Part 6

Isaac dwelt there, and made the well of the living and all-seeing God his constant source of supply. The usual tenor of a man's life, the _dwelling_ of his soul, is the true test of his state. Let us learn to live in the presence of the living God. Let us pray the Holy Spirit that this day, and every other day, we may feel, "Thou God seest me." May the Lord Jehovah be as a well to us, delightful, comforting, unfailing, springing up unto eternal life. The bottle of the creature cracks and dries up, but the well of the Creator never fails. Happy is he who dwells at the well, and so has abundant and constant supplies near at hand! Glorious Lord, constrain us that we may never leave Thee, but dwell by the well of the living God!--_Spurgeon._

=July 6th.=

_Judas Iscariot . . . was a thief, and had the bag, and bore what was put therein. John xii. 4, 6._

_Freely ye have received, freely give. Matt. x. 8._

Ah, but if we should go thoroughly into this matter, should we not probably find that many of us are guilty, in some modified and yet sufficiently alarming sense, of treachery to the poor? Are we not, some of us, sent to them with benefactions which never reach them, and are only unconscious of guilt because so long accustomed to look upon the goods as bestowed on us, whereas the light of God's word would plainly reveal upon those goods the names of the poor and needy?--_George Bowen._

=July 7th.=

_Let every man take heed how he buildeth. 1 Cor. iii. 10._

Our business is not to build quickly, but to build upon a right foundation, and in a right spirit. Life is more than a mere competition as between man and man; it is not who can be done first, but who can work best; it is not who can rise highest in the shortest time, but who is working most patiently and lovingly in accordance with the designs of God.--_Joseph Parker._

=July 8th.=

_As thy days, so shall thy strength be. Deut. xxxiii. 25._

No day without its duty; no duty without strength to perform it.--_Selected._

=July 9th.=

_Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. Gen. xxviii. 16._

"Surely the Lord was in this place, and I knew it not." My soul, this is also thine experience! How often hast thou said in thy sorrow, "Verily thou art a God that hidest Thyself!" How often hast thou slept for very heaviness of heart, and desired not to wake again! And when thou didst wake again, lo, the darkness was all a dream! Thy vision of yesterday was a delusion. God had been with thee all the night with that radiance which has no need of the sun.

O my soul, it is not only after the future thou must aspire; thou must aspire to see the glory of thy past. Thou must find the glory of that way by which thy God has led thee, and be able even of thy sorrow to say, "This was the gate of heaven!"--_George Matheson._

=July 10th.=

_My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. John iv. 34._

The real secret of an unsatisfied life lies too often in an unsurrendered will.--_J. Hudson Taylor._

=July 11th.=

_Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. 2 Pet. i. 5._

You will find it less easy to unroot faults than to choke them by gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults, still less of others' faults; in every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that; rejoice in it, and, as you can, try to imitate it; and your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.--_John Ruskin._

=July 12th.=

_Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Song of Sol. iv. 16._

Sometimes God sends severe blasts of trial upon His children to develop their graces. Just as torches burn most brightly when swung violently to and fro; just as the juniper plant smells sweetest when flung into the flames; so the richest qualities of a Christian often come out under the north wind of suffering and adversity. Bruised hearts often emit the fragrance that God loveth to smell. Almost every true believer's experience contains the record of trials which were sent for the purpose of shaking the spice tree.--_Theodore Cuyler._

=July 13th.=

_Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Song of Sol. iv. 16._

There are two winds mentioned in this beautiful prayer. God may send either or both, as seemeth Him good. He may send the north wind of conviction, to bring us to repentance, or He may send the south wind of love, to melt us into gratitude and holy joy. If we often require the sharp blasts of trial to develop our graces, do we not also need the warm south breezes of His mercy? Do we not need the new sense of Christ's presence in our hearts and the joys of the Holy Ghost? Do we not need to be melted, yes, to be overpowered by the love of Jesus?--_Theodore Cuyler._

=July 14th.=

_Behold the man! John xix. 5._

"Behold the man!" was Pilate's jeer. That is what all the ages have been doing since, and the vision has grown more and more glorious. As they have looked, the crown of thorns has become a crown of golden radiance, and the cast-off robe has glistened like the garments He wore on the night of the transfiguration. Martyrs have smiled in the flames at that vision. Sinners have turned at it to a new life. Little children have seen it, and have had awakened by it dim recollections of their heaven-home. Toward it the souls of men yearn ever.--_Robert E. Speer._

=July 15th.=

_He (John) saith, Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. John i. 36, 37._

To be a Christian means to know the presence of a true personal Christ among us, and to follow.--_Phillips Brooks._

