Character and Conduct Part 45

"To preach good tidings unto the meek:

To build up the broken-hearted:

To proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound:

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our G.o.d:

To comfort all that mourn:

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them--

Beauty for Ashes,

The Oil of Joy for Mourning,

The Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness."

HENRY DRUMMOND.

The Lord's Supper

OCTOBER 3

"The Lord's Supper, the right and need of every man to feed on G.o.d, the bread of divine sustenance, the wine of divine inspiration offered to every man, and turned by every man into what form of spiritual force the duty and the nature of each man required, how grand and glorious its mission might become! No longer the mystic source of unintelligible influence; no longer, certainly, the test of arbitrary orthodoxy; no longer the initiation rite of a selected brotherhood; but the great sacrament of man!... There is no other rallying place for all the good activity and worthy hopes of man. It is in the power of the great Christian Sacrament, the great human sacrament, to become that rallying place. Think how it would be, if some morning all the men, women, and children in this city who mean well, from the reformer meaning to meet some giant evil at the peril of his life to the school-boy meaning to learn his day's lesson with all his strength, were to meet in a great host at the table of the Lord, and own themselves His children, and claim the strength of His bread and wine, and then go out with calm, strong, earnest faces to their work. How the communion service would lift up its voice and sing itself in triumph, the great anthem of dedicated human life! Ah, my friends, that, nothing less than that, is the real Holy Communion of the Church of the living G.o.d."

PHILLIPS BROOKS.

Nominal Christians

OCTOBER 4

"The bane of the Church of G.o.d, the dishonour of Christ, the laughing-stock of the world, is in that far too numerous body of half-alive Christians who choose their own cross, and shape their own standard, and regulate their own sacrifices, and measure their own devotions; whose cross is very unlike the Saviour's, whose standard is not that of as much holiness as they can attain, but of as little holiness as they can safely be content with to be saved; whose sacrifices do not deprive them from one year's end to another of a single comfort, or even a real luxury, and whose devotions can never make their dull hearts burn with love of Christ."

Bishop THOROLD.

"Men find Christ through their fellow-men, and every glimpse they get of Him is a direct message from Himself."

HENRY DRUMMOND.

Manifestations of G.o.d

OCTOBER 5

"The distinguis.h.i.+ng mark of religion is not so much liberty as obedience, and its value is measured by the sacrifices which it can extract from the individual."

_Amiel's Journal._

"There is perhaps no human soul which never hungers after G.o.d. Men's unbelief in lies is often quoted against them, by the liar especially.

But we believe--not when we are told about, but when we are shown--Christ."

_Turkish Bonds_, MAY KENDALL.

"Let your lives preach."

GEORGE FOX.

Manifestations of G.o.d

OCTOBER 6

"For how, as a matter of fact, do we grow to know G.o.d? Let me refer you to Professor Flint's book on Theism for the best answer I know. We begin to know G.o.d as we begin to know our fellow-man--through His manifestations. We may be tempted to think that we cannot know what we cannot see, but in a perfectly true sense we never see our fellow-man: we see his manifestations; we see his outward appearance. We hear what he says; we notice what he does, and we infer from all this what his unseen character is like, what the man is in himself; so similarly and as surely we learn to know G.o.d. We see what He has done in nature and in history; we see what He is doing to-day; we read what He has conveyed to us for our instruction 'in sundry times and in divers manners'; and so we learn to listen for and to love 'the still small voice' in which He speaks to our hearts. One knowledge is as gradual and yet as sure and certain and logical as the other."

_Work in Great Cities_, Bishop WINNINGTON INGRAM.

Manifestations of G.o.d

OCTOBER 7

"It is human character or developed humanity that conducts us to our notion of the character Divine.... In proportion as the mysteries of man's goodness unfold themselves to us, in that proportion do we obtain an insight into G.o.d's."

J. B. MOZLEY.

"If you want your neighbour to know what the Christ spirit will do for him, let him see what it has done for you."

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

"When a man lives with G.o.d, his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and the rustle of the corn."

EMERSON.

Prayer

OCTOBER 8

"'We do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousness, but for Thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do.'--Dan. ix. 18, 19.