, and realm, began in his
personal disloyalty to God; and how far he influenced the nation for evil it
is difficult to estimate.
_________________________________________________________________

Chosen to be porters . . appointed over the furniture; . . the singers. 1
Chron. ix. 22, 29, 31, 33.

WHAT a busy scene is suggested in these words! When the morning broke, it
called to duty first the porters who opened the House of God; and then,
after due ablution, each band of white-robed Levites been its special
service. There was no running to and fro in disorder, no intrusion on one
another’s office, no clashing in duty, no jealousy of each other’s ministry.
It was enough to know that each had been appointed to his task, and was
asked to be faithful to it. The right ordering of the whole depended on the
punctuality, fidelity, and conscientiousness of each.

So it is in the Church of Christ, each is specially gifted for some post to
which he has been set apart. One to see to the gates, admitting souls to the
kingdom; one to the baking in pans, attending to the feeding of the
household of God; some are appointed to the furnishing and maintaining of
the House of Prayer; others to the psalmody, as the hymn-writers of our
praise and holy song. How beautiful it is when we dwell together in this
unity, not envying one another, nor interfering in each other’s ministry.
“He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and
some, pastors and teachers: for the perfecting of the saints, for the work
of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Whatever is
successfully done by the Church is accredited by Christ to each faithful
servant, just as the impression produced on the audience by an orchestra is
the result of each instrument, even to the piccolo, doing its part. Whatever
is done by the whole, is done by each part of the whole. Be content with the
position to which thy Master has assigned thee, and let thine eye be single
unto Him. So shall each have praise of God.
_________________________________________________________________

So Saul died for his trespass. 1 Chron. x. 13 (R.V.).

IT is suggestive to ponder the threefold analysis of Saul’s trespass as
given here. He kept not the word of the Lord – this probably refers to his
failure to execute the sentence on Amalck; he asked counsel of one that had
a familiar spirit – this errand had taken him to Endor on the eve of the
battle; he enquired not of the Lord – this was conspicuously the case in his
persecution of David.

Do we sufficiently inquire of the Lord? We ask the advice of our friends and
religious teachers; we sometimes use doubtful methods of ascertaining God’s
will, as allowing the Bible to drop open, or interpreting some coincidence
in the way we secretly desire to follow; besides which there is an
increasing tendency in society to use the crystal, to consult spiritualistic
mediums, to employ palmistry. These latter, course, repeat the sin of Saul,
in going to Endor; and the resort to them on the part of children of this
world shows that the heart of man must have something exterior to itself for
worship and trust; if it has Forsaken God, it will deal with the devil
rather than drift on alone. But let us all cultivate more carefully the
blessed habit of waiting on God. If we ask Him for guidance, He will be sure
to impart it; only we must put aside all selfish and personal ends, desiring
to know his will, with a single purpose, and an unalloyed determination to
follow it at any cost.

Christ has told us that willingness to do his will is the sure organ of
spiritual knowledge. “He that wills to do his will, shall know.” Be of good
career, beloved: God hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know his will, and
see that Just One, and shouIdst hear the voice of his mouth.
_________________________________________________________________

Oh that one would give me drink of the water at the well of Bethlehem! 1
Chron. xi. 17.

DAVID had often drunk of this well. As a boy he had gone with his mother to
draw its clear, cold water. It was, therefore, associated with the happy
days of childhood and youth that lay behind the haze of the years. In the
sultry afternoon, as, from the cave in which be was hiding, he looked across
the valley where his ancestress Ruth had gleaned in the fields of Boaz, to
the long straggling town of his birth, it seemed as though nothing could
stay his passionate longing for a draught of the water of the well of
Bethlehem that was at the gate.

Sometimes longings like his take possession of us. We desire to drink again
the waters of comparative innocence, of child-like trust and joy; to drink
again of the fountains of human love; to have the bright, fresh rapture in
God, and nature, and home. But it is a mistake to look back. Here and now,
within us, Jesus is waiting to open the well of living water which springs
up to eternal life, of which if we drink we never thirst.

Purity is better than innocence; the blessedness which comes through
suffering is richer than the gladsomeness of childhood; the peace of the
heart is more than peace of circumstances. We have solace in Jesus, which
even the dear love of home could not equal; and before us lies the reunion
with the blessed dead. How shall we thank Him who, at the cost of his own
blood, broke through the hosts of our foes, and won for us the river of
life; and who for evermore will lead us to the fountains, where life rises
fresh from the heart of God! Listen to his voice as He bids us drink
abundantly: “Let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely.”
_________________________________________________________________

All these men of war, that could keep rank, came to make David king. 1
Chron. xii. 38.

THE crowning of David secured the unity of Israel. Because all these men of
war converged on the chosen king, they met each other, and became one great
nation. The enthroning of David was the uniting of the kingdom. Herein is
the secret of the unity of the Church. We shall never secure it by
endeavouring to bring about an unity in thought, or act, or organization. It
is as each individual heart enthrones the Saviour that each will become one
with all kindred souls in the everlasting kingdom.

Is your heart perfect to make Christ king? We read in verse 33 of Zebulon,
whose warriors were not of a double heart; the margin says they were
“without a heart and a heart.” The double-minded man is unstable in all his
ways; he is not to be relied upon in his loyalty or service to his king. The
only blessed life is that of the man whose eye is single. It is only such an
one that receives anything from the Lord. Let us ask that the thoughts of
our hearts may be cleansed by the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, that our
hearts may be perfect towards Him, and so perfect to all who hold Jesus as
King and Head, though they differ from us in minor points. Different
regiments, but one army, one movement, one king.

Let us learn to keep rank, shoulder to shoulder, and in step, with our
brethren. Too many like to break the ranks, and do God’s work independently.
Fifty men who act together will do greater execution than five hundred
acting apart. There is too much of this guerilla fighting. Unity is
strength; and in their efforts to overthrow the kingdom of Satan it is most
essential that the soldiers of Christ move in rank and keep step.
_________________________________________________________________

And David was afraid of God that day. 1 Chron. xiii. 12.

THERE was no reason for David to be afraid of God, if he conformed to the
rules laid down in Leviticus. There it was expressly ordained that the Ark
should be carried on the shoulders of the priests, because the cause of God
must proceed through the world by the means of consecrated men, rather than
by mechanical instrumentality. David ignored this provision when he placed
the Ark on the new cart. He disobeyed the distinct law of the Divine
procedure. What wonder that Uzza was struck dead! Fire will burn if you
persist in violating its law. Obed-edom, on the other hand, studiously
obeyed, so far as he knew them, the Divine regulations, and to him the Ark
was a source of blessing; just as fire will toil for us in our furnaces and
grates, and be the greatest possible benediction to human Iife, if only we
carefully conform to its ascertained and immutable law.

God is to us what we are to Him. To Pharaoh, blackness and darkness; to
Israel, light and help. To the froward, He is froward; to the merciful man,
merciful.To one of the thieves, the cross of Christ was the savour of death
unto death, because his heart was impenitent; to the other, the savour of
life unto life, because his heart was soft and believing You need not fear
God so long as you walk in his ways and do his will. He is to be feared only
by those who violate his law. God is a consuming fire. He will make a breach
on those who disobey Him. He will consume the evil of our inner life. But
let Him be welcomed into your life and home; let the Ark, which is the
symbol of his presence, dwell within; bring up your children to minister
unto Him; and you will be blessed, with all that you have.
_________________________________________________________________

Then thou shalt go out to battle; for God is gone forth before thee. 1
Chron. xiv. 15.

WHAT was this “going- It was not merely a fitful breeze stealing through
the leaves; it was not the going of the wind; but of angel squadrons who
were proceeding against the enemies of Israel. This thought often occurs in
Scripture – as when Jacob met God’s host; and the warrior-Saviour told
Joshua that He was captain of a host whom God had commissioned to take
Jericho; so also the horses and chariots of fire surrounded Elisha. Hearken
to the measured footfall of God’s host, beneath which the mulberry trees
sway, though no wind stirs the sultry air.

God’s hosts go forth against his foes and ours. Perhaps we should feel less
oppressed with the burden of the fight if we realized this. The battle is
not ours, but God’s. He will deliver the Philistines to us so that we shall
have to do little else than fight and spoil. Oh, believe in the co-operation
of the Holy Spirit. Lonely missionary in some distant station of the foreign
field, listen for the moving in the tops of the mulberry trees! God is
stirring for thy succour. Thou art a co-worker with Him in making known his
salvation; and He will prosper thee.

Let us wait for our instructions. David inquired of the Lord; let us not
anticipate Him. It is useless to go up until He has gone out before us. We
may as well save ourselves from disappointment by quietly waiting for the
salvation of our God. But oh, be sure that those who wait for God shall not
be long before the God for whom they wait shall go forth before them to
smite the host, whether it be the hosts of temptation that oppress the inner
life, or the hosts of spiritual foes that oppose the progress of God’s work.
_________________________________________________________________

And Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was for song. 1 Chron. xv. 22.

THE carrying of the Ark to its right place was associated with every
expression of gladness on the part of king and people; but there were some
who were specially set apart as the exponents of the general joy. In the old
time such were David, Heman, Asaph, Chenaniah; in our time, Watts and
Doddridge, Wesley and Toplady, Keble, Havergal, and Bonar.

It is good to be for song. Many a heart that cannot rank as a musician or
poet, may yet be susceptible to the joy of the Lord, which is ever passing
through creation, catching it up so as to express it. As the Ark of the Lord
comes to its place within you, sing.

Song is harmony with the life of God. The will of God sometimes enters life
as a sigh, as David’s first attempt to move the Ark; but afterwards it
becomes a song, as in the second attempt. Enshrine the Ark of God with its
tables of stone, its mercy-seat of fellowship, its worshipping Cherubim in
the Holy of Holies within; and you will find sighs turned to songs, tears to
thanks, mourning to the garment of praise.

Worship the will of God. Conform your life with it. Draw on the ground a
circle to represent God’s will, and step into it, resolving never to step
out of its blessed precincts again. Dare to believe and confess that
Paradise lies within, though it may be veiled to sight and sense. According
to your faith it shall be unto you. If you believe that heaven is there, you
will find heaven. The Ark of God is ever a provocative of song. His statutes
seem awful in the distance; but so soon as we begin to practise them, they
turn to songs
_________________________________________________________________

Talk ye of all His wondrous works. 1 Chron. xvi. 9.

WE do not talk sufficiently about God. Why it is so may not be easy to
explain; but there seems a too great reticence among Christian people about
the best things. In the days of Malachi, “they that feared the Lord spake
often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard.” We talk about
sermons, details of worship and church organization, or the latest phase of
Scripture criticism; we discuss men, methods, and churches; but our talk in
the home, and in the gatherings of Christians for social purposes, is too
seldom about the wonderful works of God. Better to speak less, and to talk
more of Him.

But probably the real cause of our avoidance of this best of topics, is that
our hearts are filled with so much which is not of God, and they speak out
of their abundance. You may judge the contents of a shop by what is put in
the windows; and you may judge of the inner life of too many Christians by
the subjects which are most familiar to their lips. The heart does not seek
for God and his strength, nor his face continually; and therefore we find it
hard to talk of all his wondrous works.

But go back in thought to the day of Pentecost. One of the first signs of
the descent of the blessed Spirit was that the crowd heard every man
speaking in his own tongue the wonderful works of God. What God has done in
the past, as recorded on the page of Scripture; what He is doing day by day
in the world around, and in our hearts; what He has promised to do on the
horizon where heaven and earth shall blend in the Second Advent – yield fit
themes on which his children may beamingly talk to each other, till He goes
beside and talks with them till their hearts burn.
_________________________________________________________________

Do as Thou hast said, that thy name may be magnified for ever. 1 Chron.
xvii. 23, 24.

THIS is a most blessed phase of true prayer. Many a time we ask for things
which are not absolutely promised. We are not sure therefore until we have
persevered for some time whether our petitions are in the line of God’s
purpose or no. There are other occasions, and in the life of David this was
one, when we are fully persuaded that what we ask is according to God’s
will. We feel led to take up slid plead some promise from the page of
Scripture, under the special impression that it contains a message for us.

At such times, in confident faith, we say, “Do as Thou hast said.” There is
hardly any position more utterly beautiful, strong, or safe, than to put the
finger upon some promise of the Divine Word, and claim it. There need be no
anguish, or struggle, or wrestling; we simply present the cheque and ask for
cash, produce the promise, and claim its fulfilment; nor can there be any
doubt as to the issue. It would give much interest to prayer, if we were
more definite. It is far better to claim a few things specifically than a
score vaguely.

David’s argument was not simply that his house might be established, but
that God’s name might be magnified for ever. It is good when we can lose
sight of our personal interests in our keen desire for his glory; when we
are so delivered from egotism, that Christ is all and in all. Let the
attitude of your soul be more towards the glory of God; and as you quote
promise after promise for the enthroning of Christ, the saving of men, and
the sanctification of your soul, dare in humble faith to say, Do as Thou
hast said, that thy Name may be magnified for ever.
_________________________________________________________________

He put garrisons in Edom; and all the Edomites became servants to David. 1
Chron. xviii. 73.

EDOM and Israel were closely related, but there was constant rivalry and war
between the two peoples. Sometimes Israel held the upper-hand for a little;
but Edom soon broke loose again, and resumed the old independence, with the
border forays (2 Chron. xxi. 10; xxv. 11-14; Psa. cxxxvii. 7). Now, as Edom
stands for the flesh, which hungers for the savoury dish, and is willing to
give even its birthright of spiritual power to secure it – this long feud is
full of interest to us. It reminds us of the strife of Rom. vii., between
the will of the renewed man and the law of the members, ever striving for
mastery.

We turn on the pages of our Bibles to Isa. Ixiii., where a mighty Conqueror
is seen coming towards the southern frontier of Palestine, with his back on
Bozrah and Edom. His garments are dyed with the blood of Israel’s foes; and
behind Him cities are desolate and depopulated, territories are laid waste
without inhabitant, and Edom’s hostility is for ever quenched in blood. What
a portraiture is here of Jesus, “mighty to save,” who in his cross triumphed
over principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly. He has
overcome the world, the flesh, and the prince of the power of darkness; and
stands for evermore between us and our former oppressors.

Let us resign the conflict wholly to Him. We have sought in vain for victory
by resolutions and endeavours ; by close attention to religious duties; by
occupying our mind with various interests, so that we had no leisure to be
tempted; by diet and exercise. Now, hand the conflict absolutely over to
Jesus: do not even try to help Him: just let Him do all: be quite still, and
when temptation comes, let Him meet it.
_________________________________________________________________

Let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our
God. 1 Chron. xix. 13.

THOSE were days in which rough soldiers, like Joab, did not hesitate to
speak freely of God to their companions in arms. It is a sorry thing that it
is considered a breach of etiquette to mention God’s name in polite society.
“It is not good form! ”

We are reminded in these words of Joab of Cromwell’s memorable advice to
trust in God and keep the powder dry. David’s General felt that the ultimate
issue of the battle must be left to God; but that nothing could absolve him
and his soldier from doing their best. They, at least, must make careful
dispositions for the fight, and show themselves valiant.

This balance of statement and thought between God’s work and ours is an
evidence of fine Christian sanity. We must believe that God is the ultimate
arbiter, but we must ever speak and act as though the responsibility were
entirely on ourselves. To believe that God will do all, and therefore to do
nothing, is as bad as to believe that God leaves us to our unaided
endeavours. We believe in the strength and sufficiency of God’s purpose; but
we know that there is link in the chain of causation which we must supply.

The servant of God who counts most absolutely on the communion and
co-operation of the Divine Spirit will be most careful in making all needful
dispositions for the fight. He will leave no stone unturned to secure the
victory, though he knows that the ultimate decision rests with God. The
conquests of the cross recorded in the Acts of the Apostles were the result
of the united action of the Holy Spirit and the men who were sent forth with
the message of the gospel “We are labourers together with God.”
_________________________________________________________________

The time when Kings go out to battle. . . . . But David tarried at
Jerusalem. 1 Chron. xx. 1.

THERE are times and tides in the affairs of men. Favourable moments for
doing and daring, for attempting and achieving. Hours when the ship must be
launched, or it will have to wait for another spring tide. Days when the
seed must be sown, or it will have to tarry till another autumn. Royal
natures show their quality by taking advantage of times like these, when God
and circumstances favour a great attempt.

Alas, if long-continued prosperity has robbed the kingly soul of its desire
or power to use its sacred opportunity! Once missed, it may never recur; and
the soul that has missed it condemns itself, and loses heart, and surrenders
itself to lower and ever lower depths of temptation.

Beware of moments and hours of ease. It is in these that we most easily fall
into the power of Satan. The sultriest summer days are most laden with
blight. There is no such guard against temptation – next to the keeping
power of Jesus, which is all-sufficient – as occupation to the full measure
of time and capacity. If we cannot fill our days with our own matters, there
is always plenty to be done for others. You think that no one has hired you,
but it is not so; the Master has sent you into his vineyard. If you cannot
do one thing, you can another. There is the ministry of intercession for
those who are in the field. There is the exercise of worship, in which you
take your place amongst the priests. There is the ministry of comfort to
some of the sad hearts within your own circle. Redeem the time, because the
days are evil. Watch and pray in days of vacation and ease, even more than
at other times.
_________________________________________________________________

And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly in that I have done this
thing. 1 Chron. xxi. 8 (R.V.).

HIS sin lay in the spirit of pride and display. He vaunted in the growing
numbers of Israel, and credited them to himself, as the result of his own
prowess and prudence. All such boasting is very abhorrent to the all-holy
God, who will not give his glory to another. It was the sin of
Nebuchadnezzar, when he said, “Is not this great Babylon which I have
built?” It was the sin of Herod Agrippa when the people shouted, saying,
“The voice of a god, and not of a man”; and immediately the angel of the
Lord smote him, “because he gave not God the glory.”

We are all tempted to it when we count up the number of our adherents and
converts; when we unroll our securities and vouchers; when we count up our
assets; when we display our jewels. All these are gifts entrusted to our
care by our Father and Saviour, to be held in trust as a matter for
gratitude rather than for pride.

How greatly David had fallen from the level of his own sweet sonnet! –
“Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty.” Oh, let us ask our
Master Christ to teach us how to be meek and lowly in heart, that we may
find rest unto our souls; let us endeavour to be as little children, devoid
of self. consciousness; and let us be careful, as we survey the growing
treasures and power of our lives, to remember the Apostle’s words: “Who
maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? But
if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received
it? ”

How well John the Baptist parried the temptation to jealousy, when he said,
“A man can receive nothing unless it be given him from heaven.”
_________________________________________________________________

A man of rest . . . he shall build. 1 Chron. xxii. 9, 10.

THE men of rest are the builders of the most lasting structures. Solomon
builds the Temple, not David. Mary’s deed of anointing, learnt in much
sitting at the Lord’s feet, fills the world with its aroma. What is needed
to make us men and women of rest?

First, a profound conviction that God is working. – Never despair of the
world, said the late Mrs. Beecher Stowe, when you remember what God did with
slavery: the best possible must happen. This serene faith, that all things
are working out for the best – the best to God, the best to man – and that
God is at the heart of all, will calm and still us in the most feverish
days. There is a strong and an experienced Hand on the helm.

Next, an entire surrender to his will. – God’s will is certain to mean the
destruction of the flesh, in whatever form He finds it; but it is our part
to yield to Him; to will his will even to the cross; to follow our leader
Christ in this, that He yielded Himself without reserve to execute his
Father’s purpose.

Thirdly, a certain knowledge that He is working within to will and do of his
good pIeasure. – what a blessed peace possesses us when once we realize that
we are not called on to originate or initiate, nor to make great
far-reaching plans and try to execute them; but just to believe that God is
prepared to work through our hands, speak by our life, dwell in our bodies,
and fulfil in us the good purposes of his will. Be full of God’s rest. Let
there be no hurry, precipitation, or fret; yield to God’s hands, that He may
mould thee: hush thy quickly throbbing pulse! So shalt thou build to good
and lasting purpose.
_________________________________________________________________

Aaron was separated, he and his sons for ever, to minister unto Him. 1
Chron. xxiii. 13.

THE threefold office of Aaron suggests our own. When we are prepared to
follow Jesus, through the rent vail of his flesh, living a truly separated
life, cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, we
also, as chosen priests, may exercise these functions of intercession,
ministry, and blessing.

Intercession. – The fragrant incense stealing heavenward is a beautiful
emblem of intercessory prayer. Let us pray more, not for ourselves so much
as for others. This is the sign of growth in grace, when our prayers are
fragrant with the names of friend and foe, and mingled with the coals of the
golden altar. This is one of the best gifts; oh to exercise it more
persistently!

Ministry. – We have many things to engage our attention, but they maybe
unified and elevated by the one threading purpose of doing all for the King.
Whether we eat, or drink, or whatever else we do, we may do all to his
glory. Go up and down in the Temple, priests; engage in song, or sacrifice,
or whatever ministry you will: but be sure that all is of Him, and through
Him, and to Him for ever.

Blessing. – As Aaron came forth from the most Holy Place to bless the
congregation that waited for him, so we should bless that little portion of
the world in which our lot is cast. It is not enough to Iinger in soft
prayer within the vail, we must come forth to bless mankind. He who is
nearest God is closest man. Let our smile, our touch, our words, our life,
be the greatest blessing possible to those who know us best.

Blessed Spirit, realize through each of us this threefoId ideal, and
separate us from sin and the world, that we may be prepared for it.
_________________________________________________________________

Princes of the Sanctuary. 1 Chron. xxiv. 5 (R.V.).

IT is not enough for us to be in the sanctuary, we must be princes there.
There must be the regal mien, which is a meek humility; the real largesse,
which is peace and blessing; and the regal might, which is self-restraint
and self-control. None can be princes of the sanctuary without two things:
they must be priests, come of the priestly line; and kings, royal not
because of deeds of war, but because they are related to the King Himself,
and are regal in their holy and blameless character.

There is only one power that can make us princes of the sanctuary – the hand
of the exalted Lamb, who is Himself a Priest-King, after the order of
Melchizedek. He it is who makes us kings and priests unto God his Father.

He makes us priests. – This is your position, not now to offer propitiatory
sacrifices, but to present yourselves a living sacrifice; to have compassion
on the ignorant, and on those who are out of the way; to swing the censer of
prayer between the living and the dead, so that plagues may be stayed; and
to plead for the dark sad world, with its load of wretchedness, need, and
sin. See that your garments are ever white and stainless.

He makes us kings. – We reign with Him. Sin and Satan, the world and the
flesh, are beneath our feet. Ours the life of overcoming power, of unbroken
victory, of identification with Jesus in the glory that the Father has given
Him. They that receive the abundance of his grace reign. It is there for us
all, but many do not know, or knowing do not appreciate. It is on our
reception by faith of God’s abundant grace, that we reign in this life, and
the next.
_________________________________________________________________

All these were under the hands of their father for song. 1 Chron. xxv. 5, 6.

WHAT a glorious family was here! The household was a band of choristers!
From morning till night their home must have been full of holy song and
psalm, or talk about the order of the Temple service, in which they were all
so deepIy interested. Surely no jarring note, no unholy discord, would live
in such an atmosphere! The common occupation and worship must have welded
the brothers and sisters into to the tenderest union.

How one would like to have seen Heman coming into the Temple with his
children! It was largely owing to him arid their mother that they were what
they were. We shall read the Psalms ascribed to him with more interest, now
we know of the holy family life out of which they emanated. What interest
there would be when the father had produced a new psalm, to know what music
would suit it best!

Parents! Be sure that you look on your children, as these Hebrews did on
theirs, as the gifts of God; and remember that if He gives you many months
to feed, He will send the wherewithal to feed them. Be careful also that
your own hearts and lives are full of praise and prayer; what you are, the
children will become. Would that mothers especially realized how they
transmit their characters. But remember that you must be obeyed in the home.
Heman’s children were “under the hands of their father.” Young people must
not get the upper hand.

