Thoughts for the Quiet Hour Part 13

_As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Gal. iii. 27._

Not simply the righteousness of our Savior, not simply the beauty of His holiness or the graces of His character, are we to put on as a garment.

The Lord Himself is our vesture. Every Christian is not only a Christ-bearer but a Christ-wearer. We are so to enter into Him by communion, to be so endued with His presence, and embued with His Spirit that men shall see Him when they behold us, as they see our garments when they look upon our bodies.--=A. J. Gordon.=

=June 8th.=

_Thou shalt never wash my feet. John xiii. 8._

Whatever hinders us from receiving a blessing that G.o.d is willing to bestow upon us is not humility, but the mockery of it. A genuine humility will ever feel the need of the largest measures of grace, and will be perfected just in the degree in which that grace is bestowed.

The truly humble man will seek to be filled with all the fulness of G.o.d, knowing that when so filled there is not the slightest place for pride or for self.--_George Bowen._

=June 9th.=

_Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. Psa. lv. 22._

He that taketh his own cares upon himself loads himself with an uneasy burden. The fear of what _may_ come, expectation of what _will_ come, desire of what will _not_ come, and the inability to redress all these, must needs bring him continual torment. _I_ will cast my cares upon _G.o.d_: He hath bidden me. They cannot hurt Him: He can redress them.--_Hall._

=June 10th.=

_Well done, good and faithful servant. . . . Thou wicked and slothful servant. Matt. xxv. 21, 26._

G.o.d holds us responsible not for what we _have_, but for what we _might have_; not for what we _are_, but for what we _might_ be.--_Mark Guy Pea.r.s.e._

=June 11th.=

_Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a s.h.i.+p.

Matt. xiv. 22._

Jesus _constrained_ them to go! One would think that if ever there was the certain promise of success in a mission, it was here. Surely, here, if anywhere, a triumphant issue might have been confidently predicted; and yet here, more than anywhere, there was seeming failure. He sent them out on a voyage, and they met such a storm as they had never yet experienced.

Let me ponder this, for it has been so with me, too. I have sometimes felt myself impelled to act by an influence which seemed above me--constrained to put to sea. The belief that I was constrained gave me confidence, and I was sure of a calm voyage. But the result was outward failure. The calm became a storm; the sea raged, the winds roared, the s.h.i.+p tossed in the midst of the waves, and my enterprise was wrecked ere it could reach the land.

Was, then, my divine command a delusion?

Nay; nor yet was my mission a failure. He did send me on that voyage, but He did not send me for _my_ purpose. He had one end and I had another. My end was the outward calm; His was my meeting with the storm.

My end was to gain the harbor of a material rest; His was to teach me there is a rest even on the open sea.--_George Matheson._

=June 12th.=

_Study to shew thyself approved unto G.o.d, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Tim. ii. 15._

Have thy tools ready; G.o.d will find thee work.--_Charles Kingsley._

=June 13th.=

_Come out from among them, and be ye separate. 2 Cor.

vi. 17._

With all the world in his choice, G.o.d placed His ancient people in a very remarkable situation. On the north they were walled in by the snowy ranges of Lebanon; a barren desert formed their eastern boundary; far to the south stretched a sterile region, called the howling wilderness; while the sea--not then, as now, the highway of the nations, facilitating rather than impeding intercourse--lay on their west, breaking on a sh.o.r.e that had few harbors and no navigable rivers to invite the steps of commerce.

May we not find a great truth in the very position in which G.o.d placed His chosen people? It certainly teaches us that to be holy, or sanctified, we must be a separate people--living in the world, but not of it--as oil, that may be mixed, but cannot be combined with water.--_Guthrie._

=June 14th.=

_I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. Gen. xxviii. 15._

"With thee," companions.h.i.+p; "Keep thee," guardians.h.i.+p; "Bring thee,"

guidance.

=June 15th.=

_I have set thee . . . that thou shouldst be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. Acts xiii. 47._

_Ye shall be witnesses unto me . . . unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Acts i. 8._

Men are questioning now, as they never have questioned before, whether Christianity is, indeed, the true religion which is to be the salvation of the world. Christian men, it is for us to give our bit of answer to that question. It is for us, in whom the Christian church is at this moment partially embodied, to declare that Christianity, that the Christian faith, the Christian manhood can do that for the world which the world needs.

You ask, "What can I do?"

You can furnish one Christian life. You can furnish a life so faithful to every duty, so ready for every service, so determined not to commit every sin, that the great Christian church shall be the stronger for your living in it, and the problem of the world be answered, and a certain great peace come into this poor, perplexed, phase of our humanity as it sees that new revelation of what Christianity is.--_Phillips Brooks._

=June 16th.=

_I know whom I have believed. 2 Tim. i. 12._

Personal acquaintance with Christ is a living thing. Like a tree that uses every hour for growth, it thrives in suns.h.i.+ne, it is refreshed by rain--even the storm drives it to fasten its grip more firmly in the earth for its support. So, troubled heart, in all experience, say, "This comes that I may make closer acquaintance with my Lord."--_Selected._

=June 17th.=

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

_When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place . . . and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Acts ii. 1, 4._

Obedience to a divine prompting transforms it into a permanent acquisition.--_F. B. Meyer._

=June 18th.=