=July 16th.=

_Ye shall not eat of it. Gen. iii. 3._

The Sin of Paradise was eating the tree of knowledge before the tree of life. Life must ever be first. Knowing and not being, hearing and not doing, admiring and not possessing, all are light without life.--_Selected._

=July 17th.=

_Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James i. 4._

Are you where God would have you be? If not, come out, and at once, for you certainly ought not to be there. If you are, then be afraid to complain of circumstances which God has ordained on purpose to work out in you the very image and likeness of His Son.--_Mark Guy Pearse._

=July 18th.=

_Sow beside all waters. Isa. xxxii. 20._

Never mind whereabouts your work is. Never mind whether it be visible or not. Never mind whether your name is associated with it. You may never see the issues of your toils. You are working for eternity. If you cannot see results here in the hot working day, the cool evening hours are drawing near, when you may rest from your labors and then they will follow you. So do your duty, and trust God to give the seed you sow "a body as it hath pleased Him,"--_Alex. McLaren._

=July 19th.=

_Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe. Psa. cxix. 117._

Do not spoil the chime of this morning's bells by ringing one half a peal! Do not say, "Hold thou me up," and stop there, or add, "But all the same I shall stumble and fall!" Finish the peal with God's own music, the bright words of faith that He puts into your mouth: "Hold thou me up, _and I shall be safe!_"--_Frances Ridley Havergal._

=July 20th.=

_Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy. Matt. viii. 6._

We, in this age of the church, are in the position of that sick servant at Capernaum. To the eye of sense we are separated from the Savior. We see Him not--we can touch Him not--the hand cannot steal amid the crowd to catch His garment hem--we cannot hear His loved footsteps as of old on our threshold; but faith penetrates the invisible; the messenger--prayer--meets Him in the streets of the New Jerusalem; and faith and prayer together, the twin delegates from His church below, He has never yet sent empty away.--_Macduff._

=July 21st.=

_Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Phil. ii. 12, 13._

What a staggering weight of thought is excited by these words! Stay, my soul, and wonder that the Eternal God should stoop to work within thy narrow limits. Is it not a marvel indeed, that He, whom the heavens cannot contain, and in whose sight they are not clean, should trouble Himself to work on such material, so unpromising, and amidst circumstances so uncongenial?

How careful should we be to make Him welcome, and to throw no hindrance in His way! How eager to garner up all the least movements of His gracious operation, as the machinist conserves the force of his engine; and as the goldsmith, with miserly care, collects every flake of gold leaf! Surely we shall be sensible of the _fear_ of holy reverence and the _trembling_ of eager anxiety; as we "work out," into daily act and life, all that God our Father is "working in."--_F. B. Meyer._

=July 22nd.=

_. . . Sinners of whom I am chief. . . . Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Tim. i. 15, 17._

Only those who have struck the deepest note of penitence can reach the highest note of praise.--_A. J. Gordon._

=July 23rd.=

_Blessed is the man . . . that keepeth the Sabbath. Isa. lvi. 2._

The Sabbath is the savings-bank of human life, into which we deposit one day in seven to be repaid in the autumn of life with compound interest.--_Selected._

=July 24th.=

_Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Psa. xix. 12._

The world wants men who are saved from secret faults. The world can put on an outside goodness and go very far in uprightness and morality, and it expects that a Christian shall go beyond it, and be free from secret faults. A little crack will spoil the ring of the coin. . . . The world expects, and rightly, that the Christian should be more gentle, and patient, and generous, than he who does not profess to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus. For the sake of those who take their notion of religion from our lives, we need to put up this prayer earnestly, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults."--_Mark Guy Pearse._

=July 25th.=

_Do thou that which is good. 2 Kings x. 5._

Keep as few good intentions hovering about as possible. They are like ghosts haunting a dwelling. The way to lay them is to find bodies for them. When they are embodied in substantial deeds they are no longer dangerous.--_William Arnot._

=July 26th.=

_Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. iii. 18._

Grace has its dawn as well as day; grace has its green blade, and afterwards its ripe corn in the ear; grace has its babes and its men in Christ. With God's work there, as with all His works, "in all places of His dominion," progress is both the prelude and the path to perfection. Therefore we are exhorted to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to go on to perfection, saying with Paul, "I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."--_Guthrie._

=July 27th.=

_Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived, and by it slew me. Rom. vii. 11._