But if you would rule well, you must obey. Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, were
under the king (6, R.V.). The man who is himself under authority, can say,
Go, come, do this or that, with the calm assurance of being obeyed.
_________________________________________________________________

For the courses of the doorkeepers. 1 Chron. xxvi. 1 (R.V.).

MIGHTY men of valour were needed for this, just as sweet singers were for
the service of song. Entrance to the House of God was restricted to a
privileged few. Gentiles were excluded from certain courts, and women from
another. It was incumbent also to look out for those who, like the publican
in the Lord’s parable, might shrink from intruding, and encourage them to
enter. Doorkeepers had to combine many qualities, which would be of the
greatest service if they could be repeated in each church and chapel of our
great cities, for welcoming old and young.

But chiefly we are concerned with the temple of the heart. We surely need
the doorkeeper there, for in the history of the inner life there is so much
going and coming; such troops of thoughts pour into the shrine of the soul,
and pour out. And often, in the crowd, disloyal and evil thoughts intrude,
which, before we know it, introduce a sense of distance and alienation from
God, as though a cloud had veiled the shining of the Shekinah. Whenever the
sky is overcast within, we should question whether some traitor, some
excommunicate, has entered. Our native wit is not quick enough to detect,
and our strength not mighty enough to withstand, the entrance of all these
evil things. Hence the necessity not only to live in the Spirit, but to walk
in the Spirit, i. e., to submit everything to the Spirit’s scrutiny.

It is necessary also that strict supervision strong be exercised over those
who unite with the visible Church, lest her holiness become diluted, and her
fences broken down. Nothing is more important than the function of
doorkeeping for the Church’s purity.
_________________________________________________________________

All these were the rulers of the substance which was King David’s. 1 Chron.
xxvii. 31.

THERE was great variety in office and gift. He who cared for the work of the
field could not have known how to care for the flocks. The overseer of
olive-yard and vineyard would have been a poor hand with the camels and
asses. One sort of talent was needed for the herds, and another for the wine
cellars; and yet there was unity in the common service of the king. We are
reminded of the words of the Apostle, describing the variety in unity which
must obtain in every healthy church: “There are diversities of gifts, but
the same Spirit; diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord;
diversities of operations, but the same God.”

Each of these different men had his distinct sphere for which he was
doubtless specially qualified; and it was his duty – not to be jealous of
others, nor eager to imitate them, but – to be faithful in his own province.
How much happier we should all be if we recognised our specific work in
God’s house, and kept to it, being content to serve the King as He has seen
fit to determine, rendering Him the produce in due season.

How great an error it would have been had any of these begun to account the
produce of cattle or ground as his own! He had nothing that he had not
received, and whatever he controlled had been entrusted to his care for the
emolument and of his sovereign. Yet, how few of us that we are put in
business with God’s capital, for God’s use. We take all and give Him a
percentage, instead of using all for Him and keeping a percentage for
ourselves. In this we rob God, and greatly err. We must acknowledge that
both we and all we possess belong to Him.
_________________________________________________________________

The Lord God, even my God, . . will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. 1
Chron. xxviii. 20.

IT is very comforting to take these words to our hearts; especially when we
connect them with the foregoing ones about the pattern, and apply the whole
passage to the temple-building of our own lives. For each of us, too, there
is a pattern, an ideal, a design, based on the possibilities which God sees
to be within our reach; for each, too, there is abundance of stored
provision; but we are not always strong to do. In Jesus there is the
complete ideal of human life; of the Child at Nazareth; of the Servant in
the workshop; of the Lover in his affection for his church; of the Friend,
the Sufferer, the Patriot, the Saviour. Go forth and imitate Him!

Sometimes our heart and flesh fail us in the mid-passage of life. Once the
energy and vigour of youth promised to sustain and carry us to the end of
life, without fear or failure; but these die down, and we wonder how the
remainder of the life-plan can be fulfilled. And the one sufficient answer
is – God. He who helped our fathers to the very end will help us; He who did
not fail or forsake them, will never leave nor forsake us, until all the
work of life which He has planned, is finished.

It is probable that you will do better and more enduring work henceforth
than you have ever done in the heyday and plenitude of youthful power, if
you let God work all through you to his own glory. You have no need for
despondency, God is sufficient. Oh to write this down on the tablets of the
heart – God is; God is here ; God is all-sufficient; God has begun and will
finish! God has promised that he will never leave nor forsake us; therefore
we may boldly say, “God is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto
me.”
_________________________________________________________________

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

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.
_________________________________________________________________

I will give thee riches. 2 Chron. i. 11, 12.

SOLOMON had chosen wisdom and knowledge that he might honour God in the
sight of his people. And in return God honoured him, and supplemented his
choice with abundant wealth.

This reminds one of the constant teaching of Jesus. He who seeks his life
loses it; but to lose it is to save it in the best and deepest sense. Seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall
be added.

The conception of life given in the Bible differs by a whole heaven from the
maxims and practices of some good and earnest people. Their notion is that
they must work for their living, “keep the wolf from the door,” educate
their children for successfully meeting the demands of life. These objects
are legitimate; but they were never meant by God to be the supreme aim of
his servants.

His object in our creation, redemption, and regeneration, was that we might
serve his redemptive purposes in the world, manifest his character, do his
will, win souls for his kingdom, administer the gifts with which He had
entrusted us. He asks us to rise to this high calling, and give our whole
life to its realization. He will be responsible for all else. It is surely
his will that we should give ourselves to useful trades, and fill our days
with honest toil; but the main purpose should ever be his glory, and the
exemplification in word and act of his holy character. It we ask for wisdom
to do this well, we shall get all eIse into the bargain. God is a being of
perfect honour and integrity. And if we dare to make his service the main
end of life, we shall find that no good thing will fail. He paves the
streets of heaven with gold, and will not withhold it from his children, if
they really need.
_________________________________________________________________

Because the Lord loveth His people, He hath made thee King over them. 2
Chron. ii. 11(R.V.).

HOW truly might these words be addressed to our blessed Lord! Because God
loved the world, He gave his only-begotten Son, his well-beloved, to be both
Prince and Saviour. And it is in knowing, loving, and serving Him that we
can realize our supreme blessedness.

God’s loving appointment in making Jesus King will be apparent when we
remember how beautiful He is in his personal character; how closely He is
identified with our nature; the might of his arm with which He shields, the
patience wherewith He bears, the redemption which He has wrought out and
brought in for all who believe. What could God’s love have done better to
approve itself?

Is He your King? Never till He is so, will you know the fulness of God’s
love. Those who question or refuse his authority are always in doubt about
the love of God to themselves and to the world. Those, on the other hand,
who acknowledge his claims, and crown Him as King, suddenly find themselves
admitted to a standpoint of vision in which doubts and disputations vanish,
and the secret love of God is unfolded. Then they experience the wise and
gentle tendance of the Divine love in its most entrancing characteristics.
All is love where Jesus reigns.

Nothing is more indicative of God’s benevolence than his incessant appeal to
men to make Jesus King. The demand may sometimes involve severe agony and
suffering for those who have acknowledged other lords too long; but God
persists in his demand, because only in serving Jesus can the human heart be
truly blessed.

“Go, spread your trophies at his feet,

And crown Him Lord of all!”
_________________________________________________________________

He set up the pillars before the Temple, . . . Jachin and Boaz. 2 Chron.
iii. 17.

THE meaning of these names is significant – He shall establish, and In it is
strength. Each speaks of Him of whom the whole temple was a type. The Lord
Jesus has established the work of redemption so that it shall never be
removed; has established the covenant, ordered in all things and sure; has
established his Church, so that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against
it; has established us before the face of his Father for evermore.

There is much in the New Testament about the established life. It is the
desire of Peter that the scattered saints should be perfected, established,
and strengthened. Paul desires to see the Roman Christians, that he may
impart some spiritual gift so that they may be established: he desires that
the Colossians may be built up in Christ, and established in the faith. The
Epistle to the Hebrews says that it is good for the heart to be established
with grace. Let us ask that Jesus should establish us in the Divine life,
rooting and grounding us in love and faith, so that we may not be moved away
from the Gospel, but abound therein with thanksgiving.

It is only as we abide in Jesus, that we shall become steadfast, unmovable,
and always abounding.

But Christ is also our strong Helper. We have no strength of our own; but He
is strong; and in Him we have righteousness and strength. Let its make our
refuge in Him, as the conies, who are a feeble folk, do in the rock. They
who abide in Jesus derive from Him fresh supplies of strength for each
moment’s need. They hear Him saying, “Fear not, I will strengthen, yea, I
will help thee”; and they learn to say with Paul: “I can do all things in
Christ that strengtheneth me.”
_________________________________________________________________

The Weight could not be found out. 2 Chron. iv. 18.

THIS was as it should be. There was no attempt to keep an accurate account
of what was given to the service of God. Even Solomon’s left hand did not
know what his right hand did. There is a tendency in all of us to keep a
strict account of what we give to God. We note it down in our ledgers; we
rigorously observe the compact into which we have entered with Him; but the
loftiest form of devotion overleaps such calculation.

This liberality of the people reminds us of Mary’s. She never thought of the
great cost of the precious spikenard which she broke over the Master’s
person. It was her joy to give her all; and it was only when Judas came on
the scene, that we learn how many hundred pence it was worth. Thus the
churches of Macedonia abounded from their deep poverty unto the riches of
their liberality, so that, beyond their power, they gave to the cause of
God.

This lavish generosity is the reflection of God’s. There is no measure in
his bounty. It is heaped up, pressed down, and running over. He never says,
I will give up to a certain amount, and hold my hand; but He continues to
give like the overflowings of the river of Egypt, or the abundance of the
spring flowers, which cover the earth as with a carpet. Ah, what a God is
ours, who loves with a love that passeth knowledge; and when He gives,
exceeds abundance, however much we may have asked or thought. How truly may
we say with the psalmist, “Many, Lord my God, are the wonderful works that
Thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward. They cannot be
reckoned up in order unto Thee; if I would declare and speak of them, they
are more than can be numbered.”
_________________________________________________________________

Then the house was filled with a Cloud. 2 Chron. v. 13.

THIS was the bright Shekinah cloud, the symbol of the Divine Presence, which
had shone for Moses in the bush, and led the march through the desert. It
was as though God had found a rest. And as it settled upon the Most Holy
Place, it was as though God said, This is my rest for ever; here will I
dwell, for I have desired it.

The Most Holy Place is the symbol of our spirit, meant to be the
abiding-place and home of God; and shall we not invite the blessed Shekinah
cloud to enter thither, addressing it in the words of the Psalm, “Arise,
Lord, into thy resting-place, Thou and the ark of thy strength.” Because
where He comes to abide He abundantly blesses the provision, and satisfies
the poor with bread; He clothes his priests with salvation, and makes his
saints shout aloud for joy; He erects the horn of strength and prepares the
lamp of light. What were the conditions of this incoming? –

First, UNITY.- “The trumpeters and singers were as one.” We must put away
strife, divisions, variance, and evil-speaking. Our heart and life must be
full of love. When the disciples were with one accord,. in one place, the
Spirit descended.

Second, HEARTINESS. – “They lifted up their voice.” There was every symptom
of sincerity and fervour.

Third, THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE. – “They praised the Lord, saying, He is
good, for his mercy endureth for ever.” No refrain occurs oftener in the
Bible than this. It is an exquisite expression of the heart’s joy and rest
in God. Let us sing it in our darkest, as well as gladdest hours, full of
trust, thanksgiving, and praise.
_________________________________________________________________

When Thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk. 2 Chron. vi.
27 (R.V.).

THIS sentence is exactly parallel with the previous one, When Thou dost
afflict them. The obvious meaning then is, that God sometimes taught Israel
the good way wherein they should walk, by afflicting them and shutting up
the heaven so that there was no rain. This was notably the case in the day.s
of Elijah. Possibly, these words were in his heart, when be prayed earnestly
that it might not rain, and it rained not for the space of three years and
six months. Perhaps the prophet felt that in no other away could the people
be brought back to their senses, and reconciled to God, except by learning
the futility of idol-worship. So he asked God to teach them the good way, by
shutting up the bad one.

What a lesson for ourselves: God often teaches us by bitter disappointment
and pain. Our familiar paths are barricaded by thorns, our familiar
hidingplaces are blocked up, our fountains are poisoned, and all our
pleasant things are laid waste. We sometimes suppose that this is in wrath;
may it not rather be in love? God is reaching us the good by us the evil; is
urging us to tread in the pleasant ways of wisdom, by allowing us to prove
the sharp flints and thorns of transgression. Then Ephraim bemoans himself
thus: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed to
the yoke: turn Thou me, and I shall be turned. Then the soul cries, I will
go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.

Sit in God’s school, and learn from his Word and Spirit, that He may not be
compelled to have recourse to such severe measures as these. Why shouldst
thou be afflicted, when He is willing to instruct and teach thee in the way
that thou shouldst go!
_________________________________________________________________

The fire came down from Heaven, and consumed the Burnt-Offering. 2 Chron.
vii. 1.

IT was a very gracious and immediate response to the prayer of King and
people. If we make room for God, He always comes and fills. If we seek Him,
He is instantly with us. Directly the soul confesses, it is forgiven; or
consecrates itself, it is accepted; or claims deliverance from the power of
sin, it is cleansed. Do you really want the Lord to come to you? His glory
has even now begun to shine in on you, to grow and enlighten you for
evermore.

The fire stands for the Divine Presence. Oh to have always a consciousness
of it! Nothing would so soon arrest and destroy the impurity and evil
within; as sunshine does fungus-growth. We are told that the fire was to be
kept burning on the altar: it was never to go out. Thus, we should always
perpetuate and practise the presence of God, feeding the fire with the fuel
of prayer and meditation.

Fire also stands for the Divine Purity. As the Plague of London was stamped
out by the Great Fire which destroyed the nests where it had bred: and as
the furnace rids the ore of dross – so the Holy Spirit in thy heart and mine
is a guarantee of holiness and righteousness all our days.

Fire also stands for Divine Fellowship. It consumed that part of the
offering which was placed on the altar; and it seemed as if the Divine
nature was therefore feeding upon the sacrifice, whilst the remainder of it
was consumed by the offerer. Thus, also, we have communion with Cod, as we
eat the bread and drink the wine in the Lord’s Supper. We feed on Christ in
adoration, faith, and identification. God feeds on the completeness of
Christ’s obedience, ar.the glory of his character. Thus we have fellowship
with the Father and the Son, by the Holy Ghost.
_________________________________________________________________

The places are holy, whereunto the Ark of God hath come. 2 Chron. viii. 11.

ON this account Solomon said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David,
king of Israel. What a fatal admission! She was the daughter of Pharaoh, and
therefore it was no doubt considered a splendid match for the young king;
and yet she could not dwell within the precincts of the old city of David,
hallowed by the presence of the Ark. “He brought her out of the city of
David, into the house that he had built for her.” So from the very outset
there was division of interests, making way no doubt for much of the
waywardness of Solomon’s character in after life, so that we are told “his
wives turned away his heart.”

One of the first questions that youth and maiden should put in considering
the question of marriage is, whether there can be perfect sympathy in the
best and deepest things; for how can two walk together except they be
agreed?

The blessedness of the marriage tie depends on whether the twain are one in
spirit, in a common love for Christ, and endeavour for his glory. Nothing is
more terrible than when either admits in the secresy of the heart,
concerning the other, My husband or my wife cannot accompany me into the
holy places where I was reared, and in which my best life finds its home.

All friendship should follow the same law. We must abide together in the
secret place of the Most High, if our friends and we are to be friends
indeed. All places may be made holy where the Ark of God’s covenant comes.
Where it goes, love may safely follow; but woe to the love that cannot! Its
inability proves its lack of elements of permanence and perfect
satisfaction.
_________________________________________________________________

She came to prove Solomon with hard questions. 2 Chron. ix. 1.

SHE came to the right place, for Solomon passed all the kings of the earth
in wisdom; and all the kings of the earth sought his presence, to hear the
wisdom that God had put into his heart. Bring your hard questions to Christ;
He is greater than Solomon. To Him is given riches and wisdom, and He is
made unto us wisdom. Before the touch of his light the darkest perplexities
must resolve themselves. Though He speak no audible word, the hardest
questions are answered to the eyes and ears

of such as wait before Him.

She came in the right spirit, bringing him gold and spices and precious
stones. Those who would get from Christ must be willing to give to Him.
There must be a reciprocity; and if we hope to receive from Him from those
infinite stores of which He has the key, we must count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, and must be prepared to count
them as refuse if only we may win Him.

She came to a right conclusion. He answered all her questions, and she
returned congratulating his servants and blessing God. To each of us life is
full of perplexities, to which we can find no solution, however much we
strain our eyes and weary our minds. But away there in the light Christ
stands, with the perfect plan of every maze in his possession, with a key
for every riddle, and solution for every enigma. Wait patiently. Each tough
knot will be untied; and there will come into our hearts a radiancy, a
bounding joy like that with which the Queen of Sheba turned to go to her own
home. The half of the greatness of thy wisdom, Word of God can never be
told!
_________________________________________________________________

For it was brought about of God. 2 Chron. x. 15 (R.V.).

THIS revolt must have seemed to be the result of an unfortunate mistake on
the part of the ill-advised young king. He and the young men that gathered
around him thought that the best way of ruling people was by showing a
strong hand, and adopting a policy of noncompliance with their very natural
requests. But as the result, the Ten Tribes, never very closely bound to
David’s line, sprang away from it, leaving, as Ahijah had foretold, only two
out of the twelve pieces of the rent garment. Here, however, a deeper
explanation is given: “It was brought about of God.” It seemed to be
altogether a piece of human folly and passion; but now we are suddenly
brought into the presence of God, and told that beneath the plottings and
plannings of man He was carrying out his eternal purpose.

To detect this Divine purpose lying beneath the cross-currents of human
affairs is the prerogative of the saints. In a recent book, the Duke of
Argyll has argued from the purpose-iveness of nature. With as much certainty
we may apply that word to history, politics, the course of current events.
All is under law. God doeth according to his will among the armies of heaven
and the inhabitants of the earth. “And we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his
purpose.” Without contravening the action of man’s free choice He carries
out his great designs and works his sovereign will. Lot us trust in this
Almighty Providence, which underlies all events and catastrophes, and
pursues its beneficent objects undeterred by our sins. He makes the wrath of
man to praise Him, and weaves the malignant work of Satan into his plans.
_________________________________________________________________

Such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem. 2
Chron. xi. 16.

ALL the tribes were represented in those great convocations around the
Temple and Ark of God. The territory of the northern tribes was now under
Jeroboam; the gulf between the two kingdoms was marked and distinct.
Everything was done by the son of Nebat to make it difficult for his people
to cross the frontier; but their spiritual affinities prevailed. They were
stronger than the antipathy which Rehoboam’s haughty behaviour had excited;
stronger than the fear of incurring odium with their own king; stronger than
the inconvenience of the long journey. In spite of everything, those whose
hearts were set on seeking the Lord God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to
sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers.

Does not this foreshadow the unity of the Church of Christ? Territorial
distinctions, the risk of incur-ring disfavour, the necessity of making a
sacrifice – these things are as nothing compared with the attraction of our
common Lord. Amid wide disunion and disparity of every kind, there is one
mighty bond which draws believers of every nation, kindred, tribe, and
people together. Each morning we all ascend the steps of the same temple of
prayer; each evening we join in one great hymn of praise; at each Lord’s
Supper we sit at the same table. Eating of one Bread, we know that we are
one Loaf; drinking of one Cup, we profess our indebtedness to the same
precious Blood for our hope and ground of acceptance (1 Cor. x. 17, R.V.,
marg.).

We must set our hearts, if we desire to execute any great purpose in our
life: otherwise we shall be daunted and checkmated by the strong opposition
of men and things.
_________________________________________________________________

He did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. 2 Chron.
xii. 14.

IN the margin of the A.V. for prepared the alternative rendering fixed is
suggested. The R.V. gives set, “he set not his heart to seek the Lord.” This
is very true of all of us. Before temptation comes we almost always have a
warning of some kind. The barometer falls; the sea birds come in to the
shore; the leaves of the trees are bent back. The Spirit of God contrives to
give the soul some signal that at any moment it may expect an assault. The
question always is at such a time, Is the heart set on seeking and doing the
will of God? If it be, if without reserve the whole nature is determined to
do God’s will at any cost, there is no fear of the enemy effecting an
entrance. All day the thunder of its artillery may boom around, but from
every side the foe will be repelled, until presently the storm will roll far
down the wind.

If, on the other hand, there is any vacillation; if, whilst ostensibly
avowing our determination to do the right thing, we secretly whisper in our
deepest consciousness that we intend to go as far as we can in
self-indulgence, and would be almost thankful if circumstances compelled us
to yield – we are almost certain to fall. The will must be whole in its
resolves; the heart must be consecrated in its most secret determinations;
no traitor may be harboured, who may open the postern gate. Oh to say with
David, “My heart is fixed, God, my heart is fixed”! But this steadfastness
is one of those preparations of the heart which can only be obtained through
the gracious indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Hence we pray with David, “Renew
a steadfast spirit within me.” And while we pray, we must never forget our
Lord’s command to watch also.
_________________________________________________________________

Behold, the battle was before and behind. 2 Chron. xiii. 14.

ABIJAH’S address is full of true and noble utterances, especially when he
describes God as being the Captain of the Host; and this spirit soon
permeated his people, so that when the battle was sorest, and they were
hemmed in by their foes, it was natural for them to turn to the Lord, and
for the priests to give a blast on the trumpets, like that with which the
new moon and the solemn feasts were inaugurated.

The point for us to remember is that our enemies may shut us in on all
sides, preventing reinforce-

ments from north, south, east, and west; but no earthly power can ever shut
off God from above us. The way upwards is always kept clear; the ladder
which links the beleaguered soul with God and heaven can never be blocked,
except by transgression and sin.

The Priest is always with thee, child of God. His help is always at hand.
Neither death, nor life, nor height, nor depth, nor principalities, nor
powers, can ever separate thee from the down-coming of God’s love.

The battle is often before and behind. From behind come memories of past
failure, the consequences of mistakes, the misunderstandings which have
alienated us from others, and made it difficult for us to live as we would;
on the other hand perplexities and anxieties seem to bar our future path.
But when the battle is before and behind, remember that God besets his
people behind and before, and covers them with his hand. The invisible film
of his protection makes the soul invulnerable. The life that is hid with
Christ in God is beyond the reach of harm.
_________________________________________________________________

Lord, there is none beside Thee to help. 2 Chron. xiv. 11 (R.V.)

REMIND God of his entire responsibility. – “There is none beside thee to
help.” The odds against Asa were enormous. There were a million of men in
arms against him, beside three hundred chariots. It seemed impossible to
hold his own against that vast multitude. There were no allies who would
come to his help: his only hope therefore was in God. There was none beside
to help. It may be that your difficulties have been allowed to come to so
alarming a pitch that you may be compelled to renounce all creature aid, to
which in lesser trials you have had recourse, and cast yourself back on your
Almighty Friend.

Put God between yourself and the foe. – To Asa’s faith, Jehovah seemed to
stand between the might of Zerah and himself, as one who had no strength.
Nor was he mistaken. We are told that the Ethiopians were destroyed before
the Lord and before his host, as though celestial combatants flung
themselves against the foe in Israel’s behalf, and put the large host to
rout, so that Israel had only to follow up and gather the spoil. Our God is
Jehovah of Hosts, who can summon unexpected reinforcements at any moment to
the aid of his people. Believe that He is there between you and your
difficulty, and what baffles you will flee before Him, as clouds before the
gale.

Identify your cause with his. – “In thy name are we come. . . . . Let not
man prevail against Thee.” It is a great matter when a small State is so
identified with a strong European power, as that an insult to one of its
officials is deemed a casus belli by the more powerful Government; and
whenever we are so delivered from selfish aims, as to be able to show that
our cause and God’s are one, we are invincible.
_________________________________________________________________

They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers. 2 Chron.
xv. 12.

