Part 8

_When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret. Matt. vi. 6._

This is faith's stronghold; here she weapons herself for the daily conflict. Silence in that closet of prayer bespeaks death throughout all the house. When that door is suffered to rust on its hinges, and that chamber is deserted, then the heart-house is soon retaken by Satan, and evil spirits come in and dwell there.--_Theodore Cuyler._

=September 23rd.=

_Be ye holy; for I am holy. 1 Pet. i. 16._

The highway of holiness is along the commonest road of life--along your very way. In wind and rain, no matter how it beats--it is only going hand in hand with Him.--_Mark Guy Pearse._

=September 24th.=

_And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Gen. xviii. 17._

Abraham, in communion with God, knew long before Lot, in Sodom, of the destruction of that city. Oh for more communion!--_Selected._

=September 25th.=

_The life which I now live in the flesh. Gal. ii. 20._

I expect to pass through this world but once--therefore, if there be any kindness I can show or any good thing I can do to any fellow human being, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.--_Marcus Aurelius._

=September 26th.=

_So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Psa. xc. 12._

Every day is a little life; and our whole life is but a day repeated: whence it is that old Jacob numbers his life by days; and Moses desires to be taught this point of holy arithmetic--to number not his years, but his days. Those, therefore, that dare lose a day, are dangerously prodigal; those that dare misspend it, desperate.--_Bishop Hall._

=September 27th.=

_Christ in you the hope of glory. Col. i. 27._

Religion is not the simple fire-escape that you build in anticipation of a possible danger, upon the outside of your dwelling, and leave there until danger comes. You go to it some morning when a fire breaks out in your house, and the poor old thing that you built up there, and thought that you could use some day, is so rusty and broken, and the weather has so beaten upon it and the sun so turned its hinges, that it will not work. That is the condition of a man who has built himself what seems a creed of faith, a trust in God in anticipation of the day when danger is to overtake him, and has said to himself, I am safe, for I will take refuge in it then. But religion is the house in which we live, it is the table at which we sit, it is the fireside at which we draw near, the room that arches its graceful and familiar presence over us; it is the bed on which we lie and think of the past, and anticipate the future, and gather our refreshment.--_Phillips Brooks._

=September 28th.=

_Wait for the promise of the Father. Acts i. 4._

Tarry at a promise till God meets you there. He always returns by way of His promises.--_Selected._

=September 29th.=

_This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John v. 4._

The world conquers me when it succeeds in hindering me from seeing, loving, holding communion with, and serving my Father, God. I conquer it when I lay my hand upon it and force it to help me to get nearer Him, to get more like Him, to think oftener of Him, to do His will more gladly and more constantly. The one victory over the world is to bend it to serve me in the highest things--the attainment of a clearer vision of the divine nature, the attainment of a deeper love to God Himself, and a more glad consecration and service to Him. That is the victory--when you can make the world a ladder to lift you to God. When the world comes between you and God as an obscuring screen, it has conquered you. When the world comes between you and God as a transparent medium you have conquered it. To win victory is to get it beneath your feet and stand upon it, and reach up thereby to God.--_Alex. McLaren._

=September 30th.=

_He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. Psa. xci. 11._

Count no duty too little, no round of life too small, no work too low, if it come in thy way, since God thinks so much of it as to send His angels to guard thee in it.--_Mark Guy Pearse._

=October 1st.=

_At Jesus' feet. Luke x. 39._

At Jesus' feet--that is our place of privilege and of blessing, and here it is that we are to be educated and fitted for the practical duties of life. Here we are to renew our strength while we wait on Him, and to learn how to mount on wings as eagles; and here we are to become possessed of that true knowledge which is power. Here we are to learn how real work is to be done, and to be armed with the true motive power to do it. Here we are to find solace amidst both the trials of work--and they are not few--and the trials of life in general; and here we are to anticipate something of the blessedness of heaven amidst the days of earth; for to sit at His feet is indeed to be in heavenly places, and to gaze upon His glory is to do what we shall never tire of doing yonder.--_W. Hay Aitken._

=October 2nd.=

_God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John iv. 16._

_God is love_; and it is good, as it is true, to think that every sun-ray that touches the earth has the sun at the other end of it; so every bit of love upon God's earth has God at the other end of it.--_Mark Guy Pearse._

_October 3rd._

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

A Christian should be a striking likeness of Jesus Christ. You have read lives of Christ, beautifully and eloquently written, but the best life of Christ is His living biography, written out in the words and actions of His people. If we were what we profess to be, and what we should be, we would be pictures of Christ; yea, such striking likenesses of Him that the world would not have to hold us up by the hour together, and say, "Well, it seems somewhat of a likeness": but they would, when they once beheld us, exclaim, "He has been with Jesus; he has been taught of Him; he is like Him; he has caught the very idea of the holy Man of Nazareth, and he works it out in his life and every day actions."--_Spurgeon._

