Twenty-First Week
It is a terrible thing . . . when God's presence, in the place of being the home of our hearts, is terror and distress. I have no doubt that you will find hundreds of Christians who, instead of feeling away from home when they have got out of God's presence, are at ease.
We are called to be "at home" with God. The Lord Jesus Christ, when about to go back to heaven, said to Mary, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." We ought to be as much "at home" in spirit there as He. Was it not with joy, with confidence, that Jesus said He was going to the presence of His Father? . . . And was it not, in a certain sense, with the feeling of going home? . . . This is the church's place; we are called to be "at home" with our God and Father — to the blessedness of His house. No matter what the world may be, we should be there at home — happy home! as truly there in spirit, and as happy there as Christ.
We sometimes enjoy peace, we enjoy scripture, a hymn, or prayer, without realising the presence of God; and then there is not the same power, or the same exercise of heart in it. . . . It is very important not only to have a right thought, but to have it with Him. If you search your own heart, you will find that you may sing without realising Jesus Himself.
I find the constant tendency even of work for the Lord, and an active mind, ever is to take us out of the presence of God. . . . God present puts us in our place, and Himself in His place in our hearts; and what confidence that gives, and how self is gone in joy! Our great affair is to keep in His presence.
God would have us not only say, "We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ," but add, "I am manifested to God." Be much before Him.
This getting out of God's presence is the source of all our weakness as saints, for in God's strength we can do anything.
If you have the assurance that God has intrusted you with His word, do not be troubled if you are set aside for a time. . . . Profit then by your present separation from the work to be much with Him. You will learn much inwardly in your incapacity to go forward, much of Himself.
The Lord's presence in the soul will bring self into utter ruin and nothingness.
It is touching to go through the gospels, and to get sufficiently intimate with Christ to see His motives in everything; but this is much to say, and requires to live much with Him; but this is blessing. . . . If you get to trace Him through all the path, you never get anything but perfectness.
Service
"Whose I am, and whom I serve."
Acts 27:23
Lord! let me wait for Thee alone:
My life be only this —
To serve Thee here on earth unknown,
Then share Thy heavenly bliss.
Twenty-Second Week
Love for Jesus sets one to work. I know no other way.
All true service must result from the knowledge of Himself.
The grand secret of power in these days is faith in the presence of the Spirit of God.
Living to God inwardly is the only possible means of living to Him outwardly. All outward activity not moved . . . by this . . . tends to make us do without Christ, and brings in self. . . . I dread great activity without great communion.
What need we have to cast ourselves entirely on Him (the Spirit) in the work, and how simple it is when we do this! There is one thing that gives strength and that is to keep close to Christ. . . . The pressure of the work without that . . . contracts the heart, tends to make us lose that largeness of heart, that capacity of presenting the love of God freshly to souls.
It is not that I believe in the work one will always be in that liberty which sees all in the light. It is necessary to walk by faith sometimes. Alas! the best workmen have borne witness to it; an apostle, an earthen vessel . . . placed in a contest between the Lord and the enemy of souls, will feel sometimes the shock of the battle, seeing it takes place in him and by him and the engaged forces.
Oh! for labourers who after God's heart might present Christ to souls.
A real workman, "a man of God," is a great, the greatest treasure in the world.
It is a dangerous thing to be raised all at once into a pulpit. . . . Man's acceptation is not God's approbation, although God can give it to us to favour the propagation of the truth; but if we stop at the result we are at a distance from the source, and that becomes a snare to wither up our soul, instead of a means to lead us to those upon whom we should pour out His riches.
In connection with your work . . . seek the Lord's face, and lean on Him. Work is a favour which is granted us. Be quite peaceful and happy in the sense of grace; then go and pour out that peace to souls. This is true service, from which one returns very weary it may be in body, but sustained and happy; one rests beneath God's wings, and takes up the service again till the true rest comes.