WE hear but little talk in the present day of the covenant, the mention of
which was dear to God’s people of olden time. There is this difference
between it and the covenants which we make with God. That is permanent,
these evanescent. That is founded upon the oath and promise of God; these on
the resolutions and endeavours of man. That is full of promises of what God
will be and do; these recount what we are prepared to sacrifice and suffer.
And though we sign them with blood drawn from our veins, they will
disappoint and fail.

Do not think too much of entering into and keeping a covenant with God; but
remember that the Lord Jesus, on our behalf, has entered into covenant
relation with the Father, and the Father with us in Him. This is the new
covenant. It is drawn out at length in Hebrews viii. Very little is said
about our side, but it is full to overflowing of God’s. Nothing is said of
our fidelity to our obligations, because man has been too often weighed in
the balances and found wanting; and because the Lord Jesus Christ, as our
representative, has already fulfilled all the conditions of obedience and
devotion on which its provisions depend. He has also graciously undertaken
to realize those conditions by the Holy Spirit in us.

Every time we put to our lips the cup of the new covenant, we humbly remind
God of all He has promised, and ask Him to do as He has said. At the same
time we may confidently ask the great Surety of the covenant to accomplish
in us such a mind as may love and keep our Father’s law. And what He did for
our fathers, who were naturally just such as we are, He will certainly do
for us.
_________________________________________________________________

To show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward
him. 2 Chron. xvi. 9.

THE emphasis is clearly on the word perfect. That was the point between
Hanani the seer and Asa the king. Asa’s mistake and sin lay in his resorting
to Benhadad, king of Syria, as an ally against Baasha. Evidently he did not
perfectly trust the delivering power of God; and in this failure of his
faith, he forfeited the all-sufficient help which would have more than
availed. As the seer said very truly, simple trust in God had brought
deliverance from the Ethiopians and Lubim, though they were a much huger
host than Baasha’s; and the same attitude in respect of Baasha would have
secured a like result. God was only awaiting the appeal of Asa’s faith, to
show Himself strong. What a mistake to send to Syria!

Now, dear reader, this is very pertinent for your life and mine. We often
complain that we are bereft of help, and send off for Benhadad. And all the
while the eyes of the Lord are looking pitifully and longingly at us.
Nothing would give Him greater pleasure than to show Himself strong on our
behalf. This, however, He cannot do until renouncing all other confidants
and helpers, our heart is perfect in the simplicity and frankness of its
faith. What an exquisite thought is suggested by the allusion to the eyes of
the Lord running to and fro throughout the whole earth! At a glance He takes
in our position; not a sorrow, trial, or temptation visits us without
exciting his notice and loving sympathy. In all the whole wide earth there
is not one spot so lonely, one heart so darkened, as to escape those eyes.
Oh for the perfect confidence which will allow Him to act! It is for lack of
this that we remain unhelped, and spend our days in the midst of wars and
tumults.
_________________________________________________________________

His heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. 2 Chron. xvii. 6.

SURSUM corda! Lift up your hearts! How beautiful is this ejaculation in the
Communion Service of the Church of England, and the response, “We lift them
up unto the Lord.” I never hear it without the thrill of a holy impulse
passing through me. It is possible, and it is meet and right, to lift up our
hearts from the sordid cares and pressing responsibilities of daily life,
into the calm, serene presence of God our Father.

Lift up your heart to God, as a child its face to be kissed. Lift it up free
from mistrust and sinful stain, and unkind feeling towards any. Lift it up
in holy joy and inspiration. Lift it up as a censer filled with the hot
coals, from which sweet fragrance exhales. And God will bend down to lift it
higher, and fill it with his peace and joy and purity.

In hours of depression look up, be lifted. Sursum corda! When the foe is
pressing you most severely, look up, your redemption draweth nigh. When the
river has to be crossed, when the last farewell must be said, when the flesh
fails, let your mind and heart thither ascend, and there continually dwell
where Jesus has entered as your Forerunner.

If you would lift up your heart, you must be in the ways of the Lord, as the
good Jehoshaphat. You must seek the Lord God, and walk in his commandments.
You must take away the high places and groves of idolatry and impurity.
Beware of the world’s birdlime! Shake yourself from the bands and bonds that
would detain you. Oh, heart of mine, why is thy flight so low? Lift thyself
up and sit down with Christ in the heavenly places! “Unto Thee, Lord, do I
lift up my soul. Let not mine enemies triumph over me!”
_________________________________________________________________

I hate him; for he never prophesied good unto me, but always evil. 2 Chron.
xviii. 7.

THIS was a very naive confession. Of course, Micaiah could not speak good of
Ahab, whose life was diametrically opposed to all that was God-like and
holy. Micaiah had no animosity towards the king of lsrael; it was not a
personal matter with him. He simply read from the page of the future as God
opened it to his eyes, and in which the out-working of the king’s evil life
was disclosed in gloomy characters. It was as absurd to hate him because he
read such dark lessons from the inevitable future, as for a householder to
shoot his dog, that bays all night, to warn his master against the burglar
engaged in rifling his home.

The Bible, the pastor, the whole Church of God, are hated by worldlings for
the same reason, because they cannot speak hopefully of their future. It is
as though a card-playing crew were to hate the watchman who told them that
the course of their vessel was straight for the surf and rocks of the shore.
If men will persist in violating God’s law, in breaking through the hedge of
thorns, and in pursuing their own wild ways, they cannot possibly expect the
blessedness of the Beatitudes. However, their hatred against those who warn
them is really directed towards God. They are indignant that they cannot
have their way; their proud spirit would like to overturn the very order of
the universe rather than that it should be thwarted. They cannot endure the
contrast between God’s children and themselves. Do not be surprised if the
world hate you. It shows that you are no more of the world than your Master
was. Jesus said: “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;
if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”
_________________________________________________________________

Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? 2 Chron.
xix. 2.

THIS looks back to xviii. 1, where we learn that Jehoshaphat, though he had
riches and honour in abundance, joined affinity with Ahab. Riches and
abundance are dangerous things. They usually weaken our character, and
incline us to worldly alliances; and it was to their subtle and pernicious
influences that Jehoshaphat fell a victim. Ah! what a fall it was to hear
him saying, “I am as thou art, and my people as thy people.” Well might Jehu
take up the role which his father had filled before Asa, and protest. But
let us seriously question whether, though there are good things found in us,
we may not be falling into the same mistake, and sin. Are there not ways in
which we say to men of the world, with whom we mix, “I am as thou art –

There is a great tendency in the present day to boast in the closeness with
which we can approach the world without injury. We join in the social life,
read the same books, go to the same amusements, talk of the same themes; and
it is almost impossible in a drawing-room to tell the difference between the
Jehoshaphats and the Ahabs. So also, in our methods of doing good. The real
difficulty lies away back in our want of engagedness with Christ. It is of
little use to find fault with the outward, as long as the heart is wayward.
Love to the Lord Jesus is our only safeguard. The love of Christ must
constrain us. Personal attachment to Christ will wean us away from this
close identification with the world. But if we persist in identifying
ourselves with the world, which God has doomed, we must not be surprised to
find that wrath is on us from the Lord: and He will chasten us for love’s
sake.
_________________________________________________________________

He appointed singers unto the Lord, that should praise the beauty of
holiness. 2 Chron. xx. 21.

DOST thou praise the beauty of holiness? Is holiness beautiful to thee? Art
thou in love with it as it is presented in the glorious Lord? Canst thou
turn from the noise and anxiety of life’s battle to dwell on the loveliness
of God and of the devout life, and to praise Him whose mercy endureth for
ever? It is a rare accomplishment, acquired only through the indwelling of
the Holy Ghost. In each of us there should be the priest-side of character
as well as the warrior: the love for what is beautiful in holiness as well
as for the strong and active in service.

But the special characteristic of this battle was that the good king put the
singers in the forefront of the army, and praised for a victory which was
only assured to him by faith. Yet so sure was he of it, that he could praise
before he entered into the battle.

There is much to help us here in our daily combat for God and truth. Let us
fill the morning hour with holy song, in the heart, if not with the voice;
let a psalm or hymn be part of the daily reading; let there be the
confidence that God is going to bless, which cannot restrain its jubilant
expression. So in all prayer, wait on God till you feel that you can praise
Him for what you have asked Him to bestow.

When they began to praise, the Lord did all the rest. Before the onset of
his Divine reinforcements the enemy fled. His people had but to gather
spoil, and then the praise which had anticipated the battle was consummated
as they returned, in the valley of blessing.

‘There’s a song in the valley of blessing so sweet,

And angels would fain join the strain,

As with rapturous praises we bow at his feet,

Crying. ‘Worthy the Lamb that was slain!’
_________________________________________________________________

The same time also did Libnah rebuild from under his hand. 2 Chron. xxi. 10.

AS long as the kings of Judah remained true to their allegiance to God they
were able to keep in subjection the surrounding nations; but just so soon as
they revolted from God these peoples revolted from them. It was as though
power descended into them from the source of all power; and when the link
between themselves and God was broken, that between them and their
subordinates was broken also.

This applies very widely: To our passions. – If they master you, rebelling
against and revolting from your hand, it is because there is some flaw in
your consecration, and you have forsaken to some extent the Lord God.

To our families. – When the heads of a home are in perfect unity with each
other and God, they may generally expect that their children will grow up
submissive and obedient. Their authority will be recognised and honoured.
Revolt in the home indicates very often some lapse in obedience and loyalty
to God.

To our influence over men. – When the soul is in blessed fellowship with
God, power flows into it from Him, before which strongholds are overthrown.
“I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord,” said the prophet. “I am a
man under authority, and have soldiers under me,” said the centurion.

Give yourself entirely to Jesus. Obey Him absolutely; receive by faith from
Him living power and grace; be a channel through which He may pour Himself;
and you will find that men and things will fall into line at your bidding,
and you shall receive power. Our Libnahs will not revolt unless we forsake
the Lord God of our fathers.
_________________________________________________________________

Hid in the House of God. 2 Chron. xxii. 12.

SAFE from Athaliah, who would have ruthlessly destroyed him if she had had
an inkling of his existence, the Young Joash was reared beneath the care of
Jehoiada and his wife within the precincts of the house of God. He was
hidden in the secret place of the Most High, and abode under the shadow of
the Almighty. There let us also live. Let us know what it is to dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of our life, and all this day. Let us
cultivate the life which is hid with Christ in God.

It is well often to remind ourselves that we are in God, and that the film
of his environing presence is about us like a wall of thick-ribbed steel. We
are in Him as the jewel in the casket; as the chick under the feathers of
the hen; as the child in the warm embrace of its mother. And so long as we
stay there we are invulnerable. Therefore our great enemy is continually
endeavouring to allure us into the open; he knows he can do as he likes with
us, if only he can induce us to venture beyond our hiding-place. Therefore,
beware of any temptation to worry, to amass this world’s goods, or to seek
the indulgence of appetite; it is by such lures and baits that Satan seduces
unwary souls from their safe hiding.

If a day in God’s courts is better than a thousand, what must it be to dwell
in the house of the Lord all one’s days, to behold his beauty, and enquire
in his temple. The rarest visions, the fairest fellowship, the most
entrancing joys, the most confident outlook on life, and the hereafter, are
the accompaniments of such a residence. The altar of incense, the laver of
dairy cleansing, the light of the Shekinah, the holy psalm and song, the
great altar of sacrifice, are familiar objects to the hidden soul.
_________________________________________________________________

And the city was quiet after they had slain Athaliah with the sword. 2
Chron. xxiii. 21.

THIS was a great revolution, admirably planned and carried into effect. It
was intolerable that such a woman as Athaliah should desecrate the throne
and temple. Jehoiada, by his prudence and courage, deserved well of the
entire nation in ridding the world of her presence. No half measures would
have availed to meet the case.

There are times in every life when strong and strenuous action is inevitable
if the cause of God is to be promoted and saved. In many of us there is a
willingness to tolerate evil, rather than arouse ourselves to grasp it with
a firm hand, and, if needs be, drag it up by its roots. Be strong, yea, be
strong, is an injunction that has to be emphasized even to men who are
greatly beloved. The easiest thing for Jehoiada would have been to shut
himself up in the temple, and leave things to take their course. The noblest
thing was to come forth, and boldly confront the rampant evil of his time.
So God’s call rings out for helpers in the great fight against sin. Its
notes penetrate into the retirement of Christian homes, to noble women and
devoted men, demanding that they should come forth to resist impurity, the
love of strong drink, the strong tendency towards extravagance, luxury, and
waste. The world is full of Athaliahs, and it is not befitting that the
Jehoiadas should remain at their holy rites and services if there is a
paramount need for action in the world’s battlefield, in the strife against
wrong.

The children of God are citizens of the New Jerusalem, but they are also
certainly citizens here; and they must not stand aside from great public
issues, allowing them to be decided by ungodly and wicked men.
_________________________________________________________________

The Spirit of God clothed itself with Zechariah the son of Jehoiada. 2
Chron. xxiv. 20 (R. V., marg.).

AS we put on a cloak or dress, so does the Spirit of God, as it were, hide
Himself in those who surrender themselves to Him, so that it is not they who
speak and act, but He within them. Have you at any time been conscious of
having become the clothing of the Holy Spirit? Remember that cloth or
leather must yield itself easily to the movements of its wearer, and not
less pliable and supple must we be to the Spirit of God.

When the Spirit of God is thus within us, and speaks or acts for us, we may
expect, as Zechariah found it, to come into collision with the entire drift
and current of society around us, and to incur odium and hatred. Men do not
like to be told that they cannot prosper because they have forsaken God; but
we have no alternative than to witness against their sins. Does the Spirit
clothe Himself with you my friend, as you anticipate the work of to-day? Are
you using Him, or is He to use you? Are you seeking to clothe yourself with
his power for some personal ambition, or are you desirous that He should
array Himself in you, so that the glory may evidently be his? In the agony
of battle, when great deeds are to be done, no one stops to think of the
uniform of the soldier, but only of the might beneath it.

But for this you must be prepared to pay the cost, and be willing to cross
the cherished purposes of men, as the Spirit of God by your voice or deed
witnesses against them. They stoned Zechariah at the command of the king;
but years after the Lord Jesus referred to it, for no faithful martyr seals
his witness with his blood without some quick glance of recognition from the
Master, and some record on the imperishable tablets of his heart.
_________________________________________________________________

The Lord ia able to give thee much more than this. 2 Chron. xxv. 9.

AMAZIAH had many good qualities, but he did not clearly see how impossible
it was for Israel to be allied with Judah without invalidating the special
Divine protection and care on which Judah had been taught to rely. We must
understand that God cannot be in fellowship with us if we tolerate
fellowship with the ungodly. We must choose between the two. If we can
renounce all creature aid, and trust simply in the eternal God, there is no
limit to the victories He will secure; but if, turning from Him, we hold out
our hand toward the world, we forfeit his aid. child of God, let not the
army of Israel go with thee! Do not adopt worldly policy, methods, or
partnership. However strong you make yourself for the battle in alliance
with these, you will fail. Indeed, God Himself will make you fall before the
enemy, that you may be driven back to Himself.

But you say that you have already entered into so close an alliance that you
cannot draw back. You have invested your capital, you have gone to great
expenditures Yet it will be better to forfeit these than Him. Without these
aids, and with only God beside you, you will be able to rout Edom, and smite
ten thousand men. Would that men knew the absolute deliverance which God
will effect for those whose hearts are perfect towards Him!

The soldiers of Israel committed depredations on their way back. This was
the result of the folly and sin of Amaziah’s proposal. We may be forgiven,
and delivered, and yet there will be afterconsequences which will follow us
from some ill-considered act. Sin may be forgiven, but its secondary results
are sometimes very bitter. We must expect to reap as we sow.
_________________________________________________________________

He was marvellously helped, till he was strong. 2 Chron. xxvi. 15, 16.

GREAT and marvellous are thy works, God; that our soul knoweth quite well.
Thou hast showed marvellous loving-kindness. We must sing to Thee; for Thou
hast done marvellous things. lt is marvelous that Thou shouldst have set thy
love upon us; that Thou shouldst have watched over our interests with
unwearied care; that our sins, or unbelief, or declensions, have never
diverted thy love from us. “Marvellous ” is the only word we can use, as we
think of the condescension of the well-beloved Son to the manger-bed; of the
agony and bloody-sweat; of the cross and passion – and all for us who were
his enemies. But it is most marvellous of all that Thou least made us
children, heirs, arid joint-heirs with Christ. To think that we shall shine
as the sun in thy kingdom, that we are to sit upon his throne, and be
included in that circle of love and life of which the throne of God and the
Lamb is the centre! Surely the marvels of thy grace will only seem the
greater when eternity with its boundless ages gives us time to explore them.

The danger, however, is that we should become strong in our own conceit, and
credit ourselves with the position which is due to the grace of God alone.
Oh for the truly humble spirit of the little child, that we may never vaunt
ourselves! The laden ship sinks in the water; the fruit-burdened bough
stoops to the ground; the truest scientist is the humblest disciple. Oh to
be submerged and abashed for the marvellous help of God!

God cannot trust some of us with prosperity and success, because our nature
could not stand them. We must tug at the oar, instead of spreading the sail,
because we have not enough ballast.
_________________________________________________________________

Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways. 2 Chron. xxvii. 6 (R.V.).

THERE is a lower sense in which this holds good in daily and business life.
You can hardly imagine a really successful man being untidy and disorderly.
Method is the law of success; and a truly holy soul is sure to be orderly. I
do not remember ever meeting one who really walked with God who did not make
orderliness one of the first principles of life.

The Lord Jesus would have the men sit down in rows before He broke the
bread; and He wrapt together his grave-clothes before He left the sepulchre.
It was, therefore, in keeping with the whole tenor of his example when the
apostle prescribed that all things should be done decently and in order.

Clear handwriting, especially the direction of an envelope, to give the
postman as little trouble as possible; the careful folding of our cast-off
garments, to save the maids needless work; the leaving our room that we have
been occupying as little disturbed in its arrangements as may be; the
gathering up of luncheon fragments from the green banks, where we have sat
to view the entrancing prospect; the arrangement of papers, and accounts,
and magazines, so that we can readily lay our hand upon whatever is
required; the adopting of mental order in prayer and conversation, and in
the thinking out of plans and purposes; neatness in dress – these are all
part of the right ordering of life which makes for its success and comfort,
and greatly for peace in the home. They are the habits of the soul that
walks before God, and which is accustomed to think of Him as seeing in
secret, and as considering all our ways. In this way we may become mighty,
and by being faithful in that which is least come to great charges.
_________________________________________________________________

They clothed all that were naked, and gave them to eat and drink. 2 Chron.
xxviii. 15.

A GREAT burst of generosity was here, for Israel had every reason to be
incensed against Judah for the raid made on their territory. But, instead of
pushing their advantage to the uttermost, they returned good for evil, and
anticipated the words of the apostle, “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if
he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on
his head.”

Have you in your life people who have done you injury, and against whom you
entertain hard thoughts? You do not injure them in return, but you cannot
pray for them. So far as you can, you avoid them; you make no attempt to
overcome the evil that is in them. But to act thus is to come short of
Christ’s standard. It is your duty, not merely to keep at a distance and
give a wide berth, but by love to destroy the evil, to transform the enemy
into a friend, and to create love and friendship where hostility and
alienation had reigned. It is God’s way, and in this we are bidden to be
perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect.

Will you try it? Will you begin by doing kind acts to those who have harmed
you? Not because as yet you feel as you would, but because it is right. Then
as you dig the trench in right doing, look up to God, and He will pour into
your heart the warm gush of affection. If you sincerely will his will in
this matter, and act as the Good Samaritan did to the Jew, and exercise
faith, God will came to your aid whilst you clothe others and minister to
them, you will find their hard heart melted, and yourselves clothed with the
beautiful garments of salvation, and of a meek and quiet spirit, which in
God’s sight is of great price.
_________________________________________________________________

When the burnt-offering began, the song of the Lord began also. 2 Chron.
xxix. 27.

THIS chapter contains a parable of the cleansing of the heart, meant to be a
temple for God; but the doors of prayer are unopened, the lamps of testimony
unlit, the burnt-offerings of self-sacrifice neglected ; and, as the result,
grass grows thick in courts which should have been trodden by the feet of
Levite minstrels engaged in holy song. If ever that song is to break out
again, it can only be after a thorough cleansing and renovation of the inner
shrine. You tell me that you cannot sing the Lord’s song; then I know you
have gone into the strange land of backsliding. You acknowledge that for
some time now you have taken no delight in God or his service; then I am
sure that the temple is badly in need of renovation.

Cleanse the house of the Lord. Bring out all the uncleanness. By
self-examination, confession, and repudiation, be clean of all the filth
which has accumulated through months and years of neglect. Resume the
position of entire devotion, as a prepared and sanctified soul. Offer the
sin-offering for the past, and prepare the burnt-offering of entire
consecration for the future. And when that is offered, when you determine to
be wholly God’s, lay yourself, with all the interests of your life, at the
feet of Jesus, for his disposal; then the song of the Lord will begin again.

The music of your life is still, because you are out of accord with the will
of God; but when by surrender and consecration there is unison, your heart
will be filled with songs without words, and love like an ocean in the
fulness of her strength. When tie rich, selfish bachelor suddenly finds
himself compelled to care for his dead brother’s little children, he is
startled to find that a new song has begun in his life.
_________________________________________________________________

The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God. 2
Chron. xxx. 18, 19.

A VERY touching prayer, that opens up deep thoughts as to the progress of
the true knowledge of God in Israel, and of the comparative value of heart
preparation and ceremonial cleansing. Here were crowds of well-meaning
people who had come from all parts of the land in answer to Hezekiah’s
invitation. Unaccustomed to temple usage, strangers to the temple rites,
they had participated in the festivities of this great Passover without
submitting first to the necessary ablutions. Their heart was prepared to
seek God, they were proud of the great past, they desired to stand right
with the Lord God of their fathers; but they were sadly ignorant and
careless. The only thing to be done was to pray that their ignorances and
negligences might be forgiven.

It is thus that Jesus pleads in heaven; and there are many that obtain mercy
on the ground of his merit, because when they sin they do so ignorantly, and
from want of knowledge rather than from want of heart. The devout ritualist
who lays an excessive stress on outward forms; the man who has sensuous and
distorted views of Christ, but sincerely desires to be accepted through Him;
the soul that touches the hem of the garment as though the healing power
were independent of the will-power of the Redeemer; the dying malefactor,
who, in his last hours, catches at some distorted representation of Christ
which is filtered through to him from the chance word of an uninstructed
preacher – these are included in the fruitful pleading of the Great High
Priest, who has compassion on the ignorant and on those who are out of the
way. You may not understand doctrine, creed, or rite;but be sure to seek
God. No splendid ceremonial nor rigorous etiquette can intercept the seeking
soul.
_________________________________________________________________

He did it with all his heart and prospered. 2 Chron. xxxi. 21.

THE man who does his business with all his heart, is sure to prosper. To put
your heart into your work is like genius manipulating common materials, till
their worth becomes priceless, just because of what has been put into it.

The heart stands for the emotions and affections. What the furnace is to the
factory or steamship, that the heart is in the economy of our nature. It is
a great thing to love our life-work, to have an aim that kindles us whenever
we think of it. Those who are so happily circumstanced, cannot be
sufficiently thankful. But what of those who are bound to a work which they
did not choose and do not like, who find their daily toil irksome and
distasteful – is there any help for them? Can they possibly learn to do such
work from their hearts? Certainly: because of Him who set it, and for whom
it may be done.