Christian, beware how thou thinkest lightly of sin. Take heed lest thou fall by little and little. Sin, a _little_ thing? Is it not a poison? Who knows its deadliness? Sin, a little thing? Do not the little foxes spoil the grapes? Doth not the tiny coral insect build a rock which wrecks a navy? Do not little strokes fell lofty oaks? Will not continual droppings wear away stones? Sin, a little thing? It girded the Redeemer's head with thorns, and pierced His heart! It made _Him_ suffer anguish, bitterness and woe. Could you weigh the least sin in the scales of eternity, you would fly from it as from a serpent, and abhor _the least appearance of evil_. Look upon all sin as that which crucified the Savior, and you will see it to be "exceeding sinful."--_Spurgeon._

=July 28th.=

_Your heavenly Father knoweth. Matt. vi. 32._

The Master judges by the result, but our Father judges by the effort. Failure does not always mean fault. He knows how much things cost, and weighs them where others only measure. Your Father! Think how great store His love sets by the poor beginnings of the little ones, clumsy and unmeaning as they may be to others. All this lies in this blessed relationship, and infinitely more. Do not fear to take it all as your own.--_Mark Guy Pearse._

=July 29th.=

_Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Col. iii. 3._

It is neither talent, nor power, nor gifts that do the work of God, but it is that which lies within the power of the humblest; it is the simple, earnest life hid with Christ in God.--_F. W. Robertson._

=July 30th.=

_The mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. John ii. 3, 4, 5._

In asking for temporal blessings, true wisdom lies in putting the matter into the Lord's hand, and leaving it there. He knows our sorrows, and, if He sees it is good for us that the water should be turned into wine, He will do it. It is not for us to dictate: He sees what is best for us. When we ask for prosperity, perhaps the thing which we should have is trial. When we want to be relieved of a "thorn in the flesh," He knows what we should have is an apprehension of the fact that His grace is sufficient for us. So we are put into His school, and have to learn the lessons He has to teach us.--_W. Hay Aitken._

=July 31st.=

_Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 Cor x. 12._

Angels fell in heaven, Adam in paradise, Peter in Christ's presence.--_Theophilus Polwheile._

=August 1st.=

_Continue in prayer. Col. iv. 2._

The greatest and the best talent that God gives to any man or woman in this world is the talent of prayer. And the best usury that any man or woman brings back to God when He comes to reckon with them at the end of this world is a life of prayer. And those servants best put their Lord's money to the exchangers who rise early and sit late, as long as they are in this world, ever finding out, and ever following after better and better methods of prayer, and ever forming more secret, more steadfast, and more spiritually fruitful habits of prayer, till they literally pray without ceasing, and till they continually strike out into new enterprises in prayer, and new achievements, and new enrichments.--_Alex. Whyte._

=August 2nd.=

_He entered into one of the ships . . . and . . . sat down. Luke v. iii._

When Jesus sits in the ship everything is in its right place. The cargo is in the hold, _not in the heart_. Cares and gains, fears and losses, yesterday's failure and today's success do not thrust themselves in between us and His presence. The heart cleaves to _Him_. "Goodness and mercy shall _follow_ me," sang the psalmist. Alas, when the goodness and mercy come before us, and our blessings shut Jesus from view! Here is the blessed order--the Lord ever first, I following Him, His goodness and mercy following me.--_Mark Guy Pearse._

=August 3rd.=

_Now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light. Eph. v. 8._

We do not realize the importance of the unconscious part of our life ministry. It goes on continually. In every greeting we give to another on the street, in every moment's conversation, in every letter we write, in every contact with other lives, there is a subtle influence that goes from us that often reaches further, and leaves a deep impression than the things themselves that we are doing at the time. It is not so much what we _do_ in this world as what we _are_, that tells in spiritual results and impressions.--_J. R. Miller._

=August 4th.=

_Created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Eph. ii. 10._

Let us ask Him to work in us to _will_ those good works, so that our _will_, without being impaired in its free operation, may be permeated and moulded by His will, just as light suffuses the atmosphere without displacing it. And let us also expect that He will infuse into us sufficient strength that we may be able to _do_ His will unto all pleasing. Thus, day by day, our life will be a manifestation of those holy volitions and lovely deeds which shall attest the indwelling and inworking of God. And men shall see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven.--_F. B. Meyer._

=August 5th.=

_Go in this thy might . . . have not I sent thee? Judges vi. 14._

God never leaves His child to fail when in the path of obedience.--_Theodore Cuyler._

=August 6th.=

_Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Col. iii. 2._

_Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Eccles. ix. 10._

If we are to live separate from the world, how, since men only do well what they do with a will, are we, with affections fixed on things above, to perform aright the secular, ordinary duties of life? If our hearts are engrossed with heavenly things, how are we to obey this other, and equally divine, commandment, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might"?