=October 4th.=

_Be not afraid, only believe. Mark v. 36._

Be not downcast if difficulties and trials surround you in your heavenly life. They may be purposely placed there by God to train and discipline you for higher developments of faith. If He calls you to "toiling in rowing," it may be to make you the hardier seaman, to lead you to lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and, above all, to drive you to a holier trust in Him who has the vessel and its destinies in His hand, and who, amid gathering clouds and darkened horizon and crested billows is ever uttering the mild rebuke to our misgivings--"Said I not unto thee, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God."--_Macduff._

=October 5th.=

_Happy is the man whom God correcteth. Job v. 17._

Happy, because the correction is designed to bring him into paths of blessedness and peace.

Happy, because there is no unnecessary severity in it.

Happy, because the chastisement is not so much against us, as against our most cruel enemies--our sins.

Happy, because we have abundant words of consolation.

Happy, because whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.

Happy, because our light affliction is but for a moment.--_George Bowen._

=October 6th.=

_When they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Matt. ii. 10._

We who look for Jesus ought to be joyful; it is no credit to our Lord when we look as though we were seeking His grave. The dull looks of Christ's followers have injured Him in the sight of the world. Let us, then, smile as we go, for we have the star if we will look up and put ourselves in the right path.--_Thos. Champness._

=October 7th.=

_When I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me. Micah vii. 8._

If you are willing to choose the seeming darkness of faith instead of the illumination of reason, wonderful light will break out upon you from the Word of God.--_A. J. Gordon._

=October 8th.=

_I (Daniel) was left alone, and saw this great vision. Dan. x. 8._

Solitude is the antechamber of God; only one step more and you can be in His immediate presence.--_Landor._

=October 9th.=

_Come and dine. John xxi. 12._

This morning the voice of the Beloved of our soul is heard giving us His invitation.

"Children," He asks, "have ye any meat?"

We answer, "No; of ourselves we have nothing but hunger and starvation. O God, we cannot feed ourselves!"

Then it is that His own sweet voice replies, "Come and dine!"--_W. Hay Aitken._

=October 10th.=

_O Lord God, Thou knowest! Ezek. xxxvii. 3._

Here is the response of faith. "Thou knowest!"--what a pillow for the heart to repose upon! "Thou knowest!"--what few but comprehensive words to sum up and express the heart's difficulties and perplexities and trials. "Thou knowest!"--what an inexpressibly sweet resting-place in the midst of life's tumultuous heavings; in the midst of a sea that knows no calm; in the midst of a scene in which tossings to and fro are the hourly history! What an answer they contain for every heart that can find no words to express its big emotions; for a heart whose sorrows are too deep for language to find its way to God! Oh, that they were ever uppermost in the soul, as the response to every difficulty in our path! They are God's answer to everything we cannot fathom; God's answer for our hearts to rest upon, and our lips to utter, when every way is hedged up so that we cannot pass. "O Lord God, thou knowest!" Rest here, believer. Lean thy soul on these words. Repose calmly on the bosom of thy God, and carry them with thee into every scene of life. "O Lord God, thou knowest."--_F. Whitfield._

=October 11th.=

_Behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. Gen. xxviii. 12._

Think of that mystic ladder, which descends from the throne of God to the spot, however lowly, where you may be. It may be a moorland waste; a humble cottage; a ship's cabin; a settler's hut; a bed of pain; but Jesus Christ finds you out, and comes just where you are. The one pole of this ladder is the gold of His deity; the other is the silver of His manhood; the rungs are the series of events from the cradle of Bethlehem to the right hand of power, where He sits. That ladder sways beneath a weight of blessing for you. Oh, that you would send away your burdens of sin, and care, and fear, by the hands of the ascending angels of prayer and faith!--so as to be able to receive into your heart the trooping angels of peace, and joy, and love, and glory.--_F. B. Meyer._

=October 12th.=

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

The Parish Priest, of austerity, Climbed up in the high church steeple To be nearer God, that he might hand His word down to the people. And in sermon script he daily wrote What he thought was sent from heaven; And he dropped it down on the people's heads Two times one day in seven. In his age God said, "Come down and die." And he cried out from the steeple: "Where art thou, Lord?" And the Lord replied: "Down here among My people."--_Selected._

=October 13th.=

_Now therefore, hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. Deut. iv. 1._