Love performs the most onerous duties with all its heart, if they conduce to
the comfort and help of those whom it loves more than itself. Does not a
mother or wife perform tasks from which the hireling would shrink? She does
them with all her heart, not considering for a moment the loathesomeness and
hardness of the demand. So if we look at our life-work as God-appointed; if
we realize that He has fixed it for us, who determined the orbits of the
stars; if we can hear the voice of Jesus saying, “Do this for Me ” – there
is no further thought of hardship or distaste. Remember to do all your
life-work for Jesus; do all in his name and for his glory; ask Him to fill
your heart with submissive, loyal obedience, and you will find that when you
introduce the personal element of Christ-service into the meanest acts, they
will glisten like a piece of gold-tapestry.
_________________________________________________________________

Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah, prayed and cryed to heaven. 2
Chron. xxxii. 20.

IT was the indignity done to Jehovah that stirred these two holy men to the
heart. Not that their lives, and the lives of their people, and the
beautiful holy city, were in danger; but that Sennacherib spake against the
God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were
the work of the hands of man. Oh that we were possessed with a similar zeal
for God, so that we might look at sin as it affects Him, and lament over the
awful wrongs which are continually being perpetrated against his holy,
loving nature! What an argument this would give us in prayer!

This constitutes a special reason why we should plead for a revival of
religion throughout our land. Men speak and act so shamelessly, as though
God had abdicated his throne, and was hardly to be taken account of. They
sin against Him with so high a hand, and treat his laws with so much
contumely. Are there no Hezekiahs and Isaiahs who will pray and cry to the
God of our fathers to do again the great works He did in their days, and in
the old time before?

Then the Lord would save us, and guide us on every side (22). There never
was a more conspicuous and glorious deliverance than when the angel of God
wrought for Israel against Assyria. The Lord became a place of broad rivers
and streams across which the enemy could not pass. As the mother bird
settling down on her nest, He covered the city with his outspread wings. And
the rich spoils of the foe were left for the beleagured garrison. Pray on,
beloved; the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our
King ; He will save us.
_________________________________________________________________

When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God. 2 Chron. xxxiii.
12.

SO long as this story stands on the page of revelation, no sinner need
despair of mercy. There was hardly a sin possible to man that Manasseh did
not commit. “He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, like unto
the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the
children of Israel.” And he made his people do worse than the heathen.

Then came awful sorrow. Bound in fetters, exposed to consummate cruelty and
disgrace, he was carried to Babylon, and thrust into the dungeons, where
other captive princes were immured, with little chance of liberation or
permission to revisit his native land. But there the Spirit of God did his
work. He humbled himself greatly, and prayed. What tears, and cries, and
bursts of heart-broken penitence, were his! How those walls were saturated
with the breath of confession, and those stone floors indented by his
kneeling at perpetual prayer! And God came near to his low dungeon, and
graciously heard his supplication, and brought him back again.

Yes, and He will do as much for you. The blood of jesus Christ his Son
cleanseth from all sin; the grace of God is exceedingly abundant with faith
and love; all sins and blasphemies may be forgiven to the sons of men. Turn
to Him with brokenness of soul, and He will not only forgive, but bring you
again; and give you, as He did Manasseh, an opportunity of undoing some of
those evil things which have marred your past. For the rest, it is good not
to wait for affliction to stir us up to seek God, but to abide in Him for
love’s dear bake.
_________________________________________________________________

I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. 2 Chron. xxxiv.
15, 18.

IT is supposed that this was the Book of Deuteronomy; though we have no
sympathy whatever with a modern notion with respect to its discovery. In our
judgment that book is rightly ascribed to Moses. Apparently, however, it had
long been missing, and the young king was filled with horror when he heard
the list of evils that were associated with apostasy. “He rent his clothes.”

We should read the Bible with a particular application to the days in which
we live. It is well enough to accept its statements as being generally true
and credible; but it is better to realize their pertinence to ourselves and
our circumstances. The book of the law had been sadly neglected in the years
preceding Josiah’s accession; and through the neglect of God’s Word the
people had become indifferent to his commands, and deaf to the appeals of
his prophets. Josiah turned the lantern on the evils of his time, and saw
how God was feeling with respect to them.

The Bible is a book for all time. What it said, it says. What it was, it is.
You tell me it was written so many centuries ago; but I reply the ink is
still wet on its immortal pages. They have been read and pondered by
generations; but the light of its eye is not dim, nor its natural force
abated. Sin is the same, man the same, God the same, in all ages. And the
Bible’s claim to be God’s Word is substantiated by the fact that it is
possessed of living power, and of the same perennial freshness as the sun,
or the spring, or the ocean, or the faces of the little children. Would that
we might daily read it as we read the newspaper, damp from the press,
realizing that it is our Father’s great message for the life of every day!
_________________________________________________________________

Prepare. 2 Chron. xxxv. 4, 6, 10, 14, 15, 16.

NO great court function can be carried through successfully, without careful
preparation. And Josiah’s passover was so vast and rare a success because of
the large amount of previous preparation, as is described in this chapter.
The priests and Levites were prepared by careful washings and ceremonial
rites. The course of the sacrifices was ordered according to the law of
Moses. The routine of sacred song and praise was also provided for. Nothing
was left to haphazard or chance.

We are taught to rely on the promptings and inspirations of the Holy Spirit;
and it is certain that He would use us more on special errands, if we were
to trust and obey Him better. But these extraordinary ministries should not
lead us to a life of haphazard. We should prepare ourselves for service so
far as we may, laying our plans, anticipating the calls and exigencies of
coming days, and preparing for the demand which almost certainly will be
made on us. We may have to give our special words and addresses and
arrangements to the winds; but we shall always need that preparedness of
heart which is necessary for those who are to be used of God.

Remember what is said of the vessels that were purged from uncleanness,
sanctified, meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. Be
always in your own place, clean so far as you can be, filled with the Holy
Ghost, with the handle of your life turned towards the Master’s hand, that
at any moment He may take hold of you, and use you for his holy service. By
the diligent study of his Word, as well as by earnest prayer and waiting
upon God, on will be prepared to do his will.
_________________________________________________________________

Rising up betimes. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15.

WHAT a touching and graphic phrase! How did God yearn over that sinful and
rebellious city! Sending his messengers, “rising up betimes, and sending ”
– like a man who has had a sleepless night of anxiety for his friend or
child, and rises with the dawn to send a servant on a mission of inquiry, or
a message of love. How eager God is for men’s salvation!

From God’s eagerness, may we not learn a lesson of anxiety for the souls of
men? We do not long after them enough, or rise betimes to urge them to
repent. Did we realize what heaven is, or hell, what men are missing or
incurring, what our duty is, as saved ourselves, we should rise up betimes
to seek their eternal interests.

But if God rises betimes to seek men, should they not do the same to seek
Him? Think you not, that when Adam heard the voice of the Lord God walking
in the garden at morning prime, he would be up and away to meet Him on the
upland lawns of Paradise? Can we wonder that our Master would rise up a
great while before day, to meet his Father on some unfrequented height? Let
us not cling to beds of sloth when God is awaiting us; let us heed his
loving remonstrances, that we may be saved in the overthrow of the world;
and let us, like Lot, pass on the word to others enwrapt in fatal slumber
around us, bidding them to escape to the mountains, before the sun rise on
the earth, lest they be consumed.

It was the practice of Sir Henry Havelock, during his campaigns in India,
always to have two hours for prayer and Bible study before the march. If the
camp was struck at 6.0 a.m., he would rise at 4. O.
_________________________________________________________________

The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus. Ezra i. 1.

THERE were many rays focussed on this spot. In the first place, it bad been
definitely foretold by Jeremiah that the captivity would only last for
seventy years. In the next place, Daniel, having learned from comparison of
dates that the allotted time had nearly expired, had set himself to pray.
Also, if Josephus be credited, the aged prophet had shown the young king the
predictions of Isaiah in which his own name was clearly mentioned: “Thus
saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden: .
. . he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price
nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts” (Isa. xlv. 1, 13).

God is the fountainhead and source of all spiritual blessing, and of all
those great movements for the uplifting and enlightenment of mankind which
have swept from time to time over the world. Go to Him when you want to
reach the heart of kings, prophets, and people. Oh for the faith of Samuel,
Elijah, Daniel, and other stalwart men of God, that through Him we may stir
up the spirits of those who will not listen to our appeals! For the fervent
prayer of a righteous man still availeth much. In prayer you can touch the
spring of all the stirrings that the world needs.

But it is not enough for God to stir men, they must obey. It appears that
only a comparatively small number of captive Jews obeyed the Divine stirring
and came out of Babylon with the chief of the fathers. The call resounds for
volunteers, but only a few respond; the inspiration breathes over us, but
only some are susceptible to it. God works to will and to do, but only
certain of the children of men work out what He works in. Whenever there is
a Divine stirring abroad, let us rise up and go.
_________________________________________________________________

Till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummin. Ezra ii. 63.

IT must have been a great disappointment to these people who found
themselves excluded from sharing as priests. Their names were not on the
register, and so they had to wait until a properly-qualified authority could
adjudicate their case. The mere inference of reason was not enough; they
needed the direct corroboration of the anointed priest with Urim and with
Thummim.

So in our life it is not enough to rely on the inference of reason, or to
allow our Christian standing to be determined by the evidence of a document.
We must seek the direct witness and testimony of the Holy Spirit. How many
Christians there are who have no experimental knowledge of what the Apostle
meant when he said that the Spirit witnesseth with our spirit that we are
born again. They are always referring to inference, and the testimony of
others; and therefore their consciousness varies, and they cannot eat of the
holy bread of God. But when the Spirit of God speaks through the Urim and
Thummim, and certifies that we are the children of God, giving us the white
stone with its new name, and revealing Christ as dwelling within us, we
have, immediately, boldness to enter into the holiest of all, and eat of the
holy things.

Assurance is needful before we dare to appropriate the things which are
freely given to us of God. Who of us is not able to verify this from his
personal experience? We could not enjoy the Father’s table, so long as there
was a doubt about our sonship. But the assurance of faith may be ours as we
wait in the presence of our great High Priest, speaking to us by the Holy
Spirit, who witnesses with our spirits that we are the children of God.
_________________________________________________________________

And they set the alter upon its bases. Ezra iii. 3.

THIS is the first thing that must be done before our temple-building or
other undertakings can be crowned with success. It was well that the
returned remnant made this their care; it augured well for their future. The
new start that God Himself was giving would have been invalidated without
that altar, which meant forgiveness for the past, and renewed consecration
for the future.

Where is the altar in your life? Where the burnt sacrifice which betokens
entire surrender of consecration? It cannot be too often insisted on, that
since Christ died for all, all died in Him. We were not only saved by his
death, we were included in it, but we must appropriate and identify
ourselves with it. We must look up to God and say, “I desire that this death
should be mine, to the world, to sin, to the flesh; make it so by the power
of the Holy Ghost, that in Jesus I may be truly dead unto sin, but alive
unto Thee.”

Perhaps that last clause will help some souls most. Do not perpetually dwell
on the dying side, but think much of the living side. Yield yourselves to
receive God’s life, which is the life of the Son of God in the surrendered
nature. Be very sensitive, and “quick of scent,” to every movement and
prompting of the Holy Spirit. Seek the things which are above, where Christ,
your life, is seated. So you will find your energy drained away from self to
Christ. Because He lives you will live also. A maple tree planted on a
barren soil sent out one of its rootlets to a richer patch not far away, and
ulti mately all its roothold was there, till finally it was bodily moved and
transferred from its first position to this more salubrious one.
_________________________________________________________________

Let us build with you. Ezra iv. 2.

AT first the world does its best to intimidate the Church; then it asks to
be permitted to join with it. A most subtle temptation this. The child of
God is greatly inclined to yield; the proposal seems so harmless, and so
likely to be a means of blessing to the poor, hungry, weary world. But there
is only one condition on which the world may be admitted; it must yield a
true and humble submission to the cross, and be willing to give up all for
Jesus – conditions which the world will not consider for a moment; and so
its heart is filled with bitterness and gall, and it sets itself to hinder
where it had professed willingness to help.

There are five things of which we are expressly bidden to beware – they are
five phases of an unequal yoke: fellowship with unrighteousness; communion
with darkness; concord with Belial; part with an unbeliever; agreement with
idols. Let us beware of these things, and cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit. There may seem to be great loss and
needless sacrifice in dispensing with the help of Rehum and Shimshai; but if
once we accepted their help, we should discover to our cost that they were
adversaries still, and that their only desire was to retard our efforts.

We sometimes shrink from some great undertaking for God, and are inclined to
accept the proffered aid of wealthy but ungodly men. But their help may be
purchased by the cost of all that makes our work worth doing. “Be ye not
unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness?”

“Yea, with one mouth, world, though thou deniest

Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.”
_________________________________________________________________

The eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews. Ezra v. 5.

IT was a delightful thought amid obloquy and opposition, like that which the
Jews were at this moment encountering, to know that God was watching them
with jealous care. We are reminded of the words of the Psalmist, quoted and
authenticated by the Apostle Peter, “The eyes of the Lord are upon the
righteous, and his ears are open to their cry; but the face of the Lord is
against them that do evil.” And he goes on to argue, “Who is he that will
harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?” The Jews certainly
found it so; for the efforts of their enemies to induce them to desist from
their work of temple-building were rendered nugatory and ineffectual by the
special care exercised over them by their Almighty Friend.

It may be that you will have to encounter hatred and opposition in doing
God’s work; but be sure not to look at these things, but steadfastly to
Jesus. Must you not watch the foe? No; you could not make a greater mistake.
You must look away to the face of Jesus, and you will find that He, like a
good shepherd, is looking carefully and lovingly down on you, and watching
the stealthy movements of your foe. Even when we are not directly conscious
of that watchful eye, it still follows us. He knoweth the way that you take;
and He is acquainted with the varied circumstances of your life. He has
pledged Himself to be with you for ever; as Wordsworth once said of his
beloved daughter Dora : –

“Dear child, fair child, that walkest with me here,

Though thou appear untouched by solemn thought,

Thy nature is not therefore less divine;

Thou liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year,

Thou worshippest at the temple’s inner shrine,

God being with thee when thou knowest not.”
_________________________________________________________________

The Lord had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the King unto them.
Ezra vi. 22.

YES, the hearts of men are in the hands of God, and He can turn them whither
He will. There are many instances of this in Scripture. God gave Joseph
favour with Pharaoh; Moses with the Princess; and Daniel with the King of
Babylon. If certain matters can only be settled by reference to great men,
kings or men of affairs, make the application; and then betake yourself to
prayer, believing that as He inclined the heart of Darius, in the instance
before us, so He can do as He will among the armies of heaven, and the
inhabitants of earth.

That unkind overseer, that vexatious member of your home-circle, that great
man whose help you so greatly need – these are accessible to God’s Spirit,
if only you are intent on seeking his glory, and doing his will. But you
must be able to show, as these Jews could, that your cause is identical with
the cause of God, before you can claim, with unwavering faith, his
interference on your behalf.

Then when the answer comes, let us thank Him, separating ourselves still
further from the filthiness around us, so as to keep the feast with joy. Do
not be afraid of joy; when God makes you joyful, do not think it necessary
to restrain your songs or smiles, for fear that an equivalent of sorrow will
presently be meted out as a make-weight. Our blessed Lord was desirous that
his joy might be in his Disciples; it was for the joy that was set before
Him that He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the
right hand of the throne of God; it is with exceeding joy that He will
present us faultless before the presence of his glory. “Thou shalt rejoice
in every good thing which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
_________________________________________________________________

I was strengthened, as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me. Ezra vii.
28.

IT was no small work that the good Ezra had undertaken. To lead a great
expedition across the inhospitable desert; to convoy the sacred vessels and
a large treasure of gold and silver; to set magistrates and judges over all
that great district beyond the river – this was no slight task, and he
needed strength. But in the simple language of his heart the good hand of
his God was upon him, and that was sufficient to nerve and strengthen him.

It is wonderful what resistless might comes to the soul, when it realizes
that it is treading the path and working out the career determined for it
from all eternity by the Almighty. The thought imparts the same kind of
impulse to the soul, as the touch of love or authority on the arm. We are
reminded of the veteran, who, when charged by the Duke of Wellington to take
a difficult position, turned to him and said, “I will go, sir; but first
give me a grip of your conquering hand.”

Think, soul, of what that hand is which holds the waters in its hollow, and
spreads the curtains of the sky, and was nailed to the cross; that brought
blessing with its touch to so many weary sufferers, and now holds the
mysterious book, sealed with seven seals; that caught Peter, and lay lightly
on the heads of the little babes. That hand is strengthening thee for a work
for which by nature thou art unequal, but to which thou hast been evidently
called. Go forward: it holds, guides, empowers thee. It can lead thee before
kings, princes, and nobles, so that thou shalt not fear; it can preserve
thee from dangers innumerable; it can shield thee from the fire of the
enemy; and none, man or devil, can pluck you out of the Father’s hand.
_________________________________________________________________

Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them at Jerusalem. Ezra viii. 29.

THEY were protected by God, whose presence with them across the wild desert
made it needless to ask for an escort of soldiers; but they had to take care
of the precious vessels of his house. It was a reciprocal trust. So it must
be with us, as we are taught in 2 Tim. i. 12, 14. There are two deposits, as
the margin shows. We deposit ourselves, and all we are and have, with God;
whilst He deposits with us his sacred Gospel, the vessels of which we must
“guard through the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us,” and be prepared to
defend with our blood.

Our deposit with God. – How safe are they who commit their all to God!
Faraday was asked, when dying, on what supposition he depended as he
contemplated the other world; and he replied, “I am relying on no
supposition, but on a certainty; I know in whom I have believed, and am
persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him.”

God’s deposit with us. – But let us be true to our trust. The Holy Bible,
the Doctrines of the Christian Church, the Day of Rest, the House of God,
the ordinances of the Lord’s Supper and Christian Bap-tism – these are some
of the vessels which have been passed down to us, and we must hand on
intact. Be ye clean that carry them! Oh, what joy it will be when we reach
our destination, and can resign our trust, and weigh out the deposit, and
hear the Master’s “Well done!” But, in the meanwhile, whilst marching across
the yellow sands, where wild dangers lie in wait, let us not seek the escort
of creature or worldly might; but boast of the Hand of our God, which is for
good upon all them that seek Him.
_________________________________________________________________

The people have not separated themselves. Ezra ix. 1.

THIS was only too true! There had been, on the part of princes and rulers,
gross intermarriage with the people of surrounding lands. The holy seed had
become mixed and diluted. And it was the more sad that this should have
taken place, when it was to cleanse his people from such alliances, and the
evils to which they inevitably led, that God had passed them through the
purging fires of the seventy years’ captivity. It afflicted the good Ezra
sorely. With every sign of Oriental grief he poured out his soul before God.
And this is the lesson we should carry with us. It has been truly said that
communion with the Lord dries many tears, but it starts many more. We no
longer sorrow with the sorrow of the world; but we become burdened with some
of the griefs that still rend the heart of the Lord in the glory.

This fellowship between the Lord’s people and the world is becoming
increasingly close as we near the end of the age. In the appointments of our
homes, our amusements, books, and practices, there is very little to choose
between the one and the other. If there is any distinction, it lies in a
certain sadness with which Christians take their pIeasures, as though
remembering a something better. But the rest of us do not grieve over it; we
do not rend our clothes: we do not take these things to heart, as though
they specially concerned us.

Let us at least separate ourselves after the manner of Christ, who
frequented the temple, acknowledged the State, accepted invitations to great
houses; but his heart and speech always revolved about his Father. What if
it led to our being cast out without the camp!
_________________________________________________________________

We also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it. Ezra x. 4.

THIS narrative reminds us of the story of Achan, who took of the accursed
thing, and kindled the anger of the Lord against the children of Israel.
There must be confession and the putting away of evil ere communion with God
can be re-established.

It is not given to every one to be an Ezra. There are abuses to deal with,
and wrongs to right, on every side; but they require to be dealt with by
those who are specially adapted or qualified for the work. Be always ready
to do such work, if there should be no one else. It was the life motto of a
great man always to act as though there were no one else who would. Still,
Nehemiahs and Ezras are not given very largely to the Church or the world;
and, for the most part, we must be content to be of those who say, “Be of
good courage, and do it; we also will be with thee.” But though this seems
but a little thing, it may lead to great results. Many a man has been urged
to a noble deed by the encouragement he received at a critical hour from
some unknown and obscure disciple.

If you cannot do a great thing, identify yourself with one who can. Stand by
him, identify yourself with him in public or private, by sympathy and
prayer. Though the strongholds of evil are great and high, they may be swept
away before an avalanche of snowflakes, any one of which would melt in the
warm hand of a child.

Oh for more of that magnanimity, which is quick to recognise the matters
that belong to certain elect souls – not envying, nor disparaging, but
frankly confessing their eminent qualifications, and falling in to further
and accelerate their success, which will be the gain of all!
_________________________________________________________________

I was the king’s cupbearer . Neh. i. 11.

THE post was an important one. It gave its occupant the opportunity of
coming into close contact with the king; it implied a character of unusual
trustworthiness, since Oriental despots were very afraid of poison. But no
one expected a royal cupbearer to do anything very heroic. He lived in the
inner part of the palace, and was necessarily excluded from the great deeds
of the stirring outward world. Nehemiah also was evidently a humble and
retiring man. His response to the story of the ruined condition of Jerusalem
was just a flood of tears and prayer to the God of heaven. And had you seen
those tears and heard that prayer, you might have thought that just another
flower was drooping, another seed falling into the ground to die.

But this was not all. These prayers and tears were supplemented by an
earnest purpose, which was maturing with every hour. He gave himself to God
to be used, if God would have it so, as an instrument in the execution of
his recorded purpose. He was a man of faith. It mattered little enough that
he was only a cupbearer, for that was no barrier to God; indeed, God might
work more efficiently through a frail, weak man, than through the prince,
the soldier, or the orator, since He cannot give his glory to another. What
a glorious faith was his, which dared to believe that through his yielded
life God could pour his mighty rivers! Why do we not yield ourselves in our
helplessness to God, and ask Him to work through us, to fulfil his mighty
purposes?

“We kneel, how weak! We rise, how full of power!

Why therefore should we do ourselves this wrong,

Or others – that we are not always strong!”
_________________________________________________________________

So I prayed to the God of Heaven. Neh. ii. 4.

ALL around the apartment in which this interview took place were effigies of
idol gods: perhaps incense was burning before a shrine, and filling the air
with its aroma. But Nehemiah, though standing amid these heathen emblems,
and in the presence of the gre atest king on earth, thought little of either
one or the other, and prostrated himself in spirit before the throne of
heaven. Remember that thou hast within thee a shrine, a temple into which at
any moment, even amid the excitement of an earthly court, thou mayest retire
and ask direction of thy King and Friend.

He had been sorely startled by the king’s question; he did not know that his
face had betrayed him. He had, doubtless, intended to seek an interview with
the king, and formally state the whole case (see i. 11). But to be taken
thus at unawares, to have to state his case on the spur of the moment,
appeared to take him at a great disadvantage; and he instinctively turned to
prayer.

How little the king knew what was transpiring, or what had happened between
his question and the reply which was given, apparently, without the loss of
a moment. But how beautiful is the example for ourselves! You cannot acquire
this habit of ejaculatory prayer unless you spend prolonged periods in holy
fellowship. But when you are much with God in private, you will not find it
diffecult at any moment to step aside to ask Him a question.The busy mart or
the crowded street may at any time become the place of prayer.

“A touch divine

And the sealed eyeball owns the mystic rod;

Visibly through His garden walketh God.”
_________________________________________________________________

Every one over against his house. Neh. iii. 28.

THIS is the way to deal with the evil of this world. We are all fonder of
starting schemes, forming committees, and discussing methods of work, than
in setting definitely to work for ourselves. There is a lack of
definiteness, and we hardly know where to begin. But this verse suggests
that every one should begin over against his own house. Try and make your
own neighbourhood a little more like what God would have it. It may be that
you have gone too far afield in search of work; you are applying to the
Foreign Missionary Society, or are waiting for a sphere of service; yet, all
the time, there is that wretched neighbourhood, like a piece of ruined wall
before you. Arise and repair it!

