Days of Heaven Upon Earth Part 51

On to broader fields of holy vision; On to loftier heights of faith and love; Onward, upward, apprehending wholly, All for which He calls thee from above.

DECEMBER 4.

"From me is thy fruit found" (Hos. xiv. 8).

Nothing keeps us from advancement more than ruts and drifts, and wheel-tracks into which our chariots roll and then move on in the narrow line with unchanging monotony, currents in life's stream on which we are borne in the old direction until the law of habit almost makes advance impossible. The true remedy for this is to commence at nothing; taking Christ afresh to be the Alpha and Omega for a deeper, higher, Divine experience, waiting even for His conception of thought, desire, prayer, and afraid lest our highest thought should be below His great plan of wisdom and love.

O Comforter gentle and tender, O holy and heavenly Dove, We're yielding our heart in surrender, We're waiting Thy fulness to prove.

O come as the heart-searching fire, O come as the sin-cleansing flood; Consume us with holy desire, And fill with the fulness of G.o.d.

Anoint us with gladness and healing; Baptize us with power from on high; O come with filling and sealing While low at the Thy footstool we lie.

DECEMBER 5.

"With a perfect heart to make David King" (I. Chron. xii. 38).

"What is the supreme purpose of our life? They were all of one heart to make David king." Is this our purpose, to prepare the Bride, to prepare the world, to prepare His way? Does it dwarf and dim all other ambitions, all other cares? Does it fill and satisfy every capacity, every power, every desire? Does it absorb every moment, every energy, every resource?

Does it give direction and tone to every plan and work of life? Does it decide for us the education of our children, the investment of our means, the friends.h.i.+ps and a.s.sociations of life, the whole activity, interest and outlook of our being? Are we in it, spirit, soul and body, all we are, all we do, all we hope for-OF ONE HEART TO MAKE JESUS KING?

We're going forth united With loyal heart and hand, To bear His royal banner Aboard o'er every land.

From every tribe and nation We'll haste His Bride to bring.

And Oh, with what glad welcome We'll make our Jesus King.

DECEMBER 6.

"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of G.o.d, that He may exalt you" (I. Peter v. 6).

Opposition is essential to a true equilibrium of forces. The centripetal and centrifugal forces acting in opposition to each other keep our planet in her orbit. The one propelling, and the other repelling, so act and react, that instead of sweeping off into s.p.a.ce in a pathway of desolation and destruction, she pursues her even orbit around her solar center.

So G.o.d guides our lives. It is not enough to have an impelling force-we need just as much a repelling force, and so He holds us back by the testing ordeals of life, by the pressure of temptation and trial, by the things that seem to be against us, but really are furthering our way and stablis.h.i.+ng our goings. Let us thank Him for both, let us take the weights as well as the wings, and thus divinely impelled, let us press on with faith and patience in our high and heavenly calling.

Lord, help me to learn from all that comes to me this day Thy highest will.

Lord, help me to-day to sink under Thy blessed hand, that Thou mayest have Thy way and will with me.

DECEMBER 7.

"Abide with us; for it is toward evening" (Luke xxiv. 29).

In His last messages to the disciples in the 14th and 15th chapters of John, the Lord Jesus clearly teaches us that the very essence of the highest holiness is, "Abide in Me, and I in you, for without Me ye can do nothing."

The very purpose of the Holy Ghost whom He promised was to reveal Him, that at "that day, ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you," and the closing echo of His intercessory prayer was embraced in these three small but infinite words, "I in them."

Is it for me to be cleansed by His power From the pollution of sin?

Is it for me to be kept every hour By His abiding within?

Is it for me to be perfectly whole Thro' His anointing divine; Claiming in body, and spirit, and soul, All of His fulness as mine?

Wonderful promise so full and so free, Wonderful Saviour, Oh, how can it be, Cleansing and pardon and mercy for me?

Yes, it's for me, for me.

DECEMBER 8.

"Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?" (Jer. viii.

22).

Divine healing is just divine life. It is the heads.h.i.+p of Christ over the body. It is the life of Christ in the frame. It is the union of our members with the very body of Christ and the inflowing life of Christ in our living members. It is as real as His risen and glorified body. It is as reasonable as the fact that He was raised from the dead and is a living man with a true body and a rational soul to-day, at G.o.d's right hand. That living Christ belongs to us in all His attributes and powers. We are members of His body, His flesh and His bones, and if we can only believe and receive it, we may live upon the very life of the Son of G.o.d.

Lord, help me to know the "Lord for the body and the body for the Lord."

There is healing in the promise, There is healing in the blood, There is strength for all our weakness In the risen Son of G.o.d.

And the feeblest of His children, All His glorious life may share; He has healing balm in Gilead, He's the Great Physician there.

DECEMBER 9.