"Hearken" and "do," that ye may "live" and "possess." This is a universal and abiding principle. It was true for Israel, and it is true for us. The pathway of life and the true secret of possession is simple obedience to the holy commandments of God. We see this all through the inspired volume, from cover to cover. God has given us His Word, not to speculate upon it or discuss it, but that we may obey it. And it is as we, through grace, yield a hearty and happy obedience to our Father's statutes and judgments, that we tread the bright pathway of life, and enter into the reality of all that God has treasured up for us in Christ.--_C. H. M._

=October 14th.=

_I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. Gal. ii. 20._

The man who lives in God knows no life except the life of God.--_Phillips Brooks._

=October 15th.=

_Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 1 Thess. v. 8._

_Faith, love, hope_--these three form the defensive armor that guards the soul; and these three make self-control possible. Like a diver in his dress who is let down to the bottom of the wild, far-weltering ocean, a man whose heart is girt by faith and charity, and whose head is covered with the helmet of hope, may be dropped down into the wildest sea of temptation and of worldliness, and yet will walk dry and unharmed through the midst of its depths, and breathe air that comes from a world above the restless surges. _Faith_ will bring you into communication with all the power of God. _Love_ will lead you into a region where all the temptations round you will be touched as by Ithuriel's spear, and will show their own foulness. And _Hope_ will turn away your eyes from looking at the tempting splendor around, and fix them upon the glories that are above. And so the reins will come into your hands in an altogether new manner, and you will be able to be king over your own nature in a fashion that you did not dream of before, if only you will trust in Christ and love Him, and fix your desires on the things above. Then you will be able to govern yourself, when you let Christ govern you.--_Alex. McLaren._

=October 16th.=

_The word of our God shall stand forever. Isa. xl. 8._

The Word of God is the water of life; the more ye lave it forth, the fresher it runneth. It is the fire of God's glory; the more ye blow it, the clearer it burneth. It is the corn of the Lord's field; the better ye grind it, the more it yieldeth. It is the bread of heaven; the more it is broken and given forth, the more it remaineth. It is the sword of the Spirit; the more it is scoured, the brighter it shineth.--_Bishop Jewel._

=October 17th.=

_I spake unto thee in thy prosperity. Jer. xxii. 21._

We shade our eyes with the hand to shut out the glare of the strong daylight when we want to see far away. God thus puts, as it were, His hand upon our brows, and tempers the glow of prosperity, that we may take in the wider phases of His goodness. It is a common experience that, looking out from the gloom of some personal affliction, men have seen for the first time beyond the earth plane, and caught glimpses of the Beulah Land. Let us not shrink from the Hand which we know is heavy only with blessing.--_Ludlow._

=October 18th.=

_Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler. Psa. xci. 3._

_He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler._ That is, from the little things, the hidden traps and nets that are set for us. Great sins frighten where little snares entangle. It is easier to escape the huntsman's arrow than the crafty lure.

And where are they not set? Riches and poverty, sickness and strength, prosperity and adversity, friendship and loneliness, the work and the want of it--each has its snare, wherein not only are the unwary caught, but the wise and the watchful sometimes fall a prey. Little things, mere threads, hardly worth guarding against--yet they are strong enough to hold us and hinder us, and may be the beginning of our destruction.--_Mark Guy Pearse._

=October 19th.=

_The Lord set a mark upon Cain. Gen. iv. 15._

We speak of the mark of Cain as if it was the mark of a curse. In reality it was the mark of God's mercy, a defence against his enemies.--_D. J. Burrell._

=October 20th.=

_Who is among you that feareth the Lord . . . that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Isa. l. 10._

"In fierce storms," said an old seaman, "we can do but one thing, there is only one way; we must put the ship in a certain position and keep her there."

This, Christian, is what you must do. Sometimes, like Paul, you can see neither sun nor stars, and no small tempest lies on you; and then you can do but one thing; there is only one way. Reason cannot help you. Past experiences give you no light. Even prayer fetches no consolation. Only a single course is left. You must put your soul in one position and keep it there. You must stay upon the Lord; and, come what may--winds, waves, cross seas, thunder, lightning, frowning rocks, roaring breakers--no matter what, you must lash yourself to the helm, and hold fast your confidence in God's faithfulness, His covenant engagement, His everlasting love in Christ Jesus.--_Richard Fuller._

=October 21st.=

_Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Rev. ii. 10._

There is a heaven at the end of every faithful Christian's journey.--_Cuyler._

=October 22nd.=

_Flee into Egypt. Matt. ii. 13._

Why? Because there is a cruel king who will seek the young child's life.

Is Christ born in thee? Is thy life like that manger--precious as a casket, because of what it holds? Then have a care; for, craftier and more unscrupulous than Herod, the destroyer of souls will seek to destroy thee.