Meshullam repaired over against his chamber (ver. 30). Perhaps he was not
rich enough to have a whole house; he lived in a single room, but he
discovered that there was a little bit of the wall just opposite his window,
which would not be built unless he set to it. Is not that a hint for college
students, and for those who live in flats, or industrial dwellings?

The best way is not immediately to begin giving tracts, good though that is
in its place. Ask God to give you an opportunity of showing kindness to your
neighbours, so that they get to understand and trust you; and wait upon God
until the answer comes – until He shall show you what step He would have you
take next. This is the foundation of your bit of wall. Then plod on step by
step, tier by tier. God will show you how. You may be unpractised in
wall-building; but He is the Architect and Builder, and you are but a
bricklayer’s labourer at the best. Do as He tells you.
_________________________________________________________________

Remember the Lord. Neh. iv. 14.

IT was uncommonly good advice. Amid all the wise precautions taken by this
man of sanctified common-sense, he kept bringing the people back to God. God
was amongst them. God would fight for them. God was going to bring the
counsel of their enemies to nought.

This would make a good motto for daily living. If in all circumstances we
would remember the Lord, the way would be brightened; the burdens would
faII; our spirits would never droop; and songs of joy would take the place
of sadness. Whenever enemies assail and difficulties gather like
storm-clouds, look away from them and remember the Lord. When hemmed in on
every side, be sure that He can help you from his holy heaven; remember the
Lord. When heart and flesh fail, and you do not know what to do for the
best, be sure to remember the Lord, and act as in his most holy presence.
What a comfort and strength it is to see a friend, when standing amid a
crowd of adversaries intent on your destruction, and to know that he will
act and speak for you! But remember that Jesus is always like that.

You say that you forget so soon; that you would remember, though at the
critical moment you are betrayed into forgetfulness. But you must recall His
precious promise, that the Holy Spirit will bring all to remembrance. If
only you will trust the difficulty into his hands, you will find that He
will gladly undertake it; and as long as you leave it with Him, you will
hear his voice rising in your heart, and saying, “Remember the Lord.”

“Watch with me, Jesus, in my loneliness,

Though others say me Nay, yet say Thou, Yea;

Though others pass me by, stop Thou to bless.
_________________________________________________________________

So did not I, because of the fear of God. Neh. v. 15.

THESE were great words. Nehemiah had a perfect right to take this money. Not
a word could be said even by his critics, if he did. He was doing a
priceless work, and might justly claim his maintenance. On the other hand,
the people were very poor, and he would have a larger influence over them if
he were prepared to stand on their level, and to share with them. It was
just so that the Apostle argued in 1 Cor. ix. And from both we learn that
often we must forego our evident rights and liberties in order to influence
others for Christ. Do not always stand on your rights; but live for others,
making any sacrifice in order to save some – even as Christ loved us, and
gave Himself for us.

If Nehemiah did so much for the holy fear of God, what ought not we to do
for love? Love is more inexorable than law. Its exactions are more stringent
and searching. Are we doing as much for Iove of Jesus as generations before
did simply on the score of duty? It is much to be questioned if Jesus does
not get less, of outward service at least, out of his followers, than
Mehomet or Buddha does. But what He does get is infinitely sweet to Him, in
so far as love prompts it.

All around you people are doing things that they say are perfectly
legitimate; they call you narrow and bigoted because you do not join with
them; they are always arguing with you to prove you are wrong. But your
supreme law is your attitude to your Master. “I cannot do otherwise for the
love of Jesus.”

“Not I, because of the fear of God.”

“Not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

“Not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
_________________________________________________________________

I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Neh. vi. 3.

IT was a sublime answer. Below was the Plain of Ono, where Nehemiah’s foes
awaited him. Let him once descend into it and he would become their easy
prey; but he withstood their four-fold solicitation by considering the
greatness of the work he was doing and the responsible position he was
called to fill. Other-worldliness is the best cure for worldliness. Those
whose affections are set on things above, will have no difficulty in
refusing the appeals of sense. Get your heart and hands deeply engaged in
the great work of building God’s Temple, and you will be proof to the most
flattering proposals ever made by Madam Bubble.

Oh, children of the Great King, let us pray that we may know the grandeur of
our position before Him; the high calling with which we have been called;
the vast responsibilities with which we are entrusted; the great work of
co-operating with God in erecting the city of God. Heirs of God and
joint-heirs with Christ! Called to sit with Christ in the Heavenlies! Risen,
ascended, crowned in Him! Sitting with Christ, far above all principality
and power! How can we go down – down to the world that rejected Him; down to
the level of the first Adam, from which, at so great cost, we have been
raised; down to the quarry from which we were hewn, and the hole of the pit
whence we were digged! No, it cannot be; and as we make our choice, let us
look to the living and ascended Christ to make it good. Put your will on his
side, and expect that the energy of the power that raised Him from the dead
will raise and maintain you in union with Him. For “your life is hid with
Christ in God.”
_________________________________________________________________

It was not found. Neh. vii. 64.

CERTAIN claimed the maintenance of the priests, and were challenged to show
their name in the register of the priestly line. In all likelihood they were
descended from the sons of Aaron, but through marriage outside the priestly
clan, and through the fact also of the name of the mother’s father being
adopted, their names were not reckoned in the priestly genealogy;
consequently, their claim for priestly maintenance and service could not be
established.

Is there not something like this still? Men, who were called to be God’s
priests, drop out of the register of those who serve before Him. It may be
they are not sure of their genealogy, and have lost the assurance of
sonship; their spirit is no longer filled with the blessed co-witness of the
Holy Ghost. God is afar from them; and, being out of harmony with Him, they
are out of sympathy with their fellows. They are, therefore, rightly put out
of the priesthood.

Now trace this matter back to its beginning. As likely as not you will find
it originated in some worldly alliance. He that will be a friend of the
world is necessarily an enemy with God. For a mess of pottage Esau loses his
birthright.

But all this can be put right. There has arisen a Priest, who holds the Urim
and Thummim in his hand: God’s own Priest after the order of Melchizedek.
“Wherefore it behoved Him in all things to be made like unto his brethren,
that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to
God.” He waits to reinstate the erring soul, restore it to the priestly
office, and give it priestly food and maintenance.
_________________________________________________________________

The joy of the Lord is your strength. Neh. viii. 10.

“THE sad heart tires in a mile,” is a frequent proverb. What a difference
there is between the energy of the healthy, joyous heart and the forced
activity of the morbid and depressed one! The one leaps to its task, the
other creeps to it. The one discovers its meat and drink in self-sacrifice,
the other limps, and stoops, and crawls. If you want to be strong for life’s
work, be sure to keep a glad heart. But, be equally sure to be glad with the
joy of Lord. There is a counterfeit of it in the world, of which we must
beware – an outward merry-making, jesting, and mad laughter, which hides an
aching and miserable heart. Solomon compares the joy of the world to the
crackling of thorns under a pot, which flare up with great speed, but burn
out before the water in the pot is warm.

Ours must be the joy of the Lord. It begins with the assurance of
forgiveness and acceptance in the Beloved. It is nourished in trial and
tribulation, which veil outward sources of consolation, and lead us to
rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus. It is independent of circumstances,
so that its possessors can sing in the stocks. It lives not in the gifts of
God, but in God Himself. It is the fruit of the Spirit, who begets in us
love, joy, peace, long-suffering. Get the Lord Himself to fill your soul,
and joy will be as natural as the murmur of a brook to its flow.

And such joy will always reveal itself to others. You will desire to send
portions to those for whom nothing is prepared. Your joy will be contagious;
it will shed its kindly light on sad and weary hearts. As Rutherford said,
we have a new heaven in the heaven of every soul we bring there.
_________________________________________________________________

The seed of Israel separated themselves. Neh. ix. 2.

THIS is the beginning of the true life. Turn to the story of creation, and
you learn, first, that God divided the light from the darkness; next, the
waters of the clouds from those on the earth; and next, the seas from the
land. It was only thus that He could effect his purpose of substituting
kosmos for chaos. So, in the development of the inner life, there must be
separation and judgment; the discrimination of the false from the true, the
evil from the good.” Separate Me . . . for the work whereunto I have called
them.”

When God put his hand to man’s highest culture, He separated Shem from his
brethren; Terah’s house from other kindred clans; and Abraham from his
people. What weight this gave to those solemn words, “I am the Lord your
God, which have separated you from other people. And ye shall be holy unto
Me; for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people that ye
should be mine” (Lev. xx. 24, 26). It was not that God had no care for the
great world; but that He desired to concentrate his attention on a few, that
when they had fully caught his thought they might pass it on to mankind.

This accounts for the cry of the Holy Ghost through the Apostle, “Wherefore,
come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean
thing.” We must be separate in our practices, cleansing ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit; in our pursuits, going with Christ
without the camp; in our pleasures; and in our alliances. “Follow the Christ
– the King! Live pure! Speak true! Right wrong! Follow the King! Else,
wherefore born! ”
_________________________________________________________________

The children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering.
Neh. x. 39.

IT was about this time that Malachi wrote the memorable words, “Bring ye all
the tithes into my storehouse, that there may be meat in my house; and prove
me now herewith, saith the Lord, if I will not pour you out a blessing.”
When a people has separated itself to God, there will be no lack in its
house, no failure in its supplies, no lack for its ministers. So with the
individual. All they that had separated themselves entered into an oath to
charge themselves yearly for the service of the house of God. Separation is
the negative side of consecration.

How does this touch you, my friend? What proportion of your income are you
setting apart for the service of God? The amount that a man gives in
proportion to his income is a sure gauge of the genuineness and depth of his
religious life. The Jew gave about a third of his yearly income to God; do
we come up to this standard? Yet we speak of the Jews with contempt, as
hard-fisted and miserly. These old Jews might set an example to us newer
Christians. How often we reverse our position from God’s ideal! He puts us
over his estate that we should send Him all the produce, after deducting
what is necessary for our maintenance, and that of our families. But we
engross the entire proceeds for ourselves, sending Him an odd guinea, or
half-crown, when we can easily spare it. Let us see that we give at least a
fixed proportion of our income, and as much more as we can. Do not forsake
the House of your God; so shall the heavens be opened in blessing. “There is
that giveth and yet increaseth; there is that withholdeth more than is meet,
and it sendeth to poverty.”

A certain portion should be for the singers. Neh. xi. 23.

IT was the king’s command, and it was very right and sensible, because they
enlivened and quickened the life of the entire community. A mere utilitarian
spirit might have refused to maintain them, because they did not contribute
to the handicrafts of the community. They only sang the praises of God; but
they fulfilled a very important part in the life of the city, and they
deserved the portion which was regularly contributed to them.

You sometimes feel your life to be comparatively useless. You can only say a
kind word to those who are doing the main business of the world. When the
brothers had wrought all day at the clearing for the farm, their sister Hope
sang through the evening hours to cheer them and drive away their sense of
fatigue. That was all she could do; but was she not deserving of
maintenance? You can only sing your song of hope, and keep the heart of the
toilers sweet and fresh. You can only get inspiration from God’s heart and
pass it on. You can do little but learn to detect, and translate into music
that men love, the deep undertones of God’s creation. But it is well. You
are needed in God’s world.

There are invalids, who lie on their back through weary months and years,
that are the inspiration of their homes, and to their side the elders and
the children come for counsel and comfort. Sing on, ye sweet choristers,
that alleviate our depressions and start our hearts to high endeavour! Ye
that by night, in sleepless hours, stand in the house of the Lord, praise ye
the Lord when all the busy life of men is hushed! The King will see to it
that ye do not miss your maintenance, your portion day by day.
_________________________________________________________________

David, the man of God. Neh. xii. 24, 36, 37, 45, 46.

HOW long the influence of David has lingered over the world, like the
afterglow of a sunset! Mark the characteristic in him which laid the
foundation of his supremacy over the hearts of his countrymen. He was
pre-eminently “a man of God.” Notwithstanding his terrible fall, his people
recognised that his salient characteristic was Godward. Would you be one of
God’s men?

(1) Give all to God. – Too many live lives of piecemeal consecration, giving
a bit here and a bit there, but never all. David surrendered himself to do
God’s will utterly, and in all, and so became a man after God’s own heart.
With what joy God’s voice seems to quiver, as He says, “I have found David,
the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, who shall fulfil all my will”
(Acts xiii. 22). Without reserve, holding nothing back, yield yourself to
God, to be, and do, and suffer his will, whatever it may be.

(2) Take all from God. – “It is not what we give to Jesus, but what we take
from Him, that makes us strong, helpful, and victorious day by day.” Accept
this as a fact, that in Jesus God has made all his fulness dwell. There is
nothing we require, for life or godliness, that is not stored in Him; but
the terrible loss of our lives is that we take so little. We have ourselves
to blame if we are poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked.

(3) Use all for God. – It sometimes appears as though Christian people were
urged to yield themselves to God, only that their lives might be more
comfortable. But the supreme and final end in all surrender must be that his
will be done, his glory promoted, and Himself magnified whether in life or
death.
_________________________________________________________________

Remember me, O my God! Neh. xiii. 14, 22, 31.

THRICE in this chapter this humble man asks to be remembered. We cannot
think that he expected to purchase God’s favour because of his sacrifices
and endeavours. Of this he was already assured. But being a redeemed soul,
he desired that his works might come up in remembrance before God, and
secure a reward. There is no harm in keeping the eye fixed on the reward for
faithful toil in the Lord’s service. It was a constant incentive in the
life, of the great Apostle that he might so run as to obtain; so finish his
work that he might win the crown.

Note the three departments of service mentioned in this chapter, in
connection with which Nehemiah breathed this petition. He had turned all
Tobia’s household stuff out of the temple, so that the whole structure
should be given up to the service of God. He had secured the Sabbath from
desecration, so that its holy rest and calm were preserved intact. And he
insisted on the purity of the holy seed being untainted by foreign
alliances. Consecration to God, the Rest of Faith in the inner life, and the
separation of God’s children from the world, are the counterparts of these
in our own time.

Shall we not humbly set ourselves to seek them for the professing Church?
Nehemiah was an ungifted, simple-hearted man, but he was able to secure them
as the instrument and channel of God’s purposes. Why should not God work
through us for the same ends. But, first, let us see to it that each of
these particulars is being realized in our own personal character and life.
Let every room of the heart be for God; let no voice break the inner peace.
Then what God has done for us, we may confidently plead as within his scheme
for others.
_________________________________________________________________

That every man should bear rule in his own house. Esther i. 22.

ONE of the pre-requisites in choosing a presiding officer in the early
Church was that he should rule well his own house; “for if a man know not
how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?” (1
Tim. iii. 4, 5).

When a man bears rule as husband and father in the love of God, there is no
issue of commands which conflict with primary obligations; rather than that,
his authority represents the Divine authority. As Christ received his
authority from the Father, so does a man derive and receive his from Christ;
and in the recognition of his delegated right and ability to lead, the
entire household becomes well ordered. The relaxation of the bonds of
authority and government in our homes is one of the saddest symptoms of
national decay, as it is among the predicted signs of the end (2 Tim. iii.
2, 3).

But, on the other hand, you must show yourself worthy to lead and rule your
home. Your character must be such as to command respect. Those whom God has
put into your charge require that you do not us your authority for selfish
or capricious ends. Above all, love is the source of the truest authority.
We count nothing hard or irksome that we do for those we love. Show love,
and you will win love; and on love will be built respect, reverence, and
obedience.

One of the most eloquent of modern Italians has said truly: “You can only
obtain the exercise of your rights by deserving them, through your own
activity, and your own spirit of love and sacrifice!” Christ’s golden rule
holds good in every phase of life – “In all things, whatsoever ye would that
men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
_________________________________________________________________

Hadassah, that is, Esther. Esther ii. 7.

THROUGH this one girl-life God was about to save his people, though He was
all the while hidden from view. The peculiarity of this book is that there
is no mention of the name of God; but there is no book in the Bible more
full of the presence and working of God for his own. His name is clearly in
the watermark of the paper, if it do not appear in the print.

We know that the meshes of evil plotting were laid for the hurt of Israel
long before the fatal decree was made for the destruction of the entire
nation; but here we find that God has begun his preparations for deliverance
long before. In the beauty of Esther, in the position her uncle held at
court, in the favour she won with the king, in the discovery through
Mordecai of the plot against the king’s life, there are the materials of a
great and Divine deliverance. God was clearly beforehand to the devil. The
angels of light were on the ground before those of darkness were marshalled.

It is a sweet thought to carry with us always: God prepares of his goodness
for the poor. He prepares the good work in which we are to walk, and the
deliverances by which He will succour us in the hour of need. Do not dread
the foe, be not fearful nor dismayed, as he draws his net around thee; God
has prepared a way of escape, so that thou shalt be able to bear it. In the
meanwhile, rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; trust in the Lord;
wait for the Lord; be silent to the Lord. He is more farseeing, his plans
more far-reaching, his help more certain, than all the stratagems of evil.
God laughs at them. Into the pit they have dug, thine enemies shall fall.
_________________________________________________________________

But Mordecai bowed not. Esther iii. 2.

THERE was stern stuff in this old Jew. He was not going to prostrate himself
before one so haughty and so depraved as Haman, albeit that he was the
king’s favourite. To be the only one in a city office that does not laugh at
the questionable story; to stand alone on shipboard against the gambling
mania; to refuse to countenance cleverness which is divorced from cleanness,
and genius which is apart from goodness – this is to do as Mordecai did in
the gate of the king’s palace.

Only God can give this power, since of ourselves we are as reeds shaken by
the wind. Sooner might a single ear of wheat resist the breeze that bends
all its companions in the same direction, than we stand alone, whilst all
our associates bow, unless God Himself enable as. But God is prepared to
enable us. Listen: “I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I
will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” But the mistake
we are so apt to make is to brace ourselves up by resolution and firm
determination, in anticipation of some impending struggle. To do this is to
fail. Live in Christ, look up into his face, derive from Him strength for
the moment and at the moment; and often wrap about thee that exceeding great
and precious promise, “I will make him to become a pillar in the temple of
my God; and he shall go no more out; and I will write on him the name of my
God.” Oh to stand pillar-like amid men, bearing up the temple arch of truth,
and inscribed with God’s name, whilst the crowds go and come on the pavement
beneath!

“Greatly begin! though thou have time

But for a line, be that sublime –

Not Failure, but low aim, is Crime!”
_________________________________________________________________

Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Esther iv. 14.

WHAT grand faith was here! Mordecai was in God’s secrets, and was assured
that deliverance and enlargement would come to his people from some quarter
– if not from Esther, then from some other; but he was extremely anxious
that she should not miss the honour of being her people’s emancipator.
Therefore he suggested that she had come to her high position for this very
purpose.

We none of us know, at the first, God’s reasons for bringing us into
positions of honour and trust. Why is that young girl suddenly made mistress
over that household? Why is that youth taken from the ranks of the
working-people, and placed over that great City church? Why is that man put
forward in his business, so that he is the head of the firm in which he
served as an office-boy? All these are parts of the Divine plan. God has
brought them to the Kingdom that He may work out through them some great
purpose of salvation. They have the option, however, to serve it or not.
They may use their position for themselves, for their own emolument and
enjoyment, that they may surround themselves with strong fortifications
against misfortune; but in that case they court destruction. Their position
and wealth may vanish as suddenly as it came; or ill-health and disaster may
incapacitate them.

If, on the other hand, all is used for God, though at the risk of perishing
– for it seemed to Esther as though the action to which Mordecai urged her
meant that – the issue is blessed. Those that love their lives lose them;
those that are prepared to forfeit them keep them. The wheat grain which is
buried in the soil bears much fruit.
_________________________________________________________________

The king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. Esther
v. 2.

WHAT a beautiful type this is for each of us in our approaches to God!

For the repentant sinner. – You may have said with Esther, “I will go into
the king’s presence, and if I perish, I perish.” But it is impossible for
you to perish. None ever perished at the footstool of mercy. God is faithful
to his promises, and just to his Son; and He can do no other – He wants to
do no other – than forgive. As you stand amid the throng that surrounds his
throne, He will espy you, and accept you graciously, because of the God-Man
who sits at his right hand, and ever lives to intercede. In his name you may
come boldly and obtain mercy.

For the suppliant. – You have a great boon to ask for yourself, or another.
The King’s court stands open; enter and lodge your petition. He will be very
gracious at the voice of your cry: the golden sceptre extended, his word
passed, that He will answer with the whole resources of his kingdom. The
answer may not come at once, or in the way you expected; but no true
suppliant was ever turned away without his complaint or cause being
graciously considered, and in the best way met and adjusted.

For the Christian worker. – Surely Esther represents a Paul prepared to be
himself accursed, a Luther, a Brainerd. It is a lovely sight when the child
of God is so oppressed with the burden of other souls as to sacrifice all
else in order to plead their cause. Surely such find favour with God; they
are kindred spirits with his own, and He bids them share his throne. God
will do anything for those who are consumed by his own redemptive purpose.
_________________________________________________________________

As thou hast said, do even so to Mordecai the Jew. Esther vi. 10.

HERE indeed was a turning of the tables! Haman doing honour to the humble
Jew, who refused to do honour to himself. Surely that day the old refrain
must have rung through Mordecai’s heart: – “He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghilI, to set them among
princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of
the earth are the Lord’s.” And there was an anticipation of yet other words:
– “For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not
denied my name: behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy
feet, and to know that I have loved thee.”

How evidently God was working for his child. The gallows, indeed, was being
prepared, but it would be used for Haman; whilst the triumph that Haman
thought to be preparing for himself was to be used for Mordecai.

This is not an isolated case. Any one who has lived a few years in the world
and has observed the ways of God could duplicate it with instances that have
come under his own notice. Dr. Gordon told us once of a church in Boston
that would not admit coloured people; and after a few years it broke up, and
the edifice is now occupied by a flourishing coloured church.

Trust on, beloved friend, amid scorn, hate, and threatening death. So long
as thy cause is God’s, it must prevail. He will vindicate thee. Them that
honour Him He will honour; whilst those that despise Him shall be lightly
esteemed.

“Though the mills of God grind slowly,

Yet they grind exceeding small;

Though with patience He stands waiting,

With exactness grinds He all.”
_________________________________________________________________

What is thy petition, and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request?
Esther vii. 2.

AMID the sensual conceptions of marriage that obtained in this heathen
empire there was doubtless a consciousness in the king’s breast of the
essential unity between himself and his beautiful queen. She was his better
self, and in her pleading he heard the voice of his own higher nature. To
nothing less than this could he have made so far-reaching a promise. It was
not so much Ahasuerus pledging himself to Esther, as Ahasuerus, the king,
awakening to the appeal of a nobler Ahasuerus, for the most part buried.
Such is the power of a pure and noble character awakening a nobler life.
Will you try by your unselfishness and purity to awaken those around you to
see and follow an ideal, which shall presently assume the form of the living
Christ?

In these words of the king we are reminded that God is willing to do beyond
what we ask or think. Not to the half of his kingdom, but to the whole
extent of it, has God pledged Himself, “according to the power that worketh
in us.” But our prayer must be in the name, or nature, of Christ; that is,
the nature of Christ must pray in us, and God must recognise Himself come
back through the circle of our intercession to Himself. The Spirit must make
intercession in us, according to the will of God. When the unselfish,
lovely, and holy nature of Jesus pleads in us by the Holy Ghost, there is
nothing that God will not do for us, even to the whole of his kingdom.

“If ye abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you.”

“Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name He will give it you.”
_________________________________________________________________

Sealed with the king’s ring. Esther viii. 8.

IN chap. iii. 10 the king took the ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman.
It is evident that he had resumed it from his chief officer’s finger before
sending him to execution. It was now entrusted to Mordecai, because it gave
validity to the documents that proclaimed liberty to the Jews. Notice those
words: “The writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the
kings seal, no man may reverse,” and apply them to that sealing with the
Holy Ghost, of which we read so often in the New Testament.