Oh! how little have we of the Spirit, to baffle the plans and devices and snares of Satan! The church ought to be not only in possession of truth but so possessed with the Spirit as, though tried, to baffle all his snares. This is what so humbles me . . . no strength or adequate power to keep every saint by the presence of His Spirit out of his power.
"If any thirst, let him come unto me and drink, and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." You drink for yourself, you thirst for yourself, thus it is that rivers flow from us for others.
Divine Affections (1)
"God is love."
1 John 4:8
O mind divine! so must it be
That glory all belongs to God;
O love divine, that did decree
We should be part, through Jesus' blood.
Twenty-Third Week
What is deepest is simplest, that is the perfect love of God.
When once we come really to know God, we know Him as love. Then, knowing that everything comes to us from Him, though we be in a desert — no matter where, or what the circumstances — we interpret all by His love.
There is but one only sense in which God cannot suffice to Himself, that is, in His love; His love needs other beings besides Himself to render them happy. He will render others happy.
The law says, Love: it is a righteous demand. But the gospel, Christ Himself, says, "God so loved."
No creation, nothing that has ever been seen in this world, could be what the cross was. Creation may shew God's power, but it cannot bring out God's love and truth as the cross does; and therefore it remains everlastingly the wonderful and blessed place of learning, what could be learnt nowhere else, of all that God is.
There is so much selfishness in the heart of man that the love of God is to him an enigma, still more incomprehensible than His holiness. No one understood Jesus, because He manifested God.
The Holy Spirit makes us feel the love of the Father. He brings us into liberty by shewing us, not that we are little, but how great God is.
Where does faith see the greatest depth of man's sin and hatred of God? In the cross; and at the same glance it sees the greatest extent of God's triumphant love and mercy to man. The spear of the centurion which pierced the side of Jesus only brought out that which spoke of love and mercy.
It is indeed a sore trial to see one who is part of ourselves . . . taken off at one blow, and unexpectedly. Still, what a difference to have the Lord's love to look to. It is a consolation which changes everything. . . . The knowledge of the love of God, which is come into the place of death, has brightened with the most blessed rays all its darkness; and the darkness only serves to shew what a comfort it is to have such a light.
Christ must be all to us or we shall soon be discouraged. . . . When Christ is not everything and the Father's love the air we breathe for life we are not going right.
The Father's love, the source of all,
Sweeter than all it gives,
Shines on us now without recall,
And lasts while Jesus lives.
Jehovah chastens those He loves. . . . The word draws two conclusions from this truth. . . . It will not be without a cause in me; it will never be without love in God. Hence I am not to despise, for there is a cause in me which makes the holy God of love act so; I am not to faint, for it is His love which does it. It is correcting a son in whom his Father delights.
Divine Affections (2)
"The love of Christ which passeth knowledge."
Eph. 3:19
Love, that no suffering stayed,
We'll praise, true love divine;
Love that for us atonement made,
Love that has made us Thine.
Twenty-Fourth Week
The Lord that I have known as laying down His life for me, is the same Lord I have to do with every day of my life, and all His dealings with me are on the same principles of grace. . . . How precious, how strengthening it is to know that Jesus is at this moment feeling and exercising the same love towards me as when He died on the cross for me.
His death opened the flood-gates, in order that the full tide of love might flow over poor sinners.
(1 Cor. 11:26.) Impossible to find two words, the bringing together of which has so important a meaning, the death of the Lord. How many things are comprised in that He who is called the Lord had died! What love! what purposes! what efficacy! what results!
O Jesus, Lord, who loved me like to Thee?
Fruit of Thy work, with Thee, too, there to see
Thy glory, Lord, while endless ages roll,
Myself the prize and travail of Thy soul.
O what rest . . . for the poor soul when he sees he has to do with One who has conquered all enemies for him. . . . Before he came to the consciousness of this, the book of his daily transgressions appeared to ascend up before God, black with the catalogue of his offences, on every leaf of which was written, Sin, sin, sin; but now these blackened characters are effaced, and on each page is transcribed in letters of blood, in the blood of God's dear Lamb, Love, love, love.
