Thoughts for the Quiet Hour Part 2

_Under His shadow. Song of Sol. ii. 3._

Frances Ridley Havergal says: I seem to see four pictures suggested by that: under the shadow of a rock in a weary plain; under the shadow of a tree; closer still, under the shadow of His wing; nearest and closest, in the shadow of His hand. Surely that hand must be the pierced hand, that may oftentimes press us sorely, and yet evermore encircling, upholding and shadowing!

=January 24th.=

_He made as though He would have gone further. Luke xxiv. 28._

Is not G.o.d always acting thus? He comes to us by His Holy Spirit as He did to these two disciples. He speaks to us through the preaching of the Gospel, through the Word of G.o.d, through the various means of grace and the providential circ.u.mstances of life; and having thus spoken, He makes as though He would go further. If the ear be opened to His voice and the heart to His Spirit, the prayer will then go up, "Lord, abide with me." But if that voice makes no impression, then He pa.s.ses on, as He has done thousands of times, leaving the heart at each time harder than before, and the ear more closed to the Spirit's call.--_F. Whitfield._

=January 25th.=

_My G.o.d shall be my strength. Isa. xlix. 5._

Oh, do not pray for easy lives! Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle.

Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come in you by the grace of G.o.d.--_Phillips Brooks._

=January 26th.=

_Despising the shame. Heb. xii. 2._

And how is that to be done? In two ways. Go up the mountain, and the things in the plain will look very small; the higher you rise the more insignificant they will seem. Hold fellows.h.i.+p with G.o.d, and the threatening foes here will seem very, very unformidable. Another way is, pull up the curtain and gaze on what is behind it. The low foot-hills that lie at the base of some Alpine country may look high when seen from the plain, as long as the snowy summits are wrapped in mist; but when a little puff of wind comes and clears away the fog from the lofty peaks, n.o.body looks at the little green hills in front. So the world's hindrances and the world's difficulties and cares look very lofty till the cloud lifts. But when we see the great white summits, everything lower does not seem so very high after all. Look to Jesus, and that will dwarf the difficulties.--_Alex. McLaren._

=January 27th.=

_Are there not twelve hours in the day? John xi. 9._

The very fact of a Christian being here, and not in heaven, is a proof that some work awaits him.--_William Arnot._

=January 28th.=

_Not as I will, but as Thou wilt. Matt. xxvi. 39._

There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of G.o.d.--_Faber._

=January 29th.=

_The living G.o.d. Dan. vi. 20._

How many times we find this expression in the Scriptures, and yet it is just this very thing that we are so p.r.o.ne to lose sight of! We know it is written "_the living G.o.d_"; but in our daily life there is scarcely anything we practically so much lose sight of as the fact that G.o.d is THE LIVING G.o.d; that He is now whatever He was three or four thousand years since; that He has the same sovereign power, the same saving love towards those who love and serve Him as ever He had, and that He will do for them now what He did for others two, three, four thousand years ago, simply because He is the living G.o.d, the unchanging One. Oh, how therefore we should confide in Him, and in our darkest moments never lose sight of the fact that He _is_ still and ever _will be_ THE LIVING G.o.d!--_George Muller._

=January 30th.=

_Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Rom. vi. 4._

That is the life we are called upon to live, and that is the life it is our privilege to lead; for G.o.d never gives us a call without its being a privilege, and He never gives us the privilege to come up higher without stretching out to us His hand to lift us up. Come up higher and higher into the realities and glories of the resurrection life, knowing that your life is hid with Christ in G.o.d. Shake yourself loose of every inc.u.mbrance, turn your back on every defilement, give yourself over like clay to the hands of the potter, that He may stamp upon you the fulness of His own resurrection glory, that you, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, may be changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.--_W. Hay Aitken._

=January 31st.=

_Christ is all, and in all. Col. iii. 11._

The _service_ of Christ is the _business_ of my life.

The _will_ of Christ is the _law_ of my life.

The _presence_ of Christ is the _joy_ of my life.

The _glory_ of Christ is the _crown_ of my life.--_Selected._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

=February 1st.=

_Continue in prayer. Col. iv. 2._

Dost thou want nothing? Then I fear thou dost not know thy poverty. Hast thou no mercy to ask of G.o.d? Then may the Lord's mercy show thee thy misery. A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus.--_Spurgeon._

=February 2nd.=

_In whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. Eph. ii. 21._

The life-tabernacle is a wondrous building; there is room for workers of all kinds in the uprearing of its mysterious and glorious walls. If we cannot do the greatest work, we may do the least. Our heaven will come out of the realization of the fact that it was G.o.d's tabernacle we were building, and under G.o.d's blessing that we were working.--_Joseph Parker._

=February 3rd.=

_Love not the world. 1 John ii. 15._

Love it not, and yet love it. Love it with the love of Him who gave His Son to die for it. Love it with the love of Him who shed His blood for it. Love it with the love of angels, who rejoice in its conversion. Love it to do it good, giving your tears to its sufferings, your pity to its sorrows, your wealth to its wants, your prayers to its miseries, and to its fields of charity, and philanthropy, and Christian piety, your powers and hours of labor. You cannot live without affecting it, or being affected by it. You will make the world better, or it will make you worse.

G.o.d help you by His grace and Holy Spirit so to live in the world as to live above it, and look beyond it; and so to love it that when you leave it, you may leave it better than you found it.--_Guthrie._

=February 4th.=

_Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. Psa. cxlv. 16._

Desire, it is a dainty word! It were much that He should satisfy the _need_, the _want_; but He goeth far beyond that. Pity is moved to meet our need; duty may sometimes look after our wants; but to satisfy the _desire_ implies a tender watchfulness, a sweet and gracious knowledge of us, an eagerness of blessing. G.o.d is never satisfied until He has satisfied our desires.--_Mark Guy Pea.r.s.e._