On the molten wax the ring, with its royal device, or perhaps the cutting of
the royal profile, was pressed, giving sanction, validity, and
irreversibleness; so on the tender heart of the believer in Christ, the Holy
Spirit impresses the likeness of Jesus. The seal does not leave an
impression of itself, but of the sovereign; and the Holy Spirit reveals not
Himself, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and aims only to leave the mark and
superscription of Christ on the character. The word character is used in
Hebrews i. 3 (see Greek). How wonderful, that as the image or character of
the Father was impressed on Christ, so the Saviour’s image and character are
impressed on us! “Him hath God the Father sealed,” says the evangelist.
“Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by whom ye were sealed,” says the
Apostle.

This sealing us with the likeness of Jesus is God’s attestation. It is his
witness that we are born from above, and are become his sons and daughters.
It is God’s sign manual of his intention and decree that we should inherit
an irreversible portion; and when God has once passed and sealed it, neither
man nor devil can reverse it.
_________________________________________________________________

The Jews had rule over them that hated them . Esther ix. 1.

YES, my reader, a similar reversal awaits us in the near future! Now, the
god of this world and his followers bear rule over us, and work their way
with the servants of God. They butcher them like sheep, and scatter the
ashes of their homes to the winds; and sometimes it seems as though God had
forgotten to avenge the cause of his saints. But the hour is coming when the
Almighty will arise on our behalf; and to him who has patiently kept his
works unto the end, He will give authority over the nations. Listen to these
great words: “Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of them which say
they are Jews, and they are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to
come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.” Words
more applicable to the case of the Jews in the days of Mordecai, and to the
history of the Church, it would be impossible to find.

But mark a notable distinction. In the case of the enemies of the Jewish
people, there was no quarter. Destruction and death were meted to those who
had breathed out persecution and slaughter. But in the case of Christ and
his Church, power is viewed only as an opportunity of securing salvation and
life. The Saviour said, after his resurrection, “All power is given unto Me
in heaven and on earth; go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost: and lo, I am with you alway.” And the Church says, as
through suffering she passes to the right hand of power, “Lay not this sin
to their charge; but out of our persecutors raise apostles to carry the
Gospel to the confines of the earth.”
_________________________________________________________________

Seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed. Esther
x. 3 (R.V.).

THIS epitaph on the life of a simple-minded, truehearted man, might be yours
also. Why should you not from this moment adopt these, twin characteristics?
Go about the world seeking the good of people. It does not always mean that
you should give them a tract, or a little book. It is much easier to do this
than to sacrifice your own good in order to seek theirs. You may be quite
sure that some little act of self-sacrifice or thoughtfulness for a weary
mother, or crying child, for a sick friend, or for some person who is always
maligning and injuring you, would do a great deal in the way of preparing an
entrance for the Gospel message. It is thus that the genial spring loosens
the earth and prepares the way for the germination of multitudinous life.
Count the day lost in which you have not sought to promote the good of some
one. Adopt as your own the pious Quaker’s motto, “Do all the good you can,
to all the people you can, in all the ways you can.”

Speak peace to people. – Soothe agitated and irritated souls. Throw oil on
troubled waters. There are worried and anxious hearts all around us; a word
of sympathy and earnest prayer with them will often remove the heavy load,
and smooth out the wrinkles of care. Let the law of kindness be on your lip.
Do not say sharp or unkind things of the absent, or allow your lips to utter
words that will lead to bitterness or wrath. Seek peace and pursue it. And
in order to this, let the peace of God that passeth all understanding keep
your mind and heart.

“Come, my beloved! We will haste and go

To those pale faces of our fellow-men!

Our loving hearts, burning with summer-fire,

Shall cast a glow upon their pallidness.”
_________________________________________________________________

Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned and renounced God in their
hearts. Job i. 5 (R.V.).

TIMES of festivity are always full of temptation. The loins are relaxed, the
girdle of the soul is loosed. Amid the general hilarity and the passing of
the merry joke, words are said and thoughts permitted which are not always
consistent with the character of God and his glorious kingdom and service.
Job was not wrong, therefore, in supposing that his children might have
contracted some defiling stain.

It necessary for some of us to move in society, and to attend festive
gatherings. As the Lord went to the wedding feast, and accepted Simon’s
invitation, so must we. The sphere of our life lies necessarily in the
world. But when we are entering scenes of recreation and pleasure we should
be more than ever careful to put on our armour, and by previous meditation
and prayer prepare ourselves for the inevitable temptation; and when it is
all over, and the lights are down, we should quietly review our behaviour
under the light that streams from the Word of God. If we then are made aware
of frivolous or uncharitable words, of jealousy because others have outshone
us, or of pride at the splendour of our dress and the brilliance of our
talk, we must confess it, and obtain forgiveness and restoration.

What a beautiful example is furnished by Job to Christian parents! When your
girls are going among strangers, and your boys into the great ways of the
world, and you are unable to impose your will upon them, as in the days of
childhood, you can yet pray for them, casting over them the shield of
intercession, with strong cryings and tears. They are beyond your reach; but
by faith you can move the arm of God on their behalf.
_________________________________________________________________

A perfect and an upright man. Job ii. 3.

EVEN God spoke of Job as perfect. Not that he was absolutely so, as judged
by the perfect standard of eternity, but as judged by the standard of his
own light and knowledge. He was living up to all the requirements of God and
man, so far as he understood them. His whole being was open and obedient to
the Divine impulses. So far as he knew there was no cause of controversy in
heart or life. Probably he could have adopted the words of the Apostle, “I
know nothing against myself.” He exercised himself to have always a
conscience void of offence toward God and man.

Satan suggested that his goodness was pure selfishness; that it paid him
well to be as he was, because God had hedged him around and blessed his
substance. This malignant suggestion was at once dealt with by the Almighty
Vindicator of the saints. It was as if God said, “I give thee permission to
deprive him of all those favouring conditions, for the sake of which thou
sayest he is bribed to goodness; and it shall be seen that his integrity is
rooted deep down in the work of my grace upon his heart.”

But the book goes on to show that God desired to teach Job that there were
flaws and blemishes in his character which could only be seen by comparing
it with the more perfect glory of his own Divine nature. His friends sought
to prove him faulty, and failed; God revealed himself, and he cried,
“Behold, I am vile, and abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

How often God takes away our consolations, that we may only love Him for
Himself; and reveals our sinfulness, that we may better appreciate the
completeness of his salvation!
_________________________________________________________________

Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day. Job iii. 1.

THAT is, the day of his birth. Probably there have been hours in the
majority of lives in which men have wished that they had never been born.
When they have stood beside the wreck of all earthly hope, or entered the
garden of the grave they have cried, “Why died I not from the birth!” The
reason for this is, that the heart has been so occupied with the transient
and earthly, that it has lost sight of the unseen and eternal; and in
finding itself deprived of the former, it has thought that there was nothing
left to live for.

One of the greatest tests of true religion is in bearing suffering. At such
a time we are apt, if we are professing Christians, to exert a certain
constraint over ourselves, and bear ourselves heroically. We have read of
people in like circumstances who have not shed a tear or uttered a
complaining word; and we have braced ourselves to a Christian stoicism. “I
am sure you cannot find fault with my behaviour,” said one such to me. And
yet beneath the correct exterior there may be the pride and haughtiness of
an altogether unsubdued self.

There is a more excellent way: to humble oneself under the mighty hand of
God; to search the heart for any dross that needs to be burnt out; to resign
oneself to the will of the Father; to endeavour to learn the lesson in the
black-lettered book; to seek to manifest the specific grace for which the
trial calls; to be very tender and thoughtful for others; to live deeper
down.

“Nearer, my God to Thee! – Nearer to Thee!

E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me,

Still all my song shall be – Nearer, my God, to Thee!

Nearer to Thee!”
_________________________________________________________________

But now it is come unto thee, and thou faintest. Job iv. 5 (R.V.).

IT is much easier to counsel others in their trouble than to bear it
ourselves. Full often the soul, which has poured floods of consolation on
others, feels sadly in need of a touch, a voice, a sympathising companion,
as the chill waters begin to rise towards the knees, and the shadow of the
great eclipse falls around. The fact of our having consoled so many others
seems at such a moment to leave us the more solitary and lonesome. People
have been so wont to be helped by as that they hardly dare approach us;
besides, they suppose that all the fund of comfort from which we have
succoured others must be now available for us. What can they say that we
have not said a hundred times? and if we have said it, of course we must
know all about it; but they do not know how wistful the heart is to hear it
said to us with the accent of a sympathetic voice and the touch of a
ministering hand.

Ah, it will come unto thee at last. The pain and sorrow of life will find
thee out. The arrow will at last fix itself quivering in thy heart. How wilt
thou do then? Thou wilt faint unless thy words have sprung from a living
experience of the love and presence of Jesus. Thou must have a better hope
than “the integrity of thy ways,” as suggested by Eliphaz. But there awaits
thee the personal fellowship of Jesus, a brother born for the hour of trial.
He is the never-failing Friend, who sticketh closer than a brother. Put Him
and his will and his choice between thee and thy sorrow, whatever it may be.
Hide thee in his secret place, and under the shadow of his wings thou shalt
enjoy sweet peace.

“Only heaven Is better than a walk

With Christ at midnight over moonlit seas.”
_________________________________________________________________

He maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth and his hands make whole. Job v.
18.

HAS this been your experience lately? Have you been made sore by the heavy
scourge of pain, and wounded by the nails of the cross? Do not look at
second causes. Men may have been the instruments, but God is the Agent. The
cup has been presented by a Judas, but the Father permitted it; and it is
therefore the cup that the Father hath given you to drink. Shall you not
drink it? How much He must love you, to dare to inflict this awful
discipline, which makes your love and trust, that He values so infinitely,
tremble in the scale! “Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor
faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”

But do not look back on what you have suffered; look on and up! As surely as
He has made sore, He will bind up; as soon as He has wounded, his hands will
begin to make whole. Consider the reparative processes of nature. So soon as
the unsightly ruin or chasm yawns, nature begins to weave her rich festoons,
to cover it with moss and lichen; let the flesh be punctured or lacerated,
the blood begins to poor out the protoplastic matter to be woven into a new
fabric. So when the heart seems bleeding its life away, God is at work
binding up and healing. Think of those dear and tender hands, that fashioned
the heavens, and touched the eyeballs of the blind, as laid upon you to make
you whole. Trust Him; He loves infinitely, and will suffer none that trust
in Him to be desolate.

We must be careful, however, that nothing on our part shall hinder the life
of the Son of God from flowing through us, as the sap of the vine through
every branch.
_________________________________________________________________

As a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away. Job vi. 15 (R.V.).

JOB complains of his three friends. He was glad when they first came to his
side, as likely to yield him comfort in his sore distress. Instead of this,
however, they began probing his heart and searching his life, to find the
secret sin on account of which his heavy troubles had befallen him. Their
philosophy was at fault.They held that special misfortune is always the
result of special sin; and since there was nothing in Job’s outward conduct
to account for his awful sufferings, they felt that he was hiding some
secret defection, which they urged him to confess. Job felt that in all this
they cruelly misunderstood him, and compares them in these words to one of
the desert streams that are choked with ice and snow in the time of the
winter rains, but dwindle and dry up on the first approach of summer. And
when the weary caravans come to their banks, lo, their bed is a mere heap of
stones. “They come thither and are confounded.”

Is it not so with human friendships? We hoped that they would quench the
raging thirst of our souls; this hope increases when they draw nigh us in
days of sorrow; but how often they fail us – stones for bread, scorpions for
fish, and scorching pebbles instead of water-brooks. How great a contrast to
the love and friendship of Jesus! Not like a brook that dries in the time of
drought, but like a well of water springing up within the heart for ever. He
does not merely give consolation and sympathy, but He is what He gives. He
imparts Himself. His promise chases away our fears as his Spirit reminds us
of the words, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Nothing gives Him
greater joy than to be the perfect circle of which earth’s friendships are
broken arcs.
_________________________________________________________________

What is man . . . that thou shouldest visit him every morning? Job vii. 17,
18.

GOD visits us with mercy every morning. Before we are awake He is at work in
the world, baptizing it with dew, feeding the birds and wild things, taking
pleasure in the jasmine and heliotrope, the honeysuckle, and the rose; and
with all his care for his world, He does not forget man, whom He has placed
there to be its tenant. There is no life so mean and abject, so suffering
and wretched, that He does not visit in order to comfort and relieve it. No
heart so forlorn that He does not knock at the door: no window so selfishly
curtained and shuttered, at which He does not tap. “Open to Me!” the
heavenly visitor entreats, “my love, my dove, my spouse!” Alas for us! that
we keep the doors and windows closed to Him – as the poor widow to a
beneficent friend, who called to relieve her, but she mistook him for the
rent-collector.

But probably Job meant that God visits us in discipline, training,
education. He is the watcher of men; not to detect their failures, but to
discover opportunities of leading them on to richer, fuller experiences of
his grace and life. Surely, as we consider all the time and pains which God
has expended on us, we too may cry, with the patriarch, “What is man?” Man
is more than we guess, else God would never take such time and pains with
him. When a lapidary spends years over a single diamond, the most careless
observer begins to appraise properly its intrinsic value.

Every morning God visits thee, with holy thoughts and warnings, with
miracles and parables, with anticipations and forecasts – oh, realize how
much thou art to Him: give Him love for love, thanks and loving recognition,
a child’s welcome and trust.
_________________________________________________________________

If thou wert pure and upright, surely now he would awake for thee. Job viii.
6.

SO Bildad spoke, suggesting that Job was not pure and upright, since God did
not appear to deliver him. The premises from which he argued were that God
always delivers and prospers pure and upright men, and that therefore, if a
man were not delivered and prospered, he was proved to be neither pure nor
upright. The fallacy lay in the premiss. It is not universally true that God
delivers his saints from adverse circumstances, or prospers them with
outward good. There have been in all ages thousands of devoted servants of
God who have been destitute, afflicted, and tormented; and there are
thousands of such to-day in prisons, in hospital wards, in every condition
of privation and trial; but in none of these cases can there be the least
imputation on the love and righteousness of God, nor necessarily on their
fidelity and goodness.

God’s arrangements for us are not governed by the superficial philosophy
which would make material prosperity a sign of his favour, and adversity of
his displeasure. There are many considerations beside. Our privations in the
outward strengthen and ripen the inward. As the outward man decays, the
inward is renewed day by day. We have to learn and manifest those passive
virtues which can only mature in silence and sorrow. We must be taught to be
largely independent of circumstances, and to find in God Himself the springs
of unfailing supply. We must learn to carry the sentence of death in
ourselves, that we may not trust in ourselves, but in the living God. We
have to stiffer with and for others. All these things worketh God with us to
make us partakers of his holiness. But amid all our sorrows, He is always
awake for us.
_________________________________________________________________

Yet wilt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.
Job ix. 31.

WE shall never got beyond the need of using daily the Lord’s prayer. He has
bound by the conjunction and the prayer for forgiveness with that for daily
bread, as though to teach us that we shall need the one as Iong as we need
the other. At the end of the best day that we ever spent, when we are not
aware of having consciously sinned in act, or speech, or thought, we shall
still have need of the precious blood. We may know nothing against
ourselves, yet we shall not be thereby justified; because He that judgeth us
is our holy Lord, and the standard by which we are judged is his own perfect
character. A piece of cambric looks extremely fine to the eye, but how
coarse to the microscope! Sheep look white against the dark ground of the
early spring; but how dark if there should be a fall of snow! Our characters
seem stainless, only because we compare ourselves with ourselves, or with
others.

But, when our eyes are opened to see God, to behold the whiteness of the
great white throne, and we stand in the searching light of heaven, we are as
those who have just emerged from a ditch. I heard the other day of a woman
being proud of having lived without sin for ten years! So we deceive
ourselves. No, at the best we are sinful men and women, needing constant
cleansing; even though we may be kept from known sin by the grace of Christ.
It was at an advanced period in the life of the great Apostle, and when he
lived nearest God, that he realized himself to be the chief of sinners.

“I know not what I am, but only know

I have had glimpses tongue may never speak:

No more I balance human joy and woe,

But think of my transgressions, and am meek.”
_________________________________________________________________

The land of darkness and the shadow of death. Job x. 21.

THIS represented the highest thinking of that age about the future. There
were gleams now and again of something more; but they were fitful and
uncertain, soon overtaken by dark and sad forebodings. How different to our
happy condition, for whom death is abolished, whilst life and immortality
have been brought to light! The patriarch called the present life Day, and
the future Night. We know that in comparison the present is Night, and the
future Day. “The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us put on the
armour of light.”

For us, too, there is something better. We wait for his Son from heaven; we
look for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and
Saviour Jesus Christ. “As the waters of the sea are held between two mighty
gravitations, the moon now drawing them towards itself, and the earth
drawing them back again, thus giving the ebbing and flowing tide, by which
our earth is kept clean and healthful, so must the tides of the soul’s
affection move perpetually between the cross of Christ and the coming of
Christ, influenced now by the power of memory and now by the power of hope.”
It is said of the late Dr. Gordon: “Hardly a sermon was preached without
allusion to the glorious appearing. Never a day passed in which he did not
prepare himself for it, in which its hastening was not sought for with
prayer.” “Yet a little while [Greek, how little! how little!] and He that
shall come will come.” The attitude of every believer should be that of
waiting: with loins girt and lamp burning, let us be ready to meet our Lord.

“The Best is yet to be,

The Last for which the First was made.”
_________________________________________________________________

Canst thou by searching find out God? Job xi. 7.

THERE is but one answer to that question. No one can. The very angels veil
their faces before the insufferable glory of his face.

“The firstborn sons of light

Desire in vain his depths to see;

They cannot reach the mystery,

The length, and breadth, and height.

Do not be surprised, then, if there should be matters in the Bible, in your
own life, and in the Providential government of the world, which baffle your
thought. Remember you are only a little child in an infant class, and it is
not likely that you can comprehend the whole system of your instructor. God
would cease to be God to us, if we by searching could find Him out.

But though we cannot find out God by the searching of the intellect, we may
know Him by love. “He that loveth, knoweth God; for God is Love.” There is a
way of knowing God, which is hidden from the wise and prudent, and revealed
to babes. Seek to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.
Let Christ dwell deep in your heart by faith. Take care to obey all his
commandments, and then the Holy God will come into you, and abide. He will
give you Himself, and you will know Him as a little child knows its parent,
whom it cannot grasp with its mind, but loves and trusts and knows with its
heart. We cannot find out God by searching, but we can by loving.

We can also find Him in the character and life of Jesus. He that hath seen
Him hath seen the Father; why then ask to be shown the Father? “What is Thy
name, mystery of strength and beauty?” “Shiloh, Rest-Giver,” is the deep
response.
_________________________________________________________________

Doth not the ear try words? and the palate tasteth its meat. Job xii. 11
(R.V.).

THERE is no appeal from the verdict of our palate.We know in a moment
whether a substance is sweet or bitter, palatable or disagreeable. Now, what
the taste is to articles of diet, that the ear is to words, whether of God
or man. More especially we can tell in a moment whether the fire of
inspiration is burning in them. This is the test which Job proposed to apply
to the words of his friends; and it would be well for all of us to apply the
same test to Holy Scripture.

The humble student of the Word of God is sometimes much perplexed and cast
down by the assaults which are made on it by scholars and teachers, who do
not scruple to question the authorship and authority of large tracts of
Scripture. We cannot vie with these in scholarship, but the humblest may
apply the test of the purged ear; and it will detect a certain quality in
the Bible which is absent everywhere beside. There is a tone in the voice of
Scripture, which the child of God must recognise. This is the interesting
characteristic in the quotations made in the New Testament from the Old. All
the writers in the later Revelation detect the voice of God in the Old; to
them, it is the Divine utterance through holy lips. Hearken, they cry, “the
holy Ghost saith.” God is speaking in the prophets, as He spake in his Son.

It is one of the characteristics of Christ’s sheep that they know his voice,
and follow Him, whilst they flee from the voice of strangers. Ask that the
Lord may touch your ears, that they may discern by a swift intuition the
voice of the Good Shepherd from that of strangers; and for grace to follow
immediately He calls you.
_________________________________________________________________

Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. Job xiii. 15.

THIS was a noble expression, which has been appropriated by thousands in
every subsequent age. In every friendship there is a probation, during which
we narrowly watch the actions of another, as indicating the nature of his
soul; but after awhile we get to such intimate knowledge and confidence,
that we read and know his inner secret. We have passed from the outer court
into the Holy Place of fellowship. We seem familiar with every nook and
cranny of our friend’s nature. And then it is comparatively unimportant how
he appears to act; we know him.

So it is in respect of God. At first we know Him through the testimony of
others, and on the evidence of Scripture; but as time passes, with its
everdeepening experiences of what God is, with those opportunities of
converse that arise during years of prayer and communion, we get to know Him
as He is and to trust Him implicitly. And when that point has been reached
and passed, nothing afterwards can greatly move us. Instead of looking at
God from the standpoint of his acts, we look at his dealings with us and all
men from the standpoint of his heart. Though He put us on the altar, as
Abraham did Isaac, and take the knife to slay us, we trust Him. If we die,
it is to pass into a richer life. If He seem to forget and forsake us, it is
only in appearance. His heart is yearning over us more than ever. God cannot
do a thing which is not perfectly loving and wise and good. Oh to know Him
thus!

” Leaving the final issue In His hands

Whose goodness knows no change, whose love is sure,

Who sees, foresees, who cannot judge amiss.”
_________________________________________________________________

All the days of my warfare would I wait, till my release should come. Job
xiv. 14 (R.V.).

THE Lord Jesus has chosen us to be his soldiers. We are in the midst of a
great campaign: let us endure hardness, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ,
and strive above all things to please Him (2 Tim. ii. 4). Amongst other
things, let us be sure not to entangle ourselves in the affairs of this
life. What purpose could a soldier serve who insisted on taking all his
household goods with him on the march!

There is no pause in the warfare. We can never, like Gideon’s soldiers,
throw ourselves on the bank and quaff the water at our leisure. Every bush
may hide a sharp-shooter; every brake an ambuscade. It becomes us to watch
and pray; to keep on our harness of armour; to be on the alert for our
Captain’s voice. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the
hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenly places; we need to be strong in the
Lord, and in the power of his might, and to take unto ourselves the whole
armour of God, that we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having
done all to stand.

But the release will come at last. When the soldier has fought the good
fight, the time of his departure will come, and he will go in to receive the
crown which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give in that day. “Come,”
said the dying Havelock to his son, “and see how a Christian can die.”
Sometimes it demands more of a soldier’s courage to wait than to charge.
Remember that long waiting on the field at Waterloo, when the day passed
from morning to evening. If you can do nothing else, wait. Be steadfast,
immovable: lying still to suffer, to bear, to endure. This is fighting of
the noblest sort.
_________________________________________________________________

Thou restrainest prayer before God. Job xv. 4.

JOB’S friends were bent on discovering the cause of his sufferings in some
secret failure and declension. This is why Eliphaz accused him so
groundlessly. They did not know of those secret habits of intercession
described in the first chapter. But this charge is eminently true of some
professing Christians.

They restrain private prayer. – The closet door is too seldom shut behind
them, or it is kept shut for to brief a period. They do not give themselves
time to get into the mid-current of intercession and be borne forward by it
whither it will. The voice of the Holy Spirit is barely able to assert
itself amid the hubbub of voices within. They are so taken up with speaking
of the Lord, or working for Him, that they slur over private audiences with
Himself.

They restrain social prayer. – Their minister never them in the gatherings
for intercession on behalf of the work of the Church and the salvation of
the lost. They forsake the assembling of themselves with the saints. Like
Thomas, they are absent from the gathering in the upper room, and miss the
smile of the Lord.

They restrain family prayer. – Surely we ought to gather at least once a day
around the family altar. Where Abraham pitched his tent he erected the
altar. A prayerless home is apt to become a worldly and unhappy one. There
is no such keystone to the arch of home-life and home-love, as the habit of
family worship.