That love is a sanctuary in which we walk while passing through a world of snares, the provoking of all men . . . and the more the crossing and entanglement of what is without, the sweeter the rest of His presence.
The great thing is to be near Christ, and to be constantly near Christ, where the soul is kept in peace . . . and thus in the sense of love, that our service may flow from thus dwelling with Him, and carry the stamp of it. How did Christ reveal the Father? "The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." He . . . could declare Him, as in the present sense of the love of which He was the object, which He enjoyed in His bosom. He was perfect, and we are failing servants, but that is the only way of all carrying the unction of His presence.
And when the storm is all passed, the brightness for which He is preparing us will shine out unclouded, and it will be Himself. . . . And oh, how blessed the love, Jesu's love, that has brought us there for ever with Him.
Self-Renunciation
"Men shall be lovers of self."
2 Tim. 3:2 (New Translation).
O man! how hast thou proved
What in thy heart is found;
By grace divine unmoved,
By self in fetters bound.
Twenty-Fifth Week
The flesh always pens itself in, because it is selfish. When we are in the Spirit there is always unity.
Impossible when we think of ourselves to be witnesses to others of what God is!
The grief, which egotism and self-love produce, makes room for the action of the evil spirit on the soul.
Love likes to be a servant, and selfishness likes to be served.
If I get hold of the path, the spirit, the mind of Jesus, nothing could be more hateful to me than anything of self. You never find an act of self in Christ. Not merely was there no selfishness, but there was no self in Him.
When the soul is cast upon God the Lord is with the soul in the trial, and the mind is kept perfectly calm. The Spirit of love, the Spirit of Christ is there; if thinking of myself this is the spirit of selfishness.
The Holy Spirit has no fellowship with . . . self. The heart is not delivered from it until the Spirit has guided our thoughts to Jesus. . . . The effectual presence of the Spirit crucifies egotism and gives freedom of thought about ourselves . . . it occupies us with but one object — Jesus.
We have the privilege to have done with ourselves in the house and bosom of God.
Our own will and making ourselves the centre is the spring of all our wretchedness; for outward circumstances may be trying — may give sorrow, but not wretchedness — where this is it is the fruit of will, restless and discontented.
Our natural tendency is to get pleasures for self. Innocent they may be but they take the heart from God; they are spoiled by sin. People ask the harm of these things. The question is, What use are you making of them, and where is your heart? The moment there is a turning from the cross (death to everything) our Lord says, "Get thee behind me."
Moses did not seek to have his face shine, nor even know when it did, but when he had been with God it did so. . . . A shining face never sees itself. The heart is occupied with Christ, and in a certain sense and measure self is gone.
Self is always alienation from God.
Self-confidence is ruin. "Be not wise in thine own eyes." They do not see far if they only see self, and that is what always is in our own eyes.
Our prayers, our praises and our services are so poor and worthless, and yet we are proud of them. We seek praise from our fellowmen for the very things we have to confess as tainted with sin before God. What need, therefore, to bare our hearts and say, "See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
Songs of the Night
"In the night his song shall be with me."
Ps. 42:8
And oh I how deep the peace when, nature gone,
Thy Spirit fills the soul, strengthened with might,
With love divine; and God as love is known!
Lord I keep my soul, and guide my steps aright.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Praise be for ever His who giveth songs by night.
Twenty-Sixth Week
The most important victory has often come when we have been most afraid of being beaten; the brightest songs when an evil day has forced us to lean on God.
To me partings go dreadfully deep. In spirit all is well. . . . Jesus is the bond which no distance breaks and no nearness can give without Him, and which will, blessed be His name, last for ever.
He weans us in every way from this world, that He may attach us to that one for which He has created us anew.