There is a day coming when they shall say, "They are dead which sought the young child's life." Grace shall survive the foe, and we shall yet return to enjoy the comforts of life, with no Herod to threaten us. After all, it is sin which is short-lived, for goodness shall flourish when the evil one is chained up for ever.--_Thos. Champness._

=October 23rd.=

_As my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do. 1 Kings ii. 38._

There is something infinitely better than doing a great thing for God, and the infinitely better thing is to be where God wants us to be, to do what God wants us to do, and to have no will apart from His.--_G. Campbell Morgan._

=October 24th.=

_Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matt. v. 16._

They say the world has an eagle eye for anything inconsistent, an eye sharp to discover the vagaries and inconsistencies in the defaulty and the unworthy. It has an eagle eye; but the eagle winks before the sun, and the burning iris of its eye shrinks abashed before the unsullied purity of noon. Let your light so shine before men, that others, awed and charmed by the consistency of your godly life, may come to enquire, and to say you have been with Jesus.--_Punshon._

=October 25th.=

_The eleven disciples went . . . into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them . . . Jesus came and spake unto them saying . . . Go ye and teach all nations. Matt. xxviii. 16, 18, 19._

The considerable actions in the world have usually very small beginnings. Of a few letters, how many thousand words are made! Of ten figures, how many thousand numbers! A point is the beginning of all geometry. A little stone flung into a pond makes a little circle, then a greater, till it enlarges itself to both the sides. So from small beginnings God doth cause an efflux through the whole world.--_Charnock._

=October 26th.=

_Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Luke ii. 10._

It is true that these good tidings of great joy were to be "for all people," but not _first_. The message falls on our own ears, and is first for our own souls.

Oh, ponder this well! Take all God's truths home _first_ to thine own heart. Ask in earnest prayer that the Spirit may write them with the pen of heaven on thine own conscience. Then wilt thou be a vessel fitted for the Master's use, and carry His message with spiritual power to the souls of others.--_F. Whitfield._

=October 27th.=

_Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Heb. xii. 6._

Earthly prosperity is no sign of the special love of heaven: nor are sorrow and care any mark of God's disfavor, but the reverse. God's love is robust, and true, and eager--not for our comfort, but for our lasting blessedness; it is bent on achieving this, and it is strong enough to bear misrepresentation and rebuke in its attempts to attune our spirits to higher music. It therefore comes instructing us. Let us enter ourselves as pupils in the school of God's love. Let us lay aside our own notions of the course of study; let us submit ourselves to be led and taught; let us be prepared for any lessons that may be given from the blackboard of sorrow: let us be so assured of the inexhaustible tenacity of His love as to dare to trust Him, though He slay us. And let us look forward to that august moment when He will give us a reason for all life's discipline, with a smile that shall thrill our souls with ecstasy, and constrain sorrow and sighing to flee away forever.--_F. B. Meyer._

=October 28th.=

_Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you. John xvi. 23._

Prayer must be based upon promise, but, thank God, His promises are always broader than our prayers! No fear of building inverted pyramids here, for Jesus Christ is the foundation.--_Frances Ridley Havergal._

=October 29th.=

_He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. John xiii. 4, 5._

Acts are common and mean because they are ordinarily expressive of the common and mean thoughts of men. Let us not accuse the acts that make up our daily life of meanness, but our ignoble souls that reveal themselves so unworthily through those acts. The same act may successively mount up through every intermediate stage from the depth of unworthiness to a transcendent height of excellence, according to the soul that is manifested by it. One of the glorious ends of our Lord's incarnation was that He might propitiate us with the details of life, so that we should not disdain these as insignificant, but rather disdain ourselves for our inability to make these details interpreters of a noble nature. Oh, let us then look with affectionateness and gratitude upon the daily details of life, seeing the sanctifying imprint of the hand of Jesus upon them all!--_George Bowen._

=October 30th.=

_He placed . . . cherubims, and a flaming sword . . . to keep the way of the tree of life. Gen. iii. 24._

_Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life. Rev. xxii. 14._

How remarkable and how beautiful it is that the last page of the Revelation should come bending round to touch the first page of Genesis. The history of man began with angels with frowning faces and flaming swords barring the way to the Tree of Life. It ends with the guard of cherubim withdrawn; or rather, perhaps, sheathing their swords and becoming guides to the no longer forbidden fruit, instead of being its guards. That is the Bible's grand symbolical way of saying that all between--the sin, the misery, the death--is a parenthesis. God's purpose is not going to be thwarted. The end of His majestic march through history is to be men's access to the Tree of Life, from which, for the dreary ages--that are but as a moment in the great eternities--they were barred out by their sin,--_Alex. McLaren._

=October 31st.=