How foolish, how short-sighted, how sinful, it is to restrain prayer! What
wonder that your soul is famished when you fail to feed it, or impoverished
when you neglect intercourse with heaven!
_________________________________________________________________

I was at ease, and He brake me asunder. Job xvi. 12 (R.V.).

THE other day, it was the Lord’s Day morning, two sparrows fell from the
leads of my church into the vestry, which has a lofty glass skylight. As
soon as they had recovered from their astonishment at finding themselves
prisoners, they flew up against this skylight as though to break through it
to the open heaven, and then round and round the room. They were desperately
afraid of myself and the verger, whom I had called, not realizing that we
were as anxious as they to get them out again into the air. The only thing
we could do to help them was to keep them from alighting to rest; so with
long brooms and soft missiles we constantly drove them from every cornice
and picture-frame on which they alighted, till they fell exhausted, and with
panting breasts, to the ground. Then we captured them and set them free.
They might have said many a time, in the course of that encounter, “We were
at case, and they brake us asunder; they also set us up for their mark.” But
if they could review that episode now, they would doubtless see that it was
love which forbade them to rest anywhere in the vestry, because it desired
to give them their fullest liberty.

So with Job. God would not allow him to rest in anything short of the best,
and therefore He broke up his nest. Is not this the key to his dealings with
you? Oh, believe that behind the perpetual change and displacement of your
life God is leading you into the glorious liberty of his children!

“Therefore to whom turn I but Thee, the ineffable Name?

Builder and Maker Thou of houses not made with hands!

What? have fear of change from Thee who art ever the same?

Doubt that Thy power can fill the heart that Thy power expands?

There shall never be one lost good.”
_________________________________________________________________

Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. Job xvii. 9 (R.V.).

WHEN the real life of God enters the soul, it persists there. Genuine
religion is shown by its power of persistence. Anything short of a Godgiven
faith will sooner or later fail. It may run well for a time, but its pace
will inevitably slacken till it comes to a stand. The youths faint and are
weary, and the young men utterly fall. The seed sown on the rock springs up
quickly, and as quickly dies down and perishes. But where there is the
rooting and grounding in God, there is a perpetuity and persistence which
outlives all storms and survives all resistance.

You shall hold on your way because Jesus holds you in his strong hand. He is
your Shepherd; He has vanquished all your foes, and you shall never perish.

You shall hold on your way because the Father has designed through you to
glorify his Son; and there must be no gaps in his crown where jewels ought
to be.

You shall hold on your way because the Holy Spirit has deigned to make you
his residence and home; and He is within you the perennial spring of a holy
life.

It is said that there was once a debate in heaven, as to which kind of life
needed most of God’s grace. That of a man who after a lifetime of gross sins
was converted at the eleventh hour, or of a man that for his whole career
had been kept from destruction. And finally the latter was agreed to be the
most conspicuous miracle. And there is no doubt that this is so. Yet for
this also shall God’s grace avail: and He shall enable thee to hold on thy
way till heaven open to thee.
_________________________________________________________________

The king of terrors. Job xviii. 14.

S0 the ancients spoke of death. They were constantly pursued by the dread of
the unknown. Every unpeopled or distant spot was the haunt and dwellingplace
of evil and dreadful objects. But the grave, and the world beyond, were
above all terrible, and death the King of Terrors. It is difficult for us,
who inherit centuries of Christian teaching, to realize how dark and
fearsome was all the realm that lay under the dominion of death and the
grave. What a shiver in those words, King of Terrors!

But for us how vast the contrast! Jesus has abolished death, and brought
life and immortality to light. He has gone through the grave, and come again
to assure us that it is the back door into our Father’s house, with its many
mansions. At his girdle hang the keys of death and Hades; none can shut the
door when He opens it, and none open when He keeps it shut. He was Himself
dead; but He lives for evermore, and comes to the side of each dying saint
to escort him through the valley to his own bright abode.

There is something better. In the case of immense numbers, who shall be
alive and remain when He comes again, death will be entirely evaded. “He
that liveth and believeth in Him shall never die.” They shall be caught away
to meet the Lord in the air. Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, this
mortal shall put on immortality, this corruptible incorruption. At his
coming the grave shall be despoiled of its treasures, and death shall miss
its expected prey.

“0 death, where is thy sting! grave, where is thy victory! Thanks be to God
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
_________________________________________________________________

I know that my Redeemer liveth. Job xix. 25.

THOSE words express the deepest and most radiant conviction of believing
hearts. “He lives, the great Redeemer lives!” Man did his worst; the nail,
the cross, the spear, were bitter; but He liveth! Death stood over Him as a
vanquished foe; but He liveth! Captain Sepulchre and his henchman Corruption
held earnest colloquy together about the best method of detaining Him; but
He liveth! He ever liveth: and because He continueth ever, He hath an
unchangeable priesthood.

But it is not probable that his words meant all this to Job. The word
translated “Redeemer ” is Goel – the nearest kinsman, sworn to avenge the
wrongs of blood relations. This conception of the kinsman avenger has been
always in vogue in the East, where the populations are scattered and
migratory, and our system of law impossible. Beyond the heavens Job thought
there lived a Kinsman, who saw all his sufferings, and pitied, and would one
day appear on earth to vindicate his innocence and avenge his wrongs. He was
content to leave the case with Him, sure that He would not fail, as his
friends had done.

Beyond the sorrows and anguish of time he should yet see God; and he longed
to see Him, that he might learn the secret purpose, which explained the
sorrow of his lot. He had no dread of that momentous event, since his Goel
would be there to stand beside him.

“Sudden the Worst turns the Best to the brave,

The black minute’s at end!-

And the Elements’ rage, the fiend voices that rave,

Shall dwindle, shall blend,

Shall change, shall become, – first a Peace out of Pain,

Then a Light, then thy breast.”
_________________________________________________________________

This is the portion of a wicked man from God. Job xx. 29.

REPEATEDLY in reading this book we are reminded of the strong convictions
entertained by thoughtful men among these Eastern peoples, of the sure
connection between wrong-doing and its bitter penalty. The friends of the
sufferer express their opinions in cold-blooded and unfeeling words; but we
can detect their intense convictions beneath all – that special suffering
indicates the presence of special sin, and that all wickedness is sooner or
later brought to light and punished.

We are less able to follow the track of God’s providences in these crowded,
hurrying days; but there can be little doubt of the connection between
wrong-doing and punishment. The law is immutable. As a man soweth, so shall
be also reap. The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the
godless but for a moment. He shall disgorge his wealth; he shall suck the
poison of asps in the remorse and bitterness of his soul; the heavens shall
reveal his iniquity; and his descendants shall seek favour of the poor.
These things are still to be seen among us, in the rise and fall of proud
men and their families.

Let us go into the sanctuary of God, and consider their latter end; and as
we contrast it with that of the poorest of his children, we shall find no
reason to envy them. Even though no human tribunal sentence them, they carry
the harpoon in their heart, and sooner or later it will bring them to a
certain and awful doom. It cannot be otherwise whilst God is God. The
psalmist said:

“I have seen the wicked in great power,

And spreading himself like a green bay tree;

Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not.”
_________________________________________________________________

Shall any teach God knowledge? Job xxi. 22.

WE cannot tell God anything He does not know already. The most fervent and
full of our prayers simply unfold in word all that has been patent to his
loving, pitying eye. This does not make prayer needless; on the contrary, it
incites to prayer, since it is pleasant to talk with one who knows the whole
case perfectly; and it is a relief to feel that God’s answers depend – not
on the information we bring Him, or even on the specific requests we make,
but – on his infinite and perfect acquaintance with circumstances and
conditions of which we are altogether ignorant.

“Your Father knoweth.” Quicker than lightning is his notice of every
transition in your inner life – of your downsittings and your uprisings; of
every thought in your heart; every word on your tongue; of the fretting of
that inward cross; of the anguish of that stake in your flesh; of the enemy
that, like a sword in your bones, reproaches you with the derisive
challenge. “Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted
with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, Lord, thou
knowest it altogether.” Yes, He knows it all, and loves you better than you
know.

Do not presume to dictate to Him; do not dare to say that some other way
would be better, some other lot more likely to develop your best self. He
knows every track by which to bring sons to glory; and that He has chosen
this one is a positive proof that it is the best, the one most adapted to
your idiosyncrasies and needs. His ways are, higher than your ways, and his
thoughts than your thoughts. You could not teach Him knowledge, or increase
his love – then trust both.
_________________________________________________________________

If thou return to the Almighty. Job xxii. 23.

THESE words introduce a most exquisite picture of the blessings consequent
on return to God. They do not fit the case of Job, to whom they were
addressed, because he had not left God; and they sound strange as coming
from the mouth of Eliphaz. Still they are full of sublime truth.

There are three conditions. – We must retrace the steps of our backsliding
and wandering lives. We must put away unrighteousness from our home-life and
business engagements, so that the tent may be free from idols. We must be
content to lay our most treasured possessions in the dust at God’s feet for
Him to deal with as He pleases.

There are four consequences. – Whatever we give up for God, we shall find
again in Him; He shall become our treasure. Prayer shall have new zest, new
success; be full of delight; become the interchange of face-to-face
fellowship. There shall be more certainty and permanence in our decisions
and achievements. Our decrees shall stand, our work shall last, our path
shall be illumined with light. Trouble and trial shall depress us for only a
brief space, like the passing of an Atlantic breaker over a lighthouse rock,
whilst a glad relief shall always follow close on disaster.

Let us ask for all this in our daily prayer. God, be my precious silver;
give me delight in Thee; hear my prayers; may I decree what Thou canst
establish; let Thy light shine on my ways; lift me up above all my
depressions and fears – that I may stretch out a strong hand to those who
are in trouble.

“Oh, strengthen me, that while I stand

Firm on the Rock, and strong In Thee,

I may stretch out a loving hand

To wrestlers with the troubled sea.”
_________________________________________________________________

O that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to his seat!
Job xxiii. 3.

POOR tempest-driven man, he knew not that God was intimately near, nearer
than breathing. There was no need for him to go forward and backward, on the
right hand or the left. The Lord his God was nigh him, even in his heart;
for his throne was pitched there on the sands of the desert, between Job and
his pitiless accusers.

Thou needest not speak like this. Thou knowest where to find Him; thou canst
find the way to his seat. He is to be found in Jesus, seated on the
mercy-seat; in that room where thou sittest reading these words; in that
railway train or store. No need to ascend into heaven, or descend into the
abyss. Thou couldst not be nearer God, if thou wert in heaven. True, the
obscuring vail shall be then removed.

“And without a screen,

At one burst shall be seen,

The Presence in which we have ever been”;

but the dropping- of the scales from our eyes will not make us nearer God
than we are at this moment.

Now go to his seat, just in front of thee. Order thy cause before Him, and
argue it. Wait to know the words with which He shall answer thee, and
understand his reply. Only be sure that He will not contend against thee
with his great power. Sometimes we are so bewildered and perplexed that we
lose the realizing sense of God’s presence; but there is no real difference.
God is not really farther away; and nothing glorifies and pleases Him more
than for us to go on speaking with Him as though we could see his face, and
realize his embrace. Be still for a moment, and say, reverently and
believingly: Lo, God is in this place.
_________________________________________________________________

Yet a little while, and they are gone. Job xxiv. 24 (R.V.).

JOB here describes the insecurity of the wicked. He may have raged against
the poor and innocent; but in a moment he comes down to Sheol, is hurried to
stand before his Maker to receive his sentence. As he had treated the poor,
so he is treated. As he had devoured the houses of the innocent, so he is
devoured. “How are they become a desolation in a moment! They are utterly
consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, Lord, when Thou
awakest, Thou shalt despise their image.”

For those who fear God there is a greatly contrasted lot. They receive a
kingdom that cannot be moved. Zion may be a desolation, and Jerusalem a
wilderness; the holy and beautiful institutions in which their early
religious impressions were made may crumble; but they are come to the
heavenly Jerusalem. The removing of those things that are capable of being
shaken only makes more apparent those which cannot be shaken.

Where do you build your nest? In the trees of this world, that sway in the
tempest, or may be hewn down by the woodman’s axe; or have you learnt to
build in the clefts of the Rock of Ages? Is your treasure in human
friendships, which may change or be cut in twain by the sharp shears of
death; or is it in the love of God, the unchangeable and everlasting Lover
of souls? Let us look off from ourselves; from that diseased introspection
that so confuses and dims our life; from the old fears that made us tremble
and the old matters of which we must speak no more. And let us look upward
and forward to that near future, which is so much larger and better than the
past has been, and where we shall attain more than the heights of our
dreams.
_________________________________________________________________

How then can man be just with God? Job xxv. 4 (R.V.).

THIS is the question of the ages. Man knows that he is as a worm, and worse.
For no animal, however humble, has consciously and determinedly broken the
law of God, and defiled its nature.

Our first effort is to go about to establish a righteousness of our own.
Repeated failure only aggravates our misery and chagrin, till we fall
helpless at the foot of Sinai. Our vows are broken, the law of God lies
shivered around us, the thunders and lightnings make us afraid. Then God in
the Person of Jesus comes to our help. First, He meets and satisfies the
demands of the broken law, so that it can ask no more. With his own hands He
works out, and brings in, everlasting righteousness. And finally, He
produces in us that faith by which his finished work is applied to our
conscience and heart.

By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the
law is the knowledge of sin. But we are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to
be a propitiation. God is Himself the Justifier of the ungodly. “Whom He
called, them He also justified.” He takes off the filthy garments, and
clothes us in change of raiment.

But the condition is faith. We must believe in Him who justifieth the
ungodly. They who believe are justified from all things. Being justified by
faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not
saved by believing about his work, but in Himself. The Greek of John iii. 16
might be rendered, Whosoever even believeth into Him. The motion of faith is
ever towards the heart of Him who died, and rose, and lives. Then through
our faith the Spirit produces a holy character.
_________________________________________________________________

How small a whisper do we hear of Him! Job xxvi. 14 (R.V.).

JOB in thought passes through the universe. Sheol stands for the grave and
the unseen world; Abaddon, for Satan, or for the great reservoirs in which
the destructive agencies of creation have their home. With a marvellous
anticipation of the conclusions of modern science, he speaks of the world as
pendant in space. He passes to the confines of light and darkness, rides on
the wings of the wind, discourses of the clouds, skims the mighty surface of
the sea. All this, however, he deems as the outskirts of God’s ways. It is
but a whisper compared to the mighty thunder of his glory and power. If this
is a whisper, what must the thunder be! If this universe is but a flower on
the meadows of God’s life, what must not God Himself be!

Perhaps we know something more of the thunder of his power than Job could,
because we have stood beneath Calvary and seen Jesus die, and He is the
wisdom and power of God; yea, we have witnessed the exceeding greatness of
his power, according to the working of the strength of his might, which He
wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.

Who of us can fathom or understand the power of God? But what a comfort to
know that it is an attribute of his heart. God is not power, but He is love,
and his love throbs through and commands his power. Be reverent when you
kneel before the great and mighty God; but believe that all his power is
engaged on the side of his weakest, needist child. And more: cease not to
wait upon God until He endue you with his mighty power, for service and for
daily living. A Nasmyth hammer can break a nutshell without crushing or
touching the kernel.
_________________________________________________________________

My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let go. Job xxvii. 6.

JOB had an ideal and clung to it. Have you such? A vision of what you may
be, and, by the grace of God, will aim at being. Bishop Westcott says: –
“The vision of the ideal guards monotony of work from becoming monotony of
life.” Bitter indeed is life for those who have not seen the heavenly
vision, or heard the calling upward of the voice that says, Come up hither.
Any life looks more interesting and attractive when the light of our ideal
falls on it, and we realize that every yard leads somewhere, and every step
is one nearer the goal. So some one has suggested that “If we cannot realize
our ideal, we may at least idealize our real.”

But there are many hindrances, many adverse influences to combat, many
suggestions that we should let go our ideal. We have so often failed,
slipped where we thought we should stand, limped where we thought to
overcome by wrestling. The crags are so steep, the encouragement we receive
from fellow-climbers so scant, the dissuasions and misconstructions – like
those Job had from his friends – so many. But Jesus who inspired the ideal
waits to realize it, if only you will open your heart and let Him enter. Do
you hunger and thirst? then He will satisfy. He does not tantalize and
disappoint the seeking soul.

“Have we not all, amid life’s petty strife,

Some pure ideal of a noble life

That once seemed possible? It was. And yet

We lost it in this daily jar and fret,

And now live idle in a vague regret.

but still our place is kept, and it will wait.

Ready for us to fill it, soon or late:

No star is ever lost we once have seen –

We always may be what we might have been.
_________________________________________________________________

The deep saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. Job
xxviii. 14 (R.V.).

In this sublime chapter the holy soul goes in quest of wisdom, which is the
perfect balance of the moral and intellectual attributes of the soul; that
knowledge of God, and life, and truth, which is only possible when the eyes
of the heart have been enlightened to know; that radiancy of spirit which is
enlightened and illuminated with God who is HimseIf the Light.

In a marvellous description of mining operations, which would arrest any
company of miners in the world, if read from the Revised Version, Job
declares it is not to be found in the deep. From one quarter of the universe
after another, he receives the intelligence that it is not there. God alone
has the secret; He only can communicate it, or give the disposition to
appreciate and receive.

We must deal with God. Looking away from every other source of illumination
and satisfaction, we must have close and searching fellowship with Him. Dr.
Gordon was wont to say that evangelical faith consists not in a glance
alone, but in a gaze. “We live in a very busy, perspiring time, when a
thousand clamant calls assail us on every side; but we must have more time
for visions if we would be well equipped for our tasks.” Let us then turn
from the quarters where we have been accustomed to draw our supplies –
broken cisterns, with uncertain and brackish water – and let us come to God,
the eternal source of life and peace. Love and rest we want, Thy love and
rest, oh, give us! From men and things; from the mine, the deep, and the
sea; from the murmur of human voices, and the crosslights of human
interests, we come back to Thee, our Home.
_________________________________________________________________

Oh that I were as in the months of old! Job xxix. 2 (R.V.).

WE are irresistibly reminded of Cowper’s sad complaint: –

What peaceful hours I once enjoyed!

How sweet their memory still;

But they have left an aching void

The world can never fill.”

We are all prone to think that the earliest days were the best; and it is
quite possible they were. But we must carefully distinguish between the
exchange of the freshness and novelty of our first love for a deepening and
maturing love, and the loss of love. The streamlet may not babble so
cheerily, but there may be more water in the river. We lose the green
Spring, but is it not better to have the intense light of Autumn in which
the fruits ripen? There may not be so much ecstasy, but there may be
stronger, deeper experience. We should not reckon our position in God’s
sight by our raptures, and count ourselves retrograding because they have
gone; there is something better than rapture: the peace of a settled
understanding and unvarying faith.

Still, if it be really so, that you have left the old place on the bosom or
at the feet of Christ, that your love is cooling and your spirituality
waning, I beseech thee, get back! Remember whence thou art fallen, and
repent, and do the first works. Jesus yearns to reinstate thee, and has
permitted this restless longing for the past to come, that it may be with
thee as in the months of old. Again his lamp shall shine above thy head, and
the secret of the Lord shall be upon thy tent; thy steps shall be washed
with butter, and the rock pour out rivers of oil; thy roots shall spread to
the waters, and the dew shall lie all night upon thy branch.
_________________________________________________________________

I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost not answer me. Job xxx. 20 (R.V.).

IT may have seemed so to the sufferer; but there is not a cry that goes from
the anguished soul which does not ring a bell in the very heart of God,
where the Man of Sorrows waits, touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

I have sometimes gone to a telephone office, and have rung the bell, asking
to be put in connection with my friend, but it has seemed impossible to get
at him; either he has been engaged or absent, and one has found oneself
speaking to a stranger, and the voice which replied has been unfamiliar.
Thoroughly disappointed, one turns away. But this is never the case with
God. And the comfort is, that He is most quick to succour those whose cry is
lowest. As a mother goes about her work, she is less sensitive to the trains
that thunder past, and the heavy drays, and the laughter of boisterous
health, than to the stifled cry of her little invalid; and if there could be
one thing more sure than another of awakening God’s immediate response, it
would be such broken cries as pain elicited from Job.

But the answer will come – nay, it is on its way, timed to arrive in the
fourth watch of the night. Perhaps the delay is the answer, because the
heart needs to be prepared to receive the great gift when it comes. Perhaps,
like the Syrophenician woman, you have to give Christ his right place as
Lord, and take yours amongst the dogs. Perhaps the answer is coming all the
time by one door, whilst you are looking for it through another; but you
cannot and must not say that God is not answering. All the time you are
crying, the answer is to your hand, awaiting your appropriation. Go to the
post-office for the letter: hasten to the landing-stage for the ship – it is
in.
_________________________________________________________________

Mine integrity. Job xxxi. 6.

INTEGRITY is from the Latin word integrita, wholeness. It means
whole-heartedness. It is interesting in this chapter to see what, in Job’s
estimation, it involved.

v.1. Purity in the look.

v.7. Cleanliness of the hands.

v.13. Thoughtfulness for domestic servants and underlings.

v.16. Justice to the poor and the widow.

v.17. Willingness to share morsels, and to be a father to the fatherless.

v.19, 20. Clothing for the naked.

v.21. The refusal to depute to others help which one might render.

v.24.. The heart weaned from the love of gold.

v.26. Refusal to turn aside to idols.

v.29. Inability to rejoice at the destruction of those who had derided and
hated.

v. 33. The frank confession of wrong-doing.

It becomes us prayerfully to go over these items, and use them as the
catechism of our soul; for if this was the standard of character for one who
lived so many centuries before the full revelation of Christ, what should
not our standard be! How impossible, however, it is to live like this from
without! We must enshrine within us the blessed Spirit of God, who alone
originates and maintains that perfect love to God and man which compared to
Job’s maxims is as the heart to the body. Law is given as the expression of
God’s will for the regulation of life: but it is impossible to keep the law
till we have the love; and it is impossible to have the love until we have
the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Holy Ghost.
_________________________________________________________________

There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty giveth
understanding. Job xxxii. 8 (R.V.).

ELIHU had waited whilst the three elder men said all that was in their
hearts. He now excuses his youth and demands audience, because so conscious
that the breath of inspiration had entered his soul. Wisdom is not with age;
but wherever the heart is freely open to God, He will make it wise. We have
received not the spirit which is of the world, but the Spirit which is of
God, that we may know.

George Fox tells us that though he read the Scriptures which spoke of Christ
and of God, yet he knew Him not till He who had the key did open. “Then the
Lord gently led me along and let me see his love which was endless and
eternal, surpassing all the knowledge that men have in the natural state, or
can get by history or books. I had not fellowship with any people, priests
or professors, but with Christ, who hath the key, and opened the door of
life and light unto me. His one message was the necessity of the Inner
Light, the inward witness of the Spirit, his secret revelations of truth to
the soul. ”

This distinction needs to be deeply pondered. We have been trying to know
God by the intellect, by reading the Bible intellectually, by endeavouring
to apprehend human systems. There is, however, a deeper and truer method.
“There is a spirit in man!” Open your spirit to the Divine Spirit as you
open a window to the sunny air. Instantly God enters and fills. The Spirit
witnesses with our spirit. The inbreathed life of God gives us light. We
know by intuition, by fellowship with God, by direct vision, what the wise
of this world could never discover.
_________________________________________________________________

If there be with him a messenger, an interpreter. Job xxxiii. 23.

GOD is greater than man, and by his love seeks to hold man back from his
purpose. Sometimes He comes in the visions of the night; sometimes in pain
and sickness. But we are too dull to understand the inner reason of God’s
endeavours to deliver us from the brink of destruction; and therefore we
need an interpreter, one among a thousand, to explain the meaning of his
dealings, and to show us the way in which we should amend our ways. How
often has the sick visitor, the minister, the friend, interpreted God’s
purpose, enabling us to see light in his light. There are few higher offices
in this world than to act in this way between God and our fellows.

