September 5 - Morning"Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar." — Psalm 120:5
As a Christian you have to live in the midst of an ungodly world, and it is
of little use for you to cry "Woe is me." Jesus did not pray O that you
should be taken out of the world, and what He did not pray for you need
not desire. Better far in the Lord's strength to meet the difficulty, and
glorify Him in it. The enemy is ever on the watch to detect inconsistency
in your conduct; be therefore very holy. Remember that the eyes of all are
upon you, and that more is expected from you than from other men. Strive
to give no occasion for blame. Let your goodness be the only fault they can
discover in you.
Like Daniel, compel them to say of you, "We shall not
find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him
concerning the law of his God." Seek to be useful as well as consistent.
Perhaps you think, "If I were in a more favourable position I might serve
the Lord's cause, but I cannot do any good where I am"; but the worse the
people are among whom you live, the more need have they of your
exertions; if they be crooked, the more necessity that you should set them
straight; and if they be perverse, the more need have you to turn their
proud hearts to the truth.
Where should the physician be but where there
are many sick? Where is honour to be won by the soldier but in the hottest
fire of the battle? And when weary of the strife and sin that meets you on
every hand, consider that all the saints have endured the same trial. They
were not carried on beds of down to heaven, and you must not expect to
travel more easily than they. They had to hazard their lives unto the death
in the high places of the field, and you will not be crowned till you also
have endured hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Therefore, "stand
fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." September 5 - Evening"Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?" — Job 38:16
Some things in nature must remain a mystery to the most intelligent and
enterprising investigators. Human knowledge has bounds beyond which it
cannot pass. Universal knowledge is for God alone. If this be so in the
things which are seen and temporal, I may rest assured that it is even more
so in matters spiritual and eternal. Why, then, have I been torturing my
brain with speculations as to destiny and will, fixed fate, and human
responsibility? These deep and dark truths I am no more able to
comprehend than to find out the depth which coucheth beneath, from
which old ocean draws her watery stores.
Why am I so curious to know
the reason of my Lord's providences, the motive of His actions, the design
of His visitations? Shall I ever be able to clasp the sun in my fist, and hold
the universe in my palm? yet these are as a drop of a bucket compared
with the Lord my God. Let me not strive to understand the infinite, but
spend my strength in love. What I cannot gain by intellect I can possess
by affection, and let that suffice me. I cannot penetrate the heart of the sea,
but I can enjoy the healthful breezes which sweep over its bosom, and I
can sail over its blue waves with propitious winds.
If I could enter the
springs of the sea, the feat would serve no useful purpose either to myself
or to others, it would not save the sinking bark, or give back the drowned
mariner to his weeping wife and children; neither would my solving deep
mysteries avail me a single whit, for the least love to God, and the simplest
act of obedience to Him, are better than the profoundest knowledge. My
Lord, I leave the infinite to Thee, and pray Thee to put far from me such a
love for the tree of knowledge as might keep me from the tree of life. September 5 |