God's hand is always better than man's; His seeming harshness even is better than the world's favour; the spring which guides it is always love, and love directed by perfect wisdom, which we shall understand by-and-by.
He makes His own feel that His support is worth all the trouble in the word.
The soul needs daily the comfort of the blood.
Broken vessels are often better than whole ones to shew the sufficiency and grace of Christ.
His good hand is upon us, even (and very particularly) in things that are painful. It was not worth while to give a long history of the prosperity of Job, but the Holy Spirit of God has given us details of all that took place in his difficulties. It was worth while; and it is for the profit of His own to the end of the age. It is there that the work of our God is found. May He give us to have entire confidence in Him.
Christianity was sown in the tears of the Son of God. It is the travail of His soul which He will see in that day. So in all service (and we must make up our minds to it) where there is to be real blessing there must be the sorrow of the world's opposition, and even in the church the greater sorrow of trials, of failure, and shortcoming, where we desire to see Christ fully represented.
Nature, of course, shrinks from suffering: still, when it comes, if we are with God, strength and joy are there. I have found in the little difficulties I have had much more trial in expecting trial than when it was there. When there I was calm and quiet and in no way uneasy. Whereas I was when expecting it: Out of it, if it threatens you are thinking of it. In it, you are looking out of it to the Lord.
If the needed work can be done without the sorrow, He will not send the sorrow. . . . His love is far better than our will. Trust Him. . . . If He strikes, be assured He will give more than He takes away.
[The loss of] a mother . . . is always an immense loss . . . . No one can be a mother but a mother, but God can be everything to us, and towards us in all our cares.
The Man of Sorrows
"A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."
Isa. 53:3
O Lord! Thy wondrous story
My inmost soul doth move;
I ponder o'er Thy glory —
Thy lonely path of love!
But, O divine Sojourner,
'Midst man's unfathomed ill,
Love, that made Thee a mourner,
It is not man's to tell.
Twenty-Seventh Week
"Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well." . . . Oh! to think of the Lord Himself, whom none of the princes of this world knew, but who was the Lord of glory, sitting weary on the well, thirsty, and dependent upon this world for a drink of water — the world that was made by Him, and knew Him not!
He was the display, at all cost to Himself, of divine love to man.
I adore the love that led Him to be made sin for me. There was the full testing of the love that carried Him through all. It is deeply instructive, though very dreadful to see there what man is. What do I expect of my friends if I am on trial? At least that they will not forsake me. They all forsook Him, and fled! In a judge? I expect him to protect innocence. Pilate washes his hands of His blood, and gives Him over to the people! In a priest, what do I expect? That he will intercede for the ignorant and for them that are out of the way. They urge the people, who cry, "Away with him, away with him!"
Every man was the opposite of what was right, and that one Man was not only right, but in divine love He was going trough it all!
His sorrows must ever be a depth into which we look over on the edge with solemn awe. . . . It exalts His grace to the soul to look into that depth, and makes one feel that none but a divine Person (and one perfect in every way) could have been there.
He looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but found none. . . . He was tested and tried to the last degree of human suffering and sorrow, standing alone in this, praying in an agony and alone . . . none to sympathise with Him; Mary of Bethany was the only one, but for the rest never one had sympathy with Him; never one that wanted it that He had not sympathy with.
None of us can fathom what it was to One who had dwelt in the bosom of the Father to find His soul as a man forsaken of Him.
In the measure in which He knew what it was to be holy, He felt what it was to be made sin before God. In the measure in which He knew the love of God, He felt what it was to be forsaken of God.
He is the resurrection and the life. Wonderful that He, such in this world, Master of death, steps then into death Himself for us!
He has purchased us too dearly to give us up.
The traits of that face, Lord,
Once marred through Thy grace, Lord,
Our joy'll be to trace
At Thy coming again.
With Thee evermore, Lord,
Our hearts will adore, Lord;
Our sorrow'll be o'er
At Thy coming again.
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