To perform this function, however, we need to understand two languages; the
one of the throne, obtained from deep and intimate converse with our Father,
while the other is man’s native language of pain and sorrow. Each must be
spoken perfectly before we can interpret: –

“And to the height of this great argument

Assert eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to man.”

But, as Bunyan truly says, the best Interpreter is the Holy Spirit. As soon
as the Pilgrim has passed the Wicket-gate, he is conducted through the
Interpreter’s house by the Interpreter Himself. Are you perplexed as to the
meaning of God’s Word, the dealings of God’s providence, the mystery of
God’s moral government? Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you through chamber
after chamber, unfolding to you the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. They
are for babes – for the childlike and pure in heart. He will show you
wondrous things out of his law.
_________________________________________________________________

He giveth quietness. Job xxxiv. 29.

QUIETNESS amid the accusations of Satan. – The great accuser points to the
stains of our past lives, by which we have defiled our robes and those of
others; he says that we shall fall again and again; he imputes evil motives
to our holiest actions, and detects flaws in our most sacred services; he
raises so great a hubbub that we can hardly hear another voice within our
souls. Then the great Intercessor arises and saith, “The Lord rebuke thee,
Satan; the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: I have loved with an
everlasting love, I have paid the ransom. So “He giveth quietness.”

Quietness amid the dash of the storm. – We sail the lake with Him still, and
as we reach its middle waters, far from land, under midnight skies, suddenly
a great storm sweeps down. Earth and hell seem arrayed against us, and each
billow threatens to overwhelm. Then He arises from his sleep, and rebukes
the winds and the waves; his hand waves benediction and repose over the rage
of the tempestuous elements. His voice is heard above the scream of the wind
in the cordage and the conflict of the billows. Peace, be still! Can you not
hear it? And there is instantly a great calm. “He giveth quietness.”

Quietness amid the loss of inward consolations. – He sometimes withdraws
these, because we make to much of them. We are tempted to look at our joy,
our ecstasies, our transports, or our visions, with too great complacency.
Then love, for love’s sake, withdraws them. But, by his grace, He leads us
to distinguish between them and Himself. He draws nigh, and whispers the
assurance of his presence. Thus an infinite calm comes to keep our heart and
mind. “He giveth quietness.”
_________________________________________________________________

None saith, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night? Job xxxv.
10.

DO you have sleepless nights, tossing on the hot pillow, and watching for
the first glint of dawn? Ask the Divine Spirit to enable you to fix your
thoughts on God, your Maker, and believe that He can fill those lonely,
dreary hours with song.

Is yours the night of doubt? – A holy man tells us that once as he was
sitting by the fire, a great cloud came over him, and a temptation beset him
to think that all things came by nature; and as he sat still under it, and
let it alone, a living hope arose in him, and a true voice said, “There is a
living God who made all things.” And immediately the cloud and temptation
vanished away, and life rose over it all. His heart was glad, and he praised
the living God. Was not this a song in the night?

Is yours the night of bereavement? – Is it not often to such God draws near,
and assures the mourner that the Lord had need of its beloved, and called
“the eager, earnest spirit to stand in the bright throng of the invisible,
liberated, radiant, active, intent on some high mission”; and as the thought
enters, is there not the beginning of a song?

Is yours the night of discouragement and fancied or actual failure? – No one
understands you, your friends reproach; but your Maker draws nigh, and gives
you a song – the song of hope, the song which is harmonious with the strong,
deep music of his providence. Be ready to sing the songs that your Maker
gives.

“What then? Shall we sit idly down and say

‘The night hath come; it is no longer day’?

. . . . . . . . .

Yet as the evening twilight fades away,

The sky is filled with stars, invisible to day.”
_________________________________________________________________

Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any. Job xxxvi. 5.

WHAT entrancing assurances are contained in this and the preceding sentence!
To think that in all our wayfarings through this world One that is perfect
in knowledge is always with us, and One that is mighty is pledged to bring
us through! Nothing could be desired beside. This makes prayer new. It is a
child’s confidential whisper to the One who is attent to the lowest murmur,
who cannot forget, who will not relinquish a purpose which He has formed
though years pass, and who is able to do exceeding abundantly.

It is because God is so great that He despises none. If He were less than
infinite, He might overlook. The boundlessness of his being has no ebb,
fails of no soul He has made, and is as much at any one point as if He had
no care or thought beside. In fact, those that man despises stand the best
chance with God. Just because no one else cares for them, he must; just
because no one else will help them, He will. This is necessary to his
nature.

When a philanthropist adopts a certain lapsed section of the community, he
does so because no one else will. It becomes a matter of honour with him
that none of these, outcast by all else, should miss his help. And God has
constituted Himself Champion, Guardian, and Saviour, of all who have no help
from their fellows. Friendless, forlorn, helpless, despised, He recognises
and meets the claim of their urgent necessity. Bruised reeds, bits of
smoking tow, half-consumed fire-brands, lost sheep, prodigal sons, waifs and
strays, homeless, destitute, neglected – these have a first claim on the
Almightiness of the living God.
_________________________________________________________________

Men see not the bright light which is in the clouds. Job xxxvii. 21.

THE world owes much of its beauty to cloudland. The unchanging blue of the
Italian sky hardly compensates for the changefulness and glory of the
clouds. Clouds also are the cisterns of the rain. Earth would become a
wilderness apart from their ministry. There are clouds in human life,
shadowing, refreshing, and sometimes draping it in blackness of night; but
there is never a cloud without its bright light. “I do set my bow in the
cloud! ”

If only we could see the clouds from the other side where they lie in
billowy glory, bathed in the light they intercept, like heaped ranges of
Alps, we should be amazed at their splendid magnificence. We look at their
under side; but who shall describe the bright light that bathes their
summits, and searches their valleys, and is reflected from every pinnacle of
their expanse? Is not every drop drinking in health-giving qualities, which
it will carry to the earth?

child of God! If you could see your sorrows and troubles from the other
side; if instead of looking up at them from earth, you would look down on
them from the heavenly places where you sit with Christ; if you knew how
they are reflecting in prismatic beauty before the gaze of heaven, the
bright light of Christ’s face – you would be content that they should cast
their deep shadows over the mountain slopes of existence. Only remember that
clouds are always moving, and passing before God’s cleansing wind.

“Green pastures are before me, which yet I have not seen;

Bright skies will soon be o’er me, where the dark clouds have been:

My hope I cannot measure, my path of life is free;

My Saviour hath my treasure, and He will walk with me.”
_________________________________________________________________

Canst thou bind the cluster of the Pleiades? Job xxxviii. 31 (R.V.).

THE seven stars of the Pleiades always stand for the sweet influences of
spring; Orion for the storm and tempest. In this sublime catechism, Jehovah
asks Job if he has any control over the One or the other. As it is with the
year, so with our life.

There are times when the PLEIADEs are in the ascendant. The winter is over
and gone, the time of the singing of birds is come. Doves coo their love
notes in the trees, and the flowers gem the soil. Days of hope, of radiant
light, of ecstatic joy! Days in which God seems to be making a new heaven
and a new earth within us! Days when our Beloved shows Himself through the
lattice-work, and says, “Come, my beloved!” Oh, tender influences of the
Pleiades, we would that ye might ever stay, filling us with immortal youth!
When God bids them shine, no one can bind them. When He gives joy, none can
give sorrow. No mortal man can restrain the outburst of Nature’s spring. You
might as well stay the resurrection of the Son of God and his saints!

But ORION has his work as well. Storms come; the drenching rain veils the
landscape; the mighty billows are lashed to fury. But all works for good.
The blast in the forest snaps off dead wood. The rain fills up the wells.
Frost pulverises the earth. When God binds Orion, man cannot unloose him;
“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” But when the Almighty
unlooses Orion, like another Samson, he does his work of devastation, before
which we must find refuge in the cleft of the Rock.

“God sendeth sun,

He sendeth shower,

Alike they’re needful for the flower.”
_________________________________________________________________

Knowest thou? Job xxxix. 1.

THE catechism of this chapter is designed to convince man of his ignorance.
How little he knows of nature! Even though centuries of investigation and
research have passed, there are still many questions which baffle us. And if
we know so little of tile Creator’s handiwork, how much less do we know of
Himself, or the principles on which He acts!

The knowledge of God is not intellectual, but moral and spiritual. Things
which eye saw not, and ear heard not, are made known to Love and Obedience.
Let the Love of God be shed through the heart, and the will of God be the
ruling principle of life, and there will be given a knowledge of God which
the research of the investigator could never gain. “We have received, not
the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know
the things that are freely given us of God . . . they are spiritually
discerned.” Knowest thou?

Dost thou know the exceeding greatness of his power, which He wrought in the
Resurrection of thy Lord – that it is all around thee waiting to do as much
for thee also; lifting thee, dead weight as thou art, to sit in the
heavenlies?

Dost thou know the hope of his calling to a life within the vail, with the
vail behind thee, and the light of the Shekinah ever on thy face?

Dost thou know the riches of his glorious indwelling, that He is prepared so
to infill thee, that thou shalt partake of the very life wherewith He liveth
and reigneth evermore?

Dost thou know the length, and breadth, and depth, and height, of the love
that passeth knowledge; and Christ Jesus the Lord?
_________________________________________________________________

I am of small account; what shall I answer Thee? I lay mine hand upon my
mouth. Job xl. 4.

WHAT a different tone is here! This is be who so vehemently protested his
innocence, and defended himself against the attacks of his accusers. The
Master is come, and the servant who had contended with his fellows takes a
lowly place of humility and silence.

The first step in the noblest life, possible to any of us, is to learn and
say that we are of small account. We may learn it by successive and
perpetual failures which abash and confound us. It is better to learn it by
seeing the light of God rise in majesty above the loftiest of earth’s
mountains. “When I was young,” said Gounod to a friend, “I used to talk of
‘I and Mozart.’ Later I said, ‘Mozart and I.’ But now I only say ‘Mozart.”‘
Substitute God, and you have the true story of many a soul.

The next step is to choke back words, and lay the hand on the mouth. Silence
and meditation! Not arguing or contending! Not complaining or murmuring! Not
cavilling or criticising! But just being still – still, that you may feel
God near; still, that you may hear Him speak. “Take heed of many words,”
said George Fox; “keep down, keep low, that nothing may reign in you but
life itself.”

The greatest saints avoided, when they could, the society of men, and did
rather choose to live to God, in secret. A certain one said, “As oft as I
have been among men I returned home less a man than I was before. Shut thy
door upon thee, and call unto Jesus, thy Beloved. Stay with Him in thy
closet, for thou shalt not find elsewhere so great peace.” How good it would
be to lay our hands on our mouths rather oftener, whether in silence with
our fellows, or in the hour of secret prayer!
_________________________________________________________________

Who then is he that can stand before Me? Job xii. 10 (R.V.).

THE first catechism had been on Job’s knowledge; now it turns on his power.
The pivot of the one was, Knowest thou? of the other, Canst thou? If a man
cannot stand before one of God’s creatures, how much less before the
Creator! If we dread the wrath of the enraged crocodile, what should not be
our dread before the wrath of the Eternal? Canst thou stand before Him?
Canst thou strive against Him, with any hope of success? Canst thou force
thyself, unbidden and unfit, into the presence of the Most Holy? Thou
couldst not intrude on an earthly sovereign; how much less on Him, in whose
sight the heavens are not clean?

“Eternal light! eternal light!

how pure the soul must be,

When placed within thy searching light,

It shrinks not, but with calm delight

Can live, and look on Thee!”

But Jesus can make it possible. Through Him we draw nigh to God. We have
boldness to enter into the Holiest of All by his Blood. We may, through Him,
be able to say, with Elijah, “Thus saith Jehovah, before whom I stand.”
Jesus is the minister of the heavenly sanctuary, and in virtue of his office
He is able to bring us into, and maintain us within, the Most Holy Place. He
comes out to take its by the hand; and then, having fulfilled in us the good
pleasure of his will, He brings us in and places us before the face of God
for ever. Like Solomon’s servants, we evermore stand before the king, see
his face, and hear his words.

“The sons of ignorance and night

May dwell in the Eternal Light,

Through the Eternal Love.”
_________________________________________________________________

Now mine eye seeth Thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes. Job xiii. 5, 6.

THIS is the clue to the entire book. Here is a man, who was universally
known as perfect and upright, one that feared God, and eschewed evil; who
abounded in beneficent and loving ministries to all who were in need; to
whom respect and love flowed in a full tide. He was not conscious of any
failure in perfect obedience, or of secret sin; indeed, when his friends
endeavoured to account for his unparalleled calamities by suggesting that
there was some discrepancy between his outward reputation and inward
consistency, he indignantly repelled the charge, and repudiated the
impeachment.
_________________________________________________________________

Indexes
_________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture References

Leviticus

[1]20:24 [2]20:26

Numbers

[3]14:34

Deuteronomy

[4]17:17

1 Samuel

[5]1:15 [6]2:19 [7]3:10 [8]4:3 [9]5:3 [10]6:12 [11]7:8
[12]8:6 [13]9:6 [14]10:7 [15]11:14 [16]12:22 [17]13:12
[18]14:27 [19]15:22 [20]16:13 [21]17:26 [22]17:36 [23]18:5
[24]18:14 [25]18:15 [26]18:30 [27]19:6 [28]20:14-16 [29]20:18
[30]21:9 [31]22:3 [32]23:9 [33]24:5 [34]25:31 [35]26:21
[36]27:1 [37]28:18 [38]29:3 [39]30:6 [40]31:11 [41]31:12

2 Samuel

[42]1:23 [43]2:4 [44]3:1 [45]4:9 [46]5:13 [47]6:3 [48]7:25
[49]8:11 [50]9:7 [51]10:12 [52]11:1 [53]12:29 [54]13:31
[55]14:14 [56]15:26 [57]16:14 [58]17:21 [59]18:22 [60]18:23
[61]19:42 [62]20:2 [63]21:1 [64]22:36 [65]23:4 [66]24:24

1 Kings

[67]1:29 [68]2:4 [69]3:13 [70]4:29 [71]5:4 [72]6:7 [73]7:46
[74]8:59 [75]9:3 [76]10:9 [77]11:4 [78]12:33 [79]13:21
[80]13:22 [81]14:5 [82]15:11 [83]16:33 [84]17:4 [85]17:9
[86]18:42 [87]19:5 [88]20:40 [89]21:20 [90]22:34

2 Kings

[91]1:9 [92]1:11 [93]1:13 [94]2:2 [95]2:4 [96]2:6 [97]3:17
[98]4:6 [99]5:14 [100]6:17 [101]7:9 [102]8:11 [103]9:22
[104]10:31 [105]11:12 [106]12:4 [107]13:18 [108]14:6 [109]15:9
[110]15:18 [111]15:24 [112]15:28 [113]16:10 [114]17:41
[115]18:20 [116]19:14 [117]20:10 [118]21:1 [119]22:20 [120]23:25
[121]24:13 [122]25:30

1 Chronicles

[123]1:1 [124]2:1 [125]3:1 [126]4:9 [127]5:20 [128]6:33
[129]7:23 [130]8:33 [131]8:34 [132]9:22 [133]9:29 [134]9:31
[135]9:33 [136]10:13 [137]11:17 [138]12:38 [139]13:12 [140]14:15
[141]15:22 [142]16:9 [143]17:23 [144]17:24 [145]18:73 [146]19:13
[147]20:1 [148]21:8 [149]22:9 [150]22:10 [151]23:13 [152]24:5
[153]25:5 [154]25:6 [155]26:1 [156]27:31 [157]28:20 [158]29:15

2 Chronicles

[159]1:11 [160]1:12 [161]2:11 [162]3:17 [163]4:18 [164]5:13
[165]6:27 [166]7:1 [167]8:11 [168]9:1 [169]10:15 [170]11:16
[171]12:14 [172]13:14 [173]14:11 [174]15:12 [175]16:9 [176]16:12
[177]17:6 [178]18:7 [179]19:2 [180]20:21 [181]21:10 [182]21:10
[183]22:12 [184]23:21 [185]24:20 [186]25:9 [187]25:11-14
[188]26:15 [189]26:16 [190]27:6 [191]28:15 [192]29:27 [193]30:18
[194]30:19 [195]31:21 [196]32:20 [197]33:12 [198]34:15
[199]34:18 [200]35:4 [201]35:6 [202]35:10 [203]35:14 [204]35:15
[205]35:16 [206]35:20-22 [207]36:15

Ezra

[208]1:1 [209]2:63 [210]3:3 [211]4:2 [212]5:5 [213]5:14
[214]6:22 [215]7:28 [216]8:29 [217]8:33 [218]9:1 [219]10:4

Nehemiah

[220]1:11 [221]2:4 [222]3:28 [223]4:14 [224]5:15 [225]6:3
[226]7:64 [227]8:10 [228]9:2 [229]10:39 [230]11:23 [231]12:24
[232]12:36 [233]12:37 [234]12:45 [235]12:46 [236]13:14
[237]13:22 [238]13:31

Esther

[239]1:22 [240]2:7 [241]3:2 [242]4:14 [243]5:2 [244]6:10
[245]7:2 [246]8:8 [247]9:1 [248]10:3

Job

[249]1:5 [250]2:3 [251]3:1 [252]4:5 [253]5:18 [254]6:15
[255]7:17 [256]7:18 [257]8:6 [258]9:31 [259]10:21 [260]11:7
[261]12:10 [262]12:11 [263]13:5 [264]13:6 [265]13:15 [266]14:14
[267]15:4 [268]16:12 [269]17:9 [270]18:14 [271]19:25 [272]20:29
[273]21:22 [274]22:23 [275]23:3 [276]24:24 [277]25:4 [278]26:14
[279]27:6 [280]28:14 [281]29:2 [282]30:20 [283]31:6 [284]32:8
[285]33:23 [286]34:29 [287]35:10 [288]36:5 [289]37:21 [290]38:31
[291]39:1 [292]40:4

Psalms

[293]37:3-7 [294]37:7 [295]51

Isaiah

[296]32:2 [297]38 [298]45:1 [299]45:13

Luke

[300]1:19

John

[301]3:16

Acts

[302]1:8 [303]2 [304]13:22

Romans

[305]1 [306]6:11 [307]6:17 [308]7

1 Corinthians

[309]9 [310]10:17

2 Corinthians

[311]5:14 [312]5:15 [313]10:1

Ephesians

[314]2:5

1 Timothy

[315]3:4 [316]3:5

2 Timothy

[317]1:12 [318]1:12 [319]1:14 [320]1:14 [321]2:4 [322]3:2
[323]3:3

Hebrews

[324]1:3 [325]7:25 [326]8 [327]8

1 John

[328]1:9 [329]3:2 [330]5:4
_________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture Commentary

1 Samuel

[331]1:15 [332]2:19 [333]3:10 [334]4:3 [335]5:3 [336]6:12
[337]7:8 [338]8:6 [339]9:6 [340]10:7 [341]11:14 [342]12:22
[343]13:12 [344]14:27 [345]15:22 [346]16:13 [347]17:26
[348]17:36 [349]18:5 [350]18:14 [351]18:15 [352]18:30 [353]19:6
[354]20:18 [355]21:9 [356]22 [357]23:9 [358]24:5 [359]25:31
[360]26:21 [361]27:1 [362]28:18 [363]29:3 [364]30:6 [365]31:11
[366]31:12

2 Samuel

[367]1:23 [368]2:4 [369]3:1 [370]4:9 [371]5:13 [372]6:3
[373]7:25 [374]8:11 [375]9:7 [376]10:12 [377]11:1 [378]12:29
[379]13:31 [380]14:14 [381]15:26 [382]16:14 [383]17:21
[384]18:22 [385]18:23 [386]19:42 [387]20:2 [388]21:1 [389]22:36
[390]23:4 [391]24:24

1 Kings

[392]1:29 [393]2:4 [394]3:13 [395]4:29 [396]5:4 [397]6:7
[398]7:46 [399]8:59 [400]9:3 [401]10:9 [402]11:4 [403]12:33
[404]13:21 [405]13:22 [406]14:5 [407]15:11 [408]16:33 [409]17:4
[410]17:9 [411]18:42 [412]19:5 [413]20:40 [414]21:20 [415]22:34

2 Kings

[416]1:9 [417]1:11 [418]1:13 [419]2:2 [420]2:4 [421]2:6
[422]3:17 [423]4:6 [424]5:14 [425]6:17 [426]7:9 [427]8:11
[428]9:22 [429]10:31 [430]11:12 [431]12:4 [432]13:18 [433]14:6
[434]15:9 [435]15:18 [436]15:24 [437]15:28 [438]16:10 [439]17:41
[440]18:20 [441]19:14 [442]20:10 [443]21:1 [444]22:20 [445]23:25
[446]24:13 [447]25:30

1 Chronicles

[448]1:1 [449]2:1 [450]3:1 [451]4:9 [452]5:20 [453]6:33
[454]7:23 [455]8:33 [456]8:34 [457]9:22 [458]9:29 [459]9:31
[460]9:33 [461]10:13 [462]11:17 [463]12:38 [464]13:12 [465]14:15
[466]15:22 [467]16:9 [468]17:23 [469]17:24 [470]18:73 [471]19:13
[472]20:1 [473]21:8 [474]22:9 [475]22:10 [476]23:13 [477]24:5
[478]25:5 [479]25:6 [480]26:1 [481]27:31 [482]28:20 [483]29:15

2 Chronicles

[484]1:11 [485]1:12 [486]2:11 [487]3:17 [488]4:18 [489]5:13
[490]6:27 [491]7:1 [492]8:11 [493]9:1 [494]10:15 [495]11:16
[496]12:14 [497]13:14 [498]14:11 [499]15:12 [500]16:9 [501]17:6
[502]18:7 [503]19:2 [504]20:21 [505]21:10 [506]22:12 [507]23:21
[508]24:20 [509]25:9 [510]26:15 [511]26:16 [512]27:6 [513]28:15
[514]29:27 [515]30:18 [516]30:19 [517]31:21 [518]32:20
[519]33:12 [520]34:15 [521]34:18 [522]35:4 [523]35:6 [524]35:10
[525]35:14 [526]35:15 [527]35:16 [528]36:15

Ezra

[529]1:1 [530]2:63 [531]3:3 [532]4:2 [533]5:5 [534]6:22
[535]7:28 [536]8:29 [537]9:1 [538]10:4

Nehemiah

[539]1:11 [540]2:4 [541]3:28 [542]4:14 [543]5:15 [544]6:3
[545]7:64 [546]8:10 [547]9:2 [548]10:39 [549]12:24 [550]12:36
[551]12:37 [552]12:45 [553]12:46 [554]13:14 [555]13:22 [556]13:31

Esther

[557]1:22 [558]2:7 [559]3:2 [560]4:14 [561]5:2 [562]6:10
[563]7:2 [564]8:8 [565]9:1 [566]10:3

Job

[567]1:5 [568]2:3 [569]3:1 [570]4:5 [571]5:18 [572]6:15
[573]7:17 [574]7:18 [575]8:6 [576]9:31 [577]10:21 [578]11:7
[579]12:10 [580]12:11 [581]13:5 [582]13:6 [583]13:15 [584]14:14
[585]15:4 [586]16:12 [587]17:9 [588]18:14 [589]19:25 [590]20:29
[591]21:22 [592]22:23 [593]23:3 [594]24:24 [595]25:4 [596]26:14
[597]27:6 [598]28:14 [599]29:2 [600]30:20 [601]31:6 [602]32:8
[603]33:23 [604]34:29 [605]35:10 [606]36:5 [607]37:21 [608]38:31
[609]39:1 [610]40:4

On this day...

• Habakkuk 2 - 2023
• Habakkuk 1 - 2023
• The Doctrine of the Trinity - 2011
• 12 Reasons for Christmas - 2011
• It Is Not Said in Heaven, "Moral, Moral, Moral Art Thou, O God!" - 2011
• Six Important Links to the Meaning of Hope - 2011
• The Most Important Institution in the World - 2011
• CURSE - 2010
• Behold the Lamb of God - 2009
• From His Fullness We Have All Received, Grace Upon Grace - 2009