The two are perfectly consistent. Man standing between the celestial and terrestrial worlds is related to both; and resembling neither a flower, which, springing from the dust and returning to it, belongs altogether to the earth, nor a star which, shining far remote from its lower sphere, belongs altogether to the heavens, our hearts may be fitly likened to the rainbow that, rising into heaven but resting on earth, is connected both with the clods of the valley and the clouds of the sky.--_Guthrie._

=August 7th.=

_Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. Heb. xii. 1, 2._

Think, as you sit here, of anything that you are doing that is wrong, of any habit of your life, of your self-indulgence, or of that great, pervasive habit of your life which makes you a creature of the present instead of the eternities, a creature of the material earth instead of the glorious skies. Ask yourself of any habit that belongs to your own personal life, and bring it face to face with Jesus Christ.--_Phillips Brooks._

=August 8th.=

_They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. Acts iv. 13._

If I think of the world, I get the impress of the world; if I think of my trials and sorrows, I get the impress of my trials and sorrows; if I think of my failures, I get the impress of my failures; if I think of Christ, I get the impress of Christ.--_Selected._

=August 9th.=

_Ye call me Teacher, and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. John xiii. 13. (R. V. margin)._

How wonderful a Teacher we have! Sometimes we seek Him in the house, but He is not there. We go forth seeking Him and find Him perhaps in the wilderness or on a mountain praying, or leading some poor blind man by the hand, or eating with publicans or sinners, or asleep in a storm or conversing with a Samaritan woman, or surrounded by wrathful men, or bearing a cross. It is not merely His words that instruct. His place, His occupation, His companions, His environment, His garment, His silence, His submission--all teem with instruction. And they that learn of Him are made like unto Him.--_George Bowen._

=August 10th.=

_The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 1 John iv. 14._

It is a sweet thought that Jesus Christ did not come forth without His Father's permission, authority, consent, and assistance. He was sent of the Father that He might be the Savior of men. . . . Didst thou ever consider the depth of love in the heart of Jehovah, when God the Father equipped His Son for the great enterprise of mercy? If not, be this thy day's meditation. The _Father_ sent Him! Contemplate that subject. Think how Jesus works what the _Father_ wills. In the wounds of the dying Savior see the love of the great I AM. Let every thought of Jesus be also connected with the eternal, ever-blessed God.--_Spurgeon._

=August 11th.=

_They that wait upon the Lord shall change their strength. Isa. xl. 31. (R. V.)_

Lord, what a change within us one short hour Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make! What heavy burdens from our bosoms take! What parched grounds refresh as with a shower! We kneel--and all around us seems to lower. We rise--and all the distant and the near Stand forth in sunny outline, brave and clear. 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; That we are ever overborne with care; That we should ever weak or heartless be, Anxious or troubled, while with _us_ is prayer, And joy and strength and courage are with _Thee_? --_Archbishop Trench._

=August 12th.=

_As for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do. Deut. xviii. 14._

What a stepping-stone! We give thanks, often with a tearful, doubtful voice, for our spiritual mercies _positive_; but what an almost infinite field there is for mercies _negative_! We cannot even imagine all that God has suffered us _not_ to do, _not_ to be.--_Frances Ridley Havergal._

=August 13th.=

_Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick. . . . And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come He was there alone. Matt. xiv. 14, 23._

Do we, like Him, combine the two great elements of human character? Are our _public_ duties, the cares, and business, and engrossments of the world, finely tempered and hallowed by a _secret_ walk with God? If the world were to follow us from its busy thoroughfares, would it trace us to our family altars and our closet devotions?

Action and meditation are the two great components of Christian life, and the perfection of the religious character is to find the two in unison and harmony.--_Macduff._

=August 14th.=

_Leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps. 1 Pet. ii. 21. (R. V.)_

I have long since ceased to pray, "Lord Jesus, have compassion on a lost world!" I remember the day and the hour when I seemed to hear the Lord rebuking me for making such a prayer. He seemed to say to me, "I have had compassion upon a lost world, and now it is for you to have compassion."--_A. J. Gordon._

=August 15th.=

_Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Ex. xx. 3._

If you find yourself beginning to love any pleasure better than your prayers, any book better than your Bible, any house better than God's, any table better than the Lord's, any person better than your Savior, any one better than your soul, a present indulgence better than the hope of heaven--take alarm!--_Guthrie._

=August 16th.=

_Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. 1 Cor. xi. 1._

When in the Mexican war the troops were wavering, a general rose in his stirrups and dashed into the enemy's line, shouting, "Men, follow!" They, seeing his courage and disposition, dashed on after him, and gained the victory.